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September 3 across 2,026 years of Catholic history

event · SARAGOSSA, Aragon, September 3, 1412 AD

Aragon proclaims Ferdinand its king, ten weeks after nine judges chose him

The kingdom had no king for two years; nine judges ended the deadlock in June, and one of them was a Dominican friar whose vote decided it.

A crowded city square in a painting of the fifteenth century: a bareheaded man in a crimson and gold gown stands on a cloth-hung timber platform with a boy in blue beside him, mitred bishops and furred nobles ranged around them, a herald with a lowered trumpet and a notary writing at a trestle table below, and banners of red and yellow bars carried above a packed crowd of townspeople under stone arcades and balconies. — Ferdinand of Castile is proclaimed King of Aragon before the bishops, nobles, knights and townsmen of the kingdom in the square at Saragossa, September 3, 1412 AD. St. Vincent Ferrer, one of the nine judges who elected him, stayed away and was preaching at Alcañiz.
About this picture
AI-generated image, in the manner of a fifteenth-century panel painting in egg tempera and early oil on gessoed poplar, from the paper's reference portrait based on Saint Vincent Ferrer, central panel of the Griffoni Polyptych from San Petronio, Bologna (Francesco del Cossa, painted c. 1472–1475 AD, The National Gallery, London, NG597) View source artwork.

Ferdinand of Castile was recognised King of Aragon today by every order of the kingdom and proclaimed in the square at Saragossa, with his eldest son declared his successor. The throne had stood empty since King Martin died in 1410 AD without an heir, and a tribunal of nine judges settled the succession in June. Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Dominican preacher who was one of the nine, has stayed away from the court, and the defeated claimant has sworn vengeance on the judges.

4 min read

A panel painting of a hall with three cloth-covered trestle tables set on three sides of a square, nine seated men in religious and civic dress turned towards a thin, tonsured friar in a white habit and black cloak who stands at the left with his right index finger raised and a sealed parchment in his left hand; two mitres lie on a cushion on a side table and a clerk writes at the right. — About this picture
AI-generated image, in the manner of a fifteenth-century panel painting in egg tempera and early oil on gessoed poplar, from the paper's reference portrait based on Szene aus dem Leben des Hl. Vinzenz Ferrer (GG 6695) (Agnolo degli Erri, c. 1470-1490 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) View source artwork.

event · CASPE, Aragon, September 3, 1412 AD

Nine judges give Aragon a king, and the losers must accept it

Two years and three months after King Martin died without an heir, nine judges sitting in the castle of Caspe declared Ferdinand of Castile elected King of Aragon on June 24, 1412 AD. Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia had agreed in February to be bound by the judges' verdict rather than settle the succession by war. Saint Vincent Ferrer, one of the nine, voted first and preached the verdict to the crowd when it was published on June 29.

4 min read

More in this edition

A gold-ground panel painting: a veiled woman kneels low at the open door of a small stone convent, steadying a small lidded vessel on the threshold, with sisters crowded in the dark doorway behind her, while armed men climb down a ladder and file away along the top of the enclosure wall. — About this picture
AI-generated image, in the manner of an Umbrian panel painting in egg tempera on poplar over a burnished, tooled gold ground, from the paper's reference portrait based on Santa Chiara d'Assisi — single-figure detail of the fresco of St Clare and St Elizabeth of Hungary (Simone Martini, 1322-1326 AD, Cappella di San Martino, Lower Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi) View source artwork.

feature · SAN DAMIANO, Assisi, September 1240 AD

Soldiers scale the convent wall; St. Clare is carried to the door

A party of imperial soldiers and Saracen archers got over the wall into the enclosure at San Damiano, the convent below Assisi where Saint Clare of Assisi has lived since she came there as a girl of eighteen. Ill in bed at forty-six, she had herself carried to the door, with the Blessed Sacrament going ahead of her in a silver casket enclosed in ivory. The men turned and went back down the wall they had climbed.

3 min read

A black-and-white photograph of two Carmelite nuns in habit standing together at the foot of a stone cross in a convent courtyard; the one behind wears a flower wreath over her veil, and the one in front holds a rosary.

interview · LISIEUX, September 3, 1910 AD

The sister who nursed St. Thérèse waits to give evidence on oath

Saint Thérèse of Lisieux died in the Carmel of Lisieux in 1897 AD, at twenty-four. A church court in the diocese of Bayeux is now hearing witnesses on oath, and her sister Céline Martin — the Carmelite who slept in the cell beside the infirmary and took most of the photographs that survive — is waiting to be called. On September 6 the court will have her sister's coffin raised from the town cemetery.

4 min read

An oil painting of a narrow brick street in medieval Forlì, where two friars in black habits hold open the wooden doors of a church as a crowd of townspeople in wool tunics and head-cloths gathers, a dark-haired young man in a blue tunic and red cloak among them. — About this picture
AI-generated image, in the manner of oil on canvas of the Italian seventeenth century, from the paper's reference portrait based on Pietro Lorenzetti (scuola), santi (molto restaurati) entro clipei sulle cornici, pellegrino laziosi 02 (School of Pietro Lorenzetti; photograph by Wikimedia Commons user Sailko, 14th century, heavily restored; photographed 21 October 2022, Basilica di San Clemente in Santa Maria dei Servi, Siena) View source artwork.

place · FORLÌ, Romagna, this week, 1283 AD

Forlì opens its churches after seventeen months closed by the Pope

The churches of Forlì opened this week after seventeen months in which the Pope forbade public Mass, the ringing of the bells and public weddings across the whole city. Forlì, the surest refuge in the region for men of the imperial party, had beaten and driven out the head of the Servite friars when he came to urge it back into the Pope's obedience, and stood a siege before it gave way. Among the young men of the city is Saint Peregrine Laziosi, eighteen, who has now gone to that same friar and asked him for the habit.

4 min read

An oil painting of an elderly Carmelite nun in a dark habit, white coif and black veil, seated at a plain wooden table in a whitewashed cell, writing with a quill by the light of a single candle, with loose sheets and an inkhorn before her and a small wooden crucifix on the wall behind. — About this picture
AI-generated image, in the manner of Spanish Golden Age oil painting, from the paper's reference portrait based on Retrato de Santa Teresa de Jesús (Fray Juan de la Miseria, 1576, Convento de las Teresas, Seville). View source artwork.

Teresa's reform under siege · Part 2 · ÁVILA, Castile, November 29, 1577 AD

St. Teresa finishes a book that pictures the soul as a castle

Saint Teresa of Ávila, a Carmelite nun of sixty-two, finished a treatise on prayer today at the convent of St. Joseph in Ávila, on the eve of the feast of St. Andrew. Her superior in the Order and a canon of Toledo had ordered her to write it; she asked to be excused, then obeyed and began the book at Toledo on Trinity Sunday. It describes the soul as a castle of many rooms, and she wrote it for the nuns of the convents she founded.

4 min read

Today in the Church

Memorial of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church

On this day in the Church

1412 Ferdinand of Castile was recognised King of Aragon by all the orders of the kingdom and proclaimed at Saragossa, ten weeks after nine judges at Caspe — St. Vincent Ferrer among them — elected him.Our report Source
1510 St. Thomas More was made Under-Sheriff of London, the first office he held in the City, and kept it for eight years and ten months.Our report Source
1539 At Tivoli, Pope Paul III heard the Formula of the Institute read aloud by Cardinal Contarini, approved it by word of mouth and ordered a bull drawn up at Rome — the first papal approval of the plan of St. Ignatius of Loyola and his companions.Our report Source

Quote of the day

“Fear God and give him honor”

— St. Vincent Ferrer, his motto, Vatican City State, Saint of the Day: April 5, Saint Vincent Ferrer