Mitropolitul Grigorie Roșca – ctitor/autor al programului iconografic al bisericilor pictate din nordul Moldovei
Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca – Author of the Iconographic Program of the Painted Churches in Northern Moldavia

Summary/Abstract: Grigorie Roșca, Metropolitan of Moldavia (1546-1551), is mentioned in writings about the important personalities and events in the history of Moldavia: Saint Daniel the Hermit; the changing of the Probota Monastery into a voievodal necropole; the embellishment with exterior painting of the churches built in the 16th century Moldavia, especially the Probota and Voroneț. Grigorie Roșca was born in 1478, in the region of Târgul Hârlău, the village of Roșca, in a family of pious and wealthy people. By his father, he was a descendent of the boyard Bârlă family of Hârlău; by his mother, he was related to voievode Petru Rareș and with Saint Daniel the Hermit.Four periods are to be distinguished in the life and activity of the Hierarch: 1488–1523, the period of his training at the Voroneț Monastery; 1523–1546: the years when he distinguished himself as Father Superior of the Probota Monastery; 1546–1551: the period when he was Metropolitan of Moldavia; 1551-1570: the years following his coming back to Voroneț Monastery. Beside his activities concerning the welfare of the Moldavian Church, Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca continued to keep an eye on Probota and focused his efforts on the Monastery of Voroneț: in 1547, he built a closed porch with two external buttresses at the ”Saint George” Church and decorated it with exterior fresco. Under his metropolitan authority, several books were written (at Voroneț, there have been preserved the Codex and the Psalter of Voroneț, Romanian translations of the Holy Bible) and it is highly probable that a ”school” of book writing in Paleoslavonic and Romanian came into being at the Monastery of Voroneț. Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca was to play the main role in establishing the ”worship of Saint Daniel the Hermit” throughout Moldavia. He had the portrait of the Saint painted with a holy halo, under the name of ”Saint Daniel”, in the porch and on the southern facade of the Voroneţ Monastery, as well as on the cover of the ”Tetraevanghel” (the Four Gospels), offered as a gift to the Monastry of Voroneţ, in 1550. The essential contribution made by Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca to the accomplishment of the iconographic program of the painted churches in Northern Moldavia is embodied in a series of deeds, ideas, views, interferences and arguments. What is quite astonishing about it is the matchless scope of this unique enterprise. The range of churches with exterior painting covers a decade and a half: Probota (1532), St. George-Suceava (1534), Humor (1535), Moldovița (1537), Baia (1535-1538), Bălinești (1535-1538), Coșula (1536-1538), St. Dumitru-Suceava (1537-1538), Arbore (1541). With the painting at the Monastery of Voroneț (1547), the activity of a generation of exterior-wall painters came to an end. Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca may be considered the author of the iconographic program of the new Probota church, as well as of the whole series of churches with exterior painting in Northern Moldavia. Moreover, he is praised for his decisive contribution to the training of a renowned school of Moldavian wall painters, as there had not been before, in the whole country. Therefore, it is but fair to reconsider the prominent role played by Metropolitan Grigorie Roșca in the accomplishment of the world miracle which is the exterior iconography of the 16th century churches in northern Moldavia.

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