CONSIDERAȚII DESPRE REFORMA LITURGICĂ ROMÂNEASCĂ DIN SEC. AL XVII-LEA: MOLITFELNICUL DE LA BĂLGRAD

Abstract

This paper discusses the place of the Romanian Euchologion printed in 1689 at Bălgrad (today Alba Iulia, Romania) in the liturgical reform of the Orthodox Church of Transylvania during the 17th c. The author aims to establish that the apparition of the Euchologion of Bălgrad was not only the product of Calvinist Reformation, which insisted on the translation of the liturgical orthodox texts into the vernacular language, but also the result of the liturgical reform undergone by the Orthodox Church of Wallachia. After a summary presentation of the context of liturgical reform in the Romanian Church during the 17th century, the author offers a brief comparison of the contents of the Euchologion of Bălgrad and the Slavonic Trebnik printed at Câmpulung (Wallachia) in 1635, which inaugurated the domination of the Ruthenian liturgical practice in the Church of Wallachia, as an effect of the church reform supported by Metropolitan Peter Mohyla of Kiev. The comparison led to the conclusion that the former was mostly a Romanian translation of the latter, with some adaptations, which reflect either local usages or changes caused by the dynamic of the liturgical practice. The apparition of the Euchologion of Bălgrad aimed the correction and standardization of the byzantine-slavic rite in Transylvania and the initiation of the faithful through the translation of euchological texts into the vernacular. Its large circulation through manuscript copies until the 19th century demonstrates the value of this book in the liturgical life of the Romanian Orthodox Church of Transylvania