Saint Antimos of Iberia`s interest in embellishing his sermons using traditional means found in the rhetoric of homiletics is not simply seen as inherent to this hierarch who was "several times an artist" (N. Dobrescu), but rather obvious. Important scholars - theologians (such as Al.I. Ciurea, Dumitru Belu, Mihail-Gheorghe Popescu et al.) and laymen (such as Ștefan Ciobanu, Al. Piru, E. Negrici, and D.H. Mazilu) have emphasized that, despite the permanent impression of freshness and spontaneity of the discourse in the Antimos of Iberia`s sermons, this denotes a drafting process, entailing canonical virtues, so profoundly assimilated that they allow the creative and free manifestation of this Christian orator. More than any other of his works, the Didahii [sermons] expresses and configures the "image of the creative spirit" belonging to Saint Antimos of Iberia.

Keywords: Antimos of Iberia, sermon, rhetoric, homiletics, freshness, creativity, Didahii

IOAN ŞT. LAZĂR