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The Pope and the Vatican

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	What is the meaning for "Vicarius Filii Dei"? By Revelator Asked Apr 23 2004 1:00AM	5 Pts Rate Question

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by James Beatty on Apr 23, 2004 at 1:14 pm Permalink

The Latin phrase "Vicarius Filii Dei" means "Vicar of the Son of God." This phrase is in the Donation of Constantine, in which it is used as a title of St. Peter. Some people have claimed that it is still used as a title for the Pope, but the RCC vigorously denies this.

Interest in the phrase stems from the observation that if the roman numeral values of the letters are summed, the total is 666, as below:

V - 5
i - 1
c - 100
a
r
i - 1
u - 5 (in Latin, v's and u's were the same letter)
s
F
i - 1
l - 50
i - 1
i - 1
D - 500
e
i - 1

5+1+100+1+5+1+50+1+1+500+1 = 666.

It is claimed that "Vicarius Filii Dei" is written on the Papal Tiara, but there are in fact multiple Papal Tiaras, only one of which has any writing on it: "Christi Vicario in Terra Regum". No evidence has been produced to support the contention that "Vicarius Filii Dei" is used as a title of the Pope and historians and academics view the story as an urban legend.

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Ignatius Mar, 20 2005 at 01:07 AM

yep...but the SDA leader Ellen White's name does indeed add up to 666 LOL! Lame attack!

Truth Monger Apr, 22 2005 at 09:32 PM

Dead right...Ellen G.White of the Seventh Day Adventists came up with this trash. Her name DOES add up to 666

PROUDSDA2 Sep, 16 2006 at 11:12 AM

Ellen Gould White
0+50+50+0+0+0+0+5+50+500+0+0+1+0+0.
Now, add it up and you will get 656!
You all need to go back to pre-school because you obviously do not know how to count!

Answer 2 out of 3

by Phil9000 on Oct 16, 2006 at 5:58 am Permalink

The name Vicarius Filii Dei is not an official title of the Pope and never has been. The pope has dozens of titles, but not this one. The closest one to this is Vicarius Christi. The reason the title Vicarius Filii Dei was invented was because Protestants wanted to use a deceitful way to make the pope look bad because if you add up the Roman letters, you get the number 666. But this number can be attained from many people's names, and is completely meaningless. It is even more meaningless given the fact that it is invented. An example of a name which can be converted into 666 is that of "Ellen Gould White", founder of the Seventh Day Adventists. No one accepts this theory either.

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Answer 3 out of 3

by Canada on Feb 24, 2006 at 9:35 pm Permalink

Just a correction on some of the user comments. The correlation of Vicarius Filii Dei with 666 was made long before Ellen White or the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The first person I know of to make this connection was Andreas Helwig in 1612 in his book The Roman Antichrist.

Ellen White never applied 666 in this way in any of her writings. This can be verified at: http://www.whiteestate.org/ where there is a searchable database of her writings.