From The Recamier

Another day sans saints; but in 1820, some 2,000 miles west of the western coast of South America, the Nantucket whaleship Essex was struck twice by a sperm whale and sank. The captain and twenty sailors set out in three small whaleboats, with wholly inadequate supplies of food and water, and landed on uninhabited Henderson Island, within the modern-day British territory of the Pitcairn Islands. After one week, after exhausting the small island’s natural resources, all but three men re-embarked in the boats, which were soon separated by bad weather. The first men to die in the boats from thirst and malnutrition were buried at sea; later, when food supplies totally ran out, the men resorted to cannibalism of the dead. In the captain’s boat, lots were drawn, and the captain’s nephew was shot and eaten. In the end, of the twenty-one men on the Essex, eight survived (three men from one boat, two men from another, and the three men on the island; one boat was never seen again). Most of the survivors at some time or another wrote accounts of the disaster, some of which differ markedly on details of the character of the main players in the story. The best known is Owen Chase’s Narrative of the Most Extra-Ordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whaleship Essex, which was published in 1821. While whaling in the South Pacific, Owen’s son William met a young whaler, spoke with him at some length about the Essex, and gave a copy of his father’s manuscript to the young man. That young man was Herman Melville, and it was Chase’s narrative that inspired Melville’s greatest work, Moby-Dick. (more…)

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With no Saints today, we turn our collective attention to 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln was invited to speak at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The main speaker at the event was Edward Everett, who had served as Secretary of State, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, Governor of Massachusetts, president of Harvard University, and Vice Presidential candidate; Lincoln was invited to speak after the main oration less than three weeks before the dedication ceremony. Everett’s oration ran to some 13,607 words, and took two hours to complete. The “few appropriate remarks” that Lincoln was invited to give comprise 272 words, and took him two or three minutes to recite. At the time there was little or no response to the Gettysburg Address, perhaps because it was so unexpectedly short (there is a persistent story that the reason there is no photograph of Lincoln giving the speech is because the photographer had anticipated a much longer speech, and was not yet done setting up his equipment before Lincoln had completed his speech), but in the many generations that have passed since the Address, it has remained among the most famous speeches in American history. (more…)

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We have two buildings and a Saint to honor today. Today is the Feast of the Dedication of the Churches of Peter and Paul, Apostles. St. Peter’s Basilica was built by the Emperor Constantine, over the site of Saint Peter’s tomb, and completed in 333; in bad condition by the 15th century, the building was razed and rebuilt by order of Pope Julius II, a project that took about a hundred and twenty years, being completed in 1615. The present building is the most famous of all of Rome’s many churches and basilicas. The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls was also originally build by Constantine, and by the 5th century it was even larger than the Old St. Peter’s Basilica. In 1823 the building was almost totally destroyed by a fire. The whole world contributed to its reconstruction, and the basilica was reopened in 1840, but it was reconsecrated only fifteen years later at the presence of Pope Pius IX with fifty cardinals. And we honor Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne, Virgin (died 1852). Born in France to a family with wealth and political connections, from age eight she had a desire to evangelize in the Americas, sparked by hearing a Jesuit missionary speak of his work there. Educated from age 12 at the convent of the Visitation nuns in Grenoble, she joined them in 1788 at age 19 without the permission or knowledge of her family. Initially they were violently opposed to her choice, but finally gave in. Religious communities were outlawed during the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, and her convent was closed in 1792. She spent the next ten years living as a laywoman again, but still managed to act like a good member of her Order. She established a school for poor children, provided care for the sick, and hid priests from Revolutionaries. When the Terror ended, she reclaimed her convent and tried to reestablish it with a group of sisters she had maintained in Grenoble. However, most were long gone, and in 1804 the group was incorporated into the Society of the Sacred Heart under Saint Madeline Sophie Barat. They then reopened the convent of Sainte-Marie-d’en-Haut as the second house of Sacred Heart nuns. Rose became a postulant in December 1804, and made her final vows in 1805. In 1815 Mother Duschene was assigned to found a Sacred Heart convent in Paris. In 1818 at age 49 she and four sisters were sent as missionaries to the Louisiana Territory to establish the Society’s presence in America. Diseases contracted during the trip to America nearly killed her, and after she recovered in New Orleans, the trip up the Mississippi nearly killed her again. She established her first mission at Saint Charles, Missouri, a log cabin that was the first free school west of the Mississippi River. She eventually six other houses in America which included schools and orphanages. She ran into some opposition as her teaching methods were based on French models, and her English was terrible; her students, however, received a good education, and her intentions were obviously for their best. She was ever concerned about the plight of Native Americans, and much of her work was devoted to educating them, caring for their sick, and working against alcohol abuse. Finally able to retire from her administrative duties, Mother Duchesne evangelized the Pottowatomies and in the Rocky Mountains at age 71, and taught young girls of the tribe. This work, however, lasted but a year as she was unable to master the Pottowatomi language. She was known to the tribe as “Woman-Who-Prays-Always”. She spent her last ten years in retirement in a tiny shack at the convent in Saint Charles, Missouri where she lived austerely and in constant prayer, dying at the age of 83. (more…)

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Today we honor Saint Elizabeth of Hungary (died 1231). Born a princess, she married Prince Louis of Thuringa at age 13. She had a hospital built at the foot of the mountain on which her castle stood. and tended to the sick herself. Her family and courtiers opposed this, but she insisted she could only follow Christ’s teachings, not theirs. Once when she was taking food to the poor and sick, Prince Louis stopped her and looked under her mantle to see what she was carrying; the food had been miraculously changed to roses. Upon Louis’ death, Elizabeth sold all that she had, and worked to support her four children until her death at the age of 24. Her gifts of bread to the poor, and of a large gift of grain to a famine stricken Germany, led to her patronage of bakers and related fields. Her relics, including her skull wearing a gold crown she had worn in life, are preserved at the convent of Saint Elizabeth in Vienna, Austria; and she is the Patron Saint of bakers, of people ridiculed for their piety, and of the Third Order of St. Francis. (more…)

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Today is the Thirty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time; on this date we have three saints to honor. We first honor Saint Margaret of Scotland (died 1093). The granddaughter of King Edmund Ironside of England, and the great-niece of Saint Stephen of Hungary, she was born in Hungary while her family was in exile due to the Danish invasion of England, and  spent much of her youth in the British Isles. While fleeing the invading army of William the Conqueror in 1066, her family’s ship wrecked on the Scottish coast. They were assisted by King Malcolm III Canmore of Scotland, whom Margaret married in 1070, so that she became Queen of Scotland. They had eight children, one of whom was Saint Maud, wife of Henry I. Margaret founded abbeys and used her position to work for justice and improved conditions for the poor; she is the Patron Saint of queens, Scotland, and of large families. Secondly, we honor Saint Edmund Rich of Abington, Bishop (died 1241). Born to a wealthy and pious family in England, he studied at Oxford and Paris; at Oxford he received a vision of the Child Christ. Becoming a priest, he gained the post of Professor of art, mathematics, philosophy and theology at Oxford, and was known for his scholarship, piety, and skill as a preacher and writer. He preached the Sixth Crusade in England in 1227, was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in 1234, and served as advisor to King Henry III, presiding over Henry’s ratification of the Magna Carta in 1237. He was assisted in his public dealings by Saint Richard of Chichester, and prevented civil war in Wales; but his support for monastic discipline put him in conflict with his own order, King Henry III, and the papal legate. He died while on a trip to Rome to gain the support of the Pope. He is the Patron Saint of Abington, England, and he is also the Patron of the Catholic School attached to my parish church. Finally, we honor Saint Gertrude the Great, Virgin (died 1302). She was raised in the Cistercian abbey of Helfta, Eisleben, Saxony from age five. An extremely bright student, and gentle person, at age 26, when she had become too enamored of philosophy, she received a vision of Christ who reproached her; from then on she studied the Bible and the works of the Church Fathers. She received many visions and mystical instructions, which formed the basis of her writings, which include Legatus Divinae Pietatis, The Exercises of St. Gertrude, and The Liber Specialis Gratiae of St. Mechtilde. Additionally, she helped spread devotion to the Sacred Heart. Her writings have been greatly praised by Saint Teresa and Saint Francis de Sales, and continue in print today; she is the Patron Saint of nuns, of travellers, and of the West Indies (I know not why). (more…)

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Today we honor Saint Albert the Great (also known as Albertus Magnus), Bishop and Doctor (died 1280). Born in what is now modern Germany, and the son of a military nobleman, he became a Dominican priest. He taught theology at Cologne and Paris, and was the teacher of Saint Thomas Aquinas. An influential teacher, preacher, administrator (and Bishop of Regensburg), he introduced Greek and Arabic science and philosophy to medieval Europe, and was known for his wide interest in what became known later as the natural sciences of botany and biology . He wrote and illustrated guides to his observations, and was considered on a par with Aristotle as an authority on these matters. One of the Doctors of the Church, he is the Patron Saint of scientists, students of theology, and of the archdiocese of Cincinnati, Ohio. (more…)

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We have no saints to honor today; but on this date in 1910, aviator Eugene Ely performed the first take off from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia, taking off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher. The aeroplane plunged downward as soon as it cleared the 83-foot platform runway; and the aircraft wheels dipped into the water before rising. Ely’s goggles were covered with spray, and the aviator promptly landed on a beach rather than circling the harbor and landing at the Norfolk Navy Yard as planned. (Less than a year later Ely was dead, having died from a broken neck after a plane crash.) (more…)

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