Queen Marie Antoinette’s Rejection of Voltaire

July 10, 2025

François-Marie Arouet d’Voltaire

But she could not pardon Voltaire for his attacks on the ancient faith of France; and if she did not go so far as to regard him as an extravagant, as her mother did, she felt little sympathy for him. When, in the spring of 1788, that philosopher made a visit to Paris which was but one long triumph, she refused to receive him at Versailles. Indifferent to what the public might say, or the chroniclers affirm, and despite the solicitation of the friends of Voltaire, she declared that she would have nothing to do with a man whose morality had occasioned so many troubles and inconveniences. This fact has been contested; it is positive to-day.

The Life of Marie Antoinette; Translated from the French By Maxime de La Rocheterie · 1893, Chapter XIV, Pg. 186

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 824

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Military, Social, and Religious History of Chivalry and Knighthood

July 10, 2025

Chivalry (derived through the French cheval from the Latin caballus) as an institution is to be considered from three points of view:

1) the military,

2) the social,

3) and the religious.

We shall also here consider: 4) the history of chivalry as a whole.

Castile Knight

1) MILITARY

In the military sense, chivalry was the heavy cavalry of the Middle Ages which constituted the chief and most effective warlike force. The knight or chevalier was the professional soldier of the time; in medieval Latin, the ordinary word miles (soldier) was equivalent to “knight.” This pre-eminence of cavalry was correlative with the decline of infantry on the battlefield. Four peculiarities distinguished the professional warrior:

  • his weapons;
  • his horse;
  • his attendants, and
  • his flag.
The Armor of a Spanish Knight. Photo by Fale

The Armor of a Spanish Knight. Photo by Fale

Weapons

The medieval army was poorly equipped for long-distance fighting, and bows and crossbows were still employed, although the Church endeavored to prohibit their use, at least between Christian armies, as contrary to humanity. At all events, they were regarded as unfair in combat by the medieval knight. His only offensive weapons were the lance for the encounter and the sword for the close fight, weapons common to both light-armed and heavy cavalry. The characteristic distinction of the latter, which really constituted chivalry, lay in their defensive weapons, which varied with different periods. These weapons were always costly to get and heavy to bear, such as the brunia or hauberk of the Carlovingian Era, the coat of mail, which prevailed during the Crusades, and lastly the plate armor introduced in the fourteenth century.

Knight and Armoured Horse

Horses

No knight was thought to be properly equipped without at least three horses:

  • the battle horse, or dexterarius, which was led by hand, and used only for the onset (hence the saying, “to mount one’s high horse”),
  • a second horse, palfrey or courser, for the route, and
  • the pack-horse for the luggage.

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July 10 – Charlemagne Was Punished for His Rudeness to Her

July 10, 2025

St. Amalberga

St. Amalburga of Temse

St. Amalburga of Temse

A virgin, very much revered in Belgium, who is said to have been sought in marriage by Charles, afterwards Charlemagne.
Continually repulsed, Charles finally attempted to carry her off by force, but though he broke her arm in the struggle he was unable to move her from the altar before which she had prostrated herself. The royal lover was forced to abandon his suit, and left her in peace.

St. Amelberga

St. Amelberga

Many miracles are attributed to her, among others the cure of Charles, who was stricken with illness because of the rudeness with which he had treated the Saint. She died 10 July, in her thirty-first year, five years after Charles had ascended the throne.
Acta SS., III, July.

T.J. CAMPBELL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

Suffering defeat was not frequent with Charlemagne, but defeat he had at the hands of this virgin. She had given herself to the King of Kings, and would be loyal to Him regardless of whatever royal magnificence Charlemagne had to offer.
No earthly prestige or amount of gold could overcome her loyalty and fidelity.

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Resolving Prior Objections

July 10, 2025

Chapter I

Resolving Prior Objections

When a train is ready to leave, normal procedure requires both engineer and passengers to be in their proper places, and the conductor to signal for departure. Only then can the train begin to roll.

So also, at the outset of an intellectual work it is customary to set forth preliminary principles and explain, if need be, the logical criteria that justify them. Only then may the author pass on to the doctrinal part.

However, if a number of readers are suspicious of the subject to be dealt with, or even have deep-rooted prejudices against it, the situation is like that of an engineer who notices that although the passengers are already seated, the tracks ahead are blocked.

The trip cannot begin without the removal of the obstructions.

In a similar way, the obstacles the present work will encounter—the prejudices that fill the minds of numerous readers regarding the nobility and analogous traditional elites—are so great that the topic can only be treated after their removal.

This explains the unusual title and content of this first chapter.

When a train is ready to leave, normal procedure requires both engineer and passengers to be in their proper places, and the conductor to signal for departure. Only then can the train begin to roll….However, if a number of readers are suspicious of the subject to be dealt with, or even have deep-rooted prejudices against it, the situation is like that of an engineer who notices that although the passengers are already seated, the tracks ahead are blocked. The trip cannot begin without the removal of the obstructions.
Nordwest Bahnhof Vienna by Carl Karger

1. Without Detriment to a Just and Ample Action on Behalf of the Working Class, an Opportune Action in Favor of Elites

Much is said today regarding the demands to meet the social needs of workers. In principle, this solicitude is highly commendable and deserves the support of every upright soul.

However, to favor only the working class while neglecting the problems and needs of other classes, often just as harshly affected by the great contemporary crisis, is tantamount to forgetting that society includes not just manual laborers but various classes, each with its specific functions, rights, and duties. The formation of a global classless society is a utopia that has been the unvarying theme of the successive egalitarian movements arising in Christian Europe since the fifteenth century. In our day, this utopia is heralded mainly by socialists, communists, and anarchists.1

The TFPs and TFP Bureaus throughout Europe, the Americas, Oceania, Asia, and Africa support all just improvements for the working class. But they cannot accept the notion that these improvements imply the eradication of other classes or such reduction of their specific status, duties, rights, and functions as would lead to their virtual extinction in the name of the common good. Trying to solve social questions by leveling all classes for the apparent benefit of one class is to provoke genuine class struggle. To suppress all classes for the exclusive benefit of one, the working class, leaves the others no alternative but legitimate self-defense or death.

The TFPs cannot endorse this process of social leveling. In contradistinction to the proponents of class struggle, and in cooperation with the multiple initiatives underway today in favor of social peace through a just and needed advancement of the workers, all conscientious contemporaries must develop an action in favor of social order, opposing the socialist and communist action, which aims to create social friction and, ultimately, unleash class warfare.

The survival of social order requires that the right of each class to what it needs to live in dignity be recognized and that each class be able to fulfill its obligations to the common good.

In other words, action in favor of the workers must be coupled with a complementary action in favor of the elites.

The Church loves all social classes, including the nobility, so besieged by egalitarian demagogues.
The arrival of Princess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, Empress of Brazil, to Rio  Painting by Jean-Baptiste Debret.

The Church’s interest in social questions does not stem from an exclusive love of the working class. The Church is not a labor party. She loves justice and charity more than She loves any specific class, and She strives to establish these virtues among men. For this reason, She loves all social classes, including the nobility, so besieged by egalitarian demagogues.[2]

These reflections naturally lead the reader to the subject of this book. On the one hand, it is evident that Pius XII recognizes that the nobility has a significant and specific mission in contemporary society, a mission shared in considerable measure by the other social elites, as will be discussed later.

This concept is taught in the Sovereign Pontiff’s fourteen masterful Allocutions delivered in audiences granted the Roman Patriciate and Nobility[3] on the occasion of their New Years’ greetings from 1940 through 1952 and again in 1958.[4]

On the other hand, no one can ignore the vast and multifaceted offensive underway in today’s world to abase and eradicate the nobility and other elites. One need only consider the overpowering, relentless, and pervasive pressures to ignore, contest, or diminish their roles.

In this light, action on behalf of the nobility and the elites is more opportune than ever. Thus we affirm, with serene courage, that in our day and age, when the preferential option for the poor has become so necessary, a preferential option for the nobility has become indispensable as well. Of course, we include in this expression other traditional elites, which are worthy of support and in danger of disappearing.

This affirmation may seem absurd since in theory the worker’s condition is closer to poverty than is the noble’s, and since, as is commonly known, many nobles possess large fortunes.

Large fortunes, yes. But these are generally eroded by crushing taxes, giving rise to the distressing spectacle of lords compelled to transform substantial parts of their manors and mansions into hotels or inns, while they occupy only a fraction of the family home; or, into manors where the lord serves as curator and guide, if not bartender, while his spouse feverishly applies herself to often menial chores to keep their ancestral home clean and presentable.

Large fortunes, yes. But these are generally eroded by crushing taxes, giving rise to the distressing spectacle of lords compelled to transform substantial parts of their manors and mansions into hotels or inns.
Hohenschwangau Castle near Füssen in Bavaria, Germany. The childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria Photo by Tobias

This persecution advances by other means as well, such as the extinction of the rights of primogeniture and the compulsory division of inheritances. Is not a preferential option for the nobility required to counteract this offensive?

If the nobility is regarded as an inherently parasitic class of profligates, the answer is no. However, Pius XII rejected this caricature of the nobility, which is part of the black legend spread by the French Revolution and those that followed it in Europe and the world. While clearly stating that abuses and excesses deserving history’s censure have occurred in noble circles, he nevertheless affirms, in moving terms, the existence of a harmony between the nobility’s mission and the natural order instituted by God Himself, as well as the elevated and beneficial character of this mission.[5]

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July 11 – Worthy descendant of St. Elizabeth

July 10, 2025

Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode

Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode.

A Belgian prelate and statesman, born at Brussels, 1820; died at Rome, 1874. The son of Félix de Mérode-Westerloo who held successively the portfolios of foreign affairs, war, and finances under King Leopold, and of Rosalie de Grammont, he was allied to the best names of France, — Lafayette, Montmorency, Clemont-Tonnerre, etc.; the Mérode family claimed saints like Elizabeth of Hungary, founders like Werner who endowed the monastery of Schwartzenbroch, and a long line of captains from that Raymond-Bérenger who took the cross at St. Bernard’s call, to Frédéric, Xavier’s grandfather, who gave his life for the autonomy of Belgium. Bereft of his mother at the age of three, Xavier was brought up at Villersexel, in Franche-Comté, by his aunt Philippine de Grammont, attended for a time the Jesuit College of Namur, then entered the Collège de Juilly presided over by de Salinis, whence he passed (1839) to the Military Academy of Brussels. Graduating with the rank of second lieutenant, after a short service at the armoury of Liège, he joined (1844) as foreign attaché the staff of Maréchal Bugeaud in Algeria, taking a brilliant part in the most daring engagements and winning the cross of the Légion d’honneur. In 1847, he abruptly resigned the military career and went to study for the priesthood in Rome, where he was ordained (1849). Assigned, after his ordination, as chaplain to the French garrison of Viterbo, he was being pressed by his family to return to Belgium when Pius IX, with a view to attach him permanently to his court, made him cameriere segreto (1850), an office which entailed the direction of the Roman prisons. The excellent work done by de mérode for the material, moral, and religious betterment of the penitentiary system in Rome is described by Lefebvre (Des établissements charitables de Rome, p. 245.) and Maguire (Rome, Its Ruler and Institutions, p. 238); de Rayneval, the French envoy at Rome, praised it in an official report to his government (see “Daily News”, 18 March, 1848); Joachim Pecci, Archbishop of Perugia, wanted the young cameriere to inaugurate similar work in his metropolis, and the Piedmontese, despite their bias against everything papal, found nothing to change in the regulations introduced by de Mérode. In 1860, when it became evident that the insincere policy of Napoleon III was a poor safeguard against the greed of Piedmont, de Mérode, much against the views of the Roman Prelature, headed by Cardinal Antonelli, persuaded Pius IX to form a papal army and succeeded in enlisting the services of Lamoricière (q. v.) as commander-in-chief and was himself appointed minister of war. The task assumed by de Mérode and Lamoricière was difficult and well-nigh impossible; yet,the disasters of Castelfidardo and Ancona were due, not to the incompetence of the chiefs, nor solely to the heterogeneous nature of the recruits and the lack of proper supplies, but to the treachery of the Piedmontese who, while feigning to curb the Garibaldian bands, led them to the assault of the Papal States.

