Unknown apostles of the grassroots mission in Gothic Dacia in the light of The Passion of St. Sabbas the Goth

Abstract

It is commonly held that the Christianization of the Gothic environment in the second half of the 4th century is a result of a large-scale operation carried out by Ulfila and his disciples – universal Christianization recognized by Gothic authorities. However, in this study attention is drawn to the fact that earlier missionary activities, referred to here as ‘grassroots Christianization,’ had already been of great significance since the second half of the 3rd century. The bottom-up mission involved spreading the Gospel in the Gothic community in a rather spontaneous way, by slaves captured by Goths in the Empire, in successive generations of their descendants (the case of Ulfila), or even heresiarchs seeking refuge outside the Empire. The process was frequently elusive, due to the lack of clear records of those activities in archaeological sources or writings, with the notable exception of credible testimony in the form of “The Passion of St. Sabbas the Goth’, a document which became the basis for the analysis conducted by the author. The source suggests that Christianization was also a bottom-up phenomenon and had reached the ‘plebeian’ environment of Goths much earlier, bearing fruit in the form of an active Church community and preparing the Gothic world for late 4th century missionaries. Thus, it was not merely a spectacular act of the apostolic mission of bishop Ulfila or his successors, but also of such apostles as Sabbas the Goth, presbyter Gutthikas, Harpyla the monk or other apostles of the grassroots mission whose names today we are unable to mention.