With the blessing of His Eminence Calinic, Archbishop of Suceava and Rădăuți, Putna Monastery’s “Stephen the Great” Research and Documentation Center organized the 33rd edition of the Putna Colloquia international history symposium. The event was held on July 9–12, 2026, both in person and online, bringing together researchers from Bucharest, Iași, Suceava, and Cluj-Napoca, as well as from the United States and Kishinev, the Republic of Moldova. As has become customary, the Colloquia also included a musicology section.

Over the course of three days, the presented papers addressed a wide range of topics related to the history of the Putna Monastery: previously unpublished documents from the history of the Putna Monastery (18th century); Austrian measures for the prevention and suppression of fires at Putna Monastery in the 19th century; continuation of research undertaken at previous editions of the Colloquia on the Register of Orders of the Holy Monastery of Putna (Volume V: 1835–1853); the study of a notebook used during the archaeological excavations at Putna Monastery (October 1971), preserved in archaeologist Grigore Foit’s personal archive; the Putna Celebration in honor of Stephen the Great (1904) covered by the Austrian and Hungarian press of the time; historians' contributions to the understanding of the reign and personality of Stephen the Great, as well as interpretation of historical sources that may give rise to misunderstandings; various aspects of Moldavia under Stephen the Great explored through previously unpublished sources, including a letter sent by Stephen the Great to Venice in 1477, Uzun Hasan's letter to Stephen the Great, and previously unpublished sources from 1465–1467 preserved in the notarial records of the State Archives of Genoa.

The Colloquia featured several papers on the history of books, such as: the influence of Ukrainian engraving on the printing center of the Neamț Monastery (1816–1836); the colophons and scribes of Slavic manuscripts from Moldavia (15th through 17th centuries); the manuscript tradition of the Slavic version of Matthew Blastares' Syntagma in the Principality of Moldavia (15th–17th centuries); and the earliest Romanian translation of the Akathist Hymn (1683), including an analysis of its various translations.

Other presentations dealt with: the conversion of Petru Mușat to the Eastern rite; the role of Metropolitan Theophanes I in promoting the veneration of St. John the New; the development of the ecclesiastical office of the díkaios; Metropolitan Silvester Morariu-Andrievici's measures to support the education of young scholars; the relationship between Metropolitans Vladimir of Repta and Titus Simedrea; and the life and activity of several Bukovina hierarchs formed at the Monastery of St. John the Theologian in Khreshchatyk.

The Colloquia also included several papers in the field of art history, devoted to: the iconographic programs of Moldavian churches from the 15th and 16th centuries; Moldavian icons of the same period; 17th-century icons from the patrimony of the Putna Monastery; innovations introduced by Byzantine inscriptions on funerary monuments; the old mural paintings of the Cozia Monastery, dating back to 1391; the Hesychast foundations of the mural paintings in the Princely Church of St. Nicholas in Curtea de Argeș; Byzantine-tradition embroidery in the Romanian Principalities between the 15th and 18th centuries; and printed liturgical vestments (phelonia) from 18th-century Wallachia and Moldavia.

The Musicology Section included papers presented by monks of the Putna Monastery and other researchers from Romania. The topics included: catalogs of musical formulas attached to Sticherarion-type manuscripts from the 18th and 19th centuries; Ms. 129 of the Dumitru Stăniloae Library of the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina and aspects of the musical notation it employs; the biography of Aromanian chanter Gheorghe Cazana and an analysis of the contents of his manuscripts; the work and activity of St. Macarius the Hieromonk as an accomplished musician and patriot; the Romanian contributions of Holy Hierarch Peter Mogila and St. Theodosius of Maniava to church music culture in the Polish-Ukrainian area during the 16th and 17th centuries; and, last but not least, the evolution of discourse on Orthodox chanting in Romania between the 1930s and the 1950s.

The symposium also included presentations of several recent publications issued by the Putna Monastery's publishing houses, with support from the State Secretariat for Religious Affairs.