Defending the 12th century since the 14th; blogging since the 21st.

Catholicism, Conservatism, the Middle Ages, Opera, and Historical and Literary Objets d'Art blogged by a suburban dad who teaches law and writes stuff.


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Who was Cacciaguida? See Dante's PARADISO, Cantos XV, XVI, & XVII.


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Feast of St. Boniface, apostle of Germany

English Benedictine, sent to Germany, first by his religious superiors in England and then by Pope Gregory II. His mission was to evangelize pagan territory, and to reevangelize areas lost during persecutions by the pagan Prince Radbod (ancestor of the fictional Ortrud in Wagner's LOHENGRIN), and also those lost during periods of unspecified "injudicious zeal" by Christian princes such as Duke Gotzbert (Dilbert's pastor?) and the regrettably named Hethan II. After visiting Pope Gregory:

Boniface returned to Upper Hessia and repaired the losses which occurred during his absence, many having drifted back into paganism; he also administered everywhere the Sacrament of Confirmation. He continued his work in Lower Hessia. To show the heathens how utterly powerless were the gods in whom they placed their confidence, Boniface felled the oak sacred to the thunder-god Thor, at Geismar, near Fritzlar. He had a chapel built out of the wood and dedicated it to the prince of the Apostles. The heathens were astonished that no thunderbolt from the hand of Thor destroyed the offender, and many were converted. The fall of this oak marked the fall of heathenism. Tradition tells us that Boniface now passed on to the River Werra and there erected a Church of St. Vitus, around which sprang up a town which to the present day bears the name of Wannfried. At Eschwege he is said to have destroyed the statue of the idol Stuffo. Thence he went into Thuringia.

I doubt "Stuffo" was a very impressive idol, but that Thor stuff? Very cool. Götterdämmerung, dude.



The Three Norns:
Rope's broken, girls. G'bye!

P.S. I'm taking suggestions for what "Stuffo" may have looked like. I'm thinking maybe a teddy bear with a Valkyrie helmet, wings'n'all; shield, spear. ("Bear in mind," as we say in my family.)
posted by Cacciaguida at 5:28 PM