CHAPTER 6
The Conversion Of The Barbarian Tribes
The great evangelizers of this period were fervent in their faith in Jesus
and his Church and hoped for everyone to share in the spiritual and
moral treasure of Christianity.
CHAPTER 6
The Conversion Of The Barbarian Tribes
 After the Fall of the Roman Empire, the Church set about the task of
converting the Germanic invaders and the different tribes surrounding
the areas of the former Roman frontier.
 This was a long process that began in the fourth century and didn’t end
until the eleventh century, when the last European peoples, the Slavs,
were converted.
 These great evangelizers were fervent in their faith and hoped to share
with all people the spiritual and moral treasures of the Church.
 They worked not only for the salvation of all people, but also to share
the benefits of a more civilized society and a higher human culture.
 This section examines the unique role that monasticism played in
creating a Christian culture.
The Church’s Work of Conversion
 Although most Germanic tribes did not understand the subtleties of
theology, they were fervent promoters of the Arian heresy, and often
attempted to destroy Catholicism.
 During the fifth century, the bishops were gifted leaders who exhibited
the roles of preacher, pastor, father, teacher, leader, administrator,
liturgist, and sometimes military leader.
 Because of the chaos of the times, and the vacuum created by the Fall
of the Roman Empire, Church leaders often had to take on leadership
positions in society, as they worked to preserve the safety of the people.
 Monks and bishops had to build churches, monasteries, and Catholic
institutions from scratch.
 Two forces were soon at work in these lands: first, missionaries
emerged from the peoples that were most recently evangelized; and
second, Christian queens influenced their husbands to convert, with the
general population soon following.
PART I Conversion of France, the
“Church’s Eldest Daughter”
In time the Franks would be the Church’s greatest defender, and
this relationship resulted in the formation of the Papal States.
CONVERSION
OF THE FRANKS
 A bishop introduced the Burgundian princess, St. Clotilda, a Christian,
to the Frankish chief, Clovis.
 Although she worked tirelessly for his conversion, the death of their
first child and the near death of a second convinced Clovis that the
Christian God was ineffective.
 However, when faced with certain defeat by the Alemanni, Clovis
promised God that he would convert and be baptized, if he was given
victory.
 When the Franks emerged triumphant, Clovis kept his promise and was
baptized, along with 3000 of his soldiers.
CONVERSION
OF THE FRANKS
 By this act, the Franks became the first Germanic tribe to embrace the
Catholic Faith, making France “the Church’s eldest daughter.”
 By the middle of the sixth century, all of France was Christianized.
 At this time, only France, Italy, Ireland, and a small part of England
made up the Church’s faithful in the West.
ST. GREGORY OF TOURS
 St. Gregory was elected Bishop of Tours AD 573.
 He became one of the leading Churchmen following the collapse of
the Roman Empire, and is responsible for writing the history of
France.
PART II
Spain
 According to tradition, Spain received Christianity from St. James the
Greater and St. Paul, and from that time until the eighth century,
Christianity flourished even in times of persecution.
 In 589, Spain was invaded by the Visogoths who conquered most of the
Iberian peninsula.
 The Visogoths, who were nominally Arian, were intolerant of
Christianity.
 Eventually, the monarchy embraced Catholicism, and, in 589, the Third
Council of Toledo condemned Arianism, and Catholicism became the
religion of Spain.
 However, this peace did not last long. The monarchies soon weakened,
unity was dissolved, and the door was opened to a Muslim invasion in
the eighth century.
The Muslim Invasion
 In 711, the Muslim invaders swept through Spain. Within three years
they had conquered the entire Iberian peninsula.
 The Spaniards had to choose either to live under Muslim rule, or to
retreat to the northern provinces of Spain, mainly Asturias, where they
were protected by the Pyrenees Mountains.
 Those who chose to live under Muslim rule were called Mozarabs. At
first they were well treated, but later, persecutions came.
 Years of struggle and slow re-conquest followed.
 It wasn’t until 1492, more than 700 years later, that the Reconquista was
completed and the Christians once again ruled Spain.
PART III
The Conversion of the Celts
 Christianity in Ireland adapted itself to the Celtic culture. It soon
spread throughout the entire island, and Ireland developed a strong
monastic tradition that would serve the Church as a source of great
missionaries.
