Conversions to Orthodoxy

Aria said:

Dear James,

Who is the saint in your avatar Icon - I wish the avatars were a tad bigger.

YSIC,
Elizabeth

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Elizabeth,

I wish the avatars were a little bigger too, then I wouldn't have had to have squished the image to get it to fit. If you hover over the avatar, the name will appear as a tooltip, but I don't guess that will help too much.

His name in English is Stephen the Great and he was Voievod (sort of like Prince, but there's no direct translation in English) of Moldova from 1457-1504. He was the cousin of Vlad Tepes (Voievod of Wallachia and inspiration for Dracula) and defended Moldova against the Ottoman Turks as well as Hungarian, Polish and Tartar invasions. He was a great defender of the Church and dedicated every battle to God, building a Church or monastery in thanks for every one of his nearly 50 victories. He was given the title 'Athlete of Christ' by the Pope (to my knowledge the only non-Catholic monarch to receive such a title, which goes to show how widely reknowned he was as a devout Christian) for his defence of Christendom but, after seeing the fall of Constantinople and the reluctance of western powers to aid either the Roman Empire or, later, Moldova from the muslims, told his son (on his death bed) to sue for peace with the Turks if they would guarantee religious freedom. This happened and Moldova became an independant suzerain state of the Ottoman Empire, retaining its Orthodox faith. His title in Romanian is 'Dreptcredinciosul Voievod Stefan cel Mare si Sfant', or 'The Right-Believing Prince Stephen the Great and Holy'.

His capital was in Suceava, close to where I worked in Romania and he is my son's patron saint (because I hope he will be inspired to defend his faith to the last also). He was officially glorified by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Church in 1992, along with his spiritual father, St. Daniel the Hesychast (Sf. Daniil Sihastru), who will be the patron saint of our next child (due on his feast day, 18th December) if it proves to be a boy.

Hope that helps.

James

Kolya said:

Now I've had my chips!
No offence meant James, just teasing a bit.
Thanks for your posts, and please keep 'em coming!

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Don't worry. I didn't take offence - I was just a little surprised someone might think Americans wouldn't understand the word flat.

James

jmbejdl said:

Elizabeth,

He was the cousin of Vlad Tepes (Voievod of Wallachia and inspiration for Dracula) and defended Moldova against the Ottoman Turks as well as Hungarian, Polish and Tartar invasions.

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Is it true what they say that Count Dracula was actually an Orthodox and a very good man who fought for Christianity, but the Roman Catholics altered his name and fame because of that?

I heard something like that from a friend but he couldnt remember the source he found it in.

Yiannis550 said:

Is it true what they say that Count Dracula was actually an Orthodox and a very good man who fought for Christianity, but the Roman Catholics altered his name and fame because of that?

I heard something like that from a friend but he couldnt remember the source he found it in.

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Well, all the misinformation about Vlad Tepes is one of my biggest bugbears as an amateur interested in Romanian history, so I'm only too happy to reply to this.

The first thing to note is that Vlad Tepes was a Voievod, not a count. This is roughly equivalent to a prince. He was also from Tara Romaneasca (Wallachia) and not Transylvania, though he did grow up in exile in Transylvania as did his cousin Stefan cel Mare, both being close to Iancu de Hunedoara (who the Hungarians call John Hunyadi but was Romanian and not Hungarian ethnically).

The next thing to note is that he was not called Dracula. His grandfather (also called Vlad) was given the title Dracul, which means the devil and has nothing to do with dragons (dragon in Romanian is balaur), because of his fighting like a devil against the Turks. Dracula is actually grammatically impossible in Romanian as it would be akin to saying 'the he/she devil'.

The vast majority of the stories upon which Bram Stoker based his fictional vampire were propaganda tales from the Saxons and Magyars who ruled Transylvania (he never actually went to Wallachia or he'd have heard quite different stories) who, being Roman Catholics, were not greatly in favour of an independent Orthodox Romanian state. In addition, his vampiric ideas seem to have been based on the story of the Magyar Countess Bathory who really did bathe in Transylvanian virgins' blood in order to keep herself young.

This is not to say that Vlad Tepes's cruel reputation is undeserved, but he was probably no worse than several other contemporary rulers in this regard. Unlike his cousin Stefan, Vlad wasn't a particularly devout Christian and I'd find it difficult to argue his Orthodoxy. At one point he made a politically motivated conversion to Roman Catholicism believing that this would result in western aid against the Turks. In actual fact, though, this never materialised and his only real ally remained Stefan cel Mare's Moldova. I believe that he later returned to the Orthodox faith and died Orthodox, though it's hard to find any good evidence for this.

Of course, Stefan was an equally staunch opponent of the Hungarian empire and won several victories against Matthias Corvinus, but he never was vilified to the extent Vlad Tepes was. It's probably harder to vilify someone who is not reknowned for cruelty and is reknowned as a pious Christian, particularly if you're a Roman Catholic when the Pope has named your enemy an 'Athlete of Christ'.

Vlad Tepes is considered a national hero in Romania, though he is by no means as well regarded as Stefan cel Mare (nobody is likely to start calling for his glorification). Both rulers are credited with turning fractious countries plagued by civil strife at the hands of the ambitious boieri (nobles) into strong countries that were able to halt the expansion of Islam into Europe. The results they achieved may have been similar but the way in which they achieved them, not to mention the two rulers' characters and faith, were not. Having said that, many Romanians look back on the rules of these two contemporary Voievods (and that of Iancu de Hunedoara in Transylvania) as the golden age of the Romanian principalities. Hope that helps.

James

Very interesting. Thanks James!

jmbejdl said:

Kolya et al,

Well, I will continue to use flat when speaking English - I may not be British ethnically, but I grew up here, so that's how I speak. Incidentally, even my Romanian wife says flat in English, despite the Romanian word being apartament. I wouldn't have thought it would actually cause confusion - if I had been talking about chips, though, there might be some scope for misunderstanding.

James

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Yeah, before I went to spain some years ago, I also would have had no idea what a flat was. We simply never use it in this context. It's either a shredded tire (or... tyre ) or an adjective but never an apartment. Now it's just like another word in my vocabulary. I like it becuase it's short.

Lorry (spelling?) is another one I would have NEVER understood. I would have said "who?", not "what?" lol. We just call it a truck and if we wish to be more specific, a semi.

I love semantic differences between the English-Speaking countries. It's just really fun.

John

His name in English is Stephen the Great and he was Voievod (sort of like Prince, but there's no direct translation in English) of Moldova from 1457-1504. He was the cousin of Vlad Tepes (Voievod of Wallachia and inspiration for Dracula) and defended Moldova against the Ottoman Turks as well as Hungarian, Polish and Tartar invasions. He was a great defender of the Church and dedicated every battle to God, building a Church or monastery in thanks for every one of his nearly 50 victories.

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I was told that to decide the location of the Church or Monastery he would shoot out an arrow and wherever it landed would be the site of the next location of the holy place. Is this true or just folklore?

He was given the title 'Athlete of Christ' by the Pope (to my knowledge the only non-Catholic monarch to receive such a title, which goes to show how widely reknowned he was as a devout Christian) for his defence of Christendom but, after seeing the fall of Constantinople and the reluctance of western powers to aid either the Roman Empire or, later, Moldova from the muslims, told his son (on his death bed) to sue for peace with the Turks if they would guarantee religious freedom. This happened and Moldova became an independant suzerain state of the Ottoman Empire, retaining its Orthodox faith. His title in Romanian is 'Dreptcredinciosul Voievod Stefan cel Mare si Sfant', or 'The Right-Believing Prince Stephen the Great and Holy'.

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Cool. All I knew was that he was the most important national hero and Saint of Romania (of course I did stay in Suceava for half the time and then just a little ways a way in Iasi so perhaps the excitement about this Saint is more pronounced there. I actually saw where he was buried.

His capital was in Suceava, close to where I worked in Romania and he is my son's patron saint (because I hope he will be inspired to defend his faith to the last also). He was officially glorified by the Holy Synod of the Romanian Church in 1992,

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I hadn't realized that he was so recently glorified. The people must have been treating him like a saint for generations though, it would seem. But I don't know. Was this so?

along with his spiritual father, St. Daniel the Hesychast (Sf. Daniil Sihastru), who will be the patron saint of our next child (due on his feast day, 18th December) if it proves to be a boy.

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You could always name the baby Danielle or Daniela if it's a girl.

Hope that helps.

James

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Yeah, and I didn't even know I needed the help! lol Thanks for the interesting info!

John

I've always loved reading, and I remember as a child reading some British-English novels, and having to figure out from context what "lorries", "petrol" (not too hard), "flat", "tarmack", "wireless", etc. meant. It was a good education!

I still don't know what "plasticene" is, exactly. Would anybody like to enlighten me?

Mary

what's wireless? i suppose I think of a cordless phone or simply a cellphone (since thats what we sometimes call them here).

John

Wireless = radio

ah... very interesting.

Plasticine--Modeling clay, the kind which was used in Wallace and Gromit shorts.

And plasters are bandaids!

choirfiend said:

And plasters are bandaids!

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Yeah, that's another one I remember coming across in an Agatha Christie novel. I think she called them "sticking plasters". Took me awhile to figure that one out.

And thanks for the "plasticene" explanation. I thought it was some form of plastic. I would never have come up with modeling clay!

Mary

Wallace and Gromit

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By the way, they're coming out with a movie!!!!!

Mary of Bethany said:

Yeah, that's another one I remember coming across in an Agatha Christie novel. I think she called them "sticking plasters". Took me awhile to figure that one out.

And thanks for the "plasticene" explanation. I thought it was some form of plastic. I would never have come up with modeling clay!

Mary

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John and Mary,
I think we should start an American/British dictionary sticky here, since we seem to have a good trans-Atlantic dialogue going. We British/Commonwealth guys understand "American" English because of Hollywood and books and CNN, but I think you Americans have a tougher time understanding us. That was why I threw in the 'Flat' post.

Good idea, kolya. I came across another one last night - hosepipe. I suppose it;s just what we would call a (garden) hose, as it was referring to a ban on watering lawns, but I'd never seen it used before.

Hosepipe = Garden hose (for watering). Yes, that is our common name for it.
Maybe we should speak to Erwin about this to make it common thread for all groups.
There is a similar thread about this at the moment in the CF suggetions forum called 'Isn't Erwin Australian'.

Even the British spelling can drive one batty.

Practising, for example

I find myself getting royally confused over how to spell words once I read a British publication.

Are the Harry Potter books published in American or British English or both?

I don't have the time to read novels since I'm preparing for the GRE and getting ready for the Master's program.

The Harry Potter books have American and English editions... a lot of the English slang is kept in American editions but some things that would be completely unintelligible to Americans are changed.

In IC XC,
Marjorie