Christian

Abelites

The Abelites were a small, fourth-century Christian sect in Hippo, North Africa which practiced sexual abstinence, although members were required to be married (this was because the Bible m... [more]

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African Children's Choir

This choir of children aged five to 12 years was founded in 1984 by Raymond R. Barnett, himself an Irish-Canadian orphan and ordained minister, who first went to Uganda in 1982. It was begu... [more]

Alexander VI

Pope Alexander VI was born into the wealthy and corrupt Borgia family of Valencia, Spain, and adopted by his maternal uncle, Alfonso Borgia (later Pope Callistus III). He collected religiou... [more]

Apess, William

Apess's parents were itinerant basket-makers and he lived as a young child mostly with his grandparents, who were very cruel to him. When his grandmother broke his arm he was rescued by an ... [more]

Augustus Caesar Octavius (under Roman Empire)

Ancient Roman society institutionalized the adoption of adults. It was relatively common for a wealthy Roman couple to adopt an adult man, even a slave, as heir if they did not have any son... [more]

Bede, the Venerable

Bede was sent to a monastery at the age of seven (see Oblates) and ordained a priest aged 30. He is most famous for his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, a history of the conversion o... [more]

Bemo, John

Bemo, born Talamasmico in or before 1825, was the nephew of the great Seminole Chief Osceola. When he was nine or 10 (in 1835) his father died after a drunken brawl in St. Augustine, Florid... [more]

Bradford, William

Bradford was born into a well-off family in Yorkshire, but his father died in 1591. His mother remarried in 1593 and William was then raised by his grandfather and uncles as a farmer. Wh... [more]

Brady, John Green

Brady was born in New York. His mother died when he was very young. His father remarried, but Brady seems to have been unhappy with his step-mother, and he ran away from home when he was ei... [more]

Brainerd, David

Brainerd was orphaned in 1732. From 1743 on he was a missionary to the Algonquian people of New York State and the Delaware people of New Jersey. Dictionary of American Biography Hirschfel... [more]