History of Christianity in Romania
Encyclopedia
The history of Christianity in Romania began within the Roman province
of Lower Moesia where many Christian
s suffered martyrdom at the end of the 3rd century. Nevertheless, Christian communities have been attested in several locations on the territory of modern Romania
by over a hundred archaeological finds from the 3rd-4th centuries. Sources from the 7th and 10th centuries are, however, so scarce that Christianity
seems to have disappeared in this period.
Alone among the peoples speaking a Romance language
, the vast majority of Romanians
are adherent to the Orthodox Church. The basic Christian terminology of the Romanian language
is of Latin
origin, but the Romanians, mentioned also as Vlachs
in medieval sources, borrowed numerous South Slavic
terms due to their 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 a church hierarchy existed among Romanians in the territory what is now Romania
is a papal bull
of 1234. In the territories east and south of the Carpathian Mountains
two metropolitan sees subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople were set up after the foundation of two principalities, Wallachia
and Moldavia
in the 14th century. The flowering of monasticism
in Moldavia provided a historical link between the 14th-century Hesychast revival and modern developments of the monastic tradition in Eastern Europe
. Orthodoxy, however, was only tolerated in the regions west of the Carpathians, for centuries parts of the Kingdom of Hungary
, where Roman Catholic diocese
s were established in the 11th century. In these territories, transformed into the Principality of Transylvania in the 16th century, four "received religions" – Calvinism
, Catholicism, Lutheranism
, and Unitarianism
– were granted a privileged status. After the principality had been annexed by the Habsburg Empire, a part of the local Orthodox clergy declared the union with Rome in 1698.
The autocephaly
of the Romanian Orthodox Church
was canonical
ly recognized in 1885, years after the union of Wallachia and Moldavia into Romania
. The Orthodox Church and the Romanian Church United with Rome were declared national church
es in 1923. The Communist authorities abolished the latter, and the former was subordinated to the government in 1948. The Uniate Church was reestablished when the Communist regime collapsed in 1989. Now the Constitution of Romania
emphasizes the denominations' autonomy from the state.
The religion of the Getae
, an Indo-European
people inhabiting the Lower Danube region in Antiquity
, was characterized by a belief in the immortality
of the soul
. Its other feature was the cult of Zalmoxis
with whom they communicated by means of human sacrifice
s.
Modern Dobruja
– the territory between the river Danube
and the Black Sea
– was annexed to the Roman province
of Moesia
in 46 AD. Here the cults of Greek gods remained prevalent even after the conquest. Modern Banat, Oltenia
, and Transylvania were transformed into the Roman province of "Dacia Traiana
" in 106. Due to massive colonization, cults originating in the empire's other provinces entered Dacia. Of all epigraphic monuments
, around 73 percent was dedicated to Graeco-Roman gods.
The end of the official existence of "Dacia Traiana" province came in the 270s. Modern Dobruja became a separate province under the name of Scythia Minor
in 297.
"), Paşte ("Easter"), preot ("priest"), and cruce ("cross"). Some of them, for example biserică ("church", from basilica
) and Dumnezeu ("God", from Domine Deus), are independent of their synonym
s in other Romance languages.
The Romanian language also adopted many Slavic religious terms. For example, words like duh ("soul, spirit"), iad ("hell
"), rai ("paradise"), and taină ("mystery, sacraments") are of South Slavic origin. Even terms of Greek
or Latin origin, among them călugar ("monk") and Rusalii ("Whitsuntide"), entered Romanian through Slavic. A smaller number of religious terms are borrowed from Hungarian, for instance mântuire (salvation
)and pildă (parable
).
The origin of Christianity among the Romanians is still debated by historians. Those who think that the Romanians descended from the inhabitants of "Dacia Traiana" suggest that the spread of Christianity coincided with the formation of the Romanian people. Their ancestors' Romanization and Christianization, a direct result of the contact between the native Dacians and the Roman colonists, lasted for several centuries They adopted Slavonic liturgy when it was introduced in the neighboring First Bulgarian Empire
and Kievan Rus'
in the 9th–10th centuries. According to historians who suggest that the Romanians descended from the inhabitants of the Roman provinces to the south of the Danube, the Romanians' ancestors turned to Christianity after it was legalized throughout the Roman Empire in 313
. They adopted the Slavonic liturgy in the First Bulgarian Empire before their migration to the territory of modern Romania began in the 11th-12th centuries.
The antiquity of local Christian
communities dates from 2nd
-3rd centuries. According to a tradition first recorded by Hippolytus of Rome in the early 3rd century, Jesus Christ' teaching was first propagated in "Scythia" by St. Andrew. If "Scythia" refers to Scythia Minor, and not to the Crimea
as it has been claimed by the Russian Orthodox Church
, Christianity in Romania can be considered of "apostolic origin".
The existence of Christian communities in "Dacia Traiana" province is still not proven incontestably. Some Christian objects are, although not unanimously, dated to the 3rd century, to the period preceding the Roman withdrawal. Among them, vessels with the sign of the cross, cryptograms or diverse Christian symbols, such as fish or grape stalks, were discovered in Ulpia Traiana, Porolissum
, Potaissa, Apulum
, Romula
, Gherla
and other settlements, and a gem representing the Good Shepherd
was found at Potaissa. On a funerary altar in Napoca the sign of the cross was carved inside the letter "O" of the original pagan inscription of the monument, and pagan monuments that were later Christianized were also found at Ampelum
and Potaissa. A turquoise golden ring with the inscription "EGO SVM FLAGELLVM IOVIS CONTRA PERVERSOS CHRISTIANOS" ("I am Jupiter's scourge against the dissolute Christians") may be related to the Christian persecutions in the mid-3rd century.
In Scythia Minor a large number of Christians suffered martyrdom
during the Diocletianic Persecution at the turn of the 3rd and 4th centuries. For instance, four martyrs' relics were discovered in a crypt at Niculiţel
with their names written in Greek on the crypt's inner wall. Thirty-five basilica
s built in the 4th-6th centuries have been discovered in the main towns of the province, for example in Tropaeum Traiani
(now Adamclisi
). The earliest basilica yet found north of the Lower Danube was erected at Sucidava
(now Celei
), in one of the Roman forts rebuilt under Justinian I
(527–565). In the 6th century burial chambers were built in Callatis (now Mangalia
), Capidava
and other towns of Scythia Minor with walls painted with quotes from the Psalms
.
Some clerics from Scythia Minor were involved in the theological controversies debated at the first four Ecumenical Councils
. For instance, Saint Bretanion defended the Orthodox faith against Arianism
in the 360s. The metropolitans
of the province who supervised fourteen bishops by the end of the 5th century had their see in Tomis (modern Constanţa
). The last of them was mentioned in the 6th century, before Scythia Minor succumbed to the Avars
and Sclavenes
who also destroyed the forts on the Lower Danube.
Christian objects from the 4th–6th centuries found in the former "Dacia Traiana" province are almost all imported from the Roman Empire. The idea that certain public edifices, for example at Slăveni and Porolissum
, were transformed into Christian cult sites following the Roman withdrawal is a matter of debate among archaeologists. One of the first Christian objects found in Transylvania is a pierced bronze inscription
discovered at Biertan
. A few 4th-century graves in the local Sântana de Mureş–Chernyakhov
necropolis
es had a Christian, that is west–east orientation. Clay
lamps from the 5th–6th centuries found in the former province are especially numerous. Those discovered, for instance, at Gherla and Feldioara
bear the sign of the cross.
"Dacia Traiana" was possessed by "Taifali, Victuali, and Tervingi" around 350. Christian teachings among the Tervingi who formed the Western group of the Goths
started in the 3rd century. For instance, the ancestors of Ulfilas
who would be consecrated "bishop of the Christians in the Getic land" in 341 were captured in Capadocia (Turkey
) in the 250s. During the first Gothic persecution of Christians in 348, Ulfilas was expelled to Moesia where he continued to preach "in the Greek, Latin, and Gothic
tongues". During the second persecution, between 369 and 372, many believers, among them Sabbas the Goth
, suffered martyrdom. The remains of twenty-six Gothic martyrs
were transferred to the Roman Empire years after the invasion of the Huns in 376.
Following the collapse of the Hunnic Empire
in 454, the Gepids "ruled as victors over the extent of all Dacia". One of the gold rings from a 5th-century grave at Apahida
is ornamented with crosses. Another ring from the grave bears the inscription "OMHARIVS", probably in reference to Omharus, one of the known Gepid kings. The Gepidic kingdom was annihilated in 567-568 by the Avars.
Even thereafter, the presence of Christians among the "barbarians" is well attested by written sources. Theophylact Simocatta
wrote of a Gepid who "had once long before been of the Christian religion". The author of the Strategikon knew of many Romans among the Sclavenes, and some of those Romans may have been Christians. But their presence and proselytism can hardly explain that artifacts with Christian symbolism appeared on sites to the south and east of the Carpathians in the 560s. Such artifacts, among them handmade pots decorated by crosses, were found, for example, at Botoşana
and Dulceanca
.
, prove that local communities practiced cremation
. Although it is not impossible that in isolate regions Christianity incorporated pre-Christian practices, the idea that local Christians cremated their dead is a matter of debate among historians. Cremation gave place to inhumation by the beginning of the 11th century.
By the first half of the 9th century at the latest, all the territories between the Lower Danube and the Carpathians were incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire
. Boris I
(852–889) was the Bulgarian ruler who decided to accept Christianity in 863. By that time differences between the Eastern and the Western branches of Christianity had grown significantly. For instance, their views on the procession of the Holy Spirit differed from each other. Boris I allowed the members of the Eastern clergy
to enter his country in 864, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
adopted the Slavonic liturgy in 893. In modern Romania, an inscription in Mircea-Vodă
from 943 is the earliest example of the use of Cyrillic alphabet
.
The First Bulgarian Empire was conquered by the Byzantines
under Basil II
(976–1025). He soon revived the metropolitan see of Scythia Minor at Constanţa
, but put the Vlachs living in the former Bulgarian state under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Ohrid (Republic of Macedonia
). The metropolitan see of Moesia was reestablished in Dristra
(now Silistra, Bulgaria) in the 1040s when a mission of mass evangelization was dispatched among the Pechenegs who had settled in the Byzantine Empire. Until 1092 one of the metropolitan's suffragan bishops resided the territory of modern Romania, in Axiopolis (now Hinog). The metropolitan status of the see of Dristra was taken over by the bishop of Vicina
in the 1260s.
The Vlachs living in Boeotia
(Greece
) were described as not true Christians by Benjamin of Tudela
in 1165. However, in 1185 the brothers Peter
and Asen
, when making arrangement for their rebellion against the Byzantine Empire, built a church in order to gather Bulgarian
and Vlach prophets to announce that St Demetrius of Thessaloniki had abandoned their enemies. The Bulgarians and the Vlachs soon rose up in arms and created a new state
. The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was elevated to the rank of "primate of the Bulgarians and the Vlachs" in 1204.
Catholic mission among the Cumans
who had controlled the territories north of the Lower Danube and east of the Carpathians from the 1070s was first carried on by the Teutonic Knights
, and from 1225 by the Dominicans. A new Catholic diocese was set up in the region in 1228 by Archbishop Robert of Esztergom, the papal legate for "Cumania and the Brodnik
lands". A letter written by Pope Gregory IX
, however, reveals that many of its inhabitants were Orthodox Romanians who also converted Hungarian and Saxon colonists to their faith.
. The territory was invaded by the Hungarians around 896. At that time, according to the 13th-century Gesta Hungarorum
("Deeds of the Hungarians"), Crişana
was ruled by Menumorut
and Glad
reigned in the Banat, while Transylvania was inhabited by "Vlachs and Slavs" and ruled by Gelou
. The existence of these polities, however, is under debate among historians.
The second-ranked leader of the Hungarian tribal federation, the gyula converted to Christianity in Constantinople
around 952. He was accompanied back to his country by the Greek Hierotheos, the bishop of Tourkia ("Hungary") appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Pectoral cross
es of Byzantine origin from this period have been found at the confluence of the rivers Mureş
and Tisa
. From Transylvania, a bronze cross from Alba Iulia
, and a Byzantine pectoral cross from Dăbâca
may be dated to the 10th century. A monastery for Greek monks was founded at Cenad
by a chieftain named Achtum who was baptized according to the Greek rite
around 1002.
Gyula
's country, as well as Achtum's territory were incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary
under Stephen I (c. 1000–1038) who had been baptized according to the Latin rite. It was he who introduced the tithe
, a church tax assessed on agricultural products. The date of foundation of the first three Roman Catholic dioceses – the bishoprics of Transylvania
, Cenad
and Oradea
– in the territory of modern Romania is still debated. They all became suffragans
of the archbishop of Kalocsa
(Hungary
). The provostship of Sibiu
was transferred, upon the local Saxons
's request, under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Esztergom (Hungary) in 1212.
Large cemeteries grew around the churches built, for example, at Dăbâca and Moldoveneşti
after the synod of Szabolcs
(Hungary) of 1092 insisted on burials in churchyard
s. The first Benedictine
monastery in Transylvania was founded at Cluj-Manăştur
in the second half of the 11th century. In the next centuries new monasteries were established in Almaşu
, Herina
, Mănăstireni
, Meseş
, and other settlements. When the Cistercian abbey at Cârţa
was set up in the early 13th century, its estates were carved out of the "land of the Vlachs".
The enmity between the Eastern and Western Churches increased in the 11th century
. The archbishop of Kalocsa, for instance, decided to place an Orthodox diocese in the "country of the sons of Beleknese" under his jurisdiction in 1205. Whether it was situated in the territory of modern Romania is a matter of debate among historians.
