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THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Churches
¡  Councils
¡  Canon
¡  Creed
¡  Missionaries
¡  Martyrs
¡  Monasticism
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Pentecost – “Founding of the Church” Acts 2:1-11
¡  Early Christian Community - Acts 2:44-47
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¡  Deacons – Acts 6:1-6
¡  Structure of the Church 1 Timothy
¡  The Didache – the Teachings of the Apostles
¡  The Church is apostolic CCC 857-870
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Apostolic succession- John 20:19-23, CCC 861-862
¡  Pope St. Leo I (the Great) 440-461 AD
¡  Decree of Valentinian 445 AD
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Early symbols
¡  Followers of the Way
¡  First called Christians at Antioch
Acts 11:26
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THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
Missionaries
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  From the beginning a universal (catholic) church (CCC
830-835) “Catholic Church”
¡  Paul to Asia Minor, Greece, etc.
¡  Peter to Rome
¡  Mark to Egypt
¡  Thomas to India
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¡  Sts. Cyril and Methodius
§  Mission to Moravia 862
§  Glagolitic
¡  What was the first
nation?
Christian
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Evangelization of Armenia 301, St. Gregory the Illuminator
converted King Tiridates
¡  St. Vladimir – Prince of the Rus brings Byzantine Christianity
his people in 988
¡  By 1000, Christianity is as far
away as Norway and Iceland
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Martyrs
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Martyrs
§  Meaning of the term
(CCC 2473-2474)
§  Martyrdom of Stephen
57-60
§  St. Ignatius of Antioch 108 AD
§  St. Polycarp 155 AD
§  Sts. Felicitas and Perpetua
Acts 7:
203 AD
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Veneration of the martyrs
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  The Donatist Controversy
(4 th and 5 th Century AD)
¡  What to do with the “lapsed”
¡  St. Augustine
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Monasticism
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Constantine the Great
¡  Battle of the Milvian Bridge
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
§  Edict of Milan 313 AD - ends the persecution of Diocletian
§  Theodosius I makes Christianity the official religion of Rome
390 AD
§  Baptism
§  Did Constantine “found” the Church?
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St. Helena
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
St. Anthony (251-356 AD) and
St. Mary of Egypt (344-421 AD)
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  St. Benedict
¡  The Rule
§  Permanence and obedience
§  Ora et labora
¡  Monte Cassino
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Councils & Creeds
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  Council of Jerusalem – Acts 15
¡  “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set him
free”
Creeds
(CCC 185-197)
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  First Council of Nicea – 325 – Nicene Creed – opposed
Arianism
¡  1 s t Council of Constantinople – 381 – opposed Appolinarism –
established Constantinople’s primacy
¡  Ephesus – 431 – Theotokos
¡  Chalcedon – 452- monophysitism – hypostatic union
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¡  Constantinople II – 553 – condemns Nestorianism
¡  Constantinople III – 680-681 – affirms that Christ has two
wills
¡  Nicea II – 787 – affirms the veneration of icons – condemns
inconoclasts
Church Councils
(CCC 456-483)
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡  St. Athanasius – Bishop of Alexandria from 328-335; 338;
346-350; 361-362; 363-365; 365-373
¡  Arianism
§  Jesus created by the Father
§  Lasted until the 8 th century
¡  St. Nicholas
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
Canon
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¡  Canon – list (like canonized saints)
¡  The first list of "canonical" books that names the same
twenty -seven writings found in our New Testament appears in
the Easter Letter of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria 367 C.E.
¡  Canon of the Old Testament
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¡  Marcion 144 AD
¡  Defined at the Council of Trent 1546 AD in answer to the
Protestants
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The End of Eras
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¡  The Collapse of Rome
¡  476 AD when Romulus Augustus, the last Emperor of the
Western Roman Empire was deposed by Odoacer
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¡  The Great Schism 1054 AD
§  Pope Leo
§  Patriarch Michael Cerularius
§  Cardinal Humbert
THE FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
¡ The Story of Christianity, Volume I, Justo Gonzalez
¡ My Best Teachers Were Saints, Susan H. Swetnam
¡ Lives of the Saints, Catholic Book Publishing
Company
¡ Augustine Came to Kent & If All the Swords in
England, Barbara Willard
¡ Mary Fabian Windeatt books
¡ Encounter the Saints Series, Pauline Media
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