Constant van Crombrugghe

Constant Guillaume Van Crombrugghe (14 October 1789 – 1 December 1865) was a Flemish canon and founder of several orders: Josephites or Fathers Jozefieten (1817) and Subsidiaries of the Sisters of Mary and Joseph. The latter congregation was founded in 1838 split in the Ladies of Mary and the Sisters of St. Jozef of Jozefienen. He also founded The Daughters of Mary and Joseph which founded Coloma Convent Girl's School in 1869 and is still attended by students in Croydon, England.
The order established several schools including St George's College, Weybridge.
Van Crombrugghe was also a member of the National Congress, the constituent assembly at which the Belgian Constitution was written.


Richard Joseph Fitzgerald

Richard Joseph Fitzgerald (1881–1956) was an Irish-born Roman Catholic prelate who served as the Bishop of Gibraltar from 1927 to 1956.
Born in Midleton, County Cork, Ireland on 12 August 1881, he was ordained to the priesthood on 15 August 1905. He served as a curate in Macrrom Co. Cork. He was appointed the Bishop of the Diocese of Gibraltar by Pope Pius XI on 25 May 1927. His consecration to the Episcopate took place on 9 October 1927; the principal consecrator was the Most Reverend John Harty, Archbishop of Cashel, with the Most Reverend James Roche, Bishop of Ross and the Right Reverend Peter Amigo, Bishop of Southwark, serving as co-consecrators.
Bishop Fitzgerald died in office on 15 February 1956, aged 74.


Medeiros e Albuquerque

José Joaquim de Campos da Costa de Medeiros e Albuquerque (4 September 1867 – 9 June 1934) was a Brazilian poet, politician, teacher, journalist, short story writer, civil servant, essayist, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is famous for writing the lyrics of the Brazilian Republic Anthem in 1890.
He founded and occupied the 22nd chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1897 until his death in 1934.
He was also the President of the Academy in 1923.
Life.
Albuquerque was born in 1867 in Recife, Pernambuco, the son of Dr. José Joaquim de Campos de Medeiros e Albuquerque. Initially homeschooled by his mother, he studied at the Colégio Pedro II and later in Lisbon. Returning to Brazil, he studied natural history with Émil Goeldi and was tutored by Sílvio Romero. He initially worked as a primary teacher, getting in contact with famous writers such as Francisco de Paula Ney and Pardal Mallet. In 1889 he published his first poetry books: "Pecados" and "Canções da Decadência", of strong Symbolist influence.
In 1888 he worked for the newspaper "Novidades" alongside Alcindo Guanabara, defending Abolitionist ideals. With the proclamation of the Republic in Brazil, he was nominated a secretary by Aristides Lobo and a minister by Benjamin Constant Botelho de Magalhães. From 1890 onwards he became a teacher for the Escola Nacional de Belas Artes and wrote the lyrics of the Brazilian Republic Anthem.
He was a convicted atheist for most of his life, but he converted to catholicism later in life.
During his last years of life, he would write for many newspapers, using pen names such as Armando Quevedo, Atasius Noll, J. dos Santos, Max and Rifiúfio Singapura.
He died in 1934.


Melody Green


Rulman Merswin

Rulman Merswin (c. 1307 - 1382) was a German mystic, leader for a time of the Friends of God.
Life.
Born into an important family in Strasbourg, at the time a free city of the Holy Roman Empire, Rulman Merswin became a banker and amassed a large fortune. Always “a man of watchful conscience and of great fear of God,” he gave up business at age 40, “took leave of the world,” and devoted himself to God as a layman, after the manner of the Franciscan Tertiaries, or the Waldensians. Embarking on his new spiritual life, Merswin was moved to keep his money “to use for God,” a decision which precipitated an experience of ecstasy; he felt himself float off the ground and fly around the garden.
Although married to Gertrude of Bietenheim, Merswin resolved to remain celibate. This led to struggles against evil temptation, which he tried to quell through extreme ascetic practices. On the advice of Johannes Tauler, his confessor, Merswin gave up self-mortification. He then fell into severe depression, convinced he was destined for eternal damnation in the fires of Hell; however, he persevered and found, “the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.” He heard voices and often fell into states of ecstasy. "In The Story of the First Four Years of a New Life" (which his secretary, Nikolaus von Löwen, claimed was found in a locked cabinet after Merswin's death), Merswin recounts a meeting with a mysterious Friend of God from the Oberland, a confessor, prophet and teacher, to whom Merswin submitted himself completely.
Johannes Tauler brought Merswin into the Friends of God, a lay religious society with a mystical focus.
In 1367, Merswin purchased an old cloister on an island near Strasbourg to serve as a refuge for study for the Friends of God and as a “school of prophets.” The house, which he called "das grüne Wört" or Grünenwörth ("the green island"), produced a number of mystical texts, such as the Book of the Nine Rocks. Many of the works were attributed to The Friend of God from the Oberland, although probably written by Merswin himself. In 1371, Grünenwörth was put under the care of the Knights of St. John.
The Friends of God, as led by Tauler and Henry Suso, sought a mystical path in line with established Catholic doctrine, following Thomas Aquinas. Rulman Merswin, under the guidance of The Friend of God from the Oberland, wanted to purify the Church. This stress on reform brought The Friends of God into conflict with the Church and not long after Merswin's death in 1382, they were condemned.


Samuel Egbebunmi

Olubayo Sowale is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: he is the current Bishop of Ilesa South West.
He was consecrates on 12 January 2009 in Ughelli, Delta State.


Antonio Despuig y Dameto

Antonio Despuig y Dameto (March 30, 1745 – May 2, 1813) was a Spanish archbishop and cardinal. He was Archbishop of Seville (1795–1799) and Latin Patriarch of Antioch (1799–1813). He was born in Palma, Majorca. He was made a cardinal by pope Pius VII. He died in Lucca.


Burt Schuman

Burt Schuman (1948–present) is the first Polish postwar rabbi of Reform Judaism. Originally from New York, NY, Rabbi Schuman spent 11 years as the rabbi of Temple Beth Israel in Altoona, Pennsylvania.


John Hamilton of Blair

John Hamilton of Blair, son of John Hamilton of Blair and Barbara Elphinstone, was a 17th-century Church of Scotland minister and bishop. He was a descendant of John Hamilton, Archbishop of St Andrews. Made Bishop of Dunkeld on 19 October 1686, he held this position until the Glorious Revolution brought an end to the Restoration Episcopate of the Scottish church in 1688. After 1688, he was a minister in Edinburgh and sub-dean of the chapel-royal.


Christoph Schappeler

Christoph Schappeler (1472 – August 25, 1551) was a German religious figure, reformer, and a preacher at St. Martin's in Memmingen during the early 16th century and during the Protestant Reformation and the German Peasants' War. He tended to side with the poor, causing the senate to regulate his sermons in 1516. However, by 1521 the climate had changed such that the senate was giving him support. When he was excommunicated in 1524, the Senate refused to follow the bishop's order to have him banished.
It is believed that Schappeler and Sebastian Lotzer wrote "The Twelve Articles: The Just and Fundamental Articles of All the Peasantry and Tenants of Spiritual and Temporal Powers by Whom They Think Themselves Oppressed" in early 1525. Within two months of its initial publication in Memmingen, twenty-five thousand copies of the "Twelve Articles" had spread throughout Europe. The "Twelve Articles" was a religious petition that utilized Luther's ideas to appeal for peasants' rights.


Eadfrith of Leominster

Eadfrith of Leominster also known as Eadridus was a seventh century Catholic saint from Anglo-Saxon England. Although very little is known of his early life, he is an important figure in the process of Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England.
Eadfrith came from Northumbria and worked as a missionary to the Hwicce kingdom and in 660 converted King Merewalh of the Hwicce, a contemporary (and possibly son) of King Penda of Mercia.
Around 660 Eadfrith also founded Leominster Abbey for women, as a conventual priory of the monks of Reading Abbey. This abbey was mentioned in the Domesday Book and was re-founded about 1139. at which time it may have been associated with the royal family.
Eadfrith is known to history mainly through the hagiography of the Secgan Manuscript, but also the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" and the "Catalogus sanctorum pausantium in Anglia".
Eadfrith died in 675 and was buried in Leominster. His feast day is on 26 October.


Cleophas Lunga

Cleophas Lunga is the Anglican Bishop of Matabeleland. He was born in Bulawayo in 1966.
Background.
He was educated in Roman Catholic schools and was temporarily employed by the Catholic Church but joined the local Anglican Church in 1986. He worked as a clerk in a legal office for three years before pursuing theological studies at "Bishop Gaul Theological College, Harare". He was ordained Deacon in 1993 and posted to St Andrew's in Bulawayo.
The following year he was made a priest and assigned to the Cathedral in Bulawayo as assistant priest and Diocesan youth chaplain.
In 1999 he was appointed rector of All Saints and St Modwen in what was a multi-racial parish in the same city.
In 2003, he accepted a post as team vicar for St Catherine's United Kingdom, the job evolved and he became Team Vicar with special responsibility for Holy Cross and St Michael's, within the Caludon Team Ministry.
Since his time in Coventry Cleophas has undertaken post-graduate study at Coventry University, attaining an MA focusing on Peace and Reconciliation.
He was consecrated and enthroned Bishop of Matabeleland on 1 March 2009.


Andreas Aarflot

Andreas Aarflot (born 1 July 1928) is a Norwegian theologian and bishop emeritus in the Church of Norway. He was bishop of Oslo from 1977 to 1998.
Early life.
Aarflot was born in Yiyang, China where his mother and father served the Norwegian Missionary Society in the Hunan province. Aarflot earned his cand.theol. from MF Norwegian School of Theology (1951) and dr.theol. from University of Oslo (1970). Furthermore, he has studied in Heidelberg, England and the United States, has an honorary doctor's degree from St. Olaf College (1987) and is an honorary member of "Finska kyrkohistoriska sälllskapet" (1978).
Aarflot has among other things worked for the Norwegian Seamen's Mission and the Norwegian Lutheran Inner Mission Society, and served as a priest in Røyken. He was connected with the MF Norwegian School of Theology (1960), faculty lecturer (1968) and docent (1970) before he became a professor in 1976. The same year he was proclaimed bishop in the Diocese of Borg after Per Lønning withdrew as a protest on legalizing abortion. Aarflot was decorated as a Commander with Star of the Order of St. Olav in 1979.


Martyrology of Usuard

The Martyrology of Usuard is a work by Usuard, a monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The prologue is dedicated to Charles the Bald indicating that it was undertaken at that monarch's instigation. It was apparently written shortly before the author's death in 875.
Usuard was a prominent member of his order and he had been sent on a mission to Spain in 858 to procure certain important relics, of which journey an account is still preserved. The martyrology which bears his name, a compilation upon which the later "Roman Martyrology" depended closely until the twentieth century, remained throughout the Middle Ages the most famous document of its kind. It is preserved to us in innumerable manuscripts, of which Henri Quentin gives a partial list ("Martyrologes historiques", 1908, pp. 675–7).
The full story of the relation of the texts was unravelled for the first time by Quentin, and the evolution of the early medieval martyrologia culminating in Usuard's work was told by Quentin in the book just cited. Usuard provided what was substantially an abridgement of Ado's "Martyrology" in a form better adapted for practical liturgical use. In certain points, however, Usuard reverted to a Lyonese recension of Bede's augmented "Martyrology", which was attributed to the archdeacon Florus of Lyon.
The text of Usuard's "Martyrologium" was edited by Jacques Bouillart (Paris, 1718) from manuscript Latini 13745 at Paris, which, if not the autograph of the author, dates at any rate from his time. A still more elaborate edition was brought out by the Bollandist Father Jean-Baptiste Du Sollier.
In the thirteenth century the Dominican Order adopted Usuard's as the basis for their own martyrology.


Ignaz Agricola

Ignaz Agricola (July 31, 1661 – January 23, 1729) was a German Jesuit.
Agricola was born in Zusamaltheim in the Bishopric of Augsburg. He entered the Jesuit order on September 28, 1677, and studied in Jesuit schools, philosophy for three years and theology for four years. He then taught in Jesuit schools for a number of years: grammar for two years, poetry for two years, rhetoric for seven years, and logic for two years. He spent much of this time in Munich, where in 1719 he was president of the "Sodalitas major", and where he died in 1729.
His wrote a well-known history of the Jesuit order, "Historia Provinciae Societatis Jesu Germaniae superioris, quinque primas annorum complexa decades" (1727).


Benjamin Barrera y Reyes

Benjamín Barrera y Reyes (December 28, 1902 in Sensuntepeque, Cabañas – February 4, 1999 in Santa Ana) was a Bishop from El Salvador.
Appointed in 1942 by Pope Pius XII Auxiliary Bishop of Santa Ana, became its Bishop in 1954. He resigned on February 25, 1981.
He took part in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council.


The Rose Without a Thorn

The Rose Without a Thorn is a 1933 historical play by the British writer Clifford Bax. It portrays the courtship and marriage of Henry VIII and his fifth wife Catherine Howard.
It ran in the West End for 128 performances, debuting at the Duke of York's Theatre before transferring to the Vaudeville Theatre. The cast was headed by Frank Vosper as Henry VIII and also included Joan Maude, Alastair Sim, Lawrence Hanray and Fabia Drake.
In 1947 it was adapted by the BBC into a television film of the same title starring Arthur Young and Victoria Hopper as Henry and Catherine.


Kenneth Ifemene

Kenneth Ifemene is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: he is the current Bishop of Ikwo.


Juan de la Torre y Castro

Juan de la Torre y Castro of Juan de la Torres y Castro (1607 – December 1662) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Bishop of Nicaragua (1661–1662).
Biography.
Juan de la Torre y Castro was born in Arrancarra de Aranxo, Spain and ordained a priest in the Order of Friars Minor.
On 19 December 1661, he was appointed during the papacy of Pope Alexander VII as Bishop of Nicaragua. In 1662, he was consecrated bishop by Diego Osorio de Escobar y Llamas, Bishop of Puebla. He died six days after arriving in Nicaragua in December 1662. Alfonso Bravo de Laguna, who served as Vicar Capitular since 1660 after the death of Tomás Manso, was appointed the next Bishop.


Emile Eid

Emile Eid (born March 15, 1925 in Mazraat el Daher, Lebanon - died November 30, 2009) was the Maronite Catholic titular bishop of Sarepta dei Maroniti.
Life.
Ordained to the priesthood on May 6, 1951, to the Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Sidon, Eid was named titular bishop on December 20, 1982 and was ordained bishop of Sarepta dei Maroniti on January 23, 1983 by Maronite Patriarch of Antioch, Anthony Peter Khoraish, and his co-consecrators were Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir, Titular bishop of Tarsus dei Maroniti and Ibrahim Hélou, Eparch of Sidon. Bishop Eid served as vice president of the commission that wrote the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches. On October 18, 1990 Eid resigned his duties as bishop due to age-related reasons.
Emile Eid died on November 30, 2009.


Swami Lokeshwarananda

Swami Lokeshwarananda (1909–1998) was a monk of the Ramakrishna order founded by Vivekananda. He was the founder of the pathuriaghata branch of the Ramakrishna mission which later blossomed into the Ramakrishna Mission Narendrapur. He represented the Ramakrishna mission at various international conferences. He had considerable moral and intellectual influence, but never became an office bearer of the mission. He was also part of a delegation to the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic church.
Biography.
Pathuriaghata.
Lokeshwarananda was posted as the secretary of the then nascent Pathuriaghata branch of the Ramakrishna mission. He was instrumental in transforming it into a full-fledged and actively functioning branch centre. The centre was founded immediately after the Bengal famine of 1943. It first served as a home for abandoned, orphaned and financially destitute boys. Since its relocation in 1957 to its present site in the southern suburbs of Calcutta, it has grown into a huge complex with varied activities. The Ramakrishna mission ashrama at Narendrapur owes a lot for all this to him. He was an adept administrator and at the same time, a caring teacher. He simultaneously managed the duties of Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur and Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur.
He studied at the Bangabasi College of the University of Calcutta.
Golpark.
Swami Lokeshwarananda took charge of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture at Golpark and gave his all towards its development. He put in tremendous efforts which saw the Golpark centre blossom and grow in stature as one of the most important centres of the Ramakrishna Mission. It became an important hub for cultural affairs of the Mission and a school for teaching Indian and foreign languages was opened here. He remained its secretary till his demise in 1998.


Apringius

Apringius of Beja was a sixth-century Latin Church Father who wrote a commentary on the Book of Revelation. Only fragments of his commentary survive.


Paolo Mietto

Paolo Mietto (26 May 1934 – 25 May 2020) was an Italian-born Ecuadorian Roman Catholic bishop.
Mietto was born in Italy and was ordained to the priesthood in 1963. He served as titular bishop of "Muzuca in Byzacena" and as coadjutor vicar apostolic of the Apostolic Vicariate of Napo, Ecuador from 1994 to 1996. He then served as bishop of the Apostolic Vicariate of Napo from 1996 to 2010.


Jennie Lee Riddle

Jennie Lee Riddle (born April 22, 1967) is an American Christian songwriter, best known for penning "Revelation Song", first made popular by Gateway Worship and Kari Jobe, and carried to No. 1 by Phillips, Craig & Dean. The song enjoyed a 17-week run at No. 1 on Christian radio per "Billboard". "Revelation Song" has been recorded in multiple languages and has appeared on numerous albums. Most recently, the song was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, an honor attributed to songs with over 500,000 units sold.
Riddle also co-wrote "When the Stars Burn Down," "Hope of the Broken World" and "The One That Really Matters" recently recorded on the Michael W. Smith album entitled "Sovereign". She has been nominated for five Dove awards, and awarded three; Songwriter of the Year, Worship Song of the Year (for "Revelation Song") and Inspirational Song of the Year (for "Hope of the Broken World" by Selah. Her songs are some of the most performed on CCLI (a company specializing in copyright licensing of Christian music), ranking in the top 10 since 2010.
Jennie's music has been recorded and performed by many other artists as well, including NewSong, Shane & Shane, JJ Heller, Jesus Culture, Gateway Worship, Chris Tomlin, Diante do Trono, Passion, Meredith Andrews, Travis Ryan, Newsboys, Sandi Patti, Guy Penrod and Rebecca St. James, to name a few. Her songs have been used among the largest Christian Conferences in the world including Passion, Experience Conference and National Worship Leader Convention hosted by "Worship Leader", among many others.
2011 saw the release of the title-track song "One True God", featured on NewSong's latest album. The song was also performed by them during a Winter Jam Tour in 2012, billed as the world's largest Christian music tour.
The newest musical endeavor of Jennie's is the forming of People & Songs community, the 1st release of her Opus Collective, and the subsequent 1st release in the Simple Collection Series, "I Stand Before Almighty God Alone". Opus 1 enjoyed a No. 1 debut on iTunes and has since received all five-star reviews, in addition to being touted by Worship Leader Magazine as the Indie Best of Best for 2012 and listed in the top 10 albums of 2012 by New Release Tuesday. "I Stand Before Almighty God Alone" has enjoyed a grass-roots spread through the churches after its debut at the Linger Conference in Dallas Texas in 2014.
In addition to songwriting, Riddle is also a worship leader, teacher, and church music consultant. She regularly teaches at conferences and events all over the world, and is a partner manager of Analyze My Song and owner manager at The Emerging Sound, a summer camp for creative teens.
She currently resides in Laporte, Indiana with her team, and pours into the community with music and service.
Jennie additionally works as a staff writer for Integrity Music and as a recruiter for the National Praise and Worship Institute. She volunteers her remaining time to the Gospel Music Association where she serves as co-coordinator for Immerse. She has been married to Darrin Riddle for over 25 years, and together they have four children; Daniel, Emily, David, and Andrew. Jennie and Darrin live bi-locationally in Texas and Tennessee.
Actively teaching and mentoring, Jennie can be found at classrooms, churches and conventions around the world ministering to songwriters and artists. She says, "the next chapter of my life will surely involve caring for the Church by caring for its creatives. I've been doing it for 25 years and don't intend on stopping until I meet Jesus face-to-face."
Song credits.
Some of the songs written by Riddle are:


Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis

Gloria, Dowager Princess of Thurn and Taxis (Mariae Gloria Ferdinanda Joachima Josephine Wilhelmine Huberta; born Countess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau, 23 February 1960) is a German socialite, businesswoman, philanthropist, Catholic activist, and artist. Through her marriage to Johannes, 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, she became the Princess Consort of Thurn und Taxis.
Early life and family.
Countess Gloria von Schönburg-Glauchau was born on 23 February 1960 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, West Germany. Her father, Joachim, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, was the nominal head of the Glauchau branch of the German princely Schönburg family, a mediatised dynasty within the former Holy Roman Empire. Her mother, Countess Beatrix Széchenyi de Sárvár-Felsővidék, was a member of the Hungarian nobility and a descendant of Count István Széchenyi. Her parents divorced in 1986 and her father married a second time to Ursula Zwicker. Gloria descends from various European royal and noble families including the Chotek von Wognin, Trubetskoy, Rechteren-Limpurg-Speckfeld, Kinsky and Golitsyn. She is one of five children from her father's two marriages. She has 2 brothers, Carl-Alban Count von Schönburg-Glauchau, born 2.2.1966 and formerly head of the family but renounced his rights after his marriage to Juliet Helene Beechhey Fowler, daughter of Nicholas Beechy-Fowler and Countess Jutta von . Her younger brother Alexander, Count of Schönburg-Glauchau, a writer and the current nominal head of the Schönburg-Glauchau branch of the family is married according to the rules of the house to Princess Irina of Hesse, grandniece of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, consort of Queen Elizabeth II. One of her sisters was the socialite Countess Maya von Schönburg-Glauchau. Gloria was baptized as an infant and raised in the Catholic faith.
Childhood and adolescence.
When she was a child, Gloria and her family moved to Africa, living in Togo and Somalia, where her father worked as an author and a journalist. Although a member of the German nobility, her family had little wealth as a result of Communism in Germany and Hungary. Her family's ancestral homes, castles , , , Rochsburg, and had been seized by the Soviet government of Saxony in 1945. She moved back to Germany with her family in 1970 and was enrolled at the Konrad-Adenauer-Gymnasium in Meckenheim, later studying at Kloster Wald, a girl's boarding school in a Benedictine convent. As a teenager she worked as a waitress at a ski resort in St Moritz, Switzerland.
Marriage and issue.
In 1979 Gloria met Johannes, Hereditary Prince of Thurn and Taxis at a luncheon he was hosting at Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl in Munich. She had attended as the guest of his nephew Count Johannes von Schönborn-Wiesentheid. A few days later she ran into him at Café Reitschule while on her way to a Supertramp concert with friends. She decided to have dinner with him instead of attending the concert. They began a relationship soon after and she accompanied him on a trip to South America. On 31 May 1980, Gloria and Johannes married in a Catholic ceremony in Regensburg, Bavaria. She wore a Valentino dress and a diamond diadem that had belonged to Empress Eugénie at the wedding. At the time of their marriage Johannes was estimated to be worth between US$2 and US$3 billion. She and her husband are fourth cousins twice removed, both descending from Karl Alexander, 5th Prince of Thurn and Taxis. Upon their marriage she became the Hereditary Princess of Thurn and Taxis. When her father-in-law, Karl August, 10th Prince of Thurn and Taxis, died in 1982 her husband became the 11th Prince of Thurn and Taxis.
The couple had three children:
Later life.
Gloria and her husband were known for their lavish lifestyle, becoming social and fashion icons in the 1980s. She became part of the European jet set and was referred to in the media as the "punk princess" and "Princess TNT".
When her husband died in 1990, Gloria was left to settle his debts, which totaled at US$500 million. Her son, Albert, became the 12th Prince of Thurn and Taxis at the time of Johannes' death. She acted as the trustee for Albert, taking over management of the family estate, Saint Emmeram's Abbey. She went into isolation from society, studying finance, accounting, and estate management. She sold off family property including art, jewelry, castles, cars, and land to preserve the family fortune. During this time she undertook a spiritual pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes in Lourdes, France, emerging as a sobered Roman Catholic activist and philanthropist.
In 2001 Gloria was severely criticized for stating on a talk show that the high rate of AIDS in African countries was due not to a lack of safe sex practices but to the fact that "the blacks like to copulate ('schnackseln') a lot". In 2008 she said in an interview that Africans have a lot of sex because of Africa's higher temperatures.
Gloria accompanied her sister, Maya, on pilgrimages to Lourdes and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain after Maya was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012.
Gloria has become a successful artist, focusing mainly on portraits done with oil paint and pastel. The Hotel Chelsea asked her to do a series of pastels of its most famous denizens—a gallery show which brought her much acclaim as a painter. She has referred to herself as a "dilettante", and cites her art collection as inspiration for her contemporary style of portraiture. In 2015 she had a solo show at the National Exemplar Gallery in New York. She also paints freelance.
In January 2019 the El Museo del Barrio in Manhattan decided to cancel an upcoming exhibition of Gloria's work at their 50th anniversary gala due to her right wing political stances and comments she had made about race and AIDS.
A devout Catholic, Gloria serves 300 hot meals to the poor every day from a dedicated room in her home. She also works closely with conservative Traditionalist Catholic leaders including Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Cardinal Raymond Burke, Wilhelm Imkamp, and Steve Bannon. Her palatial home, Schloss Thurn und Taxis was suggested by Bannon as a potential site for a school to educate and train right-wing Catholics, although no firm plans have been made.
Gloria is a personal friend of Hillary Clinton, and was one of a dozen women to attend her 2016 birthday party.
Honours.
Hereditary titles are only recognised in German law as part of the surname in accordance with the Weimar Constitution of 1919. Members of the Thurn and Taxis family include the title as an integral part of their surname in the form, "Prinz/essin von Thurn und Taxis".


Saint Arthur of Glastonbury

Saint Arthur of [[Glastonbury 1539), according to some French sources, was an English [[Roman Catholic]] faithful in the sixteenth century. He was martyred during the period of [[Henry VIII of England|King Henry VIII]]'s suppression of the [[Catholic Church]] due to his refusal to accept the king's claim to spiritual leadership of the [[Church in England]].
English Catholic sources lack information on St. Arthur of Glastonbury's martyrdom under Henry VIII. It is possible that the legendary [[King Arthur]] of Camelot, believed to have been connected with Glastonbury, and the story of a local martyr may have been conflated in Breton oral tradition; there were a number of Catholic martyrs during the [[English Reformation]] who hailed from the region including [[Richard Whyting]] of [[Glastonbury Abbey]]. Martyred with Whyting was [[John Arthur Thorne]], treasurer of the abbey and owner of the original [[Glastonbury chair]].
St. Arthur's feast-day is celebrated regionally on 15 November in [[Brittany]].
Notes.
[[Category:16th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:English saints]]
[[Category:English Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:People executed under Henry VIII]]
[[Category:1539 deaths]]
[[Category:Executed English people]]
[[Category:16th-century Roman Catholic martyrs]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:People from Mendip District]]


Lady Gwen Thompson

Lady Gwen Thompson (September 16, 1928 – May 22, 1986) was the pseudonym of Phyllis Thompson, author and teacher of traditionalist initiatory witchcraft through her own organisation, the New England Covens of Traditionalist Witches.
Lady Gwen claimed to be a hereditary witch, with connections to the Salem witch trials of 1692, though she could not provide original sources to support these assertions. When she published a supposedly ancient poem called "The Rede of the Wiccae", it was believed by some to be partly her own work.
Family.
Phyllis Thompson (née Healy) claimed to be a hereditary witch from New England. She was best known by the pseudonym (or public Craft name) of Lady Gwen Thompson, though she changed the forename to Gwynne in the 1980s. Thompson was her final married surname.
According to Thompson, her grandmother Adriana Porter's family were the carriers of a secret tradition of folk witchcraft that had come down through Sarah Arnot Cook and Wealthy Trask (Trash) from the latter's seventeenth-century ancestors. Porter had initiated her and her mother into the family's tradition and given them their "Craft Names".1
At first Thompson intended to keep the tradition within her family, subsequently initiating her children and grandchildren into them. However, her son and his family left the family tradition, joining the Christian religion and raising their children within it, and her daughter had no children. Fearing that her traditions would be completely lost, she began "fostering" outsiders into it as family members; she began initiating them in the late 1960s.
By 1970 she had informally created the organization now known as the New England Covens of Traditionalist Witches (N.E.C.T.W.) (currently listed in the State of Rhode Island as a subsidiary of Society of the Evening Star.)2 Around 1974 Thompson retired from leading the N.E.C.T.W. and turned it over to two of its early members;3 the leadership has undergone several changes in the intervening years.
Thompson's claims to be an hereditary witch have little independent support, since she states that she destroyed the original version of her grandmother's lore-book after copying its contents, and recopied her own book several times throughout her lifetime. While a recent book by Robert Mathiesen and Theitic documents a long history of occultism within Thompson's ancestry, including the seventeenth-century alchemist, Jonathan Brewster, as well as several of the families on both sides of the Salem witch trials of 1692, there is no direct evidence of the veracity of Thompson's claims as she, her mother and any others who could have provided first-hand information are all deceased, and any written documentation has not been made public.
The Rede of the Wiccae.
In 1975, Thompson had an article entitled "Wiccan-Pagan Potpourri" published in "Green Egg" magazine issue #69 (Ostara 1975), for which she is best known. A portion of that article included a poem consisting of 26 rhyming couplets entitled "The Rede of the Wiccae", stating that
"... Our own particular form of the Wiccan Rede is that which was passed on to her heirs by Adriana Porter, who was well into her nineties when she crossed over into the Summerland in the year 1946. ..."4.
Although Thompson wrote that this version of the Rede was in its original form, this declaration is disputed for several reasons, but primarily as the language of the poem refers to Wiccan concepts that are not known to have existed in her grandmother's lifetime. It is sometimes ascribed to Thompson herself. Mathiesen and Theitic concluded that 18 to 20 of the verses are lore which would be common to the area of rural 17th to 19th century New England and compiled by the hand of someone who would have been born no later that the late 19th century, and that at least six of the verses which are deemed “The Wiccan Verses” were compiled and added by a second and later hand. Since Thompson was dispensing these 26 as a whole from around 1969 it is a reasonable assumption that hers was that second hand. Another claim is that it is adapted from a speech given by Doreen Valiente at a dinner sponsored by the Witchcraft Research Association and mentioned in volume one (1964) of the Pentagram, a United Kingdom pagan newsletter then being published. Valiente did publish a similarly worded and entitled poem "The Witches Creed" in her 1978 book, "Witchcraft for Tomorrow"5.
Celtic Traditionalist "Wicca".
The Green Egg publication listed her by-line as "Lady Gwen Thompson, Welsh Tradition Wicca", which was a tag of their own creation. This sparked a protest by Thompson in issue #71 with a subsequent letter from her and an apology from then-editor Oberon Zell-Ravenheart (then known as Tim Zell) in issue #72.
Thompson stated in her opening letter "... For the record, we are not Welsh. I do believe we ran this route a few years ago, and it seems that once more clarification is needed. We are and always have been simply Traditionalist. We use the term Celtic Traditionalist to differentiate us from the ones who claim to be Welsh, and I know of only one tradition that has the right to use that name. If there are others, I do not know of them. My apologies, but we are not Welsh. We prefer to be simply known as "Traditionalists. ..."
While Thompson maintained the use of the term Witch and Witchcraft in her teachings and writings, by this time the term Wicca was becoming more fashionable to use in place of Witch/Witchcraft, as being a "less-charged" word. This has led to numerous instances of Thompson's Tradition and its practitioners being labeled as Celtic Wicca despite her stated objections and preference for the term "Traditionalist".
Later life.
Thompson remained active in teaching her form of witchcraft into the 1980s, carrying on an extensive, worldwide correspondence. Through her letters and teachings she contributed to the development of other traditions, including the Keepers of the Ancient Mysteries, the Georgian Tradition and others. Her own tradition of the N.E.C.T.W. developed offshoots as well, including the and the Groves of the Tuatha de Danaan and others; these offshoots are not recognized as an actual part of the N.E.C.T.W. although their historical connections to it are acknowledged.
In the mid-1980s, Thompson was diagnosed with cancer, and subsequently died May 22, 1986 while on a visit to Nova Scotia, Canada.6
Many of Thompson's Craft artifacts, including her personal book, are in the possession of the N.E.C.T.W., having been given them by her daughter, mother and other family members.6
References.
1.
2. State of Rhode Island, Office of the Secretary of State webpage retrieved 20 November 2007.
3. A directory of religious bodies in the United States
compiled from the files of the Institute for the Study of American Religion [by] J. Gordon Melton with James V. Geisendorfer Publisher: New York : Garland Pub., 1977.
4. Green Egg magazine, Issue #69, Ostara 1975, pp 9–11 "Wiccan-Pagan Potpourri" by Lady Gwen Thompson (an online transcript of this document is under "External links")
5. Doreen Valiente, Witchcraft for Tomorrow, 1978, pages 41, 72-74 (also as noted at The Wiccan Rede: A Historical Journey); see also The Witches Creed at controverscial.com.
6. Theitic of the N.E.C.T.W., 2007.


Nina Graboi

Nina Graboi (December 8, 1918 – December 13, 1999) was a Holocaust survivor, artist, writer, spiritual seeker, philosopher, and influential figure in the sixties psychedelic movement. After fleeing the Nazis in Europe and spending three months in a detention camp in North Africa, she and her husband came to America as refugees. As a close friend and colleague of Timothy Leary's and Richard Alpert's (Ram Dass), she was co-founder and director of the League for Spiritual Discovery's New York Center during the psychedelic era. The center was the first LSD-based meditation center in Manhattan. She also worked closely with Jean Houston, Abraham Maslow, Stanley Krippner, and Alan Watts.
Early life.
Born Jewish in Vienna, Austria in 1918 as Gusti Schreyer, and brought up in the thriving Jewish community of Leopoldstadt, she fled the Nazis in the late 1930s and lived/worked as a refugee in London, England. While in Antwerp, Belgium on an extended visit, she married Jewish scarfmaker and Kishinev refugee Michel Graboi (whose father had been killed in the pogroms). Many European Jews who sought a safe haven from Nazi persecution, including the Grabois, had difficulty with the United States' restrictive immigration quotas and the complicated, demanding requirements for obtaining visas. In an attempt to immigrate to America after finally obtaining a visa, the Grabois fled to France and set sail on the "Wyoming" freighter. Along with other Jewish refugees on the ship, the Grabois were detained in Casablanca, Morocco, then controlled by Vichy France, and sent to the Oued Zem detention camp in French Morocco. The implementation of anti-Jewish laws passed by the Vichy regime was not as extreme in Morocco.
After making it to America in 1941 on the steamer "Guinee" – with the help of family who had previously immigrated to the U.S., the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), and the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) – Gusti changed her name to Nina. The Grabois settled in New York and had two children. Nina Graboi's sister-in-law was artist Greta Schreyer (née Loebl).
Pre-psychedelic background.
Dissatisfied with her life in Long Island as a society hostess, in the 1950s Graboi plunged into the study of esoteric subjects and became an avid practitioner of meditation, while also running a successful theater group. As she learned about comparative religions, she became more interested in Buddhism and Hinduism. Her private studies continued through the early 1960s.
After learning about Walter Pahnke's 1962 "Good Friday Experiment," in which theology students were given psilocybin as part of psychedelic research at Harvard University under the supervision of Leary and Alpert, Graboi longed to experience what the divinity students had experienced. She realized there was more to these drugs than the media had let people know, and it was the first time she had heard of an experiment with exceptional states of consciousness. In early 1965, Graboi went to a seminar given by a Tibetan Buddhist teacher, and joined a weekly spiritual group led by Virginia Glenn with participants Stanley Krippner, Jean Houston, and Ida Rolf. Glenn helped birth the Human Potential Movement.
In early 1966 Graboi's translation of Jacques Audiberti's anti-war play "Les Patients" was used in an Off-Broadway production directed by Eugene Lion. With Lion's encouragement Graboi founded The Third Force Lecture Bureau, which promoted and presented speakers in New York City – her clients included Alan Watts, Ira Progoff, USCO, Yoko Ono, Charles Tart, Paul Krassner, and Peter Stafford. Glenn introduced Graboi to Timothy Leary and Larry Bogart at one of Leary's press conferences, a few months after Leary (by this point a former lecturer at Harvard University in Clinical Psychology), had been arrested in December 1965 for possession of marijuana. Bogart was doing public relations for Leary, and through Bogart's suggestion Graboi rented an office across from his at United Nations Plaza. While working there, Bogart introduced Graboi to Richard Alpert (later Ram Dass) and Ralph Metzner.
Millbrook and the psychedelic counterculture.
Graboi's breakthrough came in 1966 at age 47 at Millbrook, Timothy Leary's and Richard Alpert's communal estate in upstate New York, after she left her husband. She and Leary had developed a close friendship in 1966 after Graboi gave him her paper "Evolution in Search of a New Breed of Man". Graboi frequently spent time at Millbrook with a group gathered around Leary and Alpert to study the mind-expanding effects of LSD. Her first psychedelic trip there was at the Meditation House. Leary announced the Millbrook community had incorporated as a religious organization named The League for Spiritual Discovery in New York State. Although the Millbrook group viewed psychedelics as a primary key to the mystical experience, they continued to search for non-drug ways to reach it.
Graboi also became involved with the Bay Area counterculture. While visiting Alan Watts on his Sausalito houseboat in 1966 with Virginia Glenn, during a week-long LSD conference in San Francisco, Graboi took marijuana in the company of Watts. She and Watts were taken to a party in Marin by Paul Lee. Lee - one of the founding editors of the "Psychedelic Review" along with Leary - spoke about the party at the conference in a talk titled "Psychedelic Style." The Grateful Dead had thrown the party, with Owsley Stanley handing out his acid to anyone who wanted it. At the time, Lee was also an assistant professor of philosophy at University of California, Santa Cruz.
Graboi and Leary became collaborators in the American psychedelic movement. Graboi co-founded the Center for the League of Spiritual Discovery in a Greenwich Village storefront with Leary in September 1966, and became its director after Leary asked Graboi to head it. The nonprofit organization, influenced by Leary's writings, operated to help and educate people engaged in exploring the potential of psychedelic consciousness. Graboi accepted the position as director to disseminate information about the use and misuse of psychedelics, in order to minimize their ill effects. LSD use became illegal in California in October 1966. Leary, Alpert, and Graboi gave free weekly talks at the center and at other Manhattan locations in 1967. The center became an important part of New York's counterculture. Around the end of 1967/early 1968, the League for Spiritual Discovery was closed down after Leary left Millbrook, and the New York Center for the League of Spiritual Discovery was abandoned shortly after Graboi left her position as director.
In 1968 LSD was added to the list of Schedule 1 substances, which made it illegal to possess, manufacture, or use for any purpose in the United States. In 1969 Graboi moved to Woodstock, a few months before the Woodstock festival, and opened a boutique where she sold her crafts. She founded the Woodstock Transformation Center, and taught New Age-related classes.
Graboi moved to Santa Cruz, California in 1979, where she worked for University of California, Santa Cruz mathematics professor Ralph Abraham. She also gave talks in Santa Cruz and at conferences on the relationship between the psychedelic experience and the spiritual quest. She wrote her autobiography, "One Foot in the Future", in 1991. Terence McKenna described it as "an extraordinary tale of humor and hope." Graboi died at age 81 from lung cancer.
Graboi wrote, "We must learn to treasure the unity in our diversity, or we are lost. But it's best to start with Buddhism-the only religion that never caused blood to be shed. Ultimately, I hope, all religious dogma will be replaced by direct, personal experience... The main benefit I derived from the psychedelics is that they taught me that 'I' am not my body but an evolving consciousness, clothed temporarily in a body."


Conrad of Hirsau

Conrad of Hirsau (Hirschau) or Latin Conradus Hirsaugiensis (c. 1070 – c. 1150) was a German Benedictine monk and writer. He is known for his literary work "Dialogus super auctores", of about 1130.


Norman MacCallum

The Very Rev Norman Donald MacCallum was the Dean of Argyll and The Isles in the Scottish Episcopal Church.
Born on 26 April 1947 and educated at the University of Edinburgh he was ordained in 1972 and began his career with the Livingston Ecumenical Experiment. Later he was Rector of St Mary's, Grangemouth, Priest-in-charge of St Catharine's, Bo’ness and Provost of St John's Cathedral, Oban. From 2000 he was Administrator of the Scottish Episcopal Clergy Appraisal Scheme, a post he held until 2005. He retired in 2012.


Simeon Anthony Pereira

 Simeon Anthony Pereira (19 October 1927, Sukkur, British India - 22 August 2006, Karachi) was a former archbishop of Karachi.
Pereira was educated at St Patrick's High School, Karachi. He received his religious training at the Papal Seminary, Kandy, Sri Lanka and was ordained a priest on 24 August 1951. He first worked as secretary to Franciscan Archbishop James Cornelius van Miltenburg of Karachi, and Chaplain to the Sisters and flock at Manora.
His next posting was Father-in charge of the Don Bosco Boarding for boys in Karachi. In 1952, he proceeded to Quetta as assistant rector of St. Pius X Minor Seminary. A few years later, he was appointed Parish Priest of Saint Francis of Assisi Church, Old Haji Camp. His next appointment was as Parish Priest of Saint John's Church, Drigh Road, Karachi.
Following the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he worked with Father Liberius, a scholar and linguist, to introduce Urdu into the liturgy.
On 3 July 1971, Pope Paul VI appointed him Auxiliary Bishop of Rawalpindi, Pakistan. On 17 December 1973 he was appointed Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Islamabad-Rawalpindi. He was bishop of Rawalpindi for nearly 20 years. On 22 March 1993 he was appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Karachi. He succeeded Cardinal Joseph Cordeiro as Archbishop of Karachi on 11 February 1994 and retired from that office on 20 November 2002.
Pereira celebrated the silver jubilee of his episcopal ordination on 4 October 1996, with a bilingual Mass concelebrated with retired Franciscan Bishop Bonaventure Patrick Paul.
After retiring in November 2002, he served as pastor of St. Thomas Church in Malir and as chaplain of the Dominican nuns at the Monastery of the Angels in Landhi. He was also president of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan.
Pereira died on 22 August 2006.
References.
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Pierius

Pierius was a Christian priest and probably head of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, conjointly with Achillas. He flourished while Theonas was bishop of Alexandria, and died at Rome after 309. The "Roman Martyrology" commemorates him on 4 November.
His skill as an exegetical writer and as a preacher gained for him the appellation, "Origen the Younger". Philip of Side, Photius, and others assert that he was a martyr. However, since St. Jerome assures us that he survived the Diocletianic Persecution and spent the rest of his life at Rome, the term "martyr" can only mean that he underwent sufferings, not death, for his faith.
Works.
He wrote a work ("biblion") comprising twelve treatises or sermons ("logoi"), in some of which he repeats the dogmatic points attributed by some authors to Origen, such as the subordination of the Holy Ghost to the Father and the Son, and the pre-existence of human souls. His known sermons are: one on the "Gospel of St. Luke" ("eis to kata Loukan"); an Easter sermon on Osee (Hosea) ("eis to pascha kai ton Osee"); a sermon on the Mother of God ("peri tes theotokou"); a few other Easter sermons; and a eulogy on St. Pamphilus, who had been one of his disciples ("eis ton bion tou hagiou Pamphilou").
Only fragments of his writings are extant. They were edited by Martin Joseph Routh, and in "Patrologia Graeca"; Carl de Boor added some fragments.


