Posted on 03/09/2020 8:33:53 AM PDT by Antoninus
Today, March 9, is the feast day of Saint Frances of Rome. She was an Italian woman who lived in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. A previous post about this amazing saint may be found here. It was claimed that in 40 years of marriage, Saint Frances never once quarreled with her husband.
St. Frances was invoked as an intercessor by the people of Rome even centuries after her death.
In AD 1656, a ship entered the harbor at Barletta carrying a deadly pathogen—very likely, the Black Plague. The town was immediately infected and the impact was dramatic. By the time the plague abated a year later, about half of the town's 20,000 citizens had been killed. It is speculated that the Kingdom of Naples suffered 1.5 million deaths as a result of the plague. Read more here.
Meanwhile, it appears that the affliction was considerably less in Rome by comparison. The city suffered a mere 9,000 deaths during the same period. This reprieve is celebrated in several works of art from this period, including the one shown above by Nicholas Poussin entitled Sainte Françoise Romaine (1657). This work was commissioned by Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi, who would later be elected Pope Clement IX. Poussin created the image to celebrate the end of the plague and interpretations of its content vary. It shows either Saint Frances appearing in a vision to a devout 17th century Roman woman begging her intercession (as per the Lourve website), or the Blessed Virgin appearing to St. Frances in response to her own prayers (as per Sheila Barker in Art, Architecture, and the Roman Plague of 1656).
In either interpretation, the artist offers a spiritual solution for those in the midst of a deadly pestilence. In the background, an archangel armed with a sword chases a personification of plague: a monstrous being who can be seen carrying off one of the victims.
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Italy and the subsequent closure of all churches in Rome for a month, may Saint Frances intercede on behalf of of the Italian people and anyone who is suffering from the virus. May Christ bring swift succor to the infected, relief to those who are enduring anxiety, and comfort to those whose family members have died.
Lecture me on Christianity Antoninus. Please do.... (MAJOR SARC)
All I get from you guys is bead & pearl clutching, dead body venerating, blasphemous teachings, and false doctrine.
I used to be a Roman Catholic, so I know all about our religion and practices. You guys are a far cry from True Biblical Christianity. The Lord rebuke you!
John 6:29
John 14:6
Acts 16:31
And you just sinned with that post.
Nice goin’! How many hail mary’s will that require?
Oops, your equation is wrong:
Oh well.
My apologies. I meant to ping Antoninus to my above post.
When they start talkin' back all sassy like; they'll have my attention.
And neither does anyone else!
I don’t even know where to begin with you. So I won’t. I’ll just end with you. On this:
Romans 8:34-39: “Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword?...
...Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM that loved us.
For I am PERSUADED, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creatures, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
THIS is assurance, friend. You would be wise to read beyond Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Or not. It’s YOUR life to gamble away with fear, superstition, works for a salvation that can NEVER be paid by you.
Note: this topic is from . Thanks Antoninus.
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