POPULATION 4,434,547
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN 83.8 percent
OTHER CHRISTIAN 4.2 percent
JEWISH 0.8 percent
OTHER 1.0 percent
NONRELIGIOUS 10.2 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Republic of Moldova, with an area of only a little over 13,000 square miles, lies between Ukraine and Romania in eastern Europe. The dominance of Orthodox Christianity in Moldova and in Romania is unique in that it exists within a Latin culture. Both Moldavians and Romanians are descended from the Vlachs, and the Moldavian and Romanian languages trace their origins to the Roman soldiers who occupied Dacia following Trajan's conquest in 106 C.E.

Christianity spread along the western shore of the Black Sea in the third century, but its history during the millennium following the withdrawal of the Roman administration in 271 is obscure. By the fourteenth century, however, Moldavian ethnic identity was identified with Orthodox Christianity and oriented toward Constantinople. The Orthodox Church in Moldova was originally influenced by the Romanian Orthodox...