Glagolitic Script

We just learned about the Saint Ansgar.

Another part of early Christianity is the Glagolitic script.

When some people wanted to go to parts of Eastern Europe to tell people about Christianity, they had a problem.
The language called Old Slavic that the people spoke and wrote in was not something taught in schools, and there weren't books for how to read it or write it.

This was a problem because they wanted to give people Bibles and other writings to learn about Christianity, but nobody knew how to write in their language.

So some church workers named Cyril and Methodius worked to come up with an alphabet that they could put into books and then teach to people so they could read and write in this language.

The alphabet they came up with was called the Glagolitic Script.
The word really means something like "speaking letters" and it got it's name many years after the alphabet was made.
Because they worked so hard to make this Glagolitic script, they could go to Eastern Europe and teach people about God and Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - glagolitic script)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Decian Persecution

Saint Ansgar

We just learned about the Vikings and Christians.

Another person from early Christianity was Saint Ansgar.

We learned about King Charlemagne and how he helped Christianity grow through Europe.

A man named Ansgar who grew up being taught by monks about God and Jesus.
Charlemagne wanted someone to go north to the countries of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, so he told Ansgar to go and try to tell people up there about Christianity.

He met with a lot of kings and helped start some churches, but he also had problems because a lot of the kings in that area were fighting with each other.
So he could make friends with one king, and then a few years later that king wasn't in charge anymore and he had to leave and come back later.

He still helped spread the word to the northern countries there and set up some churches and told a lot of people about Christianity.


(from: wikipedia - ansgar)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Antilegomena

Vikings and Christians

We just learned about the King Charlemagne.

Another part of early Christianity is Vikings and Christians and how they lived together.

Sometimes vikings would go do a raid, and attack another group of people.
They would steal food and things, but they would also sometimes steal people.

The people they brought back were either made to be slaves or taken as wives for the vikings.
A lot of the people they took were Christian, so just by doing these raids more and more vikings would get to live around Christians.

Just by being with Christians and living with them, many vikings became Christian, and that helped Christianity grow in countries like Denmark, Sweden and Norway.


(from: wikipedia - vikings)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Muratorian Fragment

King Charlemagne

We just learned about the Icons.

Another part of early Christianity is the rule of King Charlemagne, also known as Charles I or Charles the Great.

Around 770 AD a person named Charlemagne was the king over a lot of parts of Europe, like France, Germany and Italy.

There were a lot of people in those times fighting over who should be king or emperor, so Pope Leo III who was the head of the church in Rome told everyone to follow Charlemagne and that he should be the ruler over everyone else.

Charles loved reading, writing and music, so he helped make schools for people to learn and read the books of the Bible.
He also sent people to Rome to learn how to sing and they came back to the schools to teach people how to sing the Psalms of the Bible.

A lot of the writings of the Bible were in Latin or Greek, so Charles told people to make copies of them in other languages.
This made it so that everyone could read the Bible and learn about God and Jesus themselves.


(from: wikipedia - charlemagne)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tetramorph

Icons

We just learned about the Muslim Conflict.

Another part of early Christianity is Icons.

In the old times of the church, people thought it was bad to use pictures of crosses, or even pictures of Jesus, Mary or any of the old leaders of the church.

The paintings were known as icons.

Because God said not to worship any idols, they felt that putting up artwork of something Christian was like worshipping an idol.

Later on people argued that having these paintings around was good because it helped people think about God and Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - byzantine iconoclasm)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Biblican Canon

Muslim Conflict

We just learned about the Church of the East in China.

Another part of early Christianity was the Muslim Conflict.

Around 610 AD, a man named Muhammad started a new religion called Islam, and the followers of Islam are called Muslims.

Christianity and Islam were both spreading around Europe, the Middle East and Africa all through the years 600 AD and 700 AD, and people fought over which one was true.

Most of the countries in the Middle East, northern Africa, and even Spain and Portugal became mostly Muslim.

Christianity was still spreading into Western Europe, but many countries that used to be Christian switched to Islam for hundreds of years.


(from: wikipedia - spread of islam)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Quartodecimanism

Church of the East in China

We just learned about the Christian Nations in 600 AD.

Another part of early Christianity is the Church of the East in China.

People were going all over the world to tell others about God and Jesus, like Germany, England and Africa.

In the year 635 AD, a monk from Syria named Alopen went into a city in China called Chang'an, and met with Emperor Taizong.

