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Christianity is a missionary religion by definition. Even the word «apostolic», when applied to the Church, refers to this initial impetus to expansion. However, Jesus Christ in New Testament repeatedly underlines that he addresses «only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel». The situation changes when Jews reject the Gospel‑Jesus, after his resurrection, appeals to his disciples with the famous words «Go and teach all nations!» «Barbaric» nation of Scythians appears for the first time in the Epistle of St. Paul to Colossians, where he insists that for God there is no difference between Greeks and «barbarians». The apologists of the early Christianity liked to praise «barbarians» at the expense of their pagan compatriots — they insisted that «primitive nations» are wiser and more eager to convert to the true religion than heathen Romans. Meanwhile, we know next to nothing of the first two centuries of mission. Whether the first Christians ever volunteered to preach to «real barbarians», remains unclear. It does not mean that the latter were unaware of the new religion: information spread through mercenaries, who returned home from the Empire, through merchants travelling to «barbaric» lands and, most importantly, through hostages and redeemed captives who happened to live in the foreign milieu for considerable time. From this group originate famous «apostles» like Wulfilas (Goths), Nino (Georgia), Gregory (Armenia), Frumentius (Ethiopia) etc. Although such people happened to be missionaries, this was not their initial intention, and their activities do not indicate that the imperial Church had missionary ambitions.

The conversion of the Roman Empire changed the situation. Christian emperors of the 4^th century regarded the support of Christian communities outside imperial borders as their imperial duty. But there is still no evidence of the missionary efforts of Romans among pagan «barbarians»; meanwhile, this association of Christianity with loyalty to the Romans caused great damage to mission: from this period onward the political authorities of all the countries bordering on the Empire suspected their Christian subjects of hidden loyalty to Constantinople. As a consequence, they backed rivaling religions or «heretical» trends within Christianity. This is how Monophysites and Nestorians, cursed by the «Orthodox», became the most numerous Christian communities in Persia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Central Asia, India and even in distant China, whereas Arianism, another Christian «sect», became the religion of European «barbarians».

As Christianity became imperial ideology, the attitude of Church authorities towards «barbarians» began to change: the classical GrecoRoman perception of «other» as a non‑human finds its way to the writings of theologians. Some of them insist that a «barbarian» cannot be a Christian, other Fathers of the Church praise the conversion of the «beasts», explaining that this is a way to pacify them and make them harmless. One of the very few exceptions is John Chrysostome who still holds to the old Christian «internationalism». There is still no trace of any deliberate missionary activities of the church among «barbarians» outside the imperial borders.

Only when the Western Empire collapsed and the Church on its territory remained the only organized institution in the midst of chaos, did the Popes of Rome begin the activities which may be regarded as missionary. It should be dated to the end of the 6^th century. However, the «real» mission as we understand it today must be accredited not to them but to itinerant Irish monks who sailed to the continent by the scores in the 7^th century. It was these «barbarians», preaching in «barbaric» languages, living side by side with their converts, working indefatigably, who formed the image of a missionary which survived up to this day. So, we may state that mission proper began when the Roman Empire, with its cultural isolationism and visceral hatred of «barbarians», perished.

In the Eastern Roman Empire, the traditional institutions and culture survived. The contempt towards «barbarians» was inherited from the Roman tradition, but it grew with the messianic concept of the universal vocation of the emperor. The Church had to support the State in its global ambitions. Christian mission appears in Byzantium in the 6^th century, but from the very beginning it was organized and directed by political authorities. The author traces down christianizing initiatives of the emperors: Anastasius, Justin I, Justinian, Maurice and Heraclius.