Calendar Class of October 21, 2025

A Carpe Diem Snapshot:

Carpe San Gimignano! Now I know what the fuss is all about. Our Cultural Debris Excursion today was to this medieval hilltop hamlet of thirteen towers and world famous gelato. I tried cioccolato-pinoli and crema di Santa Fina. I also visited the home of Santa Fina just down the lane from the gelateria, where she was born in 1238 and died in 1253. I remember her story well from the saint of the day book I read aloud to the girls in the mornings but wasn't expecting to stumble upon her house, or gelato, today. Italy is full of sweet saints such as this little lady of San Gimignano.

Liturgical: Tuesday of the 29th Week of Ordinary Time

I have not hidden your saving help within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me; you are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.

Psalm 40 7-8a, 8b-9, 10, 17

Sanctoral: Hilarion (c. 291 – 371)

Hilarion is celebrated as the founder of monasticism in Palestine. Much of his fame flows from the biography of him written by Saint Jerome.

Extra: Santa Fina of San Gimignano

Human: Birthday of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (poet) – 1772

"Fresh October brings the pheasant;

Then to gather nuts is pleasant. "

–Sara Coleridge, English author and saughter of Samuel (1802–52). Today I spotted a pheasant in an olive grove in Tuscany!

1805 Battle of Trafalgar: British Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats the combined French and Spanish fleet. Nelson is shot and killed during the battle.

1854 Florence Nightingale, with a staff of 38 nurses, is sent to the Crimean War

1944 US troops capture Aachen, the first large German city to fall in World War II

1948 UN rejects Russian proposal to destroy atomic weapons

1950 Chinese Communist forces occupy Tibet

Natural: An international agreement redefined the length of a meter as the distance light travels in a vacuum in 1/299,792,458th of a second – 1983

The Magic of Fairy Rings: What They Are and How They Form

Italian: Danno (damage)

At its core, danno means some kind of damage, anything from a minor headache to a total disaster.

Quote: I first saw God when I was a child,

six years of age.

The cheeks of the sun were pale before Him,

and the earth acted as a shy

girl, like me.

Divine light entered my heart from His love

that did never fully wane,

though indeed, dear, I can understand how a person's faith

can at times flicker,

for what is the mind to do

with something that becomes the mind's ruin:

a God that consumes us

in His grace.

I have seen what you want;

it is there,

a Beloved of infinite

tenderness.

--St. Catherine of Siena