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Holwell, John Z. (British official)
...Calcutta following the capture of the city by the nawab (ruler) Sirāj al-Dawlah, of Bengal, and the surrender of the East India Company’s garrison under the self-proclaimed governor of Bengal, John Z. Holwell. The incident became a cause célèbre in the idealization of British imperialism in India and a subject of controversy....
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holy (religion)
the power, being, or realm understood by religious persons to be at the core of existence and to have a transformative effect on their lives and destinies. Other terms, such as holy, divine, transcendent, ultimate being (or reality), mystery, and perfection (or purity) have been used for this domain. “Sacred” is also an important technical term in the scholarly study and interpretati...
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Holy Alliance (Europe)
a loose organization of most of the European sovereigns, formed in Paris on Sept. 26, 1815, by Alexander I of Russia, Francis I of Austria, and Frederick William III of Prussia when they were negotiating the Second Peace of Paris ...
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Holy Apostles, Church of the (church, Milan, Italy)
...is a quadrifoil room with four niches and ambulatory; an octagon adjoining it (today Sant’Aquilino) was formerly an imperial mausoleum or baptistery. The church of the Holy Apostles, the present San Nazaro Maggiore (begun in 382), is cruciform in plan with an apse in the east, built in imitation of the church of the same name at Constantinople. At Cologne, the oval plan of St. Gereon (bu...
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Holy Apostles, Church of the (historical site, Constantinople)
The churches built under Constantine at Constantinople and in Palestine were more complex in plan and structure. The destroyed church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, known only through a description by Eusebius of Caesarea, was begun in 333 and completed by Constantius II......
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Holy Blood, Procession of the (procession, Belgium)
...the textiles were sold, the cats tended to proliferate.) Today the festival re-creates this practice with toy cats and, more generally, celebrates cats as a species. Another popular event is the Procession of the Holy Blood; held in Brugge, it is the modern continuation of a medieval tradition of parading through the city with what was said to be the coagulated blood of Christ—taken......
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Holy Brotherhood
constabulary created in the late 15th century by the Catholic Monarchs (Ferdinand and Isabella) to maintain law and order throughout Spain. See hermandad....
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Holy Child Jesus, Society of the (Roman Catholic organization)
Roman Catholic abbess who founded the Society of the Holy Child Jesus and became the subject of an acrimonious ecclesiastical controversy....
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Holy Club
group of Oxford students led by John and Charles Wesley, whose methodical habits of study and devotion led to their being derisively called methodists. Organized by Charles Wesley, who soon turned the leadership over to John in November 1729, the group met regularly to study the Scriptures and the classics. Communion was celebrated frequently and members fasted on Wednesdays an...
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Holy Constable (Portuguese military leader)
outstanding Portuguese military leader, known also as the Holy Constable, whose victory over Castilian forces in the historic Battle of Aljubarrota (Aug. 14, 1385) assured his nation’s independence....
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holy corner (religion)
...A large amount of evidence indicates that religious–magical rites, from birth ceremonies to funerals, were performed in such bathhouses. There are various opinions as to whether the so-called holy corner (heilige Hinterecke)—i.e., the dark corner of a peasant’s house in which a deity or patron lives...
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Holy Cross, Church of the (church, Aghthamar, Turkey)
The outstanding example in Armenian art of the use of architectural sculpture is the Church of the Holy Cross, built in the early 10th century on the island of Aghthamar in Lake Van; this is the earliest medieval example, either in the East or in the West, of a stone building entirely covered with relief sculpture. Around the dome and on......
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Holy Cross, College of the (college, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States)
private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S. It is affiliated with the Jesuit order of the Roman Catholic church. An undergraduate institution, Holy Cross offers a traditional liberal arts curriculum as well as cooperative deg...
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Holy Cross Day (religious feast)
liturgical feast celebrated on September 14 to honour the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. In the Eastern churches the feast dates back to the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the site of Christ’s tomb) in Jerusalem c. 335. It was adopted by the Roman Church in the 7th century....
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Holy Cross, Exaltation of the (religious feast)
liturgical feast celebrated on September 14 to honour the cross on which Jesus Christ was crucified. In the Eastern churches the feast dates back to the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (the site of Christ’s tomb) in Jerusalem c. 335. It was adopted by the Roman Church in the 7th century....
