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Hereditary Grand Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg was appointed the ‘Lieutenant Répresentant’ of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on October 8th…

H.H. Prince Guillaume of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, June 10, 2024. Photo by A1Cafel.

The title of Lieutenant Répresentant has a unique place in Luxembourg’s royal tradition. The role allows the heir apparent to the crown to temporarily take over the duties of the reigning monarch without requiring immediate abdication by the current Grand Duke. This system has been used during times when the Grand Duke or Grand Duchess wishes to step back from active duties but remains formally the country’s monarch, giving the heir apparent a smoother transition into the role.

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October 14 – Barber Family

October 14, 2024

Daniel Barber

Daniel Barber, soldier of the Revolution, Episcopalian minister and convert, b. at Simsbury, Connecticut, U.S.A., 2 October, 1756; d. at Saint Inigoes, Maryland, 1834. The conversion of the Barber family, despite the prejudices of a Puritan education and environment, was one of the most notable and far-reaching in its results of any recorded in the early annals of the church in New England. Daniel Barber has left a “History of My Own Times” (Washington, 1827), in which he states that his father and mother were Congregational Dissenters of strict Puritanic rule and he continued in that sect until his twenty-seventh year, when he joined the Episcopalians. Previous to this he had served two terms as a soldier in the Continental army. In his thirtieth year he was ordained a minister of the Episcopalian Church at Schenectady, New York. He married Chloe Case, daughter of Judge Owen of Simsbury, Connecticut, and about 1787, with his wife, his three sons, and a daughter, moved to Claremont, New Hampshire. He exercised the duties of the ministry for thirty years without doubt concerning the soundness of his ordination, when one day the chance reading of a Catholic book opened up for him the whole issue of the validity of Anglican orders, by impugning Parker’s consecration. This doubt was further increased by a visit for conference to the famous Bishop Cheverus, then a priest in Boston, and the inability of his Episcopalian associates to offer any satisfactory refutation of the arguments advanced by the Catholic priest. Father Cheverus also gave him a number of Catholic books, which he and the other members of his family read eagerly.

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According to Catholic News Agency:

Tomb of St. Teresa of Avila, high above the altar in Alba de Tormes, Spain.

“Today the tomb of St. Teresa was opened and we have verified that it is in the same condition as when it was last opened in 1914,” said the postulator general of the Discalced Carmelite Order, Father Marco Chiesa of the Carmelite Monastery of Alba de Tormes, where the remains of the revered Spanish saint rest.

Three of the ten keys that open the tomb of St. Teresa of Avila. These three are hanging in the museum at Alba de Tormes, Spain.

The diocese explained that the event took place as part of the canonical recognition of the remains of St. Teresa of Ávila, requested from the Vatican on July 1 by the bishop of Salamanca, Luis Retana, with authorization granted by Pope Francis through the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

The Diocese of Ávila also revealed that 10 keys were used to open the tomb!

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Interior Castle

October 14, 2024

St. Teresa of Avila

Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, born at Avila, Old Castile, 28 March, 1515; died at Alba de Tormes, 4 Oct., 1582.

This is the only portrait of St. Teresa, which day after day, she obediently sat for as a penance. It was painted when St. Teresa was 61, by Friar Juan de la Miseria in 1576. When the picture was finished, with a faint smile, she said, “God forgive you Fray Juan! To think that after all I have suffered at your hands, you should paint me so bleary eyed and ugly!”

The third child of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda by his second wife, Doña Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, who died when the saint was in her fourteenth year, Teresa was brought up by her saintly father, a lover of serious books, and a tender and pious mother. After her death and the marriage of her eldest sister, Teresa was sent for her education to the Augustinian nuns at Avila, but owing to illness she left at the end of eighteen months, and for some years remained with her father and occasionally with other relatives, notably an uncle who made her acquainted with the Letters of St. Jerome, which determined her to adopt the religious life, not so much through any attraction towards it, as through a desire of choosing the safest course. Unable to obtain her father’s consent she left his house unknown to him on Nov., 1535, to enter the Carmelite Convent of the Incarnation at Avila, which then counted 140 nuns. The wrench from her family caused her a pain which she ever afterwards compared to that of death. However, her father at once yielded and Teresa took the habit.

The incorrupt arm of St. Teresa of Avila in Alba de Tormes, Spain.

The incorrupt arm of St. Teresa of Avila in Alba de Tormes, Spain.

After her profession in the following year she became very seriously ill, and underwent a prolonged cure and such unskillful medical treatment that she was reduced to a most pitiful state, and even after partial recovery through the intercession of St. Joseph, her health remained permanently impaired. During these years of suffering she began the practice of mental prayer, but fearing that her conversations with some world-minded relatives, frequent visitors at the convent, rendered her unworthy of the graces God bestowed on her in prayer, discontinued it, until she came under the influence, first of the Dominicans, and afterwards of the Jesuits.
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Also…Her tomb was recently opened and found that her body is still incorrupt. Read about it here!

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St. Bruno of Querfurt

(Also called BRUN and BONIFACE).

St. Bruno of QuerfurtSecond Apostle of the Prussians and martyr, born about 970; died 14 February, 1009. He is generally represented with a hand cut off, and is commemorated on 15 October. Bruno was a member of the noble family of Querfurt and is commonly said to have been a relative of the Emperor Otto III, although Hefele (in Kirchenlex., II, s.v. Bruno) emphatically denies this. When hardly six years old he was sent to Archbishop Adalbert of Magdeburg to be educated and had the learned Geddo as his teacher in the cathedral school. He was a well-behaved, industrious scholar, while still a lad he was made a canon of the cathedral. The fifteen year-old Otto III became attached to Bruno, made him one of his court, and took him to Rome when the young emperor went there in 996 to be crowned. At Rome Bruno became acquainted with St. Adalbert Archbishop of Prague, who was murdered a year later by the pagan Prussians to whom he had gone as a missionary. After Adalbert’s death Bruno was tied with an intense desire for martyrdom. He spent much of has time in the monastery on the Aventine where Adalbert had become a monk, and where Abbot Johannes Canaparius wrote a life of Adalbert. Bruno, however, did not enter the monastic life here, but in the monastery of Pereum, an island in the swamps near Ravenna.

Map of the lands given St. Bruno in 1003 were in the region shown on left bank of the Oder, Hither Pomerania along the coast, or the future Margraviate of Brandenburg to its south.

Map of the lands given St. Bruno in 1003 were in the region shown on left bank of the Oder, Hither Pomerania along the coast, or the future Margraviate of Brandenburg to its south.

Pereum was under the rule of the founder of the Camaldoli reform, St. Romuald, a saint who had great influence over the Emperor Otto III. Under the guidance of St. Romuald Bruno underwent a severe ascetic training; it included manual work, fasting all week except Sunday and Thursday, night vigils, and scourging on the bare back; in addition Bruno suffered greatly from fever. He found much pleasure in the friendship of a brother of the same age as himself, Benedict of Benevento, who shared his cell and who was one with him in mind and spirit. The Emperor Otto III desired to convert the lands; between the Elbe and the Oder, which were occupied by Slavs, to Christianity, and to plant colonies there. He hoped to attain these ends through the aid of a monastery to be founded in this region by some of the most zealous of Romuald’s pupils. In 1001, therefore, Benedict another brother of the same monastery, Joannes, went, laden with gifts from the emperor, to Poland, where they were well received by the Christian Duke Boleslas, who taught them the language of the people. During this time Bruno studied the language of Italy, where he remained with Otto and awaited the Apostolic appointment by the pope. Sylvester II made him archbishop over the heathen and gave him the pallium, but left the consecration to the Archbishop of Magdeburg, who had the supervision of the mission to the Slavs. Quiting Rome in 1003, Bruno was consecrated in February, 1004, by Archbishop Tagino of Magdeburg and gave his property for the founding of a monastery. As war has broken out between Emperor Henry II and the Polish Duke, Bruno was not able to go at once to Poland; so, starting from Ratisbon on the Danube, he went into Hungary, where St. Alalbert had also laboured. Here he finished his life of St. Adalbert, a literary memorial of much worth.

King Boleslaus I of Poland. Painting by Jan Bogumił Jacobi

King Boleslaus I of Poland. Painting by Jan Bogumił Jacobi

Bruno sought to convert the Hungarian ruler Achtum and his principality of “Black-Hungary”, but he met with so much opposition, including that of the Greek monks, that success was impossible. In December, 1007, he went to Russia. Here the Grand duke Vladimir entertained him for a month and then gave him a territory extending to the possessions of the Petschenegen, who lived on the Black Sea between the Danube and the Don. This was considered the fiercest and most cruel of the heathen tribes. Bruno spent five months among them, baptized some thirty adults, aided in bringing about a treaty of peace with Russia, and left in that country one of his companions whom he had consecrated bishop. About the middle of the year 1008 he returned to Poland and there consecrated a bishop for Sweden. While in Poland he heard that his friend Benedict and four companions had been killed by robbers on 11 May, 1003. Making use of the accounts of eyewitnesses, he wrote the touching history of the lives and death of the so-called Polish brothers. Towards the end of 1008 he wrote a memorable, but ineffectual, letter to the Emperor Henry II, exhorting him to show clemency and to conclude a peace with Boleslas of Poland. Near the close of this same year, accompanied by eighteen companions, he went to found a mission among the Prussians, but the soil was not fruitful, and Bruno and his companions travelled towards the borders of Russia, preaching courageously as they went. On the borders of Russia they were attacked by the heathen, the whole company were murdered, Bruno with great composure meeting death by decapitation. Duke Boleslas bought the bodies of the slain and had them brought to Poland. It is said that the city of Braunsberg is named after St. Bruno.

Braunsberg in 1684

Braunsberg in 1684

Soon after the time of their death St. Bruno and his companions were reverenced as martyrs. Little value is to be attached to a legendary account of the martyrdom by a certain Wipert. Bruno’s fellow-pupil, Dithmar, or Thietmar, Bishop of Merseburg, gives a brief account of him in his Chronicle. VI, 58.
The writings, already referred to, of BRUNO himself; Acta SS., 14 February; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 19 June; GIESEBRECHT, Deutsche Kaiserzeit, II; Histor. Jahrbuch (1892), XIII; KOLBERG, Der hl. Bruno von Querfurt (Braunsberg, 1884); Stimmen aus Maria-Laach (Freiburg im Br., 1897), LIII.

Gabriel Meier (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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On this day, 31 years ago…

October 14, 2024

Book Launching, Milan, October 15, 1993

Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility

 Pius XII: Great Goals and Immense Means to Bring About the Restoration of the Christian Social Order

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

One of the most important results of the First World War, though not the most noticed, was a transformation, in fact a fundamental revolution, not only in the political and economic sphere but also with regard to the mentality and customs in force before the war.
In other words, much of what was regarded as essential, elevated, sublime, and perhaps intangible before the conflict was mercilessly swept away by the whirlwind of events and replaced with other customs and attitudes diametrically opposed to the earlier ones.
A similar phenomenon occurred after the Second World War. So we can say that the two great wars of the twentieth century—God forbid we should get a third one before this troubled century ends—were two major revolutions.

It is a duty of justice to note that in his 14 allocutions to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility, Pius XII tried to mitigate the effects of these revolutions by giving directives of an admirable wisdom.
Specifically with respect to the second post-war period, the Pope says:

This time the work of restoration is incomparably more immense, more delicate, and more complex. It is not a question of bringing one sole nation back to normalcy. One can say that the entire world must be rebuilt; the universal order must be re-established. The material order, the intellectual order, the social order, the international order—all must be remade and set back in a regular, constant motion. That tranquil order that is peace, that is the only true peace, cannot be reborn and endure except by building human society upon Christ, so as to gather, recapitulate, reunite everything in Him (Allocution of January 14, 1945).

So, one who reads this Pope’s documents easily realizes he had in mind to oppose that massive Revolution with a Counter-Revolution. A Counter-Revolution that would save from ruin a great many traditions and enable a number of others that still had every reason to exist but crumbled, to get back on their feet and recover their vitality.

Of course, since the Pope addressed only the nobles and the traditional elites, some people supposed that he counted on them alone to carry out that work. The persons who thought so, perhaps also deemed those classes the only ones capable of understanding, loving and defending the traditions of which they were specifically the carriers.

Indeed, one sees that Pius XII called particularly on those elites to take up that great mission. This is understandable as they are the guarantors of the perennial values the Pope believes should not be allowed to vanish.

We should note how he really wanted a comprehensive collaboration in this regard. He asked such collaboration not only from members of an elite still in possession of sufficient assets to radiate all the prestige coming from their past and thus place at the service of the Counter-Revolution all the force of impact with that one might expect.

It is obvious, however, that the Pontiff expected even more from the Patriciate and Nobility. He also counted—and notably so—on persons from that social class who, having been ruined by the misfortunes of war, no longer had material resources to remain influential. Though reduced to very fragile and often times shockingly frugal economic situations, those persons, with great family names, still had to give the precious example of true nobility and the best that could be expected of it; in other words, to show how their class can keep virtue, grandeur of soul and moral dignity unscathed and can radiate them to other social classes even when deprived of all kinds of material goods.

But we must go beyond that. Pius XII manifestly counted on the ensemble of the social body not only to save the still existing elites and traditions they carried but also to make sure that new elites would spring up alongside the old. To these new elites would befall—in the face of new situations and animated with a truly Catholic mentality—the development of new habits, customs and forms of power. And all this without destroying or denying the past in any way, but completing it when necessary.

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St. Bercharius

(BERERUS).

Abbot of Hautvillers in Champagne, b. 636; d. 28 March, 696. Descended from a distinguished Aquitanian family, he received his instruction from St. Nivard (Nivo), Archbishop of Reims, under whose charge he advaneed rapidly in virtue and learning. Believing himself called to the sacred ministry, he entered the monastery of Luxeuil under St. Walbert, and by his humble and faithful performance of duty soon excelled his fellow-novices. Upon his return to Reims he induced St. Nivard to erect the cloister of Hautvillers, of which Bercharius himself became the first abbot. Wholly given up to prayer and meditation he also instructed his brethren to lead a contemplative life. Ever zealous for the propagation of the Faith, he founded two cloisters in the Diocese of Châlons-sur-Marne, the one (Puisye or Moutier-en-Der) for men, the other (Pellmoutier, Puellarum Monasterium) for women. These institutions he enriched by donations of valuable relics, procured on a journey to Rome and the Holy Land.

The monk Daguin, provoked by a reprimand from Bercharius, stabbed him during the night. No word of complaint or censure did he utter when the murderer was led before him; but he gloried in exhorting the transgressor to penance and in requesting him to make a pilgrimage to Rome to obtain pardon and absolution. Daguin left the monastery never to return. After two days of severe suffering, the saint succumbed to his wound, a martyr not for the Faith, indeed, but for charity and justice. His remains were preserved at Moutier-en-Der until the suppression of religious orders at the close of the eighteenth century. The commemoration of his name occurs in the martyrology on the 16th of October.

BUTLER, XV, 252; ADSO, Vita S. Bercharii; SURIUS, X, 481.

Barnabas Dieringer (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Religious of the Visitation Order. Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born at Lhautecour, France, 22 July, 1647; died at Paray-le-Monial, 17 October, 1690.

St. Margaret Mary AlacoqueHer parents, Claude Alacoque and Philiberte Lamyn, were distinguished less for temporal possessions than for their virtue, which gave them an honourable position. From early childhood Margaret showed intense love for the Blessed Sacrament, and preferred silence and prayer to childish amusements. After her first communion at the age of nine, she practised in secret severe corporal mortifications, until paralysis confined her to bed for four years. At the end of this period, having made a vow to the Blessed Virgin to consecrate herself to religious life, she was instantly restored to perfect health. The death of her father and the injustice of a relative plunged the family in poverty and humiliation, after which more than ever Margaret found consolation in the Blessed Sacrament, and Christ made her sensible of His presence and protection. He usually appeared to her as the Crucified or the Ecce Homo, and this did not surprise her, as she thought others had the same Divine assistance. When Margaret was seventeen, the family property was recovered, and her mother besought her to establish herself in the world. Her filial tenderness made her believe that the vow of childhood was not binding, and that she could serve God at home by penance and charity to the poor. Then, still bleeding from her self-imposed austerities, she began to take part in the pleasures of the world. One night upon her return from a ball, she had a vision of Christ as He was during the scourging, reproaching her for infidelity after He had given her so many proofs of His love. During her entire life Margaret mourned over two faults committed at this time—the wearing of some superfluous ornaments and a mask at the carnival to please her brothers.

Our Lord appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

Our Lord appearing to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque.

On 25 May, 1671, she entered the Visitation Convent at Paray, where she was subjected to many trials to prove her vocation, and in November, 1672, pronounced her final vows. She had a delicate constitution, but was gifted with intelligence and good judgement, and in the cloister she chose for herself what was most repugnant to her nature, making her life one of inconceivable sufferings, which were often relieved or instantly cured by our Lord, Who acted as her Director, appeared to her frequently and conversed with her, confiding to her the mission to establish the devotion to His Sacred Heart. These extraordinary occurrences drew upon her the adverse criticism of the community, who treated her as a visionary, and her superior commanded her to live the common life. But her obedience, her humility, and invariable charity towards those who persecuted her, finally prevailed, and her mission, accomplished in the crucible of suffering, was recognized even by those who had shown her the most bitter opposition.

A relief of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque part of the choir stalls in St. Gordian and St. Epimachus Church in Bavaria. Photo by Andreas Praefcke.

A relief of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, part of the choir stalls in St. Gordian and St. Epimachus Church in Bavaria. Photo by Andreas Praefcke.

Margaret Mary was inspired by Christ to establish the Holy Hour and to pray lying prostrate with her face to the ground from eleven till midnight on the eve of the first Friday of each month, to share in the mortal sadness He endured when abandoned by His Apostles in His Agony, and to receive holy Communion on the first Friday of every month. In the first great revelation, He made known to her His ardent desire to be loved by men and His design of manifesting His Heart with all Its treasures of love and mercy, of sanctification and salvation. He appointed the Friday after the octave of the feast of Corpus Christi as the feast of the Sacred Heart; He called her “the Beloved Disciple of the Sacred Heart”, and the heiress of all Its treasures. The love of the Sacred Heart was the fire which consumed her, and devotion to the Sacred Heart is the refrain of all her writings. In her last illness she refused all alleviation, repeating frequently: “What have I in heaven and what do I desire on earth, but Thee alone, O my God”, and died pronouncing the Holy Name of Jesus.

Her incorrupt body rests above the side altar in the Chapel of the Apparitions, located at the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial

Her incorrupt body rests above the side altar in the Chapel of the Apparitions, located at the Visitation Monastery in Paray-le-Monial

The discussion of the mission and virtues of Margaret Mary continued for years. All her actions, her revelations, her spiritual maxims, her teachings regarding the devotion to the Sacred Heart, of which she was the chief exponent as well as the apostle, were subjected to the most severe and minute examination, and finally the Sacred Congregation of rites passed a favourable vote on the heroic virtues of this servant of God. In March, 1824, Leo XII pronounced her Venerable, and on 18 September, 1864, Pius IX declared her Blessed. When her tomb was canonically opened in July, 1830, two instantaneous cures took place. Her body rests under the altar in the chapel at Paray, and many striking favours have been obtained by pilgrims attracted thither from all parts of the world. Her feast is celebrated on 17 October.
[Note: She was canonized by Pope Benedict XV in 1920.]

SISTER MARY BERNARD DOLL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Marie Antoinette playing the clavichord painted by Franz Xaver Wagenschön shortly before her marriage.

Marie Antoinette playing the clavichord painted by Franz Xaver Wagenschön shortly before her marriage.

Queen of France. Born at Vienna, 2 November, 1755; executed in Paris, 16 October, 1793. She was the youngest daughter of Francis I, German Emperor, and of Maria Theresa. The marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette was one of the last acts of Choiseul’s policy; but the Dauphiness from the first shared the unpopularity attaching to the Franco-Austrian alliance. Ambassador Mercy and Abbé de Vermond, the former tutor of the archduchess in Austria and now her reader in France, endeavoured to make her follow the prudent counsels as to her conduct sent by her mother, Maria Theresa, and to enable her thus to overcome all the intrigues of the Court. Marie Antoinette’s disdain of Madame du Barry, the mistress of Louis XV, was perhaps, from a political standpoint, a mistake, but it is an honourable evidence of the high character and self-respect of the Dauphiness. Having become queen on 10 May, 1774, she adopted an imprudent course of action, both in her political and private life. In politics she was always so uncompromisingly attached to the Franco-Austrian alliance that she was nicknamed “L’Autrichienne” by Mme Adélaide and the Duc d’Aiguillon’s party. Her unpopularity reached a climax when, in 1778, Austria laid claim to the throne of Bavaria and she tried to bring about French mediation between Austria and Prussia. In truth, it was to the interest of France not to permit the indefinite growth of the Prussian power; but the routine diplomats, believing that Austria was to be forever the enemy of France, and the philosophers, who were favourably disposed towards Prussia, as a Protestant nation, abhorred any display of sympathy for Austria.

Marie Antoinette by Vigee Le Brun.

Marie Antoinette by Vigee Le Brun.

In her private life, Marie Antoinette may justly be blamed for her prodigality, for having, between 1774 and 1777 — by certain notorious escapades (sleigh racing, opera balls, hunting in the Bois de Boulogne, gambling) and by her amusements at the Trianon — given occasion for calumnious reports. But she confessed to Mercy that she indulged in this dissipation to console herself for having no children; and the tales of Besenval, Lauzun, and Soulavie, about the amours of Marie Antoinette, cannot stand against the testimony of the Prince de Ligne: “Her pretended gallantry was never any more than a very deep friendship for one or two individuals, and the ordinary coquetry of a woman, or a queen, trying to please everyone.” De Goltz, the Prussian minister, also wrote that though a malicious person might interpret the queen’s conduct unfavourably there was nothing in it beyond a desire to please everybody. Besides, the queen continued to give edification by her regular practice of her religious duties. “If I were only a mother, I should be considered a Frenchwoman”, wrote Marie Antoinette to Mercy in 1775. She became the mother of Madame Royale in 1778, in 1781 of a Dauphin who was to die eight years later, and of little Louis XVII in 1785. But the ill-feeling towards “L’Autrichienne” was stirred up by the lamentable “Affair of the Diamond Necklace” (1784-86). Cardinal de Rohan, grand aumônier of France, deceived by an adventuress, who called herself Comtesse de la Motte-Valois, purchased for 1,600,000 livres a necklace which he believed the queen wished to have; the lawsuit begun by the unpaid jewellers resulted in the acquittal of Cardinal de Rohan, while the publicity of the allegations of Mme de la Motte, who pretended that the queen was aware of the transaction, and the romantic story of a nocturnal rendezvous at the Tuileries, were exploited by Marie Antoinette’s enemies. The Comte d’Artois compromised her by his intimacy, scurrilous pamphlets were circulated, and, particularly in certain court circles, that abominable campaign of mendacity was inaugurated to which the queen fell a victim at a later period.

The Conciergerie Prison where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her death. Painted by Adrien Dauzats.

The Conciergerie Prison where Marie Antoinette was imprisoned before her death. Painted by Adrien Dauzats.

In 1789, at the opening of the States-General, the crowd, acclaiming the queen’s enemy, shouted in her hearing: “Long live the Duc d’Orléans!” The events of October, 1789, which forced the Court to return from Versailles to Paris, were directed especially against her. In June, 1791, the projected flight which she had planned with the assistance of Fersen and Bouillé, failed, the royal couple being arrested at Varennes. Marie Antoinette secretly negotiated with foreign powers for the king’s safety; but when, on 27 August, 1791, Leopold of Austria and Frederick William of Prussia bound themselves, by the Declaration of Pillnitz, never to allow the new French Constitution to be established, she wrote to Mercy that “each one is at liberty to adopt in his own country the domestic laws that please him”, and she regretted the extravagances of the émigrés. She wished the powers to hold a kind of “armed congress” which, without making war on France, should give moral support to the French king, and inspire the better class of his subjects with courage to rally round him. But the Revolution was hastening: on 13 August, 1792, Marie Antoinette was shut up in the Temple; on 1 August, 1793, she was sent to the Conciergerie; her trial took place on 14 October.

Marie Antoinette being led to her death.

Marie Antoinette being led to her death.

Accused by Fouquier-Tinville of having tried to foment both war with foreign nations and civil war, the “Widow Capet” was defended by Chauveau-Lagarde and Tronson Ducoudray, who were forthwith cast into prison. She may have received absolution from the Curé of Ste-Marguerite, who was in a cell opposite to hers; at all events, she refused to make her confession to the Abbé Girard, a “constitutional” priest, who offered her his services. She mounted the scaffold undauntedly. Her historian, M. de la Rocheterie, says of her: “She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr.”

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DE BEAUCOURT AND DE LA ROCHETERIE, eds., Lettres de Marie-Antoinette (2 vols., Paris, 1895, 1896) (the only edition to oonsult, since Geffroy has convicted Feuillet de Conches’ earlier publication of inaccuracies and interpolations); ARNETH AND GEFFROY, eds., Correspondance secrète entre Marie-Thérèse et Mercy Argenteau (Paris, 1874); ARNETH ET FLAMMERMONT, eds., Correspondance de Joseph II avec le prince de Kaunitz (Paris, 1889-91); ARNETH, ed., Marie-Antoinette, Joseph II, und Leopold II., ihr Briefwechsel (Leipzig, 1866); IDEM, ed., Maria-Theresia und Marie-Antoinette, ihr Briefwcehsel (Leipzig, l866); DE LA ROCHETERIE, Histoire de Marie-Antoinette (Paris, 1908); DE NOLHAC, La reine Marie-Antoinette (Paris, 1898); IDEM, Marie Antoinette, the Dauphine, tr. from the French (folio, Paris, 1897); IDEM, Versailles au temps de Marie-Antoinette (Paris, 1892); DE SÉGUR, Au couchant de la monarchie (Paris, 1910); BICKNELL, The Story of Marie Antoinette (London, 1897); BLENNERHASSETT, Marie-Antoinette Königin von Frankreich (Bielefeld, 1903); BOUTRY, Autour de Marie-Antoinette (Paris, 1907); FUNCK-BRENTANO, L’affaire du collier (Paris. 1901); IDEM, La mont de la reine (Paris, 1902). — An excellent study of the historical sources on Marie-Antoinette is TOURNEUX, Marie-Antoinette devant l’histoire. Essai bibliographique (2nd ed., Paris, 1901).

GEORGES GOYAU (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Painting by François-Hubert Drouais

(A lecture by Plinio Correa de Oliveira)

Most Reverend Monsignor Director of this Academy, Gentlemen Academicians:

A simple listing of the titles with which she was known during her short life as Marie Antoinette of Hapsburg, and later Marie Antoinette of Bourbon, brings to memory the series of extraordinary and unforeseen events that together make up the fabric of one of the most interesting feminine existences of the eighteenth century.

In its first phase, the life of this princess unfolds as happily and brightly as a golden dream, uniting in the same person all the glory of power, all the brilliance of fortune, and all the charm of a radiant youth. Suddenly, however, that long chain of fortunes is cut short by a ghastly typhoon that causes the wreck of the monarchy, the desecration of altars, and the collapse of a nobility which, for many centuries, had been writing with its sword the brightest pages in the history of France.

Amid the collapsing social and political edifice of the Bourbon monarchy, when everyone feels the ground crumbling beneath their feet, the joyful Archduchess of Austria and youthful Queen of France, whose elegant bearing resembles a statuette of Sevres porcelain and whose laughter conveys the charms of cloudless happiness, drinks with admirable Christian resignation, aplomb and dignity, from the bitter yet immense cup of gall with which Divine Providence decides to glorify her.

Certain souls are grand only when the winds of misfortune blow upon them.
Painting by Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Certain souls are grand only when the winds of misfortune blow upon them. Facing the tidal wave of blood and misery that flooded France, Marie Antoinette, futile as a princess and unforgivably frivolous in her life as queen, undergoes a surprising transformation; and historians, filled with respect, note that from the queen sprung up a martyr, and from the frivolous doll, a heroine.

Archduchess Marie Antoinette, daughter of the fiery Marie Therese, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and of Francis I, ruler of the Holy Roman German Empire, is born in the year 1755 in the magnificent Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. The difference between the characters of her parents may perhaps explain the disconcerting contradictions found in Marie Antoinette’s every action and throughout her life.

Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, the later Queen Marie Antoinette of France, only a few months old.

Marie Therese was courageous and energetic enough to gloriously confront Frederick the Great of Prussia; and her royal authority weighed so forcefully upon her subjects that they called her, even in important official documents, ‘the King’ rather than ‘the Queen’. By contrast, Francis I was weak, cowardly and not very intelligent. It is said that, when Voltaire’s unjust invectives against the monarchy were repeated in his presence, the poor king, lacking enough culture and energy to defend the principles of which he was the custodian, would merely tell his courtiers: “What else can I do, my job requires me to be a monarchist!”

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Source: BBC

Photo of the late Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, taken in the Blue Room of Buckingham Palace. Photograph taken by Julian Calder for Governor-General of New Zealand.

The first of two life-size bronze sculptures of Queen Elizabeth II has been unveiled.

The statue in Riverside Park in Andover, Hampshire, was commissioned by Test Valley Borough Council to mark the Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Its “sister” statue is due to be placed in Romsey next year.

The sculpture depicts the monarch in her later years…

The late Queen, who died in September 2022, visited the town in 1993.

A second piece – depicting a young Queen at her coronation – will be installed in Romsey next year.

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The Crusades – Part VIII

October 10, 2024

VIII. THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY CRUSADE AND THE OTTOMAN INVASION

Grand master & senior Knight Hospitallers

Grand master & senior Knight Hospitallers

The loss of Saint-Jean d’Acre did not lead the princes of Europe to organize a new crusade. Men’s minds were indeed, as usual, directed towards the East, but in the first years of the fourteenth century the idea of a crusade inspired principally the works of theorists who saw in it the best means of reforming Christendom. The treatise by Pierre Dubois, law-officer of the crown at Coutances, “De Recuperatione Terræ Sanctæ” (Langlois, ed., Paris, 1891), seems like the work of a dreamer, yet some of its views are truly modern. The establishment of peace between Christian princes by means of a tribunal of arbitration, the idea of making a French prince hereditary emperor, the secularization of the Patrimony of St. Peter, the consolidation of the Orders of the Hospitallers and Templars, the creation of a disciplined army the different corps of which were to have a special uniform, the creation of schools for the study of Oriental languages, and the intermarriage of Christian maidens with Saracens were the principal ideas it propounded (1307).

Saint Francis of Assisi with the Sultan Al-Kamil

Saint Francis of Assisi with the Sultan Al-Kamil

On the other hand the writings of men of greater activity and wider experience suggested more practical methods for effecting the conquest of the East. Persuaded that Christian defeat in the Orient was largely due to the mercantile relations which the Italian cities Venice and Genoa continued to hold with the Mohammedans, these authors sought the establishment of a commercial blockade which, within a few years, would prove the ruin of Egypt and cause it to fall under Christian control. For this purpose it was recommended that a large fleet be fitted out at the expense of Christian princes and made to do police duty on the Mediterranean so as to prevent smuggling. These were the projects set forth in the memoirs of Fidentius of Padua, a Franciscan (about 1291, Bibliothèque Nationale, Latin MSS., 7247); in those of King Charles II of Naples (1293, Bib. Nat., Frankish MSS., 6049); Jacques de Molay (1307, Baluze, ed., Vitæ paparum Avenion., II, 176-185); Henry II, King of Cyprus (Mas-Latrie, ed., Histoire de Chypre, II, 118); Guillaume d’Adam, Archbishop of Sultanieh (1310, Kohler, ed., Collect. Hist. of the Crusades, Armenian Documents, II); and Marino Sanudo, the Venetian (Bongars, ed., Secreta fidelium Crucis, II). The consolidation of the military orders was also urged by Charles II. Many other memoirs, especially that of Hayton, King of Armenia (1307, ed. Armenian Documents, I), considered an alliance between the Christians and the Mongols of Persia indispensable to success. In fact, from the end of the thirteenth century many missionaries had penetrated into the Mongolian Empire; in Persia, as well as in China, their propaganda flourished. St. Francis of Assisi, and Raymond Lully had hoped to substitute for the warlike crusade a peaceable conversion of the Mohammedans to Christianity.

Blessed Raymond Lully, T.O.S.F.

Blessed Raymond Lully, T.O.S.F.

Raymond Lully, born at Palma, on the Island of Majorca, in 1235, began (1275) his “Great Art”, which, by means of a universal method for the study of Oriental languages, would equip missionaries to enter into controversies with the Mohammedan doctors. In the same year he prevailed upon the King of Majorca to found the College of the Blessed Trinity at Miramar, where the Friars Minor could learn the Oriental languages. He himself translated catechetical treatises into Arabic and, after spending his life travelling in Europe trying to win over to his ideas popes and kings, suffered martyrdom at Bougie, where he had begun his work of evangelization (1314). Among the Mohammedans this propaganda encountered insurmountable difficulties, whereas the Mongols, some of whom were still members of the Nestorian Church, received it willingly. During the pontificate of John XXII (1316-34) permanent Dominican and Franciscan missions were established in Persia, China, Tatary and Turkestan, and in 1318 the Archbishopric of Sultanieh was created in Persia. In China Giovanni de Monte Corvino, created Archbishop of Cambaluc (Peking), organized the religious hierarchy, founded monasteries, and converted to Christianity men of note, possibly the great khan himself. The account of the journey of Blessed Orderic de Pordenone (Cordier, ed.) across Asia, between 1304 and 1330, shows us that Christianity had gained a foothold in Persia, India, Central Asia, and Southern China.

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That General Lee was a “square” fighter was evidenced time and again during the great conflict for the Union. When his army invaded the North in the campaign that culminated at Gettysburg he gave strict orders that no harm should be done to private property, and General Lee was once seen to get down from his horse to mend a rail fence that his men had torn down.

Prisoners from the Front, painted by Winslow Homer.

When, during the Wilderness campaign, General Lee’s army was in danger of starvation through Sheridan’s capture of supplies sent from Richmond, one of Lee’s commanders proposed that word be sent to Grant that he must send rations for the prisoners in the hands of the Confederates if they were to be saved from starvation. General Lee angrily resented the suggestion, “The prisoners we have here,” he said, “are my prisoners; they are not General Grant’s prisoners, and as long as I have any rations at all I shall certainly share them with my prisoners.”

The Pensacola Journal., January 15, 1907

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 560

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How to overcome bad ancestry

October 10, 2024

St. Francis Borgia (also known as Francisco de Borja y Aragon), born 28 October, 1510, was the son of Juan Borgia, third Duke of Gandia, and of Juana of Aragon; died 30 September, 1572. The future saint was unhappy in his ancestry.

Pope Alexander VI Painted by Cristofano dell'Altissimo

Pope Alexander VI Painted by Cristofano dell’Altissimo

His grandfather, Juan Borgia, the second son of Alexander VI, was assassinated in Rome on 14 June, 1497, by an unknown hand, which his family always believed to be that of Cæsar Borgia. Rodrigo Borgia, elected pope in 1402 under the name of Alexander VI, had eight children. The eldest, Pedro Luis, had acquired in 1485 the hereditary Duchy of Gandia in the Kingdom of Valencia, which, at his death, passed to his brother Juan, who had married Maria Enriquez de Luna. Having been left a widow by the murder of her husband, Maria Enriquez withdrew to her duchy and devoted herself piously to the education of her two children, Juan and Isabel. After the marriage of her son in 1509, she followed the example of her daughter, who had entered the convent of Poor Clares in Gandia, and it was through these two women that sanctity entered the Borgia family, and in the House of Gandia was begun the work of reparation which Francis Borgia was to crown.

Juan Borgia (Giovanni Borgia), second son of Alexander VI and father of St. Francis Borgia.

Juan Borgia (Giovanni Borgia), second son of Alexander VI and father of St. Francis Borgia.

Great-grandson of Alexander VI, on the paternal side, he was, on his mother’s side, the great-grandson of the Catholic King Ferdinand of Aragon. This monarch had procured the appointment of his natural son, Alfonso, to the Archbishopric of Saragossa at the age of nine years. By Anna de Gurrea, Alfonso had two sons, who succeeded him in his archiepiscopal see, and two daughters, one of whom, Juana, married Duke Juan of Gandia and became the mother of our saint. By this marriage Juan had three sons and four daughters. By a second, contracted in 1523, he had five sons and five daughters. The eldest of all and heir to the dukedom was Francis. Piously reared in a court which felt the influence of the two Poor Clares, the mother and sister of the reigning duke, Francis lost his own mother when he was but ten. In 1521, a sedition amongst the populace imperilled the child’s life, and the position of the nobility. When the disturbance was suppressed, Francis was sent to Saragossa to continue his education at the court of his uncle, the archbishop, an ostentatious prelate who had never been consecrated nor even ordained priest. Although in this court the Spanish faith retained its fervour, it lapsed nevertheless into the inconsistencies permitted by the times, and Francis could not disguise from himself the relation in which his grandmother stood to the dead archbishop, although he was much indebted to her for his early religious training. While at Saragossa Francis cultivated his mind and attracted the attention of his relatives by his fervour. They being desirous of assuring the fortune of the heir of Gandia, sent him at the age of twelve to Tordesillas as page to the Infanta Catarina, the youngest child and companion in solitude of the unfortunate queen, Juana the Mad.

Charles V by Virgil Solis

Charles V by Virgil Solis

In 1525 the Infanta married King Juan III of Portugal, and Francis returned to Saragossa to complete his education. At last, in 1528, the court of Charles V was opened to him, and the most brilliant future awaited him. On the way to Valladolid, while passing, brilliantly escorted, through Alcalá de Henares, Francis encountered a poor man whom the servants of the Inquisition were leading to prison. It was Ignatius of Loyola. The young nobleman exchanged a glance of emotion with the prisoner, little dreaming that one day they should be united by the closest ties.

St. Ignatius of Loyola

St. Ignatius of Loyola

The emperor and empress welcomed Borgia less as a subject than as a kinsman. He was seventeen, endowed with every charm, accompanied by a magnificent train of followers, and, after the emperor, his presence was the most gallant and knightly at court. In 1529, at the desire of the empress, Charles V gave him in marriage the hand of Eleanor de Castro, at the same time making him Marquess of Lombay, master of the hounds, and equerry to the empress, and appointing Eleanor Camarera Mayor. The newly-created Marquess of Lombay enjoyed a privileged station. Whenever the emperor was travelling or conducting a campaign, he confided to the young equerry the care of the empress, and on his return to Spain treated him as a confidant and friend. In 1535, Charles V led the expedition against Tunis unaccompanied by Borgia, but in the following year the favourite followed his sovereign on the unfortunate campaign in Provence. Besides the virtues which made him the model of the court and the personal attractions which made him its ornament, the Marquess of Lombay possessed a cultivated musical taste. He delighted above all in ecclesiastical compositions, and these display a remarkable contrapuntal style and bear witness to the skill of the composer, justifying indeed the assertion that, in the sixteenth century and prior to Palestrina, Borgia was one of the chief restorers of sacred music.

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St. Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne

St. Bruno the Great

St. Bruno the Great

Bruno the Great (or Bruno I) (925–965) was Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, from 953 until his death, and Duke of Lotharingia from 954. He was the brother of Otto I, king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor. Bruno was the youngest son of Henry the Fowler and his second wife Matilda of Ringelheim.

In 940, Bruno began to exercise the functions of imperial chancellor (Mon. Germ. Dipl., I, 120 nr. 35). After he had received deacon’s orders in 941 or 942, the emperor appointed him, despite his youth, Abbot of the monasteries of Lorsch, near Worms, and of Corvei on the Weser. In both communities he soon restored the strict observance of St. Benedict’s Rule. He was ordained priest about 950 and in 951 became archchancellor (Mon. Germ. Dipl., I, 218, nr. 138 sq.); even from the year 940 on, all Otto’s state papers were prepared by Bruno’s hand.

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor

As the executive administration of affairs was conducted chiefly through the royal chancery, Bruno’s influence now extended to all parts of the empire. Relations between Germany and France were by his good offices greatly improved. He took part in the Synod of Verdun, in 947, and assisted in the adjustment of the quarrel, of such consequence to the Kingdom of France, about the Archbishopric of Reims. In 951 he accompanied the Emperor Otto to Italy. In the troublesome times which soon followed during the revolt of Ludolf, Otto’s eldest son and heir-apparent, and Conrad, Duke of Lorraine, Bruno proved his loyalty and devotion to his brother. For this service, after the death (9 July, 953) of Wicfrid, Archbishop of Cologne, the emperor caused Bruno to be elected his successor in that see, and likewise entrusted to him the administration of the Duchy of Lorraine. On the 21st of September, the nobility of that province swore allegiance to Bruno at Aachen, and on the 25th he was consecrated and enthroned at Cologne. Through Bruno’s mediation Ludolf was reconciled with his father, and the rebellion of Conrad effectually quelled.

In the struggle between the last of the Carlovingians and the rising house of Capet, Bruno’s prestige enabled him to act, in the name of his imperial brother, as a supreme arbitrator in French affairs, countless disputes being satisfactorily settled by his prudence and tact.

Church of St. Pantaleon in Cologne, Germany.

In Bruno’s personality as prince-bishop was represented the perfect union of Church and State, which was the corner-stone of the policy of Otto the Great; for Bruno, despite his tireless temporal activities, was a great bishop and zealous pastor. He ruled by personal piety and singular holiness of life. With scrupulous care he watched over the moral discipline of his diocese, improved the higher education of the clergy and lavished his resources on monastic and ecclesiastical institutions throughout the realm. The monastery of St. Pantaleon at Cologne, begun in 956, was his foundation. The literary distinction to which Lorraine, before other parts of the kingdom, early attained may be accounted not the least remarkable result of his work. Bruno’s favourite abode was Bonn.

Inner of St. Pantaleon, Cologne

Inner of St. Pantaleon, Cologne

When Otto set out a second time for Italy in 961, to be crowned emperor at Rome, the government of the realm and the guardianship of Otto II was confided to Bruno and to William, Archbishop of Mainz. Soon after the kaiser’s return, Bruno was summoned again on a mission of peace to France; it was while on this journey that he died, at Reims. His body, at his own request, was carried back and buried in the monastic church of St. Pantaleon at Cologne. From time immemorial the Diocese of Tournay has had a special office for St. Bruno on June the 18th, and as the day of his death was always celebrated at St. Pantaleon as the anniversary of a saint, the feast of Bruno, Confessor, is now observed throughout the Diocese of Cologne as a double on the 11th day of October.
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RUOTGER, Vita Brunonis in Acta SS., Oct., V, 698, also found in Mon. Germ. Hist., IV, 252, and in P. L., CXXXIV, 938; Altera Vita Brunonis (a later life, written in the 12th century at St. Pantaleon), in Mon. Germ. Hist., IV, 275; P. L., CXXXIV, 978; VON HEFELE, S.V. in Kirchenlex., II; HAUCK, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1896), III, 40; ID. in HERZOGHAUCK Real-Encyk. für prot. Theol. und Kirche (Leipzig, 1897); PIELER, Bruno I (Arnsberg, 1851); MEYER, De Brunone I (Berlin, 1870); PFEIFFER, Hist.-krit. Beiträge zur Geschichte Bruns I (Cologne, 1870); STREBITZKI, Quellenkr. Untersuch. (Neustadt in Westpreussen, 1875); GIESEBRECHT, Kaiserzeit (3d ed., Brunswick, 1863), I, 321; KÖPKE AND DÜMMLER, Kaiser Otto d. Gr. (Leipzig, 1876), passim; GIESEBRECHT, Allgemaeine Deutsche Biographie, III, 424; MITTAG, Die Arbeitsweise Ruotgers in der Vita Brunonis (Berlin, 1896); Analecta Bollandiana, XVI, 202 and XVIII, 57; WATTENBACH, Gesch.-Quellen (6th ed., Berlin, 1893), I, 321; KLEINERMANNS, Die Heiligen auf dem bischöflichen bezw. erzbischöflichen Stuhle von Köln (Cologne, 1895-98).

GEORGE H. DERRY (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Christoper Columbus arrives in America. Painting by by Gergio Deluci

When Christopher Columbus discovered the New World on October 12, 1492–a feat that earned for him the title of Admiral of the Indies and for his grandson Louis and his descendants in perpetuity the noble title of Duke of Veragua–he introduced into the Americas the greatest treasure possible: the Catholic Faith.

Flowers of a key lime plant.

However, his epic Atlantic crossing also introduced what has been called The Columbian Exchange. Columbus’s deed was the first step in the mutually enriching exchange of numerous animals and plants between the two hemispheres.
From the Americas, the potato, corn, tobacco, squash, tomato, bell peppers, new types of beans, cocoa, rubber, pineapple, and many other crops improved life for countless millions in Europe, Africa and Asia. Wheat, rice, barley, onions, coffee, sugar, grapes, apples, bananas, and many other plants from the Old World came westward, greatly enhancing the Americas.

Key Lime, Citrus aurantifolia. A tree-ripened key lime’s color is a bright yellow, unlike the more common green Persian limes.

All forms of citrus fruits were among the westbound plants, and among these, the Key lime. It is believed that Columbus himself brought the first limes. They became known as Key limes when planted on the Florida Keys, the chain of islands that, starting from Miami, sweeps southwesterly in a gentle curve, like the graceful train of a queen’s dress on her Coronation Day.

When making and enjoying your next Key Lime Pie, think for a moment of Christopher Columbus and his heroic Discovery of the Americas. Think of the almost superhuman courage of so many hidalgos, nobles and gentry who came behind him, extending the reach of the Christian Faith, culture and civilization to these lands. There would be no limes in the Florida Keys today without them.

Click Here To Get This Delicious Recipe!

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St. Wilfrid

St. WilfridBishop of York, son of a Northumbrian thegn, born in 634; died at Oundle in Northamptonshire, 709. He was unhappy at home, through the unkindness of a stepmother, and in his fourteenth year he was sent away to the Court of King Oswy, King of Northumbria. Here he attracted the attention of Queen Eanfleda and by her, at his own request, he was sent to the Monastery of Lindisfarne. After three years spent here he was sent for, again through the kindness of the queen, to Rome, in the company of St. Benedict Biscop. At Rome he was the pupil of Boniface, the pope’s archdeacon. On his way home he stayed for three years at Lyons, where he received the tonsure from Annemundas, the bishop of that place. Annemundas wanted him to remain at Lyons altogether, and marry his niece and become his heir, but Wilfrid was determined that he would be a priest. Soon after persecution arose at Lyons, and Annemundas perished in it. The same fate nearly came to Wilfrid, but when it was shown that he was a Saxon he was allowed to depart, and came back to England. In England he received the newly founded monastery at Ripon as the gift of Alchfrid, Oswy’s son and heir, and here he established the full Benedictine Rule. The Columbite monks, who had been settled previously at Ripon, withdrew to the North. It was not until he had been for five years Abbot of Ripon, that Wilfrid became a priest. His main work at Ripon was the introduction of Roman rules and the putting forward of a Roman practice with regard to the point at issue between the Holy See and the Scottish monks in Northumbria; to settle these questions the synod of Whitby was held in 664. Chiefly owing to Wilfrid’s advocacy of the claims of the Holy See the votes of the majority were given to that side, and Colman and his monks, bitterly disappointed, withdrew from Northumbria. Wilfrid, in consequence of the favours he had then obtained, was elected bishop in Colman’s place, and, refusing to receive consecration from the northern bishops, whom he regarded as schismatics, went over to France to be consecrated at Compiègne. He delayed some time in France, whether by his own fault or not is not quite clear, and on his return in 666 was driven from his course by a storm and shipwrecked on the coast of Sussex, where the heathen inhabitants repelled him and almost killed him. He succeeded in landing, however, in Kent not far from Sandwich. Thence he made his way to Northumbria, only to find that, owing to his long absence, his see had been filled up, and that a St. Chad was bishop in his place. He retired to his old monastery at Ripon, and from thence went southwards and worked in Mercia, especially at Lichfield, and also in Kent.

 "In 686 King Caedwalla issued a charter confirming the rights and territories previously given to St. Wilfrid by king Aethelwealh and the estate of the Hundred of Pagham including Shripney, Charlton, Bognor, Bersted, Crimsham, Mundham and Tangmere. The handing over of the charter is brilliantly depicted in the Lambert Barnard mural in the south transept of Chichester Cathedral commissioned by Bishop Robert Sherburne c 1508-1536."

“In 686 King Caedwalla issued a charter confirming the rights and territories previously given to St. Wilfrid by king Aethelwealh and the estate of the Hundred of Pagham including Shripney, Charlton, Bognor, Bersted, Crimsham, Mundham and Tangmere. The handing over of the charter is brilliantly depicted in the Lambert Barnard mural in the south transept of Chichester Cathedral commissioned by Bishop Robert Sherburne c 1508-1536.”

“In 686 King Caedwalla issued a charter confirming the rights and territories previously given to St. Wilfrid by king Aethelwealh and the estate of the Hundred of Pagham including Shripney, Charlton, Bognor, Bersted, Crimsham, Mundham and Tangmere. The handing over of the charter is brilliantly depicted in the Lambert Barnard mural in the south transept of Chichester Cathedral commissioned by Bishop Robert Sherburne c 1508-1536.”

In 669 Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury visited Northumbria, where he found Chad working as bishop. He pointed out to him the defects of his position and, at his instigation, St. Chad withdrew and Wilfrid once more became Bishop of York. During his tenure of the see, he acted with great vigour and energy, completing the work of enforcing the Roman obedience against the Scottish monks. He founded a great many monasteries of the Benedictine Order, especially at Henlam and at Ripon, and completely rebuilt the minster at York. In all that he did he acted with great magnificence, although his own life was always simple and restrained. So long as Oswy lived all went well, but with Ecgfrid, Oswy’s son and successor, Wilfrid was very unpopular, because of his action in connection with Ecgfrid’s bride Etheldrida, who by Wilfrid’s advice would not live with her husband but retired into a monastery. It was just at this juncture that Theodore, possibly exceeding his powers as Archbishop of Canterbury, proceeded to subdivide the great diocese over which Wilfrid ruled, and to make suffragan bishops of Lindisfarne, Hexham, and Witherne. Wilfrid, whether or not he approved of the principle of subdivision, refused to allow Theodore’s right to make it, and appealed to the central authority at Rome, whither he at once went. Theodore replied by consecrating three bishops in Wilfrid’s own church at York and dividing his whole bishopric between them. An attempt was made by his enemies to prevent Wilfrid from reaching Rome, but by a singular coincidence Winfrid, Bishop of Lichfield, happened to be going to Rome at the same time, and the singularity of the name led to his being stopped while Wilfrid got through safely. At Rome a council was called by Pope Agatho to decide the case, and Wilfrid appeared before it in person, while Theodore was represented. The case was decided in Wilfrid’s favour, and the intruding bishops were removed. Wilfrid was to return to York, and since subdivision of his diocese was needed, he was to appoint others as his coadjutors. He came back to Northumbria with this decision, but the king, though not disputing the right of Rome to settle the question, said that Wilfrid had brought the decision and put him in prison at Bambrough. After a time this imprisonment was converted to exile, and he was driven from the kingdom of Northumbria. He went south to Sussex where the heathen inhabitants had so inhospitably received him fifteen years before, and preached as a missionary at Selsey.

St. Wilfrid

In 686 a reconciliation took place between Theodore and Wilfrid, who had then been working in Sussex for five years. Through Theodore’s good offices Wilfrid was received back in Northumbria, where Aldfrid was now king. He became Bishop of Hexham at once, and before long, when York again fell vacant, he took possession there once more. For some years all went well, but at the end of that time great difficulties arose with the king because Wilfrid utterly refused to recognize what had been done by Theodore but annulled by Rome in the matter of the subdivision of his diocese, and he once more left York and appealed to Rome. He reached Rome for the third and last time in 704. The proceedings at Rome were very lengthy, but after some months Wilfrid was again victorious. Archbishop Brihtwald was to hold a synod and see justice done. Wilfrid started again for England but on his way was taken ill at Meaux and nearly died. He recovered, however, and came back to England, where he was reconciled to Brihtwald. A synod was held, and it was decided to give back to Wilfrid, Hexham and Ripon, but not York, a settlement which, though unsatisfactory, he decided to accept, as the principle of Roman authority had been vindicated.  Beyond all others of his time, St. Wilfrid stands out as the great defender of the rights of the Holy See. For that principle he fought all through his life, first against Colman and the Scottish monks from Iona, and then against Theodore and his successor in the See of Canterbury; and much of his life was spent in exile for this reason. But to him above all others is due the establishment of the authority of the Roman See in England, and for that reason he will always have a very high place among English saints. Eddius, the biographer of St. Wilfrid, was brought by that saint from Canterbury when he returned to York in 669. His special work was to be in connection with the music of the church of York, and he was to teach the Roman method of chant. He was an inmate of the monastery of Ripon in 709, when St. Wilfrid spent his last days there, and he undertook the work of writing the life of the saint at the request of Acca, St. Wilfrid’s successor in the See of Hexham. The best edition of the work is in Raines, “Historians of the Church of York” (Rolls Series).

ARTHUR S. BARNES (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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King Confessor

October 10, 2024

St. Edward the Confessor

Saint, King of England, born in 1003; died January 5, 1066.

Statue of St. Edward the Confessor in St Alban's Cathedral.

Statue of St. Edward the Confessor in St Alban’s Cathedral.

He was the son of Ethelred II and Emma, daughter of Duke Richard of Normandy, being thus half-brother to King Edmund Ironside, Ethelred’s son by his first wife, and to King Hardicanute, Emma’s son by her second marriage with Canute.

When hardly ten years old he was sent with his brother Alfred into Normandy to be brought up at the court of the duke his uncle, the Danes having gained the mastery in England. Thus he spent the best years of his life in exile, the crown having been settled by Canute, with Emma’s consent, upon his own offspring by her. Early misfortune thus taught Edward the folly of ambition, and he grew up in innocence, delighting chiefly in assisting at Mass and the church offices, and in association with religious, whilst not disdaining the pleasures of the chase, or recreations suited to his station. Subscription15 Upon Canute’s death in 1035 his illegitimate son, Harold, seized the throne, Hardicanute being then in Denmark, and Edward and his brother Alfred were persuaded to make an attempt to gain the crown, which resulted in the cruel death of Alfred who had fallen into Harold’s hands, whilst Edward was obliged to return to Normandy. On Hardicanute’s sudden death in 1042, Edward was called by acclamation to the throne at the age of about forty, being welcomed even by the Danish settlers owing to his gentle saintly character. His reign was one of almost unbroken peace, the threatened invasion of Canute’s son, Sweyn of Norway, being averted by the opportune attack on him of Sweyn of Denmark; and the internal difficulties occasioned by the ambition of Earl Godwin and his sons being settled without bloodshed by Edward’s own gentleness and prudence. He undertook no wars except to repel an inroad of the Welsh, and to assist Malcom III of Scotland against Macbeth, the usurper of his throne. Being devoid of personal ambition, Edward’s one aim was the welfare of his people. He remitted the odious “Danegelt”, which had needlessly continued to be levied; and though profuse in alms to the poor and for religious purposes, he made his own royal patrimony suffice without imposing taxes. Such was the contentment caused by “the good St. Edward’s laws”, that their enactment was repeatedly demanded by later generations, when they felt themselves oppressed.

The tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, which contains his incorrupt body. He is the only Saint buried in Westminster Abbey and one of the few that were not destroyed by Henry VIII.

The tomb of St. Edward the Confessor, which contains his incorrupt body. He is the only Saint buried in Westminster Abbey and one of the few that were not destroyed by Henry VIII.

Yielding to the entreaty of his nobles, he accepted as his consort the virtuous Editha, Earl Godwin’s daughter. Having, however, made a vow of chastity, he first required her agreement to live with him only as a sister. As he could not leave his kingdom without injury to his people, the making of a pilgrimage to St. Peter’s tomb, to which he had bound himself, was commuted by the pope into the rebuilding at Westminster of St. Peter’s abbey, the dedication of which took place but a week before his death, and in which he was buried. St. Edward was the first King of England to touch for the “king’s evil”, many sufferers from which disease were cured by him.

He was canonized by Alexander III in 1161. His feast is kept on the 13th of October, his incorrupt body having been solemnly translated on that day in 1163 by St. Thomas of Canterbury in the presence of King Henry II.

G. E. PHILLIPS (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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[previous]

B. Protestant Monarchies and Catholic Republics

An objection could be made to our theses: If the universal republican movement is a fruit of the Protestant spirit, then why is there only one Catholic king in the world today1 while so many Protestant countries continue to be monarchies?

President Reagan and Mrs. Reagan greet King Juan Carlos I and Queen Sophia of Spain for the State Dinner, October 13th, 1981.

The explanation is simple. England, Holland, and the Nordic nations, for a series of historical, psychological, and other reasons, have a great affinity with monarchy. When the Revolution penetrated them, it could not prevent the monarchical sentiment from “coagulating.” Thus, royalty obstinately continues to survive in those countries, even though the Revolution is penetrating deeper and deeper in other fields. “Surviving” … yes, to the extent that dying slowly can be called surviving. The English monarchy, reduced largely to a role of mere display, and the other Protestant monarchies, transformed for most intents and purposes into republics whose heads hold life-long hereditary office, are quietly agonizing. If things continue as they are, these monarchies will die out in silence.

Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Without denying that other causes contribute to this survival, we wish to stress this very important factor, which falls within the scope of our exposition.

On the contrary, in the Latin nations the love for an external and visible discipline and for a strong and prestigious public authority is, for many reasons, much smaller.

Crown Prince Umberto of Italy with his sisters Maria and Giovanna in the Vatican, along with Marquis Don Giovanni Battista Sacchetti, Major of the Apostolic Palace.

Consequently, the Revolution did not find in them such a deep-rooted monarchical sentiment. It easily swept away their thrones. But heretofore, it has not been sufficiently strong to overthrow religion.

1 The author is referring to the King of the Belgians. Subsequently, in 1975, Prince Juan Carlos was sworn in as King of Spain.-Ed.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Part I, Ch. VI, Pgs. 34 & 35.

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[continued]

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St. Daniel and Companions

Martyrdom of Saint Daniel Fasanella and companion martyrs.

Friars Minor and martyrs; dates of birth unknown; died 10 October, 1227. The martyrdom of St. Berard and his companions in 1219 had inflamed many of the religious of the Order of Friars Minor with the desire of preaching the Gospel in heathen lands; and in 1227, the year following St. Francis’s death, six religious of Tuscany, Agnellus, Samuel, Donulus, Leo, Hugolinus, and Nicholas, petitioned Brother Elias of Cortona, then vicar-general of the order, for permission to preach the Gospel to the infidels of Morocco. The six missionaries went first to Spain, where they were joined by Daniel, Minister Provincial of Calabria, who became their superior. They set sail from Spain and on 20 September reached the coast of Africa, where they remained for a few days in a small village inhabited mostly by Christian merchants just beyond the walls of the Saracen city of Ceuta. Finally, very early on Sunday morning, they entered the city, and immediately began to preach the Gospel and to denounce the religion of Mahomet. They were soon apprehended and brought before the sultan who, thinking that they were mad, ordered them to be cast into prison. Here they remained until the following Sunday when they were again brought before the sultan, who, by promises and threats, endeavoured in vain to make them deny the Christian religion. They were all condemned to death. Each one approached Daniel, the superior, to ask his blessing and permission to die for Christ. They were all beheaded. St. Daniel and his companions were canonized by Leo X in 1516. Their feast is kept in the order on the thirteenth of October.

STEPHEN M. DONOVAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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