Friday, January 11, 2013

Fri, Jan 11, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog: Confident, Psalms 147, First John 5:5-13, Luke 5:12-16, Saint Paulinus II, Aquileina Italy, Carolingian Renaissance, Catholic Catechism Chapter 2:1 In Brief

Friday, January 11, 2013 - Litany Lane Blog:

Confident, Psalms 147, First John 5:5-13, Luke 5:12-16, Saint Paulinus II, Aquileina Italy, Carolingian Renaissance, Catholic Catechism Chapter 2:1 In Brief

Good Day Bloggers!  Happy New Year, Bonne Annee!
Wishing everyone a Blessed Week!

Year of Faith - October 11, 2012 - November 24, 2013

P.U.S.H. (Pray Until Serenity Happens). It has a remarkable way of producing solace, peace, patience and tranquility and of course resolution...God's always available 24/7.

The world begins and ends everyday for someone.  We are all human. We all experience birth, life and death. We all have flaws but we also all have the gift of knowledge and free will, make the most of these gifts. Life on earth is a stepping stone to our eternal home in Heaven. Its your choice whether to rise towards eternal light or lost to eternal darkness. Material items, though needed for sustenance and survival on earth are of earthly value only. The only thing that passes from this earth to Purgatory and/or Heaven is our Soul, our Spirit...it's God's perpetual gift to us...Embrace it, treasure it, nurture it, protect it...

"Raise not a hand to another unless it is to offer in peace and goodwill." ~ Zarya Parx 2012


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January 02, 2013 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
 "Dear children, with much love and patience I strive to make your hearts like unto mine. I strive, by my example, to teach you humility, wisdom and love because I need you; I cannot do without you my children. According to God's will I am choosing you, by His strength I am strengthening you. Therefore, my children, do not be afraid to open your hearts to me. I will give them to my Son and in return, He will give you the gift of Divine peace. You will carry it to all those whom you meet, you will witness God's love with your life and you will give the gift of my Son through yourselves. Through reconciliation, fasting and prayer, I will lead you. Immeasurable is my love. Do not be afraid. My children, pray for the shepherds. May your lips be shut to every judgment, because do not forget that my Son has chosen them and only He has the right to judge. Thank you."


December 25, 2012 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
Our Lady came with little Jesus in her arms and she did not give a message, but little Jesus began to speak and said : “I am your peace, live my commandments.” With a sign of the cross, Our Lady and little Jesus blessed us together.


December 2, 2012 Message From Our Lady of Medjugorje to World:
Dear children, with motherly love and motherly patience anew I call you to live according to my Son, to spread His peace and His love, so that, as my apostles, you may accept God's truth with all your heart and pray for the Holy Spirit to guide you. Then you will be able to faithfully serve my Son, and show His love to others with your life. According to the love of my Son and my love, as a mother, I strive to bring all of my strayed children into my motherly embrace and to show them the way of faith. My children, help me in my motherly battle and pray with me that sinners may become aware of their sins and repent sincerely. Pray also for those whom my Son has chosen and consecrated in His name. Thank you." 


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Today's Word:  confident   con·fi·dent  [kon-fi-duh nt]


Origin: 1570–80;  < Latin confīdent-  (stem of confīdēns ), present participle of confīdere.  See confide, -ent
adjective
1. having strong belief or full assurance; sure: confident of fulfillment.
2. sure of oneself; having no uncertainty about one's own abilities, correctness, successfulness, etc.; self-confident; bold: a confident speaker.
3. excessively bold; presumptuous.
4.  Obsolete . trustful or confiding.


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Today's Old Testament Reading -  Psalms 147:12-20

12 Praise Yahweh, Jerusalem, Zion, praise your God.
13 For he gives strength to the bars of your gates, he blesses your children within you,
14 he maintains the peace of your frontiers, gives you your fill of finest wheat.
15 He sends his word to the earth, his command runs quickly,
19 He reveals his word to Jacob, his statutes and judgements to Israel.
20 For no other nation has he done this, no other has known his judgements.



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Today's Epistle -   First John 5:5-13

5 Who can overcome the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
6 He it is who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with water alone but with water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is Truth.
7 So there are three witnesses,
8 the Spirit, water and blood; and the three of them coincide.
9 If we accept the testimony of human witnesses, God's testimony is greater, for this is God's testimony which he gave about his Son.
10 Whoever believes in the Son of God has this testimony within him, and whoever does not believe is making God a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.
11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
12 Whoever has the Son has life, and whoever has not the Son of God has not life.
13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.


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Today's Gospel Reading -  Luke 5:12-16


Now it happened that Jesus was in one of the towns when suddenly a man appeared, covered with a skin-disease. Seeing Jesus he fell on his face and implored him saying, 'Sir, if you are willing you can cleanse me.' He stretched out his hand, and touched him saying, 'I am willing. Be cleansed.' At once the skin-disease left him. He ordered him to tell no one, 'But go and show yourself to the priest and make the offering for your cleansing just as Moses prescribed, as evidence to them.' But the news of him kept spreading, and large crowds would gather to hear him and to have their illnesses cured, but he would go off to some deserted place and pray.


Reflection
• A leper came close to Jesus. He had to live far away from others, because whoever touched him remained impure! But that leper had great courage. He transgressed or broke the norms of religion so as to be able to get close to Jesus. He said: Lord, if you want, you can heal me! That is: “It is not necessary for you to touch me. It is sufficient for the Lord to want it, and he cured him!” The sentence shows two evils: a) the evil of leprosy which renders him impure; b) the evil of solitude to which he was condemned by society and by religion. This also reveals the man’s great faith in the power of Jesus. And Jesus profoundly moved, heals him from both evils! In the first place, to cure the solitude, he touches the leper. It is as if he would say: “For me you are not excluded. I accept you as a brother!” And then he cures the leper saying: I want it, be cured!

• The leper, in order to be able to enter in contact with Jesus, had transgressed the norms of the law. Jesus also, in order to be able to help that excluded man and reveal to him a new face of God , transgresses the norms of his religion and touches the leper. At that time, whoever touched a leper became impure according to the religious authority and by the law of the time.

• Jesus, not only cures, but also wants the cured person to be able to live with others. He once again inserts the person in society so that he can live together with others. At that time for a leper to be accepted again in the community, he needed a certificate from a priest, that he had been cured. It is the same today. The sick person leaves the hospital having a document signed by the doctor of the section. Jesus obliges the person to go and look for the document, so that he can live normally with the others. He obliges the authority to recognize that this man has been cured.

• Jesus forbids the leper to speak about the healing. The Gospel of Mark informs us that this prohibition was not effective, did not serve. The leper, went away, but then started freely proclaiming and telling the story everywhere, so that Jesus could no longer go openly into any town, but stayed outside in deserted places (Mk 1, 45) Why? Because Jesus had touched a leper. For this reason, according to the opinion of the religion of the time, now he himself was impure and should be far away from everybody. He could no longer enter into the cities. And Mark says that the people did not care at all about these official norms, in fact, people came to him from all parts (Mk 1, 45). Total Subversion!

• The two-fold message which Luke and Mark give the community of their time and to all of us is the following: a) to announce the Good News means to give witness of the concrete experience that one has of Jesus. What does the leper announce? He tells the others the good that Jesus has done to him. That is all! All this! And this is the witness which impels the others to accept the Good News of God, those brought by Jesus. b) In order to take the Good News to people, it is not necessary to be afraid to transgress the religious norms which are contrary to God’s project and which render communication, dialogue and the lived experience of love, difficult. Even if this implies difficulty for the people, as it happened with Jesus.


Personal questions
• In order to help the neighbour, Jesus transgresses the law of purity. In the Church today, are there any laws which render difficult or prevent the practice of love toward neighbour?
• In order to be cured, the leper had the courage to challenge the public opinion of his time. And I?


Reference: Courtesy of Order of Carmelites, www.ocarm.org.



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Saint of the Day:  Saint Paulinus II of Aquileia


Feast DayJanuary 11
Patron Saint n/a


Saint Paulinus II (c. 726 – 11 January 802 or 804) was a priest, theologian, poet, and one of the most eminent scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance.[1] From 787 to his death, he was the Patriarch of Aquileia. He participated in a number of synods which opposed Spanish Adoptionism and promoted both reforms and the adoption of the Filioque into the Nicene Creed. In addition, Paulinus arranged for the peaceful Christianisation of the Avars and the alpine Slavs in the territory of the Aquileian patriarchate. For this, he is also known as the apostle of the Slovenes.

Early life

Paulinus was born at Premariacco, near Cividale (the Roman Forum Iulii) in the Friuli region of north-eastern Italy, probably of a Roman family, during the latter days of Lombard rule. He received his education in the patriarchal school at Cividale and, after ordination to the priesthood, he became master of the same school. There he acquired a thorough Latin culture, both in pagan and Christian classics. He also acquired a relatively deep knowledge of jurisprudence, and an extensive Scriptural, theological, and patristic training.

Carolingian Renaissance

Paulinus' educational background prepared him to play a key part in the Carolingian Renaissance, allowing him to capably assist in the promotion of Christendom and the restoration of Western Civilization after centuries of unstable barbarian rule. It was precisely because of his exceptional learning that Paulinus first came to the attention of Charlemagne in 774 when the King of the Franks conquered all of Lombard northern Italy for the Carolingian Empire. Moreover, because of his loyalty to Charlemagne during Duke Hrodgaud's rebellion in 776, Paulinus was rewarded with many favors, among them the gift of the property of Waldand, son of Mimo of Lavariano, by means of a diploma issued by Charlemagne from Ivrea. In the same year, Charlemagne also invited Paulinus to the palace court to be royal "master of grammar (grammaticus magister)." It was at the itinerant palace school (schola palatina) that Paulinus would stay for about ten years and make the acquaintance of other leading scholars of the age, including Peter of Pisa, Alcuin of York, Fardulf, Arno of Salzburg, Albrico, Bona, Riculph, Raefgot, Rado, Lullus, Bassinus, Fuldrad, Eginard, Adalard and Adelbert. He formed an enduring friendships with Alcuin as attested to by numerous letters.

Patriarch of Aquileia

On the death of Patriarch Siguald in 787, Charles appointed Paulinus to be consecrated as the Patriarch of Aquileia. Paulinus returned from court to his episcopal see and took up residence at Cividale, also the seat of the Carolingian count in charge of the March of Friuli. (Aquileia itself had been reduced to a tiny village after its destruction in 452 by Attila the Hun, although the patriarchal basilica remained there.) As patriarch, Paulinus was able to take a more active and prominent part in implementing societal reforms. In his relations with the churches of Istria, or with the nearby Patriarch of Grado, the representative of Byzantine interests, he exhibited prudence and pastoral zeal. Meanwhile, from Charlemagne, Paulinus obtained diplomas for the free election of the future patriarchs by the cathedral chapter of Aquileia, and other privileges for his patriarchate as well as for the monastery of St. Mary in Organo, the church of St. Lawrence in Buja, and the hospitals of St. John at Cividale and St. Mary at Verona.

Synods

Paulinus was sollicitous for the integrity of Catholic doctrine. In 792, he took part in the Council of Ratisbon, which condemned the heresy of Adoptionism taught by Spanish bishops, Elipandus of Toledo and Felix of Urgel. In 794, he took a leading part in the Frankish national council at Frankfort, where Adoptionism was again condemned, and composed a book against the heresy which was sent to Spain in the name of the assembled bishops. Departing Frankfort, Paulinus returned to his epsicopal residence at Cividale.

In 796 he accompanied Charlemagne's son Pepin in his military campaign against the nearby hostile Avars. In late summer of 796, after the Avars had been defeated, Paulinus presided over a synod of bishops at Pepin's military camp on the banks of the Danube in which the bishops decided on a program of evangelization and catechesis for the recently subdued territories inhabited by the Avars and the Slavs. With the consent of Paulinus, the synod also assigned the patriarchate of Aquileia's northernmost territory to the bishop of Salzburg, headed by Arno. The border between the dioceses was drawn on the Drava River. The agreement was confirmed in 811 by Charlemagne and lasted for almost a millennium, until the middle of the 18th century. At the advice of Alcuin of York, it was decided that the areas should be Christianised nonviolently.Nowadays, the Slovenes regard Paulinus as their apostle who peacefully brought them Christian religion, although the true missionary activity in the Aquileian sphere started only after his death. Returning from the synod, Paulinus once more opposed the Adoptionism at the Council of Cividale. The patriarch expounded the Catholic doctrine about the Blessed Trinity, especially about the procession of the Holy Spirit from both the Father and the Son. At this synod fourteen "canons" on ecclesiastical discipline, and on the sacrament of marriage, were framed and a copy of the Acts was sent to Charlemagne. Paulinus was once thought to have assisted at a Council of Altinum, but the theologian Karl Josef von Hefele has provided evidence that such a council never occurred.

Missus dominicus

Always protesting the immunity of the Church from secular obligations and interference in his correspondences with Charlemagne, Paulinus, nonetheless, served as one of Charlemagne's missi dominici at Pistoia, with Arno of Salzburg and ten other bishops, in 798. Afterwards he also traveled to Rome as legate to Pope Leo III.  Much of the activity of Paulinus as patriarch can be gathered from the Sponsio Episcoporum ad S. Aquileiensem Sedem. He died, revered as a saint by the Catholic Church.

Works

Among his works are: Libellus Sacrosyllabus contra Elipandum, Liber Exhortationis, Libri III contra Felicem, and the protocol of the conference with Pepin and the bishops on the Danube, a work very important for the history of that expedition. Among his early works is a Commentary on the Letter to the Hebrews which, however, remains in manuscript form. Paulinus was also a poet. Among his better known poetical productions are his Carmen de regula fidei; a Versus de Lazaro; a planctus or elegy inspired by the death of his friend, Duke Eric of Friuli who was killed in Siege of Trsat, 799; a rhythm on the destruction of Aquileia; and eight liturgical rhythms or hymns to be sung in his own church at Christmas, the Candlemas, Lent, Easter, the feast of St. Mark, the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, and the feast of the dedication of his cathedral. Letters written by and to Paulinus are preserved in the Monumenta Germanica Historica and Patrologia Latina.

Veneration

After several translations the relics of the patriarch were laid to rest under the altar of the crypt of the basilica of Cividale del Friuli. The first appearance of the name St. Paulinus in the Liturgy occurs in the "Litaniae" of Charles the Bald of the 9th century. It appears also in the "Litaniae Carolinae," in the "Litaniae a S. Patribus constitutae," and finally in the "Litaniae of the Gertrudian" MS. of the 10th century.

Feast Day

In manuscripts prior to the Martyrology of Usuard his feast day is recorded on 11 January. In the calendars of saints of the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, used in the Church of Aquileia and Cividale, his feast has a special rubric. Until the sixteenth century the feast continued to be celebrated on 11 January, during the privileged octave of the Epiphany. The patriarch Francesco Barbaro at the beginning of the seventeenth century translated the feast to 9 February. The Church of Cividale keeps his feast on 2 March. According to the most recent (2004) edition of the Roman Martyrology, Paulinus' feast day is assigned to the date of his death, 11 January.


 References

  • "St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
  • Martyrologium Romanum, Editio Altera, (Citta del Vaticano: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2004) 94.
  • History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity
  • Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John. The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993. ISBN 0-14-051312-4.
  • Nicholas Everett, "Paulinus, the Carolingians and famosissima Aquileia", in Paulino d'Aquileia e il contributo italiano all'Europa carolingia, ed. Paolo Chiesa (Udine, 2003), pp. 115–154
  • Nicholas Everett, "Paulinus of Aquileia's Sponsio Episcoporum: written oaths and clerical discipline in Carolingian Italy", in W. Robins (ed), Textual Cultures of Medieval Italy (University of Toronto Press, 2011), pp.167-216 (includes new edition of Latin text with Eng. translation of the Sponsio).
  • Carl Giannoni, Paulinus II, Patriarch von Aquileia, (Wien: Verlag, 1896)
  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Paulinus II". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.


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Today's Snippet I:  Aquileia Italy



A view of the archaeological area of Aquileia 
Aquileia (Friulian: Acuilee/Aquilee/Aquilea, Venetian: Aquiłeja/Aquiłegia) is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 km from the sea, on the river Natiso (modern Natissa), the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small (about 3,500 inhabitants), but it was large and prominent in Antiquity, and is one of the main archeological sites of Northern Italy.

Aquileia was founded as a colony by the Romans in 180/181 BC along the Natissa River, on land south of the Julian Alps but about 8 miles north of the lagoons. Presumably named from an indigenous word Akylis, the colony served as a frontier fortress at the north-east corner of transpadane Italy and was intended to protect the Veneti, faithful Roman allies, during the Illyrian Wars and act as a buttress to check the advance of other warlike people, such as the hostile Carni and Histri tribes. In fact, Aquileia was founded on a site not far from where Gaulish invaders had attempted to settle in 183 BC.

The colony was established with Latin rights by the triumvirate of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, two of whom were of consular and one of praetorian rank. They led 3,000 pedites (infantry), mainly from Samnium, who with their families formed the bulk of the settlers and were soon supplemented by native Veneti. It is likely that Aquileia had been a center of Venetia even before the coming of the Romans. And Aquileia's strategic military position also served to promote the Venetic trade in amber imported from the Baltic.
 
Aquileia was connected by road with Bologna probably in 173 BC; and subsequently with Genoa in 148 BC by the Via Postumia, which ran through Cremona, Bedriacum and Altinum, joining the first-mentioned road at Concordia, while the construction of the Via Popilia from Rimini to Ad Portum near Altinum in 132 BC improved the communications still further.

In 169 BC, 1,500 more Latin colonists with their families were settled in the town as a reinforcement to the garrison. The discovery of the gold fields near the modern Klagenfurt in 130 BC brought it into notice, and it soon became a place of importance, not only owing to its strategic position, but as a centre of trade, especially in agricultural products and viticulture. It also had, in later times at least, considerable brickfields.

The original Latin colony became a municipium probably in 90 BC. Citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe Velina. The customs boundary of Italy was close by in Cicero's day. It was plundered by the Iapydes under Augustus, but, in the period of peace which followed, was able to develop its resources. Augustus visited it during the Pannonian wars in 12‑10 BC and it was the birthplace of Tiberius' son by Julia, in the latter year.

It was the starting-point of several important roads leading to the north-eastern portion of the empire — the road (Via Iulia Augusta) by Iulium Carnicum to Veldidena (mod. Wilten, near Innsbruck), from which branched off the road into Noricum, leading by Virunum (Klagenfurt) to Laurieum (Lorch) on the Danube, the road leading via Emona into Pannonia and to Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica), the road to Tarsatica (near Fiume, now Rijeka) and Siscia (Sisak), and the road to Tergeste (Trieste) and the Istrian coast.

Besides natives of Italy, Celts, Illyrians, Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, and Syrians all settled in the city and contributed to its commercial development. Jewish artisans established a flourishing trade in glasswork. Metal from Noricum was forged and exported. The ancient Venetic trade in amber from the Baltic was continued. Wine, especially its famous Pucinum was exported. Oil was imported from Proconsular Africa.
In terms of religion, the Roman pantheon was adopted although a native sungod, Belenus, had a large following. Jews practiced their ancestral religion and it was perhaps some of these Jews who became the first Christians. Meanwhile, soldiers brought the martial cult of Mithras.

In the war against the Marcomanni in 167, the town was hard pressed; its fortifications had fallen into disrepair during the long peace. Nevertheless, when in 168 Marcus Aurelius made Aquileia the principal fortress of the empire against the barbarians of the North and East, it rose to the pinnacle of its greatness and soon had a population of 100,000. In 238, when the town took the side of the Senate against the Emperor Maximinus Thrax, the fortifications were hastily restored, and proved of sufficient strength to resist for several months, until Maximinus himself was assassinated.

Roman Emperor Flavius Victor on this as struck in Aquileia mint.
During the 4th century, Aquileia maintained its importance. Constantine sojourned there on numerous occasions. It became a naval station and the seat of the Corrector Venetiarum et Histriae; a mint was established, of which the coins were very numerous, and the bishop obtained the rank of metropolitan archbishop. A council held in the city in 381 was only the first of a series of Councils of Aquileia that have been convened over the centuries.

An imperial palace was constructed here, in which the emperors after the time of Diocletian frequently resided; and the city often played a part in the struggles between the rulers of the 4th century. In 340, Emperor Constantine II was killed under its walls while attempting to take the city from his younger brother Constans.

Middle Ages

At the end of the 4th century, Ausonius enumerated Aquileia as the ninth among the great cities of the world, placing Rome, Mediolanum, Constantinople, Carthage, Antioch, Alexandria, Trier, and Capua before it. However, such prominence made it a target and it was besieged by Alaric and the Visigoths in 401, during which time some of its residents fled to the nearby lagoons. It was again unsuccessfully attacked in 408 by Attila, who returned in 452. During this second invasion, the city was so utterly destroyed by Attila and his Huns that it was afterwards hard to recognize its original site. the fall of Aquileia was the first of Attila's incursions into Roman territory, followed by cities like Mediolanum and Ticinum. The Roman inhabitants, together with those of smaller towns in the neighborhood, fled en masse to the lagoons, and so laid the foundations of the cities of Venice and nearby Grado.

Yet Aquileia would rise again, though much diminished, and continue to exist until the Lombard invasion of 568. It was once more destroyed (590) by the Lombards. Meanwhile, the patriarch fled to the island town of Grado, which was under the protection of the Byzantines. When the patriarch residing in Grado was reconciled with Rome in 606, those continuing in the Schism of the Three Chapters, rejecting the Second Council of Constantinople, elected a patriarch at Aquileia. Thus, the diocese was essentially divided into two parts, with the mainland patriarchate of Aquileia under the protection of the Lombards, and the insular patriarchate of Aquileia seated in Grado being protected by the exarchate of Ravenna and later the Doges of Venice, with the collusion of the Lombards. The line of the patriarchs elected in Aquileia would continue in schism until 699. However, although they kept the title of patriarch of Aquileia, they moved their residence first to Cormons and later to Cividale.

Patriarchate of Aquileia in a 1350 map.
The Lombard Dukes of Friuli ruled Aquileia and the surrounding mainland territory from Cividale. In 774, Charlemagne conquered the Lombard duchy and made it into a Frankish one with Eric of Friuli as duke. In 787, Charlemagne named the priest and master of grammar at the Palace School Paulinus the new patriarch of Aquileia. Although Paulinus resided mainly at Cividale, his successor Maxentius considered rebuilding Aquileia. However, the project never came to fruition.

While Maxentius was patriarch, the pope approved the Synod of Mantua, which affirmed the precedence of the mainland patriarch of Aquileia over the patriarch of Grado. However, material conditions were soon to worsen for Aquileia. The ruins of Aquileia were continually pillaged for building material. And with the collapse of the Carolingians in the 10th century, the inhabitants would suffer under the raids of the Magyars.
By the 11th century, the patriarch of Aquileia had grown strong enough to assert temporal sovereignty over Friuli and Aquileia. The Holy Roman Emperor gave the region to the patriarch as a feudal possession. However, the patriarch's temporal authority was constantly disputed and assailed by the territorial nobility.

In 1027 and 1044 Patriarch Poppo of Aquileia, who rebuilt the cathedral of Aquileia, entered and sacked neighboring Grado, and, though the Pope reconfirmed the Patriarch of the latter in his dignities, the town never fully recovered, though it continued to be the seat of the Patriarchate until its formal transference to Venice in 1450.

In the 14th century the Patriarchate reached its biggest extension, stretching from the Piave river to the Julian Alps and northern Istria. The seat of the Patriarchate of Aquileia had been transferred to Udine in 1238, but returned to Aquiliea in 1420 when Venice annexed the territory of Udine.

In 1445, the defeated patriarch Ludovico Trevisan acquiesced in the loss of his ancient temporal estate in return for an annual salary of 5,000 ducats allowed him from the Venetian treasury. Henceforth only Venetians were allowed to hold the title of Patriarch of Aquileia. The Patriarchate was incorporated in the Republic of Venice with the name of Patria del Friuli, ruled by a General Proveditor or a "Luogotenente" living in Udine.

It was finally officially suppressed in 1751, and the sees of Udine and Gorizia (Görz) established in its stead.


Main sights


Cathedral

The Aquileia Cathedral is a flat-roofed basilica erected by Patriarch Poppo in 1031 on the site of an earlier church, and rebuilt about 1379 in the Gothic style by Patriarch Marquard of Randeck.

The façade, in Romanesque-Gothic style, is connected by a portico to the so-called Church of the Pagans, and the remains of the 5th century Baptistry. The interior has a nave and two aisles, with a noteworthy mosaic pavement from the 4th century. The wooden ceiling is from 1526, while the fresco decoration belongs to various ages: from the 4th century in the St. Peter's chapel of the apse area; from the 11th century in the apse itself; from the 12th century in the so-called "Crypt of the Frescoes", under the presbytery, with a cycle depicting the origins of Christianity in Aquileia and the history of St. Hermagoras, first bishop of the city.

Next to the 11th century Romanesque chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, at the beginning of the left aisle, flooring of different ages can be seen: the lowest is from a Roman villa of the age of Augustus; the middle one has a typical cocciopesto pavement; the upper one, bearing blackening from the Attila's fire, has geometrical decorations.

Externally, behind the 9th century campanile and the apse, is the Cemetery of the Fallen, where ten unnamed soldiers of World War I are buried. Saint Hermangoras is also buried there.

Ancient remains

The ancient buildings of Aquileia served as stone quarries for centuries, and no edifices of the Roman period remain above ground. Excavations have revealed one street and the north-west angle of the town walls, while the National Archaeological Museum (one of the most important museums of Ancient Rome in the world) contains over 2,000 inscriptions, statues and other antiquities, as well as glasses of local production and a numismatics collection.

The site of Aquileia, believed to be the largest Roman city yet to be excavated, is inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Other Sites

In the Monastero fraction is a 5th century Christian basilica, later a Benedictine monastery, which today houses the Paleo-Christian Museum.


References

    1. Strabo IV. 208
    2. Jordanus (1997). "THE ORIGINS AND DEEDS OF THE GOTHS". Getica. University of Calgary. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
    • Catholic Encyclopedia
    • Neher in Kirchenlexikon I, 1184–89
    • De Rubeis, Monumenta Eccles. Aquil. (Strasburg, 1740)
    • Ferdinando Ughelli, Italia Sacra, I sqq.; X, 207
    • Cappelletti, Chiese d'Italia, VIII, 1 sqq.
    • Menzano, Annali del Friuli (1858–68)
    • Paschini, Sulle Origini della Chiesa di Aquileia (1904)
    • Glaschroeder, in Buchberger's Kirchl. Handl. (Munich, 1904), I, 300-301
    • Hefele, Conciliengesch. II, 914-23.
    • For the episcopal succession, see P. B. Gams, Series episcoporum (Ratisbon, 1873–86), and Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi (Muenster, 1898).


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    Today's Snippet II:  Carolingian Renaissance



    Carolingian minuscule, one of the products of the Carolingian Renaissance.
    The Carolingian Renaissance was as a period of intellectual and cultural revival in the Carolingian Empire occurring from the late eighth century to the ninth century, as the first of three medieval renaissances. It occurred mostly during the reigns of the Carolingian rulers Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. It was supported by the scholars of the Carolingian court, notably Alcuin of York. For moral betterment the Carolingian renaissance reached for models drawn from the example of the Christian Roman Empire of the 4th century. During this period there was an increase of literature, writing, the arts, architecture, jurisprudence, liturgical reforms and scriptural studies. Charlemagne's Admonitio generalis (789) and his Epistola de litteris colendis served as manifestos.

    The effects of this cultural revival, however, were largely limited to a small group of court literati: "it had a spectacular effect on education and culture in Francia, a debatable effect on artistic endeavors, and an unmeasurable effect on what mattered most to the Carolingians, the moral regeneration of society," John Contreni observes. Beyond their efforts to write better Latin, to copy and preserve patristic and classical texts and to develop a more legible, classicizing script, the Carolingian minuscule that Renaissance humanists took to be Roman and employed as humanist minuscule, from which has developed early modern Italic script, the secular and ecclesiastical leaders of the Carolingian Renaissance for the first time in centuries applied rational ideas to social issues, providing a common language and writing style that allowed for communication across most of Europe.

    Sir Kenneth Clark was of the view that by means of the Carolingian Renaissance, Western civilization survived by the skin of its teeth. The use of the term renaissance to describe this period is contested due to the majority of changes brought about by this period being confined almost entirely to the clergy, and due to the period lacking the wide-ranging social movements of the later Italian Renaissance. Instead of being a rebirth of new cultural movements, the period was more an attempt to recreate the previous culture of the Roman Empire. The Carolingian Renaissance in retrospect also has some of the character of a false dawn, in that its cultural gains were largely dissipated within a couple of generations, a perception voiced by Walahfrid Strabo (died 849), in his introduction to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne, summing up the generation of renewal:

    Charlemagne was able to offer the cultureless and, I might say, almost completely unenlightened territory of the realm which God had entrusted to him, a new enthusiasm for all human knowledge. In its earlier state of barbarousness, his kingdom had been hardly touched at all by any such zeal, but now it opened its eyes to God's illumination. In our own time the thirst for knowledge is disappearing again: the light of wisdom is less and less sought after and is now becoming rare again in most men's minds.

    Scholarly efforts

    The lack of literate persons in eighth century western Europe caused problems for the Carolingian rulers by severely limiting the number of people capable of serving as court scribes. Of even greater concern to the very pious rulers was the fact that not all parish priests possessed the skill to read the Vulgate Bible. An additional problem was that the vulgar Latin of the later Western Roman Empire had begun to diverge into the regional dialects, the precursors to today's Romance languages, that were becoming mutually unintelligible and preventing scholars from one part of Europe being able to communicate with persons from another part of Europe.

    Alcuin (pictured center), was one of the leading scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance.
    To address these problems, Charlemagne ordered the creation of schools in a capitulary known as the Charter of Modern Thought, issued in 787. A major part of his program of reform was to attract many of the leading scholars of his day to his court. Among the first called to court were Italians: Peter of Pisa, who from 776 to about 790 instructed Charlemagne in Latin, and from 776 to 787 Paulinus of Aquileia, whom Charlemagne nominated as patriarch of Aquileia in 787. The Lombard Paul the Deacon was brought to court in 782 and remained until 787, when Charles nominated him abbot of Montecassino. Theodulf of Orléans was a Spanish Goth who served at court from 782 to 797 when nominated as bishop of Orléans.

    Theodulf had been in friendly competition over the standardization of the Vulgate with the chief among the Charlemagne's scholars, Alcuin of York. Alcuin was a Northumbrian monk and deacon who served as head of the Palace School from 782 to 796, except for the years 790 to 793 when he returned to England. After 796, he continued his scholarly work as abbot of St. Martin's Monastery in Tours. Among those to follow Alcuin across the Channel to the Frankish court was Joseph Scottus, an Irishman who left some original biblical commentary and acrostic experiments. After this first generation of non-Frankish scholars, their Frankish pupils, such as Angilbert, would make their own mark.  The later courts of Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald had similar groups of scholars. Among the most important was John Scotus Eriugena.

    One of the primary efforts was the creation of a standardized curriculum for use at the recently created schools. Alcuin led this effort and was responsible for the writing of textbooks, creation of word lists, and establishing the trivium and quadrivium as the basis for education.

    Another contribution from this period was the development of Carolingian minuscule, a "book-hand" first used at the monasteries of Corbie and Tours that introduced the use of lower case letters. A standardized version of Latin was also developed that allowed for the coining of new words while retaining the grammatical rules of Classical Latin. This Medieval Latin became the common language of scholarship and allowed administrators and travelers to make themselves understood across Europe.



    Carolingian art

    Aachen Gospels (c. 820), an example of Carolingian illumination.
    Carolingian art comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs — popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of important monasteries under Imperial patronage; survivals from outside this charmed circle show a considerable drop in quality of workmanship and sophistication of design. The art was produced in several centres in what are now France, Germany, Austria, northern Italy and the Low Countries, and received considerable influence, via continental mission centres, from the Insular art of the British Isles, as well as a number of Byzantine artists who appear to have been resident in Carolingian centres.

    There was for the first time a thoroughgoing attempt in Northern Europe to revive and emulate classical Mediterranean art forms and styles, that resulted in a blending of classical and Northern elements in a sumptuous and dignified style, in particular introducing to the North confidence in representing the human figure, and setting the stage for the rise of Romanesque art and eventually Gothic art in the West. The Carolingian era is part of the period in Medieval art sometimes called the "Pre-Romanesque". After a rather chaotic interval following the Carolingian period, the new Ottonian dynasty revived Imperial art from about 950, building on and further developing Carolingian style in Ottonian art.



    Carolingian architecture

    A copy of the Plan of Saint Gall

    Carolingian architecture is the style of north European Pre-Romanesque architecture belonging to the period of the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th and 9th centuries, when the Carolingian family dominated west European politics. It was a conscious attempt to emulate Roman architecture and to that end it borrowed heavily from Early Christian and Byzantine architecture, though there are nonetheless innovations of its own, resulting in a unique character.

    The gatehouse of the monastery at Lorsch, built around 800, exemplifies classical inspiration for Carolingian architecture, built as a triple-arched hall dominating the gateway, with the arched facade interspersed with attached classical columns and pilasters above.

    The Palatine Chapel in Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) constructed between 792 - 805 was inspired by the octagonal Justinian church of San Vitale in Ravenna, built in the 6th century, but at Aachen there is a tall monumental western entrance complex, as a whole called a westwork - a Carolingian innovation.

    Carolingian churches generally are basilican, like the Early Christian churches of Rome, and commonly incorporated westworks, which is arguably the precedent for the western facades of later medieval cathedrals. An original westwork survives today at the Abbey of Corvey, built in 885.



    Carolingian music

    In Western culture, there had been an unbroken tradition in musical practice and theory from the earliest written records of the Sumerians (c. 2500 BC) through the Babylonians and Persians down to ancient Greece and Rome. However, the Germanic migrations of the 5th century brought about a break with this tradition. Most in western Europe for the next few centuries did not understand the Greek language, and thus the works of Boethius, who saw what was happening and translated ancient Greek treatises into Latin, became the foundation of learning during this period. The advent of scholarly reforms by Charlemagne, who was particularly interested in music, began a period of intense activity in the monasteries of the writing and copying of treatises in music theory – the Musica enchiriadis is one of the earliest and most interesting of these. Charlemagne sought to unify the practice of church music by eliminating regional stylistic differences. There is evidence that the earliest Western musical notation, in the form of neumes in camp aperto (without staff-lines), was created at Metz around 800, as a result of Charlemagne's desire for Frankish church musicians to retain the performance nuances used by the Roman singers. Western musical practice and theory of today can be traced in an unbroken line from this time to the present, thus it had its beginnings with Charlemagne.


    Economic and legal reforms

    Charlemagne was faced with a variety of currencies at the start of his reign. To correct problems these various currencies caused, he standardized a system based on a pound of silver (Livre tournois). Deniers were minted with a value of 240 deniers to a pound of silver. A second value, the solidus, was also created as an accounting device with a value of twelve deniers or one twentieth of a pound of silver. The solidus was not minted but was instead used to record values such as a "solidus of grain" which was equal to the amount of grain that twelve deniers could purchase.



    References

    • Cantor, Norman F. (1993). The Civilization of the Middle Ages: a completely revised and expanded edition of Medieval history, the life and death of a civilization. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-017033-6.
    • Mortimer Chambers; Raymond Grew, David Herlihy, Theodore K. Rabb, Isser Woloch (1983). The Western Experience: To 1715 (3rd edition ed.). New York: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-394-33085-4.
    • Martin Scott (1964). Medieval Europe. New York: Dorset Press. ISBN 0-88029-115-X.



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      Catechism of the Catholic Church

      Part One: Profession of Faith, Chapter 2:1


      CHAPTER TWO, 2:1

      IN BRIEF

      68 By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to man. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that man asks himself about the meaning and purpose of his life.
      69 God has revealed himself to man by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and in words.
      70 Beyond the witness to himself that God gives in created things, he manifested himself to our first parents, spoke to them and, after the fall, promised them salvation (cf Gen 3:15) and offered them his covenant.
      71 God made an everlasting covenant with Noah and with all living beings (cf Gen 9:16). It will remain in force as long as the world lasts.
      72 God chose Abraham and made a covenant with him and his descendants. By the covenant God formed his people and revealed his law to them through Moses. Through the prophets, he prepared them to accept the salvation destined for all humanity.
      73 God has revealed himself fully by sending his own Son, in whom he has established his covenant for ever. the Son is his Father's definitive Word; so there will be no further Revelation after him.



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