The Mystery Of Julia Episcopa

In ancient Rome, a woman flees for her life. Her enemies are those she once called 'brother'. Hidden beneath her blue cloak are secrets men will kill for – forgeries that prove the newly self-appointed bishops are not followers of the way, but pretenders who have seized power and will stop at nothing to shape this new religion to their own ends. Now, Julia – a woman who had once walked with Mary Magdalene and taught alongside Paul must preserve the legacy of the apostles in the face of terrifying danger.Two thousand years later, classical archaeologists Valentina Vella and Erika Simone are tasked with advising the newly-elected Pope on the historical legacy of women in the early Christian period. The women stumble across an ancient parchment buried deep in the Vatican archives, a document that has clearly been altered. They find themselves on the trail of a woman who may have been the first woman Bishop in the Catholic faith. To reveal Julia's legacy will put them in the cross-hairs of a venomous Vatican battle for power and supremacy; to stay silent would make them complicit in an ancient heresy and would betray the teachings that Julia sacrificed her life to defend.'The Mystery of Julia Episcopa' weaves seamlessly between modern-day Rome and the politics of the Catholic church, and the times and life of a 1st-century Roman noblewoman who rose to be a dominant force in the early Christian movement. "Three women connected by two intertwined stories of treacherous political intrigues, ancient cover-ups, and savage vengeance."

In ancient Rome, a woman flees for her life. Her enemies are those she once called 'brother'. Hidden beneath her blue cloak are secrets men will kill for. Forgeries that prove the newly self-appointed bishops are not followers of the way, but pretenders who have seized power and will stop at nothing to shape this new religion to their own ends. Now, Julia - a woman who had once walked with Mary Magdalene and taught alongside Paul must preserve the legacy of the apostles in the face of terrifying danger. Two thousand years later, classical archaeologists Valentina Vella and Erika Simone are tasked with advising the newly-elected Pope on the historical legacy of women in the early Christian period. The women stumble across an ancient parchment buried deep in the Vatican archives, a document that has clearly been altered. They find themselves on the trail of a woman who may have been the first woman Bishop in the Catholic faith. To reveal Julia's legacy will put them in the cross-hairs of a venomous Vatican battle for power and supremacy; to stay silent would make them complicit in an ancient heresy and would betray the teachings that Julia sacrificed her life to defend. The Mystery of Julia Episcopa weaves seamlessly between modern day Rome and the politics of the Catholic church, and the times and life of a 1st century Roman noblewoman who rose to be a dominant force in the early Christian movement. "Three women connected by two intertwined stories of treacherous political intrigues, ancient cover-ups, and savage vengeance."

Two scholars, Valentina Vella and Erika Simone, hired by the church to prove that the church has not strayed from its tenets of two thousand years ago find something else. They stumble upon a letter written iin the first centure by an unknown bishop - a woman.

How should the Catholic church remember the sins of its saints? This question proves particularly urgent in the case of those saints who were canonized due to their relation to black slavery. Today, many of their racial virtues seem like racial vices. In this way, the church celebrates Peter Claver, a seventeenth-century Spanish missionary to Colombia, as “the saint of the slave trade,” and extols Martín de Porres as the patron saint of mixed race people. But in truth, their sainthoods have upheld anti-blackness much more than they have undermined it. Habituated by anti-blackness, the church has struggled to perceive racial holiness accurately. In the ongoing cause to canonize Pierre Toussaint, a Haitian-born former slave, the church continues to enact these bad racial habits. This book proposes black fugitivity, as both a historical practice and an interpretive principle, to be a strategy by which the church can build new hagiographical habits. Rather than searching inside itself for racial heroes, the church should learn to celebrate those black fugitives who sought refuge outside of it.

