A missionary is who? What is the work of the missionaries

Missionary - the question is quite complex, and its acuity is only gaining momentum. The meaning of the word "missionary" and missionary work itself is shrouded in a million secrets, conjectures and prejudices, illusions and stereotypes. Many believing people ask themselves: to whom and how to explain the role of faith in the life of mankind, is it worth doing at all and what is the main task of any missionary?

Origin of the word

A missionary is a word that comes from the Greek mission. In literal translation, it means "an important errand, or the delivery of a parcel". Missionaries are figures (members) of religious organizations that set themselves the task of turning non-believers into a particular religion.

The mission, according to the church, is one of the main tasks of any believer. The Church of Christ represents mission as one of the most important forms of service to the Lord. Many historians argue that the first missionary is Jesus, walking around the world and trying to teach unbelievers, to reveal the secret of the Lord's existence before them, to dedicate the blessings of this mystery to the mystery of spreading in the unenlightened world.

The Dangerous Path

The missionary has always been considered a respected person among the believing community. It was the missionaries who set out on long voyages to attract people and preach faith among the dissenters.

But missionary work has always been a dangerous "profession." History is full of facts when missionaries were not accepted, understood, beaten, expelled and even killed. For example, in 1956, when the Protestant ministers of the church attempted to convert the Indians into their faith, the mission failed. The five missionaries were not simply expelled by the indigenous inhabitants of the Ecuadorian Huaorani tribe. They were killed, and then (according to the laws of the tribe) are used for food. A similar story occurred with the ministers who arrived on the island of Vanuatu.

Missionary "conquests"

Especially popular is the missionary work of the representatives of the Catholic Church. Who was a missionary, the Catholics knew in the distant fifteenth century, when the mass education of the Portuguese and Spanish colonies began.

The missionary was at that time one of the colonialists. Together with the military missions from the churches came to the "captured" lands, in order to sow the grain of faith there.

The legitimization of Catholic missionary work took place in 1622, when the Congregation, propagandizing the faith, was created. In the conquered countries, colonies, separate missionary communities were created. In the seventeenth century, when the Great Britain entered the path of colonization, the Protestant church also began sending missionaries to the colony.

As for missionary activity among the Muslim religion, most often in the role of the main executors of the mission were merchants and traders.

Total control

In the United States, missionary communities began to appear in the late nineteenth century. In most cases, missionary organizations owned large tracts of valuable land, real estate. They were subsidized by government and private organizations. In the hands of religious missions were the majority of American colonies in Africa and other countries.

The missionaries' organizations controlled not only the investments and political moments of the conquered countries, but also medicine, education, cultural and public associations, sports. Schoolwork was a particularly important stage in any mission. Children much easier and faster than adults absorbed the teachings and the main commandments. They quickly forgot the faith held by their parents, their people, their tribe.

A missionary is a representative of the Christian faith. In Russia, missionary development began to develop in the late nineteenth century. The first missionary society in the capital was organized in 1867. Initially, faith began to spread from the peoples of Siberia, then the "wave" went to the Tatar people. Several orthodox organizations were at that time created far beyond the borders of Russia.