Right at the beginning of this century, Christianity will quickly reach the condition of controller of society, becoming an oppressive religion. This happened because it was the official religion of the Roman Empire. Also, by the influence of those who were the emperors, who frequented the courts and who from then on became Christians.

Christian culture strengthened in the weakening of Roman culture, because in this century the Western Roman Empire began to collapse. Thus, from a “group” of persecuted, from then on, Christians became persecutors. The massacre of non-Christians had begun.

The 5th century was marked by a set of experiences that signaled the disintegration of the Roman Empire. First, by cultural fragility; then, a second movement occurred in the political field. At this point in History, the Roman Empire, which was immense, was already quite weakened. It no longer had the strength to defend the periphery of its territory against enemies.

So, as the Roman Empire weakened culturally and, consequently, the strengthening of Christianity occurred throughout the Empire, the Slavic peoples, Britons, Franks, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Huns and Vandals, who waited at the borders of the Roman Empire for an opportunity, gathered forces and invaded its territory all at once on several fronts.

The Roman Empire had no conditions to defend itself at all the points where it was being attacked, due to the articulated action of these peoples. So, it was completely invaded.

It is important to observe that, in this century, we were already in the Middle Ages. It began in 476, when the fall of Rome occurred. Odoacer invaded it, took the city and destroyed it. It was the end of the Western Roman Empire, the end of the Classical Age.

Some stories of fanaticism happened right at the beginning of this century. Pagan churches were burned, the intolerance of the converted toward those who did not adhere to Christianity grew rapidly. An impressive fact occurred in the year 415, in Alexandria.

There was in this city a very great confrontation of ideologies, because Alexandria was the cradle of Hellenic knowledge. There was in the city a very large library, the Library of Alexandria, which gave access to diverse knowledge, diverse learnings and many texts of great philosophers. There lived a very famous young mathematician, called Hypatia. She was greatly 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 small sea shells, they cut her whole body until death. Hypatia left great contributions in mathematics.

The invasions of the Barbarian peoples gave rise to a second and third mixing in Christianity, the first having occurred with the Roman Empire. So, the Roman Empire was Christianized, then the Barbarian peoples were Christianized. Christians in this century were a mixture of primitive Christianity, the customs and beliefs of the Roman Empire and the Barbarian peoples, who also ended up becoming Christians. There was then a mixing in Christian Doctrine.

There was a personality who became quite marked in the previous century and also in this century: Augustine of Hippo. It was he who dialogued with Alaric, who was a Visigoth, who invaded Rome. After becoming a priest of Hippo and then bishop (the papacy was only instituted in 607), Augustine adopted dialogue, community life, in which Christians needed to be united.

The Vandals, a barbarian tribe, originating from Spain, went to North Africa, having as their king Genseric, who wanted to destroy everything. Wherever they passed, they invaded and looted cities, destroying lives and stealing what they could. Then, they arrived at 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 would not be destroyed, that it would be preserved. And so it happened, although the Vandals spared nothing, his library was preserved. So, this expression used nowadays – “vandals”, to designate anarchist people, who make confusion, fights, comes from this century, from this tribe that existed and that, in a certain way, we ignore its source.

Another important characteristic of Augustine, which needs to be rescued, is that he was someone who valued self-knowledge. Already at that time there was a phrase attributed to him: “Know yourself, accept yourself and overcome yourself”. Augustine died in the year 430.

Another personality appears, the bishop Leo I, who entered history as Leo the Great, because he also was someone who valued dialogue. In 452, he dialogued with Attila (feared warrior leader who terrorized Europe), the king of the Huns (extremely violent barbarian tribe), who wanted to invade and overthrow the city of Rome. The city fell definitively in 476, when the Heruli invaded, when Odoacer destroyed what remained of Rome. At that time, the emperor was Romulus Augustulus, a young man of 16 years old.

So, Leo the Great, before the Empire fell definitively, spoke with the bloodthirsty Attila (called “the scourge of God”) and asked for clemency for women and children, only with his moral ascendancy as a weapon. There was a legend about Attila. It was said that where his horse stepped not even grass would grow, to emphasize how beastly this creature was, how violent the passage of his army was. But, “the true Christian has no fear, has the courage of faith”.

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

So, Leo I spoke with Attila and convinced him not to invade Rome, also because the city was almost entirely destroyed. Leo I, by his moral ascendancy, made Attila see that everything was passing, transitory and that he should not proceed with that intent, so that he would not suffer future consequences. As much as he was the scourge of God, he understood that God was greater than the Huns themselves.

This is one of the most beautiful facts of this century. To this day, Leo I is recognized for this audacity of facing the scourge of God, Attila, the king of the Huns.

