Today in History:

1422 - Henry VI, becomes King of England at the age of 9 months.
1535 - Pope Paul II deposed & excommunicated King Henry VIII
1895 - 1st pro football game (QB John Brallier paid $10 & won 12-0)

A Saint's Feast Day:   St. Aidan

Aidan of Lindisfarne, born in Ireland, may have studied under St. Senan before becoming a monk at Iona. At the request of King Oswald of Northumbria, Aidan went to Lindisfarne as bishop and was known throughout the kingdom for his knowledge of the Bible, his learning, his eloquent preaching, his holiness, his distaste for pomp, his kindness to the poor, and the miracles attributed to him. He founded a monastery at Lindisfarne that became known as the English Iona and was a center of learning and missionary activity for all of northern England. He died in 651 at the royal castle at Bamburgh.   (catholic.org)

Daily Quote:  
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not; a sense of humor to console him for what he is."  -Francis Bacon

    

Today in History:

1682 - William Penn left England to sail to New World
1854 - John Fremont issues proclamation freeing slaves of Missouri rebels
1967 - US Senate confirm Thurgood Marshall as 1st black justice

A Saint's Feast Day:   St. Bononius

Saint Bononio (or Bononius) (died August 30, 1026) was a Benedictine abbot and saint of the Catholic Church. A native of Bologna, he was a disciple of Saint Romuald. Romuald sent him to preach in Egypt and Syria.
Bononio settled in Cairo. Here he assisted the local population build a few Christian churches. When Peter, bishop of Vercelli, was captured by Arab forces after the Battle of Stilo, Bononio assisted in the bishop's release. Bononio returned to Italy after spending some time in the Sinai as a hermit, and was named by Peter abbot of the monastery of Lucedio. At Lucedio, he restored discipline amongst the monks and provided for the surrounding population.  (wikipedia)

Daily Quotes:

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to stay silent."
-Victor Hugo

"Music is the shorthand of emotion." -Leo Tolstoy

"There's nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it."  -Mickey Hart

Today in History:

1786 - Shay's Rebellion in Springfield, Mass
1898 - The Goodyear tire company is founded.
1949 - USSR explodes its 1st atomic bomb

A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Candida

A martyr of the Ostian Way, Rome. Candida's remains are enshrined in St. Praxedes church, and were blessed by Pope St. Pasehal I in the ninth century. She was one of a group of martyrs
slain on the Ostian Way outside the gates of Rome.

Daily Quotes:

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so." -Douglas Adams

"Experience without theory is blind, but theory without experience is mere intellectual play."
   -Immanuel Kant

Today in History:
 
1883 - Slavery banned throughout British Empire
1907  - UPS is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
2005 - Hurricane Katrina hammers the south eastern United States, especially New Orleans, Louisiana, and coastal Mississippi
 
A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Augustine of Hippo
 
This famous son of St. Monica was born in Africa and spent many years of his life in wicked living and in false beliefs. Though he was one of the most intelligent men who ever lived and though he had been brought up a Christian, his sins of impurity and his pride darkened his mind so much, that he could not see or understand the Divine Truth anymore. Through the prayers of his holy mother and the marvelous preaching of St. Ambrose, Augustine finally became convinced that Christianity was the one true religion. Yet he did not become a Christian then, because he thought he could never live a pure life. One day, however, he heard about two men who had suddenly been converted on reading the life of St. Antony, and he felt terrible ashamed of himself. "What are we doing?" he cried to his friend Alipius. "Unlearned people are taking Heaven by force, while we, with all our knowledge, are so cowardly that we keep rolling around in the mud of our sins!"
St. Augustine overcame strong heresies, practiced great poverty and supported the poor, preached very often and prayed with great fervor right up until his death. "Too late have I loved You!" he once cried to God, but with his holy life he certainly made up for the sins he committed before his conversion.  (catholic.org)
 
 
Daily Quotes:

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."  -C.S. Lewis
 

"When you choose your friends, don't be short-changed by choosing personality over character."  -W. Somerset Maugham

Today in History:

1665 - "Ye Bare & Ye Cubb" is 1st play, performed in North America (Acomac, Va)
1789 - French Natl Assembly issues "Decl of Rights of Man & Citizen"
1912 - Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes "Tarzan of the Apes"

A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Monica

St. Monica was married by arrangement to a pagan official in North Africa, who was much older than she, and although generous, was also violent tempered. His mother Lived with them and was equally difficult, which proved a constant challenge to St. Monica. She had three children; Augustine, Navigius, and Perpetua. Through her patience and prayers, she was able to convert her husband and his mother to the Catholic faith in 370· He died a year later. Perpetua and Navigius entered the religious Life. St. Augustine was much more difficult, as she had to pray for him for 17 years, begging the prayers of priests who, for a while, tried to avoid her because of her persistence at this seemingly hopeless endeavor. One priest did console her by saying, "it is not possible that the son of so many tears should perish." This thought, coupled with a vision that she had received strengthened her. St. Augustine was baptized by St. Ambrose in 387. St. Monica died later that same year, on the way back to Africa from Rome in the Italian town of Ostia

Daily Quotes:

"Any man who reads too much and uses his brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking."
  -Albert Einstein

"All intelligent thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to try to think them again." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled." -Plutarch

Today in History:
580 - Chinese invents toilet paper
1498 - Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pietà.
1846 - Felix Mendelssohn's "Elijah," premieres
 
A Saint's Feast Day:   St. Teresa of Jesus Jornet Ibars
 
Foundress of the Little Sisters of the Poor. Born in Catalonia, Spain, she overcame many difficulties in her youth and eventually became a teacher at Lerida. Desirous to enter the religious life, she failed to win entry into the convent at the advice of her spiritual director, decided to launch her own congregation. On January 27, 1872, at Barbastro, Spain, she began the Little Sisters of the Poor, called the Little Sisters of the Abandoned Age. Considerable zeal, she had founded by the time of death more than fifty houses for her congregation. Beatified in 1958, she was canonized in 1974 by Pope VI. 
 
Daily Quotes:
 
 "Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night"
   -Edgar Allen Poe

"A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within hin the image of a catherdral."
   -Antoine de Saint Exuperys

After my first week of classes and a week without internet, I am ready to start this back up.

Today in History:

325 - Council of Nicaea ends with adoption of the Nicene Creed establishing the doctrine of the Holy Trinity
1609 - Galileo demonstrates his 1st telescope to Venetian lawmakers
1916 - Dept of Interior forms National Park Service

A Saint's Feast Day:   St. Genesius

During a stage performance before Emperor Diocletian in Rome, the actor Genesius portrayed a catechumen about to be baptized in a play satirizing the Christian sacrament. In the midst of the ceremony he was suddenly converted to Christianity. When presented to the Emperor, he declared his Christianity. Enraged, Diocletian had him turned over to Plautian, prefect of the praetorium, who tortured him in an effort to force him to sacrifice to the pagan gods. When Genesius persisted in his faith, he was beheaded. Though the legend is an ancient one, it is no more than that. Genesius is the patron of actors. Feast day is Aug. 25.   (catholic.org)

Daily Quotes:

"Manifest plainess, embrace simliciy, reduce selfishness, have few desires." -Lao-Tzu

"Things should be as simple as possible, but not simpler." - Albert Einstein

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."  - Leonardo da Vinci  

Today in History:
1577 - Peace of Bergerac: Political rights for Huguenots
1590 - John White returns to Roanoke, Virginia to find no trace of colonist's he had left there 3 yrs earlier [or Aug 18, 1591]
1903 - Joe Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia U & begins Pulitzer Prizes

A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Clare of Montefalco

Clare was born at Montefalco, Italy, around 1268. As a young woman she joined a convent of Franciscan tertiaries. This group established Holy Cross Convent at Montefalco in 1290, adopting the Rule of St. Augustine. Clare's sister Joan was the abbess of this community, but at her death Clare succeeded her. She led an austere life, being particularly devoted to the Passion of Christ and His Cross. When Clare died in 1308, an image of the Cross was found imprinted on her heart, and her body remained incorrupt. Whe was canonized in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII. Her feast day is August 17th. The life of St. Clare reminds us that we are all called to a life of prayer and dedication. Still, we must not expect or anticipate special favors. We are to be satisfied with the simple relationship we establish with God.   (catholic.org)


Daily Quotes:

"Don't go around saying the world owes you a living.  The world owes you nothing.  It was here first." -Mark Twain

"Life is like a trumpet - if you don't put anything into it, you don't get anything out of it." -William Christopher Handy

Today in History:
1863  - Emancipation Proclamation signed
1896 - Gold discovered in Klondike, found at Bonanza Creek, Ala
1904 - NYC begins building Grand Central Station

A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Stephen the Great

St. Stephen the Great (977-1038), was the son of the Magyar chieftain Geza, Stephen succeeded him as leader in 997. Already raised a Christian, in 996 he wed the daughter of Duke Henry II of Bavaria and devoted much of his reign to the promotion of the Christian faith. He gave his patronage to Church leaders, helped build churches, and was a proponent of the rights of the Holy See. Stephen also crushed the pagan counterreaction to Christianity, forcibly converting the so-called Black Hungarians after their failed rebellion. In recognition of his efforts, Stephen was anoited king of Hungary in 1000, receiving the cross and crown from Pope Sylvester II. The remainder of his reign was taken up with the consolidation of the Christian hold on the region. His crown and regalia became beloved symbols of the Hungarian nation, and Stephen was venerated as the ideal Christian king. Canonized in 1083 by Pope St. Gregory VII, he became the patron saint of Hungary.
(catholic.org)

Daily Quotes:

"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles." 
-Niccolo Machiavelli
"Humility is the mother of giants.  One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak." -G.K. Chesterton

Today in History:
1534 - Ignatius of Loyola forms society of Jesus/Jesuits
1620 - Mayflower sets sail from Southampton with 102 Pilgrims
1939 - "Wizard of Oz" premieres at Grauman's Chinese Theater, Hollywood

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary:

This feast has a double object: (1) the happy departure of Mary from this life; (2) the assumption of her body into heaven. It is the principal feast of the Blessed Virgin.

Regarding the day, year, and manner of Our Lady's death, nothing certain is known. The earliest known literary reference to the Assumption is found in the Greek work De Obitu S. Dominae. Catholic faith, however, has always derived our knowledge of the mystery from Apostolic Tradition. Epiphanius (d. 403) acknowledged that he knew nothing definite about it (Haer., lxxix, 11). The dates assigned for it vary between three and fifteen years after Christ's Ascension. Two cities claim to be the place of her departure: Jerusalem and Ephesus. Common consent favours Jerusalem, where her tomb is shown; but some argue in favour of Ephesus. The first six centuries did not know of the tomb of Mary at Jerusalem.The belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is founded on the apocryphal treatise De Obitu S. Dominae, bearing the name of St. John, which belongs however to the fourth or fifth century. It is also found in the book De Transitu Virginis, falsely ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis, and in a spurious letter attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite. If we consult genuine writings in the East, it is mentioned in the sermons of St. Andrew of Crete, St. John Damascene, St. Modestus of Jerusalem and others. In the West, St. Gregory of Tours (De gloria mart., I, iv) mentions it first. The sermons of St. Jerome and St. Augustine for this feast, however, are spurious. St. John of Damascus (P.G., I, 96) thus formulates the tradition of the Church of Jerusalem:

St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.

Today, the belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is universal in the East and in the West; according to Benedict XIV (De Festis B.V.M., I, viii, 18) it is a probable opinion, which to deny were impious and blasphemous.   (catholicencyclopedia.org)

Daily Quote:

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction." -Winston Churchill

Today in History:
1457 - Oldest known exactly dated printed book (c 3 years after Gutenberg)
1935 - Social Security Act becomes law
1945 - V-J Day; Japan surrenders unconditionally to end WW II (also August 15 depending on time zone)

A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Maximilian Kolbe

Saint Maximilian Kolbe (January 8, 1894–August 14, 1941), also known as Maksymilian or Massimiliano Maria Kolbe and "Apostle of Consecration to Mary," born as Rajmund Kolbe, was a Polish Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz in Poland

During the Second World War, in the friary, Kolbe provided shelter to refugees from Greater Poland, including 2,000 Jews whom he hid from Nazi persecution in his friary in Niepokalanów. He was also active as a radio amateur, with Polish call letters SP3RN, vilifying Nazi activities through his reports.
On February 17, 1941, he was arrested by the German Gestapo and imprisoned in the Pawiak prison, and, on May 25, was transferred to Auschwitz I as prisoner #16670.
In July 1941, a man from Kolbe's barracks had vanished, prompting SS-Hauptsturmführer Karl Fritzsch, the Lagerführer (i.e., the camp commander), to pick 10 men from the same barracks to be starved to death in Block 11 (notorious for torture), in order to deter further escape attempts. (The man who had disappeared was later found drowned in the camp latrine.) One of the selected men, Franciszek Gajowniczek, cried out, lamenting his family, and Kolbe volunteered to take his place.
During the time in the cell, he led the men in songs and prayer. After three weeks of dehydration and starvation, only Kolbe was still alive. Finally he was executed with an injection of carbolic acid.

Daily Quote:   

Watch, O Lord, with those who wake, or watch, or weep tonight, and give your angels charge over those who sleep.

Tend your sick ones, O Lord Christ.
Rest your weary ones.
Bless your dying ones.
Soothe your suffering ones.
Pity your afflicted ones.
Shield your joyous ones.
And for all your love's sake. Amen.

Saint Augustine

Today in History:
1415 - King Henry V of England army lands on mouth of Seine River
1792 - Revolutionaries imprison French royals including Marie Antoinette
1907 - 1st taxicab (NYC)

The Greyhound Bus

1914 - Carl Wickman begins Greyhound, the 1st US bus line, in Minnesota

A Saint's Feast Day:   St. Hippolytus

Martyr of Rome, with Concordia and other companions, he is a controversial figure who censured Pope St. Callistus I. Hippolytus was slain in Sardinia where he had been exiled for being elected as an antipope, the first in the history of the Church. He was reconciled to the Church before his martyrdom. His writings were important, including A Refutation of All Heresies, Song of Songs, and The Apostolic Tradition.

Daily Quote:

Victor Hugo

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace." -Victor Hugo

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them - every day begin the task anew." -St. Francis de Sales

Today in history:
30 BC - Cleopatra VII Philopator, the last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic dynasty, commits suicide allegedly by means of an asp bite.
1898 - Hawaii formally annexed to US
1914 - Great Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary

A Saint's Feast Day:  St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Jane Frances was born in Dijon, France on 28 January 1572. The mother of six children (three died shortly after they were born), she was widowed at the age of 28. She met Saint Francis de Sales when he preached at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon. They became intimate friends. She was inspired to start a religious order for women, the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary with his support, an order for women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age. When people criticized her, she famously said, "What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I'm on their side."

Daily Quote:

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it." -C.S. Lewis

Today in History:
1914 - France declares war on Austria-Hungary
1919 - Weimar Republic begins in Germany
 1929 - Babe Ruth becomes 1st to hit 500 homers (off Willis Hudlin of Cleve)


A Saint's Feast Day: St. Claire of Assisi

Clare of Assisi  (July 16, 1194 – August 11, 1253), born Chiara Offreduccio, is an Italian saint and one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi. She founded the Order of Poor Ladies, a monastic religious order for women in the Franciscan tradition, and wrote their Rule of Life—the first monastic rule known to have been written by a woman. Following her death, the order she founded was renamed in her honor as the Order of Saint Clare, commonly referred to today as the Poor Clares.

Daily Quote:

"Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity.  Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind." -Marcus Tullius Cicero

Today in History:
1519 - Magellan's 5 ships set sail to circumnavigate Earth
1776 - American Revolutionary War: word of the United States Declaration of Independence reaches London. 

A Saint's Feast Day: St. James of Manug

He was a native of Manug, of the Absu area of Lower Egypt. He studied at Absu. During a period of Christian persecution he professed belief in Christianity at Farama. With two other believers, Abraham and John of Samanoud, two natives of Gamndui, he was martyred. His tongue was cut out, he was blinded and then, finally beheaded.

Daily Quote:

"Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined.  Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind." -William Shakespeare

"Remember especially that you cannot be the judge of anyone. For there can be no judge of a criminal on earth until the judge knows that he, too, is a criminal, exactly the same as the one who stands before him." -Zosima, Dostoevsky's The Karamozov Brothers (6.3.h)

Today in History:
1854 - Henry David Thoreau publishes "Walden"
1859 - Elevator patented

A Saint's Feast Day: St. Edith Stein

Saint Edith Stein (October 12, 1891 – August 9, 1942), was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and nun, regarded as a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church. Born into an observant Jewish family but an atheist by her teenage years, she was baptized January 1, 1922 into the Roman Catholic Church and received into the Discalced Carmelite Order as a postulant in 1934. Although she moved from Germany to the Netherlands to avoid Nazi persecution, in 1942 she was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died in the gas chamber. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 1998.  Stein is one of the six patron saints of Europe, together with Saint Benedict of Nursia, Saints Cyril and Methodius, Saint Bridget of Sweden and Saint Catherine of Siena.


Daily Quote: 

There are seven things that will destroy us: Wealth without work; Pleasure without conscience; Knowledge without character; Religion without sacrifice; Politics without principle; Science without humanity; Business without ethics." 

— Mahatma Gandhi

 

"Re-examine all that you have been told . . . dismiss that which insults your soul."

— Walt Whitman