November 16 – St. Margaret of Scotland: In the Middle Ages, the Marvelous Was Something Achievable

November 14, 2013

Saint Margaret of Scotland   Commentaries made by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira … Sovereign and patroness of Scotland, 11th century. Although it is a very good intention to comment on the life of St. Margaret, at times one does not have the slightest biographical data on a saint. For lack of a better biography, […]

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November 16 – St. Mechtilde

November 14, 2013

St. Mechtilde (MATILDA VON HACKEBORN-WIPPRA). Benedictine; born in 1240 or 1241 at the ancestral castle of Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony; died in the monastery of Helfta, 19 November, 1298. She belonged to one of the noblest and most powerful Thuringian families, while here sister was the saintly and illustrious Abbess Gertrude von Hackeborn. Some writers […]

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November 16 – St. Gertrude the Great

November 14, 2013

St. Gertrude the Great Saint, Benedictine and mystic writer; born in Germany, January 6, 1256; died at Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony, November 17, 1301 or 1302. Nothing is known of her family, not even the name of her parents. It is clear from her life (Legatus, lib. I, xvi) that she was not born in […]

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November 17 – St. Hugh of Lincoln

November 14, 2013

St. Hugh of Lincoln Born about the year 1135 at the castle of Avalon, near Pontcharra, in Burgundy; died at London, 16 Nov., 1200. His father, William, Lord of Avalon, was sprung from one of the noblest of Burgundian houses; of his mother, Anna, very little is known. After his wife’s death, William retired from […]

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November 17 – The Queen Gave Good Example Caring for the Sick and Suffering

November 14, 2013

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; died at Marburg, Hesse, 17 November (not 19 November), 1231. She was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-35) and his wife Gertrude, a member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran; Elizabeth’s brother succeeded […]

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Queen witnesses emotional unexpected reunion

November 11, 2013

According to BBC News: The Queen…attended…a three-day commemoration of Britain’s war dead. The Queen seemed particularly pleased to witness an emotional reunion… Megan Adams, 10, from Stirling, was not expecting to see her father, Lieutenant Commander Billy Adams, for another three months as he has been serving with the Royal Navy in the Seychelles as […]

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November 13 – Patroness of missionaries

November 11, 2013

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, M.S.C. Also called Mother Cabrini, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a religious institute which was a major support to the Italian immigrants to the United States. She was the first citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church. She was born in Sant’Angelo […]

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November 13 – Grand Master of the Order of Christ

November 11, 2013

Prince Henry the Navigator Born 4 March, 1394; died 13 November, 1460; he was the fourth son of John I, King of Portugal, by Queen Philippa, a daughter of John of Gaunt. In 1415 he commanded the expedition which captured Ceuta, Portugal’s first oversea conquest, and there won his knightly spurs. Three years later he […]

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Leading, bourdon souls are found throughout society

November 11, 2013

Bourdon souls naturally arise and are found all over society. Their role does not necessarily depend upon great virtue or high office. Sometimes through their capacity to influence others, people without any public office or status are able to perceive the model that Providence wants for a family, town, or region and can inspire others […]

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November 11 – Patron of Veterans and Soldiers

November 11, 2013

St. Martin of Tours Bishop; born at Sabaria (today Steinamanger in German, or Szombathely in Hungarian), Pannonia (Hungary), about 316; died at Candes, Touraine, most probably in 397. In his early years, when his father, a military tribune, was transferred to Pavia in Italy, Martin accompanied him thither, and when he reached adolescence was, in […]

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November 12 – Saint Cunibert

November 11, 2013

Saint Cunibert (also Cunipert, or Kunibert) (c. 600 – 12 November c. 663) was the ninth Bishop of Cologne from 627 to his death. Contemporary sources only mention him between 627 and 643. Cunibert (also spelled ‘Honoberht’) was born somewhere along the Moselle to a family of the local Ripuarian Frankish aristocracy. He entered the church […]

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November 12 – Four years in Stalin’s concentration camp

November 11, 2013

Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church auxiliary bishop who suffered religious persecution and was martyred by the Soviet Government. Hryhorij Lakota was born 31 January 1893 in Holodivka, Lviv Oblast. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Przemyśl on 16 May 1926. On 9 June 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, as […]

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November 12 – Fearless and Bold

November 11, 2013

St. Lebwin (LEBUINUS or LIAFWIN). Apostle of the Frisians and patron of Deventer, born in England of Anglo-Saxon parents at an unknown date; died at Deventer, Holland, about 770. Educated in a monastery and fired by the example of St. Boniface, St. Willibrord, and other great English missionaries, Lebwin resolved to dovote his life to […]

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November 12 – Kidnapped, sold as a slave, ransomed by a bishop, and confidante of the emperor

November 11, 2013

St. Nilus (Neilos) Nilus the elder, of Sinai (died circa 430), was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. We know him first as a layman, married, with two sons. At this time he was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, and is said to have been one of […]

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November 12 – Noble Ruthenian Stock

November 11, 2013

St. Josaphat Kuncevyc Martyr, born in the little town of Volodymyr in Lithuania (Volyn) in 1580 or — according to some writers — 1584; died at Vitebsk, Russia, 12 November, 1623. The saint’s birth occurred in a gloomy period for the Ruthenian Church. Even as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century the Florentine […]

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November 13 – Pure and noble, he received Holy Communion from the hands of angels

November 11, 2013

St. Stanislas Kostka Born at Rostkovo near Prasnysz, Poland, about 28 October, 1550; died at Rome during the night of 14-15 August, 1568. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, 28 October, 1567, and is said to have foretold his death a few days before it occurred. His father, John Kostka, was a senator […]

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November 13 – One of the Great Popes of the Middle Ages

November 11, 2013

Pope St. Nicholas I Born at Rome, date unknown; died 13 November, 867; one of the great popes of the Middle Ages, who exerted decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe. He was of a distinguished family, being the son of the Defensor […]

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Anarchist Fire Outside Buckingham Palace

November 7, 2013

According to AFP: Hundreds of Anonymous protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks protested outside Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II’s London home, as part of a global demonstration against austerity on Tuesday. Protesters threw bottles at police in riot gear and a fire was lit outside the palace. The demonstration was part of a pre-arranged “million mask” […]

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London Housing Authority: Evict Royals

November 7, 2013

According to the London Evening Standard: Buckingham Palace should be turned into council flats, Labour’s London housing spokesman has suggested. Tom Copley’s controversial call to evict the Queen from her landmark residence was made at the annual Class conference held in London. His speech, made as Labour’s housing spokesman on the London Assembly, came days […]

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Republican Movement Admits Low Numbers and International Scope

November 7, 2013

According to The Guardian: Opinion polling consistently shows that 20-25% of the British people want a democratic alternative to hereditary monarchy…. “When mild criticism of our hereditary monarchy provokes such a storm in the media, it’s no wonder that politicians tend to avoid straying into the debate. But we shouldn’t be cowed. On Saturday I […]

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The Pope favors removing the Merovingians and acclaiming Pippin the Short as king of the Franks

November 7, 2013

[A] Frankish mission arrived in Rome and proceeded to inquire, in diplomatic terms, the attitude of the pope towards the delicate problem of the Frankish crown. Ought a person who was without real authority to retain the name of king?—or ought the name and the power to go together? The pope…answered that the name and […]

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The Natural Leadership of Bourdon Souls

November 7, 2013

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira likened society to a carillon. The carillon is a large musical instrument consisting of at least twenty-three cast bronze bells often suspended in bell towers and arranged to play music. To apply his metaphor, the carillon is a society or social unit, and each person is a different bell. The representative […]

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November 7 – He Went on Crusade to Atone for His Sins

November 7, 2013

Saint Engelbert of Cologne Archbishop of that city (1216-1225); born at Berg, about 1185; died near Schwelm, 7 November 1225. His father was Engelbert, Count of Berg, his mother, Margaret, daughter of the Count of Gelderland. He studied at the cathedral school of Cologne and while still a boy was, according to an abuse of […]

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November 7 – Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

November 7, 2013

Born     December 29, 1811, in Aitona, Lleida, Spain Died     20 March 1872, in Tarragona, Spain Beatified     April 24, 1988 Feast     November 7 Discalced Carmelite Spanish priest. He founded “The School of the Virtue” — which was a model of catechetical teaching for adult persons—at Barcelona. In 1860-61, he also founded a […]

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November 7 – Martyred in Mecca

November 7, 2013

Saint Ernest of Mecca Abbot of the abbey of Zwiefalten Died     1148 AD in Mecca Feast     November 7 Saint Ernest (died 1148) was the abbot of the Benedictine Zwiefalten Abbey at Zwiefalten, Germany during the 12th century. He participated in the Second Crusade fought by Christians between 1145 and 1149 to regain the […]

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November 7 – St. Willibrord and the Dancing Procession

November 7, 2013

St. Willibrord Bishop of Utrecht, Apostle of the Frisians, and son of St. Hilgis, born in Northumbria, 658; died at Echternach, Luxemburg, 7 Nov., 739. Willibrord made his early studies at the Abbey of Ripon near York, as a disciple of St. Wilfrid, and then entered the Benedictine Order. When twenty years old he went […]

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November 7 – Bl. Bernardine of Fossa

November 7, 2013

Bl. Bernardine of Fossa Of the Order of Friars Minor, historian and ascetical writer, b. at Fossa, in the Diocese of Aquila, Italy, in 1420; d. at Aquila, 27 November, 1503. Blessed Bernardine belonged to the ancient and noble family of the Amici, and sometimes bears the name of Aquilanus on account of his long […]

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November 8 – Four Crowned Martyrs

November 7, 2013

Four Crowned Martyrs The old guidebooks to the tombs of the Roman martyrs make mention, in connection with the catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus on the Via Labicana, of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quatuor Coronati), at whose grave the pilgrims were wont to worship (De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, 178-79). One of these itineraries, […]

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November 8 – Saint Tysilio of Wales

November 7, 2013

Saint Tysilio (died 640) was a Welsh bishop, prince and scholar, son of the reigning King of Powys, Brochwel Ysgithrog, maternal nephew of the great Abbot Dunod of Bangor Iscoed and an ecclesiastic who took a prominent part in the affairs of Wales during the distressful period at the opening of the 7th century. Prince […]

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November 8 – Charlemagne sent him to his enemies

November 7, 2013

St. Willehad Bishop at Bremen, born in Northumberland before 745; died at Blecazze (Blexen) on the Weser, 8 Nov., 789. He was a friend of Alcuin, and probably received his education at York under St. Egbert. After his ordination, with the permission of King Alchred he was sent to Frisia between 765 and 774. He […]

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November 10 – Who Was the First Pope to Be Called “Great,” and Why?

November 7, 2013

Pope St. Leo I (the Great) Place and date of birth unknown; died 10 November, 461. (Reigned 440-61). Leo’s pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening […]

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Who Carries the Longest Sword in the British Army?

November 4, 2013

According to Pooley Sword: Because British cavalry officers always led their men from the front, the officer’s charger was the most imposing horse on the battlefield – a larger, more powerful animal than the ordinary trooper’s horse. This called for a weapon of comparable dimensions, and the Household Cavalry Officer’s sword is the longest in […]

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Former Government Official: Queen Elizabeth Does Not Represent New Zealand Interests

November 4, 2013

According to Royalty News: Peter Hamilton, former secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, spoke out at the NZ Republican Movement’s annual meeting…, saying his 35 year career had brought home the missed opportunities caused by having the Queen as the country’s titular head… Mr Hamilton also said that when he was invited, during his time […]

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An elite American lady’s sublime attraction to the Catholic Church

November 4, 2013

My sister, Mimoli Crawford, had several times in her life wanted to become a Catholic. My mother had always done her best to prevent it. I remember at one time Mimoli wrote her a long letter with a list of “plain reasons for joining the Church of Rome.” My mother had an old friend, an […]

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Leaders are called to higher virtue

November 4, 2013

For these [leadership] characters to be truly representative, they cannot be just good administrators. They must practice not only common virtue but the extraordinary valor found in those who sacrifice for the common good. It is especially found in those who love their neighbor for the love of God when practicing Christian charity. We might […]

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St. Hubert, patron of the hunt and some liqueurs

November 4, 2013

As the pleasure-loving firstborn son of the Duke of Aquitaine, Hubert loved the chase. Little did he realize though, that God would use his favorite pastime to bring about his spiritual conversion. He was hot in the pursuit of a noble stag when, upon reaching a forest clearing, it turned and faced him. Suspended in […]

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November 4 – Fearless and Faithful, He Reformed the Church

November 4, 2013

St. Charles Borromeo Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal-Priest of the Title of St. Prassede, Papal Secretary of State under Pius IV, and one of the chief factors in the Catholic Counter-Reformation , was born in the Castle of Arona, a town on the southern shore of the Lago Maggiore in northern Italy, 2 October, 1538; died […]

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November 6 – Duchess d’Alençon

November 4, 2013

Blessed Margaret of Lorraine Duchess d’Alencon, religious of the order of Poor Clares, born in 1463 at the castle of Vaudémont (Lorraine); died at Argentan (Brittany) 2 November, 1521. The daughter of Ferri de Vaudimont and of Yolande d’Anjou, little Margaret became an orphan at an early age and was brought up at Aix-en-Provençe, by […]

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November 6 – St. Winnoc

November 4, 2013

St. Winnoc Abbot or Prior or Wormhoult, died 716 or 717. Three lives of this saint are extant: the best of these, the first life, was written by a monk of St. Bertin in the middle of the ninth century, or perhaps a century earlier. St. Winnoc is generally called a Breton, but the Bollandist […]

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Who Missed the Royal Christening?

October 31, 2013

According to Postmedia News: While other members of the Royal Family were sitting down to tea and a slice of traditional wedding cake after Prince George’s christening…, the Princess Royal was hard at work — in Canada. “The Princess Royal’s no-nonsense approach to royal life and duty explain a lot about the lack of official […]

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British Monarchy: First Photograph of Four Generations Since Queen Victoria

October 31, 2013

According to The Telegraph: One picture…shows the Queen posing with the next three kings of Britain…the first such photograph for 114 years. The last similar occasion was in 1899, when an 80-year-old Queen Victoria posed with her direct successors Edward VII, George V and Edward VIII. This time, the Queen, who is 87, is pictured […]

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Franciscan missionaries of Texas who paid the ultimate price

October 31, 2013

We do well and practice the virtues of justice and gratitude when we honor our fallen soldiers; the warriors who gave their lives on the field of battle to defend the nation. We do well to honor policemen when they are killed in the carrying out of their law enforcement duties. Similarly, we honor firemen […]

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None Dare Call It Feudal

October 31, 2013

[O]ur own history is full of “Washingtonian” figures born of great sacrifice, often in times of crisis. On a national scale, we can identify those famous statesmen, generals, soldiers, religious figures, artists, professors, businessmen, and so many others who embodied and distilled those admired and sturdy virtues that built our great nation. We might also […]

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October 31 – He forced the devil to build a church

October 31, 2013

St. Wolfgang Bishop of Ratisbon (972-994), born about 934; died at the village of Pupping in upper Austria, 31 October, 994. The name Wolfgang is of early German origin. St. Wolfgang was one of the three brilliant stars of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfgang, which illuminated the early medieval period […]

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November 1 – For saving her people, she was made their judge

October 31, 2013

Deborah the Prophetess (also known as Debbora the Judge, Deborah the Matriarch) Prophetess and judge: she was the wife of Lapidoth and was endowed by God with prophetic gifts which secured for her the veneration of the divided Israelitic tribes and gave her great authority over them. Her wisdom was first displayed in settling litigious […]

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All Saints’ Day: How many saints were noble?

October 31, 2013

All Saints’ Day: Is Being Noble and Leading a Noble’s Life Incompatible with Sanctity? by Plinio Correa de Oliveira The current misunderstanding of nobility and the analogous traditional elites results largely from the adroit but biased propaganda spread against them by the French Revolution. Such propaganda, continuously disseminated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by […]

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November 2 – His mother celebrated his death as if it were a wedding

October 31, 2013

Blessed John Bodey Martyr, born at Wells, Somerset: 1549; died at Andover, Wilts., 2 November, 1583. He studied at Winchester and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568. In June, 1576, he was deprived, with seven other Fellows, by the Visitor, Horne, Protestant Bishop of Winchester. Next year he went to […]

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November 3 – Patron of hunting

October 31, 2013

St. Hubert Confessor, thirty-first Bishop of Maastricht, first Bishop of Liège, and Apostle of the Ardennes, born about 656; died at Fura (the modern Tervueren), Brabant, 30 May, 727 or 728. He was honored in the Middle Ages as the patron of huntsmen, and the healer of hydrophobia (rabies). He was the eldest son of […]

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November 3 – The Battle of Mentana

October 31, 2013

It was a dark and gloomy morning, pouring rain, when this little army of some five thousand men filed out of the Porta Pia in a colorful parade, Pius IX’s Swiss General Rafael de Courten’s papal troops leading and the French contingent bringing up the rear…. Famous since classical times as a suburban retreat some […]

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Regenerating a Culture of Leadership

October 28, 2013

In face of the present crisis, there are plenty of people who have leadership qualities and succeed fabulously in what they do. There are also plenty of people who need help and direction in dealing with the huge problems we face. What is missing is a way to unite the two groups. We need to […]

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October 28 – Uncommon Valor

October 28, 2013

Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor By Jeremias Wells When a society no longer respects and honors the fighting men willing to shed their blood for its principles, the fault lies not with the fighting men but with society itself. Ingratitude is a subtle vice, but a vice nevertheless. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that a […]

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October 28 – Saint, Soldier, Statesman

October 28, 2013

Saint Alfred the Great In this incomparable prince were united the saint, the soldier, and the statesman in a most eminent degree. Sir Henry Spelman (Conc. Brit.) gives us his character in a rapture. “O, Alfred,” says he, “the wonder and astonishment of all ages! If we reflect on his piety and religion, it would […]

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October 29 – King turned monk, his people begged him to lead them in battle against Penda

October 28, 2013

Saint Sigebert King and martyr, date of birth unknown; died about 637, was the stepbrother of Earpwald, king of the East Angles. During the reign of Redwald he lived an exile in Gaul where he received baptism and became an ardent Christian. Earpwald died about 627, and East Anglia seems to have relapsed into anarchy […]

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October 30 – Patroness of the Teutonic Knights

October 28, 2013

St. Dorothea of Montau, recluse, born at Montau, 6 February, 1347, died at Marienwerder, 25 June, 1394. At the age of seventeen she married the sword-cutler Albrecht of Danzig, a hot-tempered man, whose nature underwent a change through her humility and gentleness. Both made frequent pilgrimages to Cologne, Aachen, and Einsiedeln, and they intended (1390) […]

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October 30 – St. Marcellus the Centurion, Martyr

October 28, 2013

St. Marcellus the Centurion, Martyr The birthday of the emperor Maximian Herculeus was celebrated in the year 298, with extraordinary feasting and solemnity. Pompous sacrifices to the Roman gods made a considerable part of this solemnity. Marcellus, a Christian centurion or captain of the legion of Trajan, then posted in Spain, not to defile himself […]

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Prince George baptized with water from the River Jordan

October 24, 2013

According to CBS News: Prince George of Cambridge was christened Wednesday at a rare four-generation gathering of the royal family in London. Palace officials said water from the River Jordan…would be used for the christening. The river’s waters have often been used…on…royal infants. Some royal watchers camped outside the palace for more than 24 hours […]

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Colonel José de Escandón is ennobled for establishing settlers in South Texas

October 24, 2013

[D]on José [de Escandón] lost little time in acting but did not sacrifice effectiveness to haste. Working with his lieutenants to conduct a publicity campaign along the frontier, he and his officers had little difficulty recruiting potential settlers…. Among those recruited as settlers in the new province were ranchers who already owned large herds of […]

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John Wayland: On the True Gentleman

October 24, 2013

“The True Gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from good will and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself […]

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October 24 – Confessor to the Queen

October 24, 2013

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 […]

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October 25 – The original hood

October 24, 2013

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 […]

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