Who was the first Catholic?

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I would have to say the apostle Thomas. Peter may have been the foundation, but Jesus didn’t say ‘on this rock I’m building my Church right now’ but ‘on this rock I will build my Church’. Thomas was the first to confess to Jesus’ divinity, and so the first Catholic.
 
lepanto said:
The first Catholic in history must be the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she was the first to accept Jesus Christ.
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Hi

I don’t agree with this. In my opinion; Paul was the founder of the (Catholic) Church, which has nothing to do with Jesus and Mary, as they both were on their journey to Persia, Afghanistan, North Western part of Pakistan, India, Tibet and Kashmir.

Paul founded the present Christianity at Rome using name of Jesus as a cover only.

Others could have different opinions; they are entitled to, out of free will.

Thanks
 
paarsurrey said:
Hi

I don’t agree with this. In my opinion; Paul was the founder of the (Catholic) Church, which has nothing to do with Jesus and Mary, as they both were on their journey to Persia, Afghanistan, North Western part of Pakistan, India, Tibet and Kashmir.

Paul founded the present Christianity at Rome using name of Jesus as a cover only.

Others could have different opinions; they are entitled to, out of free will.

Thanks
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Yes he spread the religion but the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Saviour was St. Mary the Blessed Virgin.

“And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
 
holdencaulfield said:
Yes he spread the religion but the first to acknowledge Jesus Christ as God and Saviour was St. Mary the Blessed Virgin.
“And Mary said: My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Luke 1:46-47)
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Hi

Sorry, I don’t agree with you. Mary never, in my opinion, considered Jesus as God. She was a Jew and a firm believer in GodAllahYHWH.

The Holy Quran : Chapter 19: Maryam

[19:17] And relate the story of Mary as mentioned in the Book, when she withdrew from her people to an eastern place;
[19:18] And screened herself off from them. Then We (GodAllahYHWH) sent Our angel to her and he appeared to her in the form of a well proportioned man.
[19:19] She said, ‘I seek refuge with the Gracious God from thee if indeed thou dost fear Him.’
[19:20] The angel said, ‘I am only a messenger of thy Lord (GodAllahYHWH), that I may give thee glad tidings of a righteous son.’
www3.alislam.org/showChapter.jsp?ch=19&verse=10

Mary, in my opinion, considered Jesus only her son. She did not consider Jesus as Son of God or God.

Thanks
 
Uncle_Norbert said:
Being the first to accept Jesus Christ sounds awfully Protestant-ish to me :confused:
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Yes, I realized that that verbiage sounded Protestant when I was writing it, but I went ahead with it anyways because Protestants have no monopoly on the concept of “accepting” Jesus Christ.

People were accepting Christ 1500 years before Luther.
 
Deusdonat said:
I think logic dictates that the church began on Pentecost, so everyone in the room who received the holy spirit (the BVM included) were the first Catholics.
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Then what would you call Christ’s followers in the time before the Pentecost? Christian?

In that era, to be Christian was to be Catholic.
 
VARC said:
Great thread. This ought to be fun. I think that why should be mentioned as well.

My vote is for Charlemagne. It was he who defied Popes Adrain IV and Leo III by insisting that Filioque be added to the Creed. His motive was to seperate the Romans in the East (Constantinople) from the Romans in the West (Rome). By doing so, he could, with the help of his barbarian brethren (Goths, Lombards, Vandals,etc) more subjugate the west romans and expand his Frankish kingdom.

His efforts were rewarded when in 1014 Pope Benedict XIII, of germanic origin, inserted Filioque in the Creed at Old Rome. Within one generation, Old Rome demanded that the other catholic patriarchates add filioque as well. When they refused, Old Rome, with the support of the Franks and the “Holy Roman” Empire, excommunicated every other orthodox catholic church in the world. And that schism exists to this very day.
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Pope Benedict XIII lived from 1328 to 1423.

:confused: :confused: :confused: :confused:

Please try again.
 
how could any of the other pre-Jesus people be considered the first “Universal” ? Universal WHAT? Catholic WHAT? The Church wasn’t founded yet.
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you already answered your question.
 
lepanto said:
In that era, to be Christian was to be Catholic.
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This is what I was thinking when I first posted in post #2. When you ask who was the first Catholic you are asking who was the first Christian. Someone said wouldn’t it be Our Lord, but I think that would be redundant, since He is Christ (Christian = is a shorten version of Christ). And although Christ did choose those (the Apostles) to sheppard His church, at the time he had already had many followers (Christians). Mary was the very first, to accept Christ, since she did know about His presences before all other humans. St John the Baptist was second since He leaped in his mothers womb at the presence of Our Lord and St Elizabeth the third since she proclaimed Christ as her Lord at Mary’s visit. And it goes on from there.

I hope that made sense. But those are my thoughts.
 
O.S.Luke said:
If Mary was the first Catholic, when was she baptized?
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Good question. Maybe she didn’t need to be baptized because her immaculate conception protected her from original sin.

But then again, maybe she was baptized, but this simply was not recorded.
 
Hi,All
“Let no one do anything of concern to the Church without the bishop. Let that be considered a valid Eucharist which is celebrated by the bishop or by one whom he ordains *. Wherever the bishop appears, let the people be there; just as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Letter to the Smyrneans 8:2 [A.D. 110]).
Catholic Answers Library.

This may help nail it down; my guess is evryone baptized while Jesus was still with the apostles.

Peace,OneNow1*
 
LadyGriffin said:
I think John the Baptist and Our Lady would be the first Christians. It would be difficult to be a catholic until the church was actually formed.
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Catholic and Christian are synonomous. There is no difference. Now, if you are talking about the “established Church on earth” then we are probably looking at starting with Pentacost. But if we are looking for the first Christian (don’t let the word Catholic throw you, they are the same thing), then it would be Mary.

Everyone at that time who was Christian was Catholic. Period. There were no other options (of Christianity).

~Liza
 
Mary was the first Catholic, the first Christian, the first Believer, the first to “have” Jesus, the first to “know” Jesus (not just “know of”).

Take every Christian bragging point today and only one soul can lay claim to meeting all of them (although she’d probably never boast of such a thing).

She is the Prime Christian as Peter is the Prime Apostle.

No matter how one slices it, she was the first in anything that had anything to do with Jesus pretty much. She was the first human being that Jesus touched. He even got all of His DNA, flesh and blood from her (where as Eve got hers from Adam, Mary gave hers to Jesus).

By the way, before one joins The Catholic Church, one has to become a “Catholic Christian” first.

Our Catholicity comes before The Church.

We come to The Church “because” we are Catholics.
 
I think you’re letting your reverence toward Mary cloud your judgement. There was no Christian Church to be a part of prior to Christ naming Peter “Rock”.

I take absolutely nothing away from Mary. But the question was “Who was the first Catholic?”

There was no “Catholic” or “Universal” church to be the “first” of at the time of Jesus’ conception or birth.

While he came to form the Church, it was not yet formed.:banghead:
 
Uncle_Norbert said:
I think you’re letting your reverence toward Mary cloud your judgement. There was no Christian Church to be a part of prior to Christ naming Peter “Rock”.

I take absolutely nothing away from Mary. But the question was “Who was the first Catholic?”

There was no “Catholic” or “Universal” church to be the “first” of at the time of Jesus’ conception or birth.

While he came to form the Church, it was not yet formed.:banghead:
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Christ **IS **the Church. And He became man at His conception. So there for there obviously was a Church before Pentecost.

Also to be Catholic is to be Christian, you cannot separate the two.
 
The Catholic (universal) Church began at Pentecost.

Acts of the Apostles,chapter 2:

1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.
2
And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.
3
Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.
4
And they were all filled with the holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.
5
Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven staying in Jerusalem.
6
At this sound, they gathered in a large crowd, but they were confused because each one heard them speaking in his own language.
7
They were astounded, and in amazement they asked, “Are not all these people who are speaking Galileans?
8
Then how does each of us hear them in his own native language?
9
We are Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
10
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya near Cyrene, as well as travelers from Rome,
11
both Jews and converts to Judaism, Cretans and Arabs, yet we hear them speaking in our own tongues of the mighty acts of God.”
 
38
Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit.
39
For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.”
40
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
41
Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day.
42
8 They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.
43
Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
44
All who believed were together and had all things in common;
45
they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.
46
Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes. They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart,
47
praising God and enjoying favor with all the people. And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.
 
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