On this day 518 years ago Stephen the Great of Moldavia died. Today he is celebrated in the Romanian Orthodox Church as “St Stephen the Great and the Holy”

4 comments

1. One of – if not the most – clever and skilled ruler in the medieval Romanian principalities. Otherwise he wouldn’t had ruled for 47 years managing to play his “cards” between the much stronger kingdoms of Poland and Hungary, and Ottoman Empire (plus the Tatars) and to be able to, at different times obviously, beat them all. Vlad the Impaler was his cousin and that it’s shown, somehow, from him handling this situation [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lipnic):

   > The other Tatars, heading towards Moldavia, were chased away by the Moldavians, these being also helped by the difficulty of the terrain. On the third battle, the winners being the Tatars they had killed many people. However, they had lost the son of the Emperor Manyak, caught alive by the Moldavians. Manyak thought that, as time passed, he could more easily ransom his son. **Sending 100 messengers to Stephen, the Voivode of Moldavia, he announced to him with great insolence that if he [Stephen] did not give freedom back to his son, or does a wrong due to him, he would to inflict a severe punishment. But Stephen, a man with an amiable soul, angered by that message, which could easily have scared other men, disregarding Manyak threats, cut his son into four pieces in front of the heralds, impaled all the heralds except one, who, having his nose cut off, was sent back to Manyak to inform him of what happened.** This is how Stephen avenged the shadows of his dead.

   > *Jan Długosz in his Historia Polonica*

   About his holyness… well he did built a lot of churches and monasteries. He also had 3 wives (not in the same time LOL) and countless mistresses and illegitimate children tho. In fact the Church lost a great opportunity here since they could have make him some sort of a fertility saint. 😉

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   Edited

2. [Grigore Ureche](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigore_Ureche) wrote [about him roughly a century and a half after his death:](https://ro.wikisource.org/wiki/Letopise%C8%9Bul_%C8%9B%C4%83r%C3%A2i_Moldovei,_de_c%C3%A2nd_s-au_desc%C4%83lecat_%C8%9Bara)

   >Fost-au acestu Ștefan vodă om nu mare de statu, mânios și de grabu vărsătoriu de sânge nevinovat; de multe ori la ospéțe omorâea fără județu. Amintrilea era om intreg la fire, neléneșu, și lucrul său îl știia a-l acopieri și unde nu gândiiai, acolo îl aflai. La lucruri de războaie meșter, unde era nevoie însuși se vârâia, ca văzându-l ai săi, să nu să îndărăpteze și pentru acéia raru război de nu biruia. Și unde-l biruia alții, nu pierdea nădéjdea, că știindu-să căzut jos, să rădica deasupra biruitorilor.
   >
   >Iară pre Ștefan vodă l-au îngropat țara cu multă jale și plângere în mănăstire în Putna care, era zidită de dânsul. Atâta jale era, de plângea toți ca după un părinte al său, că cunoștiia toți că s-au scăpatu de mult bine și de multă apărătură. Ce după moartea lui, până astăzi îi zicu sveti Ștefan vodă, nu pentru sufletu, ce este în mâna lui Dumnezeu, că el încă au fostu om cu păcate, ci pentru lucrurile lui céle vitejești, carile niminea din domni, nici mai nainte, nici după acéia l-au ajunsu.

   Excuse the poor translation:

   >This Ștefan a man not of great stature, angry and in a hurry to shed innocent blood; often at feasts he killed without a judgment. He was otherwise was a sane man, not lazy and he knew how to cover his work, and where you didn’t think, you found him there. In matters of war, master, where it was necessary, he himself would join, in order to be seen by his own, not to flee and for that rare were wars he did not win. And where others overcame him, he did not lose hope for , knowing that he had fallen, he would rise above the victors.
   >
   >And Ștefan voda, he was buried by the country with a lot of mourning and weeping in the Putna monastery which was built by him. It was so sad that everyone cried like they had lost parent, for everyone knew that they had lost a lot of good and a lot of defense. After his death, to this day, Saint Stefan Voda they called him, not for the soul, which is in the hands of God, for he was still a man with sins, but for his brave things, which none of the lords, neither before nor after that equaled him.

3. He was also a great player, having many many mistresses.

4. This would look great in a carpet.