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1201
Martyrdom of St. William of Perth.
1202
The Fourth Crusade begins. This was the Pseudo-Crusade. It lasted four years and was led by Baldwin of Flanders and Boniface of Montferrat. What began as an effort against the Turks, ended up in disaster. Venetian traders persuaded the Crusaders to attack Constantinople in lieu of the Holy Land. Many Jews were killed, Constantinople was captured and looted. No action was taken against the Turks in this Crusade.
1204
The Fourth Crusade ended. The Latin Empire of Constantinople was established, it was to last for fifty-seven years.
1205
Pope Innocent III granted the Teutonic Order of Knights to use the White Habit with
a Black Cross.
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1206
St. Dominic founded a Religious Congregation for women at Prouille, in the Pyrenees mountains. Their object was the education of the poorer girls of the Nobility, who had been converted over from Albigensianism.
Nine Noble women became the first Dominican Nuns.
Temujin, the Master of Mongolia, was given the Title, Genghiz Kahn.
1207
Pope Innocent III called upon the King of France, Philip II, to be Suzerain of the Country of Toulouse, to use force. This came about after the murder of the Pope’s legate.
1208
St. Francis of Assisi heard the Gospel preached in the Chapal of Portiuncula. It was after hearing this unknown Gospel passage that he devoted himself fully to the Lord.
Diet of Frankfort. Pope Innocent III crowned Otto IV of Brunswick as Emperor at this Diet. He was the son of Henry the Lion and was Duke of Saxony and Bavaria upon the death of his father.
1209
St. Francis of Assisi founds the Order of the Friars Minor.
Simon De Montfort led a Crusade in France against the Albigenses. He marched into Languedoc; this effort lasted twenty years, during which time a bloody war was waged. The Albigensians were defeated.
1210
Pope Innocent III excommunicates the Emperor, Otto IV.
Pope Innocent III approves the Franciscan Order.
St. Lutgardis flourished in the monastery and developed a deep prayer life and spirituality. She was graced with visions of Jesus and of the Blessed Mother, and felt called to a more austere monastic lifestyle, joined the Cistercians at Aywueres. St. Lutgardis spent the rest of her life at this monastery and became renowned throughout Northern Europe for her deep spirituality and her mystic experiences.
1212
The Children’s Crusade begins. Thousands of children, led by a false monk, traveled toward the Holy land. Large numbers perished from hunger and fatigue. Many survivors were captured by Saracens and sold into slavery.
St. Francis of Assisi embarked for Syria to convert the Saracens. He was shipwrecked on the coast of Slavonia and returned to Ancona. In March of this year St. Francis cut off the hair of St. Clare and clothed her in a rough tunic and a thick veil.
1213
St. Francis of Assisi received from Count Orlando of Chiusi the mountain of La Verna, an isolated peak among the Tuscan Apennines, rising some 4000 feet above the valley of the Casentino as a retreat. Pope Innocent III was finally successful in reconciling King Philip of France with his lawful wife, Ingeburga.
Simon De Montfort crushed the military power of the Albigenses, ending the Crusade called by the Pope.
1214
St. Francis of Assisi set for Morocco in another attempt to convert the infidels.
1215
Fourth Lateran Council at Rome. Planned a Crusade, issued decrees on annual
communion, repeated the condemnation of the Albigenses, enacted reforms and defined Transubstantiation.
St. Dominic founds the Dominican Order. This Mendicant Order began in Toulouse, France with sixteen members who chose a life of poverty to counteract the Albigensian heresy by means of preaching, teaching. The Dominicans have produced many scholars, including perhaps even the most intelligent man the world has ever produced, St. Thomas Aquinas.
1216
Death of Innocent III.
Honorus III becomes Pope. He was elected Pontiff two days after the death of Pope Innocent III. His name was Cencio Savelli, and, like many of his predecessors, was elderly and frail in health. It was he that tutored young Frederick II. The Pontiff also fully approved the Dominican Order.
Henry III becomes King of England.
1217
Fifth Crusade begins. This was The Hungarian Crusade, it failed. It was led by Andrew III of Hungary and John of Brienne. Andrew III was defeated at Mount Thabor and returned home. John of Brienne led his troops into Egypt and finally took Damietta after two years of struggle. He then had to give up the city to earn a safe
passage home for he and his army.
First General Chapter of the Friars Minor was held.
The first Dominican House was founded at the Church of St. Romain in Toulouse, France.
1219
The Second General Chapter of the Friars Minor held.
>1220
The anonymous chronicler of Lyon, who was a Premonstratensian Monk, wrote a personal history of Peter Waldo, the founder of the Poor Men of Lyons. These heretics were the Waldensians.
St. Dominic established the Militia of Jesus Christ. This was a coalition of lay people who defended the Church against the assaults of the Albigensians and other military innovators.
1221
St. Francis of Assisi sets down the order of poverty.
Death of St. Dominic. At this time the work St. Dominic had begun grew so fast that there were sixty Dominican Houses in eight Provinces. By the end of this century there would be fifty Friaries operating in England alone, as well as Houses in Scotland, Ireland, Bohemia, Russia, Greece, and Greenland. Yes, the early missionary work of Leif Ericson did not go un-noticed. St. Dominic founded the Dominicans with the purpose of dedicating their Preachers to combat heresy and other departures from the teaching of the Holy Catholic Church.
1222
Pope Honorus III issues a Papal Bull that constituted the Friars Minor a formal Order and issued a one year novitiate. This act fully approved the Franciscan Order.
1223
St. Francis of Assisi revises the Franciscan Rule. This Second Rule, as it is usually called, or Regula Bullata, of the Friars Minor, is the one ever since professed throughout the First Order of St. Francis.
Louis VIII becomes King of France; he is the father of St. Louis.
Cardinal John Colonna brought a portion of the Holy Post at which Christ underwent His terrible scourging, to Rome from Constantinople.
During Christmastide, St. Francis of Assisi conceived the idea of celebrating the Nativity in a New Manner; by reproducing in a Church at Greccio the Praesepio of Bethleham, and he has thus come to be regarded as having inaugurated the popular devotion of the Crib. Christmas, it appears, was the favorite feast day of St. Francis.
1224
St. Francis of Assisi becomes the first known person to receive the rare gift of the Holy Stigmata. While in prayer, a six-winged Seraph appeared in the sky and blessed St. Francis with the gift of bearing the wounds of Christ’s Passion.
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1225
Birth of St. Thomas Aquinas.
St. Francis of Assisi composes his Canticle of the Sun and undergoes unsuccessful eye surgery.
1225-1226
St. Francis of Assisi spent this winter in Sienna.
1225-1227
Seven young Florentines joined the Confraternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These seven young men would soon found an Order of their own.
1226
St. Louis IX ascends to the French Throne. He was twelve years old at this time; France was ruled by his mother, the Queen Regent, Blanche of Castile, she was the daughter of Alfonso IX. Without counting his other prayers, the Holy King, St. Louis IX would kneel down each evening and each time stood upright then kneel again, repeating an Ave Maria, (Hail Mary). Many Orders of Nuns were inclined to genuflect whenever the Hail Mary or Glory Be was recited. During this era, kneeling at the Ave Maria was enjoined in several of the Religious Orders.
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Pictured above is the Young St. Louis sitting on the Capetian Throne. To the right is St. Louis and his mother, Blanche of Castille.
Death of St. Francis of Assisi. On his deathbed, St. Francis recited his Canticle of the Sun, after the verse, “Bring my soul out of prison,” the Saint was led away by Sister Death, in whose praise he had added a new strophe to his Canticle.
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Death of Blessed Benincasa. He was a Servite priest who would have nothing to do with women. He healed the illnesses of the men who resorted to him with the Sign of the Cross or with Holy Water.
1227
Gregory IX becomes Pope. He was cardinal Ugolino, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. Ostia, is a port city at the mouth of the Tiber River in Italy. He was the nephew of Pope Innocent III and the son of a Count of Segni.
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Emperor Frederick II is excommunicated for abandoning what should have been the Sixth Crusade after only three days.
The Convent and Basilica were built at Assisi.
1228
The Sixth Crusade begins. This was the German Crusade. This Crusade was preached by Pope Honorus III. This Crusade was led by the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, who was also King of Germany. Frederick launched this Crusade from Brindisi. The results of this Crusade were successful, Christendom regained Jerusalem. Bethleham, Nazareth, Tyre, and Sidon also surrender to the Christians. The price paid however; is still effecting the world even to this present day. Frederick II arranged a shameful peace with the Muslim Sultan to allow Mohammedans freedom of worship in Jerusalem. It was this member of the Hohenstaufen Dynasty that is responsible for the Moslems and their Mosque to be in the Holy City. Pope Gregory IX was furious that an excommunicant led this Crusade. He reaffirmed Frederick’s excommunication as a result from his activities.
The learned Bishop Jacques De Vitry was named to the See at Tusculana, also called Frascati. He preached against the Albigenses who had been menacing in the area.
