'Conditor Alme Siderum'

Creation of the Stars

 My favorite Advent hymn. From A Clerk of Oxford:

Among the Office Hymns for Advent is 'Conditor Alme Siderum', best known in translation today as 'Creator of the stars of night'. Intended to be sung in the evening, as the early dusk of a winter night descends, this hymn praises God as the creator of the stars - those stars which seem to shine so much more brightly in a cold and frosty sky. It draws a parallel between the darkness which envelops us each day and a yet deeper darkness, 'the world's evening hour', which Christ, bright as the sun, illuminates by his entry into the world.

 [...]

Creator of the stars of night,

Thy people’s everlasting light,

O Jesu, Saviour of us all,

Hear thou thy servants when they call.

Thou, grieving at the bitter cry

Of all creation doomed to die,

Didst come to save our ruined race

With healing gifts of heavenly grace.

Thou camest, Bridegroom of the bride,

As drew the world to evening-tide;

Proceeding from a virgin shrine,

The Son of Man, yet Lord divine.

At thy great name exalted now

All knees must bend, all hearts must bow;

And things in heaven and earth shall own

That thou art Lord and King alone.

To thee, O holy One, we pray

our judge in that tremendous day,

preserve us, while we dwell below,

from every onslaught of the foe.

All praise, eternal Son, to thee,

whose advent sets thy people free,

whom with the Father we adore,

and Spirit blest, for evermore.

The best-known translation today is from the 19th century, but the hymn was first rendered into English about 800 years before that. In an Anglo-Saxon hymnal from 11th-century Canterbury, the Latin hymn is accompanied by a version in English, not a poetic translation but a full word-by-word gloss. It begins 'Eala, ðu halga scyppend tungla' ('hail, thou holy creator of the stars') and contains some recognisable vocabulary, most notably in the third verse, where the hymn alludes to Psalm 18: Christ, like the sun, comes forth 'as a bridegroom coming out of the bridal chamber'. In Old English, this is 'brydguma of brydbure', 'bridegroom from bridal bower'. (Read more.)

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Aquinas, Islam, and Why Trump’s Immigration Reset Is Just

 From Amuse on X:

President Trump’s renewed halt on Islamic migration to the United States, alongside a policy of promoting remigration for certain Islamic refugees and migrants, is routinely denounced as xenophobic, unchristian, even fascist. The charges are serious. They are also philosophically sloppy and theologically uninformed. If we take St. Thomas Aquinas seriously, especially Summa Theologiae I–II, Question 105, Article 3, the picture looks very different. Aquinas offers a structured framework for thinking about immigration that is more charitable than contemporary slogans yet more realistic than contemporary wishful thinking. Within that framework, Trump’s policy is not only permissible, it is morally and prudentially justified.

 To see why, begin with Aquinas’s basic question in I–II, 105, 3. He asks whether the judicial precepts of the Old Law, including its rules about foreigners, are reasonable. Aquinas notes that the Israelite law distinguished carefully among different kinds of foreigners. Some were passing guests who deserved protection from harm. Others were resident sojourners who lived among the people but did not share full civic standing. Still others sought to be admitted fully into the community’s “fellowship and mode of worship.” For this last group, Aquinas stresses, the law imposed an order. They were not to be admitted to citizenship immediately. Admission typically came only after the third generation, and some hostile peoples were to be excluded altogether or held as “foes in perpetuity.” On Aquinas’s reading, these rules are not expressions of ethnic hatred, they are rational instruments for preserving the constitution, worship, and common good of the people. (Read more.)

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8,000-Year-Old Rock Art

 From Ancient Origins:

Archaeologists working in Central Anatolia have uncovered a collection of prehistoric petroglyphs near Mount Erciyes that fundamentally reshapes our understanding of symbolic expression in the region. The discovery in Kayseri's Develi district reveals engravings dating to approximately 6000 BC, millennia before the rise of the Hittite Empire that would later dominate these lands.Carved into dark volcanic rocks scattered across the southern foothills of Mount Erciyes, these ancient markings capture human and animal figures alongside geometric patterns. The discovery, currently awaiting official registration with Turkish cultural authorities, represents one of the most significant prehistoric finds in the region in decades. Early analysis dates the engravings to the Late Neolithic or Early Chalcolithic period, offering a rare glimpse into how early Anatolian communities expressed symbolic thought long before written language existed.

The petroglyphs discovered near Develi offer compelling evidence that organized symbolic expression flourished in Central Anatolia thousands of years before any known writing system reports ArkeoNews. Archaeologists involved in documenting the site described the volcanic rock surfaces as "among the earliest canvases of the human imagination," noting that every carved line—whether depicting animals, humans, or abstract shapes—reflects a symbolic consciousness that predates writing by millennia.

The site's strategic position near ancient water sources and migration routes suggests it may have functioned as a gathering or ritual area for early farming and herding communities. Researchers believe the engravings served purposes far beyond decoration, likely representing early expressions of belief, identity, and social connection. The figures of humans and animals, along with geometric motifs, provide insight into how prehistoric communities understood their world and their relationship to the natural environment surrounding them. (Read more.)

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A ‘Little Women’ Christmas Aesthetic

  

From Homes and Gardens:

There’s something inherently nostalgic about the holiday season – the return of old traditions, the warmth of homecomings, and the quiet joy of generosity and togetherness. It’s a feeling steeped in comfort and memory, one that the March family captures so beautifully in the iconic book and films of Little Women. The Little Women Christmas aesthetic brings this timeless sentiment to life, blending the charm and magic of family and celebration.

Based on Louisa May Alcott's 1868 novel and its various film adaptations, the Little Women Christmas aesthetic embraces the simplicity of the holiday season by means of charming and evocative home decor. This Christmas decorating theme leans into 'nostalgia-core', or a yearning for the peace, comfort, and childlike joy of Christmases past. It's no surprise that this aesthetic is such a popular trend this year, as it 'captures what people are craving right now: more warmth, more color, more character,' interior designer Terri Brien explains. 'It’s sentimental and layered, with a feeling of nostalgia and comfort that is just perfect for the holidays.'

Unlike other holiday trends that might only speak to certain personalities or interior design styles, there's something universal about the Little Women Christmas aesthetic. It embodies the essence of the Christmas holiday itself, not only through its colors and its decorations, but through the feeling it establishes within individuals. (Read more.)

 

And here is a "Little Women" Christmas Brunch from Victoria!

 

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William F. Buckley at 100

 From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

 This year marks the 100th anniversary of William F. Buckley’s birth and the 70th anniversary of National Review, the magazine he founded.  There have been several tributes to the godfather of modern conservatism. It’s also a proper occasion to note that Buckley would have loved the Anti-Communist Film Festival. I’m working out the details to hold the event next year. Buckley would have loved the in-your-face-ness of the festival, as well as the powerful cultural component. We are taking on Hollywood on its own turf, renting out a theater in Washington, D.C., and showing some classic anti-communist films.

    This is a different and more powerful approach to changing the culture than delivering a white paper at a think tank. William F. Buckley would know this because Buckley was not just an erudite and brilliant thinker, but a fighter. This was pointed out by Daniel J. Flynn recently in The Imaginative Conservative. In researching Buckley, Flynn noted that “the aspect of his personality that surprised most pertained to his capacity to morph into Bill ‘the Brawler’ Buckley when the situation called for it.” (Read more.)

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How One Myth Changed Empires

 From The Greek Reporter:

The myth of Persephone, or Proserpina, a daughter who disappears underground and rises again, has long helped people make sense of time. In Greece, the story of Persephone explained why the world shifts from growth to barrenness and then returns to life. In Rome, the same story—told as Proserpina—was woven into the city’s calendar and used to structure public life. What began as a tale about the seasons became, in Roman hands, a way to organize fields, markets, courts, and elections.

In the Greek version, Hades seizes Persephone, and her mother Demeter grieves so deeply that the earth withers. A compromise brings Persephone back for part of each year, but the pomegranate seeds she has eaten bind her to return below when the cycle turns. The meaning is straightforward: winter reflects her absence, and spring announces her return.

Greek communities lived this rhythm through ritual. At the Eleusinian Mysteries, initiates experienced a drama of loss and hope. In Athens, the women’s festival of the Thesmophoria paused everyday life to reflect on fertility, reciprocity, and restraint. Even farming followed signs that made nature the ultimate master clock. (Read more.)

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Holiday Etiquette Tips

From Kitchn:

When to arrive at a party?

If you live by the motto that it’s “better late than never,” you may be on to something. Although Martha doesn’t suggest showing up to parties two hours late, she does say that not showing up at the time it is scheduled to start is just fine. “A little past call time is always nice for the host because they’re never quite ready,” Martha suggested.

How long you should wait for a tardy guest before serving dinner?

“Not too long,” said Martha. “Just leave the plates — actually, push their plates to the end of the table.” (Note to self: Do not arrive late to Martha’s party.)

If you can move place cards if you don’t like the person you’re seated next to?

“No,” warned Martha. “You’re not allowed to. On Thanksgiving, my daughter moved all the place cards without my knowledge. That didn’t go over so well.” Check out the full segment below, along with Martha’s recipe for molasses-ginger crisps. We think they make a thoughtful gift, even if the eggs you use come from the grocery store. (Read more.)

 

More tips, HERE.

 

The comfort of scruffy hospitality, from Treehugger:

My friends Dana and John perfectly practice what the Rev. Jack King referred to as "scruffy hospitality." Their kitchen is small. The wood cabinets are dark and a few decades old. Spices and jars for sugar and flour line the countertops because there's nowhere else to put them. A tall, round table shoved in a corner has mismatched bar stools crammed around it.

The sliding glass doors in the kitchen lead to a back deck with a well-used chiminea, an outdoor table and a large variety of chairs and cushions, many of them bought at yard sales. We circle the chairs around the chiminea on weekend nights during all four seasons, whenever Dana and John put out a simple call out through text or Facebook that says, "Fire tonight!"

There will always be food, but like the bar stools and deck chairs, the food is mismatched. Our hosts provide some food; John may have the urge to make jalapeño poppers or Dana may put together some version of salsa with whatever's fresh from the garden, but there's not a formally prepared meal. Everyone just brings something. It's perfectly acceptable — encouraged even — to bring odds and ends of foods that need to get used up. I often bring wedges of cheese that have already been cut into or half a baguette to slice up and toast to dip in hummus. Everyone brings a little something to drink. And it's a glorious feast.

This kitchen and deck won't be featured in Better Homes and Gardens anytime soon, but maybe they should be. They are two of the most hospitable spaces I know. By opening up their home as-is, Dana and John are the most gracious hosts I know. I almost wrote "by opening up their home with its imperfections," but that's not accurate. Their home is perfect — just like it is. (Read more.)

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Another Jihadi

 Specialist Sarah Beckstrom has since passed away. RIP. From Tierney's Real News:

We all know what happened in Washington, DC - close to the White House - the night before Thanksgiving. Please pray for the victims and pray that Americans wake up to what’s really going on before it’s too late. Somehow we’ve all forgotten about what happened on 9/11.

Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, is dying right now because a Jihadi shot her in the head in DC the night before Thanksgiving. Her dad says she’s not expected to survive. He’s holding her hand right now. 

[...]

Stephen Miller CONFIRMED that even “asylum seekers” and “refugees” are now FAIR GAME for DEPORTATION after today’s shooting:

“ENOUGH ALREADY! We’ve NEVER faced a threat like this. 20 million people brought into our country from the most failed societies on earth under Biden. There was no vetting, no conditions, no rules, For four straight years, they deluged this country — and now, more blood is being spilled as a result. No one else has to DIE because of what Democrats have done to this country. Trump will ACCELERATE efforts to review EVERY person added over the last 4 years, all 20 million. If you’re illegal, you’re out automatically! But everyone else, WHATEVER status, if you don’t love this country we’re gonna SEND YOU OUT! (Read more.)

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The Coronation of Elizabeth of York

 From Nathan Amin:

1487 had been a tough year for the fledgling Tudor Dynasty, a year of revolt in which the king, Henry VII, had been forced to defend the crown, one he himself had usurped two years earlier, in battle. His forces had been victorious at the Battle of Stoke Field, defeating an army nominally led by a child it was later revealed was Lambert Simnel, supposedly impersonating Edward, Earl of Warwick, the senior Yorkist claimant. You can read all about that campaign in my bestselling book ‘Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders: Simnel, Warbeck and Warwick’, available worldwide here

This, however, had proven an anxious episode for the Tudor regime, and on a different day, perhaps inclement weather or a timely defection could have swung the day the other way, as had happened throughout the Wars of the Roses.

But Henry had emerged victorious. The first significant challenge to his reign had been overcome, his enemies scattered if not killed, and the crown remaining atop his head. He did, however, hear the message loud and clear. It was time to have his popular wife, the mother of his heir and through whom many considered his claim to kingship rested, crowned.

When Henry had become king, he very quickly made sure he himself was crowned, taking his seat upon the throne in Westminster Abbey on 30 October 1485. This was before he had married Elizabeth, and before even, his first parliament assembled. Henry ensured there was no doubt whatsoever that he owed his crown to anyone other than God him (or her?) self. (Read more.)

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The Pumpkin

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,
Like that which o'er Nineveh's prophet once grew,
While he waited to know that his warning was true,
And longed for the storm-cloud, and listened in vain
For the rush of the whirlwind and red fire-rain.

On the banks of the Xenil the dark Spanish maiden
Comes up with the fruit of the tangled vine laden;
And the Creole of Cuba laughs out to behold
Through orange-leaves shining the broad spheres of gold;
Yet with dearer delight from his home in the North,
On the fields of his harvest the Yankee looks forth,
Where crook-necks are coiling and yellow fruit shines,
And the sun of September melts down on his vines.

Ah! on Thanksgiving day, when from East and from West,
From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,
When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board
The old broken links of affection restored,
When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,
And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,
What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,--our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E'er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own pumpkin pie!
By John Greenleaf Whittier (Via Recta Ratio)

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Just How Closely Did Biden’s DOJ Rely on the SPLC?

 From The Daily Signal:

The Department of Justice under President Joe Biden consulted with the Southern Poverty Law Center, a leftist activist group notorious for comparing mainstream conservatives and Christians to the Ku Klux Klan, and Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, formally asked Attorney General Pam Bondi for all related documents.

“The committee is continuing to investigate the Biden-Harris Department of Justice’s and Federal Bureau of Investigation’s weaponization of federal law-enforcement resources against conservative Americans,” Jordan wrote in the Tuesday letter exclusively provided to The Daily Signal.

The Ohio Republican congressman noted that “the DOJ, during Attorney General Merrick Garland’s tenure, colluded with the radical, left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center on matters relating to federal civil rights enforcement.” (Read more.)

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Mountains Underground?

 From Daily Galaxy:

Something vast is lurking beneath our feet—so immense and anomalous that scientists are rethinking what qualifies as the tallest “mountains” on Earth. A new study published in Nature reveals the existence of two colossal subterranean structures stretching from the core-mantle boundary deep within the planet. Towering up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) high—nearly 100 times taller than Mount Everest—these features sit beneath Africa and the central Pacific Ocean. They’re not made of rock in the conventional sense, but their scale makes them the largest identified features inside Earth. The discovery not only redefines Earth’s internal landscape—it introduces a powerful new tool for exploring planetary evolution. These dense regions may be billions of years old, preserving chemical signatures from early Earth and potentially influencing surface phenomena like volcano formation, plate tectonics, and mantle convection. (Read more.)

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Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina

 

 

On the wedding anniversary of Nicholas and Alexandra I thought I would revive this old review:

 In Alix and Nicky: The Passion of the Last Tsar and Tsarina Virginia Rounding offers a fresh look at the relationship of Tsar Nicholas II and Alexandra (Alix) his Empress, their accomplishments and fatal flaws, in this intriguing biographical study. For those not familiar with the Romanovs, there is enough background not to get lost. For those who are familiar with the topic, Rounding provides unique insights focusing on aspects of the imperial marriage and political policies too often ignored.

Rounding explores Nicholas’ political achievements and his oft-demeaned temperament and Alix’s mysterious, incapacitating ailments. While her symptoms are usually claimed to be the result of hysteria, Rounding surmises that the Empress may have had some genuine health issues, together with emotional instability. The strange dynamic between the imperial couple and Alix’s friend Anna Vyrubova is scrutinized in detail. Alix’s belief in Rasputin is blamed for precipitating the catastrophes which followed, not so much what Rasputin did as what he was perceived to have done by the public. Most enlightening is the treatment of the spiritual lives of Nicky and Alix and how their faith flowed into their love for each other. As a stirring portrait of a marriage, this book is second to none.

  This review first appeared in the May 2012 edition of the Historical Novels Review. The book is available HERE.

(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)

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The Soviet Story

 From Tierney's Real News:

I had no idea how bad it really was and how much we’ve ALL been lied to by the KGB and the Islamo-Communist propaganda (RED-GREEN axis) that still controls our media today.

Everyone needs to watch this documentary. It was made some 20 years ago and includes footage of survivors and lots of real-time video from the 1930s. It’s hard to watch but if you want to know the truth about what could happen to us if we don’t stop them - and not some fairytale - it’s a must view.

I have read dozens of books on this topic and thousands of articles and written several newsletters about it - but I never understood what really happened UNTIL NOW. The documentary is only 90 minutes long but it contains the most truth per minute I’ve ever seen anywhere!

BOTH the socialist NAZIs AND the socialist SOVIETS called their CONSERVATIVE enemies FASCISTS (that’s the key) - just like the Islamo-Nazi-Communist Mamdani is calling Trump today. Same playbook.

The missing piece of the puzzle is that Stalin AND Hitler both admired Marx and believed that all “inferiors” and those who disagreed needed to be exterminated to PERFECT man. They perfected GENOCIDE as part of Marx’s socialist platform. Anyone who disagreed with the socialist genocidal strategy was deemed a FASCIST. (Read more.)

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Eleanor of Aquitaine in Rome

 From The Catholic Herald:

King Charles and his wife, Queen Camilla, may have been the first king and queen of England to visit the Vatican since the Reformation. But they were certainly not the first English rulers to do so; they were treading in what had once been a well-worn path. One of the more remarkable visits occurred in early April of 1191. The ruler in question was not a king, however, but a queen: the glamorous – and perhaps over-glamourised – Eleanor of Aquitaine.

She remains the only known queen of England to have made the journey to Rome on her own.

When she made the journey, Eleanor was almost seventy. She had outlived two husbands and two adult sons. The first of these husbands was Louis VII, king of France; they had separated in 1153. The second husband was perhaps the greatest ruler of his generation: Henry II, king of England, duke of Normandy, and count of Anjou.

A combination of single-minded ruthlessness and formidable good luck had endowed King Henry with a complex of lands that stretched from Hadrian’s Wall to the Pyrenees. But Eleanor had not only survived two husbands. She had also borne them a total of nine children. At a time when child birth claimed the lives of so many women, this in itself was no small achievement.

Eleanor clearly had a love for children. In an episode almost entirely neglected by her many modern biographers, Eleanor was celebrated for having rescued a baby boy left to die on the roadside. She took in the child and found him a well-appointed home with an episcopal friend. There was more to Eleanor than the ambitious power broker of The Lion in Winter.

And so it was that in the spring of 1191, she travelled to Rome on behalf of one of those children, her eldest surviving son, now King Richard I. Richard had succeeded his father in July 1189 and had immediately freed Eleanor from the luxurious captivity in which she had been held since her disastrous involvement in the rebellion of 1173-4.

The background to her trip lay in the seismic events surrounding Jerusalem. In 1187, the great Kurdish war leader Saladin had crushed the army of the kingdom of Jerusalem and then quickly seized the holy city itself. When news of these disasters reached the West, Richard had been the first prince to take a crusading vow.

Within a year of his coronation, true to his word, he had set off eastwards. Before doing so, he called upon his mother to assist him in his endeavour. Queen Eleanor rose to the challenge admirably. In the ten months before her arrival in Rome, she had journeyed from Chinon to Pamplona and, in the company of the king’s bride, from Pamplona to Sicily, crossing the Pyrenees twice, traversing the Alps in the midst of winter, and sailing back and forth to Sicily – a journey of more than 2,200 miles. (Read more.)

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Queen Henrietta Maria As Saint Catherine of Alexandria

Henrietta Maria as St. Catherine by Van Dyck

 It is St. Catherine's Day, the birthday of Henrietta of France, Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland, in 1609. It is the first time I have heard her hair described as  "reddish-blonde." From Academia:

Another example is the painting of Queen Henrietta Maria, the French wife of the English King Charles I, by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (Figure 20). A Catholic queen who attempted to convert her Protestant husband, she is portrayed by Van Dyck as St. Catherine. She wears a simple, but elegant red dress and a green overcoat, pearls and crown on top of her reddish-blonde curls. To solidify the imagery, she holds the wheel of torture. This portrait is an outlier from the rest of the paintings surveyed for this paper (it was painted in 1639), but it illuminates the interesting notion that the royalty themselves desire to be seen with this parallel to a saint. Queen Henrietta Maria herself probably wanted to be portrayed as St. Catherine because the image it would evoke concerning herself and her beliefs would benefit her personal goals. (Read more.)

More on St. Catherine, HERE. 

 

Here is a recent review of Generalissima:

The book is a delight to read. Very detailed but constantly moving, just as Henriette-Marie was throughout the 1640s when her husband's monarchy was under attack by a number of separate Protestant factions in his Three Kingdoms (and she was hunted and exposed to shots fired by the Puritan Enemies numerous times). This may sound trite but I could hardly put the book down. Henriette-Marie (known in the US as "Mary" because that was what HER eponymous state of Maryland is called (long story), fille de France and Queen/Queen Dowager/Queen Mother of England, France and Scotland, shows the gumption, resolve and faithfulness one would expect of a child of King Henri IV, le Vert Galant de France, and his wife, Queen Marie de Medici, from the ducal/papal Medici Family. The author's careful depiction of the hatred the Puritans felt and acted on in their quest to destroy Henriette-Marie was riveting. Her conduct as the commander of troops and supplies on her way back to her husband from her trip the Netherlands to drop off her daughter Mary to the "tender care" of her rigidly Protestant husband's family was new knowledge for me and added a new dimension to my respect for Henriette-Marie.

Another delightful dimension to this historical novel is the portrait drawn of French Queen Marie de Medici. Mme. de Medici has had a rough after-life down here on Earth. The French Revolutionaries not only dragged her body out of the Basilica of St. Denis (along with the skeletons of several other kings and queens of France) but they horridly desecrated it back in the 1790s. That was only the start of her vilification. Since the Revolution, the Queen Mother Marie de Medicis has been painted in hateful colors, most notably in the 19th Century Three Musketeers, where she is as just as bad as Cardinal Richelieu while the more plebeian musketeers are the only good side in a three dimensional war in 1620s Paris. There clearly were struggles going on among those 3 factions, but they involve a very complicated set of interests, too big for this review, but I have always had an admiration for Marie de Medicis since first viewing the magnificent SALLE RUBENS at the West End of the Louvre's Grand Galerie. There is no question that Marie de Medicis had a big ego--imagine commissioning Peter Paul Rubens, one of the great painters of his day and of all time, to paint 21 separate paintings detailing one's own life--but the Vidal portrait of Mama Marie (who is present in England throughout a good deal of the first half of this book) also reveals a backbone of steel and a fierce love for her progeny. Rubens clearly cared for his subject because his family provided shelter for her after her exile from the French court due to Richelieu's better political skills. (Read more.)

My novels on Queen Henriette Maria are available, HERE and HERE.

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Global Money Laundering

 From Tierney's Real News:

The information in my original article still holds true. I’m going to share it with you again now. Much of what I wrote 7 years ago has been proven to be true. I bet most of you don’t even know the half of what I’m about to tell you because the fake news doesn’t tell us anything relevant - nor do they connect any dots back to the REAL players. They don’t want you to understand just how far reaching this goes.

I believe that ALL OF THESE MONEY LAUNDERING DEALS in Ukraine are currently being investigated by Bondi and Kash for the RICO case against the Globalist swamp and Epstein’s death is also tied to the money laundering in Ukraine.

Here’s what I wrote back then:

Romney, Kerry, Biden, McCain, Pelosi, Schiff, Mueller, Soros, Brennan, Obama and Clinton are all tied to Communist China’s sketchy Ukraine money laundering deals.

That’s why they need to take down President Trump.

Foreign aid is nothing more than “money laundering” for the Globalist elites - that’s how they get rich so fast! They launder our tax dollars and illegal foreign donations back to themselves in countries like Ukraine!

Mitt Romney’s top adviser, Joseph Cofer Black, joined the board of the Ukraine energy firm, Burisma, while Hunter Biden was also serving on the board. Cofer Black worked with Colin Powell in the State Department. (Read more.)

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Darker Shade of Pale

 From The Conversation:

When I started writing this book I was so ignorant about Jewish history. I often asked myself: why, as a Jewish scholar of South Africa, had I paid absolutely no attention to Jews? Why had my intellectual peers also not done so? I had never considered questions about how you write Jews into South African history.

So I had a steep learning curve too, reading as much as I could find, and spending lots of time in South African archives, to produce a social history intertwined with my grandfather’s story. I tried to make sense of him, and his individual Jewishness, as made and unmade by his wider society.

It started with life in the shtetl (the name for a small town with a predominantly Jewish population in eastern Europe). I deliberately started there because most migration stories start when people get off the ship, as day one of the new life. But what did they come with? What was the headspace? What were the psyches that landed, and how well equipped or not were they psychologically to cope?

And I must say that I found the world of the shtetl staggeringly unexpected. Even the smallest shtetl was status-obsessed; failure was deeply shameful, even there. (Read more.)

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Behind the Scenes at Mapperton House

 

From Discover Britain:

Luke Montagu took over the running of Mapperton in 2016, but it wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic hit that the reality kicked in for his wife Julie, who grew up in Illinois. “That’s when I realised, ‘Wow,’” she says. “This is a business but it’s a family business and it needs a lot of inner strength.” Luckily, she was excited by the prospect. “I have a real interest in the family’s history – probably because the history of the USA as we know it today pales in comparison to the thousands of years of history that Britain has.”

Mapperton, once dubbed the finest manor house in England, has belonged to the Montagu family since 1955, when Luke’s grandfather ‘Hinch’ Montagu downsized from the family’s Cambridgeshire home of Hinchingbrooke House. Begun in the 1540s, it was extended in the 17th and 18th centuries, giving what the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner described as an “enchanting” look about it – helped, naturally, by its position in a lovely Dorset valley with its 19th-century parkland and Italianate gardens laid out in the 1930s by its then-owner Ethel Labouchere. (Read more.)

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Jobs Report Shows Trump Clearly Catching Up

 From  Newsmax:

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, a reminder that the labor market is improving unevenly as higher borrowing costs keep some industries cautious.

Political consultant Dick Morris told Newsmax the delayed September jobs report showing 119,000 new positions is evidence that President Donald Trump is "clearly catching up" on growth while restraining price increases.

"I mean, this is good. 119,000 jobs. And on top of that, ever since Trump took office, the total combined inflation rate has been about 2.8%," Morris said Saturday during an appearance on Newsmax TV's "The Count."

"And in the Biden administration, they're 2 1/2, 3 1/2 years. The inflation rate was 24%. So Trump is achieving the miracle of good growth, job creation and not much inflation," Morris said.

Inflation remains the political and economic fault line of 2025.

Consumer prices have cooled from their post-pandemic highs, with year-over-year readings hovering around the high-2% range recently, though food costs have been stubborn and some categories — eggs and beef, in particular — have posted noticeable jumps this year.

Morris acknowledged that reality, arguing that the administration's policy moves take time to filter into grocery aisles.

"The inflation there is, is, for the most part, inflation. For example, we've taken major measures to lower beef prices by changing the way beef is slaughtered, increasing the number of packing houses and so on.

"But it takes a couple of years for [it] to get gestated and, and there's a couple of months for an egg to hatch in a poultry. And it takes a little while for those things to catch up," he said.

Morris' comments echo a broader White House push to highlight supply-side fixes, expanding processing capacity, encouraging domestic production and squeezing bottlenecks, rather than leaning solely on interest-rate policy to cool prices. (Read more.)

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45,000-Year-Old Crimean Neanderthal

From SciNews:

The Crimean Peninsula contains numerous well-preserved, stratified Paleolithic sites, with many spanning within the transitional period in terms of bioculture and hominin occupations of approximately 47,000 to 42,000 years ago.

Based on previous radiocarbon dates, the peninsula has been described as a refugium for late surviving Neanderthals just before their disappearance.

Starosele, a rock-shelter that is positioned within a steep canyon that comprises four distinct cultural layers, has been studied since 1952.

“The site’s archaeological layers contain rich cultural material,” said Emily Pigott, a doctoral student at the University of Vienna, and her colleagues.

“Levels 1, 2, and 4 are associated with stone tools from an archaeological industry called the Crimean Micoquian stone tool industry, which is linked to Neanderthals.”

In the study, the authors aimed to screen for potential human remains among thousands of fragmented bones from the Starosele site.

Of the 150 bone fragments they analyzed, 97.3% had sufficient collagen preservation for taxonomic identification.

Around 93% belonged to horses and deer, with smaller numbers of mammoth and wolf remains, suggesting that Paleolithic humans in Crimea relied heavily on horse hunting. (Read more.)

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St. Joan and the Royal House of France

 

Most Catholics, I have concluded, do not have trouble accepting the fact that St. Joan of Arc donned male apparel and led armies to victory. What seems to disturb many people, however, is that she gave her help to a king, and worse yet, to a King of France. Many Americans seem to be convinced that monarchy is an intrinsically evil institution. They are not able to see beyond their own time and their own political process. I recently read a comment in which someone said that St. Louis of France was a saint "in spite of being a king." May I be so bold to say that St. Louis saw his kingship as a vocation in which he served God and man. What is more, he saw it as a calling to share in the Kingship of Christ, from Whom he held his authority and to Whom he had to render an account. St. Joan, in her simple piety, viewed kingship in a similar manner. She honored her King Charles VII, although he was far from being a saint, because in doing so she gave honor to Christ the King. The office was deserving of respect, even if the man was not. On her banner she bore an image of Christ the King surrounded by the fleur de lys, the lilies of royal France.

In a small volume entitled Joan of Arc In Her Own Words there are many quotations of St. Joan which make explicit reference to the fact that she was called to serve God by assisting the French monarch. She said: "[St. Michael] told me the pitiful state of the Kingdom of France. And he told me that I must succour the King of France." To Robert de Baudricourt she insisted: "The Kingdom of France is not the Dauphin's but my Lord's. But my Lord wills that the Dauphin shall be made King and have the Kingdom in custody. The Dauphin shall be King in spite of his enemies, and I shall lead him to his anointing." She welcomed the Duc d'Alencon by saying: "The more there are gathered together of the blood of the King of France, the better it will be." In her letter to the English lords, Joan dictated: "Do justice to the King of Heaven; surrender to the Maid, who is sent here from God to uphold the blood royal."

Joan placed great store upon the mystical aspects of the coronation ceremony, telling the royal council: "When once the King is crowned and anointed, his enemies' strength will steadily grow less, and finally they will have no power to harm him or the Kingdom." At her trial she announced: "As for the good work I have done...I must needs leave that with the King of Heaven, who sent me to Charles, son of Charles King of France, who shall be King. And you shall see that the French will very soon achieve a great task which God will send to the French, and such that almost the whole Kingdom of France will tremble. And I say it, so that when it comes to pass it will be remembered that I said it." The Maid believed her country had a mission from God, a task to fulfill.

There are also some odd connections between St. Joan and Queen Marie-Antoinette. At first glance no two people appear to be as different from each other as the Habsburg archduchess and the peasant girl from Domremy, other than a shared love for children and needlework. Joan has often been referred to as the "Maid of Lorraine" or even as "Joan of Lorraine." Father Jean-Marie Charles-Roux, in building a case for the martyrdom of Marie-Antoinette in his book Louis XVII: La Mère et l'Enfant martyrs, points out that the queen's full name was Marie-Antoinette-Josephe-Jeanne de Lorraine, even as the Maid was Jeanne de Lorraine. Both women were called to their "mission" at age thirteen. At thirteen, Joan began to hear her voices; at thirteen, Marie-Antoinette was told she was to marry the heir to the French throne. Both were known for their staunch purity, and yet both were branded by enemies with the epithet of "whore." Both the queen and the peasant have had their reputations shredded beyond recognition. Both suffered the ordeal of a long imprisonment in which they suffered outrages against modesty. Both were forced to defend themselves against calumnies and half-truths amid the scrutiny of a public trial. Both persisted in their loyalty to the Holy See. Both were condemned to an ignominious death and each were taken to the scaffold in a cart. Unlike St. Joan, Marie-Antoinette never had a posthumous retrial. She was never officially vindicated and her name continues to be slandered in books and movies to this day. May the prayers of St. Joan bring the truth to light.

(Image Source)

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Make All of America Muslim?

 From Tierney's Real News:

Today, Trump and Salman announced that Saudi Arabia will purchase as many as 48 F-35 fighter jets to help counter the Jihadi, Hamas & Iranian threat in the region. At $110 million each, this means the total deal could be roughly $5 BILLION. Saudi Arabia also agreed to invest $1 TRILLION in US industry - to build plants and create thousands of new jobs.

Instead of asking about the deals and investment in America, ABC News (Washington Post CIA) decided to bring up the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi - to try to embarrass the Prince in the Oval Office.

Jamal Khashoggi, a Jihadi and Saudi journalist and former Washington Post columnist critical of Prince Salman and the reformed Saudi government, was killed on October 2, 2018, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey by a 15-member squad of Saudi operatives.

Note that the Las Vegas massacre occurred one year earlier in October 2017. Let’s connect some dots. (Read more.)

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When Supervolcanoes Erupt

 From SciTechDaily:

If you had been fortunate enough 74,000 years ago, you would have made it through the Toba supereruption, which ranks among Earth’s most catastrophic events over the last 2.5 million years. While the volcano is located in what’s now Indonesia, living organisms across the entire globe were potentially affected. As an archaeologist who specializes in studying volcanic eruptions of the past, I often think about how incredible it is that humans survived this extinction-level event that was over 10,000 times larger than the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption.

During the Toba supereruption, approximately 672 cubic miles (2,800 km³) of volcanic ash were launched into the stratosphere, forming a massive crater about 1,000 football fields long (62 x 18 miles, or 100 x 30 kilometers). Such an event would have filled the atmosphere with ash, darkening the sky and blocking much of the sunlight, likely leading to years of global cooling. Near the volcano, acid rain would have poisoned water sources, and thick blankets of ash would have smothered vegetation and wildlife. (Read more.)

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The Imperial Family at the Opera

Emperor Francis Stephen and Empress Maria Theresa at the opera with all of their children. Marie-Antoinette is the smallest girl in the blue dress. (Via Treasure for your Pleasure.) Share

Clintons ORDERED to Testify

 From The Daily BS:

A powerful House committee is threatening to hold former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress if the two continue trying to avoid their Jeffrey Epstein-related depositions.

As part of an ongoing investigation, the House Oversight Committee had issued subpoenas in August to the Clintons and other high-profile Democrats with connections to child sex trafficker Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Clintons have argued that in-person depositions are unnecessary, with their lawyer telling the committee that the couple has “little to contribute…all of which can be readily submitted on paper.”

Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., disagreed, replying Friday that “[t]he Committee is not obligated to defer to either your or your clients’ determination regarding the importance or quantity of the information they possess; and it declines to do so.”

“Rather, the Committee is entitled to a fulsome examination of this information, which should include the ability to elicit the information in person and to ask relevant follow-up questions,” Comer said.

In a separate comment, he added that “[g]iven their history with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, any attempt by the Clintons to avoid sitting for a deposition would be in defiance of lawful subpoenas and grounds to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings.”

Bill Clinton is scheduled for an in-person deposition Dec. 17, while Hillary Clinton’s is scheduled for Dec. 18. (Read more.)

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Pope Leo and the Illiteracy of Modern Movies

 From Mark Judge at Chronicles:

One of the best books of film criticism I’ve read in years is Cocktails with George and Martha by Philip Gefter. It examines Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the 1966 movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The story, based on the 1962 award-winning play, dramatizes a married couple who have grown bitter and exhausted with each other. George and Martha, bickering, backbiting, verbally torturing each other, then ultimately understanding that, for all they have suffered, they still love each other.

According to Gefter, it was  “an entertaining alchemy of talent, vision, tension, drama, ego, rigor and drama that brought Virginia Woolf to the big screen.” He goes on: “No matter how tempered, decorous, or respectful the daily comportment of any couple, their underlying feelings of attachment dwell in a private, unpredictable universe subject to its own solar flares of displeasure, shooting meteors of pain, and exploding stars of rage.” The film “remains today an existential provocation that serves up a range of fundamental truths about marital attachments … necessarily lurking, safely hidden, beneath the rituals of everyday life.” (Read more.)

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Icon of the Mother of God Nicopeia

 

 From The Liturgical Arts Journal:

This precious and important icon is thought to have been originally located either in the Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner -- sometimes simply called the Stoudios monastery -- or perhaps the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator. Whatever the case, it is, as it was then, considered an important and prestigious icon of Byzantium. 

The sixteenth century Italian travel writer, Giovanni Battista Ramusia, lends his own account of the icon's taking:

The barons and the Venetians battered the walls and towers day and night without with various machines, and redoubled the War, conducting many great skirmishes from one area to another; it was in one of these that they valorously acquired the banner of the Tyrant, but with much greater joy a panel on which was painted the image of Our Lady, which the Greek Emperors had continuously carried in their exploits, since all their hopes for the health and salvation of the Empire rested in it.  The Venetians held this image dear above all other riches and jewels that they took, and today it is venerated with great reverence and devotion here in the church of San Marco, and it is one that is carried in procession during times of War and plaque, and to pray for rain and good weather.  

[...]

 

The icon itself is really quite beautiful and falls into the "Nicopeia" type which means "Bringer of Victory." Arguably the most famous examples of this type of Theotokos icon are those which can still be found gracing the wall of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The title reflects the idea of the Virgin as a protector of Byzantium and icons such as this were frequently employed as a kind of standard, carried in battle by the Eastern Roman emperors. (Read more.)

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Frank Marshall Davis, Barack Obama’s Communist Mentor

 From Mark Judge at Hot Air:

 Frank Marshall Davis was a journalist and a member of the Communist Party. Davis was born in Kansas in 1905. Interested in journalism from a young age, he moved to Chicago in 1927 to write for the black press. Davis joined the Communist Party in Chicago in the early 1940s. CPUSA members at the time swore an oath to “ensure the triumph of Soviet power in the United States,” and Davis soon had a 600-page FBI file. In 1946, he became the founding editor-in-chief of The Chicago Star, a Party-line newspaper. Davis shared the op-ed page with the likes of Howard Fast, a “Stalin Prize” winner, and Sen. Claude “Red” Pepper, who sponsored a bill to nationalize healthcare in the United States.

 Davis left the Star in 1948 for Hawaii, where he would write for the Party-line organ there, The Honolulu Record. Kengor: “His politics remained so radical that the FBI had him under continued surveillance. The federal government actually placed Davis on the Security Index, meaning that in the event of a war between the United States and USSR, Barack Obama’s mentor could be placed under immediate arrest.”

    Davis and Obama met in 1970. They were introduced by Obama’s maternal grandfather, Stanley Dunham. Obama’s father had abandoned the family, and Dunham thought Davis would be a good influence on young Obama. In his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama notes that Davis dispensed wisdom on topics such as race, women, and jazz. “I was intrigued by old Frank,” writes Obama, “with his books and whiskey breath and the hint of hard-earned knowledge behind the hooded eyes.”

    In Dreams from My Father, Obama repeatedly talks about Davis. However, as Kengor notes, in the 2005 audio version of Dreams, “Frank” is totally missing—he’s been airbrushed out of Obama’s story. Also, in Dreams, Obama never uses Marshall's full name, only referring to him as ”Old Frank." (Read more.)

 

Deal Hudson interviews Mark Judge about the ordeal of the Kavanaugh hearings, HERE.

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Viking Treasure

 From Sky News:

The artefact is thought to relate to a Christian church or religious community and has a Latin inscription written in gold which translates as "Bishop Hyguald had me made".

Dr Martin Goldberg, from National Museums Scotland (NMS), said: "The rock crystal jar is one of the highlight objects from the Galloway Hoard.

"From the beautiful rock crystal itself, originally carved in the form of a classical Corinthian column 2,000 years ago, to the incredibly intricate gold decoration added hundreds of years later and including a clear inscription identifying its owner, this one object exemplifies the complex, connected and historic nature of the Galloway Hoard." (Read more.)

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Ripley Castle in Yorkshire

  

From Country Life:

If every Englishman’s home is his castle, then the opportunity to snap up Ripley Castle could fulfil the ideal for some. This property near Harrogate, ancestral seat of the Ingilby family for the last seven centuries, came onto the market in January at £21 million. Perhaps unsurprisingly considering the size and variety of the 445-acre estate, the family are happy to split things into lots; but the bulk of the asking price was the £15 million for the castle itself, including 166 acres of parkland, woodland, lakes and a temple.

Since then, the asking price for the Grade I-listed, 14th-century Ripley Castle been slashed by £7.5 million — something which might set alarm bells ringing, especially as the reduction ‘is principally down to market conditions’, points out Mark Granger, consultant at Carter Jonas. The other eight lots — including a pub, village store, woodland and cricket ground — have apparently generated a good deal of interest at or above their original guide price. So why the price cut for the main attraction?

Part of it is the market. Evidence suggests that demand for country houses is slowing, and buyers are becoming picky: ‘in 2025, among homes priced above £3 million, more than 43% of listings have seen a price reduction, and you are now three times more likely to withdraw from the market than to secure a buyer’, says Jonathan Handford, managing director at Fine & Country, and ‘while the market has not collapsed, it has become highly selective.’ (Read more.)

 

 

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"Peace, Land, Bread"

 From AND Magazine:

When the Tsar fell in 1917, a new democratic assembly took power in Russia. The Bolsheviks, who would go on to rule and create the Soviet Union, were one among a number of leftist factions. They did not rule. Yet, within a remarkably short space of time, they seized power and crushed their opponents.

How? Conditions for the average Russian continued to worsen. The Bolsheviks claimed they could deliver and made their slogan “Peace, Land, Bread”. For the average Russian, desperate and out of options, they became a better option than betting on the establishment and the status quo.

The conditions became extreme. Those who preached moderation were drowned out. By the time it became clear the Bolsheviks could not and would not deliver on their promises, it was too late. The die was cast.

We stand at a similar juncture in time today.

The median age of first-time homebuyers is now 40.

That’s the oldest age in more than four decades. It is also a dramatic increase from only four years ago, when the median age was 33.

In 1981, the median age of first-time buyers in the U.S. was 29.

That isn’t good. It gets much worse. Part of the equation is clearly at what age people can afford to buy a home. The other part is how many people can afford to buy a home at all. The numbers in that regard are terrifying.

First-time home buyers now make up just 21% of the market. That is the lowest share since the National Association of Realtors started tracking those numbers in 1981.

Let me say that again. We have never seen numbers this low – not in the almost 45 years we have been collecting such data.

Not everyone is unable to afford a home, however. While most Americans find owning their own residence out of reach, there has also been an explosion in the number of individuals who simply put down cash and buy homes without taking out a loan. (Read more.)

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The Liturgy Must Elevate Us to Divine Truth and Beauty

 From Edward Pentin:

“For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.” (1 Cor 4:9). This statement of the Apostle describes the identity of Christianity, both as the proclamation of the Gospel and as the Church’s public worship. Focusing on the latter, it can rightly be said that the liturgy is the spectacle offered to the world by those who adore Christ, the one Lord of the cosmos and of history, to whom they belong and not to the world. This is recalled by the expression “liturgical service,” which is truly appropriate — unlike the term “animation,” now in vogue — as if worship were not already animated by Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit.

After the persecutions, this became evident, because Christians did not burn incense to the Roman emperor but to Jesus, the Son of God. Catholic liturgy therefore has regal and imperial characteristics — Eastern liturgies teach us this — because worship of God stands in opposition to any worship of the worldly rulers of the moment.

It is untrue that the Second Vatican Council desired a poor liturgy, since it asks that “rites should shine with noble simplicity” (Constitution on the Liturgy, 34), because they must speak of the majesty of God, who is noble beauty itself, and not of worldly banalities. The Church understood this from the beginning, both in East and West. Even Saint Francis prescribed that the most precious linens and vessels be used in worship.

What then is the “participation” of the faithful, if not to be part of and to take part in the “spectacle” of a faith that affirms God and therefore challenges the world and its profane spectacles — which are indeed spectacular: think of mega-conferences and rock concerts.The liturgy expresses the Sacred, that is, the Presence of God; it is not a theatrical performance. The participation desired by the last Council must be full, conscious, active, and fruitful (ibid. 11 and 14) — that is, a “mystagogy,” an entry into the Mystery that takes place per preces et ritus [through prayers and rites], which, as Saint Thomas reminds us, must elevate us as much as possible to divine truth and beauty (quantum potes tantum aude); or, in the words of then-Father Robert F. Prevost: “Our mission is to introduce people to the nature of the mystery as an antidote to the spectacle. Consequently, evangelization in the modern world must find adequate means to reorient the public’s attention, shifting it from spectacle toward mystery” (May 11, 2012). The usus antiquior of the Roman rite performs this function; otherwise it could not have withstood the secularization of the Sacred that entered into the Roman liturgy, to the point of making people believe that the Council itself wanted it. This is the identity and mission of the Church. (Read more.)

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The Palatine Chapel at Caserta

 

From Liturgical Arts Journal:

The architect behind this creation was Luigi Vanvitelli, a prominent Italian architect and painter of the eighteenth century. He is best remembered in Rome as the one one who reworked Michelangelo's design of Santa Maria degli Angeli e Martiri (1748-1765), where he converted the nave into a transept, relocating the entrance to the west side of the church while creating a new sanctuary. 

Vanvitelli built the chapel at Caserta in 1777 based on his father's design. He was greatly inspired by te Royal Chapel of Versailles, completed in 1710. Similar in layout to the larger version in Versailles, it was inaugurated in the presence of King Ferdinand IV on Christmas Eve in the year 1784. 

The chapel followed the two-story palatine model of Versailles, a tradition in France. All of the five successive royal chapels of Versailles followed this design model. This provided for a second story gallery for visitors with a unique view of the altar -- a fascinating liturgical design that combines what resembles an ancient sarcophagus with two cherubs holding up the altar mensa with their hands. 

The walls and floors are decorated with marbles; the floor demonstrating a magnificent array of geometric designs. The coffered ceiling vault is rich in carvings and stuccos, largely covered in pure gold. The apse faces the royal gallery. The nave of the tribune level is flanked by Corinthian columns, a reflecting the new style of Neo-classicism.  

Following are the recorded words of what King Charles of Borbone said to the architect in 1752: "For the House of God I have no limit. I want to spend everything it takes." Indeed, they did a magnificent job in creating a sublime Baroque chapel that has perfect balance and proportion and harmony.  In many ways I prefer it to the Royal Chapel of Versailles. 

The chapel was used for daily prayer, Mass, and special occasions such as weddings and the singing of the Te Deum on celebratory occasions that would include New Year's Day or the birth of a child or a military victory. The large sanctuary with ample floor space was designed to accommodate Pontifical rites. (Read more):

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