During the Philokalic Revival in the Romanian-speaking world in the 18th and 19th centuries, thanks to the zeal of St Basil of Poiana Mărului, St Paisius Velichkovsky and his disciples at Dragomirna, Neamț and Secu, and later at Cernica and Căldărușani 1, particular attention was paid to identifying, translating and disseminating the writings of the ancient saints concerning prayer, the purification of the passions, the guarding of the senses and the mind, seeking in them practical advice to be followed. To uncover such works, manuscripts from across the Orthodox world were examined, particularly from Mount Athos, given the well-documented collaboration between the saints of the Romanian lands and those of the Greek region, especially St Macarius of Corinth 2. Indeed, Romanian links with the Holy Mountain are attested from ancient times, dating back to the foundation of the medieval states 3, Mount Athos being regarded as a monastic centre for the whole of Orthodoxy, from the founding of the first major monasteries in the mid-9th century and especially following the exodus of monks from Mount Olympus in Bithynia to Athos.
Following the acquisition of these Hesychast works, for the spiritual benefit of one’s fellow human beings, an intensive effort began to compile them into collections, into miscellanies of monastic literature or by translating them from Greek into Romanian and Slavonic, as well as by copying or editing the Romanian translations. Authors who have studied the life and work of St. Paisius of Neamț emphasise his preoccupation with acquiring the sacred writings, as he himself confessed in a letter to Archimandrite Theodosius of the Sofroniev Skete in Russia:
‘First of all, I began, with great effort and at great expense, to purchase the books of the Fathers which speak of obedience and self-restraint, of vigilance and prayer. Some of them I copied by my own hand, whilst others I bought with money earned from the handicrafts I produced to meet my day-to-day needs’4”.
As a result of Paisios’s interest in writings on prayer, vigilance and Hesychasm, similar efforts began to emerge at that time in the Greek world as well, where the works of the 14th-century Hesychast saints were being transcribed into Demotic Greek. For example, St Athanasius of Paros translated, from Ancient Greek into Demotic Greek, the Life of St Gregory Palamas, compiled by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Philotheos Kokkinos (1353–1354, 1363–1376), and published it in Vienna in 1784.
More than two decades after St Paisios and his disciples had discovered on Mount Athos the original Greek manuscripts of the writings of the Philokalic Fathers, Saints Macarius of Corinth and Nicodemus the Hagiorite compiled and published in Venice in 1782, the Philokalia, containing teachings from the Orthodox tradition—an initiative regarded by Olivier Clément as a means of countering the atheistic ideas of the Enlightenment, which had spread particularly following the publication of the French Encyclopaedia 5. However, this was merely one of the consequences of the publication of these writings by the Holy Fathers; the main consequence was a return to the Apostolic and Patristic Tradition of the Orthodox Church, through the rediscovery of the fundamental sources of Christianity 6. St Paisius corrected the old Slavonic translations of the Philokalia and supplemented them with several newer ones. Metropolitan Gabriel of St Petersburg requested the Slavonic manuscripts of the entire collection, which he had printed in 1793 in St Petersburg. The Philokalia was translated into Romanian within the Paisian community between 1755 and 1775. The original manuscript of the Philokalia in Romanian was collated for printing at the end of the 18th century, though it was never actually printed. One volume of this manuscript states: ‘This holy book belongs to the community of Abbot Paisie’, and is itself held at the Library of the Romanian Academy 7.
Also well-known is the Philokalia of Dragomirna, preserved in Romanian manuscript 2597 at the Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, dating from 1769, and thus predates the 1782 printed edition, and which ‘shares with the Venetian edition new writings by Saints Symeon the New Theologian, Gregory of Sinai and Cassian the Roman, by Symeon of Thessalonica, Nichifor of Solitude and the anonymous commentary ‘An Exposition on the Words to be Used in the Divine Prayer of [the Mind]’. The Venerable Paisius also added to this collection texts absent from the Venetian Philokalia, published over thirteen years later. The Dragomirna anthology had the same spiritual theme, but was illustrated by texts that were largely different’8”.
