The decay of the Middle Ages

February 9, 2017

[previous] In the fourteenth century, a transformation of mentality began to take place in Christian Europe; in the course of the fifteenth century, it became ever more apparent. The thirst for earthly pleasures became a burning desire. Diversions became more and more frequent and sumptuous, increasingly engrossing men. In dress, manners, language, literature, and art, […]

Read the full article →

February 10 – He fought socialism in both its Nazi and Soviet forms…and paid for it with his life

February 9, 2017

BL. ALOJZIJE STEPINAC was born into a large Catholic family on 8 May 1898 in Krasic. After graduation from high school in 1916, he completed military service during World War I. In 1924 he decided to study for the priesthood and was sent to Rome, where he attended the Pontifical Germanicum-Hungaricum College. He earned doctorates […]

Read the full article →

February 10 – The Lord God Gave Her What Her Brother Would Not

February 9, 2017

St. Scholastica, Virgin (c. 480 – 10 February 547) This saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself to God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her first monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother removed to Mount Cassino, she choose her retreat at Plombariola, in […]

Read the full article →

February 11 – Elected pope while on Crusade in Palestine

February 9, 2017

Blessed Pope Gregory X Born 1210; died 10 January, 1276. Pope Gregory X was declared Blessed on July 8, 1713 by Pope Clement XI. The death of Pope Clement IV (29 November, 1268) left the Holy See vacant for almost three years. The cardinals assembled at Viterbo were divided into two camps, the one French […]

Read the full article →

February 11 – St. Benedict of Aniane

February 9, 2017

St. Benedict of Aniane Born about 745-750; died at Cornelimünster, 11 February, 821. Benedict, originally known as Witiza, son of the Goth, Aigulf, Count of Maguelone in Southern France, was educated at the Frankish court of Pepin, and entered the royal service. He took part in the Italian campaign of Charlemagne (773), after which he […]

Read the full article →

February 12 – Tadeusz Kosciuszko

February 9, 2017

Tadeusz Kosciuszko Polish patriot and soldier, b. near Novogrudok, Lithuania, Poland, 12 February, 1752; d. at Solothurn, Switzerland, 15 October, 1817. He was educated at the military schools of Warsaw and Versailles, and attained the rank of captain in the Polish army. When the American Revolution broke out he embarked for the scene of conflict […]

Read the full article →

February 12 – St. Frideswide

February 9, 2017

St. Frideswide (FRIDESWIDA, FREDESWIDA, Fr. FRÉVISSE, Old Eng. FRIS). Virgin, patroness of Oxford, lived from about 650 to 735. According to her legend, in its latest form, she was the child of King Didan and Safrida, and was brought up to holiness by Algiva. She refused the proffered hand of King Algar, a Mercian, and […]

Read the full article →

February 12 – Saint Eulalia of Barcelona

February 9, 2017

Saint Eulalia of Barcelona A Spanish martyr in the persecution of Diocletian (February 12, 304), patron of the cathedral and city of Barcelona, also of sailors. The Acts of her life and martyrdom were copied early in the twelfth century, and with elegant conciseness, by the learned ecclesiastic Renallus Grammaticus (Bol. acad. hist., Madrid, 1902, […]

Read the full article →

February 13 – Mystic and Counselor to Future Popes

February 9, 2017

St. Catherine de Ricci, Virgin (AD 1522 – 1589) The Ricci are an ancient family, which still subsists in a flourishing condition in Tuscany. Peter de Ricci, the father of our saint, was married to Catherine Bonza, a lady of suitable birth. The saint was born at Florence in 1522, and called at her baptism […]

Read the full article →

February 13 – St. Fulcran

February 9, 2017

St. Fulcran Bishop of Lodève; died 13 February, 1006. According to the biography which Bernard Guidonis, Bishop of Lodève (died 1331), has left us his saintly predecessor, Fulcran came of a distinguished family, consecrated himself at an early age to the service of the Church, became a priest, and from his youth led a pure […]

Read the full article →

Queen Elizabeth II: first British monarch to reach Sapphire Jubilee

February 6, 2017

According to ITV News: The Queen has made history as the first British monarch to reach their Sapphire Jubilee. February 6, the anniversary of the day she became Queen, marked 65 years of Elizabeth II’s reign. The Queen is not due to be out and about on official engagements on the landmark day. As is […]

Read the full article →

February 7 – Refused admission to the Pontifical Noble Guard, he became Pope instead

February 6, 2017

Pope Blessed Pius IX (GIOVANNI MARIA MASTAI-FERRETTI). Pope from 1846-78; born at Sinigaglia, 13 May, 1792; died in Rome, 7 February, 1878. BEFORE HIS PAPACY His early years. After receiving his classical education at the Piarist College in Volterra from 1802-09 he went to Rome to study philosophy and theology, but left there in 1810 […]

Read the full article →

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

February 6, 2017

St. Richard, King and Confessor This saint was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and was perhaps deprived of his inheritance by some revolution in the state: or he renounced it to be more at liberty to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection. His three children, Winebald, Willibald, and Warburga, […]

Read the full article →

February 8 – Mary Queen of Scots

February 6, 2017

Mary Queen of Scots Mary Stuart, born at Linlithgow, 8 December, 1542; died at Fotheringay, 8 February, 1587. She was the only legitimate child of James V of Scotland. His death (14 December) followed immediately after her birth, and she became queen when only six days old. The Tudors endeavored by war to force on […]

Read the full article →

February 8 – A strong and mighty Angel – calm, terrible, and bright – the cross in blended red and blue, upon his mantle white

February 6, 2017

Saint John of Matha Founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity. He was born into Provencal nobility in 1154 at Faucon-de-Barcelonnette, France. As a youth, he was educated at Aix-en-Provence, and later studied theology at the University of Paris. While in Paris, he was urged by a vision during his first Mass to […]

Read the full article →

February 9 – Banished From the Court

February 6, 2017

St. Ansbert Archbishop of Rouen in 695, Confessor He had been chancelor to King Clotair III in which station he had united the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of wedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic habit at Fontenelle under St. Wandregisile, and when that […]

Read the full article →

Little Guy de Fontgalland brings God to the godless

February 2, 2017

One Thursday afternoon at the New Circus, his governess observed him gazing absentmindedly round the crowded audience, his attention evidently far removed from the thrills of the performing acrobats. “What were you dreaming about just now, dear?” she asked. “Oh,” he replied, “I was just trying to count the number of children and grown-up people […]

Read the full article →

Feudalism’s Saxon roots

February 2, 2017

Of the military character and predatory spirit of the Saxons an accurate notion may be formed from the Danish adventurers of the ninth and tenth centuries. Both were scions from the same Gothic stock; but the latter retained for a longer period the native properties of the original plant. Hengist and Cerdic, and their fellow-chieftains, […]

Read the full article →

February 3 – The Stuff of Which Saints Are Made

February 2, 2017

St. Anschar (Or Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar.) Called the Apostle of the North, was born to the French nobility in Picardy, 8 September, 801; died 5 February, 865. He became a Benedictine of Corbie, whence he passed into Westphalia. With Harold, the newly baptized King of Denmark who had been expelled from his kingdom […]

Read the full article →

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

February 2, 2017

St. Werburgh of Chester (WEREBURGA, WEREBURG, VERBOURG). Benedictine, patroness of Chester, Abbess of Weedon, Trentham, Hanbury, Minster in Sheppy, and Ely, born in Staffordshire early in the seventh century; died at Trentham, 3 February, 699 or 700. Her mother was St. Ermenilda, daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, and St. Sexburga, and her father, Wulfhere, […]

Read the full article →

February 4 – Daughter of one king and wife of another

February 2, 2017

St. Jeanne de Valois Queen and foundress of the Order of the Annonciades, b. 1464; d. at Bourges, 4 Feb., 1505. Daughter of one king and wife of another, there are perhaps few saints in the calendar who suffered greater or more bitter humiliations than did Madame Jeanne de France, the heroic woman usually known […]

Read the full article →

February 4 – Portuguese noble and favorite of the king, he strove to convert the nobility of India – and paid for it with his life

February 2, 2017

St. John de Brito Martyr, born in Lisbon, 1 March, 1647, and was brought up at Court, martyred in India 11 February, 1693. Entering the Society of Jesus at fifteen, he obtained as his mission-field Madura in southern India. In September, 1673, he reached Goa. Before taking up his work he spent thirty days in […]

Read the full article →

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

February 2, 2017

St. Andrew Corsini Of the illustrious Corsini family; born in Florence, in 1302; died 1373. Wild and dissolute in youth, he was startled by the words of his mother about what had happened to her before his birth, and, becoming a Carmelite monk in his native city, began a life of great mortification. He studied […]

Read the full article →

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

February 2, 2017

St. Joseph of Leonessa In the world named Eufranio Desiderio, born in 1556 at Leonessa in Umbria; died 4 February, 1612. From his infancy he showed a remarkably religious bent of mind; he used to erect little altars and spend much time in prayer before them, and often he would gather his companions and induce […]

Read the full article →

February 4 – Probably the most learned man of his age

February 2, 2017

Blessed Maurus Magnentius Rabanus (Hrabanus, Rhabanus) Abbot of Fulda, Archbishop of Mainz, celebrated theological and pedagogical writer of the ninth century, born at Mainz about 776 (784?); died at Winkel (Vinicellum) near Mainz on 4 February, 856. He took vows at an early age in the Benedictine monastery of Fulda, and was ordained deacon in […]

Read the full article →

February 4 – Pope Gregory V

February 2, 2017

Pope Gregory V Born c. 970; died 4 February, 999. On the death of John XV the Romans sent a deputation to Otto III and asked him to name the one he would wish them to elect in the place of the deceased pontiff. He at once mentioned his chaplain and relation, Bruno, the son […]

Read the full article →

February 4 – Patron of Armenia

February 2, 2017

Gregory the Illuminator Born 257?; died 337?, surnamed the Illuminator (Lusavorich). Gregory the Illuminator is the apostle, national saint, and patron of Armenia. He was not the first who introduced Christianity into that country. The Armenians maintain that the faith was preached there by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddaeus. Thaddaeus especially (the hero of the […]

Read the full article →

February 5 – He put the Bible to verse and prose

February 2, 2017

St. Avitus (Alcimus Ecdicius). A distinguished bishop of Vienne, in Gaul, from 490 to about 518, though his death is place by some as late as 525 or 526. He was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman family closely related to the Emperor Avitus and other illustrious persons, and in which episcopal honors were hereditary. In […]

Read the full article →

February 5 – St. Agatha

February 2, 2017

St. Agatha One of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, put to death for her steadfast profession of faith in Catania, Sicily. Although it is uncertain in which persecution this took place, we may accept, as probably based on ancient tradition, the evidence of her legendary life, composed at a later date, […]

Read the full article →

February 5 – St. Adelaide of Cologne

February 2, 2017

St. Adelaide (of Cologne) Abbess, born in the tenth century; died at Cologne, 5 February, 1015. She was daughter of Megingoz, Count of Guelders, and when still very young entered the convent of St. Ursula in Cologne, where the Rule of St. Jerome was followed. When her parents founded the convent of Villich, opposite the […]

Read the full article →

February 6 – Apostle of Flanders

February 2, 2017

St. Amandus One of the great apostles of Flanders; born near Nantes, in France, about the end of the sixth century. He was, apparently, of noble extraction. When a youth of twenty, he fled from his home and became a monk near Tours, resisting all the efforts of his family to withdraw him from his […]

Read the full article →

Changing the Guard Ceremony At Windsor Castle Axed Due To Security Fears

January 30, 2017

According to Heatstreet: …because of concerns that tourists could be a target for jihadists carrying out a truck attack. The popular 45-minute guard ceremony…will no longer take place on Saturdays. It will continue on Mondays, Wednesdays Fridays and Sundays, but only with extra police officers on duty and more streets surrounding the castle blocked to […]

Read the full article →

Queen Elizabeth turns winemaker

January 30, 2017

According to The Telegraph: Her Majesty has…her vineyard on the Windsor Great Park estate, where 16,700 chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier vines were planted on a seven-acre patch back in 2011. By opening her own vineyard, Her Majesty followed in the footsteps of her ancestors as Henry II first cultivated grapes in the 12th […]

Read the full article →

January 31 – St. John Bosco Meets His First Noble Patroness

January 30, 2017

Juliette Colbert, a native of Vendée, had married Marquis Tancredi Falletti of Barolo, and of her it could be said, even as we read of Tabitha in the Acts of the Apostles: “This woman had devoted herself to good works and acts of charity.” Indeed, she used her abundant wealth to help the working classes […]

Read the full article →

January 31 – The Glory of the Ladies

January 30, 2017

St. Marcella (325–410)  She was a Christian ascetic in ancient Rome. Growing up in Rome, she was influenced by her pious mother, Albina, an educated woman of wealth and benevolence. Childhood memories centered around piety, and one in particular related to Athanasius, who lodged in her home during one of his many exiles. He may […]

Read the full article →

February 1 – Immediately after his martyrdom, they lined up to venerate his relics

January 30, 2017

St. Henry Morse Martyr; born in 1595 in Norfolk; died at Tyburn, 1 Feb., 1644. He was received into the church at Douai, 5 June, 1614, after various journeys was ordained at Rome, and left for the mission, 19 June, 1624. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus at Heaton; there he was arrested […]

Read the full article →

February 1 – She and Saint Patrick were “one heart and one mind”

January 30, 2017

Saint Brigid of Ireland Born in 451 or 452 of princely ancestors at Faughart, near Dundalk, County Louth; d. 1 February, 525, at Kildare. Refusing many good offers of marriage, she became a nun and received the veil from St. Macaille. With seven other virgins she settled for a time at the foot of Croghan […]

Read the full article →

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

January 30, 2017

St. Théophane Vénard (JEAN-THÉOPHANE VÉNARD.) French missionary, born at St-Loup, Diocese of Poitiers, 1829; martyred in Tonkin, 2 February, 1861. He studied at the College of Doue-la-Fontaine, Montmorillon, Poitiers, and at the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions which he entered as a sub-deacon. Ordained priest 5 June, 1852, he departed for the Far East, 19 […]

Read the full article →

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

January 30, 2017

St. Lawrence Second Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 2 Feb., 619. For the particulars of his life and pontificate we rely exclusively on details added by medieval writers being unsupported by historical evidence, though they may possibly embody ancient traditions. According to St. Bede, he was one of the original missionaries who left Rome with St. […]

Read the full article →

Love of Neighbor

January 26, 2017

Now to Guy [de Fontgalland], love of his neighbor was as instinctive as love of God, as precocious and as unceasing. On his baby outings to the Bois de Boulogne he used to keep pestering his nurse for sous, not to spend on sweets, but on beggars. No matter how verminous and filthy the outcast […]

Read the full article →

Barbarians, Pagans, Neo-Barbarians, Neo-Pagans

January 26, 2017

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Ambience Customs & Civilization, No. 19 – July 1952 The following article was written in the fifties and refers to a communist youth movement existing at the time. However, one can apply the same logic of the article to modern anarchical movements who likewise adopt an amoral ideology and reject […]

Read the full article →

January 27 – Foundress of the Ursulines

January 26, 2017

St. Angela Merici Foundress of the Ursulines, born 21 March, 1474, at Desenzano, a small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy; died 27 January, 1540, at Brescia. She was left an orphan at the age of ten and together with her elder sister came to the home of her uncle at […]

Read the full article →

January 28 – Great in every sense

January 26, 2017

Charlemagne (French for Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or Carlus Magnus; German Karl der Grosse). The name given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814. At the time of Charles’ birth, his father, Pepin […]

Read the full article →

January 28 – Angelic Doctor, Count

January 26, 2017

St. Thomas Aquinas Philosopher, theologian, doctor of the Church (Angelicus Doctor), patron of Catholic universities, colleges, and schools. Born at Rocca Secca in the Kingdom of Naples, 1225 or 1227; died at Fossa Nuova, 7 March, 1274. I. LIFE The great outlines and all the important events of his life are known, but biographers differ […]

Read the full article →

January 28 – St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia

January 26, 2017

St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia Born at Premariacco, near Cividale, Italy, about 730-40; died 802. Born probably of a Roman family during Longobardic rule in Italy, he was brought up in the patriarchal schools at Cividale. After ordination he became master of the school. He acquired a thorough Latin culture, pagan and Christian. He […]

Read the full article →

January 28 – Larochejacquelein killed by the very men whose lives he spared

January 26, 2017

While Turreau was thus devastating La Vendée, where were Larochejacquelein, Stofflet, and Charette? Had they forgotten their country and its cause—were they deaf to her cries of distress? Charette still fought in the depths of the Marais; Stofflet in the recesses of the Bocage; but Larochejacquelein, the young, the brave, the chivalrous, the peasants’ idol […]

Read the full article →

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

January 26, 2017

St. Gildas Surnamed the Wise; born about 516; died at Houat, Brittany, 570. Sometimes he is called “Badonicus” because, as he tells us, his birth took place the year the Britons gained a famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, near Bath, Somersetshire (493 or 516). The biographies of Gildas exist — one written […]

Read the full article →

January 30 – St. Martina

January 26, 2017

St. Martina Roman virgin, martyred in 226, according to some authorities, more probably in 228, under the pontificate of Pope Urban I, according to others. The daughter of an ex-consul and left an orphan at an early age, she so openly testified to her Christian faith that she could not escape the persecutions under Alexander […]

