April 29 – In 11th century Christendom, no king or bishop dare oppose him

April 28, 2014

Saint Hugh the Great Abbot of Cluny, born at Semur (Brionnais in the Diocese of Autun), 1024; died at Cluny, 28 April, 1109. His early life The eldest son of Count Dalmatius of Semur and Aremberge (Aremburgis) of Vergy, Hugh was descended from the noblest families in Burgundy. Dalmatius, devoted to war and the chase, […]

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800-year anniversary of the birth of St. Louis IX of France

April 24, 2014

On April 25, 1214–800 years ago–St. Louis the King was born in Poissy. He was the sixth child of Louis VIII of France and Queen Blanche of Castile. He was crowned king in the Cathedral of Rheims at the tender age of 12, three weeks after his father’s death, and, as Regine Pernoud points out, the […]

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Queen Elizabeth’s 88th birthday marked with gun salutes, some with curious history

April 24, 2014

According to BBC News: The Queen’s 88th birthday has been marked across the UK with traditional gun salutes. The Queen was born on 21 April 1926… However, her birthday is also celebrated officially each year in June at the Trooping the Colour service – which this year will take place on 14 June. The 62-shot […]

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Royal Victorian Order for 21 years of service

April 24, 2014

According to Bucks Free Press: The Queen’s Royal Swan Marker has been awarded a personal gift from the Monarch after 21 years’ service to the cause. David Barber received the Royal Victorian Order from Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of his long involvement with the centuries-old tradition of Swan Upping. Royal Swan Upping dates […]

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Sad: Schoenbrunn Palace to open as hotel

April 24, 2014

According to AFP: Schoenbrunn Palace was Marie-Antoinette’s summer childhood home and the beautiful and tragic Sissi’s favoured residence. And from April 30, tourists too can sojourn in…a converted suite of rooms with views over the palace gardens, even with butler, cook and horse-drawn conveyance. The main targets are wealthy tourists who flock to Vienna from […]

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Agnès de La Barre de Nanteuil, the Pantheon’s Forgotten One

April 24, 2014

With Joan of Arc, she is the only woman to have given her name to a class of Saint-Cyr-Coëtquidan. The dolt at the controls (well, that’s what he thinks) has “pantheonized” two certainly remarkable women but forgot one who deserved the honor more than Jean Zay, a deserter in 1940, who was convicted and spent […]

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The Need for Fortitude

April 24, 2014

Fortitude is the virtue by which the appetites and passions are guided by the rational soul with courage and constancy.* It helps us brave the greatest dangers and resist intense persecution and obstacles so that we might achieve our goals. The virtue of fortitude is perfected by the gift of fortitude. This gift of the […]

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April 24 – Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

April 24, 2014

Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, foundress of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and canonized May 2, 1940 by Pope Pius XII. The aim of this institute is to provide a shelter for girls and women of dissolute habits, who wish to do penance for their iniquities and to lead a […]

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Old Age: Decrepitude or Glory?

April 24, 2014

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira How the modern world, caught up in sensuality, deceives itself when it sees only decadence in aging. When one knows how to esteem the spirit more highly than the body, growing old is to grow into what is most noble, the soul. Although aging does entail bodily decadence, this is […]

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April 24 – “I came to extirpate heresy, not to embrace it”

April 24, 2014

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen Born in 1577, at Sigmaringen, Prussia, of which town his father Johannes Rey was burgomaster; died at Sevis, 24 April, 1622. On the paternal side he was of Flemish ancestry. He pursued his studies at the University of Freiburg in the Breisgau, and in 1604 became tutor to Wilhelm von Stotzingen, […]

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April 25 – Builder

April 24, 2014

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 […]

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April 26 – She inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 24, 2014

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. With Scanderbeg’s […]

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April 26 – Nephew of the Duke of Maqueda

April 24, 2014

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 […]

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April 27 – Noble Model of Confidence

April 24, 2014

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. From Brigand […]

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Knights and dames reinstated

April 21, 2014

According to the Guardian: A formal document signed by the Queen to reinstate Australian knights and dames has been published in the commonwealth Gazette… Among the specific amendments to the constitution of the Order of Australia to implement the prime minister’s shock unilateral decision last month to reinstate knights and dames is one proclaiming that […]

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Sissi plaque found hidden in stud farm granary

April 21, 2014

According to the Prague Daily Monitor: A granite memorial plaque dedicated to Habsburg Empress Elisabeth (1837-1898) was accidentally found during the reconstruction of the National Stud Farm in Kladruby… “We can naturally speculate about that everything connected with the Habsburgs was considered wrong and was being destroyed after 1918… Someone may have screwed off the […]

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Australian PM Tony Abbot: Monarch is fountain of justice and honor

April 21, 2014

According to the Guardian: And what about prime minister Tony Abbott? An avowed monarchist, he wrote in 2006 that: The monarch has an important symbolic role too: as ‘fountain of justice and honour’; guardian of the integrity of the armed forces and the public service; embodiment of the unity of the Commonwealth of Nations; and a reminder […]

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Luxembourg marks 175 years of independence

April 21, 2014

According to the Luxemburger Wort: April 19, 2014, marks 175 years of independence in Luxembourg. But, while Luxembourg struck out on its own when it signed the Treaty of London in 1839, the Grand Duchy was actually created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna. The conference of ambassadors of European states held in Vienna […]

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Garcia Moreno Refuses His Presidential Salary, Until Ecuador’s Finances Are Balanced

April 21, 2014

Garcia Moreno set to work immediately to clear out this Augean stable of a country where revolution had reigned supreme for over a quarter of a century. The specialty of all revolutionary governments is to consume without producing, not to help the people to live but to live at their expense. The first thing they […]

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April 21 – Adventurous in youth and adulthood

April 21, 2014

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 […]

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April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 21, 2014

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 information, the above statement sums up all that […]

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April 23 – Archbishop author of war-song

April 21, 2014

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 he had aroused by his efforts to […]

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Fr. Damien of Molokai died 125 years ago

April 17, 2014

According to All About Royal Families: King David Kalakaua of Hawaii bestowed him the honor ‘Royal Commander of the Royal Order of the Kalakaua’. He died on April 15th. 1889. On February 12th. 1935, King Leopold III of Belgium wrote a letter to president Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask the return of the remains of […]

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The Spiritual Dimension and Technology

April 17, 2014

[W]hen the spiritual dimension becomes the primary element of production, it can also end up satisfying and putting in order our material necessities. This can be seen, for example, in the development of technology. It is simply false to say that technology calls for greater standardization. In pre-modern production, we note that the emphasis on […]

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Vanilla: From the halls of Montezuma to palaces and pastry shops worldwide

April 17, 2014

For centuries, the vanilla bean extract was a cultural treasure enjoyed solely by the natives of Totonaca, the present state of Veracruz, in Eastern Mexico. The Persian, Macedonian, and Roman Empires all came and went without any of their rulers every tasting vanilla.  For all these centuries, no one but God and the Totonacs knew […]

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Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, washes the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday

April 17, 2014

In 1850, Franz Joseph participated…as emperor in the second of the traditional Habsburg expressions of dynastic piety: the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony, part of the four-day court observance of Easter. The master of the staff and the court prelates chose twelve poor elderly men, transported them to the Hofburg, and positioned them in the ceremonial […]

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Queen Mary washes the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday

April 17, 2014

… and on Holy Thursday, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the most Serene Queen performed the ceremony of feet-washing, thus – Her Majesty being accompanied by the Right Reverend Legate and by the Council, entered a large hall, at the head of which was my Lord Bishop of Ely as Dean (come Decano) of […]

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Queen Mary Welcomes the Sick on Good Friday

April 17, 2014

On [Good] Friday morning the offertory was performed according to custom in the Church of the Franciscan Friars, which is contiguous to the palace. After the Passion, the Queen came down from her oratory for the adoration of the Cross, accompanied by my lord the right reverend Legate, and kneeling at a short distance from […]

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For Contrast: Two Royal Attitudes to Washing the Feet of the Poor

April 17, 2014

In February, he returned to Castile, arriving in time to observe Holy Week at San Lorenzo, and to wash the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday “with his usual great tenderness and humility.” On Good Friday he adored the wood of the True Cross and pardoned several men who had been condemned to death, […]

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

April 17, 2014

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 […]

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

April 17, 2014

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 […]

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April 17 – Third Religious Rebel

April 17, 2014

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 […]

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April 18 – Blessed Marie de l’Incarnation

April 17, 2014

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 […]

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April 19 – The saintly warrior pope

April 17, 2014

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 […]

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April 19 – Captured by pirates

April 17, 2014

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 […]

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April 19 – Blessed Conrad of Ascoli

April 17, 2014

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. He entered the Order of Friars Minor at Ascoli together with his townsman and lifelong […]

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St. Louis IX: A King of France Cannot Be Ransomed With Money

April 14, 2014

When they saw that they could not prevail over the good king [St. Louis IX of France] by threats, they came back to him and asked how much money he would give to the soldan [of Egypt], besides surrendering Damietta. And the king replied that if the soldan would accept a reasonable sum, he would […]

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A Preferential Option for Quality

April 14, 2014

[L]et us look at the goal of production. We produce to fill a need. While this can be done by simply supplying the minimum necessary to fill a physical necessity, it will not necessarily satisfy certain human desires that vary from person to person, or address spiritual appetites for beauty, excellence, or refinement. Such desires […]

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

April 14, 2014

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 […]

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

April 14, 2014

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 […]

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April 16 – Martyred in the name of Equality

April 14, 2014

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 […]

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Motherless baby of homosexual couple added to Prince George playgroup

April 10, 2014

According to The Telegraph: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will introduce Prince George to parents and babies of all stripes, including a gay couple and a single mum, at their next public engagement in New Zealand. …meeting the royal visitors will be gay fathers Jared and Ryan Mullen and their daughter Isabella. Jared, from […]

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Allegiance to Canada, or to Canada’s Queen?

April 10, 2014

According to the Globe and Mail: Ontario’s top court is set to grapple with whether…an oath to the Queen…is constitutional. The Queen, Ottawa argues, is at the top of Canada’s constitutional order and therefore represents the right to dissent. “Each of the appellants objects to taking the oath because of their subjective belief that the […]

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Six Knights Are Punished for Disrespect at Mass

April 10, 2014

On the eve of Shrove Tuesday I beheld a marvel, of which I will now tell you; for on that day was buried by Lord Hugh of Landricourt, who was with me, carrying a banner. There as he lay on a bier in my chapel, six of my knights were leaning on sacks full of […]

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Self-Respect and Defending Ourselves from Massification

April 10, 2014

As we have seen, a certain standardization is needed to ensure adequate production. To insist that all production be adapted to the individual is not realistic. We must also avoid the opposite extreme of affirming that all products can be standardized indifferently without harming the individual. How standardization affects us differs as each individual is […]

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April 10 – Friend of Cluny

April 10, 2014

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 […]

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

April 10, 2014

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 […]

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April 12 – St. Teresa of the Andes

April 10, 2014

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 […]

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April 12 – Crusader in every sense of the word

April 10, 2014

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 […]

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April 13 – This Prince Defied His Family

April 10, 2014

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 Catholic princess, the daughter of Sigebert and Brunhilde. Led by his own inclination, and influenced […]

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

April 10, 2014

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 […]

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Spy Princess honored

April 7, 2014

According to The Times of India: The year 2014 has seen a massive increase in interest in the life story of the Indian princess. Noor…landed in France in June 1943 and worked for a resistance network in Paris, under the code name Madeleine. She survived a wave of arrests among her SOE contacts but declined […]

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Breaking With Tradition: The Queen Did Not Wear Black When Visiting the Pope

April 7, 2014

According to The Guardian: …for the Queen’s visit this week, soundings were obviously taken inside the Vatican about whether it would be OK for the Queen to wear one of her signature brightly coloured outfits, and the word came back that would be absolutely fine. Which is yet another of those subtle but hugely significant […]

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Republicanism expiration date

April 7, 2014

According to The Telegraph: At last year’s federal election, a party representing republicans received just 2,997 votes – far less than that received by the pirate party, the sex party or a party for smokers’ rights. As around the world people conduct national struggles and vie for greater independence, Australians have been snuggling ever closer […]

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A king, a queen, and England’s Easter dilemma

April 7, 2014

When Finan died, leaving Bishop Coman—like himself, Irish by birth and a monk of Iona—as his successor at Lindisfarne, the dispute became at once open and general. Wilfrid had succeeded in sowing agitation and uncertainty in all minds; and the Northumbrians had come so far as to ask themselves whether the religion which had been […]

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Dependency and Charity

April 7, 2014

When this dependency is practiced with the fervor of Christian charity, we witness an excellence in the love of neighbors that goes beyond that of exercising patience and forbearance towards them. It also means admiring in others that which we ourselves lack. Charity includes taking delight in the qualities and richness of others, even experiencing […]

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April 7 – Father of Modern Pedagogy

April 7, 2014

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, […]

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

April 7, 2014

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 […]

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

April 7, 2014

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 the name […]

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Security breach for Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

April 3, 2014

According to the Mirror: Exact details of William and Kate’s New Zealand tour have been published online, in an “idiotic” move that could put them at risk of terrorism. The royals arrive there on Monday, but the country’s Governor General… tweet[ed] precise information of where the public can see them, including timings and maps of […]

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