07 March 2008

St. Thomas Aquinas, Confessor and Doctor of the Church

His undisputed mastery in scholastic theology gained him the title of "Angelic Doctor." He is one of the greatest glories of the Friars Preachers. Leo XIII declared him the patron of all Catholic Schools. He died in the Cistercian monastery of Fossa Nuova, on his way to the Council of Lyons, in 1274.

Friday was easily the best day we spent in Paris. We ate breakfast in a Cafe outside of Sacre-Coeur (pictured below), and then walked up Montmartre into the Basilica. It was built in fulfillment of a national vow to the Sacred Heart, taken after France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The defeat was understood to be an act of divine judgment on the nation for its rebellion against Him and His Church known as the French Revolution.


COR JESU SACRATISSIMUM
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus

On Fridays in Lent the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, in whose care is still preserved the Crown of Thorns brought to Paris by King St. Louis IX in the 13th century, carry in procession into Notre-Dame this most verered relic of the Passion of Christ. In the picture above the Holy Crown of our Lord is barely visible (due to the relative darkness of the Cathedral's interior). After the procession and public prayer, we were invited to kiss the reliquary in which the Crown is preserved.

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