Christian History Home > Issue 93 > Converting Europe
Converting Europe
For centuries, monks were at the center of the Western missionary enterprise.
Glenn W. Olsen | posted 1/01/2007 08:55AM
Around 696, Duke Theodore of Bavaria gave the young bishop Rupert of Worms a grant of land in what is now Austria. A small Benedictine monastery called St. Peter's already existed in the midst of what was left of a Roman town. Rupert made the monastery into a launching pad to evangelize the eastern Alps. He also founded the convent of Nonnberg, the oldest continuously existing female convent in German-speaking lands.
In about 100 years, Salzburg went from being a ruin of a Roman town to being the center of missionary activity and learning in its region, with a monk-bishop supervising many monasteries and churches. What happened in Salzburg also happened elsewhere. Just as they built new buildings from old Roman materials, these medieval missionaries adapted or replaced elements of the pagan culture they found, constructing a new Christian culture in its place.
Again and again, monks built a monastery in an isolated spot, observed pastoral and educational needs in the local population, ... To view this item, you must be a member of ChristianHistory.net.
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