April 29 – The Templars, Knights of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcantara, of Avis, of St. Maurice, all trace their existence to this austere monk

April 27, 2017

St. Robert of Molesme Born about the year 1029, at Champagne, France, of noble parents who bore the names of Thierry and Ermengarde; died at Molesme, 17 April, 1111. When fifteen years of age, he commenced his novitiate in the Abbey of Montier-la-Celle, or St. Pierre-la-Celle, situated near Troyes, of which he became later prior. […]

Read the full article →

April 29 – In 11th century Christendom, no king or bishop dare oppose him

April 27, 2017

Saint Hugh the Great Abbot of Cluny, born at Semur (Brionnais in the Diocese of Autun), 1024; died at Cluny, 28 April, 1109. His early life The eldest son of Count Dalmatius of Semur and Aremberge (Aremburgis) of Vergy, Hugh was descended from the noblest families in Burgundy. Dalmatius, devoted to war and the chase, […]

Read the full article →

April 30, 2017 – 170th anniversary of the Archduke who discovered how to defeat Napoleon

April 27, 2017

Today in History – April 30th, 1847 – Archduke Charles of Austria, Duke of Teschen Archduke Charles (full name in German: Karl Ludwig Johann Joseph Lorenz) of Austria was born on September 5th. 1771 in Florence (then the Grand Duchy of Tuscany). His parents were Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor and Infanta Maria Luisa of […]

Read the full article →

April 30 – “Thank God for the victory”

April 27, 2017

Pope Saint Pius V Born at Bosco, near Alexandria, Lombardy, 17 Jan., 1504 elected 7 Jan., 1566; died 1 May, 1572. Being of a poor though noble family his lot would have been to follow a trade, but he was taken in by the Dominicans of Voghera, where he received a good education and was […]

Read the full article →

May 1 – St. Sigismund, King of Burgundy

April 27, 2017

This saint was son of Gondebald, the Arian king of the Burgundians; but embraced the Catholic faith through the instructions of St. Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienne. (1) He succeeded to the kingdom of his father in 516, and in the midst of barbarism lived humble, mortified, penitent, devout, and charitable, even on the throne; […]

Read the full article →

April 25 – Builder

April 24, 2017

Blessed Meinwerk Tenth Bishop of Paderborn, d. 1036: Meinwerk (Meginwerk) was born of the noble family of the Immedinger and related to the royal house of Saxony. His father was Imad (Immeth), Count of Teisterbant and Radichen, and his mother’s name was Adela (Adala, Athela). In early youth he was dedicated by his parents to […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – She inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 24, 2017

Our Lady of Good Counsel January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he placed himself at the head of his own people. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania. With Scanderbeg’s […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – Nephew of the Duke of Maqueda

April 24, 2017

St. Rafael Arnáiz Barón (9 April 1911, Burgos, Spain – 26 April 1938, Dueñas, Palencia, Spain) Rafael Arnáiz, known in the monastery as Brother María Rafael, was born on 9 April 1911 in the city of Burgos, in north-central Spain. He was the first of four sons born to a well-to-do, deeply Christian and Catholic […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – Pope St. Cletus

April 24, 2017

Pope St. Cletus This name is only another form for Anacletus, the second successor of St. Peter. It is true that the Liberian Catalogue, a fourth-century list of popes, so called because it ends with Pope Liberius (d. 366), contains both names, as if they were different persons. But this is an error, owing evidently […]

Read the full article →

April 27- Abused by her noble patrons, she remained a model of harmony

April 24, 2017

St. Zita Model and heavenly patroness of domestic servants, born early in the thirteenth century of a poor family at Montsegradi, a little village near Lucca, in Tuscany; died at Lucca, 27 April, 1271. A naturally happy disposition and the teaching of a virtuous mother, aided by Divine grace, developed in the child’s soul that […]

Read the full article →

April 27 – Noble Model of Confidence

April 24, 2017

St. Peter Armengol was born in Guárdia dels Prats, a small village in the archdiocese of Tarragon, Spain in 1238. He belonged to the house of the barons of Rocafort, descendants of the counts of Urgel, whose ancestors were directly linked to the counts of Barcelona and the monarchs of Aragon and Castile. From Brigand […]

Read the full article →

Duchess Takes Part in Religious Procession on Good Friday

April 20, 2017

According to The Royal Forums: Spain’s Infanta Pilar, Duchess of Badajoz, assisted in the procession of the Jesus Christ of the Alabarderos yesterday, Good Friday. The statue of Jesus Christ of the Alabarderos is carried through the streets of Madrid by 44 individuals, accompanied by fife and drum players from the military band. The Infanta […]

Read the full article →

The turbulent history of Luxembourg’s palace

April 20, 2017

According to the Luxemburger Wort: It was in 1418 the building was mentioned in official documents for the first time as the town hall, however just over a century later, the building and much of Luxembourg city was destroyed when lightning struck the Church of the Franciscan monks and ignited a stockpile gunpowder stored in […]

Read the full article →

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince calls for a monarchist revolution in Iran

April 20, 2017

According to Royal Central: …the Crown Prince of Iran, Reza Pahlavi has now called for a monarchist revolution in his birth country of Iran and calls for Trump and American help to transform the dictatorship to a parliamentarian monarchy. It should be said that the Crown Prince wants to have a peaceful revolution that will […]

Read the full article →

The Fate of Greed

April 20, 2017

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 […]

Read the full article →

What should a 21st century knight be like?

April 20, 2017

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira I believed yesterday I said here – if not I will do it in two words – that with the Revolution, iniquity and evil became much more refined; and that after the immense sin, evil became much worse than it was before that sin. And that, for this reason, that […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Adventurous in youth and adulthood

April 20, 2017

St. Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church; born at Aosta a Burgundian town on the confines of Lombardy, died 21 April, 1109. His father, Gundulf, was a Lombard who had become a citizen of Aosta, and his mother, Ermenberga, came of an old Burgundian family. Like many other saints, Anselm learnt the first […]

Read the full article →

April 22 – Father of Origen

April 20, 2017

St. Leonidas (Or LEONIDES.) The Roman Martyrology records several feast days of martyrs of this name in different countries. Under date of 28 January there is a martyr called Leonides, a native of the Thebaid, whose death with several companions is supposed to have occurred during the Diocletian persecution (Acta SS., January, II, 832). Another […]

Read the full article →

April 22 – Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

April 20, 2017

Pedralvarez Cabral (Pedro Alvarez.) A celebrated Portugese navigator, generally called the discoverer of Brazil, born probably around 1460; date of death uncertain. Very little is known concerning the life of Cabral. He was the third son of Fernao Cabral, Governor of Beira and Belmonte, and Isabel de Gouvea, and married Isabel de Castro, the daughter […]

Read the full article →

April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 20, 2017

St. George Martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Diospolis, in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. According to the very careful investigation of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, in the light of modern sources of information, the above statement sums up all that […]

Read the full article →

April 23 – Archbishop author of war-song

April 20, 2017

St. Adalbert of Bohemia Born 939 of a noble Bohemian family; died 997. He assumed the name of the Archbishop Adalbert (his name had been Wojtech), under whom he studied at Magdeburg. He became Bishop of Prague, whence he was obliged to flee on account of the enmity he had aroused by his efforts to […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – “I came to extirpate heresy, not to embrace it”

April 20, 2017

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen Born in 1577, at Sigmaringen, Prussia, of which town his father Johannes Rey was burgomaster; died at Sevis, 24 April, 1622. On the paternal side he was of Flemish ancestry. He pursued his studies at the University of Freiburg in the Breisgau, and in 1604 became tutor to Wilhelm von Stotzingen, […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

April 20, 2017

Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, foundress of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and canonized May 2, 1940 by Pope Pius XII. The aim of this institute is to provide a shelter for girls and women of dissolute habits, who wish to do penance for their iniquities and to lead a […]

Read the full article →

April 18 – Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation

April 17, 2017

Bl. Marie de l’Incarnation Known also as Madame Acarie, foundress of the French Carmel, born in Paris, 1 February, 1566; died at Pontoise, April, 1618. By her family Barbara Avrillot belonged to the higher bourgeois society in Paris. Her father, Nicholas Avrillot was accountant general in the Chamber of Paris, and chancellor of Marguerite of […]

Read the full article →

April 18 – St. Willigis

April 17, 2017

St. Willigis Archbishop of Mainz, d. 23 Feb., 1011. Feast, 23 February or 18 April. Though of humble birth he received a good education, and through the influence of Bishop Volkold of Meissen entered the service of Otto I, and after 971 figured as chancellor of Germany. Otto II in 975 made him Archbishop of […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – Captured by pirates

April 17, 2017

St. Alphege (or Elphege), Saint, born 954; died 1012; also called Godwine, martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, left his widowed mother and patrimony for the monastery of Deerhurst (Gloucestershire). After some years as an anchorite at Bath, he there became abbot, and (19 Oct., 984) was made Bishop of Winchester. In 994 Elphege administered confirmation to […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – The saintly warrior pope

April 17, 2017

Pope St. Leo IX Pope St. Leo IX earnestly spread the Cluny reform Born at Egisheim, near Colmar, on the borders of Alsace, 21 June, 1002, Pope St. Leo IX died on 19 April, 1054. He belonged to a noble family which had given or was to give saints to the Church and rulers to […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – Blessed Conrad of Ascoli

April 17, 2017

Friar Minor and missionary, born at Ascoli in the March of Ancona in 1234; died there, 19 April, 1289. He belonged to the noble family of Milliano and from his earliest years made penance the predominating element of his life. He entered the Order of Friars Minor at Ascoli together with his townsman and lifelong […]

Read the full article →

April 20 – Blessed John Finch

April 17, 2017

Bl. John Finch A stained glass window in St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Chorley, England. Permission to use by Roberta Estes. A martyr, b. about 1548; d. 20 April, 1584. He was a yeoman of Eccleston, Lancashire, and a member of a well-known old Catholic family, but he appears to have been brought up in […]

Read the full article →

April 20 – “I beg your Lordship…that my lips and…fingers may be cut off…”

April 17, 2017

Blessed Fr. James Bell Priest and martyr, born at Warrington in Lancashire, England, probably about 1520; died 20 April, 1584. For the little known of him we depend on the account published four years after his death by Bridgewater in his “Concertatio” (1588), and derived from a manuscript which was kept at Douay when Challoner […]

Read the full article →

April 20 – Blessed Richard Sergeant

April 17, 2017

Bl. Richard Sergeant English martyr, executed at Tyburn, 20 April, 1586. He was probably a younger son of Thomas Sergeant of Stone, Gloucestershire, by Katherine, daughter of John Tyre of Hardwick. He took his degree at Oxford (20 Feb., 1570-1), and arrived at the English College, Reims, on 25 July, 1581. He was ordained subdeacon […]

Read the full article →

Queen Elizabeth II presents a Guidon to The Royal Lancers at Windsor Castle

April 13, 2017

According to the Royal Household: The Queen…has presented a Guidon to The Royal Lancers during a ceremony in St George’s Hall, Windsor Castle. During the traditional ceremony at Windsor Castle Her Majesty touched the new Guidon, and presented it to the Regiment. A Guidon is a heraldic banner carried by cavalry regiments. They were traditionally […]

Read the full article →

“It is our duty…”

April 13, 2017

According to the Royal Household, on the 100th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge, Queen Elizabeth II issued this message: [On…] the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, there will be difficult memories of loss and of suffering, but also memories of many heroic acts of bravery and of sacrifice on the […]

Read the full article →

On Holy Thursday, King Saint Ferdinand washes the feet of twelve poor men

April 13, 2017

Lent passed, and Holy Week came. That year, the love of Christ inflamed the holy King’s heart more than ever. At times he would spend the whole night in contemplation of the sorrows that Our Lord suffered to redeem us; he slept so little that his nobles, worried, reached the point of telling him that […]

Read the full article →

An Invitation to Love the Holy Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ

April 13, 2017

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira While commemorating the forty days Our Lord fasted in the desert, we should remember a great and supreme truth that should illuminate all Lenten meditations. The holy Gospels clearly show how much our merciful Savior pitied our spiritual and physical pains. Hence, He performed spectacular miracles to mitigate them. However, […]

Read the full article →

April 14 – She suffered for the moral corruption and decay of her time

April 13, 2017

Saint Lydwine In 1380, Saint Lydwine was born in the small town of Schiedam in Holland. Her father was a wealthy noble named Peter, and her mother was from a poor family who worked their own farm. Her father’s family lost their fortune, and the whole family was reduced to poverty. At that time, all […]

Read the full article →

April 14 – St. Peter Gonzalez (aka St. Elmo)

April 13, 2017

St. Peter Gonzalez Popularly known as St. Elmo, b. in 1190 at Astorga, Spain; d. 15 April, 1246, at Tuy. He was educated by his uncle, Bishop of Astorga, who gave him when very young a canonry. Later he entered the Dominican Order and became a renowned preacher; crowds gathered to hear him and numberless […]

Read the full article →

April 16 – Martyred in the name of Equality

April 13, 2017

Just a few of the many martyrs during the French Revolution († 1792-1799) 16 April 1794 in Avrillé, Maine-et-Loire (France) Pierre Delépine layperson of the diocese of Angers born: 24 May 1732 in Marigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Jean Ménard layperson of the diocese of Angers; married born: 16 November 1736 in Andigné… Read more here.

