Right at the beginning of this century, Christianity quickly reached the condition of controlling society, becoming an oppressive religion. This happened because it was the official religion of the Roman Empire and also due to the influence of the emperors themselves, who attended the imperial courts and from then on became Christians.

Christian culture strengthened as Roman culture weakened, because in this century the Western Roman Empire began to collapse. Thus, from a group of persecuted people, Christians began to become persecutors. The massacre of non Christians had begun.

The fifth century was marked by a set of experiences that signaled the disintegration of the Roman Empire. First, by cultural fragility, and later by a second movement in the political field. At this point in history, the Roman Empire, which was immense, was already very weakened. It no longer had the strength to defend the borders of its territory against enemies.

As the Roman Empire weakened culturally and, consequently, Christianity strengthened throughout the Empire, the Slavic, Breton, Frankish, Ostrogoth, Visigoth, Hun, and Vandal peoples, who were waiting on the borders of the Roman Empire for an opportunity, gathered their forces and invaded its territory all at once on several fronts.

The Roman Empire was unable to defend itself at all the points where it was being attacked due to the coordinated action of these peoples. As a result, it was completely invaded.

It is important to note that in this century the Middle Ages had already begun. They started in 476, with the fall of Rome. Odoacer invaded it, took the city, and destroyed it. This marked the end of the Western Roman Empire and the end of Classical Antiquity.

Some stories of fanaticism occurred right at the beginning of this century. Pagan temples were burned, and intolerance by converts toward non adherents of Christianity grew rapidly. A striking event occurred in the year 415, in Alexandria.

In that city there was a great clash of ideologies, since Alexandria was the cradle of Hellenistic knowledge. There was a very large library there, the Library of Alexandria, which gave access to various forms of knowledge, many fields of learning, and texts by great philosophers. Living there was a very famous young mathematician named Hypatia. She was heavily persecuted by the Christians of that period. One day they surrounded her, captured her, stripped her, and dragged her through the streets to the seashore. Using seashells, they cut her entire body until death. Hypatia left great contributions to mathematics.

The invasions of the barbarian peoples gave rise to a second and third blending within Christianity, the first having occurred with the Roman Empire. Thus, the Roman Empire was Christianized, and later the barbarian peoples were Christianized. Christians in this century were a mixture of primitive Christianity, the customs and beliefs of the Roman Empire, and those of the barbarian peoples, who also became Christians. There was therefore a blending within Christian doctrine.

There was a personality who became very prominent in the previous century and also in this one, Augustine of Hippo. He was the one who dialogued with Alaric, a Visigoth who invaded Rome. After becoming a priest in Hippo and later a bishop, since the papacy was only instituted in 607, Augustine adopted dialogue and community life, in which Christians needed to remain united.

The Vandals, a barbarian tribe originally from Spain, went to North Africa, led by their king Genseric, who desired to destroy everything. Wherever they went, they invaded and plundered cities, destroying lives and stealing whatever they could. They eventually arrived in Hippo. Augustine was already in the city and was not afraid. He entered his quarters and began to recite the Psalms, praying and asking that his library not be destroyed, that it be preserved. And so it happened. Although the Vandals spared nothing else, his library was preserved. Thus, the expression used today, vandals, to describe anarchic people who cause confusion and destruction, comes from this century and from this tribe, whose origin we often ignore.

Another important characteristic of Augustine that must be recalled is that he valued self knowledge. Even at that time, a phrase was attributed to him, know yourself, accept yourself, and overcome yourself. Augustine died in the year 430.

Another personality emerged, Bishop Leo the First, who entered history as Leo the Great, because he also valued dialogue. In 452, he spoke with Attila, the feared warrior leader who terrorized Europe, king of the Huns, an extremely violent barbarian tribe, who wanted to invade and overthrow the city of Rome. The city would definitively fall in 476, during the invasion of the Heruli, when Odoacer destroyed what remained of Rome. At that time, the emperor was Romulus Augustulus, a young man of sixteen years.

Thus, Leo the Great, before the Empire definitively fell, spoke with the bloodthirsty Attila, known as the scourge of God, and asked for mercy for women and children, using only his moral authority as a weapon. There was a legend about Attila. It was said that where his horse stepped, not even grass would grow, emphasizing how brutal he was and how violent the passage of his army could be. But the true Christian does not fear, he has the courage of faith.

Opening a parenthesis, there was a tradition at that time of recognizing a certain authority in the bishop of Rome. As Rome was the capital of the Empire, its bishop was considered the most important, since the papacy had not yet been established.

Leo the First then dialogued with Attila and convinced him not to invade Rome, especially since the city was already almost entirely destroyed. Through his moral authority, Leo made Attila see that everything is passing and transient and urged him not to continue with that intention so that he would not suffer future consequences. Even though he was the scourge of God, Attila understood that God was greater than the Huns themselves.

This is one of the most beautiful events of this century. To this day, Leo the First is recognized for the audacity of confronting the scourge of God, Attila, king of the Huns.

In 455, another barbarian tribe invaded Rome, the Vandals. This tribe was led by Genseric, an extremely cruel and perverse man. Leo the First dialogued a second time, asking for mercy, that Genseric would spare women and children and not destroy what still remained of the city. Genseric listened in silence until Leo finished speaking. When Leo finished his appeal, Genseric ordered his soldiers to completely destroy the city for fourteen days, killing, stealing, violating, and looting everything they could. Something bestial happened. The Vandal army invaded the city and took everything of value from the wealthy, from churches and temples, stealing stones, marble, gold, and all the riches they found. Two weeks of total despair. This time, the bishop’s appeal was not answered.

After two weeks, having satisfied their interests, the Vandals left. The city was devastated, plunged into deep depression due to the level of violence with which the Vandal army treated it. In this process of total destruction, Bishop Leo the First approached the survivors and said that they had been destroyed, everything had been broken, and their riches taken, but the city had not been burned. The city would rise again. They would begin again and rebuild it, because the invaders had not set it on fire.

Later, in 476, Odoacer became the new invader, but there was no longer anyone to dialogue with him, since the great apologists had already passed away. Odoacer then literally ended everything that remained of the Roman Empire. Italy was definitively taken by the barbarians. Emperor Romulus Augustulus, who was sixteen years old at the time, had no chance, but his life was spared. Rome thus fell into the hands of a boy.

In this century, barbarian invasions predominated and destroyed an empire that had lasted many centuries. But they did not destroy Christianity, because they themselves eventually became Christians.

In 431, the First Council of Ephesus took place, and the discussion revolved around the thesis of the Holy Trinity, from the Nicene Creed established in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, especially concerning whether Mary was the mother of God. Since the three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are one, then Mary, being the mother of Jesus and Jesus being God, would be the mother of God.

Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, put forward a doctrine considered apostasy, called Nestorianism. His thesis was that the Holy Trinity was correct, but that Mary was only the mother of Christ. She was Christotokos and therefore could not be the mother of God. After much debate, it was established that if Jesus is God, then Mary is the mother of God. From that time on, the following dogma was established in the Church. Mary is Theotokos, theo meaning God and tokos meaning she who gave birth. Mary is the mother of God.

There was also the Council of Chalcedon, with the Chalcedonian Creed. Eutyches, a religious figure from Constantinople, raised a thesis called Monophysitism, mono meaning one and physis meaning nature. His thesis affirmed the Holy Trinity as one person, but when Jesus was incarnate, it was the manifestation of divinity in a human body. He was perfect.

The Church, however, opposed this thesis, saying that Jesus had two natures, divine and human. If this were not so, how could one justify that he died for us. How could he be subject to pain, how could one ignore the weight of the crucifixion. Therefore, if Jesus suffered and died for us, this could only be valid if Jesus had a human nature united with the divine. It was necessary for him to have both natures.

The Chalcedonian thesis opposed Monophysitism by stating that Jesus has two natures, while remaining God and the Holy Spirit at the same time. With this council, the first schism of Christianity occurred.

From then on, Christianity came to include those who followed the Chalcedonian Creed and those who did not. The Coptic Church of Egypt, the Syriac Church of Antioch, and the Armenian Church emerged. They accepted the thesis of Eutyches, Monophysitism, that Jesus is God incarnate, in opposition to the Roman Church.

It was no longer possible for the Churches to remain united. Each began to modify its dogmas. In the Coptic Church, Christmas is celebrated on January sixth, and the masses are celebrated in Coptic, an ancient language spoken in Egypt and Alexandria. According to tradition, the Coptic Church was founded by the Evangelist Mark, who, after receiving the Gospel from Simon Peter, wrote it and went to Alexandria, where he founded the Coptic Church in the first century. Others, however, say that Mark was martyred in the city of Venice, where today there is the Cathedral of Saint Mark.

The Syriac or Jacobite Church also follows Monophysitism, but the masses are celebrated in Syriac or ancient Aramaic. According to this Church, it was necessary to speak the same language that Jesus spoke.

The Maronite Church also emerged in Syria and exists to this day, with a Catholic tradition. This Church followed the anchorite named Maron, a Christian who left the city to live an isolated life of discipline and asceticism, because for him the spirit was more important than matter. He inspired people with his belief, and many ended up following him, seeing him as a bridge to Jesus. Some legends say that he performed miracles, as his personality was very rich.

Thus, two important Churches were born, the Jacobite Christian Church and the Maronite Christian Church. The nineteenth century Lebanese poet and writer Gibran Khalil Gibran was a Maronite Christian. This Church is predominant in Lebanon. One curiosity of this Church is that priests may marry, but bishops may not, and the mass is in Aramaic. Even so, they are subject to the Pope, whom the Maronite Church recognizes as its highest religious authority.

In 432, a great missionary began the Christianization of Ireland and England, known as Saint Patrick, who was very faithful to Jesus and the Gospel. The three leaf clover was his symbol, which he used to explain the Holy Trinity.

Also in this fifth century, in 480, a great anchorite appeared, Benedict of Nursia. He wrote the rules for a Benedictine way of life. Thus, the Order of the Benedictines arose, which exists to this day. Their way of life was not only isolation and prayer, but also work. One of the rules of the Benedictines is chastity. He was responsible for Benedictine chants in Latin and for Gregorian chants. The Benedictine nuns also emerged. Benedict of Nursia was canonized by the Church as Saint Benedict.