Catholic Church in North Macedonia  The Catholic Church in North Macedonia is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome and is one of the major religious communities that exist on the territory of the Republic of North Macedonia. Catholic believers from North Macedonia mostly include Albanians, ethnic Macedonians and Croats and are most concentrated in the Skopje Statistical Region and the Southeastern Statistical Region of North Macedonia. There are around 20,000 Catholics in the country — around 1% of the total population. Christianity in North Macedonia dates from the time of the Apostles, when the Paul the Apostle in 51, arrived in the broader Roman province of Macedonia on the territory of today's Greece. After all, while St. Paul was in Troas, Asia Minor, at night he had a dream where a Macedonian came to him and said: "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16.9). For the second time Christianity began to spread in the 9th century during the Christianization of Bulgaria, when Clement of Ohrid and Saint Naum instituted the Ohrid Literary School. At the time of Western Bulgarian Tsardom there was a creation of the South Slavic parishes alignment with the Archbishopric of Ohrid whose autocephaly was maintained until 1767, when the Turks, influenced by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, suspend it. Since then, North Macedonia started a movement for liberation and independence of national and religious field. Diocese of Skopje, under whose jurisdiction are believers of the Western or Roman rite is one of the oldest dioceses in the Balkans and its territory historically is not enough investigated. Many important historical facts and unsolved today. To a better overview, church history in these areas could be divided into three main periods. See also Diocese of Skopje  The first period of the Christianity in North Macedonia begins with the appearance of Christianity in Europe. Paul the Apostle was missionary at this time. Christianity was present in these areas illustrated by the fact that the Council of Nicea (325), signed between the Assembly's fathers, and the Bishop of Dacosta Scupi (Skopje) was mentioned as bishop in charge of Dardania (Europe) province, whose capital is Skopje, and extends from Niš until Veles (city). The existence of the Diocese does not refer to a clearly defined religious organization in the province headed by Bishop and several bishops. This period is called the "golden period" for the province.