As with every major religion, the appearance of Christianity in the
Roman Empire led to an upheaval of an enormous proportion and changed the social, economic,
and political life of the empire forever. However, this change started out slowly and started growing
only after a certain number of Greeks converted from their ancient beliefs to the new religion.
But how was Greece Christianized? Our video will try to answer this question.
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The history of Christianity in Greece begins with Apostle Paul who around 49 AD
traveled to Philippi, Thessaloniki, and Veria, preached the Gospel of Christ,
and formed the first small Christian communities in Europe. On his second journey he preached at
Athens, where according to church tradition he converted a member of the Athenian Areopagus,
the judicial council, named Dionysius, who after his conversion became the first bishop of Athens.
The formation of these early Christian communities however didn’t mean that the entire population
became Christian overnight. Christianization would be a long process that would last centuries and
oftentimes it took more than preaching to convince the followers of the Old Gods to abandon them.
The Edict of Milan in 313 that granted religious freedom and Constantine’s conversion were
monumental events that boosted Christianity’s popularity and led to many mass conversions,
though the new religion was already popular in the previous centuries, mainly at urban centers
and had remarkable growth rates even at times of persecutions. But contrary to what some Christian
sources claim their victory wasn’t complete in the 4th century and paganism, especially in the
area of Greece, showed some tenacity and signs of life during the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries.
In some extreme cases, pagan practices remained in some areas well into the Middle Ages.
Christianity’s progress in Greece was inhibited by a number of factors.
Greece was an economic backwater and held a secondary position to the Empire’s economic
and political life compared to the Eastern provinces. There was thus less incentive
from central authorities to dispatch numerous missionaries to convert the local populace.
The many and strong academies and philosophical schools were also a prohibiting factor as they
cultivated pagan beliefs and finally the lack of monasteries until the 8th century with the notable
exception the area around Thessaloniki, which not coincidentally had a larger Christian following.
The monks might not have been able to convert the people with a simple wololo, but they were pious
and exceptionally zealous and thus constituted the perfect frontline soldiers of Christ,
traveling to villages and bearing many dangers to preach the Gospel and convert the local population
and their effectiveness could be seen in the way and speed with which they converted western Asia
Minor though it should be noted that rural pagan populations existed there even at the time of
Justinian I. It seems that paganism still exerted some influence in his time if we are to believe
the magnitude and harshness by which contemporary sources like John Malalas and John of Ephesus
describe Justinian’s pagan persecutions. However, these accounts should be taken with a grain of
salt as they tend to exaggerate events either for personal gain or to depict Justinian in a
darker tone; for example John of Ephesus claims that he converted around 70 to 80 thousand pagans
in Asia Minor alone. Most notable act especially concerning our focus on the region of Greece was
the shutting of the Neoplatonic Academy of Athens, an important intellectual center of the time that
through its teaching propagated pagan beliefs. Athens might have been one of the first cities
with a Christian community but by the 4th century it remained pagan to a large degree
thanks to the great religious festivals like the Panathenaia and the Eleusinian mysteries and
because it was the beating heart of Ancient Greek paideia housing many Neoplatonic philosophers.
For the festivities dedicated to the patron goddess of the city, Athena, the Panathenaia,
we know they took place well into the 4th century, from the orator Himerius who in 362
served as personal secretary to Emperor Julian the Apostate. Himerius declares how nice it was
to see the festival and to talk about it with the Hellenes and also gives a description of
the procession but he isn’t the only source. An inscription from the late 4th or early 5th century
informs us that a sophist, possibly Plutarch of Athens, a Neoplatonic philosopher who was the
leader of the Platonic Academy, paid three times for the sacred ship of the goddess.
A major difference between the ancient Panathenaia and those held in the 4th century would have been
the lack of animal sacrifice as it was banned by Constantine the Great first and later Theodosius
I reiterated this law. The ban on public sacrifices at least in the time of Theodosius
aimed more to suppress public ceremonial. Private sacrifices seemed to be above the law
and continued to take place especially in cities like Athens that had a large pagan following,
though eventually, legislation became stricter. More popular than the Panathenaia seemed to be the
Eleusinian mysteries that attracted visitors not only from Athens but from all of Greece. In fact,
they were so popular that the Christian Bishop Asterius of Amasea in his Encomium
on All the Martyrs complains that the entirety of Athens and Greece gathers to celebrate them.
Among the big crowd were famous individuals and especially Neoplatonic philosophers who supported
mystic cults. Even Emperor Julian had become an initiate of the mysteries and had performed secret
rites with the Eleusinian Hierophant. The pagan renaissance under Julian’s reign wouldn’t last
long however, and this fact seems to have been known to people with religious authority.
We are informed from the works of the philosopher and historian Eunapius that he himself had asked
the Hierophant about the future of Eleusis and paganism in general to which the man replied
with a grim prophecy. He stated that he was the last legitimate Hierophant, his successor would
not be an Athenian of the family of Eumolpidae but a Thespian who was a priest of Mithras and had no
right to touch the high priest’s throne. He also foretold that during this fake Hierophant's time
the temples would be raised to the ground and religious tradition would no longer be observed.
If such a prophecy truly occurred it is probable that the Eumolpidaed Hierophant
who likely was Nestorius, one of Julian’s councilors, had in mind that it would be
the local Christians that would bring the downfall of the temples and the Old Religion.
In fact, it would be Alaric and his Goths that would destroy Eleusis in 396.
But where the Old Gods died the New God would come into place.
The Christians completely demolished the ancient site and reused stones and sculptures for the
construction of new buildings including a small church dedicated to St. Zachariah. A standard
practice that was followed when repurposing pagan materials was the inscription of crosses, Chi-Ros,
and other Christian symbols so as to purify them out of the demonic pagan spirits that once lived
in them. Naturally, this practice couldn’t be exempt from the Christian site at Eleusis.
A more well-known repurposement of an ancient temple to a Christian basilica
was that of the temple of Athena, the Parthenon. We are not sure for the exact date the temple was
converted to a church but surviving pieces of the early basilica are dated to the 5th and early 6th
centuries. We know however that it was still in use in 432 by the writings of Marinus who recorded
that his teacher Proclus, after arriving in Athens from Alexandria he immediately went to the temple
only to find the doorkeeper closing it. Three years later Emperor Theodosius II ordered the
closure of the temple for good when he decreed that all pagan temples on the Eastern part of the
Empire should be closed. It is very likely however that the closure of the Parthenon was postponed
and not put into practice until much later, with possible dates being the years 481 to 484
during the reign of Emperor Zeno who too ordered the closure of the remaining temples.
When the Parthenon passed into Christian hands it had of course to conform to Christian architecture
and was remodeled accordingly. Like all Christian churches it had to face the
east so it was reorientated and the entrance was placed on the building’s west side. The Christian
altar and iconostasis were put next to an apse where the earlier pronaos was once located.
Walls were erected between the columns of the opisthodomos and the peristyle. The treasury of
the Parthenon became the narthex of the church and a gynaikonitis was created with a wooden floor.
Icons were painted on the walls and Christian inscriptions were carved on the temple’s columns.
It doesn’t take a lot to imagine that some of the sculptures were damaged since they depicted
pagan scenes, but surprisingly some survived and were maintained as part of the new church.
Those included the east and west pediments that depicted the famous contest between Athena and
Poseidon over the city and the goddess’ birth as well as a large portion of the Panathenaic frieze.
The same fate had numerous temples throughout Athens and generally Greece as the number of the
Christian population kept on rising and that of the pagans kept on dwindling. Erechtheion which
is also on the rock of the Acropolis was also converted to a three-aisled basilica sometime in
the late 6th or 7th century though it had probably been abandoned much more earlier than that.
Other examples include the Temple of Hephaestus also known as Theseion, the Asklepieion,
and the Heraion of Samos. Conversion of their sacred sites
certainly wasn’t a pleasant view for the remaining pagans of the time. The alternative though was a
far more cruel fate, the total destruction of the temples. Whether it was barbarian invasions,
natural causes such as fires and earthquakes or Christian mobs, by the end of the 5th century many
of the great pagan centers like Delphi, Olympia, Dodone, Nemea, and Epidaurus had been destroyed.
Plenty of statues had the same end. Some of them were left in place after their destruction
but a great number of them were thrown in rivers, wells, and drains or placed faced down to ridicule
them and the “demons” they represented. Some of the “luckiest” statues were repurposed to be used
in churches after of course the spirits that once lived in them were exorcized with the inscriptions
of crosses on them. And where temples were and statues were demolished basilicas and crosses
would be erected to mark Christian victory. Usually, the church was near the pagan site as
the site itself was still considered unclean but there are examples of basilicas built directly on
top of the ruins or of temples remaining intact and repurposed as Christian churches. It wasn’t
just the sacred sites that were transformed. Local Gods and rites underwent Christianization.
Chthonic deities and guardian spirits were replaced by saints, angels, and martyrs. The
continuation of cults albeit under Christian terminology and the usage of familiar titles
was a tactic that eased the transfer of religious allegiance as it presented a familiar image to the
convert. Additionally, and though not all emperors were so keen to persecute the pagans the generally
increasingly harsher policy of the Eastern Empire towards them as well as the social pressure the
Christian population exerted as it constituted the majority forced many pagans to abandon the
old traditions and adopt the Christian God. Incredibly enough a small community of pagans
survived well until the Middle Ages. These were the Maniots or Maniates, the inhabitants of the
Mani peninsula in western Laconia and eastern Messenia. From De administrando Imperio of the
Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus we read: “Be it known that the inhabitants of Castle Maina
are not from the race of aforesaid Slavs (Melingoi and Ezeritai dwelling on the Taygetus)
but from the older Romaioi, who up to the present time are termed Hellenes by the local inhabitants
on account of their being in olden times idolaters and worshippers of idols like the
ancient Greeks, and who were baptized and became Christians in the reign of the glorious Basil.”
It seems though that the Maniots didn’t fully embrace the new religion at that time
as a century after Basil’s reign we have the account of a Byzantine monk
named Nikon the Metanoeite. From his hagiographic life, we learn that he toured the Peloponnese,
visiting many villages, building a plethora of churches, and leading multitudes to conversion.
Another account is that of a Georgian monk in Mount Athos called George the Hagiorite
who lived in the 11th century. According to his Athonite biography, one day he passed
through the remote village of Livadia that was within the perimeter of the Holy Mountain.
There he found that the inhabitants who were Bulgars worshiped an old effigy made out of
marble and depicting a woman. The statue was quite probably from Late Antiquity and the Bulgars who
had escaped the Christianization efforts of the Empire had found and appropriated its usage but
that didn’t stop the monk from smashing it and putting an end to the pagan cult there.
The Maniots were the last pagan community in the region of Greece however the title of the last
Hellene belongs to Georgius Gemistus Pletho one of the most prominent philosophers of the late
Byzantine era. In his work Nomoi he rejects Christianity and supports a return to the
worship of the classical Hellenic Gods. This was however nothing more than the wishful thinking of
an old man as by that time the Old Gods were but a distant memory even for the Maniates.
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