, that is the leaders of the Romanian communities had stone churches erected on their estates. These churches were built on the plan of a Greek cross, but some of them, for instance the one at Densuş
, displays elements of Romanesque
or Gothic architecture
. Many churches were painted with votive portraits illustrating the founders. Thus the name of the local cneaz can be read on a fresco, painted in 1313-1314, of the church at Streisângeorgiu.
From the last decades of the 14th century, local Orthodox hierarchy was often under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan sees of Wallachia and Moldavia. For instance, the metropolitan of Wallachia also styled himself "exarch of all Hungary and the borderlands" in 1401. Nevertheless, local eparchies were also mentioned. Among them, Archbishop Ghelasie in the monastery at Râmeţ
in 1376 is the first on record. Orthodox monasteries in the kingdom, among them Şcheii Braşovolui
, were centers of Slavonic writing. Books of the Bible, for example Acts
and the Psalms
, were also first translated into Romanian by monks in Maramureş
in the 15th century.
Orthodox believers' position, however, had already worsened under Louis I of Hungary (1342–1382) who ordered the arrest of the "Slavic or schismatic" priests in the counties of Cuvin and Caraş in 1366. He also decreed that only those who "loyally follow the faith of the Roman Church may keep and own properties" in the districts of Haţeg, Caransebeş
and Mehadia
. Conversion was, however, so infrequent in this period that the Franciscan
Bartholomew of Alverna complained, in 1379, that "some stupid and indifferent people" disapprove of the conversion of "the Slavs and Romanians". Resistance came not only from the Romanians, for whom conversion would have resulted in the obligatory payment of the tithe, but also from Catholic landowners. Thus Romanian "chapels" and stone churches built on the estates of Catholic noblemen and bishops were frequently mentioned in charters from the very end of the 14th century.
A special inquisitor
sent against the Hussite
s by the pope also took forcible measures against "schismatics" in 1436. Following the union of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches at the Council of Florence
in 1439, the local Romanian Church was considered to be united with Rome. Thus a certain John of Caffa who opposed the Church union
was imprisoned.
Although the monarchs only insisted on the conversion of the Romanian cneazes living in the southern borderlands, many Romanian noblemen
turned Catholic in the 15th century. However, even thereafter many Orthodox priests came from cneaz families. For instance, three noble members of a landowning cneaz family in the Haţeg region were priests in 1494.
Systematic efforts to convert Romanians to Calvinism were made by Transylvanian authorities in the second half of the 16th century. Even the expulsion of the priests who did not convert to the "true faith" was ordered in 1566. Orthodox hierarchy was only restored under Stephen Báthory
(1571–1586). Around 1584 the local high hierarchy consisted of a metropolitan in Alba Iulia and his two suffragans.
(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. The Metropolitan See of Wallachia was established in 1359. This year 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 Niphon
, 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, his act was objected by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Now 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, in 1401, a member of the princely family as metropolitan. In Moldavia, the existence of two suffragan bishoprics at Roman
and at Rădăuţi
was first recorded in 1408 and 1471, respectively.
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 Vodiţa was established in 1372 by the monk Nicodemus from Serbia
who had embraced monastic life at Chilandar on Mount Athos. The earliest monastery in Moldavia was founded at Neamţ
in 1407 by monks fleeing the Ottomans. 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, for example Cozia
in Wallachia, and Bistriţa
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 Târgovişte under the auspices of the monk Macaria from Montenegro
after 1508. Especially Wallachia became a leading center of the Orthodox world which is demonstrated by the consecration of the cathedral of Curtea de Argeş
in 1517 in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the chief egumen
of Mount Athos. The impressive painted monasteries of Moldavia
are still an important ensemble of cultural heritage.
The extensive lands owned by monasteries made them a significant political and economic force. Many of them also owned Gypsy and Tatar
slaves
. Monastic institutions enjoyed fiscal privileges, thus exemption of taxes, although 16th-century monarchs, for example, the Protestant
Ioan Iacob Heraclid
(1561–1563) occasionally tried to seize monastic assets.
Wallachia and Moldavia maintained their autonomous status even if their princes were obliged to pay a yearly tax to the sultans from the 15th century. Dobruja, however, 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 for centuries under the jurisdiction of the metropolitans of Dristra and Proilavia.
. Henceforth Catholic mission to the East was carried on by the Franciscans. For example, Pope Nicholas IV
sent Franciscan missionaries to the "country of the Vlachs" in 1288. In the 14th-15th centuries new Catholic dioceses were established in the territories to the east and south of the Carpathians, mainly due to the presence of Hungarian and Saxon colonists. Local Romanians also sent a complaint to the Holy See
in 1374 in order to demand a Romanian-speaking bishop. Alexander the Good of Moldavia (1400–1432) also founded an Armenian
bishopric in Suceava in 1401. In Moldavia, however, many Catholic believers were forced to convert to Orthodoxy under Ştefan VI Rareş
(1551–1552) and Alexandru Lăpuşneanu
(1552–1561).
In the Kingdom of Hungary parish organization
became fully developed in the 14th-15th centuries. In the 1330s, according to a papal tithe-register, the average ratio of villages with Catholic parishes was around 40 percent in the entire kingdom, but in the territory of modern Romania there was a Catholic church in 954 settlements out of a total number of 2100–2200. The institutional and economic power of the Catholic Church in Transylvania was systematically dismantled by the authorities in the second half of the 16th century. First the extensive lands of the bishopric of Transylvania were confiscated in 1542. The Catholic Church soon became deprived of its own higher local hierarchy and subordinate to a state governed by Protestant monarchs and Estates. Some of the local noblemen, among them a branch of the powerful Báthory
family, and many Székelys, however, remained Catholics.
where they remained free of persecution.
The earliest evidence that Lutheran teachings "were known and followed" in Transylvania is a royal letter written to the town council of Sibiu in 1524. The Transylvanian Saxons' assembly decreed the adoption of the Lutheran creed by all the Saxon towns in 1544. Municipal authorities also tried to influence the ritual of the Orthodox services. For this purpose a Romanian Catechism
was published in 1543, and a Romanian translation of the four Gospels in 1560.
Calvinist preachers first became active in Oradea in the early 1550s. The Diet recognized the existence of two distinct Protestant churches in 1564 after the Saxon and Hungarian clergy had failed to agree on the contested points of theology, such as the nature of communion services. The government also exerted pressure on the Romanians in order to change their faith. The Diet of 1566 even decreed that a Romanian Calvinist bishop be their sole religious leader.
A faction of Hungarian preachers raised doubts over the doctrine of the Trinity
in the 1560s. In a decade Cluj
became the center of the Unitarian movement. The idea of four "received religions" was recognized in 1568 by the Diet of Turda which also gave ministers the right to teach according to their own understanding of Christianity. Although a ban on further religious innovation was enacted in 1572, many Székelys turned to Sabbatarianism
in the 1580s.
The process of giving up pre-Reformation traditions was extremely slow in Transylvania. Although all or some of the images were eliminated in the churches, sacred vessels were kept. Protestant denomination
s also kept the strict observance of holidays and fasting
periods.
The use of Romanian in church service was first introduced in Wallachia under Matthew Basarab (1632–1654), and in Moldavia under Vasile Lupu
(1634–1652). In Vasile Lupu's reign a pan-Orthodox synod adopted the Orthodox Confession of Faith in Iaşi
in 1642 in order to reject any Calvinist influence over Orthodox hierarchy. The first complete Romanian Book of Prayer was published in 1679 by Metropolitan Dosoftei
of Moldavia (1670–1686). A team of scholars also completed the Romanian translation of the Bible, the so-called Bucharest Bible
that was published in 1688.
The two principalities suffered the highest degree of Ottoman exploitation in the "Phanariot century" (1711–1821) when princes appointed by the sultans ruled in both of them. The second half of the 18th century, however, witnessed a spiritual renaissance, initiated by Paisius Velichkovsky
. His influence led to a resurgense of Hesychastic prayer in the monasteries in Moldavia. In this period Romanian theological culture benefited from new translations from patristic literature. In the first decades of the 19th century theological seminaries
were established in both principalities, for example, in the Socola Monastery
in 1803 and in Bucharest in 1836.
A new archbishopric subordinated to the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church
was created in Chişinău
when the Russian Empire
annexed Bessarabia
in 1812. The Russian authorities soon forbade its archbishop to have any connections with the Orthodox Church in the Romanian principalities.
Romanian society embarked upon a rapid development following the reinstallation of native princes in 1821. For instance, the Gypsy slaves owned by the monasteries were freed in Moldavia in 1844, and in Wallachia in 1847. The two principalities were united under Alexander John Cuza
(1859–1866), and the new state adopted the name of Romania in 1862. In his reign, the estates of the monasteries were nationalized. He also endorsed the use of Romanian in liturgy, and replaced Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin script
.
The Romanian Orthodox Church was proclaimed independent in 1864, but the Ecumenical Patriarch pronounced the new ecclesiastic regime contrary to the holy canons. Henceforth all ecclesiastic appointments and decisions were subject to state approval. The Metropolitan of Wallachia, who received the title of primate metropolitan in 1865, became the head of the General Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The 1866 Constitution of Romania
recognized the Orthodox Church as the dominant religion in the kingdom.
Following the Romanian War of Independence
, Dobruja was awarded to Romania in 1878. At that time, the relative majority of its population was still Muslim
, but a massive colonization was soon begun. The region had also been inhabited from the late 17th century by a group of Russian Old Believers named Lipovans
.
The Great Powers recognized Romania's independence in 1880, after its constitution had been modified in order to allow the naturalization
of non-Christians. The first Faculty of Orthodox Theology was founded at the University of Bucharest
in the year when Romania was proclaimed a kingdom in 1881. In order to solemnize Romania's independence, in 1882 the Orthodox hierarchy performed the ceremony of blessing the holy oil
, a privilege that had thereto been reserved for the ecumenical patriarchs. The new conflict with the patriarch delayed for three years, until 1885, the canonical recognition of the autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
. For instance, when an Orthodox synod had adopted measures for regulation of church life Gabriel Bethlen
(1613–1630) removed the local metropolitan. By forcing the use of Romanian instead of Old Church Slavonic in liturgy the authorities also contributed to the development of the Romanians' national consciousness. Local Orthodox believers remained without their own religious leader after the integration of Transylvania into the Habsburg Empire when a synod led by the metropolitan declared the union with Rome in 1698.
The first movement for the reestablishment of the Orthodox Church was initiated in 1744 by Visarion Sarai, a Serbian monk. Next the monk Sofronie
agitated, in 1759–1760, among the Romanian peasants in order to demand a Serbian Orthodox bishop. Finally, in 1761, the government consentedto the establishment of an Orthodox diocese in Sibiu under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Metropolitan of Srmski Karlovci
. The Serbian Metropolitan was also granted authority, in 1781, over the diocese of Cernăuţi (now Chernivtsi
, Ukraine) in Bukovina
that had been annexed from Moldavia by the Habsburg Empire.
In 1848 Andrei Şaguna
became the bishop of Sibiu who started to work to free the local Orthodox Church from the control of the Serbian Metropolitan. He succeeded in 1864 when a separate Orthodox Church with its metropolitan see in Sibiu was established with the consent of the government. In the second half of the 19th century, the local Romanian Orthodox Church supervised the activity of four high school
s, and over 2,700 elementary school
s. The Orthodox Church in Bukovina also became independent of the Serbian Metropolitan in 1873. A Faculty of Orthodox Theology was founded in the University of Cernăuţi
in 1875. However, many Romanian priests were deported or imprisoned for propagating the union of the lands inhabited by Romanians after Romania declared war on Austria–Hungary in 1916.
After the Principality of Transylvania had been annexed by the Habsburg Empire, the new Catholic rulers tried to attract the Romanians' support in order to strengthen their control over the principality governed by predominantly Protestant Estates. For the Romanians, the Church Union proposed by the imperial court nurtured the hope that the central government would assist them in their conflicts with local authorities.
The union of the local Romanian Orthodox Church with Rome was declared in Alba Iulia, after years of negotiations, in 1698 by Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel
and thirty-eight archpriests. It was based on the four points adopted by the Council of Florence, including the recognition of papal primacy. Atanasie Anghel lost his title of metropolitan and was re-ordained as a bishop subordinated to the archbishop of Esztergom in 1701.
The Orthodox world considered the union with Rome as apostasy. For instance, Metropolitan Theodosie of Wallachia referred to Atanasie Anghel as "the new Judas
". Since many of the local Romanians opposed the Church union, it also created discord among them.
But for the next century, Uniate Romanians assumed a leading role in the struggle for the Romanians' political emancipation in Transylvania. For example, Bishop Inocenţiu Micu-Klein
demanded in dozens of memoranda their recognition as the fourth "political nation
" in the province. The Uniate bishopric in Transylvania was raised to the rank of a metropolitan see and became independent of the archbishop of Esztergom in 1855.
.
The Saxon communities' religious life was characterized by both differentiation from Calvinism, and by an increased number of worship services. Traditional Lutheranism, due to its concern for individual spiritual needs, always remained more popular than "Crypto-Calvinism
". The assets of the local Catholic Church were administered by the "Catholic Estates", a public body consisting of both laymen
and priests. A report on church visitations
reveals that around 1638 there were numerous Catholic villages without clergymen in the Székely Land. Catholicism also almost disappeared in Moldavia in the 17th century.
The Principality of Transylvania, following its integration into the Habsburg Empire, was administered according to the principles established by the Leopoldine Diploma of 1690 which confirmed the privileged status of the four "received religions". In fact, however, the new regime gave preference to the Roman Catholic Church. Between 1711 and 1750, which is the apogee of the Counter-Reformation
, the government ensured that Catholics would get preference in appointments to high offices. The preeminent status of the Roman Catholic Church was not weakened even under Joseph II (1780–1790) who issued the 1781 Edict of Tolerance. Catholics who wished to convert to any of the other three "received religions" were still required to undergo an instruction. It was only in 1868, following the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Hungary, that the equal status of Churches was declared.
In the Kingdom of Romania, a new Roman Catholic archbishopric was organized in 1883 with its see in Bucharest. Among the new Protestant movements, the first Baptist congregation was formed in 1856, and the Seventh-day Adventists were first introduced in Piteşti
in 1870.
ethnic Romanians in Banat, Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania. The new borders were recognized by international treaties in 1919-1920
. Thus Romania that had thereto been a relatively homogeneous state now included a mixed religious and ethnic population. According to the 1930 census, 72,6 percent of its citizens was Orthodox, 7,9 percent Greek Catholic, 6,8 percent Lutheran, 3,9 percent Roman Catholic, and 2 percent Reformed.
The constitution adopted in 1923
declared that "differences of religious beliefs and denominations" do not constitute "an impediment either to the acquisition of political rights or to the free exercise thereof". It also recognized two national churches by declaring the Romanian Orthodox Church as the dominant denomination and by according the Romanian Church united with Rome "priority over other denominations". The 1928 Law of Cults granted a fully recognized status to seven more denominations, among them the Roman Catholic, the Armenian, the Reformed, the Lutheran, and the Unitarian Churches.
All Orthodox hierarchs in the enlarged kingdom became members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1919. New Orthodox bishoprics were set up, for instance, in Oradea, Cluj, Hotin (now Khotyn, Ukraine), and Timişoara
. The head of the church was raised to the rank of patriarch in 1925. Orthodox ecclesiastical art flourished in this period due to the erection of new Orthodox churches especially in the towns of Transylvania. The 1920s also witnessed the emergence of Orthodox revival movements, among them the "Lord's Army" founded in 1923 by Iosif Trifa
. Conservative Orthodox groups who refused to use the Gregorian calendar
adopted by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1925 formed the separate Old Calendar Romanian Orthodox Church
.
In this period, the preservation of ethnic minorities' cultural heritage became a primary responsibility of the traditional Protestant denominations. Thus the Reformed Church became closely identified with a large segment of the local Hungarian community
, and the Lutheran Church perceived itself as the bearer of Transylvanian Saxon culture. Among the new Protestant denominations, the Pentecostal movement
was declared illegal in 1923. The intense hostility between the Baptist and Orthodox communities also culminated in the temporary closing of all Baptist churches in 1938.
in 1944, Romania lost Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union
. Consequently, the Orthodox dioceses in these territories were subordinated to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Romania, the Communist Party
used the same tactics as in other Eastern Europe
an countries. First it supported a coalition government, but in short time drove out all other parties from power.
The 1948 Law on Religious Denominations formally upheld freedom of religion, but ambiguous stipulations obliged both priests and believers to conform to the constitution, national security
, public order, and accepted morality. For example, priests who voiced anti-communist attitudes could be deprived of their state-sponsored salaries. The new law acknowledged fourteen denominations, among them the Old Rite Christian, Baptist, Adventist and Pentecostal churches, but the Romanian Church united with Rome was abolished.
Although the Orthodox church was completely subordinated to the state through the appointment of patriarchs sympathetic to the Communists, over 1,700 Orthodox priests out of a total number of 9,000 were arrested between 1945 and 1964. The Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae
whose three-volume Dogmatic Theology presents a synthesis of patristic and contemporary themes was imprisoned between 1958 and 1964. The first Romanian saints were also canonized between 1950 and 1955. Among them, the 17th-century Sava Brancovici was appreciated for his relations with Russia.
Some other denominations met an even more tragic faith. For instance, four of the five arrested Uniate bishops died in prison. Religious dissident
movements became especially active between 1975 and 1983. For instance, the Orthodox priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa
who had spent sixteen years in prison was condemned to ten more because of his sermons on the relationship of atheism
, faith, and Marxism
. The crisis that led to the regim's fall in 1989
also started with the staunch resistance of the Reformed pastor László Tőkés
whom the authorities wanted to silence.
on December 22, 1989. The poet Mircea Dinescu
, who was the first to speak on liberated Romanian television began his statement with the words: "God has returned his face toward Romania again". The new constitution of Romania, adopted in 1992, guarantees the freedom of thought, opinion, and religious beliefs when manifested in a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect. Now eighteen groups are recognized as religious denominations in the country. Over 350 other religious associations has also been registered, but they do not enjoy the right to build houses of worship or to perform rites of baptism, marriage, or burial.
Since the fall of Communism, about fourteen new Orthodox theology faculties and seminaries have been opened, Orthodox monasteries have been reopened, and even new monasteries has been found, for example, in Recea
. The Holy Synod has canonized new saints, among them Stephen the Great of Moldavia (1457–1504), and declared the second Sunday after Pentecost
the "Sunday of the Romanian Saints".
The Greek Catholic hierarchy was fully restored in 1990. The four Roman Catholic dioceses in Transylvania, composed primarily of Hungarian-speaking inhabitants, hoped to be united into a distinct ecclesiastical province, but only Alba Iulia was raised to an archbishopric and placed directly under the jurisdiction of the Holy See in 1992. Owing to the exodus of the Transylvanian Saxons to Germany, only 30,000 of the members of the German Lutheran Church remained in Romania by the end of 1991. According to the 2002 census, 86.7 percent of Romania's total population was Orthodox, 4.7 percent Roman Catholic, 3.2 percent Reformed, 1.5 percent Pentecostal, 0.9 percent Greek Catholic, and 0.6 percent Baptist.
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of Lower Moesia where many Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
s suffered martyrdom at the end of the 3rd century. Nevertheless, Christian communities have been attested in several locations on the territory of modern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
by over a hundred archaeological finds from the 3rd-4th centuries. Sources from the 7th and 10th centuries are, however, so scarce that Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
seems to have disappeared in this period.
Alone among the peoples speaking a Romance language
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, the vast majority of Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
are adherent to the Orthodox Church. The basic Christian terminology of the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
is of Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
origin, but the Romanians, mentioned also as Vlachs
Vlachs
Vlach is a blanket term covering several modern Latin peoples descending from the Latinised population in Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. English variations on the name include: Walla, Wlachs, Wallachs, Vlahs, Olahs or Ulahs...
in medieval sources, borrowed numerous South Slavic
South Slavic languages
The South Slavic languages comprise one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches by a belt of German, Hungarian and Romanian speakers...
terms due to their adoption of the liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
officiated in Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic
Old Church Slavonic or Old Church Slavic was the first literary Slavic language, first developed by the 9th century Byzantine Greek missionaries Saints Cyril and Methodius who were credited with standardizing the language and using it for translating the Bible and other Ancient Greek...
. The earliest Romanian translations of religious texts appeared in the 15th century, and the first complete translation of the Bible
Bucharest Bible of 1688
The Bucharest Bible was the first complete translation of the Bible into the Romanian language, published in Bucharest in 1688. Originally written in the Cyrillic alphabet, its full title was Biblia adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a Vechiului şi Noului Testament...
was published in 1688.
The oldest proof that a church hierarchy existed among Romanians in the territory what is now Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
is a papal bull
Papal bull
A Papal bull is a particular type of letters patent or charter issued by a Pope of the Catholic Church. It is named after the bulla that was appended to the end in order to authenticate it....
of 1234. In the territories east and south of the Carpathian Mountains
Carpathian Mountains
The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the second-longest mountain range in Europe...
two metropolitan sees subordinated to the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople were set up after the foundation of two principalities, Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
and Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
in the 14th century. The flowering of monasticism
Christian monasticism
Christian monasticism is a practice which began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, including those in the Old Testament, but not mandated as an institution in the scriptures. It has come to be regulated by religious rules Christian...
in Moldavia provided a historical link between the 14th-century Hesychast revival and modern developments of the monastic tradition in Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Orthodoxy, however, was only tolerated in the regions west of the Carpathians, for centuries parts of the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
, where Roman Catholic diocese
Diocese
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance...
s were established in the 11th century. In these territories, transformed into the Principality of Transylvania in the 16th century, four "received religions" – Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
, Catholicism, Lutheranism
Lutheranism
Lutheranism is a major branch of Western Christianity that identifies with the theology of Martin Luther, a German reformer. Luther's efforts to reform the theology and practice of the church launched the Protestant Reformation...
, and Unitarianism
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
– were granted a privileged status. After the principality had been annexed by the Habsburg Empire, a part of the local Orthodox clergy declared the union with Rome in 1698.
The autocephaly
Autocephaly
Autocephaly , in hierarchical Christian churches and especially Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, is the status of a hierarchical church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop...
of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
was canonical
Canonical
Canonical is an adjective derived from canon. Canon comes from the greek word κανών kanon, "rule" or "measuring stick" , and is used in various meanings....
ly recognized in 1885, years after the union of Wallachia and Moldavia into Romania
United Principalities
The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, also known as the Romanian Principalities, was the official name of Romania following the 1859 election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince or domnitor of both territories...
. The Orthodox Church and the Romanian Church United with Rome were declared national church
National church
National church is a concept of a Christian church associated with a specific ethnic group or nation state. The idea was notably discussed during the 19th century, during the emergence of modern nationalism....
es in 1923. The Communist authorities abolished the latter, and the former was subordinated to the government in 1948. The Uniate Church was reestablished when the Communist regime collapsed in 1989. Now the Constitution of Romania
Constitution of Romania
The 1991 Constitution of Romania, adopted on 21 November 1991, voted in the referendum of 8 December 1991 and introduced on the same day, is the current fundamental law that establishes the structure of the government of Romania, the rights and obligations of the country's citizens, and its mode...
emphasizes the denominations' autonomy from the state.
Pre-Christian religions
Getae
The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
, an Indo-European
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
people inhabiting the Lower Danube region in Antiquity
Ancient history
Ancient history is the study of the written past from the beginning of recorded human history to the Early Middle Ages. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, with Cuneiform script, the oldest discovered form of coherent writing, from the protoliterate period around the 30th century BC...
, was characterized by a belief in the immortality
Immortality
Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...
of the soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
. Its other feature was the cult of Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis
Zalmoxis , is a divinity of the Getae, mentioned by Herodotus in his Histories IV, 93-96...
with whom they communicated by means of human sacrifice
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
s.
Modern Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
– the territory between the river Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
and the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
– was annexed to the Roman province
Roman province
In Ancient Rome, a province was the basic, and, until the Tetrarchy , largest territorial and administrative unit of the empire's territorial possessions outside of Italy...
of Moesia
Moesia
Moesia was an ancient region and later Roman province situated in the Balkans, along the south bank of the Danube River. It included territories of modern-day Southern Serbia , Northern Republic of Macedonia, Northern Bulgaria, Romanian Dobrudja, Southern Moldova, and Budjak .-History:In ancient...
in 46 AD. Here the cults of Greek gods remained prevalent even after the conquest. Modern Banat, Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
, and Transylvania were transformed into the Roman province of "Dacia Traiana
Roman Dacia
The Roman province of Dacia on the Balkans included the modern Romanian regions of Transylvania, Banat and Oltenia, and temporarily Muntenia and southern Moldova, but not the nearby regions of Moesia...
" in 106. Due to massive colonization, cults originating in the empire's other provinces entered Dacia. Of all epigraphic monuments
Epigraphy
Epigraphy Epigraphy Epigraphy (from the , literally "on-writing", is the study of inscriptions or epigraphs as writing; that is, the science of identifying the graphemes and of classifying their use as to cultural context and date, elucidating their meaning and assessing what conclusions can be...
, around 73 percent was dedicated to Graeco-Roman gods.
The end of the official existence of "Dacia Traiana" province came in the 270s. Modern Dobruja became a separate province under the name of Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor
Scythia Minor, "Lesser Scythia" was in ancient times the region surrounded by the Danube at the north and west and the Black Sea at the east, corresponding to today's Dobruja, with a part in Romania and a part in Bulgaria....
in 297.
Origin of the Romanians' Christianity
The core religious vocabulary of the Romanian language is of Latin origin. Christian words that have been preserved from Latin include a boteza ("to baptizeBaptism
In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...
"), Paşte ("Easter"), preot ("priest"), and cruce ("cross"). Some of them, for example biserică ("church", from basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
) and Dumnezeu ("God", from Domine Deus), are independent of their synonym
Synonym
Synonyms are different words with almost identical or similar meanings. Words that are synonyms are said to be synonymous, and the state of being a synonym is called synonymy. The word comes from Ancient Greek syn and onoma . The words car and automobile are synonyms...
s in other Romance languages.
The Romanian language also adopted many Slavic religious terms. For example, words like duh ("soul, spirit"), iad ("hell
Hell in Christian beliefs
Christian views on Hell vary, but in general traditionally agree that hell is a place or a state in which the souls of the unsaved suffer the consequences of sin....
"), rai ("paradise"), and taină ("mystery, sacraments") are of South Slavic origin. Even terms of Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
or Latin origin, among them călugar ("monk") and Rusalii ("Whitsuntide"), entered Romanian through Slavic. A smaller number of religious terms are borrowed from Hungarian, for instance mântuire (salvation
Salvation
Within religion salvation is the phenomenon of being saved from the undesirable condition of bondage or suffering experienced by the psyche or soul that has arisen as a result of unskillful or immoral actions generically referred to as sins. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or...
