King St. Ferdinand endures war from his father

October 23, 2014

The King received an unusual message one day. He was in his chamber when one of his noblemen quickly entered the room with the strange news that the lord of Vizcaya was waiting outside, disguised as an oxherd and very tired. Don Lope, disguised! Because it was so unusual, Ferdinand anxiously ordered him to enter […]

Read the full article →

“Way of the Cross” Economy

October 23, 2014

The economic implications of this spirit were particularly reflected in a “Way of the Cross” economy, where the need for sacrifice and restraint in supplying human needs coincided with the consuming ideal of seeking the Cross of Christ. Medieval man looked for ways to offer up his sacrifices in the economic dealings of every day. […]

Read the full article →

October 24 – Confessor to the Queen

October 23, 2014

St. Antonio María Claret y Clará Spanish prelate and missionary, born at Sallent, near Barcelona, 23 Dec., 1807; died at Fontfroide, Narbonne, France, on 24 Oct., 1870. Son of a small woollen manufacturer, he received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a weaver. A little later he […]

Read the full article →

October 25 – The original hood

October 23, 2014

Hugh Capet King of France, founder of the Capetian dynasty, born about the middle of the tenth century; died about 996, probably 24 October. He was the second son of Hugh the Great, Count of Paris, and Hedwig, sister of Otto I, German Emperor, and was about ten years old when he inherited from his […]

Read the full article →

October 25 – Memorial of Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, Many of Them Nobles

October 23, 2014

February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest? May 4 – They believed in the religious exemption, but only at first May 22 – Queen’s Confessor                June 19 – Execution of second group of those who believed in the religious exemption, but only at first August 30 – She smuggled a priest out of prison

Read the full article →

October 25 – Crispin and Crispian and the baron of Renty

October 23, 2014

Martyrs of the Early Church who were beheaded during the reign of Diocletian; the date of their execution is given as 25 October, 285 or 286. It is stated that they were brothers, but the fact has not been positively proved. The legend relates that they were Romans of distinguished descent who went as missionaries […]

Read the full article →

October 27 – The Christian King Who Invaded Arabia

October 23, 2014

St. Elesbaan, King of Ethiopia, Confessor The Axumite Ethiopians, whose dominions were extended from the western coast of the Red Sea, very far on the continent, were in the sixth century a powerful and flourishing nation. St. Elesbaan their king, during the reign of Justin the Elder, in all his actions and designs had no […]

Read the full article →

100 years later, Queen honors WWI fallen

October 20, 2014

According to the BBC: The Queen laid a wreath at the Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red exhibit…. By 11 November – Armistice Day – there will be 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for each British and colonial death…. Stage designer Tom Piper, who helped create the poppy installation, said the Queen described the artwork […]

Read the full article →

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh pay tribute to WWI heroes

October 20, 2014

According to BBC.com … The Queen laid a wreath at the Blood Swept Lands And Seas Of Red exhibit, where each poppy commemorates a fallen WWI serviceman. By 11 November – Armistice Day – there will be 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for each British and colonial death. The Tower of London was where more than […]

Read the full article →

The Dauphin’s heroism at Fontenoy

October 20, 2014

During the battle of Fontenoy, when French soldiers were being mowed down, the Dauphin positioned himself at the front of some troops and, sword in hand, shouted: —   “Frenchmen, forward! Let’s fight for the honor of France!” Some who were close to the Crown Prince cautioned that his life was too precious to risk in […]

Read the full article →

Making a Sacrifice

October 20, 2014

When these dedicated sectors flourished, the spirit of their constant personal self-sacrifice and restraint permeated and set the tone for all society and helped all to control and counter their disordered passions. It was by this spirit that the barbarians were gradually both restrained by force of arms and tamed by prayer and penance under […]

Read the full article →

October 21 – How the Bastard Son of the King Became the Hammer of Muslim invaders

October 20, 2014

Charles Martel Born about 688; died at Quierzy on the Oise, 21 October, 741. He was the natural son of Pepin of Herstal and a woman named Alpaïde or Chalpaïde. Pepin, who died in 714, had outlived his two legitimate sons, Drogon and Grimoald, and to Theodoald, a son of the latter and then only […]

Read the full article →

October 21 – His feastday is the day of his marriage, not of his death

October 20, 2014

Blessed Karl, Emperor of Austria (Also known as Carlo d’Austria, Charles of Austria) Born August 17, 1887, in the Castle of Persenbeug in the region of Lower Austria, his parents were the Archduke Otto and Princess Maria Josephine of Saxony, daughter of the last King of Saxony. Emperor Francis Joseph I was Charles’ Great Uncle. […]

Read the full article →

October 21 – The Tale of Saint Ursula, the “Little Bear”

October 20, 2014

Once upon a time, there was once a just and most Christian King of Britain, called Maurus. To him and to his wife Daria was born a little girl, the fairest creature that this earth ever saw. She came into the world wrapped in a hairy mantle, and all men wondered greatly what this might […]

Read the full article →

October 22 – St. Wendelin of Trier

October 20, 2014

Born about 554; died probably in 617. His earliest biographies, two in Latin and two in German, did not appear until after 1417. Their narrative is the following: Wendelin was the son of a Scottish king; after a piously spent youth he secretly left his home on a pilgrimage to Rome. On his way back […]

Read the full article →

October 23 – The amazing story of San Juan Capistrano and the Siege of Belgrade

October 20, 2014

St. John of Capistrano Born at Capistrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, Italy, 1385; died 23 October, 1456. His father had come to Naples in the train of Louis of Anjou, hence is supposed to have been of French blood, though some say he was of German origin. His father dying early, John owed his […]

Read the full article →

October 23 – Gentle Birth, But Not Gentle Death

October 20, 2014

Blessed Thomas Thwing Martyr. Born at Heworth Hall, near York, in 1635; suffered at York, 23 Oct., 1680. His father was George Thwing, Esq., of Kilton Castle and Heworth, nephew of Venerable Edward Thwing; his mother was Anne, sister of the venerable confessor Sir Thomas Gasciogne, of Barnbrow Hall. Educated at Douai, he was sent […]

Read the full article →

Dom Duarte de Meneses: A great captain who was obedient unto death

October 16, 2014

When King Afonso V of Portugal was in Ceuta he made some incursions into the lands of the Moors. On one of these raids into the mountains, he was surprised by numerous enemies and resolved to withdraw and spend the night in Tetouan. Upon reaching the city he saw that his troops were retreating in […]

Read the full article →

A “Way of the Cross” Society

October 16, 2014

Lest we be accused of glorifying the past, any dream of an ideal society cannot exclude the reality of hardship and suffering that comes from God’s punishment of our first parents: “With labor and toil shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life” (Gn 3:17). Dreams become nostalgic and romantic fantasies if they […]

Read the full article →

Recipe – Paletta di Mandorla

October 16, 2014

This recipe from the Umbria region of Italy is served on the feast day of St. Francis. It is supposedly one of the few foods that St. Francis let himself really enjoy. The recipe, according to tradition, originated with St. Clare.   Paletta di Mandorla (Almond Slices) 1 cup butter 1 1/2 cup sugar 4 […]

Read the full article →

October 16 – Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

October 16, 2014

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Religious of the Visitation Order. Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born at Lhautecour, France, 22 July, 1647; died at Paray-le-Monial, 17 October, 1690. Her parents, Claude Alacoque and Philiberte Lamyn, were distinguished less for temporal possessions than for their virtue, which gave them an honourable position. […]

Read the full article →

October 17 – The Battle of Cholet

October 16, 2014

The Battle of Cholet was fought on 17 October 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French Republican forces under General Léchelle and French Royalist Forces under Louis d’Elbée. The battle was fought in the town of Cholet in the Maine-et-Loire department of France, and resulted in a Republican victory. D’Elbée was wounded and captured; […]

Read the full article →

October 18 – A day that sparked the Crusades

October 16, 2014

Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre On October 18, 1009, under Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, orders for the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection, were carried out. The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places […]

Read the full article →

October 18 – Adopted nobility

October 16, 2014

Pope Pius III (Francesco Todeschini Piccolomini). B. at Siena, 29 May, 1439; elected 22 Sept., 1503; d. in Rome, 18 Oct., 1503, after a pontificate of four weeks. Piccolomini was the son of a sister of Pius II. He had passed his boyhood in destitute circumstances when his uncle took him into his household, bestowed […]

Read the full article →

October 19 – From Spain to Rome, Barefoot

October 16, 2014

St. Peter of Alcántara Born at Alcántara, Spain, 1499; died 18 Oct., 1562. His father, Peter Garavita, was the governor of the place, and his mother was of the noble family of Sanabia. After a course of grammar and philosophy in his native town, he was sent, at the age of fourteen, to the University […]

Read the full article →

The Princess of Lamballe displays her magnanimity

October 13, 2014

In 1783, Montgolfier was preparing an experimental flight of his hot air balloon and planned to place live animals inside the basket. The laborer he employed insisted that he wanted to do the trip himself, but the inventor ruled this out as too risky and the rash endangering of the man’s life. At last the […]

Read the full article →

Post-mortem of a Revolution

October 13, 2014

French Revolution The last thirty years have given us a new version of the history of the French Revolution, the most diverse and hostile schools having contributed to it. The philosopher, Taine, drew attention to the affinity between the revolutionary and what he calls the classic spirit, that is, the spirit of abstraction which gave […]

Read the full article →

Why celebrate Columbus Day?

October 13, 2014

Columbus and Divine Providence by Jeremias Wells Christopher Columbus certainly ranks as one of the greatest men of achievement the world has ever known, and also justly one of the most renowned, for the entire history of Europeans in America originated from his vision, religious sense and adventurous spirit. As can be expected in a […]

Read the full article →

October 15 – Second Apostle of the Prussians

October 13, 2014

St. Bruno of Querfurt (Also called BRUN and BONIFACE). Second Apostle of the Prussians and martyr, born about 970; died 14 February, 1009. He is generally represented with a hand cut off, and is commemorated on 15 October. Bruno was a member of the noble family of Querfurt and is commonly said to have been […]

Read the full article →

October 15 – Interior Castle

October 13, 2014

St. Teresa of Avila Teresa Sanchez Cepeda Davila y Ahumada, born at Avila, Old Castile, 28 March, 1515; died at Alba de Tormes, 4 Oct., 1582. The third child of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda by his second wife, Doña Beatriz Davila y Ahumada, who died when the saint was in her fourteenth year, Teresa […]

Read the full article →

October 15 – Casimir Pulaski

October 13, 2014

Casimir Pulaski Patriot and soldier, born at Winiary, Poland, 4 March, 1748; died on the Wasp, in the harbour of Savannah, 11 Oct., 1779; eldest son of Count Joseph Pulaski and Maria Zislinska. His father, a noted jurist, reared him for the bar, and he received his military training, as a youth, in the guard […]

Read the full article →

October 16 – Marie Antoinette

October 13, 2014

Queen of France. Born at Vienna, 2 November, 1755; executed in Paris, 16 October, 1793. She was the youngest daughter of Francis I, German Emperor, and of Maria Theresa. The marriage of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette was one of the last acts of Choiseul’s policy; but the Dauphiness from the first shared the unpopularity […]

Read the full article →

October 16 – Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and Capetian Widow

October 13, 2014

Most Reverend Monsignor Director of this Academy, Gentlemen Academicians: A simple listing of the titles with which she was known during her short life as Marie Antoinette of Habsburg, and later Marie Antoinette of Bourbon, brings to memory the series of extraordinary and unforeseen events that together make up the fabric of the most interesting […]

Read the full article →

October 16 – Duchess and saint

October 13, 2014

St. Hedwig Duchess of Silesia, born about 1174, at the castle of Andechs; died at Trebnitz, 12 or 15 October, 1243. She was one of eight children born to Berthold IV, Count of Andechs and Duke of Croatia and Dalmatia. Of her four brothers, two became bishops, Ekbert of Bamberg, and Berthold of Aquileia; Otto […]

Read the full article →

Queen moves out. Tourists move in. Who gets the criticism for not making money?

October 9, 2014

According to The Telegraph: …the Queen moved into the seven-bedroom Craigowan Lodge…about a mile away from [Balmoral] castle. The arrangements were made so the estate could stay open to the public for its normal seasonal period of April to July. The 88-year-old monarch’s move to Craigowan was prompted by the growing need to maximise tourist […]

Read the full article →

Labour: Royals “just like everyone else”

October 9, 2014

According to The Telegraph: The Queen and the royal family will have to pay a mansion tax on their portfolio of country estates if Labour is elected, Ed Balls has said. The shadow chancellor said that royals will not be exempt and will have to pay the taxes “just like everyone else” for properties which […]

Read the full article →

Prince of Wales saves wool farmers

October 9, 2014

According to the Sunday Express: When the Prince of Wales conceived his Campaign for Wool crusade five years, bringing together all sectors of the industry, farmers were being paid less for a fleece than it cost to shear. Today wool prices have tripled. “The primary aim of the Campaign is to increase the demand for […]

