Eastern Orthodoxy in Moldova

The diocese was soon destroyed by the Mongol invasion of 1241, and only beginning with the late 13th century did Catholic missionaries become active again in southern Moldavia.

[citation needed] Around 1371, during the reign of Lațcu, the court passed to Catholicism and a Catholic diocese was founded at Siret.

As the Mitropolitan see remained canonically vacant in 1394, the Moldavian priest Peter was named exarch over Moldavia by Constantinople, a move that probably was not accepted by the local rulers either.

In 1401 the voivode Alexandru cel Bun obtained from the Patriarchate of Constantinople the recognition of Joseph, whose anathema had been raised on the occasion, as head of an autonomous Metropolitan Moldavian See at Suceava, with 3 bishoprics and jurisdiction over the entire territory of the Principality of Moldavia.

Towards 1436, the Pope named a Moldavian, Gregory, as Archbishop of Moldavia, however he was never recognized by the rulers of the country, and disappeared from history.

[3][4] From the 15th century the Patriarchate of Constantinople was forced to content itself with subordination to the Ottoman Sultanate, the Metropolitan of Moldavia being ordained since by the Archbishop of Ohrid.

The territory of modern-day Republic of Moldova was then made a part of the Metropolitanate of Bessarabia, under the Romanian Orthodox Church.