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jubilee

File:StampVatican1933Michel17,19.JPG · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Also known as Jubilee Year, Holy Year, Catholic Jubilee, Christian Jubilee

special year of remission of sins in the Catholic Church

Wikidata facts

Instance of
event
Subclass of
year
Show 4 more facts
Commons category
Christian Jubilees
point in time
2025-00-00
topic's main category
Category:Jubilee (Christianity)
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~23 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Vatican stamps of 1933 marking the holy year A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a jubilee year is mentioned as occurring every 50th year (after 49 years, 7×7, as per Leviticus 25:8) during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.

In Western Christianity, the tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year, following which ordinary jubilees have generally been celebrated every 25 or 50 years, with additional "extraordinary" jubilees declared depending on the need. Catholic jubilees, particularly in the Latin Church, generally involve a pilgrimage to a sacred site, normally the city of Rome.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “jubilee” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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