[10] Scarlat was generally believed to have been the son of Ban Vasile Vârnav (died 1824), noted as a book collector and translator to Romanian—in particular for his renditions of Dimitrie Cantemir's Descriptio Moldaviae,[11] Condillac's Logique,[12] Dionisie Fotino's Istoria tis palai Dakias,[13] and Cesare Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments.

"[35] His disregard for what he termed the "outer forms of civilization" was picked up by cultural historian Adrian Marino as prefiguring the conservative liberalism later embraced by Junimea society.

[36] Vârnav's focus was on providing young intellectuals with a cultural training that was already in their vernacular language; this included efforts to discard the Cyrillic orthography as "foreign", and familiarize students with the various adaptations from Latin.

[39] While the nationalist movement was struggling to popularize the name "Romanian" for the shared ethnicity and culture, and trying to settle on a spelling of that word, Vârnav suggested the variant Roumén(é), later replaced by român and română.

[41] In Vârnav's own definition, the political unification of Moldavia and Wallachia could originate from the cultural "fusion" that he was promoting in the Romanian student colony; his letters of the time opened with the slogan Vivat Unirea ("Long Live Union").

He rallied with the majority of Romanian students who saluted the French Provisional Government, outvoting the more cautious young boyars, including Vasile Alecsandri and Costache Negri.

[63] According to a letter sent home by Mihail Kogălniceanu's brother Alecu, Vârnav was regarded as "insane" by the more conservative exiles, who feared that he had no grasp of the revolution's weakness.

He proposed that the library funds be used to sponsor selective clandestine returns to the country; when other Society members argued against this initiative, he promised to pay back the money using his personal assets.

[82] As argued by Iorga, the monk was adamantly "democratic", and from the 1840s proudly listed himself a taxpayer (birnic);[83] this was included as part of his signature on a letter he addressed to Prince Sturdza, causing the latter's annoyance and generating some interest from the French consul in Iași.

[84] Historian Nicolae Isar notes that, by using birnic as his title, Vârnav highlighted at once his ideas of self-sacrifice for the greater good and his critique of the boyar class as a drain on Moldavia's budget.

[87] While maintaining a profile in philanthropy, Vârnav acquired a negative reputation, and, in March 1856, a formal investigation by the Ispravnic of Dorohoi, for his violent persecution of the peasants, his disregard for others' property, and his attempts to chase away police agents inspecting his lands.

[95] By June 1856, Vârnav was one of the Roman County clergymen who adhered to the National Party's Unionist Committee, which openly advocated the Principalities' merger, and later signed petitions for union's international recognition.

[100] The results were cancelled due to widespread electoral fraud by the anti-unionists; during the repeat election of September, Scarlat himself was documenting instances of authoritarian abuse, describing how peasant voters in Broscăuți were being threatened with physical harm by a servant of the Mavrodin boyars.

[102] The younger Vârnav brother remained active with the National Party;[103] he published the short-lived gazette Timpul ("Times"),[104] and eventually ran in the elections of 1858, representing Dorohoi in the Divan.

As recounted by literary historian N. Petrașcu, it was who first Vârnav quipped that Strudza's royal cypher, M.S.V., stood for Mai Stăi Voinice ("Whoa There Fella")—and thus launched an urban legend.

[111] He subsequently became a proponent of innovation, creating controversy with his belief that monks should let their estate be curated by the state, his attempt at introducing polyphony, and his moves to do away with Slavonic services.

[112] As noted by Zahariuc, the conflict was exacerbated when Vârnav, backed in this by Miclescu, used church events to popularize the unionist cause, including among pilgrims arriving in from Russia's Bessarabia Governorate.

[115] Moldavia's Education Minister, Alexandru Teriachiu, assigned Vârnav to a reform committee which uncovered great irregularities at Neamț, including a dysfunctional seminary and an inhumane ward for the insane.

Archimandrite Timofei dismissed his defense as fantasy, depicting Vârnav as a persecutor of his monks, who had loosely interpreted Cuza's policies in order to suppress dissent at the monastery.

[126] He was allowed to return after a few weeks in jail, in time to witness the great fire which affected Neamț in December 1862; in their polemical writings, the renegades of Kitskany alleged that Vârnav himself was the arsonist.

[130] The Hieromonk returned to favor in January 1864, when Dimitrie Bolintineanu, who chaired the unified ministry of education, appointed him to a commission that was tasked with assessing calendar reform.

[132] Also a Cuza loyalist, Constantin Vârnav continued to serve on the Princely Court of Justice, where he notably enforced censorship laws against Ionescu de la Brad.

As noted at the time by polemicist Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, the sign was both of questionable taste and unintentionally humorous, since it did not clarify what was yes was being said to, concluding: "that great Vărnavŭ, being as zealous as ever, fell from the sublime into the ridiculous!

[129] With Ion and Constantin Codrescu, P. Chenciu, A. V. Ionescu, and Ioan Popescu, he established a "National Liberal Party", which functioned as the provincial affiliate of the Moldavian-wide Free and Independent Faction.

[147] Already before his death, rumor spread that his Jewish enemies had poisoned the Starets, who, despite his antisemitic campaign, had taken residence at a Jewish-owned hotel;[149] a riot (or attempted pogrom) erupted in the city.

"[137] The conspiracy theory was shunned as "infamy" by C. A. Rosetti's daily Românul, which noted that "ignorance was exploited" by "the enemies of the country"—both in Tutova and Ialomița County (the scene of a scandal over allegations of blood libel).

[148] A detailed note of protest, signed by 200 notables of Bârlad, claimed that the riot had been started by mourners gathering in front of Vârnav's lodging, located opposite a Jewish establishment; altercations, they argued, had been provoked by the Jews, who "insulted [...] the agonizing patient" and attempted to injure peaceful mourners by hurling boiling water in their direction; the petitioners asked the Interior Minister Ion Brătianu not to punish the populace for what it viewed as "calumnies by the adversaries of the national cause".

[150] The pogrom, they argue, was attempted by some of the petitioners themselves, and higher authorities, who "arrested all the Jews, supposedly to protect them", actually "facilitated things for the rioters"; the investigation of the riot "was opened, but carried no effect.

"[153] The Starets was buried at Bârlad's Sfinții Voievozi Cemetery[149] later that month,[141] but his belongings, including itemized lists of donations for the Transilvania Cultural Society, were still in police custody by February.

[73] Interest in Scarlat Sr and his work was revived in 1981 by the Orthodox scholar Antonie Plămădeală, who dedicated him a micro-monograph, part of a series on Romanian monks who were culturally prolific.