The National Bank of Romania has announced the release of an anniversary coin depicting Bucharest’s Saint Anthimos Monastery and a sixth-century Georgian Orthodox monastery near Mtskheta.
The coin is 60 mm in diameter and composed of patinated copper alloy, according to basilica.ro.
The church of St Anthimos Monastery, founded by the Hieromartyr Anthimos the Iberian, a native Georgian, is depicted on one side. The reverse side depicts Jvari Monastery’s church in Mtskheta, Georgia.
The numismatic issue commemorates the restoration of diplomatic ties between Georgia and Romania, and it was initiated by the Georgian Embassy in Bucharest.
The Ottomans kidnapped Hieromartyr Saint Anthimos the Iberian, who was subsequently ransomed by Patriarch Dositheus II Notaras of Jerusalem, who tonsured St Anthimos as a monk.
St Anthimos was appointed Bishop of Râmnic and then Metropolitan of Wallachia. During his tenure, he printed many liturgical books in the languages of the Ottoman Empire’s Orthodox peoples, helping the consolidation of Orthodoxy in Arabic, Greek, and Slavonic, as well as the unity of the Romanian literary language.