Vatican History

Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods. Over the past century...

Weird but True Stories from the Vatican: Bizarre, Shocking, and Unbelievable Tales of Popes and Power Step behind the holy veil and discover the bizarre side of Vatican history. From corpse trials and papal poisonings to secret exorcisms and beard bans, this gripping and entertaining book uncovers ten strange but true stories from the Catholic Church’s past—each more astonishing than the last. Every chapter reveals a real event drawn from verified historical records and firsthand accounts. Meet the pope who sold the papacy, the one who may have died laughing, and the castrato singer ...

FOLLOWING HIS 2017 DEBUT IN 'THE RAIDERS', JED MASON RETURNS IN AN EPIC ACTION-THRILLER QUEST! The Knights Templar. An Ancient Relic. An Epic Quest. Ex-soldier and MI6 operative Jed Mason is on his final mission and looking forward to a new life when he is involved in a car crash with an American scholar in the Lazio countryside. Offering to drive her into Rome, Mason soon learns she is connected to an important Vatican announcement due later that evening, one that will shock the world forever. But minutes into the event, sinister masked terrorists storm the Sistine Chapel and take everyone...

A gripping spiritual thriller for readers of Dan Brown, Glenn Cooper, and José Rodrigues dos Santos. If you enjoy stories that blend ancient secrets, human emotion, and bold questions about faith and history, this novel is for you. In a forgotten wing of the Vatican, young altar server Lucas is assigned to care for a mysterious old priest named Simon—a man the Church has hidden from view for decades. What begins as a routine task becomes a life-altering journey when Simon starts to share a story long erased from official history. A story about Jesus not as a distant divinity, but as a ...

For more than 25 years John Thavis held one of the most fascinating journalistic jobs in the world: reporting on the inner workings of the Vatican. His daily exposure to the power, politics, and personalities in the seat of Roman Catholicism gave him a unique, behind-the-scenes perspective on an institution that is far less monolithic and unified than it first appears. Thavis reveals Vatican City as a place where Curia cardinals fight private wars, scandals threaten to undermine papal authority, and reverence for the past is continually upended by the practical considerations of modern life.

The enduring influence of the Catholic Church has many sources, but in the first half of the 19th century, the foundations upon which the church had rested were shaken. For many people, liberalism in the guise of liberty, equality, and fraternity was the quintessence of the evils that shook those foundations. At the Vatican Council of 1869-1870, the church made an effort to set things right by defining the doctrine of papal infallibility. Author John W. O'Malley draws us into the bitter controversies over papal infallibility that at one point seemed destined to rend the church in two.

The Vatican is one of the most iconic places in the world—at once a sacred space, a political state, and the spiritual heart of a global faith. Yet for many, it remains a mystery cloaked in centuries of tradition, power, and paradox. What is the Vatican, really? How did it become what it is today? And why does it still matter? This book was written to answer those questions in a way that is both accessible and deeply meaningful. Whether you are a person of faith, a student of history, or simply curious about the world's smallest country with the largest spiritual reach, A Brief History of...

A leading Catholic intellectual explains why the teachings of the Second Vatican Council are essential to the Church's future—and the world's The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) was the most important Catholic event in the past five hundred years. Yet sixty years after its opening on...

THE VATICAN SECRET: Beyond the Labyrinth of Faith. What if the foundations of your reality were built on a selective truth? Beneath the Holy City lies a cognitive bifurcation—a hidden parallel history guarded by 85 kilometers of secret shelving. This investigation pulls back the veil on the most protected knowledge in human history, designed to bridge the gap between what you’ve been told and what is actually being hidden.

Now updated with a new preface by Michael Pollan and an exclusive bonus chapter. This audiobook also includes a foreword written and read by Graham Hancock, the New York Times bestselling author of America Before: The Key to Earth's Lost Civilization. THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER As seen on The...

During the German occupation of Rome from 1942-1944, Irishman Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty ran an escape organization for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews. Safe within the Vatican state, he regularly ventured out in disguise to continue his mission, which earned him the nickname 'The Pimpernel of the Vatican'. When the Allies entered Rome, he and his collaborators - priests, nuns, and laypeople of numerous nationalities and religious beliefs - had saved the lives of over 6,500 people.

This is the extended edition of my guidebook. In this edition, I have included more information about the Sistine Chapel, as well as detailed descriptions of the major Papal Basilicas in Rome: Santa Maria Maggiore, St. John Lateran, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. This book will help you if you plan on visiting the Vatican or if you simply want to know more about it. The Vatican is an enormous place, full of artwork and history. It can even feel overwhelming when you visit it. Saint Peter's Basilica is filled with Baroque sculptures, the Vatican Museums contain art from all time periods, ...

In this popular introduction to church history, now in its third edition, Mark Noll isolates key events that provide a framework for understanding the history of Christianity. The book presents Christianity as a worldwide phenomenon rather than just a Western experience. Students in academic settings and church adult education contexts will benefit from this one-semester survey of Christian history.

In this disturbing exposé, journalist Paul L. Williams describes a secret alliance forged at the close of World War II by the CIA, the Sicilian and US mafias, and the Vatican to thwart the possibility of a Communist invasion of Europe. Williams presents evidence suggesting the existence, in many European countries, of "stay-behind" units consisting of 5,000 to 15,000 military operatives.

THE ESCAPE BEGAN WHEN THE WAR ENDED When the Third Reich collapsed, the world believed justice was coming. But in the shadows of ruined Europe, another operation had already begun. In the final days of World War II, Nazi officials, SS officers, concentration camp commanders, collaborators, and war criminals knew the Allied armies were closing in. Berlin was falling. The camps were being liberated. Evidence was being uncovered. Trials were being prepared. For the men who had served Hitler’s empire, the question was no longer whether Germany would survive. The question was whether they ...

Bloomsbury presents You Can, If You Want To: Navigating Christian Faith, Conscience, and matters LGBTQ+, written and read by James Alison What if Christianity was far more liberating than the culture wars suggest? Can the conflict concerning Christianity and homosexuality be viewed from a more...

Trace the incredible transformation of a humble spiritual movement into a formidable economic powerhouse in Salvation for Sale: How Financial Ingenuity Built the Vatican’s Global Empire. This detailed historical narrative explores the intersection of faith and finance, illustrating how the early church navigated centuries of change to establish one of the world's most enduring institutions. From the secret gatherings of early believers to the sovereign halls of Vatican City, this book unmasks the economic strategies—from imperial patronage to land acquisition—that funded a global ...

Five hundred years ago, Michelangelo began work on a painting that became one of the most famous pieces of art in the world - the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Every year millions of people come to see Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling, which is the largest fresco painting on earth in the holiest of Christianity's chapels; yet there is not one single Christian image in this vast, magnificent artwork.

From a master chronicler of legal and financial misconduct, a magnificent investigation nine years in the making, this book traces the political intrigue and inner workings of the Catholic Church. Decidedly not about faith, belief in God, or religious doctrine, this audiobook is about the church's accumulation of wealth and its byzantine entanglements with financial markets across the world.

Rome was not built in a day, but it has been blocking traffic ever since. Welcome to a city where emperors fought as gladiators, sacred chickens influenced military decisions, sewer covers judged liars, and anonymous statues insulted popes before social media made public humiliation convenient. Weird Rome Travel takes you beyond the standard ruins-and-gelato tour and into the stranger side of the Eternal City. Wander through the Colosseum and Roman Forum, descend beneath churches into forgotten temples, follow a papal escape passage to Castel Sant’Angelo, and meet the cats now ruling the ...