ST. PATRICK:
THE “APOSTLE OF IRELAND”
 Patricius was a Roman Briton born in Southwest Britain in the fourth
century.
 When he was sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates who took him
to the Northwest of Ireland. Working as a slave, his faith gave him
great strength until he finally escaped six years later.
 Back at home, he had a vision calling him to evangelize the Irish
people.
 In 430, St. Patrick, now a priest, was on his way back to Ireland with
several clerics. He was sent by Pope St. Celestine I as an aid to the
Bishop of Ireland. However, upon the death of the bishop, St. Patrick
was immediately consecrated as the new bishop.
ST. PATRICK:
THE “APOSTLE OF IRELAND”
 Within 15 years the entire island had heard the Word of God.
Thousands were baptized and new religious communities were started.
Within a generation, the entire island had converted to Christianity.
 St. Patrick’s most important written work, his Confessions, tells about
his conversion and his faith.
IRISH MONKS: PROTECTORS AND
PROMOTERS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
 Irish monasticism was inspired by both the Rule of St. Benedict and by
the austere Eastern monastic tradition.
 Irish monks slept on cold stones, prayed in icy water, and slept in wet
blankets. Anything that denied the body comfort was seen as a means
of bringing the soul closer to God.
 During the sixth century, the Irish monasteries were the most
important centers of learning in Europe. The scriptoria and libraries in
the Irish monasteries saved a great deal of the Greco-Roman learning.
IRISH MONKS: PROTECTORS AND
PROMOTERS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION
 Celtic Christianity was unique in that it had no diocesan priests, only
monastic priests. Abbots exercised most of the governing power in the
Church of Ireland.
 By the eighth century, the influence of the Irish Church was declining,
partly due to a series of Viking attacks on Irish monasteries.
 By the ninth century, the evangelizing mission of the Church was being
led by the papacy.
ST. COLUMBA:
THE “APOSTLE OF SCOTLAND”
 St. Columba was from a royal Irish family and had prepared for the
monastic life from an early age.
 Before arriving in Scotland, he had already founded several monasteries
in Ireland. Being caught in a conflict between families, St. Columba left
for Scotland. Some traditions report that he was exiled, while others
say that leaving for Scotland was a penance imposed by his confessor.
ST. COLUMBA:
THE “APOSTLE OF SCOTLAND”
 In any event, he arrived in Scotland in 563, founding a monastery on
the Isle of Iona, where he set to work converting the Picts. Successful
in converting the Picts, he set about his evangelizing work throughout
all of Scotland.
 A man of constant prayer and study he wrote some 300 books.
 In 574, he anointed the new Scottish King, which led to the conversion
of the Scottish population.
ST. COLUMBANUS AND THE
IRISH ON THE CONTINENT
 St. Columbanus is the most famous among many Irish monks who
helped to evangelize the northern coast of France as well as
Switzerland.
 When leaving by boat for his missionary activity it is said that he would
go wherever his boat happened to take him.
 The Celtic spirituality that St. Columbanus helped to spread around
Europe bore many fruits. One was the practice of frequent confession,
which quickly spread to the Universal Church.
FREQUENT CONFESSION
 By the third century, the Church had developed a system of austere public penance.
The Penitent was enrolled publicly with others, and after a rigorous and lengthy
period of penance (depending on the severity of the sin), marked by prayer,
almsgiving, and fasting, the penitent was forgiven his sins. This was seen as a
second Baptism and could be received only once. Furthermore, the penitent had to
make a lifelong promise of continence. For these reasons many people postponed
Penance until death approached, and the system was in a state of decline.
 For the Irish, the Penance remained lengthy, severe, and public, but the penitent was
not enrolled with others, was not bound by a promise of lifelong continence, and
penance could be received more than once.
 Eventually, absolution was granted upon confession, with penance to be performed
afterwards, and the Sacrament became a matter of private responsibility.
 The Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 officially taught that each individual was bound
to make at least one Confession each year if they were conscious of having
committed a mortal sin.
PART IV
The Conversion of England
 It is not known exactly how Christianity was first brought to England,
but English bishops were already present at the Council of Arles (AD
314) in France.
