Trier in the Center of the Storm
This was a time of stormy church-political and theological controversies. A man named Arius in Egypt preached that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by – and is therefore distinct from – God the Father. This was the first heresy to rock Christianity, which it did to its very roots.
(Arianism is actually a debate we can see today as well, when people ask 'Is Jesus Christ 'God' or was he simply a social reformer?')
This controversy assumed even greater dimensions and only finally ended in the First Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), from whence we get the Nicene Creed which we recite at every Mass. Two of the leading bishops against Arius were Father Athanasius of Alexandria – one of the four Great Doctors of the church -- and Bishop Paulinus. St. Paulinus (phot left) was at one time the only bishop who would not conform to the rampant Arian heresy that swept through the Church. For his faithful witness, he was exiled from Trier to Turkey, where he died.
What role did Trier play? After the council, in which the teachings of Arius were rejected and the Nicene Creed agreed upon by the bishops, Athanasius fell into disfavor with Emperor Constantine and was banished to Trier, where Paulinus was the bishop.
At the same time, another Church Father participated in the dispute with Arius – the great Ambrose of Milan. He is known as the composer of the Catholic hymn the Te Deum and as the one who baptized St. Augustine. Another legend says that as Augustine was being baptized, he intoned the first line of this hymn and that Ambrose answered. Today the Te Deum is sung at the end of every year in every Catholic church in the world.
Ambrose was born in Trier, the son of a Roman prefect.
The Second Rome
We can see that the Church of Trier played a very important role in defending and preaching the Faith in history – literally a second Rome. The immense ruins of the ancient Roman civilization surround us at Trier, and the literal handing-on of that civilization through the Faith to us in the present day is apparent with every step through the old City.
All these Trier symbols, relics and legends have one thing in common: they demonstrate to the faithful what our origins are. We in Trier were the first Christians on German soil. This is our pride, and our responsibility.
(Editor’s Note: Marx is now cardinal and archbishop of Munich and a member of the group of eight cardinals advising Pope Francis.)
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