Amanda Yates Garcia

Amanda Yates Garcia is an American witch, healer, and medium among other New Age practices, and is known as the "Oracle of Los Angeles". She is also a full-time witch and life coach. Yates Garcia promotes oneness with nature to save the world.
History.
She has been active since at least 2013 and resides in Los Angeles, California, U.S. She is a graduate of the California Institute of Arts.
In 2017 she appeared on the Tucker Carlson Tonight regarding her binding spell she had put onto Donald Trump to galvanize change symbolically in order to stop him from harming people; Carlson mocked her but she deflected his remarks. As of 2019 she was working on her PhD thesis.
She is the author of "" written in 2019. An interview with Garcia in The Believer described the book as "[A] feminist history of witchcraft, a work of critical theory, an activist manifesto, a personal mythology, and a memoir "..."".


Ruth Lautt

Sister Ruth Lautt is an American Roman Catholic nun and activist. She is the founder of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East, an organization that describes itself as an advocacy group that works among mainline Protestants and Roman Catholics in North America for fairness in the churches’ witness on issues related to the conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Career.
Lautt holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law. Before entering the religious life as a Dominican nun, Sister Ruth was a litigator with Manhattan law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
Issue positions.
Lautt advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict.
Lautt has questioned the criticisms leveled at Israel by some churches, asking, "how people feel they have the right in the name of peace and justice, to tell other people not to try to preserve their own lives... You’re not obligated to lay down and die.”


Maudood Chishti

Maudood Chishti (Urdu مودود چشتی ) (also known as Qutubuddin, Shams Sufiyaan and Chiraag Chishtiyaan) was an early day Sufi Saint, a successor to his father and master Abu Yusuf Bin Saamaan, twelfth link in the Sufi silsilah of Chishti Order, and the Master of Shareef Zandani. He was born around 430 Hijri in the city of Chisht. He initially received education from his father. He memorized the Qur'an by age 7 and completed his education when he was 16. His work includes two books, "Minhaaj ul Arifeen" and "Khulaasat ul Shariah". He died in the month of Rajab at the age of 97 in 533 AH (March 1139 CE). He was buried at Chisht like many of the early Chishtiyya.
Tasawuf.
Khwaja Al Mawdud Chisti became the mureed of Khwaja Nasir Abu Yusuf Bin Saamaan Chisti. After he became a mureed, his murshid (Master) addressed him by saying, "O Qutubuddin Mowdud, adopt the path of the Faqr." The word "faqr" is literally translated as "poverty", but in the language of tasawwuf, it means to be rich with Allah. It is for one to have total trust in Allah and not to be dependent on any other than Allah. Faqar is the way of true dervishes. Khwaja Mawdud Al Chisti accepted his murshids (spiritual guidance) advice. Shortly thereafter he went into seclusion and remained absorbed in worship for twenty years. During this period, he rarely ate and was reported to complete two recitations of the Quran during the day and two during the night. He also used to constantly make the zikr of La Ilaha Illallah. Due to his consistent worship, everything in the universe became apparent to him, and nothing was kept hidden.
Khwaja Maudood's Khalifa.
Khwaja Mawdud Chishti visited Balkh (the place of birth of Jalaluddin Rumi) and Bukhara, a place mentioned in the famous line of Hafez, "If that Turk of Shiraz would take my heart in his hand, I would give for his Hindu mole both Bukhara and Samarkand." Khwaja Haji Sharif Zindani, his successor, renounced everything. He led a life of strict seclusion for 40 years and hated society. He used to live on leaves of trees. Although several of the Chishtiyya stressed the value of asceticism, in general they said that seclusion and ascetic practice was for short periods only. Live in the midst of society rather than keep your spiritual ideals. It is said that the followers of Khwaja Qutubuddin were around 10,000, not including close friends and allies. It is impossible to enumerate Khwaja Mawdud's Khulafa. For the sake of barakat, a few are mentioned hereunder.
Among them the link in this (CHISTI) Silsila is Khwaja Shareef Zindani. That is why his message spread. His influence spread west to Khurasan, Iraq, Syria, Hijaz, and Tihamah and in the south to Iran, Siestan and the subcontinent. In the west, his message was spread by the likes of Sharif Zindani and Khwaja Usman Harooni. Khwaja Qutubuddin was 29 when his father died and he inherited the throne. He never visited the rich or went to the royal courts. He was a simple man who led a simple life. He was always courteous to the needs of others. He always was the first to greet people and respected everyone.
Books.
Chisti's works include two books, "Minhaaj ul Areifeen" and "Khulaasat ul Shariah".
Descendants.
Khwaja Maudood Chishti's son Khwaja Najamuddin Ahmed Ahmed Mushtaq Bin Moudod Chishti was buried at Chisht. Syed Abul Alla Moudodi was a descendant of his who was born at Aurangabad India in 1903 Hijri. Many of his descendants live in the area. Khwaja Wali Kirani Moudodi Chishti Kirani and Khwaja Mir Shahdad Moudodi Chishti Kirani are also Khwaja Maudood Chishti's descendants. The tombs of both these famous saints are in a place called Kirani, west of Quetta city. A large number of his descendants still live in Kirani. Khwaja Ibrahim Yukpasi another important saint belonging to Khwaja Maudood Chishti's family is buried in Mastung Balochistan and Khwaja Dopassi is buried in Dhadar near the beginning of Bolan pass Balochistan Pakistan.
Descendants Khwaja Qutubuddin Mohammad Thani Chishti migrated to Sindh Old Bukkhar (near Shahdadkot). One of this family descendants named Khwaja Assadullah Kunjnashin Bukkhari migrated to Nawada-Gaya areas of Bihar, India. His followers preached Islam and guided the Muslims there. Khwaja Abdullah Chishti and Taj Mahmood Haqqani Chishti were the Sufi saints of Chishti order and direct descendants of Maudood Chishti's son. Their shrines are situated in Milkitola Chhota Sheikhpura, Narhat block near Hisua (GPRS 24 83N 85 43E)
Descendant Khwaja Nizam-ud-din Alli's tomb is in the vicinity of Pishin city of Balochistan in a place called Minziki, home for many other descendants. Khwaja Naqruddin Chishti Moudodi (Shaal Pir Baba) is another descendant whose tomb is in Balochistan, located in Quetta chaowni near the old fort. In the valley of shal kot (Quetta) and Bolan in the Balochistan province the influence of the Moudodi family reached within the lifetime of the head of the family. According to one source Khwaja Qutubuddin Moudod visited the area at least once. He came to the home of his follower Shiekh Babut in the area of Shoroak. Shiekh Babut belonged to the pashtoon tribe called 'Bariech'. During the lifetime of Khwaja Moudod Chishti his friends and followers started to spread the message of Islam. Later on Khwaja Qutubuddin Moudod Chishti's own family (the sadat) advanced the message of Islam in greater Balochistan and molded the life of ordinary people according to the ideology of Islam.
Shijra-e-tareekat.
Main source:


Joseph Akinfenwa

Joseph Olatunji Akinfenwa (born 24 May 1956) is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria: he is Bishop of Ibadan, one of nineteen in the Anglican Province of Ibadan, itself one of 14 within the Church of Nigeria.
Akinfenwa was born in Zaria on 24 May 1956. He is a graduate of Ahmadu Bello University, holds a Diploma in Theology from St Francis Assisi Theological College, Wusasa, Zaria and has Masters' and PhD degrees from the University of Ilorin.
He was ordained in 1986 at St Michael's Cathedral, Kaduna, of which he became Archdeacon in 1994. On 6 January 1998, he was consecrated Bishop of Sokoto before being translated to Bishop of Ibadan in April 2000.
Akinfenwa became the first Archbishop of Ibadan in January 2003, a post he held for two terms, until 2013.


Francis of Paola

Francis of Paola, O.M., (or: Francesco di Paola or Francis the Fire Handler; 27 March 1416 – 2 April 1507) was an Italian mendicant friar and the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of Minims. Unlike the majority of founders of men's religious orders, and like his patron saint, Francis was never ordained a priest.
Biography.
Francis was born in the town of Paola, which lies in the southern Italian Province of Cosenza, Calabria. In his youth he was educated by the Franciscan friars in Paola. His parents, having remained childless for some years after their marriage, had recourse to prayer and especially commended themselves to the intercession of Francis of Assisi, after whom they named their first-born son. Two other children were eventually born to them.
When still in the cradle, Francis suffered from a swelling which endangered the sight of one of his eyes. His parents again had recourse to Francis of Assisi and made a vow that their son should pass an entire year wearing the "little habit" of St Francis in one of the friaries of his Order, a not-uncommon practice in the Middle Ages. The child subsequently recovered. At the age of 13, being admonished by a vision of a Franciscan friar, he entered a friary of the Franciscan Order to fulfill the vow made by his parents. At the completion of the year he went with his parents on a pilgrimage to Assisi, Rome, and other places of devotion. Returning to Paola, he selected a secluded cave on his father's estate and there lived in solitude; but later on he found an even-more secluded cave on the sea coast. Here he remained alone for about six years, giving himself to prayer and mortification.
Minim Friars.
In 1435 two companions joined him in his retreat, and to accommodate them Francis caused three cells and a chapel to be built: in this way the new order was begun. By 1436, he and two followers began a movement that would become the foundation of the Hermits of Saint Francis of Assisi, which would later be renamed as the Minim friars. Their name refers to their role as the "least of all the faithful". Humility was to be the hallmark of the brothers as it had been in Francis' personal life. Abstinence from meat and other animal products became a "fourth vow" of his religious order, along with the traditional vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Francis instituted the continual, year-round observance of this diet in an effort to revive the tradition of fasting during Lent, which many Roman Catholics had ceased to practice by the 15th century. The rule of life adopted by Francis and his religious was one of extraordinary severity. He felt that heroic mortification was necessary as a means for spiritual growth. They were to seek to live unknown and hidden from the world.
The number of his disciples gradually increased, and about 1454, with the permission of Pyrrhus, Archbishop of Cosenza, Francis built a large monastery and church. The building of this monastery was the occasion of a great outburst of enthusiasm and devotion on the part of the people towards Francis: even the nobles carried stones and joined in the work. Their devotion was increased by the many miracles which Francis wrought in answer to their prayers.
In 1474 Pope Sixtus IV gave him permission to write a rule for his community, and to assume the title of Hermits of St. Francis: this rule was formally approved by Pope Alexander VI, who, however, changed their title into that of "Minims". After the approbation of the order, Francis founded several new monasteries in Calabria and Sicily. He also established monasteries of nuns, and a third order for people living in the world, after the example of Francis of Assisi. He was no respecter of persons based solely on their worldly rank or position. He rebuked the King of Naples for his ill-doing and in consequence suffered persecution.
France.
When King Louis XI of France was in his last illness, he sent an embassy to Calabria to beg Francis to visit him. Francis refused to come until the pope ordered him to go. Embarking at Ostia, he landed in France, and cured many sick of the plague in Provence as he passed. He then went to the king at his residence, the Château de Plessis-lez-Tours (now within the village of La Riche), and was with him at his death. He became a tutor of the heir, Charles VIII, who kept him near the court and frequently consulted him.
This king built a monastery for the Minims there near the chateau at Plessis and another at Rome on the Pincian Hill. Francis also influenced many in the French church, particularly Jan Standonck, who founded the Collège de Montaigu along what he thought were Minimist lines. The regard in which Charles VIII held him was shared by Louis XII, who succeeded to the French throne in 1498.
Francis was now eager to return to Italy, but the king would not permit him, not wishing to lose his counsels and direction. Francis spent the last three months of his life in entire solitude, preparing for death. On Holy Thursday of 1507 he gathered his community around him and exhorted them especially to have mutual charity amongst themselves and to maintain the rigour of their life and in particular perpetual abstinence. The next day, Good Friday, he again called them together and gave them his last instructions and appointed a Vicar General. He then received the last rites and asked to have the Passion according to St. John read out to him, and whilst this was being read, he died on 2 April 1507, almost a week after his 91st birthday, in Plessis.
Diet.
Francis followed a diet not only free from animal flesh, but also from all animal-derived foods, such as eggs and dairy products. One of the vows of the order he founded was the abstinence from meat, fish, eggs, butter, cheese and milk. Francis has been described as a vegan.
The two major movements in this order were humility and non-violence. The word "Minim" refers to living as the smallest or least, or embracing humility, simplicity, and plainness. The call to non-violence and absence of cruelty was expressed through not doing harm to any creature.
Gift of prophecy.
It was believed that Francis was favored with the gift of prophecy. He apparently foretold to several persons, in the years 1447, 1448, and 1449, the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, which happened on 29 May 1453, under the command of Mahomet II, when Constantine Palaeologus, the last Christian emperor, was killed in battle. He also predicted the capture of Otranto by the Ottoman Turks in 1480, and its subsequent recovery by the King of Naples.
Theodoor van Thulden painted a mystic episode that was said to have occurred over a century earlier. It depicts Francis of Paola, who was revered in France because he visited the country in 1482, at the bedside of Louise of Savoy to announce that she will give birth to the next king of France, the future Francis I. In 1515, King Louis XII died without a male heir and the throne went to Francis I, of the royal family's Valois-Angoulême branch. Louise of Savoy and her spouse, the Count of Angoulême, who is almost certainly the figure depicted to the left of the bed, decided to name the child Francis in honor of the saint.
Legends.
According to a famous story, in the year 1464, he was refused passage by a boatman while trying to cross the Strait of Messina to Sicily. He reportedly laid his cloak on the water, tied one end to his staff as a sail, and sailed across the strait with his companions following in the boat. The second of Franz Liszt's "Legendes" (for solo piano) describes this story in music.
After his nephew died, the boy's mother—Francis' own sister—appealed to Francis for comfort, and filled his apartment with lamentations. After the Mass and divine office had been said for the repose of his soul, Francis ordered the corpse to be carried from the church into his cell, where he continued praying until, to her great astonishment, the boy's life was restored and Francis presented him to his mother in perfect health. The young man entered his order and is the celebrated Nicholas Alesso who afterwards followed his uncle into France, and was famous for sanctity and many great actions.
There are several stories about his compassion for animals, and how he gave back life to animals that were killed to be eaten. For example, a biographer writes:
"Francis had a favorite trout that he called ‘Antonella’. One day, one of the priests, who provided religious services, saw the trout swimming about in his pool. To him it was just a delicious dish, so he caught it and took it home, tossing it into the frying pan. Francis missed ‘Antonella’ and realized what had happened. He asked one of his followers to go to the priest to get it back. The priest, annoyed by this great concern for a mere fish, threw the cooked trout on the ground, shattering it into several pieces. The hermit sent by Francis gathered up the broken pieces in his hands and brought them back to Francis. Francis placed the pieces back in the pool and, looking up to Heaven and praying, said: ‘Antonella, in the name of Charity, return to life.’ The trout immediately became whole and swam joyously around his pool as if nothing had happened. The friars and the workers who witnessed this miracle were deeply impressed by the miracle."
Francis also raised his pet lamb from the dead after it had been killed and eaten by workmen. "Being in need of food, the workmen caught and slaughtered Francis’ pet lamb, Martinello, roasting it in their lime kiln. They were eating when Francis approached them, looking for the lamb. They told him they had eaten it, having no other food. He asked what they had done with the fleece and the bones. They told him they had thrown them into the furnace. Francis walked over to the furnace, looked into the fire and called ‘Martinello, come out!’ The lamb jumped out, completely untouched, bleating happily on seeing his master."
Francis of Paola called the animals by their names even after their lives had ended. He apparently believed they continued to exist after their deaths.
Legacy and veneration.
Pope Leo X canonized him in 1519. He is considered to be a patron saint of boatmen, mariners, and naval officers. His liturgical feast day is celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church on April 2nd, the day on which he died. In 1963, Pope John XXIII designated him as the patron saint of Calabria. Though his miracles were numerous, he was canonized for his humility and discernment in blending the contemplative life with the active one.
The Order of Minims does not seem at any time to have been very extensive, but they had houses in many countries. The definitive rule was approved in 1506 by Pope Julius II, who also approved a rule for the nuns of the Order. A Third Order of their movement was also approved. The most noted member of this Order was the illustrious French bishop, Francis de Sales. Although the Minim order lost many of its monasteries in the 18th century during the French Revolution, it continues to exist, primarily in Italy.
In 1562, a group of Protestant Huguenots in France broke open his tomb and found Francis' body incorrupt. They dragged it forth, burned it and scattered the bones, which were recovered by Catholic faithful and distributed as relics to various churches of his order.
Devotion of the Thirteen Fridays.
Pope Clement XII, in the brief "Coelestium Munerum Dispensatio" of 2 December 1738, promulgated an indulgence to all the faithful who, upon 13 Fridays continuously preceding the Feast of St. Francis of Paola (2 April), or at any other time of the year, shall, in honor of Francis, visit a church of the Minims and pray there for the church. In this brief, mention is made of a devotion which originated with Francis himself, who, on each of 13 Fridays, used to recite 13 "Pater Nosters" (Our Fathers) and as many "Ave Marias" (Hail Marys), and this devotion he promulgated by word of mouth and by letter to his own devout followers, as an efficacious means of obtaining from God the graces they desired, provided they were for the greater good of their souls.


Vicente do Espirito Santo

Vicente do Espirito Santo, O.A.D. (1730–1788) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as the first Prelate of Goiás (1782–1788) and Bishop of São Tomé e Príncipe (1778–1782).
Biography.
Vicente do Espirito Santo was born in Belém, Portugal on 15 Oct 1730 and ordained a deacon in the Order of Discalced Augustinians on 22 Sep 1754 and ordained a priest on 29 Sep 1754.
On 30 Dec 1778, he was selected as Bishop of São Tomé e Príncipe and confirmed by Pope Pius VI on 1 Mar 1779.
On 30 Nov 1779, he was consecrated bishop by Antonio Bonifacio Coelho, Titular Archbishop of "Lacedaemonia", with Francisco de São Simão, Bishop of Santiago de Cabo Verde, and Domingos da Encarnação Pontével, Bishop of Mariana, serving as co-consecrators.
On 25 Nov 1782, he resigned as Bishop of São Tomé e Príncipe and shortly after was appointed by Pope Pius VI as the first Prelate of Goiás on 17 Dec 1782.
He served as Prelate of Goiás until his death on 29 Nov 1788.
Episcopal succession.
While bishop, he was the principal co-consecrator of:


Martin Munyanyi

Martin Munyanyi (born 3 January 1956 in Bikita) is a Zimbabwean clergyman and bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gweru. He became ordained in 1983. He was appointed bishop in 2006. He resigned in 2012.


Sadhvi Prachi

Sadhvi Prachi is a "sadhvi", Hindu political activist, social worker, religious preacher, and member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Early life.
Sadhvi Prachi was born as Prachi Arya in a lower-middle-class home in Sirsali Village in 's Uttar Pradesh in Bagpat District.
At the age of fourteen, she is said to have attained Nirvana when her village was visited by Yug Purush Maha Mandaleshwar Swami Paramanand Giri Ji Maharaj. She became his disciple and followed him to his ashram in Haridwar and in tours across India, while gaining lessons in oratory. She was conferred the title of "Sadhvi" (ascetic).
Sadhvi Prachi entered public life and the Sangh Parivar as a trainee and member of the Rashtriya Sevika Samiti, which is the women's arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), but gained prominence as a member of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Education.
She was awarded a Master of Arts degree at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya. She attended Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya, obtaining her P.H.D. in Vedas.
Later, she became principal at Arya Kanya Mahavidyalaya Gurukul, Karnal, Haryana.
Death threats and controversies.
On 13 July 2016, she announced a reward of to anyone willing to behead Zakir Naik. This has led her to controversies for spreading violence and hatred.
The following is a list of her statements which have triggered controversies and opposition.


Joseph Devellerez Thaung Shwe

Joseph Devellerez Thaung Shwe (10 October 1935 – 17 February 2015) was a Burmese Roman Catholic bishop. Born in Twante and ordained to the priesthood in 1961, Devellerez Thaung Shwe was named bishop of Roman Catholic Diocese of Pyay, Burma in 1975, retired in 2010 and died in 2015.


Alexander Chibuzo Ibezim

Alexander Chibuzo Ibezim is an Anglican bishop in Nigeria.
Ibezim born on 5 August 1962 in Nibo-Nise and educated at the University of Nigeria. He was ordained in 1994. he served in Lagos,
rising to be an Archdeacon. In 2010 he became Bishop of Awka; and in 2020 Archbishop of Niger.


Yvonne Frost

Yvonne Frost (born 1931) is a Wiccan author, lecturer, and practitioner from Los Angeles. Together with her late husband Gavin Frost, she founded the Church and School of Wicca in 1968. She has co-written many books with him, and appeared on the Phil Donahue Show, PM Magazine, and Tom Snyder's Tomorrow Show. Together, they lead workshops at many events in the Neo-Pagan community such as Stones Rising, Sirius Rising, Pagan Pride Day, and the Starwood Festival.