1229
Cardinal Goffredo Da Castiglione, the future Pope Celestine IV, began working in the
Curia.
The Treaty of Paris. This was a submission of Count Raymond VII of Languedoc. This submission put an end to the Albigensian war and prepared the union of the southern provinces to France. This Treaty highlighted the Regency of Blanche of Castile, the Queen mother of St. Louis IX.
Emperor Frederick II made himself King of Jerusalem.
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1230
Emperor Frederick II raised Hermann of Salza, the Fourth Grand Master of the Teutonic Order of Knights, to Prince of the Empire. The Capella Della Spina at Pisa was built close to a new bridge.
Treaty of Ceprano. This was an agreement between Pope Gregory IX and the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II. The Emperor made substantial concessions in Sicily and agreed not to infringe the Papal territories; the Pontiff lifted his sentence of excommunication. Frederick II had sought reconciliation with the Church.
Death of Alfonso IX, King of Leon and Castile.
1231
Death of Blessed Dodo. He had the gift of healing and many sick people recovered their health at his hands.
Pope Gregory IX appointed three theologians, including William of Auxerre, as Archdeacons of Beauvais. William of Auxerre prepared an amended edition of the physical and metaphysical works of Aristotle which had been placed under a ban by the Council of 1210.
Pope Gregory IX named his nephew, Rinaldo, the Count of Segni, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia.
Death of St. Anthony of Padua.
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1232
Emperor Frederick II left Rome as a result from his sharp clashes with the citizens.
1233
Pope Gregory IX issues the Excommunicamas. This placed the prosecution of heretics under Papal direction, establishing the Holy Office of the Inquisition. Heresy was punishable by the state; in fact, the penalty was so severe, that some individuals used this as a means of getting rid of their enemies. This is why Mother Church
stepped in and established the Inquisition, as a means of “Keeping Catholics Catholic.” If the Baptized Catholic, accused of heresy was found guilty and could not be reconciled to the Church, then, and only then, was that person handed over to the state for punishment. These numbers totaled less than one thousand the entire time the Inquisition was in use. The history books written by anti-Catholics are completely false! The Catholic Church is not guilty of killing anyone.
Pope Gregory IX took a personal interest in the investigation of the Luciferan heresy and exposed the evil they practiced.
On August 15, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, the Blessed Virgin appeared to Seven noble Florentines, who had repaired to the Church to follow the exercises of the Confraternity of the Laudesi. Our Lady bade them “Leave the world and live for God alone.” On the Feast of Mary’s birth, September 8th, this year, the Seven Florentines went to La Camarzia, just outside the walls of the city, and later on to Monte Senario, eleven miles from Florence. Here again they received a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In her hands she held a Black Habit; a multitude of Angels surrounded her, some bearing the different instruments of the Passion, one holding the Rule of St. Augustine, while another offered with one hand a scroll, on which appeared the title of Servants of Mary surrounded by golden rays, and with the other a palm branch. Our Blessed Mother said to them: “I have chosen you to be my first Servants, and under this name you are to till my Son’s Vineyard. Here too, is the habit which you are to wear; its dark color will recall the pangs which I suffered on the day when I stood by the Cross of my only Son. Take this Rule of St. Augustine, and may you, bearing the title of my Servants, obtain the palm of everlasting life.” Among these holy men of the Order was St. Philip Benizi. He was born the very day Our Lady first appeared to the Seven Founder on her Feast of the Assumption. St. Philip grew to become one of the great propagators of the Order.
Pope Gregory IX founded the University of Toulouse.
1234
Death of St. William, Bishop of St-Brieue. He considered himself the “Father of the Poor.”
St. Dominic is Canonized a Saint by Pope Gregory IX.
Pope Gregory IX excommunicates the rebel son of Emperor Frederick II, Henry.
Pope Gregory IX publishes the Liber Extra, the first complete, authoritative collection of Papal decretals.
King St. Louis IX, at the age of nineteen, married Marguerite of Provence. The Royal couple had eleven children.
1236
Emperor Frederick II invades Italy.
King Ferdinand III of Castile, the brother of Blanche of Castile, conquered the Moorish city of Cordoba.
1237
Death of Blessed Roger of Todi, a Franciscan.
1238
Baldwin II the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, anxious to obtain support for his unsteady Empire, offered the Crown of Thorns, that had been in Constantinople since 1063, to King St. Louis IX of France. The Sacred Relic of our Lord’s Passion was in the hands of the Venetians as collateral for a large loan once made by Baldwin. King St. Louis IX satisfied the loan and claimed the Sacred Relic.
Pope Gregory IX sent Inquisitors to Spain.
1239
Emperor Frederick II is excommunicated for the second time.
The Crown of Thorns that capped the Head of Christ during His Passion, was carried to France by two Dominican priests. The pious King, St. Louis, with many of his prelates and his entire court, met them five leagues beyond the Sens River. King St. Louis IX and his brother, both dressed humbly and barefoot, carried the Sacred Crown into the city to the Cathedral of St. Stephen.
1240
The Seven Florentines, Buonfiglio Monaldo, the leader; Alexis Falconieri; Benedict Dell’ Antella; Bartholomew Amidei; Ricovero Uguccione; Gerardino Sostegni; and John Buonagiunta; on April 13th, became officially known as the Servants of Mary, or the Servites.
Pope Gregory IX offered King St. Louis IX the Imperial Crown for his brother, Robert of Artois, the Holy King declined the offer. King St. Louis IX continued to treat the excommunicated Emperor, Frederick II as sovereign.
1241
The Mongols invaded Hungary. The sons of Genhiz Khan and Tarter hosts were
murdering Christians and burning Christian Shrines and shattering the Teutonic Knights.
Baldwin of Flanders gave the point of the blade of the Holy Lance, that was driven into Christ’s side by St. Longinus, to King St. Louis IX of France who enshrined the Sacred Relic with the Crown of Thorns in the Sainte Chapelle. The Holy King had this Chapel magnificent built to house these Sacred relics. The Crown of Thorns was taken to Paris where it was placed in this Holy Chapel. Every year on August 11th the transfer of the Crown of Thorns from Venice to Paris was celebrated in the Chapel.
The excommunicated Hohenstaufen Emperor, Frederick II, marched into Rome.
Pope Gregory IX received the tragic news that his relatives had been murdered by Emperor Frederick II. This tragic information devastated the Pontiff. He seemed to have suddenly withered up into a feeble old man. A few days later in the summer heat, he received the Last Sacraments and died.
Celestine IV becomes Pope. He was Cardinal Goffredo Da Castiglione from Milan. He was the nephew of Pope Urban III. He was, for a time, a Cistercian monk at Hautecombe.
On September 14, King St. Louis IX divested himself of his Royal garments and walking barefoot, carried a fragment of the Holy Cross in a procession during the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross.
1242
Death of Pope Celestine IV. The Holy See is vacant for one year and eight months.
King St. Louis IX won victory over the coalition at Taillebourg. This victory was followed by the Peace of Bordeaux which annexed to the French realm a part of Saintonge.
1243
Innocent IV becomes Pope. He was a Genoese, the son of Count Hugo of Lavagna. He was Cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi. He was also a brilliant Canon lawyer who had studied and later taught at Bologna.
The Seljuk Turk Empire ended when they were invaded by Asian nomads, Mongols.
1244
An armed force of Catholics broke the Cathari resistance by storming Montsegur, where the murderers of the Dominicans had ridden forth.
1245
The Ecumenical Council of Lyons I. This general Council supported the excommunication of the Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II and deposed him. The one hundred and forty Bishops together with Pope Innocent IV and Baldwin of Constantinople also planned the next Crusade.
St. Peter of Verona, a Dominican priest and the son of Manichee parents, founded the Inquisition at Florence.
King St. Louis IX met with Pope Innocent IV at Cluny.
1246
King St. Louis IX, at the request of Pope Innocent IV, dissolved the league of Barons from the North and West, who had accused the clergy of amassing too much wealth and encroaching upon their rights.
Death of St. Lutgardis. She spent the final decade of her life in physical blindness.
1247
The Blessed Virgin Mary cures St. Rose of Viterbo and ordered her to enroll herself in the Third Order of St. Francis, and to preach penance to the city of Viterbo, which was held by the excommunicated Emperor, Frederick II of Germany and a prey to political strife and heresy.
On May 2nd, when the Bishops of Soissons and Troyes, the Archdeacons of Tours, and the Provost of the Cathedral of Rouen, dispatched to the Pope a remonstrance against his taxation’s, his preferment of Italians in the distribution of benefices, against the conflicts between Papal jurisdiction of the ordinaries, Marshal Ferri Paste seconded their complaints in the name of St. Louis IX, King of France.
1248
The Seventh Crusade begins. This was St. Louis IX’s Crusade. Pope Innocent IV preached this Crusade. The objective of this Crusade was to convert the Grand Khan of the Mongols. St. Louis was successful in capturing Damietta. He and his brother, Charles of Anjou, who played a key role in taking Damietta, were later defeated in Cairo. St. Louis spent four years in Palestine.