Read the full article →

January 30 – Cured in body and in soul

January 26, 2017

St. Hyacintha Mariscotti A religious of the Third Order of St. Francis and foundress of the Sacconi; born 1585 of a noble family at Vignanello, near Viterbo in Italy; died 30 January, 1640, at Viterbo; feast, 30 January; in Rome, 6 February (Diarium Romanum). Her parents were Marc’ Antonio Mariscotti (Marius Scotus) and Ottavia Orsini. […]

Read the full article →

January 23 – Mary Ward and the Institute of Mary

January 23, 2017

Mary Ward Foundress, born 23 January, 1585; died 23 January, 1645; eldest daughter of Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright, and connected by blood with most of the great Catholic families of Yorkshire. She entered a convent of Poor Clares at St.-Omer as lay sister in 1606. The following year she founded a house for Englishwomen […]

Read the full article →

January 23 – Saint Emerentiana

January 23, 2017

Saint Emerentiana Virgin and martyr, died at Rome in the third century. The old Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs, after giving the place of burial on the Via Nomentana of St. Agnes, speak of St. Emerentiana. Over the grave of St. Emerentiana a church was built which, according to the Itineraries, was […]

Read the full article →

January 23 – St. Bernard

January 23, 2017

(BARNARD.) Archbishop of Vienne, France. Born in 778; died at Vienne, 23 January, 842. His parents, who lived near Lyons and had large possessions, gave him an excellent education, and Bernard in obedience to the paternal wish, married and became a military officer under Charlemagne. After seven years as a soldier the death of his […]

Read the full article →

January 24 – Guy Pierre de Fontgalland

January 23, 2017

Guy de Fontgalland (November 30, 1913 – January 24, 1925), Servant of God, was regarded in the inter-war period as the youngest potential Catholic saint who was not a martyr. His beatification process was opened on November 15, 1941, and suspended on November 18, 1947.[1] Life Guy de Fontgalland was the son of count Pierre […]

Read the full article →

January 24 – Saintly and Aristocrat

January 23, 2017

St. Francis de Sales Bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Universal Church; born at Thorens, in the Duchy of Savoy, 21 August, 1567; died at Lyons, 28 December, 1622.His father, François de Sales de Boisy, and his mother, Françoise de Sionnaz, belonged to old Savoyard aristocratic families. The future saint was the eldest of six […]

Read the full article →

January 24 – They called him “Ironmonger”

January 23, 2017

Blessed William Ireland (Alias Ironmonger.) Jesuit martyr, born in Lincolnshire, 1636; executed at Tyburn, 24 Jan. (not 3 Feb.), 1679; eldest son of William Ireland of Crofton Hall, Yorkshire, by Barbara, a daughter of Ralph Eure, of Washingborough, Lincolnshire (who is to be distinguished from the last Lord Eure) by his first wife. He was […]

Read the full article →

January 25 – Blessed Teresa Grillo Michel

January 23, 2017

BL. TERESA GRILLO MICHEL was born in Spinetta Marengo (Alessandria), Italy, on 25 September 1855. She was the fifth and last child of Giuseppe, the head physician at the Civil Hospital of Alessandria, and of Maria Antonietta Parvopassau, a descendent of an illustrious family of Alessandria. At Baptism she was given the name of Maddalena. […]

Read the full article →

January 25 – St. Poppo

January 23, 2017

St. Poppo Abbot, born 977; died at Marchiennes, 25 January, 1048. He belonged to a noble family of Flanders; his parents were Tizekinus and Adalwif. About the year 1000 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with two others of his countrymen. Soon after this he also went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He […]

Read the full article →

January 25 – St. Ildephonsus

January 23, 2017

St. Ildephonsus Archbishop of Toledo; died 23 January, 667. He was born of a distinguished family and was a nephew of St. Eugenius, his predecessor in the See of Toledo. At an early age, despite the determined opposition of his father, he embraced the monastic life in the monastery of Agli, near Toledo. While he […]

Read the full article →

January 26 – She was from one of the first families of Rome

January 23, 2017

St. Paula Born in Rome, 347; died at Bethlehem, 404. She belonged to one of the first families of Rome. Left a widow in 379 at the age of 32 she became, through the influence of St. Marcella and her group, the model of Christian widows. In 382 took place her decisive meeting with St. […]

Read the full article →

Catholic King Kigeli V buried in Rwanda

January 19, 2017

According to Deutsche Welle: The last king of Rwanda, Kigeli V, was buried…more than two months after his death in the United States, aged 80. King Kigeli was buried in Nyanza district, southern Rwanda, near the grave of his predecessor… His remains were returned to Rwanda only after a court battle over where he should […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →