DOSOFTEI (Dosotheiu). – Metropolitan of Moldavia, the first Romanian writer of literary verse. Born c. 1624, possibly of Macedonian-Romanian descent, he was first a monk, then bishop of Huşi (1658) and of Roman (1659), and metropolitan of Iaşi (1671). From 1673 to 1686 he was forced to take refuge in Poland, where he had studied and where he died in 1694.
Author of translations and liturgical books, he procured printing types from the patriarch of Moscow. D. is especially important for his translation of the Psalter, *Psaltirea în versuri* (1673), inspired by that of the great Polish poet G. Kochanowski (1577), which is still sung by Polish Catholics. His work is rather that of a scholar: he knew Polish, Greek, Latin, and Slavonic. Nevertheless, some of his psalms, written in short verse, possess undeniable qualities and have remained popular. They are sung by children in the hills (*kalendae*) at Christmas.