What are the roots of a legend that inspired the construction of an early Christian church?
The vision The story goes that “once upon a time,” the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus, during a consultation with a prophetess about the future of the Empire, was told that another yet to come would be divine ruler of the world. Then Augustus beheld in the sky a ring of light surrounding the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus. Augustus told the senators of Rome about his vision, and with their encouragement built an altar to commemorate his vision. The church Many centuries later, the church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli (meaning “celestial altar”) was built in Rome to honor this miraculous vision. But how was it that the impetus for the construction of a Christian church had its roots in a vision attributed to the pagan Augustus Caesar and a prophecy by a Roman sibyl? Augustus’s death in A.D. 14 occurred almost twenty years before that of Christ, and Christianity didn’t become Rome’s official religion until 380. The connection Professor of classics Paul Burke, wanting to learn more about the
