Scripture never moved the Sabbath. So when someone asks who did, the answer is often a quote — a cardinal, a catechism, a Catholic newspaper. Many of those quotes are real. Some have drifted from what was actually printed, a few are pinned on the wrong person, and at least one famous line was never printed at all. This sheet gathers the statements people share most, checked against the original books and newspapers, so that what you pass on is what was really said.
Why this sheet exists
The case for the seventh day stands on Scripture, not on quotations. The Bible says “the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God” (Exodus 20:10) and foretold a power that would “think to change times and laws” (Daniel 7:25). The quotes below are witnesses, not foundations. But a witness who is misquoted discredits the one who quotes him — and the truth deserves better than that. A false quote handed to a sincere Catholic or Protestant friend can close a door that an honest one would have opened.
What the labels mean
- Verified The wording was checked against the original book, newspaper, or a reliable scan of it. Use it with the citation given.
- Verified · corrected wording Genuine, but the version that circulates is altered — a word, a page, a date, or the author. Use the corrected wording given here.
- As reported The original could not be located; it is known only from later printings. If you use it, say “as reported in…” and name the earliest report.
- Don’t use Fabricated, misattributed, or misapplied. Shown crossed out, with what to use instead.
Find an answer fast
Part I · Catholic catechisms
The Catechism of the Council of Trent (Roman Catechism)
Part III, Third Commandment — McHugh & Callan tr. (Wagner, 1923/1934), p. 402
But the Church of God has thought it well to transfer the celebration and observance of the Sabbath to Sunday.
Cite as · Catechism of the Council of Trent, tr. McHugh & Callan, p. 402
Henry Turberville, An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine (“the Douay Catechism”)
New York: John Doyle, 1833, p. 58 — “The Third Commandment Expounded”
Q. How prove you that the Church hath power to command feasts and holydays? A. By the very act of changing the sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same Church.
Cite as · Turberville, An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine (1833), p. 58
The same catechism (original 1649 edition): why Sunday is called Sunday
Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine (1649)
Q. What is Sunday, or the Lord’s Day in general? A. It is a day dedicated by the Apostles to the honour of the most holy Trinity, and in memory that Christ our Lord arose from the dead upon Sunday, sent down the holy Ghost on a Sunday, &c. and therefore is called the Lord’s Day. It is also called Sunday from the old Roman denomination of Dies Solis, the day of the sun, to which it was sacred.
Cite as · Tuberville, An Abridgment of Christian Doctrine (1649)
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism
New York: Dunigan, 1848 (same pagination in the 1876 ed.), p. 174
Q. Have you any other way of proving that the Church has power to institute festivals of precept? A. Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her;—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.
Cite as · Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism (1848), p. 174
Stephen Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism — on the Protestant rule of faith
New York: Dunigan, 1848, pp. 352, 354
Q. Is the observance of Sunday, as the day of rest, a matter clearly laid down in Scripture? A. It certainly is not. … Q. What do you conclude from all this? A. That Protestants have no Scripture for the measure of their day of rest, that they abolish the observance of Saturday without warrant of Scripture, that they substitute Sunday in its place without Scriptural authority, consequently, that for all this, they have only traditional authority.
Cite as · Keenan, A Doctrinal Catechism (1848), pp. 352, 354
Peter Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism of Catholic Doctrine
2nd ed., 1910 (Vatican approbation, Jan 25, 1910), p. 50; same in the 12th ed., 1937
Q. Which is the Sabbath day? A. Saturday is the Sabbath day. Q. Why do we observe Sunday instead of Saturday? A. We observe Sunday instead of Saturday because the Catholic Church, in the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 336), transferred the solemnity from Saturday to Sunday.
Cite as · Geiermann, The Convert’s Catechism (1910), p. 50
The Baltimore Catechism
Baltimore Catechism No. 2 (1885), Q. 356–357
Q. Why does the Church command us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath? A. The Church commands us to keep the Sunday holy instead of the Sabbath because on Sunday Christ rose from the dead, and on Sunday He sent the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles.
Cite as · Baltimore Catechism No. 2 (1885), Q. 357
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (today)
vatican.va — §2175
Sunday is expressly distinguished from the sabbath which it follows chronologically every week; for Christians its ceremonial observance replaces that of the sabbath.
Cite as · Catechism of the Catholic Church, §2175
Part II · Catholic books & officials
Cardinal James Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers
Ch. “The Church and the Bible” — 1879 (11th rev. ed.), p. 108; 1917 ed., p. 89
But you may read the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, and you will not find a single line authorizing the sanctification of Sunday. The Scriptures enforce the religious observance of Saturday, a day which we never sanctify.
Cite as · Gibbons, The Faith of Our Fathers (1917 ed.), p. 89
Louis Gaston de Ségur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-day
Boston: Donahoe — 1868 ed., p. 225; 1874 ed., p. 213 (ch. XIV)
It was the Catholic Church which, by the authority of Jesus Christ, has transferred this rest to the Sunday in remembrance of the resurrection of our Lord. Thus the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Church.
Cite as · de Ségur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of To-day (1868), p. 225
Bertrand L. Conway, The Question Box (Paulist) — not Cardinal Gibbons
The Question-Box Answers (New York, 1903), pp. 254–255
If the Bible is the only guide for the Christian, then the Seventh Day Adventist is right in observing the Saturday with the Jew. But Catholics learn what to believe and do from the divine, infallible authority established by Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, which in Apostolic times made Sunday the day of rest to honor our Lord’s resurrection.
Cite as · Conway, The Question-Box Answers (1903), pp. 254–255
The Catholic Encyclopedia
1908, vol. IV, “Commandments of God”
The Church, on the other hand, after changing the day of rest from the Jewish Sabbath, or seventh day of the week, to the first, made the Third Commandment refer to Sunday as the day to be kept holy as the Lord’s Day.
Cite as · Catholic Encyclopedia (1908), “Commandments of God”
John Gilmary Shea, American Catholic Quarterly Review
Vol. 8, no. 29 (January 1883), p. 152
Protestantism, in discarding the authority of the Church, has no good reason for its Sunday theory, and ought, logically, to keep Saturday as the Sabbath with the Jews and Seventh-Day Baptists.
Cite as · Shea, American Catholic Quarterly Review 8 (Jan. 1883), p. 152
William L. Gildea, “Paschale Gaudium,” The Catholic World
Vol. 58 (March 1894), p. 809
She took the pagan Sunday and made it the Christian Sunday. She took the pagan Easter and made it the feast we celebrate during this season.
Cite as · Gildea, The Catholic World 58 (March 1894), p. 809
Archbishop Gaspare del Fosso of Reggio, speech at the Council of Trent
Oratio … habita … die xviii. Ianuarii 1562 (Brescia, 1563) — translated from the Latin
The Sabbath day, the most celebrated in the law, has passed over into the Lord’s day. … These and similar things have not ceased by the preaching of Christ (for He says He came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it), but they have been changed by the authority of the Church.
Cite as · Gaspare del Fosso, oration at the Council of Trent, Jan. 18, 1562 (printed 1563)
Pope John Paul II, Dies Domini (1998)
vatican.va — §63 and §27
This is why Christians, called as they are to proclaim the liberation won by the blood of Christ, felt that they had the authority to transfer the meaning of the Sabbath to the day of the Resurrection. (§63)
Wise pastoral intuition suggested to the Church the christianization of the notion of Sunday as ‘the day of the sun’, which was the Roman name for the day and which is retained in some modern languages. (§27)
Cite as · John Paul II, Dies Domini (1998), §63
Part III · Catholic periodicals
The Catholic Mirror (Baltimore), “The Christian Sabbath” — unsigned editorials
Sept. 2, 9, 16, 23, 1893 — reprinted by the Mirror as a pamphlet; signed “Senex”
The Catholic Church for over one thousand years before the existence of a Protestant, by virtue of her divine mission, changed the day from Saturday to Sunday. (Sept. 23)
…not a shadow of pretext can be found in the Sacred Volume for the Biblical substitution of Sunday for Saturday. (Sept. 16)
Cite as · “The Christian Sabbath,” The Catholic Mirror (Baltimore), Sept. 23, 1893
The Catholic Record (London, Ontario)
September 1, 1923, p. 4 — editorial “Sabbath Observance”
The Church is above the Bible; and this transference of Sabbath observance from Saturday to Sunday is proof positive of that fact.
Cite as · The Catholic Record (London, Ont.), Sept. 1, 1923, p. 4
Our Sunday Visitor
February 5, 1950 (Fort Wayne ed.), p. 1 — editorial “Since They Take Everything Else Why Not The Pope?”
They accepted Sunday rather than Saturday as the day for public worship after the Catholic Church made that change. But the Protestant mind does not seem to realize that in accepting the Bible, in observing the Sunday, in keeping Christmas and Easter, they are accepting the authority of the spokesman for the Church, the Pope.
