Friday Basics
Friday in the Octave of Easter Today's Mass Readings Daily Gospel Saint of the Day On this day in Catholic History 1055 - Victor II is consecrated pope. 655 Martin I , pope from 649 to 655, died in banishment. He was the last pope venerated as a martyr. 1059 At a Lateran synod Pope Nicholas II (d. 1061) issued the decree establishing the election of the Pope by cardinal bishops only. 1256 - The Grand Union of the Augustinian order formed when Pope Alexander IV issues a papal bull Licet ecclesiae catholicae. 1534 Sir Thomas More (1478–1535), Lord Chancellor of England, refused to take the oath to the English succession. One year later Henry VIII indicted him for treason and had him beheaded. 1829 - The British Parliament grants freedom of religion to Roman Catholics . 1853 Loyola College in Baltimore was chartered under Roman Catholic support. 1986 Pope John Paul II (1920–2005) visited a Jewish synagogue in Rome, marking the first such visit by a pope in recorded history. M...