Tea at Trianon: Father Fournier: A True Son of St. Louis

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, April 19, 2019

Father Fournier: A True Son of St. Louis

Father Jean-Marc Fournier is the brave priest who saved the Blessed Sacrament and the Crown of Thorns from the burning Notre Dame de Paris. From The Daily Mail:

A French priest who helped the wounded in the Bataclan terror attack on Paris and who survived an ambush in Afghanistan also emerged as a hero of the Notre Dame fire today. Jean-Marc Fournier, chaplain of the Paris Fire Brigade, rushed straight for the relics housed in the cathedral to rescue the the Blessed Sacrament and the Crown of Thorns relics from the blazing building on Monday night. It was feared that both religious artifacts would be lost as flames engulfed the medieval building, but Father Fournier made sure they were taken to safety. Four years ago he also comforted the wounded after the worst terrorist attack on Paris this century when 89 people were massacred at the Eagles of Death Metal concert in 2015. (Read more.)

From Aleteia:

The hero firefighter chaplain who saved the Crown of Thorns and the Blessed Sacrament from Notre Dame Cathedral has given more details about the daring rescue. Father Jean-Marc Fournier spoke with a reporter from France’s KTO Catholic channel, explaining that when he retrieved Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament, he blessed the church with the Eucharist: “Here I am completely alone in the [nave of the] cathedral, in the middle of burning debris falling down from the ceiling, I call upon Jesus to help us save His home.”

“I did not want to simply leave with Jesus: I took the opportunity to perform a Benediction with the Blessed Sacrament.”

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