Les « Sentences » des saints de la rangée inférrieure de la façade méridionale de l’église de l’Annonciation de la Vierge du monastère de Moldoviţa
The “Sentences” of the Saints in the Lower Row of the Façade of the Church of the Annunciation of the Virgin of the Monastery of Moldoviţa

Summary/Abstract: The holy monks (Desert Fathers, confessors, hermits, founders of institutions or monastic status etc.) occupy the lower row of the immense vision of the Triumphant Church which covers the eastern parts – including side apses – of the Moldavian’s churches facades with exterior painting. At the Annunciation of the Virgin’s church of Moldoviţa Monastery were preserved (in Slavonic language) “sentences” written on the scrolls of following holy monks: Theodore the Sanctified, Theodotus, Gelasius, Georges of Mt. Maléon, Domentian, John the Fool-for-Christ, Hilarion, Joasaph, Bessarion, Abraham, Paul of Thebes, Nikon, John of the Lavra of St. Sabbas, Gerasimos, Theophanes, Anthony, the Angel seen by Pachomius the Great, Luke the stylite and David Thessaloniki the hermit. The purpose of our research is to find the literary sources of these “sentences”. As we'll see below, most of them are borrow from the Scripture or from the collections gathering the “quotes” of the Holy Fathers. The collection called Palestinian Paterikon (translated from Greek into Russian by Theophan the Recluse) includes about 80% of “sayings” of the Holy Fathers painted at Moldoviţa. The presence in the paintings of monasteries Humor and Moldoviţa a number of “sayings” – which exists only in Russian translation in the text of this Paterikon – proves that in the 16th century in Moldavia existed some Slavonic-Bulgarian translations from Greek “collections of sayings” of the Holy Fathers – today lost or forgotten – many of which have been similar or identical to collections inspected and copied by Theophan the Recluse during his mission (from 1847 to 1853) at the Lavra of St. Sabbas in the Holy Land.

• Details
• Contents