After Two Centuries, US House of Representatives Page Program Ended

September 5, 2011

August 31, 2011, marked the last day of the United States House of Representatives Page Program, a tradition nearly as old as Congress itself. “According to the House of Representatives Page Program website, the history of the pages themselves goes back to the first Continental Congress of 1774 (though they were not called ‘pages’ until […]

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September 5 – Unashamed to beg alms from his family

September 5, 2011

St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor, First Patriarch of Venice (also known as Laurence Giustiniani, Lawrence Justinian, Lorenzo Giustiniani) A.D. 1455. St. Laurence was born at Venice, in 1380. His father Bernardi Justiniani (1) held an illustrious rank among the prime nobility of the commonwealth; nor was the extraction of his mother Querini less noble. […]

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Video – Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 (Part 1/7)

September 1, 2011

Other segments: Part 3 Part 2 Part 1

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Their sole “crime” was having sheltered a priest

September 1, 2011

Notwithstanding the danger with which the least kindness shown to any royalist or Catholic was attended, there were not a few of the inhabitants of Nantes who braved the fury of the terrorists, and concealed in their houses both priests and insurgents. A touching story is told of the devotion of two young ladies to […]

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Revolution, Counter-Revolution, and Dictatorship

September 1, 2011

[previous] F. Revolution, Counter-Revolution, and Dictatorship These considerations on the position of the Revolution and of Catholic thought concerning forms of government may lead some readers to inquire whether dictatorship is a revolutionary or a counter-revolutionary factor. To provide a clear answer to this question—to which many confused and even tendentious replies have been given—it […]

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September 2-3 – The September Martyrs of the French Revolution, Blessed John du Lau and Companions

September 1, 2011

Martyrs of September (Also known as: Martyrs of Paris or Martyrs of Carmes) In 1790, the revolutionary government of France enacted a law denying Papal authority over the Church in France. The French clergy were required to swear an oath to uphold this law and submit to the Republic. Many priests and religious took the […]

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Prince of Prussia marries in Potsdam – Video and Pictures

August 29, 2011

Georg Friedrich Prince of Prussia and Princess Sophie von Isenburg were married in front of 650 guests at on the grounds of the Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam on Saturday for Germany’s own “royal” wedding. The guests included nobility from around the world, as well as famous individuals from society and politics. To read more, click […]

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The panache of a French grenadier

August 29, 2011

While inspecting a battalion of his guard in the company of the ambassador of Great Britain—a country with a tradition of warring against France in numerous conflicts—Louis XIV commented: —    “These are the bravest soldiers in my kingdom. There is not one who is not covered with scars.” —    “But Sire, what do you say […]

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A Certain Democracy Goes So Far in Perversity as to Attribute Sovereignty to the People in Society and to Aim at the Suppression and Leveling of the Classes

August 29, 2011

From the apostolic letter Notre charge apostolique of Saint Pius X, August 25, 1910: “The Sillon, impelled by an ill-understood love of the weak, has fallen into error. “In effect, the Sillon puts forward as a programme the elevation and regeneration of the working classes. But in this matter the principles of Catholic doctrine are […]

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August 30 – She smuggled a priest out of prison

August 29, 2011

Saint Margaret Ward Martyr, born at Congleton, Cheshire; executed at Tyburn, London, 30 Aug., 1588. Nothing is known of her early life except that she was of good family and for a time dwelt in the house of a lady of distinction named Whitall then residing in London. Knowing that William Watson, the priest who […]

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August 30 – Saved by the cross

August 29, 2011

Blessed Bronislava (or Bronislawa) of Poland Born in 1230 to an important Polish family, her grandfather had founded the Premonstratensian monastery at Zwierzyniec near Cracow where Bronislava’s aunt Gertrude had entered, later becoming prioress at Imbramowice. Bronislava was also a cousin of the Dominican Saint Hyacinth and related to Saint Jacek and Blessed Czeslaw. Bronislava entered the convent at Zwierzyniec at the […]

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August 25 – The King who would rather die than sin

August 25, 2011

Saint Louis IX King of France, son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, born at Poissy, 25 April, 1215; died near Tunis, 25 August, 1270. He was eleven years of age when the death of Louis VIII made him king, and nineteen when he married Marguerite of Provence by whom he had eleven children. […]

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August 26 – This noblewoman survived the Terror and founded the Sisters of the Cross

August 25, 2011

Saint Elizabeth Bichier des Ages She was born of a rich, noble family on July 5, 1773, at the Château des Ages, France. Raised in a pious home, she developed at an early age a close relationship with God and a genuine love for the poor. She was twenty-five when she first met André Hubert […]

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Charles V and the banker

August 25, 2011

The Emperor set out from Valladolid on the 4th of November, 1556, at half-past three in the afternoon, after having dined in public, and forbidding absolutely that anyone besides his servants should take leave of him beyond the Puerta del Campo. In this second march he took an escort of cavalry and forty halberdiers. The […]

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The Error of Le Sillon: Only Democracy Will Usher in the Reign of Perfect Justice

August 25, 2011

previous Saint Pius X says in the apostolic letter Notre charge apostolique (August 25, 1910): “The Sillon* …therefore, sows amongst your Catholic youth erroneous and fatal notions upon authority, liberty and obedience. The same is to be said with regard to justice and equality. It strives, it says, to attain an era of equality, which, […]

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Two heroic deaths honor nobility of blood and nobility of soul

August 22, 2011

  Madame de Jourdain perished in the noyades with her three daughters. A republican rushed to save the youngest who was of remarkable beauty. He seized her as she was about to be precipitated from the boat, but she burst from his grasp into the river. Falling, however, on a heap of corpses, she cried […]

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August 22 – The pope who preached a Crusade against the German Emperor Frederick II

August 22, 2011

Pope Gregory IX (UGOLINO, Count of Segni). Born about 1145, at Anagni in the Campagna; died 22 August, 1241, at Rome. He received his education at the Universities of Paris and Bologna. After the accession of Innocent III to the papal throne, Ugolino, who was a nephew of Innocent III, was successively appointed papal chaplain, […]

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August 22 – The Queenship of Mary

August 22, 2011

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church. Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s Queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human […]

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Astonishing adult literacy rates in France before the 1789 French Revolution

August 22, 2011

From studying signatures of wills Daniel Roche has discovered astonishing figures of adult literacy in the capital at the end of the old regime [France, before the French Revolution of 1789]. In Montmartre, for example, where 40 percent of the testators belonged to the artisan or salaried classes, 74 percent of men and 64 percent […]

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Navy, air force going ‘royal’ once again

August 22, 2011

The Canadian navy and air force are going back to their royal roots. “The three branches of the armed forces will drop the bureaucratic bafflegab monikers Maritime Command, Air Command and Land Force Command and will officially revert to Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Canadian Air Force and Canadian Army, respectively, names that ceased to be […]

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August 23: He brought peace to Italy’s war-torn city-states in the Middle Ages

August 22, 2011

Saint Philip Benizi, Servite Priest (1233-1285) Saint Philip Benizi was born in Florence on the Feast of the Assumption, 1233. That same day the Order of Servites was founded by the Mother of God. As an infant one year old, Philip spoke when in the presence of these new religious, and announced the Servants of […]

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The Great Siege of Malta, May 18–September 11, 1565, was won because of one man: Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette

August 18, 2011

On the morning of August 18th the excessively heavy bombardment of Senglea warned them that an attack was imminent. It was not slow to develop. The moment that the rumble of the guns died down, the Iayalars and Janissaries were seen streaming forward across the no-man’s-land to the south. The attack developed in the same […]

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TFP: Tradition

August 18, 2011

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira When we speak of tradition, many people think of England, the Queen, the House of Lords, Rolls Royces, top hats and British distinction and poise… All of these impressions, considered as a whole, cause divergent reactions in people’s minds. Very many see tradition under different hues as time goes […]

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August 18 – She lead the search for the True Cross

August 18, 2011

Saint Helena (also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople) The mother of Constantine the Great, born about the middle of the third century, possibly in Drepanum (later known as Helenopolis) on the Nicomedian Gulf; died about 330. She was of humble parentage; St. Ambrose, in his “Oratio de obitu Theodosii”, referred […]

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August 19 – The prince who was made bishop at age 22

August 18, 2011

St. Louis of Toulouse Bishop of Toulouse, generally represented vested in pontifical garments and holding a book and a crosier, b. at Brignoles, Provence, Feb., 1274; d. there, 19 Aug., 1297. He was the second son of Charles II of Anjou, called the Lame, King of Naples (1288- 1309), and nephew of St. Louis IX […]

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“God Save the Queen” – sung on the 50th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation

August 18, 2011

In 2003 , the United Kingdom celebrated the Golden Anniversary of the crowning of Queen Elizabeth II. In this video clip, the British National Anthem is sung at Westminster Abbey.

