Ulfilas

Ulfilas or Wulfila (circa 311-82 or 383), bishop of the Goths and translator of the Bible into Gothic. For more than 30 years, he labored in Lower Moesia (now part of Bulgaria), at the foot of the Haemus (now the Balkan Mountains). He visited Constantinople (present-day İstanbul) in 360 and again in 381 in the interest of the Arian party (see Arianism). It was in considerable measure because of his efforts that the Arian heresy flourished for several centuries in various parts of Europe, such as Visigoth-dominated Spain. He is remembered chiefly for his translation of the Bible, which marks the beginning not only of Christianity among his people but of Germanic literature.