Tea at Trianon: Ana Finat

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

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Ana Finat

From Catholic World Report:

The Spanish influencer and aristocrat Ana Finat, a descendant of St. Francis Borgia, has just published the story of her conversion where she describes how she went from worldliness and being afraid of God to regaining freedom by trusting in his mercy.

In the Spanish-language book “When I Met the God of Love: How the Love of Christ Freed Me from the Chains of the World,” Finat shares the story of her life, quite distinct from that of ordinary mortals because of her family environment — especially during her childhood — but, at the same time, very similar in terms of worldliness and alienation from the faith like the majority of her generation.

“When I grew up, I distanced myself from God, because it was bothersome to me and because I was rebellious,” she admitted in a conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. During that time, she lived like so many young people of her generation: “I smoked my first cigarettes, I experienced my first joints, we went out drinking a lot, and I spent more time on the street playing hooky than at school,” she explains in the book.

She also did not live chastely, which led her to getting unexpectedly pregnant at age 20. In addition, she would later use assisted reproductive technologies that are contrary to the magisterium of the Catholic Church.

Fortunately, she didn’t yield to the temptation to abort her child: “I never considered having an abortion. The pregnancy made me anxious; I knew perfectly well that it wasn’t going to be easy, because our relationship [with her then-boyfriend] wasn’t good, but I was excited about the life that was coming. From the beginning, I welcomed [the child] with great enthusiasm. For me it was a gift, because I knew what was coming to me, to begin with, because I was also very immature,” she explained. (Read more.)