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Jun 6, 2020 · However, according to a Vatican curator, the Vatican Hill takes its name from the Latin word Vaticanus, a vaticiniis ferendis, in allusion to the oracles, or Vaticinia, which were anciently delivered here. So, we can conclude that the origin of the name Vatican is unclear, but most researchers think the name was borrowed from the Etruscan language.
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Aug 4, 2015 · The Vatican’s history as the seat of the Catholic Church began with the construction of a basilica over St. Peter’s grave in Rome in the 4th century A.D. The area developed into a popular...
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Early History. 1st century AD to 41 AD. During the Roman Republic, the name “Vatican” referred to the Ager Vaticanus, a small hill and a plain on the west bank of river Tiber. This neighborhood was largely uninhabited thanks to its close proximity to the Etruscan city of Veii as well as the floods of the Tiber that would flow into the city.
- Vatican City is the smallest country in the world. Encircled by a 2-mile border with Italy, Vatican City is an independent city-state that covers just over 100 acres, making it one-eighth the size of New York’s Central Park.
- St. Peter’s Basilica sits atop a city of the dead, including its namesake’s tomb. A Roman necropolis stood on Vatican Hill in pagan times. When a great fire leveled much of Rome in A.D.
- Caligula captured the obelisk that stands in St. Peter’s Square. Roman Emperor Caligula built a small circus in his mother’s gardens at the base of Vatican Hill where charioteers trained and where Nero is thought to have martyred the Christians.
- For nearly 60 years in the 1800s and 1900s, popes refused to leave the Vatican. Popes ruled over a collection of sovereign Papal States throughout central Italy until the country was unified in 1870.
Catholic Church. The tradition of the Catholic Church claims it began with Jesus Christ and his teachings; the Catholic tradition considers that the Church is a continuation of the early Christian community established by the Disciples of Jesus.
Jun 25, 2019 · 1870 CE: The First Vatican Council declares the policy of Papal infallibility, which holds that the Pope's decisions are beyond reproach—essentially considered the word of God.
