Medieval Catholicism vs. Modern Christianity: What We Lost

The modern Christian experience is vastly different from that of medieval Catholics. Have we lost something crucial along the way? In this video, we explore the differences in daily life, worship, community, and spiritual discipline between medieval Catholicism and contemporary Christianity. From ancient traditions to sacred rituals, discover how faith shaped every aspect of life in the medieval world—and what lessons we can take from it today.

📖 Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
2:07 - The Eucharist in Medieval Catholicism
4:02 - Sacred Art and Imagery
6:05 - Public Displays of Faith
7:52 - What Can We Learn from Medieval Christians?

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[dursty]

bringing back public feast days and parades would be amazing.

[Hail_Full_of_Grace]

I highly recommend the book "The stripping of the altars" to see just how vibrant and plugged into Catholicism the English were just prior to the reformation

[SaltAndLight]

Honestly by trying to live a sacramental life and praying throughout the day and attending daily mass (as much as possible) makes one’s life feel really medieval, the trick is having a group of parishioners also doing this allowing the sense of community to grow deeper, a community that prays deeply together

[catholiccrusader]

I am 80 years old. I have seen my beloved Catholic Church strip itself bare of so many precious things that identified us as Catholic-Christians. I am happy you young people are redefining what it means to be Catholic again. All I can say is thank you.

[frankm.]

I think a big part of it was life and the world was seen as sacred and inherently spiritual. The existence of things outside of or beyond the natural world were accepted as a given. I'm a folk anglo-catholic, but I've found that praying most of the LOTH (OOR, Morning, Midday, Evening, & night prayer), and the rosary daily, as well as a daily meditation practice and time spent away from technology, has shifted the way I understand life and the world. The magic, weirdness, and wonder I felt as a kid is slowly starting to come back

[Hereticalable]

I came to Catholicism through Atheism.

The things that struck me coming from a Protestant background was how rich and congruent Catholic theology was, , and how connected to history it is.

Having attended a Latin mass I was awestruck by the beauty, tradition and communal worship of it all.

[Nicccckk]

Im Episcopalian/Anglican but exploring Catholicism, j would absolutely love being one church that’s obedient to God again

[rouxmain]

Quick reminder : back when the Eastern Orthodox were in communion in Rome, they still had the liturgy they have today, and their liturgical language was either Greek or Slavonic.

[Blackwatch]

You my friend have earned a subscriber. Catholic priest here and a lover of history! Thanks for the video! I loved it!

[Michal]

Hearing all this, I'm just happy to live in small town in Poland. We still have here magnificient medieval churches, with orginal decorations. They have truly something magical inside them. I also take part in every year pilgrimage! All folk from region goes to Jodłówka sanctuary in a long walk. It is really something out of modern world.

Yet, most of our people followed the western world and in the big cites, where most of young headed, the faith is collapsing rapidly.

[elliotthulse]

So glad you’re doing videos like this. Thanks for your effort. Viva Cristo Ray.

[Tanmexam]

As an American Catholic living in Ukraine, it feels like modern ukraine (especially in western half) still maintains many feastdays. Also there are still agricultural practices that coincide with feastdays. For the easter basket that you bring to church to be blessed with water, you need to get horseradish (крін), eggs, sausage, butter, etc (no chocolate lol). A number of people actually GROW horseradish. This means they pick it two days before, clean the roots and grate it so it goes into the basket. After the easter liturgy, your easter lunch uses the food from the basket fhat was blessed. Everything feels very integrated. Its raally beautiful

[EconGun]

Muslim here: Believe it or not you just found a subscriber from Iran. Despite the MSM propaganda, we Persian Muslims consider Christians our closest brothers and sisters. Even back in the medieval times, we were allied with Europeans against Ottomans.

[RitaGatton]

The closest that I have found to Medieval Catholicism is Poland. For centuries, Our Blessed Mother has been the Queen of Poland. In 2016, the Parliament of Poland declared that Our Lord is King of Poland. Poland is full of very beautiful churches and cathedrals.

[TheresaReichley]

I consider myself pretty high church Protestant and I agree with almost everything here. The biggest tragedy is that the separation of church and state has largely driven public expressions of faith into private corners meaning that unlike the past, you can go your entire day and not see much public expression of faith. Public figures generally, even in tragedies are extremely sensitive about not appearing too pious in public, and while a very general mention of “God” might be mentioned, it’s given in such a nonspecific way that nobody of any religion walks away thinking that it wasn’t *his* God.

Furthermore, I believe it erodes public morality. When you can’t have public religion, you also can’t have a shared morality. Islam can put the Quran in every school in every Muslim country. The Bible has been effectively banned from public schools, and along with it, any thoughts about objective truth and morals. In essence, if your kids are in public schools, they’re taught atheism as the schools are not permitted to teach Christianity as true, at best religion is seen as all equally true, which makes them all equally false, and frankly treated as irrelevant.

[sebastijank]

It’s really weird to hear all of this being talked about like it is some far gone past. Literally all of this is still happening in majority Catholic countries, at least more faithful ones, and especially in smaller towns and villages. I am really happy and blessed then to be able to experience it all and partake. The only bad thing is that, if a new church is built, it rarely looks sacred.

[fiaskolo]

Medieval Europe was the pinnacle of christian civilization.

[petersaines]

I've been attending the Latin Mass for nearly 5 years now. Not turning back!

[rriicceee]

Love your videos! Super engaging and informative. Keep em coming!!

[ultimouomo]

Edward Peters, from the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of Inquisition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).

Henry Kamen, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and professor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, wrote The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998).

These two books are in the forefront of an emerging, very different perspective on the Inquisitions: an understanding that they were exponentially less inclined to issue death penalties than had previously been commonly assumed, and also quite different in character and even essence than the longstanding anti-Catholic stereotypes would have us believe.

On page 87 of his book, Dr. Peters states:

“The best estimate is that around 3000 death sentences were carried out in Spain by Inquisitorial verdict between 1550 and 1800, a far smaller number than that in comparable secular courts.”

Likewise, Dr. Kamen states in his book:

“Taking into account all the tribunals of Spain up to about 1530, it is unlikely that more than two thousand people were executed for heresy by the Inquisition. (p. 60) . . . it is clear that for most of its existence that Inquisition was far from being a juggernaut of death either in intention or in capability. . . . it would seem that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fewer than three people a year were executed in the whole of the Spanish monarchy from Sicily to Peru, certainly a lower rate than in any provincial court of justice in Spain or anywhere else in Europe.” (P.203)