Aspects of religious life in Teleorman County (Romania) from the sixteenth to nineteenth century

Abstract

Religious life in Teleorman County has only begun to be documented since the sixteenth century, although we have so far few documents, but since the seventeenth century, the number of documented priests has increased considerably. Numerous medieval documents confirm that in the village community, the priest did not only act as a supporter of the Orthodox faith, to alleviate the sufferings of the people, but to own lands he had bought or inherited from his parents. In terms of their social status, priests were considered free people, but there were also situations where the priest’s dependence on the boyar was a real fact. Most of the priests were scholars, as evidenced by the numerous documents written by them. The book teaching was done, firstly in the village churches by its parishioners, but not lastly in the monasteries and hermitages erected on the county territory.