20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

The contributions of the Aromanian scholars... 849“Nicodim was born in Macedonia, near Prilep, a village inhabited bymany Aromanians and because Nicodim was half ‛Greek’ half ‛Slav’ – hewas more hierarchically dependent to the Orthodox Church than to hiscountry – visiting the mountain of Athos he was drawn to our country, notonly by the perils of the nearby Turkish dominion but maybe by some raceconnections. 5Ion Arginteanu, another historian preoccupied with the study ofBalkanian Vlachs, stated that Nicodim was Vlach by origin, bringing asa strong convincing reason the fact that the village Prilep in Macedoniawas Nicodim’s place of birth, where” there never lived Greeks but theRomanians called themselves Greeks”. 6Other investigations made by the historian support these assumptions.In his work “The history of Romanians told by travelers” (1981, Bucharest:Eminescu Printing, 82), Nicolae Iorga who was studying the regions ofOrhida and Prilep, states that in the year 1340, these two regions made up aprincipality during the reign of Stephan Duşan, principality that was ruleda Vlach named Balica and that declared itself independent after the deathof Stephan Duşan. Vlachs were also mentioned in a charter given to thechurch of “Saints Michael and Gabriel” from Prinzren, by Stephan Dusanin 1348.This information regarding Nicodim’s place of birth was confutedby Serbian historians who claimed that Prilep is actually a village nearKosovo, 5 km from the Visoki Dechani, built by Ştefan Duşan, the mainchurch of Dechani monastery which is today a UNESCO World HeritageSite and the Ipek Patriarchate. 7The arguments concerning this matter are much more well betterresearched today, but they do not change the hypothesis regarding Nicodim’svlachian origin. Most of the Serbian and Romanian historic documentsconnect Nicodim with cneaz Lazăr from the Duşanilor family.In his History of the Romanian Orthodox Church (1980, volume 1,Bucharest, 288), Father Mircea Păcurariu, Ph.D claimes that “He was ofromanian origin, from the south of Danube, kindred to the Serbian despotLazarus and to the Romanian ruler Nicolae Alexandru Basarab”.Being a scholar, hesychast and theologist, Nicodim was incorrespondence with many theologists. From his correspondences the5Iorga, Nicolae 1937, Histoire des Roumains et de la romanité orientale, Bucharest:Imprimerie d’Etat, 80.6Arginteanu, I. 1904, Istoria românilor macedoneni din cele mai vechi timpuripână în zilele noastre, Bucharest, 23.7See also: www.manastireatismana.ro/2006/prilep.htm