"The great Father Zed, Archiblogopoios"
-
Fr. John Hunwicke
"Some 2 bit novus ordo cleric"
- Anonymous
"Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when liturgical abuses are concerned."
- Kractivism
"Father John Zuhlsdorf is a crank"
"Father Zuhlsdorf drives me crazy"
"the hate-filled Father John Zuhlsford" [sic]
"Father John Zuhlsdorf, the right wing priest who has a penchant for referring to NCR as the 'fishwrap'"
"Zuhlsdorf is an eccentric with no real consequences" -
HERE
- Michael Sean Winters
"Fr Z is a true phenomenon of the information age: a power blogger and a priest."
- Anna Arco
“Given that Rorate Coeli and Shea are mad at Fr. Z, I think it proves Fr. Z knows what he is doing and he is right.”
- Comment
"Let me be clear. Fr. Z is a shock jock, mostly. His readership is vast and touchy. They like to be provoked and react with speed and fury."
- Sam Rocha
"Father Z’s Blog is a bright star on a cloudy night."
- Comment
"A cross between Kung Fu Panda and Wolverine."
- Anonymous
Fr. Z is officially a hybrid of Gandalf and Obi-Wan XD
- Comment
Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a scrappy blogger popular with the Catholic right.
- America Magazine
RC integralist who prays like an evangelical fundamentalist.
-Austen Ivereigh on
Twitter
[T]he even more mainline Catholic Fr. Z. blog.
-
Deus Ex Machina
“For me the saddest thing about Father Z’s blog is how cruel it is.... It’s astonishing to me that a priest could traffic in such cruelty and hatred.”
- Jesuit homosexualist James Martin to BuzzFeed
"Fr. Z's is one of the more cheerful blogs out there and he is careful about keeping the crazies out of his commboxes"
- Paul in comment at
1 Peter 5
"I am a Roman Catholic, in no small part, because of your blog.
I am a TLM-going Catholic, in no small part, because of your blog.
And I am in a state of grace today, in no small part, because of your blog."
- Tom in
comment
"Thank you for the delightful and edifying omnibus that is your blog."-
Reader comment.
"Fr. Z disgraces his priesthood as a grifter, a liar, and a bully. -
- Mark Shea
Priceless video, but a bit sad too seeing them as caged birds in Spain.
The goldfinch is also known as cardelino in Spanish, which is the name I was told when I was in Aragon last year.
Carduelis carduelis… Why stop there? The subspecies to be found in most of Europe is carduelis carduelis carduelis, whereas we have carduelis carduelis britannica here.
So lovely. Man and beast as friends. St. Francis? I like this blog Fr. Z because you have a love of God’s creation/nature and I most definitely do too!
Thank you for sharing such beauty.
It just keeps me in awe of our God and also keeps me staying very very grateful. God bless you!
Sweet, indeed, that edulcoration – thank you!
And, to join with gramma10, how the Master of the Nativity of Castello gives a sense of the beauty of the finch with wings displayed and the light upon them and all!
It reminds me of something I seem to remember and wondered about – depictions of angels with bird-like wings and even (I think) of paintings of St. Francis’s Seraphic vision. Could it be that the coloration of goldfinch plumage was taken up for these at some point, and alludes to the Christological goldfinch imagery?
By the way, have you read the book as well as enjoying the striking cover? – the blurb at the link sounds ominous… I’ve never tried any of Donna Tartt’s books.
There is a wonderful painting by Francisco di Marco di Giacomo (also known as Francesco Francia) at the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, entitled Virgin and Child with Sts. Francis and Jerome. The Infant Jesus holds a goldfinch in His left hand. If you are not aware of it you will want to be, with your fascination with the Christological Goldfinch. There are two versions of the painting – the first was done between 1500-10 and the second 1512-15. The identification of the figure on the right as St. Jerome is disputed. Some say it is a portrait of the donor. St. Jerome seem right to me, especially since the second version he is unmistakably an ecclesiastical figure, but I’ve wondered if it could be St. Bonaventure. It is my understanding that the first version is in storage, the second version is hung in the galleries. I don’t recall seeing it back when the Met was part of my life. I purchased a beautiful framed large reproduction of the first version from EWTN catalogue some years back, but I don’t believe they have it any more. It is something much treasured in my home. Our Lady’s face is exquisite, as is her tender embrace of Jesus around His belly. Hope this is of interest.
[I know the painting. There are quite a few Christological Goldfinches in the Met’s collection. I’ve posted about them often during my NYC sojourns.]
Probably two of the seraph-wing-treatments I was thinking of are Giotto’s in the Upper Church in Assisi and the painting attributed to van Eyck (the Wikipedia article about it has the seraph in both versions nicely detailed and juxtaposed) – are those distinctly goldfinch colorations?
Venerator – here is the goldfinch’s wing.
http://ibc.lynxeds.com/photo/european-goldfinch-carduelis-carduelis/wing-pattern-2nd-year-male
Very different from the paintings.
Benedict Joseph, I am going to look up the painting based on your description. Thank you in advance.
There is something exquisite about birds, and there is something so moving about masculine hands holding a little creature that gently. God’s plan. You just can’t beat it.
Muv,
Thank you! This would seem to apply to the Master of the Nativity of Castello’s realistic-looking goldfinch’s plumage as well as the Van Eyck Seraphs’ (!) I wonder if there are other iconographic (color) symbolic traditions at work, here – and if, so what they are. Do you happen to know of any actual birds with plumage coloration like these? (Some vague possible memory of angels and Common Kingfishers stirs in my mind, but I have not found good Kingfisher photos to compare, yet.)
Venerator,
The kingfisher’s wings don’t seem to fit the bill for van Eyck’s seraphs.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=7724376
Allowing plenty of latitude for artistic licence, my instinct is tending towards the bee eater. This link will take you to a slide show:-
http://www.arkive.org/european-bee-eater/merops-apiaster/image-G46847.html
The date of the paintings dovetail nicely with van Eyck’s journey to Portugal, where he would undoubtedly have seen bee eaters. Furthermore, bee eaters’ wings could be a visual reference to 1 Corinthians 15:55-57 … where, death, is thy sting?…
Muv,
Thank you again! What a slide show! (No. 24 is splendid!)
Your bee eater suggestion is visually and symbolically impressive (though I never think of bees as a symbol of evil – consulting White’s Bestiary (1954), I find quoted Cutwode’s “Charming of the Bee” from Caltha Poetarum (1599), which includes “Away thou fowle and fearefull spright, / and thou litel divell”, but have no idea how novel or traditional this may be, and Caltha Poetarum is otherwise unknown to me, but looks like it might be a shocking book: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A19732.0001.001?view=toc ).
I just saw that D.E. Master Blenders 1753 have started a line of coffee mugs with details from Old Masters’ paintings – including Carel Fabritius’s Goldfinch! (but don’t know how widely these are available).