Read the full article →

April 17 – St. Stephen Harding

April 13, 2017

St. Stephen Harding Confessor, the third Abbot of Cîteaux, was born at Sherborne in Dorsetshire, England, about the middle of the eleventh century; died 28 March, 1134. He received his early education in the monastery of Sherborne and afterwards studied in Paris and Rome. On returning from the latter city he stopped at the monastery […]

Read the full article →

April 17 – One of the many nobles who spread the Cluny reform

April 13, 2017

St. Robert Founder of the Abbey of Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, born at Aurilac, Auvergne, about 1000; died in Auvergne, 1067. On his father’s side he belonged to the family of the Counts of Aurilac, who had given birth to St. Géraud. He studied at Brioude near the basilica of St-Julien, in a school open to […]

Read the full article →

April 17 – He rescued his country from crushing debt, yet waged incessant war

April 13, 2017

Maximilian I Duke of Bavaria, 1598-1622, Elector of Bavaria and Lord High Steward of the Holy Roman Empire, 1623-1651; born at Munich, 17 April, 1573; died at Ingolstadt, 27 September, 1651. The lasting services he rendered his country and the Catholic Church justly entitle him to the surname of “Great”. He was the son of […]

Read the full article →

April 11 – He excommunicated the king, who murdered him as he celebrated Mass

April 10, 2017

Saint Stanislaus of Cracow In pictures he is given the episcopal insignia and the sword. Larger paintings represent him in a court or kneeling before the altar and receiving the fatal blow. His parents, Belislaus and Bogna, pious and noble Catholics, gave him a religious education. After the death of his parents he distributed his […]

Read the full article →

April 12 – St. Teresa of the Andes

April 10, 2017

Saint Teresa of the Andes, O.C.D. (July 13, 1900 – April 12, 1920), also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes (Spanish: Teresa de Jesús de los Andes), was a Chilean nun of the Discalced Carmelite order.She was born Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones Fernández y Solar in Santiago, Chile into […]

Read the full article →

April 12 – Crusader in every sense of the word

April 10, 2017

Bl. Angelo Carletti di Chivasso Moral theologian of the order of Friars Minor; born at Chivasso in Piedmont, in 1411; and died at Coni, in Piedmont, in 1495. From his tenderest years the Blessed Angelo was remarkable for the holiness and purity of his life. He attended the University of Bologna, where he received the […]

Read the full article →

April 12 – Pope St. Julius I

April 10, 2017

(337-352) The immediate successor of Pope Silvester, Arcus, ruled the Roman Church for only a very short period – from 18 January to 7 October, 336 – and after his death the papal chair remained vacant for four months. What occasioned this comparatively long vacancy is unknown. On 6 February, 337, Julius, son of Rustics […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – Born blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked and dwarfed

April 10, 2017

Blessed Margaret of Castello (1287–1320) is the patroness of the poor, crippled, and the unwanted. She was born blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked and a dwarf, into a family of nobles in the castle of Metola, in southeast of Florence. As a child, her parents Parisio and Emilia imprisoned her for 14 years so no one […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – This Prince Defied His Family

April 10, 2017

St. Hermengild Date of birth unknown; died 13 April, 585. Leovigild, the Arian King of the Visigoths (569-86), had two sons, Hermengild and Reccared, by his first marriage with the Catholic Princess Theodosia. Hermengild married, in 576, Ingundis, a Frankish Catholic princess, the daughter of Sigebert and Brunhilde. Led by his own inclination, and influenced […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – Pope St. Martin I

April 10, 2017

Pope St. Martin I Martyr, born at Todi on the Tiber, son of Fabricius; elected Pope at Rome, 21 July, 649, to succeed Theodore I; d at Cherson in the present peninsulas of Krym, 16 Sept., 655, after a reign of 6 years, one month and twenty six days, having ordained eleven priests, five deacons […]

Read the full article →

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall dismiss traditional garb in meeting with Pope Francis

April 6, 2017

According to the Royal Forums: The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall had a private audience with Pope Francis on Tuesday as part of their week-long tour of Europe. In a sign of changing times at the Vatican, the Duchess did not wear black or a mantilla, as has been usual tradition for […]

Read the full article →

A Stable Kingdom in Turbulent Times

April 6, 2017

According to Handelsblatt: While Liechtenstein may enjoy political stability, tough times could still be in store for the principality, with populism and protectionism on the rise among its neighbors in Europe. …Prince Alois warns that its major employers – tool maker Hilti, heating and air systems company Hoval, and the prepared foods company Hilcona – […]

Read the full article →

The Legend of St. Dismas

April 6, 2017

by Pauline Sanders Many years ago, after Jesus was born, the evil King Herod waited for the three kings from the Orient to return to his kingdom with news of the newborn King. When they did not return, Herod grew afraid that this new King would cause him to lose his throne. Because of this, […]

Read the full article →

Suffering and the Little Way

April 6, 2017

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira * There is a valuable deposition from the canonization of Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, given by her sister Céline. It reveals aspects of the saint’s life about which few are aware and to which, even less give due importance. The information contained in this document is ironclad. Not […]

Read the full article →

April 7 – Father of Modern Pedagogy

April 6, 2017

St. John Baptist de la Salle Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, educational reformer, and father of modern pedagogy, was born at Reims, 30 April, 1651, and died at Saint-Yon, Rouen, on Good Friday, 7 April, 1719. The family of de la Salle traces its origin to Johan Salla, who, […]

Read the full article →

April 8 – Together with a noble who escaped the Terror, she founded the Sisters of Notre Dame

April 6, 2017

St. Julie Billiart (Also Julia). Foundress, and first superior-general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, born 12 July, 1751, at Cuvilly, a village of Picardy, in the Diocese of Beauvais and the Department of Oise, France; died 8 April, 1816, at the motherhouse of her institute, Namur, Belgium. She was […]

Read the full article →

April 9 – She persuaded her husband the Count to become a monk

April 6, 2017

St. Waudru She was daughter to the princess St. Bertille, elder sister to St. Aldegondes, and wife to Madelgaire, count of Hainault, and one of the principal lords of King Dagobert’s court. After bearing him two sons and two daughters, she induced him to embrace the monastic state at Haumont, near Maubeuge, taking the name […]

Read the full article →

April 9 – Mary of Cleophas

April 6, 2017

Mary of Cleophas This title occurs only in John, xix, 25. A comparison of the lists of those who stood at the foot of the cross would seem to identify her with Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joseph ( Mark, xv, 40; cf. Matt., xxvii, 56). Some have indeed tried to identify […]

Read the full article →

April 10 – Friend of Cluny

April 6, 2017

St. Fulbert of Chartres Bishop, born between 952 and 962; died 10 April, 1028 or 1029. Mabillon and others think that he was born in Italy, probably at Rome; but Pfister, his latest biographer, designates as his birthplace the Diocese of Laudun in the present department of Gard in France. He was of humble parentage […]

Read the full article →

April 4 – Grandmother of the Templars

April 3, 2017

Saint Aleth of Dijon Mother of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, she belonged to the highest nobility of Burgundy. Her husband, Tescelin, was lord of Fontaines. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was the third of her seven children.  At the age of nine years, Bernard was sent to a much renowned school at Chatillon-sur-Seine, kept by the […]

Read the full article →

April 4 – Patron Saint of Transitions

April 3, 2017

St. Isidore of Seville Born at Cartagena, Spain, about 560; died 4 April, 636. Isidore was the son of Severianus and Theodora. His elder brother Leander was his immediate predecessor in the Metropolitan See of Seville; whilst a younger brother St. Fulgentius presided over the Bishopric of Astigi. His sister Florentina was a nun, and […]

Read the full article →

April 5 – St. Æthelburh and the Rose Named After Her

April 3, 2017

Saint Æthelburh (died 647), also known as Ethelburga, Ædilburh and Æthelburga (Old English: Æþelburh), was an early Anglo-Saxon queen consort of Northumbria, the second wife of King Edwin. As she was a Christian from Kent, their marriage triggered the initial phase of the conversion of the pagan north of England to Christianity. Æthelburh date of […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →