Calendar Class of November 22, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Carpe nix! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! It began hailing on our way home from choir last night, but it was all gone in a matter of minutes. Not so for the Apennine mountains that provide the backdrop for Rome. This is the earliest snowfall on the mountains that I've seen in my 20+ years here. Perhaps this will finally be there year that we venture out into it beyond the city walls, to the delight of my snow-loving children.

Liturgical: Saturday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time

Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.

Luke 20:27-40

Sanctoral: St. Cecilia (3rd c.) is one of the most venerated of the virgin martyrs of Rome. Her name is in the Roman Canon of the Mass. According to tradition she made a private vow of chastity to Jesus, yet her parents promised her in marriage to a suitor. On her wedding night, St. Cecilia told her husband that she had not only made a vow to remain a virgin, but that an angel guarded her purity. Her husband agreed to honor her vow and follow Christ if he could also see her guardian angel. She instructed him to first be baptized, and afterwards he was able to see her angel. Cecilia's brother-in-law also converted, and both men were eventually martyred for their faith; but not without first converting their jailer. St. Cecilia was later arrested and also sentenced to death. An executioner struck three blows but was not successful in severing her head from her body; instead, she survived for three days preaching to those who visited her in prison until her last breath. They lovingly soaked up the blood from her wounds with clothes and sponges. Her relics, along with those of her husband, his brother, and the converted jailor, were placed in the church of St. Cecilia in Rome. Because she sang hymns to Jesus in her heart on her wedding day, St. Cecilia is the patron saint of musicians.

Human: 1744 Birthday of Abigail Adams

1963 US President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald while riding in an open-topped motorcade in Dallas, Texas

​1969 Isolation of a single gene is announced by scientists at Harvard University

Natural: How often does it snow in Rome?

Italian: How to say “get rid of something” in Italian

The verb sbolognare sounds a bit like Bologna, right? Well, that’s no coincidence!

Back in the 19th century, there was a verb, bolognare, which originated from bolognino, the name of an old coin from Bologna. This verb meant to trick someone in a sale, because many craftsmen in Bologna had quite a reputation for selling shiny fakes.

Over time, an s was added at the front, and that’s how sbolognare was born. Today, it’s used casually to mean getting rid of something, usually by skilfully making it someone else’s problem!

Quote: Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for talk beside the fire; it is the time for home.

Edith Sitwell