The first mention about the Romanian people

1050- The first mention about the Romanians north of the Danube is written in a work about world history. The persian geographer Gardizi, in his work Zayn-al akhbar (the Jewel of the Histories)(written between 1049 and 1053), describes the ethnic and political realities of Eastern Europe and places among the Slovenians (Bulgarians), Russians and Hungarians ‘a people of the Roman Empire’ which ‘are all Christians’. Geographically, Gordizi locates this people between the Danube and ‘a great mountain’, which can be identified as the Carpathians.

The Great Schism

1054, July 16- The Great Schism. Patriarch Michael I Kerularios (1043 – 1058) and Pope Leo IX (1049 – 1054) excommunicated each other. From now on there is a permanent separation between the Roman Church and the one in Constantinople. The Romanian people decided to belong to the Orthodox group of peoples, which are under the canonical authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople.