* Santa Claus also known as Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas and simply " Santa ", is a figure with legendary, mythical, historical and folkloric origins who, in many western cultures, is said to bring gifts to the homes of the good children during the late evening and overnight hours of Christmas Eve, December 24.

Excerpt from Josiah King's The Examination and Tryal of Father Christmas ( 1686 ), published shortly after Christmas was reinstated as a holy day in England.

A similar figure with the same name ( in other languages ) exists in several other countries, including France ( Père Noël ), Spain ( Papá Noel, Padre Noel ), almost all Hispanic South America ( Papá Noel ), Brazil ( Papai Noel ), Portugal ( Pai Natal ), Italy ( Babbo Natale ), Armenia ( Kaghand Papik ), India ( Christmas Father ), Andorra ( Pare Noel ), Romania ( Moş Crăciun ) and Turkey ( Noel Baba ).

In past centuries, the English Father Christmas was also known as Old Father Christmas, Sir Christmas, and Lord Christmas.

Father Christmas is said to wear ( these days ) a bright red suit, but in Victorian and Tudor times he wore a bright green suit.

Father Christmas typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, but was neither a gift bringer nor particularly associated with children.

A traditional figure in English folklore, Father Christmas is identified with the old belief in the Old English god Woden.

In the English-speaking world, the character called " Father Christmas " influenced the development in the United States of Santa Claus, and in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, most people now consider them to be interchangeable.

However, although " Father Christmas " and " Santa Claus " have for most practical purposes been merged, historically the characters have different origins and are not identical.

Tolkien, have insisted on the traditional form of Father Christmas in preference to Santa Claus.

Father Christmas is often said to reside at the North Pole or less commonly, in the mountains of Korvatunturi in Lapland, Finland.

The character continued to appear over the next 250 years, appearing as Sir Christmas, Lord Christmas or Father Christmas, the last becoming the most common.

A man must be able to say, `` Father, I have sinned '', or there is no hope for him.

`` It is as though '', I said on the historic three-hour, coast-to-coast radio broadcast which I bought ( following Father Coughlin and pre-empting the Eddie Cantor, Manhattan Merry-go-round and Major Bowes shows ) `` That Man in the White House, like some despot of yore, insisted on reading my diary, raiding my larder and ransacking my lingerie!!

The Roman Catholic Church has excommunicated one of its priests, Father Feeney, for insisting that there is no salvation outside the visible church.

`` Father, is that you ''??

* Father Paneloux: Father Paneloux is a learned, well-respected Jesuit priest.

In contrast to the humanist beliefs of Rieux, Rambert, and Tarrou, the religious perspective is given in the sermons of the stern Jesuit priest, Father Paneloux.

abate ), as commonly used in the Catholic Church on the European continent, is the equivalent of the English " Father " ( parallel etymology ), being loosely applied to all who have received the tonsure.

* Atomic Dog, a song that is popular world wide ; written and performed by Our Father Who Art of Funk ; " George Clinton " from Parliament and the Funkadelics

The Arian concept of Christ is that the Son of God did not always exist, but was created by — and is therefore distinct from — God the Father.

This belief is grounded in the Gospel of John passage “ You heard me say, ‘ I am going away and I am coming back to you .’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

The Nicene Creed's central term, used to describe the relationship between the Father and the Son, is Homoousios (), or Consubstantiality, meaning " of the same substance " or " of one being ".

It is all that subsists by itself and which has not its being in another, God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all being uncreated.

In the system described by Irenaeus, " the Unbegotten Father " is the progenitor of Nous, and from Nous Logos, from Logos Phronesis, from Phronesis Sophia and Dynamis, from Sophia and Dynamis principalities, powers, and angels, the last of whom create " the first heaven.

Abijah ( אביה ' aḆiYaH ) or Abiah or Abia, modern Hebrew Aviya, is a Biblical unisex name that means " my Father is Yahweh ".

# Abijah ( king ) of the Kingdom of Judah, also known as Abijam ( אבים ' aḄiYaM " My Father is Yam "), who was son of Rehoboam and succeeded him on the throne of Judah.

In formal documents, the Archbishop of Canterbury is referred to as " The Most Reverend Father in God, Forenames, by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan ".

The Latin reads: " The Father is God, The Son is God, The Holy Spirit is God ; God is the Father, God is the Son, God is the Holy Spirit ; The Father is not the Son, The Son is not the Father, The Father is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Father, The Son is not the Holy Spirit, The Holy Spirit is not the Son.

The second group also avoided invoking the name of Arius, but in large part followed Arius ' teachings and, in another attempted compromise wording, described the Son as being like ( homoios ) the Father.

As the name implies, comic strips can be humorous ( for example, " gag-a-day " strips such as Blondie, Bringing Up Father, Marmaduke and Pearls Before Swine ).

is a place name referring to a fording point of the River Liffey near Father Mathew Bridge.

: " O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it ; that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him, and keep his commandments which he hath * given them, that they may always have his Spirit to be with them.

: " O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee, in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this water * to the souls of all those who drink of it, that they may do it in remembrance of the blood of thy Son, which was shed for them ; that they may witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they do always remember him, that they may have his Spirit to be with them.

For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

" He gives the Great Commission: " Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you ;" Jesus will be with them " to the very end of the age.

Celebrated as the " Father of the New Left ,"< ref name = kellner12 > Douglas Kellner.

And that this power which the prophetic word calls God, as has been also amply demonstrated, and Angel, is not numbered different in name only like the light of the sun but is indeed something numerically distinct, I have discussed briefly in what has gone before ; when I asserted that this power was begotten from the Father, by His power and will, but not by abscission, as if the essence of the Father were divided ; as all other things partitioned and divided are not the same after as before they were divided: and, for the sake of example, I took the case of fires kindled from a fire, which we see to be distinct from it, and yet that from which many can be kindled is by no means made less, but remains the same.

Thus (" The Father of Greatness ", the highest Manichaean deity of Light ), in Middle Persian texts might either be translated literally as pīd ī wuzurgīh, or substituted with the name of the deity Zurwān.

The name Meher Baba means " Compassionate Father " in Persian and was given to him by his first followers.

His early followers gave him the name " Meher Baba ," meaning Compassionate Father.

Herbert Marcuse, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory, is celebrated as the " Father of the New Left ".< ref name = kellner12 > Douglas Kellner.

The Holy Father decreed severe penalties against all who gave a relic any name but that given by the cardinal-vicar.

Latino Malabranca, the aged and ill dean of the College of Cardinals cried out, " In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I elect brother Pietro di Morrone.