At that time Pope Calixtus III., on the appearance of this Comet, seeing that evils were impending for the human race, called for prayers that the Almighty would turn these evils upon the Turks, the enemies of the Christian faith.
“A SWORD-SHAPED COMET BLAZED
OVER THE DOOMED HOLY CITY.”
—Josephus’ “History of Judea.”
At the same time the Holy Father gave orders for all Church bells to be tolled at noon to remind faithful Christians to pray for those battling against the Turk.
Into the Ave Maria were put the words: “From the Devil, the Turk and the Comet, Good Lord, deliver us!”
Since that time in most Catholic countries the Angelus is still regularly rung at noon. In Italy, even to-day, the cakes sold before the church doors at noon go by the name of Comete.
All the great Fathers of the Church have taught that Comets are to be taken as signs from Heaven.
Baeda, the Venerable, declared in the seventh century in England, that “Comets portend revolutions of kingdoms, pestilence, war, winds, or heat.”
John of Damascus, preaching in the same century in the Orient, laid down the same belief.
St. Thomas Aquinas, the great Light of the Church in the thirteenth century, accepted and handed down the same opinion.