island state in the Caribbean Sea. The second largest of the Windward group in the Lesser Antilles, it is located about 24 miles (39 kilometres) south of Martinique and some 21 miles northeast of Saint Vincent. Saint Lucia is 27 miles long...

St. Patrick (died ca. 460) was a British missionary bishop to Ireland, possibly the first to evangelize that country. He is the patron saint of Ireland. Although Patrick was the subject of a number of ancient biographies, none of them date...

USENER, HERMANN (1833–1905), was a German classical philologist and historian of religion. From 1866 to 1902 Usener was professor at Bonn. His major writings include Das Weihnachtsfest (1889); Religionsgeschichtliche Untersuchungen ...

SERAFIM OF SAROV (1759–1833) was a Russian Orthodox priest, monk, mystic, and renowned spiritual elder (starets); born July 19, 1759 in Kursk, central European Russia, and died January 2, 1833 at the Monastery of Sarov in the forest...

island country lying within the Lesser Antilles, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It consists of the island of Saint Vincent and the northern Grenadine Islands, which stretch southward toward Grenada. The island of Saint Vincent lies about 20...

The Greek missionaries Saints Cyril (827-869) and Methodius (825-885) were the apostles of the Slavic peoples. Preaching Christianity in the native language, they brought the Slavic countries firmly into the sphere of the Christian Church....

(2002 est. pop. 7.2 million). Saitama Prefecture is situated in the central region of Japan's island of Honshu. One of the nation's leading agricultural areas, it occupies an area of 3,799 square kilometers. Saitama's ...

The retail specialty store, Saks Fifth Avenue, has stood as a symbol of American wealth and prestige for most of the twentieth century. The firm was founded in 1902 when Andrew Saks, a street peddler from Philadelphia, opened Saks &...

the daily ritual prayer enjoined upon all Muslims as one of the five Pillars of Islam (arkān al-Islām). There is disagreement among Islamic scholars as to whether some passages about prayer in the Muslim sacred scripture, the Q...

Among the many meanings of the word business, the one that describes it most is "the condition of being busy." Being busy in making profit is what business is about. There are many kinds of businesses operating to make profit but the one th...

Thick, colourless fluid constantly present in the mouth, composed of water, mucus, proteins, mineral salts, and amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starches. One to two litres are produced daily by the salivary glands. Small amounts are co...

(born Nov. 6, 1946, Pasadena, Calif., U.S.) U.S. film actress. She played saccharine television roles in Gidget (1965–66) and The Flying Nun (1967–70) before developing her talent at the Actors Studio (1973–75), from whic...

Born November 9, 1833 Matthews County, Virginia Died July 25, 1916 Richmond, Virginia Confederate nurse and hospital administrator Only woman to hold a position as a commissioned officer in the Confederate Army Sally Tompkins overcame trad...

Sally Ride (born 1951) is best known as the first American woman sent into outer space. She also served the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in an advisory capacity, being the only astronaut chosen for President Ronald ...

group of rod-shaped, gram-negative, facultatively anaerobic bacteria in the family Enterobacteriaceae. Their principal habitat is the intestinal tract of humans and other animals. Some species exist in animals without causing disease sympt...

1576-1626 French engineer and architect, who pioneered the use of the steam engine. In Les Raisons des forces mouvantes (1615), Caus described a steam pump in which water was heated in a vessel and pushed out by the resulting steam. Becaus...

REINACH, SALOMON (1858–1932) was a French archaeologist and author of more than seventy books. Reinach is most widely known for his controversial writings in the area of the anthropological-ethnological comparative study of religion...

SALT has been a necessary additive to humanity's diet from the time people began cooking meat. The use of salt as a preservative and condiment became so important that it soon acquired a truly astonishing variety of symbolic meaning...

Saltation is the transportation of sand grains in small jumps by wind or flowing water. The term does not refer to salt, but is derived from the Latin saltare, to dance. Certain conditions are necessary for saltation. First, a bed of sand ...

Salt wedging in an estuary is the process by which a distinct layer of saltwater forms below a layer of freshwater due to differences in density. Salt wedging is the result of weak tidal currents that cannot mix the saltwater with the fres...

Salvador Allende Gossens (1908-1973) was President of Chile from 1970 to 1973. He died in the Presidential Palace during the brutal military coup which installed a military dictatorship in Chile in 1973. Allende dedicated his life to the c...

international Christian religious and charitable movement organized and operated on a military pattern. The Army is established in more than 80 countries, preaching the gospel in about 112 languages in 16,000 evangelical centres and opera...

fl. c. 1285-1317 Italian inventor sometimes credited with the development of eyeglasses. A Florentine, Armati created his glasses between 1285 and 1299, some two decades after Roger Bacon (1213-1292) suggested in his Opus majus that proper...

American vocal duo who were among the most popular performers of soul music in the late 1960s and whose gritty, gospel-drenched style typified the . Samuel Moore (b. Oct. 12, 1935, Miami, Fla., U.S.) and David Prater (b. May 9, 1937, Ocill...

Sam Battaglia Born: 1908 Died: 1973 Sam “Teets” Battaglia rose from street crime to the top ranks of a criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit before he received a prison sentence that ended his career. Over the course...