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Ossining

(Encyclopedia)Ossining ŏsˈənĭng [key], village (1990 pop. 22,582), Westchester co., SE N.Y., on the Hudson River; settled c.1750, inc. 1813 as Sing Sing, renamed 1901. Mainly residential, Ossining produces medi...

Langham, Simon

(Encyclopedia)Langham, Simon lăngˈəm [key], d. 1376, English prelate and statesman, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He ruled the abbey of Westminster with such skill that Edward III appointed (1360) him t...

Prévost, Marcel

(Encyclopedia)Prévost, Marcel märsĕlˈ prāvōˈ [key], 1862–1941, French novelist. His novels deal chiefly with feminine questions, portraying severely what Prévost regarded as the moral frailty of modern wo...

Byrd, William, English composer

(Encyclopedia)Byrd, William, 1543–1623, English composer, organist at Lincoln Cathedral and, jointly with Tallis, at the Chapel Royal. Although Roman Catholic, he composed anthems and services for the English Chu...

Butler, Alban

(Encyclopedia)Butler, Alban, 1710–73, English Roman Catholic priest, compiler of lives of the saints. He was educated at Douai and was president of the English seminary at Saint-Omer. His monumental work, The Liv...

Branly, Édouard

(Encyclopedia)Branly, Édouard ādwärˈ bräNlēˈ [key], French physicist and physician. He was professor of physics at the Catholic Institute, Paris, from 1875. He developed (1890) a coherer for the detection of...

White Mountain

(Encyclopedia)White Mountain or White Hill, Czech Bílá Hora, hill near Prague, Czech Republic. There, in Nov., 1620, the Czech Protestants under Christian of Anhalt were routed by the combined armies of the empir...

benediction

(Encyclopedia)benediction [Lat.,=blessing], solemn blessing usually administered in the name of God by a priest or a minister. The temple worship at Jerusalem had fixed forms of benedictions, and Christians have al...

Benedictus

(Encyclopedia)Benedictus bĕnədĭkˈtəs [key], hymn of Zachary, taken from Luke 1.68–79. It begins in Latin, “Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel” [blessed be the Lord God of Israel]. It is used at funerals and ...

Spellman, Francis Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Spellman, Francis Joseph, 1889–1967, American Roman Catholic cardinal, b. Whitman, Mass. Educated at Fordham and the American College at Rome, he was ordained May 14, 1916. He was a parish priest in...