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 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 established it in 1371, exempt (i.e. directly subject to the
Holy See); Polish Franciscan
Andrzej Jastrzębiec was consecrated first Bishop by archbishop
Florian Mokrski 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) •
Andrzej Jastrzębiec,
Friars Minor (O.F.M.) (1371.05.09 – 1388.03.12), next Bishop of
Vilnius (
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 (no longer exempt). ;
Suffragan Bishops of Siret • In 1413, due to the
Western Schism ('Babylonian exile' of
Antipopes in
Avignon, 1378 to 1417), two rival bishops were appointed: • Mikołaj (Nicholas) Venatoris,
Augustinians (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, which inherited its territory (1434?). == See also ==