Wulfila (or Ulfila, often spelled Ulfilas, born c. 311 - † c. 383) was of Greek, more precisely Cappadocian, origin.
His grandparents, Hellenized Cappadocians, bore the brunt of the Gothic raids into Asia Minor at the end of the 3rd century and Wulfila was born in their kingdom, on the shores of the Black Sea.
Having learned the language of his masters from an early age, he also spoke Greek, which he learned to write probably destined for a career as a cleric.
His talents earned him the position of ambassador for his adopted people to the Eastern Roman Empire. There he came into contact with the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, who consecrated him bishop in the year 341.
In order to evangelize the Goths, he set about translating the Bible into the Gothic language, using an alphabet he invented for this purpose. Having become the apostle of this barbaric people, he went to Constantinople on several occasions, notably to a council on Arianism, in 360, and in 383 to support Arianism against Emperor Theodosius I.
He died shortly afterwards.
The exact circumstances of Wulfila's conversion to Arianism are unknown:this heresy was the dominant religion under Emperor Constantius. In any case, Wulfila showed himself to be a zealous Arian until the end of his life and it was under his influence that the Goths, then other East Germanic peoples adopted this version of Christianity.
It is therefore, albeit indirectly, to him that the resurgence of Arianism is due, in the West, in the 5th-7th centuries, through the Goths, Vandals and Burgundians, then the Lombards.