The
Roman Catholic religion was the first
religion the Norse settlers on
Greenland were exposed to. It was a dominant
religion for the time period of roughly 1000-1450.
Christianity was first introduced to the Greenland residents during the time of Leif the Happy, son of Erik the Red. Leif went to a tour of Norway, where he made his first acquaintance with Christianity, and was greatly impressed by it. The King Olaf Trygvesson sent some missionaries along with him when he returned to his homeland.
The missionaries stated instilling Christianity into the Norse settlers in Greenland, very rapidly converting enough of them to set up an organized Church. Thereafter, sixteen Parishes were successively set up along with some Monasteries.
The distance from Europe posed severe problems in communications, therefore Greenland was formed into the Diocese of Gadar. It can be ascertained that at least sixteen or more Bishops were elected before the decline of the Roman Catholic religion, but their succession can not be ascertained with finality. Also unknown are the doings of these Bishops.
Apparently, no Bishop visited Greenland since the beginning of the 15th century. Bishop Vincenze Kampe (1537) was the last titular Bishop. Since then, the Christian community either died out, or through intermarriage, became assimilated with the Pagan Eskimo community.
This was the decline of the Roman Catholic advent in Greenland. Christianity after the decline was missing from Greenland for a couple of hundred years, after which it was brought back by Norwegian missionary Hans Egede in the form of Protestantism.