The reception of Hesychast writings in Moldavia and Wallachia has been expertly researched by numerous theologians, historians and philologists, who have highlighted the links between the Romanian region and the Greek and Slavic worlds of Orthodoxy 9.
Another category of texts that proliferated within the Paisian school, apart from the Philokalic writings, was that of the works of Greek theologians – many of whom have now been officially canonised – who defended the truth of the Orthodox faith, alerting the faithful to various deviations, ideas, conceptions or philosophies that had recently emerged in Europe, as well as to certain liturgical practices that deviated from the ancient canons but were spreading, like a fashion, in the Greek world, particularly in the island regions – where Orthodox Christians lived under Turkish rule and were subjected to powerful Catholic propaganda – as well as in the Eastern world. The translation of these texts, whether manuscript or printed, from Greek into Romanian, was seen as a necessity and was actively promoted, as atheistic philosophy and Western secularised thought 10 had also made their appearance in the Romanian world, alongside the propaganda of various denominations, whilst in Transylvania, after 1700, the Unia11 had been imposed, with all the dangers it entailed for the salvation of souls, as St Paisie Velicikovschi himself emphasised in one of his letters 12.
Consequently, in Dragomirna, Neamț, Secu, Cernica and Căldărușani, during the 17th and 18th centuries, numerous miscellanies of Hesychast and Philokalic monastic literature – these being the primary focus – but also apologetic and polemical theological works, some of which are currently held in the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department of the Romanian Academy Library in Bucharest, which I have studied with particular interest. Other types of works were also translated or reproduced, including historical works, texts by classical Greek authors, literary works, grammars, etc.
In the present study, we wish to present the work of the Greek theologian Evstratie Arghentie on Holy Baptism, preserved at the Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest in two Romanian copies, produced at Căldărușani and Cernica, in 1791 and 1792 respectively 13, based on a copy of the translation from Greek, commissioned in 1791, by Sava, the hieromonk of the Pocrov hermitage, a metochion of Neamț Monastery, dedicated to the ‘Protection of the Mother of God’, founded by St Pahomie of Gledin in 1714. We note the close and rapid links between the monastic centres of Moldavia and Wallachia, for immediately after the manuscript from Moldavia, the text was also copied in Wallachia, during the time of the Venerable Gheorghe. He had been appointed abbot of Cernica Monastery by Grigorie II, Metropolitan of Wallachia, in 1781, and subsequently, in 1794, by Metropolitan Filaret, he was also appointed abbot of Căldărușani. Previously, the abbot of Căldărușani had been none other than Filaret, titular Metropolitan of Myra in Lycia (from 1776), the future Bishop of Râmnic, Filaret II (from 1780), and Metropolitan of Wallachia (from 1792). Filaret, appointed abbot for life at Căldărușani – where he would later be buried – continued to oversee this monastery even after he was appointed Bishop of Râmnic, 14 he was known not only for his work in printing ecclesiastical books, but also for the translations he produced himself: The Words of St Dorothy (1784) and The Words of St Theodore the Studite (1784)15.
A Romanian copy based on the Neamț translation of Evstratie Arghentie’s apologetic work was produced at Căldărușani Monastery in 1791; this is the present-day manuscript 426 in the Academy Library, a theological miscellany, which contains, between ff. 33–69 v: A most beautiful book on Holy Baptism, divided into 32 chapters, entitled The Guide for the Lost, composed by the Doctor of Philosophy, Kir Eustratie Arghentie Hiotul [...], and now published [...] in Tsarigrad, in the year of salvation 1756, 1 March16]. The text, also reproduced at Cernica in 1792, was bound, in the Căldărușani manuscript, together with other dogmatic and apologetic works, refuting the errors and innovations practised in the West: A little book against the Latins, written by the most wise Kir Evghenie, teacher of the school recently gathered on the mountain bearing the holy name [...] And these have now been published in print, during the reign of His Holiness, the Patriarch of the Whole World, Kirio Kir Chiril, to whom they were also dedicated, in Tsarigrad, in the year of our Saviour 175617 Furthermore, at the end, the manuscript from Căldărușani also contains: A Word by the Most Holy Bishop of Astrakhan, Kir Nichifor Theotokes, on the purifying fire, based on the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians 18. At the end of the Căldărușani manuscript we read:
‘Translated in the year 1791, at the holy monastery of Neamț, and I, the most sinful Sava, the hieromonk, at the holy hermitage of Pocrovul, have transcribed it; in this same year, 1791, in the month of August, it was completed. Amen’19
The Cernica manuscript, currently held under reference number 5575 at the Library of the Romanian Academy in Bucharest, reproduces, in 39 folios: A most beautiful book on Holy Baptism, divided into 32 chapters, called ‘The Guide for the Stray’, compiled by Dr Kir Eustratie Arghentie Hiotul, who, driven by divine zeal, to demonstrate therein, as one enlightened in this matter, that it is in no way possible to perform Baptism—that which God gave to the Apostles—except through three immersions 20.
The Greek work had been published in Constantinople in 1756, with the blessing of the Ecumenical Patriarch Cyril V (1748–1751, 1752–1757), with whom Arghentie had previously collaborated. For Patriarch Cyril was known for his opposition to Western innovations and for issuing decrees against those who practised these rites (1755), which were endorsed at the Synod of Constantinople in 1756, to which Patriarchs Matthew of Alexandria and Parthenius of Jerusalem 21 also acceded. It was believed that Evstratie Arghentie had contributed to the drafting of the second edict 22. It is also to this patriarch that we owe the foundation, in 1749, of the Academy of the Holy Mountain, led from 1753 by Evghenie Vulgaris, who is also mentioned in the 1791 manuscript, for in the same year as Arghentie’s book, his own work was also printed, again in Constantinople. In 1757, Arghentie’s work on Baptism was reprinted in Leipzig under a different title: The Flower of Piety or A Short Treatise on Rebaptism 23.
Evstratie Arghentie also published a Manual against the Infallibility of the Pope in Iași in 1746, a work translated from Greek into Arabic: 24. This work, like the one on Baptism, had been written against the backdrop of the theological disputes in the Greek world of the mid-18th century, amidst growing pressure from Catholic propaganda on certain regions with Orthodox populations, such as Chios and the Peloponnese 25. Furthermore, in the mid-18th century, the hierarchs of Antioch, who were also facing these issues, strongly supported the translation of theological works from Greek into Arabic and their publication 26. Indeed, in his work on Baptism, Evstratie also mentions certain problems faced by the Orthodox at the hands of the Latins in Syria, Jerusalem and Rome.
Eustratios Arghentie (c. 1687–c. 1757) was originally from Chios, an island under Genoese rule, which was subsequently conquered by the Ottomans in 1567, then by the Venetians for a brief period, in 1694, before being recaptured by the Turks. On the islands, the period of Venetian rule was a difficult one for the Orthodox Greeks from a religious point of view, as the freedom of worship permitted by the Turks was replaced by intense Catholic propaganda and even the persecution of the Orthodox. Consequently, the Orthodox Christians on the islands came to prefer Turkish rule – which deprived them of certain political and economic rights – to Venetian rule, with both religious27 consequences.
Kallistos Ware, whose work on 18th-century Greek polemical theology has recently been translated into Romanian, refers to Dimitrie Cantemir, who described the Venetians’ behaviour towards the Orthodox Greeks on the islands as follows:
‘They closed all their churches, confiscated the property of many, prohibited Greek priests from celebrating the Divine Liturgy and administering the sacraments, and permitted only and exclusively Latin priests to hear the confessions of Greeks on their deathbeds or to baptise infants’28”.
In this climate, in the mid-18th century, several theological works were written and printed in Greece which, drawing on the decisions of the ecumenical councils, the writings of the Holy Fathers and concrete examples from the Holy Gospel, demonstrated the necessity of preserving the Orthodox faith and its liturgical practices, as well as the danger of accepting the Western faith, even going so far as to question the validity of Western baptism. On the islands, often out of ignorance, Western practices were regarded as a fashion or a local variation, with little regard for the dogmatic implications of the various rituals. One such work on Holy Baptism is the one presented in this study, a historical source which we have not encountered elsewhere—at least in the research undertaken to date—printed in Romanian; it was translated from Greek and written in Romanian, using Cyrillic script, and preserved in several manuscripts compiled in the monasteries under the influence of St Paisius Velichkovsky during his lifetime, namely Neamț, Cernica and Căldărușani.
We should also note that the viewpoint of Ecumenical Patriarch Cyril V, although not shared by all theologians of the time, and he had numerous opponents, was supported, through various writings, by the so-called ‘colivari’ of Mount Athos, including Neophytus Cavsocalivitus, Saint Nicodemus the Athonite, St Athanasius of Paros – the Athonite exponents of the Church’s patristic thought.
A theological and historical study of the writings concerning Holy Baptism and the manner in which Westerners were received into Orthodoxy, over the course of time, was carried out by the Greek theologian Gheorghe Metallinos, former dean of the Faculty of Theology in Athens; this work has been translated into Romanian as 29 and is therefore accessible to the public, which is why, in our presentation, we do not revisit the history of theological discussions on this subject, but refer strictly to the work of Evstratie Arghentie, which, although mentioned in Romanian historiography, is not discussed in detail in terms of its actual content. As for the situation of the Church of Constantinople under Turkish rule – that is, the historical context in which this work originated – we also refer to Steven Runciman’s well-known book, which outlines the two trends within the Greek world of the 18th century: that of theologians influenced by Western culture and that of the faction of theologians inclined towards traditionalism. For, following the synod of 1484 in Constantinople, which had established that the reception of Latins into Orthodoxy was to be effected through the abjuration of doctrinal errors and through anointing with Holy Chrism, discussions on this subject had been reopened, particularly given the coexistence of Catholics and Orthodox Christians on the islands. Runciman considered that the revival of the issue in the post-Byzantine context did not stem from the Greeks’ rejection of Westerners, but from a ‘genuine suspicion that the Latin rite of baptism was not canonically correct’30). Moreover, the Greeks’ fears were heightened by the various forms of Western baptism used over time, which Evstratie Arghentie also mentions in his work.
As an aside, we note that, in Romanian circles, during the Philocalic Revival, there are other accounts concerning the importance of administering the Sacrament of Baptism by immersion. For example, Filaret II himself, Bishop of Râmnic, during whose time Arghentie’s manuscript was copied at Căldărușani, requested, in his canonical encyclical of 1781 addressed to the clergy of the diocese, that baptismal fonts deep enough to allow the child to be immersed should be used for Baptism:
‘For Holy Baptism, in all churches, there shall be large and deep baptismal fonts, in which, when baptising children, they shall be immersed in water so as to cover them, immersing them three times, as set out in the Prayer Book, with the words that complete Holy Baptism, and not merely to sprinkle them. And there should also be Holy Chrism, for the performance of the Sacrament, adding oil to the water of Holy Baptism, according to the prescribed order31.
In the same vein, Saint Calinic of Cernica, in his Manual of Ecclesiastical Rules 32, printed for the third time in 1861, following the Bucharest editions of 1852 and 1854, includes, at the end, a section on Holy Baptism, specifying exactly how it must be performed in order to be valid: the provisions of the Prayer Book must be observed, the prayers must be read correctly, the three immersions must be performed, and baptism must take place in a baptismal font, with sufficient water so that no part of the body remains uncovered by water; Baptism must not be repeated, and the name chosen for the infant must be a Christian name, from the calendar 33.
It should be noted that, in Orthodox iconography, the icon of the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan is depicted in such a way as to emphasise immersion in water, rather than sprinkling. In this regard, Constantine Cavarnos noted:
‘In some icons, the water into which He entered covers His entire body, up to His shoulders, as in the mosaics at Hosios Lukas, Daphni and Nea Moni. In other icons, whether murals or on wood, the flowing water of the river appears on either side of His body and beneath His feet, without covering Him. This latter method of representation seems to have been used so as not to disrupt the clear line of the body, clarity being one of the principles employed by Byzantine iconographers. However, the first, older method of depicting the water—in front of and on both sides of the body—is more appropriate, as it ensures greater clarity of the body’s form. It shows that the Baptism of Christ took place through complete immersion in the waters of the Jordan, as recounted in the Gospels of St Matthew (3:16) and St Mark (1:10)’34
As for examples of goldsmith’s work, we cite a casket for holding a portion of the relics of St Nicodemus of Tismana, crafted in 1671 at the request of Petronius, the abbot of Tismana Monastery. The piece, currently housed at the National Museum of Art of Romania, is remarkable because it depicts scenes from the saint’s life and miracles. Among these, for the purposes of our topic, we note the moment of St Nicodimus’s baptism as an infant in a large baptismal font, so that he might be fully immersed. Dinu C. Giurescu, who described the reliquary, considered the scene to be “the oldest illustration of such a ceremony in a piece of silverwork”35
In this study, we set out in turn the ideas developed by Evstratie Arghentie, presenting this work as a historical source, previously unknown to the Romanian public and created under the influence of St Paisie Velicikovschi (1722–1794), the 300th anniversary of whose birth is being marked this year.
Evstratie Arghentie mentions at the beginning of the text that he wrote the pamphlet in fulfilment of the Church’s command, which had requested this of him. And, indeed, the Patriarch of Alexandria, Cosmas III, had asked him to write books on the faith, for the benefit of Christians, a task in which he was subsequently supported by Patriarch Matthew of Alexandria and Sylvester of Antioch 36:
‘For this reason, we too, so as not to remain idle and unproductive in this matter, dare, in fulfilment of the Church’s command, which has urged us to write a few things as we deemed fitting’ 37.
From the first chapter we learn that the work is intended for Orthodox Christians, so that they may not forget the importance and significance of the Sacrament of Holy Baptism, as it has been preserved by the Church for over one thousand seven hundred years, and so that they may not be influenced by newly emerging practices. In this regard, we recall that St Athanasius of Paros, at the beginning of his work against the atheistic philosophies of the Western Enlightenment, affirmed the same thing: that he was astonished that, so many centuries after the preaching of the Gospel, he was still compelled to remind Christians of this truth: that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God; but that he was compelled to do so because Western Enlightenment heresies had spread to the Greek world as well. In the Romanian translation of the work by St Athanasius of Paros, the work by St John Chrysostom addressed to the Jews has also been included, in which he explains to them that Christ is the Messiah. Consequently, both texts – that of Eustratius and that of St Athanasius – can be regarded as measures to defend Greek Christians against erroneous ideas and practices that had emerged in the West but were spreading, through political conquests, missionary activity and prevailing trends, amongst the Orthodox as well.
At the beginning of the text, Eustratius provides some philological clarifications regarding the words ‘baptism’ and ‘to baptise’ in Greek and Latin, emphasising the meaning of immersion. Thus, the idea expressed by these terms – Evstratie adds – is that baptism involves immersion in water.
He then goes on to explain the significance of the act as a Sacrament, pointing out, in this regard, that what is visible, as a liturgical practice, has a meaning and an unseen aspect, as a Sacrament:
‘Since Baptism according to Christ is a Sacrament, and within Sacraments there is one that is perceptible to the senses and another that is understood by the mind, in accordance with the nature of the Sacraments and as taught by Saint Chrysostom, it is therefore fitting that we should see what is understood intellectually through the sensible act of Holy Baptism. And we find that, in the New Covenant, many things are signified by this Sacrament, namely: the washing, the expectation of the second coming, renewal, enlightenment, the remission of sins, sanctification and others’38’.
Then, over the course of several chapters, the various meanings of Christian Baptism are taken up one by one and presented, with references to the writings of the Holy Fathers:
“But the true and comprehensive understanding of divine Baptism reveals burial and resurrection together with Christ [...] through the tangible act of Baptism, as regards man, by being buried in water and emerging from it, every believer may ascend to a more divine understanding, that is, to understand that those who have been baptised are buried and raised together with Christ. Hence Jesus Christ, concerning His own burial, had previously referred to it as baptism in the 10th chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, addressing the sons of Zebedee, saying: ‘Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptised with the baptism with which I am to be baptised?’39
In Chapters V and VI, the author gives further examples from the New Testament in which reference is made to death and burial in the Sacrament of Baptism; for instance, he refers to Chapter XII of the Gospel of St Luke, , to Chapter 6 of St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, and to Chapter 2 of St Paul’s Epistle to the Colossians. The author notes that the Church Fathers of old also speak of this same significance, mentioning the following Saints: Dionysius the Areopagite, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius the Great, Augustine and Ambrose of Milan.
Bearing in mind this significance of Baptism—of being buried and rising with Christ—Evstratie Arghentie emphasises that the Church, in ancient times, used to baptise those who wished to come to the faith, on Great Saturday:
‘And the Catholic40, and Apostolic Church, with regard to the three-day burial and the Resurrection of the Saviour, rightly established, as they had received, that the feast of Holy Baptism should be celebrated on Great Saturday, when the Body also lay in the tomb’41”.
- 1
Dumitru Furtună, The Disciples of Abbot Paisie in the Monasteries of Cernica and Căldărușani, Bucharest, Nemira Publishers, 2002.
- 2
Hieromonk Theologos of Simonopetra, Saint Paisios Velichkovsky and his disciples on Mount Athos and at Simonopetra Monastery, translated from the Greek by Nathanael Neacșu, Iași, Doxologia Publishers, 2014, p. 22.
- 3
See, for example: Rev. Mircea Păcurariu, History of the Romanian Orthodox Church, vol. 1, Bucharest, EIBMBOR, 1991; Fr. Ioan Moldoveanu, Contributions to the History of Relations between the Romanian Principalities and Mount Athos (1650–1863), Bucharest, EIBMBOR, 2007.
- 4
A. Tahiaos, On Paisios of Belitsk and his ascetic-philological writings, ed. IMHA, Thessaloniki, 1964, p. 75, cited in Hieromonk Theologos Simonopetritul, Saint Paisios and his disciples on Mount Athos and at the Monastery of Simonopetra, Iași, Doxologia Publishers, 2014, p. 19.
- 5
Philokalia of the Neptic Fathers, with an introduction by Olivier Clément, Paris, vol. I, 1995, p. 8, cited in Metropolitan Daniel Ciobotea, ‘Philosophy of the Enlightenment and the Light of the Philokalia. Self-sufficient reason and prayerful reason in the 18th century’, in The Enlightenment and Hesychasm, Iași, Trinitas, 2006, pp. 34–54.
- 6
We would like to thank the monk Filotheu Bălan, of Petru-Vodă Monastery in Neamț County, for this clarification and for the guidance he provided us with in the preparation of this article.
- 7
BAR, Manuscripts–Rare Books, Ms. rom. 1455, f. 1.
- 8
Virgil Cândea, ‘The Philokalia in Early Romanian Literature’, in The Philokalia of Prodromos, Universalia, 2011, p. 13.
- 9
Zamfira Mihail, ‘The Reception of Hesychast Writings in the Romanian Language in the 17th Century’, in The Enlightenment and Hesychasm, Iași, Trinitas, 2006, pp. 177–188; Zamfira Mihail, ‘The Reception of the Writings of the Holy Fathers in the Romanian Language in the 17th and 18th Centuries’, in At the Turn of the Millennia, Galați, Ed. of the Diocese of the Lower Danube, 2000, pp. 139–161; Virgil Cândea, ‘The Place of Romanian Spirituality in the Hesychast Renewal’, in Românii în reînnoirea isihastă, ed. Virgil Cândea, Iași, Trinitas, 1997, pp. 17–38; Daniel, Metropolitan of Moldavia and Bukovina, ‘Philokalic Vocation and Destiny among the Romanians’, in Romanians in the Hesychast Renewal, …, pp. 5–17; Fr. Ioan Moldoveanu, ‘The Circulation of Palamite Works in the Romanian World’, in Yearbook of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, Bucharest, 2002, pp. 563–579; Vasile of Poiana Mărului, Introductions to the Jesus Prayer and Hesychasm, trans. Ioan and Maria-Cornelia Ică Jr., Sibiu, Deisis Press, 2009.
- 10
The Christian Apology by St Athanasius of Paros, directed against the Voltaireans. The work was published in Greek in Constantinople in 1798 and translated into Romanian and printed in Neamț in 1816 and in Bucharest in 1819. See Oana-Mădălina Popescu, ‘Books: Means of Spiritual Edification or Ruin’, in Martyria, 2019, no. 1, pp. 43–62.
- 11
Fr. Mircea Păcurariu, The Uniat Church in Transylvania: Past and Present, Sibiu, Andreiana Publishers, 2020.
- 12
St Paisie of Neamț, Spiritual Words and Letters, trans. Valentina Pelin, vol. I, Tipografia Centrală, 1998, p. 66. Valentina Pelin’s work was produced through the author’s collaboration with the monk Filotheu Bălan of Petru-Voda Monastery, who at that time had not yet taken his vows, and who discovered a large proportion of the letters published here. St Paisie, in one of his letters, had pointed out to Father Ioan the danger of accepting union with Rome, describing the Union as follows: ‘What, then, is the Union? [...] Union is the devil’s deception, which preys upon the unwary to their ruin. Union is a wolf that devours souls, in sheep’s clothing. Union is the deadly poison, in the guise of honey, which destroys the soul [...] Union is the abyss of hell [...] Union is like the heretical Rhamans. How, then, can the Uniates not be Rhleneans, when they have trampled underfoot all the dogmas of the Orthodox faith and adopted those of the Rhleneans, shamelessly claiming that ‘the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son’?”
- 13
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Mss. rom. 426 and 5575.
- 14
Dumitru Furtună, ‘The Disciples of Abbot Paisie in the Monasteries of Cernica and Căldărușani...’, p. 39.
- 15
Fr Mircea Păcurariu, Dictionary of Romanian Theologians, 3rd ed., Sibiu: Andreiana Publishers, 2014, p. 242.
- 16
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, ff. 33–69 v.
- 17
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, ff. 1–31 v.
- 18
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, ff. 73–83.
- 19
BAR, Rare Manuscripts and Books, Ms. rom. 426, f. 69v.
- 20
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 5575, f. 1.
- 21
Theodore H. Papadopoulos, Studies and Documents relating to the History of the Greek Church and People under Turkish Domination, Brussels, 1952, p. 198.
- 22
Kallistos Ware, Greek Polemical Theology during the Ottoman Period: The Contribution of Eustratios Argenti, translated from the English by Iuliana Conovici, Iași, Doxologia Publishers, 2021, p. 107. The two acts are the Anathema and the Explanation.
- 23
Kallistos Ware, Greek Polemical Theology during the Ottoman Period. The Contribution of Eustratios Argenti..., p. 91.
- 24
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, CRV 250 D.
