The Kazan Crown, once owned by Ivan the Terrible.

Russia, 1533

Medium: Gold with pearls, turquoise, and garnet stones.

Collection: Kremlin Museums

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SAINT OF THE DAY (September 1)

St. Beatrice was born to Portuguese nobility in 1424 in Cuerta, Portugal.

She was one of the eleven children of Rui Gomes da Silva, the governor of Campo Maior, Portugal, and Isabel de Menezes, an illegitimate daughter of Dom Pedro de Menezes, 1st Count of Vila Real and 2nd Count of Viana do Alentejo, in whose army her father was serving at the time of her birth.

One of her brothers was Amadeus of Portugal, a noted reformer of the Order of Friars Minor.

She was raised in the household of the future Queen Isabel of Portugal and spent some time in her royal court in Castile following the Queen's marriage to John II.

She soon got tired of the empty life at court and joined a Cistercian convent in Toledo.

She lived at the convent until 1484, when she answered a summons from God to found a religious order.

The Congregation of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was begun, and with the help of the Queen, she founded a house outside of Toledo where she lived and served as superior until her death on 16 August 1492.

She was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 28 July 1926. She was canonized by Pope Paul VI on 3 October 1976.

Her feast day is celebrated by both by the Conceptionist nuns and the Franciscan Order and in Spain on September 1.

However, in 2012, it was transferred to August 17 for Portugal.

Mythical map of Wales, according to the Mabinogion, a collection of medieval Welsh prose.

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SAINT OF THE DAY (August 31)

Raymond became a priest due to his quiet persistence in prayer and study.

He was born to a noble Spanish family in 1204.

His mother died during child birth and his father had high expectations for Raymond to serve in the country’s Royal Court.

However, the young Raymond felt drawn to religious life. In an attempt to dissuade him, his father ordered him to manage one of the family farms.

However, Raymond spent his time with the workers — studying and praying. His father finally gave up and allowed Raymond to enter the Mercederians.

Fr. Raymond spent his entire estate ransoming slaves. He even offered himself as a hostage to free another.

He was sentenced to death but was spared because his ransom would bring in a large amount of money.

During his imprisonment, he succeeded at converting some of his guards.

To keep him from continuing his preaching, his captors bored a hole through his lips with a hot iron, and attached a padlock.

He was eventually ransomed, and he returned to Barcelona in 1239.

That year, he was named a cardinal by Pope Gregory IX.

The following year, in 1240, he was summoned to Rome but barely made it out of Barcelona before he died at the age of 36 (August 31).

He was beatified by Pope Urban VIII on 9 May 1626. He was canonized by Pope Clement IX on 13 August 1669.

He is the patron saint of pregnant women, childbirth, newborn infants, midwives, and priests defending the confidentiality of confession.

Lolita, the orca that was a star attraction in captivity at the Seaquarium, died Friday as plans to move her out of the Miami theme park were beginning to take shape.

She was believed to be 57 at the time of her death.

Now known as Toki, a name adopted by advocates urging her freedom, the killer whale had suffered health problems in her Seaquarium tank last fall before seeming to recover, according to recent interviews with her training staff.

In a social media post, the Seaquarium said Lolita developed a renal condition in recent days.

“Toki was an inspiration to all who had the fortune to hear her story, and especially to the Lummi nation that considered her family,” the statement said, referring to indigenous people in her natural waters off Washington state, where she was captured at age four.

A non-profit backed by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts, had been partnering with the Seaquarium to move Lolita to a sea pen off Washington state and was training her for the eventual move.

The non-profit, Friends of Toki, released the same statement as the Seaquarium, with some details about her failing health:

“Over the last two days, Toki started exhibiting serious signs of discomfort, which her full Miami Seaquarium and Friends of Toki medical team began treating immediately and aggressively.

Despite receiving the best possible medical care, she passed away Friday afternoon from what is believed to be a renal condition.”

Toki was a shortened version of Tokitae, the name given the orca by indigenous people in Washington state, who have for years advocated to return the mammal to her native waters.

Friends of Toki was in talks with tribes in Washington to assist with the plan to transfer Lolita to the pen, where she would continue being fed and given medical care but with far more room to swim amid natural waters with sea life traveling in and out of the netting.

Some of her handlers in Miami planned to move to Washington to remain working with Lolita after the relocation in an ongoing care operation funded by Friends of Toki, Charles Vinick, the group’s director, said in a recent interview.

“All who want to, we’d want to move with her,” he said. “They’re the people she trusts.”

Friends of Toki had paid to upgrade the chilling equipment in Lolita’s Seaquarium tank.

They hired a trainer, veterinarian and others to help supervise her care and training.

That included introducing the car-sized sling that was planned to hoist her out of the tank and onto a transport truck for a cross-country flight to Washington for a new life in a sea pen.

‘Heartbroken’

“I am heartbroken that Toki has left us,” Irsay said in a statement. “I was honored to be part of the team working to return her to her indigenous home, and I take solace in knowing we significantly improved her living conditions this past year.”

The relocation plan was mostly aspirational, since the Irsay group hadn’t secured the federal permits or water rights needed to create a sea pen for the 7,000-pound mammal.

But it was the most definitive effort yet to move Lolita from a tank that had been flagged by federal animal inspectors and local authorities as needing a major overhaul to continue housing Lolita.

While the Seaquarium continues holding dolphin performances, the Lolita shows ended in 2021 as the condition of the tank drew scrutiny from the United States Department of Agriculture and Miami-Dade’s Unsafe Structures Division.

When the Dolphin Company purchased the Seaquarium operations in 2022, including the site lease for the county-owned waterfront that houses the park, it announced Lolita would never return to public performing.

Animal-rights activists condemned the Seaquarium over the years for confining the orca in a tank small enough that it took just seconds to swim from end to end.

“Kind people begged the Miami Seaquarium to end Lolita’s hellish life in a concrete cell and release her to a seaside sanctuary, where she could dive deep, feel the ocean’s currents, and even be reunited with the orca believed to be her mother,” PETA, an anti-captivity group, said in a statement.

“But plans to move her to a seaside sanctuary came too late.”

The relocation plan had critics, too. Some former trainers of Lolita formed Truth4Toki and urged the Seaquarium to either keep the orca in place or move her to a more modernized tank at Sea World in Orlando.

After past battles with illness, the group said Lolita “is not a candidate for release.”

Tom Reidarson, a former SeaWorld veterinarian hired by Friends of Toki to work with her in Miami, said in a recent interview that he was concerned Lolita would die last fall after a serious bout with pneumonia.

“It became pretty dire,” he told the Miami Herald on July 8.

Though she remained on antibiotics, Reidarson said the orca’s lung problems appeared to have resolved well.

“She’s actually really healthy right now,” he said.

In its statement, the Seaquarium described liver issues with Lolita, who was believed to be four when captured in Puget Sound and roughly 57 in 2023.

“Over the last two days, Toki started exhibiting serious signs of discomfort,” the Seaquarium said on X, the site formerly known as Twitter.

“Despite receiving the best possible medical care, she passed away Friday afternoon from what’s believed to be a renal condition.”

Miami-Dade’s mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, advocated for moving Lolita as part of the county’s talks with the Dolphin Company taking over the lease.

The company signed an agreement to move the orca once there was a safe and healthy option for her to leave the Seaquarium.

“Our collective wish was to see Toki in her native waters and we are heartbroken to learn of this sudden loss,” Levine Cava said in a statement.

“Alongside the many Miamians who grew up visiting her, the generations of activists around the world that were inspired by her story, and the caretakers who remained dedicated to her health until the very end — today we say our final goodbye to our beloved Toki.”

Asian elephants’ ears resemble the shape of the Indian subcontinent, while those of African elephants resemble the continent of Africa. 🐘

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 30)

On August 30, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Jeanne Jugan, also known as Sister Mary of the Cross.

During the 19th century, she founded the Little Sisters of the Poor with the goal of imitating Christ's humility through service to elderly people in need.

In his homily for her canonization in October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI praised St. Jeanne as “a beacon to guide our societies toward a renewed love for those in old age."

The Pope recalled how "she lived the mystery of love in a way that remains ever timely while so many elderly people are suffering from numerous forms of poverty and solitude and are sometimes also abandoned by their families.”

Born on 25 October 1792 in a port city of the French region of Brittany, Jeanne Jugan grew up during the political and religious upheavals of the French Revolution.

Four years after she was born, her father was lost at sea.

Her mother struggled to provide for Jeanne and her three siblings, while also providing them secretly with religious instruction amid the anti-Catholic persecutions of the day.

Jeanne worked as a shepherdess and later as a domestic servant. At age 18, and again six years later, she declined two marriage proposals from the same man.

She told her mother that God had other plans and was calling her to a work, which was not yet founded.

At age 25, the young woman joined the Third Order of St. John Eudes, a religious association for laypersons founded during the 17th century.

Jeanne worked as a nurse in the town of Saint-Servan for six years but had to leave her position due to health troubles.

She later worked for 12 years as the servant of a fellow member of the third order, until the woman's death in 1835.

During 1839, a year of economic hardship in Saint-Servan, Jeanne was sharing an apartment with an older woman and an orphaned young lady.

It was during the winter of this year that Jeanne encountered Anne Chauvin, an elderly woman who was blind, partially paralyzed, and had no one to care for her.

Jeanne carried Anne home to her apartment and took her in from that day forward, letting the woman have her bed while Jeanne slept in the attic.

She soon took in two more old women in need of help. By 1841, she had rented a room to provide housing for a dozen elderly people.

The following year, she acquired an unused convent building that could house 40 of them.

During the 1840s, many other young women joined Jeanne in her mission of service to the elderly poor.

By begging in the streets, the foundress was able to establish four more homes for their beneficiaries by the end of the decade.

By 1850, over 100 women had joined the congregation that had become known as the Little Sisters of the Poor.

However, Jeanne Jugan – known in religious life as Sister Mary of the Cross – had been forced out of her leadership role by Father Auguste Le Pailleur, the priest who had been appointed superior general of the congregation.

In an apparent effort to suppress her true role as foundress, the superior general ordered her into retirement and a life of obscurity for 27 years.

During these years, she served the order through her prayers and by accepting the trial permitted by God.

At the time of her death on 29 August 1879, she was not known to have founded the order, which by then had 2,400 members serving internationally.

Fr. Le Pailleur, however, was eventually investigated and disciplined. St. Jeanne Jugan came to be acknowledged as their foundress.

She was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 3 October 1982. She was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 October 2009.

She is the patron saint of the elderly. She is a role model for those who care for the poor, the sick, and the aging.

This was a CIA project to spy on Russia in the 1960s. 🐱

They chose a cat for the job, but they didn’t consider cats hard to train.

The cat’s job was to eavesdrop on meetings outside the Soviet embassy in Washington, D.C.

The cat was wired up by a veterinary surgeon who implanted a microphone into the ear canal, a small radio transmitter at the base of the skull, and a battery buried in the flesh.

The complex project took five years to complete and consumed a whopping $20 million.

The project was shut down in 1967 because the cat couldn’t obey orders.

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 29)

On this day, the universal Church marks the beheading of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus.

As an adult, he lived as a hermit in the wilderness. After the Spirit inspired him, he went about preaching that the people should repent of their sins and be baptized in order to prepare for the Messiah.

Herod imprisoned John because he had condemned Herod for committing adultery by living with his brother's wife, Herodias.

At the celebration for Herod on his birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced for him.

Herod was so impressed that he said he would offer her anything she liked.

She consulted with Herodias who told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

Herod did not want to kill John for fear or what his follwers might do, but because of his promise to the girl, he could not refuse and so John was beheaded.

Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt.

Work & Credit: Puca Printhouse - Neil Parkinson Makes

Coats of Arms of Medieval Europe.

Chart by Matt Baker

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 28)

Today, August 28, the Church honors St. Augustine.

St. Augustine was born at the town of Thagaste (now Souk-Ahras in modern day Algeria) on 13 November 354.

He became one the most significant and influential thinkers in the history of the Catholic Church. His teachings were the foundation of Christian doctrine for a millennium.

The story of his life, up until his conversion, is written in the autobiographical Confessions, the most intimate and well-known glimpse into an individual's soul ever written, as well as a fascinating philosophical, theological, mystical, poetic, and literary work.

Augustine, though being brought up in early childhood as a Christian, lived a dissolute life of revelry and sin.

He soon drifted away from the Church — thinking that he wasn't necessarily leaving Christ, of whose name he acknowledges:

"I kept it in the recesses of my heart; and all that presented itself to me without that Divine name, though it might be elegant, well written, and even replete with truth, did not altogether carry me away" (Confessions, I, iv).

He went to study in Carthage and became well-known in the city for his brilliant mind and rhetorical skills. He sought a career as an orator or lawyer.

However, he also discovered and fell in love with philosophy at the age of 19, a love he pursued with great vehemence.

He was attracted to Manichaeanism at this time, after its devotees had promised him that they had scientific answers to the mystery of nature, could disprove the Scriptures, and could explain the problem of evil.

Augustine became a follower for nine years, learning all there was to learn in it before rejecting it as incoherent and fraudulent.

He went to Rome and then Milan in 386 where he met Saint Ambrose, the bishop and Doctor of the Church, whose sermons inspired him to look for the truth he had always sought in the faith he had rejected.

He received baptism and soon after, his mother, Saint Monica, died with the knowledge that all she had hoped for in this world had been fulfilled.

He returned to Africa, to his hometown of Tagaste, "having now cast off from himself the cares of the world, he lived for God with those who accompanied him, in fasting, prayers, and good works, meditating on the law of the Lord by day and by night."

On a visit to Hippo, he was proclaimed priest and then bishop against his will.

He later accepted it as the will of God and spent the rest of his life as the pastor of the North African town, where he spent much time refuting the writings of heretics.

Augustine also wrote 'The City of God' against the pagans who charged that the fall of the Roman empire, which was taking place at the hands of the Vandals, was due to the spread of Christianity.

On 28 August 430, as Hippo was under siege by the Vandals, Augustine died at the age of 76.

His legacy continues to deeply shape the face of the Church to this day.

The surface of the asteroid Ryugu taken by the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa-2. That pitch black background is so scary.

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Researchers and monster hunters are gathering in the United Kingdom's Scottish Highlands this weekend to look for the eternally elusive Loch Ness Monster, the biggest search for the legendary beast in more than 50 years.

Somewhere beneath the shimmering surface of Loch Ness lies Nessie, the legendary sea beast whose reputation spans nearly 1,500 years — at least, that's what monster hunters and Nessie enthusiasts from around the world hope to prove Saturday and Sunday.

The Loch Ness Centre and the research group Loch Ness Exploration are asking all aspiring monster hunters to join in on the biggest search since 1972.

"Our purpose is to observe, record and study the natural behaviour of the Loch and phenomena that may be more challenging to explain," the Loch Ness Exploration Facebook page reads.

"If you believe that the Loch Ness Monster exists then we invite you to join the search, we equally invite you to support the study of the Loch and the natural behaviour of the elements that may be the root cause of these strange reports from Loch Ness."

Investigators are breaking out all sorts of technology, including surveying equipment the Loch Ness Centre says has never been used on the freshwater lake before.

Drones with infrared cameras will fly over the lake and a hydrophone will be used under the surface to detect "Nessie-like calls," the Centre says.

Volunteers will also participate in a large surface watch of the loch, scanning the surface for any irregularities.

However, due to an "overwhelming demand" from enthusiasts, the group is no longer accepting applicants hoping to participate in person.

But the Loch Ness Centre says those still eager to participate can do so virtually through a livestream.

At 22 square miles and with a maximum depth of 788 feet, Loch Ness is Great Britain's largest lake by volume and second-largest by surface area, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

Though the first written accounts of a monster are attributed to the Irish monk Saint Columba's encounter in 565 A.D., reports of a creature in the lake are depicted in ancient stone carvings found in the area.

But the legend of a monster lurking in the loch didn't garner greater attention until April of 1933, when a couple driving along the newly built road around the lake saw an animal they compared to a "dragon or prehistoric monster," according to the Scottish Maritime Museum.

More sightings soon followed, and big game hunter Marmaduke Wetherell was commissioned to track the monster down in December of 1933.

He said he found large tracks along the shoreline, but zoologists at the Natural History Museum debunked the tracks.

The following year was when English physician Robert Wilson took a photo, now known as the "Surgeon's Photograph," which appeared to show Nessie's head atop a long slender neck poking out of the water.

The picture was printed in the Daily Mail and the Loch Ness Monster was thrust into international stardom.

One of the participants in that search confessed on his deathbed that the picture was staged, according to the Daily Mail.

The Loch Ness Centre says there have been more than 1,140 official Nessie sightings.

Paul Nixon, the Centre's general manager, said he's excited to see what turns up after the waters are searched like never before over weekend.

"We are guardians of this unique story," Nixon said.

"And as well as investing in creating an unforgettable experience for visitors, we are committed to helping continue the search and unveil the mysteries that lie underneath the waters of the famous Loch."

SAINT OF THE DAY (August 27)

On August 27, one day before the feast of her son St. Augustine of Hippo, the Catholic Church honors St. Monica, whose holy example and fervent intercession led to one of the most dramatic conversions in Church history.

Monica was born into a Catholic family in 332, in the North African city of Tagaste located in present-day Algeria.

She was raised by a maidservant who taught her the virtues of obedience and temperance.

While still relatively young, she married Patricius, a Roman civil servant with a bad temper and a disdain for his wife's religion.

Patricius' wife dealt patiently with his distressing behavior, which included infidelity to their marriage vows.

But she experienced a greater grief when he would not allow their three children – Augustine, Nagivius, and Perpetua – to receive Baptism.

When Augustine, the oldest, became sick and was in danger of death, Patricius gave consent for his Baptism but withdrew it when he recovered.

Monica's long-suffering patience and prayers eventually helped Patricius to see the error of his ways, and he was baptized into the Church one year before his death in 371.

Her oldest son, however, soon embraced a way of life that brought her further grief, as he fathered a child out of wedlock in 372.

One year later, he began to practice the occult religion of Manichaeism.

In her distress and grief, Monica initially shunned her oldest son. However, she experienced a mysterious dream that strengthened her hope for Augustine's soul, in which a messenger assured her:

“Your son is with you.”

After this experience, which took place around 377, she allowed him back into her home and continued to beg God for his conversion. But this would not take place for another nine years.

In the meantime, Monica sought the advice of local clergy, wondering what they might do to persuade her son away from the Manichean heresy.

One bishop, who had once belonged to that sect himself, assured Monica that it was “impossible that the son of such tears should perish.”

These tears and prayers intensified when Augustine, at age 29, abandoned Monica without warning as she passed the night praying in a chapel.

Without saying goodbye to his mother, Augustine boarded a ship bound for Rome.

Yet even this painful event would serve God's greater purpose, as Augustine left to become a teacher in the place where he was destined to become a Catholic.

Under the influence of the bishop St. Ambrose of Milan, Augustine renounced the teaching of the Manichees around 384.

Monica followed her son to Milan and drew encouragement from her son's growing interest in the saintly bishop's preaching.

After three years of struggle against his own desires and perplexities, Augustine succumbed to God's grace and was baptized in 387.

Shortly before her death, Monica shared a profound mystical experience of God with Augustine, who chronicled the event in his “Confessions.”

Finally, she told him:

“Son, for myself I have no longer any pleasure in anything in this life. Now that my hopes in this world are satisfied, I do not know what more I want here or why I am here.”

“The only thing I ask of you both,” she told Augustine and his brother Nagivius, “is that you make remembrance of me at the altar of the Lord wherever you are.”

St. Monica died at age 56, in the year 387.

In modern times, she has become the inspiration for the St. Monica Sodality, which encourages prayer and penance among Catholics whose children have left the faith.

Monica is recognized as the patron saint of mothers.

Her faith and dedication to motherhood played a pivotal role in the spiritual formation of one of the most brilliant philosophers and well-known saints of all time – Saint Augustine of Hippo, her son.

Four seasons in the same place taken by Jozef Morgos in Žabokreky, Slovakia.

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https://mymodernmet.com/jozef-morgos-cherry-tree-slovakia/

A human skull was found in space! 💀 (Don’t worry, it’s a nebula.)

This image was captured by amateur astrophotographer Curtis Morgan.

It depicts the Rosette Nebula, a turbulent star-forming region located 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. ✨

By the way, there is another object nicknamed “Skull Nebula” — NGC 246. Don’t confuse them!

Image Credit: Curtis Morgan / NASA / ESA

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SAINT OF THE DAY (August 26)

St. Jeanne was born on 5 July 1773 at La Blanc, France. She died on 26 August 1838.

She was beatified by Pope Pius XI on 13 May 1934. She was canonized by Pope Pius XII on 6 July 1947.

Born to nobility and educated in a convent school, Jeanne Elizabeth witnessed closely and was personally affected by the events of the French Revolution, which shook France when she was just 16 years old.

Upon the death of her father, she moved to La Guimetiere with her mother.

In 1796, realizing that she needed to do something to defend the Church and keep the faith alive amidst the attacks of the revolutionaries, she decided to begin a ministry of teaching and serving the poor.

She gathered groups of faithful in the town – which was at this point without a priest or community of religious – and organized meetings of prayer, studying of the Scriptures, and singing hymns.

She entered a Carmelite convent upon her mother’s death in 1804, and later the Society of Providence, with the advice of Saint Andrew Fournet, an underground priest who was forced to remain clandestine because he refused to make a pledge of allegiance to the government of the new republic.

He realized that she was the one God had called to lead a community of women he had gathered.

She co-founded the Daughters of the Cross with him in 1807 to care for the sick and poor, and to teach the faith.

By the time of her death in 1838, the community had more than 60 houses all over France.