Missionary

====Historic====
[[File:Rugendas - Aldea des Tapuyos.jpg|thumb|Village of Christianized Tapuyos Indians, [[Brazil]] c. 1820 CE]]

The Christian Church expanded throughout the [[Roman Empire]] already in New Testament times and is said by tradition to have reached even further, to Persia ([[Church of the East]]) and to India ([[Saint Thomas Christians]]). During the Middle Ages, the Christian [[monasteries]] and missionaries such as [[Saint Patrick]] (5th century), and [[Adalbert of Prague]] (ca 956–997) propagated learning and religion beyond the European boundaries of the old Roman Empire. In 596, Pope [[Gregory the Great]] (in office 590–604) sent the [[Gregorian Mission]] (including [[Augustine of Canterbury]]) into England. In their turn, Christians from Ireland (the [[Hiberno-Scottish mission]]) and from Britain ([[Saint Boniface]] (ca 675–754), and the [[Anglo-Saxon mission]], for example)  became prominent in converting the inhabitants of central Europe.

During the [[Age of Discovery]], the [[Catholic Church]] established a number of [[Mission (Christian)|missions]] in the Americas and in other Western colonies through the [[Augustinians]], [[Franciscans]], and [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] to spread Christianity in the New World and<ref>{{Cite book |last=Office. |first=United States. General Accounting |title=Export controls: clarification of jurisdiction for missile technology items needed. |date=2001 |publisher=U.S. General Accounting Office |oclc=54862406}}</ref> to convert the [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native Americans]] and other indigenous people. About the same time, missionaries such as [[Francis Xavier]] (1506–1552) as well as other [[Jesuits]], Augustinians, Franciscans, and Dominicans reached Asia and the [[Far East]], and the Portuguese sent missions into Africa. Emblematic in many respects is  [[Matteo Ricci]]'s [[Jesuit]] mission to China from 1582, which was totally peaceful and non-violent. These missionary movements should be distinguished from others, such as the [[Baltic Crusades]] of the 12th and 13th centuries, which were arguably compromised in their motivation by designs of military conquest.

[[File:The Reception of the Rev. J. Williams, at Tanna, in the South Seas, the Day Before He Was Massacred, 1841 (B-088-015).jpg|thumb|English missionary [[John Williams (missionary)|John Williams]], active in the [[Oceania|South Pacific]]]]

Much contemporary Catholic missionary work has undergone profound change since the [[Second Vatican Council]] of 1962–1965, with an increased push for indigenization and [[inculturation]], along with  [[social justice]] issues as a constitutive part of preaching [[The gospel|the Gospel]].

As the [[Catholic Church]] normally organizes itself along territorial lines and had the human and material resources, religious orders, some even specializing in it, undertook most missionary work, especially in the era after the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West. Over time, the [[Holy See]]  gradually established a normalized Church structure in the mission areas, often starting with special jurisdictions known as apostolic prefectures and [[apostolic vicariates]]. At a later stage of  development these foundations are raised to regular diocesan status with a local bishops appointed. On a global front, these processes were often accelerated in the later 1960s, in part accompanying political decolonization. In some regions, however, they are still in course.

Just as the Bishop of Rome had jurisdiction also in territories later considered to be in the Eastern sphere, so the missionary efforts of the two 9th-century [[saints Cyril and Methodius]] were largely conducted in relation to the West rather than the East, though the field of activity was central Europe.

The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], under the [[Orthodox Church of Constantinople]] undertook vigorous missionary work under the [[Roman Empire]] and its successor the [[Byzantine Empire]]. This had lasting effects and in some sense is at the origin of the present relations of [[Orthodox Church of Constantinople|Constantinople]] with some sixteen Orthodox national churches including the [[Romanian Orthodox Church]], the [[Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church]], and the [[Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchy)|Ukrainian Orthodox Church]] (both traditionally said to have been founded by the missionary Apostle Andrew), the [[Bulgarian Orthodox Church]] (said to have been founded by the missionary Apostle Paul). The Byzantines expanded their missionary work in Ukraine after the [[Baptism of Rus'|mass baptism in Kiev]] in 988. The [[Serbian Orthodox Church]] had its origins in the conversion by Byzantine missionaries of the Serb tribes when they arrived in the Balkans in the 7th century. Orthodox missionaries also worked successfully among the Estonians from the 10th to the 12th centuries, founding the [[Orthodoxy in Estonia|Estonian Orthodox Church]].

