In the 2004 census in Moldova 3,158,015 people or 95.5% of those declaring a religion claimed to be Eastern Orthodox Christians of all rites.

Be that as it may, by the 14th century the Orthodox Church in the Principality of Moldavia—today northeastern Romania, Moldova, and southwestern Ukraine—was under the authority of the Metropolitan of Galicia.

[citation needed] In 1391, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which had jurisdiction over the region, elected a metropolitan for the Metropolis of Moldavia specifically.

During this time, in the 17th century, the Metropolis of Moldavia transitioned from using Church Slavonic to Romanian language.

In 1813, it was established the Eparchy of Kishinev (Chișinău) and Hotin, under Romanian Archbishop Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni.

[4] In 1858, after southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which soon united with Wallachia to form Romania, the orthodox churches in Cahul, Bolgrad, and Ismail re-entered under the Romanian Church jurisdiction of the Metropolis of Moldavia, which established the Diocese of the Lower Danube, in 1864.

[6] In the same period, the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church established on the territory of the new soviet republic a new Diocese of Kishinev.