Queen Elizabeth sends condolences to France

November 19, 2015

A message from The Queen to President Hollande following the Paris attacks: Prince Philip and I have been deeply shocked and saddened by the terrible loss of life in Paris. We send our most sincere condolences to you, the families of those who have died and the French people. ELIZABETH R Source: British Monarchy

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The Marvelous Sword

November 19, 2015

In 1418, the Chinese invaded Vietnam. One day during that very same year, the Chronicles say that a simple fisherman LeLoy, casting his net into the lake Hoan Kien Ho, pulled up a marvelous sword, which was all resplendent. LeLoy saw in the event a sign that he was invested with the supernatural mission of […]

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St. Ignatius of Loyola Understood the Beauty of the Fight More Than Crusaders

November 19, 2015

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Someone defined courage as follows: “It is the will to strike blows and the patience to take them!” If one does not have both things, one does not have courage. Therefore, some people may take a painful blow and be happy – Ah, he’s taken a blow! But even happier […]

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November 20 – St. Edmund the Martyr

November 19, 2015

St. Edmund the Martyr King of East Anglia, born about 840; died at Hoxne, Suffolk, November 20, 870. The earliest and most reliable accounts represent St. Edmund as descended from the preceding kings of East Anglia, though, according to later legends, he was born at Nuremberg (Germany), son to an otherwise unknown King Alcmund of […]

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November 20 – St. Ambrose of Camaldoli

November 19, 2015

St. Ambrose of Camaldoli An Italian theologian and writer, born at Portico, near Florence, 16 September, 1386; died 21 October, 1439. His name was Ambrose Traversari. He entered the Order of the Camaldoli when fourteen and became its General in 1431. He was a great theologian and writer, and knew Greek as well as he […]

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November 20 – Queen Elizabeth II Wedding Anniversary

November 19, 2015
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November 20 – Another strong and mighty angel

November 19, 2015

St. Felix of Valois Born in 1127; died at Cerfroi, 4 November, 1212. He is commemorated 20 November. He was surnamed Valois because, according to some, he was a member of the royal branch of Valois in France, according to others, because he was a native of the province of Valois. At an early age […]

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November 21 – Pope St. Gelasius I

November 19, 2015

Pope St. Gelasius I Died at Rome, 19 Nov., 496. Gelasius, as he himself states in his letter to the Emperor Anastasius (Ep. xii, n. 1), was Romanus natus. The assertion of the “Liber Pontificalis” that he was natione Afer is consequently taken by many to mean that he was of African origin, though Roman […]

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November 21 – St. Albert

November 19, 2015

St. Albert Cardinal, Bishop of Liège, died 1192 or 1193. He was a son of Godfrey III, Count of Louvain, and brother of Henry I, Duke of Lorraine and Brabant, and was chosen Bishop of Liège in 1191 by the suffrages of both people and chapter. The Emperor Henry VI violently intruded his own venal […]

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November 21 – St. Columbanus

November 19, 2015

St. Columbanus Abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio, born in West Leinster, Ireland, in 543; died at Bobbio, Italy, 21 November, 615. His life was written by Jonas, an Italian monk of the Columban community, at Bobbio, c. 643. This author lived during the abbacy of Attala, Columbanus’s immediate successor, and his informants had been companions […]

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November 22 – Christ the King? Or Christ the President?

November 19, 2015

A heavenly King above all, but a King whose government is already exercised in this world. A King who by right possesses the supreme and full authority. The King makes laws, commands and judges. His sovereignty becomes effective when his subjects recognize his rights, and obey his laws. “Jesus Christ has rights over us all: […]

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November 22 – The Eternal Glory of the Caecilia Family

November 19, 2015

St. Cecilia Virgin and martyr, patroness of church music, died at Rome. This saint, so often glorified in the fine arts and in poetry, is one of the most venerated martyrs of Christian antiquity. The oldest historical account of St. Cecilia is found in the “Martyrologium Hieronymianum”; from this it is evident that her feast […]

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November 23 – Blessed Margaret of Savoy

November 19, 2015

Bl. Margaret of Savoy Marchioness of Montferrat, born at Pignerol in 1382; died at Alba, 23 November, 1464. She was the only daughter of Louis of Savoy, Prince of Achaia, and of Bonne, daughter of Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, and was given in marriage in 1403 to Theodore, Marquis of Montferrat, a descendant of […]

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November 23 – St. Trudo

November 19, 2015

St. Trudo (also called TRON, TROND, TRUDON, TRUTJEN, TRUYEN). Apostle of Hasbein in Brabant; died 698 (or perhaps 693). Feast 23 November. He was the son of Blessed Adela of the family of the dukes of Austrasia. Devoted from his earliest youth to the service of God, Trudo came to St. Remaclus, Bishop of Liège […]

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November 23 – Saint Ferdinand takes Seville

November 19, 2015

The Moors had no choice but to accept the iron will of that King Ferdinand, who, like a curse of Allah, crossed Andalusia exterminating Islam. The ambassadors returned with broader powers to act, and then Don Ferdinand received them. After they had been conducted to his tent, they found him waiting surrounded by his whole […]

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Queen Elizabeth tells of family’s painful search

November 16, 2015

According to The Telegraph: The Queen has spoken for the first time of her family’s painful search for the missing body of her heroic uncle who was killed in the First World War. Remains of Captain Fergus Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother’s brother, have never been recovered since he died at the Battle of Loos in […]

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Remembrance Service at the Cenotaph led by Queen Elizabeth II

November 16, 2015

According to BBC News: A Remembrance Sunday service, led by the Queen, was held at the Cenotaph to remember those who have died in war. There was a two minute silence at 11:00 GMT. The Queen was joined by King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, as 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of that country’s liberation. To […]

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November 17 – St. Hugh of Lincoln

November 16, 2015

St. Hugh of Lincoln Born about the year 1135 at the castle of Avalon, near Pontcharra, in Burgundy; died at London, 16 Nov., 1200. His father, William, Lord of Avalon, was sprung from one of the noblest of Burgundian houses; of his mother, Anna, very little is known. After his wife’s death, William retired from […]

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November 17 – Saint Gregory of Tours

November 16, 2015

Saint Gregory of Tours Born in 538 or 539 at Arverni, the modern Clermont-Ferrand; died at Tours, 17 Nov., in 593 or 594. He was descended from a distinguished Gallo-Roman family, and was closely related to the most illustrious houses of Gaul. He was originally called Georgius Florentius, but in memory of his maternal great-grandfather, […]

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November 17 – The Queen Gave Good Example Caring for the Sick and Suffering

November 16, 2015

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; died at Marburg, Hesse, 17 November (not 19 November), 1231. She was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-35) and his wife Gertrude, a member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran; Elizabeth’s brother succeeded […]

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November 18 – He Started the Cluniac Reform

November 16, 2015

St. Odo of Cluny Odo was born in 879 in Maine, and was the son of a pious and surprisingly learned layman, Abbo. Though vowed by his father to St. Martin in babyhood, he was given a military training and became a page at the court of Duke William. But the exercises of war and […]

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November 18 – Sincere, intense, generous, austere, yet affectionate

November 16, 2015

St. Philippine-Rose Duchesne Founder in America of the first houses of the society of the Sacred Heart, born at Grenoble, France, 29 August, 1769; died at St. Charles, Missouri, 18 November, 1852. She was the daughter of Pierr-Francois Duchesne, an eminent lawyer. Her mother was a Périer, ancestor of Casimir Périer, President of France in […]

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November 19 – St. Nerses I, Bishop of Armenia, Martyr

November 16, 2015

Nerses I Armenian patriarch, surnamed “the Great”. Died 373. Born of the royal stock, he spent his youth in Caesarea where he married Sanducht, a Mamikonian princess. After the death of his wife, he was appointed chamberlain to King Arshak of Armenia. A few years later, having entered the ecclesiastical state, he was elected catholicos, […]

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August 13 – The Saintly Pope Who Resigned

November 16, 2015

Pope St. Pontian Dates of birth and death unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 145) gives Rome as his native city and calls his father Calpurnius. With him begins the brief chronicle of the Roman bishops of the third century, of which the author of the Liberian Catalogue of the popes made use in […]

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November 19 – Teacher, Engineer, Army Officer, Prisoner of War, Royal Tutor, and Priest

November 16, 2015

St. Raphael Kalinowski, O.C.D. (1835-1907) [Also known as Father Raphael of St. Joseph, O.C.D] Father Raphael of Saint Joseph Kalinowski, was born at Vilna, 1st September 1835, and at baptism received the name Joseph. Under the teaching of his father Andrew, at the Institute for Nobles at Vilna, he progressed so well that he received […]

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Queen portrait out in Canada Foreign Affairs office

November 12, 2015

According to CBCNews: The Queen Elizabeth portrait is out and twin paintings by Quebec modern master Alfred Pellan are back in. Former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley…said displaying such a large portrait [of the Queen] in such a prominent location sent “the wrong message.” In 2011, then foreign affairs minister John Baird instructed that […]

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King Philip’s Devotion

November 12, 2015

One day while the Blessed Sacrament was being carried a great distance to a sick person, Philip II, King of Spain, accompanied It all the way on foot. The priest, observing this, asked him if he were not tired. “Tired!” he replied. “No: behold my servants wait on me day and night, and never have […]

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The Knight Rejoices in the Fight

November 12, 2015

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira You can imagine: in the deserts of the ancient times, the deserts of Arabia, Egypt, etc., before the fall of the Roman Empire of the West, two or three hundred years after Jesus Christ, the anchorites would go to the desert to flee the temptations of Roman and Greek cities, […]

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November 13 – Patroness of missionaries

November 12, 2015

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, M.S.C. Also called Mother Cabrini, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a religious institute which was a major support to the Italian immigrants to the United States. She was the first citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church. She was born in Sant’Angelo […]

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November 13 – Grand Master of the Order of Christ

November 12, 2015

Prince Henry the Navigator Born 4 March, 1394; died 13 November, 1460; he was the fourth son of John I, King of Portugal, by Queen Philippa, a daughter of John of Gaunt. In 1415 he commanded the expedition which captured Ceuta, Portugal’s first oversea conquest, and there won his knightly spurs. Three years later he […]

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November 13 – Pure and noble, he received Holy Communion from the hands of angels

November 12, 2015

St. Stanislas Kostka Born at Rostkovo near Prasnysz, Poland, about 28 October, 1550; died at Rome during the night of 14-15 August, 1568. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, 28 October, 1567, and is said to have foretold his death a few days before it occurred. His father, John Kostka, was a senator […]

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November 13 – He calmed the fear of the end of the world

November 12, 2015

St. Abbon (or Abbo), born near Orléans c. 945; died at Fleury, 13 November, 1004, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Fleury sur Loire (Fleuret), conspicuous both for learning and sanctity, and one of the great lights of the Church in the stormy times of Hugh Capet of France and of the three Ottos […]

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November 13 – One of the Great Popes of the Middle Ages

November 12, 2015

Pope St. Nicholas I Born at Rome, date unknown; died 13 November, 867; one of the great popes of the Middle Ages, who exerted decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe. He was of a distinguished family, being the son of the Defensor […]

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November 14 – St. Lawrence O’Toole

November 12, 2015

St. Lawrence O’Toole (Lorcan ua Tuathail; also spelled Laurence O’Toole) Confessor, born about 1128, in the present County Kildare; died 14 November, 1180, at Eu in Normandy; canonized in 1225 by Honorius III. His father was chief of Hy Murray, and his mother one of the Clan O’Byrne. At the age of ten he was […]

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November 14 – Saint Erconwald

November 12, 2015

Saint Erconwald Bishop of London, died. about 690. He belonged to the princely family of the East Anglian Offa, and devoted a considerable portion of his patrimony to founding two monasteries, one for monks at Chertsey, and the other for nuns at Barking in Essex. Over the latter he placed his sister, St. Ethelburga, as […]

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November 15 – Universal Doctor

November 12, 2015

St. Albert the Great Known as Albert the Great; scientist, philosopher, and theologian, born c. 1206; died at Cologne, 15 November 1280. He is called “the Great”, and “Doctor Universalis” (Universal Doctor), in recognition of his extraordinary genius and extensive knowledge, for he was proficient in every branch of learning cultivated in his day, and […]

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November 15 – Profoundly impressed by the religious atmosphere of his home

November 12, 2015

St. Desiderius of Cahors Bishop, born at Obrege (perhaps Antobroges, name of a Gaulish tribe), on the frontier of the Provincia Narbonnensis, of a noble Frankish family from Aquitaine, which possessed large estates in the territory of Albi; died 15 Nov., 655—though Krusch has called this date in question. In his childhood Desiderius was profoundly […]

