Church History for Kids

   

From the Loyola Kids Book of Heroes:

What do heroes do?
Do they fight monsters? Sometimes, but they also hold the hands of people who are sick and lonely. They build schools. They study the planets. They forgive those who have harmed them. Heroes are people who look at the world around them, see what needs to be done, and through the grace of God find the strength to help others.
 In the thirty-six stories in Loyola Kids Book of Heroes, you’ll meet a Catholic nun who stood up to the most infamous outlaw in the Old West. You’ll learn how entire villages of men and women devoted their lives to building great cathedrals to show their love and respect for God. You’ll learn about John the Baptist, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, Charlemagne, St. Albert the Great, Dorothy Day, St. Patrick, and many others. Most of all, you’ll learn that with God’s help anyone can be a hero and make the world a better place.

Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably[1]) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song. They told of subjects such as the Creation, Adam and Eve, the murder of Abel, and the Last Judgment.[2] Often they were performed together in cycles which could last for days.[3] The name derives from mystery used in its sense of miracle,[4] but an occasionally quoted derivation is from ministerium, meaning craft, and so the 'mysteries' or plays performed by the craft guilds.[5]