Martyr Evilasius | |
---|---|
Martyr | |
Born | unknown |
Died | ~311 AD Cyzicus (modern-day Erdek, Balıkesir, Turkey) |
Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church |
Feast | September 20 (Roman Catholic) February 6 (Eastern Orthodox) |
Martyr Evilasius (died 311) was a pagan priest who tortured a 13-year-old girl who later became Saint Fausta. Realizing her courage, he himself converted to Christianity, an act punishable by death since the people of Cyzicus did not want even one of their people to convert to any religion other than their own. [1]
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliating with another. This might be from one to another denomination within the same religion, for example, from Baptist to Catholic Christianity or from Sunni Islam to Shi’a Islam. In some cases, religious conversion "marks a transformation of religious identity and is symbolized by special rituals".
The term Moor is an exonym first used by Christian Europeans to designate the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily and Malta during the Middle Ages. The Moors initially were the indigenous Maghrebine Berbers. The name was later also applied to Arabs and Arabized Iberians.
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