Tea at Trianon: Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and His Life Saving Efforts in World War II

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 17, 2023

Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty and His Life Saving Efforts in World War II

The brave priest who inspired the film The Scarlet and the Black. From the The Hugh O'Flaherty Memorial Society:

Although he was born in Kiskeam, where his mother's family were from, in North Cork, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty grew up in Killarney, where his father was the steward of the old Killarney Golf Club when it was located in Deerpark. Hugh had a vocation for the priesthood and as a young seminarian he was posted to Rome in 1922, the year Mussolini came to power in Italy. He earned a degree in theology in just one year while studying in Rome, was ordained in 1925 and continued his studies for a further two years, earning doctorates in divinity, canon law and philosophy. He was a skilled diplomat and served the Vatican in Egypt, Haiti, San Domingo and Czechoslovakia. After a period of 4 years he was recalled to Rome and was appointed to the Holy Office. He was also devoted to golf, from his early years playing in Killarney while in Italy he played regularly with Count Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law, and with the ex-king Alfonso of Spain. His high standing in the social life of Rome would stand him in good stead during the Nazi occupation of Rome. In the autumn of 1942, the Germans and Italians began to crack down on prominent Italian Jews and aristocratic anti-fascists. Having socialised with these people before the war, the Monsignor now hid them in monasteries and convents, in his old college and in his own residence. In the spring of 1943, his operation broadened to include escaped British prisoners-of-war and shot-down allied airmen. He developed a network of safe apartments in Rome in which they could hide. By the end of the war he had helped over 6,500 Jews, American and British Soldiers escape from the Germans and his activities earned him the nickname “Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican” as he became the master of disguises, evading capture from the Germans when he had to leave the security of the Vatican to go on his rescue missions. (Read more.)