It happens that before obtaining the qualifier erudite, a savant passes a number of schools, investigates in different scientific area, changes professions, which in a happy end will harmoniously result in some works of true scientific value. This is the case of the research coordinator Nicolae Fustei from the Institute of History, State and Law of the Academy of Sciences. Native of Pirlita village, Ungheni district, in 1975 graduated the Faculty of Power Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute from Chişinău. Then during a decade he activated at the Institute of Projections as an engineer, superior engineer, engineer coordinator and head of the group, these attest his high professionalism. And after that, to his friends and colleagues surprise, he followed another heartfelt call - love for God, for Saints’ life, for orthodoxy, from which our population was restricted in an atheistic country. In 1989 Nicolae Fustei graduated the Theological Seminary and in 1993 - the Theological Academy from Moscow. In the same year, the engineer Nicolae Fustei defended his candidate thesis in Theology, thus being PhD in theology according to our terminology.

From that year, he activates at the Institute of History, State and Law, having specialized himself in problems of history of the Medieval Romanian Culture. His knowledge and experience of an illustrious researcher were materialized in the second doctor thesis in historic sciences, that was defended in 2003, this being after 10 years from the moment of his coming in this academic institution. Simultaneously, he teaches the Course of Fundamental Theology and Church Law at the Theological Academy from Chişinău. From 1995 he is the editor-in-chief at the journal Curierul Ortodox and director of the publication Православный Вестник (Orthodox Courier – in Russian). He publishes a series of scientific works, including 4 monographs being co-writer and co-author. And now Nicolae Fustei reached his 5th monograph, uncommonly valuable in the experts opinion - Opera Mitropolitului Dosoftei în contextul culturii spirituale sud-est şi est europene (The Creation of Metropolitan Dosoftei in the context of southern-eastern and eastern European spiritual culture), recently published, actual even though it refers to the second half of the XVII Century.

Bishop Dosoftei activated in a period, called later the golden period of the Rumanian culture. Accordingly to academician Andrei Eşanu, author of Preface, since 1915, when was published the first work of synthesis dedicated to the scholar creation of Dosoftei, written by the eminent historian Ştefan Ciobanu, member of the Rumanian Academy, nobody had this courage to defy all these troubles in realizing a work of such a wide-spreading, to read and to reread through archives and libraries thousand of pages regarding life and activity of the Moldavian Metropolitan, his creation in original, to confront the theses of different researchers from our country and from abroad and to collate them timely with all the necessary arguments. Namely, referring to the ethnic origins of Dosoftei (Christian name Dimitrie Barilovici) some historians considered that he was a Greek, others – Ukrainian, the third ones – Rumanian. Nicolae Fustei as a result of his studies concluded that he was Macedon-Serbian.

After the synthesis work of Stefan Ciobanu were published studies regarding only some life aspects, ecclesiastic research and Dosoftei’s creation. Nicolae Fustei to his turn succeeded in presenting the whole cultural, spiritual, typographic and scholar activity of the Moldovan Metropolitan. At the base of his work were used a large spectrum of documentary, narrative and epistolary sources, the creation of the scholar itself, his translations, varied ecclesiastic writings. The author of the investigation placed Dosoftei in a vast cultural area of Byzantine origin from eastern and south-eastern Europe, instance that determined to see him not only as a great reformer and innovator in the Romanian culture but also as a personality of high level in the European culture of the XVII-th Century.

The book of the engineer, theologian and historian Nicolae Fustei will cause undoubtedly a vivid interest in the academic and university environment as well as that of the large public of readers in the desire of finding out new things about the bishop Dosoftei, sanctified at 5th of June 2005. UNESCO dedicated the year 1974 to the Bishop Dosoftei at the 350th anniversary from his birth and at the 3rd Century from his passing away in eternity. The apparition of the book represents a scientific-cultural event and an author’s advice to know better those persons who made a good name to the Moldovan Country.

Tatiana Rotaru,
Press Service of the Academy of Sciences,
Translation into English by Lilia Popovici.