AWB Blog Special Blog Items ASTROPoetry Blog For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (161): Inertia of Inertia (7)For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (161): Inertia of Inertia (7)
By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (text and photos) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)
- Published: Monday, November 30 -0001 00:00
AN INTERVIEW WITH SAINT ANTIM
Astro-photo-poem (cosmopoem) by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe
Antim Ivireanul was a martyr
who led the Wallachian-Romanian Church in the 1700s
and built a monastery in Bucharest,
where he and his team printed books
in all the languages of the Christian Orthodox territories
under Ottoman domination,
turning the city into
the spiritual center of Eastern Christianity
before he was assassinated for political reasons.
It is interesting that his blazon
(sculpted by himself at the entrance)
includes an enigmatic combination:
a snail under a star.
On June 24, 2020,
I visited his church
and I interviewed his spirit.
“Dear Saint Antim,
could you explain
the secret of your blazon, please?”
“No, I let you guess.” -
he said with a mysterious smile.
“OK,
your blazon
and the cosmic visions in your writings
(the “Didahii”)
show that you were also an
amateur (or even semi-professional) astronomer.
So… should I suppose that
the snail is a symbol of our galaxy,
the Milky Way?”
“As you wish!” -
he said with a galactic smile.
“I’m sure that you made your blazon
when the weather was reasonable
and Arcturus was dominant in the sky,
so on June 22, 2020,
I photographed this great star in a park.
Should I suppose that
its brightness inspired you
to sculpt the star above the snail?”
“As you wish!” -
he said with a stellar smile.
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