Alexei Mateevici
Alexei Mateevici
Priest, Philologist and Poet · 1888–1917
Who is Alexei Mateevici?
Alexei Mateevici was a priest, philologist, and poet born in the village of Kăinari (Căinari), in Bessarabia, then part of the Russian Empire and now within the Republic of Moldova. Ordained an Orthodox priest, he also studied theology in Kyiv and Petrograd and worked as a teacher and clergyman while beginning to publish poetry, folklore studies, and articles calling for the revival of the Romanian language among Bessarabia's population under Russian administration. His enduring legacy rests on the poem "Limba noastră" ("Our Language"), written and first recited in 1917, a celebration of the beauty and worth of the Romanian tongue spoken in Bessarabia. After Moldova's independence, the poem was set to music and formally adopted in 1994 as the lyrics of the national anthem of the Republic of Moldova, and Mateevici's name is now permanently tied to Moldovan national identity. He served briefly as a military chaplain during the First World War and died of typhus in August 1917 at the age of twenty-nine, only months after composing the poem that would later become his country's anthem.
Sources: Alexei Mateevici, Limba noastră (1917) · Government of the Republic of Moldova, national anthem adoption records (1994) · Onisifor Ghibu, Pe baricadele vieții (memoir referencing Mateevici)