Maximilian Maria Kolbe  (born Raymund Kolbe; ; 1894–1941) was a Polish Catholic priest and Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a man named Franciszek Gajowniczek in the German death camp of Auschwitz, located in German-occupied Poland during World War II. He had been active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, founding and supervising the monastery of Niepokalanów near Warsaw, operating an amateur-radio station (SP3RN), and founding or running several other organizations and publications.

On 10 October 1982, Pope John Paul II canonized Kolbe and declared him a martyr of charity. The Catholic Church venerates him as the patron saint of amateur radio operators, drug addicts, political prisoners, families, journalists, and prisoners. John Paul II declared him "the patron of our difficult century". His feast day is 14 August, the day of his martyrdom.

Due to Kolbe's efforts to promote consecration and entrustment to Mary, he is known as the Apostle of Consecration to Mary.

Early life
Raymund Kolbe was born on 8 January 1894 in Zduńska Wola, in the Kingdom of Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. He was the second son of weaver Julius Kolbe and midwife Maria Dąbrowska. His father was an ethnic German, and his mother was Polish. He had four brothers. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Pabianice.

Kolbe's life was strongly influenced in 1906, when he was 12, by a vision of the Virgin Mary. He later described this incident:

That night I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me. Then she came to me holding two crowns, one white, the other red. She asked me if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.

Franciscan friar
In 1907 Kolbe and his elder brother Francis joined the Conventual Franciscans. They enrolled at the Conventual Franciscan minor seminary in Lwow later that year. In 1910, Kolbe was allowed to enter the novitiate, where he chose a religious name Maximilian. He professed his first vows in 1911, and final vows in 1914, adopting the additional name of Maria (Mary).

World War I
Kolbe was sent to Rome in 1912, where he attended the Pontifical Gregorian University. He earned a doctorate in philosophy in 1915 there. From 1915 he continued his studies at the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure, where he earned a doctorate in theology in 1919 or 1922 (sources vary). He was active in the consecration and entrustment to Mary.

In the midst of these studies, World War I broke out. Maximilian's father, Julius Kolbe, joined Jozef Piłsudski's Polish Legions fighting against the Russians for an independent Poland, still subjugated and still divided among Prussia, Russia, and Austria. Julius Kolbe was caught and hanged as a traitor by the Russians at the relatively young age of 43, a traumatic event for young Maximilian.

During his time as a student, he witnessed vehement demonstrations against Popes Pius X and Benedict XV in Rome during an anniversary celebration by the Freemasons. According to Kolbe:

They placed the black standard of the "Giordano Brunisti" under the windows of the Vatican. On this standard the archangel, Michael, was depicted lying under the feet of the triumphant Lucifer. At the same time, countless pamphlets were distributed to the people in which the Holy Father (i.e., the Pope) was attacked shamefully.

Soon afterward, on 16 October 1917, Kolbe organized the Militia Immaculatae (Army of the Immaculate One), to work for conversion of sinners and enemies of the Catholic Church, specifically the Freemasons, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. So serious was Kolbe about this goal that he added to the Miraculous Medal prayer:

O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. And for all those who do not have recourse to thee; especially the Freemasons and all those recommended to thee.

Kolbe wanted the entire Franciscan Order consecrated to the Immaculate by an additional vow. The idea was well received, but faced the hurdles of approval by the hierarchy of the order and the lawyers, so it was never formally adopted during his life and was no longer pursued after his death.

Ordination
In 1918, Kolbe was ordained a priest. In July 1919, he returned to Poland, which was newly independent. He was active in promoting the veneration of the Immaculate Virgin Mary. He was strongly opposed to leftist – in particular, communist – movements.

From 1919 to 1922, he taught at the Kraków Seminary. Around that time, as well as earlier in Rome, he suffered from tuberculosis, which forced him to take a lengthy leave of absence from his teaching duties. In those pre-antibiotic times, tuberculosis was generally considered fatal, with rest and good nutrition the best treatment.

In January 1922, Kolbe founded the monthly periodical Rycerz Niepokalanej (Knight of the Immaculata), a devotional publication based on French Le Messager du Coeur de Jesus (Messenger of the Heart of Jesus). From 1922 to 1926, he operated a religious publishing press in Grodno. As his activities grew in scope, in 1927 he founded a new Conventual Franciscan monastery at Niepokalanów near Warsaw. It became a major religious publishing centre. A junior seminary was opened there two years later.

Missionary work in Asia
Between 1930 and 1936, Kolbe undertook a series of missions to East Asia. He arrived first in Shanghai, China, but failed to gather a following there. Next he moved to Japan, where by 1931 he had founded a Franciscan monastery, Mugenzai no Sono, on the outskirts of Nagasaki.

Kolbe had started publishing a Japanese edition of the Knight of the Immaculata (: ). The monastery he founded remains prominent in the Roman Catholic Church in Japan. Kolbe had the monastery built on a mountainside. According to Shinto beliefs, this was not the side best suited to be in harmony with nature. However, when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, the Franciscan monastery survived, unlike the Immaculate Conception Cathedral, the latter having been on the side of the mountain that took the main force of the blast.

In mid-1932, Kolbe left Japan for Malabar, India, where he founded another monastery, which has since closed.

Return to Poland
Meanwhile, in his absence the monastery at Niepokalanów began to publish a daily newspaper Mały Dziennik (the Small Diary), in alliance with the political group National Radical Camp (Obóz Narodowo Radykalny). This publication reached a circulation of 137,000, and nearly double that, 225,000, on weekends. Kolbe returned to Poland in 1933 for a general chapter of the order in Kraków. Kolbe returned to Japan and remained there until called back to attend the Provincial Chapter in Poland in 1936. There he was appointed guardian of Niepokalanów, thus precluding his return to Japan. Two years later, in 1938, he started a radio station at Niepokalanów, Radio Niepokalanów. He held an amateur radio licence, with the call sign SP3RN.

World War II
After the outbreak of World War II, Kolbe was one of the few friars who remained in the monastery, where he organized a temporary hospital. After the town was captured by the Germans, they arrested him on 19 September 1939; he was later released on 8 December. He refused to sign the Deutsche Volksliste, which would have given him rights similar to those of German citizens in exchange for recognizing his ethnic German ancestry. Upon his release he continued work at his friary where he and other friars provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from German persecution in the Niepokalanów friary. Kolbe received permission to continue publishing religious works, though significantly reduced in scope. The monastery continued to act as a publishing house, issuing a number of anti-Nazi German publications.

Auschwitz

On 17 February 1941, the monastery was shut down by the German authorities. That day Kolbe and four others were arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison. On 28 May, he was transferred to Auschwitz as prisoner 16670.

Continuing to act as a priest, Kolbe was subjected to violent harassment, including beatings and lashings. Once, he was smuggled to a prison hospital by friendly inmates.

Martyrdom
At the end of July 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp, prompting the deputy camp commander, SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, to pick ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts. When one of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, "My wife! My children!" Kolbe volunteered to take his place.

According to an eyewitness, who was an assistant janitor at that time, in his prison cell Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After they had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe and three others remained alive.

The guards wanted the bunker emptied, so they gave the four remaining prisoners lethal injections of carbolic acid. Kolbe is said to have raised his left arm and calmly waited for the deadly injection. He died on 14 August 1941. His remains were cremated on 15 August, the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.

Canonization
The cause for Kolbe's beatification was opened at a local level on 3 June 1952. On 12 May 1955 Kolbe was recognized by the Holy See as a Servant of God. Kolbe was declared venerable by Pope Paul VI on 30 January 1969, beatified as a Confessor of the Faith by the same Pope in 1971, and canonized as a saint by Pope John Paul II on 10 October 1982. Upon canonization, the Pope declared Maximilian Kolbe as a confessor and a martyr of charity. The miracles that were used to confirm his beatification were the July 1948 cure of intestinal tuberculosis in Angela Testoni and in August 1950, the cure of calcification of the arteries/sclerosis of Francis Ranier; both attributed to Kolbe's intercession by their prayers to him.

Franciszek Gajowniczek, the man Kolbe saved at Auschwitz, survived the Holocaust and was present as a guest at both the beatification and the canonization ceremonies.

After his canonisation, a feast day for Maximilian Kolbe was added to the General Roman Calendar. He is one of ten 20th-century martyrs who are depicted in statues above the Great West Door of Anglican Westminster Abbey, London.

Maximilian Kolbe is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on 14 August.

Controversies
Kolbe's recognition as a Christian martyr generated some controversy within the Catholic Church. While his self-sacrifice at Auschwitz was considered saintly and heroic, he was not killed out of odium fidei (hatred of the faith), but as the result of his act of Christian charity toward another man. Pope Paul VI recognized this distinction at Kolbe's beatification, naming him a Confessor and giving him the unofficial title "martyr of charity." Pope John Paul II, however, overruled the commission he had established (which agreed with the earlier assessment of heroic charity). John Paul II wanted to make the point that the Nazis' systematic hatred of whole categories of humanity was inherently also a hatred of religious (Christian) faith; he said that Kolbe's death equated to earlier examples of religious martyrdom.

Accusations of antisemitism
Kolbe has been accused of antisemitism. In 1926, in the first issue of the monthly Knight of the Immaculate, Kolbe said he considered Freemasons "as an organized clique of fanatical Jews, who want to destroy the church." In a 1924 column, he cited the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as an "important proof" that "the founders of Zionism intended, in fact, the subjugation of the entire world", but that "not even all Jews know this". In a calendar that the publishing house of his organization, the Militia of the Immaculate, published in an edition of a million in 1939, Kolbe wrote, "Atheistic Communism seems to rage ever more wildly. Its origin can easily be located in that criminal mafia that calls itself Freemasonry, and the hand that is guiding all that toward a clear goal is international Zionism. Which should not be taken to mean that even among Jews one cannot find good people." Newspapers he published printed articles about topics such as a Zionist plot for world domination. Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek criticized Kolbe's activities as "writing and organizing mass propaganda for the Catholic Church, with a clear anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic edge." However, a number of writers pointed out that the "Jewish question played a very minor role in Kolbe's thought and work." On those grounds allegations of Kolbe's antisemitism have been denounced by Holocaust scholars Daniel L. Schlafly Jr. and Warren Green among others. Kolbe's alleged antisemitism was a source of controversy in the 1980s in the aftermath of his canonization.