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Holy Cross, Mount of the (mountain, Colorado, United States)
...(4,300 metres), including Mount Elbert (14,433 feet [4,399 metres]; highest point in Colorado and the American Rockies), Grizzly Mountain, Shavano and La Plata peaks, and Mounts Antero and Massive. Mount of the Holy Cross (13,986 feet [4,263 metres]) is known for a unique formation near its peak, comprising snow-filled crevices shaped like a huge cross more than 1,000 feet (305 metres) long......
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Holy Cross Mountains (mountains, Poland)
mountain range, part of the Little Poland Uplands, in south-central Poland, surrounding the city of Kielce. The highest peaks are Łysica (2,008 feet [612 m]) and Łysa Mountain (1,946 feet [593 m]), both in the Łysogóry range....
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Holy Cross, Sisters of the (Roman Catholic order)
...of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. She met Father Edward F. Sorin, founder of the university, who influenced her to join the Sisters of the Holy Cross, a French order with a convent at Bertrand, Michigan....
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holy days of obligation
in the Roman Catholic Church, religious feast days on which Catholics must attend mass and refrain from unnecessary work. Although all Sundays are sanctified in this way, the term holy days usually refers to other feasts that must be observed in the same manner as Sunday...
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“Holy Family” (painting by Murillo)
...France by Nicolas-Jean de Dieu Soult during the Napoleonic period. Murillo’s late style is exemplified by his unfinished works for the Capuchin church at Cádiz and the Two Trinities (popularly known as the “Holy Family”). The often mystical significance of his subjects is countered by the idealized reality of his figures based on familiar...
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Holy Family (art)
as a theme in Christian art, representation of the infant Jesus with his immediate family. There are two major versions, one showing the Virgin and Child with St. Joseph and the other showing the Virgin and Child with the Virgin’s mother, St. Anne. Like a number of other themes dealing with the li...
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Holy Family, Church of the (church, Barcelona, Spain)
...later works as the Episcopal Palace at Astorga (1887–93) and the College of Santa Teresa de Jesús (1889–94) in Barcelona. His Gothic sympathies were evident in the crypt of the church of the Holy Family in Barcelona, which he completed from 1884 to 1887, to the design of his master Francesc de Paula del Villar i Carmona. Gaudí also restored the Gothic cathedral of......
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Holy Family, Expiatory Temple of the (church, Barcelona, Spain)
...later works as the Episcopal Palace at Astorga (1887–93) and the College of Santa Teresa de Jesús (1889–94) in Barcelona. His Gothic sympathies were evident in the crypt of the church of the Holy Family in Barcelona, which he completed from 1884 to 1887, to the design of his master Francesc de Paula del Villar i Carmona. Gaudí also restored the Gothic cathedral of......
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Holy Family, Feast of the (Roman Catholicism)
Roman Catholic religious festival falling on the first Sunday after Christmas. Although major feast days dedicated to each member of the Holy Family—Jesus, Mary, and Joseph—also exist, the Feast of the Ho...
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Holy Family on the Steps, The (painting by Poussin)
...career, when he created some of his noblest figure paintings, among them Eliezer and Rebecca, The Holy Family on the Steps, and The Judgement of Solomon. In all of these the artist integrated the figures with their setting in a strict and uncompromising......
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Holy Family, The (painting by Michelangelo)
...(both in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence). About 1506 or 1508, Michelangelo used the form for a painting of the Holy Family (Uffizi) commissioned by the Doni family....
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Holy Family, The (painting by Giorgione)
...solutions characteristic of the Renaissance mind. Thoroughly in the spirit of the master are the landscape and the dreamy mood of the figures, who seem lost in reverie. The Holy Family (c. 1500) and the Adoration of the Shepherds (1505/1510) are of equally fine quality. The latter is particularly noteworthy for its exquisite......
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Holy Family, The (work by Marx and Engels)
...he associated with the followers of Robert Owen. Now he and Marx, finding that they shared the same views, combined their intellectual resources and published Die heilige Familie (1845; The Holy Family), a prolix criticism of the Hegelian idealism of the theologian Bruno Bauer. Their next work, Die deutsche Ideologie (written 1845–46, published 1932; The German......
