Castle Howard.

Text is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

Castle Howard,

Yorkshire, England.

Photo: 21 March 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Pwojdacz.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Castle Howard Web-Site can be found HERE

Castle Howard is a Stately Home in North Yorkshire, England, fifteen miles (twenty-four km) North of York. It is a private residence, the home of the Howard family for more than 300 years.

Castle Howard is not a true Castle, but this term is also used for English Country Houses erected on the site of a former Military Castle.

It is familiar to television and film audiences as the fictional "Brideshead", both in Granada Television's 1981 adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, and a two-hour 2008 remake for cinema. Today, it is part of the Treasure Houses of England group of heritage houses.

The Chapel,

Castle Howard.

Photo: 31 March 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mdbeckwith.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Castle Howard Railway Station.

Photo: 24 June 1988.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Ben Brooksbank

(Wikimedia Commons)

Castle Howard Railway Station was a minor Railway Station serving the village of

Welburn and the stately home at Castle Howard, in North Yorkshire, England.

On the York to Scarborough Line, it was opened on 5 July 1845 by the

York and North Midland Railway. The architect was George Townsend Andrews.

It closed to passenger traffic on 22 September 1930, but continued to be Staffed,

until the 1950s, for small volumes of freight and parcels.

The Station was often used by the aristocracy, notably Queen Victoria when she visited Castle Howard with Prince Albert, as a guest of the Earl of Carlisle in August 1850. A road was built from the Station to the Stately Home. Parts of this road (and the associated columns) can still be seen to the North side of Whitwell-on-the-Hill. The Station is now a private residence.

Castle Howard

from across the Great Lake.

Photo: 30 July 2007.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: John Nicholson

(Wikimedia Commons)

Castle Howard was built between 1699 and 1712, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh, for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle. The site was that of the ruined Henderskelfe Castle, which had come into the Howard family in 1566 through the marriage to Lord Dacre's widow of Thomas, 4th Duke of Norfolk.

The House is surrounded by a large estate which, at the time of the 7th Earl of Carlisle, covered over 13,000 acres (5,300 ha) and included the villages of Welburn, Bulmer, Slingsby, Terrington and Coneysthorpe. The estate was served by its own Railway Station, Castle Howard, from 1845 to the 1950s.

Interior of Castle Howard's Central Dome,

with 1962 recreation of Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini's

The Fall of Phaëton (original 1712, destroyed by fire).

Photo: 21 May 2011.

Source: Geograph project.

Author: Pauline Eccles

(Wikimedia Commons)

In 1952, the House was opened to the public by then owner, George Howard, Baron Howard of Henderskelfe. It is currently owned by his son, the Honourable Simon Howard, who grew up at the Castle.

In 2003, the grounds were excavated over three days by Channel 4's Time Team, searching for evidence of a local village lost to allow for the landscaping of the estate.

The South Frontage of Castle Howard.

Photo: 5 June 1991.

Source: From geograph.org.uk

Author: Richard Croft

(Wikimedia Commons)

The 3rd Earl of Carlisle first spoke to William Talman, a leading architect, but commissioned Vanbrugh, a fellow member of the Kit-Cat Club, to design the building. Castle Howard was that Gentleman-Dilettante's first foray into architecture, but he was assisted by Nicholas Hawksmoor.

Vanbrugh's design evolved into a Baroque structure with two symmetrical wings projecting to either side of a North-South axis. The crowning Central Dome was added to the design at a late stage, after building had begun. Construction began at the East End, with the East Wing constructed from 1701–1703, the East End of the Garden Front from 1701–1706, the Central Block (including Dome) from 1703–1706, and the West End of the Garden Front from 1707–1709. All are exuberantly decorated in Baroque Style, with coronets, cherubs, urns and cyphers, with Roman Doric pilasters on the North Front and Corinthian on the South. Many Interiors were decorated by Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini.

Deutsch: Panoramaaufnahme der Nordseite (aus Richtung des großen Sees) von Castle Howard.

English: Panoramic shot of the Northern facade (seen from the lake) of Castle Howard.

Photo: 2 June 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: chris.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The Earl then turned his energies to the surrounding garden and grounds. Although the complete design is shown in the third volume of Colen Campbell's Vitruvius Britannicus, published in 1725, the West Wing was not started when Vanbrugh died in 1726, despite his remonstration with the Earl.

The house remained incomplete on the death of the 3rd Earl in 1738, but construction finally started at the direction of the 4th Earl. However, Vanbrugh's design was not completed: The West Wing was built in a contrasting Palladian Style to a design by the 3rd Earl's son-in-law, Sir Thomas Robinson. The new Wing remained incomplete, with no first floor or roof, at the death of the 4th Earl in 1758; although a roof had been added, the Interior remained undecorated by the death of Robinson in 1777. Rooms were completed, stage by stage, over the following decades, but the whole was not complete until 1811.

The Turquoise Drawing Room,

Castle Howard, Yorkshire,

England.

Photo: 31 March 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mdbeckwith.

