Oașa Monastery

The monastic community of Oașa Monastery was established in 1994, through the initiative of a group of graduates from Timisoara University Centre, gathered around Archimandrite Iustin Miron who, through his enthusiasm, has been the soul of this monastery. It began with a nucleus of four members and today it amounts to fifty monks and brothers, divided between Oașa and the hermitage of Găbud.

The foundation stone was a deep sense of friendship, and it remains just as strong today. This friendship has not only remained a bond for our community, but on its basis, year after year, new generations of graduates and young people have joined us. At the same time, this nucleus of unity has also attracted, like a magnet, many lay people, who have entered into a special relationship with us, enlarging this family even more.  

The connection with young people, which at some point became - without having deliberately sought this - an emblem of Oasa, is due to the camps that the monastery organizes in partnership with student organizations across the country. The camps focus on three main areas: spirituality, tradition and culture. What we aim for is co-perfection, not just information, but our formation as people, Romanians and Christians.

Our first hopes were to seek and promote the authenticity of Orthodox life, to focus on values. We wanted Orthodoxy to feel at home in our monastery. Prayer is the foundation and the pillar on which not only the life of a monastery rests, but also the life of every person, being the key element that gives it substance, meaning and power. From the beginning we have adopted the Athonite programme of services, without, however, abandoning our specificity.

Psaltic music has always been promoted in our camps, being a work that over the years has materialized in more and more nuanced services from the point of view of interpretation, in monthly all-night vigils or even in a particular and representative Holy Liturgy for our community. In 2015, Oașa Monastery represented the Metropolitanate of Transylvania at the 8th edition of the National Church Music Competition "Praise the Lord!", organized by the Romanian Patriarchate.

Another thing that is representative for our group is the fact that the monks' community creates bonds and harmony with young people from all over the country, and Oasa is a good place for them to manifest and enrich their love for God and music, both in the quarterly psaltic school and in the services they attend in the monastery.