The Hand of God and the Growth of Christianity Part Two--The Dark Ages 476 A.D. to 1000 A.D.

The Roman Empire collapsed in the year 476 A.D. The Dark Ages followed for centuries. The light did not shine brightly on Europe for almost a thousand years. Rome was civilized, well-organized, and Christian, Catholic Christian. The hordes of barbarians who destroyed the Roman Empire were uncivilized, chaotic, and either pagan or Arians heretics.

The city of Rome itself was devastated. There were eleven aqueducts that brought fresh water to the city of Rome. The barbarians destroyed the aqueducts, which meant that the only water coming into Rome was the River Tiber. The city of Rome went from a population of a million people to about 20,000 people. Which meant there were hundreds of thousands of Romans wandering the countrywide trying to scrounge food, water, and shelter to somehow stay alive.

Among the remnant of people that remained in the city of Rome was the Bishop of Rome--the Pope. In the early 300s, the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great had built two basilicas in Rome for the liturgical use of the Pope, old St. Peter's Basilica and St. John Lateran Basilica. So with the Papacy housed there, Rome continued in some way to be the Eternal City. And too, from Rome the Papacy for centuries after 476 A.D. planned the re-civilization of Europe. And Europe's return to the Lord Jesus and Almighty God.

When in 376 a force of 200,000 Visigoths crossed the Danube into the territory of the Roman Empire, the germanic Goths were pagans. One wave after another of barbarians took over the regions of the Roman Empire. The germanic Ostrogoths took over Italy. The Visigoths took over Spain. The germanic Franks took over Gaul (what became France). The germanic Anglo-Saxons took over Britain. Slavic-speaking tribes, Bulgars, and Magyar Huns took over eastern Europe. And then the pagan Vikings began their assaults from Scandinavia.

In the beginning all of these ravaging hordes of peoples were pagans. The astonishing thing is that by about 1200 A.D, they were all Christians. A Europe that in 500 A.D, had been a huge cluster of barbarian kingdoms, by the end the the 12th century had become Christendom. A Europe that was under the religious standard of Jesus Christ and Almighty God.

How did this happen?

This writing contends that the hand of God guided this development. That the Lord of History intervened and formed a Europe of Christian allegiance. After that, the hand of God intervened to make the world we know today--where more than twice the population of Europe constitutes the total number of Christians in the world.



--The Barbarians and the Migration Period

The Roman Empire included mainland Europe except territories east of the Rhine River and north of the Danube River. These latter zones were where the German tribes lived. Barbarians. They had no code of laws, they had no literature, no written language, no complex art, no architecture to speak of, no places of schooling, no cities, only rudimentarily paganism to take the place of religion. They did not have the hallmarks of the civilized. But in large numbers, these barbarians could leave a swath of destruction.

For centuries, the legions of the Roman Empire had been able to keep the barbarians at the Rhine-Danube border. .Then in the fourth century A.D. something massive and tragic happened. In history it's called the Migration Period. Huge numbers of germanic Goths near the eastern part of the Roman Empire felt the pressure to migrate southward and westward. In other words into the Roman Empire.

Most experts in ancient history believe that what pushed the Goths to migrate were marauding hordes of asiatic Huns from the east, as in the chaotic pagan Attila the Hun. Some historians suggest this remarkable theory: "The construction of the Great Wall of China [may have caused] a 'domino effect' of tribes being forced westward, leading to the Huns falling upon the Goths who, in turn, pushed other Germanic tribes before them." At any rate, the Goths were an unsettling factor in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, Roman legions were sent to quiet the situation, but were defeated by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople in 378, where the Roman emperor himself was killed in the battle.

Well over a million people were displaced during the Migration Period. Both barbarians and civilized Romans. After their defeat at Adrianople, the Romans sought to make a peaceful arrangement with the Visigoths. Lands in the eastern portion of the Roman Empire were granted to the Visigoths, and they were allowed to convert to Arianism, which was a type of Christ-oriented sect, but was a heresy because it did not acknowledge the Holy Trinity. Once the Visigoths became Arians, the Ostrogoths and the germanic Vandals followed suit. The Franks and Anglo-Saxons were pagans until they converted to Catholicism, Nicene Christianity. The pagan Huns were pushed out of Europe.



--The Conversion of Clovis, King of the Franks

Clovis (466 - 511) was a pagan king of the Franks, the barbarian tribe that had taken over the Roman province of Gaul. In historical terms, Clovis was the third King of France of the Merovingian dynasty.

The wife of Clovis was named Clotilda. She was a Catholic woman. Clotilda tried to convince Clovis to be baptized a Christian, but he refused. In the year 496, Clovis was at war with another tribe. That year, the Battle of Tolbiac took place between Clovis and his enemy. St. Gregory of Tours describes the events this way:

"It came about that as the two armies were fighting fiercely, there was much slaughter, and Clovis's army began to be in danger of destruction. He saw it and raised his eyes to heaven, and with remorse in his heart he burst into tears and cried: 'Jesus Christ, whom Clotilde asserts to be the son of the Living God, who art said to give aid to those in distress, and to bestow victory on those who hope in thee, I beseech the glory of thy aid, with the vow that if thou wilt grant me victory over these enemies, and I shall know that power which she says that people dedicated in thy name have had from thee, I will believe in thee and be baptized in thy name. For I have invoked my own gods but, as I find, they have withdrawn from aiding me; and therefore I believe that they possess no power, since they do not help those who obey them. I now call upon thee, I desire to believe thee only let me be rescued from my adversaries.' And when he said thus, the enemies turned their backs, and began to disperse in flight."

Clovis was baptized on Christmas, 496 at Reims by St. Remigius, bishop of that city, and three thousand of his warriors at the same time embracing Catholicism. According to the pious story, the chrism for the baptismal ceremony was missing and was brought from heaven in a vial borne by a dove. (Pious stories are as they are, though a God capable of creating the universe would surely be able to produce a phenomena as this. At any rate, the vial--called the Sainte Ampoule--was used to anoint French kings from the Middle Ages to time of the French Revolution.)

