Calendar Class of November 20, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Carpe Musivum! Seize the mosaic! We were able to do just that this morning, thanks to Paolo, the director of the Vatican Mosaic Studio, who gave us a private tour of the studio that creates all the artwork in the basilica. It was a perfect follow-up from our tour of the Basilica of St. Paul-outside-the-walls on Tuesday, where we saw the 276 medallions of all the Roman Pontiffs. The studio is currently at work on the 277th, the portrait of Pope Leo XIV. Following our visit, we walked across the courtyard into the Basilica, where Miss O'Connor helped us deepen our understanding and appreciation for the genius of the many artists and architects who created a symphony of splendor, such as the handful of artists we observed while they labored over their craft this morning.

Liturgical: Thursday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 19:41-44

As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.

Sanctoral: The Roman Martyrology commemorates St. Bernward of Hildesheim (960-1022), a Benedictine bishop, architect, painter, sculptor, and metalsmith. He was the Bishop of Hildesheim, Germany from 993 till 1020. Bernward encouraged the arts; commissioned religious paintings and sculpture, refurbished existing buildings, built new ones, and made altar vessels of gold and silver by hand, and dabbled in architecture and ornamental ironwork. His rule was marked with peace, and around 1020 he retired to a Benedictine monastery to spend his remaining days in prayer. —CatholicSaints.info

St. Edmund (841-870) is also commemorated. He was elected king of East Anglia in 855 at the age of fourteen and began ruling Suffolk, England, the following year. He was a model ruler, concerned with justice for his people and his own spirituality. Following one of a series of armed engagement with invading Danes, he was captured. He was ordered to give his Christian people to the pagan invaders; he refused. He was beaten, whipped, shot with arrows “until he bristled with them like a hedgehog”, and beheaded at Hoxne, Suffolk, England on November 20, 870.—CatholicSaints.info

Blessed Maria Fortunata Viti (1827–1922) was born in Italy, the eldest daughter of nine children. Her father had a gambling and alcohol addiction, and her mother died when she was 14 years old. Maria then cared for her younger siblings and worked as a housekeeper to earn money for the family as her father sunk deeper into his addiction. Maria rejected an offer for marriage, deciding instead to become a Benedictine nun at the age of 24. Sr. Maria Fortunata, illiterate her entire life, spent more than seventy years in the monastery as a housekeeper attending to the washing, sewing, and other simple tasks, which was her path to holiness. She was admired for her great simplicity of heart, and her confessor testified that she was often accosted by the devil with threats, physical attacks, and vile insults in attempts to break her virtue. She had great devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and made frequent visits to the chapel tabernacle as she carried out her daily tasks. She died at the age of 95, and after her death miracles were reported at her grave. She is a patron saint against poverty, temptations, loss of parents, and mental illness.

Human: 284Roman General Diocletian is proclaimed emperor by the armies of the East and West after the death of Carinus at the Battle of the Margus

1815 Second Treaty of Paris: France has its borders reduced to those of 1790 and agrees to pay 700 million francs in indemnities to end the Napoleonic Wars

1945 Nuremberg war trials begin as 24 Nazi leaders are put on trial before judges representing the victorious Allied powers

Princess Elizabeth (later to be known as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II) married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten – 1947

Natural: Candle Wax Tips: Clever Household Uses

Also: Thanksgiving Sides That Make the Meal

Also: Turkey Trivia

Also: Eighteen inches of snow at Paradise, Michigan – 1987

Italian: Caso (case)

While it usually translates to “case,” the meaning of caso in Italian changes depending on the context. It can mean situation, fate, coincidence, or even pop up in grammar jargon.

Quote: "One should make one's life a mosaic. Let the general design be good, the colors lively, and the materials diversified."

"The arts are good and providential in that they allow the soul to imitate the movements of love, and to feel love without its being returned - which, perhaps, is the only way of feeling it permanently."

--Marthe Bibesco