February 13 – John Fowler

February 13, 2025

John Fowler

Scholar and printer, b. at Bristol, England, 1537; d. at Namur, Flanders, 13 Feb., 1578-9. He studied at Winchester School from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford where he remained till 1559. He became B.A. 23 Feb., 1556-7 and M.A. in 1560, though Antony a Wood adds that he did not complete his degree by standing in comitia. On Elizabeth’s accession he was one of the fifteen Fellows of New College who left of their own accord or were ejected rather than take the Oath of Supremacy (Rashdall, History of New College, 114). This disposes of the calumny circulated by Acworth in his answer to Sander, called “De visibili Romanarchia”, to the effect that Fowler took the oath to enable him to retain the living of Wonston in Hampshire. There is, indeed, no trace of any desire on his part to receive Holy orders and he subsequently married Alice Harris, daughter of Sir Thomas More’s secretary. On leaving Oxford he withdrew to Louvain, where like other scholars of his time he turned his attention to the craft of printing. His intellectual attainments were such as to enable him to take high rank among the scholar-printers of that age. Thus Antony a Wood says of him: “He was well skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues, a tolerable poet and orator, and a theologian not to be contemned. So learned he was also in criticisms and other polite learning, that he might have passed for another Robert or Henry Stephens. He did diligently peruse the Theological Summa of St. Thomas of Aquin, and with a most excellent method did reduce them into a Compendium.” To have a printing press abroad in the hands of a competent English printer was a great gain to the Catholic cause, and Fowler devoted the rest of his life to this work, winning from Cardinal Allen the praise of being catholicissimus et doctissimus librorum impressor.

The English Government kept an eye on his work, as we learn from the state papers (Domestic, Eliz. 1566-1579), where we read the evidence of one Henry Simpson at York in 1571, to the effect that Fowler printed all the English books at Louvain and that Dr. Harding’s Welsh servant, William Smith, used to bring the works to the press. He seems to have had a press at Antwerp as well as at Louvain, for his Antwerp books range from 1565 to 1575, whereas his Louvain books are dated 1566, 1567 and 1568; while one of his publications, Gregory Martin’s “Treatise of Schism” bears the impress, Douay, 1578. More thorough bibliographical research than has yet been made into the output of his presses will probably throw new light upon his activity as a printer. The original works or translations for which he was personally responsible are: “An Oration against the unlawful Insurrections of the Protestants of our time under pretence to reforme Religion” (Antwerp, 1566), translated from the Latin of Peter Frarinus, which provoked a reply from Fulke; “Ex universâ summâ Sacrae Theologiae Doctori os S. Thomae Aquinatis desumptae conclusiones” (Louvain, 1570); “M. Maruli dictorum factorumque memorabilium libri VI” (Antwerp, 1577); “Additiones in Chronica Genebrandi” (1578); “A Psalter for Catholics”, a controversial work answered by Sampson; epigrams and verses. The translation of the “Epistle of Orosius” (Antwerp, 1565), ascribed to him by Wood and Pitts, was really made by Richard Shacklock. Pitts also states that he wrote in English a work “Ad Ducissam Feriae confessionis forma”, Fowler also edited Sir Thomas More’s “Dialogue of Comfort against Tribulation” (Antwerp, 1573).

Edwin Burton (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Alphonsus Salmeron

Jesuit Biblical scholar, born at Toledo, 8 Sept., 1515; died at Naples, 13 Feb., 1585. He studied literature and philosophy at Alcala, and thereafter went to Paris for philosophy and theology. Here, through James Lainez, he met St. Ignatius of Loyola; together with Lainez, Faber, and St. Francis Xavier he enlisted as one of the first companions of Loyola (1536). The small company left Paris, 15 Nov., 1536, and reached Venice, 8 Jan., 1537, and during Lent of that year went to Rome. He delivered a discourse before the Holy Father and was, in return, granted leave to receive Holy orders so soon as he should have reached the canonical age. About 8 Sept., all the first companions met at Vincenza, and all, save St. Ignatius, said their first Mass. The plan of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land was abandoned. Salmeron devoted his ministry in Sienna to the poor and to children. On 22 April, 1541, he pronounced his solemn vows in St. Paul’s-Outside-the-Walls, as a professed member of the newly-established Society of Jesus. The autumn of that year, Paul III sent Salmeron and Broët as Apostolic nuncios to Ireland. They landed, by way of Scotland, 23 Feb., 1542. Thirty-four days later they set sail for Dieppe and went on to Paris. For two years Salmeron preached in Rome; his exposition of the Epistle to the Ephesians thrice a week in the church of the Society effected much good (1545). After preaching the Lent at Bologna, he went with Lainez to the Council of Trent (18 May, 1546) as theologian to Paul III. The Dogma of Justification was under discussion. The two Jesuits at once won the hearts and respect of all; their discourses had to be printed and distributed to the bishops. Both set out for Bologna (14 March, 1547) with the Council. After serious sickness at Padua, Salmeron once again took up his council work. The next two years were in great part spent in preaching at Bologna, Venice, Padua, and Verona. On 4 Oct., 1549, Salmeron and his companions, Le Jay and Canisius, took their doctorate in the University of Bologna, so that they might, at the urgent invitation of William IV of Bavaria, accept chairs in Ingolstadt. Salmeron undertook to interpret the Epistle to the Romans. He held the attention of all by his learning and grace of exposition. Upon the death of Duke William, and at the instigation of the Bishop of Verona, much to the chagrin of the faculty of the Academy of Ingolstadt, Salmeron was returned to Verona (24 Sept., 1550). That year he explained the Gospel of St. Matthew. Next year (1551) he was summoned to Rome to help St. Ignatius in working up the Constitutions of the Society. Other work was in store. He was soon (Feb., 1551) sent down to Naples to inaugurate the Society’s first college there, but after a few months was summoned by Ignatius to go back to the Council of Trent as theologian to Julius III. It was during the discussions preliminary to these sessions that Lainez and Salmeron, as papal theologians, gave their vota first. When the Council once again suspended its sessions, Salmeron returned to Naples (Oct., 1552). Paul IV sent him to the Augsburg Diet (May, 1555) with the nuncio, Lippomanus, and thence into Poland; and later (April, 1556) to Belgium. Another journey to Belgium was undertaken in the capacity of adviser to Cardinal Caraffa (2 Dec., 1557). Lainez appointed Salmeron first Provincial of Naples (1558), and vicar-general (1561) during the former’s apostolic legation to France. The Council of Trent was again resumed (May, 1562) and a third pontiff, Pius IV, chose Salmeron and Lainez for papal theologians. The rôle was very delicate; the Divine origin of the rights and duties of bishops was to be discussed. During the years 1564-82, Salmeron was engaged chiefly in preaching and writing; he preached every day during eighteen Lenten seasons; his preaching was fervent, learned, and fruitful. His writings during this long period were voluminous; Bellarmine spent five months in Naples reviewing them. Each day he pointed out to Salmeron the portions that were not up to the mark, and the next day the latter brought back those parts corrected.

University of Alcalá de Henares.

The chief writings of Salmeron are his sixteen volumes of Scriptural commentaries–eleven on the Gospels, one on the Acts, and four on the Pauline Epistles. Southwell says that these sixteen volumes were printed by Sanchez, Madrid, from 1597 till 1602; in Brescia, 1601; in Cologne, from 1602-04, Sommervogel (Bibliothèque de la C. de J., VII, 479) has traced only twelve tomes of the Madrid edition–the eleven of the Gospels and one of the Pauline commentaries. The Gospel volumes are entitled, “Alfonsi Salmeronis Toletani, e Societate Jusu Theologi, Commentarii in Evangelicam Historiam et in Acta Apostolorum, in duodecim tomos distributi” (Madrid, 1598-1601). The first Cologne edition, together with the second (1612-15), are found complete. These voluminous commentaries are the popular and university expositions which Salmeron had delivered during his preaching and teaching days. In old age, he gathered his notes together, revised them, and left his volumes ready for posthumous publication by Bartholomew Pérez de Nueros. Grisar (Jacobi Lainez Disputationes Tridentinae, I, 53) thinks that the commentary on Acts is the work of Perez; Braunsberger (Canisii epist., III, 448) and the editors of “Monumenta Historica S.J.” (Epistolae Salmeron, I, xxx) disagree with Grisar. The critical acumen of Salmeron, his judicious study of the Fathers and his knowledge of Holy Writ make his Scriptural exegesis still worth the attention of students. He was noted for his devotion to the Church, fortitude, prudence, and magnanimity. The Acts of the Council of Trent show that he wielded tremendous influence there by his vota on justification, Holy Eucharist, penance, purgatory, indulgences, the Sacrifice of the Mass, matrimony and the origin of episcopal jurisdiction–all most important questions because of the gradual infiltration of some heretical ideas into a small minority of the hierarchy of that time.
WALTER DRUM (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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In an allocution to the extraordinary Secret Consistory of February 14, 1949, Pius XII affirms:

“[The Catholic Church] admits any and every form of civil government provided it be not inconsistent with divine and human rights. But when it does contradict these rights, bishops and the faithful themselves are bound by their own conscience to resist unjust laws.”

The Christian Martyrs’ Last Prayer by Jean-Léon Gérôme

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Appendix IV, p. 395.

