Martin Luther, German theologian and religious reformer who was the catalyst of the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. Through his words and actions, Luther precipitated a movement that reformulated...

St. John Paul II

St. John Paul II, ; beatified May 1, 2011; canonized April 27, 2014; feast day October 22), bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church (1978–2005), the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and...

Muhammad

Muhammad, the founder of Islam and the proclaimer of the Qurʾān. Muhammad is traditionally said to have been born in 570 in Mecca and to have died in 632 in Medina, where he had been forced to emigrate...

John Calvin

John Calvin, theologian and ecclesiastical statesman. He was the leading French Protestant reformer and the most important figure in the second generation of the Protestant Reformation. His interpretation...

Absalom

Absalom, third and favourite son of David, king of Israel and Judah. The picture of Absalom that is presented in 2 Samuel 13–19 suggests that he was the Alcibiades of the Old Testament, alike in his personal...

St. Augustine

St. Augustine, ; feast day August 28), bishop of Hippo from 396 to 430, one of the Latin Fathers of the Church and perhaps the most significant Christian thinker after St. Paul. Augustine’s adaptation...

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres: painting of Joan of Arc

St. Joan of Arc

St. Joan of Arc, ; canonized May 16, 1920; feast day May 30; French national holiday, second Sunday in May), national heroine of France, a peasant girl who, believing that she was acting under divine guidance,...

Moses

Moses, Hebrew prophet, teacher, and leader who, in the 13th century bce (before the Common Era, or bc), delivered his people from Egyptian slavery. In the Covenant ceremony at Mt. Sinai, where the Ten...

Caravaggio: The Conversion of St. Paul (second version)

St. Paul the Apostle

St. Paul the Apostle, one of the leaders of the first generation of Christians, often considered to be the most important person after Jesus in the history of Christianity. In his own day, although he...

Pope Gregory VII, after his expulsion from Rome, laying a ban of excommunication on the clergy “together with the raging king” (Henry IV of Germany), drawing from the 12th-century chronicle of Otto of Freising; in the library of the University of Jena, Germany.

St. Gregory VII

St. Gregory VII, ; canonized 1606; feast day, May 25), one of the greatest popes of the medieval church, who lent his name to the 11th-century movement now known as the Gregorian Reform or Investiture...

Adam and Eve

Adam and Eve, in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, the original human couple, parents of the human race. In the Bible there are two accounts of their creation. According to the Priestly (P) history...