Education as a source of social status in America

March 1, 2012

A proper education normally confers social status in the United States. While not a guarantee, “the correlation between education and social status in contemporary American society is nevertheless a very high one,” Nisbet affirms. “Of all means of rising in the social scale, educational achievement has been historically one of the most effective.”1 Members of […]

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March 2 – Warrior Bishop Prince

March 1, 2012

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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March 2 – This Princess Refused to Marry the Emperor

March 1, 2012

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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King of Tonga visits Vatican

February 27, 2012

Vatican City, (VIS) – The Holy Father Benedict XVI received His Majesty Siaosi Tupou V, King of Tonga on February 24, 2012. The King subsequently went on to meet with Archbishop Dominique Mamberti, secretary for Relations with States. The cordial discussions dwelt on various aspects of the country’s social and economic life, as well as […]

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The Dauphin is wrenched from Marie Antoinette

February 27, 2012

Marie Antoinette rose to her feet, pale and trembling…. As they advanced to seize him the Dauphin awoke, and, realizing what was happening, threw himself screaming into his mother’s arms, sobbing: “Maman, Maman, do not leave me!” Marie Antoinette pressed him passionately to her heart, kissed him, soothed him, and holding with one hand desperately […]

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Lineage as a source of social status in America

February 27, 2012

Perhaps no other criterion is as important in determining social status as that of family. Kingsley Davis explains: “One of the family’s main functions is the ascription of status…. Children are said to ‘acquire their parents’ status,’ with the implication that the two parents have a common status to transmit and that the child gets […]

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February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest?

February 27, 2012

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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February 25 – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

February 23, 2012

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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King Ferdinand lifts the siege of Loja—in the retreat, Don Juan de Ribera twice saves the king

February 23, 2012

King Ferdinand now perceived the wisdom of the opinion of the Marques of Cadiz, and that his force was quite insufficient for the enterprise. To continue his camp in its present unfortunate position would cost him the lives of his bravest cavaliers, if not a total defeat, in case of reinforcements to the enemy. He […]

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Wealth as a source of social status in America

February 23, 2012

Wealth, past or present, contributes to social status. “Even where wealth is not a direct and immediate condition of high status, not a means by which status may be achieved directly, the presence of wealth, or the fact that one’s lineage was at one time connected with wealth is taken commonly as a manifestation of […]

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February 24 – Drink the Bitter Cup

February 23, 2012

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 24 – First Christian King Among the English

February 23, 2012

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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The Duke of Guise throws himself into Poitiers to defend the city

February 20, 2012

Young Guise, who had been chafing at inaction, as soon as he heard that Coligny meant to attack [Poitiers] hurried there, accompanied by his brother, Mayenne, a tall lad of fifteen, and by a band of young nobles, with mouth-filling names…. The citizens were greatly cheered by their arrival, for Henri de Guise, in spite […]

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Status in American Society: Its Concept and Sources

February 20, 2012

Social hierarchy in the United States is comprised of many factors, some well defined, others imponderable and inexpressible. The term status is often used to designate this combination. As described by Joseph Fichter, “social status is the position, or rank, which the person’s contemporaries objectively accord to him within his society.”1 Thus, everyone has a […]

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February 21 – He Fearlessly Denounced Homosexual Clergy

February 20, 2012

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 21 – Terror of the Wicked, Supporter of the Weak

February 20, 2012

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 – Shakespeare’s Martyr Muse

February 20, 2012

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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VIDEO: Gun Salute for Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee

February 16, 2012

The 60th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne has been marked in London with a series of gun salutes and marching bands at Tower Bridge and in a snow-covered Hyde Park. Milestones in the life of Queen Elizabeth II.

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Scanderbeg: the hero of Christendom

February 16, 2012

In a history, where so much is spoken of the regions, from whence the miraculous Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel came, it will be of great use to take a brief glance at the once entirely Catholic nation in which it so long remained, and at the great client of its Sanctuary in […]

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Origins and effects of the American paradox

February 16, 2012

The American paradox was born with the republic itself. Consistent with the republican ideology, the Founding Fathers of the new nation developed a legal and institutional framework that provided no place for aristocratic privilege. The first article of the Constitution, for example, prohibits the republican government from granting any titles of nobility; nor can titles […]

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

February 16, 2012

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

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Threatening the Prince

February 13, 2012

  The Taliban says it is gunning for Prince Harry just days after Britain’s defence ministry confirmed that the 27-year-old royal will redeploy to Afghanistan.

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February 14 – Renounced Earthly Nobility To Obtain Heavenly Nobility

February 13, 2012

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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Christianity quells the fires of revenge and elicits heroic acts of valor and nobility

February 13, 2012

The perilous situation of the Christian cavaliers pent up and beleaguered within the walls of Alhama, spread terror among their friends, and anxiety throughout all Andalusia. Nothing, however, could equal the anguish of the Marchioness of Cadiz, the wife of the gallant Roderigo Ponce de Leon. In her deep distress, she looked round for some […]

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The history of the United States is the history of its directing elites

February 13, 2012

After establishing the normative existence of elites in all societies, including the United States, the sociologists of the elitist school proceed to the next logical conclusion. Contrary to the egalitarian myth that social transformations are initiated by the masses, they affirm that it is the elites, not the masses, who establish the tone of national […]

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February 13 – Mystic and Counselor to Future Popes

February 13, 2012

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

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Video – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark speaks about leadership

February 9, 2012

Forty years ago, on January 15, 1972, Princess Margrethe of Denmark became Queen of this Scandinavian state. She belongs to the House of Glücksburg, a junior branch of the House of Oldenburg.

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A nobility and loyalty put to the severest test

February 9, 2012

Doña Magdalena de Ulloa, Toledo, Osorio and Quiñones was one of the greatest ladies of the Spanish nobility of the sixteenth century. She was the sister of D. Rodrigo de Ulloa, first Marqués de la Mota, San Cebrián, and the Vega del Condado, and of Doña Maria de Toledo, of the ancient and noble house […]

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American society is hierarchical

February 9, 2012

American society, as all others, is hierarchical. It could not be otherwise, since the existence of elites is not only a natural occurrence in every organized social body, but constitutes an element essential to its proper functioning. According to William Domhoff, professor of psychology at the University of California at Santa Cruz, “scholars also have […]

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February 9 – Banished From the Court

February 9, 2012

St. Ansbert Archbishop of Rouen in 695, Confessor He had been chancellor to King Clotair III. in which station he had united the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of wedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic habit at Fontenelle under St. Wandregisile, and when that […]

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February 10 – God Gave Her What Her Brother Would Not

February 9, 2012

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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Today is the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

February 6, 2012

Today, as I mark 60 years as your Queen, I am writing to thank you for the wonderful support and encouragement that you have given to me and Prince Philip over these years and to tell you how deeply moved we have been to receive so many kind messages about the Diamond Jubilee. In this […]

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A Special Drink in Honor of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

February 6, 2012

Gordon & MacPhail in Elgin, Moray, has released 85 bottles of Glen Grant 60 Years Old, which were distilled on February 2 1952, four days before the Queen acceded to the throne. The limited-edition bottles are being put on the market for a recommended retail price in the UK of £8000 (A$11,835) each. More here

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The “Ave Maria” that was nailed to the door of Granada’s mosque

February 6, 2012

When the Moorish knights beheld that all courteous challenges were unavailing, they sought various means to provoke the Christian warrior to the field. Sometimes a body of them, fleetly mounted, would gallop up to the skirts of the camp, and try who should hurl his lance farthest within the barriers, having his name inscribed upon […]

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Commentaries on how Don Alonso Peres de Guzman sacrificed his own son rather than surrender to the Muslims

February 6, 2012

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira In September 1292, Yacub Ben Yussuf, King of Morocco, took over the stronghold of Tarifa. Infant Dom João, brother of Sancho IV the brave, king of Castile and Leon, in fact made a pact with Yacub that enabled him to conquer Tarifa, defended by Alonso Perez de Guzman. Rather than surrender, […]

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Pope Blesses Artillery

February 6, 2012

“The place for me, as a minister of peace, might not be so much in the midst of arms and artillery pieces. “But I am the minister of God, and one must remember that this God who calls himself the God of Peace is also the God of Armies. “And one must always fight against […]

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February 7 – Liberal to Anti-liberal

February 6, 2012

Pope Blessed Pius IX (GIOVANNI MARIA MASTAI-FERRETTI). Pope from 1846-78; born at Sinigaglia, 13 May, 1792; died in Rome, 7 February, 1878. BEFORE HIS PAPACY His early years. After receiving his classical education at the Piarist College in Volterra from 1802-09 he went to Rome to study philosophy and theology, but left there in 1810 […]

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February 7 – This Saintly King Is Father To Three More Saints

February 6, 2012

St. Richard, King and Confessor This saint was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and was perhaps deprived of his inheritance by some revolution in the state: or he renounced it to be more at liberty to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection. His three children, Winebald, Willibald, and Warburga, […]

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Marie Antoinette: Ever majestic, though anxious as she discerns the approaching Revolution

February 2, 2012

After his presentation to Louis XVI, Chateaubriand passed through the gallery to meet the Queen returning from chapel. “She soon came in sight,” he says, “surrounded by a large and brilliant suite; she made a dignified courtesy, appearing enchanted with life. And those fair hands, which then held so gracefully the scepter of so many […]

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Weak authority and unbridled liberty

February 2, 2012

The architect of his own ruin, Louis XVI proceeded to forge his own chains. The fault lay with the theorists who deluded him, with those men who were forever talking about necessary liberties and forgot indispensable authority; who, when once in power, were compelled to abandon the theories they had held when in opposition. We […]

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

February 2, 2012

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 3 – The Stuff of Which Saints Are Made

February 2, 2012

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

January 30, 2012

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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The widowed Duchess de Montmorency who became a nun to follow St. Jane Frances de Chantal

January 30, 2012

Among the crowd of eminent or remarkable women called to the Visitation Order had been the widowed Duchess de Montmorency. She was by birth Maria Felicia Orsini, a niece of Pope Sixtus V., and a greatniece and goddaughter of Queen Marie de Medici. She had married at fourteen the Duke de Montmorency, the representative of […]

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Inequalities Are a Condition of Social Organicity

January 30, 2012

[From Leo XIII’s encyclical Humanum genus, of April 20, 1884]: Just as a perfect condition of the body results from the conjunction and composition of its various members, which, though differing in form and purpose, make, by their union and the distribution of each one to its proper place, a combination beautiful to behold, firm […]

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January 31 – The Glory of the Ladies

January 30, 2012

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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Is Jubilee cooking contest illegal?

January 30, 2012

“The anti-monarchy group Republic is warning schools they may break the law if they take part in a cooking contest to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. The contest, launched by the Duchess of Cornwall, is for 10 to 15-years-olds. But Republic says involving children in celebrations of the monarchy without teaching them about republicanism as […]

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El Cid is banished from the kingdom of Castile

January 26, 2012

My Cid sighed for his heart was heavy. My Cid spoke, well and measuredly: “Blessed be the Lord Our God, Our Father who art on high! See now what my wicked enemies have wrought!”… “Rejoice with me, O Alvar Fañez!” he cried. “We are cast out of our land! But we shall return, with honor, […]

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The Equality Myth, a Founding Legend

January 26, 2012

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira All epochs have a founding legend, a myth that reflects the underlying zeitgeist [spirit of the times]. Those, who like us, live in the contemporary West, are living in the shadow of the Equality Myth. Our political and social institutions operate on the premise that all human beings are fundamentally […]

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January 28 – Fifty Years of War

January 26, 2012

Charlemagne (French for Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or Carlus Magnus; German Karl der Grosse). The name given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814. At the time of Charles’ birth, his father, Pepin […]

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No Man Has Greater Love Than This

January 26, 2012

St. Peter Nolasco Born at Mas-des-Saintes-Puelles, near Castelnaudary, France, in 1189 (or 1182); died at Barcelona, on Christmas Day, 1256 (or 1259). He was of a noble family and from his youth was noted for his piety, almsgiving, and charity. Having given all his possessions to the poor, he took a vow of virginity and, […]

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The Tragedy of Marie Adelaide

January 23, 2012

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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Jesus Christ Willed to Be Born of Royal Stock

January 23, 2012

From the allocution of Leo XIII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 24, 1903: And Jesus Christ, although He chose to spend His private life in the obscurity of a lowly dwelling, passing for the son of a laborer, and although in public life He so loved to associate with the common people, […]

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January 24 – Aristocrat Saint

January 23, 2012

St. Francis de Sales Bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Universal Church; born at Thorens, in the Duchy of Savoy, 21 August, 1567; died at Lyons, 28 December, 1622. His father, François de Sales de Boisy, and his mother, Françoise de Sionnaz, belonged to old Savoyard aristocratic families. The future saint was the eldest of […]

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January 24 – Ironmonger Was His Alias

January 23, 2012

Blessed William Ireland (Alias Ironmonger.) Jesuit martyr, born in Lincolnshire, 1636; executed at Tyburn, 24 Jan. (not 3 Feb.), 1679; eldest son of William Ireland of Crofton Hall, Yorkshire, by Barbara, a daughter of Ralph Eure, of Washingborough, Lincolnshire (who is to be distinguished from the last Lord Eure) by his first wife. He was […]

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Charlemagne and his army of iron, conquers Lombardy

January 19, 2012

The Monk of St. Gall, who wrote a most entertaining Life of Charles at the end of the ninth century, has left in his pages a vivid picture of what the armed might of Charlemagne meant in the imaginations of his contemporaries and immediate successors. The Monk says that he was told these things as […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 19, 1944 to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility

January 19, 2012

Little was your worry, beloved Sons and Daughters, that the present trials, which interrupt and disturb the calm continuation of family and social life, might prevent you from coming, as in past years, to offer Us, with filial devotion, the homage of your best wishes. This tragic, sorrowful time, so full of anxieties and cares, […]

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Commentaries on Charlemagne and St. Willehad of Bremen:

January 19, 2012

by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira “Saint Willehad, bishop and confessor was the first bishop of Bremen, diocese created by Emperor Charlemagne after his conquests. In the year 788, the 21st  of his reign, Charlemagne gave that see a certificate that read: “In the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Charles, by the […]

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The “king of cheeses” gets a Royal Approval

January 19, 2012

While the origins of French brie are veiled in the mists of history, some accounts link it to the indomitable Emperor Charlemagne. Like all great kings, Charlemagne showed great interest not just in the protection of the realm and the administration of justice but in fostering the betterment of his people through education, culture, and […]

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January 19 – Saintly King

January 19, 2012

St. Canute IV Martyr and King of Denmark, date of birth uncertain; d. 10 July 1086, the third of the thirteen natural sons of Sweyn II surnamed Estridsen. Elected king on the death of his brother Harold about 1080, he waged war on his barbarous enemies and brought Courland and Livonia to the faith. Having […]

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