#Irish College in Rome

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1628 – Founding of the Irish College in Rome. Among its former students was St Oliver Plunkett, who attended in the late 17th century.

The Irish College, Rome was founded on this date in 1628 by the Irish Franciscan, Fr Luke Wadding O.F.M. and the Italian Cardinal, Ludivico Ludovisi, a nephew of Pope Gregory XV, who died three years before the College was established. Having been appointed Cardinal Protector of Ireland, Ludovisi was concerned that his title would not be an empty one and when he was approached by Luke Wadding to…

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

What does it mean that you're a catholic presbyterian? What are your views on Church authority and predestination?

I like to imagine myself as a tree with Irish Catholic roots, a Presbyterian/Protestant trunk, and agnostic/ecumenical/interfaith-reaching branches.

I need all parts to be whole. All parts rely on Divine warmth, water, breath for life. All parts depend on a rich soil of scripture, story, and the wisdom of those who've come before me for nourishment and grounding.

___

The roots:

I was baptized and raised Roman Catholic. My family (and a large number of families in the area I grew up) has a proud history of Irish Catholicism in particular. My childhood church was Catholic, and I was passionate about participating in that community's life all through grade school.

Some of my earliest religion-related memories are of reading Saints' stories, establishing relationships with those who most spoke to me. Mother Mary has had my heart as far back as my memories go.

As I discovered my queerness in college and gradually realized the need to seek fully welcoming community, I did not leave behind those things I held most dear from Catholic spirituality.

Over the years, my connection to the Roman Catholic Church as an institution has fractured more and more; last May it splintered entirely. But I refuse to let Rome have a monopoly on Catholic faith, or on Mary and the Saints.

...Especially because Mary and the Saints were my greatest spiritual supports in college: with delighted wonder, I came to recognize how very queer my closest Saints were! They helped me embrace my queerness as a holy gift; I carried them with me into a little PC(USA) church that my then-girlfriend, now-wife found near our college campus.

The trunk:

The Presbyterian Church (USA) denomination holds me up in sturdy community: this is the denomination I'm currently "officially" part of — got my Masters of Divinity at a PCUSA seminary, got married in a PCUSA church, am on this denomination's ordination path.

This doesn't mean I think the PCUSA is the best religion or even the best form of mainline Protestantism. They all have their strengths and their flaws. But the PCUSA was the one that first came into my path, and I'm currently satisfied with my decision to commit myself to it — so long as it continues to make plenty of room for my Catholic roots and ecumenical branches.

The branches:

Though Louisville Seminary is a Presbyterian institution, when I attended from 2016-2019 at least 40% of my classmates and some of the staff there belonged to other denominations (or in a few cases, aren't Christian at all).

The opportunity to learn alongside folks from a variety of traditions was invaluable to my continued spiritual growth. I learned so much from them! I grew into my sense that all individuals and faith communities have something to teach us the Divine and about what it means to be human in relationship to Divinity and to Creation.

Then there's the agnostic part of the "branches":

Over the years I've also experienced more and more seasons where I'm just not sure that the Trinity, the Incarnation and Resurrection, and all that Christian-specific stuff is "real." But whether or not it is, I choose to remain committed to this path I'm on — with openness to fresh insights — because I do draw spiritual nourishment here. I do believe that the story of the Trinity and the Incarnation can guide us into living for Goodness, Justice, abundant life for all beings.

...Basically, I don't know whether it's all "true," but I do believe it holds powerful Truth; I remain committed to the Story.

(Also the bible has been my main special interest since i was like 6 so it's one of the main lenses through which i view the world so i'm stuck here for better or worse lfadfjalfjdalk;j! )

I believe it's imperative for Christians living in Christian supremacist cultures to practice humility above all else — to accept the fact that we don't have all the answers, that we're not the Most Right, that we don't enjoy unique favor with God. For me, identifying as agnostic reminds me that I don't know everything about God by any means, and may actually know very little at all. It reminds me to remain humble, open, and curious.

The fruit:

My hope is that this little tree that is me yields good fruit. I don't care if I have all the right answers, so long as I'm glorifying the Divine in some small way; easing suffering in some small way; bringing joy into this world in some small way. That's what matters to me.

________

I imagine the above implies my views on Church authority. If it doesn't, well, I'll just say I'm kind of an anarchist about church as much as anything else! The Church should never have come to wield as much power as it has. And whatever the "role" of the Church is in the Divine Story, I remember learning somewhere in seminary that the ultimate future of Church is to dissolve — that when we've experienced the full in-breaking of God's Kin-dom, there will be no more need for Church.

________

Not all Presbyterians hold to predestination — and for most I know who do, it's not really a central part of their faith life.

But sure, you could say I believe in predestination: I believe we are all predestined for participation in God's Kin-dom! :)

________

Further reading:

My tag of LGBTA patron Saints <3

My first podcast ep explores some of my spiritual journey

My queer and Catholic tag

Some other semi-related tags — good fruit tag; religious pluralism tag; evangelism tag; church hurt tag

My PCUSA tag, which includes a post with some old class notes about predestination

OH ALSO there's a podcast called "Called to Be Multiple" that interviews folks who draw from multiple faith sources. Cool stuff!