)and pildă (parable
Parables of Jesus
The parables of Jesus can be found in all the Canonical gospels as well as in some of the non-canonical gospels but are located mainly within the three synoptic gospels. They represent a key part of the teachings of Jesus, forming approximately one third of his recorded teachings...
).
The origin of Christianity among the Romanians is still debated by historians. Those who think that the Romanians descended from the inhabitants of "Dacia Traiana" suggest that the spread of Christianity coincided with the formation of the Romanian people. Their ancestors' Romanization and Christianization, a direct result of the contact between the native Dacians and the Roman colonists, lasted for several centuries They adopted Slavonic liturgy when it was introduced in the neighboring First Bulgarian Empire
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
and Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus'
Kievan Rus was a medieval polity in Eastern Europe, from the late 9th to the mid 13th century, when it disintegrated under the pressure of the Mongol invasion of 1237–1240....
in the 9th–10th centuries. According to historians who suggest that the Romanians descended from the inhabitants of the Roman provinces to the south of the Danube, the Romanians' ancestors turned to Christianity after it was legalized throughout the Roman Empire in 313
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan was a letter signed by emperors Constantine I and Licinius that proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire...
. They adopted the Slavonic liturgy in the First Bulgarian Empire before their migration to the territory of modern Romania began in the 11th-12th centuries.
Roman times
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
communities dates from 2nd
-3rd centuries. According to a tradition first recorded by Hippolytus of Rome in the early 3rd century, Jesus Christ' teaching was first propagated in "Scythia" by St. Andrew. If "Scythia" refers to Scythia Minor, and not to the Crimea
Crimea
Crimea , or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , is a sub-national unit, an autonomous republic, of Ukraine. It is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea, occupying a peninsula of the same name...
as it has been claimed by the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
, Christianity in Romania can be considered of "apostolic origin".
The existence of Christian communities in "Dacia Traiana" province is still not proven incontestably. Some Christian objects are, although not unanimously, dated to the 3rd century, to the period preceding the Roman withdrawal. Among them, vessels with the sign of the cross, cryptograms or diverse Christian symbols, such as fish or grape stalks, were discovered in Ulpia Traiana, Porolissum
Porolissum
Porolissum was an ancient Roman city in Dacia. Established as a military camp in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the province Dacia Porolissensis in 124. The site is one of the largest and best-preserved...
, Potaissa, Apulum
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...
, Romula
Romula
Romula or Malva was an ancient city in Roman Dacia, nowadays being the village of Reşca, Dobrosloveni Commune, Olt County, Romania It was the capital of Dacia Malvensis, one of the three subdivisions of the province of Dacia....
, Gherla
Gherla
Gherla is a city in Cluj County, Romania . It is located 45 km from Cluj-Napoca on the Someşul Mic River, and has a population of 24,083....
and other settlements, and a gem representing the Good Shepherd
Good Shepherd
Good Shepherd may refer to:In Christianity:* The Good Shepherd , pericope found in John 10:1-21, and a popular image in which the Good Shepherd represents Jesus...
was found at Potaissa. On a funerary altar in Napoca the sign of the cross was carved inside the letter "O" of the original pagan inscription of the monument, and pagan monuments that were later Christianized were also found at Ampelum
Zlatna
Zlatna is a town in Alba County, central Transylvania, Romania. It has a population of 8,607.- Administration :The town administers eighteen villages: Boteşti , Budeni , Dealu Roatei , Dobrot, Dumbrava, Feneş , Galaţi , Izvoru Ampoiului , Pârău Gruiului , Pătrângeni ,...
and Potaissa. A turquoise golden ring with the inscription "EGO SVM FLAGELLVM IOVIS CONTRA PERVERSOS CHRISTIANOS" ("I am Jupiter's scourge against the dissolute Christians") may be related to the Christian persecutions in the mid-3rd century.
In Scythia Minor a large number of Christians suffered martyrdom
Christian martyrs
A Christian martyr is one who is killed for following Christianity, through stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake or other forms of torture and capital punishment. The word "martyr" comes from the Greek word μάρτυς, mártys, which means "witness."...
during the Diocletianic Persecution at the turn of the 3rd and 4th centuries. For instance, four martyrs' relics were discovered in a crypt at Niculiţel
Niculitel
Niculiţel is a commune in Tulcea County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Niculiţel....
with their names written in Greek on the crypt's inner wall. Thirty-five basilica
Basilica
The Latin word basilica , was originally used to describe a Roman public building, usually located in the forum of a Roman town. Public basilicas began to appear in Hellenistic cities in the 2nd century BC.The term was also applied to buildings used for religious purposes...
s built in the 4th-6th centuries have been discovered in the main towns of the province, for example in Tropaeum Traiani
Tropaeum Traiani
The Tropaeum Traiani is a monument in Roman Civitas Tropaensium , built in 109 in then Moesia Inferior, to commemorate Roman Emperor Trajan's victory over the Dacians, in 102, in the Battle of Tapae. The monument was erected on the place where legio XXI Rapax had previously been defeated in 92...
(now Adamclisi
Adamclisi
Adamclisi is a commune in Constanţa County, in the Dobrogea region of Romania.-History:In ancient times, a Roman castrum named Civitas Tropaensium was settled here and in 109 AD a monument named Tropaeum Traiani was built to commemorate the Roman Empire's victories over the Dacians.Colonized with...
). The earliest basilica yet found north of the Lower Danube was erected at Sucidava
Sucidava
Sucidava is a Dacian and Daco-Roman historical site, situated in Corabia, Romania on the north bank of the Danube...
(now Celei
Tismana
Tismana is a town in Gorj County, Romania. It administers ten villages: Celei, Costeni, Gornoviţa, Isvarna, Pocruia, Racoţi, Sohodol, Topeşti, Vâlcele and Vânăta....
), in one of the Roman forts rebuilt under Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
(527–565). In the 6th century burial chambers were built in Callatis (now Mangalia
Mangalia
Mangalia , is a city and a port on the coast of the Black Sea in the south-east of Constanţa County, Romania.The municipality of Mangalia also administers several summer time seaside resorts: Cap Aurora, Jupiter, Neptun, Olimp, Saturn, Venus.-History:...
), Capidava
Capidava
Capidava is a South American spider genus of the Salticidae family .-Species:* Capidava annulipes Caporiacco, 1947 — Guyana* Capidava auriculata Simon, 1902 — Brazil* Capidava biuncata Simon, 1902 — Brazil...
and other towns of Scythia Minor with walls painted with quotes from the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
.
Some clerics from Scythia Minor were involved in the theological controversies debated at the first four Ecumenical Councils
First seven Ecumenical Councils
In the history of Christianity, the first seven Ecumenical Councils, from the First Council of Nicaea to the Second Council of Nicaea , represent an attempt to reach an orthodox consensus and to establish a unified Christendom as the State church of the Roman Empire...
. For instance, Saint Bretanion defended the Orthodox faith against Arianism
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
in the 360s. The metropolitans
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
of the province who supervised fourteen bishops by the end of the 5th century had their see in Tomis (modern Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
). The last of them was mentioned in the 6th century, before Scythia Minor succumbed to the Avars
Eurasian Avars
The Eurasian Avars or Ancient Avars were a highly organized nomadic confederacy of mixed origins. They were ruled by a khagan, who was surrounded by a tight-knit entourage of nomad warriors, an organization characteristic of Turko-Mongol groups...
and Sclavenes
Early Slavs
The early Slavs were a diverse group of tribal societies in Migration period and early medieval Europe whose tribal organizations indirectly created the foundations for today’s Slavic nations .The first mention of the name Slavs dates to the 6th century, by which time the Slavic tribes inhabited a...
who also destroyed the forts on the Lower Danube.
Between Romans and Bulgars
Porolissum
Porolissum was an ancient Roman city in Dacia. Established as a military camp in 106 during Trajan's Dacian Wars, the city quickly grew through trade with the native Dacians and became the capital of the province Dacia Porolissensis in 124. The site is one of the largest and best-preserved...
, were transformed into Christian cult sites following the Roman withdrawal is a matter of debate among archaeologists. One of the first Christian objects found in Transylvania is a pierced bronze inscription
Biertan Donarium
The Biertan Donarium is a fourth century Christian votive object found near the town of Biertan, in Transylvania, Romania.Made out of bronze in the shape of a Labarum, it has the Latin text EGO ZENOVIUS VOTUM POSVI, which can be approximatively translated as "I, Zenovius, offered this gift".It was...
discovered at Biertan
Biertan
Biertan is a commune in central Romania, in the north of the Sibiu County, 80 km north of Sibiu and 15 km east of Mediaş. Biertan is one of the most important Saxon villages with fortified churches in Transylvania, having been on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1993...
. A few 4th-century graves in the local Sântana de Mureş–Chernyakhov
Chernyakhov culture
The Sântana de Mureș–Chernyakhiv culture is the name given to an archaeological culture which flourished between the 2nd and 5th centuries in a wide area of Eastern Europe, specifically in what today constitutes Ukraine, Romania, Moldova, and parts of Belarus...
necropolis
Necropolis
A necropolis is a large cemetery or burial ground, usually including structural tombs. The word comes from the Greek νεκρόπολις - nekropolis, literally meaning "city of the dead"...
es had a Christian, that is west–east orientation. Clay
Clay
Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
lamps from the 5th–6th centuries found in the former province are especially numerous. Those discovered, for instance, at Gherla and Feldioara
Feldioara
Feldioara is a Romanian commune located in Transylvania, very close to Braşov . It is composed of three villages: Colonia Reconstrucţia , Feldioara and Rotbav ....
bear the sign of the cross.
"Dacia Traiana" was possessed by "Taifali, Victuali, and Tervingi" around 350. Christian teachings among the Tervingi who formed the Western group of the Goths
Goths
The Goths were an East Germanic tribe of Scandinavian origin whose two branches, the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, played an important role in the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Medieval Europe....
started in the 3rd century. For instance, the ancestors of Ulfilas
Ulfilas
Ulfilas, or Gothic Wulfila , bishop, missionary, and Bible translator, was a Goth or half-Goth and half-Greek from Cappadocia who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy. Ulfilas was ordained a bishop by Eusebius of Nicomedia and returned to his people to work...
who would be consecrated "bishop of the Christians in the Getic land" in 341 were captured in Capadocia (Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
) in the 250s. During the first Gothic persecution of Christians in 348, Ulfilas was expelled to Moesia where he continued to preach "in the Greek, Latin, and Gothic
Gothic language
Gothic is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from the Codex Argenteus, a 6th-century copy of a 4th-century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic language with a sizable Text corpus...
tongues". During the second persecution, between 369 and 372, many believers, among them Sabbas the Goth
Sabbas the Goth
Sabbas the Goth is a martyr and Christian saint.He was born in 334 to Christian parents in a village in the Buzău river valley and lived in what is now the Wallachia region in Romania...
, suffered martyrdom. The remains of twenty-six Gothic martyrs
Wereka and Batwin
Wereka and Batwin were two of several Christian Gothic martyrs burned alive in church by the local district royal officer and sacred pontiff, otherwise known as goði, *Wingureiks in the 370s...
were transferred to the Roman Empire years after the invasion of the Huns in 376.
Following the collapse of the Hunnic Empire
Hunnic Empire
The Hunnic Empire was an empire established by the Huns. The Huns were a confederation of Eurasian tribes from the steppes of Central Asia. Appearing from beyond the Volga River some years after the middle of the 4th century, they first overran the Alani, who occupied the plains between the Volga...
in 454, the Gepids "ruled as victors over the extent of all Dacia". One of the gold rings from a 5th-century grave at Apahida
Apahida
Apahida is a commune in Cluj County, Romania. It is composed of eight villages: Apahida, Bodrog, Câmpeneşti, Corpadea, Dezmir, Pata, Sânnicoară and Sub Coastă....
is ornamented with crosses. Another ring from the grave bears the inscription "OMHARIVS", probably in reference to Omharus, one of the known Gepid kings. The Gepidic kingdom was annihilated in 567-568 by the Avars.
Even thereafter, the presence of Christians among the "barbarians" is well attested by written sources. Theophylact Simocatta
Theophylact Simocatta
Theophylact Simocatta was an early seventh-century Byzantine historiographer, arguably ranking as the last historian of Late Antiquity, writing in the time of Heraclius about the late Emperor Maurice .-Life:His history of the reign of emperor Maurice is in eight books...
wrote of a Gepid who "had once long before been of the Christian religion". The author of the Strategikon knew of many Romans among the Sclavenes, and some of those Romans may have been Christians. But their presence and proselytism can hardly explain that artifacts with Christian symbolism appeared on sites to the south and east of the Carpathians in the 560s. Such artifacts, among them handmade pots decorated by crosses, were found, for example, at Botoşana
Botosana
Botoşana is a commune located in Suceava County, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Botoşana. It also included Comăneşti and Humoreni villages until 2002, when they were split off to form Comăneşti Commune....
and Dulceanca
Vedea, Teleorman
Vedea is a commune in Teleorman County, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Albeşti, Coşoteni, Dulceanca, Meri and Vedea....
.
Outer-Carpathian regions and the Balkans
Burial assemblages found in 8th-century cemeteries to the south and east of the Carpathians, for instance at CasteluCastelu
Castelu is a commune in Constanţa County, Romania.The commune includes two villages:* Castelu * Nisipari...
