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Paraclete comes from the Greek word meaning "one who consoles" or "one who intercedes on our behalf", which first appears in the Gospel of John (16:7). Christian theology afterwards identified Paraclete with the Holy Spirit.
The word appears in Greek New Testament manuscripts and using the Roman alphabet is rendered "parakletos", it appears only a few times.
Christ is quoted in the New Testament using this word; in John 14:26 the greek word parakletos is used as an alternative term for "Holy Spirit".
Yet in I John 2:1 "parakletos" is used again this time however in reference to Christ.
Paraclete or "Parakletos" is important to Christians , because it sheds much light on the nature of God and Christ and the Holy Spirit and brings into question the concept of the Trinity, often a source of great confusion.
In Islam, the New Testament's term Paraclete is considered to refer prophetically to Muhammad, an tradition already mentioned by the first sira writer, Ibn Ishaq.
In Manicheanism, it is taken to refer to Mani.
Paraclete is also, evidently, associated with the story of Abelard and Heloise, at least in Mark Twain's retelling of it in The Innocents Abroad:
"On account of her too easy government of her nuns, some disreputable irregularities were discovered among them, and the Abbot of St. Denis broke up her establishment. Abelard was the official head of the monastery of St. Gildas de Ruys, at that time, and when he heard of her homeless condition a sentiment of pity was aroused in his breast (it is a wonder the unfamiliar emotion did not blow his head off,) and he placed her and her troop in the little oratory of the Paraclete, a religious establishment which he had founded. " -- " The Innocents Abroad - Mark Twain - Free Online Library (http://twain.thefreelibrary.com/The-Innocents-Abroad/15-1#Oratory%20of%20the%20Paraclete)
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