November 16 – St. Agnes of Assisi

November 14, 2022

St. Agnes of Assisi Younger sister of St. Clare and Abbess of the Poor Ladies, born at Assisi, 1197, or 1198; died 1253. She was the younger daughter of Count Favorino Scifi. Her saintly mother, Blessed Hortulana, belonged to the noble family of the Fiumi, and her cousin Rufino was one of the celebrated “Three […]

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November 17 – The Queen Gave Good Example Caring for the Sick and Suffering

November 14, 2022

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; died at Marburg, Hesse, 17 November (not 19 November), 1231. She was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-35) and his wife Gertrude, a member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran; Elizabeth’s brother succeeded […]

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November 17 – St. Hugh of Lincoln

November 14, 2022

St. Hugh of Lincoln Born about the year 1135 at the castle of Avalon, near Pontcharra, in Burgundy; died at London, 16 Nov., 1200. His father, William, Lord of Avalon, was sprung from one of the noblest of Burgundian houses; of his mother, Anna, very little is known. After his wife’s death, William retired from […]

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November 17 – Saint Gregory of Tours

November 14, 2022

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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November 17 – St. Hilda

November 14, 2022

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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November 17 – Mary Tudor

November 14, 2022

Mary Tudor Queen of England from 1553 to 1558; born 18 February, 1516; died 17 November, 1558. Mary was the daughter and only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Cardinal Wolsey was her godfather, and amongst her most intimate friends in early life were Cardinal Pole and his mother, the Countess of […]

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Some of Canada’s Best Families Descend From Quebec’s Early Coureurs des Bois

November 10, 2022

I have spoken of the colonists as living in a state of temporal and spiritual vassalage. To this there was one exception—a small class of men whose home was the forest, and their companions savages. They followed the Indians in their roamings, lived with them, grew familiar with their language, allied themselves with their women, […]

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Centralisation: A People vs. the Masses – End

November 10, 2022

Previous Pope Pius XII explained this situation very well in his famous Christmas Radio-Message of 1944: The state does not contain in itself and does not mechanically bring together in a given territory a shapeless mass of individuals. It is, and should in practice be, the organic and organising unity of a real people. The […]

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November 11 – Patron of Veterans and Soldiers

November 10, 2022

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 – Co-regent

November 10, 2022

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 – Fearless and Bold

November 10, 2022

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

November 10, 2022

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 – Four years in Stalin’s concentration camp

November 10, 2022

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 12 – Noble Ruthenian Stock

November 10, 2022

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 13 – Pure and noble, he received Holy Communion from the hands of angels

November 10, 2022

St. Stanislas Kostka Born at Rostkovo near Prasnysz, Poland, about 28 October, 1550; died at Rome during the night of 14-15 August, 1568. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, 28 October, 1567, and is said to have foretold his death a few days before it occurred. His father, John Kostka, was a senator […]

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November 13 – Grand Master of the Order of Christ

November 10, 2022

Prince Henry the Navigator Born 4 March, 1394; died 13 November, 1460; he was the fourth son of John I, King of Portugal, by Queen Philippa, a daughter of John of Gaunt. In 1415 he commanded the expedition which captured Ceuta, Portugal’s first oversea conquest, and there won his knightly spurs. Three years later he […]

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November 13 – He calmed the fear of the end of the world

November 10, 2022

St. Abbon (or Abbo), born near Orléans c. 945; died at Fleury, 13 November, 1004, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Fleury sur Loire (Fleuret), conspicuous both for learning and sanctity, and one of the great lights of the Church in the stormy times of Hugh Capet of France and of the three Ottos […]

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

November 10, 2022

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 10, 2022

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 14 – Saint Erconwald

November 10, 2022

Saint Erconwald Bishop of London, died. about 690. He belonged to the princely family of the East Anglian Offa, and devoted a considerable portion of his patrimony to founding two monasteries, one for monks at Chertsey, and the other for nuns at Barking in Essex. Over the latter he placed his sister, St. Ethelburga, as […]

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November 14 – St. Lawrence O’Toole

November 10, 2022

St. Lawrence O’Toole (Lorcan ua Tuathail; also spelled Laurence O’Toole) Confessor, born about 1128, in the present County Kildare; died 14 November, 1180, at Eu in Normandy; canonized in 1225 by Honorius III. His father was chief of Hy Murray, and his mother one of the Clan O’Byrne. At the age of ten he was […]

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November 14 – Charles Antoniewicz

November 10, 2022

(Botoz.) A Polish Jesuit and missionary, born in Lwów (Lemberg), 6 November 1807; died 14 November, 1852. He was the son of Joseph Antoniewicz, a nobleman and lawyer. His pious mother Josephine (Nikorowicz) attended to his early training on their estate at Skwarzawa, whither they moved in 1818. After the death of his father (1823), […]

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Gwynedd council calls for abolition of title Prince of Wales

November 7, 2022

According to The Guardian: A Welsh council has officially called for the title of Prince of Wales to be banned and said there should be no investiture of Prince William anywhere in the country. Members of the council, which is controlled by Plaid Cymru, also agreed that they believed an investiture should not take place […]

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November 8 – Four Crowned Martyrs

November 7, 2022

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, 2022

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 – He burned the pagan temple while out on bail

November 7, 2022

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 9 – Patrick’s psalm-singer

November 7, 2022

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 9 – Executed in Oxford, buried with the Templars

November 7, 2022

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

November 7, 2022

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 – St. Andrew Avellino

November 7, 2022

Born 1521 at Castronuovo, a small town in Sicily; died 10 November, 1608. His baptismal name was Lancelotto, which out of love for the cross he changed into Andrew when he entered the Order of Theatines. From his early youth he was a great lover of chastity. After receiving his elementary training in the school […]

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November 10 – Giuliano Cesarini

November 7, 2022

(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, 2022

(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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The Enemies of El Cid Poison King Alfonso VI of Castile Against Him Again

November 3, 2022

In the meanwhile, a Moor named Ali Abenaxa, who was a chief of those Almoravides, the moors who had recently come from North Africa, came with a great force of the Moors of Andalusia to besiege the Castle of Aledo. He did this, thinking that Alfonso would come against him with a small army and […]

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Centralisation: A People vs. the Masses – Continued

November 3, 2022

Previous More precisely, we have technocrats who leave their respective centres of life and go to the capitol to imbibe an artificial life. From there they direct the propaganda and obtain, through elections, the necessary mandate to implement whatever they want. In this way, the capitol, with its peculiar values, continues to direct society from […]

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November 8 – Saint Tysilio of Wales

November 3, 2022

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 4 – Fearless and Faithful, He Reformed the Church

November 3, 2022

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 4 – Her gentleness changed his heart

November 3, 2022

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 5 – Her name means “God is an oath”

November 3, 2022

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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November 6 – Duchess d’Alençon

November 3, 2022

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 3, 2022

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 3, 2022

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 3, 2022

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 – He Went on Crusade to Atone for His Sins

November 3, 2022

Saint Engelbert of Cologne Archbishop of that city (1216-1225); born at Berg, about 1185; died near Schwelm, 7 November 1225. His father was Engelbert, Count of Berg, his mother, Margaret, daughter of the Count of Gelderland. He studied at the cathedral school of Cologne and while still a boy was, according to an abuse of […]

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November 7 – Blessed Francis Palau y Quer

November 3, 2022

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 – Bl. Bernardine of Fossa

November 3, 2022

Bl. Bernardine of Fossa Of the Order of Friars Minor, historian and ascetical writer, b. at Fossa, in the Diocese of Aquila, Italy, in 1420; d. at Aquila, 27 November, 1503. Blessed Bernardine belonged to the ancient and noble family of the Amici, and sometimes bears the name of Aquilanus on account of his long […]

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November 7 – St. Willibrord and the Dancing Procession

November 3, 2022

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 1 – For saving her people, she was made their judge

October 31, 2022

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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November 1 – Warrior bishop

October 31, 2022

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 31, 2022

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

October 31, 2022

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 Institution Of All Souls’ Day

October 31, 2022

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 3 – Patron of hunting

October 31, 2022

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 3 – The Battle of Mentana

October 31, 2022

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 Buckingham

October 31, 2022

St. Rumwold of Buckingham His father was king of Northumberland, his mother a daughter of Penda, king of the Mercians. He was born at Sutthun, and baptized by Widerin, a bishop, the holy priest Eadwold being his godfather. He died very young on the 3rd of November and was buried in Sutthun by Eadwold. The […]

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The City of Montreal’s Noble Origin

October 27, 2022

In many of its aspects, this enterprise of Montreal belonged to the time of the first Crusades. The spirit of Godfrey de Bouillon lived again in [Paul de] Chomedey [Sieur] de Maisonneuve; and in Marguerite Bourgeoys was realized that fair ideal of Christian womanhood, a flower of Earth expanding in the rays of Heaven, which […]

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Centralisation: A People vs. the Masses

October 27, 2022

Previous CHAPTER 3 With the barbarian invasions, the population density of the cities diminished greatly and small towns became completely isolated. This isolated economy obliged them to become self-sufficient and take advantage of everything within their locality. It was direct subsistence without any external commerce. In these conditions, each small community developed a unique character […]

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October 28 – Saint, Soldier, Statesman

October 27, 2022

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 – Uncommon Valor

October 27, 2022

Col. John W. Ripley: Uncommon Valor 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 […]

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

October 27, 2022

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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October 29 – One of the Martyrs of Douai

October 27, 2022

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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