July 7 – Prince Abbots

July 5, 2018

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

Read the full article →

July 8 – The Pope who fought the democrats

July 5, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

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

July 5, 2018

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

Read the full article →

July 9 – St. Veronica Giuliani

July 5, 2018

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

Read the full article →

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

July 5, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

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

July 2, 2018

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). […]

Read the full article →

July 3 – The Twin

July 2, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

July 4 – Unsung American Hero

July 2, 2018

St. Anthony Daniel Huron missionary, born at Dieppe, in Normandy, 27 May 1601, slain by the Iroquois at Teanaostae, near Hillsdale, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada, 4 July, 1648. After two years’ study of philosophy and one of law, he entered the Society of Jesus in Rome, 1 October, 1621. Sent to Canada in 1633 he […]

Read the full article →

July 4 – St. Bertha of Blangy

July 2, 2018

St. Bertha (Abbess of Blangy in Artois) Died about 725. She was the daughter of Rigobert, Count of the Palace under Clovis II, and married Siegfried, a relation of the king. After twenty years, when he died, she determined to found a nunnery. Two buildings which she constructed fell down, but an angel in a […]

Read the full article →

July 4 – Patroness of victims of adultery, jealousy and unfaithfulness

July 2, 2018

St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal A.D. 1336. ST. ELIZABETH was daughter of Peter III,  king of Aragon, and granddaughter of James I, who had been educated under the care of St. Peter Nolasco, and was surnamed the Saint, and from the taking of Majorca and Valentia, Expugnator or the Conqueror. Her mother, Constantia, was daughter […]

Read the full article →

July 5 – St. Michael de Sanctis

July 2, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

July 5 – He founded the Barnebites and reformed two religious orders, but only lived 37 years

July 2, 2018

St. Antonio Maria Zaccaria Founder of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, commonly known as the Barnabites; born in Cremona, Italy, 1502; died 5 July, 1539. While he was still an infant his father died, leaving the care of the child’s education to his mother, who taught him compassion for the poor and suffering by […]

Read the full article →

Paris At The Beginning of 1792

June 28, 2018

Paris in 1792 is no longer what it was in 1789. In 1789, the old French society was still brilliant. The past endured beside the present. Neither names nor escutcheons, neither liveries nor places at court, had been suppressed. The aristocracy and the Revolution lived face to face. In 1792, the scene has changed. The […]

Read the full article →

Eliminate Beauty by Destroying Inequalities

June 28, 2018

By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira   One of the things the devil strives to do to influence souls is to present a vision of the universe in which variety and inequality, the most striking sensible elements that God placed in the universe to reflect His image, go unperceived. God imprinted His image upon the […]

Read the full article →

June 30 – He began a crusade against the immorality of his time

June 28, 2018

Blessed Januarius Maria Sarnelli One of S. Alphonsus’s earliest companions, fourth son of Baron Angelo Sarnelli of Ciorani, born in Naples 12 Sept., 1702; died 30 June, 1744. From his childhood he was remarkable for modesty, self-denial, piety, and great diligence in his studies. At the age of fourteen he desired to become a Jesuit, […]

Read the full article →

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

June 28, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

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

June 28, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

July 1 – Condemned to death for promoting the Catholic faith, he responded “Deo gratias”

June 28, 2018

Saint Oliver Plunket Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, born at Loughcrew near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland, 1629; died 11 July, 1681. His is the brightest name in the Irish Church throughout the whole period of persecution. He was connected by birth with the families which had just then been ennobled, the Earls […]

Read the full article →

July 1 – Venerable Thomas Maxfield

June 28, 2018

Ven. Thomas Maxfield (Vere Macclesfield) English priest and martyr, born in Stafford gaol, about 1590, martyred at Tyburn, London, Monday, 1 July, 1616. He was one of the younger sons of William Macclesfield of Chesterton and Maer and Aston, Staffordshire (a firm recusant, condemned to death in 1587 for harbouring priests, one of whom was […]

Read the full article →

July 1 – St. Gal

June 28, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

July 2 – St. Swithin

June 28, 2018

(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 […]

Read the full article →

July 2 – Caught Between Two Masters

June 28, 2018

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; […]

Read the full article →

June 26 – Chartreuse is not only a drink

June 25, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 27 – Chivalrous King

June 25, 2018

St. Ladislaus King of Hungary, born 1040; died at Neutra, 29 July, 1095; one of Hungary’s national Christian heroes. He was the son of Béla I; the nobles, after the death of Geisa I, passed over Solomon, son of Andrew I, and chose Ladislaus to be their king in 1077. It is true that he […]

Read the full article →

June 27- In the East he was always honoured as one of the greatest of the Doctors

June 25, 2018

St. Cyril of Alexandria Doctor of the Church. St. Cyril has his feast in the Western Church on the 28th of January; in the Greek Menaea it is found on the 9th of June, and (together with St. Athanasius) on the 18th of January. He seems to have been of an Alexandrian family and was […]

Read the full article →

June 28 – St. Irenaeus

June 25, 2018

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, […]

Read the full article →

June 28 – He fought to preserve the Pope’s independence

June 25, 2018

Pope Saint Paul I Pope Saint Paul I reigned from 757 to 767 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 […]

Read the full article →

Godfrey of Bouillon: Leader of the First Crusade and Liberator of Jerusalem

June 21, 2018

The leaders of the Christian armies which now quitted the West were already celebrated by their valor and their deeds. At the head of the great captains who commanded in this crusade, history, as well as poetry, must place Godfrey de Bouillon, duke of the Lower Lorraine. He was of the illustrious race of the […]

Read the full article →

The end to a French cheese tradition?

June 21, 2018

According to BBC News: After years of lobbying, industrial producers are now allowed to make camembert with pasteurised milk. As a result, one of France’s beloved cheeses may be disappearing – for good. For decades, it seemed that a stalemate had been reached between artisanal and industrial producers, until this February, when they came to […]

Read the full article →

Why the Devil Wants to Destroy All Inequality

June 21, 2018

By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira   Why does the devil want to destroy, as much as is possible, all forms of inequality? After having studied that which constitutes order in the universe, we will now give the theory of disorder. What does disorder consist of, and why does the devil want it? After that we […]

Read the full article →

June 22 – Battle of Sisak

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 22 – St. Thomas More

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 22 – St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola

June 21, 2018

St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola (Pontius Meropius Anicius Paulinus.) Born at Bordeaux about 354; died 22 June, 431. He sprang from a distinguished family of Aquitania and his education was entrusted to the poet Ausonius. He became governor of the Province of Campania, but he soon realized that he could not find in public life […]

Read the full article →

June 22 – St. John Fisher

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

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

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 24 – He denounced the king’s adultery

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 25 – Servant of God Maria Clotilde of Savoy

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 25 – St. Maximus of Turin

June 21, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 25 – St. William of Vercelli

June 21, 2018

(Or WILLIAM OF MONTE VERGINE.) The founder of the Hermits of Monte Vergine, or Williamites, born 1085; died 25 June, 1142. He was the son of noble parents, both of whom died when he was still a child, and his education was entrusted to one of his kinsmen. At the age of fifteen he made […]

Read the full article →

June 25 – Simon de Montfort

June 21, 2018

Simon de Montfort An Earl of Leicester, date of birth unknown, died at Toulouse, 25 June, 1218. Simon (IV) de Montfort was descended from the lords of Montfort l’Amaury in Normandy, being the second son of Simon (III), and Amicia, daughter of Robert de Beaumont, third Earl of Leicester. Having succeeded his father as Baron […]

Read the full article →

June 19 – Love Accepts No Limitations

June 18, 2018

St. Juliana Falconieri Born in 1270; died 12 June, 1341. Juliana belonged to the noble Florentine family of Falconieri. Her uncle, St. Alexis Falconieri, was one of the seven founders of the Servite Order. Through his influence she also consecrated herself from her earliest youth to the religious life and the practices of Christian perfection. […]

Read the full article →

June 19 – Herbert Vaughan

June 18, 2018

Herbert Vaughan Cardinal, and third Archbishop of Westminster; b. at Gloucester, 15 April, 1832; d. at St. Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, Middlesex, 19 June, 1903; he came of a family which had been true to the Catholic Faith all through the ages of the persecution. Its members had suffered for their faith in fines and […]

Read the full article →

June 19 – St. Jean-Louis Bonnard

June 18, 2018

Saint Jean-Louis Bonnard A French missionary and martyr, born 1 March, 1824 at Saint-Christôt-en-Jarret (Diocese of Lyons); beheaded 30 April, 1852. After a collegiate course at Saint Jodard, he entered the seminary of Lyons, which he left at the age of twenty two, to complete his theological studies at the Seminary of the Foreign Missions […]

Read the full article →

June 19 – Bl. Odo of Cambrai

June 18, 2018

Bl. Odo of Cambrai Bishop and confessor, also called ODOARDUS; born at Orleans, 1050; died at Anchin, 19 June, 1113. In 1087 he was invited by the canons of Tournai to teach in that city, and there soon won a great reputation. He became a Benedictine monk (1095) in St. Martin’s, Tournai, of which be […]

Read the full article →

June 19 – St. François-Isidore Gagelin

June 18, 2018

Saint François-Isidore Gagelin (10 May 1799 – 17 October 1833) was a French missionary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society in Vietnam. He became the first French martyr of the 19th century in Vietnam. He was born in Montperreux, Doubs. He left for Vietnam in 1821. In 1826, when Emperor Minh Mạng ordered all missionaries […]

Read the full article →

June 19 – Execution of second group of those who believed in the religious exemption, but only at first

June 18, 2018

Carthusian Martyrs – the Second Group After little more than a month after the first group, it was the turn of three leading monks of the London house: Doms Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate, who were to die at Tyburn, London on the 19 June. Newdigate was a personal friend of Henry VIII, […]

