Resistance to Arianism under Valens
The defining episode of Betranion's episcopate was his stand against the Emperor Valens, a patron of Arianism. The narrative derives principally from the church historian Sozomen, who relates that Valens, campaigning against the Goths along the Danube, came to Tomis and urged the people there to abandon the Nicene Creed in favour of the Arian position.
Betranion refused and openly defended Nicene orthodoxy. The emperor responded by sending him into exile. The reaction of the local Christian community was strong enough that Valens revoked the sentence and allowed the bishop to return to his see, an outcome that testifies both to Betranion's standing and to the depth of Nicene sentiment in Scythia Minor.
Relics of Sabbas the Goth and the Gothic Epistle
Betranion is connected with one of the notable acts of inter-church communication of the period. After Sabbas the Goth was martyred in 372 during the persecution ordered by the Gothic king Athanaric, his remains were brought into the safety of the Roman Empire and then forwarded to Basil the Great at Caesarea in Cappadocia in 373 or 374, at Basil's request.
The translation was accompanied by a letter, the 'Epistle of the Church of God in Gothia to the Church of God located in Cappadocia and to all the Local Churches of the Holy Universal Church,' composed in Greek and attributed to Betranion. Some accounts describe it as the oldest known writing produced on what is now Romanian soil. Basil, receiving the relics, in turn wrote to Bishop Ascholius of Thessalonica, honouring Sabbas as a martyr.
Veneration and disputed records
Betranion is commemorated as a hierarch and confessor. The historical record carries some uncertainty: he may have represented Tomis at the Second Ecumenical Council held at Constantinople in 381, though sources note that his name may have been confused with that of another bishop of Tomis, Gerontius, leaving his attendance unresolved.
Sources differ on the date assigned to his commemoration; one tradition records it in late January, a date that a later compiler is said to have fixed somewhat arbitrarily.
