March 13 – Though not a learned man, he established a school known today as Oxford

March 13, 2014

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa Friar Minor and founder of the English Franciscan Province, born at Pisa c. 1195, of the noble family of the Agnelli; died at Oxford, 7 May, 1236. In early youth he was received into the Seraphic Order by St. Francis himself, during the latter’s sojourn in Pisa, and soon became an […]

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March 13 – There Is No Price Tag on Happiness

March 13, 2014

St. Euphrasia (aka Eupraxia) Virgin, born in 380; died after 410. Antigonus, the father of this saint, was a nobleman of the first rank and quality in the court of Theodosius the younger, nearly allied in blood to that emperor, and honored by him with several great employments in the state. He was married to […]

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March 14 – Patroness of Those Falsely Accused

March 13, 2014

St. Matilda, Queen of Saxony Queen of Germany, wife of King Henry I (The Fowler), b. at the Villa of Engern in Westphalia, about 895; d. at Quedlinburg, 14 March, 968. She was brought up at the monastery of Erfurt. Henry, whose marriage to a young widow, named Hathburg, had been declared invalid, asked for […]

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March 15 – Her nuns earned the name “Angels of the Battlefield”

March 13, 2014

St. Louise de Marillac Le Gras Foundress of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, born at Paris, 12 August, 1591, daughter of Louis de Marillac, Lord of Ferrieres, and Marguerite Le Camus; died there, 15 March, 1660. Her mother having died soon after the birth of Louise, the education of the latter […]

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March 15 – Pope St. Zachary

March 13, 2014

Pope St. Zachary (ZACHARIAS.) Reigned 741-52. Year of birth unknown; died in March, 752. Zachary sprang from a Greek family living in Calabria; his father, according to the “Liber Pontificalis”, was called Polichronius. Most probably he was a deacon of the Roman Church and as such signed the decrees of the Roman council of 732. […]

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March 16 – Chancellor to Italy and Germany

March 13, 2014

St. Heribert, Archbishop of Cologne Born at Worms, c. 970; died at Cologne, 16 March, 1021. His father was Duke Hugo of Worms. After receiving his education at the cathedral school of Worms, he spent some time as guest at the monastery of Gorze, after which he became provost at the cathedral of Worms. In […]

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William and Kate Set to Step Into Hornet’s Nest

March 10, 2014

According to the Daily Express: The Royal party will not be visiting the historic site of Waitangi, where a famous treaty was signed in 1840 which…gave native Maori the rights of British subjects. A Ngapuhi Maori elder has threatened to knock down a monument to the treaty in disgust at the non-visit. A rise in […]

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King Philippe of Belgium Signs Child Euthanasia Law

March 10, 2014

According to Charisma News: The king of Belgium has signed into law a controversial bill making the nation the first country in the world to allow euthanasia for terminally ill children of all ages. The bill became law despite widespread opposition, including a 200,000-strong Europe-wide petition, which was delivered to King Philippe last week, urging […]

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Three Gulf Monarchies Recall Ambassadors

March 10, 2014

According to AFP: Three Gulf monarchies recalled their ambassadors from Doha Wednesday in an unprecedented escalation in tension with fellow Gulf Cooperation Council member Qatar, accused of backing the widely banned Muslim Brotherhood. …Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain said the decision was made in protest against Qatar’s alleged interference in their internal […]

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Queen Maria Theresa of France abhorred venial sin

March 10, 2014

Maria Theresa, wife of Louis XIV, had a great horror of sin. One day someone asked her to do something which was wrong. She answered: “No, I will never willfully consent to offend God.” “But,” said the other, “after all, it is a very small offense; at most it is only a venial sin.” The […]

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Presuppositions of Local Production

March 10, 2014

We must clearly define what we mean by local production since “local” production has come to mean different things to different people. There are those who have turned “local” production into an ecological cause, a healthy alternative, or a political statement. Such “local” initiatives have little to do with healthy localism. In fact, without a […]

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March 10 – “I want no prayers from heretics!”

March 10, 2014

St. John Ogilvie Ogilvie, the son of a wealthy noble, was born into a Calvinist family near Keith in Banffshire, Scotland and was educated in mainland Europe where he attended a number of Roman Catholic educational establishments, under the Benedictines at Regensburg in Germany and with the Jesuits at Olomouc and Brno in the present […]

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March 11 – Saint Sophronius

March 10, 2014

Saint Sophronius Patriarch of Jerusalem and Greek ecclesiastical writer, b. about 560 at Damascus of noble parentage; d. probably March 11, 638, at Jerusalem. In company with John Moschus he traveled extensively through the East and also went to Rome. He probably became a monk in Egypt about 580 and later removed to Palestine. From […]

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Royalty and nobility err gravely when they lower themselves to the level of the masses

March 6, 2014

According to The Guardian/The Observer: It has got to stop, this fashion for toffs to pose as ordinary…. We’re not stupid. The disguise is not convincing…. I’m sure that advisers are at fault: mediocre people with PR degrees, eagerly advising on how to avoid the resentment of the masses. But fear of resentment is disproportionate…. […]

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St. John Francis Regis converts a rich lady to the Faith

March 6, 2014

St. John Francis Regis one day met a rich lady, who was well known throughout the country for her great zeal in spreading her religion. She was a Calvinist. “My lady,” he said to her, “God has been for a long time calling on you to renounce the errors of the religion in which you […]

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The Cross of Our Lord Must Be the Center of our Lives

March 6, 2014

By giving each of us the grace of being called with Him to suffer a small portion of His Passion, Our Lord Jesus Christ was making clear the unparalleled role of the Cross in the life of a man, in the history of the world, and in His own glorification. Let us not think that…He […]

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March 6 – Of Kings and Princesses

March 6, 2014

Saints Kyneburge, Kyneswide, and Tibba The two first were daughters of Penda, the cruel pagan king of Mercia, and sisters to three successive Christian Kings, Peada, Wulfere, and Ethelred, and to the pious prince Merowald. Kyneburge, as Bede informs us, (1) was married to Alcfrid, eldest son of Oswi, and in his father’s life-time king […]

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March 6 – Bishop Prime Minister

March 6, 2014

St. Chrodegang Bishop of Metz, born at the beginning of the eighth century at Hasbania, in what is now Belgian Limburg, of a noble Frankish family; died at Metz, 6 March, 766. He was educated at the court of Charles Martel, became his private secretary, then chancellor, and in 737 prime minister. On 1 March, […]

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March 7 – Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

March 6, 2014

Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart Born July 15, 1747. Died March 7, 1770 in Florence. She was born Anna Maria Redi to a large noble family in Arezzo, Italy. She was the daughter of Count Ignatius Redi and Camilla Billeti. After attending the boarding school of the Benedictine nuns of St. Apollonia’s in […]

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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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