aidan was sent to england to convert the pagan anglo-saxons to christianity.
aidan was sent to england to convert the pagan anglo-saxons to christianity.
who was sent to england to convert the pagan anglo-saxons to christianity?
aidan
pope gregory i (; – 12 march 604), commonly known as saint gregory the great, was pope from 3 september 590 to 12 march 604 ad. he is famous for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from rome, the gregorian mission, to convert the then-pagan anglo-saxons in england to christianity. gregory is also well known for his writings, which were more prolific than those of any of his predecessors as pope. the epithet saint gregory the dialogist has been attached to him in eastern christianity because of his "dialogues". english translations of eastern texts sometimes list him as gregory "dialogos", or the anglo-latinate equivalent "dialogus".
pope gregory i
although southern britain had been a roman province, in 407 the imperial legions left the isle, and the roman elite followed. some time later that century, various barbarian tribes went from raiding and pillaging the island to settling and invading. these tribes are referred to as the "anglo-saxons", predecessors of the english. they were entirely pagan, having never been part of the empire, and although they experienced christian influence from the surrounding peoples, they were converted by the mission of st. augustine sent by pope gregory the great. the majority of the remaining british population converted from christianity back to their pagan roots. contrary to popular belief, the conversion of anglo-saxons to christianity was incredibly slow. the anglo-saxons had little interest in changing their religion and even initially looked down upon christianity due to conquering the christian british people decades earlier. it took almost a century to convert only the aristocracy of the anglo-saxons to christianity with many still converting back to paganism. after this, the common folk took a few hundred more years to convert to christianity and their reasoning for converting was in large part due to the nobility. originally, anglo-saxon leaders claimed divine descent while taking part in many rituals and practices for paganism but after their conversion they in turn became spiritual leaders for christianity in britain. soon anglo-saxons started to incorporate their old pagan stories and figures into christianity, such as the pagan god woden becoming sixteenth in descent from 'sceaf, noah's son in the bible. later, under archbishop theodore, the anglo-saxons enjoyed a golden age of culture and scholarship. soon, important english missionaries such as ss. wilfrid, willibrord, lullus and boniface would begin evangelising their saxon relatives in germany.
christianity in the middle ages