July 16 – Of the noble family of Odrowatz

July 14, 2025

St. Ceslaus Born at Kamien in Silesia, Poland (now Prussia), about 1184; died at Breslau about 1242. He was of the noble family of Odrowatz and a relative, probably a brother, of St. Hyacinth. Having studied philosophy at Prague, he pursued his theological and juridical studies at the University of Bologna, after which he returned […]

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July 16 – Founder of Louisiana

July 14, 2025

Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur d’Iberville Founder of the colony of Louisiana, b. at Villemarie, Montreal, 16 July, 1661; d. at Havana, 9 July, 1706. He was the third son of Charles Le Moyne, a native of Dieppe Sieur de Longueuil in Canada, and of Catharine Primot. Several of his brothers distinguished themselves greatly as explorers […]

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Queen Marie Antoinette’s Rejection of Voltaire

July 10, 2025

But she could not pardon Voltaire for his attacks on the ancient faith of France; and if she did not go so far as to regard him as an extravagant, as her mother did, she felt little sympathy for him. When, in the spring of 1788, that philosopher made a visit to Paris which was […]

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Military, Social, and Religious History of Chivalry and Knighthood

July 10, 2025

Chivalry (derived through the French cheval from the Latin caballus) as an institution is to be considered from three points of view: 1) the military, 2) the social, 3) and the religious. We shall also here consider: 4) the history of chivalry as a whole. 1) MILITARY In the military sense, chivalry was the heavy […]

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July 10 – Charlemagne Was Punished for His Rudeness to Her

July 10, 2025

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

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Resolving Prior Objections

July 10, 2025

Chapter I Resolving Prior Objections When a train is ready to leave, normal procedure requires both engineer and passengers to be in their proper places, and the conductor to signal for departure. Only then can the train begin to roll. So also, at the outset of an intellectual work it is customary to set forth […]

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July 11 – Worthy descendant of St. Elizabeth

July 10, 2025

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

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The Revolutionary Principles of 1789 Contained the Synthesis of All the Teachings of the False Prophets

July 10, 2025

When promulgating the decree on the heroic virtue of Blessed Marcellin Champagnat on July 11, 1920, Benedict XV pronounced an allocution from which we borrow the following passages: “One need only turn one’s thoughts to the early nineteenth century to recognize that many false prophets appeared in France at that time, and from there aimed […]

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July 12 – Aristocrat Missionary to the United States of America

July 10, 2025

Comte de Charles-Auguste-Marie-Joseph Forbin-Janson A Bishop of Nancy and Toul, founder of the Association of the Holy Childhood, born in Paris, France, 3 Nov., 1785; died near Marseilles, 12 July, 1844. He was the second son of Count Michel Palamède de Forbin-Janson and of his wife Cornélie Henriette, princess of Galéan. He was a Knight […]

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July 13 – Saintly Elite

July 10, 2025

St. Marie-Azélie “Zélie” Martin née Guérin (23 December 1831 – 28 August 1877) was a French laywoman and the mother of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux. Her husband was Saint Louis Martin. Marie-Azélie Guérin was born in Saint-Denis-sur-Sarthon, Orne, France and was the second daughter of Isidore Guérin and Louise-Jeanne Macé. She had an older sister, […]

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July 13 – Author of “The Golden Legend”

July 10, 2025

Bl. Jacopo de Voragine (Also DI VIRAGGIO). Archbishop of Genoa and medieval hagiologist, born at Viraggio (now Varazze), near Genoa, about 1230; died 13 July, about 1298. In 1244 he entered the Order of St. Dominic, and soon became famous for his piety, learning, and zeal in the care of souls. His fame as a […]

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Ten Year Anniversary – In Memoriam: Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante

July 7, 2025

In Memoriam of the Ten Year Anniversary of Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante On July 7, 2015 the Marquis Luigi Coda Nunziante di San Ferdinando passed away at his estate in Colognole (Firenze). An exemplary family man, a refined man of society and a fervent Catholic, he spent most of his time doing social apostolate on behalf of […]

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

July 7, 2025

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

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How the French Loved Queen Marie Antoinette

July 7, 2025

Marie Antoinette reigned not only by her grace, but by her goodness. She sent relief to the poor, to the wounded, to the victims of fires. She heard that the family of the Chevalier d’Assas, notwithstanding the historical devotion of the captain to the regiment of Auvergne, was living in the country in oblivion and […]

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July 8 – The Pope who fought the democrats

July 7, 2025

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

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July 8 – Archbishops of Baltimore and St. Louis

July 7, 2025

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

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

July 7, 2025

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

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July 3 – The Pope Who Condemned His Predecessor for Not Opposing Heresy

July 3, 2025

Pope St. Leo II Pope (682-83), date of birth unknown; d. 28 June, 683. He was a Sicilian, and son of one Paul. Though elected pope a few days after the death of St. Agatho (10 June, 681), he was not consecrated till after the lapse of a year and seven months (17 Aug., 682). […]

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July 3 – The Twin

July 3, 2025

St. Thomas the Apostle Little is recorded of St. Thomas the Apostle, nevertheless thanks to the fourth Gospel his personality is clearer to us than that of some others of the Twelve. His name occurs in all the lists of the Synoptists (Matthew 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6, cf. Acts 1:13), but in St. John […]

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July 4 – Pope in Very Critical Circumstances

July 3, 2025

Pope Benedict V Date of birth unknown; died 4 July, 965. Benedict V was elected Pope (May, 964) in very critical circumstances. The powerful emperor, Otho I, had forcibly deposed the unworthy John XII, and had replaced him by a nominee of his own who took the title of Leo VIII. But at the first […]

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July 4 – Chaplain and servants of the Arundell family

July 3, 2025

Venerables John Cornelius and Companions John Cornelius (called also Mohun) was born of Irish parents at Bodmin, in Cornwall, on the estate of Sir John Arundell, of Lanherne, in 1557; martyred at Dorchester, 4 July, 1594. Sir John Arundell took an interest in the talented boy and sent him to Oxford. Not satisfied with the […]

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July 5 – St. Michael de Sanctis

July 3, 2025

St. Michael de Sanctis (DE LOS SANTOS). Born at, Vich in Catalonia, 29 September, 1591; died at Valladolid, 10 April, 1625. At the age of twelve years he came to Barcelona, and asked to be received into the monastery of the Trinitarians, in which order, after a three years’ novitiate, he took vows in the […]

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July 6 – Bl. Thomas Alfield

July 3, 2025

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

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July 6 – Mother-in-law Woes

July 3, 2025

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

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June 30 – How One Humble Servant Transformed the New York Upper Class

June 30, 2025

Servant of God Pierre Toussaint (1766-1853) Born to slavery in Saint Domingue (present-day Haiti), Toussaint came to New York in 1789 with his master, Jean Bérard du Pithon, a French noble and prosperous planter who was fleeing the turmoil unleashed in Saint Domingue by the French Revolution. Two years later, his master died without having […]

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June 30 – Thomas Whitbread

June 30, 2025

Ven. Thomas Whitbread (Alias HARCOURT). Born in Essex, 1618; martyred at Tyburn, 30 June, 1679. He was educated at St. Omer’s, and entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus on 7 September, 1635. Coming upon the English mission in 1647, he laboured for more than thirty years, mostly in the eastern counties. On 8 […]

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June 30 – Diplomatist and Historian

June 30, 2025

Daniel O’Daly A diplomatist and historian, born in Kerry, Ireland, 1595; died at Lisbon, 30 June. 1662. On his mother’s side he belonged to the Desmond branch of the Geraldines, of which branch his paternal ancestors were the hereditary chroniclers or bards. He be came a Dominican in Tralee, Co. Kerry; took his vows in […]

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June 30 – Franciscus Sonnius

June 30, 2025

Franciscus Sonnius Theologian, b. at Zon in Brabant, 12 August, 1506; d. at Antwerp, 30 June, 1576. His real name was Van de Velde, but in later years he called himself after his native place. He went to school at Bois-le-Duc and Louvain, and afterwards studied medicine for a time, then theology; in 1536 he […]

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June 30 – Father of Ecclesiastical History

June 30, 2025

Ven. Cesare Baronius Cardinal and ecclesiastical historian, born at Sora in the Kingdom of Naples, 30 August, 1538; died at Rome, 30 June, 1607; author of “Annales Ecclesiatici”, a work which marked an epoch in historiography and merited for its author, after Eusebius, the title of a Father of Ecclesiastical History. Baronius was descended from […]

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July 1 – The Marquis of Lescure destroys two thirds of Westermann’s army and saves the lives of captured enemy soldiers

June 30, 2025

While the grand army were under the walls of Nantes, several engagements had taken place in La Vendée. Westermann, at the head of a German legion, advanced into the heart of the Bocage, after making himself master of Parthenay, on the 20th June. On the 1st July he burned the town of Amaillon; he then […]

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July 1 – St. Gal

June 30, 2025

St. Gal Of the ninety-eight bishops who have occupied the see of Clermont-Ferrand (Auvergne) the sixteenth and twenty-third bore the name of Gal, and both are numbered among the twenty-nine bishops of this church who are honoured as saints. The first and most illustrious was bishop from 527 to 551, the second, form 640 to […]

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July 2 – St. Swithin

June 30, 2025

(SWITHUN) Bishop of Winchester; died 2 July, 862. Very little is known of this saint’s life, for his biographers constructed their “Lives” long after his death and there is hardly any mention of him in contemporary documents. Swithin was one of the two trusted counsellors of Egbert, King of the West Saxons (d. 839), helping […]

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July 2 – Caught Between Two Masters

June 30, 2025

Saint Otto Bishop of Bamberg, born about 1060; died 30 June, 1139. He belonged to the noble, though not wealthy, family of Mistelbach in Swabia, not to the Counts of Andechs. He was ordained priest, but where he was educated is not known. While still young he joined the household of Duke Wladislaw of Poland; […]

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Physical Comfort – Moral Well Being

June 26, 2025

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Comparing is one of the best ways of analyzing. So if we want to analyze our era, it’s legitimate to compare it. And with what? With the future, which is still unknown, is impossible, because unknown objects cannot serve as a term of comparison. Therefore, the comparison can only be […]

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Gnosis: the Pole of the Devil’s Egalitarian Conspiracy – Part II

June 26, 2025

Part I By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Sound Reaction in Face of Misfortune The sound reaction is, first, that this man can only hope to be freed to the degree that concrete circumstances allow such hope. If under the circumstances there is reason to hope, he will hope. If not, he will not […]

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June 26 – Chartreuse is not only a drink

June 26, 2025

St. Anthelm of Belley (1107 – 1178) Prior of the Carthusian Grand Chartreuse and bishop of Belley. He was born near Chambéry in 1107. He would later receive an ecclesiastical benefice in the area of Belley. When he was thirty years old, he resigned from this position to become a Carthusian monk at Portes. Only […]

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June 27 – The Saint-King elected to lead the First Crusade

June 26, 2025

St. Ladislaus (or Ladislas) St. Ladislaus the First, called by the Hungarians László, and in old French, Lancelot, was son of Bela king of Hungary, and born in 1041. By the pertinacious importunity of the people he was compelled, much against his own inclination, to ascend the throne in 1080, the kingdom being then elective. […]

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June 28 – To Avoid Their Desecration, He Ordered the Relics of the Saints to be Brought Inside the Walls

June 26, 2025

Pope Saint Paul I Date of birth unknown; died at Rome, 28 June, 767. He was a brother of Pope Stephen II. They had been educated for the priesthood at the Lateran palace. Stephen entrusted his brother, who approved of the pope’s course in respect to King Pepin, with many important ecclesiastical affairs, among others […]

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June 28 – St. Irenaeus

June 26, 2025

St. Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons, and Father of the Church. Information as to his life is scarce, and in some measure inexact. He was born in Proconsular Asia, or at least in some province bordering thereon, in the first half of the second century; the exact date is controverted, between the years 115 and 125, […]

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The Church is Not Opposed to Any Form of Government that Is Just and Serves the Common Good

June 26, 2025

previous Leo XIII says in his encyclical Diuturnum illud (June 29, 1881): “There is no question here respecting forms of government, for there is no reason why the Church should not approve of the chief power being held by one man or by more, provided only it be just, and that it tend to the […]

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The Fate of Greed

June 26, 2025

There can be no doubt, but that when a decision was to be made in regard to the affairs of the Indies, the enemies of Columbus assailed the Queen with every artifice and intrigue to secure a decision unfavorable to the admiral. The appointment of Don Francisco Bobadilla proves this. His subsequent cruelty and perfidy […]

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Exiled crown prince calls on Iranians to overthrow Khamenei

June 23, 2025

Taken from jpost.com Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last monarch, issued a sharply worded message on Friday calling on Iranian military and security forces to abandon the Islamic Republic and join a popular movement to reclaim the country. In a post written in Persian and shared across his official social media platforms, Pahlavi […]

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Armbands for India, Trooping the Colour 2025

June 23, 2025

Taken from royal.uk/ The King, Colonel in Chief of the Household Division, wore the Uniform of the Coldstream Guards. In addition, and at the request of His Majesty, members of the Royal Family taking part in the parade wore black armbands as a mark of respect following the Air India incident in Ahmedabad this week. […]

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A Chief’s Daughter Helps Spread the Faith Among the Coeur d’Alènes

June 23, 2025

Father Point had been two years with the Coeur d’Alènes. He had arrived there the first Friday of the month and, on that day, had placed the mission under the protection of the Sacred Heart. “From that moment,” he writes, “a Christian spirit animated the inhabitants of this happy valley. The nightly gatherings, sacrilegious ceremonies, […]

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Gnosis: the Pole of the Devil’s Egalitarian Conspiracy – Part I

June 23, 2025

By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira We should not lose sight of the fact that even though God governs the universe and all beings, He desired that men be free, and also gave the angels an intellect and a [free] will. In spite of having been cast into Hell and condemned to suffer eternally, the […]

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June 23 – Her sister, niece, and great-niece, all royal princesses and two of them widowed queens, followed her as abbesses of Ely

June 23, 2025

St. Etheldreda Queen of Northumbria; born (probably) about 630; died at Ely, 23 June, 679. While still very young she was given in marriage by her father, Anna, King of East Anglia, to a certain Tonbert, a subordinate prince, from whom she received as morning gift a tract of land locally known as the Isle […]

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June 24 – He denounced the king’s adultery

June 23, 2025

St. John the Baptist The principal sources of information concerning the life and ministry of St. John the Baptist are the canonical Gospels. Of these St. Luke is the most complete, giving as he does the wonderful circumstances accompanying the birth of the Precursor and items on his ministry and death. St. Matthew’s Gospel stands […]

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June 25 – St. Maximus of Turin

June 23, 2025

St. Maximus of Turin Bishop and theological writer, b. probably in Rhaetia, about 380; d. shortly after 465. Only two dates are historically established in his life. In 451 he was at the synod of Milan where the bishops of Northern Italy accepted the celebrated letter (epistola dogmatica) of Leo I, setting forth the orthodox […]

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June 25 – Servant of God Maria Clotilde of Savoy

June 23, 2025

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

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Fleur-de-lis And Other Molded Sugar

