IDTG

Today, April 29, is the veneration of Saint Torpes of Pisa, better known by the town named after him: Saint Tropez.

Saint Torpes is one of those few saints that are venerated by both the Eastern and Western Churches who lived in the first century AD having martyred in 65AD.

Torpes was a Roman whose full name was Caïus Silvius Torpetius who, according to legend, was either senior military person or a leader of emperor Nero’s guard. It is said that he was martyred when, in the presence of the emperor, he professed his faith.

He is highly venerated in his birthplace of Pisa and the locations where his body finally arrived. The legend says that his decapitated body was placed on a boat with a rooster and a dog to devour the corpse.  The boat was set adrift and floated towards north-western Italy.

A woman named Célèrine had a vision at that time saying that Torpes would visit her village. As foreseen, the boat with the corpse, rooster and dog did indeed reach that small seaside village. Upon arrival the rooster fled one way and the dog the other.

The village was renamed to Saint Tropez, in honor of the saint.

Interestingly, the village towards which the rooster fled was renamed Cogolin and the village towards which the dog went to Grimaud.

It is the arms of the town that we see at the top of this post, the blazon of which is amazingly easy: Azure the Saint Tropez (Torpes) Or holding in his right hand a sword Argent point to base, standing on a base Or charged with the text “SAINT-TROPEZ”

Personally, I find these arms to be ugly. I never liked shields with text on them, even though it is relatively common in the Iberian peninsula and France.

The Royal Academy of History of Spain (Real Academia de la Historia) has created a database collection of the biographies of thousands of historical persons.

The database is the outcome of the project Diccionario Biográfico Español or “Spanish Biographical Dictionary” of the Royal Academy and for the creation of the Center of Biographical Studies. The project intends to cover persons from all regions of the world that were under the Spanish Crown: the Iberian peninsula, the Americas, the Low Countries, the Philippines, etc.

At present, the database contains the data of over 40,000 persons and can be accessed via the link: http://www.rah.es/cdeb.htm

While looking for some genealogy books I need for my research, I came upon an amazingly valuable resource for anyone doing research in Chile that’s absolutely free!

It appears that the government of Chile has created a website that contains hundreds, if not thousands, of scanned images, articles, books, etc. from sources from the early 1900′s and older.  It is a veritable treasure trove for anyone doing research.

In my case, I had been unable to find many books that I had leads that may contain information on my family and had resigned to the fact that I had to plan a trip to Washington, DC to visit the Library of Congress as that was the only place I could find them. On the rare occassion that I did find a book for sale, its price would range from the mid $100′s (USD) all the way to close to $1,000!

The name of the site is called Memoria Chilena and is located at this address: http://www.memoriachilena.cl/

It has a very powerful search engine that can search by either title, author, publisher or any other keyword. The results returned will include, perhaps, an information page a list of books, articles and photographs.

All books or articles are available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format to be read electronically on your computer, PDA, etc.

One of my favorite features is the e-Libros section whereby there is a list of recommended resources for researchers and enthusiasts alike. What’s great about the list is that it changes monthly which means that you may find a gem there that you never knew existed.

Any researcher of genealogy or history will be well served to use this most excellent resource.

Just be aware that you will not be able to find any of the books or articles published after around the 1930′s. This means that one of the books I’m looking for “El linaje de Vial” by Raúl Díaz Vial, published in 1960 is still to be found by me outside of the Library of Congress… If anyone knows where to find it, please let me know!

To most of us living in republics, the concept of monarchy is something very foreign and harkens to a time long ago. This is usually because the country of residence disposed itself of its monarchy in way or another.

I won’t go into political theory of whether monarchy is better than republicanism or not. There are plenty of books and opinions on the matter abound on the Internet.

All these republics that are no longer monarchies have created the same result: formerly reigning dynasts and their families.

This is a product not only of republics but also of monarchies that through conquest or otherwise replaced the previously reigning dynasty.

Collectively, these former dynasts are called “pretenders” and through custom are permitted to use their prior titles. However, it is a rare occasion where they can do that in the country which they were previously a ruler of.

The better known pretenders are those whose families recently lost their throne or of a large and still extant country. Some of the better known are those of Greece, Serbia, Italy, Bulgaria, etc. In the latter’s case, the pretender to the Bulgarian throne, Simeon of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha who was deposed as a child in 1946 has had a successful political career after the fall of communism becoming the Prime Minister of the country in 2001-2005.

However, we also have pretenders to thrones of kingdoms that have not existed in centuries. Perhaps the most known are the Imperial family of Brazil (various pretenders), the various claimants to the throne of France and those of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies.

Going further back, we can also find pretenders to thrones as old as that of Aragon and Jerusalem.

Though opinions vary on whose claim is the “valid” one, in some cases it is crystal clear. Even with particularly old ones. Perhaps some day, when I feel adventurous, I’ll start looking at the various claims and share my opinion.

All these pretenders, as mentioned, can still use their previously held titles and are recognized in international law as heads of state.

There are many orders of chivalry, knighthood or merit in the world. Some of them are completely secular, such as the Légion d’honneur of France while others are completely religious and tied to a specific church such as the Papal Order of Christ.

The insignia above are those of a knight of the Légion d’honneur (on the left) and the star and badge of the Order of Christ.

The majority of orders are somewhere in between though one can argue that almost all of them have a religious aspect to them. Some, of course, more than others.

One thing that differentiates the Orthodox Orders from all the others is, as the name implies, their foundation on Eastern Orthodox Christianity and under the spiritual protection of one of the Orthodox Patriarchates or Autocephalous Churches. There is a debate on whether the heads of any of these Churches or even the Ecumenical Patriarch have the fons honorum to establish an Order of Chivalry as none of these ever enjoyed in the long histories the same temporal power as the Bishop of Rome (i.e. the Pope). Regardless though, the notion of a religious Order of Chivalry is a foreign concept to the Eastern Churches; however, in the past century or so they have started giving out awards that even though they may resemble a knightly Order, they are clearly Orders of Merit. One of these meritorious Orders is the Order of St. Andrew or Archons under the auspice of the His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constaninople.

Archon cross

Naturally, the Orthodox lands have had royal sovereigns to rule them and in their capacity as sovereigns, with a font honorum that cannot be disputed, had or have instituted Orders of Chivalry under their Grand Mastership and the spiritual protection of their Archbishop or Patriarch. Perhaps the most widely known Orthodox sovereigns were the Czars of the Russian Empire who where under the spiritual guidance of His Holiness the Patriarch of All Russia. Though, it must be noted that there were many other Orthodox sovereigns that were either completely independent or autonomous and under a greater and more powerful king/emperor.

Since there is so much written about all the non-Orthodox Orders while very little, if anything, about the Orthodox ones, we’ll be examining them one at a time as my research completes for each. I hope you enjoy this journey and if you can contribute or correct anything, please comment or contact me!