Virginia Knight (1918-2010) was admitted to the San Luigi Orders by Prince-Abbot Edmond II on 28 January 1977, at a champagne reception in honor of Distinguished Humanitarians at the residence of Lady Patte Barham in Los Angeles. She had been California’s First Lady and also provided that state with its first gubernatorial wedding.

On 2 August 1954, Virginia Knight became the second wife of Governor Goodwin Jess “Goodie” Knight (1896-1970), who was in office between 1953 and 1959. Their marriage was also her second; her first husband had been killed in action in World War II. Photographs of the wedding were widely circulated and helped in Knight’s successful bid for re-election that year.

Virginia Knight was the first to advocate that the governor’s residence in Sacramento (which reminded her of a palace) should become a museum, and that a major part of its work should be to honor the state’s First Ladies. Subsequently, with the assistance of Nancy Reagan, this came to pass.

An author of more than 300 poems and an effusive personality whose beauty led to comparisons with Vivien Leigh, she was named Honorary Poet Laureate of Delaware by that state’s governor.

In 1970 she suffered the death of one of her stepdaughters in tragic circumstances. Three months later, her husband died following a stroke. After this, she largely withdrew from society.

The Hon. Samuel William “Sam” Yorty (1909-98) (pictured center above) was admitted to the San Luigi Orders by Prince-Abbot Edmond II on 28 January 1977, at a champagne reception in honor of Distinguished Humanitarians at the residence of Lady Patte Barham in Los Angeles. He was the 37th Mayor of Los Angeles, serving for twelve years between 1961 and 1973.

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, Sam Yorty was educated at Southwestern University and the University of California at Los Angeles, being admitted to the Bar in 1939. He was elected to the California State Assembly in 1936 and served during World War II as a Captain in the Intelligence Branch of the United States Army Air Corps. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1950 and again in 1952. However, his two bids to be elected to the Senate, in 1940 and again in 1954, were unsuccessful.

His mayoralty was populist in its platform and was characterized by some successes, notably in the emergence of Los Angeles as a major city, the cutting of taxes, the streamlining of bureaucracy and the improvement of garbage pick-ups. He was known for his anti-communism, anti-feminism and criticism of the Civil Rights movement. Despite this, he was the first mayor to have a female deputy, and also the first to have a racially mixed staff.

In 1965, the Watts Riots showed that he had failed to gain widespread support amongst African-Americans in Los Angeles, and after this his politics shifted increasingly to the Right. In 1966 he challenged incumbent E.G. “Pat” Brown (also a member of the San Luigi Orders) in the gubernatorial primary, coming a respectable second. He was re-elected mayor in 1969 but was increasingly bored with the position and spent much of his time out of Los Angeles. In 1972 he ran for the Democratic nomination for President, but gained little ground in his campaign, and after its failure began to express open support for the Republicans.

After retiring from office, Yorty hosted a talk show on KCOP-TV for five years, and then in 1980-81 attempted a political comeback, which was not successful. Thereafter he retired from public life.

The San Luigi Orders salute Dr George Fischbeck, who at the age of 92 is one of our oldest living members. Dr Fischbeck was admitted to our Orders by Prince-Abbot Edmond II on 28 January 1977, at a champagne reception in honor of Distinguished Humanitarians at the residence of Lady Patte Barham in Los Angeles.

A graduate of the University of New Mexico, Dr Fischbeck began his professional life as a school teacher, but is best known today as a long serving and much-loved weatherman, firstly on KOB-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and then from 1972 until his retirement in 1990 on KABC-TV in Southern California. His television career has also included hosting childrens’ science programs. Dr Fischbeck has been much honored over the years, and the City of Los Angeles recently declared April 10 to be Dr George Day. In 2013, he published his autobiography. He is still active today as a charity fundraiser, and has raised millions of dollars to help the disadvantaged over the years.

>>A tribute to Dr Fischbeck by his family

The Mass of St Louis and the Holy Thorn has been celebrated today by Mgr. Raphael Steck, KOCT, for the Mission Gallicane d’Alsace, a chartered community of the Abbey-Principality. The Mass was celebrated in a strong and prayerful spirit and many graces were received.

The Succession Cross of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. Passed down through the generations via each of the Prince-Abbots to the present incumbent, this pectoral cross is reserved to the Grand Master of the Order of the Crown of Thorns.

H.E. Dr. Norbert Wójtowicz, Grand Prior of Continental Europe for the San Luigi Orders, has contributed an article on “Freemasons in the Church” to this recent Polish language publication.

H.I.H. Prince don Hugo-José Tomassini Paternò (1927-) is a Knight Grand Cross of the Orders of the Crown of Thorns and of the Lion and the Black Cross, being so appointed by Prince-Abbot Edmond I of San Luigi. His father don Tullio was also a member of the San Luigi Orders.

The Prince is the head of the line of the Dynastic House of Leopardi of Constantinople (Tomassi/Tomassini) and a pretender to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire by virtue of his descent from the Justinian and Heraclian dynasties.

During the latter years of the Second World War, the young Prince, who was a devoted follower of Mussolini, fought as a junior officer in the Italian Social Republic (RSI) Black Brigades. He participated alongside the Waffen SS in combat against the Russians in the eastern theatre and against the British and Americans in northern Italy. For his service he was honoured with the Medaglia d’Argento al Valore Militare R.S.I., the Croce al Merito di Guerra R.S.I., the Medaglia d’Argento al Valore Arditi d’Italia, the Croce Nera del’Ardito di Guerra and the German Iron Cross 2nd Class. During the war, his family property in Fermo was invaded and looted and many books, documents and possessions of a historical nature were lost or destroyed.

The recovery of this property occupied much time and effort for the Prince, and eventually the surviving part of his family library (around 20,000 volumes) was re-organized in 1955  and joined with the Academy that had been founded by the Tomassini Paternò family in 1939. In 1951, the Prince had adopted for his Academy the symbol of the white phoenix, representing the reclamation of the family heritage. This united entity was registered with the National Agency for Popular and Scholarly Libraries under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Education as the “Biblioteca Popolare e Scolastica dell’Accademia Universitaria Internazionale di Fermo del Piceno” (Reg.n.7957), and also referred to simply as the “Historical File”. The Very Revd. Canon Piegallina Guido, Director of the Historical Archives of the Archbishop of Fermo and chaplain of the Tomassini Paterno family, was appointed as the Independent Director of the archive. The Academy made contacts overseas, and in 1952 was joined to the American International Academy which had been founded in 1898. Cultural events were organized in New York among other cities, and a monthly newsletter was initiated and circulated. Among the collaborating institutions in America was the Augustan Society, whose co-founder Archbishop Forest Barber received honours from the Prince.

In peacetime, the Prince devoted himself to the study of history (particularly that of Ancient Rome) and heraldry. He produced a major work, “Universal Encyclopaedia of Knighthood Orders and Decorations” with over 3,000 historical notes. The San Luigi Orders were included in this book. He produced other works on the subject of chivalry, including the study “La Caballeria a través del tiempo” (FF.AA.C., Caracas, 1961).

In 1953, the Prince instituted an order of merit, the Ordine della Guardia d’Onore di Santa Sofia. Other orders of his house included the Ordine Imperiale della Corona Eracliana di Costantinopli. On 15 April 1967, a Bull of Mar Joannes Maria I (Jan Frederik Nico Blom van Assendelft-Altland) (1923-2008), Patriarch of the Eglise Catholique Apostolique Primitive d’Antioche Orthodoxe et de Tradition Syro-Byzantine, recognized the Prince as the legitimate successor of the Justinian and Heraclian dynasties of the Eastern Roman Empire and head of the house of Leopardi of Constantinople Tomasi Tomassini Paternò. Mar Joannes Maria had been consecrated bishop on 20 March 1955 by Archbishop Harold Nicholson and would eventually (as Anba Marcos) become Metropolitan of Europe in the Coptic Orthodox Church. The present Prince-Abbot of San Luigi stands in the fifth generation of episcopal succession from him.

The Prince had a close relationship with the government of Venezuela, to which he acted as a heraldic advisor, and received several appointments of attaché and commissioner. He was awarded honours and decorations from around the world, including the Papal Lateran Cross, as well as the Order of the White Eagle, the Order of Polonia Restituta and the Gold Cross of Merit from the Polish Government in Exile. In 1975, he became Grand Protector of one of the branches of the Order of St John.

In 1971, there was an exchange of correspondence between the Prince and Prince-Abbot Edmond II of San Luigi. The Prince wrote that he had been a very good friend of the late Prince-Abbot Edmond I as well as having corresponded with the Count de l’Estrange (erstwhile Chancellor of the Orders). During the post-war years the Prince had lived in Los Angeles and in due course had moved to Miami Beach, Florida.

The Prince succeeded his father on the latter’s abdication on 20 November 1950. He married Donna Margherita-Andreana Caneparo-Carotti.

>>A rare book owned by the Prince
>>The Prince in the uniform of the Black Brigades (links to the website of Abraxas Books)
>>Website of the Historical File (in Italian)