New Testament times Middle Ages During the Middle Ages, Christian
monasteries and missionaries (such as
Saint Patrick and
Adalbert of Prague) fostered formal education and learning of religion, beyond the boundaries of the
old Roman Empire. In the seventh century,
Gregory the Great sent missionaries, including
Augustine of Canterbury, into England. The
Hiberno-Scottish mission began in 563 CE. In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries,
Franciscans (such as
William of Rubruck,
John of Montecorvino, and Giovanni ed' Magnolia) were sent as missionaries to the Near and Far East. Their travels took them as far as China, in an attempt to convert the advancing
Mongols to Christianity, especially the
Great Khans of the
Mongol Empire. (
See also Catholic Church in China.)
Age of Discovery Beginning in the 1450s, Catholic missions were administered through patronage rights (
jus patronatus). During the
Age of Discovery, the
Catholic Church established a number of
missions in the Americas and other colonies through the
Augustinians,
Franciscans, and
Dominicans in order to spread Catholicism in the New World and to convert the
indigenous peoples of the Americas and other indigenous people. At the same time, missionaries such as
Francis Xavier as well as other
Jesuits, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans were moving into Asia and the Far East. The Portuguese sent missions into Africa. These are some of the most well-known missions in history. In the empires ruled by both
Portugal and
Spain, religion was an integral part of the state and evangelization was seen as having both secular and spiritual benefits. Wherever these powers attempted to expand their territories or influence, missionaries would soon follow. By the
Treaty of Tordesillas, the two powers divided the world between them into exclusive spheres of influence, trade, and colonization. Friar
Odoric of Pordenone arrived in India in 1321. He visited Malabar, touching at Pandarani (20 m. north of Calicut) at Cranganore and at Kulam or Quilon, proceeding thence, apparently, to Ceylon and to the shrine of St Thomas at Maylapur near Madras. He writes that he had found the place where Thomas was buried. The French Dominican missionary Father
Jordanus Catalani followed in 1321–22. He reported to Rome, apparently from somewhere on the west coast of India, that he had given Christian burial to four martyred monks. Jordanus is known for his 1329
Mirabilia describing the marvels of the East: he furnished the best account of Indian regions and the Christians, the products, climate, manners, customs, fauna and flori given by any European in the Middle Ages – superior even to Marco Polo's. In 1347,
Giovanni de Marignolli visited the shrine of St Thomas near the modern Madras, and then proceeded to what he calls the kingdom of Saba and identifies with the Sheba of Scripture, but which seems from various particulars to have been Java. Taking ship again for Malabar on his way to Europe, he encountered great storms. Another prominent Indian traveler was Joseph, priest over Cranganore. He journeyed to Babylon in 1490 and then sailed to Europe and visited Portugal, Rome, and Venice before returning to India. He helped to write a book about his travels entitled
The Travels of Joseph the Indian which was widely disseminated across Europe.
Arrival of the Portuguese The introduction of Catholicism in India begins from the first decade of 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese missionaries there. In the 16th century, the proselytization of Asia was linked to the
Portuguese colonial policy. With the Papal bull
Romanus Pontifex written on 8 January 1455 by
Pope Nicholas V to
King Afonso V of
Portugal, the patronage for the propagation of the Christian faith (see "
Padroado") in Asia was given to the Portuguese, who were rewarded with the right of conquest. The missionaries of the different orders (
Franciscans,
Dominicans,
Jesuits,
Augustinians, etc.) flocked out with the conquerors, and began at once to build churches along the coastal districts wherever the Portuguese power made itself felt. The history of Portuguese missionaries in India starts with the neo-apostles who reached
Kappad near Kozhikode on 20 May 1498 along with
Vasco da Gama, which represented less than 2% of the total population and was the largest Christian church within India. During the second expedition under Captain
Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese fleet consisted of 13 ships and 18 priests anchored at Cochin on 26 November 1500. Cabral soon won the goodwill of the
Raja of Cochin who allowed four priests to do apostolic work among the early Christian communities scattered in and around Cochin. Thus missionaries established a Portuguese mission in 1500. Dom
Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese Viceroy, got permission from the Kochi Raja to build two church edifices –
Santa Cruz Basilica (1505) and
St. Francis Church (1506) using stones and mortar which were unheard of at that time, as local prejudices were against such a structure except for a royal palace or a temple. In the beginning of the 16th century, the whole of the East was under the jurisdiction of the
Archdiocese of Lisbon. On 12 June 1514, Cochin and Goa became two prominent mission stations under the newly created
Diocese of Funchal in
Madeira, in the Atlantic. In 1534
Pope Paul III by the Bull Quequem Reputamus raised Funchal to an
archdiocese with
Goa as its
suffragan, placing the whole of India under the
diocese of Goa. This created an
episcopal see –
suffragan to
Funchal, with a jurisdiction extending potentially over all past and future conquests from the
Cape of Good Hope to
China. The first converts to Christianity in Goa were native Goan women who married Portuguese men that arrived with Afonso de Albuquerque during the
Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510. The Portuguese rulers implemented state policies encouraging and even rewarding conversions among
Hindu subjects, it would be false to ascribe the large number of conversions to force. The rapid rise of converts in Goa was mostly the result of Portuguese economic and political control over the Hindus, who were vassals of the Portuguese crown. At the same time many
New Christians from Portugal migrated to India as a result of the
inquisition in Portugal. Many of them were suspected of being
Crypto-Jews, converted Jews who were secretly practicing their old religion, and were considered a threat to the solidarity of Christian belief. Saint
Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to
John III of Portugal, requested the
Goan Inquisition, but it was not set up until 1560. In 1557
Goa was made an independent archbishopric, with suffragan sees at
Cochin and
Malacca. The whole of the East was under the jurisdiction of
Goa and its boundaries extended to almost half of the world: from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, to Burma, China, and Japan in East Asia. In 1576 the suffragan See of Macao (China) was added, and in 1588 that of Funai in Japan. In 1597 the death of the last
metropolitan bishop,
Archdeacon Abraham of the
Saint Thomas Christians, an ancient body formerly part of the
Church of the East gave the then Archbishop of Goa
Menezes an opportunity to bring the native church under the authority of the Catholic Church. He was able to secure the submission of
Archdeacon George, the highest remaining representative of the native church hierarchy. Menezes convened the
Synod of Diamper between 20 and 26 June 1599, which introduced a number of reforms to the church and brought it fully into the
Latin Church of the Catholic Church. Following the Synod, Menezes consecrated Jesuit Francis Ros as Archbishop of the
Archdiocese of Angamalé for the Saint Thomas Christians – another suffragan see to Archdiocese of Goa – and
Latinisation of St Thomas Christians started. Most eventually accepted the Catholic faith but some switched to West Syrian rite. The
Saint Thomas Christians were pressured to acknowledge the authority of the
Pope. and
Catholic missionary activities in Japan began in earnest around 1549, performed in the main by
Portuguese-sponsored
Jesuits until
Spanish-sponsored
mendicant orders such as the
Franciscans and
Dominicans gained access to Japan. Of the 95 Jesuits who worked in Japan up to 1600, 57 were Portuguese, 20 were Spaniards and 18 Italian. Jesuit Fathers
Francisco Xavier,
Cosme de Torres, and
Juan Fernández were the first to arrive at
Kagoshima with hopes of bringing Catholic Christianity to Japan. Spain and Portugal disputed the attribution of Japan. Since neither could colonize it, the exclusive right to propagate Christianity in Japan meant the exclusive right to trade with Japan. Portuguese-sponsored Jesuits under
Alessandro Valignano took the lead in proselytizing in Japan over the objection of the Spaniards. This fait accompli was approved in
Pope Gregory XIII's
papal bull of 1575, which decided that Japan belonged to the Portuguese diocese of
Macau. In 1588 the diocese of Funai (
Nagasaki) was founded under Portuguese protection. In rivalry with the Jesuits, Spanish-sponsored
mendicant orders entered Japan via
Manila. While criticizing Jesuit activities, they actively lobbied the Pope. Their campaigns resulted in
Pope Clement VIII's decree of 1600 which allowed Spanish
friars to enter Japan via the Portuguese Indies, and
Pope Paul V's decree of 1608 which abolished the restrictions on the route. The Portuguese accused Spanish Jesuits of working for their homeland instead of their patron. of
Athanasius Kircher's 1667
China Illustrata, depicting
Francis Xavier and
Ignatius of Loyola adoring the
monogram of Christ in
Heaven while
Johann Adam Schall von Bell and
Matteo Ricci labor on the
Jesuit China missions below.
China The history of the
missions of the
Society of Jesus or Jesuits in
Ming and
Qing China stands as one of the notable events in the early history of relations between China and the
Western world, as well as a prominent example of relations between two cultures and belief systems in the pre-modern age. The missionary efforts and other work of the Jesuits in 16th, 17th, and 18th century played a significant role in introducing European
science and
culture to China. Their work laid much of the foundation for much of
Christian culture in Chinese society today. Members of the Jesuit delegation to China were perhaps the most influential Christian missionaries in that country between the earliest period of the religion up until the 19th century, when significant numbers of
Catholic and
Protestant missions developed. , Philosopher of the Chinese, or, Chinese Knowledge Explained in Latin'', an introduction to Chinese history and philosophy published at Paris in 1687 by a team of Jesuits working under
Philippe Couplet. 's 1693
Mandate, which reopened the
Chinese Rites controversy Despite
earlier evangelization under the Tang and
Yuan, by the 16th century there is no reliable evidence for any practicing Christians remaining in China. The
Portuguese explorer Jorge Álvares reached
Guangdong in 1513, establishing direct maritime connection between China and Europe; within six years of the Jesuit's 1540 founding, two Chinese boys were enrolled in their
college in
Goa,
India. One of them, known by his baptismal name Antonio, travelled with the Jesuit founder
StFrancis Xavier when he tried to begin missionary work in China in the early 1550s. Unable to receive permission to enter the country, however, Xavier died on
Shangchuan Island off the coast of
Guangdong in 1552. With the
Portuguese establishing an enclave on
Zhongshan Island's
Macau Peninsula, Jesuits established a base nearby on
Green Island (now the
SAR's "Ilha Verde" neighborhood).
Alessandro Valignano, the new regional manager ("visitor") of the order, came to Macau in 1578–1579 and established
St. Paul's College to begin training future missionaries in the
language and
culture of the Chinese. He requested assistance from the orders' members in Goa in bringing over suitably talented linguists to staff the college and begin the mission in earnest. In 1582, Jesuits once again initiated mission work inside China, introducing
Western science,
mathematics,
astronomy, and
cartography. Missionaries such as
Matteo Ricci and
Johann Adam Schall von Bell wrote Chinese catechisms and made influential converts like
Xu Guangqi, establishing Christian settlements throughout the country and becoming close to the imperial court, particularly its
Ministry of Rites, which oversaw official
astronomy and
astrology. "Jesuits were accepted in late Ming court circles as foreign
literati, regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography." By 1610, more than two thousand Chinese from all levels of society had converted. Clark has summarized as follows: "When all is said and done, one must recognize gladly that the Jesuits made a shining contribution to mission outreach and policy in China. They made no fatal compromises, and where they skirted this in their guarded accommodation to the Chinese reverence for ancestors, their major thrust was both Christian and wise. They succeeded in rendering Christianity at least respectable and even credible to the sophisticated Chinese, no mean accomplishment." This influence worked in both directions: Ricci and others including
Michele Ruggieri,
Philippe Couplet, and
François Noël undertook a century-long effort in translating the
Chinese classics into
Latin and spreading knowledge of
Chinese culture and
history in Europe, influencing its developing
Enlightenment. The introduction of the
Franciscans and other orders of missionaries, however, led to a long-running
controversy over Chinese customs and names for God. The Jesuits, the secularized
mandarins, and eventually the
Kangxi Emperor himself maintained that
Chinese veneration of ancestors and
Confucius were respectful and secular rituals compatible with
Christian doctrine; other orders pointed to the beliefs of the common people of China to show that it was impermissible
idolatry and that the common Chinese names for God confused the Creator with His creation. Acting on the complaint of the
Bishop of Fujian, finally ended the dispute with
a decisive ban in 1704; his
legate Charles-Thomas Maillard De Tournon issued
summary and automatic excommunication of any Christian permitting Confucian rituals as soon as word reached him in 1707. By that time, however, Tournon and Bishop Maigrot had displayed such extreme ignorance in questioning before the throne that the
Kangxi Emperor mandated the expulsion of Christian missionaries unable to abide by the terms of Ricci's
Chinese catechism. Tournon's policies, confirmed by Clement's 1715
bull Ex Illa Die..., led to the swift collapse of all of the missions across China, Catholic mission work began again following the opening up of the country after the
Treaty of Nanking in the 1830s. The
Treaty of Huangpu institutionalised benefits for French Catholics, including the ability to operate and establish religious institutions in the
treaty ports, decriminalisation of Catholicism throughout China, and providing that any missionaries discovered by Chinese authorities outside the treaty ports should be escorted to a French consulate. France asserted
its religious protectorate in China beginning in the 1840s. The French religious protectorate in China operated through two key functions: (1) it gave foreign missionaries access to China's interior, and (2) it defended Catholics in Chinese court proceedings. Léon Joly's's study of missionary histories in Asia concluded that Church missions had been a failure to date, achieving little despite major financial investments and personnel investment across centuries. Within months of his election,
Pope Pius XII issued a further change in policies. On 8 December 1939, the
Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith issued—at the request of Pope Pius—a new instruction, by which Chinese customs were no longer considered
superstitious, but instead an honourable way of esteeming one's relatives and therefore permitted by the Catholic Church.
Pope Pius XII's initial move towards greater leniency was subsequently confirmed and expanded by
Vatican II.
Río de la Plata , Brazil The missions were established by the Jesuit Order early in the 17th century and ended in the late 18th century after the
expulsion of the Jesuit order from the Americas. The Jesuits attempted to create a "state within a state" in which the native peoples in the
reductions, guided by the Jesuits, would remain autonomous and isolated from Spanish colonists and Spanish rule. A major factor attracting the natives to the reductions was the protection they afforded from enslavement and the forced labour of
encomiendas.
Maya There are records of
Franciscan activity on the
Americas as early as 1519. Throughout the early 16th century the mission movement spread from the
Caribbean to
Mexico,
Central America, parts of
South America, and the
Southwest United States. The goal of the
Franciscan missions was to spread the
Christian faith to the people of the
New World through "word and example". Spreading
Christianity to the newly discovered continent was a top priority, but only one piece of the Spanish colonization system. The influence of the
Franciscans, considering that
missionaries are sometimes seen as tools of
imperialism, enabled other objectives to be reached, such as the extension of
Spanish language, culture, and political control to the
New World. A goal was to change the agricultural or nomadic Indian into a model of the Spanish people and society. Basically, the aim was for
urbanization. The missions achieved this by “offering gifts and persuasion…and safety from enemies.” This protection also offered security for the Spanish military operation, since there would be theoretically less warring if the natives were pacified. Thus the missionaries assisted with another aim of the colonizers.
California in April 2005. At left is the façade of the first adobe church with its added
espadaña; behind the
campanario or "bell wall" is the "Sacred Garden," in what is reputed as the "
Loveliest of the Franciscan Ruins." , in contrast to the brown
cassocks that are typically worn today. Between 1769 and 1823,
Spanish members of the
Franciscan Order established and operated 21 missions in
California to convert the
Native Americans. This was the first major effort by
Europeans to colonize the
Pacific Coast region and gave Spain a valuable toehold on this frontier. The settlers introduced European
livestock,
fruits,
vegetables, and
industry but Spanish occupation also brought negative consequences to the native populations. Today the missions are among the state's oldest structures and most-visited historic monuments; many of them also remain in operation as Catholic churches.
New Mexico The missions in
New Mexico were established by Franciscan friars to convert the local
Pueblo,
Navajo, and
Apaches. The first permanent settlement was Mission San Gabriel in 1598 near what is now known as the
San Juan Pueblo. ==Contemporary missions==