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

Heroic Prince Ucondono Met the Persecution Head-On

January 21, 2021

Bl. Justus Takayama Ukon was a Japanese Catholic daimyō and samurai who lived during the Sengoku period.

Prince [Justus] Ucondono, a distinguished general, to whom Taicosama was indebted for his empire, was living for six years in exile, because he had refused to abjure his faith. He had been stripped of his dignities, deprived of his estates, his old father, his wife, and his large family sharing in the same privations; yet they esteemed themselves happy in being able to suffer for Jesus Christ. When he heard of the persecution, he took leave of the king of Canga, under whose supervision he had been placed and whose friendship he enjoyed on account of his great virtue. The latter assured him that the court was not thinking of him; but the noble Ucondono answered: “My dear prince, the greatest happiness in which I can delight in this world is to die for the faith that I profess. Whatever may be the assurance that you give me, I am going to prepare myself for death.” He immediately set out for Meaco.

Rev. Eugene Grimm, ed. Victories of the Martyrs, vol. 9, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri (New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1888), 320.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 761

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Prince Justus Ucondono, is also known as Dom Justo Takayama Ukon, was a samurai for Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was exiled to Manila, where he died 40 days after his arrival from a fever. He is the only daimyō buried in the Manila Cathedral. He was beatified on February 7, 2017.

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3. The Invincibility of the Counter-Revolution

January 21, 2021

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Battle of Lepanto Painted by Tony Stafki http://tonystafki.imagekind.com/

One might ask, of what value is this dynamism? We respond that in thesis it is incalculable and certainly superior to that of the Revolution: “Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat” (“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me”).¹

Don Pelayo at Covadonga.

When men resolve to cooperate with the grace of God, the marvels of history are worked: the conversion of the Roman Empire; the formation of the Middle Ages; the reconquest of Spain, starting from Covadonga; all the events that result from the great resurrections of soul of which peoples are also capable. These resurrections are invincible, because nothing can defeat a people that is virtuous and truly loves God.

¹ Phil. 4:13.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Part II, Chapter IX, pg.104

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January 22 – Patroness of abuse victims

January 21, 2021

Blessed Laura Vicuña

Laura del Carmen Vicuña was born on April 5, 1891 in Santiago, Chile. She was the first daughter of the Vicuña Pino family. Her parents were José Domingo Vicuña, a soldier with aristocratic roots, and Mercedes Pino. Her father was in military service and her mother worked at home…

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January 22 – Patron of American Missions

January 21, 2021

Adèle Bayer

(née Parmentier)

Eldest daughter of Andrew Parmentier, b. in Belgium, 4 July, 1814, and d. in Brooklyn, New York, 22 January, 1892.

Andrew Parmentier, a horticulturist and civil engineer, was b. at Enghien, Belgium, 3 July, 1780, and d. in Brooklyn, New York, 26 November, 1830. His father, Andrew Joseph Parmentier, was a wealthy linen merchant, and his eldest brother Joseph had a European repute as a horticulturist and landscape gardener. Trained by the latter, Andrew emigrated to New York in 1824, on his way to the West Indies, taking with him his share of the family estate. He was persuaded by friends to remain in New York as a place where his abilities and scientific training would meet with recognition. He purchased a tract of land near Brooklyn which he laid out as a horticultural park…

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January 22 – The noble who often returned home barefoot

January 21, 2021

St. Vincent Mary Pallotti

The founder of the Pious Society of Missions, born at Rome, 21 April, 1798; died there, 22 Jan., 1850. He lies buried in the church of San Salvatore in Onda. He was descended from the noble families of the Pallotti of Norcia and the De Rossi of Rome. His early studies were made at the Pious Schools of San Pantaleone, whence he passed to the Roman College. At the age of sixteen, he resolved to become a secular priest, and on 16 May, 1820, he was ordained. He celebrated his first Mass in the church of the Gesù in Frascati…

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January 22 – Blessed Prince

January 21, 2021

Blessed Prince László Batthyány-Strattmann

Ladislaus Batthyány-Strattmann (1870-1931), a layman, doctor and father of a family. He was born on 28 October 1870 in Dunakiliti, Hungary, into an ancient noble family. He was the sixth of 10 brothers. In 1876 the family moved to Austria. When Ladislaus was 12 years old his mother died. He was already convinced at an early age that when he grew up he would be a “doctor of the poor”. He often said: “When I grow up, I will be a doctor and give free treatment to the sick and the poor”…

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January 22 – Defended by a raven

January 21, 2021

St. Vincent of Saragossa

Deacon of Saragossa, and martyr under Diocletian, 304; mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, 22 Jan., with St. Anastasius the Persian, honoured by the Greeks, 11 Nov. This most renowned martyr of Spain is represented in the dalmatic of a deacon, and has as emblems a cross, a raven, a grate, or a fire-pile. He is honoured as patron in Valencia, Saragossa, Portugal etc., is invoked by vintners, brickmakers, and sailors, and is in the Litany of the Saints. His Acts were read in the churches of Africa at the end of the fourth century, as St. Augustine testifies in Sermon 275. The present Acts (Acta SS., III Jan., 6) date from the eighth or ninth century, and were compiled from tradition. Anal. Boll., I, 259, gives another life…

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January 23 – Mary Ward and the Institute of Mary

January 21, 2021

Mary Ward

Foundress, born 23 January, 1585; died 23 January, 1645; eldest daughter of Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright, and connected by blood with most of the great Catholic families of Yorkshire. She entered a convent of Poor Clares at St.-Omer as lay sister in 1606. The following year she founded a house for Englishwomen at Gravelines, but not finding herself called to the contemplative life, she resolved to devote herself to active work. At the age of twenty-four she found herself surrounded by a band of devoted companions determined to labour under her guidance. In 1609 they established themselves as a religious community at St.-Omer, and opened schools for rich and poor. The venture was a success, but it was a novelty, and it called forth censure and opposition as well as praise…

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January 23 – Saint Emerentiana

January 21, 2021

Virgin and martyr, died at Rome in the third century. The old Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs, after giving the place of burial on the Via Nomentana of St. Agnes, speak of St. Emerentiana. Over the grave of St. Emerentiana a church was built which, according to the Itineraries, was near the church erected over the place of burial of St. Agnes, and somewhat farther from the city wall. In reality Emerentiana was interred in the coemeterium majus located in this vicinity not far from the coemeterium Agnetis. Armellini believed that he had found the original burial chamber of St. Emerentiana in the former coemeterium. According to the legend of St. Agnes, Emerentiana was her foster-sister. Some days after the burial of St. Agnes Emerentiana, who was still a catechumen, went to the grave to pray, and while praying she was suddenly attacked by the pagans and killed with stones. Her feast is kept on January 23. In the “Martyrologium Hieronymianum” she is mentioned under September 16, with the statement: In coemeterio maiore. She is represented with stones in her lap, also with a palm or lily.

J. P. KIRSCH (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 23 – St. Bernard

January 21, 2021

(BARNARD.)

Archbishop of Vienne, France. Born in 778; died at Vienne, 23 January, 842. His parents, who lived near Lyons and had large possessions, gave him an excellent education, and Bernard in obedience to the paternal wish, married and became a military officer under Charlemagne. After seven years as a soldier the death of his father and mother recalled him. Dividing his property into three parts — one for the Church, one for the poor and one for his children — he retired to the wilderness of Ambronay where there was a poor monastery. Bernard bought the monastery, enlarged it, and become one of its inmates. Upon the death of the abbot he was elected (805) to the vacant position. In 810 he was chosen Archbishop of Vienne to succeed Volfère, but it was only upon the command of Pope Leo III and of Charlemagne that he accepted the honour. He was consecrated by Leidtrade, Archbishop of Lyons, and distinguished himself by his piety and learning. He took part in drawing up the Capitularies of Charlemagne and aided Agobard in a work upon Jewish superstitions…

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January 24 – Saintly and Aristocrat

January 21, 2021

St. Francis de Sales

Bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Universal Church; born at Thorens, in the Duchy of Savoy, 21 August, 1567; died at Lyons, 28 December, 1622.

His father, François de Sales de Boisy, and his mother, Françoise de Sionnaz, belonged to old Savoyard aristocratic families.

The future saint was the eldest of six brothers. His father intended him for the magistracy and sent him at an early age to the colleges of La Roche and Annecy. From 1583 till 1588 he studied rhetoric and humanities at the college of Clermont, Paris, under the care of the Jesuits. While there he began a course of theology. After a terrible and prolonged temptation to despair, caused by the discussions of the theologians of the day on the question of predestination, from which he was suddenly freed as he knelt before a miraculous image of Our Lady at St. Etienne-des-Grès, he made a vow of chastity and consecrated himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary…

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January 24 – They called him “Ironmonger”

January 21, 2021

Blessed William Ireland

(Alias Ironmonger.)

Jesuit martyr, born in Lincolnshire, 1636; executed at Tyburn, 24 Jan. (not 3 Feb.), 1679; eldest son of William Ireland of Crofton Hall, Yorkshire, by Barbara, a daughter of Ralph Eure, of Washingborough, Lincolnshire (who is to be distinguished from the last Lord Eure) by his first wife.

He was educated at the English College, St. Omer; admitted to the Society of Jesus at Watten, 1655; professed, 1673; and was for several years confessor to the Poor Clares at Gravelines. In 1677 he was sent on the English Mission and appointed procurator of the province…

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January 24 – Guy Pierre de Fontgalland

January 21, 2021

Guy de Fontgalland (November 30, 1913 – January 24, 1925), Servant of God, was regarded in the inter-war period as the youngest potential Catholic saint who was not a martyr. His beatification process was opened on November 15, 1941, and suspended on November 18, 1947.[1]

Life

Guy de Fontgalland was the son of count Pierre Heurard de Fontgalland (1884-1972), a lawyer, and Marie Renée Mathevon (1880-1956). She had intended to become a Carmelite and he was a militant Catholic. Bishop de Gibergues, Bishop of Valence (Drôme) and friend of the family, introduced them and united them in marriage. He baptized their son as Guy Pierre Emmanuel on December 7, 1913…

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January 25 – St. Poppo

January 21, 2021

St. Poppo

Abbot, born 977; died at Marchiennes, 25 January, 1048. He belonged to a noble family of Flanders; his parents were Tizekinus and Adalwif. About the year 1000 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with two others of his countrymen. Soon after this he also went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He was about to marry a lady of noble family, when an impressive experience led him to seek another mode of life. As he was journeying late at night a flame burst forth over his head and his lance radiated a brilliant light. He believed this to be an illumination of the Holy Spirit, and soon after, 1005, he entered the monastery of St. Thierry at Reims. About 1008 Abbot Richard of St. Vannes at Verdun, who was a zealous reformer of monasteries in the spirit of the reform of Cluny, took Poppo with him to his monastery. Richard made Poppo prior of St. Vaast d’Arras, in the Diocese of Cambrai, about 1013. Here Poppo proved himself to be the right man for the position, reclaimed the lands of the monastery from the rapacious vassals, and secured the possession of the monastery by deeds…

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January 25 – Blessed Teresa Grillo Michel

January 21, 2021

BL. TERESA GRILLO MICHEL was born in Spinetta Marengo (Alessandria), Italy, on 25 September 1855. She was the fifth and last child of Giuseppe, the head physician at the Civil Hospital of Alessandria, and of Maria Antonietta Parvopassau, a descendent of an illustrious family of Alessandria. At Baptism she was given the name of Maddalena.

After the death of her father, the family moved to Turin, where Maddalena attended elementary school and her mother supervised the university studies of Francesco, her elder brother. When Maddalena finished elementary school, she was sent to a boarding school run by the Ladies of Loretto in Lodi, where she passed her final exams at the age of 18…

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January 25 – St. Ildephonsus

January 21, 2021

St. Ildephonsus

Archbishop of Toledo; died 23 January, 667. He was born of a distinguished family and was a nephew of St. Eugenius, his predecessor in the See of Toledo. At an early age, despite the determined opposition of his father, he embraced the monastic life in the monastery of Agli, near Toledo. While he was still a simple monk, he founded and endowed a monastery of nuns in Deibiensi villula. We learn from his writings that he was ordained a deacon (about 630) by Helladius, who had been his abbot and was afterwards elected Archbishop of Toledo. Ildephonsus himself became Abbot of Agli, and in this capacity was one of the signatories, in 653 and 655, at the Eighth and Ninth Councils of Toledo. Called by King Reccesvinth, towards the end of 657, to fill the archiepiscopal throne, he governed the Church of Toledo for a little more than nine years and was buried in the Basilica of Saint Leocadia…

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January 19 – Bishop Frederic Baraga

January 18, 2021

First Bishop of Marquette, Michigan, U.S.A., born 29 June, 1797, at Malavas, in the parish of Dobernice in the Austrian Dukedom of Carniola; died at Marquette, Michigan, 19 January, 1868…

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January 19 – James Lainez

January 18, 2021

(LAYNEZ).

Second general of the Society of Jesus, theologian, b. in 1512, at Almazan, Castille, in 1512; d. at Rome, 19 January, 1565. His family, although Christian for many generations, had descended from Jewish stock, as has been established by Sacchini (Historia Societatis Jesu, II, sec. 32). Lainez graduated in arts at the University of Alcalá (1531), and won his licentiate in philosophy there at the age of twenty (1532). At Alcalá, the young Castilian and his friend Salmerón had heard of Ignatius Loyola. To meet him, they betook them to the great University of Paris (1533) and there fell under the spell of his masterful will. Lainez was the second to Join Loyola and was one of the seven who on 15 August, 1534, made the vows of religion in the chapel of St. Denis, on Montmartre. Three years were now spent by Lainez, in works of charity and zeal, for the most part in Northern Italy…

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January 19 – Noble martyrs of Persia

January 18, 2021

Sts. Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum

All martyred at Rome in 270. Maris and his wife Martha, who belonged to the Persian nobility, came to Rome with their children in the reign of Emperor Claudius II. As zealous Christians, they sympathized with and succoured the persecuted faithful, and buried the bodies of the slain. This exposed them to the imperial vengeance; they were seized and delivered to the judge Muscianus, who, unable to persuade them to abjure their faith, condemned them to various tortures. At last, when no suffering could subdue their courage, Maris and his sons were beheaded at a place called Nymphæ Catabassi, thirteen miles from Rome, and their bodies burnt. Martha was cast into a well. A Roman lady named Felicitas, having succeeded in securing the half-consumed remains of the father and sons and also the mother’s body from the well, had the sacred relics secretly interred in a catacomb, on the thirteenth before the Kalends of February (20 January). The commemoration of these four martyrs, however, has been appointed for 19 February, doubtless so as to leave the twentieth for the feast of St. Sebastian.

Acta SS. (1643), II Jan., 214-6; BARONIUS, Annales (1589), 270, 2-9, 12-16; BOSCO, Una famiglia di martiri ossia vita dei SS. Mario, Marta, Audiface ed Abaco (Turin, 1892); MOMBRITIUS, Sanctuarium (1479), II, cxxxi-iii; SURIUS, De vitis sanctorum (Venice, 1581), I, 309-10; TILLEMONT, Mém, pour servir à l’hist. ecclés. (1696), IV, 675-7.

LÉON CLUGNET. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 19 – The scion of a noble family who longed to be enrolled in the noble army of martyrs

January 18, 2021

St. Blathmac

A distinguished Irish monk, b. in Ireland about 750. He suffered martyrdom in Iona, about 835. He is fortunate in having had his biography written by Strabo, Benedictine Abbot of Reichenau (824-849), and thus the story of his martyrdom has been handed down through the ages. Strabo’s life of this saint is in Latin hexameters, and is to be found in Messingham’s “Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum” (Paris, 1624)…

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January 19 – Archbishop Senator of the Spanish Kingdom

January 18, 2021

Blessed Marcelo Rafael José María de los Dolores Hilario Spinola y Maestre, Archbishop of Seville born: 14 January 1835. died 20 January 1906 Marcelo Spínola was born on the island of San Fernando, Cádiz Province. His parents were Juan Spínola y Osorno, Marquis of Spínola and Antonia Maestre y Osorno; they had eight children, of […]

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Blessed Laura Vicuña

Adèle Bayer

St. Vincent Mary Pallotti

Blessed Prince László Batthyány-Strattmann

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Blessed William Ireland

St. Poppo

Sts. Maris, Martha, Audifax, and Abachum

St. Blathmac

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