The Rise and Expansion of Christianity in Macedonia

This paper offers a general overview of the rise and expansion of Christianity in Macedonia between the first and sixth centuries AD. It highlights that, in the absence of detailed literary sources, epigraphic and archaeological material represents our best source of information on the topic. The available evidence demonstrates that Christianity took root in the main urban centers (i. e., Thessalonica, Philippi, and Beroea possibly) in the first century and spread in all directions along the main communication axes in subsequent centuries. By the fifth century, it pervaded the entire Macedonian territory and effectuated a profound religious and cultural transformation of Macedonian society.