Recommended reading:

Canons of the Orthodox Church is an Orthodox website containing an electronic version of a book by Archd. Prof. Dr. Ioan N. Floca, Canoanele Bisericii Ortodoxe (a book published by Editura Institutului Bibilic şi de Misiune a Bisericii Ortodoxe Române in 1993 and republished in 2005 by Deisis). Unfortunately, the website is in Romanian, but we could try to translate a few excerpts into English (please contact me if you would like to volunteer!)

Romania: Recommended Destinations

"The Fr Zosim Oancea Museum at Sibiel holds the largest existing exposition of icons on glass in Transylvania, a miracle of artistic creativity and religious inspiration born of the riches of the Orthodox Christian tradition and the imagination of Romanian peasant painters.

A unique fusion of Eastern tradition and Western technique, icons on glass emerged and spread throughout this extensive region of Romania in the first decades of the eighteenth century, reaching their apogee between 1750 and the end of the nineteenth century and almost vanishing in the period between the two world wars.

Begun in1969 under the aegis of Fr Zosim Oancea, the people of Sibiel and with the help of institutions and private donors, the collection in this museum with its almost 600 masterpieces, represents all the main types of icons on glass along with works by some of the most famous icon-painters – when their names are known.

A visit to the museum at Sibiel also presents the opportunity to discover the person who gave the museum its name: Fr Zosim Oancea, a truly exceptional man and priest to whose intelligent vision and indefatigable tenacity we owe this extraordinary museum in the heart of Romania." (Source: www.sibiel.net)