Creating A.D. and B.C.

From 500 to 535, a monk from modern day Southwest Russia, Dionysius “Exiguus” (470-544) worked in Rome. Dionysius had a talent for collecting Church data and drawing up information tables. It was during his time in Rome that he went to work calculating the timetables and making calendars for future Easter holidays. Instead of continuing in the Roman tradition of assigning calendar dates based on the emperor, in this case Diocletian, Dionysius made Christ’s Incarnation the basis of his new paschal calendar. According to Dionysius the center point of history would be Christ’s birth not Diocletian’s reign. Hereafter, events preceding Jesus’ birth would be B.C. and the epoch after his birth would be called A.D. The abbreviation does not mean “after death,” as commonly assumed. A.D. is the abbreviation for Anno Domini, i.e., “Year of the Lord”. More specially the Year of the Lord’s birth. Interestingly, the year 0 was not assigned to this new calendar and the year jumped from 247 to 532. In approximately A.D. 525, Dionysius sumitted his work to the leaders of the Church.