Tea at Trianon: The Cloak of Saint Joseph

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, March 15, 2007

The Cloak of Saint Joseph

His feast is coming up in a few days. Here is an article from Michael Brown on Spirit Daily:

Is it St. Joseph's time?

There are many hidden things, and one of them, at this moment in history, is the great saint who served as the earthly father of Jesus.

Incredible as it seems, he is known to all -- from the very Nativity, from before the birth of Jesus -- but remains almost clandestine.

Few are the holy men or women who have not had an association with Joseph, and perhaps it is time for him to step from what is relative obscurity. We think of him in a special way next week (Monday is his feast), and even that is obscured, most of the time, by the feast two days before of St. Patrick, another one who is great but would be the first to acknowledge Joseph as his superior.

No saint, save the Virgin, is more powerful.

How could they be? He spent more time with Jesus than anyone except his wife. He was chosen to take the place of father to the Incarnate Word. It is believed that like John the Baptist, he was sanctified in the womb; that he was confirmed in grace; and that he was free from incorrect impulses. (Read full article)