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Issue 07 – Saint Rose 2021

Brass Rubbings

Sacré-Coeur and Amélie

On Amélie.

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Every October, brilliant red and orange leaves fall to the ground in an annual reminder of our mortality, perfectly placed for us to discover the spirit of childlike wonder and love marked by the feast of Saint Thérèse. The air is crisp and dry; it is windy, but not cold, transforming over the course of thirty-one days to winter’s wet misery.

French schools take two weeks of vacation around All Saints’ Day, a holy day of obligation and, to the surprise of virtually all Americans, a national holiday in France. Last year presented a special opportunity for traditional French Catholics: the closure of the jubilee of the consecration of Sacré-Cœur with a solemn Mass in the traditional rite—the very same in which the consecration was celebrated in 1919. So I made my second pilgrimage to the holy hill, where Saint Denis, the first bishop of Paris, was martyred; he continued to speak even after being beheaded, finishing his speech only at the site upon which the royal basilica dedicated to the martyr would be built, some five miles to the northeast.


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About the author

Matthew Roth

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