Ronald V. Huggins

Saint Barbara (15th Century), Milwaukee Museum of Art, (Photo: Ron Huggins) The following 28 saints and groups of saints (with the exception of Saint Cecilia) were removed from the Roman Catholic Church calendar during the 1969 reforms of Pope Paul VI. The issue was that while they could not prove these saints didn't exist, the evidence that they did was lacking. St. Barbara is the last name on the list: Saints who present serious historical difficulties: Greater difficulties are exhibited by: (1) Saint Paul the Hermit (January 15), Saint Maurus (January 15), Saint Martina (January 30), Saint Domitilla (May 12), Saint Boniface of Tarsus (May 14), Saint Venantius (May 18), Saint Pudentiana (May 19), Saints Modestus and Crescentia (June 15), Saints John and Paul (June 26), Saint Alexius (July 17), Saints Symphorosa and her sons (July 18), Saint Margaret (July 20), Saint Christopher (July 25), Saint Susanna (August 11), Saint Hippolytus (August 22), the Holy Twelve Brothers (September...

Students of Raphael (Gianfrancesco Penni? Giulio Romano?), "Donation of Constantine" Vatican, Apostolic Palace (1520-1524) (Photo: Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0) The Donation of Constantine Forgery in English and Latin with the parts quoted in Leo IX's letter to Patriarch Michael Cerularius in bold in both.  The forgery was famously debunked by Lorenzo Valla which is available in Christopher B. Coleman’s The Treatise of Lorenzo Valla on the Donation of Constantine: Text and Translation into English (New Haven: Yale University Press / London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 1922). Medieval Sourcebook: The Donation of Constantine (c.750—800)   Introduction provided by Medieval Sourcebook: This is perhaps the most famous forgery in history. For centuries, until Lorenzo Valla proved it was forgery during the Renaissance it provided the basis for papal territorial and jurisdictional claims in Italy. Probably at least a first draft of it was made shortly after t...