August 29 – The Passion of St. John the Baptist

August 25, 2022

Part of the Baptist’s ministry was exercised in Perea: Ennon, another scene of his labours, was within the borders of Galilee; both Perea and Galilee made up the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. This prince, a son worthy of his father Herod the Great, had married, likely for political reasons, the daughter of Aretas, king of […]

Read the full article →

August 29 – At the helm during the French Revolution

August 25, 2022

Pope Pius VI (GIOVANNI ANGELICO BRASCHI). Born at Cesena, 27 December, 1717; elected 15 February, 1775; died at Valence, France, 29 Aug., 1799. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and was educated at the Jesuit College of Cesena and studied law at Ferrara. After a diplomatic mission to Naples, he was appointed papal […]

Read the full article →

August 29 – Converted by her slave

August 25, 2022

St. Sabina Widow of Valentinus and daughter of Herod Metallarius, suffered martyrdom about 126. According to the Acts of the martyrdom, which however have no historic value, she lived at Rome and was converted to Christianity by her female slave Serapia. Serapia was put to death for her faith and later, in the same year, […]

Read the full article →

August 29 – King and Confessor

August 25, 2022

St. Sebbi, or Sebba This prince was the son of Seward, and in the year 664, which was remarkable for a grievous pestilence, began to reign over the East Saxons, who inhabited the country which, now comprises Essex, Middlesex, and the greater part of Hertfordshire; he being the tenth king from Erkinwin, founder of that […]

Read the full article →

Australian senator: Pledge to ‘colonizing’ Queen Elizabeth II

August 22, 2022

According to the Washington Post: A newly elected Australian senator clenched a fist held high at her swearing-in ceremony, as she slowly pledged: “I, sovereign Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely affirm and declare that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.” The word “colonizing” […]

Read the full article →

August 23: He brought peace to Italy’s war-torn city-states in the Middle Ages

August 22, 2022

St. Philip Benizi Propagator and fifth General of the Servite Order, born at Florence, Italy, August 15, 1233; died at Todi, in Umbria, August 23, 1285. His parents were scions of the renowned Benizi and Frescobaldi families. After many years of married life had left them childless, Philip was granted to them in answer to […]

Read the full article →

August 23 – St. Rose of Lima

August 22, 2022

St. Rose of Lima Virgin, patroness of America, born at Lima, Peru 20 April, 1586; died there 30 August, 1617. Saint Rose was born Isabel Flores y de Oliva in the city of Lima, the Viceroyalty of Peru, then part of New Spain. She was one of the many children of Gaspar Flores, a harquebusier […]

Read the full article →

August 23 – Cardinal-General

August 22, 2022

Alvarez Carillo Gil de Albornoz A renowned cardinal, general, and statesman; born about 1310 at Cuenca in New Castile; died 23 Aug., 1367, at the Castle of Bonriposo, near Viterbo, in Italy. His father, Don Garcia, was a descendant of King Alfonso V of Leon, and his mother, Teresa de Luna, belonged to the royal […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – Chancellor of the court

August 22, 2022

St. Ouen (OWEN; DADON, Latin Audaenus). Archbishop of Rouen, b. at Sancy, near Soissons about 609; d. at Clichy-la-Garenne, near Paris, 24 Aug., 683. His father, Autharius, and his mother, Aiga, belonged to the Gallo-Roman race. Shortly after Ouen’s birth they came to Ussy-sur-Marne, where he spent his childhood, with which tradition connects a series […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – Saint Bartholomew’s Day: the real story

August 22, 2022

Saint Bartholomew’s Day This massacre of which Protestants were the victims occurred in Paris on 24 August, 1572 (the feast of St. Bartholomew), and in the provinces of France during the ensuing weeks, and it has been the subject of knotty historical disputes. The first point argued was whether or not the massacre had been […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – St. Emilie De Vialar

August 22, 2022

Every child comes into the world with the message that God still loves the world. Emilie De Vialar, Saint and Foundress, was born on September 12, 1797 in a family of noble descent. Her father, Antoine Auguste Jacques, was the son of a renowned High Court Judge. Her mother, Antoinette Emilie de Portal, was the […]

Read the full article →

August 24 – St. María Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament

August 22, 2022

Micaela Desmaisières López de Dicastillo was born in 1809 in Madrid during the War of Independence to Miguel Desmaisières Flores and Bernarda López de Dicastillo Olmeda; her brother was Diego (1806-55). Her father was a high-ranking officer in the armed forces and her mother was an attendant to Queen Maria Luisa de Parma. Her mother […]

Read the full article →

August 25 – King, Crusader, Saint

August 22, 2022

Saint Louis IX King of France, son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, born at Poissy, 25 April, 1215; died near Tunis, 25 August, 1270. He was eleven years of age when the death of Louis VIII made him king, and nineteen when he married Marguerite of Provence by whom he had eleven children. […]

Read the full article →

August 25 – How do you portray a saint?

August 22, 2022

August 25 is the feast of Saint Louis IX, king, confessor of the Faith, Crusader and model of a Catholic head of state. There are two different ways people picture Saint Louis IX. One is as he truly was, the other is a soft, effeminate distortion of his person. This dichotomy is similar to the […]

Read the full article →

August 25 – He opened the first public free school in Europe

August 22, 2022

St. Joseph Calasanctius (Calasanz) Called in religion “a Matre Dei”, founder of the Piarists, born 11 Sept., 1556, at the castle of Calasanza near Petralta de la Sal in Aragon; died 25 Aug., 1648, at Rome; feast 27 Aug. His parents, Don Pedro Calasanza and Donna Maria Gastonia, gave Joseph, the youngest of five children, […]

Read the full article →

Madame de la Peltrie Abandons la Douce France to Labor for the Eternal Salvation of Quebec’s Indians

August 18, 2022

In 1637, a year before the building of Harvard College, the Jesuits began a wooden structure in the rear of the fort [at Quebec]; and here, within one enclosure, was the Huron seminary and the college for French boys. Meanwhile the female children of both races [French and Indian] were without instructors; but a remedy […]

Read the full article →

The Christian Institution of the Family: Introduction

August 18, 2022

Previous The scope of the debate on the family today is usually limited to what type of family group brings greater happiness to both the spouses and the children. This can be said of both those defending the traditional family and of those defending new varieties, or even in the case of divorce. This preponderantly […]

Read the full article →

August 19 – The prince who was made bishop at age 22

August 18, 2022

St. Louis of Toulouse Bishop of Toulouse, generally represented vested in pontifical garments and holding a book and a crosier, b. at Brignoles, Provence, Feb., 1274; d. there, 19 Aug., 1297. He was the second son of Charles II of Anjou, called the Lame, King of Naples (1288- 1309), and nephew of St. Louis IX […]

Read the full article →

August 19 – St. John Eudes

August 18, 2022

French missionary and founder of the Eudists and of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity; author of the liturgical worship of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; born at Ri, France, 14 Nov., 1601; died at Caen, 19 Aug., 1680. He was a brother of the French historian, François Eudes de Nézeray. At […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – St. Oswin, King

August 18, 2022

St. Oswin King and martyr, murdered at Gilling, near Richmond, Yorkshire, England, on 20 August, 651, son of Osric, King of Deira in Britain. On the murder of his father by Cadwalla in 634, Oswin still quite young was carried away for safety into Wessex, but returned on the death of his kinsman St. Oswald, […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – Saint Philibert of Jumièges and Recipes for Hazelnuts Named in His Honor

August 18, 2022

Saint Philibert of Jumièges (c. 608–684) was the only son of a Frankish noble, a courtier of Dagobert I. He was educated at court by Saint Ouen and entered monastic life at Rebais and was elected abbot at the age of 20. In 654, St. Philibert received a gift of land from Clovis II on […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – The Knights Templar owe him

August 18, 2022

St. Bernard of Clairvaux Born in 1090, at Fontaines, near Dijon, France; died at Clairvaux, 21 August, 1153. His parents were Tescelin, lord of Fontaines, and Aleth of Montbard, both belonging to the highest nobility of Burgundy. Bernard, the third of a family of seven children, six of whom were sons, was educated with particular […]

Read the full article →

August 20 – Maria De Mattias

August 18, 2022

(1805 – 1866) Maria De Mattias was born on 4 February 1805 at Vallecorsa, the southernmost town of the Papal States, in the geographical province of Frosinone,. Her family was not without wealth and learning—even if women were forbidden to study—nor did it lack a deep Christian faith. Through dialog with her father, Maria learned […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – What Saint Pius X says about equality

August 18, 2022

In the motu proprio Fin dalla prima, of December 18, 1903, Saint Pius X summarizes the doctrine of Leo XIII on social inequalities: 1. Human society, as God established it, is composed of unequal elements, just as the members of the human body are unequal. To make them all equal would be impossible, and would […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – He was one of a network of aristocrat bishops

