|
Christianization Of Saints And Feasts
The term Christianized calendar refers to feast days which are Christianized reformulations of feasts from pre-Christian times. Christianization of saints Historian Peter Brown, in his ''The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity'', argued that one cannot equate the ancient cults of pagan gods with the later cults of the saints. However, Caesarius of Arles and other churchmen deplored certain customs that from time to time seem to develop around the saints, such as the prolonged drinking of toasts, ostensibly in honor of the saint. The historicity of some Christian saints has been treated skeptically by a number of academics, either because there is a paucity of historical evidence for their origins, or due to resemblances to pre-Christian deities and festivals. Some such local saints, especially those dating to when regions were being Christianized, have been removed from the Calendar of Saints and effectively desanctified by the Catholic Church after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christianized Reformulation
(Latin for Christian interpretation, also Christian reinterpretation) is adaptation of non-Christian elements of culture or historical facts to the worldview of Christianity. The term is commonly applied to recasting of religious and cultural activities, beliefs and imageries of "pagan" peoples into a Christianized form as a strategy for Christianization. From a Christian perspective, "pagan" refers to the various religious beliefs and practices of those who adhered to non- Abrahamic faiths, including within the Greco-Roman world the traditional public and domestic religion of ancient Rome, imperial cult, Hellenistic religion, Cult of Dionysus, the ancient Egyptian religion, Celtic and Germanic polytheism, initiation religions such as the Eleusinian Mysteries and Mithraism, the religions of the ancient Near East, and the Zoroastrianism. Reformatting traditional religious and cultural activities and beliefs into a Christianized form was officially sanctioned; preserved in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazirite
In the Hebrew Bible, a nazirite or a nazarite ( ''Nāzīr'') is an Israelite (i.e. Jewish) man or woman who voluntarily took a vow which is described in . This vow required the nazirite to: * Abstain from wine and strong drink as well as all other grape products, such as vinegar * Refrain from cutting the hair on his head * Not to become Tumah and taharah, ritually impure by contact with Corpse uncleanness, corpses or graves, even those of family members. After following these requirements for a designated time period (which would be specified in the individual's vow), the nazirite would offer a specific Temple in Jerusalem, animal sacrifice; along with it, the nazirite's hair was to be shorn and burned. The nazirite is described as being "holy" and "holy unto God"; yet at the same time, he or she must bring a sin offering. This has led to divergent approaches to the Nazir (Talmud), nazirite in the Talmud, and later authorities, with some viewing the nazirite as an ideal, and ot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
May Day
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's March equinox, spring equinox and midsummer June solstice, solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Traditions include gathering green branches and wildflowers ("bringing in the May"), which are used to decorate buildings and made into wreaths; crowning a May Queen, sometimes with a Jack in the Green, male companion decked in greenery; setting up a Maypole, May Tree, or May Bush, around which people dance and sing; as well as parades and processions involving these. Bonfires are also a major part of the festival in some regions. Regional varieties and related traditions include Walpurgis Night in central and northern Europe, the Gaels, Gaelic festival Beltane, the Wales, Welsh festival Calan Mai, and May devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary. It has also been associated with the Religion i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saint Walpurga
Walpurga or Walburga (; ; ; 71025 February 777 or 779) was an Anglo-Saxon missionary to the Frankish Empire. She was canonized on 1 May c. 870 by Pope Adrian II. Walpurgis Night, Saint Walpurgis Night (or "Sankt Walpurgisnacht") is the name for the eve of her feast day in the Medieval period, which coincided with May Day; her feast is no longer celebrated on that day, but the name is still used for May Eve. Early life Walpurga was born in Dumnonia, roughly corresponding to modern Devon, during the period it was becoming incorporated into Anglo Saxon England. She was the daughter of Richard the Pilgrim, a likely Celtic Britons, Britonnic underking of the West Saxons, and of Wuna of Wessex, and had two brothers, Willibald and Winibald. Religious career In 721, Richard set out on a pilgrimage to Rome with his two sons. Before leaving he entrusted Walburga, then 11 years old, to the abbess of the double monastery at Wimborne Minster (church), Wimborne Abbey in Dorset. She had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Walpurgis Night
Walpurgis Night (), an abbreviation of Saint Walpurgis Night (from the German language, German ), also known as Saint Walpurga's Eve (alternatively spelled Saint Walburga's Eve) and Walpurgisnacht, is the Vigil#Eves of religious celebrations, eve of the Christianity, Christian feast day of Saint Walpurga, an 8th-century abbess in Francia, and is celebrated on the night of 30 April and the day of 1 May. This feast memorialization, commemorates the canonization of Saint Walpurga and the movement of her relics to Eichstätt, both of which occurred on 1 May 870. Saint Walpurga was hailed by the Christians of Germany for battling "pest, rabies, and whooping cough, as well as against witchcraft". Christians Christian prayer, prayed to God in Christianity, God through the Intercession of saints, intercession of Saint Walpurga in order to protect themselves from witchcraft, as Saint Walpurga was successful in conversion to Christianity, converting the local populace to Christianity. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robigalia
The Robigalia was a festival in ancient Roman religion held April 25, named for the god Robigus. Its main ritual was a dog sacrifice to protect grain fields from disease. Games (''ludi'') in the form of "major and minor" races were held. The Robigalia was one of several agricultural festivals in April to celebrate and vitalize the growing season, but the darker sacrificial elements of these occasions are also fraught with anxiety about crop failure and the dependence on divine favor to avert it. Description The Robigalia was held at the boundary of the Ager Romanus. Verrius Flaccus sites it in a grove (''lucus'') at the fifth milestone from Rome along the Via Claudia. The celebration included games (''ludi'') and a sacrificial offering of the blood and entrails of an unweaned puppy (''catulus''). Most animal sacrifice in the public religion of ancient Rome resulted in a communal meal and thus involved domestic animals whose flesh was a normal part of the Roman diet; the dog o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mark The Evangelist
Mark the Evangelist (Koine Greek, Koinē Greek: Μᾶρκος, romanized: ''Mârkos''), also known as John Mark (Koine Greek, Koinē Greek language, Greek: Ἰωάννης Μᾶρκος, Romanization of Greek, romanized: ''Iōánnēs Mârkos;'' Aramaic'': ܝܘܚܢܢ, romanized: Yōḥannān'') or Saint Mark, was the person who is traditionally ascribed to be the author of the Gospel of Mark. Most modern Bible scholars have concluded that the Gospel of Mark was written by an anonymous author rather than an identifiable historical figure, though the topic remains contentious among experts. According to Church tradition, Mark founded the episcopal see of Church of Alexandria, Alexandria, which was one of the Pentarchy, five most important sees of early Christianity. His feast day is celebrated on April 25, and his Saint symbolism, symbol is the Lion of Saint Mark, winged lion. Identity According to William L. Lane, William Lane (1974), an unbroken tradition identifies Mark the Ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hippolyte Delehaye
Hippolyte Delehaye, S.J., (19 August 1859 – 1 April 1941) was a Belgian Jesuit who was a hagiographical scholar and an outstanding member of the Society of Bollandists. Biography Born in 1859 in Antwerp, Delehaye joined the Society of Jesus in 1876, being received into the novitiate the following year. After making his initial profession of religious vows in 1879, he was sent to study philosophy at the University of Louvain from 1879 to 1882. He was then assigned until 1886 to teach mathematics at the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Ghent (named for the school in Paris, '' alma mater'' of Ignatius of Loyola). Delehaye was ordained in 1890. In 1892 Fr Delehaye was appointed by his Jesuit superiors to be a fellow of the Society of Bollandists, named for the 17th-century hagiographical scholar Jean Bolland, S.J., and founded the early seventeenth century specifically to study hagiography, research towards the gathering and evaluation of historical documentary sources regarding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ēostre
''Ēostre'' ()Sievers 1901 p. 98Robert Barnhart, Barnhart, Robert K. ''The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology'' (1995) . is an List of Anglo-Saxon deities, Anglo-Saxon goddess mentioned by Bede in his 8th century work ''The Reckoning of Time''. He wrote that Anglo-Saxon paganism, pagan Anglo-Saxons had held feasts in her honour during the month named after her: (April), and that this became the English name for the Eastertide, Paschal season: ''Easter''. The Old High German name for April was the cognate , which has led scholars to suggest there was a similar Continental Germanic mythology, Continental Germanic goddess, Linguistic reconstruction, *''Ôstara''. Their theory is supported by Votive offering, votive inscriptions dedicated to goddesses called the , found in 1958 in Rhein-Erft-Kreis, Germany. The theonym may also be a part of some placenames and personal names. By way of linguistic reconstruction, the matter of a goddess called in the Proto-Germanic lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bede
Bede (; ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, Bede of Jarrow, the Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable (), was an English monk, author and scholar. He was one of the most known writers during the Early Middle Ages, and his most famous work, '' Ecclesiastical History of the English People'', gained him the title "The Father of English History". He served at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom of Northumbria of the Angles. Born on lands belonging to the twin monastery of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow in present-day Tyne and Wear, England, Bede was sent to Monkwearmouth at the age of seven and later joined Abbot Ceolfrith at Jarrow. Both of them survived a plague that struck in 686 and killed the majority of the population there. While Bede spent most of his life in the monastery, he travelled to several abbeys and monasteries across the British Isles, even visiting the archbishop of York and King Ceolwulf of Northumbria. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in Judaism, God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites to slaughter a lamb and mark their doorframes with its blood, in addition to instructions for consuming the lamb that night. For that night, God would send the Destroying angel (Bible), Angel of Death to bring about the Plagues of Egypt, tenth plague, in which he would Plagues of Egypt#plague10, smite all the firstborn in Egypt. But when the angel saw the blood on the Israelites' doorframes, he would ''pass over'' their homes so that the plague should not enter (hence the name). The story is part of the broader Exodus narrative, in which the Israelites, while living in Egypt, are enslaved en masse by the Pharaoh to suppress them; when Pharaoh refuses God's demand to let them go, God sends ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