Thus, with the conversion of King Clovis, France eventually became Christian--under the Catholic Faith. Just twenty years after the fall of Rome, the pagan barbarians were converting to Catholicism. The barbarian Ostrogoths controlled Italy, and the barbarian Visigoths controlled Spain. They followed the Arian heresy. In Constantinople, the Byzantine Empire (sometimes called the Eastern Roman Empire) controlled much of eastern Europe. The Byzantines were Catholic until the 11th century, when a schism resulted in them embracing the Greek Orthodox faith, a second branch of Nicene Christianity. East of the Rhine and north of the Danube was Germania, where the tribes of pagan Germans lived.

St. Remigius. who baptized Clovis, was said by Alban Butler's "Lives of the Saints" to have the gift of miracles. Such supernatural phenomena may have influenced Clovis and the Franks to embrace Christianity with fervor. Some of these miracles were reported in the "Golden Legend" a chronicle of saints compiled by Blessed Jacobus de Voragine in the Middle Ages.

Before the birth of Remigius, the pagan Franks were conquering Gaul/France. The large Catholic population of Gaul felt threatened. A holy hermit, who lost his sight, had a vision of an angel. The visitor from heaven told the hermit that there was a woman named Aline who would give birth to a son who would save Catholic Gaul from persecution. And also, at the time of the boy's birth, the holy hermit would regain his sight. Aline gave birth to a boy named Remigius, and indeed the hermit was no longer blind.



--Ostrogoths, Italy, Justinian

Once the barbarian invasions of the city of Rome turned that city into chaos, the governing city of the Western Roman Empire was moved to Ravenna, a city near the northeastern shores of Italy. When the Ostrogoths took over Italy, Ravenna became their capital of the Kingdom of Italy.

Odoacer, leader of a branch of the eastern Goths, ended the Roman Empire in 476 by deposing its last emperor. Odoacer established the Kingdom of Italy, with its capital in Ravenna. His kingdom lasted 17 years, until the year 493. Although Catholicism was the religion of the populace majority, the ruling germanic minority was Arian. It was a monarchy, but Odoacer allowed the Roman Senate to continue on in an advisory role and also to serve in ministerial functions.

But the main body of Ostrogoths were on the move, heading toward Italy. Their new leader Theodoric had the support of the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople. Theodoric overwhelmed Odoacer, and upon marching into Ravenna Theodoric killed him with his own hands. So in 493 the Ostrogoth Empire was founded, with its capital in Ravenna. It lasted about sixty years. The Catholic Encyclopedia has this to say about Theodoric:

"Theodoric succeeded in establishing law and order in his lands; Roman art and literature flourished. He was tolerant towards the Catholic Church and did not interfere in dogmatic matters. He remained as neutral as possible towards the pope, though he exercised a preponderant influence in the affairs of the papacy. He and his people were Arians and Theodoric considered himself as protector and chief representative of the sect."

After Theodoric died, the Ostrogoths had a series of leaders who did not have the support of the Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great and his general Belisarius waged a war against the Ostrogoths that lasted more than twenty years. By 555 A.D. Justinian's forces were victorious over the Ostrogoths. Justinian now was not only emperor in Constantinople, but also in Italy, Rome, and Ravenna. The emperor brought Catholicism back to the ruling elite of the Italian peninsula. (The populace was already Catholic.)

The Ostrogoths were decimated. As a people they virtually disappeared from the map. Ostrogothic Arianism no longer existed. It is said that a small remnant of Ostrogoths moved northward into the southern portions of Austria. By the Middle Ages these barbarians had become Catholic.



--The Conversion of the Visigoths in Spain

Before the Ostrogoths invaded Italy, the Visigoth barbarians had already left. They travelled to the northwest, and settled in southern Gaul (France) in the 460s. The Visigoth capital there was Toulouse. When King Clovis converted to Catholicism, he decided to push the Arians out of Gaul. The Visigoths were Arians. So Clovis took over that area in southern Gaul, and the Visigoths settled in Spain. Their capital there was Toledo.

The move to Spain had weakened Arianism among the Visigoths. By the middle of the 500s, Emperor Justinian had pretty much brought to an end Arianism among the Ostrogoths in Italy, and the Vandals in North Africa. In Spain, Arianism had its last stand under Visigoth King Leovigild (reign 568-86). It was his two sons, Hermenegild and Reccared, who brought Catholicism to Visigoth Spain.

Hermenegild married Ingunthis, a Catholic princess from Gaul. She worked to convert her husband to Catholicism. To this end, she received help from the bishop St. Leander of Seville, brother of St. Isadore of Seville. Hermenegild converted to Catholicism. His father became enraged, and on Easter 585 King Leovigild's son was beheaded for his Faith. That night a heavenly light came from Hermenegild's cell. According to Butler's Lives of the Saints, those who saw the light were convinced that it was a sign that Hermenegild was a martyr saint in heaven. St. Hermenegild is a saint of the Church; his feast day is April 13.

Within a year of martyring his older son, King Leovigild was critically ill, and on his own deathbed. He told his younger son, Prince Reccared to seek out St. Leander of Seville, who Leovigild had earlier banished from Visigoth Spain. Leovigild had died before St. Leander reached Spain again. But the saint found an attentive student in the son, now King Reccared of the Visigoths. By January 587, Reccared declared that he had converted to Catholicism. He believed with such fervor, that the Visigoth nation also converted.

The formal means of conversion was the Third Council of Toledo convened in 589. It was called by King Reccared, presided over by St. Leander of Seville, and composed of 72 bishops of Spain. The matters of discussion were the rejection of Arianism by the Visigoths, transference of the Arian bishops and clerics to their respective Catholic dioceses.

Before 350 A.D. the barbarian Goths were pagan. About this time the Arian Bishop Ulfilas created a written language for the Goths, which included its own alphabet representing the phonetic sounds of their spoken language. Ulfilas then translated the Bible into Gothic. The Visigoths and Ostrogoths converted to Arianism quickly, possibly because of the compelling promise Jesus made regarding God's Kingdom. Other Germanic tribes south of the Danube also converted to Arianism--the Vandals, the Burgundians, and the Lombards.

