proclaiming blog

The Knights which belonged to the great orders during the Middle Ages were regarded by the Church in a manner analogous to those monks whose three vows they professed and whose immunities they shared. They answered to the pope and to him only; they each had their chapels, their clerics, and their very own cemeteries, all of which were exempt from the jurisdiction of the secular clergy. Their landed property was free from tithes or any other taxes. They were not subject to the interdicts which the bishops in those days so freely employed as a means of controlling the people. However, they did not all follow the same monastic rule. The Templars as well as all the Orders derived from them followed the Cistercian Reform. On the other hand, the Hospitallers followed the Rule of St. Augustine. Nevertheless, in consequence of the relaxation which manifested itself among them after the period of the crusades, the Holy See introduced mitigations in favour of the non-clerical brethren.

For these it was difficult to maintain the rule of celibacy in all its rigour; they were permitted, in certain orders, to marry once, and that only with a maiden. Even where second marriages were tolerated, they had to vow conjugal fidelity, so that if they violated this obligation of the natural law they sinned doubly against the law and against their vow. Besides the three vows, the rule bound the brethren to the exercises of the monastic life and all it entailed, including the recitation of the Hours, for which, in the case of illiterates, a fixed number of Paters was substituted. It also prescribed their dress and their food, and their feast, abstinence, and fast days. Lastly, the rule imposed detailed obligations in regard to the election of dignitaries and the admission of members to the two ranks of combatants — knights and men-at-arms — and the two of non-combatants — chaplains, to whom all sacerdotal functions were reserved, and casaliers, or tenants, who were charged with the management of temporal affairs.

Military organizations

The military organization of the orders was uniform, explained by that law of war which compels the belligerent to maintain his military apparatus on a level with those of his adversary, on pain of defeat. The strength of an army was in its cavalry, and to this type the armament, mounting, and tactics of the military orders conformed. The knights-brethren were the heavy cavalry; the men-at-arms-brethren, the light cavalry. The former were entitled to three horses a piece; the latter had to be content with one.

Among the former, only knights of tried prowess were admitted, or, in default of this qualification, sons of knights, because in such families the warlike spirit and military training were considered to be hereditary. The result was that the knights, properly so-called, were never very numerous; they formed a corps d’?lite which carried the great mass of the crusaders. Gathered in convents which were also barracks, combining with the passive obedience of the soldier, the spontaneous submission of the religious, living shoulder to shoulder in brotherly union, commander and subordinate, these orders surpassed, in that cohesiveness which is the ideal of every military organization, the most famous bodies of picked soldiery known to history, from the Macedonian phalanx to the Ottoman Janissaries.

RB

To learn more about the fascinating militare ordine del collare visit our expert site today!

Saint Agatha of Sicily, whose death is traditionally said to have taken place in the year 251, Saint Agatha is regarded as a Christian Saint whose memorial is commemorated on the 5th of February of each year . Agatha was born in Catania, and she was allegedly a sacrificial victim on 251 as history tells us. . She is one of seven ladies, not including the Blessed Virgin Mary, who are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Catholic Church.

Agatha is buried at the Badia di Sant’Agata, in Catania. Her written legend, created to support her existing cultus, is comprised of “straightforward accounts of interrogation, torture, resistance, and triumph which constitute some of the earliest hagiographic literature” . According to legend, having dedicated her virginity to God, Agatha, rich and noble rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman prefect, Quintinianus, and was therefore persecuted by him for her Christian faith. She was handed over to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel, and her nine daughters, but in response to their threats and entreaties to sacrifice to the idols and submit to Quintianus, she responded:

“My courage and my thought be so firmly founded upon the firm stone of Jesu Christ, that for no pain it may not be changed; your words be but wind, your promises be but rain, and your menaces be as rivers that pass, and how well that all these things hurtle at the foundement of my courage, yet for that it shall not move”.

Among the tortures which she had to endure was the cutting off of her breasts which was and still is a barbaric act of cruelty. In the meantime, an apparition of Saint Peter cured her. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to the Legenda Aurea in “the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three in the time of Decius, the emperor of Rome.”

Saint Agatha is often depicted iconographically carrying her excised breasts on a platter, as portrayed by Bernardino Luini’s Saint Agatha in the Galleria Borghese, Rome, in which Agatha sweetly contemplates the breasts on a standing salver held in her hand, an impressive and bone chilling ilustration by any standard. The shape of her amputated breasts, especially as depicted in artistic renderings, gave rise to her attribution as the patron saint of bell-founders and as the patron saint of bakers, whose loaves were blessed at her feast day. More recently, she has been venerated as patron saint of breast cancer patients, a simbol recognized worldwide.

Basques have a tradition of gathering on Saint Agatha’s eve (Santa Ageda bezpera in Basque) and going round the village. Homeowners can choose to hear a song about her life, accompanied by the beats of their walking sticks on the floor or a prayer for those deceased in the house. After that, the home-owner donates food to the chorus. This song has varying lyrics according to the local tradition and the Basque language. An exceptional case was that of 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, when a version appeared that in the Spanish language praised the Soviet ship Komsomol, which had sunk while carrying Soviet weapons to the Second Spanish Republic.

An annual festival to commemorate the life of Saint Agatha takes place in Catania, Sicily, from February 3 to 5. The festival culminates in a great all-night procession through the city for which hundreds of thousands of the city’s residents turn out.

RB

To get more fascinating information regarding militare ordine del collare make sure to take some time to visit our site!