Gothia and its bishops

The book outlines the beginnings of Christianization of the Goths. In the second century, the Goths migrated from northern Central Europe towards the South-East of modern-day Europe and they settled for more than a century and a half in the region north of the Danube (today Romania and Ucraine). Here, they were partially christianized and, along with the natives they managed to found a diocese. The first bishop of the Goths, Theophilus, attended the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325. From among the Goths, an impressive number of Christians became martyrs. The fifth-century Gothic calendar and martyrology represent the oldest evidence to this matter. Therefore, it is justified to posit that the relations between the Germanic peoples (Goths and also Bastarni) and the ancestors of the Romanians are significantly older than their constitution and organization as independent States, in the modern period.