March 12 – St. Gorgonius

March 10, 2025

Martyr, suffered in 304 at Nicomedia during the persecution of Diocletian. Gorgonius held a high position in the household of the emperor, and had often been entrusted with matters of the greatest importance. At the breaking out of the persecution he was consequently among the first to be charged, and, remaining constant in the profession […]

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Lenten Meditation: Sweet Cross of Jesus and My Cross

March 6, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Gospels show us with great clarity how much our Divine Savior in His mercy pities our pains of body and soul.  We need only to recall the awesome miracles He performed in His omnipotence in order to mitigate these pains. But let us never make the mistake of imagining […]

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Is the Guardian Angel Less Intelligent than the Devil?

March 6, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Church teaches that God created angels vastly superior to man. Pure spirits possessing a most lucid intelligence and great power, they surpass by nature even the most gifted of men. As a consequence of their revolt, the fallen angels lost their virtue, but not their intelligence or power. In […]

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March 6 – God gave him the great grace of “unsuitability for government”

March 6, 2025

Ven. Gonçalo Da Silveira Pioneer missionary of South Africa, b. 23 Feb, 1526, at Almeirim, about forty miles from Lisbon; martyred 6 March, 1561. He was the tenth child of Dom Luis da Silveira, first count of Sortelha, and Dona Beatrice Coutinho, daughter of Dom Fernando Coutinho, Marshal of the Kingdom of Portugal. Losing his […]

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March 6 – Bishop Prime Minister

March 6, 2025

St. Chrodegang Bishop of Metz, born at the beginning of the eighth century at Hasbania, in what is now Belgian Limburg, of a noble Frankish family; died at Metz, 6 March, 766. He was educated at the court of Charles Martel, became his private secretary, then chancellor, and in 737 prime minister. On 1 March, […]

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March 7 – Last cruelties of Henry VIII

March 6, 2025

Bl. German Gardiner Last martyr under Henry VIII; date of birth unknown; died at Tyburn, 7 March, 1544; secretary to, and probably a kinsmen of, Stephen Gardiner, and an able defender of the old Faith, as his tract against John Frith (dated 1 August, 1534) shows. During the years of fiery trial, which followed, we […]

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March 7 – Stoic Emperor

March 6, 2025

Antoninus Pius (TITUS ÆLIUS HADRIANUS ANTONINUS PIUS). Roman Emperor (138-161), born 18 September, A.D. 86 at Lanuvium, a short distance from Rome; died at Lorium, 7 March, 161. Most of his youth was spent at Lorium, which was only twelve miles from Rome. Later on he built a villa there, to which he would frequently […]

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March 7 – Martyred for entertainment on the birthday of the Emperor

March 6, 2025

Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas Martyrs, suffered at Carthage, 7 March 203, together with three companions, Revocatus, Saturus, and Saturninus. The details of the martyrdom of these five confessors in the North African Church have reached us through a genuine, contemporary description, one of the most affecting accounts of the glorious warfare of Christian martyrdom in […]

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The Death of Maria Theresa

March 6, 2025

Maria Theresa’s health, undermined by so many fatigues, so many maternal and political anxieties, so many cares of all kinds, failed visibly. For a long time she had suffered from catarrh; it seemed as though an internal fire consumed her. On Nov 24 1780, she fell quite ill. Violent attacks of coughing, and continual suffocation, […]

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García Moreno Refuses to Be Silent and Is Exiled for Denouncing His Country’s Rape

March 6, 2025

From that moment Ecuador was treated as a conquered country. Thefts, pillage, sacrilege, murders, became the order of the day. The “Tauras,” a guard of mamelukes whom Urbina called his “canons,” armed with daggers, went up and down the country, attacking inoffensive men, insulting women, and assassinating all who would not be robbed without a […]

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March 9 – She Could Detect Diabolical Plots

March 6, 2025

St. Frances of Rome One of the greatest mystics of the fifteenth century; born at Rome, of a noble family, in 1384; died there, 9 March, 1440. Her youthful desire was to enter religion, but at her father’s wish she married, at the age of twelve, Lorenzo de’ Ponziani. Among her children we know of […]

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The fight based on discernment of the Revolution and the Counter-Revolution is a continuous battle and a refinement of the Crusades

March 3, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Either every man is watching everything or, since the devil billets himself in the smallest things in order to damn souls through the meaning of things rather than the meaning of books, it so happens that one needs to pay as much attention to a painting’s frame as to a […]

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March 5 – St. John Joseph of the Cross

March 3, 2025

St. John Joseph of the Cross Born on the Island of Ischia, Southern Italy, 1654; died 5 March, 1739. From his earliest years he was given to prayer and virtue. So great was his love of poverty that he would always wear the dress of the poor, though he was of noble birth. At the […]

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A Japanese Noble Family Is Martyred for the Faith

March 3, 2025

A generous servant of God, named Damian, had sacrificed his life for the faith in 1622. All his property having been confiscated, the house where his mother Isabella, his wife Beatrice, and his children dwelt was assigned to them as their prison. Guards were constantly watching over them, and did not cease to importune them […]

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RCR: Conclusion, Postface, End of Book

March 3, 2025

Conclusion Having updated the first (1959) edition of Revolution and Counter-Revolution by the addition of the preceding pages, we wondered if the brief conclusion to the original text and to subsequent editions should be replaced or at least modified. After rereading it carefully, we are convinced there is no reason to omit it or even […]

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

March 3, 2025

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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March 4 – This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

March 3, 2025

St. Casimir Prince of Poland, born in the royal palace at Cracow, 3 October, 1458; died at the court of Grodno, 4 March, 1484. He was the grandson of Wladislaus II Jagiello, King of Poland, who introduced Christianity into Lithuania, and the second son of King Casimir IV and Queen Elizabeth, an Austrian princess, the […]

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March 4 – “Your Honor, was St. Augustine also a traitor?”

March 3, 2025

Blessed Christopher Bales (Or Bayles, alias Evers) Priest and martyr, b. at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564; executed 4 March, 1590. He entered the English College at Rome, 1 October, 1583, but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims, where he was ordained 28 March, 1587. Sent to England […]

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March 3 – The work of Mother Drexel

March 3, 2025

Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament One of the…congregations of religious women in the Catholic Church and one of entirely American origin, founded by Miss Katharine Drexel at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1889, for missionary work among the Indians and coloured people of the United States. The formal approbation of the Holy See was given to the […]

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March 3 – Pope Pelagius I

March 3, 2025

Pope Pelagius I   Date of birth unknown; died 3 March, 561, was a Roman of noble family; his father, John, seems to have been vicar of one of the two civil “dioceses”, or districts, into which Italy was then divided. We first meet with him at Constantinople, in the company of Agapitus I, who, […]

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March 3 – James Spencer Northcote

March 3, 2025

James Spencer Northcote Born at Feniton Court, Devonshire, 26 May, 1821; d. at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, 3 March, 1907. He was the second son of George Barons Northcote, a gentleman of an ancient Devonshire family of Norman descent. Educated first at Ilmington Grammar School, he won in 1837 a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where […]

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March 3 – St. Winwallus

March 3, 2025

St. Winwallus Abbot of Landevennec; d. 3 March, probably at the beginning of the sixth century, though the exact year is not known. There are some fifty forms of his name, ranging from Wynwallow through such variants as Wingaloeus, Waloway, Wynolatus, Vinguavally, Vennole, Valois, Ouignoualey, Gweno, Gunnolo, to Bennoc. The original form is undistinguishable. In […]

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February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest?

February 27, 2025

St. Anne Line She was the daughter of William Heigham of Dunmow, Essex, a gentleman of means and an ardent Calvinist, and when she and her brother announced their intention of becoming Catholics both were disowned and disinherited. Anne married Roger Line, a convert like herself, and shortly after their marriage he was apprehended for […]

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February 27 – Patron of Youth

February 27, 2025

St. Gabriel Possenti Passionist student; renowned for sanctity and miracles; born at Assisi, 1 March, 1838; died 27 February, 1862, at Isola di Gran Sasso, Province of Abruzzo, Italy; son of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti; received baptism on the day of his birth and was called Francesco, the name by which he was known […]

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February 28 – Pope Saint Hilarus

February 27, 2025

Pope Saint Hilarus [Also spelled HILARIUS, or HILARY] Elected 461; the date of his death is given as 28 Feb., 468. After the death of Leo I, an archdeacon named Hilarus, a native of Sardinia, according to the “Liber Pontificalis”, was chosen to succeed him, and in all probability received consecration on 19 November, 461. […]

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February 28 – The Gentleman instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life

February 27, 2025

William Darrell Theologian, b. 1651, in Buckinghamshire, England; d. 28 Feb., 1721, at St. Omer’s, France. He was a member of the ancient Catholic family of Darrell of Scotney Castle, Sussex, being the only son of Thomas Darrell and his wife, Thomassine Marcham. He joined the Society of Jesus on 7 Sept., 1671, was professed […]

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March 1 – Apostle of the Frisians

February 27, 2025

St. Suitbert (Suidbert). Apostle of the Frisians, b. in England in the seventh century; d. at Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf, 1 March, 713. He studied in Ireland, at Rathmelsigi, Connacht, along with St. Egbert (q. v.). The latter, filled with zeal for the conversion of the Germans, had sent St. Wihtberht, or Wigbert, to […]

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March 1 – St. David of Wales

February 27, 2025

St. David (DEGUI, DEWI). Bishop and Confessor, patron of Wales. He is usually represented standing on a little hill, with a dove on his shoulder. From time immemorial the Welsh have worn a leek on St. David’s day, in memory of a battle against the Saxons, at which it is said they wore leeks in […]

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March 2 – William Maxwell

February 27, 2025

William Maxwell Fifth Earl of Nithsdale (Lord Nithsdale signed as Nithsdaill) and fourteenth Lord Maxwell, b. in 1676; d. at Rome, 2 March, 1744. He succeeded his father at the early age of seven. His mother, a daughter of the House of Douglas, a clever energetic woman, educated him in sentiments of devotion to the […]

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March 2 – This Princess Refused to Marry the Emperor

February 27, 2025

St. Agnes of Bohemia (Also called Agnes of Prague). Born at Prague in the year 1200; died probably in 1281. She was the daughter of Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Constance of Hungary, a relative of St. Elizabeth. At an early age she was sent to the monastery of Treinitz, where at the hands of […]

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RCR – Part III, End of Chapter II – Chapter III

February 24, 2025

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY Astonishing Calamities in the Church’s Post-Conciliar Phase The historic declaration of Paul VI in the Allocution Resistite fortes in fide, of June 29, 1972, is fundamental for a better understanding of the calamities in the post-Conciliar phase of the Church. We quote the Poliglotta Vaticana. Referring to the situation of the Church today, […]

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Without tradition, there is neither a destination nor a course to follow

February 24, 2025

The past prepares the present, the present protects the past, and both of them elaborate the future. A course followed is analogous to order in moving from one point to the next. Stability is not immobility, but rather mobility in a single direction. To continue is analogous to living, and changing is something analogous to […]

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February 24 – First Christian King Among the English

February 24, 2025

St. Ethelbert, King of Kent Born, 552; died, 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest. He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage […]

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Excommunicating and Deposing Elizabeth I of England

February 24, 2025

Pope St. Pius V: Bull “Regnans in Excelsis,” Excommunicating and Deposing Elizabeth I of England, February 25, 1570 He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth, commited one, holy, Catholike and Apostolike Church, out of which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, namely to […]

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February 25 – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

February 24, 2025

St. Walburga Born in Devonshire, about 710; died at Heidenheim, 25 Feb., 777. She is the patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Antwerp, Gronigen, Weilburg, and Zutphen, and is invoked as special patroness against hydrophobia, and in storms, and also by sailors. She was the daughter of St. Richard, one of the under-kings of the West […]

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February 26 – St. Alexander (of Alexandria)

February 24, 2025

St. Alexander (of Alexandria) Patriarch of Alexandria, date of birth uncertain; died 17 April, 326. He is, apart from his own greatness, prominent by the fact that his appointment to the patriarchial see excluded the heresiarch Arius from that post. Arius had begun to teach his heresies in 300 when Peter, by whom he was […]

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February 26 – Blessed Robert Drury

February 24, 2025

Blessed Robert Drury Martyr (1567-1607), was born of a good Buckinghamshire family and was received into the English College at Reims, 1 April, 1588. On 17 September, 1590, he was sent to the new College at Valladolid; here he finished his studies, was ordained priest and returned to England in 1593. He laboured chiefly in […]

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February 20 – Leaders and future nobility appear in times of desperate distress

February 20, 2025

Andreas Hofer A patriot and soldier, born at St. Leonhard in Passeyrthale, Tyrol, 22 Nov., 1767; executed at Mantua, 20 Feb., 1810. His father was known as the “Sandwirth” (i. e., landlord of the inn on the sandy spit of land formed by the Passeyr. The inn had been in the family for over one […]

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Pope Martin V

February 20, 2025

Pope Martin V (Oddone Colonna) Born at Genazzano in the Campagna di Roma, 1368; died at Rome, 20 Feb., 1431. He studied at the University of Perugia, became prothonotary Apostolic under Urban VI, papal auditor and nuncio at various Italian courts under Boniface IX, and was administrator of the Diocese of Palestrina from 15 December […]

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Founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family

February 20, 2025

Pierre-Joseph Chaumonot Jesuit missionary in New York and Canada, Born near Châtillon-sur-Seine in France, 1611; died at Quebec, 21 February, 1693. His name is sometimes written Calmonotti or Calvonotti. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rome, at the age of twenty-one, and arrived at Quebec, 1 August, 1639. In September he was already at work […]

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February 21 – Cornelius van Zierikzee

February 20, 2025

Fr. Cornelius van Zierikzee Born at Zierikzee (whence he takes his surname), a town in the Province of Zeeland, Holland, about 1405, d. 21 Feb., 1462. The strict observance of the Franciscan Rule, upheld and propagated throughout Italy by St. Bernardine of Siena and St. John Capistran, was early introduced into Germany. At twenty Cornelius […]

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February 22 – Blessed Émilie d’Oultremont de Warfusée

February 20, 2025

(October 11, 1818 – February 22, 1878) Belgian nun. She founded the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix. She took the name Mary of Jesus. The daughter of Émile d’Oultremont (fr) and Marie-Charlotte de Lierneux de Presles, she was born at Wégimont Castle. Her father served as Belgian ambassador to the Holy See in Rome. In 1837, […]

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RCR – Part III, Chapter 1 & 2 – TWENTY YEARS AFTER

February 17, 2025

PART III Revolution and Counter-Revolution TWENTY YEARS AFTER In 1976 the author was asked to write a preface to a new Italian edition of Revolution and Counter-Revolution. He deemed it better, instead, to present an analysis of the evolution of the revolutionary process in the nearly twenty years since the essay’s first edition. He therefore […]

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Almsgiving of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

February 17, 2025

During Lent we recall the duties of every Christian to apply themselves more fervently to almsgiving. In pre-revolutionary France it was for the King and the Queen to give an example to everyone else in this regard. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette took this duty seriously and throughout their reign did what they could to help […]

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February 17 – Last Martyr under Elizabeth I

February 17, 2025

Ven. William Richardson (Alias Anderson.) Last martyr under Queen Elizabeth; b. according to Challoner at Vales in Yorkshire (i.e. presumably Wales, near Sheffield), but, according to the Valladolid diary, a Lancashire man; executed at Tyburn, 17 Feb., 1603. He arrived at Reims 16 July, 1592 and on 21 Aug. following was sent to Valladolid, where […]

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February 17 – He burned the pagan temple

February 17, 2025

St. Theodore of Amasea Surnamed Tyro (Tiro), not because he was a young recruit, but because for a time he belonged to the Cohors Tyronum (Nilles, Kal. man., I, 105), called of Amasea from the place where he suffered martyrdom, and Euchaita from the place, Euchais, to which his body had been carried, and where […]

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February 17 – He suffered a three-fold death agony

February 17, 2025

Blessed Francis Regis Clet A Lazarist missionary in China; b. 1748, martyred, 18 Feb., 1820. His father was a merchant of Grenoble in France, his mother’s name was Claudine Bourquy. He was the tenth of fifteen children. The family was deeply religious, several members of it having consecrated themselves to God. Francis attended the Jesuit […]

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February 18 – Confronted the Emperor and annulled the Robber Council of Ephesus

February 17, 2025

St. Flavian Bishop of Constantinople, date of birth unknown; died at Hypaepa in Lydia, August, 449. Nothing is known of him before his elevation to the episcopate save that he was a presbyter and skeuophylax or sacristan, of the Church of Constantinople, and noted for the holiness of his life. His succession to St. Proclus […]

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February 19 – St. Conrad of Piacenza

February 17, 2025

St. Conrad of Piacenza Hermit of the Third Order of St. Francis, date of birth uncertain; died at Noto in Sicily, 19 February, 1351. He belonged to one of the noblest families of Piacenza, and having married when he was quite young, led a virtuous and God-fearing life. On one occasion, when he was engaged […]

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Romanée-Conti: symbol of tradition and nobility

February 17, 2025

We should not be surprised that a single bottle of Romanée-Conti sometimes sells for $10,000 and more, for the Domaine Romanée-Conti (aka DRC) is one of the oldest and finest vineyards of Burgundy, France, and its wines, a veritable symbol of tradition and nobility. In 1087—eight years before Blessed Urban II would call the nobility […]

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February 13 – John Fowler

February 13, 2025

John Fowler Scholar and printer, b. at Bristol, England, 1537; d. at Namur, Flanders, 13 Feb., 1578-9. He studied at Winchester School from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford where he remained till 1559. He became B.A. 23 Feb., 1556-7 and M.A. in 1560, though Antony a Wood adds that he […]

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February 13 – Soldier of Christ

February 13, 2025

Alphonsus Salmeron Jesuit Biblical scholar, born at Toledo, 8 Sept., 1515; died at Naples, 13 Feb., 1585. He studied literature and philosophy at Alcala, and thereafter went to Paris for philosophy and theology. Here, through James Lainez, he met St. Ignatius of Loyola; together with Lainez, Faber, and St. Francis Xavier he enlisted as one […]

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The Catholic Church Accepts Any Form of Government that Does Not Oppose Divine and Human Rights

February 13, 2025

previous In an allocution to the extraordinary Secret Consistory of February 14, 1949, Pius XII affirms: “[The Catholic Church] admits any and every form of civil government provided it be not inconsistent with divine and human rights. But when it does contradict these rights, bishops and the faithful themselves are bound by their own conscience […]

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February 14 – Renounced Earthly Nobility To Obtain Heavenly Nobility

February 13, 2025

Sts. Cyril and Methodius These brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, were born in Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively. Though belonging to a senatorial family they renounced secular honors and became priests. They were living in a monastery on the Bosphorus, when the Khazars sent to Constantinople for a Christian teacher. Cyril was selected […]

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February 15 – Sts. Faustinus and Jovita

February 13, 2025

Sts. Faustinus and Jovita Martyrs, members of a noble family of Brescia; the elder brother, Faustinus, being a priest, the younger, a deacon. For their fearless preaching of the Gospel, they were arraigned before the Emperor Hadrian, who, first at Brescia, later at Rome and Naples, subjected them to frightful torments, after which they were […]

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February 15 – Ferdinand II, Emperor

February 13, 2025

Ferdinand II Emperor, eldest son of Archduke Karl and the Bavarian Princess Maria, b. 1578; d. 15 February, 1637. In accordance with Ferdinand I’s disposition of his possessions, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola fell to his son Karl. As Karl died in 1590, when his eldest son was only twelve years old, the government of these […]

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RCR – Part II, Chapter IX – Chapter XII – End of Part II

February 10, 2025

CHAPTER IX The Driving Force of the Counter-Revolution There is a driving force of the Counter-Revolution, just as there is one of the Revolution. 1. Virtue and Counter-Revolution We have singled out the dynamism of the human passions unleashed in a metaphysical hatred against God, virtue, good, and especially against hierarchy and purity, as the […]

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

February 10, 2025

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 […]

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February 10 – God Gave Her What Her Brother Would Not

February 10, 2025

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 […]

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February 11 – Elected pope while on Crusade in Palestine

February 10, 2025

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 […]

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