Don Pelayo and the Reconquista of Spain

January 14, 2016

Written by Felipe Barandiaran One fascinating aspect of the Old Testament is God’s intervention favoring those who do all they possibly can while facing overwhelming odds and counting on Him to do the impossible. As we read about David and Goliath, Gideon and the Battle of Jericho, the Maccabees and others, we have the impression […]

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Regal Splendor and Popular Comfort

January 14, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Reality or fairy tale? One would have the right to hesitate, considering the harmony, lightness and supreme distinction of this castle built on waters of a serenity and depth suitable to serve it as a mirror. One would say that this unimaginable façade was made to be seen especially in […]

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January 15 – St. Maurus & St. Placidus

January 14, 2016

St. Maurus Deacon, son of Equitius, a nobleman of Rome, but claimed also by Fondi, Gallipoli, Lavello etc.; died 584. Feast, 15 Jan. He is represented as an abbot with crozier, or with book and censer, or holding the weights and measures of food and drink given him by his holy master. He is the […]

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January 15 – Most Glorious King Ceolwulp

January 14, 2016

King Ceolwulf (also CEOLWULPH or CEOLULPH) Coelwulf, King of Northumbria and monk of Lindisfarne, date and place of birth not known; died at Lindisfarne, 764. His ancestry is thus given by the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”: “Ceolwulf was the son of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin, Cuthwin of Leoldwald, Leoldwald of Egwald, Egwald of Aldhelm, Aldhelm of Ocga, […]

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January 16 – St. Euphrosyne

January 14, 2016

Saint Euphrosyne Died about 470. Her story belongs to that group of legends which relate how Christian virgins, in order the more successfully to lead the life of celibacy and asceticism to which they had dedicated themselves, put on male attire and passed for men. According to the narrative of her life in the “Vitae […]

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January 16 – When the Emporor insisted that the lapsed be readmitted to communion without penance, one man stood in his way

January 14, 2016

Pope St. Marcellus I His date of birth unknown; elected pope in May or June, 308; died in 309. For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304 the Diocletian persecution continued with unabated severity. After the abdication of Diocletian in 305, and the accession in Rome of Maxentius to the throne of the […]

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January 16 – The true disciple of St. Francis who sent the Moorish king into a fit of rage

January 14, 2016

St. Berard of Carbio (Or BERALDUS). Friar Minor and martyr; d. 16 January, 1220. Of the noble family of Leopardi, and a native of Carbio in Umbria, Berard was received into the Franciscan Order by the Seraphic Patriarch himself, in 1213. He was well versed in Arabic, an eloquent preacher, and was chosen by St. […]

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January 16 – Irish Prince and Saint

January 14, 2016

St. Fursey An Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, died 16 Jan., about 650. He was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was born probably amongst the Hy-Bruin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father’s uncle, who […]

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January 17 – Sister of the Grand Master of Malta

January 14, 2016

St. Roseline of Villeneuve (or Rossolina.) Having overcome her father’s opposition Roseline became a Carthusian nun at Bertaud in the Alps of Dauphiné. Her “consecration” took place in 1288, and about 1330 she succeeded her aunt, Blessed Jeanne or Diane de Villeneuve, as Prioress of Celle-Robaud in the Diocese of Fréjus near her home. In […]

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January 17 – Scanderbeg: the hero of Christendom

January 14, 2016

In a history, where so much is spoken of the regions, from whence the miraculous Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel came, it will be of great use to take a brief glance at the once entirely Catholic nation in which it so long remained, and at the great client of its Sanctuary in […]

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January 18 – St. Margaret of Hungary

January 14, 2016

St. Margaret of Hungary Daughter of King Bela I of Hungary and his wife Marie Laskaris, born 1242; died 18 Jan., 1271. According to a vow which her parents made when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret, in 1245 entered the Dominican Convent of Veszprem. […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 11, 1943

January 14, 2016

How, beloved Sons and Daughters, could the warm and heartfelt greetings that the lofty words of your illustrious representative conveyed to Us in your name fail to find their response in the offerings We now raise to God on your behalf? Unvanquished by the sorrows of the present hour, We feel, at this moment, a […]

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Queen Elizabeth II sends wreath to tomb of ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charlie’s father

January 11, 2016

According to Ambassador to the Holy See, Nigel Baker: On 8 January, with the gracious permission of Her Majesty The Queen, I laid a wreath at the tomb in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica of James Francis Edward Stuart, 250 years after his burial there. The message on the wreath was very simple: “In […]

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January 12 – He promoted the use of stained glass

January 11, 2016

St. Benedict Biscop An English monastic founder, born of a noble Anglo-Saxon family, c. 628; died 12 January 690. He spent his youth at the court of the Northumbrian King Oswy. When twenty-five years old, he made the first of his five pilgrimages to Rome. On his return to England, Benedict introduced, whenever he could, […]

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January 12 – “The English Saint Bernard”

January 11, 2016

St. Aelred Abbot of Rievaulx, homilist and historian (1109-66). St. Aelred, whose name is also written Ailred, Æthelred, and Ethelred, was the son of one of those married priests of whom many were found in England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. He was born at Hexham, but at an early age made the acquaintance […]

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January 13 – The bold strategic vision of Cluny

January 11, 2016

Saint Berno of Cluny (c. 850 – 13 January 927) was first abbot of Cluny from its foundation in 910 until he resigned in 925. He was subject only to the pope and began the tradition of the Cluniac reforms which his successors brought to fruition across Europe. Berno was first a monk at St. […]

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January 13 – This Saint Opposed Bishop Lucifer

January 11, 2016

St. Hilary of Poitiers Bishop, born in that city at the beginning of the fourth century; died there 1 November, according to the most accredited opinion, or according to the Roman Breviary, on 13 January, 368. Belonging to a noble and very probably pagan family, he was instructed in all the branches of profane learning, […]

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January 13 – The Count Who Converted the King

January 11, 2016

St. Remigius of Rheims Apostle of the Franks, Archbishop of Rheims, b. at Cerny or Laon, 437; d. at Rheims, 13 January 533. His father was Emile, Count of Laon. He studied literature at Rheims and soon became so noted for learning and sanctity that he was elected Archbishop of Rheims in his twenty-second year. […]

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January 14 – Matriarch of Saints

January 11, 2016

St. Macrina the Elder Our knowledge of the life of the elder Macrina is derived mainly from the testimony of the great Cappadocian Fathers of the Church, her grandchildren: Basil (Ep. 204:7; 223:3), Gregory of Nyssa (“Vita Macrinae Junioris”), and the panegyric of St. Gregory of Nazianzus on St. Basil (Gregory Naz., Oratio 43). She […]

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January 14 – The Ten Year Old Saint and Some Of Her Miracles

January 11, 2016

Ven. Anne de Guigné When St. Thomas Aquinas’s sister asked him how to become a Saint, he told her to just “will it.” Venerable Anne de Guigné¹ was a child with an iron will and from the moment of her conversion, she willed only one thing…to be a Saint. “To become a Saint is to […]

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January 14 – Blessed Devasahayam Pillai

January 11, 2016

Blessed Devasahayam Pillai Devasahayam Pillai (named Neelakanda Pillai at birth) was born into an affluent Nair-caste family at Nattalam in the present-day Kanyakumari District, on 23 April 1712. His father Vasudevan Namboodiri, hailed from Kayamkulam, in present-day Kerala state, and was working as a priest at Sri Adi Kesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar in present-day […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 5, 1942

January 11, 2016

Beloved Sons and Daughters, the loftily worded message of greeting that your illustrious representative has communicated to Us, wishes, it seems to us, to manifest above all that filial attachment to the Apostolic See which spurs your faith and is the finest glory of the Roman Patriciate and Nobility. With great joy and exaltation, We […]

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Queen carries out more engagements than William, Kate and Harry combined

January 7, 2016

According to The Telegraph: The Queen, who will be 90 in April, carried out 306 engagements in the UK and 35 abroad in 2015. In contrast, the Duke and Duchess and Prince Harry managed only 198 engagements between them in the UK and 94 abroad. The Prince of Wales also outdid his children, undertaking 380 […]

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Vasco da Gama Prays To Our Lady Before Setting Out For India

January 7, 2016

At Belém they were all kneeling at his side: Paulo da Gama, his brother, with Nicolau Coelho and Gonçalo Nunes, his other captains and their pilots, Pero de Alenquer, João de Coimbra, Pero Escolar, Afonso Gonçalves; and likewise the “secretaries” Diogo Dias, João de Sá and Álvaro de Braga. Bartolomeu Dias was also there, for […]

