Fr. Greg J. Markey will be leading a pilgrimage to Wisconsin on June 19 to 23.  Tour highlights include Our Lady of Good Help in Champion.  the only approved Marian apparition site in the US,  the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee, and Our Lay d of Guadalupe in La Crosse.  Extraordinary Form Mass will be celebrated daily.The price is $1699 double or $1999 single.    For more information contact Virginia DeDad at Cruise Planners,  203-402-0632 or 800-794-0741.  Or vdedad@cruiseplanners.com.

The St. John Neuman Chapter is sponsoring a day of prayer and reflection on how to achieve holiness in our lives. It will take place in the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia.  The speakers will be His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke, Most Reverend Joseph Strickland and Father Gerald Gill.  There will be an opportunity for Confession, Eucharistic Adoration, Rosary, Procession and Crowning of the National Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Our Lady of Fatima and a beautiful Palm Sunday Vigil Mass (please note: this is a Novus Ordo Mass). Lunch will be served, registrations are required and may be made on Eventbrite or on a registration form downloaded from our website:https://www.stjohnneumannchapter.org

On the weekend of Septuagesima Sunday, Fr Hernan Ducci of the Fraternity of Saint Joseph the Guardian will preach a retreat for men based on the Ignatian Exercises, at the Church of Saint John the Baptist, located at 1282 Yardville-Allentown Road, in Allentown, New Jersey. The Spiritual Exercises comprise an ordered series of meditations and contemplations born from the profound spiritual experience St Ignatius, gained from his conversion and his time as the first Superior General of the Society of Jesus. The purpose of these exercises is to help the retreatant discern God’s will for his own life.

The retreat will begin on the early afternoon of Friday, February 7, and finish with lunch on the afternoon of Sunday, February 9. In order to cover the expenses (Fr. Hernan’s travel from France, food, donation to the parish, etc.) we suggest a donation of $60. Also, please bring a sleeping bag. In addition to the meditations, the traditional Mass will be sung each day, as well as parts of the Divine Office; there will also be plenty of opportunities for spiritual direction and Confession. To confirm your attendance please read the following Google doc and fill in the registration form. If you have any questions, please contact hernan.ducci@gmail.com. Feel free to forward this invitation to anyone else you think would be interested.

Above and below:  photos from the Solemn Pontifical Mass of last year’s Lepanto Conference, held at St. Vincent Ferrer Church.

The third annual Lepanto Conference will be held in New York City on Saturday February 15. We are most honored to have as our celebrant and  speaker at our conference His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Zen, Bishop Emeritus of Hong Kong.

The event will open with a Solemn Pontifical Mass from the Throne, at St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Avenue (at 66th Street), New York, NY at 11 am. There will be about a one hour break for lunch, at which point attendees can disperse, recharge, and reconvene for the talks.  The talks will be held at the school building owned by the Parish of St John Nepomucene, a few blocks from St. Vincents,  from 3-5 PM. The address is 406 East 67th Street.   The speakers will be His Eminence Cardinal Zen,  Fr. George Rutler, and Professor Michael Foley.

A  donation of $10 per person  at the entrance to the talks is suggested.  There is no advance registration.  (n.b. Unlike last year’s conference, food will not be provided.)

His Eminence Cardinal Zen

To see this exhibition on Emperor Maximilian  – his armor and his art – at the Metropolitan Museum:

The Last Knight: The Art, Armor, and Ambition of Maximilian I 

We recently have resumed our series of posts  covering the deeds and relics of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.  Emperor Maximilian I was one of its most extraordinary leaders. Warrior, patron of the arts, far-seeing politician yet upholder of chivalric virtues,  he personified the somewhat fantastic character of the Holy Roman Empire in its last few centuries. Yet Maximilian was was able to accomplish great political achievements – not for himself, but for his descendants. He rescued the Burgundian-Netherlandish state from annihilation by France. He saw his grandson, Charles ascend the thrones of Spain, Burgundy-Netherlands and the Holy Roman Empire – becoming the mightiest European monarch in centuries. He laid the foundations for the union of the Bohemian and Hungarian crowns with the ancestral Habsburg domains, the essence of the future Austrian empire.  Yet he himself often wandered about,  bereft of resources and on the brink of bankruptcy.

In his age he was one of the greatest patrons of the craft of the armorer  and of German art.  A champion of knighthood, he was deeply involved in the development of artillery and infantry. He utilized the new printed media to promote his persona – including the monumental assembly of woodcuts known as the Triumphal Arch. He was a great collector of medieval German literature.

(above) Gauntlets of Maxmilian I

Plate armor was tailor-made for wealthier clients. (Above) Parade armor, commissioned by Maximilian for Charles V as an adolescent. (Below) Armor,  intended for combat use, made for Maximilian I as a young man.

Finally, of course, like every emperor pf the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian was a religious figure.  We find images of saints and of the Virgin  on various armors in this exhibition. The last work commissioned by him is his own portrait on his deathbed.  Graphically realistic, stripped of all the accoutrements of grandeur, it is a gripping acknowledgment that we shall all return to dust.

The fantastic “Triumphal Arch,”  covering an entire wall and assembled out of prints by many of the leading German artists of  Maximilian’s  day.