November 16 – St. Mechtilde

November 14, 2024

St. Mechtilde (MATILDA VON HACKEBORN-WIPPRA). Benedictine; born in 1240 or 1241 at the ancestral castle of Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony; died in the monastery of Helfta, 19 November, 1298. She belonged to one of the noblest and most powerful Thuringian families, while here sister was the saintly and illustrious Abbess Gertrude von Hackeborn. Some writers […]

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November 17 – Saint Gregory of Tours

November 14, 2024

Saint Gregory of Tours Born in 538 or 539 at Arverni, the modern Clermont-Ferrand; died at Tours, 17 Nov., in 593 or 594. He was descended from a distinguished Gallo-Roman family, and was closely related to the most illustrious houses of Gaul. He was originally called Georgius Florentius, but in memory of his maternal great-grandfather, […]

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St. Hilda

November 14, 2024

St. Hilda Abbess, born 614; died 680. Practically speaking, all our knowledge of St. Hilda is derived from the pages of Bede. She was the daughter of Hereric, the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria, and she seems like her great-uncle to have become a Christian through the preaching of St. Paulinus about the year […]

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H.I.R.H. Dom Antonio of Orleans-Braganza, Imperial Prince of Brazil (1950-2024)

November 11, 2024

Obituary H.I.R.H. DOM ANTONIO OF ORLEANS-BRAGANZA, IMPERIAL PRINCE OF BRAZIL (1950-2024) We fulfill the painful duty of announcing the death of His Imperial and Royal Highness the Prince Imperial of Brazil, Dom Antonio of Orleans and Braganza in Rio de Janeiro today, November 8, 2024, aged 74, comforted by the Sacraments of the Holy Church, […]

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November 11 – Patron of Veterans and Soldiers

November 11, 2024

St. Martin of Tours Bishop; born at Sabaria (today Steinamanger in German, or Szombathely in Hungarian), Pannonia (Hungary), about 316; died at Candes, Touraine, most probably in 397. In his early years, when his father, a military tribune, was transferred to Pavia in Italy, Martin accompanied him thither, and when he reached adolescence was, in […]

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

November 11, 2024

[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. But […]

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Although Equal by Nature, Men Should Not Occupy the Same Position in Social Life

November 11, 2024

From Benedict XV’s encyclical Ad beatissimi Apostolorum, of November 11, 1914: Face to face with those to whom either fortune or their own activity  has brought an abundance of wealth stand the proletaires and the workers, inflamed with hatred and jealousy because, although they share the same nature, they are not in the same condition. […]

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November 12 – Noble Ruthenian Stock

November 11, 2024

St. Josaphat Kuncevyc Martyr, born in the little town of Volodymyr in Lithuania (Volyn) in 1580 or — according to some writers — 1584; died at Vitebsk, Russia, 12 November, 1623. The saint’s birth occurred in a gloomy period for the Ruthenian Church. Even as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century the Florentine […]

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November 12 – Four years in Stalin’s concentration camp

November 11, 2024

Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church auxiliary bishop who suffered religious persecution and was martyred by the Soviet Government. Hryhorij Lakota was born 31 January 1893 in Holodivka, Lviv Oblast. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Przemyśl on 16 May 1926. On 9 June 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, as […]

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November 13 – One of the Great Popes of the Middle Ages

November 11, 2024

Pope St. Nicholas I Born at Rome, date unknown; died 13 November, 867; one of the great popes of the Middle Ages, who exerted decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe. He was of a distinguished family, being the son of the Defensor […]

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November 13 – Patroness of missionaries

November 11, 2024

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, M.S.C. Also called Mother Cabrini, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a religious institute which was a major support to the Italian immigrants to the United States. She was the first citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church. She was born in Sant’Angelo […]

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November 7 – Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

November 7, 2024

Born     December 29, 1811, in Aitona, Lleida, Spain Died     20 March 1872, in Tarragona, Spain Beatified     April 24, 1988 Feast     November 7 Discalced Carmelite Spanish priest. He founded “The School of the Virtue” — which was a model of catechetical teaching for adult persons—at Barcelona. In 1860-61, he also founded a […]

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November 8 – Four Crowned Martyrs

