MOLDAVIA. —
I. GEOGRAPHY
One of the 16 federated republics of the U.S.S.R. (Moldavian A.S.S.R.), which, over an area of 33,700 km², today has 2.4 million inhabitants, of whom 70% are Moldavians (the rest being Ukrainians, Russians, Jews, Bulgarians, Tatars, Turks, etc.).Following the ultimatum of 27 June 1940, the U.S.S.R., which had never recognized Romania’s annexation of Bessarabia (i.e., the territory between the Dniester and Prut) in 1918, compelled Romania to cede not only that region (44,482 km² with 3.1 million inhabitants) but also northern Bukovina (5,242 km² with 520,000 inhabitants), as well as the Hotin district, which had always belonged to Moldavia, that is, to the Romanian territory to which the name properly applies. The U.S.S.R., which had created in the 8th century the autonomous region of Transnistria, occupied it in 1924 and incorporated it into the Ukrainian S.S.R. in 1940.
Moldavia’s origins trace back to the 14th century when a Romanian population, fleeing from Hungarian oppression, rose against the Hungarian sovereign and established itself in those lands under the leadership of the voivode Bogdan. His successors continually expanded the frontiers of the new state, which under Stephen the Great (1457–1504) reached its maximum territorial extent: from the Eastern Carpathians to the Dniester River, and from Wallachia, the Danube, and the Black Sea to southern Poland in the Pocuția region, covering an area of 94,301 km², of which 10,441 km² were in what would later become Bukovina and 44,442 km² in what would later become Bessarabia (regions taken from Moldavia in 1775 by the Austrians and in 1812 by the Russians, respectively). In 1859, Moldavia, or what remained of it, united with Wallachia to form the new state of Romania.
Moldavia had to offer fierce and often victorious resistance to the Turks; Stephen the Great corresponded with Sixtus IV, who, in a letter, called him, on account of his brilliant victories, “athlete of Christ.”
As regards ecclesiastical affairs, the first princes of Moldavia, a country separated from obedience to the Roman See, were dependent on the metropolitan of Halych, a city that even belonged to the new state between 1387 and 1404. In 1401, after many difficulties and laborious negotiations with the patriarch of Constantinople, Moldavia obtained recognition of a Romanian metropolitan, Josif, with residence in Suceava, the capital of the principality; this metropolitanate was transferred in 1564, along with the capital, to Iași. Other bishoprics were later established.
As regards Catholicism, a first bishopric was founded in 1227 by Gregory IX at Milcov — whose location is uncertain — for the recently converted Cumans, with the Dominican Theodoric as its titular; the Mongol invasion of 1241 destroyed every trace of this city, but the honorary title of Bishop of Milcov remained among Hungarian ecclesiastics for three more centuries.
A second Catholic bishopric was erected by Urban V in 1370 at Siret, at the request of the reigning prince Lațcu, who had converted to Catholicism (a personal conversion that did not endure); the titular, a Franciscan named Andrew of Cracow, seems never to have come to Moldavia. He had four or five titular successors, and after 1434 this bishopric is no longer mentioned. Alexander the Good (1400–1432) authorized a Catholic bishopric at Baia in 1413 and even built, at his own expense, a fine stone church for the new bishop, the Dominican John de Ryza; this bishopric lasted barely a century. In 1607 a bishopric was founded at Bacău, which functioned until the end of the 18th century. Its first titular was Gir. Arsengo. Finally, on 27 April 1883, Leo XIII founded the bishopric of Iași, which still exists today.
Moldavia is the cultural cradle of Romanianism: here, in the monasteries, the first Romanian chronicles were written; the Moldavian chroniclers Ureche and Miron Costin were the first to reveal to the people their Latin origins; Prince Dimitrie Cantemir (1684–1723) and the “spătar” Nicolae Milescu (q.v.) were scholars of world renown; literary romanticism was championed by Kogălniceanu and Alecsandri; the national poet of the Romanians, Mihai Eminescu, as well as the great historian Nicolae Iorga, were Moldavians.
For art, see ROMANIA.