November 1 – For saving her people, she was made their judge

October 31, 2016

Deborah the Prophetess (also known as Debbora the Judge, Deborah the Matriarch) Prophetess and judge: she was the wife of Lapidoth and was endowed by God with prophetic gifts which secured for her the veneration of the divided Israelitic tribes and gave her great authority over them. Her wisdom was first displayed in settling litigious […]

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November 2 – His mother celebrated his death as if it were a wedding

October 31, 2016

Blessed John Bodey Martyr, born at Wells, Somerset: 1549; died at Andover, Wilts., 2 November, 1583. He studied at Winchester and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568. In June, 1576, he was deprived, with seven other Fellows, by the Visitor, Horne, Protestant Bishop of Winchester. Next year he went to […]

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The Institution Of All Souls Day

October 31, 2016

It was St. Odilo of Cluny who first appointed one day every year to be set aside in a special manner for prayer for the faithful departed. It happened that a certain religious belonging to France was returning home from Palestine, where he had gone to visit the places consecrated by the foot steps of […]

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November 3 – Patron of Buckingham

October 31, 2016

St. Rumwold of Buckingham His father was king of Northumberland, his mother a daughter of Penda, king of the Mercians. He was born at Sutthun, and baptized by Widerin, a bishop, the holy priest Eadwold being his godfather. He died very young on the 3rd of November and was buried in Sutthun by Eadwold. The […]

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November 3 – Patron of hunting

October 31, 2016

St. Hubert Confessor, thirty-first Bishop of Maastricht, first Bishop of Liège, and Apostle of the Ardennes, born about 656; died at Fura (the modern Tervueren), Brabant, 30 May, 727 or 728. He was honored in the Middle Ages as the patron of huntsmen, and the healer of hydrophobia (rabies). He was the eldest son of […]

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November 3 – The Battle of Mentana

October 31, 2016

It was a dark and gloomy morning, pouring rain, when this little army of some five thousand men filed out of the Porta Pia in a colorful parade, Pius IX’s Swiss General Rafael de Courten’s papal troops leading and the French contingent bringing up the rear…. Famous since classical times as a suburban retreat some […]

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The untold story of the Titanic’s Catholic priest who went down hearing confessions

October 27, 2016

By Patrick B. Craine – Associate Editor and Canadian Bureau Chief for LifeSiteNews.com Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told. It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to […]

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Revolutionary Egalitarianism

October 27, 2016

By Plinio Correa de Oliveira There is a revolutionary egalitarianism whose first herald was the devil when he professed his “non serviam” and which consists in demeaning, debasing and degrading all things out of hatred for any hierarchy, authority or prominence. Throughout the crisis opened with Protestantism and brought to a head by communism, the […]

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October 28 – Saint, Soldier, Statesman

October 27, 2016

Saint Alfred the Great In this incomparable prince were united the saint, the soldier, and the statesman in a most eminent degree. Sir Henry Spelman (Conc. Brit.) gives us his character in a rapture. “O, Alfred,” says he, “the wonder and astonishment of all ages! If we reflect on his piety and religion, it would […]

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October 28 – Uncommon Valor

October 27, 2016

Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor By Jeremias Wells When a society no longer respects and honors the fighting men willing to shed their blood for its principles, the fault lies not with the fighting men but with society itself. Ingratitude is a subtle vice, but a vice nevertheless. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that a […]

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October 29 – King turned monk, his people begged him to lead them in battle against Penda

October 27, 2016

Saint Sigebert King and martyr, date of birth unknown; died about 637, was the stepbrother of Earpwald, king of the East Angles. During the reign of Redwald he lived an exile in Gaul where he received baptism and became an ardent Christian. Earpwald died about 627, and East Anglia seems to have relapsed into anarchy […]

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October 30 – Patroness of the Teutonic Knights

October 27, 2016

St. Dorothea of Montau, recluse, born at Montau, 6 February, 1347, died at Marienwerder, 25 June, 1394. At the age of seventeen she married the sword-cutler Albrecht of Danzig, a hot-tempered man, whose nature underwent a change through her humility and gentleness. Both made frequent pilgrimages to Cologne, Aachen, and Einsiedeln, and they intended (1390) […]

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October 30 – St. Marcellus the Centurion, Martyr

October 27, 2016

St. Marcellus the Centurion, Martyr The birthday of the emperor Maximian Herculeus was celebrated in the year 298, with extraordinary feasting and solemnity. Pompous sacrifices to the Roman gods made a considerable part of this solemnity. Marcellus, a Christian centurion or captain of the legion of Trajan, then posted in Spain, not to defile himself […]

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October 31 – He forced the devil to build a church

October 27, 2016

St. Wolfgang Bishop of Ratisbon (972-994), born about 934; died at the village of Pupping in upper Austria, 31 October, 994. The name Wolfgang is of early German origin. St. Wolfgang was one of the three brilliant stars of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfgang, which illuminated the early medieval period […]

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Prince Charles backs buying British

October 24, 2016

According to the Telegraph: Prince Charles has backed buying British as he asked whisky makers in a new distillery in the Outer Hebrides why his £10 gin glasses were made in Poland and not UK. The Isle of Harris Distillery’s gin is contained in distinctive bottles made in Yorkshire by specialist manufacturer Stolzle Glass Group. Charles also sealed a cask […]

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Queen Elizabeth is now the longest reigning monarch

October 24, 2016

According to BBC: The death of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej means Queen Elizabeth II of Britain and the Commonwealth Realms becomes the world’s longest-reigning monarch. But, after her, who are the world’s other longest-reigning monarchs? Click here to find out!  

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Duchess of Cambridge ‘immensely proud’ of code-cracker grandma

October 24, 2016

According to ibtimes.com.au: Kate Middleton’s grandmother was a code-cracker for Britain who helped foil Adolf Hitler. The Duchess of Cambridge has paid tribute to Valerie Glassborow, who was one of the many young women who worked at the Bletchley Park code-breaking station during World War II. “I have always been immensely proud of my grandmother, […]

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October 25 – St. Cuthbert Mayne

October 24, 2016

St. Cuthbert Mayne Martyr, born at Yorkston, near Barnstaple, Devonshire (baptized 20 March, 1543-4); died at Launceston, Cornwall, 29 Nov., 1577. He was the son of William Mayne; his uncle was a schismatical priest, who had him educated at Barnstaple Grammar School, and he was ordained a Protestant minister at the age of eighteen or […]

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October 25 – Memorial of Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, Many of Them Nobles

October 24, 2016

February 1 – Immediately after his martyrdom, they lined up to venerate his relics February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest? May 4 – They believed in the religious exemption, but only at first May 22 – Queen’s Confessor                June 19 – Execution of second group of those who believed in the religious exemption, […]

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October 25 – Crispin and Crispian and the baron of Renty

October 24, 2016

Martyrs of the Early Church who were beheaded during the reign of Diocletian; the date of their execution is given as 25 October, 285 or 286. It is stated that they were brothers, but the fact has not been positively proved. The legend relates that they were Romans of distinguished descent who went as missionaries […]

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October 25 – The original hood

October 24, 2016

Hugh Capet King of France, founder of the Capetian dynasty, born about the middle of the tenth century; died about 996, probably 24 October. He was the second son of Hugh the Great, Count of Paris, and Hedwig, sister of Otto I, German Emperor, and was about ten years old when he inherited from his […]

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October 26 – Their black magic could not withstand the sign of the cross

October 24, 2016

Sts. Lucian and Marcian Lucian and Marcian living in the darkness of idolatry applied themselves to the vain study of the black art; but were converted to the faith by finding their charms lose their power upon a Christian virgin, and the evil spirits defeated by the sign of the cross. Their eyes being thus […]

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October 26 – Laid to rest next to St. Peter

October 24, 2016

Pope Saint Evaristus Date of birth unknown; died about 107. In the Liberian Catalogue his name is given as Aristus. In papal catalogues of the second century used by Irenaeus and Hippolytus, he appears as the fourth successor of St. Peter, immediately after St. Clement. The same lists allow him eight years of reign, covering […]

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October 27 – Apostle of Africa

October 24, 2016

Sts. Edesius and Frumentius Tyrian Greeks of the fourth century, probably brothers, who introduced Christianity into Abyssinia; the latter a saint and first Bishop of Axum, styled the Apostle of Abyssinia, d. about 383. When still mere boys they accompanied their uncle Metropius on a voyage to Abyssinia. When their ship stopped at one of […]

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October 27 – The Christian King Who Invaded Arabia

October 24, 2016

St. Elesbaan, King of Ethiopia, Confessor The Axumite Ethiopians, whose dominions were extended from the western coast of the Red Sea, very far on the continent, were in the sixth century a powerful and flourishing nation. St. Elesbaan their king, during the reign of Justin the Elder, in all his actions and designs had no […]

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No nation can survive long without decent men and women at the helm

October 20, 2016

According to the National Review: What happens to a nation when the worst elements of the elite prevail? We’re finding out now. …while a nation can drift along guided by such an elite for a time, it cannot do so indefinitely. Even the most virtuous citizenry can and will suffer greatly when its leaders lack […]

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Siege of Sziget, 1556

October 20, 2016

THE SIEGE OF SZIGET In the voluminous annals of warfare there are few events marked by circumstances of a more romantic kind than those which occurred at the siege of Sziget, in 1556. The Hungarian fortress of Sziget, or Szigetvar, which means the town of islands, was about two leagues from Funfkirchen, and derived its […]

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A crusade against the false crusade with commercial purposes

October 20, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira It is entirely certain – all historians say so – and it is obvious that many crusades were made by emperors or kings with commercial purposes. They would promote war against the occupation of the Holy Land but had political designs of earthly dominance and commercial purposes. If we had […]

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October 21 – Hammer of Muslim invaders

October 20, 2016

Charles Martel Born about 688; died at Quierzy on the Oise, 21 October, 741. He was the natural son of Pepin of Herstal and a woman named Alpaïde or Chalpaïde. Pepin, who died in 714, had outlived his two legitimate sons, Drogon and Grimoald, and to Theodoald, a son of the latter and then only […]

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October 21 – Blessed Karl, Emperor of Austria

October 20, 2016

(Also known as Carlo d’Austria, Charles of Austria) Born August 17, 1887, in the Castle of Persenbeug in the region of Lower Austria, his parents were the Archduke Otto and Princess Maria Josephine of Saxony, daughter of the last King of Saxony. Emperor Francis Joseph I was Charles’ Great Uncle… Read more here.

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October 21 – The Tale of Saint Ursula

October 20, 2016

Once upon a time, there was once a just and most Christian King of Britain, called Maurus. To him and to his wife Daria was born a little girl, the fairest creature that this earth ever saw. She came into the world wrapped in a hairy mantle, and all men wondered greatly what this might […]

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October 22 – St. Wendelin of Trier

October 20, 2016

St. Wendelin of Trier Born about 554; died probably in 617. His earliest biographies, two in Latin and two in German, did not appear until after 1417. Their narrative is the following: Wendelin was the son of a Scottish king; after a piously spent youth he secretly left his home on a pilgrimage to Rome. […]

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October 23 – Made eunuch because he was prince

October 20, 2016

St. Ignatius of Constantinople Born about 799; died 23 October, 877; son of Emperor Michael I and Procopia. His name, originally Nicetas, was changed at the age of fourteen to Ignatius. Leo the Armenian having deposed the Emperor Michael (813), made Ignatius a eunuch and incarcerated him in a monastery, that he might not become […]

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October 23 – Gentle Birth, But Not Gentle Death

October 20, 2016

Blessed Thomas Thwing Martyr. Born at Heworth Hall, near York, in 1635; suffered at York, 23 Oct., 1680. His father was George Thwing, Esq., of Kilton Castle and Heworth, nephew of Venerable Edward Thwing; his mother was Anne, sister of the venerable confessor Sir Thomas Gasciogne, of Barnbrow Hall. Educated at Douai, he was sent […]

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October 23 – The amazing story of San Juan Capistrano and the Siege of Belgrade

October 20, 2016

St. John of Capistrano Born at Capistrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, Italy, 1385; died 23 October, 1456. His father had come to Naples in the train of Louis of Anjou, hence is supposed to have been of French blood, though some say he was of German origin. His father dying early, John owed his […]

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October 24 – Confessor to the Queen

October 20, 2016

St. Antonio María Claret y Clará Spanish prelate and missionary, born at Sallent, near Barcelona, 23 Dec., 1807; died at Fontfroide, Narbonne, France, on 24 Oct., 1870. Son of a small woollen manufacturer, he received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a weaver. A little later he […]

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Rwanda’s Last Monarch Dies in United States

October 17, 2016

According to Chimpreports: Kigeli Jean-Baptiste Ndahindurwa, the last ruling King of Rwanda, has passed away in the United States. Ndahindura was…Monarch…from…1959 until…1961. He fled into exile in the US where he has lived since. In the US he was known for heading the King Kigeli V Foundation, which aimed at promoting and expanding humanitarian work […]

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October 18 – A day that sparked the Crusades

October 17, 2016

Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre On October 18, 1009, under Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, orders for the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection, were carried out. The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places […]

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October 18 – Adopted nobility

October 17, 2016

Pope Pius III (Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini). B. at Siena, 29 May, 1439; elected 22 Sept., 1503; d. in Rome, 18 Oct., 1503, after a pontificate of four weeks. Piccolomini was the son of a sister of Pius II. He had passed his boyhood in destitute circumstances when his uncle took him into his household, bestowed […]

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October 19 – Barefoot from Spain to Rome

October 17, 2016

St. Peter of Alcántara Born at Alcántara, Spain, 1499; died 18 Oct., 1562. His father, Peter Garavita, was the governor of the place, and his mother was of the noble family of Sanabia. After a course of grammar and philosophy in his native town, he was sent, at the age of fourteen, to the University […]

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October 19 – Prayer was his crime

October 17, 2016

Saint Philip Howard Martyr, Earl of Arundel; born at Arundel House, London, 28 June 1557, died in the Tower of London, 19 October, 1595. He was the grandson of Henry, Earl of Surrey, the poet, executed by Henry VIII in 1547, and son of Thomas, Duke of Norfolk executed by Elizabeth 1572. Philip II of […]

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October 19 – Founding Fathers

October 17, 2016

St. Isaac Jogues French missionary, born at Orléans, France, 10 January, 1607; martyred at Ossernenon, in the present State of New York, 18 October, 1646. He was the first Catholic priest who ever came to Manhattan Island (New York). He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and, after having been professor of literature at […]

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October 20 – Emperor Marcian

October 17, 2016

Marcian (Marcianus, Μαρκιᾶνος), Roman Emperor at Constantinople, born in Thrace about 390; died January, 457. He became a soldier; during his early life he was poor, and it is said that he arrived at Constantinople with only two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed. He served in the army under Ardaburius the Alan […]

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Maria Teresa and Stéphanie Honour Our Lady of Luxembourg

October 13, 2016

According to © Luxarazzi 2009-2016. This year was a special one for the city of Luxembourg. 350 years ago, on October 10, 1666, Mary, Mother of Jesus, Comforter of the Afflicted, was elected the patroness of the city of Luxembourg. Twelve years later, she became the patroness of the whole country. Since the Octave of […]

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Prince George Wears Shorts Because of Tradition

October 13, 2016

According to Vanity Fair Harper’s Bazaar U.K. did some investigating and learned the rationale behind George’s out-of-the-ordinary garb. The reason the toddler prince is forever in shorts harkens back to a very Fiddler on the Roof reason: tradition. “It’s a very English thing to dress a young boy in shorts,” etiquette expert William Hanson told […]

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University considers banning the National Anthem from graduation ceremonies – because of its links to ‘increasing far right nationalism’

October 13, 2016

According to themuslimissue A student leader has launched a campaign to stop the national anthem being played at graduation ceremonies at one of Britain’s top higher education institutions. Mahamed Abdullahi, an elected officer who represents 27,000 students at King’s College London students’ union, said that performing God Save the Queen is inappropriate given the rise […]

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Of That Which Happened To A King and His Favorite

October 13, 2016

When Count Lucanor was once in confidential conversation with Patronio, his adviser, he said, “Patronio, a man of rank, much honored and of great influence, and who, you must know, is a particular friend of mine, a few days since informed me, in strict confidence, that, from circumstances which have occurred, he had determined upon […]

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Sacred Scripture Praises Wars Against the Enemies of the Faith

October 13, 2016

What Popes, Saints, Doctors and Theologians Think Regarding the Lawfulness of War (contd.) Sacred Scripture Praises Wars Against the Enemies of the Faith Francisco Suárez, S.J., a theologian of renowned authority in traditional Catholic thought, writes in De Bello, his famous compendium of the Church’s doctrine on war: War, in itself, is not intrinsically evil, […]

