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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October 12 – Martyr King

October 10, 2016

St. Edwin The first Christian King of Northumbria, born about 585, son of Aella, King of Deira, the southern division of Northumbria; died October 12, 633. Upon Aella’s death in 588, the sovereignty over both divisions of Northumbria was usurped by Ethebric of Bernicia, and retained at his death by his son Ethelfrid; Edwin, Aella’s […]

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October 7 – How the Rosary saved Christendom

October 6, 2016

By Jeremias Wells The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary Here is but a small fraction of the victories directly obtained from God through the Holy Rosary: The Battle of Lepanto which saved Rome and Vienna, and thus the Pope and the Emperor, from Moslem subjugation The deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski The victory […]

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He once called for the Royal Family to be publicly executed in effigy, but now…

October 6, 2016

According to PoliticsHome: Claims that John McDonnell will not have to kneel when he joins the Privy Council have been dismissed by sources close to the ancient advisory body. Mr McDonnell was approved by the Queen as a privy counsellor yesterday and will take part in the swearing in ceremony in the coming days. In […]

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Language seems 20 times more important than republican form of government

October 6, 2016

According to the Luxemburger Wort: The author of Petition 703…requests that the public be asked if they wish to retain the Grand Ducal family, which is “designated by heredity and where citizens have no say in the appointment of a head of state”. Alternatively, he asks if they would prefer to have a republic, with […]

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Video: Constable’s Installation at the Tower of London

October 6, 2016
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The Church is not a “Labor Party”

October 6, 2016

Let us remember the well-known saying of Voltaire: “Oh! God, free me from my friends, that from my enemies I may be free.” May God free the poor from their strange friends of the left… When illuminated by the light of Christ and the smile of Mary, poverty is composed, dignified, reserved, suave, and discreetly […]

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Lepanto: Turkish might buckles in the grandest naval battle of History

October 6, 2016

The Turkish fleet came on imposing and terrible, all sails set, impelled by a fair wind, and it was only half a mile from the line of galliasses and another mile from the line of the Christian ships. D. John waited no longer; he humbly crossed himself, and ordered that the cannon of challenge should […]

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October 9 – Superb and valiant knight

October 6, 2016

Baron Athanase-Charles-Marie Charette de la Contrie Born at Nantes, 3 Sept., 1832; died at Basse-Motte (Ille-et-Vilaine), 9 Oct., 1911. His father was a nephew of the famous General Charette who was shot at Nantes, 29 March, 1795, during the rising of the Vendee. His mother, Louise, Countess de Vierzon, was the daughter of the Duc […]

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October 9 – Royal penitent

October 6, 2016

Bl. Gunther A hermit in Bohemia in the eleventh century; born about 955; died at Hartmanitz, Bohemia, 9 Oct., 1045. The son of a noble family, he was a cousin of St. Stephen, the King of Hungary, and is numbered among the ancestors of the princely house of Schwarzburg. He passed the earlier of his […]

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October 9 – Even in his lifetime his reputation was for great holiness and miraculous powers

October 6, 2016

St. John Twenge Canon regular, Prior of St. Mary’s, Bridlington, born near the town, 1319; died at Bridlington, 1379. He was of the Yorkshire family Twenge, which family in Reformation days supplied two priest-martyrs and was also instrumental in establishing the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Bar Convent, York. John completed his studies […]

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October 9 – St. Louis Bertrand

October 6, 2016

St. Louis Bertrand Born at Valencia, Spain, 1 Jan., 1526; died 9 Oct., 1581. His patents were Juan Bertrand and Juana Angela Exarch. Through his father he was related to the illustrious St. Vincent Ferrer, the great thaumaturgus of the Dominican Order. The boyhood of the saint was unattended by any of the prodigies that […]

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October 10 – St. Paulinus, Archbishop of York

October 6, 2016

St. Paulinus Archbishop of York, died at Rochester, 10 October, 644. He was a Roman monk in St. Andrew’s monastery at Rome, and was sent by St. Gregory the Great in 601, with St. Mellitus and others, to help St. Augustine and to carry the pallium to him. He laboured in Kent — with the […]

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October 10 – How to overcome bad ancestry

October 6, 2016

St. Francis Borgia (also known as Francisco de Borja y Aragon), born 28 October, 1510, was the son of Juan Borgia, third Duke of Gandia, and of Juana of Aragon; died 30 September, 1572. The future saint was unhappy in his ancestry. His grandfather, Juan Borgia, the second son of Alexander VI, was assassinated in Rome […]

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Who Was Christopher Columbus, and Why Is He Important?

October 6, 2016

Christopher Columbus (Italian CRISTOFORO COLOMBO; Spanish CRISTOVAL COLON.) Born at Genoa, or on Genoese territory, probably 1451; died at Valladolid, Spain, 20 May 1506. His family was respectable, but of limited means, so that the early education of Columbus was defective. Up to his arrival in Spain (1485) only one date has been preserved. His […]

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Columbus, and how to make Key Lime Pie

October 6, 2016

When Christopher Columbus discovered the New World on October 12, 1492–a feat that earned for him the title of Admiral of the Indies and for his grandson Louis and his descendants in perpetuity the noble title of Duke of Veragua–he introduced into the Americas the greatest treasure possible: the Catholic Faith… Read more here.

