How King St. Ferdinand besieged Jaén and how God gave it to him with the whole kingdom of Granada

How King St. Ferdinand besieged Jaén and how God gave it to him with the whole kingdom of Granada

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As son as he left the Queen and the infantes in Córdoba, Don Ferdinand left in the direction of Martos. There he had summoned the noblemen to discuss the campaign to conquer Jaén and to return it to the Kingship of Christ. Among those who came was one whom he liked since childhood. This was the Grand Master of Santiago,* the famous Pelay Correa, one of the most characteristic prototypes in history of the medieval knight.

July 22 – The Siege of Belgrade (1456)

July 22 – The Siege of Belgrade (1456)

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After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources in order to subjugate the Kingdom of Hungary. His immediate objective was the border fort of the town of Belgrade (in old Hungarian Nándorfehérvár). John Hunyadi, a Hungarian nobleman and warlord, who had fought many battles against the Ottomans in the previous two decades, prepared the defense of the fortress.
The siege eventually escalated into a major battle, during which Hunyadi led a sudden counterattack that overran the Ottoman camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmed II to lift the siege and retreat. The battle had significant consequences, as it stabilized the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary for more than half a century and thus considerably delayed the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

Reliquary of Chivalry

Reliquary of Chivalry

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St. George and the Dragon statuette was commissioned by Duke Wilhelm V, who reigned between 1579 and 1597. It appears to have been designed and executed by the native Hans Schleich together with the Duke’s Chamber Gold­smith Hans Schwanenburg from Utrecht, aided by a veritable corps of spe­cialists. Duke Wilhelm’s son, Maximilian I (1597-1651), had the original eb­ony base replaced with the present sumptuous pedestal.

St. Melania: December 31 – The patrician girl who befriended St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and the Empress

St. Melania: December 31 – The patrician girl who befriended St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and the Empress

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Born at Rome, about 383; died in Jerusalem, 31 December, 439. She was a member of the famous family of Valerii. Her parents were Publicola and Albina, her paternal grandmother of the same name is known as Melania, Senior. Little is known of the saint’s childhood, but after the time of her marriage, which occurred in her thirteenth year, we have more definite information. Through obedience to her parents she married one of her relatives, Pinianus a patrician. During her married life of seven years she had two children who died young.

The Great Coronation Banquet

DECEMBER 26, 2016

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The Royal Carriage carrying the Imperial Family.

A century has passed since Emporer Karl was crowned King of Hungary on December 30, 1916. The coronation ceremony took place at St. Stephen’s Basilica in Budapest, attended by illustrious guests from throughout Europe.

Titanic: Looking back a century later

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Three priests gave spiritual comfort to the anxious and doomed on April 14, 1912

A century now has passed since the British luxury liner, S. S. Titanic, sank in mid-Atlantic after striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912. Other sea disasters have cost more lives, but none has retained the popular interest as much as the loss of what then was the largest and grandest ship afloat.

Another dimension to the story, almost never told, but rich in heroism and dedication, is about the three Catholic priests who were aboard. All three refused seats in lifeboats as the great ship was foundering, refusing to leave the terrified passengers. Survivors also remember the priests’ heroism, and that the priests gave spiritual care to the passengers literally until the end. All three went down with the ship.

Philip II of France in the Holy Land

Philip II of France in the Holy Land 

Dr. Helena Schrader 

Philip II Capet of France has gone down in French history as Philip Augustus, another way of saying Philip the Great or Philip the Magnificent. He earned this epithet primarily for wresting territory away from King John of England and restoring the control of the French monarchy over the vast lands in Continental Europe that had been controlled for half a century by John’s father (Henry II) and brother (Richard I). Philip II was able to reduce the English-controlled territories to a small enclave near Bordeaux. Having successfully subdued the most powerful of his insubordinate vassals, he proceeded to systematically re-establish the primacy of the monarchy over all the barons of France. By the end of his reign he had greatly increased the wealth, prestige and power of the central government in Paris, built the Louve, and established the University of Paris. He ruled a total of 43 years, from 1180 to 1223, and was the first king to style himself “King of France” instead of “King of the Franks.” 

Casimir Pulaski

Nobility.org 

Patriot and soldier, born at Winiary, Poland, 4 March, 1748; died on the Wasp, in the harbour of Savannah, 11 Oct., 1779; eldest son of Count Joseph Pulaski and Maria Zislinska.

Garcia Moreno: He told his assassins “God does not die!”

Garcia Moreno: He told his assassins “God does not die!”

Nobility.org

Ecuadorean patriot and statesman; born at Guayaquil, 24 December, 1821; assassinated at Quito, 6 August, 1875.

His father, Gabriel García Gomez, a native of Villaverde, in Old Castile, had been engaged in commerce at Callao before removing to Guayaquil, where he married Dona Mercedes Moreno, the mother of the future Ecuadorean martyr president. Gabriel García Gomez died while his son was still young, and the boy’s education was left to the care of his mother, who appears to have been a woman of unusual ability for her task; she was, moreover, fortunate in securing as her son’s tutor Fray Jose Betancourt, the famous Mercedarian, under whose tuition young García Moreno made rapid progress. A great part of his father’s fortune having been lost, it was not without some considerable sacrifices that the youth was able to attend the university course at Quito. These material obstacles once overcome, he passed brilliantly through the schools, distancing all his contemporaries, and on 26 October, 1844, received his degree in the faculty of law (Doctor en Jurisprudencia) from the University of Quito.

TradCatKnight: Pictures, Romanov Dynasty July 19th, 2016

TradCatKnight: Pictures, Romanov Dynasty   

July 19th, 2016

Here is a great montage of pictures relating to the Romanov Dynasty...

Alfonso VIII of Castile crushes the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa

July 16 – Alfonso VIII of Castile crushes the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa

Nobility.org 

St. Raymond of Fitero, the Cistercian warrior abbot & founder of the Military Order of Calatrava.

The Almohads, the new dynasty of Moroccan fanatics who had subdued all the Moslems in al Andalus, launched an all-out attack on the Christians by moving a huge army north into south central Spain. The impetuous Alfonso VIII of Castile, without waiting for reinforcements, attempted to bar the way at Alarcos. On July 18, 1195, his hopelessly outnumbered army was decisively defeated. Since this occurred just a few years after a similar defeat by Saladin at the Horns of Hattin in Palestine, the future of Christendom indeed looked bleak….

St. Joan of Arc- When God chose sides in war between two Christian nations, He sent her to win it

St. Joan of Arc- When God chose sides in war between two Christian nations, He sent her to win it

Nobility.org

Statue of St. Joan of Arc in New Orleans, Louisiana

In French Jeanne d’Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known as la Pucelle (the Maid).
Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke of Burgundy, but in the protracted conflict between the Armagnacs (the party of Charles VII, King of France), on the one hand, and the Burgundians in alliance with the English, on the other, Domremy had always remained loyal to Charles.

Social Inequality Redounds to the Advantage of All

Nobility.org 

The Marriage of the Princess Royal Victoria, January 25, 1858, by James Brooks

Leo XIII returns to the subject of social inequality in the encyclical Rerum Novarum, of May 15, 1891:

 

Inequalities Are a Condition of Social Organicity

Nobility.org 

The Estates-General in Tours, May 14, 1506, oil on canvas by Jean-Louis Bézard

[From Leo XIII’s encyclical Humanum genus, of April 20, 1884]:

 

Our Lineage Greatly Influences Our Actions

Nobility.org 

From the funeral oration for Philippe-Emanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercoeur and Penthièvre, delivered in the metropolitan church of Notre-Dame in Paris on April 27, 1602, by Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop-Prince of Geneva and Doctor of the Church:

 

Our Lady of Deliverance, Empress of China

nobility.org 

Our Lady of Deliverance, Empress of China

In 1900, the Catholic Church was healthy and growing in China. There were forty bishops, about 800 European missionaries, 600 native Chinese priests, and the number of native Catholics throughout the whole of China proper was estimated at 700,000.
It was during this time that the Boxer Uprising (1898-1900) started which ushered in a period of animosity against all things European.

St. Casimir- This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

St. Casimir- This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

nobility.org

The three-handed painting of Saint Casimir is considered miraculous. According to a legend, the painter attempted to redraw the hand in a different place and paint over the old hand, but the old hand miraculously reappeared. The original painting was covered in gilded silver clothing in 1636 and is in Saint Casimir’s Chapel under his tomb .

Pope Benedict XIII- The responsibilities of leadership are heavy

Pope Benedict XIII- The responsibilities of leadership are heavy

Nobility.org

Born 2 February, 1649; died 23 February, 1730. Being a son of Ferdinando Orsini and Giovanna Frangipani of Tolpha, he belonged to the archducal family of Orsini-Gravina. From early youth he exhibited a decided liking for the Order of St. Dominic, and at the age of sixteen during a visit to Venice he entered the Dominican novitiate against the will of his parents, though he was the eldest son and heir to the title and estates of his childless uncle the Duke of Bracciano. Their appeal to Clement IX was fruitless; the pope not only approved the purpose of the young novice, but even shortened his novitiate by half in order to free him from the importunities of his relatives. 

The Marvelous Origin of the Holy Crown of St. Stephen of Hungary

nobility.org 

Crown of St. Stephen, King of Hungary

“In the fourth year after his father’s death, encouraged by divine grace, (Stephen) sent Bishop Asherik…so that he may ask the heir of St. Peter, prince of the apostles, to send his copious blessings to the first fruits of Christianity blossoming in the parts of Pannonia… to grant him the favour of fortifying him with a royal crown so that supported by this honour, he might consolidate more firmly what he had begun through the grace of God.

Charlemagne, Great in Every Sense

Charlemagne, Great in Every Sense

(French for Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or Carlus Magnus; German Karl der Grosse).

Nobility.org

Charlemagne, painted by Albrecht Dürer

The name given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814.
At the time of Charles’ birth, his father, Pepin the Short, Mayor of the Palace, of the line of Arnulf, was, theoretically, only the first subject of Childeric III, the last Merovinigian King of the Franks; but this modest title implied that real power, military, civil, and even ecclesiastical, of which Childeric’s crown was only the symbol. It is not certain that Bertrada (or Bertha), the mother of Charlemagne, a daughter of Charibert, Count of Laon, was legally married to Pepin until some years later than either 742 or 745.