Tea at Trianon: Blessed Vilmos Apor

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

Monday, April 23, 2012

Blessed Vilmos Apor

A Hungarian bishop who gave his life for his sheep.

In late March 1945 the diocese of Gyor was occupied by the Russians. Being aware that they were coming, Vilmos urged his priests and religious to prepare for what was to come. A siege was imminent. Those needing shelter came to Vilmos and he sent them to as many safe places as possible. Food was stockpiled. Russian soldiers wanting the women in hiding came to the bishop’s house. They were drunk and not pleased at being stopped. Yelling at the Russians to get away from the entrance to the cellar door attracted the attention of the Russians to Vilmos, and one of them shot him down. It was Good Friday, 1945. (Read entire post.)