July 20 – Carolingian Reformer

July 20, 2026

St. Ansegisus

Born about 770, of noble parentage; died 20 July, 833, or 834.

At the age of eighteen he entered the Benedictine monastery of Fontanelle (also called St. Vandrille after the name of its founder) in the diocese of Rouen. St. Girowald, a relative of Ansegisus, was then Abbot of Fontanelle.

From the beginning of his monastic life St. Ansegisus manifested a deep piety united with great learning, and upon the recommendation of the Abbot St. Girowald he was entrusted by the Emperor Charlemagne with the government and reform of two monasteries, St. Sixtus near Reims and St. Memius (St. Mange) in the diocese of Challons­-sur­-Marne. Under the direction of St. Ansegisus these two monasteries soon regained their original splendour.

Abbey of Saint-Germer-de-Fly

Charlemagne, being much pleased with the success of Ansegisus, appointed him Abbot of Flay, or St. Germer, a monastery in the Diocese of Beauvais, the buildings of which were threatening to fall into ruins. At the same time Charlemagne made Ansegisus supervisor of royal works under the general direction of Abbot Einhard. Under the management of Ansegisus the structures of the monastery of Flay were completely renovated, monastic discipline was restored, and the monks were instructed in the sacred and the profane sciences.

Fontenelle Abbey Photo by Urban

Louis le Débonnaire esteemed Ansegisus as highly as his father Charlemagne had done and, seeing how all monasteries flourished that had at one time been under the direction of Ansegisus, he put him at the head of the maonastery of Luxeuil in the year 817. This monastery was founded by St. Columban as early as 590 and, during the seventh and the first half of the eighth century, was the most renowned monastery and school of Christendom. Of late, however, its discipline had grown lax. Having restored this monastery to its former splendour, he was in 823, after the death of Abbot Einhard, transferred as abbot to the monastery of Fontanelle, where he had spent the early days of his monastic life. He immediately applied himself with vigour to restore monastic fervour by pious exhortations and, most of all, by his own edifying example. Some learned and saintly monks whom he invited from Luxeuil to Fontanelle assisted him in his great work of reform. Hand in hand with a reform of discipline came a love for learning. The library was enriched with valuable books, such as the Bible, some works of St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Gregory the Great, St. Bede, etc. The most learned of the monks were put to writing original works, while the others occupied themselves with transcribing valuable old books and manuscripts. In a short time the library of Fontanelle became one of the largest in Europe and acquired great renown for accuracy of transcribing and beauty of writing. A dormitory, a refectory, a chapter­house, a library, and other new structures were erected at Fontanelle by St. Ansegisus. On account of his great learning and prudence he was often sent as legate to distant countries by Louis le Débonnaire. The many and costly presents which he received as legate from foreign princes he distributed among various monasteries. While Abbot of Fontanelle he wrote a “Constitutio pro monachis de victu et vestitu”, in which he determines exactly how much food, what articles of dress, etc., the monks were to receive from the different landed properties of the monastery. The work which made the name of Ansegisus renowned for all times is his collection of the laws and decrees made by the Emperor Charlemagne and his son Louis le Débonnaire. These laws and decrees being divided into articles or chapters, are generally called “Capitulars”. Ansegisus was the first to collect all those “Capitulars” into the four books entitled “Quatuor libri Capitularium Regum Francorum”. The first and the second book contained all “Capitulars” relating to church affairs, while the third and the fourth books had all the “Capitulars” relating to state affairs. It was completed in the year 827. Shortly afterwards it was approved by the Church in France, Germany, and Italy, and remained for a long time the official book on civil and canon law. Shortly before his death Ansegisus was attacked by paralysis which ended his holy and useful life on 20 July, 833 or 834. His earthly remains lie buried in the Abbey of Fontanelle, where his feast is celebrated on 20 July, the day of his death.

LECHNER, Martyrologium des Benediktiner Ordens (Augsburg, 1855); STADLER, Heiligen Lexikon (Augsburg, 1858), I, 234; Gesta abbat. Fontanell. in DACHERY, Spicileg., 1st ed., II, 279 sqq., and Mon. Germ. Hist. (Scriptores), II, 293, sqq.; MABILLON, Acta ss. ord. s. Bened. (Sæc., IV), IV (I), 630 sqq.; ZIEGELBAUER, Hist. Rei Lit. Bened., IV, 216, 259. The Capitularia were first edited by BALUZE (Paris, 1677-88); for a new and critical edition see BORETIUS, in Mon. Germ. Hist. (Leges, Sect. II), Capitularia regum Francorum (Hanover, 1883, 1890, 1897), I-II; the second volume is by BOTIUS AND KRAUSE. The PERTZ edition (op. cit., Leges, I, 256 sqq.) is found in P.L., XCVII, 489 sqq.; SCHMID in Kirchenlex.

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 21 – He raised the king’s son back to life, but wished to be buried among the criminals

July 20, 2026

St. Arbogast

(Gaelic Arascach).

St. Arbogast

St. Arbogast has been claimed as a native of Scotland, but this is owing to a misunderstanding of the name “Scotia”, which until late in the Middle Ages really meant Ireland. He flourished about the middle of the seventh century. Leaving Ireland, as so many other missionaries had done, he settled as a hermit in a German forest, and then proceeded to Alsace, where his real name, Arascach, was changed to Arbogast. This change of name was owing to the difficulty experienced by foreigners in pronouncing Irish Christian names; thus it is that Moengal, Maelmaedhog, Cellach, Gillaisu, Gilla in Coimded, Tuathal, and Arascach were respectively transformed into Marcellus, Malachy, Gall, Gelasius, Germanus, Tutilo, and Arbogast. St. Arbogast found a warm friend in King Dagobert II of Austrasia, who had been educated at Slane, in Meath, in Ireland, and was restored to his kingdom on the demise of King Childeric II. Monstrelet authenticates the story of King Dagobert in Ireland; and the royal exile naturally fled to Slane in order to be under the ægis of the Ard-Righ (High­-King) of Ireland, at Tara. On Dagobert’s accession to the throne of Austrasia, Arbogast was appointed Bishop of Strasburg, and was famed for sanctity and miracles. It is related that the Irish saint raised to life Dagobert’s son, who had been killed by a fall from his horse. St. Arbogast died in 678, and, at his own special request, was buried on the side of a mountain, where only malefactors were interred. The site of his burial was subsequently deemed suitable for a church. He is commemorated 21 July.

Subscription9

Grattan Flood, Irish Saints; Boschius in Acta SS. (1727), July, V, 168-177; Burgener, Helvetia Sancta (1860), I, 56-58; Hist. litt. de la France (1735), III, 621-622; Postina, in Römische Quartalschrift (1898), XII, 299-305; Analecta Bolland., XVIII, 195; Bibl. hagiogr. Lat. (1898), 106, 1317; O’Hanlon, Lives of Irish Saints, VII (21 July); Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, 6th ed.; Grandidier, Hist de l’église de Strasbourg (1770), I, 199.

W. H. Grattan-Flood (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 22 – The Siege of Belgrade (1456)

July 20, 2026

The Siege of Belgrade (or Battle of Belgrade, or Siege of Nándorfehérvár) occurred from July 4 to July 22, 1456.

Statue of John Hunyadi in Budapest, Heroes' Square

Statue of John Hunyadi in Budapest, Heroes’ Square

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources in order to subjugate the Kingdom of Hungary. His immediate objective was the border fort of the town of Belgrade (in old Hungarian Nándorfehérvár). John Hunyadi, a Hungarian nobleman and warlord, who had fought many battles against the Ottomans in the previous two decades, prepared the defense of the fortress.

The siege eventually escalated into a major battle, during which Hunyadi led a sudden counterattack that overran the Ottoman camp, ultimately compelling the wounded Sultan Mehmed II to lift the siege and retreat. The battle had significant consequences, as it stabilized the southern frontiers of the Kingdom of Hungary for more than half a century and thus considerably delayed the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.

The Pope celebrated the victory as well, and he previously ordered all Catholic kingdoms to pray for the victory of the defenders of Belgrade. This led to the noon bell ritual that is still undertaken in Catholic churches to this day.

Since 2011, the date 22nd of July, when Christian forces led by John Hunyadi defeated the Ottoman Turks besieging Belgrade in 1456, is a national memorial day in Hungary.

Portrait of Mehmed II by Venetian artist Gentile Bellini

Portrait of Mehmed II by Venetian artist Gentile Bellini

Preparations

At the end of 1455, after a public reconciliation with all his enemies, Hunyadi began preparations. At his own expense, he provisioned and armed the fortress. Leaving in it a strong garrison under the command of his brother-in-law Mihály Szilágyi and his own eldest son László. Hunyadi then proceeded to form a relief army and an additional fleet of two hundred corvettes. The barons fearing Hunyadi’s growing power more than the Ottoman threat, leaving Hunyadi entirely to his own resources.

A Franciscan friar allied with Hunyadi, Giovanni da Capistrano, preached a crusade to attract peasants and yeomanry to Hunyadi’s cause. The recruits were ill-armed (many with only slings and scythes) but full of enthusiasm. The recruits flocked to the standard of Hunyadi, the core of which consisted of a small band of seasoned mercenaries and a few banderia of noble horsemen. All in all, Hunyadi managed to build a force of 25–30,000 men.

Siege

However, before these forces could be assembled, Mehmed II’s invasion army (160,000 men in early accounts, 60-70,000 according to newer research) arrived at Belgrade. On July 4, 1456, the siege began. Szilágyi could rely on a force of only 5,000-7,000 men in the castle. Mehmed set up his siege on the neck of the headland and started firing on the walls on June 29. He arrayed his men in three sections. The Rumelian (that is, European) corps had the majority of his 300 cannons, and his fleet of 200 or so river vessels had the rest. The Rumelians were arrayed on the right wing and the Anatolian corps was arrayed on the left. In the middle were the sultan’s personal guards, the janissaries, and his command post. The Anatolian corps and the janissaries were both heavy infantry troops. Mehmed posted his river vessels mainly to the northwest of the city to patrol the marshes and ensure that the fortress was not reinforced. They also kept an eye on the Sava to the southwest to avoid the infantry’s being outflanked by Hunyadi’s army. The Danube to the east was guarded by the spahi, the sultan’s light cavalry corps, to avoid being outflanked on the right.

St. John in the middle of the Battle

St. John in the middle of the Battle

When word of this reached Hunyadi, he was in the south of Hungary recruiting additional light cavalry troops for the army with which he intended to lift the siege. Although relatively few of his fellow nobles had were willing to provide manpower, the peasants were more than willing to do so. Cardinal Giovanni Capistrano had been sent to Hungary by the Vatican both to preach against heretics, such as Greek Orthodox Christians, and to preach the Crusade against the Ottomans. Capistrano managed to raise a large, albeit poorly trained and equipped, peasant army, with which he left for Belgrade. Capistrano and Hunyadi traveled together, but commanded separately. Between the two of them, they had roughly 40,000-50,000 men.

The outnumbered defenders relied mainly on the strength of the formidable castle of Belgrade which was at the time one of the best engineered in the Balkans. As Belgrade was designated to be the capital of the Serbian Despotate by Despot Stefan Lazarević. Ottoman raids were expected after they recovered from the heavy loss against the Mongols. Utilising advanced building techniques from Byzantine and Arab fortress designs from the period of Seljuk and Ottoman military conflicts of the mid-11th century.

The castle was designed in an elaborate form with three lines of defense: the inner castle with the palace and huge Donjon, the upper town with the main military camps with four gates and a double wall. as well as the lower town with the cathedral in the urban center and a port at the Danube. This building endeavor was one of the most elaborate military architecture achievements of the Middle Ages. After the Siege, the Hungarians reinforced the north and eastern side with an additional gate and several towers, one of which, the Nebojsa tower, was designed for artillery purposes.

John Hunyadi

John Hunyadi

On July 14, 1456, Hunyadi arrived to the completely encircled city with his flotilla on the Danube while the Ottoman navy lay astride the Danube River. He broke the naval blockade on July 14, sinking three large Ottoman galleys and capturing four large vessels and 20 smaller ones. By destroying the Sultan’s fleet, Hunyadi was able to transport his troops and much-needed food into the city. The fort’s defense was also reinforced.

But Mehmed II was not willing to end the siege and after a week of heavy artillery bombardment, the walls of the fortress were breached in several places. On July 21 Mehmed II ordered an all-out assault which began at sundown and continued all night. The besieging army flooded the city, and then started its assault on the fort. As this was the most crucial moment of the siege, Hunyadi ordered the defenders to throw tarred wood, and other flammable material, and then set it afire. Soon a wall of flames separated the Janissaries fighting in the city from their comrades trying to breach through the gaps into the upper town. The fierce battle between the encircled Janissaries and Szilágyi’s soldiers inside the upper town was turning in favour of the Christians and the Hungarians managed to beat off the fierce assault from outside the walls. The Janissaries remaining inside the city were thus massacred while the Ottoman troops trying to breach the upper town suffered heavy losses. When an Ottoman soldier almost managed to plant the Sultan’s flag on top of a bastion, a Hungarian knight named Titus Dugović (Dugovics Titusz in Hungarian) grabbed him and together they plunged from the wall. However, according to historians the name “Titus Dugović” is fictitious because it derives from falsified records.

Battle of Belgrade

Battle of Belgrade

Battle

The next day something unexpected happened. By some accounts, the peasant crusaders started a spontaneous action, and forced Capistrano and Hunyadi to make use of the situation. Despite Hunyadi’s orders to the defenders not to try to loot the Ottoman positions, some of the units crept out from demolished ramparts, took up positions across from the Ottoman line, and began harassing enemy soldiers. Ottoman spahis (provincial cavalry) tried without success to disperse the harassing force. At once, more Christians joined those outside the wall. What began as an isolated incident quickly escalated into a full-scale battle.

John of Capistrano at first tried to order his men back inside the walls, but soon found himself surrounded by about 2,000 Crusaders. He then began leading them toward the Ottoman lines, crying, “The Lord who made the beginning will take care of the finish!”

Capistrano led his crusaders to the Ottoman rear across the Sava river. At the same time, Hunyadi started a desperate charge out of the fort to take the cannon positions in the Ottoman camp.

Part of Belgrade Fortress from the 17th century.

Part of Belgrade Fortress from the 17th century.

Taken by surprise at this strange turn of events and, some chroniclers say, paralyzed by some inexplicable fear, the Ottomans took flight. The Sultan’s bodyguard of about 5,000 Janissaries tried desperately to stop the panic and recapture the camp, but by that time Hunyadi’s army had also joined the unplanned battle, and the Ottoman efforts became hopeless. The Sultan himself advanced into the fight and killed a knight in single combat, but then took an arrow in the thigh and was rendered unconscious. After the battle, the Hungarian raiders were ordered to spend the night behind the walls of the fortress and to be on the alert for a possible renewal of the battle, but the Ottoman counterattack never came.

Under cover of darkness the Ottomans retreated in haste, bearing their wounded in 140 wagons. They withdrew to Constantinople.

Turkish miniature of the siege of Belgrade 1456

Turkish miniature of the siege of Belgrade 1456

Aftermath

However, the Hungarians payed dearly for this victory. Plague broke out in the camp, from which John Hunyadi himself died three weeks later (August 11, 1456). He was buried in the Cathedral of Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia), the capital of Transylvania.

As the design of the fortress had proved its merits during the siege, some additional reinforcements were made by the Hungarians. The weaker eastern walls, where the Ottomans broke through into the upper town were reinforced by the Zindan gate and the Heavy Nebojsa tower. This was the last of the great modifications to the fortress until 1521 when Sultan Süleyman eventually captured it.

Noon Bell

Pope Callixtus III

Pope Callixtus III

Pope Callixtus III ordered the bells of every European church to be rung every day at noon, as a call for believers to pray for the defenders of the city. The practice of the noon bell is traditionally attributed to the international commemoration of the victory at Belgrade and to the order of Pope Callixtus III, since in many countries (like England and the Spanish Kingdoms) news of the victory arrived before the order, and the ringing of the church bells at noon was thus transformed into a commemoration of the victory. The Pope didn’t withdraw the order, and Catholic churches still ring the noon bell to this day.

In the history of Oxford University, the victory was welcomed with a peals of bells and great celebrations in England too. Hunyadi sent a special courier (among others), Erasmus Fullar, to Oxford with the news of the victory.

Stone in the Kalemegdan park, in Belgrade, with engraved inscription on the place where Catholic forces under command of Yanosh Huniady won the battle against the Turks in the year 1456.

Stone in the Kalemegdan park, in Belgrade, with engraved inscription on the place where Catholic forces under command of Yanosh Huniady won the battle against the Turks in the year 1456.

Follow Up

The victory stopped the Ottoman advance towards Catholic Europe for 70 years, though they made other incursions such as the taking of Otranto in 1480–1481 and the raid of Croatia and Styria in 1493. Belgrade would continue to protect Hungary from Ottoman attacks until the fort fell to the Ottomans in 1521.

After the Siege of Belgrade stopped the advance of Mehmed II towards Central Europe, Serbia and Bosnia were absorbed into the Empire. Wallachia, the Tartar Khanate of Crimea, and eventually Moldavia were merely converted into vassal states thanks to strong military resistance to Mehmed’s attempts at conquest. There were several reasons why the sultan did not directly attack Hungary and why he gave up the idea of advancing in that direction after his unsuccessful siege of Belgrade. The mishap at Belgrade indicated that the Empire could not expand further until Serbia and Bosnia were transformed into a secure base of operations. Furthermore, the significant political and military power of Hungary under Matthias Corvinus no doubt had something to do with this hesitation. Mehmed was also distracted by resistance from two semi-independent vassals to the north of the Danube, over whom he was attempting to exercise greater authority.

While Hunyadi’s victory at Belgrade and the lasting legacy of his political decisions (Vlad III the Impaler and Stephen III both came to power under Hunyadi, and he went to great lengths to have his son Matthias placed on the throne) rendered the daunting Mehmed II far less of a threat to Christendom, his ultimate dream of a Christian reconquest of Constantinople would never be realized. Hunyadi had chosen to stay out of the Siege of Constantinople because he was militarily unprepared to fight Mehmed’s mighty army at the time, and instead opted to protect Hungary and fortify the Balkans. Matthias did not share the concept of a great war against the Ottomans and was too embroiled in political disputes with the Holy Roman Empire to his West to be the aggressive warrior his father was, so his role was limited mostly to defending his own territory and letting the Balkan leaders bear the brunt of the struggle against the Ottoman Empire.

Subscription8

While fierce resistance and Hunyadi’s effective leadership ensured that the daring and ambitious Mehmed the Conqueror would only get as far into Europe as the Balkans, the sultan had already managed to transform the Ottoman Empire into what would be one of the most feared powers in Europe (as well as Asia) for centuries. Most of Hungary was eventually conquered in 1526 at the Battle of Mohács. Ottoman expansion into Europe continued with menacing success until the Siege of Vienna in 1529, and Ottoman power in Europe remained strong and still threatening to Central Europe at times until the Battle of Vienna in 1683.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 404

 

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July 22 – With his lady’s permission, this lord left court to become a monk, then abbot

July 20, 2026

St. Wandrille, or Wandregisilus, Abbot

[Abbot of Fontenelles, in Normandy.]  He was nearly related to Pepin of Landen and Erchinoald, the two first lords in the kingdom of Austrasia; and in his youth was made count of the palace under Dagobert I. He was humble on the highest pinnacle of honors, and mortified amidst pleasures. To retrieve himself from the dissipation and other ill effects, of which hurry and much conversation with the world are dangerous occasions, he frequently retired into his closet, and there conversed much with God by devout prayer, and with himself by serious consideration on his own duties, condition, and spiritual miseries.

St. Wandrille

In compliance with the will of his parents he took to wife a virtuous and noble lady; but, on the very day of his marriage, obtained her consent that they should both consecrate their virginity to God, which they did by a mutual vow on the same day. Wandrille, in 629, took the monastic habit at Montfaucon, in Champagne, an abbey then lately founded by St. Baudri. He afterwards built a monastery upon his own estate, called Elisang. In order to perfect himself in the most approved rules and exercises of an ascetic or monastic life, he took a journey to Bobio and to Rome. After his return into France, he spent ten years in the monastery of Romans, on the Isere. After which term, with the blessing of his abbot, he repaired to St. Oüen, archbishop of Rouen, by whom he was some time after ordained priest. In 648 the saint founded the famous monastery of Fontenelles, five leagues below Rouen, in the territory of Caux, in which he in a short time saw himself at the head of three hundred monks.

Stained glass window in Clichy, France. Picture by GFreihalter

His life was always most austere; he slept little, was clad in sackcloth, and was most scrupulously exact in all the exercises of the monastic rule, in which, he was well assured, the sanctification of his state consisted. He went to receive the recompense of his labors on the 22nd of July, in 666, being ninety-six years old. He was buried in the church of St. Paul, now in ruins: his body was translated by St. Bainus into that of St. Peter’s, still standing; and in 944 to Ghent. It was lost in the persecution of the Calvinists in 1578; but an arm had been restored to Fontenelles, and the other arm had been given to the abbey of Brone, where these relics are still preserved.

Abbey of St. Wandrille Photo by Urban

See his two lives of the same age in Mabillon, and in Bosch the Bollandist, Julij, t. 5, p. 253. Also Gallia Christ. Nova, t. 11, pp. 155, 166, and the history of the translation of his relics to the abbey of Blandine, now St. Peter’s, at Ghent, and a history of his miracles, with F. Bosch’s notes, t. 5, p. 281; also, F. Toussaint-du-Plessis, Descript. Geogr. Hist. de la Haute Normandie.

from The Lives of the Saints, by Rev. Alban Butler, Volume VII.  1866.

 

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The Traditional Burial Ceremony of a Hapsburg Prince

July 16, 2026

This traditional ceremony for the burial of Hapsburg emperors and princes is a glorious specimen of the profound influence of Christianity on this “first family of Christendom” and a luminous example of faith for Christians not just in Austria, but throughout the world. It will be used on July 16, 2011 for the burial of HIRH Archduke Otto of Hapsburg-Lorraine.

The Grand Chamberlain knocks three times with a silver cane on the door of the Capuchin convent which contains the Imperial crypt.

The Capuchin porter asks:
– “Who is there?”

The Grand Chamberlain proclaims the name and titles of the deceased Hapsburg emperor:

Empress Zita and her son Crown Prince Otto during the former’s coronation as Queen of Hungary in 1916.  Painting by Gyula Éder (1875-1935)

– “I am (Name) … Emperor of Austria, Apostolic King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia, Lodomeria, of Illyria, and King of Jerusalem, Archduke of Austria, Grand Duke of Tuscany and Cracow, Duke of Lorraine , Salzburg, STIR, Carinthia, of Carniola and Bukovina, Grand Prince of Transylvania, Margrave of Moravia, Duke of Upper Silesia, Lower Silesia, of Modena, Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, of Auschwitz and Zator of Ticino, Friuli, Ragusa and Zara, Prince of Conde-Hapsburg and Tyrol, of Kyburg, in Goritz and Gradisca, Prince of Trent and Brixen, Margrave of Upper and Lower Lusatia and Istria, Earl of Hohenembs of Feldkirch of Brigance, in Sonnenberg, Lord of Trieste, of Cattaro and Marche, Great Voivode of Serbia, etc. … ”

Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary. Painting by Julius von Blaas (1845-1923)

Upon hearing this, the porter refuses to open the door and says:

– “I do not know you.”

The Grand Chamberlain knocks on the door again and in answer to the porter’s question “Who is there?” gives just the name of the deceased prince:

– “I am (Name) … His Majesty the Emperor and the King. ”

The porter again refuses admission:

– “I do not know you.”

For a third time, the Grand Chamberlain knocks on the door and the porter asks anew, “Who is there?”

This time, the Grand Chamberlain simply says:

– “I am (Name)… a poor mortal and a sinner.”

To this, the Capuchin friar responds:

– “Come in.”

Main entrance to the Capuchin friary that contains the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. Photo by Politikaner

The convent doors open wide and the casket is carried in, being received by a double row of Capuchin friars.

A funeral oration in the chapel follows, and then the casket is taken to the crypt.

A salvo of 21 cannon shots is heard in Vienna as the coffin enters forever in the sacred crypt.

A salvo of 21 cannon shots is heard in Vienna as the coffin enters forever in the sacred crypt

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July 19 – Her whole family became saints

July 16, 2026

St. Macrina the Younger

St. Macrina the Younger (fresco in Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev)

Born about 330; died 379. She was the eldest child of Basil the Elder and Emmelia, the granddaughter of St. Macrina the Elder, and the sister of the Cappadocian Fathers, Sts. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. The last-mentioned has left us a biography of his sister in the form of a panegyric (“Vita Macrinae Junioris” in PG XLVI, 960 sq.). She received an excellent intellectual training, though one based more on the study of the Holy Bible than on that of profane literature. When she was but twelve years old, her father had already arranged a marriage for her with a young advocate of excellent family. Soon afterwards, however, her affianced husband died suddenly, and Macrina resolved to devote herself to a life of perpetual virginity and the pursuit of Christian perfection. She exercised great influence over the religious training of her younger brothers, especially St. Peter, afterwards Bishop of Sebaste, and through her St. Gregory received the greatest intellectual stimulation.

Statue of St. Basil the Great in Prague

On the death of their father, Basil took her, with their mother, to a family estate on the River Iris, in Pontus. Here, with their servants and other companions, they led a life of retirement, consecrating themselves to God. Strict asceticism, zealous meditation on the truths of Christianity, and prayer were the chief concerns of this community. Not only the brothers of St. Macrina but also St. Gregory of Nazianzus and Eustathius of Sebaste were associated with this pious circle and were there stimulated to make still further advances towards Christian perfection. After the death of her mother Emmelia, Macrina became the head of this community, in which the fruit of the earnest Christian life matured so gloriously.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

On his return from a synod of Antioch, towards the end of 379, Gregory of Nyssa visited his deeply venerated sister, and found her grievously ill. In pious discourse the brother and sister spoke of the life beyond and of the meeting in heaven. Soon afterwards Macrina passed blissfully to her reward. Gregory composed a “Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection” (peri psyches kai anastaseos), treating of his pious discourse with his dying sister. In this, Macrina appears as teacher, and treats of the soul, death, the resurrection, and the restoration of all things. Hence the title of the work, ta Makrinia (P.G. XLVI, 12 sq.). Her feast is celebrated on 19 July.

J.P. KIRSCH 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Born about 330; died 379. She was the eldest child of Basil the Elder and Emmelia, the granddaugher of St. Macrina the Elder, and the sister of the Cappadocian Fathers, Sts. Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. The last-mentioned has left us a biography of his sister in the form of a panegyric (“Vita Macrinae Junioris” in PG XLVI, 960 sq.). She received an excellent intellectual training, though one based more on the study of the Holy Bible than on that of profane literature. When she was but twelve years old, her father had already arranged a marriage for her with a young advocate of excellent family. Soon afterwards, however, her affianced husband died suddenly, and Macrina resolved to devote herself to a life of perpetual virginity and the pursuit of Christian perfection. She exercised great influence over the religious training of her younger brothers, especially St. Peter, afterwards Bishop of Sebaste, and through her St. Gregory received the greatest intellectual stimulation. On the death of their father, Basil took her, with their mother, to a family estate on the River Iris, in Pontus. Here, with their servants and other companions, they led a life of retirement, consecrating themselves to God. Strict asceticism, zealous meditation on the truths of Christanity, and prayer were the chief concerns of this community. Not only the brothers of St. Macrina but also St. Gregory of Nazianzus and Eustathius of Sebaste were associated with this pious circle and were there stimulated to make still further advances towards Christian perfection. After the death her mother Emmelia, Macrina became the head of this community, in which the fruit of the earnest Christian life matured so gloriously. On his return from a synod of Antioch, towards the end of 379, Gregory of Nyssa visited his deeply venerated sister, and found her grievously ill. In pious discourse the brother and sister spoke of the life beyond and of the meeting in heaven. Soon afterwards Macrina passed blissfully to her reward. Gregory composed a “Dialogue on the Soul and Resurrection” (peri psyches kai anastaseos), treating of his pious discourse with his dying sister. In this, Macrina appears as teacher, and treats of the soul, death, the resurrection, and the restoration of all things. Hence the title of the work, ta Makrinia (P.G. XLVI, 12 sq.). Her feast is celebrated on 19 July.

J.P. KIRSCH

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July 19 – Penitent Nobility

July 16, 2026

St. Arsenius

St. Arsenius the GreatAnchorite; born 354, at Rome; died 450, at Troe, in Egypt. Theodosius the Great having requested the Emperor Gratian and Pope Damasus to find him in the West a tutor for his son Arcadius, they made choice of Arsenius, a man well read in Greek literature, member of a noble Roman family, and said to have been a deacon of the Roman Church. He reached Constantinople in 383, and continued as tutor in the imperial family for eleven years, during the last three of which he also had charge of his pupil’s brother Honorius. Coming one day to see his children at their studies, Theodosius found them sitting while Arsenius talked to them standing. This he would not tolerate, and caused the teacher to sit and the pupils to stand. On his arrival at court Arsenius had been given a splendid establishment, and probably because the Emperor so desired, he lived in great pomp, but all the time felt a growing inclination to renounce the world. After praying long to be enlightened as to what he should do, he heard a voice saying “Arsenius, flee the company of men, and thou shalt be saved.” Subscription19 Thereupon he embarked secretly for Alexandria, and hastening to the desert of Scetis, asked to be admitted among the solitaries who dwelt there. St. John the Dwarf, to whose cell he was conducted, though previously warned of the quality of his visitor, took no notice of him and left him standing by himself while he invited the rest to sit down at table. When the repast was half finished he threw down some bread before him, bidding him with an air of indifference eat if he would. Arsenius meekly picked up the bread and ate, sitting on the ground. Satisfied with this proof of humility, St. John kept him under his direction. The new solitary was from the first most exemplary yet unwittingly retained certain of his old habits, such as sitting cross-legged or laying one foot over the other. Noticing this, the abbot requested some one to imitate Arsenius’s posture at the next gathering of the brethren, and upon his doing so, forthwith rebuked him publicly. Arsenius took the hint and corrected himself. During the fifty-five years of his solitary life he was always the most meanly clad of all, thus punishing himself for his former seeming vanity in the world. In like manner, to atone for having used perfumes at court, he never changed the water in which he moistened the palm leaves of which he made mats, but only poured in fresh water upon it as it wasted, thus letting it become stenchy in the extreme. Even while engaged in manual labour he never relaxed in his application to prayer. At all times copious tears of devotion fell from his eyes. But what distinguished him most was his disinclination to all that might interrupt his union with God. When, after long search, his place of retreat was discovered, he not only refused to return to court and act as adviser to his former pupil the Emperor Arcadius, but he would not even be his almoner to the poor and the monasteries of the neighbourhood. He invariably denied himself to visitors, no matter what their rank and condition and left to his disciples the care of entertaining them. His contemporaries so admired him as to surname him “the Great”.

See Acta SS. (19 July) for his life by ST. THEODORE THE STUDITE (d. 826) and another in META.PHRASTES (apud SURILM. De probatis Sanctorum vitis IV, 250), the Lives of the Fathers of the Desert in ROSWEYDE and D’ANDILLY, or P. L., LXXIV; MARIN Vies des pères des déserts d orient, BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 19 July.

A.J.B. VUIBERT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 18 – After he captured Jerusalem, he refused the crown

July 16, 2026

Godfrey of Bouillon

Duke of Lower Lorraine and first King of Jerusalem, son of Eustache II, Count of Boulogne, and of Ida, daughter of Godfrey the Bearded, Duke of Lower Lorraine; b. probably at Boulogne-sur-Mer, 1060; d. at Jerusalem, 18 July, 1100 (according to a thirteenth-century chronicler, he was born at Baisy, in Brabant; see Haigneré, Mémoires lus à la Sorbonne, Paris, 1868, 213).

Godfrey of Bouillon

The history of his early years has been distorted by legend, according to which he slew with his own hand the anti-king Rodolphe at the battle of Moelsen (1080), and was first to enter Rome after it had been besieged by Henry IV (1084). What appears certain is that he was chosen to succeed his uncle Godfrey the Hunchback, Duke of Lower Lorraine, who was assassinated in 1076. But Henry IV took Lorraine, leaving to Godfrey only the marquessate of Antwerp. As a vassal of the German Empire Godfrey took sides with the army of Henry IV in the War of the Investitures and followed the emperor on his expedition to Italy against Gregory VII (1080-1084). In the interval he was compelled to return in order to defend his possessions which had been attacked by the Count of Namur, and about 1089 Henry IV restored to him the legacy of Godfrey the Hunchback by creating him Duke of Lower Lorraine. The new duke’s authority was extremely weak when opposed to the feudal power which had developed in the vicinity.

Godfrey of Bouillon with two ministers of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius Comnenus to his side, and his younger brother Baldwin of Boulogne and his wife Godvere Tosny and their young children.

At this time the whole north of France was aroused by the letter of Urban II, who besought the nobility of Flanders to go on the Crusade. Godfrey was among the first to take the cross, together with his two brothers, Eustache and Baldwin (1096). To procure resources he sold or pledged many of his estates. Many nobles at once arrayed themselves under his banner, and about 15 August, 1096, he departed at the head of 10,000 knights and 30,000 foot soldiers. His army was composed of Walloons and Flemings. “Born at the frontier of the two nations and himself speaking both languages”, he served as the link between them, and by his authority appeased the quarrels provoked by their national self-esteem (Otto of Freisingen, Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XX, 250).

Godfrey of Bouillon

The crusaders reached the valley of the Danube and in September, 1096, arrived at Tollenburch (Tulin, west of Vienna), on the frontier of Hungary, where they learned of the disaster that had befallen the followers of Peter the Hermit. Before entering Hungary Godfrey negotiated with King Coloman for a free passage through his dominions. He himself met the king, who welcomed him warmly, but took Godfrey’s brother Baldwin as a hostage, together with his wife. During the march through Hungary (October, 1096) the strictest disciplines prevailed among the crusaders, to whom the inhabitants furnished provisions in abundance. After crossing the Save, the army entered the territory of the Byzantine Empire. At Belgrade Godfrey received a letter from the Emperor Alexius I (Comnenus), promising him assistance if the crusaders would refrain from violence. At Nish and at Sterniz (Sofia), they found abundant provisions and presents from the emperor. After a halt of eight days at Philippopolis (26 Nov.-3 Dec.) the army approached Adrianople (8 December) and marched towards the Hellespont. Here occurred the first conflict between the crusaders and the imperial government. According to Albert of Aix, Godfrey, learning that the emperor held in captivity Hugues, a prince of France, demanded the latter’s freedom, and on the emperor’s refusal pillaged the neighborhood of Salabria (Selymbria). As a matter of fact, the French prince was not a prisoner, but Godfrey and his army arrived before Constantinople (23 Dec., 1096) in a hostile mood, and closely watched by the imperial troops. Warned against the emperor, Godfrey kept away from the imperial palace.

Stained glass window of Godfrey of Bouillon in the Belfry of Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.

However, during the Christmas festivities, he consented to cross the Golden Horn, and went into camp at Pera (29 Dec.). The chief desire of Alexius was to prevent the junction of Godfrey’s army with that of Bohemond, leader of the Normans of Italy; Alexius had hoped to induce Godfrey to swear fealty to him and then to remove his army to Asia. Throughout the winter Godfrey resisted the imperial demands. At last, 2 April, 1097 (the date given by Anna Comnena is preferable to 13 January given by Albert of Aix; see Chalandon, “Alexis Comnène”, 179), on the approach of Bohemond, the emperor decided to act, and cut off the supplies of the crusaders. Several combats ensued, and, despite the contrary assertion of Albert of Aix, Godfrey must have been defeated. Anna Comnena states that he then consented to do homage to the emperor, promising to restore him any former imperial possessions which he might wrest from the infidels. Some days later the Lorraine army was conveyed to Pelekan on the Gulf of Nicomedia, and at the end of April all the leaders of the crusade were reunited. Godfrey appears to have acted as peacemaker, and he induced Raymond IV, of St-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, to swear fealty to the emperor. Far from directing the crusade, he appears to have taken an obscure part in the siege of Nicæa and the battle of Dorylæum (1 July, 1097).

Godfrey of Bouillon before the Byzantine emperor Alexius Comnenus in Constantinople, 1097. Painting by Alexandre Hesse.

During the crossing of Asia Minor he was seriously wounded while hunting. At the siege of Antioch he consented to obey the orders of Bohemond, and after the capture of the city he had to give up the castle which his followers had taken (July, 1098). On the way to Jerusalem, while others quarrelled, Godfrey marched towards Edessa, where his brother, Baldwin, had just established himself. He returned from this expedition in October, 1098, and before entering Antioch, with only twelve knights, put to flight one hundred and fifty Turks. According to the tradition repeated by Guibert de Nogent (Gesta, VII, 11), he had, with a stroke of the sword, hewn a Turkish horseman through the middle so that his body fell in two equal halves. Having returned to Antioch, he took part, together with Robert Courte-Heuse, Duke of Normandy, in the council of arbitration assembled to reconcile Bohemond and Raymond of St-Gilles. After 23 November, 1098, a number of the crusaders left Antioch with Raymond, but Godfrey of Bouillon and Robert, Count of Flanders, began to march on Jerusalem only at the end of February, 1099. After besieging Gibel they rejoined the main army before Arka (12 March), were at Tripoli (13 May), Beirut (19 May), Cæsarea (30 May), and reached Jerusalem on 7 June.

“I will not wear a crown of gold wear Our Lord wore a crown of thorns.” – Godfrey of Bouillon

Godfrey and his army took an active part in the siege of the Holy City. His camp was pitched to the westward. On 15 July, 1099, about nine in the morning, Godfrey and his brother Eustache placed a movable tower against the walls and were the first to enter the city. During the ensuing massacre of Mussulmans, Godfrey, thinking only of his vow, stripped himself of his arms, and, barefooted and in his under-garments, made the rounds of the ramparts, and then went to pray at the Holy Sepulchre. The crusaders were soon intent on providing a new king for the conquest. Several bishops offered the crown to Raymond of St-Gilles, who refused, declaring “that the title of king seemed to him out of place in that city” (Raimond de Aguilers, Histor. Occid. des Crois., III, 301). Robert Courte-Heuse being urged declined in like manner. All refused to accept the burden which the new royalty must prove. Finally, Godfrey, being unanimously elected, accepted “for the love of Christ” (22 July). According to the chronicles of those times, he refused to wear the crown “through respect for Him who had been crowned in that place with the Crown of Thorns”. Indeed, he seems never to have borne the title of king (which only appears under his successor), and to have been content with that of Duke and Advocate of the Holy Sepulchre.

The sword of Godfrey of Bouillon, displayed at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  Photo by Deror avi

It may be that he acted in this manner through respect for the clergy, who regarded the new conquest as the property of all Christendom, and some of whom were averse to the election of a king (Raimond de Aguilers, Hist. Occid. Crois., III, 295). Godfrey seems to have always considered himself the protector of the Church. Not only did he make so many donations that William of Tyre despairs of enumerating them, not only did he cede a fourth of Jaffa (Joppa), the city of Jerusalem, and the tower of David to the patriarch Daimbert, but he consented, as did Bohemond, to receive investiture from the patriarch (William of Tyre, Historia, IX, XV). Godfrey displayed great energy in meeting the many difficulties which threatened the new State, but he was destined to succumb to sickness. On 12 August, 1099, having rallied the crusading forces, he gained a victory at Ascalon, thus preserving Palestine from Egyptian invasion.

Godfrey of Bouillon chosen as leader by the barons in Jerusalem.

Assisted by the Pisans, he rebuilt the city of Jaffa, which became a port of arrival for crusaders. He signed a treaty of alliance with the Venetian fleet, agreeing to besiege Acre, but was attacked by the plague at Cæsarea, 10 June. After a short stay at the hospital which he had founded at Jaffa, he returned to Jerusalem, where he died on 18 July, having named his brother Baldwin as his successor. He was buried in the church of the Holy Sepulchre.

The tomb of Godfrey was destroyed in 1808, but at that time a large sword, said to have been his, was still shown. Legend soon laid claim to him; in the contemporary accounts of the First Crusade (Gesta Francorum, Raimond de Aguilers, Foucher de Chartres, Anna Comnena, etc.), he is portrayed as the perfect type of a Christian knight. Tall of stature, with pleasing countenance, and with so courteous a manner “that he seemed more a monk than a knight” (Robert the Monk, Hist. Occid. Crois., III, 731), in the hour of danger he showed admirable courage. As a zealous Christian, he was among the first to take the cross, accomplished his vow without the slightest deviation, and at great personal cost accepted the defence of the new conquest. Such is Godfrey as he appears in actual history. In the chronicle of Albert of Aix (d. 1120, edit. Hist. Occid. Crois., IV), the author already exhibits a tendency to put the figure of Godfrey in the foreground and to attribute to him, to a certain extent, the direction of the crusade. Albert of Aix and Guibert de Nogent attribute to Godfrey exploits of an epic character (Guibert de Nogent, Gesta, VII, 11).

Godfrey of Bouillon, the leader of the First Crusade. He was elected King of Jerusalem by the Crusaders after the Holy City’s capture in 1099

When, in the thirteenth century, Jean d’Ibelin and Philip of Novara edited the “Assises” of Jerusalem, they referred to Godfrey as a law-making king, and attributed to him a code, the “Letters of the Holy Sepulchre”, which never existed. Indeed, at that time, and perhaps as early as the twelfth century, Godfrey of Bouillon had become, like Roland and Arthur, a hero of the chansons de geste. The trouvères provided him with a mythical origin, making him a descendant of the legendary “King of the Swan”, whose feats he is made to repeat, and, after relating the events of his childhood, continued his adventures to the taking of Jerusalem. Under Philip Augustus, Graindor of Douai reconstructed the works of a certain Richard the Pilgrim, and composed a complete history of this crusade: (1) “Elioxe”, ed. Todd (Baltimore, 1889); (2) “Beatrix”, ed. Hippeau (Paris, 1868); (3) “Antioche”, ed. P. Paris (Paris, 1848); (4) “Jérusalem”, ed. Hippeau (Paris, 1868); see L. Gautier, “Bibliographie des chansons de gestes” (Paris, 1897). In the fourteenth century, all these poems were collected under the title of “Roman du chevalier au Cygne” (ed. de Reiffenberg, Brussels, 1846-59).

BREYSIG, Gottfried von Bouillon vor dem Kreuzzüge in Westdeutsche Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Kunst, XVII; HAGENMEYER, Chronologie de la première croisade (Paris, 1902); IDEM, Epistulæ et chartæ ad historiam primi belli sacri pertinentes (Innsbruck, 1901); PIRENNE, Histoire de Belgique (Brussels, 1901), I; VÉTAULT, Godefroy de Bouillon (Tours, 1874); BEYER, Vita Godefridi Bullionis (Marburg, 1874); CHALANDON, Essai sur le règne d’Alexis Comnène (Paris, 1900); DODU, Histoire des institutions monarchiques dans le royaume latin de Jérusalem (Paris, 1894); CONDER, The Kingdom of Jerusalem (London, 1897); RÖHRICHT, Geschichte des Königreichs Jerusalem (Innsbruck, 1898); PIGEONNEAU, Le cycle de la croisade et la famille de Bouillon (Paris, 1877).

LOUIS BRÉHIER, 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

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July 18 – “Don’t drink water, drink beer” said the bishop

July 16, 2026

Saint Arnulf of Metz

Statesman, bishop under the Merovingians, born c. 580; died c. 640.

Stained glass window of St. Arnulf of Metz in the Chapel of Sainte-Glossinde.

His parents belonged to a distinguished Frankish family, and lived in Austrasia, the eastern section of the kingdom founded by Clovis. In the school in which he was placed during his boyhood he excelled through his talent and his good behaviour. According to the custom of the age, he was sent in due time to the court of Theodebert II, King of Austrasia (595-612), to be initiated in the various branches of the government. Under the guidance of Gundulf, the Mayor of the Palace, he soon became so proficient that he was placed on the regular list of royal officers, and among the first of the kings ministers. He distinguished himself both as a military commander and in the civil administration; at one time he had under his care six distinct provinces. In due course Arnulf was married to a Frankish woman of noble lineage, by whom he had two sons, Anseghisel and Clodulf.

While Arnulf was enjoying worldly emoluments and honours he did not forget higher and spiritual things. His thoughts dwelled often on monasteries, and with his friend Romaricus, likewise an officer of the court, he planned to make a pilgrimage to the Abbey of Lérins, evidently for the purpose of devoting his life to God. But in the meantime the Episcopal See of Metz became vacant. Arnulf was universally designated as a worthy candidate for the office, and he was consecrated bishop of that see about 611. In his new position he set the example of a virtuous life to his subjects, and attended to matters of ecclesiastical government. In 625 he took part in a council held by the Frankish bishops at Reims. With all this Arnulf retained his station at the court of the king, and took a prominent part in the national life of his people. In 613, after the death of Theodebert, he, with Pepin of Landen and other nobles, called to Austrasia Clothaire II, King of Neustria. When, in 625, the realm of Austrasia was entrusted to the kings son Dagobert, Arnulf became not only the tutor, but also the chief minister, of the young king. At the time of the estrangement between the two kings, and 625, Arnulf with other bishops and nobles tried to effect a reconciliation. But Arnulf dreaded the responsibilities of the episcopal office and grew weary of court life. About the year 626 he obtained the appointment of a successor to the Episcopal See of Metz; he himself and his friend Romaricus withdrew to a solitary place in the mountains of the Vosges. There he lived in communion with God until his death. His remains, interred by Romaricus, were transferred about a year afterwards, by Bishop Goeric, to the basilica of the Holy Apostles in Metz.

Statue of St. Arnulf of Metz

Of the two sons of Arnulf, Clodulf became his third successor in the See of Metz. Anseghisel remained in the service of the State; from his union with Begga, a daughter of Pepin of Landen, was born Pepin of Heristal, the founder of the Carlovingian dynasty. In this manner Arnulf was the ancestor of the mighty rulers of that house. The life or Arnulf exhibits to a certain extent the episcopal office and career in the Merovingian State. The bishops were much considered at court; their advice was listened to; they took part in the dispensation of justice by the courts; they had a voice in the appointment of royal officers; they were often used as the king’s ambassadors, and held high administrative positions. For the people under their care, they were the protectors of their rights, their spokesmen before the king and the link uniting royalty with its subjects. The opportunities for good were thus unlimited; and Arnulf used them to good advantage.

(Catholic Encyclopedia)

_______________________

St. Arnold and Beer

During an outbreak of the plague a monk named Arnold, who had established a monastery in Oudenburg, persuaded peo­ple to drink beer in place of water and when they did, the plague disappeared.

Arnold spent his holy life warning people about the dangers of drinking water. Beer was safe, and “from man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world,” he would say.

St. Arnold is revered as the Patron Saint of Brewers.

Belgium Brewing History The small country of Belgium calls itself the ‘Beer Paradise’ with over 300 different styles of beer to choose from. Belgium boasts of centuries old tradition in the art of brewing. In the early Middle Ages monasteries were numerous in that part of Europe, being the centers of culture, pilgrim­age and brewing. Belgium still has a lot of monasteries and five of these are Trappist, a strict offshoot of the Cis­tercian order, which still brews beer inside the monastery. During one outbreak of the plague St. Arnold, who had established a monastery in Oudenburg, convinced peo­ple to drink beer instead of the water and the plague disappeared as a result. Saint Arnold (also known as St. Arnoldus), is rec­ognized by the Catholic Church as the Patron Saint of Brewers. St. Arnold was born to a prominent Austrian family in 580 in the Chateau of Lay-Saint-Christophe in the old French diocese of Toul, north of Nancy. He married Doda with whom he had many sons, two of whom were to become famous: Clodulphe, later called Saint Cloud, and Ansegis who married Begga, daughter of Pépin de Landen. Ansegis and Begga are the great-great-grandparents of Charlemagne, and as such, St. Arnold is the oldest known ancestor of the Carolin­gian dynasty. St. Arnold was acclaimed bishop of Metz, France, in 612 and spent his holy life warning people about the dangers of drinking water. Beer was safe, and “from man’s sweat and God’s love, beer came into the world,” he would say. The people revered St. Arnold. In 627, St. Arnold retired to a monastery near Remiremont, France, where he died on August 16, 640. In 641, the citizens of Metz requested that Saint Arnold’s body be exhumed and ceremoniously carried to Metz for reburial in their Church of the Holy Apostles. During this voyage a miracle happened in the town of Champignuelles. The tired porters and followers stopped for a rest and walked into a tavern for a drink of their favorite beverage. Regretfully, there was only one mug of beer to be shared, but that mug never ran dry and all of the thirsty pilgrims were satisfied. The number of breweries increased over the centuries and by the 1900’s there were around 3,000 breweries in Belgium; nearly one in every village. The successive shocks of the industrial revolution, World War I and the 1929 crash (the stock market) meant that the smallest breweries either merged or disappeared. Today there are 178 breweries in Belgium, but the most astonishing fact for observers is not the number of breweries but the in­credible variety of beers to choose from. The principal characteristic of Belgian breweries is their creativity. Though it is true that pilsner style beers account for 70% of sales, the remaining 30 % is made up of Belgium’s famous specialty beers.

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Moving God, Moving History

July 16, 2026

Written by John Horvat II

There are times when history is seen from an all-too-human perspective.

To Quellthe TerrorGranted, man is the principal agent in history. His great deeds and misdeeds fill the history books, blending fact, myth, and legend to intrigue future generations.

However, man is not the only agent. There are times when men perform acts so sublime that yet another agent enters. In these cases, men move God to act in history — and these feats capture the imagination and are immortalized for all times.

Such a thesis fares ill among today’s secular historians. They would prefer to explain away history in a thousand other ways. Nevertheless, this is William Bush’s compelling thesis in his 1999 book To Quell the Terror: The Mystery of the Sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne, Guillotined July 17, 1794.


Uncovering History
Professor Bush’s story could not be more dramatic. It is set at the height of the French Revolution’s “Great Terror.” Sixteen Carmelite nuns were martyred at the guillotine while praising the glory of God in song and hymn, thus setting themselves apart from thousands who shared a similar fate.

No one disputes the fact that the story of these Compiegne martyrs — Blessed Thérèse of St. Augustine and companions — captured the popular imagination, even among non-Catholics. Fictional representations of their story were retold in Gertrude von Le Fort’s novella Song of the Scaffold and Francis Poulenc’s opera Dialogues of the Carmelites.

However, William Bush, professor emeritus of French literature at Canada’s University of Western Ontario, delves yet deeper into this sublime event, developing a theme that cannot but leave the reader in captivating awe.

Mugged by historical reality, Professor Bush likewise goes beyond the popular myth of a “good” French Revolution turned bad. Rather, he sees it for what it was: the beginning of a radical new order that overthrew “the ancient pact between France’s kings and Christianity’s triune God.”

Beyond Fiction
Fiction often manages to embellish reality, the writers taking liberties that highlight the dramatic and obscure the imperfect. Ironically, Professor Bush’s meticulous research of the Carmelite archives does the opposite. The facts he uncovers reveal the poverty of the fiction.

The literary representations of the Carmelites’ story were made to satisfy secular audiences. The fictitious Blanche de la Force, von le Fort’s vacillating nun afraid to face her martyrdom, stressed the all-too-human perspective where personal drama eclipsed the supernatural calling of these nuns who moved God to act in history.

Thus, Professor Bush succeeds where others have failed. He pierces the supernatural mystery of the Carmelites’ martyrdom. He recounts how the nuns, moved by grace, took upon themselves a task so daring as to seem impossible: They intended to save France.

A Sublime Offering
What history reveals is indeed sublime.

For a full twenty months before their execution, the sisters came together in an act of consecration “whereby each member of the community would join with the others in offering herself daily to God, soul and body in holocaust to restore peace to France and to her Church.”

The nuns were not just mere victims of the Revolution overcome by circumstances. Contrary to the fiction, each contemplated her martyrdom; each understood her offering. Each sought that “greater love” of giving herself for her fellow man in imitation of the Divine Lamb Who redeemed humanity.

Carmelites of Compiegne

A Tale of Courage and Holiness
Professor Bush recounts the complete story of each of the sixteen Carmelites, relating in lively detail virtually all that is known of their lives and backgrounds.

Each story is in itself a drama as varied as the personalities involved. There was the strong Mother Thérèse of Saint Augustine, a maternal woman of courage and character who led her daughters to martyrdom.

There was 74-year old Sister Jesus Crucified who, despite her age, endured all. Sister Julia Louise was a poet and painter who composed a parody of the Marseillaise. The impulsive and philosophical Sister Euphrasie on her way to the guillotine passed her office book to a young girl, who later became a nun.

There was the young unprofessed Sister Constance, forbidden by the Revolution to make her final vows. She did finally take her vows at the foot of the scaffold, where her first and last act as a professed Carmelite was to ask permission to die.

These and all the other nuns, lay sisters, and even two hired extern sisters endured harassment, expulsion, suppression, and insult at the hands of the Revolution. And their story, told by Professor Bush, is a chronicle of sublime deeds aimed at moving God.


A Sacrifice Accepted
Perhaps the most impressive part of the Carmelite story is that God was actually moved. Indeed, their arrest, trial, and execution represented not a Catholic defeat but a triumph.

In a courtroom once used by Saint Louis himself, the nuns defended themselves with valor before a Revolutionary tribunal, yet they were condemned to death before nightfall.

The news of their impending death was received with great happiness. It is related that as they waited to be boarded on the tumbrels, the Carmelites joyfully sang Sister Julia’s parody of the Marseillaise, defiantly forcing the Revolutionary hymn to proclaim:

“Let’s climb, let’s climb the scaffold high!
“Let’s give God the victory!”

No one jeered and hooted at the nuns as they went to the place of execution. Rather, an eerie silence surrounded the cortege as the nuns continued their song. Naught was heard but the “austere chant of high solemn joy” of those who, after some twenty months of consecrating themselves each day for this hour, God’s mercy allowed them to make this final act of holocaust. Each nun knelt before the prioress, renewed her vows, kissed a tiny terracotta statuette of Madonna and Child, and then mounted the scaffold high.

To Quell the Terror
Ten days after their deaths, Robespierre fell and the Reign of Terror effectively ended. Skeptical historians may scowl at making this connection, but it is hard to deny that the final acts of their death touched a profound chord.

Something in the very foundation of the edifice of the French Revolution was shaken by the nuns’ defiant and joyful gesture. The eerie silence around the scaffold presaged the regime’s fall from power.

Professor Bush concludes that God manifested Himself in this martyrdom, which he claims frustrated the Revolution’s attempt to annihilate France’s “ancient pact” with God.

In a secular epoch, which excludes God from history, To Quell the Terror leaves the reader with the conviction that while man may abandon God, God does not abandon man. Come what may, God inspires His Church to act in history with astonishing power and results.

The book begs the question. If today, God is not moved to act in history to deliver man from the iniquities of the modern world, perhaps it is because there are none to quell the modern day terror, none who dare offer themselves as victims to abate the raging storm.

 

To Quell the Terror: The Mystery of the Sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne, Guillotined July 17, 1794
By William Bush
Paperback – (November 1999)
ICS Publications; ISBN: 0935216677

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July 17 – “You Do Not Know What You Do”

July 16, 2026

Execution of Tsar Nicholas II and his family

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia with the family (left to right): Olga, Maria, Tsarina Alexandra Fyodorovna, Anastasia, Alexei, and Tatiana. Photo taken in 1913.

In the early hours of 17 July 1918, the royal family was awakened around 2:00 am, told to dress, and led down into a half-basement room at the back of the Ipatiev house. The pretext for this move was the family’s safety — that anti-Bolshevik forces were approaching Yekaterinburg, and the house might be fired upon. There are also unsubstantiated claims that the family was led to the basement under the pretense that family photographs would be made.

Ipatiev House, where the Imperial Family was murdered. The left lower-level (small) arched window is the room where they executed. Boris Yeltsin ordered the Ipatiev House to be demolished in 1977 in the hopes of stopping the many people who came to honor the memory of the Imperial Famiy’s murder.

Present with Nicholas, Alexandra and their children were their doctor and three of their servants, who had voluntarily chosen to remain with the family—the Tsar’s personal physician Eugene Botkin, his wife’s maid Anna Demidova, and the family’s chef, Ivan Kharitonov, and footman, Alexei Trupp. A firing squad had been assembled and was waiting in an adjoining room, composed of seven Communist soldiers from Central Europe, and three local Bolsheviks, all under the command of Bolshevik officer Yakov Yurovsky. The soldiers are often described as Hungarians; in his account, Yurovsky described them as “Latvians”.

Yakov Mikhailovich Yurovsky (1878-1938), executioner of the Russian royal family in 1918. After all the firing was over, it was found that Tsarevich Alexei was still alive and Yurovsky went up to the Tsarevich and shot him in the head.

Nicholas was carrying his son; when the family arrived in the basement, the former empress complained that there were no chairs for them to sit in. Yurovsky ordered chairs brought in, and when the empress and the heir were seated, the executioners filed into the room. Yurovsky announced to them that they had been condemned to death by the Ural Soviet of Workers’ Deputies. A stunned Nicholas asked, “What? What?” and turned toward his family. Accounts differ on whether Yurovsky quickly repeated the order or whether he simply shot the former emperor outright. One witness among the several who later wrote accounts of Nicholas’s last moments reported that the Tsar said, “You know not what you do,” paraphrasing Jesus’s words on the cross.

A photograph of the room where the execution of the Imperial Family took place in the basement of the Ipatyev House.

The executioners drew revolvers and the shooting began. Nicholas was the first to die; Yurovsky shot him multiple times in the chest (sometimes incorrectly said the head, since his skull bore no bullet wounds when it was discovered in 1991). Anastasia, Tatiana, Olga, and Maria survived the first hail of bullets; the sisters were wearing over 1.3 kilograms of diamonds and precious gems sewn into their clothing, which provided some initial protection from the bullets and bayonets. They were stabbed with bayonets and then shot at close range in the head.

L to R: A photograph of Grand Duchesses Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia in prison shortly before their murders. They were the last to die.

An announcement from the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Government emphasized that conspiracies had been exposed to free the ex-tsar, as well as how counter-revolutionary forces were pressing in on Soviet Russian territory, and that the ex-tsar was guilty of unforgivable crimes against the nation.

In view of the enemy’s proximity to Yekaterinburg and the exposure by the Cheka of a serious White Guard plot with the goal of abducting the former Tsar and his family… In light of the approach of counterrevolutionary bands toward the Red capital of the Urals and the possibility of the crowned executioner escaping trial by the people (a plot among the White Guards to try to abduct him and his family was exposed and the compromising documents will be published), the Presidium of the Ural Regional Soviet, fulfilling the will of the Revolution, resolved to shoot the former Tsar, Nikolai Romanov, who is guilty of countless, bloody, violent acts against the Russian people.

Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

The murder of the Russian Imperial Family was the signal for the beginning of the wholesale butchery that has forever become synonymous with Communism.
No one will ever know the number of this philosophical sect’s  victims, but they are estimated to surpass 100,000,000. They were killed out of pride, in the mad pursuit of an unnatural, egalitarian utopia.
After Abel’s murder, God cursed Cain saying: “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!” (Gen. 4:10.)
God’s curse is upon egalitarian Communism as well. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the West convened no “Nuremburg trial” to condemn the philosophical errors and the criminals who visited so much suffering on mankind, but “God is not mocked” (Gal. 6:7) and He does not forget. The blood of countless victims cries out to Him for vengeance.

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July 16 – Alfonso VIII of Castile crushes the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa

July 16, 2026

St. Raymond of Fitero, the Cistercian warrior abbot & founder of the Military Order of Calatrava.

The Almohads, the new dynasty of Moroccan fanatics who had subdued all the Moslems in al Andalus, launched an all-out attack on the Christians by moving a huge army north into south central Spain. The impetuous Alfonso VIII of Castile, without waiting for reinforcements, attempted to bar the way at Alarcos. On July 18, 1195, his hopelessly outnumbered army was decisively defeated. Since this occurred just a few years after a similar defeat by Saladin at the Horns of Hattin in Palestine, the future of Christendom indeed looked bleak….

Alfonso VIII of Castile

Only the Orders maintained any pressure against the Moslem invaders. The Calatravans, who had lost their garrison at Calatrava, built another one inside the Moslem lines at Salvatierra, complete with a tall bell tower. This infuriated the Moslems, who despised the Christian practice of ringing bells. Finally, raids from Salvatierra and larger incursions by Alfonso VIII and Pedro II of Aragon provoked the Moors to resume hostilities.

Pedro II, king of Aragon by Manuel Aguirre y Monsalbe

Both sides made preparations for a major confrontation. Pope Innocent urged all leaders to resolve the differences that had hampered any coordinated effort in the past and pronounced plenary indulgences for the participants….

Three kings, Alfonso VIII of Castile, Pedro II of Aragon, and Sancho VII of Navarre, heretofore an enemy of the Castilians, led a force of 10,000 knights and 60,000 infantry into the plain near Las Navas de Tolosa to confront an army of perhaps twice that size made up of Berbers, African Negroes, and Andalusians. After two days during which each side evaluated the other’s intentions, the Christians launched a fierce frontal attack that was absorbed by the Moors, who then counter-attacked with more success.

With the battle slowly going against him, Alfonso rallied the Knights of Calatrava and Santiago and charged furiously. The sight of the King flying into the Moslems with his lance lowered and accompanied by a canon carrying the banner of Our Lady inspired the entire front to sweep forward. Moslem resistance collapsed and the battle turned into a rout. The estimate of the Moors lying dead on the battlefield that day ranged as high as 150,000.

Las Navas de Tolosa

Jeremias Wells, History of Western Civilization (n.p., n.d), pp. 249-250.

Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

Certain moments are turning points in History.  In such moments, the decisive leadership of one man can be the tipping point that makes all the difference.
Las Navas de Tolosa was one of these great historical moments and the leadership of Alphonsus VIII of Castile–grandfather of St. Ferdinand III, King of Castile and Leon–was the intervention that turned what was beginning to look like defeat into one of the most decisive Christian victories ever.
As we celebrate the 800th anniversary of this great battle, we should ponder on how Spain, Portugal, and perhaps much of Christian Europe could have fallen once more under the dominion of Islam, but for one man: a King who risked his life and throne to safeguard Christendom, personally leading the cavalry charge into the thick of the enemy and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.

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July 16 – Catholic Spain’s fate in the balance at the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa

July 16, 2026

Pope Innocent III

Pope Innocent III

The following year was a memorable one for all Spain. King Alfonso of Castile, in face of the Almohade danger, had launched an alert to Christendom; answering it, the Christian princes had assembled not only from Spain but also from other countries. Subscription8Pope Innocent III proclaimed a Crusade against the Moors of Spain and bestowed a bull, granting to those who participated the same graces granted to those who went to the Holy Land. Every day, new companies of French and German soldiers arrived in Toledo. Because the city could not contain them, they camped on the lowlands which, covered with tents, looked like a garden of white flowers. However, the foreigners could not bear the blazing Spanish sun and almost all returned to their native countries, leaving to the Spanish blood, more ardent than that very sun, the task and also the glory of the Reconquest. How the two princes from León, [young Saint] Ferdinand and Alfonso, would have enjoyed that atmosphere of heroism breathed in Toledo if their father had answered the call. But Alfonso of León, always worried that his cousin from Castile would overpower him, did not join the Crusaders. In fact, Alfonso had already gone south, crossed the border and seized Dueñas and other places. The shame of his father’s conduct, which they tried to hide from him, caused [young Saint] Ferdinand to shed bitter tears, and during the sleepless nights he made the firm resolution that he kept faithfully all his life: never to make war against another Christian prince.

Archbishop of Toledo, Don Rodrigo Ximénez de la Rada

Archbishop of Toledo, Don Rodrigo Ximénez de la Rada

Meanwhile, the battle took place on July 16, 1212, and God granted such a complete success to the Spanish armies that the Spanish calendar still celebrates that day as the “Triumph of the Holy Cross.”(1)

That glorious event distracted the grandchildren of Alfonso of Castile from their sorrows. Their admiration for the hero of Navas de Tolosa inflamed their heroic spirit. Even the young son of the great leader, Henry, only eight, was infected by the enthusiasm. The royal family would surround the King and ask him to describe the portentous deed during their hours together of relaxation. Alfonso the Noble would smile with satisfaction, and all of the dramatic episodes of the fight would appear—one after another—before the children’s eyes, resounding heroically from his lips. He would tell them how the army readied itself for battle by attending midnight Mass with the majority of the men going to Confession and Communion.

Las Navas de Tolosa

Morning came, and the armies were arranged in battle formation. The trumpets sounded the signal, and the attack began. The first ferocious assault of the Moors was so terrible that they smashed through the Christian lines. Some of them advanced to the very position of the King of Castile and the Archbishop of Toledo, Don Rodrigo Ximénez de la Rada. The King, seeing this onslaught, was under the impression that his army was being defeated.

He turned to the prelate and, without changing the color of his face or the inflection of his voice, said:

“Archbishop, you and I will die here.”

“God will not permit that you die,” answered Ximénez de la Rada, “before you have triumphed over your enemies.”

“Let us go, then, to help those in the front line who are under such heavy attack.”

Battle of las Navas de Tolosa, July 16, 1212 by Horace Vernet painting commissioned in 1817, that is to say, before the design of the rooms of the Crusades.Five large rooms on the ground floor of the north wing of the castle has been dedicated to the Crusades by Louis Philippe in the museum "all the glories of France."

Battle of las Navas de Tolosa, July 16, 1212 by Horace Vernet, painting commissioned in 1817. Five large rooms on the ground floor of the north wing of the castle has been dedicated to the Crusades by Louis Philippe in the French Museum Collection.

Saying this, Don Alfonso commended himself to God, spurred his horse and left like lightning, avoiding the courageous Fernán García who ran to grab his horse’s reins, shouting at him:

“Lord, go slowly so as not to entrap yourself!”

But Alfonso the Noble could see only a clergyman, dressed in his vestments and displaying a cross, fleeing before a body of Moorish soldiers; he could hear nothing but the insults cast against the Sign of our Redemption.

Setting his lance, Alfonso the Noble attacked furiously, killing some, wounding others, and terrifying the rest into a panic-stricken flight. Seeing their sovereign fighting like the knight that he was, the enthusiasm of the Castilians rose so that nothing could stop their impetuous advance. The Canon Don Domingo Pascual rode into the Muslim ranks with a beautiful display of the standard of the Archbishop of Toledo. When they saw the image of the Queen of Heaven, they remained momentarily paralyzed.

Battle

Then the vanquished Almohade forces fled, but there still remained the human barrier of ten thousand negro slaves, who, chained one to another with their long spears hammered into the ground, formed an invincible wall of black warriors around the Miramolin’s tent.(2) Suddenly, loud shouts of triumph were heard from the soldiers of Navarre. Their king had boldly jumped over the human fence. At almost the same moment, the alferes of Castile imitated the feat, and the flag of Castile flew proudly on the other side of the barrier. Finally, they attacked the barrier with the horses, which kicked with their hind legs and broke the terrible fence.

As the soldiers of the Cross invaded the area of the tent the last phase of the battle ensued. The Miramolin fled in panic on horseback, followed by the few who had managed to escape the horrible slaughter.

On October 20, 1912, His Excellency, Bishop of Jaén, D. Juan Manuel Sanz y Saravia, along with other authorities attending the inauguration of the memorial of the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa. After blessing the monument, the Bishop said Mass. As this inaugural shows, Spain’s gratitude to Our Lady for this victory continued for many centuries after the victory.

Meanwhile, darkness had fallen. Under the star-filled sky, the Archbishop of Toledo intoned the Te Deum, followed by the prelates, the clergy, the monks and even the soldiers. The echoes of the Sierra resounded that night, shaken by that hymn of thanksgiving raised up by the Church of Spain to the God of Battles.

As [Saint] Ferdinand listened to this tale, [Queen] Berenguera saw her son tremble with enthusiasm to the depths of his soul. She saw him listen to his grandfather’s stories, literally drinking his words, his eyes intent and his face filled with excitement, his teeth gritted and his fists clenched, as if he were also awaiting the order to jump over the Moors.

—————-

Notes:

(1) This was the great battle, Las Navas de Tolosa, in which over 200,000 Moslems lay dead on the battlefield. The victory broke the aggressiveness of the Almohades and secured the ascendancy of Christianity in Spain.

 

(2) The Moors in Spain under the leadership of the caliphate of Córdoba tended to softness and sensuality. Twice they were invigorated by fanatic warrior tribes from Africa that restored the militant, severe ferocity that characterized the North African Moslem. First the Almoravids threatened to bring all Spain under their subjugation until El Cid Campeador inspired a counteroffensive by the Christians; then the Almohades replaced the Almoravids when the latter faltered.

Miramolin was a medieval term for the emperor of Morocoo.

 

C. Fernandez de Castro, A.C.J., The Life of the Very Noble King of Castile and León, Saint Ferdinand III (Mount Kisco, N.Y.: The Foundation for a Christian Civilization, Inc., 1987), 7-9.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 250

 

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July 13 – Saintly Elite

July 13, 2026

Blessed Marie-Azélie Guérin Martin

Blessed Marie-Azélie “Zélie” Martin née Guérin (23 December 1831 – 28 August 1877) was a French laywoman and the mother of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. Her husband was Blessed Louis Martin.

Marie-Azélie Guérin was born in Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, Orne, France and was the second daughter of Isidore Guérin and Louise-Jeanne Macé. She had an older sister, Marie-Louise, who became a Visitandine nun, and a younger brother, Isidore, who was a pharmacist. Her maternal family were from the Madré, in the neighbouring department of Mayenne, where her grandfather Louis Macé was baptised on the 16th March 1778.

The family house in Lisieux, called “les Buissonnets”

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

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

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

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

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

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

After Zélie’s death, Pauline, Marie, Thérèse and Céline all became Carmelite nuns one after another along with a cousin, Marie Guérin. Léonie became a Visitandine nun after being rejected by the Poor Clares.

Marie-Azélie died of breast cancer on 28 August 1877 in Alençon, Orne, aged 45. She was survived by her husband and daughters.

Louis and Marie-Azélie Martin were beatified on 19 October 2008 by Jose Cardinal Saraiva Martins, the legate of Pope Benedict XVI in Basilique de Sainte-Thérèse, Lisieux, France.

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

_________________

Of interest:

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

Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

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

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July 13 – Good King Henry

July 13, 2026

St. Henry II

German King and Holy Roman Emperor, son of Duke Henry II (the Quarrelsome) and of the Burgundian Princess Gisela; b. 972; d. in his palace of Grona, at Gottingen, 13 July, 1024.

Like his predecessor, Otto III, he had the literary education of his time. In his youth he had been destined for the priesthood. Therefore he became acquainted with ecclesiastical interests at an early age.

St. Henry II and his wife St. Cunigunde of Luxemburg, with the Bamberg Cathedral.

Willingly he performed pious practices, gladly also he strengthened the Church of Germany, without, however, ceasing to regard ecclesiastical institutions as pivots of his power, according to the views of Otto the Great. With all his learning and piety, Henry was an eminently sober man, endowed with sound, practical common sense. He went his way circumspectly, never attempting anything but the possible and, wherever it was practicable, applying the methods of amiable and reasonable good sense. This prudence, however, was combined with energy and conscientiousness. Sick and suffering from fever, he traversed the empire in order to maintain peace. At all times he used his power to adjust troubles. The masses especially he wished to help.

The Church, as the constitutional Church of Germany, and therefore as the advocate of German unity and of the claims of inherited succession, raised Henry to the throne. The new king straightway resumed the policy of Otto I both in domestic and in foreign affairs. This policy first appeared in his treatment of the Eastern Marches. The encroachments of Duke Boleslaw, who had founded a great kingdom, impelled him to intervene. But his success was not marked.

In Italy the local and national opposition to the universalism of the German king had found a champion in Arduin of Ivrea. The latter assumed the Lombard crown in 1002. In 1004 Henry crossed the Alps. Arduin yielded to his superior power. The Archbishop of Milan now crowned him King of Italy. This rapid success was largely due to the fact that a large part of the Italian episcopate upheld the idea of the Roman Empire and that of the unity of Church and State.

On his second expedition to Rome, occasioned by the dispute between the Counts of Tuscany and the Crescentians over the nomination to the papal throne, he was crowned emperor on 14 February, 1014. But it was not until later, on his third expedition to Rome, that he was able to restore the prestige of the empire completely.

Before this happened, however, he was obliged to intervene in the west. Disturbances were especially prevalent throughout the entire north-west. Lorraine caused great trouble. The Counts of Lutzelburg (Luxemburg), brothers-in-law of the king, were the heart and soul of the disaffection in that country. Of these men, Adalbero had made himself Bishop of Trier by uncanonical methods (1003); but he was not recognized any more than his brother Theodoric, who had had himself elected Bishop of Metz.

True to his duty, the king could not be induced to abet any selfish family policy at the expense of the empire. Even though Henry, on the whole, was able to hold his own against these Counts of Lutzelburg, still the royal authority suffered greatly by loss of prestige in the north-west.

Burgundy afforded compensation for this. The lord of that country was Rudolph, who, to protect himself against his vassals, joined the party of Henry II, the son of his sister, Gisela, and to Henry the childless duke bequeathed his duchy, despite the opposition of the nobles (1006). Henry had to undertake several campaigns before he was able to enforce his claims. He did not achieve any tangible result, he only bequeathed the theoretical claims on Burgundy to his successors.

Better fortune awaited the king in the central and eastern parts of the empire. It is true that he had a quarrel with the Conradinians over Carinthia and Swabia: but Henry proved victorious because his kingdom rested on the solid foundation of intimate alliance with the Church.

That his attitude towards the Church was dictated in part by practical reasons, primarily he promoted the institutions of the Church chiefly in order to make them more useful supports his royal power, is clearly shown by his policy. How boldly Henry posed as the real ruler of the Church appears particularly in the establishment of the See of Bamberg, which was entirely his own scheme.

He carried out this measure, in 1007, in spite of the energetic opposition of the Bishop of Wurzburg against this change in the organization of the Church. The primary purpose of the new bishopric was the germanization of the regions on the Upper Main and the Regnitz, where the Wends had fixed their homes. As a large part of the environs of Bamberg belonged to the king, he was able to furnish rich endowments for the new bishopric. The importance of Bamberg lay principally in the field of culture, which it promoted chiefly by its prosperous schools. Henry, therefore, relied on the aid of the Church against the lay powers, which had become quite formidable. But he made no concessions to the Church.

Though naturally pious, and though well acquainted with ecclesiastical culture, he was at bottom a stranger to her spirit. He disposed of bishoprics autocratically. Under his rule the bishops, from whom he demanded unqualified obedience, seemed to be nothing but officials of the empire. He demanded the same obedience from the abbots. However, this political dependency did not injure the internal life of the German Church under Henry. By means of its economic and educational resources the Church had a blessed influence in this epoch.

Stained glass window of St. Henry II in the Church of St. Nicholas in Kuchenheim, Germany.

But it was precisely this civilizing power of the German Church that aroused the suspicions of the reform party. This was significant, because Henry was more and more won over to the ideas of this party. At a synod at Goslar he confirmed decrees that tended to realize the demands made by the reform party. Ultimately this tendency could not fail to subvert the Othonian system, moreover could not fail to awaken the opposition of the Church of Germany as it was constituted.

This hostility on the part of the German Church came to a head in the emperor’s dispute with Archbishop Aribo of Mainz. Aribo was an opponent of the reform movement of the monks of Cluny. The Hammerstein marriage imbroglio afforded the opportunity he desired to offer a bold front against Rome. Otto von Hammerstein had been excommunicated by Aribo on account of his marriage with Irmengard, and the latter had successfully appealed to Rome.

This called forth the opposition of the Synod of Seligenstadt, in 1023, which forbade an appeal to Rome without the consent of the bishop. This step meant open rebellion against the idea of church unity, and its ultimate result would have been the founding of a German national Church. In this dispute the emperor was entirely on the side of the reform party. He even wanted to institute international proceedings against the unruly archbishop by means of treaties with the French king. But his death prevented this.

St. Henry Catholic Church in St. Henry, Ohio, built in 1892 in honor of St. Henry II.

Before this Henry had made his third journey to Rome in 1021. He came at the request of the loyal Italian bishops, who had warned him at Strasburg of the dangerous aspect of the Italian situation, and also of the pope, who sought him out at Bamberg in 1020. Thus the imperial power, which had already begun to withdraw from Italy, was summoned back thither. This time the object was to put an end to the supremacy of the Greeks in Italy. His success was not complete; he succeeded, however, in restoring the prestige of the empire in northern and central Italy.

Henry was far too reasonable a man to think seriously of readopting the imperialist plans of his predecessors. He was satisfied to have ensured the dominant position of the empire in Italy within reasonable bounds. Henry’s power was in fact controlling, and this was in no small degree due to the fact that he was primarily engaged in solidifying the national foundations of his authority.

Bamberg Cathedral, where St. Henry and his wife are buried.

The later ecclesiastical legends have ascribed ascetic traits to this ruler, some of which certainly cannot withstand serious criticism. For instance, the highly varied theme of his virgin marriage to Cunegond has certainly no basis in fact.

The Church canonized this emperor in 1146, and his wife Cunegond in 1200.

FRANZ KAMPERS (Catholic Encyclopedia)

Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

It is hard to believe that a canonized saint “was at bottom a stranger to [the spirit of the Church].” The author of this post claims that St. Henry disposed of bishops autocratically and that he looked upon them as little more than Court officials.
Bishops at that time were also great feudal lords. They fulfilled their feudal duties and, as feudal vassals, were subject to the king, their suzerain. When acting honorably, kings did not interfere in the legitimate distinctions between the temporal and spiritual powers of these bishops, upholding the respective sovereignties of Church and State, which should work together, harmoniously, but each sovereign in its own sphere.
It appears that St. Henry II respected this sovereignty and labored his entire lifetime to maintain and augment the needed harmony. His behavior thus sets him diametrically opposed to the attitudes taken by his successor Henry IV in the Question of the Investitures.

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July 13 – Saint Mildthryth

July 13, 2026

Saint MildthrythSaint Mildthryth (694–716 or 733), also Mildrith, Mildryth or Mildred, was an Anglo-Saxon abbess.

Mildthryth was the daughter of King Merewalh of Magonsaete, a sub-kingdom of Mercia, and Eormenburh (Saint Eormenburga), herself the daughter of King Æthelberht of Kent, and as such appearing in the so-called Kentish royal legend.

Her sisters Milburh (Saint Milburga of Much Wenlock) and Mildgytha (Saint Mildgyth) were also considered saints. Goscelin, probably relying on a now-lost history of the rulers of the Kingdom of Kent, wrote a hagiography of Mildthryth.

Subscription4

Mildthryth’s maternal family had close ties to the Merovingian rulers of Gaul, and Mildthryth is said to have been educated at the prestigious Merovingian royal abbey of Chelles. She entered the abbey of Minster-in-Thanet, which her mother had earlier established, and of which she became abbess by 694. Suggesting that ties to Gaul were maintained, a number of dedications to Mildthryth exist in the Pas-de-Calais, including at Millam. Mildthryth died at Minster-in-Thanet and was buried there.

Her remains were translated to St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury in 1030, the translation is commemorated on 18 May. Mildthryth was apparently followed as abbess by Edburga of Minster-in-Thanet, correspondent of Saint Boniface.

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July 14 – The Lily of the Mohawks

July 13, 2026

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, Lily of the Mohawks

Kateri Tekakwitha was daughter of Kenneronkwa, a Mohawk chief, and Tagaskouita, a devout Roman Catholic Algonquian woman. She was born in the Mohawk fortress of Ossernenon near present-day Auriesville, New York, in 1656. Kateri’s mother was baptized and educated by French missionaries in Trois-Rivières, like many of Abenaki converts.

Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha painted by Father Chauchetière between 1682-1693.

Her chieftain father, Algonquian mother and her brother died in a plague and, though the young Tekakwitha survived the ravages of her illness, it left her delicate for the rest of her life. The Mohawk community in Ossernenon was stridently anti-Christian, yet she held fast to the faith of her mother. At the age of 20, Tekakwitha was baptized on Easter Sunday, April 18, 1676 by Father Jacques de Lamberville, a Jesuit. At her baptism, she took the name Kateri, a Mohawk pronunciation of the French name Catherine. Tekakwitha literally means “she moves things.”

Father Jacques de Lamberville

Those who had charge of her hated the Christian missionaries, and Kateri was persecuted because she refused to give up her Christian way of life. “I want to be a Christian, even though I should die for it,” she said. Her foster parents deprived her of all food on Sunday because she would not work in the fields on that day. Beatings, continual criticism, sarcasm and mockery were her constant lot. They tried to force marriage on her, but she was inspired to remain a virgin, and after she became a Christian she took a vow of virginity.

In time, Kateri made her way to Caughnawaga, a community of Christians. There she led a life of intense Christian virtue until her death in 1680 at the age of 24. Her renown for heroic sanctity soon spread and many miracles have been worked through her intercession.

Statue of Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha on the outside of the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Canada.

She is called “The Lily of the Mohawks,” the “Mohawk Maiden,” the “Pure and Tender Lily,” and the “Flower among True Men,” the “Lily of Purity” and “The New Star of the New World.” According to Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik’s Kateri of the Mohawks, her tribal neighbors called her “the fairest flower that ever bloomed among the redmen,” which was engraved on her tomb stone.

St Francis Xavier Church, Kahnawake, Quebec, Canada, where Bl. Kateri is buried.

Kateri Tekakwitha followed the generation of Saints John de Brebeuf, Isaac Jogues and Companions thus bearing out the ancient Christian saying that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.”  She was beatified in 1980.

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July 14 – St. Francis Solanus

July 13, 2026

South American missionary of the Order of Friars Minor; born at Montilla, in the Diocese of Cordova, Spain, 10 March, 1549; died at Lima, Peru, 14 July, 1610.

St. Francis Solanus with a native of Tucuman (Anonymous, ca. 1588) (Notice his trademark violin on the ground by his right foot)

St. Francis Solanus with a native of Tucuman and his violin on the ground by his right foot.

His parents, Matthew Sanchez Solanus and Anna Ximenes, were distinguished no less for their noble birth than for their virtue and piety. When Francis was twenty years old, he was received into the Franciscan Order at Montilla, and after his ordination, several years later, he was sent by his superiors to the convent of Arifazza as master of novices. In 1589 he sailed from Spain to the New World, and having landed at Panama, crossed the isthmus and embarked on a vessel that was to convey him to Peru. His missionary labours in South America extended over a period of twenty years, during which time he spared no fatigue, shrank from no sacrifice however great, and feared no danger that stood in the way of evangelizing the vast and savage regions of Tucuman and Paraguay. Subscription7 So successful, indeed, was his apostolate that he has been aptly styled the Thaumaturgus of the New World. Notwithstanding the number and difficulty of the dialects spoken by the Indians, he learned them all in a very short time, and it is said that he often addressed tribes of different tongues in one language and was understood by them all. Besides being engaged in active missionary work, he filled the office of custos of the convents of his order in Tucuman and Paraguay, and later was elected guardian of the Franciscan convent in Lima, Peru. In 1610, while preaching at Truxillo he foretold the calamities that were to befall that city, which was destroyed by an earthquake eight years later, most of the inhabitants perishing in the ruins. The death of St. Francis, which he himself had foretold, was the cause of general grief throughout Peru. In his funeral sermon at the burial of the saint, Father Sebastiani, S.J., said that “Divine Providence had chosen Father Francis Solanus to be the hope and edification of all Peru, the example and glory of Lima and the splendour of the Seraphic Order”. St. Francis was beatified by Clement X, in 1675, and canonized by Benedict XIII, in 1726. His feast is kept throughout the Franciscan Order on the twenty-fourth of July.

“Life of St. Francis Solanus” (New York, 1888); LEO, “Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis” (Taunton, 1886), II 509-522; Acta SS., July, V, 847-901.

STEPHEN M. DONOVAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 14 – St. Vincent

July 13, 2026

St. Vincent

(MALDEGARIUS).

Photo of the bust of St. Vincent Madelgarius by Napoleon Vier.

Photo of the bust of St. Vincent Madelgarius by Napoleon Vier.

Founder and abbot of the monasteries of Hautmont and Soignies, born of a noble family at Strepy les Binche, Hainault, early in the seventh century; died at Soignies, 14 July, 677.

That he was not of Irish descent, as stated by Jean du Pont and some Irish writers, has been proved by Mabillon and the Bollandists. About 635 he married the noble Waldetrude, also venerated as a saint, and by her had two sons and two daughters, all of whom are honoured as saints. Their names were: Landric, Bishop of Meaux; Dentelin, who died as a boy of seven years; Aldetrude and Madelberte, both of whom became abbesses of Maubeuge. It is probable that Vincent visited Ireland on a mission of King Dagobert I, who esteemed him very highly, though there is no historical basis for the statement made in his anonymous life, written about the eleventh century, that King Dagobert made him ruler over Ireland. He is said to have brought with him from Ireland a number of missionaries, chief among whom were Sts. Fursy, Foillan, Ultan, Eloquius, Adalgisus, and Etto. About 642 he founded the monastery of Hautmont, near Maubeuge, where he himself became a monk about 643, being invested with the religious garb by Bishop St. Aubert of Cambrai, while his wife took the veil and lived in a cell which later became the monastery of Mons. His holy life and his fame as a spiritual guide attracted to the monastery many of his former friends, who put themselves under his spiritual direction. In the hope of finding great seclusion he erected a new monastery at Soignies whither he withdrew with a few of his monks about 670.

Subscription18

LAILEU, Vie de St. Vincent Madelgaire et de Ste Waudrau, son epouse, princes et patrons du Hainaut (Tournai, 1886); Acta SS., III, July, 628-659; Mabillon, Acta SS. Bened., II, 643-5; Analecta Bollandiana, XII (Brussels, 1893), 422-440; O’HANLON, Lives of the Irish Saints, VII (Dublin, s.d.), 227-234; DU PONT, Memoriale immortale de vita et virtutibus S. Vincentii (Mons, 1649).

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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July 15 – After conversion, he ordered the statues of the pagan gods chopped up and burned

July 13, 2026

St. Vladimir the Great

Grand Duke of Kiev (Kieff) and All Russia, grandson of St. Olga, and the first Russian ruler to embrace Christianity, b. 956; d. at Berestova, 15 July, 1015.

St. Olga

St. Olga could not convert her son and successor, Sviatoslav, for he lived and died a pagan and brought up his son Vladimir as a pagan chieftain. Sviatoslav had two legitimate sons, Yaropolk and Oleg, and a third son, Vladimir, borne him by his court favourite Olga Malusha. Shortly before his death (972) he bestowed the Grand Duchy of Kiev on Yaropolk and gave the land of the Drevlani (now Galicia) to Oleg. The ancient Russian capital of Novgorod threatened rebellion and, as both the princes refused to go thither, Sviatoslav bestowed its sovereignty upon the young Vladimir. Meanwhile war broke out between Yaropolk and Oleg, and the former conquered the Drevlanian territory and dethroned Oleg. When this news reached Vladimir he feared a like fate and fled to the Varangians (Variags) of Scandinavia for help, while Yaropolk conquered Novgorod and united all Russia under his sceptre.

The Murder of Yaropolk

A few years later Vladimir returned with a large force and retook Novgorod. Becoming bolder he waged war against his brother towards the south, took the city of Polotzk, slew its prince, Ragvald, and married his daughter Ragnilda, the affianced bride of Yaropolk. Then he pressed on and besieged Kiev. Yaropolk fled to Rodno, but could not hold out there, and was finally slain upon his surrender to the victorious Vladimir; the latter thereupon made himself ruler of Kiev and all Russia in 980. As a heathen prince Vladimir had four wives besides Ragnilda, and by them had ten sons and two daughters. Since the days of St. Olga, Christianity, which was originally established among the eastern Slavs by Sts. Cyril and Methodius, had been making secret progress throughout the land of Russ (now eastern Austria and Russia) and had begun to considerably alter the heathen ideas. It was a period similar to the era of the conversion of Constantine.

Vladimir I of Kiev

Notwithstanding this undercurrent of Christian ideas, Vladimir erected in Kiev many statues and shrines (trebishcha) to the Slavic heathen gods, Perun, Dazhdbog, Simorgl, Mokosh, Stribog, and others. In 981 he subdued the Chervensk cities (now Galicia), in 983 he overcame the wild Yatviags on the shores of the Baltic Sea, in 985 he fought with the Bulgarians on the lower Volga, and in 987 he planned a campaign against the Greco-Roman Empire, in the course of which he became interested in Christianity. The Chronicle of Nestor relates that he sent envoys to the neighbouring countries for information concerning their religions. The envoys reported adversely regarding the Bulgarians who followed (Mohammedan), the Jews of Khazar, and the Germans with their plain missionary Latin churches, but they were delighted with the solemn Greek ritual of the Great Church (St. Sophia) of Constantinople, and reminded Vladimir that his grandmother Olga had embraced that Faith.

The next year (988) he besieged Kherson in the Crimea, a city within the borders of the eastern Roman Empire, and finally took it by cutting off its water supply. He then sent envoys to Emperor Basil II at Constantinople to ask for his sister Anna in marriage, adding a threat to march on Constantinople in case of refusal. The emperor replied that a Christian might not marry a heathen, but if Vladimir were a Christian prince he would sanction the alliance. To this Vladimir replied that he had already examined the doctrines of the Christians, was inclined towards them, and was ready to be baptized. Basil II sent this sister with a retinue of officials and clergy to Kherson, and there Vladimir was baptized, in the same year, by the Metropolitan Michael and took also the baptismal name of Basil.

The Baptism of Saint Prince Vladimir, by Viktor Vasnetsov. Fresco in Kiev.

He then married Princess Anna, and thereafter put away his pagan wives. He surrendered the city of Kherson to the Greeks and returned to Kiev in state with his bride. The Russian historian Karamsin (Vol. I, p. 215) suggests that Vladimir could have been baptized long before at Kiev, since Christians and their priests were already there; but such an act would have humbled the proud chieftain in the eyes of his people, for he would have accepted in a lowly manner an inconspicuous rite at the hands of a secret and despised sect. Hence he preferred to have it come from the envoys of the Roman Emperor of Constantinople, as a means of impressing his people.

When Vladimir returned to Kiev he took upon himself the conversion of his subjects. He ordered the statues of the gods to be thrown down, chopped to pieces, and some of them burned; the chief god, Perun, was dragged through the mud and thrown into the River Dnieper. These acts impressed the people with the helplessness of their gods, and when they were told that they should follow Vladimir’s example and become Christians they were willingly baptized, even wading into the river that they might the sooner be reached by the priest for baptism. Zubrycki thinks this readiness shows that the doctrines of Christianity had already been secretly spread in Kiev and that the people only waited for an opportunity to publicly acknowledge them.

Statue of St. Vladimir of Kiev on a Monument, “Millennuim of Russia” in Veliky Novgorod

Vladimir urged all his subjects to become Christians, established churches and monasteries not only at Kiev, but at Pereyaslav, Chernigoff, Bielegorod, Vladimir in Volhynia, and many other cities. In 989 he erected the large Church of St. Mary ever Virgin (usually called Desiatinny Sobor, the Cathedral of the Tithes), and in 996 the Church of the Transfiguration, both in the city of Kiev. He gave up his warlike career and devoted himself principally to the government of his people; he established schools, introduced ecclesiastical courts, and became known for his mildness and for his zeal in spreading the Christian faith. His wife died in 1011, having borne him two sons, Boris and Glib (also known as Sts. Roman and David, from their baptismal names). After this his life became troubled by the conduct of his elder children. Following the custom of his ancestors, he had parcelled out his kingdom amongst his children, giving the city of Novgorod in fief to his eldest son Yaroslav; the latter rebelled against him and refused to render either service or tribute. In 1014 Vladimir prepared to march north to Novgorod and take it away from his disobedient son, while Yaroslav invoked the help of the Varangians against his father. Vladimir fell ill and died on the way.

St. Vladimir

His feast in celebrated on 15 July in the Russian Orthodox and Ruthenian Greek Catholic calendars, and he has received the name of Ravnoapostol (equal to the Apostles) in the title of the feast and the troparion of the liturgy. The Russians have added in their service books words referring his conversion and intercession to the present Russian Empire (rossiiskaya zemlya), but the Ruthenians have never permitted these interpolations.

(adapted from 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia)

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

July 9, 2026

Stephen Langton Cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury, b. in the latter half of the twelfth century; d. at Slindon Manor, Sussex, July 9, 1228. Although the roll of English churchmen has few names more illustrious, Langton’s fame is hardly equal to his achievements. Even among his own countrymen too few have an adequate knowledge of […]

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July 9 – St. Veronica Giuliani

July 9, 2026

St. Veronica Giuliani Born at Mercatello in the Duchy of Urbino, Italy, 1660; died at Città di Castello, 9 July, 1727. Her parents, Francesco Giuliana and Benedetta Mancini, were both of gentle birth. In baptism she was named Ursula, and showed marvelous signs of sanctity. When but eighteen months old she uttered her first words […]

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July 10 – Charlemagne Was Stricken for His Rudeness to Her

July 9, 2026

St. Amalberga A virgin, very much revered in Belgium, who is said to have been sought in marriage by Charles, afterwards Charlemagne. Continually repulsed, Charles finally attempted to carry her off by force, but though he broke her arm in the struggle he was unable to move her from the altar before which she had […]

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July 10 – Seven Holy Noble Brethren

July 9, 2026

Saints, martyred in Rome, in 150. According to legend, they were the sons of Saint Felicitas, and suffered martyrdom under Emperor Antoninus. Januarius, Felix, and Philip were scourged to death; Silvanus was thrown over a precipice; Alexander, Vitalis, and Martialis were beheaded. Feast, Roman Calendar, 10 July. St. Felicitas, Martyr The earliest list of the […]

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July 11 – Worthy descendant of St. Elizabeth

July 9, 2026

Frédéric-François-Xavier Ghislain de Mérode A Belgian prelate and statesman, born at Brussels, 1820; died at Rome, 1874. The son of Félix de Mérode-Westerloo who held successively the portfolios of foreign affairs, war, and finances under King Leopold, and of Rosalie de Grammont, he was allied to the best names of France, — Lafayette, Montmorency, Clemont-Tonnerre, […]

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July 11 – The noble saint who fled the world, but the world ran after him

July 9, 2026

Saint Benedict of Nursia Founder of western monasticism, born at Nursia, c. 480; died at Monte Cassino, 543. The only authentic life of Benedict of Nursia is that contained in the second book of Saint Gregory’s “Dialogues”. It is rather a character sketch than a biography and consists, for the most part, of a number… […]

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July 12 – Irish-American Aristocrat Physician

July 9, 2026

William James MacNeven Distinguished Irish-American physician and medical educator, b. at Ballynahowna, near Aughrim, Co. Galway, Ireland, 21 March, 1763; d. at New York, 12 July, 1841. His ancestors were driven by Cromwell from the North of Ireland where they held large possessions to the wilds of Connaught. William James MacNeven was the eldest of […]

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July 12 – Thomas Tunstall

July 9, 2026

Ven. Thomas Tunstall Martyred at Norwich, 13 July, 1616. He was descended from the Tunstalls of Thurland, an ancient Lancashire family who afterwards settled in Yorkshire. In the Douay Diaries he is called by the alias of Helmes and is described as Carleolensis, that is, born within the ancient Diocese of Carlisle. He took the […]

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Astonishing adult literacy rates in France before the 1789 French Revolution

July 9, 2026

From studying signatures of wills Daniel Roche has discovered astonishing figures of adult literacy in the capital at the end of the old regime [France, before the French Revolution of 1789]. In Montmartre, for example, where 40 percent of the testators belonged to the artisan or salaried classes, 74 percent of men and 64 percent […]

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Rekindling the Crusading Spirit

July 6, 2026

Written by Michael Whitcraft On a recent trip to Fatima, I stopped to spend a night in the city of Obidos, Portugal. As I stood atop the walls of that medieval city, I felt almost as though I were breathing history…but not just any history. I was filling my lungs with a Catholic combative history. […]

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July 6 – Mother-in-law Woes

July 6, 2026

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

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July 6 – Bl. Thomas Alfield

July 6, 2026

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

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The Duchess of Navailles is unjustly punished by Louis XIV for upholding honor

July 6, 2026

It was about this time that the king appeared to attach himself to Mademoiselle de La Motte-Houdancourt, maid of honor to the queen…. The Duchesse de Navailles, lady of honor to the queen, believed herself obliged, in the discharge of her duties, one of which is the care of the maids of honor, to oppose […]

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July 7 – Prince Abbots

July 6, 2026

Sts. Willibald and Winnebald (WUNIBALD, WYNNEBALD). Members of the Order of St. Benedict, brothers, natives probably of Wessex in England, the former, first Bishop of Eichstätt, born on 21 October, 700 (701); died on 7 July, 781 (787); the latter, Abbot of Heidenheim, born in 702; died on 18 (19) December, 761. They were the […]

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July 7 – The Princess who left court and entered a forest monastery

July 6, 2026

St. Edelburga, Virgin, also called St. Æthelburh of Faremoutiers. She was daughter to Anna king of the East Angles, and out of a desire of attaining to Christian perfection, went into France, and there consecrated herself to God in the monastery of Faremoutier, in the forest of Brie, in the government of which she succeeded […]

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

July 6, 2026

Blessed Pope Benedict XI (Nicholas Boccasini) Born at Treviso, Italy, 1240; died at Perugia, 7 July, 1304. He entered the Dominican Order at the age of fourteen. After fourteen years of study, he became lector of theology, which office he filled for several years. In 1296 he was elected Master General of the Order. As […]

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July 8 – Archbishops of Baltimore and St. Louis

July 6, 2026

Francis Patrick and Peter Richard Kenrick Archbishops respectively of Baltimore, Maryland, and of St. Louis, Missouri. They were sons of Thomas Kenrick and his wife Jane, and were born in the older part of the city of Dublin, Ireland, the first-named on 3 December, 1797, and the second on 17 August, 1806. An uncle, Father […]

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July 8 – Vasco da Gama Prays To Our Lady Before Setting Out For India

July 6, 2026

At Belém they were all kneeling at his side: Paulo da Gama, his brother, with Nicolau Coelho and Gonçalo Nunes, his other captains and their pilots, Pero de Alenquer, João de Coimbra, Pero Escolar, Afonso Gonçalves; and likewise the “secretaries” Diogo Dias, João de Sá and Álvaro de Braga. Bartolomeu Dias was also there, for […]

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July 8 – The Pope who fought the democrats

July 6, 2026

Pope Blessed Eugene III Bernardo Pignatelli, born in the neighbourhood of Pisa, elected 15 Feb., 1145; d. at Tivoli, 8 July, 1153. On the very day that Pope Lucius II succumbed, either to illness or wounds, the Sacred College, foreseeing that the Roman populace would make a determined effort to force the new pontiff to […]

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What Should We Ask from Our Lady on Our 250th Birthday?

July 2, 2026

By John Horvat II This year, we celebrate the 250th year of our nation’s birth. Over all those years, we have lived, suffered and triumphed together. We have known good times and bad. Overall, we have much to show for our efforts. Never has a more prosperous nation existed in history. It helps that God […]

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Patriotic Associations of a Hereditary Character

July 2, 2026

The 1986 Hereditary Register of the United States lists 109 hereditary associations, the oldest one founded in 1637 and the most recent one in 1976. Of course, some are more dynamic than others. They are normally described as cultural, historical, preservationist, and the like. From a certain point of view, the most important of these […]

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Our Lineage Greatly Influences Our Actions

July 2, 2026

From the funeral oration for Philippe-Emanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercoeur and Penthièvre, delivered in the metropolitan church of Notre-Dame in Paris on April 27, 1602, by Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop-Prince of Geneva and Doctor of the Church: “It is always God Who grants us salvation; He is its great architect, but He […]

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General Lee’s one rule for students: “Be a gentleman”

July 2, 2026

A new student once asked President Lee for a copy of the rules of Washington College. Lee replied, “Young gentleman, we have no printed rules. We have but one rule here, and it is that every student must be a gentleman.” What did Lee mean when he used the word “gentleman?” Found among his papers […]

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Nobility and Traditional Elites Today

July 2, 2026

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Le Nouvel Aperçu, no. 6,  July-August 1994, published in French by the TFP Association Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, author of Noblesse et élites traditionnelles dans les allocutions de Pie XII, answers our questions Question: Two hundred years after the French Revolution, do you think that French society still has something to […]

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An Act Of Kindness – Never To Be Forgotten

July 2, 2026

But her best-known deed, and the one which made the greatest sensation, was that which is known as the incident of Achères. It was at Fontainebleau, during the hunt again, on Oct 16, 1773. The deer, being at bay, took refuge in a small enclosure of the village of Achères.  Finding no issue thence, and […]

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The unyielding principles of Richard Lee II, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s great-great grandfather

July 2, 2026

Claiming to lead “the people,” Bacon defied the government at Jamestown and demanded reform…. Endangered by their leader’s vacillation, Berkeley’s supporters chose to scatter…. but not Richard. He had the courage of his convictions. Richard believed all social order, including Virginia’s, was imposed by God and should be maintained, no matter the “zealous inclination of […]

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19th C. Washington Societal Etiquette

July 2, 2026

Washingtonian Social Etiquette The wife of the chief-justice, and not the wife of the President, is the first lady in the land, and takes precedence of all others. She holds receptions and receives calls, but she alone is excluded from all duty of returning calls. The life of a lady in society at Washington is […]

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Liberty, Equality, Fraternity—the ambiguous trilogy

July 2, 2026

by Plinio Correa de Oliveira The reader might notice…an apparent contradiction among the pronouncements of the different popes who dealt with the trilogy Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. This impression fades the more the reader bears in mind that, properly considered in themselves—and therefore in the light of Catholic principles—each of these words designates concepts worthy of […]

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What Ever Happened to the Liberty Promised in 1789?

June 29, 2026

In his classic work on the French Revolution, Pierre Gaxotte shows the abysmal difference that exists between the respect shows by the Ancien Regime for the legitimate liberties of the individual and the family and the strong inclination of the modern State to meddle in the intimate lives of its citizens, a tendency which appeared […]

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Local Elites

June 29, 2026

In its first sense, an elite* is a group of fine persons who stand out as individuals from the mass of people constituting a community. Isolated individuals unrelated among themselves, do not constitute an elite. Rather, we speak of an elite only when its constituents interrelate with sufficient vitality and diligence so as to create […]

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Southern aristocracy dazzled ante-bellum Washington

June 29, 2026

With the installation of the aging Buchanan as President and the coming of young Lord Napier as British minister, society in Washington had taken on a brilliant luster. The lovely, cultivated Lady Napier was perhaps the most popular foreign hostess the capital had known, while the President’s niece, Harriet Lane, was as competent as any […]

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The Inequality of Rights and Power Proceeds from the Very Author of Nature

June 29, 2026

The Inequality of Rights and Power Proceeds from the Very Author of Nature   From Leo XIII’s encyclical Quod Apostolici muneris, of December 28, 1878: For, indeed, although the socialists, stealing the very Gospel itself with a view to deceive more easily the unwary, have been accustomed to distort it so as to suit their […]

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Requirements for Leadership

June 29, 2026

1) Intellectual requisites of a leader The exercise of authority requires certain qualities. In the first place, the leader must have a clear and firm notion of the objective and the common good of the group he directs. Then he needs a lucid knowledge of the means and procedures to attain this good. These intellectual […]

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The Spiritual Dimension in Everyday Life

June 29, 2026

This same union of material and spiritual dimensions is not limited to highly specialized projects like cathedrals; it can also be seen in products found in everyday life. The spiritual dimension introduced added value, culture, and warmth to the most common things. About such production, Lewis Mumford writes, “No article, even of vulgar daily use, […]

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A Society Without Elites is a Socialist Society

June 29, 2026

by Luiz Sérgio Solimeo We are witnessing a surge of popular outrage and even revulsion against an onslaught of ideologically liberal changes affecting the lives of millions of Americans. This outrage is fueled, among other things, by the following: • decisions of activist judges favoring homosexualist or private property-denying socialist agendas and showing complete disregard for […]

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Monarchical Tendencies at the Time of Independence and the Constitution

June 29, 2026

At the beginning of the revolutionary process that effected the independence of the thirteen colonies, the majority of the colonists sought neither separation from England nor a change in the form of government. Almost until the end of the process that led to armed revolt, Americans merely claimed rights and liberties considered common to all […]

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The aristocratic character of hereditary associations

June 29, 2026

The traditional elites in the United States, to preserve their aristocratic character in a world where non-aristocratic habits increasingly prevailed, formed exclusive associations in the intimacy of which they could leisurely display their high bearing and traditional customs. Writing in 1960, social historian Cleveland Amory explained: “In our own day the Aristocrat can best be […]

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Marie Antoinette was a Good Samaritan

June 25, 2026

Marie Antoinette’s heart was ever compassionate. One day as she was riding through the forest of Fontainebleau in her carriage she came across an old man who had been wounded by a buck. His family was with him but had no means to take him home. The queen of France immediately descended from her carriage […]

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June 25 – Servant of God Maria Clotilde of Savoy

June 25, 2026

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

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Two Feminine Ideals

June 25, 2026

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira On the right, (above) we have the Servant of God Maria Clotilde of Savoy (1843-1911), outstanding for her birth, her grand personal distinction, as well as for her virtue. She will probably be elevated to the honors of the altars, since the cause of her beatification is already under way. […]

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