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

April 25, 2024

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 […]

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MacArthur warns Congress of military defeat’s dire consequences for America

April 25, 2024

General MacArthur, sitting before the Committee of Military Affairs in the House of Representatives, on April 26, 1933, spoke in firm tones… If ever there were more prophetic words, they are not recorded in history…. “There is nothing more expensive than an insufficient army. To build an army to be defeated by some other fellow’s […]

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April 26 – His ears were nailed to the pillory

April 25, 2024

Venerable Edward Morgan Welsh priest, martyr, b. at Bettisfield, Hanmer, Flintshire, executed at Tyburn, London, 26 April, 1642. His father’s Christian name was William. Of his mother we know nothing except that one of her kindred was Lieutenant of the Tower of London. From the fact that the martyr was known at St. Omer as […]

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April 27 – His artillery instructions saved Goa

April 25, 2024

Giacomo Rho Missionary, born at Milan, 1593; died at Peking 27 April, 1638. He was the son of a noble and learned jurist, and at the age of twenty entered the Society of Jesus. While poor success attended his early studies, he was later very proficient in mathematics. After his ordination at Rome by Cardinal […]

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April 27 – Jesuit missionary in Scotland in the time of the persecutions

April 25, 2024

Robert Abercromby Sometimes known as Sanders and as Robertson, a Jesuit missionary in Scotland in the time of the persecutions, born 1532; died at Braunsberg, in Prussia, 27 April, 1613. He was brought into prominence chiefly by the fact that he converted the Queen of James I of England, when that monarch was as yet […]

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April 27- Abused by her noble patrons, she remained a model of harmony

April 25, 2024

St. Zita Model and heavenly patroness of domestic servants, born early in the thirteenth century of a poor family at Montsegradi, a little village near Lucca, in Tuscany; died at Lucca, 27 April, 1271. A naturally happy disposition and the teaching of a virtuous mother, aided by Divine grace, developed in the child’s soul that […]

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How many were lost to birth control?

April 25, 2024

Ann Clare Boothe was born on April 10, 1903, in a dismal apartment house on Riverside Drive in New York City…. Clare herself once succinctly pictured her unpropitious prospects as a baby. Shortly after her conversion to Catholicism, she was attacked by an ardent disciple of Mrs. Sanger for the Catholic stand against birth control. […]

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April 28 – Saint Egbert

April 25, 2024

Saint Egbert Northumbrian monk, born of noble parentage c. 639; d. 729. In his youth he went for the sake of study to Ireland, to a monastery, says the Venerable Bede, “called Rathmelsigi”, identified by some with Mellifont in what is now County Louth. There, when in danger of death from pestilence, he prayed for […]

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Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

April 22, 2024

Pedralvarez Cabral (Pedro Alvarez.) A celebrated Portugese navigator, generally called the discoverer of Brazil, born probably around 1460; date of death uncertain. Very little is known concerning the life of Cabral. He was the third son of Fernao Cabral, Governor of Beira and Belmonte, and Isabel de Gouvea, and married Isabel de Castro, the daughter […]

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St. Adalbert of Bohemia

April 22, 2024

Born 939 of a noble Bohemian family; died 997. He assumed the name of the Archbishop Adalbert (his name had been Wojtech), under whom he studied at Magdeburg. He became Bishop of Prague, whence he was obliged to flee on account of the enmity he had aroused by his efforts to reform the clergy of […]

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April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 22, 2024

St. George Martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Diospolis, in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. According to the very careful investigation of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, in the light of modern sources of information, the above statement sums up all that […]

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The Blessed Sacrament and the Apostolate in the Modern World

April 22, 2024

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Conference on April 23th 1955 (*) Defining concepts:  “world” and “modern” The theme I was asked to speak about —“The Blessed Sacrament and the Apostolate in the Modern World”— is rich in ideas. It contains four concepts, each of them important, but very unequal in precision and clarity. For if […]

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April 24 – Gregory Bæticus

April 22, 2024

Gregory Bæticus, Bishop of Elvira, in the province of Baetica, Spain, from which he derived his surname; d. about 392. Gregory is first met with as Bishop of Elvira (Illiberis) in 375; he is mentioned in the luciferian “Libellus precum ad Imperatores” (Migne, P.L., XIII, 89 sq.) as the defender of Nicean creed, after Bishop […]

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Battle of Mühlberg

April 22, 2024

The Battle of Mühlberg took place near Mühlberg in the Electorate of Saxony in 1547, during the Schmalkaldic War. The Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V decisively defeated the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes under the command of Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and […]

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James Beaton

April 22, 2024

James Beaton (Or Bethune) Archbishop of Glasgow, b. 1517; d. 24 April, 1603; the son of James Beaton of Balfarg (a younger son of John Beaton of Balfour) and nephew to Cardinal David Beaton. He was elected to the archbishopric in 1551, on the resignation of the archbishop-elect Andrew Gordon, and not being yet in […]

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Fifth Horizon

April 18, 2024

In this painting, Goya personifies Panic in the legendary, somewhat mythological figure seen in the background. The personification of abstract concepts has a lot to do with the material that begins at this point. F. Goya, Panic, Prado Museum, Madrid. Figures in a transisphere 1 The Princess of Metternich, the Austrian ambassador to Napolean III, […]

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St. Willigis

April 18, 2024

St. Willigis Archbishop of Mainz, d. 23 Feb., 1011. Feast, 23 February or 18 April. Though of humble birth he received a good education, and through the influence of Bishop Volkold of Meissen entered the service of Otto I, and after 971 figured as chancellor of Germany. Otto II in 975 made him Archbishop of […]

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

April 18, 2024

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 […]

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April 19 – Hostage of the Danes

April 18, 2024

St. Alphege (or Elphege), Saint, born 954; died 1012; also called Godwine, martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, left his widowed mother and patrimony for the monastery of Deerhurst (Gloucestershire). After some years as an anchorite at Bath, he there became abbot, and (19 Oct., 984) was made Bishop of Winchester. In 994 Elphege administered confirmation to […]

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April 19 – Blessed Conrad of Ascoli

April 18, 2024

Friar Minor and missionary, born at Ascoli in the March of Ancona in 1234; died there, 19 April, 1289. He belonged to the noble family of Milliano and from his earliest years made penance the predominating element of his life. He entered the Order of Friars Minor at Ascoli together with his townsman and lifelong […]

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“I beg your Lordship…that my lips and…fingers may be cut off…”

April 18, 2024

Blessed Fr. James Bell Priest and martyr, b. at Warrington in Lancashire, England, probably about 1520; d. 20 April, 1584. For the little known of him we depend on the account published four years after his death by Bridgewater in his “Concertatio” (1588), and derived from a manuscript which was kept at Douay when Challoner […]

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April 21 – Jean Racine

April 18, 2024

Jean Racine Dramatist, b. a La Ferté-Milon, in the old Duchy of Valois, 20 Dec., 1639; d. in Paris, 21 April, 1699. Left an orphan at a very early age, his relatives sent him to the College of Beauvais, which was intimately connected with Port Royal, whither he went in 1655. Here, though only sixteen […]

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Pioneer missionary of Kentucky

April 18, 2024

Stephen Theodore Badin The first Catholic priest ordained within the limits of the original thirteen States of the Union, pioneer missionary of Kentucky, b. at Orléans, France, 17 July, 1768; d. at Cincinnati, Ohio, 21 April, 1853. Educated at Montaigu College, Paris, he entered the Sulpician Seminary of his native city in 1789. He was […]

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April 15 – The Notkers of St. Gall

April 15, 2024

Notker.—Among the various monks of St. Gall who bore this name, the following are the most important: (1) Notker Balbulus (Stammerer), Blessed, monk and author, b. about 840, at Jonswil, canton of St. Gall (Switzerland); d. 912. Of a distinguished family, he received his education with Tuotilo, originator of tropes, at St. Gall’s, from Iso […]

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April 16 – Martyred in the name of Equality

April 15, 2024

Just a few of the many martyrs during the French Revolution († 1792-1799) 16 April 1794 in Avrillé, Maine-et-Loire (France) Pierre Delépine layperson of the diocese of Angers born: 24 May 1732 in Marigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Jean Ménard layperson of the diocese of Angers; married born: 16 November 1736 in Andigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Renée Bourgeais […]

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One of the many nobles who spread the Cluny reform

April 15, 2024

St. Robert Founder of the Abbey of Chaise-Dieu in Auvergne, born at Aurilac, Auvergne, about 1000; died in Auvergne, 1067. On his father’s side he belonged to the family of the Counts of Aurilac, who had given birth to St. Géraud. He studied at Brioude near the basilica of St-Julien, in a school open to […]

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April 17 – St. Stephen Harding

April 15, 2024

St. Stephen Harding Confessor, the third Abbot of Cîteaux, was born at Sherborne in Dorsetshire, England, about the middle of the eleventh century; died 28 March, 1134. He received his early education in the monastery of Sherborne and afterwards studied in Paris and Rome. On returning from the latter city he stopped at the monastery […]

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How a duke rescued his country out from crushing debt despite incessant war

April 15, 2024

Maximilian I Duke of Bavaria, 1598-1622, Elector of Bavaria and Lord High Steward of the Holy Roman Empire, 1623-1651; born at Munich, 17 April, 1573; died at Ingolstadt, 27 September, 1651. The lasting services he rendered his country and the Catholic Church justly entitle him to the surname of “Great”. He was the son of […]

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American Hero of the Seal of Confession

April 11, 2024

Antony Kohlmann Educator and missionary, b. 13 July, 1771, at Kaiserberg, Alsace; d. at Rome, 11 April, 1836. He is to be ranked among the lights of the restored Society of Jesus, and among its most distinguished members in America, where he spent nearly a quarter of a century of his laborious life. At an […]

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April 11 – “The sorest and dangerousest papist”

April 11, 2024

Sampson Erdeswicke Antiquarian, date of birth unknown; d. 1603. He was born at Sandon in Staffordshire, his father, Hugh Erdeswicke, being descended from Richard de Vernon, Baron of Shipbrook, in the reign of William the Conqueror. The family resided originally at Erdeswicke Hall, in Cheshire, afterwards at Leighton and finally in the reign of Edward […]

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His donations helped build the first California missions

April 11, 2024

Juan Caballero y Ocio Born at Querétaro, Mexico, 4 May, 1644; died there 11 April, 1707. A priest remarkable for lavish gifts to the Church and for charity. While still a layman he was a mayor of his native city. After taking Holy Orders he held several high offices. He gave large sums of money […]

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April 12 – Crusader in every sense of the word

April 11, 2024

Bl. Angelo Carletti di Chivasso Moral theologian of the order of Friars Minor; born at Chivasso in Piedmont, in 1411; and died at Coni, in Piedmont, in 1495. From his tenderest years the Blessed Angelo was remarkable for the holiness and purity of his life. He attended the University of Bologna, where he received the […]

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April 13 – Two English Martyrs

April 11, 2024

Blessed John Lockwood Priest and martyr, born about 1555; died at York, 13 April, 1642. He was the eldest son of Christopher Lockwood, of Sowerby, Yorkshire, by Clare, eldest daughter of Christopher Lascelles, of Sowerby and Brackenborough Castle, Yorkshire. With the second son, Francis, he arrived at Reims on 4 November, 1579, and was at […]

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April 13 – Paulus Diaconus

April 11, 2024

Paulus Diaconus (also called Casinensis, Levita, and Warnefridi). Historian, born at Friuli about 720; died 13 April, probably 799. He was a descendant of a noble Lombard family, and it is not unlikely that he was educated at the craft of King Rachis at Pavia, under the direction of Flavianus the grammarian. In 763 we […]

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April 13 – Henry James Coleridge

April 11, 2024

Henry James Coleridge A writer and preacher, b. 20 September 1822, in Devonshire, England; d. at Roehampton, 13 April 1893. He was the son of Sir John Taylor Coleridge, a Judge of the King’s Bench, and brother of John Duke, Lord Coleridge, Chief Justice of England. His grandfather, Captain James Coleridge, was brother to Samuel […]

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Apostle of the Detroit Hurons

April 11, 2024

Jean Baptiste Marchand Second principal in order of succession of the Sulpician College of Montreal and missionary of the Detroit Hurons at Sandwich, Ont.; b. at Verchères, Que., 25 Feb. 1760, son of Louis Marchand and Marguerite de Niverville; d. at Sandwich, 14 Apr., 1825. Marchand was ordained 11 March, 1786, affiliated to the Sulpician […]

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Titanic: Looking back

April 11, 2024

Three priests gave spiritual comfort to the anxious and doomed on April 14, 1912 A century now has passed since the British luxury liner, S. S. Titanic, sank in mid-Atlantic after striking an iceberg on April 14, 1912. Other sea disasters have cost more lives, but none has retained the popular interest as much as the […]

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The Annunciation: He is King by right, and also by conquest

April 8, 2024

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira We will comment on this passage taken from Saint Luke: “And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was […]

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The Annunciation: “Of His Kingdom, there shall be no end.”

April 8, 2024

The Annunciation, by Father Thomas de Saint-Laurent Out of love for us, the Eternal Word was made flesh in the chaste womb of Mary. His plan was marvelously arranged. From all eternity, He chose a man after His heart who would be the virginal spouse of His divine Mother, His adopted father on earth, and […]

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April 8 – Don Bosco’s Prince; nobility of blood joins nobility of spirit

April 8, 2024

Augusto Czartoryski was born on 2 August 1858 in Paris, France, the firstborn son to Prince Ladislaus of Poland and Princess Maria Amparo, daughter of the Queen of Spain. The noble Czartoryski Family had been living in exile in France for almost 30 years, in the Lambert Palace. Here, with the hope of restoring unity […]

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Mary of Cleophas

April 8, 2024

Mary of Cleophas This title occurs only in John, xix, 25. A comparison of the lists of those who stood at the foot of the cross would seem to identify her with Mary, the mother of James the Less and Joseph ( Mark, xv, 40; cf. Matt., xxvii, 56). Some have indeed tried to identify […]

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Pope Gregory XIII

April 8, 2024

Pope Gregory XIII (UGO BUONCOMPAGNI). Born at Bologna, 7 Jan., 1502; died at Rome, 10 April, 1585. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Bologna, from which he was graduated at an early age as doctor of canon and of civil law. Later, he taught jurisprudence at the same university, and had among his pupils […]

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Justice: A Forgotten Virtue

April 4, 2024

Forgotten Truths From The Life of Saint Catherine of Sienna By Blessed Raymond of Capua The following fact will show the extent of her patience. It will redound to the shame of a few religious, but it is better to publish it than to be silent concerning the gifts that the Holy Ghost lavished on […]

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April 4 – Patron Saint of Transitions

April 4, 2024

St. Isidore of Seville Born at Cartagena, Spain, about 560; died 4 April, 636. Isidore was the son of Severianus and Theodora. His elder brother Leander was his immediate predecessor in the Metropolitan See of Seville; whilst a younger brother St. Fulgentius presided over the Bishopric of Astigi. His sister Florentina was a nun, and […]

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April 5 – Soul on Fire

April 4, 2024

St. Vincent Ferrer Famous Dominican missionary, born at Valencia, 23 January, 1350; died at Vannes, Brittany, 5 April, 1419. He was descended from the younger of two brothers who were knighted for their valor in the conquest of Valencia, 1238. In 1340 Vincent’s father, William Ferrer, married Constantia Miguel, whose family had likewise been ennobled […]

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April 5 – St. Ruadhan

April 4, 2024

St. Ruadhan One of the twelve “Apostles of Erin”; died at the monastery of Lorrha, County Tipperary, Ireland, 5 April, 584. Ruadhan studied under Saint Finian of Clonard. His embassy to King Dermot at Tara, in 556, is worked into a romance known as the “Cursing of Tara”, but the ardri continued to reside at […]

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Richard I, King Of England

April 4, 2024

Born at Oxford, 6 Sept, 1157; died at Chaluz, France, 6 April, 1199; was known to the minstrels of a later age, rather than to his contemporaries, as “Coeur-de-Lion”. He was only the second son of Henry II, but it was part of his father’s policy, holding, as he did, continental dominions of great extent […]

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April 6 – Albrecht Dürer

April 4, 2024

Albrecht Dürer Celebrated painter and engraver, born at Nuremberg, Germany, 21 May, 1471; died there, 6 April, 1528. Dürer left his native city, then famous for its commerce, learning, and art, but three times in his life. His first journey was undertaken after he had completed his apprenticeships both to his father, a goldsmith, and […]

