Pearl of Great PriceJul 10, 20213 min readJuly 10 Cardinal Richelieu and the French Academy Its 1637 and we are in Paris where at Cardinal Richelieu's urging, King Louis XIII granted letters patent formally establishing a council...
Pearl of Great PriceJul 2, 20213 min readJuly 3 Prester John and Marco PoloFor more than 500 years, Europeans believed a Christian king ruled over a vast empire somewhere in the wilds of Africa, India or the Far...
Pearl of Great PriceJun 28, 20214 min readJune 29 Poet of the Spirit - Elizabeth Barret BrowningToday we travel to Florence in Italy where the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning died. Married to another poet – Robert Browning,...
Pearl of Great PriceMay 21, 20213 min readMay 22 Papal Rome and the Trevi FountainToday the famous Trevi Fountain was finished by Pannini, and was officially opened and inaugurated on this day by Pope Clement XIII. We...
Pearl of Great PriceMay 4, 20213 min readMay 4 Dividing the 'New World' Today we remember how in 1493 Pope Alexander VI, in an age of exploration divided the 'New World' between Spain and Portugal. Giving the...
Pearl of Great PriceMar 6, 20216 min readMar 6 Michelangelo Michelangelo was born today, in 1474. His achievements as a sculptor, painter, architect and poet mean that he is often considered to be...
Pearl of Great PriceFeb 15, 20211 min readFeb 16 - Carnival, Mardi Gras and Pancake Tuesday Today Christians around the world are preparing to enter Lent with one last blowout. Today we look at the traditions that mark this...
Pearl of Great PriceFeb 6, 20211 min readFeb 7 The Bonfire of the VanitiesIn todays pod, we go back to the 7th of February and the year 1497, and remember how the famous ‘Bonfire of Vanities was lit today by the...
Pearl of Great PriceJan 31, 20214 min readJan 27 - Dante exiled from FlorenceToday in 1302, we remember how the Italian poet Dante Alighieri was exiled from Florence. In exile Date wrote the celebrated work The...
Pearl of Great PriceJan 29, 20212 min readJan 16 - The Medici become the Pope's BankersToday in 1412 the Medici family agreed to become the official bankers of the papacy, which turbocharged their businesses across Europe. ...
Pearl of Great PriceJan 25, 20213 min readJan 7 - Galileo starts a revolution Today in 1610 the Italian Astronomer Galileo made his first observation of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, which are now named...