The Meteorite That Changed The Course of Christianity

For more than two centuries, Christianity suffered under the Roman Empire. Christians were arrested, tortured, mutilated, burned, and starved. Christian buildings and the homes of Christians were torn down and their sacred books burned. The religious persecutions came to an end when Emperor Constantine ascended the throne. Unlike his predecessors, the emperor was a great patron of the Church. He built an extraordinary number of basilicas around the length and breadth of the empire, granted privileges to clergy, endowed the church with land and wealth, and even returned property confiscated from Christians by earlier rulers. Battle of the Milvian Bridge by Giulio Romano, 1520-24. What made Emperor Constantine convert to Christianity has been debated and discussed by theologians and historians for centuries. It is possible that Constantine's mother exposed him to Christianity from an early age. But many historians believe that Constantine experienced a dramatic event in 312 just before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge began, on the banks of Tiber on the outskirts of modern-day Rome, leaving a profound effect on the future emperor. Eusebius, one of the Christian Church's early historians, describes a vision that Constantine had while marching towards the site of the battle: ...while he was thus praying with fervent entreaty, a most marvelous sign appeared to him from heaven, the account of which it might have been hard to believe had it been related by any other person. ...about noon, when the day was already beginning to decline, he saw with his own eyes the trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the Sun, and bearing the inscription 'conquer by this'. At this sight he himself was struck with amazement, and his whole army also, which followed him on this expedition, and witnessed the miracle.