At least 48 sword guards used by samurai warriors during the feudal era belonged to hidden Christians. The artifacts are related to the early history of 16 th and 17 th century Japan, which saw the...
The Spanish Inquisition has a reputation for having been very bloody and cruel. However, in some regions of Spain their actions were barely visible and were focused on heretics but not witches. Most...
Alexander the Great died three centuries before Christianity officially appeared, but his cult was so strong that some symbols connected with the ancient Macedonian king were adopted by the new...
Clovis I was the second king of the Merovingian Dynasty, and its first ruler to unite all the Franks in the region of Gaul under Merovingian rule. Due to this achievement, Clovis is often regarded as...
New research may change to the early history of Christianity and Judaism. Researchers from Tel Aviv University believe that a discovery from Arad proves that the Hebrew Bible was written much earlier...
Veles and Perun are two deities found in the religion of the Slavs prior to the coming of Christianity. The Pre-Christian Slavs were polytheists, and worshipped a pantheon of deities, just like the...
The monumental Chartres Cathedral hides within its walls stories which connect the world of ancient Druids, the cult of the Divine Feminine and Christianity. It is located on a leyline linking...
People in the ancient world did not always believe in the gods, a new study suggests – casting doubt on the idea that religious belief is a “default setting” for humans. “Early societies were far...
Lamassu are human-headed, eagle-winged, bulls or lions that once protected cities in Mesopotamia. They were believed to be very powerful creatures, and served both as a clear reminder of the king’s...
Many people still believe that the person who “discovered” America was Christopher Columbus, forgetting the fact that there were already indigenous people living there. An additional fact that is...
In ancient Greece there was a large and dangerous sea monster called the aspidochelone , which could be translated as asp-turtle . The people who described it for centuries probably just saw a whale...
The most commonly used civil calendar today is known as the Gregorian calendar, which is also called the Western calendar, or the Christian calendar. This calendar was named after Pope Gregory XIII,...
Walk into any public square or shopping mall at this time of year and an encounter with a traditional Christmas carol is well-nigh unavoidable. We may not sing them ourselves with anything like the...
At the centre of the annual Christian festival of Christmas, particularly among those of the Catholic faith, is the sacred narrative of the Virgin Birth. In the New Testament Gospels of Matthew and...
Saint Augustine of Hippo is one of the most important Christian theologians, and his works have exerted a great influence not only on the development of Western Christianity, but also on Western...
The Salem witch trials, which began in 1692 in Salem Village, Massachusetts bay colony, are one of the most well-known and notorious witch trials in history. Yet, this was not the only case of these...
Since it was first proposed by the Pre-Socratic philosopher, Empedocles of Acragas, fire has been regarded in the Western world as one of the four classical elements. The status of fire as a...
When Christians made their theological push into Europe, suppressing native religions and supplanting them with a foreign God, some pagans resisted by secretly practicing their old religion, while...
Inside the ring fort at Tullycrine in West Clare, Ireland, visitors can see the graves of hundreds of children dating from a period in Irish history when those who had not been baptized were banned...
The Liesborn Prayer Wheel was discovered recently on the blank first page of a copy of the Liesborn Gospel Book. This was an unusual find in an already rare piece of work. This medieval tome is one...
In 1825, a mysterious double edged sword containing a cryptic code was found in the River Witham near Lincoln in England. The 13th century sword contains an enigmatic 18-letter message running down...
The grave of a prince who was to become the khan of Bulgaria but refused to deny Christ and was then martyred for it by his brother in the year 833, has been excavated in Pliska, Bulgaria. St. Boyan...
Religion has become associated with having a focus on morality. But that wasn’t always the case, researchers say. Academics have long suspected that the modern world’s major religions were born of...
In the small seaside village of Miramar, along the spectacular coastline of Portugal, sits a tiny chapel perched on top of a rock known as Capela do Senhor da Pedra (“Chapel of the Lord of the Stone...
