“Mitt is the type who liked to be called Bishop Romney or President Romney,” said Judy Dushku, a professor of government at Suffolk University in Boston and a Mormon feminist leader. “He is very conscious of his place in the hierarchy, but not yours.”

Image Mitt Romney was a Mormon leader before politics. Credit... Boston Globe

Mr. Romney declined to be interviewed for this article. Facing a primary electorate in which Christian conservatives are a powerful force, he is trying to keep his religion from becoming a barrier to his election. When his faith has become an issue — a Texas pastor supporting a rival candidate recently proclaimed Mormonism “a cult” — Mr. Romney has not offered a full-throated defense, but instead called for civility.

But here in Belmont, where Mormons estimate their population at 500 in a town of 25,000, Mr. Romney’s fellow congregants, many of them professionals and academics, are accustomed to hearing him talk of his beliefs. Mr. Romney has traded his large home for a townhouse; just a few months ago, he stepped to the lectern during a Sunday service to deliver what Tony Kimball, a retired professor of government, called a “traditional Mormon testimony,” in which he proclaimed his faith in Jesus as his savior.

Mr. Kimball, a close aide when Mr. Romney was stake president, says culture, rather than political calculus, may keep candidate Romney from talking about faith. “It’s kind of considered bad form by a lot of Mormons to wear it on your lapel,” he said, “and Mitt is not that way.”

Deep Church Roots

Mr. Romney has an impeccable Mormon pedigree. His family traces its church lineage to 1837; a great-great-grandfather, Miles Romney, began following the first Mormon prophet, Joseph Smith, that year, and later trekked to Utah with the early Mormon pioneers. As son of one of the nation’s most prominent Mormons — George W. Romney, a former Michigan governor and presidential candidate — Mitt Romney seemed destined for a prominent position in the church.

In 1971, Mr. Romney arrived in Boston to attend a joint program at the Harvard Business and Law Schools. He had completed a Mormon mission in France, graduated from Brigham Young University and was already married with a son. On weekends, he and other young Mormons would take overnight bus trips to the nearest Mormon temple, outside Washington, to perform sacred rituals, like baptism for the dead.