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Thorvald Kodransson
Thorvald Kodransson the Far Traveller () was one of the first Christian missionaries in Iceland and then in Belarus in the late 10th century. He was native to Iceland but went abroad where he was baptized by one Bishop Friedrich (Friðrekr), a German. He returned to the island in Bishop Friedrich's retinue in 981. They were especially active in Proselytism, proselytising among the inhabitants of the northern parts of Iceland. Thorvald allegedly was appointed by the Byzantine emperor to act as ambassador to the lands of the Rus' people, Rus' (Kievan Rus', Russia). He is said to have erected a cathedral or monastery of John the Baptist in the Principality of Polotsk, at the present-day Polotsk, Belarus. Sources The account of their attempts at Christianizing Iceland is described in the ''Kristni saga'' and the "" (). The story (þáttr) constitutes a portion of the ''Óláfs saga Tryggvasonar en mesta'', with a shorter recension found in the ''Flateyjarbók'', but accounts gi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bishop Fridrik Memorial 2
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of dioceses. The role or office of the bishop is called episcopacy or the episcopate. Organisationally, several Christian denominations utilise ecclesiastical structures that call for the position of bishops, while other denominations have dispensed with this office, seeing it as a symbol of power. Bishops have also exercised political authority within their dioceses. Traditionally, bishops claim apostolic succession, a direct historical lineage dating back to the original Twelve Apostles or Saint Paul. The bishops are by doctrine understood as those who possess the full Priest#Christianity, priesthood given by Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ, and therefore may ordain other clergy, including other bishops. A person ordained as a deacon, pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortune-telling
Fortune telling is the spiritual practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115–116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical with the practice of divination. The difference is that divination is the term used for predictions considered part of a religious ritual, invoking deities or spirits, while the term fortune telling implies a less serious or formal setting, even one of popular culture, where belief in occult workings behind the prediction is less prominent than the concept of suggestion, spiritual or practical advisory or affirmation. Historically, Pliny the Elder describes use of the crystal ball in the 1st century CE by soothsayers (''"crystallum orbis"'', later written in Medieval Latin by scribes as ''orbuculum''). Contemporary Western images of fortune telling grow out of folkloristic reception of Renaissance magic, specifically ass ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Plenipotentiary
A ''plenipotentiary'' (from the Latin ''plenus'' "full" and ''potens'' "powerful") is a diplomat who has full powers—authorization to sign a treaty or convention on behalf of a sovereign. When used as a noun more generally, the word can also refer to any person who has full powers. As an adjective, it describes something which confers full powers, such as an edict or an assignment. Diplomats Before the era of rapid international transport or essentially instantaneous communication (such as telegraphy in the mid-19th century and then radio), diplomatic mission chiefs were granted full (plenipotentiary) powers to represent their government in negotiations with their host nation. Conventionally, any representations made or agreements reached with a plenipotentiary would be recognized and complied with by their government. Historically, the common generic term for high diplomats of the crown or state was ''minister''. It therefore became customary to style the chiefs of full ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basil II
Basil II Porphyrogenitus (; 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar Slayer (, ), was the senior Byzantine emperor from 976 to 1025. He and his brother Constantine VIII were crowned before their father Romanos II died in 963, but they were too young to rule. The throne thus went to two generals, Nikephoros Phokas (963–969) and John Tzimiskes (r. 969–976) before Basil became senior emperor, though his influential great-uncle Basil Lekapenos remained as the '' de facto'' ruler until 985. His reign of 49 years and 11 months was the longest of any Roman emperor. The early years of Basil's reign were dominated by civil wars against two powerful generals from the Byzantine Anatolian aristocracy: first Bardas Skleros and later Bardas Phokas, which ended shortly after Phokas' death and Skleros' submission in 989. Basil then oversaw the stabilization and expansion of the eastern frontier of the Byzantine Empire and the complete subjugation of the First Bulgarian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constantinople
Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empires between its consecration in 330 until 1930, when it was renamed to Istanbul. Initially as New Rome, Constantinople was founded in 324 during the reign of Constantine the Great on the site of the existing settlement of Byzantium, and shortly thereafter in 330 became the capital of the Roman Empire. Following the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the late 5th century, Constantinople remained the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire (also known as the Byzantine Empire; 330–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). Following the Turkish War of Independence, the Turkish capital then moved to Ankara. Although the city had been known as Istanbul since 1453, it was officially renamed as Is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and is considered Holy city, holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital city; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, while Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim is widely Status of Jerusalem, recognized internationally. Throughout History of Jerusalem, its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, Siege of Jerusalem (other), besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. According to Eric H. Cline's tally in Jerusalem Besieged. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David (historic), City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Víðidalstunga
Víðidalstunga () is a small farm in Víðidalur in the former parish of Þorkelshólshreppur, Vestur-Húnavatnssýsla, Iceland. An ancient manor and noble family lived in the area was centuries since at least the early 14th century. Víðidalstungu Church was built in 1889 and contains an altar with paintings by the painter Ásgrímur Jónsson Ásgrímur Jónsson (March 4, 1876 – April 5, 1958) was an Icelandic painter, and one of the first in the country to make art a professional living. He studied at the Royal Academy in Copenhagen between 1900 and 1903 and traveled widely after .... References Populated places in Northwestern Region (Iceland) {{Iceland-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Níð
In historical Germanic peoples, Germanic society, (Old Norse, in runic: , ; ) was a term for a social stigma implying the loss of honour and the status of a villain. A person affected with the stigma is considered a nithing (, , , or ). Middle English retained a cognate , meaning 'envy' (compare modern Dutch and modern German ), 'hate', or 'malice'. A related term is , carrying the connotation of 'unmanliness'. Níð and ergi ''Ergi'' and ''argr'' or ''ragr'' can be regarded as specifying swearwords. ''Ergi'', ''argr'' and ''ragr'' were the severe insults made by calling someone a ''coward'', and due to its severity old Scandinavian laws demanded retribution for this accusation if it had turned out unjustified. The Icelandic Gray Goose Laws referred to three words that were regarded as equal to ''argr'' by themselves. Those were ''ragr'', ''strodinn'', and ''sordinn'', all three meaning the passive role of a man in sexual activities, being womanly, and being subservient. An ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Holy Water
Holy water is water that has been blessed by a member of the clergy or a religious figure, or derived from a well or spring considered holy. The use for cleansing prior to a baptism and spiritual cleansing is common in several religions, from Christianity to Sikhism. The use of holy water as a sacramental for protection against evil is common among Lutherans, Anglicans, Catholics, and Eastern Christians. In Christianity In Catholicism, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and some other churches, holy water is water that has been sanctified by a priest for the purpose of baptism, for the blessing of persons, places, and objects, or as a means of repelling evil. History The Apostolic Constitutions, whose texts date to , attribute the precept of using holy water to the Apostle Matthew. It is plausible that the earliest Christians may have used water for expiatory and purificatory purposes in a way analogous to its employment in Jewi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psalter
A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the emergence of the book of hours in the Late Middle Ages, psalters were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons. They were commonly used for learning to read. Many psalters were richly illuminated, and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art. The English term (Old English , ) derives from Church Latin. The source term is , which is simply the name of the Book of Psalms (in secular Latin, it is the term for a stringed instrument, from ''psalterion''). The Book of Psalms contains the bulk of the Divine Office of the Roman Catholic Church. The other books associated with it were the Lectionary, the Antiphonary, and Responsoriale, and the Hymnary. In Late Modern English, ''psalter'' has mostly ceased to refer to the Book of Psalms (as the text of a book ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Household Spirit
A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity typically a goddess often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia. The second type of household deity is not one singular deity but a type or species of animism, animistic, which usually has lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the lares of Religion in ancient Rome, ancient Roman religion, the gashin of Korean shamanism, and cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish brownie (folklore), brownie and Slavic domovoy. Household deities were usually worshipped not in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
