Gavril Banulescu-Bodoni
Encyclopedia
Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni (1746 – March 30, 1821) was a Romanian
clergyman who served as Metropolitan
of Moldavia
(1792), Metropolitan of Kherson
and Crimea
(1793–1799), Metropolitan of Kiev
and Halych
(1799–1803), Exarch
of Moldo-Wallachia
(1806–1812), and Metropolitan of Chişinău
(1812–1821), being the first head of the church in Bessarabia
after the Russian annexation.
, Transylvania
to a family originating from Câmpulung
, Bukovina
, Bănulescu studied at the Kiev Theological Academy (1771–1773), then at the Greek-language academy in the Island of Patmos
, Smyrna
and the Athonite Academy
in Vatopedi
(1773–1786). At Patmos, he befriended Nikephoros Theotokis
, a Greek cleric and enlightenment figure, with whom he taught at the Princely Academy of Iaşi in 1776.
In 1779 he became a monk in Constantinople
, then continued his studies in Patmos
, returning to Moldavia in 1781 to be a preacher at the Metropolitan cathedral. Then, between 1782–1784, he taught philosophy and Greek language in Poltava
, then in the Russian Empire
.
, then moved to the diocese of Huşi
. In 1874 he was nominated to become a bishop of Roman, but the phanariote ruler declined his nomination. After the second Russo-Turkish War began, he fled to Ukraine, together with the phanariot ruler of Moldavia, Alexandru Mavrocordat Firaris. In Imperial Russia, he became the rector of the Poltava Seminary.
In 1789, as Russians occupied the Danubian Principalities, Catherine II of Russia
and the Holy Synod appointed Archbishop Amvrosii Serebrennikov of Ekaterinoslav to be the locum tenens Exarch of Moldo-Wallachia, naming in 1791 Bănulescu-Bodoni bishop of Cetatea Albă. The Treaty of Iaşi ended the military occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia, but prior to the Russian retreat, in February 1792, Amvrosii appointed Bănulescu-Bodoni the Metropolitan of Moldavia.
Patriarch Neophytus VII saw the appointment a challenge to the authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and requested to the new Phanariot hospodar, Alexander Mourousis
to demand Bănulescu-Bodoni's departure. Bănulescu-Bodoni refused to leave without a Russian imperial decree. The patriarch convened with local bishops to declare his seat vacant and to select a new Metropolitan.
Neophytus VII also obtained an order from the Sultan to arrest Bănulescu-Bodoni, who was taken to Constantinople in June 1792. The Patriarch tried to give him a bishop seat in Greece, but Bănulescu-Bodoni refused to give up his Russian citizenship. He was freed after the intervention of Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Falling ill, Bănulescu settled to Odessa
and Dubăsari
, where he stayed until 1806, when he following the Russo-Turk War, the Russian Army occupied again the Principalities and he was once again named Exarch of Moldo-Wallachia. The Russian annexation of Bessarabia was acknowledged by the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Bucharest
and Bănulescu was named in charge with organizing the archdiocese of Bessarabia.
His proposal of the creation of a new eparchy was approved by Tsar Alexander I of Russia
, whose ukaz of August 21, 1813 created a new "Archbishopry of Chişinău and Hotin", which included Bessarabia and the Kherson
gubernya, including the cities of Odessa
, Tiraspol
, Ananiev and Elisabetgrad. The tsar allowed the eparchy to organize itself according to "local customs".
The local boyars, led by Bănulescu-Bodoni, petitioned for self-rule and the establishment of a civil government based on the Moldavian traditional laws. In 1818, a special autonomous region was created, which had both Moldovan and Russian as languages used in the local administration.
In 1813, Bănulescu-Bodoni founded a Romanian-language seminary
and in 1814, a printing press
. He also oversaw the building of the Chişinău Metropolitan Church (1817) and of the Soborul Cathedral. A Romanian translation of the New Testament
was published in 1817 and the whole Bible in 1819 in Petrograd.
Bănulescu died in 1821, and was buried at the Căpriana Monastery
.
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
clergyman who served as Metropolitan
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
of Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
(1792), Metropolitan of Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
and Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
(1793–1799), Metropolitan of Kiev
Kiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
and Halych
Halych
Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
(1799–1803), Exarch
Exarch
In the Byzantine Empire, an exarch was governor with extended authority of a province at some remove from the capital Constantinople. The prevailing situation frequently involved him in military operations....
of Moldo-Wallachia
Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common...
(1806–1812), and Metropolitan of Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
(1812–1821), being the first head of the church in Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
after the Russian annexation.
Early life
Born in BistrițaBistrita
Bistrița is the capital city of Bistriţa-Năsăud County, Transylvania, Romania. It is situated on the Bistriţa River. The city has a population of approximately 80,000 inhabitants, and it administers six villages: Ghinda, Sărata, Sigmir, Slătiniţa, Unirea and Viişoara.-History:The earliest sign of...
, Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
to a family originating from Câmpulung
Câmpulung Moldovenesc
Câmpulung Moldovenesc is a city located in Suceava County, which is in the historical Bukovina region of Moldavia in North Eastern Romania...
, Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
, Bănulescu studied at the Kiev Theological Academy (1771–1773), then at the Greek-language academy in the Island of Patmos
Patmos
Patmos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. One of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, it has a population of 2,984 and an area of . The highest point is Profitis Ilias, 269 meters above sea level. The Municipality of Patmos, which includes the offshore islands of Arkoi ,...
, Smyrna
Smyrna
Smyrna was an ancient city located at a central and strategic point on the Aegean coast of Anatolia. Thanks to its advantageous port conditions, its ease of defence and its good inland connections, Smyrna rose to prominence. The ancient city is located at two sites within modern İzmir, Turkey...
and the Athonite Academy
Athonite Academy
The Athonite or Athonias Academy is a Greek Orthodox educational institution founded at 1749 in Mount Athos, then in the Ottoman Empire and now in Greece. The school offered high level education, where ancient philosophy and modern physical science were taught...
in Vatopedi
Vatopedi
The Holy and Great Monastery of Vatopedi on Mount Athos, Greece, was built during the second half of the 10th century by three monks, Athanasius, Nicholas, and Antonius, from Adrianople, who were disciples of Athanasius the Athonite...
(1773–1786). At Patmos, he befriended Nikephoros Theotokis
Nikephoros Theotokis
Nikephoros Theotokis or Nikiforos Theotokis was a Greek scholar and theologian, who became an archbishop in the southern provinces of the Russian Empire...
, a Greek cleric and enlightenment figure, with whom he taught at the Princely Academy of Iaşi in 1776.
In 1779 he became a monk in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
, then continued his studies in Patmos
Patmos
Patmos is a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea. One of the northernmost islands of the Dodecanese complex, it has a population of 2,984 and an area of . The highest point is Profitis Ilias, 269 meters above sea level. The Municipality of Patmos, which includes the offshore islands of Arkoi ,...
, returning to Moldavia in 1781 to be a preacher at the Metropolitan cathedral. Then, between 1782–1784, he taught philosophy and Greek language in Poltava
Poltava
Poltava is a city in located on the Vorskla River in central Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Poltava Oblast , as well as the surrounding Poltava Raion of the oblast. Poltava's estimated population is 298,652 ....
, then in the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
.
Clergyman in Moldavia
In 1784, Bănulescu-Bodoni returned to Iaşi to serve under Metropolitan Gavriil CallimachiGavriil Callimachi
Gavriil Callimachi was a monk at Putna Monastery who rose eventually to the position of Metropolitan of Moldavia. He was born Gheorghe Călmaşul, son of the Câmpulung headman, Teodor Călmaşul, and younger brother of Ioan Teodor Callimachi, Prince of Moldavia from 1758 to 1761.Gheorghe Callimachi...
, then moved to the diocese of Huşi
Husi
Huși is a city in Vaslui County, Romania, former capital of the disbanded Fălciu County in the historical region of Moldavia, Romanian Orthodox episcopal see, and home of some of the best vineyards of Romania. The city is located on a branch of the Iaşi-Galaţi railway, nine miles west of the Prut...
. In 1874 he was nominated to become a bishop of Roman, but the phanariote ruler declined his nomination. After the second Russo-Turkish War began, he fled to Ukraine, together with the phanariot ruler of Moldavia, Alexandru Mavrocordat Firaris. In Imperial Russia, he became the rector of the Poltava Seminary.
