Section: 2E5 - The gods (or others) and Christian saints.
Number of quotes: 88
A History of the Arab Peoples
Albert Hourani
Book ID: 7 Page: 156
Section: 2E5
The ‘friends of God’ could intercede with Him on behalf of others, and their intercession could have invisible results in this world. It could lead to cures for sickness or sterility, or relief of misfortunes, and these signs of grace (karamat) were also proofs of the sanctity of the friend of God. It came to be widely accepted that the supernatural power by which a saint called down graces into the world could survive his or her death, and requests for intercession could be made at his or her tomb. Visits to the tombs of saints, to touch them or pray in front of them, came to be a supplementary practice of devotion, although some Muslim thinkers regarded this as a dangerous innovation,....Just as Islam did not reject the Ka‘ba but gave it a new meaning....
Quote ID: 111
Time Periods: 7
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 46
Section: 2E5
There were hundreds of these minor gods, some of them scarcely more than sprites.
Quote ID: 265
Time Periods: 04
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 47
Section: 2E5
Beyond the known gods was an infinite number of unknown ones, who also had to be placated and given offerings.
Quote ID: 266
Time Periods: 04
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 48
Section: 2E5
Many of the great gods were simply borrowed and reshaped to serve Roman needs.
Quote ID: 267
Time Periods: 04
Ancient Rome by Robert Payne
Robert Payne
Book ID: 16 Page: 53
Section: 2E5
In the imperial age, Venus became the symbol of the beauty of conquest, the serene embodiment of the Roman world empire. That the humble goddess of flowers should have grown in power and acquired so many virtues only demonstrates the changing nature of Roman mythology, which became amazingly intricate and almost unmanageable.Since the beginning of their history, the Romans had been accustomed to borrowing the gods of other tribes and nations. The result was that they accumulated more gods than they needed and more festivals and games than any single person could attend.
Quote ID: 269
Time Periods: 14
Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World
Patrick J. Geary
Book ID: 40 Page: 136
Section: 2E5
In this world of strong personalities, the primary source of unity for the competing forces within society was sought in the personality of the saints. One of the major achievements of recent scholarship, particularly that of Peter Brown, is to elucidate the absolutely critical social role that saints’ cults played in early medieval society. {22}
Quote ID: 887
Time Periods: 7
Before France and Germany: The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World
Patrick J. Geary
Book ID: 40 Page: 137
Section: 2E5
If the bishops’ greatest source of spiritual power was that of dead saints, their greatest threat was that of living ones.
Quote ID: 888
Time Periods: 567
Birth of Europe, The
Jacques Le Goff
Book ID: 199 Page: 10
Section: 2E5
(1) The Greek heritage The bequests from the Greeks to the Middle Ages included the following: the figure of the hero, who, as we shall see, once Christianized, became either a martyr or a saint;
Quote ID: 4488
Time Periods: 7
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 54/55
Section: 2D2,2E4,2E5
vis a vis Cybele, the Great Mother. “The image of the goddess was transported on a chariot amid the acclamations of the faithful, in a manner which seems to prefigure the veneration paid to the statue of Our lady in the streets of contemporary Seville during Holy week.”PJ Note: procession
Quote ID: 974
Time Periods: 047
Caesars & Saints: The Rise of the Christian State, A.D. 180-313
Stewart Perowne
Book ID: 44 Page: 167
Section: 2E5
Diocletian claimed Jupiter (Jove) as his patron god (confirmation precursor). In his capital of Nicomedia, the Christian church was directly opposite his palace!
Quote ID: 1033
Time Periods: 34
Catechism Of The Catholic Church
Pope John Paul II
Book ID: 48 Page: 110
Section: 2E5
Scripture and the Church’s Tradition see in this being a fallen angel, called “Satan” or the “devil.”267 The Church teaches that Satan was at first a good angel, made by God:
Quote ID: 1099
Time Periods: 07
Catechism Of The Catholic Church
Pope John Paul II
Book ID: 48 Page: 117
Section: 2E5
413 “God did not make death, and he does not delight in the death of the living. . . .It was through the devil’s envy that death entered the world” (Wis 1:13; 2:24).
Quote ID: 1100
Time Periods: 07
Catechism Of The Catholic Church
Pope John Paul II
Book ID: 48 Page: 117
Section: 2E5
414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God.
Quote ID: 1101
Time Periods: 7
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 188
Section: 2E5
The multiplicity of Celtic gods and goddesses was gradually replaced by one God, but the vacuum left by these multifarious spirits was, to an extent, filled by the numerous saints of the early Church.
