September 11, 2007
Remembering 9/11
(Jimmy Akin)
The following is an e-mail I got today from Suzanne Greydanus (who gave me permission to post it and said it was okay to use her name, though I offered to omit it). Her brother, David, died earlier this year of sudden-onset leukemia and at a very young age. In the wake of 9/11 there was a lot of concern about rescue workers breathing in toxic dust from the collapse of the towers, but less attention devoted to the health effects it might have had on others who were there . . . like Suzanne's brother.
Here's what she wrote:
My brother was one of the first to get pictures up of the 9/11 attacks -- he did it that day. He got about a zillion hits on this little slide show in the weeks following. I believe that the leukemia that killed him back in May was a result of him breathing in the toxic dust that day. So I think about 9/11 in a new way this year.
(Also, I look at all these other folks pictured here and I wonder about their health too.)
Suz
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (19)
May 17, 2007
Sinister Secret Societies?
(Jimmy Akin)
WHO DOESN'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THOSE?
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (28)
May 15, 2007
Another Theory On Who Jack The Ripper Was
(Jimmy Akin)
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (23)
February 23, 2007
Coverage Of The New JFK Film
(Jimmy Akin)
Make of it what you will.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (20)
September 01, 2006
The Telling Of The Beads
(Michelle Arnold)
Rosaries have a long and interesting history. They have evolved over the centuries from the earliest days when people used a bowl of loose pebbles to count their prayers to the form in which we have them today. While doing some research on the rosary, I found some interesting links on the history of the rosary.
(For more links than it is possible to include here, I recommend going to Google and searching on key words such as "history rosary.")
A few years ago after John Paul II promulgated the luminous mysteries of the rosary, I wrote an article on the subject titled "Light for the World." It is now online at Catholic Answers' web site.
AND THE SIDEBAR (which has some information on the history of the rosary).
While the rosary is not one of my favorite personal devotions, as a history buff I am fascinated by its history as both a prayer and an art form.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (29)
August 23, 2006
A Meme Of Noble Descent
(Michelle Arnold)
Have you ever been jealous when some friend or acquaintance bragged to you about all the famous and/or noble people he had found hanging from his family tree (so to speak)? No need. Odds are, you too have a notable ancestor hiding among the foliage of your family tree! After all, if it could be true for Brooke Shields, it could be true for anyone.
"Actress Brooke Shields has a pretty impressive pedigree -- hanging from her family tree are Catherine de Medici and Lucrezia Borgia, Charlemagne and El Cid, William the Conqueror and King Harold II, vanquished by William at the Battle of Hastings.
"Shields also descends from five popes, a whole mess of early New England settlers, and the royal houses of virtually every European country. She counts Renaissance pundit Niccolo Machiavelli and conquistador Hernando Cortes as ancestors.
What is it about Brooke Shields? Well, nothing special -- at least genealogically.
"Even without a documented connection to a notable forebear, experts say, the odds are virtually 100 percent that every person on Earth is descended from one royal personage or another."
(Nod to E-Skojec.com for the link.)
How cool! This, I think, calls for My First Meme:
1. Which famous person would you most like to learn that you are descended from? Pope John Paul II (collaterally, of course). Hey, if Brooke Shields can be descended from five popes, then I can have one of the greatest among them as an indirect ancestor.
2. Which famous person would you hate to learn that you are descended from? Brigham Young. Although with some fifty wives and over fifty known children (source), he's likely to have a multitude of direct and collateral descendants here in the U.S.
3. If you could be ancestor to any living famous person, who would it be and why? Dan Brown. It would give me the chance to make sure there was some decent Christian catechesis in the family that might have molded him into not writing The Da Vinci Code (or, failing that, at least not writing it as it ended up being written).
4. If you could go back in time and meet any known ancestor(s) of yours, who would it be? Direct and collateral ancestors who fought on both sides of the American Civil War. The old adage that that war tore apart families is quite literally true.
5. Tag five others: My sister, Jimmy, Fr. Stephanos, O.S.B., the Curt Jester, Ten Reasons, and anyone else who wants to play on their own blogs or in the combox.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (24)
August 10, 2006
George Washington Vs. Guy Fawkes Day
(Jimmy Akin)
Arthur of the Ancient and Illuminated Seers of Bavaria writes:
Being the incredible history geek that I am, I have recently started reading George Washington's headquarters correspondence (there are advantages to working at a university).
And I ws struck by something from his General Orders for November 5, 1775 (and Nov. 5 being Guy Fawkes Day in England):
"As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form'd for the observance of the ridiculous and chidish custom of burning the Efficgy of the pope - He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at the Huncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain'd, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Cirumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offereng the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada."
(Writings of Washington, Vol 4 Oct. 1775-Apr, 1776, page 65, US Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 1931)
Now a cynic might point out this order is just a political ploy to insure the support of the French Canadian Catholic population of Quebec and there may be some justice to that. But given the vehemence with which this order is worded, I for one, get the impression that Washington really had no truck with anti-Catholic sentiment despite the fact ath he was personally a high church Anglican as well as a Freemason.
Thought you might find it interesting.
Indeed. Thanks for passing it along!
I'm not one to underestimate the role that the necessities of wartime could play in such a declaration, but it is phrased with a vehemence suggesting that there is more here than cynical calculation in play. A general does not lightly refer to his own embattled troops' behavior as "ridiculous," "childish," and "monstrous."
Washington also extended good will toward persons of other religions, writing affectiveto the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island that in America
All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my character not to avow that I am pleased with your favorable opinion of my Administration, and fervent wishes for my felicity. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and figtree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy [SOURCE].
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (29)
July 06, 2006
The Sailing Monks
(Michelle Arnold)
What do you do with a World War II Nazi landing ship? Uh, well, you could convert it to other shipping purposes.... You could create a WWII museum.... You could turn it into scrap metal....
Too tame. Let's think outside the box (or the ship, as the case may be).
How about turning it into a floating monastery? Sort of.
"Croatia's defense ministry has donated a World War II Nazi ship to a local Roman Catholic monastery, which will turn it into a sailing church, the Jutarnji List daily newspaper reported Tuesday.
"The landing ship DTM-219 was used by Nazi Germany to transport tanks and infantry. It was given to communist Yugoslavia after 1945 as part of war compensation, [the newspaper] said.
[...]
"It will be used as sailing church for the young, who will be able to sail the Adriatic, pray and meditate as part of church-sponsored religious cruises, the daily said."
Of course, I must warn the monks that, in Catholic Answers' experience, not everyone will be keen on the idea of religious cruises.
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (9)
June 27, 2006
Hawthorne Family Reunion
(Michelle Arnold)
When an order of nuns could no longer maintain the graves of two of the deceased in their care, they decided to rebury them elsewhere. But the decision wasn't solely based on the bottom line of economics, but on the bottom line of love. They decided to bring the relatives home to the family plot.
"[Nathaniel] Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter and The House of the Seven Gables, died in New Hampshire in 1864. His wife, Sophia Peabody Hawthorne, moved to England with their three children and died there six years later. She and their daughter Una were buried at Kensal Green cemetery in London.
[...]
"But when cemetery officials told the nuns that the grave site needed costly repairs, the order arranged to have remains reburied in Concord instead.
"On Monday, one modern casket containing the remains of mother and daughter was put on a horse-drawn 1860 wooden hearse and carried from a local funeral home through the town center to a church for the memorial service. About 40 family members and a group of nuns from the order followed the hearse in a procession."
Why were the nuns so concerned about the disposition of the Hawthorne family remains? They are the Hawthorne Dominicans, and their foundress was Nathaniel Hawthorne's daughter, Catholic convert and saint-in-the-making Rose Hawthorne Lathrop.
Some might think Rose Hawthorne Lathrop's conversion to Catholicism surprising, but I doubt her father, the great American literary artist, would have thought so.
Religion and art spring from the same root and are close kin. Economics and art are strangers. --Nathaniel Hawthorne
Posted by Michelle Arnold in History | Permalink | Comments (1)
May 30, 2006
Happy Birthday, Gilbert!
(Jimmy Akin)
Yesterday was the day that G. K. Chesterton turned 132 year old!
(Not counting the time he was alive in the uterus.)
(And not counting the fact that he happens to be dead at the moment--which I'm sure he would say is immaterial [PUN!].)
Fortunately, his birthday has not gone unnoticed, and some folks in the blogosphere are having a multi-day celebration of it.
Posted by Jimmy Akin in History | Permalink | Comments (13)