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Pope Honorius II

(Lamberto Scannabecchi)

Born of humble parents at Fagnano near Imola at an unknown date; died at Rome, 14 February, 1130. For a time he was Archdeacon of Bologna. On account of his great learning he was called to Rome by Paschal II, became canon at the Lateran, then Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prassede, and, in 1117, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia and Velletri. He was one of the cardinals who accompanied Gelasius II into exile. In 1119 Calistus II sent him as legate to Henry V, German Emperor, with powers to come to an understanding concerning the right of investiture. In October of the same year he was present at the Synod of Reims where the emperor was solemnly excommunicated by Callistus II. A great part of the following three years he spent in Germany, endeavouring to bring about a reconciliation between the pope and the emperor. It was chiefly through his efforts that the Concordat of Worms, the so-called “Pactum Calixtinum” was effected on 23 September, 1123. In this concordat the emperor renounced all claims to investiture with staff and ring, and promised liberty of ecclesiastical elections. When the concordat was signed by the emperor, the cardinal sang a solemn high Mass under the open sky near Worms. After the Agnus Dei he kissed the emperor, who then received Holy Communion from the hands of the cardinal and was in this manner restored to communion with the Church. Callistus II died on 13 December, 1124, and two days later the Cardinal of Ostia was elected pope, taking the name of Honorius II.

Painting of the Official recognition by Pope Honorius II of the Templars at the Council of Troyes in 1128. Painting by François Marius Granet

Party spirit between the Frangipani and the Leoni was at its highest during the election and there was great danger of a schism. The cardinals had already elected Cardinal Teobaldo Boccadipecora who had taken the name of Celestine II. He was clothed in the scarlet mantle of the pope, while the Te Deum was chanted in thanksgiving, when the proud and powerful Roberto Frangipani suddenly appeared on the scene, expressed his dissatisfaction with the election of Teobaldo and proclaimed the Cardinal of Ostia as pope. The intimidated cardinals reluctantly yielded to his demand.

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Sts. Cyril and Methodius

These brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, were born in Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively. Though belonging to a senatorial family they renounced secular honors and became priests. They were living in a monastery on the Bosphorus, when the Khazars sent to Constantinople for a Christian teacher. Cyril was selected and was accompanied by his brother. They learned the Khazar language and converted many of the people. Soon after the Khazar mission there was a request from the Moravians for a preacher of the Gospel. German missionaries had already labored among them, but without success. The Moravians wished a teacher who could instruct them and conduct Divine service in the Slavonic tongue. On account of their acquaintance with the language, Cyril and Methodius were chosen for their work. In preparation for it Cyril invented an alphabet and, with the help of Methodius, translated the Gospels and the necessary liturgical books into Slavonic. They went to Moravia in 863, and labored for four and a half years. Despite their success, they were regarded by the Germans with distrust, first because they had come from Constantinople where schism was rife, and again because they held the Church services in the Slavonic language. On this account the brothers were summoned to Rome by Nicholas I, who died, however, before their arrival. His successor, Adrian II, received them kindly. Convinced of their orthodoxy, he commended their missionary activity, sanctioned the Slavonic Liturgy, and ordained Cyril and Methodius bishops. Cyril, however, was not to return to Moravia. He died in Rome, 4 Feb., 869.

St. Methodius baptizing King Borivoj I of Bohemia & his wife St. Ludmila

At the request of the Moravian princes, Rastislav and Svatopluk, and the Slav Prince Kocel of Pannonia, Adrian II formed an Archdiocese of Moravia and Pannonia, made it independent of the German Church, and appointed Methodius archbishop. In 870 King Louis and the German bishops summoned Methodius to a synod at Ratisbon. Here he was deposed and condemned to prison. After three years he was liberated at the command of Pope John VIII and reinstated as Archbishop of Moravia. He zealously endeavored to spread the Faith among the Bohemians, and also among the Poles in Northern Moravia. Soon, however, he was summoned to Rome again in consequence of the allegations of the German priest Wiching, who impugned his orthodoxy, and objected to the use of Slavonic in the liturgy. But John VIII, after an inquiry, sanctioned the Slavonic Liturgy, decreeing, however, that in the Mass the Gospel should be read first in Latin and then in Slavonic.

Wiching, in the meantime, had been nominated one of the suffragan bishops of Methodius. He continued to oppose his metropolitan, going so far as to produce spurious papal letters. The pope, however, assured Methodius that they were false. Methodius went to Constantinople about this time, and with the assistance of several priests, he completed the translation of the Holy Scriptures, with the exception of the Books of Machabees. He translated also the “Nomocanon”, i.e. the Greek ecclesiastic-civil law. The enemies of Methodius did not cease to antagonize him. His health was worn out from the long struggle, and he died 6 April, 885, recommending as his successor Gorazd, a Moravian Slav who had been his disciple.

cfr. L. ABRAHAM (1913 Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Sts. Faustinus and Jovita

Our Lady and the Christ Child with Saints Jovita and Faustinus, by Vincenzo Foppa.

Martyrs, members of a noble family of Brescia; the elder brother, Faustinus, being a priest, the younger, a deacon. For their fearless preaching of the Gospel, they were arraigned before the Emperor Hadrian, who, first at Brescia, later at Rome and Naples, subjected them to frightful torments, after which they were beheaded at Bescia in the year 120, according to the Bollandists, though Allard (Histoire des Persécutions pendant les Deux Premiers Siècles, Paris, 1885) places the date as early as 118. The many “Acts” of these saints are chiefly of a legendary character. Fedele Savio, S.J. the most recent writer on the subject, calls in question nearly every fact related of them except their existince and martyrdom, which are too well attested by their inclusion in so many of the early martyrologies and their extraordinary cult in their native city, of which from time immemorial they have been the chief patrons. Rome, Bologna and Verona share with Brescia the possession of their relics. Their feast is celebrated on 15 February, the traditional date of their martyrdom.
John F. X. Murphy (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Ferdinand II

Portrait of Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor (1578-1637)

Emperor, eldest son of Archduke Karl and the Bavarian Princess Maria, b. 1578; d. 15 February, 1637. In accordance with Ferdinand I’s disposition of his possessions, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola fell to his son Karl. As Karl died in 1590, when his eldest son was only twelve years old, the government of these countries had to be entrusted to a regent during the minority of Ferdinand. The latter began his studies under the Jesuits at Graz, and continued them in company with Maximilian of Bavaria at the University of Ingolstadt, also in charge of the Jesuits. According to the testimony of his professors, he displayed remarkable diligence, made rapid progress in the mathematical sciences, and above all gave evidence of a deeply religious spirit. On the completion of his studies, he took up the reins of government, although not yet quite seventeen. During a subsequent visit to Italy he made a vow in the sanctuary of Loreto to banish all heresy from the territories which might fall under his rule. He was of middle height, compact build, with reddish-blonde hair and blue eyes. His dress and the cut of his hair suggested the Spaniard, but his easy bearing towards all with whom he came into contact was rather German than Spanish. Even in the heat of conflict, a sense of justice and equity never deserted him. On two occasions, when his tenure of power was imperilled, he was unflinching and showed a true greatness of mind. Ferdinand was a man of unspotted morals, but lacking in statesman-like qualities and independence of judgment. He was wont to lay the responsibility for important measures on his counsellors (Freiherr von Eggenberg, Graf von Harrach, the Bohemian Chancellor, Zdencko von Lobkowitz, Cardinal-Prince Dietrichstein, etc.). Liberal even to prodigality, his exchequer was always low. In pursuance of the principle laid down by the Diet of Augsburg, 1555 (cuius regio eius et religio), he established the Counter-Reformation in his three duchies, while his cousin Emperor Rudolf II reluctantly recognized the Reformation.

The meeting of Emperor Rudolph II and his brother, Archduke Matthias near Prague in 1608

As Ferdinand was the only archduke of his day with sufficient power and energy to take up the struggle against the estates then aiming at supreme power in the Austrian hereditary domains, the childless Emperor Matthias strove to secure for him the succession to the whole empire. During Matthias’s life, Ferdinand was crowned King of Bohemia and of Hungary, but, when Matthias died during the heat of the religious war (20 March, 1619), Ferdinand’s position was encompassed with perils. A united army of Bohemians and Silesians stood before the walls of Vienna; in the city itself Ferdinand was beset by the urgent demands of the Lower-Austrian estates, while the Bohemian estates chose as king in his place the head of the Protestant Union in Germany (the Palatine Frederick V), who could also count on the support of his father-in-law, James I of England. When the Austrian estates entered into an alliance with the Bohemians, and Bethlen Gabor, Prince of Transylvania, marched triumphantly through Hungary with the assistance of the Hungarian evangelical party, and was crowned king of that country, the end of the Hapsburg dynasty seemed at hand. Notwithstanding these troubles in his hereditary states, Ferdinand was chosen German Emperor by the votes of all the electors except Bohemia and the Palatinate. Spaniards from the Netherlands occupied the Palatinate, and the Catholic League (Bund der katholischen Fürsten Deutschlands) headed by Maximilian of Bavaria declared in his favour, although to procure this support Ferdinand was obliged to mortgage Austria to Maximilian. On 22 June, 1619, the Imperial General Buquoy repulsed from Vienna the besieging General Thurn; Mansfeld was crushed at Budweis, and on 8 November, 1620, the fate of Bohemia and of Frederick V was decided by the Battle of the White Mountain, near Prague.
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CHAPTER IX

The Driving Force of the Counter-Revolution

There is a driving force of the Counter-Revolution, just as there is one of the Revolution.

1. Virtue and Counter-Revolution

We have singled out the dynamism of the human passions unleashed in a metaphysical hatred against God, virtue, good, and especially against hierarchy and purity, as the most potent driving force of the Revolution. Likewise, there exists a counter-revolutionary dynamism, though of an entirely different nature. Passions as such (here referred to in their technical sense) are morally indifferent; it is their disorderliness that makes them bad.

However, while regulated, they are good and obey the will and reason faithfully. It is in the vigor of soul that comes to a man because God governs his reason, his reason dominates his will, and his will dominates his sensibility, that we must look for the serene, noble, and highly effective driving force of the Counter-Revolution.

2. Supernatural Life And Counter-Revolution

Such vigor of soul cannot be explained unless supernatural life is taken into account. The role of grace consists precisely in enlightening the intelligence, strengthening the will, and tempering the sensibility so that they turn toward good. Hence, the soul gains immeasurably from supernatural life, which elevates it above the miseries of fallen nature, indeed, above the level of human nature itself. In this strength of the Christian soul lies the dynamism of the Counter-Revolution.

3. The Invincibility of the Counter-Revolution

Battle of Lepanto Painted by Tony Stafki http://tonystafki.imagekind.com/

One might ask, of what value is this dynamism? We respond that in thesis it is incalculable and certainly superior to that of the Revolution: “Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat” (“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me”).1

Don Pelayo at Covadonga.

When men resolve to cooperate with the grace of God, the marvels of history are worked: the conversion of the Roman Empire; the formation of the Middle Ages; the reconquest of Spain, starting from Covadonga; all the events that result from the great resurrections of soul of which peoples are also capable. These resurrections are invincible, because nothing can defeat a people that is virtuous and truly loves God.

1 Phil. 4:13.

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Bl. Aloysius Stepinac

BL. ALOJZIJE STEPINAC was born into a large Catholic family on 8 May 1898 in Krasic. After graduation from high school in 1916, he completed military service during World War I. In 1924 he decided to study for the priesthood and was sent to Rome, where he attended the Pontifical Germanicum-Hungaricum College. He earned doctorates in theology and philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University and was ordained on 26 October 1930.

As a parish priest in the Archdiocese of Zagreb, his work was marked by an energetic involvement in charitable activities, especially in the city’s poorer neighbourhoods. At Christmas 1931 he established the archdiocesan Caritas.

Archbischop of Zagreb Bl. Alojzije Stepinac meets Ante Pavelic

Archbischop of Zagreb Bl. Alojzije Stepinac meets Ante Pavelic

On 29 May 1934 Pope Pius XI named Fr Stepinac as Co-adjutor Archbishop of Zagreb at the age of 36. He visited the old parishes of the Archdiocese, created 12 new ones, established close ties with lay associations and with youth groups, promoted the Catholic press and, as the question of the Concordat between Yugoslavia and the Holy See was current, became wholeheartedly involved in protecting the rights of the Catholic Church. He succeeded Archbishop Bauer upon the latter’s death on 7 December 1937.

The advance of Nazism in Europe prompted the Archbishop in 1936 to support a committee which had been founded to help those who were fleeing this threat, and in 1938 to institute the Action for Assistance to Jewish Refugees. His defence of human rights and of those who were being persecuted prior to, during and after World War II encompassed all persons regardless of race, religion, nationality, ethnic group or social class.

Bl. Aloysius StepinacArchbishop Stepinac never missed an occasion to condemn racism and to defend human rights for every person and nation. In 1943 he wrote: “We always stressed in public life the principles of God’s eternal law regardless of whether we spoke about Croats, Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Catholics, Muslims, Orthodox or whoever else…. The Catholic Church does not recognize races that rule and races that are enslaved”.

By 1945 Yugoslavia was under communist rule. Archbishop Stepinac, wrote a biographer, “treated the new authorities from the first moment in accordance with the Gospel” but nonetheless “remained firm in his stance … to defend the divine rights of the Church, as well as the vital interests of the Croatian people”. That same year, after publishing a letter which denounced the execution of priests by communist militants, Archbishop Stepinac was arrested for the first time.

Bl. Aloysius StepinacFollowing the Archbishop’s release, Yugoslavia’s new leader, Josip Broz Tito, attempted to persuade him to have the Catholic Church in Croatia break from Rome. What had been a tense situation became confrontational when the Catholic Bishops of Yugoslavia issued a pastoral letter on 22 September 1945 in which they referred to the promises made – and then broken – by the Belgrade Government to respect freedom of conscience and religion as well as private ownership. The Bishops demanded freedom for the Catholic press, Catholic schools, religious instruction, Catholic associations, and “full freedom for the human person and his inviolable rights, full respect for Christian marriage and the restitution of all confiscated properties and institutions”.

Following attacks on the Church and a media campaign against him personally, Archbishop Stepinac was put on trial in September 1946, a trial which was condemned by many people, most notably Pope Pius XII. On 11 October 1946 the Archbishop was sentenced to 16 years of hard labour and the loss of his civil rights. His primary ” crime” was the defence of the unity of the Catholic Church in Croatia and its unity with the See of Peter.

Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac on trial

Archbishop Alojzije Stepinac on trial

Two days after this sentence, members of the Jewish community in the United States protested, saying that “this great man has been accused of being a collaborator of the Nazis. We Jews deny this…. Alojzije Stepinac was one of the few men in Europe who raised his voice against the Nazi tyranny, precisely at the time when it was most dangerous to do so”. In fact, during the war Archbishop Stepinac helped to hide countless persons, predominantly Jews, in monasteries and other Church properties. Some of them remained until the end of the war.

Due to ill health, Archbishop Stepinac was moved from prison in 1951 and put under house arrest in Krasic where he could, nonetheless, perform priestly functions, receive visitors and communicate in writing to the faithful, penning more than 5,000 letters. Of the letters which remain, it is noteworthy that Archbishop Stepinac never expressed even a single word of resentment for those who had persecuted him.

Tomb of Bl. Alojzije Stepinac in the Cathedral of Zagreb

Pope Pius XII named him a Cardinal on 12 January 1953 and called him “an example of apostolic zeal and Christian strength”. The Cardinal’s hat was given to Stepinac, wrote the Pontiff, “to reward his extraordinary merits … and especially to honour and comfort our sons and daughters who resolutely confess their Catholic faith despite these difficult times”. Following this, the Yugoslav regime broke diplomatic relations with the Holy See.

In December 1959, asked to testify at the trial of the spiritual director of the diocesan seminary, the Archbishop wrote the authorities, citing the reasons he could not attend and reflecting on the long history of maltreatment which he received as Archbishop of Zagreb. He concluded: “I know what my duty is. With the grace of God, I will carry it out to the end without hatred towards anyone, and without fear from anyone”. He died on 10 February 1960 and is believed to have been poisoned.

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St. Scholastica, Virgin

(c. 480 – 10 February 547)

This saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself to God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her first monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother removed to Mount Cassino, she choose her retreat at Plombariola, in that neighbourhood, where she founded and governed a nunnery about five miles distant to the south from St. Benedict’s monastery. (1)

Statues of St. Benedict and his twin sister, St. Scholastica, above the entrance of the Church of the Annunciation, also called “St. Gabriel Church”, in Holečkova Street in Prague-Smíchov, Czechia.

St. Bertharius, who was abbot of Cassino three hundred years after, says, that she instructed in virtue several of her own sex. And whereas St. Gregory informs us, that St. Benedict governed nuns as well as monks, his sister must have been their abbess under his rule and direction.

She visited her holy brother once a year, and as she was not allowed to enter his monastery, he went out with some of his monks to meet her at a house at some small distance. They spent these visits in the praises of God, and in conferring together on spiritual matters. St. Gregory relates a remarkable circumstance of the last of these visits. Scholastica having passed the day as usual in singing psalms, and pious discourses, they sat down in the evening to take their refection. After it was over, Scholastica, perhaps foreknowing it would be their last interview in this world, or at least desirous of some further spiritual improvement, was very urgent with her brother to delay his return till the next day, that they might entertain themselves till morning upon the happiness of the other life.

St. Benedict, unwilling to transgress his rule, told her he could not pass a night out of his monastery: so desired her not to insist upon such a breach of monastic discipline. Scholastica finding him resolved on going home, laying her hands joined upon the table and her head upon them, with many tears begged of Almighty God to interpose in her behalf. Her prayer was scarcely ended, when there happened such a storm of rain, thunder, and lightning, that neither St. Benedict nor any of his companions could set a foot out of doors. He complained to his sister, saying: “God forgive you, sister; what have you done?” She answered: “I asked you a favour, and you refused it me: I asked it of Almighty God, and he has granted it me.” St. Benedict was therefore obliged to comply with her request, and they spent the night in conferences on pious subjects, chiefly on the felicity of the blessed, to which both most ardently aspired, and which she was shortly to enjoy. The next morning they parted, and three days after St. Scholastica died in her solitude.

St. Benedict was then alone in contemplation on Mount Cassino, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he saw the soul of his sister ascending thither in the shape of a dove. Filled with joy at her happy passage, he gave thanks for it to God, and declared her death to his brethren; some of whom he sent to bring her corpse to his monastery, where he caused it to be laid in the tomb which he had prepared for himself.

Her relics are said to have been translated into France, together with those of St. Benedict, in the seventh century, according to the relation given by the monk Adrevald. (2) They are said to have been deposited at Mans, and kept in the collegiate church of St. Peter in that city, in a rich silver shrine. (3)

In 1562 this shrine was preserved from being plundered by the Hugonots, as is related by Chatelain. Her principal festival at Mans is kept a holyday on the 11th of July, the day of the translation of her relics. She was honoured in some places with an office of three lessons, in the time of St. Louis, as appears from a calendar of Longchamp, wrote in his reign.

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Note 1. This nunnery underwent the same fate with the abbey of Mount Cassino, both being burned to the ground by the Lombards. When Rachim, king of that nation, having been converted to the Catholic faith by the exhortations of Pope Zachary, re-established that abbey, and taking the monastic habit, ended his life there, his queen Tasia and his daughter Ratruda rebuilt and richly endowed the nunnery of Plombariola, in which they lived with great regularity to their deaths, as is related by Leo of Ostia in his Chronicle of Mount Cassino, ad an. 750. It has been since destroyed, so that at present the land is only a farm belonging to the monastery of Mount Cassino. See Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit, p. 412. Chatelain, Notes, p. 605. Muratori Antichita, etc. t. 3. p. 400. Diss. 66. del Monasteri delle Monache.

Note 2. See Paul the deacon, Hist. Longob. and Dom Mege, Vie de St. Benoit. p. 48.

Note 3. That the relics of St. Benedict were privately carried off from Mount Cassino, in 660, soon after the monastery was destroyed, and brought to Fleury on the Loire by Aigiulph the monk, and those of St. Scholastica by certain persons of Mans to that city, is maintained by Mabillon, Menard, and Bosche. But that the relics of both these saints still remain at Mount Cassino, is strenuously affirmed by Loretus Angelus de Nuce, and Marchiarelli, the late learned monk of the Order of Camaldoli; and this assertion Benedict XIV. looks upon as certain. (de Canoniz. l. 4. part. 2. c. 24. t. 4. p. 245.) For Pope Zachary in his bull assures us, that he devoutly honoured the relics of SS. Benedict and Scholastica at Mount Cassino, in 746. Leo Ostiensis and Peter the deacon visited them and found them untouched in 1071, as Alexander II. affirms in the bull he published when he consecrated the new church there. By careful visitations made by authority, in 1486 and 1545, the same is proved. Yet Angelus de Nuce allows some portions of both saints to be at Mans and Fleury, on the Loire. Against the supposed translation of the whole shrines of St. Benedict and St. Scholastica into France, see Muratori, Antichita, etc. dissert. 58. t. 3. p. 244.

From St. Gregory the Great, Dial. l. 2. c. 33. and 34.

Cfr. The Lives of the Saints, by Rev. Alban Butler, 1866. Volume II: February. p. 391-392.

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Blessed Pope Gregory X

Born 1210; died 10 January, 1276. Pope Gregory X was declared Blessed on July 8, 1713 by Pope Clement XI.

Pope Gregory X

The death of Pope Clement IV (29 November, 1268) left the Holy See vacant for almost three years. The cardinals assembled at Viterbo were divided into two camps, the one French and the other Italian. Neither of these parties could poll the two-thirds majority vote, nor was either willing to give way to the other for the election of a candidate to the papacy.

Popes' Palace in Viterbo, Italy. Viterbo remained the papal seat for twenty-four years, from 1257 to 1281.

Popes’ Palace in Viterbo, Italy. Viterbo remained the papal seat for twenty-four years, from 1257 to 1281.

In the summer of 1270 the head and burgesses of the town of Viterbo, hoping to force a vote, resorted to the expedient of confining the cardinals within the episcopal palace, where even their daily allowance of food was later on curtailed. A compromise was finally arrived at through the combined efforts of the French and Sicilian kings. The Sacred College, which then consisted of fifteen cardinals, designated six of their body to agree upon and cast a final vote in the matter. These six delegates met, and on 1 September, 1271, united their ballots in choice of Teobaldo Visconti, archdeacon of Liege, who, however, was not a cardinal himself nor even a priest. The new pontiff was a native of Piacenza and had been at one time in the service of Cardinal Jacopo of Palestrina, had become archdeacon of Liege, and accompanied Cardinal Ottoboni on his mission to England, and at the time of his election happened to be in Ptolemais (Acre), with Prince Edward of England, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

Pope Gregory X with Noccolo And Maffeo Polo In 1271, Pope Gregory received a letter from the Mongol Great Khan Kublai, remitted by Niccolo and Matteo Polo following their travels to his court in Mongolia. Kublai asked for a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. Pope Gregory X could spare only two friars and some lamp oil.

Pope Gregory X with Noccolo And Maffeo Polo

In 1271, Pope Gregory received a letter from the Mongol Great Khan Kublai, remitted by Niccolo and Matteo Polo following their travels to his court in Mongolia. Kublai asked for a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp of the Holy Sepulcher. Pope Gregory X could spare only two friars and some lamp oil.

Receiving a summons from the cardinals to return immediately, he began his homeward journey on 19 November, 1271, and arrived at Viterbo on 12 February, 1272. He declared his acceptance of the dignity and took the name of Gregory X. On 13 March he made his entry into Rome, where on the nineteenth of the same month he was ordained to the priesthood. His consecration as pope took place on 27 March. He plunged at once with all his energies into the task of solving the weighty problems which then required his attention: the restoration of peace between Christian nations and princes, the settlement of affairs in the German empire, the amendment of the mode of life among clergy and people, the union of the Greek Church with Rome, the deliverance of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. As early as the fourth day after his coronation he summoned a general council, which was to open at Lyons on 1 May, 1274. In Italy the pope sought to make peace between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, whose factional war raged chiefly in Tuscany and Lombardy. Against the city of Florence, the burgesses of which resisted these efforts to bring about a reconciliation, he issued a decree of excommunication.

The Polo brothers returning to Kubilai with presents from Pope Gregory X.

The Polo brothers returning to Kubilai with presents from Pope Gregory X.

After the death of Richard of Cornwall (1272) Gregory advised the German princes to select a new sovereign and refused the demand of Alfonso of Castile, rival of Richard, for recognition as emperor. Rudolf of Hapsburg having been elected on 29 September , 1273, Gregory X immediately recognized him and invited him to Rome to receive the imperial crown. The pope and the emperor met at Lausanne in October of 1273. Gregory was then returning from the Council of Lyons. Rudolf took here the customary oaths for the defence of the Roman Church, took the cross, and postponed until the following year his journey to Rome. The pope obtained from Alfonso of Castile the renunciation of his claims to the German crown.

Subscription19From the very beginning of his pontificate Gregory sought to promote the interests of the Holy Land. Large sums were collected in France and England for this crusade. A resolutions adopted at the Council of Lyons, which opened on 7 May, 1274, provided that one-tenth of all benefices accruing to all churches in the course of six years should be set aside for the benefit of the Holy Land, the object being to secure the means of carrying on the holy war. This tithe was successfully raised, and preparations were at once made in France and England for the expedition, which unfortunately was not carried out. The ambassadors of the Grecian emperor, having arrived in Lyons on 24 June, swore, at the fourth sitting of the council (July 6) that the emperor had renounced the schism, and had returned to the allegiance due the Holy See. But this union, entered into by Michael Palaeologus for purely political reasons, was in no sense destined to endure. At the close of this council, over which Gregory had presided in person, he travelled by way of Lausanne, Milan, and Florence, as far as Arezzo, where he died on 10 January, 1276. Though his pontificate proved so short, the results which he achieved were of far-reaching consequence, and he succeeded in maintaining unimpaired peace and harmony. On account of his unusual virtues he is revered as a saint in Rome and in a number of dioceses (Arezzo, Placenza, Lausanne).

Public viewing of St. Bonaventure in the presence of Pope Gregory X and King James I of Aragon. Against the wishes of St. Bonaventure, Bl. Pope Gregory X made him Cardinal Bishop of Albano.

Public viewing of St. Bonaventure in the presence of Pope Gregory X and King James I of Aragon. Against the wishes of St. Bonaventure, Bl. Pope Gregory X made him Cardinal Bishop of Albano.

GUIRAUD, Les Registres de Gregoire X, Recueil des bulles de ce Pape in Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises de Rome et d”Athenes (Paris, 1892—); POTTHAST, Regesta Romanorum Pontificum, II (Berlin, 1875), 1651 sq.; Vitae Gregorii X, ed. MURATORI in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, III, i, 597 sq., 599 sq.; III, ii, 424 sq.; Bibliotheca hagiographica latina, I (Brussels, 1898-99), 545 sq.; BONUCCI, Istoria del pontefice Gregorio X (Rome, 1711); PIACENZA, Compendio della storia del b. Gregorio X papa (Piacenza, 1876); LOSERTH, Akten uber die Wahl Gregors X, in Neues Archiv (1895), XXI, 309 sq.; ZISTERER, Gregor X. und Rudolf von Habsburg in ihren gegenseitigen Bezichungen (Freiburg im Br., 1891); WALTER, Die Politik der Kurie unter Gregor X. (Berlin, 1894); OTTO, Die Beziehungen Rudolfs von Habsburg zu Papst Gregor X. (Innsbruck, 1895); VON HIRSCH-GEREUTH, Studien zur Geschichte der Kreuzzuge, I: Die Kreuzzugpolitik Gregors X. (Munich, 1896); PICHLER, Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen Orient und Occident, I (Munich, 1864), 342 sq.; DRABEKE, Der Kircheneinigungsversuch des Kaisers Michael VIII, Paloeologus in Zeitschrift fur wissenschaftl. Theol. (1891), XXXIV, 325 sq.; HEFELE, Konziliengeschichte, VI, 119 sq.
cfr J.P. KIRSCH (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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St. Benedict of Aniane

Saint Benedict of AnianeBorn about 745-750; died at Cornelimünster, 11 February, 821. Benedict, originally known as Witiza, son of the Goth, Aigulf, Count of Maguelone in Southern France, was educated at the Frankish court of Pepin, and entered the royal service. He took part in the Italian campaign of Charlemagne (773), after which he left his royal master to enter the religious life, and was received into the monastery of St. Sequanus (Saint-Seine). He gave himself most zealously to practices of asceticism, and learned to value the Rule of St. Benedict as the best foundation for the monastic life. Returning home in 779, he established on his own land near the little river of Aniane a new monastic settlement, which soon developed into a great monastery, under the name of Aniane, and became the model and centre of the monastic reform in France, introduced by Louis the Pious. The emperor’s chief adviser was Benedict, and the general adoption of the Rule of St. Benedict in the monasteries of the Empire was the most important step towards the reform. Benedict took a prominent part in the synods held in Aachen in 816 and 817, the results of which were embodied in the important prescriptions for the restoration of monastic discipline, dated 10 July, 817; he was the enthusiastic leader of these assemblies, and he himself reformed many monasteries on the lines laid down in the ordinances promulgated there. In order to have him in the vicinity of his royal residence, Louis had founded on the Inde, a stream near Aachen, the Abbey of Cornelimünster, which was to be an exemplar for all other abbeys, and to be under the guidance of Benedict. In the dogmatic controversy over Adoptionism, under the leadership of Felix of Urgel, Benedict took the part of orthodoxy. To promote the monastic reforms, he compiled a collection of monastic rules. A pupil of his, the monk Ardo, wrote a biography of the great abbot.

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For Benedict’s writings, see Codex regularum monasticarum et canonicarum in P.L., CIII, 393-702; Concordia regularum, loc. cit; Letters, loc. cit., 703-1380. Other treatises (loc. cit., 1381 sqq.) ascribed to him are probably not authentic. ARDO SMARAGDUS, Life, op. cit., CIII, 353 sqq.; Mon. Germ. Hist.: Script., XV, I, 200-220; Acta SS., Feb., II, 606 sqq.; NICOLAI, Der hl. Benedict, Gründer von Aniane und Cornelimünster (Cologne, 1865); PAULINIER, S. Benoit d’Aniane et la fondation du monastere de ce nom (Montpellier, 1871); FOSS, Benedikt von Aniane (Berlin, 1884); PUCKERT, Aniane und Gellone (Leipzig, 1899); HAUCK, Kirchengesch. Deutschlands (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1900), II, 575 sqq.; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 12 Feb.

J.P. KIRSCH (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Chapter 2

The Universal Scope of the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility

The Situation of the Italian Nobility in the Pontificate of Pius XII

1. Why Focus Specifically on the Italian Nobility?

In 1947 the constitution of the Italian Republic abolished all titles of nobility. (1) The last blow was thus struck against the juridical status of an age-old class – which lives on today as a social reality – and a problem, complex in all its aspects, was created.

Complexity was already perceptible in the antecedents to the issue. Contrary to what occurs in other European countries – France and Portugal, for example – the makeup of the Italian nobility is highly heterogeneous. Before the political unification of the Italian peninsula in the nineteenth century, the various sovereigns who ruled over different parts of the Italian territory all bestowed titles of nobility. This holds true for the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire; the kings of Spain, of the Two Sicilies, and of Sardinia; the grand-dukes of Tuscany; the dukes of Parma, and still others, including the patriciates of cities such as Florence, Genoa, and Venice. It is principally true – and this is of the utmost interest for the present study – of the Popes. The Popes were temporal sovereigns of the relatively extensive Papal States. They also granted titles of nobility and continued to do so even after the de facto extinction of their temporal sovereignty over these states.

Medieval LifeIn 1870, when the unification of Italy was consummated with the occupation of Rome by Piedmontese troops, the House of Savoy attempted to amalgamate these various nobilities.

The project failed both politically and juridically. Many noble families remained faithful to the dethroned dynasties from which they had received their titles. Particularly, a considerable part of the Roman aristocracy, maintaining tradition, continued to figure officially in Vatican solemnities. They refused to recognize Rome’s annexation to Italy, rejecting any rapprochement with the Quirinal, and closed their salons as a sign of protest. To this mourning nobility was given the name “Black Nobility.”

Nevertheless, the amalgamation advanced in no small scale in the social sphere through marriages, social relations, and the like. As a result, the Italian aristocracy in our day constitutes a whole, at least from many points of view.

Article 42 of the 1929 Lateran Treaty, however, assured the Roman nobility a special status, since it recognized the Pope’s right to grant new titles and accepted those granted previously by the Holy See. [2] Thus the Italian and Roman nobilities, by then already at peace, continued to exist legally side by side.

The Concordat of 1985 between the Holy See and the Italian Republic makes no mention of this matter.

* * *

The situation of the Italian nobility – and of the European nobility in general – did not cease to be complex.

In the Middle Ages, the nobility had constituted a social class with specific functions within the State, which entailed certain honors and corresponding obligations.

During modern times this situation had gradually lost its stability, prominence, and brilliance, so that even before the Revolution of 1789, the distinction between the nobility and the people was considerably less marked than in the Middle Ages.

Throughout the egalitarian revolutions of the nineteenth century, the position of the nobility suffered successive mutilations of such extent that its political power in the Italian monarchy at the end of World War II survived solely as a prestigious tradition, which was seen, incidentally, with respect and affection by most of society. The republican constitution attempted to deal the final blow to the last vestiges of this tradition.

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Devotion to the Holy Rosary

February 10, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira    February 12th 1964

Our Lady giving the Rosary to St. Dominic. Photo by Nheyob, taken inside the Church of the Immaculate Conception at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana. Read about the 8th American Saint, who is buried here, by clicking here!

As we all know, one great value of devotion to the Rosary is that it was revealed by Our Lady to Saint Dominic as a means for reviving the Faith in regions heavily devastated by the Albigensian heresy.
Indeed, the general practice of the Rosary revived the Faith. With this the Rosary came to be, in epochs when there was true faith in the world, one of the classic Catholic devotions. This was to such a point that not only were images of Our Lady spread throughout the world, but also the practice of this devotion became common among the faithful. Moreover, the rosary hanging from the waist became an official part of the habits of many religious orders.

“Moreover, the rosary hanging from the waist became an official part of the habits of many religious orders.” St. Anthony, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque & 3 Carthusians.

Among a thousand things that can be said in this respect, I would like to emphasize exactly this connection between the origin of the Rosary and the virtue of Faith, between the Rosary and the defeat of the heretics.

The Rosary had always been considered a most powerful weapon of the Faith. We know that the virtue of Faith is the root of all virtues; the other virtues must blossom from a lively faith, otherwise they are not authentic virtues. Therefore, we will not forge ahead cultivating other virtues while neglecting the Faith.

A rosary used by a soldier during the Wars, on display at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.

For us, who live a combative life in favor of orthodoxy and who consider the victory of orthodoxy and the Counter-Revolution in the world an ideal for our lives, this devotion speaks volumes. It is precisely because it establishes a link between our lives and devotion to Our Lady that this is so. Our Lady clearly appears here as the one who single-handedly smashed all heresies, as is said in the liturgy. And, to a great extent, they were smashed by the Rosary.

The Rosary is a weapon of orthodoxy, a weapon of ultramontanism; it is a devotion through which we smash the roots of evil and heresy that we might have within us, and through which we defeat the heresy and evil in the fight they wage against us. Thus, the Rosary is a typical devotion for us, and it is for this reason that we insist so much on it. This is so true, that one can only consider the life of a member of the Group as being normal, upright when, among other things, he prays the full Rosary every day.

In every message from Our Lady of Fatima to the three children, She told them to “Pray the Rosary everyday.”

It does not make sense for someone to say, “I prefer to pray five decades well than a full Rosary like a parrot.” There was a saint to whom someone said this, and the saint responded, “Well then, pray one Hail Mary with all recollection.” The person tried, but was not able to. Someone told me that Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus was never able to pray one Hail Mary in her entire life without distraction.

The truth is that to pray a Hail Mary without distraction is no small feat. Once one is limited to praying just a single Hail Mary with difficulty, even with a certain distraction, it is better to make up for the lack of quality with quantity. If all I can do is to pray Hail Marys distractedly, it is better to pray 50 Hail Mary’s distractedly than one Hail Mary distractedly. This is evident.

A photograph of St. Bernadette Soubirous learning to pray the rosary by Our Lady Herself.

Despite this [deficiency], praying the Rosary has great value. It is a prayer of humility; it is not presumptuous, it is free from the Protestant mania of paying excessive attention to things. On the contrary, it understands human frailty and propels things forward. As a result, the repetition in the Rosary is far, very far, from being sterile. It has the great merit of insistence. Our Lord Himself recommended, as one of the qualities of prayer, that it should be insistent. Persistent prayer obtains things. If we insist, be it just verbally, we will obtain grace.

Therefore, I recommend praying the Rosary as a weapon for the counter-revolutionary to persevere, to sanctify oneself, and to defeat heresies.

You can download the Rosary booklet here! It is FREE! Click on the image below to be directed to it!

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Saint Eulalia of Barcelona

Santa EulàliaA Spanish martyr in the persecution of Diocletian (February 12, 304), patron of the cathedral and city of Barcelona, also of sailors. The Acts of her life and martyrdom were copied early in the twelfth century, and with elegant conciseness, by the learned ecclesiastic Renallus Grammaticus (Bol. acad. hist., Madrid, 1902, XLI, 253-55). Their chief historical source is a Latin hymn of the middle of the seventh century by Quiricus, Bishop of Barcelona, friend and correspondent of St. Ildephonsus of Toledo and of Tajo, Bishop of Saragossa. This hymn, identical with that of Prudentius (Peristephanon, III) for the feast of St. Eulalia of Merida (December 10, 304), was preserved in the Visigothic Church and has reached us through the Mozarabic Liturgy.

The tomb of St. Eulàlia in Barcelona Cathedral. Photo by Xavier Caballé.

The tomb of St. Eulàlia in Barcelona Cathedral. Photo by Xavier Caballé.

There is no reason to doubt the existence of two distinct saints of this name, despite the over-hasty and hypercritical doubts of some. The aforesaid Quiricus of Barcelona and Oroncius of Merida were present at the tenth council of Toledo (656). The latter had already founded (651) a convent of nuns close by the basilica of the celebrated martyr of his episcopal city, had written a rule for its guidance, and given it for abbess the noble lady Eugenia. Quiricus now did as much for the basilica and sepulchre of the martyr of Barcelona, close to whom he wished to be buried, as we read in the last lines of the hymn. The inscriptions on many Visigothic altars show that they contained relics of St. Eulalia; except in the context, however, they do not distinguish between the martyr of Barcelona and the one of Merida. On an altar in the village of Morera, Province of Badajoz, we find enumerated consecutively Sts. Fructuosus and Augurius (Tarragona), St. Eulalia (Barcelona), St. Baudilius (Nimes), and St. Paulus (Narbonne). The Visigothic archaeology of Eastern Spain has been hitherto poor in hagiological remains; nevertheless, a trans-Pyrenean inscription found at Montady near Beziers mentions a basilica dedicated to the martyrs Sts. Vincentius, Ines, and Eulalia (of Barcelona). Until November 23, 874, the body of the Barcelona martyr reposed outside the walls of the city in the church of Santa Maria del March On that date both the body and the tomb were transferred to his cathedral by Bishop Frodoinus. In memory of this act he set up an inscription yet preserved in the Muséo Provincial of Barcelona (no. 864); see also volume XX of Florez, “España Sagrada”, for a reproduction of the same. Not long before this the martyr, St. Eulogius, having occasion to defend the martyrs of Cordova for their spontaneous confession of the Christian Faith before the Mussulman magistrates, quoted the example of St. Eulalia of Barcelona, and referred to the ancient Acts of her martyrdom. Her distinct personality is also confirmed by the existence of an ancient church and monastery in Cordova that bear the name of the Barcelona martyr; this important evidence is borne out by the Mozarabic calendars examined by the learned Dom Ferotin.
F. FITA (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Tadeusz Kosciuszko

General Thaddeus Kosciuszko statue, 18th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway, in Philadelphia. A gift to Polish Americans from the People of Poland.

General Thaddeus Kosciuszko statue, 18th & Benjamin Franklin Parkway, in Philadelphia. A gift to Polish Americans from the People of Poland.

Polish patriot and soldier, b. near Novogrudok, Lithuania, Poland, 12 February, 1752; d. at Solothurn, Switzerland, 15 October, 1817. He was educated at the military schools of Warsaw and Versailles, and attained the rank of captain in the Polish army. When the American Revolution broke out he embarked for the scene of conflict and, joining Washington’s army, received a commission as officer of engineers, 18 October, 1776. He served with distinction through the war, was made a brigadier general, and was voted the thanks of Congress. He then returned to Poland and lived for several years in retirement. In 1789, when the Polish army was reorganized, he was appointed a major-general and fought gallantly under Prince Poniatowski against the Russians. At the second partition of Poland, he resigned his commission and went to live in Leipzig. He headed the abortive revolution of Poland in 1794, and was wounded and captured by the Russians at the battle of Maciejowice, 10 October.

Tadeusz KosciuszkoImprisoned for two years, he was liberated by Emperor Paul on parole and with many marks of esteem. Thereafter his life was passed in retirement. In 1797 he revisited the United States, receiving everywhere great honor and distinction. Congress voted him a grant of land and an addition to his pension. On his return to Europe he took up his residence near Paris, spending his time in agricultural pursuits. In 1806 Napoleon wished him to join in the invasion of Poland, but he felt bound by his parole to Russia and refused. He went to live in Switzerland in 1816, making his home at Solothurn, where he was killed by a fall from a horse. His remains, by direction of the Emperor Alexander, were taken to Krakow, where they were interred with solemn pomp in the cathedral near the tombs of Poniatowski and Sobieski. A mound 150 feet high, made of earth taken from every battle-field in Poland, was piled up in his honor in the outskirts of the city.

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HASSARD, Hist. of U. S. (New York), GRIFFIN in Am. Cath. Hist. Researches (Philadelphia, April, 1910); MICHELET, Pologne et Russie, legende de Kosciuszko (Paris, 1851); IDEM, La Pologne martyre (1863); FALKENSTEIN, Kosciuszko (Leipzig, 1827); RYCHLICKI, Kosciuszko and the Partition of Poland (Krakow, 1872); CHODZKO, Histoire militaire, politique et privee de Kosciuszko (Paris, 1837).

THOMAS F. MEEHAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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St. Amandus

St. AmandusOne of the great apostles of Flanders; born near Nantes, in France, about the end of the sixth century. He was, apparently, of noble extraction. When a youth of twenty, he fled from his home and became a monk near Tours, resisting all the efforts of his family to withdraw him from his mode of life. Following what he regarded as divine inspiration, he betook himself to Bourges, where under the direction of St. Austregisile, the bishop of the city, he remained in solitude for fifteen years, living in a cell and subsisting on bread and water. After a pilgrimage to Rome, he was consecrated in France as a missionary bishop at the age of thirty-three. At the request of Clotaire II, he began first to evangelize the inhabitants of Ghent, who were then degraded idolaters, and afterwards extended his work throughout all Flanders, suffering persecution, and undergoing great hardship but achieving nothing, until the miracle of restoring the life of a criminal who had been hanged, changed the feelings of the people to reverence and affection and brought many converts to the faith. Monasteries at Ghent and Mt. Blandin were erected. They were the first monuments to the Faith in Belgium. Returning to France, in 630, he incurred the enmity of King Dagobert, who he had endeavoured to recall from a sinful life, and was expelled from the kingdom. Dagobert afterwards entreated him to return, asked pardon for the wrong done, and requested him to be tutor of the heir of the throne. The danger of living at court prompted the Saint to refuse the honour. His next apostolate was among of the Slavs of the Danube, but it met with no success, and we find him then in Rome, reporting to the Pope what results had been achieved.

Shrine of Saint Amandus, which once housed his relics, is now at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Originally from Elnone Monastery in Tournai, Belgium, it was bequeathed to the Museum by Henry Walters in 1931.

Shrine of Saint Amandus, which once housed his relics, is now at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Originally from Elnone Monastery in Tournai, Belgium, it was bequeathed to the Museum by Henry Walters in 1931.

While returning to France he is said to have calmed a storm at sea. He was made Bishop of Maastricht about the year 649, but unable the repress the disorders of the place, he appealed to the Pope, Martin I, for instructions. The reply traced his plan of action with regard to fractious clerics, and also contained information about the Monothelite heresy, which was then desolating the East. Amandus was also commissioned to convoke councils in Neustria and Austrasia in order to have the decrees which had been passed at Rome read to the bishops of Gaul, who in turn commissioned him to bear the acts of their councils to the Sovereign Pontiff. He availed himself of this occasion to obtain his release from the bishopric of Maastricht, and to resume his work as a missionary. It was at this time that he entered into relations with the family of Pepin of Landen, and helped St. Gertrude and St. Itta to establish their famous monastery of Nivelles. Thirty years before he had gone into the Basque country to preach, but had met with little success. He was now requested by the inhabitants to return, and although seventy years old, he undertook the work of evangelizing them and appears to have banished idolatry from the land. Returning again to his country, he founded several monasteries, on one occasion at the risk of his life. Belgium especially boasts many of his foundations. Dagobert made great concessions to him for his various establishments. He died in his monastery of Elnon, at the age of ninety. His feast is kept 6 February.
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Acta SS., Feb., II; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 6 Feb.; MACLEAR in Dict. of Christ. Biog.

T.J. CAMPBELL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Edmund Plowden

Born 1517-8; died in London, 6 Feb., 1584-5. Son of Humphrey Plowden of Plowden Hall, Shropshire, and Elizabeth his wife, educated at Cambridge, he took no degree. In 1538 he was called to the Middle Temple where he studied law so closely that he became the greatest lawyer of his age, as is testified by Camden, who says that “as he was singularly well learned in the common laws of England, whereof he deserved well by writing, so for integrity, of life he was second to no man of his profession” (Annals, 1635, p. 270). He also studied at Oxford for a time, and besides his legal studies, qualified as a surgeon and physician in 1552. On Mary’s accession he became one of the council of the Marches of Wales. In 1553 he was elected member of Parliament for Wallingford and in the following year was returned for two constituencies, Reading and Wooten-Bassett; but on 12 Jan., 1554-5, he withdrew from the House, dissatisfied with the proceedings there. Succeeding the Plowden estates in 1577, he lectured on law at Middle Temple and during his treasurership the fine hall of that inn was begun. His fidelity to the Catholic faith prevented any further promotion under Elizabeth., but it is a family tradition that the queen offered him the Lord Chancellorship on condition of his joining the Anglican Church. He successfully defended Bishop Horne, and helped Catholics by his legal knowledge.

Monument of Sir Edmund Plowden, Temple Church, London. Photo by John Salmon.

On one occasion he was defending a gentleman charged with hearing Mass, and detected that the service had been performed by a layman for the purpose of informing against those who were present, whereon he exclaimed, “The case is altered; no priest, no Mass”, and thus secured an acquittal. This incident gave rise to the common legal proverb, “The case is altered, quoth Plowden”. He himself was required to give bond in 1569 to be of good behaviour in religious matters for he was delated to the Privy Council for refusing to attend the Anglican service, though no measures seem to have been taken against him. His works were: “Les comentaries ou les reportes de Edmunde Plowden (London, 1571), often reprinted and translated into Quares del Monsieur Plowden” (London, no date), included in some editions of the Reports; “A Treatise on Succession”, manuscripts preserved among the family papers. Its object was to prove that Mary, Queen of Scots, was not debarred from her right to the English throne by her foreign birth or the will of Henry VIII. Several manuscripts legal opinions are preserved in the British Museum and the Cambridge University Libraries. He married Catherine Sheldon of Beoley and by her had three sons and three daughters. There is a portrait effigy on his tomb in the Temple Church, and a bust in the Middle Temple Hall copied from one at Plowden.
EDWIN BURTON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Pope Blessed Pius IX

(GIOVANNI MARIA MASTAI-FERRETTI).

Portrait of Pope Pius IX, Giovanni Maria Mastai Ferretti. Painted by Theodor Breidwiser

Pope from 1846-78; born at Sinigaglia, 13 May, 1792; died in Rome, 7 February, 1878.

BEFORE HIS PAPACY

His early years. After receiving his classical education at the Piarist College in Volterra from 1802-09 he went to Rome to study philosophy and theology, but left there in 1810 on account of political disturbances. He returned in 1814 and, in deference to his father’s wish, asked to be admitted to the pope’s Noble Guard. Being subject to epileptic fits, he was refused admission and, following the desire of his mother and his own inclination, he studied theology at the Roman Seminary, 1814-18. Meanwhile his malady had ceased and he was ordained priest, 10 April, 1819. Pius VII appointed him spiritual director of the orphan asylum popularly known as “Tata Giovanni”, in Rome, and in 1823 sent him, as auditor of the Apostolic delegate, Mgr Muzi, to Chile in South America. Upon his return in 1825 he was made canon of Santa Maria in Via Lata and director of the large hospital of San Michele by Leo XII. The same pope created him Archbishop of Spoleto, 21 May, 1827. In 1831 when 4000 Italian revolutionists fled before the Austrian army and threatened to throw themselves upon Spoleto, the archbishop persuaded them to lay down their arms and disband, induced the Austrian commander to pardon them for their treason, and gave them sufficient money to reach their homes. On 17 February, 1832, Gregory XVI transferred him to the more important Diocese of Imola and, 14 December, 1840, created him cardinal priest with the titular church of Santi Pietro e Marcellino, after having reserved him since 23 December, 1839. He retained the Diocese of Imola until his elevation to the papacy. His great charity and amiability had made him beloved by the people, while his friendship with some of the revolutionists had gained for him the name of liberal.

His election. On 14 June, 1846, two weeks after the death of Gregory XVI, fifty cardinals assembled in the Quirinal for the conclave. They were divided into two factions, the conservatives, who favoured a continuance of absolutism in the temporal government of the Church, and the liberals, who were desirous of moderate political reforms. At the fourth scrutiny, 16 June, Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti, the liberal candidate, received three votes beyond the required majority. Cardinal Archbishop Gaysruck of Milan had arrived too late to make use of the right of exclusion against his election, given him by the Austrian Government. The new pope accepted the tiara with reluctance and in memory of Pius VII, his former benefactor, took the name of Pius IX. His coronation took place in the Basilica of St. Peter on 21 June. His election was greeted with joy, for his charity towards the poor. his kindheartedness, and his wit had made him very popular.

TEMPORAL ASPECT OF HIS PAPACY

Within the Papal States. Conciliatory policies (1846-1848).— “Young Italy” was clamouring for greater political freedom. The unyielding attitude of Gregory XVI and his secretary of state, Cardinal Lambruschini, had brought the papal states to the verge of a revolution. The new pope was in favour of a political reform. His first great political act was the granting of a general amnesty to political exiles and prisoners on 16 July, 1846. This act was hailed with enthusiasm by the people, but many prudent men had reasonable fears of the results. Some extreme reactionaries denounced the pope as in league with the Freemasons and the Carbonari. It did not occur to the kindly nature of Pius IX that many of the pardoned political offenders would use their liberty to further their revolutionary ideas. That he was not in accord with the radical ideas of the times he clearly demonstrated by his Encyclical of 9 November, 1846, in which he laments the oppression of Catholic interests, intrigues against the Holy See, machinations of secret societies, sectarian bitterness, the Bible associations, indifferentism, false philosophy, communism, and the licentious press. He was, however, willing to grant such political reforms as he deemed expedient to the welfare of the people and compatible with the papal sovereignty. On 19 April, 1847, he announced his intention to establish an advisory council (Consulta di Stato), composed of laymen from the various provinces of the papal territory. This was followed by the establishment of a civic guard (Guardia Civica), 5 July, and a cabinet council, 29 December.

Failure of appeasement (1848-1850).— But the more concessions the pope made, the greater and more insistent became the demands. Secret clubs of Rome, especially the “Circolo Romano”, under the direction of Ciceruacchio, fanaticized the mob with their radicalism and were the real rulers of Rome. They spurred the people on to be satisfied with nothing but a constitutional government, an entire laicization of the ministry, and a declaration of war against hated and reactionary Austria.

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Bl. Justus Takayama Ukon was a Japanese Catholic daimyō and samurai who lived during the Sengoku period.

Prince [Justus] Ucondono, a distinguished general, to whom Taicosama was indebted for his empire, was living for six years in exile, because he had refused to abjure his faith. He had been stripped of his dignities, deprived of his estates, his old father, his wife, and his large family sharing in the same privations; yet they esteemed themselves happy in being able to suffer for Jesus Christ. When he heard of the persecution, he took leave of the king of Canga, under whose supervision he had been placed and whose friendship he enjoyed on account of his great virtue. The latter assured him that the court was not thinking of him; but the noble Ucondono answered: “My dear prince, the greatest happiness in which I can delight in this world is to die for the faith that I profess. Whatever may be the assurance that you give me, I am going to prepare myself for death.” He immediately set out for Meaco.

Rev. Eugene Grimm, ed. Victories of the Martyrs, vol. 9, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Ligouri (New York: Benzinger Brothers, 1888), 320.

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 761

 

Nobility.org

Prince Justus Ucondono, is also known as Dom Justo Takayama Ukon, was a samurai for Toyotomi Hideyoshi. He was exiled to Manila, where he died 40 days after his arrival from a fever. He is the only daimyō buried in the Manila Cathedral. He was beatified on February 7, 2017.

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Do Public Awards and Punishments Dignify and Encourage, or Corrupt and Humiliate?

February 6, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira We were recently asked to comment on the fact that the custom of granting awards to the best students is being abolished in several schools. At the root of this new policy is the idea that the public bestowal of awards is doubly harmful: exciting vanity in the beneficiaries of […]

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February 8 – Saint John of Matha, a strong and mighty Angel

February 6, 2025

Saint John of Matha Founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity. He was born into Provencal nobility in 1154 at Faucon-de-Barcelonnette, France. As a youth, he was educated at Aix-en-Provence, and later studied theology at the University of Paris. While in Paris, he was urged by a vision during his first Mass to […]

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Mary Queen of Scots

February 6, 2025

Mary Queen of Scots Mary Stuart, born at Linlithgow, 8 December, 1542; died at Fotheringay, 8 February, 1587. She was the only legitimate child of James V of Scotland. His death (14 December) followed immediately after her birth, and she became queen when only six days old. The Tudors endeavored by war to force on […]

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February 9 – Johann Georg von Eckhart

February 6, 2025

Eckhart, Johann Georg von (called Eccard before he was ennobled), German historian, b. at Duingen in the principality of Kalenberg, September 7, 1664; d. at Würzburg, February 9, 1730. After a good preparatory training at Schulpforta he went to Leipzig, where at first, at the desire of his mother, he studied theology, but soon turned […]

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February 9 – Marianus Scotus

February 6, 2025

MARIANUS SCOTUS, Abbot of St. Peter’s at Ratisbon, born in Ireland before the middle of the eleventh century; died at Ratisbon towards the end of the eleventh century, probably in 1088. In 1067 he left his native country, intending to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Like many of his countrymen, however, who visited the Continent, […]

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February 9 – The bishop who converted the son of Penda

February 6, 2025

St. Finan Second Bishop of Lindisfarne; died 9 February, 661. He was an Irish monk who had been trained in Iona, and who was specially chosen by the Columban monks to succeed the great St. Aidan (635-51). St. Bede describes him as an able ruler, and tells of his labours in the conversion of Northumbria. […]

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Louis XVI Gives a Marriage Dowry to 100 Poor French Girls

February 6, 2025

On February 9th, 1779 (in the narrative of Louise de Grandpré, to whom the study of Notre Dame has been a veritable passion), a large crowd pressed towards the cathedral; the ground was strewed with fresh grass and flowers and leaves; the pillars were decorated with many coloured banners. In the choir the vestments of […]

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RCR – Part II, Chapter IV – Chapter VIII

February 3, 2025

CHAPTER IV What is a counter-revolutionary? What is a counter-revolutionary? One may answer the question in two ways: 1. In Actuality The actual counter-revolutionary is one who: — knows the Revolution, order, and the Counter-Revolution in their respective spirits, doctrines, and methods; — loves the Counter-Revolution and Christian order, and hates the Revolution and “anti-order”; […]

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What One Lie Can Do

February 3, 2025

In the days when the first Catholic missionaries went to Japan to preach the Gospel to the natives, certain merchants from Holland went to the Emperor and told him that the only aim that these missionaries had was to bring the Portuguese and the Spaniards into the country, that in time they might take possession […]

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February 3 – The Stuff of Which Saints Are Made

February 3, 2025

St. Anschar (Or Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar.) Called the Apostle of the North, was born to the French nobility in Picardy, 8 September, 801; died 5 February, 865. He became a Benedictine of Corbie, whence he passed into Westphalia. With Harold, the newly baptized King of Denmark who had been expelled from his kingdom […]

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February 3 – Half Fierce Pagan Princess, Half Gentle Christian Princess

February 3, 2025

St. Werburgh of Chester (WEREBURGA, WEREBURG, VERBOURG). Benedictine, patroness of Chester, Abbess of Weedon, Trentham, Hanbury, Minster in Sheppy, and Ely, born in Staffordshire early in the seventh century; died at Trentham, 3 February, 699 or 700. Her mother was St. Ermenilda, daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, and St. Sexburga, and her father, Wulfhere, […]

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February 4 – Portuguese noble and favorite of the king, he strove to convert the nobility of India – and paid for it with his life

February 3, 2025

St. John de Brito Martyr, born in Lisbon, 1 March, 1647, and was brought up at Court, martyred in India 11 February, 1693. Entering the Society of Jesus at fifteen, he obtained as his mission-field Madura in southern India. In September, 1673, he reached Goa. Before taking up his work he spent thirty days in […]

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February 4 – Probably the most learned man of his age

February 3, 2025

Blessed Maurus Magnentius Rabanus (Hrabanus, Rhabanus) Abbot of Fulda, Archbishop of Mainz, celebrated theological and pedagogical writer of the ninth century, born at Mainz about 776 (784?); died at Winkel (Vinicellum) near Mainz on 4 February, 856. He took vows at an early age in the Benedictine monastery of Fulda, and was ordained deacon in […]

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February 4 – Pope Gregory V

February 3, 2025

Pope Gregory V Born c. 970; died 4 February, 999. On the death of John XV the Romans sent a deputation to Otto III and asked him to name the one he would wish them to elect in the place of the deceased pontiff. He at once mentioned his chaplain and relation, Bruno, the son […]

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February 5 – St. Agatha

February 3, 2025

St. Agatha One of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, put to death for her steadfast profession of faith in Catania, Sicily. Although it is uncertain in which persecution this took place, we may accept, as probably based on ancient tradition, the evidence of her legendary life, composed at a later date, […]

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February 5 – He put the Bible to verse and prose

February 3, 2025

St. Avitus (Alcimus Ecdicius). A distinguished bishop of Vienne, in Gaul, from 490 to about 518, though his death is place by some as late as 525 or 526. He was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman family closely related to the Emperor Avitus and other illustrious persons, and in which episcopal honors were hereditary. In […]

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January 30 – Cured in body and in soul

January 30, 2025

St. Hyacintha Mariscotti A religious of the Third Order of St. Francis and foundress of the Sacconi; born 1585 of a noble family at Vignanello, near Viterbo in Italy; died 30 January, 1640, at Viterbo; feast, 30 January; in Rome, 6 February (Diarium Romanum). Her parents were Marc’ Antonio Mariscotti (Marius Scotus) and Ottavia Orsini. […]

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January 30 – Dom Guéranger

January 30, 2025

Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger Benedictine and polygraph; b. 4 April, 1805, at Sablé-sur-Sarthe; d. at Solesmes, 30 January, 1875. Ordained a priest 7 October, 1827, he was administrator of the parish of the Missions Etrangères until near the close of 1830. He then left Paris and returned to Mans, where he began to publish various […]

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January 31 – The Glory of the Ladies

January 30, 2025

St. Marcella (325–410)  She was a Christian ascetic in ancient Rome. Growing up in Rome, she was influenced by her pious mother, Albina, an educated woman of wealth and benevolence. Childhood memories centered around piety, and one in particular related to Athanasius, who lodged in her home during one of his many exiles. He may […]

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January 31 – St. John Bosco Meets His First Noble Patroness

January 30, 2025

Juliette Colbert, a native of Vendée, had married Marquis Tancredi Falletti of Barolo, and of her it could be said, even as we read of Tabitha in the Acts of the Apostles: “This woman had devoted herself to good works and acts of charity.” Indeed, she used her abundant wealth to help the working classes […]

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February 1 – Adventurer Historian

January 30, 2025

François-Xavier Charlevoix Historian, born at St-Quentin, France, 24 October, 1682, died at La Flèche, 1 February, 1761. He entered the Society of Jesus, 15 September, 1698, at the age of sixteen, studied philosophy at the Collège de Louis le Grand (1700-1704), and then went to Quebec, where he taught grammar from 1705 to 1709. During […]

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February 1 – “The sublime genius of the man”

January 30, 2025

Saint Ephraem (Ephrem, Ephraim) Born at Nisibis, then under Roman rule, early in the fourth century; died June, 373. The name of his father is unknown, but he was a pagan and a priest of the goddess Abnil or Abizal. His mother was a native of Amid. Ephraem was instructed in the Christian mysteries by […]

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February 2 – “Though in chains, he is as gay as a little bird”

January 30, 2025

St. Théophane Vénard (JEAN-THÉOPHANE VÉNARD.) French missionary, born at St-Loup, Diocese of Poitiers, 1829; martyred in Tonkin, 2 February, 1861. He studied at the College of Doue-la-Fontaine, Montmorillon, Poitiers, and at the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions which he entered as a sub-deacon. Ordained priest 5 June, 1852, he departed for the Far East, 19 […]

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February 2 – He hastened to the king, exhibited his wounded body and related his vision

January 30, 2025

St. Lawrence Second Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 2 Feb., 619. For the particulars of his life and pontificate we rely exclusively on details added by medieval writers being unsupported by historical evidence, though they may possibly embody ancient traditions. According to St. Bede, he was one of the original missionaries who left Rome with St. […]

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RCR – Part I Chapter XII. End of Part I – Part II Chapter I – III

January 27, 2025

Chapter XII The pacifist and therefore antimilitarist character of the Revolution is easily grasped in light of the preceding chapter. 1. Science Will Bring an End to War, The Military, and Police In the technological paradise of the Revolution, peace has to be perpetual, for science has shown that war is evil, and technology can […]

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Divorce and Romanticism

January 27, 2025

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Saint Angela Merici wisely observed, “disorder in the world is the result of disorder in the family.” Over the last generation, the disorder in American family life has grown exponentially. In 1940, there was one divorce for every six marriages; by 1975, the U.S. divorce rate had climbed to one […]

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January 27 – Canossa

January 27, 2025

A former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the foothills of the Apennines, about eighteen miles from Parma, where took place the dramatic penance of King Henry IV of Germany in presence of Pope Gregory VII. The king, excommunicated 22 February, 1076, would have been utterly abandoned by the inimical German princess unless within […]

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January 27 – Pope Sergius II

January 27, 2025

Pope Sergius II Date of birth unknown; consecrated in 844, apparently in January; d. 27 Jan., 847. He was of noble birth, and belonged to a family which gave two other popes to the Church. Educated in the schola cantorum, he was patronized by several popes, and was ordained Cardinal-priest of the Church of Sts. […]

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January 28 – Angelic Doctor, Italian Count

January 27, 2025

St. Thomas Aquinas Philosopher, theologian, doctor of the Church (Angelicus Doctor), patron of Catholic universities, colleges, and schools. Born at Rocca Secca in the Kingdom of Naples, 1225 or 1227; died at Fossa Nuova, 7 March, 1274. I. LIFE The great outlines and all the important events of his life are known, but biographers differ […]

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January 28 – Larochejacquelein killed by the very men whose lives he spared

January 27, 2025

While Turreau was thus devastating La Vendée, where were Larochejacquelein, Stofflet, and Charette? Had they forgotten their country and its cause—were they deaf to her cries of distress? Charette still fought in the depths of the Marais; Stofflet in the recesses of the Bocage; but Larochejacquelein, the young, the brave, the chivalrous, the peasants’ idol […]

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Charlemagne, Cornerstone of the Middle Ages

January 27, 2025

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira,  Saint of the Day, October 30, 1972   Here is an excerpt on Charlemagne taken from the renowned historian, J.B. Weiss’ História Universal: “In 772, at the age of 30, Charles took over the government of the Kingdom of the Franks. He was rightly called Charles the Great, a name he […]

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January 28 – Great in every sense

January 27, 2025

Charlemagne (French for Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or Carlus Magnus; German Karl der Grosse). The name given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814. At the time of Charles’ birth, his father, Pepin […]

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January 29 – Noble enough to cover five contemporary kings with invective

January 27, 2025

St. Gildas Surnamed the Wise; born about 516; died at Houat, Brittany, 570. Sometimes he is called “Badonicus” because, as he tells us, his birth took place the year the Britons gained a famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, near Bath, Somersetshire (493 or 516). The biographies of Gildas exist — one written […]

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British monarchy announces first ever visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau

January 23, 2025

According to Polish Press Agency … King Charles III will… “attend a commemoration service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial in Poland, marking 80 years since the liberation of the former German Nazi concentration camp on 27th January 1945,” Buckingham Palace wrote on its website on Monday. Global news agencies observe that the visit to […]

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A Joyous Celebration

January 23, 2025

On January 18, she [Marie Antoinette] celebrated her recovery in the sacristy of the chapel of Versailles, and resumed her court duties in their usual form. On February 8, accompanied by the king, Monsieur Madame, and the Comte and Comtesse d’Artois, she went to Paris to render thanks to God for her happy deliverance. She […]

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January 23 – Saint Emerentiana

January 23, 2025

Virgin and martyr, died at Rome in the third century. The old Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs, after giving the place of burial on the Via Nomentana of St. Agnes, speak of St. Emerentiana. Over the grave of St. Emerentiana a church was built which, according to the Itineraries, was near the […]

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The Tragedy of Marie Adelaide

January 23, 2025

by Diane Moczar Of all the rulers of western European countries in the first quarter of the twentieth century, few are as unknown to British and American historians as Marie Adelaide, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg during World War I. The small size of her realm alone does not explain history’s neglect; by all accounts Marie […]

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January 24 – Guy Pierre de Fontgalland

January 23, 2025

Guy de Fontgalland (November 30, 1913 – January 24, 1925), Servant of God, was regarded in the inter-war period as the youngest potential Catholic saint who was not a martyr. His beatification process was opened on November 15, 1941, and suspended on November 18, 1947.[1] Life Guy de Fontgalland was the son of count Pierre […]

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January 24 – Cardinal Ercole Consalvi

January 23, 2025

Cardinal and statesman, b. in Rome, 8 June, 1757; d. there, 24 January, 1824. Family His ancestors belonged to the noble family of the Brunacci in Pisa, one of whom settled in the town of Toscanella in the Papal States about the middle of the seventeenth century. The grandfather of the cardinal, Gregorio Brunacci, inherited […]

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January 24 – Otto III

January 23, 2025

German king and Roman emperor, b. 980; d. at Paterno, 24 Jan., 1002. At the age of three he was elected king at Verona, in very restless times. Henry the Quarrelsome, the deposed Duke of Bavaria, claimed his guardianship. This nobleman wished for the imperial crown. To further his object he made an alliance with […]

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