This holy and divine church, dedicated to the Nativity of the Mother of God and St. Great Martyr Pantelimon (protector of the sick and doctors), was built out of the piety and with the obol of the faithful Romanian peasants, from the village of Albac, in the Apuseni Mountains, in the year after Christ 1746 .
In this church, Horea listened to the speeches of the revolutionary monk Sofronie from Cioara (today Sălişte) and took part with everyone from Albac, Abrud, Zarand, Câmpeni, Bobâlna, Zlatna, Roşia, in the revolution led by Sofronie in the years 1744-1761 for the religious freedom of the Orthodox Romanians from Transylvania. The struggle was continued by Horea, the leader of the revolution of October 1784.
Over the years, as the population increased, another stone church was built in Albac, and this was moved to the Brătieni mansion from Florica, near Pitesti, being bought from Transylvania in 1907 by Ionel I.C. Brătianu, Prime Minister of Romania and honorary member of the Romanian Academy, and erected here by the master Nicolae from Sohodol, in the year of the Great Union, 1918.
The faithful from the surrounding area named it Horea's Church, because in it Horea prayed for the freedom of the Transylvanian people. In 1954, it was investigated by the Patriarch of Romania, Justinian and Bishop Iosif of Râmnic and Argeş, and finding it useless and ruinous, they decided to move it, here, to Băile Olăneşti, where it was rebuilt from the ground up, for the third once, on the land donated by the parishioner Gheorghe Baicu (from Pietriş-Comanca), being decorated with new painting and endowed with holy smells, being sanctified in the year 1958, October, day 6.
In 1996, on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the documentary attestation of the "Church of Albac", it was re-consecrated by His Holiness Bishop Gerasim of Râmnicului, following the consolidation, conservation and general restoration of the monument, works carried out by the efforts of the priest parish priest and the Parish Council and Committee, and through the good will of the Ministry of Cults and Culture, of the parishioners and believers who came to rest and treatment on these lands blessed by God and blessed by the Mother of God.
Parish Priest Emilian GROȘENOIU
Sursa: www.biserici.org
