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JesusA wrote: Sat Apr 04, 2020 7:57 am March 24th was celebrated in ancient Rome as Dies Sanguinis (or the Day of Blood), the date on which the acolytes of the goddess Cybele, the Mother of the Gods, castrated themselves to become priests and to serve the goddess. Some theologians believe that Dies Sanguinis was the model for the holiday of Good Friday - a Christian day of blood.

Followers of Cybele believed that Attis castrated himself and died on the 24th. For the ancient Romans, however, it was the following day, March 25th, that was the day of resurrection. Attis was reborn on a day of grand celebration -- Hilaria, the Day of Joy.

As Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, the Papal Basilica of Saint Peter at the heart of the Vatican was erected on the site of the most important temple to Cybele (the foundations of which can reputedly still be seen in the Vatican basement). The site where the testicles of the new eunuch priests of the Mother of the Gods were interred was covered by the Christians with the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore - the great church erected to the Mother of Christ.

The faith dedicated to the Mother of the Gods was the greatest rival to early Christianity and the triumphant Christians tried to bury its major shrines and temples under Christian monuments throughout the empire. Many early Christian churches contain remnants of Cybele and her faith.

Some Christian theologians argue that Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, in which he stated that Christians did not need to be circumcised, was a reaction to the castration of followers of Cybele. Galatia was the center of her worship in the Roman Empire and castration and circumcision were equated in Roman law of the time.