Primary source documents

chapter 8: Mission history: The extension of the Catholic Church and its inculturation in new contexts 

Patrick, Declaration, Chapters 1 and 10 – Patrick’s call to be a missionary to Ireland

Source: Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History. From the Apostolic Age to the Close of the Conciliar Period. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1941, 567-9.

The conversion of Ireland happened in the fifth century through missionaries coming from Britain. The most famous among them was Patrick, known as the ‘Apostle to Ireland’, and still regarded as one of the patron saints of Ireland.
The following text is a section from Patrick’s Declaration (in Latin, Confessio), a kind of spiritual autobiography. It tells of his early enslavement and of his calling to be a missionary.

   To the most religious and beloved of God, fellow minister Nestorius, Cyril sends greeting in the Lord. 

   I, Patrick, a sinner, the most ignorant and least of all the faithful, and the most contemptible among many, had for my father Calpornius the deacon, son of the presbyter Potitus, the son of Odissus, who was of the village of Bannavis Tabernia; he had nearby a little estate where I was taken captive. I was then nearly sixteen years old. But I was ignorant of the true God [i.e., not necessarily a pagan, but not loving God] and I was taken into captivity unto Ireland, with so many thousand men, according to our deserts, because we had forsaken God and not kept His commandments and had not been obedient to our priests who warned us of our salvation. And the Lord brought upon us the fury of His wrath and scattered us among many nations, even to the end of the earth, where now my meanness appears to be among strangers. And there the Lord opened the senses of my unbelief, that I might remember my sin, and that I might be converted with my whole heart to my Lord God, who looked upon my humbleness and had mercy upon my youth and ignorance, and guarded me before I knew Him, and before I knew and distinguished between good and evil, and protected me and comforted me as a father a son.
   [...] And again after a few years [in the meantime, he had escaped to France and lived there] I was with my relatives in Britain, who received me as a son, and earnestly besought me that I should never leave them after having endured so many great tribulations. And there I saw in a vision by night a man coming to me as from Ireland, and his name was Victorinus, and he had innumerable epistles; and he gave me one of them and I read the beginning of the epistle as follows: "The voice of the Irish." And while I was reading the epistle, I think that it was at the very moment, I heard the voice of those who were near the wood of Fochlad [i.e., where Patrick had lived as a slave], which is near the Western Sea. And thus they cried out with one voice: We beseech thee, holy youth, to come here and dwell among us. And I was greatly smitten in heart, and could read no further and so I awoke. Thanks be to God, because after many years the Lord granted them according to their cry.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book I, Chapters 23. 25-26 – the Mission of Augustine

Source: Frederic Austin Ogg (ed.), A Source Book of Medieval History. Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance, New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: American Book Company 1908, 73-77.

Bede (or Beda, c.672-735), monk at Jarrow, was the most important theologian of the early Anglo-Saxon Church and the first historian of England. His most important work is the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum), written in Latin.
His account of the arrival of Augustine and his companions sent by Gregory I is interesting for several reasons. First, it is an example of how efforts of re-evangelization were necessary in areas where the migration of Germanic tribes had largely eradicated Christianity that had spread through the Roman Empire. Second, it shows that the missionaries did not start from zero but received significant support from Christians at the king’s court, in this case, the king’s wife, Queen Bertha, who was of Frankish origin. Third, the description shows vividly the reluctance and fear of the missionaries.

   In the year of our Lord 582, Maurice, the fifty-fourth from Augustus [that is, the throne of the Eastern Empire at Constantinople], ascended the throne, and reigned twenty-one years. In the tenth year of his reign, Gregory, a man renowned for learning and piety, was elected to the apostolical see of Rome, and presided over it thirteen years, six months and ten days. He, being moved by divine inspiration, in the fourteenth year of the same emperor, and about the one hundred and fiftieth after the coming of the English into Britain, sent the servant of God, Augustine, and with him several other monks who feared the Lord, to preach the word of God to the English nation. They, in obedience to the Pope's commands, having undertaken that work, were on their journey seized with a sudden fear and began to think of returning home, rather than of proceeding to a barbarous, fierce, and unbelieving nation, to whose very language they were strangers; and this they unanimously agreed was the safest course. In short, they sent back Augustine, who had been appointed to be consecrated bishop in case they were received by the English, that he might, by humble entreaty, obtain consent of the holy Gregory, that they should not be compelled to undertake so dangerous, toilsome, and uncertain a journey. The Pope, in reply, sent them an encouraging letter, persuading them to proceed in the work of the divine word, and rely on the assistance of the Almighty. [… What follows is a short letter of encouragement.]

   Augustine, thus strengthened by the confirmation of the blessed Father Gregory, returned to the work of the word of God, with the servants of Christ, and arrived in Britain. The powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent. [… It follows a description of the island where Augustine had landed.] In this island landed the servant of our Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported, nearly forty men. By order of the blessed Pope Gregory, they had taken interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to all that took advantage of it everlasting joys in heaven and a kingdom that would never end, with the living and true God. The king, having heard this, ordered that they stay in that island where they had landed, and that they be furnished with all necessaries, until he should consider what to do with them. For he had before heard of the Christian religion, having a Christian wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha; whom he had received from her parents upon condition that she should be permitted to practice her religion with the Bishop Luidhard, who was sent with her to preserve her faith.

   Some days after, the king came to the island, and sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to be brought into his presence. For he had taken precaution that they should not come to him in any house, lest, according to an ancient superstition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose upon him, and so get the better of him. But they came furnished with divine, not with magic virtue, bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of our Lord and Savior painted on a board; and singing the litany, they offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of Augustine those to whom they were come. When Augustine had sat down, according to the king's commands, and preached to him and his attendants there present the word of life, the king answered thus: "Your words and promises are very fair, but as they are new to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot approve of them so far as to forsake that which I have so long followed with the whole English nation. But because you are come from afar into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you believe to be true and most beneficial, we will not molest you, but give you favorable entertainment and take care to supply you with necessary sustenance; nor do we forbid you to preach and win as many as you can to your religion." Accordingly he permitted them to reside in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and, according to his promise, besides allowing them sustenance, did not refuse them liberty to preach. It is reported that, as they drew near to the city, after their manner, with the holy cross and the image of our sovereign Lord and King, Jesus Christ, they sang this litany together: "We beseech thee, O Lord, in all Thy mercy, that Thy anger and wrath be turned away from this city, and from Thy holy house, because we have sinned. Hallelujah."

   As soon as they entered the dwelling-place assigned them, they began to imitate the course of life practised in the primitive Church; applying themselves to frequent prayer, watching, and fasting; preaching the word of life to as many as they could; despising all worldly things as not belonging to them; receiving only their necessary food from those they taught ; living themselves in all respects in conformity with what they prescribed for others, and being always disposed to suffer any adversity, and even to die for that truth which they preached. In short, several believed and were baptized, admiring the simplicity of their innocent life, and the sweetness of their heavenly doctrine. There was, on the east side of the city, a church dedicated to the honor of St. Martin, built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the queen, who, as has been said before, was a Christian, used to pray. In this they first began to meet, to sing, to pray, to say mass, to preach, and to baptize, until the king, being converted to the faith, allowed them to preach openly, and build or repair churches in all places. 

   When he, among the rest, induced by the unspotted life of these holy men, and their pleasing promises, which by many miracles they proved to be most certain, believed and was baptized, greater numbers began daily to flock together to hear the word, and forsaking their heathen rites, to associate themselves, by believing, to the unity of the church of Christ. Their conversion the king encouraged in so far that he compelled none to embrace Christianity, but only showed more affection to the believers, as to his fellow-citizens in the heavenly kingdom. For he had learned from his instructors and guides to salvation that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not by compulsion. Nor was it long before he gave his teachers a settled residence in his metropolis of Canterbury, with such possessions of different kinds as were necessary for their subsistence.

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People Book I Chapter 30 - Letter of Pope Gregory I to Abbot Mellitus (601)

Source: Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Edited by Bertram Colgrave and R.A.B. Mynors, Oxford: Oxford University Press 1969, 107-109.

In his history of the English people, Bede reproduces significant historical documents like the letter of Pope Gregory I to Abbot Mellitus. This letter gives insight into the missionary method of the time. It reflects how Christianity made use of the popular religion it found, mostly transforming it and only selectively destroying it.

   When these messengers had departed, St. Gregory sent after them a letter which is worth recording, in which he plainly showed his eager interest in the salvation of our race. This is what he wrote:

   To my most beloved son, the Abbot Mellitus; Gregory, the servant of the servants of God.

   Since the departure of our companions and yourself I have felt much anxiety because we have not happened to hear how your journey has prospered. However, when Almighty God has brought you to our most reverend brother Bishop Augustine, tell him what I have decided after long deliberation about the English people, namely that the idol temples of that race should by no means be destroyed, but only the idols in them. Take holy water and sprinkle it in these shrines, build altars and place relics in them. For if the shrines are well built, it is essential that they should be changed from the worship of devils to the service of the true God. When this people see that their shrines are not destroyed they will be able to banish error from their hearts and be more ready to come to the places they are familiar with, but now recognizing and worshipping the true God. And because they are in the habit of slaughtering much cattle as sacrifices to devils, some solemnity ought to be given them in exchange for this. So on the day of the dedication or the festivals of the holy martyrs, whose relics are deposited there, let them make themselves huts from the branches of trees around the churches which have been converted out of shrines and let them celebrate the solemnity with religious feasts. Do not let them sacrifice animals to the devil, but let them slaughter animals for their own food to the praise of God, and let them give thanks to the Giver of all things for His bountiful provision. Thus while some outward rejoicings are preserved, they will be able more easily to share in inward rejoicings. It is doubtless impossible to cut out everything at once from their stubborn minds: just as the man who is attempting to climb to the highest place, rises by steps and degrees and not by leaps. Thus the Lord made Himself known to the Israelites in Egypt; yet he preserved in his own worship the forms of sacrifice which they were accustomed to offer to the devil and commanded them to kill animals when sacrificing to him. So with changed hearts, they were to put away one part of the sacrifice and retain the other, even though they were the same animals as they were in the habit of offering, yet since the people were offering them to the true God and not to idols, they were not the same sacrifices. These things then, dearly beloved, you must say to our brother so that in his present position he may carefully consider how he should order all things. May God keep you in safety, most beloved son. 

   Given the 18 July in the nineteenth year of the reign of our most religious emperor Maurice Tiberius, and in the eighteenth year after his consulship and in the fourth indiction.

Jonas, Vita Columbani – about the beginning of Columban’s mission endeavor

Source: Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History. From the Apostolic Age to the Close of the Conciliar Period. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1941, 586-7.

Columbanus (543-615) was the most active and most famous of the Irish missionary monks who spread Christianity through Europe. His missionary journey brought him to present-day France, Switzerland, and Northern Italy, and he founded monasteries in all these places. He came into conflict with some political leaders because he openly confronted them about moral wrongdoings. Columbanus’ Celtic Christian background had some peculiarities that also brought him into conflict with the Roman church. 

Jonas, who wrote a biography of Columbanus, Vita Columbani (c. 640), was a monk at the monastery in Bobbio, Northern Italy. The text below describes how Columbanus left the monastery to become a missionary.

   Ch. 9 Columbanus gathered such treasures of divine knowledge that even in his youth he could expound the Psalter in polished discourse and could make many other discourses,  worthy of being sung and useful to teach. Thereupon he took pains to be received into the company of monks, and sought the monastery of Benechor [in Ulster] the head of which, the blessed Commogellus, was famous for his many virtues. He was an excellent father of his monks and highly regarded because of his zeal in religion and the maintenance of discipline according to the rule. And here he began to give himself entirely to prayer and fasting and to bear the yoke of Christ, easy to those who bear it, by denying himself and taking up his cross and following Christ, that he, who was to be the teacher of others, might himself learn by teaching, and by mortification to endure in his own body what he should abundantly show forth; and he who should teach what by others ought to be fulfilled, himself first fulfilled. When many years had passed for him in the cloister, he began to desire to wander forth, mindful of the command which the Lord gave Abraham: "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that I will show thee" [Gen. 12:1]. He confessed to Commogellus, the venerable Father, the warm desire of his heart, the desire enkindled by the fire of the Lord [Luke 12: 49]; but he received no such answer as he wished. For it was a grief to Commogellus to bear the loss of a man so full of comfort. Finally Commogellus began to take courage and place it before his heart that he ought to seek more to advance the benefit of others than to pursue his own needs. It happened not without the will of the Almighty, who had trained His pupil for future wars, that from his victories he might obtain glorious triumphs and gain joyful victories over the phalanxes of slain enemies. The abbot called Columbanus unto him and said that though it was a grief to him yet he had come to a decision useful to others, that he would remain in peace with him, would strengthen him with consolation, and give him companions for his journey men who were known for their religion. […]

   So Columbanus in the twentieth year of his life [probably the thirtieth according to what has gone before] set forth, and with twelve companions under the leadership of Christ went down to the shore of the sea. Here they waited the grace of Almighty God that he would prosper their undertaking, if it took place with His consent; and they perceived that the will of the merciful Judge was with them. They embarked and began the dangerous journey through the straits, and crossed a smooth sea with a favorable wind, and after a quick passage reached the coasts of Brittany. […]

Gregory of Tours, The History of the Franks II, Chapters 30 and 31 – the conversion of Clovis

Source: Joseph Cullen Ayer, A Source Book for Ancient Church History. From the Apostolic Age to the Close of the Conciliar Period. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1941, 572-3.

Clovis (or Chlodowech, c. 466-511) was both the king who united the different Frankish tribes under one ruler and the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which lasted until the 8th century when Pepin of the Carolingian dynasty overthrew the last Merovingian king. His conversion to Catholicism was significant for the development of the church in Europe – it brought a major ruler into alliance with the Catholic Church and stopped the spread of Arianism, which had entered Western Europe through the Germanic migrations.

Gregory (538-593) was bishop of Tours, the most important see in France. His most important work is the History of the Franks (Latin Historia Francorum). The text below about the conversion of Clovis is from Book II and must be taken with caution – it may be legendary. The baptism of Clovis was probably a process of deliberation that had begun long before his marriage with Clotilde. 

    Ch. 30. The queen (Chrotechildis [i.e., Clotilde]) ceased not to warn Chlodowech that he should acknowledge the true God and forsake idols. But in no way could he be brought to believe these things. Finally war broke out with the Alemanni. Then by necessity was he compelled to acknowledge what before he had denied with his will. The two armies met and there was a fearful slaughter, and the army of Chlodowech was on the point of being annihilated. When the king perceived that, he raised his eyes to heaven, his heart was smitten and he was moved to tears, and he said: "Jesus Christ, whom Chrotechildis declares to be the Son of the living God, who says that Thou wilt help those in need and give victory to those who hope in Thee, humbly I flee to Thee for Thy mighty aid, that Thou wilt give me victory over these my enemies, and I will in this way experience Thy power, which the people called by Thy name claim that they have proved to be in Thee. Then will I believe on Thee and be baptized in Thy name. For I have called upon my gods but, as I have seen, they are far from my help. Therefore, I believe that they have no power who do not hasten to aid those obedient to them. I now call upon Thee and I desire to believe on Thee. Only save me from the hand of my adversaries." As he thus spoke, the Alemanni turned their backs and began to take flight. But when they saw that their king was dead, they submitted to Chlodowech and said: "Let not, we pray thee, a nation perish; now we are thine." Thereupon he put an end to the war, exhorted the people, and returned home in peace. He told the queen how by calling upon the name of Christ he had obtained victory. This happened in the fifteenth year of his reign (496).

   Ch. 31. Thereupon the queen commanded that the holy Remigius, bishop of Rheims, be brought secretly to teach the king the word of salvation. The priest was brought to him secretly and began to lay before him that he should believe in the true God, the creator of heaven and earth, and forsake idols, who could neither help him nor others. But he replied: "Gladly do I listen to thee, most holy Father, but one thing remains, for the people who follow me suffer me not to forsake their gods. But I will go and speak to them according to thy words." When he met his men, and before he began to speak, all the people cried out together, for the divine power had anticipated him: "We reject the mortal gods, pious king, and we are ready to follow the immortal God whom Remigius preaches." These things were reported to the bishop, who rejoiced greatly and commanded the font to be prepared. [...]  The king first asked to be baptized by the pontiff. He went, a new Constantine, into the font to be washed clean from the old leprosy, and to purify himself in fresh water from the stains which he had long had. But as he stepped into the baptismal water, the saint of God began in moving tone: "Bend softly thy head, Sicamber, reverence what thou hast burnt, and burn what thou hast reverenced." [...]

   Therefore the king confessed Almighty God in Trinity, and was baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and was anointed with the holy chrism with the sign of the cross. Of his army more than three thousand were baptized. Also his sister Albofledis was baptized. […]

   And another sister of the king, Lanthechildis by name, who had fallen into the heresy of the Arians, was converted, and when she had confessed that the Son and the Holy Ghost were of the same substance with the Father, she was given the chrism.

Willibald, The Life of Saint Boniface, Chapter 6 – the felling of Donar’s oak

Source: George W. Robinson (trans.). The Life of Saint Boniface by Willibald. Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1916, 62-64.

The felling of a large oak dedicated to a Germanic pagan god would, in contemporary evangelical language, be called ‘power evangelism’. Boniface (c.675-754) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary to the Eastern part of the Frankish lands. This story is a good example of how Christianity destroyed pagan religion, how it overcame traditional pagan allegiances and how, by using the wood of the oak to build a church, it integrated objects of pagan religion into Christianity.

The narrator is Willibald (c.700-c.787), himself an Anglo-Saxon missionary to Germany and a younger co-worker of Boniface. He was ordained as priest and consecrated as bishop by Boniface.

   Now at that time many of the Hessians, brought under the Catholic faith and confirmed by the grace of the sevenfold spirit, received the laying on of hands; others indeed, not yet strengthened in soul, refused to accept in their entirety the lessons of the inviolate faith. Moreover some were wont secretly, some openly to sacrifice to trees and springs; some in secret, others openly practiced inspections of victims and divinations, legerdemain [i.e., tricks of deception] and incantations; some turned their attention to auguries and auspices and various sacrificial rites; while others, with sounder minds, abandoned all the profanations of heathenism, and committed none of these things. With the advice and counsel of these last, the saint [i.e., Boniface] attempted, in the place called Gaesmere, while the servants of God stood by his side, to fell a certain oak of extraordinary size, which is called, by an old name of the pagans, the Oak of Jupiter [this is Robinson’s translation; in fact, it was a tree believed to belong to the German god Donar]. And when in the strength of his steadfast heart he had cut the lower notch, there was present a great multitude of pagans, who in their souls were earnestly cursing the enemy of their gods. But when the fore side of the tree was notched only a little, suddenly the oak's vast bulk, driven by a blast from above, crashed to the ground, shivering its crown of branches as it fell; and, as if by the gracious compensation of the Most High, it was also burst into four parts, and four trunks of huge size, equal in length, were seen, unwrought by the brethren who stood by. At this sight the pagans who before had cursed now, on the contrary, believed, and blessed the Lord, and put away their former reviling. Then moreover the most holy bishop, after taking counsel with the brethren, built from the timber of the tree wooden oratory, and dedicated it in honor of Saint Peter the apostle.

 
Copyright 2015 Tobias Brandner. All rights reserved.
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