Adrienne von Speyr

Adrienne von Speyr (20 September 1902 – 17 September 1967) was a Swiss Catholic convert, physician, wife, mystic, and author of some sixty books of spirituality and theology.
Biography.
Early life.
Adrienne von Speyr was born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, to an upper-middle-class Protestant family. Her father, Theodor von Speyr, was an ophthalmologist. Her mother, Laure Girard, was the descendant of a family of noted watchmakers and jewelers from Geneva and Neuchâtel. Adrienne was her parents' second child. Her sister, Hélène, was a year and a half older. Her first brother, Willy, who became a physician, was born in 1905 and died in 1978. Her second brother, Theodor, was born in 1913 and served as the director of the Swiss Bank Corporation in London for many years.
By Hans Urs von Balthasar's account, von Speyr was the "unloved child" in her family, despite her cheerfulness. Her mother scolded her daily, often without reason, which led Adrienne to turn to prayer and to develop an appreciation for sacrifice and renunciation. She was close to her father, who understood and respected her, sometimes taking her with him to the hospital to visit sick children. This sparked her desire to become a physician, which would eventually guide her toward a career as a family doctor. In her primary school years, she began knitting for the poor, forming a society with her friends for this purpose. From early on, she had a deep relationship with her grandmother, a prayerful Calvinist.
Von Speyr was a precocious student. As a child, she even occasionally substituted for a teacher who suffered from asthma. In her religion classes, however, she began to sense an emptiness in the form of Protestantism being offered. Although she had no exposure to the Roman Catholic Church, she had some early intuitions about Catholic practice. At the age of nine, she gave a talk to her classmates about the Jesuits, after an angel had told her "that the Jesuits were people who loved Jesus totally, and that the truth of God was greater than that of men, and as a result one could not always tell people everything exactly as one understands it in God". After her conversion to Catholicism in 1940, at thirty-eight years old, she recounted to her confessor Hans Urs von Balthasar that as a young child she encountered in a stairwell a man she only now recognized to be Saint Ignatius of Loyola. During her teenage years, she once reproached a religion teacher for his "prejudice" against Catholicism.
Education and teenage years.
For secondary school, von Speyr attended a coeducational gymnasium, where she excelled, particularly in Latin and Greek. At her mother's insistence, she also spent a year at a girls' school in La Chaux-de-Fonds, since the gymnasium was thought to give her too much exposure to boys. Here, she met fellow student Madeleine Gallet, who became a close companion and helped her mold her sense of Christian discipleship. After a year, von Speyr's father allowed her to return to the gymnasium, where her classmates greeted her with wild applause when she entered. She was popular for her sense of humor and strong ethical judgment.
In November 1917, at age fifteen, she experienced a vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "I had never seen anything so beautiful," she later remarked, noting that this image of Mary gave her a "place of refuge" in the years that followed.
Adrienne was often sick, with spondylitis that frequently kept her bedridden. According to von Balthasar, she always became ill before Easter and sensed that this was connected with Good Friday. She came to understand her physical suffering as a way of sharing in the pain of others, and she spent much time with the patients at her uncle's psychiatric hospital near Bern, where she discovered a gift for consoling the sick. Theodor von Speyr, Adrienne's father, died of gastrointestinal perforation in January 1918, when she was fifteen. After his death, Adrienne studied at a business school at her mother's request, in addition to her work at the gymnasium. Just a few months later, she contracted tuberculosis, and doctors believed she would die within a year. She was sent to a sanatorium at Leysin, where she was cared for by her cousin, a physician. Her mother rarely wrote or visited. At the sanatorium, von Speyr learned Russian, read Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and was invited to give lectures to fellow patients. One of these talks reportedly prompted her friend Louisa Jacques (later the Poor Clare Sister Mary of the Holy Trinity) to remark, "You're going to make me become a Catholic." At Leysin, Adrienne, too, began to feel drawn to the Roman Catholic Church.
After recovering from a second bout of tuberculosis, von Speyr studied nursing for several months at near Pompaples, but left dissatisfied. She eventually moved with her family to Basel in summer 1921 to finish her secondary studies. Although her mother tried to arrange a job and a husband for her, Adrienne resolved instead to enter medical school at the University of Basel, which created a rift between them. She studied in the Faculty of Medicine between 1923 and 1926, working as a tutor to pay her tuition. She was a pupil of and became a friend of fellow medical students Adolf Portmann, a zoologist, and Franz Merke, a surgeon. She was inspired by the dedication of several doctors and nurses, and shocked by what she perceived as the cowardice or egotism of others. These experiences would later shape her views on the medical practice, particularly her beliefs in the physician's responsibility for his patients, in the medical profession as self-giving service, in the treatment of the whole person, and in the call to accompany terminally ill patients to the end. In a short biography of von Speyr, von Balthasar lists some of the decisive features of her time in medical school:[C]omplete contentment when she could finally work with the sick, when she could make silent rounds at night in the wards in order to comfort, to help, to prepare the dying for death; her indignation when patients used in demonstrations in the lecture halls or unwed mothers in the delivery room were not treated with respect for their human dignity; her anger when a doctor, responsible for the death of a patient, put the blame on one of the nurses (Adrienne saw to it that his lectures were boycotted by the entire student body until the doctor had to give up his professorship in Basel); her admiration at the silent asceticism of a large number of the nurses."In these and many other experiences," he adds, "Adrienne learned to seek the God whom she had not yet succeeded in truly finding by the way of service to neighbor."
Medical practice.
In 1930, von Speyr passed her state boards to become a licensed physician, one of the first women in Switzerland to be admitted to the profession. The following year, she started a family medicine practice in Basel. As a doctor, she refused to perform abortions and reportedly dissuaded "thousands of women" from abortion over the course of her career. Since her clientele was mostly poor, she treated many of them free of charge; according to von Balthasar, she “saw as many as sixty to eighty patients a day”. After moving her office to her home for a time during the early 1950s, von Speyr ceased to practice medicine due to illness in 1954.
Marriage and family life.
In 1927, during a trip to San Bernardino, Switzerland, some friends of von Speyr introduced her to the University of Basel historian , a widower with two young sons. Dürr and von Speyr married, living on the Münsterplatz near the historic Basel Minster church. Von Speyr, who took the name of Dürr, became an adoptive mother to the two boys, Niklaus and Arnold, and played an active role with her husband in upper-class Basel society. She had three miscarriages and bore no children of her own. The couple “seriously considered becoming Catholic”, but Emil died suddenly in a tram accident in 1934, after seven years of marriage. The untimely death of her husband led Adrienne into an interior crisis, provoking her to contemplate suicide until her friend Franz Merke intervened.
The widowed von Speyr continued to raise Niklaus and Arnold on her own and to practice medicine. In 1936, Emil Dürr’s friend and colleague Werner Kaegi—who knew the boys and wanted to help bring them up—proposed marriage, and she accepted. Kaegi, a lifelong member of the Swiss Reformed Church, encouraged von Speyr to explore Catholicism, and she converted in 1940. Von Speyr’s daughter-in-law Lore Dürr-Freckmann recalls that the couple provided financially for single mothers and opened their home to disadvantaged women and children. Between 1952 and 1967, the Kaegi family also offered a room in their house to Father Hans Urs von Balthasar.
Niklaus and Arnold both married and had a number of children, who considered von Speyr their grandmother. Von Speyr remained close to her sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren until her death in 1967. In interviews, her family has described her as joyful, warm, and generous.
Conversion.
Von Speyr began to attend Mass periodically after her husband ’s death in 1934. In the years following his fatal accident, she found it difficult to pray, especially the line “Thy will be done” in the Our Father. After her marriage to Werner Kaegi in 1936, von Speyr made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Catholic priests to receive instruction in the Catholic faith.
In 1940, after recovering from a heart attack, she was introduced by a friend to Father Hans Urs von Balthasar, a Jesuit priest then serving as a university chaplain in Basel. She told him of her interest in entering the Catholic Church, and he began to give her catechetical instruction. Von Balthasar says of this process, “In the instructions she understood everything immediately, as though she had only—and for how long!—waited to hear exactly what I was saying in order to affirm it.” Von Speyr praised the Jesuit for having “removed all the obstacles for me” in prayer. She was received into the Catholic Church on All Saints’ Day, November 1, 1940.  After the liturgy, von Speyr apologized for having accidentally omitted the words “extra quam nulla salus” during the profession of faith; when von Balthasar and her husband both replied that they had heard the phrase, she remarked, “Then maybe an angel said it for me”. Still, some scholars have criticized her for leaving out this portion of the profession. She was confirmed shortly after her reception into the Church, with the critic and translator Albert Béguin as her sponsor.
Since von Speyr had many Protestant friends in Basel, her conversion to Catholicism caused some controversy. Her own mother and siblings took a distance from her after her confirmation, though they would reconcile years later. Von Speyr’s husband, Werner, supported her embrace of Catholicism, but he himself did not convert. Her sons Niklaus and Arnold, with their children, were eventually received into the Church, along with other family members.
By von Balthasar's account, von Speyr went on to befriend many notable Catholic thinkers in Europe, including Romano Guardini, Hugo Rahner, Erich Przywara, Henri de Lubac, Reinhold Schneider, Annette Kolb, and Gabriel Marcel.
Collaboration with Hans Urs von Balthasar.
In the months following her conversion to Catholicism, von Speyr reported having extraordinary experiences in prayer. Von Balthasar became convinced of the authenticity of von Speyr’s mysticism, and the two recognized that they had a shared theological mission.
Between 1944 and 1960, von Speyr dictated to von Balthasar some sixty books of spiritual and Scriptural commentary, including "John", "Mark", "The Letter to the Ephesians", "Elijah", and "Three Women and the Lord". Given von Speyr’s commitments as a mother and a doctor, von Balthasar alone worked to arrange, edit, and publish the texts with ecclesiastical approval through the German-language press Johannes Verlag Einsiedeln. One of her first books to appear was her translation of "The Story of a Soul" by Saint Thérèse of Lisieux—the first in the German language—followed by "Magd des Herrn" ["Handmaid of the Lord"], a book of Marian reflections. Some works, namely those of a more explicitly mystical character, were not released until Pope John Paul II organized a Vatican symposium on von Speyr's work in 1985, almost twenty years after her death.
Von Speyr and von Balthasar also collaborated closely in the founding of the Johannesgemeinschaft (Community of Saint John), a Catholic institute of consecrated laypeople established in 1945. After a long discernment, von Balthasar would eventually leave the Society of Jesus to found this community, since his superiors did not believe it would be compatible with Jesuit life. He saw it as a "personal, special, and non-delegable task." Von Speyr referred to the Johannesgemeinschaft metaphorically as a “Child” she shared with the priest—an analogy that has drawn some criticism but been defended by others. Von Speyr served as the superior of the women’s branch of the community until her death.
Von Balthasar, for his part, has stated that his own theological work is inseparable from von Speyr’s. “The greater part of so much of what I have written is a translation of what is present in a more immediate, less technical fashion in the powerful work of Adrienne von Speyr.”
Later years and death.
Von Speyr gave up her medical practice in 1954 due to deteriorating health. She suffered from diabetes, heart disease, and severe arthritis, which caused her intense pain and greatly weakened her. According to von Balthasar, “no physician could understand how she could still be alive.” During this period, she prayed, knitted, visited with her grandchildren, wrote letters, read novels, and continued guiding the women in the Johannesgemeinschaft. Members of her family claim that she did not make her illnesses known.
In 1964, von Speyr went blind, and her health slipped into sharp decline. Von Balthasar, who was often present through this time, recounts: “The last months in bed were a continuous, merciless torture, which she bore with great equanimity, always concerned about the others and constantly apologetic about causing me so much trouble.”
On September 17, 1967, the feast of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, von Speyr died in her home in Basel. One of her last phrases was “Que c’est beau de mourir"”"—“How beautiful it is to die”—and her dying words were "Thank you, thank you, thank you." She was buried in Basel five days later on her sixty-fifth birthday.
Theology and mysticism.
She is considered by many to have been a mystic and is reputed to have had supernatural experiences of, for example, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Trinity, a number of saints (including John the Evangelist and Ignatius of Loyola), Christ's Passion, and Hell, as well as incidences of bilocation and stigmata. Aside from her confessor, nobody knew of these reported phenomena during her lifetime, including members of her own religious community. As a doctor, she was also believed to be connected with a number of unexplained healings of patients, often taking on severe penances as a way of sharing in the suffering of others.
Adrienne von Speyr's theological writings—which were generally transcribed, copy edited, and published by Hans Urs von Balthasar—treat a wide range of topics in Catholic spirituality. As L. M. Miles notes in the journal "First Things", most of her books are scriptural commentaries and "there is a biblical rather than a dogmatic or systematic organization to her work." These include "John" (in four volumes), "Mark", "Letter to the Colossians", "Letter to the Ephesians", "Three Women and the Lord", "Bergpredigt" ["The Sermon on the Mount"], "Gleichnisse des Herrn" ["Parables of the Lord"], "Die Schöpfung" ["Creation"], "Achtzehn Psalmen" ["Eighteen Psalms"], "Isaia" ["Isaiah"], and "Elijah," among others. She also wrote meditations on Mary ("Handmaid of the Lord" and "Mary in the Redemption"), on the Mass (The Holy Mass), on the sacrament of confession ("Confession"), on the prophets ("The Mission of the Prophets"), on death ("The Mystery of Death"), on Christ's Passion ("The Passion from Within" and "The Cross: Word and Sacrament"). Some prominent features in her thought include the centrality of Christian obedience and of the Marian fiat, an understanding of God as ever-greater, a Trinitarian approach to prayer, humility and self-effacement as essential Christian attitudes, the attitude of "Bereitschaft" ("readiness" or "disponsibility") before God, the potential unity between Christian action in the world and action according to God's will, and the reality of Christ's descent into Hell on Holy Saturday. The Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola imbue much of her thought.
Von Speyr's more immediately mystical writings were not released until 1985 and vary in theme and style. The work "Book of All Saints" gives inner portraits of many saints and historical figures in terms of their prayer lives; one Dominican scholar has expressed doubts about her critical description of Saint Thomas Aquinas in the first of her two entries on him. In another posthumous text, "Kreuz und Hölle", von Speyr relates her experiences of the Passion and of the descent into Hell, giving illustrations of the metaphysical nature of damnation as isolation and "total depersonalization," in Professor Matthew Sutton's phrase. Some scholars have interpreted these visions as suggesting universalism, or a belief that Hell is empty, but other scholars insist that this is a misreading of the text; Hans Urs von Balthasar himself rejects the universalist reading, understanding von Speyr's experience of Hell as "so real that, in view of it, it would be ridiculous and blasphemous to speak of the nonexistence of hell or even just of "apokatastasis" [universalism] in the 'systematic' sense." There are critics who dispute the authenticity of von Speyr's visions on other grounds, citing features such as apparent changes of personality and voice and the use of sarcasm, although von Balthasar, who originally related these phenomena, believes these episodes had a pedagogical purpose, to form him in humility as a spiritual director.
Reception and influence.
In 1985, the Vatican hosted a colloquium on "Adrienne von Speyr e la sua missione ecclesiale" [Adrienne von Speyr and her ecclesial mission], with presentations by Angelo Scola, , Marc Ouellet, Joseph Fessio, S.J., and others. Pope John Paul II said in his closing address to the participants:I would like to take this opportunity to greet the members of the Community of Saint John, which owes its very foundation to a sublime inspiration on the part of Adrienne. She had a special love for “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” the last, most profound expositor, as she saw him, of the mystery of Jesus, of the Father’s love for the world, and of the Holy Spirit whose sure hand guides us into the full light of the revelation of Father and Son. Her insight into the inmost communion of faith and love uniting the Mother of Jesus and the one disciple who persevered with her under the Cross was no less profound; it was here that she glimpsed the virginal origin of the Church that would be entrusted to Peter’s care. May this spirituality, which Adrienne embodied with such exemplary vigor, help you to incarnate ever better your own commitment to live in accord with Church and Gospel in the midst of the realities of the contemporary world.A second symposium was held at the Vatican in 2017 entitled "Adrienne von Speyr: A Woman in the Heart of the 20th Century." The acts of the conference are being published through the Italian press Edizioni Cantagalli.
Poet and playwright T. S. Eliot said of von Speyr's meditations on John, "Von Speyr's book does not lend itself to any classification that I can think of. It is not dogmatic theology; still less is it exegesis... There is nothing to do but to submit oneself to it; if the reader emerges without having been crushed by it, he will find himself strengthened and exhilarated by a new experience of Christian sensibility."
Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar claims that most of his own work was primarily inspired by his collaborator von Speyr and her "experiential dogmatics". He puts it in starker terms in "First Glance at Adrienne von Speyr": "On the whole I received far more from Adrienne, theologically, than she from me... As her confessor and spiritual director, I observed her interior life most closely, yet in twenty-seven years I never had the least doubt about the authentic mission that was hers... [H]er work appears far more important to me than mine... I am convinced that when her works are made available, those who are in a position to judge will concur with me about their value and will thank God that he has granted such graces to the Church in our time.”
The spirituality of Adrienne von Speyr is a pillar of the formation program at the Casa Balthasar, a house of discernment in Rome founded under the auspices of Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, and at Heart's Home, an international Catholic missionary organization.
Excerpts from the works of Adrienne von Speyr are published regularly in the Catholic monthly Magnificat.
In March 2018, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chur opened her cause for canonization together alongside Balthasar.
In 2018, French filmmaker Marie Viloin—director of documentaries about Bernadette Soubirous and Faustina Kowalska—produced the half-hour feature "Adrienne von Speyr (1902–1967): Sur la terre comme au ciel" as a segment of the program , broadcast by the national French TV network France 2.


