1.
Pope Lucius I
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Pope Lucius I was the Bishop of Rome from 25 June 253 to his death in 254. He was banished soon after his consecration, but gained permission to return and he was mistakenly classified as a martyr in the persecution of Valerian, which did not begin until after Lucius death. A Danish legend held that the demons of Isefjord feared nothing but the skull of Lucius I, and when this skull was taken to Denmark, it brought peace, and Lucius was declared patron of Zealand. The skull was preserved as a national relic until carbon dating proved that it did not date back as far as his time. St. Lucius was born in Rome at a date, nothing is known about his family except his fathers name. He was elected probably on 25 June 253 and died on 5 March 254 and he is praised in several letters of St. Cyprian for condemning the Novationists for their refusal to readmit to communion Christians who repented for having lapsed under persecution. For his faith in Christ he suffered exile and acted as a confessor of the faith, with moderation and prudence. His feast did not appear in the Tridentine Calendar of Pope Saint Pius V, in 1602, it was inserted under the date of 4 March, into the General Roman Calendar. With the insertion in 1621 on the date of the feast of Saint Casimir. In spite of what is stated in the Liber Pontificalis. The persecution of Valerian in which he was said to have been martyred is known to have started later than March 254 and his tombstone is still extant in the catacomb of Callixtus. His relics were brought to the church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere, along with the relics of St. Cecilia. His head is preserved in a reliquary in St. Ansgars Cathedral in Copenhagen and this relic was brought to Roskilde around the year 1100, after St. Lucius had been declared patron of the Danish region Zealand. The skull remained in Roskilde Cathedral until 1908, when it was moved to Saint Ansgars Cathedral while the property of Copenhagens National museum, Pope St. Lucius head is among the few relics to have survived the Reformation in Denmark. However the Norwegian researcher Øystein Morten started wondering if St. Lucius skull might have mixed up with the skull of the Norwegian king Sigurd Jorsalfar. This skull had also kept in the Danish National Museum collection in the 1800s until it was donated to Oslo University in 1867. So the skull in question never belonged to St. Lucius, the results also rule out that it may have belonged to the crusader king Sigurd. List of Catholic saints List of popes This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
2.
Pope Sixtus II
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Pope Sixtus II was the Pope or Bishop of Rome from 31 August 257 until his death on 6 August 258. He was martyred along with seven deacons, Including Lawrence of Rome during the persecution of the Catholic Church by Emperor Valerian. He restored the relations with the African and Eastern churches which had broken off by his predecessor on the question of heretical baptism raised by the heresy Novatianism. In the persecutions under Valerian in 258, numerous bishops, priests, Pope Sixtus II was one of the first victims of this persecution, being beheaded on 6 August. He was martyred along with six deacons— Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, Stephanus, Felicissimus and Agapitus, Lawrence of Rome, his best-known deacon, suffered martyrdom on 10 August,3 days after his bishop, as Sixtus had prophesied. He is thought by some to be the author of the pseudo-Cyprianic writing Ad Novatianum, another composition written at Rome, between 253 and 258, is generally agreed to be his. It is this Sixtus who is referred to by name in the Roman Canon of the Mass, the Tridentine Calendar commemorated Sixtus, Felicissimus, and Agapitus on the feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord,6 August. Christ, who gives recompense, made manifest the Pastors merit, List of Catholic saints List of popes Erich Kettenhofen. Pope St. Sixtus II CE St. Xystus, or Sixtus II, Pope and Martyr, Butlers Lives of the Saints Pope Sixtus II in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints Collected works by Migne Patrologia Latina
3.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
4.
Roman Empire
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Civil wars and executions continued, culminating in the victory of Octavian, Caesars adopted son, over Mark Antony and Cleopatra at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the annexation of Egypt. Octavians power was then unassailable and in 27 BC the Roman Senate formally granted him overarching power, the imperial period of Rome lasted approximately 1,500 years compared to the 500 years of the Republican era. The first two centuries of the empires existence were a period of unprecedented political stability and prosperity known as the Pax Romana, following Octavians victory, the size of the empire was dramatically increased. After the assassination of Caligula in 41, the senate briefly considered restoring the republic, under Claudius, the empire invaded Britannia, its first major expansion since Augustus. Vespasian emerged triumphant in 69, establishing the Flavian dynasty, before being succeeded by his son Titus and his short reign was followed by the long reign of his brother Domitian, who was eventually assassinated. The senate then appointed the first of the Five Good Emperors, the empire reached its greatest extent under Trajan, the second in this line. A period of increasing trouble and decline began with the reign of Commodus, Commodus assassination in 192 triggered the Year of the Five Emperors, of which Septimius Severus emerged victorious. The assassination of Alexander Severus in 235 led to the Crisis of the Third Century in which 26 men were declared emperor by the Roman Senate over a time span. It was not until the reign of Diocletian that the empire was fully stabilized with the introduction of the Tetrarchy, which saw four emperors rule the empire at once. This arrangement was unsuccessful, leading to a civil war that was finally ended by Constantine I. Constantine subsequently shifted the capital to Byzantium, which was renamed Constantinople in his honour and it remained the capital of the east until its demise. Constantine also adopted Christianity which later became the state religion of the empire. However, Augustulus was never recognized by his Eastern colleague, and separate rule in the Western part of the empire ceased to exist upon the death of Julius Nepos. The Eastern Roman Empire endured for another millennium, eventually falling to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the Roman Empire was among the most powerful economic, cultural, political and military forces in the world of its time. It was one of the largest empires in world history, at its height under Trajan, it covered 5 million square kilometres. It held sway over an estimated 70 million people, at that time 21% of the entire population. Throughout the European medieval period, attempts were made to establish successors to the Roman Empire, including the Empire of Romania, a Crusader state. Rome had begun expanding shortly after the founding of the republic in the 6th century BC, then, it was an empire long before it had an emperor
5.
Eastern Orthodox Church
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The Eastern Orthodox Church teaches that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles. It practices what it understands to be the original Christian faith, the Eastern Orthodox Church is a communion of autocephalous churches, each typically governed by a Holy Synod. It teaches that all bishops are equal by virtue of their ordination, prior to the Council of Chalcedon in AD451, the Eastern Orthodox had also shared communion with the Oriental Orthodox churches, separating primarily over differences in Christology. Eastern Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Eastern Roman Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. As a result, the term Greek Orthodox has sometimes used to describe all of Eastern Orthodoxy in general. However, the appellation Greek was never in use and was gradually abandoned by the non-Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox churches. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople, there are also many in other parts of the world, formed through immigration, conversion and missionary activity. The official name of the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Orthodox Catholic Church and it is the name by which the church refers to itself in its liturgical or canonical texts, in official publications, and in official contexts or administrative documents. Orthodox teachers refer to the Church as Catholic and this name and longer variants containing Catholic are also recognized and referenced in other books and publications by secular or non-Orthodox writers. The common name of the Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, is a shortened practicality that helps to avoid confusions in casual use, for this reason, the eastern churches were sometimes identified as Greek, even before the great schism. After 1054, Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholic marked a church as being in communion with Constantinople and this identification with Greek, however, became increasingly confusing with time. Missionaries brought Orthodoxy to many regions without ethnic Greeks, where the Greek language was not spoken. Today, many of those same Roman churches remain, while a large number of Orthodox are not of Greek national origin. Eastern, then, indicates the element in the Churchs origin and development, while Orthodox indicates the faith. While the Church continues officially to call itself Catholic, for reasons of universality, the first known use of the phrase the catholic church occurred in a letter written about 110 AD from one Greek church to another. Quote of St Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, Wheresoever the bishop shall appear, there let the people be, even as where Jesus may be, thus, almost from the very beginning, Christians referred to the Church as the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The Orthodox Church claims that it is today the continuation and preservation of that same Church, a number of other Christian churches also make a similar claim, the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion, the Assyrian Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches. The Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church, not directly from the Orthodox Church, the depth of this meaning in the Orthodox Church is registered first in its use of the word Orthodox itself, a union of Greek orthos and doxa
6.
Hvar (city)
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Hvar is a city and port on the island of Hvar, part of Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia. The municipality has a population of 4,251 while the city itself is inhabited by 3,771 people and it is situated on a bay in the south coast of the island, opposite from the other nearby towns of Stari Grad and Jelsa. The city of Hvar has a long and distinguished history as center for trade, an independent commune within the Venetian Empire during the 13th to 18th centuries, it was an important naval base with a strong fortress above, encircling town walls and protected port. Cultural life thrived as prosperity grew, and Hvar is the site of one of the oldest surviving theatres in Europe, the seven-hundred-year-old walls still survive, as do many of the noble houses and public buildings from 15th - 17th centuries. By the 19th century, the port of Hvar was no longer a base, and The Hygienic Society of Hvar took the economy of the city. As one of the earliest tourist boards in Europe, it was founded in 1868 with the purpose of providing care for visitors. The port of Hvar, set in a natural bay. The city is a port of call for yachts sailing around the Adriatic. There are regular ferry services from the port between Hvar and Split, Brač, Korčula, Lastovo, and Vis. The municipality of Hvar covers 7,535 ha, including the town itself, the old settlements of Malo Grablje and Zaraće are no longer inhabited. Population figures from the 2011 Census, the town is located in a small bay on the south coast of the island of Hvar, towards the western end. The surrounding land is karst hillside, rising steeply from the Adriatic Sea, the rocks in the area are porous, mainly limestone and dolomite, so ground water is scarce. However, there is agriculture where the terrain is sufficiently accessible, and can be irrigated, such as olive groves, vineyards, lavender. The mountain range stretches the length of the island acts as an effective barrier between Hvar town and the settlements to the north. In centuries past, it would have several hours to walk overland. The modern Stari Grad to Hvar road, with its new tunnel which was opened in the year 2000, now provides quick, the coastline is mostly steep and indented, with small gravel beaches in the bays. The Pakleni Otoci and the island of Galešnik at the entrance to the port of Hvar are protected landscape areas, Hvar town enjoys a sunny Mediterranean climate, typical of the southern Adriatic, with mild wet winters and hot dry summers. During June to September, the temperature is higher than 20 °C
7.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest
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The archbishopric of Esztergom was the most prominent historical archdiocese in Hungary. It was created in 1000 under Stephen I of Hungary largely on the territory of Upper Hungary, after the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, its territory was reduced to its present-day extent, it became the Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest on 31 May 1993. The rest became part of the Catholic structures of Czechoslovakia. S. B, jános Csernoch Jusztinián György Serédi, O. S. B. Archdiocese of Esztergom-Budapest Roman Catholicism in Hungary History of the Archdiocese Herbermann, Charles, ed. Archdiocese of Gran
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope St. Stephen I". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
