The mission of the Romanian Orthodoxy during the reign of Neagoe Basarab (1512-1521) Rev PhD Std Marian Bădulescu,1 Abstract: After 1453, the center of the Byzantine culture is preserved in Wallachia, where it takes place a similar phenomenon to the Western Renaissance. The Romanian Orthodoxy had in the person and in the work of the voivode Neagoe Basarab the main missionary exponent outside and inside the country. His main work, Teachings to his son Theodosius, follows the Byzantine tradition and it depicts the model of a prince called to incarnate the first Christian moral ideas, then the political ideal. Compared to similar works in the West, Neagoe's work is the proof that the medieval Romanian Orthodoxy has largely influenced the political thinking of the Romanian rulers in a profoundly human manner. Keywords: internal mission, external mission, Byzantium, Italian Renaissance, humanism, baroque, theological culture, ancient literature, Slavonic language, diplomatic relations, state-church relationship. The Romanians formed as a distinct people and civilization under the cultural and religious influence of Byzantium. The byzantine politics was one of cultural, linguistic, ethnic, racial tolerance under the umbrella of the Orthodox faith (an "Orthodox Commonwealth"). Following this model he managed to keep the Romanians as an oasis of Orthodox Latinity in a great glory. "Every race, which 1 Rev PhD Std Marian Bădulescu at St. „Andrei Şaguna” Orthodox Faculty of Teology from the University „Lucian Blaga” from Sibiu. Pr. Drd. Marian Bădulescu possesses its own customs and laws, it must be allowed to preserve its own characters," said Constantine the Porphyrogenetus in the 10th century.2 The Orthodox Church in the two Romanian provinces manifests during the Middle Ages "as a state church, official – an inheritance from Byzantium - having an important role in the political life of the country and guiding all the cultural and social-humanitarian activity, wrote pr. Prof. Mircea Păcurariu.3 After the fall of Constantinople (1453), the center of the Byzantine culture is preserved in Wallachia, where the Romanian voivodes will be the illuminated exponents of the spiritual synthesis between the East and the West. At European level, the 16th century marks the rise of the power of the national states and the diminution of the religious life, amid the abuses of the papal authority in the West. "A new nucleus is created, around which, due to the fact that Wallachia preserves a wide autonomy that allows it to have an uninterrupted state life, a new Orthodox order will be structured in the South-East. While the South-Danube world ... falls under the Turkish rule, here comes to life, on the brink of the modern times, a new energy that will, for hundreds of years, constitute the moral and the material center of all Orthodoxy in the South Eastern Europe and in the Near East, "wrote Dan Zamfirescu4. The point of reference and salvation in an age marked by dramatic events was the Orthodoxy, and within it the Tradition, adapted to the historical times. "Over time, there were times when the Orthodox people were deprived of a national state, but of the Church, never," wrote Georgios Mantzaridis.5 The Romanian Orthodoxy had in the person and the work of the voivode Neagoe Basarab the main missionary exponent outside the country and inside it, with influence among the boyars. The cultural and the religious personality of the Romanian ruler is no less than of his counterparts in the West and in the Orient, proving their equal by affirming his Orthodox identity.6 His main work, Teachings to his son Theodosius, is "one of the works that absorbs and elevates to the height 2 Nicolae Iorga, Sinteza bizantină, BPT Collection 685, Minerva, Bucharest, 1972, p. XIX and XXI. 3 Pr. prof. dr. Mircea Păcurariu, “Short History of the Romanian Orthodox Church”, in the volume ***, Orthodox Faith and Christian Life, Paper printed with the blessing of the Bishop Dr. Antonie Plămădeală, Metropolitan of Transylvania, Sibiu, 1992, p. 141. 4 Dan Zamfirescu, Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism in the specifics of their historical existence, Roza Vânturilor Publishing House, Bucharest, 1992, p. 106. 5 Georgios Mantzaridis, Globalization and Universality, Biziantina Publishing House, Bucharest, 2002, p. 75. 