Tea at Trianon: St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi

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

Friday, May 25, 2007

St. Mary Magdalen dei Pazzi

Today is her feast.

Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm, for love is as strong as death....Many waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown it: if a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing. ~Canticle of Canticles 8: 7-8 Share

4 comments:

Terry Nelson said...: I was looking for more stuff on her, for some reason, I think she was friends of Philip Neri. Also, her family is very famous for the Pazzi conspiracy to overthrow Medici, and the lovely Pazzi chapel. I visited her incorrupt body in Florence once, quite by accident.; May 25, 2007 at 12:07:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I would love to go to Florence and see her, and St Teresa Margaret, who is also incorrupt.; May 25, 2007 at 4:42:00 PM EDT
Athanasius said...: What I've always loved about her family name is that it is the Italian word for "crazy", so it literally means St. Mary Magdalen of Crazy.

Terry might you have visited that incorrupt body any time in 2002? I was living in Italy at that time.; May 27, 2007 at 12:32:00 AM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: Delightful! I did not realize that is what her name meant.; May 27, 2007 at 4:02:00 PM EDT