Saint Andrew

Romanians believe that Saint Andrew (named Sfântul Apostol Andrei) was the first who preached Christianity in Scythia Minor, modern Dobrogea, to the native people of the Dacians (ancestors of the Romanians): it is the official position of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Hippolyte of Antioch (died~AD 250) in his On apostles, Origen in the third book of his Commentaries on Genesis (AD 254), Eusebius of Caesarea in his Church History (AD 340), and other sources, like the Usaard's Martyrdom written between 845-865, Jacobus de Voragine in the Golden Legend (~1260), mention that Saint Andrew preached in Scythia Minor. There are toponyms and numerous very old traditions (like carols) related to Saint Andrew, many of them having probably a pre-Christian substratum. There exists a cave where it is supposed he preached. The mysterious tradition of baptism which happens in the village of Copuzu is also linked by some ethnologists with the christianization campaign made by the Apostle.