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getting one's symbolic bearings
2004.02.20 13:35
I just checked at mapquest and the largest angle of the triangle formed by the Dominican Retreat House of St. Catherine de Ricci (point one), the intersection of Ogontz and Olney Avenues (point two--location of the column of fire that occurred at dusk on the quondam* feast of St. Catherine de Ricci), and where I live on Arbor Street (point three--the quelle quondam.com) is approximately 96.8 degrees.
In The Odds of Ottopia, the column of jet flame represents St. Catherine's arrival in Philadelphia bearing the news (for Otto) that both Theodosius and his wife Aelia Flaccilla ["She is venerated in the Greek Church as a saint, and her feast is kept on 14 September."--14 September is also (feast of) the Exaltation of the Cross (i.e., the day Helena found the True Cross), and my father Otto's birthday. I myself recently learned that Helena and Aelia Flaccilla shared an almost identical physical appearance.] will be coming to Philadelphia at dusk 25 February, and staying for (another 40 days of) Lent.
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*Subsequent to the Second Vatican Council, the feast of St. Catherine de Ricci was moved from 13 February to 4 February--Catherine died 2 February 1590. Anyway, the Dominican Sisters of St. Catherine de Ricci still celebrate the feat of St. Catherine on 13 February because that is when "most of the Sisters in the Order took their vows."
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