So apparently you all liked the trivia video.
Figures.
I spend 8 years on this platform pouring out my soul, trying to lead people to a deeper
understanding Christ and his Church, finding a way to make the most important things in
life more interesting, and most of you are like “meh.”
I throw together a video with absolutely useless information and it blows up.
What can you do?
Might as well play to the algorithm.
Enjoy.
For Catholics during Lent, the Filet o Fish is a very popular fast food option.
This is not a coincidence, considering it was invented in 1962 by a Catholic businessman
in an Ohio because he noticed that hamburger sales plummeted on Fridays in his Catholic
neighborhood.
You’re welcome world.
While most people believe that the pope lives in the Vatican and takes the name Francis,
there are a number of men in recent years that have claimed to be the true pope.
This includes people like Joseph Odermatt of the Schismatic Palmarian Catholic Church,
two men of the African Legion of Mary who are currently fighting each other as to who
is the legitimate authority even in their own break off group, and most famously, David
Bawden of Kansas who went by Michael I. In 1990, Bawden was elected pope by a group of
six laypeople, including himself and his parents.
He passed away in August of 2022.
Of the real popes, the vast majority have been from Italy.
Of the 57 non-Italians, 19 were from France, 14 from Greece, 8 from Syria, 6 from Germany,
3 from the then Roman Africa, 2 from Spain, and one each from Austria, Palestine, England,
the Netherlands, Poland, and of course, Argentina.
If you were a fossarian in the early middle ages, you were a minor clergyman who also
worked as a gravedigger.
As a part of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People,
the Church in the United States has a Circus and Carnival Apostolate.
Of the estimated 300,000 traveling workers in that industry, 40% are believed to be Catholic.
As a way of verifying the validity of one’s ordination and assurance of faculties, priests
are issued what are called celebret cards.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo on record with the diocese…
so mine isn’t particularly effective.
Regardless, whenever priests and religious travel to another diocese to work, they’re
required to have letters of suitability sent from their home diocese or religious to vouch
for them.
We don’t really like people pretending to be priests.
If you lived in post-Reformation France but gave supreme authority to the pope to govern,
you were called an ultramontanist—literally, someone who looked “beyond the mountains”
to Italy.
Have you been Kirking?
If you live in Scotland and have just returned to Church for the first time since getting
married, the answer is yes.
According to a work by Martin Luther, a Dominican preacher named Johann Tetzel once sold a nobleman
an indulgence for a sin yet to be committed.
As Tetzel was heading out of town, the nobleman caught up to him, beat him, and robbed him
of his money, claiming that this was the future sin he was thinking about.
Catholic historians believe this ordeal never actually happened, but was an example of the
propaganda used by both sides during the Protestant Reformation.
In the 17th century, coffee had yet to become the ever-present necessity of life as it is
today.
Many even found its caffeinated nature dangerous, called it “Satan’s drink” and called
on Pope Clement VIII to ban it.
[30 Rock] Upon trying it himself, he liked it so much that he said, “This Satan’s
drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of
it,” proving definitively that popes can be wrong.
Coffee is gross, and no I won’t be taking any questions.
The first Catholic mass celebrated in North America was on September 8, 1565.
Despite centuries of vibrant missionary work by Franciscans, Jesuits, and Dominicans, the
first official diocese was not formed on the continent until 1789.
I guess Rome was just waiting to see if this who “New World” experiment was going to
pan out.
If you like the stations of the cross, you can thank the Franciscans for popularizing
that tradition in the middle ages.
If you like that it has 14 uniform stations wherever you go, you’ll have to thank Pope
Clement XII for that.
Prior to his decree, the devotion ranged from 5-20 stations depending on where you were,
making it a potentially very long prayer.
Before Jesus gave Peter his new name, he was referred to as Simon bar Jonah, literally,
Simon, the Son of John.
Meaning, that if you took his whole name together, our first pope could rightly be called Simon
the Rock Johnson.
St. Patrick, the patron of Ireland and namesake for all things Irish, was not actually Irish,
and his name wasn’t Patrick.
In what has to be a blow to everyone of Irish descent, he was actually born in Roman-ruled
Britain, and was named Maewyn Succat, later changing it to Patricius when he was ordained
a priest.
Despite being nearly 2000 years old, the Catholic Church did not require men to attend seminaries
to become priests until the 16th century with the Council of Trent.
While religious orders had their own schools and official means of training new priests,
most followed an apprenticeship model, received private tutoring, or, sadly, weren’t really
trained in theology at all.
Might be a reason we had all those problems.
The Easter Bunny is often dismissed as a pagan symbol adopted and synchronized by Christians,
just like the Christmas tree, Santa Claus, and Halloween.
But just like these other symbols, the actual origin is a bit more complicated and far more
fascinating.
Believe it or not, there are European hares that can become pregnant twice at one time,
allowing them to give birth twice in quick order.
Not understanding the biology at work, European Christians began to treat this as a great
miracle, a virgin-birth one might say, associating them with the Virgin Mary.
It is why Titian depicts Mary stroking a white rabbit in the 1530 painting “Madonna of
the Rabbit.”
When one plays the devil’s advocate, they do not defend Satan but argue against popular
opinion.
The phrase gets its name from an actual position that used to exist in the Catholic Church
where a delegate was chosen in a canonization investigation to argue against the holiness
of a saint candidate.
This position was mostly removed in 1983, but the Vatican can still call upon antagonists
for testimony, as it did when it interviewed Christopher Hitchens in the investigation
of Mother Teresa.
The origin of the phrase Hocus Pocus is reference to magic is hotly debated, but one of the
most convincing is that it was a way to make fun of Catholics, jumbling the phrase from
the mass, “Hoc est enim corpus meum,” this is my body, implying that what Catholics
were doing was magic.
There is little historical data to prove this, but it certainly sounds plausible.
Of all things, April Fool’s day finds its origin in the Catholic Church, and it’s
not because of our amazing sense of humor.
With the Council of Trent in 1563 came the reform of the calendar, switching from the
Julian Calendar to the Gregorian Calendar, making the first day of the year January 1,
not April first.
Those slow to get the message were left looking foolish celebrating the New Year four months
late.
You can thank German monks for the pretzel.
As Christians in the early middle ages were bared from eating eggs, butter, or lard during
lent, they had to get creative with their food.
A pretzel consists of only water, flour, and salt, and the three holes represent the three
persons of the Trinity.
Even before people were trying to protect themselves from viruses, Catholics were practicing
quarantines, as the word literally means forty days, a lenten practice of fasting and isolation
in imitation of Jesus’ 40 days in the desert.
The Catholic Church helped to invent sign language.
Pedro Ponce de León, a 16th-century Spanish Benedictine monk, used gestures developed
by monks to communicate in silence while in the monastery, and Spanish priest Juan Pablo
Bonet published the first surviving book cataloguing these gestures.
To prepare for their roles as 17th century Jesuit missionaries, actors Andrew Garfield
and Adam Driver each attended a 7-day silent retreat.
Garfield also went on to lose 40 pounds for the role, a feat he downplayed, as he said
it was, “just like every actress in every role ever.”
Ever drink a cappuccino?
You probably didn’t know that they were named after Franciscans.
Cappuchins, that is.
Their light brown tunic and distinctive hood seemed like the perfect descriptor of the
new drink and so the name stuck.
The same can be said about the Capuchin Monkey.
Pneumatomachians were heretics of the 4th century that accepted the divinity of Jesus
as the Son of God, but rejected the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
There are 194 dioceses in the United States.
The current code of canon law has 1752 canons, covering almost everything in Church life.
Canon 1494 section 2, for instance, states that a counterclaim to a counterclaim is not
allowed.
If you’ve ever been to a Catholic mass, you probably know that the “bread” used
is a dry wafer that would make a pretty horrible sandwich.
What you probably didn’t know is that 80% of all communion bread in the United States
is manufactured by the same company in Rhode Island, not just for the Catholic Church,
but for the Lutheran, Episcopal, and South Baptist Churches as well.
The word 'thurible' comes from the Old French thurible, which in turn is derived from the
Latin thuribulum.
The Latin thuribulum is formed from the root thus, meaning 'incense'.
Thus is an alteration of the Ancient Greek word thýein, meaning sacrifice or victim.
However, I guarantee that I did not pronounce any of those words correctly.
Most know that this is called a Jesus fish, but few can explain exactly why.
The tradition goes back to the 2nd century as an acrostic tool for teaching the faith.
The Greek word for fish, Ichthys, spells out the essential identity of Jesus: Jesus the
Christ God Son Savior.
Speaking of animals that represent Jesus, you probably didn’t know that a pelican,
phoenix, and even unicorn have been symbols of Christ for centuries.
The pelican was believed to pierce its own breast to feed its children, the phoenix rises
from ashes to new life, and the unicorn, as everyone knows, is a symbol of purity and
grace that could be captured only by a virgin.
The mosaics found in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis contain 41 and a half million
pieces of glass in more than 7000 colors.
It covers 83,000 square feet and it took 76 years to complete.
Want to express surprise without swearing while also sounding like you were born before
the depression?
Holy Mackerel might be the way to go.
The phrase is actually a euphemism for the Blessed mother, a way of not taking her name
in vein.
What’s really bizarre about this phrase, though, is that while Mackerel mostly referred
to fish, it also became slang for pimp, which is where we get the name Mack Daddy.
Not exactly the best replacement for the name Mary, if you ask me.
During the fraction rite of the celebration of the mass, the priest takes a little portion
of the host and places it into the chalice.
In the early Church, the bishop would sent a portion of the blessed sacrament from his
mass to each of his parishes to signify the unity of the diocese.
Not entirely sure what to do with the portion of the host, the priest simply threw it into
the chalice.
The practice continues today, even a millennia after the bishop stopped sending his host.
While the vast majority of Catholics in the world are a part of the Latin Rite of the
Church, there are actually 22 other rites in union with Rome, each with their own liturgies,
canon laws, and leadership structures.
Although Protestants remain out of communion with the Catholic Church, there are special
circumstances when they may receive anointing of the sick, have their confession heard by
a priest, and even receive Catholic communion: they have to be on their deathbed, unable
to reach a minister of their own community, and demonstrate the Catholic faith regarding
these sacraments.
Not super likely, but totally allowed.
Despite popular notions to the contrary, celibacy is not actually an essential requirement of
the priesthood.
It is the discipline and current law of the Church, but there are actually 120 married
priests in the United States today, the result of Anglican and Lutheran priests converting
to Catholicism.
At this point, I think it’s safe to say that you are entertained.
You’ve made it pretty far into a video with literally no practical use.
Maybe you just go ahead and subscribe to the channel, maybe even click that notification
bell?
Thanks.
It will easily be the most useful thing that either of us do while this video is playing.
Black cats have often been associated with witches but that legend owes itself in large
part to Pope Gregory IX.
In 1232, he wrote a letter called Vox in Rama, condemning Luciferianism in Germany.
Among the rituals alleged was the worship of a black cat.
One of the most distinguishing features of the Vatican are the statues of the saints
atop of the facade at St. Peter’s Basilica.
There are 140 of them, each placed 64 feet above the ground, and stand about 18 feet
tall.
If Hollywood is looking for riveting, historical dramas, I have two they should consider.
In 1937, Pope Pius XI wrote a condemning letter against the Nazi regime.
Wanting to make sure every German heard about it without being censored, the Church devised
a covert mission to smuggle the letter into the country, secretly distribute it to every
church, and have it read at the same time at mass on Palm Sunday.
Tell me that wouldn’t make a great thriller!
If you’re looking for more of a medieval adventure, there’s always the story of how
two Franciscans saved Poland and Hungary from complete annihilation.
Hearing word of a possible invasion from the Mongols, two friars, Lawrence of Portual and
John of Pian del Carpine, were sent as ambassadors to the Tartar Empire with a papal declaration
of peace.
The declaration was unfortunately rejected, but they returned with such intimate knowledge
of the inner workings of the Empire and its army that they actually planned the military’s
defense… and defeated the Mongols when they attacked.
There is a certain set of notes that just screams wrath and destruction.
You’ve probably heard it hundreds of times without even noticing.
Turns out, these four notes originated in a requiem mass in the Roman liturgy, and it
was likely written by Thomas of Celano, a Franciscan of the 13th century.
Had Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt been married in the movie Castaway prior to the plane crash,
they would still have been married at the end of the movie when she moved on and got
married to someone else.
While the state might declare someone dead once missing for a while, canon law requires
moral certainty that they have passed, not an easy bar to clear.
Of course, they weren’t married, weren’t Catholic, and weren’t even real, making
this about as useless as you can get.
Pope Stephen II had the shortest reign as pope in Church history.
His reign was so short, in fact, that he was never actually pope while he was alive and
is now not even considered a pope at all.
This is because he died two days after his election in 742 but never officially took
office.
Canon law at the time required consecration to be considered pope, so he wasn’t a pope
then.
In the 16th century the Church added him to the list of popes, but in 1961 he was removed
from the official list.
If this were to happen today he would be considered a pope as canon law stipulates that one becomes
pope immediately upon election, but that wasn’t the case then.
Sorry guy.
There have been two sets of brothers to rule as pope, each in consecutive order.
Benedict the 8th and John the fourteenth were brothers, as were the real Stephen II and
Paul I.
The faithful have never shied away from standing up for their faith even when about to die.
It’s let to people like St. Stephen being stoned to death, St. Lawrence being grilled,
St. Margaret Clitherow pressed to death, and my personal nightmare, St. Cassian, who was
hacked to death by children.
If you’ve ever called someone a dunce, you’ve offended at least two people: the person you’re
referring to, and Blessed John “Duns” Scotus.
Because he wore this funny hat and didn’t like Thomas Aquinas, his enemies, mostly the
Dominicans, called him a dunce.
The earliest an Easter can occur is March 22, which happened in 1818, and the latest
it can occur is April 23, which happened in 1943 and will happen again in 2038.
If calculated out for the next 5 million 700 thousand years, Easter will only occur on
March 22 less than half of a percent of the time, whereas it will occur on April 19 a
whopping 220,400 times, but not again until 2071.
Christmas day in the year 1234 was a Monday.
No one seems to know the exact number, but 20th century German theologian Karl Rahner
is believed to have written nearly 4000 articles in his life.
It’s probably safe to say that no one has read all of them.
The name of Jesus is represented in art with the letters IHS.
I because there is no J in Greek, H because that’s what a U looks like in Greek, and
S because there is no Sigma in the Latin alphabet, so it’s replaced with a latin letter.
In 2018, there were 37,302 priests and 4,856 seminarians in the United States.
The highest mass in the United States is celebrated at Annunciation Catholic Church in Leadville,
Colorado, where the church sits at 10,200 feet above sea level.
The tallest Catholic Church in the world is Our Lady of Peace Basilica in Ivory Coast,
reaching a whopping 518 feet tall.
That’s equivalent to about 30 giraffes.
Just piling on the useless information at this point.
And I could stop the video there.
That is more than enough useless information for any one person to handle.
I have wasted more time with absolutely ridiculous things than I ever wanted.
But since you’re still here, I’ll make you a deal.
I’ll give you 6 more facts… if you click that subscribe button.
I promise it’ll be worth it.
When a bishop is in his own diocese he holds his crozier facing outward; when he visits
another diocese, he holds it facing inward.
The reason for this is because the crozier is a symbol of his governing office—when
he’s in someone else’s diocese, he’s still a bishop, but he doesn’t have the
right to govern the people around him.
The diocese of El Paso has had six bishops in its history.
Coincidentally, three of them have had the middle name Joseph.
Despite the widespread practice to the contrary, the U.S. bishops have never actually given
permission for oil lamps to be used on the altar.
They may be used as sanctuary lamps, but the ancient requirement of using real candles
is technically still the rule of law.
One of the oldest hymns still in use today is the Phos Hilaron, a Greek song used for
the lighting of candles in the 3rd and 4th centuries.
The most popular version among Catholics is the 1973 translation O Radiant Light O Sun
Divine, composed by William Storey.
Not only is the country of Madagascar nearly impossible to defeat in the game Pandemic,
it’s also home to some four million Catholics and 21 dioceses.
And finally, according to legend, St. Christopher was a giant, standing 7.5 feet tall.
This is in large part due to a tooth that medievals venerated as belonging to him that
was the size of a human fist.
It turns out, upon modern investigation, the tooth was from a hippopotamus.
That is one ridiculous blunder, and this has been one ridiculous video.
Please, for my own mental health, go watch anything else I’ve made over the past 8
years.
I guarantee it will have a more positive effect on your life.