Quote ID: 1113
Time Periods: 7
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 188
Section: 2E5
It is at least possible, therefore, that female saints were deliberately endowed with a kind of pseudo-divine status by their hagiographers or that some of these saints were, in fact, originally goddesses, transmuted into ‘historical’ holy women by their chroniclers. Whilst many modern hagiographers do not take seriously the notion that saints might represent Christianised pagan deities and whilst there is little direct evidence of the adoption of pagan Celtic divinities as saints, there is nonetheless much in their respective roles that owes something to shared tradition. Indeed, there is evidence, as we shall see below, that some pagan deities and heroes of the early Celtic myths were sanctified and absorbed into the Christian Church by transformation into saints.
Quote ID: 1114
Time Periods: 567
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 189
Section: 2D2,2E5
There is reason to believe that the cult of the Virgin Mary in the early Christian period had strong links with that of the pagan Celtic mother-goddesses. Jean Markale {7} cites a clear example: on the site where Chartres Cathedral was to be built there was a subterranean sanctuary on which stood a statue of a mother-goddess. The shrine was known as ‘Our Lady under the Ground’.
Quote ID: 1115
Time Periods: 012347
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 189
Section: 2D2,2E5
Mary was not a Celtic saint but her cult had much in common with that of canonised women in Wales and Ireland and, indeed, with pagan Celtic goddesses. One way in which this manifested itself was in the association between Mary, holy water and healing. Sacred wells with alleged curative powers were dedicated to her all over Wales: Penrhys in Glamorgan and Hafod-y-Llyn are just two examples. {8}
Quote ID: 1116
Time Periods: 7
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 190
Section: 2E5
The holy men and women of the early Celtic Christian tradition appear to have had a great deal in common with pagan mythic hero-figures, so much so that Elissa Henken {10} calls the Welsh saints a Christianised form of pagan Celtic folk-hero. Like the gods whom they (at least partially) replaced in the fifth and sixth centuries AD, they were benefactors, purveyors of plenty, law-givers, healers, controllers of the elements and of the animals.
Quote ID: 1117
Time Periods: 56
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 194
Section: 2B2,2E5
Wells were the foci of pre-Christian curative ritual all over pagan Celtic Europe (Chapter 5), and many Romano-Celtic healing-spring sanctuaries belonged to goddesses, such as Sulis of Bath and the Burgundian Sequana. The continuation of the healing-well cult from a pagan to Christian context argues for a basic continuity of tradition, whereby magic and miracle merged in a seamless progression.A number of early Welsh saints presided over Welsh holy well, which they may have inherited from pagan spirits
Quote ID: 1118
Time Periods: 6
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 196
Section: 2E5
In the early Christian period, many pagan deities were downgraded to the status of demons, but occasionally the attributes of a particular divinity were reallocated to an appropriate saint.
Quote ID: 1119
Time Periods: 1234
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 198
Section: 2E5
Brigit was the daughter of the Dagdha, an important member of the Tuatha De Danann. She was both a single and a triple goddess, with two eponymous sisters, .......
Quote ID: 1120
Time Periods: 0
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 198
Section: 2E5
The accounts of Saint Brigit’s birth and childhood show a very direct association with Celtic paganism and the supernatural.
Quote ID: 1121
Time Periods: 56
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
So the druid was apparently divinely inspired by a Christian apparition to give the baby the name of a prestigious Celtic goddess.
Quote ID: 1122
Time Periods: 56
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
The fire-symbolism is related to a story of the saint’s early life, when Brigit’s relatives saw a fire rising from the house where the child and her mother were asleep. The fire was shown to be magical: like the burning bush encountered by Moses in the Old Testament, the fire glowed but did not consume the house, and the occupants emerged unharmed. Brigit’s monastery at Kildare had an ever-burning fire, like that of the Vestal Virgins of Roman religion. When the Normans arrived at Kildare in the twelfth century, they found a fire constantly alight in the saint’s shrine there, a symbol of hearth and home but also of purity.
Quote ID: 1123
Time Periods: 567
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
Many saints are associated with fire-imagery, a symbol of the link with the power of God. But some scholars have argued for a connection between Satin Brigit and the pagan goddess Sulis Minerva, whose sacred fire at Bath was recorded by Solinus in the third century AD (see Chapter 5). Certainly both Brigit and Minerva were patrons of crafts. ‘Brigit’s Crosses’ are solar emblems which are still set up in Ireland to protect crops and livestock.
Quote ID: 1124
Time Periods: 3567
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 199
Section: 2E5
Both the goddess Brigit and the saint of that name were closely associated with prophecy and divination. She was a patron of poet-seers, the Irish learned class of filidh, in her capacity both as deity and Christian holy woman.
Quote ID: 1125
Time Periods: 0567
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 200
Section: 2E5
The image of Saint Brigit as a generous provider is indistinguishable from that of the pagan mother-goddesses.
Quote ID: 1126
Time Periods: 7
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 200
Section: 2E5
Saint Brigit retained her namesake’s pagan spring-festival of Imbolc, a celebration of the lactation of livestock. Examples of her miraculous bounty include the lake of milk that her cows, milked three times a day, could produce; and one churning could fill several baskets with butter. As Abbess of Kildare, Brigit possessed the power to increase the milk-and-butter-yield. Her prowess as a provider was not confined to dairy-produce; like her goddess-predecessor, she was patron of the ale-harvest and, at Easter-time, one measure of her malt could make sufficient ale for seventeen of her churches.
Quote ID: 1127
Time Periods: 56
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 202
Section: 2E5
So what is the relationship between the goddess and the saint? Clearly the two Brigits have many features in common: both were healers, promoters of fertility and childbirth, patrons of craftsmen, seers and poets. All these shared traditions argue for a pagan origin for the Christian saint, {31} as does the festival of Imbolc which celebrated both Brigits. The shared name or title ‘Exalted One’ is also significant.
Quote ID: 1128
Time Periods: 056
Celtic Goddesses
Miranda Green
Book ID: 50 Page: 202
Section: 2E5
Whether or not Saint Brigit ever existed, there is no doubt that she represents the meeting and merging of paganism and Christianity. Thus the great goddess of Ireland was translated into her greatest Christian saint.
Quote ID: 1129
Time Periods: 056
Celtic Sacred Landscapes
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 51 Page: 25
Section: 2E1,2E5
To this day, St Teilo is the patron of apple trees. In Wales, all trees growing on land dedicated to St Beuno were once deemed sacred, and could not be cut or damaged in any way.
Quote ID: 1131
Time Periods: 7
Celtic Sacred Landscapes
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 51 Page: 27
Section: 2E1,2E5
To the Greeks and Celts, each ancient deity had her or his own type of holy tree. The oak was sacred to Zeus and Taranis, the myrtle to Aphrodite, the thorn to the Queen of the May. The Scholiast of Aristophanes notes that the olive tree was Athena’s temple and her image before the times of temples and images. Today, certain rose and thorn trees are sacred to Our Lady. (Section called Single Trees)
Quote ID: 1132
Time Periods: 07
Celtic Sacred Landscapes
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 51 Page: 67
Section: 2B2,2E5
Just as the Roman deities absorbed their Celtic counterparts, Celtic or Catholic saints assimilated the earlier polytheistic deities. This is true for all sacred places, but is most notable at holy wells.
Quote ID: 1142
Time Periods: 6
Celtic Sacred Landscapes
Nigel Pennick
Book ID: 51 Page: 81
Section: 2E5
In Cisalpine Gaul, the deity of the mountain passes themselves was the goddess Brigida, consort of Poeninus. The Brigantes, who appear to have claimed descent from the goddess, dwelt in the Pennine region of Britain. Later, the Church assimilated Brigida as St Brigida or Brigid.
Quote ID: 1148
Time Periods: 0567
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 156
Section: 2E5
The worshipers’ too traditional piety, the bishops hardly opposed—indeed, believed, approved and passed on the saying of Demetrios of Thessaloniki to a suppliant in a vision, “Don’t you know that the saints are moved to their good offices the more, according to how long an offering,” a grand, big candle as opposed to a small one, “works and is a alight?”{11}2E5
Quote ID: 1397
Time Periods: 456
Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 57 Page: 159
Section: 2E5
A female image of pagan times near a spring in Savoie, a mother-goddess-made-Saint Mary, wrought miracles of healing attested from the seventeenth century, through the water that flowed first from her breasts and, then, when for decency’s sake these were hammered off, from a pipe issuing at the image’s base, into the second half of the twentieth century.2E5
Quote ID: 1403
Time Periods: 56
Climax of Rome, The
Michael Grant
Book ID: 204 Page: 168
Section: 2E5
So, for a time did the great Roman emperors of the past, called divi to distinguish them from the dei of Olympus. {20} Drawing upon Greek ideas of deification as a reward for merit, the Romans had fostered similar legends relating to Hercules and their own founder Romulus. {21} And just as those had been human beings whose mighty deeds raised them to be gods after their deaths, so also Augustus and some of his successors and their wives and relatives were posthumously appointed to this honorific godhead by a grateful state.
Quote ID: 4721
Time Periods: 01234
Constantine the Great
Michael Grant
Book ID: 66 Page: 147
Section: 3C,2E5
For it was by God’s grace, and by this alone, that Constantine believed he had won the victory over Maxentius: the ubiquitous, winged figure of Victoria became God’s angel.