Arianism taught that Jesus Christ was a lesser being beneath God the Father. In some expressions of it, Arianism denied the Divinity of Jesus Christ. To be sure, it rejected the dogma of the Holy Trinity. When Ulfilas and other Arians converted the Goths, they no doubt felt they were Christianizing the pagan barbarians. But the Council of Nicaea of 325 and the Council of Constantinople of 381 strongly rejected Arianism. It was identified as heresy.

At the Third Council of Toledo in 589, King Reccared declared that God had inspired him to lead the Goths back to the true faith, namely Catholicism. Reccared reported that the Arian bishops had not been able to produce any miraculous healings, and by implication the Catholic bishops had. After a relevant theological discussion, a unanimous renunciation of Arianism by the bishops occurred. This was followed by a unanimous declaration of acceptance of Catholicism.

Christianity was now the national religion of Spain, under the Catholic Visigoths.



--The Burgundians and the Lombards

Two other Germanic peoples who settled in Europe south of the Danube also went through the progression of being originally pagan, then Arian, then Catholics. These were the Burgundians and the Lombards.

The Burgundians had been pushed around during the Migration Period, and did some pushing themselves. By 476 A.D., they had settled in a large section of southeastern Gaul (France). Sometime before, they had converted from being pagan to being Arians. Burgundian rulers switched back and forth from Arianism to Catholicism. By 534, the Burgundian were defeated by the Franks, who added Burgundy to the Frankish kingdoms. This then meant southeastern France would become primarily Catholic.

The Lombards had migrated south from Scandinavia to Italy in a zig-zag pattern. The Lombards controlled the largest share of Italy from 568 to 774. The Byzantines were unable to rule all Italy due to the effects of natural disaster, famine, and plague. The Lombards had a power vacuum that they were happy to fill. (Still, the Byzantines were able to control Rome, Ravenna, and southern Italy.) The Lombards were converted to Arianism while in the Danube area. Like the Burgundian rulers, the Lombard royalty switched back and forth between Arianism and Catholicism. One researcher has suggested that by the 690s "the Lombards were more or less completely Catholicised." The power situation was settled in 774 when Charlemagne conquered the Lombards, thus taking over Italy.

So France (Gaul) was converted to legitimate Christianity. Italy was converted. Spain was converted. Belgium, Luxemburg, and parts of the Netherlands were converted. By 600, Europe was beginning to take the form of Christendom.



--St. Benedict and St. Columba

Before moving further in the discussion of the Christianization of Europe, mention needs to be made of St. Benedict (480 - 548) and St. Columba (521 – 597). Both were abbots of monasteries, and in that capacity made major contributions the development Christian civilization.

St. Benedict was the son of a Roman nobleman, and born in Nursia, Italy several years after the official fall of Rome. His parents sent him to Rome for the ancient equivalent of a college education. Benedict was so disturbed by the licentiousness in Rome that he fled there, and settled in a cave to become a Christian hermit.

Other monks in the region became became jealous of Benedict's holiness, so much so that twice they tried to poison him. And twice, Benedict was saved by a miracle. First time, they poisoned his drink, but when he blessed the drink, the pottery cup broke into pieces in Benedict's hands. The second time, they poisoned his bread, but as he blessed the bread, a raven swept down, snatched the bread from Benedict's hands, and flew away with it.

The thing St. Benedict is most famous for is the founding of monasteries--particularly Monte Cassino in central Italy. Benedict organized the monastery for 100 to 200 monks, and he would be the abbot--leader. Here, the men would renounce the world, focus on heavenly things, and exert effort to become saintly. Life at the monastery centered on Prayer and Work. These endeavors of Benedict went on during time of Theodoric the Great the Ostrogoth and the Emperor Justinian in Italy.

A key feature of Benedict's organizing at the monastery at Monte Cassino was his writing of "The Rule of St. Benedict". In about 125 pages, his rule identified the primary features and requirements at the monastery. With this document, monks all over Europe had a handbook for setting up monasteries. And this way the Benedictine Order of monks was founded. Eventually, hundreds of Benedictine monasteries in every country in Europe.


St. Columba grew up in a different situation in Ireland. The Roman conquerors and the Anglo-Saxon barbarians had not reached Ireland. The ancient Irish were Celtic barbarians and pagans. This was true until St. Patrick converted them in the fifth century, a conversion that was full of ordeals and miracles. In the century that followed St. Patrick, Christian monasteries sprung up all over Ireland. In fact, the monasteries became the country's population centers, for there were no cities there yet. St. Columba, born in County Donegal, grew up being educated and ordained in Irish monasteries.

When he reached adulthood, St. Columba resolved to convert pagan Scotland to Christianity, particularly the Picts. Like St. Patrick, St. Columba appealed for the hand of God through ordeals and miracles in order to convert Scotland. These miracles of of the saint included raising the dead, calming wind and storm, and miraculous healings. St. Columba sought an audience with King Bridei of the Picts. The king barred the gates of his fortress to the Christian monk. St. Columba made the sign of the cross, and the gates miraculously opened. King Bridei was dumbfounded and agreed on the spot to be baptized. Columba later saw a vision of an angel, who told him to continue his missionary work.

The efforts of St. Columba inspired hundreds of Irish monks to found monasteries in Europe. Like Columba who began his work as abbot of a monastery on the Scottish island of Iona, these monks spread Christianity further and further southward on the continent. One even founded an Irish monastery in Bobbio, near Genoa in Italy.

The monasteries of both St. Benedict and St. Columba were centers of learning. They all had schools attached to them. And they all had scriptoriums where books were copied. So, from different ends of Europe, Benedictine and Columban monasteries were spreading both Christianity and advancements of civilization.

Another thing that the monasteries did was to spread information about the Catholic saints. The veneration of the saints was derived from their holiness and in the miracles associated with them. Miracles happening in their own time served to bolster the faith of people in the Dark Ages. St. Benedict himself prayed to God for the restoration of life for a boy who had just died, and the boy did come back to life. The common people knew of such stories, and their faith in God and their veneration for St. Benedict both increased. And the common people could model themselves after the holiness of the saints--again, holy people in their own time gave regular people in the Dark Ages inspiration to be holy themselves.

St. Dymphna is an example of a saint from the Dark Ages. She is the patron saint of the mentally ill. Dymphna was the Christian daughter of a petty Irish king in the 7th century. The king's wife died, and he became despondent. Dymphna resembled the deceased wife, and the king began to desire his daughter. She knew this was a sin, fled Ireland, and settled in Geel, Belgium. Dymphna's father, taken over by madness, followed her all the way to Geel. When she would not return with him to Ireland, he was filled with rage, and with a sword struck her with a fatal blow.

The people of Geel built a chapel in Dymphna's honor. Pilgrims began to visit. Soon miraculous cures of people with mental illness occurred at the chapel. People with mental illness from all over were brought to Geel for care, with many cures. The patients were boarded with townspeople. By 1930, some 4,000 mentally ill boarders were staying in Geel households at one time. There is now a popular novena to St. Dymphna for people with mental ilness.



--Pope Gregory the Great and the Conversion of Anglo-Saxon England

St. Gregory the Great (540 – 604), Pope from 590 till his death, was born in Rome of a noble family. His father was a Roman Senator and the Prefect of Rome, the city's chief administrator. Gregory did very well in his formal education. He was in preparation for a career in public life. Indeed, he became a government official, advancing quickly in rank to become, like his father, Prefect of Rome, the highest civil office in the city, when only thirty-three years old. Gregory's family owned a villa not far from the Palatine Hill in Rome. Upon his father's death, Gregory converted the family villa into a Benedictine monastery, where he became the abbot.

In his movement forward in a spiritual life, St. Gregory had frequent visions of angels from heaven, and of our Lord Jesus himself. More and more, Gregory gave alms to the poor. Gregory became ordained, and the pope at that time sent Gregory on diplomatic missions--even as far as Constantinople. And eventually Gregory was chosen as pope himself.

During St. Gregory's pontificate there was a terrible plague in Rome. Gregory ordered a procession in which he carried a painting of of the Virgin Mary. As the the procession neared Hadrian's Mausoleum near the Vatican, the voices of angels could be heard singing "Regina Caeli, Laetare". Then St. Gregory saw a vision of St. Michael the Archangel atop Hadrian's Mausoleum. After this, the plague was over and the mortality ceased. Hadrian's Mausoleum was built in 139 A.D. to house the remains of the Emperor Hadrian and his family. The building still exists, and is now called the Castel Sant'Angelo. A huge statue of an angel stands atop of it.

At one point, Gregory saw some captive Anglo-Saxons at the Roman Forum, and he never forgot them. When he became pope, Gregory was determined to Christianize the pagan Anglo-Saxons. "The native Britons had converted to Christianity under Roman rule. The Anglo-Saxon invasions separated the British church from European Christianity for centuries, so the church in Rome had no presence or authority in Britain, and in fact, Rome knew so little about the British church that it was unaware of any schism in customs." The pagan Anglo-Saxons were a ruling elite in Britain. Gregory wanted this military power elite to be baptized.

The mission Pope Gregory the Great sent to England was comprised of forty monks. The leader was the prior of Gregory's Benedictine monastery in Rome, Augustine--later canonized St. Augustine of Canterbury. In 597 the monks met with Æthelberht, King of Kent and holder of the imperium over other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The discussion was held under an oak tree. Whatever Augustine said or did, it was very impressive to King Æthelberht. The king was not ready to convert yet, but the monks could preach all over England, minister to the people, and Augustine could take up residence in a mansion in Canterbury.

St. Augustine of Canterbury was able to perform miracles in the name of Jesus, and many were baptized. King Æthelberht heard of this and went Augustine to hear more preaching. After the sermon, the king fell at Augustine's feet and asked to be baptized. With the king christened, on Christmas Day ten thousand Anglo-Saxon men plus their women and children were baptized. And then a church was built for the worship of God.

But the Anglo-Saxons did not all convert easily. Miracles and ordeals were important in convincing them that the Almighty God of the Christians was more powerful than their pagan gods. Augustine was able to cure in the name of Jesus a man with leprosy and a man who was lame and deaf and dumb. At one point a man who had been dead 150 years rose from grave and asked Augustine's blessing. Augustine prayed and the man returned to the grave and was at peace.

The miraculous ordeals that Augustine of Canterbury had with the Anglo-Saxons is described in The Golden Legend. In one Anglo-Saxon town there were "wicked people who refused his doctrine and preaching utterly and drove him out of the town". Augustine looked to heaven for an answer to the situation, and the people in the town were marked with a deformity. Once the people there repented and had Augustine baptize them, their deformities went away.

Another miraculous ordeal of Augustine happened in an Anglo-Saxon town where his preaching met with loud scorning and mocking. Almighty God responded by inflicting upon them a burning invisible fire such "that their skin was red as blood, and suffered so great pain that they were constrained to come and ask forgiveness of St. Augustine". The saint "prayed to God for them that they might be acceptable to Him and receive baptism and that He would release their pain, and then he christened them and that burning heat was quenched and they were made perfectly whole, and felt never after more thereof".

These miracles and supernatural ordeals had an impact over time on the Anglo-Saxons. And Pope Gregory the Great sent another group of Benedictine monks to England in order to reach the people. By the time King Alfred the Great of Wessex became overall king of the Anglo-Saxons in 886, the Anglo-Saxons had pretty much all become Christian. So much so that the Anglo-Saxons had converted a Viking king named Guthrum. And in the previous century, Anglo-Saxon monks of the Benedictine Order formed a missionary journey into Germany to convert pagan peoples there to Christianity. One such Anglo-Saxon missionary monk named Winfrid became known as St. Boniface.



--St. Boniface and the Christianization of Germany

St. Boniface began as an Anglo-Saxon monk in a Benedictine monastery in England. His Anglo-Saxon name originally was Winfrid, but the Pope renamed him after a Roman-era martyr. Boniface was offered the position of abbot of the monastery, but he felt drawn to apostolic work.

His first missionary work was in Friesland, in northern Holland in 716. However, warfare between the Frisian king and Charles Martel of the Franks interfered with his mission, so Boniface withdrew. However, it was always in his mind to complete his missionary work with the Frisians. But his work expanded to the German-speaking peoples east of the River Rhine, to the point that Boniface became known as "Apostle to the Germans".

For almost forty years, Boniface labored for God in Germany. In that time he visited Rome three times to get direction and clarification from the Pope. He also had close connections with the Franks, who were bringing large parts of Germany into their empire. Boniface preached in Bavaria, Hesse, Thuringia, the Palatine near the Rhine, areas of Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, and other German-speaking regions. He ministered baptism, the Eucharist, and the other sacraments. He enlisted other men for holy orders, and made appointments of bishops throughout Germany. Boniface arranged for the building of churches, monasteries, and chapels where the worship of God took place.

The fierce Saxons lived in Germania north of Hesse and Thuringia and further west. They were independent, staunchly pagan, and the chief rivals of the Franks. Boniface asked the Pope if he could do missionary work among the Saxons. The Pope said no. The Franks didn't have enough control in Saxony, and he feared that he would lose Boniface, his primary missionary in all of Germania.

Boniface would frequently destroy pagan sacred places and replace them with Christian shrines. One pivotal example was the Donar Oak in 731 in northern Hesse. Donar (Donner) was the god of thunder in Rhineland German paganism. He was known as Thor in Viking paganism. Christian missionaries likened him to the Roman god Jupiter. The oak was a sacred tree among the German pagans, and the Donar Oak was of particular importance. The pagans believed that Donar would kill with a thunderbolt anyone who harmed the tree. Boniface announced that he would chop down the Donar Oak. He got an axe and began chopping. Villagers were amazed that lightening did not strike him. Then, as if by a miracle, a strong wind knocked down the Donar Oak. The villagers concluded that Almighty God of the Christians was more powerful than their pagan gods. A multitude sought out baptism as the story of Donar's Oak spread all over Germania. Boniface took the wood from Donar's Oak to build a Christian chapel on the spot. Today there stands the cathedral of Fritzlar.

In 745, the Pope made Boniface the Archbishop of Mainz in western Germany. Boniface was also made the Primate of Germany. Boniface then had the authority to more easily organize the Christianization of Germania. For instance, he had organizational authority over existing over existing diocese there, and he had authority to form new diocese. The Pope gave Boniface the authority to appoint bishops over the diocese in Germany. These bishops would then appoint priests to build churches to minister the sacraments throughout their diocese. The people in Germany would have a Church to turn to as they set aside paganism.

Since his younger days, Boniface had the desire to convert the Frisians of northern Holland to Christianity. The Pope agreed to let Boniface have a second try with the pagan Frisians. In 754, Boniface and 52 companions began doing their missionary work with the Frisians, and a lot of conversions were happening. But, when they were in a wooded area, they were attacked by a huge band of pagan brigands. Boniface and his followers were slayed. St. Boniface is a martyr of the Church. The Frisians became Christians when Charlemagne conquered them some fifty years later.



--Charlemagne, Christendom, and Civilization

Charlemagne (747 – 814) was King of the Franks and then the first Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the son of Pepin the Short, King of the Franks from 751 to 768, the first king of Carolingian Dynasty. And Charlemagne was grandson of Charles Martel, who was Prince of the Franks under the Merovingian dynasty of kings, and who stopped the Muslims at the Battle of Tours in 732. Charlemagne became king in 768.

On Christmas Day in the year 800, Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Leo III placed the crown on his head at old St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican in Rome. He was also King of the Franks, but he was not a barbarian, as was his predecessor Clovis. Charlemagne was civilized. He had a palace of dressed stone in Aachen, with a beautiful Byzantine-style chapel there. The palace had a school of advanced learning, chaired by Alcuin from England, the leading scholar of the day. What Charlemagne represented was a successive shift throughout Europe from barbarism to civilization.

Perhaps more than any other person, Charlemagne was a unifier of Europe. The European countries we know today began to take shape under Charlemagne. The areas he conquered became Christian. It was under Charlemagne that Christendom flourished. A continent where pagan barbarism ruled four centuries before, now under Charlemagne was governed by Christian civilization. There were now two emperors of Christendom. The Byzantine Emperor of the East--Nikephoros I in Constantinople. And Charlemagne in Paris and Aachen--the Emperor of the West.

A generation after St. Boniface, Germania began to take shape under Charlemagne. He conquered the Saxons in 782. Bavaria submitted. The Frisians were conquered in 785. The Lombards were quelled. The two areas of Europe that had become unstable were Spain and Eastern Europe.



--The Second Wave of Barbarian Invasions

During the 7th and 8th centuries a second wave of pagan barbarian invasions shook Europe. These came from the east and the north, possibly caused by migrations and population pressures. The Magyar-Huns pushed into Europe from east of the Caspian Sea. The Slavs settled eastern Europe, in Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia. Dalmatia, Romania, and other areas. The Bulgars were from the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region before pushing into Europe. The Vikings came down through the waterways from Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.



--Sts. Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs

Any discussion of the conversion of the Slavic peoples from paganism to Christianity would need early on to describe the missionary work of Saints Cyril and Methodius. These two brothers have been declared by the Church as the "Apostles to the Slavs". And Pope John Paul II declared them co-patron saints of Europe, together with St. Benedict. Cyril and Methodius were born in Thessalonica, Greece in the early 800s. They became priests, and they were connected with the predecessor school of the Imperial University of Constantinople,

Cyril and Methodius recognized the importance of communicating to Slavic peoples in their own language. To this end, they created the Cyrillic Alphabet, which had letters to represent unique sounds in the Slavic languages. The Cyrillic Alphabet is still used in numerous Slavic countries today. Cyril and Methodius next translated the New Testament, the Book of Psalms, and other parts of the Old Testament into the Slavic language by means of the Cyrillic Alphabet. Finally, they translated the liturgy and other church rituals into the Slavic language.

The Great Moravia was the first Slavic polity to form. It arose in the early 800s from the unification of Slavic tribes in the Danube area, just north of the the river. The Great Moravia consisted of the present-day countries of Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and parts of present countries surrounding these two. Three strong successive rulers of the Great Moravia were--Mojmir I, Rastislav, and Svatopluk I. Their chief pagan god was Perun, Slavic god of thunder and war. But the leaders of the Great Moravia became curious about Christianity. So missionaries from the Archbishop of Salzburg and a Bishop in Bavaria came to preach to them.

An interesting pattern was developing. In about 600 A.D., Pope Gregory the Great sent Roman missionaries to convert pagan England. The mission was a success. In the 700s, English missionaries worked to convert the pagan Germans to Christianity. The mission was a success. In the 800s, German missionaries sought to convert the pagan Slavic peoples.

Problems arose though. The Slavs in the Great Moravia wanted to stick to their own language, not the Latin of the missionaries. King Rastislav complained to the Pope, but got no response. Rastislav then sent a request to the Byzantine Emperor in Constantinople and the Archbishop of Constantinople for Christian missionaries who spoke the Slavic tongue. Cyril and Methodius were chosen. They knew a Slavic dialect spoken in Thessalonica, from the time of their youth.

In 863, Cyril and Methodius began their mission with the Slavic peoples in the Great Moravia. They had considerable success in terms of conversions. Along with their translation of holy books into the Slavic language, the brothers wrote the first Slavic Civil Code, which was used in Great Moravia. By 873, the Pope had made Methodius the Archbishop in the Great Moravia and Pannonia, and Serbia as well. Cyril and Methodius sought to remain in good graces with the Pope and Rome. Earlier there had been a mass baptism of Moravians by a German bishop in 831. And in 846, King Rastislav of the Great Moravia had been baptized.

Still there was tension between the western Christians and the Byzantine Christians. The followers of Cyril and Methodius moved their missionary interest to the land of the Bulgars, further east. The Bulgars were nomadic Turkic invaders from Kazakhstan. King Boris I (d. 907) of the Bulgars was interested in the Slavic translations done by Cyril and Methodius, and wanted a written language for his people. And indeed, the Turkic Bulgar minority assimilated into the Slavic majority--today Bulgaria is a Slavic-speaking country.

The chief pagan god of the Bulgars was named Tengri. But King Boris became curious about Christianity. His sister had converted to Christianity. A famine struck the Bulgar Kingdom. Boris called on the pagan god Tengri to end the famine. No help was forthcoming. Then Boris begged help from the Almighty God of Christianity, the God his sister spoke of. The famine lifted quickly. Prior to this, Christian missionaries had been martyred in Bulgaria. Now Cyril and Methodius's followers had an ear with King Boris. One Christian monk drew a picture of the Last Judgment that terrified Boris, and he sought baptism. In 864, King Boris of Bulgaria was christened into the Christian Church.

King Boris was exuberant on the matter of conversion. He had all pagan worship sites destroyed, and replaced with Christian shrines. Some 52 boyars from all over Bulgaria went into an open revolt. A huge angry crowd of warriors surrounded the royal palace with the intent to kill Boris. The king and his companions were hopelessly outnumbered. They went out to meet their adversaries. Then a miracle happened.

When the gates opened King Boris and companions were "under the sign of the cross". Suddenly seven clergy figures appeared in front of them with lit candles. "Then the rebellious crowd was afflicted with a strange illusion. They imagined that the palace was on fire and was about to fall on their heads, and that the horses of the king and his followers were walking erect on their hind feet and kicking them with their fore hooves. Subdued by mortal terror, they could neither flee nor prepare to strike; they fell prostrate on the ground."

So ended the rebellion. Word of the miracle spread. People in Bulgaria became Christians, and put away the pagan gods. King Boris was serious about Christianity. Before long he abdicated, and he became a Christian monk. Over the centuries, Bulgaria grew close to the Eastern Orthodox Church, and its liturgy was in the Bulgarian Slavic language.



--Christianity Comes to Russia

Russia traced its statehood to Prince Rurik's arrival to Novgorod in 862. By 980, Grand Prince Vladimir the Great had consolidated the Rus realm from modern-day Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine to the Baltic Sea. Vladimir was a thoroughgoing pagan, taking eight hundred concubines, erecting pagan shrines to Slavic gods. In Kiev, he erected statues to seven Slavic gods and goddesses--Perun, Stribog, Dazhd'bog, Mokosh, Khors, Simargl, and Veles.

There were Christian missionaries in Russia from 867 on. In about 945, the ruling regent, Olga of Kiev, visited Constantinople with a certain priest, Gregory. Her reception at the imperial court was ceremonious. Olga was baptized in Constantinople. She requested a bishop and many priests for Kiev. Olga was the grandmother of Grand Prince Vladimir the Great.

Vladimir's father-ruler Sviatoslav remained a pagan his whole life. However, Vladimir's half-brother Yaropolk was curious about Christianity, and went through some preliminary rites of baptism. But Vladimir, while still a pagan, had Yaropolk killed over succession issues. When Vladimir became ruler, Perun was chosen as the supreme deity of the Slavic pantheon and his wooden idol was placed on the hill by the royal palace.

There isn't agreement on the motive, but eight years into Vladimir's reign he decided he wanted to become a Christian. In 988, Vladimir was baptized a Christian by an Eastern Orthodox cleric with connections to Constantinople. Back in Kiev, Vladimir exhorted the residents to be baptized in the Dnieper river. What resulted was a huge mass baptism. Then the newly baptized people destroyed the statues of the pagan gods in Kiev, and threw the statue of Perun into the river.

It took over a century for Christianity to displace paganism in Russia. Whatever his original motive was, after baptism Vladimir the Great lived the teachings of Christianity. He was known for his acts of charity. He distributed food to the poor. He had the desire to share the burden of those carrying a cross of suffering. He founded churches, schools, and introduced ecclesiastical courts.

Vladimir valued the application of the Cyrillic alphabet to Russian, a Slavic language. He implemented the Byzantine law code into his territories after his conversion.