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Pictured above is St Louis getting ready to embark on the Crusade
1249
Alphonse De Poiters, another brother of King St. Louis IX, married Jeanne, the daughter of Count Raymond VII. This marriage led to the annexation of the Count of Toulouse to the French Crown in 1271.
1250
In January of this year, the Imperial Prefect of Viterbo banished St. Rose and her parents. They took refuge in Sorriano.
St. Thomas Aquinas is Ordained a Priest.
Death of Holy Roman Emperor, Frederick II, on December 13. St. Rose of Viterbo's prophesy was realized. She had prophesied that the Blessed Virgin Mary told her of the upcoming speedy death of Frederick.
1251
Pope Innocent IV returned to Italy after his time spent in Germany. The Papal Power was restored.
St. Rose returned to Viterbo and tried to enter the Monastery of St. Mary of the Roses; she was refused because of her poverty. She spent the rest of her life in her father's house.
On April 5, King St. Louis IX, who had taken Damietta in Egypt a year earlier, was cut off from communion with Damietta and taken prisoner of the Mongols led by Jenghiz Kahn. At this time the Ajoubite Dynasty founded by Saladin was overthrown by the Mameluke militia, whose Ameers took possession of Egypt. King St. Louis IX negotiated with the Ameers and was set free after agreeing to surrender Damietta and paying a ransom of a million gold bezants. He then went to Palestine where he stayed until 1254.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, appeared to St. Simon Stock, on Sunday, July 16, at Cambridge, England; in answer to his appeal for help with oppressed Order. Our Lady appeared to him with a Brown Scapular in Her hand and said, "Take, My beloved son, this Scapular of your Order as a badge of My Confraternity and for you and all Carmelites a special sign of grace; whoever dies in this garment, will not suffer everlasting fire. It is the sign of Salvation, a Safeguard in dangers, a pledge ofpeace and of the covenant."
1252
Pope Innocent IV establishes the inquisition as a permanent institution in Italy, combining all earlier Papal and Imperial enactments in the Bull, Ad Extirpanda, which sanctioned the use of torture to extract confessions.
St. Peter of Verona was assassinated by heretics on the road to Come to Milan. His body has remained incorrupt.
Death of St. Rose of Viterbo.
1253
Pope Innocent IV approves the Order of Poor Ladies, commonly called the Poor Clares, founded by St. Clare of Assisi.
1254-1291
The Final Loss of the Christian Colonies of the East.
1254
Death of Pope Innocent IV. Inscribed on his tomb is the proud proclamation, "He laid low Christ's enemy, the dragon, Frederick." Alexander IV becomes Pope. He was the nephew of Pope Gregory IX. He was Rinaldo, Count of Segni.
The Seventh Crusade ends with the defeat of King St. Louis IX of France in Cairo, Egypt. This Crusade was not a total failure, St. Louis did re-take the city of Damietta from the Turks.
1255
Pope Alexander IV excommunicates Manfred, the bastard son of Frederick II.
Pope Alexander IV appoints Bishop Jacques Pantaleon, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Pope Alexander IV Canonizes St. Clare of Assisi.
1256
Blessed William of Perth is Canonized a Saint. He suffered Martyrdom in 1201.
Death of St. Peter Noolasco. He was the founder of the Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the Ransom of Prisoners.
The Augustinians were organized as a Mendicant (missionary) Order.
1257
Father Guy Foulques was made Bishop of Le Puy.
1258
Blessed Hugolino of Gualdo enters the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine.
Battle of Tagliacozza. This ended the Hohenslaufen Empire with the murder of Conradin IV, the grandson of Frederick II.
King Henry III of England, tried to secure the Throne in Sicily for one of his sons. He agreed to pay the Pope a large sum. Sicily at this time belonged to the Holy See. The King requested money from his Barons, they refused and forced the monarch to agree to the Provisions of Oxford, whereby he agreed to share his power with a council of Barons. Henry III soon rejected his oath and a brief period of war broke out. King. St. Louis IX of France was asked to arbitrate in the matter.
1260
Death of St. Boniface, Bishop of Lausanne.
Mameluke Ameer, Bibars the Arbelester, defeated the Mongols and took Syria from them in September. Bibars was proclaimed Sultan as a consequence of the conspiracy, began a ruthless war on the remaining Christian states.
The building of the Salisbury Cathedral was completed in England.