Tea at Trianon: The Jubilee Year of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

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

Sunday, January 22, 2023

The Jubilee Year of St. Thérèse of Lisieux

From Aleteia:

The Catholic Church has also convened a Jubilee Year to commemorate the birth of the French mystic, author, and doctor of the church. This past January 8, the Holy Doors of the Basilicas of Lisieux and of Alençon were opened simultaneously, marking the beginning of the Year. The Bishop of Bayeux and Lisieux, Monsignor Habert, presided over the act. In the afternoon, the first mass for pilgrims was celebrated.

Fr. Thierry Hénault-Morel, rector of the Shrine of Alençon (Thérèse’s hometown), explains that “every two years, UNESCO pays tribute to personalities who, each in their own way, have worked and continue to work in the fields of education, the promotion of women, culture, science and the building of peace.” (Read more.)