Word: callistus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Italian Popes of the 15th century were both members of Spain's notorious Borgia family. Alonso de Borgia, elected as Callistus III (1455-58), made the papacy a family affair. So did his nephew Rodrigo, who became Alexander VI in 1492 and named four nephews, as well as his illegitimate son Cesare, Cardinals. In 1503, both father and son fell gravely ill. Alexander died after a week's illness; Cesare survived. It is widely thought that the two master poisoners accidentally partook of the poisoned beverage that they had intended for a rival Cardinal...
...Domitilla, St. Callistus, St. Sebastian-these are among the early Christians whose shrines attract thousands of pilgrims to the catacombs underneath Rome. The 1929 Concordat that established Vatican rule over these ancient burial grounds also gave the Roman Catholic Church control of two other catacombs in which it had little interest. These, several centuries older than the Christian sites, contained the graves of more than 100,000 of the Jews who had migrated to the ancient capital after the 1st century B.C. And so the crypts were sealed off and left in darkness...
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