 However, with the invasion of the pagan Angles, Jutes, and Saxons, the
Christian community was pushed back to the furtherest regions of
England.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY:
THE “APOSTLE OF ENGLAND”
 By the time of Pope St. Gregory, the evangelization of Britain had
already begun.
 The Celts in the North had already converted due to the effort of the
Irish missionaries, and St. Columba had already preached the gospel to
the Picts in Scotland. However, the invading Saxons, Angles, and Jutes
had nearly annihilated the Celts, and with them the Christian Faith.
 Before becoming Pope, St. Gregory saw a group of blond, blue-eyed
slaves. He was told that they were Angles. St. Gregory replied, “Non
Angli, sed angeli” (“Not Angles, but angels”).
 He never forget the Angles and when he became Pope he selected St.
Augustine as a personal emissary and missionary to England.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY:
THE “APOSTLE OF ENGLAND”
 In 596, St. Augustine left for England with forty other monks. In
France they heard appalling stories about the brutality of the barbarians
in England. St. Augustine wrote a frantic letter asking permission to
return to Rome. Pope St. Gregory declined the request and St.
Augustine went on to England.
 Ethelbert, the king of Kent, had married Bertha, a Frankish princess,
and the great-granddaughter of King Clovis. When St. Augustine
arrived, he was received well by Ethelbert and was given permission to
preach the Catholic Faith and to make converts. Ethelbert also gave
them a dwelling in Canterbury, his capital.
ST. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY:
THE “APOSTLE OF ENGLAND”
 On Christmas Day in 597, more than ten thousand Saxons were
baptized. Ethelbert was baptized, and Christianity soon spread rapidly
throughout England. Monasteries were quickly established and St.
Augustine was presented with a palace in Canterbury, which became the
Episcopal see.
 St. Augustine was named Primate of England and was sent the pallium.
He consecrated others as bishops and sent them to Rochester and
London.
 Upon St. Augustine’s death, Christianity had a strong foundation in
England.
THE MISSION IN ENGLAND
CONTINUES
 Christianity soon spread throughout all of the kingdoms in England.
However, there were occasional setbacks as the successors of Christian
kings sometimes reverted back to paganism.
 Celtic Christianity, brought by the Irish monks, dominated the north of
England, and Roman Christianity predominated south of the Thames.
Soon these two traditions would clash, especially over the date for the
observance of Easter.
 Seeking to reconcile the two traditions, a synod was held in
Northumbria (AD 644).
 St. Wilfrid, later Bishop of York, led the party advocating the Roman
tradition.
THE MISSION IN ENGLAND
CONTINUES
 The synod decided that England would follow the Roman tradition for the
observance of Easter, and that the monks would follow the Benedictine
form of monasticism.
 The Celtic monks eventually withdrew to a Celtic monastery on the island
of Iona and to other monasteries in Ireland.
 From this point on, of all the countries that had converted to Christianity,
England was most closely identified with Rome, and became the strongest
supporter of Benedictine monasticism.
ST. BEDE: THE “FATHER OF
ENGLISH HISTORY”
 St. Bede (673-735) was the most important Anglo-Saxon scholar of his time,
and much of his work became the standard for the Medieval curriculum.
 His works included Latin grammar and poetry, astronomy and the tides,
chronology, a biography of St. Cuthbert, commentaries on Scripture, and
history. His Ecclesiastical History of the English People places the Catholic Church
at the foundation of the development of English culture.
 His spirituality and scholarship was based on the biblical-patristic tradition,
and he developed the BC / AD system of dating the years.
 Although England produced many great Saints and evangelizers, such as St.
Boniface, the disunity of its kings, coupled with the invasion of the Vikings,
caused an eventual spiritual decline, making England a “backward” country,
and it eventually lost its momentum in deepening and spreading Catholic
culture.
PART V The Conversion of
Germany and the Low Countries.
Although some Roman cities, such as Cologne, were evangelized during
the time of the Roman Empire, it wasn’t until the seventh century, and
the arrival of English missionaries, that northwest and central
Germany was converted. Some Germanic tribes were still being
converted as late as the second millennium, when the German church
began to focus its energies on converting the Slavs.
