10/27-28: This Weekend in Catholic History: Battle of Milvian Bridge, Nostrae Aetate

This weekend is October 27-28, 2007, Saturday of the 29th Week and the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time. On Sunday's date in 312, Roman Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge outside Rome and became the sole ruler of the empire. Legend has it that the evening before, Constantine had a vision of the sun with the cross, accompanied with the words, "In this sign you will conquer." The next day, Constantine adopted the Christian chi-rho image as his military standard, and after he won, ascribed his victory to divine intervention. Thus, Constantine is known as the first Christian emperor, for during his reign, he ceased persecution of Christians, built the first St. Peter's Basilica and called for the Council of Nicaea. | Engraving: Ewing Galloway @ Boston College Magazine

Also on these dates:

• On Sunday's date in 1965, the landmark Nostrae Aetate, the Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions was promulgated by Pope Paul VI. Approved 2,221 to 88 by the bishops assembled for the Second Vatican Council, it encouraged "dialogue and collaboration" with followers of Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Bhuddism. Pithy quote: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing that is true and holy in these religions. She regards with sincere reverence those ways of conduct and of life, those precepts and teachings which, though differing in many aspects from the ones she holds and sets forth, nonetheless often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all."
  
  
• Famous Catholics born on these dates: On Oct. 28, Dutch philosopher and theologian Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536), who while defending the Church from Martin Luther's attacks, also criticized the Church's abuses just before the Reformation. | Also on Oct. 28, American author Scott Hahn (1957- ). Hahn formerly decried Catholicism as a Protestant minister but converted in 1986. He now is a noted Church apologist. His wife, Kimberly, has called him "Luther in reverse."
  
  
• And, finally... If it didn't fall on a Sunday this year, October 28th would also be the feast of St. Jude, patron of impossible causes, and St. Simon, one of the Twelve Apostles.