page_title: History of Christianity in Romania
section_title: Orthodox Church in Moldavia and Wallachia
hierarchical_section_title: History of Christianity in Romania / Middle Ages / Orthodox Church in Moldavia and Wallachia
caption_attribution_description: English: Voroneţ Monastery, Romania
context_page_description: The history of Christianity in Romania began within the Roman province of Lower Moesia, where many Christians were martyred at the end of the 3rd century. Evidence of Christian communities has been found in the territory of modern Romania at over a hundred archaeological sites from the 3rd and 4th centuries. However, sources from the 7th and 10th centuries are so scarce that Christianity seems to have diminished during this period.
  The vast majority of Romanians are adherent to the Orthodox Church, while most other populations that speak Romance languages follow the Catholic Church. The basic Christian terminology in Romanian is of Latin origin, though the Romanians, referred to as Vlachs in medieval sources, borrowed numerous South Slavic terms due to the adoption of the liturgy officiated in Old Church Slavonic. The earliest Romanian translations of religious texts appeared in the 15th century, and the first complete translation of the Bible was published in 1688.
  The oldest proof that an Orthodox church hierarchy existed among the Romanians north of the river Danube is a papal bull of 1234.
context_section_description: An unknown Italian geographer wrongly described the "Romanians and the Vlachs" as pagans in the early 14th century. For instance, Basarab I (c. 1310–1352), the Romanian ruler who achieved the independence of Wallachia in the territories between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube, was mentioned as "schismatic" by a royal diploma of 1332, referring to the Orthodox Church. The Metropolitan See of Wallachia was established in 1359 when the Ecumenical Patriarch assigned Hyakinthos, the last metropolitan of Vicina, to lead the local Orthodox Church. Although a second Metropolitan See, with jurisdiction over Oltenia, was set up in Severin (now Drobeta-Turnu Severin) in 1370, there was again only one Metropolitan in the principality after around 1403. The local Church was reorganized under Radu IV the Great (1496–1508) by Patriarch Nephon II of Constantinople, the former Ecumenical Patriarch who founded two suffragan bishoprics.
  A second principality, Moldavia, achieved its independence in the territories to the east of the Carpathians under Bogdan I (1359 – c. 1365), but it still remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox hierarch of Halych (Ukraine). Although the metropolitan of Halych consecrated two bishops for Moldavia in 1386, the Ecumenical Patriarch objected to this. The patriarch established a separate metropolitan see for Moldavia in 1394, but his appointee was refused by Stephen I of Moldavia (1394–1399). The conflict was solved when the patriarch recognized a member of the princely family as metropolitan in 1401. In Moldavia, two suffragan bishoprics in Roman, and Rădăuți were first recorded in 1408 and 1471.
  From the second half of the 14th century, Romanian princes sponsored the monasteries of Mount Athos (Greece). First, the Koutloumousiou monastery received donations from Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia (1352–1364). In Wallachia, the monastery at Vodița was established in 1372 by the monk Nicodemus from Serbia, who had embraced monastic life at Chilandar on Mount Athos. Monks fleeing from the Ottomans founded the earliest monastery in Moldavia at Neamț in 1407. From the 15th century the four Eastern patriarchs and several monastic institutions in the Ottoman Empire also received landed properties and other sources of income, such as mills, in the two principalities.
  Many monasteries, such as Cozia in Wallachia, and Bistrița in Moldavia, became important centers of Slavonic literature. The earliest local chronicles, such as the "Chronicle of Putna", were also written by monks. Religious books in Old Church Slavonic were printed in Târgoviște under the auspices of the monk Macaria from Montenegro after 1508. Wallachia in particular became a leading center of the Orthodox world, which was demonstrated by the consecration of the cathedral of Curtea de Argeș in 1517 in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Protos of Mount Athos. The painted monasteries of Moldavia are still an important symbol of cultural heritage today.
  The extensive lands owned by monasteries made the monasteries a significant political and economic force. Many of these monasteries also owned Gypsy and Tatar slaves. Monastic institutions enjoyed fiscal privileges, including an exemption from taxes, although 16th-century monarchs occasionally tried to seize monastic assets.
  Wallachia and Moldavia maintained their autonomous status, though the princes were obliged to pay a yearly tax to the sultans starting during the 15th century. Dobruja was annexed in 1417 by the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottomans also occupied parts of southern Moldavia in 1484, and Proilavia (now Brăila) in 1540. These territories were under the jurisdiction of the metropolitans of Dristra and Proilavia for several centuries following the annexation.
caption: Voroneț Monastery, with its exterior murals painted in 1547[165]
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