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The advent of Orthodoxy in the German-Speaking lands (Part 2)

26 Ιουλίου 2010

The advent of Orthodoxy in the German-Speaking lands (Part 2)

Christ presents the Mission to St.Peter, following the Gospel of St. Mathew, when Christ says "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church". Artist: Johannes Von Valkenburg.

Continued from (1)

Monasticism in 4th- and 5th- Century Gaul

In Egypt the reaction to the legalization of Christianity and the numerous conversions was a move to the desert on the part of many men and women who wanted to preserve the otherworldly character of the Christian Faith. Before long, kindred spirits in the West read the Life of St. Anthony and those of other desert-dwellers, or the writings of those who, like St. Cassian, brought back their personal experience of the eastern ascetic life. The West also had its own great ascetics—St. Martin of Tours (397) and those from the island monastery of Lerins (beginning of the 5th century); Sts. Romanus (460) and Lupicinus (480), who began as hermits in the Jura Mountains of present-day France, founding monasteries there and in what is now Swit¬zerland. Those parts of the future Germanic countries which were under the Roman Empire were also affected by this movement, and ardent Christians knew where they could go to dedicate themselves fully to Christ.

The Migrations of the Germanic Tribes and the End of Roman Rule

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This positive growth of Orthodox Christianity, at least as it affected the German lands, experienced a severe setback at the beginning of the 5th century, when several Germanic tribes—because of their growth, expansion, and the eastern advance of the fierce Huns—invaded Roman territory. At this time, Roman troops were withdrawn from the German frontier to protect Rome; then Rome itself fell in 476 AD. and the Western Roman Empire collapsed. Germanic tribes crossed the Rhine and Danube Rivers, and for the Roman Christians, life was disrupted and often perilous. Churches were frequently destroyed and allowed to go to ruin, and budding missionary activity essentially ceased. Some of the Christians withdrew to Roman fortresses and even built churches within the walls; others were killed. Those in Austria held their own as long as they could, then fled to Italy.

One extraordinary saint who emerged in the midst of these turbulent times to guide the remaining Roman Christians in the region of northern Austria and Bavaria was St. Severinus, who first appeared as a humble hermit and pilgrim, praying in the local church of a small town and living in the home of an old man. On one occasion he exhorted everyone to fast, pray, and give alms if they wanted to avoid invasion. When they did not heed him, he “shook the dust off of his feet” and moved on to the next town. Later the old man he had lived with arrived at the town gates in great awe and fear—Severinus’ prediction had been fulfilled; his landlord was the lone survivor of the first town. The inhabitants of the second town fol¬lowed Severinus’ advice and were spared similar destruction.

This was the beginning of an extraordinary mission, in which the entire region came to look to Severinus’ clairvoyant guidance for safety and salvation. He founded monasteries, advised kings, freed captives, and fed and clothed the people. He knew when fighting would be successful, or when it was time to flee. He taught the people over and over again to rely on God and not on their own powers, to be humble and generous with what little they had. In the end, all who remained were gathered in one area and escaped safely to Italy.

There were also martyrs of Christ slain by the invading barbarians, and we know a few of these by name, such as Sts. Crescens, Theonest, Aureus, and Maximus, all of Mainz.

In the larger cities the bishop and some Christians remained. They were often carriers of Roman culture to the barbarians, and were respected as such, but in the absence of Roman military and civil officials, the bishops took on more and more secular duties, and as a result the level of spirituality dropped.

The Conversion of the Franks

The Germanic tribe known as the Franks first lived near, then inside, the Roman borders, and many Frankish men served in the Roman military and government, even in the highest positions. After the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, they soon became the dominant power and conquered the rest of Gaul. Then began what might be called “conversion in reverse”: instead of the conquerors imposing their religion on the Celto-Ro-man population, the Franks lived alongside them and absorbed and imitated their culture and religion. In the beginning this meant adding the Roman gods to their own, later some became Christian under Constantine, and in 498/99, a large number of King Clovis’ followers voluntarily followed him into the waters of baptism, as many others would later.

Clovis’ conversion was also significant for those Germanic tribes which settled in the areas Rome had never conquered. His continuing conquest of much of present-day Germany and parts of Austria opened the door for missions in these territories, now under the protection of a Christian ruler.

Missionaries From Gaul

The first to come to this new missionary territory were monks and priests from the kingdom of the West Franks, which had been less affected by the invasions. From the end of the 6th to the first half of the 8th centuries, they re-established Christianity along the Rhine and for the first time brought it to new territories. These missionaries included the Holy Bishop Evergislus of Cologne and St. Goar, also on the Rhine, as well as Sts. Emmeram, Er-hard, and Corbinian in Bavaria.

The Irish Missionaries

At about the same time missionaries began coming from Ireland. Ireland, which had never been conquered by the Romans or taken by Germanic invaders, received Christianity in the 5th century through St. Patrick and other missionaries, and the worship of Christ flourished there. Brave, learned, and extremely disciplined in their asceticism, Irish monks came to the continent singly or in small groups beginning in the 6th century. Some settled in the woods, in caves, or on islands, becoming local hermits or holy men; in many cases not much more than their names is now known. Others, such as St. Columbanus, founded monastic establishments of great significance. He and twelve companions began three monasteries in France, from which monks dispersed to found others in both France and Switzerland. St. Columbanus’ disciple, St. Gall, a man of great learning and humility, settled near Lake Constance and became the Enlightener of Switzerland, first bringing Christianity to the people of the mountains and valleys of the region. The famous Abbey of St. Gall was later built on the spot of his labors by another saint, this time a native of the area, St. Otmar.

St. Gall’s fellow countryman, St. Fridolin, worked in a similar way in the upper Rhine region, converting the Allemani in what is now the southwest corner of Germany. The faith and scholarship, as well as the farming and artistic skills which the Irish brought to the continent, often contrasted strongly with the level of Christianity and culture that had remained there. Schools had all but disappeared, and the Roman cities and roads had been destroyed or had fallen into disrepair. Large territories which had never been under Rome—as well as most of the new peoples who had recently settled in Gaul, Noricum, and Rhaetia—were, of course, completely unfamiliar with Christianity.

For 500 years the Irish kept coming, and often formed the backbone of Christian orthodoxy, sanctity, and revival, as well as preserving cultural treasures with their skills in art and writing. Several well-known saints in the German lands who are believed to be Irish include: Sts. Virgil and Rupert of Salzburg; St. Kilian of Wiirzburg, the Apostle of Franconia; St. Arbogast of Strasbourg; St. Album (Wittan), the Apostle of Thuringia; and St. Aldo, founder of Altomunster in Bavaria.

However, it was the Anglo-Saxons returning to the continent to convert their own Germanic brothers (the “Old Saxons” as they called them) as well as the Frisians and others, who were to complete the conversion of Germany.

To be continued…