June 19, 2025

Found in almost every recipe, there are many different ways that sugar is used and here is one unique way to use sugar. Instead of the common form of sugar cubes, try making them in the various shapes seen below! You can use any candy mold you wish to shape the sugar into. All you […]

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June 19 – His father the Duke was a murderer

June 19, 2025

St. Romuald Born at Ravenna, probably about 950; died at Val-di-Castro, 19 June, 1027. St. Peter Damian, his first biographer, and almost all the Camaldolese writers assert that St. Romuald’s age at his death was one hundred and twenty, and that therefore he was born about 907. This is disputed by most modern writers. Such […]

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Ven. William Barrow

June 19, 2025

Ven. William Barrow (Alias Waring, alias Harcourt). An English Jesuit martyr, born in Lancashire, in 1609, died 20 June, 1679. He made his studies at the Jesuit College, St. Omers, and entered the Society at Watten in 1632. He was sent to the English mission in 1644 and worked on the London district for thirty-five […]

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June 20 – The Jeanne d’Arc of the Blessed Sacrament

June 19, 2025

Marie-Marthe-Baptistine Tamisier (Called by her intimates EMILIA) Initiator of international Eucharistic congresses, born at Tours, 1 Nov., 1834; died there 20 June, 1910. From her childhood her devotion to the Blessed Sacrament was extraordinary; she called a day without Holy Communion a veritable Good Friday. In 1847 she became a pupil of the Religious of […]

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The Dauphin’s innocent description of a revolutionary riot

June 19, 2025

On June 21, 1792, the agitators fired up the mob, as they had done the day before, to invade the Tuileries Palace where the royal family was lodged. Hearing the tumult, Marie Antoinette rushed to the side of the Dauphin. Upon seeing her and still remembering what had happened the day before, the child asked: […]

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June 21 – He seemed to resemble an angel clothed with a human body

June 19, 2025

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Aloysius Gonzaga was son of Ferdinand Gonzaga, prince of the holy empire, and marquis of Castiglione, removed in the third degree of kindred from the duke of Mantua. His mother was Martha Tana Santena, daughter of Tanus Santena, lord of Cherry, in Piedmont. She was lady of honour to Isabel, the wife […]

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June 22 – Battle of Sisak

June 19, 2025

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Sisak in Croatia. The Battle of Sisak was the Croatian Siege of Vienna. On June 22nd 1593 Ban Tomas Erdődy faced off an army of 16,000 Ottomans with his army of 4,500-5,000 men. When the battle was over Erdődy lost 500 men and the Ottomans had lost […]

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June 22 – St. Thomas More

June 19, 2025

St. Thomas More Saint, knight, Lord Chancellor of England, author and martyr, born in London, 7 February, 1477-78; executed at Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535. He was the sole surviving son of Sir John More, barrister and later judge, by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Graunger. While still a child Thomas was sent […]

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June 22 – St. John Fisher

June 19, 2025

St. John Fisher Cardinal, Bishop of Rochester, and martyr; born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1459 (?1469); died 22 June, 1535. John was the eldest son of Robert Fisher, merchant of Beverley, and Agnes his wife. His early education was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his native town, whence in […]

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June 16 – The Saint for Father’s Day: death threats meant nothing to him

June 16, 2025

Saint John Francis Regis Born 31 January, 1597, in the village of Fontcouverte (department of Aude); died at la Louvesc, 30 Dec., 1640. His father Jean, a rich merchant, had been recently ennobled in recognition of the prominent part he had taken in the Wars of the League; his mother, Marguerite de Cugunhan, belonged by […]

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June 16 – St. Benno

June 16, 2025

Bishop of Meissen, b., as is given in biographies written after his lifetime, about 1010; d., probably, June 16, 1106. He is said to have been the son of a Count Frederick von Woldenberg (Bultenburg) and to have been educated by his relative St. Bernward of Hildesheim. But these statements and the date of his […]

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