Saturday, June 29, 2024

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. 

5 comments:

  1. Happy Anniversary!

    Unless you count the excursion into Romanian Orthodoxy as a complete break, 2006 to 2009, and if you do count shut down media like two former blogger accounts and above all MSN Group Antimodernism, I was actually there a bit before you, but the present blogger account is younger than you.

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  2. Thanks for your constant and measured dedication as a stalwart O.G. The trad and Catholic world owe you a debt of gratitude.

    I think the I.D.G.A.C. vibe lurking behind each post frees you up to say what otherwise may be left unsaid were it operating under greater constraints. That has been the greatest grace of USC and blogging in general. I would reckon (I'm thinking the KOC post, for one, which was super impactful). Or maybe I'm just projecting from my own experience. My IDGAF was "I banged this post out in thirty minutes--what do you want from me?" haha

    To paraphrase Good Will Hunting, "You dropped $150k on a PhD in Church History you could have gotten for a weeks worth of reading Boniface's blog ("You just dropped $150k on a college education you could have gotten for a dollar fifty in late charges at the public library." )

    Have a great vacation! Do you plan to eat some spotted dick?rofl

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  3. @Paul,

    I am afraid I don't know what Spotted Dick is, but if I want dick of any sort, I will come to your house to get it 😘

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  4. Poilane Bread
    Full English Breakfast
    Steak and Ale pie
    Roast Lamb
    English baked potatoes

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