January 31 – St. John Bosco Meets His First Noble Patroness

January 30, 2025

Juliette Colbert, a native of Vendée, had married Marquis Tancredi Falletti of Barolo, and of her it could be said, even as we read of Tabitha in the Acts of the Apostles: “This woman had devoted herself to good works and acts of charity.” Indeed, she used her abundant wealth to help the working classes […]

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February 1 – Adventurer Historian

January 30, 2025

François-Xavier Charlevoix Historian, born at St-Quentin, France, 24 October, 1682, died at La Flèche, 1 February, 1761. He entered the Society of Jesus, 15 September, 1698, at the age of sixteen, studied philosophy at the Collège de Louis le Grand (1700-1704), and then went to Quebec, where he taught grammar from 1705 to 1709. During […]

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February 1 – “The sublime genius of the man”

January 30, 2025

Saint Ephraem (Ephrem, Ephraim) Born at Nisibis, then under Roman rule, early in the fourth century; died June, 373. The name of his father is unknown, but he was a pagan and a priest of the goddess Abnil or Abizal. His mother was a native of Amid. Ephraem was instructed in the Christian mysteries by […]

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February 2 – “Though in chains, he is as gay as a little bird”

January 30, 2025

St. Théophane Vénard (JEAN-THÉOPHANE VÉNARD.) French missionary, born at St-Loup, Diocese of Poitiers, 1829; martyred in Tonkin, 2 February, 1861. He studied at the College of Doue-la-Fontaine, Montmorillon, Poitiers, and at the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions which he entered as a sub-deacon. Ordained priest 5 June, 1852, he departed for the Far East, 19 […]

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February 2 – He hastened to the king, exhibited his wounded body and related his vision

January 30, 2025

St. Lawrence Second Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 2 Feb., 619. For the particulars of his life and pontificate we rely exclusively on details added by medieval writers being unsupported by historical evidence, though they may possibly embody ancient traditions. According to St. Bede, he was one of the original missionaries who left Rome with St. […]

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RCR – Part I Chapter XII. End of Part I – Part II Chapter I – III

January 27, 2025

Chapter XII The pacifist and therefore antimilitarist character of the Revolution is easily grasped in light of the preceding chapter. 1. Science Will Bring an End to War, The Military, and Police In the technological paradise of the Revolution, peace has to be perpetual, for science has shown that war is evil, and technology can […]

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Divorce and Romanticism

January 27, 2025

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Saint Angela Merici wisely observed, “disorder in the world is the result of disorder in the family.” Over the last generation, the disorder in American family life has grown exponentially. In 1940, there was one divorce for every six marriages; by 1975, the U.S. divorce rate had climbed to one […]

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January 27 – Canossa

January 27, 2025

A former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the foothills of the Apennines, about eighteen miles from Parma, where took place the dramatic penance of King Henry IV of Germany in presence of Pope Gregory VII. The king, excommunicated 22 February, 1076, would have been utterly abandoned by the inimical German princess unless within […]

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January 27 – Pope Sergius II

January 27, 2025

Pope Sergius II Date of birth unknown; consecrated in 844, apparently in January; d. 27 Jan., 847. He was of noble birth, and belonged to a family which gave two other popes to the Church. Educated in the schola cantorum, he was patronized by several popes, and was ordained Cardinal-priest of the Church of Sts. […]

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January 28 – Larochejacquelein killed by the very men whose lives he spared

January 27, 2025

While Turreau was thus devastating La Vendée, where were Larochejacquelein, Stofflet, and Charette? Had they forgotten their country and its cause—were they deaf to her cries of distress? Charette still fought in the depths of the Marais; Stofflet in the recesses of the Bocage; but Larochejacquelein, the young, the brave, the chivalrous, the peasants’ idol […]

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Charlemagne, Cornerstone of the Middle Ages

January 27, 2025

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira,  Saint of the Day, October 30, 1972   Here is an excerpt on Charlemagne taken from the renowned historian, J.B. Weiss’ História Universal: “In 772, at the age of 30, Charles took over the government of the Kingdom of the Franks. He was rightly called Charles the Great, a name he […]

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January 29 – Noble enough to cover five contemporary kings with invective

January 27, 2025

St. Gildas Surnamed the Wise; born about 516; died at Houat, Brittany, 570. Sometimes he is called “Badonicus” because, as he tells us, his birth took place the year the Britons gained a famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, near Bath, Somersetshire (493 or 516). The biographies of Gildas exist — one written […]

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British monarchy announces first ever visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau

January 23, 2025

According to Polish Press Agency … King Charles III will… “attend a commemoration service at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum and Memorial in Poland, marking 80 years since the liberation of the former German Nazi concentration camp on 27th January 1945,” Buckingham Palace wrote on its website on Monday. Global news agencies observe that the visit to […]

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A Joyous Celebration

January 23, 2025

On January 18, she [Marie Antoinette] celebrated her recovery in the sacristy of the chapel of Versailles, and resumed her court duties in their usual form. On February 8, accompanied by the king, Monsieur Madame, and the Comte and Comtesse d’Artois, she went to Paris to render thanks to God for her happy deliverance. She […]

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January 23 – Saint Emerentiana

January 23, 2025

Virgin and martyr, died at Rome in the third century. The old Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs, after giving the place of burial on the Via Nomentana of St. Agnes, speak of St. Emerentiana. Over the grave of St. Emerentiana a church was built which, according to the Itineraries, was near the […]

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The Tragedy of Marie Adelaide

January 23, 2025

by Diane Moczar Of all the rulers of western European countries in the first quarter of the twentieth century, few are as unknown to British and American historians as Marie Adelaide, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg during World War I. The small size of her realm alone does not explain history’s neglect; by all accounts Marie […]

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January 24 – Cardinal Ercole Consalvi

January 23, 2025

Cardinal and statesman, b. in Rome, 8 June, 1757; d. there, 24 January, 1824. Family His ancestors belonged to the noble family of the Brunacci in Pisa, one of whom settled in the town of Toscanella in the Papal States about the middle of the seventeenth century. The grandfather of the cardinal, Gregorio Brunacci, inherited […]

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January 24 – Otto III

January 23, 2025

German king and Roman emperor, b. 980; d. at Paterno, 24 Jan., 1002. At the age of three he was elected king at Verona, in very restless times. Henry the Quarrelsome, the deposed Duke of Bavaria, claimed his guardianship. This nobleman wished for the imperial crown. To further his object he made an alliance with […]

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January 25 – St. Ildephonsus

January 23, 2025

St. Ildephonsus Archbishop of Toledo; died 23 January, 667. He was born of a distinguished family and was a nephew of St. Eugenius, his predecessor in the See of Toledo. At an early age, despite the determined opposition of his father, he embraced the monastic life in the monastery of Agli, near Toledo. While he […]

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January 26 – She was from one of the first families of Rome

January 23, 2025

St. Paula Born in Rome, 347; died at Bethlehem, 404. She belonged to one of the first families of Rome. Left a widow in 379 at the age of 32 she became, through the influence of St. Marcella and her group, the model of Christian widows. In 382 took place her decisive meeting with St. […]

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RCR – Part I Chapter VII Ending – Chapter XI

January 20, 2025

3. Pride and Sensuality and the Metaphysical Values of the Revolution Two notions conceived as metaphysical values express well the spirit of the Revolution: absolute equality, complete liberty. And there are two passions that most serve it: pride and sensuality. In referring to passions, we must explain in what sense we use the word in […]

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He was put to death, just for being a king

January 20, 2025

His Last Will and Testament The last Will and Testament of Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre, given on Christmas day, 1792. In the name of the Very holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. To-day, the 25th day of December, 1792, I, Louis XVI King of France, being for more than four months […]

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Nobility of Birth Seems a Fortuitous Fact, but It Results from a Benevolent Design of Heaven

January 20, 2025

From the Allocution of Leo XIII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 21, 1897: Our heart rejoices to see you here again, united by a concord of ideas and affections that honor you. Our charity knows no partiality, nor ought to know any, yet it is not to be blamed if it takes […]

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In Defense of the Catholic Social Order

January 20, 2025

by Nelson Ribeiro Fragelli First published on Dec. 29, 2003 This year [this article was originally published in 2011] we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the launching of the book: Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites. This last work of Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira outlines a true program to bring the world out of the […]

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January 22 – Patroness of abuse victims

January 20, 2025

Blessed Laura Vicuña Laura del Carmen Vicuña was born on April 5, 1891 in Santiago, Chile. She was the first daughter of the Vicuña Pino family. Her parents were José Domingo Vicuña, a soldier with aristocratic roots, and Mercedes Pino. Her father was in military service and her mother worked at home. At the very […]

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January 22 – The noble who often returned home barefoot

January 20, 2025

St. Vincent Mary Pallotti The founder of the Pious Society of Missions, born at Rome, 21 April, 1798; died there, 22 Jan., 1850. He lies buried in the church of San Salvatore in Onda. He was descended from the noble families of the Pallotti of Norcia and the De Rossi of Rome. His early studies […]

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Five Theses on Egalitarianism

January 20, 2025

By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira In general lines, I formulated five essential theses in these lectures on egalitarianism in such a way that we understand that each one of these theses constitutes a point entirely distinct from the others and has its own demonstration. The ensemble of these theses constitutes our doctrine on egalitarianism. […]

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January 16 – When the Emperor insisted that the lapsed be readmitted to communion without penance, one man stood in his way. This is his story.

January 16, 2025

Pope St. Marcellus I His date of birth unknown; elected pope in May or June, 308; died in 309. For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304 the Diocletian persecution continued with unabated severity. After the abdication of Diocletian in 305, and the accession in Rome of Maxentius to the throne of the […]

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Saint Pius V Was Born Into a Guelph Noble Family That Persecution Dragged Into Poverty

January 16, 2025

Michael Ghislieri was born on January 17, 1504, in Bosco, a fortified village not far from Alessandria . . . . The Ghislieri family, originally from Bologna, was of noble origin but lived in a poor condition as a result of the internal battles that had torn apart the city, between the Guelphs, who were […]

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January 18 – St. Margaret of Hungary

January 16, 2025

St. Margaret of Hungary Daughter of King Bela I of Hungary and his wife Marie Laskaris, born 1242; died 18 Jan., 1271. According to a vow which her parents made when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret, in 1245 entered the Dominican Convent of Veszprem. […]

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January 19 – St. Wolstan

January 16, 2025

Benedictine, and Bishop of Worcester, b. at Long Itchington, Warwickshire, England, about 1008; d. at Worcester, 19 Jan.,1095. Educated at the great monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough, he resolutely combated and overcame the temptations of his youth, and entered the service of Brithege, Bishop of Worcester, who ordained him priest about 1038. Refusing all […]

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January 19 – Thomas Vincent Faustus Sadler

January 16, 2025

Thomas Vincent Faustus Sadler Born 1604; died at Dieulward, Flanders, 19 Jan., 1680-1. He was received into the Church at the age of seventeen by his uncle, Dom Walter Sadler, and joined the Benedictines at Dieulward, being professed in 1622. Little is known of his missionary labors, but probably he was chaplain to the Sheldons […]

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January 19 – John Baptist Tolomei

January 16, 2025

John Baptist Tolomei A distinguished Jesuit theologian and cardinal, born of noble parentage, at Camberaia, between Pistoia and Florence, 3 Dec., 1653; died at Rome in the Roman College, 19 Jan., 1726, and was buried before the high altar of the Church of Saint Ignatius. At the age of fifteen, after an early schooling at […]

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January 19 – Henri Victor Regnault

January 16, 2025

Chemist and physicist, b. at Aachen, 21 July, 1810; d. in Paris, 19 Jan., 1878. Being left an orphan at the age of eight he was soon obliged to work in order to provide for himself and his sister. Up to the age of eighteen he worked as a clerk in a drapery establishment in […]

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January 19 – Lady Fullerton

January 16, 2025

Lady Georgiana Charlotte Fullerton Novelist; born 23 September, 1812, in Staffordshire, died 19 January, 1885, at Bournemouth. She was the youngest daughter of Lord Granville Leveson Gower (afterwards first Earl Granville) and Lady Harriet Elizabeth Cavendish, second daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire. She was chiefly brought up in Paris, her father having been […]

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January 19 – Godfrey Goodman

January 16, 2025

Godfrey Goodman Born at Ruthin, Denbighshire, 28 February, 1582-3; died at Westminster, 19 January, 1656. He was Anglican Bishop of Gloucester, and passed all his public life in the Protestant Church. His religious sympathies, however, inclined him to the old Faith, and when misfortune and ruin overtook him, late in life, he entered its fold. […]

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RCR – Part 1 Chapter IV Thru Chapter VII

January 13, 2025

CHAPTER IV The Metamorphoses of the Revolutionary Process As can be seen from the analysis in the preceding chapter, the revolutionary process is the development by stages of certain disorderly tendencies of Western and Christian man and of the errors to which they have given rise. In each stage, these tendencies and errors have a […]

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January 13 – The Count Who Converted the King

January 13, 2025

St. Remigius of Rheims Apostle of the Franks, Archbishop of Rheims, b. at Cerny or Laon, 437; d. at Rheims, 13 January 533. His father was Emile, Count of Laon. He studied literature at Rheims and soon became so noted for learning and sanctity that he was elected Archbishop of Rheims in his twenty-second year. […]

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January 13 – The Opponent of Bishop Lucifer

January 13, 2025

St. Hilary of Poitiers Bishop, born in that city at the beginning of the fourth century; died there 1 November, according to the most accredited opinion, or according to the Roman Breviary, on 13 January, 368. Belonging to a noble and very probably pagan family, he was instructed in all the branches of profane learning, […]

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January 14 – Blessed Devasahayam Pillai

January 13, 2025

Blessed Devasahayam Pillai Devasahayam Pillai (named Neelakanda Pillai at birth) was born into an affluent Nair-caste family at Nattalam in the present-day Kanyakumari District, on 23 April 1712. His father Vasudevan Namboodiri, hailed from Kayamkulam, in present-day Kerala state, and was working as a priest at Sri Adi Kesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar in present-day […]

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January 14 – The Ten Year Old Saint and Some Of Her Miracles

January 13, 2025

Ven. Anne de Guigné When St. Thomas Aquinas’s sister asked him how to become a Saint, he told her to just “will it.” Venerable Anne de Guigné¹ was a child with an iron will and from the moment of her conversion, she willed only one thing…to be a Saint. “To become a Saint is to […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 14, 1952

January 13, 2025

Faithful to your ancient tradition, beloved Sons and Daughters, you have again come this year to present the visible Head of the Church with a testimonial of your devotion and your fond wishes for the New Year. We welcome them with keen and affectionate gratitude, and offer you in return Our warmest regards. We include […]

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January 15 – St. Maurus & St. Placidus

January 13, 2025

St. Maurus Deacon, son of Equitius, a nobleman of Rome, but claimed also by Fondi, Gallipoli, Lavello etc.; died 584. Feast, 15 Jan. He is represented as an abbot with crozier, or with book and censer, or holding the weights and measures of food and drink given him by his holy master. He is the […]

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The Nobility: A Particularly Distinguished Order in Human Society—It Will Have Special Accounts to Render to God

January 9, 2025

An application of these rich and solid teachings to the contemporary condition of the nobility may be found in the allocution of John XXIII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 9, 1960. “The Holy Father is pleased to note that the distinguished audience is a reminder of what human society is as a […]

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January 9 – Blessed Tommaso Reggio

January 9, 2025

Blessed Tommaso Reggio Bl. Tommaso Reggio was born in Genoa, Italy, on 9 January 1818 to the Marquis of Reggio and Angela Pareto. He had a comfortable upbringing which gave him a solid Christian and cultural background and assured him of a brilliant career. However, at the age of 20 he decided to become a […]

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January 10 – Maria Theodor Ratisbonne

January 9, 2025

A distinguished preacher and writer, and director of the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers, b. of Jewish parentage at Strasburg, 28 Dec., 1802; d. in Paris, 10 Jan. 1884. He was raised in luxury, was educated at the Royal College of his native city, and at the age of manhood, was considered a leader among his […]

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January 10 – St. Diarmaid the Just

January 9, 2025

A famous Irish confessor of the mid-sixth century; d. 542. His name is associated with the great monastery of Inisclothran (Iniscleraun) on Lough Ree, in the Dioeese of Ardagh, which he founded about the year 530. He was of princely origin and a native of Connacht. Wishing to found an oratory far from the haunts […]

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January 10 – Jean-Baptiste Régis

January 9, 2025

Born at Istres, Provence, 11 June, 1663, or 29 Jan., 1664; died at Peking, 24 Nov., 1738. He was received into the Society of Jesus, 14 Sept. 1683, or 13 Sept. 1679, and in 1698 went on the Chinese mission, where he served science and religion for forty years, and took the chief share in […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 11, 1943

