Today is the feast of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, cobblers who were martyred in the Diocletian persecution. Known in England as “Saint Crispin’s Day,” it is also the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt, which marks a famous English victory … Continue reading
Category: Arts and Culture
Sir William Walton’s Coronation March, ‘Crown Imperial’
As a short companion piece to Joe Doyle’s fine Reflections on the Second Elizabethan Age, I propose to introduce to our readers who might be unfamiliar with it the coronation march that was performed at Her Majesty, Elizabeth II’s coronation: … Continue reading
Father Figures in 2 Great Movies
National Catholic Register, Robert Brennan: Fathers often take a beating in popular culture, especially as they are depicted in television and films. If they even exist in the postmodern “family” constructs, they are usually there as comic foils or authoritarians … Continue reading
Ella Logan Angel of the Stage
Church Militant: Ella Logan (1913–1969) was a Scottish-born singer and actress who was famous in American pictures and early television. When she performed for the GIs in Italy, she kept one rule with iron-clad resolve: There would never be anything … Continue reading
Great Venetian 16th Century Artist Was a Woman
Aleteia, V. M. Traverso: Venice does not lack for famous painters. Art history has been profoundly influenced by Venetian painters, whether it be the suggestive landscapes of Canaletto, the moving art of Titian, or the iconic style of Tintoretto. Yet, we hardly ever … Continue reading
Distracting Ourselves to Death
National Catholic Register, Joseph Pearce: A friend of mine, a monk, is writing something on silence. He requested that I give him some literary leads on the topic. Happy to oblige, I offered several poems which invite the reader to … Continue reading
Most Beautiful Thing I Have Ever Heard
Her Arms Can’t Even Reach the Chords – The Fountain — Marcel Lucien Grandjany
Featuring nine year old Alisa Sadikova on Harp
Russian Easter Overture and the Cancelling of Real Culture
It would not be right to say that if I don’t listen to Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter Festival Overture, it simply is not Easter for me. The Solemnity of Solemnities and our Pasch happens whether or not the great Russian … Continue reading
Symphony Number Seven by Antonín Dvořák
There’s a lot of ugly in the world. Here’s some beauty. It’s the Frankfurt Radio Symphony under the baton of Maestro Peter Oundjian performing the Seventh Symphony of the Czech Catholic composer, Antonín Leopold Dvořák. When I was a teenager, … Continue reading
What’s in That Prayer? The Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Here is the oration that the Church prays in the Mass and Office for the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Ecclésiam tuam, Dómine, miserátio continuáta mundet et múniat: et quia sine te non potest salva consístere; tuo semper múnere gubernétur. Here … Continue reading
O Virgin Most Prudent
I’ve been writing some things lately on the cardinal virtue of prudence (The ‘Mother’ of Virtues as a Remedy to Pervasive Surrealism, and Knowing the Real and Doing the Good, with more to come in a couple of weeks). We … Continue reading
Joseph Pearce In Praise of Joseph Sobran (1946-2010)
National Catholic Register, Joseph Pearce: The late Joseph Sobran (1946-2010) was a journalist who thrived on controversy. He was the sort of writer who did not try to please all of the people all of the time, or even most … Continue reading
Jesuit Martyr Who Influenced Shakespeare
St. Robert Southwell, Jesuit priest and martyr, was hanged, drawn and quartered on February 21, 1595. To commemorate the anniversary and to celebrate the legacy of this great Catholic saint and poet, Joseph Pearce was interviewed by Jan Franczak for … Continue reading
Replacing the WASPS
Most of what we consider institutional America — its governmental, academic, cultural, and even religious — structures were created by the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Of course, there were many of Dutch, German, French Huguenot, Scandinavian, and other Northern European nationalities … Continue reading