Abstract
The aim of this essay is to establish what the rules of the Church on fasting between the 16th-18th centuries were, to which degree the members of the various social classes in Moldavia and Wallachia observed them and how they used to do it, the significance attributed to these practices, what motivated the people to comply with these regulations or, on the contrary, what determined them to disobey the regulations of the Church. At the same time, we are interested in the attitude adopted by the Church, the ruling prince and the community towards those who strayed from the established rules.
The resources used in the attempt to find the answer to all of the aforementioned questions are diverse: old Church rules, sermons of distinguished hierarchs, orders of the ruling princes, notes of chroniclers and foreign travellers, but also registers, spending lists, rations, old letters, monographs and ethnographic sources.