Anthimus of Iberia

Anthimus of Iberia (born c. 1660, Georgia—died 1716) was the 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 on ethics and asceticism.

Anthimus served as the superior of the Walachian monastery of Snagov, was later chosen bishop of Râmnic (1705), and in 1708 became metropolitan of Walachia. He headed the princely printing press in Bucharest and established presses at Râmnic and Snagov. 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 translated into Romanian (1697). A proponent of traditional Orthodoxy, he edited in 1699 the Orthodoxa Confessio Fidei (“The Orthodox Confession of Faith”) by the 17th-century Moldavian theologian Petro Mohyla. He gained fame as an orator and a preacher, and he translated into Romanian the Italian Fiore di virtù (“Flower of Virtue”; Eng. trans. The Florentine Fior di Virtu of 1491, 1953).

Anthimus wrote in Romanian the Didahii (“Sermons”), a 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 17th-century Romanian social life.

As an advocate of Walachian independence, Anthimus urged his ruler, Prince Constantin Brâncoveanu, 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 murdered, and his remains were scattered, probably in the Tundzha River. All Saints Monastery, which Anthimus built in Bucharest in 1715 while he was metropolitan of Walachia, was later named the Antim Monastery in his honour.