Tea at Trianon: St. Lucy Filippini

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

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

St. Lucy Filippini

From Catherine Curzon:

Long before her canonisation, Filippini's life was far from perfect. When the little girl was still a babe in arms her mother passed away, followed by her father when Filippini was just six years old. With nobody left at home to care for her, the little girl was sent to live with her aunt and uncle, an aristocratic couple who arranged for their young, already devoutly religious, charge to be educated in Santa Lucia by Benedictine nuns.

Under the tutelage of the nuns Filippini's intelligence was clear and she proved herself to be a thoughtful and pleasant child, with her sights set early on a life of faith. Filippini eventually joined the Sisters both in their holy orders and their educational mission, passing on her learning to the children who followed her into the school.

Under the patronage of Cardinal Gregorio Barbarigo she was entrusted her with the task of establishing schools for young women from poor families. By the time Filippini was twenty years old she had founded the Pious Matrons and was already recruiting and training teachers who would tutor the girls in the domestic arts.

Eventually the schools numbered more than 50 and Filippini was personally invited to replicate her success in Rome by Pope Clement XI in 1707 and here she founded more schools, as well as devoting much of her time to ministering to the poor and sick. (Read more.)