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November 15 – Martyred for God (and Money…)

November 12, 2015

Bl. Richard Whiting Last Abbot of Glastonbury and martyr, parentage and date of birth unknown, executed 15 Nov., 1539; was probably educated in the claustral school at Glastonbury, whence he proceeded to Cambridge, graduating as M.A. in 1483 and D.D. in 1505. If, as is probable, he was already a monk when he went to […]

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November 16 – St. Agnes of Assisi

November 12, 2015

St. Agnes of Assisi Younger sister of St. Clare and Abbess of the Poor Ladies, born at Assisi, 1197, or 1198; died 1253. She was the younger daughter of Count Favorino Scifi. Her saintly mother, Blessed Hortulana, belonged to the noble family of the Fiumi, and her cousin Rufino was one of the celebrated “Three […]

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November 16 – St. Margaret of Scotland: In the Middle Ages, the Marvelous Was Something Achievable

November 12, 2015

Saint Margaret of Scotland Commentaries made by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira … Sovereign and patroness of Scotland, 11th century. Although it is a very good intention to comment on the life of St. Margaret, at times one does not have the slightest biographical data on a saint. For lack of a better biography, I […]

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November 16 – St. Mechtilde

November 12, 2015

St. Mechtilde (MATILDA VON HACKEBORN-WIPPRA). Benedictine; born in 1240 or 1241 at the ancestral castle of Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony; died in the monastery of Helfta, 19 November, 1298. She belonged to one of the noblest and most powerful Thuringian families, while here sister was the saintly and illustrious Abbess Gertrude von Hackeborn. Some writers […]

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November 16 – St. Gertrude the Great

November 12, 2015

St. Gertrude the Great Saint, Benedictine and mystic writer; born in Germany, January 6, 1256; died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, November 17, 1301 or 1302. Nothing is known of her family, not even the name of her parents. It is clear from her life (Legatus, lib. I, xvi) that she was not born in […]

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November 16 – Commissioned to preach the Sixth Crusade

November 12, 2015

St. Edmund Rich Archbishop of Canterbury, England, born 20 November, c. 1180, at Abingdon, six miles from Oxford; died 16 November, 1240, at Soissy, France. His early chronology is somewhat uncertain. His parents, Reinald (Reginald) and Mabel Rich, were remarkable for piety. It is said that his mother constantly wore hair-cloth, and attended almost every […]

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November 10 – Who Was the First Pope to Be Called “Great,” and Why?

November 9, 2015

Pope St. Leo I (the Great) Place and date of birth unknown; died 10 November, 461. (Reigned 440-61). Leo’s pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening […]

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November 11 – Patron of Veterans and Soldiers

November 9, 2015

St. Martin of Tours Bishop; born at Sabaria (today Steinamanger in German, or Szombathely in Hungarian), Pannonia (Hungary), about 316; died at Candes, Touraine, most probably in 397. In his early years, when his father, a military tribune, was transferred to Pavia in Italy, Martin accompanied him thither, and when he reached adolescence was, in […]

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November 12 – Saint Cunibert

November 9, 2015

Saint Cunibert (also Cunipert, or Kunibert) (c. 600 – 12 November c. 663) was the ninth Bishop of Cologne from 627 to his death. Contemporary sources only mention him between 627 and 643. Cunibert (also spelled ‘Honoberht’) was born somewhere along the Moselle to a family of the local Ripuarian Frankish aristocracy. He entered the church […]

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November 12 – Four years in Stalin’s concentration camp

November 9, 2015

Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church auxiliary bishop who suffered religious persecution and was martyred by the Soviet Government. Hryhorij Lakota was born 31 January 1893 in Holodivka, Lviv Oblast. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Przemyśl on 16 May 1926. On 9 June 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, as […]

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November 12 – Fearless and Bold

November 9, 2015

St. Lebwin (LEBUINUS or LIAFWIN). Apostle of the Frisians and patron of Deventer, b. in England of Anglo-Saxon parents at an unknown date; d. at Deventer, Holland, about 770. Educated in a monastery and fired by the example of St. Boniface, St. Willibrord, and other great English missionaries, Lebwin resolved to dovote his life to […]

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November 12 – Kidnapped, sold as a slave, ransomed by a bishop, and confidante of the emperor

November 9, 2015

St. Nilus (Neilos) Nilus the elder, of Sinai (died circa 430), was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. We know him first as a layman, married, with two sons. At this time he was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, and is said to have been one of […]

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November 12 – Noble Ruthenian Stock

November 9, 2015

St. Josaphat Kuncevyc Martyr, born in the little town of Volodymyr in Lithuania (Volyn) in 1580 or — according to some writers — 1584; died at Vitebsk, Russia, 12 November, 1623. The saint’s birth occurred in a gloomy period for the Ruthenian Church. Even as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century the Florentine […]

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November 12 – Constable of France: he fought his entire life and died in battle at age 74

November 9, 2015

Anne de Montmorency had proven many times before that his race does not degenerate and the brave blood of an illustrious line of ancestors flowed in his veins. Imperious, severe, of a stern mood, he had undeniable bravery and strict fidelity to his duty. Although success had not always been on a par with his […]

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Knights and dames “not appropriate”

November 5, 2015

According the The Guardian: Knights and dames are “not appropriate” in a modern Australian honours system and will be scrapped…the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, has announced. Turnbull said earlier that the Queen had agreed to the government’s recommendation to remove knights and dames. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, wrote to Turnbull…urging him to scrap the […]

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Samuel de Champlain: The Chaste Founder of Canada

November 5, 2015

Père Lalemant, in the Jesuit Relation of 1640, wrote: “The reputation of M. de Champlain, who stayed here [in Huronia] some twenty-two years ago, still lives in the minds of these barbarous people, who honor, even after the lapse of so many years, the many lovable virtues that they admired in him, and particularly his […]

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A Crusading Knight Reflects the Majesty of Our Lord Jesus Christ

November 5, 2015

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Why is it that when a knight fights for Our Lord Jesus Christ, something of the Holy Shroud of Turin is reflected in his soul? With all the circumstances I have just described, the Shroud displays that erect, judging, rejecting, sovereign, firm, disapproving and affirmative majesty that makes Our Lord […]

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November 6 – Duchess d’Alençon

November 5, 2015

Blessed Margaret of Lorraine Duchess d’Alencon, religious of the order of Poor Clares, born in 1463 at the castle of Vaudémont (Lorraine); died at Argentan (Brittany) 2 November, 1521. The daughter of Ferri de Vaudimont and of Yolande d’Anjou, little Margaret became an orphan at an early age and was brought up at Aix-en-Provençe, by […]

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November 6 – St. Winnoc

November 5, 2015

St. Winnoc Abbot or Prior or Wormhoult, died 716 or 717. Three lives of this saint are extant: the best of these, the first life, was written by a monk of St. Bertin in the middle of the ninth century, or perhaps a century earlier. St. Winnoc is generally called a Breton, but the Bollandist […]

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November 6 – We know nothing about him, except his miracles

November 5, 2015

St. Leonard of Limousin Nothing absolutely certain is known of his history, as his earliest “Life”, written in the eleventh century, has no historical value whatever. According to this extraordinary legend, Leonard belonged to a noble Frankish family of the time of King Clovis, and St. Remy of Reims was his godfather. After having secured […]

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November 7 – He Went on Crusade to Atone for His Sins

November 5, 2015

Saint Engelbert of Cologne Archbishop of that city (1216-1225); born at Berg, about 1185; died near Schwelm, 7 November 1225. His father was Engelbert, Count of Berg, his mother, Margaret, daughter of the Count of Gelderland. He studied at the cathedral school of Cologne and while still a boy was, according to an abuse of […]

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November 7 – Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

November 5, 2015

Born     December 29, 1811, in Aitona, Lleida, Spain Died     20 March 1872, in Tarragona, Spain Beatified     April 24, 1988, St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II Feast     November 7 Discalced Carmelite Spanish priest. He founded “The School of the Virtue” — which was a model of catechetical teaching […]

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November 7 – Martyred in Mecca

November 5, 2015

Saint Ernest of Mecca Abbot of the abbey of Zwiefalten Died     1148 AD in Mecca Feast     November 7 Saint Ernest (died 1148) was the abbot of the Benedictine Zwiefalten Abbey at Zwiefalten, Germany during the 12th century. He participated in the Second Crusade fought by Christians between 1145 and 1149 to regain the […]

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