Saint Cristiano

Description

He is a Cistercian monk, (a religious order developed from 1112 with St. Bernard of Clairvaux), who came from a German monastery located in Poland, moved to Prussia together with Godfrey, abbot of Sekno, to evangelize those still pagan populations.
Prussia, a historical region of northern Germany, formed the largest state in the country before 1945; Christian was appointed missionary bishop by Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) and then consecrated in Rome in 1215, thus becoming the first bishop of Prussia.
He obtained from Duke Conrad of Massovia the concession of Kulmerland as an independent territory, where he worked to establish a local clergy; he also founded the Order of the Brothers Knights of Christ of Dobrin, but did not achieve great missionary success.
So he called to his aid the Teutonic Order, (a military order of chivalry founded in Acre in 1191, during the Crusades) which at that time, fighting against the Slavs, imposed its influence on the Slavs.