February 28 – The Gentleman instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life

February 27, 2025

William Darrell Theologian, b. 1651, in Buckinghamshire, England; d. 28 Feb., 1721, at St. Omer’s, France. He was a member of the ancient Catholic family of Darrell of Scotney Castle, Sussex, being the only son of Thomas Darrell and his wife, Thomassine Marcham. He joined the Society of Jesus on 7 Sept., 1671, was professed […]

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March 1 – Apostle of the Frisians

February 27, 2025

St. Suitbert (Suidbert). Apostle of the Frisians, b. in England in the seventh century; d. at Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf, 1 March, 713. He studied in Ireland, at Rathmelsigi, Connacht, along with St. Egbert (q. v.). The latter, filled with zeal for the conversion of the Germans, had sent St. Wihtberht, or Wigbert, to […]

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March 1 – St. David of Wales

February 27, 2025

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 – William Maxwell

February 27, 2025

William Maxwell Fifth Earl of Nithsdale (Lord Nithsdale signed as Nithsdaill) and fourteenth Lord Maxwell, b. in 1676; d. at Rome, 2 March, 1744. He succeeded his father at the early age of seven. His mother, a daughter of the House of Douglas, a clever energetic woman, educated him in sentiments of devotion to the […]

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March 2 – This Princess Refused to Marry the Emperor

February 27, 2025

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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RCR – Part III, End of Chapter II – Chapter III

February 24, 2025

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY Astonishing Calamities in the Church’s Post-Conciliar Phase The historic declaration of Paul VI in the Allocution Resistite fortes in fide, of June 29, 1972, is fundamental for a better understanding of the calamities in the post-Conciliar phase of the Church. We quote the Poliglotta Vaticana. Referring to the situation of the Church today, […]

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Without tradition, there is neither a destination nor a course to follow

February 24, 2025

The past prepares the present, the present protects the past, and both of them elaborate the future. A course followed is analogous to order in moving from one point to the next. Stability is not immobility, but rather mobility in a single direction. To continue is analogous to living, and changing is something analogous to […]

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February 24 – First Christian King Among the English

February 24, 2025

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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Excommunicating and Deposing Elizabeth I of England

February 24, 2025

Pope St. Pius V: Bull “Regnans in Excelsis,” Excommunicating and Deposing Elizabeth I of England, February 25, 1570 He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth, commited one, holy, Catholike and Apostolike Church, out of which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, namely to […]

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February 25 – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

February 24, 2025

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. Alexander (of Alexandria)

February 24, 2025

St. Alexander (of Alexandria) Patriarch of Alexandria, date of birth uncertain; died 17 April, 326. He is, apart from his own greatness, prominent by the fact that his appointment to the patriarchial see excluded the heresiarch Arius from that post. Arius had begun to teach his heresies in 300 when Peter, by whom he was […]

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February 26 – Blessed Robert Drury

February 24, 2025

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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February 20 – Leaders and future nobility appear in times of desperate distress

February 20, 2025

Andreas Hofer A patriot and soldier, born at St. Leonhard in Passeyrthale, Tyrol, 22 Nov., 1767; executed at Mantua, 20 Feb., 1810. His father was known as the “Sandwirth” (i. e., landlord of the inn on the sandy spit of land formed by the Passeyr. The inn had been in the family for over one […]

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Pope Martin V

February 20, 2025

Pope Martin V (Oddone Colonna) Born at Genazzano in the Campagna di Roma, 1368; died at Rome, 20 Feb., 1431. He studied at the University of Perugia, became prothonotary Apostolic under Urban VI, papal auditor and nuncio at various Italian courts under Boniface IX, and was administrator of the Diocese of Palestrina from 15 December […]

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Founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family

February 20, 2025

Pierre-Joseph Chaumonot Jesuit missionary in New York and Canada, Born near Châtillon-sur-Seine in France, 1611; died at Quebec, 21 February, 1693. His name is sometimes written Calmonotti or Calvonotti. He entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rome, at the age of twenty-one, and arrived at Quebec, 1 August, 1639. In September he was already at work […]

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February 21 – Cornelius van Zierikzee

February 20, 2025

Fr. Cornelius van Zierikzee Born at Zierikzee (whence he takes his surname), a town in the Province of Zeeland, Holland, about 1405, d. 21 Feb., 1462. The strict observance of the Franciscan Rule, upheld and propagated throughout Italy by St. Bernardine of Siena and St. John Capistran, was early introduced into Germany. At twenty Cornelius […]

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February 22 – Blessed Émilie d’Oultremont de Warfusée

February 20, 2025

(October 11, 1818 – February 22, 1878) Belgian nun. She founded the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix. She took the name Mary of Jesus. The daughter of Émile d’Oultremont (fr) and Marie-Charlotte de Lierneux de Presles, she was born at Wégimont Castle. Her father served as Belgian ambassador to the Holy See in Rome. In 1837, […]

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RCR – Part III, Chapter 1 & 2 – TWENTY YEARS AFTER

February 17, 2025

PART III Revolution and Counter-Revolution TWENTY YEARS AFTER In 1976 the author was asked to write a preface to a new Italian edition of Revolution and Counter-Revolution. He deemed it better, instead, to present an analysis of the evolution of the revolutionary process in the nearly twenty years since the essay’s first edition. He therefore […]

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Almsgiving of Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette

February 17, 2025

During Lent we recall the duties of every Christian to apply themselves more fervently to almsgiving. In pre-revolutionary France it was for the King and the Queen to give an example to everyone else in this regard. Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette took this duty seriously and throughout their reign did what they could to help […]

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February 17 – Last Martyr under Elizabeth I

February 17, 2025

Ven. William Richardson (Alias Anderson.) Last martyr under Queen Elizabeth; b. according to Challoner at Vales in Yorkshire (i.e. presumably Wales, near Sheffield), but, according to the Valladolid diary, a Lancashire man; executed at Tyburn, 17 Feb., 1603. He arrived at Reims 16 July, 1592 and on 21 Aug. following was sent to Valladolid, where […]

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February 17 – He burned the pagan temple

February 17, 2025

St. Theodore of Amasea Surnamed Tyro (Tiro), not because he was a young recruit, but because for a time he belonged to the Cohors Tyronum (Nilles, Kal. man., I, 105), called of Amasea from the place where he suffered martyrdom, and Euchaita from the place, Euchais, to which his body had been carried, and where […]

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February 17 – He suffered a three-fold death agony

February 17, 2025

Blessed Francis Regis Clet A Lazarist missionary in China; b. 1748, martyred, 18 Feb., 1820. His father was a merchant of Grenoble in France, his mother’s name was Claudine Bourquy. He was the tenth of fifteen children. The family was deeply religious, several members of it having consecrated themselves to God. Francis attended the Jesuit […]

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

February 17, 2025

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 19 – St. Conrad of Piacenza

February 17, 2025

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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Romanée-Conti: symbol of tradition and nobility

February 17, 2025

We should not be surprised that a single bottle of Romanée-Conti sometimes sells for $10,000 and more, for the Domaine Romanée-Conti (aka DRC) is one of the oldest and finest vineyards of Burgundy, France, and its wines, a veritable symbol of tradition and nobility. In 1087—eight years before Blessed Urban II would call the nobility […]

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February 13 – John Fowler

February 13, 2025

John Fowler Scholar and printer, b. at Bristol, England, 1537; d. at Namur, Flanders, 13 Feb., 1578-9. He studied at Winchester School from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford where he remained till 1559. He became B.A. 23 Feb., 1556-7 and M.A. in 1560, though Antony a Wood adds that he […]

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February 13 – Soldier of Christ

February 13, 2025

Alphonsus Salmeron Jesuit Biblical scholar, born at Toledo, 8 Sept., 1515; died at Naples, 13 Feb., 1585. He studied literature and philosophy at Alcala, and thereafter went to Paris for philosophy and theology. Here, through James Lainez, he met St. Ignatius of Loyola; together with Lainez, Faber, and St. Francis Xavier he enlisted as one […]

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The Catholic Church Accepts Any Form of Government that Does Not Oppose Divine and Human Rights

February 13, 2025

previous In an allocution to the extraordinary Secret Consistory of February 14, 1949, Pius XII affirms: “[The Catholic Church] admits any and every form of civil government provided it be not inconsistent with divine and human rights. But when it does contradict these rights, bishops and the faithful themselves are bound by their own conscience […]

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February 14 – Renounced Earthly Nobility To Obtain Heavenly Nobility

February 13, 2025

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 – Sts. Faustinus and Jovita

February 13, 2025

Sts. Faustinus and Jovita Martyrs, members of a noble family of Brescia; the elder brother, Faustinus, being a priest, the younger, a deacon. For their fearless preaching of the Gospel, they were arraigned before the Emperor Hadrian, who, first at Brescia, later at Rome and Naples, subjected them to frightful torments, after which they were […]

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February 15 – Ferdinand II, Emperor

February 13, 2025

Ferdinand II Emperor, eldest son of Archduke Karl and the Bavarian Princess Maria, b. 1578; d. 15 February, 1637. In accordance with Ferdinand I’s disposition of his possessions, Styria, Carinthia, and Carniola fell to his son Karl. As Karl died in 1590, when his eldest son was only twelve years old, the government of these […]

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RCR – Part II, Chapter IX – Chapter XII – End of Part II

February 10, 2025

CHAPTER IX The Driving Force of the Counter-Revolution There is a driving force of the Counter-Revolution, just as there is one of the Revolution. 1. Virtue and Counter-Revolution We have singled out the dynamism of the human passions unleashed in a metaphysical hatred against God, virtue, good, and especially against hierarchy and purity, as the […]

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

February 10, 2025

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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February 10 – God Gave Her What Her Brother Would Not

February 10, 2025

St. Scholastica, Virgin (c. 480 – 10 February 547) This saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself to God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her first monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother removed to Mount Cassino, she choose her retreat at Plombariola, in […]

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February 11 – Elected pope while on Crusade in Palestine

February 10, 2025

Blessed Pope Gregory X Born 1210; died 10 January, 1276. Pope Gregory X was declared Blessed on July 8, 1713 by Pope Clement XI. The death of Pope Clement IV (29 November, 1268) left the Holy See vacant for almost three years. The cardinals assembled at Viterbo were divided into two camps, the one French […]

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February 11 – St. Benedict of Aniane

February 10, 2025

St. Benedict of Aniane Born about 745-750; died at Cornelimünster, 11 February, 821. Benedict, originally known as Witiza, son of the Goth, Aigulf, Count of Maguelone in Southern France, was educated at the Frankish court of Pepin, and entered the royal service. He took part in the Italian campaign of Charlemagne (773), after which he […]

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The Universal Scope of the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility

February 10, 2025

Chapter 2 The Universal Scope of the Allocutions of Pius XII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility The Situation of the Italian Nobility in the Pontificate of Pius XII 1. Why Focus Specifically on the Italian Nobility? In 1947 the constitution of the Italian Republic abolished all titles of nobility. (1) The last blow was […]

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Devotion to the Holy Rosary

February 10, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira    February 12th 1964 As we all know, one great value of devotion to the Rosary is that it was revealed by Our Lady to Saint Dominic as a means for reviving the Faith in regions heavily devastated by the Albigensian heresy. Indeed, the general practice of the Rosary revived the […]

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Saint Eulalia of Barcelona – February 12

February 10, 2025

Saint Eulalia of Barcelona A Spanish martyr in the persecution of Diocletian (February 12, 304), patron of the cathedral and city of Barcelona, also of sailors. The Acts of her life and martyrdom were copied early in the twelfth century, and with elegant conciseness, by the learned ecclesiastic Renallus Grammaticus (Bol. acad. hist., Madrid, 1902, […]

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Tadeusz Kosciuszko – February 12

February 10, 2025

Tadeusz Kosciuszko Polish patriot and soldier, b. near Novogrudok, Lithuania, Poland, 12 February, 1752; d. at Solothurn, Switzerland, 15 October, 1817. He was educated at the military schools of Warsaw and Versailles, and attained the rank of captain in the Polish army. When the American Revolution broke out he embarked for the scene of conflict […]

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February 6 – Apostle of Flanders

February 6, 2025

St. Amandus One of the great apostles of Flanders; born near Nantes, in France, about the end of the sixth century. He was, apparently, of noble extraction. When a youth of twenty, he fled from his home and became a monk near Tours, resisting all the efforts of his family to withdraw him from his […]

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February 6 – “No priest, no Mass”

February 6, 2025

Edmund Plowden Born 1517-8; died in London, 6 Feb., 1584-5. Son of Humphrey Plowden of Plowden Hall, Shropshire, and Elizabeth his wife, educated at Cambridge, he took no degree. In 1538 he was called to the Middle Temple where he studied law so closely that he became the greatest lawyer of his age, as is […]

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Heroic Prince Ucondono Met the Persecution Head-On

February 6, 2025

Prince [Justus] Ucondono, a distinguished general, to whom Taicosama was indebted for his empire, was living for six years in exile, because he had refused to abjure his faith. He had been stripped of his dignities, deprived of his estates, his old father, his wife, and his large family sharing in the same privations; yet […]

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Do Public Awards and Punishments Dignify and Encourage, or Corrupt and Humiliate?

February 6, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira We were recently asked to comment on the fact that the custom of granting awards to the best students is being abolished in several schools. At the root of this new policy is the idea that the public bestowal of awards is doubly harmful: exciting vanity in the beneficiaries of […]

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February 9 – Johann Georg von Eckhart

February 6, 2025

Eckhart, Johann Georg von (called Eccard before he was ennobled), German historian, b. at Duingen in the principality of Kalenberg, September 7, 1664; d. at Würzburg, February 9, 1730. After a good preparatory training at Schulpforta he went to Leipzig, where at first, at the desire of his mother, he studied theology, but soon turned […]

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February 9 – Marianus Scotus

February 6, 2025

MARIANUS SCOTUS, Abbot of St. Peter’s at Ratisbon, born in Ireland before the middle of the eleventh century; died at Ratisbon towards the end of the eleventh century, probably in 1088. In 1067 he left his native country, intending to make a pilgrimage to Rome. Like many of his countrymen, however, who visited the Continent, […]

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February 9 – The bishop who converted the son of Penda

February 6, 2025

St. Finan Second Bishop of Lindisfarne; died 9 February, 661. He was an Irish monk who had been trained in Iona, and who was specially chosen by the Columban monks to succeed the great St. Aidan (635-51). St. Bede describes him as an able ruler, and tells of his labours in the conversion of Northumbria. […]

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Louis XVI Gives a Marriage Dowry to 100 Poor French Girls

February 6, 2025

On February 9th, 1779 (in the narrative of Louise de Grandpré, to whom the study of Notre Dame has been a veritable passion), a large crowd pressed towards the cathedral; the ground was strewed with fresh grass and flowers and leaves; the pillars were decorated with many coloured banners. In the choir the vestments of […]

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RCR – Part II, Chapter IV – Chapter VIII

February 3, 2025

CHAPTER IV What is a counter-revolutionary? What is a counter-revolutionary? One may answer the question in two ways: 1. In Actuality The actual counter-revolutionary is one who: — knows the Revolution, order, and the Counter-Revolution in their respective spirits, doctrines, and methods; — loves the Counter-Revolution and Christian order, and hates the Revolution and “anti-order”; […]

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What One Lie Can Do

February 3, 2025

In the days when the first Catholic missionaries went to Japan to preach the Gospel to the natives, certain merchants from Holland went to the Emperor and told him that the only aim that these missionaries had was to bring the Portuguese and the Spaniards into the country, that in time they might take possession […]

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February 3 – The Stuff of Which Saints Are Made

February 3, 2025

St. Anschar (Or Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar.) Called the Apostle of the North, was born to the French nobility in Picardy, 8 September, 801; died 5 February, 865. He became a Benedictine of Corbie, whence he passed into Westphalia. With Harold, the newly baptized King of Denmark who had been expelled from his kingdom […]

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February 3 – Half Fierce Pagan Princess, Half Gentle Christian Princess

February 3, 2025

St. Werburgh of Chester (WEREBURGA, WEREBURG, VERBOURG). Benedictine, patroness of Chester, Abbess of Weedon, Trentham, Hanbury, Minster in Sheppy, and Ely, born in Staffordshire early in the seventh century; died at Trentham, 3 February, 699 or 700. Her mother was St. Ermenilda, daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, and St. Sexburga, and her father, Wulfhere, […]

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February 4 – Portuguese noble and favorite of the king, he strove to convert the nobility of India – and paid for it with his life

February 3, 2025

St. John de Brito Martyr, born in Lisbon, 1 March, 1647, and was brought up at Court, martyred in India 11 February, 1693. Entering the Society of Jesus at fifteen, he obtained as his mission-field Madura in southern India. In September, 1673, he reached Goa. Before taking up his work he spent thirty days in […]

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February 4 – Probably the most learned man of his age

February 3, 2025

Blessed Maurus Magnentius Rabanus (Hrabanus, Rhabanus) Abbot of Fulda, Archbishop of Mainz, celebrated theological and pedagogical writer of the ninth century, born at Mainz about 776 (784?); died at Winkel (Vinicellum) near Mainz on 4 February, 856. He took vows at an early age in the Benedictine monastery of Fulda, and was ordained deacon in […]

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February 4 – Pope Gregory V

February 3, 2025

Pope Gregory V Born c. 970; died 4 February, 999. On the death of John XV the Romans sent a deputation to Otto III and asked him to name the one he would wish them to elect in the place of the deceased pontiff. He at once mentioned his chaplain and relation, Bruno, the son […]

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February 5 – St. Agatha

February 3, 2025

St. Agatha One of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, put to death for her steadfast profession of faith in Catania, Sicily. Although it is uncertain in which persecution this took place, we may accept, as probably based on ancient tradition, the evidence of her legendary life, composed at a later date, […]

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February 5 – He put the Bible to verse and prose

February 3, 2025

St. Avitus (Alcimus Ecdicius). A distinguished bishop of Vienne, in Gaul, from 490 to about 518, though his death is place by some as late as 525 or 526. He was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman family closely related to the Emperor Avitus and other illustrious persons, and in which episcopal honors were hereditary. In […]

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January 30 – Cured in body and in soul

January 30, 2025

St. Hyacintha Mariscotti A religious of the Third Order of St. Francis and foundress of the Sacconi; born 1585 of a noble family at Vignanello, near Viterbo in Italy; died 30 January, 1640, at Viterbo; feast, 30 January; in Rome, 6 February (Diarium Romanum). Her parents were Marc’ Antonio Mariscotti (Marius Scotus) and Ottavia Orsini. […]

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January 30 – Dom Guéranger

January 30, 2025

Prosper Louis Pascal Guéranger Benedictine and polygraph; b. 4 April, 1805, at Sablé-sur-Sarthe; d. at Solesmes, 30 January, 1875. Ordained a priest 7 October, 1827, he was administrator of the parish of the Missions Etrangères until near the close of 1830. He then left Paris and returned to Mans, where he began to publish various […]

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January 31 – The Glory of the Ladies

January 30, 2025

St. Marcella (325–410)  She was a Christian ascetic in ancient Rome. Growing up in Rome, she was influenced by her pious mother, Albina, an educated woman of wealth and benevolence. Childhood memories centered around piety, and one in particular related to Athanasius, who lodged in her home during one of his many exiles. He may […]

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