Tea at Trianon: A Mystic Stigmatic

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, March 28, 2014

A Mystic Stigmatic

The life of Blessed Elena Aiello, a mystic as well as a very practical lady. To quote:

A man was peddling cheese as usual and was accompanied by his little daughter who was in rags and forced her to go begging through the town. One day this scoundrel was just about to sell his own daughter for 30 lire when Sister Elena overheard them bargaining and notified the Counselor across the street to ask for his help. The two bargaining men suddenly vanished leaving the little girl alone. Sister Elena promptly took her home and was ordered by the district attorney to keep the girl despite any possible protest from her father which in fact did happen when he tried to forcibly abduct the little girl. Sister Elena however was successful in wresting her from his hands.

The sisters endured many trials which is the lot of all saints-in-the-making. Once again Sister Elena dreamed of her house being quarantined during an epidemic and it happened. However, everyone was eventually able to return to the house and resume their routine work.

Sister Elena’s order admitted more aspirants and after having gone to Rome she obtained the necessary approvals for her Order according to the steps required for the process. Her sufferings increased with greater intensity. During that time people succeeded in getting into Elena’s room to uncover her “occult powers”, “diabolical plots”, and “fake events”. People, the kind you never find inside a church or never praying before the altar, often met in the sacristies for the sole purpose of spreading gossip and detraction to try and belittle her Institute and to connect her to some sad incidents that had caused pain to the Monsignor and Archbishop. The Archbishop advised Sister Elena to file a lawsuit against the lead defamer. But the defamer made a full confession to the Archbishop and asked for Sister Elena’s forgiveness who withdrew the lawsuit. However, afterward another Shepherd was confronted with more grievances and accusations against that “encroaching Nun who loved to pass as a saint and preyed on the people’s good faith to the harm of other Institutes as well as by her phenomena by the distribution of St. Rita’s concoctions and by her subterfuge of so-called girls’ welfare”. The Archbishop listened benevolently to Sister Elena and decisively put an end to the stealthy maneuvers and upheld the rights of truth and justice.(Read more.)