Jesus to AD 100

  • 33

    The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

  • 33

    Pentecost

  • 33

    The Apostles Spread the Gospel

  • 33

    St. Stephen martyred

  • 34

    The Conversion of St. Paul

  • 42

    St. John travels to Ephesus with the Blessed Mother

  • 44

    St. James martyred; his body is secretly buried in Spain

  • 46

    St. Paul begins missionary journeys to Galatia, Greece, Syria, and other places

  • 49

    Council of Jerusalem

  • 64

    Persecution of Christians begins under Roman emperor Nero

  • 70

    Romans burn the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem

  • 80

    Didache written

  • 99

    All the writings that will become part of the New Testament have been written by this date

  • Period: 100 to 500

    AD 100 - 500

  • 250

    Persecution under Roman emperor Decius

  • 251

    Council of Carthage

  • 303

    Persecution under Roman emperor Diocletian

  • 313

    Emperor Constantine issues the Edict of Milan

  • 325

    Council of Nicaea

  • 330

    Emperor Constantine divides the Roman Empire into East and West

  • 330

    Construction of the first St. Peter's Basilica in Rome

  • 354

    Birth of St. Augustine

  • 360

    Books begin to replace scrolls

  • 382

    Pope Damasus asks St. Jerome to translate the Gospels into Latin

  • 397

    The Councils of Hippo and Carthage determine which books will become part of the New Testament

  • 405

    St. Jerome complete his translation of the Old Testament

  • 410

    The Visigoths destroy the city of Rome

  • 410

    St. Augustine begins writing the City of God

  • 431

    Council of Ephesus

  • 432

    St. Patrick sets out to spread the Gospel in Ireland

  • 451

    Council of Chalcedon

  • 476

    The Western Roman Empires collapses

  • 480

    Birth of St. Benedict

  • 496

    Clovis, the King of the Franks, coverts to Catholicism

  • Period: 500 to 1000

    AD 500 - 1000

  • 507

    Clovis' army drives Visigoths out of France

  • 527

    Justinian I becomes emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire

  • 529

    St. Benedict founds the first monastery

  • 537

    Construction of Hagia Sophia (current structure) begins in Constantinople

  • 590

    St. Gregory the Great becomes pope

  • 596

    Pope St. Gregory the Great sends St. Augustine of Canterbury to England to evangelize the Anglo-Saxons

  • 597

    St. Augustine baptizes the King of Kent

  • 632

    Death of Mohammad

  • 637

    Muslims attack Constantinople

  • 638

    Muslims capture Jerusalem

  • 698

    Muslims take Carthage

  • 711

    Muslims invade and occupy Spain

  • 716

    St. Boniface leaves England to evangelize Germania

  • 732

    France halts Muslim invasion

  • 754

    With St. Boniface's help, the pope allies with the kings of the Franks

  • 793

    Vikings attack England

  • 800

    Charlemagne is crowned Holy Roman Emperor by Pope Leo III

  • 800

    Gunpowder invented

  • 885

    Vikings attack Paris

  • 997

    Muslims occupy Santiago de Compostela in Spain, burial place of St. James the Apostle

  • 1000

    Muslims control two thirds of the ancient Christian world

  • 1054

    The Great Schism

  • 1073

    Pope St. Gregory Vll excommunicates the Holy Roman Emperor Henry lV

  • 1073

    St. Gregory Vll elected pope

  • 1088

    First universities founded

  • 1094

    The Byzantine emperor in Constantinople asks the West for aid against Muslim armies

  • 1095

    Pope Urban ll calls for a Crusade, and Christians temporarily capture Jerusalem

  • 1144

    First Gothic cathedral completed

  • 1147

    Second Crusade

  • 1192

    Third Crusade

  • 1204

    Crusaders from the Fourth Crusade sack Constantinople

  • 1209

    Franciscan Order is founded by St. Francis of Assisi

  • 1216

    Dominican Order founded by St. Dominic

  • 1229

    The Inquisition is found

  • 1265

    St. Thomas Aquinas write the Summa Theologica

  • 1300

    The Renaissance begins

  • 1347

    Bubonic Plague arrives in Europe

  • 1377

    St. Catherine of Siena convinces the pope to return the papacy to Rome

  • 1386

    St. Catherine of Siena cares for the sick and buries the dead when the plague strikes Siena

  • 1440

    Printing Press invented

  • 1453

    Muslims conquer Constantinople and turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque

  • 1492

    Christopher Columbus reaches the Americas

  • 1492

    Christopher Columbus sails for North America

  • 1513

    Ponce de Leon of Spain founds St. Augustine, Florida

  • 1517

    Martin Luther presents the 95 Theses

  • 1520

    Luther denies the authority of the pope to interpret Scripture

  • 1521

    Luther is excommunicated

  • 1522

    Luther translates the Bible into German

  • 1526

    Franciscan missionaries arrive in what is now Florida

  • 1534

    St. Ignatius of Loyola founds the Society of Jesus (Jesuits)

  • 1534

    King Henry VIII of England breaks England from the Catholic Church after the pope refuses to allow him a divorce

  • 1535

    St. Thomas More is executed by Henry VIII

  • 1536

    Henry VIII dissolves all monasteries and convents in England and Ireland

  • 1541

    First Franciscan explorations in what is now California

  • Period: 1545 to 1563

    The Council of Trent

  • 1549

    Jesuit missionaries arrive in the Far East

  • Period: 1562 to 1582

    St. Teresa of Avila founds Discalced Carmelite convents throughout Spain

  • The King James Bible becomes the Bible of the Church of England

  • St. Peter Claver arrives in Colombia

  • The Mayflower sets sail from England to North America

  • The Colony of Maryland is established

  • England overthrows its Catholic king and bans any future Catholic monarchs

  • Maryland outlaws the public practice of Catholicism in the colony

  • Period: to

    The Enlightenment

  • British colonies in North America declare their independence

  • The French Revolution begins

  • The US Constitution prevents religious tests for national office

  • The First Amendment protects free religious exercise in the US and prevents national government from establishing a religion.

  • Karl Marx writes the Communist Manifesto

  • Period: to

    Ecumencial Council of the Vatican

  • Bolshevik party formed in Russia

  • World War I begins

  • Three children at Fatima, Portugal, are granted visions of the Virgin Mary

  • Mexico outlaws Catholicism

  • Soviet Union is formed

  • The first Catholic bishops in China are ordained

  • Servant of God Dorothy Day converts to Catholicism

  • Bl. Miguel Pro is killed by the Mexican government

  • Hitler beomes chancellor of Germany; first Nazi concentration camp is opened

  • World War ll begins

  • Day founds the Catholic Worker newspaper

  • Communist governments begin persecutions and mass murder across Europe and Asia

  • St. Maximilian Kolbe is killed by the Nazis at Auschwitz

  • Pope St. John XXIII calls the Church council that will become known as Vatican II

  • Period: to

    Ecumencial Council of the Vatican

  • The US Supreme Court rules that the Constitution protects the right ot an abortion

  • Pope St. John Paul II survives an assassination attempt ordered by the KGB

  • The Soviet Union begins to fall