Jan III van Diest

John or Jan van Diest (died 1 June 1340) was bishop of Utrecht from 1322 to 1340.
Jan descended from a noble family from Brabant, and was initially provost of Cambrai. In 1322 Jan was proposed as candidate for the Bishopric of Utrecht by William III, Count of Holland and Reginald II of Guelders, much against the wishes of the Utrecht chapters, who had chosen Jan van Bronkhorst. The latter was confirmed by the archbishop of Cologne, but Pope John XXII intervened, declaring the choice of the Utrecht chapters void, and personally consecrated Jan van Diest in Avignon. It was not until 1327 that Jan was dedicated as priest.
Jan's reign was a low point for the bishopric of Utrecht. It was characterised by financial abuses and nepotism on a large scale. Upon taking office, Jan immediately inherited a large debt from his predecessors. Jan made the situation even worse through the purchase of goods in the Oversticht. Not only did the local nobility profit from this, but the counts of Holland and Guelders also saw their chances. They lend the bishop large amounts of money, which made the bishop completely dependent on them. In 1331 the counts of Holland and Guelders signed an agreement where they would divide the lands of the bishopric amongst themselves. William III threatened to take over the Nedersticht, and it was only because of the resistance of its citizens that the independence of the bishopric was maintained.
Jan van Diest was buried in the Dom Church.


Augustin Misago

Augustin Misago (1943 – March 12, 2012) was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Gikongoro, Rwanda.
Ordained in 1971, Misango was named bishop in 1992. In the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, he was accused of helping the Rwandan government commit war crimes during the mid-1990s, where over 800,000 Tutsi people were slaughtered. He was cleared of the charges in 2000.
Misago later died in office on 12 March 2012.
Our Lady of Kibeho.
Misago is known as the bishop who submitted a declaration that the Marian apparation at Kibeho was worthy of belief. In part he stated:
“Yes, the Virgin Mary appeared at Kibeho on November 28, 1981, and in the months that followed. There are more reasons to believe in the Apparitions than to deny them... The Apparitions of Kibeho are now officially recognized... The name given to the Marian sanctuary at Kibeho is "Shrine of Our Lady of Sorrows".
“That Kibeho become a place of pilgrimage and of encounter for all who seek Christ and who come there to pray, a fundamental centre of conversion, of reparation for the sins of the world and of reconciliation, a point of meeting for all who were dispersed, as for those who aspire to the values of compassion and fraternity without borders, a fundamental centre that recalls the Gospel of the Cross.
“This Declaration makes it possible to respond to the expectations of the People of God and to bring new enthusiasm to the public devotion recognized already for 13 years”.


Giuseppina Gabriella Bonino

Giuseppina Gabriela Bonino (5 September 1843 – 8 February 1906), also known by her religious name Giuseppina Gabriella of Jesus, was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Suore della Sacra Famiglia di Savigliano. Bonino dedicated her life to the ill and to orphans and did this in drawing upon her own experience in tending to her ailing father and to orphans in her hometown - all this prior to and after the establishment of her religious congregation.
Her beatification was celebrated in mid-1995 in Saint Peter's Square. The cause started in 1964 under Pope Paul VI - she was titled a Servant of God - while Pope John Paul II titled her later as Venerable in 1994.
Life.
Giuseppina Gabriella Bonino was born in Como on 5 September 1843 as the sole child to Domenico Bonino and Giuseppina Ricci. She was baptized on 6 September in the names of "Anna Maria Maddalena Giuseppina". She made her First Communion in 1850 and received her Confirmation in 1851.
Bonino moved to Turin in 1855 and made a private vow to remain chaste - with the permission of her spiritual director - in 1861. The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Turin managed her education when she was in high school. Bonino returned - in 1869 - to Savigliano to care for her ailing father and remained in her hometown until he died on 16 January 1874. Bonino underwent a successful operation for her back in 1876 (she was struck with a spinal tumor on 21 May 1876) and made a pilgrimage to Lourdes in France in September 1877 to give thanks to the Madonna for her good health; it was there she felt called to dedicate her life to others. Her mother died in late 1877 not long after Bonino's pilgrimage. She returned to Savigliano to tend to orphans and became active in the affairs of her local parish of San Pietro. In April 1881 she founded a religious order dedicated to the poor and ill as well as to orphans - she was made superior for her entire life. Her order received diocesan approval on 8 September 1887 and she and eleven others professed into her order a month after on 6 October.
On 18 March 1875 she joined the Third Order Carmelites and made her profession into that order on 19 March 1877.
Bonino died in 1906 from pneumonia and had predicted the date of her own death. Her remains were in Savigliano but later moved to the order's motherhouse. The order later received the papal decree of praise from Pope Paul VI on 1 August 1975. It now operates in Brazil since 1965 and in Cameroon since 1980; there were 61 religious in a total of 14 houses as of 2005.
Beatification.
The beatification cause opened in Turin in an informative process that Cardinal Maurilio Fossati inaugurated on 31 January 1964 and that Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero concluded in a solemn Mass he presided over on 18 March 1980. Bonino was named as a Servant of God under Pope Paul VI on 31 January 1964 with the commencement of the process; the Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated the diocesan process on 13 October 1989 and received the Positio from the postulation in 1990. Theologians approved the cause on 5 October 1993 as did the C.C.S. on 14 December 1993; Pope John Paul II confirmed her heroic virtue on 26 March 1994 and named her as Venerable.
The miracle needed for beatification was investigated and received validation from the C.C.S. on 26 March 1993 before a medical board issued their approval to it on 26 May 1994; theologians assented to it on 21 October 1994 as did the C.C.S. on 13 December 1994. John Paul II granted final approval needed for the miraculous healing on 15 December 1994 and later beatified Bonino in Saint Peter's Square on 7 May 1995.


Akhandananda

Swami Akhandananda (1864–1937) was a swami and direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, a 19th-century mystic. He was the third president of the Ramakrishna Mission.
Early life.
Initial Years.
Akhandananda was born as Gangadhar Ghatak (Gangopadhyay) on 30 September 1864, in Ahiritola area of western Kolkata, to Srimanta Gangopadhyay and Vamasundari Devi. He came from a respectable Brahmin family. He was orthodox in nature and was dubbed as "oldish" by Ramakrishna. From his very childhood, Gangadhar was so compassionate that he once gave his own shirt to a poor classmate whose shirt was torn. Without telling his parents, he would give food to beggars. He was a strong moralist and always helped his wayward friends. Gangadhar was a vivacious, handsome boy in childhood. Gifted with prodigious memory, Gangadhar mastered the English alphabet in one day.
Gangadhar first met Ramakrishna, the famous mystic and saint whom he later adopted as his Master, in 1884, when he was nineteen years old, in the temple of Dakshineswar. He visited Ramakrishna for the first time in the company of his friend Harinath (later Turiyananda). He had first seen Ramakrishna in the house of Dinanath Bose at a very young age. Ramakrishna did not want him to be over orthodox and therefore introduced him to Narendranath Dutta (later Vivekananda). Gangadhar was favourably impressed with Narendranath and became devoted to him, a devotion which lasted throughout his life and which later prompted him to take up service as the primary work over spiritual practices. During his visits to Dakshineswar, Gangadhar received instructions on meditation from Ramakrishna.
Pre monastic days.
Gangadhar's father found a job for Gangadhar in a merchant's office. Gangadhar worked there a few days and then gave it up. He then fully engaged himself in spiritual disciplines and service to the master.
Gangadhar served Ramakrishna during the illness of the latter. After the death of Ramakrishna, when the Baranagar Math was formed by Narendranath and other brother disciples, Gangadhar renounced his family life and embraced a life of travel with consent from his family and set foot for the Himalayas.
Steeped in Vedanta and his own experience, his mind ever pined to be absorbed in the bliss of the Himalayan solitude. In 1887, after visiting Kedarnath and Badrinath, he travelled to Tibet where he lived in Lhasa and elsewhere for three years, returning to India in 1890.
Gangadhar's entire travel account is recorded in his book "Smriti-Katha (From Holy Wanderings to The Service of God in Man)". He travelled hundreds of miles in the mountains of the Himalayas without carrying any money or extra clothing.
Life as a Monk.
Travels.
Gangadhar took his monastic vow in 1890, in Baranagar Math and in the presence of SwamiVivekananda, and was given the name of "Akhandananda" (Akhanda - undifferentiated, ananda - bliss, one who finds supreme bliss in the undifferentiated nature of the Truth). After his return, he had frequent correspondence with Vivekananda, then at Ghazipur, who induced him to join him in travelling in some places of the Himalayas because of the latter's experience and familiarity in those terrains. Accordingly, Akhandananda came to Baranagore monastery, and after spending a few happy months with his brother-disciples, sharing his experiences with them, he set out in July 1890, with Vivekananda on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. Visiting important places on the way they reached Almora, but the illness of one or the other plagued their journey and they returned via Tehri to Dehra Dun, from where Akhandananda proceeded to Meerut for treatment. Vivekananda also joined him in Meerut and they met some other brother disciples. After five months of association Vivekananda left them and Akhandananda followed him surreptitiously, going from one province to another in his search, but everywhere he narrowly missed meeting him. Finally he met Vivekananda again in Kutch where Swami Vivekananda entreated him to follow a separate course. Accordingly, Akhandananda continued his pilgrimage separately.
Intellectual Pursuits.
During his days of wandering in the Himalayas, he studied Avadhuta Gita at Srinagar in Garhwal. In 1891, while resting at Etawah, he spent most of his time reading the Mahabhashya, Patanjali's voluminous commentary on Panini's Sanskrit grammar, as well as Sridhara Swami’s commentary on the Bhagavadgita. In Jamnagar in 1892, he studied the Charaka-Sushruta Samhita with the help of the Sanskrit lexicon Shabdartha Chandrika Kosha and also Shukla Yajur Veda. In Udaipur he read the Vedantic text of Panchadasi. He also learned Hindi grammar from Bhasha Bhaskara, to correct his Hindi pronunciation. In Indore, he completed a reading of the entire Valmiki Ramayana over a period of eighteen days. Later in Mahula he undertook a critical study of the Yogavasishtha Ramayana.
Relationship with Vivekananda and Sarada Devi.
Akhandananda was an ardent follower of Vivekananda, who called him lovingly as "Ganges". He was also devoted to Sarada Devi. When hard work in Murshidabad took a toll on his health, she had him brought to Calcutta for treatment and took special care of him.
Final Years.
Akhandananda became the vice president of Ramakrishna Math and Mission in 1925 and the third president after the demise of Swami Shivananda in 1934. He initiated a number of people after assuming office. However he continued to stay at Sargachhi.
Akhandananda also initiated Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, the second sarsanghachalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
He participated in the celebration of the Birth Centenary of Ramakrishna in 1936 in Calcutta.
In February 1937 he fell ill and was brought to Calcutta. He died in Belur Math on 7 February 1937.
Service.
Akhandananda was the first monk of the Ramakrishna order, who gave shape to the cherished desire of Vivekananda to begin rural development work—even before the Mission was established.
The distressing sorrows and suffering of the masses pulled him down to the plains, and to them he became a harbinger of peace and succour. Sacrificing his Himalayan bliss, he chose to be with poor. Akhandananda practised till the very end of his life his Master's call: Worship jiva as Shiva. He was one of the pillars of the Ramakrishna Movement's service activities.
His experience as a wandering monk, like those of Vivekananda moved him to take steps to remove the distress and misery of the masses. Vivekananda's encouraging letter from America which was sent as a reply to Akhandananda's request for guidance pushed him further, and in 1894 Akhandananda began his campaign against poverty.
The idea of working for the poor was conceived while he stayed in Jamnagar with Jhandu Bhatt, the famous ayurvedic physician, who served his patients with exceptional devotion.
While in Khetri, Rajasthan during 1894, he went about from door to door, all alone to bring awareness in the people about the utility of education, and it was because of his efforts that the number of students in the Khetri Rajya English School rose from 80 to 257.
Under his inspiration the Maharaja of Khetri Ajit Singh arranged for the education of the Golas and also set up a permanent Education Department to open schools in the villages. Akhandananda also arranged for the publication of a newspaper on agriculture in order to educate the farmers of that area. He also contacted renowned landlords in the numerous village of Khetri, inspiring them to take some concrete steps towards removing the miseries of their poor labourers. At the instance of the Swami the Sanskrit school in Khetri was converted to Vedic school and he raised subscriptions to purchase books for the poor students. He fed the Bhils, an aboriginal tribe, in Uadaipur. He left Rajputana in 1895 and returned to the Alambazar Math, the new monastery of the Ramakrishna disciples. He first came in contact with widespread famine during his travel in the Murshidabad district of Bengal. He sought help from his brother disciples in 1897 and Vivekananda, who had returned to India by then, sent two monks with money.
On 1 May 1897 Vivekananda inaugurated the Ramakrishna Mission, and Akhandananda opened a relief centre on 15 May in the temple premises of Mrityunjay Bhattacharya of Kedar-Mahula in Murshidabad to save people from an all-devouring famine. Though rice was difficult to procure at that time, he managed to procure some with the help of other people and with much trouble. Then he distributed equally among the poor, weighing the rice himself on a scale. This was the first public service work done by the Ramakrishna Mission.
Akhandananda started an orphanage in Mahula, near Berhampore, on 31 August 1897, and then established the first Rural Branch Centre of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission in Mahula. In 1899, he opened an ashrama in Shivnagar near Sargachi which continued for 14 years. In 1899, he opened a free school there to deal with the problem of illiteracy in the locality. A carpentry and a weaving section also were added to revive those perishing village industries and make the boys self-reliant. Cotton cultivation was taught to the rural women to enhance their family income. In 1913 the present ashrama was found on a 13 acres land in March 1913.
He also led in relief activities in the Bhagalpur district of Bihar and during the Munger earthquake in Bihar.
Honors.
There is a dormitory named, in his honour, Akhandananda Dham in Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar.


Juan de Almoguera

Juan de Almoguera, O.SS.T. (February 18, 1605 – March 2, 1676) was a Roman Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Lima (1673–1676) and Bishop of Arequipa (1659–1673).
Biography.
Juan de Almoguera was born in Córdoba, Spain and ordained a priest in the Trinitarian Order. On February 17, 1659, Pope Alexander VII, appointed him Bishop of Arequipa. On March 24, 1661, he was consecrated bishop by Agustín Muñoz Sandoval, Bishop of Cuzco. On November 27, 1673, Pope Urban VIII, appointed him Archbishop of Lima where he served until his death on March 2, 1676.


David Nkwe

David Cecil Tapi Nkwe (1935-2008) was a South African Anglican bishop: he was the Bishop of Matlosane from 1990 to 2006.
He was Rector of St Paul, Soweto from 1965 to 1990. He was elected to start the Diocese of Matlosane with headquarters in Klerksdorp, North West. He remained the bishop of Matlosane until he retired in 2006. He was buried in Westpark Cemetery after a service at Christ the King Church in Sophiatown.


James Macaulay (preacher)

James Macaulay was a Presbyterian preacher. He did not have a government licence to preach. He was apprehended at Leith and sent to the Bass Rock. He was kept in conﬁnement there for upwards of three months from April 4-July 19, 1679.
Preaching and imprisonment.
James Macaulay was called a preacher by Wodrow. He was probably licensed by some of the ejected nonconforming ministers.
On the 4th of June, the Council authorised the Lord Chancellor to give orders to parties of that troop of horse of his Majesty's guards, under his command, to apprehend a considerable number of ministers, among whom Macaulay is included, and offer a reward of a thousand merks to such as should apprehend him. Early in the year 1679, he and Mr Robert Ross, also a preacher, and another person who was under hiding for nonconformity, were apprehended in Leith.) The Committee of Council for Public Affairs agreed that he and Ross should be sent to the Bass, and this report was approved of by the Council at their meeting on the 4th of April. He however continued a prisoner there only between three and four months, being liberated in July, simply upon condition of his finding security, under a certain sum, to appear before the Council when called.


Richard Gilpin (priest)

Richard Thomas Gilpin (25 July 1939 – 1 May 2016) was an Anglican priest who was Archdeacon of Totnes from 1996 to 2005.
He was ordained in 1964. After curacies at Whipton and Tavistock he was Vicar of Swimbridge. From 1973 he was Vicar of St Eustachius' Church, Tavistock with Gulworthy until 1992. He then became the Diocese of Exeter’s Director of Ordinands until his Archdeacon’s appointment.


Jeanne-Marie Chavoin

Jeanne-Marie Chavoin (29 August 1786 – 30 June 1858) and Jean-Claude Colin together founded the Marist Sisters, a Catholic religious institute of women.
Jeanne-Marie was born in the village of Coutouvre, France. She met Fr Pierre Colin when he was parish priest at Coutouvre. She later joined Jean Claude Colin at Cerdon where they were both serving as priests. Together they worked on the beginning of the Marist Sisters. The Marist Organization was purely based on women and their relationship to God. The Marist legacy has successfully opened many schools across the globe.
Life.
Jeanne-Marie Chavoin was born in the small village of Coutouvre in France on the 29th of August 1786. Chavoin was considered sinful because she was conceived by her 19 and 20 year old parents 6 months before their marriage. She had two sisters Marie and Claudine-marie. Sadly Marie died at the age of one.
Jeanne-Marie had very little education and was often known for having bad spelling. She was known however for having a very good judgement and a kind nature. She worked at her father's tailor shop throughout the French revolution and the business stayed stable as her friendly and outgoing nature made no enemies.
After being inspired by a sermon by an influential preacher Chavoin started praying in her teenage years and joined a prayer group called the Association of Divine love. Through this group she was asked to take up religious monastic positions but each time she declined as she wanted to do something religious but less monastic. Eventually though Fr. Jean-Philibert Lefranc God spoke to Chavoin saying “God does not want you to join an existing congregation, but one which has yet to come into existence.”
Circa 1817 Chavoin, Jean-Claude Colin and Marie Jotillon started the Marist movement in Cerdon.
Sister Jeanne-Marie Chavoin died on the 30th of June 1858 in an unknown location mostly to be in the south of France. Her efforts or humble and silent charity only revealed beyond the sisterhood years later.
The Marist movement flourished until 1821 where Chavoin and Colin had a disagreement about whether to keep the movement enclosed or to be missionaries. This broke up the original Marist movement but Chavoin continued the movement that is still alive today.
The Marist movement continued by Chavoin is now a global brother and sisterhood and has set up many schools and churches.


Benjamin Cox (minister)

Benjamin Cox, sometimes Coxe or Cockes (), was an English Baptist minister.
Life.
Born in Oxfordshire about 1595, he was probably a member of the family of Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely and entered Oxford as a commoner of Christ Church in 1609, when he was about fourteen. Afterwards he became a member of Broadgates Hall, whence he took his degrees in arts, proceeding MA in 1617. He was ordained, and held a living at Sampford Peverell in Devon. According to Thomas Crosby in his "History of the English General Baptists", he was strongly in favour of ceremonies in Archbishop William Laud's time, and was afterwards taunted by his presbyterian opponents for his zeal in this direction. Wood, however in his "Athenae Oxonienses", says that he was always a puritan at heart, and it appears that in 1639 he was convened by Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter, for preaching that the Church of England did not hold episcopacy to be "jure divino", but according to Thomas Brooks made "a handsome retractation". Although a puritan and an enemy to episcopacy, Cox in his earlier days may have upheld the sacramental system as warmly as many other presbyterians did. After the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, he ventured to express opinions that he had thought it prudent to conceal up to that time.
He later became a minister at Bedford, and openly preached the invalidity of infant baptism. In 1643 he was invited to form a congregation at Coventry. On his arrival Richard Baxter, who was then chaplain to the rebel forces in the town, challenged him to a controversy. Cox imprudently accepted the challenge of an opponent whose arguments were supported by the swords of an admiring congregation. After the discussion had been held, the presbyterians ordered him to quit the town, and when he refused or delayed to do so they imprisoned him. Baxter was afterwards reproached for having instigated this act of intolerance; and though he denied that he had done so, he can scarcely have opposed it. After his release Cox went to London, and preached to a congregation of baptists. A 1645 debate between supporters of the invalidity of infant baptism, Hanserd Knollys, William Kiffin and Cox on the one side with the Presbyterian divine Edmund Calamy on the other had to be cancelled when it was rumoured that the Baptists "planned to bring 'swords, clubs and staves' to ensure that their view prevailed." He was one of the managers of a public dispute that was to be held at Aldermanbury on 3December 1645, and, when it was forbidden, joined in writing a declaration on the subject. He signed his name as Benjamin Cockes to the second edition of the "Declaration of Faith of the Seven Congregations in London," published in 1647. He conformed in 1662, but afterwards renounced his living, and continued a baptist until his death at an advanced age.


John Stubbs (priest)

Canon Dr. John Derek Stubbs was the Dean of Studies of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa from 1991 until 1999, and thereafter he was the Dean and Archdeacon of Grahamstown, from 1999 until 2006. Prior to that, Stubbs worked as a priest at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, in New York City, U.S.A.. He is now retired.
Stubbs matriculated at King Edward VII School (known as 'KES'), in Johannesburg, South Africa. After matriculating, Stubbs studied engineering, before being called to serve the Anglican and Episcopalian Church.
Stubbs was forced to relocate to the United States of America, as a result of the apartheid laws that applied in South Africa at the time. He was detained for anti-apartheid activities at the infamous 'Old Fort' prison (in which Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, among many others, were prisoners), which is now the site of South Africa's highest appellate court. Whilst Stubbs was in the U.S.A., he obtained degrees from the General Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in New York, U.S.A..
Stubbs was ordained by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, under whom he would later serve in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. He returned to South Africa in 1991. Whilst working as Dean and Archdeacon of Cape Town and Grahamstown, respectively, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of South Africa.
Stubbs has a working proficiency in Hebrew and Ancient Greek, among other languages. He returned to the U.S.A. after his second stint in South Africa, where he became the Incumbent Rector at Trinity Episcopal Church, Whitinsville, Massachusetts.