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Saint Michael the Archangel, Model of the Perfect Knight

January 7, 2016

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira                              September 28, 1966 (*) The Catholic calendar reads: Saint Michael, Prince of the Heavenly Host fought the rebel angels in the heavenly battle. He continues to lead the battle to free us from the devil. Our guardian angels depend on him. He is the custodian angel of the Church and […]

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January 8 – Hapsburg Saint

January 7, 2016

St. Gudula (Latin, Guodila) Born in Brabant, Belgium, of Witger and Amalberga, in the seventh century; died at the beginning of the eighth century. After the birth of Gudula her mother Amalberga, who is herself venerated as a saint, embraced the religious life, and according to tradition received the veil at the hands of St. […]

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January 8 – St. Severinus

January 7, 2016

St. Severinus Abbot, and Apostle of Noricum, or Austria A.D. 482. We know nothing of the birth or country of this saint. From the purity of his Latin, he was generally supposed to be a Roman; and his care to conceal what he was according to the world, was taken for a proof of his […]

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January 9 – Blessed Tommaso Reggio

January 7, 2016

Blessed Tommaso Reggio Bl. Tommaso Reggio was born in Genoa, Italy, on 9 January 1818 to the Marquis of Reggio and Angela Pareto. He had a comfortable upbringing which gave him a solid Christian and cultural background and assured him of a brilliant career. However, at the age of 20 he decided to become a […]

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January 9 – St. Adrian of Canterbury

January 7, 2016

St. Adrian of Canterbury An African by birth, died 710. He became Abbot of Nerida, a Benedictine monastery near Naples, when he was very young. Pope Vitalian intended to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury to succeed St. Deusdedit, who had died in 664, but Adrian considered himself unworthy of so great a dignity, and begged […]

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January 9 – St. Peter of Sebaste

January 7, 2016

St. Peter of Sebaste Bishop, born about 340; died 391. He belonged to the richly blest family of Basil and Emmelia of Caesarea in Cappadocia, from which also sprang St. Macrina the Younger (q.v.) and the two great Cappadocian doctors, Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nyssa. He was the youngest of a large family, […]

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January 10 – Doge of Venice and Saint of Heaven

January 7, 2016

St. Peter Urseolus (Orseolo) Born at Rivo alto, Province of Udina, 928; at Cuxa, 10 January, 987 (997 is less probable). Sprung from the wealthy and noble Venetian family, the Orseoli, Peter led from his youth an earnest Christian life. In the service of the republic, he distinguished himself in naval battles against the pirates. […]

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January 10 – Patient to the Penitent, Inflexible to the Impenitent

January 7, 2016

St. William, Confessor, Archbishop of Bourges (c. 1155 – January 10, 1209) William Berruyer, of the illustrious family of the ancient counts of Nevers, was educated by Peter the hermit, archdeacon of Soissons, his uncle by the mother’s side. He learned from his infancy to despise the folly and emptiness of the riches and grandeur […]

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January 11 – Wounded in a duel

January 7, 2016

Blessed Bernard Scammacca, O.P. He was born in 1430 to a noble family of Catania, Sicily and given the name Anthony. As was typical of young men at that time, he fought duels. In one of them, his leg was badly wounded. As Anthony convalesced, he had time to think about his life and his […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 5, 1941

January 7, 2016

A cause for deep, paternal joy in Our heart is granted Us, dear Sons and Daughters, by your welcome gathering around Us at the start of the New Year, a year no less fraught with fearful horizons than the one just passed. Here you have come to present to us your filial good wishes through […]

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Pius XII – Allocution of January 8, 1940

January 4, 2016

At the start of the New year, a twofold gift has been given us by the Roman Patriciate and Nobility by their gathering around Us: the most appreciated gift of their presence and the gift of their filial best wishes, adornments, as a flower, of the testimonial of their traditional loyalty to the Holy See, […]

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January 5 – Pope St. Telesphorus

January 4, 2016

(Lived about 125-136.) St. Telesphorus was the seventh Roman bishop in succession from the Apostles, and, according to the testimony of St. Irenæus (Adv. hæreses, III, iii, 3), suffered a glorious martyrdom. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV, vii, xiv) places the beginning of his pontificate in the twelfth of Hadrian’s reign (128-129), his death in the […]

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January 6 – St. Roch

January 4, 2016

St. Roch Born at Montpellier towards 1295; died 1327. His father was governor of that city. At his birth St. Roch is said to have been found miraculously marked on the breast with a red cross. Deprived of his parents when about twenty years old, he distributed his fortune among the poor, handed over to […]

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January 7 – St. Kentigerna

January 4, 2016

St. Kentigerna, Widow She is commemorated on the 7th of January, in the Aberdeen Breviary, from which we learn, that she was of royal blood, daughter of Kelly, prince of Leinster in Ireland, as Colgan proves from ancient monuments. She was mother of the holy abbot St. Fœlan, or Felan. After the death of her […]

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January 7 – St. Aldric

January 4, 2016

St. Aldric Bishop of Le Mans in the time of Louis le Debonnaire, born c. 800; died at Le Mans, 7 January, 856. As a youth he lived in the court of Charlemagne, at Aix la Chapelle, as well as in that of his son and successor Louis. By both monarchs he was highly esteemed, […]

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January 7 – Ordered bandits of royal blood to hang from the highest mast

January 4, 2016

St. Canut, second son of Eric the Good, king of Denmark, was made duke of Sleswig, his elder brother Nicholas being king of Denmark. Their father, who lived with his people as a father with his children, and no one ever left him without comfort, says the ancient chronicle Knytling-Saga, p. 71. died in Cyprus, […]

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Queen Elizabeth’s Christmas message perhaps the best of all world leaders

December 31, 2015

According to LifeSiteNews: [Queen Elizabeth’s] message this year was a marked contrast to the public Christmas statements of US President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau and most other secular leaders of the world. Elizabeth reveals that she still knows what Christmas is really all about and is not even slightly embarrassed to state […]

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The Count and The Chimneysweep

December 31, 2015

By G. Lenôtre   On that Christmas Eve, Mathiote, without changing his begrimed clothes, directed his steps to the Palace of de Plessis-Morambert. Three years earlier, also on Christmas Eve, he had been called to clean a certain chimney, where the Count de Morambert wanted to arrange an enormous pyramid of toys and candies to […]

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The Calm, The Coherence And The Logic Of St. Joseph

December 31, 2015

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira March, 19th 1976 What was the occasion in Saint Joseph’s life when he practiced logic to a heroic degree? It was the well known episode when he saw that Our Lady had conceived a child of which he was not the father. The Gospel mentions the matter. He was faced […]

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January 1 – The Virgin Mary was “of the house of David”

December 31, 2015

Mary’s Davidic ancestry St. Luke (2:4) says that St. Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled, “because he was of the house and family of David”. As if to exclude all doubt concerning the Davidic descent of Mary, the Evangelist (1:32, 69) states that the child born of Mary without the intervention of […]

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January 1 – He brought to the West some of the most famous relics

December 31, 2015

St. Agricius Bishop of Trier (Trèves), in the fourth century (332 or 335). A local ninth-century tradition states that he had been Patriarch of Antioch, and that he was translated to the See of Trier by Pope Silvester, at the request of the Empress Helena. He was present at the Council of Arles in 314, […]

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January 1 – Cluny produces another hero

December 31, 2015

St. William Abbot of Saint-Bénigne at Dijon, celebrated Cluniac reformer, born on the Island of Giuglio on Lake Orta near Novara in Piedmont in 962; died at Fecamp, one of his reformed monasteries in Normandy, 1 January 1031. At the age of seven he was brought as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery of Locedia […]

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January 1 – As bishop, he was harsh to himself, to his clergy, and to any king

December 31, 2015

St. Fulgentius (FABIUS CLAUDIUS GORDIANUS FULGENTIUS). Born 468, died 533. Bishop of Ruspe in the province of Byzacene in Africa, eminent among the Fathers of the Church for saintly life, eloquence and theological learning. His grandfather, Gordianus, a senator of Carthage, was despoiled of his possessions by the invader Genseric, and banished to Italy, his […]

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January 2 – The Infant of Prague

December 31, 2015

Its earliest history can be traced back to Prague in the year 1628 when the small, 19-inch high, wooden and coated wax statue of the Infant Jesus was given by Princess Polyxena von Lobkowicz (1566–1642) to the Discalced Carmelites, to whom she had become greatly attached. The princess had received the statue as a wedding […]

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January 2 – St. Basil the Great

December 31, 2015

St. Basil the Great Bishop of Caesarea, and one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church. Born probably 329; died 1 January, 379. He ranks after Athanasius as a defender of the Oriental Church against the heresies of the fourth century. With his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his brother Gregory of Nyssa, he […]

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January 2 – St. Gregory of Nazianzus

December 31, 2015

St. Gregory of Nazianzus Doctor of the Church, born at Arianzus, in Asia Minor, c. 325; died at the same place, 389. He was son — one of three children — of Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus (329-374), in the south-west of Cappadocia, and of Nonna, a daughter of Christian parents. The saint’s father was originally […]

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January 3 – Saint Joseph Mary Tomasi

December 31, 2015

Saint Joseph Mary Tomasi The very eminent servant of God Joseph Mary Tomasi, Cardinal, whom Pope Pius VII decorated with the honors of the Blessed in 1803, and whom today the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II ascribes solemnly in the book of the Saints, was born at Licata, in Sicily, the Diocese of Agrigento, on […]

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January 3 – The saint who twice saved Paris

December 31, 2015

St. Genevieve Patroness of Paris, born at Nanterre, circa 419 or 422; died at Paris, 512. Her feast is kept on 3 January. She was the daughter of Severus and Gerontia; popular tradition represents her parents as poor peasants, though it seems more likely that they were wealthy and respectable townspeople. In 429 St. Germain […]

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January 3 – They called him the “Archangel”

December 31, 2015

St. Odilo Fifth Abbot of Cluny, born c. 962; died 31 December, 1048. He was descended from the nobility of Auvergne. He early became a cleric in the seminary of St. Julien in Brioude. In 991 he entered Cluny and before the end of his year of probation was made coadjutor to Abbot Mayeul, and […]

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Epiphany – The Three Kings made the Kingship of Christ Manifest to the Pagan World

December 31, 2015

The Epiphany of Our Lord Saints Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior Epiphany, which in the original Greek signifies appearance or manifestation, as St. Augustin observes, (1) is a festival principally solemnized in honor of the discovery Jesus Christ made of himself to the Magi, or wise men; who, soon after his birth, by a particular inspiration […]

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January 4 – Patroness of those afflicted by sexual temptation

December 31, 2015

Blessed Angela of Foligno Umbrian penitent and mystical writer. She was born at Foligno in Umbria, in 1248, of a rich family; died 4 January, 1309. Married at an early age, she loved the world and its pleasures and, worse still, forgetful of her dignity and duties as wife and mother, fell into sin and […]

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January 4 – American Aristrocratic Saint

December 31, 2015

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Foundress and first superior of the Sisters of Charity in the United States, born in New York City, 28 Aug., 1774, of non-Catholic parents of high position; died at Emmitsburg, Maryland, 4 Jan., 1821. Her father, Dr. Richard Bayley (born in Connecticut and educated in England), was the first professor of […]

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December 29 – His Staff Did More Damage Than His Sword

December 28, 2015

St. Thomas à Becket Martyr, Archbishop of Canterbury, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London, born at London, 21 December, c. 1118; died at Canterbury, 29 December, 1170. St. Thomas was born of parents who, coming from Normandy, had settled in England some years previously. No reliance can be placed upon the […]

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December 29 – Blessed William Howard

December 28, 2015

Blessed William Howard 1st Viscount Stafford, martyr; born 30 November, 1614; beheaded Tower-Hill, 29 December, 1680. He was grandson of the Saint Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, mentioned above, fifth son of Earl Thomas (the first great art collector of England), and uncle of Thomas Philip, Cardinal Howard. Brought up as a Catholic, he was […]

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December 29 – David, the ancestor of Jesus

December 28, 2015

King David In the Bible the name David is borne only by the second king of Israel, the great-grandson of Boaz and Ruth (Ruth, iv, 18 sqq.). He was the youngest of the eight sons of Isai, or Jesse (I Kings, xvi, 8; cf. I Par., ii, 13), a small proprietor, of the tribe of […]

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December 30 – Princess, Orphan, Foundress

December 28, 2015

Blessed Margaret Colona Poor Clare, also known as Margarita Colonna, born in Rome, date uncertain; died there, 20 September, 1284. Bl. Margaret Colona Her father, Prince Odo Colonna, and her mother died in Rome when she was still a young girl, and she was left to the care of her two brothers, the youngest of […]

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