Rich
2020-10-01 06:27:11 UTC
The Fast and the Slow
"Let those who are quicker than others in understanding reflect that
they are walking along the road together with those who are slower.
When one is faster than a companion, it is in the power of the faster
to allow the slower to catch up, not vice versa
If the faster walks with all possible speed, the slower will not
succeed in following. The faster must slow the pace so as not to
abandon the slower companion."
--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 90 (2), 1
<<>><<>><<>>
1 October – Blessed Juan de Palafox Mendoza
Bishop, Spanish politician, Administrator, Prolific Writer, defender
of the Mexican peoples – born Juan de Palafox y Mendoza on 24 June
1600 in Fitero, Navarra, Spain and died on 1 October 1659 in Osma,
Soria, Spain of natural causes. Patronages – Dioceses of Puebla de los
Ángeles and Osma-Soria. Palafox was the Bishop of Puebla (1640−1655)
and the interim Archbishop of Mexico (1640−1642).He also held
political office, from 10 June 1642 to 23 November 1642 as the Viceroy
of New Spain. He lost a high-profile struggle with the Jesuits in New
Spain, resulting in a recall to Spain, to the minor Diocese of Osma in
Old Castile. Although a cause was opened for his Beatification shortly
after he died in 1659, he was not Beatified until 2011.
Blessed Juan was born in Navarre, Spain, Juan Palafox de Mendoza was
the natural son (“a child of transgression”) of Jaime de Palafox, the
Marquis of Ariaza, of the Aragonese nobility. His mother became a
Carmelite nun. He was taken in by a family of millers who gave him the
name “Juan” and raised him for ten years, after which his father
recognised him and had him educated at Alcalá and Salamanca.
In 1626 he was a deputy of the nobility in the Cortes de Monzón and
later a prosecutor at the Council of War and a member of the Council
of the Indies, the chief administrative body for administration of the
overseas territories of the Spanish Empire.
He was ordained in 1629 and became the chaplain of Maria of Austria,
Holy Roman Empress, the sister of King Philip IV of Spain. He
accompanied her on her various trips around Europe.
In 1639 Philip IV nominated him and Pope Urban VIII appointed him, as
Bishop of Puebla de los Ángeles in viceroyal Mexico. Puebla de los
Ángeles was the second largest city in the Viceroyalty of New Spain
(vice-royal México) then and is the present day City of Puebla. He was
consecrated at Madrid on 27 December 1639.
As bishop, Palafox arrived in Veracruz on 24 June 1640. He was in the
company of the new Viceroy of New Spain, Diego López Pacheco, 7th Duke
of Escalona, whom he had gotten to know during the voyage. Palafox was
also named Visitador (royal inspector, representative of the king), to
investigate the two previous viceroys. He served as Bishop of Puebla
from 1640 to 1655 and as interim Archbishop of Mexico from 1642 to
1643.
Palafox is known for being a prolific writer, a political thinker, a
defender of the Mexico’s indigenous people during Colonial times, and
a fair yet deeply religious man. “Historians highlight Palafox’s
intelligence, integrity, activity, intellectual preparation and will,
defining him as ‘one of the most brilliant men of his generation,’”
says Jorge Fernández Díaz, third vice president of the Congress of
Deputies, the lower house of Spain’s legislature. His writings were
published in 15 volumes in Madrid in 1762.
“[Palafox is] probably the most interesting and maybe the most
important figure in the whole history of 17th century Mexico.”
In Puebla, Palafox made his mark in both church and state affairs. He
established the Dominican convent of St Agnes, the colleges of St
Peter and St Paul and the girls school Immaculate Conception. He
pushed for administrative reform within the diocese and for the
completion of the city’s Cathedral, which was dedicated 1649. He also
held several political offices, including that of the viceroy of New
Spain in 1642.
“He was a superior man for his century, a classic in our language
[Spanish] whose numerous texts were written with an elegant and
eloquent style and have resulted in twelve thick volumes,” notes
University of Salamanca researcher Águeda Rodríguez Cruz in a 2010
bulletin for the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
Quoting her colleague, professor Antonio Heredia, she adds:
“[Palafox] was robust in his work, although of a sensitive condition,
a spender but mean with it, legalistic, while with an ascetic of
sensitive piety, an expert and executor in law and politics, while at
a mystic at the same time, a man of war and noise, while pacific and
fond of silence, active, while contemplative; indebted, while punctual
with his duties a man of great contrasts, like life itself.”
His greatest legacy is a secular one – the Palafox Library in Puebla.
Founded in 1646, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana was the first public
library established in the Americas. Located inside what was once the
seminary of St. John’s College--now home to Puebla’s cultural
centre--the library preserves 45,058 volumes dating from just before
until just after the Colonial era. Many of its works are of global
importance. These include original copies of Hartmann Schedel’s
Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), which charts human history according to
the Bible in words and more than 2,000 illustrations – Andreas
Vesalius’s On the Fabric of the Human Body (1555), a seven-volume tome
that revolutionised the study of anatomy with detailed diagrams based
on actual observation and dissection and books printed in Mexico
before 1600, including Alonso Molina’s Vocabulary in Castilian and
Mexican, essentially the earliest New World dictionary.
The bookshelves consist of finely carved cedar, wild sunflower and
white pine. The library is also noteworthy for its sheer beauty. The
bookshelves, commissioned by Bishop Francisco Fabián y Fuero in 1773
(and expanded to include a third level in the 1800s), consist of
finely carved cedar, wild sunflower and ayacahuite, a native white
pine. A three-story gold altar at the far end of the room features an
oil painting of Virgen of Trapani, which is believed to be modeled
after the 14th-century sculpture attributed to Italian sculptor Nino
Pisano.
In 1981, the Mexican government declared the library a historic
monument. In 2005, UNESCO added the Biblioteca Palafoxiana to the
Memory of the World list, formally recognising its international
significance. In 2010, after five years of work by 30 specialists, the
first digital catalogue of the library’s complete contents was
released, some 3,000 copies of the interactive disk were distributed
to other libraries, universities, and research institutions. At the
time, Elvia Carrillo Velázquez, a director for ADABI, the national
book-preservation group that helped to create the archive, told El
Universal newspaper that the interactive disc “provides access to
culture and, above all, makes public knowledge part of the history of
the printed word.”
This seems to be exactly what Palafox intended. A sign at the
library’s entrance bears his words from 1646: “He who finds himself
benefiting without books, finds himself in solitude without comfort,
on a mountaintop without company, on a path without a walking stick,
in the darkness without a guide. This gave me the desire to leave the
library of books I’ve collected since I served his majesty the King,
which is one of the best I’ve seen in Spain, ancillary to those of the
church and in part and in public form, so that it may be used by all
professions and people.”
Blessed Juan was Beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 5 June 2011. His
recognition celebrated at the Cathedral of La Asunción, El Burgo de
Osma, Spain by Cardinal Angelo Amato.
by Anastpaul 2019
Saint Quote:
Our Lord does not come down from Heaven every day to lie in a golden
ciborium. He comes to find another heaven which is infinitely dearer
to him--the heaven of our souls, created in His Image, the living
temples of the Adorable Trinity.
--Saint Therese of Lisieux
Bible Quote:
Let no one seek his own interests, but those of his neighbor. (1Cor. 10:24)
<><><><>
Act of Consecration to the Holy Ghost
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer
myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the
brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and
the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In
You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by
unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from
the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and
grant that I may always watch for Your light and listen to Your voice
and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself
to You and ask You, by Your compassion, to watch over me in my
weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five
Wounds and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side
and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my
infirmity, so to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against
You. Give me grace, O Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to
say to You always and everywhere, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant
heareth." Amen.
"Let those who are quicker than others in understanding reflect that
they are walking along the road together with those who are slower.
When one is faster than a companion, it is in the power of the faster
to allow the slower to catch up, not vice versa
If the faster walks with all possible speed, the slower will not
succeed in following. The faster must slow the pace so as not to
abandon the slower companion."
--St. Augustine--Commentary on Psalm 90 (2), 1
<<>><<>><<>>
1 October – Blessed Juan de Palafox Mendoza
Bishop, Spanish politician, Administrator, Prolific Writer, defender
of the Mexican peoples – born Juan de Palafox y Mendoza on 24 June
1600 in Fitero, Navarra, Spain and died on 1 October 1659 in Osma,
Soria, Spain of natural causes. Patronages – Dioceses of Puebla de los
Ángeles and Osma-Soria. Palafox was the Bishop of Puebla (1640−1655)
and the interim Archbishop of Mexico (1640−1642).He also held
political office, from 10 June 1642 to 23 November 1642 as the Viceroy
of New Spain. He lost a high-profile struggle with the Jesuits in New
Spain, resulting in a recall to Spain, to the minor Diocese of Osma in
Old Castile. Although a cause was opened for his Beatification shortly
after he died in 1659, he was not Beatified until 2011.
Blessed Juan was born in Navarre, Spain, Juan Palafox de Mendoza was
the natural son (“a child of transgression”) of Jaime de Palafox, the
Marquis of Ariaza, of the Aragonese nobility. His mother became a
Carmelite nun. He was taken in by a family of millers who gave him the
name “Juan” and raised him for ten years, after which his father
recognised him and had him educated at Alcalá and Salamanca.
In 1626 he was a deputy of the nobility in the Cortes de Monzón and
later a prosecutor at the Council of War and a member of the Council
of the Indies, the chief administrative body for administration of the
overseas territories of the Spanish Empire.
He was ordained in 1629 and became the chaplain of Maria of Austria,
Holy Roman Empress, the sister of King Philip IV of Spain. He
accompanied her on her various trips around Europe.
In 1639 Philip IV nominated him and Pope Urban VIII appointed him, as
Bishop of Puebla de los Ángeles in viceroyal Mexico. Puebla de los
Ángeles was the second largest city in the Viceroyalty of New Spain
(vice-royal México) then and is the present day City of Puebla. He was
consecrated at Madrid on 27 December 1639.
As bishop, Palafox arrived in Veracruz on 24 June 1640. He was in the
company of the new Viceroy of New Spain, Diego López Pacheco, 7th Duke
of Escalona, whom he had gotten to know during the voyage. Palafox was
also named Visitador (royal inspector, representative of the king), to
investigate the two previous viceroys. He served as Bishop of Puebla
from 1640 to 1655 and as interim Archbishop of Mexico from 1642 to
1643.
Palafox is known for being a prolific writer, a political thinker, a
defender of the Mexico’s indigenous people during Colonial times, and
a fair yet deeply religious man. “Historians highlight Palafox’s
intelligence, integrity, activity, intellectual preparation and will,
defining him as ‘one of the most brilliant men of his generation,’”
says Jorge Fernández Díaz, third vice president of the Congress of
Deputies, the lower house of Spain’s legislature. His writings were
published in 15 volumes in Madrid in 1762.
“[Palafox is] probably the most interesting and maybe the most
important figure in the whole history of 17th century Mexico.”
In Puebla, Palafox made his mark in both church and state affairs. He
established the Dominican convent of St Agnes, the colleges of St
Peter and St Paul and the girls school Immaculate Conception. He
pushed for administrative reform within the diocese and for the
completion of the city’s Cathedral, which was dedicated 1649. He also
held several political offices, including that of the viceroy of New
Spain in 1642.
“He was a superior man for his century, a classic in our language
[Spanish] whose numerous texts were written with an elegant and
eloquent style and have resulted in twelve thick volumes,” notes
University of Salamanca researcher Águeda Rodríguez Cruz in a 2010
bulletin for the International Institute for Higher Education in Latin
America and the Caribbean.
Quoting her colleague, professor Antonio Heredia, she adds:
“[Palafox] was robust in his work, although of a sensitive condition,
a spender but mean with it, legalistic, while with an ascetic of
sensitive piety, an expert and executor in law and politics, while at
a mystic at the same time, a man of war and noise, while pacific and
fond of silence, active, while contemplative; indebted, while punctual
with his duties a man of great contrasts, like life itself.”
His greatest legacy is a secular one – the Palafox Library in Puebla.
Founded in 1646, the Biblioteca Palafoxiana was the first public
library established in the Americas. Located inside what was once the
seminary of St. John’s College--now home to Puebla’s cultural
centre--the library preserves 45,058 volumes dating from just before
until just after the Colonial era. Many of its works are of global
importance. These include original copies of Hartmann Schedel’s
Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), which charts human history according to
the Bible in words and more than 2,000 illustrations – Andreas
Vesalius’s On the Fabric of the Human Body (1555), a seven-volume tome
that revolutionised the study of anatomy with detailed diagrams based
on actual observation and dissection and books printed in Mexico
before 1600, including Alonso Molina’s Vocabulary in Castilian and
Mexican, essentially the earliest New World dictionary.
The bookshelves consist of finely carved cedar, wild sunflower and
white pine. The library is also noteworthy for its sheer beauty. The
bookshelves, commissioned by Bishop Francisco Fabián y Fuero in 1773
(and expanded to include a third level in the 1800s), consist of
finely carved cedar, wild sunflower and ayacahuite, a native white
pine. A three-story gold altar at the far end of the room features an
oil painting of Virgen of Trapani, which is believed to be modeled
after the 14th-century sculpture attributed to Italian sculptor Nino
Pisano.
In 1981, the Mexican government declared the library a historic
monument. In 2005, UNESCO added the Biblioteca Palafoxiana to the
Memory of the World list, formally recognising its international
significance. In 2010, after five years of work by 30 specialists, the
first digital catalogue of the library’s complete contents was
released, some 3,000 copies of the interactive disk were distributed
to other libraries, universities, and research institutions. At the
time, Elvia Carrillo Velázquez, a director for ADABI, the national
book-preservation group that helped to create the archive, told El
Universal newspaper that the interactive disc “provides access to
culture and, above all, makes public knowledge part of the history of
the printed word.”
This seems to be exactly what Palafox intended. A sign at the
library’s entrance bears his words from 1646: “He who finds himself
benefiting without books, finds himself in solitude without comfort,
on a mountaintop without company, on a path without a walking stick,
in the darkness without a guide. This gave me the desire to leave the
library of books I’ve collected since I served his majesty the King,
which is one of the best I’ve seen in Spain, ancillary to those of the
church and in part and in public form, so that it may be used by all
professions and people.”
Blessed Juan was Beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on 5 June 2011. His
recognition celebrated at the Cathedral of La Asunción, El Burgo de
Osma, Spain by Cardinal Angelo Amato.
by Anastpaul 2019
Saint Quote:
Our Lord does not come down from Heaven every day to lie in a golden
ciborium. He comes to find another heaven which is infinitely dearer
to him--the heaven of our souls, created in His Image, the living
temples of the Adorable Trinity.
--Saint Therese of Lisieux
Bible Quote:
Let no one seek his own interests, but those of his neighbor. (1Cor. 10:24)
<><><><>
Act of Consecration to the Holy Ghost
On my knees before the great multitude of heavenly witnesses, I offer
myself, soul and body to You, Eternal Spirit of God. I adore the
brightness of Your purity, the unerring keenness of Your justice, and
the might of Your love. You are the Strength and Light of my soul. In
You I live and move and am. I desire never to grieve You by
unfaithfulness to grace and I pray with all my heart to be kept from
the smallest sin against You. Mercifully guard my every thought and
grant that I may always watch for Your light and listen to Your voice
and follow Your gracious inspirations. I cling to You and give myself
to You and ask You, by Your compassion, to watch over me in my
weakness. Holding the pierced Feet of Jesus and looking at His Five
Wounds and trusting in His Precious Blood and adoring His opened Side
and stricken Heart, I implore You, Adorable Spirit, Helper of my
infirmity, so to keep me in Your grace that I may never sin against
You. Give me grace, O Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Father and the Son, to
say to You always and everywhere, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant
heareth." Amen.