The Breton fishermen called Empress Sisi the “Queen of Mercy”

May 17, 2012

Painting by Franz Schrotzberg of Empress Elisabeth (Sisi)

During her short stay in Brittany the Empress literally showered kindnesses upon the families of many poor fishermen, whose thatch-roofed huts clustered so close to the cliffs that they seemed but larger birds’ nests clinging to the rocks for protection from the wind and weather; and although they did not know who their benefactress was, they soon found a befitting name for her, and called her the “Queen of Mercy.”

 

Marguerite Cunliffe-Owen, The Martyrdom of an Empress (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1902), p. 126.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 178


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The formation of nations and regions

May 17, 2012

Fireworks explode over the guided missile cruiser USS Champlain during July 4th celebrations at Naval Station, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

A nation is born when an ensemble of people, social groups, and associations... coalesce into a whole that is clearly distinct from everything outside it.

A nation is born when an ensemble of people, social groups, and associations dedicated to the private good—or cumulatively to the private and the common good—coalesce into a whole that is clearly distinct from everything outside it. It becomes a closed circuit of an ethnic, cultural, social, economic, and political character, and does not allow itself to be included or federated into any larger whole. The common good of this nation, which constitutes a state when politically organized, hovers above the good of each of the constituent groups. The latter, in turn, hovers over the good of each individual.[1]

Aliy Zirkle’s team on Anchorage’s Fourth Avenue at the start of the 2003 Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

"A region is a territorial reality with an ensemble of constituent elements similar to those of a nation. "

An analogous affirmation could be made with regard to a region. A region is a territorial reality with an ensemble of constituent elements similar to those of a nation. It differs from the nation in that it does not embrace all the constituent elements of a nation, but only a significant part of them. The difference between the various regions of a nation results from the fact that the constituent elements usually vary from one region to another.

A comparison may clarify this point. Regions differ from each other and from the nation as a whole like different carvings in the same stone. Nations differ from one another like one statue from another.

Thunder over Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. The largest annual fireworks display in North America.

"It differs from the nation in that it does not embrace all the constituent elements of a nation, but only a significant part of them."

Sovereignty is proper to nations; autonomy is proper to regions. An example of this is found in federal states, which are sovereign and composed of autonomous federated units.

"The difference between the various regions of a nation results from the fact that the constituent elements usually vary from one region to another." Aloha Day Parade in Hawaii

 

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), p. 88-89.

 

[1] The term hovers  requires an explanation. It suggests a superiority that exists for the benefit of the successively lower orders. The State is at the summit of this social structure; at times it is like a roof that weighs upon the walls but at the same time protects them from inclement weather; at times it is like a tower that hovers over a group of buildings, adding beauty to them, serving as a bridge between the earthly and the heavenly, inspiring enchantment, enthusiasm, and elevation of spirit in those over whom it hovers.

Like a roof or a tower, the state structure should have all the necessary solidity, combined with the maximum lightness: one pound less than necessary may cause its downfall; one pound more than necessary may impart a certain ungraceful and oppressive aspect to the structure.

 

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May 19 – Charlemagne’s Scholar

May 17, 2012

Blessed Alcuin of York

Charlemagne and Alcuin

An eminent educator, scholar, and theologian born about 735; died 19 May, 804.

He came of noble Northumbrian parentage, but the place of his birth is a matter of dispute. It was probably in or near York. While still a mere child, he entered the cathedral school founded at that place by Archbishop Egbert. His aptitude, and piety early attracted the attention of Aelbert, master of the school, as well as of the Archbishop, both of whom devoted special attention to his instruction. In company with his master, he made several visits to the continent while a youth, and when, in 767, Aelbert succeeded to the Archbishopric of York, the duty of directing the school naturally devolved upon Alcuin. During the fifteen years that followed, he devoted himself to the work of instruction at York, attracting numerous students and enriching the already valuable library.

While returning from Rome in March, 781, he met Charlemagne at Parma, and was induced by that prince, whom he greatly admired, to remove to France and take up residence at the royal court as “Master of the Palace School”.

The school was kept at Aachen most of the time, but was removed from place to place, according as the royal residence was changed. In 786 he returned to England, in connection, apparently, with important ecclesiastical affairs, and again in 790, on a mission from Charlemagne. Alcuin attended the Synod of Frankfort in 794, and took an important part in the framing of the decrees condemning Adoptionism as well as in the efforts made subsequently to effect the submission of the recalcitrant Spanish prelates. In 796, when past his sixtieth year, being anxious to withdraw from the world, he was appointed by Charlemagne Abbot of St. Martin’s at tours. Here, in his declining years, but with undiminished zeal, he set himself to build up a model monastic school, gathering books and drawing students, as before, at Aachen and York, from far and near. He died 19 May, 804.

Alcuin appears to have been only a deacon, his favorite appellation for himself in his letters being “Albinus, humilis Levita”. Some have thought, however, that he became a priest, at least during his later years. His unknown biographer, in describing this period, says of him, celebrabat omni die missarum solemnia (Jaffé, “Mon. Alcuin., Vita,” 30). In one of his last letters Alcuin acknowledged the gift of a casula, or chasuble, which he promises to use in missarum solemniis (Ep. 203). It is probable that he was a monk, and a member of the Benedictine Order, although this also has been disputed, some historians maintaining that he was simply a member of the secular clergy, even when he exercised the office of abbot at Tours.

Alcuin met Charlemagne at Parma, and was induced by that prince, whom he greatly admired, to remove to France and take up residence at the royal court as "Master of the Palace School"

Educator and scholar

Of his work as an educator and scholar it may be said, in a general way, that he had the largest share in the movement for the revival of learning which distinguished the age in which he lived, and which made possible the great intellectual renaissance of three centuries later. In him Anglo-Saxon scholarship attained to its widest influence, the rich intellectual inheritance left by Bede at Jarrow being taken up by Alcuin at York, and, through his subsequent labors on the Continent, becoming the permanent possession of civilized Europe. The influences surrounding Alcuin at York were made up chiefly of elements from two sources, Irish and Continental. From the sixth century onward Irishmen were busy founding schools as well as churches and monasteries all over Europe; and from Iona, according to Bede, Aidan and other Celtic missionaries bore the knowledge of the classics, along with the light of the Christian faith, into Northumbria. Both Aldhelm and Bede had Irish teachers. Celtic scholarship appears, however, to have entered only remotely and indirectly into Alcuin’s training. The strongly Roman cast which characterized the School of Canterbury, founded by Theodore and Hadrian, who were sent by the Pope to England in 669, was naturally reproduced in the School of Jarrow, and from this, in turn, in the School of York. The influence is discernible in Alcuin, on the religious side, in his devoted adhesion to Roman, as distinguished from particular local or national, traditions, as well as, in an intellectual way, in the fact that his knowledge of Greek, which was a favourite study with Irish scholars, appears to have been very slight.

An important feature of Alcuin’s educational work at York was the care and preservation, as well as the enlargement, of its precious library. Several times he journeyed through Europe for the purpose of copying and collecting books. Numerous pupils, too, gathered around him, from all parts of England and the continent. In his poem “On the Saints of the Church of York”, written, probably, before he took up his residence in France, he has left us a valuable description of the academic life at York, together with a list of the authors represented by its catalog of books. The course of studies embraced, in the words of Alcuin, “liberal studies and the holy word”, or the seven liberal arts comprising the trivium and the quadrivium, with the study of Scripture and the Fathers for those more advanced. A feature of the school that deserves mention was the organization of studies on the modern plan, the students being separated into classes, according to the subjects and divisions of subjects studied, with a special teacher for each class. But it was when he took charge of the Palace School that the abilities of Alcuin were most conspicuously shown.

Charlemagne counted on education to complete the work of empire-building in which he was engaged

In spite of the influence of York, learning in England was declining. The country was a prey to dissensions and civil wars, and Alcuin perceived in the growing power of Charlemagne and his eagerness for the development of learning an opportunity such as even York, with all its pre-eminence and scholastic advantages, could not afford. Nor was he disappointed. Charlemagne counted on education to complete the work of empire-building in which he was engaged, and his mind was busy with educational projects. A literary revival, in fact, had already begun. Scholars were drawn from Italy, Germany, and Ireland, and when Alcuin, in 782, transferred his allegiance to Charlemagne, he soon found surrounding him at Aachen, in addition to the youthful members of the nobility he was called upon to instruct, a band of older learners some of whom were ranked among the best scholars of the time.

Under his leadership the Palace School became what Charles had hoped to make it, the center of knowledge and culture for the whole kingdom, and indeed for the whole of Europe. Charlemagne himself, his queen, Luitgard, his sister Gisela, his three sons and two daughters became pupils of the school, an example which the rest of the nobility were not slow to imitate.

Alcuin’s supreme merit as an educator lay, however, not merely in the training up of a generation of educated men and women, but above all, in inspiring with his own enthusiasm for learning and teaching the talented youths who flocked to him from all sides. His educational writings, comprising the treatises “On Grammar”, “On Orthography”, “On Rhetoric and the Virtues”, “On Dialectics”, the “Disputation with Pepin”, and the astronomical treatise entitled “De Cursu et Saltu Lunae ac Bissexto“, afford an insight into the matter and methods of teaching employed in the Palace School and the schools of the time generally, but they are not remarkable either for originality or literary excellence. They are mostly compilations — generally in the form of dialogues drawn from the works of earlier scholars, and were probably intended to be used as textbooks by his own pupils.

Charlemagne Presiding at the School of the Palace

Alcuin, like Bede, was a teacher rather than a thinker, a gatherer and a distributor rather than an originator of knowledge, and in this respect, it is plain to us now, the bent of his genius responded perfectly to the imperative intellectual need of the age, which was the preservation and the representation to the world of the treasures of knowledge inherited from the past, long buried out of sight by the successive tides of barbarian invasion. Disce ut doceas (learn in order to teach) was the motto of his life, and the supreme value he attached to the office of teaching is recognizable in his admonition to his disciples that the idle youth would never become a teacher in his old age (Qui non discit in pueritia, non docet in senectute, Ep. 27). Alcuin was eminently qualified to be the schoolmaster of his age. Although living in the world and occupied much with public affairs, he was a man of singular humility and sanctity of life. He had an unbounded enthusiasm for learning and a tireless zeal for the practical work of the class-room and library, and the young men of talent whom he drew in crowds around him from all parts of Europe went away inspired with something of his own passionate ardor for study. His warm-hearted and affectionate disposition made him universally beloved, and the ties that bound master and pupil often ripened into intimate friendship that lasted through life. Many of his letters that have been preserved were written to his former pupils, more than thirty being addressed to his tenderly loved disciple Arno, who became Archbishop of Salzburg. Before he died Alcuin had the satisfaction of seeing the young men whom he had trained engaged all over Europe in the work of teaching. “Wherever”, says Wattenbach, in speaking of the period that followed, “anything of literary activity is visible, there we can with certainty count on finding a pupil of Alcuin’s.” Many of his pupils came to occupy important positions in Church and State and lent their influence to the cause of learning, as the above-mentioned Arno, Archbishop of Salzburg; Theodulph, Bishop of Orléans; Eanbald, Archbishop of York; Adelhard, the cousin of Charles, who became Abbot of (New) Corbie, in Saxony; Aldrich, Abbot of Ferrières, and Fridugis, the successor of Alcuin at Tours. Among his pupils also was the celebrated Rabanus Maurus, the intellectual successor of Alcuin, who came to study under him for a time at Tours, and who subsequently in his school at Fulda, continued the work of Alcuin at Aachen and Tours.

Monumental equestrian statue of Charlemagne, by Agostino Cornacchini (1725) — St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican. Photo by Myrabella.

The development of the Palace School, however, important as it was, was only a part of the broad educational plans of Charlemagne. For the diffusion of learning, other educational centers had to be established throughout the kingdom, and for this, in an age when education was so largely, under the control of the Church, it was essential that the clergy should be a body of educated men. With this object in view, a series of decrees or capitulars were issued in the name of the Emperor, which enjoined upon all clerics, secular as well as regular, under penalty of suspension and deprivation of office, the ability to read and write and the possession of the knowledge requisite for the intelligent performance of the duties of the clerical state. Reading-schools were to be established for the benefit of candidates for the priesthood, and bishops were required to examine their clergy from time to time, to ascertain the degree of their compliance with these educational laws. A scheme for universal elementary education was also projected. A capitular of the year 802 enjoined that “everyone should send his son to study letters, and that the child should remain at school with all diligence until he should become well instructed in learning” (West, 54). Following the decrees of the Council of Vaison, a primary school was to be established in every town and village to be taught by the priests gratuitously.

It is impossible to say to what extent Alcuin deserves credit for the organization of the vast educational system which was thus set up, comprising a central higher institution, the Palace School, a number of subordinate schools of the liberal arts scattered throughout the country, and schools for the common people in every city and village. His hand is nowhere visible in the series of legislative enactments referred to; but there can be no doubt that he had much to do with the instigation, if not with the framing, of these laws. “The voice”, Gaskoin aptly says, “is the voice of Charles, but the hand is the hand of Alcuin”.

“The voice is the voice of Charles, but the hand is the hand of Alcuin”. Statue of Alcuin at St. John the Divine, New York City. Photo by rbs10025.

It was with Alcuin, too, and his pupils that the responsibility rested for carrying out the legislation. True, the laws were only imperfectly carried into effect; the measures planned and partially put into practice for the enlightenment of the people did not meet with complete success; the movement for the revival and diffusion of learning throughout the Empire did not last. Yet much was accomplished that did endure. The accumulated wisdom of the past, which was in danger of perishing, was preserved, and when the greater and more permanent renaissance of learning came, several centuries later, when the light began to pierce through the storm-clouds of feudal strife and anarchy, the foundations laid in the eighth century were still there, ready to receive the weight of the higher learning which the scholars of the new revival should build up” (Gaskoin, 209). Alcuin’s poems range from brief, epigrammatic verses, addressed to his friends, or intended as inscriptions for books, churches, altars, etc., to lengthy metrical histories of biblical and ecclesiastical events. His verses seldom rise to the level of real poetry, and, like most of the work of the poets of the period, they often fail to conform to the rules for quantity, just as his prose, though simple and vigorous, shows here and there a seeming disregard for the accepted canons of syntax. His principal metrical work, the “Poem on the Saints of the Church at York”, consists of 1657 hexameter lines and is really a history of that Church.

Alcuin as a theologian

Charlemagne and Alcuin

Alcuin’s work as a theologian may be classed as exegetical or biblical, moral, and dogmatic. Here again the characteristic that has been noted in his educational work is conspicuous it is that of conservation rather than originality. His nine Scriptural commentaries — on Genesis, The Psalms, The Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Hebrew Names, St. John’s Gospel, the Epistles to Titus, Philemon, and the Hebrews, The Sayings of St. Paul, and the Apocalypse — consist mostly of sentences taken from the Fathers, the idea, apparently, being to collect into convenient form the observations on the more important Scriptural passages of the best commentators who had preceded him. A more important Biblical undertaking by Alcuin was the revision of the text of the Latin Vulgate. At the beginning of the ninth century, this version had displaced in France, as elsewhere throughout the Western Church, the Old Itala (Vetus Itala) and other Latin versions of the Bible; but the Vulgate, as it existed, showed many variants from the original of St. Jerome. Uniformity in the sacred text was in fact, unknown. Every church and monastery had its own accepted readings, and varying texts were often to be found in the Bibles used in the same house. Other scholars besides Alcuin were engaged in the task of endeavoring to remedy this condition. Theodulph of Orléans produced a revised text of the Vulgate which has survived in the “Codex Memmianus“. The original work of Alcuin has not come down to us, the carelessness of copyists and the extensive usage to which it attained having led to numberless, though for the most part unimportant variations from the standard he sought to fix. In his letters he simply mentions the fact that he is engaged, by the order of Charlemagne, “in emendatione Veteris Novique Testamenti” (Ep., 136). Four Bibles are shown by the dedicatory poems affixed to them to have been prepared by him, or under his direction at Tours, probably during the years 799-801. In the opinion of Berger the “Tours Bibles” all represent in a greater or less degree, notwithstanding their variations in detail, the original Alcuinian text (Hist. de la vulg., 242). Whatever the exact changes made by Alcuin in the Bible text may have been, the known temper of the man, no less than the limits of the scholarship of the age, makes it certain that these changes were not of a far-reaching kind. The idea being, however, to reproduce the genuine text of St. Jerome, so far as possible, and to correct the gross blunders which disfigured the Sacred writings, the Biblical work of Alcuin was, from this point of view, important. Of the three brief moral treatises Alcuin has left us, two, “De virtutibus et vitiis“, and “De animae ratione“, are largely abridgments of the writing of St. Augustine on the same subjects, while the third, “On the Confession of Sins”, is a concise exposition of the nature of confession, addressed to the monks of St. Martin of Tours. Closely allied to his moral writings in spirit and purpose are his sketches of the lives of St. Martin of Tours, St. Vedast, St. Riquier, and St. Willibrord, the last being a biography of considerable length.

It is upon his dogmatic writings that the fame of Alcuin as a theologian principally rests. Against the Adoptionist heresy he stood forth as the foremost champion of the Church. It is a proof of his power of penetration — a quality of mind which some historians appear to deny him altogether — that he so clearly perceived the essentially heretical attitude of Felix and Elipandus toward the Christological question, an attitude whose heterodoxy was shrouded perhaps even from their own eyes in the beginning, by the specious distinction between natural and adoptive sonship; and it was a worthy tribute to the range of his patristic scholarship when Felix, the chief intellectual defender of Adoptionism, after the disputation with Alcuin at Aachen, acknowledged the error of his position. The condemnation of the rising heresy by the Synod of Regensburg (Ratisbon), in 792, having failed to check its spread, another and a larger synod, composed of representatives of the Churches of France, Italy, Britain, and Galicia, was convened at Frankfort by the order of Charles, in 794.

Alcuin was present at this meeting and no doubt took a prominent part in the discussions and in the drawing up of the “Epistola Synodica“, although, with characteristic modesty, he furnishes no evidence of the fact in his letters. Following up the work of the Synod, he addressed to Felix, for whom he had formerly entertained high esteem, a touching letter of admonition and exhortation. After his transfer to Tours, in 796, he received from Felix a reply which showed that something more than friendly entreaty would be needed to stay the progress of the heresy. He had already drawn up a small treatise consisting mainly of patristic quotations, against the teaching of the heretics, under the title “Liber Albini contra haeresim Felicis“, and he now undertook a larger and more thorough discussion of the theological questions involved. This work, in seven books, “Libri VII adversus Felicem“, was a refutation of the position of the Adoptionists, rather than an exposition of Catholic doctrine, and hence followed the lines of their arguments, instead of a strictly logical order of development. Alcuin urged against the Adoptionists the universal testimony of the Fathers, the inconsistencies involved in the doctrine itself, its logical relation to Nestorianism, and the rationalistic spirit which was forever prompting to just such attempted human explanations of the unsearchable mysteries of faith. In the spring of 799 a disputation took place between Alcuin and Felix in the royal palace at Aachen, which ended by Felix acknowledging his errors and accepting the teachings of the Church. Felix subsequently paid a friendly visit to Alcuin at Tours. Having sought in vain to bring about the submission of Elipandus, Alcuin drew up another treatise entitled “Adversus Elipandum Libri IV“, entrusting it for circulation to the commissioners whom Charlemagne was sending to Spain. In 802 he sent to the emperor the last, and perhaps the most important, of his theological treatises, the “Libellus de Sancta Trinitate“, a work which is uncontroversial in form, although probably suggested to him during the discussions with the Adoptionists. The treatise contains a brief appendix entitled “De Trinitate ad Fridegisum quaestiones XXVIII“. The book is a compendium of Catholic doctrine concerning the Holy Trinity, St. Augustine’s treatise on the subject being kept steadily in view. It is uncertain to what extent Alcuin shared in the attitude of remonstrance assumed by the Frankish Church, at the instance of Charlemagne, towards the badly translated and ill understood decrees of the second Council of Nicaea, held in 787. The style of the “Libri Carolini” which condemn, in the name of the King, the decrees of the Council, favours the assumption that Alcuin had at least no direct part in the composition of the work.

Alcuin as a liturgist

Besides his justly merited fame as an educator and a theologian, Alcuin has the honor of having been the principle agent in the great work of liturgical reform accomplished by the authority of Charlemagne.

It was the purpose of the King to substitute the Roman rite in place of the Gallican.

At the accession of Charles the Gallican rite prevailed in France, but it was so modified by local customs and traditions as to constitute a serious obstacle to complete ecclesiastical unity. It was the purpose of the King to substitute the Roman rite in place of the Gallican, or at least to bring about such a revision of the latter as to make it substantially one with the Roman. The strong leaning of Alcuin towards the traditions of the Roman Church, combined with his conservative character and the universal authority of his name, qualified him for the accomplishment of a change which the royal authority in itself was powerless to effect. The first of Alcuin’s liturgical works appears to have been a Homiliary, or collection of sermons in Latin for the use of priests. The Homiliary which was printed under his name in the fifteenth century was by a different hand, although it is probable, its Dom Morin contends, that a recently discovered manuscript of the twelfth century contains the genuine Alcuinian sermons. Another liturgical work of Alcuin consists of a collection of the Epistles to be read on Sundays and holy-days throughout the year, and bears the name, “Comes ab Albino ex Caroli imp. praecepto emendatus“. As, previous to his time, the portions of Scripture to be read at Mass were often merely indicated on the margins of the Bibles used, the “Comes” commended itself by its convenience, and as he followed Roman usage here also, the result was another advance in the way of conformity to the Roman liturgy. The work of Alcuin which had the greatest and most lasting influence in this direction, however, was the Sacramentary, or Missal which he compiled, using the Gregorian Sacramentary as a basis, and to this adding a supplement of other liturgical sources. Prescribed as the official Mass-book for the Frankish Church, Alcuin’s Missal soon came to be commonly used throughout Europe and was largely instrumental in bringing about uniformity in respect to the liturgy of the Mass in the whole Western Church. Other liturgical productions of Alcuin were a collection of votive Masses, drawn up for the monks of Fulda, a treatise called “De psalmorum usu“, a breviary for laymen, and a brief explanation of the ceremonies of Baptism.

A complete edition of Alcuin’s works, with the exception of some of his Epistles, is to be found in Migne, comprising volumes 100-101 of the “Patrologia Latina“. The text of the Migne edition was first published by Froben, Abbot of St. Emmeran, at Ratisbon, in 1777, a previous and less complete edition having been published by Duchesne at Paris, in 1617. A critically accurate edition of the “Epistles” of Alcuin, together with his poem, “On the Saints of the Church at York”, his “Life of St. Willibrord and the “Life of Alcuin”, composed about 829, is found in the fourth volume of the “Bibliotheca Rerum Germanicarum“, under the title “Monumenta Alcuiniana” edited by Jaffé, Wattenbach, and Duemmler (Berlin, 1873). This edition contains 293 of Alcuin’s Epistles, against the 230 in Migne.

(Catholic Encyclopedia)


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May 19 – He Grabbed the Devil By the Nose

May 17, 2012

St. Dunstan of Canterbury

Archbishop and confessor, and one of the greatest saints of the Anglo-Saxon Church; born near Glastonbury on the estate of his father, Heorstan, a West Saxon noble. His mother, Cynethryth, a woman of saintly life, was miraculously forewarned of the sanctity of the child within her. She was in the church of St. Mary on Candleday, when all the lights were suddenly extinguished. Then the candle held by Cynethryth was as suddenly relighted, and all present lit their candles at this miraculous flame, thus foreshadowing that the boy “would be the minister of eternal light” to the Church of England.

In what year St. Dunstan was born has been much disputed. Osbern, a writer of the late eleventh century, fixes it at “the first year of the reign of King Aethelstan”, i.e. 924-5. This date, however, cannot be reconciled with other known dates of St. Dunstan’s life and involves many obvious absurdities. It was rejected, therefore, by Mobillon and Lingard; but on the strength of “two manuscripts of the Chronicle” and “an entry in an ancient Anglo-Saxon paschal table”, Dr. Stubbs argued in its favour, and his conclusions have been very generally accepted. Careful examination, however, of this new evidence reveals all three passages as interpolations of about the period when Osbern was writing, and there seem to be very good reasons for accepting the opinion of Mabillon that the saint was born long before 925. Probably his birth dates from about the earliest years of the tenth century.

In early youth Dunstan was brought by his father and committed to the care of the Irish scholars, who then frequented the desolate sanctuary of Glastonbury. We are told of his childish fervour, of his vision of the great abbey restored to splendour, of his nearly fatal illness and miraculous recovery, of the enthusiasm with which he absorbed every kind of human knowledge and of his manual skill. Indeed, througout his life he was noted for his devotion to learning and for his mastery of many kinds of artistic craftsmanship.

With his parent’s consent he was tonsured, received minor orders and served in the ancient church of St. Mary. So well known did he become for devotion of learning that he is said to have have been summoned by his uncle Athelm, Archbishop of Canterbury, to enter his service. By one of St. Dunstan’s earliest biographers we are informed that the young scholar was introduced by his uncle to King Aethelstan, but there must be some mistake here, for Athelm and probably died about 923, and Aethelstan did not come to the throne till the following year. Perhaps there is confusion between Athelm and his successor Wulfhelm. At any rate the young man soon became so great a favourite with the king as to excite the envy of his kingfolk court. They accused him of studying heathen literature and magic, and so wrought on the king that St. Dunstan was ordered to leave the court. As he quitted the palace his enemies attacked him, beat him severely, bound him, and threw him into a filthy pit (probably a cesspool), treading him down in the mire. He managed to crawl out and make his way to the house of a friend whence he journeyed to Winchester and entered the service of Bishop Aelfheah the Bald, who was his relative.

The bishop endeavoured to persuade him to become a monk, but St. Dunstan was at first doubtful whether he had a vocation to a celibate life. But an attack of swelling tumours all over his body, so severe that he thought it was leprosy, which was perhaps some form of blood-poisoning caused by the treatment to which he had been subjected, changed his mind. He made his profession at the hands of St. Aelfheah, and returned to live the life of a hermit at Glastonbury. Against the old church of St. Mary he built a little cell only five feet long and two and a half feet deep, where he studied and worked at his handicrafts and played on has harp. Here the devil is said (in a late eleventh legend) to have tempted him and to have been seized by the face with the saint’s tongs.

An old print of St. Dunstan holding tongs, which he used on the devil's nose.

While Dunstan was living thus at Glastonbury he became the trusted adviser of the Lady Aethelflaed, King Aethelstan’s niece, and at her death found himself in control of all her great wealth, which he used in later life to foster and encourage the monastic revival. About the same time his father Heorstan died, and St. Dunstan inherited his possessions also.

He was now become a person of much influence, and on the death of King Aethelstan in 940, the new King, Eadmund, summoned him to his court at Cheddar and numbered him among his councilors. Again the royal favour roused against him the jealousy of the courtiers, and they contrived so to enrage the king against him that he bade him depart from the court.

There were then at Cheddar certain envoys from the “Eastern Kingdom”, by which term may be meant either East Anglia or, as some have argued, the Kingdom of Saxony. To these St. Dunstan applied, imploring them to take him with them when they returned. They agreed to do so, but in the event their assistance was not needed. For, a few days later, the king rode out to hunt the stag in Mendip Forest. He became separated from his attendants and followed a stag at great speed in the direction of the Cheddar cliffs. The stag rushed blindly over the precipice and was followed by the hounds. Eadmund endeavoured vainly to stop his horse; then, seeing death to be imminent, he remembered his harsh treatment of St. Dunstan and promised to make amends if his life was spared. At that moment his horse was stopped on the very edge of the cliff. Giving thanks to God, he returned forthwith to his palace, called for St. Dunstan and bade him follow, then rode straight to Glastonbury. Entering the church, the king first knelt in prayer before the altar, then, taking St. Dunstan by the hand, he gave him the kiss of peace, led him to the abbot’s throne and, seating him thereon, promised him all assistance in restoring Divine worship and regular observance.

King Edgar of England being crowned by St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury. Edgar was crowned by Dunstan at Bath, and the service, devised by St. Dunstan himself, forms the basis of the present-day British coronation ceremony.

St. Dunstan at once set vigorously to work at these tasks. He had to re-create monastic life and to rebuild the abbey. That it was Benedictine monasticism which he established at Glastonbury seems certain. It is true that he had not yet had personal experience of the stricter Benedictinism which had been revived on the Continent at great centres like Cluny and Fleury. Probably, also, much of the Benedictine tradition introduced by St. Augustine had been lost in the pagan devastations of the ninth century. But that the Rule of St. Benedict was the basis of his restoration is not only definitely stated by his first biographer, who knew the saint well, but is also in accordance with the nature of his first measures as abbot, with the significance of his first buildings, and with the Benedictine prepossessions and enthusiasm of his most prominent disciples. And the presence of secular clerks as well as of monks at Glastonbury seems to be no solid argument against the monastic character of the revival.

St. Dunstan’s first care was to reerect the church of St. Peter, rebuild the cloister, and re-establish the monastic enclosure. The secular affairs of the house were committed to his brother Wulfric, “so that neither himself nor any of the professed monks might break enclosure”. A school for the local youth was founded and soon became the most famous of its time in England.

But St. Dunstan was not long left in peace. Within two years after the appointment King Eadmund was assassinated (946). His successor, Eadred, appointed the Abbot of Glastonbury guardian of the royal treasure of the realm to his hands. The policy of the government was supported by the queen-mother, Eadgifu, by the primate, Oda, and by the East Anglian party, at whose head was the great ealddorman, Aethelstan, the “Half-king”. It was a policy of unification, of conciliation of the Danish half of the nation, of firm establishment of the royal authority. In ecclesiatical matters it favoured the spread of regular observance, the rebuilding of churches, the moral reform of the secular clergy and laity, the extirpation of heathendom. Against all this ardour of reform was the West-Saxon party, which included most of the saint’s own relations and the Saxon nobles, and which was not entirely disinterested in its preference for established customs.

For nine years St. Dunstan’s influence was dominant, during which period he twice refused an bishopric (that of Winchester in 951 and Credition in 953), affirming that he would not leave the king’s side so long as he lived and needed him.

St Dunstan of Canterbury, Detail from a window in Downside Abbey church, Somerset.

In 955 Eadred died, and the situation was at once changed. Eadwig, the elder son of Eadmund, who then came to the throne, was a dissolute and headstrong youth, wholly devoted to the reactionary party and entirely under the influence of two unprincipled women. These were Aethelgifu, a lady of high rank, who was perhaps the king’s foster-mother, and her daughter Aelfgifu, whom she desired to marry to Eadwig.

On the day of his coronation, in 956, the king abruptly quit the royal feast, in order to enjoy the company of these two women. The indignation of the assembled nobles was voiced by Archbishop Oda, who suggested that he should be brought back. None, however, were found bold enough to make the attempt save St. Dunstan and his kinsman Cynesige, Bishop of Lichfield. Entering the royal chamber they found Eadwig with the two harlots, the royal crown thrown carelessly on the ground. They delivered their message, and as the king took no notice, St. Dunstan compelled him to rise and replace his crown on his head, then, sharply rebuking the two women, he led him back to the banquet-hall.

Aethelgifu determined to be revenged, and left no stone unturned to procure the overthrow of St. Dunstan. Conspiring with the leaders of the West-Saxon party she was soon able to turn his scholars against the abbot and before long induced Eadwig to confiscate all Dunstan’s property in her favour.

At first Dunstan took refuge with his friends, but they too felt the weight of the king’s anger. Then seeing his life was threatened he fled the realm and crossed over to Flanders, where he found himself ignorant alike of the language and of the customs of the inhabitants. But the ruler of Flanders, Count Arnulf I, received him with honour and lodged him in the Abbey of Mont Blandin, near Ghent.

This was one of the centres of the Benedictine revival in that country, and St. Dunstan was able for the first time to observe the strict observance that had had its renascence at Cluny at the beginning of the century. But his exile was not of long duration. Before the end of 957 the Mercians and Northumbrians unable no longer to endure the excesses of Eadwig, revolted and drove him out, choosing his brother Eadzar as king of all the country north of the Thames. The south remained faithful to Eadwig.

At once Eadgar’s advisers recalled St. Dunstan, caused Archbishop Oda to consecrate him a bishop, and on the death of Cynewold of Worcester at the end of 957 appointed the saint to that see. In the following year the See of London also became vacant and was conferred on St. Dunstan, who held it in conjunction with Worcester.

In October, 959, Eadwig died and his brother was readily accepted as ruler of the West-Saxon kingdom. One of the last acts of Eadwig had been to appoint a successor to Archbishop Oda, who died on 2 June, 958. First he appointed Aelfsige of Winchester, but he perished of cold in the Alps as he journeyed to Rome for the pallium. In his place Eadwig nominated Brithelm, Bishop of Wells. As soon as Eadgar became king he reversed this act on the ground that Brithelm had not been able to govern even his former diocese properly. The archbishopric was conferred on St. Dunstan, who went to Rome 960 and received the pallium from Pope John XII. We are told that, on his journey thither, the saint’s charities were so lavish as to leave nothing for himself and his attendants. The steward remonstrated, but St. Dunstan merely suggested trust in Jesus Christ. That same evening he was offered the hospitality of a neighbouring abbot.

On his return from Rome Dunstan at once regained his position as virtual ruler of the kingdom. By his advice Aelfstan was appointed to the Bishopric of London, and St. Oswald to that of Worcester. In 963 St. Aethelwold, the Abbot of Abingdon, was appointed to the See of Winchester.

With their aid and with the ready support of King Eadgar, St. Dunstan pushed forward his reforms in Church and State. Throughout the realm there was good order maintained and respect for law. Trained bands policed the north, a navy guarded the shores from Danish pirates. There was peace in the kingdom such as had not been known within memory of living man. Monasteries were built, in some of the great cathedrals ranks took the place of the secular canons; in the rest the canons were obliged to live according to rule. The parish priests were compelled to live chastely and to fit themselves for their office; they were urged to teach parishioners not only the truths of the Catholic Faith, but also such handicrafts as would improve their position. So for sixteen years the land prospered.

In 973 the seal was put on St. Dunstan’s statesmanship by the solemn coronation of King Eadgar at Bath by the two Archbishops of Canterbury and York. It is said that for seven years the king had been forbidden to wear his crown, in penance for violating a virgin living in the care of the nunnery of Wilton. That some severe penance had been laid on him for this act by St. Dunstan is undoubted, but it took place in 961 and Eadgar wore no crown till the great day at Bath in 973.

Two years after his crowning Eadgar died, and was succeeded by his eldest son Eadward. His accession was disputed by his step-mother, Aelfthryth, who wished her own son Aethelred to reign. But, by the influence of St. Dunstan, Eadward was chosen and crowned at Winchester. But the death of Eadgar had given courage to the reactionary party. At once there was an determined attack upon the monks, the protagonists of reform. Throughout Mercia they were persecuted and deprived of their possessions by Aelfhere, the ealdorman. Their cause, however, was supported by Aethelwine, the ealdorman of East Anglia, and the realm was in serious danger of civil war.

Three meetings of the Witan were held to settle these disputes, at Kyrtlington, at Calne, and at Amesbury. At the second place the floor of the hall (solarium) where the Witan was sitting gave way, and all except St. Dunstan, who clung to a beam, fell into the room below, not a few being killed. In March, 978, King Eadward was assassinated at Corfe Castle, possibly at the instigation of his step-mother, and Aetheled the Redeless became king. His coronation on Low Sunday, 978, was the last action of the state in which St. Dunstsn took part. When the young king took the usual oath to govern well, the primate addressed him in solemn warning, rebuking the bloody act whereby he became king and prophesying the misfortunes that were shortly to fall on the realm.

But Dunstan’s influence at court was ended. He retired to Canterbury, where he spent the remainder of his life. Thrice only did he emerge from this retreat: once in 980 when he joined Aelfhere of Mercia in the solemn translation of the relics of King Eadward from their mean grave at Wareham to a splendid tomb at Shaftesbury Abbey; again in 984 when, in obedience to a vision of St. Andrew, he persuaded Aethelred to appoint St. Aelfheah to Winchester in succession to St. Aethelwold; once more in 986, when he induced the king, by a donation of 100 pounds of silver, to desist from his persecution of the See of Rochester.

Remains of the choir of Glastonbury Abbey church

St. Dunstan’s life at Canterbury is characteristic; long hours, both day and night, were spent in private prayer, besides his regular attendance at Mass and the Office. Often he would visit the shrines of St. Augustine and St. Ethelbert, and we are told of a vision of angels who sang to him heavenly canticles. He worked ever for the spiritual and temporal improvement of his people, building and restoring churches, establishing schools, judging suits, defending the widow and the orphan, promoting peace, enforcing respect for purity. He practised, also, his handicrafts, making bells and organs and correcting the books in the cathedral library. He encouraged and protected scholars of all lands who came to England, and was unwearied as a teacher of the boys in the cathedral school. There is a sentence in the earliest biography, written by his friend, that shows us the old man sitting among the lads, whom he treated so gently, and telling them stories of his early days and of his forebears. And long after his death we are told of children who prayed to him for protection against harsher teachers, and whose prayers were answered.

On the vigil of Ascension Day, 988 he was warned by a vision of angels that he had but three days to live. On the feast itself he pontificated at Mass and preached three times to the people: once at the Gospel, a second time at the benediction (then given after the Pater Noster), and a third time after the Agnus Dei. In this last address he announced his impending death and bade them farewell. That afternoon he chose the spot for his tomb, then took to his bed. His strength failed rapidly, and on Saturday morning (19 May), after the hymn at Matins, he caused the clergy to assemble. Mass was celebrated in his presence, then he received Extreme Unction and the Holy Viaticum, and expired as he uttered the words of thanksgiving: “He hath made a remembrance of his wonderful works, being a merciful and gracious Lord: He hath given food to them that fear Him.”

They buried him in his cathedral; and when that was burnt down in 1074, his relics were translated with great honour by Lanfranc to a tomb on the south side of the high altar in the new church. The monks of Glastonbury used to claim that during the sack of Canterbury by the Danes in 1012, the saint’s body had been carried for safety to their abbey; but this claim was disproved by Archbishop Warham, by whom the tomb at Canterbury was opened in 1508 and the holy relics found.

At the Synod of Winchester in 1029, St. Dunstan’s feast was ordered to be kept solemnly throughout England on 19 May. Until his fame was overshadowed by that of St. Thomas the Martyr, he was the favourite saint of the English people. His shrine was destroyed at the Reformation.

Throughout the Middle Ages he was the patron of the goldsmiths’ guild. He is most often represented holding a pair of smith’s tongs; sometimes, in reference to his visions, he is shown with a dove hovering near him, or with a troop of angels before him.

(Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Luxembourg Royal Family on pilgrimage to Our Lady Comforter of the Afflicted

May 14, 2012

Statue of Consolatrix Afflictorum in the Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg.

Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Luxembourg attended a Pontifical Mass as part of the commemorations of the Octave. Then, in the afternoon, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke, Prince Félix, Prince Louis, Princess Alexandra and Princess Tessy, they attended the closing ceremony of the Octave in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Luxembourg.

Luxembourg Cathedral

After the traditional solemn procession closing the Octave commemorations, during which the nobly decorated statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary is carried through the streets of the capital, followed by large numbers of pilgrims, faithful, associations, representatives of public institutions, etc. The Luxembourg-Limpertsberg municipal choir sang a serenade in front of the Grand Ducal Palace and the Grand Ducal Family came out on to the balcony to greet the people and singers.

Grand Duchess Maria Teresa and Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg

Celebrated this year from April 28 to May 13, the traditional fortnight of the Octave traces its origins to the year 1678. It is the reason for the pilgrimage to the statue of Our Lady, Comforter of the Afflicted— Our Lady of Luxembourg—patroness of the city and nation, whose veneration dates back to the year 1624. Nearly 100,000 pilgrims flocked to the city during this period to celebrate the Octave. The Octave’s theme this year was “Credo” [I believe].

Close up of the statue of the Consolatrix Afflictorum in Notre-Dame Cathedral, Luxembourg.

The pilgrimage to the miraculous image of the Comforter of the Afflicted embodies a fundamental element of Luxembourg piety. Thus, Tradition perpetuates the practice of this national devotion, which starts on the Third Sunday after Easter and ends with a solemn procession on the Fifth Sunday after Easter. It is the occasion for many pilgrimages by parishes, deaneries, youth groups and associations all of whom converge to meet next to the miraculous image during this pious and festive period.

Source

Photo Gallery

Editorial Comment: —

If more Heads of State were to set a good example for their people, as done by the Grand Dukes of Luxembourg in this annual pilgrimage, would not society be better than it is? And is it not true that much of the extravagance, immorality, and even anarchical sentiments displayed by many youngsters around the world are because they did not have good role models to emulate, but only bad ones?

It is the duty of the nobility and analogous traditional elites to “set the tone” and stimulate their people to improve their condition, not just in what concerns their material well being, but especially in terms of their morality and strength of faith. This is the best way to fight and win the Cultural War.

Also of interest:

Engagement Announcement of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg

The Brother of Grand Duchess Awakes

 

 

 

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St. Joan of Arc: the prophetic voice that saved France

May 14, 2012

To proclaim her authority Joan dictated a letter to the English. Far from arguing the disputed question of the king’s right to the kingdom of France, the letter declared that those rights had come from God, who was openly supporting the king through His envoy, the Maid.

Statue of St. Joan of Arc in Chinon

“Jhesus Maria…

“King of England and you, Duke de Bethfort [Duke of Bedford].… Surrender to the Maid here sent by God, the King of Heaven, the keys of all the good cities you have taken and violated in France. She is come from God, the King of Heaven, to reclaim the royal blood…. As regards you, archers, gentle comrades-in –arms and others entrenched before the good city of Orléans, return to your country in the name of God! And if thus you do not, await the coming of the Maid who will visit you in a little while to your very great hurt. King of England, if thus you do not, I am [a] leader of war and wherever I shall attack your people in France, I shall drive them out even against their will. And if they will not obey, I shall put them to death and I shall do what I please with them. I am come from God, the King of Heaven, to throw you body for body out of France despite those who would betray us or do hurt to the kingdom of France….”

 

Jehanne D’Orliac, Joan of Arc and her companions, Elisabeth Abbot, trans. (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1934), pp. 144-146.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 177

Editorial Comment: —

St. Joan of Arc proves that God does intervene in History.
On the eve of her arrival on the scene, one could be forgiven to think that France as we know it would cease to exist, being incorporated to the English crown.
Yet God, the Lord of History, ruled otherwise and sent the Maid.
Her mission was from God and although she was only 18 years old, her words to the English King are invested with an authority that was proven to be divine by her miraculous victories.

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The Telegraph: Scotland referendum on monarchy or republic

May 14, 2012

Christine Grahame, the convener of Holyrood’s justice committee, said the party has pledged to hold a public vote on a separate Scotland having a “full-blown monarchy, an edited version or go for a republic”.

“ I have no problems with that, being a wholehearted democrat,” she wrote.

…Nationalists published a draft written constitution for an independent Scotland in 2002 promising a referendum on the monarchy. The first evidence of a change was Mr Salmond’s National Conversation consultation on the constitution in 2007, but this was not approved by SNP members.

 

Guards posted outside the front entrance to the Palace of Holyroodhouse when the Queen is in residence. Photograph by Philip Allfrey.

Click here to read the full article in The Telegraph.

 

Editorial comment: —

Would Scots vote for a republic?

The tremendous advances of the egalitarian ideology on the one hand and the weakening of the monarchic sentiment on the other certainly make this possible.

Yet it would be a shame beyond description and a rupture with Tradition and Scottish history. No one really knows how ancient the Stone of Scone is. Legend holds that Scotland’s Coronation Stone was used by Jacob to rest his head in sleep, when fleeing the persecution of his brother Esau, and that while asleep God gave him a vision of Heaven.

In ushering in a republic Scots would break the continuity of millennia, but do the followers of revolutionary egalitarianism care? Not in the least. They despise Tradition.

 

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The Important Role of Elites at the Service of Society by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

May 14, 2012

Speech of May 6, 1968

My friends, at this lecture organized by the Argentine Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, I have a word to say to you as President of the Brazilian Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property on the topic covered by this audiovisual presentation.

History has a lesson of paramount importance for all those who reflect on the future of Latin America. That lesson is that countries which have an elite conscious of its responsibility are countries that rise in the firmament of history and brilliantly accomplish their mission. On the contrary, however, nations whose elites are unaware of their responsibility and mission are nations that inevitably fail and plunge into the great catastrophes of history.

This can be seen in different peoples, in the ascension and decline of different nations on earth. For us, therefore, at this time when there’s so much talk about social issues, there is a social question to be posited, which appears to be one of utmost importance.

 The Signing of the Constitution of the United States.     Painting by Howard Chandler Christy

"Are our countries’ elites conscious of their responsibility? Are they conscious of their mission?"

Are our countries’ elites conscious of their responsibility? Are they conscious of their mission? This is too vast a subject for me to delve into in these quick words. There is a principle, however, which is as it were a precondition for the elites to be conscious of their mission; and I would like to explain it here.

The principle is this: the reason every elite has privileges and advantages, is not to provide its members with a pleasant and smooth life but to be entirely at the service of society. And the service of society supposes that the elite be disposed to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish its mission. Attaining that end certainly involves disposing, to some degree, of temporal assets to help those in need. But temporal help is not all that is asked of the elites. I would dare add it is not even the main thing.

Gen. George S. Patton Jr., American WW II General

"The service of society supposes that the elite be disposed to make the sacrifices necessary to accomplish its mission."

The main responsibility or mission of an elite man– whatever his type of elite may be – is to give himself to the common good. This donation of self to the common good consists in having a clear concept of what the elite must do. What must it do?

The elite must invite its members to mold their lives according to a principle by French poet Paul Claudel. Claudel said that youth was not made for pleasure but for heroism. The same should be said, with all the more reason, of the elite. Fortune and social prestige were not given the members of an elite mainly for their enjoyment; they were given to make them heroes, to help them acquire the necessary elevation of soul to be totally self-denied in their lives. That abnegation is made up mainly of the following elements:

Confederate General Robert E. Lee in 1863

"Fortune and social prestige were not given the members of an elite mainly for their enjoyment; they were given to make them heroes."

The member of an elite must be a person conscious that morality is an indispensable characteristic of a true elite; and that if the elite loses its sense of morality, it renounces its mission of being a brake on all forms of immorality. If it renounces its responsibility to be the social class that sets a tone in society, a moralizing and Christian tone rather than a de-Christianizing and paganizing one, it ceases to be a true elite.

 Portrait of George Washington, Painted by Léon Cogniet

"The member of an elite must be a person conscious that morality is an indispensable characteristic of a true elite; and that if the elite loses its sense of morality, it renounces its mission of being a brake on all forms of immorality."

Therefore, contemporary elites in South America must have as a fundamental obligation to react against paganizing fashions that invite to nudity, corruption and the dissolution of customs; and also against fashions not directly contrary to customs but whose extravagance and manners lead to a lack of seriousness, conviction and dignity that downgrades man’s importance as king of all Creation and thus represents a revolution in the plans of God.

"Elites...must have as a fundamental obligation to react against paganizing fashions that invite to nudity, corruption and the dissolution of customs."

Moreover, the elite should be the social class responsible for fighting the instigators of disorders and riots. The elite must be, par excellence, the class that must combat the greatest plague of our times, communism. And each member of the elite has the responsibility of being a soldier in the fight, an earnest and open combat not only against communism but also against its myriad disguised and insidious forms that prepare public opinion to accept a communist revolution.

In other words, a member of the elite cannot spend all his time exclusively in private activities, having fun or working to increase his wealth. He must employ a large portion of his time, attention and dedication to those great social problems and carry out a methodical and orderly, voluntary and conscious action to counter those factors of destruction.

Prince Alois of Liechtenstein, exercising the functions of Head of State on behalf of his father, HSH Prince Hans Adam II, vetoed the abortion referendum in Liechtenstein.

"I mean...the struggle that elites must carry out to lend prestige to the fundamental principles of Christian civilization."

And by this I mean – insisting a bit on what the audiovisual presentation says in this regard – the struggle that elites must carry out to lend prestige to the fundamental principles of Christian civilization. Let me recall here one of these principles which is being increasingly forgotten and should thus be the object of special insistence: the principle of private property.

Private property cannot be seen only as a benefit of the owner. The existence of the principle of private property is also a good for those who unfortunately have no property, as being an owner is a natural condition of man. Since man owns himself, he also owns his work; because he owns his work, he also owns the fruits of his labor; because he owns the fruits of his labor, he also owns the savings he can put aside from the fruits of his work. And because he is the owner of these assets, he is able to create for himself living conditions that facilitate the enhancement of his whole personality.

General Douglas MacArthur

"The main responsibility or mission of an elite man– whatever his type of elite may be – is to give himself to the common good."

When some people’s personalities are thus enhanced, that unleashes by osmosis a motion elevating the entire social body. It is an affirmation of man’s autonomy, of his ownership of self, and thus of the dignity that behooves him as a rational being with the necessary intelligence to choose his own paths in life, the job that suits him best, and the way in which he will provide for his own needs.

Property is a fruit of all this; and just as it happens when an effect contradicts its cause, so also when private property is persecuted, mutilated or eliminated a profound damage is inflicted on man’s sense of autonomy and dignity as a rational being endowed with an immortal soul and particularly as a baptized Christian.

For this reason it seems to me that while we should all be very concerned to make sure the social function of property is exercised, we cannot afford to abolish property on the pretext of fulfilling its social function. A function cannot deplete an organ: that would be monstrous. Thus, at this time when there is so much talk about the social function of property, often worthily, but often also with suspect exaggeration, the elite needs to study private property to make of it a great justification.

This is why I want to invite everyone listening to me, particularly those belonging to the Argentine elite, to concentrate their attention on the works of this well-deserving society, the Argentine Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property.

 One of the many floats in Granada during Holy Week.

"Tradition, which binds today’s Argentina to the Argentina of yesterday; yesterday’s Argentina to glorious Spain with its illustrious past and the whole past of Christendom."

Three great values fought in so many ways… tradition, which binds today’s Argentina to the Argentina of yesterday; yesterday’s Argentina to glorious Spain with its illustrious past and the whole past of Christendom, founded by Charlemagne, the cradle of Western Christendom. On the other hand, the family, which is the basic cell of society, threatened at every moment with complete destruction by the dissolution of customs, divorce and a thousand other factors. And finally, private property, which I have just told you about.

This Society deserves the attention and full support of all those who hear me, and particularly the young, whom I invite to sign up as many other young Argentines have already done, along with young Chileans, Uruguayans and others. I invite young Argentines to join the Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property, as you all can be sure you are adding your activities to a trove of works, studies and actions that help fulfill the most urgent need of the Christian and Latin peoples of South America.

To that, my friends, I very cordially invite, and salute you.

Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

 

Editorial comment: —

In this 1968 speech, Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira states his case for genuine elites.

He affirms that those members of the leading classes who refuse to dedicate themselves to the common good, lead moral lives and fulfill their other responsibilities to society, surrender the seal of authenticity to their elite status. Yes, they continue to be elites, but not good ones, and their lack of fulfillment of their duties as elites leads to the ruin and demise of their nation.

He speaks of South American elites but the principles he gives and the duties he describes apply to elites worldwide.

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May 15 – Beautiful Princess, Tragic Story

May 14, 2012

St. Dymphna

Virgin and martyr.

The earliest historical account of the veneration of St. Dymphna dates from the middle of the thirteenth century.

Under Bishop Guy I of Cambrai (1238-47), Pierre, a canon of the church of Saint Aubert at Cambrai, wrote a “Vita” of the saint, from which we learn that she had been venerated for many years in a church at Gheel (province of Antwerp, Belgium), which was devoted to her. The author expressly states that he has drawn his biography from oral tradition.

Baptism of St. Dymphna. One of Seven Scenes from the Life and Veneration of Saint Dymphna painted by Goswijn van der Weyden.

According to the narrative Dymphna, the daughter of a pagan king of Ireland, became a Christian and was secretly baptized. After the death of her mother, who was of extraordinary beauty, her father desired to marry his own daughter, who was just as beautiful, but she fled with the priest Gerebernus and landed at Antwerp. Thence they went to the village of Gheel, where there was a chapel of St. Martin, beside which they took up their abode. The messengers of her father however, discovered their whereabouts; the father betook himself thither and renewed his offer. Seeing that all was in vain, he commanded his servants to slay the priest, while he himself struck off the head of his daughter. The corpses were put in sacrophagi and entombed in a cave where they were found later.

Originally painted for the chapel of Saint Dymphna in the Abbey church at Tongerlo near Geel in 1505.

St. Dymphna's father, the king, telling his daughter of his intention to wed her.

The body of St. Dymphna was buried in the church of Gheel, and the bones of St. Gerebernus were transferred to Kanten. This narrative is without any historical foundation, being merely a variation of the story of the king who wanted to marry his own daughter, a motif which appears frequently in popular legends. Hence we can conclude nothing from it as to the history of St. Dymphna and the time in which she lived. That she is identical with St. Damhnat of Ireland cannot be proved. There are at Gheel fragments of two simple ancient sarcophagi in which tradition says the bodies of Dymphna and Gerebernus were found. There is also a quadrangular brick, said to have been found in one of the sarcophagi, bearing two lines of letters read as DYMPNA. The discovery of this sarcophagus with the corpse and the brick was perhaps the origin of the veneration.

In Christian art St. Dymphna is depicted with a sword in her hand and a fettered devil at her feet. Her feast is celebrated 15 May, under which date she is also found in the Roman martyrology.

The discovery of the bodies of St. Dymphna and St. Gerebernus.

From time immemorial, the saint was invoked as patroness against insanity. The Bollandists have published numerous accounts of miraculous cures, especially between 1604 and 1668. As a result, there has long been a colony for lunatics at Gheel; even now there are sometimes as many as fifteen hundred whose relatives invoke St. Dymphna for their cure. The insane are treated in a peculiar manner; it is only in the beginning that they are placed in an institution for observation; later they are given shelter in the homes of the inhabitants, take part in their agricultural labors, and are treated very kindly. They are watched without being conscious of it. The treatment produces good results. The old church of St. Dymphna in Gheel was destroyed by fire in 1489. The new church was consecrated in 1532 and is still standing. Every year on the feast of the saint and on the Tuesday after Pentecost numerous pilgrims visit her shrine. In Gheel there is also a fraternity under her name.

(Catholic Encyclopedia)

 

Editorial  Comment: —

Should one dismiss the legend of St. Dymphna because it is difficult today to prove that she existed?
No. One cannot prove the veracity of certain portions of the Song of Roland either yet this epic inspired generations of medieval knights and illustrates the main tenets of the institution of chivalry.
Among the lessons to be drawn from the legend of St. Dymphna is that God’s law comes first. She acted honorably by fleeing from Ireland to the Low Countries to escape her father’s sinful wishes, and in suffering martyrdom later on, at his hand.
In this and in many other areas, it is the mission of the nobility to give society the good example it needs.

 

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May 16 – Crusader King and Leper

May 14, 2012

Modern society obsessively avoids suffering, risk and danger. It secures everything with seatbelts and safety rails, air conditions the summer heat, prints warnings on coffee cups and advises that that safety glasses should be used while working with hammers.
Certainly such precautions have prevented misfortune. However, since heroism and excellence are born from confronting rather than avoiding suffering and peril, the mania for safeguards has also diminished the notion of these qualities.
This is unfortunate since only those intrepid souls who confront danger, endure suffering and overcome obstacles merit mention in the annals of history. A shining example is the leper king, Baldwin IV of Jerusalem.


A Childhood Cut Short
Baldwin IV was born in Jerusalem of King Amalric and Queen Agnes of Courtney in 1161. Intellectually and physically gifted as a boy, he seemed well equipped to inherit the Crusader kingdom. This is how chronicler and royal tutor William of Tyre described his childhood:

“He made good progress in his studies and as time passed he grew up full of hope and developed his natural abilities. He was a good-looking child for his age and more skilled than men who were older than himself in controlling horses and in riding them at a gallop. He had an excellent memory and he loved listening to stories.”1

One day the tutor made a frightening discovery. While roughhousing with friends, Baldwin never cried out in pain, even when the other children dug their fingernails into his arm. Knowing how tough the nine-year-old prince was, William of Tyre first assumed that Baldwin was restraining himself, but closer observation revealed that his arms were entirely numb – a telltale symptom of leprosy.

Four years later, King Amalric died suddenly. Despite his sickness, Baldwin was crowned king by the unanimous decision of the High Court of Jerusalem.2 Since he was only thirteen, his nearest relative, Miles of Plancy, became regent. Shortly thereafter, Miles was murdered and Raymond of Tripoli replaced him.

Raymond of Tripoli managed escalating tensions between the Crusader kingdom and its Muslim enemies through a policy of appeasement. He established full peace with Saladin in 1175. The treaty greatly favored the Muslim leader. Jerusalem had agreed not to support the Sicilians who were attacking Saladin’s power base in Egypt and the latter had free reign to build up his forces through conquest in Syria, where his trajectory revealed plans to encircle the Crusader kingdom. Saladin continued his quest with impunity, until governmental change in Jerusalem put a stop to his marauding joyride.

One of Baldwin’s first actions as king was to reject the peace made with Saladin and raid the lands surrounding Damascus.


Baldwin Comes of Age
In 1176, Baldwin came of age and took charge of the kingdom at the tender age of 15. During the two years since his coronation, his condition had worsened, and was now clearly discernable as leprosy.
Nevertheless, he possessed the strength and character necessary to rule. As historian Stephen Howarth aptly put it: “Baldwin assumed full power, and soon showed that he made up for any disability with sheer nerve…”3
One of Baldwin’s first actions as king was to reject the peace made with Saladin and raid the lands surrounding Damascus. This forced Saladin to quit his attack in Aleppo and adopt a defensive posture. Later that year, the young king led another raid in the Beka’a valley in Lebanon and Syria, and defeated an attack led by Saladin’s nephew.
In the first months of his reign, Baldwin proved his capacity to rule. By countering Saladin with an attack on Damascus rather than a frontal assault at Aleppo, Baldwin demonstrated maturity and wisdom beyond his years.


The Wisdom of a King
This wisdom would guide Baldwin throughout his short life. His insistence on invading Egypt in autumn of 1176 was another example of it.
From the beginning of his reign, Baldwin planned to hit Saladin in his Egyptian power base. Lacking sufficient naval strength, he forged an alliance with the Byzantine Empire.
The stage was set for invasion. However, the king’s brother-in-law, William of Montferrat, a key element to the raid, fell sick and died. Then Baldwin fell ill and the entire operation was jeopardized.
Meanwhile, Baldwin’s kinsman, Philip of Flanders, arrived from Europe on crusade, supported by Saint Hildegard’s mandate: “if the time shall come when the infidels seek to destroy the fountain of faith, then fight them as hard as, with God’s help, you may be able to do.”4
Hoping that Philip would salvage the doomed mission, Baldwin offered him regency until he could recover. Philip did not like the terms of the deal and refused. Raymond of Tripoli opposed the attack and the new Grand Master of the Knights of Saint John, young and inexperienced, hesitated.
When Byzantine ambassadors became skeptical of the mission and withdrew their support, the assault the king so desired was cancelled.
Never again would the Crusaders have such an opportunity to wound Saladin in his power base. Only Baldwin had been wise enough to recognize the mission’s importance.

A Miraculous Victory at Montgisard
More than wisdom and courage, what made Baldwin IV a great king was his indomitable faith – a virtue he demonstrated at the famous battle of Montgisard.
After the attack on Egypt was cancelled, Philip of Flanders took his army to campaign in the northern territories of the kingdom, where Raymond of Tripoli joined him. The move left Jerusalem in a precarious situation. Very few troops had stayed behind to defend the capital and the king’s condition had worsened.
Saladin was quick to seize the opportunity and directed his main army of 26,000 elite troops toward Jerusalem.
From his sick bed, Baldwin summoned what little strength he had and rode out to meet his adversary with less than 600 knights and a few thousand infantrymen.5 By this point Baldwin’s strength was so deteriorated many thought he would die. Bernard Hamilton quotes a contemporary Christian writer who described the king’s condition as “already half dead.”6
Realizing the impotence of the king’s force, Saladin ignored him and continued his march to Jerusalem until Baldwin intercepted him near the hill of Montgisard, only 45 miles from Jerusalem.
Seeing the overwhelming Muslim army, the Christians became petrified. However, such desperate situations afford great men an opportunity to show their mettle, and Baldwin rose to the challenge.
Dismounting his horse, he called for the Bishop of Bethlehem, to raise up the relic of the True Cross he carried. The king then prostrated before the sacred relic, beseeching God for success. Rising from prayer, he exhorted his men to press the attack and charged.
Historian Stephen Howarth describes the battle that ensued:

“There were twenty-six thousand Saracen horsemen, only a few hundred Christians; but the Saracen were routed. Most were killed; Saladin himself only escaped because he rode a racing camel. The young king with his hands bandaged, rode in the forefront of the Christian charge – with St. George beside him, people said, and the True Cross shining as brightly as the sun. Whether or not that was so, it was an almost incredible victory, an echo of the days of the First Crusade. But it was also the last time such a great Moslem army was beaten by such a small force.”7

Deluged by heavy rains and suffering the loss of roughly ninety percent of his army, Saladin returned to Cairo in utter defeat. Years later, he would referred to the battle disdainfully as “so great a disaster.”8
Realizing that divine assistance was largely responsible for his triumph, Baldwin erected a Benedictine monastery on the site, dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria, on whose feast day the victory had been won.

The one constant in Baldwin’s life was an unflinshing acceptance of the cross Providence put before him.


The Sufferings of a King
The glory of triumph did not relieve the increasing effects of Baldwin’s leprosy. As time wore on he would lose the use of his limbs and eyes. However, never once did he use his sickness as an excuse to shirk his duty.

Although he tried to abdicate several times, he immediately resumed his responsibilities when he realized there was no one suitable to replace him. Shortly after his victory at Montgisard, Baldwin wrote to King Louis VII of France:

“It is not fitting that a hand so weak as mine should hold power when fear of Arab aggression daily presses upon the Holy City and when my sickness increases the enemy’s daring…I therefore beg you that, having called together the barons of the kingdom of France, you immediately choose one of them to take charge of this Holy Kingdom.”9

When his request was ignored, the king began looking for a suitable husband for his sister Princess Sibyl. She was the oldest in the family and whoever she married would inherit the kingdom.
Baldwin hoped she would wed someone from Europe, thus securing western protection for the kingdom after his death. He made arrangements for a marriage between Sybil and Hugh of Burgundy, but the plans fell through.

To force Baldwin’s hand and control Jerusalem’s future, Raymond of Tripoli and Bohemond of Antioch then planned a côup. Their efforts failed because when they arrived at the capital, Sibyl was already married to Guy de Lusignan.

Although Baldwin had hoped to abdicate to Guy after the marriage, his brother-in-law was a great disappointment. Limp-wristed and disliked by many of the crusader barons, Guy was not suitable to reign and Baldwin was forced to remain on the throne. Arguably, these internal struggles cost Baldwin more anguish than the leprosy that continued to devour his body.


A Warrior to the End
The years after the marriage continued to be turbulent. Baldwin secured a two-year truce with Saladin that ended prematurely, when Prince Reynald of Antioch sacked a Moorish caravan en route to Damascus and refused to return the prisoners or spoils even when the king ordered him to do so. Saladin also violated the treaty by seizing the crew and cargo of a Christian vessel that shipwrecked on his shores.
Then anti-Western sentiment broke out in Byzantium with the ascension to the throne of Andronicus Comnenus. Realizing the Crusaders lacked Byzantine support, Saladin attacked the castle of Bethsan.
Baldwin immediately marched against the Moslem aggressors and repulsed them, though he had a much smaller army and was probably too weak to fight by this point.
In 1183, the king became blind and unable to use his hands and feet. He appointed Guy de Lusignan permanent regent.
However, when the heir proved unable to unify the Crusader barons and refused to engage Saladin, while commanding the largest Christian force ever assembled in the Holy Land, Baldwin removed his regency and once again shouldered the kingdom’s responsibilities.
Later in 1183, the king’s half-sister Isabel married Humphrey IV of Toron at the Castle of Kerak. Although Baldwin was too sick to attend the wedding, many other influential Christian leaders were present. The opportunity to capture them was too tempting for Saladin to resist.
He surrounded the castle and besieged it in the midst of the celebration. Though utterly incapacitated, Baldwin took it upon himself to rescue the entrapped nobles. Blind and lame, he ordered that he be carried into battle on a stretcher.
Realizing that the king had arrived to succor the fortress, Saladin signaled the retreat without engaging the Christians. The same scene was repeated when Saladin again tried to take the Castle of Kerak in 1184. Once again, Saladin retreated when Baldwin was brought into battle on a stretcher.
Deprived of all strength and power, Baldwin had triumphed over his lifelong enemy one last time.


Resolving Succession and Death
Later in 1184, Baldwin contracted the illness that would eventually take his life.10 The problem of succession had been somewhat resolved in 1183, when Baldwin crowned his five-year-old nephew, Baldwin V, co-king in order to exclude Guy de Lusignan from the throne.
While modern readers may find this harsh, Guy had openly defied the king twice, once going so far as betraying his feudal vow. Such defiance could not go unanswered.
Starved for viable options, Baldwin appointed Raymond of Tripoli temporary regent. When it became clear that the king was in fact on his deathbed, Jerusalem needed a more permanent solution until King Baldwin V came of age.
The leper king deferred this all-important decision to the High Court, who chose Raymond of Tripoli. Having done his best to provide for his kingdom, Baldwin IV relinquished his soul to God on May 16, 1185 and was buried in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.


Through the Cross to the Light
Suffering was the one constant in Baldwin’s life. From his earliest years until his last moments, he endured a leprosy that rotted his body and represented the rottenness of his kingdom, which, owing to internal discord and corruption, fell to Saladin two years after Baldwin’s death.
Baldwin’s capacity to manage the precarious state of his kingdom resulted from his willingness to shoulder his cross in imitation of his Master. He never once used his sickness as an excuse to shirk his responsibilities, even when it reduced him to utter incapacitation.
In this state, he was a living representation of Christ, of whom the Psalmist states: “But I am a worm, and no man: the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.” (Ps. 21:7)
Modern society, which flees suffering like the plague, needs models such as Baldwin IV, the leper king who drank until its very last drop the chalice of bitterness that Providence put before him. It needs archetypes that shatter the Revolutionary myth that suffering is an absolute evil, to be avoided at all cost.
The Church has a saying that reads: “Per Crucem ad Lucem” (Through the Cross to the Light). Baldwin IV not only understood these words, he lived them. Because he did, he will forever be esteemed by those who sacrifice their personal interests for the common good. He will be admired by those willing to confront danger and suffer for a higher cause.
In a word, he will be enshrined in those souls who shun mediocrity and aspire to greatness.

 


- This article relied heavily on Bernard Hamilton’s book, The Leper King and His Heirs for historic data and on three meetings given by Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira for inspiration.

Footnotes

1. Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and His Heirs: Baldwin IV and the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005) p. 43.
2. At this time, Baldwin’s sickness was certainly known, but the diagnosis of leprosy had probably not yet been made with certainty. During that time, if a knight or sergeant were diagnosed with leprosy, he was made to join the Order of Saint Lazarus, a religious community formed to care for leprous nobles. Cf. Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and His Heirs, p. 29.
3. Stephen Howarth, The Knights Templar (New York, Barnes and Noble Books, 1991) p. 132.
4. Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King, p. 119.
5. Cf. “Battle of Montgisard,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Montgisard.
6. Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and His Heirs, p. 133.
7. Stephen Howarth, The Knights Templar, p. 133.
8. Bernard Hamilton, The Leper King and His Heirs, p. 136.
9. Ibid. p. 140.
10. Despite the horrible effects of the type of leprosy Baldwin had, it rarely provokes death. The king’s final illness was probably the result of infection from one of his many wounds. Cf. Piers D. Mitchell, “An evaluation of the leprosy of King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem in the context of the medieval world,” as reproduced as an appendix to The Leper King and His Heirs.
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May 16 – Patron of Poland

May 14, 2012

Saint Andrew Bobola

Saint Andrew Bobola earned the name "Hunter of Souls" due to his tireless zeal and missionary travels.

Martyr, born of an old and illustrious Polish family, in the Palatinate of Sandomir, 1590; died at Janów, 16 May, 1657. Having entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Wilno (1611), he was ordained in 1622, and appointed preacher in the Church of St. Casimir, Wilno. After making his solemn vows, 2 June, 1630, he was made superior at Bobruisk, where he wrought wonders by his preaching and distinguished himself by his devotion during an epidemic of the plague.

In 1636 he began his work in the Lithuanian missions. During this period Poland was being ravaged by Cossacks, Russians, and Tatars, and the Catholic Faith was made the object of the concerted attacks of Protestants and schismatics. The Jesuits, in particular, had much to endure. Bobola’s success in converting schismatics drew upon him the rage of those in high authority, and the adherents of the Greek Pope decided to centralize their forces in Polesia.

A Catholic nobleman of this province offered the Jesuits a house at Pinsk, and here Father Bobola was stationed. The schismatics vainly endeavored in every manner to hinder him in the exercise of his apostolic duties, extending their persecutions to attacks upon his person.

On 16 May, 1657, he was seized by two Cossacks and severely beaten. Then tying him to their saddles, they dragged him to Janów where he was subjected to incredible tortures. After having been burned, half strangled, and partly flayed alive, he was released from suffering by a sabre stroke. (cfr. 1907 Catholic Encyclopedia)

Cossack on duty

One description of Bobola’s death written in 1865 states:

In the same year, the Cossacks surprised a holy Polish Jesuit, in the town of Pinsk, and conferred on him the palm of martyrdom, on the 16th of May, 1657. Father Andrew Bobola, whose untiring zeal had rendered him obnoxious to the schismatics, had just offered up the holy sacrifice, when a horde of Cossacks attacked the town. On beholding the barbarians, Father Bobola fell upon his knees, raised his eyes and his hands toward heaven, and, having a presentiment that his hour had arrived, exclaimed, “Lord, thy will be done!” At that moment, the Cossacks rushed upon him, stripped him of his holy habit, tied him to a tree, placed a crown upon his head, as did the Jews upon the head of our adorable Savior, after which they scourged him, tore out one of his eyes, burned his body with torches, and one of the ruffians traced, with his poignard, the form of a tonsure on the head of the venerable Father, and on his back the figure of a chasuble! To do this, the executioner had to strip off the skin of the holy martyr! But this was not yet all. The fingers of the apostle had received the priestly unction. The executioner tore from them the skin, and forced needles under his nails! And during this indescribable torture, the hero prayed for his tormentors; he preached, both by word and example, until the schismatics tore out his tongue and crushed his head! Father Andrew Bobola, whom the Church declared Blessed, the 30th of October, 1853, was sixty-five years of age.  {Daurignac, J. M. S. (1865). History of the Society of Jesus From Its Foundations to the Present Time (Volume II). John P. Walsh. pp. 12–13.}

Manuscript written by St. Andrew Bobola

His body was interred in the collegiate church of the Society at Pinsk, where it became the object of great veneration. It was later transferred to Polosk, where it is still held in honor, even by the schismatics. Father Bobola canonized by Pius XI on 17 April 1938.

His feast day is held on 16 May. Since 16 May 2002 he is a patron saint of Poland and the Archdiocese of Warsaw.

Chapel at the place of martyrdom of St. Andrew Bobola. Painting by Polish painter Napoleon Orda. The incorrupt body of St. Andrew lies under the main altar at Saint Andrew Bobola Sanctuary in Warsaw, Poland.

 

Editorial comment: —

In a society that is truly molded in the Faith, the first fruits, the best, are always offered to God.
We find precedents for this at the very beginning of History, when Abel’s sacrifice of the best he had was accepted by God, while Cain’s offering was rejected: “Abel also offered of the firstlings of his flock, and of their fat: and the Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offerings” (Gen. 4:4).
A nation’s aristocracy, it’s nobility, is “the best” it has to offer. And, while all nobles should sacrifice themselves to serve God and further the common good, it is especially fitting if some of them consecrate themselves exclusively to His Service in the spiritual order.
This is what St. Andrew Bobola did. He joined the Society of Jesus and then dedicated himself the Catholic faith in Poland and Lithuania, receiving the palm of martyrdom. For his noble endeavors he rightfully deserves the title of “Patron of Poland.”

 

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Pro Europa Christiana Federation interview with Duke Paul of Oldenburg

May 10, 2012

Duke Paul of Oldenburg, "The Brussels Bureau facilitates our contacts with European leaders in their workplaces and also to invite them to attend outside events."

Duke Paul of Oldenburg is a member of the German TFP and director of the Brussels Bureau of the Pro Europa Christiana Federation. An agronomist, he descends from two of the most illustrious royal houses of Germany. His paternal forefathers were sovereigns of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg in northern Germany and married over the years to heiresses of several European thrones. The Oldenburg family has reigned in Denmark since 1448, in Norway since 1905, in Russia (1796-1917), Greece (1863-1974) and Sweden (1751-1818).  In the United Kingdom, since the Queen’s consort, Prince Philip, comes from the Greek royal family (a branch of the Oldenburg family), when Queen Elizabeth II is succeeded on the throne it will actually change hands from the royal house of Windsor to that of Oldenburg in the person of Prince Charles or his descendents.

On his mother’s side, Duke Paul descends from the Hohenzollern family, the dynasty of the old Kings of Prussia who later became emperors of Germany until the fall of Kaiser William II at the end of the First World War.

Duke Paul is married to Duchess Pilar Méndez de Vigo y Löwenstein, with whom he has had four children, Dukes Kiril, Charles and Paul Mary, and little Duchess Maria Assunta.

* * *

Catolicismo — When was the Brussels Bureau of the Pro Europa Christiana Federation founded, and what is its purpose?

Duke Paul — The Bureau was inaugurated on December 8, 2009 and placed under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception, of whose help we are in great need. Our goal is to defend the Christian roots of Europe and particularly what Pope Benedict XVI called the “non-negotiable values,” that is, the right to life from conception to natural death, the sacred character of the family founded on marriage (between one man and one woman) and the right of parents to raise their children without undue interference from the State.

Just to illustrate the need for this work, there has been a lot of reaction here in Europe about the case of a German mother who finds herself in prison simply for having refused to allow her children to attend sex education classes in their public school—those are in fact “moral corruption” classes.

Headquarters of the Pro Europa Christiana Federation Bureau in Brussels

Catolicismo — But why was Brussels chosen for the Bureau’s activities?

“Another aspect of our activities is to favor the formation of resistance networks in various areas: right to life, family, religious values etc.”

Duke Paul — Answering your question requires a preliminary explanation. The Lisbon Treaty—a camouflaged version of a European constitution proposed by a Presidium and rejected in referenda by the Dutch and the French—went into force one week before the Bureau’s inauguration. In addition to diminishing even further the sovereignty of member States, the Treaty imposed on them the European Union’s Charter of Fundamental Rights. This Charter means to Europe something akin to Brazil’s National Human Rights Plan-3, namely, even greater facility to procure abortions, equality of rights for homosexuals, denial of the nation’s Christian heritage as a source of inspiration for legislation, removing religion from public discourse, etc.

Due to this situation, what used to be an internal debate in each state has become a Europe-wide debate. In fact, most legislative novelties in European Union states are no longer decided by the national parliaments: they are called European “directives” and must be applied in every country. A study requested by Mr. Roman Herzog, a former President of both Germany and of its Constitutional Court found that the application of such “directives” represented more than 80% of new German legislation introduced between 1998 and 2004. Since then, things have gone from bad to worse.

Since such “directives” are proposed by the European Commission, discussed by the European Parliament (as a consultative body) and then approved by the European Union Council, debates on crucial social issues have in fact been transferred from Paris, London, Lisbon or Warsaw, to Brussels.

Public rally against Christianophobia in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, June 2011.

These are the reasons why the Pro Europa Christiana Federation (FPEC) established its bureau in Brussels in the so-called “European Quarter,” a stone’s throw away from the European Commission headquarters and a bit farther from the European Parliament and related institutions. That makes it very easy for us to contact European representatives in their offices and also to invite them to attend events at the Bureau.

Catolicismo — So the Bureau’s main role is lobbying?

Duke Paul — First of all, it is to stay abreast of what’s being planned back stage. Then, to try and influence the debate in the right direction. Another aspect of our activities is to favor the formation of conservative coalition networks in several areas: right to life, family, religious values etc. Some associations were already at work for the good cause before our arrival, but each was working out of its own small office, without any coordination. Since our center is spacious, we are facilitating meetings and gatherings of leaders and grassroots to forge common strategies and create some synergy. Each association preserves its own specific field of action, but all of them are apprised of what the others are doing. Thus, there is a better flow of information and some common initiatives are taken.

Catolicismo — It is a leadership work…

Duke Paul — Primarily, yes. But it also requires that the grassroots and the public in general—i.e., the public of Brussels and its surroundings—feel engaged in this essential struggle to defend the values of Christian civilization that still remain. Because everyone, even the expats, who are numerous in many European institutions, are sensitive to the opinions that circulate in the ambiences in which they live.

Distributing flyers in Brussels

"But it also requires that the grassroots and the public in general—i.e., the public of Brussels and its surroundings—feel engaged in this essential struggle to defend the values of Christian civilization that still remain."

Catolicismo — And how does the Federation manage to make is message heard by the grassroots?

Duke Paul — By promoting public lectures. Already at its inauguration the Bureau sponsored a lecture by Prof. Roberto de Mattei, vice-president of Italy’s National Research Center, on the dangers of allowing Turkey to join the EU. This is a very controversial issue, particularly in Germany, which has seen massive Turkish immigration, but also in Austria, which still recalls the siege of Vienna and the Ottoman danger threatening its borders.

Then there was a lecture by Mr. Stéphane Buffetaut, a European official who specializes in climate issues, who warned about the totalitarian and Malthusian international agenda now under way under the cover of ecology and “global warming.”

Another lecture that caused great impression was one delivered by a well-known Slovak member of the European Parliament, Mrs. Anna Zaborska, on the European offensive against the family. On the pretext of solving cross-border family conflicts and harmonizing and adapting member-states legislations to the “evolution of society,” the EU violates its own treaties; in fact, issues related to family legislation fall exclusively within the purview of member countries and not the EU. In other words, deep down the EU provides legal cover for the feminist and homosexual lobbies’ agendas.

The latest lecture was in part about the family and was delivered by Ignacio Arsuaga, founder and president of Hazte Oír, the largest civic organization in Spain, which last year gathered one and a half million people in Madrid protesting against abortion. Arsuaga spoke about the anti-Christian radicality of the “Zapatero Project” to transform Spanish society, which is a kind of laboratory testing for what Europe will look like tomorrow.

However, perhaps the most impressive lecture given so far was by European MP Magdi Cristiano Allam. He showed that, while moderate Muslims do exist, as a religion Islam is always radical; and that if European leaders do not change their attitude, Eurabia—Islamic Europe—will very soon become a reality.

Duke Paul giving a lecture.

Catolicismo — Is this work of raising awareness and mobilizing yielding results?

Duke Paul — Judging from public participation in our lectures and coalition meetings, there is no doubt. Practically all the conservative currents active in European institutions participate in our events; both the elite of the very cosmopolitan society of Brussels today, and the high Belgian nobility.

Catolicismo — What is your specific work?

Duke Paul — It is to have no specific work! I am the “face” of the Bureau and, as such, responsible for establishing and maintaining contacts with high-ranking officials, parliamentary staff, leaders of conservative associations, and the Belgian elite. And, on the other hand, to supervise the organization of the Bureau’s activities.

Catolicismo — That certainly does not leave a whole lot of time for other pursuits…

Duke Paul — It does leave a little bit of time, which has allowed me, for example, to launch on the Internet an ongoing campaign against abortion and homosexual “marriage” in Luxembourg. The campaign is called SOS Vita and has already carried out some successful initiatives.

Catolicismo — Which ones, for example?

The Grand Duke of Luxembourg (pictured with the Grand Duchess) refused to sign the legalization of euthanasia, which the Christian-Democratic Party tried to establish in his country“Another aspect of our activities is to favor the formation of resistance networks in various areas: right to life, family, religious values etc.”

Duke Paul — The first was an email campaign asking the Luxembourg deputies not to approve a bill introduced by the Jean-Claude Juncker Administration that would make abortion in that country even worse. We were warned by friends from Luxembourg that the government was moving to have the bill approved on the sly, so we organized an Internet-based petition drive. In the first few days of the campaign, the Luxembourg Parliament’s website was flooded with a huge number of emails sent to the deputies. Their IT supervisor went so far as to threaten to sue our Internet Provider for obstructing the Parliament’s works.

The end result was that the bill, which had been marked “priority” for discussion last July, right before the Luxembourg deputies were to leave on vacation, was put on the “back burner.”

Catolicismo — Really interesting. Is there any other case like that?

Duke Paul — Yes. At the end of last year we organized a petition to Prime Minister Juncker, leader of the Christian Democratic Party of Luxembourg (CSV), which has been in power since the First World War. In it we denounced the fact that the Party’s present program is contrary to its “Christian” name, since at the end of 2008 it imposed the legalization of euthanasia. The Grand Duke refused to sign that law and was stripped of part of his constitutional powers. And now, in addition to aggravating the abortion law the Party was seeking to recognize so-called same sex “marriages” and allow adoption by same-sex pairs.  We added that such legislative measures would cause a religious conflict in the Grand Duchy, because its citizens (Catholics, for the most part) would have to choose between obeying the Law of God or that iniquitous law of men. As a result, the party had to either eliminate the adjective “Christian” from its name or reform its program.

We sent the text of this petition to half of all households in Luxembourg—whose population is just half a million—and to the countryside, where the most conservative part of the population, which traditionally votes for the CSV, resides. The petition had such a huge repercussion that the main radio and television station of Luxembourg (RTL, which, incidentally, is Europe’s largest radio station) interviewed me and for 48 hours posted news on the petition among the top news of its web site. Jean-Claude Juncker did not answer, but neither did he move ahead with his projects.

Duke Paul, on the streets, campaigning and distributing flyers during a campaign of Pro Europa Christiana Federation.

Catolicismo — Does this not characterize foreign interference in the internal affairs of a small country such as Luxembourg?

Duke Paul — If this were done in South America, your objection would be quite correct. But we should not forget that due to the European Union and the absolute freedom of circulation for people, goods and services that it has imposed, as well as the erosion of national sovereignties (with a common currency, for example), in Europe this objection is no longer valid.

Moreover, in the specific case of Luxembourg, Juncker cannot complain because during the first Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, it was Luxembourg’s turn on the rotating presidency of Europe (which changes every six months), and Juncker was at its head. He made a vehement appeal to the Irish to approve the Treaty even though it curtailed Irish sovereignty in many ways. On that occasion, he stated, “I am not Irish, I am Luxembourgian, and therefore, European; and therefore, a little bit Irish.”

I can say the same about me with much more reason, as in my veins flows the blood of many European nations with whose former sovereigns my forefathers united in marriage…

Catolicismo — If Your Highness allows me, I would like you to deal a little bit, not directly with the Bureau but with the Federation itself, what it is and what its goals are.

Duke Paul (at the back) with representatives of organizations that make up the Federation Pro Europa Christiana“My conversion was the greatest grace I’ve received in my life; and your question is for me an occasion to bear witness to it and thank God for such an undeserved favor”

Duke Paul — The Federation was founded in 2002 and brings together eight European associations that work in six countries of Western, Central and Eastern Europe. Inspired by the thought and methods developed by the great Brazilian Catholic leader, Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, these associations aim to defend Christian principles in the social order. The Federation does not intervene in the internal organization and activities of its member associations, which maintain their own specific characteristics. But it tries to help them promote their common goals on a European level. It also seeks to help bring about awareness of shared European values and particularly of the Christian heritage that shaped the grandeur of Europe and is at the root of its spiritual patrimony.

Catolicismo — Does the Federation carry out other relevant activities in addition to the Brussels Bureau?

Duke Paul — Two activities in particular, both based in France: a center for research and exchange of know-how, especially in the field of Internet-based information technologies, close to Chartres. And a youth formation center in the city of Creutzwald, on the border between France and Germany, where it holds formation courses for new and prospective volunteers of the Federation’s member organizations.

Catolicismo — Before closing, if you don’t mind, I would like to ask about Your Highness’ conversion to the Catholic Church, becoming the first male Catholic convert of your family since your forefathers  adhered to Luther’s pseudo-Reformation 500 years ago.

Duke Paul — I don’t mind it, because it was the greatest grace I’ve received in my life; and your question is for me an occasion to bear witness to it and thank God for such an undeserved favor. With Our Lady’s help, my conversion took place in two successive stages. In a first phase, grace opened my soul to the horizons of the Counter-revolution, and only afterward to the ambience of the Catholic Church.

I studied agronomy at the University of Goettingen, a large center of higher learning near the border with former East Germany. At the university, a young Prussian noble friend of mine created a student association, The Goettingen Circle, to defend the rights of former proprietors whose lands had been expropriated and had neither been returned nor compensated for after the reunification of Germany.

Perhaps none of his works, however, has had such a profound impact as the essay, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, translated into the world’s major languages.

This student leader organized with members of the German TFP a weekend course of formation on strategies of ideological action. One of the lectures was about the present-day crisis and the historic process described in Revolution and Counter-Revolution, by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. I had always admired the Middle Ages, castles, cathedrals, chivalry, the crusades, and was enthusiastic with the lecture even though it also showed that the Protestant pseudo-Reformation was the first Revolution that shook the medieval order of things which I admired.

This also caused some of us Lutheran participants to take an interest in learning more about Catholic doctrine.

A little later, members of the German TFP placed us in touch with Msgr. Rudolf-Michael Schmitz and we went to visit him at the Bavarian house of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, of which he was the superior in Germany at the time. Over long conversations, he expounded clearly on the difference between the well-balanced Weltanschauung [worldview] of the Catholic Church and the pessimistic Weltanschauung of the Lutheran doctrine on justification.

At a certain point, Msgr. Schmitz invited us to attend the Holy Mass he was about to celebrate in the old rite, the Tridentine rite, facing God. It was in the sacral silence and watching the beauty of the gestures and celebration of this Mass that I understood, as in a flash, that the Catholic Church is the only true Church of the One and Only True God.

After a few months of formation, I abjured Protestantism and was received into the Catholic Church in Rome by Most Rev. Custódio Alvim Pereira, Archbishop Emeritus of Lourenço Marques, today Maputo, capital of Mozambique.

Catolicismo — And on that occasion Your Highness joined the German TFP?

Duke Paul speaks at a ceremony commemorating the centennial of the birth of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, in December 2008“ After a few months of formation, I abjured Protestantism and was received into the Catholic Church in Rome through the hands of Archbishop Custódio Alvim Pereira”

Duke Paul — No, that took another few years. Shortly afterward I married and went to work in the Russian boondocks for a multinational agribusiness company. After some time, I realized I would be unable to work and to raise my children properly there, and decided to return to Germany. There I resumed my contacts with members of the German TFP, especially Mr. Atílio Faoro, an Italian-Brazilian who did counter-revolutionary apostolate in Frankfurt. He invited me to participate in a TFP summer course in which I was particularly impressed with the work carried out by the young men of the American TFP in their country’s universities and with the personality of Prince Bertrand de Orleans and Braganza.

On that occasion, I was given a copy of the book, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pope Pius XII, by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, which I started to read as soon as I was back home. Reading the Pope’s words and Dr. Plinio’s commentaries on the natural leadership role of the nobility in the direction of society, as well as the extremely grave obligations that this entails for nobles, I was faced with a dilemma: either I changed the direction of my life—with my wife’s consent—placing all that Providence has given me at the service of the Counter-Revolution, or I would sink into the mediocrity of a correct but frustrating little life, or even worse, try to imitate the scandalous lives of “jet-set” royalty. During that blessed reading, I understood that my vocation really was to be a counter-revolutionary in the blessed ranks of those who follow the example of Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.

This was the second greatest grace of my life after my conversion to Catholicism: to devote myself to the cause of Christian civilization in order to hasten the coming of the Reign of Mary, as foreseen by Our Lady at Fatima. This is what I try to contribute towards with my modest work at the Brussels Bureau of the Pro Europa Christiana Federation.

Catolicismo — Would you like to send a message to Catolicismo readers?

Duke Paul — Of course. Let them have an ever greater devotion to Our Lady, who really is the Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted and Help of Christians! And also because she is the one who will crush the head of the serpent—the Revolution—and restore Catholic civilization, as promised at Fatima.

Our Lady Help of Christians, Statue at the Headquarters of the American TFP

 

(Nobility.org translation.)

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Prayer and simplicity in the life of Emperor Franz Josef

May 10, 2012

Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary at age 35, 1865.

Franz Josef was an institution: millions of his subjects had never known any other monarch and he was an unchanging face on the European scene. His own way of living and working exemplified a notion of order and a commitment to the self-discipline and moral dedication on which he sought to base his rule.

Stained glass window of Emperor Franz Josef I

He rose every day before 4am, and after washing and shaving knelt to pray at his prie-dieu before a crucifix. Morning and night prayers were a fixed part of his routine which dated back to his earliest childhood and his mother’s teaching. He lived in two rooms in his vast palace, using others only for official occasions, keeping all his papers and personal items neat and tidy.

Emperor Franz Josef I with Count István Tisza a Hungarian politician.

After a light breakfast he worked hour after hour at his desk, reading and signing papers, silently pouring over documents relating to every aspect of the internal and external state of the nations he ruled. When the rest of Vienna rose to a new day he had already been laboring for several hours: if he were ever asked about this he would no doubt have simply said that such a state of affairs was natural and right for a monarch….

Franz Joseph I of Austria, emperor of Austria-Hungary, in 1885.

James and Joanna Bogle, A Heart for Europe: The Lives of Emperor Charles and Empress Zita of Austria-Hungary (Leominster, Herefordshire, U.K.: Gracewing, 1993), p. 24.

 

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 176

 

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Recipe – The Roll In Honor of a Kaiser

May 10, 2012

Who does not appreciate a warm Kaiser roll with their morning coffee?

This tasty roll goes by several names including Imperial, Vienna and Emperor Roll. All of them, however, respect its origins. In 1850, Austrian bakers introduced a roll to Viennese society that was made of high quality flour fermented with yeast, as usual, but through a process of “sweet fermentation.” They called their production a Kaiser-Semmel (an Imperial roll), in honor of the much-loved Kaiser Franz Joseph I of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1830-1916). Franz Joseph himself enjoyed this roll with his morning breakfast of tea and cold meat. The Kaisersemmel (Kaiser Roll) has a five-segment, curved starry pattern that gives it a “crown” appearance like a 19th century royal crown.

A painting by Johann Ranzi of Franz Joseph of Austria in 1851 at the age of 21.

So the next time you have a Kaiser roll in the morning, try enjoying it while leafing through an album on Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary and the Habsburg Imperial Family.

 

Recipe:

  2 envelopes of active dry yeast

    1 ½ cups lukewarm milk

    3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

    1 ½  teaspoon salt

    1 stick of butter, melted and cooled

Before starting the recipe, you need to decide which way you want your rolls to look, the Knot or the Crisscross. To achieve the star pattern that most commercial bakeries make, you need a “Kaiser Stamp” which can be purchased at the store. Whichever design you choose will not effect the taste. Depending on the size, this recipe will make 9 to 12 rolls.

 There is a video at the bottom showing you how to make the knot shape. The 4 step process is also listed below.

 

Directions

In a small saucepan, heat the milk to 120° F. Pour heated milk into a small metal bowl and add the yeast and stir to dissolve the yeast. In another bowl, sift the flour and salt together and add the cooled melted butter.

Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture, and mix together. You can use a dough hook or flat beater on your kitchen mixer. The dough will be a bit sticky. Turn it out onto a floured counter, dusted with about ¼ cup of flour, and briefly knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. Pour about a Tablespoon of oil (olive oil is best) into a large bowl, greasing the bowl’s insides with the oil.  Place the dough in the oiled bowl, cover with a clean towel and let rise in a warm, draft free place until doubled (45 minutes to an hour).

Punch dough down. Turn dough out onto the freshly floured board.  If you want your rolls to turn out with the knot shape, follow the 4 steps in A. below. If you want the Crisscross look, then follow the steps in B. below.

 

The Knot look

A. Knot steps:

1.  Divide your dough into rolls and then roll the dough out into a rope about 12 inches long.

2.  Tie into a loose knot.

3.  Bring one end up around and tuck it under (into the middle).

4.  Bring the underneath one around and tuck it in the middle. Proceed to C. below, the Baking Step…

 

 

The Crisscross look

B. Crisscross step:

1. With a clean pair of scissors, cut a ¼ inch deep cross on top of the rolls. 6 cuts are sufficient. Proceed to C.  below, the Baking Step…

 

 

C. The Baking Step

Place dough balls 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Let them sit, covered for another 45 minutes to 1 hour to rise again. They need to double in size. Preheat the oven to 425° F (220 C).

Beat an egg white and 1 Tablespoon of cold water; brush over rolls. You can cook them as is or sprinkle with poppy and/or sesame seeds if desired.

Once the oven has reached 425° F, quickly open the oven door and [mist] with 2 sprays of water. Close oven door again and wait 5 seconds. Open the oven door again and put the rolls in. Spray (not on the rolls) twice more and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden browned. Remove from baking sheets and let cool on a wire rack or eat warm.

 

This recipe was taken from: The complete bread, cake and cracker baker by J. Thompson Gill 1881, pg. 222, and was scaled down for family use.

Enjoy!

 

 

 

Video showing how to make the rolls:

 

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May 10 – Saint Damien: A Hero Who Died on the Battlefield of Honor

May 10, 2012

Written by Norman Fulkerson
St_Damien_1868_500px.jpgA portrait of young Father Damien in 1868. Born Joseph de Veuster in Tremelo, Belgium, he took the religious name of Damien when he joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

 

There are few places on Earth more beautiful than Hawaii. While this idyllic paradise may be the destination spot for tourists and honeymooners, Joseph de Veuster was eager to go there for a completely different reason. It was Joseph’s missionary zeal that attracted him to Hawaii where he volunteered to care for those stricken with leprosy. He eventually contracted the disease and died a painful death. The world would come to know him simply as Father Damien the Leper priest. On October 11, 2009, he was canonized a saint by the Catholic Church and will be remembered throughout history as a heroic example of Christian compassion.

Father Damien sensed from early on, in his vocation, that he was not called to a common missionary life. He dreamed of doing apostolate among the savages. After joining the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in his native Tremeloo, Belgium, he prayed daily before an image of Saint Francis Xavier for this intention.

After completing his studies, he was sent to the Hawaiian Islands in March 1864 and was ordained a priest some months later at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in downtown Honolulu. His first years on the archipelago were spent primarily on the Big Island of Hawaii, but it was not long before fortuitous events prepared the way for the fulfillment of his life’s dream.

The first occurred in 1865 when an epidemic of leprosy threatened to wipe out the native Hawaiian population. Seeing no other option than quarantine, the Hawaiian Legislature and King Kamehameha V signed a decree banishing the lepers to a neighboring island.

St_Damien_Kalaupapa_HI_500px.jpgAn aerial view of the village of Kalaupapa located on the northern peninsula of Molokai.

A “Royal Soul” Goes to Kalawao
The mere mention of Molokai was enough to send shivers up the spine of nineteenth century Hawaiians. This island, located just southeast of Oahu, became the final destination and burial place of over 8,000 Hawaiians diagnosed with the terrible disease. The first settlement, where Father Damien spent most of his time, was established in the village of Kalawao located on the eastern side of a peninsula that protrudes off the northern coast of Molokai.

The first lepers to arrive found dreadful living conditions. There was very little food and shelter, inadequate medicine and absolutely no hope. Many lepers refused to leave the boats that docked on the tiny island of Okala, just offshore from Kalawao, and were thrown overboard. Those who could not swim drowned in the turbulent Pacific Ocean.

They were sent there to die and they knew it. Seeing themselves abandoned in such a callous way, they gave themselves up to all sorts of vices. Treated like animals, they quickly began to act like animals. Losing all human joys, they feverishly grasped at those of the beasts and subsequently gave themselves over to a sinful life.1

Those in Honolulu who were spared the disease grew increasingly indignant with the neglect of the lepers. On April 15, 1873, an impassioned plea for a sacrificial soul appeared in a Hawaiian newspaper. “If a noble Christian priest, preacher or sister should be inspired to go and sacrifice a life to console these poor wretches,” it read, “that would be a royal soul to shine forever on the throne reared by human love.”2

St_Damien_1873_500px.jpgIn 1873, a determined Father Damien went to Molokai.

On May 4, 1873, Bishop Louis Maigret, the vicar apostolic, realizing the lepers needed stable spiritual support, asked for a volunteer among four Sacred Hearts Fathers, for the Molokai mission. Father Damien was chosen and accepted what was virtually a death sentence with joy and resignation. “Remember that I was covered with a funeral pall the day of my religious profession,” he said, “here I am, Bishop, ready to bury myself alive with those poor unfortunates.”

Suffocating Melancholy and Unbearable “Black Thoughts”
Amid the generalized chaos of the inhabitants of Kalawao, there were a group of Catholic lepers who remained steadfast. When Bishop Maigret and Father Damien arrived on May 10, 1873,3 they were met by this group who had rosaries dangling from their necks. Unable to contain their joy, they threw themselves at the bishop’s feet in tears.

Father Damien wasted no time in spreading a blanket of hope where there had previously been only despair. He spent the first weeks at Kalawao building proper housing for the homeless.

“Remember that I was covered with a funeral pall the day of my religious profession,” he said, “here I am, Bishop, ready to bury myself alive with those poor unfortunates.”

During this time he slept under a pandanus tree, which grows on rocky soil and attracts scorpions and other undesirable creatures. He refused to sleep under a roof when the lepers he went there to serve had none.

This suffering was mild compared to the spiritual hardships he would endure. For most of the time he spent on the peninsula, he was alone. He pleaded for a confessor but often went as long as five months without seeing another priest. During that time, he spoke of a suffocating melancholy that caused him unbearable “black thoughts.”

On one occasion, a supply ship with a priest on board stopped offshore. In hopes of making a confession, Father Damien took a small boat out to meet the vessel. The captain feared contagion and thus refused to let him board. Not allowing this to deter him, Father Damien humbly screamed his sins, before receiving absolution from the priest above. Years later, that same captain converted to the Faith and admitted doing so because he was so touched by the scene.

Giving Them a Sense of Purpose
Father Damien possessed herculean strength and refused to let these trials depress him. He was known to carry out his apostolic endeavors with a boundless energy, an iron resolve and a childlike enthusiasm. His good deeds were the most varied imaginable.

St_Damien_1889_leper_boys_500px.jpgWhere previously there had been despair, Father Damien went right to work instilling confidence and hope with his apostolic zeal. In addition to his priestly responsibilities, he found time to build Saint Philomena Church and everything from cottages to coffins. He taught how to farm and raise animals, and organized a choir for Mass, and a band whose members played instruments he made by hand.
St_Damien_leper_girls_500px.jpgFather Damien was not simply a humanitarian. His primary concern for those of the colony, like the Kalawao Girls Choir shown here, was their spiritual well being.

Besides taking care of his priestly responsibilities, he also found time to organize a choir that sang for masses held in Saint Philomena’s Church that he built. This zealous priest also organized a band whose members played instruments he made by hand. He taught them to farm, raise animals and assist in building everything from cottages to the coffins4 used in funerals held daily. Besides making their coffins, Father Damien also assisted in digging their graves.

What the lepers most admired about Father Damien, however, was his heroic ability to overcome the natural revulsion for their disease. On one occasion, he was hearing the confession of a woman whose side had been eaten away by maggots, thus exposing her intestines and rib cage. The holy priest tranquilly absolved her sins with the same intestinal fortitude with which he treated her wounds.

People were amazed at the gentility with which he cared for the sick. One witness said he saw Father Damien “bandage the most frightful wounds as though he were handling flowers.”5 On other occasions, he was even forced to amputate rotting limbs that emitted a foul odor. This, along with their breath, which Father Damien said would “poison the air,” caused him an almost “unconquerable nausea” and “headaches that lasted for days.” It is for this reason that he took up smoking6 to combat the stench surrounding the sick and dying when he administered their sacraments. It also purged the foul odor from his clothes once he had left their presence.

His Christ-like love for the lepers allowed him to conquer his nausea in record time. Two weeks after his arrival, he wrote in his diary how all his “repugnance toward the lepers has disappeared.”7

St_Damien_1889_500px.jpgFather Damien with the leprosy in already a far advanced stage. What troubled him most, however, was not the leprosy of the body, but rather the spiritual well-being of his parishioners or what he called the “leprosy of the soul.” Photo taken by William Brigham.

Combating “Leprosy of the Soul”
Stories such as these might lead some to consider Father Damien a humanitarian whose only desire was to alleviate physical suffering. What troubled him most, however, was not the leprosy of the body, but rather what he called “leprosy of the soul.” As a true missionary, his primary concern was the spiritual well-being of his parishioners that gave him the wisdom to instruct each according to their needs.

“In one place I speak only gentle, consoling words,” he explained, “in another I have to be harsh, to stir the conscience of some sinner; at times I have to thunder and threaten unrepentant sinners with eternal punishment.”8

Such was the case when Father Damien encountered a man making a visit to one of the active volcanoes on the Big Island, which the locals worshiped as a “god.” They interpreted each eruption as a sign of an angry deity that needed appeasement. Witnessing such foolish paganism, Father Damien stopped the man long enough to give him a short sermon on hell9 as the two of them contemplated the molten lava that danced before their eyes.

“In one place I speak only gentle, consoling words. In another I have to be harsh, to stir the conscience of some sinner; at times I have to thunder and threaten unrepentant sinners with eternal punishment.”

On other occasions, his zeal for souls drove him to go beyond mere words in his fight against the sin of impurity. It was the custom among some impenitent lepers to participate in drunken festivals while they danced to the uli-uli, a drum made from a large gourd. The beat of this instrument created the rhythmic cadence of the native hula. The dancing and drinking invariably degenerated into sordid acts of debauchery that often included children.

Father Damien made war against such depravity by making regular walks around Kalawao, cane in hand, listening for the distinctive sound of the uli-uli. If the culprits saw him approach, they fled in terror because they knew what was coming. When he caught them unaware he entered the spiritual “battlefield” swinging his cane, breaking cups, smashing gourds and bruising flesh. He made it crystal clear that his love for them was not of the sentimental type so common in the modern world.

Died Like a “Child Going to Sleep”
It was not long before Father Damien succumbed to the terrible scourge of leprosy. His custom shortly after arriving on Molokai was to address his parishioners by saying “we lepers” even before he showed signs of having contracted the disease. By burying himself on the island, and doing so without the slightest fear of touching and caring for them, he became a leper. This was confirmed in 1884 when he was soaking his feet in scalding hot water without feeling any pain.

St_Damien_1889_deathbed_500px.jpgFather Damien on his deathbed. Although leprosy had ravished his body, an eyewitness said he died, “like a child going to sleep.” Photo taken by Sidney Bourne Shift.

During the remaining years of his life, he continued to work hard, but with much greater effort. The five-minute walk to the hospital for a man who used to enjoy perfect health now caused him so much pain and fatigue that he would cry all night.0 Yet he never quit.

In 1888, a terrible storm passed through Kalawao and destroyed the steeple atop Saint Philomena’s Church. Despite his frail health, Father Damien organized a crew to replace it. Father Corneille Limburg was there during the later part of the year and was astonished to see our saint “in the thick of it, on top of the church, in fact, putting on the roof.” The visiting priest went on to describe this victim whose leprosy was far advanced: His face was puffy, the flesh on one of his ears was broken, his eyes were red and his voice hoarse. Father Limburg continued,

You should have seen the wild activity he was directing, giving his orders, now to the masons, now the carpenters, now to the laborers, all lepers. You would have said he was a man in his element and perfectly healthy. This tells you that Father Damien seems not to want to stop until he falls.11

A few months later, Father Damien was on his deathbed. After receiving Holy Communion “like a seraph”12 on the morning of April 14, he died the following day, “like a child going to sleep.”13

St_Damien_1889_death_500px.jpgFather Damien shortly after his death on April 15, 1889. Also shown is Blessed Marianne Cope, who continued his work until her death from tuberculosis in 1918. She was beatified on May 14, 2005. Father Damien was canonized on October 11, 2009.

He was buried under the same pandanus tree, outside Saint Philomena’s Church, under which he had slept upon his arrival to the peninsula.

*          *          *

Among Saint Damien’s biggest admirers were the last two queens of Hawaii, Esther Kapiolani and Lydia Liluakolani. In striking contrast to the Revolutionary way monarchs are historically portrayed, these great ladies visited the colony several times and were received by the lepers like the mothers they were.

One of the holy priest’s biggest detractors was the Presbyterian minister Charles McEwen Hyde. He made the mistake of calumniating Saint Damien in a letter where he described the hero of Molokai as a “coarse, uncouth, dirty man” who contracted leprosy through his own “carelessness.” This letter, written four months after the saint’s death, was eventually published in the English Churchman and was later widely reproduced.

This injustice provoked the anger of fellow Presbyterian and world-renowned author Robert Louis Stevenson who happened to be visiting Hawaii at that time. Mr. Stevenson took it upon himself to write a refutation that turned out to be perhaps the most objective eulogy of the saint one can find. He then paid to have it published in an English newspaper before it spread throughout the entire world.

In it, he points out the battlefield upon which Saint Damien gave his life and eloquently contrasted it with the comfortable life chosen by the Reverend Hyde.

“When we sit and grow bulky in our charming mansions,” Mr. Stevenson said, “and a plain, uncouth peasant steps into the battle, under the eyes of God, and succors the afflicted, and consoles the dying, and is himself afflicted in his turn, and dies upon the field of honor — the battle cannot be retrieved as your unhappy irritation has suggested. It is a lost battle, and lost forever. One thing remained to you in your defeat — some rags of common honor; and these you have made haste to cast away.”14

Thanks to Mr. Stevenson and devout Catholics the world over, Saint Damien will never be forgotten. He will always be remembered as a man who went to the most beautiful place on earth in order to care for the most hideous of God’s creatures. In so doing, he became a hero who died on the battlefield of honor.

Footnotes

1. Vital Jourdain, SS.CC., The Heart of Father Damien, 1840 – 1889 (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1955), 90.
2. Ibid., 93.
3. The feast day assigned to Saint Damien.
4. “Damien the Leper,” http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/DAMIEN.HTM.
5. Vital Jourdain, SS.CC., The Heart of Father Damien, 1840 – 1889 (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1955), 142.
6. Gavin Daws, Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai (University of Hawaii Press, 1989), 83.
7. “Building a Community — Starting from Scratch (1873 – 1876),” http://www.damienmolokai.com/node/171.
8. Vital Jourdain, SS.CC., The Heart of Father Damien, 1840 – 1889 (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1955), 179.
9. Ibid., 47.
10. Gavin Daws, Holy Man: Father Damien of Molokai (University of Hawaii Press, 1989), 157.
11. Ibid., 199.
12. Ibid., 211.
13. Vital Jourdain, SS.CC., The Heart of Father Damien, 1840 – 1889 (Milwaukee: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1955), 375.
14. Robert Louis Stevenson, “Father Damien — An Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu, February 25, 1890,” http://www.fullbooks.com/Father-Damien.html.
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May 11 – Holy Merovingian

May 10, 2012

St. Aldegundis Virgin and abbess (c. 639-684), variously written Adelgundis, Aldegonde, etc. She was closely related to the Merovingian royal family. Her father and mother, afterwards honored as St. Walbert and St. Bertilia, lived in Flanders in the province of Hainault. Aldegundis was urged to marry, but she chose a life of virginity and, leaving [...]

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May 12 – Would you accept the crowns of England, France and the Holy Roman Empire? She said no

May 10, 2012

Blessed Joanna of Portugal Born at Lisbon, 16 February, 1452; died at Aveiro, 12 May, 1490; the daughter of Alfonso V, King of Portugal, and his wife Elizabeth. She was chiefly remarkable for the courage and persistence with which she opposed all attempts on the part of her father and brother to make her marry.  [...]

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5 New Desktop Wallpapers

May 7, 2012

To add any of these desktop wallpapers to your computer, click on the size that you want for that image and save it to your computer. Then right-click on the desktop – select Properties from the context menu – go the Desktop tab – Browse and open the image you made – position the image (Center, [...]

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St. Joan of Arc 600 years later

May 7, 2012

May 2, 2012, Orleans, France – Looking appropriately cinematic, the Loire River swarmed with wooden boats carrying locals in medieval garb on Tuesday, reenacting Joan of Arc’s famous entry into the city in 1429. Later in the week, a medieval market will be the scene of period cuisine and music, while a sound and light [...]

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Video: The Queen arrives at Sherborne Abbey during royal visit to Dorset

May 7, 2012

  Thousands of people lined the streets around Sherborne Abbey this morning to welcome the Queen to Dorset. Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh were visiting the town to start the South West leg of their Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK. http://www.thisisdorset.co.uk/Video-Queen-arrives-Sherborne-Abbey-royal-visit/story-15969599-detail/story.html

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Post-Napoleonic Paris’s enthusiasm at the triumphal entry of its prince

May 7, 2012

The Countess de Marigny, sister of François-René de Chateaubriand, was in Paris in 1814, when the Allies entered the city. She took notes, day by day, in thin notebooks, of the news and noise bruited about the capital. When one notebook was filled she sent it to her relatives in Brittany. These notebooks have just [...]

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Marie Antoinette was destroyed after she had reformed her ways

May 7, 2012

The moment chosen for this ill-will towards Marie Antoinette was the very one when she had abandoned these faults and had become serious and exemplary…. So long as Marie Antoinette was frivolous and was guilty, not of real faults, but of imprudent actions, she was the recipient of general flattery and admiration. But so soon [...]

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May 8 – Matriarch of the Carolingian family

May 7, 2012

Saint Itta (or Itta of Metz) (also Ida, Itte or Iduberga) (592–652) was the wife of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia. Her brother was Saint Modoald, bishop of Trier. Her sister was abbess Saint Severa. There is no direct record of their parents, but it has been suggested that she was [...]

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May 8 – Patron in War

May 7, 2012

Well known is the apparition of St. Michael the Archangel (a. 494 or 530-40), as related in the Roman Breviary, 8 May, at his renowned sanctuary on Monte Gargano, where his original glory as patron in war was restored to him. To his intercession the Lombards of Sipontum (Manfredonia) attributed their victory over the Greek [...]

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Chivalry and family heroes helped shape Gen. George S. Patton, Jr.

May 3, 2012

It was after his aunt read him Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe that he ultimately revealed the great effect her instruction was having. He [George S. Patton, Jr.] confided to her that he’d written a poem—in his head, for he still couldn’t write. Astonished, she transcribed his recitation with the reverent wonder of a medium receiving [...]

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Aristocracy and Grandeur

May 3, 2012

The aristocrat will only fulfill his vocation when he has a clear idea of the grandeur of his country and is willing to represent it in his person. Many historical facts serve to symbolize American grandeur. One is the famous flag-raising at Iwo Jima. We may also point to such embodiments of grandeur as generals [...]

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May 3 – Sword-bearer to the Emperor

May 3, 2012

St. Ansfried of Utrecht Ansfried (aka Ansfridus or Aufridus) was born ca. 940, and died May 3, 1010 near Leusden.) He was a nobleman in the Holy Roman Empire and sword-bearer for Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Till 995 he was Count of Huy, then he became bishop of Utrecht. He is also the founder [...]

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May 4 – They believed in the religious exemption, but only at first

May 3, 2012

The Carthusian Martyrs were the monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the English state in a period lasting from the 19 June 1535 till the 20 September 1537. The method of execution was hanging, disembowelling while still alive and then quartering. [...]

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May 6 – Prince, priest, pioneer

May 3, 2012

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin Prince, priest, and missionary, born at The Hague, Holland, 22 December, 1770; died at Loretto, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 6 May, 1840. He was a scion of one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most illustrious families of Russia. His father, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin (d. 16 March, 1803), Russian ambassador to Holland at the time [...]

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Choice in Liechtenstein: Abortion or royal family?

April 30, 2012

Liechtenstein’s hereditary Prince Alois is threatening that he and his ruling family will step down if a referendum eliminated his power to veto laws is passed. “The royal family is not willing to undertake its political responsibilities unless the prince… has the necessary tools at his disposal,” Alois said in a speech to parliament on [...]

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The death of Bayard, the Chevalier sans peur et sans reproche

April 30, 2012

When the news was spread abroad through the two armies that the good Chevalier had been killed, or at least wounded to death (even in the camp of the Spanish, although he was the one man in the world of whom they had the greatest fear), all men, both gentlemen and soldiers, were exceedingly grieved [...]

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The American Paradox

April 30, 2012

American society is oriented by two fundamental but antithetical principles, the principle of equality and the principle of inequality.[1] The coexistence of a commonly held democratic and egalitarian mythology with the commonly lived hierarchical reality creates a dilemma, which the simple affirmation of the inevitable existence of inequalities does not eliminate. Such a dichotomy between [...]

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April 30 – Crusader Pope

April 30, 2012

Pope Saint Pius V Born at Bosco, near Alexandria, Lombardy, 17 Jan., 1504 elected 7 Jan., 1566; died 1 May, 1572. Being of a poor though noble family his lot would have been to follow a trade, but he was taken in by the Dominicans of Voghera, where he received a good education and was [...]

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May 2 – Two sisters of this medieval princess were also saints

April 30, 2012

St. Mafalda of Portugal In the year 1215, at the age of eleven, Princess Mafalda (i.e. Matilda), daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal, was married to her kinsman King Henry I of Castile, who was like herself a minor. The marriage was annulled the following year on the ground of the consanguinity of the [...]

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Engagement Announcement of Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg

April 26, 2012

Grand Duchy of Luxembourg: Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, have the great pleasure to announce the engagement of their son, HRH Prince Guillaume, Hereditary Grand Duke, with the Countess Stephanie de Lannoy. The date of the wedding is not yet announced. Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy, aged 28, comes from an [...]

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Picture gallery of the spectacular Royal Barge

April 26, 2012

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh braved heavy rain and driving winds to name a spectacular barge built to mark the Jubilee. The royal couple travelled to the East London dock where Gloriana is currently moored, awaiting the moment when it will make its way to Wandsworth Bridge on the Thames from where it [...]

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Royal Wedding dress sparks fashion change in Catholic ceremonies

April 26, 2012

Kate Middleton’s long-sleeved wedding gown was the catalyst that showed the world how a bride can be both beautiful and modest. “It was the perfect storm. Brides were looking for something different, and designers were ready for a change,” says Josie Daga, founder of the resale-wedding-dress site PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com. “This beautiful, iconic princess wears a dress [...]

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General MacArthur confronts President Roosevelt to save the U.S. Army

April 26, 2012

At the end of April 1933 MacArthur appeared before the House Military Affairs Committee to oppose a bill that would have placed a large number of regular officers on a forced furlough list…. Patiently MacArthur restated his arguments: “The foundation of our National Defense system is the Regular Army, and the foundation of the Regular [...]

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Forms of Government: Abstract Principles and Their Influence in the Formation of a Political Mentality

April 26, 2012

It seems particularly fitting to raise some consideration regarding the pontifical documents and teachings of Saint Thomas on the forms of government included in this work [Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites].   The Concrete Usefulness of the Abstract Principles First, a reflection: These documents enunciate mainly abstract principles. Yet, many people today consider abstractions to [...]

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April 26 – Mother of Good Counsel, who inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 26, 2012

January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he placed himself at the head of his own people. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania. With Scanderbeg’s death, the Turkish army, finally [...]

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April 27 – Noble Model of Confidence

April 26, 2012

Peter Armengol was born in Guárdia dels Prats, a small village in the archdiocese of Tarragon, Spain in 1238. He belonged to the house of the barons of Rocafort, descendants of the counts of Urgel, whose ancestors were directly linked to the counts of Barcelona and the monarchs of Aragon and Castile. From Brigand to [...]

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Video – United Kingdom gun salute for the Queen’s birthday

April 23, 2012

The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired the salute at noon in Hyde Park while several other military bases across the country also carried out the tradition in honour of the Queen’s birthday. The custom dates back to the early days of sail when ships visiting foreign ports would discharge their guns before entering, proving [...]

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Madame Elisabeth: the princess who confronted a Revolution

April 23, 2012

Just when a thunderstorm is about to begin, the reader may have noticed a bird seeking refuge under the branches of a tree which the lightning threatens; this dove is like the young royal maiden, who, when the Revolution broke out, was living calmly and happily at Montreuil, an angel of innocence and virtue, whose [...]

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The Familial Character of Feudal Government—The King: The Father of His People

April 23, 2012

To illustrate well the familial character of the feudal government, it is advantageous to transcribe a passage from the substantial work L’Esprit Familial dans la Maison, dans la Cité et dans l’Etat [The Familial Spirit in the Home, in the City, and in the State], by Msgr. Henri Delassus, which describes the origins of that [...]

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April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 23, 2012

St. George Martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Diospolis, in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. According to the very careful investigation of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, in the light of modern sources of information, the above statement sums up all that [...]

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April 23 – Noble Bohemian

April 23, 2012

St. Adalbert of Bohemia Born 939 of a noble Bohemian family; died 997. He assumed the name of the Archbishop Adalbert (his name had been Wojtech), under whom he studied at Magdeburg. He became Bishop of Prague, whence he was obliged to flee on account of the enmity he had aroused by his efforts to [...]

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Don John of Austria was loved as a father by his soldiers and sailors

April 19, 2012

[Don John of Austria’s] sure, sound judgment, his prudence in deciding, his frankness and courage in performing, and his firmness and energy in reprimanding and punishing revealed to all in the new leader the not unworthy son of Charles V; and his noble magnanimity towards the vanquished, his gracious compassion for the unfortunate, and his [...]

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Christian Equality Does Not Suppress the Differences Among Men, but Makes of the Variety of Conditions an Admirable Harmony

April 19, 2012

From Leo XIII’s encyclical Humanum genus against Freemasonry of April 20, 1884, we draw the following passage: “Not without cause do We use this occasion to state again what We have stated elsewhere, namely, that the Third Order of Saint Francis…should be studiously promoted and sustained. “Among the many benefits to be expected from it [...]

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April 19 – As pope, he led his army against the Normans

April 19, 2012

Pope St. Leo IX Pope St. Leo IX earnestly spread the Cluny reform Born at Egisheim, near Colmar, on the borders of Alsace, 21 June, 1002, Pope St. Leo IX died on 19 April, 1054. He belonged to a noble family which had given or was to give saints to the Church and rulers to [...]

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April 21 – The Noble Saint who tamed William the Conqueror, abolished slavery in England, and founded Scholasticism; his prayer to Saint Mary Magdalene

April 19, 2012

Saint Anselm, Confessor, Archbishop Of Canterbury (A. D. 1109) If the Norman conquerors stripped the English nation of its liberty and many temporal advantages, it must be owned that by their valor they raised the reputation of its arms and deprived their own country of its greatest men, both in church and state, with whom [...]

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The Catholic Kings’ demand for payment of tribute arrears is rebuffed by Muley Abul Hassan, King of Granada

April 16, 2012

The flagrant want of faith of Muley Abul Hassan in fulfilling treaty stipulations, passed unresented during the residue of the reign of Henry the Impotent, and the truce was tacitly continued without the enforcement of tribute, during the first three years of the reign of his successors, Ferdinand and Isabella, of glorious and happy memory, [...]

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The Elitist School: The discrediting of the liberal myth

April 16, 2012

Influenced by this American myth, sociologists and historians formerly simply closed their eyes to the existence of elites in our country. Vance Packard, one of the oldest representatives of what came to be known as the elitist school, writes: “Until recently, even sociologists had shrunk away from a candid exploration of social class in America. [...]

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April 17 – The Cistercian Founder and Its Orders of Chivalry

April 16, 2012

St. Robert of Molesme Born about the year 1029, at Champagne, France, of noble parents who bore the names of Thierry and Ermengarde; died at Molesme, 17 April, 1111. When fifteen years of age, he commenced his novitiate in the Abbey of Montier-la-Celle, or St. Pierre-la-Celle, situated near Troyes, of which he became later prior. [...]

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April 17 – One of the many nobles who spread the Cluny reform

April 16, 2012

St. Robert Founder of the Abbey of Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, born at Aurilac, Auvergne, about 1000; died in Auvergne, 1067. On his father’s side he belonged to the family of the Counts of Aurilac, who had given birth to St. Géraud. He studied at Brioude near the basilica of St-Julien, in a school open to [...]

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Announcement – Holy Mass, Veneration of the Relic of Blessed Karl of Austria, Luncheon and Speaker

April 12, 2012

Sunday, 29 April 2012 2:00 PM (Holy Rosary and Confessions begin at 1:30 PM)St. Titus Church 952 Franklin Avenue Aliquippa, PA 15001 Celebrant: Canon Jean-Marie Moreau of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest Featuring the Duquesne University Mary Pappert School of Music Schola Cantorum Under the Direction of Sr. Marie Agatha Ozah, HHCJ [...]

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Don John of Austria runs away from Court to join the Spanish fleet headed to the relief of Malta

April 12, 2012

There was nothing else talked of at the Court, or in the town, but the formidable attack of the Turks on the island of Malta, and the heroic defense made by the old Master of the Order, Jean Parissot de la Valette. The leader of the strong Ottoman squadron was Admiral Pialy, with those two [...]

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Alexis de Tocqueville’s unilateral vision of America

April 12, 2012

Part of this unilateral [egalitarian] interpretation of the American reality comes from the exegesis liberal scholars made of the work of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859). This young French aristocrat visited the United States between 1831 and 1832. In 1835 he published his celebrated work Democracy in America, which quickly became the classic reference book for [...]

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April 13 – The Prince Who Defied His Family

April 12, 2012

St. Hermengild Date of birth unknown; died 13 April, 585. Leovigild, the Arian King of the Visigoths (569-86), had two sons, Hermengild and Reccared, by his first marriage with the Catholic Princess Theodosia. Hermengild married, in 576, Ingundis, a Frankish Catholic princess, the daughter of Sigebert and Brunhilde. Led by his own inclination, and influenced [...]

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April 14 – She suffered for the moral corruption and decay of her time

April 12, 2012

Saint Lydwine In 1380, Saint Lydwine was born in the small town of Schiedam in Holland. Her father was a wealthy noble named Peter, and her mother was from a poor family who worked their own farm. Her father’s family lost their fortune, and the whole family was reduced to poverty. At that time, all [...]

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The Little Barrel

April 9, 2012

(from an old French medieval tale) Between Normandy and Brittany, next to the sea, in times of old there used to be a castle so strong and so well defended that it feared no king, prince or duke of any sort. The lord that possessed it was robust, vain and powerful. Seeing him, one might [...]

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