June 7 – The Crusaders reach the walls of Jerusalem

June 6, 2011

The Conquest of Jerusalem in the First Crusade In June of 1099 [the First Crusade] arrived before the walls of Jerusalem, which was then held by the Fatimid Arabs of Egypt. With their usual religious zeal and grim determination, the Christians prepared to attack the walls. Their fighting force had been reduced to 1,200 knights […]

Read the full article →

Philip II’s royal straightforwardness, a relief from labyrinthine bureaucracies

June 2, 2011

After several months of working with Philip II’s ministers on an important business transaction, an Aragonese man resolved to discuss the matter with the king directly. Having heard him explain the issue, the king replied: “I’m sorry, but what you are requesting is impossible.” “Oh, I’m immensely grateful to Your Majesty for this favorable reply.” […]

Read the full article →

A Form of Government May Be Preferable, Because It Is Better Suited to the Character or Customs of the People for Which It Is Intended

June 2, 2011

previous In his encyclical Au milieu des solicitudes (February 16, 1892), Leo XIII writes: “Various political governments have succeeded one another in France during the last century, each having its own distinctive form: the Empire, the Monarchy, and the Republic. By giving oneself up to abstractions, one could at length conclude which is the best […]

Read the full article →

June 3 – She eventually won her husband’s heart to the faith, but then had to witness her children kill each other.

June 2, 2011

St. Clotilda, Queen of France Was daughter of Chilperic, younger brother to Gondebald, the tyrannical king of Burgundy, who put him, his wife, and the rest of his brothers, except one, to death, in order to usurp their dominions. In this massacre he spared Chilperic’s two fair daughters, then in their infancy. One of them […]

Read the full article →

The good man who showed a “preferential option for the nobility” towards Madame de Maintenon when she was a child

May 30, 2011

After becoming a widower, Louis XIV secretly married Madame de Maintenon, a lady of the court, in 1686. Although from a noble family, hers was a life of great hardship in her youth, because of an armed insurrection of many nobles against the Throne, known as the Fronde. One day, while in the antechamber to […]

Read the full article →

Our Lineage Greatly Influences Our Actions

May 30, 2011

From the funeral oration for Philippe-Emanuel de Lorraine, Duke of Mercoeur and Penthièvre, delivered in the metropolitan church of Notre-Dame in Paris on April 27, 1602, by Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622), Bishop-Prince of Geneva and Doctor of the Church: “It is always God Who grants us salvation; He is its great architect, but He […]

Read the full article →

May 30 – Saint Ferdinand: “Christ redeemed us on the hard arms of the Cross, and His knight will not serve Him in any other way.”

May 30, 2011

Saint Ferdinand III of Castile  King Alfonso VIII of Castile, the great leader of Las Navas de Tolosa, left two daughters who became queen mothers of two young kings, both of whom developed into illustrious warriors, crusaders, and saints. Because Alfonso’s two sons died in their youth, one from illness in 1211 and the other […]

Read the full article →

May 30 – She was sent by God to save France.

May 30, 2011

Joan of Arc in Real Life Saint Joan of Arc is far more than a worthy subject for stained-glass windows, although that is how her biographers often portray her. Fortunately, we have the records of two judgments to set the record straight. As is common with heroes deemed “larger than life,” Joan is seen through […]

Read the full article →

Don John of Austria receives the baton of command and the standard of the Holy League before the battle of Lepanto

May 26, 2011

Cardinal Granvelle celebrated the Pontifical Mass, and at the end of it D. John of Austria mounted to the chancel, and, kneeling in front of the altar, received from the hands of Granvelle, first the baton and then the standard, with these words, which the Cardinal said over three times in Latin, Spanish and Italian: […]

Read the full article →

Similarities and Differences Among Men Find Their Allotted Place in the Absolute Order of Being

May 26, 2011

From the 1942 Christmas message of Pius XII: If the life of society involves inner unity, it does not, however, preclude differences which are upheld by reality and nature. Yet when one looks to God, the supreme regulator of all that concerns man, then men’s similarities as well as differences find their proper place in […]

Read the full article →

The Montenegrin royal family makes a comeback

May 26, 2011

King Nikola’s great-grandson, Prince Nikola Petrovic-Njegos, of the  Montenegrin dynasty, approved a proposed law allowing descendants of the Petrovic-Njegos dynasty  officially to use heraldic royal symbols and would give them land that belonged to the king. The Petrovic-Njegos family ruled Montenegro for more than 200 years, until King Nikola was overthrown by the Serbian Karadjordjevic […]

Read the full article →

May 26 – He converted a young nobleman by showing him a vision of hell, and called the City of Rome his “Desert”

May 26, 2011

THE APOSTLE OF ROME St. Philip Romolo Neri       Born at Florence, Italy, 22 July, 1515; died 27 May, 1595. Philip’s family originally came from Castelfranco but had lived for many generations in Florence, where not a few of its members had practised the learned professions, and therefore took rank with the Tuscan […]

Read the full article →

May 25 – She suffered terrible inward desolation and temptations, and by external diabolic attacks

May 26, 2011

St. Mary Magdalen de’ Pazzi Carmelite Virgin, born 2 April, 1566; died 25 May, 1607. Of outward events there were very few in the saint’s life. She came of two noble families, her father being Camillo Geri de’ Pazzi and her mother a Buondelmonti. She was baptized, and named Caterina, in the great baptistery. Her […]

Read the full article →

The prince and the pauper: the non-Twain true story

May 23, 2011

While traveling incognito through France using the pseudonym Count of the North, Grand Duke Paul, who later would become Tsar Paul I, was served at an inn by a young and intelligent young lady. The Grand Duke’s wife asked the girl: “What’s your name, my dear?” “Madame, my name is Jeanne, but people call me […]

Read the full article →

A Classless Society: A Dangerous Utopia

May 23, 2011

From John Paul II’s homily in the Mass for youths and students, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on July 1, 1980:  “I learned that a Christian youth ceases to be young, and has long ceased to be Christian, when he allows himself to be seduced by doctrines or ideologies that preach violence and hate…. “I learned […]

Read the full article →

May 24 – Our Lady Help of Christians, to commemorate the liberation of the Pope from Napoleon’s prison

May 23, 2011

This commemoration was introduced in the liturgical calendar by decree of Pope Pius VII on September 16, 1815, in thanksgiving for his happy return to Rome after a long and painful captivity in Savona and France due to Napoleon’s tyrannical power. By order of Napoleon, Pius VII was arrested, 5 July, 1808, and detained a […]

Read the full article →

For the second time, Don Luis Quijada saves Don John of Austria from the flames before rescuing his wife, Dona Magdalena

May 19, 2011

D. John went each day to the royal castle with all the pomp of a prince, to study and play with D. Carlos and to pay his respects to the King and the good Queen Doña Isabel de Valois, who always kept him a long time, and loaded him with attentions and invitations, to the […]

Read the full article →

Anyone Who Ventures to Deny the Diversity of Social Classes Contradicts the Very Laws of Nature

May 19, 2011

From John XXIII’s encyclical Ad Petri Cathedram, of June 29, 1959: “The harmonious unity which must be sought among peoples and nations also needs ever greater improvement among the various classes of individuals. Otherwise mutual antagonism and conflict can result, as we have already seen. And the next step brings rioting mobs, wanton destruction of […]

Read the full article →

May 19 – He invented the University, educated an Empire, and guided the Carolingian Renaissance

May 19, 2011

Blessed Alcuin of York An eminent educator, scholar, and theologian born about 735; died 19 May, 804. He came of noble Northumbrian parentage, but the place of his birth is a matter of dispute. It was probably in or near York. While still a mere child, he entered the cathedral school founded at that place […]

Read the full article →

Philip II and the old soldier who had no wine

May 16, 2011

A soldier with long service in the Army presented himself to Philip II and said: “Sire, I’ve served in Your Majesty’s army my whole life, and now I see myself constrained to move to the Reserves without enough to eat.” The king gave him an adequate pension, but the soldier came back a few months […]

Read the full article →

May 16 – Catholic, Crusader, Leper and King: The Life of Baldwin IV and the Triumph of the Cross

May 16, 2011

Modern society obsessively avoids suffering, risk and danger. It secures everything with seatbelts and safety rails, air conditions the summer heat, prints warnings on coffee cups and advises that that safety glasses should be used while working with hammers. Certainly such precautions have prevented misfortune. However, since heroism and excellence are born from confronting rather […]

Read the full article →

To Establish Absolute Equality Would Be to Destroy the Social Organism

May 16, 2011

Pius XII declares in a speech to a group of parishioners of Marsciano, Perugia, Italy, on June 4, 1953:     “It is necessary that you truly feel like brothers. “It is not a matter of mere appearance; you are truly sons of God, so you are really brothers to one another. “Now, brothers are […]

Read the full article →

May 16 – His tireless zeal earned him the name of “Hunter of Souls,” and martyrdom by the Cossacks. Today he is Patron of Poland.

May 16, 2011

Martyr, born of an old and illustrious Polish family, in the Palatinate of Sandomir, 1590; died at Janów, 16 May, 1657. Having entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Wilno (1611), he was ordained in 1622, and appointed preacher in the Church of St. Casimir, Wilno. After making his solemn vows, 2 June, […]

Read the full article →

Marie Antoinette saves a seat for an expecting mother who was visiting Versailles

May 12, 2011

A student from Tours and an expecting relative were visiting Versailles, which was open to all. Marveling, they had already gone through the palace and were now visiting the gardens, when the pregnant lady showed signs of exhaustion. The student looked around for a bench she could sit on, but they were all being used. […]

Read the full article →

Conviviality Among Men Always and Necessarily Produces a Scale of Degrees and Differences

May 12, 2011

  Pius XII says in his allocution to Fiat workers on October 31, 1948:   “The Church does not promise the absolute equality that others claim, for she knows that human society always produces, of necessity, a whole scale of degrees and differences in physical and intellectual qualities, in inner dispositions and tendencies, in occupations […]

Read the full article →

May 12 – She refused the crowns of England, France and the Holy Roman Empire

May 12, 2011

Blessed Joanna of Portugal Born at Lisbon, 16 February, 1452; died at Aveiro, 12 May, 1490; the daughter of Alfonso V, King of Portugal, and his wife Elizabeth. She was chiefly remarkable for the courage and persistency with which she opposed all attempts on the part of her father and brother to make her marry.  […]

Read the full article →

Disloyalty to one’s people and a loss of authenticity amidst court pleasantries

May 9, 2011

  One day, Frederick II asked the members of his court: “What would each of you do if you were king of Prussia?” Everyone tried to please the king with their answer. When it was his turn, the French Count d’Argenson did not bother with flattery and said: “I would quickly sell the kingdom of […]

Read the full article →

The Ten Commandments of Chivalry

May 9, 2011

I.              Thou shalt believe all that the Church teaches and shalt observe all its directions. II.           Thou shalt defend the Church. III.         Thou shalt respect all weaknesses, and shalt constitute thyself the defender of them. IV.        Thou shalt love the country in which thou wast born. V.           Thou shalt not recoil before thine enemy. VI.        […]

Read the full article →

May 10 – Saint Damien: A Hero Who Died on the Battlefield of Honor

May 9, 2011

Written by Norman Fulkerson   There are few places on Earth more beautiful than Hawaii. While this idyllic paradise may be the destination spot for tourists and honeymooners, Joseph de Veuster was eager to go there for a completely different reason. It was Joseph’s missionary zeal that attracted him to Hawaii where he volunteered to […]

Read the full article →

Judge praises Prince William for saving his life

May 9, 2011

“A judge who was rescued by Prince William after suffering a heart attack on Snowdonia said he hadn’t planned to be rescued by the prince, he merely wanted to ‘have a nice day on the hills.’ “Thanks to the prince and his colleagues, the grandfather from Midhurst, West Sussex, reached Gwynedd Hospital at Bangor for […]

Read the full article →

The Duke of Gramont’s charming grace

May 5, 2011

When the duke of Gramont, as French ambassador to the Court of Spain, received on his sovereign’s behalf the Infanta who would become Queen of France, he made this salutation: “Your Majesty, my lord the King wishes you peace. And to thee, Your Highness, he delivers both his heart and crown.” Adolfo Padovan, Il libro […]

Read the full article →

Rekindling the Crusading Spirit

May 5, 2011

Written by Michael Whitcraft On a recent trip to Fatima, I stopped to spend a night in the city of Obidos, Portugal. As I stood atop the walls of that medieval city, I felt almost as though I were breathing history…but not just any history. I was filling my lungs with a Catholic combative history. […]

Read the full article →

May 6 – Prince, priest, and pioneer: After 41 years working in the Alleghenies, he died as he had lived, a poor man

May 5, 2011

Servant of God Demetrius Gallitzin “Apostle of the Alleghenies” Prince, priest, and missionary, Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin was born at The Hague on December 22, 1770; he died at Loretto, Pennsylvania on May 6, 1840. He was a scion of one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most illustrious families of Russia. His father, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin […]

Read the full article →

The Empress Maria Theresa subscribed to a different principle: Honor über alles

May 2, 2011

  Prussia, Russia and Austria were negotiating among themselves Poland’s partition. Maria Theresa lamented: “Every partition is iniquitous. I can only deplore this proposal and say how ashamed I am to show myself in public.” When the Empress’s ministers brought to her attention how her scruples could be interpreted as a sign of weakness, she […]

Read the full article →

The Suppression of Inequalities Is a Sine Qua Non for the Elimination of Religion

May 2, 2011

God did not want these inequalities only among creatures of the inferior kingdoms—the mineral, vegetable, and animal—but also among men and, therefore, among peoples and nations. With these inequalities, which God created harmonious among themselves and beneficent for each category of beings as also for each being in particular, He wanted to furnish man with […]

Read the full article →

May 2. St. Mafalda of Portugal – the medieval princess with two sisters who are also saints

May 2, 2011

In the year 1215, at the age of eleven, Princess Mafalda (i.e. Matilda), daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal, was married to her kinsman King Henry I of Castile, who was like herself a minor. The marriage was annulled the following year on the ground of the consanguinity of the parties, and Mafalda returned […]

Read the full article →

St. Louis IX defends his crown and defeats his rebellious nobles and their English and Aragonese allies

April 28, 2011

Trencavel, son of the dispossessed Viscount of Carcassone and Beziers, appeared in southern France in 1240 with a troop of Aragonese mercenaries and captured several fortresses. The invaders then moved against Carcassone and through the connivance of supporters occupied the commercial district outside the walls from where they besieged the old town on the heights. […]

Read the full article →

The Inequality of Creatures Is a Condition for Creation to Give Glory to God

April 28, 2011

  [I]t seems fitting to add some arguments from the Angelic Doctor to justify the existence of inequality among creatures. In the Summa Theologica he affirms: “Hence in natural things species seem to be arranged in degrees; as the mixed things are more perfect than the elements, and plants than minerals, and animals than plants, […]

Read the full article →

April 29: St. Hugh the Great – In 11th century Christendom, no king or bishop dare oppose him

April 28, 2011

Saint Hugh the Great, Abbot of Cluny, born at Semur (Brionnais in the Diocese of Autun), 1024; died at Cluny, 28 April, 1109. His early life The eldest son of Count Dalmatius of Semur and Aremberge (Aremburgis) of Vergy, Hugh was descended from the noblest families in Burgundy. Dalmatius, devoted to war and the chase, […]

Read the full article →

A 14-year-old Archduchess Marie Antoinette is welcomed to France

April 25, 2011

The duke of Choiseul, as French ambassador to Austria, had been the principal agent in negotiating the marriage of the Dauphin, the future Louis XVI, and the Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette. Preceded by the duke, King Louis XV went to Compiègne to meet his future granddaughter-in-law. As the duke made his bow, Marie Antoinette said: […]

Read the full article →

The king is the nation’s principle of unity and must live for the common good

April 25, 2011

    A sovereign ruler was thought to be the physical embodiment, or representative, of an abstract legal body, in this case the community of the realm, and to be totally identified with its interest. Thus, John of Salisbury wrote in the mid-twelfth century, “The prince is…the minister of the public utility and the servant […]

Read the full article →

April 25-26 – Mother of Good Counsel, who inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 25, 2011

January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he placed himself at the head of his own people. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania. With Scanderbeg’s death, the Turkish army, finally […]

Read the full article →

April 30 – this saint was born to impoverished nobility. As pope, he levied a 10% tax on religious orders to finance the war against the Turks.

April 24, 2011

Pope Saint Pius V Born at Bosco, near Alexandria, Lombardy, 17 Jan., 1504 elected 7 Jan., 1566; died 1 May, 1572. Being of a poor though noble family his lot would have been to follow a trade, but he was taken in by the Dominicans of Voghera, where he received a good education and was […]

Read the full article →

Our Lord Jesus Christ: the supreme and perfect archetype of all professions, from king to laborer

April 21, 2011

From a meeting given by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira During His life in this world, Our Lord exercised aspects of all professions fit for man—from the highest to the lowest. To even begin to appreciate the perfection of His Person, we would have to imagine the archetype of every licit profession known to man. […]

Read the full article →

Queen Blanche of France shapes the young Saint Louis IX for the trials of kingship

April 21, 2011

When young Louis inherited the French crown at the age of twelve upon Louis VIII’s premature death, he also inherited a royal domain that was greatly expanded by his grandfather, Philip Augustus…. The virtue of any young man is strengthened by grace achieved through prayer and obedience to his duties, but Saint Louis had the […]

Read the full article →

Modesty of Dress and the Love of God: An Effective Way to Defend the Family

April 21, 2011

“I love vulgarity. Good taste is death, vulgarity is life.” These words by English fashion designer Mary Quant, who took credit for inventing the miniskirt and hot pants, reveal one of the most important, though rarely pointed out, aspects of the “fashion revolution” that started in the sixties: vulgarity. Indeed, fashions have increasingly tended toward […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – The Noble Saint who tamed William the Conqueror, abolished slavery in England, and founded Scholasticism; his prayer to Saint Mary Magdalene

April 21, 2011

Saint Anselm, Confessor, Archbishop Of Canterbury (A. D. 1109) If the Norman conquerors stripped the English nation of its liberty and many temporal advantages, it must be owned that by their valor they raised the reputation of its arms and deprived their own country of its greatest men, both in church and state, with whom […]

Read the full article →

A repentant Lord Seymour asks to be slapped in penance for his fault

April 18, 2011

Arriving at the Opéra in Paris, Lord Seymour had the door of his carriage opened by a beggar, who said to him as he alighted: “I’m hungry.” Throwing a gold louis d’or into the muddy gutter, the English lord said: “Pick it up with your teeth!” Though filled with loath at the prospect, the poor […]

Read the full article →

Brotherly Treatment Between Superiors and Subordinates Should Not Eliminate the Variety of Conditions and the Diversity of Social Classes

April 18, 2011

[From Benedict XV’s encyclical Ad beatissimi Apostolorum, of November 11, 1914]:   “Human fraternity, indeed, will not remove the diversities of conditions and therefore of classes. This is not possible, just as it is not possible that in an organic body all the members should have one and the same function and the same dignity. […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – This German pope led his army against the Normans

April 18, 2011

Pope St. Leo IX Born at Egisheim, near Colmar, on the borders of Alsace, 21 June, 1002, Pope St. Leo IX died on 19 April, 1054. He belonged to a noble family which had given or was to give saints to the Church and rulers to the Empire. He was named Bruno. His father Hugh […]

Read the full article →

“Just as a monarch is lucky in inheriting a throne, so a nation is sometimes lucky in inheriting a monarch.”

