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

August 26, 2024

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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With Tears the Flatheads and Pend d’Oreilles Bade Farewell to Father De Smet

August 26, 2024

The season was then far advanced, and the missionary was obliged to start at once in order to reach St. Louis before the winter set in. “I decided to leave,” he tells us, “on August 27th [1840]. Early in the morning of that day seventeen warriors, the pick of the two tribes, came with three […]

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Liberal Antagonism for the Harmony Between Church and State

August 26, 2024

Someone might object that such a happy concord is not possible given the history of our secular State. To this, we would reply that we find vague echoes of a desire for concord in the writings of the Founding Fathers who, despite their personal beliefs (heavily influenced by deism and the Enlightenment), understood the indispensable […]

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August 27 – Never underestimate the prayers of a mother

August 26, 2024

St. Monica Widow; born of Christian parents at Tagaste, North Africa, in 333; died at Ostia, near Rome, in 387. We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his […]

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August 28 – Restless Heart

August 26, 2024

St. Augustine of Hippo The great St. Augustine’s life is unfolded to us in documents of unrivaled richness, and of no great character of ancient times have we information comparable to that contained in the “Confessions,” which relate the touching story of his soul, the “Retractations,” which give the history of his mind, and the […]

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The East and the West, wise interpenetration of values

August 22, 2024

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Our picture shows the four sons of the Maharaja of Kaourthala at the beginning of the century. The group makes an agreeable impression as there is something quintessentially noble, gracious and refined in the bearing, countenances and attire of these small princes. They are true princes, quite authentically Indian. Nonetheless, […]

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The Queenship of Mary

August 22, 2024

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church. Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s Queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human […]

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The Crusades – Part III

August 22, 2024

I. Origin of the Crusades; II. Foundation of Christian states in the East; III. FIRST DESTRUCTION OF THE CHRISTIAN STATES (1144-87) Many dangers, unfortunately, threatened this prosperity. On the south were the Caliphs of Egypt, on the east the Seljuk Ameers of Damascus, Hamah and Aleppo, and on the north the Byzantine emperors, eager to […]

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August 23 – St. Rose of Lima

August 22, 2024

St. Rose of Lima Virgin, patroness of America, born at Lima, Peru 20 April, 1586; died there 30 August, 1617. Saint Rose was born Isabel Flores y de Oliva in the city of Lima, the Viceroyalty of Peru, then part of New Spain. She was one of the many children of Gaspar Flores, a harquebusier […]

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August 24 – Saint Bartholomew’s Day: the real story

August 22, 2024

Saint Bartholomew’s Day This massacre of which Protestants were the victims occurred in Paris on 24 August, 1572 (the feast of St. Bartholomew), and in the provinces of France during the ensuing weeks, and it has been the subject of knotty historical disputes. The first point argued was whether or not the massacre had been […]

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August 19 – St. John Eudes

August 19, 2024

French missionary and founder of the Eudists and of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity; author of the liturgical worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; born at Ri, France, 14 Nov., 1601; died at Caen, 19 Aug., 1680. He was a brother of the French historian, François Eudes de Nézeray. At […]

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The Peacock, the Chicken, and the Anti-egalitarian Universe God Created

August 19, 2024

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira An anti-egalitarian consideration of the universe manifests to us that it is a veritable court of unequal nobles. Some are nobler because they have more nobility in their very being, while others are less noble because they have less nobility in their being. Someone may ask, “Can you give an […]

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August 20 – Maria De Mattias

August 19, 2024

(1805 – 1866) Maria De Mattias was born on 4 February 1805 at Vallecorsa, the southernmost town of the Papal States, in the geographical province of Frosinone,. Her family was not without wealth and learning—even if women were forbidden to study—nor did it lack a deep Christian faith. Through dialog with her father, Maria learned […]

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Saint Philibert of Jumièges and Recipes for Hazelnuts Named in His Honor

August 19, 2024

Saint Philibert of Jumièges (c. 608–684) was the only son of a Frankish noble, a courtier of Dagobert I. He was educated at court by Saint Ouen and entered monastic life at Rebais and was elected abbot at the age of 20. In 654, St. Philibert received a gift of land from Clovis II on […]

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He was one of a network of aristocrat bishops

August 19, 2024

Saint Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius (Modestus) Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris (November 5[1] of an unknown year, perhaps 430 – August, 489) was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is “the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul” according to Eric Goldberg.[2] He was one of four fifth-to sixth-century Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters […]

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Jean Parisot de La Valette

August 19, 2024

Forty-eighth Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem; born in 1494; died in Malta, 21 Aug., 1568. He came from an old family of Southern France, several members of which had been capitouls (chief magistrates) in Toulouse. When still young he entered the Order of St. John as a […]

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The Knights of St. John capture Rhodes and establish their sovereignty

August 15, 2024

On 15 August, 1310, under the leadership of Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, the Knights of St. John captured the island in spite of the Greek emperor, Andronicus II. The Knights of Rhodes, the successors of the Hospitallers of St. John, were distinguished from the latter in many ways. In the first place, the grand […]

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August 15 – Prester John

August 15, 2024

Prester John Name of a legendary Eastern priest and king. FIRST STAGE The mythical journey to Rome of a certain Patriarch John of India in 1122, and his visit to Callistus II, cannot have been the origin of the legend. Not until much later, in a manuscript dating from the latter part of the fifteenth-century […]

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August 16 – Apostle of the North

August 15, 2024

St. Hyacinth Dominican, called the Apostle of the North, son of Eustachius Konski of the noble family of Odrowacz [or Odrowaz]; born 1185 at the castle of Lanka, at Kamin, in Silesia, Poland…; died 15 August, 1257, at Cracow. Feast, 16 Aug. A near relative of Saint Ceslaus, he made his studies at Cracow, Prague, […]

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His incorrupt right hand is treasured as the most sacred relic in Hungary

August 15, 2024

St. Stephen of Hungary First King of Hungary, born at Gran, 975; died 15 August, 1038. He was a son of the Hungarian chief Géza and was baptized, together with his father, by Archbishop St. Adalbert of Prague in 985, on which occasion he changed his heathen name Vaik (Vojk) into Stephen. In 995 he […]

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The Crusades – Part II

August 15, 2024

I. Origin of the Crusades; II. FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIAN STATES IN THE EAST After travelling through Burgundy and the south of France, Urban II convoked a council at Clermont-Ferrand, in Auvergne. It was attended by fourteen archbishops, 250 bishops, and 400 abbots; moreover a great number of knights and men of all conditions came and […]

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August 17 – St. Clare of Montefalco

August 15, 2024

Born at Montefalco about 1268; died there, 18 August, 1308. Much dispute has existed as to whether St. Clare of Montefalco was a Franciscan or an Augustinian; and while Wadding, with Franciscan biographers of the saint, contends that she was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, Augustinian writers, whom the Bollandists seem […]

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August 18 – The Empress who found the True Cross

August 15, 2024

Saint Helena (also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople) The mother of Constantine the Great, born about the middle of the third century, possibly in Drepanum (later known as Helenopolis) on the Nicomedian Gulf; died about 330. She was of humble parentage; St. Ambrose, in his “Oratio de obitu Theodosii”, referred […]

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August 12 – His pontificate was spent in opposing royal absolutism

August 12, 2024

Pope Blessed Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi) Born at Como, 16 May, 1611; died at Rome, 11 August, 1689. He was educated by the Jesuits at Como, and studied jurisprudence at Rome and Naples. Urban VIII appointed him successively prothonotary, president of the Apostolic Camera, commissary at Ancona, administrator of Macerata, and Governor of Picena. Innocent […]

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August 13 – Crusader nun

August 12, 2024

Bl. Gertrude of Aldenberg Abbess of the Premonstratensian convent of Aldenberg, near Wetzlar, in the Diocese of Trier; born about 1227, died 13 August, 1297. She was the youngest of three children of Louis VI, margrave of Thuringia, and his wife St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Gertrude’s father died on his way to the Holy Land […]

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August 13 – The antipope who became a saint

August 12, 2024

Hippolytus, Saint, Martyr. St. Hippolytus of Rome, presbyter and antipope; date of birth unknown; died about 236. Until the publication in 1851 of the recently discovered “Philosophumena”, it was impossible to obtain any definite authentic facts concerning Hippolytus of Rome and his life from the conflicting statements about him, as follows: Eusebius says that he […]

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August 14 – Founding Father

August 12, 2024

Pierre Chastellain Missionary among the Huron Indians, born at Senlis, France, in 1606; died at Quebec, 14 August, 1684. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and at the age of thirty sailed from France with two future martyrs, Fathers Isaac Jogues and Charles Garnier, and the new Governor of Canada, Montmagny, the successor […]

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The Crusades – Part I

August 12, 2024

The Crusades were expeditions undertaken, in fulfilment of a solemn vow, to deliver the Holy Places from Mohammedan tyranny. The origin of the word may be traced to the cross made of cloth and worn as a badge on the outer garment of those who took part in these enterprises. Medieval writers use the terms […]

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August 1 – Sts. Faith, Hope and Charity

August 1, 2024

Faith, Hope and Charity, Saints, the names of two groups of Roman martyrs around whom a considerable amount of legendary lore has gathered; though the extent of sound historical data possessed concerning them is so slight, that until very recent times the most eminent scholars failed to distinguish between them. However, the extent and antiquity […]

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August 1 – From impoverished Neapolitan nobility to Doctor of the Church

August 1, 2024

St. Alphonsus Liguori Born at Marianella, near Naples, 27 September, 1696; died at Nocera de’ Pagani, 1 August, 1787. The eighteenth century was not an age remarkable for depth of spiritual life, yet it produced three of the greatest missionaries of the Church, St. Leonard of Port Maurice, St. Paul of the Cross, and St. […]

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August 2 – Resisted the Emperor’s demand

August 1, 2024

Pope Severinus The date of his birth is not known. He was consecrated seemingly on 28 May, 640, and died 2 Aug., 640. Severinus, a Roman and the son of Abienus, was elected as usual on the third day after the death of his predecessor, and envoys were at once sent to Constantinople, to obtain […]

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August 2 – St. Pierre-Julien Eymard

August 1, 2024

Founder of the Society of the Blessed Sacrament, and of the Servants of the Blessed Sacrament, born at La Mure d’Isere, Diocese of Grenoble, France, February 4, 1811; died there August 1, 1868. From early childhood he gave evidence of great holiness and most tender devotion to the Blessed Sacrament. In 1829, he entered the […]

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August 3 – Secretive Leader

August 1, 2024

St. Nicodemus A prominent Jew of the time of Christ, mentioned only in the Fourth Gospel. The name is of Greek origin, but at that epoch such names were occasionally borrowed by the Jews, and according to Josephus (Ant. of the Jews, XIV, iii, 2) Nicodemus was the name of one of the ambassadors sent […]

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August 3 – The day the bishop cursed his country

August 1, 2024

On August 3, 1941, Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen informed his listeners in a third sermon about the continued desecration of Catholic churches, the closing of convents and monasteries, and the deportation and murder of mentally ill people (who were sent to undisclosed destinations), while a notice was sent to family members stating that […]

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August 4 – Carthusian Martyrs: The Lone Survivor

August 1, 2024

May 4 – First Group of Carthusian Martyrs June 19 – Second Group of Carthusian Martyrs May-June – Third and Fourth Groups August 4 – The Lone Survivor For some reason Brother William Horne was kept alive. Refusing to abandon his religious habit, he was not attainted till 1540, when he was hanged, disembowelled, and […]

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August 4 – St. Eleutherius

August 1, 2024

St. Eleutherius (Fr. Eleutière), Bishop of Tournai at the beginning of the sixth century. Historically there is very little known about St. Eleutherius, but he was without doubt the first Bishop of Tournai. Theodore, whom some give as his immediate predecessor, was either a bishop of Tours, whose name was placed by mistake on the […]

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Father Jean Le Vacher: Hero and Missionary, Blasted to Death by Muslims

July 29, 2024

In 1647, St. Vincent de Paul sent Father Jean Le Vacher to do missionary work among the Catholics enslaved by the Barbary Coast’s Muslim corsairs and he arrived in Tunis during an epidemic of the plague and did much to comfort the captives. Upon the death of the French consul, the Bey appointed Father Le […]

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Franciscan missionaries of Texas who paid the ultimate price

July 29, 2024

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

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July 30 – St. Peter Chrysologus

July 29, 2024

St. Peter Chrysologus Born at Imola, 406; died there, 450. His biography, first written by Agnellus (Liber pontificalis ecclesiae Ravennatis) in the ninth century, gives but scanty information about him. He was baptised, educated, and ordained deacon by Cornelius, Bishop of Imola, and was elevated to the Bishopric of Ravenna in 433. There are indications […]

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Our Lady of Deliverance, Empress of China

July 29, 2024

In 1900, the Catholic Church was healthy and growing in China. There were forty bishops, about 800 European missionaries, 600 native Chinese priests, and the number of native Catholics throughout the whole of China proper was estimated at 700,000. It was during this time that the Boxer Uprising (1898-1900) started which ushered in a period […]

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As Catholic Europe Abandons Pius IX, the Coeur d’Alènes Offer to Fight for Him

July 29, 2024

Learning in 1871 of the pope’s situation and that the Italian Government had seized Rome, the Coeur d’Alènes immediately addressed to Pius IX the assurance of their filial attachment: “Most merciful Father, it is not temerity, but love which moves us to write to you. We are, it is true, the most humble of all […]

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July 31 – Militant Means Something

July 29, 2024

St. Ignatius Loyola Youngest son of Don Beltrán Yañez de Oñez y Loyola and Marina Saenz de Lieona y Balda. Born in 1491 at the castle of Loyola above Azpeitia in Guipuscoa; died at Rome, 31 July, 1556. The saint was baptized Iñigo, after St. Enecus (Innicus), Abbot of Oña: the name Ignatius was assumed […]

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July 31 – St. Helen of Sköfde

July 29, 2024

Martyr in the first half of the twelfth century. Her feast is celebrated 31 July. Her life (Acta SS., July, VII, 340) is ascribed to St. Brynolph, Bishop of Skara, in Sweden (d. 1317). She was of noble family and is generally believed to have been the daughter of the Jarl Guthorm. When her husband […]

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Prince George prepares for ‘harsh’ royal rule as he turns 11

July 25, 2024

According to The News International: Prince George will be gearing up for an unbending royal rule in a year’s time as he turned 11 on Monday. The young prince, who is the second in line to the throne, will not be able to travel with his father Prince William… …royal author, Christopher Andersen [said] “Starting […]

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Following The Stars To Santiago

July 25, 2024

By Julian Martins In the eleventh century, a poor, tired, and thirsty pilgrim crossed one of the most difficult mountain passes in Navarre, Spain. He was headed for the faraway lands of Galicia, to the shrine of Saint James the Greater, where the remains of this great saint had been miraculously discovered two centuries earlier. […]

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The French Revolution pitted brother against brother

July 25, 2024

There lived at Nantes two brothers, of whom the revolution found one a fencing master, and the other a student in a seminary, destined for the ecclesiastical state. The former became a Jacobin, and the latter joined the flag of the insurrection in La Vendée. In one of the successful engagements of the Vendeans, the […]

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St. Apollinaris

July 25, 2024

The most illustrious of the Bishops of Valence, b. at Vienne, 453; d. 520. He lived in the time of the irruption of the barbarians, and unhappily Valence, which was the central see of the recently founded Kingdom of Burgundy, had been scandalized by the dissolute Bishop Maximus, and the see in consequence had been […]

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Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary Saves the Philippines from the Invading Dutch Fleet – Part 2

July 25, 2024

THE FIVE BATTLES Second Battle At the crack of dawn of July 25, the Encarnacíon and Rosario finally left the port of Ticao to confront the enemy fleet in the Embocadero. Finding the Dutch nowhere in sight, they immediately gave chase knowing that Manila lay defenseless. Finally on July 28, they caught up with the […]

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July 26 – St. Anne

July 25, 2024

Anne (Hebrew, Hannah, grace; also spelled Ann, Anne, Anna) is the traditional name of the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. All our information concerning the names and lives of Sts. Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary, is derived from apocryphal literature, the Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and […]

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St. Pantaleon

July 25, 2024

Martyr, died about 305. According to legend he was the son of a rich pagan, Eustorgius of Nicomedia, and had been instructed in Christianity by his Christian mother, Eubula. Afterwards he became estranged from Christianity. He studied medicine and became physician to the Emperor Maximianus. He was won back to Christianity by the priest Hermolaus. […]

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July 27 – Wanted: Noble Men for the Missions, Never to Return Home

July 25, 2024

Martyrs of Cuncolim On Monday, 25 July, 1583 (N.S.), the village of Cuncolim in the district of Salcete, territory of Goa, India, was the scene of the martyrdom of five religious of the Society of Jesus: Fathers Rudolph Acquaviva, Alphonsus Pacheco, Peter Berno, and Anthony Francis, also Francis Aranha, lay brother. Rudolph Acquaviva was born […]

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July 28 – St. Samson

July 25, 2024

Bishop and confessor, born in South Wales; died 28 July, 565 (?). The date of his birth is unknown. His parents whose names are given as Amon of Dyfed and Anna of Gwynedd, were of noble, but not royal, birth. While still an infant he was dedicated to God and entrusted to the care of […]

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Unconditionality in a Crusade

July 25, 2024

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira What is unconditionality when it comes to a Crusade? It consists in having clearly in mind that the Crusade had a supreme end because it aimed at the liberation of all those [Catholics] languishing under the domination of Mohammedan infidels, disturbed in their practice of the true Faith, marrying Muslims […]

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The Siege of Belgrade (1456)

July 22, 2024

The Siege of Belgrade (or Battle of Belgrade, or Siege of Nándorfehérvár) occurred from July 4 to July 22, 1456. After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II was rallying his resources in order to subjugate the Kingdom of Hungary. His immediate objective was the border fort of the town of […]

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St. Bridget of Sweden

July 22, 2024

The most celebrated saint of the Northern kingdoms, born about 1303; died 23 July, 1373. She was the daughter of Birger Persson, governor and provincial judge (Lagman) of Uppland, and of Ingeborg Bengtsdotter. Her father was one of the wealthiest landholders of the country, and, like her mother, distinguished by deep piety. St. Ingrid, whose […]

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July 24 – Chaste Queen

July 22, 2024

Saint Kinga of Poland (also known as Cunegunda, Kunigunda, Kunegunda, Cunegundes, Kioga, Zinga; Polish: Święta Kinga, Hungarian: Szent Kinga) Poor Clare and patroness of Poland and Lithuania; born in 1224; died 24 July, 1292, at Sandeck, Poland. She was the daughter of King Bela IV and niece of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, and from her […]

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Astonishing adult literacy rates in France before the 1789 French Revolution

July 22, 2024

From studying signatures of wills Daniel Roche has discovered astonishing figures of adult literacy in the capital at the end of the old regime [France, before the French Revolution of 1789]. In Montmartre, for example, where 40 percent of the testators belonged to the artisan or salaried classes, 74 percent of men and 64 percent […]

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Effects of the French Revolution on America

July 22, 2024

Throughout the colonial period of the three Americas, the respective mother countries were governed by a regime that, some differences aside, is known generically as the Old Regime. This was the system European countries implanted in their colonies. With the successive proclamations of independence by the American nations, this regime ceased to exist in the […]

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The Beauty of Life in Social Relationships

July 18, 2024

Written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Old magazines are often very charming. This is true even when what comes down to us are only loose undated pages that give us glimpses of the remote past. A Paris journal of the last century, L ‘Illustration, carried an article, “Customs of the Café Valois,” written by A. […]

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“Don’t drink water, drink beer” said the bishop

July 18, 2024

Saint Arnulf of Metz Statesman, bishop under the Merovingians, born c. 580; died c. 640. His parents belonged to a distinguished Frankish family, and lived in Austrasia, the eastern section of the kingdom founded by Clovis. In the school in which he was placed during his boyhood he excelled through his talent and his good […]

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