Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bible. Show all posts

Sunday, June 7, 2020

Teutonic Order


We just learned about the Knights Templar.

Another military group in the Catholic church was the Teutonic Order, also called the Order of the Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem.

Just like the Knights Hospitaller and the Knights Templar, these were soldiers who wore armor and worked for the church.

The job of the Teutonic Order was mostly to protect Christians that were traveling to the Holy Land of Jerusalem, and to also help set up some hospitals.

This group is actually still around but the people are not soldiers anymore, they are just a group of people who try to do good things for the world.


(from: wikipedia - teutonic order)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Church of Holy Sepulchre

Sunday, May 31, 2020

Knights Templar


We just learned about the Knights Hospitaller.

Another part of early Christianity is the Knights Templar.

Just like the Knights Hospitaller, this was a group of people who fought battles for the church, usually for the Crusades.
They were known for the outfits they wore with a white background and a red cross on it.
Part of the meaning of the red cross was that they would go to war and kill people in the name of God, and he would reward them in heaven.

Some of the people in the Knights Templar did not fight battles, they were more like farmers or bankers.
Because a lot of people knew about them, people would give them money to help fight the Crusades that people thought were good.
With this money they built a lot of buildings and churches across all of Europe.

Later on one of the kings of France did not like the knights, so he said a lot of bad things about them, had many of them killed, and later on the church decided the knights should either quit or join the Knights Hospitaller and there would be no more Templars.


(from: wikipedia - knights templar)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Catherine's Monastery

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Knights Hospitaller


We just learned about the Third Crusade.

Another part of early Christianity is the Knights Hospitaller, also called the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Knights of Malta, or the Order of Saint John.

During the Crusades, the Catholic church started making groups of people to fight battles for them.
The first one they started was in Jerusalem, and then moved to Rhodes, then Malta and later on Saint Petersburg Russia.



(from: wikipedia - knights hospitaller)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Church of Pater Noster

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Third Crusade


We just learned about the Second Crusade.

Another part of the crusades was the Third Crusade.

After the Second Crusade, one of the Muslim rulers named Saladin took back Jerusalem in some other battles.

So the church and the European countries decided to go to war again.
They battled their way through Asia toward Jerusalem, and took over a lot of land but did not take back Jerusalem.

Even though they won most of their battles, people were still upset that they did not take back Jerusalem, and came back home.


(from: wikipedia - third crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Church of Nativity

Sunday, May 10, 2020

Second Crusade


We just learned about the The Prince's Crusade.

Another part of early Christianity is the Second Crusade.

After the European countries' wars to take over lands in the name of Christianity, there were some wars where some non-Christian rulers of other countries took them back.

Because the European countries were victorious in the Prince's Crusade, they decided to have another war and try to take that land back.
During the hundreds of years in Europe and Asia, many countries battled each other for land and power.
The difference with the Crusades is that people were using Christianity or other religions as the reason to go have wars to take over other lands.

Some lands in places that are now Syria and Turkey took lands back, and so armies from Germany and France came to take the country back in the name of Christianity.

Tens of thousands of people were killed on both sides of the war, and the crusaders from Germany and France lost the battle.


(from: wikipedia - second crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Saint Helena

Sunday, May 3, 2020

The Prince's Crusade


We just learned about the The People's Crusade that was mostly just poor people and not soldiers.

Another part of the First Crusade was The Prince's Crusade.

This was not like the People's Crusade which was just a bunch of poor people.

This was actual armies, with thousands of people.
There were soldiers, horses and even nobles like counts and dukes.
No one is for sure how many, but some people think it was around 10,000 knights, 50,000 soldiers, and a total of 100,000 people in the army.

The armies came out of Europe into what is now Turkey, and fought their way down to Jerusalem.
They fought for 3 years, from the year 1096 to the year 1099 and killed about 100,000 people in the battle.

At the end of it all they took over Jerusalem, left some soldiers there but most people went home.

Through the years many wars have been fought between different countries, and a lot of times the people in power would use religion as the reason why people should go fight and kill others.

Because the army in the First Crusade won their battles, the countries in Europe used that as a reason to have even more wars using Christianity as the reason to go to war.



(from: wikipedia - first crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Constantine the Great

Sunday, April 26, 2020

The People's Crusade


We just learned a little about the The Crusades.

At the beginning of the Crusades, some of the church leaders were very upset because some people in other lands called Turks had come along and taken over other lands.
The Turks were not Christians, and many people said that the Turks were not nice to Christians in the lands they took over.
They also took over the holy places like Jerusalem.

Some of the church leaders called for people all over to attack anyone that wasn't a Christian, and even to kill them.
They called it a holy war, and told people that Jesus wanted this to happen and that if they died for this war Jesus would be happy, even though Jesus tried to teach people not to kill or hurt people.

One of the church leaders in Germany named Peter the Hermit gathered thousands of people and got them very angry at anyone that wasn't Christian.
These people were very poor and scared, and they followed him carrying shovels and pitchforks and not much else.
They were not well trained soldiers, but they were all told to go kill anyone that wasn't Christian, so they went through some parts of Germany and killed thousands of people.

Later they went up against some actual Turk soldiers, and almost all of the poor people were killed.

Because it was just normal people and not soldiers, this was called the People's Crusade.
It was a very sad time because these people didn't really know much of what was going on, they just needed someone to follow and they were poor and starving.
So they started the crusade, killed a lot of people, and then were killed themselves.


(from: wikipedia - people's crusade)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Battle of Milvan Bridge

Sunday, April 19, 2020

The Crusades


We just learned about the East-West Schism.

Another part of early Christianity The Crusades.

During the time of the church's growth into Europe, the Christians sometimes would have battles against other groups of people that were not Christians.

Sometimes these people were in places like Jerusalem, and other times they were in countries like Germany.

The crusades went on for hundreds of years, and were like wars that people fought in the name of Christianity.
They fought them either to try and take back a land, or to try and force someone to be Christianity.


(from: wikipedia - crusades)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Edict of Milan

Sunday, April 12, 2020

East-West Schism


We just learned about the Peace and Truce of God.

Another part of early Christianity is the East-West Schism.

Long ago when the first leaders of Christianity started building churches after Jesus died, the most powerful of all the churches was in Rome.

Saint Peter was seen as the first leader of the church in Rome, and so even though many other cities in Europe had leaders, Rome was the one in charge.

We learned about the emperor Constantine that ruled around the year 300, and he wanted to change things so he made a new city called Constantinople, in the country that is now called Turkey.

After that, people argued over whether Rome was better or Constantinople.

Through the centuries Christianity spread to the east into countries like Turkey, Romania, Ukraine and Russia.
It also spread west to countries like Spain, France, Germany and England.

After hundreds of years of Christianity spreading through the world, some people started to disagree with each other about who was really in charge, how the churches should be run, about how people should act in church, about what people should believe, and a lot of other things.

The people started to break up into two groups:
- The Roman Catholic Church - They supported Rome as the head of the church, and people from the western countries followed Rome.
- The Eastern Orthodox Church - They supported Constantinople as the head of the church, and people from the eastern countries followed them.

The word "schism" means splitting up.

When these two churches started splitting up, they called it the "East-West Schism" and it started the two groups of churches splitting up into east and west, for hundreds of years.


(from: wikipedia - east-west schism)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Edict of Serdica

Sunday, April 5, 2020

Peace and Truce of God


We just learned about the Leif Erikson - Christianity in Greenland.

Another part of early Christianity is the Peace and Truce of God.

Long ago around the time of year 1000 AD, there was a lot of war and people killing each other trying to take over each other's lands.

The church wanted to try and stop this, or at least to help protect people that couldn't fight.
So they started something called the "Peace of God", also called Pax Dei.

This was a rule that the church came up with that said no one could attack poor people, women or children. They were not allowed to steal things from poor people or farmers.
Churches were also protected so that it was against the rules to attack them or rob them.

Later on the church also started something called the Truce of God, or Treuga Dei.
This made it against the rules for anyone to fight on Sundays.
It also made everyone promise never to attack any churches or the lands that churches owned, or the people that worked for the churches.

With the Peace and Truce of God, it helped stop all the people in power from just going around killing and robbing people all the time.


(from: wikipedia - peace and truce of god)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: The Great Persecution

Sunday, March 29, 2020

Leif Erikson - Christianity in Greenland


We just learned about the Christianity in Russia.

Another part of early Christianity is Leif Erikson - Christianity in Greenland.

Leif was a viking and an explorer from Iceland.
He lived in Norway for a while, and then he was sent from Norway to Greenland to tell the people there about Christianity.

On his trip there he accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up in Canada, but then turned around and went back to Greenland.


(from: wikipedia - leif erikson)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Antipope

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Christianity in Russia


We just learned about the Christianization of Poland.

Another part of early Christianity is Christianity in Russia.

The places that are now known as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus used to be called Kievan Rus.
In that country, people didn't really believe in God.
There were two rulers through the years that chose to become Christian and help the country become Christian.

Olga was the ruler of this country, and she went to visit the Christian emperor Constantine.
He baptised her and she became Christian and came back to try and make her whole country Christian.

Many years later her grandson Vladimir who was not a Christian wanted to know what other religions were out there, so he sent people out to go study in the nearby countries.
He decided that Christianity was the best, so he became a Christian and then sent his sons to all of the lands to build churches and teach people about Jesus.


(from: wikipedia - olga of kiev)

(from: wikipedia - vladimir the great)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pope

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Christianization of Poland


We just learned about the Neume.

Another part of early Christianity is the Christianization of Poland.

In 966 AD the ruler of Poland named Mieszko I was baptized.

When he got married to Dobrawa of Bohemia, she helped him become a Christian, and then after he was baptized many people across all of Poland learned about Jesus and decided to become Christians.


(from: wikipedia - christianization of poland)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Ignatius of Antioch

Sunday, March 8, 2020

Neume


We just learned about the Cyrillic Script.

Another part of early Christianity is the Neume.

In the 900s, there were a lot of monks that were living in France, and they were writing music for things like Gregorian Chant.

They started using marks on their papers to show what kinds of notes to sing, like high or low or how long or short a note should be.

These writings turned into the music notes that we know today like half notes, quarter notes and the musical staff.

The word neume either comes from the Greek word πνεῦμα meaning "breath" or the word νεῦμα meaning "sign".


(from: wikipedia - neume)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Peshitta

Sunday, March 1, 2020

Cyrillic Script


We just learned about the Christianity in Bulgaria.

Another part of early Christianity is the Cyrillic Script.

We learned before about the Glagolitic Alphabet made by the monks Cyril and Methodius.

The schools in the country of Bulgaria worked together to make a new writing language that would be easy for people in the area to read.
They wanted people to be able to read and have church services in their local language instead of Greek.

The Cyrillic Script is used today by over 250 million people in several languages like Russian or Ukranian.


(from: wikipedia - early cyrillic alphabet)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Gospel Harmony

Sunday, February 23, 2020

Christianity in Bulgaria


We just learned about the Glagolitic Script.

Another part of early Christianity is Christianity in Bulgaria.

In a lot of parts of Eastern Europe, people still either did not know about Christianity or they did not believe in God.

Christianity was very well known in the Western parts of Europe, like Italy and England.
Bulgaria is a country in the Eastern part of Europe, just east of Greece, and just north of Turkey.
Because it was in a very special place at the edge of eastern and western Europe, people really tried hard to help spread Christianity there, so that maybe it would help it become more popular in the East.

King Boris I got baptized in 864 AD, and since then for over a thousand years there have been a lot of Christians in Bulgaria.


(from: wikipedia - christianization of bulgaria)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: First Apology

Sunday, February 16, 2020

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

Sunday, February 9, 2020

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

Sunday, February 2, 2020

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

Sunday, January 26, 2020

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