Seventh Century

Islam, Missionaries, Alliances

             The coming of Mohammed was a catastrophe for Christianity. Following the lead of many early heresies, he denied the divinity of Jesus and founded a new religion, Islam, in 622, with the "Hegira", "Hijra", flight or migration from Mecca to Medina, Arabia.

            Muslim beliefs: Muslims follow a strict monotheism with one creator who is just, omnipotent and merciful. They also believe in Satan who drives people to sin, and that all unbelievers and sinners will spend eternity in Hell. Muslims who sincerely repent and submit to God will return to a state of sinlessness and go to Paradise after death. Alcohol, drugs, and gambling should be avoided and racism is to be rejected. They respect the earlier prophets, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, but regard the concept of the divinity of Jesus as blasphemous and do not believe that he was executed on the cross.

            Islam, means "submission" or "surrender" to the will of the one God, Allah... but actually "Islam" is derived from the word "salam", which means primarily "peace" and in a secondary sense "surrender"... so, the full connotation of "Islam" is "the perfect peace that comes when one's life is surrendered to God".

            The sacred scripture of Islam is The Koran or Holy Quran which contains God's revelations to Mohammed. The Hadith: What Muhammad the prophet said and did. The Sunnah are the rules and regulations of Muslim life, with different "sharia" (norms of life).

            Soon after the establishment of Islam the 500 bishops of Africa and the Middle East decreased in number to only eight. Jerusalem was taken by the Muslims in 637. Even Egypt, the pride of Christianity, became a Muslim country. In 641 the Arabs conquered Egypt, including Alexandria.

            The careers of two great Anglo-Saxon missionaries, Willibrord and Boniface, are an indication of the value to the papacy of two recent successes: (1) the acceptance of the authority of the pope in England, at the synod of Whitby in 664; (2) the developing alliance between Rome and the Corolingian rulers of the Frankish kingdoms.

            Anglo-Saxon England becomes the most sophisticated Christian region of northern Europe. The Carolingians are the most powerful rulers in the area. A collaboration (alliance) between English missionaries and Frankish empire-builders is a development eagerly encouraged by Rome.

            In about 678 Willibrord, a 20-year-old monk, leaves his Yorkshire monastery at Ripon and moves to Ireland. Inspired by the great tradition of Irish missionaries, he sets out in 690 for the northwest coast of continental Europe. The region of Frisia, or Friesland, is still pagan but has recently been conquered by Pepin, the founder of the Carolingian dynansty.

 
Saints 

            St. Isidore, Bishop of Seville (600-636). His writings provide invaluable and encyclopedic knowledge for the Middle Ages. He is known for important efforts to resist barbarism and heresy in Spain, found schools and convents and evangelized Jews.

            St. Killian and St. Willibrord, two Anglo-Saxon bishops, carry on extensive evangelistic mission on the continent among the Franks.

            St. Foillan: Represented in iconography with a crown at his feet to show that he despised the honors of the world. He was born in Ireland early in the seventh century and was the brother of Saints Ultan and Fursey, the latter a famous missionary who preached the Faith to the Irish, the Anglo-saxons, and the Franks. Foillan, probably in company with Ultan, went with his brother Fursey when the latter, fleeing from his country then devastated by foreign invaders, retired to a lonely islands. Fursey soon went among the Anglo Saxons and built a monastery at Burgh Castle (Cnoberesburg) in Suffolk, between 634 and 650.

Heresies

        Monothelites: An heretical sect that owed its origin to Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who was assisted in great measure by Cyril (Cyrus), Bishop of Phasis and later Patriarch of Alexandria. Sergius taught that there were two natures, but only a divine will in Christ. Condemned by the Council of Constantinople in the year 680.

 
            Paulicians:  Mannalis, a teacher of the New Testament, believed in a plurality of gods; denied the Incarnation; Christ had not been crucified; believed in the transmigration of souls. Constantine of Mananalis, called himself Silvanus, founded what appears to have been the first Paulician community at Kibossa, near Colonia in Armenia. He began to teach about 657. He wrote no books and taught that the New Testament, as he presented it, should be the only text used by his follower.