scholarly journals The Virgin Mary (Panagia/Theotokos) in Modern Greek Incantations: The Sacred Afflicted

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 7-41
Author(s):  
Haralampos Passalis ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Therapeutic Efficacy ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Transitional Space ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Religious Systems

Sacred personae of the officially recognized religious systems often appear in charms in order to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of the ritual. Their appearance is particularly common in Greek narrative charms where they often assume the role of the auxiliary agent who expels the malevolent factor and provides a cure to the afflicted person. In this context, the appearance of Christ, the Virgin Mary, Angels, Archangels, the Apostles, as well as various saints, is also quite frequent. There is, however, a peculiarity in terms of the role that the figure of the Virgin Mary (Panagia, Theotokos) assumes. This holy figure can not only assume the role of an auxiliary sacred agent who provides a cure to the afflicted person, but also the role of the afflicted, seeking healing treatment by another holy figure. Worth mentioning in the last case is that this affliction could have as its source another sacred figure such as the Apostles or even the Angels. In which particular charm-types does the Virgin Mary appear as the afflicted person? Which are the factors leading to the onset of this affliction and which are the symptoms experienced by the holy figure? How is this affliction cured and by whom? How could we, finally, explain this ambiguity of the Virgin Mary (Panagia) who appears to be standing in a liminal and transitional space between the sacred and the secular, divine and human, healer and afflicted? These are some of the questions that this article seeks to examine and answer.

The role of Record of Rights (Khatian) in determining title or possession: An overview

IIUC Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 33-46
Author(s):  
Kalim Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Critical Element ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Supportive Evidence ◽  
Land Administration ◽  
Holy Quran ◽  
The Holy Quran ◽  
Religious Systems

Human beings are deeply related to land. Human beings take birth on land, live on land, die on land and mixes with land ultimately. As stated in the holy Quran: ‘We (Allah) created you (human beings) from the soil, we shall make you return to the soil and We shall call you back again from the soil’ (20:55). Human life is surrounded by soil i.e. land. So, land is a highly completed issue of human life involving economic, social, political, cultural and often religious systems. Land administration is thus a critical element and often a pre-condition for peaceful society and sustainable development. In administrating land, Khatian or record of rights plays a vital role to determine the rights and interests of the respective parties as supportive evidence. In this article, discussion is mainly made on the fact that Khatian or record of rights is not a document of title solely but it may be an evidence of title as well as possession. IIUC Studies Vol.15(0) December 2018: 33-46

scholarly journals The Metamorphosis of Written Devotion in the Age of Vatican II (c. 1948–c. 1998) in Hungary—Guestbooks in Hungarian Marian Shrines

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 235
Author(s):  
Krisztina Frauhammer
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Vatican Ii ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Combined Effect ◽  
Public Realm ◽  
The Public ◽  
Written Form ◽  
Personal Prayer ◽  
The Church

This article presents the Hungarian manifestations of a written devotional practice that emerged in the second half of the 20th century worldwide: the rite of writing prayers in guestbooks or visitors’ books and spontaneously leaving prayer slips in shrines. Guestbooks or visitors’ books, a practice well known in museums and exhibitions, have appeared in Hungarian shrines for pilgrims to record requests, prayers, and declarations of gratitude. This is an unusual use of guestbooks, as, unlike regular guestbook entries, they contain personal prayers, which are surprisingly honest and self-reflective. Another curiosity of the books and slips is that anybody can see and read them, because they are on display in the shrines, mostly close to the statue of Virgin Mary. They allow the researcher to observe a special communication situation, the written representation of an informal, non-formalised, personal prayer. Of course, this is not unknown in the practice of prayer; what is new here is that it takes place in the public realm of a shrine, in written form. This paper seeks answers to the question of what genre antecedents, what patterns of behaviour, and which religious practices have led to the development of this recent practice of devotion in the examined period in Hungarian Catholic shrines. In connection with this issue, this paper would like to draw attention to the combined effect of the following three factors: the continuity of traditions, the emergence of innovative elements and the role of the church as an institution. Their parallel interactions help us to understand the guestbooks of the shrines.

scholarly journals The role of schemas and scripts in pictorial narration

Semiotica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ranta
Keyword(s):  
Decisive Role ◽  
Schema Theory ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Levels Of Abstraction ◽  
Event Sequences ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Narrative Structures ◽  
Northwestern University ◽  
Generalized Knowledge

Abstract The theoretical debate on the nature of narrative has been mainly concerned with literary narratives, whereas forms of non-literary and especially pictorial narrativity have been somewhat neglected. In this paper, however, I shall discuss narrativity specifically with regard to pictorial objects in order to clarify how pictorial storytelling may be based on the activation of mentally stored action and scene schemas. Approaches from cognitive psychology, such as the work of Schank, Roger C. & Robert P. Abelson. 1977. Scripts, plans, goals and understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; Mandler, Jean Matter. 1984. Stories, scripts, and scenes: Aspects of schema theory. London/Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum; Schank, Roger C. 1995. Tell me a story: Narrative and intelligence. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, suggest that cognition crucially depends on the storage and retrieval of action scripts or schemata, that is, narrative structures, which may occur at various levels of abstraction. These schemas incorporate generalized knowledge about event sequences, such as the order in which specific events will take place; causal, enabling, or conventionalized relations between these events, and what kind of events occur in certain action sequences. There also are scene schemas that are characterized by spatial rather than temporal relations. Further kinds of schemas seem also to play a decisive role. Drawing upon considerations from schema and script theory, I will focus on some concrete examples of pictorial narration, more specifically depictions of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, where narrative schema structures become involved and, indeed, the comprehensibility of the pictures as such presuppose mental script representations.

scholarly journals An Abbey as a Stronghold

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-271
Author(s):  
Hrvoje Kekez
Keyword(s):  
Virgin Mary ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Defense System ◽  
Long Period ◽  
Blessed Virgin Mary ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
Large Estate ◽  
Do So

The main goal of this paper is to analyze the strategic role of Cistercian abbey of Blessed Virgin Mary in Topusko (medieval Toplica) in anti-Ottoman defense during 16th century, especially because it is rather exceptional of usage sacral complex in anti-Ottoman defense system in rather long period. In order to do so it is determined and analyzed strategic importance of the monastic complex in anti-Ottoman defense line and the change of it according to ever going Ottoman conquest of new territories, i.e. approaching of the bordering line. Furthermore, the organization of defense of the rather large estate of Topusko abbey as well as the changes of the monastic fortifications are addressed. Even more, the role of the commendatory abbots of the abbey, as well the serves of the abbey, in the larger efforts in composing and functioning of the anti-Ottoman defense line are analyzed. Finally, the proximate time and context of the final abandoning of the former Cistercian abbey is determined.

scholarly journals The Role of Archaeology in Forming Greek National Identity and its Embodiment in European Identity

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 448-458
Author(s):  
Olga Katsiardi-Hering
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Roman Antiquity ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
Greek World ◽  
Of Greece

The murder of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, for many the ‘founder of archaeology’, in 1768 in a Trieste inn, did not mean the end for his work, which could be said to have been the key to understanding ancient Greece, which Europe was re-discovering at the time. In the late Enlightenment, Neoclassicism, followed by Romanticism, elevated classical, Hellenistic and Roman antiquity, and archaeological research, to the centre of academic quests, while the inclusion of archaeological sites in the era’s Grand Tours fed into a belief in the ‘Regeneration’/‘Wiedergeburt’ of Greece. The Modern Greek Enlightenment flourished during this same period, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with a concomitant classicizing turn. Ancient Greek texts were republished by Greek scholars, especially in the European centres of the Greek diaspora. An admiration for antiquity was intertwined into the Neohellenic national identity, and the first rulers of the free Greek State undertook to take care of the nation’s archaeological monuments. In 1837, under ‘Bavarian rule’, the first Greek University and the ‘Archaeological Society of Greece in Athens’ were set up. Archaeologists flocked to Greece and those parts of the ancient Greek world that were still part of the Ottoman Empire. The showcasing of classical monuments, at the expense of the Byzantine past, would remain the rule until the latter half of the nineteenth century. Modern Greek national identity was primarily underpinned by admiration for antiquity, which was viewed as a source of modern Hellenism, and for ‘enlightened, savant, good-governed Europe’. Today, the ‘new archaeology’ is striving to call these foundations into question.

The Virgin and the Devil: the Role of the Virgin Mary in the Theophilus Legend and its Spanish and Portuguese Variants

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 147-156
Author(s):  
Iona McCleery
Keyword(s):  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Christian Literature ◽  
The Devil

The story of Theophilus is one of the oldest and most widespread Marian miracles in Christian literature. Theophilus is said to have been a sixth-century priest of Adana in Cilicia, removed from office by a new bishop. Eager to regain his position, Theophilus went to a Jew known for diabolical practices and through him made a written pact with the Devil, sealed with a ring. Theophilus received back his lost status but then began to repent and, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, finally won the document from the Devil. Three days later he died.

scholarly journals Chyawanprash: A Traditional Indian Bioactive Health Supplement

Biomolecules ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sharma ◽  
Martins ◽  
Kuca ◽  
Chaudhary ◽  
Kabra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vitamin C ◽  
Therapeutic Efficacy ◽  
Therapeutic Potential ◽  
Medicinal Herbs ◽  
Indian Gooseberry ◽  
Scientific Exploration ◽  
Life Force ◽  
Dried Extract

Chyawanprash (CP) is an Ayurvedic health supplement which is made up of a super-concentrated blend of nutrient-rich herbs and minerals. It is meant to restore drained reserves of life force (ojas) and to preserve strength, stamina, and vitality, while stalling the course of aging. Chyawanprash is formulated by processing around 50 medicinal herbs and their extracts, including the prime ingredient, Amla (Indian gooseberry), which is the world’s richest source of vitamin C. Chyawanprash preparation involves preparing a decoction of herbs, followed by dried extract preparation, subsequent mixture with honey, and addition of aromatic herb powders (namely clove, cardamom, and cinnamon) as standard. The finished product has a fruit jam-like consistency, and a sweet, sour, and spicy flavor. Scientific exploration of CP is warranted to understand its therapeutic efficacy. Scattered information exploring the therapeutic potential of CP is available, and there is a need to assemble it. Thus, an effort was made to compile the scattered information from ancient Ayurvedic texts and treatises, along with ethnobotanical, ethnopharmacological, and scientifically validated literature, that highlight the role of CP in therapeutics. Citations relevant to the topic were screened.

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