Josaphat Louis Lebulu

Josaphat Louis Lebulu (born June 13, 1942 in Kisangara) is a Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Arusha in Tanzania.
He was ordained priest by Bishop Joseph Kilasara on 11 Dec 1968 in Catholic Diocese of Same. He was appointed Bishop of Same by Pope John Paul II on 12 Feb 1979, and received his episcopal consecration from Archbishop Laurean Rugambwa on 24 May 1979.
On 28 Nov 1998 Bishop Lebulu was appointed Bishop of Catholic Diocese of Arusha by Pope John Paul II and later on 16 March 1999 he was appointed the archbishop of Catholic Archdiocese of Arusha until his retirement on 27 December 2017.
He served as president of the Council of Catholic Bishops in Tanzania (Tanzania Episcopal Conference TEC)(1988-1994). He also served as President of Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (1997 – 2008)


Raymond Mupandasekwa

Raymond Tapiwa Mupandasekwa (born 28 April 1970) was installed as the Roman Catholic Bishop of Chinhoyi on 7 April 2018. He is the first black bishop of Chinhoyi Diocese. He is also the first black African bishop in Chinhoyi. The first black African Redemptorist bishop in Zimbabwe, Africa and the whole Congregation of the Redemptorists.


Mohammad Taher Khaqani

Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammad Taher Aleshobair Khagani (Arabic: محمد محمد طاهــــر آل شبيـر الخاقانـــــي) (born 1940) is an Iraqi Twelver Shi'a Marja.
He has studied in seminaries of Najaf, Iraq under Grand Ayatollah Abul-Qassim Khoei and Mohammad-Reza Golpaygani.


Herman van Horne

Herman van Horne (or Hoorn) (died 31 January 1156) was Bishop of Utrecht from 1150 to 1156. Herman was son of Thiery de Looz, Count of Horn, and grandson of Emmo, Count of Looz.
Herman became archdeacon at Liège in 1136, and provost of Sankt-Gereon in Cologne in 1149. He was consecrated as bishop of Utrecht in July 1150. His election was supported by the counts of Gelre, Holland and Cleves, but it was opposed by the city of Utrecht, who had chosen Frederick II of Berg. The resistance of the city was eventually broken by king Frederick I Barbarossa.


Rayappu Joseph

Bishop Rayappu Joseph (; 16 April 1940 – 1 April 2021) was a Sri Lanka Tamil prelate and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Mannar.
Early life and family.
Joseph was born on 16 April 1940 on the island of Neduntheevu in northern Ceylon. He was educated at St. Patrick's College, Jaffna. Joseph has a Doctor of Canon Law degree from the Pontifical Urbaniana University.
Career.
Joseph was ordained as a priest in December 1967. He was a professor at the St Xavier's Seminary, Jaffna. In July 1992 he was appointed Bishop of Mannar and was ordained as a bishop in October 1992.
Joseph has been a vocal critic of the Sri Lankan government/Sri Lankan military's conduct during the Sri Lankan Civil War and the country's human rights record. This has led to him being threatened by government supporters.


Karl E. Peters

Karl E. Peters is a Professor Emeritus of Religion at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL, and former adjunct professor of philosophy, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT and adjunct professor of religion and science, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Chicago. He also is the former editor and then co-editor of , and is a founder, organizer, and first President of the University Unitarian Universalist Society in central Florida. His scholarly research and teaching focuses on issues in science and religion, including the concept of God and evolution, epistemology in science and religion, world religions and the environment, and religious and philosophical issues in medicine.
Peters has been for many years a member and lecturer at the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science where he has been active in the development of Religious Naturalism. He has six times served as co-chair of the annual conference.
Peters' current focus in on developing a Christian Religious Naturalism.


Bargain of Judas

The Bargain of Judas is a biblical episode related to the life of Jesus which is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels, , and . It relates how Judas Iscariot made a bargain with the Jewish chief priests to betray Jesus.
Biblical accounts.
The Gospel of Matthew specifies that Judas received thirty pieces of silver:
Then one of the Twelve — the one called Judas Iscariot — went to the chief priests and asked, "What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?" So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.
The Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke mention no price. Luke's Gospel states that Satan entered Judas to prompt him for the bargain:
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were delighted and agreed to give him money. He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.
Analysis.
The word which is translated "counted out" (, "estēsan") in modern translations like the Good News Translation and the New International Version appears as "they appointed unto him" in the Geneva Bible, "they covenanted with him" in the King James Version, "they weighed out" in the American Standard Version and as "they settled with him" in J. B. Phillips' 1960 translation. The prophetic text of , in most English translations, uses the word "weighed":
In the New Testament Jesus is later betrayed in the Kiss of Judas incident. The "Bargain of Judas" is considered one of the seven key episodes which relate to the events of the week of the Crucifixion of Jesus.


Rodney Griffin

Rodney Griffin is a Southern gospel singer and songwriter currently performing with Greater Vision. Griffin has been named favorite songwriter in the Singing News Fan Awards every year from 1998 to 2016. He was also named Favorite Baritone in 2006. Many of his songs, including "My Name is Lazarus" (1999), "Just One More Soul" (2000), "Just Ask" (2003), "Faces" (2005), and "Preacher Tell Me Like It Is" (2014) have won Favorite Song.
Early years.
Griffin earned a bachelor's degree from Berea College in Berea, Kentucky in 1988. Until 1990, he worked at a shipyard in Virginia, but always had a desire to sing gospel music. He spent time with an amateur group from Chesapeake, Virginia called The Galileans, but wanted to sing professionally. He joined a professional group called Higher Dedication. When Higher Dedication disbanded, Griffin moved on to an Arkansas-based family singing group called The Brashears, and later joined the Dixie Melody Boys serving as baritone vocalist and bass guitarist from 1991-1993.
Greater Vision.
Griffin joined Greater Vision to replace baritone Mark Trammell, who left the trio in 1993. Besides being a talented singer, Griffin began writing many of Greater Vision's songs including the hits "He'd Still Been God", "Common Garments", "Faces", "A Pile of Crowns", "Just One More Soul", and "My Name is Lazarus". Griffin has also written songs performed by other groups, including "Don't Let the Sandals Fool Ya" (Triumphant Quartet) and "Temporary Tomb" (Legacy Five).


Giuseppe Maria Bottari

Giuseppe Maria Bottari, O.F.M. Conv. (1646–1729) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Pula (1695–1729).
Biography.
Giuseppe Maria Bottari was born in Venice, Italy. In 1689, he was appointed Minister General of Order of Friars Minor Conventual. On 4 Jul 1695, he was appointed by Pope Innocent XII as Bishop of Pula. On 10 Jul 1695, he was consecrated bishop by Pier Matteo Petrucci, Cardinal-Priest of San Marcello with Francesco Gori, Bishop of Catanzaro, and Domenico Diez de Aux, Bishop of Gerace, as co-consecrators. He served as Bishop of Pula until his death in Sep 1729.


Gracia Baptista

Gracia Baptista ("fl". 1557?) was a Spanish Roman Catholic nun and composer who lived in Ávila. Her setting of "Conditor alme", published in 1557 in the "Libro de cifra nueva para tecla, Arpa y Vihuela" of Luis Venegas de Henestrosa, is the earliest keyboard work by an Iberian woman composer, the first published composition by a woman composer, and possibly the only surviving published keyboard work by an Iberian woman dating to before the eighteenth century. The piece is scored for voice and either organ or harpsichord. It has been recorded.
References.


Nelson Ojeda

Abelino Manuel Apeleo is a Chilean Anglican bishop: he was consecrated as an auxiliary in 2016.


Michael Furse

The Rt Rev Michael Bolton Furse, KCMG, DD (born Bolton Michael Furse; 12 October 1870 – 18 June 1955) was an eminent Anglican bishop in the first half of the 20th century.
Born in 1870 in Staines, Middlesex, Furse was the fourth son of Ven. Charles Furse (born Johnson), Archdeacon of Westminster, and Jane Diana Monsell, second daughter of John Samuel Bewley Monsell, vicar of Egham. His elder brothers included the sculptor John Henry Monsell Furse, Lt.-Gen. Sir William Furse and the artist Charles Wellington Furse.
He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Oxford, he was ordained in 1897. He was Fellow and Dean of his old college then Archdeacon of Johannesburg. In 1904 the Baker house, Bishopskop was built for him. In 1909 he was elevated to the Episcopate as Bishop of Pretoria, a post he held for 11 years. The Jane Furse Memorial Hospital was built in memory of his daughter, Jane, who died of scarlet fever in 1918. In 1920 he was translated to St Albans, retiring in 1944. He died on 18 June 1955.


Pedro de Azuaga

Pedro de Azuaga, O.F.M. (1539 – November 1597) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop-Elect of Santiago de Chile (1596–1597).
Biography.
Pedro de Azuaga was born in Azuaga, Spain in 1539 and ordained a priest in the Order of Friars Minor.
On 29 January 1596, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Clement VIII as Bishop of Santiago de Chile.
He died before he was consecrated bishop in November 1597.


Adalberto Arturo Rosat

Adalberto Arturo Rosat (January 22, 1934 – January 31, 2015) was a Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1958, Rosat was named bishop of the Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Aiquile, Bolivia, in 1987. He retired in 2009.


John Farmer Healy

John Farmer Healy CBE (1900−1973) was a Jamaican-born Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Gibraltar from 1956 to 1973.
Born in Kingston, Jamaica on 3 December 1900, he was ordained to the priesthood on 11 June 1927. He was appointed the Bishop of the Diocese of Gibraltar by Pope Pius XII on 18 July 1956. His consecration to the Episcopate took place on 11 October 1956; the principal consecrator was the Most Reverend Gerald O'Hara, Bishop of Savannah, Georgia, USA, with the Right Reverend Cyril Cowderoy, Archbishop of Southwark, England and the Right Reverend John Petit, Bishop of Menevia, Wales, serving as co-consecrators. Bishop Healy participated in all the four sessions of the Second Vatican Council, held between in 1962 and 1965.
He died in office on 17 February 1973, aged 72.


Alexio Churu Muchabaiwa

Alexio Churu Muchabaiwa (born 21 June 1939 in Wedza) is a Zimbabwean clergyman and bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Mutare. He became ordained in 1969. He was appointed bishop in 1981. He retired in 2016.


Hugh Jermyn

Hugh Willoughby Jermyn (25 August 1820– 17 September 1903) was an Anglican bishop in the second half of the 19th century and the very start of the 20th.
Biography.
He was born in Swaffham, and educated at Westminster and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. Ordained in 1845, his career began as a Curate at Kensington Parish Church after which he was incumbent of St John's, Forres. Following this he was Dean of Moray & Ross then Archdeacon of Saint Kitts. He returned to Britain in 1858 to be Rural Dean of Dunster before being appointed Vicar of Barking. In 1871 he was elevated to the Episcopate as the 3rd Anglican Bishop of Colombo and in 1875 translated to Brechin. Eleven years later he became Primus of Scotland, a post he held until 1901. He died on 17 September 1903.
Archive Services at the University of Dundee hold papers relating to Jermyn's election as Bishop of Brechin.


Shahabuddin Popalzai

Mufti Shahabuddin Popalzai () is an Islamic cleric, Imam, Khatib and head of the regional moon-sighting committee at the historic Qasim Ali Khan Mosque, Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The committee, whose existence predates the creation of Pakistan, traditionally declares the sighting of the Ramadan and Shawwal moons, resulting in the fasting and Eid in certain regions of Khyber Pakthunkhwa including Peshawar, although most of the rest of Pakistan follows the central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee.
Popalzai is also serving as the Emir of the Aalmi Majlis Tahaffuz Khatm-e-Nubuwwat Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chapter.
Biography.
Mufti Popalzai is born into the Popalzai clan of Durrani tribe of Pashtuns in Peshawar. He studied Islamic studies at Islamia College Peshawar and later became a prominent cleric in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mufti Popalzai has large following in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Tribal Areas, and the northern tip of Balochistan province among Pashtuns.


Justice Akrofi

Justice Ofei Akrofi (born 1942) is a Ghanaian Anglican Bishop. He is the former Anglican Bishop of Accra (Ghana) and former archbishop (primate) of the Church of the Province of West Africa. He was elected to that position in 2003, which he held until 2012.
The archbishop is married to physician Maria Eugenia Akrofi and they have two children.
Education.
Akrofi studied in Ghana and in the United States at Central Connecticut State College (University), receiving B.Sc. and M.Ed. degrees, and Yale where he graduated in 1976 with a Master of Divinity degree. Later, he taught at Cape Coast University and the University of Ghana before serving as dean of Holy Trinity Cathedral in Accra and later as Bishop of Accra from 1996 to 2012. In 2000, Akrofi received an honorary doctorate from Central Connecticut State University.
Anglican realignment.
Like most African Anglican prelates, Akrofi is widely regarded as a conservative in the Anglican Communion and has been involved in the Anglican realignment. The Church of the Province of West Africa was one of the first to break communion with the Episcopal Church of the United States over the question of admitting non-celibate homosexual clergy. He is a supporter of the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans and of the Anglican Church in North America. He attended the Global Anglican Future Conference, in Jerusalem, in June 2008.


Agrestius

Agrestius (fl. 433–41) was the bishop of Lugo in the Roman province of Gallaecia. He attended the Council of Orange in the year 441. He is usually identified with the author of the "Versus Agresti episcopi de fide ad Avitum episcopum", a poem and letter addressed to Avitus, then prefect of Gaul. The chronicler Hydatius, in his account of 433, suggests that Agrestius had Priscillianist leanings.


Mariano Fazio

Mariano Fazio is an Argentine Roman Catholic priest who is the Auxiliary Vicar of the Prelature of Opus Dei (2019 to the present).
He was born on April 25, 1960 in Buenos Aires, Argentina . He was the rector of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross from 2002 to 2008, and was the president of the Conference of Rectors of the Pontifical Universities of Rome. He served as the Regional Vicar of Opus Dei in Argentina, Paraguay and Bolivia up to 2014. In 2007, he worked as an expert at the Latin American Bishops Conference in Aparecida, Brazil.
Education and early work.
He finished History at the University of Buenos Aires. He has a doctorate in Philosophy from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross.
For seven years he was a professor of Philosophy of Law and was an editorial writer for the Ecuadorean newspaper El Telégrafo.
In 1991, he was ordained a priest by John Paul II.
He is a member of the Chesterton Society in Argentina and the National Academy of History in Ecuador.
Works.
He is the author of more than 20 books on modern society and the process of secularization.


Gilberto Obdulio Porcal Martinez

Gilberto Obdulio Porcal Martinez is an Anglican bishop in Uruguay. He has been the Suffragan Bishop of Uruguay since 2012.


Joseph Luechai Thatwisai

Joseph Luechai Thatwisai (born December 2, 1962, ; ) is appointed Roman Catholic Bishop of Udon Thani diocese.
Joseph Luechai Thatwisai was ordained a priest in 1990. He obtains a pontifical degree in Scripture and was professor of biblical theology at Thailand's Saeng Tham National Major Seminary from 2000 to 2006. Afterwards he earned a PhD in biblical studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris. Since 2008 he was secretary of the Thai bishops’ Catholic Commission for the Bible commission.
Pope Benedict XVI made the episcopal appointment on November 14, 2009. He was ordained a bishop by his predecessor, Bishop George Yod Phimphisan, C.Ss.R., on February 6, 2010.


Dominikus Saku

Dominikus Saku (born 3 April 1960) is an Indonesian Roman Catholic bishop.
Biography.
Saku was born in Taekas, North Central Timor Regency on the island of Timur. He attended the local diocesan minor seminary and then studied philosophy and theology at St Peter's Seminary, at Maumere. He was ordained a priest of the diocese of Atambua on 29 September 1992.
Afterbeing ordained Saku studied at Pontifical Urban University in Rome from 1995 to 1999. Before becoming bishop Saku, besides being a priest, was a professor and formator at the major seminary in Kupang from 2003 to 2007 and was a professor of theology at Widya Mandira Catholic University.
On 2 June 2007 Saku was appointed bishop of the diocese of Atambua to replace the retiring bishop Anton Pain Ratu S.V.D. On 21 September 2007 Saku was ordained bishop by Ratu, with Peter Turang, then archbishop of Kupang, and Gerulfus Kherubim Pareira S.V.D., then bishop of Weetebula, were the co-consecrators.
In 2018 Saku held a conference where he discussed the issue of providing for migrants into Indonesia from neighboring Timor Leste. He emphasized that migrants need to be treated with dignity and respect in Indonesia.


Angus Galbraith

The Very Rev Angus Galbraith DD (1837–1909) was a 19th-century minister of the Free Church of Scotland who served as Moderator of the General Assembly at the end of his career in 1903/04.
Life.
He was born in Torrisdale in Kintyre on 28 December 1837 the son of Neil Galbraith, a farm labourer, and his wife, Janet McQuilken (pronounced "McWilken"). He studied Divinity at the University of Glasgow and Free Church College in Glasgow. He was ordained by the Free Church of Scotland in 1867 on the island of Raasay. In 1890 he was translated to Ferintosh and in 1893 to Lochalsh.
In the Union of 1900 the Rev Galbraith remained in the Free Church of Scotland.
In 1903 he succeeded Donald M. Macalister as Moderator of the General Assembly, the highest position in the Free Church of Scotland. He was succeeded in turn in 1904 by Murdoch Macqueen.
He died at Ardelve on 25 April 1909. He is buried in Lochalsh.
Family.
In 1876 he married Jemima Sutherland (1842-1915) daughter of James Sutherland of St Vincent in the British West Indies. They had a son, John James Galbraith (1877-1949).


Maxwell Valentine Noronha

Maxwell Valentine Noronha (14 February 1926 – 28 January 2018) was a Roman Catholic bishop.
Noronha was ordained to the priesthood in 1950. He served as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calicut, India from 1980 to 2002.


Alfonso Basilio Ghetaldo

Alfonso Basilio Ghetaldo, O.S.B. (1647–1702) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Stagno (1694–1702).
Biography.
Alfonso Basilio Ghetaldo was born in Ragusa in 1647 and ordained a priest in the Order of Saint Benedict.
On 19 July 1694, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Innocent XII as Bishop of Stagno.
On 25 July 1694, he was consecrated bishop by Galeazzo Marescotti, Cardinal-Priest of Santi Quirico e Giulitta, with Prospero Bottini, Titular Archbishop of "Myra", and Stefano Giuseppe Menatti, Titular Bishop of "Cyrene", with serving as co-consecrators.
He served as Bishop of Stagno until his death on 12 September 1702.


John Martin Darko

John Martin Darko (30 May 1945 − 12 January 2013) was a Ghanaian Roman Catholic bishop.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1976, he was named bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Sekondi–Takoradi, Ghana in 1998 and resigned in December 2011 citing health issues.


Jeffrey S. Grob

Jeffrey Scott Grob (born March 19, 1961) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who serves as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
Biography.
Grob was born in Cross Plains, Wisconsin. He attended elementary school at Saint Francis Xavier Catholic School in Cross Plains, and high school seminary at Holy Name High School Seminary in Madison. He pursued higher education at the Saint Meinrad Seminary and the Pontifical College Josephinum, graduating from the latter with a bachelor's degree in religious studies in 1988. He attended Saint John's University in Minnesota for one year, then continued his studies at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois, receiving a master of divinity degree in 1992.
On May 23, 1992, Grob was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin. He obtained a licentiate in sacred theology in 1999 from Mundelein, and a licentiate in canon law in 2000 and doctorate in canon law in 2007 from Saint Paul University in Ottawa, Ontario. His doctoral thesis was a comparative study of the 1614 and 1998 versions of the Rite of Exorcism.
Pope Francis appointed Grob auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Chicago on September 11, 2020. On November 13, 2020, Grob was consecrated as a bishop.


Samuel A. Snieg

Samuel A. Snieg was chief rabbi in the American Zone of the Allied-occupied Germany, a survivor of the Dachau concentration camp, and an organizer of the printing of the "Survivors' Talmud".


John Laing (bishop)

John Laing was a 15th-century bishop of Glasgow. He was from the family of "Redhouse" in the shire of Edinburgh. Before becoming bishop he was rector of Tannadice in Angus, vicar of Linlithgow, and was rector of Newlands in the diocese of Glasgow when he was appointed to the see in 1474. He was appointed Chancellor of Scotland in 1482. He died on 11 January 1483.


Emmanuel Kana Mani

Emmanuel Kana Mani was an Anglican bishop in Nigeria.
Mani was born on 10 June 1951, in Zuru, Kebbi State. He enlisted in the Nigeria Army in 1968 where he became a military chaplain. He was ordained in 1983. He was elected Bishop of Maiduguri in 1990; and Archbishop of Jos in 2002.
After serving one term of 5 years, he was replaced as Archbishop of Jos by Benjamin Kwashi in 2008.
Mani died in 2017. He was survived by his wife, Sarah, and his six children.


Zefirino Agostini

Zefirino Agostini (24 September 1813 - 6 April 1896) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest that served in his hometown of Verona to perform his pastoral duties. He established two religious congregations in his lifetime being the Pious Union of Sisters Devoted to Saint Angela Merici and the Ursuline Sisters of the Daughters of Mary Immaculate.
Agostini was beatified on 25 October 1998.
Life.
Zefirino Agostini was born in Verona on 24 September 1813 as the oldest son to Antonio Agostini and Angela Frattini. His father died before he reached age one which prompted his mother to care for him and his brothers. He spent his childhood with his paternal grandparents in Terrossa where he learned to read and write.
Agostini commenced his studies for the priesthood at the age of eighteen. One of his teachers during his time there was Venerable Nicola Mazza. He received his ordination on 11 March 1837 from the Bishop of Verona Giuseppe Grasser. Agostini was appointed in 1845 as the pastor of the parish of Santi Nazario e Celso and took possession of that parish upon his entrance on 29 June 1845. He had been there as a parish priest since 1837 but was elevated as its pastor.
He established a range of after-school care programs for girls and also catered for women's religious instruction in his parish. In 1852 he tried to open a centre for adolescents under the care of the Canossians but it didn't quite work so he tried to look into female oratories as a possible alternative. Agostini also instilled devotion to Saint Angela Merici among his female parishioners and even established a religious congregation devoted to her. The Rule for that order - the Pious Union of Sisters Devoted to Saint Angela Merici - received diocesan approval from the Bishop of Verona Benedetto Riccabona de Reinchenfels in 1856.
On 2 November 1856 the priest opened his first school for poor girls. In 1860 some of the workers from that school wanted to form a religious congregation under his direction so he prepared a Rule for them. It resulted in twelve females being professed on 24 September 1869 leading to the establishment of his Ursuline religious institute on 18 November 1869.
Zefirino Agostini died on 6 April 1868. His order received diocesan approval from Giordano Corsini on 24 June 1923 while the papal decree of praise of Pope Pius XI was issued on 14 March 1932 and full papal approval for the institute came on 3 April 1940 from Pope Pius XII during World War II. The order now operates in places such as Switzerland and Benin and as of 2005 has 628 religious in 78 houses.
Beatification.
The beatification process commenced on a diocesan level in 1964 - during the pontificate of Pope Paul VI - in which the late priest was granted the title Servant of God as the first stage in the process. The conclusion of the process around the time of the 1980s saw the Congregation for the Causes of Saints validate the process and approve the fact that it had done what it was tasked to do - collating evidence etc.
Historians first needed to assess whether or not there would be obstacles to the cause. The team deemed there were done and so approved the cause to proceed to the next stage on 17 April 1985. The decision allowed for the postulation to submit the Positio to the C.C.S. for further assessment and this in turn led to Pope John Paul II declaring Agostini to be Venerable on 22 January 1991 after ascertaining that he had lived a life of heroic virtue.
The miracle required for beatification was investigated in the place that it had occurred in and the ensuring process was ratified in Rome in mid 1987. John Paul II approved it on 6 April 1998 and beatified Agostini on the following 25 October in Saint Peter's Square.


Nora Illi

Nora Illi (3 April 1984 – 23 March 2020) was a Swiss convert to Islam and Islamic preacher. She was chairwoman of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS). She took part in several T.V. talk shows and caused heated discussions with her intellectual and political views.
Early life.
She was born as Nora Gögel on 3 April 1984 in Uster, Canton of Zürich. Her father was a well-known Swiss psychotherapist of German origins and her mother was a Swiss social worker. They had a divorce years later. Illi was baptized Catholic upon her own request. As a teen, she promoted individual freedom and anti-establishment views, and at the age of 18, Illi converted to Islam.
Illi travelled to Dubai, and over there converted to Islam after she heard the "Adhan". Upon returning to Switzerland, she converted to Islam. Two weeks later, her husband, Qaasim Illi (he was only her boyfriend then), also became an Islamic convert. Both were active members of the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS). By the age of twenty, Nora Illi wore the Niqab (face veil) in public. She continued her education in her home town until she was awarded a PhD in theology from the University of Zurich.
Illi chaired the Department of Women Affairs at the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland (ICCS). After converting to Islam, she became an Islamic preacher. In a T.V. interview on the talk show of Anne Will in November 2016, Illi said "I used to have prejudices against Muslims; I also used to think that Muslim women are all oppressed. However, I discovered that Islam treats women as pearls." She added that she came to the conclusion that there are some wrong issues and beliefs which stem from different cultures that have been attributed to Islam but have nothing to do with it in reality.
Illi confirmed that because of Islam, she started to have self-assertion as a woman, adding that being a Muslim woman, she was never treated as a commodity. She stressed the fact that before she started to wear the face veil, men used to treat her as a commodity and they were attracted only to her body.
Illi was hosted by several T.V. shows where she voiced several intellectual and political views for both the German and Swiss media. In November 2016, Illi's appearance on the best-known T.V. show of Anne Will caused a lot of controversy and uproar about whether radical opinions should be represented on a T.V. show. Some quotes by Illi were shown during the interview and were interpreted as propaganda for the radical views of the terrorist militia of the Islamic State. Several lawsuits were filed against her as a result of that discussion, but the Hamburg Public Prosecutor office suspended all preliminary investigations in February, 2017.
Having appeared on T.V. and in public events inside and outside Switzerland with a face veil on, Illi caused a lot of uproar. She was harassed and insulted on a daily basis because of her black face veil.
Illi was an advocate of polygamy, the practice of having multiple wives, but she rejected polyandry, having multiple husbands. She was married to the computer scientist, Qaasim Illi, who also worked for the Islamic Central Council of Switzerland. They had six children.
Death.
Nora Illi died on 23 March 2020 at the age of 35 at one of Bern's hospitals after a long-term suffering with breast cancer.


Eddie Daniels (bishop)

Edward Ronald "Eddie" Daniels is a South African Anglican bishop. He has been Bishop of Port Elizabeth since 2019.
Daniels was educated at Chri J. Botha School, St Paul's Theological College and Nelson Mandela University. He worked in Port Elizabeth from 2003 to 2019.


Mohammad Mofti al-shia Mousavi

Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Mohammad Mofti al-Shi'a Mousavi (Persian: السيد محمد مفتي الشيعة موسوي) (born 1928- died 19 May 2010) was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a Marja.
He has studied in seminaries of Qum, Iran under Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi and Ruhollah Khomeini. He has also studied in seminaries of Najaf, Iraq under Grand Ayatollah Muhsin al-Hakim, Abu al-Qasim al-Khoei and Ayatollah Shaykh Husayn Hilli.


Edmond Jitangar

Goetbé Edmond Jitangar (born 2 November 1952 in Bokoro, Chad) is a Chadian Roman Catholic bishop. He was Bishop of the Sarh, from 1991 to 2016, and has been Archbishop of N'Djamena since 2016.
Career.
Jitangar received the ordination to the priesthood on 30 December 1978. On 11 October 1991, Pope John Paul II named him Bishop of the Sarh. The prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, Jozef Tomko announced his consecration to bishop. The consecration was completed by the bishop of Mondou, Matthias N'Gartéri Mayadi and the emitted Bishop of Sarh, Henri Veniat SJ.
Bishop Jitangar was named Metropolitan Archbishop-designate of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of N'Djamena, Chad, by Pope Francis on Saturday, August 20, 2016, following the death of the previous Archbishop in 2013. Jitangar was installed as Archbishop of N'Djamena on 15 October 2016.
External links.


Shardlake series

The "Shardlake series" is a series of historical mystery novels by C. J. Sansom, set in the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century.
Sansom has said that he plans to write further Shardlake novels taking the lawyer into the reign of Elizabeth I.
Description.
The series' protagonist is the hunchbacked lawyer Matthew Shardlake, who is assisted in his adventures by Mark Poer and then Jack Barak. Shardlake works on commission initially from Thomas Cromwell in "Dissolution" and "Dark Fire", Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in "Sovereign" and "Revelation", Queen Catherine Parr in "Heartstone" and "Lamentation", and Princess Elizabeth in "Tombland". The seventh book, "Tombland", was published in October 2018.
Adaptations.
Radio.
BBC Radio 4 has adapted novels in the Shardlake series as part of its "15-Minute Drama" series. In 2012, "Dissolution" was adapted into a 10-part radio serial by Colin MacDonald, starring Jason Watkins as Shardlake and Mark Bonnar as Cromwell. BBC Radio 4 later broadcast "Dark Fire" in 2014, with Justin Salinger taking over the role of Shardlake and Bryan Dick playing Barak, "Sovereign" in 2015, "Revelation" in 2017, "Heartstone" in 2018, and "Lamentation" in 2021, all adapted by Colin MacDonald as 10-part serials.
Television.
In 2007, the BBC commissioned an adaptation of "Dissolution", with Kenneth Branagh set to star as Shardlake. Branagh chose instead to star as the eponymous protagonist in the BBC series "Wallander".


Ellen Ammann

 Ellen Aurora Ammann (1 July 1870 - 23 November 1932) was a Swedish born - German politician and activist, representative of the Bavarian People's Party. Her cause for sainthood has been opened by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.
Biography.
Ellen Sundström was born in Stockholm, Sweden.
She was the elder daughter of Carl Rudolf Sundström (1841-1889) and Carolina Sofia Häggström (1849–1943).
Her father was an ornithologist and doctor of zoology. Her mother was a journalist and foreign editor with " Stockholms-Tidningen". She was the sister of Swedish landscape artist Harriet Sundström (1872–1961) .
After graduation, she began training as a physiotherapist. In 1890 Ellen Sundström married German orthopedist Ottmar Ammann (1861–1939) and then moved with her husband to Munich. She worked for Swedish-German women's rights, and was a welfare nurse and pioneer of professional training for social work. A Roman Catholic convert, in 1904 she co-founded the Munich branch of the German Catholic Women's Association.
From 1919 to 1932, she served as a “landtag” deputy for “Bavarian People’s Party”, where she advocated the professionalisation of women's education. In January 1923, together with Anita Augspurg, Lida Gustava Heymann and a delegation of women, Amman called for Austrian born Adolf Hitler to be expelled from Germany. During the Beer Hall Putsch, she and several members of government hastily composed a condemnation of the attempted coup d'état. She continued to oppose National Socialism until her death. Ellen Ammann died in Munich during 1932 in the aftermath of a stroke. She was buried at Alter Südfriedhof.


John Bulmer (Independent minister)

John Bulmer (1784 - 1857) was an Independent minister. He was born and grew up in Yorkshire, England, and was educated for the Congregational Ministry at Rotherham (Masborough) Independent College. He moved to Wales as pastor of Albany Meeting House, Haverfordwest in 1813. Whilst there he worked on and published a number of volumes of verse, sermons, and other religious material.
In 1840 he left Haverfordwest for a position in Rugeley. He held further ministerial positions in Bristol, Newbury, and (after an interval) at Langmore and Ruxton near Ross.
He died in 1857.


Yusuf Janfalan

Yusuf Janfalan is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: he is the current Bishop of Ikara, one of ten dioceses within the Anglican Province of Kaduna, itself one of 14 provinces within the Church of Nigeria.


Waldemar Chrostowski

Monsignor Waldemar Chrostowski (b. 1 February 1951 in Chrostowo) is a Polish Catholic priest, Bible scholar, theologian and writer. He was the co-winner of The Ratzinger Prize for 2014, which, according to "Jewish Political Studies Review", is frequently known as "Nobel Prize for Catholic theology".
Chrostowski was educated at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (1978–1983) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1979–1980). In the post-Communist era he was a figure in Catholic/Jewish relations, and until 1998, he was the chairman of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews. At times a controversial presence in that field as he faced criticism by Father Stanisław Musiał on the issue of antisemitism. Chrostowski is critical of a "climate of philo-Semitism" that he believes has overcome the Catholic Church. According to Chrostowski, while Christians seek "objective good", "Jews, on the other hand, ask what is good for the Jews". Chrostowski also claimed that "the Holocaust was organized in Poland in order to destroy the good name of Poland".


Alfonso Salmeron

Alfonso (Alphonsus) Salmerón (8 September 1515 – 13 February 1585) was a Spanish biblical scholar, a Catholic priest, and one of the first Jesuits.
Biography.
He was born in Toledo, Spain on 8 September 1515. He studied literature and philosophy at Alcalá and then philosophy and theology at the Sorbonne in Paris. Here, through Diego Laynez, he met St. Ignatius of Loyola and with Laynez, St. Peter Faber and St. Francis Xavier, he enlisted as one of the first companions of Loyola in 1534. The small company left Paris on 15 November 1536, reached Venice on 8 January 1537 and during Lent of that year went to Rome. He delivered a discourse before the Pope and was, in return, granted leave to receive Holy orders so soon as he reached canonical age. About 8 September, all the first companions met at Vicenza and all, save St. Ignatius, said their first Mass. The plan of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was abandoned. Salmeron devoted his ministry in Sienna to the poor and to children. On 22 April 1541, he pronounced his solemn vows in St. Paul's-Outside-the-Walls basilica as a professed member of the newly established Society of Jesus.
In the autumn of 1541 Pope Paul III sent Salmeron and Paschase Broët as Apostolic nuncios to Ireland. They landed by way of Scotland on 23 February 1542. Thirty-four days later they set sail for Dieppe and went on to Paris. For two years Salmeron preached in Rome; his exposition of the Pauline Epistle to the Ephesians thrice a week in the church of the Society effected much good (1545). After preaching during Lent at Bologna, he went with Diego Laynez to the Council of Trent (18 May 1546) as theologian to Paul III. The Dogma of Justification was under discussion.
The two Jesuits at once reportedly won the hearts and respect of all; their discourses had to be printed and distributed to the bishops. Both set out for Bologna (14 March 1547) with the Council. After serious sickness at Padua, Salmeron once again took up his council work. The next two years were in great part spent in preaching at Bologna, Venice, Padua and Verona. On 4 October 1549, Salmeron and his companions, Claude Le Jay and Peter Canisius, took their doctorate at the University of Bologna, so that they might, at the urgent invitation of William IV of Bavaria, accept chairs in Ingolstadt. Salmeron undertook to interpret the Pauline Epistle to the Romans. Upon the death of Duke William, at the instigation of the Bishop of Verona, much to the chagrin of the faculty of the Academy of Ingolstadt, Salmeron was returned to Verona (24 September 1550). That year he explained the Gospel of St. Matthew.
In 1551 he was summoned to Rome to help St. Ignatius in working up the Constitutions (statutes) of the Jesuit Society. Other work was in store. He was soon (February, 1551) sent down to Naples to inaugurate the Society's first college there, but after a few months was summoned by Ignatius to go back to the Council of Trent as theologian to pope Julius III. It was during the discussions preliminary to these sessions that Laynez and Salmeron, as papal theologians, gave their vota first. When the Council once again suspended its sessions, Salmeron returned to Naples (October, 1552). Pope Paul IV sent him to the Augsburg Diet (May, 1555) with nuncio Lippomanus, and thence into Poland and in April, 1556 to Belgium.
Another journey to Belgium was undertaken in the capacity of adviser to Cardinal Giovanni Pietro Caraffa (2 December 1557). Laynez appointed Salmeron first Jesuit Provincial of Naples in 1558 and vicar-general in 1561 during the former's apostolic legation to France. The Council of Trent was again resumed (May, 1562) and a third pontiff, Pius IV, chose Salmeron and Laynez for papal theologians. The subject to be discussed was very delicate: the Divine origin of the rights and duties of bishops. During the years 1564-82, Salmeron was engaged chiefly in preaching and writing; he preached every day during eighteen Lenten seasons; his preaching was fervent, learned and fruitful. His writings during this long period were voluminous; Saint Robert Bellarmine spent five months in Naples reviewing them; each day he pointed out to Salmeron the portions that were not up to the mark, and the next day the latter brought back those parts corrected. He died at Naples on 13 February 1585.
Works.
The chief writings of Salmeron are his sixteen volumes of Scriptural commentaries: eleven on the Gospels, one on the Acts, and four on the Pauline Epistles. Southwell says that these sixteen volumes were printed by Sanchez, Madrid, from 1597 till 1602; in Brescia, 1601; in Cologne, from 1602–04, Sommervogel ("Bibliothèque de la C. de J.", VII, 479) has traced only twelve tomes of the Madrid edition - the eleven of the Gospels and one of the Pauline commentaries. The Gospel volumes are entitled, "Alfonsi Salmeronis Toletani, e Societate Jusu Theologi, Commentarii in Evangelicam Historiam et in Acta Apostolorum, in duodecim tomos distributi" (Madrid, 1598–1601). The first Cologne edition, together with the second (1612–15), are found complete. These voluminous commentaries are the popular and university expositions which Salmeron had delivered during his preaching and teaching days. In old age, he gathered his notes together, revised them, and left his volumes ready for posthumous publication by Bartholomew Pérez de Nueros. Hartmann Grisar ("Jacobi Lainez Disputationes Tridentinae", I, 53) thinks that the commentary on Acts is the work of Perez; Braunsberger (Canisii epist., III, 448) and the editors of "Monumenta Historica S. J." ("Epistolae Salmeron", I, xxx) disagree with Grisar.
He was noted for his devotion to the Church, his fortitude, prudence, and magnanimity. The Acts of the Council of Trent show that he wielded tremendous influence there by his vota on issues including justification, Holy Eucharist, penance, purgatory, indulgences, the Sacrifice of the Mass, matrimony and the origin of episcopal jurisdiction.


Stake president


Nicola Agnozzi

Nicola Agnozzi (5 November 1911 – 17 February 2008) was an Italian Prelate of Roman Catholic Church.
Agnozzi was born in Fermo, Italy and was ordained a priest on 18 March 1934 from the religious Order of Friars Minor Conventual. He was appointed Auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Ndola in Zambia, along with Titular Bishop of Adramyttium on 2 April 1962 and was appointed bishop on 1 July 1962.
Agnozzi was appointed to bishop of Diocese of Ndola in Zambia on 1 February 1966 and resigned on 10 July 1975. On 24 March 1976 he was appointed to the Diocese of Ariano, as well as the Diocese of Lacedonia. Agnozzi became bishop of the Diocese of Ariano Irpino-Lacedonia when the Ariano and Lacedonia dioceses were consolidated in 1986, retiring from diocese on 11 June 1988.


Basilio do Nascimento

Basílio do Nascimento Martins (born 14 June 1950) is the East Timorese Roman Catholic bishop of Baucau.
He was born in Suai, then Portuguese Timor. He later moved to Portugal, where he was ordained priest in Évora, in 1977. He worked for 20 years in Portugal and France before returning home in 1994, which was at the time under Indonesian occupation.
He became apostolic administrator of the new Diocese of Baucau on 30 November 1996 and titular bishop on 6 January 1997. When Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo retired, Nascimento became apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Dili, until the new bishop of Dili, Alberto Ricardo da Silva, was introduced on 6 March 2004. Nascimento then became bishop of Baucau.
In October 1999, the President of the National Council of Timorese Resistance Xanana Gusmão thanked Bishop Nascimento for the support of the Church in the struggle for independence.
Concerned that the names of the thousands of lives lost during Indonesia's occupation of the country will be forgotten in the name of reconciliation with Indonesia, on 21 January 2006 he said that reconciliation with Jakarta without justice is meaningless.
On March 31, 2018, Nascimento collapsed during Mass at St. Anthony's Cathedral in Baucau and was rushed to Dili National Hospital. He recovered and was discharged on 4 April 2018. He is the head of the East Timor bishop's conference.


Festa Junina

Festas Juninas (, "Johannine Festivals"), also known as festas de São João for their part in celebrating the nativity of St. John the Baptist (June 24), are the annual Brazilian celebrations adapted from European Midsummer that take place in the southern midwinter. These festivities, which were introduced by the Portuguese during the colonial period (1500–1822), are celebrated during the month of June nationwide. The festival is mainly celebrated on the eves of the Catholic solemnities of Saint Anthony, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Peter.
Since Northeastern Brazil is largely arid or semi-arid, these festivals not only coincide with the end of the rainy seasons of most states in the northeast, but they also provide people with an opportunity to give thanks to Saint John for the rain (even though he is not responsible for it). They also celebrate rural life and feature typical clothing, food, and dance (particularly quadrilha, which is similar to square dancing).
Origins and history.
Various aspects of the festival originate from the European Midsummer celebrations, such as the creation of a large bonfire. Many of these celebrations now occur with influence from Brazilian rural society. The festivities usually take place in an "arraial", a huge tent made of raw material (with a thatched roof) that was reserved for important parties in older Brazilian rural areas. As the Brazilian climate differs greatly from Europe, Brazilian participants would often use the festival as a way to show gratitude for rain. The creation of a large fire, known as a fogueira, is lit during the festival. This originates from a Catholic story of a fire being lit to warn Mary about the birth of St. John the Baptist, and thus to have her assistance after childbirth, Elizabeth would have to light a fire on a hill.
Most festivals occurred away from the coast line, closer to the interior where many larger plantations were. While still ruled by Portugal, coastline cities, in Pernambuco especially, became industrialized and saw much greater economic prosperity. Hoping to further this growth, King Dom João modified his economic policy to favor cities such as Recife rather than rural interests. Though the Festa Junina continued, its practice in modern cities became much larger. Today, the sizes of the celebrations have surpassed that of Europe. Although they are primarily practiced and hosted by schools, many cities host their own major celebration. In Caruaru, Pernambuco, a celebration of the festival in 2011 saw approximately 1.5 million attendees, earning a Guinness Book World Record for having the largest celebration of the festival in the world.
Traditions.
In Brazil, the festival is primarily practiced by rural farmers, known as caipiras. Men dress up as farm boys with large straw hats and women wear pigtails, freckles, painted gap teeth and red-checkered dresses.
Dances throughout the festival surround "quadrilha". Most of these dances emerge from 19th-century Europe, which were brought by the Portuguese. The "quadrilha" features couple formations around a mock wedding whose bride and groom are the central focus of the dance. This reflects the fertility of the land. There are various types of dance within the category of quadrilha. Cana-Verde, a subcategory of fandango dance styles, are more popular in the south and are primarily improvised. Dances involving Bumba Meu Boi are also present during this festival. Here, the dance revolves around a woman desiring to eat the tongue of an ox. Her husband kills the ox, to the dismay of the ox's owner. A healer enters and resuscitates the ox, and all participants celebrate.
Accompanying these dances is a genre of music known as Forró. This traditional genre primarily uses accordions and triangles, and focuses on the life and struggle of caipiras. The music greatly focuses on saudade, a feeling of nostalgia or forlorn, for rural farm life. More modern versions of the music can include guitars, fiddles, and drums.
Many games targeted at children are present at Festa Juninas, especially at festivals hosted in schools serving as a fundraiser.
Winners of these games are often given miscellaneous prizes, usually toys or food.
Modern criticisms.
Today, São João festivities are extremely popular in Brazil's largest cities. The presence of a festival celebrating rural life in an urban setting has revealed modern stereotypes of caipiras. Those residing in larger cities believe rural farmers to be less educated and unable to properly socialize. This is often reflected in caricatures of caipiras taught to children in Brazilian schools, who are told to use incorrect grammar and act foolish during the festival. Anxieties over the changing meaning of the festival also reflect a growing "carnavalization" of the tradition. Rather than an emphasis on religion, the festival is presented as a massive gathering for both Brazilians and tourists with large concerts in major cities.


Eliezer Zweifel

Eliezer Zweifel (1815–1888) () was a Russian-Jewish writer who was associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement ("haskalah"). Zweifel's writings on Hasidic Judaism was considered favorable toward the movement. His book "Shalom al Yisrael" is believed to be one the earliest academic works on the Hasidic movement.
Biography.
Eliezer Zweifel was raised in the Mogilev region of White Russia. While in his twenties, Zweifel moved to Odessa, where for sixteen years he worked as a religious preacher and a tutor. From 1853 to 1873, Zweifel was appointed as a Talmud teacher at Beth Midrash L'Rabbanim in Zhitomir, an institution associated with the Jewish Enlightenment movement ("haskalah"). Zweifel's writings often contained anti-Haskalah statements, and drew criticism from other Haskalah authors including Mendele Mokher Sefarim. Zweifel authored a number of books and contributed dozens of essays to the Jewish periodicals of his time.


Marco Giustiniani (bishop of Chios)

Marco Giustiniani (1547–1640) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Bishop of Chios (1604–1640).
Biography.
Marco Giustiniani was ordained a priest in the Order of Preachers. On 31 May 1604, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Gregory XIII as Bishop of Chios. On 12 June 1604, he was consecrated bishop by Girolamo Bernerio, Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, with Agostino Quinzio, Bishop of Korčula, and Vincenzo Giustiniani, Bishop of Gravina di Puglia, serving as co-consecrators. He served as Bishop of Chios until his death in 1640.


Jean Assaad Haddad

Jean Assaad Haddad (17 December 1926 – 22 January 2021) was a Lebanese Melkite hierarch, who served as an Archbishop of the Melkite Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Tyre in Lebanon.
Life.
Haddad was born in December 1926 in Beit Chabab, Lebanon. On 2 July 1950, he received his priestly ordination. On 26 October 1988 he became successor to Archbishop Georges Haddad as Archbishop of Tyre. The Patriarch of Antioch Maximos V Hakim consecrated him bishop on 27 November 1988, and his co-consecrators were the Archbishops Grégoire Haddad as Titular Archbishop of Adana of Greek Melkites and Habib Bacha, SMSP of Beirut and Byblos.
In 2000, Haddad from 6 June to 29 November became apostolic administrator "sede plena" of the Melkite Patriarchate of Antioch. On 20 June 2005 he became emeritus bishop due to age-related reasons, and was succeeded by Georges Bacouni, whom he co-consecrated. He also served as co-consecrator of the Archbishops Boutros Mouallem, MSP of São Paulo in Brazil and Joseph Kallas of Beirut and Byblos.


Nikolaus Messmer

Bishop Nikolaus Messmer, S.J. (19 December 1954 − 18 July 2016) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as the titular bishop of Carmeiano and the first Apostolic Administrator of the Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan from 2006 until his death in 2016.
History.
Bishop Messmer was born in Karaganda, Kazakh SSR in a family of German descent. At a young age he joined the Society of Jesus and was ordained as priest on 28 May 1989 and he was sent to serve in Kyrgyzstan. He was appointed Apostolic Administrator of the new elevated Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan by Pope Benedict XVI on 18 March 2006.
Death.
Messmer died on 18 July 2016 in Bishkek at the age of 61.


Bachiarius

Bachiarius was an early fifth-century Christian writer, known only through his two writings which suggest he was a Galician monk.


Len Mink

Len Mink is a Christian evangelist and musician. He is the president and founder of Len Mink Ministries, based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He and his wife Cathy have a weekly television program entitled "Len and Cathy" on the TCT television network, which is carried in 173 countries on Sky Angel channel 133 and DirecTV channel 377.
A singer and songwriter of Christian music, Mink has been the worship leader for evangelist Kenneth Copeland in his Believers Conventions for 35 years. Mink is also known for his "Gospel Duck" ministry for children.
Mink began his television career with his own weekly show on WCPO-TV in Cincinnati, Ohio. Mink was also a featured performer on "The Nick Clooney Show" and was a featured performer in pops concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He made appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Mike Douglas Show, The Steve Allen Show and The Merv Griffin Show.
In 1971, Mink became a committed Christian. Around the same time, he was diagnosed with a terminal blood disease; he states that he read Kathryn Kuhlman’s book "I Believe in Miracles" and was healed. Since then, Mink has appeared on many Christian television productions: The 700 Club, The Kathryn Kuhlman Show, Help Line, Turning Point, 100 Huntley Street, PTL, TBN, The Believer's Voice of Victory and many more. Mink's voice is described as a "sobbing tenor" in Jonathan Raban's award-winning travel book ""
Cathy Mink graduated from Ohio State University and worked as fashion model in New York City. Unhappy with this career, she returned to her hometown of Cincinnati and began work at a local television station. She met Len and became a committed Christian; they married and began their joint ministry. Cathy is a graduate of Rhema Bible Training Center, and names Kenneth Hagin as a major influence.


Lotfollah Dezhkam

Lotfollah Dezhkam (Persian: ) is the Representative of the Supreme Leader in Fars province, Imam of Friday Prayer of Shiraz and the Representative of Fars in Assembly of Experts.


James Howson

The Venerable James Francis Howson (1856–1934) was Archdeacon of Craven from 1928 to 1934.
Howson was born into an ecclesiastical family. His father John Howson was Dean of Chester from 1867 to 1885. His older brother George Howson (1854–1943) was Archdeacon of Warrington from 1916 to 1933, and then Archdeacon of Liverpool from 1933 to 1934
He was educated at Haileybury and Trinity College, Cambridge and ordained in 1879. After curacies at Beverley, Halesowen and Lambeth he was Vicar of New Brighton, Chester and Guiseley (during which time he was also a temporary Chaplain to the Forces) before his years as an Archdeacon.
He died on 19 February 1934.


Zuster Bertken

Zuster Bertken ('Sister Bertken') (1426 - June 25, 1514) was a Dutch anchorite.
She was born the illegitimate daughter of the canon priest Jacob van Lichtenberg. Her life before her enclosure is unknown, but she was evidently given a good education. In 1456 or 1457, with permission bishop David of Burgundy she let herself be enclosed in a cell as an anchorite at the Buurkerk in Utrecht. According to the description of her life, she lived an extremely ascetic life even for an anchorite. After her death, several songs and hymns were found among her belongings and published. Her songs described foremost her passion in her union with God and became popular. She was one of few Medieval Dutch women to become a part of the traditional Dutch literary canon. She is subject of the opera "Suster Bertken" (2010) by Rob Zuidam.
Bertken lived in a small cell adjacent to the Church of Utrecht for fifty-seven years until her death in 1514. Her daily activities were attending church from a window in her cell, meditation, prayer and writing. The only furniture in cell was a chair, desk and mattress. Berken never wore shoes and her diet excluded all dairy and meat products.
Bertken died on June 25, 1514.


Maria Teresa Casini

Blessed Maria Teresa Casini (27 October 1864 – 3 April 1937) was an Italian nun and was the founder of the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The order was devoted to providing care for those around them with an added emphasis on demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ while spreading the message of the Gospel to the public.
She was cleared for beatification in 2015 after a miracle was found to have been attributed to her intercession. She was beatified on 31 October 2015 in Frascati. Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the celebration on behalf of Pope Francis.
Biography.
Maria Teresa Casini was born on 27 October 1864 to Tommaso Casini and Melania Rayner as their first born daughter; she was baptized on the following 29 October.
She travelled to Rome for her studies at the Santa Rufina boarding school that the nuns of the Madams of the Sacred Heart conducted. She received her First Communion on 7 May 1878 which solidified her vocation. Due to a period of ill health, she had to leave school and return home for recuperation.
Shortly after she turned eighteen, she responded to her vocation and met Father Arsenio Pellegrini who became her guide and her spiritual director and who served as the Abbot of the Basilian Monks of Grottaferrata. Despite entering the convent, ill health forced her to leave, though she attempted to enter once again yet failed due to the death of the foundress after which the institute she joined ceased to exist.
In due time, she became a nun after entering the monastery of Sepolte Vive in Rome on 2 February 1885. Casini only started to live in Grottaferrata with fellow entrants from 17 October 1892 onwards. On 2 February 1894, she founded the Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
It was not until 1925 that Casini started the special work of the "Little Friends of Jesus" in order to promote and to cultivate the vocations of prospective priests. The group's special character came to life when Cardinal Francesco Satolli requested Casini and her congregation to take up new and vigorous apostolic work. This group also worked for the sanctification of all priests and so the group opened a boarding school for males in order to sate the Lord's request for good and wholesome priests. Throughout her life, Casini offered "the oblation of herself, in faithful response to the Love that overflows from the open Heart of the Savior, and which she imparted to so many daughters and priests". This even earned the praise of Pope Pius X in 1904 who wrote: "In order to bring about the reign of Jesus Christ, nothing is more necessary than the sanctity of the clergy. God bless these sisters for their selfless love for these men of God, for through them, through the sacraments, we are fortified and purified for the journey".
Casini grew ill in the final years of her life, and she died in 1937. Her final words were: "I am peaceful. I feel God is near me".
Legacy.
Casini's order continues to flourish on an international level in places such as the United States of America and Argentina.
The first of the males of the Little Friends of Jesus that Casini herself oversaw was ordained as a priest in 1938.
Beatification.
The cause of beatification commenced on 26 January 1981 on a diocesan level which concluded its work in 1985; she was given the title Servant of God. It later submitted the Positio – official documentation – to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Pope John Paul II declared her to have lived a life of heroic virtue and named her Venerable on 7 July 1997. Pope Francis approved a decree that recognized a miracle attributed to her intercession on 22 January 2015, thus, clearing her for beatification.
Cardinal Angelo Amato presided over the beatification in Frascati on 31 October 2015.


Maria Anna Donati

Maria Anna Donati (26 October 1848 - 18 March 1925) was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who had established the Calasanzian Sisters in Florence with the aid of Celestino Zini. Upon her profession as a religious she assumed the new name of "Celestina of the Mother of God" in honor of Zini.
Her beatification was celebrated in Florence on 30 March 2008 - Cardinal José Saraiva Martins celebrated it on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI who had approved the beatification months prior.
Life.
Maria Anna Donati was born in Florence on 26 October 1848 to the judge Francesco Donati; a sibling was Gemma. Donati received her First Communion at the age of thirteen in 1861.
In her childhood she spent an extensive period of time with nuns of the Vallumbrosan Order at Vallombrosan and even desired entering the religious life upon realizing that their manner of life was the one in which she felt she was called to; her father prevented her from doing so. However her time with them was inconclusive for she failed to perceive the full depth of her calling and instead had a brief understanding of what she aspired for. It was around this time that she placed herself under the spiritual direction of the Piarist Celestino Zini - the future Archbishop of Siena. In her Zini saw spiritual richness and he encouraged her to listen for God and His call to service.
Her father could not bear being separated from Donati and so forbade her from entering the religious life. This was coupled with the fact that - when she was 33 in 1881 - her mother died and her father become far more attached to her and relied more upon her around the house. At the age of 40 in 1888 she once more expressed her will to become a nun and her reluctant father demanded that she take him as well as an aunt and Donati's sister Gemma with her. Francesco said to her: "I want you to be near me to close my eyes when my last hour strikes".
In 1889 she established - under the guidance of Zini - the Calasanzian Sisters which was made as a female congregation with the sole task of educating children with an emphasis on the poor and on the children of prisoners. Her profession - alongside four companions on 24 June 1889 - saw her assume the new religious name of "Celestina of the Mother of God" in honor of Zini. The congregation would receive the diocesan approval of the Archbishop of Florence Cardinal Agostino Bausa on 21 September 1892 and allowed for the order to open its first school in the archdiocese on 28 December 1889 since it could operate on a diocesan level and that alone. The congregation received its first orphan on 22 June 1891 and thus allowed for all orphans and abandoned children to enter the congregation's doors for aid. The order later received the papal approval of Pope Pius X on 18 December 1911 and had - on 28 February 1920 - its constitutions receive the approval of Pope Benedict XV. Donati was known amongst her peers for her ardent commitment to the teachings of Joseph Calasanz. With Zini's death in 1892 she was forced to assume control of the order herself.
Donati died on 18 March 1925. Her order is also present in Brazil and El Salvador and as of 2005 possessed nineteen houses with 99 religious professed into it.
Beatification.
The proceedings for the sanctification process opened in Florence with dual processes that investigated her life and the manner in which she exercised both the cardinal virtues and the theological virtues. Both processes also collated her writings in order to perceive the depth of her religious life and to ensure such writings did not contradict the dogma of the faith. Her writings were cleared of this and were granted a decree of approval on 1 April 1969 and thus were incorporated into the cause.
The formal introduction of the cause was on 12 July 1982 in which the Congregation for the Causes of Saints granted their approval to the cause and bestowed upon Donati the posthumous title of Servant of God - the first stage in the process.
The two processes were both ratified on 5 July 1985 and were sent in large boxes to Rome for further investigation in order for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to commence the so-called "Roman Phase" and begin their own line of research into the cause and into Donati's life and virtues. The Positio - containing biographical details and attesting to her virtues - was submitted to Rome in 1991.
Donati was declared to be Venerable on 6 April 1998 after Pope John Paul II acknowledged the fact that Donati had lived a model life of the heroic virtue both cardinal and theological.
Pope Benedict XVI approved a miracle attributed to her direct intercession on 1 June 2007 and thus allowed for her beatification to take place. The beatification was celebrated in the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence on 30 March 2008; Cardinal José Saraiva Martins presided over it on the behalf of the pontiff.
The current postulator assigned to the cause is Father Mateusz Pindelski.


Ibn al-Qitt

Abu l-Qasim Ahmad b. Mu‘awiya b. Muhammad b. Hisam b. Mu‘awiya b. Hisam b. ‘Abd al-Rahman b. Mu‘awiya, known as Ibn al-Qitt (died 901), was an Umayyad Cordobese rebel and self-proclaimed Mahdi.
A member of the Umayyad royal family, he was a great-great-grandson of Hisham I of Córdoba. Convinced by the ascetic Abū ʻAlī al-Sarrāŷ (possibly an Isma'ili Shia agent sowing discord), who presented him as Mahdi, Ibn al-Qitt rebelled against the emiral rule of Abdullah ibn Muhammad al-Umawi in Córdoba, and waged a Jihad against Christians. Apparently followed in his rebellion by Berbers from Llano de los Pedroches, sierra de Almadén, Trujillo, Nafza, the Guadiana basin, south-west Iberia, Toledo, Talavera and Santaver, his first military operation in Christian lands was an attack in 901 AD against Zamora, where, following the defection of a number of Berber chieftains, he was reportedly captured and beheaded.


Galip Hassan Kuscuoglu

Galip Hasan Kuşçuoğlu, the sheikh of Galibi Order.
His life.
Kuşçuoğlu was born on March 27, 1919 in Çorum, Turkey. He is related to the famous Sage of Fatih Sultan Mehmet era, namely Ali Kuşçu who is a descendant of Caliph Omar. Galip Kuşçuoğlu has also kinship relation to the Islamic prophet Muhammad through his maternal kinship relation to Caliph Ali. He has two sisters of whom one is dead. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Çorum and Samsun. He was apprenticed to a carpenter after he dropped out of school at the second grade of secondary school. He married the only daughter of Çorumlu Hacı Mustafa Anac who was also a sheikh. He migrated to Ankara in 1948. He gained an expertise in carpentry, and earned his life by working as a famous craftsman and tradesman in this area. He is also a founding member of the Ankara Carpenters Association ("Ankara Marangozlar Derneği") and Ankara Carpentry Complex ("Ankara Marangozlar Sitesi").
Sheikh Galib Kuşçuoğlu is the successor of Sheikh Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici who is, in turn, the successor of Seyyid Ali Sezai Kurtaran, who was the active leader of civil resistance against the French occupation forces and Armenian military forces in Maraş during the Turkish War of Independence. The meeting of Galip Kuşçuoğlu with his Sheikh Hacı Mustafa Yardımedici is very interesting. As Mr. Kuşçuoğlu narrates, this meeting occurred after a period of yearning and waiting for his unknown spiritual guide (Murshid).
Kuşçuoğlu who had made various stresses about the necessity of being contemporaneous, also says that thoughts like; "“Everyone who says; God exists are Muslims”, “Prophets did not bring Religion, they had appeared as Islam, they had brought the Sharia, all of their Sharia are from Allah, they are named according to the Sharia of the Prophet that they are bound to, like Mohammedian, Christian, Jewish”" constitutes the life system. He also believes in the dialogue between different beliefs.
Kuşçuoğlu died on 14 December 2013, in Antalya.


Giacomo Gaglione

Giacomo Gaglione, T.O.S.F. (July 20, 1896May 28, 1962) was an Italian member of the Third Order of St. Francis, and a lifelong invalid, who became the founder of the Apostolate of Suffering. On 3 April 2009, he was declared venerable by Pope Benedict XVI and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has opened his process of beatification.
Biography.
Gaglione was born in Marcianise, in the Province of Caserta from a wealthy family. At the age of sixteen, in June 1912, just as he was about to graduate from high school, he felt the first symptoms of the disease that immobilize him in bed with paralyzed legs: ankylosing spondylitis. Treatment with boiling mud, surgery, orthopedic traction, electrotherapy were all useless.
In 1919 Gaglione went to the noted Capuchin mystic, Padre Pio with the hope of obtaining a cure, but on the contrary this meeting led him to accept his illness as Christian mission. He became spiritual son of the friar, who continued to guide and assist him with the gift of bilocation. On January 1921, he was examined by a doctor, later to become saint, Giuseppe Moscati and in August of the same year he enrolled in the Third Order of St. Francis, professing the following year, taking the name of Francis, in veneration of Francis of Assisi.
On August 1929, after 17 years of immobility, Gaglione made the first of his nine pilgrimages to Lourdes, an experience that later became his first book: "The Pilgrimage of a Soul". There, he founded the Apostolate of Suffering, a spiritual brotherhood designed to convince the sick "that are the beloved of the Lord". The institution found the support of the Bishop of Caserta, Gabriele Moriondo. The founder was received by Pope Pius XI, who bestowed on him the award of Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice, while in November 1944, Pope Pius XII appointed him a Commander to Order of St. Sylvester. Since 1952 the Apostolate had its periodical: "Hosts upon the world". At that time he released his second book, "In the Mirror of my Soul".
On 20 October 1961 Gaglione published his last book: "50 years of the Cross to be able to smile"
Gaglione died May 28, 1962 in Capodrise. At his funeral celebrated the next day were many people from all over Italy. In 1965 by the will of the ecclesiastical authorities, the corpse was transferred to the local parish church of St. Andrew.


Alexander Garden (priest)

Alexander Garden ( – 1756) was a Scottish Episcopalian priest, educated at the University of Aberdeen. In 1719 he went to South Carolina, then part of the American Colonies, as the Bishop of London's Commissary, and became rector of St. Philip's Church in Charleston. He was a prominent figure in the early history of Charleston, known then as Charles Town. Garden is often remembered for his efforts to censor the evangelist George Whitefield and prevent his "enthusiastic" type of religious meetings from being held in Charles Town, SC.
As well as supervising other clergymen in the area he took an interest in the Charleston Free School, and established the so-called "Negro School" which was supported by the Church of England's Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In the spring of 1754 he retired and went to live in England, but soon went back to the warmer climate of South Carolina and died there in 1756.


Martin Su Yao-wen

Martin Su Yao-wen (; born 9 November 1959) is the current serving Roman Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Taichung, Taiwan.
Early life.
Martin was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan on 9 November 1959. He studied at Holy Spirit minor seminary in Taichung, Taipei major seminary and completed his philosophy and theology at Fu Jen University.
Priesthood.
On 8 June 1989, Martin was ordained a priest for the Roman Catholic diocese of Taichung, Taiwan. He also studied at St. Louis University, San Francisco, U.S.A., for a diploma in Religious Education. He acquired Licentiate in Religious Education from Fordham University, New York.
Episcopate.
Pope Benedict XVI appointed Martin as bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Taichung on 25 June 2007 and he was consecrated a bishop on 25 September 2007 by Bishop Joseph Wang Yu-jung.


Andreas van Cuijk

Andries or Andreas van Cuijk (ca. 1070 – 23 June 1139) was a bishop of Utrecht from 1128 to 1139.
Andries descended from a well-known family from the "Sticht", the name for the central lands of the Bishopric of Utrecht. Andries was the second son of Herman of Malsen and Irmgard of Namur.
He was the first bishop of Utrecht since the Concordat of Worms in 1122, where the Investiture Controversy between the emperor and the pope over the right to appoint bishops was decided in favour of the pope. Andries was naturally allied to the papal party.
In 1133, Andries became involved in a war with Dirk VI, Count of Holland, who was supported by the city of Utrecht and several servants of the bishop. Dirk was granted the Gaue of Westergo and Oostergo by Conrad III of Germany. These lands had previously been confiscated by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor from Andries' predecessor, bishop Burchard.


John Kettlewell

John Kettlewell (10 March 1653 – 12 April 1695) was an English clergyman, nonjuror and devotional writer. He is now known for his arguments against William Sherlock, who had justified the change of monarch of 1688–89 and his own switch of sides in "The Case of the Allegiance". According to J. P. Kenyon, Kettlewell's reply made a case "with which conformist Anglicans could only agree, because it was spiritual, while Sherlock's was resolutely aspiritual". He went on to attack defenders of the Glorious Revolution generally as proponents of fallacious contractarian theories.
Life.
He was the second son of John Kettlewell, a merchant at Northallerton, Yorkshire, by his wife, Elizabeth Ogle, was born 10 March 1653, and was educated at Northallerton Grammar School under Thomas Smelt, a royalist, whose other pupils included George Hickes, William Palliser, Thomas Burnet, Thomas Rymer, and John Radcliffe. Kettlewell matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford on 11 November 1670, and graduated B.A. 20 June 1674. On Radcliffe's resignation of a fellowship at Lincoln College, Oxford, Kettlewell was elected in his place in July 1675, with the backing of George Hickes, then himself a fellow. For about five years he acted as tutor in college, and proceeded M.A. 3 May 1677.
He was ordained deacon by John Fell in Christ Church Cathedral 10 June 1677, and priest 24 February 1678. The reputation which his first book made for him led to his appointment as chaplain to Anne, Countess of Bedford, and to his presentation by Simon Digby, 4th Baron Digby to the vicarage of Coleshill, Warwickshire (December 1682). He resigned his fellowship at Lincoln College on 22 November 1683, devoted himself to his parish, where he preached the high church doctrine of passive obedience. In 1685 Kettlewell married.
Through the Glorious Revolution he preached strongly against rebellion; he adhered consistently to this principle, and was deprived of his vicarage in 1690. He moved to London, and spent the remainder of his life, occupied in the composition of devotional books and controversial tracts. Shortly before his death he proposed to Bishop Thomas Ken the establishment of a fund for the relief of the suffering deprived clergy; and circulars asking for subscriptions were issued. But the charitable scheme was regarded by the government as a seditious usurpation of authority, and prosecutions were instituted. Kettlewell died at his house in Gray's Inn Lane on 12 April 1695, at the age of 42. He was buried on 15 April in the church of All Hallows Barking, in the same grave in which William Laud had been interred, and was commemorated in a Latin inscription on a marble tablet erected by his widow at the east end of the church. At Kettlewell's funeral Ken officiated for the only time in public after his deprivation.
Kettlewell had married at Whitchurch, near Reading, on 4 October 1685, Jane, daughter of Anthony Lybb of Hardwick House in the parish of Whitchurch; they had no children. His papers were entrusted by his widow to Robert Nelson, who published some of them.
Works.
His first book, 'The Measures of Christian Obedience,' a summary of Christian morals as involved in obedience to the laws of the Gospel, was written between Christmas 1677 and Easter 1678, but was not published until 1681, when, at Hickes's suggestion, Kettlewell dedicated it to Henry Compton, bishop of London, but this dedication he suppressed after Compton had appeared in military array on behalf of the Prince of Orange. His second publication resulted from his parochial work; he was in the habit of preaching preparation-sermons before communion, eight or nine times in the year, and of these he printed a summary in 1683 under the title of "An Help and Exhortation to Worthy Communicating", dedicating the book to Lord Digby. Shortly after the suppression of Monmouth's rebellion he preached a sermon, in his collected works with the title of "Measures of Christian Subjection." As a supplement to his first book, that on "Christian Obedience", he published in February 1687-8 his "Practical Believer", which passed through many editions.
Kettlewell's works are:
A treatise on the new oaths was left by him in manuscript, but never printed.


Gunnar Bondevik

Gunnar Bondevik (19 February 1902 – 1987) was a Norwegian priest.
Personal life.
He was born in Sogndal as a son of teacher Nils Bondevik (1874–1961) and Kari Hauge (1867–1958). He was a brother of Ottar Bondevik and Borghild Bondevik Haga, first cousin of Kjell and Johannes Bondevik, and through that part of the family a first cousin once removed of Odd and Kjell Magne Bondevik.
In 1928 he married Maine Cröger Tschudi. Through her he was a brother-in-law of theologian Stephan Tschudi. His wife was also a first cousin of Stephan Tschudi-Madsen, Sr.. Gunnar and Maine's son Halfdan Tschudi Bondevik also had high positions in the church.
Career.
He finished his secondary education in 1922 and took the cand.theol. degree at the University of Oslo in 1927. In the following year he finished the practical-theological seminary. His first post was as vicar of Jølster in 1928. He got the same position in Lom in 1936 before being appointed as dean of Nord-Gudbrandsdal in 1938.
He then lived in Oslo as a secretary in the city's Inner Mission from 1946 and vicar of Ullern from 1952 to 1965. From 1952 to 1958 he chaired the Norwegian Christian Youth Association (YMCA). He was also a national board member of the Norwegian Association of Clergy. In 1965 he was appointed as vicar of Lillehammer and dean of Sør-Gudbrandsdal. He retired in 1972 and moved back to Oslo. He died in 1987.


Filippo Bona

Filippo Bona was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Famagusta (1530–1543).
Biography.
On 29 October 1543, Filippo Bona was appointed during the papacy of Pope Paul III as Bishop of Famagusta. He served as Bishop of Famagusta until his death in 1552. While bishop, he was the principal co-consecrator of Leone Orsini, Bishop of Fréjus (1545); and Teodoro Pio, Bishop of Faenza (1545).


Marcos Vidal

Marcos Vidal is a Christian music singer and songwriter. In 1997 he won the International Award GMA as the best "non-English male vocalist".
Biography.
Although born in Germany, Vidal has lived most of his life in Spain. He speaks Spanish as his first language.
In 1990, at the age of 26, Marcos Vidal released his first studio album, "Buscadme y Viviréis".
In 1993 he released his second studio album, "Nada Especial" on the Nuevos Medios label that along with the success of his first album, drew the singer to North and South America. This international recognition allowed Vidal to begin working with Sparrow Records, making Marcos Vidal the first Spanish Christian singer signed to an American label. His first two albums were later re-released in the United States under the label.
In 1996, "Cara a Cara", his first album recorded for Sparrow Records, was released. It became one of the best selling Spanish Christian albums of all time, rapidly passing 100,000 albums sold. In 1997, Vidal released "Mi Regalo" and was nominated for his first Dove Award in the category of Best Spanish Language Album.
"Por La Vida", released in 1999, was a collection of his greatest hits from previous albums.
His next project, "Pescador", (2002), emphasized his passion to share the Gospel with people of all nations and was centered on the theme of being a fisherman. "Alabanza y Adoración en Vivo desde España" (2003), was Vidal's first live album, in which he combined traditional congregational singing with more contemporary upbeat rhythms.
Vidal currently resides in Madrid and pastors the Evangelical Church of Salem, which has led since 1992. He also continues to compose and record music.
In 2016, "25 años" won the best Latin Christian Album Grammy.


Joshua Andrews

Joshua Andrews (1708? – 1793) was a Welsh Baptist minister. Following studies at Bristol Academy he served as a lay preacher at Pen-y-garn. He was ordained c.1740, assisting Miles Harry with special charge of the cause at Usk for a short time before relocating to Llanwenarth. In 1745 he was appointed minister of Olchon, and of Capel-y-ffin (twenty miles distant from Olchon), where he remained until his death following a long illness, in 1793.


Jeremiah Kolo

Jeremiah Kolo is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: he is the current Bishop of Kutigi, one of 11 dioceses within the Anglican Province of Lokoja, itself one of 14 provinces within the Church of Nigeria.


Charles Copland

The Very Rev Charles MacAlester Copland was an eminent Anglican Priest in the second half of the 20th century.
Born into an ecclesiastical family on 5 April 1910 and educated at Denstone College, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and Ripon College Cuddesdon, he was ordained in 1934 and began his career with a curacy at Peterborough Parish Church, after which he was a Mission Priest in Chanda District, Maharashtra, until 1953. He was then Rector of St Mary's, Arbroath until 1959 when he became Provost of St John's Cathedral, Oban-a post he held for twenty years. Between 1977 and 1979 he was also Dean of Argyll and The Isles.
He died four months short of his hundredth year on 12 December 2009.


David Bello

David Bello is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: he is the current Bishop of Otukpo one of 13 dioceses within the Anglican Province of Abuja, itself one of 14 provinces within the Church of Nigeria.
He was enthroned as Bishop of Otukpo in 2004.


Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda)

Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda) () (10 December 1861 – 30 July 1918) was a direct disciple of Ramakrishna, the 19th-century saint and mystic from Bengal, India. He was born in Antpur in the Hoogly district of Bengal in the year 1861. Baburam, as he was called in his pre monastic days, was also related to Balaram Bose, a leading householder disciple of Ramakrishna. He was given the name of Premananda or "joy of divine love" by his brother disciple Vivekananda. He had a notable contribution during the initial days of Ramakrishna Mission as he managed the whole affairs of Belur Math from 1902 to 1916. He also mentored young spiritual aspirants.
Biography.
Early life.
Baburam Ghosh was born to parents Taraprasanna and Matangini Ghosh on 10 December 1861 in the Antpur (Bengali:আঁটপুর) village in the Hoogly district of Bengal. His sister Krishnabhamini was married to Balaram Bose, a leading householder disciple of Ramakrishna. From his early childhood his ideal was to renounce family life and live a monastic life .
After graduating from the local village school Baburam came to Calcutta for higher studies. He studied in the Metropolitan Institution in Shyampukur, which was owned by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar and whose headmaster was Mahendranath Gupta also known as "M", the author of the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita or The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
In this school his batchmate was Rakhal or Brahmananda, who later became the first president of the Ramakrishna Mission, and who was another direct disciple as well as "spiritual son" of Ramakrishna. These contacts enabled Baburam to come in close contact with Ramakrishna, and he was drawn to his teachings.
Ramakrishna's influence.
Baburam accompanied Rakhal to Dakshineswar temple to meet Ramakrishna. He also met Vivekananda who at that time was known as Narendranath Dutta. After a few more visits to Dakshineswar Baburam came directly under Ramakrishna's influence who also held him in high esteem. At that time Baburam was only twenty years. Ramakrishna said to his disciples that "Baburam is pure to his very marrow, no impure thought can ever cross his mind".
This association apparently let to the neglect of his studies and he failed to clear his entrance examination.
In 1885, Ramakrishna was diagnosed to have developed throat cancer, and was shifted to Calcutta for better treatment, first to Shyampukur and then to Cossipore Garden house. Baburam was one of the constant attendants on the master, along with his other brother disciples including Rakhal and Narendra, and this continued till the passing away of his master in August 1886. This event brought the brother disciples in close contact on a shared goal and paved the way for the establishment of the first Math in Baranagar, under the leadership of Narendranath (Vivekananda).
Beginning of monastic life.
In December 1886, the brother disciples visited Baburam's ancestral house in Antpur. Immediately after returning from there they took the vow of renunciation from Narendranath. Vivekananda, as he came to be known later, gave the name of "Premananda" to Baburam. Upon Ramakrishnananda's departure to Madras, Premananda took up the responsibility of daily worship of the Master. He went for a pilgrimage to Northern India and returned on the eve of establishment of the Ramakrishna Math in Belur, known as Belur Math, which was the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission.
Management of Belur Math.
After the demise of Vivekananda's in 1902, Swami Brahmananda, the then president of Ramakrishna Mission, entrusted Premananda with the duty of the management of the day-to-day affairs of the Math at Belur which included the daily worship, the introduction and initiation of young celibates and monks, receiving of the devotees and guests, various administrative activities etc. He was very kind and compassionate towards all and sundry. He would himself cook for devotees visiting the Math at odd hours and took all troubles for their comfort. For this he came to be known as the "mother of the Math". He used to consider the service of the devotees as worship of God.
Premananda also introduced a study circle to learn Sanskrit in Belur Math under the tutelage of a competent teacher. He also encouraged the study of other subjects like Western Philosophy. He also laid great emphasis on the education of women and wrote to a lady, "Let thousands of Niveditas come out of Bengal... let there arise anew in the land numbers of Gargis, Lilavatis, Sitas and Savitris. What better thing is there in this world than learning!" He lived an unostentatious life, free of luxuries and excesses. His personal belongings included only a few books and a canvas bag.
There is a dormitory named, in his honour, Premananda Dham in Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar.
Travels.
After about 6 years of service in Math he set out for a pilgrimage to Amarnath in 1910 in the company of Shivananda (Mahapurush Maharaj) and Turiyananda (Hari Maharaj). On his return he travelled to different parts of Bengal spreading the message of Ramakrishna. He was particularly very popular in East Bengal and inspired the youth there for community and charitable work.
Relationship with Sarada Devi.
Premananda had free access to the Holy Mother of the Ramakrishna Order, Sarada Devi. She was very fond of him, and was very devoted to her. He once said that those who differentiated between her and the Master would never make any spiritual progress; she and the Master were like the two sides of the same coin. In the course of a discussion at Belur Math he said to the devotees: "We have seen that she had a much greater capacity than the Master. She was the embodiment of power, and how well she controlled it! Ramakrishna could not do so, though he tried."
Legacy and death.
During his later sojourn in several parts of Bengal, especially in East Bengal, he inspired the youth to be useful to the society by voluntary service. Though a man of high spiritual attainments, he was wont to hiding them and very reticent in giving expression to them. He was universally admired by young and old devotees for his love, kindness and tenderness towards all and sundry.
The long and arduous trips took a toll on his health and he fell victim to Kala azar, a deadly fever. He also suffered from influenza and died on 30 July 1918.


Veronica Giuliani

Veronica Giuliani (also "Veronica de Julianis"; 27 December 1660 – 9 July 1727) was an Italian Capuchin Poor Clares nun and mystic. She was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI in 1839.
Life.
Early life.
She was born Orsola [Ursula] Giuliani at Mercatello in the Duchy of Urbino on 27 December 1660. Her parents were Francesco and Benedetta Mancini Giuliani. She was the youngest of seven sisters, three of whom embraced the monastic life.
It is told that at the age of three years Giuliani supposedly began to show great compassion for the poor. She would set apart a portion of her food for them, and even part with her clothes when she met a poor child scantily clad. Her mother died when Ursula was seven years of age.
When others did not readily join in her religious practices she was inclined to be dictatorial. At the age of 16, she experienced a vision which corrected this imperfection of character: she saw her own heart as a "heart of steel". In her writings she confesses that she took a certain pleasure in the more stately circumstances which her family adopted when her father was appointed superintendent of finance at Piacenza. When Giuliani came of age, her father believed she should marry, and so he desired her to take part in the social activities of the young people. But she pleaded so earnestly with her father that, after much resistance, he finally permitted her to choose her own state in life.
Life in the monastery.
In 1677, at the age of 17, Giuliani was received into the monastery of the Capuchin Poor Clares in Città di Castello in Umbria, Italy, taking the name of Veronica in memory of the Passion. At the conclusion of the ceremony of her reception, the bishop said to the abbess: "I commend this new daughter to your special care, for she will one day be a great saint."
Giuliani became absolutely submissive to the will of her spiritual directors, though her novitiate was marked by extraordinary interior trials and temptations to return to the world. In her first years in the monastery, she worked in the kitchen, infirmary and sacristy and also served as portress. At the age of 34, she was made novice mistress.
For fifty years, Giuliani lived in the Capuchin convent. With gritty determination tempered by humility, she led her sisters as novice mistress for thirty-four years and as abbess for eleven. Giuliani governed the convent with obvious common sense and guided the novices with prudence. She would not allow them to read mystical books, requiring them instead to study books on Christian basics. In 1716, she was elected abbess. As a practical woman, she improved her sisters’ comfort by enlarging the convent rooms and having water piped inside.
Spiritual trials.
Giuliani had a lifelong devotion to Christ crucified that eventually became manifested in physical signs. The marks of the crown of thorns appeared on her forehead in 1694 and the five wounds on her body in 1697. Giuliani was humiliated by the stigmata itself and by her bishop’s rigorous testing of her experience. He removed her from ordinary community life and put her under constant observation. When he determined that the phenomena were authentic, he allowed her to return to normal convent life and continue her service to her sisters.
She died on 9 July 1727 at Città di Castello.
Veneration.
After Giuliani's death a figure of the Cross was supposedly found impressed upon her heart, and her body has been noted as being incorrupt.
She was beatified by Pope Pius VII on 17 June 1804 and was canonized by Pope Gregory XVI on 26 May 1839. She is usually represented in art crowned with thorns and embracing the Cross.
Giuliani's "rebirth" in Lebanon began with the devotion of a Lebanese religious, Brother Emmanuel, who came upon her writings in 1994 while serving at a monastery in Deir al-Zour, Syria. Emmanuel founded a religious order, the Little Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, in 2015 and he believes Giuliani "has chosen Lebanon as a country to begin, or to intensify, her mission because Lebanon loves Our Lady a lot and has a very deep relationship with Mary." As of 2016, there are seven nuns and four brothers in the order.
Banners throughout the country proclaimed "A saint rises up in Lebanon!" heralding the first church in the world outside of Italy dedicated to Saint Veronica Giuliani. The newly built church, in Ksaibe, Lebanon, was consecrated on 9 July 2016, the saint's feast day.