~340 · Gothic territories north of the Danube (modern Romania/Bulgaria)
Conversion of the Goths and the Mission of Ulfilas
Around 340, the bishop Ulfilas began his mission to the Gothic peoples north of the Danube, translating the Bible into Gothic and creating an alphabet to do it — the first time Scripture was rendered in a Germanic language — launching the Christianization of the barbarian nations that would reshape Europe.
Ulfilas was himself of Gothic descent, born around 311 among the Goths living north of the Danube. His grandparents had been Roman Christians captured in a Gothic raid on Cappadocia. He grew up bilingual, speaking both Gothic and Greek, and was educated in Constantinople. Around 341, he was consecrated as bishop and sent back to evangelize his own people. The challenge was enormous. The Goths had no written language. To translate the Bible, Ulfilas first had to invent an alphabet — the Gothic script, based partly on Greek and Latin letters, adapted to Gothic sounds. His translation of the Bible into Gothic is the earliest substantial text in any Germanic language. It survives in fragments, most famously the Codex Argenteus, a magnificent sixth-century manuscript written in silver and gold ink on purple parchment, now kept in Uppsala, Sweden. Ulfilas reportedly omitted the books of Kings from his translation, fearing that their accounts of warfare would encourage the already warlike Goths. His mission was complicated by the fact that he was consecrated by Eusebius of Nicomedia, an Arian sympathizer, and the form of Christianity he brought to the Goths was Arian rather than Nicene. This meant that when the Gothic tribes later invaded the Roman Empire, they were Christian but the wrong kind of Christian, creating friction with the Catholic Roman population that lasted for generations until the Goths eventually accepted Nicene orthodoxy.
Why it matters
Pioneered the evangelization of the Germanic peoples and produced the first Bible translation in a Germanic language, beginning the centuries-long process of converting the barbarian nations that would create medieval Christian Europe.
What Happened
Around 340, Ulfilas, a bishop of Gothic descent educated in Constantinople, returned to evangelize the Gothic peoples north of the Danube. He invented a Gothic alphabet and translated the Bible into the Gothic language — the first Scripture in any Germanic tongue. His work launched the Christianization of the barbarian nations, though the Arian form of Christianity he brought created theological complications that took generations to resolve.
Why It Still Matters
Ulfilas set the pattern for how the Church would evangelize new peoples for the next thousand years: learn the language, create a written form if needed, translate the Scriptures, build communities. The same method was used later by Cyril and Methodius with the Slavs, and by missionaries across the globe. His work also shows that evangelization is never simple — the Arian theology he brought with him caused problems the Church spent centuries fixing.