[historysideblog]

Online History Short-Courses offered by Universities Masterpost

Categories: Classical Studies, Egyptology, Medieval, Renaissance, The Americas, Asia, Other, Linguistics, Archaeology

How to get Coursera courses for free: There are several types of courses on Coursera, some will allow you to study the full course and only charge for the optional-certificate, for others you will need to audit it and you may have limited access (usually just to assignments), and thirdly some courses charge a monthly subscription in this case a 7 day free trial is available.

Classical Studies 🏛️🏺

At the Origins of the Mediterranean Civilization: Archeology of the City from the Levant to the West 3rd-1st millennium BC - Sapienza University of Rome

Greek and Roman Mythology - University of Pennsylvania

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World - Open University

Roman Architecture - Yale

Roman Art and Archeology - University of Arizona

Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City - University of Reading

The Ancient Greeks - Wesleyan University

The Changing Landscape of Ancient Rome. Archeology and History of Palatine Hill - Sapienza University of Rome

Uncovering Roman Britain in Old Museum Collections - University of Reading

Egyptology 𓂀⚱️

Egypt before and after pharaohs - Sapienza University of Rome

Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization - University of Pennsylvania

Wonders of Ancient Egypt - University of Pennsylvania

Medieval 🗡️🏰

Age of Cathedrals - Yale

Coexistence in Medieval Spain: Jews, Christians, and Muslims - University of Colorado

Deciphering Secrets: The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe - University of Colorado

Enlightening the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Archaeology in Italy - University of Padova

Lancaster Castle and Northern English History: The View from the Stronghold - Lancaster University

Magic in the Middle Ages - University of Barcelona

Old Norse Mythology in the Sources - University of Colorado Bolder

Preserving Norwegian Stave Churches - Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The Book of Kells: Exploring an Irish Medieval Masterpiece - Trinity College Dublin

The Cosmopolitan Medival Arabic World - University of Leiden

Renaissance ⚜️🃏

Black Tudors: The Untold Story

European Empires: An Introduction, 1400–1522 - University of Newcastle

The Mediterranean, a Space of Exchange (from Renaissance to Enlightenment) - University of Barcelona

The Life and Afterlife of Mary Queen of Scots - University of Glasgow

The Tudors - University of Roehampton London

The Americas 🪶🦙🛖

History of Slavery in the British Caribbean - University of Glasgow

Indigeneity as a Global Concept - University of Newcastle

Indigenous Canada - University of Alberta

Indigenous Religions & Ecology - Yale

Asia 🏯🛕

Contemporary India - University of Melbourne

Introduction to Korean Philosophy - Sung Kyun Kwan University

Japanese Culture Through Rare Books - University of Keio

Sino-Japanese Interactions Through Rare Books - University of Keio

The History and Culture of Chinese Silk - University for the Creative Arts

Travelling Books: History in Europe and Japan - University of Keio

Other

A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World - University of Glasgow

A History of Royal Fashion - University of Glasgow

Anarchy in the UK: A History of Punk from 1976-78 - University of Reading

Biodiversity, Guardianship, and the Natural History of New Zealand: A Museum Perspective - Te Papa

Empire: the Controversies of British Imperialism - University of Exeter

Great South Land: Introducing Australian History - University of Newcastle

Indigeneity as a Global Concept - University of Newcastle

New Zealand History, Culture and Conflict: A Museum Perspective - Te Papa

Organising an Empire: The Assyrian Way - LMU Munich

Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction - University of Virginia

Russian History: from Lenin to Putin - University of California Santa Cruz

Linguistics 🗣️

Introduction to Comparative Indo-European Linguistics - University of Leiden - Coursera version

Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics - University of Leiden

Archeology 💀

Archeoastronomy - University of Milan

Archaeology and the Battle of Dunbar 1650 - Durham University

Archaeology: from Dig to Lab and Beyond - University of Reading

Archeology: Recovering the Humankind's Past and Saving the Universal Heritage - Sapienza University of Rome

Change of Era: The Origins of Christian Culture through the Lens of Archaeology - University of Padova

Endangered Archaeology: Using Remote Sensing to Protect Cultural Heritage - Universities of Durham, Leicester & Oxford

Enlightening the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Archaeology in Italy - University of Padova

Exploring Stone Age Archaeology: The Mysteries of Star Carr - University of York

Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology - Durham University

Roman Art and Archeology - University of Arizona

The Changing Landscape of Ancient Rome. Archeology and History of Palatine Hill - Sapienza University of Rome

[ghostfrog28]

Even More About Sophie!

cuz she’s becoming one of my favorite OCs and I have incomplete lore about her (they will still have some incomplete lore, even after this)

also, her full name is Sophie Aster Danlend

anyway

Some more facts (a bit more about their family):

She has a fluffy, brown rag doll cat named Bear

He looks like this, she got him as a emotional support cat after her mom passed

2. Her middle name is part of the name of a Irish flower, the Sea Aster

3. She has a big scrap books full of things from cool stuff she’s either done/went to over the years. (Ex: concert tickets, photos, stickers, etc.)

