After weeks of drouth and heat, yesterday and today gave us rain. We had a short and hard rain yesterday afternoon, and a long, slow rain that began in the night and quit in the morning. The temperature is a little cooler, but naturally, humid. God be praised and St. Bartholomew! Sadly, this has slowed the construction of our new parking lot. But they will get going again.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
St. Bartholomew's Day
Today is the feast of St. Bartholomew the Apostle, also known as Nathaniel.
Outside of his mention in the New Testament, Bartholomew appeared for the first time in the works of Eusibius. He is supposed to have traveled to India and preached the gospel there. He was martyred by being flayed alive by the king of Armenia. He is the patron saint of tanners, a patronage that this monk finds appropriate to the point of irony.
Today is also the date of the infamous massacre of St. Bartholomew. Under the queen dowager Catherine de Medici, and her son, King Charles IX, the people and nobility of Paris rose up and slaughtered the Huguenots in the city. This slaughter spread throughout France, and over all, about 10,000 or more protestants were slain. Gregory XIII, when he wasn't busy reforming the calendar, had a Te Deum sung, and had Giorgio Vassari paint murals celebrating this "triumph." These were later sanded over and repainted with other scenes by the 19th century.
Too bad a perfectly good saint and Apostle of Christ has to have his name associated with such an atrocity.
Outside of his mention in the New Testament, Bartholomew appeared for the first time in the works of Eusibius. He is supposed to have traveled to India and preached the gospel there. He was martyred by being flayed alive by the king of Armenia. He is the patron saint of tanners, a patronage that this monk finds appropriate to the point of irony.
Today is also the date of the infamous massacre of St. Bartholomew. Under the queen dowager Catherine de Medici, and her son, King Charles IX, the people and nobility of Paris rose up and slaughtered the Huguenots in the city. This slaughter spread throughout France, and over all, about 10,000 or more protestants were slain. Gregory XIII, when he wasn't busy reforming the calendar, had a Te Deum sung, and had Giorgio Vassari paint murals celebrating this "triumph." These were later sanded over and repainted with other scenes by the 19th century.
Too bad a perfectly good saint and Apostle of Christ has to have his name associated with such an atrocity.
Words of wisdom from Merton
"We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of foregone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge in him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)