History of the Church. The first centuries

THE PRIMITIVE COMMUNITY 

50 Then he led them out to Bethany and, raising his hands, he blessed them.  51 While he was blessing them, he broke away from them and was carried up to heaven.  52 And they, having worshiped him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy;  53 and they were always in the temple praising God (Lk 24,50-53).  

According to Luke's account, Jesus is again with the disciples: for forty days the Apostles rejoice in the presence of the risen Lord and listen to his latest teachings.  With this scene, the book of the Acts of the Apostles takes us into what is called the primitive community.  This is a characteristic expression to indicate the Church in the first years of its history, when Mary, the Apostles and the many people who knew and followed Jesus are still alive. Their presence is the surest guarantee that the words of Jesus are remembered and reported with precision, and the fact that the Church begins its journey from Jerusalem symbolizes continuity with the history of the people of Israel.  In the next scene, Luke recalls the ascent of Jesus to Heaven.  It is an extraordinary and grandiose image: after giving the Apostles the latest recommendations, wrapped in a cloud, Jesus disappears from their sight.  Their amazement is great, so much so that they remain with their eyes fixed on the sky until the voice of an angel announces to them the glorious return of Christ at the end of time (Acts 1,6-12).  But is it possible that it all ended like this, in a cloud?  Is it possible that the story of God's love for his people ends with the return of Jesus to the Father?  It is difficult for us to imagine the group of Apostles immediately after the Ascension.  The void left by Jesus must have been enormous.  Perhaps the temptation to resume everyday life was great, with work and the countless small occupations that make it up.  Or perhaps there was a temptation to keep what had happened in the previous two and a half years to himself.  But the group of the Apostles did not disperse.  Indeed, as soon as they return to Jerusalem, they are concerned about electing Matthias as Judas' substitute and continue to live together.  At the end of his Gospel and at the beginning of the account of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke recalls that everyone was in the Temple praising God and were assiduous and unanimous in prayer.  In prayer, the primitive community finds the strength of its union and recalls the last great promise of Jesus: "You will be baptized in the Holy Spirit in not many days" (Acts 1,5).

PENTECOST 

1 As the day of Pentecost was about to end, they were all together in the same place.  2 Suddenly there came a roar from heaven, as of a mighty wind blowing, and it filled the whole house where they were standing.  3Tongues like fire appeared to them, divided and settled on each one of them;  4and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them the power to express themselves.  (Acts 2: 1-4) The expectation of the Apostles ends ten days after the Ascension. Fifty days after Easter, in fact, on the day of Pentecost, God manifests himself again to those who seek him and invoke him and once again With a concrete action, he demonstrates his fidelity to the promises and his constant presence in human history. The reaction of the Apostles to the action of the Spirit is immediate: all fear is canceled and an extraordinary force now moves them.  Immediately they come out of the Upper Room and begin to preach: what until then had remained almost a hidden secret among the most faithful friends of Jesus, now becomes a great truth to bring to all men. and of his Resurrection by Peter and the Apostles constitutes the foundation of the primitive apostolic preaching, called the kerygma.  From the Resurrection of Jesus and from the announcement of him, therefore, the history of salvation restarts and, from this moment, the last part of it begins, the time of the Church, which will accompany humanity until the end of time.  

IN JERUSALEM 

"Those who accepted the word of Peter were baptized" and were assiduous to the teaching of the Apostles, to common meetings, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer (...) together praising God and enjoying the sympathy of all the people "(Acts 2,41-42, 47).  The words of Peter and the other apostles amaze the crowd.The announcement that God has not abandoned his people and that Christ now lives in the glory of the Father opens up a new horizon of hope to the listeners: the love of the Father and of the Son, personified in the Holy Spirit, still lives among men to guide them on the way of salvation, and the Apostles invite everyone to take this path.According to the book of Acts, that day about three thousand people ask the Apostles to receive baptism to enter the The Church's journey can thus begin. In chapters 2, 4 and 5 of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Luke summarizes the life of the first Christian community in three brief summaries.  In these quick images Luke summarizes the fundamental elements of the primitive community, those same elements that will characterize the life of the Church in the following centuries and on which the Church has always built her mission in the world. death and Resurrection of Jesus, Messiah and Lord, represents the starting point, because the community grows when there are people who listen to the announcement and respond to the call of the Apostles.  Today, as then, the Church brings the same announcement of salvation to the world and, through her own magisterium (= teaching), continues to offer all men a sure point of reference in their search for truth. of material goods and mutual help in difficulties, represents the distinctive sign of a community that announces to the world that all men have the same dignity and that relationships between them must be built on love.  Finally, both individual and community prayer allows the faithful to be constantly in dialogue with God and nourishes the life of the whole Church.  THE JUDAIC AUTHORITIES The life of the Jerusalem community soon becomes difficult and the action of the Apostles clashes with the religious convictions of those who wanted Jesus to die. The image of peace and serenity that we have just left is disturbed by the first persecutions which the Apostles face.  We note a detail.  Perhaps, hearing about persecutions against the Church, you think of the terrible violence that Christians suffered from the Romans when, as we will see shortly, Christianity began to spread in the Roman Empire.  However, we must not forget that the persecutions against the first Christians began in Jerusalem: the Apostles are repeatedly tried, arrested and imprisoned to prevent them from continuing to preach (Acts 4,1-22; 5,17-42; 12,1 -19).  In 34 A.D., just four years after the Resurrection of Jesus, Stephen is stoned, the first of a long series of martyrs who will testify their faith in Christ with the gift of life (Acts 6-7).  About ten years later it will be the turn of the apostle James, brother of John, who succeeded Peter at the head of the church in Jerusalem and, in 63 AD, of James called the Lesser, both stoned in Jerusalem.  But the Apostles and disciples engaged in the preaching of the Gospel are not discouraged: the remembrance of the words of Jesus, the awareness of being on the right path, the love of God who now lives among them support them on their journey.

PAOLO DI TARSO 

In the story of Stephen's martyrdom, Luca introduces a new character: Saul of Tarsus.  Luke presents him to us among those who took part in the killing of Stephen and as one of the leaders of the Jews who want to stop, by any means, the peaceful spread of Christianity.  But God also has a drawing on the life of Saul. Visiting a church or a museum, or leafing through an art book, you may have seen some painting depicting a knight on the ground.  This is the scene that Luke describes in chapter 9 of the book of the Acts of the Apostles and which is commonly called the conversion of St. Paul. Christians, Saul is dazzled by a dazzling light, and Christ appears to him.  We are in the year 35, just five years after the death and Resurrection of Jesus. From this moment the life of Saul takes a new direction.  Like the ancient prophets and the Apostles, Saul is called by God to commit his life to bring to the world the announcement of salvation that He wants to give to all men.  And Paul becomes, together with the Twelve, the greatest preacher of the Gospel in the early Church.  So great is his importance in the development of Christianity that, as you have seen, Luke dedicates more than half of the book of the Acts of the Apostles to his work.  Called by his parents with the Hebrew name Saul, a name to which he later preferred the Roman one of Paul, he was born around 10 AD.  C. in Tarsus, capital of Cilicia, from Jewish parents, also in possession of Roman citizenship.  After his conversion, Paul retires for three years in the desert of Arabia where he deepens the study of Scripture and prays intensely.  Going, therefore, to Jerusalem, he meets the Apostles and talks at length with them.  In 45 d.  C., about ten years after his conversion, is ready to begin his missionary work. Between 45 and 48 AD.  C. Paul goes to the island of Cyprus, to Pamphylia, Pisidia and Lycaonia, ancient regions of present-day Turkey.  Between 50 and 53 he evangelized some of the largest and most famous cities of the time: Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea in Macedonia;  Athens and Corinth in Greece;  Samos and Rhodes.The third and longest journey sees him busy from 53 to 58 AD.  C. Paul stays in the city of Ephesus for more than two years;  then he returns to Philippi and Thessalonica and reaches Cencre near Corinth, before returning to Jerusalem. According to some scholars, in his three journeys Paul would have traveled about 16,000 kilometers.  And he traveled them not by plane or car, but on foot and on the uncomfortable ships of the time, overcoming bad weather, sea storms, attacks by brigands, precariousness of housing and various dangers, but also the most grandiose adventures, at a certain point, they move towards their conclusion: another journey awaits Paul. In Jerusalem, in 58, he is arrested and imprisoned for two years.  The Jews want his death sentence, but the Roman Procurator Festus, being Paul a Roman citizen, sends him to Rome to be tried after an adventurous and dangerous sea voyage, described in the last two chapters of the book of the Acts of the Apostles , Paul was kept under surveillance for two years, from 61 to 63. Absolved, he was released and, most likely, made another missionary trip to the East and, perhaps, to Spain.  Returning to Rome and arrested again during Nero's persecutions, he is beheaded in 67 AD.  

