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Since then, Rumania, the once dutiful satellite of Russia, has started spinning out of the Soviet orbit. Although Ceauşescu continues to deny his people most civil liberties, he has resisted Soviet economic and foreign policies that counter Rumania's own interests. Notably, he refused to join Warsaw Pact forces in the 1968 Czechoslovak invasion, foreseeing a similar fate for Rumania. To shore up Rumania's perilous independence, Ceauşescu has taken pains to secure the loyalty of the country's 20 million citizens. Since 15 million of them are Orthodox Christians, and the rest mostly Christians of other denominations, Ceauşescu decided to be more liberal in his treatment of religion.
The chief beneficiary of his new concern is the Orthodox Church, which is not only a faith but also a symbol of Rumanian national identity. Established in the 14th century, the church was long the unique custodian of the culture and traditions of the Rumanian people as they suffered invasion and occupation by Magyars, Turks and Russians. Today, as Rumania once again feels threatened by Russia, the government is shrewdly fostering the patriotism embodied in the church.
It is no accident that Rumania's most celebrated churches are in Moldavia, since it was here that the pious 15th century prince Stephen the Great defiantly stood off the invading Turkish infidels in several famous battles, not only making himself Rumania's foremost national hero, but also earning the admiration of Pope Sixtus IV, who gave him the title "athlete of Christ." Stephen's spirit endures in Moldavia. The superb monasteries, founded in his reign and fortified against the foreign invader, testify to Rumania's persistent will for independence.
The artists, architects and craftsmen who flourished in Moldavia in the 15th and 16th centuries elaborated their own singular style of architecture and decoration. Only the churches of Moldavia can boast of icons painted all around the outside walls, like so many brilliantly illuminated Old and New Testaments. These churches reflect Rumania's Byzantine heritage, in art as in religion, but their architecture is based on a completely original system of "Moldavian arches," used to vault the nave on which the tower rests. The graceful conical roofs complete a superb composition of colors and forms that is unique in all of Christendom.
On Sundays and holy days, the Moldavian collective farmers throng to these churches to attend services in which Stephen the Great and the leaders of the Rumanian Socialist Republic are both mentioned in a single benediction. Weekdays, the same peasants—men, women and adolescents—are often seen marching in motley uniform, with rifles and shotguns. They are members of the civilian military brigades organized for national defense by Ceauşescu on the day after the Czechoslovak invasion. Such grim and hopeless exercises suggest that the descendants of Stephen's soldiers are again determined to do battle for God and nation, if not for Communism.