April 25 – Builder

April 23, 2015

Blessed Meinwerk Tenth Bishop of Paderborn, d. 1036: Meinwerk (Meginwerk) was born of the noble family of the Immedinger and related to the royal house of Saxony. His father was Imad (Immeth), Count of Teisterbant and Radichen, and his mother’s name was Adela (Adala, Athela). In early youth he was dedicated by his parents to […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – She inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 23, 2015

Our Lady of Good Counsel January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he placed himself at the head of his own people. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania… Read more […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – Nephew of the Duke of Maqueda

April 23, 2015

St. Rafael Arnáiz Barón (9 April 1911, Burgos, Spain – 26 April 1938, Dueñas, Palencia, Spain) Rafael Arnáiz, known in the monastery as Brother María Rafael, was born on 9 April 1911 in the city of Burgos, in north-central Spain. He was the first of four sons born to a well-to-do, deeply Christian and Catholic […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – Pope St. Cletus

April 23, 2015

Pope St. Cletus This name is only another form for Anacletus, the second successor of St. Peter. It is true that the Liberian Catalogue, a fourth-century list of popes, so called because it ends with Pope Liberius (d. 366), contains both names, as if they were different persons. But this is an error, owing evidently […]

Read the full article →

April 27 – Noble Model of Confidence

April 23, 2015

St. Peter Armengol was born in Guárdia dels Prats, a small village in the archdiocese of Tarragon, Spain in 1238. He belonged to the house of the barons of Rocafort, descendants of the counts of Urgel, whose ancestors were directly linked to the counts of Barcelona and the monarchs of Aragon and Castile. Read more […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Adventurous in youth and adulthood

April 20, 2015

St. Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church; born at Aosta a Burgundian town on the confines of Lombardy, died 21 April, 1109.  His father, Gundulf, was a Lombard who had become a citizen of Aosta, and his mother, Ermenberga, came of an old Burgundian family. Like many other saints, Anselm learnt the first […]

Read the full article →

April 22 – Father of Origen

April 20, 2015

St. Leonidas (Or LEONIDES.) The Roman Martyrology records several feast days of martyrs of this name in different countries. Under date of 28 January there is a martyr called Leonides, a native of the Thebaid, whose death with several companions is supposed to have occurred during the Diocletian persecution (Acta SS., January, II, 832). Another […]

Read the full article →

April 22 – Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

April 20, 2015

Pedralvarez Cabral (Pedro Alvarez.) A celebrated Portugese navigator, generally called the discoverer of Brazil, born probably around 1460; date of death uncertain. Very little is known concerning the life of Cabral. He was the third son of Fernao Cabral, Governor of Beira and Belmonte, and Isabel de Gouvea, and married Isabel de Castro, the daughter […]

Read the full article →

April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 20, 2015

St. George Martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Diospolis, in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. According to the very careful investigation of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, in the light of modern sources of… Read more here.

Read the full article →

April 23 – Archbishop author of war-song

April 20, 2015

St. Adalbert of Bohemia Born 939 of a noble Bohemian family; died 997. He assumed the name of the Archbishop Adalbert (his name had been Wojtech), under whom he studied at Magdeburg. He became Bishop of Prague, whence he was obliged to flee on account of the enmity… Read more here.

Read the full article →

St. Louis and The Holy Name Of God

April 16, 2015

St. Louis, King of France, was one of the gentlest and most pious of monarchs. One thing only did he punish with great severity, and this was disrespect to, and profanation of, the Holy Name of God. At that time, as in our own days, nothing was more dishonored than God’s holy Name. To put […]

Read the full article →

King of Norway commemorates those who died fighting invasion 75 years ago

April 16, 2015

According to the Royal Forums: The King of Norway today was present for a ceremony at the National Monument at the Akerhus Fortress marking the 75th anniversary of the German invasion of Norway. King Harald laid a wreath at the monument to those who gave their lives fighting for their country, before saluting and observing […]

Read the full article →

Queen of Denmark denies abdication

April 16, 2015

According to Hello Magazine: Margrethe, who became queen the day after her father King Frederick IX died in 1972, replied “absolutely not” when asked whether she would step down. The Danish population and members of the royal family have already been celebrating the queen’s birthday ahead of her milestone event on Thursday. A street parade […]

Read the full article →

Queen Elizabeth thanks Tyburn Nuns for their prayers

April 16, 2015

According to the Catholic Herald: A priest who was invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace has said the Queen asked him to convey her thanks to the Tyburn Nuns after learning that they prayed for her. The Queen “showed great interest”, he said, and asked him to “convey her thanks to the nuns for […]

Read the full article →

Sidesaddle riding making a comeback

April 16, 2015

According to The Washington Post: Sidesaddle riding is making an unlikely comeback in the United States, greeted by many nostalgic equestrians as a delightful revival of a long-lost skill celebrating feminine modesty and elegance. “I think there’s a real craving for glamour and the sense of tradition, kind of a return to elegance and a […]

Read the full article →

Second Horizon

April 16, 2015

Compare the coldness of lines and substance [of modern architecture] – there is nothing “colder” than cement – to the recollection, the warmth, and the harmony of these old houses in Warwick. They all seem to consider the passerby with a smile impregnated with familiar kindness, and to contain in themselves the warmth of domestic […]

Read the full article →

April 17 – He rescued his country from crushing debt, yet waged incessant war

April 16, 2015

Maximilian I Duke of Bavaria, 1598-1622, Elector of Bavaria and Lord High Steward of the Holy Roman Empire, 1623-1651; born at Munich, 17 April, 1573; died at Ingolstadt, 27 September, 1651. The lasting services he rendered his country and the Catholic Church justly entitle him to the surname of “Great”. He was the son of […]

Read the full article →

April 17 – One of the many nobles who spread the Cluny reform

April 16, 2015

St. Robert Founder of the Abbey of Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, born at Aurilac, Auvergne, about 1000; died in Auvergne, 1067. On his father’s side he belonged to the family of the Counts of Aurilac, who had given birth to St. Géraud. He studied at Brioude near the basilica of St-Julien, in a school open to […]

Read the full article →

April 17 – St. Stephen Harding

April 16, 2015

St. Stephen Harding Confessor, the third Abbot of Cîteaux, was born at Sherborne in Dorsetshire, England, about the middle of the eleventh century; died 28 March, 1134. He received his early education in the monastery of Sherborne and afterwards studied in Paris and Rome. On returning from the latter city he stopped at the monastery […]

Read the full article →

April 18 – Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation

April 16, 2015

Bl. Marie de l’Incarnation Known also as Madame Acarie, foundress of the French Carmel, born in Paris, 1 February, 1566; died at Pontoise, April, 1618. By her family Barbara Avrillot belonged to the higher bourgeois society in Paris. Her father, Nicholas Avrillot was accountant general in the Chamber of Paris, and chancellor of Marguerite of […]

Read the full article →

April 18 – St. Willigis

April 16, 2015

St. Willigis Archbishop of Mainz, d. 23 Feb., 1011. Feast, 23 February or 18 April. Though of humble birth he received a good education, and through the influence of Bishop Volkold of Meissen entered the service of Otto I, and after 971 figured as chancellor of Germany. Otto II in 975 made him Archbishop of […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – Captured by pirates

April 16, 2015

St. Alphege (or Elphege), Saint, born 954; died 1012; also called Godwine, martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, left his widowed mother and patrimony for the monastery of Deerhurst (Gloucestershire). After some years as an anchorite at Bath, he there became abbot, and (19 Oct., 984) was made Bishop of Winchester. In 994 Elphege administered confirmation to […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – The saintly warrior pope

April 16, 2015

Pope St. Leo IX Pope St. Leo IX earnestly spread the Cluny reform Born at Egisheim, near Colmar, on the borders of Alsace, 21 June, 1002, Pope St. Leo IX died on 19 April, 1054. He belonged to a noble family which had given or was to give saints to the Church and rulers to […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – Blessed Conrad of Ascoli

April 16, 2015

Friar Minor and missionary, born at Ascoli in the March of Ancona in 1234; died there, 19 April, 1289. He belonged to the noble family of Milliano and from his earliest years made penance the predominating element of his life… Read more here.

