Non Tasarmi, Fratello!

“Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine. At least I’ve always found it so. Benedicamus Domino!” Hillaire Belloc

Sunday, December 26, 2010

The School Sisters of Notre Dame


The School Sisters of Notre Dame are an offshoot of the Congregation of Notre Dame, founded in France by Saint Peter Fourier in 1597. One convent runs a boarding school in Baltimore. So what, you ask?

One of the sisters had a brother who died and bequeathed a Honus Wagner baseball card to the Order. The cards were produced by a tobacco company from 1909-1911. "The Flying Dutchman" EITHER didn't want his name to be affiliated with tobacco OR he wanted more money for the right to use his picture. Either way, only 50 - 200 of them were circulated.

The card is not in good condition - the brother owned the card since 1936 - but the good Sisters sold it to raise money. And received $220,000 for it.

Bonus - Honus Wagner had a brother who was supposedly even better than the Hall of Famer (Honus got elected to the HOF the same year as Babe Ruth, and with the same number of votes). Honus's brother's name was Albert, but everyone called him "Butts".

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