Religion

• While there were an estimated 500 executions in England, and between 3,000 and 4,000 killings in Scotland, only five people were hanged for witchcraft in Wales.
• Early modern Wales was unique in its outlook on witchcraft.
• Distinct elements of Welsh culture, including superstition and religion, halted the witch trials seen across the rest of Britain and Europe.

Accusations of witchcraft

• We know from those trial records that suspicions and verbal accusations of witchcraft like those seen across the rest of Britain and Europe were common in Wales.
• They also happened under similar circumstances where accusations often followed an argument, or a request for charity which was denied.
• Their accusers were neighbours, relatives and in many cases, people with financial and personal reasons to make accusations.
• This left juries in early modern Wales in serious doubt about how sensible witch accusations were.

Religion

• The people of Wales were not without religion, but they preferred prayer to doctrine.
• Generally, Welsh people could not read or understand the Bible, which was not fully translated into Welsh until the late 1500s.
• There is evidence that many people continued to seek the aid of charmers instead of the church.
• This sort of formal cursing was often phrased as a petitionary prayer to God, emphasising the overlap between witchcraft and religion in Wales.

Mari Ellis Dunning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• David Michael Moses, a charismatic Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston and well-known speaker, musician, and songwriter, as its 2024 Keynote Commencement Speaker on Saturday, May 11, 11 a.m., at NRG Stadium, 8400 Kirby Drive.
• UST commencement celebrates the achievements of 684 undergraduates and 302 graduate students.
• Both the Baccalaureate Mass held on Friday, May 10 at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and the Commencement the following day will be livestreamed here .
• David Michael will convey to each graduate the deep significance of the role their lives will play in the Kingdom of God.

• On the festival of Baisakhi, celebrated usually on April 13, Sikhs the world over will joyously wear yellow saffron colors, symbolizing spring harvest and the solar new year, when the Sun enters the constellation Aries.
• The Sikh religion, with its line of 10 gurus, is traced back to the time of Guru Nanak, the first guru.
• He encouraged his followers not to take the path of renunciation but to work hard and perform acts of charity.

The Khalsa ideal

• The dramatic creation story of the Khalsa relates that the guru demanded sacrifice of life from his loyal followers who came to his abode in Anandpur in Punjab to celebrate Baisakhi and the beneficence of the harvest.
• His five beloved disciples, known as the “Pañj Piāre,” were in the Sikh tradition the first initiates into the new order of the Khalsa, meaning the pure.
• The guru is said to have pronounced that henceforth his Khalsa will be called lions, or “singh,” and they would maintain five symbols on their person that would set them apart from ordinary Sikhs and burnish their martial demeanor.

The need for the Khalsa

• To understand the need for the Khalsa, it is important to step back into history.
• The martial Khalsa was considered to be a political necessity during these times, which they perceived as being tyrannical.
• The Khalsa also embodied self-discipline to inspire the guru’s Sikhs, the ordinary followers who did not become Khalsa.

An egalitarian stance

• For the tenth guru, Gobind Singh, the Khalsa were the ideal for others to emulate.
• His beloved five, who had been willing to sacrifice their lives for him, further demonstrated the importance of social equality.
• Belonging to different caste groups, they represented the values of compassion, duty, firmness, honor and effort.

The Khalsa under colonialism

• Customs such as early marriage and practices around widowhood that oppressed women, and caste discrimination that affected all, were reassessed.
• For Sikh intellectuals, rejuvenating the egalitarian spirit of the Khalsa at this time seemed urgent.
• Gender and caste inequities, they believed, could be combated by reviving Khalsa norms.

Anshu Malhotra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• “This transaction is one more critical milestone in the last three years of UpHealth, Inc.’s journey to focus the Company on its strategic core and most profitable businesses.
• The sale announced today of Cloudbreak, and the sale of IGI in May 2023 in a $56 million cash deal, have together generated to the Company about $235 million of cash that has allowed us to significantly reduce the liabilities of the Company and enhance its business focus and the financial performance, all resulting in unlocking meaningful value to our stakeholders.
• “The Cloudbreak sale transaction will significantly deleverage our balance sheet, stabilize our business and empower us to concentrate our resources on TTC Healthcare,” said Martin Beck, Chief Executive Officer.
• The proceeds of the Cloudbreak sale, after transaction-related fees and expenses, have been deposited into three escrow accounts: a Notes escrow ($139 million), a Tax escrow ($27 million) and a Working Capital escrow ($3 million).