Christianity in Iran and China in the 7th century

Nestorian priests in a procession on Palm Sunday,
in a 7th- or 8th-century wall painting from a
Nestorian church in China

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  Matthew 24:14

The next few months of this blog will look at the lives of missionaries through the ages. It is my hope that you will be encouraged and strengthened in your faith as you see God's hand working through the lives of ordinary people as they followed the will of an extraordinary God.

We will next look at the Church in the Dark Ages, from 500-1000 AD. After Patrick took Christian faith to Ireland, 

- Scottish monks, to include Columba, evangelized lower England around 600 AD

- Irish monks returned to Europe as missionaries from 500 to 1000 AD 

- The first Christians were reported in North Yemen and Sudan

- Huns living in China and Central Asia were taught to read and write by Nestorian missionaries

- Gregory the Great sent Augustine and a team of missionaries to (what is now) England to reintroduce the Gospel. The missionaries settled in Canterbury and within a year baptized 10,000 people

- The Lombards, a German people living in northern Italy, became Christians

- A church building was erected in Ch'ang-an (Xi'an, China), then perhaps the largest city in the world

- 680 AD saw the first translation of Christian Scriptures into Arabic

- In 716 AD Boniface began missionary work among Germanic tribes

- Charlemagne, king of the Franks and head of the Roman Empire,  commissioned Bible translations

- In 828 AD the first Christian church in present-day Slovakia was built and the first missionaries reached the area that is now the Czech Republic

- In 912 AD the Normans became Christian 

- Harold I of Denmark converted to Christianity and smoothed the way for the acceptance of Christian faith by the Danish people

- Mieszko I of Poland converted to Christianity and began the period of Christian Poland

- In 1000 AD  the leader of the Magyars (modern day Hungary) Stephen I converted to Christianity

(information taken from Timeline of Christian Missions) 

The missionaries that will be highlighted during this period are:

Columba (521-597)

Nestorian missionaries

Nestorian missionaries

Christianity is growing in modern-day China and Iran, but it is not a new religion to these regions. As early as the 7th century AD, Christianity had spread to the Arabian Peninsula (most notably Persia - modern day Iran), India and China. It was spread by Nestorian missionaries. 

Nestorianism was a Christian doctrine advanced by Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople from 428–431 AD. Because there were doctrinal differences between the Nestorians and the Roman Catholic Church, the Nestorians branched out, spreading the Christian faith to Persia. 

"Missionaries established dioceses in the Arabian Peninsula and India (they were known there as Saint Thomas Christians, after the apostle Thomas who is believed to have spread Christianity as far away as India). They made some advances in Egypt as well. 

Missionaries entered Central Asia and had significant success converting local Tartar tribes. Following the Muslim conquest of Persia, completed in 644, the Persian Church became a protected dhimmi community under the Rashidun Caliphate. The church and its communities abroad flourished under the Caliphate; by the 10th century it had fifteen metropolitan sees within the Caliphate's territories, and another five elsewhere, including in China and India. (History shows that at one time, Christianity and Islam co-existed in peace). 

Nestorian missionaries were firmly established in China during the early part of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) - more on that below. The Chinese source known as the Nestorian Stele records a mission under a Persian proselyte named Alopen as introducing Nestorian Christianity to China in 635. These Christian missionaries, led by Alopen, established the Church of the East, or Nestorian Church. It was the first church to spread Christianity to China. 

Emperor Taizong, of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), welcomed the Nestorian Christians to China. His successor, emperor Gaozong, was pleased to continue emperor Taizong's policy of toleration towards Christianity. He was sufficiently pleased to permit the building of Nestorian Christian churches in every province of China, and to decree Alopen the title of "Great Conservator of Doctrine for the Protector of the Empire" (i.e., metropolitan Chang'an).

The Nestorians built and staffed monasteries in China's key cities. They were also quite aggressive in their proclamation of the Christian faith. They persevered in their efforts to phrase the Christian message in the philosophical language of the Confucian court in order to make it intellectually acceptable to the literati.

Nestorian artifacts such as the Daqin Pagoda (see picture below), the Jesus Sutras (the Sutra of Jesus the Messiah, sought to introduce the Chinese to the Christian faith and specifically pointed out that the gospel contained nothing subversive to China's ancient traditions, loyalty to the state and filial piety being of the essence of the law of Christ.), and the Nestorian Stele testify to the place of church in Chinese society at the time. 

The Church of the East in China faded with the fall of the Tang Dynasty, but the Nestorian Church continued to flourish throughout Central Asia well into the fourteenth century among the northern tribes, such as Uyghurs, Turks, and Mongols. 

Under the leadership of the Mongol-established Yuan Dynasty, Nestorian Christianity once again gained a foothold in China. When it was overthrown by the native Chinese Ming Dynasty, foreign influences once again became suspect, and Christians were expelled from China. 

One of the last known monuments referring to Christianity in China seems to be one dating to c. 1365 and found at Sanpen Mountain, near Beijing. The monument relates the story of a Buddhist monk who visited the site of an old Christian monument and had a vision of a luminous cross. A nearby inscription reveals the presence of a Christian monk near the site as late as 1438.  (much of the above information came from Wikipedia). 

Daqin Pagoda - the remnant of the earliest surviving
Christian church in China. The church and
the monastery were built in 640
by early Nestorian missionaries.