--The Conversion of Poland

The Slavic peoples settled in Poland in the 400s A.D., in lands vacated by Germans who feared the onslaught of Attila and the Huns. They originated in regions of the upper and middle Dnieper River. Their chief god was Svetovit, a Slavic god depicted with four heads, a horn, and a sword. Svetovit was a western Slavic god of abundance and war.

The first arrival of Christian missionaries in Poland was in the late 800s. The Poles did not much appreciate the German missionaries. The influence of The Great Moravia was important in bringing Christianity to Poland. Indeed a large segment of southern Poland had been part of the Great Moravia. The fall of Great Moravia resulted in the expansion of the Czech or Bohemian state, which incorporated some of the Polish lands. The Poles and the Czechs made an alliance that carried over in the area of religion.

Wenceslaus I was the Duke of Bohemia. His grandfather had been converted by Cyril and Methodius, and his mother had been converted to Christianity. Wenceslaus had led a life of heroic virtue, and after he was assassinated in 935, he was made a saint of the Church and a patron of the Czech nation. Boleslaus I, brother of Wenceslaus, was the successor ruler. He became important in Polish history because his daughter married the first ruler of Poland.

Mieszko I (930 – 992) was the first ruler of Poland and the founder of the first independent Polish state, the Duchy of Poland. Mieszko was a pagan, and venerated Slavic gods. He married Dobrawa of Bohemia, daughter of the Bohemian Duke. Dobrawa was a Christian. In 966, Mieszko himself was baptized. This marks the beginning of statehood of Poland.

The first Bishop of Poland was appointed by the Pope two years later, in 968, And in the the year 1000 an Archbishop in Poland was appointed. Mieszko made Christianity the state religion of Poland. Nevertheless, most of the Polish population remained pagan until the early 11th century. In the early stages the clergy was from the western European countries, though in three or four generations the Polish themselves were able to take over that role. "By the 13th century Roman Catholicism had become the dominant religion throughout Poland."



--Conversion of the Magyar-Huns

The Magyar-Huns were an Asiatic people from the Ural Mountains and Kazakhstan region. Due to pressures from the East, they conquered and settled in lands in the middle Danube region. By 895 the Magyar-Huns were established in eastern Europe. They were pagans who worshiped the stars and fire. They also worshiped the Lord of the Sky, whose name was Tengri. They had sacrifices in groves and springs. The Magyars also revered a huge mythological hawk called the Turul.

A paramount chieftain of the Magyars (or the grand prince) was always a member of the Árpád dynasty. The everyday Magyars believed that the Arpad dynasty descended from the Turul, the legendary bird prey. Magyar chieftains visited Constantinople in the middle of the 900s. One of them named Bulcsú was baptized in 948. Hungarian Grand Prince Géza became curious about Christianity. In 972 the Western Emperor Otto I dispatched Bishop Bruno to Hungary, and he baptized Geza. However, Géza and his wife, Sarolt, remained partially pagan, offering sacrifices to pagan gods even baptism.

St. Stephen of Hungary was the only son of Grand Prince Geza and his wife Sarolt. Stephen's pagan name was Vajk. He was baptized at age 10, and he became a very devout Christian. He married the Christian woman, Gisela of Bavaria. When Geza died, Stephen became the Grand Prince of Hungary. Stephen was active in shutting down pagan shrines.

So this was the first devout Christian ruler of Hungary. Stephen so moved European powers that they coronated him King of Hungary in the year 1000 A.D. (The first King of Poland was coronated at about the same time.) "Stephen started the systematic Christianization of Hungary. He established at least eight bishoprics and six monasteries, making magnanimous grants to them. The Archbishopric of Esztergom was established in 1001. Stephen founded four the Benedictine monasteries. He ordered the collection of the tithe, a church tax, for the clergy, and opened Hungary for pilgrims travelling to the Holy Land." Stephen's law book held that every ten villages were to build a church.

Stephen preferred Roman Catholicism to the other forms of Christianity. Even today in Hungary, there are more Roman Catholics than other Christian denominations. St. Stephen was the ruler of Hungary for about forty years. And after he died, the Church canonized him a saint. His feast day is August 15.



--The Vikings Accept Christianity

Around the year 800, the Vikings began raiding the coastal regions of Europe. The Vikings were known for their barbarity and disruption of civilized communities. Traversing waterways, they were able to raid inland cities such as Paris. Originating in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the Vikings founded communities in Ireland, England, Normandy, Iceland, and Greenland. They were feisty pagans, believing in a pantheon of gods. Their chief god was Odin, and other gods included Thor, Tyr, Loki, and Frigg.

St. Ansgar (801 – 865) is called the "Apostle of the North" because of his missionary efforts to bring the Vikings to Christianity. Ansgar believed strongly that it was God's will that he convert the people of Viking lands. The earliest moves to bring Christianity to the Vikings were in the 830s, when Ansgar built a church among the Danes at Hedeby, and a church among the Swedes at Birka. The goals of conversion that were held by Ansgar were not realized in his lifetime, but they did become real over time. "The conversion of Scandinavian kings occurred over the period 960–1020."

Denmark was the first Viking country to become Christian. By the early 11th century, certainly during the reign of St. Canute (1080 - 1086), Denmark can be said to be a Christian country. King Harald Bluetooth (reign 958 – 986) introduced Christianity to Denmark. "Harald Bluetooth converted to Christianity, reportedly when the Frisian monk Poppo held a fire-heated lump of iron in his hand without injury." (There is a pattern worth noting. The pagan peoples, who had been resistant to Christian conversion, within a century were doing missionary work with the next group of pagan barbarians to have arrived. Reference--Poppo the Frisian monk.)

Norway's King Haakon the Good made the first attempt to bring Christianity to that country in the tenth century, A second unsuccessful attempt to bring Christianity to Norway was made by King Harald Greyhide (935 – 970). Danish King Harald Bluetooth became ruler of Norway for a while, and he also tried and failed to bring Christianity to Norway. After 995, King Olaf I of Norway made another more successful effort to convert the Norwegian Vikings. It wasn't until King Olaf II Haraldsson (995 – 1030), or St. Olaf, that Norway became a Christian country, and paganism came to an end there.

In Sweden, the Vikings vacillated between paganism and Christianity for 150-200 years. The first missionary effort in Sweden was made by St. Ansgar in 830. He set up a church in Birka. The first Christian king of Sweden was Olof Skötkonung (c. 980–1022). King Olof and the pagan priests at Uppsala made an agreement of mutual toleration. Pagans were still strong in Sweden, until the country was officially Christianized by the 12th century,

Iceland was a Viking country after the pagan Norse settled there in 9th century. Before that, it was occupied by Irish monks. There had been tension between the Christian and pagan factions. The question came before the Althing in 1000 AD--that was legislative body in Iceland. It was decided that Iceland would become a Christian country, though paganism could be practiced in private.

The Vikings were the last of the barbarian people in Europe to become Christian. "The realms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly to the Pope, in 1104, 1154 and 1164, respectively." Then, the diocese set up parish churches, and trained and ordained parish priests. Now, almost ten centuries later, the Viking countries are some of the peaceful and civilized people in the world.



--Concluding Comments

Christendom became the outcome of the missionary drive that followed the barbarian invasions after the fall of Rome. The Dark Ages lasted about five hundred years. At the beginning of the Dark Ages it appeared that civilization was destroyed, and that barbarism would dominate the future. But as one barbarian tribe after another accepted Christianity, the glow of civilization began to brighten. By the 11th century, Christendom and civilization had a hold on almost all of Europe.

One exception to this pattern was Spain, where the Muslim sword of conquest sought to establish an inroad into Europe. It worked in Spain until 1492, when the Muslims were finally pushed back into North Africa. It would absurd to think of the Muslims as barbarians. They had achieved some level of civilization while Europe was still in the Dark Ages. It was the Muslim thirst for conquest in Spain, North Africa, the Holy Land, and the Byzantine Empire, that was objectionable--places where Christianity was firmly established, places that already had a higher level of religious development.

How did Christendom come to be? In the year 476 A.D., Europe was overrun by marauding tribes of pagan barbarians. In the year 1000 A.D., Europe was comprised of Christian farmers and lords set up in feudal configurations. The barbarians didn't disappear--they became the church-going feudal lords and farmers. How did this happen? This historical essay demonstrates that tribe after tribe of barbarians converted to Christianity. A remarkable phenomenon! I don't believe this could have happened without the Hand of God guiding it.

Along with Christendom, came the reestablishment of civilization. By the end of Dark Ages came the development of places of learning like universities. During the Dark Ages, the establishment of monasteries brought libraries of books and scriptoriums where books were copied. Reading and writing became more widespread, as evidenced by the writing of chronicles and new works of literature in the vernacular. There was more stability; there weren't bands of barbarians pillaging and plundering. Life as a serf/farmer was not idyllic, but the social stability meant that there was more security for the common man. As new towns and villages formed in the more stable environment, people had more access to things of interest.

Being something of a humanist of the type of St. Thomas More, I am glad that four hundred years after the end of the Dark Ages, the Renaissance flowered in the history of mankind. Such a wonderful development in my view. Advancements in art, literature, music, architecture, knowledge, and progress in city life. But one wonders if Spiritual advances were more prominent during the Dark Ages. There were fewer distractions from worldly things then, and one could focus more on God and heavenly things. Were there more saintly people during the Dark Ages? I wonder.

The hand of God, I believe through Faith, combines with Providence to guide history over time. When the acts of man go haywire, God gives mankind a chance to correct things, and then the hand of God moves in to bring the situation to a good resolution. The Dark Ages are an example of this. It was a very hard time. But eventually the hand of God brought hope through the establishment of Christianity throughout all of Europe. Then in a later time, in the Americas, and in parts of Asia, Africa and Australasia. This hope includes the better parts of civilization and a happy afterlife. God, the Lord of History, moves mankind in a good direction over time. To believe this is often a matter of Faith.



--Sources



Stewart C. Easton. The Western Tradition to 1500. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1966).

A Journey through Western Christianity: from Persecuted Faith to Global Religion (200 - 1650). by Yale University. Internet course from Prof. Bruce Gordon. https://www.coursera.org/learn/western-christianity-200-1650/home/welcome

Church History: Complete Documentary AD 33 to Present on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFIXMM1KWyc&list=LL&index=24&t=2402s

The Catholic Encyclopedia--St. Hermengild, Justinian I, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, St. Leander of Seville, St. Boniface, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Moravia,

Wikipedia--Theodoric the Great, Ostrogoths, Clovis I, Battle of Tolbiac, Odoacer, King of Italy, Hermenegild, Migration Period, Arianism, Ulfilas, Fritigern, List of aqueducts in the city of Rome,Leander of Seville, Reccared I, Third Council of Toledo, Gothic alphabet, Columba, Pope Gregory I, Dymphna, Æthelberht of Kent, Augustine of Canterbury, Paulinus of York, Gregorian mission, Alfred the Great, Saint Boniface, Donar's Oak, Charlemagne, Pepin the Short, Saxons, Massacre of Verden, Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Mojmir I of Moravia, Bulgarians, Bulgars, Christianization of Bulgaria, Tengri, Kievan Rus' , Christianization of Kievan Rus' , Millennium of Russia, Poland in the Early Middle Ages, Wenceslaus I Duke of Bohemia, Mieszko I, Hungarians, History of Christianity in Hungary, Ansgar, Christianization of Scandinavia, Norway, Christianity in Norway, Christendom, Golden Legend, Francia, Human sacrifice, Germany

Lives of the Saints https://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/lots/index.htm

The Golden Legend https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/index.asp

New World Encyclopedia https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/

Los Angeles Times article on St. Dympha https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-05-14/praying-with-st-dymphna-the-patron-saint-of-mental-health

Article on St. Columba https://www.thenational.scot/news/19288820.st-columbas-miracles-helped-turn-scotland-hub-christianity/

The Early History of the Bulgarians https://www.bulgariandiocese.org/bulgarianchurchhx

Christianity comes to Denmark https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-viking-age/religion-magic-death-and-rituals/christianity-comes-to-denmark/

12 years of education from Dominican nuns.

More to come