January 9, 2025

How, beloved Sons and Daughters, could the warm and heartfelt greetings that the lofty words of your illustrious representative conveyed to Us in your name fail to find their response in the offerings We now raise to God on your behalf? Unvanquished by the sorrows of the present hour, We feel, at this moment, a […]

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January 12 – Prominent Jesuit Missionary in Early Mexico

January 9, 2025

Pedro Díaz Missionary, b. at Lupedo, Diocese of Toledo, Spain, in 1546; d. in Mexico, 12 Jan., 1618. Though but twenty years of age when he joined the Society of Jesus he had already been a teacher of philosophy for two years. In 1572 he was sent by St. Francis Borgia to Mexico with the […]

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January 12 – Tyrolese priest and patriot

January 9, 2025

Johann Simon (Joachim) Haspinger A Tyrolese priest and patriot; b. at Gries, Tyrol, 28 October, 1776; d. in the imperial palace of Mirabell, Salzburg, 12 January, 1858. His parents were well-to-do country people, and destined their son for the priesthood. It was, however, only in 1703 after having devoted himself until his seventeenth year to […]

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January 12 – Father of the Modern Oratorio

January 9, 2025

Giacomo Carissimi The most influential and prolific Italian composer of his time, b. in 1604 at Marino in the Papal States; d. 12 Jan., 1674, in Rome. After completing his musical education in Rome, Carissimi became choirmaster at Assisi, and, in 1628, he was appointed to a like position at the church of St. Apollinaris […]

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January 12 – Countess, convert and authoress

January 9, 2025

Ida Hahn-Hahn Countess, convert and authoress, born 22 June, 1805; died 12 January, 1880. She was descended from a family that formerly was one of the wealthiest and most illustrious of the Mecklenburg nobility. Her father, the tragic and famous “Theatergraf” (theatrical count), squandered such huge sums on his one hobby, the drama, that he […]

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January 12 – Bernard Jungmann

January 9, 2025

Bernard Jungman A dogmatic theologian and ecclesiastical historian, born at Münster in Westphalia, 1 March, 1833; died at Louvain, 12 Jan., 1895. He belonged to an intensely Catholic family of Westphalia; like him, two of his brothers entered the service of the Church, one joining the Society of Jesus and the other becoming a missionary […]

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January 12 – Physician

January 9, 2025

Daniel Noble Physician, b. 14 Jan., 1810; d. at Manchester, 12 Jan, 1885. He was the son of Mary Dewhurst and Edward Noble of Preston, a descendant of an old Yorkshire Catholic family. Apprenticed to a Preston surgeon named Thomas Moore, Noble was in time admitted a member of the Royal College of Surgeons and […]

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RCR Book

January 6, 2025

Foreword Since its first publication in the Brazilian cultural journal Catolicismo in 1959, Revolution and Counter-Revolution has gone through a number of editions in Portuguese, English, French, Italian, and Spanish. The present edition is the first to be published digitally in the United States. It includes recent commentaries on Revolution and Counter-Revolution’s third part, which […]

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January 6 – The Kingship of Christ Is Manifest to the Pagan World

January 6, 2025

The Epiphany of Our Lord Saints Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior Epiphany, which in the original Greek signifies appearance or manifestation, as St. Augustin observes, (1) is a festival principally solemnized in honor of the discovery Jesus Christ made of himself to the Magi, or wise men; who, soon after his birth, by a particular inspiration […]

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First recorded Mass in the Americas: January 6, 1494 at La Isabela, Dominican Republic

January 6, 2025

Columbus’s second fleet of seventeen assorted ships carried between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred men and was organized to establish a permanent colony that would serve as a base for trade with the people of this new land. The fleet left Cádiz on 25 September 1493 and arrived in the Caribbean in November. Columbus was […]

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January 6 – St. Roch

January 6, 2025

St. Roch Born at Montpellier towards 1295; died 1327. His father was governor of that city. At his birth St. Roch is said to have been found miraculously marked on the breast with a red cross. Deprived of his parents when about twenty years old, he distributed his fortune among the poor, handed over to […]

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January 6 – St. Joan of Arc was born on this day over 600 years ago

January 6, 2025

St. Joan of Arc In French Jeanne d’Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known as la Pucelle (the Maid). Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke of Burgundy, but in […]

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