MISSIONS IN THE 600's

        Irish monks carried their missionary campaign both in the British Isles and continental Europe.  More than 600 monks went to Bavaria.  Others followed St. Boniface to Germany.  St. Willibrod went to Utrecht.  Then came the conversion of the Croats and Serbs to Catholicism.   

        When some Celtic bishops refused to help St. Augustine in working among the Saxons, Augustine prophesied:  "If ye will not preach the Way of Life to the English, ye shall suffer the punishment of death at their hands."  And true enough, Aethelfrid massacred a number of the Celtic monks some ten years later.

(08-07-10)