Metropolis of Bessarabia

Metropolis of Bessarabia
Organization of the Metropolis of Bessarabia
Location
Territory	Moldova
Headquarters	Chișinău
Statistics
Population - Total	720,000
Information
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox
Sui iuris church	Romanian Patriarchate (Autonomous Metropolis)
Established	1918
Language	Romanian
Current leadership
Bishop	Petru (Păduraru)
Website
mitropoliabasarabiei.md

The Metropolis of Bessarabia (Romanian: Mitropolia Basarabiei), also referred to as the Bessarabian Orthodox Church, is a Moldovan Eastern Orthodox Metropolitan bishopric of the Romanian Orthodox Church. The Metropolis of Bessarabia was created in 1918, as the Archbishopric of Chișinău, and organized as a Metropolis, in 1927. Inactive during the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia (1940-1941) and the Soviet rule in Moldova (1944-1991), it was re-activated on 14 September 1992. In 1995, the Metropolis of Bessarabia was raised to the rank of exarchate, with jurisdiction over the territory of Moldova. The current Metropolitan of Bessarabia is Petru (Păduraru).

The Metropolis of Bessarabia was founded after the annexation of Bessarabia by the Russian Empire in 1812, from the churches and monasteries of the Metropolis of Moldavia on that territory that no longer belonged to the Principality of Moldavia, by Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni, a popular promoter of Moldavian/Romanian language and culture, who served also as its first Metropolitan. In 1918, Metropolitan Anastasius Gribanovsky was ousted after he refused to accede to Romania's demand to secede from the Russian Orthodox Church and subordinate to the Romanian one. With the advent of Greater Romania in 1918, there were three church bodies: the autocephalous Romanian Orthodox Church (on the territory of Smaller Romania—prior to 1918—formed in 1872 from the union of the former Metropolis of Ungrovlahia and Metropolis of Moldavia), and the non-autocephalous Metropolis of Bessarabia and Metropolis of Transylvania. Therefore, in 1925, the rank of the Romanian Orthodox Church was raised to that of a Patriarchate, with the Metropolis of Bessarabia as one of its five sees. Gurie Grosu was the first Metropolitan of Bessarabia, and Efrem Enăchescu the second.