So Winebald was yet another of those saints who began their lives in England or Ireland and ended up as missionaries and church planters in what is present-day Germany. Apparently, in the 7th, 8th, and 9th centuries, the Teutonic peoples were the equivalent of 19th– and 20th-century Africans: a field of people identified by the Church as desperately in need of the light of the Gospel (set alongside the desires of certain other parties to expand their territorial and economic interests).
The missionaries who went were admired greatly by those who sent them (yet who themselves did not go), and the challenges were of course severe: there were no Google® Maps, there was an immediate language barrier, there was no means for, say, trading a Roman coin for some bread, and the missionary groups needed to be able to construct at minimum a series of temporary shelters. Also, they faced the resistance one might anticipate when going uninvited to others’ homes, telling the hosts that their way of thinking, living, worshipping, and aspiring is Wrong, and instructing them to change their thoughts and behaviors to conform with those of their (again, uninvited) guests.
Moreover, imagine the challenges on the part of the head missionary to keep morale from flagging among those accompanying (invariably) him—one dies from disease, another is always hungry, one breaks an ankle in a hole, the hosts hate them (and, apparently, in Winebald’s case, sought to poison them!). The promise of a glorious “hereafter” isn’t, by itself, often enough to rally the group effort over a period of months and years, no matter how noble the motivations with which they started out.
So Winebald called upon those in his religious community “above all things to persevere instant in prayer” (emphasis original). “Instant in prayer” is a phrase lifted directly out of King James’ (17th-century) English, and references a phrase used in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (12:12). Being “instant in prayer” means focusing one’s mind and emotions on staying connected to God–which makes sense, given how many things were serious distractors for those missionaries to the Teutons.
Yet cheering the group on with the call “Instant in prayer! Instant in prayer! Instant in prayer!” definitely lacks a certain je ne sais quoi, especially as it scarcely trips off the tongue. But, luckily for Winebald’s guys, he didn’t speak the King’s (well, King James’) English at the time. Much more likely, good ol’ Winebald used the biblical Greek for this phrase that he told them to persevere in doing “above all things” (or so I can imagine).
That phrase is “προσευχῇ προσκαρτεροῦντες”–and, even if you cannot read Greek, you can see that both words begin with the same first syllable, an alliterative cheer: proskartereō proseuchē ! Pros-kar-ter-e-ō Pros-e-u-chē!
Go ahead: in your privacy, chant this out loud a few times:
Pros-kar-ter-e-ō Pros-e-u-chē!
Pros-kar-ter-e-ō Pros-e-u-chē!
Pros-kar-ter-e-ō Pros-e-u-chē!
There’s a phrase I can believe truly helped sustain Winebald’s people!