Browsing: Religion

A Brief History On October 9, 2012, Malala Yousafzai boarded her school bus in northwest Pakistan.  A gunman asked for Malala by name, then pointed a Colt 45 at her and fired three shots.  One bullet hit the left side of Malala’s forehead, traveled under her skin the length of her face and then penetrated her shoulder.  In the days immediately following the attack, she remained unconscious and in critical condition, but later her condition improved enough for her to be sent to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in England for intensive rehabilitation.  She went on to win Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize and the Sakharov Prize for 2013. Digging…

A Brief History On September 14, 326 A.D., Helena of Constantinople made one of the greatest discoveries in Christian history when she found the Holy Sepulchre (the crypt where Jesus was entombed) and the True Cross in Jerusalem. Digging Deeper Helena, also known as St. Helen, was the mother of Constantine the Great, emperor of Rome.  In that capacity, she was awarded the title “Augusta Imperatrix.”  She is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, both branches of the Orthodox Church and the Lutheran and Anglican Churches. Her son Constantine became the first Christian emperor of Rome and was the namesake…

A Brief History On September 7th, 1533, in what had to ironically have been one of the most disappointing births in history, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England made her grand entrance onto the world and political stage. Digging Deeper The first article of this series on the Six Wives of Henry VIII discussed the possibility that Catherine of Aragon might have lied about being a virgin at the time of her marriage to Henry.  This article focuses on the consequences of Anne Boleyn denying Henry sex and what might have happened had she not. By divorcing Catherine of…

A Brief History On August 4, 70 A.D., the Romans punished the rebellious Jews by destroying the Second Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.  In 66 A.D., the Jews had rebelled against Roman rule, and four years later, the Romans retook Jerusalem. (See our other articles about the Second Temple, Jerusalem, and Israel.  These links are just some of our Jerusalem and Israel related articles.  For more articles, use the search function.) Digging Deeper The original temple was built around 1000 B.C. and was known as Solomon’s Temple.  After it was destroyed around 586 B.C., construction of the Second…

A Brief History On July 25, 1593, Henry IV, King of France, converted from Calvinism back to the Catholicism of his birth.  Henry had been raised Protestant, although he was baptized Catholic.  His conversion back to Catholic came in the midst of the Wars of Religion, battles between Catholic and Protestant Europeans. Digging Deeper Was Henry’s re-conversion a political ploy or a sincere action of conscience?  It would seem to be a move made for political expediency, something monarchs and other national leaders have done throughout history.  Napoleon Bonaparte did not think highly of religion, but he recognized the usefulness…