In 1789, as Russians occupied the Danubian Principalities, Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II of Russia
Catherine II, also known as Catherine the Great , Empress of Russia, was born in Stettin, Pomerania, Prussia on as Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg...
and the Holy Synod appointed Archbishop Amvrosii Serebrennikov of Ekaterinoslav to be the locum tenens Exarch of Moldo-Wallachia, naming in 1791 Bănulescu-Bodoni bishop of Cetatea Albă. The Treaty of Iaşi ended the military occupation of Wallachia and Moldavia, but prior to the Russian retreat, in February 1792, Amvrosii appointed Bănulescu-Bodoni the Metropolitan of Moldavia.
Patriarch Neophytus VII saw the appointment a challenge to the authority of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and requested to the new Phanariot hospodar, Alexander Mourousis
Alexander Mourousis
Alexander Mourousis was a Great Dragoman of the Ottoman Empire who served as Prince of Moldavia and Prince of Wallachia. Open to Enlightenment ideas, and noted for his interest in hydrological engineering, Mourousis was forced to deal with the intrusions of Osman Pazvantoğlu's rebellious troops...
to demand Bănulescu-Bodoni's departure. Bănulescu-Bodoni refused to leave without a Russian imperial decree. The patriarch convened with local bishops to declare his seat vacant and to select a new Metropolitan.
Neophytus VII also obtained an order from the Sultan to arrest Bănulescu-Bodoni, who was taken to Constantinople in June 1792. The Patriarch tried to give him a bishop seat in Greece, but Bănulescu-Bodoni refused to give up his Russian citizenship. He was freed after the intervention of Viktor Pavlovich Kochubey, the Russian ambassador to the Ottoman Empire.
Clergyman in Imperial Russia
Bănulescu-Bodoni returned to Russia to become Metropolitan of Kherson and Crimea (1793–1799), then Metropolitan of Kiev and Halich (1799–1803) and in 1801, a member of the Holy Synod of Petrograd.Falling ill, Bănulescu settled to Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
and Dubăsari
Dubasari
Dubăsari is a city in Transnistria, with a population of 23,650. The city is under the administration of the breakaway government of the "Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", and functions as the seat of the Dubăsari sub-district, Transnistria, Moldova.-Name:The origin of the town name is the plural...
, where he stayed until 1806, when he following the Russo-Turk War, the Russian Army occupied again the Principalities and he was once again named Exarch of Moldo-Wallachia. The Russian annexation of Bessarabia was acknowledged by the Ottoman Empire in the Treaty of Bucharest
Treaty of Bucharest
Five peace treaties were signed in Bucharest:# Treaty of Bucharest - May 28, 1812, at the end of the Russo-Turkish war, Turkey cedes Bessarabia to Russia# Treaty of Bucharest - March 3, 1886, at the end of the Serbo-Bulgarian War...
and Bănulescu was named in charge with organizing the archdiocese of Bessarabia.
His proposal of the creation of a new eparchy was approved by Tsar Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia
Alexander I of Russia , served as Emperor of Russia from 23 March 1801 to 1 December 1825 and the first Russian King of Poland from 1815 to 1825. He was also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania....
, whose ukaz of August 21, 1813 created a new "Archbishopry of Chişinău and Hotin", which included Bessarabia and the Kherson
Kherson
Kherson is a city in southern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Kherson Oblast , and is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast. Kherson is an important port on the Black Sea and Dnieper River, and the home of a major ship-building industry...
gubernya, including the cities of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
, Ananiev and Elisabetgrad. The tsar allowed the eparchy to organize itself according to "local customs".
The local boyars, led by Bănulescu-Bodoni, petitioned for self-rule and the establishment of a civil government based on the Moldavian traditional laws. In 1818, a special autonomous region was created, which had both Moldovan and Russian as languages used in the local administration.
In 1813, Bănulescu-Bodoni founded a Romanian-language seminary
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
and in 1814, a printing press
Printing press
A printing press is a device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a print medium , thereby transferring the ink...
. He also oversaw the building of the Chişinău Metropolitan Church (1817) and of the Soborul Cathedral. A Romanian translation of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
was published in 1817 and the whole Bible in 1819 in Petrograd.
Bănulescu died in 1821, and was buried at the Căpriana Monastery
Capriana monastery
Căpriana monastery is a monastery in Căpriana, Moldova, located 40 km north-west of Chişinău, in a hilly land once called Codrii Lăpuşnei.- Overview :The first reference to the monastery dates from a document issued by Alexander the Good in 1429...
.