Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites — In the Allocutions of Pius XII

Prince Carl Philip re-joins the army to help fight the coronavirus

May 28, 2020

The only son of the Swedish king, Prince Carl Philip has joined the army and will serve as a Major during the ongoing pandemic that has hit Sweden hard.

…the royal court stated the following: “Since mid-May, Prince Carl Philip has served a reserve officer with the rank of Major at the Defence Headquarters. The Prince is now located at the Operations Command Centre, which directs and coordinates operations for all combat forces. From the command centre, the Armed Forces also support and coordinate the community for the COVID-19 pandemic. The service is performed at the Prince’s own initiative”.

To read the entire article on the Royal Central, please click here.

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Former chef to the Queen shows how to make the same Tea Scones she has every day

May 28, 2020

Ingredients
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 stick soft butter
½ cup plus 1 Tbs granulated sugar
1 Egg
1 Cup Buttermilk

¾ – 1 cup raisins, currants or sultanas (if making fruit scones) Soak in hot water for 15 minutes to plump them up. Drain water and then add the fruit to the mix (#3). Folding into mixture.
1 egg yolk for glazing

Method:

1) Set the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, add the flour, baking powder and sugar.

Add and rub in the butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs.

2) Make a well in the center and add the beaten egg and about ¾ cup of milk. With a metal spoon bring the mixture together making sure you do not over mix it or you will tighten the dough.

3) If the mixture is a little dry add more of the remaining milk gradually. (You don’t want the mix too dry, or too set that it sticks to the rolling pin.) If adding fruit, fold them in here, making sure to evenly distribute the fruit throughout the mixture.

4) Lightly dust the table with flour and roll out the dough to about 1 ” thick. Then cut using a 2″ round cookie cutter. Place on a baking sheet about 1″ apart and brush the tops with the beaten egg yolk.

5) Bake for about 15 – 20 minutes. When cooked, lift onto a wire rack to cool.

https://youtu.be/G5TuRZq0tko

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With Saint Joan of Arc at His Side, Charles VII Is Crowned King of France

May 28, 2020

Charles VII, the Victorious

The preparations for the coronation had to be undertaken in some haste—in such haster, in fact, that those concerned had but one night to make ready. Up till the very afternoon before the actual ceremony the citizens of Reims had not decided whether to deliver their keys to the Dauphin or not. . . .

Statue of St. Joan of Arc with her banner in the Notre-Dame Reims Cathedral, France

At nine in the morning [of July 17^th, 1429], Charles rode to the cathedral in full procession, accompanied by the Duke of Alençon, the Duke de la Trémoïlle, the Count of Claremont, the Count of Vendôme, and the young de Lavals, representing the peers of France. The maréchal de Saint-Sévère, the maréchal de Rais, the seigneur de Graville, and Louis de Coulen, Admiral of France, had already gone to St. Rémy to escort the Abbot bearing the miraculously holy oil. They brought him, dressed in his pontifical vestments, richly ornamented with gold, to Notre Dame, where they were met by the archbishop, surrounded by his clergy, who, receiving the vessel from the abbot, placed it upon the altar. There were present also such other dignitaries of the Church as the Archbishop of Châlons and the Bishops of Seez and Orleans, and an enormous concourse of knights and soldiers filling the vast cathedral.

Painting by Ladislaus Bakalowicz

The ceremony was conducted with all its accustomed pomp. The Duke of Alençon knighted the King; the seigneur d’Albret held the sword. The Archbishop of Reims performed his traditional duty. But a single figure drew all eyes, the cause, as they said, after God, of this coronation and of all that assembly: Jeanne d’Arc, who kept her place standing beside the King, in armour, her standard in her hand. “Il avait été à la peine,” she said, when they asked why her standard had figured at the sacre, “c’etait bien raison qu’il fut à l’honneur.” [Since it was at the fight, it well deserves to be at the honor.]

Sackville-West, Saint Joan of Arc (New York: The Literary Guild, 1936), 220, 222–3.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 728

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Charlemagne: God’s Providential Man for the Eighth Century

May 28, 2020

Some shallow spirits today delight in upbraiding the lofty and generous souls among us who still believe in providential men. However, when one believes in God’s action over men and peoples, there is nothing more natural than to recognize the mission of certain personages whose names have been enshrined in history.

Monument to Emperor Charlemagne on the Old Bridge in Frankfurt

God who can govern the world directly and without intermediary, deigns to have us share in the administration of His immense empire. To govern men made of spirit and flesh, He uses men made of spirit and flesh. He shapes them from all eternity and sends them at their proper time.

Charlemagne

And, without ever infringing on their free will, He uses their freely exercised virtues to act over a nation, a race, or even over the entire world. Thus was it that God prepared Charlemagne. Thus was it that He used him to shore up Christ’s threatened kingdom and the destinies of His Church in the world.

Léon Gautier, introduction to Alphonse Vétault, Charlemagne (India: Classic Reprints – Pranava Books, pod), vii–viii. (Nobility.org translation.)

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May 29 – Assassinated in the castle of St. Andrews

May 28, 2020

David Beaton

(Or Bethune)

Cardinal, Archbishop of St. Andrews, b. 1494; d. 29 May, 1546. He was of an honourable Scottish family on both sides, being a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour Fife, by Isabel, daughter of David Monypenny of Pitmilly, also in Fife. Educated first at St. Andrews, he went in his seventeenth year to Glasgow, where his uncle, James Beaton, was then archbishop, and where his name appears in the list of students of the university, in 1511. He completed his education in Paris, and in 1519 was appointed by James V Scottish resident at the French court. His first ecclesiastical preferment was to the rectories of Campsie and Cambushing, to which he was presented by his uncle, the Archbishop of Glasgow, and when the latter was translated to the primatial see in 1522, he resigned to his nephew the commendatory Abbacy of Arbroath, obtaining for him from Pope Adrian IV a dispensation from wearing the monastic habit. Beaton returned from France in 1525, took his seat in Parliament as Abbot of Arbroath, and was soon…

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May 29 – Intimate friend of St. Athanasius

May 28, 2020

St. Maximinus

Bishop of Trier, born at Silly near Poitiers, died there, 29 May, 352 or 12 Sept., 349.

He was educated and ordained priest by St. Agritius, whom he succeeded as Bishop of Trier in 332 or 335. At that time Trier was the government seat of the Western Emperor and, by force of his office, Maximinus stood in close relation with the Emperors Constantine II and Constans. He was a strenuous defender of the orthodox faith against Arianism and an intimate friend of St. Athanasius, whom he harboured as an honoured guest during his exile of two years and four months (336-8) at Trier. He likewise received with honours the banished patriarch Paul of Constantinople in 341 and effected his recall to Constantinople. When four Arian bishops came from Antioch to Trier in 342 with the purpose of winning Emperor Constans to their side, Maximinus refused to receive them and induced the emperor to reject their proposals…

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May 29 – Saint Laura of Constantinople

May 28, 2020

Painting of the Martyrdom of St. Laura at the Monasterio de Monjas Trinitarias in Madrid by Pedrohuerta.

Saint Laura of Constantinople (died 1453) was a Christian who lived in Constantinople during the 15th century.

She was born in Greece into a noble family: her father was a Latin knight named Michael and her mother was Albanian. Her name was Theodolinde Trasci. After she became a nun in Constantinople, she changed it into Laura, eventually rising to become an abbess.[1] She was martyred by the Ottoman Turks who took Constantinople on 29 May 1453 and scalded her to death with the other 52 sisters of her convent.[2] Her feast day is on May 29.

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Notes:
[1] De Renzis N., Storia di Santa Laura da Costantinopoli nel quattrocentosettantacinquesimo anno della Sua morte, Tip. Editrice R. Riccio Cosenza 1925
[2] Calvo S., Resumen de las prerrogativas del Orden de la Ssa Trinidad, Josef Longas Pamplona I p. 219

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May 29 – Bartolomeu Dias

May 28, 2020

Bartolomeu Dias

A famous Portuguese navigator of the fifteenth century, discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope; died at sea, 29 May, 1500.

Several Portuguese historians state that he was a relative or descendant of João Dias who sailed around Cape Bojador in 1434, and of Diniz Dias who is said to have discovered the Cape Verde Islands. As early as 1481 Bartolomeu Dias had accompanied Diogo d’Azambuja on an expedition to the Gold Coast…

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May 30 – Most Valiant King

May 28, 2020

Saint Ferdinand III of Castile

Saint Ferdinand III of Castile. Painted by Spanish School.

King of Leon and Castile, member of the Third Order of St. Francis, born in 1198 near Salamanca; died at Seville, 30 May, 1252. He was the son of Alfonso IX, King of Leon, and of Berengeria, the daughter of Alfonso III, King of Castile, and sister of Blanche, the mother of St. Louis IX…

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May 30 – When God chose sides in war between two Christian nations, He sent her to win it

May 28, 2020

St. Joan of Arc

In French Jeanne d’Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known as la Pucelle (the Maid).

Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke of Burgundy, but in the protracted conflict between the Armagnacs (the party of Charles VII, King of France), on the one hand, and the Burgundians in alliance with the English, on the other, Domremy had always remained loyal to Charles…

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May 31 – St. Mechtildis of Edelstetten

May 28, 2020

St. Mechthildis in the monastery of St. Stephan

St. Mechtildis was a Benedictine abbess and renowned miracle worker. Mechtildis was the daughter of Count Berthold of Andechs, whose wife, Sophie, founded a monastery on their estate at Diessen, Bavaria, and placed their daughter there at the age of five. In 1153, the Bishop of Augsburg placed her as Abbess of Edelstetten Abbey. Mechtildis was known for her mystical gifts and miracles. She would later die at Diessen, Germany, on 31 May 1160.

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May 31 – St. Camilla Battista da Varano

May 28, 2020

St. Baptista Varano

(also spelled Varani).

An ascetical writer, born at Camerino, in the March of Ancona, 9 Apr., 1458; died there, 31 May, 1527.

Her father, Julius Caesar Varano or de Varanis, Duke of Camerino, belonged to an illustrious family; her mother, Joanna Malatesta, was a daughter of Sigismund, Prince of Rimini…

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June 1 – The Aristocrat Who Gave His Life for the Poor

May 28, 2020

Saint Hannibal Mary Di Francia

Padre Annibale Maria di Francia

(1851-1927) (sometimes written as Annibale Maria Di Francia)

Hannibal Mary Di Francia was born in Messina, Italy, on July 5, 1851. His father Francis was a knight, the Marquis of St. Catherine of Jonio, Papal Vice-Consul and Honorary Captain of the Navy. His mother, Anna Toscano, also belonged to an aristocratic family. The third of four children, he lost his father when he was only fifteen months old. The sad experience of losing a parent made him deeply sensitive to the plight of children bereft of parents and this, influenced his life and his educational system…
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June 1 – Kidnapped for Christ

May 28, 2020

Bl. John Story

(Or Storey.)

Martyr; born 1504; died at Tyburn, 1 June, 1571. He was educated at Oxford, and was president of Broadgates Hall, now Pembroke College, from 1537 to 1539. He entered Parliament as member for Hindon, Wilts, in 1547, and was imprisoned for opposing the Bill of Uniformity, 24 Jan.-2 March, 1548-9. On his release he retired with his family to Louvain, but after the accession of Queen Mary he returned to England (Aug., 1553), and became chancellor to Bishop Bonner…

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May 26 – Saint Bruno of Würzburg

May 25, 2020

Saint Bruno of Würzburg

(c. 1005 – 26 May 1045)

Also known as Bruno of Carinthia, he was imperial chancellor of Italy from 1027 to 1034 for Conrad II, Holy Roman Emperor, to whom he was related, and from 1034 until his death prince-bishop of Würzburg.

Bruno was the son of Conrad I, Duke of Carinthia, and Matilda of Swabia, and thus a cousin of the Salian Emperor Conrad II. He courted Agnes of Poitou on behalf of Conrad’s son and successor Emperor Henry III. He also accompanied Henry on his second Hungarian Campaign, during which Bruno died in an accident at Persenbeug on the Danube in the present Lower Austria…

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May 26 – He converted a young nobleman by showing him a vision of hell, and called the City of Rome his “Desert”

May 25, 2020

THE APOSTLE OF ROME

St. Philip Romolo Neri

Born at Florence, Italy, 22 July, 1515; died 27 May, 1595. Philip’s family originally came from Castelfranco but had lived for many generations in Florence, where not a few of its members had practised the learned professions, and therefore took rank with the Tuscan nobility. Among these was Philip’s own father, Francesco Neri, who eked out an insufficient private fortune with what he earned as a notary. A circumstance which had no small influence on the life of the saint was Francesco’s friendship with the Dominicans; for it was from the friars of S. Marco, amid the memories of Savonarola, that Philip received many of his early religious impressions…

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May 27 – St. Augustine of Canterbury

May 25, 2020

St. Augustine of Canterbury

First Archbishop of Canterbury, Apostle of the English; date of birth unknown; died 26 May, 604.

Symbols: cope, pallium, and mitre as Bishop of Canterbury, and pastoral staff and gospels as missionary…

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May 28 – After Defeating the Saracens, He Joined the Benedictines

May 25, 2020

St. William of Gellone

Born 755; died 28 May, c. 812; was the second count of Toulouse, having attained that dignity in 790. He is by some writers also given the title of Duke of Aquitaine. This saint is the hero of the ninth-century “Roman de Guillame au court nez”, but the story of his life is told in a more reliable form by the anonymous author of the biography which was written soon after the saint’s death, or before the eleventh century according to Mabillon, or during the eleventh century according to the Bollandist Henschen…

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May 28 – Whether She Was Upstairs Or Downstairs, She Was Ever Steady

May 25, 2020

Blessed Margaret Pole

Countess of Salisbury, martyr; born at Castle Farley, near Bath, 14 August, 1473; martyred at East Smithfield Green, 28 May, 1541.

She was the daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, and Isabel, elder daughter of the Earl of Warwick (the king-maker), and the sister of Edmund of Warwick who, under Henry VII, paid with his life the penalty of being the last male representative of the Yorkist line (28 Nov., 1499)…

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May 28 – Lily of Quito

May 25, 2020

St. Mariana de Jesús de Paredes

Born at Quito, Ecuador, 31 Oct. 1618; died at Quito, 26 May, 1645. On both sides of her family she was sprung from an illustrious line of ancestors, her father being Don Girolamo Flores Zenel de Paredes, a nobleman of Toledo and her mother Doña Mariana Cranobles de Xaramilo, a descendant of one of the best Spanish families. Her birth was accompanied by most unusual phenomena in the heavens, clearly connected with the child and juridically attested at the time of the process of beatification. Almost from infancy she gave signs of an extraordinary attraction to prayer and mortification, of love of God and devotion to the Blessed Virgin; and besides being the recipient of many other remarkable manifestations of divine favour was a number of times miraculously preserved from death. At the age of ten years she made the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience…

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May 28 – St. Germain of Paris

May 25, 2020

St. Germain Bishop of Paris; born near Autun, Saône-et-Loire, c. 496; died at Paris, 28 May, 576. He studied at Avalon and also at Luzy under the guidance of his cousin Scapilion, a priest. At the age of thirty-four he was ordained by St. Agrippinus of Autun and became Abbot of Saint-Symphorien near that town. […]

David Beaton

St. Maximinus

Saint Ferdinand III of Castile

St. Joan of Arc

St. Baptista Varano

Saint Hannibal Mary Di Francia

Bl. John Story

Saint Bruno of Würzburg

St. Philip Romolo Neri

St. Augustine of Canterbury

St. William of Gellone

Blessed Margaret Pole

St. Mariana de Jesús de Paredes

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