Spirit of Chivalry & Cause Of Our Joy
The Spirit of Chivalry
By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
We have this spirit! We admire the fight. We love the fight. And we
have a fearless spirit so that when we find ourselves in the apex of
effort and complication, we feel fulfilled.
This is to have the spirit of chivalry.
You’ve read books by Elaine Sanceau about Portuguese seafaring, haven’t you? Afonso de Albuquerque,
all those things… those people were phenomenal! They loved to fight.
Not so today. When facing a fight, people think: “Oh, poor me! That one
obstacle has fallen, but now I find this man before me and I’m going to
have to fight him. Oh my God, give me strength!”
That’s fine, but it is not chivalry!
Chivalry is: “Thank God I found this brute here. I’m going to hurl him to the ground and trample him underfoot!”
December 2 – Cause of Our Joy
Our Lady of Joy
(aka Notre Dame de Liesse, or Causa Nostrae Laetitiae)
In 1134 three Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, prisoners
of the Muslims in Egypt, miraculously found or received in their prison
a statue of Our Lady, which they named Our Lady of Joy, or Notre Dame
de Liesse.
Painting of the Basilica of Notre Dame de Liesse where the Image of Our Lady of Liesse is enthroned.
In response to their prayers, a young Muslim princess named Ismerie
took an interest in the Knights, and through the intercession of Our
Lady and the mercy of God, the princess was converted. The princess
arranged the escape of the pious crusaders and joined them on their
journey to France. They carried the statue with them, and in the region
of Laon, about 35 miles northwest of Reims, they founded a church as a
resting place for the statue.
In
June 1686, St. John Baptist de la Salle and twelve Brothers went to the
shrine of Our Lady of Liesse to renew their vow of obedience. Painting
by Giovanni Gagliardi, 1901
Through local devotion the church took on the name of the statue,
and gave that name to the whole region, so that Notre Dame de Liesse
came to refer to both the devotion and the place. The statue came to be
venerated by many, and Notre Dame de Liesse became the Patroness of the
Diocese of Soissons.
In 1620 the titular Bailiff of Armenia, Fra’ Jacques Chenu de
Bellay, built a church to Our Lady of Liesse at Valletta in Malta. It is
today the chaplaincy church of the Port of Valetta.
The original statue was destroyed during the French Revolution, but
the medieval basilica at Liesse remained a center of devotion to the
Mother of God, and a new statue was installed and crowned there in 1857.
It is still the focus of pilgrimage, especially on Whit Monday.
Memorial in the Missal of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order
of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta
