GB 7-12/2016

The Holy Hierarch Anthim Iberian is a holy hesychast and philocalic hierarch. He brought Byzantium to Wallachia and toiled to be appropriated by his believers. He sat, over the years, on the same throne of the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia, which was occupied by St. Niphon, patriarch of Constantinople and metropolitan of Wallachia. He is iconic, hesychast and philocalic like St. Simeon the New Theologian, like St. Gregory Palamas, Metropolitan of Thessalonica, like St. Callistus, patriarch of Constantinople and others. He is a philocalic hesychast in the city. He first sought the kingdom of God, found it, and all the rest was added to Him.

The pastoral letter speaks about the importance of religious education for Orthodox Christian youth, also mentioning the Meeting of Orthodox Young People from Worldwide, organized by the Romanian Patriarchate on September 1-4, 2016, in Bucharest, an event attended by 2,500 young people from Romania and different countries of the world. The second part is dedicated to Saint Anthim the Iberian, a personality with multiple gifts and special qualities: erudite theologian, expert in many foreign languages, eloquent speaker, creator of liturgical language and experienced printer, calligrapher, sculptor, architect and church founder. His most intense pastoral work consisted in printing liturgical books, textbooks addressed to the faithful people and their leaders, but also guidance books for priests.

The address of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel at the opening of the autumn Pastoral-Missionary Conference of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Bucharest, Patriarchate Palace, November 7, 2016. Anthim the Iberian found in Wallachia his family, house and spiritual flock, which he pastored with exemplary dedication, being a devoted confessor of the Orthodox Christian faith through his entire cultural and ecclesiastical activity carried out in the service of the Romanian nation. He printed the main liturgical books in Romanian, apologetic-polemical works for combating Catholic proselytise, but also valuable pastoral-missionary works for the clergy and the people.

The author discusses the hypothesis according to which Anthim the Iberian learned the craft of printing at Cetățuia Monastery, in Iași, from where he came to Wallachia, where there was already a printing house in Bucharest, founded in 1678 by Metropolitan Varlaam. Anthim’s typographic activity radically changed the way of the liturgical service in the Orthodox churches in the Romanian countries.

The text presents information in regard to the printing and publishing houses of the Romanian Orthodox Church after 1990, starting with the Printing House of Church Books (belonging to the Romanian Patriarchate) and the Publishing Houses of the Patriarchy and continuing with the diocesan publishing and printing houses.

The printing house from Bucharest of the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia had a special activity during the reigns of Șerban Cantacuzino (1678-1688) and Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688-1714), culminating with the period when Metropolitan Anthim the Iberian (1708-1716) was metropolitan, at the end of which the complete printing of the liturgical books in Romanian was delivered, during the first years of the 18th century.

This chapter presents the new book releases in the field of Theology. The volumes are edited by the publishing houses of the Romanian Patriarchate (Ed. Basilica, Ed. Trinitas, Ed. Institutului Biblic și de Misiune al Bisericii Ortodoxe Române), the publishing house of the Metropolis of Muntenia and Dobrogea (Ed. Cuvântul Vieții), and other publishing houses of the suffragan dioceses.