The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cumania was a Latin-rite bishopric west of the Siret River (in present-day Romania) 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 (Romanians) 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. The diocese was destroyed during the Mongol invasion of Europe in 1241, and its property was seized by neighboring landowners. A Franciscan friar was ordained to the see in 1334, but he and his successors (who bore the title Bishop of Milkovia) could not restore the bishopric and its estates. History Background (before 1211) The nomadic Cumans controlled the lands north of the Lower Danube and east of the Carpathian Mountains after about 1100. Archaeological research indicates that most settlements in the territory had been abandoned by that time. According to John Kinnamos, a Byzantine army which invaded the Kingdom of Hungary in 1166 "had passed through some wearisome and rugged regions and had gone through a land entirely bereft of men" before entering Hungary across the Eastern Carpathians. Twelfth-century Sicilian Muslim geographer Muhammad al-Idrisi wrote that the two Cuman groups (the Black Cumans and White Cumans) were separated from each other by the Dniester River. Describing the eastern borders of the Kingdom of Hungary around 1150, Otto of Freising mentioned the "open land of the Patzinaks and the Falones" (the Pechenegs and Cumans, respectively). He described the territory as a "very fine hunting ground practically untouched by plow and hoe", suggesting a lack of agriculture. However, archaeological research has indicated that local inhabitants practised agriculture in the