The Spread of Christianity Through the Ages
A Snapshot of World Mission, From the book of Acts to 1800

The events are listed by centuries. You can look up a country or person by using the Find feature on your computer (CTRL-F). The numbers at the end of entries are years, sometimes approximate.

FIRST CENTURY 
The Book of Acts includes contacts with Palestine, Syria, Greece, Italy, Ethiopia, and today’s Turkey, as well as the other countries listed in Acts 2.

Paul’s missionary journeys in Turkey and Greece took place round the years 46, 50, and 53-57. Paul is thought to have gone to Spain later.

Some Christians in India, called the Thomas Christians, believe they were started by Christ’s apostle Thomas around the year 52.

SECOND CENTURY

THIRD CENTURY
Christianity has spread throughout the Roman Empire, despite persecution.

FOURTH CENTURY
A missionary named Frumentius is sent to organize the believers in Ethiopia.

FIFTH CENTURY
Patrick goes to evangelize Ireland. 432.
The Roman Empire loses control of Europe, and because the invaders destroy the existing churches and oppress the Christians,  Europe will have to be evangelized over again.
The King of the Franks (Clovis) accepts Christianity. 486.  

SIXTH CENTURY
Christians from Ireland begin to re-evangelize England.
Pope Gregory I sends missionaries (including Boniface) to England. 596
The King of Spain accepts Christianity, 596

SEVENTH CENTURY
Alopen leads a group of Nestorian Christians to China. 635 (In Chinese, the church is called Jing Jiao, the pure teaching.)
Muslims capture most of the middle east, and the Christians there decrease year by year.

EIGHTH CENTURY The pope sends missionaries (including Boniface) to evangelize the Germans.
Charlemagne forces conquered tribes (such as the Saxons) to accept Christianity.

NINTH CENTURY
The emperor of China (Song dynasty) oppresses foreign religions (Christianity and Buddhism).
845 The Eastern Orthodox church sends two missionaries (Cyril and Methodius)  to the Slavic people; they devise an alphabet for them.  863

TENTH CENTURY
The King of Denmark accepts Christianity. 945
The King of Norway accepts Christianity 994
The ruler of the Russian people declares they will accept Christianity (eastern orthodox) 998

ELEVENTH CENTURY
 the King of Sweden accepts Christianity.

TWELFTH CENTURY

THIRTEENTH CENTURY
New orders of traveling monks (Dominicans 1216, Franciscans 1223, Augustinians 1256) preach throughout Europe, and after 1500 will evangelize in other countries.

A missionary from Italy (John of Montecorvino) comes to China (Yuan dynasty) 1294. The Nestorians are also allowed to worship openly again.

FOURTEENTH CENTURY
Six thousand Chinese are baptized by 1305 into the Catholic church (In Chinese, the Catholic Church is called Tian Zhu Jiao, Heavenly Lord Teaching). Later, China again prohibits Christianity (1368, early Ming Dynasty).  

FIFTEENTH CENTURY
King of Kongo is baptized (1482) as Portuguese bring clergy with them when they set up trading stations in Africa.

 SIXTEENTH CENTURY
The Spanish Conquerors of the southern Americas bring clergy with them and a number of native Americans become Catholic, starting from 1519, when Cores conquers Mexico.

A Roman Catholic group, the Jesuits, is founded in 1540, and  evangelize in the countries touched by European expansion, as do the Dominicans and Franciscans.

Jesuits enter India in 1542; a number of the existing Christian groups are brought under Catholic administration by 1599. Jesuits including Francis Xavier enter Japan around 1549.  
Catholic missionaries (notably the Dominicans) arrive in the Philippines. 1565.
Portuguese establish a base at Macao (southern China), bringing clergy and building churches. (Macao is returned to China in 1999).
A Jesuit named Matteo Ricci enters China in 1583; he lives in Beijing from 1600 to 1610 (late Ming Dynasty).

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Japan declares Christianity to be illegal in 1614 (it is legalized again after 1868).
Emigrants from England set up Protestant Christian churches in North America (Jamestown, Virginia, settled in 1607 favors the Church of England; Puritans establish the Congregational church in Massachusetts from 1620.
John Elliott, one of many who evangelize among the American Indians, begins his 50 years of work in 1631.
 
The emperor of China (Qing Dynasty) proclaims religious toleration in 1692 (how to pronounce Q in Chinese).

EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The Chinese emperor in 1706 forbad all groups except the Jesuits to work in China (because the pope had forbidden the Jesuit’s acceptance of ancestor worship).

Two German Pietist missionaries arrive in India in 1706, sent by the King of Denmark. This begins Protestant mission work outside the European colonies. Moravians (another group of German Pietists) send missionaries to South America, Africa and Greenland starting from 1732.

William Carey, an English Baptist, advocated foreign mission work by English Protestants and took his family and two other missionary families to India in 1793.
Korean scholars send representatives to Beijing China to receive baptism. 1784.
The Jesuits were oppressed in most countries in 1773 (restored in 1814).    

NINETEENTH CENTURY

TWENTIETH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT (in progress)

BOOKS FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. (Middlesex England, Penguin Books: 1964 and later reprints.)

Rudnick, Milton L., Speaking the gospel through the Ages. (St. Louis, Concordia Publishing House: 1984.

Tucker, Ruth A., From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya, a Biographical History of Christian Missions (Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Publishing House: 1983). Includes one-to-three page vignettes of the life and work of individual missionaries.