Father Igor Rosca was born in Burlanesti, northwest Moldova, in 1974 and became the priest of Fetesti village in 2000. During his youth, while Moldova was still ‘under foreign domination’, as Father Igor says, attending a mass or even owning a Bible was seen with suspicion by the authorities. Despite this, he developed strong religious feelings and, in 1993, he went to the Chitcani Monastery to study Theology. After being ordained priest, he decided to settle down in the village of Fetesti, nearby his hometown.
His dream was to build a church on the premises where a wooden church, administered before WWII by a Romanian priest but completely destroyed during Soviet times, once stood. Father Igor is proud of having built this church, fulfilling his dream: ‘I wanted to build the church right here, where our dear ancestors started it.’
Nevertheless he says that when there was less freedom, people were more attached to religion. Nowadays, some people go to church ‘out of faith, some do it because this is how you are supposed to behave.’
