20131700th Anniversary of the Edict of Milan - Sheetlets

Christianity was rapidly spreading throughout the Roman Empire for which Jesus’ Apostles were responsible by preaching the good news to the world - the gospel. They all gave their lives for the Christ, only John the Evangelist died of natural causes at the advanced age. The Apostle Paul form the persecutor became a preacher of Christianity, in his missionary journeys he visited the whole empire, and with other apostles spread the Christianity beyond Palestine. To stop that religious plague, the Roman emperors have organized persecutions of Christians. The most massive persecutions were organized by emperors: Nero, Domitian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus. The first Roman emperor who was fond of Christians was Severus Alexander. But persecutions flared up again because they were organized by Maximus Thracian, Decius, Valerian, while the largest persecutions culminated with the emperor Diocletian and his contemporaries Galerius and Maximilian. The last persecution was organized during the emperor Licinius (308. - 324.). On the deathbed, the emperor Galerius, a persecutor of Christians, issued the Edict of Tolerance in which he gave forgiveness to Christians, in 311. in Nicomedia.
In 313. in Milan, the emperor Constantine I. the Great, Tetrarch of the West and Licinius jointly issued the Edict and by it officially prohibited the persecutions of Christians in the Roman empire. The emperor Constantine (Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus Augustus) was born in Naissus (today's Nis) on 27th February 272. or 273., and died in Nicomedia on 22nd May 337. He was the Roman emperor from 306 to till his death. Baptized by the seriously ill, and on his own request, the Eusebius of Nicomedia in Nicomedia. His body was transferred to the Constantinople and buried in the Church of the Holy Apostles. (Friar Ante Marić)