In 455, another barbarian tribe invaded Rome, the Vandals. This tribe had as its chief Genseric, a man who was extremely cruel and perverse. So, Leo I dialogued a second time, asking for clemency from Genseric, that he would have pity, spare women and children, that he would not destroy what still remained of the city. Finally, Genseric listened in silence until Leo I finished speaking. When he finished making his appeal, Genseric gave the order to his soldiers that, for fourteen days, they should totally destroy the city, kill, rob, violate, plunder everything they could. Then something beastly happened: the Vandal army invaded the city and took everything of value from the rich, from the churches, from the temples, stealing stones, marbles, 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, in a process of deep depression due to the level of aggressiveness with which the Vandal army treated it. And in this process of total destruction, Bishop Leo I approached the survivors and said: “We were destroyed, they broke everything and took our riches, but they did not burn the city. The city will rise again. We will start again, we will rebuild it, because the looters did not set it on fire.”

Then, in 476, Odoacer was the new invader, but there was no one left to dialogue with him, because the great apologists had already died. Odoacer then literally ended everything that remained of the Roman Empire. Italy was definitively taken by the Barbarians. Emperor Romulus Augustulus, who at the time was 16 years old, had no chance, but he was spared. Rome then succumbed in the hands of a boy.

In this century, the barbarian invasions predominated and destroyed an Empire that lasted many centuries. But they did not destroy Christianity, even because they ended up becoming Christians.

In 431, there was the first Council of Ephesus, and the discussion was around the thesis of the Holy Trinity, of the Nicene creed (which occurred in 325, during the Council of Nicaea), especially about whether Mary would be the mother of God. Being the three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one, then Mary, being the mother of Jesus and He being God, she would be His mother.

Nestorius, a patriarch of Constantinople, evoked an apostasy, called “Nestorianism”. His thesis was that the Holy Trinity was correct, but Mary would only be the mother of Christ. She is Christotokos, so she cannot be the mother of God. After much discussion, it was established that if Jesus is God, then Mary is the mother of God. Since that time, the following dogma was coined in the Church: Mary is Theotokos, Theo = God, tokos = who generated. Mary is the mother of God.

There was also the Council of Chalcedon, with the creed of Chalcedon. Eutyches, a religious from Constantinople, raised a thesis called monophysitism: mono = one, physis = nature. His thesis confirmed the Holy Trinity as being 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 He had two natures: divine and human. If not so, how to justify that He died for us? How would He be subject to pain, how to ignore the weight of the crucifixion? So, if Jesus suffered and died for us, this could only stand if Jesus had a human nature that was consubstantiated with the divine. It was necessary that He had both natures.

The thesis of Chalcedon opposed monophysitism to say that Jesus has two natures, but remains God and the Holy Spirit at the same time. Then occurs the first schism (split or break) of Christianity, with this Council.

From then on, Christianity began to have those who followed the creed of Chalcedon and those who did not. The Coptic Church of Egypt, the Syrian Church of Antioch and the Armenian Church arose. They admitted the thesis of Eutyches, monophysitism: Jesus is God incarnate, opposing the Roman Church.

There was no longer a way for the Churches to remain united. Each one modified its dogmas. In the Coptic Church, Christmas is celebrated on January 6 and masses are celebrated in Coptic, an ancient language spoken in Egypt and Alexandria. According to traditions, the Coptic Church was founded by the Evangelist Mark, who after receiving the Gospel from Simon Peter, wrote it and went to Alexandria. There he would have founded the Coptic Church, since 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 in ancient Aramaic. According to this Church, it was necessary to speak the same language that Jesus spoke.

The Maronite Church also arose, from Syria, which exists until today, of Catholic tradition. This Church followed the anchorite called Maron, a Christian who left the city to live an isolated life, a life in discipline, in asceticism, because for him the spirit was more important than matter. He was encouraging people with his belief and many ended up following him, because for them he was the bridge to reach Jesus. Some legends say that he performed miracles, because his personality was very rich.

Then two important Churches were born: the Jacobite Christian and the Maronite Christian. The Lebanese poet and writer of the 19th century, Gibran Khalil Gibran, was a Maronite Christian. This Church is very predominant in Lebanon. One of the curiosities of this Church is that the priest can marry, but the bishop cannot and the mass is in Aramaic. Even so, they are subject to the Pope. The Maronite Church recognizes him 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 to the Gospel. The three-leaf clover was his symbol, which he used to speak of the Holy Trinity.

Also in this 5th century, in 480, a great anchorite called Benedict of Nursia appeared. He wrote the rules for a Benedictine life. Then the Order of the Benedictines arose, existing until today. His way of living was not only in isolation and prayer, but also in work. One of the rules of the Benedictines is chastity. He was responsible for the Benedictine chants in Latin and Gregorian chants. Benedictine nuns also arose. Benedict of Nursia was canonized by the Church as Saint Benedict.