April 18, 2011

“Heredity is rife in every society” “Monarchy is an institution of state. Democracy expects such institutions to put in an appearance at the bar of common sense and public opinion. When one of them, based on heredity, offends what democracy supposedly holds dear—equality of opportunity—it has a case to answer. And so, as the future […]

Read the full article →

St. Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon extends the Reconquista to Seville and the south of Spain

April 14, 2011

In 1224, with his internal political affairs resolved, [Saint Ferdinand III of Castile and Leon] turned his attention to the Reconquest, a military campaign that with a few short intervals occupied him for the rest of his life. Quesada, the first town to fall, was typical of the many that followed. The Castilians placed cloth-muffled […]

Read the full article →

Respecting Social Hierarchy for the Greater Good of Individuals and Society

April 14, 2011

From Benedict XV’s letter Soliti nos, of March 11, 1920, to the Most Reverend Luigi Marelli, Bishop of Bergamo: “Let those who are of a lower station and fortune properly understand this: variety of rank in civil society originates from nature, and is finally to be traced back to the will of God, ‘for He […]

Read the full article →

April 14, a saint who suffered for the moral corruption and decay of her time.

April 14, 2011

Saint Lydwine In 1380, Saint Lydwine was born in the small town of Schiedam in Holland. Her father was a wealthy noble named Peter, and her mother was from a poor family who worked their own farm. Her father’s family lost their fortune, and the whole family was reduced to poverty. At that time, all […]

Read the full article →

Emperor visits evacuation center to encourage nuclear crisis evacuees

April 14, 2011

TOKYO (Kyodo) — Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited evacuees in Saitama Prefecture from the ongoing nuclear crisis on Friday to offer their condolences and encouragement. (read more: http://mainichi.jp/)

Read the full article →

Louis XV encourages his nobility to melt down their silver for the relief of the poor

April 11, 2011

As many among France’s poor suffered greatly because of the inclement weather, the nobles deprived themselves of whatever disposable resources they could lay their hands on so as to alleviate their hardship. They sent their solid silver plate and dinner services to the Mint causing them to be melted down and turned into coin for […]

Read the full article →

One Should Not Excite Animosity Against the Rich, Inciting the Masses to the Inversion of Order in Society

April 11, 2011

In a letter of June 5, 1929, to the Most Reverend Achille Liénart, Bishop of Lille, the Sacred Congregation of the Council recalls principles of Catholic social doctrine and practical directives of a moral order, issued from the supreme ecclesiastical authority. “Those who boast of the name Christian, be they taken in isolation or as […]

Read the full article →

He excommunicated the king, who murdered him as he celebrated Mass.

April 11, 2011

Saint Stanislaus of Cracow   In pictures he is given the episcopal insignia and the sword. Larger paintings represent him in a court or kneeling before the altar and receiving the fatal blow. His parents, Belislaus and Bogna, pious and noble Catholics, gave him a religious education. After the death of his parents he distributed […]

Read the full article →

Alfonso VIII of Castile crushes the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa

April 7, 2011

The Almohads, the new dynasty of Moroccan fanatics who had subdued all the Moslems in al Andalus, launched an all-out attack on the Christians by moving a huge army north into south central Spain. The impetuous Alfonso VIII of Castile, without waiting for reinforcements, attempted to bar the way at Alarcos. On July 18, 1195, […]

Read the full article →

General Juchault de Lamoricière: “Christianity is…the animating principle of civilization”

April 7, 2011

On April 8, Easter Sunday, [1860, General Christophe Louis Juchault de Lamoricière] issued a proclamation to both the volunteers who had arrived and to those who were pondering the call: “At the sound of the grand voice which lately apprised the world from the Vatican of the dangers threatening the patrimony of St. Peter, Catholics […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →