Septimus Decimus Anniversarius

Seventeen years of Unam Sanctam Catholicam this day. Seems like a lifetime ago when I started this blog. It has been an incredibly long time. This blog has, in fact, been one of the most constant things in my adult life, which is bizarre to think about. It is older than three of my children and outlasted my marriage and every job I've ever had. And it is one of the oldest still-functioning Traditional Catholic blogs, with the exception of Rorate Caeli and New Liturgical Movement. 

This blog has had incredible longevity. I was here plodding along in the blogosphere patiently through the coming and going of Skojec; I was here for the rise and fall of Voris. I was here before Vigano. Before Strickland. Before Athanasius Schneider had published his first book or made a name for himself. Seven years before the Remnant had a blog or Michael Matt had uploaded his first YouTube video. I was here before Dr. Kwasniewski went trad. I was here back when Taylor Marshall was still encouraging Catholics to "stay out of traddy online forums" and opining that "if I were Pope Francis and read the comments at Rorate Caeli, I’d be tempted to shut [the Latin Masses] all down."

 

I say all this not to boast of my own resourcefulness; any of the the folks mentioned above has put in vastly more effort than I. In fact, for most of this blog's existence, I have put far less work into it than it merits. If anything, I have consistently failed this blog by letting it sit and grow moss for weeks at a time, month after month, year after year. But who knows...perhaps that is part of its long term success. I try to do a good job with it and polish my writing as much as I can, but at the end of the day, it's just a hobby I do for fun, and there's always been a "I don't give a crap" vibe lurking behind my posts. Which really makes it ironic that, at 4.1 million cumulative page views (with an average of 38,000 per month) this blog I write for free in my spare time has given me a far greater audience than any of my books I've ever published, even the most commercially successful.

Tomorrow I am leaving the United States for a two week vacation in England, so do not expect the blog to be updated again before mid-July at the earliest. 

Thank you for your continued patronage of this blog. To all the friends I have made over the years, I am tremendously grateful for you all.  Keep me in your prayers, and I will see you all again soon.