‘The Good Maharaja’: How an Indian Prince Saved Hundreds of Polish Children During WWII

September 3, 2026

A portrait of Sir Jam Shri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji Jadeja, Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar.

h/t: theepochtimes.com

The Polish …children… were malnourished and disease-ridden as a result of their internment in Soviet camps.

But while governments, bureaucrats, and agencies debated, disputed, and dragged their feet, one man had pity and took action. The Maharaja of Nawanagar, Digvijaysinhji, took matters into his own hands and, without waiting for British or Indian governmental approval, decided to welcome the Polish children. He invited them to the nominally sovereign Indian princely state he ruled, called Nawanagar.

As Digvijaysinhji reportedly said, ‘If God has sent me these children, it is my duty to care for them.’”

h/t: theepochtimes.com

{ 0 comments }

September 3 – Her Only Crime Was Her Attachment To The Queen

September 3, 2026

Amidst all the terrible scenes which occurred at these awful September massacres¹, none are so shocking as the murder of the Princess de Lamballe. Her sincere attachment to Marie Antoinette was her only crime. She had played no political part in the agitations of those times, and she was known to the people only by her numerous acts of benevolence and kindness. This unfortunate princess having been spared in the massacres of the 2nd,  had laid herself down upon her bed, in the evening, worn out with grief and horror.

Princess Marie-Louise Thérèse of Savoy-Carignan; Princess of Lamballe.

Soon two guards entered her apartment and informed her that she must prepare to go to the Abbaye. The princess replied that she preferred to remain in the prison where she was then confined². One of guards then told her that she must obey, as her life depended upon it. Throwing her robe hurriedly about her, she descended with the guard into the turnkey’s room, where she found two municipal officers, wearing the tri-colored scarf, sitting in judgment upon the prisoners summoned before them.

On being brought face to face with this dreadful tribunal, surrounded by bands of assassins whose brutal countenances and disordered clothes were covered with blood, her horror was so great that she fainted several times. When she recovered sufficiently to speak, her examination began.

Princess of Lamballe on trial being held up by the French Revolutionaries.

“Who are you?” she was asked.

“Maria Louisa, Princess of Savoy.”

“Your employment?”

“Superintendent of the household of the queen.”

“Had you any knowledge of the plots of the court on the 10th of August?”

“I know not whether there were any plots on the 10th of August, but I know that I had no knowledge of them.”

“Swear liberty, equality, hatred of the king, of the queen, and of royalty.”

“I will readily swear the two former; I cannot swear the latter; it is not in my heart.”

(Here one present said to her in a whisper: “Swear! if you do not swear, you are dead.”)  The princess did not reply. The judge then said, “Let madame be set at liberty.”  But this deceitful phrase only meant rather the signal for her death. As she was led to the door, some one recommended her to cry Vive la Nation! but the sight of the piles of dead bodies in all their ghastly horror so terrified her that she cried, “I am lost!”

Assassination of the Princess of Lamballe

Scarcely had she passed the threshold of the door, when she was struck on the back of the head with a saber, from which wound the blood gushed forth. Reeling and fainting, she was held under the arms by two monsters who made her walk over the dead bodies which filled the narrow passage which leads from the street St Antoine to the prison. When she could no longer raise herself up, the assassins threw her upon a heap of corpses, and stabbed her to death with their pikes.

Her head was cut off by these hellish fiends, her body was opened, and her heart torn out, [and devoured] and her body was hacked into a dozen pieces, and borne about the streets of Paris with wild yells and coarse jests, The demons even loaded a cannon with one of her limbs; and placing her head upon a pike, the mob bore it to the Temple, where the royal family were imprisoned.

 

¹ September 2-3, 1792

² Princess Lamballe was in prison from August 19th to September 3rd.

 

A Short History of the French Revolution for Young People: Pictures of the Reign of Terror, by Lydia Hoyt Farmer. 1889, Thomas Y. Crowell & Co.  Pg 432 – 434.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 584

 

{ 1 comment }

September 3 – St. Hereswitha

September 3, 2026

St. Hereswitha

(HAERESVID, HERESWYDE).

Chelles Abbey

Chelles Abbey

Daughter of Hereric and Beorhtswith and sister of St. Hilda of Whitby. She was the wife of Aethelhere, King of East Anglia, to whom she bore two sons, Aldwulf and Alfwold. By the “Liber Eliensis” she is stated to have been the wife of King Anna, the leder brother of King Aethelhere, but this is certainly a mistake. Her husband having been killed in the battle of Winwaed (655), St. Hereswitha became a nun at the Abbey of Chelles, then in the Diocese of Paris, where she remained until the end of her life. Her feast is variously assigned — by Stanton to 3 September, by the second edition of the English Martyrology to 20 September, by the first edition and by Ferrari to 23 September. Bucelinus, however, assigns it to 1 December, and the Bollandists propose to discuss her cultus on that date.

Subscription15

Acta SS., 20 Sept., VI, 106; BEDE, Historia Ecclesiastica, IV, xxiii, in Mon. Hist. Brit., 234; ECKENSTEIN, Woman under Monasticism (Cambridge, 1896), 82, 96-7; FLORENCE OF WORCESTER, Genaelogia and Ad Chron. Append. in Mon. Hist. Brit., 628, 636; HOLE in Dict. Christ. Biog., s. v.; Liber Eliensus, ed. STEWART (London, 1848); STANTON, Menology of England and Wales (London, 1887), 435.

LESLIE A. ST. L. TOKE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

September 3 – All the principles of Catholicism can be found in his life

September 3, 2026

Pope St. Gregory I (“the Great”)

Doctor of the Church; born at Rome about 540; died 12 March 604. Gregory is certainly one of the most notable figures in Ecclesiastical History. He has exercised in many respects a momentous influence on the doctrine, the organization, and the discipline of the Catholic Church. To him we must look for an explanation of the religious situation of the Middle Ages; indeed, if no account were taken of his work, the evolution of the form of medieval Christianity would be almost inexplicable. And further, in so far as the modern Catholic system is a legitimate development of medieval Catholicism, of this too Gregory may not unreasonably be termed the Father. Almost all the leading principles of the later Catholicism are found, at any rate in germ, in Gregory the Great. (F.H. Dudden, “Gregory the Great”, 1, p. v)…

Read more here.

{ 0 comments }

September 4 – Pope Saint Boniface I

September 3, 2026

Pope Saint Boniface I

Elected 28 December, 418, he died at Rome, 4 September, 422. Little is known of his life antecedent to his election. The “Liber Pontificalis” calls him a Roman, and the son of the presbyter Jocundus. He is believed to have been ordained by Pope Damasus I (366-384) and to have served as representative of Innocent I at Constantinople (c. 405).
Pope St. Boniface IAt he death of Pope Zosimus, the Roman Church entered into the fifth of the schisms, resulting from double papal elections, which so disturbed her peace during the early centuries. Just after Zosimus’s obsequies, 27 December, 418, a faction of the Roman clergy consisting principally of deacons seized the Lateran basilica and elected as pope the Archdeacon Eulalius. The higher clergy tried to enter, but were violently repulsed by a mob of adherents of the Eulalian party. On the following day they met in the church of Theodora and elected as pope, much against his will, the aged Boniface, a priest highly esteemed for his charity, learning, and good character. On Sunday, 29 December, both were consecrated, Boniface in the Basilica of St. Marcellus, supported by nine provincial bishops and some seventy priests; Eulalius in the Lateran basilica in the presence of the deacons, a few priests and the Bishop of Ostia, who was summoned from his sickbed to assist at the ordination. Each claimant proceeded to act as pope, and Rome was thrown into tumultuous confusion by the clash of the rival factions. The Prefect of Rome, Symmachus, hostile to Boniface, reported the trouble to the Emperor Honorius at Ravenna, and secured the imperial confirmation of Eulalius’s election. Boniface was expelled from the city. His adherents, however, secured a hearing from the emperor who called a synod of Italian bishops at Ravenna to meet the rival popes and discuss the situation (February, March, 419). Unable to reach a decision, the synod made a few practical provisions pending a general council of Italian, Gaulish, and African bishops to be convened in May to settle the difficulty. It ordered both claimants to leave Rome until a decision was reached and forbade return under penalty of condemnation. As Easter, 30 March, was approaching , Achilleus, Bishop of Spoleto, was deputed to conduct the paschal services in the vacant Roman See. Boniface was sent, it seems, to the cemetery of St. Felicitas on the Via Salaria, and Eulalius to Antium. On 18 March, Eulalius boldly returned to Rome, gathered his partisans, stirred up strife anew, and spurning the prefect’s orders to leave the city, seized the Lateran basilica on Holy Saturday (29 March), determined to preside at the paschal ceremonies. The imperial troops were required to dispossess him and make it possible for Achilleus to conduct the services. The emperor was deeply indignant at these proceedings and refusing to consider again the claims of Eulalius, recognized Boniface as legitimate pope (3 April, 418). The latter re-entered Rome 10 April and was acclaimed by the people. Eulalius was madeBishop either of Nepi in Tuscany or of some Campanian see, according to the conflicting data of the sources of the “Liber Pontificalis”. The schism had lasted fifteen weeks. Early in 420, the pope’s critical illness encouraged the artisans of Eulalius to make another effort. On his recovery Boniface requested the emperor (1 July, 420) to make some provision against possible renewal of the schism in the event of his death. Honorius enacted a law providing that, in contested Papal elections, neither claimant should be recognized and a new election should be held.

Boniface’s reign was marked by great zeal and activity in disciplinary organization and control. He reversed his predecessor’s policy of endowing certain Western bishops with extraordinary papal vicariate powers. Zosimus had given to Patroclus, Bishop of Arles, extensive jurisdiction in the provinces of Vienna and Narbonne, and had made him an intermediary between these provinces and the Apostolic See. Boniface diminished these primatial rights and restored the metropolitan powers of the chief bishops of provinces. Thus he sustained Hilary, Archbishop of Narbonne, in his choice of a bishop of the vacant See of Lodeve, against Patroclus, who tried to intrude another (422). So, too, he insisted that Maximus, Bishop of Valence, should be tried for his alleged crimes, not by a primate, but by a synod of the bishops of Gaul, and promised to sustain their decision (419). Boniface succeeded to Zosimus’s difficulties with the African Church regarding appeals to Rome and, in particular, the case of Apiarius. The Council of Carthage, having heard the representations of Zosimus’s legates, sent to Boniface on 31 May, 419, a letter in reply to the commonitorium of his predecessor. It stated that the council had been unable to verify the canons which the legates had quoted as Nicene, but which were later found to be Sardican. It agreed, however, to observe them until verification could be established. This letter is often cited in illustration of the defiant attitude of the African Church to the Roman See. An unbiased study of it, however, must lead to no more extreme conclusion than that of Dom Chapman: “it was written in considerable irritation, yet in a studiously moderate tone” (Dublin Review. July, 1901, 109-119). The Africans were irritated at the insolence of Boniface’s legates and incensed at being urged to obey laws which they thought were not consistently enforced at Rome. This they told Boniface in no uncertain language; yet, far from repudiating his authority, they promised to obey the suspected laws, thus recognizing the pope’s office as guardian of the Church’s discipline. In 422 Boniface received the appeal of Anthony of Fussula who, through the efforts of St. Augustine, had been deposed by a provincial synod of Numidia, and decided that he should be restored if his innocence be established. Boniface ardently supported St. Augustine in combating Pelagianism. Having received two Pelagian letters calumniating Augustine, he sent them to him. In recognition of this solicitude Augustine dedicated to Boniface his rejoinder contained in “Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianoruin Libri quatuor”.

Pope Boniface I

In the East he zealously maintained his jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical provinces of Illyricurn, of which the Patriarch of Constantinople was trying to secure control on account of their becoming a part of the Eastern empire. The Bishop of Thessalonica had been constituted papal vicar in this territory, exercising jurisdiction over the metropolitans and bishops. By letters to Rufus, the contemporary incumbent of the see, Boniface watched closely over the interests of the Illyrian church and insisted on obedience to Rome. In 421 dissatisfaction expressed by certain malcontents among the bishops, on account of the pope’s refusal to confirm the election of Perigines as Bishop of Corinth unless the candidate was recognized by Rufus, served as a pretext for the young emperor Theodosius II to grant the ecclesiastical dominion of Illyricurn to the Patriarch of Constantinople (14 July, 421). Boniface remonstrated with Honorius against the violation of the rights of his see, and prevailed upon him to urge Theodosius to rescind his enactment. The law was not enforced, but it remained in the Theodosian (439) and Justinian (534) codes and caused much trouble for succeeding popes. By a letter of 11 March, 422, Boniface forbade the consecration in Illyricum of any bishop whom Rufus would not recognize. Boniface renewed the legislation of Pope Soter, prohibiting women to touch the sacred linens or to minister at the burning of incense. He enforced the laws forbidding slaves to become clerics. He was buried in the cemetery of Maximus on the Via Salaria, near the tomb of his favorite, St. Felicitas, in whose honor and in gratitude for whose aid he had erected an oratory over the cemetery bearing her name. The Church keeps his feast on 25 October.

Subscription16

Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE (Paris, 1886), 1, pp. lxii, 227-229; JAME, Regesta Romanorum Pontificum (Leipzig, 1885), 1, 51-54; Acta SS., XIII, 62*; LIX, 605—616; BARONIUS, Annales (Bar-le-Duc, 1866), VII, 152-231; TILLEMONT, Mémoires (Venice, 1732), XII, 385-407; 666-670; P.L., XVIII, 397-406; XX, 745-792; HEFELE, Conciliengeschichte and translation, §§ 120, 122; DUCHESNE, Fastes Episcopaux de l’Ancienne Gaul (Paris, 1894), I 84-109; Les Eglíses Séparées (Paris, 1905), 229-279; BUCHANAN in Dict. Christ. Biog., s.v.; GREGORIUS-HAMILTON, Hist. of Rome in the Middle Ages (London, 1894), I, 180-181.

JOHN B. PETERSON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

September 4 – She foretold the speedy death of the emperor

September 3, 2026

St. Rose of Viterbo

(also Rosalia, and in Sicily affectionately nicknamed La Santuzza)

Virgin, born at Viterbo, 1235; died 6 March, 1252. The chronology of her life must always remain uncertain, as the Acts of her canonization, the chief historical sources, record no dates. Those given above are accepted by the best authorities.

Born of poor and pious parents, Rose was remarkable for holiness and for her miraculous powers from her earliest years. When but three years old, she raised to life her maternal aunt. At the age of seven, she had already lived the life of a recluse, devoting herself to penances. Her health succumbed, but she was miraculously cured by the Blessed Virgin, who ordered her to enroll herself in the Third Order of St. Francis, and to preach penance to Viterbo, at that time (1247) held by Frederick II of Germany and a prey to political strife and heresy. Her mission seems to have extended for about two years, and such was her success that the prefect of the city decided to banish her. The imperial power was seriously threatened. Accordingly, Rose and her parents were expelled from Viterbo in January, 1250, and took refuge in Sorriano. On 5 December, 1250, Rose foretold the speedy death of the emperor, a prophecy realized on 13 December. Soon afterwards she went to Vitorchiano, whose inhabitants had been perverted by a famous sorceress. Rose secured the conversion of all, even of the sorceress, by standing unscathed for three hours in the flames of a burning pyre, a miracle as striking as it is well attested. With the restoration of the papal power in Viterbo (1251) Rose returned.

She wished to enter the monastery of St. Mary of the Roses, but was refused because of her poverty. She humbly submitted, foretelling her admission to the monastery after her death. The remainder of her life was spent in the cell in her father’s house, where she died. The process of her canonization was opened in that year by Innocent IV, but was not definitively undertaken until 1457. Her feast is celebrated on 4 September, when her body, still incorrupt, is carried in procession through Viterbo.

Bullar. Franc., 1, 640; Acta Proc. Canonizationis, ann. 1456 in Acta SS., IV Sept.; WADDING, Annales Min. (Rome, 1731), II, 423; III, 280; ANDREUCCI, Notizie criticoistoriche di S. Rosa, Verg. Viterbese (Rome, 1750); BRIGANTI, S. Rosa ed il suo secolo (Venice, 1889); LEON, Lives of the Saints of the Three Orders of S. Francis (Taunton, England, 1886). The best modern life is that by DE KERVAL, Ste Rose, sa vie et son temps (Vanves, 1896); PIZZI, Storia della Città di Viterbo (Rome, 1887).

GREGORY CLEARY (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Of interest:

St. Rose Died of Heart Attack, Analysis of Mummy Shows

http://www.livescience.com/6582-st-rose-died-heart-attack-analysis-mummy-shows.html

 

{ 0 comments }

September 5 – The Iroquois clamoured for his return

September 3, 2026

Pierre de Lauzon

A noted missionary of New France in the eighteenth century, born at Poitiers, 26 September, 1687; died at Quebec, 5 September, 1742. Though sometimes mentioned as Jean, in his official acts he invariably signed Pierre. He joined the Jesuits at Limoges, 24 November, 1703, and after ordination was sent to Canada in 1716. From 1716 to 1718 he was Father Daniel Richer’s assistant at Lorette, where he studied the Huron-Iroquois language. He did missionary duty at Sault St. Louis (Caughnawaga) from 1718 to 1731, with the exception of the scholastic year 1721-22, when he replaced Father François Le Brun as instructor in the royal school of hydrography in the college at Quebec, as the exhausting labours of the mission had undermined his health. His Iroquois Indians clamoured for his return, and on 12 May, 1722, they formally petitioned Governor Vaudreuil and the Intendant Bégon to that effect. These in turn, persuaded that it was he alone who, on the occasion of a change in the village site, had prevented two-thirds of the Indians from moving away and settling within easy reach of the English, urged the superior to send him back, and in 1722 he returned to Sault St. Louis. It was none too soon, for the spirit of revolt was spreading among the Caughnawaga Iroquois, in consequence of a menace of again quartering upon them a French garrison, an ever prolific cause of debauchery and disorder. He made his solemn profession of the four vows at Sault St. Louis on 2 February, 1721.

In 1723 he was named superior of the Caughnawaga mission, and the ability he displayed in governing during the nine succeeding years determined the general, Francis Retz, to place him in 1732 over the whole Canada mission. This, according to established custom in Canada entailed the duties of rector of the college at Quebec. During his term of office, which lasted seven years, he crossed over to France (1733) in quest of recruits. Among those whom he brought back with him was the saintly Father Jean-Pierre Aulneau, massacred in 1736 at the Lake of the Woods. Mgr Dosquet of Quebec, returned at the same time, bringing with him three Sulpicians. The party embarked 29 May and reached Quebec 16 August, after a distressing voyage of eighty days. Terrific winds and pestilential disease marked the long journey. De Lauzon, besides ministering to the sick, as did the other priests on board, was appointed boatswain’s mate, for the ecclesiastics did not shirk their share of the work. In September, 1739, he resumed his missionary labours with the Caughnawaga Iroquois, but owing to failing strength he was recalled to Quebec in 1741, where, after a short illness of two and a half days, he died in the following year.

Arthur Edward Jones (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

September 5 – Unashamed to beg alms even from his noble family

September 3, 2026

St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor, First Patriarch of Venice

Bishop and first Patriarch of Venice, born in 1381, and died 8 January, 1456.

He was a descendant of the Giustiniani, a Venetian patrician family which numbered several saints among its members. Lawrence’s pious mother sowed the seeds of a devout religious life in the boy’s youth. In 1400 when he was about nineteen years old, he entered the monastery of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine on the Island of Alga near Venice. In spite of his youth he excited admiration by his poverty, mortifications, and fervour in prayer. At that time the convent was changed into a congregation of secular canons…

Read more here.

{ 0 comments }

September 6 – Blessed Thomas Tsuji

September 3, 2026

martyrs of Nagasaki. 16-17th-century Japanese painting.

martyrs of Nagasaki. 16-17th-century Japanese painting.

Born to the Japanese nobility in Sonogi on the island of Kyushu about the year 1571.

Educated by Jesuits at Arima, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1587. He traveled all over Japan and became known for his eloquent, persuasive preaching. After the publication of an edict banning Catholic priests, he followed eighty of his fellow priests into exile in Macao, where he stayed 4 years.

He eventually decided to return to the mission field in secret, since he had the advantage over European missionaries being himself Japanese and a member of the higher class. However, he was captured in Nagasaki 22 July, 1626, and imprisoned.

His family exerted all the pressure they could on him to abandon his faith, reminding him of their numerous social connections. In vain did they appeal to his sense of duty and social standing, charging him with bringing shame on the family reputation.

Subscription24

After more than a year in prison, in September 7, 1626, he was burned at the stake. As the fire was being prepared, he encouraged his fellow martyrs as well as the onlookers, blessing them as the flames rose about him. Some witnesses claimed that, as he expired, his chest burst open and from within it rose an especially large flame.

Pope Pius IX beatified him as a martyr in 1867.

{ 0 comments }

August 31 – Unborn

August 31, 2026

St. Raymond Nonnatus (Not-Born)

(In Spanish SAN RAMON).

Born 1200 or 1204 at Portello in the Diocese of Urgel in Catalonia; died at Cardona, 31 August, 1240.

His feast is celebrated on 31 August. He is pictured in the habit of his order surrounded by ransomed slaves, with a padlock on his lips. He was taken from the womb of his mother after her death, hence his name.

Of noble but poor family, he showed early traits of piety and great talent. His father ordered him to tend a farm, but later gave him permission to take the habit with the Mercedarians at Barcelona, at the hands of the founder, St. Peter Nolasco. Raymond made such progress in the religious life that he was soon considered worthy to succeed his master in the office of ransomer. He was sent to Algiers and liberated many captives. When money failed he gave himself as a hostage.

He was zealous in teaching the Christian religion and made many converts, which embittered the Mohammedan authorities. Raymond was subjected to all kinds of indignities and cruelty, was made to run the gauntlet, and was at last sentenced to impalement. The hope of a greater sum of money as ransom caused the governor to commute the sentence into imprisonment. To prevent him from preaching for Christ, his lips were pierced with a red-hot iron and closed with a padlock. After his arrival in Spain, in 1239, he was made a cardinal by Gregory IX. In the next year he was called to Rome by the pope, but came only as far as Cardona, about six miles from Barcelona, where he died.

His body was brought to the chapel of St. Nicholas near his old farm. In 1657 his name was placed in the Roman martyrology by Alexander VII.

He is invoked by women in labour and by persons falsely accused. The appendix to the Roman ritual gives a formula for the blessing of water, in his honour, to be used by the sick, and another of candles.

BUTLER, Lives of the Saints; STADLER, Heiligenlexicon; GAMS, Kirchengesch. von Spanien, III; Acta SS., VI, 729.

FRANCIS MERSHMAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

September 1 – Gideon the Judge

August 31, 2026

Gideon or Gedeon (Hebrew “hewer”), also called JEROBAAL (Judges, vi, 32; vii, 1; etc.), and JERUBESHETH (II Kings, xi, 21, in the Hebrew text).

GideonGideon was one of the Greater Judges of Israel. He belonged to the tribe of Manasses, and to the family of Abiezer (Judges, vi, 34). Gideon’s father was Joas, and lived in Ephra (Judges, vi,11).

The following is in substance the account of Gideon’s judgeship as related in Judges, vi-viii: Israel, having forsaken Yahweh’s worship, had been for seven years exceedingly humbled by the incursions of the Madianites and of other Eastern tribes. At length, they turned to God who sent them a deliverer in the person of Gideon. In a first theophany, granted him by day while he was threshing wheat, Gideon received the difficult mission of freeing his people; whereupon he built an altar to the Lord (Judges, vi, 24). In a second theophany during the following night, he was directed to destroy the village-altar to Baal, and to erect one to Yahweh. This he did with the result that the people clamoured for his death to avenge his insult to their false god. Joas, however, saved his son’s life by the witty taunt, which secured for the latter the name of Jerobaal: “Let Baal revenge himself!” (vi, 25-32). Thus divinely commissioned, Gideon naturally took the lead against Madian, and Amalec, and other Eastern tribes who had crossed the Jordan, and encamped in the valley of Jezrael.

Gideon selects his army of 300 by observing their manner of drinking from a stream.

Gideon selects his army of 300 by observing their manner of drinking from a stream.

Comforted by the famous signs of the fleece (vi, 36-40), and accompanied by warriors from Manasses, Aser, Zabulon, and Nephthali, he took up his position not far from the enemy. But it was God’s intervention to show that it was His power which delivered Israel, and hence He reduced Gideon’s army from 32,000 to 300 (vii, 1-8). According to a divine direction, the Hebrew commander paid a night visit to the enemy’s camp and overheard the telling of a dream which prompted him to act at once, certain of victory (vii, 9-15). He then supplied his men with trumpets and with torches enclosed in jars, which, after his example, they broke, crying out: “The sword of Yahweh and Gideon.” Panic-stricken at the sudden attack, Israel’s enemies turned their arms against one another, and broke up in flight towards the fords of the Jordan (vii, 16-23). But, summoned by Gideon, the Ephraimites cut off the Madianites at the fords, and captured and slew two of their princes, Oreb and Zeb, whose heads they sent to the Hebrew leader, rebuking him at the same time for not having called earlier upon their assistance. Gideon appeased them by an Eastern proverb, and pursued the enemy beyond the Jordan river (vii, 24; viii, 3).

Gideon's cave in Maayan Harod National Garden in Israel.

Gideon’s cave in Maayan Harod National Garden in Israel.

Passing by Soccoth and Phanuel, he met with their refusal of provisions for his fainting soldiers, and threatened both places with vengeance on his return (viii, 4-9). At length, he overtook and defeated the enemies of Israel, captured their kings, Zebee and Salmana, returned in triumph, punishing the men of Soccoth and Phanuel on his way, and finally put to death Zebee and Salmana (viii, 10-21). Grateful for this glorious deliverance, Gideon’s countrymen offered him the dignity of an hereditary king, which he declined with these noble words: “I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you, but Yahweh shall rule over you” (viii, 22-23). He nevertheless asked and obtained from his soldiers the golden rings and other ornaments which they had taken from the enemy; and out of this spoil he made what seems to have soon become an object of idolatrous worship in Israel. Gideon’s peaceful judgeship lasted forty years. He had seventy sons, and “died in a good old age, and was buried in the sepulchre of his father in Ephra” (viii, 24-32). His victory is alluded to in Isaias, x, 26, and in Ps. lxxxii, 12 (Heb., lxxxiii, 11), where the four kings mentioned in Judges, vii, viii, are distinctly named- a fact which shows that, at the time when this psalm was composed, the narrative of Gideon’s exploits was commonly known in its present form.

Gideon and His Three Hundred Men are victorious.

Gideon and His Three Hundred Men are victorious.

The various literary features exhibited by the text of Judges, vi-viii, have been minutely examined and differently appreciated by recent scholars. Several commentators look upon these features- such for instance as the two names, Gideon and Jerobaal; the two theophanies bearing on Gideon’s call; the apparently twofold narrative of Gideon’s pursuit of the routed enemies, etc.- as proving conclusively the composite origin of the sacred record of Gideon’s judgeship. Others, on the contrary, see their way to reconcile all such features of the text with the literary unity of Judges, vi-viii. However this may be, one thing remains perfectly sure, to wit, that whatever may be the documents which have been utilized in framing the narrative of Gideon’s exploits, they agree substantially in their description of the words and deeds of this Greater Judge of Israel.

Subscription16

Catholic commentaries on the book of Judges by CLAIR (Paris, 1880); VON HUMMELAUER (Paris, 1888); LAGRANGE (Paris, 1903); Non-Catholic by MOORE (New York, 1895); BUDDE (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1897); NOWACK (Göttingen, 1900).

FRANCIS E. GIGOT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

September 1 – St. Giles

August 31, 2026

(Latin Ægidius.)

St Gilles and the Hind, painted by the Master of Saint Giles.

St Gilles and the Hind, painted by the
Master of Saint Giles.

An Abbot, said to have been born of illustrious Athenian parentage about the middle of the seventh century. Early in life he devoted himself exclusively to spiritual things, but, finding his noble birth and high repute for sanctity in his native land an obstacle to his perfection, he passed over to Gaul, where he established himself first in a wilderness near the mouth of the Rhone and later by the River Gard. But here again the fame of his sanctity drew multitudes to him, so he withdrew to a dense forest near Nimes, where in the greatest solitude he spent many years, his sole companion being a hind. This last retreat was finally discovered by the king’s hunters, who had pursued the hind to its place of refuge. The king [who according to the legend was Wamba (or Flavius?), King of the Visigoths, but who must have been a Frank, since the Franks had expelled the Visigoths from the neighbourhood of Nimes almost a century and a half earlier] conceived a high esteem for solitary, and would have heaped every honour upon him; but the humility of the saint was proof against all temptations. He consented, however, to receive thenceforth some disciples, and built a monastery in his valley, which he placed under the rule of St. Benedict. Here he died in the early part of the eighth century, with the highest repute for sanctity and miracles.

St. Giles giving to the poor.

St. Giles giving to the poor.

His cult spread rapidly far and wide throughout Europe in the Middle Ages, as is witnessed by the numberless churches and monasteries dedicated to him in France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and the British Isles; by the numerous MSS. in prose and verse commemorating his virtues and miracles; and especially by the vast concourse of pilgrims who from all Europe flocked to his shrine. In 1562 the relics of the saint were secretly transferred to Toulouse to save them from the hideous excesses of the Huguenots who were then ravaging France, and the pilgrimage in consequence declined. With the restoration of a great part of the relics to the church of St. Giles in 1862, and the discovery of his former tomb there in 1865, the pilgrimages have recommenced. Besides the city of St-Gilles, which sprang up around the abbey, nineteen other cities bear his name, St-Gilles, Toulouse, and a multitude of French cities, Antwerp, Bridges, and Tournai in Belgium, Cologne and Bamberg, in Germany, Prague and Gran in Austria-Hungary, Rome and Bologna in Italy, possess celebrated relics of St. Giles. In medieval art he is a frequent subject, being always depicted with his symbol, the hind. His feast is kept on 1 September. On this day there are also commemorated another St. Giles, an Italian hermit of the tenth century (Acta SS., XLI, 305), and a Blessed Giles, d. about 1203, a Cistercian abbot of Castaneda in the Diocese of Astorga, Spain (op. cit. XLI, 308). He is one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers.

John F. X. Murphy (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Subscription7

{ 0 comments }

September 2 – 3: The September Martyrs of the French Revolution, Blessed John du Lau and Companions

August 31, 2026

Martyrs of September (Also known as: Martyrs of Paris or Martyrs of Carmes)

In 1790, the revolutionary government of France enacted a law denying Papal authority over the Church in France. The French clergy were required to swear an oath to uphold this law and submit to the Republic. Many priests and religious took the oath but a sizable minority opposed it. The revolutionary leaders’ primary target was the aristocracy, but by 1792, their attention turned to the Church, especially the non-jurors within it.

Bl. Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman, Archbishop of Arles

Bl. Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman, Archbishop of Arles

In August, in the name of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, those who had refused the oath were rounded up and imprisoned in Parisian monasteries, emptied for that purpose.

Blessed John du Lau, archbishop of Arles, was born on October 30, 1738 at the Château de la Côte at Biras in the Dordogne, in the diocese of Périgueux, of an aristocratic family which had fed many members into the higher ranks of the clergy. His father was Armand du Lau, seigneur de La Coste and his mother Françoise de Salleton. Refusing to take the oath to the civil constitution, he had been brought to Paris and cast into the prison of the Cannes, formerly a Carmelite monastery.

Bl. Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld-Bayers, Bishop of Saintes

Bl. Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld-Bayers, Bishop of Saintes

Blessed Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld, Bishop of Saintes and a vigorous antagonist of Jansenism, and his brother, Francois-Joseph de la Rochefoucauld, Bishop of Beauvais, were sons of Jean de La Rochefoucauld, lord of Maumont, Magnac, and other places, knight of the military orders of Notre-Dame du Mont-Carmel and St-Lazarre de Jérusalem, and Marguerite des Escots. Both brothers were imprisoned.

In September “Vigilance Committees” were set up and mobs sent to the make-shift prisons. On 2nd September a season of bloodshed and slaughter began. The inmates were cut-down in cold blood. All of the prisoners, even the old and disabled, were put to the sword. The executions at the old Carmelite monastery in Paris were recorded.
The Massacre at the Abbaye Prison near St. Germain des Pres, engraved by Reinier Vinkeles and Daniel Vrydag

The Massacre at the Abbaye Prison near St. Germain des Pres, engraved by Reinier Vinkeles and Daniel Vrydag

Among the martyrs was Blessed Alexander Lenfant, a Jesuit. Just a few minutes before he died, he had been hearing the confession of a fellow priest. Both were killed moments later. The rioters then went to the Carmelite church which was also being used as a prison.

Bl. Anne-Alexandre-Charles-Marie Lanfant

Bl. Anne-Alexandre-Charles-Marie Lanfant

Bl. Anne-Alexandre-Charles-Marie Lanfant

The mob called out, “Archbishop of Arles!” Archbishop John du Lau of Arles (Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman) was praying in the chapel. When summoned, he came out and he said, “I am he whom you seek.” Thereupon, they cracked his skull, stabbed him and trampled him underfoot. Then the leader set up a “tribunal” before which the imprisoned were herded and commanded to take the oath. All refused; so, as they passed down the stairway, they were hacked to pieces by the murderers.

The bishop of Beauvais had earlier been wounded in the leg. When summoned, he answered, “I do not refuse to die with the others, but I cannot walk. I beg you to have the kindness to carry me where you wish me to go.” For a moment, his courtesy silenced the assassins. But, when he, too, refused the oath, he was killed like the rest.

On September 3, the same mob went to the Lazarist seminary. It was also a temporary prison, with ninety priests and religious. Only four escaped death.

The Massacre of the Priests in September 1792 by H. de la Charlerie

The Massacre of the Priests in September 1792 by H. de la Charlerie

According to Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne, “The number of active killers who took part in the September massacres was only about one hundred and fifty. The rest of Paris looked on in fear or approval, or stayed behind closed shutters.” (1)

Earl Gower, a British diplomat, wrote in his dispatches: “These unfortunate people fell victims to the fury of the enraged populace and were massacred with circumstances of barbarity too shocking to describe. The mob went afterwards to the prison of the Abbaye, and having demanded of the jailors a list of the prisoners they put aside such as were confined only for debt, and pulled to pieces most of the others. The same cruelties were committed during the night and continue this morning in all the other prisons of the town. When they have satiated their vengeance, which is principally directed against the refractory Priests,… it is to be hoped the tumult will subside, but as the multitude are perfectly masters, everything is to be dreaded.” (2)

September Massacres

The massacres continued for most of the year. By the end of September over 200 clergy had been killed and by the end of 1792 the total was 1500. One-hundred and ninety-one September martyrs were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1926. Long after the names of their blood-thirsty executioners have been forgotten, their heroism in the defence of the Papacy and the Faith will be remembered:

Blessed Ambroise-Augustin Chevreux

Bl. Ambroise-Augustin Chevreux

Bl. Ambroise-Augustin Chevreux

Bl. Ambroise-Augustin Chevreux

Blessed Andé Angar
Blessed André Grasset de Saint-Sauveur
Blessed André-Abel Alricy
Blessed Anne-Alexandre-Charles-Marie Lanfant
Blessed Antoine-Charles-Octavien du Bouzet
Blessed Antoine-Mathieu-Augustin Nogier
Blessed Apollinaris of Posat
Blessed Armand de Foucauld de Pontbriand
Blessed Armand-Anne-Auguste-Antonin-Sicaire Chapt de Rastignac
Blessed August-Dénis Nezel
Blessed Bernard-François de Cucsac
Blessed Bertrand-Antoine de Caupenne
Blessed Charles Carnus
Blessed Charles-François le Gué
Blessed Charles-Jéremie Bérauld du Pérou
Blessed Charles-Louis Hurtrel
Blessed Charles-Regis-Mathieu de la Calmette de Valfons (Count of Valfons)
Blessed Charles-Victor Véret
Blessed Claude Bochot
Blessed Claude Cayx-Dumas

Blessed Apollinaris of Posat

Blessed Apollinaris of Posat

Blessed Claude Chaudet
Blessed Claude Colin
Blessed Claude Fontaine

Blessed Claude Ponse
Blessed Claude Rousseau
Blessed Claude-Antoine-Raoul Laporte
Blessed Claude-François Gagnières des Granges

Blessed Apollinaris of Posat

Blessed Claude-Louis Marmotant de Savigny
Blessed Claude-Silvain-Raphaël Mayneaud de Bizefranc
Blessed Daniel-Louis André Des Pommerayes
Blessed Denis-Claude Duval
Blessed Éloy Herque du Roule
Blessed Étienne-François-Dieudonné de Ravinel
Blessed Étienne-Michel Gillet
Blessed Eustache Félix
Blessed François Balmain
Blessed François Dardan

Bl. François-Joseph de la Rochefoucald-Maumont, Bishop of Beauvais

Bl. François-Joseph de la Rochefoucald-Maumont, Bishop of Beauvais

Bl. François-Joseph de la Rochefoucald-Maumont, Bishop of Beauvais

Blessed François Dumasrambaud de Calandelle
Blessed François Lefranc
Blessed François Varheilhe-Duteil
Blessed François-César Londiveau
Blessed François-Hyacinthe lé Livec de Trésurin
Blessed François-Joseph de la Rochefoucald-MaumontBlessed François-Joseph Monnier
Blessed François-Joseph Pey
Blessed François-Louis Hébert
Blessed François-Louis Méallet de Fargues
Blessed François-Urbain Salins de Niart
Blessed Gabriel Desprez de Roche
Blessed Gaspard-Claude Maignien
Blessed Georges Girault
Blessed Georges-Jérôme Giroust
Blessed Gilbert-Jean Fautrel
Blessed Gilles-Louis-Symphorien Lanchon
Blessed Guillaume-Antoine Delfaut
Blessed Guillaume-Nicolas-Louis Leclerq

Blessed Henri-August Luzeau de la Mulonnière
Blessed Henri-Hippolyte Ermès
Blessed Henri-Jean Milet
Blessed Jacques de la Lande
Blessed Jacques Dufour
Blessed Jacques Friteyre-Durvé
Blessed Jacques-Alexandre Menuret
Blessed Jacques-Augustin Robert de Lézardières
Blessed Jacques-Étienne-Philippe Hourrier
Blessed Jacques-François de Lubersac
Blessed Jacques-Gabriel Galais
Blessed Jacques-Jean Lemeunier
Blessed Jacques-Joseph Le jardinier desLandes
Blessed Jacques-Jules Bonnaud
Blessed Jacques-Léonor Rabé

Bl. Guillaume-Nicolas-Louis Leclerq (Salomon), a lay Brother.

Bl. Guillaume-Nicolas-Louis Leclerq (Salomon), a lay Brother.

Bl. Guillaume-Nicolas-Louis Leclerq (Salomon), a lay Brother.

Blessed Jacques-Louis Schmid
Blessed Jean Charton de Millou
Blessed Jean Goizet
Blessed Jean Lacan
Blessed Jean Lemaître
Blessed Jean-André Capeau
Blessed Jean-Antoine Guilleminet
Blessed Jean-Antoine Savine
Blessed Jean-Antoine Seconds
Blessed Jean-Antoine-Barnabé Séguin
Blessed Jean-Antoine-Hyacinthe Boucharenc de Chaumeils
Blessed Jean-Antoine-Joseph de Villette
Blessed Jean-Baptiste Bottex
Blessed Jean-Baptiste Jannin
Blessed Jean-Baptiste Nativelle
Blessed Jean-Baptiste-Claude Aubert
Blessed Jean-Baptiste-Marie Tessier
Blessed Jean-Baptiste-Michel Pontus
Blessed Jean-Charles Caron
Blessed Jean-Charles Legrand
Blessed Jean-Charles-Marie Bernard du Cornillet
Blessed Jean-François Bonnel de Pradal
Blessed Jean-François Bousquet
Blessed Jean-François Burté
Blessed Jean-François-Marie Benoît-Vourlat
Blessed Jean-Henri Gruyer
Blessed Jean-Henri-Louis-Michel Samson
Blessed Jean-Joseph de Lavèze-Bellay
Blessed Jean-Joseph Rateau
Blessed Jean-Louis Guyard de Saint-Clair
Blessed Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman

Bl. Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman

Bl. Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman

Bl. Jean-Marie du Lau d’Alleman

Blessed Jean-Michel Philippot
Blessed Jean-Philippe Marchand
Blessed Jean-Pierre Bangue
Blessed Jean-Pierre Duval
Blessed Jean-Pierre Le Laisant
Blessed Jean-Pierre Simon
Blessed Jean-Robert Quéneau
Blessed Jean-Thomas Leroy
Blessed Joseph Bécavin
Blessed Joseph Falcoz
Blessed Joseph-Louis Oviefre
Blessed Joseph-Marie Gros
Blessed Joseph-Thomas Pazery de Thorame
Blessed Jules-Honoré-Cyprien Pazery de Thorame
Blessed Julien le Laisant
Blessed Julien Poulain Delaunay
Blessed Julien-François Hédouin
Blessed Laurent
Blessed Louis Barreau de La Touche
Blessed Louis le Danois
Blessed Louis Longuet
Blessed Louis Mauduit
Blessed Louis-Alexis-Mathias Boubert
Blessed Louis-Benjamin Hurtrel
Blessed Louis-François Rigot
Blessed Louis-François-André Barret
Blessed Louis-Jean-Mathieu Lanier
Blessed Louis-Joseph François
Blessed Louis-Laurent Gaultier
Blessed Louis-Remi Benoist
Blessed Louis-Remi-Nicolas Benoist
Blessed Loup Thomas-Bonnotte
Blessed Marc-Louis Royer
Blessed Marie-François Mouffle
Blessed Martin-François-Alexis Loublier
Blessed Mathurin-Nicolas de la VilleCrohain le Bous de Villeneuve
Blessed Mathurin-Victoir Deruelle
Blessed Michel Leber
Blessed Michel-André-Sylvestre Binard
Blessed Michel-François de laGardette
Blessed Nicolas Bize
Blessed Nicolas Clairet
Blessed Nicolas Colin
Blessed Nicolas Gaudreau
Blessed Nicolas-Claude Roussel
Blessed Nicolas-Marie Verron
Blessed Olivier Lefebvre
Blessed Philibert Fougères
Blessed Pierre Bonzé
Blessed Pierre Brisquet
Blessed Pierre Brisse
Blessed Pierre Gauguin
Blessed Pierre Landry
Blessed Pierre Ploquin
Blessed Pierre Saint-James
Blessed Pierre-Claude Pottier
Blessed Pierre-Florent Leclercq
Blessed Pierre-François Hénocq
Blessed Pierre-François Pazery de Thorames
Blessed Pierre-Jacques de Turmenyes
Blessed Pierre-Jacques-Marie Vitalis
Blessed Pierre-Jean Garrigues
Blessed Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld-Bayers

Bl. Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld-Bayers

Bl. Pierre-Louis de la Rochefoucauld-Bayers

Blessed Pierre-Louis Gervais
Blessed Pierre-Louis Joret
Blessed Pierre-Louis-Joseph Verrier
Blessed Pierre-Michel Guérin
Blessed Pierre-Michel Guérin du Rocher
Blessed Pierre-Nicolas Psalmon
Blessed Pierre-Paul Balzac
Blessed Pierre-Robert Regnet
Blessed René Nativelle
Blessed René-Joseph Urvoy
Blessed René-Julien Massey
Blessed René-Marie Andrieux
Blessed René-Nicolas Poret
Blessed Robert le Bis
Blessed Robert-François Guérin du Rocher
Blessed Saintin Huré
Blessed Sébastien Desbrielles
Blessed Thomas-Jean Montsaint
Blessed Thomas-Nicolas Dubray
Blessed Thomas-René Dubuisson
Blessed Urbain Lefebvre
Blessed Vincent Abraham
Blessed Vincent-Joseph le Rousseau de Rosencoat
Blessed Yves-André Guillon de Keranrun
Blessed Yves-Jean-Pierre Rey de Kervisic

 

(1) Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne, Les nuits de Paris (Paris: Hachette, [1793] 1960), 247–53.

(2) Oscar Browning, ed., The Despatches of Earl Gower (Cambridge University Press, 1885), 213–16, 219–21, 223–28.

_____________________

Also of interest:

French nobles give Bastille Day a royal ‘No’ – The Irish Times

Stories about La Vendée 

{ 0 comments }

Commentaries on how Don Alonso Peres de Guzman sacrificed his own son rather than surrender to the Muslims

August 31, 2026

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

In September 1292, Yacub Ben Yussuf, King of Morocco, took over the stronghold of Tarifa. Infant Dom João, brother of Sancho IV the brave, king of Castile and Leon, in fact made a pact with Yacub that enabled him to conquer Tarifa, defended by Alonso Perez de Guzman. Rather than surrender, Guzman allowed his own son, a prisoner of the Infant, to be sacrificed within its walls, a deed that earned him the nickname ‘The Good’ (1294).

In a handwritten letter, King Dom Sancho thanked Guzman for his loyalty, saying, “For the death of your son, which made you like unto our Father Abraham, out of courage, loyalty and fidelity to the oath you had made to me regarding the city of Tarifa, you provided the dagger with which the Moors beheaded him.” This excerpt is taken from Johann Baptist Weiss, História Universal, vol VI, p.603. That page reproduces a painting depicting the heroic gesture of Dom Alonso de Guzman as he throws, from atop the walls, the dagger to the Moors.

From atop the walls, Dom Alonso de Guzman throws the dagger to the Moors.

So this is how that historic episode unfolded: The one Yacub took the town of Tarifa. The king’s brother had made a pact with Yacub so he could pull it off; in other words, he betrayed. Tarifa was defended by Alonso Perez de Guzman, who, in order not to surrender, allowed his own son, a prisoner of the wayward prince, to be sacrificed within its walls.

From atop the wall he threw the dagger for the Moors to kill his son, as if saying, “You are saying you will kill my son if I do not surrender the place. Look, here is a dagger, go ahead and kill him.”

It is an extraordinary move, one with such grandeur as to leave us absolutely at a loss for words.

We can see such feats in our Saint-of-the-Day series and in some episodes in the life of Christian civilization. There is such a great integrity of soul in Don Alonso’s attitude and he takes sacrifice to such a point and bears the pain of his situation in such a manly fashion that no manner of pettiness or fear can be found in him at all.

He could have said, for example – in the romantic fashion in vogue in the 19th century – “Well, go ahead, take my son. Dear son of mine, be thou the pained yet innocent victim of the hateful enemy of Christian civilization.” None of that! He could at least have said, “I watch impassible and indignant, shaking with sorrow, this sacrifice about to be done.” None of that, either.

Castle of Tarifa, where Don Alonso threw the knife to the Moors.

His attitude was like saying, “For you to see that I command my own soul and master even the most legitimate feelings of my paternal love out of love for the Catholic Church, look, here is my dagger.” And he throws it. This really means, “I take to the ultimate degree my victory over the legitimate fears of nature.”

This integrity is really enchanting. One can say this truly is a Catholic man in whom there is no fraud, the praise Our Lord made of St. Bartholomew: “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile” [John. 1:47]. No deceit, no concession. He goes all the way to the full length of his duty. This is what is so enchanting in that magnificent move.

