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[Fr Constantin Alecse]

Anthimus of Iberia, or Antim Ivireanul
(Romanian bishop and writer)

Antim Ivireanul, metropolitan of Walachia (now part of Romania), linguist, typographer, and ecclesiastical writer who contributed greatly to the development of the Romanian language and literature by his translation and printing of biblical and liturgical texts and by his own writings in ethics and asceticism. He is also honoured as one of the earliest Romanian nationalist leaders.

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Fr Constantin Alecse
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[Fr Constantin Alecse]

Metropolitan Antim Ivireanu or Anthim the Iberian

Anthim the Iberian (Romanian: Antim Ivireanul, Georgian: ანთიმოზ ივერიელი - Antimoz Iverieli; secular name: Andria; 1650 — September or October 1716) was one of the greatest eclesiastic figures of Wallachia (and, through modern extension, Romania), a noted Eastern Orthodox theologian and philosopher, founder of the first printing press in Romania, and Metropolitan of Bucharest in 1708-1715.

Biography

He was an ethnic Georgian born in Caucasian Iberia (Kartli, nowadays in the Republic of Georgia). Anthim was taken prisoner by Ottoman Empire troops, and took orders in Istanbul, while living on the compounds of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1689 or 1690, he was asked to settle in Wallachia by Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, and was given charge of the newly-founded princely printing press in Bucharest. Being appointed father superior (egumen) of the Snagov Monastery, Anthim moved the press to the new location.

He became bishop of Râmnicu in 1705, and in 1708 Metropolitan of Wallachia. Anthim spoke and wrote many Oriental and European languages. Although a foreigner, he soon acquired a thorough knowledge of Romanian, and was instrumental in helping to introduce that language into the local church as its official language. In 1693, he published the Gospels in Romanian.

In 1709 Anthim was a founder of the first Georgian printing press in Tbilisi; he also trained Georgians in the art of printing, and cut the type with which under his pupil Mihail Ishtvanovitch they printed the first of Georgian Gospels (1710). In addition, Anthim published 25 other books - in Romanian, as well as Church Slavonic, Greek, and Arabic (usually in bilingual volumes, such as the Greek-Arabic Missal of 1702); this meant that he was also the first in Wallachia to use Arabic fonts).

His personal work, Diadihiile, was a collection of sermons meant as a sharp critique of contemporary habits and morals; notably, beside Christian sources, Anthim made reference to classical philosophy. Alongside his literary output, the cleric was the builder of the All-Saints Monastery in Bucharest - nowadays known as the Antim Monastery in his memory.

Anthim's overt opposition to Ottoman tutelage over Wallachia made him an adversary of the Phanariote regime. The new Prince Nicholas Mavrocordatos imprisoned him, and subsequently exiled him to Mount Sinai. Anthim was captured by the Ottomans while he was taking the trip, and assassinated somewhere in modern-day Bulgaria (his body would have been discarded in the Maritsa or the Tundzha). It is alleged that his murder was ordered by Mavrocordatos himself.

In 1992 Anthim was canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church. A rugby union trophy, contested by Romania and Georgia is named after him - the Antim Cup.

References

* This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain. In turn, it cites as references:
o M. Gaster, Chrestomathie roumaine (1881) and "Gesch. d. rumänischen Litteratur," in Grober, Grundriss d. rom. Philologie, vol. ii. (1899)
o E. Picot, Notice sur Anthim d'Ivir (Paris, 1886).
* "Anthimus of Iberia", in Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007 edition. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online
* "Antimoz Iverieli", in Sakartvelo Encyclopedia, Vol. I, Tbilisi, 1997, p.158
* Otar Gvinchidze, Antimoz Iverieli, Tbilisi, 1973

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Fr Constantin Alecse
Biserica.org
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[Fr Constantin Alecse]

An insight into 18th century Romanian as illustrated in the sermons and correspondence of Antim Ivireanu, Metropolitan Bishop of Wallachia (c. 1660 – 1716)

By Ioana Costache, DPhil project accepted by the Medieval and Modern Languages Faculty, University of Oxford

Abstract

A Romanian bishop of Georgian origin, Antim Ivireanul was an accomplished xylographer, painter, illuminator, embroiderer and orator; he is best known for a collection of 35 homilies whose literary and stylistic merits have already been amply discussed in the literature. However, there is a research gap which is rather paradoxical, given the relative richness of Antim-related scholarship: so far, his writings have only been analysed from theological, stylistic, or literary theoretic perspectives. What is missing is a linguistic approach, which could shed new light on certain facts, which have either been treated as purely stylistic, rhetorical, or pertaining to homiletic conventions, or simply ignored.

My aim is twofold: to question some of the ideas put forth (or taken for granted) by previous researchers, and to start a linguistic investigation of unexplored areas. As an illustration of the first point, I would like to suggest that some of the phrases considered to be 'metaphoric' and dealt with as a matter of rhetoric are in fact calqued from Church Slavonic. My second aim is to investigate the transitional stage of Romanian captured by Antim's sermons and correspondence. Antim supported the use of Romanian in church; he certainly delivered his sermons in Romanian and printed remarkable Romanian translations of fundamental service books. My intention is to investigate to what extent the phonology, morphology, syntax, and vocabulary of the Romanian spoken/written by Antim evince any effects of this overlap – i.e., an overview of the state of the language, with due attention paid to genre constraints. A tentative selection of relevant language phenomena includes: the reinforcement of the phoneme [h] under Greek influence; the (non)occurrence of Old Church Slavonic "soft yer" in final position in the plural of nouns; (the gerund of) iotacized verbs; verbs switching from one class to another (examples abound); class-switching adjectives and the regularization of adjectival paradigms; determiner spreading (in Antim's sermons, the definite article enclicitizes both on the adjective and on the noun in modifier-modified sequences, as in Greek, but unlike modern Romanian); the distribution of clitics and auxiliaries; word-formation processes; morphological productivity; loan translations.

A strictly linguistic view does not suffice; given the topic, multidisciplinarity is a prerequisite. I expect recourse to theoretical and methodological tools belonging to areas such as diachronic linguistics, comparative philology, Byzantine studies, the history of the church.

Other articles by Ioana Costache:

Tracking the progress of a polarity shift in Romanian

The Ultimate Pledge: a diachronic view of performativity in Romanian legal documents

An insight into 18th century Romanian as illustrated in the sermons and correspondence of Antim Ivireanu, Metropolitan Bishop of Wallachia
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Fr Constantin Alecse
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[Fr Constantin Alecse]

St Anthimus the Georgian
Commemorated on September 27

Intrand pe unul din site-urile web ale crestinilor ortodocsi din America, am dat de aceasta biografie a Mitropolitului Antim Ivireanul. Didahiile lui sunt unul din marile monumente ale limbii noastre.

Saint Anthimus was born in Georgia, and his parents were called John and Mary. The child received the name Andrew in Baptism, and his parents raised him as an Orthodox Christian. Andrew was captured by Turks who invaded Georgia when he was young, and he was one of many who were made slaves in Constantinople. There he learned to speak Greek, Arabic, and Turkish, and also became skilled in woodcarving, embroidery, and painting. After a few years as a slave, Andrew escaped and fled to the Ecumenical Patriarchate for refuge. Around 1690, Andrew was invited to Wallachia by Prince Constantine Brancoveanu (August 16), who had heard of his talents. After a year or so, he became a monk and received the name Anthimus. Later, he was ordained to the holy priesthood. He was placed in charge of the royal print shop in Bucharest, and later set up a printing house in the Snagov Monastery.The monastery printed sixty-three books in Romanian, Greek, Arabic, and Georgian. St Anthimus was the author of thirty-eight of them. He was chosen to be the igumen of Snagov in 1696. The saint was consecrated as Bishop of Rimnicu-Vilcea in 1705, and three years later he was made Metropolitan of Wallachia. As Metropolitan, he established schools for poor children, and built churches and monasteries. Since he was a woodcarver, he used his talent to beautify many churches. St Anthimus was a zealous pastor who satisfied his flock's hunger for spiritual knowledge. Preaching in the Romanian language, he taught them the saving truths of Orthodoxy, and offered words of encouragement and consolation. His edifying books and sermons are part of the spiritual legacy of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Anthimus was arrested by the Turks in 1716 and sentenced to be exiled at St Catherine's Monastery on Mt. Sinai, but he never arrived at his destination. On September 27, 1716, he was killed by the soldiers who were escorting him. They cut his body into little pieces and threw them into the Tungia River, south of the Danube. Thus, the faithful servant of Christ received the crown of martyrdom. St Anthimus was a true shepherd of his flock, and a father to his clergy. He was glorified by the Orthodox Church of Romania in 1992.

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Fr Constantin Alecse
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