Monday, April 24, 2017

The New Monday Quiz wishes you the joy of the Feast of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen





Since our Saint of the Month for April wasn't, strictly speaking, "real" -- but rather a "Hilarious April Fool's Gag" -- today we will celebrate the feast day of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen with a New Monday Quiz about his life, times, and works.



1. St. Fidelis was born as Mark Roy in 1577. In that same year, Queen Elizabeth of England commissioned a privateering voyage that was successful both in seizing Spanish treasure -- a 4700% percent profit on investment! -- and as a voyage of discovery, circumnavigating of the world. The flagship, originally called the Pelican, was renamed the Golden Hind during the voyage. Who was the captain?

2. Roy was, as his later name implies, born in Sigmaringen. Here's a map showing where that is. In what modern country is Sigmaringen located?


3. We read that, as a student, Roy avoided alcohol and practiced chastity; apparently this sets him apart from other students. In the same passage, we see that he always wore a cilice. What's a cilice, and why do people wear them?

4. After getting his doctorate, Roy taught philosophy at the University of Freiburg. A later philosophy prof at Freiburg is "widely acknowledged to be one of the most original and important philosophers of the 20th century." Supporters point to his 1927 classic Being and Time, his influential argument that "being" or "being-in-the-world" is more central to human experience than rationality, and his contributions to the fields of phenomenology and existentialism. Critics, however, sometimes suggest that his densely argued prose veers perilously close to gibberish, and note that he was a bit of a Nazi tool. Who is this famous philosopher?

5. Roy took the name of Fidelis when he entered the Capuchin order. The modern beverage we call "Cappuccino" takes its name from "Capuchin" -- what is the basic recipe for cappuccino?

6. Fidelis was sent to the Prättigau district of eastern Switzerland in 1622 to convert Calvinists to Catholicism. What are two examples of something that Calvinists believe that Catholics don't, or vice versa?

7. Fidelis's team arrived in Prättigau on the Feast of the Epiphany. What's an example of an epiphany, without the capital E?

8. Because the locals were hostile to his missionary efforts, Fidelis predicted that he would soon be "food for the worms." 259 years later, Charles Darwin would write of worms that "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organized creatures." What makes worms so important?

9. On April 24, 1622, St. Fidelis was killed by Austrian soldiers. A few days later, a British ship called the Tryall, sailing much too far south and east on the way to Batavia, became the third European vessel to spot what large landmass?

10. St. Fidelius was canonized in 1746 by Pope Benedict XIV. Like many older guys of his time, and a rapidly increasing number in our own time, Pope Benedict struggled with gout. What is gout?



Answers go in the comments! 



Two weeks ago, The New Monday Quiz celebrated fours and tens, on account of how it was 4/10. The answers were:
1. Elements 4 and 10 are Beryllium and Neon.
2. In Genesis 4:10, God is scolding Cain for slaying Abel.
3. Nephi 4:10 begins with the formula "it came to pass," like so many passages of the Book of Mormon.
4. Four Ten was a British racehorse.
5. The fourth and tenth most populous countries are Indonesia and Japan.
6. The answer to the math problem is a gross, or 144.
7. The answer to the other math problem is that no, its diagonal is the square root of 116, which is less than 11 inches, 11 being the square root of 121.
8. If it's "fourth and ten," it's American football and the next play will almost certainly be either a punt or, if the team on offense is far enough down the field, an attempt at a field goal.
9. You could beat four tens with four... queens, for instance, or a straight flush -- five cards in numerical order from the same suit.
10a. the prolific composer is Mozart; 10b the Beatles album is Yellow Submarine.
Out of all the rightness on display in the answers, DrSchnell's rightness was unblemished and absolute!  This makes him the master in perpetuity of all realms of knowledge that involve the intersection of four things and ten things.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope someone else will enter this week.
1 - Sir Francis Drake
2 - Germany
3 -
4 - Nietzsche
5 - Coffee with foamy hot milk & cinnamon
6 - Catholics believe: Assumption of the Virgin
Grace for good deeds as well as for faith
7 - A sudden clear vision or enlightenment
8 - Their role in getting rid of dead & decaying matter
9 - Australia
10 - A blood disease causing twinges of pain, often in the big toe
Susan

DrSchnell said...

1. Francis Drake
2. Germany
3. don't know. Something spiky you wear near your nether regions to ensure that your thoughts don't get too racy?
4. Heidegger. I'm firmly in the gibberish camp on this one.
5.espresso and foamy milk
6.Catholics think you should pay attention to the Pope, and the Calvinists don't. Um, the Calvinist's don't go to Catholic churches, and vice versa. Lame, I know.
7. I had an epiphany the moment I realized that I didn't have to write anything on final exams that I was grading, since nobody ever came by to pick them up, and thus added several hours extra time to my finals week each semester!
8. they aerate the soil, and mix it up underground, and their poop makes for good soil, and they're good bird food also. Fun fact: earthworms aren't native to North America.
9. Australia
10. a disease that, um, does bad things to you somehow. And people in history always got it.

UnwiseOwl said...

Sorry, been away, but let's see.
1. Francis Drake!
2. That's Germany, bro.
3. Thanks to the Da Vinci code, I know that that's a garter that you'd wear as penance for sin. Personally I think that's a bit of dodgy theology, but there you go.
4. Heidigger Heidigger was a boozy beggar...
5. One part Coffee...two parts agitated milk? If you'd asked me the Capuchin question I could have gotten that!
6. I think Calvinists avoid liquor and you know, the Pope. More seriously, though, Calvinists are protestant so they're into justification by faith alone rather than through works, and the other major difference would be the Calvinist's reliance on the bible itself rather than church tradition, which is a big deal for Catholics.
7. That's a sudden realisation of truth. Calvinists hold that definition for the 'big E' version too.
8. I dunno. Do they poop Nitrogen-rich something? Nitrogen is important, right?
9. Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi Oi Oi!
10. It's Arthritis with external swelling, I think.