August 18, 2022

Saint Sidonius Apollinaris Gaius Sollius (Modestus) Apollinaris Sidonius or Saint Sidonius Apollinaris (November 5[1] of an unknown year, perhaps 430 – August, 489) was a poet, diplomat, and bishop. Sidonius is “the single most important surviving author from fifth-century Gaul” according to Eric Goldberg.[2] He was one of four fifth-to sixth-century Gallo-Roman aristocrats whose letters […]

Read the full article →

August 21 – La Vallete

August 18, 2022

Jean Parisot de La Valette Forty-eighth Grand Master of the Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem; born in 1494; died in Malta, 21 Aug., 1568. He came from an old family of Southern France, several members of which had been capitouls (chief magistrates) in Toulouse. When still young he entered the Order […]

Read the full article →

August 22 – The Queenship of Mary

August 18, 2022

Pope Pius XII in the Papal Encyclical Ad Coeli Reginam proposed the traditional doctrine on the Queenship of Mary and established this feast for the Universal Church. Pope Pius IX said of Mary’s Queenship: “Turning her maternal Heart toward us and dealing with the affair of our salvation, she is concerned with the whole human […]

Read the full article →

August 22 – Blessed John Wall

August 18, 2022

Blessed John Wall Martyr, born in Lancashire, 1620; suffered near Worcester, 22 August, 1679; known at Douay and Rome as John Marsh, and when on the Mission under the aliases of Francis Johnson, Webb, and Dormore. The son of wealthy and staunch Lancashire Catholics, he was sent when very young to Douai College. He entered […]

Read the full article →

August 22 – The pope who preached a Crusade against the German Emperor Frederick II

August 18, 2022

Pope Gregory IX (UGOLINO, Count of Segni). Born about 1145, at Anagni in the Campagna; died 22 August, 1241, at Rome. He received his education at the Universities of Paris and Bologna. After the accession of Innocent III to the papal throne, Ugolino, who was a nephew of Innocent III, was successively appointed papal chaplain, […]

Read the full article →

August 16 – Did he inspire the tales of King Arthur?

August 15, 2022

Saint Armel (Welsh: Arthfael, lit. “Bear-Prince”; Latin: Armagilus) He was an early 6th-century holy man in Brittany. Armel is said to have been a Breton prince, born to the wife of King Hoel while they were living in Glamorgan in Wales in the late 5th century. He founded the abbey of Plouarzel in Brittany and […]

Read the full article →

August 16 – Apostle of the North

August 15, 2022

St. Hyacinth Dominican, called the Apostle of the North, son of Eustachius Konski of the noble family of Odrowacz [or Odrowaz]; born 1185 at the castle of Lanka, at Kamin, in Silesia, Poland…; died 15 August, 1257, at Cracow. Feast, 16 Aug. A near relative of Saint Ceslaus, he made his studies at Cracow, Prague, […]

Read the full article →

August 17 – Her great beauty aroused the jealousy of the queen

August 15, 2022

St. Beatrix da Silva A Portuguese nun, died 1 September, 1490. In Portuguese she is known as Blessed Brites. She was a member of the house of Portalegre and descended from the royal family of Portugal. She accompanied the Portuguese Princess Isabel to Spain, when she married John II of Castile. There Beatrix seems to […]

Read the full article →

August 17 – St. Clare of Montefalco

August 15, 2022

Born at Montefalco about 1268; died there, 18 August, 1308. Much dispute has existed as to whether St. Clare of Montefalco was a Franciscan or an Augustinian; and while Wadding, with Franciscan biographers of the saint, contends that she was a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, Augustinian writers, whom the Bollandists seem […]

Read the full article →

August 18 – Soldier in every battlefield

August 15, 2022

Théophile-Louis-Henri Wyart (In religion DOM SEBASTIAN). Abbot of Cîteaux and Abbot-General of the Order of Reformed Cistercians, b. at Bouchain, Department of Nord, France, 12 Oct., 1839; d. in Rome, 18 Aug., 1904. Of a pious and studious disposition, he made rapid progress in the usual branches of learning, under private tutors and at both […]

Read the full article →

August 18 – The Empress who found the True Cross

August 15, 2022

Saint Helena (also known as Saint Helen, Helena Augusta or Helena of Constantinople) The mother of Constantine the Great, born about the middle of the third century, possibly in Drepanum (later known as Helenopolis) on the Nicomedian Gulf; died about 330. She was of humble parentage; St. Ambrose, in his “Oratio de obitu Theodosii”, referred […]

Read the full article →

Conscious of His Son’s Softness, Philip II of Spain Gives Him a Last Lesson From His Death Bed

August 11, 2022

The king told his clergy to give him extreme unction ‘while he is still conscious and can make the responses.’ On 1 September the sacrament was administered. The king ‘asked for the cross which his father the emperor held when he was dying. He sent for the prince and told him to remain during the […]

Read the full article →

The Christian Institution of the Family: Forward

August 11, 2022

The Christian Institution of the Family: A Dynamic Force to Regenerate Society by Tradition, Family, Property Association FORWARD With this modest work, we aim to continue making the thought of the late Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira more widely known. Prof. Corrêa de Oliveira was not only a prolific writer (see Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira) […]

Read the full article →

August 12 – His pontificate was spent in opposing royal absolutism

August 11, 2022

Pope Blessed Innocent XI (Benedetto Odescalchi) Born at Como, 16 May, 1611; died at Rome, 11 August, 1689. He was educated by the Jesuits at Como, and studied jurisprudence at Rome and Naples. Urban VIII appointed him successively prothonotary, president of the Apostolic Camera, commissary at Ancona, administrator of Macerata, and Governor of Picena. Innocent […]

Read the full article →

August 12 – St. Jane Frances de Chantal

August 11, 2022

Born at Dijon, France, 28 January, 1572; died at the Visitation Convent Moulins, 13 December, 1641. Her father was president of the Parliament of Burgundy, and leader of the royalist party during the League that brought about the triumph of the cause of Henry IV. In 1592 she married Baron de Chantal, and lived in […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – The Pope Who Resigned

August 11, 2022

Pope St. Pontian Dates of birth and death unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 145) gives Rome as his native city and calls his father Calpurnius. With him begins the brief chronicle of the Roman bishops of the third century, of which the author of the Liberian Catalogue of the popes made use in […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – The antipope who became a saint

August 11, 2022

Hippolytus, Saint, Martyr. St. Hippolytus of Rome, presbyter and antipope; date of birth unknown; died about 236. Until the publication in 1851 of the recently discovered “Philosophumena”, it was impossible to obtain any definite authentic facts concerning Hippolytus of Rome and his life from the conflicting statements about him, as follows: Eusebius says that he […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – Crusader nun

August 11, 2022

Bl. Gertrude of Aldenberg Abbess of the Premonstratensian convent of Aldenberg, near Wetzlar, in the Diocese of Trier; born about 1227, died 13 August, 1297. She was the youngest of three children of Louis VI, margrave of Thuringia, and his wife St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Gertrude’s father died on his way to the Holy Land […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – The Ottomans lived in fear of this Capuchin

August 11, 2022

Blessed Mark of Aviano (1631–1699) Capuchin friar. His baptismal name was Carlo Domenico Cristofori, his birthplace Aviano, a small community in the Republic of Venice (Italy). From an early age, he felt attracted to a life of devotion and martyrdom. Educated at the Jesuit College in Gorizia, at 16 he tried to reach the island […]

Read the full article →

August 13 – St. Maximus of Constantinople

August 11, 2022

St. Maximus of Constantinople Known as the Theologian and as Maximus Confessor, born at Constantinople about 580; died in exile 13 August, 662. He is one of the chief names in the Monothelite controversy one of the chief doctors of the theology of the Incarnation and of ascetic mysticism, and remarkable as a witness to […]

Read the full article →

August 14 – Founding Father

August 11, 2022

Pierre Chastellain Missionary among the Huron Indians, born at Senlis, France, in 1606; died at Quebec, 14 August, 1684. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1624 and at the age of thirty sailed from France with two future martyrs, Fathers Isaac Jogues and Charles Garnier, and the new Governor of Canada, Montmagny, the successor […]

Read the full article →

August 14 – St. Eusebius, Roman patrician and priest

August 11, 2022

St. Eusebius of Rome A presbyter at Rome; date of birth unknown; d. 357(?). He was a Roman patrician and priest, and is mentioned with distinction in Latin martyrologies. The ancient genuine martyrology of Usuard styles him confessor at Rome under the Arian emperor Constantius and adds that he was buried in the cemetery of […]

Read the full article →

August 15 – The Knights of St. John capture Rhodes and establish their sovereignty

August 11, 2022

On 15 August, 1310, under the leadership of Grand Master Foulques de Villaret, the Knights of St. John captured the island in spite of the Greek emperor, Andronicus II. The Knights of Rhodes, the successors of the Hospitallers of St. John, were distinguished from the latter in many ways. In the first place, the grand […]

Read the full article →

August 15 – Prester John

August 11, 2022

Prester John Name of a legendary Eastern priest and king. FIRST STAGE The mythical journey to Rome of a certain Patriarch John of India in 1122, and his visit to Callistus II, cannot have been the origin of the legend. Not until much later, in a manuscript dating from the latter part of the fifteenth-century […]

Read the full article →

August 9 – Pope St. Victor I

August 8, 2022

Pope St. Victor I (189-198 or 199), date of birth unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” makes him a native of Africa and gives his father the name of Felix. This authority, taking the “Liberian Catalogue” as its basis, gives the years 186-197 as the period of Victor’s episcopate. The Armenian text of the “Chronicle” of Eusebius […]

Read the full article →

August 10 – His sister founded the Conceptionists

August 8, 2022

Blessed João Mendes de Silva Better known as Amadeus of Portugal, O.F.M., (1420–1482), was a Portuguese nobleman who became first a monk, then left that life to become a friar of the Franciscan Order. Later he became a reformer of that Order, which led to his founding of a distinct branch of the Friars Minor […]

Read the full article →

August 10 – Defiant under torture, he inspires noble souls until today

August 8, 2022

St. Lawrence Martyr; died 10 August, 258. St. Lawrence, one of the deacons of the Roman Church, was one of the victims of the persecution of Valerian in 258, like Pope Sixtus II and many other members of the Roman clergy. At the beginning of the month of August, 258, the emperor issued an edict, […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – As soldiers scaled the walls of the convent, she met them with ciborium in hand and put them to flight

August 8, 2022

St. Clare of Assisi Cofoundress of the Order of Poor Ladies, or Clares, and first Abbess of San Damiano; born at Assisi, 16 July, 1194; died there 11 August, 1253. She was the eldest daughter of Favorino Scifi, Count of Sasso-Rosso, the wealthy representative of an ancient Roman family, who owned a large palace in […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – János Hunyady

August 8, 2022

(JOHN) Governor of Hungary, born about 1400; died 11 August, 1456; the heroic defender of the Catholic Faith against the advance of the Osmanli; father of King Matthias I (Corvinus) of Hungary. The origin and parentage of his family was not ascertained until recently, when modern investigation cleared up the numerous legends which surrounded the […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – St. Attracta

August 8, 2022

St. Attracta (Or ST. ARAGHT). A contemporary of St. Patrick from whom she received the veil. She is known as the foundress of several churches in the Counties of Galway and Sligo, Ireland. Colgan’s account of her life is based on that written by Augustine Magraidin in the last years of fourteenth century, and abounds […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – St. Géry

August 8, 2022

St. Géry (Latin Gaugericus). Bishop of Cambrai-Arras; b. of Roman parents, Gaudentius and Austadiola, at Eposium (Yvois, Carignan), France, about the middle of the sixth century; d. 11 August, between 623 and 626. The Diocese of Cambrai-Arras is of recent date compared with the more ancient see of Belgium, Tongres, which dates from the fourth […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – Martyred with a rusty and ragged knife

August 8, 2022

Blessed John Sandys English martyr, born in the Diocese of Chester; executed at Gloucester, 11 August, 1586. He arrived at Reims 4 June, 1583, was ordained priest in the Holy Cross Chapel of Reims Cathedral by the Cardinal Archbishop, Louis de Guise, and was sent on the mission 2 October, 1584. He was cut down […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – Feast of the Crown of Thorns and the Five Sacred Wounds

August 8, 2022

Feast of the Crown of Thorns The first feast in honour of the Crown of Thorns (Festum susceptionis coronae Domini) was instituted at Paris in 1239, when St. Louis brought thither the relic of the Crown of Thorns, which was deposited later in the Royal Chapel, erected in 1241-8 to guard this and other relics […]

Read the full article →

August 11 – Charcoal Burner

August 8, 2022

Alexander, Saint, known as “The charcoal burner,” was Bishop of Comana, in Pontus, Whether he was the first to occupy that see is open to discussion. The Bollandists have also a long paper as to the exact location of Comana as there were several places of that name, but decide for Pontus, near Neo-Cæsarea. The […]

Read the full article →

El Cid Gives Valencia to King Alfonso

August 4, 2022

Now the Cid determined to send for his wife and daughters and have them brought to him, as he hoped to live many years in his new city. So he called for Alvar Fanez and Martin Antolinez and asked them to go to Castile to the King Don Alfonso and take him a present of […]

Read the full article →

Revolution and Counter-Revolution: INTRODUCTION – Continued

August 4, 2022

[previous] Naturally, a process so profound, vast, and prolonged cannot develop without encompassing every domain of human activity, such as culture, art, laws, customs, and institutions. A detailed study of this process in all its areas of development is much beyond the scope of this essay. Here — limiting ourselves to one vein of this […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →