Source: Reuters

Australia does not want to become a republic under the King, a new poll has suggested. The survey found that one in four respondents had a more favourable view of the monarch now than they did before he was crowned in 2023. Of the 1,049 Australians who responded to the survey by NewsCorp’s Pulse of Australia platform, one in three (33 per cent) were of the view that Australia should become a republic. This contrasted with 45 per cent who said Australia should remain a monarchy, and 22 per cent said they were unsure.

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The Battle of Cholet

October 17, 2024

Beaupréau

Beaupréau

The Battle of Cholet was fought on 17 October 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French Republican forces under General Léchelle and French Royalist Forces under Louis d’Elbée. The battle was fought in the town of Cholet in the Maine-et-Loire department of France, and resulted in a Republican victory. D’Elbée was wounded and captured; he was later executed by Republican troops in Noirmoutier. Royalist Charles Melchior Artus de Bonchamps was fatally wounded in the battle.

Prelude

General Jean Baptiste Kléber

General Jean Baptiste Kléber

On the morning of 16 October 1793, the Vendéen army, beaten at the battle of La Tremblaye, with neither ammunition nor artillery, had evacuated Cholet to take up positions in Beaupréau. The republican avant-garde, commanded by Beaupuy, entered in the town square by the south and moved through the town to settle on the high grounds north of the town. Kléber then deployed the remainder of his troops by positioning the divisions of Beaupuy and Haxo on the left flank of the château de La Treille, and those of Louis Vimeux on the right flank of the château de Bois-Grolleau. As for François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, who had just been promoted brigadier general after the Battle of La Tremblaye, he occupied the center with general Marc Scherb, in front of the Papinière moorland where the terrain was open.

General François-Séverin Desgraviers-Marceau Painting by François Bouchot

General François-Séverin Desgraviers-Marceau Painting by François Bouchot

Kléber informed Jean Léchelle of the situation, who was the chief general of the Army of the West, and he approved. The military competence of Léchelle were known to be null, most of the representatives had agreed to unofficially entrust the commandment to Kléber. That evening, the commissioners Pierre Bourbotte, René-Pierre Choudieu, Fayaud and Bellegarde arrived which brought the number of representatives in Cholet to seven considering Antoine Merlin de Thionville, Jean-Baptiste Carrier and Louis Turreau were already there. The republican forces waited again for a reinforcement of 10,000 men of the general Chalbos before pushing further to the north and towards Beaupréau, but they arrived during the night.

Republican strategy

General Armand-Michel Bacharetie de Beaupuy

General Armand-Michel Bacharetie de Beaupuy

The republican generals met in a war counsel early on 17 October. Kléber offered to divide the army in three columns and to march to Saint-Florent-le-Vieil, Gesté and Beaupréau in order to surround the Vendéen army and cut it from the Loire and the road to Nantes. The strategy was approved by the generals from Mayenne, by Marceau and by Merlin de Thionville, however a few other representatives and officers, particularly Chalbos, were against it. Chalbos thought the troops were too tired and the other officers were against dividing the army. Kléber’s plan was rejected and the counsel opted for an undivided march to Beaupréau.

Vendéen strategy

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Battle of La Forbie, also known as the Battle of Hiribya, October 17 – 18, 1244.

The victory of the Carizmians delivered up the greater part of Palestine to the most redoubtable enemies of the Christian colonies. The Egyptians took possession of Jerusalem, Tiberias, and the cities ceded to the Franks by the prince of Damascus. The hordes of Carismia ravaged all the banks of the Jordan, with the territories of Ascalon and Ptolemaïs, and laid siege to Jaffa. They dragged the unfortunate Gauthier de Brienne¹ in their train, hoping that he would cause a city that belonged to him to open its gates to them: this model of Christian heroes was fastened to a cross before the walls. Whilst thus exposed to the eyes of his faithful vassals, the Carizmians loaded him with insults, and threatened him with instant death if the city of Jaffa offered the least resistance.

Jaffa

Gauthier, braving death, exhorted the inhabitants and the garrison, with a loud voice, to defend themselves to the last extremity. “Your duty,” cried he, “is to defend a Christian city; mine is to die for you and Jesus Christ.” The city of Jaffa did not fall into the hands of the Carizmians, and Gauthier soon received the reward of his generous devotedness. Sent to the sultan of Cairo, he perished beneath the brutal blows of a furious mob, and thus obtained the palm of martyrdom for which he had wished.

¹Walter IV the Great of Brienne (French: Gauthier IV le Grand de Brienne (1205–1244) was Count of Brienne 1205–1244.

Joseph François Michaud, History of the Crusades, trans. W. Robson (London: George Routledge and Co., 1852), 2:331–2.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 734

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September (aka September Massacres; On October 17, 1926, Pope Pius XI beatified 191 of them.)

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Prison de l’Abbaye Saint-Germain, where the massacre that took place at its gates in September of 1792.

… This is also the feast of the 191 priests martyred on this day in 1792 by the French revolutionaries for refusing to swear the so-called Civil Constitution of the Clergy.

The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, a law of the French Revolution, established many things fervently promoted by progressivists, such as organizing the Church as a republic.

Those 191 priests chose to die precisely not to compromise with the errors of the French Revolution in this matter. The Catholic Church canonized those 191 martyrs together. Today, for the sake of not losing a job, office or situation, many people accept what others rejected to the point of preferring to die rather than give in.

Let us now comment on the assassination of Thiérry de Ville d´Avray, chamberlain of Louis XVI – a story of revolutionary hatred. This is taken from Weiss’s História Universal, a highly renowned work often quoted here.

“Among the new prisoners was Minister Armand Montmorin de Saint-Hénin, who was taken to the Abbey [a terrible prison] after August 10. He proudly presented himself to the tribunal, which hated him as a confidant and agent of Louis XVI”.

Marc-Antoine Thierry, Baron of Ville-d’Avray who was murdered at the Abbey Prison.

He was a friend of Louis XVI.
“He denied the tribunal’s competence to judge him and asked to be taken before a legitimate court. ‘President – since this is how you like to be addressed – I hope you will soon send a carriage to take me away from the insults of these assassins.’

He was talking about the demagogues that surrounded and insulted him.

‘Since you do not recognize us, I am of the opinion that you should be taken to the La Force prison’, the president said. ‘All right, then send for a carriage.’

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Don José de Escandón y Helguera, 1st Count of Sierra Gorda

Don José de Escandón y Helguera, 1st Count of Sierra Gorda, Knight of the Order of Santiago.

[D]on José [de Escandón] lost little time in acting but did not sacrifice effectiveness to haste. Working with his lieutenants to conduct a publicity campaign along the frontier, he and his officers had little difficulty recruiting potential settlers….Among those recruited as settlers in the new province were ranchers who already owned large herds of livestock but needed more grazing land. Those stockmen could have expanded on their own at any time, but it was risky to do so, and they would not have received subsidies or remission of taxes. Furthermore, those same ranchers not only had a high regard for Escandón but also recognized that the timing for expansion was right. The central government in Mexico City backed the enterprise, and it would make sure that governors in adjoining frontier provinces provided necessary cooperation….

Laredo, Texas as seen in 1892. Laredo was one of the many towns that was founded by Don José de Escandón.

Laredo, Texas as seen in 1892. Laredo was founded by Captain Don Tomas Sanchez de Barrera y Gallardo during the colonizing expedition led by Colonel Don José de Escandón.

The colonizer then went to the eastern slope of the Sierra Gorda. There in mid-May he established Villa Santa Bárbara, which already had a few families in residence. With the founding of this settlement, Escandón had “completed the pacification of the southern Sierra Gorda.”…

The specific plan submitted by Escandón to the junta in 1748 had called for fourteen settlements in Nuevo Santander [this included parts of Texas south of the Nueces River], and within six months of his expedition’s departure from Querétaro, thirteen had been established with plans for accompanying missions….

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Recognizing the merits of Escandón’s accomplishments, the viceroy commended him to the king. Subsequently, in October 1749, just one year after the colonizer had left Querétaro to embark on his great venture, Ferdinand VI granted don José the titles of Count of Sierra Gorda and Viscount of the House of Escandón. The crown expressly stated that the pacification of hostile Indians in northern Mexico, the exploration of the Costa, and the colonization of Nuevo Santander had earned him those honors.

Don José de Escandón

Donald E. Chipman and Harriett Denise Joseph, Notable Men and Women of Spanish Texas (Austin, University of Texas Press, 1999), 132-5.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 328

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Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI in the Garden of the Tuileries with Madame Lambale. Painting by Joseph Caraud

Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI in the Garden of the Tuileries with Madame Lambale. Painting by Joseph Caraud

The Queen had sent for me on the morning of the 6th of October, to leave me and my father-in-law in charge of her most valuable property. She took away only her casket of diamonds. Comte Gouvernet de la Tour-du-Pin, to whom the military government of Versailles was entrusted “pro tempore,” came and gave orders to the National Guard, which had taken possession of the apartments, to allow us to remove everything that we should deem necessary for the Queen’s accommodation.

Comte de Paulin, Jean-Frédéric de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet

Comte de Paulin, Jean-Frédéric de La Tour du Pin Gouvernet

I saw her Majesty alone in her private apartments a moment before her departure for Paris; she could hardly speak; tears bedewed her face, to which all the blood in her body seemed to have rushed; she condescended to embrace me, gave her hand to M. Campan to kiss, and said to us, “Come immediately and settle at Paris; I will lodge you at the Tuileries; come, and do not leave me henceforward; faithful servants at moments like these become useful friends; we are lost, dragged away, perhaps to death; when kings become prisoners they are very near it.”

The March of Women to Versailles on the 5th and 6th of October 1789.

The March of Women to Versailles on the 5th and 6th of October 1789.

I had frequent opportunities during the course of our misfortunes of observing that the people never entirely give their allegiance to factious leaders, but easily escape their control when some cause reminds them of their duty. As soon as the most violent Jacobins had an opportunity of seeing the Queen near at hand, of speaking to her, and of hearing her voice, they became her most zealous partisans; and even when she was in the prison of the Temple several of those who had contributed to place her there perished for having attempted to get her out again.

French RevolutionOn the morning of the 7th of October the same women who the day before surrounded the carriage of the august prisoners, riding on cannons and uttering the most abusive language, assembled under the Queen’s windows, upon the terrace of the Chateau, and desired to see her. Her Majesty appeared. There are always among mobs of this description orators, that is to say, beings who have more assurance than the rest; a woman of this description told the Queen that she must now remove far from her all such courtiers as ruin kings, and that she must love the inhabitants of her good city. The Queen answered that she had loved them at Versailles, and would likewise love them at Paris. “Yes, yes,” said another; “but on the 14th of July you wanted to besiege the city and have it bombarded; and on the 6th of October you wanted to fly to the frontiers.” The Queen replied, affably, that they had been told so, and had believed it; that there lay the cause of the unhappiness of the people and of the best of kings. A third addressed a few words to her in German: the Queen told her she did not understand it; that she had become so entirely French as even to have forgotten her mother tongue. This declaration was answered with “Bravo!” and clapping of hands; they then desired her to make a compact with them. “Ah,” said she, “how can I make a compact with you, since you have no faith in that which my duty points out to me, and which I ought for my own happiness to respect?” They asked her for the ribbons and flowers out of her hat; her Majesty herself unfastened them and gave them; they were divided among the party, which for above half an hour cried out, without ceasing, “Marie Antoinette for ever! Our good Queen for ever!”

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Madame Campan, Memoirs of the Court of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France (Boston: L. C. Page and Company, Inc., 1900), Bk 2, Ch. 2.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 327

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Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Main Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

Main Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

On October 18, 1009, under Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, orders for the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection, were carried out. The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places of worship in Palestine and Egypt, which involved a great deal of other damage. Adhemar of Chabannes recorded that the church of St George at Lydda “with many other churches of the saints’ had been attacked, and the ‘basilica of the Lord’s Sepulchre destroyed down to the ground’”.

European reaction was of shock and dismay, with far-reaching and intense consequences.  Ultimately, this destruction provided an impetus to the later Crusades.

Crusaders battle

It was for the deliverance of the Holy Sepulchre that the crusades were organized; it was for its defence that military orders were instituted. During the Middle Ages this memorable relic of Christ’s life on earth was looked upon as the mystical sovereign of the new Latin state. Godfrey of Bouillon desired no other title than that of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre, and different Latin princes, Bohemond of Antioch, and Tancred, acknowledged themselves its vassals.

Knights of the Holy Sepulchre

Pope Gregory IX

Pope Gregory IX

Neither the name of a founder nor a date of foundation can be assigned to the so-called Order of the Holy Sepulchre if we reject the legendary traditions which trace its origin back to the time of Godfrey of Bouillon, or Charlemagne, or indeed even to the days of St. James the Apostle, first Bishop of Jerusalem. It is in reality a secular confraternity which gradually grew up around the most august of the Holy Places.

It was natural that the Holy Sepulchre also had its special knights. In the broad acceptation of the word, every crusader who had taken the sword in its defense might assume the title from the very moment of being dubbed a knight. Those who were not knighted had the ambition of being decorated knights, preferably in this sanctuary, and of being thus enabled to style themselves Knights of the Holy Sepulchre par excellence. The fall of the Kingdom of Jerusalem did not suspend pilgrimages to the Tomb of Christ, or the custom of receiving knighthood there, and, when the custody of the Holy Land was entrusted to the Franciscans, they continued this pious custom and gave the order its first grand masters.

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St. Isaac Jogues

St. Isaac JoguesFrench missionary, born at Orléans, France, 10 January, 1607; martyred at Ossernenon, in the present State of New York, 18 October, 1646. He was the first Catholic priest who ever came to Manhattan Island (New York). He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and, after having been professor of literature at Rouen, was sent as a missionary to Canada in 1636. He came out with Montmagny, the immediate successor of Champlain. From Quebec he went to the regions around the great lakes where the illustrious Father de Brébeuf and others were labouring. There he spent six years in constant danger. Though a daring missionary, his character was of the most practical nature, his purpose always being to fix his people in permanent habitations. He was with Garnier among the Petuns, and he and Raymbault penetrated as far as Sault Ste Marie, and “were the first missionaries”, says Bancroft (VII, 790, London, 1853), “to preach the gospel a thousand miles in the interior, five years before John Eliot addressed the Indians six miles from Boston Harbour”. There is little doubt that they were not only the first apostles but also the first white men to reach this outlet of Lake Superior. No documentary proof is adduced by the best-known historians that Nicholet, the discoverer of Lake Michigan, ever visited the Sault. Jogues proposed not only to convert the Indians of Lake Superior, but the Sioux who lived at the head waters of the Mississippi.

His plan was thwarted by his capture near Three Rivers returning from Quebec. He was taken prisoner on 3 August, 1642, and after being cruelly tortured was carried to the Indian village of Ossernenon, now Auriesville, on the Mohawk, about forty miles above the present city of Albany. There he remained for thirteen months in slavery, suffering apparently beyond the power of natural endurance. The Dutch Calvinists at Fort Orange (Albany) made constant efforts to free him, and at last, when he was about to be burnt to death, induced him to take refuge in a sailing vessel which carried him to New Amsterdam (New York). His description of the colony as it was at that time has since been incorporated in the Documentary History of the State. From New York he was sent; in mid-winter, across the ocean on a lugger of only fifty tons burden and after a voyage of two months, landed Christmas morning, 1643, on the coast of Brittany, in a state of absolute destitution. Thence he found his way to the nearest college of the Society. He was received with great honour at the court of the Queen Regent, the mother of Louis XIV, and was allowed by Pope Urban VII the very exceptional privilege of celebrating Mass, which the mutilated condition of his hands had made canonically impossible; several of his fingers having been eaten or burned off. He was called a martyr of Christ by the pontiff. No similar concession, up to that, is known to have been granted.

The Jesuits martyrs of Canada: Jean de la Lande, Isaac Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, Charles Garnier, René Goupil, Gabriel Lalemant, Noël Chabanel, Antoine Daniel.

The Jesuits martyrs of Canada: St. Jean de la Lande, St. Isaac Jogues, St. Jean de Brébeuf, St. Charles Garnier, St. René Goupil, St. Gabriel Lalemant, St. Noël Chabanel, St. Antoine Daniel.

In early spring of 1644 he returned to Canada, and in 1646 was sent to negotiate peace with the Iroquois. He followed the same route over which he had been carried as a captive. It was on this occasion that he gave the name of Lake of the Blessed Sacrament to the body of water called by the Indians Horicon, now known as Lake George. He reached Ossernenon on 5 June, after a three weeks’ journey from the St. Lawrence. He was well received by his former captors and the treaty of peace was made. He started for Quebec on 16 June and arrived there 3 July. He immediately asked to be sent back to the Iroquois as a missionary, but only after much hessitation his superiors acceded to his request. On 27 September he began his third and last journey to the Mohawk. In the interim sickness had broken out in the tribe and a blight had fallen on the crops. This double calamity was ascribed to Jogues whom the Indians always regarded as a sorcerer. They were determined to wreak vengence on him for the spell he had cast on the place, and warriors were sent out to capture him. The news of this change of sentiment spread rapidly, and though fully aware of the danger Jogues continued on his way to Ossernenon, though all the Hurons and others who were with him fled except Lalande. The Iroquois met him near Lake George, stripped him naked, slashed him with their knives, beat him and then led him to the village. On 18 October, 1646, when entering a cabin he was struck with a tomahawk and afterwards decapitated. The head was fixed on the Palisades and the body thrown into the Mohawk.

In view of his possible canonization a preliminary court was established in Quebec by the ecclesiastical authorities to receive testimony as to his sanctity and the cause of his death.

Parkman, The Jesuits in North America (1867); Bancroft, History of the United States,III; J.G. Shea, Life of Father Jogues (New York, 1885); Jesuit Relations, 1640-1647; Abbe Forest, Life of Isaac Jogues, MSS. (St, Mary’s College, Montreal); Memorial of the death of Isaac Jogues and others, MSS. (University of Laval, Quebec); Dean Harris, History of the Early Missions in Western Canada (Toronto, 1893); Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York, I (published by the State, 1891); Charlevoix, History of New France, II; Richemonteix, The Jesuits and New France, I, II.

