Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Seventh-Day Baptists

(Encyclopedia)Seventh-Day Baptists, Protestant church holding the same doctrines as other Calvinistic Baptists but observing the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath. In the Reformation in England the observance ...

Saint Valentine's Day

(Encyclopedia)Saint Valentine's Day, Western European Christian holiday, originally the Roman feast of Lupercalia. It was christianized in memory of the martyrdom of St. Valentine in a.d. 270, who, in medieval time...

Willoughby

(Encyclopedia)Willoughby wĭlˈəbē [key], city (1990 pop. 20,510), Lake co., NE Ohio, on the Chagrin River, near Lake Erie; settled c.1800, inc. as a city 1951. Manufactures include rubber products, electronic co...

Rutebeuf

(Encyclopedia)Rutebeuf rütəböfˈ [key], fl. between 1254 and 1285, French poet. He was the author of an early miracle play, Le Miracle de Théophile, and of fabliaux, allegories, saints' lives, and satires. Skil...

Rogation Days

(Encyclopedia)Rogation Days, in the calendar of the Western Church, four days traditionally set apart for solemn processions to invoke God's mercy. They are Apr. 25, the Major Rogation, coinciding with St. Mark's D...

fasting

(Encyclopedia)fasting, partial or temporary abstinence from food, a widely used form of asceticism. Among the stricter Jews the principal fast is the Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur; in Islam the faithful fast all ...

Logan

(Encyclopedia)Logan, city (1990 pop. 32,762), seat of Cache co., N Utah, on the Logan River; inc. 1859. It is the center of an irrigated dairy and farm area, with huge cheese plants, other food-processing facilitie...

Community of Christ

(Encyclopedia)Community of Christ, formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, religious group that regards itself as the successor of the church founded by Joseph Smith. They organized in...

Capgrave, John

(Encyclopedia)Capgrave, John, 1393–1464, English author and Augustinian friar. One of the most learned men of his day, he was a distinguished theologian, philosopher, and historian. His writings, many of which ha...

harvest customs

(Encyclopedia)harvest customs, practices associated with the celebration of the gathering of agricultural crops. The gathering of the harvest—the climax of the year's labors wherever the soil is cultivated—has ...