Religion
The first report of the Crimean Goths appears in the Vita of Saint Cyril, Apostle to the Slavs (Constantine the Philosopher) who went to Crimea to preach the gospel to the Khazars . He lists "Goths" as people who read and praised the Christian God "in their own language". In 1606 Joseph-Juste Scaliger claimed that the Goths of Crimea read both the Old and New Testaments "in the letters of Wulfia's alphabet". These are the only two reports which refer to the existence of a written form of Crimean Gothic, but also confirm their Christian faith.
While initially Arian Christians like other Gothic peoples, the Crimean Goths had fully integrated with the Trinitarian Roman Church by the 500's. Following the split of the Church, these peoples would remain loyal to Constantinople as part of the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the 8th century John of Gothia, an Orthodox bishop, led an unsuccessful revolt against Khazar overlordship.
Read more about this topic: Crimean Goths
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