The Emperor said it was ok for Alopen to go all over China and tell people about Christianity.
After this he traveled around and told people in China learn about God and Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - murals from the nestorian temple at qocho)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Hildegard of Bingen

Christian nations in 600 AD

We just learned about the Saint David.

There were a lot of Christian nations in 600 AD.

Around 325 AD there had been a lot of people going around telling people about God and Jesus, but there were only some spots around the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

By 600 AD, Christianity was in Europe at Great Britain, France, Spain, Greece and more.
It was in the Middle East through Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and more.
And it was in Africa at parts of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.


(from: wikipedia - christianity in the 7th century)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Didache - The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles

Saint David

We just learned about the Gregorian Chant.

Another part of early Christianity was when Saint David visited the country of Wales.

He told people about God and Jesus and helped people in Wales become Christians.
Saint David did not like monks or priests to be rich.
He said that they should not own anything, not even a book! And he even told them that they should pull their own carts instead of using horses.



(from: wikipedia - saint david)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sabbath Day in Christianity

Gregorian Chant

We just learned about the Christianity in Britain.

Another part of early Christianity is Gregorian Chant.

This is a type of singing that monks or people in church would do, where choirs would sing very slowly with not a lot of different notes.

It was very popular in the churches for choirs to learn songs in Gregorian chant and then sing them during service.
They were usually sung in the Latin language.

Many people have believed for a long time that Pope Gregory I was the one who came up with this and told everyone to learn it, but other historians now think maybe it was someone else.

The legends say that a dove came down and spoke into Gregory's ear and told him what to do.


(from: wikipedia - gregorian chant)


Gregorian chant - Deum verum - Callixtus


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Great Fire of Rome

Christianity in Britain

We just learned about the Pope Gregory I.

Another part of early Christianity is Christianity in Britain.

Long ago living in England and Scotland were people called the Anglo Saxons.
They didn't believe in Jesus and God, so Pope Gregory I sent a man named Augustine on a mission to tell them about God.

Augustine talked to King Æthelberht of Kent and helped him be a Christian, and then people all over Britain became Christians too.


(from: wikipedia - gregorian mission)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ante Nicene Period

Pope Gregory I

We just learned about Anno Domini.

Another part of early Christian history was Pope Gregory I.

When Gregory was younger, he was born to a rich family, and went to school.
Later on he joined the church and lived the life of a monk, giving to the poor and spending days quietly praying.
When his parents died, he took their land and turned it into a monastery for other monks to live.

One day he became Pope.
At that time there were many poor and sick people in Rome.
He worked to use his farms to make food to be sent to poor people all over the country.

He also tried to make it so the church was more organized, and he also sent people out as missionaries to other countries like England to tell them about Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - pope gregory i)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christian Name

Anno Domini

We just learned about the Hagia Sophia ancient church.

Another part of early Christianity is Anno Domini.

When we talk about what year it is, we sometimes put the letters AD at the end, like 2019 AD.

The AD stands for "Anno Domini" which means "Year Of"
"Anno Domini" is just a short way to say "anno Domini nostri Jesu Christi" which means "year of our Jesus Christ".

A long time ago a man named Dionysius Exiguus was working on a new calendar to be different than the one that the old emperor Diocletian had used.
Diocletian was very bad for Christians and had many of them killed.

So Dionysius made a new calendar and said that the year was 525 AD.
By putting AD at the end, he was taking away the naming of the years from the bad Diocletian and giving it to Jesus.

In the new AD calendar, people believe that Jesus was born around 1 AD.
The time before that we call "BC" for "Before Christ".

In the old days before people used English they used "aCn" which was for "Ante Christum Natum" meaning "before Christ's birth".


(from: wikipedia - anno domini)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Split of Christianity and Judaism

Hagia Sophia

We just learned about the Pentarchy of people ruling the church.

Another part of early Christianity is the Hagia Sophia.

This is a very big church that was built in the city of Constantinople in the year 532.
For almost a thousand years it was the biggest church in the world.

It is now a museum in the city that is now called Istanbul.


(from: wikipedia - hagia sophia)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Apostolic Age

Pentarchy

We just learned about the Baptism of Clovis I.

Another part of early Christianity is the Pentarchy.

We've already learned that the head of the big churches were called Bishops, and that the Bishop of the church in Rome is called the Pope.

In the old days there were 5 churches in the Roman empire that were seen as the most important:

Rome - in what is now Italy
Constantinople - in what is now Turkey, and renamed Istanbul
Alexandria - in what is now Egypt
Antioch - in what is now Turkey, renamed Antakya
Jerusalem - in what is now Israel

There were other churches, but the leaders of these churches were put in charge, so if there as disagreement between all of the many churches around these leaders would decide what to do.

It was the start of the churches really getting organized and turning into a really big group instead of a bunch of small churches spread around that argued with each other.


(from: wikipedia - pentarchy)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Christianity after Jesus

Baptism of Clovis I

We just learned about the Leo and Attila.

Another part of early Christianity is the Baptism of Clovis I.

In the land we now call France, there were a lot of people who did not believe in God.
One of them was a very powerful king named Clovis I.

His wife was named Clotilde, and she grew up as a Christian.
When she married Clovis I she begged him to become a Christian, and after a while he finally agreed.

This helped spread Christianity through France, and because the King was a Christian it was safe for other people to talk about God.

There is still a statue of Clovis I being baptized in the city of Reims.


(from: wikipedia - clovis i)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Cæsar - bishop of Dyrrachium

Leo and Attila

We just learned about the Saint Patrick who told people in Ireland about Jesus.

Another part of ancient Christianity was the meeting between Leo and Attila .

Leo was a leader called a Bishop of the church in Rome, Italy.
Rome was usually thought of as the most important city of all, so the Bishop in Rome was usually the most important Bishop and got called the "Pope".

Attila the Hun was a warrior who was attacking all over the place, and in 452 AD came to Italy to try and take over.
The Emperor of Rome sent Pope Leo and a few other people to meet Attila and try to see if they could talk to him and make him not come attack Rome.

No one knows really what was said, but after meeting with Pope Leo, Attila packed up his troops and left Italy.

A person who goes and meets with other leaders of countries is called an "Ambassador" and Pope Leo was thought to be a very good ambassador because he helped save Rome from Attila the Hun.


(from: wikipedia - pope leo i)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Epaphroditus - Bishop of Andriace

Saint Patrick

We just learned about Mariology the study of Mary.

Another part of early Christianity is Saint Patrick.

Some time around 430 AD, at the age of 16 a man named Patrick was captured by pirates from the island of Ireland.
He was taken back to Ireland, and was made a slave for 6 years.

Later on he escaped and went back to his home in Britain, and learned to be a Christian.
He knew the people in Ireland were not Christian, so he decided to go back there and tell people about Jesus.

When he went there, some people listened to him and became Christians, and other people did not like him and would put him in jail.
After many years of traveling around Ireland, he helped many people become Christians, and even after he died people still believed and spread the news.

When he died, because he did such a good thing they named him a Saint, so now they call him Saint Patrick.
The day of his death was March 17th, so on that day people celebrate Saint Patrick's day, and his life of service bringing news of God to the people of Ireland.


(from: wikipedia - saint patrick)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Tychicus - Bishop of Colophonia

Mariology

We just learned about the wise man Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Another part of early Christianity is Mariology.

This is the study of Mary the mother of Jesus, and exactly who she was and how she gave birth to Jesus.

In 431 AD, a bunch of people met at the city of Ephesus, which is now in Turkey.
They met together because there were people who did not agree on what Mary should be called, and what Jesus was like as a baby.

Some people thought she should be called "Theotokos" which means Mother of God, and others thought she should be called "Christotokos" which means Mother of Christ.

This might not seem like a big deal, but at the time people were still arguing about whether Jesus was a God and Man as one person, or whether he was like a person who also had a separate God personality living inside him.

About 250 different church leaders showed up to argue about this, and they decided she should be called Theotokos, Mother of God.

After this time there were a lot of other people talking about who Mary was, and what her life was like, so this became known as the study of Mariology.


(from: wikipedia - mariology)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Apollos - Bishop of Cæsarea

Saint Augustine of Hippo

We just learned about the Saint Ninian in Scotland.

Another person from early Christianity is Saint Augustine of Hippo.

Saint Augustine wrote over 50 books, that helped Christians understand the Bible.

His most famous ones were:

- The City of God: In the year 410 the city of Rome was attacked and defeated by some other people who didn't believe in God. Many people were nervous that this would mean the end of Christianity, so he wrote this book to help give people hope.

- On Christian Teaching: This book helps people understand the books of the Bible, and tells Christian teachers and preachers how to teach the truth.

- Confessions: This was Saint Augustine's book about his own life, and how he became a Christian and asked for forgiveness.

He wrote many other books about things like the Trinity and about people needing free will to believe in God.


(from: wikipedia - augustine of hippo)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sosipater - Bishop of Iconium