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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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, […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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, […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

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 […]

Read the full article →

Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria-Hungary, washes the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday

March 28, 2024

In 1850, Franz Joseph participated…as emperor in the second of the traditional Habsburg expressions of dynastic piety: the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony, part of the four-day court observance of Easter. The master of the staff and the court prelates chose twelve poor elderly men, transported them to the Hofburg, and positioned them in the ceremonial […]

Read the full article →

Queen Mary washes the feet of the poor on Maundy Thursday

March 28, 2024

… and on Holy Thursday, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, the most Serene Queen performed the ceremony of feet-washing, thus – Her Majesty being accompanied by the Right Reverend Legate and by the Council, entered a large hall, at the head of which was my Lord Bishop of Ely as Dean (come Decano) of […]

Read the full article →

For Contrast: Two Royal Attitudes to Washing the Feet of the Poor

March 28, 2024

In February, he returned to Castile, arriving in time to observe Holy Week at San Lorenzo, and to wash the feet of the poor on Holy Thursday “with his usual great tenderness and humility.” On Good Friday he adored the wood of the True Cross and pardoned several men who had been condemned to death, […]

Read the full article →

Queen Mary Welcomes the Sick on Good Friday

March 28, 2024

On [Good] Friday morning the offertory was performed according to custom in the Church of the Franciscan Friars, which is contiguous to the palace. After the Passion, the Queen came down from her oratory for the adoration of the Cross, accompanied by my lord the right reverend Legate, and kneeling at a short distance from […]

Read the full article →

The Crown of Thorns, in Paris

March 28, 2024

Baldwin the Second, Emperor of Constantinople, having come to France to solicit the king’s aid against the Greeks, who were besieging that imperial city, thought he would gain the heart of King Louis by making him a present of the Holy Crown of Thorns. He was not mistaken: the king assisted with money and troops, […]

Read the full article →

Easter in Imperial Russia: the Royal Doors

March 28, 2024

The time to arrive was about 11:30 p.m., when the great church, packed to its doors by a vast throng, was wrapped in almost total darkness…. As the eyes grew accustomed to the shadows, tens of thousands of unlighted candles, outlining the arches, cornices, and other architectural features of the cathedral, were just visible. These […]

Read the full article →

A king, a queen, and England’s Easter dilemma

March 28, 2024

When Finan died, leaving Bishop Coman—like himself, Irish by birth and a monk of Iona—as his successor at Lindisfarne, the dispute became at once open and general. Wilfrid had succeeded in sowing agitation and uncertainty in all minds; and the Northumbrians had come so far as to ask themselves whether the religion which had been […]

Read the full article →

King Stanislaus and Lent

March 25, 2024

King Stanislaus of Poland was a faithful observer of the ancient discipline of the Church; he made but one meal in Lent, not even allowing himself the collation; moreover, on Fridays he denied himself the use of fish and eggs. From his dinner on Holy Thursday, till the following Saturday, at noon, he denied himself […]

Read the full article →

The Little Barrel

March 25, 2024

(from an old French medieval tale) Between Normandy and Brittany, next to the sea, in times of old there used to be a castle so strong and so well defended that it feared no king, prince or duke of any sort. The lord that possessed it was of great stature, beautiful bearing, rich and high […]

Read the full article →

Love and Fear in Christian Piety

March 25, 2024

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira According to Church teaching, love and fear of God are virtues. Since neither antagonism nor contradiction can exist among the virtues, love does not exclude fear and fear does not exclude love. Furthermore, both of these virtues are essential for salvation. If we cannot envision a saint without love of […]

Read the full article →

Hope of a Hopeless World

March 25, 2024

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira                                       Legionário, N.º 410, 21 de julho de 1940 (*)   If there is an age whose sole hope lies in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it is our own. The evils committed by mankind today can scarcely be exaggerated. To mention just a few, these include blasphemy, the destruction of […]

Read the full article →

Part 1 – Contemplating Christ in the Perfection of His Person

March 25, 2024

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira “If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?” (John 4:20). I dare say that most of us have meditated, though no doubt insufficiently, on […]

Read the full article →

Part 2 – Contemplating Christ in the Perfection of His Person

March 25, 2024

Part 1 by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Man of Sorrows Just as a fruit exudes its sweetest nectar and displays its most beautiful color when it is ripe, so does Our Lord express His full grandeur in suffering. In suffering, we see human misery most clearly. Crushed by suffering, man groans, moans, cries, flees, weeps, […]

Read the full article →

Royals commemorate Korean War veterans

March 21, 2024

According to Royal Central: Princess Anne ended the speech by telling the veterans that it is a duty to always remember the ‘Forgotten War’, and that “We salute all those who remain among us, and offer our most heartfelt and undying gratitude for those who have gone before. Your service and your sacrifice will echo […]

Read the full article →

Our Lady is the flower and pearl of Creation

March 21, 2024

She is a mother defined by a single word, the sea (o mar), which in its turn gives origin to a name. A name that in itself is a paradise: Maria. Our Lady could very well be referred to as the Mater Inimaginabilis (the Unfathomable Mother). The incommensurable ocean of perfections and graces within Her […]

Read the full article →

March 21-22 – James Harrison

March 21, 2024

James Harrison Priest and martyr; born in the Diocese of Lichfield, England, date unknown; died at York, 22 March, 1602. He studied at the English College at Reims, and was ordained there in September, 1583. In the following year he went on the English mission, where he laboured unobtrusively. In the early part of 1602 […]

Read the full article →

He stared Hitler in the face and didn’t blink

March 21, 2024

Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen “Lion of Münster” Born     March 16, 1878 Dinklage Castle, Dinklage, Grand Duchy of Oldenburg, German Confederation Died     March 22, 1946 (aged 68) Münster, Province of Westphalia, Germany Beatified     9 October 2005 by Pope Benedict XVI Feast     22 March The Blessed Clemens August Graf von Galen […]

Read the full article →

March 23 – They sought the honour of his company

March 21, 2024

Claude Bernard A French ecclesiastic known as “the poor priest” (le pauvre prêtre), b. at Dijon 23 December, 1588; d. in Paris, 23 March, 1641. His father was a distinguished lawyer, and filled successively offices of honour and responsibility. Young Bernard was educated at the Jesuit College of Dole and was remarked for his brilliant […]

Read the full article →

Jacques-Charles de Brisacier

March 21, 2024

Jacques-Charles de Brisacier Orator and ecclesiastical writer, b. at Bourges in 1641, d. at Paris, 23 March, 1736. At the age of twenty-five he entered the Society of the Foreign Missions at Paris, and devoted seventy years of his life to this great work. The scion of a rich and distinguished family, son of the […]

Read the full article →

March 23 – Edmund Sykes

March 21, 2024

Edmund Sykes, born at Leeds; martyred at York Tyburn 23 March, 1586-7; was a student at the College at Reims where he was ordained 21 Feb., 1581, and sent to the English Mission on 5 June following. He laboured in his native Yorkshire with such zeal and sacrifice, that his strength failed. Arthur Webster, an […]

Read the full article →

Saint Edward the Martyr

March 18, 2024

Saint Edward the Martyr King of England, son to Edgar the Peaceful, and uncle to St. Edward the Confessor; born about 962; died March 18, 979. His accession to the throne on his father’s death, in 975, was opposed by a party headed by his stepmother, Queen Elfrida, who was bent on securing the crown […]

Read the full article →

Saint Joseph, Martyr of Grandeur – March 19

March 18, 2024

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira To have an idea of what Saint Joseph—the Patron of the Church—was like, we must consider two prodigious facts: he was the foster father of the Child Jesus and he was the spouse of Our Lady. The husband must be proportional to the wife. Now who is Our Lady? She […]

Read the full article →

March 19 – Jesus, Mary and Joseph Were Born of Royal Stock

March 18, 2024

From a sermon of Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) about Saint Joseph: Firstly, let us consider the nobility of the bride, that is, the Most Holy Virgin. The Blessed Virgin was more noble than any other creature that had been born in human form, that could be or could have been begotten. For Saint Matthew […]

Read the full article →

Recipe for St. Joseph’s Day

March 18, 2024

  Reprinted with permission from, Cooking With The Saints  by Ernst Schuegraf.  

Read the full article →

St. Joseph

March 18, 2024

Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and foster-father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. LIFE Sources. The chief sources of information on the life of St. Joseph are the first chapters of our first and third Gospels; they are practically also the only reliable sources, for, whilst, on the holy patriarch’s life, as on many other […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →