Glossary Definitions N - R

Nano Nagle

Nano Nagle (1718-1784) founded the Presentation Sisters (Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, PBVM) in Ireland. Nano Nagle lived during a time in Ireland when the English imposed the Penal Laws through which it was declared a crime of treason, punishable by death, to educate the Irish and allow them to practise the Roman Catholic faith. Honora (Nano) Nagle was born in Ballygriffen in 1718, the eldest of the six children of Garret and Ann Matthew Nagle. In her family circle she was given the affectionate diminutive ‘Nano’ to replace her official baptismal name, ‘Honora’. Nano was educated in a so-called ‘hedge school’ close to her home before being sent to France for the rest of her education. In Paris she led a hectic social life but after one party noticed a group of wretched looking people huddled in a church doorway. After her father’s death in 1746 Nano returned to Ireland and went to live with her mother in Dublin, where surrounded by widespread poverty she resolved to take up the education of deprived children. In defiance of the law, Nano and her associates began to set up schools for the poor and deprived and to visit the sick and the elderly in the evenings, earning herself the title, The Lady with the Lantern. Nano founded the first Presentation convent at Cork in 1775 and with her companions received the habit of a Presentation Sister on 29 June 1776, taking the religious name Mother Mary of St John of God. Nano and her companions made their first vows as Presentation Sisters on 24 June 1777. In the year 2000, Nano Nagle was voted Irish Woman of the Millennium in recognition of her importance as a pioneer of female education in Ireland. It was Nano Nagle who inspired Edmund Rice, the founder of the Irish Christian Brothers to bring education to the poor.

Narrative criticism

A form of biblical criticism that focuses on the stories a writer narrates in order to understand the ways in which they seek to make meaning and relate that meaning to the human experience of those who read or hear the narrative. Further information

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Education

A translation of the Bible closely based on the New Revised Standard Version but including the deuteron-canonical books of the Old Testament and adapted for the use of Catholics with the approval of the Catholic Church.

New Testament

The collection of books of the Bible that were produced by the early Christian church comprising the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles and the Book of Revelation.

Nicene Creed

The profession of faith or creed that is most widely used in Christian liturgy. It forms the mainstream definition of Christianity for most Christians. In its original form it was adopted in the city of Nicaea by the first ecumenical council in the year 325. Further information

Old Testament

The first of the two main divisions of the Christian Bible comprising the Law, the Prophets and the Writings.

Orthodoxy

Adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion. In the Christian sense, the term means ‘conforming to the Christian faith as represented in the creeds of the early Church’.

Parables

Short allegorical stories designed to illustrate or teach some truth, religious principle or moral lesson. Parables convey their meaning by the use of comparison, analogy, metaphor and simile. Used extensively by Jesus as a teaching tool. Further Information

Pentateuch

The first five books of the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. From the Greek for ‘five books’ or ‘five scrolls’.

Prophet

In the Old Testament, those who wrote or spoke under divine inspiration to make known the will of God or to interpret God’s message. A prophet communicated the Word of God, related to both their own times and to the future.

Psalms

A sacred song or hymn. The Book of Psalms in the Old Testament contains a variety of such songs and hymns. A Responsorial Psalm is part of the Liturgy of the Word during the celebration of the Eucharist (Mass).

Qur'an

The word Qur’an in Arabic literally means ‘recitation’. The Qur’an (Koran) is the central religious text of Islam which Muslims believe to be orally revealed by God through the angel Gabriel to Muhammad over a period of twenty-three years, 609 CE to 632 CE, the year of Muhammad’s death. Shortly after Muhammad’s death the Qur’an was collected by his companions using written Quranic materials and everything that had been memorised of the Qur’an.

Religious Orders

A term commonly used in a Christian context to refer to Christian women and men who consecrate their lives to Christ and his mission through the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. These men and women serve the mission of Christ and the Church through being members of a particular Religious Order, Religious Congregation or Religious Institute each of which have their own characteristic charism and apostolic work to give practical expression to the Good News of Jesus Christ. (e.g. Sisters of Charity, Marist Brothers, Society of Jesus, Presentation Sisters, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Good Samaritan Sisters)

Resurrection

The rising of Jesus Christ after his death and burial as recorded and referred to in the New Testament texts.