The Tsangos of Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

to the Bishop Pietro Vidoni Lodi,the Pope's Nuntio from Poland"In the year of 1649, I've been appointed the HolyCongregation of the Propaganda Fide as apostolic missionary inthe two Rumanian countries and I've been left by my prefectfather here, in Moldavia, where I found out that there were overtwenty priests, who tried to serve with belief. Now there areonly five of them, poor and naked. In Moldavia are 32 churches,all of them need to have its own priest because of the largenumber of catholics and the big distances between them, butthey are so poor and lacking in everything, that they don't evenhave the necessary vessels for communion, etc"Original version in Italian published byG. Calinescu in "Diplomatarium Italicum",II. page 445-446New edition in MCSMO, II. page 508-51065. Rome, 1654-1657Resume of the Report made by Bernardino Valentinifrom Perugia to the Propaganda Fide ,about his Travel in Moldaviaand the Rumanian CountryIn the year of 1650, on the 17th of January, the FranciscanBernardino Valentini "went to Bacau, the residence of theCatholic bishop here he rested for six weeks, at his ownexpenses, to learn the native language, necessary for themissionaries to hear confessions, preaching and other spiritualhelp. Butetc. their number went up to 8000 after words, etc inthat province.He found two Italian monastic missionaries in the mission,three Bulgarian observant fathers, two Jesuits and twoHungarians.In the year 1654, when the Tatars, Kazachs and Hungariansinvaded the region again, the master Vasile, who was a Greekschismatic, was persecuted and in his place was put anotherman, Gheorghe, a Moldavian Schismatic. During this invasionthe named missionary was obliged to leave the town, to wander