In following the history of the Apostles, we have seen that they went far and wide, preaching the Faith to Jew and Gentile.
ASIA.—All the Apostles, except St. Peter and St. Paul, St. Andrew and St. Simon, remained in Asia. Asia Minor, Arabia, Syria, Parthia, Judea —that is, all the important countries of the East —were visited by them.
AFRICA.—It is not known who founded the Church in Africa, but it is certain that St. Mark the Evangelist was the first Bishop of the magnificent city of Alexandria in Egypt. The faith spread rapidly, and soon all the North of Africa was filled with Christians. We shall see in the history of the persecutions how many brave African martyrs suffered for their religion. Not two hundred years after the first preaching, there were seventy or eighty bishops in the land.
EUROPE.—It was to St. Peter and St. Paul that Rome owed the faith. St. Paul preached in that part of Europe we now call the Balkan Peninsula, and in Greece.
South Russia was evangelized by St. Andrew. The Spaniards claim St. James the Greater as their first Apostle, but it is not quite certain that he was so. All that is known is that the Church in Spain is one of the oldest in Europe. St. James is the patron of the country, and his shrine at Compostella is a famous place of pilgrimage.
Old traditions tell us that some years after the Ascension of our Divine Lord, when the Christians dispersed on account of the persecution in Palestine, Lazarus and his sisters, Martha and Mary Magdalen, went to the South of France, that Lazarus became first Bishop of Marseilles, and that St. Mary Magdalen lived and died in a cavern near the city. Other holy disciples of our Lord preached in France, and some say that St. Luke, and St. Paul's convert, St. Dionysius the Areopagite, were among them.
But some of these brave missionaries went further still. Old stories tell us that St. Peter came to our island, but they probably mean that the faith of St. Peter was brought to our forefathers. St. Joseph of Arimathea is supposed to have preached to the Britons near Glastonbury, in Somerset. It is quite certain that Britain was very early converted to the faith.
Besides these first teachers, there were many others who continued their work of converting the nations. The faith spread so fast that St. Paul says it was spoken of in the whole world (Rom. i. 8). Besides this, many writers, both Christian and pagan, speak of the multitudes of Christians who were to be found everywhere. We can see how true this was when we come to read the story of the martyrs, who belonged to every nation, and who died in thousands for the faith. When St. Ignatius of Antioch was sent to Rome to be put to death, he was greeted at every place where he stopped by troops of Christians, headed by their bishops and priests. In the Catacombs of Rome there are innumerable tombs, all of Christians buried during the first four centuries.
But we must not suppose that these conversions were wrought without any difficulty. Our Blessed Lord had warned His Apostles and their successors that they and those who should embrace His Divine teaching would have much to suffer for His name, and that they would be persecuted by even their nearest and dearest. The first Christians had difficulties of every kind to meet—sufferings for their mind and heart, and sufferings for their body also.
The world was very wicked when the Apostles began their preaching. The pagans lived only for pleasure. The rich had magnificent palaces, splendid furniture, luxurious food and garments. They spent fortunes over great public games and shows, while nothing whatever was done for the poor and the unfortunate. There were immense numbers of slaves in each household; the masters and mistresses could do just as they liked with them—beat, or starve, or even kill them if they willed—and no one had a right to gainsay them.
The Christians did the contrary to all this: they imitated our Blessed Lord, who became poor for us; they helped all those who were suffering from poverty and want; they lived mortified lives, practising fasting and abstinence, and they busied themselves with all kinds of useful work. This brought down on them the mockery and insults of their former friends. Besides this, they were accused unjustly of shocking crimes.
The pagans worshipped numerous gods and goddesses, many of whom were only vices represented as people, and they did many evil acts in honour of their false gods.
Christians forsook the temples, no longer offered sacrifices in honour of the emperors, no longer joined in the wicked festivals. This brought down on them the anger of both rulers and priests. The former accused the Christians of being traitors to the State—that is, of being unfaithful to their sovereigns—and the latter of attacking the national gods, and of introducing new worship. It was true that the Christians would have nothing to do with the old heathen gods and their false worship, for they adored the one true living God with the purest and holiest of worship; but it is not true that they were bad subjects, for whenever the Empire was at war, Christians were found fighting bravely in every army, and more than one victory was gained by their prayers.
The Jews, too, everywhere opposed the Christians. These people were to be found in every important town. They had built synagogues everywhere. Great liberty was allowed them for their religious practices by the Romans, who needed the money and the help they could get from the wealthy Jews. Now, these Jews taught that their religion was the true one, and they put every difficulty they could in the way of the spread of the Gospel. Their wonderful Temple at Jerusalem, too, was for a time a great obstacle, because it had been considered for so many ages as the one sanctuary of the true God. But we have seen how God permitted this to be destroyed, and the power of Judaism to be overthrown.
At last, when every other means had been tried, the pagan rulers began to put the Christians to death, if they would not give up their faith. This persecution resulted in the glorious testimony of thousands of martyrs to the truth of their religion.
But so far from putting an end to Christianity, the persecution seemed to cause multitudes to imitate the glorious courage of those who preferred to give up land, home, and kindred, and even life itself, rather than be untrue to their God. The religion of the Christians was seen by the better kind of pagans to be a pure one. The holy lives of these noble followers of our Lord made them ashamed of their heathen wickedness, so that, as Tertullian truthfully said: "The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church."
Moreover, God gave the Christians power to work great miracles. Often the pagans did all they could to hurt a brave martyr without succeeding in causing him the least pain. They saw the dead raised to life, incurable diseases healed, and they knew man could not do such deeds. They felt that God must be with these men and women, and, yielding to grace, many were converted. Thus, in spite of all that men and devils could do to stop it, God made His Church to spread all over the inhabited world. When the first three hundred years were over, it was the persecutors who were worsted, and not the Christians, for Christ had said of His Church that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."