Quote ID: 1717
Time Periods: 4
Continuity and Change in Roman Religion
J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz
Book ID: 313 Page: 37
Section: 2E5
With the aid of his antiquarian scholarship Varro sought to establish the divinity responsible for every conceivable activity in order to make it once more possible to call on the correct specialist in every situation.{4}{4} Ibid. 22.
…
{2} Augustine, C.D. iv.3.
Quote ID: 8175
Time Periods: 0
Conversion
A.D. Nock
Book ID: 70 Page: 58
Section: 2E5
So Isis and Sarapis held the place of two new saints, with the attraction of freshness, the power of which we see now in the popularity of the cult of the Little Flower, St. Therese of Lisiseux.
Quote ID: 1920
Time Periods: 07
Cult of the Saints, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 208 Page: 12/13
Section: 2E5
Long after the issue of the rise of the cult of saints has been removed from its confessional setting in post-Reformation polemics, scholars of every and of no denomination still find themselves united in a common reticence and incomprehension when faced with this phenomenon.
Quote ID: 5068
Time Periods: 7
Dictionary of Roman Religion
Lesley Adkins and Roy A. Adkins
Book ID: 73 Page: 74
Section: 2E5
Febris A Roman goddess who was the personification of fever. She was greatly feared in Rome and had to be propitiated to prevent or cure fever. It is not certain whether she was a goddess of specific fevers, although some dedications to her indicated she was regarded as a goddess of malaria.....
and she had three temples in Rome: on the Palatine Hill, on the Esquline Hill and at the head of the Quirinal Valley.
Quote ID: 2039
Time Periods: 0123
Druids, The
Peter Berresford Ellis
Book ID: 212 Page: 86/87
Section: 2E5
Thomas Pennant in his Tour in Scotland and Voyage to the Hebrides in 1769 (1771) noticed an oak tree on this island of Inis Maree into whose trunk nails and coins were driven as ‘offerings’. Further, local people took oaths in St Maree’s name. Spence believes that Mourie or Maree was ‘an earlier divinity’. He overlooks the name of the celebrated Druid of Dairbre (Valentia in Kerry), whose name was Mug Ruith (Mow-rih). As we have seen , Mug Ruith , sometimes given as Magh Ruith, was originally a solar deity who was euphemized into a Druid.
Quote ID: 5223
Time Periods: 37
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 170
Section: 2E5
‘Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln, my admiration for your noble behavior leaves me no other choice but to translate the “Prophecies of Merlin” from the British tongue into Latin.
Quote ID: 5854
Time Periods: 7
Geoffrey of Monmouth: The History of the Kings of Brittain
Geoffrey of Monmouth
Book ID: 234 Page: 171
Section: 2E5
However, since it has pleased you that Geoffrey of Monmouth should sound his own pipe in this piece of soothsaying, please do not hesitate to show favour to his music-makings. If he produces any sound which is wrong or unpleasant, force him back into correct harmony with your own Muses’ baton.’
Quote ID: 5855
Time Periods: 7
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 19
Section: 2E5
Canto II lines 78-84----
To Lucy she said: “Your faithful follower
Needs you: I commend him to you.” Lucy, the foe
Of every cruelty, found me where I sat
With Rachel of old, and urged me: “Beatrice, true
Glory of God, can you not come to the aid
Of one who had such love for you he rose
Above the common crowd?
Pastor John notes: John’s note: ? Mary prompts Lucy; Lucy sends Beatrice; Like Hera!!
Quote ID: 5866
Time Periods: 7
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 331
Section: 2E5
Canto XXXI lines 37-41....here, arrayed
All round the bank encompassing the pt
With half their bulk like towers above it, stood
Horrible giants, whom Jove still rumbles at
With menace when he thunders.
Quote ID: 5884
Time Periods: 7
Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Book ID: 235 Page: 341
Section: 2E5
Canto XXXII lines 10-11May the muses help my verse
As when they helped Amphion wall Thebes
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Prayer to the muses
Quote ID: 5887
Time Periods: 7
Julian’s Against the Galileans
R. Joseph Hoffmann
Book ID: 123 Page: 102
Section: 2E5
115D: But regard now what we teach in opposition to your doctrine. Our authorities maintain that the fashioneris both the common father and lord of all that exists, while the gods of nations and the gods who protect cities have been delegated specific responsibilities by him. Each has been given a role to play in strict accordance with his character. 115E: So it is that in the father all things are complete and the all is unified, while in the distribution of gods one trait or another dominant: so Ares rules contentious nations; Athena those who are wise as much as warlike; Hermes those that are more cunning than daring; and, to be brief, each nation ruled by a god exhibits the character of its own god.
Quote ID: 2841
Time Periods: 4
Koran, The
N. J. Dawood (translated with notes)
Book ID: 240 Page: 201
Section: 2E5
Say: ‘Pray if you will to those whom you deify besides Him.{1} They cannot relieve your distress, nor can they change it.’Pastor John notes: John’s note: Catholic
Quote ID: 6022
Time Periods: 7
Koran, The
N. J. Dawood (translated with notes)
Book ID: 240 Page: 321/322
Section: 2E5
To God alone is true worship due. As for those who choose other guardians {1} besides Him, saying: ‘We serve them only that they may bring us nearer to God,’ God Himself will judge for them their differences. God does not guide the untruthful disbeliever.Pastor John notes: John’s note: Catholic
Quote ID: 6024
Time Periods: 7
Koran, The
N. J. Dawood (translated with notes)
Book ID: 240 Page: 339
Section: 2E5
The heavens above well-nigh break apart as the angels give glory to their Lord and beg forgiveness for those on earth. Surely God is the Benignant One, the Merciful.
Quote ID: 6025
Time Periods: 7
Lactantius, ANF Vol. 7, Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 675 Page: 27
Section: 2E5
Can any one doubt in what way the honours paid to the gods were instituted, when he reads in Virgil the words of Aeneas giving commands to his friends: {1}
“Now with full cups libation pour
To mighty Jove, whom all adore,
Invoke Anchises’ blessed soul.”
And he attributes to him not only immortality, but also power over the winds: {2}
“Invoke the winds to speed our flight,
And pray that he we hold so dear
May take our offerings year by year,
Soon as our promised town we raise,
In temples sacred to his praise.”
PJ footnote: Lactantius, The Divine Institutes, I.xv.
Quote ID: 9696
Time Periods: 34
Lactantius, ANF Vol. 7, Fathers of the Third and Fourth Centuries
Edited by Philip Schaff
Book ID: 675 Page: 27
Section: 2E5
Marcus Tullius, who was not only an accomplished orator, but also a philosopher, since he alone was an imitator of Plato, in that treatise in which he consoled himself concerning the death of his daughter, did not hesitate to say that those gods who were publicly worshipped were men. And this testimony of his ought to be esteemed the more weighty, because he held the priesthood of the augurs, and testifies that he worships and venerates the same gods.
. . . .
“Since, in truth,” he says, “we see many men and women among the number of the gods, and venerate their shrines, held in the greatest honour in cities and in the country, let us assent to the wisdom of those to whose talents and inventions we owe it that life is altogether adorned with laws and institutions, and established on a firm basis.”
PJ footnote: Lactantius, The Divine Institutes, I.xv.
Quote ID: 9697
Time Periods: 034
Landscape with Two Saints: How Genovefa of Paris and Brigit of Kildare Built Christianity in Barbarian Europe
Lisa M. Bitel
Book ID: 125 Page: 35
Section: 2E5
The documentary tradition of Denis and his itinerary from Rome to Paris is reliable only from the sixth century. Before that, the only known commemoration of Denis was in the liturgy of prayers performed in the churches of Paris, where priests invoked his name on the anniversary of his death. …We might suppose that Parisian worshipers prayed to Denis perhaps as early as 400.
Quote ID: 2859
Time Periods: 56
Origen: Contra Celsum
Henry Chadwick
Book ID: 164 Page: 502
Section: 2E5
But if anyone tells you to praise Helios or with a noble paean to speak in enthusiastic praise of Athena, in so doing you will appear much more to be worshipping the great God when you are singing a hymn to them. For the worship of God becomes more perfect by going through them all.
Quote ID: 3464
Time Periods: 04
Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices
Frank Viola
Book ID: 168 Page: 111
Section: 2E5
Following Helena’s trip to Jerusalem in A.D. 327, Constantine began erecting the first church buildings throughout the Roman Empire. {96} In so doing, he followed the path of the pagans in constructing temples to honor God. {97}
Quote ID: 3562
Time Periods: 4
Pagan Christianity: The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices
Frank Viola
Book ID: 168 Page: 111
Section: 2E3,2E5
Interestingly, he named his church buildings after saints—just as the pagans named their temples after gods. Constantine built his first church buildings upon the cemeteries where the Christians held meals for the dead saints. {98} That is, he built them over the bodies of dead saints. {99} Why? Because for at least a century beforehand, the burial places of the saints were considered “holy spaces.” {100}Many of the largest buildings were built over the tombs of the martyrs. {101} This practice was based on the idea that the martyrs had the same powers that they had once ascribed to the gods of paganism. {102} Although pagan, the Christians adopted this view hook, line, and sinker.
Quote ID: 3563
Time Periods: 34
Paganism in the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 171 Page: 81
Section: 2B1,2E5
PICTURE. As appears in the restored drawing by L. North, the faded painting in the Bel temple shows a Syrian triad of deities to the left, dressed in Roman military costumes and with gold disks (the later Christian aureoles) behind their heads. Below are the patron Fortunes of Palmyra and Dura. To the right, sacrifice is offered by the Palmyrene troop commander Terentius, holding some holy scroll, and by the priest Themes Mocimi, who in A.D. 239 shows up in a duty roster assigned to the troop’s chapel (ad signa, cf. Corp. pap. 331 = PDura 89, and below, chap. 2.4 n.70). Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, Dura-Europos Collection.
Quote ID: 3729
Time Periods: 3
Paganism in the Roman Empire
Ramsay MacMullen
Book ID: 171 Page: 103
Section: 2E5
It was perfectly acceptable to favor one deity more than another. One could speak of “Domitian’s god” (most likely Isis), meaning whichever he was known to honor specially or which especially aided him.Pastor John notes: John’s note: like the Pope’s Mary
Quote ID: 3762
Time Periods: 1
Pagans and Christians: Religion and the Religious Life from the Second to Fourth Century A.D.
Robin Lane Fox
Book ID: 173 Page: 73
Section: 2E5
A recently found inscription has revealed a “festival of disembarkation” for the goddess Athena, which was donated by one Audius Maximus to the “citizens of Side.” In another inscription, we find a “festival of disembarkation” for Apollo and “all the people of Pamphylia,” which was given by a man whose name points to a later date, after 212 A.D.
Quote ID: 3842
Time Periods: 0234
Paradiso, The
John Ciardi
Book ID: 260 Page: 24
Section: 2E5
Canto I: THE EARTHLY PARADISEO good Apollo, for this last task, I pray
you make me such a vessel of your powers
as you deem worthy to be crowned with bay. 15
One peak of cleft Parnassus heretofore
has served my need, now must I summon both
on entering the arena one time more. 18
Enter my breast, I pray you, and there breathe
as high a strain as conquered Marsyas
that time you drew his body from its sheath. 21
O power divine, but lend to my high strain
so much as will make clear even the shadow
of that High Kingdom stamped upon my brain, 24
and you shall see me come to your dear grove
to crown myself with those green leaves which you
and my high theme shall make me worthy of. 27
Quote ID: 6522
Time Periods: 07
Paradiso, The
John Ciardi
Book ID: 260 Page: 35
Section: 2E5
Canto II: ENTRANCE INTO THE SPHERE OF THE MOONMy course is set for an uncharted sea.
Minerva fills my sail. Apollo steers.
And nine new Muses point the Pole for me. 9
Quote ID: 6523
Time Periods: 07
Paradiso, The
John Ciardi
Book ID: 260 Page: 165
Section: 2E5
Canto XIV: THE THIRD GARLAND THE WARRIORS OF GODNor had the flame of sacrifice in my breast
burned out, when a good omen let me know
my prayer had been received by the Most Blessed; 93
for with such splendor, in such a ruby glow,
within two rays, there shone so great a glory
I cried, “O Helios that arrays them so!” 96
Pastor John notes: John’s note: = Apollo
Quote ID: 6527
Time Periods: 07
Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri (A New Verse Translation by W. S. Merwin)
Book ID: 185 Page: 3
Section: 2E5
But here let poetry rise again from the dead,oh holy Muses, for yours I am,
and here let Calliope rise up for a time
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Muses, Chief Muse, Muse of epic poetry
Quote ID: 4100
Time Periods: 07
Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri (A New Verse Translation by W. S. Merwin)
Book ID: 185 Page: 13
Section: 2E5
All that time until the first white things appearedto be wings my master uttered not a word,
then when he was sure who the pilot was
he shouted, “Down, down on your knees! There is
the angel of God. Put your hands together.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: angel with wings 2A
Quote ID: 4101
Time Periods: 7
Purgatorio
Dante Alighieri (A New Verse Translation by W. S. Merwin)
Book ID: 185 Page: 59
Section: 2E5
And if I have a right to ask, of highestJove who on earth were crucified for us,
are your just eyes turned to some other place,
Quote ID: 4104
Time Periods: 7
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 161
Section: 2E5
What Gregory confronted, in the countryside of Gaul, was not tenacious paganism,surviving unchanged in a peasant world which was untouched by the Catholicism of the cities. What he found, rather, was a world characterized, in a city and country alike, by fertile religious experimentation. Christian rituals and Christian holy figures were adapted by local religious experts to serve the needs of persons who would have considered themselves to be good Christians. It was important, therefore, for Gregory, that reverence for the saints, in its correct Catholic forms, should be seen to touch every aspect of the countryside of Gaul. The saints, as Gregory understood them (and not as persons such as Leubella to know them) must be seen to have been able to meet every local emergency, to account for every local legend, and to be associated with every beneficent manifestation of the sacred.
Quote ID: 6711
Time Periods: 6
Rise of Western Christendom, The
Peter Brown
Book ID: 265 Page: 164
Section: 2E5
These unearthly events were imitations that innumerable holy men and women, dwellers of Paradise, stood ready, in all places, and even in the most out-of-the-way areas, to help Catholic worshipers in their everyday needs. They peopled a landscape that had once seemed opaque to Christianity. Through these many saints, Paradise itself came to ooze into the world. Nature itself was redeemed. Because of his faith in the proximity of Paradise, Gregory allowed sacrality to seep back into the landscape of Gaul. The countryside found its voice again, to speak, in an ancient spiritual vernacular, of the presence of the saints. Water became holy again. The hoof-print of his donkey could be seen beside a healing spring, which Saint Martin had caused to gush from the earth at Nieul-les-Saintes. Trees also regained some of their majesty.
Quote ID: 6712
Time Periods: 6
Roman Catholic Saints
Melissa Petruzzello
Book ID: 529 Page: 1
Section: 2E5
There are more than 10,000 saints recognized by the Roman Catholic Church, though the names and histories of some of these holy men and women have been lost to history.
Quote ID: 9150
Time Periods: 147
Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus, The
R. M. Ogilvie
Book ID: 390 Page: 10
Section: 2E5
The chief feature, then, of Roman religion was the belief that all important processes in the world were divinely activated and, conversely, that different gods had charge of particular functions and spheres of activity.
Quote ID: 8367
Time Periods: 01
Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus, The
R. M. Ogilvie
Book ID: 390 Page: 11
Section: 2E5
A house is only as secure as its door: the opening and closing of the door, and the passage of man from the privacy of his home into the racket of the outside world, and vice versa, can be critical events, and, in consequence, they were held to be in the power of a god, Janus. Janus Patulcius opened the door , Janus Clusivius closed it.*John’s note: Wow*
….
…the Christian writer Arnobius, drawing probably on Varro, assures us that Limentinus presided over the threshold, Cardea over the hinges and Forculus over the leaf of the door (Against the pagans II, 15, 5).
Quote ID: 8369
Time Periods: 0134
Romans and Their Gods in the Age of Augustus, The
R. M. Ogilvie
Book ID: 390 Page: 15
Section: 2E5
Beyond the small groups stood the community as a whole with its common needs and its common interests. Each town had a patron deity who reflected its aspirations activities.
Quote ID: 8370
Time Periods: 01
Rome Triumphant: How The Empire Celebrated Its Victories
Robert Payne
Book ID: 192 Page: 211
Section: 1A,2E4,2E5
After the physical empire came the ghostly empire; and the Roman gods fell before the single god incarnate in Jesus, crucified by an obscure provincial governor in the reign of Tiberius.....
A calendar published in Rome in A.D. 354 lists the birthdays of the apotheosized rulers from Augustus to Constantius, the consuls from the year 510 B.C. and the pagan festivals throughout the year, noting that on December 25 there were games in the Circus to celebrate “ the birth of the unconquerable sun” (natalis solis invicti). There followed a table of Easter Sundays, and the feast-days of the martyrs. Christianity and paganism walked side by side in apparent harmony; it seems not to have been impossible for a man to attend the feast of the Lupercalia in the morning and divine service in the evening.
Quote ID: 4432
Time Periods: 14
Sentences of Sextus, The by Richard Edwards
Translated by Richard A. Edwards and Robert A. Wild, S.J.
Book ID: 271 Page: 51
Section: 2E5
(Line 305) An evil demon guides evil deeds.
Quote ID: 6828
Time Periods: 23
Sentences of Sextus, The by Richard Edwards
Translated by Richard A. Edwards and Robert A. Wild, S.J.
Book ID: 271 Page: 59
Section: 2E5
(Line 348) Unclean demons lay claim to an unclean soul.
Quote ID: 6833
Time Periods: 23
Sentences of Sextus, The by Richard Edwards
Translated by Richard A. Edwards and Robert A. Wild, S.J.
Book ID: 271 Page: 59
Section: 2E5
(Line 349) Evil demons do not prevent a faithful and good soul from following God’s way.
Quote ID: 6834
Time Periods: 23
Tacitus, Histories, LCL 249: Tacitus III, Histories, Books 4-5
Tacitus (Translated by A.J. Church)
Book ID: 197 Page: 17
Section: 2E5
“…. As to the oath, the thing ought to be considered as if the man had deceived Jupiter. Wrongs done to the gods were the gods’ concern.”
Quote ID: 7496
Time Periods: 12
Tertullian, Apology and De Spectaculis, LCL 250
Translated by T.R. Glover
Book ID: 134 Page: 69
Section: 2E5
chapter XIII
First, then, when some of you worship one lot of gods and another group others, why, surely those whom you do not worship you offend. There cannot be preference of the one without slight to the other; there is no choice without rejection. So you really despise those whom you reject – whom you are not afraid to offend by rejecting them.
Quote ID: 2951
Time Periods: 23
Tertullian, Apology and De Spectaculis, LCL 250
Translated by T.R. Glover
Book ID: 134 Page: 121
Section: 2E5
chapter XXII
Every spirit is winged; so it is with angels, so it is with demons.
Quote ID: 2962
Time Periods: 23
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 13
Section: 2E5
Five months later, on 29th June, the feast of Sts Peter and Paul, when nets are draped from St Peter’s facade in memory of the fishermen-apostles, the pope blesses the pallia. (It is worth noting that 29th June, a conventional date for Peter and Paul, is also that of the old pagan festival for Romes’s legendary founders, Romulus and Remus.
Quote ID: 6967
Time Periods: 17
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 19
Section: 2E5
The mid-third-century Julii chamber, which contains among others the tomb of a two-year-old girl, was initially pagan, but evidently its owners became Christian. The wall decoration include Jonah and the whale, very popular with early Christians, the Fisher of Men, and the Good Shepherd. In the vault mosaic, amid stylized green and black leaves, Christ rises in a chariot toward the sun. He resembles an emperor enjoying his apotheosis or, even more, the Sun god, for sun rays cross behind his head.
Quote ID: 6969
Time Periods: 3
Victory Of The Cross, The
Desmond O’Grady
Book ID: 278 Page: 54
Section: 2E5
With due allowance made, gods were somewhat like saints - approachable intermediaries, and the more the merrier.
Quote ID: 6980
Time Periods: 7
Vigilantius and His Times
William Stephen Gilly
Book ID: 284 Page: 169/170
Section: 2E5
Paulinus had but lately fixed his residence at Nola, and was now having recourse, in a more marked degree than before, to those beguiling practices, which afterwards became the characteristics of the Latin Church; and proved so fatal in the end to the simplicity of the Gospel. Religious observances, transferred from Pagan altars to Christian shrines, were dignified with the name of honours due to the memory of a departed saint: and as the heroes of old were invoked by the ancestors of Paulinus, so did he himself substitute the name of Felix for that of Hercules or Quirinus, and implore the aid of a dead martyr, when no other name in prayer ought to have been upon his lips, than that of the one Mediator between God and man.2E5
Quote ID: 7210
Time Periods: 345
Vigilantius and His Times
William Stephen Gilly
Book ID: 284 Page: 171
Section: 2E5
‘Shall I not have the pleasure of accompanying you to the shrine of my household saint, and shall we not thank God that we have been restored to each other by the interposition of St. Felix?’ {*}[Footnote *] Epist. Paul. I. ad Sulp.
Quote ID: 7211
Time Periods: 345
Vigilantius and His Times
William Stephen Gilly
Book ID: 284 Page: 283
Section: 2E5
Here Jerome expressly repudiates the thought of adoring, that is, of praying to, beatified spirits, be they angels or martyrs. But Paulinus, as I have shown (pp. 79, 83, 87), did pray to a deceased martyr, to St. Felix; and the Roman church has since decided in council that the saints are to be invoked in prayer.
Quote ID: 7241
Time Periods: 3457
Why Rome Fell
Edward Lucas White
Book ID: 343 Page: 225
Section: 2E5
…Bubona, goddess of cattle breeding; Epona, goddess of horse breeding; Pales, goddess of sheep breeding; Vertumnus, god of the changing seasons; Pomona, goddess of fruits; Terminus, god of boundaries, frontiers and boundary stones; Forculus, god of doors….
Quote ID: 7956
Time Periods: 0123
Why Rome Fell
Edward Lucas White
Book ID: 343 Page: 232
Section: 2E5
…positively and without question, every Roman family conceived of all the Manes of all its ancestors as kindly minor deities watching over the family’s destinies and solicitous for their descendants’ welfare. And the less important the human-being had been in life, the less valuable to his clan was his aid after death; the more prominent the living individual had been, the more precious to his posterity would be his favor and help.
Quote ID: 7957
Time Periods: 0123
End of quotes