1 comments about Detroit's Holy Family Church: 100 Years of Sicilian Tradition (Images of America: Michigan).

1. Put your sicilian family name in an see who you might find Tocco ,zerilli,leto, atleast 500 family names with wonderful photos.wonderful explanations of the religous fest days celebrated still by the sicilians who brought them to detroit and how they started in sicily.

1 comments about Saints Who Left Descendents and Their Ancestry.

1. I was given this book as a birthday present and thought it would be very helpful to me as I continue to research my genealogy. I knew from looking at it online that there were a number of misspelled words in the book, which is often a clue that there may be other problems with the book, but I thought I'd take a chance on it. Before adding the various family trees/branches into my genealogy program, I decided to verify them before I spent all that time entering names. All of the lines I checked on could not be verified. According to my research, for example, Elizabeth of Hungary is not the ancestor of King Edward III, but her half sister is. In the Bible, there is very little mention of Joseph of Arimathea. Tradition says that he was Mary's uncle, but the Bible never gives any family of him. There are lines of descent from and to him in this book though. There is probably a lot of correct information and it is at least a good starting point to use to do more research of your own. But, so far, I have not had much luck with it.

No comments about Tree of Saints.

1 comments about Claiming the City: Politics, Faith, and the Power of Place in St. Paul (Cushwa Center Studies of Catholicism in Twentieth-Century America).

1. Claiming the City begins by describing a violent labor strike in Minneapolis in 1934 and the indifference exhibited towards it in Saint Paul. Most of the book takes place in half century preceding that strike and presents Saint Paul and Minneapolis as contrasting and disconnected places.
   
   Mary Lethert Wingerd writes how differences between the cities date back to their founding. The ethnic compositions of the businessmen of the two cities differed, with Saint Paul's elite establishment being more willing to assimilate and later much more Irish. Saint Paul emerged as a railroad and commerce hub, whereas the Minneapolis economy had an industrial base.
   
   Emphasis is given to the biographies of James J. Hill, Mary Hill, and their impact on business and high society. The life and policies of Archbishop John Ireland are detailed as well. The work of all three led to increased Irish Catholic standing in Saint Paul.
   
   Halfway through the book becomes a labor history, with every union development receiving attention. Saint Paul's labor history was complicated, but moderate unionism received widespread support for most of this period. There is a lengthy tangent on the World War I era machinations of the Public Safety Commission, but this section too emphasizes labor relations.
   
   Philosophizing about "civic identity" occurs throughout book. Dr. Wingerd argues that Irishness, Catholicism, and Unionism were all part of this civic identity. Scandinavians and Protestants receive only passing mentions, and one wonders if their place in Saint Paul's identity is really as minimal as the coverage of them in this work.

No comments about Catholic Families of Southern Maryland: Records of Catholic Residents of St. Mary's County in the Eighteenth Century.

5 comments about The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar (Studies in the History of Medieval Religion).

1. J.M. Upton-Ward has earned my eternal respect for the work presented here. The Rule, so vital to understanding the Order is clearly layed out and explained. Additional information is also included making this the one "must own" book for Templar scholars.



2. This English translation of the French "Rule" of the Templars is an essential reference for all students of the Templars, and of the history of "related" organizations such as Freemasonry. The "Reception" ritual will be of special interest to Freemason's, as parts of it are hauntingly familiar.



3. This book has a lot of valuable information for anyone interested in the Templars. It has historical information in the preface and appendix and its content has every single rule the Knights of the Temple followed. It has every single battle rule and the everyday life activities of templars. The sins and the penitence, how to be admitted and the admittance ritual. How to get a counsil toghether, everything they were supposed to do. I suggest that if you are interested either in Templars or in the Dark Ages, you ought to buy this book.



4. Excellent. No doubt already on the shelves of those interested in this Medieval Catholic military lay religious order.
   For the uninitiated reader, first read the Introduction, Primitive Rule, and Appendix. Then, the rest. To a reader for whom the Templars are "knights who fought in the crusades,"
   the Rule will seem most unexpectedly profuse in dwelling upon internal monastic disciplines, religious guidelines, and personal observances. Regulations addressing military issues and a Knight's behavior in the field are present.
   An appendix, coordinated with references to the Rule, treats some of the military aspect, especially in regards to the use of armed mounted force and the order's rankings.
   If unfamiliar with the Military Orders, it will be an eye-opener as to what the Catholic Church proposed for its monks.
   If doing extended reading elsewhere, a reader will be startled at the surprise ending of that now supressed Order. I would alert those who do followup, not to confuse "Templar," as properly used for this group, with some current appropriators of that name, used for purposes of having mystique of lore & legend.



5. The Rule of the Templars: The French Text of the Rule of the Order of the Knights Templar, Judi Upton-Ward (Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press, 1992)
   
   The myths surrounding the Knights Templar range from tales of great treasure to legends concerning a wealth of wisdom kept secret for a thousand years. Many have tried to discover what this great esoteric wisdom was, but, so far, no one has been able to 'decipher' any of the so-called 'clues' allegedly left behind by the Templars. These references to secret wisdom perhaps arose from the accusations of secrecy brought against the order during their trial. What many failed to recognize, or perhaps ignored, was that as a military order, the Templars had many reasons to keep their Rule, which governed their lives and their behavior in battle, a secret. Fortunately for us living nearly a thousand years later, we now have access to this 'secret knowledge' through Judi Upton-Ward's translation of the French version of the Rule, found in her book, The Rule of the Templars. In this work, Upton-Ward translates not only the Templars' Rule but also the statutes and includes an article by Matthew Bennett that discusses the military side of the Rule. In translating the Templar Rule from the vernacular, Upton-Ward points out that this work is just how the Templars themselves would have read it, straight from their native language, rather than being written in Latin by scholars who may not have know the military implications of what they were writing about. The importance of the French text lies here. This was a work written by and for the military men of the order for the purpose of governing their lives and ordering their behavior. Like any well-oiled military machine, it was necessary for the Rule to contain information on how to act on and off the field, information the Templars would not have wanted to fall into enemy hands.
   
   What Upton-Ward accomplishes with her translation of the Templar Rule is an accessible look at the 'secret knowledge' of the Templars and a detailed look at the lives the Templars led, which, it turns out, actually closely paralleled the lives of other religious orders, which a few changes needed to accommodate the military nature of the Templars. The work is easy to read and geared to both scholars and pleasure readers alike.
   
   
   Jennifer Regan and Dr. Carl Edwin Lindgren

2 comments about Healing Your Family Tree.

1. This book gives a detailed account of how to approach sickness, emotional and psychological problems and other family dysfunctions by healing your family tree. The author has a firm grasp on the theology behind this relatively recent idea, and also has studied science, especially genetics, so he is able to give ways for us to understand how ancestral sin, a little bit like original sin, can have long-term effects on descendants. The book is in a question and answer format and very thorough.



2. I didn't care much for the Question & Answer format. It would have been fine if half of the book or less contained the Q&A's. The answers were so extensive that it made the organization of the book hard to follow. The author would have been better served by laying out the foundation of his arguments in the first 3 or 4 chapters. Overall there is a lot of wisdom in this book; however, it is presented in such a way that it may be hard to stomach for the less-than-devout Catholics, or gnostics and mystics of various traditions.

No comments about Major Saints Ancestry.

3 comments about A Brief History of Vatican II.

1. Having just finished a course on Vatican II, I found this short history of Vatican II to be very helpful in detailing some of the mystery and intrigue that went on behind the scenes. A must read for anyone who wants to know the "whole story".



2. Giuseppe Alberigo is probably the greatest living expert on Vatican II, having worked in its preparation and been closely involved, as a layman, with many of the clerical leaders of the Council. These days there are all kinds of ideologically-motivated efforts afoot to downplay the significance of the Council and to criticize "liberals" for distorting its message. Alberigo shows clearly the drama of the struggle on the part of the bishops, liberal and conservative alike, for freedom from the stifling hand of the Roman Curia (the church's central bureaucracy), and tells a truly exciting story about the successes and even the failures of the Council fathers. Incidentally, anyone who reads this can only look at many of the struggles in today's church and see them as but the latest chapter in an ongoing struggle between a controlling central bureaucracy and a world-wide church concerned above all with pastoral care of the church.



3. Guiseppe Alberigo was a young professional when the council began. He was involved with Cardinal Lercaro's group from Bologna. His doctoral dissertation had been on the Council of Trent written under Hubert Jedin, the best in the field. Alberigo was with Cardinal Lercaro's group at the four sessions of the Council. Afterwards he edited the multivolume history of the Second Vatican Council, presented in English by Dr. Joseph Komonchak of the Catholic University of America.
   
   This is worth reading, even if the style is not the most limpid. You will meet someone who was part of the Council. Cardinals Ruini and Ratzinger (now Benedict XVI) prefer to see the Council more as a continuity than does Alberigo and the Bologna school. He sees the council as an overcoming of the Constantinian and Post-Tridentine traditions.
   
   Stephen Palmer

1 comments about Saints of California: A Guide to Places and Their Patrons.

1. Saints of California is a remarkably readable compendium of saints whose names appear all over California, including cities, mountains, rivers, etc. Ever wonder who was Santa Barbara? Santa Ynez? San Luis Obispo? You'll find them here, along with an illustration of the saint, drawn from photos of art, statuary and other historic art works. Published by the Getty Museum in L.A. (the city's name is much longer than "The Angels" implied by the common useage--you can look it up!), this elegant and classy little book is well suited for anyone's bookshelf, as well as an ideal gift.