During Roman times, the spread of Christianity across Europe then the Middle East was motivated by the Christian’s faith missionaries and the spread of monasticism within the region. First, it is important to note that the early days of Christianity it was considered as an illegal religion due to the fact that it was viewed as a threat by the rulers of the Roman empire. In an interesting article I found in the Global Dictionary of Theology, the author defines the key characteristics of Christian monasticism as an “intense, loving focus on Christ, worship, personal prayer, celibacy, spiritual reading of Scripture, simplicity of life and shared goods, sometimes solitude, and so forth”; all to be found in Christian Scripture including the Old Testament. However, these particular ways of Christian monasticism has combined and integrated these elements was not directly evident until the third century when Christianity truthly began its spread. The monastic life began as bishops and important personnel began withdrawing their life in order to begin living their life in solitude away from their community; this was observed with people such as the Narcissus of Jerusalem and the Paul of Thebes who both left everything behind to begin their life as hermits because this is what they believed the scripture meant for them specifically. Another event that also caused the monastic lifestyle to expand the Christian faith among society at the time was after the final triumph of the Iconophiles, these efforts continued with Photius, patriarch of Constantinople from 858 to 867 and then from 877 to 886 as a particular sponsor of monastic schools in the Byzantine Empire which also attracted many Eastern followers. This was one of the many reasons Christianity was able to spread successfully all over Europe before eventually making its way into the Middle East. While the difference between Easter and Western Christian faiths had some differences between the overall ideology, the two Christian faiths had more similarities in common which also become responsible for the extensive amplification of the Christian faith all around.
