Dear Johan:

I am sorry but you make me laugh. The Catholic Faith was not determined by St. Constantine. That is a new revisionist history I had not heard before.

The Catholic Faith was and is determined and based upon the teachings of Christ and His apostles as presented in Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition. The magisterium of the Church is charged by Christ Himself and the Holy Spirit to defend, protect, guard, and teach the faith accurately. St. Constantine was not a member of the magisterium, and even had he been, no individual member of the magisterium, except the Pope, can make any definitive declaration on the faith. When the Pope, or the magisterium (as a council) in union with the Pope, does make a definitive declaration that declaration cannot contradict anything that is in Sacred Scriptures or Sacred Tradition that has come to us from Christ and the Apostles.

The pentagram is a pagan symbol drawn as a five-pointed with five straight strokes traced in unbroken motion that crisscross each other.

Its meaning varies. The medieval neo-pythagoreans considered the five points to be the five classical elements: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, and Aether (spirit, space, idea, void, quintessence).

The pentagram took on magical and occult meaning later on, especially in European occultism. Witches and Satanist eventually began to use the symbol for their own meanings and purposes.

It is very often stated that the Star of David is pentagram, but the Star of David is a six-pointed star, a hexagram, created by two interlaced triangles.

Christianity also uses the Star of David. For Christians, the six-pointed star is the Creator's Star or Star of Creation. Its six points stand for the six days of creation, and are also represent the six attributes of God: power, wisdom, majesty, love, mercy and justice.

Christianity does use a five-pointed star -- the Star of Bethlehem. It represents Jesus' birth and incarnation. Also known as the Epiphany Star, it is used especially for church decoration during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

The four-pointed star is also a symbol in Christianity is usually styled to resemble a cross. It is also known as the Star of Bethlehem or natal star, this star represents both Jesus' birth and the purpose for which he was born. It is used especially for church decoration during the Advent and Christmas seasons.

In addition, Christianity used eight, nine, and twelve pointed stars:

The eight-pointed star is the Star of Redemption or Regeneration and represents baptism. Eight is traditionally the number of regeneration, and thus many baptismal fonts have an octagonal base.

Providing added significance is the assumption that Jesus was circumcised and named when he was eight days old (the traditional Jewish practice); baptism is seen as the New Testament equivalent of circumcision.

Finally, eight persons were saved in Noah's ark, which is another Old Testament parallel of baptism.

The nine-pointed star symbolizes the nine fruits of the Spirit listed in the Epistle to the Galatians.

This star is sometimes shown with the Latin initials for each of the fruits (charitas, gaudium, pax, longanimitas, benignitas, bonitus, fides, mansuetudo and continentia) placed within the points.

The twelve-pointed star may be used to represent the twelve tribes of Israel or the twelve apostles.

It may also be used at Epiphany, the twelfth day of Christmas, on which the church celebrates the manifestation of Christ as the Son of God.

There is no credible evidence I can find that Christianity used a pentagram, sometimes said to representing the five wounds of Christ.

If, however, the Church wanted to co-opt the pentagram and Christianize it, which the Church has done with many symbols and feasts, to re-interpret the five points as the five wounds of Christ would be a likely way to Christianize the symbol.

This relates to the issue of Christian and pagan holidays having similarities. Often, as a means of evangelizing the pagan, the Church would assign Christian feast days on similar pagan days. For example, Christmas as December 25th was decided not because Jesus was born on December 25th, which he wasn't, but to counter the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice. The same is true with the placement of All Saints Day on the calendar at November 1st, the vigil of which is October 31st.

The obelisk in St. Peter's square was a pagan symbol, but the Church put a cross on the top of it, and made it a Christian symbol.

As for the similarities of virgin birth, death, and Resurrection of Christ with ancient pagan myths, this is not surprising. God is the Creator of all things. Thus, as the Great Artists of creation His fingerprints can be found in all of creation.

In the world before God revealed himself first through Israel and through Christ, the ancient peoples had only myths and nature to help them understand God. They did not have the benefit of God's Revelation (Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition) as we do today. So, they did the best they could. Since they were trying to understand God with their limited knowledge some of the symbols and practices touched on what is accurate, but primitive understandings.

All this is because God has written on the souls of men a basic knowledge of Himself. Thus, there will always be an inkling of knowledge God and His ways, albeit primitive, misunderstood, and misapplied.

For example, because of this inherent understanding of God, ancient peoples discerned that a sacrifice to God was needed. Human sacrifice was not what God intended, but without more specific understanding, that is how these people interpreted these inherent promptings. Human sacrifice practiced by these people was an inkling of the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross that was to come.

A similar analysis can be made to birth, death, and resurrection myths of pagan peoples. They inherently knew something like this was part of God, but could not fully grasp it, thus the myths developed. These myths looked forward to when these things became literally true in history, when God revealed Himself more completely in His son, Jesus, and further with the Scriptures of the New Testament. It is only with that revelation of the Old Testament and Christ and the New Testament that we can understand these things.

Thus, the ancient myths were merely shadows of the inherent knowledge God had implanted into the souls of each person that looked forward to the historical reality and more complete Revelation of God that was to come.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary