The Carmelite Martyrs of Compiegne

Probably the most visited post ever on The Inn has been this one on the martyred Carmelite nuns of Compiegne.

Today is their feast day in the Carmelite calendar.

Probably the most complete history of these saints is William Bush's To Quell the Terror.  ICS published a comprehensive booklet by the late Terrye Newkirk on the martyrs called The Mantle of Elijah.  It was also on line in several places. Alas, ICS no longer carries it and all the sites that used to have it seem to have taken it down.  It's well-worth a read and if you are so inclined Abebooks has a few copies for not too many dollars.

In the meantime, there is the link above to The Inn's old post, a short history here, and Fr Z's cautionary post here.

On Tidying up the Graffiti Photobucket Left on The Inn

Fortunately, Photobucket is not the only photo hosting site in town.  Since Photobucket decided to smear The Inn with its slimy logo -- and many another blog besides -- this is a good thing to know.  Of course, I could always pay the ransom* but that rather sticks in the craw.  I've been testing both Imgur and Flickr and they seem to work well.   It'll take a while before I can replace all the illustrations on the left-hand column but it's preferable to paying off the vultures who now run (own?) Photobucket.

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*Some of the brethren on Blogspot are calling it "blackmail".   I think that's a mistake.  Blackmail is a different thing altogether.  I'm sticking with "ransom".

14 July -- Bastille Day

The Inn's annual reprint of  the late Jerry Pournelle's summary of the, um, great day:

On July 14, 1789, the Paris mob aided by units of the National Guard stormed the Bastille Fortress which stood in what had been the Royal area of France before the Louvre and Tuilleries took over that function. The Bastille was a bit like the Tower of London, a fortress prison under direct control of the Monarchy. It was used to house unusual prisoners, all aristocrats, in rather comfortable durance. The garrison consisted of soldiers invalided out of service and some older soldiers who didn't want to retire; it was considered an honor to be posted there, and the garrison took turns acting as valets to the aristocratic prisoners kept there by Royal order (not convicted by any court). 

On July 14, 1789, the prisoner population consisted of four forgers, three madmen, and another. The forgers were aristocrats and were locked away in the Bastille rather than be sentenced by the regular courts. The madmen were kept in the Bastille in preference to the asylums: they were unmanageable at home, and needed to be locked away. The servants/warders were bribed to treat them well. The Bastille was stormed; the garrison was slaughtered to a man, some being stamped to death; their heads were displayed on pikes; and the prisoners were freed. The forgers vanished into the general population. The madmen were sent to the general madhouse. The last person freed was a young man who had challenged the best swordsman in Paris to a duel, and who had been locked up at his father's insistence lest he be killed. This worthy joined the mob and took on the name of Citizen Egalite. He was active in revolutionary politics until Robespierre had him beheaded in The Terror.

I'd give a citation for it but I don't know how to cite to the correct page in the blog format Jerry used.  The blog itself is still up and you can find it here.

1 July

Because it's Canada Day and my grandmother's people were Canadian.  Although in her day it was still Dominion Day.  The first of my family to come to North America was my great, great, great grandfather who came as a soldier with the 74th Regiment of Foot to garrison Atlantic Canada.  It seems the still-British part of North America had had a recent spot of bother with their neighbours to the south circa 1812 and some reinforcements seemed advisable.   He apparently liked what he found in Canada so after a decade or so when he left the army he stayed.   I'm told I have a good many Canadian cousins, although I've never met them.  So a happy Canada Day.

Here in California, defined to me recently as "a small island just off the coast of earth", we have the feast of St Junipero Serra the founder of most of the beautiful old California missions. The good old Catholic Encyclopædia will tell you more about him here.

In the traditional Roman liturgy Fr Serra is superseded by the feast of the Precious Blood of Jesus.  For more on the feast and the Precious Blood of Jesus and the Visitation of Our Lady try Fr Hunwicke here.  For a fascinating read on the Precious Blood and the Holy Grail do go to Charles Coulombe's excellent piece here.  Or this one here.