, prove that local communities practiced cremation
Cremation
Cremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
. Although it is not impossible that in isolate regions Christianity incorporated pre-Christian practices, the idea that local Christians cremated their dead is a matter of debate among historians. Cremation gave place to inhumation by the beginning of the 11th century.
By the first half of the 9th century at the latest, all the territories between the Lower Danube and the Carpathians were incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire
First Bulgarian Empire
The First Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state founded in the north-eastern Balkans in c. 680 by the Bulgars, uniting with seven South Slavic tribes...
. Boris I
Boris I of Bulgaria
Boris I, also known as Boris-Mihail and Bogoris was the Knyaz of First Bulgarian Empire in 852–889. At the time of his baptism in 864, Boris was named Michael after his godfather, Emperor Michael III...
(852–889) was the Bulgarian ruler who decided to accept Christianity in 863. By that time differences between the Eastern and the Western branches of Christianity had grown significantly. For instance, their views on the procession of the Holy Spirit differed from each other. Boris I allowed the members of the Eastern clergy
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
to enter his country in 864, and the Bulgarian Orthodox Church
Bulgarian Orthodox Church
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church - Bulgarian Patriarchate is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church with some 6.5 million members in the Republic of Bulgaria and between 1.5 and 2.0 million members in a number of European countries, the Americas and Australia...
adopted the Slavonic liturgy in 893. In modern Romania, an inscription in Mircea-Vodă
Mircea Voda, Constanta
Mircea Vodă is a commune in Constanţa County, Dobrogea, Romania.-History:Settlement in the area dates back at least to the time of the Roman Empire. In a place that the local Turks called "Acşandemir Tabiasi", a 10th century castrum was found, which has a stone vallum...
from 943 is the earliest example of the use of Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
.
The First Bulgarian Empire was conquered by the Byzantines
Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria
The Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria lasted from 968 to 1018, and was a military conflict that marked the beginning of the second apogee of the Byzantine Empire, which managed to incorporate most of the Balkan Peninsula, controlled by the First Bulgarian Empire, ridding itself of one of its most...
under Basil II
Basil II
Basil II , known in his time as Basil the Porphyrogenitus and Basil the Young to distinguish him from his ancestor Basil I the Macedonian, was a Byzantine emperor from the Macedonian dynasty who reigned from 10 January 976 to 15 December 1025.The first part of his long reign was dominated...
(976–1025). He soon revived the metropolitan see of Scythia Minor at Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, but put the Vlachs living in the former Bulgarian state under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Ohrid (Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
). The metropolitan see of Moesia was reestablished in Dristra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...
(now Silistra, Bulgaria) in the 1040s when a mission of mass evangelization was dispatched among the Pechenegs who had settled in the Byzantine Empire. Until 1092 one of the metropolitan's suffragan bishops resided the territory of modern Romania, in Axiopolis (now Hinog). The metropolitan status of the see of Dristra was taken over by the bishop of Vicina
Isaccea
Isaccea is a small town in Tulcea County, in Dobruja, Romania, on the right bank of the Danube, 35 km north-west of Tulcea. According to the 2002 census, it has a population 5,374....
in the 1260s.
The Vlachs living in Boeotia
Boeotia
Boeotia, also spelled Beotia and Bœotia , is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. It was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, the second largest city being Thebes.-Geography:...
(Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
) were described as not true Christians by Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela
Benjamin of Tudela was a medieval Jewish traveler who visited Europe, Asia, and Africa in the 12th century. His vivid descriptions of western Asia preceded those of Marco Polo by a hundred years...
in 1165. However, in 1185 the brothers Peter
Peter IV of Bulgaria
Peter IV ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1185–1197. Together with his brother Asen he managed to restore the Bulgarian Empire after nearly 170 years of Byzantine domination.-Name:...
and Asen
Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria
Ivan Asen I ruled as emperor of Bulgaria 1189–1196. The year of his birth is unknown.-Life:...
, when making arrangement for their rebellion against the Byzantine Empire, built a church in order to gather Bulgarian
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
and Vlach prophets to announce that St Demetrius of Thessaloniki had abandoned their enemies. The Bulgarians and the Vlachs soon rose up in arms and created a new state
Second Bulgarian Empire
The Second Bulgarian Empire was a medieval Bulgarian state which existed between 1185 and 1396 . A successor of the First Bulgarian Empire, it reached the peak of its power under Kaloyan and Ivan Asen II before gradually being conquered by the Ottomans in the late 14th-early 15th century...
. The head of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church was elevated to the rank of "primate of the Bulgarians and the Vlachs" in 1204.
Catholic mission among the Cumans
Cumans
The Cumans were Turkic nomadic people comprising the western branch of the Cuman-Kipchak confederation. After Mongol invasion , they decided to seek asylum in Hungary, and subsequently to Bulgaria...
who had controlled the territories north of the Lower Danube and east of the Carpathians from the 1070s was first carried on by the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
, and from 1225 by the Dominicans. A new Catholic diocese was set up in the region in 1228 by Archbishop Robert of Esztergom, the papal legate for "Cumania and the Brodnik
Brodnici
The Brodnici were a 13th-century people whose ethnicity is uncertain, as various authors suggest they were Slavic, mixed Romanian-Jassic, Romanian-Slavic, or Turkic-Slavic population, probably vassals of Galicia for a period. Brodnici did not leave any provable material or written traces, which...
lands". A letter written by Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX
Pope Gregory IX, born Ugolino di Conti, was pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241.The successor of Pope Honorius III , he fully inherited the traditions of Pope Gregory VII and of his uncle Pope Innocent III , and zealously continued their policy of Papal supremacy.-Early life:Ugolino was...
, however, reveals that many of its inhabitants were Orthodox Romanians who also converted Hungarian and Saxon colonists to their faith.
Intra-Carpathian regions
Christian objects disappeared in Transylvania after the 7th century. Most local cemeteries were now characterized by cremation graves. Inhumation graves with west–east orientation from the late 9th or early 10th century were found at Ciumbrud and OrăştieOrastie
Orăștie is a city in Hunedoara County, south-western Transylvania, Romania.-History:7th–9th century – on the site of an old swamp , which today is the old center of town, it was a human settlement whose traces have been scattered into the X-th century by the construction of the first...
. The territory was invaded by the Hungarians around 896. At that time, according to the 13th-century Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum
Gesta Hungarorum is a record of early Hungarian history by an unknown author who describes himself as Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii , but is generally cited as Anonymus...
("Deeds of the Hungarians"), Crişana
Crisana
Crișana is a geographical and historical region divided today between Romania and Hungary, named after the Criș River and its three tributaries: the Crișul Alb, Crișul Negru and Crișul Repede....
was ruled by Menumorut
Menumorut
For the residential district named after him, see Menumorut, Satu MareMenumorut or Menumorout ruled, according to the 13th century Gesta Ungarorum , the land between the rivers Tisa, Mureş and Someş when the Magyars invaded the Carpathian Basin around 895...
and Glad
Glad (duke)
Glad was a duke of Bulgarian origin who, according to the 13th-century chronicle Gesta Ungarorum "", ruled in the territory of modern Banat at the time of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin around 896...
reigned in the Banat, while Transylvania was inhabited by "Vlachs and Slavs" and ruled by Gelou
Gelou
Gelou or Gelu was a Romanian duke mentioned in Gesta Hungarorum as having opposed the conquest of Transylvania by Tuhutum, one of the “seven dukes” of the Magyars. His story was recorded only by the anonymous writer of the 13th century Gesta...
. The existence of these polities, however, is under debate among historians.
The second-ranked leader of the Hungarian tribal federation, the gyula converted to Christianity in Constantinople
Constantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
around 952. He was accompanied back to his country by the Greek Hierotheos, the bishop of Tourkia ("Hungary") appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Pectoral cross
Pectoral cross
A pectoral cross or pectorale is a cross, usually relatively large, suspended from the neck by a cord or chain that reaches well down the chest. It is worn by the clergy as an indication of their position, and is different from the small crosses worn on necklaces by many Christians, which have no...
es of Byzantine origin from this period have been found at the confluence of the rivers Mureş
Mures River
The Mureș is an approximately 761 km long river in Eastern Europe. It originates in the Hășmașu Mare Range in the Eastern Carpathian Mountains, Romania, and joins the Tisza river at Szeged in southeastern Hungary....
and Tisa
Tisá
Tisá is a village and municipality in Ústí nad Labem District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic.The municipality covers an area of , and has a population of 786 ....
. From Transylvania, a bronze cross from Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia
Alba Iulia is a city in Alba County, Transylvania, Romania with a population of 66,747, located on the Mureş River. Since the High Middle Ages, the city has been the seat of Transylvania's Roman Catholic diocese. Between 1541 and 1690 it was the capital of the Principality of Transylvania...
, and a Byzantine pectoral cross from Dăbâca
Dabâca, Cluj
Dăbâca is a commune in Cluj County, Romania. It is composed of three villages: Dăbâca, Luna de Jos and Pâglişa.- Demographics :According to the census from 2002 there was a total population of 1,804 people living in this town. Of this population, 87.91% are ethnic Romanians, 7.53% are ethnic...
may be dated to the 10th century. A monastery for Greek monks was founded at Cenad
Cenad
Cenad is a commune in Timiş County, Banat, Romania. It is composed of a single village, Cenad.-Demography:...
by a chieftain named Achtum who was baptized according to the Greek rite
Byzantine Rite
The Byzantine Rite, sometimes called the Rite of Constantinople or Constantinopolitan Rite is the liturgical rite used currently by all the Eastern Orthodox Churches, by the Greek Catholic Churches , and by the Protestant Ukrainian Lutheran Church...
around 1002.
Gyula
Gyula III
Gyula III, also Gyula the Younger, Geula or Gyla, was an early medieval ruler who apparently ruled in Transylvania . His actual name was probably Prokui, yet Prokui cannot possibly be the same as Gyula. Around 1003, he and his family were attacked, dispossessed and captured by King Stephen I of...
's country, as well as Achtum's territory were incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
The Kingdom of Hungary comprised present-day Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia , Transylvania , Carpatho Ruthenia , Vojvodina , Burgenland , and other smaller territories surrounding present-day Hungary's borders...
under Stephen I (c. 1000–1038) who had been baptized according to the Latin rite. It was he who introduced the tithe
Tithe
A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...
, a church tax assessed on agricultural products. The date of foundation of the first three Roman Catholic dioceses – the bishoprics of Transylvania
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Alba Iulia is an archdiocese in Transylvania, Romania. It was established as the Diocese of Transylvania in 1009 by Stephen I of Hungary and was renamed as the Diocese of Alba Iulia on 22 March 1932...
, Cenad
Roman Catholic Diocese of Szeged–Csanád
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Szeged–Csanád is a diocese located in the cities of Szeged and Csanád in the Ecclesiastical province of Kalocsa-Kecskemét in Hungary.-History:* 1035: Established as Diocese of Csanád...
and Oradea
Roman Catholic Diocese of Oradea Mare
The Diocese of Oradea is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Romania, with the episcopal see in the city of Oradea. It covers most of Crişana—the counties of Bihor and Arad, 10.5% of which are Catholic. Its adherents are predominantly Hungarian. It is subordinate to the Bucharest...
– in the territory of modern Romania is still debated. They all became suffragans
Suffragan Diocese
A suffragan diocese is a diocese in the Catholic Church that is overseen not only by its own diocesan bishop but also by a metropolitan bishop. The metropolitan is always an archbishop who governs his own archdiocese...
of the archbishop of Kalocsa
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kalocsa–Kecskemét is an Archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Hungary. Since 1993, its official name is Archdiocese of Kalocsa-Kecskemét. The diocese is the metropolitan of the Diocese of Pécs and the Diocese of Szeged-Csanád. The patron...
(Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
). The provostship of Sibiu
Sibiu
Sibiu is a city in Transylvania, Romania with a population of 154,548. Located some 282 km north-west of Bucharest, the city straddles the Cibin River, a tributary of the river Olt...
was transferred, upon the local Saxons
Transylvanian Saxons
The Transylvanian Saxons are a people of German ethnicity who settled in Transylvania from the 12th century onwards.The colonization of Transylvania by Germans was begun by King Géza II of Hungary . For decades, the main task of the German settlers was to defend the southeastern border of the...
's request, under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Esztergom (Hungary) in 1212.
Large cemeteries grew around the churches built, for example, at Dăbâca and Moldoveneşti
Moldovenesti
Moldoveneşti is a commune in Cluj County, Romania, 12 km South-West of Turda, in the valley of the Arieş.-History:...
after the synod of Szabolcs
Szabolcs (village)
The village Szabolcs lies in the county Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg in the north-east of Hungary.It got its name from the Hungarian leader Szabolcs who founded it and settled there in the 9th/10th century...
(Hungary) of 1092 insisted on burials in churchyard
Churchyard
A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....
s. The first Benedictine
Order of Saint Benedict
The Order of Saint Benedict is a Roman Catholic religious order of independent monastic communities that observe the Rule of St. Benedict. Within the order, each individual community maintains its own autonomy, while the organization as a whole exists to represent their mutual interests...
monastery in Transylvania was founded at Cluj-Manăştur
Manastur
Mănăştur is a district of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca, built during Nicolae Ceauşescu's systematisation programme on the site of an older settlement. Its population as of 2007 is approximately 126,600...
in the second half of the 11th century. In the next centuries new monasteries were established in Almaşu
Almasu
Almaşu is a commune located in Sălaj County, Romania. It is composed of nine villages: Almaşu, Băbiu, Cutiş, Jebucu, Mesteacănu, Petrinzel, Sfăraş, Stana and Ţăudu....
, Herina
Galaţii Bistriţei
Galaţii Bistriţei is a commune in Bistriţa-Năsăud County, Romania. It is composed of five villages: Albeştii Bistriţei, Dipşa, Galaţii Bistriţei, Herina and Tonciu....
, Mănăstireni
Manastireni
Mănăstireni is a commune in Cluj County, Romania, located on the Căpuş River. It is composed of six villages: Ardeova, Bedeciu, Bica, Dretea, Mănăstireni and Mănăşturu Românesc.It is known for its churches, some of them made in wood.- Demographics :...
, Meseş
Mirsid
Mirşid is a commune located in Sălaj County, Romania. It is composed of four villages: Firminiş, Mirşid, Moigrad-Porolissum and Popeni....
, and other settlements. When the Cistercian abbey at Cârţa
Cârta Monastery
Cârţa Monastery is a former Cistercian monastery in the Ţara Făgăraşului region in southern Transylvania in Romania, currently a Lutheran Evangelical church belonging to the local Saxon community...
was set up in the early 13th century, its estates were carved out of the "land of the Vlachs".
The enmity between the Eastern and Western Churches increased in the 11th century
East–West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...
. The archbishop of Kalocsa, for instance, decided to place an Orthodox diocese in the "country of the sons of Beleknese" under his jurisdiction in 1205. Whether it was situated in the territory of modern Romania is a matter of debate among historians.
Orthodox Church in the Kingdom of Hungary
Although the Council of Buda prohibited the "schismatic" to erect churches in 1279, numerous Orthodox churches were built in the period beginning with the last decades of the 13th century. They were mainly made of wood, but the local cneazes in the region of HaţegHateg
Hațeg is a town in Hunedoara County, Romania with a population of 12,507. Three villages are administered by the town: Nălațvad, Silvașu de Jos and Silvașu de Sus.Țara Hațegului is the region around Hațeg town...
, that is the leaders of the Romanian communities had stone churches erected on their estates. These churches were built on the plan of a Greek cross, but some of them, for instance the one at Densuş
Densus Church
The Densuş Church in the village of Densuş, Hunedoara County, Romania is one of the oldest Romanian churches still standing....
, displays elements of Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
or Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
. Many churches were painted with votive portraits illustrating the founders. Thus the name of the local cneaz can be read on a fresco, painted in 1313-1314, of the church at Streisângeorgiu.
From the last decades of the 14th century, local Orthodox hierarchy was often under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan sees of Wallachia and Moldavia. For instance, the metropolitan of Wallachia also styled himself "exarch of all Hungary and the borderlands" in 1401. Nevertheless, local eparchies were also mentioned. Among them, Archbishop Ghelasie in the monastery at Râmeţ
Râmet
Râmeţ is a commune located in Alba County, Romania. It has a population of 751, and is composed of thirteen villages: Boţani, Brădeşti, Cheia, Cotorăşti, Floreşti, Olteni, Râmeţ, Valea Făgetului, Valea Inzelului, Valea Mănăstirii, Valea Poienii, Valea Uzei and Vlădeşti.-References:...
in 1376 is the first on record. Orthodox monasteries in the kingdom, among them Şcheii Braşovolui
St. Nicholas Church, Brasov
Saint Nicholas Church is a Romanian Orthodox church in Braşov, dominating the historic district of Şchei.The church was established in 1292. It was mentioned in a Papal bull issued in 1399 by Pope Boniface IX. Starting in 1495, the church was rebuilt in stone by the locals, with help from Vlad...
, were centers of Slavonic writing. Books of the Bible, for example Acts
ACTS
Acts or ACTS may refer to:Christianity* Acts of the Apostles , a genre of early Christian literature* Acts of the Apostles, the fifth book in the Bible's New Testament...
and the Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
, were also first translated into Romanian by monks in Maramureş
Maramures
Maramureș may refer to the following:*Maramureș, a geographical, historical, and ethno-cultural region in present-day Romania and Ukraine, that occupies the Maramureș Depression and Maramureș Mountains, a mountain range in North East Carpathians...
in the 15th century.
Orthodox believers' position, however, had already worsened under Louis I of Hungary (1342–1382) who ordered the arrest of the "Slavic or schismatic" priests in the counties of Cuvin and Caraş in 1366. He also decreed that only those who "loyally follow the faith of the Roman Church may keep and own properties" in the districts of Haţeg, Caransebeş
Caransebes
Caransebeş is a city in Caraş-Severin County, part of the Banat region in southwestern Romania. It is located at the confluence of the river Timiş with the river Sebeş, the latter coming from the Ţarcu Mountains. To the west, it is in direct contact with the Banat hills...
and Mehadia
Mehadia
Mehadia is a small market town and commune in Caraş-Severin County, Romania. It lies on the European route E70, in the Cerna River valley. The town is located on the site of the ancient Roman colony Ad Mediam and was noted for its Hercules baths. It had a population of 2,492 in 1900, and of 4,474...
. Conversion was, however, so infrequent in this period that the Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
Bartholomew of Alverna complained, in 1379, that "some stupid and indifferent people" disapprove of the conversion of "the Slavs and Romanians". Resistance came not only from the Romanians, for whom conversion would have resulted in the obligatory payment of the tithe, but also from Catholic landowners. Thus Romanian "chapels" and stone churches built on the estates of Catholic noblemen and bishops were frequently mentioned in charters from the very end of the 14th century.
A special inquisitor
Inquisitor
An inquisitor was an official in an Inquisition, an organisation or program intended to eliminate heresy and other things frowned on by the Roman Catholic Church...
sent against the Hussite
Hussite
The Hussites were a Christian movement following the teachings of Czech reformer Jan Hus , who became one of the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation...
s by the pope also took forcible measures against "schismatics" in 1436. Following the union of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches at the Council of Florence
Council of Florence
The Council of Florence was an Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It began in 1431 in Basel, Switzerland, and became known as the Council of Ferrara after its transfer to Ferrara was decreed by Pope Eugene IV, to convene in 1438...
in 1439, the local Romanian Church was considered to be united with Rome. Thus a certain John of Caffa who opposed the Church union
Church union
Church union is the name given to a merger of two or more Christian denominations. Such unions may occur in one of two ways.- United churches :Some churches have formed as a result of a merger of churches of different denominations...
was imprisoned.
Although the monarchs only insisted on the conversion of the Romanian cneazes living in the southern borderlands, many Romanian noblemen
Nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary
The origin of the nobility in the Kingdom of Hungary can be traced to the Magyar conquest of Pannonia in the 9th century, and it developed over the course of the Middle Ages...
turned Catholic in the 15th century. However, even thereafter many Orthodox priests came from cneaz families. For instance, three noble members of a landowning cneaz family in the Haţeg region were priests in 1494.
Systematic efforts to convert Romanians to Calvinism were made by Transylvanian authorities in the second half of the 16th century. Even the expulsion of the priests who did not convert to the "true faith" was ordered in 1566. Orthodox hierarchy was only restored under Stephen Báthory
Stephen Báthory
Stephen Báthory may refer to several noblemen of Hungarian descent:* Stephen III Báthory , Palatine of Hungary* Stephen V Báthory , judge of the Royal Court and Prince of Transylvania...
(1571–1586). Around 1584 the local high hierarchy consisted of a metropolitan in Alba Iulia and his two suffragans.
Orthodox Church in Moldavia and Wallachia
An unknown Italian geographer wrongly described the "Romanians and the Vlachs" as pagans in the early 14th century. For instance, Basarab IBasarab I of Wallachia
Basarab I the Founder was voivode or prince of Wallachia . His rise seems to have taken place in the context of the war between the Kingdom of Hungary and the Orthodox states in the north of the Balkan Peninsula...
(c. 1310–1352), the Romanian ruler who achieved the independence of Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
in the territories between the Carpathians and the Lower Danube was mentioned as "schismatic" by a royal diploma of 1332. The Metropolitan See of Wallachia was established in 1359. This year 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
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
, was set up in Severin (now Drobeta-Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin is a city in Mehedinţi County, Oltenia, Romania, on the left bank of the Danube, below the Iron Gates.The city administers three villages: Dudaşu Schelei, Gura Văii, and Schela Cladovei...
) 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 Niphon
Patriarch Nephon II of Constantinople
Nephon II, , born Nicholas, was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople three times: from 1486 to 1488, from 1497 to 1498 and for a short time in 1502...
, the former Ecumenical Patriarch who founded two suffragan bishoprics.
A second principality, Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
achieved its independence in the territories to the east of the Carpathians under Bogdan I
Bogdan I of Moldavia
Bogdan I the Founder was the third or fourth voivode of Moldavia . He and his successors established the independence of Moldavia, freeing the territory east of the Carpathian Mountains of Hungarian and Tatar domination....
(1359–c. 1365), but it still remained under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox hierarch of Halych
Halych
Halych is a historic city on the Dniester River in western Ukraine. The town gave its name to the historic province and kingdom of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, of which it was the capital until the early 14th century, when the seat of the local princes was moved to Lviv...
(Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
). Although the metropolitan of Halych consecrated two bishops for Moldavia in 1386, his act was objected by the Ecumenical Patriarch. Now the patriarch established a separate metropolitan see for Moldavia
Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina
The Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina, in Iaşi, Romania, is one of the main bishoprics of the Romanian Orthodox Church.-History:Recognised, in 1401, by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Metropolis of Moldavia united, in 1872, with the Metropolis of Ungro-Wallachia to form the...
in 1394, but his appointee was refused by Stephen I of Moldavia (1394–1399). The conflict was solved when the patriarch recognized, in 1401, a member of the princely family as metropolitan. In Moldavia, the existence of two suffragan bishoprics at Roman
Roman, Romania
Roman is a mid-sized city, having the title of municipality, located in the central part of Moldavia, a traditional region of Romania. It is located 46 km east of Piatra Neamţ, in the Neamţ County at the confluence of Siret and Moldova rivers....
and at Rădăuţi
Radauti
Rădăuţi is a municipality in Suceava County, Romania with a population of 27,759 inhabitants.-Geography and demographics:Rădăuţi is situated in Bucovina, northern Moldavia, on a plain between the Suceava and Suceviţa rivers, north from Suceava, at 375 m altitude...
was first recorded in 1408 and 1471, respectively.
From the second half of the 14th century, Romanian princes sponsored the monasteries of Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
(Greece). First the Koutloumousiou monastery
Koutloumousiou monastery
Koutloumousiou monastery is an Eastern Orthodox monastery at the monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece. The monastery ranks sixth in the hierarchy of the Athonite monasteries....
received donations from Nicholas Alexander of Wallachia (1352–1364). In Wallachia, the monastery at Vodiţa was established in 1372 by the monk Nicodemus from Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
who had embraced monastic life at Chilandar on Mount Athos. The earliest monastery in Moldavia was founded at Neamţ
Neamt Monastery
The Neamţ Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox religious settlement, one of the oldest and most important of its kind in Romania. It was built in 14th century, and it is an example of medieval Moldavian architecture...
in 1407 by monks fleeing the Ottomans. From the 15th century the four Eastern patriarchs
Pentarchy
Pentarchy is a term in the history of Christianity for the idea of universal rule over all Christendom by the heads of five major episcopal sees, or patriarchates, of the Roman Empire: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem...
, and several monastic institutions in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
also received landed properties and other sources of income, such as mills
Mill (grinding)
A grinding mill is a unit operation designed to break a solid material into smaller pieces. There are many different types of grinding mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand , working animal , wind or water...
, in the two principalities.
Many monasteries, for example Cozia
Cozia Monastery
Cozia Monastery, erected close to Călimănești by Mircea cel Bătrân in 1388 and housing his tomb, is one of the most valuable monuments of national medieval art and architecture in Romania....
in Wallachia, and Bistriţa
Bistrita Monastery
The Bistriţa Monastery is a Romanian Orthodox monastery located 8 km west of Piatra Neamţ. It was dedicated in 1402 by Romanian Voivode Alexandru cel Bun whose remains are buried here....
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 Târgovişte under the auspices of the monk Macaria from Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
after 1508. Especially Wallachia became a leading center of the Orthodox world which is demonstrated by the consecration of the cathedral of Curtea de Argeş
Curtea de Arges Cathedral
The Cathedral of Curtea de Argeș is a church in Curtea de Argeș, Romania, located in the grounds of a monastery. It is dedicated to Saint Nicholas....
in 1517 in the presence of the Ecumenical Patriarch and the chief egumen
Protos (monastic office)
The protos is a monastic office at the Eastern Orthodox monastic state of Mount Athos in Greece.-Authority:The office is assumed by a monk who is elected among the members of the Iera Epistasia which functions as the executive committee of the Iera Koinotita — the governing body of Athos...
of Mount Athos. The impressive painted monasteries of Moldavia
Painted churches of northern Moldavia
The Churches of Moldavia are eight Romanian Orthodox churches in Suceava County, Romania in northern Moldavia, built approximately between 1487 and 1583.Since 1993, they have been listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site...
are still an important ensemble of cultural heritage.
The extensive lands owned by monasteries made them a significant political and economic force. Many of them also owned Gypsy and Tatar
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
slaves
Slavery in Romania
Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma ethnicity...
. Monastic institutions enjoyed fiscal privileges, thus exemption of taxes, although 16th-century monarchs, for example, the Protestant
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
Ioan Iacob Heraclid
Ioan Iacob Heraclid
Ioan Iacob Heraclid , also known as Jacob Heraclides, was a Greek soldier and ruler of Moldavia from November 1561 to November 1563, most notable for being the first officially Protestant monarch in Eastern Europe....
