20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

196 Aurel Florin TuscanuPaisie’s “establishment”, formulated and renewed in its three stages:Dragomirna – Secu – Neamt, continues the traditional line. Looking backat the history of Neamt Monastery, we can notice that the vasilian principleshave always been respected and continued: the prayer was permanent inchurch and cells; work has never been ignored and because of it we havethe wonderful artistic elements of Gavriil Uric, Silvan, Nichifor and othersfrom the 15 th -16 th centuries and from those following: the readings of theHoly Scripture and of the Holy Fathers have been made with decent toil,and the care for those bodily and spiritually suffering has never been absent.The infirmary shop will have always been at Neamt. If we do not set fromanother date than 1734-1735 8 , when the Archbishop Varlaam of Radauti,with the prostration from Neamt, built a house for the infirmary, we findourselves before those build by Paisie.Through his settlement Paisie was not an “innovator” or “reformer”but a “reminder” of the great monachal principles of existence in a periodof monachal dullness. Through reminding and strengthening the freshauthority of the Holy Mountain, Paisie “managed the miracle of reawakeningthe monachal life that has maintained in our country for almost a century,through hierarchical personalities and through numerous monks from ourholy monasteries” 9 . In the short-written life of Paisie the Abbot, it is clearlyshown that “everything being made after the will of God and the decisionsof the Saints, among whom Saint Vasile was the first to really see a holylife, living after the rules of God, advising without stumble, leading tosalvation, in a short period many that have desired this life have strived,not only Moldavians, but all the surrounding faithful nations… all beingsons of obedience” 10 .Works of Saint Vasile the Great in the manuscripts from the libraryof Neamt Monastery. The period of literary-theological effervescencefrom the second half of the 18 th century from Neamt Monastery, a periodcharacterized by translations and multiplications by copying, reveals to us aspecial and somewhat accentuated preoccupation for some of the works ofSaint Vasile the Great. It is well-known that the background of manuscriptsof Neamt Monastery was far larger than that of the current background of8Manuscript no. 195, cyrilic, The Synodic of the Saint Neamt Monastery, inNeamt Monastery Library, f. 12 v .9Diac. I. Ivan (1957), The currency of the abbot Paisie Velicicovschi’s“establishment”, in M.M.S., XXXIII, no. 8-9, 610.10Gathering of words for those obbeying the many saints and holy fathers, forthose who would want to take care of their salvation. And the life of our devout priest,the abbot Paisie, together with some of his holiness. Printed for the first time in the holyNeamt Monastery in the year 1817, 315.