Brook Shields descendant of St. Louis, miserere nobis!

My wife and I have been watching a few episodes of the new NBC series Who Do You Think You Are

We both liked the episodes with Emmitt Smith and especially Lisa Kudrow.

But recently we watched the episode with Brooke Shields.  ...I'm not sure where to start.  Despite a very interesting beginning, Mrs. Shields was an utter FAIL at the end.  Now honestly I didn't know anything about Shields until this show.  I read her somewhat tragic biography.
In a 2009 interview with Health magazine she said she regrets retaining her virginity until age 22, and that if she had been sexually active earlier "I would have been much more in touch with myself".
It sounds like her mother was a horrible influence on her since she was very young...

At any rate, during the episode, and the supposed climax Shields finds out she is a direct descendant of St. Louis, YES, THEE LOUIS IX, King of France, Keeper of the Holy Crown, and Holy Crusader!  And what is Shields response?....   "Oh."  You have got to watch!!   She's being shown a massive picture of "La Bataille de Taillebourg" and really one of the forgotten glories of Christendom in St Louis IX and we get a great big Oh. And not a OooOOoohhhh.  it's a half baked teenager, Oh.  Start at 36:36 for the St Louis section.  Obviously out of touch with her cultural Catholic faith, she almost winces finding out the heroic virtue and purity that has come before her.

If you watch the whole episode, you will find it very interesting how her father's family came to wealth.  Namely selling out his financial obligations to the papacy to the psychotic Napoleon Bonaparte who would kidnap Pope Pius VII and imprison him.

1 comment:

Fr. John Mary, ISJ said...

If I was a descendant of Louis IX, I would get down on my knees and thank God, over and over.
I hope, in some way, I may be related to one of the English Martyrs...I love them so very much and am constantly edified and given such direction in their faith, hope and charity (I am of English descent...I can't prove any connection with them but I hope!).
Poor B. Shields; what a basket-case. The gal needs prayers and help on every level.
She has this lineage and yet she is so spiritually poor. Jesus, in Your Mercy, give her Light!