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Holy Family with Angels (painting by Rembrandt)
The great variation in style in his sparse paintings from the decade after 1642 can be seen as an indication that Rembrandt was searching. A scene with the Holy Family (1645) is one of Rembrandt’s most striking efforts to arrive at a different approach to the function of light in his paintings. Here, he introduced three light sources and made abundant use of light reflecting on one surface ...
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holy fool
The “holy fool” type conceals a radical Christianity under the mask of foolishness and holds the truth of the gospel, in the disguise of folly, before the eyes of highly placed personalities: the worldly and the princes of the church who do not brook unmasked truth. This type, which frequently appeared in the Byzantine Church, has been represented especially in Western Christianity.....
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Holy Ghost (Christianity)
(from Old English gast, “spirit”), in Christian belief, the third person of the Trinity. Numerous outpourings of the Spirit are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, in which healing, prophecy, the expelling of demons (exorcism), and speaking in tongues (glossolalia...
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Holy Ghost Fathers (religious order)
a Roman Catholic society of men founded in 1703 at Paris by Claude-François Poullart des Places. Originally intended only for the training of seminarians, the congregation gradually took an active part in missionary work. Suppressed by the French Revolution, it was restored under Napoleon, but persecution kept it weak...
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Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to St. Mark, The (biblical literature)
second of the four New Testament Gospels (narratives recounting the life and death of Jesus Christ), and, with Matthew and Luke, one of the three Synoptic Gospels (i.e., t...
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Holy Governing Synod (synod, Moscow, Russia)
In 1721 Tsar Peter I (the Great) abolished the patriarchate of Moscow and replaced it with the Holy Governing Synod, which was modeled after the state-controlled synods of the Lutheran church in Sweden and Prussia and was tightly controlled by the state. The chief procurator of the synod, a lay official who obtained ministerial rank in the first half of the 19th century, henceforth exercised......
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Holy Grail (Arthurian romance)
object of legendary quest for the knights of Arthurian romance. The term evidently denoted a wide-mouthed or shallow vessel, though its precise etymology remains uncertain. The legend of the Grail possibly was inspired by classical and Celtic mythologies, which abound in horns of plenty, magic life-restoring caldrons, and the like. The first extant text to give such a vessel Chr...
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Holy Innocents, Feast of the (Christianity)
festival celebrated in the Christian churches in the West on December 28 and in the Eastern churches on December 29 and commemorating the massacre of the children by King Herod in his attempt to kill the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:16–18). These children were regarded by the early church as the first ...
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Holy Island (island, Scotland, United Kingdom)
...14th century. In 1503 Arran was awarded by royal charter to Sir James Hamilton, whose castle dominates Brodick, the island’s unofficial capital. Three miles south of Brodick in Lamlash Bay lies Holy Island, a cone of basaltic rock 1,030 feet (314 metres) high containing the cave the 6th-century hermit St. Molaise used as a cell....
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Holy Island (island, England, United Kingdom)
historic small island (2 sq mi [5 sq km]) in the west North Sea, 2 mi (3 km) from the English Northumberland coast (in which county it is included), linked to the mainland by a causeway at low tide. It is administratively part of Berwick-upon-Tweed district....
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“Holy Lake of the Acts of Rāma, The” (work by Tulsīdās)
version, written in a dialect of Hindi, of the Sanskrit epic poem the Rāmāyaṇa, one of the masterpieces of medieval Hindu literature and a work with significant influence on modern Hinduism. Written in the 16th century by the poet Tulsīdās, the poem is distinguishe...
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Holy Lance
a relic discovered in June 1098 during the First Crusade by Christian crusaders at Antioch, in Syria. It was said to be the lance that pierced the side of Christ at the crucifixion. The recovery of the relic inspired the crusaders to take the offensive against the Muslims, routing them in battle and securing Christian possession of Antioch. Disputes about the authenticity of the lance, however, c...
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Holy Land
Region, at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea....
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Holy League (European alliance [1495])
either of two European leagues sponsored by the papacy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, formed for the purpose of protecting Italy from threatened French domination....
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Holy League (European alliance [1684])
...on the Tisa River during a war (1683–99) between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League (Austria–Poland–Venice–Russia), a victory that made Austria the foremost power in central Europe....
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Holy League (European alliance [1571])
(Oct. 7, 1571), naval engagement between allied Christian forces and the Ottoman Turks during an Ottoman campaign to acquire the Venetian island of Cyprus. Seeking to drive Venice from the eastern Mediterranean, the forces of Sultan Selim II invaded Cyprus in 1570. The Venetians formed an alliance with Pope Pius V and Philip II of Spain (May 25, 1571). Philip sent his half brother,......
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Holy League (French history)
association of Roman Catholics during the French Wars of Religion of the late 16th century; it was first organized in 1576 under the leadership of Henri I de Lorraine, 3e duc de Guise, to oppose concessions granted to the Protestants (Huguenots) by King Henry III. Although the basic reason behind the League...
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Holy League (European alliance [1511])
either of two European leagues sponsored by the papacy in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, formed for the purpose of protecting Italy from threatened French domination....
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Holy Maid of Kent (English ecstatic)
English ecstatic whose outspoken prophecies aroused public opinion over the matrimonial policy of King Henry VIII and led to her execution....
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Holy Mountain (mountain, Greece)
mountain in northern Greece, site of a semiautonomous republic of Greek Orthodox monks inhabiting 20 monasteries and dependencies (skítes), some of which are larger than the parent monasteries. It occupies the easternmost of the three promontories of the Chalcidice (Khalkidhikí) Peninsula, which projects from Macedonia region into the ...
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Holy Name Society (Roman Catholic organization)
A distinction is normally made between general and specialized Catholic Action. General Catholic Action organizations, such as the Holy Name Society or the Legion of Mary, are open to all Roman Catholics, or at least all of a given age. Specialized Catholic Action groups are limited to members of a given profession or interest group, such......
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Holy Name Technical School (university, Romeoville, Illinois, United States)
private, coeducational university in Romeoville, Illinois, U.S., 30 miles (50 km) southwest of Chicago. Lewis University is operated by the Christian Brothers, a teaching order of the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1932 by the Chicago archdiocese as ...
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Holy of Holies (Judaism)
the innermost and most sacred area of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, accessible only to the Israelite high priest. Once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, he was permitted to enter the square, windowless enclosure to burn...
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Holy Office, Congregation of the (Roman Catholic Church)
As prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Ratzinger earned a reputation as a hard-line enforcer of doctrinal uniformity. He condemned liberation theology and suppressed more-liberal theologians such as the Brazilian Leonardo Boff and the American Charles Curran. Despite his reputation, even his harshest critics recognized his intelligence and his ability to discuss......
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holy order (Christianity)
any of several grades in the ordained ministry of some of the Christian churches, comprising at various times the major orders of bishop, priest, deacon, and subdeacon and the minor orders of porter (doorkeeper), lector, exorcist, and acolyte....
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holy orders (religion)
in Christian churches, a rite for the dedication and commissioning of ministers. The essential ceremony consists of the laying of hands of the ordaining minister upon the head of the one being ordained, with prayer for the gifts of the Holy Spirit and of grace required for the carrying out of the ministry. The service also u...
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holy place
Sacrifice often was conducted in the open or in groves and forests. The human sacrifice to the tribal god of the Semnones, described by Tacitus, took place in a sacred grove; other examples of sacred groves include the one in which Nerthus usually resides. Tacitus does, however, mention temples in Germany, though they were probably few. Old English laws mention fenced places around a stone,......
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Holy Roman Empire (historical empire, Europe)
Realm of varying extent in medieval and modern western and central Europe....
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Holy Saturday (Christianity)
Christian religious observance that ends the Lenten season, falling on the day before Easter Sunday. The early church celebrated the end of Lent with large baptismal ceremonies; but, for many centuries, no services were held on Holy Saturday in the Western churches, recalling the suspended state of Christ’s followers in the period betwe...
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Holy See (Roman Catholic government)
The Vatican palace is the residence of the pope within the city walls. The Holy See is the name given to the government of the Roman Catholic church, which is led by the pope as the bishop of Rome. As such, the Holy See’s authority extends over Catholics throughout the world. Since 1929 it has resided in Vatican City, which was established as an independent state to enable the pope to exerc...
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Holy Sepulchre (tomb, Jerusalem)
the tomb in which Jesus was buried and the name of the church built on the traditional site of his Crucifixion and burial. According to the Bible, the tomb was close to the place of the Crucifixion (John 19:41–42), and so the church was planned to enclose the site of both cross and tomb....
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Holy Sepulchre, Brotherhood of the (religious order)
The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem embraces several scores of thousands of Arabs in Israel and Jordan. The patriarch and bishops, however, are all Greek and are drawn from the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, a body with monasteries in and near the holy places; this policy has been a cause of tension with the Arab population, from which the local married clergy is recruited. The......
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Holy Sepulchre, Church of the (church, Jerusalem)
the tomb in which Jesus was buried and the name of the church built on the traditional site of his Crucifixion and burial. According to the Bible, the tomb was close to the place of the Crucifixion (John 19:41–42), and so the church was planned to enclose the site of both cross and tomb....
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Holy Shroud (relic)
a length of linen that for centuries was purported to be the burial garment of Jesus Christ; it has been preserved since 1578 in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of San Giovanni Battista in Turin, Italy. Measuring 14 feet 3 inches long and 3 feet 7 inches wide, it seems to portray two faint brownish images, those of the back and front of a gaunt, sunken-eyed, 5-foot 7-inch man—as if a body...
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Holy Sinner, The (work by Mann)
The composition of the novel was fully documented by Mann in 1949 in The Genesis of a Novel. Doktor Faustus exhausted him as no other work of his had done, and The Holy Sinner and The Black Swan, published in 1951 and 1953, respectively, show a relaxation of intensity in spite of their accomplished, even virtuoso style. Mann rounded off his imaginative work in 1954 with......
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Holy Spirit (Christianity)
(from Old English gast, “spirit”), in Christian belief, the third person of the Trinity. Numerous outpourings of the Spirit are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, in which healing, prophecy, the expelling of demons (exorcism), and speaking in tongues (glossolalia...
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Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity
religious movement founded in Pusan, South Korea, by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1954. Known for its mass weddings, the church teaches a unique Christian theology. It has generated much controversy, and its members are commonly derided as “Mo...
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Holy Spirit, Cathedral of the (cathedral, Guildford, England, United Kingdom)
...church tower shows pre-Norman work. Its earliest known charter dates from 1257. As well as the Norman castle there are many historic buildings along its axial High Street. On Stag Hill is the modern cathedral (1936–68) designed by Sir Edward Maufe, the second newly sited Anglican cathedral built in England since the Reformation. The new diocese was separated from Winchester in 1927. Near...
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Holy Spirit, gifts of the (Christianity)
As the uncontrollable principle of life in the church, the Holy Spirit considerably upset Christian congregations from the very outset. Paul struggled to restrict the anarchist elements, which are connected with the appearance of free charismata (spiritual phenomena), and, over against these, to achieve a firm order in the church. Paul at times attempted to control and even repress charismatic......
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Holy Spirit Movement (rebel organization)
Ugandan rebel who led the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a militia that terrorized northern Uganda in the late 20th and early 21st centuries....
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Holy Stairs (stairs, Rome, Italy)
...times and that was reerected by Pope Sixtus V late in the 16th century. At the same time, Sixtus demolished the nearby old Lateran Palace, from which the Sancta Sanctorum (the papal chapel) and the Scala Santa (“Holy Stairs”) were preserved. The Scala Santa had been the principal ceremonial stairway of the palace, but about the 8th or 9th century it began to be identified popularl...
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Holy State, the Profane State, The (work by Fuller)
For the modern reader, Fuller’s most interesting work is probably The Holy State, the Profane State (1642), an entertaining collection of character sketches important to the historian of English literature....
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Holy Synod (Russian Orthodox Church)
Ecclesiastical governing body created by Tsar Peter I in 1721 to head the Russian Orthodox Church, replacing the patriarchate of Moscow. Peter created the Synod, made up of representatives of the hierarchy obedient to his will, to subject the church to the state, and appointed a secular official, the chief procurator, to supervise its activities. The Synod per...
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Holy Synod (Serbian Orthodox Church)
The supreme authority of the Serbian church, the Holy Synod, is composed of all its bishops, who meet once a year. There is also a standing synod of four members who administer the day-to-day affairs of the church, which is estimated to have about 8,000,000 adherents. Nearly 70,000 reside in the United States and Canada. There are 32......
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“Holy Terrors, The” (novel by Cocteau)
...first performed in 1926, was destined to play a part in the resurrection of tragedy in contemporary theatre; in it, Cocteau deepened his interpretation of the nature of the poet. The novel Les Enfants terribles, written in the space of three weeks in March 1929, is the study of the inviolability of the character of two adolescents, the brother and sister Paul and Elisabeth. In......
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Holy Thursday (religious holiday)
the Thursday before Easter, observed in commemoration of Jesus Christ’s institution of the Eucharist. The name is taken from an anthem sung in Roman Catholic churches on that day: “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“a new commandment I give to you”; John 13:34). In the early Christian church the day was celebrated with a general comm...
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Holy Thursday (Christianity)
The Ascension of Jesus is mentioned in the Apostles’ Creed, a profession of faith used for baptism in the early church. The feast of the Ascension ranks with Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost in the universality of its observance among Christians. The feast has been celebrated 40 days after Easter in both Eastern and Western Christianity...
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Holy Trinity (monastery, Greece)
...or two, monks’ cells, and a refectory, only 6 remain: Great Metéoron, Varlaám (also called All Saints [Áyioi Pándes]), Roussanou, St. Nikolas (Áyios Nikolaos), Holy Trinity (Áyia Triada), and St. Stephen (Áyios Stéfanos). Some still serve a religious function, though they are now only sparsely populated by monks and nuns. Since the....
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Holy Trinity (Christianity)
in Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead....
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Holy Trinity Adored by Sir Edward Bonkil (work by Goes)
...stage revealed by the drawing of curtains. This exploitation of space and colour for emotional potentiality rather than rational effect characterizes van der Goes’s later works. It appears in the Holy Trinity Adored by Sir Edward Bonkil and The Royal Family of Scotland, panels that were probably designed as organ shutters (c....
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Holy Trinity, Church of the (church, Salzburg, Austria)
...decoration, but each has its own special quality, determined by its location and by its particular function, as attached to a seminary, a university, or a nunnery. The elegant concave facade of the Dreifaltigkeitskirche (Church of the Holy Trinity), for example, contrasts to and heightens the effect of the sober front of the adjoining seminary buildings. The almost geometric forms of the......
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Holy Trinity, Feast of the (Christianity)
feast in honour of the Trinity. It is celebrated in the Christian churches on the Sunday following Pentecost (the 50th day after Easter). It is known that the feast was celebrated on this day from as early as the 10th century. Celebration of the feast gradually spread in the churches of northern Europe, and in 1334 Pope John...
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Holy Virgin, Cathedral of the (cathedral, Antwerp, Belgium)
The old city, within the arc once formed by the 16th-century fortifications, has many narrow, winding streets and old buildings. This area contains the Cathedral of Our Lady, begun in the 14th century and restored in the 19th and 20th centuries; it is one of the nation’s finest Gothic buildings. The 19th-century city, with broader and substantially right-angled streets, stretches beyond the...
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holy war (religious concept)
any war fought by divine command or for a religious purpose. The concept of holy war is found in the Bible (e.g., the Book of Joshua) and has played a role in many religions. See crusade; jihad. ...
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Holy War, The (work by Bunyan)
The Holy War (1682), Bunyan’s second allegory, has a carefully wrought epic structure and is correspondingly lacking in the spontaneous inward note of The Pilgrim’s Progress. The town of Mansoul is besieged by the hosts of the devil, is relieved by the army of Emanuel, and is later undermined by further diabolic attacks and plots against his rule. The metaphor works on ...
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holy water (Christianity)
in the Eastern Christian churches and the Roman Catholic Church, special water that has been blessed and is used to bless churches, homes, and articles of devotion. A natural symbol of purification, water has been used by religious peoples, both primitive and advanced, as a means of removing uncleanness, either ritual or mo...
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Holy Week (Christianity)
in the Christian Church, the week between Palm Sunday and Easter, observed with special solemnity as a time of devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ. In the Greek and Roman liturgical books it is called the Great Week because great deeds were done b...
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Holy Well, The (work by Katayev)
...continued to grow, and in 1966 the literary magazine Novy mir (“New World”) printed his Svyatoy kolodets (1967; The Holy Well), a remarkable lyrical-philosophical account of dreams experienced while the author is under anaesthesia for surgery. Clearly reflecting the influence of ......