- 25
Kallistos Ware, ‘Greek Polemical Theology during the Ottoman Period: The Contribution of Eustratios Argenti…’, p. 66.
- 26
Ioana Feodorov, ‘The First Arabic Books Printed in Beirut and Their Links with Romanian Printing Presses’, in Miscellanea Historica et Archaeologica in honorem Professoris Ionel Cândea Septuagenarii, ed. Costin Croitoru, Bucharest, Brăila, Ed. Romanian Academy, Carol I Museum of Brăila, Istros Publishing, 2019, p. 189.
- 27
Kallistos Ware, Greek Polemical Theology during the Ottoman Period. The Contribution of Eustratios Argenti..., p. 66.
- 28
Demetrius Cantemir, The History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire, trans. N. Tindal, London, 1734, p. 392, cited in Kallistos Ware, Greek Polemical Theology during the Period of Ottoman Rule. The Contribution of Eustratie Argenti..., p. 66.
- 29
Gheorghe Metallinos, I Bear Witness to a Baptism, trans. Caliopie Papacioc, Bucharest, Evanghelismos Publishers, 2011.
- 30
Steven Runciman, The Great Church in Captivity, trans. Mihai-Silviu Chirilă, Bucharest, Sophia Publishing, 2013, pp. 390–391: ‘Following the practice of early Christianity, the Orthodox baptised by immersion. The Church permitted that, in cases of emergency, any baptised Christian, regardless of denomination, might perform a valid baptism, provided they invoked the Holy Trinity; but the rite must include immersion, insofar as this is physically possible. The Latins baptised by sprinkling. Many Orthodox Christians regarded such a baptism as non-canonical, demanding that converts be rebaptised, not because they had already been baptised by heretics, but because, in their view, they had not been truly baptised.”
- 31
Constantin Erbiceanu, ‘The Canonical Encyclical of Filaret, Bishop of Râmnic’, in BOR, XV, 1891, no. 7, pp. 508–513. In his footnotes, the author comments on the passage, pointing out that the hierarch insisted on the correct performance of Baptism by immersion, rather than by sprinkling, as practised by the Catholics. The author also refers to the canon of the Council of Carthage, which states that Baptism is not to be repeated, citing the commentaries of Zonaras and Balsamon. Those who have been baptised in the Name of the Holy Trinity and to whom the unaltered formula has been pronounced must not be baptised a second time. Immediately after Baptism, the infants were anointed with Holy Chrism.
- 32
Manual of Church Law, Râmnicu-Vâlcea, 1861.
- 33
Eugen Marina, ‘Contributions to the Understanding of the Canonical Works of Saint Calinic of Cernica’, in Saint Calinic of Cernica, a Man of Prayer and Merciful Love, Archimandrite Nectarie Șofelea (ed.), vol. I, Bucharest, Basilica Publishers, 2018, p. 257.
- 34
Constantine Cavarnos, A Guide to Byzantine Iconography, ed. Ștefan Ionescu-Berechet, trans. Anca Popescu, Bucharest, Sophia Publishers, 2005, p. 83.
- 35
Dinu C. Giurescu, ‘A silver box presented to Tismana in 1670–1671’, in Mitropolia Olteniei, 1961, no. 5–6, p. 334.
- 36
Kallistos Ware, ‘Greek Polemical Theology during the Ottoman Period: The Contribution of Eustratios Argenti…’, p. 78.
- 37
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, f. 35v.
- 38
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, f. 37 r.
- 39
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, f. 37r. See the Bible or Holy Scripture. Jubilee Edition of the Holy Synod, ed. Bartolomeu Valeriu Anania, Bucharest, EIBMBOR, 2001, p. 1509: Mark X, 38: And Jesus answered them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the cup that I drink, and be baptised with the baptism with which I am baptised?’
- 40
In the sense of ‘universal’.
- 41
BAR, Manuscripts – Rare Books, Ms. rom. 426, f. 39r.