Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites

What One Lie Can Do

February 5, 2026

The Japanese embassy of Mancio Ito, with Pope Gregory XIII in 1585.

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 of it and add it to their dominions.

The Martyrs of Nagasaki, Japan on on February 5, 1597. Painted by Cuzco School.

This great calumny was the source of the ruin of religion in that Empire, and the cause of a great persecution which was raised against the Catholics who dwelt in it.

Martyrs of Japan. Executioners placing the heads on the spikes for all to see.

At that time there were 400,000 Catholics in Japan; forty years afterwards there was not even one to be found in the whole Empire. This was the result of a lie which was raised by the cupidity of these merchants, who wished to be the only ones who would have a right to come into that country. What an account they shall have to give at the Day of Judgment of the words which brought so great a calamity on the Church, and caused the ruin of so many souls!

The Catechism In Examples Vol. III By Rev. D. Chisholm Pgs 390-391

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 484

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February 5 – St. Adelaide of Cologne

February 5, 2026

St. Adelaide (of Cologne)

A reliquary bust of St. Adelaide in the Church of St. Peter in Bonn-Vilich.

Abbess, born in the tenth century; died at Cologne, 5 February, 1015. She was daughter of Megingoz, Count of Guelders, and when still very young entered the convent of St. Ursula in Cologne, where the Rule of St. Jerome was followed. When her parents founded the convent of Villich, opposite the city of Bonn, on the Rhine, Adelaide became Abbess of this new convent, and after some time introduced the Rule of St. Benedict, which appeared stricter to her than that of St. Jerome. The fame of her sanctity and of her gift of working miracles soon attracted the attention of St. Herbert, Archbishop of Cologne, who desired her as abbess of St. Mary’s convent at Cologne, to succeed her sister Bertha, who had died. Only upon the command of Emperor Otho III did Adelaide accept this new dignity. While Abbess of St. Mary’s at Cologne, she continued to be Abbess of Villich. She died at her convent in Cologne in the year 1015, but was buried at Villich, where her feast is solemnly celebrated on 5 February, the day of her death.

RANBECK, The Benedictine Calendar (London, 1896); LECHNER, Martyrologium des Benediktiner-Ordens (Augsburg, 1855); STADLER, Heiligen-Lexikon (Augsburg, 1858); MOOSMUELLER, Die Legende, VII, 448.

MICHAEL OTT (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 6 – “No priest, no Mass”

February 5, 2026

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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February 6 – Pope Clement XII

February 5, 2026

Pope Clement XII

(LORENZO CORSINI).

Born at Florence, 7 April, 1652; elected 12 July, 1730; died at Rome 6 February, 1740. The pontificate of the saintly Orsini pope, Benedict XIII, from the standpoint of the spiritual interests of the Church, had left nothing to be desired. He had, however, given over temporal concerns into the hands of rapacious ministers; hence the finances of the Holy See were in bad condition; there was an increasing deficit, and the papal subjects were in a state of exasperation. It was no easy task to select a man who possessed all the qualities demanded by the emergency. After deliberating for four months, the Sacred College united on Cardinal Corsini, the best possible choice, were it not for his seventy-eight years and his failing eyesight.

A Corsini by the father’s side and by the mother’s a Strozzi, the best blood of Florence coursed through his veins. Innumerable were the members of his house who had risen to high positions in Church and State, but its chief ornament was St. Andrew Corsini, the canonized Bishop of Fiesole. Lorenzo made a brilliant course of studies, first in the Roman College, then at the University of Pisa, where, after five years, he received the degree of Doctor of Laws. Returning to Rome, he applied himself to the practice of law under the able direction of his uncle, Cardinal Neri Corsini, a man of the highest culture. After the death of his uncle and his father, in 1685, Lorenzo, now thirty-three years old, resigned his right of primogeniture and entered the ecclesiastical state. From Innocent XI he purchased, according to the custom of the time, for 30,000 scudi (dollars) a position of prelatial rank,and devoted his wealth and leisure to the enlargement of the library bequeathed to him by his uncle. In 1691 he was made titular Archbishop of Nicomedia and chosen nuncio to Vienna. He did not proceed to the imperial court, because Leopold advanced the novel claim, which Pope Alexander VIII refused to admit, of selecting a nuncio from a list of three names to be furnished by the pope. In 1696 Corsini was appointed to the arduous office of treasurer-general and governor of Castle Sant’ Angelo. His good fortune increased during the pontificate of Clement XI, who employed his talents in affairs demanding tact and prudence. On 17 May, 1706, he was created Cardinal-Deacon of the Title of Santa Susanna, retaining the office of papal treasurer. He was attached to several of the most important congregations and was made protector of a score of religious institutions. He advanced still further under Benedict XIII, who assigned him to the Congregation of the Holy Office and made him prefect of the judicial tribunal known as the Segnatura di Giustizia. He was successively Cardinal-Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli and Cardinal-Bishop of Frascati.

He had thus held with universal applause all the important offices of the Roman Court, and it is not surprising that his elevation to the papacy filled the Romans with joy. In token of gratitude to his benefactor, Clement XI, and as a pledge that he would make that great pontiff his model, he assumed the title of Clement XII. Unfortunately he lacked the important qualities of youth and physical strength. The infirmities of old age bore heavily upon him. In the second year of his pontificate he became totally blind; in his later years he was compelled to keep his bed, from which he gave audiences and transacted affairs of state. Notwithstanding his physical decrepitude, he displayed a wonderful activity. He demanded restitution of ill-gotten goods from the ministers who had abused the confidence of his predecessor. The chief culprit, Cardinal Coscia, was mulcted in a heavy sum and sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. Clement surrounded himself with capable officials, and won the affection of his subjects by lightening their burdens, encouraging manufacture and the arts, and infusing a modern spirit into the laws relating to commerce. The public lottery, which had been suppressed by the severe morality of Benedict XIII, was revived by Clement, and poured into his treasury an annual sum amounting to nearly a half million of scudi (dollars), enabling him to undertake the extensive buildings which distinguish his reign. He began the majestic façade of St. John Lateran and built in that basilica the magnificent chapel of St. Andrew Corsini. He restored the Arch of Constantine and built the governmental palace of the Consulta on the quirinal. He purchased from Cardinal Albani for 60,000 scudi the fine collection of statues, inscriptions, etc. with which he adorned the gallery of the Capitol. He paved the streets of Rome and the roads leading from the city, and widened the Corso. He began the great Fontana di Trevi, one of the noted ornaments of Rome.

In order to facilitate the reunion of the Greeks, Clement XII founded at Ullano, in Calabria, the Corsini College for Greek students. With a similar intent he called to Rome Greek-Melchite monks of Mt. Lebanon, and assigned to them the ancient church of Santa Maria in Domnica. He dispatched Joseph Simeon Assemani to the East for the twofold purpose of continuing his search for manuscripts and presiding as legate over a national council of Maronites. We make no attempt to enumerate all the operations which this wonderful blind-stricken old man directed from his bed of sickness. His name is associated in Rome with the foundation and embellishment of institutions of all sorts. The people of Ancona hold him in well-deserved veneration and have erected on the public square a statue in his honour. He gave them a port which excited the envy of Venice, and built a highway that gave them easy access to the interior. He drained the marshes of the Chiana near Lake Trasimeno by leading the waters through a ditch fourteen miles long into the Tiber. He disavowed the arbitrary action of his legate, Cardinal Alberoni, in seizing San Marino, and restored the independence of that miniature republic. His activity in the spiritual concerns of the Church was equally pronounced. His efforts were directed towards raising the prevalent low tone of morality and securing discipline, especially in the cloisters. He issued the first papal decree against the Freemasons (1738). He fostered the new Congregation of the Passionists and gave to his fellow-Tuscan, St. Paul of the Cross, the church and monastery of Sts. John and Paul, with the beautiful garden overlooking the Colosseum. He canonized Sts. Vincent de Paul, John Francis Regis, Catherine Fieschi Adorni, Juliana Falconieri, and approved the cult of St. Gertrude. He proceeded with vigour against the French Jansenists and had the happiness to receive the submission of the Maurists to the Constitution Unigenitus. Through the efforts of his missionaries in Egypt 10,000 Copts, with their patriarch, returned to the unity of the Church. Clement persuaded the Armenian patriarch to remove from the diptychs the anathema against the Council of Chalcedon and St. Leo I. In his dealings with the powers of Europe, he managed by a union of firmness and moderation to preserve or restore harmony; but he was unable to maintain the rights of the Holy See over the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza. It was a consequence of his blindness that he should surround himself with trusted relatives; but he advanced them only as they proved their worth, and did little for his family except to purchase and enlarge the palace built in Trastevere for the Riarii, and now known as the Palazzo Corsini (purchased in 1884 by the Italian Government, and now the seat of the Regia Accademia dei Lincei). In 1754, his nephew, Cardinal Neri Corsini, founded there the famous Corsini Library, which in 1905 included about 70,000 books and pamphlets, 2288 incunabula or works printed in the first fifty or sixty years after the discovery of printing, 2511 manuscripts, and 600 autographs. Retaining his extraordinary faculties and his cheerful resignation to the end, he died in the Quirinal in his eighty-eighth year. His remains were transferred to his magnificent tomb in the Lateran, 20 July, 1742.

FABRONIUS, De vita et rebus gestis Clementis XII (Rome, 1760), also in FASSINI, Supplemento to the Historia Ecclesiastica of NATALIS ALEXANDER (Bassano, 1778); PASSERINI, Genealogia e Storia della famiglia Corsini (Florence, 1858); VON REUMONT, Gesch. d. Stadt Rom (Berlin, 1867), III, iii, 653-55; NOVAES, Elementi della storia de’ sommi pontefici (Rome, 1821-25); HERGENRÖTHER-KIRSCH, Kirchengeschichte (4th ed., Freiburg, 1907) III (bibliography); ARTAUD DE MONTOR, History of the Roman Pontiffs (New York, 1867), II.

JAMES F. LOUGHLIN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 7 – Liberal to Anti-liberal

February 5, 2026

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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February 7 – Saintly King, and Father of Three More Saints

February 5, 2026

St. Richard, King and Confessor

This saint was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and was perhaps deprived of his inheritance by some revolution in the state: or he renounced it to be more at liberty to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection.

His three children, Winebald, Willibald, and Warburga, are all honored as saints. Taking with him his two sons, he undertook a pilgrimage of penance and devotion, and sailing for Hamblehaven, landed in Neustria on the Western coasts of France.

His daughter, St. Walburga, who became abbess of the monastery founded by her brother St. Willibald. The little vials represent the collected oil that secretes from her bones.

He made a considerable stay at Rouen, and made his devotions in the most holy places that lay in his way through France. Being arrived at Lucca in Italy, in his road to Rome, he there died suddenly, about the year 722, and was buried in St. Fridian’s church there.

His relics are venerated to this day in the same place, and his festival kept at Lucca with singular devotion.St. Richard, when living, obtained by his prayers the recovery of his younger son Willibald, whom he laid at the foot of a great crucifix erected in a public place in England, when the child’s life was despaired of in a grievous sickness: and since his death, many have experienced the miraculous power of his intercession with God, especially where his relics invite the devotion of the faithful.

His festival is kept at Lucca, and his name honored in the Roman Martyrology on the 7th of February.

See the life of St. Willibald by his cousin, a nun of Heidenheim, in Canisius’s Lectiones Antiquæ, with the notes of Basnage. Henschenius, Feb. t. 2. p. 70.

The Lives of the Saints, by Rev. Alban Butler, 1866. Volume II: February, p. 377.

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Heroic Prince Ucondono Met the Persecution Head-On

February 5, 2026

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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Mary Queen of Scots

February 5, 2026

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.

Portrait of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, at the age of 12 or 13. Painting by François Clouet

The Tudors endeavored by war to force on her a match with Edward VI of England. Mary, however, was sent to France, 7 August, 1548, where she was excellently educated, as is now admitted by both friend and foe. On 24 April, 1558, she married the dauphin Francis and, on the death of Henri II, 10 July, 1559, became Queen Consort of France.

This apparent good fortune was saddened by the loss of Scotland. Immediately after the accession of Elizabeth, her council made plans to “help the divisions” of Scotland by aiding those “inclined to true religion”. The revolution broke out in May, and with Elizabeth’s aid soon gained the upper hand. There were dynastic, as well as religious, reasons for this policy. Elizabeth’s birth being illegitimate, Mary, though excluded by the will of Henry VIII, might claim the English Throne as the legitimate heir. As the state of war still prevailed between the two countries, there was no chance of her being accepted, but her heralds did, later on, emblazon England in her arms, which deeply offended the English Queen. Mary’s troubles were still further increased by the Huguenot rising in France, called le tumulte d’Amboise (6-17 March, 1560), making it impossible for the French to succor Mary’s side in Scotland.

Mary, Queen of Scots Depicted in an 1885 Engraving

At last the starving French garrison of Leith was obliged to yield to a large English force, and Mary’s representatives signed the Treaty of Edinburgh (6 July, 1560). One clause of this treaty might have excluded from the English throne all Mary’s descendants, amongst them the present reigning house, which claims through her. Mary would never confirm this treaty. Francis II died, 5 December, and Mary, prostrate for a time with grief, awoke to find all power gone and rivals installed in her place. Though the Scottish reformers had at first openly plotted her deposition, a change was making itself felt, and her return was agreed to. Elizabeth refused a passport, and ordered her fleet to watch for Mary’s vessel. She sailed in apprehension of the worst, but reached Leith in safety, 19 August, 1561.

Mary Queen of Scots by Federico Zuccari

The political revolution, the vast appropriations of church property, and the frenzied hatred of Knox’s followers for Catholicism made any restoration of the old order impossible. Mary contented herself with the new and, by her moderation and management, left time for a gradual return of loyalty. But though she ruled, she did not yet govern. She issued, and frequently repeated, a proclamation accepting religion as she had found it — the first edict of toleration in Great Britain. A slow but steady amelioration of the lot of Catholics took place. At the end of her reign there were no fewer than 12,600 Easter communions at Edinburgh.

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

February 5, 2026

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 dedicate his life to the service of the captive Christian slaves. He offered service to and was instructed by the hermit, St. Felix of Valois, in the region of Soissons, and went to Rome with him in 1198.

On December 17, 1198, he obtained the preliminary approval of Pope Innocent III for a new order dedicated in honor of the Blessed Trinity for the redemption of Christian captives. This order was fully approved in 1209. The Order of the Most Holy Trinity’s first monastery was established at Cerfroid (just north of Paris) and the second at Rome at the church of San Tommaso in Formis. Christian slaves were first rescued by the Order in 1201. In 1202 and 1210 John traveled to Tunisia himself and brought back countless Christian slaves.

St. John of Matha died on December 17, 1213 in Rome. In 1655, his relics were transferred from Rome to Madrid. His cultus was approved in 1665.

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Candlemas

February 2, 2026

Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple. Marble with gilding. Workshop of Benedetto Briosco (Italian, ca. 1460-after 1514) and of Tomaso Cazzaniga.

Also called: Purification of the Blessed Virgin (Greek Hypapante), Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple. Observed 2 February in the Latin Rite.

According to the Mosaic law a mother who had given birth to a man-child was considered unclean for seven days; moreover she was to remain three and thirty days “in the blood of her purification”; for a maid-child the time which excluded the mother from sanctuary was even doubled. When the time (forty or eighty days) was over the mother was to “bring to the temple a lamb for a holocaust and a young pigeon or turtle dove for sin”; if she was not able to offer a lamb, she was to take two turtle doves or two pigeons; the priest prayed for her and so she was cleansed. (Leviticus 12:2-8)

Forty days after the birth of Christ Mary complied with this precept of the law, she redeemed her first-born from the temple (Numbers 18:15), and was purified by the prayer of Simeon the just, in the presence of Anna the prophetess (Luke 2:22 sqq.). No doubt this event, the first solemn introduction of Christ into the house of God, was in the earliest times celebrated in the Church of Jerusalem. We find it attested for the first half of the fourth century by the pilgrim of Bordeaux, Egeria or Silvia. The day (14 February) was solemnly kept by a procession to the Constantinian basilica of the Resurrection, a homily on Luke 2:22 sqq., and the Holy Sacrifice. But the feast then had no proper name; it was simply called the fortieth day after Epiphany. This latter circumstance proves that in Jerusalem Epiphany was then the feast of Christ’s birth.

The Presentation by Giovanni Bellini.

From Jerusalem the feast of the fortieth day spread over the entire Church, and later on was kept on the 2nd of February, since within the last twenty-five years of the fourth century the Roman feast of Christ’s nativity (25 December) was introduced. In Antioch it is attested in 526 (Cedrenue); in the entire Eastern Empire it was introduced by the Emperor Justinian I (542) in thanksgiving for the cessation of the great pestilence which had depopulated the city of Constantinople. In the Greek Church it was called Hypapante tou Kyriou, the meeting (occursus) of the Lord and His mother with Simeon and Anna. The Armenians call it: “The Coming of the Son of God into the Temple” and still keep it on the 14th of February (Tondini di Quaracchi, Calendrier de la Nation Arménienne, 1906, 48); the Copts term it “presentation of the Lord in the Temple” (Nilles, Kal. man., II 571, 643). Perhaps the decree of Justinian gave occasion also to the Roman Church (to Gregory I?) to introduce this feast, but definite information is wanting on this point. The feast appears in the Gelasianum (manuscript tradition of the seventh century) under the new title of Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The precession is not mentioned.

Pope Sergius I (687-701) introduced a procession for this day. The Gregorianum (tradition of the eighth century) does not speak of this procession, which fact proves that the procession of Sergius was the ordinary “station”, not the liturgical act of today. The feast was certainly not introduced by Pope Gelasius to suppress the excesses of the Lupercalia (Migne, Missale Gothicum, 691), and it spread slowly in the West; it is not found in the “Lectionary” of Silos (650) nor in the “Calendar” (731-741) of Sainte-Genevieve of Paris. In the East it was celebrated as a feast of the Lord; in the West as a feast of Mary; although the “Invitatorium” (Gaude et lætare, Jerusalem, occurrens Deo tuo), the antiphons and responsories remind us of its original conception as a feast of the Lord. The blessing of the candles did not enter into common use before the eleventh century; it has nothing in common with the procession of the Pupercalia. In the Latin Church this feast (Purificatio B.M.V.) is a double of the second class. In the Middle Ages it had an octave in the larger number of dioceses; also today the religious orders whose special object is the veneration of the Mother of God (Carmelites, Servites) and many dioceses (Loreto, the Province of Siena, etc.) celebrate the octave.

Blessing of Candles and Procession

According to the Roman Missal the celebrant after Terce, in stole and cope of purple colour, standing at the epistle side of the altar, blesses the candles (which must be of beeswax). Having sung or recited the five orations prescribed, he sprinkles and incenses the candles. Then he distributes them to the clergy and laity, whilst the choir sings the canticle of Simeon, “Nunc dimittis”. The antiphon “Lumen ad revelationem gentium et gloriam plebis tuæ Israel” is repeated after every verse, according to the medieval custom of singing the antiphons. During the procession which now follows, and at which all the partakers carry lighted candles in their hands, the choir sings the antiphon “Adorna thalamum tuum, Sion,” composed by St. John of Damascus, one of the few pieces which, text and music, have been borrowed by the Roman Church from the Greeks. The other antiphons are of Roman origin.

The solemn procession represents the entry of Christ, who is the Light of the World, into the Temple of Jerusalem. It forms an essential part of the liturgical services of the day, and must be held in every parochial church where the required ministers can be had. The procession is always kept on 2 February even when the office and Mass of the feast is transferred to 3 February. Before the reform of the Latin liturgy by St. Pius V (1568), in the churches north and west of the Alps this ceremony was more solemn. After the fifth oration a preface was sung. The “Adorna” was preceded by the antiphon “Ave Maria.”

While now the procession in held inside the church, during the Middle Ages the clergy left the church and visited the cemetery surrounding it. Upon the return of the procession a priest, carrying an image of the Holy Child, met it at the door and entered the church with the clergy, who sang the canticle of Zachary, “Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel.” At the conclusion, entering the sanctuary, the choir sang the responsory, “Gaude Maria Virgo” or the prose, “Inviolata” or some other antiphon in honour of the Blessed Virgin.

FREDERICK G. HOLWECK

Crêpes in France and Belgium:

Candlemas in these countries is also considered the day of crêpes. Tradition attributes this custom to Pope Gelasius I, who had pancakes distributed to pilgrims arriving in Rome. Their round shape and golden color, reminiscent of the solar disc, refer to the return of spring after the dark and cold of winter.

