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| Francesco II and Maria Sophia leave Gaeta |
By Fr. William Rock, FSSP
Many readers of the Missive are no doubt aware of the devotion found in traditional circles to Blessed Karol of Austria and his wife, Servant of God Zita. This devotion is founded primarily on the recognition of their virtues, but there is the strong influence of what they represent. As the last Catholic Emperor and Empress, their lives and deaths represent a delineation between a previous order of the world and the present one. As the last monarchs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, their unjust and forced dethronement is seen as the death of Christendom, the spirit of which many traditional Catholics prefer over the spirit which pervades the world today. For the spirit of Christendom built civilizations, guided nations, and allowed the Catholic Faith to penetrate and infuse every aspect of the faithfuls’ lives.
There is little doubt that Blessed Karol and his devotees would find a kindred spirit in Servant of God Francesco II of the House of Bourbon, the last King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. He ruled over a kingdom which encompassed the southern part of the Italian peninsula and the island of Sicily. This territory was first organized as a kingdom in A.D. 1130 with the crowning of the first King of Sicily, the Norman Roger II. Yet the foundation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, Il Regno, are rooted deep in history, going back from the time of Roger II to the various, prior districts governed by the Lombards, Normans, Byzantines, and Muslims, to the former provinces of the Roman Empire, and finally back to the original Greek colonies of Magna Græcia and the settlements of the Phoenicians. Continue reading