The ensuing years of comparative quiet de Mérode spent in various public works; the building at his own expense of the campo pretoriano outside the Porta Pia, the clearing of the approaches of Santa Maria degli Angeli, the opening of streets in the new section of Rome, the sanitation of the old quarters by the Tiber, etc. His impetuous temperament and progressive views made him enemies among the old traditional Roman element just as the vehemence with which he branded the French Emperor’s duplicity turned against him the heads of the French army of occupation. Lamoricière’s death (19 Sept., 1865) became the signal of open hostility. Pius IX was forced to discharge his minister whose continuance in office, it was freely asserted, meant the withdrawal of the French troops. Reduced to a simple cameriere, de Mérode was not forgotten by Pius IX on Hohenlohe’s promotion to the cardinalate, he was given the vacant place of papal almoner and (22 June, 1866) consecrated titular Archbishop of Melitene. His new duties were to distribute the papal alms and to confirm children in danger of death and he acquitted himself with a liberality and zeal that won him the love of the poor and afflicted. At the Vatican Council, he showed the influence exercised over him by his brother-in-law, de Montalembert, and sided with the minority that deemed the definition of papal infallibility inopportune and even dangerous, but submitted the day the dogma was defined. After the capture of Rome by the Piedmontese (20 Sept., 1870) he followed his master into the retirement of the Vatican, leaving it only to fight the Piedmontese government’s pretensions on the campo pretoriano or to share de Rossi’s work in the excavations of Tor Marancino which resulted in the discovery of the Basilica of St. Petronilla. It is there he welcomed (14 June, 1874) the pilgrims from the United States and his last public utterances were for them. Speaking of his kinsman Lafayette, he regretted his defection from the purity of the Catholic Faith, but remarked that the country which the great general had so loyally served was yielding precious elements for the upbuilding of the Church; then, pointing to a Damasian inscription recently found, “Credite per Damasum possit quid gloria Christi”, he added with pathos that the edifying spectacle of American loyalty to Pius IX justified him in saying, “Credite per Pium possit quid gloria Christi”. He died of acute pneumonia in the arms of Pius IX, only a few months before the Consistory in which he was to have been made a cardinal. His remains were laid to rest in the Flemish Cemetery near the Vatican, amid a vast concourse of people, the poor he had so generously assisted mingling with the prelates, ambassadors, and princes. De Mérode, in spite of his faults, will be remembered as a model of unswerving loyalty to the Holy See. Such was his popularity that when Don Margotti, in “l’Unità Cattolica”, suggested in his behalf a world-wide tribute of prayers, the subscriber’s names filled a large album published at Turin, 1875.

LAMY, Monseigneur de Mérode (Louvain, 1874); BESSON, F. F. X. de Mérode, sa vie et ses œuvres (Paris, 1886); LE POITEVIN, Mgr. de Mérode in Les Contemporains (Paris, s. d.); VEUILLOT, Célébrités Catholigues Contemporains; FLORNOY, Lamoricière (Paris, 1904).

J. F. SOLLIER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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The Revolutionary Principles of 1789 Contained the Synthesis of All the Teachings of the False Prophets

July 10, 2025

When promulgating the decree on the heroic virtue of Blessed Marcellin Champagnat on July 11, 1920, Benedict XV pronounced an allocution from which we borrow the following passages:

Official portrait of St. Marcellin Champagnat (1840), by M. Ravery

“One need only turn one’s thoughts to the early nineteenth century to recognize that many false prophets appeared in France at that time, and from there aimed to spread abroad the maleficent influence of their perverse teachings. They were prophets who posed as vindicators of the rights of the people, predicting the coming of an age of liberty, fraternity, and equality. Who fails to see that they were disguised as sheep, “in vestimentis ovium”!

“Yet the liberty predicted by those prophets opened the door not to good but to evil; the fraternity foretold by those prophets did not hail God as the sole Father of all brothers; and the equality proclaimed by the would-be prophets rested not on the identical nature of our origins, nor on our common redemption, nor on the shared destiny of all men. These, alas, were prophets who preached an equality meant to destroy the distinction of class willed by God for our society; prophets who called all men brothers in order to eradicate the idea of the subjection of some men to others; prophets who proclaimed the freedom to do evil, to call darkness light, to confuse falsehood with truth, to prefer the former to the latter, to sacrifice the right and reason of justice and truth to error and vice. It is not difficult to see that these prophets, who presented themselves in sheep’s clothing, were inwardly, in reality that is, ravening wolves: ‘qui veniunt in vestimentis ovium, intrinsecus autem sunt lupi ravaces!’ And little surprise that against these false prophets resounded a terrible word: Beware! ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis!’

“Marcellin Champagnat heard that word; indeed, he understood that it was said not only for his sake, and he decided to echo that same word among the sons of the people whom he knew to be most vulnerable to falling prey to the principles of 1789 because of their inexperience and the ignorance of their parents in matters of religion….
Beware! ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis!’

Henri Grégoire, a French Roman Catholic priest, constitutional bishop of Blois and a revolutionary leader. He took a leading role in the abolition of the privileges of the nobles, the Church and the abolition of the monarchy, in which he said that “Kings are in morality what monsters are in the world of nature.” He demanded that King Louis XVI should be brought to trial.

“‘Attendite a falsis prophetis”—these are the words that were virtually repeated by those who wished to stem the torrent of errors and vices which, thanks to the French Revolution, were threatening to flood the entire earth. ‘Attendite a falsis prophetis’—these are the words that explain the mission embraced by Marcellin Champagnat, the words that must not be consigned to oblivion by those given to studying his life.

“It is not without interest to observe the fact that Marcellin Champagnat, born in 1789, was destined to combat the practical application of the very principles that from the year of his birth were given a name and gained an unfortunate and painful celebrity.

“To justify his work he needed only continue his reading of today’s Gospel, for a brief glance at the wounds opened by the principles of 1789 in the breast of civil and religious society would have shown that those principles contained the sum of the teachings of false prophets: ‘ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos.’…

“Not irrelevant to the expansion of the houses of the Little Brothers of Mary and to the good guidance of the young people welcomed therein, was the Most Holy Virgin herself in the form of an image that first appeared, then disappeared, then was found. That first expansion was certainly wondrous and found its explanation only in the subsequent expansion which by the tenth lustrum after its foundation saw the day when five thousand religious of the new institute were giving salutary instruction to a hundred thousand children scattered over every region of the globe.

“If the Venerable Champagnat, by the light of prophecy, could have seen so extraordinary a result, he might perhaps have lamented the still excessive number of children left in the shadow of death and ignorance; he might indeed have deplored not having been better able to prevent the nefarious growth of the worst seed scattered by the French Revolution; nevertheless, a feeling of dutiful gratitude to God for the good achieved by the Congregation founded by him would have obliged him to admit that, just as from the bad fruit of the teaching of certain prophets of his time he had deduced the falsity thereof, so from the good fruit stemming from his works he could deduce the goodness: ‘Igitur ex fructibus eorum cognoscetis eos.’”

Statue of St. Marcellin Champagnat in Brazil at the Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Appendix III, pp. 385-386.

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July 12 – Aristocrat Missionary to the United States of America

July 10, 2025

Comte de Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph Forbin-Janson

A Bishop of Nancy and Toul, founder of the Association of the Holy Childhood, born in Paris, France, 3 Nov., 1785; died near Marseilles, 12 July, 1844. He was the second son of Count Michel Palamède de Forbin-Janson and of his wife Cornélie Henriette, princess of Galéan. He was a Knight of Malta from childhood, and a soldier at sixteen. Napoleon I made him Auditor of the Council of State in 1805. His family and the aristocracy looked forward to a most brilliant career as a statesman for him, but he surprised all by entering the seminary of St-Sulpice in the spring of 1808. He was ordained priest in Savoy in 1811, and was made Vicar-General of the Diocese of Chambéry, but eventually determined to become a missionary. Pius VII advised him to remain in France where missionary work was needed. He heeded the advice, and with his friend the Abbé de Rauzan, founded the Missionaires de France and preached with great success in all parts of his native land.

Abbé Jean-Baptiste Rauzan

In 1817 he was sent to Syria on a mission, returned to France in 1819, and again took up the work of a missionary until 1823 when he was appointed Bishop of Nancy and Toul, and was consecrated in Paris, 6 June, 1824, by the Archbishop of Rouen; Bishop Cheverus of Boston, U.S.A., was a consecrator and Bishop Fenwick of Cincinnati a witness. The French Government did not cease persecuting him for his refusal to sign the Gallican Declaration of 1682; finally, he was obliged to leave France in 1830, but succeeded in getting his own choice of a coadjutor bishop by threatening to return to Nancy. Every good cause appealed to his priestly heart, every good work to his purse. He aided Pauline Jaricot in the establishment of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. At the request of Bishop Flaget and Bishop Purcell, Gregory XVI sent him on a missionary tour through the United States of America in 1839.

Spring Hill College, Original Building

During his two years stay in that country, he travelled far and wide giving missions to the people and retreats to the clergy. Louisiana was the first conspicuous field of his zeal, and he brought its Catholic people to the sacraments in numbers which have hardly been equalled since. On his way thither, he contributed one-third of the money with which the Fathers of Mercy bought Spring Hill College (now a Jesuit College, near Mobile, Alabama). All the large cities of the country, from New York to Dubuque; from New Orleans to Quebec, were witnesses of his zeal. More at home in Canada where his mother-tongue was spoken, he did wonderful missionary work, and some events regarded as supernatural keep his memory alive to this day among the French-Canadian people. He attended the Fourth Provincial Council of Baltimore. His last visit in the United States was to Philadelphia, in November, 1841, when he assisted at the consecration of Dr. Kenrick as coadjutor Bishop of St. Louis.

Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick, Archbishop of St. Louis and the first Catholic Archbishop west of the Mississippi River.

He left New York for France in December, 1841, and the next year visited Rome to give an account of his mission in America. Gregory XVI named him a Roman Count and Assistant at the Pontifical Throne, “because of his wonderful zeal for the propagation and defence of the Catholic Faith in the United States of America”. On his return to France he founded (1843) the Society of the Holy Childhood, and spent that, and a part of the following year in spreading this good work through France, Belgium, and England. Death came to him unexpectedly at his family castle of Aygalades near Marselles.

This castle, that the Bishop died in, is unfortunately abandoned and currently for sale. In 2009, the French state suggested turning the empty castle into temporary housing for Romani people, but the idea was rejected due to protests. Photo by Fr.Latreille.

DE RIVIÈRE, Vie de Mgr de Forbin-Janson, Missionnaire, évêque de Nancy et de Toul, primat de Lorraine, fondateur de la Ste Enfance (Paris, 1892); MAES, Life of Bishop de Forbin-Janson in America, Manuscripts; SHEA, Hist. of Cath. Ch. in U. S. (New York, 1904).

Camillus P. Maes (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 13 – Saintly Elite

July 10, 2025

Blessed Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin

St. Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin

St. Marie-Azélie “Zélie” Martin née Guérin (23 December 1831 – 28 August 1877) was a French laywoman and the mother of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. Her husband was Saint Louis Martin.
Marie-Azélie Guérin was born in Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, Orne, France and was the second daughter of Isidore Guérin and Louise-Jeanne Macé. She had an older sister, Marie-Louise, who became a Visitandine nun, and a younger brother, Isidore, who was a pharmacist. Her maternal family were from the Madré, in the neighbouring department of Mayenne, where her grandfather Louis Macé was baptised on the 16th March 1778.

The family house in Lisieux, called “les Buissonnets”

Zélie wanted to become a nun, but was turned away by the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul due to respiratory difficulties and recurrent headaches. Zélie then prayed for God to give her children and that they would be consecrated to God.

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Later, she decided to become a lacemaker, making Point d’Alençon lace. She later fell in love with a watchmaker, Louis Martin, in 1858 and married only three months later.

Although Zélie and Louis had led a continent marriage for almost a year, they had decided to have children. They would have nine children, though only five daughters would survive infancy; all became nuns:

Pictured standing Celine and Pauline, seated are Mother Marie de Gonzague, Marie and St Therese of Lisieux.

Pictured standing Celine and Pauline, seated are Mother Marie de Gonzague, Marie and St Therese of Lisieux.

Marie-Louise (22 February 1860 – 19 January 1940), as a nun, Sister Marie of the Sacred Heart, Carmelite at Lisieux.
Marie-Pauline (September 7, 1861 – July 28, 1951), as a nun, Mother Agnès of Jesus, Carmelite at Lisieux.
Marie-Léonie (June 3, 1863 – June 16, 1941), as a nun, Sister Françoise-Thérèse, Visitandine at Caen.
Marie-Hélène (October 3, 1864 – February 22, 1870)
Marie-Joseph (September 20, 1866 – February 14, 1867)
Marie Jean-Baptiste (December 19, 1867 – August 24, 1868)
Marie-Céline (April 28, 1869 – 25 February 1959), as a nun, Sister Geneviève of the Holy Face, Carmelite at Lisieux.
Marie-Mélanie Thérèse (August 16, 1870 – October 8, 1870)
Marie-Françoise-Thérèse (January 2, 1873 – September 30, 1897), as a nun, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face, Carmelite at Lisieux, canonised in 1925.

Alençon lace, point d'Alençon or is sometimes called "Queen of lace", began in Alençon during the 16th century and rapidly expanded during the reign of Louis XIV by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who established a Royal Workshop in the town to produce lace in the Venetian style in 1665. After the Reign of Terror, lace making was preserved by Carmelite nuns in Alençon. In 1976 a National Lace Workshop was established in the town to ensure that this lace-making technique survived.

Alençon lace, point d’Alençon or is sometimes called “Queen of lace”, began in Alençon during the 16th century and rapidly expanded during the reign of Louis XIV by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who established a Royal Workshop in the town to produce lace in the Venetian style in 1665. After the Reign of Terror, lace making was preserved by Carmelite nuns in Alençon. In 1976 a National Lace Workshop was established in the town to ensure that this lace-making technique survived.

After Zélie’s death, Pauline, Marie, Thérèse and Céline all became Carmelite nuns one after another along with a cousin, Marie Guérin. Léonie became a Visitandine nun after being rejected by the Poor Clares.
Marie-Azélie died of breast cancer on 28 August 1877 in Alençon, Orne, aged 45. She was survived by her husband and daughters.

Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin were beatified on 19 October 2008 by Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins, the legate of Pope Benedict XVI in Basilique de Sainte-Thérèse, Lisieux, France. On October 8, 2015, both Marie-Azélie “Zélie” Martin née Guérin and her husband, Louis Martin, were canonized, becoming the first spouses in the Church’s history to be canonized as a couple.

Intricate lace panel made by Blessed Zelie Martin and offered to Pope Leo XIII for his Jubilee. Click image to view larger image.

Intricate lace panel made by St. Zelie Martin and offered to Pope Leo XIII for his Jubilee. Click image to view larger image.

_________________
Of interest:

https://nobility.org/2012/07/02/all-classes-should-tend-to-perfection

Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

Some commentators sustain that the Martin family were well off, and that St. Louis Martin’s assets in his later years were the equivalent of some US$50 million in today’s money. Husband and wife have been beatified, and their youngest daughter, St. Therese of Lisieux, is one of the great saints of the Church.
One more example, showing how sanctity does not exclude wealth, culture and refinement.

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July 13 – Author of “The Golden Legend”

July 10, 2025

Bl. Jacopo de Voragine

(Also DI VIRAGGIO).

Archbishop of Genoa and medieval hagiologist, born at Viraggio (now Varazze), near Genoa, about 1230; died 13 July, about 1298. In 1244 he entered the Order of St. Dominic, and soon became famous for his piety, learning, and zeal in the care of souls. His fame as a preacher spread throughout Italy, and he was called upon to preach from the most celebrated pulpits of Lombardy. After teaching Holy Scripture and theology in various houses of his order in Northern Italy, he was elected provincial of Lombardy in 1267, holding this office until 1286, in which year he become definitor of the Lombard province of Dominicans. In the latter capacity he attended a chapter at Lucca in 1288, and another at Ferrara, in 1290. In 1288 he was commissioned by Pope Nicholas IV to free the Genoese from the ban of the Church, which they had incurred for assisting the Sicilians in their revolt against the King of Naples. When Archbishop Charles Bernard of Genoa died, in 1286, the metropolitan chapter of Genoa proposed Jacopo de Voragine as his successor. Upon his refusal to accept the dignity, Obizzo Fieschi, the Patriarch of Antioch whom the Saracens had driven from the see, was transferred to the archiepiscopal See of Genoa by Nicholas IV in 1288.

Title page of the 1497 edition of the Sermones de sanctis showing Bl. Jacobus de Varagine as a preacher.

Title page of the 1497 edition of the Sermones de sanctis showing Bl. Jacobus de Varagine as a preacher.

When Obizzo Fieschi died, in 1292, the chapter of Genoa unanimously elected Jacopo de Voragine as his successor. His again endeavoured to evade the archiepiscopal dignity, but was finally obliged to yield to the combined prayers of the clergy, the Senate, and the people of Genoa. Nicholas IV wished to consecrate him bishop personally, and called him to Rome for that purpose; but shortly after the arrival of de Voragine the pope died, and the new bishop was consecrated at Rome during the succeeding interregnum, on 13 April, 1292. The episcopate of Jacopo de Voragine fell in a time when Genoa was a scene of continuous warfare between the Rampini and the Mascarati, the former of whom were Guelphs, the latter Ghibellines. The archbishop, indeed, effected an apparent reconciliation between the two hostile parties in 1295; but the dissensions broke out anew, and all his efforts to restore peace were useless. In 1292 he held a provincial synod at Genoa, chiefly for the purpose of identifying the relics of St. Syrus, one of the earliest bishops of Genoa (324?). The cult of Jacopo de Voragine, which seems to have begun soon after his death, was ratified by Pius VII in 1816. The same pope permitted the clergy of Genoa and Savona, and the whole Order of St. Dominic, to celebrate his feast as that of a saint.

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Jacopo de Voragine is best known as the author of a collection of legendary lives of the saints, which was entitled “Legenda Sanctorum” by the author, but soon became universally known as “Legenda Aurea” (Golden Legend), because the people of those times considered it worth its weight in gold. In some of the earlier editions it is styled “Lombardica Historia”, which title gave rise to the false opinion that this was a different work from the “Golden Legend”. The title “Lombardica Historia” originated in the fact that in the life of Pope Pelagius, which forms the second last chapter of the “Golden Legend”, is contained an abstract of the history of the Lombards down to 1250 (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XXIV, 167 sq.). In the preface to the “Golden Legend” the author divides the ecclesiastical year into four periods, which he compared to four epochs in the history of the world, viz. a time of deviation, renovation, reconciliation, and pilgrimage. The body of the work, which contains 177 chapters (according to others, 182), is divided into five sections, viz. from Advent to Christmas, from Christmas to Septuagesima, from Septuagesima to Easter, from Easter to Octave of Pentecost, and from the Octave of Pentecost to Advent. If we are to judge the “Golden Legend” from an historical standpoint, we must condemn it as entirely uncritical and hence of no value, except in so far as it teaches us that the people of those times were an extremely naive and thoroughly religious people, permeated with an unshakable belief in God’s omnipotence and His fatherly care for those who lead a saintly life.

Crucifixion showing Bl. Jacobus de Voragine with his book the Golden Legend in his hands. At the Chapel of the Trinci Palace, Foligno, Italy. Photo by JoJan

If, on the other hand, we view the “Golden Legend” as an artistically composed book of devotion, we must admit that it is a complete success. It is admirably adapted to enhance our love and respect towards God, to foster our devotion towards His saints, and to animate us with a holy zeal to follow their example. The chief object of Jacopo de Voragine and of other medieval hagiologists was not to compose reliable biographies or to write scientific treatises for the learned, but to write books of devotion that were adapted to the simple manners of the common people. It is due to a wrong conception of the purpose of the “Golden Legend” that Luis Vives (De causis corruptarum artium, c. ii), Melchior Canus (De locis theologicis, xi, 6), and others have severely denounced it; and to a true conception that the Bollandists (Acts SS., January, I, 19) and many recent hagiologists have highly praised it. That the work made a deep impression on the people is evident from its immense popularity, and from the great influence it had on the prose and poetic literature of many nations. It became the basis of many passionals of the Middle Ages and religious poems of later times. Longfellow’s “Golden Legend”, which, with two other poems, forms the trilogy entitled “Christus”, owes its name and many of its ideas to the “Golden Legend” of de Voragine.

Bernard Guidonis (d. 1331), also a Dominican, made a vain attempt to supplant it by a more reliable work of the same character, which he entitled “Speculum Sanctorum”. In 1500 as many as seventy-four Latin editions of the “Legenda Aurea” had been published, not counting the three translations into English, five French, eight Italian, fourteen Low German, and three Bohemian. The first printed edition was in Latin, and was produced at Basle in 1470. Many succeeding editions contain additions of the lives of later saints or of feasts introduced after the thirteenth century. The best Latin edition was prepared by Graesse (Dresden and Leipzig, 1846, 1850, and Breslau, 1890). The first English edition was printed by William Caxton at London in 1483 from a version made about 1450. It was inscribed:

The Golden Legend. Fynysshed at Westmere the twenty day of Novembre/ the yere of our Lord M/CCCC/LXXXIII/. By me Wyllyam Caxton.

Page from Legenda Sanctorum (Golden Legend).

Page from Legenda Sanctorum (Golden Legend).

In this edition some of the less credible legends of the original are omitted. The publication was made at the instance of the Earl of Arundel, who agreed to take “a reasonable number of copies”, and to pay as an annuity “a buck in summer and a doe in winter” (see Putnam, “Books and their Makers in the Middle Ages”, New York and London, II, 1897, 118). Caxton’s edition was re-edited and modernized by Ellis (London and New York, 1900). The first French version that appeared in print was made by Jean Batallier, and printed at Lyons in 1476. A French translation, made by Jean Belet de Vigny in the fourteenth century, was first printed at Paris in 1488. Recent French editions were prepared by Brunet, signed M. G. B. (Paris, 1843 and 1908); by de Wyzewa (Paris, 1902); and by Roze (Paris, 1902). an Italian translation by Nicolas Manerbi was printed in 1475, probably at Venice; a Bohemian one was printed at Pilsen between 1475 and 1479, and another at Prague in 1495; a Low German one at Delft in 1472, and at Gouda in 1478. A German reproduction in poetry was made by Kralik (Munich, 1902).

Another important work of Jacopo de Voragine is his so-called “Chronicon Genuense”, a chronicle of Genoa reaching to 1296. Part of this chronicle, which is a valuable source of Genoese history, was published by Muratori in “Rerum Italicarum Scriptores” (Milan, 1723-51), IX, 5-56. Concerning it see Mannucci, “La cronaca di Jacopo da Viraggio” (Geneva, 1904). He is also the author of a collection of 307 sermons, “Sermones de sanctis, de tempore, quadragesimales, de Beata Maria Virgine”. They have been repeatedly printed, both separately and collectively. The earliest edition of the whole collection was printed in 1484, probably at Venice, where they were published a second time in 1497 and repeatedly thereafter. His remaining literary productions are “Defensorium contra impugnantes Fratres Praedicatores” (Venice, 1504), which is a defence of the Dominicans against some who accused them of not leading an Apostolic life; “Summarium virtutum et vitiorum” (Basle, 1497), which is an epitome of a work of the same title, written by William Peraldus, a Dominican who died about thirty years before Jacopo de Voragine. A theological work, entitled “De operibus et opusculis Sancti Augustini”, is also generally ascribed to him, but its authenticity has not yet been sufficiently established. It is known that he was a close student of St. Augustine. Some, relying on the authority of Sixtus of Siena, ascribe to him also an Italian translation of the Bible, but no manuscript or print of it has ever been found.

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Ten Year Anniversary – In Memoriam: Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante

July 7, 2025

In Memoriam

of the Ten Year Anniversary

of

Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante

On July 7, 2015 the Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante di San Ferdinando passed away at his estate in Colognole (Firenze).

With Raymond Cardinal Burke at a March for Life in Rome

With Raymond Cardinal Burke at a March for Life in Rome

An exemplary family man, a refined man of society and a fervent Catholic, he spent most of his time doing social apostolate on behalf of the Faith and of Christian civilization. As president of Familia Domani he distinguished himself particularly in the defense of life and of the natural and Christian family. Despite his seriously weakened health, he courageously “fought the good fight” to the end of this earthly race (2 Tim 4: 6-8).

Speaking at the Nobility book launching at Pallavicini Palace, Rome, November 1993

Speaking at the Nobility book launching at Pallavicini Palace, Rome, November 1993

A personal friend of Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira’s, the Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante will also be remembered as a great friend of the TFP. In 1993, he became a promoter in Italy of the last book by the renowned Brazilian Catholic thinker, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility. At its historic launchings at Pallavicini Palace in Rome, Serbelloni Palace in Milan, and Hotel Excelsior in Naples the Marquis Coda Nunziante profusely showed his commitment to what Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira called “one of the supreme efforts, in signo Crucis, to prevent Christian civilization from succumbing to the final and agonizing shipwreck to which it is allowing itself to be dragged.”

For this end, he founded the association Noblesse et Tradition, with which he organized various conferences in Italy and around Europe.

In paradisum deducant te angeli. “May the angels lead you to paradise,” a well-deserved reward for having “fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith,” according to the aforementioned text by the Apostle Saint Paul.

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July 7 – Only two cardinals dared to stand with the pope

July 7, 2025

Blessed Pope Benedict XI

(Nicholas Boccasini)

Pope Benedict XI

Born at Treviso, Italy, 1240; died at Perugia, 7 July, 1304. He entered the Dominican Order at the age of fourteen. After fourteen years of study, he became lector of theology, which office he filled for several years. In 1296 he was elected Master General of the Order. As at this time hostility to Boniface VIII was becoming more pronounced, the new general issued an ordinance forbidding his subjects to favour in any way the opponents of the reigning pontiff; he also enjoined on them to defend in their sermons, when opportune, the legitimacy of the election of Boniface. This loyalty of Boccasini, which remained unshaken to the end, was recognized by Boniface, who showed him many marks of favour and confidence. Thus with the two cardinal-legates, the Dominican General formed the important embassy, the purpose of which was the concluding of an armistice between Edward I of England and Philip IV of France, then at war with each other. In the year 1298 Boccasini was elevated to the cardinalate; he was afterwards appointed Bishop of Ostia and Dean of the Sacred College. As at that time Hungary was rent by civil war, the cardinal-bishop was sent thither by the Holy See as legate a latere to labour for the restoration of peace. At the time of the return of the legate to Rome, the famous contest of Boniface VIII with Philip the Fair had reached its height. When, in 1303, the enemies of the pope had made themselves masters of the sacred palace, of all the cardinals and prelates only the two Cardinal-Bishops of Ostia and Sabina remained at the side of the venerable Pontiff to defend him from the violence of William of Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna.

Tomb of Pope Benedict XI in San Domenico Church in Perugia, Italy. Photo by ho visto nina volare.

A month after this scene of violence, Boniface having died, Boccasini was unanimously elected Pope, 22 October, taking the name of Benedict XI. The principal event of his pontificate was the restoration of peace with the French court. Immediately after his election Philip sent three ambassadors to the pope bearing the royal letter of congratulation. The king, while professing his obedience and devotion, recommended to the benevolence of the pope the Kingdom and Church of France. Benedict, judging a policy of indulgence to be necessary for the restoration of peace with the French court, absolved Philip and his subjects from the censures they had incurred and restored the king and kingdom to the rights and privileges of which they had been deprived by Boniface. The Colonna cardinals were also absolved from their censures, but not reinstated in their former dignities. This policy of leniency Benedict carried out without compromising the dignity of the Holy See or the memory of Boniface VIII. Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna and those implicated in the outrage of Anagni were declared excommunicated and summoned to appear before the pontifical tribunal. After a brief pontificate of eight months, Benedict died suddenly at Perugia. It was suspected, not altogether without reason, that his sudden death was caused by poisoning through the agency of William of Nogaret. Benedict XI was beatified in the year 1773. His feast is celebrated at Rome and throughout the Dominican Order on the 7th of July. He is the author of a volume of sermons and commentaries on a part of the Gospel of St. Matthew, on the Psalms, the Book of Job, and the Apocalypse.

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Ptol. Luc., Hist. Eccl. III, 672; Bernardus Guidonis, Vit. pont. rom., IX, 1010; Script. Ord. Præd., I, 444; Grandjean, Les registres de Benoît XI (Paris, 1883); Funke, Papst Benedikt XI (Münster, 1891); Artaud de Montor, History of the Popes (New York, 1867), I, 481-484; Année Dominicaine, vii, 125-54; 874-77; and the monograph of Ferreton (Treviso, 1904).

M. A. Waldron (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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How the French Loved Queen Marie Antoinette

July 7, 2025

Marie Antoinette by Vigee Le Brun.

Marie Antoinette reigned not only by her grace, but by her goodness. She sent relief to the poor, to the wounded, to the victims of fires. She heard that the family of the Chevalier d’Assas, notwithstanding the historical devotion of the captain to the regiment of Auvergne, was living in the country in oblivion and obscurity. She immediately called the brother of the hero to the court and had a company of cavalry given to him. She obtained a new hearing of the case of Messieurs de Bellegarde and de Moustiers, who had been pursued by the spite of the Duc d’Aiguillon; and when their innocence had been established, and the two prisoners, set at liberty, came with their wives and children to thank their benefactress, she replied modestly that justice alone had been done, and that one should congratulate her only on the greatest happiness arising from her position,⸺ that of being able to lay before the king just claims.

The Life of Marie Antoinette; Translated from the French By Maxime de La Rocheterie · 1893, Chapter X, Pg. 119

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 826

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July 8 – The Pope who fought the democrats

July 7, 2025

Pope Blessed Eugene III

Bernardo Pignatelli, born in the neighbourhood of Pisa, elected 15 Feb., 1145; died at Tivoli, 8 July, 1153.

On the very day that Pope Lucius II succumbed, either to illness or wounds, the Sacred College, foreseeing that the Roman populace would make a determined effort to force the new pontiff to abdicate his temporal power and swear allegiance to the Senatus Populusque Romanus, hastily buried the deceased pope in the Lateran and withdrew to the remote cloister of St. Cæsarius on the Appian Way. Here, for reasons unascertained, they sought a candidate outside their body, and unanimously chose the Cistercian monk, Bernard of Pisa, abbot of the monastery of Tre Fontane, on the site of St. Paul’s martyrdom. He was enthroned as Eugene III without delay in St. John Lateran, and since residence in the rebellious city was impossible, the pope and his cardinals fled to the country. Their rendezvous was the monastery of Farfa, where Eugene received the episcopal consecration. The city of Viterbo, the hospitable refuge of so many of the afflicted medieval popes, opened its gates to welcome him; and thither he proceeded to await developments. Though powerless in face of the Roman mob, he was assured by embassies from all the European powers that he possessed the sympathy and affectionate homage of the entire Christian world.

Pope Eugene III

Pope Eugene III

Concerning the parentage, birth-place, and even the original name of Eugene, each of his biographers has advanced a different opinion. All that can be affirmed as certain is that he was of the noble family of Pignatelli, and whether he received the name of Bernardo in baptism or only upon entering religion, must remain uncertain. He was educated in Pisa, and after his ordination was made a canon of the cathedral. Later he held the office of vice-dominus or steward of the temporalities of the diocese. In 1130 he came under the magnetic influence of St. Bernard of Clairvaux; five years later when the saint returned home from the Synod of Pisa, the vice-dominus accompanied him as a novice. In course of time he was employed by his order on several important affairs; and lastly was sent with a colony of monks to re-people the ancient Abbey of Farfa; but Innocent II placed them instead at the Tre Fontane.

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

St. Bernard of Clairvaux

St. Bernard received the intelligence of the elevation of his disciple with astonishment and pleasure, and gave expression to his feelings in a paternal letter addressed to the new pope, in which occurs the famous passage so often quoted by reformers, true and false: “Who will grant me to see, before I die, the Church of God as in the days of old when the Apostles let down their nets for a draught, not of silver and gold, but of souls?” The saint, moreover, proceeded to compose in his few moments of leisure that admirable handbook for popes called “De Consideratione”. Whilst Eugene sojourned at Viterbo, Arnold of Brescia, who had been condemned by the Council of 1139 to exile from Italy, ventured to return at the beginning of the new pontificate and threw himself on the clemency of the pope. Believing in the sincerity of his repentance, Eugene absolved him and enjoined on him as penance fasting and a visit to the tombs of the Apostles. If the veteran demagogue entered Rome in a penitential mood, the sight of democracy based on his own principles soon caused him to revert to his former self. He placed himself at the head of the movement, and his incendiary philippics against the bishops, cardinals, and even the ascetic pontiff who treated him with extreme lenity, worked his hearers into such fury that Rome resembled a city captured by barbarians. The palaces of the cardinals and of such of the nobility as held with the pope were razed to the ground; churches and monasteries were pillaged; St. Peter’s church was turned into an arsenal; and pious pilgrims were plundered and maltreated.

Many Medieval popes fled to Castel Sant’Angelo (Mausoleum of Hadrian) to escape the fickle Romans

But the storm was too violent to last. Only an idiot could fail to understand that medieval Rome without the pope had no means of subsistence. A strong party was formed in Rome and the vicinity consisting of the principal families and their adherents, in the interests of order and the papacy, and the democrats were induced to listen to words of moderation. A treaty was entered into with Eugene by which the Senate was preserved but subject to the papal sovereignty and swearing allegiance to the supreme pontiff. The senators were to be chosen annually by popular election and in a committee of their body the executive power was lodged. The pope and the senate should have separate courts, and an appeal could be made from the decisions of either court to the other. By virtue of this treaty Eugene made a solemn entry into Rome a few days before Christmas, and was greeted by the fickle populace with boundless enthusiasm. But the dual system of government proved unworkable. The Romans demanded the destruction of Tivoli. This town had been faithful to Eugene during the rebellion of the Romans and merited his protection. He therefore refused to permit it to be destroyed. The Romans growing more and more turbulent, he retired to Castel S. Angelo, thence to Viterbo, and finally crossed the Alps, early in 1146.

St. Bernard preaching the Second Crusade painted by Émile Signol.

St. Bernard preaching the Second Crusade painted by Émile Signol.

Problems lay before the pope of vastly greater importance than the maintenance of order in Rome. The Christian principalities in Palestine and Syria were threatened with extinction. The fall of Edessa (1144) had aroused consternation throughout the West, and already from Viterbo Eugene had addressed a stirring appeal to the chivalry of Europe to hasten to the defence of the Holy Places.  St. Bernard was commissioned to preach the Second Crusade, and he acquitted himself of the task with such success that within a couple of years two magnificent armies, commanded by the King of the Romans and the King of France, were on their way to Palestine. That the Second Crusade was a wretched failure cannot be ascribed to the saint or the pope; but it is one of those phenomena so frequently met with in the history of the papacy, that a pope who was made to subdue to a handful of rebellious subjects could hurl all Europe against the Saracens. Eugene spent three busy and fruitful years in France, intent on the propagation of the Faith, the correction of errors and abuses, and the maintenance of discipline. He sent Cardinal Breakspear (afterwards Adrian IV) as legate to Scandinavia; he entered into relations with the Orientals with a view to reunion; he proceeded with vigor against the nascent Manichean heresies. In several synods (Paris, 1147, Trier, 1148), notably in the great Synod of Reims (1148), canons were enacted regarding the dress and conduct of the clergy. To ensure the strict execution of these canons, the bishops who should neglect to enforce them were threatened with suspension. Eugene was inexorable in punishing the unworthy. He deposed the metropolitans of York and Mainz, and for a cause which St. Bernard thought not sufficiently grave, he withdrew the pallium from the Archbishop of Reims. But if the saintly pontiff could at times be severe, this was not his natural disposition.

“Never”, wrote Ven. Peter of Cluny to St. Bernard, “have I found a truer friend, a sincerer brother, a purer father. His ear is ever ready to hear, his tongue is swift and mighty to advise. Nor does he comport himself as one’s superior, but rather as an equal or an inferior… I have never made him a request which he has not either granted, or so refused that I could not reasonably complain.” On the occasion of a visit which he paid to Clairvaux, his former companions discovered to their joy that “he who externally shone in the pontifical robes remained in his heart an observant monk”.

Statue of Pope Eugene III in Portugal

Statue of Pope Eugene III in Portugal

The prolonged sojourn of the pope in France was of great advantage to the French Church in many ways and enhanced the prestige of the papacy. Eugene also encouraged the new intellectual movement to which Peter Lombard had given a strong impulse. With the aid of Cardinal Pullus, his chancellor, who had established the University of Oxford on a lasting basis, he reduced the schools of theology and philosophy to better form. He encouraged Gratian in his herculean task of arranging the Decretals, and we owe to him various useful regulations bearing on academic degrees. In the spring of 1148, the pope returned by easy stages to Italy. On 7 July, he met the Italian bishops at Cremona, promulgated the canons of Reims for Italy, and solemnly excommunicated Arnold of Brescia, who still reigned over the Roman mob. Eugene, having brought with him considerable financial aid, began to gather his vassals and advanced to Viterbo and thence to Tusculum. Here he was visited by King Louis of France, whom he reconciled to his queen, Eleanor. With the assistance of Roger of Sicily, he forced his way into Rome (1149), and celebrated Christmas in the Lateran. His stay was not of long duration. During the next three years the Roman court wandered in exile through the Campagna while both sides looked for the intervention of Conrad of Germany, offering him the imperial crown. Aroused by the earnest exhortations of St. Bernard, Conrad finally decided to descend into Italy and put an end to the anarchy in Rome. Death overtook him in the midst of his preparations on 15 Feb., 1152, leaving the task to his more energetic nephew, Frederick Barbarossa. The envoys of Eugene having concluded with Frederick at Constance, in the spring of 1153, a treaty favorable to the interests of the Church and the empire, the more moderate of the Romans, seeing that the days of democracy were numbered, joined with the nobles in putting down the Arnoldists, and the pontiff was enabled to spend his concluding days in peace.

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Eugene is said to have gained the affection of the people by his affability and generosity. He died at Tivoli, whither he had gone to avoid the summer heats, and was buried in front of the high altar in St. Peters, Rome. St. Bernard followed him to the grave (20 Aug.). “The unassuming but astute pupil of St. Bernard”, says Gregorovius, “had always continued to wear the coarse habit of Clairvaux beneath the purple; the stoic virtues of monasticism accompanied him through his stormy career, and invested him with that power of passive resistance which has always remained the most effectual weapon of the popes.” St. Antoninus pronounces Eugene III “one of the greatest and most afflicted of the popes”. Pius IX by a decree of 28 Dec., 1872, approved the cult which from time immemorial the Pisans have rendered to their countryman, and ordered him to be honored with Mass and Office ritu duplici on the anniversary of his death.

(Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 8 – Archbishops of Baltimore and St. Louis

July 7, 2025

Francis Patrick and Peter Richard Kenrick

Archbishops respectively of Baltimore, Maryland, and of St. Louis, Missouri. They were sons of Thomas Kenrick and his wife Jane, and were born in the older part of the city of Dublin, Ireland, the first-named on 3 December, 1797, and the second on 17 August, 1806. An uncle, Father Richard Kenrick was for several years parish priest of St. Nicholas of Myra in the same city, and he cultivated carefully the quality of piety which he observed at an early age in both children.

I. FRANCIS PATRICK KENRICK

Cardinal Francis Patrick Kenrick

Francis Patrick was sent by his uncle to a good classical school, and at the age of eighteen was selected as one of those who were to go to Rome to study for the priesthood. Here he became deeply impressed with the gentle bearing of Pius VII, who had just then been restored to his capital after long imprisonment by Napoleon Bonaparte, and the lesson it taught him bore fruit many years afterwards when he was called on to deal with the onslaughts on Catholics and their Church in the United States in the years of the Nativist and Know-nothing uprisings. His progress in his clerical studies was rapid, his sanctity conspicuous — so much so as to mark him out for early distinction. He confined himself to the study of his class-books, lectures, and the study of the Scriptures, and worked out in his own mind not a few weighty problems. He soon acquired a familiarity with the patristic writings and the Sacred Text that enabled him later on to give the Church in the United States valuable treatises on theological and Biblical literature. He consulted no translations, but took the Hebrew text or the Greek, and pondered on its significance in the light of his own reason and erudition. The rector of Propaganda College Cardinal Litta, had no hesitation in selecting him despite his youth, when a call came from Bishop Flaget for priests for the American field. He was chosen for the chair of theology at Bardstown Seminary, Kentucky. This post he held for nine years at the same time teaching Greek and history in the College of St. Joseph in the same state, and giving in addition professorial help in every educational institution in the state. He also did much valuable work in the missionary field, and engaged in controversy in the public press with some aggressive polemists of the Episcopal and Presbyterian communions. He made many converts at that time, and in 1826-7 had fifty to his credit, as well as a record of twelve hundred confirmations and six thousand communicants. His fame as a preacher was widespread, and his manner most winning.

In 1829 he attended the Provincial Council of Baltimore as theologian to Bishop Flaget, and was appointed secretary to the assembly. There, among the other weighty subjects, had to be considered the distracted state of the Diocese of Philadelphia, then labouring under the troubles begotten of the Hogan schism. Hogan was an excommunicated priest, who persisted in celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments despite the interdict, and had a considerable following in the city. Bishop Conwell had by this time become enfeebled and nearly blind, and Rev. William Matthews of Washington had been appointed vicar-general to assist him. Before the council rose it had named Father Kenrick as coadjutor bishop and forwarded the nomination to the Holy See. It was soon confirmed, Doctor Kenrick’s title being Bishop of Arath in partibus. He was consecrated in Bardstown by Bishop Flaget, assisted by Bishops England, Conwell, David, and Fenwick, on 6 June 1830, being then only thirty-four years old. A quarrel with the trustees of St. Mary’s broke out immediately on his arrival, resulting in an interdict being placed upon the church by the new bishop. This brought the trustees to their senses, and they gave up the contest for the control of the funds — the power by means of which they had been to browbeat the preceding ordinaries. Bishop Kenrick soon obtained the passage of a law to prevent the recurrence of such conflicts, by having the bishop’s name substituted for those of the trustees in all bequests for the Church. His first thought, after this trouble was over, was the erection of a seminary for the training of young men for the priesthood, the humble quarters in which he began the experiment eventually being succeeded by the present seminary of St. Charles Borromeo at Overbrook.

A terrible outbreak of cholera took place in Philadelphia soon after the bishop’s arrival, and he gained the gratitude of the authorities and the people at large for his exertions in the mitigation of the pest. He sent the Sisters of Charity to attend the stricken, and gave the parochial residence of St. Augustine’s as a temporary hospital; the local priests, at the same time, went about fearlessly among the stricken, ministering to their spiritual comforts. For these services he was voted public thanks by the mayor and councils of the city. To the Sisters of Charity was tendered a service of plate by the grateful authorities, but this offer was promptly and politely declined by those ladies. Soon after this episode Bishop Kenrick set about the utilization of the press for the spread of Catholic doctrine. He started the “Catholic Herald” placing the paper under the direction of the Reverend John Hughes, afterwards Archbishop of New York. He also began the erection of the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist to replace St. Mary’s, which had been so fruitful a source of trouble to him and his predecessor. Graver trouble soon started up in the form of the anti-Catholic Nativist outbreak of 1844. Furious mobs, maddened by inflammatory harangues about the Bible and the public schools, started out in Philadelphia, as in Boston and other cities, to attack churches and convents. They burned St. Augustine’s in Philadelphia and and attacked St. Michael’s and St. John’s, but were driven off by the military. They burned many houses in Kensington, the Catholic district, and killed many unoffending people, but were dispersed at Iength by the soldiery, leaving several of their number dead.

Engraving of St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Overbrook, Pennsylvania.

Bishop Kenrick, during this reign of terror, did everything he could to stem the rioting. He ordered the doors of all the churches to be closed and cessation of Divine worship as a protest against the supineness of the authorities, the clergy went about in ordinary civil attire, and the sacred vessels and vestments were taken from the churches to places of security with private families. These prudent measures had the effect of restoring a state of peace to the city. The Diocese of Philadelphia had earlier included Pittsburg in a large part of New Jersey, and in 1843 it was divided, the Rev. Michael O’Connor being consecrated Bishop of Pittsburg in August of that year by Cardinal Fransoni at St. Agatha’s in Rome. This step proved a great relief to Bishop Kenrick, upon whom the care of his vast diocese and its arduous visitations at a period of primitive crudeness in travelling and accommodation, were beginning to leave a deep mark. In 1845 he visited Rome for the first time since his consecration and was received most graciously by the pope.

In August, 1851, Bishop Kenrick was transferred to Baltimore as successor to Archbishop Eccleston, who had just died. Moreover he received from the Holy See the dignity of Apostolic delegate, and in this capacity he convened and presided over the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852. One of the results of that important gathering was the establishment of branches of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. It was Archbishop Kenrick also who in 1853 introduced the Forty Hours’ devotion into the United States. In 1854 he was called upon by the Holy Father to collect and forward to him the respective opinions of the American bishops on the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. The latter part of the same year found him back in Rome as a participant in the ceremonies attendant on the proclamation of that dogma.

A fresh outbreak of anti-Catholic fury took place soon after the archbishop’s return, occasioned by the arrival of Monsignor Bedini as papal nuncio, and the inflammatory and Iying speeches of the ex-priest Alessandro Gavazzi, on the nuncio’s action while in Bologna during the rising against Austria. Many churches and convents were burned as in the previous outbreak, and many lives were lost in New England and Kentucky, in Cincinnati and other cities. But no religious disturbances occurred in Maryland to perturb the archhishop’s closing years. The Civil War, however, soon came to rend his heart, and he died on the morning after the battle of Gettysburg (8 July, 1863), his end being hastened, it was believed, by rumours of the terrible slaughter that went on not far from his residence. When Bishop Kenrick went to Philadelphia in 1830 there were only four churches in the city and one in the suburbs, and ten priests, when he left at in 1857, the diocese contained 94 churches and many religious institutions, and was the home of 101 priests and 46 seminarians, besides numerous religious orders. The chief literary works of Archbishop Kenrick were a new translation of the Bible, with a commentary; a “Moral and Dogmatic Theology”; a “Commentary on the Book of Job”, “The Primacy of Peter”, and letters to the Protestant bishops of the United States on Christian unity.

 

I. PETER RICHARD KENRICK

Peter Richard had to work closely in the scriveners office of his father after the latter’s death in order to help to maintain his mother and himself, as well as carry on the business, but was enabled by his own industry and his uncle’s help to enter Maynooth College at the age of twenty-one. Previous to his entry he had been tolerably well trained in Latin and other essentials by Father Richard, while his taste for secular literature had been acquired through associations with the unfortunate poet and littérateur, James Clarance Mangan, who had for several years worked beside him as a clerk at the scrivener’s desk. After five years’ assiduous study he was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Murray of Dublin, and, on the death of his mother, after a few months of local missionary work, left for the United States on the invitation of his brother and took up work with him in Philadelphia. He was given the post of president of the seminary as well as that of rector of the cathedral and vicar-general of the diocese. This was in the latter part of 1833. During his seven years of missionary work with his brother he produced several works which built up his fame as a theologian, as “Validity of Anglican Ordinations examined” (Philadelphia, 1841), “New Month of Mary”, and “History of the Holy House of Loretto” in 1840 he left for Rome, with the idea of entering the Jesuit Order, but was dissuaded from carrying out his intention by the superior in Rome. Bishop Rosati met the young priest there, and requested the Holy See to give him to the See of St. Louis as his coadjutor, so pleased was he with his character and qualities. The Holy See assented, and both returned from Rome to have the ceremony of consecration performed in the United States. This was done in Philadelphia, Bishop Rosati officiating and the new prelate’s brother and Bishop Lefevre of Detroit assisting, while Bishop England delivered the consecration.

Archbishop Peter Richard Kenrick

The new bishop was given the title of Drasa, and had the right of succession in St. Louis. Bishop Rosati died a short time afterwards on a special mission in Haiti, and the care of the diocese devolved upon his young coadjutor at a much earlier period than either could have anticipated. It was no sinecure, for the financial affairs of the Church in St. Louis were in a deplorable condition. There was a very heavy debt on the cathedral, and he found the Catholics of the diocese by no means anxious to remove it. The bishop then saw that he must either resign or get other means of raising funds, and he took the bold course of getting into the real-estate business. He was most successful. A local gentleman named Thornton made a bequest of 300,000 dollars to the Church, others deposited their money with the bishop; he made fortunate investments in real estate; and, when values generally declined on the outbreak of the Civil War, he paid all his depositors in gold. The St. Louis diocese was enormous in extent at that time, as it embraced the whole of the States of Missouri and Arkansas, and half of Illinois, the task of visitation was one of immense toil, but the new bishop did not shrink from it. He had for helper and companion Rev. Thomas Cusack, with whom he had often to ride hundreds of miles on horseback, and sleep at night time in a log cabin or boarded hut. The paucity of churches in the diocese he also found a great drawback, the lack of clergy was another. He soon obtained much help from the Lazarists and Jesuits, as well as from the German population. The Visitation nuns and Sisters of St. Joseph, as well as the Sisters of Charity driven out by fire and flood from other places, came to St. Louis, and soon matters began to look brighter for the bishop. By a brief from Pope Pius IX, the dignity of archhishop was bestowed upon him; and at the Seventh Provincial Council of Baltimore a petition to have five suffragan bishops appointed — namely for St. Paul, Dubuque, Nashville, Chicago, and Milwaukee — was adopted, and was granted by the Holy See. After consecrating many bishops and ordaining many priests, the archbishop went to Baltimore to attend the First Plenary Council, and made a profound impression on the assembly by his logical keenness and his great erudition.

First Vatican Council

The Civil War found him a resolute defender of the Church’s position, when the “Drake Constitution” which proposed a test oath for all ministers of religion, was passed in Missouri. He sent out an order that all his clergy must refuse to take the oath, as its terms were insulting. Some of the clergy were sent to prison for doing so, but the archbishop took their cases from court to court and ultimately succeeded in having the Drake Law declared unconstitutional. At the Vatican Council of December, 1869, he was one of the prelates who were opposed to the definition of the dogma of Papal Infallibility, and voted “non placet” at the preliminary private sitting. He did not attend the session at which the dogma was promulgated, but publicly submitted to the voice of the majority as the authority of the Church, when he learned of the proclamation. For coadjutor bishops he had firstly the Right Reverend P.J. Ryan, and secondly the Right Reverend John J. Kain, who on his death succeeded him. The archbishop’s golden jubilee was celebrated with great distinction in 1891, but he was then in very feeble health. He died on 3 March two years afterwards. His best known work, besides “Anglican Ordinations,” is the “Month of Mary” (Philadelphia, 1843). The growth of the St. Louis province under his rule was described by Archbishop Hennessy at the jubilee celebration in 1891 as “stupendous”. During his episcopate sixteen new Sees were carved out of the original Diocese of St. Louis, viz. Little Rock (1843), Santa Fe and St. Paul (1850); Leavenworth (1851); Alton and Omaha (1857); Green Bay, La Crosse, St. Joseph, and Denver (1868); Kansas City (1880) Davenport (1881) Wichita, Cheyenne, Concordia, and Lincoln (1887).

Kenrick, MS. Diary and Itinerary in Philadelphia Archives and Correspondence in Archives of Baltimore and St. Louis; CLARKE, Lives of Deceased Prelates (New York, 1872); SHEA, Catholic Church in the United States (New York, 1892); O’CONNER, Archbishop Kenrick and His Work (Philadelphia, 1867); SPALDLING, Sketches (Baltimore, 1800); WEBB, Centenary of Catholicism in Kentucky (Louisville, 1884); WALSH, Jubilee Memoir (St. Louis, 1891); VALETTE, Catholicity in Eastern Pennsylvania in Catholic Record (Philadelphia, 1800).

John J. O’Shea (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 9 – At the center of the controversy, when the Pope deposed King John of England

July 7, 2025

Stephen Langton

Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury, b. in the latter half of the twelfth century; d. at Slindon Manor, Sussex, July 9, 1228. Although the roll of English churchmen has few names more illustrious, Langton’s fame is hardly equal to his achievements. Even among his own countrymen too few have an adequate knowledge of his merits and of his great services to his country and to the Catholic Church, although his labors were concerned with the two things specially dear to Englishmen, the Bible and the British Constitution. Little though they may think it, every one who reads the Bible or enjoys the benefit of civic freedom owes a deep debt of gratitude to this Catholic cardinal. If men may be measured by the magnitude of the work they accomplish, it may be safely said that Langton was the greatest Englishman who ever sat in the chair of St. Augustine. For Anselm was not an Englishman, and his triumphs were won in fields of thought and politics of less interest to Englishmen. Some churchmen, again, have been great as writers and thinkers, others as statesmen solicitous for the welfare of the whole people, and others as zealous pastors of their flock. It was Langton’s lot to win distinction in all three capacities, as scholar, statesman, and archbishop.

Closeup of Cardinal Stephen Langton statue on the Canterbury Pulpit at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Photo by Tim Evanson.

The Scholar.—The literary activity of Langton belongs to the earlier part of his life, and it is as a scholar that he first appears in history. Of his boyhood we have no details, both the date and place of his birth being matters of inference and conjecture. From the circumstances attending his election to the primatial See of Canterbury it is evident that he was an Englishman. His name itself is clearly taken from some English town, but it is not certain which of the several places so-called had the honor of giving its name to the family of the cardinal, though Mark Pattison confidently asserts that he “is known by the surname of Langton from the place of his birth, Langton near Spilsby in Lincolnshire” (op. cit. in bibliography). His father was Henry de Langton; his brother Simon de Langton—presumably his junior, seeing that he survived the archbishop twenty years—was Archdeacon of Canterbury, and took an active part in the ecclesiastical and political struggles of the time. There does not seem to be any evidence of kinship between the archbishop and John Langton, Bishop of Chichester in the following century. Stephen’s birth may be fixed approximately by the known dates of his election (1205) and his death (1228). For, since he was already famous as a scholar and had become cardinal before the former date, he can hardly have been then a mere youth, while the fact that he lived for another twenty years and more, and was engaged in active work until his death, would seem to show that he was yet in the prime of life when he was elected archbishop. His birth, therefore, could not fall very much before or after 1160 or 1170. On the same grounds it may be gathered that Langton went to the University of Paris at an early age, for it was his fame as a teacher of theology that led Innocent III to summon him to Rome and create him cardinal. This act of the great pope and the store he set by Langton’s learning may remind us how one of his predecessors wished in like manner to avail himself of the services of the Venerable Bede—another great Englishman, with whom Langton had much in common in the character of his learning and in his indefatigable industry as a commentator on Holy Scripture. Thus Pattison naturally mentions the name of Bede in his graphic description of Langton as “that great prelate, who, during a twenty-three years occupation of the See of Canterbury, acted in public a most prominent part in national affairs, and in the cloister produced more works for the instruction of his flock, than any who, before or since him, have been seated in that `Papal chair of the North ‘—who was the soul of that powerful confederacy who took the crown from the head of the successor of the Conqueror,—and yet, next to Bede, the most voluminous and original commentator on the Scripture this country has produced—and who has transmitted to us an enduring memorial of himself in three most different institutions, which after the lapse of six centuries are still in force and value among us—Magna Charta, the division of the Bible into chapters, and those constitutions which open the series, and form the basis, of that Canon Law which is still binding in our Ecclesiastical Courts” (ibid.).

Statue of Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, from the exterior of Canterbury Cathedral. Photo by Ealdgyth.

In this passage Pattison has incidentally touched on the chief and most enduring result of Langton’s industrious scholarship, the division of the Bible into chapters—or, in the quaint words of an old chronicler (Trevisa’s translation of Higden’s “Polychronicon”), “he toted the Bible at Parys and marked the chapitres”. This statement has been confirmed by recent researches of Denifle (see Kaulen, “Einleitung in d. Heil. Schrift”), which prove clearly that the division of the Sacred Text into chapters owes its origin to Stephen Langton. The importance of this work may be sufficiently gauged by its widespread adoption, for this division into chapters has not only passed from the Vulgate to all modern vernacular versions of the Bible, but has been applied with obvious advantage to the Greek New Testament and to the Septuagint. It is indeed one of the few cases in which Latin scholarship has affected the Eastern Churches. Yet more remarkable is it that the division has also been adopted by the Jews themselves, and that the hand of the English cardinal should leave its mark on the pages of the Talmud. While not abandoning their own system of division, the Jews saw the advantage of the Langtonian chapters, which are constantly used for purposes of reference even in purely Rabbinical literature, as may be seen in the Warsaw editions of the Talmud Babli and Midrash Rabba. The value of this change is practically illustrated in Ceriani’s facsimile edition of the Milanese Codex Syro-Peschitto, where the divisions wanting in the text are marked in the margin by the editor. The division into chapters has sometimes been ascribed to Cardinal Hugh of St-Cher, but his task was to subdivide Langton’s chapters into seven parts marked by the first seven letters of the alphabet. This method, used by old commentators and still surviving in our liturgical books, has for general purposes been superseded by the division into verses which we owe to Robert Estienne.

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July 3 – The Pope Who Condemned His Predecessor for Not Opposing Heresy

July 3, 2025

Pope St. Leo II

Pope St. Leo II

Pope (682-83), date of birth unknown; d. 28 June, 683. He was a Sicilian, and son of one Paul. Though elected pope a few days after the death of St. Agatho (10 June, 681), he was not consecrated till after the lapse of a year and seven months (17 Aug., 682). Under Leo’s predecessor St. Agatho, negotiations had been opened between the Holy See and Emperor Constantine Pogonatus concerning the relations of the Byzantine Court to papal elections. Constantine had already promised Agatho to abolish or reduce the tax which for about a century the popes had had to pay to the imperial treasury on the occasion of their consecration, and under Leo’s successor he made other changes in what had hitherto been required of the Roman Church at the time of a papal election. In all probability, therefore, it was continued correspondence on this matter which caused the delay of the imperial confirmation of Leo’s election, and hence the long postponement of his consecration. The most important act accomplished by Leo in his short pontificate was his confirmation of the acts of the Sixth Oecumenical Council (680-1). This council had been held in Constantinople against the Monothelites, and had been presided over by the legates of Pope Agatho. After Leo had notified the emperor that the decrees of the council had been confirmed by him, he proceeded to make them known to the nations of the West. The letters which he sent for this end to the king and to the bishops and nobles of Spain have come down to us. In them he explained what the council had effected, and he called upon the bishops to subscribe to its decrees. At the same time he was at pains to make it clear that in condemning his predecessor Honorius I, he did so, not because he taught heresy, but because he was not active enough in opposing it. In accordance with the papal mandate, a synod was held at Toledo (684) in which the Council of Constantinople was accepted.