During World War II, Kolbe's monastery at Niepokalanów sheltered Jewish refugees. According to the testimony of a local, "When Jews came to me asking for a piece of bread, I asked Father Maximilian if I could give it to them in good conscience, and he answered me, 'Yes, it is necessary to do this because all men are our brothers.'"

Relics
First-class relics of Kolbe exist, in the form of hairs from his head and beard, preserved without his knowledge by two friars at Niepokalanów who served as barbers in his friary between 1930 and 1941. Since his beatification in 1971, more than 1,000 such relics have been distributed around the world for public veneration. Second-class relics, such as his personal effects, clothing and liturgical vestments, are preserved in his monastery cell and in a chapel at Niepokalanów, where they may be venerated by visitors.

Influence

Kolbe influenced his own Order of Conventual Franciscan friars, as the Militia Immaculatae movement had continued. In recent years new religious and secular institutes have been founded, inspired from this spiritual way. Among these are the Missionaries of the Immaculate Mary – Fr. Kolbe, the Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate, and a parallel congregation of religious sisters and others. The Franciscan Friars of Mary Immaculate are taught basic Polish so they can sing the traditional hymns sung by Kolbe, in his native tongue.

According to the friars:
Our patron, St. Maximilian Kolbe, inspires us with his unique Mariology and apostolic mission, which is to bring all souls to the Sacred Heart of Christ through the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Christ's most pure, efficient, and holy instrument of evangelization – especially those most estranged from the Church.

Kolbe's views into Marian theology echo today through their influence on Vatican II. His image may be found in churches across Europe and throughout the world. Several churches in Poland are under his patronage, such as the Sanctuary of Saint Maxymilian in Zduńska Wola or the Church of Saint Maxymilian Kolbe in Szczecin. A museum, Museum of St. Maximilian Kolbe "There was a Man", was opened in Niepokalanów in 1998.

In 1963, Rolf Hochhuth published The Deputy, a play significantly influenced by Kolbe's life and dedicated to him. In 2000, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (US) designated Marytown, home to a community of Conventual Franciscan friars, as the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Marytown is located in Libertyville, Illinois. It features the Kolbe Holocaust Exhibit. In 1991, Krzysztof Zanussi released a Polish film about the life of Kolbe, , in which Edward Żentara played Kobe's role. The Polish Senate declared 2011 to be the year of Maximilian Kolbe.

There are examples of Catholic institutions around the world adopting Kolbe as their patron saint. An example of this is Kolbe Catholic College in Rockingham, Western Australia. Founded in 1989, the college is a secondary education institution that uses the motto of "courage, faith and excellence" to connect with Kolbe's charism. In 2014, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the college, staff and students went on pilgrimage to Poland and Italy to retrace the life of Kolbe. The pilgrimage includes Auschwitz to connect with "courage", Niepokalanow to connect with "faith", and Rome to connect with "excellence". The college has returned to Europe with around 16 students and 2 or 3 faculty members again in 2016, to coincide with World Youth Day celebrations in Krakow, and then again in 2018.

In 2023, the Mexican production company Dos Corazones Films will release the animated feature film Max, which will tell part of the life of this priest.

Immaculata prayer
Kolbe composed the Immaculata prayer as a prayer of consecration to the Immaculata, i.e. the immaculately conceived.

See also
 Holocaust theology
 Maximilian of Tebessa
 Peter Fehlner
 Sisters Minor of Mary Immaculate

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

 Patron Saints Index: Saint Maximilian Kolbe
 Kolbe's Gift, a play by David Gooderson about Kolbe and his self-sacrifice in Auschwitz based on factual evidence and conversations with the late Józef Garliński
 A Man Feared by the 21st Century: Saint Maximilian Kolbe from the Starvation Bunker in Auschwitz – a drama by Kazimierz Braun
 Saint Maximilian Kolbe, a popular biography at Catholicism.org
 Niepokalanów in English
 Catholic Online, St. Maximilian Kolbe, Catholic Online.Inform-Inspire-Ignite.
 St. Maximilian Kolbe Website
 An "Insight" episode which mentions Maximilian Kolbe, who was portrayed by Werner Klemperer
 Radio Kolbe, International Radio Group OM / SWL / BCL (Based in Italy)

1894 births
1941 deaths
People from Zduńska Wola
People from Kalisz Governorate
20th-century Polish Roman Catholic priests
20th-century Christian saints
Anglican saints
Anti-Masonry
Canonizations by Pope John Paul II
Catholic saints and blesseds of the Nazi era
Conventual Friars Minor
Polish Franciscans
Martyred Roman Catholic priests
People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar
Polish anti-communists
Polish civilians killed in World War II
Polish people of German descent
Polish people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp
Polish Roman Catholic saints
Pontifical Gregorian University alumni
Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure alumni
Roman Catholic activists
Amateur radio people
People executed by Nazi Germany by lethal injection
Franciscan saints
Polish magazine founders

Maximilian Kolbe


Dudley Leigh Aman, 1st Baron Marley, DSC (16 May 1884 – 29 February 1952), was a British soldier and Labour politician.

Marley was the son of Edward Godfrey Aman, of Farnham, and was educated at Marlborough and the Royal Naval College, Greenwich. He joined the Royal Marine Artillery as a Second lieutenant 1 January 1902.

During the First World War he served in France and Belgium as a Major in the Royal Marine Artillery. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his services at the Second Battle of Ypres. After the war he made five unsuccessful attempts to enter the House of Commons for the Labour Party, at Petersfield in 1922 and 1923, at Isle of Thanet in 1924, and at Faversham in a 1928 by-election and the 1929 general election. However, in January 1930 he was raised to the peerage by the Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald as Baron Marley, of Marley in the County of Sussex.

Marley then served under Macdonald as Under-Secretary of State for War and vice-president of the Army Council from June 1930 until the government fell in August 1931. From 1930 to 1937 he was Chief Labour Whip in the House of Lords and served as a Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords from 1930 to 1941.

As Chairman of the Parliamentary Advisory Committee for the aid of Jews in Europe Marley became deeply involved in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast of Birobidzhan, an area in eastern Siberia which was designated by Joseph Stalin as an autonomous area for the Jewish people. He wrote the introduction to The Brown Book of the Hitler Terror and the Burning of the Reichstag, a publication on the conditions of the Jewish population which greatly raised awareness among American Jewry about the Jews of Germany.

Personal life

Lord Marley married Octable Turquet Reid, daughter of Sir Hugh Gilzean Reid, in 1910. He died in February 1952, aged 67, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son Godfrey. Lady Marley died in 1969.

References

Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990.

Biography of Lord Marley
Article on Lord Marley at the jewishquarterly.org

External links
Einstein Opines Non-Jewish Foreign Involvement in Publication of The Brown Book Shapell Manuscript Foundation
Dudley Leigh Aman Marley works on Librivox

1884 births
1952 deaths
Barons in the Peerage of the United Kingdom
Graduates of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich
People educated at Marlborough College
Recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)
Royal Marines officers
Royal Marines personnel of World War I
Labour Party (UK) hereditary peers
Barons created by George V

Dudley Aman, 1st Baron Marley


Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in the U.S. state of North Dakota may face some legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Same-sex sexual activity is legal in North Dakota, and same-sex couples and families headed by same-sex couples are eligible for all of the protections available to opposite-sex married couples; same-sex marriage has been legal since June 2015 as a result of Obergefell v. Hodges. State statutes do not address discrimination on account of sexual orientation or gender identity; however, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County established that employment discrimination against LGBT people is illegal under federal law.

Laws regarding same-sex sexual activity
Prior to European settlement in the 18th and 19th centuries, there were no known legal or social punishments for engaging in homosexual activity. Perceptions toward gender and sexuality within Native American tribes both were and still are different than those of people from European descent. Several tribes have traditions of "third gender" people (also called "two-spirit") who perform tasks and wear clothes within the tribe that outsiders may consider to be gender non-conforming or incongruous with their primary or secondary sex characteristics. Among the Arikara, "male-bodied" people who "act as women" are known as skuxát. Likewise, the Hidatsa and the Mandan refer to them as miati and mihdeke, respectively, while they are known as wįktą, winkta and wíŋkte (or winkte) among the Assiniboine, the Dakota and the Lakota.

The first criminal law against sodomy in North Dakota was enacted in 1862, then the Dakota Territory. It prohibited heterosexual and homosexual fellatio. The law was expanded in 1885 to include anal intercourse. The state's vagrancy laws were expanded in 1903 to cover anyone whose speech or conduct was deemed to be "lewd, wanton and lascivious". In State v. Nelson (1917), the North Dakota Supreme Court broadened the scope of the sodomy law to include acts of cunnilingus.

In 1927, a law initially designed to permit the sterilization of mentally and physically disabled inmates was expanded to include anyone who state authorities believed might be "habitual criminals, moral degenerates and sexual perverts". The forced sterilization law was repealed in 1965.

In 1973, the state legalized private, adult, consensual homosexual relations as part of a larger revision of the Criminal Code that set the universal age of consent at eighteen years.

Recognition of same-sex relationships

Same-sex marriage has been legal in North Dakota since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Obergefell v. Hodges on June 26, 2015, which found the denial of marriage rights to same-sex couples unconstitutional. The state had previously restricted marriage to the union of one man and one woman and denied recognition to same-sex unions under any legal designation both in its Constitution and by statute.

A lawsuit challenging the state's refusal to license and recognize same-sex marriages, Ramsay v. Dalrymple, was initiated in June 2014, but proceedings were suspended in January 2015 pending action by the U.S. Supreme Court in related cases.

In August 2020, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians legalized same-sex marriage within its reservation by a vote of 6–2; the first Native American tribal jurisdiction in North Dakota to do so.

Adoption and parenting
North Dakota permits adoption by individuals and state law does not expressly ban LGBT people or same-sex couples from adopting or having custody of children. However, in the 1980s, the North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that because of societal prejudices, the sexual orientation of a parent would be the deciding factor in child custody cases. This ruling was subsequently reversed in 2003.

North Dakota law expressly allows private adoption organizations in the state to discriminate against LGBT individuals or couples seeking to adopt children, if such discrimination is based on a sincerely held religious belief.

Lesbian couples have access to assisted reproduction services, such as in vitro fertilization. State law recognizes the non-genetic, non-gestational mother as a legal parent to a child born via donor insemination, irrespective of the marital status of the parents. In addition, North Dakota law explicitly permits gestational surrogacy. This statute also declares that a child born to a gestational surrogate is the child of the intended parents, whether same-sex or different-sex, for all intents and purposes. Traditional surrogacy is prohibited regardless of sexual orientation.

Discrimination protections

North Dakota statutes do not explicitly address discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Since 2001, the city of Fargo has had a non-discrimination policy that includes sexual orientation, but it only applies to city employees. A similar policy exists in Jamestown. The Human Rights Campaign added Bismarck and Mandan to this list in 2016 under its annual "Municipal Equality Index", though removed them in later versions of the index.

On June 17, 2013, the Grand Forks City Council approved a measure to protect city employees and city job applicants from discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, becoming the second city in North Dakota to do so, and the first to address gender identity-based discrimination. Later that year, the city became the first in North Dakota to ban discrimination in rental housing based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

On February 17, 2015, the North Dakota Senate voted 25–22 to approve a bill that would have banned discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations. The bill did not receive enough votes to pass in the House of Representatives.

In April 2021, Governor Doug Burgum signed a bill into law allowing student groups at colleges, universities and high schools to discriminate against LGBT students. Many public colleges and universities have policies requiring students organizations receiving financial support from the institution not to discriminate against students based on race, sex, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity. These policies were upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in 2010 in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.

In March 2023, a bill formally passed the North Dakota Legislature to legally allow businesses to "refuse service on any grounds whatsoever" - based upon religious objective alone by an individual. The Governor of North Dakota is yet to either sign or veto the bill.

Bostock v. Clayton County

On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County, consolidated with Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, and in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that discrimination in the workplace on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is discrimination on the basis of sex, and Title VII therefore protects LGBT employees from discrimination.

Hate crime law
North Dakota law does not address hate crimes based on gender identity or sexual orientation.

North Dakota does have a law that addresses hate or bias based crimes, but it does not address sexual orientation or gender identity. The Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act of 1990 encouraged states to report hate crime data to the FBI. Fargo is the city responsible for reporting hate crimes to the state and federal governments. Studies have shown that 2 in 3 hate crimes go unreported. This small knowledge of hate crimes may contribute to the lack of legislation in support of the LGBT community. Groups like the Human Rights Campaign, along with other organizations, are currently working with North Dakota law officials in order to modify the hate crime laws to be LGBT-inclusive.

Although North Dakota's hate crime law does not protect LGBT people, U.S. federal law has addressed the categories of sexual orientation and gender identity since 2009, when the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act was signed into law by President Barack Obama. Hate crimes committed on the basis of the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity can be prosecuted in federal court.

Transgender rights

Identity documents
In May 2023, a bill passed the North Dakota Legislature banning transgender people from updating the gender marker on their birth record for any reason.

The Department of Transportation will update the gender marker on a driver's license and state ID card upon receipt of a letter signed by a physician or therapist stating that the applicant has completed a permanent gender change.

Gender-affirming care for minors
It is illegal to provide gender-affirming care to minors. On April 5, 2023, the state legislature passed a bill by a veto-proof majority.

Athletics
In 2021, the North Dakota Legislature passed legislation to ban transgender girls from participating in girls school sport teams. The bill passed the House by a vote of 69–25 and the Senate by a vote 27–20. The Governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, vetoed the bill on April 21, 2021. Overriding the governor's veto would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers.

In April 2023, a pair of bills passed the state legislature and were signed into law by the Governor. These bills legally ban transgender individuals assigned male at birth from playing on female sports and athletics within North Dakota schools and higher education respectively.

Pronouns
In March 2023, a bill passed the North Dakota Legislature that would have banned the use of preferred gender pronouns for trans people within all state-run schools and classrooms without explicit approval of the student's parent or guardian and school administration. The Governor of North Dakota formally vetoed the bill. Another bill in May with amendments attached (via committee) was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the Governor. This bill forbids schools and government entities from requiring (or prohibiting) the use of preferred pronouns. It also requires the disclosure and outing of transgender students to their parents within state-run schools. It went into effect July 1.

Bathroom bans
In April 2023, a bill passed both houses of the North Dakota Legislature and was signed into law by the Governor of North Dakota explicitly allowing transgender individuals' public bathroom usage to be restricted in many North Dakota state-run facilities. It went into effect July 1.

Politics
In July 2020, the North Dakotan Republican delegates voted in favor of the party's 2020 election platform. The platform opposes absolutely any civil rights protections for LGBT people, while accusing transgender people "of preying on women" and LGBT people of "recruiting children". Many Republican delegates condemned the platform. Republican Governor Doug Burgum also opposed the anti-gay platform, calling it "divisive and divisional", and saying, "As I've long said, all North Dakotans deserve to be treated equally and live free of discrimination".

Carrie Evans was elected to the Minot City Council in June 2020 and is the first openly lesbian to hold elected office in the state. In 2012, Joshua Boschee became the first openly gay man to be elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives. In 2015, Representative Randy Boehning was outed as bisexual, after having voted against an LGBT rights bill in the House.

Conversion therapy laws
In June 2021, a policy was adopted in committee within North Dakota from a regulation (which does not require legislative approval) - to legally ban conversion therapy by social workers, psychologists and councilors with their clients and/or hosts.

Public opinion
A 2017 Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) opinion poll found that 53% of North Dakota residents supported same-sex marriage, while 35% opposed it and 12% were unsure.

The same PRRI poll also found that 58% of North Dakotans supported an anti-discrimination law covering sexual orientation and gender identity, while 29% were opposed. Furthermore, 49% were against allowing businesses to refuse to serve gay and lesbian people due to religious beliefs, while 38% supported allowing such religiously-based refusals.

Summary table

See also
LGBT history in North Dakota

References

LGBT rights in North Dakota

LGBT rights in North Dakota


Alexandra Scodigor-Remenco (1897–1959) was a Romanian educator from Chişinău, Bessarabia. She founded an orphanage in 1929 that became a model institution for pre-school education in Romania. The orphanage was visited by Maria Montessori in 1938, when Alexandra Remenco was invited to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Pius XI.

Biography
Alexandra Scodigor was born in 1897, in Peresecina and studied in Orhei and Odessa. In the fall of 1917, Scodigor married to Dumitru Remenco and they had two children, Gheorghe Remenco (November 19, 1918, Chişinău – October 29, 1977, Chişinău) and Sergiu (b. Chişinău).

In 1929, she founded the orphanage "Casa copilului", which became a model institution for pre-school education. Her efforts became known in Romania and elsewhere. In 1938 the orphanage was visited by Maria Montessori, who encouraged her ideas at a conference in Rome. That same year Alexandra Remenco was invited to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Pius XI to come.

After the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia, the orphanage was closed. Remenco withdrew back to this in the near Ploiești, where she worked as a nurse. After World War II she worked as a teacher at a primary school in Chişinău. She was buried at the Central cemetery on Armenească Street, Chişinău.

Bibliography
 Donos, Alexandru. În dar oamenilor: [Schiţă despre jurnalistul Gheorghe Remenco] // Nistru, 1979, Nr. 7, pp. 115–121.
 Iurie Colesnic, Destinul tragic al unui filozof din Basarabia interbelică: despre Dumitru Remenco (1895–1940), filozof, ziarist la "Cuvânt moldovenesc", "Glasul Basarabiei", Viaţa Basarabiei, 2004, Nr. 2. pp. 210–220.

References

External links
 CONTRIBUŢII PRIVIND ACTIVITATEA ORFELINATULUI "CASA COPILULUI" DIN CHIŞINĂU, Vera Stăvilă, Muzeul Naţional de Arheologie şi Istorie a Moldovei, str. 31 August, 121-A, MD-2012 Chişinău, Republica Moldova (2007) – Artikel (Moldavisch)
 Contribution to the study of the activity of the Chişinău orphanage "Children's home"
 Dumitru I. Remenco – ziarist şi filosof
 Destinul tragic al unui filozof din Basarabia interbelică : [despre Dumitru Remenco (1895–1940), filozof, ziarist la "Cuvânt moldovenesc", "Glasul Basarabiei"

1890s births
1959 deaths
People from Orhei District
20th-century Romanian educators
Romanian women educators

Alexandra Remenco


Rogues Gallery is a 1985 rock album by English band Slade. It was the band's thirteenth studio album. Following from the band's European and American success with the singles "My Oh My" and "Run Runaway", the band decided to stop touring but continue recording. The album featured ten radio-friendly songs, although the album was not as successful as hoped, peaking at #60 in the UK.

The album featured the singles "All Join Hands", "7 Year Bitch", "Myzsterious Mizster Jones" and "Little Sheila".

Track listing
"Hey Ho Wish You Well" (Holder/Lea)
"Little Sheila " (Holder/Lea) US #86
"Harmony" (Holder/Lea)
"Myzsterious Mizster Jones" (Holder/Lea) UK #50
"Walking On Water, Running On Alcohol" (Holder/Lea)
"7 Year Bitch" (Holder/Lea) UK #60
"I'll Be There" (Holder/Lea)
"I Win, You Lose" (Holder/Lea)
"Time To Rock  " (Holder/Lea)
"All Join Hands" (Holder/Lea) UK #15

1985 albums
Slade albums
Rock albums

Rogues Gallery


Álvaro Pérez de Castro "the Castilian" (died at Orgaz in 1240) was a Castilian nobleman.