[[File:Martires de elicura.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|[[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] who were martyred by the [[Mapuche|Araucanian]] Indians in Elicura in 1612 CE]]

Under the [[Russian Empire]] of the 19th century, missionaries such as [[Nikolay Ilminsky|Nicholas Ilminsky]] (1822–1891) moved into the subject lands and propagated Orthodoxy, including through [[Belarus]], [[Latvian Orthodox Church|Latvia]], [[Moldova]], [[Finnish Orthodox Church|Finland]], [[Estonia]], [[Ukraine]], and [[Chinese Orthodox Church|China]]. The Russian [[Nicholas of Japan|St. Nicholas of Japan]] (1836–1912) took Eastern Orthodoxy to [[Japanese Orthodox Church|Japan]] in the 19th century. The [[Russian Orthodox Church]] also sent missionaries to [[Alaska]] beginning in the 18th century, including Saint [[Herman of Alaska]] (died 1836), to minister to the [[Alaska Natives|Natives]]. The [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] continued missionary work outside Russia after the 1917 [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], resulting in the establishment of many new dioceses in the [[diaspora]], from which numerous converts have been made in Eastern Europe, North America, and Oceania.

Early [[Protestantism|Protestant]] missionaries included [[John Eliot (missionary)|John Eliot]] and contemporary ministers including [[John Cotton (Puritan)|John Cotton]] and Richard Bourne, who ministered to the [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]] natives who lived in lands claimed by representatives of the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in the early 17th century. Quaker "publishers of truth" visited Boston and other mid-17th century colonies, but were not always well received.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Quakers in Boston: 1656–1964 |publisher=Fleming & Son |year=1980 |location=Somerville |last=Sellecl |first=D. |quote=discussed throughout Chapter 1}}</ref>

The Danish government began the first organized Protestant mission work through its [[College of Missions]], established in 1714. This funded and directed [[Church of Denmark|Lutheran]] missionaries such as [[Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg]] in [[Tranquebar]], India, and [[Hans Egede]] in [[Isle of Hope|Greenland]]. In 1732, while on a visit in 1732 to [[Copenhagen]] for the coronation of his cousin King [[Christian VI]], the [[Moravian Church]]'s patron Nicolas Ludwig, Count von [[Zinzendorf]], was very struck by its effects, and particularly by two visiting [[Kalaallit people|Inuit]] children converted by [[Hans Egede]]. He also got to know a slave from the [[Danish Virgin Islands|Danish colony]] in the [[West Indies]]. When he returned to [[Herrnhut]] in [[Electorate of Saxony|Saxony]], he inspired the inhabitants of the village{{spaced ndash}}it had fewer than thirty houses then{{spaced ndash}}to send out "messengers" to the slaves in the West Indies and to the [[Moravian missions in Greenland]]. Within thirty years, Moravian missionaries had become active on every continent, and this at a time when there were fewer than three hundred people in Herrnhut. They are famous for their selfless work, living as slaves among the slaves and together with [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]], including the [[Lenape]] and [[Cherokee]] Indian tribes. Today, the work in the former mission provinces of the worldwide Moravian Church is carried on by native workers. The fastest-growing area of the work is in [[Tanzania]] in Eastern Africa. The Moravian work in [[South Africa]] inspired [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] and the founders of the British [[Baptist]] missions. {{As of | 2014}}, seven of every ten Moravians live in a former mission field and belong to a race other than Caucasian.

Much [[Anglicanism|Anglican]] mission work came about under the auspices of the [[United Society|Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts]] (SPG, founded in 1701), the [[Church Missionary Society]] (CMS, founded 1799) and of the [[Intercontinental Church Society]] (formerly the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society, originating in 1823).