QUELQUES NOTES CONCERNANT LA CONTRIBUTION DE SAINT PAÏSSIOS VELICHKOVSKY ET DE SA COMMUNAUTÉ AU DÉVELOPPEMENT DES RELATIONS DES ROUMAINS AVEC LE MONT ATHOS
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONTRIBUTION OF SAINT PAISIUS VELICHKOVSKY AND HIS COMMUNITY TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF RELATIONS BETWEEN ROMANIANS AND MOUNT ATHOS

Summary/Abstract: This article comprises a few aspects concerning the role of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky, abbot of the Dragomirna, Secu, and Neamț monasteries in Moldavia, in the intensification, or rather the re-establishment, of relations between the Romanians and Mount Athos. This re-estab-lishment had many dimensions, to the extent that we can speak of an outpouring of Athonite spirituality into the monastic life of the Romanian Principalities. The primary receptacle and, later, the diffusion centre of this spirituality was the Neamț-Secu Monastery for nearly three generations, from the organisation of the Paisian monk community in the last three decades of the 18th century until its destruction in the seventh decade of the subsequent century. In this article, I focus on several smaller-scale aspects of the history of relations between the Romanian Principalities and Mount Athos, starting from the 15th century until the time when Saint Paisius Velichkovsky became the abbot of several Moldavian monasteries (the second half of the 18th century): the beginnings of Romanian monastic settlements on Mount Athos, the emergence of a new phenomenon in the 18th century, the organised pilgrimage to Mount Athos, which had previously been disorganised and random, and the establishment of sketes or “import” in Moldavia and Wallachia of monks from the large Paisian community of Neamț-Secu.

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