Read the full article →

April 20 – Blessed John Finch

April 16, 2015

Bl. John Finch A martyr, born about 1548; died 20 April, 1584. He was a yeoman of Eccleston, Lancashire, and a member of a well-known old Catholic family, but he appears to have been brought up in schism. When he was twenty years old he went to London where he spent nearly a year with […]

Read the full article →

April 20 – “I beg your Lordship…that my lips and…fingers may be cut off…”

April 16, 2015

Blessed Fr. James Bell Priest and martyr, b. at Warrington in Lancashire, England, probably about 1520; d. 20 April, 1584. For the little known of him we depend on the account published four years after his death by Bridgewater in his “Concertatio” (1588), and derived from a manuscript which was kept at Douay when Challoner […]

Read the full article →

April 20 – Blessed Richard Sergeant

April 16, 2015

Bl. Richard Sergeant English martyr, executed at Tyburn, 20 April, 1586. He was probably a younger son of Thomas Sergeant of Stone, Gloucestershire, by Katherine, daughter of John Tyre of Hardwick. He took his degree at Oxford (20 Feb., 1570-1), and arrived at the English College, Reims, on 25 July, 1581. He was ordained subdeacon […]

Read the full article →

April 14 – She suffered for the moral corruption and decay of her time

April 13, 2015

Saint Lydwine In 1380, Saint Lydwine was born in the small town of Schiedam in Holland. Her father was a wealthy noble named Peter, and her mother was from a poor family who worked their own farm. Her father’s family lost their fortune, and the whole family was reduced to poverty. At that time, all […]

Read the full article →

April 14 – St. Peter Gonzalez (aka St. Elmo)

April 13, 2015

St. Peter Gonzalez Popularly known as St. Elmo, b. in 1190 at Astorga, Spain; d. 15 April, 1246, at Tuy. He was educated by his uncle, Bishop of Astorga, who gave him when very young a canonry. Later he entered the Dominican Order and became a renowned preacher; crowds gathered to hear him and numberless… […]

Read the full article →

December 20 – Her church ranks third in Rome

April 13, 2015

St. Anastasia This martyr enjoys the distinction, unique in the Roman liturgy, of having a special commemoration in the second Mass on Christmas day. This Mass was originally celebrated not in honour of the birth of Christ, but in commemoration of this martyr, and towards the end of the fifth century her name was also […]

Read the full article →

April 16 – Martyred in the name of Equality

April 13, 2015

Just a few of the many martyrs during the French Revolution († 1792-1799) 16 April 1794 in Avrillé, Maine-et-Loire (France) Pierre Delépine layperson of the diocese of Angers born: 24 May 1732 in Marigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Jean Ménard layperson of the diocese of Angers; married born: 16 November 1736 in Andigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Renée Bourgeais […]

Read the full article →

Prince Harry Urges People To Stop Selfies

April 9, 2015

According to The Guardian: Prince Harry has declared “selfies are bad”, during a jovial walkabout as he greeted hundreds of well-wishers who gathered to catch a glimpse of him as he arrived in Australia. The prince, who spent around 20 minutes shaking hands and speaking to those who braved the rain to see him, advised […]

Read the full article →

‘Kandia Regal’ Named After Romanian Royals

April 9, 2015

According to The Royal Forums: Three new lines of chocolate – ‘HRH Princess Margarita’, ‘HRH Prince Radu’ and ‘Peles Castle’ – were launched during a presentation at the Elisabeta Palace today. They have been produced by the company Kandia Dulce, forming the ‘Kandia Regal’ range, and each have a different cocoa content. “Each generation, starting […]

Read the full article →

The Catholic Password

April 9, 2015

On the day of the famous battle of Bull-Run, General Smith, who commanded the army of the South, arrived along with his division too late to know what was the password. He foresaw that if he advanced without it he would be fired upon by his own army, and if he remained where he was […]

Read the full article →

That Which Is Marvelous Is For Everyone

April 9, 2015

We ought to desire smaller things because of the greater things, and in function of the latter. It is necessary that the soul be formed in such a way that a person may, in meditating on Charlemagne, at the same time be able to stop and become enthused and enchanted when, in a park, his […]

Read the full article →

April 10 – Friend of Cluny

April 9, 2015

St. Fulbert of Chartres Bishop, born between 952 and 962; died 10 April, 1028 or 1029. Mabillon and others think that he was born in Italy, probably at Rome; but Pfister, his latest biographer, designates as his birthplace the Diocese of Laudun in the present department of Gard in France. He was of humble parentage […]

Read the full article →

April 11 – He excommunicated the king, who murdered him as he celebrated Mass

April 9, 2015

Saint Stanislaus of Cracow In pictures he is given the episcopal insignia and the sword. Larger paintings represent him in a court or kneeling before the altar and receiving the fatal blow. His parents, Belislaus and Bogna, pious and noble Catholics, gave him a religious education. After the death of his parents he distributed his… […]

Read the full article →

April 12 – St. Teresa of the Andes

April 9, 2015

Saint Teresa of the Andes, O.C.D. (July 13, 1900 – April 12, 1920), also known as Saint Teresa of Jesus of the Andes (Spanish: Teresa de Jesús de los Andes), was a Chilean nun of the Discalced Carmelite order. She was born Juana Enriqueta Josefina de los Sagrados Corazones Fernández y Solar in Santiago, Chile […]

Read the full article →

April 12 – Crusader in every sense of the word

April 9, 2015

Bl. Angelo Carletti di Chivasso Moral theologian of the order of Friars Minor; born at Chivasso in Piedmont, in 1411; and died at Coni, in Piedmont, in 1495. From his tenderest years the Blessed Angelo was remarkable for the holiness and purity of his life. He attended the University of Bologna, where he received the […]

Read the full article →

April 12 – Pope St. Julius I

April 9, 2015

(337-352) The immediate successor of Pope Silvester, Arcus, ruled the Roman Church for only a very short period – from 18 January to 7 October, 336 – and after his death the papal chair remained vacant for four months. What occasioned this comparatively long vacancy is unknown. On 6 February, 337, Julius, son of Rustics […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – This Prince Defied His Family

April 9, 2015

St. Hermengild Date of birth unknown; died 13 April, 585. Leovigild, the Arian King of the Visigoths (569-86), had two sons, Hermengild and Reccared, by his first marriage with the Catholic Princess Theodosia. Hermengild married, in 576, Ingundis, a Frankish… Read more here.

Read the full article →

April 13 – Born blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked and dwarfed

April 9, 2015

Blessed Margaret of Castello (1287–1320) is the patroness of the poor, crippled, and the unwanted. She was born blind, lame, deformed, hunchbacked and a dwarf, into a family of nobles in the castle of Metola, in southeast of Florence. As a child, her parents Parisio and Emilia imprisoned her for 14 years so no one […]

Read the full article →

April 13 – Pope St. Martin I

April 9, 2015

Pope St. Martin I Martyr, born at Todi on the Tiber, son of Fabricius; elected Pope at Rome, 21 July, 649, to succeed Theodore I; d at Cherson in the present peninsulas of Krym, 16 Sept., 655, after a reign of 6 years, one month and twenty six days, having ordained eleven priests, five deacons […]

Read the full article →

April 7 – Father of Modern Pedagogy

April 6, 2015

St. John Baptist de la Salle Founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, educational reformer, and father of modern pedagogy, was born at Reims, 30 April, 1651, and died at Saint-Yon, Rouen, on Good Friday, 7 April, 1719. The family of de la Salle traces its origin to Johan Salla, who, […]

Read the full article →

April 8 – Together with a noble who escaped the Terror, she founded the Sisters of Notre Dame

April 6, 2015

St. Julie Billiart (Also Julia). Foundress, and first superior-general of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame of Namur, born 12 July, 1751, at Cuvilly, a village of Picardy, in the Diocese of Beauvais and the Department of Oise, France; died 8 April, 1816, at the motherhouse of her institute, Namur, Belgium. She was […]

Read the full article →

April 9 – She persuaded her husband the Count to become a monk

April 6, 2015

St. Waudru She was daughter to the princess St. Bertille, elder sister to St. Aldegondes, and wife to Madelgaire, count of Hainault, and one of the principal lords of King Dagobert’s court. After bearing him two sons and two daughters, she induced him to embrace the monastic state at Haumont, near Maubeuge, taking… Read more […]

Read the full article →

April 9 – Mary of Cleophas

April 6, 2015

Mary of Cleophas This title occurs only in John, xix, 25. A comparison of the lists of those who stood at the foot of the cross would seem to identify her with Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joseph ( Mark, xv, 40; cf. Matt., xxvii, 56). Some have indeed tried to identify […]

Read the full article →

St. Peter Chrysologus

April 6, 2015

St. Peter Chrysologus Born at Imola, 406; died there, 450. His biography, first written by Agnellus (Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis) in the ninth century, gives but scanty information about him. He was baptised, educated, and ordained deacon by Cornelius, Bishop of Imola, and was elevated to the Bishopric of Ravenna in 433. There are indications […]

Read the full article →

The King’s Hand

April 2, 2015

St. Oswald, King of Northumbria, was one day at table with the holy Bishop Adrian. It was the great festival of Easter. During dinner a servant came and said to the King: “My lord, a multitude of poor people have just come to the gates, and are asking an alms. What am I to do […]

Read the full article →

New Succession Rules for United Kingdom and its realms

April 2, 2015

According to The Royal Forums: The Succession to the Crown Act 2013 came into effect…March 26… Marriage to Roman Catholics is now allowed while retaining rights to the throne (the monarch must be Anglican however). Several members of the extended royal family will see the new Act impact upon their succession rights: Prince Michael of […]

Read the full article →

The Heron and His Little World

April 2, 2015

The heron has that white body from which protrudes that delicate and elegantly curved breast, with a small head and a very large beak, which symbolizes the capacity to captivate, foresee, and act from a distance. We only perceive it move when, with those long legs and an elegant gait, it raises its broad foot […]

Read the full article →

April 3 – The man they trusted to collect the Crusader tax

April 2, 2015

St. Richard of Wyche Bishop and confessor, born about 1197 at Droitwich, Worcestershire, from which his surname is derived; died 3 April, 1253, at Dover. He was the second son of Richard and Alice de Wyche. His father died while he was still young and the family property fell into a state of great delapidation. […]

Read the full article →

April 4 – Grandmother of the Templars

April 2, 2015

Saint Aleth of Dijon Mother of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, she belonged to the highest nobility of Burgundy. Her husband, Tescelin, was lord of Fontaines. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux was the third of her seven children.  At the age of nine years, Bernard was sent to a much renowned school at Chatillon-sur-Seine, kept by the […]

Read the full article →

April 4 – Patron Saint of Transitions

April 2, 2015

St. Isidore of Seville Born at Cartagena, Spain, about 560; died 4 April, 636. Isidore was the son of Severianus and Theodora. His elder brother Leander was his immediate predecessor in the Metropolitan See of Seville; whilst a younger brother St. Fulgentius presided over the Bishopric of Astigi. His sister Florentina was a nun, and […]

Read the full article →

April 5 – St. Æthelburh and the Rose Named After Her

April 2, 2015

Saint Æthelburh (died 647), also known as Ethelburga, Ædilburh and Æthelburga (Old English: Æþelburh), was an early Anglo-Saxon queen consort of Northumbria, the second wife of King Edwin. As she was a Christian from Kent, their marriage triggered the initial phase of the conversion of the pagan north of England to Christianity… Read more here.

Read the full article →

April 5 – Soul on Fire

April 2, 2015

St. Vincent Ferrer Famous Dominican missionary, born at Valencia, 23 January, 1350; died at Vannes, Brittany, 5 April, 1419. He was descended from the younger of two brothers who were knighted for their valor in the conquest of Valencia, 1238. In 1340 Vincent’s father, William Ferrer, married Constantia Miguel, whose family had likewise been ennobled […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – With his head split open, he wrote on the ground with his own blood: “Credo”

April 2, 2015

St. Peter of Verona Born at Verona, 1206; died near Milan, 6 April, 1252. His parents were adherents of the Manichæan heresy, which still survived in northern Italy in the thirteenth century. Sent to a Catholic school, and later to the University of Bologna, he there met St. Dominic, and entered the Order of the […]

Read the full article →

April 6 – He wrote the genealogy of the Danish kings to disprove the alleged impediment of consanguinity

April 2, 2015

St. William of Ebelholt (Also called William of Paris, or William of Eskilsöe) Died on Easter Sunday, 1203, and was buried at Ebelholt. He was educated by his uncle Hugh, forty-second Abbot of St-Germain-des-Pres at Paris; and having been ordained subdeacon received a canonry in the Church of Ste-Geneviève-du-Mont. His exemplary life did not commend […]

Read the full article →

Cornelius, the first baptized Gentile

March 30, 2015

(Kornelios) A centurion of the Italic cohort, whose conversion at Cæsarea with his household is related in Acts 10. The Roman name Cornelius would indicate that he was either a member of the distinguished gens Cornelia, or a descendant of one of its freedmen – most likely the latter. The cohort in which he was […]

Read the full article →

April 1 – Precursor of Our Lady of Fatima

March 30, 2015

St. Nuno De Santa Maria Álvares Pereira (1360-1431) NUNO ÁLVARES PEREIRA was born in Portugal on 24th June 1360, most probably at Cernache do Bomjardin, illegitimate son of Brother Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, Hospitalier Knight of St. John of Jerusalem and prior of Crato and Donna Iria Gonçalves do Carvalhal. About a year after his birth, […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →