The Augustinian Canons of Klosterneuburg

One of the more distinctive religious habits seen about Rome is that of the Augustinian Canons of Klosterneubury which resembles the ordinary black cassock with what appears to be a white ribbon trailing fore and aft. (See picture)
Anyway, I was fascinated to come across the following web-page explaining the evolution of their habit. Note too: On solemn feasts the canon in solemn vows also wears a violet mozzetta or shoulder cape for offices in the church.

From sour-faced saints deliver us!

Today being the feast of the great Teresa of Avila, I'm reminded of an (apocryphal?) anecdote about her.
It's said that she used to advise her sisters that if a Dominincan was coming to dine that they should prepare a nice piece of fish because Dominicans like to eat. However, if a Jesuit was coming they should instead prepare questions; Jesuits like like to answer questions. (The cynical would say instead that Jesuits like to hear themselves answer questions.)

Peasant Christ Restored...

From ANSA.it:ANSA) - Florence, October 13 - A figure of Christ at the centre of a celebrated tiff between Donatello and Filippo Brunelleschi returned to its home in the Florence Basilica of Santa Croce on Thursday after a major clean-up .
(snip)
According to Vasari, after finishing the work, Donatello anxiously asked his close friend Brunelleschi what he thought of it .
He was mortified when the architect blasted his realistic Christ figure as "peasant" like .
In Vasari's words, "Filippo said that it seemed to him that Donatello had put the body of a peasant on the cross, not the body of Jesus Christ." Angered by the comment, Donatello challenged Brunelleschi to do better, reportedly saying "you get some wood and try to make one yourself." Brunelleschi went home and secretly started work on a crucifix, determined to show Donatello what he thought a Christ should look like .
When he had finished the cross, the architect invited Donatello to lunch .
Vasari then recounts that "going into the hall, Donatello paused to study Filippo's crucifix and found it so perfect that he was completely overwhelmed and dropped his hands in astonishment; whereupon his apron fell and the eggs, cheeses and the rest of the lunch tumbled to the floor and smashed." "Your job is making Christs and mine is making peasants", Vasari quotes Donatello as humbly telling Brunelleschi .

Interesting...

From the Telegraph:

The ghost of Catherine de Médici, blamed for one of France's bloodiest massacres, is now haunting its politics after a mystery candidate using her name announced that she - or he - would stand for president.
The intelligence services, political establishment and media were all desperate to unmask the identity of the figure behind yesterday's declaration, announced with a 270-page book entitled "I'm Coming - It's Later Than You Think".
To judge by early hints, "Catherine" favours an enigmatic but also populist analysis of France's ills, exploiting themes aired by the Right, Left and political centre.
(snip)
As widow of Henri II, Catherine became the ruthless power behind the throne of a France beset by the religious conflicts of 16th-century Europe. It was under her authority that Roman Catholic mobs began the 1572 St Bartholomew's Day massacres in which tens of thousands of Protestant Huguenots were slaughtered.

Famous Belgians!

From The Guardian:

Lovers of one of the anoraks' favourite parlour games - the challenge to name ten famous Belgians - will be delighted to learn that, in the tradition of London buses, two top 10 lists have come along at once.
Belgian television has decided to follow the success of BBC1's Great Britons series - which identified the top 10 Brits of all time - by running its own version.
There are two lists - one for French speakers living in Wallonia, in the southern half of the country, and another for Flemish speakers living in Flanders, in the north.
Anoraks will no doubt be pleased to learn that the two lists bear no relation to each other, opening up the possibility that the truly dedicated will soon be able to turn the game into Name 20 Famous Belgians.

Can anyone name any Belgian saints?

Various...

Habit-watching
I've previously posted snippets from The Handbook to Christian and Ecclesiastical Rome. One of the nice features is the way in which it gives little drawings of some of the more common religious habits in the manner of a birdwatcher's manual. I've often thought that it'd be interesting to do an updated manual of religious habits.
Blogroll
A new addition - Wheat & Weeds!
Dali Crucifix Found?
From Ansa.it

(ANSA) - Ancona, October 12 - An art expert has uncovered a sculpture of Christ on the Cross he claims Salvador Dali made to thank an Italian friar who exorcised him .
Armando Ginesi found the piece, measuring 60cm by 30cm, among the personal belongings of Gabriele Maria Berardi, a friar who died in 1984, in a storeroom in Rome .
He has shown the work to two Spanish experts on the Surrealist artist. They agreed that there are "sufficient stylistic reasons" to believe it was made by Dali .

Silly Roman Tricks...

One of the things that one begins to do when one has lived in Rome for a while is play 'spot the cleric' in restaurants. Even when they dress down, it's usually not too hard to spot a bunch of priests on an evening out. It's also not uncommon to spot groups of three (2 men, one woman) and with a little observation figure out that it's a married couple taking a priest-friend out for a meal.
Now that the synod is on, it's a case of spot the incognito bishops. It's rarely very difficult - the little groups of grey-haired men in cheap suits (no ties, and horror of horrors sometimes shirts buttoned up to the collar) are quickly identified. Last night, however, one group made it too easy. The fact that one had forgotten to leave his (super-sized!) pectoral cross at home spoiled all chance of anonymity for his colleagues.

Eco sets Pendulum in motion

From ANSA.it

Rome, October 8 - Foucault's Pendulum, one of the most famous scientific experiments in history, was recreated in Bologna on Saturday with the help of Italian philosopher and author Umberto Eco .
The experiment provided the title for the second of Eco's best-selling novels .
"I've been pursued by the Pendulum ever since I wrote that book, receiving invitations from museums all over the world who have put one up," Eco told the hundreds of people who crowded into a Bologna church .
"It's my curse, the Pendulum is everywhere and I no longer manage to escape the attentions of those who think they've found the only still point in the Universe," he said .

Via Michelle's Mental Cluster

Another wonderful obituary...

From the Telegraph:

Sig Frohlich, who has died aged 97, was a bit-part actor for much of his long career in Hollywood, playing messengers, waiters, callboys, clerks and soldiers, rarely earning even a flicker of recognition from viewers over 50 years.
But he achieved some lasting celebrity as one of the winged monkeys in The Wizard of Oz (1939). This was despite the fact that he was completely disguised in a monkey costume and uttered no words on screen.
(snip)
In 1935 he was a mutineer in Mutiny on the Bounty, starring Clark Gable, and a gentleman in A Tale of Two Cities. He had his first screen credit in the crime drama Riffraff (1936), with Jean Harlow and Spencer Tracy. The following year he was cast in Speed (with James Stewart) and Born to Dance (with Eleanor Powell); he was also a soldier of the evil Emperor Ming the Merciless in the Flash Gordon series.
(snip)
If some wondered whether he minded the modesty of his career, Frohlich, whose surname means happy in German, had no doubt. He was MGM's most senior star, and he was delighted to sign autographs for visitors to his nursing home. He died on September 30.

Fascinating Obituary in the Telegraph

Monsignor Gerald Chidgey RIP.

Monsignor Gerald Chidgey, who has died aged 85, was involved in distributing Allied propaganda for British Intelligence in Spain while studying for the priesthood during the Second World War.

Read it all

Is this good?

To be quite honest, I'm not at all well informed about the Potter phenomenon...

You scored as Albus Dumbledore. Strong and powerful you admirably defend your world and your charges against those who would seek to harm them. However sometimes you can fail to do what you must because you care too much to cause suffering. Severus Snape 75% Albus Dumbledore 75% Hermione Granger 65% Remus Lupin 65% Ron Weasley 55% Harry Potter 50% Ginny Weasley 40% Draco Malfoy 40% Sirius Black 40% Lord Voldemort 35% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

(Stolen from the Cnytr)

Not gone quite yet...

I had to share the following from the Telegraph:

A town in Sweden plans to become the first place in the world where corpses will be disposed of by freeze-drying, as an environmentally friendly alternative to cremation or burial. Jonkoping, in southern Sweden, is to turn its crematorium into a so-called promatorium next year.
Swedes will then have the chance to bury their dead according to the pioneering method, which involves freezing the body, dipping it in liquid nitrogen and gently vibrating it to shatter it into powder. This is put into a small box made of potato or corn starch and placed in a shallow grave, where it will disintegrate within six to 12 months.
People are to be encouraged to plant a tree on the grave. It would feed off the compost formed from the body, to emphasise the organic cycle of life.

More hiatus...

Hi folks...

Going travelling again, so don't expect much for the next week and a half, or so.

Various...

To everyone's great surprise I'm not dead. I'll refrain from blogging the details of some very messy DIY plumbing.
Thanks to Cnytr for the best Latin joke I've heard all week.

A Jesuit and a Franciscan priest were walking together in the forest, and the Jesuit wanted to see whether there was an echo. So, he called out in a loud voice, "Quod est Franciscanorum regula?" And the echo came back, "-gula, -gula" Then the Franciscan calls out in a loud voice, "Fuitne Judas Jesuita?" And the echo came back, "-ita, -ita".

In the Telegraph we have the obituary of Lord Kingsale (Kinsale?)

The 35th Lord Kingsale (by his own reckoning; by others the 28th or 30th), who died on September 15 aged 64, was Premier Baron of Ireland; his varied career included spells as a kitchen fitter, film extra, silage-pit builder, white hunter, plumber, proprietor of a dating agency in Brisbane and bingo caller in Birmingham before he retired on invalidity benefit to sheltered housing in Somerset.
[snip]
Lords Courcy of Ringoane and Kinsale sat in the Irish parliament as late as the reign of James VI and I. But the family had a knack of backing the wrong side; its fortunes declined inexorably until, by the beginning of this century, the principal asset of Lord Kingsale was the right (unique in the peerage) to keep his hat on in the presence of the sovereign.
Kingsale once undertook a sponsored slim (losing four stones) in the hope that it would give him a better chance of picking up a wife. Securing a spouse and heir was a constant ambition, consistently thwarted. In 1965 the Daily Express announced that he had become engaged to Caroline Graham Porter, a debutante whom he had met at Cowes Week, but nothing came of it.
After that, Kingsale frequently declared his eagerness to wed but, despite being, as he once put it, "the only middle-aged heterosexual bachelor in a 30-mile radius, which has made me a must for any dinner party", matrimony eluded him. He advertised for a wife on several occasions, and got a letter a day from candidates. In 1989, while working as a wine-waiter and butler for hire at £25 a night (including washing up), he became optimistic about a "40-plus, leggy blonde of Hampshire naval stock", but was disappointed again.

Burning philosophical issue...

I overheard some young people talking recently and noted that the more conventional verbs of communication have been replaced by the verb ‘to be.’ For instance it’s not uncommon to hear such sentences as:

I was ‘Get out of here.’
He was like ‘What are you doing?’

Now, what I want to know is whether this is indicative of the increasing reluctance to admit ontological considerations as constitutive of the essence of personhood? Have these young people reached a greater awareness of the symbolic nature of human existence and our capacity to express meaning in the manner in which we live out life? Are the distinctions between being, knowing and comminication drifting into oblivion? By virtue of authentic existence, does the barrier between message and messenger cease to be? What are the implications for Christology and a Theology of the Incarnation?

The Obituary Column...

The Telegraph's obituary column is usually worth a look. Otherwise I'd never have heard of blues artist RL Burnside:

Described by Fat Possum's founder, Matthew Johnson, as "a happy-go-lucky nihilist", Burnside became the label's best-selling artist. He also found an enthusiastic following among young rock fans, thanks to his association with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, with which he collaborated on an album - A Ass Pocket of Whiskey - in 1996. (When Burnside's wife heard it she asked him: "You mean you do that stuff in public?")
[snip]
After Burnside returned to Mississippi, he shot a man who, he claimed, had been attempting to run him out of his home. Although he was convicted of murder, the story goes that he had served only three months in jail when a plantation owner persuaded a judge to release him, saying he needed Burnside to work during the cotton-planting season.
"I didn't mean to kill nobody," Burnside later said of the murder. "I just meant to shoot the sonofabitch in the head. Him dying was between him and the Lord."
[snip]
RL Burnside is survived by his wife, Alice Mae, and 12 children. In later life he was nostalgic for the old days, before civil rights improved the circumstances of black people in the Deep South. "The biggest change I've seen in my life is more crime," he said in 1999. "A 15-year-old chopped up his grandmother here so he could pawn her TV set. That don't look like progress to me."

Totally superficial film judgement

I've not yet seen the new Pride and Prejudice film (but hope to soon) but I have seen the trailers and something is bugging me. If you look at these publicity shots you might (or might not) see what I mean. For some reason the two leads Keira Knightly (Elizabeth Bennet) and Matthew MacFadyen (Darcy) just look too modern. Something about their hair and faces seems to speak of the 21st century rather than the 19th. Does anyone else see what I mean?

Fascinating...

Or at least I think so: Voltage & Sockets info for around the world!

When academics snark...

Commenting on 2 Corinthians 11.22 and Philippians 3.5f. Rawlinson writes: "St. Paul's emphatic claim in Philippians 3.5 and 2 Corinthians 11.22, to be a Hebrew suggests that his opponents had attempted to deny his affinities with Aramaic speaking Judaism and rank him exclusively as a Hellenist." Many modern scholars would apparently find Paul's opponents very congenial company. - WD Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (pp 2-3)

Damask and Watered Silk...

The Oligarch recently made a comment about certain similarities between Orthodox Judaism and Catholicism which reminded me of this section from Ecclesiaticus which would seem to be Old Testament POD:

He exalted Aaron, the brother of Moses,
a holy man like him, of the tribe of Levi.
He made an everlasting covenant with him,
and gave him the priesthood of the people.
He blessed him with splendid vestments,
and put a glorious robe upon him.
He clothed him with superb perfection,
and strengthened him with the symbols of authority,
the linen breeches, the long robe, and the ephod.
And he encircled him with pomegranates,
with very many golden bells round about,
to send forth a sound as he walked,
to make their ringing heard in the temple
as a reminder to the sons of his people;
with a holy garment, of gold and blue
and purple, the work of an embroiderer;
with the oracle of judgment, Urim and Thummim;
with twisted scarlet, the work of a craftsman;
with precious stones engraved like signets,
in a setting of gold, the work of a jeweler,
for a reminder, in engraved letters,
according to the number of the tribes of Israel;
with a gold crown upon his turban,
inscribed like a signet with "Holiness,"
a distinction to be prized, the work of an expert,
the delight of the eyes, richly adorned.
Before his time there never were such beautiful things.
No outsider ever put them on,
but only his sons
and his descendants perpetually.
His sacrifices shall be wholly burned
twice every day continually. (45:6-14)