Anuradhapura Cross
The Anuradhapura cross is a form of the Christian cross symbol. It is the most ancient symbol of Christianity in Sri Lanka. The cross The cross was discovered in 1912 during archaeological excavations in Anuradhapura. It is cut in sunk relief on the side of a smooth granite column of which a fragment was excavated. An immediate determination about the cross came from the Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon, Edward R. Ayrton, who concluded that it was a Portuguese cross. In 1924, Ayrton's successor, Arthur Maurice Hocart, put more effort to clarify the cross and he described it in his publication, ''Memoirs of the Archaeological Survey of Ceylon'', as being "''a cross of a floret type standing on a stepped pedestal from which emanates two fronds on each side of the cross like horns''". Hocart also concluded it was a Portuguese cross. Both men considered that it was a Nestorian cross or "Persian Cross" from the Portuguese era. A number of historical records also suggest that ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Anuradhapura Cross-Vector
Anuradhapura ( si, අනුරාධපුරය, translit=Anurādhapuraya; ta, அனுராதபுரம், translit=Aṉurātapuram) is a major city located in north central plain of Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of North Central Province, Sri Lanka and the capital of Anuradhapura District. The city lies north of the current capital of Colombo in the North Central Province, on the banks of the historic Malvathu River. The city is now a World Heritage Site famous for its well-preserved ruins of the ancient Sinhalese civilization. While Mahavamsa place the founding of the city in 437 BCE, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia. It is the cradle of the Hydraulic Sinhalese civilization, Theravada Buddhism, and the longest-serving ancient capital of Sri Lanka that has survived for 1500 years. Moreover, It was the first capita ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Humphrey William Codrington
Humphrey is both a masculine given name and a surname. An earlier form, not attested since Medieval times, was Hunfrid. Notable people with the name include: People with the given name Medieval period :''Ordered chronologically'' *Hunfrid of Prüm (Saint Humphrey, died 871), Benedictine monk * Humphrey of Hauteville (c. 1010–1057), Count of Apulia *Humphrey de Bohun (other), various people who lived from the 11th to 14th centuries *Humphrey of Toron (other), four 12th-century nobles *Humphrey, 2nd Earl of Buckingham (1381–1399), English peer and member of the House of Lords *Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester (1390–1447) Modern era *Humphrey Atkins (1922–1996), British politician and a member of the Conservative Party *Humphrey Barclay (1941–), British television comedy producer. *Humphrey Bate (1875–1936), American harmonica player and string band leader *Humphrey Bland (1686–1763), British Army general *Humphrey Bogart (1899–1957), American film ac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kurunegala
Kurunegala ( si, කුරුණෑගල, ta, குருணாகல்) is a major city in Sri Lanka. It is the capital city of the North Western Province and the Kurunegala District. Kurunegala was an ancient royal capital for 50 years, from the end of the 13th century to the start of the 14th century. It is at the junction of several main roads linking to other important parts of the country. It is about from Colombo, from Kandy and from Matale. Located at an altitude of above sea level, Kurunegala is surrounded by coconut plantations and rubber estates. There are eight very noticeable large rocks that encircle and dominate the city. Kurunegala's rocks rise from the plain below and have characteristic names, six of which come from the animals that they are imagined to represent. The largest among them is Ethagala or the "Elephant Rock" (though the translation is actually tusker), reaches . The shape of Ethagala resembles an elephant. Etymology Kurunegala has been n ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the Roman diocese, diocese (Latin ''dioecesis'', from the Greek language, Greek term διοίκησις, meaning "administration"). Christianity was given legal status in 313 with the Edict of Milan. Churches began to organize themselves into Roman diocese, dioceses based on the Roman diocese, civil dioceses, not on the larger regional imperial districts. These dioceses were often smaller than the Roman province, provinces. Christianity was declared the Empire's State church of the Roman Empire, official religion by Theodosius I in 380. Constantine the Great, Constantine I in 318 gave litigants the right to have court cases transferred from the civil courts to the bishops. This situ ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roman Catholic Archdiocese Of Colombo
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Colombo ( la, Archidioecesis Columbensis in Taprobane) is a Latin Metropolitan Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, whose ecclesiastical province covers all Sri Lanka plus the Maldives (which are within the archbishopric). It depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. The current archbishop of Colombo, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI on 16 June 2009, is Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith. He is assisted in this role by the auxiliary bishops. The archdiocesan mother church and cathedral seat of its Metropolitan Archbishop is St. Lucia's Cathedral. Its other National Shrines are the Basilica of Our Lady of Lanka in Tewatta, and St. Anthony's National Shrine a minor basilica in Kochchikade. Statistics As per 2014, it pastorally served 637,729 Catholics (8.8% of 7,281,000 total) on 3,838 km² in 128 parishes with 592 priests (313 diocesan, 279 religious), 1,560 lay religious (380 brothers, 1,180 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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List Of Pastoral Visits Of Pope Francis Outside Italy
This is a list of pastoral visits of Pope Francis. His visit to the Philippines in January 2015 included the largest papal event in history with around 6–7 million attendees in his final Mass at Manila, surpassing the then-largest papal event at World Youth Day 1995 in the same venue twenty years earlier. International visits 2013 (22 to 29 July 2013) : :Francis visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for World Youth Day. This was the only scheduled foreign trip for him in the year. Francis was officially welcomed to Brazil during a ceremony at Guanabara Palace and met with Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff. Throughout the celebrations, Francis gathered up to 3.5 million pilgrims to celebrate mass at Copacabana Beach. During his vigil address, Francis urged the pilgrims not to be "part-time Christians", but to lead full, meaningful lives. The trip was previously scheduled for his predecessor, Benedict XVI, before his retirement. 2014 * , , and (24 to 26 May 2014) :Francis visit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Biblical Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai (, ''Har Sīnay'') is the mountain at which the Ten Commandments were given to Moses by God, according to the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Deuteronomy, these events are described as having transpired at Mount Horeb. "Sinai" and "Horeb" are generally considered by scholars to refer to the same place. The location of the Mount Sinai described in the Bible remains disputed. The high point of the dispute was in the mid-nineteenth century. Hebrew Bible texts describe the theophany at Mount Sinai in terms which a minority of scholars, following Charles Beke (1873), have suggested may literally describe the mountain as a volcano. Mount Sinai is one of the most sacred locations in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Biblical description The biblical account of the giving of the instructions and teachings of the Ten Commandments was given in the Book of Exodus, primarily between chapters 19–24, during which Sinai is mentioned by name twice, in . In ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Syriac Christianity
Syriac Christianity ( syr, ܡܫܝܚܝܘܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ / ''Mšiḥoyuṯo Suryoyto'' or ''Mšiḥāyūṯā Suryāytā'') is a distinctive branch of Eastern Christianity, whose formative theological writings and traditional liturgies are expressed in the Classical Syriac language, a variation of the Aramaic language. In a wider sense, the term can also refer to Aramaic Christianity in general, thus encompassing all Christian traditions that are based on liturgical uses of Aramaic language and its variations, both historical and modern. Along with Greek and Latin, Classical Syriac was one of the three most important languages of Early Christianity. It became a vessel for the development of a distinctive Syriac form of Christianity which flourished throughout the Near East and other parts of Asia during Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period, giving rise to various liturgical and denominational traditions, represented in modern times by several Churches which continue to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tree Of Life (biblical)
In Judaism and Christianity, the tree of life ( he, עֵץ הַחַיִּים, ‘ēṣ haḥayyīm) is first described in of the Book of Genesis as being "in the midst of the Garden of Eden" with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (). After the fall of man, "lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever", cherubim and a flaming sword are placed at the east end of the Garden to guard the way to the tree of life. The tree of life has become the subject of some debate as to whether or not the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the same tree. In the Bible outside of Genesis, the term "tree of life" appears in Proverbs () and Revelation (). It also appears in 2 Esdras () and 4 Maccabees (), which are included among the Jewish apocrypha. According to the Greek Apocalypse of Moses, the tree of life is also called the Tree of Mercy. Adam believed the oil of the tree of Life would relieve him of his ailments and sent Seth a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christianity In India
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 27.8 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of the Saint Thomas Christians state that Christianity was introduced to the Indian subcontinent by Thomas the Apostle, who sailed to the Malabar region in the present-day Kerala state in 52 AD. The Acts of Thomas mentions that the first converts were Malabarese Jews, who had settled in India before the birth of Christ. Thomas who was a Jew by birth came in search of Indian Jews. Following years of evangelising, Thomas was martyred and his remains were buried at St. Thomas Mount in Mylapore. A scholarly consensus exists that Christian communities had firmly established in the Malabar by 600 AD at the latest. These communities were composed mainly of the Oriental Orthodox Eastern Christians, belonging to the Church of the East in India, that used Syriac as their liturgical language. Following the discovery o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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St Thomas Cross
Saint Thomas Christian crosses are ancient crosses associated with the community of Ancient Christianity in the Indian Subcontinent, Indian subcontinent, who trace their origins to the evangelism of Thomas the Apostle in the 1st century Anno Domini, AD. The Saint Thomas Christians, which is one of the oldest Christian communities of the world, survive in the Malabar region in state of Kerala, India and have a diaspora in other parts of the Indian subcontinent. Saint Thomas Christian crosses are known as Mar Thoma Sleeva (Saint Thomas cross),''Vazhuthanapally, ”Archaeology of Mar Sliba”''. Indian cross, or Persian Cross in English, as well as ''Nasrani Sthambam'' in Malabarese. ''Mar Thoma Sleeva'' are found at Kadamattom, Muttuchira, Kothanalloor, Kottayam, Pallippuram, Alappuzha, Pallippuram and Alangad in the South Indian state of Kerala. Saint Thomas Christian Crosses have been also found in other parts of the Indian subcontinent, such as Agacaim (Goa), St Thomas Mount (T ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Manthai
Manthai ( ta, மாந்தை, translit=Māntai) is a coastal town and an ancient harbor situated in the Mannar district, of the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Manthai functioned as the main port of the Anuradhapura Kingdom throughout its history. Historically known as ''Manthottam'' in Tamil and ''Manthota'' or ''Mahathiththa'' in Sinhalese, it is an important religious site in the island for the Hindus, due to the Ketheeswaram Kovil, one of the five Ishwarams dedicated to Shiva in the island.Arumugam pp-15 Etymology The name Manthai does not occur in any of the early works and it is a recent name use for the ancient port of Mahatittha.pp. 33-34 In early Sinhalese inscriptions and literature (5th century - 12th century), Mahatittha is referred to as Matota, Mahavoti, Mahaputu, Mahavutu, Mavatutota, and Mahapatana.pp. 75-79 In the Tamil poems of about the 7th, 8th and 9th centuries and in the Cola inscriptions of the 11th century, the Tamilised form of Matottam has been used ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |