My great-grandmother is/was Sami. Sigrid Olsdatter, 11yrs old, a Sámi girl photographed by Prince Roland Bonaparte at the Paris Zoo in 1889. Amid cages of exotic animals and so-called “human exhibits,” a young girl with a calm, steady gaze posed for the lens of a French prince.
Catholic meditation is a disciplined prayer process focused on meeting God in stillness, engaging the mind and heart with truth rather than emptying them.
Spirituality in a Catholic context is defined as living and being guided by the Holy Spirit rather than human nature.
Notorious mobster Charles "Lucky" Luciano, La Cosa Nostra, used his prison influence in the late 1930s to help fund and secure Appalachian red oak wood for the pews of the Church of St. Dismas, the Good Thief, located inside Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York.
Descendants of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan gave the church two wooden angel carvings. These carvings were rescued from Magellan's flagship that wrecked and sank in the Philippines in 1521. The sacred carvings are kept and displayed near the church's altar.