Catherine of Siena, a saint who craved love and justice
Determined to do God's will, Catherine overcame various difficulties in her family in order to join a religious order. Finally she was accepted into the Mantellate, Dominican tertiaries. She helped her fellow human beings and wrote over three hundred letters, assisted by the 'beautiful brigade'. She fought to bring the Pope back to Rome, offering continuous fasting and penance, until she returned to the Father at the age of 33.
- THE RECIPE: CRESPEOU D'AVIGNON
Horror film Gothic depicts the first sexual revolution
The British director's film recounts the first sexual revolution in history, which - not by chance - ends in death and gives birth to horror literature. It all revolves around the stay of five English people at Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva in Switzerland in the summer of 1816. Among them were the poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord George Byron....
John of Capistrano, icon of the Battle of Belgrade
At the invitation of Pope Callistus III, St John of Capistrano recruited 35,000 Hungarian Christians, ordinary citizens, to fight the Turks besieging Belgrade. Joining the soldiers led by John Hunyadi, on 22nd July 1456, they defeated a much larger army. And the evening before, John had blessed a meal....
- THE RECIPE: GOULASH
The actor Genesius, from idolater to martyr
A fourth-century play created to mock Christianity became the moment of the sudden conversion of its author and protagonist. Saint Genesius changed the play by confessing his new faith in front of the emperor Diocletian, who was watching. He paid for it with martyrdom.
- THE RECIPE: ESICIA (Lobster rissoles)
Lazarus, Martha and Mary, dinner table friends of Jesus
The three siblings of Bethany had a special relationship with Jesus, one of faith but also of conviviality. And Jesus often stopped to eat at their home. Described in the Gospel of John is the thanksgiving dinner for the resurrection of Lazarus.
The Virgin sleeps, before the glorious Assumption
An ancient theme linked to today’s solemnity is that of the Dormitio Virginis, with the Latin expression literally indicating the ‘Virgin’s Sleep’ before the Assumption. Among the most beautiful frescoes in this regard is the image of the Madonna del Transito of Canoscio (in the province of Perugia). In the solemn definition of the dogma of Mary assumed into Heaven in body and soul, Pius XII’s Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus does not use the term “death”, but the words “having completed the course of her earthly life”. And, in any case, the faithful have always believed that Mary’s sacred body was not subject to the “bonds of death”, such as the corruption of the tomb.
Tropez, a martyr who preferred Jesus to honours
According to tradition, Saint Tropez - also known as Torpetius, Torpè or Torpete - was the head of Nero's guard at the time of the martyrdom (in 67) of Saint Paul, who converted him. The same fate befell him just a year later. The place name Saint-Tropez originates from his cult. His head is kept and venerated in Pisa.
