217 A.D.
Death of Pope Saint Zephyrinus, 15th successor of Peter. He ruled for 18 years and decreed that young people of 14 years and over should receive Holy Communion at Easter and introduced the use of the paten and of chalices of cut glass. His pontificate was characterized by bitter theological struggles for he was the Pope who excommunicated the historian Tertullian. Though he was not violently killed in the manner many Christians were, he is considered a martyr because of the great suffering he underwent.
395 A.D.
Death of Saint Moses the Black, Ethiopian slave who was converted by monks and ordained a priest, becoming one of the most sought after spiritual directors among the desert fathers.
846 A.D.
Muslim pirates land at the mouth of the Tiber and sack Rome, pillaging and plundering the venerable St. Peter's Basilica as well as St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls during the last days of Pope Sergius II.
1429 A.D.
Saint Joan of Arc, commissioned by King Charles VII enters Paris to win back the beseiged city from the English. She would ultimately fail and be captured a year later.
1498 A.D.
Pope Alexander IV commissions the Italian master Michelangelo to fashion the famous sculpture of the Blessed Mother cradling her Divine Son Jesus after He had been taken down from the cross. This masterpiece is forever called the "Pieta" and is on display in the back, right side of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome today.
1910 A.D.
Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu is born in Skopje, Macedonia. She would go on to join the Sisters of Loretto out of Ireland, be assigned to Calcutta and found her own Order - the Missionaries of Charity dedicated to assisting the lowliest of lowlies. This famous woman was, of course, Mother Teresa and she would become one of the most well-known and beloved religious of all time whose passing last year on September 5, was greatly mourned by the entire world.
1978 A.D.
Albino Luciani, Cardinal of Venice becomes the 263rd successor of Peter after he is elected on the third ballot on the first day of the conclave and takes the name honoring his two predecessors - Pope John Paul I. He would die on September 28th, 33 days later from a heart attack which many feel was induced by some sort of drug administered to him via a conspiracy. No one truly knows for sure since there was no autopsy but suspicions still exist because he had planned to clean up the Vatican Bank and demote several Curial figures who had virtually run things during the previous regime. John Paul I was known as the smiling Pope and declined to have a coronation ceremony.