What does the miter say on it in English? and spell it out for me what it precisely means Thank you and God Bless

-- Adam Blackmore (Apostchurc@aol.com), January 17, 1998

Answers

Dear Lynch,
If an impartial reader goes to the epistle to the Romans; in the 1st chapter at verse 8, Saint Paul makes the plain assertion that may settle any doubts about what Rome was and still is:

''First, I give thanks to my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed all over the world.'' and at verse 12, ''. . . That among you (ROME) I may be comforted together with you (ROMANS) by that faith which is common to us both (the Catholic Faith); yours and mine.''

How is it then, you feel free to contradict Saint Paul?

-- eugene c. chavez (chavezec@pacbell.net), December 09, 2001.

1. There is nothing written on any miter.
2. The string of words, "vicarius filii Dei," is a bogus title, not one used by the popes.

-- (_@_._), December 09, 2001.

Lynch,

you said,

The original miter says Vicarius-Filleii-Dei which means vicar of the son of GOD

Can you provide a link or citation to prove this? The only people who (wrongly, I might add) even assert this are misguided (or evil) people attempting to slur Christ's church. I would ask you to either prove your statement, or retract it. Remember, God really DOES judge you on your works, especially if you turn people from him.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), December 10, 2001.

Frank,
If you are interested in reading the details about this battle between an anti-Catholic, ex-Adventist fringe group and a Catholic apologist, Patrick Madrid (editor of "Surprised by Truth" [I & II] and "Envoy" magazine), please click here.

We also discussed this subject, in less depth, at the forum, earlier in the year.

God bless you.
John

-- (jfgecik@hotmail.com), December 10, 2001.

The word Vicarius in Latin really means 'in place of' (I.E. the pope standing in the place of Christ. The phrase is on the miter, you can go to various websites to verify this.

Another view that seems to be rapidly growing in popularity is that because the phrase 'Vicarius Philii Dei' does in fact add up to 666, the the real meaning behing the word vicarius is instead of, or in place of! Remember that we are told the the number 666 is the number of a man's name.

I know that there are true believers in the birth, death, and resurection of Jesus Christ, that belong to the Roman Catholic Church. At some point in the future God will call those of you out of that environment. Please strengthen yourselves, stay in the Bible, and pray. The Bible promises us in James 3:8 that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. What an awesome statement - belief it and He will guide you in all things. (Prov 4:5-6)

Dennis Doolittle Milwaukee, WI

-- Dennis Doolittle (DennisDA2003@yahoo.com), September 06, 2003.

Dear Dennis,

You have been duped! It doesn't matter what the word "vicarius" means in Latin, because the word "vicarius" does not appear on the Pope's miter, on anybody else's miter, or on ANY official text in the entire history of the Catholic Church. It is no coincidence that the letters of the phrase add up to 666 - they were intentionally DESIGNED to do so by Lorraine Boettner, the professional anti-Catholic bigot who first designed and published the phrase and its accompanying myth in the early 1940's. Looks like Jack Chick conned another poor soul without the background to recognize foolishness.

I know that there are true believers in the birth, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, that belong to the thousands of conflicting denominations of Protestantism. At this very point in time God is calling you out of that manmade tradition. The Bible promises us in James 3:8 that if we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us, and you can't be closer to Him than in the one true Church He personally founded for you and all of mankind.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), September 06, 2003.

There is a Protestant legion that the pope's tiara (not miter) holds the inscription: Vicarius Filii Dei, meaning "Vicar of the Son of God," a title, they say, is in common use, for the Pope and that the letters if converted into Roman numerals would add up to 666. It takes a bit of poetic license to get this sum since some of the letters simply don't translate into roman numerals. But if you ignore the letters that don't translate, you do, indeed come to the sum of 666. Numerology, by the way is superstition, a type of magic, and condemned by most major Christian denominations, but that doesn't seem to be a barrior if they can attack Catholics. Anyway, we continue:

Why convert to roman numerals instead of the place of the letter in the roman alphabet, or some other method? The answer is that by using this dubious method they came up with 666 and it stuck.

Who are *they*? This rumor started by protestants during the reformation (big surprise) and has been promulgated ever since by those whose agenda is to do harm to the pope. This is repeated frequently today by the Seventh Day Adventists.

But was the title really commonly used? Or was it made up by the protestants during the Reformation?

From what I can tell, it was not commonly used. In fact there is very good evidence that it was made up, since the only use anyone seems to have found was in one document by Constentine.

Also note that there is no evidence, statue, bust, painting, drawing or even description of any of the many tiaras that were crafted that any papal tiara ever had the name or title of a pope emblazoned on it. I saw one protestant tract drawing with it, but that was obviously a sloppy drawing for the purpose of the tract.

In a way this really is a mute point because Pope John Paul II was not crowned with the papal tiara when he was enthroned. The last Pope to wear the crown was Pope Paul VI. The miter that he does wear does not have anything written on it.

As far as I can tell, the pope never uses the title “Vicarius Filii Dei”. It’s not an official title of the Pope. The official titles of the Pope are: Holy Father Bishop of Rome Vicar of Jesus Christ Successor of the Chief of the Apostles Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church Patriarch of the West Primate of Italy Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman Province Sovereign of the State of Vatican City.

There has been a reference to an obscure document which many feel is a forgery, suposedly by Constantine using the term (but not as a title). From what I can tell it has never been a title for the pope.

You see, a papal title had to be invented by those who hate Catholics, one that could produce the magic number, in order to give this argument legs. One wonders if people who can do such a thing are really following the teachings of Christ. But I digress, to continue:

There was, unfortunately, an incorrect report by 'Our Sunday Visitor', in 1915, that said that the term was inscribed not on the Tiara but on the Pope's mitre and is referenced in the Catholic Encyclopedia. Neither is correct.

This has been around for so long and disproved so many times as to become really redundant. However, if it is the first time you have heard about it, there are some references online: http://www.shasta.com/sphaws/vicar.html http://www.newadvent.org/faq/920902.htm http://catholicoutlook.com/objpope2.html

In Christ, Bill Nelson

-- Bill Nelson (bnelson45@hotmail.com), September 06, 2003.

One curious and slightly amusing fact associated with this silliness is that Seventh Day Adventists didn't really have to seek out a manufactured Latin phrase in their quest for the identity of the Antichrist (the one whose name yields 666, in their opinion). They could have found it much closer to home. The Name Ellen Harmon White yields 666 in Roman numeric values. In case you don't recognize the name, Mrs. White was the founder of Seventh Day Adventism.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), September 06, 2003.

Paul,
In the articles I've read in the past on this subject, the equation of Mrs. White's name with 666 has referred to her as "Ellen Gould White." Since you referred to her as "Ellen Harmon White," I did a little digging and found an encyclopedia reference that says this:
"Ellen Gould (nee Harmon) White, 1827–1915, leader of the Seventh-Day Adventists, born in Gorham, Maine."

At this point, I don't know if 666 is derived from the use of "Harmon" or "Gould." You may want to look into this to get right combo of names, if you think that you may be presenting it to an Adventist some day.

God bless you.
John

-- J. F. Gecik (jfgecik@hotmail.com), September 07, 2003.

Hi John,

You are right. The lady in question was born Ellen Gould Harmon. She later married James White. She is frequently referred to, even in Adventist literature, as Ellen Gould White; Ellen Harmon White; and even Ellen Gould Harmon White. However, it is the form "Ellen Gould White", not "Ellen Harmon White", which renders "666" if converted to Roman numeric values. Which of course has no real significance, but we might as well get it right . :-) Thanks.

-- Paul (PaulCyp@cox.net), September 07, 2003.