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Slatina is a nunnery located in the Suha Mică valley, west of Slatina commune, Suceava county, 31 km west of Fălticeni and 24 km south of Hura Humorului. Despite its age and importance, the monastery is relatively little known, even slightly enigmatic.
Alexandru Lăpușneanu, one of the well-known rulers of Moldavia, raised this monastery of monks in the period 1553-1564, fortifying it almost like a fortress with thick and high walls, reinforced at the corners with towers. The church, relatively simple but large in size, receives the patron saint "The Transfiguration" and was built as a voivodeship necropolis, in it, in a special room (tombs chamber, located between the nave and narthex) being buried the founder, his wife and a part from their children. The waves of history have affected the settlement, from periods of prosperity to others of decay. For example, during the revolutionary period of 1821 the monastery was devastated and burned in the battles between the troops of Eteria who had taken refuge here and those of the Ottoman Empire, followed by a renovation, repainting and reconstruction in the following years. Also then, the tombs chamber is abolished and the bones of the founders moved to a tomb in the narthex.
The monastery stands out for the various workshops that worked here, but especially for the great personalities of the Moldavian and then Romanian Orthodoxy who lived here. We note in the second part of the 16th century Isaia (hegumen, chronicler and bishop), in the years 1842-1846 Veniamin Costachi (scholar and former metropolitan), in the years 1851-1958 Calinic Miclescu (future metropolitan). Of course, the most important remains the great Romanian confessor Ilie Cleopa who, during his years as abbot in Slatina (1949-1956), brought a renewal of monastic life but also of the community, which reached over 80 monks. In his work he was helped by other famous monks, for example Paisie Olaru, Arsenie Papacioc, Antonie Plămădeala, etc.
In 1959, the communist authorities, as in the case of many other monastic settlements, closed the monastery, but probably due to the intervention of the writer Mihail Sadoveanu, monastic life was resumed in 1962, but with communities of nuns. The Slatina Monastery preserves precious church relics and tresors, for example a part of the head of Saint Gregory the Theologian (328-389; the relics were brought from Constantinople by the founder, ruler Alexandru Lăpușneanu himself), a Gospel printed at the Neamț Monastery in 1821 , silver coffins from the 18th century, etc. Visiting the monastery should not bypass the former Ruler House set up as a museum that houses old and valuable exhibits.
Choir Antifonia (Antiphony): Pre Tine Te Lăudăm (We Praise You)