In today's announcement from the Vatican Press Office:

Il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha deciso che dal prossimo 18 settembre, con la ripresa dell’attività dell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano e degli altri Archivi della Santa Sede dopo le ferie estive, sia resa accessibile ai Ricercatori tutta la documentazione relativa al Pontificato di Pio XI (6 febbraio 1922 – 10 febbraio 1939).

Tale apertura, già auspicata dal compianto Pontefice Giovanni Paolo II di ven. mem., rende disponibili alla ricerca storica, entro i limiti dei Regolamenti, tutte le fonti documentarie fino a febbraio 1939 conservate nelle diverse serie degli Archivi della Santa Sede e principalmente nell’Archivio Segreto Vaticano e nell’Archivio della Seconda Sezione della Segreteria di Stato (già Congregazione degli Affari Ecclesiastici Straordinari).

Project Gutenberg now has Maisie Ward's biography of Gilbert Keith Chesterton available for free download. This looks to be the first time that this work can be accessed without charge.

I've been tagging posts here with categories since the beginning, but until now, there hasn't been an easy way to search for and display all posts in a particular category. Someone asked for that feature, and I dug around, successfully, the Pivot support fora to see if there is a way to provide such a search feature.

Added to the left hand column, below the 'Search' box, is a new 'Categories' box. It only has 'audio' for now, but I'll be adding the other categories over the next few days.

Clicking on the 'audio' link there will display all posts tagged with the 'audio' category.

Today is the feast of St Irenaeus. Banshee at the Maria Lectrix blog has created podcasts, in English, of Against Heresies, and has gotten to Book I, chapter 31. There's a list of all the podcasts here.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia article predates Pope Benedict XV's extending his feast to the Universal Church. There's also an entry on the new New Advent blog: Memorial of St. Irenaeus.

From breviary.net, here are Lessons iv v and vi for the feast of this Saint.

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi. From breviary.net, here are Lessons iv v and vi for today, a line art illustration and an image of Raphael's The Mass at Bolsena.

There's a lovely set of images at this thread on freerepublic.com: Traditional Corpus-Christi procession in my town - Lowicz, Poland (see colourful picture gallery) (not posted by me, they are in the Boze_Cialo album in lizol's galleries at imagecave.com). The town is near the geographic center of the country, about 50 miles southwest of Warsaw and 30 miles southwest of Lodz.

Corpus Christi in Lowicz has some local customs.

I've put a few of the images below the break.

statue of St Rita in procession, horsedrawn cart
from Sainte Rita 2003, Brasmenil

In the 2005 gallery at Capella Sancti Servatii Nunhem, there's a link to Ecclesia Dei Delft NL. At that site, they have the Missale Romanum 1962, Latijn - Nederlands, in Microsoft Word, .pdf, .rtf, and Open Office .sxw formats. At Mislocaties in Nederland en België, there's a listing of Traditional Latin Masses in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as a few in northern France and western Germany. (Wekelijkse zondagsmis is 'weekly Sunday'; Geen wekelijkse zondagsmis is 'no weekly Sunday'.)

The Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest in Belgium site has this note

The Sunday Mass at Our Lady of Good Will chapel [in Havré, near Mons] is celebrated at 11h15 and is followed by a drink at the chaplain's home.

David, at Paris Chartres, on the Juventutem blog, has one image, and he links to a gallery listing at the English language page of the Capella Sancti Servatii Nunhem (Church of St Servais in Nunhem, the Netherlands). They have photos from 1998 to 2006.

St Servais is sometimes calles Servatius, sometimes Aravatius. He was brought Christianity to the Netherlands, opposed Arianism, and was bishop of Tongeren. He transfered the see to Maastricht before he died on May 13, 384. Wikipedia has an article here.St Servais/Servatius/Aravatius, 12th century


One image is below the break.

Moniales, at Why Is This Postulant Smiling?!, tells us that Sr Greta's vestition will be on August 2, and she must choose a new name, among other things.

The sisters are always most solicitous in recommending names to novices-to-be, most of which are accepted with good humor (and, on occasion, some interior cringing).

We cordially invite our blog readers to submit names (with titles and feast days) to assist Sr. Greta is her "new name discernment." There is no limit to the number of submissions. The submission which is closest to Sr. Greta's actual name choice will receive a special prize.

UPDATE: a friend wanted to suggest a name, but didn't see how to contact the nuns in Summit, New Jersey. Their blog has this email address: vocations(dot)summit(at)op(dot)org

From Legends of the Monastic Orders, here is a description of the Basilica. An image of the interior is below the break.

The most splendid monument ever consecrated to St. Boniface is the Basilica which bears his name, and which was founded by King Louis of Bavaria in 1835, in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage. The interior is sustained by sixty-three pillars of white marble. The whole of the choir and nave are covered with frescoes, executed by Professor Hess and his pupils ; those in the choir represent our Saviour, and on each side his mother Mary and St. John the Evangelist; beneath, in a line, stand St. Benedict and the most celebrated of those teachers of the Christian faith who preached the Gospel in Bavaria, St. Boniface, St. Willibald, St. Corbinian, St. Rupert, St. Emnieran, St. Cylien, and St. Magnus, abbot of Fussen,¹ all of whom were Benedictines. Along the upper walls, on each side of the central nave, runs a series of compositions in thirty-six compartments, representing incidents in the lives of all those saints who preached the Gospel throughout Germany, from the year 384 down to the baptism of Wittikind in presence of Charlemagne in 785. Beneath these thirty-six small compartments are twelve large compartments, containing on a larger scale scenes from the life of St. Boniface, in each compartment two : 1. The father of Winfred (afterwards Boniface), being healed of a grievous malady by the prayers of his pious son, solemnly devotes him to the priesthood. 2. Boniface receives the Benedictine habit 3. He leaves the monastery at Nutsall, and embarks at the port of Southampton for Rome. 4. He arrives at Rome. 5. Pope Gregory II. consecrates him as missionary. 6. Boniface crosses the Alps into Germany. 7, He preaches the Gospel in Friesland. 8. He receives the papal command to repair to Rome. 9. Pope Gregory creates him bishop of the new converts. 10. Returning to Germany he is miraculously fed and refreshed in passing through a forest. 11. He hews down the oak sacred to the German divinity Thor. 12. He founds the bishoprics of Eichstadt and Wurzbourg. 13. He founds the great monastery of Fulda. 14. The solemn consecration of the monastery. 15. He receives into his monastery St. George of Utrecht as a child. 16. He crowns Pepin d Heristal king of the Franks. 17. He is created first Archbishop of Mayence. 18. He resigns his archiepiscopal dignity, resumes the habit of a simple monk, and prepares to depart on his second mission. 19. He suffers martyrdom at the hands of the barbarians. 20. His remains are borne to Mayence, and finally deposited in his monastery at Fulda.

I have given the list of subjects, because it will be found useful and suggestive both to artists and travellers. The frescoes have been executed with great care in a large, chaste, simple style. I have etched the scene of the departure of St. Boniface from Southampton. The dress of the saint, the short black sleeveless tunic over the white cassock, is the travelling and working costume of the Benedictine monks.

I have a far more solid and central ground for submitting to Christianity as a faith, instead of merely picking up hints from it as a scheme. And that is this ; that the Christian Church in its practical relation to my soul is a living teacher, not a dead one. It not only certainly taught me yesterday, but will almost certainly teach me to-morrow. Once I saw suddenly the meaning of the shape of the cross ; some day I may see suddenly the meaning of the shape of the mitre. One fine morning I saw why windows were pointed ; some fine morning I may see why priests were shaven. Plato has told you a truth ; but Plato is dead. Shakespeare has startled you with an image; but Shakespeare will not startle you with any more. But imagine what it would be to live with such men still living. To know that Plato might break out with an original lecture to-morrow, or that at any moment Shakespeare might shatter everything with a single song. The man who lives in contact with what he believes to be a living Church is a man always expecting to meet Plato and Shakespeare to-morrow at breakfast. He is always expecting to see some truth that he has never seen before.

From 'Orthodoxy', in Chesterton Day by Day, Selections from the Writings in Prose and Verse of G. K. Chesterton, with an Extract for every Day of the Year and for each of the Moveable Feasts.

Many places refer to St Boniface felling the huge oak tree worshipped by the German heathen, but only the Maria Lectrix blog reads the story to you.

Pope Pius XII's encyclical Ecclesiae fastos, published on the twelfth centenary of his martyrdom, is available at several places on the 'net.

That's the title of a page listing the works of scores of saints, blesseds, priests, nuns, laymen, available on the 'net. Today being St Boniface's day, I was poking around for links, found St Boniface in cin.org's pages containing parts of Church History in the Light of the Saints by Joseph A. Dunney, googled the title, and wound up at the Catholic books on the internet page. It's not complete (there aren't any entries to Christopher Dawson, for example), as would be expected, but it's worth a visit.

On occasion, the ResourceShelf blog will post mentions of interesting items on the 'net. Such is Resources: Images: "Curator's Choice" Collections from the NY Public Library Digital Image Gallery, with has a link to the New York Public Library's Illustrated Classics of Engineering from the William Barclay Parsons Collection and Others. The collection includes a series of images illustrating 'Della trasportatione dell'obelisco vaticano et delle fabriche di nostro signore papa Sisto V fatte dal cavallier Domenic ....', with four pages of thumbnails.

There's an engraving showing hoisting machinery suspending the old Chapel of the Presepio in midair. See it below the break, along with a tabernacle for the same Chapel.

Today is Pentecost. From breviary.net, here are Lessons i ii and iii from Matins.

From my ScrapBook grab of the old catholichaven.org site, here is Dom Guéranger's commentary for Whit Sunday, The Day of Pentecost. The Introit, Alleluias, Sequence, Offertory, Communion and Ite missa est can be streamed or downloaded from Dominica Pentecostes.

digg's post Nice gallery of real castles for sale around the world links to a wish list, Fantasy-Castles. Dungeons, drawbridges, torch lighting, moats, arrow loops, battlements/crenelated walls, chapels, vaulted ceilings, ministrel galleries, parapets, monumental fireplaces roasting whole oxen, ...

There are also a couple of abandoned monasteries and a former convent.

One image below the break.