For Veterans Day

This cartoon appeared in the pages of The Tablet in 1918.

Quote of the Day

Too late I loved Thee, O Beauty of ancient days, yet ever new! And lo! Thou wert within, and I abroad searching for Thee. Thou wert with me, but I was not with Thee.

St. Augustine, Confessions

Old (Anti-)Catholic Stuff

A Thomas Nast cartoon from the 1870's.

Blessed Eugene Bossilkov

Born to a family of Bulgarian Latin Rite Catholics, Vincent Bossilkov joined the Passionists at age 14. The Passionists had been present in Bulgaria since 1781. Vincent studied in the various Passionist houses in Holland and Belgium and took the religious name Eugene. He professed his vows in 1920 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1926. He returned to Bulgaria in 1924 and pursued further theological studies. He took up a post as parish priest in the Danube valley. After the Soviet takeover of Bulgaria, anti-religious laws were passed. In the midst of all this, Eugene was appointed a Bishop in 1947. From 1949 the attitude of the State to religious orders worsened. In the same year the Apostolic Delegate was deported, Church property was seized and religious congregations suppressed. In 1952 the mass arrests of Church dignitaries began. On July 16, Bishop Eugene was seized in Sophia and executed on November 11, 1952. He was beatified in 1994.
(From the community website)

Papal Encyclical Issued Today, 1961

On this day in 1961, Pope Blessed John XXIII issued the encyclical Aeterna Dei Sapientia, on the Eternal Wisdom of God and Pope Leo I.

Sisters of Charity Leavenworth arrive 1858

On November 11, 1858, the first Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth arrived at the Leavenworth Landing after an icy trip up the Missouri River. It was 1857 when a small congregation of Sisters in Nashville, Tenn., suddenly found themselves burdened with a debt not of their making. They sold nearly everything they had to pay their creditors, and a plucky handful of Sisters headed for the Indian Territory of Kansas. Mother Xavier Ross was the leader of the little band that came from Nashville to begin a new community in Leavenworth, Kan. As a young woman, she had tried to explain to her father her desire to serve God’s people. His response: “What can a woman do?” Within a week of arriving in Leavenworth, the Sisters were teaching in a boys’ school. The days that followed found them opening an academy for girls and tending the sick, going into homes and wagon trains and traveling to towns during epidemics. They educated black children who had fled to the free state of Kansas, took in orphans, visited prisoners and – always – cared for the poor. It was 1864 when the Sisters opened the first private hospital in Kansas, with the first trained nurse in the state and surely the first woman in the Western territory to run a hospital. This woman, Sister Joanna Bruner, also taught nursing to other Sisters. Since that time, professional excellence, leadership and a readiness to undertake whatever needed doing have been the hallmarks of the Community.
(From the community website)

Eparchy of St. Maron Founded 1971

Immigration of Maronite faithful from the Middle East to the United States began during the latter part of the nineteenth century. When the faithful were able to obtain a priest, communities were established as parishes under the jurisdiction of the local Latin bishops. Pope Paul VI, with the apostolic constitution Cum supremi of January 10, 1966, established the Maronite Apostolic Esarchate for the Maronite faithful of the United States. The Most Reverend Francis Mansour Zayek, a bishop since 1962, was appointed the first Exarch in a decree of the Sacred Congregation for the Eastern Churches dated January 27, 1966. The see city was Detroit, Michigan, with a cathedral under the patronage of Saint Maron. At that time, the Exarchate was assigned as suffragan to the Archdiocese of Detroit. On November 29, 1971, Pope Paul VI, with the apostolic constitution Quae spes, elevated the Exarchate to the status of an Eparchy, with the name of Eparchy of Saint Maron of Detroit.With a decree from the Sacred Congregation of the Eastern Churches dated June 27, 1977, the see of the Eparchy of Saint Maron was transferred to Brooklyn, New York, with the cathedral under the patronage of Our Lady of Lebanon. The name of the Eparchy was modified to Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn.
(From the Eparchy website)