Introduction

Biography

Nicolae was the son of John and Ru­xan­dra Mol­do­vea­nu, and hus­band of Ele­na Bog­dan (mar­ried 1947, Săs­ci­ori, Ro­man­ia).

He was born in­to a poor fa­mi­ly and lost his fa­ther at age 3½. At age 12, he en­tered a mi­li­ta­ry pro­gram called the Ar­my’s Child­ren. He lived on a mi­li­ta­ry base in Tran­syl­van­ia, where he joined a brass en­sem­ble, play­ing the trum­pet, and learn­ing dul­ci­mer, pi­ano and ac­cor­di­on.

While on mi­li­ta­ry leave in 1935, he went with his mo­ther to a group called the Lord’s Ar­my, a branch of the Greek Or­tho­dox Church. He came to Christ in 1938, and be­gan writ­ing songs, which were first pub­lished in Vil­lage’s Light.

In 1948, the new Com­mu­nist gov­ern­ment of Ro­man­ia out­lawed the Lord’s Ar­my, though the group con­tin­ued to meet. In 1959, Mol­do­vea­nu was sen­tenced to 12 years in pri­son on false charges of try­ing to over­throw the gov­ern­ment.

While in prison, he met oth­er per­se­cut­ed Chris­tians such as Trai­an Dorz and Ri­chard Wurm­brand. He was released as part of a ge­ne­ral am­nes­ty five years lat­er, but the sec­ret po­lice kept close watch on him. De­spite con­stant gov­ern­ment sur­veil­lance, his lyr­ics and mu­sic spread through­out Ro­man­ia.

Moldoveanu is some­times con­fused with a con­duct­or of the same name, who once stu­died in Switz­er­land.

Works

Moldoveanu is said to have writ­ten 8,000 songs in his life­time, ov­er 300 of them while in pri­son.

Between 1948 and 1959 he worked close­ly with po­et Trai­an Dorz, pub­lish­ing with him Psalms and Hymns, Songs of the Bi­ble and ma­ny oth­er songs and Chris­tian hymns.