March 17 – Martyr of the seal of confession

March 17, 2025

Bl. John Sarkander

Martyr of the seal of confession, born at Skotschau in Austrian Silesia, 20 Dec., 1576; died at Olmütz, 17 March, 1620. In 1603 he merited the title of master of philosophy at Prague, and after four years’ study of theology was ordained priest at Graz. He exercised his sacred functions in several places in the Diocese of Olmütz, and was made parish priest (1613) of Boskowitz, and (1616) of Holeschau in Moravia. Since the fifteenth century the sects of the Hussites and of the Bohemian (or United) Brethren had spread rapidly and taken possession of the churches and institutions of the Catholics, but when (1604) Ladislaus Poppel of Lobkowitz bought the estates of Holleschau, he gave the church to the Catholics, and made a Jesuit college out of the house occupied by the Bohemian Brethren. With the aid of the Jesuits, John Sarkander converted two hundred and fifty of the strayed sheep, but thereby drew upon himself the hatred of the neighbouring landlord, Bitowsky of Bistritz. In 1618 the Protestants took control of Moravia, and John left Holleschau, made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Czentoschau and passed a few weeks of retreat with the Minims, who had a house there. He spent some months at Krakow and (1619) returned to Holleschau.

A 1715 etching depicting his torture.

In February of the following year the Polish auxiliary troops sent to the emperor by King Sigismund, passed through Moravia and committed many depredations on the lands of the Protestants, but spared Holleschau when John met them with the Blessed sacrament in his hands. Bitowsky threw suspicions upon John Sarkander as if he, in conspiracy with Lobkowitz, had brought the enemy into the territory. John was taken prisoner and brought to Olmütz. The commission appointed for the trial was made up entirely of Protestants, but the Catholic city judge Johann Scintilla was forced to attend. He made a report of the whole transaction to the bishop, Franz Cardinal von Dietrichstein (1625). The questions put were: who had called the troops into the country; what underhand dealings John had practiced in Poland; what had been confided to him by Lobkowitz, whose confessor he was, and whose secret plans he therefore knew.

Reliquary of Saint Jan Sarkander in the Cathedral of Saint Wenceslaus (Olomouc).

Because John would not violate the secrets of the holy tribunal the rack was used on 13, 17 and 18 February. On each of the latter days the torture lasted for two and three hours, lighted candles and feathers soaked in oil, pitch, and sulphur were strewn over his body and ignited. He lingered from the effects for a month and died in prison. The people immediately began to venerate John Sarkander and to ask for his beatification. The process was opened under Benedict XIV but was interrupted. It was brought to a close by Pius IX, who pronounced the solemn beatification 6 May, 1860. The relics are in an altar dedicated to his name in the cathedral of Olmütz.

Birkowski (Krakow, 1628); Positio super martyrio etc. (Rome, 1825); Liverani, Della vita e passione del Ven. Servo di Dio, Giov. Sarcander (Rome, 1855); Luksch in Kirchenlex., s. v. Sarkander, Hist. polit. Blätter, XXXI, 239.

Francis Mershman (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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The Universe, the Church, and Civil Society Reflect the Love of God in an Organic Inequality

March 17, 2025

[From Leo XIII’s encyclical Quod Apostolici muneris, of December 28, 1878]:

The Assumption of the Virgin by Francesco Botticini at the National Gallery London, shows three hierarchies and nine orders of angels, each with different characteristics

For, He who created and governs all things has, in His wise providence, appointed that the things which are lowest should attain their ends by those which are intermediate, and these again by the highest. Thus, as even in the kingdom of heaven He hath willed that the choirs of angels be distinct and some subject to others, and also in the Church has instituted various orders and a diversity of offices, so that all are not apostles or doctors or pastors (1 Cor. 12:28), so also has He appointed that there should be various orders in civil society, differing in dignity, rights, and power, whereby the State, like the Church, should be one body, consisting of many members, some nobler than others, but all necessary to each other and solicitous for the common good. (Catholic World, Vol. 27 [March 1879], p. 854).

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), Documents V, p. 478.

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March 17 – Friend of Charlemagne

March 17, 2025

Haito

(HATTO).

Bishop of Basle; b. in 763, of a noble family of Swabia; d. 17 March, 836, in the Abbey of Reichenau, on an island in the Lake of Constance. At the age of five he entered that monastery. Abbot Waldo (786-806) made him head of the monastic school, and in this capacity he did much for the instruction and classical training of the monks, as well as for the growth of the library. When Waldo was transferred to the Abbey of St. Denis, near Paris, in 806, Haito was made Abbot of Reichenau, and about the same time Bishop of Basle. He enjoyed the confidence of Charlemagne and in 811 was sent with others to Constantinople on a diplomatic mission, which he fulfilled to the satisfaction of his master. The interests of his diocese and abbey were not neglected. He rebuilt the cathedral of Basle and the abbey church of Reichenau, and issued appropriate instructions for the guidance of clergy and people in the ways of religion. In 823 he resigned both positions, owing to serious infirmities, and spent the remainder of his life as a simple monk in the monastery of Reichenau.

Monastery and cloisters of Reichenau

Haito was the author of several works. He wrote an account of his journey to Constantinople, the “Hodoeporicon”, of which, however, no trace has been found so far. In 824 he wrote the “Visio Wettini” (P.L., CV, 771 sqq.; Mon. Germ. Hist.: Poetae Lat. Aev. Car., II, 267 sqq.), in which he relates the spiritual experiences of Wettin, president of the monastic school of Reicheneau. The day before his death (4 November, 824) Wettin saw in a vision bad and good spirits; an angel took him through hell, purgatory, and heaven, and showed him the torments of the sinners and the joys of the saints. The book, which bears some resemblance to Dante’s “Divina Commedia”, was soon afterwards put into verse by Walafrid Strabo (Mon. Germ. Hist., loc. cit.). While Bishop of Basle, he issued a number of regulations in twenty-five chapters, known as the “Capitulare Haitonis” (P.L., CV, 763 sqq., Melon. Germ. Leg., Sect. II, Capitular. Reg. Franc., I, 363 sqq., Mansi, XIV, 393 sqq.), in which he legislated on matters of diocesan discipline. The statutes were probably published in a synod.

VAUTREY, Histoire des eveques de Bale. I (Einsiedeln. 1884); WATTENBACH, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen (Berlin, 1904), I; HAUCK, Kirchengeschichte Deutschlands (Leipzig, 1890), II; BUCHI in Kirchliches Handlexikon, I; SCHRODL in Kirchenlex., V; WIEGAND in Realencyklopadie, VII.

FRANCIS J. SCHAEFER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 17 – Papal legate to Trent

March 17, 2025

Girolamo Seripando

Girolamo Seripando

Italian theologian and cardinal, b. at Troja (Apulia), 6 May, 1493; d. at Trent 17 March, 1563. He was of noble birth, and intended by his parents for the legal profession. After their death, however, and at the age of fourteen he entered the Augustinian Order, at Viterbo, where he joined the study of Greek and Hebrew to that of philosophy and theology. After a short stay in Rome, whither he had been called by his superior general, he was appointed lecturer at Siena (1515), professor of theology at Bologna (1517), and vicar-general (1532), which last charge he filled with great credit for two years. He won such reputation for eloquence by his discourses in the principal cities of Italy, that the Emperor Charles V often made it a point to be present at his sermons. Elected superior general in 1539, he governed for twelve years, with singular prudence, zeal, and piety. He attended (1546) the sessions of the Council of Trent, where he distinguished himself by his zeal for the purity of the text of Holy Writ, and also by his peculiar views concerning original sin and justification. Paul III sent him as his legate to the emperor and to the King of France, after which mission he was offered the Bishopric of Aquila. Seripando not only declined this dignity, but even resigned his charge of superior general (1551), and withdrew into a small convent, from the retirement of which he was called (1553) on a mission from the city of Naples to Charles V. Upon completion he was appointed Archbishop of Salerno. He proved a zealous and efficient pastor. A few years later (1561) Pius IV made him cardinal and second legate of the Holy See at the Council of Trent. Upon the death of Cardinal Gonzaga, he became first president of the same Council. Seripando was an elegant and prolific writer, and a vigorous controversialist, rather than an orator. The following are his principal published works: “Novae constitutiones ordinis S. Augustini” (Venice, 1549); “Oratio in funere Caroli V imperatoris” (Naples; 1559); “Prediche sopra il simbolo degli Apostoli, etc.” (Venice, 1567); “Commentarius in D. Pauli epistolas ad Galatas” (Venice, 1569); “Commentaria in D. Pauli epistolas ad Romanos et ad Galatas” (Naples, 1601); “De arte orandi” (Lyons, 1670); and several of his letters, included by Lagomarsini in “Poggiani epist. et orationes” (Rome, 1762).

ELLIES DUPIN, Hist. de l’eglise (Paris, 1703); RAYNALD-MANSI Annal. eccl. (LUCCA, 1735-6); OSSINGER, Bibl. August. (Ingolstadt, 1768).

FRANCIS E. GIGOT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 17 – The Great and Noble Patrick

March 17, 2025

St. Patrick

Statue of Saint Patrick on top of the octagon in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland.

Statue of Saint Patrick on top of the octagon in Westport, County Mayo, Ireland.

Apostle of Ireland, born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in Scotland, in the year 387; died at Saul, Downpatrick, Ireland, 17 March, 493.
He had for his parents Calphurnius and Conchessa. The former belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. Conchessa was a near relative of the great patron of Gaul, St. Martin of Tours. Kilpatrick still retains many memorials of Saint Patrick, and frequent pilgrimages continued far into the Middle Ages to perpetuate there the fame of his sanctity and miracles.

In his sixteenth year, Patrick was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chieftan named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland, where for six years he tended his master’s flocks in the valley of the Braid and on the slopes of Slemish, near the modern town of Ballymena. He relates in his “Confessio” that during his captivity while tending the flocks he prayed many times in the day: “the love of God”, he added,

and His fear increased in me more and more, and the faith grew in me, and the spirit was roused, so that, in a single day, I have said as many as a hundred prayers, and in the night nearly the same, so that whilst in the woods and on the mountain, even before the dawn, I was roused to prayer and felt no hurt from it, whether there was snow or ice or rain; nor was there any slothfulness in me, such as I see now, because the spirit was then fervent within me.

In the ways of a benign Providence the six years of Patrick’s captivity became a remote preparation for his future apostolate. He acquired a perfect knowledge of the Celtic tongue in which he would one day announce the glad tidings of Redemption, and, as his master Milchu was a druidical high priest, he became familiar with all the details of Druidism from whose bondage he was destined to liberate the Irish race.

1635 Ireland Map

Admonished by an angel he after six years fled from his cruel master and bent his steps towards the west. He relates in his “Confessio” that he had to travel about 200 miles; and his journey was probably towards Killala Bay and onwards thence to Westport. He found a ship ready to set sail and after some rebuffs was allowed on board. In a few days he was among his friends once more in Britain, but now his heart was set on devoting himself to the service of God in the sacred ministry. We meet with him at St. Martin’s monastery at Tours, and again at the island sanctuary of Lérins which was just then acquiring widespread renown for learning and piety; and wherever lessons of heroic perfection in the exercise of Christian life could be acquired, thither the fervent Patrick was sure to bend his steps. No sooner had St. Germain entered on his great mission at Auxerre than Patrick put himself under his guidance, and it was at that great bishop’s hands that Ireland’s future apostle was a few years later promoted to the priesthood. It is the tradition in the territory of the Morini that Patrick under St. Germain’s guidance for some years was engaged in missionary work among them. When Germain commissioned by the Holy See proceeded to Britain to combat the erroneous teachings of Pelagius, he chose Patrick to be one of his missionary companions and thus it was his privilege to be associated with the representative of Rome in the triumphs that ensued over heresy and Paganism, and in the many remarkable events of the expedition, such as the miraculous calming of the tempest at sea, the visit to the relics at St. Alban’s shrine, and the Alleluia victory. Amid all these scenes, however, Patrick’s thoughts turned towards Ireland, and from time to time he was favoured with visions of the children from Focluth, by the Western sea, who cried to him: “O holy youth, come back to Erin, and walk once more amongst us.”

Stained glass window in the north transept of Carlow Cathedral of the Assumption, showing St Patrick Preaching to the Kings.

Stained glass window in the north transept of Carlow Cathedral of the Assumption, showing St Patrick Preaching to the Kings.

Pope St. Celestine I, who rendered immortal service to the Church by the overthrow of the Pelagian and Nestorian heresies, and by the imperishable wreath of honour decreed to the Blessed Virgin in the General Council of Ephesus, crowned his pontificate by an act of the most far-reaching consequences for the spread of Christianity and civilization, when he entrusted St. Patrick with the mission of gathering the Irish race into the one fold of Christ. Palladius (q.v.) had already received that commission, but terrified by the fierce opposition of a Wicklow chieftain had abandoned the sacred enterprise. It was St. Germain, Bishop of Auxerre, who commended Patrick to the pope. The writer of St. Germain’s Life in the ninth century, Heric of Auxerre, thus attests this important fact: “Since the glory of the father shines in the training of the children, of the many sons in Christ whom St. Germain is believed to have had as disciples in religion, let it suffice to make mention here, very briefly, of one most famous, Patrick, the special Apostle of the Irish nation, as the record of his work proves. Subject to that most holy discipleship for 18 years, he drank in no little knowledge in Holy Scripture from the stream of so great a well-spring. Germain sent him, accompanied by Segetius, his priest, to Celestine, Pope of Rome, approved of by whose judgement, supported by whose authority, and strengthened by whose blessing, he went on his way to Ireland.” It was only shortly before his death that Celestine gave this mission to Ireland’s apostle and on that occasion bestowed on him many relics and other spiritual gifts, and gave him the name “Patercius” or “Patritius”, not as an honorary title, but as a foreshadowing of the fruitfulness and merit of his apostolate whereby he became pater civium (the father of his people). Patrick on his return journey from Rome received at Ivrea the tidings of the death of Palladius, and turning aside to the neighboring city of Turin received episcopal consecration at the hands of its great bishop, St. Maximus, and thence hastened on to Auxerre to make under the guidance of St. Germain due preparations for the Irish mission.
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March 17 – Pugin’s painter

March 17, 2025

John Rogers Herbert

Photo of J.R. Herbert, c.1880. Photo by Y.R. Herbert

Born January 23, 1810, at Maldon, Essex, England; died in London, March 17, 1890. He was admitted as a student of the Royal Academy in 1826, and in 1830 his first picture, “A Country Boy”, was exhibited at the Academy. For some years he painted pictures, chiefly inspired by Byron’s poems. He visited Italy in 1836, and sent several paintings to the Royal Academy, which attracted general attention. On his return to London, he made the acquaintance of Augustus Welby Pugin, the architect, whose portrait he painted. They became intimate friends, and through Pugin’s influence Herbert was received into the Church in 1840.

Richard the Lionheart giving thanks for victory, 1866. Painting by John Rogers Herbert

In 1841 he was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and exhibited a portrait of Cardinal Wiseman, whose close friend he remained until the cardinal’s death. From this time forward he chose for his subjects only religious scenes. The first of these was “The First Introduction of Christianity into Britain“, which at once established his reputation as a great historical painter. In the following year he exhibited “Sir Thomas More and his Daughter observing from the prison window the Monks being led to execution”, a work which attracted general attention. His diploma picture, upon his election as a Royal Academician in 1846, was “St. Gregory the Great teaching Roman boys to sing the Chant which received his name”. At that date there was a strong feeling among Protestants against the Church, and much indignation was expressed by the press against the subjects chosen and the religious tone of their composition. But Herbert was absolutely fearless and independent, for his works were recognized by connoisseurs as masterpieces. He was then selected by the Government to paint a series of nine frescoes in the peers’ robing room of the House of Lords, illustrative of human justice. The subjects chosen were: “The Fall of Man”; “His Condemnation to Labor”; “Moses bringing down the Tables of the Law“; “The Judgment of Solomon”; “The Visit of the Queen of Sheba”; “The Building of the Temple”; “The Judgment of Daniel”; “Daniel in the Lions’ Den”; “The Vision of Daniel”. All of these were executed in stereochrome, a process which had been adopted by Maclise, but which Herbert subsequently recognized to have been a mistake, as not being durable. He therefore painted replicas of them in oil. In 1849 he was commissioned to paint in the Poets’ Hall “King Lear disinheriting Cordelia”, a replica of which he exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1849. In 1860 he painted for Queen Victoria a picture of the Blessed Virgin which Her Majesty highly valued and preserved in her private apartments until her death. It is said that the last look of her husband, Prince Albert, on his deathbed was directed to this picture.

Laborare est Orare a painting by John Rogers Herbert of the Monks harvesting the wheat.

In the “History of the Royal Academy”, Mr. Sandby writes of Herbert: “All his pictures are the fruit of long study and most careful workmanship; he paints slowly and minutely; he is said to have cut out portions of his Lear picture five times before he was satisfied… Extreme simplicity, elaborate finish, deep and earnest expression, avoidance of accessories, except such as are suggestive of deeper meaning, and, in sacred subjects, a feeling of devotion and spirituality characterize his work, and a dignity in the human form rarely found in modern English artists. “From the time of his conversion Herbert proved himself a zealous and practical Catholic. He stood firmly by Cardinal Wiseman during the stormy period which followed the establishment of the Catholic hierarchy in England, and took a prominent part in all Catholic works. He was one of the founders of the English branch of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, of the St. Vincent’s home for destitute boys, the patronage committee, etc. He was also one of the founders of the Peter’s Pence Association in England. With failing health, he retired in 1886, having built a handsome house and studio at Kilburn, in the suburbs of London and adjoining the church of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. He died there and was buried in the Catholic cemetery at Kensal Green.
Archibald J. Dunn (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 18 – Saint Edward the Martyr

March 17, 2025

Saint Edward the Martyr

King of England, son to Edgar the Peaceful, and uncle to St. Edward the Confessor; born about 962; died March 18, 979.

The murder of St. Edward the Martyr, by Edwards, published 1776.

His accession to the throne on his father’s death, in 975, was opposed by a party headed by his stepmother, Queen Elfrida, who was bent on securing the crown for her own son Ethelred, then aged seven, in which she eventually was successful. Edward’s claim, however, was supported by St. Dunstan and the clergy and by most of the nobles; and having been acknowledged by the Witan, he was crowned by St. Dunstan.
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Though only thirteen, the young king had already given promise of high sanctity, and during his brief reign of three years and a half won the affection of his people by his many virtues. His stepmother, who still cherished her treacherous designs, contrived at last to bring about his death. Whilst hunting in Dorsetshire he happened (March 18, 979) to call at Corfe Castle where she lived. There, whilst drinking on horseback a glass of mead offered him at the castle gate, he was stabbed by an assassin in the bowels. He rode away, but soon fell from his horse, and being dragged by the stirrup was flung into a deep morass, where his body was revealed by a pillar of light. He was buried first at Wareham, whence three years later, his body, having been found entire, was translated to Shaftesbury Abbey by St. Dunstan and Earl Alfere of Mercia, who in Edgar’s lifetime had been one of his chief opponents.

 

Corfe Castle where St. Edward was murdered. Photo by David Bunting

Many miracles are said to have been obtained through his intercession. Elfrida, struck with repentance for her crimes, built the two monasteries of Wherwell and Ambresbury, in the first of which she ended her days in penance. The violence of St. Edward’s end, joined to the fact that the party opposed to him had been that of the irreligious, whilst he himself had ever acted as a defender of the Church, obtained for him the title of Martyr, which is given to him in all the old English calendars on March 18, also in the Roman Martyrology.
G. E. PHILLIPS (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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The Socialists Declare That the Right of Property Is a Human Invention Opposed to the Innate Equality of Man

March 17, 2025

[From Leo XIII’s encyclical Quod Apostolici muneris, of December 28, 1878]:

 

Trotsky, Lenin, and Kamenev (from left to right), May 5, 1920, Moscow, Sverdlov Place

But Catholic wisdom, sustained by the precepts of natural and divine law, provides with especial care for public and private tranquility in its doctrines and teachings regarding the duty of government and the distribution of the goods which are necessary for life and use. For, while the socialists would destroy the right of property, alleging it to be a human invention altogether opposed to the inborn equality of man, and, claiming a community of goods, argue that poverty should not be peaceably endured, and that the property and privileges of the rich may be rightly invaded, the Church, with much greater wisdom and good sense, recognizes the inequality among men, who are born with different powers of body and mind, inequality in actual possession, also, and holds that the right of property and of ownership, which springs from nature itself, must not be touched and stands inviolate. (Catholic World, Vol. 27 [March 1879], p. 856).

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), Documents V, p. 478.

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March 19 – St. Joseph

March 17, 2025

Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

LIFE

Quito School

Quito School

Sources. The chief sources of information on the life of St. Joseph are the first chapters of our first and third Gospels; they are practically also the only reliable sources, for, whilst, on the holy patriarch’s life, as on many other points connected with the Saviour’s history which are left untouched by the canonical writings, the apocryphal literature is full of details, the non-admittance of these works into the Canon of the Sacred Books casts a strong suspicion upon their contents; and, even granted that some of the facts recorded by them may be founded on trustworthy traditions, it is in most instances next to impossible to discern and sift these particles of true history from the fancies with which they are associated. Among these apocryphal productions dealing more or less extensively with some episodes of St. Joseph’s life may be noted the so-called “Gospel of James”, the “Pseudo-Matthew”, the “Gospel of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary”, the “Story of Joseph the Carpenter”, and the “Life of the Virgin and Death of Joseph”.
Holy FamilyGenealogy. St. Matthew (1:16) calls St. Joseph the son of Jacob; according to St. Luke (3:23), Heli was his father. This is not the place to recite the many and most various endeavours to solve the vexing questions arising from the divergences between both genealogies; nor is it necessary to point out the explanation which meets best all the requirements of the problem (see ); suffice it to remind the reader that, contrary to what was once advocated, most modern writers readily admit that in both documents we possess the genealogy of Joseph, and that it is quite possible to reconcile their data.

The Holy House of Loreto, which was moved by the angels from Nazareth.

The Holy House of Loreto, which was moved by the angels from Nazareth.

Residence. At any rate, Bethlehem, the city of David and his descendants, appears to have been the birth-place of Joseph. When, however, the Gospel history opens, namely, a few months before the Annunciation, Joseph was settled at Nazareth. Why and when he forsook his home-place to betake himself to Galilee is not ascertained; some suppose — and the supposition is by no means improbable — that the then moderate circumstances of the family and the necessity of earning a living may have brought about the change. St. Joseph, indeed, was a tekton, as we learn from Matthew 13:55, and Mark 6:3. The word means both mechanic in general and carpenter in particular; St. Justin vouches for the latter sense (Dial. cum Tryph., lxxxviii, in P.G., VI, 688), and tradition has accepted this interpretation, which is followed in the English Bible.

The Wedding of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph

The Wedding of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph

Marriage. It is probably at Nazareth that Joseph betrothed and married her who was to become the Mother of God. When the marriage took place, whether before or after the Incarnation, is no easy matter to settle, and on this point the masters of exegesis have at all times been at variance. Most modern commentators, following the footsteps of St. Thomas, understand that, at the epoch of the Annunciation, the Blessed Virgin was only affianced to Joseph; as St. Thomas notices, this interpretation suits better all the evangelical data.
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March 19 – Jesus, Mary and Joseph Were Born of Royal Stock

March 17, 2025

From a sermon of Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) about Saint Joseph:

Miraculous image at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Kalisz, Poland.

Firstly, let us consider the nobility of the bride, that is, the Most Holy Virgin. The Blessed Virgin was more noble than any other creature that had been born in human form, that could be or could have been begotten. For Saint Matthew in his first chapter, thrice enumerating fourteen generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ inclusive, shows that she descends from fourteen Patriarchs, fourteen Kings, and fourteen Princes…. Saint Luke also, writing on her nobility in his third chapter, proceeds in his genealogy from Adam and Eve until Christ God….

Secondly, let us consider the nobility of the bridegroom, that is, Saint Joseph. He was born of Patriarchal, Royal, and Princely stock in a direct line as has been said. For Saint Matthew in his first chapter established a direct line with all the aforementioned fathers from Abraham to the spouse of the Virgin, clearly demonstrating that all patriarchal, royal, and princely dignity come together in him….

Thirdly, let us examine the nobility of Christ. He was, as follows from what has been said, a Patriarch, King, and Prince, for He received just as much from His mother as others from father and mother…. From what has been said above, it is clear that the nobility of the Virgin and of Joseph is described by the aforementioned Evangelists so that the nobility of Christ be manifest. For Joseph, therefore, was of such nobility that, in a certain way, if it be permitted to say, he gave temporal nobility to God in Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sancti Bernardini Senensis Sermones Eximii (Venice: in Aedibus Andreae Poletti, 1745), Vol. 4, p. 232, in 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), Documents IV, pp. 471-472.

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March 19 – Saint Joseph, Martyr of Grandeur

March 17, 2025

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

To have an idea of what Saint Joseph—the Patron of the Church—was like, we must consider two prodigious facts: he was the foster father of the Child Jesus and he was the spouse of Our Lady.

The husband must be proportional to the wife. Now who is Our Lady? She is by far the most perfect of all creatures, the masterpiece of the Most High. In her is the sum total of all the virtues of the angels, of all the saints, and of all men until the end of time. Even when we consider her in this light, we still have only a shallow idea of the sublime perfection of the Mother of God.

But a man was chosen from among all men to be in proportion to this eminent creature. He was proportional, naturally, in his love of God, in his wisdom, in his purity, in his justice, in all the virtues. This man was Saint Joseph.

*   *   *

There is still something more unfathomable: the father must be proportional to the son. A man who would bear with dignity the honor of being the foster father of God was needed. There was only one man, created especially for this role, with a soul adorned with all the virtues entirely at the height necessary for such a sublime mission. This man was Saint Joseph.

He was in proportion to Jesus Christ; he was proportional to His sublime Mother. What grandeur there is in this! We cannot imagine how far he transcended the rest of men. The human vocabulary does not have the words to adequately express the depth of his penetration into the most holy soul of Our Lady and the degree of intimacy with the Word Incarnate.

It is customary to represent Saint Anthony of Padua holding a book upon which the Child Jesus is seated. The saint is enchanted because the Child Jesus has rested for a few moments in his arms. We look admiringly at Saint Anthony because he was blessed to have been singled out for this indescribable honor! Yet how many times more did Saint Joseph hold the Child Jesus in his arms?

St. Joseph and the Christ Child Enthroned with Four Angels, c. 1700-1740, School of Cuzco

It was Saint Joseph who had sufficiently pure lips and a sufficiently grand humility to undertake the formidable task of responding to God! Let us imagine the scene: the Child Jesus comes to him and says, “I would like your advice. How should I do this?” And the Patron of the Universal Church, a mere creature, knowing it is God asking the question, gives the advice!
If you can imagine a man who had sufficient wisdom and purity to rule over God and the Virgin Mary, then you will be able to comprehend the sublime virtue of Saint Joseph.

*   *   *

We are speaking of the grandeur of Saint Joseph. Now, how did the men of his time react in face of this grandeur?

The Scriptures say: “And she [Mary] brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him up in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7).
Let us imagine the scene: the Child Jesus comes to him and says, “I would like your advice. How should I do this?” And the Patron of the Universal Church, a mere creature, knowing it is God asking the question, gives the advice!
The words “there was no room for them in the inn” encompass a bitter truth: it is especially difficult for men to accept that which is grand—a fortiori, that which is divine—because of their petty selfishness. We often think that men take pleasure in dealing with things that are important, high, sublime. Some men do enjoy such things, but only superficially and selfishly.

For men are not greatly attracted to grandeur; they are attracted to mediocrity, especially if it includes a mixture of good and evil where the evil predominates. There is a profound tendency in man for the trivial, for the banal, for that which is contrary to the grandiose, to the sublime.

So we can understand why men were not willing to make room for the Holy Family. There was no room, particularly because Our Lady would have conserved, together with a demeanor of sublime kindness, an air of great majesty.

As Saint Joseph would have maintained a similar aspect, they were obviously an eminently distinctive but poor couple. This was the most profound reason for the refusal. Distinction is accepted when it is accompanied by wealth, for the latter pardons the former. And the interest in making money incites flattery, which takes the place of respect. But when someone of great distinction and salient virtue knocks at the door—above all, if he is poor—then there is no room. It would take only five minutes to arrange accommodations for a mediocre friend or for a moneybags who possessed nothing but wealth…yet accommodations that could easily have been arranged were refused to the Holy Family!

But suppose they had known that Our Lady was about to give birth to the Child Jesus?

They still would not have received her. It is fitting to remember the famous apostrophe of Donoso Cortés: “The human spirit hungers for absurdity and for sin.”

The Child Jesus resembled Our Lady. She was the prefigure of the Redeemer. Saint Joseph also looked like Him. Those people did not want Our Lady, nor Saint Joseph, nor the Child Jesus. They hungered for baseness, vulgarity and wealth. The result: this is the first refusal of the Hebrew people. This is the first time Our Lord, already on earth, knocks at the doors of men through the voice of Saint Joseph and is refused.

Saint Joseph—prince of the House of David, prince of a royal family that, although dethroned and decadent, was at its apogee because from it was born the Hope of the Nations—knocks at the door and is rejected! But in this rejection is his first glory. He represented something that the vulgar and prosaic spirit of the Jews detested. He took the first step of his martyrdom: he led Our Lady to a cave suitable only for animals, where the Child Jesus was born.

To this glory—which was certainly a negative one—were added many others: the glory of being considered a person of no consequence although all public honors were due him; the glory of taking upon himself all the humiliation, all the ignominy and all the weight of the opprobrium that was to fall upon Our Lord. From the very beginning, he had the special bliss of being refused for his love of justice and his grandeur of soul.

This is a forgotten, though salient aspect of the moral physiognomy of the Patron of the Church, whose virtue, especially rejected by modern man, induces us to say: Saint Joseph, Martyr of Grandeur, pray for us!

Taken from a lecture given by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira for young TFP members. The author was not able to review it prior to his death. Originally published in TFP Newsletter (1986), vol. IV, no. 17, p. 6.

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King Stanislaus and Lent

March 13, 2025

King Stanisław I Leszczyński, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

King Stanisław I Leszczyński, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania.

King Stanislaus of Poland was a faithful observer of the ancient discipline of the Church; he made but one meal in Lent, not even allowing himself the collation; moreover, on Fridays he denied himself the use of fish and eggs. From his dinner on Holy Thursday, till the following Saturday, at noon, he denied himself every species of nourishment, even bread and water. That interval, specially consecrated to the memory of Our Lord’s Passion, the pious monarch employed, as far as his affairs permitted, in prayer, and in visiting churches and houses of charity, where he poured forth abundant alms.
King Stanisław I LeszczyńskiIt was only through submission to the holy authority which he respected in his pastor that he consented, when over eighty years of age, not, indeed, to infringe on the commandment of the Church, but to moderate a little the severities he added thereto. Notwithstanding these austerities, that would be admired even in an anchoret, King Stanislaus, justly named the Beneficent, lived to the age of eighty-eight years.

Stories From The Catechist by Very Rev. Canon G.E. Howe, Pg. 292 # 683

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 465

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March 13 – St. Leander of Seville

March 13, 2025

St. Leander of Seville

Bishop of that city, born at Carthage about 534, of a Roman family established in that city; died at Seville, 13 March, 600 or 601.

St. Leander of SevilleSome historians claim that his father Severian was duke or governor of Carthage, but St. Isidore simply states that he was a citizen of that city. The family emigrated from Carthage about 554 and went to Seville. The eminent worth of the children of Severian would seem to indicate that they were reared in distinguished surroundings. Severian had three sons, Leander Isidore, and Fulgentius and one daughter, Florentina. St. Leander and St. Isidore both became bishops of Seville; St. Fulgentius, Bishop of Carthagena, and St. Florentina, a nun, who directed forty convents and one thousand nuns. It has been also believed, but wrongly, that Theodosia, another daughter of Severian, became the wife of the Visigothic king, Leovigild. Leander became at first a Benedictine monk, and then in 579 Bishop of Seville. In the meantime be founded a celebrated school, which soon became a centre of learning and orthodoxy. He assisted the Princess Ingunthis to convert her husband Hermenegild, the eldest son of Leovigild, and defended the convert against his father’s cruel reprisals. In endeavoring to save his country from Arianism, Leander showed himself an orthodox Christian and a far-sighted patriot. Exiled by Leovigild, he withdrew to Byzantium from 579 to 582. It is possible, but not proved, that he sought to rouse the Emperor Tiberius to take up arms against the Arian king: in any case the attempt was without result. He profited, however, by his stay at Byzantium to compose important works against Arianism, and there became acquainted with the future Gregory the Great, then legate of Pelagius II at the Byzantine court. A close friendship thenceforth united the two men, and the correspondence of St. Gregory with St. Leander remains one of the latter’s greatest titles to honour. It is not known exactly when Leander returned from exile. Leovigild put to death his son Hermenegild in 585, and himself died in 589.

St. Bonaventure and St. Leander of Seville

St. Bonaventure and St. Leander of Seville

In this decisive hour for the future of Spain, Leander did most to ensure the religious unity, the fervent faith, and the broad culture on which was based its later greatness. He had a share in the conversion of Reccared, and never ceased to exercise over him a deep and beneficial influence. At the Third Council of Toledo, where Visigothic Spain abjured Arianism, Leander delivered the closing sermon. On his return from this council, Leander convened an important synod in his metropolitan city of Seville (Conc. Hisp., I), and never afterwards ceased his efforts to consolidate the work, in which his brother and successor St. Isidore was to follow him. Leander received the pallium in August, 599. There remmain unfortunately of this writer, superior to his brother Isidore, only two works: De institutione virginum et contemptu mundi, a monastic rule composed for his sister, and Homilia de triumpho ecclesiæ ob conversionem Gothorum (P.L., LXXII). St. Isidore wrote of his brother: “This man of suave eloquence and eminent talent shone as brightly by his virtues as by his doctrine. By his faith and zeal the Gothic people have been converted from Arianism to the Catholic faith” (De script. eccles., xxviii).
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Acta, S.S., 13 March: MABILLON, Acta S.S. O. S. B., s c. I; AGUIRRE, Collectio max. conc. hisp., FLORES, Espa a Sagrada, IX; BOURRET, L cole chr tienne de S ville sous la monarchie des Visigoths (Paris, 1855); MONTALEMBERT, Les Moines de d Occident, II; GAMS, Die Kirchengesch. von Spanien, II (2 ed., 1874); G RRES, Leander, Bischof von Sevilla u. Metropolit der Kirchenprov. B tica in Zeitsch. fur wissenschaftl. Theol., III (1885).

Pierre Suau (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 14 – Martyr of the Albigenses

March 13, 2025

Blessed Pierre de Castelnau

The murder of Bl. Peire de Castelnou

Born in the Diocese of Montpellier, Languedoc, now Department of Hérault, France; died 15 Jan., 1208. He embraced the ecclesiastical state, and was appointed Archdeacon of Maguelonne (now Montpellier). Pope Innocent III sent him (1199) with two Cistercians as his legate into the middle of France, for the conversion of the Albigenses. Some time later, about 1202, he received the Cistercian habit at Fontfroide, near Narbonne. He was again confirmed as Apostolic legate and first inquisitor. He gave himself untiringly to his work, strengthening those not yet infected with error, reclaiming with tenderness those who had fallen but manifested good will, and pronouncing ecclesiastical censures against the obdurate. Whilst endeavouring to reconcile Raymond, Count of Toulouse, he was, by order of the latter, transpierced with a lance, crying as he fell, “May God forgive you as I do.” His feast is celebrated in the Cistercian order, by one part on 5 March, and by the other on 14 March. He is also honoured as a martyr in the Dioceses of Carcassonne and Treves. His relics are interred in the church of the ancient Abbey of St-Gilles.

Breviarium cisterciense (5 March); CHALEMOT, Series sanctorum et Beatorum s.o.c. (Paris, 1670); Annus cisterciensis (Wettingen, 1682); HENRIQUEZ, Menologium cisterciense (Antwerp, 1630); CAUVET, Etude historique sur Fontfroide (Montpellier, 1875); CARETTO, Santorale cisterciense, II (Turin, 1708).

EDMOND M. OBRECHT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 14 – Charlemagne’s deputy

March 13, 2025

Einhard (less correctly Eginhard), historian, born c. 770 in the district watered by the River Main in the eastern part of the Frankish Empire; d. March 14, 840, at Seligenstadt. His earliest training he received at the monastery of Fulda, where he showed such unusual mental powers that Abbot Baugulf sent him to the court of Charlemagne. His education was completed at the Palace School, where he was fortunate enough to count among his masters the great Alcuin, who bears witness to his remarkable talent in mathematics and architecture, and also to the fact that, in spite of his unattractive person, he was among the emperor’s most trusted advisers. Charlemagne gave Einhard charge of his great public buildings, e.g. the construction of the Aachen cathedral and the palaces of Aachen and Ingelheim, for which reason he was known in court circles as Beseleel, after the builder of the tabernacle (Ex., xxi). Charlemagne also availed himself of Einhard’s tact and prudence to send him on various diplomatic missions. Thus, in 802 he placed in his hands the negotiations for the exchange of distinguished Saxon hostages, and in 806 he was dispatched to Rome to obtain papal approbation for the partition of the empire, which the emperor had just decided upon.

During the reign of Louis the Pious he retained his position of trust, and proved a faithful counsellor to Louis’s son, Lothair. Unsuccessful, however, in his attempts to settle the contests for the crown which had been stirred up by Empress Judith, and unable to bring about a lasting reconciliation between Louis and his sons, Einhard, in 830, withdrew to Mühlheim (Mulinheim) on the Main, which he had been granted as early as 815, together with other estates, as a mark of imperial favor. He transferred thither the relics of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, and called the place Seligenstadt. Moreover, between 831 and 834 he established here a Benedictine abbey, where, after the death of his wife, Emma (or Imma), sister of Bishop Bernhar of Worms (not daughter of Charlemagne), he spent the rest of his life as abbot. It is not certain whether he was ordained priest. His epitaph was written by Rabanus Maurus.

Charlemagne and his son, Louis the Pious.

The most important of Einhard’s works is the “Vita Caroli Magni” (in “Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script”, II; printed separately, 4th ed., Hanover, 1880; also in Jaffé, “Bibliotheca rerum germanicarum”, IV; Germ. tr. by Abel, 3rd ed., Berlin, 1893, in “Geschichtsschreiber der deutschen Vorzeit”). This, the best biography of the whole period of the Middle Ages, written in close imitation of Suetonius, particularly his “Vita Augusti”, shows the emperor from the standpoint of the most intimate personal acquaintance with all sides of his character, and with a genuine attempt at truth of portrayal. The diction is in general elegant, though not polished. The annals of the Carlovingian Empire, which have been handed down as Einhard’s (ed. Kurze, 1895), are, in their present form, older materials worked over. Those for the years between 796 and 820 may date back to Einhard. In addition, we have from his hand the “Translatio et Miracula SS. Marcellini et Petri” (Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XV), containing data which are important for the history of culture. The seventy-one letters, written by Einhard between 825 and 830 (ed. Jaffe, “Bibliotheca”, Berlin, 1867, IV) in a clear, simple style, constitute an important source for the history of Louis the Pious. A collective edition of Einhard’s works was published by Teulet (Paris, 1840-43), with French translation.

PATRICIUS SCHLAGER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 15 – Explorer missionary

March 13, 2025

Eusebius Kino

A famous Jesuit missionary of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; b. 10 August, 1644, in Welschtirol (Anauniensis); d. 15 March, 1711. Kühn (his German name; Kino representing the Italian and Spanish form) entered the Upper German Province of the Society of Jesus on 20 November, 1665. He was professor of mathematics for some years at Ingolstadt, and went to Mexico in 1680. There he founded the mission of Lower California (Clavigero, “Historia della California”, Venice, 1787, I, 163 sqq.), the mission first beginning to develop when Father Kino, who had been working since 1687 in Sonora, crossed the Rio Colorado on a bold voyage of exploration, and discovered the overland route to California, which he thus demonstrated to be a peninsula. We owe our first exact information about this vast and at that time almost unknown country to the reports and cartographical sketches of Father Kino, who thoroughly explored the country several times, covering, according to Clavigero, more than 20,000 miles.

This map, which was hand-colored by cartographer Nicholas de Fer, was originally created by Fr. Kino in 1696. It is called California or New Carolina: Place of Apostolic Works of Society of Jesus at the Septentrional America.

On his apostolic activity in Sonora, Shea writes (“The Catholic Church in Colonial Days”, New York, 1886, p. 526 sq.): “He entered Upper Pimeria, 13 March, 1687, and established his first mission at Nuestra Señora de los Dolores, having gained a chief named Coxi as his first convert. From this point he extended his influence in all directions, evincing wonderful ability in gaining the Indians, and in presenting the truths of Christianity in a way to meet their comprehension and reach their hearts.” Venegas (Noticia de la California, Madrid, 1757, II, 88) and Alegre (Hist. de la Comp. de Jesús en Nueva España, II, 54 sq., 155 sq.) speak in terms of the greatest admiration of this extraordinary man. According to a manuscript account of Father P. A. Benz, S. J., Father Kino was shot by rebel Indians on 15 March, 1711. “No life”, writes Shea regretfully (loc. cit.), “has been written of this Father, who stands with the Venerable Anthony Margil as the greatest missionaries who laboured in this country.”

Manuscript sources extant of Father Kino among others: Diario del viaje hecho por las orillas del río Grande; Descripción de la Pimeria alta, Paso por tierra á la California, descubierto y demarcado por el P. Eus. Fr. Kino 1689-1701; Mapa del paso por tierra á la California, 1706. The map (Tabula Californæ anno 1702, ex autopica observatione delineata R. P. Chinoe, S. J) is printed in the Neuer Welt-Bott, pt. II, pp. 74-5;g Lettres édifiantes et curieuses, V (Paris, 1708); Scherer, Atlas novus, II, 98; The Journal de Trévoux says of the map (1704, p. 1238; cf. 1703, p. 676; 1705, p. 745): “Father Kino a German Jesuit and very clever in mathematics has made a very exact map of this whole journey”. See also Viajes á la nación Pima en California en 1694 por los PP. Jesuitas Kino y Kappus; the Historia de Sonora, cited by Alegre.

Printed sources: Several accounts and letters in the Docum. para la hist. de México, III, I, pp. 804 sqq; Scherer, op. cit. II, 101 sqq.g Extracts from letters in the Neuer Welt-Bott, pt. I, pp. 106, 109. Cf. Sommervogel, Bibl. des écrivains de la Comp. de Jésus (Brussels).

For further details of Kino’s life, see: Platzweg, Lebensbilder deutscher Jesuiten (Paderborn, 1882), 171 sqq.; Baegert, Nachrichten aus Californien (Mannheim, 1771), 198 and passim; Pfefferkorn, Sonora (Cologne, 1794), I, 3 sqq.; II, 319 sqq.; Gleeson, The Catholic Church in California, II, 94; vom Rath, Arizona (Heidelberg, 1885), 306 sqq.; Notes upon the first discovery of California (Washington, 1878); Woodstock Letters, X, 29 sqq.; 158 sqq. On the first discovery of the Casa Grande by Father Kino see (e.g.) Schoolcraft, Hist. Cond. and Pros. of American Indians, III (1853), 301.

A. HUONDER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 15 – The baker who defeated the Emperor

March 13, 2025

Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer

(JOHN DVORÁK)

The second founder of the Redemptorist Congregation, called “the Apostle of Vienna”, born at Tasswitz in Moravia, 26 December, 1751; died at Vienna 15 March, 1821. The family name of Dvorak was better known by its German equivalent, Hofbauer. The youngest of twelve children, and son of a grazier and butcher, he was six years old when his father died. His great desire was to become a priest, but his family being unable to give him the necessary education he became a baker’s assistant, devoting all his spare time to study. He was a servant in the Premonstratensian monastery of Bruck from 1771 to 1775, and then lived for some time as a hermit. When the Emperor Joseph II abolished hermitages he went to Vienna, where he worked once more as a baker. After two pilgrimages to Rome he again tried a hermit’s life (1782-3), this time under the protection of Barnaba Chiaramonti, Bishop of Tivoli, afterwards Pope Pius VII, taking the name of Clement, by which he was ever afterwards known.

The Grave of St. Clement Marie Hofbauer on the Romantikerfriedhof in Maria Enzersdorf in Niederösterreich. Photo by Karl Gruber.

He once more returned to Vienna, where at length by the generosity of benefactors he was enabled to go to the university and complete his studies; In 1784 he made a third pilgrimage on foot to Rome with a friend, Thaddäus Hübl, and the two were received into the Redemptorist novitiate at San Giuliano on the Esquiline. After a shortened probation they were professed on 19 March, 1785, and ordained priests a few days later. They were sent, towards the end of the same year, to found a house north of the Alps, St. Alphonsus. who was still alive, prophesying their success. It being impossible under Joseph II to found a house in Vienna, Clement and Thaddäus turned to Warsaw, where King Stanislaus Poniatowski, at the nuncio’s request, placed St. Benno’s, the German national church, at their disposal. Here, in 1795, they saw the end of Polish independence. The labours of Clement and his companions in Warsaw from 1786 to 1808 are wellnigh incredible. In addition to St. Benno’s, another large church was reserved for them, where sermons were preached in French, and there were daily classes of instruction for Protestants and Jews. Besides this Clement founded an orphanage and a school for boys.

A reliquary of St. Clement and in the background the former tombstone of St. Clement inside Maria am Gestade in Vienna, Austria.

His chief helper, Thaddäus Hübl, died in 1807; In the next year, on orders from Paris, the house at Warsaw and three other houses which Clement had founded were suppressed, anti the Redemptorists were expelled from the Grand Duchy. Clement with one companion went to Vienna, where for the last twelve years of his life he acted as chaplain and director at an Ursuline convent. During these years he exercised a veritable apostolate among all classes in the capital from the Emperor Francis downward. Unable to found a regular house of his congregation, which was however established, as he had predicted, almost immediately after his death, he devoted himself in a special way to the conversion and training of young men. “I know but three men of superhuman energy”, his friend Werner had said, “Napoleon, Goethe, and Clement Hofbauer.” “Religion in Austria”, said Pius VII, “has lost its chief support.” Indeed it was to Clement Hofbauer perhaps more than to any single individual that the extinction of Josephinism was due. He was beatified by Leo XIII, 29 January, 1888; (See AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN MONARCHY, II, 129.)

His life in German by HARINGER, translated into English by LADY HERBERT (New York, 1883). Another life by O. R. VASSALL PHILLIPS (New York, 1893); BERTHE, Saint Alphonse de Liguori (Paris, 1900), tr. Life of St. Alphonsus de Liguori (Dublin, 1905).

J. Magnier (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 16 – Sylvester Norris

March 13, 2025

Sylvester Norris

(Alias SMITH, NEWTON).

Bridewell Palace was built as a residence of Henry VIII and was one of his homes early in his reign for eight years. 1556 part of it had become a jail known as Bridewell Prison.

Controversial writer and English missionary priest; b. 1570 or 1572 in Somersetshire; d. 16 March, 1630. After receiving minor orders at Reims in 1590, he went to the English College, Rome, where he completed his studies and was ordained priest. In May, 1596, he was sent on the English mission, and his energetic character is revealed by the fact that he was one of the appellant clergy in 1600. In the prosecutions following upon the Gunpowder Plot, he was committed to Bridewell Gaol. From his prison he addressed a letter to the Earl of Salisbury, dated 1 Dee., 1605, in which he protests his innocence, and in proof of his loyalty promises to repair to Rome, and labor that the pope shall bind all the Catholics of England to be just, true, and loyal subjects, and that hostages shall be sent “for the afferminge of those things”. He was thereupon banished along with forty-six other priests (1606), went to Rome, and entered the Society of Jesus. He was for some time employed in the Jesuit colleges on the Continent, but in 1611 returned to the English mission, and in 1621 was made superior of the Hampshire district, where he died.

He wrote: “An Antidote, or Treatise of Thirty Controversies; With a large Discourse of the Church” (1622); “An Appendix to the Antidote” (1621); “The Pseudo-Scripturist” (1623); “A true report of the Private Colloquy between M. Smith, alias Norrice, and M. Walker” (1624); “The Christian Vow”; “Discourse proving that a man who believeth in the Trinity, the Incarnation, etc., and yet believeth not all other inferior Articles, cannot be saved” (1625).

SOMMERVOGEL. Bibl. de la C. de J., V (1808 09); FOLEY, Records of the English Province, S.J., VI, 184; III, 301; OLIVER, Collections towards Illustrating the Biography of S.J., s. v., GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., V, s. v.

James Bridge (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 16 – François de Crépieul

March 13, 2025

François de Crépieul

Tadoussac, Canada. From Samuel de Champlain’s diagram

Jesuit missionary in Canada and vicar Apostolic for the Montagnais Indians; b. at Arras, France, 16 March, 1638; d. at Quebec in 1702. As a youth he studied in the Jesuit college of his native town and in that of Douai, becoming a member of the order at Tournay in 1659. He continued his studies at Lille and Douai, taught at Lille and Cambrai, and in 1670 sailed for Canada. Upon the completion of his theological studies in the college of Quebec, he was assigned in October, 1671, to the Tadousac region, where, with untiring devotion and great success he toiled among the Montagnais and Algonquin tribes for twenty-eight years. Writing to his brethren he tells them that the life of a Montagnais missionary is a tedious and prolonged martyrdom, and that his journeys and the cabins of the savages are truly schools of patience, penance, and resignation. For the benefit of his fellow missionaries Crépieul wrote a series of instructions embodying the results of his long service among the Indians, which are interesting and practical. These observations are given in the sixty-third volume of Thwaites’ “Relations”. In 1696 or 1697 he was appointed vicar Apostolic for the Montagnais and, on the discontinuance of the mission a few years later, repaired to Quebec, where he spent the rest of his life. Dablon, Superior of all the missions in Canada, styles him “a veritable apostle”.

ROCHEMONTEIX, Les Jésuites et la Nouvelle-France au XVIIe siècle (Paris, 1895-96), a most interesting account of this devoted and successful missionary; THWAITES, Relations, LVI, 301. 302; SOMMERVOGEL, Bibl. de la c. de J., II, 1652, I; PILLING, Bibliography of the Algonquian Languages (Washington, 1891), 98, 99.

EDWARD P. SPILLANE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Cenotaph to play central role in 80th anniversary of VE Day

March 10, 2025

From royalcentral.co.uk

Victory Parade at Whitehall, London: American troops march past the The Cenotaph, 19 July 1919.

Over a century after it was unveiled as a symbol of national remembrance for those lost in war, the Cenotaph will again play a central part in commemorating those who gave their lives for their country. Four days of events will mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day in May and the Cenotaph will be at the heart of them…

King George V unveiled the statue…in 1920.

Over half a million families and friends had visited and left flowers and tokens for their loved ones at the Cenotaph in the first two weeks after Peace Day.

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Japan’s Princess Kako to visit Brazil in June

March 10, 2025

From english.kyodonews.net Japan’s Princess Kako, a niece of Emperor Naruhito, will travel to Brazil in early June to promote ties between the two countries that this year mark 130 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, the Imperial Household Agency said Tuesday. It will be her fourth official overseas visit. Brazil is home to the […]

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Natural and Organic Life v. Artificial & Mechanical Existence

March 10, 2025

A room with cleverly calculated proportions: wide enough and with a high enough ceiling to simultaneously convey the harmonious yet contrary impressions of warmth and relief. It easily accommodates the furniture, paintings, chandelier, and people with enough space for them to move about naturally, without bumping into something or someone. The furnishings are not luxurious. […]

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March 10 – George Ashby

March 10, 2025

George Ashby Monk of the Cistercian Monastery of Jervaulx in Yorkshire, executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace, in the year 1537. His name is found in several English martyrologies, but there is the utmost uncertainty as to the right form of his name, and as to the place and mode of his death. After the […]

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Saint John Ogilvie: Hero For Our Times – Part I

March 10, 2025

by Neil McKay   “In times of great crisis there are two types of men: those who are overwhelmed by the crisis and those who resist the trend of events and so change the course of history.”—Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira   “REFORM THE CHURCH!” “MARRIED PRIESTS NEEDED!” “70% OF CATHOLICS DENY REAL PRESENCE!” “SECRET […]

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In Relation to Their Inferiors, the Role of Superiors Is To Be Like ‘Gods’ to Them

March 10, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira St. Thomas Aquinas says precisely that inequalities among men, as well as other inequalities in nature, are images of the inequalities existing between the Creator and His creatures and that every superior being as such is an image of God to us. He shows us that the role of superiors […]

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March 11 – Saint under the Caliphs

March 10, 2025

St. Eulogius of Cordova Spanish martyr and writer who flourished during the reigns of the Cordovan Caliphs, Abd-er-Rahman II and Mohammed I (822-886). It is not certain on what date or in what year of the ninth century he was born; it must have been previous to 819, because in 848 he was a priest […]

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We Need Representative Characters Today

March 10, 2025

Our needs are different from those of feudal times. We do not seek the military chieftains who, in the face of barbarian invasions, took upon themselves the task of resisting barbarian hordes. Instead we seek those figures who take upon themselves the more subtle task of becoming what some sociologists call “representative characters” who, not […]

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March 12 – St. Gorgonius

March 10, 2025

Martyr, suffered in 304 at Nicomedia during the persecution of Diocletian. Gorgonius held a high position in the household of the emperor, and had often been entrusted with matters of the greatest importance. At the breaking out of the persecution he was consequently among the first to be charged, and, remaining constant in the profession […]

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Lenten Meditation: Sweet Cross of Jesus and My Cross

March 6, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Gospels show us with great clarity how much our Divine Savior in His mercy pities our pains of body and soul.  We need only to recall the awesome miracles He performed in His omnipotence in order to mitigate these pains. But let us never make the mistake of imagining […]

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Is the Guardian Angel Less Intelligent than the Devil?

March 6, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Church teaches that God created angels vastly superior to man. Pure spirits possessing a most lucid intelligence and great power, they surpass by nature even the most gifted of men. As a consequence of their revolt, the fallen angels lost their virtue, but not their intelligence or power. In […]

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March 6 – God gave him the great grace of “unsuitability for government”

March 6, 2025

Ven. Gonçalo Da Silveira Pioneer missionary of South Africa, b. 23 Feb, 1526, at Almeirim, about forty miles from Lisbon; martyred 6 March, 1561. He was the tenth child of Dom Luis da Silveira, first count of Sortelha, and Dona Beatrice Coutinho, daughter of Dom Fernando Coutinho, Marshal of the Kingdom of Portugal. Losing his […]

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March 6 – Bishop Prime Minister

March 6, 2025

St. Chrodegang Bishop of Metz, born at the beginning of the eighth century at Hasbania, in what is now Belgian Limburg, of a noble Frankish family; died at Metz, 6 March, 766. He was educated at the court of Charles Martel, became his private secretary, then chancellor, and in 737 prime minister. On 1 March, […]

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March 7 – Last cruelties of Henry VIII

March 6, 2025

Bl. German Gardiner Last martyr under Henry VIII; date of birth unknown; died at Tyburn, 7 March, 1544; secretary to, and probably a kinsmen of, Stephen Gardiner, and an able defender of the old Faith, as his tract against John Frith (dated 1 August, 1534) shows. During the years of fiery trial, which followed, we […]

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March 7 – Stoic Emperor

March 6, 2025

Antoninus Pius (TITUS ÆLIUS HADRIANUS ANTONINUS PIUS). Roman Emperor (138-161), born 18 September, A.D. 86 at Lanuvium, a short distance from Rome; died at Lorium, 7 March, 161. Most of his youth was spent at Lorium, which was only twelve miles from Rome. Later on he built a villa there, to which he would frequently […]

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March 7 – Martyred for entertainment on the birthday of the Emperor

March 6, 2025

Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas Martyrs, suffered at Carthage, 7 March 203, together with three companions, Revocatus, Saturus, and Saturninus. The details of the martyrdom of these five confessors in the North African Church have reached us through a genuine, contemporary description, one of the most affecting accounts of the glorious warfare of Christian martyrdom in […]

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The Death of Maria Theresa

March 6, 2025

Maria Theresa’s health, undermined by so many fatigues, so many maternal and political anxieties, so many cares of all kinds, failed visibly. For a long time she had suffered from catarrh; it seemed as though an internal fire consumed her. On Nov 24 1780, she fell quite ill. Violent attacks of coughing, and continual suffocation, […]

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March 8 – They buried him with all the honors of a prince

March 6, 2025

St. John of God Born at Montemor o Novo, Portugal, 8 March, 1495, of devout Christian parents; died at Granada, 8 March, 1550. The wonders attending the saints birth heralded a life many-sided in its interests, but dominated throughout by implicit fidelity to the grace of God. A Spanish priest whom he followed to Oropeza, […]

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García Moreno Refuses to Be Silent and Is Exiled for Denouncing His Country’s Rape

March 6, 2025

From that moment Ecuador was treated as a conquered country. Thefts, pillage, sacrilege, murders, became the order of the day. The “Tauras,” a guard of mamelukes whom Urbina called his “canons,” armed with daggers, went up and down the country, attacking inoffensive men, insulting women, and assassinating all who would not be robbed without a […]

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March 9 – She Could Detect Diabolical Plots

March 6, 2025

St. Frances of Rome One of the greatest mystics of the fifteenth century; born at Rome, of a noble family, in 1384; died there, 9 March, 1440. Her youthful desire was to enter religion, but at her father’s wish she married, at the age of twelve, Lorenzo de’ Ponziani. Among her children we know of […]

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The fight based on discernment of the Revolution and the Counter-Revolution is a continuous battle and a refinement of the Crusades

March 3, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Either every man is watching everything or, since the devil billets himself in the smallest things in order to damn souls through the meaning of things rather than the meaning of books, it so happens that one needs to pay as much attention to a painting’s frame as to a […]

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March 5 – St. John Joseph of the Cross

March 3, 2025

St. John Joseph of the Cross Born on the Island of Ischia, Southern Italy, 1654; died 5 March, 1739. From his earliest years he was given to prayer and virtue. So great was his love of poverty that he would always wear the dress of the poor, though he was of noble birth. At the […]

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A Japanese Noble Family Is Martyred for the Faith

March 3, 2025

A generous servant of God, named Damian, had sacrificed his life for the faith in 1622. All his property having been confiscated, the house where his mother Isabella, his wife Beatrice, and his children dwelt was assigned to them as their prison. Guards were constantly watching over them, and did not cease to importune them […]

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RCR: Conclusion, Postface, End of Book

March 3, 2025

Conclusion Having updated the first (1959) edition of Revolution and Counter-Revolution by the addition of the preceding pages, we wondered if the brief conclusion to the original text and to subsequent editions should be replaced or at least modified. After rereading it carefully, we are convinced there is no reason to omit it or even […]

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At Judgment, the joking knight’s rendering of accounts will be more severe than a prostitute’s

March 3, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira See for example the story of the Orders of Chivalry. From one standpoint it was a synthesis of the history of the Middle Ages. Imagine a heroic knight eventually wounded in the Crusades, who returns to the monastery in a handicapped condition and is thus prevented from repeating his deeds. […]

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March 4 – This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

March 3, 2025

St. Casimir Prince of Poland, born in the royal palace at Cracow, 3 October, 1458; died at the court of Grodno, 4 March, 1484. He was the grandson of Wladislaus II Jagiello, King of Poland, who introduced Christianity into Lithuania, and the second son of King Casimir IV and Queen Elizabeth, an Austrian princess, the […]

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March 4 – “Your Honor, was St. Augustine also a traitor?”

March 3, 2025

Blessed Christopher Bales (Or Bayles, alias Evers) Priest and martyr, b. at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564; executed 4 March, 1590. He entered the English College at Rome, 1 October, 1583, but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims, where he was ordained 28 March, 1587. Sent to England […]

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March 3 – The work of Mother Drexel

March 3, 2025

Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament One of the…congregations of religious women in the Catholic Church and one of entirely American origin, founded by Miss Katharine Drexel at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1889, for missionary work among the Indians and coloured people of the United States. The formal approbation of the Holy See was given to the […]

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March 3 – Pope Pelagius I

March 3, 2025

Pope Pelagius I   Date of birth unknown; died 3 March, 561, was a Roman of noble family; his father, John, seems to have been vicar of one of the two civil “dioceses”, or districts, into which Italy was then divided. We first meet with him at Constantinople, in the company of Agapitus I, who, […]

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March 3 – James Spencer Northcote

March 3, 2025

James Spencer Northcote Born at Feniton Court, Devonshire, 26 May, 1821; d. at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, 3 March, 1907. He was the second son of George Barons Northcote, a gentleman of an ancient Devonshire family of Norman descent. Educated first at Ilmington Grammar School, he won in 1837 a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where […]

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March 3 – St. Winwallus

March 3, 2025

St. Winwallus Abbot of Landevennec; d. 3 March, probably at the beginning of the sixth century, though the exact year is not known. There are some fifty forms of his name, ranging from Wynwallow through such variants as Wingaloeus, Waloway, Wynolatus, Vinguavally, Vennole, Valois, Ouignoualey, Gweno, Gunnolo, to Bennoc. The original form is undistinguishable. In […]

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February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest?

February 27, 2025

St. Anne Line She was the daughter of William Heigham of Dunmow, Essex, a gentleman of means and an ardent Calvinist, and when she and her brother announced their intention of becoming Catholics both were disowned and disinherited. Anne married Roger Line, a convert like herself, and shortly after their marriage he was apprehended for […]

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February 27 – Patron of Youth

February 27, 2025

St. Gabriel Possenti Passionist student; renowned for sanctity and miracles; born at Assisi, 1 March, 1838; died 27 February, 1862, at Isola di Gran Sasso, Province of Abruzzo, Italy; son of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti; received baptism on the day of his birth and was called Francesco, the name by which he was known […]

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February 28 – Pope Saint Hilarus

February 27, 2025

Pope Saint Hilarus [Also spelled HILARIUS, or HILARY] Elected 461; the date of his death is given as 28 Feb., 468. After the death of Leo I, an archdeacon named Hilarus, a native of Sardinia, according to the “Liber Pontificalis”, was chosen to succeed him, and in all probability received consecration on 19 November, 461. […]

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February 28 – The Gentleman instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life

February 27, 2025

William Darrell Theologian, b. 1651, in Buckinghamshire, England; d. 28 Feb., 1721, at St. Omer’s, France. He was a member of the ancient Catholic family of Darrell of Scotney Castle, Sussex, being the only son of Thomas Darrell and his wife, Thomassine Marcham. He joined the Society of Jesus on 7 Sept., 1671, was professed […]

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March 1 – Apostle of the Frisians

February 27, 2025

St. Suitbert (Suidbert). Apostle of the Frisians, b. in England in the seventh century; d. at Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf, 1 March, 713. He studied in Ireland, at Rathmelsigi, Connacht, along with St. Egbert (q. v.). The latter, filled with zeal for the conversion of the Germans, had sent St. Wihtberht, or Wigbert, to […]

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March 1 – St. David of Wales

February 27, 2025

St. David (DEGUI, DEWI). Bishop and Confessor, patron of Wales. He is usually represented standing on a little hill, with a dove on his shoulder. From time immemorial the Welsh have worn a leek on St. David’s day, in memory of a battle against the Saxons, at which it is said they wore leeks in […]

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March 2 – William Maxwell

February 27, 2025

William Maxwell Fifth Earl of Nithsdale (Lord Nithsdale signed as Nithsdaill) and fourteenth Lord Maxwell, b. in 1676; d. at Rome, 2 March, 1744. He succeeded his father at the early age of seven. His mother, a daughter of the House of Douglas, a clever energetic woman, educated him in sentiments of devotion to the […]

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March 2 – This Princess Refused to Marry the Emperor

February 27, 2025

St. Agnes of Bohemia (Also called Agnes of Prague). Born at Prague in the year 1200; died probably in 1281. She was the daughter of Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Constance of Hungary, a relative of St. Elizabeth. At an early age she was sent to the monastery of Treinitz, where at the hands of […]

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RCR – Part III, End of Chapter II – Chapter III

February 24, 2025

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY Astonishing Calamities in the Church’s Post-Conciliar Phase The historic declaration of Paul VI in the Allocution Resistite fortes in fide, of June 29, 1972, is fundamental for a better understanding of the calamities in the post-Conciliar phase of the Church. We quote the Poliglotta Vaticana. Referring to the situation of the Church today, […]

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Without tradition, there is neither a destination nor a course to follow

February 24, 2025

The past prepares the present, the present protects the past, and both of them elaborate the future. A course followed is analogous to order in moving from one point to the next. Stability is not immobility, but rather mobility in a single direction. To continue is analogous to living, and changing is something analogous to […]

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