Vladimiresti Monastery was founded in 1938 by Vasilica Barbu Gurau, who became Sister Lica.
    This monastery is one which has the greatest number of nuns of Romania, after Agapia and Varatec from Neamt county. It is situated between Galati and Tecuci, at 4 km from Tudor Vladimirescu commune. Its history is in connection with the life of Veronica Gurau (Sister Lica), deceased in september 15, 2005.
    In 1941, she took the veil to become Mother Veronica. Vasilica had lost her mother at the age of two. Her wicked stepmother locked her in a henhouse where it was expected she would die - the intention was to gain her parents inheritances. At the age of eight, she escaped and run into the nearby village. All the children and villagers surrounded her, both amazed and horrified, for she was filthy, dressed in rags and barely able to speak. She showed them a small wooden icon of the Virgin and managed to communicate that it had been given to her by her mother who wished her to be safe in the care of her “Heavenly” Mother, the mother of Jesus. The priest and villagers took her into their care until her mother's parents fetched her. They were very poor so she earned her keep by herding cattle in the pastures, living almost as a hermit, at one with nature.
    At the age of 15 she was still there but could still neither read nor write. In summer 1936 there was a drought. One particularly hot day she came running into the village announcing a miracle - she has seen the Virgin, Jesus and an old man - God, in a beam of light which turned into flame when touching the earth on the Gurgueta Hill outside the village! They had given her a command to pass on to the people - to build a convent and dedicate it to the Holy Virgin, for the redemption of Romania. They told her the country would be faced with terrible trials in the coming years so the nuns should pray unceasingly for mercy. The nuns should never number more than 200 and the church, cells and convent were to be the work of their own hands.
    Work began that very week. She carved a cross on the bark of the old tree where God had spoken to her and the news of her vision spread. Girls from nearby villages came to help her and the peasants gave them the land with the tree. One story tells how Vasilica toured the country seeking finance - one summer’s day she found herself at Peles Castle at Sinaia (Prahova, near Brasov) where she approached a man in overalls working on a motorcar. He told her to wait, went inside and returned with a casket of jewels. Later, further donations of cement and wood for construction were made - the beneficiary was King Mihai! Over the years the troubles of war and then communism had fallen on Romania. In 1948 Gheorghe Apostol (the Communist Party Secretary) paid a visit - he knew Mother Veronica for she had sheltered him during the war. He wanted her to turn this model community into a commune ruled under the directives of the Central Committee.
    The convent had become an embarrassment to government and politburo, not least because it was long suspected that it had been used to shelter "enemies" of the state. Indeed, catacombs and secret rooms excavated beneath the church were used to harbor numerous people fleeing the communist purges of the 1950s. Mother Veronica was arrested on the night of 29 March 1955 and charged as an "Enemy of the People". Then, on the night of 14 February 1956 the monastery was finally requisitioned by the communists - a convoy of 60 military vehicles surrounded it, blocking all escape routes. Guns were held to the heads of the remaining sisters by the security soldiery whilst their identities were established. They were then trucked to Galati and later to Dumbraveni prison for wearing an "illegal uniform"! Some of them were beaten, tortured or ridiculed; others died in prison and became martyrs. The story thus far is related in a book written by Silviu Craciunas ("The Lost Footsteps" - 1961). Silviu was involved in setting up escape routes to the West and pockets of resistance until his arrest, torture and imprisonment in 1950. He finally escaped custody after several years and for a while he was harbored in a secret room in the church tower with the assistance of Mother Veronica. He was present when the Communists arrived and escaped via the catacombs and tunnels, eventually reaching Austria, and then ultimately the UK. When he left he was given a little icon by Mother Veronica in order to keep alive the memory of Vladimiresti.
    However, the story doesn’t end there. After her arrest, Mother Veronica, was thrown into the notorious Jilava jail, beaten with a wet whip and tortured, and condemned to 15 years of labor and punishment.
   Her sentence was later reduced to 8 years and she was released in 1964. She worked in Bucharest under constant surveillance though the sisters kept in contact, usually by attending the funerals of mutual friends and colleagues. Mother Veronica went to great lengths to allay suspicion and to foil the Security - she even married!
   On Christmas Day 1989, just three days after the Romanian Revolution a strange spectacle was witnessed in the little village of Tudor Vladimirescu - hordes of women, dressed in black, walking silently up the little track leading from the railway halt to the monastery of Vladimiresti, their eyes filled with tears.