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brought them to Bari. Nicholas is patron saint of both Greece and Russia, and a patron saint of seafarers, sailors, and children. He is said to have rescued sailors in his lifetime. In the Middle Ages, a Boy Bishop was traditionally elected on this day, and reigned until the Feast of the Holy Innocents on 28 December. |
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In Germany, it became a custom to place a shoe outside a bedroom door, window, or next to a fireplace on the evening of 5 December. In the morning, it was found filled with candy, nuts, and fruit brought by Saint Nicholas, dressed in a red gown, white beard, and boots and carrying a sack. The tradition of gift giving around Christmas and the German customs associated with Saint Nicholas eventually became fused into the current figure of Santa Claus in several countries. |
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13.) Immaculate Conception. The date for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated on 8 December of the year. |
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The basis for the feast lies in the dogma that, "from the first moment of her conception, the BVM was . . . kept free from all stain of original sin". |
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The feast of the conception is known from the seventh century in the East. Observance spread to the West, where it is attested in the ninth century for Wales and Naples. The doctrine was vigorously debated. The Council of Basle affirmed the belief in A.D. 1439. Pope Sixtus IV approved the feast with its own mass and office in A.D. 1476. In A.D. 1708, Pope Clement XI extended the feast to the Universal Church and made it a feast of obligation. |
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14.) Christmas. The date for Christmas Day is celebrated on 25 December of the year. This date represents the culmination of several centuries of bitter struggle in the early years of the Christian era. |
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The date originally celebrated as the anniversary of the birth of Christ was 6 January, now called Epiphany. How Christmas came to fall on 25 December is a story of religious conflict, politics, fraud, forgery, and distortion, whose effects remain today after almost 2,000 years. |
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In the fourth century, the Roman Empire was already much weakened by internecine warfare, plagues, ruinous taxation, and fiscal policy. In addition, it was forced to find some way to come to grips with the increasing problems presented by the various eastern mystery religions. All of these Mithraism, the cult of Sol Invictus, Christianity, the cult of Isis were vying for adherents and political power. All of them were hostile in varying degrees to the traditional established Roman religion, and hence, to the cultural bonds that had previously served to unite the Empire. |
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The man at the center of power during the crucial period of the early years of the fourth century was the Emperor Constantine. The role of Constantine has been deliberately falsified in the historical record, so several important facts must be re-established. |
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Constantine's primary objective was to hold together the Empire in the face of powerful forces that were beginning to tear it apart. His central concern was to obtain unity, consensus, and agreement. |
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