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sacrilege
EntityQ180362· pop 29· linked from 255 articles

Also known as desecration

thumb|right|Konstantin Makovsky, The Bulgarian Martyresses, 1877. Depicts [[bashibazouks of the Ottoman Empire violating adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church inside one of its churches.]] Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical, it is often called desecration. In a more general sense, any transgression against what is seen as the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege, and so is comin

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Encyclopedic overview

8 sections
Contents
  • Etymology
  • Christianity
  • Catholic Church
  • England and Wales
  • As violence, self-harm and pride
  • See also
  • Notes
  • External links

thumb|right|Konstantin Makovsky, The Bulgarian Martyresses, 1877. Depicts [[bashibazouks of the Ottoman Empire violating adherents of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church inside one of its churches.]] Sacrilege is the violation or injurious treatment of a sacred object, site or person. This can take the form of irreverence to sacred persons, places, and things. When the sacrilegious offence is verbal, it is called blasphemy, and when physical, it is often called desecration. In a more general sense, any transgression against what is seen as the virtue of religion would be a sacrilege, and so is coming near a sacred site without permission.

Most ancient religions have a concept analogous to sacrilege, often considered as a type of taboo. The basic idea is that realm of sacrum or haram stands above the world of the profane and its instantiations, see the Sacred–profane dichotomy.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “sacrilege” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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