Boniface immeditely proceeded to that further action he threatened, and began to draft the bull solemnly excommunicating Philip and threatening his deposition if, within a fixed time, he had not submitted and sought absolution. It was arranged that the bull should be promulgated in the cathedral at Anagni, where Boniface then was, on September 8 [1303]. Nogaret learnt of what was in preparation. He realised that, at all costs, the publication of the sentence must be prevented. With a mixed troop of soldiery, gathered from half-a-dozen neighbouring towns hostile to the pope, with one of the Colonna at his side, and the standard of Philip the Fair in the van, he made for Anagni. On the eve of the appointed day he arrived before the little hillside city. Treason opened a gate for his force and after a short, sharp battle, he and his men, to the shouts of “Colonna! Colonna!” were in the papal palace and presently in the papal presence. They found the old pope prepared for them robed and clasping his crucifix. Nogaret demanded that he withdraw the excommunication and surrender himself for judgment. He replied that he would rather die. Sciarra Colonna offered to kill the pope. The cooler-headed Frenchman held him back. Then Colonna struck the old man in the face.

The outrage was the end of Nogaret’s success, however. While he parleyed with the pope and while the Italian soldiery plundered the palace—all they wanted and were fit for, Nogaret noted—the fighting began again in the town, and shouts of “Death to the French!” filled the streets. . . .

But the shock of this terrible Sunday was more than the pope could endure. . . . The cardinals persuaded him to return to Rome, and within three weeks he was dead (October 20, 1303).

 

(*) The term Revolution is used here in the sense given to it by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in his book Revolution and Counter-Revolution, 3rd ed. (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993).Philip Hughes, The Revolt Against the Church: Aquinas to Luther, vol. 3 of A History of the Church (New York, Sheed & Ward, 1947), 85–86.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 879

{ 0 comments }

INTRODUCTION

Much has been said of the relationship problems between parents and children. “Crisis of Adolescence”, “The Generation Gap” and other expressions indicate that this relationship and the conditions of life within the family are not going through a period of great harmony and understanding.

The hard reality is that the institution of the family is undergoing a process of disintegration that has only accelerated over the last decades. The evident signs are everywhere. One only need consider the diminishing numbers of traditional marriages and the increasing acceptance of so-called “gay marriages”. At the same time, we see an increase in the divorce rate, more single-parent families, more unmarried couples, more children born out of wedlock, anti-conception practices as the norm, and abortions commonplace.

The discord between husband and wife and between parents and children is also part of this crisis. This has been made significantly worse by the social transformations that have taken place over the last 200 years, which brought about the urbanised and industrialised society we have today.

Here we will try to demonstrate, with the help of a few experts, how the shift from an agrarian and rural society— where the family was organised according the patriarchal model—to today’s industrial and urban society—where the family has been pulverised and reduced to a small nucleus—has visibly harmed the harmonic development of the child within the home itself, as well as the mutual understanding between the parents.

Harry Elmer Barnes, a prominent American historian in the 20th Century, says in his book Society in Transition:

The relative decline in the importance of rural life and the urbanization of that which lingers on certainly constitutes one of the major turning points in the cultural and institutional history of mankind. The reduction of rural life and institutions to a subordinate position in Western civilization has veritably introduced a new epoch in human history.9

These social transformations profoundly affected traditional institutions. The most important of these, due to its unique and fundamental position, is the institution of the family. The advent of an urban and industrial society created a new type of family: the nuclear family. Its characteristics act powerfully as factors that bring about or aggravate family crises and the conflict between generations.

We will now compare the structure and benefits of the traditional family unit with the structure and harmful consequences of the modern day family unit.

9 Harry Elmer Barnes, Society in Transition, pp. 559-560, Prentice-Hall Inc. New York, 1939 in Adolescence and Youth: The Process of Maturing by Paul H. Landis, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1945, p. 72.

The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Chapter 6, Pgs. 85-92.

{ 0 comments }

Among the celebrated pilgrims of this age, we observe the name of Robert . . . duke of Normandy, father of William the Conqueror. History accuses him of having caused his brother Richard to be poisoned. Remorse urged him to make the pilgrimage to Palestine; and he set out accompanied by a great number of knights and barons, bearing the scrip and staff, walking barefoot, and clothed in the sack of penitence. He attached, he said, more value to the pains he suffered for Christ’s sake than to the richest city of his dukedom. On his arrival at Constantinople, he despised the luxury and the presents of the emperor, and appeared at court in the guise of the humblest of the pilgrims. Having fallen sick in Asia Minor, he refused the services of the Christians of his suite, and caused himself to be carried in a litter by Saracens. Meeting a pilgrim from Normandy, the latter asked him if he had any message that he could deliver from him to his country.

Statue of Robert the Magnificent as part of the Six Dukes of Normandy statues in the Falaise town square in France. Photo by Michael Shea.

“Go and tell my people,” said the duke, “that you have seen a Christian prince being carried to Paradise by devils.” When he arrived at Jerusalem, he found a crowd of pilgrims, who, not having the means of paying the tribute to the infidels, awaited the arrival of some rich lord who might deign, by his charity, to open for them the gates of the holy city. Robert paid a piece of gold for each of them, and followed them into Jerusalem amidst the acclamations of the Christians. During his soujourn here he caused himself to be remarked for his devotion, and still more for his charity, which he extended even to the infidels. As he was returning into Europe, he died at Nicea, in Bithynia, regarding only the relics he had brought with him from Palestine, and regretting that he had not finished his days in the holy city.

Joseph François Michaud, History of the Crusades, trans. W. Robson (New York: Redfied, 1853), 1:27–28.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 879

 

{ 0 comments }

Part I Conclusion

May 18, 2023


We have just seen how the word “family” is not an empty word. It is the leaven of life, it is a condition for existence, an essential element for progress. Supported by the values of tradition, it is the very breath of life of everything society affirms, develops, and tends towards for the future. The family resists and defies death, ultimately bringing about those historical eras that only societies imbued with these principles can achieve.
Only what is natural can live; only what is natural can progress. We have the astounding example of Europe. After a few centuries, it became the continent that achieved the most brilliant cultural and technical advances humanity has known. This was only possible because its organisation was profoundly based on families.
Thus, traditional family life, when imbued with steadfast religious principles and supported by heredity and tradition, forms an individual with a strong and lively personality able to confront and triumph over a decadent and secularised world.  Here we fully realise the brilliance, the value of the institution of the family. We should then fight for its survival. We should then fight for the survival of Christian civilisation with all the strength of our souls.
However, we must not forget—no matter how vital a principle for society the family may be—that any good in human society can only reach its plenitude, can only be saved from the most dangerous agents of deterioration, by placing all our faith, all our hope, and all our love in He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: Our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Pgs. 82-84.

{ 0 comments }

New York, November 5, 1823

SIR,

I have received your charming letter which has truly afforded me the greatest pleasure in the world and I see well that you are a young man of word. Yes, my dear sir, I believe I am the happiest of all mortals when I receive letters from Madame la Comtesse de Basturd and I assure you indeed that I am quite proud to receive a letter from Mr. William Schuyler, for I think and am cerain that you have the feelings of a true nobleman, that is to say, d’un homme comme il faut [of a man as he should be].

Statue of Philip Schuyler*, major general in the American Revolution and United States Senator. Located outside Albany City Hall in Albany, New York. Photo by MattWade.

Thus, if you should ever marry, and I should have the happiness of receiving a letter from your lady I should consider her the Countess William Schuyler. All the young men at Mr. Bancel’s say a thousand things to you. Mr. and Mrs. Bancel do not forget you at all. Madame Binsse is doing ver well. I did you the favor of presenting your regards to those young ladies. They are very sensible to your pleasant remembrances. Miss Collins is leaving tomorrow for her home and Miss Marcathy is leaving for Saint Croix because of her health. . . . Mr. Cruger has just arrived, and I received a very long letter from the Countess that made me very happy.

Mrs. Philip Jeremiah Schuyler**.

I go to your mother’s** house every day. She is doing very well. Your cousins are always quite well. The young ladies hope to see you this winter at Mr. Bancel’s ball. Miss Meetz says thousand and thousands of things to you. Adieu, my good and dear Mr. William, take care of yourself and always be good and write to me some time when time is not pressing. I am respectfully your very obedient servant,

P. TOUSSAINT

 

* Grandson of Revolutionary War General Philip Schuyler.

** Mrs. Philip J. Schuyler [Mary Anna Sawyer]

Hannah Sawyer Lee, Memoir of Pierre Toussaint: Born a Slave in St. Domingo, 2nd rev. ed. (Sunbury, Penn.: Western Hemisphere Cultural Society, 1992), 87–88.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 878

{ 0 comments }

Doña Lucilia Ribeiro dos Santos holding her son, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira.

I find it admirable that the sound a newborn child likes most to hear is the heartbeat of its mother. Inclusive from the viewpoint of such interactions and instincts, of the affinities that continue throughout life in its entirety. These are the harmonies that form dynasties.

Doña Lucilia

I felt what Mamãe felt. What she didn’t feel, I didn’t feel, without our having to make things explicit. It was through a gaze, a gesture, the offering of a small object while we were conversing. It is a connaturality in very profound things, which envelopes the personality in its entirety and every manner of being. In this sense, not referring to the physical similarity that is due to hereditary factors, I feel that a very profound affinity such as this can even produce one or another physical similarity. Above all when speaking of mother and son.

O Universo é uma Catedral: Excertos do pensamento de Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira recolhidos por Leo Daniele, Edições Brasil de Amanhã, São Paulo, 1997. Pgs 226-227.

{ 0 comments }

Ethelhard (AETHELHEARD, ETHELHEARD), fourteenth Archbishop of Canterbury, England, date of birth unknown; d. May 12, 805. Much obscurity surrounds the details of his life previous to his election. He is described by Symeon of Durham as “Abbas Hludensis Monasterii”, but it is uncertain what monastery is thus designated. It has been variously located at Louth in Lincolnshire (the most probable identification), Lydd, and Luddersdown in Kent, and at Malmesbury. William of Malmesbury is certainly mistaken in identifying him with Ethelhard, ninth Bishop of Winchester.

The rise of Offa, King of the Mercians (757-796), had divided England into three great states: Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. The king sought to consolidate his kingdom by giving it an independent ecclesiastical organization; for although Northumbria had its own archbishopric at York, Mercia, after conquering Kent, was still ecclesiastically subject to the powerful see of Canterbury, then ruled over by Jaenbert (766-791). Offa’s scheme was to weaken Canterbury’s influence by dividing the southern province, and creating a Mercian archbishopric at Lichfield: this he successfully accomplished when on the occasion of the Legatine visit of George and Theophylact, sent by Pope Hadrian I (772-795) in 786-788, Higbert received the pallium as Archbishop of Lichfield, and Canterbury was left with only London, Winchester, Sherborne, Rochester, and Selsey as suffragan sees. On the death of Jaenbert (August 12, 791), Ethelhard was raised to the see through the influence of Offa, which makes it likely that he was a Mercian abbot. Although he was elected in 791, his consecration only took place on July 21, 793: the delay being probably due to the unwillingness of the Kentish clergy and people to receive a Mercian archbishop, and to his being consecrated by the Archbishop of Lichfield. Had Offa’s policy of separate ecclesiastical organization prevailed, it would have impeded the attainment of national unity, and its defeat by Ethelhard is an event of the greatest importance in the history of the making of the English nation. During Offa’s lifetime little could be done to restore Canterbury’s rights and prestige. The year 796 was full of incident: the nobles of Kent rose in arms, and rallying round Eadbert Praen, a cleric and a member of their royal house, endeavored to shake off the yoke of the Mercian Offa. As Ethelhard’s difficulties increased Alcuin exhorted him not to desert his Church; but after taking severe ecclesiastical measures against the recalcitrant cleric he was obliged to flee. Offa died on July 26. His successor Egfrith died after a very short reign, about December 13; Cenwulf succeeded in Mercia, but the struggle continued in Kent until the capture of Eadbert in 798.

Map showing the dioceses of southern England during King Offa’s reign. The bold lines show the presumed boundaries between the provinces of Canterbury, Lichfield and York. Photo by Hel-hama.

The cooperation of Ethelhard and Cenwulf in deposing Eadbert, and in upholding the Mercian cause in Kent, increased the importance of Canterbury, and the archiepiscopal authority of Higbert waned. Cenwulf restored an estate taken from Canterbury by Offa, and wrote in 798 to Pope Leo asking him to examine into the question of the diminution of the rights of that see, and enclosing a letter from Ethelhard and his suffragans. Ethelhard meanwhile had returned to his see, and Alcuin wrote exhorting him to do penance for having deserted it. The success of Abbot Wada’s mission to Rome, the tone of the letter of Leo III to Cenwulf, and the successful conference with Eanbald II of York, with reference to the restoration of the rights of his see, determined Ethelhard to set out for Rome in 801. Alcuin’s friendship once more stood him in good stead; he sent a servant to meet him at St. Josse-sur-mer, and furnished him with letters of recommendation to Charles the Great. Success attended his efforts in Rome. Pope Leo III (795-816) granted his request, and ended the dispute between Canterbury and Lichfield by depriving Lichfield of its recently acquired honors and powers. The pope’s decision was officially acknowledged by the Council of Clovesho on October 12, 803, in presence of Cenwulf and his Witan, and Higbert was deprived of his pallium, in spite of Alcuin’s plea that so good a man should be spared that humiliation.

It is during Ethelhard’s occupancy of the See of Canterbury that we first meet with official records of the profession of faith and obedience made by the English bishops-elect to their metropolitan. The first document of that type is the profession of obedience to the See of Canterbury made in 796 by Bishop Eadulf of Linsey, who, as a suffragan of Lichfield, ought to have been consecrated by Higbert: it would appear to coincide with the collapse of Higbert’s archiepiscopal authority at the death of Offa.

SYMEON OF DURHAM (Rolls Series), II, 53; WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, Gesta Pontificum (Rolls Series), 57-59; STUBBS, s.v. Ethelhard in Dict. Christ. Biog.; IDEM in Dict. Nat. Biog. The extant documents concerning Ethelhard are collected in HADDAN AND STUBBS, Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents, III, 467-555 (Oxford, 1871).

EDWARD MYERS (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

Despite occasionally heavy rain, hundreds of thousands of spectators lined the route of the procession along The Mall, through Whitehall, past the Houses of Parliament.

The Coronation of King Charles III.

 

 

{ 0 comments }

The weak and timid sex was not deterred by the difficulties and the perils of a long voyage. Helena, born of a noble family of Sweden, quitted her country, which was buried in idolatry, and traveled on foot into the East. When, after having visited the holy places, she returned to her country, she was sacrificed to the resentment of her relations and compatriots, and gathered, says an old legend, the palm of martyrdom. A few of the faithful, touched with her piety, raised a chapel to her memory in the isle of Zealand, near a fountain, which is still called the Fountain of St. Helena. The Christians of the North for a long time went in pilgrimage to this island, where they contemplated a grotto which Helena had inhabited before her departure for Jerusalem.

Joseph François Michaud, History of the Crusades, trans. W. Robson (New York: Redfied, 1853), 1:27.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 877

{ 0 comments }

At the State Level

May 4, 2023

Previous

Birds Eye View of New York and Environs, 1865.

If a family can dominate a region, a town, and a profession, then no matter what the form of government may be, it will be influenced by families. This influence comes from below and moves upwards, penetrating in thousands of ways the organism of the State.

Having penetrated the organism of the State and instilling it with its vitality, it actually inspires the State. The family is vital force guiding the State. It is a vital force of convictions that limits the action of the State. Those directing the State are also part of families. They are part of this bubbling life, and they know they cannot change the direction of the State, because they are rooted in a society that is not a society of mere individuals—it is not a doxocratic society—but is a society with a defined life and tradition that function in the same way that the strong undercurrent of a river will certainly influence the course of the ship that navigates upon it.

Does the head of State actually set the course of a country? He certainly does, as he holds the reins of power, but he sets the course as does a captain of a ship who is navigating a winding river. He sets the course according to the currents and banks of the river. In this way, a State acquires stability, continuity, and coherence. In this way, the life of the family penetrates the State from top to bottom and gives it a solidity that is difficult for us to imagine, considering today’s anti-organic societies.Of course, I need not say that family life conceived in this way has its inconveniences. Everything in this life has its inconveniences. To avoid the family life that I have described because of inconveniences, however, is more or less like a person reasoning as follows: “Many people have died from cancer of the arm, therefore we should cut off our arms so we do not get cancer.” This is nonsense. Since we need to live, we must see how to avoid the inconveniences.

So what are the inconveniences? The greatest, in my view, comes from the lack of a virtue called Love of God. When this virtue is lacking, aseity, instead of being a generous movement through which a person affirms himself and communicates something, rather becomes egotistical and invasive, as the person affirms himself in order to keep everything for himself.

Stenciled on the wall of a building in London. Photo by Gürkan Sengün

I expand my personality at the expense of another who must be like me. If he is different, then I will smash him, because I want him only to be like me and to serve my interests. I will use my prestige, influence, tradition, dynamism, and especially my money to impose myself. Everyone will have to do what I want because that is what is best for me. What is best for me is to have as much as I can with as much power as possible. I want everyone to acknowledge the greatness of my person.

This may be more or less explicit, or to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the case, but gradually an erosion of the morals of a person or a family can take place. In this event, we will have a family that becomes an oligarchy. An oligarchic family is one that is closed to new values. It is a family that will never consent to another family, a newcomer, ignoring any justly earned merit and personal value, sitting next to it and participating in its influence and power.

It is a refusal of the idea that an exceptional individual, possibly from a lower class, could rise to the level of an individual of a higher class. This establishes a regime of castes such as in India, for example. It is something that is entirely closed and from which nothing enters or leaves and remains intact for centuries.

A family organisation, as I have described, could be compared to the waters of pool that are discreetly renewed so as to avoid stagnation. It is certainly not the revolted torrent of the nouveau riche, of the adventurers, or things done off the cuff. Nor am I speaking of a stagnation that refuses all new values. I am speaking of the family which, with all naturality and unabashedness, accepts new values without any fear because it is convinced that one of its greatest strengths is the strength of agglutination. That which does not have the strength of agglutination does not live.

Furthermore, this organisation of the family thus conceived evidently avoids certain types of families becoming like prisons to its members by not admitting exceptions. Any family that is a living organism easily deals with exceptions. It does not fear exceptions. If someone wants to follow another profession, if someone wants to emigrate from the family circle to another locality, he is free to do so and it is granted with goodwill. It will, however, be considered a somewhat rare exception, or even somewhat frequent, depending on those unforeseeable events that are part of everything that lives.

Such a family organisation, of course, fits with any form of government: monarchic, aristocratic, democratic, or even a mixture in varying degrees of these three forms of government. Reason tells us that the family is not incompatible with a form of government. Historical experience shows us, just to cite the Middle Ages as an example, how there were strong family-based cities living side by side that were democratic, aristocratic, and others yet with monarchic tendencies. Of course, there were the great monarchies based on the family. Therefore, this has nothing to do with forms of government.

A Young man from a poor family triumphantly shows his diploma to his patroness.
F. Georg Waldmüller (1861). Belvedere Art Collections, Vienna, Austria.

In sum, we have seen what is a society with true life; what is a society based on families; what is this force flowing from the depths of the individual up through the high echelons of the State and even reaching the broad horizons of Public Opinion itself and that mould a type of society that we today find it difficult to imagine.

However, if we have a society without aseity or personality, without a warm and bubbling family life, we have, in fact, a society directed from without. In other words, we have a mass. Because the raw material of this society that is the family has been weakened, it will necessarily have to allow itself to be directed and have ever increasing recourse to the State, for only the State will have the strength and means to impose, direct, and guide.

What is the result? The State will become increasingly intrusive into private life as well as increasingly overbearing. The end of the process is totalitarianism.

The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Chapter 6, Pgs. 75-81.

Next

{ 0 comments }

Melancholy letters arrived from Monsieur Bérard. His property was irreclaimably lost; and he wrote that he must return, and make the most of what he had placed in New York. This letter was soon followed by another, announcing his sudden death by pleurisy.

Madame Bérard had not recovered from this terrible shock, when the failure of the firm in New York to whom her property was entrusted, left her destitute.

“Ah!” said Toussaint, “it was a sad period for my poor mistress; but she believed—we all believed—that she would recover her property in the West Indies. She was rich in her own right, as well as her husband’s, and we said, ‘O madam! you will have enough.’”

But this present state of depression was hard indeed to one who had always lived in luxury. The constant application for debts unpaid was most distressing to her; but she had no means of paying them, and she could only beg applicants to wait, assuring them that she should eventually have ample means.

Toussaint entered into all her feelings, and shared her perplexities; and though he had scarcely passed boyhood, he began a series of devoted services.

He was one day present when an old friend called on her, and presented an order for forty dollars, thinking her husband had left the money with her, and by no means divining her state of destitution. She assured him he should have the money, and requested him to wait a short time; she considered it peculiarly a debt of honor. When he want away, she said to Toussaint, “Take these jewels and dispose of them for the most you can get.”

A typical lady of New York’s high society in the early 19th century.

He took them with an aching heart, contrasting in his own mind her present situation with the affluence to which she had always been accustomed. He had by industry begun to make his own deposit; for, as a slave, he was entitled to make the most of certain portions of his time. In a few days he went to his mistress, and placed in her hands two packets, one containing forty dollars, the other her own valuable jewels, upon which the sum was to have been raised. We may imagine what were her feelings on this occasion!

* Adjusted for inflation, USD$40 in 1790 would be the equivalent of $1,290.42 today.

Hannah Sawyer Lee, Memoir of Pierre Toussaint, Born a Slave in St. Domingo, 2nd rev. ed. (Sunbury, Penn.: Western Hemisphere Cultural Society, Inc., 1992), 28–29.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 876

{ 0 comments }

At the Regional Level

April 27, 2023

Previous
Going up another level, this family life that formed cities also formed regions. There are many places where this pyramid structure of families formed a region dominated by the influence of a certain family. A famous French sociologist, when asked what he thought a region was, responded, “The only possible definition of a region is a zone dominated by the influence of a great family.” Today a region is a train line or a bus route. In those days, a region was the cohesive strength of a great family.

The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Chapter 6, Pgs. 74-75.

Next

{ 0 comments }

Some time after this, the great Sultan of Persia, who had heard of the greatness of the Cid and of his wonderful feats at arms, and how he had never been vanquished by any man, and how he had conquered many kings, Moors and Christians, and had won the great city of Valencia, and had defeated King Bucar of Morocco and twenty-nine kings with him, was anxious to gain his friendship. Holding him to be one of the noble men of the world, he sent messengers to him with great gifts, and with them one of his own kinsmen, an honorable man, with letters of love.

This kinsman reached the port of Valencia and sent word to the Cid of his arrival with a message from the great Sultan of Persia, who had sent him a present. The Cid was well pleased, and in the morning he took his horse and went out with all his company, and his knights rode before with lances erect. When they had gone about three miles, they met the messenger of the Sultan coming to Valencia; and when he saw the manner of his coming, he understood what a great man the Cid was.

As he drew near the Cid stopped his horse Bavieca and waited to receive him; and when the messenger came before the Cid and looked on him, his flesh began to tremble, and he wondered at his own fear; and his voice failed him, and he could not speak a word. The Cid said he was welcome and went forward to embrace him; but the Moor made no reply, being amazed. After he had somewhat recovered and could speak, he would have kissed the Cid’s hand, but the Cid would not give it to him, and he thought this was done from pride; but they made him understand that it was done to honor him. He was greatly rejoiced, and said: “I humble myself before you, O Cid, who are the fortunate one, the best Christian and the most honorable who has girded on a sword or bestrode a horse for a thousand years. The great Sultan of Persia, hearing of your great fame and renown, has sent me to salute you and receive you as his best friend. He has sent a present by me who am his kinsman, and beseeches you to receive it as from a friend.” . . .

. . . The Cid . . . called for the governor and bade him take the kinsman of the Sultan and lodge him in the Garden, and honor him as he would himself.

Great honor was done to this man, even as if he had been the Cid himself. When the governor and the Persian had eaten together, the stranger asked what manner of man the Cid was. The governor told him that the Cid was the bravest man in the world and the best knight, and one whose word never failed, and the best friend to his friend, and to his enemy the most deadly foe; that he was merciful to the vanquished and thoughtful and wise in all that he did, and that his face was one that no man could see for the first time without fear. “And this,” said the governor, “I have many times observed; for when any messengers of the Moors come before him, they are so abashed that they do not know where they are.” After the Persian heard this, he called to mind how it had been with him; and he said to the governor that as they were both Mahometans he asked him to keep secret what he would say, and he would tell his own experience; and this the governor promised, and he said that when he first saw the Cid he for a long time was not able to speak, and he thought this power was given him of God so that none of his enemies might behold his face without fear. After the Persian said this, the governor saw that he was a man of understanding, and he asked him if he would answer him a question; and the governor asked why the Sultan had sent so great a present to the Cid, and why he desired his friendship when he lived so far away.

Now the Persian thought the governor wished to find out the state of his master’s country, and that the Cid had told him to do this. And he made answer that the great renown of the Cid had moved his master to do this. But the governor said he thought there must have been some other motive. And the Persian saw that the governor understood him, and wished to know the whole matter; and he said he would tell him if he would keep it secret, and the governor promised that he would do this. Then he told him that a great Crusade had gone forth from Europe and had won Antioch, and now lay before Jerusalem. And the Sultan was afraid that the crusaders would take his country. The Sultan having heard of the greatness of the Cid, and thinking he would join the Crusade, wished to have his friendship. Then the governor said he believed this to be the truth.

Calvin Dill Wilson, The Story of the Cid: For Young People (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1901), 287–89, 291–93.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 875

 

{ 0 comments }

At the Town Level

April 20, 2023

Previous

Let us now go up one level to see how towns were formed. These towns very frequently would be expressed as groups of families linked to other groups of families that constituted a small town of families of families.

One could object: “Here you go again talking about small towns. Can nothing be done with large towns and cities?”

My answer is that I am middle-aged, but still knew the days when São Paulo was a big city and not the Babel it is today. The city was divided into spontaneous neighbourhoods that were organically structured. I consider this modern-day division of rich and poor neighbourhoods anti-natural. Everyone lived together fraternally.

For example, in my neighbourhood the upper class, middle class, and lower class had houses side by side. It formed a small town within the city. Great or small, all helped one another from family to family. There was such intimacy that one could as if say that the neighbourhood was a big family. It was a big family in a city that was already big.

It was very interesting to note how the force of attraction of the neighbourhood was so great that when people would go to the city centre, it was like a small expedition. Stores from the city centre would even offer to send samples of cloth, shoes, etc., to be shown at people’s homes so that they would not have to be torn from their neighbourhood.

*    *     *

In Britain, “Often several families of Anglo-Saxons, related to each other or under the leadership of an adventurous chieftain, seem to have migrated to England and settled down in a village which they built for their clan or family. This explains how a great number of villages in England received their names.

“For instance, there are innumerable place-names which end with the syllable “-ham” which meant “home”. The suffix “-ing” meant “descendants from or dependants on” a certain man. Thus Birmingham is derived from the “home of Beorma’s people” so that this city of over one million people began as a small village built by Beorma’s family or some dependants who regarded him as their chieftain.” 7

Similarly in France, “The city of Paris was built up by the juxtaposition of a certain number of fortified residences, each one of which was the seat of a lord, and the latter issued from the family through the intermediary of the mesnie” 8

7) Wilfred J. Moore, Britain in the Middle Ages, G. Bell and Sons, Ltd, London, 1954, p. 23.

8) Frantz Funck-Brentano, The Old Regime in France, translated by Herbert Wilson, Edward Arnold & Co., London, 1929, pp. 291-292.

The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society, by Tradition, Family, Property Association. Chapter 6, Pgs. 73-74.

Next

{ 0 comments }

Giacomo Rho

Imperial Obsrvatory in Beijing, China

Missionary, born at Milan, 1593; died at Peking 27 April, 1638. He was the son of a noble and learned jurist, and at the age of twenty entered the Society of Jesus. While poor success attended his early studies, he was later very proficient in mathematics. After his ordination at Rome by Cardinal Bellarmine, he sailed in 1617 for the Far East with forty-four companions. After a brief stay at Goa he proceeded to Macao where, during the siege of that city by the Dutch, he taught the inhabitants the use of artillery and thus brought about its deliverance. This service opened China to him. He rapidly acquired the knowledge of the native language and was summoned in 1631 by the emperor to Peking for the reform of the Chinese calendar. With Father Schall he worked to the end of his life at this difficult task. When he died, amidst circumstances exceptionally favourable to the Catholic mission, numerous Chinese officials attended his funeral. He left works relative to the correction of the Chinese calendar, to astronomical and theological questions.

DE BACKER-SOMMERVOGEL, Biblioth. de la Comp. de Jésus, VI (9 vols., Brussels and Paris, 1890-1900), 1709-11; HUC, Christianity in China, Tartary and Thibet, II (tr. New York, 1884), 265-66.

N. A. WEBER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

Pope Leo XI

(ALESSANDRO OTTAVIANO DE’ MEDICI).

Born at Florence in 1535; died at Rome 27 April, 1605, on the twenty-seventh day after his election to the papacy. His mother, Francesca Salviati, was a daughter of Giacomo Salviati and Lucrezia Medici, the latter being a sister of Leo X. From his boyhood he led a life of piety and always had an earnest desire to enter the ecclesiastical state, but could not obtain his mother’s consent. After her death he was ordained priest and somewhat later Grand Duke Cosimo of Tuscany sent him as ambassador to Pius V, a position which he held for fifteen years. Gregory XIII made him Bishop of Pistoia in 1573, Archbishop of Florence in 1574, and cardinal in 1583. Clement VIII sent him, in 1596, as legate to France where he did good service for the Church in repressing the Huguenot influence at the court of Henry IV, and helping to restore the Catholic religion. On his return to Italy he was appointed prefect of the Congregation of Bishops and Regulars. In 1600 he became Bishop of the suburbicarian Diocese of Albano, whence he was transferred to Palestrina in 1602. Alessandro was an intimate friend of St. Philip Neri with whom he spent much time in spiritual conversation and whose advice he sought in all important matters. When Alessandro was Tuscan ambassador at the court of Pius V Philip predicted his election to the papacy.

On 14 March, 1605, eleven days after the death of Clement VIII, sixty-two cardinals entered the conclave. Prominent among the candidates for the papacy were the great historian Baronius and the famous Jesuit controversialist Bellarmine. But Aldobrandini, the leader of the Italian party among the cardinals, made common cause with the French party and brought about the election of Alessandro against the express wish of King Philip III of Spain. King Henry IV of France, who had learned to esteem Alessandro when papal legate at his court, and whose wife, Maria de’ Medici was related to Alessandro, is said to have spent 300,000 écus in the promotion of Alessandro’s candidacy. On 1 April, 1605, Alessandro ascended the papal throne as Leo XI, being then seventy years of age. He took sick immediately after his coronation. During his sickness he was importuned by many members of the Curia and by a few ambassadors from foreign courts to confer the cardinalate on one of his grandnephews, whom he had himself educated and whom he loved dearly, but he had such an aversion for nepotism that he firmly refused the request. When his confessor urged him to grant it, he dismissed him and sent for another confessor to prepare him for death.

CARDELLA, Memorie storiche de’ cardinali della s. romana chiesa, V (Rome, 1792), 181 sq.; CAPECELATRO, Life of Philip Neri, tr. POPE, II (2nd ed., London, 1894), 227-232.

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

Roman Sebastian Zängerle

Prince-Bishop of Seekan, born at Ober-Kirchberg near Ulm, 20 January, 1771; died at Seekau, 27 April, 1848. Having studied the Humanities with the Benedictines at Wiblingen, he became novice at that monastery in 1788, took vows, 5 Feb., 1792, and was ordained priest, 21 Dec., 1793. From 1794-5 he studied Oriental languages at the monastery of Zwiefalten, taught Holy Scripture at Wiblingen, 1796-9, at Mehrerau, 1799-1801, at Wiblingen, 1801-3, at the Benedictine University of Salzburg, 1803- 7, at the University of Cracow, 1807-9, at the University of Prague, 1811-13, and at the University of Vienna, 1813-24. In 1824, fifteen years after the suppression of his monastery, when there was no further hope of its restoration, he obtained dispensation from his religious vows in order to accept a canonry at Vienna. On 24 April, 1824, he became Prince-Bishop of Seekau and administrator of the Diocese of Leoben. These two dioceses, with a population of 800,000, had been without a bishop for twelve years, during which time the Government had free scope to infuse Josephinistic ideas into the clergy and the laity. The monasteries, almost without exception, had relaxed in discipline; the clergy, both secular and regular, were for the most part worldly minded and exceedingly lax as pastors of the faithful. Despite governmental opposition, Zängerle inaugurated a thorough religious renovation in both dioceses, reformed the existing monasteries, introduced the Redemptorists, Jesuits, Carmelites, and Vincentian Sisters, founded the School Sisters of the Third Order (1843) erected a Knabenseminar for both dioceses at Leoben, thoroughly renovated the diocesan seminary religiously and educationally, introduced annual retreats for the clergy, and in many other ways provided for the welfare of both dioceses.

SENTZER, Roman Sebastian Zängerle, Fürstbishof von Sekau und Administrator der Leobener Diocese (Graz, 1901); Hist. Polit. Blätter, CXXIX (Munich, 1902), 589-604, 621-632; St. Benedikts- Stimmen, XIII (Prague, 1899), 266-272, 302-310.

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

Nicolò Albertini

(Aubertini)

Medieval statesman, b. at Prato in Italy, c. 1250; d. at Avignon, 27 April, 1321. His early education was directed by his parents, both of whom belonged to illustrious families of Tuscany. At the age of sixteen (1266) he entered the Dominican Order in the Convent of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, and was sent to the University of Paris to complete his studies. He preached in Italy with success, and his theological lectures were especially well attended at Florence and at Rome. He was entrusted by his superiors with various important duties and governed several houses. He was made Procurator-General of the whole order of St. Dominic by Blessed Nicolò Bocassini, then Master General, and was afterwards elected Provincial of the Roman Province. In 1299, Boniface VIII made him Bishop of Spoleto and soon afterwards sent him as Papal Legate to the Kings of France and England, Philip IV and Edward I, with a view to reconciling them, a seemingly hopeless task. Albertini succeeded in his mission. The Pope in full consistory thanked him, and made him Vicar of Rome. Benedict XI was particularly attached to Albertini, with whom he had lived a long time in the same cloister. Shortly after his accession to the Papacy (22 October, 1303) he made Albertini Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Dean of the Sacred College, which office he held for eighteen or nineteen years. The civil wars that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries had devastated a great part of Italy, especially Tuscany, Romagna, and the March of Trevi, caused the Pope again to invest the new Cardinal with the dignity of Apostolic Legate, and to send him to restore peace in those disturbed provinces. His authority was also extended to the Dioceses of Aquila, Ravenna, Ferara, and those in the territory of Venice. He was well received by the people of Florence, but after many futile efforts to effect a reconciliation between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines he left the city and placed it under interdict. On the 29th of June (1312), in the name of Clement V, he crowned Henry VII of Luxembourg at Rome. Albertini is the leading figure in the trial that exonerated the Dominican, Bernardo da Montepulciano, from the charge of killing this king by giving him a poisoned host for Communion. He crowned King Robert of Sicily, son and successor of Charles II. The Cardinal of Ostia was known for his great love for the poor, especially for the poor of the City of Prato. He also gave generously to religious houses and towards the erection of churches. At Avignon he established a community of nuns similar to those founded by St. Dominic at San Sisto in Rome. He obtained for his Order the office of “Master of the Sacred Palace”, that has always been held by a Dominican. Two small works are all that are known of his writings. One is a treatise on Paradise, the other on the manner of holding assemblies of Bishops. He was buried in the Dominican Church at Avignon.

Quétif and Echard, S.S. Ord. Præd., I, 546; Corner, Chronicon rerum Saxonicarum, in Seelen, De II. Kornero cujusque M.S. commentario (Lübeck, 1720); Cartellieri, in Neue Heidelberger Jahrbücher (1904), XIII, 121, 129.

Timothy Leonard Crowley (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

Robert Abercromby

Sometimes known as Sanders and as Robertson, a Jesuit missionary in Scotland in the time of the persecutions, born 1532; died at Braunsberg, in Prussia, 27 April, 1613. He was brought into prominence chiefly by the fact that he converted the Queen of James I of England, when that monarch was as yet James IV of Scotland. The Queen was Anne of Denmark, and her father, an ardent Lutheran, has stipulated that she should have the right to practice her own religion in Scotland, and for that purpose sent with her a chaplain named John Lering who, however, shortly after his arrival, became a Calvinist. The Queen, who abhorred Calvinism, asked some of the Catholic nobles for advice, and it was suggested to call Father Abercromby, who, with some other Jesuits, was secretly working among the Scotch Catholics and winning many illustrious converts to the Church. Though brought up a Lutheran, Queen Anne had in her youth lived with a niece of the Emperor Charles V, and not only knew something of the Faith, but had frequently been present at Mass with her former friend. Abercromby was introduced into the palace, instructed the Queen in the Catholic religion, and received her into the Church. This was about the year 1600. As to the date there is some controversy. Andrew Lang, who merely quotes Mac Quhirrie as to the fact of the conversion, without mentioning Abercromby, puts it as occurring in 1598. Intelligence of it at last came to the ears of the King, who, instead of being angry, warned her to keep it secret, as her conversion might imperil his crown. He even went as far as to appoint Abercromby Superintendent of the Royal Falconry, in order that he might remain near the Queen. Up to the time that James succeeded to the crown of England, Father Abercromby remained at the Scottish Court, celebrating Mass in secret, and giving Holy Communion nine or ten times to his neophyte. When the King and Queen were crowned sovereigns of Great Britain, Anne gave proof of her sincerity by absolutely refusing to receive the Protestant sacrament, declaring that she preferred to forfeit her crown rather than take part in what she considered a sacrilegious profanation. Of this, Lang, in his “History of Scotland”, says nothing. She made several ineffectual attempts to convert the King. Abercromby remained in Scotland for some time, but as a price of 10,000 crowns was put upon his head he came to England, only to find that the King’s kindly dispositions toward him had undergone a change. The alleged discovery of a Gunpowder Plot in 1605, and the attempts made to implicate the Jesuits in the conspiracy had excited in the mind of the King feelings of bitter hostility to the Society. He ordered a strict search to be made for Abercromby, who consequently left the country and betook himself to Braunsberg, in Eastern Prussia, where he died, in his eighty-first year.

Bellesheim, Hist. of the Cath. Church in Scotland, VIII, 346; Rostowski, Lituanic, S. J., Hist., 236; Abercromby’s Narrative in the Biblioth. Nation., Paris, Fonds latins, 6051, fol. 50.

{ 0 comments }

Heinrich Blyssen

Graz

Born at Cologne or Bonn, Germany in 1526; died at Graz, 24 April, 1586. He entered the Society of Jesus, and St. Ignatius, appreciating his logic and knowledge of theology, sent him with eleven other Jesuits to Bohemia to combat heresy there, and to sustain a public discussion with the disciples of Luther and Hus. Though only twenty-five years of age, he acquitted himself with honor, and in 1556 he became professor of theology and Hebrew at the Jesuit college at Prague. Still maintaining his controversy with the heretics of Bohemia, he published a collection of theses: “De ciborum delectu atque jejunio” (Prague 1559). To continue the work of public lectures which he began, he gave a Sunday course of polemics to the clergy and laity. Appointed rector of the college at Prague in 1561, he was transferred in 1570 to the college at Graz, where he vigorously continued his lectures on theology.

Jacob Heerbrand

Attacked by Jacob Heerbrand on his doctrine concerning the Church, he published a defense of his thesis: “Defensio assertionum theologicarum de verâ et sacrosanctâ Christi, quam habet in terris, Ecclesiâ militante (Ingolstadt, 1577). His last and principal work, “De uno geminoque sacrae eucharistiae synaxeos salubriter percipiendae ritu ac usu” was published (Ingolstadt, 1585) when he was provincial of Austria.

Orlandini, Hist. Soc. Jesu (Rome, 1614), XII, 283; XVI, 396; Socher, Historia prov. Austr. Soc. Jesu (Vienna), VIII, 320; Schmidt, Historia Soc. Jesu prov. Bohemiae (Prague, 1747), I, 536; Sommervogel, Bibl. de la c. de J. (1550), I.

M. DE MOREIRA (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

April 24 – St. Mellitus

April 20, 2023

St. Mellitus Bishop of London and third Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 24 April, 624. He was the leader of the second band of missionaries whom St. Gregory sent from Rome to join St. Augustine at Canterbury in 601. Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccl., II, vii) describes him as of noble birth, and as he is styled […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – Gregory Bæticus

April 20, 2023

Gregory Bæticus, Bishop of Elvira, in the province of Baetica, Spain, from which he derived his surname; d. about 392. Gregory is first met with as Bishop of Elvira (Illiberis) in 375; he is mentioned in the luciferian “Libellus precum ad Imperatores” (Migne, P.L., XIII, 89 sq.) as the defender of Nicean creed, after Bishop […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – Richard de Bury

April 20, 2023

Richard de Bury Bishop and bibliophile, b. near Bury St. Edmund’s, Suffolk, England, 24 Jan., 1286; d. at Auckland, Durham, England, 24 April, 1345. He was the son of Sir Richard Aungerville, but was named after his birthplace. He studied at Oxford and became a Benedictine. Having been appointed tutor to Prince Edward, son of […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – Battle of Mühlberg

April 20, 2023

The Battle of Mühlberg took place near Mühlberg in the Electorate of Saxony in 1547, during the Schmalkaldic War. The Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V decisively defeated the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes under the command of Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – James Beaton

April 20, 2023

James Beaton (Or Bethune) Archbishop of Glasgow, b. 1517; d. 24 April, 1603; the son of James Beaton of Balfarg (a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour) and nephew to Cardinal David Beaton. He was elected to the archbishopric in 1551, on the resignation of the archbishop-elect Andrew Gordon, and not being yet in […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – Pope Benedict XII

April 20, 2023

Pope Benedict XII (Jacques Fournier) Third of the Avignon popes, b. at Saverdun in the province of Toulouse, France, elected 20 December, 1334; d. at Avignon 24 April, 1342. Nothing is known of his parentage or boyhood. In youth he became a Cistercian monk in the monastery of Boulbonne, whence he moved to that of […]

Read the full article →

St. Ambrose Defends the Church’s Rights and Publicly Rebukes the Roman Emperor Theodosius

April 13, 2023

Even before Theodosius succeeded to the rule of the Empire in the West he had had experience of the saint’s limitless and courageous solicitude for the rights of religion. In distant Osroene a synagogue had been destroyed in a riot. Theodosius ordered that it should be rebuilt at the expense of the local bishop, and […]

Read the full article →

The Family Is the Soul of Both Society and the State

April 13, 2023

Previous Chapter 6 Just as the family produces a profound interrelationship among souls that gives it a magnificent organicity, it also tends to overflow its own boundaries and project its influence onto several fields of human activity. What fields of activity are these? It is normal for relatives to have affinities and, therefore, to have […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – Two English Martyrs

April 10, 2023

Blessed John Lockwood Priest and martyr, born about 1555; died at York, 13 April, 1642. He was the eldest son of Christopher Lockwood, of Sowerby, Yorkshire, by Clare, eldest daughter of Christopher Lascelles, of Sowerby and Brackenborough Castle, Yorkshire. With the second son, Francis, he arrived at Reims on 4 November, 1579, and was at […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – Paulus Diaconus

April 10, 2023

Paulus Diaconus (also called Casinensis, Levita, and Warnefridi). Historian, born at Friuli about 720; died 13 April, probably 799. He was a descendant of a noble Lombard family, and it is not unlikely that he was educated at the craft of King Rachis at Pavia, under the direction of Flavianus the grammarian. In 763 we […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – Henry James Coleridge

April 10, 2023

Henry James Coleridge A writer and preacher, b. 20 September 1822, in Devonshire, England; d. at Roehampton, 13 April 1893. He was the son of Sir John Taylor Coleridge, a Judge of the King’s Bench, and brother of John Duke, Lord Coleridge, Chief Justice of England. His grandfather, Captain James Coleridge, was brother to Samuel […]

Read the full article →

El Cid Routs the Muslim King Bucar, Driving Him Into the Sea

April 6, 2023

On the next morning, at cock-crow, they, according to their custom, received the sacrament; and before the dawn broke they went forth from Valencia. When they had got through the narrow passes among the gardens, the Cid set his army in array. The front he gave to Alvar Fanez and to Pero Bermudez, who carried […]

Read the full article →

End of Chapter 5

April 6, 2023

Previous In short, the family, strengthened by heredity, naturally creates an environment of understanding, homogeneity, and spontaneity that helps the individual to blossom and develop. There is also tradition. Each family transmits its way of being to the next generation, and in the act of transmission there is an increase in the strength of the […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Pope St. Sixtus I

April 3, 2023

Pope St. Sixtus I (in the oldest documents, Xystus is the spelling used for the first three popes of that name), succeeded St. Alexander and was followed by St. Telesphorus. According to the “Liberian Catalogue” of popes, he ruled the Church during the reign of Adrian “a conulatu Nigri et Aproniani usque Vero III et […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Persecuted by her own general superior

April 3, 2023

St. Juliana of Liège Nun, b. at Retinnes, near Liège, Belgium, 1193; d. at Fosses, 5 April, 1258. At the age of five she lost her parents and was placed in the convent of Mont-Cornillon, near Liège. She made rapid progress, and read with pleasure the writings of St. Augustine and St. Bernard. She also […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Girolamo Francesco Tornielli

April 3, 2023

Girolamo Francesco Tornielli Italian Jesuit, preacher and writer, b. at Cameri, 1 February, 1693, of a distinguished family from Novara; d. at Bologna, 6 April or 12 May, 1752. He entered the Society in 1710, and manifested oratorical powers; after teaching classics, he entered upon a career of preaching, which lasted for almost twenty years. […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – The “Soul of St. Thomas”

April 3, 2023

John Capreolus A theologian, born towards the end of the fourteenth century, (about 1380), in the diocese of Rodez, France; died in that city 6 April, 1444. He has been called the “Prince of Thomists”, but only scanty details of his personal history are known. He was a Dominican affiliated to the province of Toulouse, […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Robert Aston Coffin

April 3, 2023

Robert Aston Coffin An ecclesiastical writer and bishop, b. at Brighton, England, 19 July, 1819; d. at Teignmouth, Devonshire, 6 April, 1885. He received his secondary education at Harrow and in 1837 went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree with honours in 1840. He then prepared himself for the ministry and, […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – John Dobree Dalgairns

April 3, 2023

(In religion FATHER BERNARD). Born in the island of Guernsey, 21 Oct., 1818; d. 6 April, 1876, at St. George’s Retreat, Burgess Hill, near Brighton, England. He matriculated at Exeter college, Oxford, 1836, and took a second class in literis humanioribus, 1839. Already an ardent follower of Newman, he had written (1838) to the Paris […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Son of the great Hunyady

April 3, 2023

Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary, son of Janos Hunyady and Elizabeth Szilagyi of Horogssey, was born at Kolozsvar 23 Feb., 1440; d. at Vienna, 6 April, 1490. In the house of his father he received along with his brother Ladislaus, a careful education under the supervision of Gregor Sanocki, who taught him the humanities. Johann […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Thomas Bourchier

April 3, 2023

Thomas Bourchier Born 1406; died 1486, Cardinal, was the third son of William Bourchier, Earl of Eu, and of Lady Anne Plantagenet, a daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III. At an early age he entered the University of Oxford, and in due course, embracing a clerical career, was […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Albrecht Dürer

April 3, 2023

Albrecht Dürer Celebrated painter and engraver, born at Nuremberg, Germany, 21 May, 1471; died there, 6 April, 1528. Dürer left his native city, then famous for its commerce, learning, and art, but three times in his life. His first journey was undertaken after he had completed his apprenticeships both to his father, a goldsmith, and […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Pope St. Celestine I

April 3, 2023

Pope St. Celestine I Nothing is known of his early history except that he was a Roman and that his father’s name was Priscus. He is said to have lived for a time at Milan with St. Ambrose; the first notice, however, concerning him that is known is in a document of St. Innocent I, […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – Richard the Lionheart

April 3, 2023

Richard I, King Of England Born at Oxford, 6 Sept, 1157; died at Chaluz, France, 6 April, 1199; was known to the minstrels of a later age, rather than to his contemporaries, as “Coeur-de-Lion”. He was only the second son of Henry II, but it was part of his father’s policy, holding, as he did, […]

Read the full article →

In the Middle Ages One Had Great Sinners, But Also Great Penitents—The Case of Foulque Nerra, Count of Anjou

March 30, 2023

Foulque-Nerra [Fulk III, the Black], count of Anjou, charged with crimes, and stained with blood, thought to efface all his cruelties by a voyage to Jerusalem. His brother, whom he had caused to perish in a dungeon, presented himself wherever he went, before his eyes; it appeared to him that the numerous victims sacrificed to […]

Read the full article →

The Virtue of Aseity and Family Life

March 30, 2023

Previous Chapter 5 Having defined the word aseity and explained its importance, let us now understand what aseity or personality, to use a more common term, receives and how it benefits from family life. In fact, it receives almost everything. Personality is a profound force within us. Even so, in its first manifestations, it evidently […]

Read the full article →

The Prince and Princess of Wales Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day

March 30, 2023

According to The Royal Forums: …the Prince and Princess of Wales were present at the 1st Battalion Irish Guards’ St. Patrick’s Day Parade held at Mons Barracks in Aldershot. For the Princess it was the first parade since becoming Colonel of the Regiment while the Prince is outgoing Colonel. The Prince in his speech stated […]

Read the full article →

A Spanish General Testifies to Saint José de Anchieta’s Spiritual Majesty

March 23, 2023

The force of Anchieta’s personality in influencing strangers is well illustrated by his contact with a Spanish General, Diogo Flores Valdéz. In March, 1582, the Provincial was in Rio [de Janeiro] when a fleet of sixteen sails appeared unexpectedly in the bay. The inhabitants of Rio were naturally alarmed at the sight of so many […]

Read the full article →

Relationship of Aseity and Impurity

March 23, 2023

Previous In the famous and never sufficiently discussed subject of chastity, a great number of souls practice impurity because, as children, they did not have the courage to oppose the dominant opinion and affirm that impurity is evil. The principle thus dies in their souls and they end up surrendering themselves to impurity. This is […]

Read the full article →

Louis XVI Gives a Marriage Dowry to 100 Poor French Girls

March 16, 2023

On February 9th, 1779 (in the narrative of Louise de Grandpré, to whom the study of Notre Dame has been a veritable passion), a large crowd pressed towards the cathedral; the ground was strewed with fresh grass and flowers and leaves; the pillars were decorated with many coloured banners. In the choir the vestments of […]

Read the full article →

Laziness, Pride, and Public Opinion

March 16, 2023

Previous The capital sin of laziness is the cause of every lack of aseity. It produces a kind of softness by which an individual does not want to make the effort to enter into conflict with everyone else. Much to the contrary, a noble spirit, an individual with aseity, ascertains the truth and rejects the […]

Read the full article →

March 16 – Sylvester Norris

March 13, 2023

Sylvester Norris (Alias SMITH, NEWTON). Controversial writer and English missionary priest; b. 1570 or 1572 in Somersetshire; d. 16 March, 1630. After receiving minor orders at Reims in 1590, he went to the English College, Rome, where he completed his studies and was ordained priest. In May, 1596, he was sent on the English mission, […]

Read the full article →

March 16 – St. Jean de Brébeuf

March 13, 2023

Jean de Brébeuf Jesuit missionary, born at Condé-sur-Vire in Normandy, 25 March, 1593; died in Canada, near Georgian Bay, 16 March, 1649. His desire was to become a lay brother, but he finally entered the Society of Jesus as a scholastic, 8 November, 1617. According to Ragueneau it was 5 October. Though of unusual physical […]

Read the full article →

March 16 – François de Crépieul

March 13, 2023

François de Crépieul Jesuit missionary in Canada and vicar Apostolic for the Montagnais Indians; b. at Arras, France, 16 March, 1638; d. at Quebec in 1702. As a youth he studied in the Jesuit college of his native town and in that of Douai, becoming a member of the order at Tournay in 1659. He […]

Read the full article →

March 16 – Edmund O’Donnell

March 13, 2023

The first Jesuit executed by the English government; b. at Limerick in 1542, executed at Cork, 16 March, 1575. His family had held the highest civic offices in Limerick since the thirteenth century, and he was closely related to Father David Woulfe, Pope Pius IV’s legate in Ireland. He entered the Society of Jesus at […]

Read the full article →

El Cid Gives King Alfonso the Tent of King Yucef

March 9, 2023

Then the Cid sent Alvar Fanez and Pero Bermudez with a present to King Alfonso. He sent two hundred horses saddled and bridled, each with a sword hanging from the saddle-bow; he also sent the splendid tent which he had taken from the king of Morocco. He gave this present because the king had sent […]

Read the full article →

Aseity and the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ

March 9, 2023

Previous A truly horrific example of how the masses control people can be found during the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord is the perfect model of virtue. He showed this through preaching and performing miracles. The masses who saw and acclaimed Him as king changed on a whim. Many of them acclaimed […]

Read the full article →

March 12 – St. Gorgonius

March 9, 2023

Martyr, suffered in 304 at Nicomedia during the persecution of Diocletian. Gorgonius held a high position in the household of the emperor, and had often been entrusted with matters of the greatest importance. At the breaking out of the persecution he was consequently among the first to be charged, and, remaining constant in the profession […]

Read the full article →

Australia is removing the British monarchy from its bank notes

March 2, 2023

According to APNews: The nation’s central bank said… its new $5 bill would feature an Indigenous design rather than an image of King Charles III. The $5 bill was Australia’s only remaining bank note to still feature an image of the monarch. … Labor Party is seeking to make Australia a republic with an Australian […]

Read the full article →

Though Born a Slave, the Ladies Considered Venerable Pierre Toussaint “A Finished Gentleman”

March 2, 2023

It was a striking trait in his character, that everything in which he engaged was thoroughly done; there was a completeness in his plans, and their execution, which commanded confidence, and which perhaps was one of the causes of the respect which he inspired. This sometimes led ladies to say, that Toussaint “was a finished […]

Read the full article →