A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Today I was surprised by a Servidoras in the Basilica of San Bartolomeo in one of my favorite places in Rome, the Isola Tiberina, where my saint of the year, St. Adalbert, is buried. Two of them prayed next to me before his relics, and then I ran into this one chatting with one of my Art and Architecture students. This one happens to be the sister-in-law of one of our former students. Surprise, Pilar, and happy belated birthday!!!
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
Sanctoral: The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Willibrord (658-739), apostle of Frisia and Archbishop of Utrecht and St. Engelbert, Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, slain by hired assassins and venerated as a martyr.
St. Engelbert of Cologne (1185-1225) is also commemorated today. At a young age he was appointed as provost over several churches and cathedrals. He had a lived dissolutely in his youth, was excommunicated after threatening to attack the Holy Roman Emperor Otto IV. He publicly submitted to the pope‘s authority, and was received back into the Church. He worked hard in his diocese of Cologne, but many of the nobility hated and feared him. He was killed by henchmen while traveling and is considered a martyr as he died over the defense of religious sisters.
Human: It was on this day in 1917 that Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia overthrew the government and formed a new government that would eventually become the USSR, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Read more at the Writer's Almanac today.
Natural: It was on this day in 1492 that a meteor fell from the sky near the town of Ensishem in Alsace, France, one of the oldest recorded meteorites.
The only witness was a young boy, who heard a sound like an explosion and watched a huge piece of rock fall out of the sky and bury itself in a nearby wheat field. He went to alert the citizens of the town, and soon people were climbing down in the hole to chip off pieces for souvenirs and good luck. The lord of the town showed up and demanded that everyone stop immediately, and he had the big black meteorite dragged to the local church. Even after all those pieces had been hacked off, it still weighed almost 300 pounds.
Read more at the Writer's Almanac today.
Italian: Coso (thingy)
Quote: "Be thankful and repay Growth with good work and care. Work done in gratitude, kindly, and well, is prayer." --Wendell Berry
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