Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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ANNO DOMINI

In the year of our Lord. Abbreviated A.D., it is based on the supposed year of Christ's birth devised by Dionysius Exiguus (d. 550). Modern scholarship agrees that the actual birth was several years earlier, either between 7 and 4 B.C., based on the death of Herod the Great (Matthew 2:19) in 4 B.C., or at A.D. 6, based on the great taxation under Quirinius (Luke 2:1-2).