The Roman Catholic Diocese of Siret was a Latin bishopric in medieval

Moldavia Moldavia (, or ; in Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, Romanian Cyrillic: or ) is a historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester River. An initially in ...

Antecedents

Since the 13th century, missionaries of the mendicant orders, Franciscans and Dominicans, created several Latin Catholic communities in present Romania, for whom the Holy See decided to created bishoprics, south and east of the Carpathians (in Walachia and Moldavia), generally short-lived, like the Diocese of Siret / Seret / Cereten(sis) (Latin adjective), established in 1371. Catholicism was on the rise among the traditionally Orthodox population due to the political late 14th century context, as the Ottoman advance, nearly encircling the imperial capital Constantinople (conquering (H)Adrianopolis, now Edirne, in 1360), the

Byzantine emperor The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

s sought a political and hopefully military ally in the Catholic west, which had crusaded against Islam to and in the Middle East before. Similarly in Moldavia, where Bogdan I obtained virtual independence in 1359 as founding ''

voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

'' (autonomous prince), seeking aid and protection from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, welcomed Latin missionaries, Franciscan

Friars Minor The Order of Friars Minor (commonly called the Franciscans, the Franciscan Order, or the Seraphic Order; postnominal abbreviation OFM) is a mendicant Catholic religious order, founded in 1209 by Francis of Assisi. The order adheres to the t ...

(founding a monastery at Siret in 1340) and Dominicans.

History

Bogdan's son and indirect successor Lațcu of Moldavia (1365-1373) invited a delegation from Rome, promising his and the people's conversion to Catholicism and asked Pope Urban V to send missionaries and erect a Latin diocese in his principality's capital, Siret. On 24 July 1370 the Pope instructed the archbishop of Prague and bishops of

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

and

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

to verify/complete the sincerity of Laţcu (although his wife remained Orthodox) and mandated them to erect such diocese covering the Moldavian state. Pope Gregory XI established it in 1371, exempt (i.e. directly subject to the

Holy See The Holy See (, ; ), also called the See of Rome, the Petrine See or the Apostolic See, is the central governing body of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. It encompasses the office of the pope as the Bishops in the Catholic Church, bishop ...

); Polish Franciscan Andrzej Jastrzębiec was consecrated first Bishop by archbishop Florian Mokrski of Kraków. The cathedral, dedicated to

John the Baptist John the Baptist ( – ) was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early first century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist ...

, was built by queen Margareth, Catholic kin of the Hungarian royal family, which in 1377 had invited Dominicans to Siret. However prince Laţcu favoring of Catholicism met grave opposition from the Orthodox clergy, while effective Latin converts were concentrated in the north of Moldavia, near Catholic neighbour kingdoms of

and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. Since 1372, when Andrzej was nominated

Apostolic administrator An apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic admi ...

of the Archdiocese of Halyč, probably never returning to Siret, he and his (all Polish) successors resided more in Poland then in Moldavia. In 1388 prince Petru (Peter) II "Muşat" (1375–1391) transferred the Moldavian voivode's capital from Siret to Suceava, thus contributing to the crisis in the diocese of Siret, now abandoned by both crown and episcopate. ;''Exempt Bishops of Siret'' (all

Roman Rite The Roman Rite () is the most common ritual family for performing the ecclesiastical services of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. The Roman Rite governs Rite (Christianity) ...

) * Andrzej Jastrzębiec,

(O.F.M.) (1371.05.09 – 1388.03.12), next Bishop of

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...

(

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

) (1388.03.12 – death 1398.11.14) * Jan I Sartorius (1388 – death 1394) * Stefan Martini,

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

(O.P.) (1394.06.08 – death 1412.01.10), reminded by the Pope he could not celebrate pontifical masses outside his diocese, but in 1396 nominated

Auxiliary bishop An auxiliary bishop is a bishop assigned to assist the diocesan bishop in meeting the pastoral and administrative needs of the diocese. Auxiliary bishops can also be titular bishops of sees that no longer exist as territorial jurisdictions. ...

, maintaining his title as Ordinary of Siret. At the 1412 erection of the Latin Metropolitan Archbishopric of Lwów in Poland (now in

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

), Siret became its

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Catholic Church, a suffragan bishop leads a diocese within an ecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, the metropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led ...

(no longer exempt). ;''Suffragan Bishops of Siret'' * In 1413, due to the Western Schism ('Babylonian exile' of Antipopes in

Avignon Avignon (, , ; or , ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the Communes of France, commune had a ...

, 1378 to 1417), two rival bishops were appointed: ** Mikołaj (Nicholas) Venatoris,

Augustinians Augustinians are members of several religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written about 400 A.D. by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...

(O.E.S.A.) (1413.03.05 – ?1434) ** 'uncanonical?''Tomasz Grueber (1413.07.31 – ?) * Jan II (1420.09.04 – 1422?) - according to a Vatican archive document found by Eubel, who doubts its authenticity * Jan III, O.F.M. (1434.01.29 – ?). The diocese of Siret was effectively suppressed, but from circa 1418, the Holy See erected another Moldavian bishopric, the Diocese of Baia, which inherited its territory (1434?).

Sources and external links

*
Siret Town Hall official site
* Catholic - former Latin Catholic bishopric*
Siret unofficial site
*
Suceava County site - Siret web page
*
Photo Gallery - Old photos of Siret
; Bibliography * Konrad Eubel, ''Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi'', vol. 1, p. 182; vol. 2, p. 125 * Emil Dumea, ''Il cattolicesimo nella Moldavia-Romania nel XVIII secolo'', doctoiral dissertation, Rome 1997, pp. 52–55 * Emil Dumea, ''Istoria Bisericii Catolice din Moldova'', Iași 2005, pp. 32–39 * E. Jean, lemma 'Ceretum', in ''Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de Géographie ecclésiastiques'', vol. XII, Paris 1953, coll. 165-169 {{DEFAULTSORT:Siret, Roman Catholic Diocese Former Roman Catholic dioceses in Ex-Soviet Europe Religious organizations established in the 1370s Roman Catholic dioceses established in the 14th century Religious organizations disestablished in the 16th century Suppressed Roman Catholic dioceses Poles in Romania

Antecedents

History

See also

Sources and external links