Did you know that there are only 23 Papal Tiaras in existence? This is because Napoleon Bonaparte and the French Revolutionaries destroyed all but one original Papal Tiara and stole the jewels and precious metals from them when they took Rome. 20 of which are held in the Vatican. 2 are in the United States, and the location of the last is unknown.

The oldest and only surviving Papal Tiara from before Napoleon took Rome is the Tiara of Pope Gregory XIII made in 1572 for his coronation. This Tiara is the only one to survive the looting of the French Directory troops in 1798. They removed a large emerald from it but otherwise left it intact The Papier-Mâché Tiara was made in 1800 for the Coronation of Pope Pius VII. It was hastily constructed in Venice from donated jewlery of the people as the Pope was in exile there at the time. Its materials are lower quality and thinner than other tiaras hence its name. It was later valued by Popes for its light weight and worn a lot.

The first Catholic Mass celebrated in Appalachia was in 1540 celebrated by Spanish Conquistador Hernan de Soto and his expedition which penetrated the North American wilderness through Georgia, South Carolina and up to the Appalachians at a Cherokee village they called Jaora which was in today's North Carolina. De Soto and the Spanish spent a month there among tbe Cherokee. There were 10 priests in the de Soto party. The next time a Catholic Mass was held in the Appalachian mountains would not be until 1749 with the expedition of French explorer Pierre-Joseph Celeron de Blainville. His mission was to bury a series of lead plates along the Ohio River as claim markers for France. Among his party were several Jesuit priests who celebrated Mass at today's Point Pleasant West Virginia.

The situation in India for those who dont understand is basically this.

Christians as a class achieve far greater success in finance, jobs, education, and every metric than their Hindu counterparts. Christian heavy states are cleaner, safer, wealthier, and all-around better. This goes for all Christian denominations. The Catholics in Kerala and the Baptists in Meghalaya. Christians just do better all around in every measurable way. Christians punch above their weight in influence due to schools and hospitals.

The whole issue with the Council of Florence becomes easier to understand when you realize one of the men who torpedoed its implementation was not even a Christian. Gemistus Plethon was at Florence where he helped to prevent its implementation on strict Hellenistic idealism. Gemistus Plethon was a Neoplatonic philosopher in Constantinople who kept the most extensive library of Plato in the world at the time. He idealized Plato enough to change his name to Plethon which came from the same Greek word.

The 12 Apostles Peter, James the Greater, John, Phillip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Andrew, Matthew, James the Lesser, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, and Matthias. All passed their authority down to successors, but who are they today? First we start with Simon Peter. The one whom Jesus declared to be the rock on which His Church would be built. To Peter Jesus gave the leadership of the Apostles. Saint Peter died in Rome and passed his authority to Linus. His successor today is Pope Leo XIV

Since it's still being repeated even today, I feel a need to make a reference thread debunking the "Pachamama" hoax that was perpetrated against Pope Francis and the Vatican by lying Sedevcantists and Protestants and believed largely by traditional Catholics. The event that this all spiraled out from was a prayer service in the Vatican Gardens where Pope Francis met with missionaries and tribal representatives from the Amazon River Basin region of South America for a time of prayer and reflection on the missions.

Paula White is the worst choice for a White House official on religion. She is everything wrong with American Protestantism in one person. She's one of the few pastors ever investigated by the US Senate Finance Comittee for gross financial corruption, abuse of 501(c) and fraud. Paula White is a Prosperity Gospel preacher. This is the belief that God's plan for believers is to be financially wealthy, physically healthy, and successful in all areas of life. Prosperity Preachers promise their followers success in exchange for large donations.

Saint Francis Xavier visited a Hindu Temple exactly one time in his life. It was when he first landed in Goa and didn't know anything about the local religion. He went to their temple to question their priests about this religion. This is what happened 🧵 Saint Francis walked up to the temple, which was richly decorated and covered in statues and carvings. People with multiple arms, animal heads, blue skin. Saint Francis didn't know what he was looking at so he walked around for awhile trying to understand it.

I'm going to make a thread of Kamala Harris' attacks against Catholics and the Catholic Church and her general attitude and beliefs about Catholics so everyone can see why we need to keep her out of the White House as Catholics. She will harm us as President. Kamala Harris began her legal/political career as a prosecutor in California first for Alameda and then for the state before she became state AG. As state AG, she supported the repeal of Proposition 8 and helped enforce some of California's insanely liberal laws.

An area of history that is MASSIVELY overlooked is Jesuit activity in Safavid Persia. Gaspar Barzaeus was the first Jesuit and Western European to enter Persia in 1549. Judasz Tadeusz Krusinski was a Polish Jesuit and Papal envoy to the Safavid Shah. He spoke fluent Farsi. The Jesuit Church of Isfahan was the only one allowed with special permission of the Shah to ring church bells. The Jesuits there taught a school for local Armenian and resident European children where they couldn't attend the Muslim Madrasas

The reality is both grew out of Roman basilica architecture. The basilica was not originally a religious structure but a civic meeting hall. Early Christians adopted the basilicas because they didn't want to worship in converted pagan temples. This was due to a few reasons.

https://twitter.com/jacfalcon/status/1847416473574367340

namely, a pagan temple was designed with a small interior space, which housed the idol and only priests entered and a large outdoor porch or porticulus in which worshippers gathered to pray or participate in sacrifice. This was the opposite space constraints of a Christian church

There's so many unknown men in American Catholic history that are fascinating figures. You couldn't write their life story as fiction if you tried. Perhaps none more than Father Dmitri Augustin Gallitzin, who was born a Russian Noble and died a Catholic missionary in Appalachia. Dmitri Gallitzin was born on December 22nd, 1770, in The Hague Netherlands. His father was Dmitri Alekseyevich Golitsyn, who was a Russian scientist, philosopher, diplomat and a member of Russia's oldest and most prestigious families after the Romanovs.

I thought I might do a thread on an Appalachian Catholic ghost story that's one of the most interesting events of early America. It involves Anticatholic bigotry, demonic activity, psychics, miraculous conversions, and sectarian splits that are ongoing to this day. The story starts in Pennsylvania with a farmer named Adam Livingston. Livingston was a typical early American farmer. He raised meat cattle in Pennsylvania's Great Valley now, the I-81 Corridor. He was successful and made a good living . The family were devout Lutherans

July 1st is the Feast Day of Saint Junipero Serra. Franciscan Friar, Priest, Academic, Doctor of Philosophy, Apostle to the Sierra Gorda and California, Anthropologist, He fought for Native rights and translated texts into Pame and other Native languages. Saint Junipero Serra was born on November 24th 1743 in the village of Petra on the island of Majorca. His name in Catalan was Miquel Josep Serra i Ferrer. In Castillian Spanish Miguel Jose Serra y Ferrer. His parents were poor farmers who grew wheat and beans.

Most Catholics who are history enthusiasts have heard the name Waldensian before but very few people know much about them, what they believed or the fact that there were Catholic Waldensians with whom the Church was perfectly happy and in communion. Waldensians take their name from Pierre Vaudes who was a Catholic merchant in Lyons France. He got monks to make him a copy of the Bible in Provencal French and reading it became inspired by the examples of holiness simplicity and poverty.

June 22nd is the Feast Day of Saint Thomas More. Barrister, MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Chancellor of England, author of Response to Luther and opponent of Protestantism, Humanist, Martyred for refusing the Oath of Supremacy and opposing King Henry's divorce. Saint Thomas More was born in London on Feb. 7 1478 to Sir John More and Agnes Graunger. He was educated at Saint Anthony's School which was considered the best boy's school in England at the time. He was made a page to Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury John Morton

June 15th is the Feast Day of Saint Germaine Cousin. French Shepherdess from Pibrac, neglected and abused as a child due to a hand deformity and infectious skin lesions, Miracle Worker, Ascetic, Pious Devotee to the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary, Patroness of abused and disabled Saint Germaine was born in Pibrac France in 1579. Pibrac is in the southeast of France near Toulouse. Saint Germaine's parents were impoverished shepherds. She was born with a deformed hand as a result of a congenital birth defect. Before she was even a year old her mother died.

A Catholic priest worth knowing and IMO one of the best candidates for canonization is Father James Coyle. Born in Ireland in 1873 he came to America to lead a Catholic parish in Birmingham Alabama in Anticatholic times. He became a Martyr for Love in 1921 murdered by the KKK Father Coyle was born in 1873 to Owen Coyle and Margaret Durney in the Irish town of Drum which lies in central Ireland. He attended Mungret College a Jesuit secondary school in Limerick for his education before enrolling in the Pontifical North American College

I wanted to wait until after Pascha to make it known. I've decided after several months of intensive study, recent events, and my own experiences as of late to choose unity with the Apostolic See as opposed to protest against it. This was not an easy or light decision for me I began this process looking for an Orthodox answer to the question of authority, doctrinal teaching across the entirety of the Orthodox communion and unity in the Church amid my struggles with questions and difficulties in doctrinal differences and authority issues.

I've been doing research on the Schism and finding a lot of things I wasn't taught when you actually look at the secular scholars with no sectarian dog in the fight that are challenging to me. Papal claims that the Orthodox Church rejects as false stretch back much further than I thought. I was taught that one day in 1054 for no reason and with absolutely no historical precedent or ecclesiological basis thr Pope just woke up and decided he was king of the Church.

A thread on the history of Western Rite Orthodoxy and where we're going in the future. The Western Rite today exists as part of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and ROCOR. Though it is comparably small it is growing and I believe has an important role in the future Before 1054 the Western Latin Patriarchate of Rome was Orthodox. From the Apostle Peter to Pope Saint Cornelius in 253 AD every early Pope is a Saint. The earliest congregations in Rome were made up mainly of Jews and Easterners and so used Koine Greek and Aramaic