A Catholic parish is torn apart when two of its members are accused of murder The year 1806 is not a good time to be Catholic in Boston. When a man is brutally killed on the Boston Post Road, two unsuspecting Irishmen are charged with the crime. For five months they rot in prison, denied a lawyer until just two days before the hearing. It is a mockery of justice—a one-day trial that results in a unanimous verdict: The Irishmen will be hanged, dissected, and dismembered. Comforting them falls to Father Cheverus, a French émigré struggling to adapt to life in the New World. It is his duty to help the condemned find peace, but any overture he makes to the prisoners will be met with an anti-Catholic backlash that could destroy his fledgling congregation. As he walks a fraught path, the priest must decide: Is his obligation to his flock, or to God?

Focusing on idealists and visionaries who believed that Justice could reign in our world, this book explores the desire to experience utopia on earth. Reluctant to await another existence, individuals with ghuluww, or exaggeration, emerged at the advent of Islam, expecting to attain the apocalyptic horizon of Truth.

This innovative study examines patterns of change in Shi’i symbols and rituals over the past two centuries to reveal how modernization has influenced the societal, political, and religious culture of Iran. Shi’is, who support the Prophet Mohammad’s progeny as his successors in opposition to the Sunni caliphate tradition, make up 10 to 15 percent of the world’s Muslim population, roughly half of whom live in Iran. Throughout the early history of the Islamic Middle East, the Sunnis have been associated with the state and the ruling elite, while Shi’is have most often represented the political opposition and have had broad appeal among the masses. Moharram symbols and rituals commemorate the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE, in which the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Hoseyn and most of his family and supporters were massacred by the troops of the Umayyad caliph Yazid. Moharram symbols and rituals are among the most pervasive and popular aspects of Iranian culture and society. This book traces patterns of continuity and change of Moharran symbols and rituals in three aspects of Iranian life: the importance of these rituals in promoting social bonds, status, identities, and ideals; ways in which the three major successive regimes (Qujars, Pahlavis, and the Islamic Republic), have either used these rituals to promote their legitimacy, or have suppressed them because they viewed them as a potential political threat; and the uses of Moharram symbolism by opposition groups interested in overthrowing the regime. While the patterns of government patronage have been radically discontinuous over the past two centuries, the roles of these rituals in popular society and culture have been relatively continuous or have evolved independently of the state. The political uses of modern-day rituals and the enduring symbolism of the Karbala narratives continue today.

The quiet moments of global terrorism are over. They were silently on the move and highly motivated against the USA, first and foremost. To the radical extremist fascists' international terrorists' network, the USA was the easiest to infiltrate amongst the world's super powers. Their ultimate target was the entertainment capital of the world, the city of sin and pleasure for the western free world. Assisted by human traffickers and smugglers, their much awaited suicidal martyr was a Woman of Mass Destruction (WMD). Westernized and American educated, desired by almost every man, a woman well adorned as well as scorned, the self appointed terrorist, the self-declared jihadist, the self-anointed martyr was ready to make her move. It all began in an island archipelago in the Pacific, where three young men started out as childhood friends were separated by fate. One became the most wanted notorious non Christian rebel leader in that region, another became a hardened military combat zone officer and the third became... an American. Noor was a casualty turned weapon against the "Infidels". Her mission before she perishes was to inflict as much damage and pain to portions of the society that caused her miseries. To make their statement that the war against terrorism was not over, and will not be over, and will not be won by the "Infidels". She was the network's ultimate weapon against the USA as the start of reviving the plan to totally disabling the US mainland was initiated. She had been very well prepared for a self declared war compounded by ideological pressures from her own kind and groups covering under the protective shield and consolation of religions. "Learning is not compulsory.... Neither is survival." W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993)

Alban Butler's 'The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January, February, March' is a comprehensive and insightful collection of biographies of various saints, focusing on the months of January, February, and March. The book is written in a lively and engaging style, providing readers with detailed accounts of the lives and martyrdoms of these important figures in Christian history. Butler's work serves as an important resource for those interested in hagiography and the lives of saints, offering a valuable glimpse into the religious and cultural context of the time. Alban Butler, a Catholic priest and hagiographer, dedicated his life to the study and documentation of the lives of the saints. His extensive research and dedication to preserving the stories of these individuals undoubtedly influenced the creation of this monumental work. Through his writing, Butler pays homage to the saints and martyrs who have played a significant role in shaping the history of Christianity. I highly recommend 'The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints. January, February, March' to readers interested in delving into the lives of saints and martyrs. Butler's meticulous research and engaging narrative style make this book a must-read for anyone interested in Christian history and hagiography.

Based strictly on primary sources, the book The Romanov Royal Martyrs is a unique biography, offering previously unpublished texts in English from letters, testimonies, diaries, memoirs, and other sources. An impressive book, featuring more than 200 black & white photographs, and a 56-page full-colour photo insert of more than 80 high-quality images, appearing here in print for the first time.

Since the 1990s, literary and queer studies scholars have eschewed Marxist and Foucauldian critique and hailed the reparative mode of criticism as a more humane and humble way of approaching literature and culture. The reparative turn has traveled far beyond the academy, influencing how people imagine justice, solidarity, and social change. In The Ruse of Repair, Patricia Stuelke locates the reparative turn's hidden history in the failed struggle against US empire and neoliberal capitalism in the 1970s and 1980s. She shows how feminist, antiracist, and anti-imperialist liberation movements' visions of connection across difference, practices of self care, and other reparative modes of artistic and cultural production have unintentionally reinforced forms of neoliberal governance. At the same time, the US government and military, universities, and other institutions have appropriated and depoliticized these same techniques to sidestep addressing structural racism and imperialism in more substantive ways. In tracing the reparative turn's complicated and fraught genealogy, Stuelke questions reparative criticism's efficacy in ways that will prompt critics to reevaluate their own reading practices.

The mythical artist, heroic and rebellious, isolated and suffering, is the creation of late-18th-century Romanticism. Throughout the 19th century this powerful myth influenced the way people thought and wrote about artists and, more importantly, the way artists thought about––and depicted––themselves. Covering the period from the French Revolution to World War I, from Romanticism to the avant-garde, this catalogue considers how artists responded to this myth. The focus is on key artists and groups who self-consciously forged distinctive identities: the Nazarenes, Delacroix, Courbet, Manet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, the Nabis, and Schiele. The book includes an introduction, a chronology, and an overview of the myth of the artist in literature, as well as a beautifully illustrated catalogue section arranged according to such themes as Bohemia; Dandy and Flâneur; Priest, Seer, Martyr, Christ; and Creativity and Sexuality.