Roman catholic church dating

(6) Once the date of the Incarnation was established, it was a simple matter of adding nine months to arrive at the date of Our Lord’s birth - December 25.

This date would not be made official until the late fourth century, but it was established long before Aurelian and Constantine. We can be certain that the first Catholic apologists and Fathers of the Church, who lived very close to the time of the Apostles, were fully aware of the dates associated with the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The notion that Christmas had pagan origins began to spread in the 17th century with the English Puritans and Scottish Presbyterians, who hated all Catholic things.

The Puritans hated Catholicism so much that they revolted against the so-called Anglican church because, even with their heresies, they considered it still too similar to the Catholic Church.

(4) Since the Gospel of Luke states that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary in the sixth month after John's conception (Lk ), this placed the conception of Christ at about the time of the spring equinox, that is, at the time of the Jewish Passover, in late March.

His birth would thus be in late December at the time of the winter solstice.

Until the Edict of Milan was published in 313, Catholics were persecuted and met in catacombs. But they celebrated Christmas among themselves before that Edict, as hymns and prayers of the first Christians confirm (2).