The Roman Catholic leadership still refuses to ordain women officially or even to recognize that women are capable of ordination. But is the widely held assumption that women have always been excluded from such roles historically accurate? In the early centuries of Christianity, ordination was the process and the ceremony by which one moved to any new ministry (ordo) in the community. By this definition, women were in fact ordained into several ministries. A radical change in the definition of ordination during the eleventh and twelfth centuries not only removed women from the ordained ministry, but also attempted to eradicate any memory of women's ordination in the past. The debate that accompanied this change has left its mark in the literature of the time. However, the triumph of a new definition of ordination as the bestowal of power, particularly the power to confect the Eucharist, so thoroughly dominated western thought and practice by the thirteenth century that the earlier concept of ordination was almost completely erased. The ordination of women, either in the present or in the past, became unthinkable. References to the ordination of women exist in papal, episcopal and theological documents of the time, and the rites for these ordinations have survived. Yet, many scholars still hold that women, particularly in the western church, were never "really" ordained. A survey of the literature reveals that most scholars use a definition of ordination that would have been unknown in the early middle ages. Thus, the modern determination that women were never ordained, Macy argues, is a premise based on false terms. Not a work of advocacy, this important book applies indispensable historical background for the ongoing debate about women's ordination.

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This book reveals exciting early Christian evidence that Mary was remembered as a powerful role model for women leaders—women apostles, baptizers, and presiders at the ritual meal. Early Christian art portrays Mary and other women clergy serving as deacon, presbyter/priest, and bishop. In addition, the two oldest surviving artifacts to depict people at an altar table inside a real church depict women and men in a gender-parallel liturgy inside two of the most important churches in Christendom—Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome and the second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Dr. Kateusz’s research brings to light centuries of censorship, both ancient and modern, and debunks the modern imagination that from the beginning only men were apostles and clergy.

THE GREAT BETRAYER...IN HIS OWN WORDS.First in the pulse-pounding, action-packed "Judas Chronicles" series by bestselling author Aiden James.William Barrow carries a dark secret. A very dark secret.An archivist for the Smithsonian Institute and also a part-time operative for the CIA, no one would ever suspect the handsome 'thirty-ish' William is in fact the most reviled human being to ever walk the earth. His infectious warmth and sense of humor make such an assertion especially hard to believe.But long ago, William Barrow had another name...one that is synonymous with shame and betrayal: Judas Iscariot.Forced to walk the earth as a cursed immortal, William/Judas is on a quest to reclaim the thirty silver shekels paid to him in exchange for Jesus Christ. Twenty-one coins have now been recovered-thanks in large part to the help from his latest son, the esteemed Georgetown University history professor, Alistair Barrow. Ever hopeful the complete coin collection will buy him a full pardon from God and end his banishment from heaven, William plans a visit to a remote village deep within Iran's Alborz Mountains to retrieve 'silver coin number twenty-two'. But the CIA has a different objective for this trip, one that pits both father and son against an unscrupulous Russian billionaire searching for something else that's just as precious within the ancient mountains of Iran... something that threatens peace in the modern world if William and Alistair fail to reach it first.This compelling, exciting, and at times heart-breaking supernatural adventure with nearly 500 combined 5-star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads by bestselling author Aiden James, begins the epic "Judas Chronicles" saga, a series that's been downloaded over 400,000 times!Immortal Plague is the first of eight Judas Chronicles supernatural adventures with more to come in 2019 and beyond. If you enjoy fast-paced supernatural stores that are big on action and heart, then The Judas Chronicles are for you!Wow! It's an Emotional Roller Coaster Ride! Great Book, Exciting Adventure!I started reading this story with no intention of liking Judas, the man that is believed to have betrayed Jesus, and I wanted insight into what could have caused him to do such a dreadful thing. I found myself rooting for him to find the missing "blood money--coins," to redeem his life and pay his penance for his sins.... A great story, full of great characters, humor, love, friendship, and it was well worth the time it took to read it. I look forward to the other books in this series. 5-star Amazon reviewMakes you think!This author is amazing! Who would have thought of Judas as a fantasy character? I hesitated as I am Christian and couldn't believe this could be good. Aiden James is NOT disrespectful to biblical truth, he just sees it in a whole different point of view. I loved these books, not finished with them all yet, but will buy them all. Don't hesitate because you are Christian; if you love fantasy, this will really intrigue you. Judas Iscariot, love him or hate him....After several thousand years on earth, anyone would be a little warped, right?Doomed to immortality because of his betrayal of Christ, Judas Iscariot (now called William Barrow) must collect the thirty pieces of silver he was given by the Romans. But each coin has caused mayhem throughout the centuries, and the worse the history of the coin, the harder it's retrieval.Immortal Plague is the beginning of this amazing series. It's hard to put one down without immediately purchasing the next one. Each is written as a journal of sorts, I like the style. These books will take you all over the world and each story grips as much as the previous.