Eufrosin Poteca

Eufrosin Poteca (Romanian pronunciation: [ˌe.ufroˈsin poˈteka]; born Radu Poteca; 1786 – 10 December 1858) was a Romanian philosopher, theologian, and translator, professor at the Saint Sava Academy of Bucharest. Later in life he campaigned against slavery. He was the grandfather of the Romanian philosopher Constantin Rădulescu-Motru.

Poteca was born Radu Poteca in 1786, in the village of Nucșoara, Prahova County, in Walachia, into a family of peasants.

He began his elementary education with the priest from the village's church, and continued his studies in a Greek-language school. In order to continue his education, he first went to Căldăruşani monastery and later to Neamţ monastery, the place where Paisius Velichkovsky had laid the basis of a strong hesychast monastic life. It is there that, in 1806, he became a monk and took the name "Eufrosin". In 1808 he moved to Bucharest. On March 28, 1809, he was ordained hierodeacon, and on January 21, 1813, he was tonsured hieromonk.

From 1813–1816 he studied under Konstantinos Vardalachos, a famous professor of the time, at the Greek-language Princely Academy of Bucharest. From 1816 until 1818 Poteca was a teacher of dogmatics at the same Academy, which was then directed by Neophytos Doukas. In 1818, while Benjamin Lesvios was the director of the Greek-speaking Academy, Gheorghe Lazăr began giving lectures in Romanian, at the Saint Sava monastery, thus founding a Romanian-language Academy. Eufrosin Poteca became professor of geography at this Academy, between 1818–1820.

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