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April 6 – Son of the great Hunyady

April 4, 2024

Matthias Corvinus King of Hungary, son of Janos Hunyady and Elizabeth Szilagyi of Horogssey, was born at Kolozsvar 23 Feb., 1440; d. at Vienna, 6 April, 1490. In the house of his father he received along with his brother Ladislaus, a careful education under the supervision of Gregor Sanocki, who taught him the humanities. Johann […]

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April 6 – The “Soul of St. Thomas”

April 4, 2024

John Capreolus A theologian, born towards the end of the fourteenth century, (about 1380), in the diocese of Rodez, France; died in that city 6 April, 1444. He has been called the “Prince of Thomists”, but only scanty details of his personal history are known. He was a Dominican affiliated to the province of Toulouse, […]

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April 7 – St. Brenach

April 4, 2024

An Irish missionary in Wales, a contemporary of St. Patrick, and among the earliest of the Irish saints who laboured among the Celts of that country. About the year 418 he travelled to Rome and Brittany, and thence to Milford Haven. He erected various oratories near the rivers Cleddau, Gwain, and Caman, and at the […]

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April 7 – Brilliant Polemist

April 4, 2024

Louis Veuillot Journalist and writer, b. at Boynes, Loiret, 11 Oct., 1813; d. in Paris, 7 April, 1883. He was the son of a poor cooper and at the age of thirteen was obliged to leave the primary schools and earn his living, obtaining a modest position with a Paris attorney, the brother of the […]

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April 1 – Precursor of Our Lady of Fatima

April 1, 2024

St. Nuno De Santa Maria Álvares Pereira (1360-1431) NUNO ÁLVARES PEREIRA was born in Portugal on 24th June 1360, most probably at Cernache do Bomjardin, illegitimate son of Brother Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, Hospitalier Knight of St. John of Jerusalem and prior of Crato and Donna Iria Gonçalves do Carvalhal. About a year after his birth, […]

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April 1 – Blessed Karl, Emperor of Austria

April 1, 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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April 2 – St. Francis of Paola and the Bartlett Pear

April 1, 2024

The Bartlett pear is called “The Good Christian” in France, after St. Francis of Paola introduced it ‘poire bon chretien’ (good Christian pear) “Said to have originated in Calabria in southern Italy, Bartletts probably were introduced to France by St. Francis of Paola. St. Francis brought a young tree as a gift for King Louis […]

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April 3 – English Catholic exile

April 1, 2024

John Martiall (or MARSHALL) Born in Worcestershire 1534, died at Lille, 3 April, 1597. He was one of the six companions associated with Dr. Allen in the foundation of the English College at Douai in 1568. He received his education at Winchester (1545-49) and New College, Oxford (1549-56), at which latter place, after a residence […]

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April 3 – How the Holy Cross converted a prostitute

April 1, 2024

St. Mary of Egypt Born probably about 344; died about 421. At the early age of twelve Mary left her home and came to Alexandria, where for upwards of seventeen years she led a life of public prostitution. At the end of that time, on the occasion of a pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Feast […]

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April 3 – Last survivor of the ancient hierarchy of England

April 1, 2024

Thomas Goldwell Bishop of St. Asaph, the last survivor of the ancient hierarchy of England; b. probably at the family manor of Goldwell, in the parish of Great Chart, near Ashford, Kent, between 1501 and 1515; d. in Rome, 3 April, 1585. He was a member of a Kentish family of ancient lineage, long seated […]

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Lenten Meditation: Sweet Cross of Jesus and My Cross

March 28, 2024

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The Gospels show us with great clarity how much our Divine Savior in His mercy pities our pains of body and soul.  We need only to recall the awesome miracles He performed in His omnipotence in order to mitigate these pains. But let us never make the mistake of imagining […]

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On Holy Thursday, King Saint Ferdinand washes the feet of twelve poor men

March 28, 2024

Lent passed, and Holy Week came. That year, the love of Christ inflamed the holy King’s heart more than ever. At times he would spend the whole night in contemplation of the sorrows that Our Lord suffered to redeem us; he slept so little that his nobles, worried, reached the point of telling him that […]

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