Pope St. Leo IIThe fact that Ravenna had long been the residence of the emperors or of their representatives, the exarchs, had awakened the ambition of its archbishops. They aspired to the privileges of patriarchs and desired to be autocephalous, i.e. free from the direct jurisdiction of the pope, considered as their primate. As they could not succeed in inducing the popes to agree to their wishes, they attempted to secure their accomplishment by an imperial decree recognizing them as autocephalous. But this did not prove sufficient to enable the archbishops to effect their purpose, and Leo obtained from Constantine Pogonatus the revocation of the edict of Constans. On his side, however, Leo abolished the tax which the archbishops had been accustomed to pay when they received the pallium. And though he insisted that the archbishops-elect must come to Rome to be consecrated, he consented to the arrangement that they should not be obliged to remain in Rome more than eight days at the time of their consecration, and that, while they were not to be bound to come again to Rome themselves in order to offer their homage to the pope, they were each year to send a delegate to do so in their name. Perhaps because he feared that the Lombards might again ravage the catacombs, Leo transferred thence many of the relics of the martyrs into a church which he built to receive them. This pope, who is called by his contemporary biographer both just and learned, is commemorated as a saint in the Roman Martyrology on 28 June.

[Note: The feast of Saint Leo II was formerly observed on 3 July with the rank of a semi-double.]

Subscription16

Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I (Paris, 1886), 359 sqq.; VILLANUNO, Summa Concil. Hispaniae, I (Barcelona, 1850), 310 sq.; Acta SS., June, V, 375 sqq.; MANN, Lives of the Popes, I (London, 1902), pt. II, 49 sqq.

Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 3 – The Twin

July 3, 2025

St. Thomas the Apostle

Our Lord Calling of the Apostles. Painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Our Lord Calling of the Apostles. Painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Little is recorded of St. Thomas the Apostle, nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but in St. John he plays a distinctive part. First, when Jesus announced His intention of returning to Judea to visit Lazarus, “Thomas” who is called Didymus [the twin], said to his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). Again it was St. Thomas who during the discourse before the Last Supper raised an objection: “Thomas saith to him: Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). But more especially St. Thomas is remembered for his incredulity when the other Apostles announced Christ’s Resurrection to him: “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe” (John 20:25); but eight days later he made his act of faith, drawing down the rebuke of Jesus: “Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed” (John 20:29).

Painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna.

The doubting St. Thomas. Painting by Duccio di Buoninsegna.

This exhausts all our certain knowledge regarding the Apostle but his name is the starting point of a considerable apocryphal literature, and there are also certain historical data which suggest that some of this apocryphal material may contains germs of truth. The principal document concerning him is the “Acta Thomae”, preserved to us with some variations both in Greek and in Syriac, and bearing unmistakeable signs of its Gnostic origin. It may indeed be the work of Bardesanes himself. The story in many of its particulars is utterly extravagant, but it is the early date, being assigned by Harnack (Chronologie, ii, 172) to the beginning of the third century, before A. D. 220. If the place of its origin is really Edessa, as Harnack and others for sound reasons supposed (ibid., p. 176), this would lend considerable probability to the statement, explicitly made in “Acta” (Bonnet, cap. 170, p.286), that the relics of Apostle Thomas, which we know to have been venerated at Edessa, had really come from the East. The extravagance of the legend may be judged from the fact that in more than one place (cap. 31, p. 148) it represents Thomas (Judas Thomas, as he is called here and elsewhere in Syriac tradition) as the twin brother of Jesus. The Thomas in Syriac is equivalant to didymos in Greek, and means twin. Rendel Harris who exaggerates very much the cult of the Dioscuri, wishes to regards this as a transformation of a pagan worship of Edessa but the point is at best problematical.

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July 4 – Pope in Very Critical Circumstances

July 3, 2025

Pope Benedict V

Date of birth unknown; died 4 July, 965.

Benedict V was elected Pope (May, 964) in very critical circumstances. The powerful emperor, Otho I, had forcibly deposed the unworthy John XII, and had replaced him by a nominee of his own who took the title of Leo VIII. But at the first opportunity the Romans expelled Leo, and on the death (14 May, 964) of the lawful pope, John XII, elected the Cardinal-Deacon Benedict (known from his learning as Grammaticus-see Benedict of Soracte, xxxvii). Otho was furious, marched on Rome, seized Benedict, and put an end to his pontificate (23 June, 964. -Liutprand, Hist. Ottonis, xxi; Thietmar, Chron., II, 18). It is more probable that Benedict was degraded by force than that he voluntarily declared himself an intruder. After reinstating Leo, Otho left Rome and carried Benedict with him to Germany. Placed under the care of Adaldag, Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen, who treated him with great consideration, he was even then acknowledged as pope by some of the German clergy. His remains, first laid to rest in the cathedral at Hamburg, were afterwards translated to Rome (Adam of Bremen, Gesta, II, 10; IV, 39, 40; VI, 53).

The most important source for the history of the first nine popes who bore the name of Benedict is the biographies in the Liber Pontificalis, of which the most useful edition is that of Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1886-92), and the latest that of Mommsen, Gesta Pontif. Roman. (to the end of the reign of Constantine only, Berlin, 1898). Jaffé, Regesta Pont. Rom. (2d ed., Leipzig, 1885), gives a summary of the letters of each pope and tells where they may be read at length. Modern accounts of these popes will be found in any large Church history, or history of the City of Rome. The fullest account in English of most of them is to be read in Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902, passim).

Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 4 – Chaplain and servants of the Arundell family

July 3, 2025

Venerables John Cornelius and Companions

John Cornelius (called also Mohun) was born of Irish parents at Bodmin, in Cornwall, on the estate of Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, in 1557; martyred at Dorchester, 4 July, 1594. Sir John Arundell took an interest in the talented boy and sent him to Oxford. Not satisfied with the new religion taught there, John Cornelius went to the great “seminary of martyrs”, then at Reims, and a little later, on 1 April, 1580, entered the English College, Rome, to pursue his theological studies. After his ordination he was sent as a missionary to England and laboured there for nearly ten years. He practised mortification, was devoted to meditation, and showed much zeal in the ministry. While acting as chaplain to Lady Arundell, he was arrested on 24 April, 1594, at Chideock Castle, by the sheriff of Dorsetshire. He was met on the way by Thomas Bosgrave, a relative of the Arundell family, who offered him his own hat, as he had been dragged out bareheaded. Thereupon Bosgrave was arrested. Two servants of the castle, John (or Terence) Carey and Patrick Salmon, natives of Dublin, shared the same fate. When they reached the sheriff’s house a number of Protestant clergymen heaped abuse upon the Catholic religion, but were so well answered that the sheriff stopped the disputation. The missionary was sent to London and brought before the Lord Treasurer, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others, who, by words and torture, tried in vain to obtain the names of such as had given him shelter or assistance. He was brought back to Dorchester and with his three companions condemned to death, 2 July, 1594. He was accused of high treason, because he was a priest and had returned to England; the others were charged with felony, for having rendered assistance to one whom they knew to be a priest; but all were assured that their lives would be spared if they embraced Protestantism.

While in prison, John Cornelius was admitted to membership in the Society of Jesus. On the way to execution none of the confessors showed signs of fear. The first to ascend the scaffold was John Carey; he kissed the rope, exclaiming “O precious collar”, made a solemn profession of faith and died a valiant death. Before his execution Patrick Salmon, a man much admired for his virtues, exhorted the spectators to embrace the Faith, for which he and his companions were giving their lives. Then followed Thomas Bosgrave, a man of education, who delivered a stirring address on the truth of his belief. The last to suffer was John Cornelius, who kissed the gallows with the words of St. Andrew, “O Cross, long desired”, etc. On the ladder he tried to speak to the multitude, but was prevented. After praying for his executioners and for the welfare of the queen, John Cornelius also was executed. The body was taken down and quartered, his head was nailed to the gibbet, but soon removed. The bodies were buried by the Catholics.

FRANCIS MERSHMAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 5 – St. Michael de Sanctis

July 3, 2025

St. Michael de Sanctis

(DE LOS SANTOS).

Born at, Vich in Catalonia, 29 September, 1591; died at Valladolid, 10 April, 1625. At the age of twelve years he came to Barcelona, and asked to be received into the monastery of the Trinitarians, in which order, after a three years’ novitiate, he took vows in the monastery of St. Lambert at Saragossa, 5 Sept., 1607. When one day a Discalced Trinitarian came to St. Lambert’s to receive Holy Orders, Michael felt himself drawn to this more austere congregation. After mature deliberation, and with the permission of his superior, he entered the novitiate of the Discalced Trinitarians at Madrid, and took vows at Alcalá; he became priest and was twice elected superior of the monastery at Valladolid. He lived a life of prayer and great mortification, was especially devout towards the Holy Eucharist, and is said to have been rapt in ecstasy several times during Consecration. He was beatified by Pius VI, 24 May, 1779 and canonized by Pius IX, 8 June, 1862. His feast is celebrated on 5 July. He is generally represented kneeling before an altar where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed.

Vita e miracoli di S. Michele dei Santi, published anonymously (Rome, 1862); CARMICHAEL, The Congregation of S. Michele dei Santi in The Catholic World, LXXIV (New York, 1902), 629- 41; GUERIN, Vies des Saints, 5 July; STADLER, Heiligen-Lexikon (Augsburg, 1858-82), 439-440.

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 6 – Bl. Thomas Alfield

July 3, 2025

Bl. Thomas Alfield (AUFIELD, ALPHILDE, HAWFIELD, OFFELDUS; alias BADGER). Priest, born at Gloucestershire; martyred at Tyburn, 6 July, 1585. He was educated at Eton and Cambridge (1568). He was afterwards converted and came to Douai College in 1576, but the troubles there compelled him to intermit his studies for four years, and he was eventually […]

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July 6 – Mother-in-law Woes

July 3, 2025

St. Godelina Born at Hondeforte-lez-Boulogne, c. 1049; died at Ghistelles, 6 July, 1070. The youngest of the three children born to Hemfrid, seigneur of Wierre-Effroy, and his wife Ogina, Godelina was accustomed as a child to exercises of piety and was soon distinguished for a solidity of virtue extraordinary for one of her years. The […]

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June 30 – How One Humble Servant Transformed the New York Upper Class

June 30, 2025

Servant of God Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853) Born to slavery in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti), Toussaint came to New York in 1789 with his master, Jean Bérard du Pithon, a French noble and prosperous planter who was fleeing the turmoil unleashed in Saint Domingue by the French Revolution. Two years later, his master died without having […]

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June 30 – Thomas Whitbread

June 30, 2025

Ven. Thomas Whitbread (Alias HARCOURT). Born in Essex, 1618; martyred at Tyburn, 30 June, 1679. He was educated at St. Omer’s, and entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 7 September, 1635. Coming upon the English mission in 1647, he laboured for more than thirty years, mostly in the eastern counties. On 8 […]

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June 30 – Diplomatist and Historian

June 30, 2025

Daniel O’Daly A diplomatist and historian, born in Kerry, Ireland, 1595; died at Lisbon, 30 June. 1662. On his mother’s side he belonged to the Desmond branch of the Geraldines, of which branch his paternal ancestors were the hereditary chroniclers or bards. He be came a Dominican in Tralee, Co. Kerry; took his vows in […]

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June 30 – Franciscus Sonnius

June 30, 2025

Franciscus Sonnius Theologian, b. at Zon in Brabant, 12 August, 1506; d. at Antwerp, 30 June, 1576. His real name was Van de Velde, but in later years he called himself after his native place. He went to school at Bois-le-Duc and Louvain, and afterwards studied medicine for a time, then theology; in 1536 he […]

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June 30 – Father of Ecclesiastical History

June 30, 2025

Ven. Cesare Baronius Cardinal and ecclesiastical historian, born at Sora in the Kingdom of Naples, 30 August, 1538; died at Rome, 30 June, 1607; author of “Annales Ecclesiatici”, a work which marked an epoch in historiography and merited for its author, after Eusebius, the title of a Father of Ecclesiastical History. Baronius was descended from […]

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July 1 – The Marquis of Lescure destroys two thirds of Westermann’s army and saves the lives of captured enemy soldiers

June 30, 2025

While the grand army were under the walls of Nantes, several engagements had taken place in La Vendée. Westermann, at the head of a German legion, advanced into the heart of the Bocage, after making himself master of Parthenay, on the 20th June. On the 1st July he burned the town of Amaillon; he then […]

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July 1 – St. Gal

June 30, 2025

St. Gal Of the ninety-eight bishops who have occupied the see of Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergne) the sixteenth and twenty-third bore the name of Gal, and both are numbered among the twenty-nine bishops of this church who are honoured as saints. The first and most illustrious was bishop from 527 to 551, the second, form 640 to […]

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July 2 – St. Swithin

June 30, 2025

(SWITHUN) Bishop of Winchester; died 2 July, 862. Very little is known of this saint’s life, for his biographers constructed their “Lives” long after his death and there is hardly any mention of him in contemporary documents. Swithin was one of the two trusted counsellors of Egbert, King of the West Saxons (d. 839), helping […]

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July 2 – Caught Between Two Masters

June 30, 2025

Saint Otto Bishop of Bamberg, born about 1060; died 30 June, 1139. He belonged to the noble, though not wealthy, family of Mistelbach in Swabia, not to the Counts of Andechs. He was ordained priest, but where he was educated is not known. While still young he joined the household of Duke Wladislaw of Poland; […]

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Physical Comfort – Moral Well Being

June 26, 2025

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Comparing is one of the best ways of analyzing. So if we want to analyze our era, it’s legitimate to compare it. And with what? With the future, which is still unknown, is impossible, because unknown objects cannot serve as a term of comparison. Therefore, the comparison can only be […]

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Gnosis: the Pole of the Devil’s Egalitarian Conspiracy – Part II

June 26, 2025

Part I By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Sound Reaction in Face of Misfortune The sound reaction is, first, that this man can only hope to be freed to the degree that concrete circumstances allow such hope. If under the circumstances there is reason to hope, he will hope. If not, he will not […]

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June 26 – Chartreuse is not only a drink

June 26, 2025

St. Anthelm of Belley (1107 – 1178) Prior of the Carthusian Grand Chartreuse and bishop of Belley. He was born near Chambéry in 1107. He would later receive an ecclesiastical benefice in the area of Belley. When he was thirty years old, he resigned from this position to become a Carthusian monk at Portes. Only […]

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June 27 – The Saint-King elected to lead the First Crusade

June 26, 2025

St. Ladislaus (or Ladislas) St. Ladislaus the First, called by the Hungarians László, and in old French, Lancelot, was son of Bela king of Hungary, and born in 1041. By the pertinacious importunity of the people he was compelled, much against his own inclination, to ascend the throne in 1080, the kingdom being then elective. […]

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June 28 – To Avoid Their Desecration, He Ordered the Relics of the Saints to be Brought Inside the Walls

June 26, 2025

Pope Saint Paul I Date of birth unknown; died at Rome, 28 June, 767. He was a brother of Pope Stephen II. They had been educated for the priesthood at the Lateran palace. Stephen entrusted his brother, who approved of the pope’s course in respect to King Pepin, with many important ecclesiastical affairs, among others […]

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June 28 – St. Irenaeus

June 26, 2025

St. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons, and Father of the Church. Information as to his life is scarce, and in some measure inexact. He was born in Proconsular Asia, or at least in some province bordering thereon, in the first half of the second century; the exact date is controverted, between the years 115 and 125, […]

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The Church is Not Opposed to Any Form of Government that Is Just and Serves the Common Good

June 26, 2025

previous Leo XIII says in his encyclical Diuturnum illud (June 29, 1881): “There is no question here respecting forms of government, for there is no reason why the Church should not approve of the chief power being held by one man or by more, provided only it be just, and that it tend to the […]

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The Fate of Greed

June 26, 2025

There can be no doubt, but that when a decision was to be made in regard to the affairs of the Indies, the enemies of Columbus assailed the Queen with every artifice and intrigue to secure a decision unfavorable to the admiral. The appointment of Don Francisco Bobadilla proves this. His subsequent cruelty and perfidy […]

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Exiled crown prince calls on Iranians to overthrow Khamenei

June 23, 2025

Taken from jpost.com Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last monarch, issued a sharply worded message on Friday calling on Iranian military and security forces to abandon the Islamic Republic and join a popular movement to reclaim the country. In a post written in Persian and shared across his official social media platforms, Pahlavi […]

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Armbands for India, Trooping the Colour 2025

June 23, 2025

Taken from royal.uk/ The King, Colonel in Chief of the Household Division, wore the Uniform of the Coldstream Guards. In addition, and at the request of His Majesty, members of the Royal Family taking part in the parade wore black armbands as a mark of respect following the Air India incident in Ahmedabad this week. […]

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A Chief’s Daughter Helps Spread the Faith Among the Coeur d’Alènes

June 23, 2025

Father Point had been two years with the Coeur d’Alènes. He had arrived there the first Friday of the month and, on that day, had placed the mission under the protection of the Sacred Heart. “From that moment,” he writes, “a Christian spirit animated the inhabitants of this happy valley. The nightly gatherings, sacrilegious ceremonies, […]

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Gnosis: the Pole of the Devil’s Egalitarian Conspiracy – Part I

June 23, 2025

By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira We should not lose sight of the fact that even though God governs the universe and all beings, He desired that men be free, and also gave the angels an intellect and a [free] will. In spite of having been cast into Hell and condemned to suffer eternally, the […]

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June 23 – Her sister, niece, and great-niece, all royal princesses and two of them widowed queens, followed her as abbesses of Ely

June 23, 2025

St. Etheldreda Queen of Northumbria; born (probably) about 630; died at Ely, 23 June, 679. While still very young she was given in marriage by her father, Anna, King of East Anglia, to a certain Tonbert, a subordinate prince, from whom she received as morning gift a tract of land locally known as the Isle […]

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June 24 – He denounced the king’s adultery

June 23, 2025

St. John the Baptist The principal sources of information concerning the life and ministry of St. John the Baptist are the canonical Gospels. Of these St. Luke is the most complete, giving as he does the wonderful circumstances accompanying the birth of the Precursor and items on his ministry and death. St. Matthew’s Gospel stands […]

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June 25 – St. Maximus of Turin

June 23, 2025

St. Maximus of Turin Bishop and theological writer, b. probably in Rhaetia, about 380; d. shortly after 465. Only two dates are historically established in his life. In 451 he was at the synod of Milan where the bishops of Northern Italy accepted the celebrated letter (epistola dogmatica) of Leo I, setting forth the orthodox […]

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June 25 – Servant of God Maria Clotilde of Savoy

June 23, 2025

by Antonio Borrelli Maria Clotilde of Savoy is one of the most striking examples of how to achieve union with Christ while remaining in the world in environments which by their nature lead instead to distraction, pride of power, luxury and a worldly lifestyle, things once usually abundant in the royal and imperial courts of […]

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Fleur-de-lis And Other Molded Sugar

June 19, 2025

Found in almost every recipe, there are many different ways that sugar is used and here is one unique way to use sugar. Instead of the common form of sugar cubes, try making them in the various shapes seen below! You can use any candy mold you wish to shape the sugar into. All you […]

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June 19 – His father the Duke was a murderer

June 19, 2025

St. Romuald Born at Ravenna, probably about 950; died at Val-di-Castro, 19 June, 1027. St. Peter Damian, his first biographer, and almost all the Camaldolese writers assert that St. Romuald’s age at his death was one hundred and twenty, and that therefore he was born about 907. This is disputed by most modern writers. Such […]

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Ven. William Barrow

June 19, 2025

Ven. William Barrow (Alias Waring, alias Harcourt). An English Jesuit martyr, born in Lancashire, in 1609, died 20 June, 1679. He made his studies at the Jesuit College, St. Omers, and entered the Society at Watten in 1632. He was sent to the English mission in 1644 and worked on the London district for thirty-five […]

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June 20 – The Jeanne d’Arc of the Blessed Sacrament

June 19, 2025

Marie-Marthe-Baptistine Tamisier (Called by her intimates EMILIA) Initiator of international Eucharistic congresses, born at Tours, 1 Nov., 1834; died there 20 June, 1910. From her childhood her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was extraordinary; she called a day without Holy Communion a veritable Good Friday. In 1847 she became a pupil of the Religious of […]

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The Dauphin’s innocent description of a revolutionary riot

June 19, 2025

On June 21, 1792, the agitators fired up the mob, as they had done the day before, to invade the Tuileries Palace where the royal family was lodged. Hearing the tumult, Marie Antoinette rushed to the side of the Dauphin. Upon seeing her and still remembering what had happened the day before, the child asked: […]

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June 21 – He seemed to resemble an angel clothed with a human body

June 19, 2025

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Aloysius Gonzaga was son of Ferdinand Gonzaga, prince of the holy empire, and marquis of Castiglione, removed in the third degree of kindred from the duke of Mantua. His mother was Martha Tana Santena, daughter of Tanus Santena, lord of Cherry, in Piedmont. She was lady of honour to Isabel, the wife […]

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June 22 – Battle of Sisak

June 19, 2025

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Sisak in Croatia. The Battle of Sisak was the Croatian Siege of Vienna. On June 22nd 1593 Ban Tomas Erdődy faced off an army of 16,000 Ottomans with his army of 4,500-5,000 men. When the battle was over Erdődy lost 500 men and the Ottomans had lost […]

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June 22 – St. Thomas More

June 19, 2025

St. Thomas More Saint, knight, Lord Chancellor of England, author and martyr, born in London, 7 February, 1477-78; executed at Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535. He was the sole surviving son of Sir John More, barrister and later judge, by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Graunger. While still a child Thomas was sent […]

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June 22 – St. John Fisher

June 19, 2025

St. John Fisher Cardinal, Bishop of Rochester, and martyr; born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1459 (?1469); died 22 June, 1535. John was the eldest son of Robert Fisher, merchant of Beverley, and Agnes his wife. His early education was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his native town, whence in […]

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June 16 – The Saint for Father’s Day: death threats meant nothing to him

June 16, 2025

Saint John Francis Regis Born 31 January, 1597, in the village of Fontcouverte (department of Aude); died at la Louvesc, 30 Dec., 1640. His father Jean, a rich merchant, had been recently ennobled in recognition of the prominent part he had taken in the Wars of the League; his mother, Marguerite de Cugunhan, belonged by […]

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June 16 – St. Benno

June 16, 2025

Bishop of Meissen, b., as is given in biographies written after his lifetime, about 1010; d., probably, June 16, 1106. He is said to have been the son of a Count Frederick von Woldenberg (Bultenburg) and to have been educated by his relative St. Bernward of Hildesheim. But these statements and the date of his […]

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A noble lady’s good example and martyrdom

June 16, 2025

[Saint] Julitta (aka Saint Julietta) was a noble lady of Lycaonia. By order of the Prefect Alexander, she was arrested because she was a Christian, and brought before his tribunal. She had a little boy named Cyrus, who at this time was only five or six years old. He was a beautiful child, and the […]

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June 17 – Sobieski

June 16, 2025

John III Sobieski (Polish: Jan III Sobieski, Lithuanian: Jonas Sobieskis; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) Born at Olesko in 1629; died at Wilanow, 1696; son of James, Castellan of Cracow and descended by his mother from the heroic Zolkiewski, who died in battle at Cecora. His elder brother Mark was his companion in […]

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