Walk to the left around the Pantheon to the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont. Saint Etienne (Saint Stephen), who died ca. AD 34, was said to be a deacon in an early church in Jerusalem. His martyrdom resulted from being stoned to death after being convicted of blasphemy against God and Moses and speaking against the Temple (a shrine built by Herod) and the Law (the Torah). The roots of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont originated in 1222 when Pope Honorius authorized the establishment of a church devoted to Saint Etienne. The church was enlarged in 1328 and a complete reconstruction was started late in the fifteenth century. The process took over a century and the new church was finally dedicated in 1626, although other additions such as an organ and revamped pulpit continued for a number of years. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the church was one of the most prestigious in city, but during the French Revolution the church was closed and turned into a Temple of Filial Piety. By 1801 Saint-Etienne was restored as a church for Catholic worship and, despite a few bumps along the road, has remained a Catholic church. Pope John Paul II celebrated mass there on August 23, 1997.
The most famous resident of Saint-Etienne-du-Mont is Sainte Genevieve, whose supposed relics are encased in an elaborate shrine. Sainte Genevieve is the patron saint of city. The church also contains the not-so-elaborate tombs of French inventor, mathematician, writer and Catholic philosopher Blaise Pascal (June 19, 1623-August 19, 1662) and French dramatist Jean-Baptiste Racine (December 22, 1639-April 21,1699). Racine was originally buried in Notre-Dame-des-Champs, an abbey southwest of city. Buried in the churchyard is Jean-Paul Marat (May 24, 1743-July 13, 1793), who was originally buried in the Pantheon but deemed unworthy of such a prestigious location and reinterred at Saint-Etienne. Alas, the churchyard has been built over and the precise location of his lead coffin is unknown.
William Bradford begins writing Of Plymouth Plantation. Philadelphia Map Tourist Attractions Ostensibly a history of the Plymouth Colony, it is also intended to be a record of God’s workings in the New World and an interpretation of God’s divine plan for His Puritan saints. Bradford will work on the manuscript until 1650, but he will never complete it. The manuscript will disappear at the time of the Country Revolution, during the British occupation of Boston, and not surface again until 1855, when it will be found in the library of the Bishop of London. Bradford’s work will be published the following year and returned to Country in 1897. 1636 Harvard University is founded as Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 1638 Stephen Daye and Elizabeth Glover establish the first printing press in North Country in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the first year of operation, the press produces the colonies’ first two imprints. The first, The Freeman’s Oath, is only one paragraph long; the second is An Almanac Calculated for New England by Mr. Pierce, Mariner.
