What Does The Prayer Really Say?
W D T P R S

I read of a new lead in the case of the murder of Francesco de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife Bianca Cappello.  The case is 400 years old.

Scientists in Italy Believe They Have Uncovered a 400-Year-Old Medici Family Murder

By MARIA SANMINIATELLI

The Associated Press

ROME – Italian scientists believe they have uncovered a 400-year-old murder. Historians have long suspected that Francesco de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife Bianca Cappello did not die of malaria but were poisoned probably by Francesco’s brother, Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici, who was vying for the title.

Hmmm…. dangerous business.

"When a Medici dies, the first assumption is arsenic," said Richard J. Hamilton, a medical toxicologist at Drexel University who was not involved in the study.

Francesco de’ Medici ruled from 1574 until his death at age 46 on Oct. 17, 1587, 11 days after he fell ill and a few hours before his wife, who by all accounts had been his mistress while he was married to his first wife who is also believed to have died of poisoning.

"Immediately after their deaths, rumors began to circulate that they had been poisoned," Donatella Lippi, a professor of history of medicine and a co-author of the study, told The Associated Press. It "was a lethal dose, but progressive, and the symptoms were compatible with arsenic poisoning."

From the outset, Ferdinando de’ Medici’s behavior was suspicious and fueled rumors, the study says. Among other things, he took charge of his brother’s illness, compiling medical bulletins and minimizing the gravity of his brother’s condition in dispatches to the Vatican.

Read the whole thing.  It is interesting.

Over at The hermeneutic of continuity I was gently zinged by Fr. Finnigan, in his very funny list of predictions for 2007.  You will want to check this.  Put down your tea cup and scone before reading, however, for the sake of your keyboard and monitor.

DECEMBER
Fr John Zuhlsdorf has a damascene conversion in which he accepts that ICEL have really captured the meaning of the prayers of the Roman Missal. "The Hermeneutic of Continuity" becomes a focus for continuity with a golden age in which the “early Church” said Mass facing the people, with a warm and fuzzy “it’s all about me” liturgy that allowed the actuosa participatio of the faithful.

When you see Fr. F and Fr. Z con-presiding liturgy with liturgical dance set to tunes by Haas, Haugen and the rest, start saying your prayers, for the end of the world is near.

Today in the Roman Martyrology we find this entry:

11. Emmetsburgi in Terra Mariae e Civitatibus Foederatis Americae Septemtrionalis, sanctae Elisabeth Annae Seton, quae, vidua effecta, fidem catholicam professa est et puellis instituendis necnon pauperibus pueris alendis cum Sororibus a Caritate Sancti Ioseph, quarum Congregationem fundavit, sollertem dedit operam.

At Emmitsburg in Maryland of the United States of North America, [the feast] of Elizabeth Ann Seton, who, once she was widowed, professed the Catholic faith and gave skillful care with the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joseph, whose Congregation she founded, to the instruction of girls and raising poor boys.

As you work through the Latin of the entry don’t forget that the phrase operam dare is "to bestow care or pains on, to give attention to any thing" and it is constructed with the dative or with ut or ne (= studere). In our entry, we see it is dedit operam … puellis … necnon pueris. So, the writer used the dative option.

We should also remember that the entry says United States of North America, because there is another United States of America, in South America, that is, Brasil.