November 7, 2024

Four Crowned Martyrs The old guidebooks to the tombs of the Roman martyrs make mention, in connection with the catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus on the Via Labicana, of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quatuor Coronati), at whose grave the pilgrims were wont to worship (De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, 178-79). One of these itineraries, […]

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November 8 – Charlemagne sent him to his enemies

November 7, 2024

St. Willehad Bishop at Bremen, born in Northumberland before 745; died at Blecazze (Blexen) on the Weser, 8 Nov., 789. He was a friend of Alcuin, and probably received his education at York under St. Egbert. After his ordination, with the permission of King Alchred he was sent to Frisia between 765 and 774. He […]

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Commentaries on Charlemagne and St. Willehad of Bremen:

November 7, 2024

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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November 9 – He burned the pagan temple while out on bail

November 7, 2024

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

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November 10 – Giuliano Cesarini

November 7, 2024

(Also known as CARDINAL JULIAN) Born at Rome, 1398; died at Varna, in Bulgaria 10 November, 1444. He was one of the group of brilliant cardinals created by Martin V on the conclusion of the Western Schism, and is described by Bossuet as the strongest bulwark that the Catholics could oppose to the Greeks in […]

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November 10 – Pope Paul III

November 7, 2024

(ALESSANDRO FARNESE). Born at Rome or Canino, 29 Feb., 1468; elected, 12 Oct., 1534; died at Rome, 10 Nov., 1549. The Farnese were an ancient Roman family whose possessions clustered about the Lake at Bolsena. Although counted among the Roman aristocrats, they first appear in history associated with Viterbo and Orvieto. Among the witnesses to […]

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November 4 – Her gentleness changed his heart

November 4, 2024

Bl. Frances d’Amboise Duchess of Brittany, afterwards Carmelite nun, born 1427; died at Nantes, 4 Nov., 1485. The daughter of Louis d’Amboise, Viscount de Thouars, she was betrothed when only four years old, to Peter, second son of John V, Duke of Brittany, the marriage being solemnized when she had reached the age of fifteen. […]

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November 4 – Fearless and Faithful, He Reformed the Church

November 4, 2024

St. Charles Borromeo Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal-Priest of the Title of St. Prassede, Papal Secretary of State under Pius IV, and one of the chief factors in the Catholic Counter-Reformation , was born in the Castle of Arona, a town on the southern shore of the Lago Maggiore in northern Italy, 2 October, 1538; died […]

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November 5 – Her name means “God is an oath”

November 4, 2024

St. Elizabeth (God is an oath—Ex., vi, 23) Zachary’s wife and John the Baptist’s mother, was “of the daughters of Aaron” (Luke, i, 5), and, at the same time, Mary’s kinswoman (Luke, i, 36), although what their actual relationship was, is unknown. St. Hippolytus (in Niceph. Call., Hist. Eccles., II, iii) explains that Sobe and […]

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Letter of the Venerable Pierre Toussaint to William Schuyler*

November 4, 2024

New York, November 5, 1823 SIR, I have received your charming letter which has truly afforded me the greatest pleasure in the world and I see well that you are a young man of word. Yes, my dear sir, I believe I am the happiest of all mortals when I receive letters from Madame la […]

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November 6 – Duchess d’Alençon

November 4, 2024

Blessed Margaret of Lorraine Duchess d’Alencon, religious of the order of Poor Clares, born in 1463 at the castle of Vaudémont (Lorraine); died at Argentan (Brittany) 2 November, 1521. The daughter of Ferri de Vaudimont and of Yolande d’Anjou, little Margaret became an orphan at an early age and was brought up at Aix-en-Provençe, by […]

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November 6 – We know nothing about him, except his miracles

November 4, 2024

St. Leonard of Limousin Nothing absolutely certain is known of his history, as his earliest “Life”, written in the eleventh century, has no historical value whatever. According to this extraordinary legend, Leonard belonged to a noble Frankish family of the time of King Clovis, and St. Remy of Reims was his godfather. After having secured […]

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October 31 – He forced the devil to build a church

October 31, 2024

St. Wolfgang Bishop of Ratisbon (972-994), born about 934; died at the village of Pupping in upper Austria, 31 October, 994. The name Wolfgang is of early German origin. St. Wolfgang was one of the three brilliant stars of the tenth century, St. Ulrich, St. Conrad, and St. Wolfgang, which illuminated the early medieval period […]

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

October 31, 2024

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

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November 1 – Warrior bishop

October 31, 2024

St. Genesius (of Lyons) (Or GENESTUS.) Thirty-seventh Archbishop of Lyons, d. 679. Feast, 1 November. He was a native of France, not of Arabia or Armenia as is sometimes stated and became a religious and abbot (not of Fontenelle, but) attached to the court and camp of Clovis II where he acted as chief almoner […]

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For saving her people, she was made their judge

October 31, 2024

Deborah the Prophetess (also known as Debbora the Judge, Deborah the Matriarch) Prophetess and judge: she was the wife of Lapidoth and was endowed by God with prophetic gifts which secured for her the veneration of the divided Israelitic tribes and gave her great authority over them. Her wisdom was first displayed in settling litigious […]

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All Saints’ Day: How many saints were noble?

October 31, 2024

All Saints’ Day: Is Being Noble and Leading a Noble’s Life Incompatible with Sanctity? by Plinio Correa de Oliveira The current misunderstanding of nobility and the analogous traditional elites results largely from the adroit but biased propaganda spread against them by the French Revolution. Such propaganda, continuously disseminated throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by […]

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The Institution Of All Souls’ Day

October 31, 2024

It was St. Odilo of Cluny who first appointed one day every year to be set aside in a special manner for prayer for the faithful departed. It happened that a certain religious belonging to France was returning home from Palestine, where he had gone to visit the places consecrated by the foot steps of […]

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November 2 – His mother celebrated his death as if it were a wedding

October 31, 2024

Blessed John Bodey Martyr, born at Wells, Somerset: 1549; died at Andover, Wilts., 2 November, 1583. He studied at Winchester and New College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow in 1568. In June, 1576, he was deprived, with seven other Fellows, by the Visitor, Horne, Protestant Bishop of Winchester. Next year he went to […]

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The Crusades – Part IX

October 31, 2024

I. Origin of the Crusades; II. Foundation of Christian states in the East; III. First destruction of the Christian states (1144-87); IV. Attempts to restore the Christian states and the crusade against Saint-Jean d’Acre (1192-98); V. The crusade against Constantinople (1204); VI. The thirteenth-century crusades (1217-52); VII. Final loss of the Christian colonies of the […]

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October 28 – Saint, Soldier, Statesman

October 28, 2024

Saint Alfred the Great In this incomparable prince were united the saint, the soldier, and the statesman in a most eminent degree. Sir Henry Spelman (Conc. Brit.) gives us his character in a rapture. “O, Alfred,” says he, “the wonder and astonishment of all ages! If we reflect on his piety and religion, it would […]

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Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor

October 28, 2024

By Jeremias Wells When a society no longer respects and honors the fighting men willing to shed their blood for its principles, the fault lies not with the fighting men but with society itself. Ingratitude is a subtle vice, but a vice nevertheless. Saint Thomas Aquinas says that a debt of gratitude is a moral […]

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October 29 – One of the Martyrs of Douai

October 28, 2024

Blessed Edward Waterson Born at London; martyred at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 7 January 1594 (1593 old style). A romantic episode marks this martyr’s early career, for as a young man he travelled to Turkey with some English merchants, and attracted the attention of a wealthy Turk, who offered him his daughter in marriage if he would embrace […]

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October 30 – St. Marcellus the Centurion, Martyr

October 28, 2024

The birthday of the emperor Maximian Herculeus was celebrated in the year 298, with extraordinary feasting and solemnity. Pompous sacrifices to the Roman gods made a considerable part of this solemnity. Marcellus, a Christian centurion or captain of the legion of Trajan, then posted in Spain, not to defile himself with taking part in those […]

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Baroness Herbert of Lea: a convert to the Catholic Faith

October 28, 2024

Mary Elizabeth Ashe à Court-Repington was born in Richmond, Surrey, on July 21, 1822. She was the only daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles Ashe à Court-Repington, member of Parliament, and the niece of William à Court, 1st Baron Heytesbury, British Ambassador to the Russian Imperial Court at St. Petersburg. In August 1846, at the age of […]

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What Is the Fire of Chivalry?

October 28, 2024

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira It is to have the resolution of soul to wage any battle, at any cost, in any way, facing every sacrifice, to attain the victory of Our Lady over the devil. Now, we cannot say that this spirit is as pure and unstained in us as what I am describing, […]

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How Saint Anthony Mary Claret Engaged the Culture of His Times

October 24, 2024

by Plinio Maria Solimeo October 23, 2024 How Saint Anthony Mary Claret Engaged the Culture of His Times The history of nineteenth-century Spain cannot be understood without studying the life of this great Catholic missionary.  Saint Anthony Mary Claret was one of the great pillars of the Holy Catholic Church in the nineteenth century. When […]

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October 24 – Confessor to the Queen

October 24, 2024

St. Antonio María Claret y Clará Spanish prelate and missionary, born at Sallent, near Barcelona, 23 Dec., 1807; died at Fontfroide, Narbonne, France, on 24 Oct., 1870. Son of a small woollen manufacturer, he received an elementary education in his native village, and at the age of twelve became a weaver. A little later he […]

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Maria Feodorovna, Tsarina of all the Russias, Patron of the Impoverished Nobility

October 24, 2024

Maria Feodorovna, Tsarina of all the Russias, was born princess of Württemberg on October 25, 1758. She was the second wife of Tsar Paul I, who fought against Napoleon Bonaparte, when the latter began to expand the egalitarian tenets of the French Revolution militarily to the rest of Europe. Among her numerous accomplishments, Tsarina Maria […]

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October 25 – St. Cuthbert Mayne

October 24, 2024

St. Cuthbert Mayne Martyr, born at Yorkston, near Barnstaple, Devonshire (baptized 20 March, 1543-4); died at Launceston, Cornwall, 29 Nov., 1577. He was the son of William Mayne; his uncle was a schismatical priest, who had him educated at Barnstaple Grammar School, and he was ordained a Protestant minister at the age of eighteen or […]

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The Hummingbird

October 24, 2024

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira  October 26, 1980 Once as I was sitting in the small porch of a farmhouse, a hummingbird suddenly stopped in the air and began sucking nectar from the flowers of climbing ivy. He ‘kissed’ each flower in turn. The hummingbird’s flight was similar to an arrow’s trajectory — so inflexible […]

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The Necessary Spirit of the Crusader

October 24, 2024

In general, medieval men understood the role of fortitude in maintaining their Christian culture. They had no illusions about their own weaknesses and vices. They understood the need to confront the disorders and evils that will always plague this vale of tears. Calling upon God, the faithful in varying degrees summoned from themselves the strength […]

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Bl. Celina Chludzińska v. Borzęcka

October 24, 2024

 (1833-1913) Foundress of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Resurrection Celine Chludzinska Borzecka was born on 29 October 1833 in Antowil, Orsza (formerly Polish territory, today Belarus), to Ignatius and Petronella Chludzinski, whose families were wealthy landowners. One of three children, she grew up in an environment of sound Catholic and patriotic traditions, and […]

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October 27 – Apostle of Africa

October 24, 2024

Sts. Edesius and Frumentius Tyrian Greeks of the fourth century, probably brothers, who introduced Christianity into Abyssinia; the latter a saint and first Bishop of Axum, styled the Apostle of Abyssinia, d. about 383. When still mere boys they accompanied their uncle Metropius on a voyage to Abyssinia. When their ship stopped at one of […]

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The Tale of Saint Ursula

October 21, 2024

Once upon a time, there was once a just and most Christian King of Britain, called Maurus. To him and to his wife Daria was born a little girl, the fairest creature that this earth ever saw. She came into the world wrapped in a hairy mantle, and all men wondered greatly what this might […]

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Blessed Karl, Emperor of Austria

October 21, 2024

(Also known as Carlo d’Austria, Charles of Austria) Born August 17, 1887, in the Castle of Persenbeug in the region of Lower Austria, his parents were the Archduke Otto and Princess Maria Josephine of Saxony, daughter of the last King of Saxony. Emperor Francis Joseph I was Charles’ Great Uncle. Charles was given an expressly […]

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Hammer of Muslim invaders

October 21, 2024

Charles Martel Born about 688; died at Quierzy on the Oise, 21 October, 741. He was the natural son of Pepin of Herstal and a woman named Alpaïde or Chalpaïde. Pepin, who died in 714, had outlived his two legitimate sons, Drogon and Grimoald, and to Theodoald, a son of the latter and then only […]

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October 22 – St. Wendelin of Trier

October 21, 2024

St. Wendelin of Trier Born about 554; died probably in 617. His earliest biographies, two in Latin and two in German, did not appear until after 1417. Their narrative is the following: Wendelin was the son of a Scottish king; after a piously spent youth he secretly left his home on a pilgrimage to Rome. […]

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Abbé Edgeworth: King Louis’ Irish Confessor

October 21, 2024

by Rev. George W. Rutler Among the singularities of the French monarchy was the tradition of having Scottish bodyguards. Scottish history has not been riddled with pacifism, and the Scots along with the fiery Castilians, were used as mercenaries as early as Charlemagne. An “Auld Alliance” between Scotland and France was sealed in 1295, and in […]

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October 23 – Made eunuch because he was prince

October 21, 2024

St. Ignatius of Constantinople Born about 799; died 23 October, 877; son of Emperor Michael I and Procopia. His name, originally Nicetas, was changed at the age of fourteen to Ignatius. Leo the Armenian having deposed the Emperor Michael (813), made Ignatius a eunuch and incarcerated him in a monastery, that he might not become […]

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Knight, Lawyer, Governor, Ambassador, Friar, Prisoner, Reformer, Crusader General, Renaissance Saint

October 21, 2024

St. John of Capistrano Born at Capistrano, in the Diocese of Sulmona, Italy, 1385; died 23 October, 1456. His father had come to Naples in the train of Louis of Anjou, hence is supposed to have been of French blood, though some say he was of German origin. His father dying early, John owed his […]

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Australia does not want to become republic under King Charles, poll suggests

October 17, 2024

Source: Reuters Australia does not want to become a republic under the King, a new poll has suggested. The survey found that one in four respondents had a more favourable view of the monarch now than they did before he was crowned in 2023. Of the 1,049 Australians who responded to the survey by NewsCorp’s […]

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The Battle of Cholet

October 17, 2024

The Battle of Cholet was fought on 17 October 1793 during the French Revolutionary Wars, between French Republican forces under General Léchelle and French Royalist Forces under Louis d’Elbée. The battle was fought in the town of Cholet in the Maine-et-Loire department of France, and resulted in a Republican victory. D’Elbée was wounded and captured; […]

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Be Faithful to Your Duty and Fight, But Never Surrender the City

October 17, 2024

The victory of the Carizmians delivered up the greater part of Palestine to the most redoubtable enemies of the Christian colonies. The Egyptians took possession of Jerusalem, Tiberias, and the cities ceded to the Franks by the prince of Damascus. The hordes of Carismia ravaged all the banks of the Jordan, with the territories of […]

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A Lesson From A French Revolution Martyrdom: Combating Evil Is an Obligation of Every True Catholic

October 17, 2024

September (aka September Massacres; On October 17, 1926, Pope Pius XI beatified 191 of them.) By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira … This is also the feast of the 191 priests martyred on this day in 1792 by the French revolutionaries for refusing to swear the so-called Civil Constitution of the Clergy. The Civil Constitution of […]

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Colonel José de Escandón is ennobled for establishing settlers in South Texas

October 17, 2024

[D]on José [de Escandón] lost little time in acting but did not sacrifice effectiveness to haste. Working with his lieutenants to conduct a publicity campaign along the frontier, he and his officers had little difficulty recruiting potential settlers….Among those recruited as settlers in the new province were ranchers who already owned large herds of livestock […]

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Amidst the Revolution, the women of Paris acclaim Marie Antoinette as their Queen

October 17, 2024

The Queen had sent for me on the morning of the 6th of October, to leave me and my father-in-law in charge of her most valuable property. She took away only her casket of diamonds. Comte Gouvernet de la Tour-du-Pin, to whom the military government of Versailles was entrusted “pro tempore,” came and gave orders […]

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The day that sparked the Crusades

October 17, 2024

Destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre On October 18, 1009, under Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, orders for the complete destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, also called the Church of the Resurrection, were carried out. The measures against the church were part of a more general campaign against Christian places […]

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