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1000 articles found for “Church calendar”
Exorcism
[Worship & Rites]Exorcism is the prayer and rite performed to drive demons out of a person believed to be possessed by evil spirits. The term refers chiefly to the official rite of the Catholic Church; Protestants more commonly speak of deliverance or casting out demons.
Holy Saturday
[Feasts & Seasons]Holy Saturday is the Saturday of Holy Week, the day between Good Friday and Easter on which the church remembers that Jesus Christ lay in the tomb.
Gregory the Illuminator
[People]Gregory the Illuminator converted the king of Armenia in the early fourth century, leading Armenia to adopt Christianity as its state religion. He is venerated as the first head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Penitential Psalms
[Bible]The Penitential Psalms are seven psalms (Psalms 6, 32, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143) that church tradition groups together because they give prominent expression to the confession of sin and the plea for God's forgiveness.
Mesrop Mashtots
[People]Mesrop Mashtots (c. 362–440) was a monk and scholar who created the Armenian alphabet in the early fifth century and led the effort to translate the Bible into Armenian. The Armenian Apostolic Church venerates him as a saint.
Thomas Aquinas
[People]Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and the leading theologian of medieval Scholasticism. He wrote the Summa Theologiae and is venerated in the Catholic Church as a saint and Doctor of the Church.
Havruta
[Christian Life]Havruta is a method of study from the Jewish tradition in which two people pair up to study a text by questioning and debating each other. In Korean churches it is used mainly as a method for Bible study and church school education.
Child Dedication
[Worship & Rites]Child dedication is a rite in which parents present a newborn child to God and promise to raise the child in the faith, while the church blesses the child and prays for him or her.
Relic
[Doctrine & Theology]A relic is the preserved remains of a saint or martyr, an object that a saint or martyr used, or an object associated with the life of Jesus, kept as an object of veneration. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church venerate relics, while Protestants generally reject the practice.
Feminist Theology
[Doctrine & Theology]Feminist theology is a theological movement that rereads the Bible and the Christian tradition from the experience and perspective of women and critically examines male-centered interpretations and institutions within the church and theology.
Liturgy of the Hours
[Worship & Rites]The Liturgy of the Hours, also known as the Divine Office, is the public prayer of the church in which psalms, canticles, Scripture readings, and prayers are offered at fixed times of the day. The term is used chiefly in the Catholic Church, and similar traditions exist in the Anglican and Lutheran churches.
Diotrephes
[People]Diotrephes was an early Christian mentioned in 3 John. He is described as one who loved to have the preeminence, refused to receive the elder's letter and his workers, and cast out of the church those members who wished to welcome them.
Quartus
[People]Quartus is a Christian who, together with Paul, sends greetings to the church in Rome in Romans 16:23. He appears only in this one passage of Scripture, and apart from the designation "brother," almost nothing is known about him.
Sosipater
[People]Sosipater was an early Christian whom Paul names as one of his "kinsmen" in Romans 16:21. He was with Paul when the letter was written and sent greetings to the church in Rome.
Lucius
[People]Lucius was a companion of the apostle Paul who was with him when he wrote the Epistle to the Romans and who sent greetings to the church in Rome. Paul called him one of his "kinsmen." He is mentioned only once in Scripture, in Romans 16:21.
Linus
[People]Linus was a Roman Christian whose name appears in the closing greetings of 2 Timothy 4:21. He is mentioned only once in Scripture, and early church tradition identifies him as an early leader of the church in Rome.
Mary, Mother of Mark
[People]Mary, the mother of Mark, was a member of the Jerusalem church mentioned in Acts 12. She owned the house to which Peter went after his release from prison, where many people had gathered to pray.
Chloe
[People]Chloe is a woman mentioned only once in Scripture, in 1 Corinthians 1:11. Paul wrote that he had learned of contentions in the Corinthian church from "them which are of the house of Chloe."
Ambrose
[People]Ambrose (c. 339–397) was a fourth-century bishop of Milan and one of the leading Fathers of the Western Church. He defended the Nicene faith against the Arians and baptized Augustine.
Ellen G. White
[People]Ellen G. White (1827–1915) was an American religious leader and author and a co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Adventists recognize her as having received the gift of prophecy.