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Godric (novel)

Godric (novel)

left Godric (ISBN 0060611626) is a novel published in 1981, written by Frederick Buechner, that tells the semi-fictionalised life story of a mediaeval Catholic saint: Godric of Finchale. This novel was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Godric is told in Saint Godric's own voice: Buechner intentionally uses style, tone, and word choice to evoke a "mediaeval" manner of speaking. The book unfolds with Godric narrating the events of his life in retrospect, as he looks back on his hundred years of life and does not see the saintly existence that many ascribe to him. The honest earthiness of Godric's account of his life -- his candour in describing his most pious acts and most wretched sins -- made this book a critical favourite. The Times, for example, noted in its Literary Supplement that "Godric is a living battleground where God fights it out with the world, the Flesh, and the Devil." As a historical novel it provides a gateway for understanding mediaeval history with the full breadth of imagination, characterisation and emotion that non-fiction history is restricted by. Some of the historical themes Buechner masterfully envisions in the book include blood libels, pilgrimage, Christian asceticism, hagiography, traveling court culture, Norman and Saxon relations.

References

- [http://www.hermitary.com/lore/buechner.html The Hermit in Lore: Frederick Buechner's Godric.] Category:1981 books

1981

1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar.

Events

January-February

- January - Sarawak chamber found
- January 1 - Greece enters the EEC
- January 1 - Palau becomes self-governing
- January 4 - Sheffield police arrests Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper
- January 13 - Donna Griffiths, a schoolgirl in Pershore, Worcestershire, UK, begins a uncontrollable series of sneezes that end September 16 1983 - after 978 days
- January 16 - Protestant gunmen shoot and wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey and her husband
- January 19 - United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity
- January 20 - Ronald Reagan succeeds Jimmy Carter as President of the United States of America. Minutes after Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days - Iran hostage crisis ends.
- February 4 - Gro Harlem Brundtland becomes the Prime Minister of Norway
- February 9 - Polish Prime Minister Józef Pinkowski resigns and is replaced by General Wojciech Jaruzelski
- February 10 - A fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino kills eight and injures 198
- February 14 - Australia withdraws recognition of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia
- February 23 - Antonio Tejero, with members of the Guardia Civil enters the Spanish Congress of Deputies, and stops the session, where Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo was going to be named president of the government. The coup d'état would fail thanks to King Juan Carlos.

March-April

Juan Carlos.]]
- March 1 - Bobby Sands, an IRA member, begins hunger strike for political status in Long Kesh prison - he dies May 5, the first of ten men.
- March 6 - After 19 years hosting the CBS Evening News Walter Cronkite signs off for the last time.
- March 7 - Colombian guerillas execute US bible translator Chester Allen Bitterman for being a CIA agent
- March 11 - Chilean president Augusto Pinochet sworn in for an eight-year term as president.
- March 19 - Three workers are killed and five injured during a test of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
- March 30 - President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, D.C., hotel by John Hinckley, Jr., whose family had connections with the vice president. Two police officers and James Brady are also wounded.
- April 11 - Riot in Brixton, South London - rioters throw petrol bombs, attack police and loot shops.
- April 12 - The first launch of a Space Shuttle: Columbia launches on the STS-1 mission.
- April 15 - The Australian Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock resigns from cabinet accusing the Australian Prime Minister Fraser of gross disloyalty.
- April 18 - A Minor League baseball game between the Rochester Red Wings and the Pawtucket Red Sox at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island becomes the longest professional baseball game in history: 8 hours and 25 minutes/33 innings (the 33rd inning was not played until June 23rd).

May

- May - Daniel K. Ludwig abandons the Jari project in the Amazon Basin
- May 6 - A jury of architects and sculptors unanimously selects Maya Ying Lin's design for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial from 1,421 other entries.
- May 10 - In the second round of the presidential elections in France (French presidential election, 1981), François Mitterrand beats Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.
- May 13 - Pope John Paul II is shot at and nearly killed by Mehmet Ali Ağca, a Turkish gunman, as he entered St. Peter's Square in Rome to address a general audience. (Two days after Christmas in 1983, Pope John Paul went to the prison to meet and forgive his would-be assassin)
- May 21 - In France, socialist François Mitterrand becomes president of the Republic.
- May 22 - Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, imprisoned for life for 13 counts of murder
- May 25 - In Riyadh, the Gulf Cooperation Council is created between Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
- May 26 - The Italian government resigns over its links to the fascist Masonic cell P-2
- May 30 - Bangladesh President Ziaur Rahman assassinated in Chittagong.

June-July

Chittagong return to Buckingham Palace following their wedding watched by over 1 billion people worldwide.]]
- June 5 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that five homosexual men in Los Angeles, California have a rare form of pneumonia seen only in patients with weakened immune systems (these were the first recognized cases of AIDS).
- June 6 - Seven coaches of an overcrowded passenger train fall off the tracks into the River Kosi, in Bihar, India - about 800 dead
- June 7 - Israeli Air Force destroys Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor
- June 13 - At the Trooping the Colour ceremony in London, a teenager Marcus Sargeant fires six blank shots at Queen Elizabeth II.
- June 22 - Hamas attacks a travel agency in Greece - two dead
- June 22 - Iranian president Abolhassan Banisadr deposed
- June 29 - Morris Edwin Robert armed with a machine gun holds hostages in the FBI section in Atlanta Federal Building. After three hours the hostages are rescued - Robert is shot
- July 17 - Hyatt Regency walkway collapse: Two skywalks filled with people at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Kansas City, Missouri collapse into a crowded atrium lobby killing 114
- July 17 - Israeli bombers destroy the PLO HQ in Beirut
- July 27 - Wheel of Fortune premiers in Australia on the Seven Network.
- July 29 - Lady Diana Spencer marries Charles, Prince of Wales.

August-October

- August 1 - MTV (Music Television) is launched.
- August 5 - Ronald Reagan fires 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.
- August 7 - The Washington Star ceases all operations after 128 years of publication.
- August 12 - The original IBM PC released in the United States.
- August 19 - Gulf of Sidra incident (1981). Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi sends two Sukhoi Su-22 fighter jets to intercept two US fighters over the Gulf of Sidra. The American jets destroyed the Libyan fighters.
- August 19 - US President Ronald Reagan appoints the first female US Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor.
- August 28 - South African troops invade Angola.
- August 31 - A bomb explodes at the US Army base in Ramstein, West Germany injuring 20 people.
- September 4 - An explosion at a mine in Zalizin, Czechoslovakia - 65 dead.
- September 10 - Picasso's painting "Guernica" is moved from New York to Madrid.
- September 15 - The John Bull becomes the oldest operable steam locomotive in the world, at 150 years old, when it operates under its own power outside Washington, DC.
- September 18 - France abolishes capital punishment.
- October 6 - Egyptian president Anwar Sadat is assassinated during a parade by army members who were part of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization, who opposed his negotiations with Israel.
- October 10 - The Ministry for Education of Japan issues the jōyō kanji.
- October 14 - Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected President of Egypt one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.
- October 21 - Andreas Papandreou becomes Prime Minister of Greece.

November-December

Prime Minister of Greece
- November 1 - Antigua and Barbuda gain independence from the United Kingdom
- November 13 - The first Friday the 13th event held by motorcyclists in Port Dover, Ontario, Canada
- November 23 - Iran-Contra scandal: Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua
- November 25-November 26 - Group of mercenaries lead by Mike Hoare take over Mahe airport in the Seychelles in a coup attempt. Most of the mercenaries escape by a commandeered Air India passenger jet, six are later arrested
- November 30 - Cold War: In Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on Thursday, December 17)
- December 1 - A Yugoslavian DC-9 crashes into a mountain while approaching Ajaccio Airport in Corsica killing 178
- December 4 - South Africa grants "homeland" Ciskei independence (not recognized outside South Africa)
- December 11 - El Mozote massacre - in El Salvador, army units kill 900 civilians
- December 13 - Wojciech Jaruzelski declares the state of martial law in Poland to prevent dismantling of the communist system by Solidarity
- December 15 - A car bomb destroys the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, killing 61 people. This is the first modern suicide bombing. Syrian intelligence is blamed.
- December 20 - The Penlee lifeboat disaster off the coast of South-West Cornwall
- December 28 - The first American test-tube baby, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born (Norfolk, Virginia)

unknown dates

- Millennium Renactment of the translation of Saint Edward the Martyr's relics from Wareham to Shaftesbury
- Mauritania abolishes the institution of slavery.
- James Tobin wins the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
- Mike Cooley, Bill Mollison and Patrick van Rensburg / Education with Production win the Right Livelihood Award
- The counter-culture wire service LNS ceases operations.
- Public funding of election Campaigns introduced in New South Wales, Australia
- The State Council of the People's Republic of China listed the four cities (Beijing, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Guilin) as where the protection of historical and cultural heritage as well as natural scenery should be treated as a prior project.
- Cuba suffers a major outbreak of Dengue hemorrhagic fever, with 344 203 cases. [http://w3.whosea.org/en/Section10/Section332/Section521_2454.htm]
- Computer and Video Games (magazine) begins publication.

Births

January-March

- January 1 - Zsolt Baumgartner, Hungarian race car driver
- January 3 - Eli Manning, American football player
- January 6 - Mike Jones, American rapper
- January 12 - Quentin Griffin, American football player
- January 15 - El Hadji Diouf, Senegalese footballer
- January 15 - Howie Day, American singer and songwriter
- January 17 - Scott Mechlowicz, American actor
- January 20 - Jason Richardson, American basketball player
- January 20 - Owen Hargreaves, Canadian-born footballer
- January 21 - Dany Heatley, German-born hockey player
- January 22 - Chantelle Anderson, American basketball player
- January 22 - Willa Ford, American singer, television hostess, and actress
- January 22 - Beverley Mitchell, American actress
- January 25 - Alicia Keys, American musician
- January 28 - Elijah Wood, American actor
- January 31 - Justin Timberlake, American musician
- February 3 - Alisa Reyes, American actress
- February 10 - Natasha St-Pier, Canadian singer
- February 11 - Kelly Rowland, American singer (Destiny's Child)
- February 14 - Erin Torpey, American actress
- February 15 - Jenna Morasca, American television personality
- February 17 - Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress
- February 18 - Andrei Kirilenko, Russian basketball player
- February 22 - Jeanette Biedermann, German singer and actress
- February 24 - Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player
- February 27 - Josh Groban, American singer
- March 1 -Ana Hickmann, Brazilian model
- March 2 - Bryce Howard, American actress
- March 3 - Lil' Flip, American rapper
- March 9 - Antonio Bryant, American football player
- March 11 - David Anders, American actor
- March 11 - Lee Evans, American football player
- March 11 - LeToya Luckett, American musician (Destiny's Child)
- March 16 - Andrew Bree, Irish swimmer
- March 28 - Julia Stiles, American actress

April-June

- April 1 - Hannah Spearritt, British singer (S Club 7)
- April 2 - Bethany Joy Lenz, American actress and singer
- April 10 - Michael Pitt, American actor
- April 14 - Mary Castro, American model and actress
- April 17 - Hanna Pakarinen, Finnish singer
- April 19 - Hayden Christensen, Canadian actor
- April 19 - Catalina Sandino Moreno, Colombian actress
- April 19 - Troy Polamalu, American football player
- April 22 - Ken Dorsey, American football player
- April 28 - Jessica Alba, American actress
- May 5 - Craig David, British singer
- May 5 - Danielle Fishel, American actress
- May 11 - Lauren Jackson, Australian basketball player
- May 13 - Sunny Leone, Canadian entertainer
- May 15 - Jamie-Lynn DiScala, American actress
- May 19 - Klaas-Erik Zwering, Dutch swimmer
- May 20 - Sean Conlon, English musician (5ive)
- May 20 - Lindsay Taylor, American basketball player
- June 1 - Carlos Zambrano, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player
- June 7 - Anna Kournikova, Russian tennis player
- June 7 - Larisa Oleynik, American actress
- June 9 - Natalie Portman, Israeli-born actress
- June 13 - Christopher Robert Evans, American actor
- June 12 - Adriana Lima, Brazilian model
- June 21 - Brandon Flowers, American singer and keyboardist (The Killers)

July-September

- July 8 - Anastasia Myskina, Russian tennis player
- July 23 - Michelle Williams, American singer (Destiny's Child)
- July 24 - Summer Glau, American actress (Firefly)
- August 4 - Marques Houston, American singer and actor
- August 5 - Carl Crawford, baseball player
- August 5 - Kō Shibasaki, Japanese singer and actress
- August 8 - Vanessa Amorosi, Australian singer and songwriter
- August 8 - Roger Federer, Swiss tennis player
- August 8 - Meagan Good, American actress
- August 16 - Taylor Rain, American actress
- August 24 - Chad Michael Murray, American actor
- August 25 - Rachel Bilson, American actress
- September 1 - Clinton Portis, American football player
- September 4 - Beyoncé Knowles, American singer (Destiny's Child) and actress
- September 8 - Jonathan Taylor Thomas, American actor
- September 16 - Alexis Bledel, American actress
- September 21 - Nicole Richie, American actress
- September 22 - Rocco Baldelli, baseball player
- September 26 - Christina Milian, Afro-Cuban singer, songwriter and musician
- September 26 - Serena Williams, American tennis player
- September 30 - Dominique Moceanu, American gymnast

October-December

- October 1 - Jamelia, British singer
- October 3 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Swedish footballer
- October 11 - Beau Brady, Australian actor
- October 15 - Elena Dementieva, Russian tennis player
- October 20 - Willis McGahee, American football player
- October 22 - Michael Fishman, American actor
- October 28 - Milan Baros, Czech footballer
- October 29 - Amanda Beard, American swimmer
- October 30 - Ivanka Trump, American model
- October 31 - Irina Denezhkina, Russian writer
- October 31 - Frank Iero, American guitarist (My Chemical Romance)
- November 1 - LaTavia Roberson, American musician (Destiny's Child)
- November 3 - Jackie Gayda, American professional wrestler
- November 4 - Vince Wilfork, American football player
- November 8 - Azura Skye, American actress
- November 11 - Natalie Glebova, Canadian pageant winner (2005 Miss Universe)
- November 26 - Natasha Bedingfield, British singer
- November 26 - Aurora Snow, American actress
- December 2 - Britney Spears, American singer
- December 3 - Brian Bonsall, American actor
- December 4 - Lila McCann, American singer
- December 7 - Ben Adams, British singer (a1)
- December 13 - Amy Lee, American singer (Evanescence)
- December 15 - Kyle McKain, American Club DJ
- December 15 - Thomas Herrion, American football player (d. 2005)
- December 21 - Shizuka Arakawa, Japanese figure skater
- December 27 - Yuvraj Singh, Indian cricketer
- December 28 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, first American test-tube baby
- December 28 - Sienna Miller, American-born actress
- December 29 - Angela Via, American singer
- December 30 - Haley Paige, American actress

Deaths

- January 5 - Harold C. Urey, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1893)
- January 5 - Lanza del Vasto, Italian-born philosopher, poet, and activist (b. 1901)
- January 6 - A.J. Cronin, Scottish novelist (b. 1896)
- January 10 - Katherine Alexander, American actress (b. 1898)
- January 23 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
- February 1 - Geirr Tveitt, Norwegian composer (b. 1908)
- February 9 - Bill Haley, American musician (b. 1925)
- February 15 - Karl Richter, German conductor (b. 1926)
- February 20 - Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg, magazine editor, socialite (b. 1904)
- February 26 - Howard Hanson, American composer (b. 1896)
- March 6 - George Geary, English cricketer (b. 1893)
- March 7 - Kiril Kondrashin, Russian conductor (b. 1914)
- March 9 - Max Delbrück, German biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1906)
- April 7 - Norman Taurog, American film director (b. 1899)
- April 12 - Joe Louis, American boxer (b. 1914)
- April 27 - John Aspinwall Roosevelt, American businessman and philanthropist (b. 1916)
- May 9 - Nelson Algren, American author (b.1909)
- May 11 - Odd Hassel, Norwegian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1897)
- May 11 - Bob Marley, Jamaican singer and musician (b. 1945)
- May 18 - William Saroyan, American author (b. 1908)
- June 1 - Carl Vinson, U.S. Congressman (b. 1883)
- June 19 - Lotte Reiniger, German-born silhouette animator (b. 1899)
- June 28 - Terry Fox, Canadian athlete and cancer activist (b. 1958)
- August 14 - Karl Böhm, Austrian conductor (b. 1894)
- September 1 - Albert Speer, Nazi official (b. 1905)
- September 2 - Dame Enid Lyons, Australia politician (b. 1897)
- September 8 - Bill Shankly, Scottish football manager (b. 1913)
- September 8 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1907)
- September 9 - Sir Robert (Bob) Askin, Premier of New South Wales (b. 1907)
- September 12 - Eugenio Montale, Italian writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1896)
- October 2 - Harry Golden, American journalist (b. 1902)
- October 6 - Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (assassinated) (b. 1918)
- October 16 - Stanley Clements, American actor (b. 1926)
- October 16 - Moshe Dayan, Israeli general (b. 1915)
- November 7 - Will Durant, American philosopher and writer (b. 1885)
- November 22 - Hans Adolf Krebs, German physician and biochemist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1900)
- November 29 - Natalie Wood, American actress (drowned) (b. 1938)
- December 28 - Allan Dwan, Canadian-born film director (b. 1885)

Nobel Prizes

- Physics - Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn
- Chemistry - Kenichi Fukui, Roald Hoffmann
- Medicine - Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel
- Literature - Elias Canetti
- Peace - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

Templeton Prize

- Dame Cicely Saunders Category:1981 als:1981 ko:1981년 ja:1981年 simple:1981 th:พ.ศ. 2524

Frederick Buechner

Frederick Buechner (born July 11, 1926) is an American author. Buechner (pronounced BEEK-nur) graduated from Lawrenceville School in 1943 and was accepted to Princeton University. Buechner spent two years (1944-1946) in the military, including combat duty in World War II, before finishing his studies at Princeton. Buechner received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1947. In 1948, Buechner returned to Lawrenceville as an English teacher. In 1950, Buechner published his first novel, A Long Day's Dying, which he had began writing during his senior year at Princeton. Buechner quit teaching in 1953 and moved to New York to become a full-time writer. Buechner then began attending Union Theological Seminary, and received his Bachelor of Divinity Degree in 1958. He then served as the school chaplain at Phillips Exeter Academy from 1958-1967. His most critically acclaimed novel, Godric, is the semi-fictionalized story of the life of a medieval Catholic saint, Godric of Finchale, told from his own perspective. Godric was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1981. The poet James Merrill (1926-1995) credited Buechner as an early inspiration. Merrill dedicated First Poems to Buechner in 1951. Merrill and Buechner were friends in high school. Buechner currently lives in Vermont and as of 2004 continues to write. A film made about him in 2003 can be watched here: http://buechner.newlifefilms.com/watch.html.

Selected bibliography

- The Magnificent Defeat, 1966
- The Entrance to Porlock, 1970
- Open Heart, 1972
- The Book of Bebb, 1979
- Godric, 1981
- The Final Beast, 1982
- The Alphabet of Grace, 1985
- Peculiar Treasures: A Biblical Who's Who, 1985
- Telling the Truth: The Gospel As Tragedy, Comedy, and Fairy Tale, 1985
- The Sacred Journey, 1985
- Brendan, 1987
- Whistling in the Dark: An ABC Theologized, 1988
- The Wizard's Tide: A Story, 1990
- The Clown in the Belfry: Writings on Faith and Fiction, 1992
- The Son of Laughter, 1993
- Wishful Thinking, 1993
- The Longing for Home: Recollections and Reflections, 1996
- On the Road With the Archangel, 1997
- The Storm, 1998
- The Eyes of the Heart: A Memoir of the Lost and Found, 1999
- Speak What We Feel (Not What We Ought to Say): Reflections on Literature and Faith, 2001 Buechner, Frederick

Saint

In general, the term Saint refers to someone who is exceptionally virtuous and holy. It can be applied to both the living and the dead and is an acceptable term in most of the world's popular religions. The Saint is held up by the community as an example of how we all should act, and his or her life story is usually recorded for the edification of future generations. The process of officially recognizing a person as a Saint, practiced by some churches, is called canonization and serves to hold up those individuals as role models and heroes of Christian virtue. Protestant groups object to this and use only the less formal, broader usage seen in Scripture to include all who are faithful as saints.

Etymology

The term Saint is derived from the Latin Sanctus meaning “Holy”. This is a direct translation from the Greek word άγιος (hagios) also meaning “Holy”. In its original scriptural usage it simply means “Holy” or “Sanctified”. In this form it can be applied to a “Holy” person, a place (άγιον όρος; - The Holy Mountain), a thing, such as Scripture itself (αγιογράφικα - Holy Writing), or even God (άγιον πνεύμα; - The Holy Spirit). But very soon the early Christians began to using the term “Saint” more narrowly to refer to a specific, exemplary individual. (For a lexical explanation, see Liddel & Scott. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%23525]) The earliest known occurrence of άγιος as "Saint" seems to be in The Shepherd of Hermas, chapter 5 (or 13, depending on how chapters are counted), verse 2. "The Shepherd" was authored at about the same time as 2 Peter.

Short form

Abbreviation for the term Saint is usually “St.” or “St”; in cases where multiple Saints are referenced SS. is the norm.

Historicity

Some theologians believe that many people venerated as Saints never actually existed. The polite term for such "Saints" is ahistorical. Sorting out exactly which Saints are ahistorical is difficult, because of the larger difficulty of proving a negative: the absence of independent records of a Saint's existence doesn't prove she or he never existed; indeed there are no specific records of the existence of many people who lived before the 20th century. The Acta Sanctorum (hagiographical work) of the Bollandists forms a major part of the historiography of named Saints. There are a large number of Christian saints with what appear to be pagan names. Most likely they were pagans who converted to Christianity and subsequently became Saints. However, it is possible that some pre-Christian deities (especially in Rome's area) were accidentally adopted as saints. It is thought that some cults were “Christianized” in a fairly direct manner. The basis for this is usually a similarity of names. For example, it is now commonly asserted that Saint Brigid was based on the Celtic goddess Brigid. The goddess was popular long before Christianity reached Ireland. Another possibility is the melding of the actual life of the Saint with myths related to pre-Christian gods and heroes (see Comparative religion). There are some striking parallels to the events portrayed in the lives of certain saints and fables such as Androcles and the Lion.

Definition specific to religion

Christianity

Roman Catholicism

In the Roman Catholic church, the title of Saint - with a capital 'S' - refers to a person who has been formally canonized (officially recognized) by the Church. Formal Canonization is a lengthy process often taking many years, even centuries. The process includes a thorough investigation of the individual who has been put forth as a candidate for Sainthood. This investigation typically is concerned with examining and confirming (or disproving) any number of visions or miracles that may have been attributed to the person in question, or of the general holiness or specific good deeds that he or she may have done while alive. It should be noted, however, that the Church places special weight on those miracles or instances of intercession that happened after the individual died and which are seen to be demonstrative of the Saint's continued special relationship with God after death. Also, by this definition there are many people in heaven who have not been formally declared as Saints (most typically due to their obscurity and the involved process of formal canonization) but who may nevertheless generically be referred to as saints (lowercase 's'). While it can at times seem so, Saints are not worshiped — this would violate the Ten Commandments — but are asked for their help or their own prayer for a person. Some Saints intercede for specific problems: a "patron saint". Once a person has been declared a Saint, the body of the Saint is considered holy. In past centuries, the remains of Saints were distributed as holy artifacts. In modern times, however, there is a growing trend to respect the body of a Saint, leaving it alone and buried.

Eastern Orthodoxy

In the Eastern Orthodox Church a Saint is defined as anyone who is currently in Heaven, whether recognized here on earth, or not. By this definition, Adam and Eve, Moses, the various Prophets, the Angels and Archangels are all given the title of "Saint". Saints are not given the title by men, but by God The Orthodox believe that God reveals his Saints to us, often by answered prayers and other miracles. For the Orthodox, the formal recognition of a Saint often happens many years after they have been recognized by a localized community. There are numerous small local followings of countless saints that have not yet been recognized by the entire Orthodox church. After a careful process of deliberation by a synod of Bishops, there is a formal service of Glorification in which a Saint is recognized by the entire church. Such was the case with the sainthood of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family. At first the members of the Royal family were recognized as martyrs by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in 1981, after which many believers in Russia began to pray to the Tsar and his family. Miracles were reported, including one miraculous icon which prompted an immediate local glorification. In 2000, the Tsar and his family were officially Glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church. A strong proponent of a saint's canonization can be a miraculous condition of their relics (although it is not in itself alone considered sufficient). In Orthodox countries it is often the custom to re-use graves after 3 to 5 years because of the limited space. Bones are respectfully washed and placed in an ossuary, often with the person's name written on the skull. Occasionally when a body is exhumed something miraculous occurs to reveal the person's Sainthood. There have been numerous occurrences where the exhumed bones suddenly give off a wonderful fragrance, like flowers; or sometimes the body is incorrupted, just as it was on the day the person died, despite having not been embalmed (traditionally the Orthodox do not embalm the dead) and having been buried for 3 years. The reason relics are considered sacred is because, for the Orthodox, the separation of body and soul is unnatural. Body and soul both comprise the person, and in the end, body and soul will be reunited; therefore, the body of a saint shares in the “Holiness” of the soul of the saint. Because the Church shows no true distinction between the living and the dead (the Saints are alive in Heaven), the Orthodox treat the saints as if they were still here. They venerate them and ask for their prayers, and consider them brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Saints are venerated and loved and asked to intercede for our salvation, but it should be clearly understood that they are not Worshiped; their holiness is from God who alone is worthy of Adoration. As Christ says in the Gospels, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." (Matt 4:10). The relics of Saints are highly respected, even more so than the Roman Catholics. As a general rule only clergy will touch relics in order to move them or carry them in procession, however, in veneration the faithful will kiss the relic to show love and respect toward the saint. Every altar in every Orthodox church contains relics, usually of martyrs. The Church building interiors are covered with the Icons of saints. In the Orthodox Church, baptism is the moment one is born again into Christ. The person entering the baptismal font is not the same person that emerges. It is for this reason that the person is given a new name; always the name of a saint. What is proper is that the person no longer goes by his old name because that person is dead, but uses the new name exclusively. It is also common that instead of birthdays, the person celebrates his Saints Day, the day on the Calendar of Saints ascribed to that particular saint. In Orthodox tradition some saints are known by the title Equal-to-apostles in recognition of their role in evangelising countries.

Protestantism

In many Protestant churches, the word is used more generally to refer to anyone who is a Christian. This is similar in usage to St. Paul's numerous references. In this sense, anyone who is within the Body of Christ is “Holy” because of their relationship with Jesus. However, high-church Anglicans and Episcopalians use the term "saint" similarly to the manner in which Catholics use it.

Latter-day Saints

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints follow the Protestant tradition described above, referring to themselves as "Latter-day Saints", or simply "Saints". This is usually preferred over the nickname "Mormons".

Islam

Islam has, traditionally, had a central place for saints within its cosmology and saints [Arabic: awliya--literally, Friends of Allah (singular: wali)] are mentioned in verses of the Qur'an. Although there is no formal canonization process in Islam, there do exist traditions of the Prophet (hadith) and sayings of the scholars of Islam about what the qualities of a true saint are. These include soundness of faith (aqidah), a strict adherence to the Prophetic traditions (sunnah) and Shar'iah Law, an upright moral character, the performance of charismatic marvels (Ar.: karamat) and, crucially, the acknowledgment by consensus of the orthodox that such and such a person is a saint. i.e. if the Muslim masses consider someone a Saint, he or she is one. Theoretically too a saint is said to have the ability to perform any miracle which the Prophet performed and there is also a spiritual hierarchy of saints in Islam with the Qutb or Ghawth (Pole or Succour) at the apex. This hierrarchy is detailed in the work of the great Andalusian Sufi Muhyuddin Ibn al-Arabi, who is considered one of the great Saints of Islam, as well as many others. Indeed, amongst orthodox, traditional, Muslims, those referred to as [Sufis] by Orientalist scholars of Islam are considered Saints and the two terms are virtually synonyms. Traditionally, the veneration of saints and tombs or shrines in Islam is very widespread and includes all geographical areas of the Muslim world, including the conservative Arabian peninsula. Saints are believed to have a power of intercession with God (Allah), and thus the ability to perform miracles and to give power or blessings known as baraka. In most Muslim countries there are religious festivities associated with saints, such as Urs festivals in India and Pakistan or the annual Mawlid in Egypt. A great Urs is yearly held in the valley of MohraSharif where great saints still live. On these days, the local saint(s) is/are venerated, and blessings are expected. Believers are nevertheless careful to distinguish between the blessings of the prophets (particularly Moses, Jesus and Muhammad) and those of the saints. Saints are an important component of popular Islam and are associated with Sufism, which includes many of the mystical branches of Islam. Sufism has several orders with precepts (tarika) for students (murid) who seek to follow the teachings of a saint. Although saints are acknowledged by many sufis, Sufism distances itself from the more animistic and cultic aspects of the veneration of saints, which includes, as in popular Christianity, all types of religious paraphernalia and popular rituals.

Judaism

The closest notion in Judaism is the tzadik, a righteous person. The Talmud says that at any time at least 36 tzaddikim are living among us: they are anonymous, but it is for their sake that the world is not destroyed. The Talmud and the Kabbalah offer various ideas about the nature and role of these 36 tzaddikim. The term can also be used generically to mean any righteous or saintly person.

Hinduism

Saints are also recognized in Hinduism. However, unlike the Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church, no formal process is required to acknowledge a person as a saint.
- Jagadguru Kripaluji Maharaj, the founder of the Jagadguru Kripalu Parishat, an organization which propagates Raganuga Bhakti, a form of selfless devotional practise and loving service to Radha Rani and Lord Krishna
- Raghavendra Swami, one of the most famous Hindu saints was believed to have performed miracles during his lifetime and continues to bless his devotees. He espoused Vaishnavism monotheism (worship of Vishnu as Supreme God) and Dvaita philosophy.
- Shri Ramakrishna
- Swami Ramana Maharshi
- Shirdi Sai Baba (c. 1838 - October 15, 1918) was an Indian fakir/guru who is regarded by his Hindu and Muslim followers as a saint.
- Tukaram was a great saint who was believed to have performed miracles and was a devotee of Krishna.
- Sant Shiri Nunuram Sahib(1898 - 1973) , A great Saint Whose Aashram is situated in Islamkot city of Sindh Province in Pakistan. See also sant and Hindu Gurus and Saints

Buddhism

The Dhamma or path of purification as outlined by the Buddha leads the disciple eventually to the status of an ariya, a noble-hearted person, of which there are four levels of increasing sanctity and holiness. These are, sotapanna or ‘stream-winner’; sakadagami or ‘once-returner’; anagami or ‘non-returner’; and finally arahant or ‘Holy One’ – a human being who is free from all defilements. Arahant is synonymous with Buddha, a fully enlightened human being, and is frequently used as an epithet of the Buddha Gotama in the liturgy of Southern Buddhism. An arahant may be considered as both a saint and a gnani or Gnostic; somebody who possesses transcendental spiritual knowledge.

Other religions

In many of the more obscure religions of the world, a saint is a man or a woman who has a direct personal link or connection with God and who can put a person on the way back to God. Many gurus overtly or covertly claim to be saints, which followers may believe to be true, even if the objective evidence doesn't match a formal definition of a saint. In the modern religion of Discordianism, sainthood is given very easily. As one of the founders, Kerry Thornley, once said, "To be a saint you don't need to do anything special, you just need to suffer a lot". Discordians don't really agree on who (or what) are saints, but fictional characters are considered "saintlier" than real people, and insanity always helps. Yossarian from Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Don Quixote, and Bokonon from Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle all appear on the Principia Discordia's list of saintly folk.

Santeria - Voodoo

The veneration of Catholic saints forms the basis of the Cuban Santería religion. In Santería, saints are syncretised with Yoruban deities, and are equally worshipped in churches (where they appear as saints) and in Santería religious festivities, where they appear as deities (orishas); however, this practice is condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. Santeria, Haitian Vodoun, Brazilian Umbanda and other similar religions adopted the Roman Catholic Saints, or the images of the saints, as representations of their own spirits/deities or 'Orishas' in Santeria and 'Lwa' in Vodoun. Although there are many similarities between Vodoun and Santeria, they are different in respect to origin and language (Vodou is French, Santeria is Spanish). The adoption of Catholic Saints was fairly common in the religions that were adapted by the slaves in the New World. It can be understood as a more recent example of the absorption of pre-Christian elements into European "Catholicism" — although with Santeria and Vodoun the native religion seems to be more dominant. Different regions of the world where Catholicism is practiced have varying ways of practicing their faith. The Catholic Church has not always condemned the practices of these "religions" or sub-sects (although there were brief local movements against Vodoun by the Church in Haiti). Perhaps the adoption of the Catholic saints is more of a testament to the durability and adaptability of religions like Vodoun. It is remarkable that Vodoun practitioners can consider themselves Catholic and Vodounists at the same time. Perhaps it is more realistic to say that elements of Catholicism were adapted into Vodoun and Santeria.

Godric of Finchale

Godric of Finchale (c. 1065 - May 21, 1170) was an English hermit and popular medieval saint, although he was never formally canonized. He was born in Walpole in Norfolk and died in Finchale in County Durham. Godric's life was recorded by a contemporary of his: a monk named Reginald of Durham. Several other hagiographies are also extant. According to these accounts, Godric, who began from humble beginnings as the son of Ailward and Edwenna, "both of slender rank and wealth, but abundant in righteousness and virtue", was a pedlar, then a sailor and entrepreneur, and may have been the captain and owner of the ship that conveyed Baldwin I of Jerusalem to Jaffa. in 1102. After years at sea, Godric reportedly went to the island of Lindisfarne and there encountered Saint Cuthbert. This encounter changed his life, and he devoted himself to Christianity and service to God thereafter. After many pilgrimages around the Mediterranean, Godric returned to England and lived with a hermit named Aelric for two years. Upon Aelric's death, Godric made one last pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and then returned home, where he convinced Ranulf Flambard, the Bishop of Durham to grant him a place to live as a hermit at Finchale, by the River Wear. He is recorded to have lived there the final 60 years of his life, occasionally meeting with visitors approved by the local prior. As the years passed, his reputation grew, and Thomas Becket and Pope Alexander III both reportedly sought Godric's advice as a wise and holy man. Reginald describes Godric's physical attributes: :For he was vigorous and strenuous in mind, whole of limb and strong in body. He was of middle stature, broad-shouldered and deep-chested, with a long face, grey eyes most clear and piercing, bushy brows, a broad forehead, long and open nostrils, a nose of comely curve, and a pointed chin. His beard was thick, and longer than the ordinary, his mouth well-shaped, with lips of moderate thickness; in youth his hair was black, in age as white as snow; his neck was short and thick, knotted with veins and sinews; his legs were somewhat slender, his instep high, his knees hardened and horny with frequent kneeling; his whole skin rough beyond the ordinary, until all this roughness was softened by old age.... Godric is perhaps best remembered for his kindness toward animals, and many stories recall his protection of the creatures who lived near his forest home. According to one of these, he hid a stag from pursuing hunters; according to another, he even allowed snakes to warm themselves by his fire. Reginald recorded four songs of Godric's: they are the oldest songs in English for which the original musical settings survive. The novel Godric (1981) by Frederick Buechner is a fictional retelling of his life and travels. It was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

Bibliography

- Reginald of Durham, "Life of St. Godric," in G. G. Coulton, ed. Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1918.
- Frederick Buechner, Godric, 1981, ISBN 0060611626, a historical novel.
- Entry for "Godric", first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography.

References

- Reginald of Durham, [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/goderic.html Life of Saint Godric], excerpts.
- [http://www.hermitary.com/lore/buechner.html The Hermit in Lore: Frederick Buechner's Godric.] Category:Saints

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a United States award regarded as the highest honor in print journalism. The award also honors literary achievements and musical compositions. The very first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on June 4, 1917, and in recent times, they are announced each year, in the month of April. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board officially administered by Columbia University in the United States. The prize was established by Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper publisher in the late 19th century. The name Pulitzer is often mispronounced as "pew-litser." The correct pronunciation, according to administrators of the prize, should sound like the phrase, "Pull it, sir." Another misnomer is the term Pulitzer nominee. Many authors and journalists claim to be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, when in fact they are merely unsuccessful entrants who did nothing more than pay the entry fee. According to the Pulitzer administrators, only the nominated finalists chosen by Pulitzer juries, usually three per category, are entitled to be called Pulitzer nominees, or finalists. Awards are given out in categories relating to journalism, arts and letters. Only published reports and photographs by United States-based newspapers or daily news organizations are eligible for the journalism prize. These are the Pulitzer Prize category definitions in the 2004 competition:
- Beat Reporting - For a distinguished example of beat reporting characterized by sustained and knowledgeable coverage of a particular subject or activity.
- Breaking News Reporting - For a distinguished example of local reporting of breaking news.
- Breaking News Photography / Spot News Photography - For a distinguished example of breaking news photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album.
- Commentary - For distinguished commentary.
- Criticism - For distinguished criticism.
- Editorial Cartooning - For a distinguished cartoon or portfolio of cartoons published during the year, characterized by originality, editorial effectiveness, quality of drawing, and pictorial effect.
- Editorial Writing - For distinguished editorial writing, the test of excellence being clearness of style, moral purpose, sound reasoning, and power to influence public opinion in what the writer conceives to be the right direction.
- Explanatory Reporting - For a distinguished example of explanatory reporting that illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation.
- Feature Photography - For a distinguished example of feature photography in black and white or color, which may consist of a photograph or photographs, a sequence or an album.
- Feature Writing - For a distinguished example of feature writing giving prime consideration to high literary quality and originality.
- International Reporting - For a distinguished example of reporting on international affairs, including United Nations correspondence.
- Investigative Reporting - For a distinguished example of investigative reporting by an individual or team, presented as a single article or series.
- National Reporting - For a distinguished example of reporting on national affairs.
- Public Service - For a distinguished example of meritorious public service by a newspaper through the use of its journalistic resources which may include editorials, cartoons, and photographs, as well as reporting. There are also five letters (books) categories:
- Biography or Autobiography - For a distinguished biography or autobiography by an American author.
- Fiction - For distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life.
- General Non-Fiction - For a distinguished book of non-fiction by an American author that is not eligible for consideration in any other category.
- History - For a distinguished book upon the history of the United States.
- Poetry - For a distinguished volume of original verse by an American author. There are two other humanities categories that have been added:
- Drama
- Music There have also been a number of Special Citations and Awards. In addition to the prizes, Pulitzer travelling fellowships are awarded to four outstanding students of the Graduate School of Journalism as selected by the faculty.

Discontinued awards

Over the years, awards have been discontinued either because they have been expanded, renamed, or made obsolete by technology. They include:
- Correspondence
- Explanatory Journalism (became Explanatory Reporting)
- General News Reporting
- Local General Spot News Reporting
- Local Investigative Specialized Reporting
- Local Reporting
- Local Reporting, Edition Time
- Local Reporting, No Edition Time
- Photography
- Telegraphic Reporting - International (became Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting)
- Telegraphic Reporting - National (became Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting)
- the Novel (became Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

Winners

The Pulitzer Prize and popular culture

- In the LucasArts graphical adventure game Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders (1988), a journalist named Zack McCracken tries to win the Pulitzer Prize.
- In the ABC soap opera All My Children the character Edmund Grey (John Callahan) was a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.
- Homer Simpson won the Pulitzer for publishing a gossip internet page in an episode of The Simpsons.
- In the short-lived series The Critic (and also revealed on The Simpsons), Jay Sherman spends the latter part of an episode seeking a second Pulitzer Prize.
- In the DC Comics universe, Clark Kent has been described as a Pulitzer Prize winner.

External links

- [http://www.pulitzer.org Pulitzer Prize website]
- [http://book.awardannals.com/award/pulitzer/fiction/topbooks Most honored Pulitzer Prize finalists]
- [http://www.newseum.org/pulitzer/main.htm Newseum Pulitzer Prize Photographs] Category:Prizes Category:Journalism awards
- Category:Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism ja:ピューリッツァー賞

The Times

The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. Although it was printed in broadsheet format for 200 years, it switched to compact (tabloid) size in 2004. Its cover price in the United Kingdom is 60p on weekdays, and £1.10 on Saturday. The Times Sunday sister paper is The Sunday Times, a broadsheet. Its cover price is £1.60. The Times is published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International, itself wholly owned by the News Corporation group, headed by Rupert Murdoch. For much of its history, the newspaper was regarded as without rival, Britain's newspaper of record. It has played an influential role in politics and shaping public opinion about foreign events. Some claim that, more recently, it has reflected the conservative views of Mr. Murdoch, despite showing support for the Labour Party in the two last elections. The Times is sometimes referred to by people outside the UK as the London Times or The Times of London in order to distinguish it from the many other Times papers such as The New York Times. However, it is the original "Times" newspaper. It is also the originator of the ubiquitous Times New Roman typeface, originally developed by Stanley Morison of The Times in collaboration with the Monotype Corporation.
History
The Times was founded by John Walter in 1785 as The Daily Universal Register. Unhappy with Universal being universally omitted by the public, Walter changed the title after 940 editions on 1 January, 1788 to The Times. John Walter was also the first editor of the paper. He resigned in 1803, handing ownership and editorship to the second John Walter. The first John Walter had already spent sixteen months in Newgate prison for libel printed in The Times, but his pioneering efforts to obtain European news, especially from France, helped build the paper's reputation among policy makers and financiers. The Times used contributions from significant figures in the fields of politics, science, literature, and the arts to build its reputation. For much of its early life, the profits of The Times were very large and the competition minimal, so it could pay far better than its rivals for information or writers. In 1809, John Stoddart was appointed general editor, replaced in 1817 with Thomas Barnes. Under Barnes and his successor in 1841, John Thadeus Delane, the influence of The Times rose to great heights, especially in politics and amongst the City. Peter Fraser and Edward Sterling were two noted hacks and gained for The Times the pompous/satirical nickname 'The Thunderer' (from "We thundered out the other day an article on social and political reform."). The Times was the first newspaper to send special correspondents abroad, and it was the first to send war correspondents to cover particular conflicts. W. H. Russell, the paper's correspondent with the army in the Crimean War, was immensely influential with his dispatches back to England. In other events of the 19th Century, The Times opposed the repeal of the Corn Laws until the number of demonstrations convinced the editorial board otherwise. During the American Civil War, The Times represented the view of the wealthy classes, favouring the secessionists, but it was not a supporter of slavery. Its support of individual politicians was internally driven and did not pander to public opinion. The third John Walter had succeeded his father in 1847. Though the Walters were becoming more conservative, the paper continued as more or less independent. From the 1850s, however, The Times was beginning to suffer from the rise in competition from the penny press -- notably The Daily Telegraph and The Morning Post. In 1922, John Jacob Astor, a son of the 1st Viscount Astor, bought The Times from the Northcliffe family estate. The paper gained a measure of notoriety in the 1930s with its advocacy of German appeasement; then-editor Geoffrey Dawson was closely allied with those in the government who practised appeasement, most notably Neville Chamberlain. In 1967, members of the Astor family sold the paper to Canadian publishing magnate Roy Thomson, and in the same year it started printing news on the front page for the first time. (Previously, the paper's front page featured small advertisements, usually of interest to the moneyed classes in British society.) The Thomson Corporation merged it with the Sunday Times to form Times Newspapers Limited. An industrial dispute left the paper shut down for nearly a year (December 1, 1978, to November 12, 1979).
Rupert Murdoch
In 1981 The Times and Sunday Times were purchased from Thomson by Rupert Murdoch's News International. Murdoch soon began making his mark on the paper, replacing its editor, William Rees-Mogg, with Harold Evans in 1981. His most important change, however, was in the introduction of new technology and efficiency measures. In March-May 1982, following agreement with print unions, the hot-metal Linotype printing process used to print The Times since the nineteenth century was phased out and replaced by computer input and photo-composition. This allowed the staff of the print rooms of The Times and The Sunday Times to be reduced from 375 to 186. However, direct input of text by journalists ('single stroke' input) was still not achieved, and this was to remain an interim measure until the Wapping dispute of 1986, which saw the Times move from its home at New Printing House Square in Gray's Inn Road (near Fleet Street) to new offices in Wapping. In June 1990, The Times abandoned its policy of using courtesy titles on first reference ("Mr", "Mrs", or "Miss" prefixes for living persons) but continue to use them on subsequent references. The more formal style is now confined to the "Court and Social" page, though "Ms" is now acceptable in that section. In November 2003, News International began producing the newspaper in both broadsheet and tabloid sizes. On 13 September 2004, the weekday broadsheet was withdrawn from sale in Northern Ireland. Since 1 November 2004, the paper has been printed solely in tabloid format. Whilst the newspaper published dual editions, some claimed that more sensationalist stories appear in the tabloid than appeared in the broadsheet, such as celebrity features on the front page. This was denied by management at News International. The Conservative Party announced plans to launch litigation against The Times over an incident in which the newspaper claimed that Conservative election strategist Lynton Crosby had admitted that his party would not win the 2005 General Election. The Times later published a clarification, and the litigation was dropped. On 6 June 2005 The Times redesigned its Letters page, dropping the practice of printing correspondents' full postal addresses. According to its leading article, "From Our Own Correspondents", this was in order to fit more letters onto the page. Future competition may come from The World, an upmarket newspaper to be launched by Stephen Glover. In September 2005 the cover price of the Times was raised to 60p, the same as the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian, and 5p less than the Independent. It is the first time in 12 years that the cover price of the Times has matched that of its rivals, a clear indication that News International is no longer prepared to fund the price war launched in September 1993, when they shocked the industry by cutting the price of the Times from 45p to 30p.

The Times Today

Circulation
The certified average circulation figures for November 2005 show that The Times sold 692,581 copies per day. This was the highest achieved under the current Editor, Robert Thomson, and ensured that the newspaper remained ahead of The Daily Telegraph in terms of full rate sales, although The Telegraph remains the market leader for broadsheets, with a circulation of 905,955 copies, allegedly owing to over 300,000 discount subscribers each day. The circulation of both papers is dwarfed by that of The Sun (3,274,855) and other tabloids.
Image
Long considered the UK's newspaper of record, The Times is seen by some as a serious publication with high standards of journalism. Its increased coverage of and emphasis on celebrity- and sports-related news is rarely given prominence on the front page. It is not without trenchant critics, however: by way of example, Robert Fisk, seven times British International Journalist of the Year, resigned as foreign correspondant in 1988 over what he saw as political censorship of his article on the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 in July of that year.
Readership profile and image
The British Business Survey 2005 named The Times as the UK's leading daily newspaper for business people. This independent survey is sponsored by the Financial Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The Economist and The Times. The latest figures from the national readership survey show The Times to have the highest number of ABC1 25-44 readers and the largest numbers of readers in London of any of the quality papers.
Supplements

Times 2 / T2
T2 is The Timess main supplement, featuring various lifestyle columns. On 5th September 2005 it relaunched as Times 2, and it is expected to move upmarket and aim to become more appealing to women.

Crème

Crème is the newspaper's supplement for "PAs, secretaries, executive assistants and anyone who works in administrative support."[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/section/0,,8247,00.html] It is read by more secretaries than The Guardian and The Evening Standard.

The Times Magazine

The Times Magazine accompanies the newspaper on Saturday, and features columns touching on various subjects such as celebrities, fashion and beauty, food and drink, homes and gardens or simply writers' anecdotes. Notable contributors include Gordon Ramsay, one of Britain's highest profile chefs, and Giles Coren, Food And Drink Writer of the Year in 2005.

Events

London Film Festival

The Times, along with the British Film Institute, sponsors the London Film Festival (or more specifically, The Times bfi London Film Festival). It is as of 2005 Europe's largest public film event.

The Cheltenham Festival of Literature

The Times also sponsors the Cheltenham Festival of Literature.

Owners

- John Walter (1785-1803)
- John Walter, 2nd (1803-1847)
- John Walter, 3rd (1847-1894)
- Arthur Fraser Walter (1894-1908)
- Lord Northcliffe (1908-1922)
- Astor family (1922-1966)
- Roy Thomson (1966-1981)
- News International, run by Rupert Murdoch (1981- )

Editors

- John Walter (1785-1803)
- John Walter (1803-1809)
- John Stoddart (1809-1817)
- Thomas Barnes (1817-1841)
- John Delane (1841-1877)
- Thomas Chenery (1877-1884)
- George Earle Buckle (1884-1912)
- George Geoffrey Dawson (1912-1919)
- Henry Wickham Steed (1919-1922)
- George Geoffrey Dawson (1923-1941)
- Robert McGowan Barrington-Ward (1941-1948)
- William Casey (1948-1952)
- William Haley (1952-1966)
- William Rees-Mogg (1967-1981)
- Harold Evans (1981-1982)
- Charles Douglas-Home (1982-1985)
- Charles Wilson (1985-1990)
- Simon Jenkins (1990-1992)
- Peter Stothard (1992-2002)
- Robert Thomson (2002- )

Current columnists

- Simon Barnes
- Alan Coren
- Benjamin Cohen (Times Online)
- Giles Coren
- Robert Crampton
- Michael Gove
- Tim Hames
- Anthony Howard
- Philip Howard
- Mick Hume
-