(Wikimedia Commons)

A large part of the house was destroyed by a fire which broke out on 9 November 1940. The Dome, the Central Hall, the Dining Room, and the State Rooms on the East Side, were entirely destroyed. Paintings depicting the Fall of Phaeton by Antonio Pellegrini were also damaged. In total, twenty pictures (including two Tintorettos and several valuable mirrors) were lost. The fire took the Malton and York Fire Brigades eight hours to bring under control.

Castle Howard,

Yorkshire.

Photo: 16 August 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Peter Astbury.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Some of the devastated rooms have been restored over the following decades. In 1960–1961, the Dome was rebuilt and, in the following couple of years, Pellegrini's Fall of Phaeton was recreated on the underside of the Dome.

Some were superficially restored for the 2008 filming, and now house an exhibition. The East Wing remains a shell, although it has been restored externally. Castle Howard is one of the largest Country Houses in England, with a total of 145 rooms.

The Great Hall,

Castle Howard.

Photo: 31 March 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mdbeckwith.

(Wikimedia Commons)

According to figures released by the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, nearly 220,000 people visited Castle Howard in 2010.

Castle Howard has extensive and diverse gardens. There is a large formal garden immediately behind the house. The house is prominently situated on a ridge and this was exploited to create an English landscape park, which opens out from the formal garden and merges with the park.

Two major garden buildings are set into this landscape: the Temple of the Four Winds at the end of the garden, and the Mausoleum in the park. There is also a lake on either side of the house. There is an arboretum, called Ray Wood, and the walled garden contains decorative rose and flower gardens.

Lady Georgiana's Dressing Room,

Castle Howard.

Photo: 31 March 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mdbeckwith.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Further buildings, outside the preserved gardens, include the ruined Pyramid, currently undergoing restoration, an Obelisk and several Follies and Eye-Catchers, in the form of fortifications. A John Vanbrugh ornamental Pillar, known as the Quatre Faces (marked as 'Four Faces' on Ordnance Survey Maps), stands in nearby Pretty Wood.

The grounds of Castle Howard are also used as part of at least two charity running races during the year.There is also a separate 127 acre (514,000 m²) arboretum, called Kew at Castle Howard, which is close to the house and garden, but has separate entrance arrangements. Planting began in 1975, with the intention of creating one of the most important collections of specimen trees in the United Kingdom.

The landscape is more open than that of Ray Wood, and the planting remains immature. It is now a joint venture between Castle Howard and Kew Gardens and is managed by a charity called the Castle Howard Arboretum Trust, which was established in 1997. It was opened to the public for the first time in 1999. A new visitor centre opened in 2006.

The Crimson Dining Room,

Castle Howard.

Photo: 31 March 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mdbeckwith.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The house is Grade I Listed and there are many other Listed structures on the estate, several of which are on the Heritage at Risk Register.

In addition to its most famous appearance in film, as Brideshead, in both the 1981 television serial and 2008 film adaptations of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, Castle Howard has been used as a backdrop for a number of other cinematic and television settings.

In recent years, the Castle has featured in the 1995 film The Buccaneers and Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, released in 2006. In the past, it was notable in Peter Ustinov's 1965 film Lady L and as the exterior set for Lady Lyndon's estate in Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film Barry Lyndon. It has even featured as the Kremlin, in Galton and Simpson's 1966 film The Spy with a Cold Nose.

Saint Alexius. Confessor. Feast Day 17 July.

Text (unless otherwise stated) is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,

which is available from ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Semi-Double.

White Vestments.

English: Saint Alexius.

Polski: św. Aleksy, Człowiek Boży (XVII w.).

Date: 17th-Century.

Source: http://days.pravoslavie.ru/Images/ii134&393.htm

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Alexius was born at Rome, towards 350 A.D., of a wealthy family; his father being the Senator Euphemian. Guided by The Holy Ghost, he renounced his patrimony and piously visited, as a Pilgrim, the Sanctuaries of the East. He died in the 5th-Century A.D., under the Pontificate of Pope Innocent I.

His body was buried in the Church which bears his name on Mount Aventine, Rome. He is honoured there with Saint Boniface (Feast Day 14 May), to whom the Church had originally been dedicated.

Mass: Os justi.

English: The Minor Basilica of Saint Alexius,

Rome, Italy.

Italiano: Santi Bonifacio ed Alessio all'Aventino.

Photo: 1 September 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: Σπάρτακος.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Saint Alexius, or Alexis of Rome, or Alexis of Edessa, was an Eastern Saint, whose Veneration was later transplanted to Rome. The relocation of the cult, to Rome, was facilitated by the belief that the Saint was a native of Rome and had died there.

This Roman connection stemmed from an earlier Syriac legend, which recounted that, during the Episcopate of Bishop Rabbula (412 A.D. - 435 A.D.), a "Man of God", who lived in Edessa, Mesopotamia as a beggar, and who shared the alms he received with other poor people, was found to be a native of Rome after his death.

The Greek version of his legend made Alexius the only son of Euphemianus, a wealthy Christian Roman of the Senatorial class. Alexius fled his arranged marriage to follow his Holy Vocation. Disguised as a beggar, he lived near Edessa, in Syria, accepting alms even from his own household slaves, who had been sent to look for him, but did not recognise him, until a miraculous vision of The Blessed Virgin Mary singled him out as a "Man of God."

English: Chapel of Saint Alexius,

the Minor Basilica of Saint Boniface and Saint Alexius, Rome.

Italiano: Roma, chiesa dei santi Bonifacio e Alessio all'Aventino:

cappella di sant'Alessio nel sottoscala.

Photo: 9 January 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: Lalupa.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Fleeing the resultant notoriety, he returned to Rome, so changed that his parents did not recognise him, but, as good Christians, took him in and sheltered him for seventeen years, which he spent in a dark cubby-hole beneath the stairs, praying and teaching Catechism to children.

 After his death, his family found writings on his body, which told them whom he was and how he had lived his life of Penance from the day of his wedding, for the love of God.

Saint Alexius' cult developed in Syria and spread throughout the Eastern Roman Empire by the 9th-Century. Only from the end of the 10th-Century did his name begin to appear in any Liturgical Books in the West.

English: Minor Basilica of Saint Alexius and Saint Boniface,

Rome, Italy.

Italiano: Santi Alessio e Bonifacio,

Rome. Italia.

Photo: 11 July 2006.

Source: Own work.

Author: Panarjedde (FlagUploader).

(Wikimedia Commons)

Since before the 8th-Century, there was, on the Aventine, in Rome, a Church that was dedicated to Saint Boniface. In 972 A.D., Pope Benedict VII transferred this almost-abandoned Church to the exiled Greek Metropolitan, Sergius of Damascus. The latter erected, beside the Church, a Monastery for Greek and Latin Monks, soon made famous for the austere life of its inmates. To the name of Saint Boniface, was now added that of Saint Alexius, as Titular Saint of the Church and Monastery, now known as Santi Bonifacio e Alessio.

It is evidently Sergius and his Monks who brought to Rome the Veneration of Saint Alexius. The Eastern Saint, according to his legend a native of Rome, was soon very popular with the folk of that City, and this Church, being associated with the legend, was considered to be built on the site of the home that Alexius returned to from Edessa.

Saint Alexius is mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, under 17 July, in the following terms: "At Rome, in a Church on the Aventine Hill, a man of God is celebrated under the name of Alexius, who, as reported by tradition, abandoned his wealthy home, for the sake of becoming poor, and to beg for alms unrecognised."

English: Minor Basilica of Saint Boniface and Saint Alexius,

Rome, Italy.

Italiano: Roma - Chiesa dei Ss. Bonifacio e Alessio.

Photo: October 2008.

Source: Own work.

Author: MarkusMark.

(Wikimedia Commons)

While the Roman Catholic Church continues to recognise Saint Alexius as a Saint, his Feast Day was removed from the General Roman Calendar in 1969. The reason given was the legendary character of the written life of the Saint. The Catholic Encyclopedia article, regarding Saint Alexius, remarked: "Perhaps the only basis for the story is the fact that a certain pious ascetic, at Edessa, lived the life of a beggar and was later Venerated as a Saint."

The Tridentine Calendar gave his Feast Day the Rank of "Simple", but, by 1862, it had become a "Semi-Double" and, in Rome itself, a "Double". It was reduced again to the Rank of "Simple", in 1955, and, in 1960, became a "Commemoration".

English: A 1674 theatre programme for Saint Alexis the Man of God, presented in Kiev and dedicated to Tsar Alexis of Russia.

Русский: Театральная программка спектакля "Алексей, человек Божий", поставленного в Киеве в 1674 году в посвящение царю Алексею Михайловичу.

Source: Scaned from И. Л. Бусева-Давыдова. Культура и искусство в эпоху перемен. - М., Индрик, 2008, ISBN 978-5-85759-439-1 p.109.

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

According to the rules in the present-day Roman Missal, the Saint may now be celebrated everywhere on his Feast Day, with a "Memorial", unless in some locality an obligatory celebration is assigned to that day.

The Eastern Orthodox Church Venerate Saint Alexius on 17 March. Five Byzantine Emperors, four Emperors of Trebizond, and numerous other Eastern European and Russian personalities, have borne his name; see Alexius.

Commemoration Of The Blessed Virgin Mary Of Mount Carmel. Feast Day 16 July.

Text (unless otherwise stated) is taken from UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY

which states the Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal
with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Greater-Double.

White Vestments.

Illustration: TRANSALPINE REDEMPTORISTS

According to a pious tradition authorised by the Liturgy, on the day of Pentecost a number of men who walked in the footsteps of the Holy Prophets, Elias and Eliseus, and whom John the Baptist had prepared for the advent of Jesus, embraced the Christian Faith, and erected the first Church to The Blessed Virgin on Mount Carmel, at the very spot where Elias had seen a cloud rise, a figure of the fecundity of the Mother of God (Lesson of Second Nocturn at Matins).

They were called: Brethren of Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel (Collect). These Religious came to Europe in the 13th-Century and, in 1245, Pope Innocent IV gave his approbation to their Rule under the Generalship of Simon Stock, an English Saint.

On 16 July 1251, Mary appeared to this fervent servant [Simon Stock] and placed in his hands the Habit which was to be their distinctive sign. Pope Innocent IV blessed this Habit and attached to it many privileges, not only for the Members of the Order, but also for those who entered the Confraternity of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

By wearing the Scapular, which is in smaller form than that of the Carmelite Fathers, they participate in all their merits and may hope to obtain through the Virgin a prompt delivery from Purgatory, if they have faithfully observed Abstinence, Chastity (according to their state), and said the Prayers prescribed by Pope John XXII, in the Sabbatine Bull, published on 3 March 1322.

The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, at first Celebrated only in the Churches of the Order, was extended to all Christendom by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726.

Ghost Signs.

This Article, on "Ghost Signs", and many other interesting topics, can be found on the excellent Blog

CAROLINE'S MISCELLANY

Ghost signs (109): the butcher, the baker ...

Taking the 124 bus from the Excalibur Estate, I travelled along Sandhurst Road, Catford for the first time and found three ghost signs.

The first, on the corner with Muirkirk Road, shows that the barber's/shipping agents used to be a butcher's shop. More precisely, it was 'R. C. Evans, Family Butcher, Purveyor of English & Scotch meat, finest quality, lowest prices'. Evans appears to have occupied the premises long enough for the sign to have been repainted at least once: traces of the earlier lettering show through. 

Nearby Inchmery Road has two signs. The first, sadly, is near-illegible although tantalising traces of the words remain. 

However, the second was rather more exciting. From Sandhurst Road, a large sign for Warner Bros, Hygienic Bakers is visible. Walking down Inchmery Road, though, the side of the building revealed that this building also advertises Hovis. The use of the Hovis logo in conjunction with details of a local baker was characteristic of their campaign, but it's the first one I've seen making use of two walls of a building in this way.

Pope Benedict XV (Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista Della Chiesa). Papacy From 1914-1922. (Part Five.)

Text and Illustrations from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,
unless otherwise stated.

English: Pope Benedict XV, circa 1915.

Français: Photo de Benoît XV prise vers 1915.

Photo: Circa 1915.

Source: Library of Congress.

Author: Unknown.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Ratti, a scholar, intended to work for Poland and build bridges to the Soviet Union, hoping even to shed his blood for Russia. Pope Benedict XV needed him as a diplomat, and not as a Martyr, and forbade any trip into the USSR, even though he was the official Papal Delegate to Russia. However, he continued his contacts with Russia. This did not generate much sympathy for him within Poland at the time. He was asked to leave. “While he tried honestly to show himself as a friend of Poland, Warsaw forced his departure after his neutrality in Silesian voting was questioned” by Germans and Poles.

Nationalistic Germans objected to a Polish Nuncio supervising elections, and Poles were upset because he curtailed agitating Clergy. On 20 November, when German Cardinal Adolf Bertram announced a Papal ban on all political activities of Clergymen, calls for Ratti's expulsion climaxed in Warsaw. Two years later, Achille Ratti became Pope Pius XI, shaping Vatican policies towards Poland with Pietro Gasparri and Eugenio Pacelli for the following 36 years (1922–1958).

Pope Benedict XV''s friend,

Cardinal Rampolla, at age 70,

shortly before his death in 1913.

Date: June 1913.

Source: 1914 Book von Waal.

Author: Hofrat Hilsdorf Darmstadt.

(Wikipedia)

In internal Church affairs, Pope Benedict XV reiterated Pope Saint Pius X's condemnation of "Modernist" scholars, and the errors in modern philosophical systems, in his first Encyclical, Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum. He declined to re-admit, to Full Communion, scholars who had been Excommunicated during the previous Pontificate. However, he calmed what he saw as the excesses of the anti-Modernist campaign within the Church. On 25 July 1920, he wrote the motu proprio "Bonum sane", on Saint Joseph, and against Naturalism.

In 1917, Pope Benedict XV promulgated the Church's first Code of Canon Law, the preparation of which had been commissioned by Pope Saint Pius X, and which is thus known as the Pio-Benedictine Code. This Code, which entered into force in 1918, was the first consolidation of the Church's Canon Law into a modern Code made up of Simple Articles. Previously, Canon Law was dispersed in a variety of sources and partial compilations. The new Canon Law is credited with reviving Religious Life and providing Judicial clarity throughout the Church. In addition, continuing the concerns of Pope Leo XIII, he furthered Eastern Catholic Culture, Theology and Liturgy, by founding an Oriental Institute for them in Rome.

On 30 November 1919, Pope Benedict XV appealed to all Catholics, worldwide, to sacrifice for Catholic Missions, stating at the same time, in Maximum Illud, that these Missions should foster local culture and not import European cultures. The damage of such cultural imports were particularly grave in Africa and Asia, where many Missionaries were deported and incarcerated, if they happened to originate from a hostile nation.

Copyright-expired-photo of handwriting of Giacomo Della Chiesa.

Date: 1914. (7 September 2008 (original upload date)).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia (Original Text: Antol de Waal).

Author: Anton de Waal. Original uploader was Ambrosius007 at en.wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

Pope Benedict was an ardent Mariologist, devoted to Marian Veneration and open to new Theological perspectives. He personally addressed, in numerous Letters, the Pilgrims at Marian Sanctuaries. He named Mary "The Patron of Bavaria", and permitted, in Mexico, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Guadalupe. To underline his support for Mediatrix Theology, he authorised the Feast of "Mary, Mediator of all Graces". He condemned the misuse of Marian statues and pictures, dressed in Priestly robes, which he outlawed 4 April 1916.

Español: Monasterio de Ettal, Baviera, Alemania.

English: Ettal Abbey, Bavaria, Germany,

was raised to the Status of a Minor Basilica

by Pope Benedict XV.

Photo: 22 March 2014.

Source: Own work.

Author: Diego Delso.

(Wikimedia Commons)

During World War I, Benedict placed the world under the protection of The Blessed Virgin Mary, and added the invocation "Mary, Queen of Peace", to the Litany of Loreto. He promoted Marian Veneration, throughout the world, by elevating twenty well-known Marian Shrines, such as Ettal Abbey, in Bavaria, into Basilica Minors (Minor Basilicas). He also promoted Marian Devotions in May, in the spirit of Grignon de Montfort. The Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, issued by the Second Vatican Council, quotes the Marian Theology of Benedict XV.

Photo of Joan of Arc's Canonisation Ceremony

The Vatican, 1920.

Image: MAID OF HEAVEN

In his Encyclical on Ephraim the Syrian, Pope Benedict XV depicts Ephraim as a model of Marian Devotion to Our Mother, who, uniquely, was pre-destined by God. Pope Benedict XV did not issue a Marian Encyclical, but addressed the issue of Co-Redemptrix in his Apostolic Letter, Inter Soldalica, issued on 22 March 1918.

As The Blessed Virgin Mary does not seem to participate in the Public Life of Jesus Christ, and then, suddenly, appears at the Stations of his Cross, she is not there without Divine Intention. She suffers with her suffering and dying Son, almost as if she would have died herself. For the Salvation of Mankind, she gave up her rights as the Mother of her Son and sacrificed Him for the reconciliation of Divine Justice, as far as she was permitted to do. Therefore, one can say, she redeemed, with Christ, the Human Race.

During his seven-year Pontificate, Pope Benedict XV wrote a total of twelve Encyclicals. They were:

"Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum", an Appeal for Peace (1 November 1914);
"Humani Generis Redemptionem", on Preaching the Word of God (15 June 1917);
"Quod Iam Diu", on the future Peace Conference (1 December 1918);
"In Hac Tanta", on Saint Boniface (14 May 1919);
"Paterno Iam Diu", on the Children of Central Europe (24 November 1919);
"Pacem, Dei Munus Pulcherrimum", on Peace and Christian Reconciliation (23 May 1920);
"Spiritus Paraclitus", on Saint Jerome (September 1920);
"Principi Apostolorum Petro", on Saint Ephram the Syrian (5 October 1920);
"Annus Iam Plenus", also on Children in Central Europe (1 December 1920);
"Sacra Propediem", on the Third Order of Saint Francis (6 January 1921);
"In Praeclara Summorum", on Dante (30 April 1921);
"Fausto Appetente Die", on Saint Dominic (29 June 1921).

Pope Benedict XV.

Source: Originally from hu.wikipedia.

Author: Original uploader was User:Czinitz

at hu.wikipedia.

(Wikimedia Commons)

His Apostolic Exhortations include;

"Ubi Primum" (8 September 1914);
"Allorché fummo chiamati" (28 July 1915);
"Dès le début" (1 August 1917).
"Maximum Illud", on Activities carried out by Missionaries (November 30, 1919).

The Papal Bulls of Benedict XV include:

"Incruentum Altaris" (10 August 1915);
"Providentissima Mater" (27 May 1917);
"Sedis huius" (14 May 1919);
"Divina disponente" (16 May 1920).

Benedict XV issued nine Breves during his Pontificate:

"Divinum Praeceptum" (December 1915);
"Romanorum Pontificum" (February 1916);
"Cum Catholicae Ecclesiae" (April 1916);
"Cum Biblia Sacra" (August 1916);
"Cum Centesimus" (October 1916);
"Centesimo Hodie" (October 1916);
"Quod Ioannes" (April 1917);
"In Africam quisnam" (June 1920);
"Quod nobis in condendo" (September 1920).

Ad Beatissimi Apostolorum is an Encyclical of Pope Benedict XV, given at Saint Peter's, Rome, on the Feast of All Saints, 1 November 1914, in the first year of his Pontificate. This, his first Encyclical, coincided with the beginning of World War I, which he labelled "The Suicide of Civilised Europe." Pope Benedict XV described the combatants as the greatest and wealthiest nations of the Earth, stating that "they are well-provided with the most awful weapons modern military science has devised, and they strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror. There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter; day by day, the Earth is drenched with newly-shed blood and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain."

In light of the senseless slaughter, the Pope pleaded for "Peace on Earth to men of good will," (Luke 2:14), insisting that there are other ways and means whereby violated rights can be rectified.

Tomb of Pope Benedict XV

in the grottoes of St. Peter's Basilica,

Vatican City.

Date: 26 May 2013.

Source: Own work.

Author: CanonLawJunkie.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The origin of the Evil is a neglect of the precepts and practices of Christian Wisdom, particularly a lack of Love and Compassion. Jesus Christ came down from Heaven for the very purpose of restoring among men the Kingdom of Peace, as He stated: "A new Commandment I give unto you: That you love one another." This message is repeated in John 15:12, in which Jesus says: "This is my Commandment, that you Love one another." Materialism, Nationalism, Racism and Class Warfare are the characteristics of the age, instead, so Pope Benedict XV described:

"Race hatred has reached its climax; peoples are more divided by jealousies than by frontiers; within one and the same Nation, within the same City, there rages the burning envy of Class against Class; and, amongst individuals, it is self-love which is the supreme law, over-ruling everything."

PART SIX FOLLOWS.

Saint Bonaventure (1221-1274). Bishop, Confessor, Doctor. Feast Day 14 July.

Text (unless otherwise stated) is taken from UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
which states the Text is taken from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal
with the kind permission of ST. BONAVENTURE PRESS

Saint Bonaventure.
Bishop, Confessor, Doctor.
Feast Day 14 July.

Double.

White Vestments.

Mass: In médio.

English: Saint Bonaventure.

Deutsch: Hl. Bonaventura,

Magyar: Szent Bonaventura angyallal,

Artist: Zurbarán, Francisco de (1598-1664)

Date: Circa 1640-1650.

Current location: Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002.

ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

Saint Bonaventure was born in Tuscany, Italy, in 1221. He entered the Franciscan Order, in consequence of a miraculous cure due to the intercession of Saint Francis of Assisi.

His Master was Alexander of Hales, who used to say of his virginal disciple that one would have thought him preserved from Original Sin.

He was a Doctor at thirty years of age (Collect) and taught at the University of Paris at the same time as Saint Thomas Aquinas, to whom he was closely united. He was awarded the Title of Seraphic Doctor.

Appointed General of his Order, and later a Cardinal of the Church (Communion, Alleluia), he died in 1274 during the General Council of Lyons, where Greeks and Latins vied in admiring his zeal and clear-mindedness which made him the Light of Faith.

Saint Bonaventure.

Date: Circa 1650-1660.

Source: NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

Author: François, Claude (dit Frère Luc).

(Wikimedia Commons)

The following Text is from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia.

Saint Bonaventure, O.F.M. (Italian: San Bonaventura; 1221 – 15 July 1274), born Giovanni di Fidanza, was an Italian Mediaeval Scholastic Theologian and Philosopher. The seventh Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor, he was also a Cardinal Bishop of Albano. He was Canonised on 14 April 1482 by Pope Sixtus IV and declared a Doctor of the Church in the year 1588 by Pope Sixtus V. He is known as the "Seraphic Doctor" (Latin: Doctor Seraphicus). Many writings, believed in the Middle Ages to be his, are now collected under the name Pseudo-Bonaventura.

He was born at Bagnoregio in Latium, Italy, not far from Viterbo, then part of the Papal States. Almost nothing is known of his childhood, other than the names of his parents, Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella.

He entered the Franciscan Order in 1243 and studied at the University of Paris, possibly under Alexander of Hales, and certainly under Alexander's successor, John of Rochelle. In 1253, he held the Franciscan Chair, at Paris. Unfortunately, for Bonaventure, a dispute between Seculars and Mendicants delayed his reception as Master until 1257, where his Degree was taken in company with Thomas Aquinas. Three years earlier his fame had earned him the position of Lecturer on the The Four Books of Sentences — a Book of Theology written by Peter Lombard in the 12th-Century — and in 1255 he received the Degree of Master, the Mediaeval equivalent of Doctor.

After having successfully defended his Order against the reproaches of the Anti-Mendicant Party, he was elected Minister General of the Franciscan Order. On 24 November 1265, he was selected for the Post of Archbishop of York; however, he was never Consecrated and resigned the Appointment in October 1266.

English: Church of San Bonaventura, 

Venice, Italy.

Français: Église San Bonaventura Venise, façade.

Italiano: Chiesa di San Bonaventura Venezia, facciata.

Photo: 15 May 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: Didier Descouens.

(Wikimedia Commons)

During his tenure, the General Chapter of Narbonne, held in 1260, promulgated a Decree prohibiting the publication of any work, out of the Order, without permission from the higher Superiors. This prohibition has induced modern writers to pass severe judgment upon Roger Bacon's Superiors being envious of Bacon's abilities. However, the prohibition, enjoined on Bacon, was a general one, which extended to the whole Order.

Its promulgation was not directed against him, but rather against Gerard of Borgo San Donnino. Gerard had published, in 1254, without permission, a Heretical work, Introductorius in Evangelium æternum. Thereupon, the General Chapter of Narbonne promulgated the above-mentioned Decree, identical with the "constitutio gravis in contrarium" that Bacon speaks of. The above-mentioned prohibition was rescinded in Roger's favour, unexpectedly, in 1266.

Bonaventure was instrumental in procuring the Election of Pope Gregory X, who rewarded him with the Title of Cardinal Bishop of Albano, and insisted on his presence at the great Second Council of Lyon in 1274. There, after his significant contributions led to a union of the Greek and Latin Churches, Bonaventure died suddenly and in suspicious circumstances. The Catholic Encyclopedia has citations which suggest he was poisoned. The only extant Relic of the Saint is the arm and hand with which he wrote his Commentary on the Sentences, which is now conserved at Bagnoregio, Italy, in the Parish Church of Saint Nicholas.

He steered the Franciscans on a moderate and intellectual course, that made them the most prominent Order in the Catholic Church until the coming of the Jesuits. His Theology was marked by an attempt completely to integrate Faith and Reason. He thought of Christ as the “One True Master”, who offers humans knowledge that begins in Faith, is developed through rational understanding, and is perfected by mystical union with God.

English: Statue of Saint Bonaventure, Woerden, Netherlands.

Nederlands: Beeld Bonaventura, Bonaventurakerk, Woerden, Netherlands.

Source: Originally from nl.wikipedia; description page is/was here.

Author: Original uploader was P.H. Louw at nl.wikipedia

Permission: CC-BY-2.5-NL.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Bonaventure's Feast Day was included in the General Roman Calendar, immediately upon his Canonisation in 1482. It was at first celebrated on the second Sunday in July, but was moved, in 1568, to 14 July, since 15 July, the Anniversary of his death, was at that time taken up with the Feast of Saint Henry.

Bonaventure was formally Canonised, in 1484, by the Franciscan Pope Sixtus IV, and ranked along with Thomas Aquinas as the greatest of the Doctors of the Church by another Franciscan, Pope Sixtus V, in 1587. Bonaventure was regarded as one of the greatest Philosophers of the Middle Ages.

His works, as arranged in the most recent Critical Edition by the Quaracchi Fathers (Collegio S. Bonaventura), consist of a "Commentary on the Sentences of Lombard", in four volumes, and eight other volumes, among which are a "Commentary on the Gospel of Saint Luke" and a number of smaller works; the most famous of which are Itinerarium Mentis in Deum, Breviloquium, De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam, Soliloquium, and De septem itineribus aeternitatis, in which most of what is individual in his teaching is contained.

For Saint Isabelle of France, the sister of King Saint Louis IX of France, and her Monastery of Poor Clares, at Longchamps, France, Saint Bonaventure wrote the Treatise "Concerning the Perfection of Life".

Deutsch: Die figürlichen Fenster der Kathedrale Santa Ana,

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Kanarische Inseln.

Von links nach rechts: Heiliger Martial von Limoges; Heiliger Petrus von Verona, auch genannt Petrus Martyr; Maria mit Jesus; Heilige Anna und Maria; Heiliger Bonaventura.

English: The Stained-Glass Windows of the Cathedral Santa Ana,

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Canary Islands.

From left to right: Saint Martial of Limoges; Saint Peter of Verona, also known as Saint Peter Martyr; Mary with Jesus; Saint Anna and Mary; Saint Bonaventure.

Français: Vitraux de la cathédrale de Santa Ana, à Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, dans les Canaries.

De gauche à droite : Saint Martial de Limoges, Saint Pierre de Vérone (ou Saint Pierre le Martyr), Marie et Jésus, Marie et Saint Anne, Saint Bonaventure.

Photo: 5 October 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: H. Zell.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The "Commentary on the Sentences" remains, without doubt, Bonaventure's greatest work; all his other writings are in some way subservient to it. It was written superiorum praecepto (at the command of his Superiors) when he was only twenty-seven and is a Theological achievement of the First Rank.

Bonaventure wrote on almost every subject treated by the Schoolmen, and his writings are very numerous. The greater number of them deal with Philosophy and Theology. No work of Bonaventure's is exclusively Philosophical and bears striking witness to the mutual interpenetration of Philosophy and Theology, which is a distinguishing mark of the Scholastic period.

Much of Saint Bonaventure’s Philosophical thought shows a considerable influence by Saint Augustine. So much so, that De Wulf considers him the best representative of Augustinianism. Saint Bonaventure adds Aristotelian principles to the Augustinian Doctrine, especially in connection with the illumination of the intellect, according to Gilson. Saint Augustine, who had imported into the West many of the Doctrines that would define scholastic Philosophy, was an incredibly important source of Bonaventure's Platonism. The Mystic, Dionysius the Areopagite, was another notable influence.

In Philosophy, Bonaventure presents a marked contrast to his contemporaries, Roger Bacon and Thomas Aquinas. While these may be taken as representing, respectively, physical science yet in its infancy, and Aristotelian scholasticism in its most perfect form, he presents the mystical and Platonising mode of speculation, which had already, to some extent, found expression in Hugo and Richard of Saint Victor, and in Bernard of Clairvaux. To him, the purely intellectual element, though never absent, is of inferior interest, when compared with the living power of the affections or the heart.

Stained-Glass Windows,

depicting Saint Bonaventure (Left)

and Saint Thomas Aquinas (Right),

in the Apse, Saint Bonaventure Church,

Raeville, Nebraska, United States of America.

Photo: 31 October 2010.

Source: Own work.

Author: Ammodramus.

(Wikimedia Commons)

Like Thomas Aquinas, with whom he shared numerous profound agreements in Matters Theological and Philosophical, he combated the Aristotelian notion of the eternity of the world, vigorously. Bonaventure accepts the Platonic Doctrine that ideas do not exist "in rerum natura", but as ideals exemplified by the Divine Being, according to which actual things were formed; and this conception has no slight influence upon his Philosophy.

Due to this Philosophy, Physicist and Philosopher Max Bernhard Weinstein contended that Bonaventure showed strong pandeistic inclinations. Like all the great scholastic Doctors, Bonaventura starts with the discussion of the relations between Reason and Faith. All the sciences are but the handmaids of Theology; Reason can discover some of the moral truths which form the groundwork of the Christian system, but others it can only receive and apprehend through Divine illumination.

To obtain this illumination, the Soul must employ the proper means, which are Prayer, the exercise of the Virtues, whereby it is rendered fit to accept the Divine Light, and Meditation, which may rise even to ecstatic union with God. The supreme end of life is such union, union in contemplation or intellect and in intense absorbing Love; but it cannot be entirely reached in this life, and remains as a Hope for the future.

A master of the memorable phrase, Bonaventure held that Philosophy opens the mind to at least three different routes that humans can take on their journey to God:

English: Saint Bonaventure receives the Envoys of the Byzantine Emperor

at the Second Council of Lyon.

Deutsch: Der Hl. Bonaventura empfängt die Gesandten des Kaisers.

Artist: Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664).

Date: Circa 1640-1650.

Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France.

Source/Photographer: The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei. DVD-ROM, 2002.

ISBN 3936122202. Distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH.

Permission: [1]

(Wikimedia Commons)

Non-intellectual material creatures he conceived as shadows and vestiges (literally, footprints) of God, understood as the ultimate cause of a world that Philosophical Reason can prove was created at a first moment in time;

Intellectual creatures he conceived of as images and likenesses of God, the workings of the human mind and Will, leading us to God understood as Illuminator of Knowledge and Donor of Grace and Virtue;

The final route to God is the route of being, in which Bonaventure brought Saint Anselm's argument, together with Aristotelian and Neoplatonic metaphysics, to view God as the Absolutely Perfect Being, whose essence entails its existence, an Absolutely Simple Being that causes all other, composite beings to exist.

Bonaventure, however, is not merely a meditative thinker, whose works may form good manuals of devotion; he is a Dogmatic Theologian of High Rank, and, on all the disputed questions of scholastic thought, such as universals, matter, the principle of individualism, or the intellectus agens, he gives weighty and well-reasoned decisions.

English: The Church of Saint Bonaventure, Munich, Germany.

Deutsch: Starnberg, OT Percha, Harkirchener Straße 7. Altenheim St. Josef mit der integrierten Kirche St. Bonaventura. Eine Münchnerin überlies 1895 als Dank für die Pflege eines Angehörigen ihre beiden Landhäuser in Percha den Ursberger Pflegeanstalten.

Photo: 3 November 2012.

Source: Own work.

Author: I. Berger.

(Wikimedia Commons)

He agrees with Saint Albert the Great in regarding Theology as a practical science; its truths, according to his view, are peculiarly adapted to influence the affections. He discusses very carefully the nature and meaning of the Divine Attributes; considers universals to be the ideal forms pre-existing in the Divine Mind, according to which things were shaped; holds matter to be pure potentiality, which receives individual being and determinateness from the formative Power of God, acting according to the ideas; and, finally, maintains that the intellectus agens has no separate existence. On these, and on many other points of scholastic Philosophy, the "Seraphic Doctor" exhibits a combination of subtlety and moderation, which makes his works particularly valuable.

In form and intent, the work of Saint Bonaventure is always the work of a Theologian; he writes as one for whom the only angle of vision and the proximate criterion of Truth is the Christian Faith. This fact influences his importance for the history of Philosophy; when coupled with his style, it makes Bonaventure perhaps the least accessible of the major figures of the 13th-Century. This is true, not because he is a Theologian, but because Philosophy interests him largely as a praeparatio evangelica, as something to be interpreted as a foreshadow of, or deviation from, what God has revealed.

In a way that is not true of Aquinas or Albert or Scotus, Bonaventure does not survive well the transition from his time to ours. It is difficult to imagine a contemporary Philosopher, Christian or not, citing a passage from Bonaventure to make a specifically Philosophical point. One must know Philosophers to read Bonaventure, but the study of Bonaventure is seldom helpful for understanding Philosophers and their characteristic problems. Bonaventure, as a Theologian, is something else again, of course, as is Bonaventure the edifying author. It is in those areas, rather than in Philosophy proper, that his continuing importance must be sought.