The Crusades: Born from indignation at seeing Christ’s sweetness rejected

June 23, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Question: This provides the substance of the crusading spirit, which passes first by this compassion for Our Lord, isn’t it? Yes, but keep well in mind what this compassion is. It is a compassion that, facing the uselessness of everything, asks that order be reestablished through punishment and reparation; and […]

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June 25 – Simon de Montfort

June 23, 2016

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

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June 25 – St. William of Vercelli

June 23, 2016

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

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June 26 – Chartreuse is not only a drink

June 23, 2016

St. Anthelm of Belley (1107 – 1178) Prior of the Carthusian Grand Chartreuse and bishop of Belley. He was born near Chambéry in 1107. He would later receive an ecclesiastical benefice in the area of Belley. When he was thirty years old, he resigned from this position to become a Carthusian monk at Portes. Only […]

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June 27 – Chivalrous King

June 23, 2016

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

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

June 23, 2016

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

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Similarities and Differences Among Men Find Their Allotted Place in the Absolute Order of Being

June 23, 2016

From the 1942 Christmas message of Pius XII: If the life of society involves inner unity, it does not, however, preclude differences which are upheld by reality and nature. Yet when one looks to God, the supreme regulator of all that concerns man, then men’s similarities as well as differences find their proper place in […]

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Prince William Gets Scolded by Queen Elizabeth II

June 20, 2016

According to Us Weekly: During the Trooping the Colour ceremony on Saturday, June 11, Queen Elizabeth quickly reminded her grandson Prince William who runs the show.

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June 21 – He Was More Angel than Man

June 20, 2016

St. Aloysius Gonzaga Aloysius Gonzaga was son of Ferdinand Gonzaga, prince of the holy empire, and marquis of Castiglione, removed in the third degree of kindred from the duke of Mantua. His mother was Martha Tana Santena, daughter of Tanus Santena, lord of Cherry, in Piedmont. She was lady of honor to Isabel, the wife […]

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June 22 – St. John Fisher

June 20, 2016

St. John Fisher Cardinal, Bishop of Rochester, and martyr; born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, 1459 (?1469); died 22 June, 1535. John was the eldest son of Robert Fisher, merchant of Beverley, and Agnes his wife. His early education was probably received in the school attached to the collegiate church in his native town, whence in […]

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June 22 – St. Thomas More

June 20, 2016

St. Thomas More Saint, knight, Lord Chancellor of England, author and martyr, born in London, 7 February, 1477-78; executed at Tower Hill, 6 July, 1535. He was the sole surviving son of Sir John More, barrister and later judge, by his first wife Agnes, daughter of Thomas Graunger. While still a child Thomas was sent […]

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June 22 – St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola

June 20, 2016

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

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June 22 – Saint Alban, proto-martyr of Britain

June 20, 2016

St. Alban First martyr of Britain, suffered c. 304. The commonly received account of the martyrdom of St. Alban meets us as early as the pages of Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History” (Bk. I, chs. vii and xviii). According to this, St. Alban was a pagan living at Verulamium (now the town of St. Albans in Hertfordshire), […]

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

June 20, 2016

St. Etheldreda Queen of Northumbria; born (probably) about 630; died at Ely, 23 June, 679. While still very young she was given in marriage by her father, Anna, King of East Anglia, to a certain Tonbert, a subordinate prince, from whom she received as morning gift a tract of land locally known as the Isle […]

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The Inequality of Rights Is Legitimate

June 20, 2016

Pius XI affirms in the encyclical Divini Redemptoris, of March 19, 1937: “It is not true that all have equal rights in civil society. It is not true that there exists no lawful social hierarchy.” Rev. Joseph Jusslein, S.J., ed., Social Wellsprings (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1942), Vol. 2, p. 354 in Plinio Corrêa de […]

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Chivalry’s radiating brilliance was the idea that the Holy Sepulcher was being profaned and needed to be liberated

June 16, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira This issue is so holy that one feels like delving into it on one’s knees for fear of not dealing with it as one should; but in any case we can see something in this sense. The point that radiates the beauty of chivalry is the idea that the Holy […]

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The Scotch Bawbee

June 16, 2016

In Scotland the halfpenny is called a “bawbee,” but how it came to receive that name is not a matter of common knowledge. It appears that the first attempt at the portraiture of the unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots was made in her earliest infancy, and her “wee” face was engraved upon the Scottish halfpennies […]

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June 17 – Sobieski

June 16, 2016

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

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June 17 – Founder of the Albertines

June 16, 2016

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

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

June 16, 2016

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

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

June 16, 2016

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

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June 19 – St. Jean-Louis Bonnard

June 16, 2016

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

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June 19 – St. François-Isidore Gagelin

June 16, 2016

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

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

June 16, 2016

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

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June 19 – Bl. Odo of Cambrai

June 16, 2016

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

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June 19 – Love Accepts No Limitations

June 16, 2016

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

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

June 16, 2016

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

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One Should Not Excite Animosity Against the Rich, Inciting the Masses to the Inversion of Order in Society

June 16, 2016

In a letter of June 5, 1929, to the Most Reverend Achille Liénart, Bishop of Lille, the Sacred Congregation of the Council recalls principles of Catholic social doctrine and practical directives of a moral order, issued from the supreme ecclesiastical authority. “Those who boast of the name Christian, be they taken in isolation or as […]

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Video: Trooping the Colour 2016

June 13, 2016

Highlights from Trooping the Colour 2016, also known as The Queen’s birthday parade. On Saturday Queen Elizabeth II and her family marked her official 90th birthday with a parade, a colorful military ceremony and an appearance on the Buckingham Palace balcony. One-year-old Princess Charlotte made her first appearance on the balcony near the queen’s husband, […]

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June 14 – The entire population was slaughtered, except those who embraced Islam

June 13, 2016

Croia A titular see of Albania. Croia (pronounced Kruya, Albanian, “Spring”) stands on the site of Eriboea, a town mentioned by Ptolemy (III, xiii, 13, 41). Georgius Acropolites (lxix) mentions it as a fortress in 1251. A decree of the Venetian senate gave it in 1343 to Marco Barbarigo and his wife. In 1395 it […]

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June 15 – St. Bernard dogs carry his name

June 13, 2016

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

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June 15 – The Northern Crusades

June 13, 2016

The Battle of Lyndanisse was a battle which helped King Valdemar II of Denmark establish the territory of Danish Estonia during the Northern Crusades. Valdemar II defeated the Estonians at Lyndanisse (Estonian: Lindanise), during the Northern Crusades, by orders from the Pope. Read more here.

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June 15, 1215 – Magna Carta

June 13, 2016

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

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June 16 – Death threats meant nothing to him

June 13, 2016

Saint John Francis Regis Born 31 January, 1597, in the village of Fontcouverte (department of Aude); died at la Louvesc, 30 Dec., 1640. His father Jean, a rich merchant, had been recently ennobled in recognition of the prominent part he had taken in the Wars of the League; his mother, Marguerite de Cugunhan, belonged by […]

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Respecting Social Hierarchy for the Greater Good of Individuals and Society

June 13, 2016

From Benedict XV’s letter Soliti nos, of March 11, 1920, to the Most Reverend Luigi Marelli, Bishop of Bergamo: “Let those who are of a lower station and fortune properly understand this: variety of rank in civil society originates from nature, and is finally to be traced back to the will of God, ‘for He […]

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Prince Harry Gets A Scolding While Meeting WWII Veterans

June 9, 2016

According to The Royal Forums: Prince Harry received a telling-off during his visit to Southwark House in Hampshire yesterday, for not completing his outfit with a tie. “Where’s your bloody tie?” 91-year-old veteran Ivor Anderson jokingly scolded the Prince when he first saw him as Harry arrived to meet with 45 World War Two veterans […]

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Royal Rewind – Elizabeth II crowned at Westminster Abbey

June 9, 2016

According to The Crown Chronicles: On this day in 1953, Elizabeth II was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Having become Queen on 6th February 1952, when King George VI died at Sandringham, it took almost 18 months for the coronation ceremony to take place; this was to give ample time for the planning and preparation of […]

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Baron von Guttenberg’s Clear Grasp of Germany’s Collective Sin

June 9, 2016

I went slowly back in to the sickroom. I had to tell Enoch, for he had the right to know. God help me!… “Dearest one…perhaps God wishes you to leave me….” For a long time he seemed to be asleep. Never, for a moment, could I take my eyes from his face—praying for fortitude…. After […]

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At Judgment, the joking knight’s rendering of accounts will be more severe than a prostitute’s

June 9, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira See for example the story of the Orders of Chivalry. From one standpoint it was a synthesis of the history of the Middle Ages. Imagine a heroic knight eventually wounded in the Crusades, who returns to the monastery in a handicapped condition and is thus prevented from repeating his deeds. […]

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June 11 – St. Godeberta

June 9, 2016

St. Godeberta Born about the year 640, at Boves, a few leagues from Amiens, in France; died about the beginning of the eighth century, at Noyon (Oise), the ancient Noviomagus. She was very carefully educated, her parents being of noble rank and attached to the court of King Clovis II. When the question of her […]

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June 12 – Saint Guido of Acqui

June 9, 2016

Saint Guido of Acqui (also Wido) (c. 1004 – 12 June 1070) was Bishop of Acqui (now Acqui Terme) in north-west Italy from 1034 until his death. He was born around 1004 to a noble family of the area of Acqui, the Counts of Acquesana, in Melazzo where the family’s wealth was concentrated. He completed […]

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June 12 – He Crowned Charlemagne

June 9, 2016

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

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June 12 – A certain nobleman had a concubine

June 9, 2016

St. John of Sahagun Hermit, born 1419, at Sahagun (or San Fagondez) in the Kingdom of Leon, in Spain; died 11 June, 1479, at Salamanca; feast 12 June. In art he is represented holding a chalice and host surrounded by rays of light. John, the oldest of seven children, was born of pious and respected […]

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Brotherly Treatment Between Superiors and Subordinates Should Not Eliminate the Variety of Conditions and the Diversity of Social Classes

June 9, 2016

[From Benedict XV’s encyclical Ad beatissimi Apostolorum, of November 11, 1914]:   “Human fraternity, indeed, will not remove the diversities of conditions and therefore of classes. This is not possible, just as it is not possible that in an organic body all the members should have one and the same function and the same dignity. […]

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June 9 – St. Columba

June 7, 2016

St. Columba Abbot of Iona, born at Garten, County Donegal, Ireland, 7 December, 521; died 9 June, 597. He belonged to the Clan O’Donnell, and was of royal descent. His father’s name was Fedhlimdh and that of his mother Eithne. On his father’s side he was great-great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages, an Irish […]

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June 7 – Martyr Prince of the Wends

June 6, 2016

St. Gottschalk (GODESCALCUS). Martyr, Prince of the Wends; died at Lenzen on the Elbe, 7 June 1066. His feast is noted for 7 June in the additions of the Carthusians at Brussels to the martyrology of Usuardus. He was the son of Udo, Prince of the Abrodites who remained a Christian, though a poor one […]

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June 7 – The Crusaders reach the walls of Jerusalem

June 6, 2016

In June of 1099 [the First Crusade] arrived before the walls of Jerusalem, which was then held by the Fatimid Arabs of Egypt. With their usual religious zeal and grim determination, the Christians prepared to attack the walls. Their fighting force had been reduced to 1,200 knights and 10,000 foot soldiers, with a similar number […]

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June 8 – She did what St. Ignatius could not

June 6, 2016

Ven. Anne de Xainctonge Foundress of the Society of the Sisters of St. Ursula of the Blessed Virgin, born at Dijon, 21 November, 1567; died at Dôle, 8 June, 1621. She was the daughter of Jean de Xainctonge, councillor in the Dijon Parliament, and of Lady Marguerite Collard, both of noble birth and virtuous life… […]

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June 8 – Accused of theft and other misconduct

June 6, 2016

St. William of York (WILLIAM FITZHERBERT, also called WILLIAM OF THWAYT). Archbishop of York. Tradition represents him as nephew of King Stephen, whose sister Emma was believed to have married Herbert of Winchester, treasurer to Henry I. William became a priest, and about 1130 he was canon and treasurer of York. In 1142 he was […]

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June 8 – The Noble Countess Who Dedicated Her Life to Bringing Dissolute Women to Repentance

June 6, 2016

Blessed Mary of the Divine Heart (died in Porto, Portugal, June 8, 1899), born Maria Droste zu Vischering, was a noble of Germany and Roman Catholic nun best known for influencing Pope Leo XIII’s consecration of the world to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Leo XIII called this consecration “the greatest act of my […]

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June 9 – A simple palace servant, God confided to her the destiny of nations

June 6, 2016

Blessed Anna Maria Gesualda Antonia Taigi (Maiden name Giannetti.) Venerable Servant of God, born at Siena, Italy, 29 May, 1769; died at Rome, 9 June, 1837. Her parents, Luigi Giannetti and Maria Masi, kept an apothecary shop at Siena, but lost all their fortune and were obliged to go to Rome in search of a […]

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June 9 – Apostle of Brazil

June 6, 2016

St. Joseph Anchieta A famous Jesuit missionary, commonly known as the Apostle of Brazil, born on the Island of Tenerife, in 1553, of noble family; died in Brazil, 1596. After studying in Coimbra, he entered the Society of Jesus, at the age of seventeen, and when a novice nearly ruined his health by his excessive […]

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Although Equal by Nature, Men Should Not Occupy the Same Position in Social Life

June 6, 2016

From Benedict XV’s encyclical Ad beatissimi Apostolorum, of November 11, 1914: Face to face with those to whom either fortune or their own activity  has brought an abundance of wealth stand the proletaires and the workers, inflamed with hatred and jealousy because, although they share the same nature, they are not in the same condition. […]

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The Father of Courtesy and the Son of Chivalry

June 2, 2016

Richard de Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick was dubbed both “The Father of Courtesy” and “The Son of Chivalry.” Born in 1382, the English nobleman was knighted at the coronation of King Henry IV and succeeded to the Earldom of Warwick.  In 1401 fought for Henry IV against Owen Glendower and the Percys. In 1408 […]

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In the person of Saint Louis, we see the loyalty of a knight

June 2, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The knight is a loyal warrior. He is loyal even with his adversaries. Saint Louis, King of France, was arrested in a war against the Mohammedans because of a mistake by a brother of his. His brother was leader of a part of the Crusader army and carried out a […]

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June 3 – She had to witness her children kill each other

June 2, 2016

St. Clotilda, Queen of the Franks (French: CLOTILDE; German: CHLOTHILDE). Queen of the Franks, born probably at Lyons, c. 474; died at Tours, 3 June, 545. Her feast is celebrated 3 June. Clotilda was the wife of Clovis I, and the daughter of Chilperic, King of Burgundians of Lyons, and Caretena. After the death of […]

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June 5 – My God Is Greater Than Your Tree

June 2, 2016

St. Boniface (WINFRID, WYNFRITH). Apostle of Germany, date of birth unknown; martyred 5 June, 755 (754); emblems: the oak, axe, book, fox, scourge, fountain, raven, sword. He was a native of England, though some authorities have claimed him for Ireland or Scotland. The place of his birth is not known, though it was probably the […]

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June 5 – Friendship is tested in adversity

June 2, 2016

Blessed Ferdinand of Portugal Prince of Portugal, born in Portugal, 29 September, 1402; died at Fez, in Morocco, 5 June, 1443. He was one of five sons, his mother being Philippa, daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, and his father King John I, known in history for his victories over the Moors and […]

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June 6 – Patron and Protector of Bohemia

June 2, 2016

St. Norbert Born at Xanten on the left bank of the Rhine, near Wesel, c. 1080; died at Magdeburg, 6 June, 1134. His father, Heribert, Count of Gennep, was related to the imperial house of Germany, and his house of Lorraine. A stately bearing, a penetrating intellect, a tender, earnest heart, marked the future apostle. […]

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Jesus Christ Did Not Teach a Chimerical Equality Nor Disrespect for Authority

June 2, 2016

[From the Apostolic Letter Notre charge apostolique of Pope Saint Pius X, August 25, 1910]: Then, if Jesus was kind to those who went astray and to sinners, He did not respect their erroneous convictions, however sincere they might have appeared. He loved them all to instruct them, to convert them and to save them. […]

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