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Holy Willie’s Prayer (monologue by Burns)
...his innovations were fully premeditated. His range is wide, from uninhibitedly passionate love songs to sardonic satires on moral and religious hypocrisy, of which the monologue Holy Willie’s Prayer (written 1785) is an outstanding example. His work bears the imprint of the revolutionary decades in which he wrote, and recurrent in much of it are a joyful hymning ...
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Holy Wisdom, Church of the (church, Istanbul, Turkey)
cathedral built at Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) under the direction of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. It is a unique building and one of the world’s great monuments, despite time’s ravages. The structure, a domed basilica, was built in the amazingly short time of about six years, being completed in...
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Holy Year (religious celebration)
in the Roman Catholic church, a celebration that is observed on certain special occasions and for 1 year every 25 years, under certain conditions, when a special indulgence is granted to members of the faith by the pope and confessors are given special faculties, including the lifting of censures. It resembles the Old Testamen...
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Holyfield, Evander (American athlete)
American boxer, the only professional fighter to win the heavyweight championship four separate times and thereby surpass the record of Muhammad Ali, who won it three times....
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Holyhead (Wales, United Kingdom)
port and resort on Holy Island (Ynys Gybi), Isle of Anglesey county, historic county of Anglesey (Sir Fon), Wales. Holyhead and Holy Island, just off the west coast of Anglesey island, bear many traces of prehistoric, Celtic, and Roman occupation. In 1...
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Holyhead Mountain (mountain, Wales, United Kingdom)
...west of Anglesey. Isle of Anglesey county is coterminous with the historic county of Anglesey (Sir Fon). The highest point in the county is Holyhead Mountain, with an elevation of 720 feet (219 metres), on Holy Island. Anglesey island has low relief, with a series of low ridges and valleys running from northeast to southwest....
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Holyoake, Sir Keith Jacka (prime minister of New Zealand)
farmer and politician who served twice as prime minister (1957, 1960–72) and was the first politician to be appointed governor general of New Zealand (1977–80)....
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Holyoke (Massachusetts, United States)
city, Hampden county, west-central Massachusetts, U.S. It lies on the Connecticut River just north of Chicopee and Springfield. Settled in 1725 as part of Springfield, it was included in West Springfield in 1774 until incorporated as a separate towns...
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Holyoke, Edward (American educator)
10th president of Harvard College, who liberalized and strengthened its academic program....
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Holyrood (abbey, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom)
Away from the crowded buildings, at the lower end of the Royal Mile, is Holyrood. The Augustinian abbey, built on the first available expanse of solid ground at the foot of the volcanic crag and tail, was founded in 1128 and rebuilt about 1220. The ruins of the nave are impressive examples of the bold, imaginative work of the period. The Palace of Holyroodhouse, which shouldered the abbey......
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Holyroodhouse, Palace of (palace, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom)
...of solid ground at the foot of the volcanic crag and tail, was founded in 1128 and rebuilt about 1220. The ruins of the nave are impressive examples of the bold, imaginative work of the period. The Palace of Holyroodhouse, which shouldered the abbey aside, comprises an early 16th-century wing, built by French and Scottish masons in the reign of James V (1513–42), and a 17th-century......
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Holywell (Wales, United Kingdom)
town, historic and present county of Flintshire, Wales, near the Dee estuary. The holy well is on the spot where in the 7th century the head of the Celtic St. Winifred (Gwenffrwd) is said to have fallen when she was decapitated. Copper, lead, and coal were mined near Holywell in the past, but the town is now important mainly for its woolen, rayon, and ...
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Holywell Street (street, London, United Kingdom)
By the time that Queen Victoria came to the throne in Great Britain in 1837, there were more than 50 pornographic shops on Holywell Street (known as “Booksellers’ Row”) in London. Pornography continued to flourish during the Victorian Age in Britain and in the United States despite—or perhaps because of—the t...
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Holzbauer, Ignaz (German composer)
The Mannheim school consists chiefly of two generations of composers. The first includes Johann Stamitz, who was the founder and inspired conductor of the orchestra; Ignaz Holzbauer; Franz Xaver Richter; and Carlo Giuseppe Toeschi. These men established the supremacy of the Mannheim school and, in their orchestral works, initiated many of the effects that were to popularize it. The composers of......
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