Tea at Trianon: The Banner of the Five Wounds

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, June 18, 2009

The Banner of the Five Wounds

All they wanted was their Catholic Faith.

We wyll haue oure old seruice of Mattens, masse, Euensong and procession in Latten as it was before.

Stephanie A. Mann said...: Again, thank you for this post! I am traveling to Oxford next month and might add St. Thomas the Martyr to my itinerary, although I am more interested in Catholic churches in Oxford.
Another blog I follow posted a notice about the different "forms" of Sign of the Cross (http://www.fisheaters.com/sign.html), and I wondered in passing if there was any connection between the Pilgrimate of Grace and their banner of the Five Wounds and Option D. of these styles of signing the cross, representing the Five Wounds.; June 18, 2009 at 1:07:00 PM EDT
elena maria vidal said...: I don't know, Stephanie, let me know what you discover. I can't wait to hear about your trip! Pray for me please at the tomb of St. Thomas if you go there!; June 18, 2009 at 1:11:00 PM EDT