Cloud of Witnesses
Reviewed entry
Hierarch17th century

Saint Dositheus of Moldavia

1624-1693

Also known as Dosoftei · Dosoftei of Moldavia · Dimitrie Barilă

Metropolitan of Moldavia, scholar and translator who rendered the Psalter into Romanian verse and produced liturgical translations that helped establish Romanian as a liturgical language. He reposed in exile at Żółkiew in 1693.

December 13New Calendar
Feast Day
December 26Old Calendar
Suggest a correctionContribute
Hymn / ApolytikionTroparia & apolytikia to read and chantIcon galleryBrowse icons and imagery elsewhere
Commemorated as

Our Father among the Saints Dositheus (Dosoftei), Metropolitan of Moldavia

Life

Saint Dositheus of Moldavia, known in Romanian as Dosoftei, was a seventeenth-century hierarch, scholar, and translator who served as Metropolitan of Moldavia and is remembered above all for shaping Romanian into a language of worship and letters. Born Dimitrie Barilă at Suceava in 1624, he combined the duties of a bishop with sustained literary labour, producing the first Romanian Psalter in verse and a series of liturgical books printed at Iași.

His tenure unfolded against the political turbulence of a Moldavia caught between Ottoman and Polish power. Twice metropolitan and twice displaced, he ended his life in exile in Poland, where he died at Zhovkva in 1693. The Romanian Orthodox Church glorified him as a saint in 2005, recognising both his episcopal witness and his foundational contribution to Romanian religious culture.

Timeline8 momentsReadHide
  1. 1624Birth at SuceavaDimitrie Barilă is born on October 26, 1624, in Suceava, in the principality of Moldavia.
  2. 1648Monastic professionHe becomes a monk at Probota Monastery, having studied earlier at the Three Hierarchs ('Trei Ierarhi') Monastery school in Iași and at the Orthodox Brotherhood school in Lviv, where he acquired the humanities and several languages.
  3. 1658-1671Episcopal serviceHe serves as Bishop of Huși (1658-1660) and then Bishop of Roman (1660-1671).
  4. 1671-1686Metropolitan of MoldaviaHe is Metropolitan of Moldavia across two periods (1671-1674 and 1675-1686), the interruption reflecting the political upheavals of the Ottoman-Polish conflicts over Moldavia.
  5. 1673Psalter in verseHe publishes the Romanian metrical Psalter (Psaltirea in versuri), the work for which he is most celebrated and a landmark of early Romanian literature.
  6. 1686Exile to PolandFollowing the invasion of Moldavia by King John III Sobieski, he is taken into exile in Poland; the same campaign carried off the relics of Saint John the New of Suceava.
  7. 1693Repose at ZhovkvaHe dies on December 13, 1693, in exile at Zhovkva (Żółkiew) in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and is buried at the Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God there.
  8. 2005GlorificationThe Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church glorifies him as a saint, with the proclamation on October 14, 2005; his feast is kept on December 13.

Contributions & Legacy

2 contributionsReadHide

Scholar and Translator

Dositheus ranks among the most important Romanian scholars of the seventeenth century and is regarded as the first significant poet in the Romanian language. His Psalter in verse of 1673 rendered the biblical psalms into Romanian metrical poetry, an undertaking without real precedent in the language.

At Iași he restored the metropolitan printing-house and issued a sequence of liturgical books in Romanian: editions of the Divine Liturgy (Liturghier) in 1679 and 1683, a Psalter in 1680 with parallel Slavonic and Romanian text, and a Book of Prayers in 1681. Between 1682 and 1686 he worked on a Romanian collection of the lives of the saints, drawn from Greek and Slavonic sources, though this project remained unfinished. Through these translations the Romanian language came into liturgical use and developed substantially, so that he is counted among the founders of literary Romanian.

Exile and Final Years

Dositheus's episcopate coincided with the contest between the Ottoman Empire and Poland for influence over Moldavia, and his career was twice interrupted. The invasion led by King John III Sobieski in 1686 brought the plundering of Moldavian wealth, including the relics of Saint John the New of Suceava, and resulted in the metropolitan's removal to Poland.

He passed his remaining years in exile, ministering to the largely Ruthenian Orthodox population, and died at Zhovkva on December 13, 1693. He was buried at the local Church of the Nativity of the Mother of God.

Works & Further ReadingReadHide

Notable Works

Companions1 figureShowHide
The hermit of Bisericani whose relics he venerated.
Venerable Cyriacusof Bisericani
Related Saints2 saintsShowHide

Saints connected to his life, mission, and place in Orthodox tradition.

Contemporary hierarch who held the see of Moldavia in succession with Dositheus during the upheavals of the 1670s; later Metropolitan and hieromartyr.
Saint Theodosiusof Brazi
Whom, by the Orthodox account, he consecrated to the episcopate in 1690.
Saint Josephthe Confessor of Maramures

Browse similar saints by calling and place.

More Theologians71More Romania81More Ottoman-Era Saints136More Writers202More Balkans237More Hierarchs580
Sources: Synaxar of the Romanian Saints (sfintiromani.ro); Doxologia (doxologia.ro); Romanian Orthodox Church canonization (2005)