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IMC 2010: Sessions

Session 118: Missionaries: From the West to the East

Monday 12 July 2010, 11.15-12.45

Moderator/Chair:Balázs Nagy, Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest / Eötvös Loránd University
Paper 118-aMissions and Crusades to Finland
(Language: English)
Sirkka Liisa Mäki, Institute for Archaeological Studies, Vaasa
Index terms: Medievalism and Antiquarianism, Monasticism
Paper 118-bA Mission Misunderstood: Fr Julian's Travels
(Language: English)
Tamás Nyirkos, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest
Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Historiography - Medieval, Historiography - Modern Scholarship, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

Paper -a:
The main part of Finland had accepted the Christian faith through Irish Mission (after c. 750). With the rising catholicism in Scandinavia, three crusades was made to Finland, first by the Swedish king Erik the Holy (c. 1155), next by Danish kings and bishops (1192-1216), and thirdly, by Birger Jarl, son-in-law of the Swedish king Erik (in 1238-1250). At last, with knights, gunpowder, and machinery the whole of Finland was put under a foreign rule.

Paper -b:
The most famous journey of the Hungarian Middle Ages was that of Fr Julian OP in the 13th century, on the eve of the Mongol invasion. Although its original purpose was to evangelize the Proto-Hungarians in the East, later historiography tended to interpret it either in political terms (anachronistic as it was to see in Julian a forerunner of modern nationalism) or in a purely scientific (geographical, ethnographical, or linguistic) framework. Reconstructing the original context, however, reveals not only the importance of religious motives, but also those 'side-effects' of the journey that made secular interpretations possible.