T.J. CAMPBELL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

[Note: He, as well as those below were canonized by Pope Pius XI on June 29, 1930]

René Goupil

René GoupilJesuit missionary; born 1607, in Anjou; martyred in New York State, 23 September, 1642. Health preventing him from joining the Society regularly, he volunteered to serve it gratis in Canada, as a donné. After working two years as a surgeon in the hospitals of Quebec, he started (1642) for the Huron mission with Father Jogues, whose constant companion and disciple he remained until death. Captured by the Iroquois near lake St. Peter, he resignedly accepted his fate. Like the other captives, he was beaten, his nails torn out, and his finger-joints cut off. On the thirteen days’ journey to the Iroquois country, he suffered from heat, hunger, and blows, his wounds festering and swarming with worms. Meeting half way a band of two hundred warriors, he was forced to march between their double ranks and almost beaten to death. Goupil might have escaped, but he stayed with Jogues. At Ossernenon, on the Mohawk, he was greeted with jeers, threats, and blows, and Goupil’s face was so scarred that Jogues applied to him the words of Isaias (liii, 2) prophesying the disfigurement of Christ. He survived the fresh tortures inflicted on him at Andagaron, a neighbouring village, and, unable to instruct his captors in the faith, he taught the children the sign of the cross. This was the cause of his death. returning one evening to the village with Jogues, he was felled to the ground by a hatchet-blow from an Indian, and he expired invoking the name of Jesus. He was the first of the order in the Canadian missions to suffer martyrdom. He had previously bound himself to the Society by the religious vows pronounced in the presence of Father Jogues, who calls him in his letters “an angel of innocence and a martyr of Jesus Christ.”

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Saint Philip Howard

Martyr, Earl of Arundel; born at Arundel House, London, 28 June 1557, died in the Tower of London, 19 October, 1595.

St. Philip HowardHe was the grandson of Henry, Earl of Surrey, the poet, executed by Henry VIII in 1547, and son of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk executed by Elizabeth 1572. Philip II of Spain, then King of England, was one of his godfathers. His father, who had conformed to the State religion, educated him partly under John Foxe, the Protestant martyrologist and he was afterwards sent to Cambridge.

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, father of St. Philip Howard. Painting by Hans Eworth

Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk, father of St. Philip Howard. Painting by Hans Eworth

His father having married as his third wife Elizabeth, widow of Lord Dacre of Gillesland, matched her three daughters who were heiresses, to his three sons. Anne, Philip’s wife, Countess of Arundel and Surrey, who survived to 1630, was a woman of remarkable generosity and courage, and became after her conversion the patroness of Father Southwell and of many priests, and eventually founded the novitiate of the Jesuits at Ghent.

Philip succeeded, 24 February, 1580, jure matris, to the Earldom of Arundel, and this may be considered the highest point of his worldly fortunes. He frequented the Court, entertained the queen, and was restored in blood, 1581, though not to his father’s dukedom.

Anne Dacre, Countess of Arundel, wife of St. Philip Howard

Anne Dacre, Countess of Arundel, wife of St. Philip Howard

Towards the close of the year he was present at the disputations of Saint Edmund Campion in the Tower and this proved the first step in his conversion, though, like most of Elizabeth’s courtiers, his life was then the reverse of virtuous, and for a time he deserted his wife. But the Howards had many enemies and Elizabeth was of their number. As the Catholic revival gained strength, the earl found himself suspected and out of favor, and his difficulties were increased by his wife’s conversion. He was now reconciled, indeed devoted, to her, and 30 September, 1584, was received into the Church by Father William Weston, S.J., and became a fervent Catholic.

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The change of life was soon noticed at Court, on which Philip, seeing Elizabeth more and more averse and dangers thickening, resolved to fly, which he did (14 April, 1585), after composing a long and excellent letter of explanation to Elizabeth. But he was captured at sea, probably through treachery, and confined in the Tower of London (25 April) where he remained till death. He was at first sentenced to a fine of 10,000 pounds, and imprisonment at Elizabeth’s pleasure. Later on (14 March-14 April 1589), during the bloodthirsty mood which caused the death of so many English martyrs after the Armada, he was tried for having favored the excommunication of the Elizabeth I, and for having prayed for the invaders.

St. Philip in the Tower Painting by William Barraud

St. Philip in the Tower Painting by William Barraud

As usual at that time, the trial was a tirade against the prisoner, who was of course condemned. One example of the hypocrisy of the prosecution may be mentioned. While they professed to quote the very words of the Bull of excommunication, “published 1 April”, no such Bull was published at all. If the Armada had been successful a Bull would of course have been issued, and Elizabeth’s spies had in fact got hold of an explanation written by Allen in preparation for that event (printed in Dodd-Tierney, iii Ap. 44). From a letter of Attorney-General Popham (R. O. State Papers, Dom. Eliz., ccxxiii, 77) we see that he was aware of the fraudulent character of the evidence.

Philip was left to die in prison. His last prayer to see his wife and only son, who had been born after his imprisonment, was refused except on condition of his coming to the Protestant Church, on which terms he might also go free. With this eloquent testimony to the goodness of his cause he expired, at the early age of thirty-eight, and was buried in the same grave in the Tower Church that had received his father and grandfather.

Shrine of St Philip Howard, Arundel Cathedral, Sussex, England

Shrine of St Philip Howard, Arundel Cathedral, Sussex, England

In 1624 his bones were translated by his widow to Long Horsley, and thence to Arundel, where they still rest. A portrait by Zucchero is in the possession of the Duke of Norfolk. His “Epistle of Christ to the Faithful Soul” translated from Lanspergius (Johann Justus of Lansberg), was printed at Antwerp, 1595; St-Omer, 1610; London, 1867; his “Fourfold Meditations of Four Last Things” (once attributed to Southwell), London, 1895; his “Verses on the Passion”, by the Cath. Record Soc., VI, 29.  J.H. POLLEN (1913 Catholic Encyclopedia)

Saint Philip Howard was beatified 15 December, 1929, by Pope Pius XI, and canonized 25 October, 1970, by Pope Paul VI.

Arundel Cathedral in Sussex, England, where St. Philip Howard is buried.

Arundel Cathedral in Sussex, England, where St. Philip Howard is buried.

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Emperor Marcian

October 17, 2024

Marcian

(Marcianus, Μαρκιᾶνος), Roman Emperor at Constantinople, born in Thrace about 390; died January, 457.

He became a soldier; during his early life he was poor, and it is said that he arrived at Constantinople with only two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed. He served in the army under Ardaburius the Alan and his son Aspar; he distinguished himself in the wars against the Persians and Huns. Aspar was a kind of king-maker, and general- in-chief for the East (magister militum per orientem), also for a time the most powerful man at Constantinople. But since he was a foreigner and an Arian he could not be emperor himself. Instead he placed a succession of his favourites on the throne. One of these was Marcian. At Constantinople Marcian became a senator and was a well-known and popular person. He was a widower; his daughter by the first marriage, Euphemia, afterwards married Anthemius, Emperor in the West (467-472). He was about sixty years old when Theodosius II died (450).

St. PulcheriaTheodosius II (408-450) had succeeded his father, Arcadius (395-408), as a young child. During the greater part of his reign his elder sister Pulcheria managed the Government. Already during the reign of Theodosius Pulcheria was “Augusta”. With her two sisters, Arcadia and Marina, she made a public vow of celibacy. When her brother died all difficulty about the succession was ended by the unanimous choice of her (who had long really guided the State) as empress. Thus began the reign of Pulcheria. Wishing to strengthen her position (it was the first case of a woman succeeding to the Roman throne) she at once made a nominal marriage with Marcian. He seems to have been the best person she could have chosen; the friendship of Aspar as well as his own reputation had long pointed him out for some high place. It is said that Theodosius on his death-bed had told him: “It has been revealed to me that you will succeed me.” Marcian was crowned by the patriarch, 25 August, 450. It is the first instance of the religious ceremony of coronation, imitated later in the West, and was to have far-reaching consequences. The first act of the new reign was the trial and execution of Chrysaphius, a eunuch and court favourite long unpopular, who had brought Theodosius to a humiliating apology and the payment of a large fine by an unsuccessful conspiracy to murder Attila. Marcian belonged to the party of reform, of which the founder, under Theodosius, had been Anthemius. As soon as he became emperor he began a policy of moderation, especially in taxation, that made his reign prosperous and himself popular, though he did little by force of arms to repress the ever-encroaching Huns and other enemies of Rome.

He reduced the expenses of the treasury and Court, and did away with the gleba, or follis, an opressive tax on property that was specially obnoxious to the upper classes. There was a harsh system by which any senator might be forced to accept the unwelcome honour of the prætura. As a prætor he was obliged to live at Constantinople during his time of office, and spend large sums on providing games and shows. This was specially hard on senators who lived in the provinces, who had therefore to come to the capital and live for months there at ruinous expense. Marcian modified this law so as to excuse people living away from the city, and he ordered the consuls to take their share of the expenses. He reformed the navy on a more economical basis. There were at that time frequent earthquakes, by which whole cities were destroyed. In these cases Marcian and Pulcheria came to the help of the sufferers generously with supplies from the imperial treasury.

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royalwatcherblog

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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Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee statue unveiled

October 10, 2024

Source: BBC 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 […]

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The Crusades – Part VIII

October 10, 2024

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How General Lee shared his meager rations with his prisoners

October 10, 2024

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 […]

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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. His grandfather, Juan Borgia, the second son of Alexander VI, was assassinated in Rome […]

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October 11 – Model Archduke, both spiritual and temporal

October 10, 2024

St. Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne 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 […]

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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. However, his epic Atlantic […]

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Difficulties in his youth prepared him for later trials

October 10, 2024

St. Wilfrid Bishop 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 […]

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King Confessor

October 10, 2024

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Protestant Monarchies and Catholic Republics

October 10, 2024

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October 13 – They denounced the religion of Mahomet

October 10, 2024

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How Don John went into battle

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Ali Pasha had disposed his fleet in an identical manner; he also spread out his right wing, composed of fifty-six galleys, towards the land, under Mahomet Scirocco. The left, formed of ninety-three galleys, also went to sea, under the orders of Aluch Ali; and in the midst of the centre division, formed of ninety-five galleys, […]

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October 7 – How the Rosary saved Christendom

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by Jeremias Wells The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary Here is but a small fraction of the victories directly obtained from God through the Holy Rosary: The Battle of Lepanto which saved Rome and Vienna, and thus the Pope and the Emperor, from Moslem subjugation The deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski The victory […]

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Lepanto: Turkish might buckles in the grandest naval battle of History

October 7, 2024

The Turkish fleet came on imposing and terrible, all sails set, impelled by a fair wind, and it was only half a mile from the line of galliasses and another mile from the line of the Christian ships. D. John waited no longer; he humbly crossed himself, and ordered that the cannon of challenge should […]

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In Forming the Holy League, St. Pius V Prepares for Victory at Lepanto

October 7, 2024

The Holy League agreement announced on 25 May had been solemnized five days earlier in the presence of [Saint] Pius V in his capacity as Pope, and signed by representatives of himself as ruler of the Papal State, King Philip of Spain, the republics of Venice and Genoa, Grand Duke Cosimo of Tuscany, Duke Emanuele […]

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Don John of Austria used an ivory crucifix to inspire his men before Lepanto

October 7, 2024

Calmness in the presence of danger had always been one of D. John of Austria’s great qualities, and it did not fail him in this crisis. He refrained from telling anyone of the fears and anxieties that Cecco Pizano’s information had inspired in him, and without wasting a second he at once began to take […]

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Devotion to the Holy Rosary

October 7, 2024

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Catholic and Muslim Reactions to the News of the Turkish Defeat at Lepanto

October 7, 2024

[King] Philip was attending vespers in Madrid—or the Escorial—when the Venetian Ambassador—or an aide, as the case may be—slipped into his chapel to acquaint him with the news. The imperturbable monarch displayed neither pleasure nor annoyance at the interruption, and impassively resumed his devotions. Only when vespers ended did he reveal any emotion. Summoning the […]

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D. John’s calm assessment as the Turkish Armada is sighted: “There’s no time for anything but fighting”

October 7, 2024

At daybreak on the 7th of October, 1571, D. John of Austria ordered the fleet to leave the port of Petala, and very carefully to go along the channel between the coast of Greece and Oxia, the last island of the Curzolari; in the latitude of Cape Scropha the watch on the “Real” made signals […]

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Pope Saint Pius V has a vision announcing the victory of Lepanto

October 7, 2024

In the afternoon of that same day, the 7th of October, 1571, the Pope was walking about his room, listening to the relation by his treasurer, Mons. Busotti de Bibiana, of various businesses committed to his care; the Pope suffered terribly from stone, and as usually the pain attacked him while seated, he had to […]

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The Blessed Sacrament and the Apostolate in the Modern World – Conclusion

October 3, 2024

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Had Louis XVI Listened to His Sister, Madame Elizabeth…

October 3, 2024

…the Crown Would Have Been Saved On the fatal day, 5th October [1789], when the people attacked Versailles, she was on her terrace at Montreuil when she saw the crowd advancing on the Palace, and flew at once to join the Royal Family there. Gifted as she was with an excellent judgment, Mme. Elizabeth possessed […]

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October 3 – Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

October 3, 2024

(December 13, 1908 – October 3, 1995) Brazilian intellectual and Catholic activist. Corrêa de Oliveira was born in São Paulo to Lucilia Corrêa de Oliveira, a devout Roman Catholic, and educated by Jesuits. In 1928 he joined the Marian Congregations of São Paulo and soon became a leader of that organization. In 1933 he helped […]

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October 3 – Mother Théodore Guérin

October 3, 2024

Many of the early pioneers faced the hardships of this country where wars, famine and disease were the norm. Leaving everything behind, heroic souls came not only to save the souls of Indian nations, but also to minister to these frontier families. One such person was St. Mother Théodore Guérin, who became the eighth American Saint […]

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October 3 – Enemy of King St. Louis, but still his friend in Christ

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He copied the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

October 3, 2024

St. Petronius Bishop of Bologna, date of birth unknown; died before 450. The only certain historical information we possess concerning him is derived from a letter written by Bishop Eucherius of Lyons (died 450-5) to Valerianus (in P. L., L, 711 sqq.) and from Gennadius’ “De viris illustribus”, XLI (ed. Czapla, Münster, 1898, p. 94). […]

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October 4 – You Want Chivalry? A More Heavenly Chivalry? Try This.

October 3, 2024

The Last Will and Testament of St. Francis of Assisi This is how God inspired me, Brother Francis, to embark upon a life of penance. When I was in sin, the sight of lepers nauseated me beyond measure; but then God himself led me into their company, and I had pity on them. When I […]

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October 5 – William Hartley

October 3, 2024

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October 3, 2024

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October 6 – Princes and popes coveted the advice of this silent man

October 3, 2024

St. Bruno Confessor, ecclesiastical writer, and founder of the Carthusian Order. He was born at Cologne about the year 1030; died 6 October, 1101. He is usually represented with a death’s head in his hands, a book and a cross, or crowned with seven stars; or with a roll bearing the device O Bonitas. His […]

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Henri Delassus

October 3, 2024

Msgr. Henri Delassus (1836-1921), ordained a priest in 1862, served in parishes in Valenciennes (Saint-Géry) and Lille (Sainte-Catherine and Sainte-Marie-Madeleine). He was names chaplain of the basilica Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille (Lille) in 1874, an honorary canon in 1882, and domestic prelate in 1904. In 1911 he was promoted to protonotary apostolic. In 1914 he became canon of […]

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Princess Katherine at first work meeting since cancer treatment

September 30, 2024

The Princess of Wales has carried out her first official work meeting since she began cancer treatment earlier this year. In another small step on her return to public life, the princess had a meeting on Tuesday in Windsor Castle about her early childhood project. It follows last week’s video message from Catherine where she […]

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The cantankerous noble who became a saint

September 30, 2024

St. Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church Born at Stridon, a town on the confines of Dalmatia and Pannonia, about the year 340-2; died at Bethlehem, 30 September, 420. He had a brother much younger than himself, whose name was Paulinian. His father, called Eusebius, was descended from a good family, and had a […]

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St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Chapter VI: A Pilgrimage to Rome & Chapter VII: The Little Flower Enters the Carmel

September 30, 2024

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October 1 – The martial and pious death of Don John of Austria: “A man sent by God”

September 30, 2024

Alarm was ended on the fourth day, seeing that the fever and other ills left D. John. But the next day, which was a Saturday, he suddenly grew worse, and while the other invalids went on getting better and became convalescent, he showed other symptoms of a strange illness, palpitations which made him get up […]

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Blessed Ralph Crockett

September 30, 2024

English martyr, b. at Barton, near Farndon, Cheshire; executed at Chichester, 1 October, 1588. Educated at Cambridge, and ordained at Reims in 1585, he was captured on board ship at Littlehampton, Sussex, 19 April, 1856, with three other priests, Thomas Bramston, George Potter, and his fellow martyr, Edward James (b. at Breaston, Derbyshire, about 1557), […]

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Falsely charged, mutilated and martyred

September 30, 2024

St. Leodegar (also Leger or Leodegarius) His mother was called Sigrada, and his father Bobilo. His parents being of high rank, his early childhood was passed at the court of Clotaire II. He went later to Poitiers, to study under the guidance of his uncle, the bishop of that town. Having given proof of his […]

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October 2 – The Holy Guardian Angels

September 30, 2024

That every individual soul has a guardian angel has never been defined by the Church, and is, consequently, not an article of faith; but it is the “mind of the Church”, as St. Jerome expressed it: “how great the dignity of the soul, since each one has from his birth an angel commissioned to guard […]

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The Crusades – Part VII

September 26, 2024

I. Origin of the Crusades; II. Foundation of Christian states in the East; III. First destruction of the Christian states (1144-87); IV. Attempts to restore the Christian states and the crusade against Saint-Jean d’Acre (1192-98); V. The crusade against Constantinople (1204); VI. The thirteenth-century crusades (1217-52); VII. FINAL LOSS OF THE CHRISTIAN COLONIES OF THE […]

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General Lee’s one rule for students: “Be a gentleman”

September 26, 2024

A new student once asked President Lee for a copy of the rules of Washington College. Lee replied, “Young gentleman, we have no printed rules. We have but one rule here, and it is that every student must be a gentleman.” What did Lee mean when he used the word “gentleman?” Found among his papers […]

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September 26, 2024

Oratorian and devotional writer, b. 28 June, 1814, at Calverley, Yorkshire, England; d. in London, 26 Sept., 1863. After five years at Harrow School he matriculated at Balliol in 1832, became a scholar at University College in 1834, and a fellow of that College in 1837. Of Huguenot descent Faber was divided in his university […]

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