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| - Christianity was brought on the territory of modern-day Romania either by the occupying Romans or, according to tradition, by the Apostle Andrew, who preached in Scythia Minor (present-day Dobrogea). The Roman province had traces of all imperial religions, including Mithraism, but Christianity, a regio illicita, existed among some of the Romans. The Roman Empire soon found it was too costly to maintain a permanent garrison north of the lower Danube. Starting 106 AD, a permanent military and administrative Roman presence was registered only till 271 AD. However, as in many other provinces of the Empire, Christianity had taken root.
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| abstract
| - Christianity was brought on the territory of modern-day Romania either by the occupying Romans or, according to tradition, by the Apostle Andrew, who preached in Scythia Minor (present-day Dobrogea). The Roman province had traces of all imperial religions, including Mithraism, but Christianity, a regio illicita, existed among some of the Romans. The Roman Empire soon found it was too costly to maintain a permanent garrison north of the lower Danube. Starting 106 AD, a permanent military and administrative Roman presence was registered only till 271 AD. However, as in many other provinces of the Empire, Christianity had taken root. When the Romanians formed as a people, it is quite clear that they already possessed the Christian faith, as proved by tradition, as well as by archaeological and linguistic evidence. Basic terms of Christianity are of Latin origin: such as church ("biserică" < basilica), God ("Dumnezeu" < Domine Deus), Easter ("Paşte" < Paschae), Pagan ("Păgân" < Paganus), Angel ("Înger" < Angelus), cross ("cruce" < crux,-cis), christian ("creştin" < christianus), to baptize ("a boteza" < batizare). Some of them, especially "Church" - Biserica are unique to Romanian Orthodoxy. Very few traces can be found in Romanian names that are left from Roman Christianity after the Slavic influence began. All the names of the saints were preserved in Latin form: "Sântămăria" (Mary), "Sâmpietru" (Saint Peter), "Sângiordz" (Saint George) and Sânmedru (Saint Demetrius), "Sânandrei" (Saint Andrew), "Sântoader" (Saint Theodore), etc. The non-religious onomastic proof of pre-Christian habits, like "Sânziana" and "Cosânzeana" (Sancta Diana and Qua Sancta Diana) is only of anecdotal value in this context. Yet, the highly spiritualized places in the mountains, the processions, the calendars, and even the physical locations of the early churches were clearly the same with those of the Dacians. Even Saint Andrew is known locally as the Apostle "of the wolves" - with very old and large connotations, whereby the wolf's head was an ethnicon and a symbol of military and spiritual "fire" for Dacians. The earliest evidence of Christianity is a grave inscription from the second century, found in Napoca, bearing the formula Sit tibi terra levis . The inscription was made by a "college" (a trading association) whose members originated from the Middle East. Among the other persons mentioned in the inscription, most of them bear Roman names, suggesting that Christianity had spread among the ranks of the soldiers as early as the 2nd century A.D.
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