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Cyril, Saint (St. Cyril of Alexandria)

(Encyclopedia)Cyril, Saint (Saint Cyril of Alexandria) sĭrˈəl [key], d. a.d. 444, patriarch of Alexandria (412–44), Doctor of the Church, known for his animosity toward heretics and heathens. He drove the Jews...

Last Supper

(Encyclopedia)Last Supper, in the New Testament, meal taken by Jesus and his disciples on the eve of the passion. Jesus broke bread and passed a cup of wine among the disciples, identifying himself with the bread a...

Hawksmoor, Nicholas

(Encyclopedia)Hawksmoor, Nicholas, 1661–1736, English architect involved in the development of most of the great buildings of the English baroque. From the age of 21 he assisted Sir Christopher Wren in the design...

Pentecost

(Encyclopedia)Pentecost pĕnˈtəkôst [key] [Gr.,=fiftieth], important Jewish and Christian feast. The Jewish feast of Pentecost, in Hebrew Shavuot, the Feast of Weeks, one of the three pilgrimage festivals, arose...

Passion cycle

(Encyclopedia)Passion cycle, in art, the depiction of the last events in the life of Jesus. The Passion was a favorite subject of medieval and Renaissance artists and was considered the most ambitious of projects. ...

penance

(Encyclopedia)penance pĕnˈəns [key], sacrament of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern churches. By it the penitent (the person receiving the sacrament) is absolved of his or her sins by a confessor (the pers...

Michelangelo Buonarroti

(Encyclopedia)Michelangelo Buonarroti mīkəlănˈjəlō, Ital. mēkālänˈjālō bwōnär-rôˈtē [key], 1475–1564, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet, b. Caprese, Tuscany. In his architectura...

Costa, Lorenzo

(Encyclopedia)Costa, Lorenzo lōrĕnˈtsō kōˈstä [key], 1460–1535, Italian painter of the Ferrarese and Bolognese schools. Trained in the manner of such painters as Tura and Cossa, he modified the strident Fe...

Farid ad-Din Attar

(Encyclopedia)Farid ad-Din Attar färēdˈ äd-dēn ät-tärˈ [key], 1142?–1220?, b. Nishapur, Persia, one of the greatest Sufi mystic poets of Islam. His masterpiece is the Mantiq ut-Tair (The Conference of the...

Holy Spirit

(Encyclopedia)Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost [ghost, i.e., spirit, a translation of Gr. pneuma=breath, air], in Christian doctrine, the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is sometimes defined as the aspect of ...
 

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