11 Facts About Ulfilas

Ulfilas, known as Wulfila or Urphilas, was a 4th-century Gothic preacher of Cappadocian Greek descent.

Ulfilas is mentioned by the Gothic historian Jordanes, although the writer said comparatively little of him.

Ulfilas was partially descended from Roman prisoners who were captured in a raid by Goths at Sadagolthina and carried away from Asia Minor.

Ulfilas's ancestors were likely kidnapped by Western Goths in 264 or 267 then brought to an area near the Danube river.

Ulfilas lived in a diaspora community composed of Cappadocian Christians under the Thervingi between the Olt, Dniester, and Danube.

Ulfilas's pursuits were abruptly ended in 348, when a Thervingian iudex began the persecution of Christians in the area.

Ulfilas had been the only religious and political leader of Christian Goths at the time of the expulsion, after which he held the honorary title of confessor.

Ulfilas's followers were shepherds, and their descendants remained 200 years later in Nicopolis as a poor and docile community.

Ulfilas seemed to have remained the temporal and spiritual leader of the Christian Goths in Nicopolis, possibly exerting influence beyond the Roman frontier into Gothia as well.

Ulfilas engaged in theological debates and subscribed to Homoeanism, which became established at the 357 Council of Sirmium.

Ulfilas likely traveled to the city in 383, although the emperor came to reject the Homoian position.