title: Batkivshchyna

text: On 19 July 2022, at a closed meeting of the Verkhovna Rada, the Batkivshchyna faction prevented the consideration by the Verkhovna Rada of bills on the allocation of 264 billion budget hryvnias for Naftogaz of Ukraine. Speaking from the rostrum of the parliament, Tymoshenko published information confirming the corruption component of the package of government bills 7427 and 7429 submitted for consideration, which introduced an opaque scheme for the purchase of natural gas by Naftogaz. After that, the Verkhovna Rada sent these initiatives for a second second reading.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: 29 July 2022 the Verkhovna Rada voted for the legislative initiative of Tymoshenko on the creation of a Temporary Special Commission to Investigate the Crisis in the Energy Market of Ukraine.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: According to the results of the CEC, Tymoshenko's party the Batkivshchyna which received 4093 deputy mandates (12.39%), became one of the party leaders in the 2020 Ukrainian local elections. 7.24% of the elected mayor of a village, town or city was a member of Batkivshchyna.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The party manifesto claims that it seeks to instill in Ukraine national, democratic, and Christian values, held together through reformation, spirituality, patriotism, national solidarity, responsibility, rights and freedoms. The party advocates transforming Ukraine into a competitive nation-state based on a western Europe model of justice and welfare.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: According to the party, only citizens of Ukraine will have the right to private ownership of land, but that "high concentration of land ownership by one person" will be forbidden.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The party sees Ukrainian membership in the European Union (EU) as a strategic goal. It favors visa-free travel for Ukrainians to the EU and wants to "cancel humiliating visa regimes". It would like to see "a mutually beneficial and equitable agreement on the establishment of free trade with Russia". In June 2013, the party's parliamentary faction voted for the denunciation of the 2010 Ukrainian–Russian Naval Base for Natural Gas treaty.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The party's 2012 election program did not mention NATO, but its 2014 program stated that the party wants to annul Ukraine's non-aligned status and that it wants Ukraine to become a member of NATO.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: It Tymoshenko initiated a referendum on five issues: the supply of Ukrainian gas and nuclear electricity to the population with a 30% profitability; on the sale of agricultural land; on the sale of strategic property; the issue of legalization of cannabis; about the gambling business.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The party also states that government grants should be awarded to graduates who successfully passed testing for studies at Ukrainian universities.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: It proposes a health system that has mandatory health inspections and gradual development of a voluntary health insurance system funded by employers.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The party wants to introduce jury trials into the Ukrainian law system and wants to "depoliticise" the process of appointment of judges. It also wants an independent judiciary that will increase the role of the Supreme Court of Ukraine.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The Constitutional Court of Ukraine, "which has compromised itself with decisions that were ordered (by the Yanukovych administration)" should be liquidated. It wants the criminal code to be "Europeanized" and law enforcement brought under civil control.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: Before their removal of power in February 2014 the party sought to impeach former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and his "anti-people regime" to "return Ukraine to the path of European integration", while trying to reverse the former Azarov Government policy of raising the status of the Russian language.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: On 15 May 2016, "Fatherland" prepared a statement in the name of the new Prosecutor General in connection with offenses in the activities of the National Commission, which performs state regulation in the energy and utilities relative to the unjustified increase of gas prices for the population.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: On 23 May 2016 All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" launched a website called "Fair rates", which promotes the idea of establishing fair gas tariffs for the population.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: In the parliament, Batkivshchyna advocates ban on agricultural land sales. The party also insists on adopting laws on development of Ukrainian agriculture. On 31 March 2016, Parliament adopted the law on family farms initiated by the party Batkivshchyna.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: One of the party's priorities is improvement of social security of people, increasing of social standards.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The party advocates decreasing of tariffs on housing and utility services for people, because they are set up too high artificially. On 21 April 2015 Yulia Tymoshenko initiated a working group to check the validity of utility tariffs. "Fatherland" party has made the reduction of tariffs for housing and communal services.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: Batkivshchyna advocates strengthening the struggle against corruption, namely deoffshorization and independence of anti-corruption government bodies.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: On March 1, 2021, the "Fatherland" party in the Verkhovna Rada demanded to submit to parliament a draft law banning the import of electricity from Russia and Belarus. According to Tymoshenko, imports of Belarusian and Russian electricity threaten the country's national security.


title: Batkivshchyna

text: The Young Batkivshchyna is the youth wing of the party. It was established in 2007, has cells in all regions of Ukraine and is a member of the International Union of Young Democrats (since 2009) and the youth of the European People's Party (since 2011). The head of the organization was Sergey Mitrofansky as of September 2021.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is a city in Walla Walla County, Washington, where it is the largest city and county seat. It had a population of 34,060 at the 2020 census, estimated to have decreased to 33,927 as of 2021. The population of the city and its two suburbs, the town of College Place and unincorporated Walla Walla East, is about 45,000.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is in the southeastern region of Washington, approximately four hours away from Portland, Oregon, and four and a half hours from Seattle. It is located only north of the Oregon border.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla's history starts in 1806 when the Lewis and Clark expedition encountered the Walawalałáma (Walla Walla people) near the mouth of Walla Walla River. Other inhabitants of the valley included the Liksiyu (Cayuse), Imatalamłáma (Umatilla), and Niimíipu (Nez Perce) indigenous peoples. In 1818, Fort Walla Walla (originally Fort Nez Percés), a fur trading outpost run by Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), was established and operated as an important stopping point in Oregon Country. Abandoned in 1855, it is now underwater behind the McNary Dam.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: On October 16, 1836, after news of a Nez Perce expedition to learn about Christianity and a deal was brokered between the Cayuse people for the use of the Waiilatpu region, Calvinist missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman established the Whitman Mission. A deep distrust of the settlers was cultivated between the Cayuse and the settlers as the Whitmans struggled to convert the natives, failed to fulfill promises, and shifted their focus to whites passing through along the Oregon Trail. In 1847, following a deadly measles outbreak, and reports of the Whitmans poisoning the Cayuse, the Whitmans were warned to leave the area because of the Cayuse custom of killing medicine men whose patients died. They refused to leave, and were killed by the Cayuse, along with 12 others. The site was later designated as Whitman National Monument, a National Historic Site.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Catholic missionaries also arrived in the 1840s, and the Catholic ceremonies resonated with the tribe. On July 24, 1846 Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Walla Walla. Augustin-Magloire Blanchet was appointed the first Bishop of Walla Walla, but fled shortly after the Whitman massacre. The Diocese of Walla Walla is now a titular see held by Witold Mroziewski, an auxiliary bishop of Brooklyn, New York. In 1855, the Walla Walla Treaty Council was held at Waiilatpu between the Washington Territorial Assembly and the tribal leaders of the surrounding area. Despite the indigenous people citing Tamanwit (natural law), the following year the natives agreed to surrender millions of acres of land for a native reservation and $150,000. The Umatilla Indian Reservation's boundaries eventually shrunk to less than 200,000 of acreage.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The Walla Walla treaty remained unratified for four years, during which time the conflict between the natives and settlers was increasing due to frontiersmen encroaching on the promised reservation and the Walla Walla and Umatilla peoples' refusal to move to the Umatilla Indian Reservation. The United States Army established a presence in a series of military forts beginning in 1856. A community named "Steptoeville" grew around Fort Walla Walla, named for Lieutenant Colonel Edward Steptoe, and later his name was bestowed upon Steptoe, Washington. The fort has since been restored with a museum about the early settlers' lives.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Growth in the region was limited due to a ban on immigration to the area due to the constant warring with the natives from the Department of the Pacific's General John Ellis Wool, who was sympathetic to the natives. In 1858, the department was split, leaving Washington territory under the command of General William S. Harney, who lifted the ban on October 31, 1858. Thousands of pioneers swarmed to the area, creating a burgeoning farming and mining community.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: On March 15, 1859, Walla Walla county held its first county commission and election in the community's first church, St. Patrick's Church, which still serves as the city's parish. Following the ratification of the Walla Walla treaty, the commission voted to name the settlement Walla Walla, on November 17, 1859 and the military carried out the forced displacement of the remaining natives, under the threat of hanging. On December 20, 1859, the first educational charter was granted to Whitman Seminary, a high school, which opened on October 15, 1866. In 1882, the institution's name was changed to Whitman College, and the legislature issued a new educational charter as a four-year private college.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The Mullan Road, the first wagon road to cross the Rocky Mountains into the Pacific Northwest, tied Walla Walla to more mining opportunities, and after gold was discovered in 1860, the area became the outfitting point for the Oro Fino, Idaho mines. The nearest part of the road followed the modern approximate path from Spokane to Walla Walla via Interstate 90, U.S. Route 195, and U.S. Route 12. The population swelled due to the gold rush, resulting in an unsuccessful proposal to Congress to split Walla Walla from Washington into its own territory.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla was incorporated on January 11, 1862. The first election was held on April 1, 1862, and Judge Elias Bean Whitman, Marcus Whitman's cousin, was elected as the city's first mayor. The population exploded over the following decade to 300% its size, making it the largest city in the territory, slating it to be the capital until cities surpassed it again, after it was bypassed by the transcontinental rail lines in the 1880's.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: During the 1860's, the city established its first businesses and community gathering spaces, a number of which served as the first in Pacific Northwest. The city's first newspaper was one of the first between Missouri and the Cascades, the "Washington Statesman", was founded in 1861"." The first bank, Baker Boyer Bank, was the first in the state, was founded in 1869 by one of the city's first council members, Dorsey Syng Baker and his brother-in-law John Franklin Boyer, and as of March 2022, still served as the oldest bank in state. The Pioneer Meat Market, run by partners John Dooley and William Kirkman, was opened during this time and remained there until they sold it to Christopher Ennis in 1882 and founded the Walla Walla Dressed Meat Company.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: One of the first brick buildings in the city was also Walla Walla's first store, Schwabacher Brothers Store on Main street, which served as the city's grocer, builder supply, and clothes shop. Sigmond Schwabacher, one of the brothers, also served in the city's council. The city's first book store was opened in 1864, and an academic community formed around the city's book collection as the Calliopean Society and later incorporated as the Walla Walla Library Association. The city also had one of the region's first breweries, Emil Meyer's City Brewery, that also served as a bakery. Downtown also hosted a post office, several hotels, restaurants, a bathhouse and shaving saloon, a liquor store, a drugstore, and several manufactories.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: During the gold rush, large populations of Chinese settlers arrived in the city from Portland, Oregon, creating a neighborhood referred to as "Chinatown". The Chinese settlers mainly worked in commerce, mining, and railroad contracts. After Mullan was unable to lobby the state to make Walla Walla a major railroad stop, and a fire in Chinatown destroyed most of the neighborhood, the immigrants left to find work elsewhere, including Eng Ah King, who was informally known as the "mayor of Chinatown" for revitalizing Seattle's Chinatown.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 1886, while Washington was lobbying for statehood, local business man Levi Ankeny donated 160 acres of land to the city to serve as the site of a new prison. Legislators approved the site, and in 1887, the state began transferring prisoners to the Washington Territorial Prison from Saatco Prison, a privately-owned facility that was shut down in 1888 because of its poor living conditions. The first inmate was a local, William Murphy, who was serving an 18-year sentence for manslaughter. There have been many prison escapes attempted in the prison's history. In 1887, the prison took in its first woman inmate, and had to improvise accommodations until a separate facility was built nearby. When Washington became a state in 1889, the facility officially became the Washington State Penitentiary, but inmates nicknamed it "The Hill", "The Joint", "The Walls", and "The Pen".


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: As the gold rush died out, the city developed into an agricultural center referred to as the "cradle of Pacific Northwest history", and the "garden city", a popular source for onions, apples, peas, and wine grapes.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Italian settlers from Lonate Pozzolo and Calabria regions formed the core of the gardening industry, and settled in neighborhoods known as "Blalock" and the "South Ninth". One of the main contributions of the Italians to Walla Walla commerce was their vineyards, and soon after, wine tasting rooms, the first two opening in the 1880's by Frank Orselli and Pasquale Saturno. The Italian Walla Walla population was also responsible for growing Washington State's official vegetable, the Walla Walla sweet onion.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: It was the technique of dryland farming, though, that made Walla Walla the region's breadbasket known for its wheat exports. The cultivating of grains brought hundreds of Seventh-day Adventists (SDA) to the city, building Walla Walla College and the Walla Walla Sanitarium. The SDA population was followed by hundreds of Volga Germans, whose Old Lutheran and Mennonite religions were connected to SDA in Prussia. The immigrants had relied on dryland farming of wheat crops in Volgograd, Russia. The neighborhood built around the Russian-German immigrants is known as "Germantown" or "Russische Ecke (Russian Corner)" to locals, referring to the creek that runs through it as "Little Volga". The area around Walla Walla College eventually incorporated as its own city, College Place, Washington.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: German immigrants also grew hops and the city was home to several breweries. By the 1890s, wine, beer, liquor, and tobacco taxes accounted for 90% of the city's revenue, but the alcohol industries died out with Prohibition in the United States.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: As the city became dependent on its wheat production, merchants in the town financed a railroad to Wallula, Washington, to connect Walla Walla to the Columbia river, completed in 1875.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 1911, Walla Walla adopted a mayor–council government referred to as a "commission" form of government. In 1954, after Sunnyside, Washington adopted another form of government, council–manager government, voted down a change to council-manager, but on November 4, 1959, the city's residents voted to adopt the government form.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla's second movie theater, American Theater, opened in 1917 showing "The Law of Compensation", a Selznick Pictures film starring Norma Talmadge. The theater later was sold and renamed to Liberty, and eventually became a department store around the 1930s. In 1990, became Walla Walla's first privately renovated building as a Bon-Macy's. Bon-Macy's parent-company, Federated Department Stores, rebranded all of its subsidiaries to Macy's, which operated in the Liberty building until 2020.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 1927, the Real Estate Improvement Company of Seattle invested $300,000 toward the construction of the Marcus Whitman Hotel. The 174-room hotel was designed by Sherwood D. Ford and opened in 1928. It fell into disrepair in the 1960s, until it was restored in 1999 and re-opened in 2001. , the hotel was still open.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Mill Creek overflowed into Walla Walla and College Place on March 31, 1931, causing $1 million in damages. Community volunteers jury-rigged makeshift levees to divert water from buildings during the cleanup which cost roughly $100,000. The United States Army Corps of Engineers built the Mill Creek Dam and Bennington Lake in response to the disaster. The dam and lake were instrumental in preventing damage from flooding in 1964, 1996, and 2020.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: During the Great Depression, a Canadian import duty cut off the main market for Walla Walla's fresh agriculture. John Grant Kelly, who owned the "Walla Walla Union-Bulletin" at the time, opened the area's first cannery, Walla Walla Canning Company. In 1939, Walla Walla produced roughly $5 million of the country's $30 million canned green pea industry, and "TIME" magazine referred to Kelly as the "Father of Peas". Kelly also owned Church Grape Juice Company, a concord grape farm in Kennewick, Washington. Workers went on strike for better wages in September 1949, and Kelly had two employees arrested for speaking to the "Tri-City Herald". Church was one of four juice companies in the region to be charged with violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 for price-fixing grapes. Welch's bought Church from Kelly in 1952.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 1936, Walla Walla and surrounding areas were struck by the magnitude 6.1 State Line earthquake. Residents reported hearing a moderate rumbling immediately before the shock. There was significant damage in the area, and aftershocks were felt for several months following.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: in the 1970s and 1980s, Leonetti Cellar, Woodward Canyon, L'Ecole 41, Waterbrook Winery and Seven Hills Winery pioneered a resurgence of Walla Walla's viticulture.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 1997, Gary Johnson founded the first brewery in Walla Walla since prohibition, Mill Creek Brewpub.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 2001, Walla Walla was a Great American Main Street Award winner for the transformation and preservation of its once dilapidated main street. In July 2011, "USA Today" selected Walla Walla as the friendliest small city in the United States. Walla Walla was also named Friendliest Small Town in America the same year as part of Rand McNally's annual Best of the Road contest. In 2012 and 2013 Walla Walla was a runner-up in the best food category for the Best of the Road. Downtown Walla Walla was awarded a Great Places in America Great Neighborhood designation in 2012 by the American Planning Association.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In the 2010s, Walla Walla's brewery industry experienced a revival. The first hops farms since prohibition were planted in 2018, and in 2019, Washington State Department of Corrections announced a plan to bring a vineyard and hopyard to Washington State Penitentiary, along with agricultural science education to prepare inmates for careers in the field. The program would offer inmates state-wide minimum wages, a practice only legally enforced by state law at private institutions. The city hosted its first beer festival in February 2020.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 2017, and annually, Walla Walla's mayor signed a proclamation making the third Saturday of September "Adam West Day", to honor the actor who was born and raised in the city. In 2020, the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the organizers announced that the city approved the erection of a statue in West's honor and a GoFundMe fundraiser to cover the costs of the statue. The statue will be placed in Menlo Park on Alvarado Terrace, part of Historic Downtown Walla Walla.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Tourists to Walla Walla are often told that it is a "town so nice they named it twice". The slogan was coined by Al Jolson, who had visited the city in the early 1900s in The Keylor Grand Theater. He had also said the same of New York City. The quote referring to Walla Walla was in The Jolson Story, a musical about the entertainer's life.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is Nez Perce for "Place of Many Waters", because the original settlement was at the junction of the Snake and Columbia rivers.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is humorously mentioned in "Pogo" in an alternate lyrical version of "Deck the Halls", a traditional Christmas carol. Walla Walla is the location of the treasure in The Three Stooges film "Cash and Carry". In a "Merrie Melodies" short, "Transylvania 6-5000", "Walla Walla, Washington" is a magic word that can transform Count Bloodcount. Walla Walla is also the hometown of several fictional companies in other "Merrie Melodies" shorts, including "A Mouse Divided", "The High and the Flighty", and "This Is a Life?"


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is located in the Walla Walla Valley, with the rolling Palouse hills and the Blue Mountains to the east of town. Various creeks meander through town before combining to become the Walla Walla River, which drains into the Columbia River about west of town. The city lies in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains, so annual precipitation is fairly low.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate according to the Köppen climate classification system (Köppen: "Csa"). It is one of the northernmost locations in North America to qualify as having such a climate. In contrast to most other locations having this climate type in North America, Walla Walla can experience fairly cold winter conditions, though they are still relatively mild for its latitude and inland location.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: As of the census of 2020, there were 34,060 people and 12,414 householders residing in the city. The population density was .


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 31,731 people, 11,537 households, and 6,834 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 12,514 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 81.6% White, 2.7% African American, 1.3% Native American, 1.4% Asian, 0.3% Pacific Islander, 9.1% from other races, and 3.6% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 22.0% of the population.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: There were 11,537 households, of which 30.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.6% were married couples living together, 12.0% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.7% had a male householder with no wife present, and 40.8% were other forms of households. 33.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 3.10.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The median age in the city was 34.4 years. 22% of residents were under the age of 18; 14.5% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 26.2% were from 25 to 44; 23.1% were from 45 to 64; and 14% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 51.9% male and 48.1% female.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 29,686 people, 10,596 households, and 6,527 families residing in the city. The population density was 2,744.9 people per square mile (1,059.3/km). There were 11,400 housing units at an average density of 1,054.1 per square mile (406.8/km). The racial makeup of the city was 83.79% White, 2.58% African American, 1.05% Native American, 1.24% Asian, 0.23% Pacific Islander, 8.26% from other races, and 2.85% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 17.42% of the population.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: There were 10,596 households, of which 30.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.4% were married couples living together, 11.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 38.4% were other forms of households. 31.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 15.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.08.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In the city, the population was spread out, with 21.8% under the age of 18, 14.2% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 17.5% from 45 to 64, and 20.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 108.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 109.1 males.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The median income for a household in the city was $31,855, and the median income for a family was $40,856. Men had a median income of $31,753 versus $23,889 for women. The per capita income for the city was $15,792. About 13.1% of families and 18.0% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22.8% of those under the age of 18 and 10.5% of those aged 65 and older.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Though wheat is still a big crop, vineyards and wineries have become economically important over the last three decades. In summer 2020, there were over 120 wineries in the greater Walla Walla area. Following the wine boom, the town has developed several fine dining establishments and luxury hotels. The Marcus Whitman Hotel, originally opened in 1928, was renovated with original fixtures and furniture. It is the tallest building in the city, at 13 stories.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The Walla Walla Sweet Onion is another crop with a rich tradition. Over a century ago on the Island of Corsica, off the west coast of Italy, a French soldier named Peter Pieri found an Italian sweet onion seed and brought it to the Walla Walla Valley. Impressed by the new onion's winter hardiness, Pieri, and the Italian immigrant farmers who comprised much of Walla Walla's gardening industry, harvested the seed.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The sweet onion developed over several generations through the process of selecting onions from each year's crop, targeting sweetness, size and round shape. The Walla Walla Sweet Onion is designated under federal law as a protected agricultural crop. In 2007 the Walla Walla Sweet Onion became Washington's official state vegetable. There is also a Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival, held annually in July. Walla Walla Sweet Onions have low sulfur content (about half that of an ordinary yellow onion) and are 90 percent water.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla currently has two farmers markets, both held from May until October. The first is located on the corner of 4th and Main, and is coordinated by the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation. The other is at the Walla Walla County Fairgrounds on S. Ninth Ave, run by the Walla Walla Valley Farmer's Market.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla has experienced an expansion in its wine industry in recent decades, culminating in the area being named "Best Wine Region" in USA Today's Reader Choice Awards in both 2020 and 2021. Several local wineries have received top scores from wine publications such as "Wine Spectator", "The Wine Advocate" and "Wine and Spirits". Although most of the early recognition went to the wines made from Merlot and Cabernet, Syrah is fast becoming a star varietal in this appellation. Overall, there are more than 120 wineries in the Walla Walla area, which collectively generate over $100 million for the valley annually.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla Community College offers an associate degree (AAAS) in winemaking and grape growing through its Center for Enology and Viticulture, which operates its own commercial winery, College Cellars.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: One challenge to growing grapes in Walla Walla Valley is the risk of a killing freeze during the winter. On average these happen once every six or seven years; the penultimate occurrence (in 2004) destroyed about 75% of the wine grape crop in the valley. In November 2010 the valley was again hit with a killing frost, leading to a 28% decline in Cabernet Sauvignon production, a 20% decline in red grape production, and an overall decline in production of 11% (red and white varietals).


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The second-largest prison in Washington, after nearby Coyote Ridge Corrections Center in Connell, is the Washington State Penitentiary (WSP) located in Walla Walla, at 1313 North 13th. Originally opened in 1886, it now houses about 2,000 offenders. In addition, there are about 1000 staff members. In 2005, the financial benefit to the local economy was estimated to be about $55 million through salaries, medical services, utilities, and local purchases. In 2014, the penitentiary underwent an extensive expansion project to increase the prison capacity to 2,500 violent offenders and double the staff size.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Until October 11, 2018, Washington was a death penalty state, and occasional executions took place at the state penitentiary; the last execution took place on September 10, 2010. Washington was also one of the last two states to allow hanging as a choice when sentenced to death (the other being New Hampshire); there has not been a hanging since May 1994 (the default method of execution was changed to lethal injection in 1996). Washington was the last state with an active gallows. 80 executions were carried out at the prison between 1904 to 2010.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The most notable inmate has been Gary Ridgway, a serial killer known as the "Green River killer", who was still incarcerated there as of November 2021.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is served by two health care institutions: St. Mary Medical Center (part of the Catholic Providence Health System) and the Jonathan M. Wainwright Veteran's Affairs Medical Center on the grounds of the old Fort Walla Walla and World War II training facility.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Transportation to Walla Walla includes service by air through Walla Walla Regional Airport, several railroads, and highway access primarily from U.S. Route 12. The Washington State Department of Transportation is engaged in a long-term process of widening this road into a four-lane divided highway between Pasco and Walla Walla, with major portions scheduled to be complete in 2022. The highway also acts as the main gateway to Interstates 82 and 84, which run to the west and south, respectively. State Route 125 runs through the city, north to State Route 124 in Prescott and south to Milton-Freewater, Oregon, becoming Oregon Highway 11 at the state line.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: There are four major bus services in the area connecting the region's cities. Walla Walla and nearby College Place are served by Valley Transit, a typical multi-route city bus service. The city of Milton-Freewater, OR has a single-line bus service with several stops in town with two stops in College Place and five in Walla Walla. Travel Washington's Grape Line is a intercity service between Walla Walla and Pasco that runs three times a day. Finally, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation operates a Kayak bus to Pendleton, with four trips each weekday and two trips each Saturday via its Walla Walla Whistler route.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is home of the Walla Walla Sweets, a summer collegiate baseball team that plays in the West Coast League. The league comprises college players and prospects working towards a professional baseball career. Teams are located in British Columbia, Oregon, Washington and Alberta. Sweets home games have been played at Borleske Stadium in Walla Walla, since their first season in 2010. In only their second season the Sweets played in the WCL Championship game, ultimately losing to the Corvallis Knights. In 2013, the Sweets won their first North Division title with the second best win–loss record in the WCL. The Sweets lost their North Division playoff series to the Wenatchee Applesox that year.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla Drag Strip is an 1/8 mile dragstrip west of the Walla Walla Regional Airport. The dragstrip is located on an old runway of the airport.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: There also is a women's flat track roller derby league called the Walla Walla Sweets Rollergirls, their practices and games are played at the Walla Walla YMCA.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is the location of Tour of Walla Walla, a four-stage road cycling race held annually in April. The races are held in Walla Walla and in the Palouse hills of nearby Waitsburg. The stages include two road races, a time trial, and a criterium race.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: The annual Walla Walla Marathon takes place in October and includes a full marathon, half-marathon, and 10k race. The full marathon is a Boston Marathon Qualifier. The race route winds through the streets of the city of Walla Walla and the country roads outside of town, often running past several of the region's many estate vineyards.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In addition, the area's three colleges—Whitman College, Walla Walla University and Walla Walla Community College as well as its largest public high school—Walla Walla High School—stage theater and music performances.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: Walla Walla is primarily served by Walla Walla Public Schools, which includes seven elementary schools (one is in Dixie, six of them are K-5 with one of these being PreK-5), two middle schools, one traditional high school (colloquially Wa-Hi), and two alternative high schools (Lincoln and Opportunity). There is also Homelink, an alternative K-8 education program which is a hybrid of homeschooling and public school programs.


title: Walla Walla, Washington

text: In 1972, Walla Walla established a sister city relationship with Sasayama (now named Tamba-Sasayama), Japan. The two cities have since named roads after their counterpart sister city. Walla Walla has also hosted exchange students from Tamba-Sasayama since 1994 for a two-week home-stay experience. Yearlong high school student exchanges between the cities have occurred several times in the past. Cultural/art exchanges involving music, dance, and various art mediums have also occurred. The Walla Walla Sister City Committee has been the recipient of the Washington State Sister City Association Peace Prize in 2011 and 2014 for their involvement in promoting peace, cultural understanding and friendship.


title: White Snake (film)

text: White Snake () is a 2019 Chinese-American computer animation fantasy film directed by Amp Wong and Zhao Ji, with animation production by Light Chaser Animation. The film was inspired by the Chinese folktale "Legend of the White Snake" and was released in China on January 11, 2019. A sequel, Green Snake, was announced in 2020, and was released on July 23, 2021.


title: White Snake (film)

text: The film has been featured in festivals including Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Sitges Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, and Animation Is Film.


title: White Snake (film)

text: The story follows the Chinese fable the "Legend of the White Snake". The protagonist is a young adult white snake-demon Blanca/Bai Suzhen who loses her memories while being disguised as a lovely human woman and falls in love with a snake hunter. This strongly displeases her young sister, Verta/Xiaoqing, the green snake-demon.


title: White Snake (film)

text: The story begins with two sisters in a traditional Chinese bath, where they both speak of immortality. It then shows that same mysterious woman (named Blanca) who is on a mission to assassinate the general. However, she is caught and is involved in a battle which results in her submerging into water and losing her memories. She is rescued by a man, Xuan/Xu Xian, who takes her to his home, Snake Catcher village, where the villagers catch snakes for the general, as snakes were thought to aid in immortality. Reluctant at first, Blanca is skeptical about Xuan. However, after spending some time with him (and with the reveal that she has magic powers) she starts to fall for him.


title: White Snake (film)

text: They find a jade hair pin which brings back some memories when it is then revealed, that the hairpin too is magical. Xuan reads the inscription, which indicates it was made at "special jade workshop". He and Blanca go journey there together.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Meanwhile, there is a cavern of snake-demon people, who are oppressed by the general. It is revealed that Blanca's sister is alive, a soldier for the Snake master. A snake had previously seen the two together, deeming Blanca a traitor as she is with a snake-catcher. Her elder sister Verta argues otherwise and says that she will find and return her, whilst also engaging in an insurance policy- if she is not back with Blanca in three days, then the Death Scales embedded in her will explode and kill her. Back with Xuan and Blanca, after a struggle on sea with another snake-demon- Blanca is forced to reveal her demon form, revealing to Xuan that she is in fact a demon. However he disregards this fact and the two bond.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Later they eventually get to Special Jade Workshop, owned by a fox-demon who makes all types of magical weaponry. The fox-demon explains that Blanca brought her the wand to let her use it instead of the original owner. The fox-demon explains that Blanca was warned that using the jade wand could have consequences, such as the memory loss.


title: White Snake (film)

text: After leaving the workshop, Xuan and Blanca return to the Snake Catcher Villager. Verta confronts Blanca and Xuan and tries to get Blanca to return with her. Verta identifies Xuan as a snake catcher and tries to attack him. Blanca defends him and the two sisters fight. During the fight, Xuan and Blanca fall into a hidden underground temple.


title: White Snake (film)

text: While looking at a Daoist altar in the temple, Blanca's memories are triggered. She is shaken by the events and Xuan comforts her—this leads to a moment of intimacy between them. They start kissing, she takes off her robe, and they fall to the floor kissing. Afterward, Xuan and Blanca leave the temple to find Verta waiting. Blanca reveals that her memories have been returned and says she will return to the snake demon fold. She says to Xuan that their differences (human and demon) are too great. He asks her to wait for him and leaves to find a way for them to be together.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Later at the fox-demon workshop, Xuan agrees to become a low-level demon in order to be with Blanca. Workshop mistress does turn him into a demon with a dog tail, but warns that Xuan will be of the weakest kind and will never grow stronger, and that humans will likely kill him on sight.


title: White Snake (film)

text: In the meantime, the Dark General's second in command attempts to capture Blanca for his master, and nearly succeeds. Out of desperation, Blanca uses the magic wand again, absorbing the daoist's powers and turning into her giant demon form. Knowing that the General will now march onto the Snake Catcher Village, where the snakes are hiding, she intends to kill him there, fighting through his forts and armies. Xuan barely catches up with her, but Blanca does not heed his call to stop. Verta then warns Xuan that in the battle to come, he, a demon too now, will have to choose a side.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Xuan tries to warn the Village, but the Snake Catchers now see him as a demon and do not listen. The Dark General arrives, eager to conquer the snakes, but hearing of Blanca's acquired power, allows Xuan one final attempt to talk to her. Xuan confesses his love to Blanca and offers her to escape to the lands beyond, living together and without any more humans or wars; she almost subsides, but in the last moment the Dark General's magical trap binds them both to the ground. Dark General intends to harvest their essence, as he has found the secret of immortality: consuming spirits of demons, making them unable to reincarnate, but prolonging his life and fueling his magic.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Verta manages to trick the General into absorbing her soul first, which also transfers the cursed Death Scales onto him. This distracts the General long enough for the Snake Master to join the battle and for snakes to bind the General's soldiers in combat. Eventually, Blanca, Xuan, Verta and Snake Master defeat the General. However, seeing how much power the daoist magic can offer, Snake Master uses it to absorb the spirits of her own army and become the most powerful demon in existence, then attempting to kill Blanca and Verta for betrayal. Xuan tricks the Snake Master by luring her into the General's magical trap, now binding her as the magic saps her soul away. With her strength almost gone and no way out of the trap, Blanca uses the jade wand one last time, saving Xuan's spirit and memories in it and escaping with Verta. In the present, 500 years later, Blanca and Verta, now remembering the story, decide to go out of their cave and search for Xuan's reincarnation so he and Blanca can be together again.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Many years later, a human sees the two sisters at the port, and when Blanca accidentally drops the jade hair pin, picks it up and introduces himself, causing Blanca to recognize him as Xuan's reincarnation. In the mid-credit scene, the fox-demon from the shop arrives to the same port delivering a box to a mysterious river monster under the bridge.


title: White Snake (film)

text: Warner Bros. Far East has rights in China and is credited as a co-producer. The studio is in negotiations for distribution rights in other major territories.


title: White Snake (film)

text: The film was released throughout China on 11 January 2019 and remained in theatres for the 2019 Chinese New Year season.


title: White Snake (film)

text: In the United States and Canada, GKIDS has licensed the film for a fall release, in both Mandarin with English subtitles and an English-language dub.


title: White Snake (film)

text: In Los Angeles, the film won the Golden Angel for "Best Chinese & American Co-Production Animation Film" at the Chinese American Film Festival.


title: White Snake (film)

text: In Japan, the movie was later premiere in 2021 with Japanese dub. Snow man from Johnny's late provided theme song called Yuan for Japanese version. "D4DJ Groovy Mix" later including Yuan for limited time.


title: White Snake (film)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of .


title: White Snake (film)

text: On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on 6 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".


title: White Snake (film)

text: In its review, "Variety" states "First-time feature writer Da Mao and debuting feature co-directors Zhao Ji and Amp Wong strike a pleasing balance between thunderous action scenes and appealing romance."


title: White Snake (film)

text: "One of Us" praised the movie for its visual style however noting that "story doesn't live up to the spectacular animation".


title: White Snake (film)

text: The studio announce the sequel in 2020, the sequel was titled "" and with the teaser trailer release in February, the sequel was released on July 23, 2021 in China and was later released on Netflix internationally on December 1, 2021 as Green Snake.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Animal euthanasia (euthanasia from ; "good death") is the act of killing an animal or allowing it to die by withholding extreme medical measures. Reasons for euthanasia include incurable (and especially painful) conditions or diseases, lack of resources to continue supporting the animal, or laboratory test procedures. Euthanasia methods are designed to cause minimal pain and distress. Euthanasia is distinct from animal slaughter and pest control although in some cases the procedure is the same.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: In domesticated animals, this process is commonly referred to by euphemisms such as "put down" or "put to sleep".


title: Animal euthanasia

text: The methods of euthanasia can be divided into pharmacological and physical methods. Acceptable pharmacological methods include injected drugs and gases that first depress the central nervous system and then cardiovascular activity. Acceptable physical methods must first cause rapid loss of consciousness by disrupting the central nervous system. The most common methods are discussed here, but there are other acceptable methods used in different situations.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Upon administration of intravenous anesthetic, unconsciousness, respiratory then cardiac arrest follow rapidly, usually within 30 seconds.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Some veterinarians perform a two-stage process: an initial injection that simply renders the pet unconscious and a second shot that causes death. This allows the owner the chance to say goodbye to a live pet without their emotions stressing the animal. It also greatly mitigates any tendency toward spasm and other involuntary movement which tends to increase the emotional upset that the pet's owner experiences.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: For large animals, the volumes of barbiturates required are considered by some to be impractical, although this is standard practice in the United States. For horses and cattle, other drugs may be available. Some specially formulated combination products are available, such as Somulose (secobarbital/cinchocaine) and Tributame (embutramide/chloroquine/lidocaine), which cause deep unconsciousness and cardiac arrest independently with a lower volume of injection, thus making the process faster, safer, and more effective.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Occasionally, a horse injected with these mixtures may display apparent seizure activity before death. This may be due to premature cardiac arrest. However, if normal precautions (e.g., sedation with detomidine) are taken, this is rarely a problem. Anecdotal reports that long-term use of phenylbutazone increases the risk of this reaction are unverified.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: After the animal has died, it is not uncommon for the body to have posthumous body jerks or a sudden bladder outburst.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Gas anesthetics such as isoflurane and sevoflurane can be used for euthanasia of very small animals. The animals are placed in sealed chambers where high levels of anesthetic gas are introduced. Death may also be caused using carbon dioxide once unconsciousness has been achieved by inhaled anaesthetic. Carbon dioxide is often used on its own for euthanasia of wild animals. There are mixed opinions on whether it causes distress when used on its own, with human experiments lending support to the evidence that it can cause distress and equivocal results in non-humans. In 2013, the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) issued new guidelines for carbon dioxide induction, stating that a flow rate of 10% to 30% volume/min is optimal for the humane euthanization of small rodents.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Carbon monoxide is often used, but some states in the US have banned its use in animal shelters: although carbon monoxide poisoning is not particularly painful, the conditions in the gas chamber are often not humane. Nitrogen has been shown to be effective, although some young animals are more resistant to the effects, and it currently is not widely used.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Cervical dislocation, or displacement (breaking or fracturing) of the neck, is an older and less common method of killing small animals such as mice. Performed properly it is intended to cause as painless a death as possible and has no cost or equipment involved. The handler must know the proper method of executing the movement which will cause the cervical displacement and without proper training and method education there is a risk of not causing death and can cause severe pain and suffering. It is unknown how long an animal remains conscious, or the level of suffering it goes through after a correct snapping of the neck, which is why it has become less common and often substituted with inhalants.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: When intravenous injection is not possible, euthanasia drugs such as pentobarbital can be injected directly into a heart chamber or body cavity.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: While intraperitoneal injection is fully acceptable (although it may take up to 15 minutes to take effect in dogs and cats), an intracardiac (IC) injection may only be performed on an unconscious or deeply sedated animal. Performing IC injections on a fully conscious animal in places with humane laws for animal handling is often a criminal offense.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: This can be a means of euthanasia for large animals—such as horses, cattle, and deer—if performed properly.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Small animal euthanasia is typically performed in a veterinary clinic or hospital or in an animal shelter and is usually carried out by a veterinarian or a veterinary technician working under the veterinarian's supervision. Often animal shelter workers are trained to perform euthanasia as well. Some veterinarians will perform euthanasia at the pet owner's home—this is virtually mandatory in the case of large animal euthanasia. In the case of large animals which have sustained injuries, this will also occur at the site of the accident, for example, on a racecourse.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Some animal rights organizations support animal euthanasia in certain circumstances and practice euthanasia at shelters that they operate.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: In the U.S., for companion animals euthanized in animal shelters, most states prescribe intravenous injection as the required method. These laws date to 1990, when Georgia's Humane Euthanasia Act became the first state law to mandate this method. Before that, gas chambers and other means were commonly employed. The Georgia law was resisted by the Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture, Tommy Irvin, who was charged with enforcing the act. In March 2007, he was sued by former State Representative Chesley V. Morton, who wrote the law, and subsequently ordered by the court to enforce all provisions of the Act.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: Many pet owners choose to have their pets cremated or buried after the pet is euthanized, and there are pet funeral homes that specialize in animal burial or cremation. Otherwise, the animal facility will often freeze the body and subsequently send it to the local landfill.


title: Animal euthanasia

text: In some instances, animals euthanized at shelters or animal control agencies have been sent to meat rendering facilities to be processed for use in cosmetics, fertilizer, gelatin, poultry feed, pharmaceuticals and pet food. It was proposed that the presence of pentobarbital in dog food may have caused dogs to become less responsive to the drug when being euthanized. However, a 2002 FDA study found no dog or cat DNA in the foods they tested, so it was theorized that the drug found in dog food came from euthanized cattle and horses. Furthermore, the level of the drug found in pet food was safe.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Charles Sherwood Stratton (January 4, 1838 – July 15, 1883), better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American dwarf who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnum.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Born January 4, 1838, in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Stratton was the son of a carpenter named Sherwood Edward Stratton, who in turn was the son of Seth Sherwood Stratton and Amy Sharpe. Sherwood married his first cousin Cynthia Thompson, daughter of Joseph Thompson and Mary Ann Sharpe. Charles Stratton's maternal and paternal grandmothers, Amy and Mary Ann Sharpe, were stated to be small twin girls born on July 11, 1781 (or 1783) in Oxford, New Haven, Connecticut.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Born in Bridgeport to parents who were of medium height, Charles was a relatively large baby, weighing at birth. He developed and grew normally for the first six months of his life, at which point he was tall and weighed . Then he suddenly stopped growing. His parents became concerned when, after his first birthday, they noticed he had not grown at all in the previous six months. They showed him to their doctor, who said there was little chance Charles would ever reach normal height.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: By late 1842 (at almost five years old), Stratton had grown only from when he was six months old and had not gained any weight. Apart from this, he was a completely normal, healthy child, with several siblings who were of average size. His body was proportionate and functional.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Phineas T. Barnum heard about Stratton, and after contacting his parents, taught the boy how to sing, dance, mime, and impersonate famous people. Barnum also went into business with Stratton's father, who died in 1855. Stratton made his first tour of America at the age of five, with routines that included impersonating characters such as Cupid and Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as singing, dancing, and comical banter with another performer who acted as a straight man. To market the act, Barnum gave Stratton the name General Tom Thumb, naming him after the popular English fairy tale. The tour was a huge success and soon expanded.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: A year later, Barnum took young Stratton on a tour of Europe, making him an international celebrity. Stratton appeared twice before Queen Victoria. He also met the three-year-old future King Edward VII, at that time the Prince of Wales. In 1845, he triumphed at the Théâtre du Vaudeville (France) in the play "Le petit Poucet" of Dumanoir and Clairville. The tour was a huge success, with crowds mobbing him wherever he went. After his three-year tour in Europe, Stratton began his rise to stardom in the United States. Stratton's fame grew at an astonishing rate, and his popularity and celebrity surpassed that of any actor within his lifetime.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: On his return home from his second tour in 1847, aboard the SS "Cambria", he attracted the attention of the explorer John Palliser who "was not a little surprised, on entering the state-cabin, to hear the most unnatural shrill little pipe exclaiming, 'Waiter! bring me a Welsh rabbit'." During the voyage, General Tom Thumb contributed to a collection for the relief of famine victims in Ireland.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Stratton's first performances in New York marked a turning point in the history of freak show entertainment. Before Stratton's debut, the presentation of "human curiosities" for entertainment was deemed dishonorable and seen as an unpleasing carnival attraction. However, after viewers were introduced to Stratton and performances, he was able to change the perception people held toward freak shows. Stratton's lively and entertaining performances made these types of carnival shows one of the most favored forms of theatrical entertainment in the United States.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: From the age of seven, Stratton performed in grand full-length fairytale melodramas under the management of P.T. Barnum. A few of the melodramas that Stratton performed were "Hop o' My Thumb" and the "Seven League Boots". In these melodramas, Stratton was assigned the title role, which he played on multiple occasions. While Barnum sought to capitalize on Stratton's small stature, he also aimed to highlight and showcase his many true gifts as a performer. For example, Stratton was noted to be clever in his acts. In addition, he was a talented actor, singer, dancer, and comedian. As a result, certain dramatic critics did not compare his skills to those of the freak show community of which he was a member, but preferred to judge him on his merits as a professional entertainer.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: On his 13th birthday Stratton stood exactly tall. On his 18th birthday, he was measured at tall. On his 21st birthday, he was tall. Stratton became a Freemason on October 3, 1862. Stratton, by now tall, was initiated to be a Freemason alongside a man who was .


title: General Tom Thumb

text: His marriage in 1863, to Lavinia Warren, also a little person, became front-page news. The wedding took place at Grace Episcopal Church, and the wedding reception was held at New York City's Metropolitan Hotel. The couple stood atop a grand piano at the reception to greet some 10,000 guests. The best man at the wedding was George Washington Morrison ("Commodore") Nutt, another dwarf performer in Barnum's employ. The maid of honor was Minnie Warren, Lavinia's sister. Following the wedding, the couple was received by President Lincoln at the White House. Stratton and his wife toured together in Europe as well as British India, in particular the area that would later become Bangladesh.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Under Barnum's management, Stratton became a wealthy man. He owned a house in the fashionable part of New York and a steam yacht, and he had a wardrobe of fine clothes. He also owned a specially adapted home on one of Connecticut's Thimble Islands. When Barnum got into financial difficulty, Stratton bailed him out. Later, they became business partners. Stratton made his final appearance in England in 1878.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: In January 1883, Stratton was staying at John F. Antisdel's Newhall House in Milwaukee when a fire broke out, which Milwaukee historian John Gurda would call "one of the worst hotel fires in American history". More than 71 people died, but Tom and Lavinia were saved by their manager, Sylvester Bleeker.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: Six months after surviving the Newhall House fire, Stratton died unexpectedly of a stroke. He was 45 years old. Over 20,000 people attended the funeral. P. T. Barnum purchased a life-sized statue of Tom Thumb and placed it as a gravestone at Mountain Grove Cemetery in Bridgeport, Connecticut. When she died, more than 35 years later, Lavinia Warren was interred next to him, with a simple gravestone that read "His Wife".


title: General Tom Thumb

text: In 1959, vandals smashed the statue of Tom Thumb. It was restored by the Barnum Festival Society and Mountain Grove Cemetery Association with funds raised by public subscription.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: The cause of Stratton's extreme shortness, then unknown, is referred to today as pituitary dwarfism. X-rays were not discovered until 1895, 12 years after Stratton's death, and the medical techniques of the day were unable to ascertain the pathology (if any) underlying his diminutive size at the time.


title: General Tom Thumb

text: He was buried with Masonic honors by Saint John's Lodge. He became Master Mason in St. John's Lodge No. 3 at Bridgeport, Connecticut on October 8, 1862. He received the Commandery degrees (Masonic Knight Templar) in Hamilton Commandery No. 5 (Bridgeport, Connecticut), in 1863.


title: Carmelites

text: The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a Roman Catholic mendicant religious order for men and women. Historical records about its origin remain uncertain, but it was probably founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel in the Crusader States. Berthold of Calabria, as well as Albert of Vercelli have traditionally been associated with the founding of the order, but few clear records of early Carmelite history have survived. The order of Carmelite nuns was formalised in 1452.


title: Carmelites

text: The Carmelite Order is one of the few, if not the only, monastic orders not to refer to a charismatic founder, but to a prophet of the Old Testament: Elijah and his disciple Elisha are considered by the Carmelites as the spiritual fathers of the order. Tradition indicates the presence on Mount Carmel of a series of Jewish and then Christian hermits who lived, prayed and taught in the caves used by Elijah and Elisha. These caves of Mount Carmel have nevertheless, as archaeological data attest, served as a place of habitat and worship in many eras, without guaranteeing historical continuity, especially in a specific cult. This is how the first Christian hermits (at the origin of the founding of the order), settled in the caves of Mount Carmel to pray to God. The first chapel built within the hermitages and bringing together this community is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Very quickly, the spirituality of the order turned to Mary who became the queen and mistress of Carmel.


title: Carmelites

text: Before the presence of the Carmelites, in the 6th century Byzantine monks built a monastery dedicated to Saint Elijah in a valley a few kilometers south of the present monastery. This was destroyed in 614 by the Persians of Khosrow II. Around 1150, a Greek monk from Calabria established a community of about ten members among the ruins of the ancient Byzantine monastery which he rebuilt and renamed Saint Elijah.


title: Carmelites

text: Tradition indicates that the order was founded in 1185, but that is based on the story of a pilgrim in the Holy Land, the interpretation of which remains questionable. The oldest (and most reliable) written accounts of the presence of Latin hermits on Mount Carmel date back to 1220 and another text from 1263 (See ). During the Third Crusade, a group of hermits led by Berthold of Calabria began to inhabit the caves of Mount Carmel following the prophet Elijah. This first monastery was located in the east–west facing valley located south of the current monastery, and east of the "Haifa Sde Yehoshua Cemetery".


title: Carmelites

text: At the beginning of the 13th century, their leader was supposed to be Brocard, although written evidence is lacking. In the Carmelite rule, reference is made only to "Brother B." (in the introductory sentence of the rule) who asked the patriarch for a rule of life for hermits. Tradition has established that it was Brocard, second prior general of the order, who asked the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Albert, to provide the group of hermits with a written rule of life. This rule, dated 1209, is centered on prayer and defined the way of life of hermits.


title: Carmelites

text: The first act of the Order of Brothers of The Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel was to dedicate a chapel to the Virgin Mary under the title of Mary, Star of the Sea (in Latin: "Stella Maris"). Elisabeth Steinmann considers it probable that the hermits of Mount Carmel also settled in some cities of Palestine (Acre, Israel, Tire, Tripoli, Beaulieu in Lebanon), but after a few decades, these hermits began to leave the Holy Land as a result of the insecurity linked to the Muslim reconquests which marked the end of the Crusades. They then returned to Europe where they spread this new monastic order.


title: Carmelites

text: The rule of St. Albert was not approved by a pope until 30 January 1226 in the bull "Ut vivendi normam" of Honorius III. In 1229 Pope Gregory IX confirmed this rule again and gave it the status of "Regula bullata".


title: Carmelites

text: At the end of the first crusade led by Louis IX of France in the Holy Land in 1254 (the Seventh Crusade), Louis brought six Carmelites back to France who joined with those who since 1238 had started to seek and found houses all over Europe. The fall of Saint-Jean-d'Acre in 1291, and the fall of the Latin state of Palestine led to the destruction of the last Carmelite convents in the Holy Land. The Carmelites who had chosen to stay put were massacred by the Mamelukes.


title: Carmelites

text: Jerg Ratgeb painted a fresco retracing the life of the Carmelites at the beginning of the 16th century, on the walls of the refectory of the Carmelite monastery in Frankfurt.


title: Carmelites

text: Back in Europe, the hermits of Carmel encountered many difficulties. Their eremitic life did not adapt well to their new settlements, they were scattered in different nations, and they found themselves in "competition" with other mendicant orders. The Pope, who decided on a vast restructuring of the mendicant orders, wished to bring them all together under the direction of two major orders: the Order of Friars Minor and the Order of Preachers. Indeed, in 1215 the Fourth Lateran Council decided to end the proliferation of new mendicant orders and to group the existing ones under the two primary mendicant orders. In 1274 the Second Council of Lyon abolished all the mendicant orders that were founded after 1215, and only four mendicant orders remained: the Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, and Augustinians. The Carmelites, barely spared, had to change their way of life from eremitic to mendicant.


title: Carmelites

text: Gradually, during the 13th century, Carmelite hermits returning from Mount Carmel resettled throughout Europe, e. g. in Cyprus, Sicily, Italy, England, and southern France. Some dates and locations are known:


title: Carmelites

text: However, the new settlements of the Carmelites in the European cities were very different from their eremitical life on Mount Carmel. In addition, they faced hostility from the secular clergy and even from other mendicant orders, who saw them as competitors.


title: Carmelites

text: According to tradition, the prior general of the Carmelites, Simon Stock, worried about the very difficult situation of the order, which was still threatened with dissolution by the Catholic Church, intensely prayed to the Blessed Virgin Mary to aid the order. In 1251, Our Lady of Mount Carmel appeared to him accompanied by a multitude of angels and holding in her hand the Scapular of the Order. In his vision, Mary said


title: Carmelites

text: Following this vision, and the spread of the Scapular, the Order of Carmel endured and spread rapidly. The historicity of these events is disputed because of the lack of contemporary written records for the period in question; the earliest extant written records are from approximately 150 years later), and some documents contradict this narrative.


title: Carmelites

text: In the bull "Paganorum incursus" of 27 July 1247, Pope Innocent IV officially denominated the order the "Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel" and asked bishops to kindly accept them in their dioceses. However, the hostility of the secular clergy to the Carmelites was such that it prompted repetition of this recommendation on 4 October later that year.


title: Carmelites

text: In 1247, the Carmelites asked Pope Innocent IV to modify the "Rule of Saint Albert" of 1209 to adapt it to their new way of life in cities. In this modification, the communal dimension of their life was clearly emphasized. Pope Innocent IV clarified and corrected some ambiguities and mitigated some severities of the original Rule, and on 1 October 1247 he established the text in the bull "Quae honorem conditoris omnium". Thereafter, e. g., the Carmelites no longer ate meals in their cells separately and instead ate in common in a refectory. Thereafter Carmelites also preached and heard confessions in secular (ordinary) churches.


title: Carmelites

text: The last great uncertainty for the survival of the order occurred in 1274. During the "sanota vacillationis" session of 17 July 1274, the Second Council of Lyon, presided by Pope Gregory X, suppressed all the mendicant orders that lacked regular legal status ("incert mendicita"). The Carmelites defended the anteriority of their foundation, i. e. their institution before 1215, and the pertinent decisions of the Fourth Lateran Council, and emphasized their pontifical approvals. After many Carmelite interventions during this session, the Pope confirmed their anteriority.


title: Carmelites

text: After the General Chapter of the Order of 1287 in Montpellier, France, the Carmelites replaced the white and brown striped, or barred, coat of their habit with a white cloak, because of which cloak they therefore colloquially were denominated "White Friars".


title: Carmelites

text: The assimilation of the Carmelites as a mendicant order in 1326 by Pope John XXII ended the final hindrances, and the Carmelites could then rightly perform their apostolic mission. Nonetheless, a conflict ensued between the Carmelites who desired an eremitic life and those who desired an apostolic life in cities, including preaching. Consequently, two kinds of Carmelite monastery developed, one in the heart of cities and another outside them. Carmelites began to study theology at universities.


title: Carmelites

text: The mitigation of the Rule came after the great epidemic of the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century, which brought about a collapse of the European population accompanied by a decrease of members of monastic orders.


title: Carmelites

text: During the chapter of Nantes, a majority of Carmelites asked to appeal to Pope Eugene IV for a second mitigation of the Rule of 1209 of Saint Albert; the reform of 1247 was considered the first mitigation.


title: Carmelites

text: Two Carmelites were sent to convey this request to the Pope. The Pope responded in 1435 with the bull "Romani Pontificis", dated 15 February 1432, i. e. the date of the petition, addressed to the Prior General, Jean Faci. The bull granted the Carmelites permission to freely and lawfully stay and walk "in their churches, and in the cloisters of these and in the places adjoining them at the appropriate times", moreover, it granted the faculty to eat flesh three days a week, except during Advent and Lent, and on other days when this was generally prohibited.


title: Carmelites

text: Pope Pius II completed this permission on 5 December 1469 by granting the Prior General the faculty of dispensing from fasting on days when abstinence was lifted.


title: Carmelites

text: Pope Sixtus IV granted greater freedom, commonly known as "Mare magnum", in the bull "Dum attendant meditatatione" of 28 November 1476, which conceded many advantages to the mendicant orders. However, this mitigation of the Rule was somewhat resisted. Even before its promulgation, there was some protest against "a general relaxation" of the Rule.


title: Carmelites

text: The advantages of the new rule were sometimes frowned upon in certain monasteries which wished to return to the old rule of 1247. The convents of La Selve (near Florence), Géronde (Switzerland), and Mantua (near Florence) thrived because of their tendency to observe the ancient observant rule. The Carmelites of Mantua obtained from Pope Eugene IV the bull "Fama laudabilis", in 1442, which allowed them to be a separate congregation, governed by a vicar general and subject only to the prior general (and therefore detached from the general of the order). Influential during the 14th century, the "Reform of Mantua" subsequently became very marginal. Finally, this mitigation introduced around 1465 was definitively incorporated into the regulation of the Order of the Great Carmelites in 1783 by Pope Pius VI.


title: Carmelites

text: John Soreth, a brother from the Carmelite Convent of Caen, Prior General from 1451 to 1471, tried to convince his Brothers to lead a life more rigorous religious development by promoting the seeds and movements that already existed. His motto was "Return to the rule of Saint Albert". Its first decrees he protested against privileges and exemptions, a major cause of the decline of the order.


title: Carmelites

text: The constitutions of the order dating from 1362 were revised and approved by the general chapter of Brussels in 1462. These constitutions insisted on The reform took hold in some of the convents, the "observant convents" and the "mixed convents". John Soreth hoped that, gradually, his reform was to be imposed in all the monasteries of the order. However, this attempt at reform remained generally futile because the following prior general favor a return to a mitigation of the rule with the approval of Pius II and Sixtus IV.


title: Carmelites

text: In 1523 Pope Hadrian VI appointed Nicolas Audet as vicar general. The latter organized a centralization of the government of the different provinces while ensuring the training of the brothers.


title: Carmelites

text: In 1499, the Reformation of Albi aimed at a return to a more strict observance. It was not approved until 1513 as a "Congregation of Observance". But this reform was suppressed in 1584 by Pope Gregory XIII


title: Carmelites

text: In 1603, Henri Sylvius, Prior General of the Order, went to France at the request of the king Henri IV of France, to undertake with Philippe Thibault the reform of the province of Touraine. Pierre Behourt, Louis Charpentier, Philippe Thibault and Jean de Saint-Samson were to be the initiators and architects of this reform of the Carmelites of the Old observance. Figures from the Catholic Reformation, they were supported by Charles Borromeo, cardinal and archbishop of Milan. On 20 June 1604, at the provincial chapter of Nantes, Henri Sylvius published the statutes of the reform, which intended to promote interior life and reconnect with the old tradition of the order, under the patronage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph.


title: Carmelites

text: By the middle of the 17th century, most of the French provinces adopted the reform, which had already won the convents of Belgium (1624) and Germany. The constitutions of this "Reform of Touraine" were definitively fixed in 1635.


title: Carmelites

text: In 1645, during the general chapter held in Rome, the provincial of Touraine, Léon de Saint-Jean, was appointed a member of the committee which revised these constitutions with a view to having them adopted by all the reformed convents of the order.


title: Carmelites

text: From the Middle Ages, women, close to the communities of Carmelite brothers, were drawn to their life of prayer. Thus, in the Netherlands, some beguinages adopted the Carmelite rule and thus founded communities in the second half of the 15th century. John Soreth, Prior General of the Carmelite Order from 1451 to 1471, worked to transform those beguinages in the Netherlands into Carmelite convents.


title: Carmelites

text: On 7 October 1452, Pope Nicholas V promulged the bull "Cum Nulla" introducing the Carmelites in France. Under his protection, Françoise d'Amboise (†1485), Duchess of Brittany, erected the first convent for Carmelite nuns in France. In 1463, he had a house built in Vannes to accommodate a first convent. On 2 November 1463, nine nuns arrived from Liège and settled there. The monastery, called "Les Trois Maries " was closed in 1792. However, the Carmelite convents spread very quickly in Italy and Spain.


title: Carmelites

text: John Soreth played an extremely important role in the founding of the Third Order of the Carmelites. Pope Nicholas V supported this action in his bull "Cum Nulla", too.


title: Carmelites

text: In France, there were many Carmelite fraternities of the Third Order before the Revolution. Many died during the French Revolution, but a few evolved and organized themselves into a religious congregation of apostolic life.


title: Carmelites

text: Currently the Third Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel has a large number of fraternities in many countries. Following the return of the Carmelites of the Old observance to France in 1989, at the request of the laity, fraternities began to be formed. The first fraternity was established in the diocese of Toulon in 1992. A second was in Nantes in 2001.


title: Carmelites

text: Reform in Spain began in earnest in the 1560s, with the work of Teresa of Ávila, who, together with John of the Cross, established the Discalced Carmelites. Teresa's foundations were welcomed by King Philip II of Spain, who was most anxious for all Orders to be reformed according to the principles of the Council of Trent (1545–1563). But she created practical problems at the grassroots level. The proliferation of new religious houses in towns that were already struggling to cope economically was an unwelcome prospect. Local townspeople resisted direction by the nobility and diocesan clergy. Teresa tried to make her monasteries as self-sufficient as was practicable, and restricted the number of nuns per community accordingly.


title: Carmelites

text: The Discalced Carmelites also faced much opposition from other unreformed Carmelite houses (notably, Carmelites from Toledo arrested and imprisoned John of the Cross in their own monastery). Only in the 1580s did the Discalced Carmelites gain official approval of their status. In 1593, the Discalced Carmelites had their own superior general styled propositus general, the first being Nicholas Doria. Due to the politics of foundation, the Discalced friars in Italy were canonically erected as a separate juridical entity.


title: Carmelites

text: After the rise of Protestantism and the devastation of the French Wars of Religion, a spirit of reform renewed 16th–17th century France, as well as the Carmelite Order in France. In the late 16th century, Pierre Behourt began an effort to restore the state of the Province of Touraine, which was continued by the practical reforms of Philip Thibault. The Provincial Chapter of 1604 appointed Thibault the prior of the Convent in Rennes, and moved the Novitiate to Rennes, thereby ensuring that new members of the Province would be formed by the reform-minded friars. The Observance of Rennes advocated poverty, the interior life and regular observance as the antidote to the laxity and decadence into which religious life had fallen, in addition, incorporating currents of renewal from the Discalced Reform, the French School, and the Society of Jesus. Thibault is said to have wished to marry the spirit of the society with the Order of Carmelites as far as possible. One of the most renowned figures of the Reform was John of St. Samson, a blind lay brother, highly regarded for his humility and exalted spiritual life. In 1612, Br. John was moved to the Convent at Rennes and, in addition to playing the organ, served as the instructor and spiritual director of the novices. Thus John of St. Samson became known as the "Soul of the Reform." Eventually, the Observance of Rennes spread to priories throughout France, Belgium, and Germany, and became known as the Touraine Reform, after the Province from which the movement originated.


title: Carmelites

text: Carmelite nunneries were established in New Spain (Mexico), the first founded in 1604 in Puebla de los Angeles, New Spain's second largest city, followed by one in the capital Mexico City 1616. In all, before Mexican independence in 1821, there were five Carmelite convents among 56 nunneries.


title: Carmelites

text: Daniel Papebroch was a member of the Bollandists, a group of Jesuit hagiographers who produced the "Acta Sanctorum", which took an analytical approach to the "Lives of the Saints". In his preliminary commentary on Albert of Vercelli, who is credited with the Carmelite Rule, Papebroch said that the tradition universally received by the Carmelites, that the origin of the order dated back to the prophet Elias, as its founder, was insufficiently grounded. The Carmelites took exception to this.


title: Carmelites

text: From 1681 to 1693 there appeared between twenty or thirty pamphlets castigating Papebroch and his work. The series culminated in the large quarto volume signed by Sebastian of St. Paul, provincial of the Flemish-Belgian province of the Carmelite Order, which made serious charges against Papebroch's orthodoxy. Learning that steps were being taken to obtain a condemnation from Rome of the "Acta Sanctorum", the Bollandists responded. Conrad Janninck replied first with open letters to Sebastian of St. Paul. The two letters were printed in 1693, followed by a more extended defense of the "Acta", published by Janninck in 1695. Papebroch published his rebuttal in 1696, 1697, and 1698 in the three volumes of the "Responsio Danielis Papebrochii ad Exhibitionem Errorum".


title: Carmelites

text: When Rome did not issue a condemnation the adversaries of Papebroch had recourse to the tribunal of the Spanish Inquisition, which in November, 1695, issued a decree condemning the fourteen volumes of the "Acta Sanctorum" published up to that time and branding it heretical. Janninck was sent to Rome not only to prevent the confirmation by Rome of the decree of the Spanish Inquisition, but also to secure the retraction of the decree. In December, 1697, he received the assurance that no censure would be passed against the volumes condemned in Spain. On 20 November 1698, Pope Innocent XII issued a brief that ended the controversy by imposing silence on both parties. Whether it was judged prudent in Rome not to enter into conflict with the Spanish tribunal, or whether the latter prolonged the affair by passive resistance, the decree of condemnation made in 1695 was not revoked until 1715, the year following the death of Papebroch.


title: Carmelites

text: Leaders of the Carmelite Order meet from time to time in General Congregation. The most recent General Congregation took place in Fátima, Portugal from 18 to 30 September 2016.


title: Carmelites

text: Since the 1430s, the Congregation of Mantua had continued to function in its little corner of Italy. It was only at the end of the 19th century that those following the reform of Tourraine (by this time known as the "strict observance") and the Mantuan Congregation were formally merged under one set of constitutions. The friars following Mantua conceded to Tourraine's Constitutions but insisted that the older form of the habit – namely their own – should be adopted. In a photograph of the period Titus Brandsma is shown in the habit of Tourraine as a novice; in all subsequent images he wears that of the newly styled ancient observance.


title: Carmelites

text: The French Revolution led to the suppression of the order, with the nuns dispersed into small groups who lived out of view in private houses. At the peak of the persecution, a Carmelite convent, now known as the Martyrs of Compiègne, were executed by guillotine.


title: Carmelites

text: fter the end of the disturbances, the wealthy heiress and Carmelite nun Camille de Soyécourt did much to restore the Carmelite life in France.


title: Carmelites

text: The secularization in Germany and the repercussions on religious orders following the unification of Italy were strong blows to the Carmelites.


title: Carmelites

text: By the last decades of the 19th century, there were approximately 200 Carmelite men throughout the world. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, new leadership and less political interference allowed a rebirth of the order. Existing provinces began re-founding provinces that had become defunct. The theological preparation of the Carmelites was strengthened, particularly with the foundation of St. Albert's College in Rome.


title: Carmelites

text: By 2001, the membership had increased to approximately 2,100 men in 25 provinces, 700 enclosed nuns in 70 monasteries, and 13 affiliated Congregations and Institutes. In addition, the Third Order of lay Carmelites count 25,000–30,000 members throughout the world. Provinces exist in Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Hungary, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Portugal and the United States. Delegations directly under the Prior General exist in Argentina, France, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Lebanon, the Philippines and Portugal.


title: Carmelites

text: Carmelite Missions exist in Bolivia, Burkino Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, India, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, Mozambique, Peru, Romania, Tanzania, Trinidad, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.


title: Carmelites

text: Monasteries of enclosed Carmelite nuns exist in Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand (in Christchurch since 1933), Nicaragua, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Spain, Sweden, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Hermit communities of either men or women exist in Brazil, France, Indonesia, Lebanon, Italy and the United States.


title: Carmelites

text: The Discalced Carmelite Order built the priory of Elijah (1911) at the site of Elijah's epic contest with the prophets of Ba'al (1 Kings 18:20–40). The monastery is situated about 25 kilometers south of Haifa on the eastern side of the Carmel, and stands on the foundations of a series of earlier monasteries. The site is held sacred by Christians, Jews and Muslims; the name of the area is "el-Muhraqa," an Arabic construction meaning "place of burning", and is a direct reference to the biblical account.


title: Carmelites

text: Several Carmelite figures who have received significant attention in the 20th century, including Thérèse of Lisieux, one of only four female Doctors of the Church, so named because of her famous teaching on the "way of confidence and love" set forth in her best-selling memoir, "Story of a Soul"; Three nuns of Monastery of Guadalajara who were martyred on 24 July 1936 by Spanish Republicans. Titus Brandsma, a Dutch scholar and writer who was killed in Dachau concentration camp because of his stance against Nazism; and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (née Edith Stein), a Jewish convert to Catholicism who was also imprisoned and murdered at Auschwitz.


title: Carmelites

text: Raphael Kalinowski (1835–1907) was the first friar to be canonized in the order since co-founder John of the Cross. The writings and teachings of Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, a Carmelite friar of the 17th century, continue as a spiritual classic under the title "The Practice of the Presence of God". Other non-religious ("i.e.," non-vowed monastic) great figures include George Preca, a Maltese priest and Carmelite Tertiary. The Feast of All Carmelite Saints and Blesseds is celebrated on 14 November.


title: Carmelites

text: In 1287, the original way of life of the order was changed to conform to that of the mendicant orders on the initiative of Simon Stock and at the command of Pope Innocent IV. Their former habit of a mantle with black and white or brown and white stripes—the black or brown stripes representing the scorches the mantle of Elijah received from the fiery chariot as it fell from his shoulders—was discarded. They wore the same habit as the Dominicans, except that the cloak was white. They also borrowed much from the Dominican and Franciscan constitutions. Their distinctive garment was a scapular of two strips of dark cloth, worn on the breast and back, and fastened at the shoulders. Tradition holds that this was given to Simon Stock by the Blessed Virgin Mary, who appeared to him and promised that all who wore it with faith and piety and who died clothed in it would be saved. There arose a sodality of the scapular, which affiliated a large number of laymen with the Carmelites.


title: Carmelites

text: A miniature version of the Carmelite scapular is popular among Roman Catholics and is one of the most popular devotions in the church. Wearers usually believe that if they faithfully wear the Carmelite scapular (also called "the brown scapular" or simply "the scapular") and die in a state of grace, they will be saved from eternal damnation. Catholics who decide to wear the scapular are usually enrolled by a priest, and some choose to enter the Scapular Confraternity. The Lay Carmelites of the Third Order of Our Lady of Mount Carmel wear a scapular which is smaller than the shortened scapular worn by some Carmelite religious for sleeping, but still larger than the devotional scapulars.


title: Carmelites

text: Among the various Catholic orders, Carmelite nuns have had a proportionally high ratio of visions of Jesus and Mary and have been responsible for key Catholic devotions.


title: Carmelites

text: From the time of her clothing in the Carmelite religious habit (1583) until her death (1607), Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi is said to have had a series of raptures and ecstasies.


title: Carmelites

text: In the Carmelite convent of Beja, in Portugal, two Carmelite nuns of the Ancient Observance reported several apparitions and mystical revelations throughout their life: Mariana of the Purification received numerous apparitions of the Child Jesus and her body was found incorrupt after her death; Maria Perpétua da Luz wrote 60 books with messages from heaven; both religious died with the odor of sanctity.


title: Carmelites

text: In the 19th century, another Carmelite nun, Thérèse of Lisieux, was instrumental in spreading devotion to the Holy Face throughout France in the 1890s with her many poems and prayers. Eventually Pope Pius XII approved the devotion in 1958 and declared the Feast of the Holy Face of Jesus as Shrove Tuesday (the day before Ash Wednesday) for all Catholics. Therese of Lisieux emerged as one of the most popular saints for Catholics in the 20th century, and a statue of her can be found in many European and North American Catholic churches built prior to the Second Vatican Council (after which the number of statues tended to be reduced when churches were built).


title: Carmelites

text: In the 20th century, in the last apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Fátima, Portugal, Sister Lúcia, one of the most famous visionaries of Our Lady, said that the Virgin appeared to her as Our Lady of Mount Carmel (holding the Brown Scapular). Many years after, Lúcia became a Carmelite nun. When Lúcia was asked in an interview why the Blessed Virgin appeared as Our Lady of Mount Carmel in her last apparition, she replied: "Because Our Lady wants all to wear the Scapular... The reason for this", she explained, "is that the Scapular is our sign of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary". When asked if the Brown Scapular is as necessary to the fulfillment of Our Lady's requests as the rosary, Lúcia answered: "The Scapular and the Rosary are inseparable".


title: Carmelites

text: Many Carmelites have been canonized by the Catholic Church as saints. 14 November is the Feast of All Carmelite Saints, and 15 November is the Commemoration of All the Departed of the Carmelite Order.


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: The Herodian Kingdom of Judea was a client state of the Roman Republic from 37 BCE, when Herod the Great, who had been appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40/39 BCE, took actual control over the country. When Herod died in 4 BCE, the kingdom was divided among his sons into the Herodian Tetrarchy.


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: The first intervention of Rome in the region dates from 63 BCE, following the end of the Third Mithridatic War, when Rome created the province of Syria. After the defeat of Mithridates VI of Pontus, Pompey (Pompey the Great) sacked Jerusalem in 63 BCE. The Hasmonean Queen, Salome Alexandra, had recently died and her sons, Hyrcanus II and Aristobulus II, turned against each other in a civil war. In 63 BCE, Aristobulus was besieged in Jerusalem by his brother's armies. He sent an envoy to Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, Pompey's representative in the area. Aristobulus offered a massive bribe to be rescued, which Pompey promptly accepted. Afterwards, Aristobulus accused Scaurus of extortion. Since Scaurus was Pompey's brother-in-law and protégé, the general retaliated by putting Hyrcanus in charge of the kingdom as Prince and High Priest.


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: When Pompey was defeated by Julius Caesar, Hyrcanus was succeeded by his courtier Antipater the Idumaean, also known as Antipas, as the first Roman Procurator. In 57–55 BCE, Aulus Gabinius, proconsul of Syria, split the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts of Sanhedrin/Synedrion (councils of law).


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: After Julius Caesar was murdered in 44 BCE, Quintus Labienus, a Roman republican general and ambassador to the Parthians, sided with Brutus and Cassius in the Liberators' civil war; after their defeat Labienus joined the Parthians and assisted them in invading Roman territories in 40 BCE. The Parthian army crossed the Euphrates and Labienus was able to entice Mark Antony's Roman garrisons around Syria to rally to his cause. The Parthians split their army, and under Pacorus conquered the Levant from the Phoenician coast through the Land of Israel: "Antigonus... roused the Parthians to invade Syria and Palestine, [and] the Jews eagerly rose in support of the scion of the Maccabean house, and drove out the hated Idumeans with their puppet Jewish king. The struggle between the people and the Romans had begun in earnest, and though Antigonus, when placed on the throne by the Parthians, proceeded to spoil and harry the Jews, rejoicing at the restoration of the Hasmonean line, thought a new era of independence had come. When Phasael and Hyrcanus II set out on an embassy to the Parthians, the Parthians instead captured them. Antigonus, who was present, cut off Hyrcanus's ears to make him unsuitable for the High Priesthood, while Phasael was put to death.


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: Antigonus, whose Hebrew name was Mattathias, bore the double title of king and High Priest for only three years. He had not disposed of Herod, who fled into exile and sought the support of Mark Antony. Herod was designated "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate in 40 BCE:


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: Antony "then resolved to get [Herod] made king of the Jews...[and] told [the Senate] that it was for their advantage in the Parthian war that Herod should be king; so they all gave their votes for it. And when the senate was separated, Antony and Caesar [Augustus] went out, with Herod between them; while the consul and the rest of the magistrates went before them, in order to offer sacrifices [to the Roman gods], and to lay the decree in the Capitol. Antony also made a feast for Herod on the first day of his reign."


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: The struggle thereafter lasted for some years, as the main Roman forces were occupied with defeating the Parthians and had few additional resources to use to support Herod. After the Parthian defeat, Herod was victorious over his rival in 37 BCE. Antigonus was delivered to Antony and executed shortly thereafter, bringing about the end of the Hasmonean rule over Israel.


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: King Herod has become known among the archaeologists as Herod the Builder, and under his reign Judea experienced an unprecedented construction, still obtaining an impact on the landscape of the region. Under his enterprise, such projects as the Masada fortress, the Herodion and the great port of Caesarea Maritima were built.


title: Herodian Kingdom of Judea

text: Antigonus was not, however, the last male Hasmonean; Aristobulus III, grandson of Aristobulus II through his elder son Alexander, and brother of the Hasmonean princess Mariamne, was briefly made high priest, but was soon executed (36 BCE) due to jealousy of Herod's first wife Doris. His sister, Mariamne was married to Herod, but fell victim to his notorious fear of being assassinated. Her sons by Herod, Aristobulus IV and Alexander, were in their adulthood also executed by their father, but not before Aristobulus IV having sired Herodias.