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In the Romanian language it is most often known as Dreapta credinta ("right/correct belief"--compare to Greek Ορθος δοξος, "straight/correct belief"). Orthodox believers are also known as dreptcredinciosi or dreptmaritori crestini.
Most Eastern Orthodox autocephalous churches, including the Romanian, maintain a respectful spiritual link to the Ecumenical Patriarch. Now in office is His All-Holiness Bartholomew, Patriarch of Constantinople and New Rome.
According to an old theory, Christianity reached Dacia with the military progress of the Roman Empire at its highest geographical extension, as many colonists moved north of Danube to avoid the persecution organized by the imperial Roman authorities.
However, the weight of evidence, from archaeological to linguistical to ecclesiastical history, points to a different story, especially since Saint PaulPaul of Tarsus (originally Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul the Apostle (c. 66) is considered by many Christians to be the most important disciple of Jesus, and next to Jesus the most important figure in the development of Christianity. Paul is recognized by and SilvanusSilas or Silvanus (flourished 1st century) was an early Christian who was a companion of Paul and Peter. The name Silas is a Greek nickname for the Latin Silvanus''. Silas is listed as a co-author or co-sender of Paul's First and Second Epistle to the The first preached into the Miniature Macedonian Rome of Caesarea PhilippiFor the US town, see Philippi, West Virginia, and for the town in the Golan Heights, see Caesarea Philippi. For the zoologist, see Rodolfo Amando Philippi. Philippi was the capital of the province of Macedonia. It stood near the head of the Aegean Sea, ab and only later in RomeRome ( Italian and Latin Roma is the capital city of Italy, and of its Lazio region. It is located on the lower Tiber river, near the Mediterranean Sea, at 41°50'N, 12°15'E. The Vatican City State, a sovereign enclave within Rome, is the seat of the Roman proper.
Moesia Inferior had indeed been visited by Saint Andrew, brother of Saint PeterSaint Peter (died c. 67) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. His original name was Simon "Hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew imon Tiberian Hebrew imon , but he was given the nickname of Peter which means rock in Greek and by their disciples, well in advance of the Dacian Wars . An impressive number of toponyms, ethnographical material and the most ancient church tradition - also attested in writing by Eusebios since the 4th century follow Saint Andrew, the Apostle of Dacia and Scythia Minor. All of these could not possibly have been maintained in situ in a non-Christian organized Dacia: If the Christian faith were only brought there by Romans or Roman prisoners rather than growing locally as a grass root phenomenon, then only a few early Christian remains would be on record. In fact, the Roman army deserted north-of-Danube, Left Bank Dacian provinces in corpore starting as soon as the Goths (who were christianized only later) invaded it, around 240 AD. There are more recent historians who maintain that Christianity became widespread much later, with the Byzantine troops of the Eastern Roman Empire then with the extension of Byzantine Romania. Others still point to the Caucasian Georgia or Iberia, and the Lesser Armenia as the first Christian countries. All of them fail to explain the unique liturgical vocabulary of Romanian which could only have been acquired at the very sources of Early Christianity. Cunningly, even Edward Gibbon, as early as the 1780s, vindicates an early Christianization beyond the Left Bank of the Lower Danube.