Sunday morning quake rocks Italy…
Earthquake in Norcia:
Basilica of St. Benedict Destroyed
Around 7:40 am local time, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit just north of Norcia in central Italy. The quake was so powerful that the centuries-old Basilica of St. Benedict and the co-cathedral nearby were destroyed. The following is a note posted by the monks living there:
Around 7:40 AM, a powerful earthquake struck close to Norcia….
The Basilica of St. Benedict, the historic church built atop the birthplace of St. Benedict, was flattened by this most recent quake. May this image serve to illustrate the power of this earthquake, and the urgency we monks feel to seek out those who need the Sacraments on this difficult day for Italy.
(Source: Monks of Norcia)
As this note says, Norcia (Nursia) is the cradle of St. Benedict, where he was born together with his twin sister, St. Scholastica, in the fifth century, and the basilica itself was built on top of their birth place — now it is gone.
St. Benedict is the founder of Western monasticism. In 1947, Pope Pius XII issued an encyclical letter on St. Benedict, which includes the following anecdote:
Trusting in God and relying on His ever present help, [St. Benedict] went south and arrived at a fort “called Cassino situated on the side of a high mountain . . .; on this stood an old temple where Apollo was worshipped by the foolish country people, according to the custom of the ancient heathens. Around it likewise grew groves, in which even till that time the mad multitude of infidels used to offer their idolatrous sacrifices. The man of God coming to that place broke the idol, overthrew the altar, burned the groves, and of the temple of Apollo made a chapel of St. Martin. Where the profane altar had stood he built a chapel of St. John; and by continual preaching he converted many of the people thereabout.”
(Pope Pius XII, Encyclical Fulgens Radiatur, n. 11)
Clearly, St. Benedict wouldn’t have been a friend of Francis’ ecumania and had a thoroughly different understanding of the “culture of encounter”.
The following image carousel shows the devastation caused by the natural disaster:
Shocks were also strongly felt in Rome, which is only 70 miles from Norcia, as this short video clip shows.
We cannot fail to notice, of course, the curious timing of this disaster: The earthquake occurred on the last Sunday in October, the Feast of our Lord Jesus Christ the King, King over individual souls but also King over families, societies, and nations. The Feast of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to promote the Social Kingship of Christ so that His rights would no longer be denied by countries and societies, and so that, all people having voluntarily submitted themselves to the sweet yoke of His most gentle rule (cf. Mt 11:29-30), true peace could finally flourish throughout the world.
The Vatican II Sect, of course, has abandoned this Catholic doctrine and instead replaced it with their religious liberty error, which has led to such grotesque absurdities as the ever-recurring Interreligious Prayer Meeting for “Peace” in Assisi, in which Francis participated most recently. Assisi, we recall, is the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi, and there too a powerful earthquake destroyed a basilica some 19 years ago…
Lastly, it is surely no coincidence that this earthquake in Norcia hit just one day before the Jesuit apostate in Rome, Jorge Bergoglio aka “Pope Francis”, travels to Lund, Sweden, to meet with pro-abortion, pro-sodomy, pro-contraception Lutherans to celebrate the Protestant Reformation (see our report here and Francis’ interview on his trip here). Words fail at the brazenness of this open betrayal of Jesus Christ and His holy doctrine, but, alas, too many people seem not to care or simply unwilling to draw the necessary conclusions about Francis and his sect.
At the time we publish this post, reports are coming in that the shocks in central Italy are still continuing. Please pray that people will be safe and that this latest natural disaster will awaken everyone from their Novus Ordo slumbers.
Our Lord Jesus Christ the King, have mercy on us!
Gosh. The only point of the West, of these bastions of old consecrated beauty, is to offer up and house and administer the Body and Blood of Christ. With buildings empty for decades of the real presence, and offering a New Religion against the Precious Blood, what is the point of them other than to perpetuate falsehood. Sad. A great grief if anyone has a wit of faith.
Saint Benedict and Saint Scholastica, pray for us.
The Basilica of St. Benedict destroyed…..I feel regret that such an incredibly beautiful church has been destroyed. Gone forever!! Then I realize the attachment I have to temporal things that sooner or later yield to time and nature. Even this sacred place, this ancient Basilica. This is probably the church that Hilary White(What’s up with FrancisChurch)worshipped at. Just a month ago, Norcia, where she lives, was devastated by an earthquake killing over 200 people.
There is a beauty in the old world architecture of Italy, unknown here in North America. I see a simplicity that has deep roots in the spiritual life of Catholicism.
Even though I.m skeptical of “signs”, I accept that God also speaks to us through external signs. So far the only one I am willing to trust is the Third Secret of Fatima.
When I was following Michael Voris, He saw the lightening strike to St Peter’s in Rome, as a sign of God’s anger, at the abdication of Benedict XVl. I was disinclined to agree. However, I’ve changed my mind for reasons very different from Michael’s.
Remember when they ‘canonized’ Wojtyla? A giant modernist upside down crucifix dedicated to Wojtya fell on a guy who lived on John XXIII street or something like that. I see these things as signs to wake up the novus ordo – now here we have the holy name of ‘Benedict’ which Ratzinger took and abused – crushed under the aegis of the Novus Ordo.
Oh yes! Here is the story: http://novusordowatch.org/2014/04/man-crushed-by-jp2-crucifix/
Thanks for the link.
Jorge is incapable of inflicting harm on Holy Mother Church, for She is inviolate. There is simply not a reigning Pontiff, period.
The state of Israel has a towed HAARP array that is capable of causing earthquakes via electromagnetics(the USA sent one to the Korean Peninsula lately look that up for pictures/video), I think some Israeli official claims this was some divine retribution for the Italian UNESCO vote against Jerusalem being associated with Judaism or something like that. Who knows but it certainly seems to be a very precise quake damage from the pictures. For anyone doubting the power of electromagnetics I will refer you to the 1976 UN treaty on weather manipulation not being used for war purposes, simply look it up online, resolution 31/72.