ST. WILLIBRORD:
THE “APOSTLE OF FRISIA”
 St. Willibrord was one of the first Anglo-Saxon missionaries to
evangelize Germanic lands.
 With papal support for his mission, he succeeded in converting the
people of Frisia (Northwestern Germany and parts of the
Netherlands). His work suffered a temporary setback when a pagan
king re-conquered the territory, and St. Willibrord had to flee to
Luxembourg.
 From there he continued his work in Denmark and central Germany.
ST. BONIFACE:
THE “APOSTLE OF GERMANY”
 St. Boniface was born with the name Winfrid in Wessex, England, and
entered a monastery at age seven. He felt that God was calling him to
leave England and to evangelize the German peoples.
 Before the arrival of St. Boniface, all of the conversion efforts in
Germany had failed. Not only did St. Boniface succeed in converting
the Germans, but he laid the foundation of a church based on the
monastic model that would flourish for three centuries.
 In 716, he left to bring the Frisians fully into the Church, but met
formidable obstacles. Feeling discouraged, he researched the lives of
the early Christians and found that no Saint was exempt from suffering,
so he struggled to be courageous and look upon barbarians as his
brothers.
ST. BONIFACE:
THE “APOSTLE OF GERMANY”
 Believing that he had failed in Frisia, he consulted the Pope as to whether he
should continue. The Pope was so impressed with his sanctity that he gave
Winfrid the name “Boniface”, meaning “doer of good.”
 Returning to Germany he sought the conversion of the Hessians, and the Pope
consecrated him as a bishop.
 After cutting down the Oak of Thor, the sacred tree of the pagans of Hesse, he
gained so much moral authority among the people that he was able to establish
several monasteries.
 He spent much time building the ecclesiastic structure of the Church by
establishing new dioceses, and reforming the clergy who had become corrupt.
 At 76 years of age, he returned to Frisia where he was martyred along with his
companions.
PART VI
Conversion of Scandinavia
Just as England had supplied missionaries for the conversion of the
German people, the German missionaries in turn led the
evangelization of Scandinavia and of the Slavs.
ST. ANSGAR:
THE “APOSTLE OF THE NORTH”
 St. Ansgar was born in France where he became a monk. He soon
moved on to Denmark and Sweden where he built the first Christian
church.
 The Pope made him Bishop of Hamburg and later of Bremen.
 He successfully converted Erik, king of Jutland. However, his
missionary work crumbled when the converted Scandinavians returned
to paganism.
DENMARK
 St. Ansgar was invited to Denmark by a defeated Danish chieftain,
Harold, who sought the help of Louis the pious, son of Charlemagne,
to regain his position.
 Louis the Pious and St. Ansgar agreed to help him on the condition
that he was baptized. Harold was soon baptized and set off for
Denmark to recover his kingdom, but was decisively defeated in
battle.
 St. Ansgar had to move on to other missionary fields.
 A century later the Danish ruler Cnut the Great (1014-1035) declared
Christianity the official religion of Denmark.
SWEDEN
 Christianity’s progress in Sweden was as difficult as it had been in
Denmark.
 St. Ansgar’s initial efforts failed as did later attempts.
 Finally, in about the year 1000, King Olaf III was baptized.
 In 1078, the Christian chieftain, Inge, defeated the pagan chieftain and
destroyed the pagan temple.
 It wasn’t until the twelfth century that the Christianization of Sweden
was complete.
ST. OLAF:
PATRON SAINT OF NORWAY
 The evangelization of Norway began in the tenth century.
 Several kings favorable to Christianity, along with Anglo-Saxon monks,
brought Christianity to the people.
 Pagan successors to the king left Christianity vulnerable.
 The establishment of Christianity seemed certain, but the reigning king
used many inhumane methods in establishing the religion.
 In contrast, St. Olaf (king 1016-1028) used stern, but civil methods to
spread Christianity. He invited missionaries to his land. He destroyed
pagan temples and built Christian churches on their sites.
 Wars between the clans led to his exile, and he was killed in a battle
against Canute the Great of Denmark. Within a year he was
proclaimed a Saint.
ICELAND
 Missionaries reached Iceland from Norway around AD 980. Twenty
years later the ruling tribal council accepted Christianity.
 The groundwork had been laid years earlier by Irish Christian slaves,
and some of the native aristocracy had already accepted Christianity.
 In the year 1000 the ruling tribal council gave the Law Giver, Thorgeir
of Ljosvatn, the authorization to decide which religion the island would
follow. Thorgeir, a pagan, after spending a night in prayer, decided for
Christianity.
 The island was united, and by 1056 had received its own bishop.
FINLAND
AND ST. HENRY OF UPPSALA
 The origin of Christianity in Finland is not clear. It arrived in the
twelfth century, later than in the other Scandinavian countries.
 St. Henry of Uppsala, a bishop and an Englishman, was the major
evangelizer.
 By 1220, the Church was firmly established.
PART VII
The Conversion of the Slavs
Central and Eastern Europe were the scenes of competing
missionary interests. German missionaries converted the rest of
Germany and Poland, while Greek missionaries evangelized much
of Eastern Europe. The conversion of the Bohemians, Moravians,
Slovenes, Croates, and Poles was directed from Rome, while the
Serbs, Bulgarians, Ruthenians (Ukrainians), and Russians received
Christianity from Constantinople.
STS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS:
THE “APOSTLES OF THE SLAVS”
 Two brothers, Sts. Cyril and Methodius were the first missionaries
among the Slavs. Coming from a senatorial Greek family, both decided
to enter the priesthood.
 St. Cyril, after becoming a priest, became part of the philosophy faculty
in Constantinople, but gave up a promising career to evangelize
southern Russia.
 Later, the emperor commissioned them both as missionaries to
Slovakia. Before leaving, they developed the Glagolithic script for use
with the Slavs.
STS. CYRIL AND METHODIUS:
THE “APOSTLES OF THE SLAVS”
 The brothers used the vernacular Slavonic language for the liturgy, and
translated the Bible into Slavonic. Although this was a vital tool for the
conversion of Slovakia, German missionaries denounced them as
heretics for not using Latin.
 The brothers went to Rome for guidance from the Pope, who granted
them permission to use Slavonic in the liturgy. St. Cyril died while in
Rome, but the Pope made St. Methodius Bishop of the Moravians and
he continued his missionary activity.
 Arrested by German missionaries and held in captivity for three years,
Pope John VIII eventually gained his release and reaffirmed the use of
Slavonic in the liturgy.
 Later Popes who refused to recognize the use of Slavonic turned many
of the Slovakians away from Rome to Constantinople.
STS. LUDMILA AND WENCESLAUS: PATRON
SAINTS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
 In 871, St. Methodius baptized St. Ludmilla and her husband, Duke
Borzwoi, the first Christian Duke of Bohemia. St. Ludmilla worked to
spread the Faith among the Bohemian people.
 She replicated the model often used in Europe; the conversion of the
ruling family through the influence of a Christian woman, and the
subsequent conversion of the subjects.
STS. LUDMILA AND WENCESLAUS: PATRON
SAINTS OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC
 She had two grandsons St. Wenceslaus and Boleslaus. When St.
Wenceslaus turned to Germany for political and religious support, it
caused resentment among many Bohemians. In the atmosphere of
political unrest, Boleslaus killed his brother while he was on his way to
Mass.
 Boleslaus later repented and converted to Christianity, bringing his
brother’s relics to Prague where they became an object of veneration.
 Otto the Great of the Holy Roman Empire compelled him to reinstate
Christianity, and his son, Boleslaus II, made Christianity the religion of
the Bohemians.
ST. ADALBERT OF PRAGUE: THE
“APOSTLE OF THE PRUSSIANS”
 St. Adalbert worked among the Bohemians, the Hungarians, and the
Poles.
 Born of a noble Bohemian family, he studied in Germany and was later
made Bishop of Prague.
 Twice he had to flee Prague due to hostility caused by his attempts to
reform the clergy. Both times he went to Rome to seek counsel.
 While away from Prague, he became the confessor for the teenage Holy
Roman Emperor Otto III, making a deep impact on the emperor by his
example and teaching.