4. They really want to go traveling, so she’s saving up a lot of money to do so (some places she wants to go to are Greece, Italy, Rome, and Germany) she also has a space saved in her scrap book for these travels

5. Sophie had a feminine mullet through out high school, that she then tried to grow out once she was in college

It looked something like this

6. I’ve mentioned them before but, she has three younger siblings and their names are (in age order): Bridget who is 20, Liam who is 18, and Cara who is 15

7. Her mom passed at around 34 years old due to terminal illness, and her father is currently 45, they got married at 18 and had Sophie at 20

8. Bridget is nearly done with college and is dating a girl named Sarah and both are lesbian, Liam has freshly graduated and is aroace so he isn’t dating anyone but he has a friend named Stacy who is also aroace and they plan to be roommates and get a apartment after or during college and Cara is going into Freshman Year of High School and she has a good friend group and she hasn’t really thought about who she likes, all 3 siblings have a good relationship with Sophie and they have “sibling weekend” twice a month where they get together at a restaurant or something and talk about how life is

9. The three older siblings make sure to visit Cara and their Dad whenever they can and help him if he needs some help wether it’s financial support or someone to watch over Cara while he’s on a business trip or anything

10. Sophie has “girls nights” with Cara a few times a month where she sleeps over at Soph’s apartment and they eat candy and watch movies and talk shit, whether it was about some of Sophie’s customers or a shitty coworker or if Cara has some bitchy classmates

Not So Fun Fact: After her mom passed away and their family moved to California, Sophie’s Aunt Jane, who was living in California, offered to stay with the family to help out. When actually, she just wanted to be filler for Sophie’s mom and control Sophie as she’s going through high school (she’s one of those family members who has controversial opinions on everything, especially over the fact that Sophie liked to appear more masculine) Sophie was more of a mom to her younger siblings than their Aunt Jane ever was. She doesn’t live with the family anymore but she tries to “parent” Cara as much as she can, like it’s a second try then what she got with Sophie (who was a second try from her cousin, Jane’s daughter Abigail) and so Sophie started doing “girls nights”, not only so she can spend time with her sister but to also protect her and give her space from their aunt.

I’ll draw high school Sophie and her haircut and Soph’s family some time sooner or later.

that’s all for now!

[joannerenaud]

Enchant the Heavens review

I've been revisiting a lot of my favorite old historicals since my beloved kitty Peggy died about a month ago, and one of them is Enchant the Heavens by Kathleen Morgan.

When I was a college student I loved romance novels, particularly historical romance, even though most of my friends at the time thought it was ridiculous and made fun of me for reading them. It made me even more stubborn, and I clung to the genre like a barnacle onto the hull of a ship. However, there was one book at the time that was too cheesy even for me, and that was Enchant the Heavens.

I found the cover embarrassing. Look, my teenage self thought, the hero’s hands look like he’s about to crack the heroine’s skull! And the hero, Marcus, was so earnest. The book was so earnest. The culture at the time was saturated with snark and irony, and sadly, I was not immune. I set the book down.

Years later, in 2011, I revisited Enchant the Heavens, and I found myself… well, enchanted. I was swept away by the epic nature of the story and the endearing characterizations. And I reread it just a week ago. I admit, I was afraid the suck fairy might’ve visited it over the intervening years. But I found myself devouring it happily just as I did all those years ago. And it’s good.

Enchant the Heavens was the first novel Kathleen Morgan ever wrote, and it was a labor of love. It’s a big, passionate, visceral, breathtakingly earnest romance.The story involves a British chieftain’s daughter, Rhianna, and the Roman governor’s nephew, Marcus, during Boudicca’s revolt, and their love is an anguished, star-crossed love that takes a great deal of blood and tears and hard work to resolve. Unlike most romances set during this period, the Celts aren’t romanticized into nature-loving New Agers, and the Romans aren’t evil. And neither the heroine or hero give up their cultures or identities in the end; in fact they work on uniting their communities in the aftermath of war. It’s mature and refreshing.

The language does have a lot of archaicisms that kind of annoying. ‘Twould! ’Twas! Naught! Okay… You just have to run with it. But if you’re willing to dive in, there is a lot to love about it. Rhianna is not afraid of revenge, or using her sword, which is really delightful (to avoid spoilers, I won’t tell you who she kills). Marcus is a reasonable guy too, but there’s just the right amount of deeply felt angst that is perfect for a story about forbidden love. Sometimes I feel that Marcus and Rhianna verge on being idealized archetypes then actual people, but it kind of fits with how epic and operatic the story is. (It really captures the vibe of ancient Irish stories like Deirdre, which was the author’s intention.) The author walks the line of having them be larger-than-life figures, but they still grow and change, from a thoughtless girl and a career-driven aristocrat to a responsible, compassionate leader and a humbled man ready to sacrifice his dreams to help his lover and her people.

The research put into this book isn’t perfect— towards the end of the book, there’s an hummingbird, native to the Americas, in Rome — but it’s thorough and thoughtful, and I liked the depiction of the historical figures. For example, the depiction of Nero, who has a brief and memorable cameo, is almost miraculous in how… sensible it is (and ahead of its time given this was written long before the current reassessment of Nero and the 2020 show at the British Museum). There’s no orgies or lions or gladiators or martyred Christians or any other cliches that I’ve seen over and over again in the few historical romances set in this period. It’s astonishing.

Anyway, this book is long. It’s also epic and sweeping in every possible way, and I have a feeling a good chunk was left on the cutting room floor. I would kill to have the original, unedited draft. Rhianna’s relationships with her friends Eilm and Cordaella are given short shrift. Also I feel the destruction of Camulodunum, and Rhianna’s role in it, was also cut a lot. I would have liked to see more of that, and Rhianna coming to terms with how her actions affected innocent civilians.

But the pacing, given how long it is, is surprisingly tight. I thought the consistent themes of freedom, symbolized by the goshawk, was really beautifully done; not heavy-handed, but subtle; and the story really embraces the pagan religions of the time in a way that’s delightful. There’s so much I can’t get into, or this review would be twice as long. There’s battles, druids, psychic visions, continent-spanning political intrigue, murder, and possibly supernatural white boars sent by the gods.

And the ending is really satisfying. I wish it were 20 to 30k longer, but it’s great as it is. It’s an absolute banger of a story. It’s not perfect but I’d give it a 4.5 out of 5 stars.

Of course, what really sucks about it all is that this was going to be the beginning of a series, and the hero’s best friend Quintus was going to get a sequel.

There was, in fact, one sequel (Enchant the Dream) featuring the heroine’s brother Cerdic. But then the author converted to Christianity sometime in the late 90s, and her entire pre-conversion historical and fantasy backlist are completely unavailable. (Of course, her post conversion backlist is available.)

It pisses me off so much, because Enchant the Heavens is so good! And I wanted to see Quintus’s story! But that’s never going to happen. And there’s never going to be a legal digital copy of this book either, because the author has seemingly disavowed it.

But we’ll always have Enchant the Heavens, and even if Morgan wants to forget her pagan past, I am grateful she wrote this book. I highly recommend it.

[k00320108]

Brainstorming for "Assemble".

The chaos of brainstorming for Assemble has begun. I immediately knew I wanted to do something more personal for this project and focus on the things I'm passionate about. I decided I wanted to look at the different elements that Assemble to form me as a person.

This project could go a million different ways. People are so complex, and specifically because it's about myself, I know there's thousands of different things I could focus on. That's a bit daunting but also makes it so exciting because there's so many possibilities. At the minute I think that's what I'm finding the hardest, I know there's so many different things I'd like to explore but I feel like I haven't had that light bulb moment yet of finding the concept within this idea that my heart is set on. But I have to remember that it's literally week one. Rome wasn't built in a day, and by the looks of it, this Assemble project won't be either.

Currently though, some ideas that have caught my attention are looking at fingerprints, sound waves, aran jumpers, old art such as birthday cards, a love for English, memories, and family. These are all very broad ideas, but they all individually seem to spark a very big interest in me or else just feel influential in things that make me as a person.

I'm usually described as a "giddy" person. Genuinely, if i had a euro for every individual who has called me giddy, I'd be able to afford this whole college thing a lot easier. I have a terrible case of not being able to stop laughing once I start. Humour is a huge part of my personality, so I'd love to look at this. I was particularly looking at soundwaves if I could get a voice recording of my laugh.

Over the summer, I started working in a place called "Quills" in Killarney. They sell traditional Irish sweaters, celtic jewellery, and pretty much anything remotely irish. I've always had a huge interest in Irish culture, and I feel like working there over the past few months has only spurred that on if anything. It gave me an excuse to learn the ins and outs of aran sweaters and celtic symbols. I'd love to explore this in my project. My project seems to be leaning towards identity. Originally, the Aran jumper was created to protect fishermen and farmers from the elements on the Aran Islands. Unfortunately, however, it was also a way to identify fishermen who had been lost at sea. Their bodies would often be unrecognisable however, every family had its own individual pattern on their jumper, and the different stitches had different symbolism. (I was recently told this isnt actually true lol, despite the fact that its definitely been used to convince poor tourists into buying a sweater or two, but its still an interesting thing to think about). I think this is fascinating, and I'd definitely like to look at this a lot more and maybe even create my own Aran jumper pattern that represents me by the end of the project!!

[theperfectpints]

Dopo aver visitato Trinity College, aver respirato aria buona al parco di St Stephen's Green e passeggiato per Grafton Street, perché non fermarsi per una sosta al 'Mc Grattan's'? Pub di lunga tradizione, le cui origini pare risalgano addirittura al 1798, offre ai propri affezionati clienti una buona selezione di birre alla spine, whiskey e liquori vari. All'esterno particolare e molto gradevole, l'interno non delude: arredamento tradizionale, ampie sale, tavoli, sgabelli, divani in pelle, caminetto e due biliardi. Classica piacevole atmosfera irlandese. In posizione assolutamente strategica ma lontano dal caos del centro città, 'McGrattan's' è una buona soluzione per tutte le esigenze. Per bere qualche pinta, per un pasto o per assistere ad un evento sportivo incollati alla tv. Insomma, per rilassarsi dalla frenesia quotidiana. 🇮���� 🍻 🥃 🍔

© Irish tales from Rome

[twinge-of-cosmicangst]

Wanted to write a fairly short succession future fic set in 2044 where Connor has been voted president lmao and the Roy’s and all their kids, plus a grandkid via Sophie are all at his house for his 80th birthday, Tom and Shiv had two kids in the end a girl and a boy, and Greg also had a son from some woman who he was with for like 6 months when he temporarily called off the Tomgreg affair, and all the Roy’s refer to her as an nrp of course cause their awful. Anyway Tom eventually leaves Shiv (Shiv living her best life in 2044 with a younger guy) for Greg and sort of ended up being in Greg’s kid (Layton’s) life more then his own (although he wasn’t even in his that much because of the job) but it obviously causes tension, but Eliza and Angelo (Tomshiv kids) don’t actually hate Layton or anything but there is some jealously but they like to keep him in their little trio, they sort of mirror ken/shiv/Rome, and would be at Connor’s birthday bitching at each other. Anyway Eliza is the first child and is like 24 and I gave her a girlfriend to be her plus one at the birthday, but then I was like how did they meet? And I was like her girlfriend Khalie was a college intern at Waystar of course. And then I wanted write about how they met the year before, then do Connor’s birthday. But then I got really into Eliza as a character and wanted to write about an argument she overheard when she was 10 between Tom and Shiv not long before they divorced. And now I’m just really into Eliza and the inherent trauma of being the daughter of Tom wambsgans and Shiv Roy. And also wanted to do a whole thing where Greg proposed to Tom and few years after Tom and Shiv divorced, but Tom rejected saying it wasn’t the right time, but it actually had more to do with his internalised homophobia and his issues with marriage, and Greg is still hinting about marriage but Tom worries he is too old now (he’s 69 😏) Also wanted to do something about Roman and Connor trying to get Shiv and Kendall to make up after 24 years of basically not talking and turning into the next Logan and Ewan.

Also Conwilla have 4 kids. Also as Roman seemingly escaped the cycle in the final episode so I let him come out and marry and Irish guy and they have a daughter called Erin. Tom is still the American CEO at Waystar, Greg is head of parks, I figured Shiv would work at Pierce (maybe CEO I don’t know) and Kendall and Roman started the 100, which is semi successful idk. Also Kendall has a six year old that he named Kendall junior lmao who is the same age his grandchild via Sophie. Anyway this is basically potential novel length at this point and I just wanted to do a crack fic about Connor becoming president at an extremely old age. And I already have 3 other succ fics I have on go that I do plan on finishing eventually ugh why am I like this.

[lboogie1906]

Priest Augustine “Augustus” Tolton (April 1, 1854 - July 9, 1897) born enslaved was one of the country’s first African American Roman Catholic priests. He shares early Black Catholic history with three brothers of Irish-African American ancestry: James, Sherwood, and Patrick Healy.

He was born to Martha Jane Chisley and Peter Paul Tolton. Both parents were raised and baptized as Catholics. In 1851 Martha and Peter were allowed to marry but remained under their original slave ownerships. The couple had three children.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Peter enlisted in the Union Army and died in a St. Louis hospital. When he was nine, Martha escaped slavery and the family crossed the Mississippi River into Quincy, Illinois. He met an Irish immigrant priest who provided him with the opportunity to attend a parochial school.

He expressed his interest in the priesthood and was tutored privately by local priests at a time when the vast majority of Catholic colleges in the US would not admit him. In 1878 he entered the Franciscans at Saint Francis College and helped found Saint Joseph School for Black children.

He was accepted into the College of the Propagation of the Faith seminary in Rome where he became fluent in Italian, Latin, and Greek. He was ordained in Rome. While he made plans to pursue missionary work in Africa he attempted to organize a parish in the Italian capital. He was assigned to his home diocese in Illinois as pastor of the Negro Church of Saint Joseph in Quincy. The church grew to capacity and included white parishioners. This angered a Quincy clergy leader, who urged him to minister only to Black members or leave.

He became pastor of an all-Black parish of 30 that had been meeting in temporary facilities. He renamed it Saint Monica’s Chapel. The parish had received a large donation from a benefactor and constructed a church on the corner of 36th and Dearborn Streets. It grew to serve 600 black and white parishioners.

In 2010 the Archdiocese of Chicago announced that it was introducing Fr. Augustus Tolton for canonization into sainthood. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

What did you do in Europe?

Uh oh you opened up the floodgates friend. See, I suffer from "post europe syndrome," wherein I will talk about it every chance I get. I'm sure my European followers are scratching their heads right now in confusion that the crazy lady is so happy she got to go over, but as a kid who religiously watched Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown on the travel channel it was a dream come true. It was the most transformative experience of my life, for more reasons than the obvious that I got to live my dream.

In short, everything I wanted to and much, much more.

I do want to preface it by saying I went with a travel group because it was my first time traveling alone and I wanted the safety net of a group/tour director to haul us from one place to the next. It's also a great way to meet people because a lot of people actually go alone. I feel comfortable going by myself now, but at that time I was lured by the safety net of a group, and it also admittedly kept my parent's mind at ease.

I did their big European tour and I was away for over a month. In Barcelona I saw a flamenco show, went to the local market, and wandered through Park Guell. From day one I wanted to party hard because to be frank I was a goody two shoes in college and was obsessed with being "the good daughter," who didn't party and get involved in anything questionable so I knew I wanted to explore and party overseas. Yep, did just that in Barcelona, a city whose night life goes hard. It was magical. Cramped, sweaty, but something I'll never forget. I did everything I could dream of in Paris, my second time there--the opera house, the louvre, getting rained on in Montmartre. The Moulin Rouge. Having my own solo day by going to the Orsay and the Richelieu library. Walking the city by myself. London: everything I wanted and more. Saw three shows, including my favorite, Phantom of the Opera. Met the phantom. Went to the Globe, saw Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh's first house, the whole journey feeling a bit illegal because I was in a rich residential neighborhood. Worth it. Rossetti Exhibit at the Tate--meeting one of my oldest moots Jen. Perfection.

Amsterdam, Went to the Anne Frank house. Got drunk on a river cruise. Laughing my butt off as me and a few friends wandered the city. French fries. Prague, I went to the opera, partied again at an eighties club and had one of the best nights of my life dancing with no fear or inhibitions. Munich, meeting another internet friend zuendwinkel... drinking beer and going to a local biergarten/festival. Switzerland: climbed a mountain, wandered through nature, did ziplining. Wine tasted in Venice. Saw Birth of Venus in Florence, and had a day at the Cinque Terre. Rome. Oh Rome. My first city international when I was sixteen. Meet some interesting Italian men in Trastevere. Went to an Irish bar and had another amazing night. topped it with a four AM trip to the Trevi Fountain.

And then in Greece, in Athens I fell in love with the city. The food, touching our ancientness in a way I had never felt before. Sitting at a rooftop bar and feeling like you can touch the Parthenon. Then sailing in Paros, jumping into the Mediterranean sea. Being looked at like I was a revelation, like I was more than myself. In meeting so many amazing people I not only got to enjoy their company but I also saw myself in a completely different way. Writing feels different now for so many reasons, because I am different. And lust, I have learned, isn't like fire. It's earthen. When I want I am ancient as Athens.

I love my story. I love who I met. Thank you for asking.

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1628 – Founding of the Irish College in Rome. Among its former students was St Oliver Plunkett, who attended in the late 17th century.

#OTD in 1628 – Founding of the Irish College in Rome. Among its former students was St Oliver Plunkett, who attended in the late 17th century.

The Irish College, Rome was founded on this date in 1628 by the Irish Franciscan, Fr Luke Wadding O.F.M. and the Italian Cardinal, Ludivico Ludovisi, a nephew of Pope Gregory XV, who died three years before the College was established. Having been appointed Cardinal Protector of Ireland, Ludovisi was concerned that his title would not be an empty one and when he was approached by Luke Wadding to…

[jhavelikes]

For the first thirty years of my life, I lived within a one-mile radius of Willesden Green Tube Station. It’s true I went to college—I even moved to East London for a bit—but such interludes were brief. I soon returned to my little corner of North West London. Then suddenly, quite abruptly, I left not just the city but England itself. First for Rome, then Boston, and then my beloved New York, where I stayed ten years. When friends asked why I’d left the country, I’d sometimes answer with a joke: Because I don’t want to write a historical novel. Perhaps it was an in-joke: only other English novelists really understood what I meant by it. And there were other, more obvious reasons. My English father had died. My Jamaican mother was pursuing a romance in Ghana. I myself had married an Irish poet who liked travel and adventure and had left the island of his birth at the age of eighteen. My ties to England seemed to be evaporating. I would not say I was entirely tired of London. No, I was not yet—in Samuel Johnson’s famous formulation—“tired of life.” But I was definitely weary of London’s claustrophobic literary world, or at least the role I had been assigned within it: multicultural (aging) wunderkind. Off I went.

On Killing Charles Dickens, by Zadie Smith | The New Yorker

[terciariosfranciscanos]

Luke Wadding of #Waterford 1588-1657, #FranciscanScotist philosopher historian, founder of two Irish colleges in Rome. The man who had St Patrick’s Day 17 Mar made a universal feast in 1632

[hbhughes]

Mary Jo Shields

Mary Jo Shields, 70, of South Pasadena, FL and Forty Fort, PA, passed  away on October 12, 2024 while traveling in Italy. Mary Jo was born on September 16, 1954 to the late Joseph and Mary Stiles.  She was born and raised in Luzerne and attended Central Catholic High School in Kingston, PA and was a graduate of College Misericordia, Dallas, PA, as well as the Evelyn Wood School of Speed Reading.  Prior to her retirement from the Wyoming Valley School District, she was a teacher and chair of the science department at the Wyoming Valley West Middle School.  She also taught in several elementary schools in the district early in her career.   

Mary Jo enjoyed life to the fullest.  Her sense of humor was renowned.  An avid sports fan, Mary Jo could be found cheering on her favorite teams: Notre Dame Football; Syracuse Basketball; and the Philadelphia Phillies. As the last surviving member of her immediate family, she was affectionately referred to as “The Matriarch.”  She embraced her Irish heritage and was the hostess to the yearly “Jig’s Dinner” on St. Patrick’s Day.  She loved St. Pete’s Beach, Florida but home was always the Wyoming Valley. Her greatest achievement was her sons. Her love, support, and pride knew no bounds.

Mary Jo was preceded in death by her parents, Joseph and Mary Stiles; sisters, Peggy Urbanovitch and Sally Disano; and nephew, Glenn Urbanovitch. 

She is survived by her loving husband Joe, who would have celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary on November 5; her son Attorney Joseph Shields and his wife Laura of Forty Fort, PA; and Michael Shields of Minneapolis, MN and his partner Teresa Pfab and their dog Ted Lasso, who Mary Jo loved; nieces, Laurene Urbanovitch, Lisa Stull, and nephew James Urbanovitch.  Several great nieces and nephews and a great, great niece.  Mary Jo was a blessing and blessed by wonderful friends, too many to count.   

The funeral will begin at the Hugh B. Hughes Funeral Home at 9 a.m. on November 4, 2024, with a Mass of Christian Burial to follow at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church, Kingston PA at 10 a.m.  Friends may call at Hugh B. Hughes Funeral Home on November 3, 2024, from 2 to 5 p.m. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Feeding Tampa Bay Disaster Relief at https://feedingtampabay.org or to the Catherine McAuley House, 430 Pittston Avenue, Scranton PA.   

The family would like to extend their thanks to Emanuele Caligiuri of La Pavese Funeral Home in Rome, Italy and the staff of the Hotel American Palace, and EUR of Rome for their care and compassion. 

[cruger2984]

THE DESCRIPTION OF BLESSED DOMINIC COLLINS Feast Day: October 30

Dominic Collins (aka Doiminic Ó Coileáin) gave up the life of a soldier for the peace of religious life, but was executed when he accompanied a military force as a chaplain in a campaign to free Ireland from English Rule.

Collins was born to a well-established family in Youghal in County Cork about the year 1566 when Elizabeth I was queen of England and Ireland. The Irish Parliament had established Anglicanism six years earlier as the official religion of the land.

These laws were not fully enforced yet in Youghal, but young Catholic men had few careers open to them so young Collins chose to leave Ireland to seek his fortune in France. He managed to enlist in the army of the Duke of Mercoeur who was fighting against the Huguenots in Brittany. He served with distinction in the cause of the Catholic League for over nine years and rose through the ranks. His greatest moment came when he captured a strategic castle and was appointed military governor of the region.

With the passing of time, Collins became less and less enamored of soldiering, even though King Philip II had granted him a pension and placed him in the garrison at La Coruña on Spain’s Bay of Biscay.

During Lent 1598, he met a fellow Irishman, a Jesuit priest called Thomas White, whom he told of his desire to do something else with his life. He decided that he wanted more than anything else to join the Jesuits and serve as a brother. The superiors were initially reluctant to accept him because they felt that a battle-hardened soldier would never be able to settle into religious life. Dominic bombarded the provincial with requests and was finally admitted to the novitiate in Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain.

If he was seeking peace and quiet in religious life, he was not to find it. He had barely arrived in Santiago when the Jesuit College was struck by plague.

Seven of the community were infected and many others fled for fear of catching the awful disease. Collins stayed on and tended the victims for two months, nursing some of them back to health and comforting the others in their last hours. He had proved his worth and completed his novitiate without further question. A report sent to Rome by his superiors states that he was a man of sound judgment and great physical strength, mature, prudent and sociable, though inclined to be hot-tempered and obstinate.

Ireland was in turmoil at this time. In Ulster O'Neill and O'Donnell were defying the power of the English crown and trying to call all of Ireland into revolt. In 1601, King Philip III of Spain decided to send an army to the help of the Irish rebels. A number of priests traveled with the expedition including an Irish Jesuit, Father James Archer who asked that Brother Collins be sent as his companion for the journey even though the priest had never met Collins.

The two set sail on different vessels, however, which became separated during a storm. Collins' ship had to return to La Coruña before finally reaching Ireland. Collins arrived at Castlehaven on Dec. 1, 1601, only 30 miles from his native Kinsale, where the main part of the Spanish fleet was already ensconced. A large English army under Lord Mountjoy had laid siege to the town.

Irish forces converged on Kinsale from North and South. The leaders were Hugh O'Neill, Red Hugh O'Donnell and O'Sullivan Beare from West Cork. The Irish army surrounded the English on the outside while the Spanish faced the English from inside the town. The Irish attacked at dawn on Christmas Eve, but for reasons never fully understood, suffered a humiliating defeat, with no help from the Spaniards who remained within the town.

The Irish scattered, with the O'Neill and O'Donnell armies marching northward while O'Sullivan Beare led his people home to the Beare peninsula. Dominic Collins accompanied him in his retreat. Thus he found himself some months later besieged inside Dunboy Castle with 143 defenders.

As a religious, Dominic Collins could not take part in the fighting but tended the wounded. After a bitter siege, with huge casualties, the defenders surrendered.

Almost all were put to the sword, but on June 17, the Jesuit was taken off in chains for interrogation. He was savagely tortured and promised rich rewards if he would renounce his Catholic faith. Even though some of his own family visited him and encouraged him to pretend a conversion in order to save his life, he stood firm.

On October 31, 1602, Dominic was taken to Youghal for execution. Before he ascended the scaffold to be hanged, he addressed the crowd in Irish and English, saying that he was happy to die for his faith.

He was so cheerful that an officer remarked: "He is going to his death as eagerly as I would go to a banquet."

Collins overheard him and replied: "For this cause I would be willing to die not once but a thousand deaths."

[ramrodd]

The Early Church Taught The Trinity!

COMMENTARY:

Tertullian was a stoic, His father was a centurion and centurions defined the stoci equity of the Roman Republic, as an element of the Roman Empire, Sociologically, the Roman Empire wa, like USA, a commonwealth, Canada and Virginia are, legally, Commoneealths, Legally, the Praetorian Guar defined the Roman Republic and the Praetorian Guard was an instrument of the secular rule of law and represented the first impkmentation of the deparation of church and state. Above the Praetorian Guard was the SPQU, but they were not stoci, per se, by law. They were Epicurean who understood the dimensions of honor  are the stoic virtures of instant obedience, like Abraham moving immediately to the binding of Isaac, and Seld-Disciplne. ' In terms of Post Modern Litarary Analysis, the ontology of the Bible has seven elements. The 7 demons Jesus drove out of Mary Magdalene wreen't demons, but Mary tryin go reconcile her experience of the ontology of existence with the shit whe was getting from all th emen around hr, And Jesus validated her ontology  and to put herself in the role of the Arachetype for The Son, who is a divine being with the same Pucker Factor she had. That'w whaat he meant in the Gospel of Mary Magdalene to become male.  This is where Planned ParentHood is revealsed as a theological necessicty of the secular humanism of Christology, The Bible is all about Process Theology, I am a process theology guru  like  Ltc Frank Burns who coined the phrase "Be All You Can Be". I can't speak for Frank, but the singular difference between me and Alfred North Whitehead is that I am without doubt regrding Genesis 1:1. But that 's not important. The essential role of a process theology guru is to transform everyone around you into process theology gurus. It's like Ranger Schoo: when you get don, you go back to  your home unit as a Ranger and raise the level of performance just by being a Ranger, In terms of the pure philosophy in the Bible, Pauline THeology, as summarized by the Epistles, is an Epicurean construct  in contrast to Hebrews, which is a stoic manifesto, Equity is the metaphysical connection between the two cultues, the epicurean Equity of Civil Law and the Stoci Equity of Rman Military Law as defined by Manilean Disciplne, That stoic connection between Pauline thology and Hebrews is Romans 13:1 - 7 and Hebrews 13:17,  If you are using the literaryanalusis, isntead of historical deconstruction, you would notice the "Dobling" of the Mundane Numerology of cahper and verse 1317.  This goes back to Genesis 41:32, king James Version, and how to authenticate the operations of the Holy Spirit in the Bible and in your own life. It turns out that Tertullian is the hsitoric anchor of my argument that Cornelius is the author of the Gosple of Mark that set off the literary project that  produced the Gospels, Acts, Hebrews and Revelation, Paul's Epistles are an authentic revelation form Jesus as Rabbi. Paul is not a philospher, He was booed off of Mars Hill whith his lame "Unkown God" parable. Like understand Christianity better that Paul does: if Paul hd used the Prodigal Son as his parable, he might never have ended up in Rome. The Gospel of Luke is Jesus as Odysseus preparing his crew to sail for Troy, The Prodicgal Son is Odysseus, weeping under Circe's compulsion and then set free to retun home and, instead of being mistaken for a beggar, his Father is like his dog, Argos, but doesn't fall dead but is liek an Irish Setter at the airport when its master comes home from college. Process thology is all about  larning how to use this Jesus stuff for fun and profit, or in the line of duty, Jeus is the ultimate process thology guru and he is trying to bring his Disciples up to speed on process theology and then he meets Cornelius, the centurion in Matthew 8:5 - 13,, who demonstrates to Jesus that the Roman centuions wre already using process theology as Republican servent leaders of the stoic  structures of the state. Cornelius is the Roman equivalent of a COmmand Sergeant Major, like Tim Walz. Tim Wals is what a process theology guru looks like in the mythos.