Jesus to AD 500

Pax Romana

Period: 27 BCE to 180

The Resurrection of Jesus

33

Pentecost

33

The Apostles spread the Gospel

33

St. Stephen Martyred

33

The Conversion of Saint Paul

34

St. John the apostle travels emphasis with the blessed virgin Mary

42

Tells of how, from the cross, Jesus Charged St. John with the care of his mother.

St. James the Apostles is martyred; his body is secretly buried in Spain.

44

St. Paul begins missionary journeys to Galatia, Greece, Syria, and other places.

46

Council Of Jerusalem

49

Persecution of Christians begins under Roman emperor Nero

64

Romans burn the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.

70

Didache written

80

All the writings that will become part of the New Testament have been written by this date.

99

Persecution under Roman emperor Decius

250

Council of Carthage

251

Persecution under Roman emperor Diocletian

303

Emperor Constantine issues the Edict of Milan

313

Council of Nicaea

325

Emperor Constantine divides the Roman Empire into East and West

330

Birth of St. Augustine

354

Books begin to replace scrolls

360

Pope Damasus asks St. Jerome to translate the Gospels into Latin.

382

The Council of Hippo and Carthage determine which book will become part of the New Testament

397

St. Jerome complete his translation of the Old Testament

405

The Visigoths destroy the city of Rome

410

St. Augustine begins writing The City Of God.

410

Council of Ephesus

431

St. Patrick sets out to spread the Gospel Of God.

432

Council of Chalcedon

451

The Western Roman Empire Collapses

476

Birth of St. Benedict

480

Clovis, The King of the Franks, Converts to Catholicism

496

AD 500-1,000

Period: 500 to 1000

Clovis' army drives Visigoths out of France

507

Justinian I became emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire.

527

St. Benedict founds the first monastery.

529

St. Benedict founds his first monastery

529

Construction of Hagia Sophia begins in Constantinople.

537

St. Gregory the Great becomes pope.

590

Pope St. Gregory the Great sends St. Augustine of Canterbury to England to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons

596

St. Augustine baptizes the king of Kent.

597

Death Of Mohammed

632

Mohammed, whom Muslims call the Prophet Mohammed, is the founder of Islam. By the time of his Death, all of Arabia is Muslims.

Muslims attack Constantinople.

637

Muslims capture Jerusalem.

638

Muslims take Carthage.

698

End of Eastern Roman rule in North Africa

Muslims invade and occupy Spain.

711

St. Boniface leaves England to evangelize Germania

716

France halts Muslim invasion.

732

With St. Boniface's help, the pope allies with the kings of the Franks

754

Vikings attack England.

793

Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III.

800

Eastern Christians in Constantinople did not approve of Charlemagne's coronation, and the new title bestowed by the pope caused further division between East and West.

Gunpowder invented.

885

Muslims occupy Santiago de Compostela in Spain, burial place of St. James the Apostles

997

Muslims control two thirds of the ancient Christian world

1000

The Great Schism

1054

St. Gregory VII elected pope

1073

Pope St. Gregory VII excommunicates the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV

1073

First universities founded

1088

The Byzantine emperor in Constantinople asks the West for aid against Muslim armies

1094

Pope Urban II calls for a Crusade, and Christians temporarily capture Jerusalem

1095

First Gothic cathedral completed

1144

Second and Third Crusades

Period: 1147 to 1192

Crusaders from the Fourth Crusade sack Constantinople

1204

Franciscan Order is founded by St. Francis of Assisi

1209

Dominican Order founded by St. Dominic

1216

The Inquisition is founded

1229

St. Thomas Aquinas write the Summa Theologica

Period: 1265 to 1274

The Renaissance begins

1300

Bubonic plague arrives in Europe.

1347

St. Catherine of Siena convinces the pope to return the papacy to Rome

1377

St. Catherine of Siena cares for the sick and buries the dead when the plague strikes Siena.

1386

Printing Press invented

1440

Muslims conquer Constantinople and tun Hagia Sophia into a mosque

1453

Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas

1492

Christopher Columbus sails for North America

1492

Ponce de Leon of Spain founds St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine, named for St. Augustine of Hippo, was the first European settlement in what is now the United States.

1513

Martin Luther presents the 95 Theses In this document, Luther presented what he saw as abusive practices in the Catholic Church.

1517

Luther denies the authority of the pope to interpret Scripture

1520

Luther is excommunicated

1521

Luther translates the Bible into German

1522

Luther removed seven Old Testament books: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom, Sirach, and Baruch. He also tried to change the New Testament by moving the letter of James, the letter to the Hebrews, the letters of John, and the book of Revelation into an appendix.

Franciscan missionaries arrive in what is now Florida

1526

Franciscan missionaries arrive in what is now Florida

1526

St. Ignatius of Loyola founds the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

1534

King Henry VIII of England breaks England from the Catholic Church after the pope refuses to allow him a divorce

1534

St. Thomas More is executed by Henry VIII

1535

Henry VIII dissolves all monasteries and convents in England and ireland

1536

First Franciscan explorations in what is now California

1541

The Council of Trent

Period: 1545 to 1563

Jesuit missionaries arrive in the Far East

1549

St. Teresa of Avila founds Discalced Carmelite convents throughout Spain (input to Timetoast Timeline as “Timespan”)

Period: 1562 to 1582

The King James Bible becomes the Bible of the Church of England

1611

St. Peter Claver arrives in Colombia

1611

The Mayflower sets sail from England to North America

1622

The Colony of Maryland is established

1634

Maryland will be the first colony to allow religious freedom for

Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto

1848

Ecumencial Council of the Vatican (known as Vatican I)

Period: 1868 to 1870

Bolshevik party formed in Russia

1903

World War I begins

1914

Three children at Fatima, Portugal, are granted visions of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady asked the children to pray the Rosary every day to stop the spread of Russia’s errors and for world peace. She asked that Russia be consecrated to her Immaculate Heart.)

1917

Mexico outlaws Catholicism

1917

Soviet Union is formed (Lenin was its first leader; Stalin took power two years after Lenin’s death)

1922

The first Catholic bishops in China are ordained

1926

Servant of God Dorothy Day converts to Catholicism

1926

Bl. Miguel Pro is killed by the Mexican government

1927

Hitler beomes chancellor of Germany; first Nazi concentration camp is opened

1933

Day founds the Catholic Worker newspaper

1933

Word War II begins

1939

Communist governments begin persecutions and mass murder across Europe and Asia

1940

St. Maximilian Kolbe is killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz

1941

Pope St. John XXIII calls the Church council that will become known as Vatican II

1959

Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (now known as Vatican II)

Period: 1962 to 1965

The US Supreme Court rules that the Constitution protects the right ot an abortion

1973

Pope St. John Paul II survives an assassination attempt ordered by the KGB (the Soviet intelligence agency)

1981

The Soviet Union begins to fall (The end of the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the end of communism in Europe would come in 1991)

1989