Matei Basarab | Martyria

Studia Humanitatis No. II (XX) / 2025 From the former library of Ghenadie Enăceanu, Bishop of Râmnic: Charters issued by the rulers of Wallachia in the 17th century and decorated with miniatures Dr. Oana-Mădălina Popescu

The study presents historical documents from the collection of the scholar-bishop Ghenadie Enăceanu, held at the Library of the Romanian Academy, with a focus on charters adorned with miniatures issued by Matei Basarab, Grigorie I Ghica, Radu Leon, Gheorghe Duca and Constantin Brâncoveanu in the 17th century. The analysis combines the legal and socio-economic content of the documents with an examination of their miniature decoration — plant, zoomorphic and iconographic motifs, as well as votive portraits — highlighting the links between chancery art and the miniatures found in religious manuscripts from Wallachia.

Via Peregrina No. II (XVI) / 2023 Bethlehem – The House of Bread Theodora Videscu

Bethlehem, the city of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ, is presented through its holy sites: the Basilica of the Nativity, founded by Empress Helena and Constantine the Great in 325; the Grotto of the Nativity with its silver star commissioned by Constantine Brâncoveanu; the icon of the Mother of God ‘Bethleemissa’, the Cave of St Jerome, as well as the neighbouring settlements of Beit Sahour and Al Khader.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (XV) / 2023 Cetățuia Hermitage, a Bessarabian foundation set to be revived Prof. Dr. Florin Epure

The Cetățuia Hermitage, north of Râmnicu Vâlcea, possibly founded by Bessarabian patrons in the 15th–16th centuries, is examined from archaeological, historical and monastic perspectives, with a focus on the controversial site of the assassination of Voivode Radu of Afumați and his son Vlad in 1529, as well as on the stages of the monastery’s foundation and restoration, from Metropolitan Teodosie (1680) to the fresco painted by Gheorghe Tattarescu in 1854.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (XIII) / 2022 The ‘Saint Procopius’ Hermitage in Bistrița – Vâlcea Archimandrite Veniamin Micle

The article investigates the veneration of Saint Procopius the Great Martyr in medieval Wallachia and Moldova, focusing on churches and monasteries founded by Romanian voivodes — including Stephen the Great and Basarab I — following military victories. Central to the study is the identification of the Battle of Posada (1330) site with the Bistrița Gorge in Vâlcea, supported by Hungarian chronicles, diplomatic documents, and the existence of a hermitage dedicated to Saint Procopius founded there before Bistrița Monastery.

Studia Humanitatis No. II (XII) / 2021 ‘The great legacy of his achievements and lineage’. Historical notes on Brâncoveanu art Academician, University Professor, Dr Răzvan Theodorescu

The narthex of the great church at Hurezi houses a gallery of nearly thirty portraits — the Cantacuzinos, the Brâncoveni, and the Bessarabian princes from Laiotă and Neagoe right up to Șerban Cantacuzino — through which Constantin Brâncoveanu visually legitimised his dual dynastic lineage: his paternal Bessarabian and his maternal Cantacuzino-Byzantine lineages. The same Baroque-inspired historicism can be found in the votive paintings from Târgoviște, in the portraits from Mogoșoaia and in the prints of the period, marking the beginnings of the historicist mindset of modern Romanian civilisation.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (XI) / 2021 Bishop Filaret’s stone fountain (1784) Prof. Dr. Florin Epure

The stone fountain commissioned by Bishop Filaret of Râmnic on 1 September 1784, on the banks of the River Olt, near the ford at Goranu, is examined from a historical, artistic and documentary perspective, with reference to the inscription in verse, the hierarch’s scholarly work and the vicissitudes of the monument, which was finally restored by His Eminence Varsanufie in 2015.

Studia Humanitatis No. II (VI) / 2018 Bishop Teofil, a distinguished hierarch of the Church of Vâlcea (II) Rev. Dr. Laurențiu Rădoi

Metropolitan Teofil of Wallachia (†1648), Bishop of Râmnic and later Metropolitan during the reign of Matei Basarab, was a key champion of Romanian culture and language within the Church, supporting Mihail Moxalie’s translations and publications in Romanian, such as the Pravila de la Govora (1640) and the Evanghelia învățătoare (1644), and is regarded as one of the founders of the Romanian liturgical language.

Studia Theologica No. I (V) / 2018 Iconographic miniatures on documents from Wallachia, 17th–19th centuries Dr. Oana-Mădălina Popescu

Princely charters from Wallachia adorned with iconographic miniatures of saints — issued between 1614 and 1819 by rulers such as Radu Mihnea, Matei Basarab, Alexandru Moruzi and Manuil Ruset — are examined here as official historical documents whose artistic form and textual content must be read together. The study identifies the patron saints depicted, the monasteries and institutions benefiting from the grants, and the Byzantine pictorial conventions followed, revealing a Christian conception of princely governance that persisted through the Phanariot period.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (V) / 2018 Bishop Theophilus of Râmnic, a distinguished hierarch of the Church of Vâlcea (I) Rev. Dr. Laurențiu Rădoi

Bishop Teofil II of Râmnic (c. late 16th century – 1637) is portrayed as a leading figure in Romanian Orthodox monasticism during the first half of the 17th century: a former abbot of Bistrița Monastery, hierarch of the diocese on the right bank of the Olt, and an active participant in the diplomatic and synodal life of Wallachia, he campaigned for the introduction of the Romanian language into church services and supported the consolidation of ecclesiastical properties, leaving numerous documentary traces in the charters of the time.

Studia Humanitatis No. I (V) / 2018 The Fourth Renaissance of the Romanian Tabor Dinu Săraru

Arnota Monastery, founded in 1633 by Matei Basarab and hailed as the ‘Mount Tabor of Romanian Orthodoxy’, has undergone four phases of revival, the most recent of which began in January 2018 on the initiative of the abbess, Mother Stavroforă Ambrozia Rucăreanu, as part of a major restoration project coordinated by the architect Aurel Botez. The restoration work aims to uncover and restore the architectural ensemble to its former glory, linking this endeavour to the continuity of a great tradition of church-building embodied by Voivode Matei Basarab, the founder, amongst other things, of the Pravila of Govora.