The Roman Catholic Diocese of Siret was a Latin bishopric in medieval Moldavia.
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 emperors 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
Bogdan I, or Bogdan the Founder ( ro, Bogdan Întemeietorul), was the first independent ruler, or voivode, of Moldavia in the 1360s. He had initially been the voivode, or head, of the Vlachs in the Voivodeship of Maramureș in the Kingdom of Hun ...
obtained virtual independence in 1359 as founding '' voivode'' (autonomous prince), seeking aid and protection from Poland, welcomed Latin missionaries, Franciscan Friars Minor (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 (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...
and Kraków 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
Pope Gregory XI ( la, Gregorius, born Pierre Roger de Beaufort; c. 1329 – 27 March 1378) was head of the Catholic Church from 30 December 1370 to his death in March 1378. He was the seventh and last Avignon pope and the most recent French pop ...
established it in 1371, exempt (i.e. directly subject to the Holy See); Polish Franciscan
Andrzej Jastrzębiec
Andrzej Jastrzębiec (died 1398), also known as Andrzej Wasilko or Andrzej Polak, was a Polish Catholic priest and diplomat, a first bishop of Seret and of Vilnius. Little is known of his youth and he might have been born to a peasant family. He ...
was consecrated first Bishop by archbishop
Florian Mokrski
Florian Mokrski Jelita coat of arms, (Jelita Coat of arms) was born around 1305 and died on February 6, 1380 in Kraków) and the son of Piotr Mokrski, Peter Mokrski. Florian was a Polish Roman Catholic priest who served as the Archbishop of Krakó ...
of Kraków. The cathedral, dedicated to John the 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 Poland and Hungary. Since 1372, when Andrzej was nominated Apostolic administrator 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 ( la, Ritus Romanus) is the primary liturgical rite of the Latin Church, the largest of the ''sui iuris'' particular churches that comprise the Catholic Church. It developed in the Latin language in the city of Rome and, while dist ...
)
*
Andrzej Jastrzębiec
Andrzej Jastrzębiec (died 1398), also known as Andrzej Wasilko or Andrzej Polak, was a Polish Catholic priest and diplomat, a first bishop of Seret and of Vilnius. Little is known of his youth and he might have been born to a peasant family. He ...
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), 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. Lithuania ...
) (1388.03.12 – death 1398.11.14)
* Jan I Sartorius (1388 – death 1394)
* Stefan Martini, Dominican Order (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 of Kraków, maintaining his title as Ordinary of Siret.
At the 1412 erection of the Latin Metropolitan Archbishopric of Lwów in Poland (now in Ukraine), Siret became its
suffragan
A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations.
In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictiona ...
(no longer exempt).
;''Suffragan Bishops of Siret''
* In 1413, due to the Western Schism ('Babylonian exile' of
Antipope
An antipope ( la, antipapa) is a person who makes a significant and substantial attempt to occupy the position of Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church in opposition to the legitimately elected pope. At times between the 3rd and mid- ...
s in
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...
, 1378 to 1417), two rival bishops were appointed:
** Mikołaj (Nicholas) Venatoris,
Augustinians
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD 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
Baia (german: Baja, Stadt Molde, or Moldenmarkt; hu, Moldvabánya; lat, Civitas Moldaviae) is a commune in Suceava County, in the historical region of Western Moldavia, northeastern Romania with a population of 6,793 (2002 census).List of Catholic dioceses in Romania