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October 15 – Interior Castle

October 13, 2016

St. Teresa of Avila Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, born at Avila, Old Castile, 28 March, 1515; died at Alba de Tormes, 4 Oct., 1582. The third child of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda by his second wife, Doña Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, who died when the saint was in her fourteenth year, Teresa […]

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October 15 – Second Apostle of the Prussians

October 13, 2016

St. Bruno of Querfurt (Also called BRUN and BONIFACE). Second Apostle of the Prussians and martyr, born about 970; died 14 February, 1009. He is generally represented with a hand cut off, and is commemorated on 15 October. Bruno was a member of the noble family of Querfurt and is commonly said to have been […]

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October 15 – Casimir Pulaski

October 13, 2016

Casimir Pulaski Patriot and soldier, born at Winiary, Poland, 4 March, 1748; died on the Wasp, in the harbour of Savannah, 11 Oct., 1779; eldest son of Count Joseph Pulaski and Maria Zislinska. His father, a noted jurist, reared him for the bar, and he received his military training, as a youth, in the guard […]

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October 16 – Marie Antoinette

October 13, 2016

Queen of France. Born at Vienna, 2 November, 1755; executed in Paris, 16 October, 1793. She was the youngest daughter of Francis I, German Emperor, and of Maria Theresa. The marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette was one of the last acts of Choiseul’s policy; but the Dauphiness from the first shared the unpopularity […]

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October 16 – Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and Capetian Widow

October 13, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Most Reverend Monsignor Director of this Academy, Gentlemen Academicians: A simple listing of the titles with which she was known during her short life as Marie Antoinette of Habsburg, and later Marie Antoinette of Bourbon, brings to memory the series of extraordinary and unforeseen events that together make up the […]

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October 16 – Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

October 13, 2016

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Religious of the Visitation Order. Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born at Lhautecour, France, 22 July, 1647; died at Paray-le-Monial, 17 October, 1690. Her parents, Claude Alacoque and Philiberte Lamyn, were distinguished less for temporal possessions than for their virtue, which gave them an honourable position. […]

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October 16 – Duchess and saint

October 13, 2016

St. Hedwig Duchess of Silesia, born about 1174, at the castle of Andechs; died at Trebnitz, 12 or 15 October, 1243. She was one of eight children born to Berthold IV, Count of Andechs and Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. Of her four brothers, two became bishops, Ekbert of Bamberg, and Berthold of Aquileia; Otto […]

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October 17 – The Battle of Cholet

October 13, 2016

The Battle of Cholet was fought on 17 October 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French Republican forces under General Léchelle and French Royalist Forces under Louis d’Elbée. The battle was fought in the town of Cholet in the Maine-et-Loire department of France, and resulted in a Republican victory. D’Elbée was wounded and captured; […]

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October 17 – Leadership means self-sacrifice

October 13, 2016

St. Ignatius of Antioch Also called Theophorus (ho Theophoros); born in Syria, around the year 50; died at Rome between 98 and 117. More than one of the earliest ecclesiastical writers have given credence, though apparently without good reason, to the legend that Ignatius was the child whom the Savior took up in His arms, […]

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October 11 – Model Archduke, both spiritual and temporal

October 10, 2016

St. Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne Bruno the Great (or Bruno I) (925–965) was Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, from 953 until his death, and Duke of Lotharingia from 954. He was the brother of Otto I, king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor. Bruno was the youngest son of Henry the Fowler and […]

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October 11 – He dared step into the gap during the crisis

October 10, 2016

Pope Boniface VIII (BENEDETTO GAETANO) Born at Anagni about 1235; died at Rome, 11 October, 1303. Benedetto Cardinal Gaetano strongly advised Pope Celestine V to issue a constitution, either before or simultaneously with his abdication, declaring the legality of a papal resignation and the competency of the College of Cardinals to accept it. Ten days […]

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October 12 – Difficulties in his youth prepared him for later trials

October 10, 2016

St. Wilfrid Bishop of York, son of a Northumbrian thegn, born in 634; died at Oundle in Northamptonshire, 709. He was unhappy at home, through the unkindness of a stepmother, and in his fourteenth year he was sent away to the Court of King Oswy, King of Northumbria. Here he attracted the attention of Queen […]

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