Facts on Different Religions
The toe of the metal statue of St. Peter in St. Peter's Cathedral, Rome, is worn down almost to a nub by the great number of pilgrims who have kissed it through the centuries.
The Roman Catholic population of the world is larger than that of all other Christian sects combined.
Hairs from the tail of a mule ridden by the crusader Peter the Hermit brought high prices as sacred relics throughout Europe in the fourteenth century.
Before the Chinese takeover of Tibet in 1952, 25 percent of the males in the country were Buddhist monks.
On the stone temples of Madura in southern India, there are more than 30 million carved images of gods and goddesses.
Throughout history, nearly all religions of he world had a celebration that falls close to Christmas. In Judaism it is Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights. Pre-Christian Scandinavians enjoyed the Feast of the Frost King. In Rome there was the Saturnalia, in Egypt the midwinter festival in honor the God Horus. The Druids had an annual mistletoe-cutting ceremony. Mithraists celebrated the feast of Sol Invictus, representing the victory of light over darkness. In Hinduism the feasts of Diwali and Taipongal are observed close to the Christmas season. Many other civilizations have similar festivals.
In the year 632, when the prophet Muhammad died, the Islamic empire comprised only an insignificant corner of Arabia. A little more than a hundred years later the Moslem religion had spread to Persia, Egypt, Syria, India, Central Asia, parts of northern Africa, and into southern Africa. In a century's time Islam had converted one-third of the world.
There have been more than 262 popes since Saint Peter.
Christianity has a billion followers. Islam is next in representation with half this number.
In the Greek monastery of Mount Athos nothing female is allowed. Men can enter but not women; roosters but no hens; horses but no mares; bulls but no cows. The border is patrolled by armed guards to ensure that nothing feminine passes the gates. It has been this way for more than 700 years.
Hugnes was archbishop of Reims in the tenth century when he was five years old. In the eleventh century Benedict IX was Pope at eleven years old.
The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas Carols.
Priests in ancient Egyptian temples plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.
Tibetan monks and Inca priests both practiced a brain operation called “trepanation,” in which a small hole was drilled through the skull of a living person, right between the eyes. Its purpose was to stimulate the pineal gland and thereby induce a mystical state of consciousness. The operation is occasionally still practiced today.