Calendar Class of August 5, 2025
- Andrea Kirk Assaf
- Aug 5
- 7 min read
A Carpe Diem Snapshot:
Liturgical: Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major
And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out in fear. But immediately Jesus spoke to them and said, “Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid.”
Matthew 14:22-36
Sanctoral: St. Oswald (605-642 A.D.) was the second of seven sons born to the pagan king of Northumbria in northern England. After his father was killed in battle, the kingdom was split. His uncle claimed the throne, while Oswald fled with his mother and brothers to Scotland for safety. There his family was converted to Christianity by the renowned monks of Iona. Oswald was educated by the holy monks and grew into a brave and pious warrior. After the death of his uncle and elder brother, Oswald moved to reclaim his father's throne and liberate it from enemy rule. On the eve of a decisive battle, he received a vision of St. Columba who promised him success. Before battle, Oswald erected a cross and knelt before it in prayer, along with his army. Following his victory, St. Oswald reunited Northumbria and was made king. His influence as a monarch was so great that he was considered the Emperor of almost all of Britain, uniting the Britons, Picts, Scots, and the English. He requested a bishop to be sent to his kingdom to aid in the conversion of his people to Christianity; he also invited St. Aidan and a group of Irish monks from Iona to found a monastery for the kingdom at Lindisfarne. This ushered in Northumbria's "golden age" as the most important centre of learning and arts in the British Isles. Oswald ruled as a saintly and powerful Christian king, in justice, humility, and generosity to the poor and strangers, as noted by the prestigious historian, the Venerable Bede. St. Oswald was killed in battle, and afterwards the place of his death was noted for many miracles.
We celebrate today the Optional Memorial of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Mary Major, one of the four most illustrious churches of Rome. While each diocese and parish keeps its own dedication anniversary, the universal Church commemorates the consecration of the four great Roman basilicas, the mother churches, we may call them, of Christendom: St. John Lateran, St. Peter, St. Paul Outside the Walls, and St. Mary Major. By means of these feasts the Church seeks to link all Christians with the Holy See.
This feast commemorates the miracle of the snowfall that occurred during the night of August 4-5 in the year 358 on the site where the basilica now stands. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to two faithful Roman Christians, the patrician John and his wife, as well as to Pope Liberius (352-366), asking that a church be built in her honor on the site where snow would fall on the night of August 4-5. Pope Liberius traced the outlines of the church in the snow and the first basilica was built on that site. It was completed about a century later by Pope Sixtus III (432-440), after the Council of Ephesus in 431 during which Mary was declared to be the Mother of God.
In Rome the Basilica of St. Mary Major holds its traditional triduum from August 1 to 3 and two days of celebration on August 4 and 5. During the pontifical Mass and the second vespers, the traditional shower of flower petals will descend from the ceiling of the basilica to commemorate the August snowfall in 358.
St. Mary Major is important to Christendom for three reasons:
(a) It stands as a venerable monument to the Council of Ephesus (431), at which the dogma of Mary's divine Motherhood was solemnly defined; the definition of the Council occasioned a most notable increase in the veneration paid to Mary.
(b) The basilica is Rome's "church of the crib," a kind of Bethlehem within the Eternal City; it also is a celebrated station church, serving, for instance, as the center for Rome's liturgy for the first Mass on Christmas. In some measure every picture of Mary with the divine Child is traceable to this church.
(c) St. Mary Major is Christendom's first Marian shrine for pilgrims. It set the precedent for the countless shrines where pilgrims gather to honor our Blessed Mother throughout the world. Here was introduced an authentic expression of popular piety that has been the source of untold blessings and graces for Christianity in the past as in the present.
Human: A ridiculous amount of battles (and other war-related events) happened in history today--
178 AD – Emperor Marcus Aurelius went from Rome to the Danube front.
910 The last major Viking army to raid England, led by King Edward and Earl Æthelred, is defeated at the Battle of Tettenhall by the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex.
The Vikings in Britain: a brief history: pretty interesting!
1305 Scottish resistance leader William Wallace is captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution
1399 Battle of Vorskla: Tatars defeat Russians and Lithuanians
1552 Battle of Ponza (again!): Ottoman naval fleet led by Dragut defeats the Genoese fleet under Andrea Doria, capturing seven galleys
1583 Humphrey Gilbert claims Newfoundland for the British crown, the first English colony in North America and the beginning of the British Empire
1666 On the second day of the St. James' Day Battle (Two Day Battle), the English fleet defeats the Dutch under Michiel de Ruyter
1689 1,500 Iroquois attack the village of Lachine in New France
1716 Battle of Petrovaradin [Peterwardein]: Habsburgs under Eugene of Savoy defeat the Ottomans in a decisive victory
1745 During the Jacobite Rising of 1745, Jacobite forces capture a British company of troops under Captain Scott
1763 Pontiac's War: Battle of Bushy Run - British forces led by Henry Bouquet defeat Native American forces at Bushy Run
1772 First Partition of Poland among Austria, Prussia, and Russia is made public
1781 Battle of Dogger Bank (Fourth Anglo-Dutch War): a British strategic victory, although both sides claim to have won
1812 War of 1812: Tecumseh's Native American force of 25 ambushes Thomas Van Horne's 200 US militiamen at Brownstown Creek in Michigan Territory; US forces retreat haphazardly with 18 killed, 12 wounded, and 70 abandoning the battle
1864 Battle of Mobile Bay won by the Union Navy, led by Rear Admiral David Farragut with the cry "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!"
1861 US Army abolishes flogging
1862 Union forces prevent Confederate attempts to capture Baton Rouge, Louisiana
1914 Battle of Liège: first battle of WWI, massive German assault on forts around the Belgian city of Liège led by Erich Ludendorff
1915 Warsaw, evacuated by the Russians, is occupied by the Germans
1917 British troops attack the Ypres Canal in Boesinghe, Belgium
1917 The entire US National Guard is taken into national service, subject to presidential rather than state control
1918 Last German air raid on England in World War I occurs, with four Zeppelin airships dropping bombs in the Midlands and North East England
1943 WWII: At around 11 am during the Battle of Troina, Mount Etna erupts, sending ash and lava miles into the sky
1943 WWII: Soviet forces reclaim Orel and Bjelgorod in the Kharkov region of Ukraine, liberating the cities from German occupation
1944 German forces begin the mass killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish civilians in the Wola district of Warsaw during the uprising
1963 Britain, USA, and USSR sign the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
1966 USSR conducts a nuclear test at the Semipalatinsk Test Site in northeast Kazakhstan
1982 US conducts a nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
2017 UN Security Council votes to impose sanctions on North Korea for its continued missile program
Natural: Longevity Made Simple-- I've been wanting to share this podcast episode since I first heard it but it's quite lengthy so it took awhile to get through. In case you aren't able to listen to the whole thing, here's a common sense takeaway: instead of trying to figure out the "best" ways to improve your health, try to avoid giving your body anything that it will need to recover and heal from; the body's natural inclination is to be healthy if we could just stop putting obstacles in front of it. Focus- consistently- on the three pillars of health first: sleep, movement, nutrition. In other words, be kind to your body and your body will be kind to you.
Italian: Tormentone (catchphrase / hit song)
Quote: “The things that are going to move the needle the most for your health are the things that are actually free. It’s just behaviour change that really makes most of the difference.” --Dr. Darshan Shah
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