History of Christian missions

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1 Apostolic Age
2 Early Christianity
3 Era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils
4 Middle Ages
5 1000 to 1499
6 1500 to 1599
7 1600 to 1699
8 1700 to 1799
9 1800 to 1849
10 1850 to 1899
11 1900 to 1949
12 1950 to 1999
13 2000 to present
14 References

This timeline of Christian missions chronicles the global expansion of Christianity through a sampling of missionary outreach events.

A more general timeline of Christianity and History of Christianity is also available.

Apostolic Age

See also: Apostolic Age and Acts of the Apostles

Earliest dates must all be considered approximate

30 - Great Commission of Jesus to go and baptize all nations (Barrett, p.23); Pentecost, a day in which 3000 Jews from a variety of Mediterranean-basin nations are converted to faith in Jesus Christ.
34 - In Gaza, Philip baptizes a convert, an Ethiopian who was already a Jewish proselyte.
39 - Peter preaches to a Gentile audience in the house of Cornelius
42 - Mark goes to Egypt (Kane, 10)
47 - Paul (formerly known as Saul of Tarsus) begins his first missionary journey to modern-day Turkey.^[1]
50 - Council of Jerusalem on admitting Gentiles into the Church^[1]
51 - Paul begins his second missionary journey, a trip that will take him through modern-day Turkey and on into Greece (Walker, 27)
52 - Thomas arrives in India and founds church that subsequently becomes Indian Orthodox Church (and its various descendants) (Neill, 44-45)
54 - Paul begins his third missionary journey [1]
60 - Paul sent to Rome under Roman guard, evangelizes on Malta after shipwreck (Walker, 27)
63 - Joseph of Arimathea travels to Glastonbury on the first Christian mission to Britain [2]
66 - Thaddeus establishes the Christian church of Armenia ^[2]
69 - Andrew is crucified in Patras on the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece (Herbermann, p. 737)

Early Christianity

See also: Early Christianity

80 - First Christians reported in Tunisia and France (Barrett, p. 23)
100 - First Christians are reported in Monaco, Algeria and Sri Lanka (Barrett, p. 23); a missionary goes to Arbela, old sacred city of the Assyrians (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, p. 103)
110 - Ignatius of Antioch writes to the Smyrnaeans that the Christian church is katholikos ("universal") [3]
112 - Pliny reports rapid growth of Christianity in Bithynia (Neill, p. 28)
140 - Hermas writes: "The Son of God . . . has been preached to the ends of the earth" (Barrett, p. 23)
150 - Gospel reaches Portugal and Morocco (Barrett, p. 23)
166 - Bishop Soter writes that the number of Christians has surpassed the Jews (Neill, p. 30)
167 - At the request of Lucius of Britain, missionaries Fuganus (or Phagan) and Duvianus (or Deruvian) were sent by Pope Eleuterus to convert the Britons to Christianity ^[3]
174 - First Christians reported in Austria (Barrett, p. 23)
177 - Churches in Lyon and Vienne (southern France) report being persecuted (Neill, p. 24)
190 - Pataenus of Alexandria goes to India in response to an appeal for Christian teachers (Glover, 20)
196 - Bar Daisan writes of Christians among the Parthians, Bactrians (Kushans), and other peoples in the Persian Empire [4]
197 - Tertullian writes that Christianity had penetrated all ranks of society in North Africa (Herbermann, p. 385)
200 - First Christians are reported in Switzerland and Belgium (Barrett, p. 23)
202 - Roman Emperor Severus issues edit forbidding conversion to Christianity (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, 145)
206 - Abgar, King of Edessa, embraces the Christian faith (Herbermann, p. 282)
208 - Tertullian writes that Christ has followers on the far side of the Roman wall in Britain where Roman legions have not yet penetrated (Neill, p. 31)
241 - Mani begins to preach in Seleucia-Ctesiphon in what is now Iraq [5]
250 - Denis (or Denys or Dionysius) is sent from Rome along with six other missionaries to establish the church in Paris (Herbermann, p. 481)
270 - Death of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Christian leader in Pontus. It was said that when Gregory became "bishop" there were only 17 Christians in Pontus while at his death thirty years later there were only 17 non-Christians. (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, p. 89)
280 - First rural churches emerge in northern Italy; Christianity is no longer exclusively in urban areas
287 - Maurice from Egypt is killed at Agauno, Switzerland for refusing to sacrifice to pagan divinities ^[4]
300 - First Christians reported in Greater Khorasan; an estimated 10% of the world's population is now Christian; parts of the Bible are available in 10 different languages (Barrett, p. 24)
304 - Armenia accepts Christianity as state religion [6]
306 - The first bishop of Nisibis is ordained ^[5]
313 - Emperor Constantine issues Edict of Milan, legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire (Kane, p. 33)
314 - Tiridates III of Armenia and King Urnayr of Caucasian Albania converted by Gregory the Illuminator [7]

Era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils

See also: Ecumenical councils#The first seven Ecumenical Councils

327 - Georgian King Mirian III of Iberia converted by Nino ^[6]
330 - Ethiopian King Ezana of Axum makes Christianity an official religion
332 - Two young Roman Christians, Frumentius and Aedesius, are the sole survivors of a ship destroyed in the Red Sea due to tensions between Rome and Aksum. They are taken as slaves to the Ethiopian capital of Axum to serve in the royal court. (Barrett, p. 24)
334 - The first bishop is ordained for Merv / Transoxiana (area of modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and southwest Kazakhstan) ^[7]
337 - Emperor Constantine baptized shortly before his death (Anderson, 149)
341 - Ulfilas begins work with the Goths in present-day Romania (Neill, p. 48)
350 - Bible is translated into Saidic, an Egyptian language (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, p. 257)
354 - Theophilus "the Indian" reports visiting Christians in India [8]; Philostorgius mentions a community of Christians on the Socotra islands, south of Yemen in the Arabian Sea [9]
364 - Conversion of Vandals to Christianity begins during reign of Emperor Valens (Herbermann, 268)
370 - Wulfila translates the Bible into Gothic, the first Bible translation done specifically for missionary purposes
378 - Jerome writes, "From India to Britain, all nations resound with the death and resurrection of Christ" (Barrett, p. 24)
380 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I makes Christianity the official state religion (Walker, pp. 117-118)
382 - Jerome is commissioned to translate the Gospels (and subsequently the whole Bible) into Latin (Price, p. 78)
386 - Augustine of Hippo converted (Latourette, 1953, p. 97)
390 - Nestorian missionary Abdyeshu (or Abdisho) builds a monastery on the island of Bahrain
397 - Ninian evangelizes the Southern Picts of Scotland; three missionaries sent to the mountaineers in the Trento region of northern Italy are martyred (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, p. 199)
400 - Hayyan begins proclaiming gospel in Yemen after having been converted in Hirta on the Persian border; in starting a school for native Gothic evangelists, John Chrysostom writes, "'Go and make disciples of all nations' was not said for the Apostles onlyu, but for us also" (Barrett, p. 24)
410 - New Testament translated into Armenian (Neill, p. 48)
420 - An Arabian Bedouin tribe under sheikh Peter-Aspebet is converted
425 - The first bishops are ordained for Herat (Afghanistan) and Samarkand (Uzbekistan) [10]
432 - Patrick goes to Ireland as missionary (Neill, p. 49)
450 - First Christians reported in Liechtenstein (Barrett, p. 24)
496 - Conversion of Clovis I, king of Franks in Gaul, along with 3,000 warriors (Neill, 51, 95)
499 - Persian king Kavadh I, fleeing his country, meets a group of Christian missionaries going to Central Asia to preach to the Turks
500 - First Christians reported in North Yemen; Nairam becomes Christian center
508 - Philoxenus of Mabug begins translation of the Bible into Syriac ^[8]
529 - Benedict of Nursia destroys pagan temple at Monte Cassino (Italy) and builds a monastery (Latourette, 1953, p. 333)
535 - The Hephthalite Huns - nomads living in northern China and Central Asia, who were also known as the White Huns - are taught to read and write by Nestorian missionaries.
542 - Julian (or Julianus) from Constantinople begins evangelizing Nubia, accompanied by an Egyptian named Theodore (Anderson, p. 347)
563 - Columba sails from Ireland to Scotland where he founds an evangelistic training center on Iona (Gailey, p. 41)
565 - The first report of a Loch Ness monster after the Irish missionary Columba visits the Loch. Columba described an animal that broke the surface of the 800 foot-deep loch with a loud roar and an open mouth [11]
569 - Longinus, church leader in Nobatia, evangelizes Alodia (in what is now Sudan)
578 - Conversion to Christianity of An-numan III, last of Lachemids (Arab princes)
592 - Death of Celtic/Irish missionary Moluag (Old Irish: Mo-Luóc) [12]
596 - Gregory the Great sends Augustine and a team of missionaries to (what is now) England to reintroduce the gospel. The missionaries settle in Canterbury and within a year baptize 10,000 people (Neill, pp. 58-59; Tucker, 46)
600 - First Christian settlers in Andorra (southwestern Europe, between France and Spain)
604 - A church is reportedly planted on Thorney Island (where Westminster Abbey now stands) [13]
627 - Conversion of King Edwin of Northumbria [14]
629 - Amandus of Elnon is consecrated a missionary bishop. He evangelized the region around Ghent and went on missions to Slavs along the Danube and to Basques in Navarre (Anderson, p. 16)
630 - Conversion of the East Angles (one of the seven kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon Heptarchy) [15]
635 - First Christian missionaries (Nestorian monks, including Alopen, from Asia Minor and Persia) arrive in China (Neill, 81); Aidan of Lindisfarne begins evangelizing in the heart of Northumbria (England) (Anderson, p. 8)
637 - Lombards, a German people living in northern Italy, become Christians
638 - A church building is erected in Ch'ang-an, then perhaps the largest city in the world (see Daqin Pagoda)
647 - Amadeus, bishop of Maastricht, carries out missionary work in Frisia (Netherlands) and among the Slavs [16]
650 - First church organized in Netherlands (Barrett, p. 24)
673 - Irish monk Maol Rubha founds a training center at Aprochrosan that would serve as a base for missionary outreach into Scotland ^[9]
680 - First translation of Christian Scriptures into Arabic
687 - Conversion of Sussex [17]
689 - Pagans kill Irish missionary Kilian near Würzburg in what is now Germany. His remains will be buried in a Benedictine abbey in Würzburg. (Herbermann, p. 639)
692 - Willibrord and 11 companions cross the North Sea to become missionaries to the Frisians (modern day Netherlands) (Kane, p. 41)
697 - Muslims overrun Carthage, capital of North Africa (Gailey, p. 43)
720 - Caliph Umar II puts heavy pressure on the Christian Berbers to convert to Islam
716 - Boniface begins missionary work among Germanic tribes (Tucker, 2004, p. 55)
724 - Boniface fells pagan sacred oak of Thor at Geismar in Hesse (Germany) (Neill, p. 64)
740 - Irish monks reach Iceland (Moreau, p. 467)
771 - Charlemagne becomes king and will decree that sermons be given in the vernacular. He also commissioned Bible translations. (Herzog, p. 351)
781 - Nestorian Stele erected near Xi'an (China) to commemorate the propagation in China of the Luminous Religion, thus providing a written record of a Christian presence in China (Neill, p. 82)
787 - Liudger begins missionary work among the pagans near the mouth of the Ems river (in modern day Germany) (Herbermann, p. 415)

Middle Ages

See also: Middle Ages

822 - Mojmír I of Great Moravia, converts to Christianity [18]
826 - Ansgar from France is sent by Roman papal authority to Denmark as a royal chaplain and missionary; Harald Klak is baptized along with 400 of his followers at Mainz (Neill, p. 69)
828 - First Christian church in present-day Slovakia is built in Nitra [19]; First missionaries reach the area that is now the Czech Republic (Barrett, p. 24)
830 - Scotch-born Erluph is evangelizing in (what is now) Germany when he is killed by the Vandals [20]
859 - Execution of Eulogius, proponent of confrontational Christian witness in Spain and other Muslim-dominated societies. Opposed to any feeling of affinity with Muslim culture, Eulogius advocated using a missiology of martyrdom to confront Islam. (Anderson, p. 202-203)
863 - Cyril and Methodius are invited by Rastislav to evangelize in Great Moravia and the Balaton Principality (Latourette, 1953, p. 307)
864 - Conversion of Prince Boris of Bulgaria (Anderson, pp. 79-80)
867 - All Serbian tribes are fully Christianized [21]
878 - Last definite reference to Christians in China before the Mongol era
880 - First Slavic archbishopric established in Great Moravia with Methodius as its head; Bible translated into Slavonic (Barrett, p. 25)
900 - Missionaries from the Bremen-Hamburg area reach Norway (Barrett, p. 25)
912 - The Normans become Christian ^[10]
948 - The leader of the Magyars converts to Christianity [22]
957 - Princess Olga of Kiev baptized (Neill, p. 76)
965 - Harold I of Denmark converts to Christianity and smooths the way for the acceptance of Christian faith by the Danish people
966 - Mieszko I of Poland converts to Christianity and begins the period of Christian Poland (Neill, p. 79)
987 - Nestorian monks visiting China find no traces of Christian community left (Neill, p. 83)
988 - Baptism of Kievan Rus' under Vladimir I (Olson, p. 104)
995 - Christian missionaries from Norway begin working in Iceland
997 - Adalbert of Prague dies as a martyr in Prussia (Neill, p. 94)

1000 to 1499

1000 - Leif the Lucky introduces the Gospel to Greenland, possibly Vinland (Newfoundland) [23]
1003 - The Hungarian king sends evangelists to Transylvania [24]
1008 - Sigfrid (or Sigurd), English missionary, baptizes King Olof of Sweden
1009 - Bruno of Querfurt is beheaded in Prussia where he had gone as a missionary (Neill, p. 94)
1015 - Russia is said to have been "comprehensively" converted to the Orthodox faith ^[11]; Olaf II Haroldsson becomes the first king of the whole of Norway. Over the next 15 years he would organize Norway's final conversion and its integration into Christian Europe. [25]
1200 - The Bible is now available in 22 different languages
1210 - Franciscan Order established (Latourette, 1953, p. 430)
1216 - Dominican Order established (Latourette, 1953, p. 438)
1219 - Francis of Assisi presents the Gospel to the Sultan of Egypt (Neill, p. 99)
1227 - Prince Bort converted and baptized in the Ukraine (Neill, p. 100)
1244 - Christians are reported in Lithuania with King Mindaugas being baptized in 1251 (Neill, p. 95)
1253 - Franciscan William of Rubruck begins his journey to the Mongols (Neill, 104-105)
1266 - Mongol leader Khan sends Marco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolo and Matteo Polo, back to Europe with a request to the Pope to send 100 Christian missionaries (only two responded and one died before reaching Mongol territory) (Neill, p. 107)
1276 - Ramon Llull opens training center to send missionaries to North Africa (Neill, 116)
1291 - Appointment of first indigeneous bishop in Finland (Neill, p. 93)
1294 - Franciscan Giovanni di Monte Corvino arrives in China (Neill, p. 108)
1303 - Arnold of Cologne arrives in China to assist Giovanni di Monte Corvino (Anderson, p. 334)
1321 - Jordanus, a Dominican monk, arrives in India as the first resident Roman Catholic missionary (Herbermann, p. 683)
1322 - Odoric of Pordenone, a Franciscan monk from Italy, arrives in China
1323 - Franciscans make contacts on Sumatra, Java, and Borneo (Barrett, p. 25)
1326 - Chaghatayid Khan Ilchigedai grants permission for a church to be built in Samarkand, Uzbekistan [26]
1329 - Nicaea falls to Muslim Ottoman Turks (Latourette, 1953, p. 602)
1334 - Chaghatayid Khan Buzun allows Christians to rebuild churches and permits Franciscans to establish a missionary episcopate in Almaliq, Azerbaijan [27]
1368 - Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China as Ming Dynasty abolishes Christianity
1379 - Stephen of Perm travels north toward the White Sea and settles as a missionary among the Finno-Ugric speaking Komi peoples living between Pechora and Vychegda Rivers at Ust-Vim (Anderson, 639)
1382 - Bible translated into English from Latin by John Wycliff (Glazier, p. 82)
1386 - Jogaila (baptized - Wladyslaw II), king of the Lithuanians, is baptized (Barrett, p. 25)
1389 - Large numbers of Christians march through the streets of Cairo, denouncing Islam and lamenting that they had abandoned the religion of their fathers from fear of pesecution. They were beheaded, both men and women, and a fresh persecution of Christians followed (Latourette, 1953, p. 611)
1400 - Scriptures translated into Icelandic (Barrett, p. 25)
1408 - Spanish Dominican Vincent Ferrer begins a ministry in Italy in which it is said that thousands of Jews and Muslims were won to faith in Christ (Latourette, 1953, p. 652-653)
1410 - Bible is translated into Hungarian (Barrett, p. 25)
1420 - Franciscan missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to Madeira (Kane, p. 57)
1431 - Franciscan missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Azores (Kane, p. 57)
1435 - Forced conversion of Jews in Palma de Mallorca, Spain ^[12]
1445 - First Christians reported in Guinea Bissau (Barrett, p. 25)
1448 - First Christians reported in Mauritania
1450 - Franscian missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Cape Verde Islands (Kane, 57)
1453 - Constantinople falls to the Muslim Ottoman Turks who make it their capital. An Islamic service of thanksgiving is held in the church of Saint Sophia (Latourette, 1953, p. 613-614)
1455 - With the bull Romanus Pontifex the patronage of missions in new countries behind Cape Bojador is given to the Portuguese.
1462 - Johannes Gutenberg begins printing the Bible with his movable-type printing process; Pope Pius II assigns the evangelization of the Portuguese Guinea Coast of Africa to the Franciscans led by Alfonso de Bolano [28]
1485 - After having come into contact with the Portuguese, the King of Benin requests that a church be planted in his kingdom [29]
1486 - Dominicans become active in West Africa, notably among the Wolof people in Senegambia.
1489 - Baptism of Wolof king Behemoi in Senegal ^[13]
1491 - The Congo sees its first group of missionaries arrive (Kane, 69). Under the ministry of these Franciscan and Dominican priests, the king would soon be baptized and a church built at the royal capital.
1492 - Birth of the church in Angola
1493 - Pope Alexander VI commands Spain to colonize the New World with Catholic missions; Christopher Columbus takes Christian priests with him on his second journey to the New World
1494 - First missionaries arrive in Dominican Republic
1495 - The head of a convent in Seville, Spain, Mercedarian Jorge, makes a trip to the West Indies.
1496 - First Christian baptisms in the New World take place when Guaticaba along with other members of his household are baptized on the island of Hispaniola ^[14]
1497 - Forced conversion of Jews in Portugal (Barrett, p. 26)
1498 - First Christians are reported in Kenya
1499 - Portuguese Augustinian missionaries arrive at Zanzibar. Their mission will end in 1698 due to the Oman-Arab conquest.

1500 to 1599

1500 - Franciscans enter Brazil with Cabral (Kane, p. 57)
1501 - Pope Alexander VI grants to the crown of Spain all the newly-discovered countries in the Americas, on condition that provision be made for the religious instruction of the native populations
1502 - Bartolome de Las Casas, who will later become an ardent defender of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, goes to Cuba. For his military services there he will be given an encomienda, an estate that included the services of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas living on it.
1503 - Mar Elijah, Patriarch of the East Syrian church, sends three missionaries "to the islands of the sea which are inside Java and to China." [30]
1506 - Mission work begun in Mozambique (Barrett, p. 26)
1508 - Franciscans begin evangelizing in Venezuela [31]
1509 - First church building constructed on Puerto Rico (Barrett, p. 26)
1510 - Dominicans begin work in Haiti (Tucker, 2004, p. 55)
1511 - Martin de Valencia came to believe that Psalm 58 prophesied the conversion of all unbelievers. While reflecting on the Scripture passage, he asked, "When will this be? When will this prophecy be filled . . . we are already in the afternoon, at the end of our days, and the world's final era." Later that same week, while reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah, he reportedly saw a vision of vast multitudes being converted and baptised. He began to pray to be chosen to preach and convert all heathen. He would die 20 years later as a missionary to Mexico. [32]
1512 - Dominican missionary Antonio de Montesino returns to Spain to try to convince King Ferdinand that all is not as it should be in the new western colonies. He reported that on the islands of Hispaniola (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) and Cuba, the indigeneous peoples were rapidly dying out under the system of slavery used by the colonists.
1513 - In Cuba, Bartolome de Las Casas is ordained (possibly the first ordination in the New World). Soon thereafter, Las Casas will renounce all claims to his Indian serfs
1514 - Franciscans begin missionary work in California
1515 - Portuguese missionary Francisco Álvares is sent on a diplomatic mission to Dawit II, the Negus or Emperor of Abyssinia (an old name for Ethiopia)
1516 - Three Franciscans are killed by cannibals in northeastern South America, in the area of Colombia and Venezuela
1517 - The Mughal Rulers of Delhi opened the door of Bengal to Christian missionaries [33]
1518 - Don Henrique, son of the king of the Congo, is consecrated by Pope Leo X as the first indigenous bishop from sub-Saharan Black Africa ^[15]
1519 - Two Franciscans accompany Hernán Cortés in his expedition to Mexico [34]
1520 - German missionary Maximilian Uhland, also known as Bernardino de San Jose, goes to Hispaniola with the newly appointed Bishop Alessandro Geraldini.
1521 - Pope Leo X grants Franciscan Francis Quiñones permission and faculties to go as a missionary to the New World together with Juan Clapión
1522 - Portuguese missionaries establish presence on coast of Sri Lanka and begin moving inland in the wake of Portuguese military units
1523 - Martin Luther writes a missionary hymn based on Psalm 67, May God Bestow on Us His Grace. It has been called "the first missionary hymn of Protestantism." (Gailey, p. 44-45)
1524 - Martin de Valencia goes to New Spain with 12 Franciscan friars
1525 - Italian Franciscan missionary Giulio Zarco is sent to Michoacán on the western coast of Mexico where he will become very proficient in some of the indigeneous languages
1526 - Franciscans enter Florida (Kane, p. 68); Twelve Dominican friars arrive in the Mexican capital
1527 - Martyrs' Synod — organized by Anabaptists, it is the first Protestant missionary conference
1528 - Franciscan missionary Juan de Padilla arrives in Mexico. He will accompany Coronado's expedition searching for the Seven Cities and eventually settle among the Quivira (now called the Wichita) (Anderson, 511)
1529 - Franciscan Peter of Ghent writes from Latin America that he and a colleague had baptized 14,000 people on one day (Latourette, vol. 3, p. 113)
1530 - In his On Translating: An Open Letter, Martin Luther lays out some principles of correct Bible translating [35]
1531 - Franciscan Juan de Padilla begins a series of missionary tours among Indian tribes southeast of Mexico City (Herbermann, p. 385)
1532 - Evangelization of Peru begins when missionaries arrive with Francisco Pizzaro's military expedition (Barrett, p. 26)
1533 - The Pechenga Monastery is founded in the Extreme North of Russia to preach Gospel to the Sami people; Augustinian order arrives in Mexico; First Christian missionaries arrive in Tonkin, what is now Vietnam [36]
1534 - The entire caste of Paravas on the Coromandel Coast are baptized -- perhaps 20,000 people in all (Latourette, vol. III, p. 253)
1535 - German Franciscan missionary Maximilian Uhland (also called Bernardino de San Jose) speaks before the Sacred Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith about the wretched condition of Indigenous peoples of America in the New World
1536 - Northern Italian Anabaptist missionary Hans Oberecker (also spelled Overacker and Overakker) is burned at the stake in Vienna, Austria [37]
1537 - Pope Paul III orders that the Indigenous peoples of the Americas of the New World be brought to Christ "by the preaching of the divine word, and with the example of the good life." (Kane, 57)
1538 - Franciscans enter Paraguay [38]
1539 - The Pueblos of what is now the U.S. Southwest are encountered by Spanish Franciscan missionary Marcos de Niza
1540 - Franciscans arrive in Trinidad and are killed by cannibals
1541 - Franciscans begin establishing missions in California
1542 - Francis Xavier goes to Portuguese colony of Goa in West India (Neill, 127); Franciscans reach what is now New Mexico (Tucker, p. 63)
1543 - Anabaptist Menno Simons leaves the Netherlands and begins planting churches in Germany [39]
1544 - Franciscan Andrés de Olmos, a veteran missionary in Mexico, struck northward into the Texas wilderness. After gathering a group of Indian converts, he will lead them back into Tamaulipas
1545 - Testifying to the power that letters back home from missionaries have had, Antonio Araoz writes about Francis Xavier: "No less fruit has been obtained in Spain and Portugal through his letters than has been obtained in the Indies through his teaching.” [40]
1546 - Francis Xavier travels to the Indonesian islands of Morotai, Ambon, and Ternate
1547 - Wealthy Spaniard Juan Fernández becomes a Jesuit. He will wind up in Japan as a missionary.
1548 - Francis Xavier founds the College of the Holy Name of God in Baçaim on the northwest coast of India
1549 - Dominican Luis Cancer, who had worked among the Mayans of Guatemala and Mexico, lands at Tampa Bay, Florida with two companions. They are immediately killed by the Calusa within sight of the ship from which they had disembarked. [41]
1550 - Printed Scriptures are available in 28 languages (Barrett, p. 26)
1551 - Dominican Jerome de Loaysa founds the National University of San Marcos in Lima (Peru) as well as a hospital for indigeneous peoples
1552 - Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier dies awaiting admission to China (Glover, 42)
1553 - Portuguese missionaries build a church in Malacca Town, Malaysia
1554 - 1,500 converts to Christianity are reported in Siam (now called Thailand) (Barrett, p. 26)
1555 - John Calvin sends Huguenots to Brazil (Kane, p. 76)
1556 - Dominican Gaspar da Cruz arrives in Guangzhou, China ^[16]
1557 - Jesuit bishop Andre da Oviedo arrives in Ethiopia with five priests to convert the local Ethiopian Christians to Catholicism.^[17]
1558 - The Kabardian duke Saltan Idarov converts to Orthodox Christianity
1559 - Missionary Vilela settles in Kyoto, Japan
1560 - Goncalo da Silveira, a Portuguese Jesuit missionary, visited the Munhumutapa Empire, where he rapidly made converts
1562 - Diego de Landa burns the libraries of the Maya civilization (Gailey, p. 99)
1563 - Jesuit missionary Luis Frois, who will later write a history of Jesuit activity in Japan, arrives in that country; Omura Sumitada becomes the first daimyo (feudal landholder) to convert to Christianity
1564 - Legaspi begins Augustinian work in Philippine Islands (Kane, pp. 62, 130)
1565 - Jesuits arrive in Macau.
1566 - The first Jesuit to enter what is now the United States, Pedro Martinez, is clubbed to death by fearful Indians on the sands of Fort George Island, Florida
1567 - Missionaries Jeronimo da Cruz and Sebastiao da Canto, both Dominicans, arrive at Ayutthaya, Thailand
1568 - In the Philippines, Diego de Herrera baptizes Chieftain Tupas of Cebu and his son
1569 - Jeronimo da Cruz is murdered along with two newly-arrived missionaries
1570 - Ignacio Azevedo and 39 other Jesuit missionaries are killed by pirates near Palma, one of the Canary Islands, while on their way to Brazil
1571 - Capuchin friars of the 'Strict Observance' arrive on the island of Trinidad with conquistador Don Juan Ponce of Seville.
1572 - Jesuits arrive in Mexico
1573 - Large-scale evangelization of the Florida Indian nations and tribes begins with the arrival of Franciscan friars; Augustinian order enters Ecuador
1574 - Augustinian Guillermo de Santa Maria writes a treatise on the illegitimacy of the war the Spanish government was waging against the Chichimeca in the Mexican state of Michoacán
1575 - Church building constructed in Kyoto. Built in Japanese architectural style, it was popularly called the "temple of the South Barbarians"
1577 - Dominicans enter Mozambique and penetrate inland, burning Muslim mosques as they go (Kane, 71)
1578 - King of Spain orders the bishop of Lima not to confer Holy Orders on mestizos
1579 - Jesuit Alessandro Valignano arrives in Japan where, as "Visitor of Missions", he formulates a basic strategy for Catholic proselytism in that country. Valignano's adaptationism attempted to avoid cultural frictions by covering the gap between certain Japanese customs and Roman Catholic values. (Neill, p. 134)
1580 - Japanese Daimyo (feudal landholder) Arima Harunobu becomes Christian and takes the name Protasio
1581 - Luis de Valdivia becomes a Jesuit. After finishing his studies, he will be sent to Peru
1582 - Jesuits, with Matteo Ricci as the pioneer, begin mission work in China, introduce Western science, mathematics, astronomy (Latourette, 1953, p. 939)
1583 - Five Jesuit missionaries -- Rudolph Acquaviva, Peter Berno, Francis Aranha, Alphonsus Pacheco and Anthony Francisco -- are murdered near Goa (India)
1584 - Matteo Ricci and a Chinese scholar translate a catechism into Chinese under the title Tian Zhu Shi Lu（天主實録） (A True Account of God)
1585 - Carmelite leader Jerome Gracian meets with Martin Ignatius de Loyola, a Franciscan missionary from China. The two sign a vinculo de hermandad misionera -- a bond of missionary brotherhood -- by which the two orders would collaborate in missionary work in Ethiopia, China, the Philippines, and the East and West Indies.
1586 - Portuguese missionary Joao dos Santos reports that locals kill elephants to protect their crops in Sofala, Mozambique.
1587 - All foreigners ordered out of Japan; Manteo becomes the first American Indian to be baptized by the Church of England
1588 - A Dominican missionary arrives in the Philippines
1589 - Francis Solano (or Solanus) goes to Peru as a missionary
1590 - A book by Belgian pastor Hadrian à Saravia has a chapter arguing that the Great Commission is still binding on the church today because the Apostles did not fulfill it completely ^[18]
1591 - First Roman Catholic church built in Trinidad; First Chinese admitted as members of the Jesuit order
1593 - The Franciscans arrive in Japan and establish St. Anna's hospital in Kyoto
1594 - First Jesuit missionaries arrive in Pakistan
1595 - Dutch East India Company chaplains expand their ministry beyond the European expatriates (Olson, p. 114)
1596 - Jesuit missionaries travel across the island of Samar in the Philippines to establish mission centers on the eastern side
1597 - Twenty-six Japanese Christians are crucified for their faith by General Toyotomi Hideyoshi in Nagasaki, Japan. (Latourette, vol. III, p. 328) By 1640, thousands of Japanese Christians will have been martyred.
1598 - Spanish missionaries push north from Mexico into what is now the state of New Mexico .
1599 - Jesuit Francisco Fernandez goes to what is now the Jessore District of Bangladesh and, with the permission of King Pratapaditya, builds a church there

1600 to 1699

1600 - French missionaries arrive in the area of what is now Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan
1601 - Matteo Ricci goes to China (Tucker, 2004, 69); First ordination of Japanese priests
1602 - Chinese scientist and translator Xu Guangqi is baptized
1603 - The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan commences publication of a Japanese- Portuguese dictionary
1604 - Jesuit missionary Abbè Jessè Flèchè arrives at Port Royal, Nova Scotia
1605 - Roberto de Nobili goes to India (Kane, p. 64)
1606 - Japanese Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu bans Christianity
1607 - Missionary Juan Fonte establishes the first Jesuit mission among the Tarahumara in the Sierra Madre Mountains of Northwest Mexico
1608 - A missionary expedition into the Ceará area of Brazil fails when the Tacariju kill the Jesuit leader
1609 - Missionary Nicolas Trigault goes to China [42]
1610 - Chinese mathematician and astronomer Li Zhizao is baptized (Anderson, 399)
1611 - Two Jesuits begin work among Mi'kmaq Indians of Nova Scotia (Kane, 68)
1612 - Jesuits found a mission for the Abenakis in Maine (Kane, 68)
1613 - Missionary Alvarus de Semedo goes to China
1614 - Anti-Christian edicts issued in Japan with over 40,000 Christians being massacred (Barrett, p. 27)
1615 - French missionaries in Canada open schools in Trois-Rivières and Tadoussac to teach First Nations children with the hopes of converting them
1616 - Nanjing Missionary Case in which the clash between Chinese practice of ancestor worship and Catholic doctrine ends in the deportation of foreign missionaries. Missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell arrives in China
1617 - Portuguese missionary Francisco de Pina arrives in Vietnam
1618 - Portuguese Carmelites go from Persia to Pakistan to establish a church in Thatta (near Karachi)
1619 - Dominican missionaries found the University of St. Tomas in the Philippine islands
1620 - Carmelites enter Goa [43]
1621 - The Augustinians establish themselves in Chittagong
1622 - Pope Gregory VI founds the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith. This becomes the major Papal agency for coordinating and directing missionary work (Herbermann, p. 456)
1623 - A stone monument over nine feet tall, 33 inches wide, and ten inches thick is unearthed in Ch'ang-ngan (Si-ngan-fu), China. Its inscription, written by a Syrian monk almost a thousand years earlier and in both Chinese characters and Persian script, begins with the words, "Let us praise the Lord that the [Christian] faith has been popular in China"; it told of the arrival of a missionary, A-lo-pen (Abraham), in AD 625.
1624 - Persecution intesifies in Japan with 50 Christians being burned alive in Edo (now called Tokyo)
1625 - Vietnam expels missionaries [44]
1626 - After entering Japan in disguise, Jesuit missionary Francis Pacheco is captured and executed at Nagasaki ^[19]
1627 - Alexander de Rhodes goes to Vietnam where in three years of ministry he baptizes 6,700 converts (Barrett, p. 27)
1628 - Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples established in Rome to train "native clergy" from all over the world
1629 - Franciscan missionary Alonzo Benavides founds Santa Clara de Capo on the border of Apache Indian country in what is now New Mexico
1630 - An attempt is made in the El Paso, Texas area to establish a mission among the Mansos Indians
1631 - Dutch missionary Abraham Rogerius (anglicized as Roger), who authored Open Door to the Secrets of Heathendom, begins 10 years of ministry among the Tamil people in the Dutch colony of Pulicat near Madras, India (Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 277)
1632 - Zuni Indians murder a group of Franciscan missionaries who had three years earlier established the first mission to the Zunis at Hawikuh in what is now New Mexico
1633 - Emperor Fasilides expels the Jesuit missionaries in Ethiopia; the German Lutheran Church sends Peter Heyling as the first Protestant missionary to Ethiopia.^[20]
1634 - Jesuit missionary Jean de Brèbeuf travels to the Petun nation (in Canada) and baptizes a 40 year old man.
1635 - An expedition of Franciscans leaves Quito, Ecuador, to try to penetrate into Amazonia from the west. Though most of them will be killed along the way, a few will manage to arrive two years later on the Atlantic coast.
1636 - The Dominicans of Manila (the Philippines) organize a missionary expedition to Japan. They are arrested on one of the Okinawa islands and will be eventually condemned to death by the tribunal of Nagasaki.
1637 - When smallpox kills thousands of Native Americans, tribal medicine men blame European missionaries for the disaster
1638 - Official ban of Christianity in Japan with death penalty; Influential Puritan Richard Sibbes writes The Fountain Opened in which he says that the gospel must continue its journey "til it have gone over the whole world."
1639 - The first women to New France as missionaries -- three Ursuline Nuns -- board the "St. Joseph" and set sail for New France
1640 - Jesuit missionaries arrive on the Caribbean island of Martinique
1641 - Jesuit missionary Cristoval de Acuna describes the Amazon River in a written report to the king of Spain
1642 - Catholic missionaries Isaac Jogues and Rene Goupil are captured by Mohawk Indians as they return to Huron country from Quebec. Goupil was tomahawked to death while Jogues will be held for a period of time as a slave. He used his slavery as an opportunity for missionary work (Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 176)
1643 - John Campanius, Lutheran missionary to the Indians, arrives in America on the Delaware River; Reformed pastor Johannes Megapolensis begins outreach to Native Americans while pastoring at Albany, New York
1644 - John Eliot begins ministry to Algonquin Indians in North America (Tucker, 2004, p. 75)
1645 - After thirty years of work in Vietnam, the Jesuits are expelled from that country
1646 - After being accused of being a sorcerer, Jesuit missionary Isaac Jogues is killed by the Iroquois (Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 176)
1647 - The Discalced Carmelites begin work on Madagascar [45]
1648 - Baptism of Helena and other members of the emperial Ming family
1649 - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel In New England formed to reach the Indians of New England (Kane, p. 82)
1650 - The destruction of Huronia by the Iroquois puts an end to the Jesuits' dream of making the Huron Indians the focal point of their evangelism
1651 - Count Truchsess of Wetzhausen, prominent Lutheran layman, asks the theological faculty of Wittenberg why Lutherans are not sending out missionaries in obedience to the Great Commission (Olson, p. 115)
1652 - Jesuit Antonio Vieira returns to Brazil as a missionary where he will champion the cause of exploited indigenous peoples until being expelled by Portuguese colonists (Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 164)
1653 - A Mohawk war party captures Jesuit Joseph Poncet near Montreal. He is tortured and will be finally sent back with a message about peace overtures
1654 - John Eliot publishes a catechism for American Indians (Tucker, 2004, p. 78)
1655 - Jinga or Zinga, princess of Matamba in Angola is converted (Kane, p. 69); later she will write to the Pope urging that more missionaries be sent
1656 - First Quaker missionaries arrive in what is now Boston, Massachusetts
1657 - Thomas Mayhew, Jr., is lost at sea during a voyage to England that was to combine an appeal for missionary funds with personal business
1658 - After the flight of the French missionaries from his area, chief Daniel Garakonthie of the Onondaga Indians, examines the customs of the French colonists and the doctrines of the missionaries and openly begins protecting Christians in his part of what is now New York
1659 - Jesuit Alexander de Rhodes establishes the Paris Foreign Missions Society
1660 - Christianity is introduced into Cambodia
1661 - George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) sends 3 missionaries to China (although they never reached the field) (Kane, p. 76)
1662 - French Jesuit missionary Julien Garnier sails for Canada
1663 - John Eliot's translation of the Bible into one of the Algonquian languages is published (the New Testament came out two years earlier). This Bible was the first complete Bible to be printed in the New World (Glover, 55)
1664 - Justinian Von Welz authors three powerful pamphlets on the need for world missions; he will go to Dutch Guinea (now called Surinam) where he will die after only three months [46]
1665 - Japanese feudal landholders (called Daimyo) were ordered to follow the shogunate's example and to appoint inquisitors to do a yearly scutiny of Christians
1666 - John Eliot publishes his The Indian Grammar, a book written to assist in conversion work among the Indians. Described as "some bones and ribs preparation for such a work", Eliot intended his Grammar for missionaries wishing to learn the dialect spoken by the Massachusett Indians.
1667 - The first missionary to attempt to reach the Huaorani (or Aucas), Jesuit Pedro Suarez, is slain with spears ^[21]
1668 - In a letter from his post in Canada, French missionary Jacques Bruyas laments his ignorance of the Oneida language: "What can a man do who does not understand their language, and who is not understood when he speaks. As yet, I do nothing but stammer; nevertheless, in four months I have baptized 60 persons, among whom there are only four adults, baptized in periculo mortis. All the rest are little children."
1669 - Eager to compete with the Jesuits for conversion of the Indian Nations on the western Great Lakes, Sulpilcian missionaries François Dollier de Casson and René Bréhant de Galinée set out from Montreal with twenty-seven men in seven canoes led by two canoes of Seneca Indians
1670 - Jesuits establish missions on the Orinoco River in Venezuela
1671 - Quaker missionaries arrive in the Carolinas
1672 - A chieftain on Guam kills Jesuit missionary Diego Luis de San Vitores and his Visayan assistant, Pedro Calungsod, for having baptized the chief's daughter without his permission (some accounts do say the girl's mother consented to the baptism)
1673 - French trader Louis Jolliet and missionary Jacques Marquette visit what is now the state of Illinois, where the latter establishes a mission for Native Americans (Herbermann, p. 388)
1674 - Vincentian mission to Madagascar collapses after 25 years of abortive effort ^[22]
1675 - An uprising on the islands of Micronesia leads to the death of three Christian missionaries
1676 - Kateri Tekakwitha, who became known as the Lily of the Mohawks, is baptized by a Jesuit missionary. She, along with many other Native Americans, joins a missionary settlement in Canada where a syncretistic blend of ascetic indigeneous and Catholic beliefs evolves.
1678 - French missionaries Jean La Salle and Louis Hennepin discover Niagara Falls, that stupendous series of waterfalls on the Niagara River between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie
1679 - Writing from Changzhou, newly arrived missionary Juan de Yrigoyen describes three Christian congregations flourishing in that Chinese city [47]
1680 - The Pueblo Revolt begins in New Mexico with the killing of twenty-one Franciscan missionaries
1681 - After arriving in New Spain, Italian Jesuit Eusebio Kino soon becomes what one writer described as "the most picturesque missionary pioneer of all North America." A bundle of evangelistic zeal, Kino was also an explorer, astronomer, cartographer, mission builder, ranchman, cattle king, and defender of the frontier (Anderson, 367)
1682 - 13 missionaries go to "remote cities" in East Siberia
1683 - Missionary Louis Hennepin returns to France after exploring Minnesota and being held captive by the Dakota to write the first book about Minnesota, Description de la Louisiane
1684 - Louis XIV of France sends Jesuit missionaries to China bearing gifts from the collections of the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles
1685 - Consecration of first Catholic bishop of Chinese origin
1686 - Russian Orthodox monks arrive in China as missionaries
1687 - French activity begins in what is now Côte d'Ivoire when missionaries land at Assinie
1688 - New Testament translated into the Malay language (the first Bible translation into a language of southeast Asia)
1689 - Calusa Indian chief from what is the state of Florida visits Cuba to discuss idea of having missionaries come to his people [48]
1690 - First Franciscan missionaries arrive in Texas
1691 - Christian Faith Society for the West Indies was organized with a focus on evangelizing African slaves [49]
1692 - Chinese Kangxi Emperor permits the Jesuits to freely preach Christianity, converting whom they wish
1693 - Jesuit missionary John de Britto is publicly beheaded in India
1694 - Missionary and explorer Eusebio Kino becomes the first European to enter the Tucson, Arizona basin and create a lasting settlement
1695 - China's first Russian Orthodox church building is consecrated
1696 - Jesuit missionary Francois Pinet founds the Mission of the Guardian Angel near what is today Chicago, Illinois. The mission was abandoned in 1700 when missionary efforts seemed fruitless
1697 - To evangelize the English colonies, Thomas Bray, an Anglican preacher who made several missionary trips to North America, begins laying the groundwork for what will be the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 189)
1698 - Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge organized by Anglicans (Kane, p. 82)
1699 - Priests of the Quebec Seminary of Foreign Missions establish a mission among the Tamaroa Indians at Cahokia in what is now the state of Illinois

1700 to 1799

1700 - After a Swedish missionary's sermon in Pennsylvania, one Native American posed such searching questions that the episode was reported in a 1731 history of the Swedish church in America. The interchange is noted in Benjamin Franklin's Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784). [50]
1701 - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts officially organized (Kane, p. 82)
1702 - George Keith, returns to America as a missionary of the newly-organized Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
1703 - The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts expands to the West Indies (Herzog, vol. XII, p. 316)
1704 - French missionary priests arrive to evangelize the Chitimacha living along the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Louisiana
1705- Danish-Halle Mission to India begins with Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau (Kane, p. 78)
1706- Irish-born Francis Makemie, who has been an itinerant Presbyterian missionary among the colonists of America since 1683, is finally able to organize the first American presbytery
1707 - Italian Capuchin missionaries reach Kathmandu in Nepal. Maillard de Tournon makes public, in Nanjing, the Vatican decisions on rites, including the stipulations against the veneration of ancestors and of Confucius.
1708- Jesuit missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti is arrested in Japan. He is taken to Edo (now called Tokyo) to be interrogated by Arai Hakuseki
1709 - Experience Mayhew, missionary to the Martha's Vineyard Indians, translates the Psalms and the Gospel of John into the Massachusett language. It will be a work considered second only to John Eliot's Indian Bible in terms of significant Indian-language translations in colonial New England
1710 - First modern Bible Society founded in Germany by Count Canstein [51]
1711 - Jesuit Eusebio Kino, missionary explorer in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, dies suddenly in northern Mexico. Kino, who has been called "the cowboy missionary", had fought against the exploitation of Indians in Mexican silver mines.
1712- Using a press sent by The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Tranquebar Mission in India begins printing books in the Portuguese language
1713 - Jesuit Ippolito Desideri goes to Tibet as a missionary
1714 - New Testament translated into Tamil (India) (Neill, p. 195); a missionary training college is established in Copenhagen
1715 - Eastern Orthodox Church missionary outreach is renewed in Manchuria and Northern China [52]
1716 - The establishment of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio is authorized by the viceroy of Mexico. The mission was to be an educational center for Native Americans who converted to Christianity.
1717 - Chen Mao writes to the Chinese Emperor about his concerns over Catholic missionaries and Western traders. He urgently requested an all-out prohibition of Catholic missionaries in the Qing provinces.
1718 - Bartholomew Ziegenbalg constructs a church building in India that is still in use today
1719 - Isaac Watts writes missionary hymn "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun" (Kane, p. l83)
1720- Missionary Johann Ernst Gruendler dies in India. He had arrived there in 1709 with the sponsorship of the Danish Mission Society
1721 - Mission San Juan Bautista Malibat in Baja California is abandoned due to the hostility of the Cochimi Indians, as well as to the decimation of the local population by epidemics and a water shortage. Chinese Kangxi Emperor bans Christian missionaries as a result of the Chinese Rites controversy.
1722 - Hans Egede goes to Greenland (Neill, p. 200)
1723 - Robert Millar publishes A History of the Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism advocating prayer as the primary means of converting non-Christians (Kane, 83)
1724 - Yongzheng Emperor bans missionary activities outside the Beijing area
1725 - Knud Leem arrives as a missionary to the Sami people of Finnmark (Norwegian Arctic)
1726 - John Wright, a Quaker missionary to the Native Americans, settles in southeastern Pennsylvania
1728 - Institutum Judaicum founded in Halle as first Protestant mission center for Jewish evangelism (Herzog, vol. IX, p. 65)
1729 - Roman Catholic missionary Du Poisson becomes the first victim in the Natchez massacre. On his way to New Orleans, he had been asked to stop and say Mass at the Natchez post. He was killed in front of the altar
1730- Lombard, French missionary, founds a Christian village with over 600 Indians at the mouth of Kuru river in French Guiana. A Jesuit, Lombard has been called the most successful of all missionaries in converting the Indians of French Guiana
1731 - A missionary movement is born when Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf attends the coronation of King Christian VI of Denmark. By the following year, the movement with which Zinzendorf was associated, the Moravian Church, would launch missionary outreach in the Caribbean. (Glover, p. 52)
1732 - Alphonsus Liguori founds the