Sauver l’héritage d’Euthyme de Tărnovo. Le patriarche Joseph II, la Moldavie et Zographou
Saving the legacy of Euthymius of Tărnovo. Patriarch Joseph II, Moldavia and Zographou

Summary/Abstract: In the present study, we aim to shed light on some aspects of the question of Bulgarian influence on the early Romanian culture, in a broader south-eastern European context. The promotion by emperor Manuel II of an ecumenical patriarch of Bulgarian origin, Joseph II (1416–1439), specifically to resolve the crisis of the appointment of a new metropolitan of Moldovalachia, seems to be decisive in this respect. The presence of Gregory Tzamblak in Moldavia during the translation of the relics of St. John the New explains this connection, before the crisis opened by his appointment in 1414 as metropolitan in Kiev by Grand Duke Vytold of Lithuania. In this context, a recently rediscovered document attests to the presence of a high-level Moldavian delegation at the monastery of Zographou in 1416, which obtained the transfer of the rights of ktitorate, formerly held by the imperial dynasty of the Assenids, to the benefit of the Moldavian prince Ioan Alexander (1400–1432). Moreover, the particular interest of this delegation in the tower of Selina, linked to the presence in Athos of Euthymius of Tărnovo, opens a new perspective on the Orthodox diffusion of the cult of this patriarch of Bulgarian letters, shortly after his death. This seems to explain the rapid production of manuscripts in Moldavia, the earliest of which date from 1418-1420, by the scribe Gabriel Uric, attesting the integral reproduction of the Great Menologion made by Euthymius of Tărnovo in eight volumes, presumably made on an Athonite archetype. This cultural transfer accomplished under the aegis of the new metropolitan Macarius of Moldovalachia appointed by Joseph II coincides with the reconciliation of the patriarchate with metropolitan Gregory Tzamblak before his mission to the Council of Constance (1418), confirmed by the Panegyric which attests to the official canonization of Euthymius of Tărnovo with the endorsement of the ecumenical patriarch. The role of Prince Ioan Alexander of Moldavia as middleman in this reconfiguration was rewarded by the title of tsar, of Bulgarian tradition, which began to be applied to him by Moldavian scholars.

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