#Sisters of Charity Motherhouse

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1814 – Birth of Sister Anthony (born Mary Ellen O’Connell) in Limerick.

A Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, she served with distinction as a nurse on the front lines of the American Civil War. Her work with the wounded and in health care in general caused her to be known as “Angel of the Battlefield” and “Florence Nightingale of America.” Her portrait hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Mary Ellen O’Connell was born in Limerick, the daughter of…

[myremnantarmy]

THE MIRACULOUS MEDAL OF OUR BLESSED MOTHER

On July 18, 1830, at the age of twenty-four, in Motherhouse Chapel of The Daughters of Charity in Paris, France, St. Catherine Laboure received an outstanding grace.

She had been awakened that night by her Guardian Angel in the form of a beautiful child. The Angel said to Sister Catherine m, “Come to the Chapel; the Blessed Virgin is waiting for you.” In the Chapel Our Lady appeared to her and said, “My child, I am going to give you a mission.” This mission was to invite all people, young and old, to grow in holiness, and to place themselves at the service of others, especially the poor.

Four months later, in another vision, Sister Catherine learned that she was to introduce the medal of the Immaculate conception to the whole world. During this apparition, our Blesses Mother was standing on the world with serpent under her feet, symbolizing the crushing of Satan. Her arms were outstretched, and powerful rays of light shone forth. Mary explained that these rays symbolized the graces she obtains for all those who seek her intercession.

Appearing around this vision of the Blessed Virgin were the words : O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” These elements were to compose the front of the medal.

Then the vision revealed the reverse side of the medal. St. Catherine saw a cross with a bar at its feet that was intertwined with the letter “M.” Beneath the letter were the hearts of Jesus and Mary, both surmounted by flames of love. One heart bore. Crown of thorns (the Sacred Heart of Jesus). The other was pierced by a sword ( the Immaculate Heart of Mary). Encircling all of this were 12 stars, symbolic of the 12 apostles and representing the entire Church.

The Blessed Mother then said, “Have a medal struck after this model. All who wear this medal will receive great favors. Favors will abound if it is worn with devotion.” Extraordinary answers to prayer occurred immediately, and this medal came to be known throughout the world as the “Miraculous Medal.”

MIRACULOUS MEDAL PRAYER

O Virgin Mother of God,

Mary Immaculate,

we dedicate and

Consecrate ourselves

to you under the title

Of Our Lady of the

Miraculous Medal.

May this medal be

for each of us

a sure sign of our affection for us

and a constant reminder of our duties

toward you.

Ever while wearing it,

may we be blessed by your loving protection

and preserved in the grace of your Son.

O Most powerful Virgin, Mother of our Savior,

keep us close to you every moment of our lives.

Obtain for us, your children, the grace of

a happy death; so that, in Union with you,

we may enjoy the bliss of the heaven forever.

Amen.

[tejanaculturalstudiesvacantinuns]

Sisters such as Reverend Mother M. Madeleine Chollet Superioress of the new foundation of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio helped establish the Santa Rosa Hospital, one of the first hospitals in the area. The Sisters also lived in part of that building as their first Motherhouse in 1869.

Red Cross nurses trainees at the Santa Rosa Hospital in 1942.

[colleenbooksfiction]

As Chapter 5 of LISTENING TO HER OWN VOICE ends, Rosa, my protagonist, has begun to teach piano to a sight-impaired young girl by the name of Dotty Warren. Pictured above is a picture of Pauline Von Mallinckrodt, the woman from Germany who started the order of the Sisters of Christian Charity. She founded the order in Paderborn, Germany, in 1849. The Motherhouse is still there today. Sister Pauline was a giving, loving and saintly person, traits others saw in her even as young as age six. In Chapter 6 of my book, Rosa asks Sr. Baptista at Guardian Angels about Sister B's decision to become a nun. Please visit my website to learn more about my book, check out my blog for additional pictures, and sign up for my free monthly newsletter. Book available on Amazon. Consider writing a review or contacting me with any comments or questions.

[dwellordream]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Rhaegar Targaryen/Original Female Character(s), Aerys II Targaryen & Rhaegar Targaryen, Rhaegar Targaryen & Rhaella Targaryen Characters: Original House Targaryen Character(s), Rhaegar Targaryen, Aerys II Targaryen, Rhaella Targaryen Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Original Character(s), Pre-Canon, House Targaryen, Red Keep (A Song of Ice and Fire), Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters, Orphans, Loss of Parent(s), One Shot, Targaryen Incest, Cousin Incest, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con Summary:

"High in the halls of the kings who are gone/Jenny would dance with her ghosts/The ones she had lost and the ones she had found/And the ones who had loved her the most." - Florence + the Machine, 'Jenny of Oldstones.'

Jaehaerys could have packed his nieces off to a motherhouse to be raised as septas or even Silent Sisters, for he never approved of his brother’s scandalously low marriage. Yet he took them into his wife’s household, and Shaera made it clear they were to be treated as full members of the family, not servants or charity cases. The girls learned to read and write, to dance and dress, to play the bells and the high harp and to sing, though only Agnes can carry a tune. They did not see much of Rhaegar as girls, their educations conducted separately, but they always ate with the royal family and their apartments are very close to the queen’s. Too close, Betha sometimes thinks. Every so often, she can hear Rhaella’s cries in the night.

(In which Duncan and Jenny perish at Summerhall, but their daughters survive to grow up in luxurious uncertainty in Aerys' perilous court).

[beyondmistland]

Fire & Blood Rewrite: Daella Targaryen

               Though frail and somewhat simple-minded, Daella had a gentle heart, becoming a constant fixture at her mother's charities and women's courts alongside the Lady Jocelyn, whose daughter, Rhaenys, she doted upon. Thus, it came as no surprise that when the princess turned sixteen (80 AC) she chose Rodrik Arryn to be her future husband. (Given her small size, the king and queen agreed that Daella should not be wed before her eighteenth nameday. They also agreed that she should wed outside of the family. "To show the realm that Our Favor is not unjust," Alysanne explained to one of her ladies-in-waiting.)

               Though new to King's Landing Rodrik had quickly grown popular with court and commons alike for he was both a loving husband and a good father. (His first wife, Alyssa of House Dutton, had died that same year of an evil growth inside her heart.)

