Symbolism and Virtue in the Legend of Lancelot

 From Ancient Origins:

However, his love for Guinevere stood against all else. Lancelot gives himself entirely over into the service of the lady he loves, alas to the detriment of all his knightly ideals and goals. Also, in accordance to the popular trends of the time, Lancelot exhibits towards her the  fine amor , meaning a pure  love that was a major attribute of proper chivalric behavior. 

Nevertheless, throughout the Arthurian cycle, Lancelot is presented with numerous challenges that serve as tests to his chivalry. In one episode, he is seduced and tricked into sleeping with the daughter of the so-called Fisher King, Elaine - while she was pretending to be Guinevere. From this union is born Galahad, another great hero of the Arthurian cycle, who grows up to be an ideal and pure knight.

Throughout the development of the story of Lancelot, it becomes clear that increasingly important  Christian beliefs come to play a big role in the story. Purity, sinlessness, and penitence all come to characterize this tale. Galahad, sinless and pure, replaces his father who succumbed to his passions and love for Guinevere. As the story progresses, Lancelot’s affair with the king’s wife completely tears the royal court apart. The supporters of Lancelot and those of  King Arthur  descend into a bitter and bloody war. (Read more.)

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A Look Back at Two 9/11 Investigations

 From Sharyl's Substack:

I did many stories for CBS on the Islamic extremist terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/12. That scandal was three-fold:

Dying for Security: The poor American who were murdered had begged for security beforehand. The State Dept. under Hillary Clinton had received specific warnings about a 9/11 terrorist attack on that installation and others but drew down security rather than reinforcing it.

Dying to be Rescued: I was able to show that the Americans could have been rescued— or at least genuine attempts made, as the assaults went on for so long. But the Obama administration turned back rescuers on several fronts. The poor victims were left helpless. They never had a chance.

The Coverup: I also proved many facets of an elaborate coverup at the highest levels just prior to President Obama’s re-election to a) pretend it wasn’t related to 9/11, particularly because Obama claimed he’d send terrorists on the run b) pretend the attackers weren’t terrorists, but rioters-gone-amok c) pretend the attacks were “spontaneous” rather than preplanned with lots of warnings d) coverup the repeated security requests and denials e) coverup the availability of rescue operations that were turned back. (Read more.)

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Justice Without Vengeance

 From Sensus Fidelium:

A Catholic reflection on mental illness, psychiatric medication, moral responsibility, and the online appetite for condemnation

There are crimes so terrible that words seem almost indecent beside them. Children are dead. A husband or wife is left with a home emptied of the people who made it a home. Grandparents bury grandchildren. Families who expected ordinary joys instead spend the rest of their lives asking a question that may never be answered: How could this have happened?

That is where any discussion of the Lindsay Clancy case must begin, not with politics, pharmaceutical companies, courtroom personalities, or social-media arguments, but with Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy. They were innocent children whose lives were taken. Nothing said about their mother’s mental condition can restore them or make what happened less objectively horrific.

But beginning with the victims does not require us to end with vengeance.

The recent mistrial in Lindsay Clancy’s case came after jurors were unable to agree on whether she was criminally responsible when she killed her three children in January 2023. Her defense maintained that postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder had deprived her of the ability to appreciate the wrongfulness of her actions. Prosecutors argued that she remained capable of planning, choosing, and understanding what she was doing. The disagreement was not about whether the children died by her hand. It was about the condition of the mind and will behind that hand. Associated Press

That distinction is uncomfortable. It is also profoundly Catholic. (Read more.)

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The King's Pearl

Charles I as Prince of Wales

History of a pearl earring. In the 17th century men often wore jewelry. Above is the portrait of Charles which Henrietta Maria received as a betrothal gift. She kept it at her bedside until her death. To quote:

Today pearls are among the most common of precious "jewels." But before the development of cultured pearls and farming in the early 20th c., all pearls were natural pearls. These rare treasures could be discovered only by accident and at considerable peril. Natural pearls had great mystique and luminous beauty as well as value, which made them favorites of queens – and kings.

One of the most famous pearls of the 17th c. belonged to King Charles I of England (1600-1649). While the origins of this single pearl earring are unknown, Charles is first shown wearing it in a miniature...as the fifteen-year-old Prince of Wales. The pearl soon became what fashion-folk today call a "statement piece", and one that he was seldom without.

Charles's large teardrop-shaped pearl – an especially rare and desired shape –was made into a single dangling earring with a tiny gold crown as the cap, topped with an orb and cross that was most fitting for a future king. Since Queen Elizabeth's reign, fashionable English gentlemen had worn single earrings as a sign of courtly swagger and bravado, qualities that the young prince was woefully lacking: Charles was slight and short (only 5'3"), he limped from childhood rickets, he stammered, and he suffered from acute shyness. Perhaps the sizable jewel gave him the confidence that nature had not.

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Pfizer and the CIA Privately Cited High Population Immunity in May 2020

 From Brownstone Insights:

The Santa Clara study from April 2020 by Jay Bhattacharya found a 2.8% seroprevalence level. It was far higher than the existing estimates. He was denounced and hounded for daring to say what we know now: the infection fatality rate was very low and prevalence was very high. The implication: we would get through this with no great disruption necessary.

The attacks on the study were brutal but he was just doing science at a time when few others were making sense. Even BuzzFeed, a reliable venue for deep-state actors, slammed Jay and insinuated corruption.

Now, in this new release, we find Gottlieb telling the CIA that the virus spread is far higher than most anyone believed at the time. If the R-naught is 3, that means every one person would infect three more, which, according to the math, would mean a herd immunity level of 67 percent. At that rate of spread and resulting immunity, pandemic conditions would turn endemic in a matter of weeks, certainly by the end of summer if not sooner, all else equal. (Read more.)

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Forgotten Catholics of the Civil War South

 From Sensus Fidelium:

Irish immigrants marched in gray uniforms. French Creoles filled the pews of New Orleans. German Catholics worshipped across Texas. Jesuit priests served as chaplains. Religious sisters staffed hospitals. Bishops struggled to shepherd their flocks through one of the darkest periods in American history. Although Catholics remained a minority in most of the South, they were far from insignificant. Their story has too often been overlooked.

One of the best modern studies of Southern Catholic life during the Civil War is historian Gracjan Kraszewski’s Catholic Confederates: Faith and Duty in the Civil War South. Kraszewski argues that many Southern Catholics did not see themselves as outsiders living within the Confederacy. Instead, they identified deeply with their states and communities, viewing their Catholic faith and their Southern loyalties as compatible. He describes this process as the “Confederatization” of Southern Catholics—a perspective that helps explain why Catholic clergy, religious, and laypeople participated so fully in Confederate society. His work challenges the common assumption that the Civil War was solely a Protestant story. (Read more.)

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Madame Elisabeth: A Consoling Angel

From Detroit Catholic:

Called a "consoling angel," the sister of King Louis XVI decided to stay on the side of her family even when death was imminent for doing so in the midst of the horrors of the French Revolution. On the 230th anniversary of her death under the guillotine on May 10, 1794, "Madame Elisabeth" is one step closer to beatification as the historical commission for her sainthood cause wrapped up its work May 2. The diocesan phase of her sainthood cause was reopened in 2017. Since then, Fr. Xavier Snoëk, the postulator, has spared no effort to raise awareness of the noble lady.

She was "an original and very modern young woman … pious and exuberant at the same time," Father Snoëk told OSV News. "She read a lot while being passionate about science and mathematics. She was also very athletic. She loved the outdoors and was an excellent horseback rider." (Read more.)

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The Falling Man

 From Tierney's Real News:

One of the most famous photographs in human history became an unmarked grave, and the man buried inside its frame—the Falling Man—became the Unknown Soldier in a war whose END we have not yet seen.

Never forget that 19 radical Islamic terrorists, funded by the Globalist NWO, the Global Communist Party, the Muslim Brotherhood & the terror state of Iran, did something we never thought possible on US soil. They slaughtered 3,000 innocent Americans and maimed 20,000 more.

9/11 was perpetrated by the same evil cabal behind the GREAT RESET and the RED-GREEN axis - who today are trying to finish the job, enslave us & overthrow us through fear and scare us into submission!

Since September 11, 2001, America has suffered hundreds more Jihadi attacks and Communist false flags and thousands more have died. Their atheist, Communist, Islamist & Satanist partners in America are kneeling before false idols, rioting in our streets, mocking our God, burning our flag and looting, torching & destroying our traditions and our country. That's what evil does - kills, burns, loots & destroys.

The fake news media and Globalist Islamo-Communist pirates who hate America want you to blame yourself, not the terrorists. They want you to replace the memory of 9/11 with January 6th - a phony 'insurrection' and military coup they engineered themselves to hurt America and remove Trump from office. Our enemies want you to forget the truth, and rewrite the past. (Read more.)

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Ancient Cave Art Discovery

 From BBC:

Researchers believe the first known humans to set foot on Ireland thousands of years ago were most likely from Wales, following the "exciting" discovery of ancient cave art.

During the most recent Ice Age, when much of the British Isles were beneath a vast continental glacier, the depleted sea levels opened a "lost land bridge" between modern-day Pembrokeshire and the south-east tip of Ireland, around Rosslare.

According to rock expert Dr George Nash, from Liverpool University, the opportunities presented by this pathway would have been too good for hunter gatherers to ignore.

Now, alongside an international team of experts, Nash has located eight cave sites in south-west Ireland featuring rock art dating back from at least 15,000 years ago, around 5,000 years before the previous oldest example of humans in Ireland.

Nash, who coordinated the Lost Land Bridge Project, said there would have been a forested and grassland plateau around 46 miles (76 km) coast-to-coast.

With summertime temperatures typically -10°C to -20°C, Nash said the pathway would have supported wild horses, mammoth, bison, reindeer and other large herbivores, which fed off the hardy sedges, mosses and lichens growing through the fertile, but near-frozen soil. (Read more.)

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