6 Dan Horia Mazilu, "A Dracula that the Occident missed", Floarea Darurilor Publishing House, Bucharest, 2001, p.135-141 200 The mission of the Romanian Orthodoxy in Neagoe Basarab’s epoch (1512-1521) of the masterpiece all the ideas, the trends and the spiritual directions of their time."7 The Slavonic church language has reached its stylistic boundaries in the Romanian cultural space through the political and the spiritual masterpiece of the ruler Neagoe Basarab. According to Prof. Dan Zamfirescu, the voivode of Vallachia imprinted to the Slavonic of the Teachings, "as over centuries Emil Cioran to the language of Voltaire, the vibrations, the swirls and the emotional charge of an unmistakable human nature: that defines the Romanian in the whole of humanity."8 What culture had the Wallachian voivode? The Historian P.P. Panaitescu believes that, being married to a Serbian woman, he knew Slavonic, and, as a spiritual son of the Patriarch Nifon of Constantinople, he had acquired the Greek language and culture, as well as the art of writing.9 His relationship with Nifon had spiritual and political support, because, being banished from Wallachia by Radu cel Mare, the patriarch was hagiographically rehabilitated during the reign of Neagoe Basarab. The Romanian Orthodoxy pointed the historical encounter between a distinguished personality of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the brightest exponent of the medieval Romanian cultural space10. Neagoe Basarab "had all the conditions for an education more than that of a prince", wrote Dan Zamfirescu,11 as the spiritual son of Patriarch Nifon, initiating in the mysteries of the Byzantine and hesychast theological culture.12 However, some contemporaries 7 Dan Zamfirescu, Neagoe Basarab and the Teachings to his son Theodosius. Controversial Issues, Minerva Publishing House, Bucharest, 1973, p. 87. 8 Dan Zamfirescu, The Great Book of the Romanian Identity in the Renaissance Europe and in the Universal Culture, in The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Theodosie, Facsimile edition based on the Only Manuscript Preserved, Transcription, Translation in Romanian and Introduction by Prof. Dr. G. Mihăilă, Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy, with a by Dan Zamfirescu, Roza Vânturilor, Bucharest, 1996, p. XVI. 9 D. P. Bogdan, "Old Romanian Literature", vol. I, Tineretului Publishing House, Bucharest, 1969, p.70-71, " Nifon drew close to them, feeding himself from the handicraft of the letter, as he was writing very well and beautifully." 10 Gavril Protul recorded the meeting between the two, around 1520, when, although Neagoe Basarab was sick, he met the relics of his mentor in Târgovişte; in The Life and Liveliness of His Holiness our father Nifon, patriarch of Tarigrad, who shone in ardors and temptations in Tarigrad and in Wallachia; at Dan Horia Mazilu, The Voivode Beyond ..., p. 558. 11Dan Zamfirescu, Neagoe Basarab…, p. 90-91 and 88. 12Nicolae Iorga, The teachings of Neagoe Voda (Basarab) to his son Theodosius, with a preface by N. Iorga, The Publishing House of the "Neamul Romanesc "Society, Vălenii de Munte, 1910, pp. V-VI "Neagoe, nephew of the Craioveşti ... has acquired in his youth the knowledge of the Slavonic language and literature. It is believed that he stayed with the scholar 201 Pr. Drd. Marian Bădulescu considered him more a military than a scholar. Of his complex temperament, Dan Zamfirescu states that "Neagoe had the Christian humility in prayers and the rule’s pride in action."13 The appearance in history of the ruler, "exemplary in all respects", was based on the establishment of privileged relations with the Church (the voivode being "the anointing of God") and on the "perceived intrusion inside the ideological system" in order to dominate it.14 The ruler's theological culture is far from being unilateral15. From the pages of the Teachings a layman is heard, not a hesychast monk. The ruler proves to be an informed Christian, not a practitioner of "the prayer of the heart"16. Among the Church Fathers preferred and studied by Neagoe Basarab are: Saints John Chrysostom, Ephrem the Syrian and John Climacus. Dan Zamfirescu notes fragments of the fragmentary hesychast literature that circulated in the epoch, specifying that the author used "first-hand information, essential texts, and not a narrow specialization in the ascetic readings."17 In 1510 he patronized the printing of the Slavonic Gospel of the hieromonk Macarie. The Voivode traveled to Constantinople and Transylvania, having Catholic sympathies, which is why he sent a message to Pope Leon X. 18Two foreigners were part of Neagoe Basarab's diplomatic apparatus. The doctor Jeronim Raguzan (Matievici) is sent to Venice to buy expensive things, the appreciation of which he enjoyed at the doge materializing in the awarding of a noble title (March 1518). The other messager, Antonie Policalas, is mentioned in the papal papers.19 Granting the "diploma of Aurata Knight" confirms the friendly monks of Bistrita ... more secure from the investigation and persecution of the enemies. ... So Neagoe came to know all the Scriptures, some of its Interpretations, some religious compilations, and a chronograph, which included the history of the pagan and Christian mankind ...and of the history of the Romanians, of the Byzantines, and of the Slav countries; it may even have found in his readings a treaty of tactics ... ". 13 Dan Zamfirescu, Neagoe Basarab …, p. 93. 14 Dan Horia Mazilu, The Voivode beyond the throne room. Scenes from his private life, Polirom, 2003, p. 523 15Antonie Plămădeală, "Theological Content of the Teaching of Neagoe Basarab", ST XXI (1969), no. 3-4, p. 245-262. 16 Idem, Teachers of Romanian consciousness and sensibility, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 1981, 40, note 96.