March 8 – He was not a prince, but they buried him as one

March 6, 2014

St. John of God Born at Montemor o Novo, Portugal, 8 March, 1495, of devout Christian parents; died at Granada, 8 March, 1550. The wonders attending the saints birth heralded a life many-sided in its interests, but dominated throughout by implicit fidelity to the grace of God. A Spanish priest whom he followed to Oropeza, […]

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March 8 – Classmate of Innocent III

March 6, 2014

Bl. Vincent Kadlubek (KADLUBO, KADLUBKO). Bishop of Cracow, chronicler, born at Karnow, Duchy of Sandomir, Poland, 1160; died at Jedrzejow, 8 March, 1223. The son of a rich family in Poland, he made such progress in his studies that in 1189 he could sign his name as Magister Vincentius (Zeissberg, in “Archiv fur osterreichische Geschichte”, […]

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March 9 – She Could Detect Diabolical Plots

March 6, 2014

St. Frances of Rome One of the greatest mystics of the fifteenth century; born at Rome, of a noble family, in 1384; died there, 9 March, 1440. Her youthful desire was to enter religion, but at her father’s wish she married, at the age of twelve, Lorenzo de’ Ponziani. Among her children we know of […]

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March 9 – Incorrupt

March 6, 2014

St. Catherine of Bologna Poor Clare and mystical writer, born at Bologna, 8 September, 1413; died there, 9 March, 1463. When she was ten years old, her father sent her to the court of the Marquis of Ferrara, Nicolò d’Este, as a companion to the Princess Margarita. Here Catherine pursued the study of literature and […]

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Who resists egalitarian royal succession changes?

March 3, 2014

According to AFP: The 16 Commonwealth realms which share the same royal family — including Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Jamaica — must all pass an identical law before the changes can come into effect, unless UK legislation covers it for them. They have all done so except Australia, said Jim Wallace, the deputy […]

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Australian Prime Minister shows his allegiance

March 3, 2014

According to the Guardian: The prime minister, Tony Abbott, has installed a portrait of the Queen in his parliamentary office foyer after a lengthy search. After the September election, the prime minister asked the Department of Parliamentary Services to find a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II to be displayed in his office suite. It was […]

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St. Margaret is asked to become Queen of Scotland

March 3, 2014

When King Malcolm III of Scotland saw the virtues of the youthful Margaret, there arose in his heart a desire of making her his wife. As he did not dare of himself to ask her, he went to Agatha, the mother of the Princess, to beg of her to speak to her daughter on his […]

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Regional Foods Express Local Culture

March 3, 2014

Regional varieties of foods flourished and a very wide range of flavors could be distinguished before the standardization of so many food commodities. Local consumers might, for example, enjoy the subtle differences of flavor between grass butter and hay butter or May cheese and Michaelmas cheese which could be found only in their small region. […]

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March 3 — St. Katharine Drexel

March 3, 2014

St. Katharine Drexel, the second America canonized saint, was born into a wealthy family in Philadelphia in 1858. Her father was an international banker and philanthropist accustomed to spending each evening in a prayerful vigil. Although her mother passed away a few weeks after Katharine’s birth, her stepmother Emma Bouvier , wealthy in her own […]

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March 3 – Empress Saint

March 3, 2014

St. Cunegundes, Empress (c. 975 – 3 March 1040 at Kaufungen), also called Cunegundes and Cunegonda ST. CUNEGUNDES was the daughter of Sigefride, the first count of Luxemburgh, and Hadeswige his pious wife. They instilled into her from her cradle the most tender sentiments of piety, and married her to St. Henry, duke of Bavaria, […]

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March 4 – “Your Honor, was St. Augustine also a traitor?”

