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In July 2006, a copy of the miraculous icon from Dohiariu Monastery from Mount Athos was transferred to the monastery. It was made especially for the Lainici monastery and is the fifth copy made since the beginning of the 20th century around the world. Moreover, in 2009, the relics of St. Irodiona Ionescu, missing for 109 years.

From the end of the 20th century, a second, richly decorated church stands in the monastery. It consists of two parts, which symbolize two stages in the history of the church - the so-called Church in the catacombs and the modern church. The same division reflects a series of icons and frescoes.

When man wants to fill himself with the divine grace of the place and turn to the divinity, he looks for special places, full of faith, quiet and spiritual peace. Such a divine place is the Lainici Monastery, which is as old as time.
One of the most important religious and tourist objectives in Gorj County is the Holy Lainici Monastery in the town of Bumbesti Jiu. The Lainici Monastery is in the middle of the Jiu Pass, 25 kilometres away from Petrosani and 32 kilometres away from Targu Jiu.
The present-day road crossing the Jiu Pass was built starting in the 1880 by special stone cutters brought from Italy. Work on it continued in the interwar years and the road was only asphalted in the '50s. In parallel, starting in the interwar year, they also built the Bumbesti-Livezeni railway. It has 38 tunnels cut in stone with much artistry by the Italian masters.
According to tradition, the 14th century would mark the general beginning of monasticism in these sub-Carpathian areas as St Nicodim comes in the second half of the 14th century in Wallachia from Mount Athos and starts building a number of monasteries at the foot of the Carpathians, from the west to the east: the Topolnita Monastery, the Vadita Monastery near Severin, and finally, after a revelation from the Mother of God, he discovers the place for Tismana and builds the Tismana Monastery.
They also say that, according to the tradition, St Nicodim came as far as Prislop, he or his direct disciples.
'In 1760-1780, at the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, when they destroyed all the monasteries in Transylvania in general, it is said that they also destroyed the 14th-century church at Lainici and afterwards, between 1810 and 1817, they made this church of bricks, which exists today too. The First World War affected very much the area of the monastery, all the buildings were destroyed, the archives were burned, the bells were smelted. The church changed into stables, two monks were deported to Germany and died as heroes in German camps. The monastery was occupied by the Germans for three years. Afterwards, the monastery is built again in the interwar years. The work on the road and the Bumbesti Jiu-Livezeni railway affected the monastery very much, it disturbed the monastic life here, plots of land and buildings were abusively occupied, it was an insult to the monastery. In 1959 they issued Decree 410 by which monks were dismissed from monasteries and then the monasteries were empty. There were 40 monks at Lainici, 38 were dismissed, only two of them stayed there as guards. After the 1989 Revolution one can see a spiritual revival in the Orthodox world and of course the Lainici Monastery benefited by this revival. First of all they built the church, in 1990 they began building the new church as the old one, dating from 1810, was quite small and on Sundays the service was held in the open. It was necessary to build a much bigger church. This was the only place where we could build the church, the land was sloping down, willy-nilly a semi-basement was created, which we made into a church too, and this is how there are two churches one above the other. The semi-basement church is not yet painted, it will have paintings featuring the history of the church from the year 1 till 313,' says abbot Ioachim.
The Locurele hermitage, which was built about 1850, is the hermitage of the Lainici Monastery and is situated on the western side of the Jiu Valley, in the Locurele clearing, 750-800 m high, on Mountain Gropul in the Valcan Massif.
Saint Irodion is the most important abbot of all times of the Lainici Monastery, he was actually the longest living abbot, 41 years, with small breaks. Initially he was a disciple of Saint Calinic at Cernica, in 1846 Saint Irodion took the holy orders at the Cernica Monastery. In 1954 he was appointed abbot at Lainici and in 1860 Saint Calinic takes him as a father confessor. Saint Irodion was a wonderworker as he was still alive. They say very many people came to him and were cured by all kinds of diseases. He looked at people and then saw their entire genealogical tree.
According to the site of the monastery, Pious Irodion died on May 3, 1900. Seven years after his death abbot Teodosie Popescu takes care of the exhumation service. This is a very old monastic tradition, which has been preserved up to now especially on Mount Athos: 7 years after the death of the monk he is to be exhumed and the burial service is to be held again.
Pious Irodion was disinterred, but everybody was astonished as his body had not rotted at all.
In 1929 Father Visarion Toia, together with a group of monks from Frasinei, was appointed abbot. Some of the monks that came with Father Visarion was Calinic Caravan, the next hesychastic abbot (1952-75), Father Nicodim Sachelarie, Gherontie Ghenoiu and others.
The Metropolitan Bishops of Oltenia after 1990 - His Reverence Nestor and His Reverence Teofan - wanted to canonize Pious Irodion and searched his life that was entirely holy, but probably there was not yet the necessary number of prayers.
The new Metropolitan Bishop of Oltenia, His Reverence Irineu, having special piety for Saint Calinic and implicitly for his father confessor, Pious Irodion, started the process of canonization.
Saint Calinic called Pious Irodion the Morning Star at Lainici as he was really a great star, who gave light and prayers. Saint Irodion is the last link of the Romanian neo-hesychastic chain of the 19th century.
'I held all the bones my hand. They were unusually light, as if I was holding some paper in my hand. It was a shattering and utterly impressive moment. The boys that were digging said that they started smelling the fragrance, an odour. The bones were not white, they were brownish-orange,' Ioachim, the abbot of the Lainici Monastery, remembers.
On July 23, 2006, the Lainici Monastery got a great blessing from the Mother of God. They brought a copy of the wonder working icon Gorgoepicuus or the icon quickly fulfilling your wishes. It was brought from Mount Athos, from the Dochiariu Monastery.
This icon was specially made for the Lainici Monastery in deep secret and it is the fifth copy that has been made in the past 100 years all over the world.
'It is a from Mount Athos, the Garden of the Mother of God, brought and planted at the Lainici Monastery forever as a sign of much blessing that was given to our monastery,' reads the site of the monastery. AGERPRES
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