August 20 – Maria De Mattias

August 19, 2019

(1805 – 1866) Maria De Mattias was born on 4 February 1805 at Vallecorsa, the southernmost town of the Papal States, in the geographical province of Frosinone. Her family was not without wealth and learning—even if women were forbidden to study—nor did it lack a deep Christian faith. Through dialog with her father, Maria learned […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – Bishop Matulionis’ life: a true Shepherd

August 19, 2019

By Plinio Correa de Oliveira When I received the exciting biography of Lithuanian Bishop Matulionis, opportunely translated into Brazilian Portuguese by the zealous initiative of my friend, Father Francisco Gavenas, I went through it in a different way than I usually do when looking at a new book. Indeed –except for very special circumstances – […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – What Saint Pius X says about equality

August 19, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 21 – He was one of a network of aristocrat bishops

August 19, 2019

Saint Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius (Modestus) Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris (November 5[1] of an unknown year, perhaps 430 – August, 489) was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is “the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul” according to Eric Goldberg.[2] He was one of four fifth-to sixth-century Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – La Vallete

August 19, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 22 – The Queenship of Mary

August 19, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 22 – Blessed John Wall

August 19, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 22 – The pope who preached a Crusade against the German Emperor Frederick II

August 19, 2019

Pope Gregory IX (UGOLINO, Count of Segni). Born about 1145, at Anagni in the Campagna; died 22 August, 1241, at Rome. He received his education at the Universities of Paris and Bologna. After the accession of Innocent III to the papal throne, Ugolino, who was a nephew of Innocent III, was successively appointed papal chaplain, […]

Read the full article →

The Legend of the Master Builder

August 15, 2019

At the height of the Middle Ages, in a century known as the Golden Age, when “the philosophy of the Gospels governed the States,” a marvelous prodigy occurred. The precious relic of the Crown of Thorns, worn by Our Divine Savior during His Passion, had come to France. [St.] King Louis IX, who reigned on […]

Read the full article →

Saint Augustine and Just War

August 15, 2019

The Church tolerates war, but it only authorizes righteous war. “It is righteous war,” says Saint Augustine, “when one proposes to punish a violation of law; when it has become necessary to chastise a people who refuse to repair a wrong, or who refuse to restore property unjustly acquired.” We may add, with Raban Maur, […]

Read the full article →

August 16 – Did he inspire the tales of King Arthur?

August 15, 2019

Saint Armel (Welsh: Arthfael, lit. “Bear-Prince”; Latin: Armagilus) He was an early 6th-century holy man in Brittany. Armel is said to have been a Breton prince, born to the wife of King Hoel while they were living in Glamorgan in Wales in the late 5th century. He founded the abbey of Plouarzel in Brittany and […]

Read the full article →

August 16 – Apostle of the North

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

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

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

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

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 17 – St. Clare of Montefalco

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 18 – Soldier in every battlefield

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 18 – The Empress who found the True Cross

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 19 – St. John Eudes

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

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

August 15, 2019

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

Read the full article →

How the “Mother of Kansas City” earned her name

August 12, 2019

According to The Martin City Telegraph: A major cholera outbreak in 1827 slowed [Francois] Chouteau’s progress. [His wife] Berenice baptized 75 dying Indian children, lost two of her own children, sewed shrouds for those that died (including using her own wedding gown as fabric), and established relationships with the Kanza, Seminole and Osage tribes. Most […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – The Pope Who Resigned

August 12, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 13 – The antipope who became a saint

August 12, 2019

Hippolytus, Saint, Martyr. St. Hippolytus of Rome, presbyter and antipope; date of birth unknown; died about 236. Until the publication in 1851 of the recently discovered “Philosophumena”, it was impossible to obtain any definite authentic facts concerning Hippolytus of Rome and his life from the conflicting statements about him, as follows: Eusebius says that he […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – Crusader nun

August 12, 2019

Bl. Gertrude of Aldenberg Abbess of the Premonstratensian convent of Aldenberg, near Wetzlar, in the Diocese of Trier; born about 1227, died 13 August, 1297. She was the youngest of three children of Louis VI, margrave of Thuringia, and his wife St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Gertrude’s father died on his way to the Holy Land […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – The Ottomans lived in fear of this Capuchin

August 12, 2019

Blessed Mark of Aviano (1631–1699) Capuchin friar. His baptismal name was Carlo Domenico Cristofori, his birthplace Aviano, a small community in the Republic of Venice (Italy). From an early age, he felt attracted to a life of devotion and martyrdom. Educated at the Jesuit College in Gorizia, at 16 he tried to reach the island […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – St. Maximus of Constantinople

August 12, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 14 – Founding Father

August 12, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 14 – St. Eusebius, Roman patrician and priest

August 12, 2019

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

Read the full article →

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

August 12, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 15 – Prester John

August 12, 2019

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

Read the full article →

King of Belgium reintroduces Saxe-Coburg-Gotha lineage

August 8, 2019

According to The Guardian: A century after emulating the British royals by removing vestiges of its German lineage in the wake of the first world war, the Belgian monarchy has reintroduced the shield of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a former surname, to its coat of arms. The family name was changed in 1920 to van België, de Belgique […]

Read the full article →

“Let Me Die, But for the Love of God, the Son of Saint Mary, Do Not Surrender the Town.”

August 8, 2019

It was in obedience to the voice of duty solely, that in another of our poems (one little known) the aged Ameri of Narbonne, who had lived a hundred years, spotless and fearless, stood boldly up before the Muslim and refused to acknowledge Muhammad. They beat the aged man with briars and rods, they cut […]

Read the full article →

The Phantasmagorias Of The Night

August 8, 2019

Phantasmagoria is an ensemble of sensible and coherent impressions which gives a unique central notion, resulting from the conjugation of all impressions. The phantasmagoria of the day is a result of primarily objective impressions. The [principal?] note is one of truth, good-sense, and human proportion. The phantasmagoria of the night results from a great number […]

Read the full article →

August 9 – Pope St. Victor I

August 8, 2019

Pope St. Victor I (189-198 or 199), date of birth unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” makes him a native of Africa and gives his father the name of Felix. This authority, taking the “Liberian Catalogue” as its basis, gives the years 186-197 as the period of Victor’s episcopate. The Armenian text of the “Chronicle” of Eusebius […]

Read the full article →

August 10 – His sister founded the Conceptionists

August 8, 2019

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

Read the full article →

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

August 8, 2019

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

Read the full article →

August 11 – As soldiers scaled the walls of the convent, she met them with ciborium in hand and put them to flight

August 8, 2019

St. Clare of Assisi Cofoundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253. She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – János Hunyady

August 8, 2019

(JOHN) Governor of Hungary, born about 1400; died 11 August, 1456; the heroic defender of the Catholic Faith against the advance of the Osmanli; father of King Matthias I (Corvinus) of Hungary. The origin and parentage of his family was not ascertained until recently, when modern investigation cleared up the numerous legends which surrounded the […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – St. Attracta

August 8, 2019

St. Attracta (Or ST. ARAGHT). A contemporary of St. Patrick from whom she received the veil. She is known as the foundress of several churches in the Counties of Galway and Sligo, Ireland. Colgan’s account of her life is based on that written by Augustine Magraidin in the last years of fourteenth century, and abounds […]

Read the full article →

August 12 – His pontificate was spent in opposing royal absolutism

August 8, 2019

Pope Blessed Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi) Born at Como, 16 May, 1611; died at Rome, 11 August, 1689. He was educated by the Jesuits at Como, and studied jurisprudence at Rome and Naples. Urban VIII appointed him successively prothonotary, president of the Apostolic Camera, commissary at Ancona, administrator of Macerata, and Governor of Picena. Innocent […]

Read the full article →

August 12 – St. Jane Frances de Chantal

August 8, 2019

Born at Dijon, France, 28 January, 1572; died at the Visitation Convent Moulins, 13 December, 1641. Her father was president of the Parliament of Burgundy, and leader of the royalist party during the League that brought about the triumph of the cause of Henry IV. In 1592 she married Baron de Chantal, and lived in […]

Read the full article →

August 6 – He told his assassins “God does not die!”

August 5, 2019

Garcia Moreno Ecuadorean patriot and statesman; born at Guayaquil, 24 December, 1821; assassinated at Quito, 6 August, 1875. His father, Gabriel García Gomez, a native of Villaverde, in Old Castile, had been engaged in commerce at Callao before removing to Guayaquil, where he married Dona Mercedes Moreno, the mother of the future Ecuadorean martyr president. […]

Read the full article →

August 6 – Garcia Moreno: Heroic President of Ecuador

August 5, 2019

by José Maria dos SantosGabriel Garcia Moreno, heroic President of Ecuador, assassinated for his Faith and Christian Charity. Manly Catholic of intransigent principles, slain by the enemies of the Faith because of his consistency and courage in defense of the Church and Papacy Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in Guayaquil, in southern Ecuador on December […]

Read the full article →

August 6 – Noble widower made pope

August 5, 2019

Pope St. Hormisdas Date of birth unknown, elected to the Holy See, 514; died at Rome, 6 August, 523. This able and sagacious pontiff belonged to a wealthy and honourable family of Frosinone (Frusino) in the Campagna di Roma (Latium). Before receiving higher orders he had been married; his son became pope under the name […]

Read the full article →

August 7 – St. Cajetan

August 5, 2019

St. Cajetan (GAETANO.) Nobleman of the dynasties of Da Porto and Thiene of Vicenza, Italy. Founder of the Theatines, born October, 1480 at Vicenza in Venetian territory; died at Naples in 1547. Under the care of a pious mother he passed a studious and exemplary youth, and took his degree as doctor utriusque juris at […]

Read the full article →

August 7 – Pope St. Sixtus II

August 5, 2019

Pope St. Sixtus II (XYSTUS) Elected 31 Aug., 257, martyred at Rome, 6 Aug., 258. His origin is unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” says that he was a Greek by birth, but this is probably a mistake, originating from the false assumption that he was identical with a Greek philosopher of the same name, who was […]

Read the full article →

August 7 – Octogenarian martyr

August 5, 2019

Ven. Nicholas Postgate English martyr, b. at Kirkdale House, Egton, Yorkshire, in 1596 or 1597; d. at York, 7 August, 1679. He entered Douay College, 11 July, 1621, took the college oath, 12 March, 1623, received minor orders, 23 December, 1624, the subdiaconate, 18 December, 1827, the diaconate, 18 March, 1628, and the priesthood two […]

Read the full article →

August 7 – The Emperor who considered Christianity a crime worthy of death

August 5, 2019

Trajan Emperor of Rome (A.D. 98-117), b. at Italica Spain, 18 September, 53; d. 7 August, 117. He was descended from an old Roman family, and was adopted in 97 by the Emperor Nerva. Trajan was one of the ablest of the Roman emperors; he was stately and majestic in appearance, had a powerful will, […]

Read the full article →

August 7 – Opponent of Gregory VII

August 5, 2019

Henry IV German King and Roman Emperor, son of Henry III and Agnes of Poitou, b. at Goslar, 11 November, 1050; d. at Liège, 7 August, 1108. The power and resources of the empire left behind by Conrad II, which Henry III had already materially weakened, were still further impaired by the feebleness of the […]

Read the full article →

August 7 – Three martyrs of Lancaster

August 5, 2019

Ven. Edward Bamber (Alias Reading). Priest and martyr, b. at the Moor, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire; executed at Lancaster 7 August, 1646. Educated at the English College, Valladolid, he was ordained and sent to England. On landing at Dover, he knelt down to thank God, which act, observed by the Governor of the Castle, was the cause […]

Read the full article →

August 8 – He told his king that anyone who betrays Jesus could betray their king

August 5, 2019

St. Hormisdas (Martyred c. 420) Isdegerdes, king of Persia, renewed the persecution which Cosroes II had raised against the church. It is not easy, says Theodoret, to describe or express the cruelties which were then invented against the disciples of Christ. Some were flayed alive, others had the skin torn from off their backs only, […]

Read the full article →

August 8 – The Rosary is really a weapon

August 5, 2019

St. Dominic Founder of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Order; born at Calaroga, in Old Castile, c. 1170; died 6 August, 1221. His parents, Felix Guzman and Joanna of Aza, undoubtedly belonged to the nobility of Spain, though probably neither was connected with the reigning house of Castile, as some of […]

Read the full article →

August 8 – He gloried in his crime

August 5, 2019

Bl. John Felton Martyr, date and place of birth unknown, was executed in St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, 8 August, 1570, for having, about eleven o’clock at night on the previous 24 May, affixed a copy of the Bull of St. Pius V excommunicating the queen to the gates of the Bishop of London’s palace near […]

Read the full article →

August 8 – They hated him because he enforced celibacy of the clergy

August 5, 2019

Bl. Altmann The friend of Gregory VII and Anselm, conspicuous in the contest of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, as Bishop of Passau and Papal Legate. He was born at Paderborn about the beginning of the eleventh century, presided over the school there, was chaplain at the court of Henry III, and then became Bishop of […]

Read the full article →

August 8 – Missionary in the court of the Chinese Emperor

August 5, 2019

Pierre-Martial Cibot Missionary, born at Limoges, France, 14 August, 1727; died at Peking, China, 8 August, 1780. He entered the Society of Jesus 7 November, 1743, and taught humanities with much success. He was sent to China at his own request 7 March, 1758, and arrived at Macao 25 July, 1759, whence he reached Peking […]

Read the full article →

August 8 – Princes, prelates, and priests revealed their consciences to him

August 5, 2019

Bl. Peter Faber Born 13 April, 1506, at Villaret, Savoy; died 1 Aug., 1546, in Rome. As a child he tended his father’s sheep during the week, and on Sunday he taught catechism to other children. The instinctive knowledge of his vocation as an apostle inspired him with a desire to study. At first he […]

Read the full article →

“Death Rather Than Dishonor” Is the Whole Code of Chivalry

August 1, 2019

“Ordena questo amore,” exclaims the Redeemer in one of the most beautiful canticles attributed to Saint Francis d’Assisi, and it is to Saint Francis himself that he addresses the astonishing words—“Moderate our love.” The Church said the same to the barbarous warriors of the ninth century. “Moderate your courage,” she said. They did moderate it, […]

Read the full article →

Prince Harry’s scandalous “maximum” of 2 children because…climate change

August 1, 2019

According to LifeSiteNews: Prince Harry…want[s] only two children “maximum” because of environmentalist concerns, the Duke of Sussex revealed in an interview with Jane Goodall. Goodall’s and Prince Harry’s conversation shifted from Goodall’s work with animals to concerns about the environment. “It is terrifying. Especially as you’ve just had a baby,” remarked Goodall. “Two, maximum!” Prince […]

Read the full article →

A Knight Is Made, Armed, or Dubbed

August 1, 2019

In our old poets we find many expressions to denote the entry or admission to chivalry. One is girt with the sword or the baldric; one is made, armed, or dubbed knight. The last expression appears to have been the most usual at the same time as it is the most technical, but it, nevertheless, […]

Read the full article →

August 2 – St. Pierre-Julien Eymard

August 1, 2019

St. Pierre-Julien Eymard Founder of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament, and of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, born at La Mure d’Isere, Diocese of Grenoble, France, February 4, 1811; died there August 1, 1868. From early childhood he gave evidence of great holiness and most tender devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. In 1829, […]

Read the full article →

August 2 – Legate to the Emperor laden with responsibilities and threats

August 1, 2019

Saint Eusebius Bishop of Vercelli, born in Sardinia circa 283; died at Vercelli, Piedmont, August 1, 371. He was made lector in Rome, where he lived some time, probably as a member, or head, of a religious community (Spreitzenhofer, Die Entwickelung des alten Monchtums in Italien, Vienna, 1894, 14 sq.). Later he came to Vercellae, […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →