12 December

Born in 1903—Yasujirō Ozu, Japanese filmmaker.

Above: Chieko Higashiyama and Chishû Ryû in Ozu’s 1953 film, Tokyo Story.

Also, born in 1779, French religious sister and founder the Society of the Sacred Heart Madeleine Sophie Barat.

We must know how to inspire in our pupils a passion for the beautiful. Let us put history into their souls; without that, memories will fade and we shall have wasted our time. In seeing the empires that rise and fall one after the other, they will perhaps learn to rise above their own troubles. They will thus better understand the sic transit gloria mundi, and their hearts, disillusioned with what is nothing, will be more strongly drawn to Him who alone remains in the midst of so many ruins.

Previously on December 12, Edvard Munch & Gustave Flaubert.