Cite as · Our Sunday Visitor, Feb. 5, 1950, p. 1
This Rock (Catholic Answers), “Adventists: Always on Sunday”
June 1997 — catholic.com
The Catholic Church designated Sunday as the day for corporate worship and gets full credit—or blame—for the change.
Cite as · “Adventists: Always on Sunday,” This Rock, June 1997
Part IV · Letters, lectures & reports
C. F. Thomas, rector of the Baltimore Cathedral, writing for Cardinal Gibbons
Letter to John R. Ashley, Feb. 25, 1892 — as printed in M. C. Wilcox, The Lord’s Day, the Test of the Ages (1895), pp. 84–85
1. Who changed the Sabbath? Answer—The holy Catholic Church. 2. Are Protestants following the Bible or the holy Catholic Church in keeping Sunday? Ans.—The Protestants are following the custom introduced by the holy Catholic Church.
Cite as · C. F. Thomas for Cardinal Gibbons, letter of Feb. 25, 1892, as printed in Wilcox (1895)
C. F. Thomas, letter of Nov. 11, 1895
Earliest report found: Liberty, vol. 2, no. 3 (1907), p. 37
Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. … And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power.
Cite as · C. F. Thomas, letter of Nov. 11, 1895, as reported in Liberty (1907)
Fr. Timothy Enright, C.Ss.R. (not “Thomas”), lecture at Hartford, Kansas, Feb. 18, 1884
Lecture line: as reported; his $1,000 offer is confirmed by a Methodist critic (S. W. Gamble, 1900)
It was the holy Catholic Church that changed the day of rest…
Cite as · T. Enright, C.Ss.R., lecture of Feb. 18, 1884, as reported
Albert E. Smith, secretary (not chancellor) to Cardinal Gibbons
Letter of Feb. 10, 1920 — earliest report found: J. H. Coltheart, What I Saw in Rome (1958), p. 83
If Protestants would follow the Bible, they should worship God on the Sabbath Day. In keeping the Sunday they are following a law of the Catholic Church.
Cite as · Albert E. Smith, letter of Feb. 10, 1920, as reported
The Catholic Mirror (Baltimore), Dec. 23, 1893
As reported in A. H. Lewis (Seventh Day Baptist), 1894, and in the reprint “Rome’s Challenge”
…either Protestantism and the keeping holy of Saturday, or Catholicity and the keeping of Sunday. Compromise is impossible.
Cite as · The Catholic Mirror, Dec. 23, 1893, as reported
The Catholic Press (Sydney, Australia)
Aug. 25, 1900 — earliest reports found: Bible Readings (1914); L. L. Cronk (1919)
Sunday is a Catholic institution, and its claims to observance can be defended only on Catholic principles.
Cite as · The Catholic Press (Sydney), Aug. 25, 1900, as reported
The Catholic Universe Bulletin (Cleveland)
Aug. 14, 1942, p. 4 — the paper is digitized; not yet checked against the page
The Church changed the observance of the Sabbath to Sunday by right of the divine, infallible authority given to her by her Founder, Jesus Christ.
Cite as · Catholic Universe Bulletin, Aug. 14, 1942, p. 4, as reported
The Catholic Virginian
Oct. 3, 1947 — no early report or original located
…nowhere in the Bible do we find that Christ or the Apostles ordered that the Sabbath be changed from Saturday to Sunday.
Cite as · The Catholic Virginian, Oct. 3, 1947, as reported
John Laux, A Course in Religion for Catholic High Schools
Part 1 (Benziger, 1930s), commonly cited p. 51 — scan restricted
If we consulted the Bible only, we should still have to keep holy the Sabbath Day, that is, Saturday.
Cite as · Laux, A Course in Religion, Part 1, as reported
Vincent J. Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations
Catholic University of America, 1943, p. 2 — no open scan
It is now commonly held that God simply gave His Church the power to set aside whatever day or days she would deem suitable as Holy Days. The Church chose Sunday.
Cite as · Kelly, Forbidden Sunday and Feast-Day Occupations (1943), p. 2, as reported
Part V · Protestant & historical admissions
Every witness in this part kept Sunday. They are quoted for what they admit, not as supporters of the seventh day.
Constantine’s Sunday law (A.D. 321)
Codex Justinianus 3.12.2 — tr. Philip Schaff
On the venerable Day of the Sun let the magistrates and people residing in cities rest, and let all workshops be closed.
Cite as · Constantine, edict of March 7, 321 (Codex Justinianus 3.12.2)
Eusebius of Caesarea (4th century), Commentary on Psalm 92
Migne, PG 23, col. 1169–1172 — translated from the Greek
…the Word, through the New Covenant, moved and transferred the feast of the Sabbath to the rising of the light. … And all the other things that it was duty to do on the Sabbath, these we have transferred to the Lord’s day.
Cite as · Eusebius, Commentary on Psalms (Ps. 91 LXX), PG 23:1169–1172
Council of Laodicea, canon 29 (c. A.D. 363–364)
NPNF 2nd series, vol. 14
Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians.
Cite as · Council of Laodicea, canon 29
Pope Gregory I, to the citizens of Rome (A.D. 603)
Register XIII, Letter 1 — NPNF 2nd series, vol. 13
What else can I call these but preachers of Antichrist, who, when he comes, will cause the Sabbath day as well as the Lord’s day to be kept free from all work.
Cite as · Gregory I, Register XIII.1
The Augsburg Confession (Lutheran, 1530)
Art. XXVIII, §§33, 58 — Triglot tr.
They refer to the Sabbath-day as having been changed into the Lord’s Day, contrary to the Decalog, as it seems. … For those who judge that by the authority of the Church the observance of the Lord’s Day instead of the Sabbath-day was ordained as a thing necessary, do greatly err.
Cite as · Augsburg Confession, art. XXVIII
Alexander Campbell (founder, Churches of Christ / Disciples)
The Christian Baptist, vol. I, no. 7 (Feb. 2, 1824), p. 129
It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio — I think his name is DOCTOR ANTICHRIST.
Cite as · Campbell, The Christian Baptist, Feb. 2, 1824
Arthur P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster (Anglican)
Lectures on the History of the Eastern Church, Lecture VI — 1861 ed., p. 227; 1884 ed., p. 184
The retention of the old Pagan name of ‘Dies Solis,’ or ‘Sunday,’ for the weekly Christian festival, is, in great measure, owing to the union of Pagan and Christian sentiment with which the first day of the week was recommended by Constantine to his subjects, Pagan and Christian alike, as the ‘venerable day of the Sun.’
Cite as · Stanley, History of the Eastern Church, Lecture VI
Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church
Vol. III, §75 “The Civil and Religious Sunday”
He enjoined the observance, or rather forbade the public desecration of Sunday, not under the name of Sabbatum or Dies Domini, but under its old astrological and heathen title, Dies Solis, familiar to all his subjects.
Cite as · Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. III, §75
Augustus Neander, church historian
History of the Christian Religion and Church during the Three First Centuries, tr. H. J. Rose, vol. I
…the festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance, and it was far from the intentions of the apostles to establish a Divine command in this respect.
Cite as · Neander, History of the Christian Religion and Church, tr. Rose, vol. I
John Wesley (founder of Methodism)
Sermon 25, “Upon Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount, Discourse V,” §I.2
But the moral law, contained in the Ten Commandments, and enforced by the prophets, He did not take away. It was not the design of His coming to revoke any part of this.
Cite as · Wesley, Sermon 25, §I.2
D. L. Moody (evangelist)
Weighed and Wanting (1898), ch. on the Fourth Commandment, c. p. 47
The sabbath was binding in Eden, and it has been in force ever since. This fourth commandment begins with the word ‘remember,’ showing that the sabbath already existed when God wrote this law on the tables of stone at Sinai.
Cite as · Moody, Weighed and Wanting (1898)
Lyman Abbott (Congregationalist)
“The Christian Sabbath,” Christian Union, vol. 41, no. 26 (June 26, 1890)
The current notion that Christ and his Apostles authoritatively substituted the first day of the week for the seventh is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.
Cite as · Abbott, Christian Union, June 26, 1890
Edward T. Hiscox (Baptist) — paper read to New York ministers
Nov. 13, 1893, reported in the New York Examiner, Nov. 16, 1893 — original report not located
There was and is a commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day, but that Sabbath day was not Sunday.
Cite as · Hiscox, paper of Nov. 13, 1893, as reported
Isaac Williams (Anglican), Plain Sermons on the Catechism
Vol. 1, pp. 334–336 — original volume not located online
…where are we told in the Scriptures that we are to keep the first day at all?
Cite as · Isaac Williams, Plain Sermons on the Catechism, as reported
Part VI · Don’t use
“Sunday is our mark of authority…” (The Catholic Record)
Fabricated opening — not in the paper
Sunday is our mark of authority… The Church is above the Bible, and this transference of Sabbath observance is proof of that fact.
The Catholic Record of Sept. 1, 1923 contains only the second sentence (see v12). The “mark of authority” opening was stitched on later; the earliest copy found is from 1988, apparently borrowed from the Thomas letter’s “mark of her ecclesiastical power.”
“Cardinal Gibbons, Catholic Mirror, 1893”
Wrong author
Cardinal James Gibbons, The Catholic Mirror, Sept. 23, 1893
The editorials are unsigned (closing with the pen name “Senex”). Cite the paper, not the Cardinal (see c6). Watch also for the typo “1983.”
“Gibbons, The Question Box, p. 179”
Wrong author and page
Cardinal Gibbons, The Question Box, p. 179
The Question Box is by Bertrand Conway; the passage is on pp. 254–255 of the 1903 edition (see c3).
“H. F. Thomas, Chancellor” / “Albert Smith, Chancellor”
Wrong names and titles
Alexander Campbell: “commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake…”
Misattributed
The first day of the week is commonly called the Sabbath. This is a mistake… (Alexander Campbell, 1824)
These words are John M. Vankirk’s (Thirteen Chapters on First Day Observance, 1898, p. 17). Campbell’s real words are even stronger (see v19).
Hiscox, “The Baptist Manual”
Wrong source
Edward T. Hiscox, The Baptist Manual
Hiscox’s manual teaches the opposite. The quote comes from an 1893 paper known only by report (see r11).
Ferraris: “The Pope can modify divine law” as a Sabbath statement
Misapplied
The Pope can modify divine law — that is how Rome changed the Sabbath.
Lucius Ferraris’s Prompta Bibliotheca (art. “Papa”) does say the Pope “can even modify, declare, or interpret divine laws” — quoting an earlier canonist, and adding “provided he does nothing against the faith.” It says nothing about the Sabbath. Use it, if at all, only as a statement about papal authority.
Del Fosso: “Tradition stands above Scripture”
A historian’s summary, not his words
Archbishop of Reggio: “Tradition stands above Scripture.”
That is H. J. Holtzmann’s 1859 summary. Del Fosso’s own printed words are in v10.
Dies Domini: “the Church chose Sunday to draw people from sun worship”
Paraphrase changes the meaning
The Church chose Sunday to draw the faithful away from sun-worship.
§27 speaks of christianizing the name and meaning “day of the sun,” not of choosing the day. Quote it as written (see v11).
“Our Sunday Visitor, Oct. 7, 1951”
No such item found
Our Sunday Visitor, October 7, 1951
A full read of that issue found no Sabbath-change item. Use the verified Feb. 5, 1950 editorial instead (see c7).
“Priest Brady, 1903” and the 1995 parish bulletin
Untraceable
“Sunday is an institution of the Roman Catholic Church…” (Priest Brady, Elizabeth, N.J. News, March 18, 1903)
No first name, no located newspaper, and the earliest report is from 1988. The same goes for a 1995 Michigan parish bulletin that circulates only as an unsourced copy. Better quotes say the same thing on solid ground.
“Mithraism gave Christianity its Sunday” as historical fact
Rests on an abandoned theory
Mithraism imposed on the Christian world its own Sun-day in place of the Sabbath.
That line (Gilbert Murray, 1929) rests on an older theory of Mithraism that scholars no longer accept. Constantine’s “venerable day of the Sun” and the Roman planetary week make the point without it.
What these sources prove — and what they don’t
They do not all say the same thing. Some Catholic sources say the Apostles made Sunday the day of worship; others say the Church did it by her own authority. But on one point they agree, and so do the Protestant historians: the change cannot be found in Scripture. Gibbons says it plainly; Keenan calls it “a change for which there is no Scriptural authority”; Conway admits that by the Bible alone “the Seventh Day Adventist is right.” That is the heart of the matter. Jesus asked, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (Matthew 15:3). The question these quotes leave with every reader is the one Scripture asks: whose word will we follow?
For the Bible answers to the objections, see The Sabbath Cheat Sheet.
A pastoral note
These quotes are about institutions and teachings, not about the faith of individual Catholics or Protestants, many of whom love God sincerely. Share them gently, accurately, and with the citation — and always point past the quote to the Word itself. The goal is not to win an argument but to invite a friend to the rest God made for them.