On 23 October 524, Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius,commonly called Boethius, was executed by Ostrogoth king Theodoric the Great. Boethius is famous for his contributions to philosophy and theology, especially for his work The Consolation of Philosophy which stressed that despite the sufferings of this world that there was a higher power which guided all things […]
On 22 October 362, St. Theodoret of Antioch was martyred under the reign of Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate. Theodoret had refused to turn over the treasury of one of the Antiochean churches to the Roman authorities and was arrested. When Theodoret was brought before the Roman governor of Syria also named Julian, Theodoret condemned […]
On 21 October 1866, the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore came to an end. It had begun on the 7th of October and was presided over by Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore. Present at the council were seven archbishops, thirty-nine bishops or their procurators, two abbots and President of the United States Andrew Johnson. It was […]
On 19 October 1386, the first lectures were given at the University of Heidelberg making it the oldest university in Germany. Because of the Great Schism which had split the Catholic Church between allegiance to Rome or to Avignon, German professors in Paris who gave their allegiance to Rome were unable to remain at the […]
On 18 October 1009, Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered that the Church of the Holy Sepulchre – which is on the site where Christians believe is on the site where Jesus died, was buried and rose from the dead – to be destroyed. After the destruction, only the foundations of the church remained. The […]
On 17 October 1521, Pope Leo X declared King Henry VIII the Fidei Defensor or Defender of the Faith. This title was given to honor Henry for his book Defense of the Seven Sacraments which attacked the theology of Martin Luther and was dedicated to Leo. This title was added to the full royal title […]
On 16 October 1367, Pope Urban V returned the see of the papacy from Avignon to Rome. Urban had been urged to return to Rome by Petrarch and St. Bridget of Sweden, but he also hoped that a return to Rome would help restore the status of the Papal States. His decision to leave Avignon […]
On 15 October 1764, Edward Gibbon received his inspiration to write his famous The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire which is seen as the beginning of modern historical writing on the Roman Empire and a tremendous influence on later historical writing. Gibbon wrote in his Autobiography that it was as […]
On 14 October 1978, the conclave which would elect Cardinal Karol Wojtyła as pope to succeed Pope John Paul I began. It would last until 16 October 1978. Pope John Paul I died on 28 September quite unexpectedly. While Wojtyła was not initially seen as a likely candidate for the papacy, but neither of the […]
On 13 October 1917, 30,000 to 100,000 people in the Cova da Iria fields near Fátima, Portugal claimed to have seen the Miracle of the Sun. These witnesses reported seeing the sun move toward the earth in a zigzag pattern for about ten minutes and that their wet clothes became suddenly dry. The witnesses believed […]