               All agreed they were a fine match and so two years later they were wed on Dragonstone. The bride and groom's closest kin were the only ones in attendance. (To everyone's confusion, Vaegon deigned to appear.)

Ø  Vaegon developed an odd friendship with his older sister, Septa Maegelle, over the issue of Greyscale when both were sent away in 73 AC. As a result, he failed to recover from the shock of her untimely death in 96 AC, growing so pale and frail that many mistook him for a ghost when Jaehaerys summoned him to King's Landing late in 101 AC. Alas, the journey back proved too much for Vaegon to endure and so the youngest Archmaester Oldtown had ever known died at Tumbleton that same year. He was thirty-eight years old.

               On the last day of the year (82 AC) Daella gave birth to her first child following a long and difficult labor. Two years later (84 AC) she gave birth to her second child though the labor left her bedridden for well over a fortnight. Upon recovering, she told her lord husband "two is enough" and he agreed.

Ø  Aemma Arryn grew to be a bold and beautiful woman who "knew her answer to any question before it was even asked". At her own request, Aemma wed her cousin, Viserys, late in 97 AC. Aemma possessed the blonde hair of House Arryn and the purple eyes of House Targaryen. (After Prince Baelon's death in 105 AC, she drowned herself in Blackwater Bay. The queen was twenty-three years old.)

Ø  Aenar Arryn grew to be a polemic knight full of "queer thoughts". He had one child, Alysanne (or "Alys" for short), who married Prince Aegon Targaryen in 119 AC. (She died of a chest cold in 128 AC. The lady was twenty-seven years old.) Aenar possessed the brown hair of House Shett and the purple eyes of House Targaryen. (His paternal grandmother was from Gulltown.) In 100 AC he married the only child of Philip Reyne and Arra Kenning: Asha (or "Lady Ash" as he preferred to call her). The wedding attendants included Queen Alysanne, Princess Aemma, Princess Rhaenys, Lady Jocelyn, and Prince Baelon. (Queen Alysanne died a fortnight later.) Aenar's wife died of Greyscale in 118 AC. (The lady was thirty-five years old) He was one of the princess's fiercest partisans but also an enemy of her paternal uncles. He was exiled from King's Landing for inciting a riot against Queen Alicent's brothers, who were accused by him of having poisoned Queen Aemma. Aenar died of a sudden fever in 111 AC. He was twenty-seven years old. His grandson was born in 121 AC. His grandson was named for Lord Aerion. His grandson's mount was named Seath. (Previously claimed by Alysanne. Seath had blue eyes and white scales.) Prince Aegon's mount was named Smough. (Red of eye. Black of scale.)

Ø  During her brief tenure as Lady of the Eyrie the princess became famous for commissioning translations of The Seven-Pointed Star and for sponsoring the Septons who went abroad to bring heathen souls into the light of the Faith. In this Daella was undoubtedly inspired by her older sister, Septa Maegelle, who she frequently corresponded with. (Septa Rhaella, on the other hand, became one of the Most Devout, attending the Great Council of 101 AC as well as the coronation of Viserys I before dying of old age in 105 AC.)

Ø  Though she found Alyssa frightening Daella sent her older sister many gifts upon hearing of Prince Aegon's birth late in 83 AC. (In return, Alyssa visited her sister while on her first progress in 84 AC.)

Ø  When Princess Alyssa and her namesake both died late in 84 AC Daella comforted her mother by coming back to court.

                In 89 AC Daella built a new motherhouse for bastard children to honor her sister and grandmother's memory. While observing the builders at their work a tile fell from the rafters, knocking her insensate. The princess died three days later without ever waking up. She had counted five-and-twenty years on this earth. (As the queen lit her funeral pyre, she said, "Now comes the winter of Our Heart". Though the king's response was blunter, it was no less genuine. "We have lived too long.")

Ø  A dirge was sung for her by Lady Jocelyn and Princess Gael.

Ø  Rodrik Arryn died the following year (90 AC) of a broken heart. He was forty-six years old.

[anastpaul]

Second Saint of the Day – 27 December – Blessed Sára Salkaházi S.S.S. (1899–1944) Martyr, Religious Sister of The Sisters of Social Service, Teacher, bookbinder, milliner, journalist – born as Schalkház Sarolta Klotild on 11 May 1899 in Kassa, Hungary (modern Košice, Slovakia) and died by being shot on 27 December 1944.   Sára was a Hungarian Catholic religious sister who saved the lives of Jews during World War II.   Denounced and summarily executed by the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross Party, Blessed Sara was Beatified on 17 September 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI.   Recognition of the Beatification was celebrated at Budapest, Hungary by Cardinal Peter Erdo.   Blessed Sára was the first non-aristocrat Hungarian to be beatified.

Teacher, bookbinder, milliner, journalist – this was the resume of Sára Salkaházi when she applied to join the Sisters of Social Service, a Hungarian religious society that today is also active in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Taiwan and the Philippines.   The Sisters of that new congregation, founded in 1923 by Margit Slachta and devoted to charitable, social and women’s causes, were reluctant to accept this chain-smoking, successful woman journalist and she was at first turned away from their Motherhouse in Budapest. But 16 years later, she became the Society’s first Martyr, at the hands of the Nazis.

Fun-loving and intelligent, Sára was born into a well-to-do family at Kassa-Kosice, Upper Hungary, now Slovak territory, on 11 May 1899.   She studied to become a teacher.   In the classroom, she learned through her students about the social problems of the poor, which she publicised via newspaper articles.   To widen her horizon and experience first-hand what discrimination meant, Sára became a bookbinder’s apprentice, where she was given the hardest and dirtiest work.   She learned that trade, then went to work in a millinery shop, all the while continuing to write articles for newspapers.   She became a member of the Christian Socialist Party and then worked as editor of that party’s newspaper, focusing on women’s social problems.

After she had come into contact with the Sisters of Social Service, Sára felt a strong call to join them.   Following her initial rebuff, she quit smoking – with great difficulty – and was admitted to the Society at age 30, in 1929.   She chose as her motto Isaiah’s “Here I am! Send me!” (Is 6: 8b).   Her first assignment was to her native Kassa (which at the end of World War I had been incorporated into Czechoslovakia) to organise the work of Catholic Charities;  subsequently, she was sent to Komarom, for the same task  . In addition, she wrote, edited and published a Catholic women’s journal, managed a religious bookstore, supervised a shelter for the poor and taught.   The Bishops of Slovakia then entrusted her with the organization of the National Girls’ Movement.   She thus began giving leadership courses and publishing manuals.

In one year alone, she received 15 different assignments, from cooking to teaching at the Social Training Centre, all of which exhausted her physically and spiritually.   When several novices left the Society, Sára also considered leaving, especially since her superiors would not allow her to renew her temporary vows (she was deemed “unworthy”), nor permit her to wear the habit for a year.   These decisions hurt her deeply.   But Sára accepted these hardships and made up her mind to remain faithful to her calling for the sake of the One who called her.   Her faithfulness paid off as she received permission to renew her vows some time later.

She wanted to go to the missions, to China or Brazil but the outbreak of World War II made it impossible to leave the country.   She worked instead as a social lecturer and administrator in Upper Hungary and Sub-Carpathia (which had also been part of Hungary until the end of World War l) and took her final vows in 1940.

As national director of the Catholic Working Girls’ Movement, Sister Sára built the first Hungarian college for working women, near Lake Balaton.   In Budapest, she opened Homes for working girls and organised training courses.   To protest the rising Nazi ideology Sister Sára changed her last name to the more Hungarian-sounding “Salkaházi”. As the Hungarian Nazi Party gained strength and also began to persecute the Jews, the Sisters of Social Service provided safe havens.   Sister Sára opened the Working Girls’ Homes to them where, even in the most stressful situations, she managed to cheer up the anxious and discouraged.

As if her days were not busy enough, she managed to write a play on the life of St Margaret of Hungary, canonised on 19 November 1943.   The first performance, in March 1944, was also the last, since German troops occupied Hungary that very day and immediately suppressed this religious production.

The life of St Margaret may have provided the inspiration for Sister Sára to offer herself as a victim-soul for the safety and protection of her fellow-Sisters of Social Service.   For this, she needed the permission of her superiors, which was eventually granted.   At the time, they alone knew about her self-offering.

Meanwhile, she kept hiding additional groups of refugees in the various Girls’ Homes, under increasingly dangerous circumstances.   Providing them with food and supplies became more and more complicated every day, given the system of ration cards and the frequent air raids.   Nevertheless, Sister Sára herself is credited with the saving of 100 Jewish lives and her Community, with saving 1,000.

The Russian siege of Budapest began on Christmas 1944.   On the morning of 27 December, Sister Sára still delivered a meditation to her fellow-Sisters.   Her topic? Martyrdom!   For her, it would become a reality that very day.   Before noon, Sister Sára and another Sister were returning on foot from a visit to another Girls’ Home.   They could already see in the distance, armed Nazis standing in front of the house.   Sister Sára had time to get away but she decided that, being the director, her place was at this Home.   Upon entering the house, she too was accompanied down into the air raid shelter where the Nazis were already checking the papers of the 150 residents.   About 10 of them were refugees with false papers.   Some were declared suspicious and were to be taken to the ghetto, while those in charge would have to “give statements at Nazi headquarters before being released”.   As she was led out, Sister Sára managed to step into the chapel and quickly genuflected before the altar but her captors dragged her away.   One of the Nazis suggested, “Why don’t we finish them off here in the yard?”. But another gestured, “No”.

That night, a group of people was driven by agents of the pro-Nazi Arrow Cross regime to the Danube Embankment.   Sister Sára was among them.   As they were lined up, she knelt and made the Sign of the Cross before a bullet mowed her down.   Her stripped corpse and those of her companions were thrown into the river.

The other Sisters anxiously awaited Sister Sára’s return.   A youngster from the neighbourhood brought them news of the shooting the following day.   It seems that the Lord had accepted Sister Sára’s sacrifice, because none of the other Sisters of her Community was harmed.

Every year, on 27 December, the anniversary of her martyrdom, the Sisters of Social Service hold a candlelight memorial service on the Danube Embankment for Sister Sára Salkaházi.   The voluntary offering of their first martyr saved not only many persecuted Jews but also her Religious Community….Vatican.va

Speaking at the Beatification Mass, Rabbi József Schweitzer said of Sister Sára, “I know from personal experience … how dangerous and heroic it was in those times to help Jews and save them from death.   Originating in her faith, she kept the commandment of love until death.”

Peter Cardinal Erdo, the Archbishop of Budapest, read a proclamation from Pope Benedict XVI beatifying Sister Sara.

The proclamation said, “She was willing to assume risks for the persecuted…in days of great fear. Her martyrdom is still topical… and presents the foundations for our humanity.”

For the Lord, all things are possible.   Trust Him to the end!

“Here I am!   Send me!” (Is 6: 8b)

(via Saint of the Day - 27 December - Blessed Sára Salkaházi S.S.S. (1899–1944) Martyr - A Catholic Gem)

[attyvicsimon]

Happy Birthday in Heaven, Saint Teresa of Calcutta! 😍😇😘 #MotherTeresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on 26 August 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia, to Albanian parents. She was admitted as a postulant at Loreto Convent in Rathfarnam, Dublin, Ireland on 12 October 1928 and received the name of Teresa, after her patroness, St. Therese of Lisieux. She was sent by the Loreto order to India on 6 January 1929 where she joined the Loreto novitiate in Darjeeling. She made her final profession as a Loreto nun on 24 May 1937, and hereafter was called Mother Teresa. On 10 September 1946, on a train journey from Calcutta to Darjeeling, Mother Teresa received what she termed the "call within a call," which was to give rise to the Missionaries of Charity with the aim and mission "to quench the infinite thirst of Jesus on the cross for love and souls" by "laboring at the salvation and sanctification of the poorest of the poor." On October 7, 1950, the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity was officially established. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, she expanded the work of her congregation not only in Calcutta but also throughout India and around the world. By 1997, the Sisters of her congregation has 600 foundations in 123 countries. At 9:30 PM, on 5 September 1997, Mother Teresa died at the Motherhouse. Her body was transferred to St Thomas' Church, next to the Loreto convent where she had first arrived nearly 69 years earlier. Hundreds of thousands of people from all classes and all religions, from India and abroad, paid their respects. She received a state funeral on 13 September 1997, her body being taken in procession -- on a gun carriage that had also borne the bodies of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru -- through the streets of Calcutta. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Queens, Royalties, and Special Envoys were present on behalf of countries from all over the world. She was beatified on 19 October 2003, thereby bestowing on her the title "Blessed." #PopeFrancis canonized & declared her #SaintTeresaOfCalcutta on 4 September 2016. 😍 ❤😘 #BirthdayInHeaven #JourneyOfLife #JourneyOfFaith #Travel #AuthenticTravel #TravelMindset #Backpacking #TravelInsp https://www.instagram.com/p/CiHN-5Yh7Lv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1814 – Birth of Sister Anthony (born Mary Ellen O’Connell) in Limerick.

#OTD in 1814 – Birth of Sister Anthony (born Mary Ellen O’Connell) in Limerick.

A Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, she served with distinction as a nurse on the front lines of the American Civil War. Her work with the wounded and in health care in general caused her to be known as “Angel of the Battlefield” and “Florence Nightingale of America.” Her portrait hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Mary Ellen O’Connell was born in Limerick, the daughter of…

[pamphletstoinspire]

Saint Vincent de Paul - Feast Day: July 20th - Latin Calendar - September 27th - Ordinary Time

" I was hungry and you gave me food; thirsty and you gave me drink; a stranger and you welcomed me; naked and you clothed me; sick and you cared for me; in prison and you visited me." - (Matt 25: 35-36)

Vincent was born in Gascony, France, in 1581, though some authorities have said 1576. He was born of a peasant family, he made his humanities studies at Dax with the Cordeliers, and his theological studies, interrupted by a short stay at Saragossa, were made at Toulouse where he graduated in theology. Ordained in 1600 he remained at Toulouse or in its vicinity acting as tutor while continuing his own studies. Brought to Marseille for an inheritance, he was returning by sea in 1605 when Turkish pirates captured him and took him to Tunis. He was sold as a slave, but escaped in 1607 with his master, a renegade whom he converted.

On returning to France he went to Avignon to the papal vice-legate, whom he followed to Rome to continue his studies. He was sent back to France in 1609, on a secret mission to Henry IV; he became almoner to Queen Marguerite of Valois, and was provided with the little Abbey of Saint-Léonard-de-Chaume. At the request of M. de Berulle, founder of the Oratory, he took charge of the parish of Clichy near Paris, but several months later (1612) he entered the services of the Gondi, an illustrious French family, to educate the children of PhilippeEmmanuel de Gondi. He became the spiritual director of Mme de Gondi.

With her assistance he began giving missions on her estates; but to escape the esteem of which he was the object he left the Gondi and with the approval of M. de Berulle had himself appointed curé of Châtillon-les-Dombes (Bresse), where he converted several Protestants and founded the first conference of charity for the assistance of the poor. He was recalled by the Gondi and returned to them (1617) five months later, resuming the peasant missions. Several learned Parish priests, won by his example, joined him. Nearly everywhere after each of these missions, a conference of charity was founded for the relief of the poor, notably at Joigny, Châlons, Mâcon, Trévoux, where they lasted until the Revolution.

After the poverty of the country, Vincent’s solicitude was directed towards the convicts in the galleys, who were subject to M. de Gondi as general of the galleys of France. Before being convoyed aboard the galleys or when illness compelled them to disembark, the condemned convicts were crowded with chains on their legs onto damp dungeons, their only food being black bread and water, while they were covered with vermin and ulcers.

Their moral state was still more frightful than their physical misery. Vincent wished to ameliorate both. Assisted by a priest, he began visiting the galley convicts of Paris, speaking kind words to them, doing them every manner of service however repulsive. He thus won their hearts, converted many of them, and interested in their behalf several persons who came to visit them.

A house was purchased where Vincent established a hospital. Appointed by Louis XIII royal almoner of the galleys, Vincent visited the galleys of Marseilles where the convicts were as unfortunate as at Paris; he lavished his care on them and also planned to build them a hospital; but this he could only do ten years later. Meanwhile, he gave on the galley of Bordeaux, as on those of Marseilles, a mission which was crowned with success (1625). Congregation of the Mission. The good wrought everywhere by these missions together with the urging of Mme de Gondi decided Vincent to found his religious institute of priests vowed to the evangelization of country people—the Congregation of Priests of the Mission.

Experience had quickly revealed to St. Vincent that the good done by the missions in country places could not last unless there were priests to maintain it and these were lacking at that time in France. Since the Council of Trent the bishops had been endeavoring to found seminaries to form them, but these seminaries encountered many obstacles, the chief of which were the wars of religion. Of twenty founded not ten had survived till 1625.

Vincent established the Daughters of Charity. At first they were intended to assist the conferences of charity. When these conferences were established at Paris (1629) the ladies who joined them readily brought their alms and were willing to visit the poor, but it often happened that they did not know how to give them care which their conditions demanded and they sent their servants to do what was needful in their stead. Vincent conceived the idea of enlisting good young women for this service of the poor.

They were first distributed singly in the various parishes where the conferences were established and they visited the poor with these ladies of the conferences, or when necessary, cared for them during their absence. In recruiting, forming, and directing these servants of the poor, Vincent found able assistance in Mlle Legras. When their number increased he grouped them into a community under her direction. Coming himself every week to hold a conference suitable to their condition.

Besides the Daughters of Charity Vincent de Paul secured for the poor the services of the Ladies of Charity, at the request of the Archbishop of Paris. He grouped (1634) under the name some pious women who were determined to nurse the sick poor entering the Hotel-Dieu to the number of 20,000 or 25,000 annually; they also visited the prisons. Among them were as many as 200 ladies of the highest rank.

After having drawn up their rule St. Vincent upheld and stimulated their charitable zeal. It was due to them that he was able to collect the enormous sums which he distributed in aid of all the unfortunates. Among the works, which their co-operation enabled him to undertake, that of the care of foundlings was one of the most important. Some of the foundlings at this period were deliberately deformed by miscreants anxious to exploit public pity. Others were received into a municipal asylum called "la couche", but often they were ill-treated or allowed to die of hunger. The Ladies of Charity began by purchasing twelve children drawn by lot who were installed in a special house confided to the Daughters of Charity and four nurses. Thus years later the number of children reached 4000; their support cost 30,000 livres; soon with the increase in the number of children this reached 40,000 livres.

With the assistance of a generous unknown who placed at his disposal the sum of 10,000 livres, Vincent founded the Hospice of the Name of Jesus, where forth old people of both sexes found a shelter and work suited to their condition. This is the present hospital of the uncurables. Vincent did more than anyone for the realization of what has been called one of the greatest works of charity of the seventeenth century, the sheltering of 40,000 poor in an asylum where they would be given a useful work. St. Vincent attached the Daughters of Charity to the work and supported it with all his strength.

Vincent’s exterior life so fruitful in works had its source in a profound spirit of religion and in an interior life of wonderful intensity. He was singularly faithful to the duties of his state, careful to obey the suggestions of faith and piety, devoted to prayer, meditation, and all religious and ascetic exercises. Of practical and prudent mind, he left nothing to chance; his distrust of himself was equaled only by his trust in Providence; when he founded the Congregation of the Mission and the Sisters of Charity he refrained from giving them fixed constitutions beforehand; it was only after tentative, trials, and long experience that he resolved in the last years of his life to give them definitive rules. His zeal for souls knew no limit; all occasions were to him opportunities to exercise it. When he died the poor of Paris lost their best friend and humanity a benefactor unsurpassed in modern times.

Vincent died on 27 September 1660 (aged 79) Paris, France. His body was exhumed in 1712, 53 years after his death. The written account of an eye witness states "...the eyes and nose alone showed some decay." However, when the body was exhumed again during the canonization in 1737 it was then discovered to have decomposed due to an underground flood.

His bones have been encased in a waxen figure which is displayed in a glass reliquary in the chapel of the headquarters of the Vincentian fathers in Paris. His heart is still incorrupt, and is displayed in a reliquary in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Paris.

[gracewithducks]

“Let us open wide our hearts.” - Katharine Drexel (Luke 12:13-21)

This fall, we’ve been spending some time with modern day saints – some of the faithful men and women who have lived in the last century. So far we’ve heard the story of Father Kolbe, a Polish priest who helped Jewish refugees during the Second World War, and ultimately offered his life in Auschwitz in order that another man might live; we’ve heard the story of Josephine Bakhita, a young woman born in the Sudan, kidnapped and sold into slavery, only to find her faith and her freedom on the other side of the world; and we’ve shared the story of Nelson Mandela, whose life-long work against apartheid cost him nearly three decades in prison – and who, while in prison, invited even his guard to sit side by side with him at the table of Christ. We’ve been reminded that there is power in living, and there is power in dying, but no matter what, as the people of God, when it comes to issues of peace and justice – we cannot sit apart; we cannot stay silent.

 Today we are scheduled to talk about Katharine Drexel, the first canonized saint to have been born a United States citizen – and I promise, we will talk about Katharine Drexel, because hers is a life worth remembering – but before we talk about the first American saint, I want to talk a moment to talk about America itself.

 And friends, I’m an American. I’m an American, because I was born here, and I was born here, because a few generations back, some courageous souls decided to risk everything, to leave their homes and old lives behind in pursuit of something new, in this new land across the sea. I grew up in the United States, singing ��My Country, ‘tis of Thee” and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance with my peers. I grew up reading Little House on the Prairie and playing with American Girl dolls; I watched the Olympics and cheered “USA!” with the crowds for every gold medal won, and I didn’t just stand for but played the national anthem before our high school football games.

 This is my home. This is, as the song says, the country where my heart is. But because I love it, I want so  much more for us.

 I believe in the ideals that the United States was founded up: equality and liberty, for all people. But I believe it’s dangerous when we forget that “all people” hasn’t ever really meant all people yet – when we try to shove the skeletons of our past back into the closet – when we find ourselves repeating our mistakes and perpetuating our prejudices.

 And I also, quite frankly, believe that it’s dangerous to elevate individual freedoms, and individual happiness, above all other goals and values in life; the American Dream – while a lovely idea – so often, in practice, turns out to be just an illusion, a mirage, glimmering on the horizon, but for so many, no matter how long and hard they work, the dream never arrives… and for those who do achieve the American Dream, they still wrestle with discontentment, because “more” is never enough. And so we create a voraciously consumerist culture; we create an ever-deepening divide between the rich and the poor; we continue to divide ourselves along class and race and color lines… and we fear each other, and we distrust each other, and – in our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, we end up creating a place where people die senselessly, where freedoms are reserved for a chosen few, and where nobody is ever really happy at all.

 In the pursuit of the American dream, we’ve created a nightmare. And this, friends, is why I want to talk about Katharine Drexel, our own home-grown saint… because just like Jesus turned expectations upside-down, when he said the last shall be first, and the greatest is the servant, and blessed are the hungry, and the poor, and the meek – Katharine, by her life and by her faith, challenges us to turn our understanding of the American dream on its head.

 Katharine[1] was born into the American dream. She was born in Philadelphia in 1858, the second child of a wealthy investment banker and his wife. When she was just five weeks old, however, her mother died, and so Katharine and her sister spent the next two years in the care of their aunt and uncle, until their father remarried and the girls were brought back home, and a younger sister soon joined the family.

 Katharine and her sisters were raised with every privilege and advantage possible. The girls were educated by private tutors; they toured parts of the United States and Europe. And they were also raised to recognize that not everyone was as well-off as they; twice a week, the family home became a distribution center, where the Drexels offered food, clothing, and rental assistance. When they heard of someone, often a widow or lonely single woman, who was too proud to ask for help, the family would quietly seek them out and find ways to meet needs without sacrificing anyone’s dignity. As Katharine’s stepmother Emma would teach the daughters, “Kindness may be unkind if it leaves a sting behind.”

 By all appearances, Katharine  loved and respected Emma, the only mother she had ever known. It was Emma who taught Katharine how to care for others; it was Emma who cared for her. But it was Emma’s three-year struggle with terminal cancer that taught Katharine another lesson: she learned that, while money can buy a lot, while money can give a lot and do a lot – no amount of money can protect you from pain or save you from death.

 Katharine started to reflect on her own young life. She thought about the times that had moved her, and she discovered a deep and abiding passion to relieve the suffering of the Native American people. And so she started to support, both financially and personally, numerous missions and missionaries working here in the US.

 When Katharine’s father died, much of his resources were left to a variety of charities and causes. But even after those monies were doled out, the three sisters still stood to inherit a huge estate – and “huge” may actually be an understatement here. To protect his daughters from fortune hunters, however, their father stipulated that – while the young women controlled the remaining fortune, it would never belong to their spouses, and couldn’t be willed to anyone else; on their deaths, it would pass to their children alone. Should none of the sisters have children, when they died, the remaining fortune would be redistributed to a variety of charitable causes.

 But the women were still young yet; Katherine wasn’t even married. Her heart and passion were still for making a difference for the peoples around her. Shortly after their father’s death, the three sisters were received in private audience by the Pope, where they pleaded for missionaries to be sent to staff the Indian missions they were financing. And it was at this meeting that the Pope suggested that Katharine become a missionary herself. I wasn’t at that meeting – but I’ve been a part of enough others to imagine the conversation went something like this: “You say that God needs someone; what if God is calling you? What if God doesn’t just want you to send your money – but what if God is sending you?”

 Katharine wrestled with this idea, she prayed to discern her own calling – and she came to believe that, yes, this is where God was calling her, this is how she wanted her life to be spent. The day that Katharine entered the convent where she would prepare to take her vows and be trained as a missionary, the local paper, the Philadelphia Public Ledger, ran the banner headline: “Miss Drexel Enters a Catholic Convent – Gives Up Seven Million.” Because, as a nun, she would have no children, she was forfeiting her share in her father’s inheritance.

 And yes, seven million is a lot of money – but to put it in perspective, that’s more like one hundred and seventy-two million dollars today. No wonder people were shocked; no wonder they were amazed.

 But Katharine was convinced. She committed herself and her life to issues of social justice, almost a century before ideas of equality came to the forefront of the American consciousness. She started opening schools everywhere she could: schools for Native American children, schools for African American children, schools for the kids that were too often and easily being forgotten, ignored and overlooked.

 And Katharine established her own religious congregation, the sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, dedicated to the ideas of social justice… and they realized those ideal weren’t shared by all their neighbors, when a stick of dynamite was discovered near their new motherhouse. But Katharine wasn’t swayed; if anything, she believed more than ever that the work she was about, the work God had called her to, was vitally important, and not just “someday” in the future – but today.

 Because neither Katharine nor her sisters ever had children, on her death, their father’s estate was divided among several charitable causes. But even without the Drexel fortune behind them, Katharine’s order and schools continue their work still to this day.

 Katharine lived to be ninety-six years old. She was born in the years leading up to the Civil War; she saw not one but two world wars… and she died before the Civil Rights moment really began in earnest. She was a woman ahead of her time; she was a woman who left an incredible legacy behind her, including one hundred forty-five missions, and sixty-two schools for minority students – and Xavier University of Louisiana, the only historically black college in the US, owes its existence in part to Katharine Drexel, the rich white northern girl.

 The American Dream says: work hard, and you’ll get rich; pass your riches on to your children, so they won’t have to work so hard. The American way says, More is never enough; it says, whoever dies with the most toys, wins.

 But that’s not God’s way. And that’s why I love Katharine’s story: she flips the script upside-down. Rather than resting on her father’s fortune, she gave it up and gave it away. Rather than getting caught up in the game of me-first, look-out-for-number-one, rather than worrying about creating a huge inheritance to pass on to her own children – she invested her life, her inheritance, in other people’s children: in children who didn’t look like her, who came from households very different from her own – she spend her life loving and teaching and helping as many children as she could, because she believed that we’re all God’s children, in the end.

 In our scripture for today, Jesus tells the parable of a rich man who – when faced with even more wealth than he’d ever dreamed of having – decides that the best thing to do is to build bigger barns, to store all his grain, so that he will be set for the rest of his life. And he’s not wrong, except that the rest of his life turns out to be much shorter than he’d planned. You fool! God says to the man, you fool! Your life will be demanded of you this very night, and then what will you have to show for yourself?

 There’s wisdom in planning for the future. I’m saving for retirement, no doubt. But there also comes a point where you have more than you need, where saving turns into hoarding – and all those things that were once good start to turn rotten as we stockpile them away. It’s the lesson God’s people learned from the manna in the wilderness: that God gives us enough for all to be fed, every day, and when you try to take more than you need and to hoard it away – literally, it turns rotten; it stinks.

 Katharine would say it’s the lesson of the Eucharist, of the Lord’s Supper. Her faith was deeply shaped by the experience of coming again and again to Christ’s table, where all people – rich or poor, white or brown or red or black – all people stand as one. Here, we all share the same food. And she was also shaped by the language: this bread, it’s Christ, and look, here is how much he loves you: he loves you enough to sacrifice himself, to be broken open so that many might live.

 Our daily bread is meant to be shared, not stockpiled. There’s a saying floating around these days: if you have more than you need, build a bigger table. If you have more than you need, don’t build more barns to keep it in; if you have too much grain, bake it into bread, and break it open, and give it away.

 And just as we need to eat every day to live – we need to keep coming back to God, coming back to Christ, so our spirits can be fed, too, through this communal meal, through this act of love: taking, and blessing, and breaking open, and giving away.

 Katharine saw her resources, her privilege, as gifts – meant to be used, not to advance herself or her family, but to support God’s work. And when she died, she didn’t leave a fortune… but she left schools and missions, and generations of children educated, of children loved, of families changed, because of her faith. She made the world a richer place, because she remembered what really mattered most.

 Friends, chances are, you don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars in your family accounts. If you do, please come find me! Few of us are millionaires – but we are all blessed, nonetheless. We all have resources to share: our time, our talents, our table, our attention, our advocacy, our love.

 How are we spending what we’ve God? How are we investing our time and our resources – how are we investing our lives? How are we growing God’s gifts? Are we taking them, and asking God’s blessing, and breaking them open, and giving them away?

 The American dream is to work hard, to get famous, and to accumulate great big piles of stuff. But God’s dream is to work hard, to be humble, and to give generously. And it may not be as flashy, but I’d say it’s a much more impressive – and important – way to live.

 May our legacy be the legacy of self-giving love. May we be good stewards, faithful servants of God and generous lovers of God’s people, now and for years to come.  

  God, you know the things that we yearn for; you know what, and who, we work for each day. And you also know the things that wear us down and break our hearts. Help us to live faithfully, not just for today but for the future. Give us hope, and give us courage, and fill us with your peace. In Christ’s name; amen.

[1] She was born Catherine Mary, and didn’t change her name’s spelling to Katharine until later in life. For simplicity’s sake, however, I’ll be using the same spelling throughout.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Drexel

[atlanticcanada]

Halifax council agrees to amend land-use rules for Motherhouse development

Halifax regional council has cleared another hurdle for the Southwest Properties development proposed for the former Sisters of Charity Motherhouse site in Rockingham.

from CBC | Nova Scotia News https://ift.tt/2NrZwjr

[anastpaul]

Saint of the Day – 16 April – Saint Bernadette Soubirous (1844-1879) Marian Visionary of Lourdes, Virgin, Consecrated Religious.  Born on 7 January 1844 at Lourdes, Hautes-Pyrénées, France and died on 16 April 1879, Nevers, Nièvre, France of natural causes, aged 35.   Patronages – Bodily illness,  Lourdes, France, shepherds and shepherdesses, against poverty, people ridiculed for their faith.   She was Canonised on 8 December 1933 by Pope Pius XI.   Her Body is incorrupt and is on display in Nevers, France.

The eldest of nine children, only four of whom survived childhood, Marie-Bernarde Soubirous was born at Lourdes, in the foothills of the Pyrenees.   After her father, a miller, lost his job in 1854, the family was exposed to the direst extremes of poverty.

By the time she was 14, Bernadette had been sick so often that she hadn’t grown properly.   She was the size of a much younger girl.   She, her parents and her younger brothers and sisters all lived in a tiny room at the back of someone else’s house, a building that had actually been a prison many years before.   They slept on three beds: one for the parents, one for the boys and one for the girls.   Every night they battled mice and rats.   Every morning, they woke up, put their feet on cold stone floors and dressed in clothes that had been mended more times than anyone could count.   Each day they hoped the work they could find would bring them enough bread to live on that day.

“Bernadette” grew up uneducated, undernourished and asthmatic, obliged to work as a waitress and a farmhand.   The little girl spoke in a Basque dialect and could scarcely read or write.   She did, however, imbibe from her parents a deep Catholic devotion.

By 1856 the Soubirous were living in an abandoned prison cell which stank of sewage. On 11 February 1858 Bernadette, with her sister Toinette and a friend, went to gather firewood.   In a grotto beside the River Gave, at a place used as a watering hole for pigs, she saw a vision of a “Lady” wearing a white dress, a blue girdle and a yellow rose on each foot.   Bernadette’s companions saw nothing and she herself wondered whether her experience had been an illusion.   Three days later, though, she returned to the grotto, and again saw the apparition.   On 18 February her third visit, the vision spoke for the first time, asking for her presence over the next fortnight.   Next day, the Lady instructed Bernadette to tell the priests to build a chapel at the grotto.

Crowds began to gather to witness the regular phenomenon of the small girl in ecstasy. The police, concerned, interrogated Bernadette, who related her experiences with clarity and conviction.   Local interest quickened after the Lady told Bernadette to drink from a muddy trickle in the grotto.   By the morrow the trickle had turned into an active spring.

On 4 March at the end of the prescribed fortnight, a crowd of 10,000 gathered to watch Bernadette.   In fact, she would experience three more apparitions, bringing the total to 18.   Chivied by the parish priest, she insisted that the Lady should give her name.   “I am the Immaculate Conception,” came the reply, in perfect Basque dialect.   Bernadette had no idea what this meant.   She repeated it to herself over and over on her way back to the village so she wouldn’t forget the strange, long words.   When she told her parish priest what the lady had said, he was quite surprised.   The priest knew that what the mysterious lady had said meant that she was Mary, Jesus’ mother.   The mysterious lady of the grotto had told Bernadette who she was.   But it was not very common for people—especially poor little girls who couldn’t read—to think of Mary as the “immaculate conception,” a phrase that reminds us of how God saved Mary from sin even before she was born.   The Blessed Virgin also told her:   “I do not promise to make you happy in this world but in the next,” the apparition had told her.

Disliking the attention she was attracting, Bernadette went to the hospice school run by the Sisters of Charity of Nevers where she had learned to read and write.  Although she considered joining the Carmelites, her health precluded her entering any of the strict contemplative orders.   On 29 July 1866, with 42 other candidates, she took the religious habit of a postulant and joined the Sisters of Charity at their motherhouse at Nevers.   Her Mistress of Novices was Sister Marie Therese Vauzou.   The Mother Superior at the time gave her the name Marie-Bernarde in honour of her godmother who was named “Bernarde”.

Bernadette spent the rest of her brief life there, working as an assistant in the infirmary and later as a sacristan, creating beautiful embroidery for altar cloths and vestments. Her contemporaries admired her humility and spirit of sacrifice.   One day, asked about the apparitions, she replied:

“The Virgin used me as a broom to remove the dust.   When the work is done, the broom is put behind the door again.” and  “They think I’m a saint,” she observed. “When I’m dead they’ll come and touch holy pictures and rosaries to me, and all the while I’ll be getting boiled on a grill in purgatory.”

She later contracted tuberculosis of the bone in her right knee.   She had followed the development of Lourdes as a pilgrimage shrine while she still lived at Lourdes but was not present for the consecration of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception there in 1876.

For several months prior to her death, she was unable to take an active part in convent life.   She eventually died of her long-term illness at the age of 35 on 16 April 1879 (Easter Wednesday) while praying the holy rosary.   On her deathbed, as she suffered from severe pain and in keeping with the Virgin Mary’s admonition of “Penance, Penance, Penance,” Bernadette proclaimed that “all this is good for Heaven!”   Her final words were, “Blessed Mary, Mother of God, pray for me! A poor sinner, a poor sinner”.

In the 1858 Lourdes apparitions, the Blessed Virgin Mary declared herself as the Immaculate Conception to the innocent little shepherd girl named Bernadette: … The Immaculate Conception (CCC, 490-3)

(via AnaStpaul – Breathing Catholic)

[jesus-mom]

Missionaries of Charity cancel Mother Teresa birthday celebrations due to COVID-19

CNA Staff, Aug 27, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The Missionaries of Charity canceled their customary birthday celebrations for their founder, Mother Teresa, this year after nine religious sisters tested positive for COVID-19. Wednesday marked the 110th birthday of Saint Mother Teresa, who died in 1997. Among other celebrations, the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity, which houses the saint’s tomb, was forced to call off a public nine-day novena, Mass, and children musical event. Sunil Luca

Go to the article

[wikitopx]

Besides the timeless river, Nevers is the capital of the quiet and rural Department of Nièvre in central France.

In the past, the city was ruled by the Counts and Dukes of Nevers, whose opulent Renaissance house is now the Town Hall. If you know the art of decorating, you probably already know the prosperity of Nevers, the fine earthenware crafted by master potters in an industry that employed thousands of people in the 17th and 18 centuries. A few workshops still practice this art, and the city’s museum is replete with pieces of astounding workmanship. Let's explore the best things to do in Nevers.

[toc]

1. Nevers Cathedral

Anyone familiar with the church will feel something special about this sublime medieval building: There are two gates, one on the western end where the usual gate would be, and the other on the common freezing.

This makes the church completely unique and appears because the church on the west end is a relic from a previous Roman church that was burned down in 1308. In this old church, there is a painting. The mural was painted in the 1100s, and you can fall into the catacombs to see a combination from the 1400s.

The nave and east apse meanwhile are Gothic and mainly from the 13th and 14th centuries.

2. Palais Ducal

On the high ground where the Nevers political and religious organizations were located was the Palace of Ducal, a symbol of power for the Old Earl and the Duke of Nevers.

Architecture is spelled; It features a mix of Renaissance and 16th-century Renaissance designs, with dozing windows, decorative chimneys and a central spiral staircase that you can see from the front.

The one who started it was Jean de Clamency, the Earl of Never, who wanted to live in something more solemn than a fortress. The palace is now the town hall but there is also the Nevers tourist office and a former city exhibition.

3. Musée de la Faïence

Heaven for people with an eye for fine decorative items, this museum in a Benedictine abbey has hundreds of pieces of local faience. You’ll appreciate the technical know-how of the Nevers Manufactories.

And this comes in all forms, including tiles, dishes, ceremonial plates statuettes and bottles, all representing more than four centuries of expertise.

But the galleries don’t end there as you can also admire almost 300 pieces of intricate enameled glass from the 17th and 18th centuries, crafted with a technique that has since been lost. On top of all this, there’s a stash of art from the French and Italian Schools.

4. Faience Workshops

The faience Nevers industry took off in the late 1500s when Italian potters settled here at the invitation of the Duke of Nevers. Everything was just right for this craft, as the Loire promised swift export and the wood sourced from the Morvan forest could belt out the 1000°C heat to bake these ceramics.

The trade went into decline at the end of the 18th century and only one of the original 12 manufactories survived.

Since the 20th century, there has been a rebirth, and you can call in at three workshops, Faiencerie d’art de Nevers, Faiencerie Georges, and Faiencerie Bleue to see a master potter at work and make a purchase.

5. Porte du Croux

There’s a really evocative slab of medieval heritage on the west side of the old center: Looking at the Porte du Croux as you enter the city you can see the slits in the front of the gate for the chains on the drawbridge.

Back in the 14th century, this would have been lowered to allow people to cross the Passière River, which has since moved underground. Look higher and you’ll see the machicolations and turrets that are supported by corbels. Inside there’s a little archaeology exhibit for Nevers and its region spread over three floors.

6. Promenade des Remparts

From the Porte du Croux you can stroll down to the right bank of the Loire in a pretty garden complemented by a long sliver of the city’s old walls. These defenses were built in the 12th century by the Count of Nevers, Pierre de Courtenay to defend the Abbey of Notre-Dame.

After the 1600s they were never needed again. But this long stretch of the wall remained incorporated by local properties, while the land that became the garden was never developed because of its marshy ground.

So by a quirk of history and the landscape, there’s now a big chunk of the medieval wall beside pergolas, trees, a rose garden and flowerbeds, all ending with vistas over the Loire from the Quai des Mariniers.

7. Église Saint-Étienne

Although not many tourists make it to this church on the east side of the city, anyone who values historic architecture should make the short walk.

The Church of Saint-Étienne is an exceptional Romanesque building, built from a subtly golden limestone more than 900 years ago and hardly altered since then.

The great 19th-century restorer Viollet-le-Duc called it “the most perfect 11th-century monument left to France”. The architecture is sober, and there isn’t much sculpture or ornamentation, but for the purity of style and preservation, you’ll have to travel a long way to beat this church.

8. Nevers Magny-Cours Circuit

Petrolheads will be aware that the French Grand Prix was a yearly fixture at this racetrack up to 2008 when the French Motorsports Federation pulled out of the tour.

The track is only 15 minutes down the road and apart from welcoming a few minor international events, is mostly used for heritage rallies, testing and “track days”.

So if you’d fancy taking a spin on a circuit graced by the likes of Michael Schumacher, Mika Häkkinen and Ayrton Senna you can book a driving experience with one of the companies putting you behind the wheel of a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche or F1 car.

9. Espace Bernadette

Nevers is also a big pilgrimage site as it was where Bernadette Soubirous became a postulant and worked in a convent until she passed away in 1879. In case you’re wondering, Soubirous was the woman who witnessed the supposed Marian Apparition that turned the town of Lourdes into one of the most important places in the Catholic world.

There’s a museum here, at the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity, explaining her life and routine around the former Saint-Gildard Convent. Her apparently incorrupt body is displayed in the adjacent chapel.

10. Église Sainte-Bernadette du Banlay

If you wander up to Nevers’ northern suburbs you’ll come across a building that looks nothing like the delicate architecture in the old center. You’ll be forgiven for thinking that you’ve found a relic from the war, as this church bears a striking resemblance to a German concrete bunker.

That is no coincidence because the functionalist designer Paul Virilio was a big admirer of the blockhouses that were scattered around France in the post-war years. There are two half-shells of concrete cantilevered on a central pillar, and we can guarantee that you’ve never seen a church like it.

More ideals for you: Top 10 things to do in Montauban

From : https://wikitopx.com/travel/top-10-things-to-do-in-nevers-709297.html

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in 1814 – Birth of Sister Anthony (born Mary Ellen O’Connell) in Limerick.

#OTD in 1814 – Birth of Sister Anthony (born Mary Ellen O’Connell) in Limerick.

A Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, she served with distinction as a nurse on the front lines of the American Civil War. Her work with the wounded and in health care in general caused her to be known as “Angel of the Battlefield” and “Florence Nightingale of America.” Her portrait hangs in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Mary Ellen O’Connell was born in Limerick, the daughter of…