Biography
He was the son  of Pedro Fernández de Castro and Jimena Gomez, daughter of Gómez González de Manzanedo.

He served as Mayordomo mayor and lieutenant of King Alfonso IX of León on several occasions.
In 1225 Álvaro Pérez de Castro, now in the service of the Muslim rules of Jaén, participated with 160 Christian knights in the successful defence of Jaén against an army under Ferdinand III of Castile.
After the siege, Álvaro Pérez de Castro negotiated a truce between Castile and Granada, sealed with the release of 1,300 Christian prisoners. This gained him the favour of Ferdinand of Castile.

From then on he served Ferdinand of Castile, who entrusted him with the possession of the strengths of Andújar and Martos and subsequently appointed him King's representative in the border fortresses of Andalusia and in the city of Cordoba, which he helped to conquer in 1236. He also commanded the Christian forces which defeated the Muslims at the Battle of Jerez, fought in 1231.

Marriages
He married for the first time in 1212 with Aurembiaix, future Countess of Urgel and the daughter of Count Ermengol VIII of Urgell, but the marriage was annulled in 1228.

He married a second time with Mencía López de Haro, future queen of Portugal, daughter of Lope Díaz II de Haro, Lord of Vizcaya, and his wife Urraca Alfonso de León, daughter of Alfonso IX of León.

He died without leaving any offspring of his two marriages and was buried in the Monastery of Santa María de Valbuena, in which his father had been buried.

Sources

1240 deaths
12th-century nobility from León and Castile
Spanish untitled nobility
13th-century Castilian nobility
House of Castro

Álvaro Pérez de Castro


Dwijendra Kumar Ray-Chaudhuri (born November 1, 1933) is a professor emeritus at Ohio State University. He and his student R. M. Wilson together solved Kirkman's schoolgirl problem in 1968  which contributed to developments in design theory.

He received his M.Sc. (1956) in mathematics from the famous Rajabazar Science College, University of Calcutta and Ph.D. in combinatorics (1959) from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as consultant at Cornell Medicine and Sloan Kettering, a professor and chairman of the Department of Mathematics at Ohio State University, as well as a visiting professor of University of Göttingen and University of Erlangen in Germany, University of London, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Mumbai.

He is best known for his work in design theory and the theory of error-correcting codes, in which the class of BCH codes is partly named after him and his Ph.D. advisor Bose. Ray-Chaudhuri is the recipient of the Euler Medal by the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications for his career contributions to combinatorics. In 2000, a festschrift appeared on the occasion of his 65th birthday. In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
Senior U.S. Scientist Award of the Humboldt Foundation of Germany

Distinguished Senior Research Award from Ohio State University

President for Forum in New Delhi

Foundation Fellow of the ICA

Euler Medal of ICA.

Fellow of the American Mathematical Society.

Selected publications
R. C. Bose and D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri: On a class of error correcting binary group codes. Information and Control 3(1): 68-79 (March 1960).

C. T. Abraham, S. P Ghosh and D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri: File organization schemes based on finite geometries. Information and control, 1968.

D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri and R. M. Wilson: Solution of Kirkman's schoolgirl problem. Proc. symp. pure Math, 1971.

D. K. Ray-Chaudhuri and R. M. Wilson: On t-designs. Osaka Journal of Mathematics 1975.

References

Indian combinatorialists
20th-century Indian mathematicians
Fellows of the American Mathematical Society
Indian emigrants to the United States
University of Calcutta alumni
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni
Ohio State University faculty
20th-century American mathematicians
Living people
1933 births

Dijen K. Ray-Chaudhuri


Alexander Mar Thoma XIX Metropolitan (10 April 1912 – 11 January 2000) was the Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church with its center in Kerala state in south-western India.

Early life

Family
In the state of Kerala, India, on the banks of river Pamba, surrounded by the villages Maramon, Ayroor, Thadiyoor, Pullad is the village of Kuriannoor.  The Maliackel family was one of the well-known families here.   A member of this family, Rev. M. C.George was a vicar of the Mar Thoma parish in Kuriannoor. His son Kunjachen ( Alexander Mar Thoma) was born on 10 April 1912. His mother was Mariamma of Maramon, Anjilivelil family. The baby was baptized by Rev. A.V.Mathew, at the Maramon church and was given the name M. C. Chandy.

Education
He began his schooling at the age of four. In 1922, when he was ten years old, his father died. Kunjachen was sent to a nearby High School at Kozhencherry.

He continued his studies at Maharajas College, Ernakulam and at Union Christian College, Aluva. A year after finishing he was able to secure a teaching post at C.M.S.High school, Kottayam, where he taught mathematics for 12 years. While there he began to take part in social activities.

Ordination
To further his studies, he was making arrangements to go to Agra, when he was called by Dr.Abraham Mar Thoma Metropolitan to join the ministry. He accepted the offer and in 1945 joined United Theological College, Bangalore.
On 7 June 1946, he was ordained as clergy. He returned to Bangalore and in addition to his studies, was also the Assistant vicar to the Mar Thoma parish.

In 1948 he completed the course and was offered admission at Union Theological College, New York. He was able to obtain S.T.M. (Master of Systematic Theology). In 1949 he was at Hartford Seminary Foundation for his Ph.D. He received his Ph.D. in 1951. The title of his thesis was, "Viśvarūpa Darśana: a study of the vision of God in the Bhagavadgītā".

After returning to India in 1951, he was appointed as the vicar of Manganam (near Kottayam) Marthoma church for about a year.

Mar Thoma Church opened a College for higher education at Tiruvalla in 1952; Rev. M. G. Chandy was appointed as its first principal.

Consecration

Episcopa
The church Mandalam (representative assembly) realized the need for three more bishops. Rev. M. G. Chandy was one of those who were selected to be a bishop. On 23 May 1953, Juhanon Mar Thoma Metropolitan assisted by Mathews Mar Athanasius Episcopa ordained Rev. M. G. Chandy to the episcopate and was given the episcopal title, Alexander Mar Theophilus. P. Thomas (Thomas Mar Athanasius) and Philip Oommen (Philipose Mar Chrysostom) were ordained on the same day.

Suffragan Metropolitan
He was ordained as a suffragan in 1974 and was given the title Alexander Mar Theophilus Suffragan Metropolitan.

Metropolitan

Malankara throne

After the great swearing-in 1653, it became necessary to appoint a bishop. For this purpose, a special chair was made and Mar Thoma I the first bishop of Malankara church was enthroned. This throne, used for the consecration of Mar Thoma I, is in the possession of the Mar Thoma Church and is kept at Tiruvalla, It has been used in the installation of every Mar Thoma Metropolitan, to this day, so that the continuity of the throne of Mar Thoma is ensured. This was the throne used for the consecration of Mar Thoma XIX, Dr. Alexander Mar Thoma Metropolitan in the year 1976.

Enthronement
Juhanon Mar Thoma Metropolitan died in September 1976. Being the senior bishop, Alexander Mar Theophilus Suffragan Metropolitan was enthroned as the next Metropolitan on 23 October 1976 at Kottayam and was given the name Alexander Mar Thoma Metropolitan.

Developmental projects
For the development of underdeveloped villages and for the low-income group, the Metropolitan took interest to begin a number of development projects. They included CARD (Christian Agency for Rural Development); STARD (South Travancore Agency for Rural Development); for ladies SVS (Sthree Jena Vikasana Samithi) and MCRD (Marthoma Centre for Rehabilitation and Development).  For backward children Nava Jyothi school and for hill tribes, Giri Deepthi school were established.

Ecumenical relations
During this period a number of Marthomites settled in various parts of India and began to emigrate to other countries. This made it necessary to get the assistance of various established churches in those areas. For this, Mar Thoma church came into close relation with suitable churches in various parts of India and around the world.

Mar Thoma Church is an active member of the World Council of Churches.
Mar Thoma Church, Church of South India and Church of North India formed a joint council in 1978.
Came into full communion with the Anglican communion. So in 1980 he attended the enthronement of Robert Runcie as Archbishop of Canterbury, and in 1984 attended its consultative council in Nairobi.

Last days
By 1999, his health deteriorated and he wished to pass on his responsibilities to his successor. So, according to the decision of church Mandalam (representative assembly), he was elevated to the position of Valia Thirumeni (senior Metropolitan) on 23 November 1999 and the responsibilities of the church were given to his successor Philipose Mar Chrysostom Suffragan Metropolitan. Alexander Mar Thoma was the first Valia Thirumeni of the church.

He died on 11 January 2000 and was interred in the Bishops' cemetery in the SCS Compound, Tiruvalla.

See also
 Throne of St. Thomas
 List of Malankara Metropolitans
 Syrian Malabar Nasrani
 Saint Thomas Christians
 Christianity in India
 List of Catholicoi of the East and Malankara Metropolitans
 List of Syrian Malabar Nasranis

References

Further reading
Dr. Alexander Marthoma Metropolitan. (1985) The Mar Thoma Church – Heritage and Mission.
Dr. Alexander Marthoma Metropolitan. (1998). Deiva Kripayude Thanalil (In the shadow of the grace of God).
Juhanon Marthoma Metropolitan, The Most Rev. Dr. (1952). Christianity in India and a Brief History of the Marthoma Syrian Church. Pub: K.M. Cherian.
Zac Varghese Dr. & Mathew A. Kallumpram. (2003). Glimpses of Mar Thoma Church History. London, England. .
Chacko, T. C. (1936) Malankara Marthoma Sabha Charithra Samgraham (Concise History of Marthoma Church). Pub: E.J. Institute, Kompady, Tiruvalla.
Eapen, Prof. Dr. K. V. (2001). Malankara Marthoma Suryani Sabha Charitram (History of Malankara Marthoma Syrian Church). Pub: Kallettu, Muttambalam, Kottayam.
Mathew, N. M. Malankara Marthoma Sabha Charitram (History of the Marthoma Church), Volume 1 (2006), Volume II (2007), Volume III (2008). Pub. E.J.Institute, Thiruvalla.
Valia Metropolitan (Malayalam) Published by Mar Thoma Sabha Publication (2001).

External links

People from Pathanamthitta district
Saint Thomas Christians
Alexander
1912 births
2000 deaths
Christian clergy from Kerala

Alexander Mar Thoma


Flora Brovina (born 30 September 1949) is a Kosovar Albanian poet, pediatrician and women's rights activist. She was born in the town of Skenderaj in the Drenica Valley of Kosovo, and was raised in Pristina, where she went to school and began studying medicine. After finishing her university studies in Zagreb, where she specialized in pediatrics, she returned to Kosovo and worked for a time as a journalist for the Albanian-language daily newspaper Rilindja. Soon thereafter, she returned to the health care profession and worked for many years in the Pediatrics Ward of the Pristina General Hospital.

Kosovo war
As the political situation in Kosovo deteriorated in the 1990s, and fighting broke out, Brovina ran a health clinic in Pristina in which she distributed health care information on matters as diverse as snake bites, dressing wounds and delivering babies. She also used the centre to shelter a number of orphaned children, many of whom had lost their parents during the fighting and expulsions. She and her fellow workers took care of as many as 25 children at a time.

On 20 April 1999 during the Kosovo War, Brovina was abducted by eight masked Serbia paramilitaries from the home she was staying in and was driven off by car to an initially unknown destination. She was thus in captivity in Serbia when NATO forces took Priština and Serb troops withdrew from the Kosovo province. The first news of her abduction broke on 24 April 1999 when her son managed to contact the international writers' association, PEN, with an urgent appeal that the news of her abduction be made known as widely as possible. She was transferred to a Serb prison in Požarevac and, in her first month of detention, was subjected to over 200 hours of interrogation in 18 separate sessions lasting typically from 7 A.M. to 5 P.M. On 9 December 1999, in a show trial, she was accused of 'terrorist activities' under Article 136 of the Yugoslav Penal Code. She spent a year and a half in Serb prisons before being released as a result of international pressure.

Writing
As a writer, Flora Brovina is the author of three volumes of lyric verse. The first collection, Verma emrin tim (Call me by my name), containing 42 verses, was published in Pristina in 1973 when she was a mere twenty-four years old. Six years later, in 1979, the collection Bimë e zë (Plant and voice) followed. It is in this collection that some of the main themes of Brovina's poetry crystallize. Conspicuous among them is the fate of women in society, and in particular the role of women as mothers, as life-givers and nurturers. It is here that births, umbilical cords, amniotic fluid and suckling breasts begin to make their appearance. Along with plants, these are perhaps the most ubiquitous symbols of her verse production. Her third and last collection of original verse, entitled Mat e çmat (With the tape it measures), was published in Pristina in 1995. Mat e çmat appeared at a time when Kosovo was obviously gravitating towards war. Though this third collection cannot be interpreted as political verse to any great extent, there are many poems in the volume which reflect her preoccupation not only with the problems and aspirations of individuals, but also with the fate of her people, with freedom and self-determination.

In 1999, Flora Brovina was recipient of the annual Tucholsky Award of the Swedish PEN Club, a prize which has been awarded to other writers of note such as Salman Rushdie, Adam Zagajewski, Nuruddin Farah, Taslima Nasrin, Shirali Nurmuadov, and Vincent Magombe. She is also the recipient of the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award by PEN American Center and the Human Rights Award of the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Berlin.

Despite this international recognition, it is curious to note that, as a poet, Flora Brovina has never been part of the literary establishment of Kosovo, nor has her verse found its way into the mainstream of contemporary Albanian literature. A collection of her verse has appeared in English in "Flora Brovina, Call me by my Name, Poetry from Kosova" in a bilingual Albanian-English Edition, translated by Robert Elsie, New York: Gjonlekaj 2001.

Politics
After Kosovo was proclaimed independent, Flora Brovina ran for the President of Kosovo in 2001 on the list of the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), a surprise candidate instead of the party's leader Hashim Thaci. Since then, she has been a Member of the Assembly of Kosovo during each of its legislation period.

See also
 Rreze Abdullahu
 Mimoza Ahmeti
 Lindita Arapi
 Klara Buda
 Diana Culi
 Elvira Dones
 Musine Kokalari
 Helena Kadare
 Irma Kurti

References

Sources

1949 births
Chairmen of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo
Albanian feminists
Living people
Kosovan pediatricians
Kosovan poets
Kosovan women poets
Kosovan women in politics
Kosovan activists
Albanian women poets
Albanian women writers
Albanian writers
People from Skenderaj
20th-century Albanian poets
20th-century Albanian women writers
21st-century women politicians

Flora Brovina


Jesse V. Johnson is a British film director, screenwriter and stunt coordinator, born on 29 November 1971 in Winchester, England.

Johnson has made primarily action films. These include the 2009 revenge thriller The Butcher and the crime drama Charlie Valentine. He is also known for his collaboration with actor and martial artist Scott Adkins.

Prior to becoming a filmmaker, he worked as a stuntman and later a stunt coordinator. His stunt performing credits include: M:i:III, Charlie's Angels, Mars Attacks!, Planet of the Apes, Starship Troopers, War of the Worlds, Total Recall, The Thin Red Line and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. He worked as a stunt coordinator on Beowulf.

Filmography

References

External links

1971 births
Living people
British film directors
British male screenwriters
English-language film directors

Jesse V. Johnson


Nicholas "Nick" J. Corea (April 7, 1943 – January 17, 1999) was an American author, television writer, director, producer and painter. Though best known for his work on The Incredible Hulk and its sequel 1988 telefilm The Incredible Hulk Returns, he was involved with many television series during the late 1970s and 1980s including The Oregon Trail, Airwolf, Street Hawk, Hard Time on Planet Earth and Booker. He was also the creator of the 1986 western series Outlaws.

Prior to his death in 1999, Corea wrote episodes for Renegade, M.A.N.T.I.S., Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and Star Trek-series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. He was also a one-time writer and creative consultant for Walker, Texas Ranger.

Biography
Corea was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He enlisted in the United States Marines during the Vietnam War, was awarded the Purple Heart and reached the rank of Sergeant before being honorably discharged. His squad called him "Padre" since he was the oldest at 21. Shortly thereafter, he returned to his hometown to join the University City, Missouri Police Department. While in the military, he was an active contributor to Stars and Stripes and later wrote the police novel A Cleaner Breed in 1974.

Following the success of his first book, Corea entered the television industry as a writer and producer. His first scripts were for police dramas Police Woman (1974), Baa Baa Black Sheep (1976) and Kingston: Confidential (1977). His first regular writing job was for western series The Oregon Trail. However, he found his first major success at Universal Studios as writer, director and producer of The Incredible Hulk from 1978 to 1981.

He wrote and directed the 1981 television movie The Archer: Fugitive from the Empire. The movie was intended to be a pilot for a regular television series and, although broadcast on NBC, it was better received outside the United States where it "received some theatrical exposure" under the title The Archer and the Sorceress.

He was also the supervising producer for Gavilian and a writer for The Renegades (1983), Airwolf (1984) and Street Hawk (1985). He was also the writer and executive producer for J.O.E. and the Colonel, another television movie, in 1985. A year later, he wrote, produced and directed a short-lived western-themed science fiction series, Outlaws, in 1986. The pilot proved popular with viewers, being one of the most watched shows the week it aired, however ratings quickly dwindled as poor promotion and its placement in the Saturday night "graveyard" slot led to its eventual cancellation by CBS at the end of its first season. Two of its stars, Rod Taylor and Charles Napier, had been cast members of The Oregon Trail and the final episode featured clips from that show as part of a "flashback" episode of how the characters first met.

In 1988, Corea wrote, directed and produced the television movie The Incredible Hulk Returns as a follow-up to the original Incredible Hulk series. He then wrote episodes for Hard Time on Planet Earth and Booker during 1989 and, in 1992, he wrote the television movie Mario and the Mob.

From 1992 to 1993, Corea was a writer and executive producer for Renegade and later wrote episodes for M.A.N.T.I.S. in 1994, and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and High Sierra Search and Rescue during 1995. He also wrote two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and one of Star Trek: Voyager. One of his last television projects was as a one-time writer and creative consultant for Walker, Texas Ranger. He died of pancreatic cancer in Burbank, California on January 17, 1999.

Shortly before his death, Corea wrote an episode for Walker, Texas Ranger entitled "Brothers in Arms", which was to feature longtime friend and actor Grand L. Bush as a guest star. Bush portrayed Simon Trivette, an estranged brother of James Trivette (Clarence Gilyard), and is considered one of the most memorable episodes in the series. Bush and his wife, journalist Sharon Crews, later watched the episode privately with Corea's widow when it was finally broadcast.

Nick Corea was also an avid painter, whose works include Blue Baby, Love Masks, etc.

Bibliography
A Cleaner Breed (1974)

References

External links

1943 births
1999 deaths
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Vietnam War
American television directors
American television producers
American television writers
American male television writers
Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California
Writers from St. Louis
United States Marines
20th-century American businesspeople
Screenwriters from Missouri
20th-century American screenwriters
20th-century American male writers

Nicholas J. Corea


The Dark Ages: An Age of Light is a four-part documentary television series written, directed, and presented by the British art critic Waldemar Januszczak looking at the art and architecture of the so-called Dark Ages (ie. Early Middle Ages) that shows it to be an era with advancements contrary to popular perceptions of the period. It was broadcast by the BBC in November and December 2012.

Episode one: "The Clash of the Gods"
Januszczak shows how Christianity emerged into the Roman Empire as an artistic force in the third and fourth centuries. Early Christians had no art. They were an illegal secret cult, and practised in very small groups. Januszczak asserts that Rotas Squares, found throughout the Roman Empire including Pompeii, were early Christian symbols along with the fish and the anchor. When the Edict of Milan made Christianity legal, Christian art began appearing. With no description of Jesus in the Bible, the earliest images of Christ were blond, curly-haired, young, and beardless, an appearance Januszczak says was borrowed from Apollo, the pagan god of the sun, who was usually depicted with a halo. Januszczak tells us that the Vatican has galleries filled with these "cheerful initial Christs, armed with their Harry Potter wands, which they wave busily as they perform a succession of helpful miracles." Images of angels were copied from those of Nike. With the emergence of Saint Mary and the adoption of Christianity by the emperor Constantine, artists drew upon other pagan artwork for inspiration, and more heroic and powerful images of Jesus emerged. They also embraced the development of new forms of architecture to contain and display their art.

