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Agatha, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Agatha, Saint ăgˈəthə [key], 3d cent., Sicilian virgin, martyred under Roman Emperor Decius. She is mentioned in the Martyrology of Jerome and the Calendar of Carthage in the 6th cent. Agatha is i...

Deken, Agatha

(Encyclopedia)Deken, Agatha: see Wolff, Elisabeth (Bekker). ...

Christie, Dame Agatha

(Encyclopedia)Christie, Dame Agatha, 1890–1976, English detective story writer, b. Torquay, Devon, as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. Christie's second husband was the archaeologist Sir Max Mallowan, and she gained ...

Wolff, Elisabeth (Bekker)

(Encyclopedia)Wolff, Elisabeth (Bekker) ālēˈzäbĕt bĕkˈər vôlf [key], 1738–1804, Dutch novelist. She wrote satirical articles and poems, but she is most famous for the epistolary novels she wrote in colla...

Aloysius, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Aloysius, Saint ălōĭˈshəs [key], 1568–91, Italian Jesuit, b. Luigi Gonzaga, heir to the marchese de Castiglione. Highly devout from childhood, he renounced his title and entered (1585) the Soci...

Denis, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Denis, Saint dĕnˈĭs, dənēˈ [key], fl. 3d cent.?, patron of France. He is said to have been first bishop of Paris and to have died a martyr on Montmartre. His shrine was Saint-Denis. The Latin of...

Dominic, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dominic, Saint dŏmˈənĭk [key], 1170?–1221, Castilian churchman, named Domingo de Guzmán, founder of the Dominicans. He studied at Palencia and became a canon, then prior of canons, of the cathe...

Dunstan, Saint

(Encyclopedia)Dunstan, Saint dŭnsˈtən [key], c.910–88, English monk, archbishop of Canterbury (960–88), b. near Glastonbury. He lived as a monk until called (940) to court by King Edmund of Wessex. He became...

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