The Growth of Christianity in Europe

The Growth of Medieval Christendom's Boundaries in Europe

Conversion of the Nomadic Tribes to Christianity

The rescript of Milan: an important turning point

After suffering centuries of persecution from Rome, Christianity eventually became one of the state religions of the Roman Empire. Emperor Constantine the Great declared his faith in Christianity and began to support it. In the year 313 A.D., together with Licinius, Constantine drafted the Milan program of toleration and sent it to the governors of the eastern provinces. This was the rescript of Milan. This rescript accorded Christianity full equality with the other religions of the Roman Empire. Christianity was then able to expand and develop itself as a religion: through internal organizations brought about by ecumenical councils such as Nicea (325 A.D.) and Ephesus (431 A.D.); through the exemplary leadership of Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great; and through the growth of the monastic movement under the influence of the St. Benedict, the Father of Western Monasticism.

Conquering nomadic tribes threaten Christianity

Just as Christian civilization was firmly rooting itself in many territories of the Roman Empire, a tide of nomads from the steppes came like a great wave on the Christian Roman culture and attempted to overwhelm it. These conquering nomads originated in Eastern Asia, round the periphery of China. One of these nomadic tribes were the Turco-Mongols, the main element of which were the Huns. Then there were the Alans who located themselves towards the Caspian and the Caucasus. Farther north, spaced out along the Baltic coast, lay the Finns, the Lithuanians, and the Slavs. Then the vast area stretching from the Vistula to the Rhine was peopled by various Germanic groups - the Goths, who had moved down into the Ukraine; the "shining" Ostrogoths to the east; and the "wise" Visigoths to the west. There were also Vandals on the Danube, Angles in Schleswig, Lombards on the banks of the Elbe, Saxons on the Weser, Alamanni on the Main, and a spearhead of Burgundians and Franks on the Rhine. Christian civilization was being threatened by what many historians term as the "barbarian flood".

Catholicism entering into the Middle Ages

At this time, historians record also the beginning of the fall of the Western Roman Empire at about 476 A.D. And the migration of the conquering nomadic tribes was part of the turning point to the beginning of a new age - the Middle or Medieval Age. The only bond that linked the period before the fall of the Western Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages was the Catholic Church. What is epochal and very important in the growth of Medieval Christendom's boundaries was the successive conversion of the Germanic tribes. King Clovis of the Salian Franks was baptized in 496 A.D. This began the amalgation of the Franks to Catholic Christianity. The culture of the Franks and the religious customs of the Catholic faith merged.

Conversion of more Germanic tribes, the Slavs, and the Baltic peoples

In the sixth to the seventh centuries, Catholicism also was accepted by the Lombards, the Angles, the Saxons, and the Visigoths. The conversion of the Frisians and the Hessian Germans then occurred in the seventh and the eighth centuries. The conversion of the northern Germans and the western Slavs took place during the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. And finally, the Baltic peoples were incorporated into Christendom in the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries.

The Christianization of Scandinavia

The Scandinavian kings were very instrumental in the Christianization of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. Danish King Sven (d. 1014) and his son Canute (d. 1035) brought missionaries into Denmark, while two Norwegian kings, both named Olaf, did the same for Norway in the eleventh century. Although the Swedes resisted conversion at first, with the conversion of their neighbors Denmark, Norway, and Poland, pressures mounted, and by the end of the eleventh century, most of the resistance was overcome. In 1164 A.D., the Pope made Uppsala a metropolitan see for all Sweden.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius converts the Slavs

During the great migrations of the nomadic tribes, the Slavs spread across central Europe and occupied the wide stretch of land from the Dnieper to the Elbe and Saale rivers, including Bohemia. It was during these times that St. Cyril (d. 869) and St. Methodius (d. 885) became missionaries of the Christian faith to the Slavs in Moravia in the ninth century. St. Cyril invented the Slavonic alphabet by combining Greek letters with some new ones in order to provide the Slavs with a liturgical language.

Bohemia, Poland and Hungary become Christian states

Christianity made real progress among the Slavic peoples when the Bohemian princes looked to Germany for protection against the fierce Magyar invaders. Their alliance with Germany therefore influenced them toward Christianity. In 973 A.D., an episcopate in Bohemia was founded at Prague. From here, Christianity spread among the Poles, whose renowned Prince Mieszko (d. 990) firmly established the Polish Kingdom and presented his realm to the Pope. A papal charter gave Poland its own ecclesiastical organization - bringing Poland into the Western orbit. The conversion of the Hungarians was likewise carried out during the tenth and eleventh centuries.

The Christianization of Russia, Livonia, Prussia and Lithuania

For a time it looked as if Russia would follow Poland and Hungary into the papal orbit. Russia was already receiving Christian missionaries from both the East and the West as early as the ninth century. But it was only under Vladimir (d. 1015) that Christianity was fully adopted. This Russian prince sought counsel with emissaries of the Pope and the Patriarch as well as with Moslems and Jews. After weighing all the pros and cons, he finally decided to accept baptism in the Byzantine Church. After Russia, the last Eastern Europeans to accept Christianity were the Baltic people of Livonia, Prussia, and Lithuania in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

References of this article

• A History of the Church, by Franzen and Dolan
• A Concise History of the Catholic Church, by Thomas Bokenkotter
• The History of the World in Two Hundred and Forty Pages, by Rene Sedillot

St. Blaise and the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Introduction

The Fourteen Holy Helpers are a group of saints whose intercession is known to be very effective - especially against ailments and many various diseases. They were heavily invoked when a serious plague struck Europe. The devotion to the Fourteen Holy Helpers began in the Rhineland and spread to the areas around it. Their feast as a group is celebrated traditionally on August 8. When, however, the new Vatican II teaching on devotion to the saints, pulled out from its roster of saints, those saints who have no historical records, it excluded some saints in these Fourteen Holy Helpers. However, Church tradition continues to honor these saints according to their individual feast days.

The Fourteen Holy Helpers are as follows:

• St. Blaise, d. ca. 316 A.D.. feast February 3. Born of wealthy Christian parents, he became a bishop at a young age. As bishop of Sebastea, Armenia, during the persecution of Christians by Licinius, St. Blaise was tortured and beheaded.


• St. Acacius, also Agathus, Agathius - d. ca. 303 A.D., feast May 8. A Cappadocian by birth, he became a centurion, and was arrested for his Christian faith. He was tortured, scourged and beheaded.


• St. Barbara, 4th century, feast December 4. She resisted her pagan father's demands that she marry. Her father handed her over to the judge, who had her tortured. Because of her continued resistance, her father took her up a mountain and killed her. (Her father afterwards was destroyed by fire from heaven).


• St. Catherine of Alexandria, d. ca. 310 A.D., feast November 25. She was born in Alexandria to a patrician family and was converted to Christianity by a vision. Her spiritual influence on others was so great that the Emperor offered a bribe of royal marriage, if she would apostasize. She naturally resisted the bribe but was put in prison. She was condemned to death on a spiked wheel. When the wheel miraculously broke, she was then beheaded.


• St. Christopher, d. ca. 251 A.D., feast July 25. Legends say that he made a living by carrying people across a river. One day, one of his passengers was a small child. As they crossed the river, the child grew heavier. When St. Christopher feared that both of them would drown, the child then revealed to him that he was Jesus, and the heaviness was due to the weight of the world on his shoulders. St. Christopher then became true to his name, which means "Christ-bearer". He died at Lycia, probably in one of the Christian persecutions by the Roman Emperor.


• St. Cyriacus, also Cyriac, Ciriacus, d. ca. 304 A.D., feast August 8. He was known to be a deacon, who cured the Emperor's daughter from possession, and also did the same for the daughter of the King of Persia. However, when he returned to Rome, he was arrested together with his two companions. They were all tortured and beheaded.


• St. Denis, also Dionysius, d. ca. 258 A.D., feast October 9. He was born in Italy and was sent, together with others, to Gaul as a missionary. He became the first bishop of Paris. Because he was very effective in converting the residents around Paris, he was arrested together with his companion priest, St. Rusticus, and his deacon, St. Eleutherius. The three of them were imprisoned, beheaded, and their bodies thrown into the Seine River.


• St. Erasmus, also Elmo, d. ca. 303 A.D., feast June 2. He was a bishop of Formiae, Campagna, Italy, whose success with converting pagans to Christians, brought him before the Emperor, who had him tortured. Because of the many wounds that were inflicted on him, he eventually died as a martyr.


• St. Eustace, d. ca. 118 A.D., feast September 20. Originally a pagan Roman general, he was converted to Christianity while in a hunting trip. In that hunt, he saw a stag with the figure of Christ on the cross between its antlers. Still in the Roman army, he then won a great victory. When in the celebration, he refused to sacrifice to the Roman gods, he and his family were all roasted to death.


• St. George, d. ca. 303 A.D., feast April 19. He was probably a soldier in the imperial army. Legend tells us that he is a Christian knight who came to Libya, where a dragon was terrorizing a city. As St. George tried to subdue the dragon, it went into the city. St. George slew the dragon, after the inhabitants of the city agreed to be baptized.


• St. Margaret of Antioch, no date, feast July 20. She was a daughter of a pagan priest at Antioch in Pisidia. When she was converted to Christianity, her father drove her out of the house. She became a shepherdess, and because of her beauty, Olybrius the prefect, made advances towards her. When she resisted, he charged her for being a Christian. He had her tortured and put in prison. Attempts were made to execute her by fire and then by drowning, but she was miraculously saved. Eventually, the executioners decided to behead her.


• St. Pantaleon, also Pantaleimon, ca. 305, feast July 27. He was the son of a pagan father, but raised as a Christian by his mother. He became a physician in the Emperor's court and soon lost his faith by a dissolute life. After converting from his dissolute life, when the persecution of Christians was ordered by Diocletian, he was denounced as a Christian by his fellow physicians. Together with others, he was arrested, condemned to death, and beheaded.


• St. Vitus, d. ca. 300 A.D., feast June 15. He was a son of a senator and became a Christian when he was twelve. He caused many conversions and performed many miracles. When this became known to the administrator of Sicily (Valerian), the administrator wanted to shake the faith of St. Vitus. Valerian was not able to shake the faith of Vitus, and Vitus afterwards decided to flee to Luconia, and then to Rome. When one of his miraculous cures was attributed by the imperial court to sorcery, he was subjected to various tortures until he eventually died from the wounds inflicted upon him.


• St. Giles, ca. 712 A.D., feast September 1. Of all the Fourteen Holy Helpers, only St. Giles did not die as a martyr for the faith. St. Giles was an Athenian who escaped to Marseilles after much adulation was showered on him for a miracle he performed. He became a hermit at the mouth of the Rhone River. After the Gothic King Flavius witnessed the sanctity and holiness of St. Giles, the King built a monastery with St. Giles as abbot. He attracted many disciples and his reputation reached far and wide.

St. John Baptist de la Salle, Priest: 1651-1719 A.D.

Birth, seminary studies, ordination

John Baptist was born at Rheims, France, on April 30, 1651, the eldest of ten children, of a wealthy and noble family. His parents allowed him to enter the seminary of Paris, where he was tonsured at the age of eleven. He then became a canon of the cathedral at Rheims when only sixteen. After all his studies, John Baptist was ordained a priest in 1678 A.D.

Inspired by a layman to an educational mission

In 1679 A.D., John Baptist met layman Adrian Nyel, who at that time was opening a school for poor boys. John Baptist then became involved in educational work. Because of this new work and apostolate, he gave up his renumerative assignments at the Rheims Cathedral, then distributed his fortune to the poor in the year 1684 A.D. He finally devoted himself to both the education of poor children and the improvement of the proficiency of the teachers.

Founding the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools

John Baptist's work began to attract men who were desirous of his training. So he formed twelve of these teachers who all agreed to live as a community, and to dedicate themselves to the education of children and youth. From this core of twelve was founded the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The Institute received papal approval in 1725 A.D. St. John Baptist infused in these new community high standards of education. They were called the Christian Brothers. They decided that none of them should ever be a priest so they can concentrate on teaching.

Opening of more schools

St. John Baptist began to establish teachers' colleges (Rheims in 1687, Paris in 1699, Saint-Denis in 1709). He also established a junior novitiate in 1685 for those young men who were interested to be a member of the Institute. St. John Baptist steadily increased the number of schools for boys under his tutelage. He decided to exclude priests from the Institute and wrote his Conduite des écoles Chrétiennes - thus revolutionizing teaching methods. The new teaching methods he introduced replaced the method of individual instruction with the method of classroom teaching. His method also required the teaching of subjects in the vernacular rather than in Latin.

Growth of the Institute

Eventually, the Christian Brothers were able to open Catholic schools throughout Europe, and the Institute grew to be the largest teaching Institute of the Catholic Church. But the growth of this Institute was not without problems and trials. In the years of its development, St. John Baptist encountered opposition from secular teachers. Some opposed his ideas and reported the Institute's severity towards the novices. This caused the deposition of John Baptist in 1702. However, John Baptist remained in control of the Institute even when the brothers all threatened to leave. Aside from this trial, St. John Baptist had problems also with the Jansenists, who acted to close the schools in Paris. After all these trials and tribulations had ended for John, his schools eventually were reopened, and the Institute remained intact.

Retirement and death

In 1717 A.D., St. John Baptist resigned as superior of the Institute and lived humbly among his brethren. In the period before his death on April 7, Good Friday, in 1719 at St. Yon, Rouen, he wrote several books and spent some time teaching the novices of the Institute.

Canonization

John Baptist was canonized by Pope Leo XIII in 1900 and was declared patron of all school teachers by Pope Pius XII in 1950. The Church celebrates his feast on April 7.

Sources of this blog post

• A Year with the Saints, by Don Bosco Press Inc.
• Dictionary of Saints, by John J. Delaney
• Saints for Our Times, by Ed Ransom