Viewing figures: 661,000

Episode two: "What the Barbarians Did for Us"
The "Barbarians" are often blamed for the collapse of the Roman Empire, but in reality they were fascinating civilisations that produced magnificent art. Focusing on the often already Christian Huns, Vandals and Goths, Januszczak follows each tribe's journey across Europe to settle in new lands and discovers the incredible art they produced along the way.

Viewing figures: 697,000

Episode three: "The Wonder of Islam"
Along with Christianity, the Dark Ages saw the emergence of another religion — Islam. After emerging in the Near East, it spread across North Africa and into Europe in such a short time that there was originally no art. In more settled times, highly decorated mosques began to be built based on the prophet Mohammad's own home. Their architectural and scientific achievements, including the mapping of the stars, dwarfed anything existing in the western world. Januszczak visits the Dome of the Rock, desert palaces forgotten by modern Islam with their more sensual artwork, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun where it was believed Noah's Ark landed, and the Mosque of Cordoba. He identifies the Nilometer used to measure the flood of the Nile and uses an astrolabe that Muslims used to find the direction of Mecca.

Episode four: "The Men of the North"
This episode concentrates on the Vikings and their inventive craftsmanship, the expansive  Carolingians' art of exquisite finesse and richness and the skillful hardworking ingenious Anglo-Saxons. Januszczak shows the Viking skill in making ships and their attacks on Christian centres such as Lindisfarne not only to loot but to defend their own Norse gods. He visits the Jelling stones that commemorated the Danes' conversion to Christianity. Charles Martel and the Franks belief they were God's chosen people after the defeat of Muslim forces later led to Charlemagne being declared Holy Roman Emperor by the Pope and the creation of the largest empire since the Romans. Januszczak considers Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel, Aachen, as a brutal and cold attempt to copy the Muslim Mosque of Cordoba. Anglo-Saxon art is represented by the Sutton Hoo hoard. Januszczak concludes that in the Dark Ages it was not the sword but the written word, whether in wood, stone, or what he considers the greatest masterpiece of all art, the Lindisfarne Gospels, that defined the age.

Viewing figures: n/a

Reception
Mary Beard, Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, disputed the claim in episode one that the Rotas Square was a Christian symbol on the blog of the Times Literary Supplement.

Larry Hurtado, Emeritus Professor of New Testament Language, Literature & Theology at the University of Edinburgh's School of Divinity, in his personal blog criticized the idea that the early Christians were a secretive movement, and pointed out misunderstandings evident in the explanations given by Janusczak for the manner of portrayal of Jesus Christ in early Christian art.

References

External links

2010s British documentary television series
2012 British television series debuts
2012 British television series endings
Medieval documentaries
BBC television documentaries about prehistoric and ancient history
BBC television documentaries about medieval history

The Dark Ages: An Age of Light


Jyotisar, on the bank of Jyotisar Sarovar wetland, is a Hindu pilgrimage site in the city of Kurukshetra in Haryana state of India. In Hinduism it is where Krishna delivered the sermon of Bhagavad Gita - the doctrine of Karma and Dharma to his wavering friend Arjuna to guide him to resolve his ethical dilemma and revealed his virat rupa (universal form) to him.

Adi Sankaracharya, an 8th Century Hindu scholar, has established that Jyotisar is the exact place where Krishna delivered the Bhagavad Gita to Arjuna.

Jyotisar, Kurukshetra is part of the Krishna circuit  (Vrindavan, Barsana, Govardhan, Mathura, Dwarka and Bhalka).

It lies west of Kurukshetra city on SH-6 state highway.

Background

Etymology

'Jyoti' means the light or enlightenment in this context. 'Sar' means the core. Hence, 'Jyotisar' means 'core meaning of light' or 'ultimately of God' i.e. the 'essence of enlightenment'.

Association with Mahabharta

According to mythology, Krishna gave a sermon to Arjuna at Jyotisar, during which the Bhagavad Gita was revealed under a vat vriksh (banyan tree), a sacred tree in Indian-origin religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism. A banyan tree which local tradition says is an offshoot of the tree Krishna preached under stands on a raised plinth at Jyotisar.

There is also an old Shiva temple here where the Kauravas and Pandavas had worshipped Shiva. Abhimanyupur and Harsh Ka Tila, archaeological finds are nearby. The Dharohar Museum, Kurukshetra Panorama and Science Centre, and Shrikrishna Museum are also in Kurukshetra.

Jyotisar religious heritage tourism project

Jyotisar tirth was renovated and continuously being upgraded by the Kurukshetra Development Board. Krishna Circuit Kurukshetra development project is jointly undertaken by the Government of Haryana and India's Ministry of culture, which entails development of several other sites in and around Kurukshetra including Brahma Sarovar, Sannihit Sarovar, Narkatari Baan Ganga, Abhimanyu Ka Tila and Mahabharata themed park, etc. Phase-I entails Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata museum, statues, and development of various trithas in 4 kos ki Kurukshetra prikrama, etc. Phase 2 entails broadening of revived saraswati river from Pipli to Jyotisar.

As part of the National Krishna Yatra circuit, 48 Kos Kurukshetra and 134 pilgrimage sites within it are being developed along the lines of the Braj Kosi Yatra. Under this national project, Union Government of India and respective state governments are also constructing two mega temples of Lord Krishna, at Vrindavan on 65 acres with a cost of Rs 800 crores (US120 million) and at Bangalore with a cost of Rs 700 crores (US105 million).

Mahabharata light and sound show

A daily light and music laser show is organized by the tourism department at the Jyotisar lake, which recreates episodes from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata museum

The project includes the hi-tech digital and virtual reality Bhagavad Gita and Mahabharata theme museum at Jyotisar, with a 100,000 sq feet new constructed area which will cater for 10,000 pilgrims expected every day.

To promote international religious tourism, this Mahabharata and Sri Krishna heritage theme project entails construction of 8 buildings on the bank of ancient Jyotisar lake. Each building, 4 to 5 story high, will have a separate theme based on the mahabharta which will provide pilgrim and tourists an immersive experience of being in the Mahabharat war which lasted for 18 days. The project will cost Rs 200 cr or US$30 million at 2018 prices.

Mahabharata era statues

Several tall statues of Mahabharata era figures are being installed in and around Jyotisar.

Gitopdesh - Gita Updesh statue

A marble chariot statue of Krishna preaching to Arjuna marks the site at Jyotisar where mythological tradition says Bhagavad Gita was revealed to Arjuna.

Sri Krishna Virat Swaroop statue at Jyotisar

In 2021 a 40 feet tall statue of Krishna, made of ashtadhatu (eight metals), was installed at the cost of INR10 crore (INR100 million or US130,000 at 2021 prices) at Jyotisar. The 40 ft high statue on a 10 ft plinth. which with landscaping will cost Rs. 10 crore. The statue was designed by the sculptor Ram Vanji Sutar, who also designed the 182-metre Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel in Gujarat and Ram Janmabhoomi temple. The statue has nine heads, including Krishna, Shiva, Ganesha, Narsimha avatara of Vishnu, Sugriva, Hanumana, Parshurama, and Agni Deva (The fire god), which will be covered with a canopy in the form of Sheshnaga.

Abhimanyu Chakravyūha statue at Abhimanyupur

A 18-ft tall statue of Abhimanyu at Abhimanyupur, with a chariot wheel carried in both hands above his head depicting his stance during he Chakravyūha battle of mahabharta war, is installed at Abhimanyupur at the place where he was killed. It is installed by the Kurukshetra Development Board at a cost of Rs 24 lakh in 2020. This will be part of 8 acre park housing the statue and a  Chakravyūha formation.

Bhishama Deathbed and Arjuna's Banganga statue at Narkatari

At Narkatari, between Jyotisar and Kurukshetra city, 2 statues will be installed - Arjuna and "Bhishama's sarsaiya (Bhishma's deathbed). "Arjuna's Banganga" statue is 9-ft tall is depicted in the posture of him shooting an arrow to bring out the underground holy spring water for the thirsty Bhishma. Whereas, Bhishma's statue is depicted lying on a 10-ft long death bed made of arrows. It will cost Rs 32 lakh.

Pipli-Jyotisar Sarasvati riverfront project

This entails broadening of the Sarasvati River, a sacred river mentioned in the sacred Hindu text Rigveda, from Pipli to Jyotisar, banks of river will be beautified, tourist cruises and boats from Pipli to Jyotisar tirtha will be operated. As Sarasvati River has been made perennial, it will be widened to enhance the flow of water and to utilise the channel for heritage, tourism and recreational activities. The length of Sarasvati's channel from Pipli on NH-44 in the northeast of Kurukshetra city to Sutlej Yamuna link canal (SYL canal) immediate east of Jyotisar is 21 km (70,000 ft) long. It is  wide near Pipli zoo at NH-44, which gets reduced to a varying width of between . This narrowing of the river hampers flow of water and causes flooding in the inhabited areas in the northern part of Kurukshetra city. The narrowing of river is caused by the illegal encroachments by people. In March 2021, people were asked to remove the encroachments, after which legal notices will be sent to the remaining illegal encroachers. After the encroachment has been removed, the river will be widened, which will also prevent flooding.

The river receives 1,000 cusecs at Pipli during rainy season, but downstream only 200 cusecs water could flow due to encroachments. A minimum 70 ft wide channel is needed for the smooth flow. Hence, river will be widened after removing encroachments.

In addition to boating, there will be series of ghats, open air gym and cafeteria, etc. Initially boating will be started from Pipli to Kheri Markanda village, which will be later extended till Jyotisar after the widening of Sarasvati river.

 Current status

The 18 month long construction project commenced on 21 June 2018 with target completion by December 2019. However, the project was delayed for various reason including covid, and now it is scheduled to be completed by November 2021. As of August 2021, according to the officials the Administrative Block and Building No 4 are already complete, remaining work is 85% complete. However, ground report by new reports estimate only 50% work is complete, subsequently government officials have assured completion by Nov 2021.

 Religious observance

 Kurukshetra Prasadam - Channa laddu speciality prasadam

Just like Mathura peda as prasāda (consecrated food offered as blessing) is a specialty of Braj Krishna circuit in Mathura area, the sweet laddu made from the roasted channa (Indian chickpea) will be used as the geo-specialty food prasāda of various tirthas within 48 kos kurukshetra prikarma. This will be called Kurukshetra Prasadam. Compared to other sweets such as barfi or peda, the laddu does not spoil easily and has a longer shelf life at room temperature. Kurukshetra Development Board (KDB) has advised all the sweet shops if any tourist or pilgrim asks for prasad then only chana laddoo must be given. KDB will open 5 shops of its own to sell channa laddu as Kurukshetra Prasadam.

 Gita International Festival and Gita Deepotsav

Jyotisar is one of the important site where the Gita International Festival is held every year in December. This also entails a Gita Deepotsav' (Gita festival of lights) during which hundreds of thousands of traditional earthen diya lamps are lit on the banks of Brahma Sarovar, Sannihit Sarovar and Jyotisar Sarovar. For example, 300,000 lamps were lit in December 2020.

See also

 Hindu pilgrimage sites in India
 List of Hindu temples
 Religious tourism in India

References

External links
District Kurukshetra, Haryana, India
http://www.thedivineindia.com/jyotisar/5902

Abhimana temples of Vishnu

Hindu temples in Haryana
Vishnu temples
Kurukshetra
Hindu pilgrimage sites in India
Mahabharata
48 kos parikrama of Kurukshetra
Tourist attractions in Kurukshetra district
Krishna
Krishna temples

Jyotisar


PT-121 was a motor torpedo boat of the United States Navy, built by the Electric Launch Company (ELCO) of Bayonne, New Jersey, launched in 1942, and sunk by air attack in a friendly fire incident on 27 March 1944.

Service history
On the morning of March 27, 1944, Lt. Crowell C. Hall, USNR, executive officer of Squadron 25, in PT-353 (Ens. George H. Guckert, USNR), with PT-121 (Ens. Richard B. Secrest, USNR), was trying to thread a way through New Britain's reefs to Ewasse, in Bangula Bay, to investigate a reported enemy schooner. At 0745, four P-40s fighters of 78 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force operating out of Kiriwina, flew over and Lieutenant Hall asked them by radio to investigate the schooner. The aircraft complied, and reported it had been strafed previously and was no longer a worthwhile target. No sooner had the boats turned to leave than they were attacked by four other P-40s of 78 Squadron and a Beaufighter heavy fighter of 30 Squadron RAAF. A second Beaufighter recognized the PTs and throughout the attack attempted to call off the other Beaufighter by radio and to maneuver to head off the P-40s.

No order to open fire was given on either boat. After the aircraft made several runs, gunners on the PT-353 fired seven or eight rounds of 40 mm and five rounds of 37 mm, and those on the PT-121 fired seven rounds of 20 mm and three short bursts of .50 caliber gunfire. Lieutenant Hall on the PT-353 and Ensign Secrest on the PT-121 stopped the firing immediately. Both boats burned, exploded, and sank, except for a portion of the bow of the PT-121. Shortly after the attack, two P-40s of the group that had investigated the schooner returned. They dropped a liferaft to the survivors and sent in a radio report of the tragedy. Five hours later, a P-40 guided PT-346 and PT-354 to the survivors.

Four officers and four enlisted men were dead; four officers and eight enlisted men were wounded; two PTs were completely destroyed.

In part, the losses were caused by a failure in communication. The message reporting the intended movements of PTs had been placed in the wrong file at 78 Squadron headquarters, so the pilots had not been told that PTs would be operating in the area. In part, the losses were caused by failure of the pilots to recognize the PTs. The first P-40s recognized them and gave them a helping hand. One Beaufighter in the second group recognized them and tried to stop the attack. The other pilots simply mistook them for enemy craft.

After an investigation by the Navy, Ensign Secrest received the Navy Cross.

References

External links
 Casualties: U.S. Navy and Coast Guard Vessels, Sunk or Damaged Beyond Repair during World War II, 7 December 1941-1 October 1945

121
Patrol vessels of the United States Navy
World War II patrol vessels of the United States
Ships sunk by Australian aircraft
Motor torpedo boats sunk by aircraft
Friendly fire incidents of World War II
1942 ships
World War II shipwrecks in the Pacific Ocean

Patrol torpedo boat PT-121


In a religious context, the practice of contemplation seeks a direct awareness of the divine which transcends the intellect, often in accordance with prayer or meditation.

Etymology
The word contemplation is derived from the Latin word contemplatio, ultimately from the Latin word templum, a piece of ground consecrated for the taking of auspices, or a building for worship. The latter either derives from the Proto-Indo-European root  *tem- ("to cut"), on notion of "place reserved or cut out", or from the root *temp- ("to stretch, string"), thus referring to a cleared (measured) space in front of an altar. The Latin word contemplatio was used to translate the Greek word θεωρία (theōría).

Greek philosophy

Contemplation was an important part of the philosophy of Plato; Plato thought that through contemplation, the soul may ascend to knowledge of the Form of the Good or other divine Forms. Plotinus as a (neo)Platonic philosopher also expressed contemplation as the most critical of components for one to reach henosis.
To Plotinus the highest contemplation was to experience the vision of God, the Monad or the One. Plotinus describes this experience in his works the Enneads. According to his student Porphyry, Plotinus stated that he had this experience of God four times. Plotinus wrote about his experience in Enneads 6.9.

Judaism

A number of sources have described the importance of contemplation in Jewish traditions, especially in Jewish meditation. Contemplation was central to the teaching of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides, who taught that contemplating God involves recognizing moral perfection, and that one must interrupt contemplation to attend to the poor. Contemplation has also been central to the Musar movement.

Christianity

In Eastern Christianity, contemplation (theoria) literally means to see God or to have the Vision of God. The state of beholding God, or union with God, is known as theoria. The process of Theosis which leads to that state of union with God known as theoria is practiced in the ascetic tradition of Hesychasm. Hesychasm is to reconcile the heart and the mind into one thing (see nous).

Contemplation in Eastern Orthodoxy is expressed in degrees as those covered in St John Climacus' Ladder of Divine Ascent. The process of changing from the old man of sin into the newborn child of God and into our true nature as good and divine is called Theosis.

This is to say that once someone is in the presence of God, deified with him, then they can begin to properly understand, and there "contemplate" God. This form of contemplation is to have and pass through an actual experience rather than a rational or reasoned understanding of theory (see Gnosis). Whereas with rational thought one uses logic to understand, one does the opposite with God (see also Apophatic theology).

The anonymously authored 14th century English contemplative work The Cloud of Unknowing makes clear that its form of practice is not an act of the intellect, but a kind of transcendent 'seeing,' beyond the usual activities of the mind - "The first time you practice contemplation, you'll experience a darkness, like a cloud of unknowing. You won't know what this is... this darkness and this cloud will always be between you and your God... they will always keep you from seeing him clearly by the light of understanding in your intellect and will block you from feeling Him fully in the sweetness of love in your emotions. So be sure to make your home in this darkness... We can't think our way to God... that's why I'm willing to abandon everything I know, to love the one thing I cannot think. He can be loved, but not thought."

Within Western Christianity contemplation is often related to mysticism as expressed in the works of mystical theologians such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross as well as the writings of Margery Kempe, Augustine Baker and Thomas Merton.

Dom Cuthbert Butler notes that contemplation was the term used in the Latin Church to refer to mysticism, and "'mysticism' is a quite modern word".

Meditation
In Christianity, contemplation refers to a content-free mind directed towards the awareness of God as a living reality.  Meditation, on the other hand, for many centuries in the Western Church, referred to more cognitively active exercises, such as visualizations of Biblical scenes as in the Ignatian exercises or lectio divina in which the practitioner "listens to the text of the Bible with the 'ear of the heart', as if he or she is in conversation with God, and God is suggesting the topics for discussion."

In Catholic Christianity, contemplation is given importance. The Catholic Church's "model theologian", St. Thomas Aquinas wrote: "It is requisite for the good of the human community that there should be persons who devote themselves to the life of contemplation." (Sentences) One of his disciples, Josef Pieper commented: "For it is contemplation which preserves in the midst of human society the truth which is at one and the same time useless and the yardstick of every possible use; so it is also contemplation which keeps the true end in sight, gives meaning to every practical act of life." Pope John Paul II in the Apostolic Letter "Rosarium Virginis Mariae" referred specifically to the catholic devotion of the Holy Rosary as "an exquisitely contemplative prayer" and said that "By its nature the recitation of the Rosary calls for a quiet rhythm and a lingering pace, helping the individual to meditate on the mysteries of the Lord's life as seen through the eyes of her who was closest to the Lord. In this way the unfathomable riches of these mysteries are disclosed."

According to Aquinas, the highest form of life is the contemplative which communicates the fruits of contemplation to others, since it is based on the abundance of contemplation (contemplari et contemplata aliis tradere) (ST, III, Q. 40, A. 1, Ad 2).

Islam

In Islamic tradition, it is said that Muhammad would go into the desert, climb a mountain known as Mount Hira, and seclude himself from the world. While on the mountain, he would contemplate life and its meaning.

Bahai Faith
Baha'u'llah and Abdu'l-Baha wrote about contemplation and meditation in regards to reflecting on beauty, the Kingdom of God, science, and the arts.  Abdu'l-Baha stated that "the sign of the intellect is contemplation and the sign of contemplation is silence... he cannot both speak and meditate".

See also

 Attunement
 Contemplative education
 Contemplative prayer
 Henosis
 Hesychasm
 Interior life
 Miksang (contemplative photography)
 Prayer of Quiet
 Quietism (Christian philosophy)
 Religious experience

Notes

References

Further reading
Butler, Cuthbert. Western Mysticism: Augustine, Gregory and Bernard on Contemplation and the Contemplative Life. Dover, Mineola, New York, 2003. second ed. (Originally published by E.P. Dutton, London 1926).
Lossky, Vladimir. The Vision of God. SVS Press, 1997.
 Papanikolaou, Aristotle. Being With God. University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.
Plested, Marcus.The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition. Oxford Theological Monographs, 2004.
Spidlik, Tomas. The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook. Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo Michigan, 1986.
Staniloae, Dumitru. The Experience of God: Revelation and Knowledge of the Triune God. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 1. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2005.
Staniloae, Dumitru. The Experience of God: The World, Creation and Deification. Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, Volume 2. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2005.

External links
 Aristotle: Why the Contemplative Life is the Happiest (Nicomachean Ethics 10.7). English and Greek.
 Philo of Alexandria, On the Contemplative Life

Christian prayer
Meditation
Spirituality
Religious philosophical concepts
Platonism
Concepts in ancient Greek philosophy of mind

Contemplation


HMS Truculent was a British submarine of the third group of the T-class. She was built as P315 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow, and launched on 12 September 1942. She sank nine enemy vessels.

The submarine was funded by donations from the town of Glossop in Derbyshire, whose population raised £175,000 in 1942-3 to fund warships.

Her bow struck a Swedish oil tanker outside the mouth of the Medway in January 1950. Held primarily responsible, Truculent began to sink – 64 men were lost as she was ferrying workers as well as carrying her crew – and her wreck was towed to the destined nearby dockyard then sold for scrap.

Regional navigation rules thereafter mandated a Truculent Light – a panoramic white light on the bow of submarines moving under their own power.

Wartime service
Truculent spent much of her World War II wartime service in the Pacific Far East, save for early 1943, operating on the European shelf. Here, in the Norwegian Sea she sank the German submarine U-308 with all hands on its first patrol.

She took part in Operation Source, towing the X-class midget submarine X-6 to Norway to attack the heavy Kriegsmarine warships ,  and Lützow.

On her transfer to the Pacific, she sank the Japanese army cargo ship Yasushima Maru; the small vessel Mantai; the hell ship Harugiku Maru with 180 of 720 POWs killed; and five Japanese sailing vessels. She also laid mines, one of which damaged the .

She survived the war and returned to the United Kingdom to continue in service with the Royal Navy.

Sinking
On 12 January 1950, Truculent was returning to Sheerness, having completed trials after a refit at Chatham. In addition to her peacetime complement, she was carrying 18 dockyard workers. She was delving into the Thames Estuary at night. At 19:00, a ship showing three lights appeared ahead. It was decided it must be stationary, and because Truculent could not pass to the starboard side without running aground, the order was given to turn to port. At once, the situation became clear; the Swedish oil tanker Divinaon passage from Purfleet and bound for Ipswichcame out of the darkness. The extra light indicated that she was carrying a very combustible cargo. The two collided, the Divina's bow striking Truculent by the starboard bow hydroplane, and remained locked together for a few seconds before the submarine sank.

Fifty-seven of her crew were swept away in the current from a later-deemed premature escape – 15 survivors were picked up by a boat from the Divina and five by the Dutch ship Almdijk. Most of the crew survived the collision and escaped, but died in the freezing cold mid-winter conditions on the mud islands that litter the estuary.

Sixty-four men died. Truculent was salvaged on 14 March and beached at Cheney Spit. The wreck was moved inshore the next day, where 10 bodies were recovered. She was refloated on 23 March and towed into Sheerness Dockyard. An inquiry attributed 75% of the blame to Truculent and 25% to Divina.

Truculent was then sold to be broken up for scrap on 8 May 1950.

Her loss led Peter de Neumann of the Port of London Authority to develop plans for a port control system, and the later introduction of the 'Truculent light', an extra steaming all-round white light on the bow, on British submarines, to ensure they remained highly visible to other ships.

Commemoration in coinciding film
On 21 February 1950, the film Morning Departure was released. The story, of a British submarine on a training cruise that sinks after encountering a loose mine, is told from the perspective of the small group of survivors trapped under the sea. Filming finished shortly before HMS Truculent sank, and the film was almost withdrawn. The decision was made to release the film as planned, and to add the following message that appears in the opening credits:
This film was completed before the tragic loss of HMS Truculent, and
earnest consideration has been given as to the desirability of presenting
it so soon after this grievous disaster.
The Producers have decided to offer the film in the spirit in which it was made,
as a tribute to the officers and men of H.M. Submarines, and to the Royal Navy of which they form a part.

See also

HMS Thetis (N25)
List of United Kingdom disasters by death toll

References

Publications

External links

British T-class submarines of the Royal Navy
Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness
1942 ships
World War II submarines of the United Kingdom
Cold War submarines of the United Kingdom
Maritime incidents in 1950
British submarine accidents
Shipwrecks in the North Sea
Submarines sunk in collisions
Maritime disasters in Kent
Thames Estuary

HMS Truculent (P315)


A two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) or two-stage rocket launch vehicle is a spacecraft in which two distinct stages provide propulsion consecutively in order to achieve orbital velocity. It is intermediate between a three-stage-to-orbit launcher and a hypothetical single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launcher.

At liftoff the first stage is responsible for accelerating the vehicle.  At some point the second stage detaches from the first stage and continues to orbit under its own power.

An advantage of such a system over single-stage-to-orbit is that the most of the dry mass of the vehicle is not carried into orbit. This reduces the cost involved in reaching orbital velocity, as much of the structure and engine mass is ejected, and a larger percentage of the orbited mass is payload mass.

An advantage over three or more stages is a reduction in complexity and fewer separation events, which reduces cost and risk of failure.

Examples
Historical
 Cosmos-3M
 Delta IV (medium variant)
 Falcon 1
 Saturn IB
 Saturn V-SL1 (Skylab launch only)
 Titan II GLV
 Tsyklon-2
 Zenit-2 and Zenit-2M
Current
 Atlas V (401 and 501 variants)
 Electron
 Falcon 9
 Long March 5 (default configuration)
In development
 Angara 1.2
 Starship
 New Glenn
 Miura 5
 Vulcan

It is not always clear when a vehicle is a TSTO, due to the use of strap-on booster rockets at launch. These are dropped early on in the flight and may or may not be considered an additional stage if the core engine(s) continue firing. These are sometimes considered half a stage, leading to the expression one-and-a-half-stage-to-orbit (1.5STO) e.g. for the Long March 5B or the Atlas missile, which was a single core stage with additional boosters. Similarly, two-stage designs with additional boosters can be referred to as 2.5-stage rockets e.g. the Ariane 5 or most Atlas V variants (all except the 401 and 501).

Reusable launch systems
With reference to a reusable launch system this approach is often proposed as an alternative to single-stage-to-orbit (or SSTO). Its supporters argue that, since each stage may have a lower mass ratio than an SSTO launch system, such a system may be built further away from limits of its structural materials. It is argued that a two-stage design should require less maintenance, less testing, experience fewer failures and have a longer working life. In addition the two-stage approach allows the lower stage to be optimized for operation in the Earth's lower atmosphere, where pressure and drag are high, while the upper stage can be optimized for operation in the near-vacuum conditions of the later part of the launch. This allows an increase in the payload mass fraction of a two-stage vehicle over single-stage or stage-and-a-half vehicles, which have to perform in both environments using the same hardware.

Critics argue that the increased complexity of designing two separate stages that must interact, the logistics involved in returning the first stage to the launch site, and the difficulties of conducting incremental testing on a second stage will outweigh these benefits. In the case of airplane-like lower stages they also argue how difficult and expensive high speed aircraft (like the SR-71) are to develop and operate, and question performance claims. Many 'mini-shuttle' designs that use transport aircraft as first stages also face similar problems with ice/foam as the Space Shuttle due to the requirement they also carry a large external tank for their fuel.

As of 2023, SpaceX and NASA are the only launch providers which have achieved first-stage reuse of an orbital vehicle with SpaceX's two-stage Falcon 9 and 2.5-stage Falcon Heavy, and NASA's Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters. Rocket Lab has recovered multiple first stages of their Electron rocket, but has not flown it again.

Helicopter-like first stage
Taking the view that airplane like operations do not translate to airplane-like appearance, some reusable TSTO concepts have first stages that operate as VTOL or VTOHL aircraft. The DC-X has proven the VTOL option design workable. Other designs like the DH-1 concept take it a step further and use a 'pop-up/pop-down' approach, which delivers the orbiting stage to a point about 60 km above the earth's surface, before dropping down to the launch pad again. In the case of the DH-1, the upper stage is effectively an 'almost SSTO' with a more realistic mass fraction and which was optimised for reliability.

Airplane-like first stage

Some TSTO designs comprise an airplane-like first stage and a rocket-like second stage. The airplane elements can be wings, air-breathing engines, or both. This approach appeals because it transforms Earth's atmosphere from an obstacle into an advantage. Above a certain speed and altitude, wings and scramjets cease being effective, and the rocket is deployed to complete the trip to orbit.

Saenger (spacecraft) was among the first concepts of this type.

While not an orbital vehicle, the successful private SpaceShipOne suborbital spacecraft developed for the Ansari X Prize demonstrated that a two-stage system with a winged aircraft as the "lower half" can reach the edge of space. The team behind SpaceShipOne has built and flown a commercial sub-orbital launch system — SpaceShipTwo — based on this technology.

The Pegasus rocket while airplane launched, is not a two-stage-to-orbit system because the rocket component itself is composed of multiple stages.

References

Chinese inventions
Space access
Rocket propulsion
2

Two-stage-to-orbit


A heuhotel (German for "hay hotel") is a form of public lodging in which guests pay for sleeping accommodations in bedding made of hay, typically in shared quarters.

The style of lodging first became popular in the middle ages, and had a resurgence in modern form in Germany in 2009. As of then the typical price was 8 euros per night per guest.

References

Hotel types

Heuhotel