(1561–1563) occasionally tried to seize monastic assets.
Wallachia and Moldavia maintained their autonomous status even if their princes were obliged to pay a yearly tax to the sultans from the 15th century. Dobruja, however, was annexed in 1417 by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
, and the Ottomans also occupied parts of southern Moldavia in 1484, and Proilavia (now Brăila
Braila
Brăila is a city in Muntenia, eastern Romania, a port on the Danube and the capital of Brăila County, in the close vicinity of Galaţi.According to the 2002 Romanian census there were 216,292 people living within the city of Brăila, making it the 10th most populous city in Romania.-History:A...
) in 1540. These territories were for centuries under the jurisdiction of the metropolitans of Dristra and Proilavia.
Other denominations
The Diocese of Cumania was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of 1241-1242Mongol invasion of Europe
The resumption of the Mongol invasion of Europe, during which the Mongols attacked medieval Rus' principalities and the powers of Poland and Hungary, was marked by the Mongol invasion of Rus starting in 21 December 1237...
. Henceforth Catholic mission to the East was carried on by the Franciscans. For example, Pope Nicholas IV
Pope Nicholas IV
Pope Nicholas IV , born Girolamo Masci, was Pope from February 22, 1288 to April 4, 1292. A Franciscan friar, he had been legate to the Greeks under Pope Gregory X in 1272, succeeded Bonaventure as Minister General of his religious order in 1274, was made Cardinal Priest of Santa Prassede and...
sent Franciscan missionaries to the "country of the Vlachs" in 1288. In the 14th-15th centuries new Catholic dioceses were established in the territories to the east and south of the Carpathians, mainly due to the presence of Hungarian and Saxon colonists. Local Romanians also sent a complaint to the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
in 1374 in order to demand a Romanian-speaking bishop. Alexander the Good of Moldavia (1400–1432) also founded an Armenian
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
bishopric in Suceava in 1401. In Moldavia, however, many Catholic believers were forced to convert to Orthodoxy under Ştefan VI Rareş
Stefan VI Rares
Ştefan Rareş was ruler of Moldavia in 1551 and 1552.Ştefan was a son of Petru Rareş and succeeded to the Moldavian throne on 11 June 1551 when his brother Ilie II Rareş was forced to abdicate by the Ottoman Empire....
(1551–1552) and Alexandru Lăpuşneanu
Alexandru Lapusneanu
Alexandru Lăpuşneanu was Prince of Moldavia between September 1552 and 18 November 1561 and then between October 1564 and 5 May 1568....
(1552–1561).
In the Kingdom of Hungary parish organization
Parish (Catholic Church)
In the Roman Catholic Church, a parish is the lowest ecclesiastical geographical subdivision: from ecclesiastical province to diocese to deanery to parish.-Requirements:A parish needs two things under common law to become a parish...
became fully developed in the 14th-15th centuries. In the 1330s, according to a papal tithe-register, the average ratio of villages with Catholic parishes was around 40 percent in the entire kingdom, but in the territory of modern Romania there was a Catholic church in 954 settlements out of a total number of 2100–2200. The institutional and economic power of the Catholic Church in Transylvania was systematically dismantled by the authorities in the second half of the 16th century. First the extensive lands of the bishopric of Transylvania were confiscated in 1542. The Catholic Church soon became deprived of its own higher local hierarchy and subordinate to a state governed by Protestant monarchs and Estates. Some of the local noblemen, among them a branch of the powerful Báthory
Báthory
The Báthory were a Hungarian noble family of the Gutkeled clan. The family rose to significant influence in Central Europe during the late Middle Ages, holding high military, administrative and ecclesiastical positions in the Kingdom of Hungary...
family, and many Székelys, however, remained Catholics.
Reformation
First the Hussite movement for religious reform arrived in Transylvania in the 1430s. Many of the Hussites, however moved into Moldavia, the only state in Europe outside BohemiaBohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
where they remained free of persecution.
The earliest evidence that Lutheran teachings "were known and followed" in Transylvania is a royal letter written to the town council of Sibiu in 1524. The Transylvanian Saxons' assembly decreed the adoption of the Lutheran creed by all the Saxon towns in 1544. Municipal authorities also tried to influence the ritual of the Orthodox services. For this purpose a Romanian Catechism
Catechism
A catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
was published in 1543, and a Romanian translation of the four Gospels in 1560.
Calvinist preachers first became active in Oradea in the early 1550s. The Diet recognized the existence of two distinct Protestant churches in 1564 after the Saxon and Hungarian clergy had failed to agree on the contested points of theology, such as the nature of communion services. The government also exerted pressure on the Romanians in order to change their faith. The Diet of 1566 even decreed that a Romanian Calvinist bishop be their sole religious leader.
A faction of Hungarian preachers raised doubts over the doctrine of the Trinity
Trinity
The Christian doctrine of the Trinity defines God as three divine persons : the Father, the Son , and the Holy Spirit. The three persons are distinct yet coexist in unity, and are co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial . Put another way, the three persons of the Trinity are of one being...
in the 1560s. In a decade Cluj
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
became the center of the Unitarian movement. The idea of four "received religions" was recognized in 1568 by the Diet of Turda which also gave ministers the right to teach according to their own understanding of Christianity. Although a ban on further religious innovation was enacted in 1572, many Székelys turned to Sabbatarianism
Szekler Sabbatarians
The Szekler Sabbatarians were a religious group in Transylvania and Hungary between the Sixteenth and Nineteenth centuries who held Unitarian and judaizing beliefs.-History:The Magyar...
in the 1580s.
The process of giving up pre-Reformation traditions was extremely slow in Transylvania. Although all or some of the images were eliminated in the churches, sacred vessels were kept. Protestant denomination
Christian denomination
A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity. In the Orthodox tradition, Churches are divided often along ethnic and linguistic lines, into separate churches and traditions. Technically, divisions between one group and...
s also kept the strict observance of holidays and fasting
Fasting
Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...
periods.
Early Modern and Modern Times
Orthodox Church in Moldavia, Wallachia, and Romania
Vasile Lupu
Vasile Lupu was a Moldavian Voivode between 1634 and 1653. Vasile Coci surnamed "the wolf" who ruled as Prince of Moldavia had secured the Moldavian throne in 1634 after a series of complicated intrigues and managed to hold it for twenty years. Vasile was of Albanian origin and Greek education...
(1634–1652). In Vasile Lupu's reign a pan-Orthodox synod adopted the Orthodox Confession of Faith in Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
in 1642 in order to reject any Calvinist influence over Orthodox hierarchy. The first complete Romanian Book of Prayer was published in 1679 by Metropolitan Dosoftei
Dosoftei
Dimitrie Barilă, better known under his monastical name Dosoftei , was a Moldavian Metropolitan, scholar, poet and translator....
of Moldavia (1670–1686). A team of scholars also completed the Romanian translation of the Bible, the so-called Bucharest Bible
Bucharest Bible of 1688
The Bucharest Bible was the first complete translation of the Bible into the Romanian language, published in Bucharest in 1688. Originally written in the Cyrillic alphabet, its full title was Biblia adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a Vechiului şi Noului Testament...
that was published in 1688.
The two principalities suffered the highest degree of Ottoman exploitation in the "Phanariot century" (1711–1821) when princes appointed by the sultans ruled in both of them. The second half of the 18th century, however, witnessed a spiritual renaissance, initiated by Paisius Velichkovsky
Paisius Velichkovsky
Saint Paisius Velichkovsky or Wieliczkowski is the person who transmitted Eastern Orthodox staretsdom or the concept of spiritual guidance to the Slavic world.A Ukrainian by birth, Pyotr Velichkovsky was born in Poltava, where his father, Ivan, was a priest...
. His influence led to a resurgense of Hesychastic prayer in the monasteries in Moldavia. In this period Romanian theological culture benefited from new translations from patristic literature. In the first decades of the 19th century theological seminaries
Seminary
A seminary, theological college, or divinity school is an institution of secondary or post-secondary education for educating students in theology, generally to prepare them for ordination as clergy or for other ministry...
were established in both principalities, for example, in the Socola Monastery
Socola Monastery
Socola Monastery or Schimbarea la Faţă was a Romanian Orthodox establishment located in the eponymous quarter of southern Iaşi, Romania. Founded during Moldavia's existence as a state, it was erected and dedicated by Moldavian Prince Alexandru Lăpuşneanu in 1562, and originally functioned as nunnery...
in 1803 and in Bucharest in 1836.
A new archbishopric subordinated to the Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church
Most Holy Synod
The Most Holy Governing Synod was the highest governing body of the Russian Orthodox Church between 1721 and 1918, when the Patriarchate was restored. The jurisdiction of the Most Holy Synod extended over every kind of ecclesiastical question and over some that are partly secular.The Synod was...
was created in Chişinău
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
when the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
annexed Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
in 1812. The Russian authorities soon forbade its archbishop to have any connections with the Orthodox Church in the Romanian principalities.
Romanian society embarked upon a rapid development following the reinstallation of native princes in 1821. For instance, the Gypsy slaves owned by the monasteries were freed in Moldavia in 1844, and in Wallachia in 1847. The two principalities were united under Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
(1859–1866), and the new state adopted the name of Romania in 1862. In his reign, the estates of the monasteries were nationalized. He also endorsed the use of Romanian in liturgy, and replaced Cyrillic alphabet with the Latin script
Romanian alphabet
The Romanian alphabet is a modification of the Latin alphabet and consists of 31 letters:The letters Q , W , and Y were officially introduced in the Romanian alphabet in 1982, although they had been used earlier...
.
1866 Constitution of Romania
The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...
recognized the Orthodox Church as the dominant religion in the kingdom.
Following the Romanian War of Independence
Romanian War of Independence
The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the 1877-1878 Russo-Turkish war, following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire...
, Dobruja was awarded to Romania in 1878. At that time, the relative majority of its population was still Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
, but a massive colonization was soon begun. The region had also been inhabited from the late 17th century by a group of Russian Old Believers named Lipovans
Lipovans
Lipovans or Lippovans are the Old Believers, mostly of Russian ethnic origin, who settled in the Moldavian Principality, in Dobruja and Eastern Muntenia...
.
The Great Powers recognized Romania's independence in 1880, after its constitution had been modified in order to allow the naturalization
Naturalization
Naturalization is the acquisition of citizenship and nationality by somebody who was not a citizen of that country at the time of birth....
of non-Christians. The first Faculty of Orthodox Theology was founded at the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
in the year when Romania was proclaimed a kingdom in 1881. In order to solemnize Romania's independence, in 1882 the Orthodox hierarchy performed the ceremony of blessing the holy oil
Chrism
Chrism , also called "Myrrh" , Holy anointing oil, or "Consecrated Oil", is a consecrated oil used in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Rite Catholic, Oriental Orthodox, in the Assyrian Church of the East, and in Old-Catholic churches, as well as Anglican churches in the administration...
, a privilege that had thereto been reserved for the ecumenical patriarchs. The new conflict with the patriarch delayed for three years, until 1885, the canonical recognition of the autocephaly of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
Orthodox Church in Transylvania and the Habsburg Empire
The 16th-century Calvinist princes of Transylvania insisted on the Orthodox clergy's unconditional subordination to the Calvinist superintendentsSuperintendent (ecclesiastical)
Superintendent is the head of an administrative division of a Protestant church, largely historical but still in use in Germany.- Superintendents in Sweden :...
. For instance, when an Orthodox synod had adopted measures for regulation of church life Gabriel Bethlen
Gabriel Bethlen
Gabriel Bethlen was a prince of Transylvania , duke of Opole and leader of an anti-Habsburg insurrection in the Habsburg Royal Hungary. His last armed intervention in 1626 was part of the Thirty Years' War...
(1613–1630) removed the local metropolitan. By forcing the use of Romanian instead of Old Church Slavonic in liturgy the authorities also contributed to the development of the Romanians' national consciousness. Local Orthodox believers remained without their own religious leader after the integration of Transylvania into the Habsburg Empire when a synod led by the metropolitan declared the union with Rome in 1698.
The first movement for the reestablishment of the Orthodox Church was initiated in 1744 by Visarion Sarai, a Serbian monk. Next the monk Sofronie
Sofronie of Cioara
Sofronie of Cioara is a Romanian Orthodox saint. He was an Eastern Orthodox monk who advocated for the freedom of worship of the Romanian population in Transylvania.-Early life:...
agitated, in 1759–1760, among the Romanian peasants in order to demand a Serbian Orthodox bishop. Finally, in 1761, the government consentedto the establishment of an Orthodox diocese in Sibiu under the jurisdiction of the Serbian Metropolitan of Srmski Karlovci
Metropolitanate of Karlovci
The Metropolitanate of Karlovci was a metropolitanate of the Orthodox Church that existed between 1691 and 1848. Between 1691 and 1706 it was known as the Metropolitanate of Sentandreja, between 1708 and 1713 as the Metropolitanate of Krušedol, and between 1713 and 1848 as the Metropolitanate of...
. The Serbian Metropolitan was also granted authority, in 1781, over the diocese of Cernăuţi (now Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi
Chernivtsi is the administrative center of Chernivtsi Oblast in southwestern Ukraine. The city is situated on the upper course of the River Prut, a tributary of the Danube, in the northern part of the historic region of Bukovina, which is currently divided between Romania and Ukraine...
, Ukraine) in Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
that had been annexed from Moldavia by the Habsburg Empire.
