Saint Stephen the Great of Moldavia

Stephen the Great (Romanian: Stefan cel Mare) was Prince, or Voivode, of Moldavia from 1457 until his death in 1504. The son of Bogdan II of Moldavia, he came to the throne after his father's assassination and a period of exile, defeating his rival Peter Aaron, and went on to rule for some forty-seven years. His reign is remembered both as the high point of medieval Moldavian statehood and for his sustained defense of the Orthodox faith against Ottoman expansion. The Romanian Orthodox Church glorified him as a saint in 1992, and he is commemorated on July 2, the day of his death.

Throughout his long reign Stephen fought repeated campaigns against the Ottoman Turks as well as against Poland and Hungary. His most celebrated victory came at the Battle of Vaslui in January 1475, where his outnumbered forces defeated a large Ottoman army. The following year, in July 1476, he was defeated by Sultan Mehmed II in person at Valea Alba (Razboieni), though Ottoman supply difficulties forced their withdrawal from Moldavia. In 1497 he turned back a Polish invasion at the Battle of the Cosmin Forest. Tradition holds that he raised a church or monastery in thanksgiving after his victories, a practice that connects his military career directly to the ecclesiastical patronage for which he is venerated.

Stephen is closely associated with a wide program of church- and monastery-building, and Moldavian sources credit him with founding or restoring dozens of religious houses over the course of his reign. Among these the monastery of Putna, which he founded in 1466 and dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God, became his most cherished foundation and his place of burial. By tradition his spiritual father was Daniel the Hesychast, a Moldavian hermit and monastic elder whose counsel he is said to have sought; both men were among the figures glorified together by the Romanian Church in 1992.