|
Click stars for Universe today
Cafe
Diem! Our store
Highly recommended:
Folklore of World Holidays
by Margaret
Read MacDonald
Pre-order F9/11 now!
Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD
or VHS
Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
By Janet Frame
By Janet Frame
By Janet Frame
De-Coding Da Vinci
Breaking The Da Vinci Code
Reading Lolita in Tehran
Internet Sacred Text Archive CD-ROM
The New Book of Goddesses & Heroines
The Spiral Dance
By Starhawk
20th Anniversary Edition
Eats, Shoots & Leav
es
Uluru
Life in a Medieval Village
To support this project
Search by keywords for books, music, computers, software, home and family
products and much more.
What
Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom
Hartmann
When Corporations Rule the World
The Big Buy - Tom Delay's Stolen Congress
The Corporation
Highly recommended DVD
Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of
Investigative Journalism in America
By Bruce Shapiro
Remotely
Controlled: How Television Is Damaging Our Lives and What We Can Do About It
What
Would Jefferson Do?
By Thom
Hartmann
How
Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World
Songs in the Key of W
Pagan
Christianity
The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set
By CS Lewis
Hello Laziness!
By Corrine Maier
For
God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire
By James Yee
Crimes Against Nature : How George W Bush and His Corporate
Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy
By Robert F Kennedy, Jr
The Skeptic's Dictionary
Sex, Time, & Power
Medieval Celebrations
Women's Activism and Globalization
The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites
Secrets and Lies
The Clash of Civilizations
Imperial Crusades
Aborigine Dreaming
The Medieval Cookbook
The Field: The Quest for the Secret Force of the Universe
The Murray Bookchin Reader
Environmental Activism
Astro pic of the day
American Folklore
Permaculture
Dame Edna Everage and the Rise of Western
Civilisation: Backstage With Barry Humphries
Sun Goddess
African Folklore
Daily Everything
A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore
The Edible Asian Garden
The Secret Language of Birthdays
Live with Passion!
Anthony Robbins
More books, calendars, T-shirts, mugs, music, posters, etc at
Cafe Diem!
Celtic Daily Prayer
Hidden Agendas
Poor Richard's Almanack
By Benjamin Franklin
Photo of the day
Mother Earth Spirituality
Wheel of the Year
The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
The Survival of the Pagan Gods
Click to promote
your blog or website
another excellent
way we do
|
 Feast day of St Augustine,
Bishop of Hippo and Doctor of
the Church
(Goldenrod, Solidago virgaurea,
is
today's plant, dedicated to this saint.)
Augustine
of Hippo (Hippo Regius – modern Bône, now Annaba,
Algeria),
one of the fathers of the Roman Catholic
Church, was an African of
berber
(Amazigh) origin. He was born on November 13,
354 at
Tagaste (Tagasta), Numidia,
an ancient country of north Africa,
very roughly between modern Libya and Tunisia. Tagaste was
a town large enough to have its own bishop but too small for a
college or university. Augustine's father was a pagan who
converted to Christianity on his death bed; his mother was Saint Monica (feast day August 27),
a devout Christian.
He is
remembered as one of the greatest of the 'Latin fathers' of the
Roman Catholic Church. He was a man whose writings had a profound
effect on Western civilization, and hence the world. He was born to
a Christian mother and a pagan father. In their
son they recognized an intelligent boy so they sent him to Carthage,
a much larger city with greater resources, to study rhetoric.
He read Cicero's Hortensius,
in praise of the pursuit of a philosophical way of life, and desired
a nobler destiny, so after a self-indulgent life he was was
converted to the Manichaean
sect and baptised in 387. He taught at Carthage but grew tired of
what he saw as his students' profligacy, so he travelled to Milan
where he became professor of rhetoric. He gave up his Manichaean
ways, entered the priesthood in 391, and was raised to the bishopric
of Hippo in 396.
What he taught
Augustine was a prolific writer; his Confessions is usually accorded
the position of the first autobiography in history; see also Soliloquies.
De Civitate Dei (The
City of God), which took him 17 years to write, influenced
many utopian writers over the centuries. His impetus for writing
that classic stemmed from the sacking of Rome by
the Visigoths
under Alaric (which began on August 24, 410), which many Roman
pagans blamed on the Roman Empire's
abandonment of its pagan gods for Christianity. Augustine opposes
this notion from the outset. In one of more odd ideas in this book,
Augustine pronounced that infants dying before baptism were deprived
of the sight of God, a doctrine that suited the Church well and has
influenced Christianity ever since.
Augustine also proposed the relatively hard to
substantiate assertion that sin is transmitted from generation to
generation by the act of procreation. He took this idea from Tertullian (born
c. 150 - 160, died c.
220 - 240), the
theologian who coined the phrase 'original sin'.
(Eastern Orthodox theologians consider
that Augustine's theology of original sin is a key source of
division between East and West.) He zealously opposed what he saw as heresies of
his day, even advocating the use of force against other Christians he deemed to have gone
astray doctrinally, namely the Donatists.
Augustine's writings helped formulate the theory of just
war.
St Augustine once observed a boy
spooning water from the ocean into a hole in the ground. When he
asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied: "I'm going to
empty the whole ocean into this hole!"
The saint smiled at the boy's
desired goal, but also couldn't help but consider how this
situation is so very similar to the human mind. After all, thought
St. Augustine, when one tries to contemplate all God's mysteries
– such as the Holy Trinity – it's similar to trying to empty
the whole ocean into a hole with his spoon! It just can't be done.
Augustine assured his followers,
however, that once in heaven, we will know such things, since we
will be intimately united to God for eternity. He got his chance to
find out on August
28, 430,
during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals.
He may have been the first saint to find
a home page on the Internet.
Augustine's patronage includes brewers, printers, the city of Saint Augustine, Florida,
USA, sore eyes and theologians. Brewers in St
Augustine, Florida are said to pray to him daily as prophylaxis
against sore eyes.
Augustinian Vs
Jesuit
An Augustinian father-general was
once debating with the head of a Jesuit college as to
which order was the most sanctified. The Jesuit sent one of his
monks to bring burning coals in to heat the room. The Augustinian
thought, then quickly said, "Reverend Father, forebear. Do not
command me to tempt God! I am ready to fetch you fire in a chafing
dish, but not in my bare hands."
City of God online
Augustine and a Legacy of Horror
Nativity of Nephthys, goddess of the underworld,
and childbirth, ancient Egypt
Plutarch (De
Iside et Osiride) tells us that "on the fifth [intercalary day
was born] Nephthys, to whom they gave the name of Finality (Teleute)
and of Aphrodite, and some also the name of Victory (Nike)". The day was
also sacred to Nut (Nuit),
Egyptian mythology's sky goddess.
Nephthys is also goddess of night and known
as the 'Mistress of the House' (the palace of Osiris).
She was depicted with a
basket or a house on her head, and sometimes as a kite,
falcon,
hawk or
other bird. She is a daughter of Nuit and Seb and the
wife of Set, with whom she is the mother of Anubis.
She is the sister of Isis, with whom she is often depicted.
Games festival of Sun and Moon, Roman Empire
Ganesh
Chaturthi (Hinduism; date
varies annually, approx.
Aug 20
to Sep 15)
Feast day of St Alfons
Maria Mazurek
Feast day of St Edmund
Arrowsmith
He was martyred for the crime of
being a Jesuit priest in 1628 by hanging, drawing and quartering at
Lancaster, England during the anti-Catholic madness that gripped
that country. When the jury found him guilty, he exclaimed,
"Thanks be to God!" His hand is preserved as a relic at the
Church of Saint Oswald,
Ashton-in-Makerfield. Edmund was canonized as one of the Forty
Martyrs of England and Wales by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
Feast day of St Gorman
Feast day of St Hermes,
martyr
Possibly a Christianized version of the Greek god of magic, medicine
and occult wisdom.
Feast day of St Hugh More
Feast day of St James
Claxton
Feast day of St Julian of
Auvergne
Feast day of St Margaret Ward
Feast day of St Moses the
Black
Feast day of St William
Dean
Click for Eastern Orthodox liturgical days Shop saints
Koenji
Awa Odori Festival, Suginami City, Tokyo, Japan (Aug 27 -
28)
"Large-scale festival of street dance modelled on the Awa Odori
festival on Shikoku. Thousands dance in the streets to rhythmic
traditional music and over a million come to watch." Source
Liberation Day, Hong
Kong (1945)
Last Saturday in August,
Software Freedom Day
The purpose of this celebration is
make the world aware of the virtues of Free and Open
Source Software, and to encourage its widespread use.
Home
site
Late August, Early September, Freeing the
Insects, Japan
Velika
Gospojina (Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos [Mother of God];
Assumption
of the Virgin
Mary),
Orthodox Church
Celebrated throughout many lands; a notable commemoration is at the
Serbian Orthodox monastery of Uspenije Presvete Bogorodice,
Bačko
Petrovo Selo,
Serbia.
On which day of the week were you born? Find out here
1749
Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
(d. 1832), German scientist, poet, novelist and playwright
'Dem Aufgehenden Vollmonde' ('To the Full Moon Rising')
By JW Goethe
Will you leave me, how secure you?
When just now you were so near!
Clouds amassed in dark obscure you
And now you're no longer here.
But you sense how I am troubled,
And your rim returns as star!
That I'm loved you pledge redoubled
Even though my love be far.
Upwards on then! Brighter brighten,
Coursing clear in glorious light!
Though my heart race, pain to heighten,
Overblissful is the night.
1774 Elizabeth Ann Seton (d. 1821), first
American-born Catholic saint
1814 Sheridan le Fanu (d. 1873), writer
1828
Count Leo Tolstoy (Leo Tolstoi; (September
9, 1828
- November
20, 1910,
NS;
August 28, 1828
- November
7, 1910,
OS),
Russian
novelist
(Anna
Karenina, War
and Peace), philosopher,
Christian
anarchist, pacifist,
social
reformer, vegetarian,
moral thinker and an influential member of the Tolstoy
family; correspondent with and influence on Mahatma
Gandhi
Tolstoy Image
Archive Early
progressives in the Book of Days
CounterCulture
Wiki More
1840 Ira Sankey, American hymnist and evangelist
 1865 AG
Stephens (Alfred George Stephens; d. April 15, 1933), Australian
miscellaneous writer and literary critic, notably for The Bulletin,
to which position he had been appointed by its owner, JF Archibald,
in 1894. In
about 1890 he had been sub-editor of The Boomerang at
Brisbane, which had been founded by the prominent radical, William Lane
in 1887.
In mid-1896 Stephens developed
on the inside of the cover of The Bulletin the famous 'Red
Page' reviews of literature which helped make, and perhaps break,
the careers of many writers in what might well be called 'the Golden
Age of Australian literature'. He had many a run-in with Henry Lawson.
Stephens held his then-famous position with the magazine until
October, 1906.
He wrote a biography of poet Christopher
Brennan.
The Red Pagan, a collection of his criticisms from the 'Red
Page' of The Bulletin appeared in 1904, and a
biography of Victor
Daley in the same year.
"A. G. Stephens wrote a fair amount of
verse, for which he claimed no more than that it was 'quite good
rhetorical verse'. He was an excellent interviewer because he was
really interested in his subjects, and he was a remarkably good
critic, largely because he had an original analytic mind, and also
because he fully realized how difficult the art of criticism is. He
was not infallible and occasionally made a bad mistake, but he
helped numberless writers, he set a standard, and he strongly
influenced the course of Australian literature. In this respect
there is no other writer who may be set beside him."
Source
Lawson
& Co: associations with Henry and Louisa Lawson
1885
Vance
Palmer (Edward Vivian Palmer; d. July
15, 1959) Australian novelist, dramatist, essayist and
critic, considered one of the founders of Australian drama.
He was born in Bundaberg, Queensland and passed up the chance to go to university so that he could experience
"real life" on a sheep station in western Queensland. From his early years he was determined to be a writer, and in 1905 and again in 1910 he went to London, then the centre of Australia's cultural universe, to learn his craft and advance his prospects. He failed to break into the inner circle of London literary life, but his association with
Alfred Orage
(British intellectual,
now best known for editing the magazine The
New Age) and other guild socialists greatly influenced his political outlook.
In 1954
Vance published The Legend of the Nineties, a critical study
of the development of the nationalist tradition in Australian
literature usually associated with The
Bulletin.
His wife Nettie (Janet Gertrude Palmer,
née Higgins, 1885 -
1964) was a poet, essayist and Australia's leading literary critic.
Nettie Higgins was born in Bendigo,
Victoria,
the niece of HB
Higgins, a leading Victorian radical political figure and later
a federal minister and justice of the High
Court of Australia. Between them they did more to promote Australian literature, particularly (in Nettie's case) literature by women, than anyone else of their generation.
Source
Vance
Palmer Prize for Fiction, Premier's Literary Awards
Poems
by Vance Palmer
The
Big Fellow,
by V Palmer
Nettie
Palmer Prize for Non-fiction, Premier's Literary Award
Poems
by Nettie Palmer
1896
Arthur Calwell
(d. July 8,
1973), leader of the
Australian Labor Party;
victom of an assassination attempt on
June 21,
1966
1897 Charles Boyer,
French Hollywood actor (Algiers; Gaslight; Lost Horizon).
He played opposite Greta
Garbo, Marlene
Dietrich and Ingrid
Bergman. The cartoon character 'Pepé
Le Pew' was based on
his Pepe Le Moko character. In 1978,
Boyer took a fatal dose of barbiturates two days following his wife's death,
two days before his 81st birthday.
1903 Bruno Bettelheim, psychologist (d. 1990)
1904 Secondo Campini, Italian jet
pioneer (d. 1980)
1908 Roger Tory Peterson, ornithologist,
illustrator
1911 Joseph
Luns (d. 2002), Dutch politician
1913 Robertson Davies (d.
December 2, 1995),
Canadian
novelist (The Deptford Trilogy),
playwright,
critic,
journalist, and
professor
1917 Jack
Kirby (d. 1994), comic book artist
1924 Janet
Frame (d. January 29,
2004), New Zealand writer of novels, short fiction, and
poetry
(Faces
in the Water; The Lagoon and Other Stories.
She was close to
having a lobotomy until the
latter book won the Hubert
Church Memorial Award. In 1947, she was wrongly diagnosed
with schizophrenia
and admitted herself to Seacliff Mental Hospital. She spent seven
years in various psychiatric hospitals, undergoing over two hundred shock treatments.
In 1990, her book An
Angel at my Table was made into a film of the same name.
"Her first book, The Lagoon
(1951), is a collection of short stories expressing a sense on
isolation and insecurity drawn from Frame's early memories of
poverty, the deaths of two sisters, and several stays in
psychiatric hospitals. Other work includes Owls Do Cry
(1957), Faces in the Water (1961), Scented Gardens for
the Blind (1963), and Living in Maniototo (1979)."
Source: Literary Calendar
1925 Donald O'Connor, singer, dancer, actor
1930
Ben Gazzara, American actor
1943
David Soul (born David Solberg), American actor (TV series: Starsky and Hutch)
1952
Rita Dove,
American
poet and
author
"African-American writer, teacher, and poet laureate,
Rita
Dove, is born in Akron, Ohio. Her work will include The
Yellow House on the Corner (1980), Museum (1983), a
volume of short stories entitled Fifth Sunday (1985), and the
Pulitzer Prize-winning
Thomas and Beulah (1986), a cycle of poems chronicling the
lives of the poet's maternal grandparents, born in the Deep South at
the turn of the century."
Source:
Literary Calendar
1953 Gates McFadden, actress (Star Trek: The Next
Generation)
1957 Daniel Stern, actor
1960 Emma
Samms, actress
1961
Kim Appleby, singer (Mel & Kim)
1965 Shania Twain, American country
singer
1969 Jason Priestley, actor
1982 LeAnn
Rimes, American country singer
1983
Alfonso
Herrera, Mexican actor and singer in the Latin Pop Group
RBD
1985
Cove Reber,
American Lead singer for
Saosin
1985
Ralph
Woolfolk IV, American actor
1986
Gilad Shalit,
Israeli military officer abducted by
Hamas militants on
|
reetings from Australia.
How it works
Freyfaxi, Ásatrú (date varies)