John II (bishop of Constance)

John II (died 9 February 782) was the abbot of Saint Gall and of Reichenau and, from 760 to 782, was the Bishop of Constance.
Initially, John was a monk at the Abbey of Reichenau. When Othmar was taken prisoner by Bishop Sidonius in the year 759, John was appointed abbot of Saint Gall. After 4 July 760, he became abbot of the Abbey of Reichenau and Bishop of Constance. He held the offices in personal union. According to the Necrology of Reichenau, John died on 9 February 782.
As abbot of Saint Gall, John pursued a specific property and acquisition policy in southern Breisgau, eastern and southern Thurgau, and across Lake Constance in Linzgau and Argengau. He established the connections to the properties south of Lake Constance through the acquisition of property in Romanshorn and Steinach near Arbon. Under Abbot John, the contingent donations began to take place where the donors kept the property assigned to the monastery, but committed themselves to an annual payment of interest. In this way, relationships between the monastery and the people developed which were fostered and checked by Abbot John in line with Frankish politics. The result was the increasing delimitation of the areas of influence of Saint Gall and Constance leading to a contract between the abbey and the bishopric which was confirmed by Charlemagne in 780. During John's role as Abbot of Saint Gall, Winithar was head of the scriptorium and the school of Saint Gall. He is the first in this office who is known by name.


Reynold Henry Hillenbrand

Reynold Henry Hillenbrand (July 19, 1904 – May 22, 1979) was a seminal American Roman Catholic Church leader in the Liturgical Movement, Chicago priest and seminary rector,
pastor, and “Specialized Catholic Action” chaplain following the methods of Belgian Cardinal Joseph Cardijn, who mentored clergy and laity in the Young Christian Students, Young Christian Workers, Friendship House, the Cana Conference, the Christian Family Movement, the Catholic Labor Alliance, and La Leche League.
History.
Msgr. Hillenbrand's three-part approach of faithfully presenting papal teaching, calling lay apostles, and bringing laity through the Catholic liturgy to social action, helped form US Catholic leadership prior to the Second Vatican Council, which his liturgical innovations during the Liturgical reforms of Pope Pius XII anticipated.
Personally recruited by Cardinal George Mundelein to attend Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Hillenbrand championed the causes of labor and race relations, and brought the first women speakers, Dorothy Day, and later Baroness Catherine de Hueck Doherty, to the University of St. Mary of the Lake, his alma mater, where he served as rector from 1936-1944. Several of Hillenbrand's seminary students, including Alfred Leo Abramowicz, Romeo Roy Blanchette, Daniel Cantwell, Michael R. P. Dempsey, John Joseph Egan, Thomas Joseph Grady, George G. Higgins, Timothy Joseph Lyne, Eugene F. Lyons, Edward A. Marciniak, John L. May, Paul Casimir Marcinkus, Cletus F. O'Donnell, William J. Quinn, and James A. Voss, became influential in social action and/or in both pre- and post-Vatican II American Catholic affairs.
Hillenbrand Books, published by The Liturgical Institute at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake / Mundelein Seminary, in collaboration with Liturgy Training Publications, is a scholarly book series named in Hillenbrand's honor. A Reynold Hillenbrand Institute was based in Chicago's archdiocesan college seminary from 1992–94, moved to the University of Saint Mary of the Lake, and closed at the approximate time of the founding of the Liturgical Institute there in 2000. A Hillenbrand lecture series continues at the Liturgical Institute, most recently presented by Denver Archbishop Charles Joseph Chaput on
June 24, 2010.


