November 16 – St. Margaret of Scotland: In the Middle Ages, the Marvelous Was Something Achievable

November 13, 2025

Saint Margaret of Scotland   Commentaries made by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira … Sovereign and patroness of Scotland, 11th century. Although it is a very good intention to comment on the life of St. Margaret, at times one does not have the slightest biographical data on a saint. For lack of a better biography, […]

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November 16 – Commissioned to preach the Sixth Crusade

November 13, 2025

St. Edmund Rich Archbishop of Canterbury, England, born 20 November, c. 1180, at Abingdon, six miles from Oxford; died 16 November, 1240, at Soissy, France. His early chronology is somewhat uncertain. His parents, Reinald (Reginald) and Mabel Rich, were remarkable for piety. It is said that his mother constantly wore hair-cloth, and attended almost every […]

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November 10 – Who Was the First Pope to Be Called “Great,” and Why?

November 10, 2025

Pope St. Leo I (the Great) Place and date of birth unknown; died 10 November, 461. (Reigned 440-61). Leo’s pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening […]

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November 10 – Giuliano Cesarini

November 10, 2025

(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 11 – Patron of Veterans and Soldiers

November 10, 2025

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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November 12 – Constable of France: he fought his entire life and died in battle at age 74

November 10, 2025

Anne de Montmorency had proven many times before that his race does not degenerate and the brave blood of an illustrious line of ancestors flowed in his veins. Imperious, severe, of a stern mood, he had undeniable bravery and strict fidelity to his duty. Although success had not always been on a par with his […]

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November 12 – Kidnapped, sold as a slave, ransomed by a bishop, and confidante of the emperor

November 10, 2025

St. Nilus (Neilos) Nilus the elder, of Sinai (died circa 430), was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. We know him first as a layman, married, with two sons. At this time he was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, and is said to have been one of […]

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November 12 – Fearless and Bold

November 10, 2025

St. Lebwin (LEBUINUS or LIAFWIN). Apostle of the Frisians and patron of Deventer, born in England of Anglo-Saxon parents at an unknown date; died at Deventer, Holland, about 770. Educated in a monastery and fired by the example of St. Boniface, St. Willibrord, and other great English missionaries, Lebwin resolved to dovote his life to […]

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November 12 – Co-regent

November 10, 2025

Saint Cunibert (also Cunipert, or Kunibert) (c. 600 – 12 November c. 663) was the ninth Bishop of Cologne from 627 to his death. Contemporary sources only mention him between 627 and 643. Cunibert (also spelled ‘Honoberht’) was born somewhere along the Moselle to a family of the local Ripuarian Frankish aristocracy. He entered the church […]

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November 12 – Four years in Stalin’s concentration camp

November 10, 2025

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 6 – We know nothing about him, except his miracles

November 6, 2025

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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November 6 – St. Winnoc

November 6, 2025

St. Winnoc Abbot or Prior or Wormhoult, died 716 or 717. Three lives of this saint are extant: the best of these, the first life, was written by a monk of St. Bertin in the middle of the ninth century, or perhaps a century earlier. St. Winnoc is generally called a Breton, but the Bollandist […]

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November 7 – Martyred in Mecca

November 6, 2025

Saint Ernest of Mecca Abbot of the abbey of Zwiefalten Died     1148 AD in Mecca Feast     November 7 Saint Ernest (died 1148) was the abbot of the Benedictine Zwiefalten Abbey at Zwiefalten, Germany during the 12th century. He participated in the Second Crusade fought by Christians between 1145 and 1149 to regain the […]

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November 7 – Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

November 6, 2025

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 7 – St. Willibrord and the Dancing Procession

November 6, 2025

St. Willibrord Bishop of Utrecht, Apostle of the Frisians, and son of St. Hilgis, born in Northumbria, 658; died at Echternach, Luxemburg, 7 Nov., 739. Willibrord made his early studies at the Abbey of Ripon near York, as a disciple of St. Wilfrid, and then entered the Benedictine Order. When twenty years old he went […]

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November 8 – Saint Tysilio of Wales

