Sautéed porcini mushrooms
Obviously we won't use Amanita phalloides, like poor Pope Clement VII, but some tasty porcini mushrooms: they are in season and you can find them almost everywhere in supermarkets and greengrocers.
Clement VII, when food is deadly
Descendant of the Medici family of Florence, he died after two days of excruciating suffering after eating a poisonous mushroom, Amanita phalloides. He was a political strategist and diplomat. Under his pontificate, several noteworthy historical events took place, from the Sack of Rome in 1527 to the Anglican Schism. As a great patron of the arts, it was he who commissioned Michelangelo to fresco the Sistine Chapel with the Last Judgement.
- THE RECIPE: SAUTÉED PORCINI MUSHROOMS
Jerome Miani, a father for abandoned young people
As a prisoner of war he discovered the power of prayer. Freed after he made a vow to Our Lady, he changed his life, helping the outcasts of society. He created numerous communities, inventing a pedagogical method based on education in work, charity and devotion. Pius XI proclaimed him patron saint of orphans and abandoned youth.
Censorship at universities spells end of academic freedom
Dr. Peter Boghossian is the author of a series of provocative studies on gender and feminism. Recently, he tendered his resignation as professor, and he is not alone. In six years, 426 university lecturers in the United States have been reported or received warnings while two thirds have been sanctioned, 100 have lost their jobs and another 93 have been placed on leave.
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)