Antim Monastery Celebrated its Founder and Protector
Romanian Church
27/9/2011
Every year, on 27 September, Antim Monastery situated in the heart of Bucharest dresses feast clothes in order to celebrate its founder and protector, Saint Antim of Ivir. His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church, celebrated the Divine Liturgy on the occasion in the church monastery together with His Grace Ciprian Campineanul, Assistant Bishop to the Patriarch and His Grace Varsanufie Prahoveanul, Assistant Bishop to the Archdiocese of Bucharest, assisted by a group of priests and deacons, in the presence of hundreds of faithful.
His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel delivered a sermon during the Divine Liturgy in which he evoked the remarkable personality of the founder and protector of Antim Monastery: “Saint Hierarch Antim of Ivir is the greatest metropolitan of Wallachia of all times. This inhabitant of Ivir is a gift of God not only for Wallachia but also for all Orthodoxy. Saint Antim was born in 1650, in Ivir, today’s Georgia, to parents Ioan and Maria. He was taken prisoner when the Ottoman Turks invaded his country. In 1690, prince Constantine Brâncoveanu noticed him, due to his intelligence, skilfulness, piety and cleverness of mind. He brought him here and appointed him co-ordinator of the princely printing house. He printed several books in Bucharest, and then set up a personal printing house at Snagov Monastery where he printed books not only in Romanian, but also in Greek, Slavonic and Arabic. He sent a printing press and books printed in the Georgian language to his native country. This is why Saint Antim of Ivir is first of all a printer, scholar, a man who realised the importance of the printed word for the mission of the Church”, as Trinitas Radio station informs us. His Beatitude has also shown that the cultural – philanthropic activity of Saint Antim of Ivir is an example of Orthodox confession today: “We have an example of Orthodox brotherly love no matter the ethnic affiliation and so we see Saint Hierarch Antim of Ivir understood the universal character of Orthodoxy. He did not provincialize Orthodoxy. He was a patriot, not a selfish but a generous one, just like the majority of our Romanian princes who helped the entire Orient fallen under Ottoman rule.”
After the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude consecrated the new mosaic on the frontispiece of the church monastery, showing Saint Hierarch Antim of Ivir. The icon reproduces the portrait in fresco of the Saint from Govora Monastery in Vâlcea, county of Vâlcea. Antim Monastery was founded by the great hierarch Antim of Ivir and built, from 1713 – 1715, on the place of an old wooden church dedicated to “Saint Nicholas”, where the Holy Great Myrrh used to be kept. Ever since the beginning, Saint Hierarch Antim decided that the church monastery be dedicated to the “Sunday of All Saints”. Later on, as a result of the canonisation of the wise metropolitan, the monastery has also been dedicated to its founder, Saint Martyr and Hierarch Antim. From 1950 forward, the monastic complex of Antim became patriarchal chapel and Episcopal residence, a happy solution to avoid its demolition by the communist regime.