11 Therefore I declare to you, brethren, that the gospel which I preached is not modeled on man;  12for I have neither received it nor learned it from men, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.  13You have certainly heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I fiercely persecuted the Church of God and devastated it, 14 outperforming most of my peers and compatriots in Judaism, as I was relentless in upholding the traditions of the fathers.  15But when he who chose me from my mother's womb and called me with his grace he was pleased 16 to reveal his Son to me so that I would announce him among the pagans, immediately, without consulting any man, 17without going to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, I went to Arabia and then returned to Damascus.  (Gal 1: 11-17) Paul's travels: From the story of Jesus' Ascension into Heaven to Paul's first imprisonment in Rome, 33 years pass, a short period of time, but during which Christianity reaches the heart of the Empire In the account of Pentecost, Luke recalls that among those who listen to the very first preaching of the Apostles there are "foreigners from Rome".  From the "Life of Emperor Claudius", by the Latin historian Suetonius, we learn that, in the year 50 AD, some Christians were expelled from Rome, guilty of causing riots.  The letter that St. Paul wrote to the faithful of the Church of Rome between 57 and 58 AD, before going to the big city himself, testifies that the Christian community of Rome is considered very important. , therefore, very ancient.  According to Tradition, the same apostle Peter, who fled from Jerusalem due to Jewish persecutions, went to preach in the capital of the Empire in 42 or 43 AD.  and here he would have founded the first Christian community.  The first letter of Peter, preserved in the canon of the New Testament and written by the apostle in Rome, seems to confirm this hypothesis.  It is however certain that both St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom in Rome in 64 or 67 AD, during the persecutions ordered by the emperor Nero.  Martyrdom of Peter: Both were buried in Rome and, of St. Peter, you can visit the tomb on the Vatican hill, right under the altar of the great basilica which represents the heart of the Catholic Church. directly to Peter, from the earliest times the Church of Rome has assumed a pre-eminent role over the others;  its Bishop, successor of the first of the Apostles and called pope starting from the sixth century.  A.D., he is considered the head of the Catholic Church.  THE MARTYRS From hatred to real persecutions it is a short step.The time of persecutions can be divided into three great periods - 64-100 AD: Nero, emperor from 54 to 68 AD, attributes the responsibility for the fire to the Christians of some quarters of Rome which he himself ordered and had a great number of them killed in atrocious torments;  Peter and Paul also die.  This first persecution remains limited to the city of Rome.  From then on, Christ's faithful will be called hatred of mankind.  Even the persecutions ordered by the emperor Domitian (81-96 AD) are sporadic actions and limited to a few areas.  It is during the persecution of the latter that, according to Tradition, the Apostle John is exiled to the island of Patmos, where he writes the book of Revelation. - 100-250 AD: Christianity has now established itself and spread in the whole empire and is persecuted as an illicit religion and an enemy of society.  Actions against Christians begin with the emperor Trajan (98-117) and continue under Antoninus Pius (132-161), Marcus Aurelius (161-180), Commodus (180-192), Septimius Severus (193-211), Maximin Thrace (235-238), Philip Arabo (244-249).  The persecutions of this period are not extended to the whole territory of the Empire, but are limited to some provinces.  Martyrs died in these years Ignatius of Antioch, Justin, Polycarp of Smyrna, Perpetua, Felicita and Leonidas. - 250-311 AD: the emperor Decius (249-251) wants to impose the official religion on every citizen and orders sacrifices to the gods;  Valerian (253-260) and, above all, Diocletian (284-305) organize systematic persecutions that cause the death of thousands of Christians.All those who during the persecutions gave their lives to remain faithful to Jesus are called martyrs.  The word martyr is of Greek origin and means witness: the martyrs, in fact, are those who have testified their faith in Christ.

The historical sources that transmit information about the martyrs are of three types: - Acts of martyrs, of great historical value because they report the official acts of the trials and the memories of eyewitnesses; - the so-called Passiones or Martyria, always based on personal and dating back memories to contemporary witnesses to the events narrated, but reached us in late editorial offices; - legends and tales much later than the events narrated and of no historical value. Christians suffered martyrdom during the persecutions.  At the time of Diocletian's persecution, for example, Christians are about 6 million out of a population of the Empire of about 50 million inhabitants, so we can think that the total number of martyrs was a few thousand. their number as well as the testimony of faith of so many people who did not hesitate to sacrifice their lives for the love of Christ and His Church. Martyrs thus become, for Christians, a glorious example of how true faith can make all heroic and sublime deeds.  THE CONSTANTINE EMPEROR The bloody persecutions ordered by the Emperor Diocletian (284-305 AD) constitute the final clash between the Roman Empire and Christianity, a clash that is resolved with the final victory of the latter. When in 306 AD.  was proclaimed emperor Constantine, Christianity is now widespread in all strata of the population: plebs, soldiers, officials of the Empire and belonging to the highest Diocletian's wife and daughter, Prisca and Valeria, had embraced Christianity.  Constantine's mother, Elena, is certainly a Christian, and perhaps Constantine himself asks for baptism shortly before dying.  It is certain, however, that the new emperor is at the origin of a real revolution, so much so that scholars of Church history speak of a "Constantinian turn".  In 313 AD, with the "Rescript of Milan", Constantine recognized Christianity the same dignity and the same rights as the other religions of the Empire;  in 315 he abolishes the crucifixion;  in 321 he allows the Church to receive donations and bequests and establishes Sunday as a public holiday;  in 323 he admits Christians to the title of consul and, in 325, to that of prefect.  Also in 323 A.D.  Christian symbols replace pagan ones in coins.  The freedom of the Church also had wonderful influences on architecture: in 312 AD.  Constantine gives the Lateran palace to the Pope and begins the construction of the great Lateran Basilica;  in 320 AD  starts the construction of the Church of San Pietro;  then followed by the construction of the basilicas of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem and of the Nativity in Bethlehem, while his mother brought back numerous relics of the Passion of Jesus from Palestine. its influence on all aspects of the life of the Empire and is spreading even among the barbarian peoples.  A few years later, in February 380 AD, the Emperor Theodosius the Great (379-395 AD) definitively banned all forms of paganism and imposed the Christian religion on all the inhabitants of the Empire.

HERESIES AND COUNCILS 

The faith of the Church and its doctrine are always threatened, today as in ancient times. Heresy is a Greek word that means choice.  In the Church we mean by heresy the choice of some truths of the faith to the detriment of others for which it is a heretic who does not accept everything the Church proposes and leaves, with his own choice, from the community of Christians. of the church.  St. Paul himself is aware of the rise of divisions within the first Christian communities and Eusebius, who wrote in the fourth century.  A.D.  the first History of the Church states that heresies have done more damage than persecutions.  Gnosticism, adoptionism, subordinationism, Manichaeism, Marcionism, Montanism and Arianism are difficult words that indicate as many heresies.  The Church's response is immediate: the first ecumenical councils are convened in which the great mysteries of Catholic theology are addressed: the unity and trinity of God, the Incarnation and the person of Christ.  Thanks to the Councils, the doctrine of the Church becomes more and more clearly defined, to bring to the world the good news of the salvation that God gives to man.  THE FATHERS OF THE CHURCH With the passing of the years, the truths of faith in Jesus Christ, transmitted by the Apostles and lived in the Church, are discussed, deepened, understood better and better and defended from the attack brought on them by enemy philosophies and religions.  The defense of the faith and the elaboration of doctrine involves numerous writers, in addition to the Apostles and St. Paul, who, since the end of the first century AD.  in the eighth century, they are called fathers of the Church.  The ecclesiastical authors after the eighth century will be called, instead, doctors of the Church.  The most ancient fathers of the Church are also called apostolic fathers because, most likely, they knew the Apostles personally or through others close to them and are sure and faithful interpreters of the apostolic doctrine.The first of the apostolic fathers is Clement, pope from 90 to 101 A.D., a disciple of Peter and Paul, of whom there remains a long letter to the ever turbulent faithful of the church of Corinth.  The letter of Clement is a very important writing because it represents the oldest testimony about the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, it provides information on the first persecutions against Christians and allows us to glimpse the predominant position of the church of Rome over the other communities.  Other writings also date back to the time of the apostolic fathers: a few fragments of a comment by Papia di Gerapoli on the words of the Lord, the Letter to Diognetus, the Letter of Barnabas, the Didache, the Shepherd.  The apostolic fathers are followed by the apologists, committed to defending Christian thought and Christians from the accusations brought by the philosophies of the time and by heretics.

Justin, born around 100 AD.  from a Greek and pagan family, he becomes a Christian disappointed by the philosophies of Pythagoras, the Stoics and Plato. In his works he defends Christianity as the only, truly useful philosophy and Christians from the false accusations of the Romans. He dies martyr in Rome in 165. Tertullian, born in Carthage around 155 AD, he countered the Gnostic heresy by exalting the tradition which, through the teaching of the Apostles, now lives in the Church.  Irenaeus, born in 115 AD, bishop of Lyon and martyr in 202 AD, exhorts Christians to base their faith on the Creed, which contains indisputable truths, guaranteed by the Apostles and their successor popes.  AGOSTINO D'IPPONA Agostino was born on November 13, 354 in Tagaste, Africa.  He is educated by his mother Monica in the Catholic faith, but he does not follow her example.  A lively, witty and exuberant teenager, he undertakes the study of rhetoric and his performance is excellent.  He loves life and its pleasures, cultivates friendships, pursues voluptuous loves, adores theater, seeks entertainment and leisure.  After his first studies in Tagaste and Madaura, he continues his training as a rhetorician, thanks also to the financial support of a friend of his father, in Carthage, where he falls in love with a girl.  Since he is of a lower rank than her, he can only make her his concubine.  The fruit of this relationship is Adeodato.  Agostino, her father at the age of 19, remains faithful to this woman and takes on the responsibility of the "family" menage.  But reading Cicero's Hortensio changes his way of seeing things.  Happiness, writes the great speaker, consists of goods that do not perish: wisdom, truth, virtue.  Agostino thus decides to turn to their search.

He starts with the Bible, but, accustomed as he is to high-sounding texts, he finds it coarse and illogical.  He then approaches Manichaeism.  Back in Tagaste he opens a school of grammar and rhetoric, but the life he leads does not satisfy him and he moves to Carthage hoping for a better future.  And instead he continues to be dissatisfied.  He approaches Manichaeism, but his thirst for truth is not quenched.  The young and promising rhetorician thus sought new shores and in 382 he moved to Rome with his partner and son, without the knowledge of his mother who had joined him in Carthage in the meantime.  In the capital of the Roman Empire, Augustine still maintained contact with the Manicheans, from whom he received support and support.  His career is booming, in 384 he obtains the chair of Rhetoric in Milan, yet his inner restlessness still torments him.  His ambition is satisfied but not his heart.  To refine his "ars oratoria" he listens to the sermons of Bishop Ambrose.  He wants to grasp his dialectical abilities, and instead the prelate's words touch him deeply.  Meanwhile, his mother Monica moves to Milan, who stays by his side especially with his prayers.  He draws ever closer to the Catholic Church and becomes its catechumen: now he needs a Christian wife rather than a concubine.  The woman who had lived with him for years returns to Africa.  Still troubled, Augustine devoured philosophical texts and immersed himself in Sacred Scripture.  He is tempted by the experience of Greek thinkers, attracted by the lifestyle of Christian ascetics, but he cannot decide.  It is a day in August 386, when he, disoriented and confused, letting himself go to a deep and desperate cry, he seems to hear a voice: "Take and read!".  He considers it an invitation to go to the letters of St. Paul placed on a table and open them at random.  “Let's behave honestly, as in broad daylight: not in the midst of orgies and drunkenness, not between lust and impurity, not in quarrels and jealousies.  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ instead and do not let yourselves be taken by the desires of the flesh ”(Rom 13: 13-14).  The reading of those short verses thunders him.  He decides to change his life and to dedicate all of himself to God. He is baptized by Ambrose in the night between 24 and 25 April 387 and wishing to return to Africa he leaves for Rome to embark in Ostia.  Here his mother Monica dies.  Back in Tagaste, Agostino founds his first community.  Between the end of 390 and the beginning of 391 he was found by chance in Hippo, in the basilica where Bishop Valerio was talking to his faithful about the need for a priest for the diocese.  Augustine, known to most for his exemplary lifestyle, is thus pushed before the prelate who ordains him a priest.  Convinced that he must live devoted to God, studying and meditating on the Scriptures, he understands that he is called to something else.  He becomes bishop of Hippo, succeeding Valerio, and exercises the episcopal ministry for over 40 years.  He writes several works where he fights the heresies of the time and manages to reconcile faith and reason, his countless sermons and many letters.  Among his best-known works, Free Will, The Trinity, The City of God. He reviews, with a critical spirit, all his treatises and homilies in the Portrayals.  The confessions deserve a special mention, in which Augustine, former bishop, tells himself, letting his interiority emerge in a masterly way, the story of his heart.  He died on August 28, 430.