Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - History and geography. Poland, Rzeczpospolita Polska in Polish, is a central European country with a population of about 38 million and it has borders with the following countries Germany, Belo Russia, Czech Republic , Slovakia, Ukraine, Lithuania, and with the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. It joined the European Union on 1st May 2004.
Founded in the 10th century on the land of the Polons, during the Middle Ages Poland became a great power in central Europe. The first King was Mieszko I, founder of the Piast dynasty which reigned over Poland from 966 to 1370. The capital at that time was Gniezno, east of Poznań.
A Roman Catholic Outpost on the frontiers of the Orthodox world (Russia, Belo-Russia and Ukraine), pagan, (Baltic) and Muslim (Turk-Mongol), it also has to counter a German wave to the east which comes from the Holy Empire of the Teutonic Knights. Situated at the crossroads of different worlds and lacking natural borders, Poland is exposed to invasions which, particularly in the 13th century, destroyed the nation (invasions by the Golden Horde, from 1248 to 1275).
Evangelisation. The evangelisation of Slav nations began from two sides: the Church of Rome in the West and the Greek Church in the East. At the time of the Roman Empire Christianity spread to parts of the Balkan peninsula, but its expansion was stopped in Europe by the in various of barbarian pagan peoples. When it resumed evangelisation moved from two great religious cities which had begun to dispute certain points and ended up by separating with the great Schism in 1054: the Latin Church of Rome and the Greek Church of Constantinople.
In the west evangelisation of the Slav nations and Hungarians was led mainly by German and Austrian bishops, with the support of the German Princes. In the east on the contrary Christianity was promoted by the Byzantine Empire and conducted by Greek missionaries. It reach maximum expansion in the 9th century when saints Cyril and Methodius produced the first translations of liturgical texts in a Slav language using an alphabet derived from the Greek which we refer to as 'Cyrillic'.
The conversion to Christianity of Slav and non Slav peoples in central Europe involved often a whole nation. In the Roman orbit the major events were the Christianisation of three kingdoms, Bohemia, Poland and Hungary.
The kingdom of Poland is constituted in the 10th century with an act which coincides with the baptism of King Mieszko I its first sovereign in 966. That baptism was also a political action. It saved Poland from German expansion which used the pretext of the conversion of pagan peoples to colonise Slav territories. It gave the young nation the support of the Papacy, at that time most powerful in Europe, which granted the Polish sovereign autonomy which permitted his descendants to obtain the royal crown in 1066. (to be continued) (J.M.) (Agenzia Fides 4/7/2007 - righe 37, parole 524)