Egwin of Evesham

Saint Egwin of Evesham (died 30 December 717) was a Benedictine monk and, later, the third Bishop of Worcester in England.
Life.
Egwin was born in Worcester of a noble family, and was a descendant of Mercian kings. He may possibly have been a nephew of King Æthelred of Mercia. Having already become a monk, his biographers say that king, clergy, and commoners all united in demanding Egwin's elevation to bishop; but the popularity which led him to the episcopal office dissipated in response to his performance as bishop. He was consecrated bishop after 693.
As a bishop he was known as a protector of orphans and widows and a fair judge. He struggled with the local population over the acceptance of Christian morality, especially Christian marriage and clerical celibacy. Egwin's stern discipline created a resentment which, as King Æthelred was his friend, eventually found its way to his ecclesiastical superiors. He undertook a pilgrimage to Rome to seek vindication from the pope himself. According to a legend, he prepared for his journey by locking shackles on his feet, and throwing the key into the River Avon.
According to one account, as Egwin and his companions were passing through the Alps, they began to thirst. Those among his companions who did not acknowledge the bishop's sanctity asked him mockingly to pray for water as Moses once did in the desert. But others, who did believe in him, rebuked the unbelievers and asked him in a different tone, with true faith and hope. Egwin prostrated himself in prayer. On arising, they saw a pure stream of water gush forth out of the rock.
While he prayed before the tomb of the Apostles in Rome, one of his servants brought him this very key—found in the mouth of a fish that had just been caught in the Tiber. Egwin then released himself from his self-imposed bonds and straight away obtained from the pope an authoritative release from his enemies' obloquy.
Upon his return to England, he founded Evesham Abbey, which became one of the great Benedictine houses of medieval England. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who had reportedly made known to a swineherd named Eof just where a church should be built in her honour.
One of the last important acts of his episcopate was his participation in the first great Council of Clovesho. According to the Benedictine historian, Jean Mabillon, he died on 30 December 720, although his death is generally accepted as having occurred three years earlier on 30 December 717. He died at the abbey he had founded, and his remains were enshrined there.
A hagiography was written by Byrhtferth of Ramsey, a monk at Ramsey Abbey, around 1016. Another "Vita Sancti Egwini", was written by Dominic of Evesham, a medieval prior of Evesham Abbey around 1130. His tomb was destroyed, along with the abbey church, at the time of the dissolution of the abbey in 1540.


Mubin Shaikh

Mubin Shaikh is a former security intelligence and counter terrorism operative, currently a Professor of Public Safety at Seneca College and also Counter Extremism Specialist for the U.S.-based NGO, Parents for Peace.
He has testified as an expert for the United Nations Security Council, the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs with NATO, the National Counterterrorism Center, and Special Operations Command Central and he is an external expert with the Joint Staff SMA for CENTCOM Command Staff.
He has also appeared on media outlets such as CNN, CBC, ABC, and NBC MSNBC, on matters related to extremism and terrorism.
Career.
Shaikh's operational experience originates with his role as an undercover counter-terrorism operative for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case. He was active with CSIS for some years domestically, but the details of his activities are subject to national security restrictions and so cannot be disclosed to the public. Shaikh moved on to become a Royal Canadian Mounted Police agent with the Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams when one of the Service investigations uncovered a group of young Muslim men, of various ethnic backgrounds, intending to engage in criminal offences regarding terrorism.
It is clear from court evidence that the plot was well underway before CSIS had assigned Shaikh to the investigation. The investigation was formally moved from CSIS to the RCMP after Shaikh had verified the information that had been disclosed to him by the subjects of the investigation. After several public hearings (youth preliminary hearings in January 2007, adult preliminary hearings in September 2007, youth trial by judge in 2008, an "Abuse of Process" motion 2009, and a final Jury Trial of 3 remaining accused in 2010) and despite allegations of entrapment, Judge John Sproat, in March 2009, dismissed claims of entrapment and wrote in his ruling that Shaikh was cleared of any wrongdoing and "displayed a great number of the hallmarks of a truthful and credible witness," and that the group's plans were already underway prior to Shaikh's involvement and so could not have been the result of the state abusing its authority.
In total, seven people had charges "stayed" because of the sympathetic testimony of Shaikh. A prosecutor in the case even accused Shaikh of lying to protect the youth accused. The judge, in his ruling, once again sided with Shaikh. At the end of the adult trial by jury of the remaining three persons in June 2010, after several others had pleaded guilty, a comprehensive presentation of previously-restricted information including court exhibits entered as evidence, complete with transcripts and video, was put forward by Isabel Teotonio of the "Toronto Star". Zakaria Amara wrote a letter of apology and Faheem Ahmad gave an interview on his radicalization.
In 2012, with the rise of ISIS, Shaikh was extensively involved in countering ISIS ideology and has presented at numerous conferences as an expert, on his efforts. He has trained military forces directly engaged in the fight against ISIS, including being a regular guest speaker with Defense Intelligence Agency as well at the United States Air Force Special Operations School. Shaikh is also part of the instructor cadre of Reticle Ventures, made up of former members and leaders of Joint Task Force 2 and other police and security agencies and services.
In connection to his work on the ISIS Returnee file, Shaikh also had discussions with Abu Huzaifa al-Kanadi who was charged in September 2020 with terrorism hoax, in relation to his claims about having been an ISIS executioner in Syria.
Shaikh is a co-author of the book "Undercover Jihadi" and recognized for his work and life in a permanent exhibit in the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C.
Education.
Shaikh has a Master of Policing, Intelligence, and Counter-Terrorism from Macquarie University, Australia. *Degree conferment: 2011. Search using Mubin Shaikh:
Personal life.
Shaikh was born at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. He attended Quran school as a child as well as public school. At age 14, he joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets attaining the rank of Cadet Warrant Officer.
After an identity crisis because of a house party he went to Pakistan, where a chance encounter with the Taliban propelled him into extremism. The 9/11 attacks made him reconsider his views and he then spent 2 years in Syria augmenting previous private study of Islamic Studies where he went through a period of deradicalization, rejecting extremism and terrorism as anathema to Islam. He then returned to Canada and began his national security operations work.
Shaikh is a Sunni Sufi Muslim.


Brooke Medicine Eagle

Brooke "Medicine Eagle" Edwards (born 1943) is an American author, singer/songwriter and teacher, specializing in her interpretations of Native American religions. She frequently teaches workshops at New Age and other events.
Biography.
Edwards was born and raised in Montana. She studied at the University of Denver obtaining a BA degree in psychology and mathematics. She earned an MA in counseling psychology from the University of Denver. She has self-identified as having some "Sioux and Nez Perce ancestry," as well as European blood from Scotland, Ireland, and Denmark. She is not enrolled in any of these tribes, however, and her statements and representations of Native American spirituality have been contested and protested by several Native American groups, including the American Indian Movement.
In 1984, the American Indian Movement included Edwards among those it said were responsible for "a great attack or theft" of Native American ceremonies, and in a 2001 article in the "Journal of Religious & Theological Information", Cynthia Snavely connected Edwards to the "misappropriation of Native American spirituality [that] takes place within the New Age spirituality movement". The "Center for the SPIRIT (Support and Protection of Indian Religions and Indigenous Traditions)" accused her of misrepresenting her heritage and falsely claiming to be a medicine woman.
Bianca Casady of the musical group CocoRosie has referred to Brooke Medicine Eagle as her mother's partner, stating "As a small child I was carried in a papoose around sacred Anasazi grounds by my mother and her partner, Brook[e] Medicine Eagle."


Paul Vinsnes

Paul Vinsnes (18 October 1794 – 23 August 1889) was a Norwegian priest and politician.
Biography.
Vinsnes was born at Drammen in Buskerud, Norway. He was the son of Johan Fredrik Winsnes (1768–1838) and his wife Barbara Holm (1774–1828). His father had been a parish priest to Råde in Østfold, later in Stange in Hedmark. His grandfather had been a Magistrate for the Gudbrandsdalen district of Norddalen in Oppland. He graduated from the University of Copenhagen as cand.theol. with laud in 1814.
He first worked for two years as a teacher in Drammen, then a catechist at Our Saviour's Church in Kristiania (now Oslo Cathedral) before he became chaplain in Vang in Hedmark in 1819. He was then appointed as vicar in Trysil in Hedemark in 1820, Hurdal in Akershus in 1822, Aurdal in Nord-Aurdal in 1827. He was assigned to Brunlaugnes (now Brunlanes) in Larvik in 1830 where he was also he was the first mayor of the municipality during the period 1838–1846. He was elected to the Norwegian Parliament in 1839, 1842 and 1844, representing the constituency of Jarlsberg og Laurviks Amt (now Vestfold).
 He subsequently returned to the priesthood as dean at Vang, Hedemark. He retired in 1870.
In 1817, Paul Vinsnes married Hanna Olava Strøm (1789–1872), niece of professor Hans Strøm. They had several children. Their great-granddaughter, Barbra Ring, was a notable author.


Castor Paul Msemwa

Castor Paul Msemwa (13 February 1955 – 19 October 2017) was a Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1987, Msemwa served as coadjutor bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tunduru–Masasi, Tanzania, from 2004 to 2005. He then served as bishop of the diocese from 2005 until his death.


Aloys Jousten

Aloys Jousten (born 1937) is bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Liège in Belgium.
Jousten was born in Sankt-Vith on 2 November 1937, and ordained priest in Liège on 8 July 1962. He holds the degree of Doctor of Theology. He was nominated as the 91st Bishop of Liège on 9 May 2001, and was consecrated on 4 June the same year.
In 2009 he was named as a possible successor to Godfried Danneels as Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. He proffered his resignation as bishop of Liège in November 2012, having reached the age of 75, but agreed to remain as bishop until his successor was appointed. He retired on 31 May 2013.


Pedro da Fonseca (cardinal)

Pedro da Fonseca (14th century – 22 August 1422) was a Portuguese Cardinal who served as Bishop of Astorga, 1414–1418, and Bishop of Sigüenza, 1419–1422.
Biography.
Born in Olivença. On 14 December 1412, he was made Cardinal by the Avignon Antipope Benedict XIII, with the title of "Santo Ângelo na Pescaria." On 5 June 1413, Pedro da Fonseca was appointed Administrator of Astorga and on 6 Jun 1419, he was transferred to the Diocese of Sigüenza where he served as Administrator until his resignation on 7 Jun 1419. Accepting the decisions made at the Council of Pisa and Council of Constance, Cardinal Fonseca formally recognized Martin V as Pope. Following Byzantine Emperor Manuel II and Patriarch Joseph II's request for legation, Fonseca was sent to Constantinople as a Papal Legate in 1420.
On 27 September 1421 he was assigned as the Papal Legate at Naples. The kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, in Italy were then ruled by the Aragonese King, Alfonso V of Aragon. During the visit of the Roman Pope to the Aragonese king at Vicovaro he fell down the stairs at the monastery of Saint Cosimato dying from the fell on 22 August 1422, being buried at the Vatican near the Chapel of Saint Thomas there, the tomb having marble columns and statues. In 1608 his tomb was moved down the "Vatican Grotto", being relocated between the tombs of Pope Innocent IV and Marcellus II.


Jason Ingram

Jason David Ingram (born August 23, 1974) is an American Christian music producer and songwriter. He has been a songwriter for many Christian artists, including Bebo Norman and Point of Grace.
Early and personal life.
Ingram was born on August 23, 1974, in West Virginia, to parents Ralph Browne "Chip" Ingram II and Theresa Lee Ingram ("née", Ball or Anderson). where he was born with his brother, Eric, on the same day. He has two more siblings, a brother, Ryan, and a sister, Annie, who were both born in Texas. He is married to Culley Kay Ingram ("née", Kessinger), where they presently reside in Franklin, Tennessee.
Career.
Around the end of 2001, he was the first artist to be signed to Resonate Records, an INO Records partnership with Sonicflood's lead vocalist Rick Heil. He subsequently released his first album, "Jason Ingram", on March 5, 2002.
Since 2003, Ingram has been the lead vocalist of the Christian pop rock band The Longing. Ingram is currently the lead vocalist for the band One Sonic Society.
Ingram has written songs for many contemporary Christian music artists. He wrote Bebo Norman's "I Will Lift My Eyes" and Salvador's "Shine". At the annual SESAC Awards, held in Nashville on March 5, 2007, Ingram received the "Christian Songwriter of the Year" award. After receiving the honor, he told "Billboard", "I had no idea, it never crossed my mind. I am so thrilled. You write and you hope the songs affect people and get out there. It's cool when you see that really happens". He co-wrote three tracks on Brandon Heath's second album, "What If We", including "Give Me Your Eyes", which won two GMA Dove Awards in 2009. He also co-wrote songs for Tenth Avenue North, including a No. 4 song on the Christian "Billboard" Charts, "Healing Begins".
Ingram co-wrote "One Day" with Nick Jonas and Dan Muckala in 2011 for the pop artists Charice. The song was used by AcuVue for a promotion called "AcuVue 1-day".


Basher Dimalaang Manalao

Basher Dimalaang Manalao or known to be Mostaqbal, a Maranao people, Islamic preacher ("Ulama" or "Aleem") and was elected vice-governor then succeeded by law the governor of Lanao del Sur in the Philippines following the death of former governor Mamintal Adiong Sr. in 2004. He took his Islamic degree ("Arabic": كوليت) at King Saud University.
He owns an organization Philippine Al-Mostaqbal Incorporation educating members about Islamic cultures, future, and science of Qur’an. Dominant members of his organization were women. The organization established a Facebook page named “Mostaqbal Online Channel” with having over 8.5k followers. He had little or no interest in politics.
He established a public cemetery called “Maqbara” located at Barangay Guimba, Marawi City, Lanao del Sur in the Philippines during his term as governor of the province. Due to political dispute, he was suspended in 3 months by a petition of Monera Macabangon in 2006. He then returned to the office of governor by the decision of the court.
Early life.
Mostaqbal was born in his home town Tamparan, Lanao del Sur in the Philippines. He graduated high school at Ma’ahad Mindanao Al-Arabi newly Jamiatu Muslim Mindanao and proceeded to Islamic education at King Saud University.


Andreas Henrisusanta

Andreas Henrisusanta, S.C.I. (June 7, 1935 – March 10, 2016) was an Indonesian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as bishop
of the Diocese of Tanjungkarang, Indonesia from 1979 to 2012.
Biography.
Born in Wonosari, in present-day Indonesia, Henrisusanta joined to the Dehonians Fathers and was ordained to the priesthood for this Congregation on 2 July 1961. On August 29, 1975, he was appointed titular bishop of Ubaba and auxiliary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tanjungkarang, Indonesia, and was ordained on February 11, 1976. Three years later, on April 18, 1979 he became the bishop ordinary of the same diocese. He retired on July 6, 2012.


Benjamin Schultze

Benjamin Schultze (1689-1760) was a Christian missionary of the Danish-Halle Mission in South India who established the first Christian mission in Madras.
Biography.
Born in Sonnenburg in Brandenburg, Benjamin Schultze studied at Halle, then was sent in 1719 as a missionary of the Danish mission of Tranquebar. He moved to Madras in 1726 and was supported by the SPCK in London, thus becoming the first member of what came to be known as the English mission. He, along with Peter Maleiappen (1700-1739), worked on the translation of the Bible into Tamil. The "Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions" records that he completed Ziegenbelg's translation of the Bible into Tamil (first printed in 1728) and continued with a New Testament in Telugu. He also first translated part of Genesis into the southern form of Hindi or Hindustani (Dakkhini), which was printed at Halle in Arabic characters in 1745, followed by Psalms, Gospels, and Epistles.
He returned to Halle in 1743 where he undertook the direction of the orphanage of the Foundation Francke.
Works.
He left, among other works:


Frants Berg

Frants Berg (1504 – 2 November 1591) was a Danish clergyman who served as the Bishop of Oslo.
He was born in Odense, Denmark. He was the son Claus Berg (ca. 1470 – ca. 1532) and his wife Margrethe de Groth. His father was a German born sculptor and painter who was engaged by John, King of Denmark and whose decorative work appeared in Danish churches. Queen Christina of Saxony (1461–1521), consort of King John, was his godmother. Queen Christine paid for his education, first at Odense University and later at the University of Rostock.
In 1531, he was rector in Odense, in 1540 he was vicar at Ribe Cathedral and in 1546 of St. Nicholas' Church in Copenhagen. The Protestant Reformation in Denmark and Norway was introduced in 1537 when King Christian III of Denmark declared Lutheranism as the official religion. Berg played a key role in the conversion of the Church of Norway. In 1548, he was promoted to superintendent in Oslo and Hamar. He served as Bishop of the Diocese of Oslo from 1548 to 1580.
After his retirement he resided in Oslo, where he died in 1591.
Personal life.
He was married to Karine Lauridsdatter (ca. 1515-1570). His daughter Gidse Frantsdatter Berg (born 1545) was married to Rasmus Hjort (ca. 1525-1604) who succeeded him as dean in Tønsberg. Berg's daughter Magdalena Frantsdatter Berg (1546–1583) married Jens Nilssøn (1538-1600) who succeeded him as Bishop of Oslo. He was the grandfather of Norwegian clergyman Christoffer Hjort (1561-1616).


William Bannerman (minister)

William Bannerman (8 September 1822 – 24 December 1902) was a pioneering Presbyterian minister in Otago, New Zealand.
Bannerman was born in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland in 1822, and received his tertiary education at the University of Edinburgh followed by the Free Church Theological College. He emigrated to New Zealand and arrived in Port Chalmers on the "Stately" on 5 February 1854. Bannerman settled at Puerua, and he was responsible for the sparsely populated area between Waihola and Riverton. Bannerman set up much of the administrative framework for the Presbyterian church in New Zealand. He received the honorary degree Doctor of Divinity (DD) from the University of Edinburgh in March 1900. Bannerman died on 24 December 1902 in Dunedin.
Bannerman married Jane Burns on 21 May 1856 at Dunedin.


Gilbert Blaize Rego

Gilbert Blaize Rego (3 September 1921 – 21 June 2012) was an Indian Prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
Rego was born in Mumbai and was ordained a priest on 3 December 1953. Rego was appointed bishop to the Diocese of Simla and Chandigarh on 11 March 1971 and ordained bishop on 11 September 1971. Rego retired on 10 November 1999 as bishop of the Chandigarh and Simla Diocese.


Alejandro Avruj

Rab Ale Avruj
Rabbi Alejandro Avruj is a Rabbi graduated from the Latin American Rabbinic Seminary since 2002.
- Rabbinic  studies at the Superior Institute of Rabbinical Studies "Abraham J.   Heschel" in Buenos Aires and at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem.
- Master in Rabbinic Literature and Jewish Education at the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, having studied for the MA in Rabbinic Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in New York in 2001, and for the MA in Jewish Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2002.
- 3rd. promotion of LEATID - Latin American Center for Training and Research for Jewish Institutional Conduction - graduating from the Training Program in Management and Development of Jewish Community Organizations. 1997
- Management of Non – for-Profit Organizations, Community Development and Fundraising Courses, at the University of Michigan - School of Social Work - in the USA. 1997
Author of Sidur "Et Bazman - A Time within Time" in 2012, whose first edition was presented by Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, Pope Francis.
Honored with the distinction of the Human Rights Award for B´nei Brith Argentina, for his social work in shanty towns, in 2014 and with the prize “Men of Buenos Aires” together with the prestigious Priest “Father” Pepe by the Provincia Bank Fundation of Buenos Aires.
He is currently Rabbi of the Amijai Community, one of the biggest Jewish congregations in Buenos Aires.
Since 2017 he is the President of the Latin American Rabbinic Assembly, continental representation of the Rabbinical Assembly of the World Masorti Movement.
He is married to Marina Degtiar and has four children, Giselle, Meital, Noa and Shai, and two grandchildren, Dan and Elá.


Cosmas Michael Angkur

Cosmas Michael Angkur (born 4 January 1937) is an Indonesian Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood on 14 July 1967, Angkur was named bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bogor, Indonesia on 10 June 1994 and retired on 21 November 2013.


John G. Stackhouse Jr.

John Gordon Stackhouse Jr. (born 1960) is a Canadian scholar of religion. As a journalist he has been recognized with over a dozen awards by the Canadian Church Press, and his scholarship has been supported by research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Association of Theological Schools, the Canadian Embassy to the United States, and several other sponsors. He currently teaches at Crandall University in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Early life.
Stackhouse was born in 1960 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and raised in southwestern England and northern Ontario, the eldest of four children. His father, John G. Stackhouse, was a general surgeon trained at Queen's University and in Plymouth, Devon, UK, who eventually earned fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons in Canada, the American College of Surgeons, and the International College of Surgeons. His mother, A. Yvonne (Annan) Stackhouse, was a schoolteacher and later university instructor, with degrees in English literature from Nipissing University and Hardin-Simmons University. She received an honorary doctorate from the latter institution for her work as a teacher, board member, and author of the university's centennial history.
John Jr. received his higher education in Canada and the United States: after a year at Mount Carmel Bible School in Edmonton, he received a BA (First Class Honours, Queen’s University, Kingston) in history, an MA (with Highest Honors, Wheaton College) in church history and theology (with a thesis supervised by Mark A. Noll), and a PhD (University of Chicago) in the history and theology of Christianity (with a dissertation supervised by Martin E. Marty).
Career.
Stackhouse began teaching at the International Teams School of World Missions and then Wheaton College, both in suburban Chicago, during his doctoral studies. His first full-time position was as an assistant professor of European history at Northwestern College in Orange City, Iowa (1987–90), where he chaired the department in his latter two years and won the college's teaching award. From there, he went to teach Modern Christianity (history, sociology, philosophy, and theology) in the Department of Religion at the University of Manitoba, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, rising to the rank of Professor in 1997 and receiving the university's top awards for research and for outreach to the community (via his newspaper column and other media appearances). One year later, he left for Regent College in Vancouver (1998–2015), where he served as the Sangwoo Youtong Chee Professor of Theology and Culture at Regent College, in the position formerly held by J. I. Packer.
In 2015, Stackhouse headed east to become the inaugural Samuel J. Mikolaski Professor of Religious Studies at Crandall University and that university's first Dean of Faculty Development, in which latter role he mentors junior faculty and equips mid-career colleagues in teaching and scholarship. In 2018 he received that university's Stephen and Ella Steeves Award for Excellence in Research.
Stackhouse appeared on the editorial masthead of "Christianity Today" from 1994 until 2018, and served as a contributing editor for "Books & Culture" and "Christian History & Biography" magazines. He is a former columnist with "Christian Week" and the "Winnipeg Free Press", and resumed his column with "Faith Today" in 2009. He served as senior advisor to the Centre for Research on Canadian Evangelicalism from its genesis in 2008 to 2010. He wrote over 200 weekly web columns for "Context: Beyond the Headlines," a leading Canadian Christian public affairs television program, until 2020. He now writes occasionally for the Religion News Service, "Sightings" (produced at the University of Chicago Divinity School), and other media. He also serves on the editorial board of the "Anglican Journal" in Canada and as a Fellow of the Centre for Public Christianity in Australia.
Stackhouse's writing has ranged over theology, ethics, the history of Christianity, and both the sociology and philosophy of religion. He has published more than 30 academic journal articles, the same number of full-length chapters in academic books, and more than 900 other articles, columns, book chapters, and reviews. He has edited four books of academic theology, authored eleven books, and co-authored four more. He is listed in "Canadian Who's Who," "The Directory of American Scholars," and "Contemporary Authors." He has given expert testimony to the Canada Revenue Agency, the Manitoba Human Rights Commission, and the British Columbia Supreme Court. He has lectured at dozens of colleges and universities, including Harvard's Kennedy School, Yale Divinity School, Stanford Law School, Fudan University (Shanghai), Hong Kong University, New College, Edinburgh, the University of Otago, and Canadian universities from coast to coast. He has also given over 1000 media interviews, including to CBC TV and radio, CTV, Global TV, and Vision TV in Canada; ABC TV News, NBC TV News, PBS, and Religion News Service in the US; and ABC national TV and radio in Australia—as well as to major periodicals such as "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Globe and Mail", "The National Post", "Time", and "Maclean's".


Jozef Feranec

Jozef Feranec (14 March 1910 − 3 May 2003) was a Slovak Roman Catholic bishop.
Born in Pobedim, Trenčín Region on 14 March 1910 and ordained in 1932, Feranec was named bishop in February 1973. In March 1973, he was appointed bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Banská Bystrica and retired in 1990.
Feranec died on 3 May 2003, aged 93, in Banská Bystrica.


Joseph Abangite Gasi

Joseph Abangite Gasi (January 1, 1928 – September 12, 2014) was a Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1957, Gasi was named bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tombura-Yambio, South Sudan and retired in 2008.


Jan van Cauwelaert

Jan van Cauwelaert, C.I.C.M. (12 April 1914 – 18 August 2016) was a Belgian-Congolese bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. Upon his death at the age of 102, he was one of the oldest bishops in the Church, the oldest European-born bishop and the final living one to have been consecrated by Cardinal Jozef-Ernest van Roey.
Van Cauwelaert was born in Antwerp, Belgium in April 1914 as the youngest son of politician Frans Van Cauwelaert, and was ordained a priest on 6 August 1939 with the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a Roman Catholic religious institute. On 6 January 1954 he was appointed Apostolic Vicar of the Inongo Diocese in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Titular Bishop of Metropolis in Asia. He was consecrated on 25 March 1954, and was appointed Bishop of Inongo Diocese on 10 November 1959. He resigned from the governance of that see on 12 June 1967 and was transferred to the titular see of Uccula. When the title of Bishop Emeritus came into use, he resigned on 12 October 1976 from his titular see, becoming Bishop Emeritus of Inongo.


Alvise Cippico

Alvise Cippico or Ivan Cippicus (16 September 1456 – 2 March 1504) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Zadar (1503) and Bishop of Famagusta (1488–1503).
Biography.
Alvise Cippico was born in Trau on 16 September 1456. On 22 October 1488, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Innocent VIII as Bishop of Famagusta. On 11 December 1503, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Julius II as Archbishop of Zadar. He died in Rome on 2 March 1504 before he could take possession of the see. His successor Francesco de Pisauro, was appointed on 18 April 1505.


Ken Hallowes

Kenneth Bernard Hallowes (1913 – 10 July 1995) was an Anglican bishop in South Africa in the last third of the 20th Century.
Hallowes was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford and during World War II he served as an officer with the Royal Armoured Corps When peace returned he studied for the priesthood at Westcott House, Cambridge; and was ordained in 1947. He was vice principal of St Chad's College, Ladysmith from 1947 to 1954; priest in charge of Springvale from 1952 to 1964; rector of St Mark, Pietermaritzburg from 1966 to 1969; and suffragan bishop of Natal from 1969 until 1981. Hallowes died at home in Pietermaritzburg.


Holy Sponge

The Holy Sponge is one of the Instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ. It was dipped in vinegar (or in some translations sour wine), most likely posca, a favorite beverage of Roman soldiers, and offered to Christ to drink from during the Crucifixion, according to , , and .
History.
Jerusalem.
An object thought to be the Holy Sponge was venerated in Israel, in the Upper Room of the Constantinian basilica, where Sophronius of Jerusalem spoke of it c. 600 AD:
Rome.
In the Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano in Rome, a brown sponge is venerated. Other pieces of sponge are present at the following:
Gerusalemme.
The Chapel of the Relics at Santa Croce in Gerusalemme houses another sponge:
Constantinople and France.
In the 7th century, Nicetas took part in the conquest of Egypt from Phocas. He was famed for bringing items he claimed were the Holy Sponge and the Holy Lance (the "Lance of Longinus") to Constantinople from Palestine in 612. From 619 to 628/9 he may anecdotally have been exarch of Africa.
This sponge remained in Constantinople until it was bought from the Latin emperor Baldwin II by Louis IX of France among the relics he needed for the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Participants in the French Revolution dispersed these relics (including the Crown of Thorns and a bit of the True Cross). Some went briefly to the Bibliothèque Nationale. Later however they were restored to Notre-Dame de Paris.
Other claimants.
Other parties also claiming access to the Holy Sponge include:


Malachy John Goltok

Malachy John Goltok (12 July 1965 in Bauchi – 21 March 2015 in Jos) was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bauchi, Nigeria.
He was ordained a priest by Bishop of Jos, Gabriel Gonsum Ganaka on 4 November 1990 and appointed as second Bishop of Bauchi on 18 March 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI.
He died 21 March 2015 after a short serious illness.


John Sines Jr.

John Barry Sines Jr (born October 15, 1968 in Bedford, Virginia) is an American country music singer-songwriter.
Biography.
John Sines Jr was born and raised in Bedford, Virginia. His father, John Sines Sr and his mother Sandra Bryant performed locally as country musicians and influenced him to begin playing music as well. Sines learned to play guitar and started writing songs at the age of 14. Sines started The Country Adjustment Band while in high school with his brother Sammie Sines. He has four sisters, Rhonda May Long, Brandy Sines, Crystal Sines and McKenzie Sines. He married Patricia Stinnett in 1988 and they have three children, Jonathan Sines, Zachary Sines and Savannah Sines. Sines currently performs as a Christian artist, advocating the cause of Christ.
Musical career.
1984: "The Country Adjustment Band".
In April 1984 he founded The Country Adjustment Band in Goode, Virginia with original members, his brother Sammie Sines & George Marshall. In the early 1990s, band members had changed and the group recorded their first project "Crazy 'Bout Country" in a tobacco barn in Brookneal, Virginia. By 1994 the band had recorded their second project "Barstools & Guitars". By 1998, he shifted from a band effort to a solo career.
2001: "The Black No. 3 (A tribute to Dale Earnhardt)".
February 19, 2001, he wrote "The Black #3" (A tribute to Dale Earnhardt). March 3, 2001, the song was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee on America's New Artist record label. Sines was then signed to Music Row – Nashville & his CD would be distributed by Select-O-Hits out of Memphis, Tennessee on April 17, 2001. A music video for "The Black #3" (A tribute to Dale Earnhardt was released and appeared on Great American Country Television. Sines appeared in the August 7, 2001 print issue of Country Weekly as one of many country artist paying tribute to Dale Earnhardt. He appeared in Country Music Live along with the team that created the music video for the Dale Earnhardt tribute. Sines had 4 national releases off this project, "The horse that they rode in on", "All she left me was alone", "The Black #3" (A tribute to Dale Earnhardt) & "keep loving this one". Sines appeared on Music City 103.3 WKDF with Carl P Mayfield in March 2001 and was invited on air to join the P Team at 2001 NASCAR Busch Series inaugural Pepsi 300 was held April 14, 2014 at Nashville Superspeedway. He was invited to appear in June 2001 at Lupus 2001, in Orlando, Florida alongside of Marc Anthony, Lionel Richie, Howie Dorough and the Backstreet Boys to support the Dorough Lupus Foundation. In December 2002, he would be invited to appear with Sherman Hemsley on Carnival Cruise Lines.
2006: "Sines of Conviction".
By 2006, he would write & record his first gospel CD and third studio project called "Sines of Conviction" recorded on his own label OMAR Records. Three songs were released nationally from this project and reached the independent charts in Christian country music. "The man behind the hammer" would be his first release and would reached number four in 2007 and would be accompanied by a music video by the same name. His second release, "Live another day" would become his first number one single in August 2007. His third single "Blinded Eyes" also reached number one in December 2007. "Blinded Eyes" would also reach number one in Canada on Riverside Country in January & February 2008. He was nominated by the Inspirational Country Music Association (ICMA) for Male Vocalist of the Year in 2007. "Blinded Eyes" was nominated as Song of the Year by the ICMA in 2008. That same year the ICMA would also nominate him for Male Vocalist of the Year. Sines appeared on the cover of Powersource Magazine in August 2008. He also appeared on the nationally televised 13th Annual Inspirational Country Music Award Show (ICM's) on November 4, 2007 at the Acuff Theater in Nashville as an award presenter for 'Vocal Group of the Year' alongside of Laura Bryna and Sue Allan Cooper.
2008: "ALIVE".
In 2008, he recorded a live cd called "ALIVE" at Staunton River High School in Moneta, Virginia. "Walking with Jesus" would be the only release from this project. A music video for "Waiting on You" was recorded in front of a live crowd at Cattle Annie's in Lynchburg, Virginia.
2012: "Better Days".
In 2012 he completed "Better Days" and no singles was released. The CD includes "Sing, (In The Midnight Hour)", a song Sines wrote after hearing evangelist David Ring preach a sermon on Acts 16.
2014: "Sines of the Season".
In 2014, Sines recorded his first Christmas cd, "Sines Of The Season".
Rock Pike Baptist Church.
In June 2013 John became the pastor of Rock Pike Baptist Church in Forest, Virginia. He became an ordained minister in December 2013.
Music ministry.
Sines travels as an evangelist to promote the Gospel of Jesus Christ through music. He has worked with faith base related ministries "Victory Weekend Ministries" and "Racing with Jesus Ministries". Sines appeared on syndicated cable shows "HIS Country Music" in Gilroy, California & "WPRZ-FM Praise Gathering and Concert" on "Virginia Living Television". Sines performs annually for the Amherst County Sheriffs Department to assist the D.A.R.E program. He has also appeared to help raise awareness for FASASD, Families Affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. Sines also lends his talents to assist families in need. Sines was invited to perform at Union Congregational Church in Rockville, Connecticut to help Jacob's Well Coffeehouse celebrate their 20th year in the ministry.
Controversy.
In November 2015 Sines gained national media attention with Todd Starnes of the Fox News Channel after he refused to comply with a ban on religious music by the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, Virginia. Sines was told that he could not sing religions songs during a scheduled performance for hospitalized veterans, which also got the attention of TheBlaze, "The Washington Post" and Fox Business Network – The Intelligence Report with Trish Regan. On December 19, 2015, Sines performed for the veterans without incident.


Marcus Fredrik Bang

Marcus Fredrik Bang (November 1711 – 15 June 1789) was a Danish-Norwegian priest. He was the bishop of the Diocese of Trondhjem from 1773 until 1787. He was born in Næstved, Denmark in 1711 and died in 1789 in Trondheim, Norway.
He had his theological training in Copenhagen, Denmark. Starting in 1739 he was the hospital priest in Trondheim, Norway. Then in 1769 he was appointed to the post of parish priest for the Trondheim Cathedral, but didn't assume the position until 1771. Then he was appointed the bishop of Nidaros Diocese from 1773 until 1787.
Marcus Fredrik Bang was married three times:


Three Card Trick (Wolf Hall)

"Three Card Trick" is the first episode of the BBC Two series "Wolf Hall". It was first broadcast on 21 January 2015.
Plot.
In 1529, King Henry VIII dismisses Lord Chancellor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey for his failure to have the Pope annul Henry's marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon, in order to marry Anne Boleyn. Wolsey's lawyer, Thomas Cromwell, reminisces over his time with the Cardinal, his dealings with the Boleyn family and his own personal life, including the death of his wife and two daughters from the sweating sickness in 1528.
Critical reception.
The premiere of "Wolf Hall" received positive reviews. "The Daily Telegraph" gave the episode 5/5, saying "it fully communicates the nerve-jangling sense of bodily threat with which Mantel’s novels are freighted — life is cheap in a disease-ridden Tudor England ruled by an absolute monarch."


Scott Davis (Scotty D)

William Scott Davis (born January 11, 1975) is an American songwriter, musician, and producer based in Nashville, Tennessee. Davis has written for several publishing companies, including Acuff-Rose Music, Midas Records Nashville, and Word Entertainment.
Davis signed his first publishing deal in 1998 and has gone on to win multiple ASCAP awards, including the 2008 Song of the Year. "Billboard" named Davis the No. 6 Top Producer for the year 2007. He also co-wrote the Broadcast Music, Inc. Song of the Year in 2011. and has been nominated for three Dove Awards.
Early life.
Davis was born on January 11, 1975 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Davis was born into a musical family; his father played guitar and his mother played piano, sang, and wrote songs as well. Davis' brother, Andy Davis, is also musical and is currently the guitar player for The Band Perry and previously played for Jeremy Camp.
Music career.
1999–2006.
In 1998, Davis signed his first publishing deal with Collins Music in Nashville, TN. Collins Music is home of music producer, Tom Collins, who has worked with Ronnie Milsap, Barbara Mandrell, Sylvia, Charley Pride, Steve Wariner, and many more.
Davis started his own publishing company, Life Of Rhyme Music Publishing, in 2001. Davis created this for his own personal catalog and publishing purposes. Life Of Rhyme Productions (a division of Life Of Rhyme) was created in 2005. Under Life Of Rhyme, Davis produced Jessie Daniels' self-titled album on Midas Records. "Jessie Daniels" featured three singles that appeared on music charts: "The Noise" (No. 2 Christian Radio Chart), "Everyday" (No. 1 The Top 5 chart), and "What I Hear" (No. 7 Christian CHR).
2007–2011.
In 2007, Davis co-wrote and produced the hit single "Undo" by Rush of Fools with band members Wes Willis and Kevin Huguley. "Undo" was the most played song of 2007 on Adult Contemporary Christian Music radio stations according to "R&R" Magazine. It went to No. 1 for 7 weeks on "Billboard" and it was the No. 1 Christian song for five consecutive weeks from June 4 to July 2, 2007 on "20 The Countdown Magazine"s charts. "Undo" was featured on the WOW Hits 2008 compilation CD. Davis also produced and co-wrote "Can't Get Away" with Rush of Fools which reached the Top 20 on the Christian "Billboard" charts. "Billboard" also named Davis the No. 6 Christian producer of the year in 2007.
In 2008, Davis won the ASCAP Christian Song Of The Year for "Undo" by Rush of Fools. Davis also won the ASCAP Song Of The Year in 2008 for "What Could Be Better" by 33 Miles. Davis was also nominated for three Dove Awards in 2008: Song of the Year for "Undo", Pop/Contemporary Recorded Song of the Year for "Undo", and Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year for Rush of Fools' self-titled album.
In 2010, Davis achieved Platinum status with his catalog. In January 2010, Davis achieved his biggest radio success yet when "What Faith Can Do" recorded by Kutless, which Davis co-wrote, went to No. 1 on the "Billboard" Christian chart for 8 weeks and remained in the Top 5 for 6 months. "What Faith Can Do" won BMI's Song of the Year in 2011. "What Faith Can Do" was also featured on the WOW Hits 2011 compilation CD.
Later in 2010, Davis was named the No. 10 Christian Songwriter of the Year by "Billboard".
Current.
Scotty Davis is currently busy writing and producing, based in Nashville and working out of a variety of studios, including his own.
Miscellaneous work.
Davis has also worked with: the star of MTV's "", Alex M (Universal), Runner Runner (Capitol Records), The Click Five (Atlantic), Jeremy Camp (Tooth And Nail/BEC Recordings), 33 Miles (INO Records), Jamie O'Neal (Mercury Nashville), Buddy Jewell (Columbia Records), Francesca Battistelli (Fervent Records), Tenth Avenue North (Reunion Records), Jimmy Needham (InPop Records), Clay Davidson (Capitol Records), Sarah Reeves (Sparrow), PureNRG (Fervent), Ricky Lynn Gregg (Row Records), The Steven Sisters (Rounder Records), Scott Krippayne (Springhill), Marsh Hall (Gaither), Sidewalk Prophets (Word Records), Jaci Velasquez, Jimmy Wayne (Big Machine), Brett James (Career Records Nashville, Tia Sellers, Skip Ewing (MCA/Capitol Records/Word Records, and Keith Follesé.


John MacBeath

Rev. Dr. John MacBeath, a Scottish Preacher, was minister of Cambuslang Baptist Church from 1909 to 1921 or 1922. He was later minister of Haven Green Baptist Church, Ealing, from 1942 to 1949. His first wife Margaret died during this pastorate, on 16 November 1947. He then remarried to Eleanor Millard. He himself died 3 May 1967 aged 87 years. His funeral took place from Haven Green Baptist Church, of which he was Pastor Emeritus. His younger brother, Andrew MacBeath, formerly Principal of the Bible Training Institute, Glasgow, took part.
Published works.
Source: COPAC


Anthony Dopping (bishop of Ossory)

Anthony Dopping (Dublin, 1675–1743) was the Anglican Bishop of Ossory.
He was born in Dublin, the second son of Anthony Dopping, Bishop of Meath, and educated at Trinity College, Dublin.
He was elected Dean of Clonmacnoise on 2 July 1720 and raised to the episcopacy as Bishop of Ossory on 19 July 1740.
He married Dorothea, the daughter of Ralph Howard, MD: they had a son, Anthony and four daughters.


The Missionary

The Missionary is a 1982 British comedy film directed by Richard Loncraine, and starring Michael Palin and Maggie Smith. It was produced by George Harrison, Denis O'Brien, Palin (who also wrote the screenplay) and Neville C. Thompson.
Plot.
Church of England Reverend Charles Fortescue works as a missionary in Africa for ten years, then returns to England in the spring of 1906. As the ship docks, a fellow passenger, later identified as Lady Isabel Ames, bumps into him by accident.
Charles is engaged to Deborah Fitzbanks, the daughter of a fellow clergyman. She was only a child when he left, but is now a young woman eager to be married and have lots of children; however, she dislikes being touched by him.
The Bishop of London gives him a new assignment, to set up a mission to rescue the women of the evening who frequent the London Docklands, but cannot offer him any funding. To assist him, Deborah writes to Lord Ames, the richest man in England. Charles reluctantly calls at their enormous mansion. The place has so many rooms that Slatterthwaite, the longtime butler, constantly has trouble finding his way about. He does eventually manage to bring Charles to the Ameses. Lord Ames loathes missionaries (among other things), but Lady Ames is inclined to contribute, especially as she finds him attractive (and tells him so). Somewhat alarmed, Charles tries to leave, but she insists he spend the night.
Late that night, she comes to his room. He tries to get her to leave, but when they hear someone coming, she hides under his bed covers. It turns out to be Slatterthwaite, lost once again. After he realises that this is not his room, he departs. Isabel then takes advantage of the situation to take advantage of Charles. Satisfied, she funds his mission.
Charles industriously sets to work, but the first prostitute he speaks to is highly skeptical. When he insists he does not look down upon her, she challenges him to prove it by sleeping with her. Apparently he does, and as word quickly spreads of his unorthodox methods, his mission is soon filled with young women. When Isabel pays a visit, she discovers him exhausted and sleeping on the floor, with three naked women in his bed. She cuts off her contributions.
When Charles tries to explain himself, Isabel states that she was hoping he would help her to change her life (Lord Ames, it turns out, does not have anything physically to do with her), and now she threatens to do it herself. The women resume their trade to keep the mission going.
Fortescue is visited at the mission by the Bishop. Fortescue tries to explain that the mission has become so successful that they no longer need Lady Ames' money. The Bishop tells him that it's the mission's very success that is threatening its continuance. Other religions in the area are complaining that they can't attract enough girls to their own missions, as they're all going to Fortescue. The Bishop tells him that, due to rumours, unless he moves to another parish, the Missionary Council will close the mission down.
The Bishop also tells him that someone tried to murder Lord Ames by poisoning his food, but Slatterthwaite got lost again, and one of the gardeners died instead. From this, Charles correctly guesses that Lady Ames intends to have her husband murdered. He races to their Scottish estate on the day of his wedding and manages to foil a hunting "accident" by Corbett, an ardent admirer of Isabel.
Meanwhile, the Bishop of London receives numerous complaints from other denominations about Charles's unusual methods. He gives Charles two choices: leave the mission or the Church. Charles chooses the latter, and is joined by Isabel. Photos at the end of the film show that they have two children together.


List of Uruguayan Catholic priests

List of notable Uruguayan Roman Catholic clerics:
A
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Serafino Fortibraccia

 Serafino Fortibraccia, O.P. (died 1571) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Nemosia (1569–1571).
Biography.
Serafino Fortibraccia was ordained a bishop in the Order of Preachers. On 24 January 1569, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Pius V as Bishop of Nemosia. On 13 February 1569, he was consecrated bishop by Giulio Antonio Santorio, Archbishop of Santa Severina, with Giovanni Agostino Campanile, Bishop of Minori, and Umberto Locati, Bishop of Bagnoregio, serving as co-consecrators. He served as Bishop of Nemosia until his death in 1571 in the Siege of Famagusta.


Marie-Josephte Fitzbach

Marie-Josephte Fitzbach (October 16, 1806 – September 1, 1885) was the founder of the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary|Good Shepherd Sisters of Québec.
The daughter of Charles Fitzbach, a native of Luxembourg, and Geneviève Nadeau, she was born in St-Vallier de Bellechasse, Lower Canada. She did not go to school as a child and left home at the age of 13 to become a housekeeper in Quebec City to support her family. Three years later, she began working for François-Xavier Roy, a merchant. At the same time, she paid a student to teach her how to read and write and basic accounting.
Following the death of her employer's wife, she married Mr. Roy in 1828 at Cap-Santé; he had two children and the couple had three more daughters. After her husband died in 1833, the two older children were put in the care of grandparents and she was left to raise her three daughters. One daughter died in 1846. In 1849, her two daughters joined the Sisters of Charity of Quebec. She moved to the Sisters' hospice to be closer to her daughters. In December 1849, at the request of bishop Pierre-Flavien Turgeon, she established St. Magdalen's Refuge, a home for women released from prison. In February 1856, as Mother Mary of the Sacred Heart, she became the first mother superior for the Good Shepherds of Quebec. She was the first person born in Quebec to found a religious order.
Her portrait was painted by painter Marie-Elmina Anger, a member of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in Quebec who also painted the portraits of other Quebec religious figures.
She was declared venerable in June 2012.
Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary-Good Shepherd Sisters.
The Community developed from the St. Vincent de Paul Society of Quebec. In 1849, upon visiting the city jail, lawyer George Manly Muir was moved to create a women's shelter. Muir was president of the SVP and persuaded the other members to undertake a house of refuge. The Society rented a house, but needed someone to manage it. Bishop Turgeon recommended the widow Roy.


Christen Bentsen Schaaning

Christen Bentsen Schaaning ("Kristen Bentsen Skaaning") (c. 1611-1679) was a Norwegian clergyman. He served as parish priest of Avaldsnes Church ("Avaldsnes kirke") at Karmøy in Rogaland, Norway from 1635–1679.
Biography.
He was probably born in Scania which was at that time ruled by Denmark-Norway. On the 1 July 1630, Christirnus Benedicti Scanus was taken up as a student. Before he came to Avaldsnes, he was priest on a ship. Christen was reportedly a priest who earned the respect of the people, and he was present at many royal celebrations. One time, he asked the King of Denmark-Norway for funds to repair his church which had gone into decline. To add to his income, he got involved with herring-trade, even though it was outlawed.
Personal life.
He had a large family of 10 children who settled around different villages in Karmøy, resulting in many further descendants. He was married first to Mette Sørensdatter with whom he had eight sons.
In his second marriage, he was married to Kirsten Lauritsdatter of the noble Galtung family. She was a daughter of Lauritz Johannessen Galte and was a sister to noted admiral Lauritz Galtung. Christen's oldest son, Bernt, became a priest. He was for a time chaplain with his father. Bent was parish priest in Avaldsnes from 1671.


Andrew Hunter (priest)

Andrew John Hunter (born 3 June 1957) has been Dean of Grahamstown since 2008. He is also Archdeacon of Grahamstown.
Hunter was born in Pietermaritzburg and educated at the University of Cape Town, St Paul's College, Grahamstown, the University of the Western Cape, Cardiff University and the Nelson Mandela University where he obtained a DPhil in Conflict Management and Transformation in April 2019. Before being appointed dean he was rector of St Peter the Fisherman, Hout Bay.
Hunter sits on the councils of
Family.
His paternal grandfather was John Hunter, bishop of George, having been translated from Kimberley and Kuruman.


Patrick Clason

Patrick Clason (13 October 1789 – 30 July 1867) was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly to the Free Church of Scotland in 1848/49.
Life.
He was born on 13 October 1789 in the manse at Dalziel near the River Clyde, the youngest son of Rev Robert Clason. The family moved to Logie Kirk near Stirling in his youth. He studied divinity at the University of Glasgow then completed his studies at the University of Edinburgh and was licensed to preach by the Church of Scotland in 1811.
In 1815 Lady Stuart of Castlemilk presented him (as his patron) to the parish of Carmunnock.
In 1824 moved to Edinburgh as first minister of Buccleuch Parish Church, also known as St Cuthbert's Chapel of Ease. He lived nearby at 23 Buccleuch Place.
In 1827 his house was burgled by William Law, blacksmith in Edinburgh. Two table cloths were stolen. Law was sentenced to be transported to Australia for 14 years.
In 1830 he stood unsuccessfully for the chair in Divinity at the University of St Andrews. At the Disruption of 1843 Clason joined the Free Church of Scotland. He served as its Clerk (alongside Rev Thomas Pitciairn) for 23 years.The Free Church built a new church at Buccleuch south of the old parish church, on the corner of Buccleuch Place. This temporary structure was replaced in 1856 by the Buccleuch and Greyfriars Free Church, to the east on West Crosscauseway.
He succeeded Rev James Sievewright as Moderator in 1848 and was succeeded in turn in 1849 by Very Rev Mackintosh MacKay.
He died at home, 22 George Square on 30 July 1867. He is buried in the Grange Cemetery in south Edinburgh. The grave lies midway along the north wall and also contains several other family members.
Artistic recognition.
He was photographed in 1860 ("illustrated" below) at the foot of the steps to New College with several other ex-Moderators of the Free Church.
Family.
He was brother-in-law to the Very Rev Patrick MacFarlan Moderator of the Free Church in 1845/6.
His brother the Rev James Clason (1783-1852) was also a Free Church minister.


Ludovico Giamagna

Ludovico Giamagna, O.P. (1594–1634) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Ston (1632–1634).
Biography.
Ludovico Giamagna was born in Ragusa and ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers. On 24 Nov 1632, he was appointed by Pope Urban VIII as Bishop of Ston. He served as Bishop of Ston until his death in July 1634.


Fateh Muhammad Sial

Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad Sial (1887–1960) was born in a prominent feudal landowning family. He was a companion of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and the first Ahmadi missionary sent from India, under the leadership of Hakeem Noor-ud-Din, the first Khalifa of the Ahmadiyya movement. In 1913, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad asked for volunteers to serve as Ahmadi Muslim missionaries in England. Sial volunteered and travelled to England on June 22, 1913 and arrived the following month. There he served twice as a missionary. He earned an MA in Arabic from the Aligarh Muslim University.
Early life and education.
In 1887, Sial was born to Chaudhry Nizam Din in "Jora Kalan", a small town in the Kasur district of Punjab to a prominent feudal landowning family. In 1899, Sial and his father gave their Bay'ah, the oath of allegiance, to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and in 1900, the family migrated to Qadian.
In 1910, Sial received his bachelor's degree at the Government College University, Lahore. He continued his studies at the Aligarh Muslim University and completed his master's degree in Arabic.
Missionary.
Accepting the call.
Sial responded to the call of his master Mirza Ghula Ahmad, claiming to be the Promised Messiah:
At the age of 20 he wrote a letter to Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, accepting the call to devote his life to Islam. In 1913, sending a missionary to England was beyond the means of the small community in Qadian. Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad procured five hundred Rupees from the Majlis-e-Ansarullah. Mir Nasir Nawwab (father-in-law of Mirza Ghulam Ahmad) personally donated one hundred and five Rupees. Additionally, poor Ahmadis individually collected a few Rupees. A total of seven hundred and eighty Rupees were collected and donated to the first Ahmadi Muslim missionary.
Missionary Work.
Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad Sial arrived in London in July 1913, just a year before the start of World War I. As soon as he arrived in Great Britain and started the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK and started preaching the message of Islam to the people of Britain. The first spot he chose to preach at was Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park by distributing leaflets, fliers, engaging in conversations with residents and holding interviews with the press. Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK celebrated 100 years centenary since Chaudhry Fateh Muhammad Sial arrived in the UK in summer of 2013.
With the young Muslim community in London growing to immigration and a number of British Converts, there became an increasing need for a Mosque where Muslims could gather and pray in congregation. In 1914, the second Ahmadiyya Khalifa, Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad, instructed Fateh Muhammad Sial to purchase a property where a mosque could be built for the Muslim community. In August 1920, Fateh Muhammad Sial acquired a one-acre site at Southfields which became active mission house and his main base of operation, but within the space of a few years the Mission House was no longer sufficient and plans for a construction of a mosque on the site were finalised. The Fazl Mosque (also known as the London Mosque) in London was inaugurated on October 23, 1926. It was the first purpose built mosque in London and become a magnet for many Muslim intellectuals like Allama Iqbal, Jinnah, King Faisal, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan and many others.


Mir Janullah Shah

Mir Jan Muhammad Rizwi of Rohri famous under his nom-de-plume Mir or Mir Janullah (died 1754) was chief Khalifa of Sufi Shah Inayat Shaheed who is related to have told people: "Who ever sees Janullah, sees me" for Janullah had reached the complete Fana fil Shaykh, the identification with his mystical leader. He witnessed the siege of Jhok and returned to Rohri after Shah Inayat's execution.


Cardinal Beaton (play)

Cardinal Beaton; A Drama, in Five Acts (1823) is an historical drama by William Tennant based on the life of David Beaton. It was not received well.
Tennant wrote another unsuccessful play after this, and then retired from stagewriting:
David Macbeth Moir in "Sketches of the Poetical Literature of the Past Half-Century" described Beaton as "ineffective as a drama, but abounding in passages of high merit and interest".


Gerald B. Kieschnick

Gerald Bryan Kieschnick (born January 29, 1943 in Houston, Texas) is the Chief Executive Officer of Legacy Deo (formerly known as the Lutheran Foundation of Texas). Kieschnick served as the 12th president of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS), being elected to three terms in 2001, 2004 and 2007. He was defeated in his bid for a fourth term by the Rev. Matthew C. Harrison on July 13, 2010, at the 64th regular convention of the LCMS, and his presidency ended on August 31, 2010.
Kieschnick and his wife, Terry, have two grown children and two grandchildren, all of whom live in Texas.
Early career.
Kieschnick attended Texas A&M University, graduating with a bachelor of science in 1964. He is a 1970 graduate of Concordia Theological Seminary in Springfield, Illinois (now located in Fort Wayne, Indiana), obtained his Master of Divinity in 1977 at Concordia in Fort Wayne, and received an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1996 from Concordia University in Austin, Texas.
After his ordination in 1970, Kieschnick served as pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Biloxi, Mississippi, until 1973; at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Beaumont, Texas, from 1973–1981; and at Faith Lutheran Church in Georgetown, Texas, from 1981-1986.
He served the Texas District of the LCMS as a circuit counselor from 1978–1981 and as director of public relations from 1977-1986. Kieschnick was director of development at Lutheran Foundation of Texas from 1986–1988 and then served as its executive director from 1988-1991.
In 1991, Kieschnick was elected president of the Synod's Texas District and served in that position until 2001. Under Kieschnick's lead, membership in the Texas District grew by approximately 12 percent, even as LCMS membership numbers slipped nationally. In addition, from 1998 until his election as LCMS president, Kieschnick chaired the LCMS Commission on Theology and Church Relations and served on the program committee of the LCMS Council of Presidents.
LCMS presidential election and first term.
At the LCMS' 2001 convention in St. Louis, Kieschnick was elected to his first three-year term as president of the 2.6-million-member church. He won by 18 votes out of 1,182 total votes in the fourth round of balloting, defeating four other candidates. One of his leading opponents, Daniel Preus, went on to win the position of First Vice President.
Kieschnick's first presidential term was beset by controversy. On many matters, he faced the opposition of more conservative opponents within the church hierarchy, including four out of the five vice-presidents and a majority of the Board of Directors. Polarization in the LCMS dated back at least to the Seminex controversy of the early 1970s, but over the course of the 1990s, members of the LCMS' more conservative wing (who often dub themselves confessional Lutherans) and its more activist wing (who sometimes dub themselves "evangelicals" and who were somewhat aligned with the Church Growth and Megachurch movements) had both established a plethora of internal caucuses, organizations, and news services to promote their viewpoints and to campaign for Synod leadership candidates. Issues of disagreement ranged across the whole life of the church, including worship style, ecumenical fellowship with other church bodies, the role of women in the church, methods for training leaders and expanding congregations, approaches to scriptural interpretation, the proper relationship of the sacred and secular spheres, and the appropriate division of powers between the Synod and its constituent congregations.
Interfaith issues.
Kieschnick spent much of his time in office under fire for his support of Atlantic District president David Benke. The controversy quickly became an emblem for broader, longstanding disagreements within the church. In September 2001, Benke had taken part in an interfaith prayer event at Yankee Stadium to commemorate the victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City. Daniel Preus and others in the Synod's "confessional" wing argued that Benke, by participating in a prayer event alongside non-Lutheran clergy and leaders of non-Christian faiths, had engaged in practices that the Synod condemns as "unionism" and "syncretism", respectively. Kieschnick and his supporters replied that Benke had given Christian witness in a permissible manner, and that the event was not a religious service. Several LCMS ministers moved to have Kieschnick removed as LCMS president, although the matter ended with Kieschnick surviving the ouster attempt and Benke being cleared of the charges against him. For several years, the Benke controversy left some LCMS members speaking of a "crisis in the Synod" and warning openly of the possibilities for a schism.
Committee on Constitutional Matters.
Displeased that Kieschnick had used the LCMS' Committee on Constitutional Matters (CCM) to overrule them on several occasions, the LCMS Board of Directors hired a law firm in early 2004 to determine its authority within the church under the laws governing not-for-profit entities in the state of Missouri. The Kieschnick wing responded by engaging its own legal counsel. Several on the Board of Directors considered filing action against the Synod in civil court as a way to re-assert their authority within the church.
Reelection and second term.
In 2004 Kieschnick won a re-match with first vice-president Daniel Preus, winning 53 percent of the vote to Preus' 32 percent, with two other Confessional Lutheran candidates placing third and fourth. A Kieschnick supporter, Oklahoma District President William R. Diekelman, then defeated Preus for the first vice-presidential slot in a somewhat narrower vote. Although Kieschnick's supporters won control of four out of the five vice-presidential slots, the Board of Directors remained narrowly in the control of Synod conservatives.
Reelection and third term.
At the 2007 convention of the LCMS, Kieschnick was elected on the first ballot, receiving 52.3 percent of the total vote.
2008 radio program controversy.
During Holy Week in 2008, the Synod-sponsored, nationally syndicated talk radio program "Issues, Etc." was canceled, initially without explanation. "Issues, Etc." was the most popular program produced by the LCMS-owned radio station KFUO-AM and had been a regular part of the broadcast schedule for 15 years. Its cancellation, along with the firing of host Todd Wilken and producer Jeff Schwarz, created a firestorm of protest from traditionalists within the LCMS, including allegations of mishandling of radio station finances. Because KFUO-AM has never published financial information, charges could be neither proved nor disproved. In June 2008, "Issues, Etc." returned as a listener-supported program on a competing St. Louis station, and on-line through internet streaming and podcast downloads.
In an opinion piece in "The Wall Street Journal", political commentator Mollie Hemingway wrote:
In a written response, President Kieschnick countered that the article presented a "distorted account of the reason for the discontinuation" and a "misleading picture" of the Synod "as a deeply divided church..." The fallout from the "Issues, Etc." cancellation, and Kieschnick’s denial of discord within the LCMS, further widened the gap between conservative and moderate factions, motivating many previously silent traditionalists to speak out against perceived synodical heavy-handedness and doctrinal error.
2010 election.
On July 13, 2010, Kieschnick was defeated for re-election by Rev. Matthew C. Harrison. The vote was 643 to 527.
Post-presidency.
On March 1, 2011, Concordia University Texas announced that it had hired Kieschnick to fill the newly created position of Presidential Ambassador for Mission Advancement, a position he held until 2015. In January 2016, Kieschnick returned to the Lutheran Foundation of Texas, becoming its CEO on January 1, 2017. In January 2017, under Kieschnick's leadership, the Lutheran Foundation of Texas changed its name to Legacy Deo.


Acta Dasii


Geoffrey Obijuru Ibeabuchi

Geoffrey Obijuru Ibeabuchi (b 1970) is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: since his consecration on 24 September 2019 he has been the Bishop of Umahia, one of nine dioceses within the Anglican Province of Aba, itself one of 14 provinces within the Church of Nigeria:


Arnold of Saint Emmeram

Arnold of Saint Emmeram (Latin: "Arnoldus Emmeramensis", "Arnoldus de Sancto Emmeramo") was an early 11th century Benedictine scholar, writer, composer and prior at Saint Emmeram's Abbey. He was of noble birth, from the house of Vohburg.
In his youth he was an avid reader of the Roman classics, but he turned away from them for fear of being infected by their paganism.
His literary taste was still lastingly influenced, and he felt the medieval Latin of the "Vita St Emmerami" was insufficient, proposing a revision in better Latin. This plan however met with resistance on the part of the monks of the abbey, and Arnoldus was even forced to flee, moving to Magdeburg, where Meginfrid, rector of the local Latin school, took up the project of revising the text of the legend.
Arnoldus himself is the author of two books, "De miraculis et memoria cultorum Sancti Emmerami" and a work on Saint Emmeram in dialogue form.
Arnold's year of death is unknown, but later than 1035, likely close to 1050.


Henry Hansherd

Henry Hanshard (also Hansard) (d. 1446) was a Canon of Windsor from 1444 to 1446
Career.
He was appointed:
He was appointed to the third stall in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle in 1444 and held the canonry until 1446.


Thomas Ball (Provost of Cumbrae)

Thomas Isaac Ball, LLD was Provost of Cathedral of The Isles and Collegiate Church of the Holy Spirit, Millport, Isle of Cumbrae from 1892 until his death on 3 August 1916.
Ball was ordained in 1866 and served curacies and incumbencies in Edinburgh.
He lived in a flat at 12 Hill Square in Edinburgh's South Side.


George Bennet (missionary)

George Bennet (16 April 1774 – 13 November 1841) was an English missionary from Sheffield, Yorkshire. He travelled widely in Asia.
Life.
Bennet was a Congregationalist organiser in Sheffield. In 1821 he set out with Daniel Tyerman, supported financially by the London Missionary Society. They travelled together to China, Southeast Asia, and India.
Bennet stopped in Macau during his Pacific voyage. He was impressed by the garden and aviary of opium trader Thomas Beale, devoting 45 pages of his travelogue to them. Bennet and Tyerman made an extended stay in Tahiti, and Bennet's letters from there were published in the "Sheffield Iris" by James Montgomery. Tyerman died in Madagascar, where they had set up missions with the support of King Radama I.
After his voyage Bennet gave historical artifacts that he had collected to the London Natural History Museum. He died in London on 13 November 1841.
He is buried with an inscribed monument in his memory in Sheffield General Cemetery.