March 3, 2014

Blessed Christopher Bales (Or Bayles, alias Evers) Priest and martyr, b. at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564; executed 4 March, 1590. He entered the English College at Rome, 1 October, 1583, but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims, where he was ordained 28 March, 1587. Sent to England […]

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March 4 – This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

March 3, 2014

St. Casimir Prince of Poland, born in the royal palace at Cracow, 3 October, 1458; died at the court of Grodno, 4 March, 1484. He was the grandson of Wladislaus II Jagiello, King of Poland, who introduced Christianity into Lithuania, and the second son of King Casimir IV and Queen Elizabeth, an Austrian princess, the […]

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March 5 – St. John Joseph of the Cross

March 3, 2014

St. John Joseph of the Cross Born on the Island of Ischia, Southern Italy, 1654; died 5 March, 1739. From his earliest years he was given to prayer and virtue. So great was his love of poverty that he would always wear the dress of the poor, though he was of noble birth. At the […]

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Leovigild, King of the Visigoths, is instructed by St. Gregory of Tours on the divinity of the Holy Ghost

February 27, 2014

There once lived in Spain a King whose name was Leovigild. Although professing the Catholic Faith, he gave ear to heretical teachers, who tried to lead him away from the revealed truths of our holy Faith. Among other things, he embraced the error of those who, although acknowledging the divinity of the Father and the […]

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Preferring One’s Own Region

February 27, 2014

[I]nhabitants become sensitive to a place and develop natural preferences for the setting where they were born or raised: its panorama, land, climate, or foods. They come to prefer their own region even over other places with better resources. Accordingly, they come to understand that their region is made for them and they for their […]

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February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest?

February 27, 2014

St. Anne Line English martyr, died 27 Feb., 1601. She was the daughter of William Heigham of Dunmow, Essex, a gentleman of means and an ardent Calvinist, and when she and her brother announced their intention of becoming Catholics both were disowned and disinherited. Anne married Roger Line, a convert like herself, and shortly after […]

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July 18 – She Married a Man to Change Him and He Did

February 27, 2014

Saint Hedwig, Queen of Poland Born, 1371. Died, 17 July 1399 during child birth. Hedwig was the youngest daughter of King Louis I of Hungary. Because she was great-niece to King Casimir III of Poland, she became Queen of Poland in 1382 upon her father‘s death. She was engaged to William, Duke of Austria, whom […]

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March 1 – St. David of Wales

February 27, 2014

St. David (DEGUI, DEWI). Bishop and Confessor, patron of Wales. He is usually represented standing on a little hill, with a dove on his shoulder. From time immemorial the Welsh have worn a leek on St. David’s day, in memory of a battle against the Saxons, at which it is said they wore leeks in […]

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March 2 – This Princess Refused to Marry the Emperor

February 27, 2014

St. Agnes of Bohemia (Also called Agnes of Prague). Born at Prague in the year 1200; died probably in 1281. She was the daughter of Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Constance of Hungary, a relative of St. Elizabeth. At an early age she was sent to the monastery of Treinitz, where at the hands of […]

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March 2 – Warrior Bishop Prince

February 27, 2014

St. John Maron Origin of St. John Maron John Maron was born in Sarum, a prosperous town located south of the city of Antioch. His date of birth is not mentioned but many historians place it around the third decade of the seventh century. He descended from a Frankish royal family which governed Antioch, a […]

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Princess Royal: let villages develop organically; stop building cookie-cutter developments

February 24, 2014

According to the Daily Express: Instead of large-scale new towns being developed, Anne said that existing villages should take many of the 240,000 homes so desperately needed in the UK. Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) welcomed the royal’s intervention saying it is important to have a “living countryside” with villages which grew “organically”. However […]

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Does America need a monarch?

February 24, 2014

According to Politico: Having a national, unifying position ostensibly standing outside the daily muck of politics provides a rallying point for all citizens and a safety valve to redirecting national passions in a non-partisan way. We have no such safety valve in the United States. Our experiment in self-government has progressed to the point where […]

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New study: overall life status depends not just from parents’ status but also from great-great-great-grandparents

February 24, 2014

According to The New York Times: The fortunes of high-status families inexorably fall, and those of low-status families rise, toward the average — what social scientists call “regression to the mean” — but the process can take 10 to 15 generations (300 to 450 years), much longer than most social scientists have estimated in the […]

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Brie helps Prince Talleyrand triumph in Vienna

February 24, 2014

There was another kind of storehouse for news, epigrams, witty sallies, a kind of “lion’s mouth….” The second spot was the big room of the ‘Empress of Austria’ tavern, which I have already mentioned. Every day, at the dinner hour, the place was thronged with illustrious and important personages, anxious to escape from the magnificent […]

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The Formation of Regions

February 24, 2014

This economic self-sufficiency easily leads to healthy localism since these inward movements come to be tied to a community and place. It necessarily leads to the formation of regions inside of which people come together and practice the temperance of living with the resources at hand. Hence, a region is formed by the intimate relationship […]

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February 24 – First Christian King Among the English

February 24, 2014

St. Ethelbert, King of Kent Born, 552; died, 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest. He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage […]

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February 24 – The Cup Is Sometimes Bitter

February 24, 2014

Blessed Thomas Mary Fusco The seventh of eight children, he was born on 1 December 1831 in Pagani, Salerno, in the Diocese of Nocera-Sarno, Italy, to Dr. Antonio, a pharmacist, and Stella Giordano, of noble descent. They were known for their upright moral and religious conduct, and taught their son Christian piety and charity to […]

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February 25 – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

February 24, 2014

St. Walburga Born in Devonshire, about 710; died at Heidenheim, 25 Feb., 777. She is the patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Antwerp, Gronigen, Weilburg, and Zutphen, and is invoked as special patroness against hydrophobia, and in storms, and also by sailors. She was the daughter of St. Richard, one of the under-kings of the West […]

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February 26 – St. Isabel of France

February 24, 2014

St. Isabel of France Daughter of Louis VIII and of his wife, Blanche of Castille, born in March, 1225; died at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St. Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still a child at court, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other […]

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February 26 – Blessed Robert Drury

February 24, 2014

Blessed Robert Drury Martyr (1567-1607), was born of a good Buckinghamshire family and was received into the English College at Reims, 1 April, 1588. On 17 September, 1590, he was sent to the new College at Valladolid; here he finished his studies, was ordained priest and returned to England in 1593. He laboured chiefly in […]

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Luxembourg’s Hereditary Grand Duchess, Princess Stéphanie, is 30

February 20, 2014

According to the Luxemburger Wort: The Princess became part of the Grand Ducal family when she married Hereditary Duke Guillaume of Luxembourg…at the “Notre Dame” Cathedral on October 20, 2012. Formerly Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy, the pretty princess was born on February 18, 1984, in Belgium. She was the eighth child of the Count and […]

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Decadent, Timid Elites

February 20, 2014

According to The Wall Street Journal: No one wants to be the earnest outsider now, …the sober steward, …the guy carrying around a cross of dignity. No one wants to be accused of being staid. No one wants to say, “This isn’t good for the country, and it isn’t good for our profession.” And it […]

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Courtesy even at the tragic end: Marie Antoinette apologizes to her executioner

February 20, 2014

The cart drew up at the scaffold. Marie Antoinette alighted easily and ascended to the platform. She submitted to the executioners, shaking her cap from her head herself, and stepping accidentally on Sanson’s foot. “Pardon, Monsieur,” she involuntarily exclaimed. His assistants seized her; “Make haste,” she cried. It was all over in four minutes, and […]

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An Organic Society Has an Astonishing Self-Sufficiency

February 20, 2014

This great tendency to develop and take care of one’s own, results in an astonishing degree of self-sufficiency that filters up to all levels of society. It gives rise to the temperance and joy of living within one’s own means at both the individual and community levels. In medieval times, for example, families, intermediary groups, […]

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February 21 – Shakespeare’s Inspiration

February 20, 2014

Saint Robert Southwell Poet, Jesuit, martyr; born at Horsham St. Faith’s, Norfolk, England, in 1561; hanged and quartered at Tyburn, 21 February, 1595. His grandfather, Sir Richard Southwell, had been a wealthy man and a prominent courtier in the reign of Henry VIII. It was Richard Southwell who in 1547 had brought the poet Henry […]

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February 21 – Terror of the Wicked, Supporter of the Weak

February 20, 2014

Blessed Pepin of Landen Mayor of the Palace to the Kings Clotaire II, Dagobert, and Sigebert. He was son of Carloman, the most powerful nobleman of Austrasia, who had been mayor to Clotaire I, son of Clovis I. He was grandfather to Pepin of Herstal, the most powerful mayor, whose son was Charles Martel, and […]

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February 21 – His mother almost allowed him to die

February 20, 2014

St. Peter Damian Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, born at Ravenna “five years after the death of the Emperor Otto III,” 1007; died at Faenza, 21 Feb., 1072. He was the youngest of a large family. His parents were noble, but poor. At his birth an elder brother protested against this new charge […]

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February 22 – From Cavalier’s Mistress to Saint

February 20, 2014

St. Margaret of Cortona A penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis, born at Laviano in Tuscany in 1247; died at Cortona, 22 February, 1297. At the age of seven years Margaret lost her mother and two years later her father married a second time. Between the daughter and her step-mother there seems to […]

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Prince perplexed by reception of communists in Vatican

February 17, 2014

According to TFP.org: Prince Bertrand of Orleans-Braganza expressed his perplexity and concern in a reverent and filial letter to Pope Francis. “Brazilians are largely aware that it was thanks to the entreaties of Pope Leo XIII, and in spite of the serious political drawbacks that such a decision would entail, that my great grandmother, Princess […]

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Princes William and Harry help fellow soldiers fight floods, invite journalist to help

February 17, 2014

According to BBC News: The Duke of Cambridge and his brother Prince Harry have joined colleagues from the armed forces as flood efforts continue in Berkshire. When Prince Harry, who is still a serving officer with the Household Cavalry, was asked by reporters if he was enjoying helping out, he replied: “Not really, with you […]

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There was a time when Emperors trembled before a saint

February 17, 2014

St. John Chrysostom had the greatest horror of sin, because he knew that sin was the only thing that could keep him out of Heaven, on the Day of Judgment. The Emperor of Constantinople was a haughty and proud man, and could not bear to be reproved. St. John was the only one who had […]

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Subsidiarity and Man’s Pursuit of Self-Sufficiency

February 17, 2014

This notion cannot help but have economic applications. Being naturally endowed with intelligence and free will, man tends, by his own spiritual faculties, to draw from himself all the necessary qualities to provide for his welfare. This in turn gives rise to unique expressions of self-sufficiency. From the very beginning of economy around the hearth of the home, man turned vigorously inward seeking to […]

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February 17 – Marvelous Apparition of Our Lady To Seven Young Nobles

February 17, 2014

St. Alexis Falconieri Born in Florence, 1200; died 17 February, 1310, at Mount Senario, near Florence. He was the son of Bernard Falconieri, a merchant prince of Florence, and one of the leaders of the Republic. His family belonged to the Guelph party, and opposed the Imperialists whenever they could consistently with their political principles. […]

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February 18 – Charlemagne’s envoy to the pope

February 17, 2014

St. Angilbert Abbot of Saint-Riquier, died 18 February, 814. Angilbert seems to have been brought up at the court of Charlemagne, where he was the pupil and friend of the great English scholar Alcuin. He was intended for the ecclesiastical state and must have received minor orders early in life, but he accompanied the young […]

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February 18 – Confronted the Emperor and annulled the Robber Council of Ephesus

February 17, 2014

St. Flavian Bishop of Constantinople, date of birth unknown; died at Hypaepa in Lydia, August, 449. Nothing is known of him before his elevation to the episcopate save that he was a presbyter and skeuophylax or sacristan, of the Church of Constantinople, and noted for the holiness of his life. His succession to St. Proclus […]

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February 18 – Fra Angelico brought part of heaven to earth

February 17, 2014

Blessed Fra Angelico A famous painter of the Florentine school, born near Castello di Vicchio in the province of Mugello, Tuscany, 1387; died at Rome, 1455. He was christened Guido, and his father’s name being Pietro he was known as Guido, or Guidolino, di Pietro, but his full appellation today is that of “Blessed Fra […]

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February 19 – St. Conrad of Piacenza

February 17, 2014

St. Conrad of Piacenza Hermit of the Third Order of St. Francis, date of birth uncertain; died at Noto in Sicily, 19 February, 1351. He belonged to one of the noblest families of Piacenza, and having married when he was quite young, led a virtuous and God-fearing life. On one occasion, when he was engaged […]

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Queen Elizabeth to launch Royal Navy supercarrier named after her

February 13, 2014

According to the Daily Record: The Queen will launch the Royal Navy supercarrier named after her when she visits Scotland in the summer. The 65,000-ton HMS Queen Elizabeth is set to take to the water at Rosyth dockyard in Fife in July. The HMS Queen Elizabeth was built in sections in shipyards in Glasgow and […]

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St. Jerome’s prayer to St. Paula, the scion of an ancient noble family of Rome

February 13, 2014

St. Jerome had taught St. Paula to love God from her childhood, and watched over her as she grew up. At an early age God took her to Himself. St. Jerome grieved over her; but knowing how innocently she had lived, he was sure she was already in Paradise. “O dear Saint Paula,” he prayed, […]

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A Turning Inward

February 13, 2014

In tracing this economy back to its roots, we note a prevailing concern: there is a turning inward whereby one provides for one’s own. This tendency begins with the individual and extends to the family, community, and nation. The origin of this turning inward comes from man’s natural desire to express his personality and originality. […]

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February 13 – Mystic and Counselor to Future Popes

February 13, 2014

St. Catherine de Ricci, Virgin (AD 1522 – 1589) The Ricci are an ancient family, which still subsists in a flourishing condition in Tuscany. Peter de Ricci, the father of our saint, was married to Catherine Bonza, a lady of suitable birth. The saint was born at Florence in 1522, and called at her baptism […]

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February 13 – St. Fulcran

February 13, 2014

St. Fulcran Bishop of Lodève; died 13 February, 1006. According to the biography which Bernard Guidonis, Bishop of Lodève (died 1331), has left us his saintly predecessor, Fulcran came of a distinguished family, consecrated himself at an early age to the service of the Church, became a priest, and from his youth led a pure […]

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February 14 – Renounced Earthly Nobility To Obtain Heavenly Nobility

February 13, 2014

Sts. Cyril and Methodius These brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, were born in Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively. Though belonging to a senatorial family they renounced secular honors and became priests. They were living in a monastery on the Bosphorus, when the Khazars sent to Constantinople for a Christian teacher. Cyril was selected […]

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February 15 – St. Claude de la Colombière

February 13, 2014

St. Claude de la Colombière Missionary and ascetical writer, born of noble parentage at Saint-Symphorien-d’Ozon, between Lyons and Vienne, in 1641; died at Paray-le-Monial, 15 Feb., 1682. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1659. After fifteen years of religious life he made a vow, as a means of attaining the utmost possible perfection, to […]

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February 16 – Founded and ruled a religious order as his family Manorhouse, but only joined that order in his old age

February 13, 2014

St. Gilbert of Sempringham Founder of the Order of Gilbertines, born at Sempringham, on the border of the Lincolnshire fens, between Bourn and Heckington. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it lies between 1083 and 1089; died at Sempringham, 1189. His father, Jocelin, was a wealthy Norman knight holding lands in Lincolnshire; […]

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Prime minister asks Congress to revoke death sentence against royal family members

February 10, 2014

According to the Libya Herald: The Prime Minister has asked..to repeal Qaddafi’s laws against the royal family. These…included death sentences against members of the family as well the confiscation of their property and stripping them of Libyan nationality. The proposed law…submitted by the Prime Minister contains three clauses. The first states that the role and […]

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The Pizza That Was Named For A Queen – Recipe

February 10, 2014

  Margherita Teresa Giovanna, Princess of Savoy, was born in Turin, on November 20, 1851. On April 21, 1868, when just sixteen years old, she married her first cousin, Umberto, Crown Prince of Italy. Pizza Margherita was named after her. This is how it happened… In June 1898, Margherita accompanied her husband, now Umberto I, King […]

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February 10 – He fought socialism in both its Nazi and Soviet forms…and paid for it with his life

February 10, 2014

BL. ALOJZIJE STEPINAC was born into a large Catholic family on 8 May 1898 in Krasic. After graduation from high school in 1916, he completed military service during World War I. In 1924 he decided to study for the priesthood and was sent to Rome, where he attended the Pontifical Germanicum-Hungaricum College. He earned doctorates […]

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“My own name of course, what else?”

February 10, 2014

According to the Royal Fans: On this very day in 1952, King George VI of the United Kingdom died…aged just 56… Above all else during the accession, The Queen’s quiet composure in the face of such tragic circumstances are always remarked upon by experts. In the words of a member of her household ‘she bore […]

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King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery mark accession anniversary

February 10, 2014

According to the British Army: Soldiers around the UK have today fired Royal Gun Salutes to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s accessions to the throne in 1952. The King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery fired a 41 Royal Gun Salute at noon in London’s Hyde Park. Each of the six First World War era 13 pounder […]

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