Recipe – A Delicious Mistake

Nutella Crepes

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

February 2, 2026

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. Augustine in 595 and finally landed in Thanet in 597. After St. Augustine had been consecrated he sent St. Lawrence back to Rome, to carry to the pope the news of the conversion of King Ethelbert and his people, to announce his consecration, and to ask for direction on certain questions. In this passage of the historian St. Lawrence is referred to as presbyter, in distinction to Peter who is called monachus. From this it has been conjectured that he was a secular priest and not a monk; but this conclusion has been questioned by Benedictine writers such as Elmham in the Middle Ages and Mabillon in later times. When St. Gregory had decided the questions asked, St. Lawrence returned to Britain bearing the replies, and he remained with St. Augustine sharing his work. That saint, shortly before his death which probably took place in 604, consecrated St. Lawrence as bishop, lest the infant Church should be left for a time without a pastor. Of the new archbishop’s episcopate Bede writes: “Lawrence, having attained the dignity of archbishop, strove most vigorously to add to the foundations of the Church which he had seen so nobly laid and to forward the work by frequent words of holy exhortation and by the constant example of his devoted labour.” The only extant genuine document relating to him is the fragment preserved by Bede of the letter he addressed to the Celtic bishops exhorting them to peace and unity with Rome. The death of King Ethelbert, in 616 was followed by a heathen reaction under his son Eadbald, and under the sons of Sebert who became kings of the East Saxons. Saints Mellitus and Justus, bishops of the newly-founded Sees of London and Rochester, took refuge with St. Lawrence at Canterbury and urged him to fly to Gaul with them. They departed, and he, discouraged by the undoing of St. Augustine’s work, was preparing to follow them, when St. Peter appeared to him in a vision, blaming him for thinking of leaving his flock and inflicting stripes upon him. In the morning he hastened to the king, exhibiting his wounded body and relating his vision. This led to the conversion of the king, to the recall of Saints Mellitus and Justus, and to their perseverance in their work of evangelizing Kent and the neighbouring provinces. These events occurred about 617 or 618, and shortly afterwards St. Lawrence died and was buried near St. Augustine in the north porch of St. Peter’s Abbey church, afterwards known as St. Augustine’s. His festival is observed in England on 3 February.

Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, I, xxvii; Ii, iv-vii; Elmham, Historia Monasterii S. Augustini in Rolls Series (London, 1858); Acta SS. Boland., February, I; Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue (London, 1862-71), giving a list of MS. lives; Haddan and Stubbs, Ecclesiastical Documents I (London, 1869), ii; Stubbs in Dict. Christ. Biog., s. v. Laurentius (25); Hunt in Dict. Nat. Biog., s. v. Lawrence.

EDWIN BURTON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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

February 2, 2026

St. Théophane Vénard

(JEAN-THÉOPHANE VÉNARD.)

Photo of the Society of Foreign Missions of Paris by Vanka5.

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 Sept. After fifteen months at Hong Kong he arrived at his mission in West Tonkin, where the Christians had recently been tried by a series of persecutions under Minh-Menh, a monster of cruelty. Shortly after Father Vénard’s arrival a new royal edict was issued against Christians, and bishops and priests were obliged to seek refuge in caves, dense woods, and elsewhere. Father Vénard, whose constitution had always been delicate, suffered almost constantly, but continued to exercise his ministry at night, and, more boldly, in broad day. On 30 November, 1860, he was betrayed and captured. Tried before a mandarin, he refused to apostatize and was sentenced to be beheaded. He remained a captive until 2 February, and during this interval lived in a cage, from which he wrote to his family beautiful and consoling letters, joyful in anticipation of his crown. His bishop, Mgr Retord, wrote of him at this time: “Though in chains, he is as gay as a little bird”.

On the way to martyrdom Father Vénard chanted psalms and hymns. To his executioner, who coveted his clothing and asked what he would give to be killed promptly, he answered: “The longer it lasts the better it will be”. His head, after exposure at the top of a pole, was secured by the Christians and is now venerated in Tonkin. The body rests in the crypt at the Missions Etrangères, Paris. Other precious relics are in the hands of the martyr’s brother, Canon Eusebius Vénard, curé of Assais Deux Sèvres, France, who possesses, also, most of the martyr’s letters, including those written from the cage. In a letter addressed to his father, Théophane refers thus to his approaching sacrifice: “A slight sabre-cut will separate my head from my body, like the spring flower which the Master of the garden gathers for His pleasure. We are all flowers planted on this earth, which God plucks in His own good time: some a little sooner, some a little later . . . Father and son may we meet in Paradise. I, poor little moth, go first. Adieu”. The cause of his beatification was introduced at Rome in 1879, and he was declared Blessed, 2 May, 1909. The beatification ceremony brought a large delegation from France, including the Bishop of Poitiers and the martyr’s only surviving brother. Théophane Vénard was beatified in company with thirty-three other martyrs, most of whom were natives of Tonkin, Cochin-China, or China.

HERBERT, Théophane Vénard (London); WALSH, A Modern Martyr; Thoughts from Modern Martyrs; The Field Afar; Vie et Correspondence de J. Théophane Vénard (Poitiers, 1865); Le Bienheureux Théophane Vénard (Paris, 1911); Lettres Choisis du Bienheureux Théophane Vénard (Paris, 1909); CATTANEO, Un Martire Moderno (Milan, 1910).

JAMES ANTHONY WALSH (Catholic Encyclopedia)

[Note: He was canonized in 1988.]

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February 3 – His crime was to call the queen a schismatic

February 2, 2026

Blessed John Nelson

English Jesuit martyr, b. at Skelton, four miles from York, in 1534; d. at Tyburn, 3 February, 1577-78. He went to Douay in 1573, and two of his four brothers followed his example and became priests. He was ordained priest at Binche, in Hainault, by Mgr Louis de Berlaymont, Archbishop of Cambrai, 11 June, 1576. He was sent on the mission on 7 November following, and appears to have laboured in London. His apprehension took place 1 December, 1577, “late in the evening as he was saying the Nocturne of the Matins for the next day following”, and he was committed to Newgate as a suspected Papist. His arrest and its issue had been foretold by a demon he had exercised a week before. The High Commissioners in a few days by cross-examination induced him to say that the queen was a schismatic.

This constituted high treason under the legislation of 1571. He was providentially enabled to say Mass in Newgate, 30 January, 1577-8, and two days later he was brought to the bar and condemned. Thenceforward he was confined “in a most filthy underground dungeon”, doubtless the Pit of the Tower, preparing by prayer and fasting for his end. He was cut down alive, and his last words, when the hangman plucked out his heart, are reported to have been: “I forgive the queen and all the authors of my death.” The date and place of his admission to the Society of Jesus are unknown.

CAMM, Lives of the English Martyrs, II (London, 1004-5), 223; ALLEN, A Briefe Historie (POLLEN’s edition London, 1908) 111; GILLOW, Bibliographical Dictionary of tie English Catholics, V (London and New York, 1885-1902), 160.

John B. Wainewrigh (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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

February 2, 2026

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, son of Penda the fiercest of the Mercian kings. St. Werburgh thus united in her veins the blood of two very different races: one fiercely cruel and pagan; the other a type of gentle valor and Christian sanctity. In her, likewise, centered the royal blood of all the chief Saxon kings, while her father on the assassination of his elder brother Peada, who had been converted to Christianity, succeeded to the largest kingdom of the heptarchy.

From L to R: St. Etheldreda and St Withburga, sisters of St. Sexburga; St. Werburgh, the granddaughter of St. Sexburga. All three are incorrupt, though St. Werburgh’s grave was destroyed under Henry VIII.

Whether Wulfhere was an obstinate pagan who delayed his promised conversion, or a relapsed Christian, is controverted, but the legend of the terrible and unnatural crime which has been imputed to him by some writers must here be dismissed on the authority of all earlier and contemporary chroniclers, as the Bollandists have pointed out. The martyrs, Sts. Wulfald and Ruffin, were not sons of Wulfhere and St. Ermenilda, nor victims of that king’s tyranny. Ermenilda at once won the hearts of her subjects, and her zeal bore fruit in the conversion of many of them, while her influence on the passionate character of her husband changed him into a model Christian king. Werburgh inherited her mother’s temperament and gifts. On account of her beauty and grace the princess was eagerly sought in marriage, chief among her suitors being Werebode, a headstrong warrior, to whom Wulfhere was much indebted; but the constancy of Werbrugh overcame all obstacles so that at length she obtained her father’s consent to enter the Abbey of Ely, which had been founded by her great- aunt, St. Etheldra, and the fame of which was widespread.

Chester Cathedral

Wulfhere did not long survive his daughter’s consecration. On his death, St. Ermenilda took the veil at Ely, where she eventually succeeded her mother, St. Sexburga, as abbess. Kenred, Werburgh’s brother, being a mere child at his father’s death, his uncle Ethelred succeeded to the throne. This king invited St. Werburgh to assume the direction of all the monasteries of nuns in his dominion, in order that she might bring them to that high level of discipline and perfection which had so often edified him at Ely. The saint with some difficulty consented to sacrifice the seclusion she prized, and undertook the work of reforming the existing Mercian monasteries, and of founding new ones which King Ethelred generously endowed, namely, Trentham and Hanbury, in Staffordshire, and Weedon, in Northamptonshire.

It had been the privilege of St. Werburgh to be trained by saints; at home by St. Chad (afterwards Bishop of Lichfield), and by her mother, and in the cloister by her aunt and grandmother. Her position worked no change in the humility which had always characterized her, so that in devotedness to all committed to her care she seemed rather the servant than the mistress. Her sole thought was to excel her sisters in the practice of religious perfection. God rewarded her childlike trust by many miracles, which have made St. Werburgh one of the best known and loved of the Saxon saints. That of the stolen goose appealed most to the popular imagination. The story, immortalized in the iconography of St. Werburgh, relates that by a simple command she banished a flock of wild geese that was working havoc in the cornfields of Weedon, and that since then none of these birds has been seen in those parts. She was also endowed with the gifts of prophecy and of reading the secrets of hearts. Knowing how devoted her different communities were to her and how each would endeavor to secure the possession of her body after death, she determined to forestall such pious rivalry by choosing Hanbury as her place of burial. But the nuns of the monastery of Trentham determined to keep the remains. They not only refused to deliver them to those who came from Hanbury, but they even locked up the coffin in a crypt and set a guard to watch it. The people of Hanbury sent out anew a large party to make good their claims. Reaching Trentham at midnight all the bolts and bars yielded at their touch, while the guards were overpowered by sleep and knew not that the coffin was being carried to Hanbury.

Shrine of Saint Werburga inside the Chester Cathedral

So numerous and marvelous were the cures worked at the saint’s tomb that in 708 her body was solemnly translated to a more conspicuous place in the church, in the presence of her brother, Kenred, who had now succeeded King Ethelred. In spite of having been nine years in the tomb, the body was intact. So great was the impression made on Kenred that he resolved to resign his crown and followed in his sister’s footsteps. In 875, through fear of the Danes and in order to show greater honor to the saint, the body was removed to Chester. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, on the site of the present cathedral of Chester, was rededicated to St. Werburgh and St. Oswald, most probably in the reign of Athelstan. The great Leofric, Earl of Mercia (who was likewise styled Earl of Chester), and his wife, Lady Godiva, repaired and enlarged the church, and in 1093, Hugh Lupus, Earl of Chester, richly endowed the abbey and its church. By the instrumentality of this noble, Chester, which had been in the hands of secular canons, became a great Benedictine abbey, the name of St. Anselm, then a monk at Bee, being associated with this transformation. They abbey possessed such immense influence and position that at the time of the suppression under Henry VIII the Earl of Derby was the abbot’s seneschal. In the vast wave of iconoclasm that swept over the country in that tyrant’s reign the cathedral was sacked by apostates who scattered St. Werburgh’s relics. Fragments of the shrine were used as the base of an episcopal throne. Many of the labels and figures had been mutilated, and while restoring them the workmen by mistake placed female heads on male shoulders and vice versa. Only thirty of the original figures remain, four having been lost. Late all these fragments were removed to the west end of the south choir aisle, where they have been placed nearly in the original position of the shrine, which is 10 feet high. St. Werburgh’s feast is celebrated 3 February.

Acta SS., I FEB.; BRADSHAW, Metrical Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge, etc., ed. HAWKINS (printed in facsimile for the Chetham Society, 1848); BUTLER, Lives of the Saints (london, 1833); DUGDALE, Monasticon anglicanum (London, 1846); DUNBAR, Dict. of Saintly Women (London, 1905), s.v.; HIATT, Chester, the Cathedral and See (London, 1898); LELAND, Collectanea (London, 1770); LEWIS, Topographical Dict. of England (London, 1831), s.v.; Nova legenda Angliae, ed. HORSTMAN (Oxford, 1901); SPELMAN, Hist. and Fate of Sacrilege (London, 1895); TANNER, Notitia Monast. (London, 1744).

SISTER GERTRUDE CASANOVA (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 3 – The Stuff of Which Saints Are Made

February 2, 2026

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 but was now returning, he and Autbert went to preach the Faith in that country where Ebbo, the Archbishop of Reims, had already labored but without much success. Anschar founded a school at Schleswig, but the intemperate zeal of Harold provoked another storm which ended in a second expulsion, and the consequent return of the missionaries.

In the company of the ambassadors of Louis le Débonnaire, he then entered Sweden, and preached the Gospel there. Although the embassy had been attacked on its way and had apparently abandoned its mission, Anschar succeeded in entering the country, and was favorably received by the king, who permitted him to preach. The chief of the royal counselors, Herigar, was converted, and built the first church of Sweden. Anschar remained there a year and a half, and returning was made bishop of the new see of Hamburg, and appointed by Gregory IV legate of the northern nations. He revived also the abbey of Turholt in Flanders, and established a school there.

In 845 Eric, the King of Jutland, appeared off Hamburg with a fleet of 600 vessels, and destroyed the city. Anschar was for some time a fugitive and was deprived also of his Flemish possessions by Charles the Bald, but on the accession of Louis the German was restored to his see. The bishopric of Bremen which had been the See of Leudric, his enemy, was at the same time united to Hamburg, but though the arrangement was made in 847 it was not confirmed by the Pope until 857, and Anschar was made the first archbishop.

Meantime he made frequent excursions to Denmark, ostensibly in the quality of envoy of King Louis. He built a church at Schleswig and afterwards went as Danish ambassador to his old mission of Sweden. King Olaf regarded him with favor, but the question of permitting him to preach was submitted to the oracles, which are said to have given a favorable answer. It was probably due to the prayers of the saint. A church was built and a priest established there.

In 854 we find him back in Denmark, where he succeeded in changing the enmity of King Eric into friendship. Eric had expelled the priests who had been left at Schleswig, but at the request of Anschar recalled them. The saint built another church in Jutland and introduced the use of bells, which the pagans regarded as instruments of magic, he also induced the king to mitigate the horrors of the slave-trade.

He was eminent for his piety, mortification, and observance of the monastic rule, he built hospitals, ransomed captives, sent immense alms abroad, and regretted only that he had not been found worthy of martyrdom.

Though he wrote several works, very little of them remains. He had added devotional phrases to the psalms, which, according to Fabricius, in his Latin Library of the Middle Ages, are an illustrious monument to the piety of the holy prelate. He had also compiled a life of St. Willehad, first Bishop of Bremen, and the preface which he wrote was considered a masterpiece for that age. It is published by Fabricius among the works of the historians of Hamburg. Some letters of his are also extant.

He is known in Germany as St. Scharies and such is the title of his collegiate church in Bremen. Another in Hamburg under the same title was converted into an orphan asylum by the Lutherans. All of his success as a missionary he ascribed to the piety of Louis le Débonnaire and the apostolic zeal of his predecessor in the work, Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims, who, however, as a matter of fact, had failed.

Acta SS., I, Feb.; MICHAUD, Biog. Univ.; HERGENRÖTHER, Kircheng. (1904) II, 180-84; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 3 Feb.

cfr. T.J. CAMPBELL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 4 – Sent into Muslim lands, he sought to preach to the Sultan

February 2, 2026

St. Joseph of Leonessa

In the world named Eufranio Desiderio, born in 1556 at Leonessa in Umbria; died 4 February, 1612.

Saint Fidelis of Sigmarigen with Saint Joseph of Leonessa

From his infancy he showed a remarkably religious bent of mind; he used to erect little altars and spend much time in prayer before them, and often he would gather his companions and induce them to pray with him. Whilst yet a boy he used to take the discipline on Fridays in company with the confraternity of St. Saviour. He was educated by his uncle, who had planned a suitable marriage for him, but in his sixteenth year he fell sick of a fever, and on his recovery, without consulting his relative, he joined the Capuchin reform of the Franciscan Order. He made his novitiate in the convent of the Carcerelle near Assisi. As a religious he was remarkable for his great abstinence. “Brother Ass”, he would say to his body, “there is no need to feed thee as a noble horse would be fed: thou must be content to be a poor ass.” In 1599, the year before his Jubilee year, he fasted the whole year by way of preparation for gaining the indulgence. In 1587 he was sent by the Superior General of his order to Constantinople to minister to the Christians held captive there. Arrived there he and his companions lodged in a derelict house of Benedictine monks.

The relics of St. Joseph of Leonessa.

The poverty in which the friars lived attracted the attention of the Turks, who went in numbers to see the new missionaries. He was very solicitous in ministering to the captive Christians in the galleys. Every day he went into the city to preach, and he was at length thrown into prison and only released at the intervention of the Venetian agent. Urged on by zeal he at last sought to enter the palace to preach before the Sultan, but he was seized and condemned to death. For three days he hung on the gallows, held up by two hooks driven through his right hand and foot; then he was miraculously released by an angel. Returning to Italy, he took with him a Greek archbishop who had apostatized, and who was reconciled to the Church on their arrival in Rome. Joseph now took up the work of home missions in his native province, sometimes preaching six or seven times a day. In the Jubilee year of 1600 he preached the Lent at Orticoli, a town through which crowds of pilgrims passed on their way to Rome. Many of them being very poor, Joseph supplied them with food; he also washed their clothes and cut their hair. At Todi he cultivated with his own hands a garden, the produce of which was for the poor. His feast is kept on 4 February throughout the Franciscan Order. He was canonized by Benedict XIV.

F. Cuthbert (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 4 – Wild and dissolute, but then he heard this!

February 2, 2026

St. Andrew Corsini

Of the illustrious Corsini family; born in Florence, in 1302; died 1373. Wild and dissolute in youth, he was startled by the words of his mother about what had happened to her before his birth, and, becoming a Carmelite monk in his native city, began a life of great mortification. He studied at Paris and Avignon, and, on his return, became the Apostle of Florence. He was regarded as a prophet and a thaumaturgus. Called to the See of Fiesoli, he fled, but was discovered by a child, and compelled to accept the honour.

He redoubled his austerities as a bishop, was lavish in his care of the poor, and was sought for everywhere as a peacemaker, notably at Bologna, whither he was sent as papal legate to heal the breach between the nobility and the people. After twelve years in the episcopacy, he died at the age of seventy-one, and miracles were so multiplied at his death that Eugenius IV permitted a public cult immediately; but it was only in 1629 that Urban VIII canonized him. His feast is kept on 4 February.

T.J. CAMPBELL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 4 – Patron of Armenia

February 2, 2026

Gregory the Illuminator

Born 257?; died 337?, surnamed the Illuminator (Lusavorich).

Baptism of Tiridates III of Armenia by Saint Gregory the Illuminator.

Gregory the Illuminator is the apostle, national saint, and patron of Armenia. He was not the first who introduced Christianity into that country. The Armenians maintain that the faith was preached there by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddaeus. Thaddaeus especially (the hero of the story of King Abgar of Edessa and the portrait of Christ) has been taken over by the Armenians, with the whole story. Abgar in their version becomes a King of Armenia; thus their land is the first of all to turn Christian. It is certain that there were Christians, even bishops, in Armenia before St. Gregory. The south Edessa and Nisibis especially, which accounts for the Armenian adoption of the Edessene story. A certain Dionysius of Alexandria (248-265) wrote them a letter “about penitence” (Euseb., “Hist. Eccl.”, VI, xlvi). This earliest Church was then destroyed by the Persians. Ardashir I, the founder of the Sassanid dynasty (226), restored, even extended, the old power of Persia. Armenia, always the exposed frontier state between Rome and Persia, was overrun by Ardashir’s army (Khosrov I of Armenia had taken the side of the old Arsacid dynasty); and the principle of uniformity in the Mazdean religion, that the Sassanids made a chief feature of their policy, was also applied to the subject kingdom. A Parthian named Anak murdered Khosrov by Ardashir’s orders, who then tried to exterminate the whole Armenian royal family. But a son of Khosrov, Trdat (Tiridates), escaped was trained in the Roman army, and eventually came back to drive out the persians and restore the Armenian kingdom.

The Baptism of the Armenian People by St. Gregory the Illuminator. Painted by Ivan Aivazovsky.

In this restoration St. Gregory played an important part. He had been brought up as a Christian at Caesarea in Cappadocia. He seems to have belonged to an illustrious Armenian family. He was married and had two sons (called Aristakes and Bardanes in the Greek text of Moses of Kkhorni; see below). Gregory, after being himself persecuted by King Trdat, who at first defended the old Armenian religion, eventually converted him, and with him spread the Christian faith throughout the country. Trdat became so much a Christian that he made Christianity the national faith; the nobility seem to have followed his example easily, then the people followed — or were induced to follow — too. This happened while Diocletian was emperor (284-305), so that Armenia has a right to her claim of being the first Christian State. The temples were made into churches and the people baptized in thousands. So completely were the remains of the old heathendom effaced that we know practically nothing about the original Armenian religion (as distinct from Mazdeism), except the names of some gods whose temples were destroyed or converted (the chief temple at Ashtishat was dedicated to Vahagn, Anahit and Astlik; Vanatur was worshipped in the North round Mount Ararat, etc.). Meanwhile Gregory had gone back to Caessarea to be ordained. Leontius of Caesarea made him bishop of the Armenians; from this time till the Monophysite schism the Church of Armenia depended on Casearea, and the Armenian primates (called Catholicoi, only much later patriarchs) went there to be ordained. Gregory set up other bishops throughout the land and fixed his residence at Ashtishat (in the province of Taron), where the temple had been made into the church of Christ, “mother of all Armenian churches”. He preached in the national language and used it for the liturgy. This, too, helped to give the Armenian Church the markedly national character that it still has, more, perhaps, than any other in Christendom. Towards the end of his life he retired and was succeeded as Catholicos by his son Aristakes. Aristakes was present at the First General Council, in 325. Gregory died and was buried at Thortan. A monastery was built near his grave. His relics were afterwards taken to Constantinople, but apparently brough back again to Armenia. Part of these relics are said to have been taken to Naples during the Iconoclast troubles.

Statue of St. Gregory the Illuminator in Vatican City on the facade of Saint Peter’s Basilica.

This is what can be said with some certainty about the Apostle of Armenia; but a famous life of him by Aganthangelos (see below) embellishes the narrative with wonderful stories that need not be taken very seriously. According to this life, he was the son of the Parthian Anak who had murdered King Khosrov I. Anak in trying to escape was drowned in the Araxes with all his family except two sons, of whom one went to Persia, the other (the subject of this article) was taken by his Christian nurse to Caesarea and there baptized Gregory, in accordance with what she had been told in vision. Soon after his marriage, Gregory parted from his wife (who became a nun) and came back to Armenia. Here he refused to take part in a great sacrifice to the national gods ordered by King Trdat, and declared himself a Christian. He was then tortured in various horrible ways, all the more when the king discovered that he was the son of his father’s murderer. After being subjected to a variety of tortures (they scourged him, and put his head in a bag of ashes, poured molten lead over him, etc.) he was thrown into a pit full of dead bodies, poisonous filth, and serpents. He spent fifteen years in this pit, being fed by bread that a pious widow brought him daily. Meanwhile Trdat goes from bad to worse. A holy virgin named Rhipsime, who resists the king’s advances and is martyred, here plays a great part in the story. Evenetually, as a punishment for his wickedness, the king is turned into a boar and possessed by a devil. A vision now reveals to the monarch’s sisters that nothing can save him but the prayers of Gregory. At first no one will attend to this revelation, since they all think Gregory dead long ago. Eventually they seek and find him in the pit. He comes out, exorcizes the evil spirit and restores the king, and then begins preaching. Here a long discourse is put into the saint’s mouth — so long that it takes up more than half his life. It is simply a compendium of what the Armenian Church believed at the time that it was written (fifth century). It begins with an account of Bible history and goes on to dogmatic theology. Arianism, Nestorianism and all the other heresies up to Monophysite times are refuted. The discourse bears the stamp of the latter half of the fifth century so plainly that, even without the fact that earlier writers who quote Agathangelos (Moses of Khorni, etc.) do not know it, no one could doubt that it is the composition of an Armenian theologian of that time, inserted into the life that was already full enough of wonders. Nevertheles this “Confession of Gregory the Illuminator” was accepted as authentic and used as a kind of official creed by the Armenian Church during all the centuries that followed. Even now it is only the more liberal theologians among them who dispute its genuiness.

Saint Gregory the Illuminator Cathedral in Yerevan is the largest Armenian Church in the world and contains the remains of St Gregory.

The life goes on to tell us of Gregory’s fast of seventy days that followed his rescue from the pit, of the conversion, and of their journeys throughout the land with the army to put down paganism. The false gods fight against the army like men or devils, but are always defeated by Trdat’s arms and Gregory’s prayers and are eventually driven into the Caucasus. The story of the saint’s ordination and of the establishment of the hierarchy is told with the same adornment. He baptized four million persons in seven days. He ordained and sent out twelve apostolic bishops, and sons of heathen priests. Eventually he ruled a church of four hundred bishops and priests too numerous to count. He and Trdat hear of Constantine’s conversion; they set out with an army of 70,000 men to congratulate him. Constantine, who had just been baptized at Rome by Pope Silvester, forms an alliance with Trdat; the pope warmly welcomes Gregory (there are a number of forged letters between Silvester and Gregory, see below) — and so on. It would not be difficult to find the models for all these stories. Gregory in the pit acts like Daniel in the lion’s den. Trdat as a boar is Nabuchodonosor; the battles of the king’s army against the heather and their gods have obvious precedents in the Old Testament. Gregory is now Elias, now Isaias, now John the Baptist, till his sending out his twelve apostles suggests a still greater model. The writer of the life calls himself Agathangelos, chamberlain or secretary of King Trdat. It was composed from various sources after the year 456 (see Gutschmid, below) in Armenian, though sources may have been partly Greek or Syriac (cf. Lagarde). The life was soon translated into Greek used by Symeon Metaphrastes, and further rendered into Latin in the tenth century. During the Middle Ages this life was the invariable source for the saint’s history. The Armenians (Monophysites and Uniates) keep the feast of their apostle on 30 September, when his relics were deposed at Thortan. They have many other feasts to commemorate his birth (August 5), sufferings (February 4), going into the pit ( February 28), coming out of the pit (October 19), etc. (Niles “Kalendarium Manuale”, 2nd ed., Innsbruck 1897, II, 577). The Byzantine Church keeps his feast (Gregorios ho phoster) on 30 September, as do also the Syrians (Nilles, I, 290-292). Pope Gregory XVI, in September, 1837, admitted his namesake to the Reman Calendar; and appointed 1 October as his feast (among the festa pro aliquibus locis).

AGATHANGELOS’S Life of St. Gregory was published in Armenian by the MECHITARISTS at Venice, in 1835 (reprinted at Tiflis, in 1882); translated into french and Italian (Venice, 1843). the Greek text was edited by STILTING in the Acta SS., Sept. VIII, 320 sqq; and again by LAGARDE, Agathangelos in Alhandl. der Gottinger Gesellschaft (1889). See also GUTSCHMID, Agathangelos in Zeitschrift der Deutschen, Morgenland. Geselischaft (1877), I. MOSES OF KHORNI (MOYSES CHORENVENNIS) in his History of Aremnia (III books, VII or VIII cent., ed by the MERCHITARISTS, Venice, 1843; in French by LE VAILLANT DE FLORIVAL, Parish, 1847; italian by TOMMASEO, Venice 1850) uses Agathangelos. See GUTSCHMID, Moses von Chorene in his Kleine Schriften, III, 332 sqq.; and CARRIERE, Nouvelles sources de Moise de Kkhoren (Vienna, 1893). FAUSTUS OF BYZANTIUM (fifth century) tells the story of the conversion of Armenia (Aremnian tr., Venice, 1832); French by LANGLOIS, Collection des historiens anciens et modernes de l’Armenic (2 vols., Paris, 1867, 1869). I; German by LAUER (Cologne, 1879). GELZER, Die Anfange der armenischen Kirche in Sitzungsberichte der Gottinger Gesellschaft 91895), 109 sqq. THUMAIAN, Agathangelos et la doctrine de l’Eglise armenienne au V siècle (Lausanne, 1879). The so-called letters between Pope Silvester I and St. Gregory are printed in AZARIAN, Ecclesiae armeniae traditio de romani pontificis primatau (Rome, 1870).

ADRIAN FORTESCUE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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

January 29, 2026

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 by an unknown Breton monk of the Abbey of Rhuys in the eleventh century, the other by Caradoc, a Welshman in the twelfth century. Both biographies contain unchronological and misleading statements, which have led some critics to reject the lives as altogether valueless. Ussher, Ware, Bale, Pits, and Colgan endeavour to adjust the discrepancies by contending that there were at least two saints named Gildas, hence their invention of such distinctive surnames as “Albanicus”, “Badonicus”, “Hibernicus”, “Historicus”, etc. The more general opinion, however, adopted by Lanigan, Leland, Healy, Stingfleet, Mabilon, Bollandus, and O’Hanlon, is that there was but one St. Gildas. The discrepancies may be accounted for by the fact that the lives were drawn up in separate countries, and several centuries after the saint existed. As to Caradoc’s statement that Gildas died at Glastonbury, O’Hanlon remarks that Glastonbury appropriated more saints than Gildas (Lives of Irish Saints, I, 493).

Both narratives agree in several striking details, and may thus be harmonized: Gildas was born in Scotland on the banks of the Clyde (possibly at Dumbarton), of a noble British family. His father’s name was Cau or Nau; his brother’s, Huel or Cuil. He was educated in Wales under St. Iltut, and was a companion of St. Samson and St. Peter of Léon. Having embraced the monastic state, he passed over to Ireland, where he was advanced to the priesthood. He is said to have lived some time in Armagh, and then to have crossed to North Britain, his teaching there being confirmed by miracles. On his return to Ireland, at the invitation of King Ainmire, he strengthened the faith of many, and built monasteries and churches. The Irish annalists associate him with David and Cadoc in giving a special liturgy or Mass to the second order of Irish saints. He is said to have made a pilgrimage to Rome. On the homeward journey his love of solitude caused him to retire to the Isle of Houat, off Brittany, where he lived a life of prayer, study and austerity. His place of retreat having become known, the Bretons induced him to establish a monastery at Rhuys on the mainland whither multitudes flocked (Marius Sepet, “St. Gildas de Rhuys”, Paris, s.d.). It was at Rhuys he wrote his famous epistle to the British kings. His relics were venerated there till the tenth century, when they were carried for safety into Berry. In the eighteenth century they were said to be preserved in the cathedral of Vannes. He is the patron of several churches and monasteries in Brittany and elsewhere. His feast is locally observed on 29 January; another feast, 11 May, commemorates the translation of his relics.

The authentic work of St. Gildas, “De excidio Britannae liber querulus”, is now usually divided into three parts: (1) The preface; (2) A sketch of British history from the Roman invasion to his own time; (3) An epistle of severe invective addressed to five petty British kings — Constantine, Vortipor, Cyneglas, Cynan, and Maelgwn. In the same epistle he addresses and rebukes the clergy whom he accuses of sloth and simony. His writings are clearly the work of a man of no ordinary culture and sanctity, and indicate that the author was thoroughly acquainted with the Sacred Scriptures.

Gildas is regarded as the earliest British historian and is quoted by Bede and Alcuin. Two MSS. copies of his writings are preserved in Cambridge University library.

COLUMBA EDMONDS (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 30 – Sir Everard Digby

January 29, 2026

Sir Everard Digby

Born 16 May, 1578, died 30 Jan., 1606. Everard Digby, whose father bore the same Christian name, succeeded in his fourteenth year to large properties in the Counties of Lincoln, Leicester, and Rutland. Arrived at man’s estate, he was distinguished for his great stature and bodily strength as well as for his accomplished horsemanship and skill in field sports generally, to which he was much devoted. For some time he frequented the court of Queen Elizabeth. In 1596 he married Mary, only daughter and heiress of William Mulsho of Goathurst, Buckingham-shire, with whom he obtained a large accession of fortune, and by whom he had two sons, Kenelm, born in 1603, and John, in 1605. About 1599 Digby, who, although his parents seem to have been Catholics, had been brought up a Protestant, made the acquaintance of the Jesuit Father, John Gerard, with the result that both he and his wife were converted to the Catholic Faith, and he formed with Gerard so close a friendship that they were accustomed to speak of each other as “brothers”. In 1603 he was one of those who assembled at Belvoir Castle to welcome James I on his progress towards London, and he was knighted by the new king on the 23rd of April in that year.

In spite of what might have appeared so auspicious a commencement, there soon followed the fatal Powder Plot, which brought Sir Everard’s career to an ignominious close by a traitor’s death, while yet only in his twenty-eighth year. It is for his share in this, almost exclusively, that he is now remembered. In the “Dictionary of National Biography” he is compendiously described as “Conspirator”, and one of his descendants has recently published his biography under the title “Life of a Conspirator”. In truth, however, of all who had a share in the criminal folly of that deplorable enterprise, there is none to whom the title can less properly be applied, for he had no part either in the conception of the plot, or in the preparation for its accomplishment, and was not even aware of its existence till the eleventh hour. His initiation in the secret was due to the lack of funds. Owing to the delay occasioned by an unexpected prorogation of Parliament, Catesby, the ringleader of the whole design, finding his own treasury exhausted, sought to enlist as associates some men of substance. One of these was Digby, who was inducted and sworn in “about a week after Michaelmas”, 1605, or just a month before the fatal 5th of November.

January 15, 2026

King Ceolwulf (also CEOLWULPH or CEOLULPH) Coelwulf, King of Northumbria and monk of Lindisfarne, date and place of birth not known; died at Lindisfarne, 764. His ancestry is thus given by the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”: “Ceolwulf was the son of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin, Cuthwin of Leoldwald, Leoldwald of Egwald, Egwald of Aldhelm, Aldhelm of Ocga, […]

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January 16 – The true disciple of St. Francis who sent the Moorish king into a fit of rage

January 15, 2026

St. Berard of Carbio (Or BERALDUS). Friar Minor and martyr; d. 16 January, 1220. Of the noble family of Leopardi, and a native of Carbio in Umbria, Berard was received into the Franciscan Order by the Seraphic Patriarch himself, in 1213. He was well versed in Arabic, an eloquent preacher, and was chosen by St. […]

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January 16 – Irish Prince and Saint

January 15, 2026

St. Fursey An Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, died 16 Jan., about 650. He was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was born probably amongst the Hy-Bruin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father’s uncle, who […]

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