The Blood-Soaked History of the Cathars

The murder of St Peter of Verona and companion by Cathars

 

 

St. Dominic confounds the Cathars

The Cathars were a Gnostic sect which adapted Christian terminology to disguise pagan teachings. While they called themselves "Good Christians" they were not members of any monotheistic religion since they believed in two gods. From Ancient Origins:

Catharism first appeared in 11th century southern France, in the Languedoc region. This is the first time that the name Cathars was used, but we now know that this was not what they called themselves. Their self-identifying name was simple - good men, good women, or good Christians ( Bons Hommes, Bonnes Femmes, Bons Chretiens ).

As a teaching, Catharism was a dualistic, Gnostic revival movement and their belief was centered on the belief of two gods - one good and the other evil. At its very core, Catharism was an attempt to find answers to some key religious and philosophical questions that were centered around the existence of evil. Their basic teaching greatly differentiated from the regular Catholic Christian doctrines.

The Cathars believed that the God of the New Testament was the good one, and the God of the Old Testament was the evil one, better known as Satan. The good God created the spirit, while the evil one created the material world. Contrary to the regular Christian belief, the Cathars thought of the entire world as evil, and as such it could not have been created by a benevolent god. (Read more.)

Cathar perfecti chasing away friars

Above is a rare picture of Cathar perfecti from contemporary medieval sources. The perfecti or "perfect ones," also referred to as the bons hommes or "good men," were the elite of the sect who were bound to abstain from meat and carnal relations. In the illustration the consolamentum or "baptism of light" is being conferred upon a dying Cathar Believer, as Franciscan friars try to intervene. After receiving the consolamentum no food or drink could be administered to the sick person so that starvation would usually hasten the dying process. Death by starvation was called the endura.
 Readers of The Night's Dark Shade have commented favorably on the book's descriptions of the beauty of the countryside in the south of France. Although there is an entire tourist industry surrounding the "Cathar castles" of "Cathar country" it should be made clear that most of the castles were not built by Cathars but merely occupied by them at one time or another. As for the countryside itself, the Cathars may have lived there but they were always a minority; the countryside did not by any means belong to them. Nevertheless, as I try to demonstrate in the novel, the effects of the heresy were widespread, influencing even those who were not members of the sect. To this day, the Cathars seem to be the main tourist attraction of the region.

Here is a picture of a re-creation of a Cathar ritual, the consolamentum or baptism of light, similar in some ways to the "laying on of hands" of many modern charismatic groups. Although the Cathars shunned the traditional rituals of the Roman Church, they had plenty of rituals of their own. Notice that the perfecti do not touch the woman directly but through another object, since the men who were perfecti were not allowed to touch women.

More about the Cathars, HERE.

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Sen. Mike Lee: Witnessing Biden’s Decline, and Obama Seizing Power From the Shadows

Worth a listen.

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Eye Wells

 From The Abbey of Misrule:

Tobar na Súil literally means ‘the well of the eyes’, and it’s a common well name across the land, perhaps even the most common. ‘Eye wells’ seem to be the most common type of healing well. In her book The Holy Wells of County Cork (recommended; it has some beautiful pictures too), and in her accompanying blog, my fellow well-nerd Amanda Clarke notes that, of the 330 wells she visited in Cork, 71 were eye wells; that is, wells noted for being able to cure eye diseases through prayer and bathing the eyes. That’s just over 20%. I can’t find any figures for the country as a whole (there probably aren’t any) but if it were more or less the same, that would mean there were about 600 eye wells in Ireland. It has been suggested that peat fires in smoky, badly-ventilated cottages may have caused many of the eye problems for which cures were sought at these wells. (Read more.)

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"An Inspiring Read"

A lovely review from lovely Suzanne at Lear, Kent, Fool:

Whoever you are, wherever your people came from, and whatever you enjoy doing with your free time, I don’t hesitate for a moment to recommend purchasing Elena Maria Vidal’s latest historical fiction novel The Paradise Tree.

The book begins in mid-19th century Ireland around the time of the Great Famine, a time in Ireland when Irish Catholics were discriminated against and persecuted by British landowners and occupiers. Main character Daniel O’Connor (who is based upon the stories and descriptions of Vidal’s own great-great-great-grandfather) strikes off for a new and better life in the New World.

And, it is better — well, at least, Daniel O’Connor and his bride, Brigit, don’t ever again know in Ontario, Canada, the pains of starvation they knew too well in Ireland. But, no new home one may find for one’s self and one’s family is ever exactly Eden, of course. And, no one’s family life is perfect and without strain, loss, or seasons of deep sadness. No man’s work is free of difficulty in this hard, fallen world. And, it seems, no culture or society is without its own forms of bigotry.

Despite their tribulations throughout the years, the O’Connors’ family (a vibrant, large family of 11 children) is one which is primarily shaped and formed by deep and abiding religious faith, married love, family tenderness and fidelity. As well as a good deal of enjoyable Irish wit and wisdom, with a touch of fascinating “mystical” Irish folklore. Vidal’s description of Irish immigrant life brings deeper understanding of the background and experiences of my countless delightful and much-loved friends of Irish heritage.

For me the quality of a book depends a great deal upon having likable, relatable characters. The Paradise Tree is filled with deeply likable characters about whom the reader comes to care very much, and desires to know better…and personally. It also has a few richly described dastardly characters.

I can say from a personal perspective that this book is an inspiring read for those beginning their own families who desire to know just how Catholic families in generations past kept and handed down the Faith to their children and their children’s children.

Above all, the O’Connor story is of re-birth, carrying on and going forward in hope for the future with a faith that sustains. (Read more.)

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On the “Blueprint for Maryland” and the “Reproductive Freedom Amendment”

 From The Easton Gazette:

Delegate Tom Hutchinson  and Laura Bogley of Maryland Right to Life spoke of the Leftist agenda in the Maryland House and Senate and how fixated the Democrats are on keeping abortion as an option until the moment the child is born. Incorporating abortion into the Maryland Constitution through the Reproductive Freedom Amendment will make it impossible for lawmakers to attempt to limit abortion or even to speak against it. The new Amendment  may also keep parents from making medical decisions for their children, especially  in the case of transgender surgery. Parents and all concerned citizens are urged to spread the word about the dangers of such an Amendment, dangers which go beyond political party to attack our families. According to the Maryland Right to Life website: 

The Maryland General Assembly has passed a bill that seeks to amend the Maryland Constitution and create a state fundamental right to ‘reproductive freedom’. The state will ask voters to approve the amendment language on the fall 2024 general election ballot. While the term ‘reproductive freedom’  is yet undefined, there is no question that the amendment would be used to create a fundamental right to late-term abortion for any reason and to suppress pro-life speech and action across Maryland…Contrary to the fear mongering often heard from abortion proponents, women in Maryland are not being threatened with prosecution for seeking abortion nor are they being denied medical intervention for miscarriage or ectopic pregnancy. But the state has long forsaken its promise of ‘safe, legal and rare’ abortion, offering women and girls nothing more than unlimited access to abortion. The legislature has gone to such extremes to deregulate the abortion industry that they have removed abortion from the spectrum of healthcare in all ways except funding.

Democrat lawmakers have repealed criminal penalties and statutory restrictions on abortionists and abortion practices. Regulations on abortion clinics and practices are not routinely enforced, including mandatory reporter requirements in suspected cases of rape or sex trafficking. Physicians now serve only a tangential role on paper if at all, either as remote medical directors for abortion clinics or as remote prescribers of abortion drugs. It is important to note that while the term “reproductive freedom” is not defined in Maryland law, the bill sponsors say it would include new rights broader than abortion rights. Some of these new rights may include commercial uses of human embryos and the use of puberty blocking drugs and surgical mutilation of reproductive anatomy- even among children without their parents' consent.

Please stay informed, educate friends and family, and vote against the new Amendment.

(Read more.)

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Missing Henry VIII Portrait Found

 From the BBC:

A post on X spotted randomly by an art historian has led to a portrait of King Henry VIII - hanging in a West Midland council hall - to be identified as a famous missing artwork. Adam Busiakiewicz, who works as a consultant for famous auction house Sotheby's, said that when he saw a photo of the work hanging in the Shire Hall, Warwick, it "just stood out to me". After inspecting it personally to test his theory, he confirmed the artwork was created for tapestry maker Ralph Sheldon and dated back to the 1590s. It was one of a collection of 22 portraits made for Sheldon, but the whereabouts of only a handful were known.(Read more.)

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What Does Marie-Antoinette Mean to Us Now?

 

Posthumous portrait of the Queen by Madame Lebrun

Many people are disgusted by the depiction of Marie-Antoinette at the Paris Olympics. My piece for Catholic Answers:

I first visited Marie-Antoinette’s private retreat at Petit Trianon when I was seventeen years old. It was January, but the birds were singing in the gardens. Then and on successive trips, I experienced a strong sense of timelessness. Others have confided to me a similar feeling of enchantment when wandering through the gardens of Trianon.

People frequently ask me why I write about Marie-Antoinette. One of the reasons is that I keep encountering educated people who really think she said, “Let them eat cake.” I continue to encounter Christians who think Marie-Antoinette was killed as punishment for some egregious wickedness or, at least, for unforgivable stupidity. Having read books about her since childhood, I knew she was misunderstood; it was only after a great deal more research that I came to see how completely false are the common beliefs about her.

But the demonization of Marie-Antoinette in the popular mind is necessary to justify the excesses of the French Revolution. When people have a false and distorted view of history, it is difficult for them to grasp the present, and almost impossible to meet the future with any kind of preparedness.

The French Revolution was not necessary, simply because it is never necessary to murder tens of thousands of people. Reform certainly was needed, but reform can happen without mass murder.

Louis XVI was an intrepid reformer. He was not afraid to break with the past and abolish outdated customs while introducing new ways of doing things. Louis was not resistant to change, although that is how he is usually portrayed. The changes were slow but over time might have been effective, had the violent upheavals not swept everything away.

Too often, the violence is represented as a sad but unavoidable means of achieving freedom and democracy. But it is not only that the French Revolution overturned the social order; it was ultimately an attack on the Catholic Church. Many Catholics were killed, especially those peasants who did not want their religion taken away.

The French Revolution has been the blueprint for every totalitarian regime that has followed and has continued to be the model for those wishing not only to destroy the Catholic Church, but all Christian society. (Read more.)

The portrait above was painted posthumously by Madame Lebrun. Here is a letter from Marie-Thérèse Charlotte to the artist, who was a friend of the family:

 A letter written by Marie-Thérèse Charlotte to Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun on April 15th, 1800, regarding a portrait of Marie Antoinette, which was given to Marie-Thérèse by the comte de Cossé. The duchesse wrote that he gave her…

“…the portrait of my Mother that you had charged him to bring me. You give me the double satisfaction of seeing in a more beautiful work an image very dear to my heart. Judge therefore how grateful I am to you for having used your rare talents to give me this proof of your feelings and be convinced that I am more sensitive to it than I can express to you. You can count equally, Madame, on my feelings for you.”

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The Olympics Opening Ceremony

 Many people are deeply disturbed by it. From The Spectator:

A peculiar introduction to the BBC coverage from actor Tom Hiddleston was an early warning sign that something was askew. Hiddleston breathlessly told us, in that very specific sick-in-the-mouth reflux register of 21st century sentimentality, that the Olympics were: ‘Watching someone’s dreams come true. Seeing them light up the world and feeling proud of them, together. So prepare for moments that will light up your eyes, and fill up your heart.’ Who writes this sub-Edwardian yoghurt-pot-blurb drivel? How do they live with themselves?

We learnt that, unlike previous ceremonies, the host city itself would be the stage. We soon realised why every previous opening ceremony had been conducted inside the arena. Because it rained – mon Dieu, did it pleuvait. 

The sheer variety, pace and brevity of each section of the 2012 event contrasted with what began, very slowly, to unfold. This was bloated, each separate thin section swiftly outstaying its welcome. It went on, and on, and on. You were a different person with different hopes, beliefs, when it started. You could wander off, get married, get divorced, spend eleven years in prison, and emerge to find it still going on. 

The scattergun array of the offering was bewildering. For some reason we were served forgotten noughties American pop star Lady Gaga – shocking if you’re 14 in 2008, but that makes you 30 now. There was a headless Marie Antoinette, a piano inexplicably set alight, and – inevitably – a bevy of slaying and sashaying drag queens and ‘non-binaries’, performing a sassy vogue parody of The Last Supper. This is the kind of phoney rebellion that was already embarrassing on stage at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in 1994, but at least was confined safely to bad gay pubs.  

This maybe makes it sound quite exciting. But it’s important to get across the sheer slowness and dullness of it all. And there was so much dancing, another aspect of corporate-sanctioned 21st century culture. There must be endless choreography. Everyone must dance, at all times, everywhere.

The most tedious part of the ceremony is the arrival of the athletes – the ‘ooh look is that Tom Daley’ section. So naturally that part became grotesquely extended, with the competitors processing endlessly down the Seine in small boats. Endless boats, endless floats. A feeling of despair. How can there be this many countries?  (Read more.)

 

From The Georgia Record:

And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
Revelation 6:8

Evil reigns in Paris during the so-called 'Olympic Games', which has been literally unwatchable for years now.

Mockery of Christianity is on full display, with blasphemy of 'The Lord's Supper'.

Revelation 6:8 is also on display with a vision of the white horse of death.

This can be nothing but a desire for nuclear war, among the pestilence and famine we are about to experience under a globalist regime. (Read more.)

 

Meanwhile, while Paris was darkened by a power outage, the Sacred Heart Basilica on Montmartre was illuminated. From Breitbart:

A “technical anomaly” plunged major areas of Paris into darkness on Saturday evening as a blackout struck the City of Lights just one evening after the lewd LGBT-themed Olympic Opening Ceremony drew backlash from Christians around the world.

On Saturday evening, at around 11:40 Paris time, power was cut to tens of thousands of residents of the French capital. While there was initial speculation of potential sabotage, this has since been ruled out, with the local energy firm saying that it came as a result of a “technical anomaly.” Energy provider Enedis told Le Parisien that “a network incident due to a technical anomaly has caused power cuts in… Paris, affecting nearly 85,000 customers.”

Enedis said that the blackout impacted people in the 1st arrondissement, the location of the Louvre Museum, the 9th arrondissement, the home of the Paris Opera, the 17th arrondissement, which partially contains the Arc de Triomphe, and the 18th arrondissement, the location of the Moulin Rouge cabaret and Montmartre hill.

Strikingly, pictures shared on social media appeared to show that during the blackout, the Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre (Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Montmartre) remained lit as the surrounding areas were driven into darkness. (Read more.)

 

 "And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." ~John 1:5

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Politics and Catholicism

"Call to Arms" by Edmund Blair Leighton

 

With an especially stormy election season already in progress, we once again see on display the disdain which many people have for the American political progress. I think some of my co-religionists long for some mythical Catholic kingdom where there was no political in-fighting, no crassness or crudeness, no mob acclaim for a popular leader. Such a place never existed, I am afraid. The politics surrounding the papal throne for two thousand years has at times resembled The Godfather, Parts I, II, and III. A great deal of scheming and bribery surrounded the election of the Holy Roman Emperor. Every medieval kingdom belonging to what we call Christendom had its murders and back-stabbing. Even Camelot had its intrigues.

 I have noticed that many devout people seem to shun politics like the plague, not wishing to sully themselves and their holy thoughts with the its grubbiness. I do not blame them. I sought the refuge of a cloistered monastery when I was twenty-five so I would never have to think about politics again.  Having no vocation to the cloister, and realizing that I had to make a go of it, not in the France of King St. Louis, but in Maryland, USA, in the mid-90's, I began to follow the political news. It became a matter for my prayers, more than it had been in the past. 

However, as the years passed, my roles changed. On becoming a wife, mother, homeowner, homeschooling parent, single-mother, and care-giver, the events of the world of politics became more a matter of concern. When you are trying to launch a young person into the world you have to care that crime is on the rise and that going into Baltimore may mean a carjacking.You have to find out if there is anything you can do, other than intense prayer, to make the country, state and county a better, safer place. So I have gradually become more and more active in local politics, as my family and work duties permitted. I found that there is much to be done. Signs to be posted, letters and articles to write. We always need more volunteers. With so much a stake, good, honest people really need to become more involved.

When you live in a country which is on the path to losing its national sovereignty due to the bad policies of the Left, and when the radical Democrats are pushing the trans agenda as well as abortion without limits, then action is required. When you realize that we are in a war, a war of words but a war nevertheless, then that is the time for citizens of a free country to act. Prayer is vital in this current battle, which is essentially spiritual warfare above all else. In an election where every vote counts, we are fighting to win hearts and minds, and such battles are fruitless without prayer. 

While the longing to withdraw from the world and retreat into the desert like the old saints and prophets can be overwhelming at such a time, we are reminded that even Elias became politically involved for the sake of his people. Likewise from even the early Church saints were called to political action, even to the leading of armies. As Catholics we know that patriotism is a virtue akin to piety, and while it may be lived out in a monastery by monks and nuns, the laity is called to take an active role. St. Francis de Sales wrote of this extensively in Introduction to the Devout Life. Being holy is performing the duties of our state in life. A nun may retreat from battle. But if a soldier flees from battle, abandoning his comrades, it is not a virtue but a vice. We are in a huge battle of words, being fought in the media and online. All are needed. Every citizen in a country where the people have a say in their own government have a duty not only to be informed but to act when necessary.

 

"Jeanne d'Arc" (2010), Mikael C-Hayes

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The Red Cap of Hermetics

Louis XVI was mocked with the "Red Cap of Liberty" which is now displayed at the Paris Olympics. From Daily Sabah:

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, Louis XVI, the last king of France, was depicted in many paintings with a "Bonnet Rouge" (Red Cap) on his head. However, what is the story of this red cap with its long apex bent over to the front, and why was it placed the head of the French constitutional monarch before he was executed?

[...]

In ancient Rome, freed slaves were dressed in a white cap called a pileus. Brutus, who betrayed Caesar, chose this cap, which symbolizes freedom, as an expression of Rome's return to the republic, and engraved it on the coin he minted. But this fez, which looks like the white cap worn by Albanians today, actually had nothing to do with the red Phrygian cap.

With the American Revolution, the pileus became an omen of revolutionaries, anarchists, and republicans. It resurfaced with the protests against the Stamp Act of 1765 when Britain imposed a direct stamped paper tax on the British colonies in America.

In particular, a figure of British parliamentarian John Wilkes – nicknamed the "Devil," and known for his support of the American rebels – with this cap became very popular among the rebels known as the "Sons of Liberty."

French anarchists, who inherited this symbol from the American Revolution, preferred the Phrygian cap instead of the pileus. Thus, this red hermetic cap became the symbol of the French revolutionaries and freedom from 1789 onwards. For example, in a sculpture made by French artist Joseph Chinard in 1794, representing the revolution and the republic, a Phrygian cap was placed on the head of a woman in Roman attire. (Read more.)

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J.D. Vance on Democrats' Anti-Family Policies

 

 

Kamala and Prop 47. From Ann Coulter:

Last year, Los Angeles, Oakland and San Francisco topped the list of the U.S. cities with the most retail theft, according to the National Retail Federation. A fourth California city, Sacramento, came in at No. 7. These days, when a customer tries to actually pay for something, the cashier calls the manager.

The shoplifting is so pervasive that, earlier this year, a Target shoplifter strolled out of the store right past Gov. Gavin Newsom. During a CNN report on the rash of thefts in San Francisco, three shoplifters hit the CVS as they were filming. Also good for business: Tourists are warned not to rent cars, because they’ll only be broken into. Drug addicts clog the sidewalks, writhing in their own needles and fecal matter.

How did Harris describe a proposition that would declare open season on the law-abiding? She titled Prop 47 “The Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act,” something I cannot even say without doing air quotes. For her next act of breathtaking mendacity, Harris deceived voters about Prop 57, which allowed the early release of thousands of violent criminals, including those convicted of attempted murder, grand theft, child molestation, drug use and possession and drive-by shootings. (Read more.)

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The History of Shepherding Through Time

 From Rural Historia:

Shepherding stands as one of the most ancient vocations, its origins going back through the millennia to the very dawn of British agriculture in the Neolithic period. During this transformative era, the early inhabitants of the British Isles began their shift from a nomadic, hunter-gatherer existence towards a settled agrarian lifestyle. Central to this transformation was the management of livestock, a task that would come to define much of rural British life. Sheep were amongst the first animals to be domesticated in these islands, valued for their meat, milk, and, significantly, their wool. 

The early ages presented the British Isles as a land rich with expansive tracts of open territory, characterized by its vast swaths of rolling fields and favourable grazing conditions. Such an environment was not only ideal for sheep farming but also important in the development of the distinct pastoral culture that would flourish there. The abundance and quality of pasture facilitated the emergence of various breeds of sheep, each uniquely adapted to the specific climatic and geographic conditions of the region. (Read more.)

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The Real Marie-Antoinette

With the recent horrific mockery of the murdered Queen in the city where she died, I thought it important to remind everyone who she really was. From Catholic Exchange:

Catholic historian and writer Elena Maria Vidal sets the record straight on the oft-maligned Catholic Queen of France and martyr of the Revolution. While candidly acknowledging the queen’s faults, Elena’s work paints a portrait of Marie Antoinette in all her complexity.

Drawing from her years of research, Elena discusses:

• Popular misconceptions about the queen, then and now
• The origin of the “let them eat cake” rumor
• What modern TV series and movies get wrong
• Marie Antoinette’s strong Catholic faith and moral character, and many recorded charitable works
• The deeply Catholic milieu of the French court and its role in Christendom
• The truly demonic nature of the French Revolution and its pagan “Cult of Reason”
• How the queen was able to secretly receive the sacraments before her death
• Marie Antoinette’s piety and equanimity at the guillotine

(Read more.)

 

Daughter of the Caesars is available HERE.

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J.D. Vance’s Road to Catholicism

 From Callista Gingrich:

Newt and I recently attended the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. On July 17, we listened as Ohio Senator J.D. Vance accepted the Republican vice-presidential nomination and said, “My friends, tonight is a night of hope. A celebration of what America once was, and with God’s grace, what it will soon be again.”

During his acceptance speech, as thousands watched in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum and millions more from their homes, Vance told his story, articulated the values he lives by, and affirmed that he will fight for Americans who have been overlooked, forgotten, and ignored. 

Vance spoke of being raised by his Christian grandmother, “Mamaw,” in Middletown, Ohio, “a small town where people spoke their minds, built with their hands, and loved their God, their family, their community and their country with their whole hearts.”

Though Vance was surrounded by Christian faith and values in his youth (and greatly admired his Catholic uncle), it wasn’t until his teenage years that he joined an organized church.

As an adolescent, Vance attended a large Pentecostal church with his biological father after the two reconnected. “I’m not sure if I liked the structure or if I just wanted to share in something that was important to him — both, I suppose — but I became a devoted convert,” Vance wrote in his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”

However, throughout his young adulthood, Vance’s faith lapsed, as he described in a nearly 7,000-word essay for The Lamp titled “How I Joined the Resistance.” After finishing his service with the Marines and attending college at The Ohio State University, Vance discarded his faith and claimed to be an atheist.

Surrounded by secularism in college, Vance was ingrained in a culture that saw faith “at best, provincial and stupid; at worst, evil” and got caught up in “the madness of crowds,” which caused him to abandon his faith. “Much of my new atheism,” he wrote, “came down to a desire for social acceptance among American elites.”

Though Vance admitted to adopting a worldview tinged with an air of arrogance at this time, seeds of doubt surrounding his newfound perceptions took hold throughout college and later in law school.

For Vance, the “first crack in [his] proverbial armor” would come from a meditation by Saint Augustine that he read while attending Yale Law School as he contemplated his “twin desires – for success and character – and how they conflicted (and didn’t).”

The passage from Saint Augustine criticized man’s arrogant attempts to conform Sacred Scripture to his own opinions when man’s aim ought to be to conform his opinions to the truth in Sacred Scripture. (Read more.)

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Two Minerals Never Before Seen on Earth

 From Beauty of Planet Earth:

A giant meteorite that fell in Somalia in 2020 contains at least two minerals that have never before been seen on our planet. The minerals have been identified by researchers at the University of Alberta, according to a press release.

Tons of space material enters the Earth’s atmosphere every day but very few actually survive the journey through the atmosphere and hit the ground. Instead, they tend to burn up instantly from the outside in, as friction with the atmosphere causes them to ablate.

For this reason, few large meteorites reach the planet’s surface, and the one that fell near the town of El Ali in Somalia is definitely an exception. The celestial piece of rock weighs a massive 16.5 tons (15 tonnes), making it the ninth-largest meteorite ever found. (Read more.)

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Friends of Marie-Antoinette, Part I

Madame de Polignac in Court Dress. No jewels, just flowers.

Here is a broadcast from Tea at Trianon Radio. Part 2, HERE. Part 3, HERE.

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Biden's Choice

 From The New York Post:

Biden’s always been crafty. Cunning. Not for the country. For himself. For family. He never christened some extra special anything else for anybody else. Always the No. 2 guy. Never the brains. Not really sweating. Just glad-handing. We’re talking smiling. Surviving. Taking bows. Photos. Making friends. Connections. Learning how everything operates. But for him. Accomplishing for any other guy — zilch. When it comes to him, he’s savvy. The way he operates is it’s permanently his ass he’s saving. The man always knew how to hang on. If looking for accomplishments, try Biden’s son. Or Joe’s wife’s hairdresser. Or certain business people who operate his home state of Delaware, which is smaller than my Raisin Bran box. (Read more.)

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The Vacuum of Space

 From Popular Mechanics:

In new preprint research, scientists in Slovenia have adjusted a calculation to determine how long we have before the vacuum of space decays. While this date is still an extraordinarily long time into the very, very far future, our math model to determine it is loose enough to invite more questions than answers.

It’s intuitive that we struggle to nail down the far future this way—it’s honestly more amazing that we can estimate the date at all. So, how do scientists do it?

Matt von Hippel explains about the “vacuum” in the standard model for Quanta. Our universe is filled by quantum fields, many of which are empty or zero. One, the Higgs field, is not:

 Called the Higgs field, it controls the mass of many fundamental particles, like electrons and quarks. Unlike every other quantum field physicists have discovered, the Higgs field has a default value above zero. Dialing the Higgs field value up or down would increase or decrease the mass of electrons and other particles. If the setting of the Higgs field were zero, those particles would be massless.

(Read more.)

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The Cathars and the Eucharist

The Cathars were not Christians nor did they belong to any monotheistic religion because they believed in more than one God. From William Hemsworth:

The Cathars were dualists who believed in two gods. One who created everything good and another who created everything evil. Essentially they believed that the god of the Old Testament was Satan, and the New Testament was the God we know. As they did with the Eucharist, they didn’t hold to the validity of any sacraments because the sacraments involve some kind of material. In their view all material is bad.

The human body was an evil construct because in entrapped angels in human flesh. Therefore anything to do with the human body was also deemed evil. Even procreation. Suicide was seen as a good way of escaping human bondage. Yes, they were opposed to the Eucharist as the Gnostics of old were. Their beliefs were dealt with by great saints such as St. Augustine and St. Irenaeus. Again I emphasize that they were not protestants that were persecuted by the Catholic church, but believers in type of modified Gnostic heresy. (Read more.)

Read more about the Cathars in my novel The Night's Dark Shade.

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Pope Benedict XVI's Liturgical Theology

 From Stephanie Mann:

What I really appreciated was the clarity and balance of Millare's writing style; his declarative yet comprehensive sentences as he described the theologian-Cardinal/Pope's interaction with other theologians. Since I have read many of Romano Guardini's liturgical theology works, I was able to follow Millare's analysis of the issues of Ethos and Logos and even the models of meal/banquet and sacrifice easily. And when Millare compares and contrasts Ratzinger's thoughts with other theologians I'm not familiar with, like Moltman and Metz, he provides the necessary detail and context, even as he emphasizes the central themes of Logos and the eschaton.

In fact, the "consistency and centrality of the Logos" versus placing Ethos at the center of theology, liturgical, moral, or fundamental is one of most crucial themes of the entire book. It informs Millare's discussion of the Sacrifice of the Mass, of the Communion of the Church and the Second Coming, with hope for the New Heavens and the New Earth, of the mission of the Church and the congregation attending Mass and receiving Holy Communion and then going to the world to share the Love of God and neighbor; and the beauty of art and architecture of the celebration of Mass and our churches, etc.

Millare summarizes his study of Pope Benedict XVI's theology of worship and the eschaton thusly on page 266:

Ratzinger describes his work as having an "incomplete character," yet I have demonstrated that there is a unity within his "fragmentary" writings that is defined by the primacy and centrality of the Logos incarnate. It has been argued throughout this book how the focus on the loges consistently unites his eschatology with his theology of liturgy, in whose orbit can also be found his Christology, ecclesiology, theological anthropology, and ethics.

The text is supplemented with extensive footnotes and a substantial bibliography. Well worth reading, even for a non-specialist. I read it after a discussion of the Resurrection and Ascension chapters in Pope Benedict XVI's Holy Week volume in the Jesus of Nazareth trilogy with my theologian friend and in the midst of the Eucharistic Revival here in the USA. (Read more.)

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A New Charter

 From Charles Coulombe at The European Conservative:

Knights came in many different varieties. Originally, knighthood could be bestowed by any other knight, a bishop, or a sovereign; but in time, the latter claimed to be the sole owner of that power. Nevertheless, the great independent orders of knighthood—the Templars, Hospitallers (later Malta), Teutonic Knights, etc.—retained their independence after the fall of Jerusalem, although the first of those suffered a terrible suppression. Then followed the knights of the royal orders, such as Britain’s Garter, France’s St. Esprit, and Burgundy/Austria/Spain’s Order of the Golden Fleece. There were also hereditary knighthoods granted, along with the British equivalent, the Baronets.

The nobility and knights were considered one class or estate in mediaeval society, with the churchmen being another, and commoners (depending on the country, often including the gentry and the patricians) being the third. In some places, the commons were divided, and there were four rather than three estates. But many were the pictures in the Middle Ages that depicted priest, knight, and peasant, each with a phrase indicating their respective position in the collective order: “I defend all” by the knight; “I bless all,” by the priest, and “I feed all,” by the peasant.

As the Middle Ages wore on, representatives of these estates took on ever more responsibility; if their Emperor or King needed extra money, they would be convoked and asked to fund whatever difficulty had arisen. In England, the abbots and bishops (‘Lords Spiritual’) and titled nobility (‘Lords Temporal’) were brought together in one House of Lords. The House of Commons arose from the joint gatherings of the representatives of the boroughs with landowners returned by their neighbours from the various counties—the ‘Knights of the Shire.’ These developments were paralleled across Europe, with nobility and knights sitting in what became Upper Houses throughout the Continent. Alongside the monarchs and the Church, the nobility became the great patrons of art, music, and dance, even as they pioneered hunting and dotted the countryside from Portugal and Ireland to Russia with their great houses and castles. But these arrangements would totter and fall. (Read more.)

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Florence Nightingale’s Childhood Home

 

 

 From Country Life:

The beautiful Lea Hurst has gorgeous views, delightful rooms and a fascinating history. Lea Hurst, in the traditional Derbyshire village of Holloway, is at first glance a classic and beautiful stone-built, Grade II-listed home overlooking the scenic Derwent Valley at the south-eastern edge of the Peak District. Look beyond that first impression, however, and you find some fascinating history: Lea Hurst was Florence Nightingale’s much-loved childhood home, and it’s now seeking a new owner. Blue Book’s Sebastian Hipwood quotes a guide price of £3.75m for what is a splendid country home set in more than 19 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens and parkland on high ground overlooking the Derwent Valley. The house offers generous living space on several levels, with four principal reception rooms, including a triple-aspect formal drawing room, a large kitchen/breakfast room, 13 bedrooms and eight bathrooms. (Read more.)

 

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Iran Closer to Having the Bomb

 From The Billings Gazette:

 Iran is talking more about getting a nuclear bomb and made strides in developing a key aspect of a weapon since about April, when Israel and its allies overpowered Iranian airstrikes targeting Israel, two top Biden administration officials said Friday. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking at separate panels during a security forum in Colorado, said the U.S. is watching closely for any signs that Iran made a decision to pursue actual weaponization of its nuclear program. However, Sullivan said, "I have not seen a decision by Iran to move" in a way that signals it has decided to actually develop a nuclear bomb right now. Iran resumed progress on its nuclear program after the Trump administration ended U.S. cooperation with a 2015 deal that gave Iran sanctions relief in return for tougher oversight of the program. (Read more,)

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Lorrha Stories: Irish Monasticism

 From The Abbey of Misrule:

St Ruadhán was one of the ‘twelve apostles of Ireland’, a collective of significant early Irish saints who studied under the legendary St Finian of Clonard. Ruadhán (whose name is pronounced ‘Rowan’, and means ‘red-haired’) was, like his fellow apostles, a monk of the Celtic tradition, which later came into conflict with Rome over various issues, like the date of Easter, the correct form of tonsure and other such theological details. In reality though, these issues were secondary to the real one, which was how much power Rome should have over monasteries in distant lands.

In early Ireland, Christianity was monastic, and it was Abbots rather than Bishops who called the shots. Irish monasticism had, for around 500 years, developed a specifically ‘Celtic’ character which seems to have been greatly influenced - and, I think, directly seeded - by Egyptian desert monks. This was the age of the round tower, the beehive hut and the small-scale, ascetic Christianity of the Wild Saints. It was the world of Patrick and Kevin, Colmcille and Bridget.

The Pontiff in Rome, however, wanted this scruffy, desert Christianity reined in under a hierarchy of Bishops answerable to him, and in Ireland, as in England a century before, the Normans would be his vessels. In 1066, the Norman king William the Conqueror (William the Bastard to his friends) had invaded England, killing its legitimate (and elected) King, Harold II, at the Battle of Hastings. He had done so under the Papal banner, which he had carried into battle, and on his victory he set about demolishing the old wooden Anglo-Saxon churches and building new, stone ‘Romanesque’ ones in their places. He also gave the green light to the continental monastic orders to move in and replace their indigenous counterparts. (Read more.)

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Engraving of Louis XVII

From Vive la Reine:

eksynyt-virvatuli:

Louis XVII, 1793-5 (engraving), French School, (18th century)
Louis Charles de Bourbon (1785-95); Dauphin after the death of his older brother in 1789; King Louis XVII of France in 1793; royalist print depicting Louis in armour with the portraits of his parents, Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette on his shield, with a spear and helmet decorated with fleur de lis and brandishing a sword in a pose reminiscent of Jeanne d’Arc; used as a rallying symbol by the ‘Chevaliers de Poignard’;

(Source)

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Tucker Carlson and Jack Posobiec React to the Trump Shooting and the Coup Against Biden

 

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Illustrious Queen

 Philippa of Lancaster, Queen of Portugal. From History...the Interesting Bits:

As with most high-born women of the time, Philippa’s marriage was in the hands of her father. John of Gaunt planned for her to contract a dynastic match which would benefit and complement his own dynastic ambitions. In 1374, Philippa was betrothed to Gaston, Count of Foix, but nothing came of it. In 1381/2 she was offered in marriage to Jean de Blois, claimant to the duchy of Brittany; and in 1383 her prospective husband was Count William of Ostrevant, the heir to Hainault, Holland and Zeeland.

In 1385 and 25 years old Philippa was still unmarried. However, in the following year her father took her on his military expedition to Spain, hoping to claim the kingdom of Castile in right of his 2nd wife, Constance. Philippa’s marriage to John – or Joao – I of Portugal was agreed as part of an alliance made between the 2 Johns at Ponte do Mouro in November 1386.

Philippa was married to King John at Oporto on 2nd February 1387, before they had even received the required papal dispensation. The British Museum has a beautifully illuminated manuscript (above) which depicts the wedding, with John of Gaunt and his wife, Constance, looking on. Philippa was 26 – about 10 years older than the average age for a princess to marry. John was 3 years her senior and had been king for just short of 2 years. (Read more.)

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The Poetry of Madame Royale

From Anna Gibson:

The following are some excerpts from translations of some of the poetry that Marie Thérèse wrote during her imprisonment in the Temple and were kept by the family of Madeleine Bocquet-Chanterenne. Although simply written, her words reflects the pain and sorrow that the young girl experienced in her often terrifying and lonely captivity.

I was your king's daughter
separated from all my family.
I languish in this sad jail
Alas! I say with good reason
Even though I am alone and sad
My jail would appear happy to me

If I was in this place with my brother.

(Read more.)

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HUGE: Italy BANS Solar Panels on Farm Land

From Peter Sweden:

Fantastic news coming out of Italy as they once again goes against the Klaus Scwhab agenda. In order to protect farming, the right-wing government in Italy has now banned the installation of ground mounted solar panels in agricultural areas. Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has said that the rollout of solar panels on farmland is a ”threat to our food sovereignty”.

Climate fanatics are not happy with this move, as they complaining that this will undermine the green goals and that Italy won’t be able to fulfill its green goals by 2030. However, they will still allow agri-voltaic solar panels that are placed 2.1 metres above fields in a way that will allow crops to grow underneath the panels.

Georgia Meloni says that this new decree corrects ”the ideological eco-follies of which Italy and its farmers have been victims”.

This is good news, as otherwise special Italian products that is loved all around the world might have been under threat. Now we are seeing a continued attack on farmers under the guise of climate change. In reality what we are seeing is Climate Communism. This isn’t the first time that the right-wing government in Italy has gone against the WEF agenda. (Read more.)

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Starquakes

 From Space:

Solar scientists have spotted indications that the next solar cycle is beginning. That is despite the fact that it isn't due for another six years, and the current solar cycle (Cycle 25) is still in progress. The current solar cycle is expected to reach its peak or "solar maximum" midway through 2025 when the magnetic field of our star will flip and its poles will switch. Leading up to this solar activity has been ramping up with an increase in sunspots, solar flares and eruptions of stellar plasma called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Despite the gearing up of Cycle 25 to its peak, it looks like Cycle 26 just can't wait to tag in. The rumblings of the onset of the next 11-year-long solar cycle came in the form of "starquakes," sound waves ricocheting through the interior of the sun detected by researchers from the University of Birmingham. (Read more.)

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The Paris Temple

The former Temple enclosure in Paris

 The tower of the original Paris Temple was used as a prison during the French Revolution to house Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette and their family. It was torn down by Napoleon in 1808 to discourage the pilgrims who were flocking to the site. From the BBC:

Their original estate has long since succumbed to the great march of history, but you can still visit the site on which it once stood on rue de Lobau, located just behind the Hôtel de Ville. Back in the day, surrounding the mansion were miles of uncultivated marshland. In order to make the land arable, the Knights Templar set about drying the marsh – a feat that they were able to fully achieve circa 1240. But though the wetlands have long since disappeared, the area is still referred to as ‘le Marais’ or ‘the Marsh’....

Surrounded by eight 10m-high crenelated walls reinforced by turrets and buttress, this gargantuan fortress once featured towers, a drawbridge, a gothic church, vast stables and homes for the knights. It was here that the Templars guarded mass portions of their treasure and created a powerful ‘state-within-a-state’ that was entirely sovereign from the kings of France.

While this system of sovereignty worked for a time, everything changed in 1303 when the Knights Templar were forced to move their base of operations from the Temple Mount to their European headquarters – the enclos du Temple – after Jerusalem was recaptured by Muslim armies.

The king of France at the time, Philip the Fair, deeply resented the Knights Templar’s powerful ‘state-within-a-state’ and resolved to bring the order down by any means necessary. King Philip’s reasoning for destroying the order is speculated to this day, though many scholars believe his motivations were financial. “Philip could use the silver coin he acquired from the Templars' treasury in Paris to improve the quality of the heavily debased French coinage,” explained Dr Helen Nicholson, author of The Knights Templar: A New History and professor of medieval history at Cardiff University. (Read more.)

From Paris Marais:

To the north east lay stretches of marshland, remnants of the ancient branch of the Seine that had once flowed down from the heights of Belleville, east of Paris. It took the hardy Templars barely a century to turn it into the market garden (marais) of the capital, emulating the monks of Saint Martin des Champs who had dried up the swamps on the western fringe of the future arrondissement a century earlier. Having redeemed the land, they moved to its north-eastern edge, where they built a fortified compound,  l'Enclos du Temple, which also served as their European headquarters.

Forget about Rennes-le-Château and other such fantasies - there was nothing mysterious about the Order. Rather, it was their sophisticated farming methods that enabled them to redeem the marshy land of the future Marais, and it was their acute business acumen that incited them to use their geographical dispersion to advantage and develop a kind of international deposit bank  which contributed to the continual increase of their wealth. This, and their independence, were jealously kept behind the crenellated walls of the Enclos du Temple, roughly on the site of today's rue du Temple, rue de Bretagne, rue de Picardie and rue Béranger, south of Place de la République. It was complete with watch towers and a drawbridge that led to the Temple' only gate (now corner of rue des Fontaines-du-Temple and rue du Temple). (Read more.)

Banner honoring Louis XVII who died in the Temple

More HERE.
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