November 6, 2025

Saint Tysilio (died 640) was a Welsh bishop, prince and scholar, son of the reigning King of Powys, Brochwel Ysgithrog, maternal nephew of the great Abbot Dunod of Bangor Iscoed and an ecclesiastic who took a prominent part in the affairs of Wales during the distressful period at the opening of the 7th century. Prince […]

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November 8 – Charlemagne sent him to his enemies

November 6, 2025

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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November 9 – Executed in Oxford, buried with the Templars

November 6, 2025

Ven. George Napper (Or Napier). English martyr, born at Holywell manor, Oxford, 1550; executed at Oxford 9 November, 1610. He was a son of Edward Napper (d. in 1558), sometime Fellow of All Souls College, by Anne, his second wife, daughter of John Peto, of Chesterton, Warwickshire, and niece of William, Cardinal Peto. He entered […]

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November 9 – Patrick’s psalm-singer

November 6, 2025

St. Benignus Date of birth unknown; died 467, son of Sesenen, an Irish chieftain in that part of Ireland which is now County Meath. He was baptized by St. Patrick, and became his favorite disciple and his coadjutor in the See of Armagh (450). His gentle and lovable disposition suggested the name Benen, which has […]

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November 3 – The Battle of Mentana

November 3, 2025

It was a dark and gloomy morning, pouring rain, when this little army of some five thousand men filed out of the Porta Pia in a colorful parade, Pius IX’s Swiss General Rafael de Courten’s papal troops leading and the French contingent bringing up the rear…. Famous since classical times as a suburban retreat some […]

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November 3 – Patron of hunting

November 3, 2025

St. Hubert Confessor, thirty-first Bishop of Maastricht, first Bishop of Liège, and Apostle of the Ardennes, born about 656; died at Fura (the modern Tervueren), Brabant, 30 May, 727 or 728. He was honored in the Middle Ages as the patron of huntsmen, and the healer of hydrophobia (rabies). He was the eldest son of […]

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November 4 – Her gentleness changed his heart

November 3, 2025

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 3, 2025

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 3, 2025

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

November 3, 2025

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 30 – Patroness of the Teutonic Knights

October 30, 2025

St. Dorothea of Montau, recluse, born at Montau, 6 February, 1347, died at Marienwerder, 25 June, 1394. At the age of seventeen she married the sword-cutler Albrecht of Danzig, a hot-tempered man, whose nature underwent a change through her humility and gentleness. Both made frequent pilgrimages to Cologne, Aachen, and Einsiedeln, and they intended (1390) […]

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What Is the Fire of Chivalry?

October 30, 2025

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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October 31 – He forced the devil to build a church

October 30, 2025

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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Chivalry and Love Of The Fight

October 30, 2025

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira What is this spirit of chivalry? It is to admire and love the fight. It is to have a fearless spirit so that when we find ourselves in the apex of effort and complication, we feel fulfilled. In other words, the knight was above all a Catholic who was profoundly […]

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November 1 – Warrior bishop

October 30, 2025

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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All Saints’ Day: How many saints were noble?

October 30, 2025

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 30, 2025

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 30, 2025

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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October 27 – Apostle of Africa

October 27, 2025

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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October 27 – The Christian King Who Invaded Arabia

October 27, 2025

St. Elesbaan, King of Ethiopia, Confessor The Axumite Ethiopians, whose dominions were extended from the western coast of the Red Sea, very far on the continent, were in the sixth century a powerful and flourishing nation. St. Elesbaan their king, during the reign of Justin the Elder, in all his actions and designs had no […]

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October 28 – Saint, Soldier, Statesman

October 27, 2025

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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October 28 – Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor

October 27, 2025

Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor By Jeremias Wells An American Knight 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 […]

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October 29 – One of the Martyrs of Douai

October 27, 2025

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 29 – King turned monk, his people begged him to lead them in battle against Penda

October 27, 2025

Saint Sigebert King and martyr, date of birth unknown; died about 637, was the stepbrother of Earpwald, king of the East Angles. During the reign of Redwald he lived an exile in Gaul where he received baptism and became an ardent Christian. Earpwald died about 627, and East Anglia seems to have relapsed into anarchy […]

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How a son of the Crusades faces death: “It is our trade”

October 27, 2025

Chasseurs d’Afrique The next day was the feast of All Saints; and while at breakfast with his officers, M. de Montalembert was seized with cholera. The dismay was great; but both officers fell in the arms of God. Colonel de Montalembert¹, like his brother, was a true son of the Crusades. On the 29th, feeling […]

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Temporar Mutantur . . .

October 23, 2025

by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira A magnificent hall with imposing dimension, pictures, mirrors, draperies and a costly and truly distinctive décor. The way the people are positioned lends a great solemnity to this gathering. And what is it? A diplomatic congress of international importance? An assembly of the council of some monarchy? A session […]

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October 23 – The amazing story of San Juan Capistrano and the Siege of Belgrade

October 23, 2025

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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October 23 – Gentle Birth, But Not Gentle Death

October 23, 2025

Blessed Thomas Thwing Martyr. Born at Heworth Hall, near York, in 1635; suffered at York, 23 Oct., 1680. His father was George Thwing, Esq., of Kilton Castle and Heworth, nephew of Venerable Edward Thwing; his mother was Anne, sister of the venerable confessor Sir Thomas Gasciogne, of Barnbrow Hall. Educated at Douai, he was sent […]

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October 24 – Confessor to the Queen

October 23, 2025

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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October 25 – St. Cuthbert Mayne

October 23, 2025

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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October 25 – Crispin and Crispian and the baron of Renty

October 23, 2025

Martyrs of the Early Church who were beheaded during the reign of Diocletian; the date of their execution is given as 25 October, 285 or 286. It is stated that they were brothers, but the fact has not been positively proved. The legend relates that they were Romans of distinguished descent who went as missionaries […]

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October 26 – Their black magic could not withstand the sign of the cross

October 23, 2025

Sts. Lucian and Marcian Lucian and Marcian living in the darkness of idolatry applied themselves to the vain study of the black art; but were converted to the faith by finding their charms lose their power upon a Christian virgin, and the evil spirits defeated by the sign of the cross. Their eyes being thus […]

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October 26 – Laid to rest next to St. Peter

October 23, 2025

Pope Saint Evaristus Date of birth unknown; died about 107. In the Liberian Catalogue his name is given as Aristus. In papal catalogues of the second century used by Irenaeus and Hippolytus, he appears as the fourth successor of St. Peter, immediately after St. Clement. The same lists allow him eight years of reign, covering […]

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October 26 – Bl. Celina Chludzińska v. Borzęcka

October 23, 2025

(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 20 – Emperor Marcian

October 20, 2025

Marcian (Marcianus, Μαρκιᾶνος), Roman Emperor at Constantinople, born in Thrace about 390; died January, 457. He became a soldier; during his early life he was poor, and it is said that he arrived at Constantinople with only two hundred pieces of gold, which he had borrowed. He served in the army under Ardaburius the Alan […]

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October 21 – Hammer of Muslim invaders

October 20, 2025

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 21 – Blessed Karl, Emperor of Austria

October 20, 2025

(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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October 21 – The Tale of Saint Ursula

October 20, 2025

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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October 22 – St. Wendelin of Trier

October 20, 2025

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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October 16 – Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and Capetian Widow

October 16, 2025

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira Most Reverend Monsignor Director of this Academy, Gentlemen Academicians: A simple listing of the titles with which she was known during her short life as Marie Antoinette of Habsburg, and later Marie Antoinette of Bourbon, brings to memory the series of extraordinary and unforeseen events that together make up the […]

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October 16 – St. Bercharius

October 16, 2025

St. Bercharius (BERERUS). Abbot of Hautvillers in Champagne, b. 636; d. 28 March, 696. Descended from a distinguished Aquitanian family, he received his instruction from St. Nivard (Nivo), Archbishop of Reims, under whose charge he advaneed rapidly in virtue and learning. Believing himself called to the sacred ministry, he entered the monastery of Luxeuil under […]

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October 16 – Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus

October 16, 2025

St. Margaret Mary Alacoque Religious of the Visitation Order. Apostle of the Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, born at Lhautecour, France, 22 July, 1647; died at Paray-le-Monial, 17 October, 1690. Her parents, Claude Alacoque and Philiberte Lamyn, were distinguished less for temporal possessions than for their virtue, which gave them an honourable position. […]

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

October 16, 2025

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

October 16, 2025

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

October 16, 2025

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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