Venite Prandete

  THE FEAST OF THE HOLY TRINITY 30th MAY      Luca Rosetti da Orta, "The Holy Trinity" (1705-1770) Father Weiser tells us of the Feast of the Holy Trinity: The greatest dogma of the Christian faith is the mystery of the Holy Trinity. (Mystery in this connection, means a supernatural fact revealed by God which in itself transcends the natural power of human reasoning). During the first thousand years of Christianity there was no special feast celebrated in honour of this mystery, but, as Pope Alexander II (1073) declared, every day of the liturgical year was devoted to the honour and adoration of the Sacred Trinity.” Father Weiser observed that a Mass in honour specifically of the Holy Trinity was celebrated to counteract the Arian heresy, which was taken up by the ninth century by various bishops in the Frankish kingdoms on a special feast of the Holy Trinity which was usually set on the Sunday after Pentecost. Then in 1334 Pope John XXII accepted the festival into t...

OUR LADY HELP OF CHRISTIANS 1st JUNE The Wikipedia entry provides that there are two inscriptions from the first centuries of Christianity related to the Virgin Mary: (the Theotokos, Mother of God) and (the Helper). The Fathers of the Church referred to our Lady as (the Helper). John Chrysostom used the title in a homily of 345 AD, Proclus in 476 AD and Sebas of Caesarea in 532 AD. After the Patristic period (that is, the period of the Early Church Fathers), in the 5th century, other significant figures in the Catholic Church used it, such as Romanos the Melodist in 518AD, (Patriarch of Jerusalem), Sophronius in 560AD, John of Damascus in 749AD and Germanus I of Contantinople in 733 AD. Wikipedia states further: “In the view of the Rev Johann G Roten SM, the invocation of Mary as Help of Christians is part of the oldest prayer addressed directly to Mary, the Sub Tuum Praesidium, which was found on papyrus dating, at the latest, from the end of the 3rd century. ‘Praesidium’ is translate...

THOMAS FORDE, ROBERT JOHNSON, JOHN SHERT, PRIESTS MARTYRED 28th MAY 1582. Bishop Challoner’s report of these martyrs is as follows: THOMAS FORDE was born in Devonshire and educated at Trinity College, Oxford, where he took the degree of Master of Arts in 1567 and was soon after admitted fellow of that college: but, not liking the protestant religion, he quitted his fellowship, and all other temporal hopes and went over to the college or seminary lately instituted at Douay, where he arrived in 1571; and after having for some time there seriously applied himself to the study of divinity, he was made priest in 1573 at the same time with those two eminent divines, Richard Bristow and Gregory Martin; these being the three first that were presented to holy orders from Douay college. He took his degree in bachelor of divinity in 1576; and soon after returned to England upon the mission where he laboured for some years with great fruit in the conversion of many souls. He was apprehended on the...

THE DRYBURNE MARTYRS – RICHARD HOLIDAY, EDMUND DUKE, RICHARD HILL & JOHN HOGG, PRIESTS, EXECUTED AT DRYBURNE 27th MAY 1590 These priests were part of the English mission, having studied at Rheims and the various colleges by reason of the interdiction against Catholic education in England under Elizabeth I. As it was a capital offence to be a priest under Elizabeth, they suffered death by hanging, drawing and quartering. Their story is set out in “Memoirs of Missionary Priests, and other Catholics of both Sexes, That have suffered Death in England on Religious Accounts, from the Year 1577 to 1684” by Bishop Challoner, Volume 1: (1) “EDMUND DUKE was born in Kent and was first a student in the English College, then residing at Rheims, where I find him promoted to minor orders, September 23, 1583; from thence he was sent to Rome, where he finished his studies and was made priest. RICHARD HILL, JOHN HOGG AND RICHARD HOLIDAY were all born in Yorkshire, all students of the college then re...

  GALILEO      Image: brittanica.com Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaluti de’ Galilei was born on 15th February 1564 and died on 8th January 1642. I have taken his story from an essay by Donald de Marco in which the dispute regarding heliocentrism between Galileo and the Church is analysed. (1) As De Marco observed: “The dispute between Galileo and the Catholic Church is both complex and controversial. It is complex because it involves a host of issues and a multitude of volatile personalities. It is controversial because its interpreters invariably attach deeply felt positive or negative evaluations to these issues. “Bertold Brecht’s play, Galileo, whose cast calls for a ‘fat prelate’, a ‘Furious Monk’ and an ‘Old Cardinal; paintings that depict the subjection of Galileo to various forms of humiliation that never took place; and certain television dramatisations that pander to popular prejudice, are typical one-sided representations that take the part of Galileo against a p...

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS DIED 24th MAY 1543.      Image: The Torun Portrait, (1580) Anonymous, kept in Torun Town Hall, Poland, (Wikipedia). NICOLAUS COPERNICUS DIED 24th MAY 1543. Nicolaus Copernicus died on 24th May 1543. As his theories on heliocentrism are intertwined with the theories postulated by Galileo and, as both scientists have been opportunistically represented as signifying attitudes and events that did not occur, I have set out posts on both scientists, with a separate post on Galileo. A recurring theme in modern discourse is the sweeping dismissal of the Catholic position on rational thought by way of statements such as “the Catholic Church is anti-science”. The example of Galileo and Copernicus is frequently thrown in as evidence of the backwardness of evil Catholic clergy and the authoritarian nature of the Catholic Church, importing additional assumptions as to the gullibility of the Catholic faithful, incapable of thinking on their own initiative and waitin...