Christian legend transformed St James, the Galilean fisherman, into a death-dealing crusader knight. Stephen Clissold describes how pilgrims from all over Europe, wearing his symbolic scallop-shells, have come to visit the splendid shrine that has been raised above his tomb.
In certain parts of Spanish America today O’Higgins is a name still remembered and honoured to an extent that would surprise the great majority of Irishmen who have never heard of the once famous Viceroy of Peru or of his son, the founder of Chilean independence.
Stephen Clissold uncovers a brutal crime with its roots deep in the rank soil of Balkan politics.
Many Moors remained under Christian rule in Spain, writes Stephen Clissold, but most of them were finally expelled under Philip III.
Stephen Clissold describes how many Christian prisoners in sixteenth and seventeenth century North Africa embraced the Islamic faith, willingly serving their new masters.
Stephen Clissold describes a world of Christian slaves and Moslem masters in North Africa, from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries.
Stephen Clissold describes how, after twenty years of life as a nun, St Teresa began to experience visions and ecstasies which led her to found, in Avila, a reformed Carmelite convent.
One of the strangest episodes in the Spanish conquest of the New World was the quest for the mythical Seven Cities, first believed to stand on a mysterious island far out in the Atlantic Ocean, afterwards magically transported to the depths of America.
Stephen Clissold explains how, after twenty years of life as a nun, St Teresa began to experience visions and ecstasies which led her to found a reformed Carmelite convent in Avila.
by Veljko Micunovic