ST. ADALBERT OF PRAGUE: THE
“APOSTLE OF THE PRUSSIANS”
 Fleeing Prague the second time he went to Hungary, where he baptized
the Hungarian leader and his son, and later to Poland and Prussia.
 The pagan Prussians martyred him AD 997.
 When Otto III visited his grave, he granted ecclesiastical independence
to the Polish church from the Germans.
POLAND
 Christianity arrived in Poland in the tenth century through Moravian
refugees who fled to Poland from the Hungarian invasion. German
monks also assisted in the conversion. Although there was no organized
Church, the transition to a Christian nation was smooth and peaceful.
 Duke Mieszko, a Polish noble, was the first to encourage his subjects to
become Christian.
 The duke placed his son under the care of Otto II for his education,
and sent a locket of his son’s hair to the Pope to show that he
considered his son to be under the special protection of the Pope.
 In AD 992, the duke placed all of Poland at the service of the Holy See,
making Poland a vassal land of the popes, thus beginning a unique
relationship between the Polish people and the papacy.
ST. STEPHEN THE GREAT,
KING OF HUNGARY
 The Hungarians were an Asian nomadic people defeated by Otto I.
Afterwards they were a sedentary and peasant people who became
open to the gospel.
 German missionaries obtained permission to evangelize the people,
and St. Adalbert was instrumental in their conversion.
 Having been baptized with his father by St. Adalbert, St. Stephen
became the ruler of Hungary and its first King.
 Opposed by pagans, St. Stephen successfully put down a rebellion and
set about building up the Church in Hungary.
 He placed Hungary in the hands of the papacy and received a royal
crown from the Pope, which was also recognized by the Holy Roman
Emperor.
ST. VLADIMIR: THE “APOSTLE OF THE
RUSSIANS AND UKRAINIANS”
 St. Olga, the wife of the pagan Prince Igor of Russia, converted to
Christianity in Constantinople. However, she was not able to convert
her husband, nor her children.
 Her grandson, St. Vladimir, became ruler of all Russia after defeating
his brothers in battle. He lived a typical pagan life, having five wives and
twelve children, and erecting many idols and shrines to pagan gods. He
was also known as a ruthless ruler.
ST. VLADIMIR: THE “APOSTLE OF THE
RUSSIANS AND UKRAINIANS”
 In order to solidify his rule, he looked to the religions of Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam.
 His emissaries found Judaism and Islam unedifying, and while they found
Latin rite Christianity acceptable, they were amazed at the Byzantine liturgy.
While in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople they reported that
they “knew not whether they were in Heaven or on earth.”
 St. Vladimir struck a deal with the Byzantine emperor, who was in need of
military aid. He would help the emperor, if he could have the hand of his
sister in marriage. The emperor agreed on the condition that Vladimir
became Christian.
 St. Vladimir agreed. He dismissed his former wives, tore down all of the
pagan idols and shrines that he had built, and erected churches in their place.
He established monasteries and Christian schools. He threw banquets for
the poor and focused on converting his people. By the time of his death, he
had firmly established the Christian Faith throughout Russia.
BULGARIA:
A DIFFERENT PATH
 The faith reached Bulgaria when King Boris was baptized AD 864/5.
 He was oriented toward Constantinople but feared political and religious
domination from the Byzantine emperors, and for some time both
German and Byzantine missionaries worked in the land.
 He turned to the Pope to seek advice on the transition of his country
from paganism to Christianity, and the Pope gave him counsel. Pagan
customs that conflicted with Christian beliefs had to be abolished, while
those not in conflict with Christianity could be kept as part of the
Bulgarian culture.
 When Boris asked that Bulgaria be made a separate patriarchate, the
Pope refused, and Boris turned to Constantinople. The relationship
between the two was strained as Bulgaria asserted religious and political
independence. Constantinople finally recognized the independence of
the Bulgarian Church in the twentieth century.
CONCLUSION
The Church remained focused on its mission of preaching and spreading the
Gospel. Not until the evangelization of the Americas would the Church
experience such a growth among new peoples. At the same time, tensions
began to mount between Christianity in the East and the West. Seemingly
irreconcilable differences drove the two traditions further apart, which would
later lead to a great Schism.
The End