Journey of the Church Through Time

B.C.

        around 6 - Christ is born in Bethlehem

A.D.

        around 30 - Christ dies and rises. The Church is born on Calvary.

                           The Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost.

        around 50 - The Council of Jerusalem decides that Gentile converts

                           need not follow Jewish practices.

        64 - Persecution of Christians begins under the Roman emperor Nero.

        67 - Sts. Peter and Paul are martyred in Rome.

        95 - The evangelists finish writing the Gospels.

        around 100 - Apostolic Age ends.

        around 251 - Monasticism, which St. Anthony of Egypt helped to

                            inspire, begins.

        around 300 - The Fathers of the CHurch begin to influence the Church.

        311 - The Emperor Constantine ends persecution of Christians.

        325 - The Council of Nicea refutes the Arian heresy and composes the

                Nicene Creed.

        381 - The Council of Constantinople affirms and expands the Nicene

                Creed. The council also defines the divine nature of the Holy Spirit.

        395-430 - St. Augustine influences Church thinking.

        around 400 - Barbarian tribes invade the Western Roman Empire.

        431 - The Council of Ephesus refutes the Nestorian heresy and states that

                Mary is truly the Mother of God.

        432 - St. Patrick begins missionary work in Ireland.

        451 - The Council of Chalcedon defends the divine nature of Christ.

        529 - St. Benedict founds an order of monks that helps preserve Christianity

                in Europe.

        590 - St. Gregory I (the Great) is elected pope. St. Augustine is sent to convert

                England.

        722 - St. Boniface begins the conversion of the Germanic tribes.

        800 - Charlemagne becomes Roman emperor.

        863 - Sts. Cyril and Methodius begin the conversion of the Slavic tribes.

        1054 - The Schism splits the Eastern and Western Churches.

        1073 - Gregory VII is elected pope and begins to reform the Church.

        1095 - Pope Urban II calls for a crusade to secure Christian control of

                  the Holy Land.

        1209 - St. Francis founds the Franciscan Order to help rebuild the Church.

        1215 - St. Dominic founds the Dominican Order to preach the Gospel.

        1266 - St. Thomas Aquinas writes the Summa Theologica.

        1291 - The Crusades end without success.

        1378-1415 - The Western Schism splits the Roman Church. The pope's

                           residing in France leads to a period when as many as three

                           popes reigned.

        1493 - Franciscans sail to America with Columbus.

        1521 - Martin Luther breaks with the Catholic Church. The Protestant

                  Reformation begins.

        1533 - Henry VIII differs with the pope and begins the Anglican Church.

        1540 - St. Ignatius founds the Society of Jesus to assist in Church reforms.

        1545-1563 - The Council of Trent promotes Church reformation.

        around 1600 - Missionaries begin to evangelize the Americas.

        1642-1649 - The North American martyrs are killed as they minister to

                           Indians in the Great Lakes region.

        1672 - Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet explore the Mississippi.

        1769-1823 - Twenty-one Spanish missions are founded, mostly by

                           Junipero Serra.

        1774 - The British government grants religious freedom to French Catholics

                  living in Canada.

        1789 - French revolutionaries clash with the Catholic Church. John Carroll

                  is appointed first bishop of the United States. Georgetown, the nation's

                  first Catholic college, opens.

        1791 - Freedom of religion is protected by the American Constitution.

                  St. Mary's in Baltimore, the nation's first Catholic seminary, opens.

        1809 - Elizabeth Ann Seton founds the first American religious community,

                  the Daughters of Charity.

        1820-1920 - Nine million Catholic immigrants come to America.

        1870 - The First Vatican Council convenes.

        1884 - American bishops begin the Catholic school system in the United

                  States. The Baltimore Catechism is commissioned.

        1891 - Pope Leo XIII writes the first major social encyclical, Rerum Novarum.

        1911 - Maryknoll, the first American mission association, is started.

        1917 - A Communist Revolution occurs in Russia. An atheistic government

                  restricts religious freedom.

        1919 - The National Catholic Welfare Conference, which became the

                  United States Catholic Conference, begins.

        1933 - The Nazi government persecutes Christians and Jews in Europe.

        1939-1945 - The Church agonizes through World War II.

        1960 - John Fitzgerald Kennedy, a Catholic, is elected president of the

                  United States.

        1962-1965 - Pope John XXIII convenes the Second Vatican Council to

                           renew the Church's vitality and relevance. The ecumenical

                           movement begins.

        1978 - Pope John Paul II becomes pope.

        1983 - The Revised Code of Canon Law is promulgated.

        1992 - The Catechism of the Catholic Church is presented to the Church.