Waking Giacarlo in the sala of the Archconfraternity with the recitation of the Office of the Dead.
If you enlarge, you will see a sign on one of the candles written in ancient Greek.
It is
ΘΑΝΏΝ
ΑΣΤΈΡΑΣ
ΟΙΚΟΝ
ΕΧΕΙ
Just to help, that’s something like, “now dead he has a dwelling in the stars”
I am not sure where this is from, but I have a suspicion it’s an ancient epigram.
Removing the pall, you can see also a larger version of the other epitaph on the other candle. In Latin.
Which is…
IOHANNI CAROLO CRASSO
ARCHISODALITATIS
SANCTISSIMAE TRINITATIS IN URBE
CAMERARIO
LATINARUM GRAECARUMQ LITTERARUM PERITO
SACRARUMQUE CAERIMONIARUM MAGISTRO
IN EOD AUGUSTAE TRIADIS TEMPLO PEREGRINATOR
DIUTINA AEGRITUDINE FIRMITER SUSTENTA
QUI TAM RECTE VIXIT QUAM PIE EXIIT
ANNOS XLIII MENSES VIII DIES X
LACRIMARUM TRIBUTA MAESTARUM
REQUIEM IN PACE
BEATAE GLORIAM AETERNITATIS
LUCTUOSI OPTANT SODALES
It’s a lovely inscription. Giancarlo, who taught Latin, would probably have enjoyed you giving your own accurate yet smooth version, as Foster would have said.
I missed his funeral by a few days.
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In churchy news… Francis is in Luxembourg. I guess that’s the perifery.
In chessy news… HERE
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White to move and mate in 3.
NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t be “spoilers” for others.
I look at these photos and I see and sense the words you say, “we are our rites”. The care, preparation, beauty of language, art, smells and visuals. What a consolation to all involved in Giancarlo’s death and funeral. What a profoundly human experience mingled with transcendence of the Divine. In these photos the reality of the Church being Mother and a loving Mother is apparent. Eternal Rest Mr. Giancarlo. I hope you are with Philip Neri and Our Lady today adoring the Blessed Trinity forever and ever.
May we love the Church, reverence Her and defend Her!
The Greek is originally part of the inscription preserved for the tomb of Diogenes the Cynic. It had a picture of a dog on the tomb, who speaks with the viewer in a dialogue that was translated thus by G R Woodward:
“Say, dog, whose tomb thou guardest?
A dog’s. What dog, sayst thou?
Diogenes. His birth place?
Sinope. Which *bow-wow*
Once living in a barrel,
He lives in star-land now”
Neither Black’s Bishop nor his pawn on g7 can move to a different file without allowing White to mate Black’s King on f8 or g8. So plunge right into them:
1. PxP+ BxP (forced)
2. Rf8+ BxR
3. Qg8 mate
Beautiful pictures, both moving and thought provoking. Yes, Pope Francis visits bot Luxembourg and Belgium, these days. Unlike St. John Paul II in 1985, he skips The Netherlands. The Belgian leg of his visit is already fraught with problems, leading to Bishop Hoogmartens’ (Hasselt) non-attendance. In short, clerical abuse victims are greatly displeased.
A more formal translation:
Loeb Classical Library, Greek Anthology, Book 7
64.—Anonymous
On the Same
A. “Tell me, dog, who was the man on whose tomb thou standest keeping guard?”
B. “The Dog.”
A. “But what man was that, the Dog?”
B. “Diogenes.”
A. “Of what country?”
B. “Of Sinope.”
A. “He who lived in a jar?”
B. “Yes, and now he is dead, the stars are his home.”
NB “The same” – the previous entry also concerns Diogenes, as does 65.