Read the full article →

Turenne’s horse leads the way

October 9, 2014

When he died on the battlefield, the Marshall de Turenne was riding a magnificent horse, which was well-known and admired by his soldiers. Deprived of their leader, the officers were momentarily at a loss as to what to do, when the soldiers spoke up: — “Put the Commandant’s horse in the front and we will […]

Read the full article →

The Great Works of Men

October 9, 2014

Great dreams are born of those who unite around sublime ideals. When we forsake our dreams, we put ourselves in the hands of bureaucrats in a regime of mediocrity. This is because these great dreams are never the work of social planners, but rather the joint effort of great men, true elites, and peoples. Each […]

Read the full article →

October 10 – What if you come from a family of bad nobility?

October 9, 2014

St. Francis Borgia (also known as Francisco de Borja y Aragon), born 28 October, 1510, was the son of Juan Borgia, third Duke of Gandia, and of Juana of Aragon; died 30 September, 1572. The future saint was unhappy in his ancestry. His grandfather, Juan Borgia, the second son of Alexander VI, was assassinated in Rome […]

Read the full article →

October 10 – St. Paulinus, Archbishop of York

October 9, 2014

St. Paulinus Archbishop of York, died at Rochester, 10 October, 644. He was a Roman monk in St. Andrew’s monastery at Rome, and was sent by St. Gregory the Great in 601, with St. Mellitus and others, to help St. Augustine and to carry the pallium to him. He laboured in Kent — with the […]

Read the full article →

October 11 – Model Archduke, both spiritual and temporal

October 9, 2014

St. Bruno the Great, Archbishop of Cologne Bruno the Great (or Bruno I) (925–965) was Archbishop of Cologne, Germany, from 953 until his death, and Duke of Lotharingia from 954. He was the brother of Otto I, king of Germany and later Holy Roman Emperor. Bruno was the youngest son of Henry the Fowler and […]

Read the full article →

October 11 – He dared step into the gap during the crisis

October 9, 2014

Pope Boniface VIII (BENEDETTO GAETANO) Born at Anagni about 1235; died at Rome, 11 October, 1303. He was the son of Loffred, a descendant of a noble family originally Spanish, but long established in Italy—first at Gaeta and later at Anagni. Through his mother he was connected with the house of Segni, which had already […]

Read the full article →

October 12 – Difficulties in his youth prepared him for later trials

October 9, 2014

St. Wilfrid Bishop of York, son of a Northumbrian thegn, born in 634; died at Oundle in Northamptonshire, 709. He was unhappy at home, through the unkindness of a stepmother, and in his fourteenth year he was sent away to the Court of King Oswy, King of Northumbria. Here he attracted the attention of Queen […]

Read the full article →

October 12 – Martyr King

October 9, 2014

St. Edwin The first Christian King of Northumbria, born about 585, son of Aella, King of Deira, the southern division of Northumbria; died October 12, 633. Upon Aella’s death in 588, the sovereignty over both divisions of Northumbria was usurped by Ethebric of Bernicia, and retained at his death by his son Ethelfrid; Edwin, Aella’s […]

Read the full article →

October 13 – King Confessor

October 9, 2014

St. Edward the Confessor Saint, King of England, born in 1003; died January 5, 1066. He was the son of Ethelred II and Emma, daughter of Duke Richard of Normandy, being thus half-brother to King Edmund Ironside, Ethelred’s son by his first wife, and to King Hardicanute, Emma’s son by her second marriage with Canute. […]

Read the full article →

Who Was Christopher Columbus, and Why Is He Important?

October 9, 2014

Christopher Columbus (Italian CRISTOFORO COLOMBO; Spanish CRISTOVAL COLON.) Born at Genoa, or on Genoese territory, probably 1451; died at Valladolid, Spain, 20 May 1506. His family was respectable, but of limited means, so that the early education of Columbus was defective. Up to his arrival in Spain (1485) only one date has been preserved. His […]

Read the full article →

Father Jean Le Vacher: Hero and Missionary, Blasted to Death by Muslims

October 6, 2014

In 1647, St. Vincent de Paul sent Father Jean Le Vacher to do missionary work among the Catholics enslaved by the Barbary Coast’s Muslim corsairs and he arrived in Tunis during an epidemic of the plague and did much to comfort the captives. Upon the death of the French consul, the Bey appointed Father Le […]

Read the full article →

Common Sense and the Balance We Seek

October 6, 2014

There is a second driving force that serves as a counterbalance to the first lest it degenerate into dangerous fantasy. It comes from realizing that this land of exile is not all marvelousness; we must adjust ourselves to the world that exists. Hence, there is born in balanced souls a veritable enthusiasm for common sense […]

Read the full article →

October 7 – How the Rosary saved Christendom

October 6, 2014

by Jeremias Wells The Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary Here is but a small fraction of the victories directly obtained from God through the Holy Rosary: The Battle of Lepanto which saved Rome and Vienna, and thus the Pope and the Emperor, from Moslem subjugation The deliverance of Vienna by Sobieski The victory […]

Read the full article →

October 9 – Superb and valiant knight

October 6, 2014

Baron Athanase-Charles-Marie Charette de la Contrie Born at Nantes, 3 Sept., 1832; died at Basse-Motte (Ille-et-Vilaine), 9 Oct., 1911. His father was a nephew of the famous General Charette who was shot at Nantes, 29 March, 1795, during the rising of the Vendee. His mother, Louise, Countess de Vierzon, was the daughter of the Duc […]

Read the full article →

October 9 – Royal penitent

October 6, 2014

Bl. Gunther A hermit in Bohemia in the eleventh century; born about 955; died at Hartmanitz, Bohemia, 9 Oct., 1045. The son of a noble family, he was a cousin of St. Stephen, the King of Hungary, and is numbered among the ancestors of the princely house of Schwarzburg. He passed the earlier of his […]

Read the full article →

October 9 – St. John Twenge

October 6, 2014

St. John Twenge Canon regular, Prior of St. Mary’s, Bridlington, born near the town, 1319; died at Bridlington, 1379. He was of the Yorkshire family Twenge, which family in Reformation days supplied two priest-martyrs and was also instrumental in establishing the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Bar Convent, York. John completed his studies […]

Read the full article →

October 9 – St. Louis Bertrand

October 6, 2014

St. Louis Bertrand Born at Valencia, Spain, 1 Jan., 1526; died 9 Oct., 1581. His parents were Juan Bertrand and Juana Angela Exarch. Through his father he was related to the illustrious St. Vincent Ferrer, the great thaumaturgus of the Dominican Order. The boyhood of the saint was unattended by any of the prodigies that […]

Read the full article →

Belgian king visits former concentration camp

October 2, 2014

According to the Royal News Blog: On September 28, 2014 King Philippe attended a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Belgium’s Fort Breendonk from the Nazis, who used it as a concentration camp. The fort is now a Belgian national memorial. Please click here to see a picture of his visit.

Read the full article →

One Noble Family’s Six Centuries of Stability in a Locale

October 2, 2014

Bishop Isoard…narrates a conversation he heard one month earlier between notre Monsieur and his farmer. The latter said to him: “Last December, it was three hundred forty-seven years that we have been with Monsieur.” And the former replied, “We, we were here before you. I don’t know for sure how many years… all I know […]

Read the full article →

Uniting the Idealist and the Pragmatist

October 2, 2014

Alas, there is a modern tendency to divide the world between the idealist and the pragmatist, the metaphysical and the physical, or the spiritual and material, as if we were dealing with two different realities. In a society that pursues its dreams, this separation need not be made. Both the ideal and the practical can […]

Read the full article →

October 3 – Military turned monk

October 2, 2014

St. Gérard, Abbot of Brogne Born at Staves in the county of Namur, towards the end of the ninth century; died at Brogne or St-Gérard, 3 Oct. 959. The son of Stance, of the family of dukes of Lower Austrasia, and of Plectrude, sister of Stephen, Bishop of Liège, the young Gérard, like most men […]

Read the full article →

October 3 – Mother Théodore Guérin

October 2, 2014

Many of the early pioneers faced the hardships of this country where wars, famine and disease were the norm. Leaving everything behind, heroic souls came not only to save the souls of Indian nations, but also to minister to these frontier families. One such person was St. Mother Théodore Guérin, who became the eighth American Saint […]

Read the full article →

October 3 – Enemy of King St. Louis, but still his friend in Christ

October 2, 2014

St. Thomas of Hereford (THOMAS DE CANTELUPE). Born at Hambledon, Buckinghamshire, England, about 1218; died at Orvieto, Italy, 25 August, 1282. He was the son of William de Cantelupe and Millicent de Gournay, and thus a member of an illustrious and influential family. He was educated under the care of his uncle, Walter de Cantelupe, […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →