Christian Hypocrisy: The Greatest Obstacle to Missionary Work
Boniface’s continuous letters to his supporters reveal that his greatest headaches came not from savage pagans but from misbehaving Christians. These letters are filled with questions as to how to discipline clergy who keep mistresses, bishops who use their offices for monetary gain, and so on. His replacement as bishop had to step down because of his involvement in a violent blood feud with another family. In this letter to a newly elected pope, Boniface complains that rumors of misbehavior of Christians in Rome have caused grumbling among his own congregations, who don’t see why they have to abandon practices that Roman Christians still practice. (From Letters of St. Boniface, no. 27)
To our beloved lord Zacharias, who bears the insignia of the supreme pontificate, from Boniface, a servant of the servants of God.
We confess, Father and Lord, that after we had learned through messengers that your predecessor Gregory, of holy memory, had departed this life, nothing gave us greater comfort and happiness than the knowledge that God had appointed Your Holiness to enforce the canonical decrees and govern the Apostolic See. Kneeling at your feet, we earnestly beg that, as we have been devoted servants and humble disciples to your predecessors in the See of Peter, we may likewise be counted obedient servants, under canon law, of Your Holiness.
It is our firm resolution to preserve the Catholic faith and the unity of the Church of Rome, and I shall continue to urge as many hearers and disciples as God shall grant me on this mission to render obedience to the Apostolic See.
Be it known to you also, Holy Father, that Carloman, Emperor of the Franks, summoned me to his presence and desired me to convoke a synod in that part of the Frankish kingdom which is under his jurisdiction. He promised me that he would reform and reestablish ecclesiastical discipline, which for the past sixty or seventy years has been completely disregarded and despised….
The episcopal sees, which are in the cities, have been given, for the most part, into the possession of avaricious laymen or exploited by adulterous and unworthy clerics for worldly uses…. Among them are bishops who deny the charges of fornication and adultery but who, nevertheless, are shiftless drunkards, addicted to the chase, who march armed into battle and shed with their own hands the blood of Christians and heathens alike.
Since I am recognized as the servant and legate of the Apostolic See, my decisions here and your decisions in Rome ought to be in complete agreement when I send messengers to receive your judgment.
Because the sensual and ignorant Allemanians, Bavarians, and Franks see that some of these abuses which we condemn are rampant in Rome, they think that the priests there allow them, and on that account they reproach us and take bad example. They say that in Rome, near the church of St. Peter, they have seen throngs of people parading the streets at the beginning of January of each year, shouting and singing songs in pagan fashion, loading tables with food and drink from morning until night, and that during that time no man is willing to lend his neighbor fire or tools or anything useful from his own house.
They recount also that they have seen women wearing pagan amulets and bracelets on their arms and legs and offering them for sale. All such abuses witnessed by sensual and ignorant people bring reproach upon us here and frustrate our work of preaching and teaching….
If Your Holiness would put an end to these pagan customs in Rome it would redound to your credit besides promoting the success of our teaching of the faith.
May God protect Your Holiness and may you enjoy health and long life in Christ.
Sts. Cyril (826–869) and Methodius (815–885)
The story of Saints Cyril and Methodius is something of an East-meets-West fairy tale, in which Greek brothers are sent by a Byzantine emperor into Moravia, where conflicts with German clergy lead to their alliance with the Latin pope.
Born in Greece to a high-ranking Byzantine military officer, Cyril and Methodius (originally named Michael and Constantine—as was the custom, they adopted new names upon becoming monks) received the top-notch education suited to such aristocrats. While they were quickly funneled into the Byzantine civil service, they both renounced promising political careers to enter a monastery together. Their illustrious reputations, however, haunted them, and the Byzantine emperor recalled them into public service, pressing them to go on diplomatic missions into Iraq, the Caucuses and ultimately Moravia (modern-day Czech Republic).
It was in Moravia that the brothers earned the legacy that led to their being proclaimed co-patrons of Europe in the Roman Catholic tradition and equal to the apostles in the Eastern Orthodox. Frankish missionaries had labored in Moravia for years without success. Their refusal to allow the Slavic natives to worship in their own languages—they insisted on praying and preaching in Latin—came off as culturally insensitive, and the Moravians suspected an agenda of annexing their nation to the burgeoning Carolingian Empire in the West. The gravest obstacle to a Slavic liturgy, however, was that no written language existed: the phonetic sounds of the Slavic tongue had never been transcribed into a written alphabet.
Knowing Cyril’s gift for languages (he knew Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew), the emperor asked him not only to master the Slavic tongue, but also to write an alphabet for the language and teach it to the Slavs. Cyril set to work, devising the alphabet and undertaking a massive translation project, producing in the end—with the help of his brother—Slavic liturgical books, large portions of the Bible, and even a civil law code. The Cyrillic alphabet, a descendent of Cyril’s, is the basis of numerous modern languages today. The brothers’ mission in Moravia was, therefore, part evangelization and part literacy program.
The brothers’ mission was driven by the notion that the Gospel must be inculturated anew in every culture it enters, taking up and sanctifying, rather than repudiating, the positive elements of that culture, not only language but also customs, symbols, and traditions. The Moravian mission was continually harassed, however, by Frankish clergy who insisted that God could be rightly worshiped only in Latin (or Greek or Hebrew, which they also acknowledged).
The bishop of Rome, however, took the brothers’ side, summoning them to Rome, endorsing the Slavic liturgy, and ordaining Methodius a priest. While Cyril died in Rome, Methodius was encouraged by the pope to expand his mission into vast regions of Austria, Hungary, Serbia, and Croatia, over which the pope eventually gave him jurisdiction as bishop.
The Franks, however, never forgave Methodius for his refusal to Latinize the Slavs, and Methodius spent many of his later years experiencing harassment, exile, and even imprisonment, being freed only upon the stern order of the pope himself. Sadly, his disciples in Eastern Europe were exiled after his death, but they simply carried on the mission work eastward, eventually resulting in the conversion of Russia to Christianity.
Given the legacy of these brothers, then, it is no surprise that they are judged by some as equal to the apostles! (Most contemporaneous texts focus on Cyril rather than Methodius, so he will be the focus of these selections.)
Cyril is Sent to the Slavs
Cyril’s biography reveals the way in which missionary work was closely dependent upon the work of education and translation, so that all peoples could worship God in their own languages. This selection also shows the work of the Byzantine emperor in directing and coordinating mission work in the East. (From Life of Constantine)
While Cyril, that true philosopher, was rejoicing, something happened to him that was entirely unexpected, a more challenging task than he had ever carried out before. For Rastislav, a Moravian prince, under God’s inspiration, had spoken to his princes and the rest of the Slavs and sent word to the Byzantine