One of you could object: Well, Dr. Plínio, all this is true but only to a certain degree. Because in the final analysis, it is a bit inhumane for a father to watch so deliberately the death of his son. I would like to see some uncertainty in that father; I would like to see some tears in his eyes; I would like to see some hesitation: ‘Should I or should I not let them kill him?’ If that father atop the walls had only had a moment of hesitation and then said, ‘Well, go ahead, kill him!’ I would understand and sympathize with him more than when I see that determination from the very first instance, taken to the point of throwing them the dagger with which to kill his son.”

Read More Here

{ 0 comments }

How Marie Antoinette gave prestige to the potato – and a potato recipe from the French royal court

August 31, 2026

Girl Peeling Potatoes painted by Albert Anker

As already noted in a previous post, the potato was one of the plants brought to the Old World after Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the Americas.

While the potato is used extensively throughout Europe today–German average potato consumption is 150 lbs per person per year–in its first years, the potato struggled for acceptance. In France, wheat and bread were the staples and the lowly potato was scorned.

Portrait of Antoine Parmentier painted by François Dumont

Antoine-Augustin de Parmentier (1737-1813), an eminent physician who wanted to introduce the potato into the French diet, decided that the best way to break  through the prejudice was to recruit the good offices of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. If they made the potato fashionable, the rest of society would follow suit; and follow they did.

Potato flowers

Several stories are told. In one of them, Parmentier is said to have given the royal couple some potato flowers when they were walking in the gardens of Versailles. The Queen put some of the little flowers in her hair. The king put one in his buttonhole. The nobles and ladies in their retinue did the same and the incident became a topic of conversation throughout France.

1886 engraving of Parmentier showing potatoes to Louis XVI

Another story tells how the king gave Parmentier some acreage for the growing of potatoes. Walls were put up and a guard established to protect the garden. The air of mystery aroused people’s curiosity, which was doubled when guards accepted bribes to allow people to dig up potatoes. All of this staging encouraged people to look at the humble tuber from a new perspective.

This statue of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier showing him distributing potatoes is located in the Parmentier Métro Line 3 Terminal in Paris. The Parmentier Métro opened in 1904 and was named after him.

All of these efforts received their reward and the potato was enshrined for good in French cuisine in 1785. In that year, famine struck northern France, but the poor were able to survive, thanks to the lowly potato. The death of many by starvation had been avoided.

Read More and Try the Recipe

{ 0 comments }

Sweden’s Royal Family Welcomes Ukrainian Children at the Royal Palace

August 27, 2026

Queen Silvia of Sweden. Photo by Frankie Fouganthin.

h/t: newmyroyals.com

For two weeks, children from Ukraine who have been injured in the war have been visiting Sweden for rest and recuperation. On August 25, 2026, Queen Silvia, Crown Princess Victoria, and Princess Madeleine welcomed the children to a cake party at the Royal Palace.

The children, aged between 10 and 18, have all been injured during the war. Together with their relatives, they are now spending a couple of weeks in Sweden for rest and recuperation. The initiative is organised by Beredskapslyftet, Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital at Karolinska University Hospital, and Min Stora Dag.

h/t: newmyroyals.com

{ 0 comments }

Work As Diversion and Work As Heroism

August 27, 2026

Completely relaxed physiognomies. Smiles on every face. Appearances that express a high degree of physical and psychological well-being. Their subdued, solid-colored clothing reinforces this impression.

And what are these young people doing? If they were all gathered for tea around a table in a ‘cozy’ salon, their way of being would be no different. But what is this table? Are they playing some new and peculiar game that provides a relaxing diversion? Far from this. They are workers who work in a factory.

This vision of work is obviously false. All work requires effort. And this effort fatigues, wearies and exhausts. However, in this picture, those very ideas of fatigue, weariness and exhaustion are completely eliminated. One could say that there were no original sin, and that perspiration, that terrible symbol of arduous exertion, is not inherent to work.

Clearly, in special circumstances, professional activity can be supremely pleasurable and relaxing. But these circumstances are fleeting. As the work is prolonged or repeated, the fatigue and the painful impression of the fight begin to appear.

That an artist has decided to portray work in this false light is not the point of major importance. What is important is that his picture typifies a very generalized tendency of our epoch, which is a fundamental horror of all suffering. This leads to trying to conceal pain and present the universe like a paradise of delights. Thus pain is just a subjective product of the mind. If a man will only smile in face of everything, he will have eliminated suffering —if not totally, then at least for the most part.

This gave rise to the famous phrase: “Break your leg but keep smiling.”

The picture expresses this trivial and false conception of life, which is convincing only for the simple-minded. It can be summed up in two words: naturalistic neo-paganism.

 

Long face, distinct and strong features, penetrating and resolute gaze, this Basque fisherman who holds his large oar with a manly vigor has a harsh profession that shapes and ennobles his soul. He is a man in every sense of the word. He is a man who has the noble chivalry of a true Christian, of an authentic Catholic. His whole personality reflects the struggle, the fight and the risk. One sees that he has confronted and has overcome the furor and treachery of the ocean innumerable times and that he is still completely ready for a countless series of other bold undertakings.

Underlying the physiognomy of this worker and the ambience he embodies is a whole Catholic conception of work and pain. Suffering exists. But it is an admirable gift from God so that man”, aided by grace, can temper and elevate his personality. Saint Frances de Sales called suffering the Eighth Sacrament. To conceal suffering is to hide one of the most noble and important aspects of existence. If one analyzes life well, he will see that almost all — or all — of the beauty that it contains results from sufferings boldly confronted and nobly borne to the end. What would this fisherman be without the great struggles of his existence? Are they not his true and shining glory?

Obviously, without the help of grace man can not righteously and totally support the thousand types of efforts and sacrifices that life imposes. But, when the soul corresponds to grace, it is capable of that grand and glorious conformity to suffering.

Thus we have the Catholic conception of work, that its most intrinsically beautiful aspect is what it possesses of the painful.

 

Ambience Customs & Civilization, No. 87 — March 1958

{ 0 comments }

August 27 – “Conform I would not, for it was against my conscience”

August 27, 2026

Saint David Lewis, alias Charles Baker

(Recté, according to his own entry in the English College David Henry Lewis).

Saint David Lewis, engraving 1683

Saint David Lewis, engraving 1683

An English Jesuit martyr, born in Monmouthshire in 1616; died at Usk, 27 August, 1679. His father, Morgan Lewis, was a lax Catholic, afterwards converted; his mother, Margaret Pritchard, was a very devout Catholic. David was brought up as a Protestant, and educated at the Royal Grammar School at Abergavenny, of which his father was the head master. In his sixteenth year, he spent three months in Paris as companion to the son of Earl Rivers, and there was received into the Church by a Father Talbot, S.J. On returning to England he remained with his parents till their death and then, having a desire for the priesthood, went to Rome, where he was admitted as an alumnus to the English College, 3 November, 1638. He was ordained priest in 1642, and entered the novitiate of the Society at Sant’ Andrea, 16 April, 1644. In 1647 he was sent to the English mission, but was quickly recalled and made Spiritual Father at the Roman College. In 1648 he returned to England finally, and was assigned to the South Wales District, where he labored zealously for twenty-eight years. It is told of him that to avoid the persecutors, he used to take long and dangerous journeys at night that he might be able to visit the faithful under cover of darkness, and that his devotedness gained for him the title Father of the Poor.

In the summer of 1678, Titus Oates came forward with his pretended revelations, and Parliament in a frenzy of bigotry offered fresh rewards for the discovery and arrest of priests and Jesuits. Father David was one of the victims. A bigoted Calvinist magistrate named Arnold, who had hitherto professed friendship for him, caused him to be arrested at Llantarnam in Monmouthshire, 17 November, 1678. He was carried in a sort of triumphal procession to Abergavenny, where, in allusion to one article of Oates’ fabrications, he was shown to the people as “the pretended Bishop of Llandaff”. He was then committed for trial, and meanwhile imprisoned, first at Monmouth and then at Usk. The trial came off at Monmouth, 16 March, 1679. It was impossible to connect Father David with the pretended Popish Plot, so he was charged under the Statute of 27 Elizabeth, which made it high treason to take orders abroad in the Church of Rome and afterwards to return to England and say Mass. The trial was not too fairly conducted, and the witnesses were of a worthless class. Still the breach of the law was undeniable, and he was condemned to undergo the barbarous penalties which the law prescribed. For the moment, indeed, he was reprieved, and taken up to London, to be confronted with Oates and his associates. It was hoped that he might be induced to save his life either by apostasy or by inculpating some others in the Plot.

ST DAVID LEWIS

Lord Shaftesbury advised him that if he gave evidence about the “plot” or renounced his Catholic faith, that his life would be spared and he would be greatly rewarded. Lewis said in his dying speech, “discover the plot I could not, as I knew of none; and conform I would not, for it was against my conscience”.

But this hope proved vain, he was sent back to Monmouthshire, and his sentence was carried out at Usk. The cause of his beautification was introduced, under the name of “David Lewis, alias Charles Baker” by the Decree of 4 December, 1886.

He was canonized by Pope Paul VI on October 25, 1970.

Corbett, State Trials, VII; Florus Anglo-Bavaricus (1685); Challoner, Memoirs of Missionary Priests; Foley, Records of the English Province, S.J.; Gillow, Bib. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v.

(cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

August 27 – Never underestimate the prayers of a mother

August 27, 2026

St. Monica

Widow; born of Christian parents at Tagaste, North Africa, in 333; died at Ostia, near Rome, in 387.

Marriage of St Monica by Antonio Vivarini

Marriage of St Monica by Antonio Vivarini

We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his religion was no more than a name; his temper was violent and he appears to have been of dissolute habits. Consequently Monica’s married life was far from being a happy one, more especially as Patritius’s mother seems to have been of a like disposition with himself. There was of course a gulf between husband and wife; her almsdeeds and her habits of prayer annoyed him, but it is said that he always held her in a sort of reverence. Monica was not the only matron of Tagaste whose married life was unhappy, but, by her sweetness and patience, she was able to exercise a veritable apostolate amongst the wives and mothers of her native town; they knew that she suffered as they did, and her words and example had a proportionate effect.

St. Monica with her son, St. Augustine

St. Monica with her son, St. Augustine

Three children were born of this marriage, Augustine the eldest, Navigius the second, and a daughter, Perpetua. Monica had been unable to secure baptism for her children, and her grief was great when Augustine fell ill; in her distress she besought Patritius to allow him to be baptized; he agreed, but on the boy’s recovery withdrew his consent. Subscription7 All Monica’s anxiety now centered in Augustine; he was wayward and, as he himself tells us, lazy. He was sent to Madaura to school and Monica seems to have literally wrestled with God for the soul of her son. A great consolation was vouchsafed her – in compensation perhaps for all that she was to experience through Augustine – Patritius became a Christian. Meanwhile, Augustine had been sent to Carthage, to prosecute his studies, and here he fell into grievous sin. Patritius died very shortly after his reception into the Church and Monica resolved not to marry again. At Carthage Augustine had become a Manichean and when on his return home he ventilated certain heretical propositions she drove him away from her table, but a strange vision which she had urged her to recall him. It was at this time that she went to see a certain holy bishop, whose name is not given, but who consoled her with the now famous words, “the child of those tears shall never perish.” There is no more pathetic story in the annals of the Saints than that of Monica pursuing her wayward son to Rome, wither he had gone by stealth; when she arrived he had already gone to Milan, but she followed him. Here she found St. Ambrose and through him she ultimately had the joy of seeing Augustine yield, after seventeen years of resistance. Mother and son spent six months of true peace at Cassiacum, after which time Augustine was baptized in the church of St. John the Baptist at Milan. Africa claimed them however, and they set out on their journey, stopping at Cività Vecchia and at Ostia. Here death overtook Monica and the finest pages of his “Confessions” were penned as the result of the emotion Augustine then experienced.

Saint Monica's tomb, in Sant'Agostino church at Rome, by Isaia da Pisa.

Saint Monica’s tomb, in Sant’Agostino church at Rome, by Isaia da Pisa.

St. Monica was buried at Ostia, and at first seems to have been almost forgotten, though her body was removed during the sixth century to a hidden crypt in the church of St. Aureus. About the thirteenth century, however, the cult of St. Monica began to spread and a feast in her honour was kept on 4 May. In 1430 Martin V ordered the relics to be brought to Rome. Many miracles occurred on the way, and the cultus of St. Monica was definitely established. Later the Archbishop of Rouen, Cardinal d’Estouteville, built a church at Rome in honour of St. Augustine and deposited the relics of St. Monica in a chapel to the left of the high altar. The Office of St. Monica however does not seem to have found a place in the Roman Breviary before the sixteenth century.

In 1850 there was established at Notre Dame de Sion at Paris an Association of Christian mothers under the patronage of St. Monica; its object was mutual prayer for sons and husbands who had gone astray. This Association was in 1856 raised to the rank of an archconfraternity and spread rapidly over all the Catholic world, branches being established in Dublin, London, Liverpool, Sydney, and Buenos Aires. Eugenius IV had established a similar Confraternity long before.

Bibliography. ST. AUGUSTINE, Confession, IX, reprinted in SURIUS. GUALTERUS, Canon Regular of Ostia, who was especially charged with the work of removing the relics from Ostia by Martin V, wrote a life of the saint with an account of the translation. He appended to the life a letter which used to be attributed to St. Augustine but which is undoubtedly spurious; it purports to be written to his sister Perpetua and describes their mother’s death. The BOLLANDISTS decide for the contemporary character of the letter whilst denying it to St. Augustine. BARONIUS, Ann. Eccl., ad an. 389; BOUGAUD, Histoire de S. Monique.

HUGH T. POPE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

{ 0 comments }

August 28 – Restless Heart

August 27, 2026

St. Augustine of Hippo

Statue of St. Augustine and the Angel in the Royal Monastery of the Incarnation in Madrid, Spain.

The great St. Augustine’s life is unfolded to us in documents of unrivaled richness, and of no great character of ancient times have we information comparable to that contained in the “Confessions,” which relate the touching story of his soul, the “Retractations,” which give the history of his mind, and the “Life of Augustine,” written by his friend Possidius, telling of the saint’s apostolate.

We will confine ourselves to sketching the three periods of this great life: (1) the young wanderer’s gradual…

Read more here.

{ 0 comments }

August 29 – Passion of St. John the Baptist

August 27, 2026

Part of the Baptist’s ministry was exercised in Perea: Ennon, another scene of his labours, was within the borders of Galilee; both Perea and Galilee made up the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. This prince, a son worthy of his father Herod the Great, had married, likely for political reasons, the daughter of Aretas, king of […]

Read the full article →

August 29 – At the helm during the French Revolution

August 27, 2026

Pope Pius VI (GIOVANNI ANGELICO BRASCHI). Born at Cesena, 27 December, 1717; elected 15 February, 1775; died at Valence, France, 29 Aug., 1799. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and was educated at the Jesuit College of Cesena and studied law at Ferrara. After a diplomatic mission to Naples, he was appointed papal […]

Read the full article →

August 30 – Saved by the cross

August 27, 2026

Blessed Bronislava (or Bronislawa) of Poland Born in 1230 to an important Polish family, her grandfather had founded the Premonstratensian monastery at Zwierzyniec near Cracow where Bronislava’s aunt Gertrude had entered, later becoming prioress at Imbramowice. Bronislava was also a cousin of the Dominican Saint Hyacinth and related to Saint Jacek and Blessed Czeslaw. Bronislava entered the convent at Zwierzyniec at the […]

Read the full article →

August 30 – She smuggled a priest out of prison

August 27, 2026

Saint Margaret Ward Martyr, born at Congleton, Cheshire; executed at Tyburn, London, 30 Aug., 1588. Nothing is known of her early life except that she was of good family and for a time dwelt in the house of a lady of distinction named Whitall then residing in London. Knowing that William Watson, the priest who […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – Chancellor of the court

August 24, 2026

St. Ouen (OWEN; DADON, Latin Audaenus). Archbishop of Rouen, b. at Sancy, near Soissons about 609; d. at Clichy-la-Garenne, near Paris, 24 Aug., 683. His father, Autharius, and his mother, Aiga, belonged to the Gallo-Roman race. Shortly after Ouen’s birth they came to Ussy-sur-Marne, where he spent his childhood, with which tradition connects a series […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – St. María Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament

August 24, 2026

Micaela Desmaisières López de Dicastillo was born in 1809 in Madrid during the War of Independence to Miguel Desmaisières Flores and Bernarda López de Dicastillo Olmeda; her brother was Diego (1806-55). Her father was a high-ranking officer in the armed forces and her mother was an attendant to Queen Maria Luisa de Parma. Her mother […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – Saint Bartholomew’s Day: the real story

August 24, 2026

Saint Bartholomew’s Day This massacre of which Protestants were the victims occurred in Paris on 24 August, 1572 (the feast of St. Bartholomew), and in the provinces of France during the ensuing weeks, and it has been the subject of knotty historical disputes. The first point argued was whether or not the massacre had been […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – St. Emilie De Vialar

August 24, 2026

Every child comes into the world with the message that God still loves the world. Emilie De Vialar, Saint and Foundress, was born on September 12, 1797 in a family of noble descent. Her father, Antoine Auguste Jacques, was the son of a renowned High Court Judge. Her mother, Antoinette Emilie de Portal, was the […]

Read the full article →

The True Friends of the People Are Traditionalists

August 24, 2026

The True Friends of the People Are Traditionalists   From the apostolic letter Notre charge apostolique, August 25, 1910, of Saint Pius X: Let not the priests be led astray in the maze of contemporary opinions, in the mirage of a false democracy. Let them not borrow from the rhetoric of the worst enemies of […]

Read the full article →

Jesus Christ Did Not Teach a Chimerical Equality Nor Disrespect for Authority

August 24, 2026

[From the Apostolic Letter Notre charge apostolique of Pope Saint Pius X, August 25, 1910]: Then, if Jesus was kind to those who went astray and to sinners, He did not respect their erroneous convictions, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all to instruct them, to convert them and to save them. […]

Read the full article →

Queen Blanche of France shapes the young Saint Louis IX for the trials of kingship

August 24, 2026

When young Louis inherited the French crown at the age of twelve upon Louis VIII’s premature death, he also inherited a royal domain that was greatly expanded by his grandfather, Philip Augustus…. The virtue of any young man is strengthened by grace achieved through prayer and obedience to his duties, but Saint Louis had the […]

Read the full article →

August 25 – The King who would rather die than sin

August 24, 2026

Saint Louis IX King of France, son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, born at Poissy, 25 April, 1215; died near Tunis, 25 August, 1270. He was eleven years of age when the death of Louis VIII made him king, and nineteen when he married Marguerite of Provence by whom he had eleven children. […]

Read the full article →

Saint Louis IX, the Crusader-King, Was a Peacemaker Among Christians

August 24, 2026

Differences arose between the Greek clergy and the Latin clergy of the isle of Cyprus. Louis succeeded in putting an end to them. The Templars and Hospitallers appealed to him as judge in their constantly reviving quarrels; he made them swear to be reconciled, and to have no other enemies than those of Christ. The […]

Read the full article →

August 25 – He opened the first public free school in Europe

August 24, 2026

St. Joseph Calasanctius (Calasanz) Called in religion “a Matre Dei,” founder of the Piarists, born 11 Sept., 1556, at the castle of Calasanza near Petralta de la Sal in Aragon; died 25 Aug., 1648, at Rome; feast 27 Aug. His parents, Don Pedro Calasanza and Donna Maria Gastonia, gave Joseph, the youngest of five children, […]

Read the full article →

August 26 – This noblewoman survived the Terror and founded the Sisters of the Cross

August 24, 2026

Saint Elizabeth Bichier des Ages She was born of a rich, noble family on July 5, 1773, at the Château des Ages, France. Raised in a pious home, she developed at an early age a close relationship with God and a genuine love for the poor. She was twenty-five when she first met André Hubert […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – Saint Philibert of Jumièges and Recipes for Hazelnuts Named in His Honor

August 20, 2026

Saint Philibert of Jumièges (c. 608–684) was the only son of a Frankish noble, a courtier of Dagobert I. He was educated at court by Saint Ouen and entered monastic life at Rebais and was elected abbot at the age of 20. In 654, St. Philibert received a gift of land from Clovis II on […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – The Knights Templar owe him

August 20, 2026

St. Bernard of Clairvaux Born in 1090, at Fontaines, near Dijon, France; died at Clairvaux, 21 August, 1153. His parents were Tescelin, lord of Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both belonging to the highest nobility of Burgundy. Bernard, the third of a family of seven children, six of whom were sons, was educated with particular […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – La Vallete

August 20, 2026

Jean Parisot de La Valette Forty-eighth Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem; born in 1494; died in Malta, 21 Aug., 1568. He came from an old family of Southern France, several members of which had been capitouls (chief magistrates) in Toulouse. When still young he entered the Order […]

Read the full article →

August 22 – Venerable John Wall

August 20, 2026

Blessed John Wall Martyr, born in Lancashire, 1620; suffered near Worcester, 22 August, 1679; known at Douay and Rome as John Marsh, and when on the Mission under the aliases of Francis Johnson, Webb, and Dormore. The son of wealthy and staunch Lancashire Catholics, he was sent when very young to Douai College. He entered […]

Read the full article →

August 22 – The Queenship of Mary

August 20, 2026

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church. Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s Queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – What Saint Pius X says about equality

August 20, 2026

In the motu proprio Fin dalla prima, of December 18, 1903, Saint Pius X summarizes the doctrine of Leo XIII on social inequalities: 1. Human society, as God established it, is composed of unequal elements, just as the members of the human body are unequal. To make them all equal would be impossible, and would […]

Read the full article →

August 23 – St. Rose of Lima

August 20, 2026

St. Rose of Lima Virgin, patroness of America, born at Lima, Peru 20 April, 1586; died there 30 August, 1617. Saint Rose was born Isabel Flores y de Oliva in the city of Lima, the Viceroyalty of Peru, then part of New Spain. She was one of the many children of Gaspar Flores, a harquebusier […]

Read the full article →

August 23: He brought peace to Italy’s war-torn city-states in the Middle Ages

August 20, 2026

Saint Philip Benizi, Servite Priest (1233-1285) Saint Philip Benizi was born in Florence on the Feast of the Assumption, 1233. That same day the Order of Servites was founded by the Mother of God. As an infant one year old, Philip spoke when in the presence of these new religious, and announced the Servants of […]

Read the full article →

August 17 – St. Clare of Montefalco

August 17, 2026

Born at Montefalco about 1268; died there, 18 August, 1308. Much dispute has existed as to whether St. Clare of Montefalco was a Franciscan or an Augustinian; and while Wadding, with Franciscan biographers of the saint, contends that she was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, Augustinian writers, whom the Bollandists seem […]

Read the full article →

August 17 – Her great beauty aroused the jealousy of the queen

August 17, 2026

St. Beatrix da Silva A Portuguese nun, died 1 September, 1490. In Portuguese she is known as Blessed Brites. She was a member of the house of Portalegre and descended from the royal family of Portugal. She accompanied the Portuguese Princess Isabel to Spain, when she married John II of Castile. There Beatrix seems to […]

Read the full article →

August 18 – She led the search for the True Cross

August 17, 2026

Saint Helena (also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople) The mother of Constantine the Great, born about the middle of the third century, possibly in Drepanum (later known as Helenopolis) on the Nicomedian Gulf; died about 330. She was of humble parentage; St. Ambrose, in his “Oratio de obitu Theodosii”, referred […]

Read the full article →

August 19 – St. John Eudes

August 17, 2026

French missionary and founder of the Eudists and of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity; author of the liturgical worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; born at Ri, France, 14 Nov., 1601; died at Caen, 19 Aug., 1680. He was a brother of the French historian, François Eudes de Nézeray. At […]

Read the full article →

August 19 – The prince who was made bishop at age 22

August 17, 2026

St. Louis of Toulouse Bishop of Toulouse, generally represented vested in pontifical garments and holding a book and a crosier, b. at Brignoles, Provence, Feb., 1274; d. there, 19 Aug., 1297. He was the second son of Charles II of Anjou, called the Lame, King of Naples (1288- 1309), and nephew of St. Louis IX […]

Read the full article →

August 18 – Soldier in every battlefield

August 17, 2026

Théophile-Louis-Henri Wyart (In religion DOM SEBASTIAN). Abbot of Cîteaux and Abbot-General of the Order of Reformed Cistercians, b. at Bouchain, Department of Nord, France, 12 Oct., 1839; d. in Rome, 18 Aug., 1904. Of a pious and studious disposition, he made rapid progress in the usual branches of learning, under private tutors and at both […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – St. Maximus of Constantinople

August 13, 2026

St. Maximus of Constantinople Known as the Theologian and as Maximus Confessor, born at Constantinople about 580; died in exile 13 August, 662. He is one of the chief names in the Monothelite controversy one of the chief doctors of the theology of the Incarnation and of ascetic mysticism, and remarkable as a witness to […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – The Pope Who Resigned

August 13, 2026

Pope St. Pontian Dates of birth and death unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 145) gives Rome as his native city and calls his father Calpurnius. With him begins the brief chronicle of the Roman bishops of the third century, of which the author of the Liberian Catalogue of the popes made use in […]

Read the full article →

August 14 – Founding Father

August 13, 2026

Pierre Chastellain Missionary among the Huron Indians, born at Senlis, France, in 1606; died at Quebec, 14 August, 1684. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and at the age of thirty sailed from France with two future martyrs, Fathers Isaac Jogues and Charles Garnier, and the new Governor of Canada, Montmagny, the successor […]

Read the full article →

August 14 – St. Eusebius, Roman patrician and priest

August 13, 2026

St. Eusebius of Rome A presbyter at Rome; date of birth unknown; d. 357(?). He was a Roman patrician and priest, and is mentioned with distinction in Latin martyrologies. The ancient genuine martyrology of Usuard styles him confessor at Rome under the Arian emperor Constantius and adds that he was buried in the cemetery of […]

Read the full article →

August 15 – Prester John

August 13, 2026

Prester John Name of a legendary Eastern priest and king. FIRST STAGE The mythical journey to Rome of a certain Patriarch John of India in 1122, and his visit to Callistus II, cannot have been the origin of the legend. Not until much later, in a manuscript dating from the latter part of the fifteenth-century […]

Read the full article →

August 15 – The Knights of St. John capture Rhodes and establish their sovereignty

August 13, 2026

On 15 August, 1310, under the leadership of Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, the Knights of St. John captured the island in spite of the Greek emperor, Andronicus II. The Knights of Rhodes, the successors of the Hospitallers of St. John, were distinguished from the latter in many ways. In the first place, the grand […]

Read the full article →

In order to have the spirit of chivalry, love the sublimity of the fight

August 13, 2026

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The problem is, for you to have the spirit of chivalry you need to be fully imbued with the sublimity of what you do, and to love this sublimity. If you do not do that, you will not have the true spirit of the knight. You may say: “If we […]

Read the full article →

August 16 – His incorrupt right hand is treasured as the most sacred relic in Hungary

August 13, 2026

St. Stephen of Hungary First King of Hungary, born at Gran, 975; died 15 August, 1038. He was a son of the Hungarian chief Géza and was baptized, together with his father, by Archbishop St. Adalbert of Prague in 985, on which occasion he changed his heathen name Vaik (Vojk) into Stephen. In 995 he […]

Read the full article →

August 16 – Apostle of the North

August 13, 2026

St. Hyacinth Dominican, called the Apostle of the North, son of Eustachius Konski of the noble family of Odrowacz [or Odrowaz]; born 1185 at the castle of Lanka, at Kamin, in Silesia, Poland…; died 15 August, 1257, at Cracow. Feast, 16 Aug. A near relative of Saint Ceslaus, he made his studies at Cracow, Prague, […]

Read the full article →

August 10 – Defiant under torture, he inspires noble souls until today

August 10, 2026

St. Lawrence Martyr; died 10 August, 258. St. Lawrence, one of the deacons of the Roman Church, was one of the victims of the persecution of Valerian in 258, like Pope Sixtus II and many other members of the Roman clergy. At the beginning of the month of August, 258, the emperor issued an edict, […]

Read the full article →

August 10 – His sister founded the Conceptionists

August 10, 2026

João Mendes de Silva Better known as Amadeus of Portugal, O.F.M., (1420–1482), was a Portuguese nobleman who became first a monk, then left that life to become a friar of the Franciscan Order. Later he became a reformer of that Order, which led to his founding of a distinct branch of the Friars Minor that […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries