How Christ’s Name Spread among the Barbarians

Now that the church had spread in this way throughout the whole Roman world, religion was brought even among the barbarians themselves. The tribes on both sides of the Rhine became Christian, and so did the Celts and the Gauls who lived on the farthest shores of the ocean. The Goths too, and the tribes next to them, who formerly lived on either of the high banks of the Danube, had long shared in the Christian faith and had changed to a gentler and more reasonable way of life. Almost all the barbarians had professed to honor the Christian teaching from the time of the wars between the Romans and the foreign tribes under Gallienus and the emperors after him. For when a numberless multitude of mixed nations crossed over from Thrace into Asia and overran it, and other barbarians from various regions did the same to the Romans near them, many priests of Christ who had been taken captive lived among these tribes. While they lived among them, they healed the sick and cleansed those possessed by demons, by the name of Christ alone and by calling on the Son of God. They also lived a blameless life, and their virtues made others envious. The barbarians, amazed at the conduct and the wonderful works of these men, thought it would be wise of them, and pleasing to God, to imitate those they saw were better than themselves and, like them, to give honor to God. When teachers had been provided to show them what to do, the people were taught and baptized, and afterward were gathered into churches. [a]