page_title: Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania
section_title: Aftermath (after 1241)
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania / History / Aftermath (after 1241)
caption_attribution_description: Hungary in the late 1200s (including Kingdom of Croatia in personal union with Hungary)
context_page_description: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania was a Latin-rite bishopric west of the Siret River from 1228 to 1241. The lands incorporated into the diocese had been dominated by the nomadic Cumans since about 1100. Catholic missions began after Andrew II of Hungary granted Burzenland to the Teutonic Knights in 1211. After Andrew expelled the Knights from the territory in 1225, Dominican friars continued the Cuman mission. Robert, Archbishop of Esztergom baptized Boricius, an influential Cuman chieftain, two years later.
  Robert ordained a Hungarian Dominican friar, Theodoric, as the first bishop of Cumania in early 1228. Pope Gregory IX confirmed Theodoric's consecration on 21 March of that year, and the diocese was subordinate to the Holy See in 1229. The episcopal see was on the Milcov River, but its exact location is unknown. The diocese included Burzenland and lands east of the Carpathian Mountains. Vlachs who belonged to the Orthodox Church were a significant part of the diocese's population. They did not follow the Catholic bishop, and persuaded many Catholic Hungarians and Saxons to accept their Orthodox bishops.
context_section_description: The Mongols conquered the steppes as far as the Lower Danube. They massacred or enslaved many Cumans, but significant Cuman groups survived and preserved their separate identity in the Mongol Empire until the end of the 14th century. The Holy See did not abandon the idea of proselytizing in Cumania after the Mongol invasion, and Pope Innocent IV praised the Dominicans for their successful missions to the Cumans in 1253. However, Pope Nicholas III mentioned in a 7 October 1278 letter that Catholics had disappeared from the Diocese of Cumania because no bishop lived there since the destruction of the episcopal see. The pope urged Philip, Bishop of Fermo (his legate in Hungary) to investigate the situation in the former bishopric.
  Franciscan friars played an important role in Catholic missions to the lands east of the Carpathians. The Holy See had authorized the order to administer the sacraments, build churches and grant indulgences in Cumania in 1239, renewing the authorization six years later. Missionaries risked their lives in the lands subject to the Mongols in the first half of the 14th century; "Saracens" murdered Friar Pietro da Unghera near Transylvania in 1314, and Friars Blasius and Marcus were martyred in Siret in 1340.
  Pope John XXII considered restoring the bishopric in 1332. In a letter addressed to Csanád Telegdi, the Archbishop of Esztergom, he wrote that "the powerful of those lands" had seized the property of the Diocese of Cumania. Hoping to receive royal support for his plan, the pope decided to make the Franciscan Vitus de Monteferreo (Charles I of Hungary's chaplain) bishop of Milkovia. Although the pope confirmed Vitus's ordination two years later, no evidence exists that the bishop ever visited his diocese. Other bishops were ordained to the see of Milkovia during the next century, but their attempts to regain the properties of the Diocese of Cumania were unsuccessful.
caption: The Kingdom of Hungary in the second half of the 13th century (the grey area east of the Székelys and the Banate of Severin was included in the bishopric of Cumania)
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