In 1848 Andrei Şaguna
Andrei Saguna
Andrei Şaguna was a Metropolitan bishop of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Transylvania, and one of the Romanian community political leaders in the Habsburg Monarchy, especially active during the 1848 Revolution...
became the bishop of Sibiu who started to work to free the local Orthodox Church from the control of the Serbian Metropolitan. He succeeded in 1864 when a separate Orthodox Church with its metropolitan see in Sibiu was established with the consent of the government. In the second half of the 19th century, the local Romanian Orthodox Church supervised the activity of four high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
s, and over 2,700 elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
s. The Orthodox Church in Bukovina also became independent of the Serbian Metropolitan in 1873. A Faculty of Orthodox Theology was founded in the University of Cernăuţi
Chernivtsi University
The Chernivtsi National University is the leading Ukrainian institution for higher education in northern Bukovina, in Chernivtsi, a city in southwest Ukraine....
in 1875. However, many Romanian priests were deported or imprisoned for propagating the union of the lands inhabited by Romanians after Romania declared war on Austria–Hungary in 1916.
Romanian Church united with Rome
The union of the local Romanian Orthodox Church with Rome was declared in Alba Iulia, after years of negotiations, in 1698 by Metropolitan Atanasie Anghel
Atanasie Anghel
Atanasie Anghel Popa, was a Romanian Greek-Catholic bishop of Alba Iulia between 1698 and 1713. He was the successor to Teophilus Seremi in the seat of Mitropoliei Bălgradului...
and thirty-eight archpriests. It was based on the four points adopted by the Council of Florence, including the recognition of papal primacy. Atanasie Anghel lost his title of metropolitan and was re-ordained as a bishop subordinated to the archbishop of Esztergom in 1701.
The Orthodox world considered the union with Rome as apostasy. For instance, Metropolitan Theodosie of Wallachia referred to Atanasie Anghel as "the new Judas
Judas Iscariot
Judas Iscariot was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. He is best known for his betrayal of Jesus to the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.-Etymology:...
". Since many of the local Romanians opposed the Church union, it also created discord among them.
But for the next century, Uniate Romanians assumed a leading role in the struggle for the Romanians' political emancipation in Transylvania. For example, Bishop Inocenţiu Micu-Klein
Inocentiu Micu-Klein
Iaoan Inocenţiu Micu-Klein was a Bishop of Făgăraş and Primate of the Romanian Greek Catholic Church from 1730 to his resignation in 1751...
demanded in dozens of memoranda their recognition as the fourth "political nation
Unio Trium Nationum
Unio Trium Nationum Unio Trium Nationum Unio Trium Nationum (Latin for "Union of the Three Nations" was a pact of mutual aid formed in 1438 by three Estates of Transylvania: the (largely Hungarian) nobility, the Saxon (i.e. German) burghers, and the free Szeklers...
" in the province. The Uniate bishopric in Transylvania was raised to the rank of a metropolitan see and became independent of the archbishop of Esztergom in 1855.
Other denominations
In the 17th century Calvinism enjoyed a favored position in Transylvania. For example, due to the influence of Calvinist Church leaders, over sixty Unitarian ministers were expelled from their parishes in the Székely Land in the 1620s. Although Transylanian Diets also enacted anti-Sabbatarian decrees, Sabbatarian communities survived in some Székely villages, for instance, in BezidSângeorgiu de Padure
Sângeorgiu de Pădure is a town in Mureş County, Romania.Bezid , Bezidu Nou and Loţu villages are administratively part of the town.- History :...
.
The Saxon communities' religious life was characterized by both differentiation from Calvinism, and by an increased number of worship services. Traditional Lutheranism, due to its concern for individual spiritual needs, always remained more popular than "Crypto-Calvinism
Crypto-Calvinism
Crypto-Calvinism is a term for Calvinist influence in the Lutheran Church during the decades just after the death of Martin Luther . It denotes what was seen as a hidden...
". The assets of the local Catholic Church were administered by the "Catholic Estates", a public body consisting of both laymen
Laity
In religious organizations, the laity comprises all people who are not in the clergy. A person who is a member of a religious order who is not ordained legitimate clergy is considered as a member of the laity, even though they are members of a religious order .In the past in Christian cultures, the...
and priests. A report on church visitations
Canonical Visitation
A canonical visitation is the act of an ecclesiastical superior who in the discharge of his office visits persons or places with a view of maintaining faith and discipline, and of correcting abuses by the application of proper remedies.-Catholic usage:...
reveals that around 1638 there were numerous Catholic villages without clergymen in the Székely Land. Catholicism also almost disappeared in Moldavia in the 17th century.
The Principality of Transylvania, following its integration into the Habsburg Empire, was administered according to the principles established by the Leopoldine Diploma of 1690 which confirmed the privileged status of the four "received religions". In fact, however, the new regime gave preference to the Roman Catholic Church. Between 1711 and 1750, which is the apogee of the Counter-Reformation
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation was the period of Catholic revival beginning with the Council of Trent and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War, 1648 as a response to the Protestant Reformation.The Counter-Reformation was a comprehensive effort, composed of four major elements:#Ecclesiastical or...
, the government ensured that Catholics would get preference in appointments to high offices. The preeminent status of the Roman Catholic Church was not weakened even under Joseph II (1780–1790) who issued the 1781 Edict of Tolerance. Catholics who wished to convert to any of the other three "received religions" were still required to undergo an instruction. It was only in 1868, following the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Hungary, that the equal status of Churches was declared.
In the Kingdom of Romania, a new Roman Catholic archbishopric was organized in 1883 with its see in Bucharest. Among the new Protestant movements, the first Baptist congregation was formed in 1856, and the Seventh-day Adventists were first introduced in Piteşti
Pitesti
Pitești is a city in Romania, located on the Argeș River. The capital and largest city of Argeș County, it is an important commercial and industrial center, as well as the home of two universities. Pitești is situated on the A1 freeway connecting it directly to the national capital Bucharest,...
in 1870.
Greater Romania
Following World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
ethnic Romanians in Banat, Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania voted for the union with the Kingdom of Romania. The new borders were recognized by international treaties in 1919-1920
Paris Peace Conference, 1919
The Paris Peace Conference was the meeting of the Allied victors following the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers following the armistices of 1918. It took place in Paris in 1919 and involved diplomats from more than 32 countries and nationalities...
. Thus Romania that had thereto been a relatively homogeneous state now included a mixed religious and ethnic population. According to the 1930 census, 72,6 percent of its citizens was Orthodox, 7,9 percent Greek Catholic, 6,8 percent Lutheran, 3,9 percent Roman Catholic, and 2 percent Reformed.
The constitution adopted in 1923
1923 Constitution of Romania
The 1923 Constitution of Romania, also called the Constitution of Union, was intended to align the organisation of the state on the basis of universal male suffrage and the new realities that arose after the Great Union of 1918. Four draft constitutions existed: one belonging to the National...
declared that "differences of religious beliefs and denominations" do not constitute "an impediment either to the acquisition of political rights or to the free exercise thereof". It also recognized two national churches by declaring the Romanian Orthodox Church as the dominant denomination and by according the Romanian Church united with Rome "priority over other denominations". The 1928 Law of Cults granted a fully recognized status to seven more denominations, among them the Roman Catholic, the Armenian, the Reformed, the Lutheran, and the Unitarian Churches.
All Orthodox hierarchs in the enlarged kingdom became members of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1919. New Orthodox bishoprics were set up, for instance, in Oradea, Cluj, Hotin (now Khotyn, Ukraine), and Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
. The head of the church was raised to the rank of patriarch in 1925. Orthodox ecclesiastical art flourished in this period due to the erection of new Orthodox churches especially in the towns of Transylvania. The 1920s also witnessed the emergence of Orthodox revival movements, among them the "Lord's Army" founded in 1923 by Iosif Trifa
Iosif Trifa
Iosif Trifa was a Romanian Orthodox priest and evangelist. He founded "Oastea Domnului" , which was a mystical movement. He was also the uncle of Valerian Trifa. Trifa placed on the 100 greatest Romanians list....
. Conservative Orthodox groups who refused to use the Gregorian calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
adopted by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1925 formed the separate Old Calendar Romanian Orthodox Church
Old Calendar Romanian Orthodox Church
The Old Calendar Romanian Orthodox Church is an Orthodox Church that uses the old-style Julian calendar. This church was split in 1925 by Metropolitan Glicherie, formerly a member of the Romanian Orthodox Church...
.
In this period, the preservation of ethnic minorities' cultural heritage became a primary responsibility of the traditional Protestant denominations. Thus the Reformed Church became closely identified with a large segment of the local Hungarian community
Hungarians in Romania
The Hungarian minority of Romania is the largest ethnic minority in Romania, consisting of 1,431,807 people and making up 6.6% of the total population, according to the 2002 census....
, and the Lutheran Church perceived itself as the bearer of Transylvanian Saxon culture. Among the new Protestant denominations, the Pentecostal movement
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...
was declared illegal in 1923. The intense hostility between the Baptist and Orthodox communities also culminated in the temporary closing of all Baptist churches in 1938.
Communist regime
According to the armistice signed between Romania and the Allied PowersAllies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
in 1944, Romania lost Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Consequently, the Orthodox dioceses in these territories were subordinated to the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Romania, the Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
used the same tactics as in other Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
an countries. First it supported a coalition government, but in short time drove out all other parties from power.
The 1948 Law on Religious Denominations formally upheld freedom of religion, but ambiguous stipulations obliged both priests and believers to conform to the constitution, national security
National security
National security is the requirement to maintain the survival of the state through the use of economic, diplomacy, power projection and political power. The concept developed mostly in the United States of America after World War II...
, public order, and accepted morality. For example, priests who voiced anti-communist attitudes could be deprived of their state-sponsored salaries. The new law acknowledged fourteen denominations, among them the Old Rite Christian, Baptist, Adventist and Pentecostal churches, but the Romanian Church united with Rome was abolished.
Although the Orthodox church was completely subordinated to the state through the appointment of patriarchs sympathetic to the Communists, over 1,700 Orthodox priests out of a total number of 9,000 were arrested between 1945 and 1964. The Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae
Dumitru Staniloae
Dumitru Stăniloae was a Romanian Eastern Orthodox priest, theologian, academic, and professor. Father Stăniloae worked for over 45 years on a comprehensive Romanian translation of the Philokalia, a collection of writings by the Church Fathers, together with the hieromonk, Arsenie Boca, who brought...
whose three-volume Dogmatic Theology presents a synthesis of patristic and contemporary themes was imprisoned between 1958 and 1964. The first Romanian saints were also canonized between 1950 and 1955. Among them, the 17th-century Sava Brancovici was appreciated for his relations with Russia.
Some other denominations met an even more tragic faith. For instance, four of the five arrested Uniate bishops died in prison. Religious dissident
Dissident
A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. When dissidents unite for a common cause they often effect a dissident movement....
movements became especially active between 1975 and 1983. For instance, the Orthodox priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa
Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa
Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa was a Romanian priest and dissident. He served 21 years in prison during the Communist regime. He was first imprisoned in 1948, but his 1978 imprisonment he claimed was harsher. He had criticized Nicolae Ceauşescu's repressions and became seen as an "enemy of the state"....
who had spent sixteen years in prison was condemned to ten more because of his sermons on the relationship of atheism
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
, faith, and Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
. The crisis that led to the regim's fall in 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
also started with the staunch resistance of the Reformed pastor László Tőkés
László Tokés
László Tőkés is a Romanian politician of Hungarian ethnicity, currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament and Vice President of the European Parliament ....
whom the authorities wanted to silence.
Romania since 1989
The Communist regime came to an abrupt endRomanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
on December 22, 1989. The poet Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu
Mircea Dinescu is a Romanian poet, journalist and editor.He was born in Slobozia, the son of Ştefan Dinescu, a metalworker and Aurelia . Dinescu studied at the Faculty of Journalism of the Ştefan Gheorghiu Academy, and was considered a gifted young poet during his youth, with several poetry...
, who was the first to speak on liberated Romanian television began his statement with the words: "God has returned his face toward Romania again". The new constitution of Romania, adopted in 1992, guarantees the freedom of thought, opinion, and religious beliefs when manifested in a spirit of tolerance and mutual respect. Now eighteen groups are recognized as religious denominations in the country. Over 350 other religious associations has also been registered, but they do not enjoy the right to build houses of worship or to perform rites of baptism, marriage, or burial.
Since the fall of Communism, about fourteen new Orthodox theology faculties and seminaries have been opened, Orthodox monasteries have been reopened, and even new monasteries has been found, for example, in Recea
Ungheni, Mures
Ungheni is a town in Mureş County, in central Romania. Its Romanian name until the 1960s was Niraşteu.Six villages are administered by the town:* Cerghid* Cerghizel* Moreşti* Recea* Şăuşa* Vidrasău...
. The Holy Synod has canonized new saints, among them Stephen the Great of Moldavia (1457–1504), and declared the second Sunday after Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
the "Sunday of the Romanian Saints".
The Greek Catholic hierarchy was fully restored in 1990. The four Roman Catholic dioceses in Transylvania, composed primarily of Hungarian-speaking inhabitants, hoped to be united into a distinct ecclesiastical province, but only Alba Iulia was raised to an archbishopric and placed directly under the jurisdiction of the Holy See in 1992. Owing to the exodus of the Transylvanian Saxons to Germany, only 30,000 of the members of the German Lutheran Church remained in Romania by the end of 1991. According to the 2002 census, 86.7 percent of Romania's total population was Orthodox, 4.7 percent Roman Catholic, 3.2 percent Reformed, 1.5 percent Pentecostal, 0.9 percent Greek Catholic, and 0.6 percent Baptist.