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October 13 – King Confessor

October 6, 2016

St. Edward the Confessor Saint, King of England, born in 1003; died January 5, 1066. He was the son of Ethelred II and Emma, daughter of Duke Richard of Normandy, being thus half-brother to King Edmund Ironside, Ethelred’s son by his first wife, and to King Hardicanute, Emma’s son by her second marriage with Canute. […]

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Prince Charles leads memorial to fallen police officers

October 4, 2016

According to BBC News: Police officers who “paid the ultimate sacrifice” by dying in the line of duty have been commemorated at a service… About 2,000 people attended the National Police Memorial Day ceremony, led by Prince Charles. The Prince of Wales said the “security challenges of today” emphasised the importance of the police. Prince […]

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France calls for remains of King Charles X to be returned from Slovenia

October 4, 2016

According to The Guardian: …an association of historians, royalists and descendants launched a campaign to have Charles X’s remains returned… He was buried in the Franciscan Kostanjevica monastery, now in Nova Gorica, Slovenia. He is the only French king not buried in France. …a letter was being sent to the Slovenian embassy in Paris this […]

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October 4 – He chose a greater chivalry

October 3, 2016

St. Francis of Assisi Founder of the Franciscan Order, born at Assisi in Umbria, in 1181 or 1182 — the exact year is uncertain; died there, 3 October, 1226. His father, Pietro Bernardone, was a wealthy Assisian cloth merchant. Of his mother, Pica, little is known, but she is said to have belonged to a […]

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October 4 – He copied the Church of the Holy Sepulchre

October 3, 2016

St. Petronius Bishop of Bologna, date of birth unknown; died before 450. The only certain historical information we possess concerning him is derived from a letter written by Bishop Eucherius of Lyons (died 450-5) to Valerianus (in P. L., L, 711 sqq.) and from Gennadius’ “De viris illustribus”, XLI (ed. Czapla, Münster, 1898, p. 94). […]

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October 5 – St. Galla

October 3, 2016

A Roman widow of the sixth century; feast, 5 October. According to St. Gregory the Great (Dial. IV, ch. xiii) she was the daughter of the younger Symmachus, a learned and virtuous patrician of Rome, whom Theodoric had unjustly condemned to death (525). Becoming a widow before the end of the first year of her […]

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October 5 – Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos

October 3, 2016

Francis X. Seelos Born at Füssen, Bavaria, 11 January, 1819; died at New Orleans, La., 4 Oct., 1867. When a child, asked by his mother what he intended to be, he pointed to the picture of his patron, St. Francis Xavier, and said: “I’m going to be another St. Francis.” He pursued his studies in […]

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October 6 – Princes and popes coveted the advice of this silent man

October 3, 2016

St. Bruno Confessor, ecclesiastical writer, and founder of the Carthusian Order. He was born at Cologne about the year 1030; died 6 October, 1101. He is usually represented with a death’s head in his hands, a book and a cross, or crowned with seven stars; or with a roll bearing the device O Bonitas. His […]

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Three year old Prince George rejects egalitarian forms of greeting

September 29, 2016

According to The Telegraph: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau failed to get a high five from Prince George when he arrived in Canada with his sister and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their royal tour. To read the entire article in The Telegraph, please click here.  

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American Elite, Papal Aristocrat

September 29, 2016

Countess Annie Leary Leary, Annie, philanthropist, was born about 1860, in New York City, daughter of James and Catherine Leary, who were also born in New York. She is descended on her mother’s side from Holland—Dutch ancestors, while her paternal grandfather came from Ireland to the United States during his boyhood. In early childhood Miss […]

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Hopes, delays, failures, and struggles in forming an order of Chivalry

September 29, 2016

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The TFP is large today, but it was once very small. What a long way it has come! No one here felt this more than me. I lived [with this hope] between ages 10 and 20. For a child, a year is an eternity! All of you remember as children […]

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September 30 – The cantankerous noble who became a saint

September 29, 2016

St. Jerome, Father and Doctor of the Church Born at Stridon, a town on the confines of Dalmatia and Pannonia, about the year 340-2; died at Bethlehem, 30 September, 420. Read more here.

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October 1 – St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Chapter VI: A Pilgrimage to Rome & Chapter VII: The Little Flower Enters the Carmel

September 29, 2016

ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX Excerpts from THE STORY OF A SOUL: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF ST. THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX SOEUR THÉRÈSE OF LISIEUX, THE LITTLE FLOWER OF JESUS ______________________________ PROLOGUE: THE PARENTAGE & BIRTH OF MARIE FRANÇOISE THÉRÈSE MARTIN and CHAPTER ONE – EARLIEST MEMORIES CHAPTER II: A CATHOLIC HOUSEHOLD and CHAPTER III: PAULINE ENTERS THE […]

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October 1 – The martial and pious death of Don John of Austria: “A man sent by God”

September 29, 2016

Alarm was ended on the fourth day, seeing that the fever and other ills left D. John. But the next day, which was a Saturday, he suddenly grew worse, and while the other invalids went on getting better and became convalescent, he showed other symptoms of a strange illness, palpitations which made him get up […]

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October 1 – The Hon. George Spencer

September 29, 2016

(In religion, Ignatius of St. Paul). Passionist, born at the Admiralty, London, 21 Dec., 1799; died at Carstairs, Scotland, 1 Oct., 1864. He was the youngest son of the second Earl Spencer and Lavinia, daughter of Sir Charles Bingham. From Eton he went to Trinity College, Cambridge, received Anglican orders, 13 June, 1824, and became […]

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