Christianization

The historical phenomenon of Christianization, the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once (a political shift as much as a spontaneous mass shift in individual consciences), also includes the practice of converting pagan cult practices, pagan religious imagery, pagan sites and the pagan calendar to Christian uses. This practice has at times been relatively peaceful and at times has been a very violent process, ranging from inspired works of charity which convinced populations to adopt Christianity to forced conversions.

The Christianized landscape

The British Isles and other areas of northern Europe that were formerly druidic are still densely punctuated by holy wells and holy springs that are now attributed to some saint, often a highly local saint unknown elsewhere. These water sources have always been guarded by supernatural forces in the European imagination. An example of the pre-Christian water spirit is the melusina.

Related Topics:
Druid - Holy - Saint - Melusina

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As the official Catholic Church expanded its requirements for Christian baptisteries in the 5th and 6th centuries, sacred pagan springs presented natural opportunities. Historically some bath houses and pagan springs were forcibly seized. Cassiodorus, the courtly secretary to the Ostrogoth Theodoric the Great, described in a letter written in A.D. 527, a fair held at a former pagan shrine of Leucothea, in the still culturally Greek region of south Italy, which had been Christianized by converting it to a baptistery (Variae 8.33). In a paper read in 1999, Samuel J. Barnish drew further examples of the transition from miraculous springs to baptisteries from Gregory of Tours (died c. 594) and Maximus, Bishop of Turin (died c. 466).

Related Topics:
Cassiodorus - Ostrogoth - Theodoric the Great - Leucothea - Gregory of Tours - Maximus - Bishop - Turin

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• Barnish, S. J. B. 2001. "Religio in stagno: Nature, Divinity, and the Christianization of the Countryside in Late Antique Italy" in Journal of Early Christian Studies vol. 9:3, pp. 387-402

In Britain trees were also sometimes seen as sacred or the home of tree spirits. When Britain was Christianised this resulted in a change of the landscape. In some instances sacred groves were destroyed to discourage belief in tree spirits.

Related Topics:
Britain - Spirit

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