ANTHIMUS OF IBERIA,

Romanian Antim Ivireanul died 1716, probably Rumelia 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. The superior of the Walachian monastery of Snagov, he was later chosen bishop of Ramnic and in 1708 became metropolitan of all of Walachia. Famed for his precise typography and artistic frontispieces, usually with floral designs, Anthimus produced a wealth of material in Romanian and Greek, including the New Testament Gospels (1693), which he also translated in a Romanian version in 1697. Desiring to give his people a guide for a Christian life, he compiled the Margaritare (Pearls), an anthology of the moral and ascetic letters of the 4th-century Greek church father St. John Chrysostom. A proponent of traditional Orthodoxy, he edited in 1699 the Orthodoxa Confessio Fidei (The Orthodox Confession of Faith) by the 17th-century Ukrainian theologian Peter Moghila. In addition to his own sermons, Anthimus also wrote in Romanian the Didahii (Teachings), a two-volume collection of moral exhortations containing historically important descriptions critical of the luxurious life of the Walachian boyars (aristocracy). The Didahii also is a unique source document on 18th-century Balkan social life. As an advocate of Walachian nationalism, Anthimus urged his ruler, Prince Constantin Brncoveanu, to assist the Russian tsar Peter I the Great in his unsuccessful campaign of 1711 against the Turks. When war broke out between Austria and Turkey in 1716, the Greek administrator for the Turkish regime of Walachia, Nikolaos Mavrokordatos, ordered Anthimus returned to Constantinople under guard. During the journey he was executed by drowning, probably in the Tundzha River. The Antim monastery was erected in Bucharest as a memorial to Anthimus.