Stefan cel Mare – Most Prominent Figure in Moldavian History

Stephen III of Moldavia he is also known as Stefan the Great (Stefan cel Mare) Was the Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504 and the most representative member of the House of Musat.

During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against the ambitions of Hungary, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire, which all tended to subdue the land. Stephen achieved fame in Europe, especially for his long resistance against the Ottomans. He was victorious in 46 of his 48 battles. After his decisive victory over the Ottomans at the Battle of Vaslui, Pope Sixtus IV deemed him verus christianae fidei athleta (true Champion of Christian Faith).

Menaced by powerful neighbours, Stefan successfully repelled an invasion by the Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus, defeating him in the Battle of Baia (in 1467), crushed an invading Tatar force at Lipnic and invaded Wallachia in 1471 (the latter had by then succumbed to Ottoman power and had become its vassal). Stefan’s search for European assistance against the Turks had no real success and he won all the crucial battles mostly on his own.

After 1484, when he lost the fortresses of Chilia Noua and Cetatea Alba to an Ottoman blitz invasion, Stephen had to face not only new Turkish onslaughts which he defeated again on November 16, 1485 at Catlabuga Lake and on the Siret River in March 1486, but also the Polish designs on Moldavian independence. Finally on August 20, 1503 he concluded a peace treaty with Sultan Beyazid II that preserved Moldavia’s self-rule, at the cost of an annual tribute to the Turks.

During the assault of Chilia Noua in 1462, Stephen was shot in the leg and this wound never fully healed. Over time, he summoned to his royal court many doctors, astrologists and other persons, who attempted to heal his wound. However the result was not very convincing. Towards the end of his life, Stephen suffered from gout, which immobilized his hands and legs. On November 9, 1503, Vladislav, King of Hungary wrote to the Doge of Venice: Finally the great Prince died on the morning of July 2, 1504. He was buried in the Monastery of Putna, which he built earlier.

Stephen the Great is perceived by the Romanian Orthodox Church as a defender of the faith of the whole of Christianity. Stephen’s opposition to the Ottoman Empire protected the entirety of Europe from an invasion. Stefan cel Mare built during his life, 44 churches and monasteries one for each battle that he won (44 out of a total of 48). At the end of the 20th century, the Romanian Orthodox Church decided to canonize Stephen. The canonization was took place on June 20, 1992 by the Synodic Council of the Romanian Orthodox Church and since then Stefan is called “Saint Voivode Stephen the Great”. His feast day in the Romanian Orthodox calendar is July 2 – on the day of his death.