title: Rodrigo Blankenship

text: Blankenship's father, Ken, played football at Florida from 1967 to 1969. Ken coached the kickers on every team for which Rodrigo played from fifth grade through the end of high school.


title: Rodrigo Blankenship

text: While at Georgia, Blankenship studied digital and broadcast journalism, with a particular focus on sports journalism. On April 16, 2018, Blankenship released a rap song titled "ATD."


title: Rodrigo Blankenship

text: Blankenship is a big fan of LEGO products and speaks frequently about how he loves building up the big models in particular. He has also formed a friendship with LEGO internet personality Ryan McCullough (MandRproductions). An avid shoe collector, Blankenship has amassed a respectable collection of rare sneakers that he keeps at his home, notably owning sneakers with designs that he matches with his socks. A pet owner, Blankenship owns a cat named Lucas, which he has shown in interviews made at his home.


title: Rodrigo Blankenship

text: Blankenship looks up to Eric Dickerson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and is noted to wear glasses while playing. He believes that one should not be ashamed to do so and let their performance on the field speak for itself.


title: Rodrigo Blankenship

text: In 2020, Blankenship was named Arthur Ashe Jr. Male Sports Scholar of the Year by "Diverse: Issues In Higher Education".


title: Government of Singapore

text: The Government of Singapore is defined by the Constitution of Singapore to mean the executive branch of the state, which is made up of the president and the Cabinet. Although the president acts in their personal discretion in the exercise of certain functions as a check on the Cabinet and the Parliament, their role is largely ceremonial. It is the Cabinet, composed of the prime minister and other ministers appointed on their advice by the president, that have the general direction and control of the government. The Cabinet is formed by the political party that gains a simple majority in each general election.


title: Government of Singapore

text: A statutory board is an autonomous agency of the Government that is established by an Act of Parliament and overseen by a government ministry. Unlike ministries and government departments that are subdivisions of ministries, statutory boards are not staffed by civil servants and have greater independence and flexibility in their operations. There are five Community Development Councils (CDCs) appointed by the board of management of the People's Association (PA) for districts in Singapore. Where there are not less than 150,000 residents in a district, the PA's board of management may designate the chairman of a CDC to be the mayor for the district that the CDC is appointed for. As it is the practice for MPs to be appointed as Chairmen of CDCs, these MPs have also been designated as mayors.


title: Government of Singapore

text: From the founding of modern Singapore in 1819 until 1826, Singapore was headed by two residents in succession. Following Singapore's amalgamation into the Straits Settlements in 1826, it was governed by a governor together with a legislative council. An executive council of the Straits Settlements was introduced in 1877 to advise the governor but wielded no executive power. In 1955, a Council of Ministers was created, appointed by the governor on the recommendation of the leader of the house. Constitutional talks between Legislative Assembly representatives and the Colonial Office were held from 1956 to 1958, and Singapore gained full internal self-government in 1959. The governor was replaced by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara, who had power to appoint to the post of prime minister the person most likely to command the authority of the assembly, and other ministers of the Cabinet on the prime minister's advice. In the 1959 general elections, the People's Action Party (PAP) swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the assembly, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first prime minister of Singapore. The executive branch of the Singapore Government remained unchanged following Singapore's merger with Malaysia in 1963, and subsequent independence in 1965. The PAP has been returned to power in every general election and has thus formed the Cabinet since 1959. The government is generally perceived to be competent in managing the country's economy and largely free from political corruption. On the other hand, it has been criticised for using unbalanced election tactics, violating freedom of speech and its use of the death penalty for drug-related crimes.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The term "Government of Singapore" can have a number of different meanings. At its widest, it can refer collectively to the three traditional branches of government – the Executive branch, Legislative branch (the President and Parliament of Singapore) and Judicial branch (the Supreme Court and Subordinate Courts of Singapore). The term is also used colloquially to mean the Executive and Legislature together, as these are the branches of government responsible for day-to-day governance of the nation and lawmaking. At its narrowest, the term is used to refer to the Members of Parliament (MPs) belonging to a particular political party (or coalition of parties) holding a majority of seats in Parliament sufficient to enable the party (or coalition) to form the Cabinet of Singapore – this is the sense intended when it is said that a political party "forms the Government".


title: Government of Singapore

text: The Constitution of the Republic of Singapore uses the word "Government" to mean the Executive branch, made up of the President and the Cabinet. This article describes the Government of Singapore in this technical sense, as well as selected aspects of the Executive branch of the Government.


title: Government of Singapore

text: On 30 January 1819 Sir Stamford Raffles, an Englishman who was the Governor of Bencoolen (now Bengkulu, Indonesia), entered into a preliminary agreement with the Temenggung of Johor, Abdul Rahman Sri Maharajah, for the British East India Company to establish a "factory" or trading post on the island of Singapore. This was confirmed by another agreement signed by Raffles, the Temenggung and Sultan Hussein Shah on 6 February. In June 1823 Singapore ceased to be a dependency of Bencoolen and was placed under the control of the Presidency City of Calcutta (Kolkata) in the Bengal Presidency. On 24 June 1824, Singapore and Malacca were formally transferred to the East India Company, with the result that they came under the control of Fort William. Full cession of Singapore to the company by the Sultan and Temenggung was effected by a treaty of 19 November 1824, which was ratified by Calcutta on 4 March 1825. Between 1819 and 1826, Singapore was headed by two Residents of Singapore in succession, Maj.-Gen. William Farquhar and Dr. John Crawfurd.


title: Government of Singapore

text: In 1826, Malacca, Penang and Singapore were amalgamated into the Straits Settlements, which were made a Crown colony with effect from 1 April 1867. The Colony was governed by a governor together with a legislative council. An executive council was introduced in 1877 by letters patent issued by the Crown, Composed of "such persons and constituted in such manner as may be directed" by royal instructions, it existed to advise the Governor and wielded no executive power. The Governor was required to consult the Executive Council on all affairs of importance unless they were too urgent to be laid before it, or if reference to it would prejudice the public service. In such urgent cases, the Governor had to inform the council of the measures he had taken.


title: Government of Singapore

text: During the second world war, imperial Japan invaded Singapore and Malaya; the Japanese were victorious and set up their own government for a few years. Following the Second World War, the Straits Settlements were disbanded and Singapore became a Crown colony in its own right. The reconstituted Executive Council consisted of six officials and four nominated "unofficials". In February 1954, the Rendel Constitutional Commission under the chairmanship of Sir George William Rendel, which had been appointed to comprehensively review the constitution of the Colony of Singapore, rendered its report. Among other things, it recommended that a Council of Ministers be created, composed of three "ex officio" Official Members and six Elected Members of the Legislative Assembly of Singapore appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of the Leader of the House, who would be the leader of the largest political party or coalition of parties having majority support in the legislature. The recommendation was implemented in 1955. In the general election held that year, the Labour Front took a majority of the seats in the Assembly, and David Saul Marshall became the first Chief Minister of Singapore. Major problems with the Rendel Constitution were that the Chief Minister and Ministers' powers were ill-defined, and that the Official Members retained control of the finance, administration, and internal security and law portfolios. This led to confrontation between Marshall, who saw himself as a Prime Minister governing the country, and the Governor, Sir John Fearns Nicoll, who felt that important decisions and policies should remain with himself and the Official Members.


title: Government of Singapore

text: In 1956, members of the Legislative Assembly held constitutional talks with the Colonial Office in London. The talks broke down as Marshall did not agree to the British Government's proposal for the casting vote on a proposed Defence Council to be held by the British High Commissioner to Singapore, who would only exercise it in an emergency. Marshall resigned as Chief Minister in June 1956, and was replaced by Lim Yew Hock. The following year, Lim led another delegation to the UK for further talks on self-government. This time, agreement was reached on the composition of an Internal Security Council. Other constitutional arrangements were swiftly settled in 1958, and on 1 August the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the State of Singapore Act 1958, granting the colony full internal self-government. Under Singapore's new constitution which came into force on 3 June 1959, the Governor was replaced by the Yang di-Pertuan Negara (Head of State), who had power to appoint as Prime Minister the person most likely to command the authority of the Legislative Assembly, and other Ministers of the Cabinet on the Prime Minister's advice. The Constitution also created the post of the British High Commissioner, who was entitled to receive the agenda of each Cabinet meeting and to see all Cabinet papers. In the 1959 general elections, the People's Action Party (PAP) swept to power with 43 out of the 51 seats in the Assembly, and Lee Kuan Yew became the first Prime Minister of Singapore. Nine other Ministers were appointed to the Cabinet.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The executive branch of the Singapore Government remained largely unchanged, although now it governed a state within a larger federation. However, with effect from 9 August 1965, Singapore left the Federation of Malaysia and became a fully independent republic. On separation from Malaysia, the Singapore Government retained the executive authority it held, and took on additional executive authority over Singapore that the Parliament of Malaysia relinquished. The Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Supreme Head of State of Malaysia, also ceased to be the Supreme Head of Singapore and relinquished his sovereignty, jurisdiction, power and authority, executive or otherwise in respect of Singapore, which was revested in the Yang di-Pertuan Negara of Singapore. The Republic of Singapore Independence Act 1965 then vested the executive authority of Singapore in the newly created post of President, and made it exercisable by him or by the Cabinet or by any Minister authorized by the Cabinet.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The PAP has been repeatedly returned to power by voters and has thus formed the Cabinet since Singapore's 1959 general election. The Government is generally perceived to be competent in managing the country's economy, and largely free from political corruption. Transparency International's 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index, which compares countries according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians, ranked Singapore in joint first place with Denmark and New Zealand out of 178 countries. In addition, Singapore was second only to New Zealand in the Asia-Pacific region. On the other hand, the Government has been criticized for using unfair election tactics, such as discouraging voting for opposition parties in the 2006 general election by stating that wards that elect opposition candidates will receive state-subsidized improvements to public housing only after all PAP-held wards have been attended to. It has also been accused of violating freedom of speech through Ministers bringing defamation suits against opposition politicians, and by restricting the circulation of foreign newspapers deemed to have engaged in domestic politics.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The Constitution defines the Government of Singapore as the President and the Cabinet of Singapore. The executive authority of Singapore is vested in the President and is exercisable by them or by the Cabinet of Singapore or any Minister authorized by the Cabinet. However, the President normally plays a nominal and largely ceremonial role in the executive branch of government. Although the President acts in their own personal discretion in the exercise of certain functions as a check on the Cabinet and Parliament of Singapore, they are otherwise required to act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet or of a Minister acting under the general authority of the Cabinet. It is the Cabinet that has the general direction and control of the Government. As Singapore follows the Westminster system of government, the legislative agenda of Parliament is determined by the Cabinet. At the start of each new Parliamentary session, the President gives an address prepared by the Cabinet that outlines what the Cabinet intends to achieve in the session.


title: Government of Singapore

text: Each parliament lasts for a maximum of five years from the date of its first sitting, and once a parliament has been dissolved a general election must be held within three months. Following a general election, the President appoints as Prime Minister an MP who, in their judgment, is likely to command the confidence of the majority of the MPs. In practice, the Prime Minister is usually the leader of the political party holding the majority of the seats in Parliament. The President also appoints other Ministers from among the MPs, acting in accordance with the Prime Minister's advice.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The Prime Minister may, by giving written directions, charge any Minister with responsibility for any department or subject. In practice, this is done by issuing notifications that are published in the "Government Gazette". For instance, the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Responsibility of Senior Minister and Co-ordinating Minister for National Security, Prime Minister's Office) Notification 2009 states:


title: Government of Singapore

text: Ministers may be designated by the Prime Minister to be in charge of particular ministries, or as Ministers in the Prime Minister's Office. Such Ministers were formerly known as Ministers without portfolio. The Prime Minister may retain any department or subject in their charge. Some Ministers are appointed as Second Ministers for portfolios other than their own to assist the primary Minister in their duties. For instance, on 1 April 2009 during the 11th Parliament, Lim Hwee Hua, who was a Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, also held the posts of Second Minister for Finance and Second Minister for Transport.


title: Government of Singapore

text: A ministry is usually composed of a headquarters and a number of departments, boards or other subordinate entities, and statutory boards. For instance, in May 2007 the Ministry of Law had three departments (the Chief Information Officer's Office, Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office and Legal Aid Bureau), three boards and tribunals (the Appeals Board for Land Acquisitions, Copyright Tribunal and Land Surveyors Board), and two statutory boards (the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore and Singapore Land Authority).


title: Government of Singapore

text: As in the United Kingdom and in a number of Commonwealth countries, Members of Parliament (MPs) may be appointed as Ministers of State to aid Ministers in the performance of their functions. In addition, the Constitution provides that the President, acting in accordance with the advice of the Prime Minister, may appoint Parliamentary Secretaries from among the MPs to assist Ministers in the discharge of their duties and functions. Such office holders are not regarded as members of the Cabinet.


title: Government of Singapore

text: Where in any written law a Minister is empowered to exercise any power or perform any duty, he may, in the absence of any provision of law to the contrary, with the approval of the President and by notification in the "Government Gazette", depute any person by name or the person for the time being discharging the duties of an office designated by him to exercise that power or perform that duty on behalf of the Minister subject to such conditions, exceptions and qualifications as the President may determine. For instance, under the Delegation of Powers (Ministry of Law) (Consolidation) Notification, the Senior Minister of State for Law is deputed to exercise certain powers of the Minister for Law under the Copyright Act, Criminal Procedure Code, Land Acquisition Act, Land Surveyors Act, and Pawnbrokers Act; while the Parliamentary Secretary for Home Affairs is deputed the powers of the Minister for Home Affairs under regulation 157 of the Prisons Regulations pursuant to the Delegation of Powers (Ministry of Home Affairs) (Consolidation) Notification.


title: Government of Singapore

text: A statutory board is an autonomous agency of the Government that is established by an Act of Parliament and overseen by a government ministry. The Act sets out the purposes, powers and rights of the agency. Unlike ministries and government departments that are subdivisions of ministries, statutory boards may not be staffed by civil servants and have greater independence and flexibility in their operations. They are managed by boards of directors whose members usually include businessmen, professionals, senior civil servants and officials of trade unions. The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), the Central Provident Fund Board (CPF), the Housing and Development Board (HDB), the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS), the Land Transport Authority (LTA), the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the National Heritage Board (NHB), and the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) are all statutory boards.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The National Heritage Board is an example of a typical statutory board. It was established on 1 August 1993 with the enactment of the National Heritage Board Act. Section 3 of the Act states: "There shall be established a body to be known as the National Heritage Board which shall be a body corporate with perpetual succession and shall, by that name, be capable of—(a) suing and being sued; (b) acquiring, owning, holding, developing and disposing of property, both movable and immovable; and (c) doing and suffering all such acts or things as bodies corporate may lawfully do or suffer." The functions of the Board are:


title: Government of Singapore

text: The board is empowered to "do all things necessary or convenient to be done for or in connection with the performance of its functions". Without prejudice to the generality of that provision, the Board also has power to, for example, develop and manage museums, archives, oral history centres and other facilities related to its functions; to advise and facilitate the preservation of historic sites; and to establish liaison with other museums, archives, oral history centres, universities and other institutions to secure maximum collaboration of all activities relevant to its functions.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The board consists of a chairman, a deputy chairman, and not less than 10 nor more than 25 other members as the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts may from time to time determine. The members of the board are appointed by the minister, and hold office for such term as the minister may determine unless they resign during their term of office or their appointment is revoked by the minister. The minister is not required to provide any reason for revoking the appointment of a board member. The minister may, in consultation with the Board or otherwise, give the board directions as he thinks fit that are not inconsistent with the provisions of the act concerning the exercise and performance by the board of its functions, and the board is required to give effect to such directions.


title: Government of Singapore

text: With the approval of the minister, the board is required to appoint a chief executive officer who is responsible to the Board for the proper administration and management of the Board's affairs in accordance with the policy laid down by the Board. The board is entitled to appoint employees and officers on such terms as to remuneration or otherwise as it may determine, and to engage other persons and pay for their services as it considers necessary for carrying out its functions and duties.


title: Government of Singapore

text: The People's Association (PA) is a statutory board, the objects of which include the organisation and the promotion of group participation in social, cultural, educational and athletic activities for the people of Singapore in order that they may realize that they belong to a multiracial community, the interests of which transcend sectional loyalties; and the establishment of institutions for the purpose of leadership training in order to instill in leaders a sense of national identity and a spirit of dedicated service to a multiracial community.


title: Government of Singapore

text: There are five Community Development Councils (CDCs) appointed by the board of management of the PA for districts in Singapore, namely, the Central Singapore CDC, North East CDC, North West CDC, South East CDC and South West CDC. The functions of a CDC include fostering community bonding and strengthening social cohesion amongst the people of Singapore; and advising the PA on matters affecting the well-being of residents in districts, the provision and use of public facilities and services within districts, and the use of public funds allocated to districts for community activities.


title: Government of Singapore

text: Each CDC consists of a chairman and between 12 and 80 other members. Where the number of residents in a district is not less than 150,000, the PA's board of management is empowered to designate the Chairman of a CDC to be the Mayor for the district that the CDC is appointed for. As it is the practice for MPs to be appointed as Chairmen of CDCs, these MPs have also been designated as Mayors. As of 25 July 2020, the Mayors are:


title: Government of Singapore

text: Even if Mayors are required to vacate their seats in Parliament because Parliament has been dissolved or otherwise, they continue to hold office until their terms of office expire or they are directed to vacate their office by the PA's board of management. As of January 2012, the Mayors are paid an annual salary of S$660,000 (US$486,500).


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Mechanical Animals is the third studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on September 15, 1998, by Interscope Records. The album marked a major shift from the industrial metal and alternative metal styles of the band's earlier efforts, into an experimentation with 1970s glam rock with industrial rock and electronic rock styles. As their first release following the success of their breakthrough album, 1996's "Antichrist Superstar", "Mechanical Animals" themes primarily deals with the trappings of fame and drug abuse.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: A rock opera and concept album, "Mechanical Animals" is the second installment in a trilogy which included "Antichrist Superstar" and 2000's "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)". After the release of "Holy Wood", Manson said that the overarching story within the trilogy is presented in reverse chronological order; "Mechanical Animals", therefore, acts as the bridge connecting the two narratives and remains constant whether the trilogy is viewed in reverse or not.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The album has been certified platinum in the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. It spawned the singles "The Dope Show", "Rock Is Dead", and "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" as well as the promotional single, "Coma White". The album debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200, making it the first Marilyn Manson album to do so.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Following the conclusion of their year-long Dead to the World Tour in September 1997, the band relocated from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Hollywood, California. Work on "Mechanical Animals" began soon after. By early December of that year, the singer began opening up on the then new and unnamed record's development, sitting down with MTV's "Year in Rock" special on December 12. Early on, it was reported the new album would be produced by the Los Angeles-based production team, the Dust Brothers. According to MTV News, "[They] have completed work on a few tracks on the next effort from Marilyn Manson..."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: During this early development stage, the band recorded in Manson's home recording studio in the Hollywood Hills which the group had taken to calling "The White Room" after the vocalist painted the space white. Manson explained that the studio "looked out over Hollywood, which kind of represented space to us." Manson also intoned, "the theme of whiteness comes up a lot on the album, representing a void empty of color and feelings and emotions. We were trying to fill that void with the songs."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Manson's friend, The Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, served as an unofficial music consultant for the band. After playing a few of the early songs for him, Corgan advised that "This is definitely the right direction" but to "go all the way with it. Don't hint at it." Despite this, almost 20 years after the release of "Mechanical Animals", keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy (who left the band in the intervening years) disputed "arrogant-yet-whiny ass" Corgan's involvement and claimed "the majority" of the album was "written long before Billy Corgan ever showed up." He went on to describe Corgan as pretentious and "thinks he's Brian Eno."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The band subsequently employed Michael Beinhorn as principal producer, co-producing the record with Marilyn Manson. Sean Beavan was also brought in to supply additional production work. According to Manson, the bulk of the material was written and recorded at that house before Beinhorn came on board. "For the most part, I had a very specific vision of what I wanted to do and how to do it."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: By May of that year, having completed his obligations for Hole's then-new album, "Celebrity Skin", Beinhorn confirmed that the nascent Manson project was halfway complete and on course for a late summer or early fall release. Manson, for his part, spent the early part of the year on break from the studio to promote his autobiography, "The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell".


title: Mechanical Animals

text: During his February 24, 1998, interview on National Public Radio's "Fresh Air" radio talk show to promote the book, he divulged that having exhausted the topic of organized religion in the previous record, "Mechanical Animals" would see a major shift in focus: "Both sonically and lyrically it's about the depression of alienation, rather than the aggressiveness of it. It's about the emptiness." Guitarist Zim Zum divulged that in one instance the band recorded a song a day for two weeks straight during a particular spree of creativity.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Final mixing and post-production took place in a studio in Burbank, California. In July 1998, after having contributed guitar work to 12 of the album's 14 tracks, Zim Zum left the band under amicable terms to pursue his own solo project. He was replaced by the former guitarist of English industrial metal band 2wo, John Lowery (rechristened by the band as John 5).


title: Mechanical Animals

text: In the album, Manson takes on the role of a glam rocking, substance-addicted, gender ambiguous "alien messiah" called "Omēga". Much like David Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", he falls down to earth, is captured, placed with a band called "The Mechanical Animals" and turned into a rock star product. He has become numb to the world, either lost or high in outer space or the Hollywood Hills, through excessive drug use as a coping mechanism with his life as a product of his corporate masters. Manson's other role is that of "Alpha" who is based on himself and his experiences around the conclusion of the "Antichrist Superstar" tour/era. Acting as Omēga's foil, Alpha's emotions have only begun seeping back. Vulnerable and trying to relearn how to use them properly, he despairs about how little emotion other people feel, observing them to be "mechanical animals".


title: Mechanical Animals

text: "There is a bit of a love story that exists on this record," Manson admits. "The name I gave to the thing I was in love with was Coma White. It starts as the name of a girl I'm in love with, then ends up to really be a drug I've been taking. So I'm not really sure what I'm in love with."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Subsequently, seven of the 14 songs are from the perspective, lyrically and musically, of Omēga and his fictional band The Mechanical Animals, while the other seven are by Alpha (Marilyn Manson). The Omēga songs are typically those most nihilistic and superficial lyrically, such as "The Dope Show", "User Friendly" and "New Model No. 15". The album artwork features a dual liner note book, in which one half has lyrics for the Omēga songs, and when flipped over, has those for the Alpha songs.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Marilyn Manson later noted in an interview with "Rolling Stone" magazine that ""Mechanical Animals" was to represent the point where the revolution got sold out, a hollow shell of what the essence of Marilyn Manson was. It was a satire, and a lot of people interpreted it as 'This is what he really is.' I was making a mockery of what I was, taking a shot at myself."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: After the release of "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)", Marilyn Manson revealed that his concept album trilogy is an autobiographical story told in a reverse timeline (chronologically reverse from their actual release dates). That means "Holy Wood" opens the storyline followed by "Mechanical Animals" and concluded with "Antichrist Superstar". Further, though "Antichrist Superstar" and "Mechanical Animals" made sense as individual concept albums on their own, there was a hidden overarching story running through the three releases. In transitioning from "Mechanical Animals" to "Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)" Manson admitted that the character of Omēga, "[...] was a ruse to lure commercial mall-goers into the web of destruction – I've always planned that from the beginning."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: "Mechanical Animals" marked a major shift away from the abrasive and aggressive industrial and alternative metal styles of the band's previous work. Manson explained that he had grown "bored" with that musical aesthetic adding that, "Everything you hear nowadays is an offshoot of NIN, Marilyn Manson, Ministry. There's just no great rock albums anymore. There's a lot of rock music out there, but it's very bland and disposable. A lot of people may say this record is over the top, pretentious and theatrical, but that's what rock music is supposed to be about." "Mechanical Animals" also marked the first time NIN frontman Trent Reznor provided no production input. In both music and imagery, "Mechanical Animals" draws heavily from the glam rock genre that dominated the UK Charts in the early 1970s. "Rolling Stone" noted the songs are marked by shimmering, flamboyant guitar grooves and strong melodic hooks while the lyrics "trade the topic of teen satanism for drug-addled space themes and sci-fi love stories", reflecting "Manson's self-proclaimed new 'glitterati' lifestyle."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: "Rolling Stone" described Manson's crooning as evocative of "the sultry vibe of T. Rex's Marc Bolan". However, both "Rolling Stone" and "Entertainment Weekly" noted that while the album drew from glam rock, it did not revel in the "naughty-boy insouciance" and playful hedonism of the genre despite numerous references to drugs, decadence and lurid sexual escapades. Rather, it was "glum and pessimistic" and more preoccupied with the themes of alienation, insincerity and longing (through sci-fi allusions) only hinted at by the genre.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: "I just wanted to approach this album from a different point of view. I'd assumed the role of destroyer on the last record. This role is more a savior. I wanted to write songs that were more personal and dealt with specific emotions. The music had to really compliment that, but there wasn't a conscious effort to make more accessible songs. There was simply an effort to write songs that would make people feel differently to the songs on the last album. In a sense that makes it more accessible, but it's not just for the sake of pop. Even if it was, that's okay too. I can appreciate the Spice Girls and Garth Brooks in the Andy Warhol sense of it - pop art."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Its ultimate sources are the goths: Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, and early Cure. 'The Speed of Pain', meanwhile, is redolent of Pink Floyd's 'Welcome to the Machine'.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The song "Great Big White World" raised concerns, among some groups, of possibly being a racially motivated reference until Manson himself cleared up the rumors by stating that it was about cocaine.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: At a time before the ubiquity of peer-to-peer file sharing, the first singles from both Beinhorn-produced albums were leaked three weeks before their intended release dates and played "nearly a dozen times" on New York radio station WXRK (92.3 FM) and its Los Angeles-based sister station, KROQ-FM (106.7 FM), on the weekend of July 31 to August 2, 1998. Interscope neither confirmed nor denied that the leak originated from them but joined Hole's label, DGC Records, in issuing a cease and desist order to WXRK on August 3.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: In spite of this the Manson single, "The Dope Show", was subsequently recorded and converted by a fan into an MP3 and made available on an unofficial fan site for download soon after. The following weekend, San Francisco radio station Live 105 (105.3 FM) played both singles again.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The controversial cover art has won critical acclaim and numerous awards. The infamous photo depicts Manson as an androgynous naked figure with breasts, six fingers and airbrushed genitalia. It is the brainchild of New York City-based photographer Joseph Cultice. Designer Paul Brown has said of the cover, "I'm extremely proud of it. I said more in one of his covers than any novel could. It made people think and cringe." In 2003, VH1 included "Mechanical Animals" at number 29 in its list of the "50 Greatest Album Covers". It is also featured in Grant Scott's book "The Greatest Album Covers of All Time".


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Contrary to popular internet rumors, the band leader, Manson, did not undergo any plastic surgery for this androgynous, alien look. The breasts are prosthetic, manufactured specially by Screaming Mad George's SMG Effects (now out of business). Manson is, in reality, naked and covered head to toe in latex paint, provided by the same movie make-up company. His genitalia are covered by a foam latex appliance to create the androgynous appearance of the alien figure he calls Omēga, which, the singer explained, represents "sexlessness and vulnerability," in addition to his own "affection for prosthetic limbs." Originally the make up consisted of six breasts with nipples. Manson has stated in interviews that his friend, actor Johnny Depp, is the current owner of these prosthetic breasts, which Manson traded for Depp's strawberry-blonde wig worn in the 2001 film "Blow".


title: Mechanical Animals

text: "Kerrang!" noted that the cover art text forms an anagram for 'Marilyn Manson Is An Alchemical Man'. The album also features an alternate, less "obscene" cover which is contained on the reverse side of the album liner notes. It is incidentally the cover for an album of the same name by Omēga and the Mechanical Animals, a fictitious band composed of characters played by the members of Marilyn Manson. The photo featured on this alternative cover art includes more of the symbolism surrounding the numeral 15.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The liner notes also contain hidden messages in yellow text, which become viewable when seen through the blue CD packaging or the transparent blue LP. The reader of the liner notes is shown how to read these messages in the booklet: there is a diagram showing a CD case over the booklet, and a message which reads: "Yellow and blue = green."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: A limited tour edition of "Mechanical Animals" was released in the UK (including other locations like Australia and Mexico, where only 100 copies of this edition arrived) with an illustrated hardcover sleeve by Marcus Wild. Though limited edition, the album is easily attainable in certain regions. The packaging is identical to the original version except for the bonus eight-page comic book by Wild, illustrating scenes from the "I Don't Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)" music video.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: As early as August 14, 1998, a month before the release, the three largest retailers in the United States—K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Target—refused to stock the album citing the offensive cover and the expectation that it will carry a Parental Advisory sticker for violating their policy of not selling material with explicit lyrics or content. In an attempt to appease some of the retailers Nothing and Interscope discussed plans to cover the "breasts" with a sticker and enclose the entire package in blue cellophane—similar to the brown paper bag tactic employed exactly 30 years before by distributors on the explicitly nude cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "". Wal-Mart still refused to sell the album, and consequently pulled all previous albums by Manson in light of the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: In the intervening two decades since the release of this album, all three retailers have had a change of heart: 2003 saw the mass sale of Manson's fifth LP, "The Golden Age of Grotesque" in nearly all Wal-Marts; representatives claimed they chose to sell the album because it was "commercially viable" and was "on the Top Ten charts." They now carry the band's entire discography, including this record, in both their online and retail stores.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Five days before the album's release, the band performed "The Dope Show" at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards. The "Ziggy-in-Vegas" performance saw Manson strut into the stage in a blue vinyl coat with a faux-fur collar before stripping down, mid-way into the song, to a blue skin-tight costume with cut-outs that revealed the prosthetic breasts and androgynous genitalia of his Omēga character. The performance also included a trio of "besequined" back-up singers that harmonized with the frontman as he sang along. "Rolling Stone" remarked that "incontrovertibly, Marilyn Manson stole the show."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The album's most successful song is "The Dope Show", which fared well on both video and single charts in the United States and abroad. "The Dope Show" was written by Manson (lyrics) and Twiggy Ramirez (music). It continues to reign as the band's most commercially successful song. The music video debuted the band's controversial new, androgynous glam rock sound and image to the world. It is inspired by Alejandro Jodorowsky's art film "The Holy Mountain" as well as the David Bowie film, "The Man Who Fell to Earth." Again, Bowie's influence has been enormous on this album, with both influences noted publicly by Manson himself.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The third single, "Rock Is Dead", was featured in the of the film "The Matrix"—the song is played during the end credits.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Following the release of "Mechanical Animals", Marilyn Manson staged two worldwide stadium tours, titled the Mechanical Animals Tour and Rock Is Dead Tour.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: A concert film was recorded depicting both tours, titled "God Is in the TV". It was released on November 2, 1999 in VHS format by Interscope Records and features live concert footage of 13 songs culled from various concerts across the world as well as backstage and behind-the-scenes clips.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: After declining a headlining slot at the Lollapalooza summer music festival (along with numerous other bands) in early 1998 due to delays in "Mechanical Animals" release, the band launched the first of their own headlining tours in support of the album. It was originally intended to start on June 25, 1998, with a series of six festival dates in Europe lasting until July 12, 1998. However the planned summer European leg was scrapped and the tour's launch date was rescheduled to October 25, 1998, after drummer Ginger Fish became ill with mononucleosis.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Beginning on October 25, 1998 and lasting until January 31, 1999, the Mechanical Animals Tour included two legs spanning a Fall to Winter World Tour in Europe, Japan, and North America and a 6 show headlining stint at the Big Day Out tour in Australia. In total, the band completed 46 shows out of the 52 originally planned.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Beginning on February 28, 1999, and lasting until August 8, 1999, the tour included three legs spanning Europe, Japan and North America with a total of 9 completed shows for the Beautiful Monsters Tour and 43 completed shows (out of 46 planned) for the Rock Is Dead Tour.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The tour is particularly notable for a number of incidents that plagued its progress. Following the conclusion of the Mechanical Animals Tour in January 1999, the band was once again offered a headlining slot by the organizers of the Lollapalooza festival for the 1999 summer season (this time as part of an attempt to resurrect the by-then-defunct festival) which they declined. Instead, the band struck a deal with Hole to co-headline the latter's Beautiful Monsters Tour. Immediately, the joint venture began experiencing problems due to disputes between both groups' leaders. After nine shows (spanning a total of two weeks) the tour imploded, resulting in Hole's departure on March 14, 1999, and the tour being renamed Rock Is Dead. Monster Magnet, who were already opening for Manson, assumed Hole's place on the tour's playbill. A minor dispute erupted surrounding the tour's revised nomenclature as Korn and Rob Zombie were already in the middle of another tour with the same name.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The first two performances of the Rock Is Dead Tour were canceled after Manson suffered a hairline fracture on one of his ankles during the final show with Hole at The Forum in Los Angeles. The tour was resumed on March 17, 1999. The tour, however, would stagger yet again following the Columbine High School massacre on April 20, 1999. In the ensuing aftermath, the band was accused of being a cause of the tragedy in Littleton, prompting the group to cancel their remaining North American engagements out of respect for the victims, explaining, "It's not a great atmosphere to be out playing rock 'n' roll shows, for us or the fans."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: The album received acclaim from most music critics. Analyzing the album's intentions, Barry Walters of "The Village Voice" noted, ""Mechanical Animals" celebrates sexy celebrity in a typically Mansonian bacchanalia of contradictions. He's said all along that dirty media dominance is the cleanest and closest thing to divinity in a world that crucified the god in itself and replaced it with blind faith. Now he understands first-hand that stardom sucks, yet while he lifts a platform boot against its phony fat ass he still can't help reveling in the excess. "Antichrist Superstar" critiqued fame in order to make him famous. Having been there/done that, Manson wants more because more is the American way he's hell-bent on subverting—even as he's soaking in it." Of the record's musical direction Walters noted, "Flexing far more range than rage, Manson's feminization shifts his vocal power center from a diseased gut to a broken heart. [...] Guitars roar and whine, bass booms, drums race, and synths twitter with a tweeness that's gonna turn Durannie grannie Nick Rhodes's gray roots green."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: "USA Today" praised that "Manson and producer Michael Beinhorn have rediscovered the adrenalin in '70s glam-rock, sprinkling Gary Glitter and Ziggy Stardust over Gothic theatrics." Jon Wiederhorn of Amazon observed that ""Mechanical Animals" is a brash, decadent, and glittery display of self-indulgent hooks and melodramatic vocals that sounds like Aladdin Sane-era David Bowie and T. Rex at their most boisterous crossed with the more modern sounds of today's industrial nation." According to Ann Powers of "Rolling Stone", ""Mechanical Animals" gets its cavelike spaciousness from [goth] influences and tweaks them with an industrial crunch [...] He and his band approach its terrain the way a 1960s rocker like Eric Clapton approaches the blues, with respect and a sense of entitlement." Annalee Newitz of "Salon" noted the band's shift from a "dour preoccupation with religious fascism and toward space-age genderfuck chic. The creamy synth sound and drugged-out lyrics that dominate Manson's latest CD prove that two antithetical '80s musical genres—heavy metal and new wave—can indeed be fruitfully combined."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: David Browne of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote, "Looking back in mascara'd anger, Manson and [producer Michael] Beinhorn have fashioned music steeped in glam rock and concept-album bombast but updated with a crunching intensity [...] He layers the songs with cooing backup singers, electronica burbles, skulking guitars, and synths at their most decadently new wavy. The effect is often spectacular." Lorraine Ali of the "Los Angeles Times" commented "songs swagger with lipstick-wearing attitude, have fun with sleazy subject matter and actually convey some (gasp) human emotion [...] This album is the first time we actually experience Manson as a band, not a phenomenon filtered through Reznor's mixing board wizardry or a freak show accompanied by a soundtrack. An album that's powerful from start to finish is far more surprising than any controversial Manson high jinks [...] this record ensures his further infiltration of teenage America and earns him a new spot in the annals of great, big, pompous pop albums." David Browne describes that the sound of the album "is often spectacular: a lurid cabaret-rock revue for the post-global-economy meltdown." According to "NME", "Mechanical Animals" "marks a total shift in Manson's assault. Where the Antichrist Superstar game plan was about gaining notoriety through outrage, rather than winning souls over on musical grounds, Mechanical Animals aims straight for the singalong heart of stadium-land. And rips it out, and holds it aloft in triumph [...] Of the 14 tracks here, ten could be singles. On this evidence alone, 'Mechanical Animals' is an unashamedly crass bid for total world domination [...] they already have the goth kids. Now, their sights have turned on everyone else."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: However, not everyone gave the album a positive review. Music critic Robert Christgau criticized "the feebleness of La Manson's vocal affect" and dismissed the album as a whole as "one more depersonalizing production device with which to flatten willing cerebella [sic] whilst confronting humankind's alienation, amorality, and failure to have a good time on Saturday night." He concluded that "not every icon deserves a think piece." "Spin" magazine noted the record is "essentially mining the same agitprop territory and 'premillenial' confusion that hipster, highbrow heroes such as Alec Empire and Tricky take for granted. Manson shares with Empire a preference for destroying the master's house with the master's tools. Like Tricky, Manson uses gender confusion as a coping mechanism, less identity politics than identity evasion."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Joshua Klein of "The A.V. Club" was unconvinced with the sudden musical shift by the band and pointed out that neither will longtime fans. However, he conceded that the album is "more musical than anything Manson has done [...] His music packs both industrial muscle and anthemic conviction, even as it playfully steals from the Bowie songbook" while lamenting that thematically the album played it safe, with lyrics lacking, "any sense of wit, as songs doggedly hammer at safe taboos like drugs, sex, drugs, stardom, drugs, and death. And drugs." Like "NME", Klein concluded the record will, nevertheless, help the band pick up new fans. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic described the record as "a big, clean rock record" and praised it as a "welcome change of pace" and "more tuneful than his clattering industrial cacophony." However, he also noted that devoid of "the cartoonish menace that distinguished his prior music [...] Marilyn Manson seems a little ordinary [...] Manson should have remembered—demons are never that scary in the light." Despite this, Greg Burk of "LA Weekly" went on to call "Mechanical Animals" "one of the greatest albums of its decade."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: According to Acclaimedmusic.net "Mechanical Animals" is the 44th best reviewed album of 1998, the 426th greatest record released during the 1990s and the 2209th greatest of all-time. "Spin" ranked "Mechanical Animals" the seventh best album on their 1998 End of Year List. Online music magazine "Addicted to Noise" ranked "Mechanical Animals" 25th in their 1998 list of the "Albums of the Year". "The Village Voice" ranked "Mechanical Animals" 40th in their 1998 list of the "Albums of the Year". "Kerrang!" ranked "Mechanical Animals" second on their 1998 list of the Albums of the Year. "Q" magazine listed "Mechanical Animals" among their picks for their 1998 Recordings of the Year list. Dutch magazine "Muziekkrant OOR" ranked "Mechanical Animals" 18th in their 1998 "Albums of the Year" list. The record ranked second in the Critics Top 50 and 10th in the Popular Poll of German magazine "Musik Express/Sounds" in their 1998 "Albums of the Year" list. In 1999, American music journalist Ned Raggett listed "Mechanical Animals" 78th in his "The Top 136 Albums of the Nineties". Also in 1999, Australian magazine "JUICE" ranked "Mechanical Animals" 84th in their "100 Greatest Albums of the '90s". In 2006, sister British magazines "Classic Rock" and "Metal Hammer" included "Mechanical Animals" in "The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s". Also in 2006, Dutch public radio broadcaster VPRO included "Mechanical Animals" in their "299 Nominations of the Best Album of All Time". The French edition of the British magazine "Rock Sound" ranked "Mechanical Animals" 56th in their "Top 150 Albums of Our Lifetime (1992–2006)" and second in their 1998 "Albums of the Year".


title: Mechanical Animals

text: In the November 2003 issue of "Blender" magazine, author Chuck Palahniuk included the album in a list of his favourites, and said: "I met Marilyn Manson on a magazine assignment, and he wanted my advice on a novel he's writing. We drank absinthe once. I'll probably go to his show when he's in town next week. It's so fascinating to see somebody exorcise his demons in such a public way."


title: Mechanical Animals

text: In the United States, "Mechanical Animals" debuted at number one on the "Billboard" 200 with first-week sales of 223,000 units, becoming the band's first number-one album on the chart. Propelled by both the first single's heavy rotation on the radio and on MTV as well as the band's main show performance at the 1998 MTV Video Music Awards, the record briefly displaced "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill" for the number-one position on the "Billboard" 200. The following week, the album dropped to number five with 98,200 copies sold. The album also debuted at number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 26,600 units in its first week in Canada.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: Although critically acclaimed, "Mechanical Animals" was initially not too well received by longtime fans who complained about the wilfully radio-friendly sound of the album and surmised that Marilyn Manson had "sold out". It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America on February 25, 1999, but was the lowest-selling number-one album of 1998 in the United States. Producer Beinhorn said: "When "Mechanical Animals" came out, the projected sales figure for the first week was 300,000 copies. [The label was] excited, saying, 'We're going to hit No.1 and sell 300k!'. It sold 230,000 and got to No.1, but it wasn't enough. The label lost interest, they took down the huge billboard they had in Times Square for the album, the president of the label called Manson up, screaming at him for having tits on the cover. I think that, and what happened at Columbine, which really affected him emotionally, meant that he never made an album up to the standard of "Mechanical Animals" or "Antichrist Superstar" again. He just didn't get the support." As of November 2010, "Mechanical Animals" sold 1,409,000 copies in the US.


title: Mechanical Animals

text: When released on vinyl, the record was split into two separately sleeved albums; the first credited to the character of Alpha (portrayed by Manson himself), pressed on opaque white vinyl, and the latter to Omēga and the Mechanical Animals on transparent blue vinyl. The Manson album dealt with songs of love and alienation, while the Mechanical Animals disc contained anthems of sex and drug use. The vinyl edition was reissued in 2012, but on black vinyl instead of white and blue. The track listing, however, remains the same.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (; ), also known as Sergius Witte, was a Russian statesman who served as the first prime minister of the Russian Empire, replacing the tsar as head of the government. Neither a liberal nor a conservative, he attracted foreign capital to boost Russia's industrialization. Witte's strategy was to avoid the danger of wars.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte served under the last two emperors of Russia, Alexander III () and Nicholas II (). During the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), he had risen to a position in which he controlled all the traffic passing to the front along the lines of the Odessa Railways. As finance minister from 1892 to 1903, Witte presided over extensive industrialization and achieved government monopoly control over an expanded system of railroad lines.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Following months of civil unrest and outbreaks of violence in what became known as the 1905 Russian Revolution, Witte framed on the 17th the October Manifesto and the accompanying government communication to establish constitutional government. However, he was not convinced it would solve Russia's problems with the Tsarist autocracy. On 20 October 1905 Witte was appointed as the first chairman of the Council of Ministers (effectively prime minister). Assisted by his Council, he designed Russia's first constitution. But within a few months Witte fell into disgrace as a reformer because of continuing court opposition to these changes. He resigned before the First Duma assembled on . Witte was fully confident that he had resolved the main problem: providing political stability to the regime, but according to him, the "peasant problem" would further determine the character of the Duma's activity.


title: Sergei Witte

text: He is widely considered to have been one of the key figures in Russian politics at the end of 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century. Orlando Figes has described Witte as the 'great reforming finance minister of the 1890s', 'one of Nicholas's most enlightened ministers', and as the architect of Russia's new parliamentary order in 1905.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte's father, Julius Christoph Heinrich Georg Witte, was from a Lutheran Baltic German family. He converted to Russian Orthodoxy upon his marriage with Yekaterina Fadeyeva. His father was made a member of the knighthood in Pskov but moved as a civil servant to Saratov and Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi, Georgia). Sergei was raised on the estate of his mother's parents. His grandfather was Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, a Governor of Saratov and Privy Councillor of the Caucasus, and is grandmother was Princess Helene Dolgoruki. Sergei had two brothers (Alexander and Boris) and two sisters (Olga and Sophia). Helena Blavatsky, noted as a mystic, was their first cousin. Witte studied at a Tiflis gymnasium, but he took more interest in music, fencing and riding than in academics. He finished Gymnasium I in Kishinev and began studying Physico-Mathematical Sciences at the Novorossiysk University in Odessa in 1866 and graduated at the top of his class in 1870. After completing his studies he devoted some time to journalism in close relations with the Slavophiles and Mikhail Katkov.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte had initially planned to pursue a career in academia with the intention of becoming a professor in theoretical mathematics. His relatives took a dim view of that career path, as it was considered unsuitable for a noble or aristocrat at the time. He was instead persuaded by Count Vladimir Pavlovich Machabelovy, Minister of Ways and Communication, to pursue a career in the Russian railroads. At the direction of the Count, Witte undertook six months of training in a variety of positions on the Odessa Railways to gain a practical understanding of Ukrainian railways operations. At the end of that period, he was appointed as chief of the traffic office.


title: Sergei Witte

text: After a wreck on the Odessa Railways in late 1875 cost many lives, Witte was arrested and sentenced to four months in prison. However, while he was still contesting the case in court, Witte directed the Odessa Railways and achieved extraordinary efforts towards the transport of troops and war materials in the Russo-Turkish War and attracted the attention of Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, who commuted his prison sentence to two weeks. Witte had devised a novel system of double-shift operations in his efforts to overcome delays on the railways.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In 1879, Witte accepted a post in St. Petersburg, where he would meet his future wife. He moved to Kiev the following year. In 1883, he published a paper on "Principles of Railway Tariffs for Cargo Transportation" in which he also discussed social issues and the role of the monarchy. Witte gained popularity in the government. In 1886, he was appointed manager of the privately-held Southwestern Railways, based in Kiev, and was noted for increasing its efficiency and profitability. Around then, he met Tsar Alexander III, but he conflicted with the Tsar's aides by warning of the danger in their practice of using two powerful freight locomotives to achieve high speeds for the royal train. His warnings were proven in the October 1888 Borki train disaster, Witte was then appointed as Director of State Railways.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte worked in railroad management for 20 years after he had begun as a ticket clerk. He caught the attention of Finance Minister Ivan Vyshnegradsky, who appointed him as Russian Director of Railway Affairs within the Finance Ministry, where he served from 1889 to 1891. During thar period, he oversaw an ambitious program of railway construction. Until then, less than one fourth of the small railway systems were under direct state control, but Witte set about expanding the rail lines and getting the railway service under control as a state monopoly. Witte also obtained the right to assign employees based on their performance or merit, rather than for patronage for political or familial connections. In 1889, he published a paper, "National Savings and Friedrich List", which cited the economic theories of Friedrich List and justified the need for a strong domestic industry, to be protected from foreign competition by customs barriers.


title: Sergei Witte

text: A new customs law for Russia was passed in 1891, spurring an increase in industrialization by the turn of the 20th century. While Witte worked to achieve industrialization, he also fought for practical education. He said that railways operated by the state would be useless "unless it does its utmost for spreading technical education..."


title: Sergei Witte

text: Tsar Alexander III appointed Witte in 1892 as acting Minister of Ways and Communications. That gave him both control of the railroads in Russia and the authority to impose a reform on the tariffs charged. "Russian railroads gradually became perhaps the most economically operated railroads of the world". Profits were high: over 100 million gold rubles a year to the government (exact amount unknown because of accounting defects).


title: Sergei Witte

text: In 1892 Witte became acquainted with Matilda Ivanovna (Isaakovna) Lisanevich in a theater. Witte began to seek her favour, urging her to divorce her gambling husband and marry him. The marriage was a scandal not only because Matilda was a divorcee but also because she was a converted Jew. That cost Witte many of his connections with the upper nobility, but the Tsar protected him.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In August 1892, Witte was appointed to the post of Minister of Finance, which he held for the next eleven years, and he nearly doubled the revenues of the empire. (Until 1905 matters pertaining to industry and commerce were within the province of the Ministry of Finance.) During his tenure, he greatly accelerated the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway. He also emphasized creation of an educational system to train personnel for industry, in particular, the establishment of new "commercial" schools. He was known for appointing subordinates by their academic credentials or merit, rather than because of patronage political connections. In 1894, he concluded a 10-year commercial treaty with the German Empire on favorable terms for Russia. When Alexander III died, he told his son on his deathbed to listen well to Witte, his most capable minister.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In 1895, on a crusade against the evils of drunkenness, Witte established a state monopoly on alcohol, which became a major source of revenue for the Russian government. In 1896, he concluded the Li–Lobanov Treaty with Li Hongzhang of the Qing dynasty. One of the rights secured for Russia was the construction of the Chinese Eastern Railway across northeast China, which greatly shortened the route of the Trans-Siberian Railway to its projected eastern terminus at Vladivostok. However, following the Triple Intervention, Witte strongly opposed the Russian occupation of Liaodong Peninsula and the construction of the naval base at Port Arthur in the Russia–Qing Convention of 1898.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In 1896, Witte undertook a major currency reform to place the Russian ruble on the gold standard. That resulted in increased investment activity and an increase in the inflow of foreign capital. Witte also enacted a law in 1897 limiting working hours in enterprises, and in 1898 reformed commercial and industrial taxes. In 1899 the Petrograd Polytechnical Institute was founded on his initiative.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In summer 1898, he addressed a memorandum to the Tsar calling for an agricultural conference on the reform of the peasant community. Tsar resulted in three years of talks about laws to abolish collective responsibility and facilitate the resettlement of farmers onto lands on the outskirts of the Empire. Many of his ideas were later adopted by Pyotr Stolypin. In 1902 Witte's supporter, Dmitry Sipyagin, the Minister of Home Affairs, was assassinated. In an attempt to keep up the modernization of the Russian economy, Witte called and oversaw the Special Conference on the Needs of the Rural Industry. The conference was to provide recommendations for future reforms and compile the data to justify those reforms. By 1900 the growth in the manufacturing industry had been four times faster than in the preceding five-year period and six times faster than in the decade before that. External trade in industrial goods was equal to that of Belgium. In 1904, the Union of Liberation was formed, which demanded economic and political reform.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte controlled East Asian policy in the 1890s. His goal was peaceful expansion of trade with Japan and China. Japan, with its greatly expanded and modernized military, easily defeated the antiquated Chinese forces in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Russia had to confront collaborating with Japan with which relations had been fairly good for some years or acting as protector of China against Japan. Witte chose the second policy, and in 1894, Russia, Germany and France forced Japan to soften the peace terms that it had imposed on China. Japan was forced to cede the Liaodong Peninsula and Port Arthur back to China (both territories were located in south-eastern Manchuria, a Chinese province).


title: Sergei Witte

text: The new Russian role angered Tokyo, which decided Russia was the main enemy in its quest to control Manchuria, Korea and China. Witte underestimated Japan's growing economic and military power and exaggerated Russia's military prowess. Russia concluded an alliance with China (in 1896 by the Li–Lobanov Treaty), which led in 1898 to Russian occupation and administration (by its own personnel and police) of the entire Liaodong Peninsula. Russia also fortified the ice-free Port Arthur and completed the Russian-owned Chinese Eastern Railway, which was to cross northern Manchuria from west to east and link Siberia with Vladivostok. In 1899, the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and the Chinese attacked all foreigners. A large coalition of the major Western powers and Japan sent armed forces to relieve their diplomatic missions in Peking. The Russian government used that as an opportunity to bring a substantial army into Manchuria. As a consequence, by 1900 Manchuria was a fully-incorporated outpost of the Russian Empire, and Japan prepared to fight Russia.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte, in a memorandum, tried to turn the reports of the zemstvo presidents into a condemnation of the Home Office. In a political conflict on land reform, Vyacheslav von Plehve accused him of being part of a Jewish-Masonic conspiracy. According to Vasily Gurko, Witte had dominated the irresolute Tsar, and his opponents decided that was the moment to get rid of him.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte was appointed on 16 August 1903 (O.S.) as chairman of the Committee of Ministers, a position he held until October 1905. While officially a promotion, the post had no real power. Witte's removal from the influential post of Minister of Finance was engineered under the pressure of the landed gentry and his political enemies within the government and at the court. But historians Nicholas V. Riasanovsky and Robert K. Massie say that Witte's opposition to Russian designs on Korea resulted in his resigning from the government in 1903.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte was brought back into the governmental decision-making process to help deal with growing civil unrest. Confronted with increasing opposition and, after consulting with Witte and Prince Sviatopolk-Mirsky, the Tsar issued a reform "ukase" on December 25, 1904 with vague promises. After the Bloody Sunday riots of 1905, Witte supplied 500 rubles, the equivalent of 250 dollars, to Father Gapon in order for the leader of the demonstration to leave the country. Witte recommended that the government issue a manifesto related to the people's demands. Schemes of reform would be elaborated by Goremykin and a committee consisting of elected representatives of the zemstva and municipal councils under the presidency of Witte. On 3 March the Tsar condemned the revolutionaries. The government issued a strongly worded prohibition of any further agitation in favor of a constitution. By spring a new political system was beginning to form in Russia. A petition campaign was conducted seeking a wide variety of proposed changes, such as ending the war with Japan, which lasted from February to July 1905. In June mutiny broke out on the Russian battleship Potemkin.


title: Sergei Witte

text: The Tsar called upon Witte to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War. He was sent to the United States for the talks, as the Russian Emperor's plenipotentiary titled "his Secretary of State and President of the Committee of Ministers of the Emperor of Russia," along with Baron Roman Rosen, Master of the Imperial Court of Russia. The peace talks were held in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte is credited with negotiating brilliantly on Russia's behalf during the Treaty of Portsmouth discussions. Russia lost little in the final settlement. But the loss of the war with Japan is believed to have marked the beginning of the end of Imperial Russia. For his efforts, he was made a () following his service to the government in negotiations over the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.


title: Sergei Witte

text: After that diplomatic success, Witte wrote to the Tsar stressing the urgent need for political reforms at home. He was dissatisfied with proposals by Bulygin, the successor of Sviatopolk-Mirsky. A 6 August (O.S.) manifesto created a Duma as a consultative body only. Elections of its representatives would not be direct but be held in four stages, and qualifications for class and property would exclude much of the intelligentsia and all of the working classes from suffrage. The proposal was greeted by numerous protests and strikes across the country, which became known as the Russian Revolution of 1905.


title: Sergei Witte

text: During that period, imperial troops were sent out 2,000 times to suppress violence. The Tsar remained quiet, impassive and indulgent; he spent most of that autumn hunting. Witte told Nicholas II, "that the country was at the verge of a cataclysmic revolution". Trepov was ordered to take drastic measures to stop the revolutionary activity. The Tsar asked his cousin Grand Duke Nicholas to assume the role of dictator, but the Grand Duke threatened to shoot himself if the Tsar refused to endorse Witte's memorandum. Nicholas II had no choice but to take a number of steps in the constitutional liberal direction. The Tsar accepted the draft, hurriedly outlined by Aleksei D. Obolensky. It was known as the October Manifesto, which promised to grant civil liberties such as freedom of conscience, speech, and association; constitutional order, representative government, and the establishment of an Imperial Duma. As the Duma was only a consultative body, the Council of Ministers or the Tsar still had the right to block certain proposals. Many Russians felt that the reform did not go far enough, and it did not achieve universal suffrage for men.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte described the regime's usual "incompetence and obstinacy" in response to the crisis of 1904–1905 as a "mixture of cowardice, blindness and stupidity".


title: Sergei Witte

text: On 8 January 1905, Witte and Sviatopolk-Mirsky had been approached by a delegation of intellectuals led by Maxim Gorky, who begged them to negotiate with demonstrators. After the government's postings of warnings of 'resolute measures' against street gatherings led by Father Gapon, they worried about violent confrontation, which did take place. They were unsuccessful as the government had believed they could control Fr. Gapon. Leaving his visiting cards with Witte and Mirsky, Gorky was arrested, along with the other members of the deputations.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In later 1905 Witte was approached by the Tsar's advisers, in an effort to save the country from complete collapse, and on 9 October 1905, he went to the Winter Palace for a meeting. Here he told the Tsar 'with brutal frankness' that the country was on the verge of a catastrophic revolution, which he said 'would sweep away a thousand years of history'. He presented the Tsar with two choices: either appoint a military dictator, or agree to broad and major reforms. In a memorandum arguing for a manifesto, Witte outlined the reforms needed to appease the masses.


title: Sergei Witte

text: He argued for the following reforms: creation of a legislative parliament (Imperial Duma) elected via a democratic franchise; granting of civil liberties; establishing a cabinet government and a 'constitutional order'. Those demands, which basically comprised the political programme of the Liberation Movement, were an attempt to isolate the political Left by pacifying the liberals. Witte emphasised that repression would be only a temporary solution to the problem and a risky one because he believed that the armed forces, whose loyalty was now in question, could collapse if they were to be used against the masses. Most of the military advisers to the Tsar agreed with Witte, as did the Governor of Saint Petersburg, Alexander Trepov, who wielded considerable influence at court. Only when Nicholas II's cousin Grand Duke Nikolai threatened to shoot himself if he did not agree to Witte's demands, following the Tsar's request for him to accept appointment as dictator, would the Tsar agree. He was embarrassed to have been forced by a former "railway clerk", a man who was a bureaucrat and "businessman," to relinquish his autocratic rule. Witte later said that the Tsar's court were ready to use the Manifesto as a temporary concession, and later return to autocracy "when the revolutionary tide subsided".


title: Sergei Witte

text: In October Witte was charged with the task of assembling the nation's first cabinet government, and he offered the liberals several portfolios: Ministry of Agriculture to Ivan Shipov; Ministry of Trade and Industry to Alexander Guchkov; Ministry of Justice to Anatoly Koni and the Ministry of Education to Evgenii Troubetzkoy. Pavel Milyukov and Prince Georgy Lvov were also offered ministerial posts. None of those liberals agreed to join the government, though. Witte had to form his cabinet from 'tsarist bureaucrats and appointees lacking public confidence'. The Kadets doubted that Witte could deliver on the promises made by the Tsar in October, knowing the Tsar's staunch opposition to reform.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte argued that the Tsarist regime could be saved from a revolution only by the transformation of Russia to a 'modern industrial society', in which 'personal and public initiatives' were encouraged by a rechtsstaat who guaranteed civil liberties.


title: Sergei Witte

text: In the two weeks following the October Manifesto, several pogroms took place against Jews, especially in St. Petersburg and Odessa. Witte ordered an official investigation, where it was revealed that the police in the former city had organised, armed and gave vodka to the anti-semitic crowds, and even participated in the attacks. Witte demanded the prosecution of the chief of police in St. Petersburg], who was involved in the printing of anti-semitic pamphlets, but the Tsar intervened and protected him. Witte believed that anti-semitism was 'considered fashionable' among the elite. In the aftermath of the Kishinev pogrom in 1903, Witte had said that if Jews 'comprise about fifty percent of the membership in the revolutionary parties', it was 'the fault of our government. The Jews are too oppressed'.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Milyukov once confronted Witte to ask why he would not commit himself to a constitution; Witte replied that he could not 'because the Tsar does not wish it'. Witte was worried that the court was only using him, as emerged in talks with members of the Kadet Party.


title: Sergei Witte

text: After his skillful diplomacy Witte was appointed as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the equivalent of Prime Minister, and formed Sergei Witte's Cabinet, not belonging to any party, as there were none. No longer was the Tsar the head of the government. "Immediately upon my nomination as President of the Imperial Council I made it clear that the Procurator of the Most Holy Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev, could not remain in office, for he definitely represented the past." He was replaced by Prince Alexey D. Obolensky. Trepov and Bulygin were dismissed and, after many discussions, Pyotr Nikolayevich Durnovo was appointed as Minister of Interior on 1 January 1906; his appointment is considered one of the greatest errors Witte made during his administration.


title: Sergei Witte

text: According to Harold Williams: "That government was almost paralyzed from the beginning. Witte acted immediately by urging the release of political prisoners and the lifting of censorship laws." Alexander Guchkov and Dmitry Shipov refused to work with the reactionary Durnovo and to support the government. On 26 October (O.S.), the Tsar appointed Trepov as Master of the Palace without consulting Witte, and had daily contact with the Emperor; his influence at court was paramount. "In addition mass violence broke out in the days following the issuance of the October Manifesto. The major source of the unrest was unrelated to the October Manifesto. It took the form of attacks by gangs in the cities on the Jews. In general, the authorities ignored the attacks.


title: Sergei Witte

text: On 8 November, the sailors in Kronstadt mutinied. The same month, the border provinces were clearly taking advantage of the weakening of Central Russia to show their teeth. Witte later wrote in his "Memoirs" about the empire's ethnic minorities:


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte's position was not well established. The Liberals remained obdurate and refused to be cajoled. The Peasants' Union asked the Russian people to refuse to make redemption payments to the government and withdraw their deposits from banks that might be subject to government action. He promised an eight-hour working day and tried to secure vital loans from France to keep the "regime" from bankruptcy.


title: Sergei Witte

text: "they would willingly render full assistance to the loan, but that they would not be in a position to do so until the Russian Government had enacted legal measures tending to improve the conditions of the Jews in Russia. As I deemed it beneath our dignity to connect the solution of our Jewish question with the loan, I decided to give up my intention of securing the participation of the Rothschilds."On 24 November by Imperial decree provisional regulations on the censorship of magazines and newspaper was released.


title: Sergei Witte

text: On 16 December Trotsky and the rest of the executive committee of the St. Petersburg Soviet were arrested. The Minister of Agriculture Nikolai Kutler resigned in February 1906; Witte refused to appoint Alexander Krivoshein. In the next few weeks, changes and additions to the Russian Constitution of 1906 were made, so that the Emperor was confirmed as the dictator of foreign policies and the supreme commander of the army and navy. The ministers remained responsible solely to Nicholas II, not to the Duma. The "peasant question" or land reforms was a hot issue; the influence of the "Duma of Public Anger" had to be limited, according to Goremykin and Dmitri Trepov. The Bolsheviks boycotted the coming election. When Witte discovered that Nicholas never intended to honour those concessions, he resigned as Chairman of the Council of Ministers. The position and influence of General Trepov, Grand Duke Nicholas, the Black Hundreds, and overwhelming victories by the Kadets in the 1906 Russian legislative election, forced Witte on 14th to resign, which was announced 22 April 1906 (O.S.).


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte confessed to Polovtsov in April 1906 that the success of the repressions in the wake of the Moscow uprising in 1905 had resulted in his losing all influence over the Tsar. Despite Witte's protests, Durnovo was allowed to 'carry out a brutal and excessive, and often totally unjustified, series of repressive measures.'


title: Sergei Witte

text: In 1906, Father Gapon returned to Russia from exile and supported Witte's government. On 30 April 1905 Witte proposed the Law of Religious Toleration, followed by the edict of 30 October 1906 giving legal status to schismatics and sectarians of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the established state church. Witte argued that ending discrimination against religious rivals of the Orthodox Church 'would not harm the church, provided it embraced the reforms that would revive its religious life'. Although the Church's 'senior hierarchs' may for some time have played with the thought of self-government, Witte's demand that it would come at the cost of religious toleration 'guaranteed to drive them back into the arms of reaction'. Witte had made that demand (self-government in exchange for religious toleration) in the hope of 'wooing' the important commercial groups of the ethnic minorities of Jewish and Old Believer communities.


title: Sergei Witte

text: According to Dmitry Filosofov, Witte was the only talented person in the government, but he brought many troubles to Russia. He destroyed the Autocracy not from the outside, as revolutionaries do, but from the inside. Witte failed to retain the confidence of the Emperor, but continued in Russian politics as a member of the State Council but he was never again appointed to an administrative role in the government. He was ostracized by the Russian establishment. In January 1907 a bomb was found planted in his home. The investigator Pavel Alexandrovich Alexandrov proved that the Okhrana, the tsarist secret police, had been involved. During the winter season, Witte lived in Biarritz and started writing his "Memoirs," but he returned to St Petersburg in 1908.


title: Sergei Witte

text: During the July Crisis in 1914, Grigori Rasputin and Witte desperately urged the Tsar to avoid the conflict and warned that Europe faced calamity if Russia became involved. The advice went unheeded; the French ambassador Maurice Paléologue complained to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sazonov.


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte died in February 1915 at his home in St. Petersburg; his quick death was attributed to meningitis or a brain tumor. His third-class funeral was held at the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. On the black granite slab, in addition to the usual dates of birth and death, another date was carved: 17 October, 1905, the date he presented the Manifesto. Witte had no children, but he had adopted his wife's by her first marriage. According to Edvard Radzinsky, Witte asked in vain for the title of count to be given to his grandson L.K. Naryshkin (1905-1963).


title: Sergei Witte

text: Witte's reputation was burnished in the West after his secret memoirs were published in translation in 1921. They had been completed in 1912 and kept in a bank in Bayonne, France. He had left orders that they could not be published during the lifetimes of him and his contemporaries. The ambassador in France Vasily Maklakov received them from his widow. The original manuscript of his memoirs are now held in Columbia University Library's Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European History and Culture.


title: Sergei Witte

text: The Sergei Witte University of Moscow, with campuses in Ryazan, Krasnodar and Nizhny Novgorod is named in his honour (a private institution accredited by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (Russia) in 1997)


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Our Lady of Perpetual Help (also known as Our Lady of Perpetual Succour) is a Roman Catholic title of the Blessed Virgin Mary associated with a 15th-century Byzantine icon with an alleged Marian apparition. The icon is believed to have originated from the Keras Kardiotissas Monastery and has been in Rome since 1499. Today it is permanently enshrined in the Church of Saint Alphonse of Liguori, where the official Novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help text is prayed weekly.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Pope Pius IX granted a Pontifical decree of Canonical Coronation along with its present title on 5 May 1866. The Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, Cardinal Ruggero Luigi Emidio Antici Mattei, executed the rite of coronation on 23 June 1867.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The Redemptorist Congregation of priests and brothers are the only religious order currently entrusted by the Holy See to protect and propagate a Marian religious work of art. In the Eastern Orthodox Church iconography, the image is known as the “"Virgin Theotokos of the Passion"” due to the instruments of the Passion of Jesus Christ present on the image.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Novena devotions are held before June 27 every year. Under Pope Pius XII's Pontificate, the image was designated as the national Patroness of the Republic of Haiti and of Almoradí, in the Valencian Country, Spain.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Due to promotion by the Redemptorist Priests since 1865, the image has become very popular among Roman Catholics. Modern reproductions are oftentimes displayed in residential homes, commercial establishments, and public transportation. Pope John Paul II issued a decree to crown a namesake image for Poland on 16 June 1999.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The original wooden icon is suspended on the altar, measures 17" × 21" inches, and is written on hard nut wood with a gold leaf background. The image depicts the following symbols:


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Byzantine depictions of the Blessed Virgin Mary in art have three stars, one star each on the shoulder and one on the forehead. This type of icon is called Hodegetria, where Mary is pointing to her Son, known as a "Theotokos of the Passion".


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Mary is depicted with a long slender nose, thin lips, and smoothly arched eyebrows, evidence of being made by a Greek artist. The veil and her face itself are rounded, indicating holiness. The size of the mother is also out of proportion to her son, a deliberate intent by the artist to show Mary as larger than life.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The Greek inscriptions read MP-ΘΥ (Μήτηρ Θεοῦ, "Mother of God"), ΟΑΜ (Ὁ Ἀρχάγγελος Μιχαήλ, "Michael the Archangel"), ΟΑΓ (Ὁ Ἀρχάγγελος Γαβριήλ, "Gabriel the Archangel") and IC-XC (Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, "Jesus Christ"), respectively.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The icon has a gold ground on a walnut panel, believed to be from Crete. The Cretan School was the source of the many icons imported into Europe from the late Middle Ages through the Renaissance. The gold background represents the Kingdom of God. The round halo surrounding the Virgin Mary's head as well as details on the robes were created through "Estofado", which is an artistic effect created by scraping the paint to reveal the gold background, additional effects are achieved by chasing designs on the gold. The icon was cleaned and restored once in 1866 and again in the year 1940.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The icon is sometimes regarded to have been painted by Saint Luke the Evangelist or as a copy of the original Hodegetria. This association is rather weak in comparison to other icons such as the Salus Populi Romani and the Black Madonna of Częstochowa.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: According to the tradition as published by the Keras Kardiotissas Monastery, the icon was painted by Saint Lazarus Zographos and was known as the Panagia Kardiotissa (Παναγίας Καρδιώτισσας), due to the depiction of the Mother of God holding the Christ Child to her heart. Historian Stergios Spanakis had argued that the miraculous icon was the reason for the founding of the monastery. Cristoforo Buondelmonti, an Italian Franciscan priest and traveler who visited Crete in 1415, wrote of the icon being miraculous:


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The earliest written account of the icon after its abduction comes from a Latin and Italian plaque placed in the church of San Matteo in Via Merulana where it was first venerated by the public in 1499. The writer of the icon is unknown, but according to a parchment attached to the painting that accompanied the icon, it was stolen by a merchant sailing to Rome from the island of Crete. (The Keras Kardiotissas Monastery is regarded as the monastery from which the icon was stolen.) The image remained in the private possession of a Roman merchant and his family until 27 March 1499, when the icon was transferred to the church of San Matteo where it remained for 300 years. The picture was then popularly called the Madonna di San Matteo.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The Redemptorists, (The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer) a congregation within the Roman Catholic Church, maintain a robust account of the icon and its passage from the private hands of a merchant family in Rome to its final and current location at Sant'Alfonso di Liguori, on the Esquiline Hill in Rome. The accounting includes the story of a merchant who secured the icon from Crete, and brought it to his family's home in Rome, during the late 15th century. The story includes a passage of a young member of the family, the six-year-old daughter of the merchant, who was visited by the Virgin Mary in a dream. Part of the accounting includes the following passage:


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: "At last, the Blessed Virgin appeared to the six-year-old daughter of this Roman family and told her to tell her mother and grandmother that the picture of Holy Mary of Perpetual Help should be placed in the Church of St. Matthew the Apostle, located between the basilicas of St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran."


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: The icon remained at St. Matthew's for three centuries. For at least the final 60 years of the 18th century, St. Matthew's was occupied by the Augustinian Order of the Catholic Church. When war broke out in Rome in 1798, the icon was moved to the Church of St. Mary in Posterula, near the "Umberto I" bridge that crosses the Tiber River in Rome. The icon remained "hidden" there until Pope Pius IX granted the possession of the icon to the Redemptorists by Papal Edict, in 1865. The Church of St. Mary in Posterula was later demolished in 1880.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: According to the account by the Redemptorists: "In January 1866, Fathers Michael Marchi and Ernest Bresciani went to St. Mary's in Posterula to receive the picture from the Augustinians.". The Redemptorists had purchased the property where the former St. Matthew's had stood, and had established and built the modern Sant'Alfonso di Liguori, in honor of the founder of their congregation. Thus, the venerated icon of the Catholic Church was returned to the location described by the Virgin Mary in the dream of the merchant's daughter, that is, at the church between St. Mary Major and St. John Lateran.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Redemptorist tradition holds that Pope Pius IX declared, in 1866, that the Redemptorists make the icon known to the world, and so, several copies were made and sent to Redemptorist parishes around the world. One such Redemptorist parish in the United States, St. Mary's in Annapolis, Maryland, received a copy from Rome in 1868. The image is prominently displayed within the sanctuary of the parish.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: In 1798, French troops under Louis-Alexandre Berthier occupied Rome as part of the French Revolutionary Wars, establishing the


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: short-lived Roman Republic and taking Pope Pius VI prisoner. Among the several churches demolished during the French occupation was San Matteo in Via Merulana, which housed the icon. The Augustinian friars who rescued the icon first took it to the nearby Church of St. Eusebius, then later set it up on a side altar in the Church of Santa Maria in Posterula.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: In January 1855, the Redemptorist priests purchased "Villa Caserta" in Rome along the Via Merulana and converted it into their headquarters. Decades later, Pope Pius IX invited the Redemptorist Fathers to set up a Marian house of veneration in Rome, in response to which the Redemptorists built Sant'Alfonso di Liguori at that location. The Redemptorists were thus established on the Via Merulana, not knowing that it had once been the site of the Church of San Matteo and shrine of the once-famous icon.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Pope Pius IX sent a letter dated 11 December 1865 to Father General Mauron, C.Ss.R., ordered that the image be once again publicly venerated in Via Merulana, the new church of Saint Alphonsus. The same Pontiff directed the Augustinian friars to surrender the icon to the Redemptorist priests, on condition that the Redemptorists must supply the Augustinians with another picture of Our Lady of Perpetual Help or a good copy of the icon in exchange as a gesture of goodwill.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Upon its official transfer, Pope Pius IX finally gave his Apostolic Blessing and titled the icon "Mater de Perpetuo Succursu" (Mother of Perpetual Help). Two years later, on 23 June 1867, the image was given a Canonical Coronation by the Dean of the Vatican Chapter in a solemn and official recognition of the Marian icon under that title.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: On 21 April 1866, the Redemptorist Superior General gave one of the first copies of the icon to Pope Pius IX. This copy is preserved in the chapel of the Redemptorists' Generalate in Rome. The original icon remains under the care of the Redemptorist Fathers at the Church of St. Alphonsus with the latest restoration of the icon having taken place in 1990.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: In 1990, the icon was taken down from its altar for new photography and image restoration commissioned by the General Government of Redemptorists. The Redemptorist Order entered into contract with the Technical Department at the Vatican Museum to restore the icon and prevent further fungal damage to the icon. The restoration process involved X-ray, infrared scanning, technical analysis of the paint and ultra-violet testing along with a Carbon-14-test which placed the icon between the year 1325–1480. Artistic analysis of the icon revealed that the facial structure of the icon was altered due to previous overpainting, resulting in a combination of "oriental and occidental" features of the image.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Our Lady of Perpetual Help has been venerated across many cultures and thus bears several titles in different languages, such as "Mother of Perpetual Succour", "Unsere Liebe Frau von der immerwährenden Hilfe", "Nuestra Señora del Perpetuo Socorro", "Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours", "Mater del Perpetuo Succursu", and "Ina ng Laging Saklolo".


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: In 1878, the Basilica and Shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Boston, Massachusetts, obtained a certified copy of the icon being the first in the United States. Between 1927 and 1935, the first American novena service dedicated to the icon was recited in Saint Alphonsus "The Rock" church in St. Louis, Missouri, and various other Redemptorist stations around the United States.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: There is a shrine to Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the Redemptorist Church of the Most Holy Redeemer in Manhattan; and at the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (Brooklyn).


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: There is a Church dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida. https://olphtampa.org/


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Our Lady of Perpetual Help is widely venerated by Filipino Catholics and Overseas Filipino communities. A German copy of the icon is venerated in the National Shrine of Our Mother of Perpetual Help in Baclaran, Parañaque City, Metro Manila – the country's centre of devotion to the icon. Since 1958, the Church has been authorized to remain open 24 hours a day. Pope John Paul II once offered a Catholic Mass at the shrine as cardinal, and later prayed before the icon during his first pastoral visit to the country in February 1981.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Almost all Catholic churches and chapels in the Philippines have a replica of the icon, often enshrined in a side altar. Copies of the icon can also be found in countless houses, businesses, and even public utility vehicles.


title: Our Lady of Perpetual Help

text: Every Wednesday, many congregations hold services where they publicly recite the rosary and the icon's associated novena, along with a priest delivering Benediction and celebrating a votive Mass in its honor. Devotees today still use the same Novena booklet first published by Irish Redemptorists, who introduced the icon and its devotion to the Philippines in the early 1900s. The Filipino Diaspora continue keeping the Wednesday Novena, holding novena services in their respective parishes overseas.