Portal:Catholic Church/Selected anniversaries/May
Selected anniversaries in May
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- 601 - Death of Saint Asaph.
- 1987 - Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein (pictured), a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.
- 373 - Death of Athanasius (pictured).
- 1989 - Death of Giuseppe Siri.
- 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga (pictured) is baptised by Portuguese missionaries, adopting the baptismal name of João I.
- 1606 - Death of Henry Garnet, English Jesuit.
- 1622 - Death of Pedro Páez, Spanish Jesuit missionary.
- 1256 - Augustinian monastic order constituted at Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV (pictured) issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae
- 1415 - Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance.
- 1493 - Pope Alexander VI divides the New World between Spain and Portugal via the papal bull Inter caetera.
- 2001 - Pope John Paul II follows Saint Paul's footsteps across the Mediterranean, from Greece to Syria to Malta.
- 553 - The Second Council of Constantinople begins.
- 1501 - Birth of Pope Marcellus II.
- 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, died fighting the forces of Charles V during the Sack of Rome in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo.
- 1574 - Birth of Pope Innocent X.
- 1638 - Cornelius Jansen, French bishop and religious reformer (b. 1585)
- 1708 - François de Laval, first bishop of New France (b. 1623)
- 1962 - St. Martín de Porres (pictured) becomes canonized by Pope John XXIII.
- 2001 - During a trip to Syria, Pope John Paul II becomes the first pope to enter a mosque.
- 1092 - Death of Remigius de Fécamp.
- 1274 - In France, the Second Council of Lyons opens to regulate the election of the Pope.
- 1429 - Joan of Arc ends the Siege of Orléans, pulling an arrow from her own shoulder and returning wounded to lead the final charge. The victory marks a turning point in the Hundred Years' War.
- 1999 - Pope John Paul II (pictured) travels to Romania becoming the first pope that had visited a predominantly Eastern Orthodox country since the Great Schism in 1054.
- 589 - Reccared summons the Third Council of Toledo
- 1786 - Birth of Jean Vianney (pictured).
- 1828 - Birth of Sharbel Makhluf.
- 328 - Athanasius is elected Patriarch bishop of Alexandria.
- 348 - Death of Pachomius.
- 1980 - The first meeting of Pope John Paul II and the Archbishop of Canterbury takes place in Ghana.
- 2002 - The 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when the Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported to several different countries.
- 1997 - Pope John Paul II visits Lebanon
- 1310 - 54 members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics.
- 1610 - Death of Matteo Ricci.
- 2007 - Pope Benedict XVI canonizes the first Brazilian-born saint, Frei Galvão.
- 1003 - Death of Pope Silvester II
- 1012 - Death of Pope Sergius IV
- 1328 - Antipope Nicholas V, a claimant to the papacy, is consecrated in Rome by the Bishop of Venice.
- 1982 - During a procession outside the shrine of the Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, security guards overpower Juan Fernandez Krohn before he can attack Pope John Paul II with a bayonet. Krohn, an ultraconservative Spanish priest opposed to the Vatican II reforms, decided that the Pope must be killed for being an "agent of Moscow."
- 1024 - Birth of Hugh of Cluny.
- 1497 - Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
- 1568 - Battle of Langside: the forces of Mary, Queen of Scots, are defeated by a confederacy of Scottish Protestants under her half-brother James Stewart, Earl of Moray.
- 1655 - Birth of Pope Innocent XIII.
- 1704 - Death of Louis Bourdaloue.
- 1792 - Birth of Pope Pius IX.
- 1926 - Death of Libert H. Boeynaems.
- 964 - Death of Pope John XII.
- 1905 - Birth of Jean Daniélou.
- 2005 - Pope Benedict XVI observes his first beatification, elevating Blessed Marianne of Molokai on the road to canonization into sainthood.
- 913 - Death of Hatto I, Archbishop of Mainz.
- 1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.
- 1608 - Birth of René Goupil.
- 1699 - Death of Edward Petre.
- 1773 - Death of Alban Butler.
- 1891 - Rerum Novarum, the first document of the Catholic Social Teaching tradition is published by Pope Leo XIII.
- 1532 - Sir Thomas More resigns as Lord Chancellor of England.
- 1611 - Birth of Pope Innocent XI.
- 1920 - In Rome, Pope Benedict XV canonizes Joan of Arc as a saint.
- 1936 - Birth of Karl Lehmann.
- 1592 - Death of Paschal Baylon.
- 1809 - Napoleon I of France orders the annexation of the Papal States to the French Empire.
- 1550 - Death of Eric IX of Sweden.
- 1550 - Death of John, Cardinal of Lorraine.
- 1920 - Birth of Pope John Paul II.
- 325 - The First Council of Nicaea – the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church – is held.
- 1277 - Death of Pope John XXI.
- 1444 - Saint Bernardino of Siena.
- 1690 - England passes the Act of Grace, forgiving followers of Roman Catholic James II.
- 1825 - Death of Papaflessas.
- 1906 - Birth of Giuseppe Siri.
- 1927 - Death of Franciszek Macharski.
- 879 - Pope John VIII gives blessings to duke Branimir and to Croatian people, considered to be international recognition of Croatian state.
- 1972 - Michelangelo's Pietà, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, is damaged by a vandal.
- 1377 - Pope Gregory XI issues five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.
- 1381 - Birth of Saint Rita of Cascia.
- 1457 - Death of Saint Rita of Cascia.
- 1667 - Death of Pope Alexander VII.
- 1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne. (See Siege of Compiègne.)
- 1498 - Girolamo Savonarola is burned at the stake, in Florence, Italy, on the orders of Pope Alexander VI
- 1533 - The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon is declared null and void.
- 1218 - The Fifth Crusade leaves Acre for Egypt.
- 1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded).
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