What role did religious missionaries play in establishing a sense of cultural commonality in Western Europe in the early Middle Ages?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The expansion of Christianity, in its various forms, throughout western Europe provided a basis of commonality through identification of a Christian territory, and provided the basis of opposition to the spread of Islam at the Battle of Tours in 732 by Charles Martel. The work that established Christianity at the underpinning was largely done by missionaries such as St. Patrick, who converted Pagan Ireland; St. Columba, who established a monastery and did missionary work in Scotland; Boniface, a monk from the British Isles, who did missionary work in the Northern Germanic territories to convert the Frisians, Hessians and Thuringians; Columbanus converted tribes in the Frankish kingdoms and established Luxeuil as a center of learning; Augustine established the Cathedral of Canterbury in England, and converted King Aethelbert. The letter from the missionary Boniface to Pope Gregory is particularly useful in demonstrating how the church was more solidly organized and had uniform practices that would unite people of different languages, cultures, and political orientations.