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The Revolution’s barbarism is highlighted by a sister’s heroic offer

August 15, 2011

The narrations of affecting suffering, of Christian fortitude, of providential escapes that have been recorded are innumerable. Some of them we will here set down. In the midst of all the cruelty of the terrorists, they awarded to the pregnant woman and nursing mother a respite from death. But this show of mercy only concealed […]

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The Importance of Tradition Today

August 15, 2011

While walking downtown I happened to bump into an acquaintance who challenged me by way of a greeting: “In your latest article you proved quite well that tradition is an indispensable survival of the past in the present. But is tradition important enough for you to have placed it before property and family in the […]

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August 16 – His nobles and subjects mourned him for three years

August 15, 2011

St. Stephen of Hungary First King of Hungary, b. at Gran, 975; d. 15 August, 1038. He was a son of the Hungarian chief Géza and was baptized, together with his father, by Archbishop St. Adalbert of Prague in 985, on which occasion he changed his heathen name Vaik (Vojk) into Stephen. In 995 he […]

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Unwisely, King Ferdinand lays siege to Loja—death of the youthful Don Roderigo Tellez Giron, Grand Master of Calatrava

August 11, 2011

It was about the end of June that King Ferdinand departed from Cordoba, to sit down before the walls of Loja. So confident was he of success, that he left a great part of the army at Ecija, and advanced with but five thousand cavalry and eight thousand infantry. The Marques of Cadiz, a warrior […]

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The French Revolution implemented socio-political egalitarianism

August 11, 2011

[previous] The profound action of humanism and the Renaissance among Catholics spread unceasingly throughout France in a growing chain of consequences. Favored by the weakening of piety in the faithful caused by Jansenism and the other leavens sixteenth-century Protestantism had unfortunately left in the Most Christian Kingdom, this action gave rise in the eighteenth century […]

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August 11 – As soldiers scaled the walls of the convent, she met them with ciborium in hand and put them to flight

August 11, 2011

St. Clare of Assisi Cofoundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253. She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in […]

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August 12 – His pontificate was spent in opposing royal absolutism

August 11, 2011

Pope Blessed Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi) Born at Como, 16 May, 1611; died at Rome, 11 August, 1689. He was educated by the Jesuits at Como, and studied jurisprudence at Rome and Naples. Urban VIII appointed him successively prothonotary, president of the Apostolic Camera, commissary at Ancona, administrator of Macerata, and Governor of Picena. Innocent […]

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August 12 – St. Jane Frances de Chantal

August 11, 2011

Born at Dijon, France, 28 January, 1572; died at the Visitation Convent Moulins, 13 December, 1641. Her father was president of the Parliament of Burgundy, and leader of the royalist party during the League that brought about the triumph of the cause of Henry IV. In 1592 she married Baron de Chantal, and lived in […]

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True Glory Can Only Be Born of Pain

August 8, 2011

by Plinio Correa de Oliveira From every side of the parade grounds, with habitual and quite natural enthusiasm, a huge crowd watches a trooping of the Queen’s Royal Grenadiers in their ceremonial uniforms. New military tactics forced uniforms like these into obsolescence long ago. Nevertheless, these black trousers, red coats with white belts, gloves, and […]

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The reconquista of Granada begins: Don Roderigo Ponce de Leon chooses Alhama as his target

August 8, 2011

The Marques of Cadiz had vast possessions in the most fertile parts of Andalusia, including many towns and castles, and could lead forth an army into the field from his own vassals and dependents. On receiving the orders of the King, he burned to signalize himself by some sudden incursion into the kingdom of Granada, […]

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Omnifarious Liberty and Absolute Equality: Foolish and Even Monstruous Concepts

August 8, 2011

In the decretal of March 10, 1791, to the Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld and to the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence, Pius VI expressed himself concerning the principles of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy. “For indeed, that Assembly [the French Constituent Assembly] has decreed that it was laid down in natural law that a man established […]

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August 8 – The Persian noble promised his king that anyone who betrays Jesus could betray their king

August 8, 2011

St. Hormisdas (Martyred c. 420) Isdegerdes, king of Persia, renewed the persecution which Cosroes II had raised against the church. It is not easy, says Theodoret, to describe or express the cruelties which were then invented against the disciples of Christ. Some were flayed alive, others had the skin torn from off their backs only, […]

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August 8 – St. Dominic

August 8, 2011

St. Dominic Founder of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Order; born at Calaroga, in Old Castile, c. 1170; died 6 August, 1221. His parents, Felix Guzman and Joanna of Aza, undoubtedly belonged to the nobility of Spain, though probably neither was connected with the reigning house of Castile, as some of […]

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Jean Chouan’s widowed mother obtains the King’s pardon for her son

August 4, 2011

In Maine there existed a heavy impost on salt, called the gabelle, which was not levied in Brittany. Salt, therefore, the sugar of the poor, as the poet Beranger called it, cost only a sous per pound in the latter province, while in the former the price was thirteen sous…. [T]he poor were compelled not […]

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God’s plan for men pressuposes inequality

August 4, 2011

While God could have made all men strong, wise, and rich, he was unwilling to do so. He wished instead that these men should be strong, those weak; these wise, those foolish; these rich and those poor. For if all were strong, wise and wealthy, one would not be in need of the other. The […]

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August 6 – Garcia Moreno: Heroic President of Ecuador

August 4, 2011

by José Maria dos Santos Manly Catholic of intransigent principles, slain by the enemies of the Faith because of his consistency and courage in defense of the Church and Papacy Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in Guayaquil, in southern Ecuador on December 24, 1821. His father, Gabriel Garcia Gómez was Spanish, while his mother, Doña […]

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August 5 – The valiant king who waged just war to defend his people

August 4, 2011

St. Oswald of Northumbria, King and Martyr The English Saxon kingdom of Northumbria was founded by Ida in 547. After his death the northern part called Bernicia was preserved by his children; but Deira, that is, the southern part, comprising Yorkshire and Lancashire, was occupied by Ælla or Alla, and after his death was recovered […]

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One Queen – How Many Presidents?

August 1, 2011

  Clinton   George H. W. Bush   hint and the one before him   Lest we forget former President Hoover…

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The death of the de la Metairie sisters ends the Terror of Nantes

August 1, 2011

Another execution [in Nantes] also tended to change the tide of popular feeling—that of four sisters, the Demoiselles Mello de la Metairie. Deprived of both their parents, these young ladies had continued to live in their native city, devoting their lives to the care of the sick and the consolation of the poor and afflicted. […]

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The Church Does Not Manifest Any Preference for Political Systems or Institutional Solutions

August 1, 2011

[previous] John Paul II says in the encyclical Sollicitudo rei socialis (December 30, 1987):   “The Church does not propose economic and political systems or programs nor does she show preference for one or another, provided that human dignity is properly respected and promoted, and provided she herself is allowed the room she needs to […]

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August 1 – From impoverished Neapolitan nobility to Doctor of the Church

August 1, 2011

St. Alphonsus Liguori Born at Marianella, near Naples, 27 September, 1696; died at Nocera de’ Pagani, 1 August, 1787. The eighteenth century was not an age remarkable for depth of spiritual life, yet it produced three of the greatest missionaries of the Church, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, St. Paul of the Cross, and St. […]

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Marie Antoinette was a Good Samaritan

July 28, 2011

Marie Antoinette’s heart was ever compassionate. One day as she was riding through the forest of Fontainebleau in her carriage she came across an old man who had been wounded by a buck. His family was with him but had no means to take him home. The queen of France immediately descended from her carriage […]

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Liberty, Equality, Fraternity—the ambiguous trilogy

July 28, 2011

by Plinio Correa de Oliveira The reader might notice…an apparent contradiction among the pronouncements of the different popes who dealt with the trilogy Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. This impression fades the more the reader bears in mind that, properly considered in themselves—and therefore in the light of Catholic principles—each of these words designates concepts worthy of […]

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July 29 – When he finished preaching, the nobles and knights responded with a thunderous “Deus Vult”

July 28, 2011

Pope Blessed Urban II (Otho, Otto or Odo of Lagery), 1088-1099, born of a knightly family, at Châtillon-sur-Marne in the province of Champagne, about 1042; died 29 July, 1099. Under St. Bruno (afterwards founder of the Carthusians) Otho studied at Reims, where he later became canon and archdeacon. About 1070 he retired to Cluny and […]

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July 29 – He only regained the hearts of his people after his death

July 28, 2011

St. Olaf Haraldson Martyr and King of Norway (1015-30), b. 995; d. 29 July, 1030. He was a son of King Harald Grenske of Norway. According to Snorre, he was baptized in 998 in Norway, but more probably about 1010 in Rouen, France, by Archbishop Robert. In his early youth he went as a viking […]

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Montenegro passes legislation that paves the way to restore Monarchy

July 25, 2011

Montenegro, independent from Serbia since 2006 declared through an Act of Parliament passed by the Montenegrin Parliament that the rights and privileges of Crown Prince Nicholas and the Royal House of Petrović-Njegoš. The legislation sets aside several provisions which could lead the way to a full royal restoration in Montenegro. Although the legislation fell short […]

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The French Revolution pitted brother against brother

July 25, 2011

There lived at Nantes two brothers, of whom the revolution found one a fencing master, and the other a student in a seminary, destined for the ecclesiastical state. The former became a Jacobin, and the latter joined the flag of the insurrection in La Vendée. In one of the successful engagements of the Vendeans, the […]

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The Revolutionary Principles of 1789 Contained the Synthesis of All the Teachings of the False Prophets

July 25, 2011

When promulgating the decree on the heroic virtue of Blessed Marcellin Champagnat on July 11, 1920, Benedict XV pronounced an allocution from which we borrow the following passages: “One need only turn one’s thoughts to the early nineteenth century to recognize that many false prophets appeared in France at that time, and from there aimed […]

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July 18 – After he captured Jerusalem, he refused the crown

July 25, 2011

Godfrey of Bouillon Duke of Lower Lorraine and first King of Jerusalem, son of Eustache II, Count of Boulogne, and of Ida, daughter of Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lower Lorraine; b. probably at Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1060; d. at Jerusalem, 18 July, 1100 (according to a thirteenth-century chronicler, he was born at Baisy, in Brabant; see […]

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Video: Queen Elizabeth watches her swans being counted for the first time

July 21, 2011
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The Best Way to Moderate and Fortify Monarchy Is to Surround It with Aristocracy and Democracy

July 21, 2011

[previous] Commenting on the thinking of Saint Thomas Aquinas regarding the mixed form of government, Father Rodriguez writes: “On mixed regimes, theoretically the optimum form of government—In this work [De Regimine Principum], and more specifically in this seventh chapter*, following an analysis of the three kinds of governments (monarchy, aristocracy, democracy), Saint Thomas leans toward […]

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A mother’s agony of soul during the Terror at Nantes

July 21, 2011

Although a great number of children were sacrificed, the republicans seem to have made some attempts to save them. The entrepôt was a huge building, used before the revolution as a storehouse for merchandise. During the reign of terror it was turned into a prison, as its proximity to the river adapted it for the […]

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July 22 – With his lady’s permission, this lord left court to become a monk, then abbot

July 21, 2011

St. Wandrille, or Wandregisilus, Abbot [Abbot of Fontenelles, in Normandy.]  He was nearly related to Pepin of Landen and Erchinoald, the two first lords in the kingdom of Austrasia; and in his youth was made count of the palace under Dagobert I. He was humble on the highest pinnacle of honors, and mortified amidst pleasures. […]

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Video clips from Requiem for HIRH Otto of Hapsburg-Lorraine in Vienna

July 18, 2011

Requiem Introit and Kyrie (Michael Haydn) Emperor’s Hymn (Kaiserhymnus) Burial in the Imperial Crypt of the Capuchin Church, Vienna

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