Togolese Stamps
Togo 
i/ˈtoʊɡoʊ/, officially the Togolese Republic (French: République Togolaise), is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately 57,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi) with a population of approximately 6.7 million.
i/ˈtoʊɡoʊ/, officially the Togolese Republic (French: République Togolaise), is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, where its capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately 57,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi) with a population of approximately 6.7 million.
Togo is a tropical, sub-Saharan nation, highly dependent on agriculture, with a climate that provides good growing seasons. Togo is one of the smallest countries in all of Africa. The official language is French, with many other languages spoken in Togo, particularly those of the Gbe family. The largest religious group in Togo are those with indigenous beliefs, and there are significant Christian and minorities. Togo is a member of the United Nations, African Union, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, South Atlantic Peace and Cooperation Zone, La Francophonie and Economic Community of West African States.
Muslim
From the 11th to the 16th century, various tribes entered the region from all directions. From the 16th century to the 18th century, the coastal region was a major trading centre for Europeans in search of slaves, earning Togo and the surrounding region the name "The Slave Coast". In 1884, Germany declared Togoland a protectorate. After World War I, rule over Togo was transferred to France. Togo gained its independence from France in 1960.[2]
Wikipedia
Allez France
Allez France (May 24, 1970 - December 11, 1989) was a French Thoroughbred Hall of Fame racehorse who was the first filly inThoroughbred horse racing history to earn $1 million. Says who? Sports Illustrated says Dahlia was "the first filly to win $1 million (just before Allez did it)"[1] and the U.S. National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame says Dahlia was "the first female Thoroughbred to earn $1 million."[2]
Purchased from her Kentucky breeder by French art dealer Daniel Wildenstein, she became his first important horse and the spur for his substantial investment in racehorses and bloodstock. For his horses in France, Wildenstein operated Dayton Investments Limited. For those in the United States, he owned the Allez France Stables.
As a six-year-old, Allez France was sent to race in the United States but, as was the case in other races outside of France, she did not do well. In 1976, she was retired as a broodmare to Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky.
Allez France was the dam of the successful sire Air De France (1984–2004), who sired 11 stakeswinners that had 34 stakes wins.[3]
After her death, Allez France was honored by being buried next to Man O' War and other greats at the Kentucky Horse Park near Lexington, Kentucky.
Interco
Megan's Interco, a gelding who once made a living running second, has changed his ways.
The Calfifornia-bred son of Interco made it five consecutive victories for owner Milt Bronson and trainer Jenine Sahadi, defeating Tinners Way by a head in the $109,400 Arcadia Handicap on the turf at Santa Anita on Saturday.
Megan's Interco, the 8-5 favorite, was never far off the pace being set by Tinners Way, and they battled through the stretch. Ridden by Corey Black, Megan's Interco has now won four of five on the turf and six of his last seven overall. He completed the mile in 1:33 4/5. Earl Of Barking, the 2-1 second choice, was fifth.
Owned by John Forsythe's Big Train Farm and trained by Jack Van Berg, Mamselle Bebette took over in the final eighth of a mile after Arches Of Gold had set the pace from her inside post
St. Paul
Paul the Apostle (Greek: Παῦλος Paulos; c. 5 – c. 67), original name Saul of Tarsus (Greek: Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς Saulos Tarseus),[4]was an apostle (though not one of the Twelve Apostles) who taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world.[5] He is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age.[6][7] In the mid-30s to the mid-50s, he founded several churches in Asia Minor and Europe. Paul used his status as both a Jew and a Roman citizen to advantage in his ministry to both Jewish and Roman audiences.[5]
Fourteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul, and approximately half of the Acts of the Apostles deals with Paul's life and works. Seven of the epistles are undisputed by scholars as being authentic, with varying degrees of argument about the remainder. The Pauline authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews, already doubted in the 2nd and 3rd centuries [8] but almost unquestioningly accepted from the 5th to the 16th centuries,[9] is now almost universally rejected by scholars.[10] The other six are believed by some scholars to have come from followers writing in his name, using material from Paul's surviving letters and letters written by him that no longer survive.[5][6][11] Other scholars argue that the idea of a pseudonymous author for the disputed epistles raises many problems.[12]
Today, his epistles continue to be vital roots of the theology, worship, and pastoral life in the Roman and Protestant traditions of the West, as well as the Orthodox traditions of the East.[13] Among the many other apostles and missionaries involved in the spread of the Christian faith,[5] his influence on Christian thought and practice has been characterized as being as "profound as it is pervasive".[13]Augustine of Hippo developed Paul's idea that salvation is based on faith and not "works of the law".[14] Martin Luther's interpretation of Paul's writings heavily influenced Luther's doctrine of sola fide.
St. Thomas
The sacrament of Baptism has the outward sign of a washing. "He that washes himself (baptuzatur) after touching the dead, if he touched them again, what does his washing avail?" (Sirach 34,30). The sacrament does not come from the water, but from the act of pouring the water, in the form of a washing. (St. Hugh of Victor held that the water was the sacrament, but this is in error.) The outward reality is in the washing with water, while the sacramental sign is the inward justification: this is the reality, or inward reality of the sacrament. The inward reality is a seal and a safeguarding. Dionysius defined Baptism by its relation to the other sacraments (Eccl. Hier.ii) that it is the principle that forms the habits of the soul for the reception of those most holy words and sacraments; by its relation to heavenly glory, which is the universal end of all sacraments, preparing the way for us, whereby we mount to the repose of the heavenly kingdom, conferring on us our most sacred and Godlike regeneration. The power of Baptism was initiated when Christ was Baptized, and not during the passion.
St. Matthew
Matthew was a 1st-century Galilean (presumably born in Galilee, which was not part of Judea or the Roman Iudaea province), the son of Alpheus.[8] During the Roman occupation (which began in 63 BC with the conquest of Pompey), Matthew collected taxes from the Hebrew people for Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee. His tax office was located in Capernaum. Jews who became rich in such a fashion were despised and considered outcasts. However, as a tax collector he would have been literate in Aramaic and Greek.[2][9][10][11] After his call, Matthew invited Jesus home for a feast. On seeing this, the Scribes and thePharisees criticized Jesus for eating with tax collectors and sinners. This prompted Jesus to answer, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Mark 2:17)
In the 3rd century Jewish-Christian Gospels attributed to Matthew were used by Jewish-Christian groups such as theNazarenes and Ebionites. Fragments of these gospels survive in quotations by Jerome, Epiphanius and others. Most academic study follows the distinction of Gospel of the Nazarenes (26 fragments), Gospel of the Ebionites (7 fragments), and Gospel of the Hebrews (7 fragments) found in Schneemelcher's New Testament Apocrypha. Critical commentators generally regard these texts as having been composed in Greek and related to Greek Matthew.[25] A minority of commentators consider them to be fragments of a lost Aramaic or Hebrew language original.
The Infancy Gospel of Matthew is a 7th-century compilation of three other texts: the Protevangelium of James, the Flight into Egypt and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.
Origen said the first Gospel was written by Matthew.[26] This Gospel was composed in Hebrew near Jerusalem for Hebrew Christians and translated into Greek, but the Greek copy was lost. The Hebrew original was kept at the Library of Caesarea. The Nazarene Community transcribed a copy for Jerome[27] which he used in his work.[28] Matthew's Gospel was called the Gospel according to the Hebrews[29] or sometimes the Gospel of the Apostles[30] and it was once believed that it was the original to the Greek Matthew found in the Bible.[31] However, this has been challenged by modern biblical scholars such as Bart Ehrman and James R. Edwards.[32][33][34]
Jerome relates that Matthew was supposed by the Nazarenes to have composed their Gospel of the Hebrews[35] though Irenaeus and Epiphanius of Salamis consider this simply a revised version canonical Gospel. This Gospel has been partially preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers, said to have been written by Matthew.[33] Epiphanius does not make his own the claim about a Gospel of the Hebrews written by Matthew, a claim that he merely attributes to the heretical Ebionites.[34]
St. Jacques
Saint Jacques Berthieu was a French Jesuit priest working in Madagascar when he was martyred by rebel tribesmen hostile to his faith.
Saint Berthieu was born in France on November 27, 1838, as one of seven children. As you youth, he felt a strong calling to serve God and he joined the Jesuits in October of 1873.
Just two years later, he joined a Jesuit mission to Madagascar. His talent and zeal made him a favorite in the order and he was soon appointed to be the superior of mission in Ambositra in 1885.
Working from his mission, St. Berthieu grew the faith, inviting many of the locals to God.
However, his mission because increasingly fraught with danger as some locals became increasingly hostile to French influence in the region. The hostility eventually grew so that the mission had to be repeatedly moved.
Eventually, moving the mission was not enough and in 1896, St. Berthieu was kidnapped during a rebellion.
St. Berthieu's had many chances to flee before being captured and possibly after, but he would not consider it, preferring instead to remain on task, shepherding as many of the people as he could toward Christ.
On June 8, 1896, he was presented to a rebel leader who offered him a position as an advisor. St. Berthieu refused this honor. After refusing, he was then given only seconds to choose between renouncing his faith and being put to death.
St. Simon
The apostle called Simon Zelotes, Simon the Zealot, in Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13; and Simon Kananaios or Simon Cananeus ("Simon" signifying שמעון "hearkening; listening", Standard Hebrew Šimʿon, Tiberian Hebrew Šimʿôn, "Shim'on"), was one of the most obscure among the apostles of Jesus. Little is recorded of him aside from his name. A few pseudepigraphical writings were connected to him, and the theologian and Doctor of the Church, Saint Jerome, does not include him in De viris illustribus written between 392-393 AD.[3]
The name of Simon occurs in all of the synoptic gospels and the Book of Acts each time there is a list of apostles, without further details:
14 Simon, whom he named Peter, and his brother Andrew, and James, and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, 15 and Matthew, and Thomas, and James son of Alphaeus, and Simon, who was called the Zealot, 16 and Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.—Luke 6:14-16, NRSV
To distinguish him from Simon Peter, he is called Kananaios, or Kananites (Matthew 10:4, Mark 3:18), and in the list of apostles in Luke 6:15, repeated in Acts 1:13, Zelotes, the "Zealot". Both titles derive from the Hebrew wordqana, meaning The Zealous, though Jerome and others mistook the word to signify the apostle was from the town ofCana, in which case his epithet would have been "Kanaios" or even from the region of Canaan. As such, the translation of the word as "the Cananite" or "the Canaanite" is traditional and without contemporary extra-canonic parallel.
Robert Eisenman has pointed out[4] contemporary talmudic references to Zealots as kanna'im "but not really as a group — rather as avenging priests in the Temple". Eisenman's broader conclusions, that the zealot element in the original apostle group was disguised and overwritten to make it support the assimilative Pauline Christianity of theGentiles, are more controversial. John P. Meier points out that the term "Zealot" is a mistranslation and in the context of the Gospels means "zealous" or "jealous" (in this case, for keeping the Law of Moses), as the Zealot movement did not exist until 30 to 40 years after the events of the Gospels.[5]
In the Gospels, Simon the Zealot is never identified with Simon the brother of Jesus mentioned in Gospel of Mark 6:3 :
3 Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.(NRSV)
The Catholic Encyclopedia suggests that Simon the Zealot may be the same person as Simeon of Jerusalem or Simon the brother of Jesus. He could perhaps be the cousin of Jesus or a son of Joseph from a previous marriage.[6]
The Eastern Orthodox Church tradition holds that it was Simon's wedding that Christ and his disciples attended in Cana of Galilee in which Christ turned water in six stone jars to wine. He is called zealot because in seeing this miracle, Simon left his home, his parents and his bride and followed Christ. It is also said that after Pentecost, his mission was in a place called Mauretania in Africa.[citation needed]
