Jesus to AD 500

By Andrew Bryan
  • Period: 27 BCE to 180

    Pax Romana

  • 33

    The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

  • 33

    Pentecost

  • 33

    The Apostles spread the Gospel

  • 33

    St. Stephen was martyred

  • 34

    The Conversion of St. Paul

  • 42

    St. John the Apostle travels to Ephesus with the Blessed Virgin Mary

    John 18:25-27 tells how, from the Cross, Jesus changed St. John with the care of his mother
  • 44

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

  • 46

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

  • 49

    Council of Jerusalem

  • 64

    Persecution of Christians begins under Roman emperor Nero

  • 70

    Romans burn the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem

  • 80

    Didache is written

  • 99

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

  • Period: 100 to 500

    AD 100-500

  • 250

    Persecution under Roman emperor Decius

    Decius requires all to worship the gods of the state, or be tortured and killed
  • 251

    Council of Carthage

  • 303

    Persecution under Roman emperor Diocletian

  • 313

    Emperor Constantine issues the Edict of Milan

  • 325

    Council of Nicaea

  • 330

    Emperor Constantine divides the Roman Empire into East and West

  • 330

    Construction of the first St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

  • 354

    Birth of St. Augustine

  • 360

    Books begin to replace scrolls

  • 381

    Council of Constantinople

  • 382

    Pope Damasus asks St. Jerome to translate the Gospels

  • 397

    The Councils of Hippo and Carthage determine which books will become part of the New Testament

  • 405

    St. Jerome completes his translation of the Old Testament

  • 410

    The Visigoths destroy the city of Rome

  • 410

    St. Augustine begins writing "The City of God"

  • 431

    Council of Ephesus

  • 432

    St. Patrick sets out to spread the Gospel in Ireland

  • 451

    Council of Chalcedon

  • 476

    The Western Roman Empire collapses

  • 480

    The birth of St. Benedict

  • 496

    Clovis, the King of the Franks, coverts to Catholicism

  • Period: 500 to 1000

    AD 500-1000

  • 507

    Clovis' army drives Visigoths out of France

  • 527

    Justinian 1 becomes emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire

  • 529

    St. Benedict founds the first monastery

  • 537

    Construction of Hagia Sophia (current structure) begins in Constantinople

  • 590

    St. Gregory the Great becomes pope

  • 596

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

  • 597

    St. Augustine baptizes the King of Kent

  • 632

    Death of Mohammad

  • 637

    Muslims attack Constantinople

  • 638

    Muslims capture Jerusalem

  • 698

    Muslims take Carthage

  • 711

    Muslims invade and occupy Spain

  • 716

    St. Boniface leaves England to evangelize Germania

  • 732

    France halts Muslim invasion

  • 754

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

  • 793

    Vikings attack England

  • 800

    Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III

  • 800

    Gunpowder is invented

  • 885

    Vikings attack Paris

  • 997

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

  • 1000

    Muslims control two thirds of the ancient Christian world

  • 1054

    The Great Schism

  • 1073

    St. Gregory VII elected pope

  • 1073

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

  • 1088

    First universities founded

  • 1094

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

  • 1095

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

  • 1144

    First Gothic cathedral completed

  • 1147

    Second Crusade

  • 1192

    Third Crusade

  • 1204

    Crusaders from the Fourth Crusade sack Constantinople

  • 1209

    Franciscan Order is founded by St. Francis of Assisi

  • 1216

    Dominican Order founded by St. Dominic

  • 1229

    The Inquisition is founded

  • Period: 1265 to 1274

    St. Thomas Aquinas wrote the Summa Theologica

  • 1300

    The Renaissance begins

  • 1347

    Bubonic plague arrives in Europe

  • 1386

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

  • 1440

    Printing Press invented

  • 1492

    Christopher Columbus sails for North America

  • 1513

    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

  • 1517

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

  • 1520

    Luther denies the authority of the pope to interpret Scripture

  • 1521

    Luther is excommunicated

  • 1522

    Luther translates the Bible into German.

  • 1526

    Franciscan missionaries arrive in what is now Florida

  • 1534

    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 after

  • 1535

    St. Thomas More is executed by Henry VIII

  • 1536

    Henry VIII dissolves all monasteries and convents in England and Ireland

  • 1541

    First Franciscan explorations in what is now California

  • Period: 1545 to 1563

    The Council of Trent

  • 1549

    Jesuit missionaries arrive in the far East

  • Period: 1562 to 1582

    St. Teresa of Avila founds Discalced Carmelite convents throughout Spain

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

  • St. Peter Claver arrives in Columbia

  • The Mayflower sets sail from England to North America

  • The Colony of Maryland is established

  • England overthrows its Catholic king and bans any future Catholic monarchs

  • Maryland outlaws the public practice of Catholicism in the colony

  • Period: to

    The Enlightenment

  • British colonies in North America declare their independence

  • The French Revolution begins

  • The US Constitution prevents religious tests for national office

  • The First Amendment protects free religious exercise in the US and prevents national government from establishing a religion. States were free to keep their established churches, and many did into the early 1800s

  • Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto

  • Period: to

    Ecumenical Council of the Vatican (known as Vatican I)

  • Bolshevik party formed in Russia

  • World War I begins

  • 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.)

  • Mexico outlaws Catholicism

  • Soviet Union is formed (Lenin was its first leader: Stalin took power two years after Lenin's death)

  • The first Catholic bishops in China are ordained

  • Servant of God Dorothy Day converts to Catholicism

  • Bl. Miguel Pro is killed by the Mexican government

  • Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany: first Nazi concentration camp is opened

  • Day founds the Catholic Worker newspaper

  • World War II begins

  • Communist governments begin persecutions and mass murder across Europe and Asia

  • St. Maximilian Kolbe is killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz

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

  • Period: to

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

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

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

  • 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)