Read the full article →

June 20 – The Pope Who Was the Son of Another Pope, Also a Saint

June 18, 2018

Pope St. Silverius (Reigned 536-37). Dates of birth and death unknown. He was the son of Pope [St.] Hormisdas who had been married before becoming one of the higher clergy. Silverius entered the service of the Church and was subdeacon at Rome when Pope Agapetus died at Constantinople, 22 April, 536. The Empress Theodora, who […]

Read the full article →

June 21 – He Was More Angel than Man

June 18, 2018

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 honor to Isabel, the wife […]

Read the full article →

The Conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne

June 14, 2018

By Armando Santos Alphonse Ratisbonne was a young Jew from a family of well-established bankers in Strasbourg, France. He also was socially prominent due to his wealth and blood-ties to the Rothchilds. In 1827, Alphonse’s older brother, Thèodore, converted to Catholicism and entered the priesthood, thus breaking with his family whose hopes now lay in […]

Read the full article →

Egalitarianism and God’s Order for the Universe

June 14, 2018

by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira In previous lectures, I considered the problem of equality in two very distinct parts: 1) There is an egalitarian Revolution in the universe, which aims to establish equality as an ideal, that is to say, equality for the sake of equality must be attained, and inequality for inequality’s sake […]

Read the full article →

June 15 – Magna Carta

June 14, 2018

Magna Carta The charter of liberties granted by King John of England in 1215 and confirmed with modifications by Henry III in 1216, 1217, and 1225. The Magna Carta has long been considered by the English-speaking peoples as the earliest of the great constitutional documents which give the history of England so unique a character; […]

Read the full article →

June 15 – The Northern Crusades

June 14, 2018

The Battle of Lyndanisse was a battle which helped King Valdemar II of Denmark establish the territory of Danish Estonia during the Northern Crusades. Valdemar II defeated the Estonians at Lyndanisse (Estonian: Lindanise), during the Northern Crusades, by orders from the Pope. The Battle Valdemar II, along with Archbishop Anders Sunesen of Lund, Bishop Theoderik […]

Read the full article →

June 15 – St. Bernard dogs carry his name

June 14, 2018

St. Bernard of Menthon Born in 923, probably in the castle Menthon near Annecy, in Savoy; died at Novara, 1008. He was descended from a rich, noble family and received a thorough education. He refused to enter an honorable marriage proposed by his father and decided to devote himself to the service of the Church. […]

Read the full article →

June 16 – Pope Innocent III

June 14, 2018

(Lotario de’ Conti) One of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages, son of Count Trasimund of Segni and nephew of Clement III, born 1160 or 1161 at Anagni, and died 16 June, 1216, at Perugia. He received his early education at Rome, studied theology at Paris, jurisprudence at Bologna, and became a learned theologian […]

Read the full article →

June 16 – Death threats meant nothing to him

June 14, 2018

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 […]

Read the full article →

June 17 – Sobieski

June 14, 2018

John III Sobieski (Polish: Jan III Sobieski, Lithuanian: Jonas Sobieskis; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) Born at Olesko in 1629; died at Wilanow, 1696; son of James, Castellan of Cracow and descended by his mother from the heroic Zolkiewski, who died in battle at Cecora. His elder brother Mark was his companion in […]

Read the full article →

June 17 – Founder of the Albertines

June 14, 2018

Saint Brother Albert Chmielowski In Igołomia, on the outskirts of Cracow (Poland), the noble family of Adalbert Chmielowski and Josephine Borzysławska announced on August 20, 1845, the birth of their son Adam (Brother Albert). Mr Chmielowski together with his wife, raised their children in an atmosphere of patriotic ideals, strong faith in God and a […]

Read the full article →

June 17, 1793: Pius VI condemns the revolutionary concepts of liberty and equality

June 14, 2018

Pius VI repeatedly condemned the false concept of liberty and equality. In the Secret Consistory of June 17, 1793, quoting the words of the encyclical Inscrutabilie Divinae Sapientiae of December 25, 1775, he declared: “‘The most perfidious philosophers go farther. They dissolve all those bonds by which human beings are joined to one another and to […]

Read the full article →

June 18 – To make peace, she surrendered her son’s rights to the throne

June 14, 2018

Blessed Theresa of Portugal (born at Coimbra, October 4, 1178 – died at Lorvão, June 18, 1250) Queen of Léon as the first wife of King Alfonso IX of León. She was the oldest daughter of Sancho I of Portugal and Dulce of Aragon. Theresa was the mother to three of Alfonso’s children—two daughters and […]

Read the full article →

June 12 – He Crowned Charlemagne

June 11, 2018

Pope St. Leo III Date of birth unknown; died 816. He was elected on the very day his predecessor was buried (26 Dec., 795), and consecrated on the following day. It is quite possible that this haste may have been due to a desire on the part of the Romans to anticipate any interference of […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →