May 6 – Saint Francis de Montmorency Laval

May 5, 2022

St. Francis de Montmorency Laval First bishop of Canada, born at Montigny-sur-Avre, 30 April, 1623, of Hughes de Laval and Michelle de Péricard; died at Quebec on 6 May, 1708. He was a scion of an illustrious family, whose ancestor was baptized with Clovis at Reims, and whose motto reads: “Dieu ayde au primer baron […]

Read the full article →

May 6 – Prince, priest, pioneer

May 5, 2022

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin Prince, priest, and missionary, born at The Hague, Holland, 22 December, 1770; died at Loretto, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 6 May, 1840. He was a scion of one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most illustrious families of Russia. His father, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin (d. 16 March, 1803), Russian ambassador to Holland at the time […]

Read the full article →

May 7 – The Pope who adopted two princes

May 5, 2022

Pope St. Benedict II Date of birth unknown; died 8 May, 685; was a Roman, and the son of John. Sent when young to the schola cantorum, he distinguished himself by his knowledge of the Scriptures and by his singing, and as a priest was remarkable for his humility, love of the poor, and generosity. […]

Read the full article →

May 7 – Bl. Agnellus of Pisa

May 5, 2022

Bl. Agnellus of Pisa Friar Minor and founder of the English Franciscan Province, born at Pisa c. 1195, of the noble family of the Agnelli; died at Oxford, 7 May, 1236. In early youth he was received into the Seraphic Order by St. Francis himself, during the latter’s sojourn in Pisa, and soon became an […]

Read the full article →

May 7 – St. John of Beverley

May 5, 2022

St. John of Beverley Bishop of Hexham and afterwards of York; b. at Harpham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire; d. at Beverley, 7 May, 721. In early life he was under the care of Archbishop Theodore, at Canterbury, who supervised his education, and is reputed to have given him the name of John. He […]

Read the full article →

May 8 – When St. Michael Appeared

May 5, 2022

Well known is the apparition of St. Michael the Archangel (a. 494 or 530-40), as related in the Roman Breviary, 8 May, at his renowned sanctuary on Monte Gargano, where his original glory as patron in war was restored to him. To his intercession the Lombards of Sipontum (Manfredonia) attributed their victory over the Greek […]

Read the full article →

May 8 – Matriarch of the Carolingian family

May 5, 2022

Saint Itta (or Itta of Metz) (also Ida, Itte or Iduberga) (592–652) was the wife of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia. Her brother was Saint Modoald, bishop of Trier. Her sister was abbess Saint Severa. There is no direct record of their parents, but it has been suggested that she was […]

Read the full article →

May 8 – First they took the nobles, then they took the scientists

May 5, 2022

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier Chemist, philosopher, economist; born in Paris, 26 August, 1743; guillotined 8 May, 1794. He was the son of Jean-Antoine Lavoisier, a lawyer of distinction, and Emilie Punctis, who belonged to a rich and influential family, and who died when Antoine-Laurent was five years old. His early years were most carefully guarded by his […]

Read the full article →

May 9 – Known personally to the King, he was falsely accused of conspiring to murder him

May 5, 2022

Blessed Thomas Pickering Lay brother and martyr, a member of an old Westmoreland family, born circa 1621; executed at Tyburn, 9 May, 1679. He was sent to the Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory at Douai, where he took vows as a lay brother in 1660. In 1665 he was sent to London, where, as steward […]

Read the full article →

May 9 – St. Nicholas Albergati

May 5, 2022

Cardinal and Bishop of Bologna, born at Bologna in 1357; died at Sienna, 9 May, 1443. He entered the Carthusian Order in 1394, served as prior in various monasteries, and was made Bishop of Bologna, against his will, in 1417. In this office he still followed the Rule of his Order, was zealous for the […]

Read the full article →

May 9 – Isaias, Prophet and Historian, Sawn in Two

May 5, 2022

From the Prophet himself (i, 1; ii, 1) we learn that he was the son of Amos. Owing to the similarity between Latin and Greek forms of this name and that of the Shepherd-Prophet of Thecue, some Fathers mistook the Prophet Amos for the father of Isaias. St. Jerome in the preface to his “Commentary […]

Read the full article →

May 3 – Finding of the Holy Cross

May 2, 2022

In the year 326 the mother of Constantine, Helena, then about 80 years old, having journeyed to Jerusalem, undertook to rid the Holy Sepulchre of the mound of earth heaped upon and around it, and to destroy the pagan buildings that profaned its site. Some revelations which she had received gave her confidence that she […]

Read the full article →

May 3 – Élisabeth Leseur

May 2, 2022

Élisabeth Leseur Servant of God Born     16 October 1866 Paris, France Died     3 May 1914 (aged 47) Paris, France Élisabeth Arrighi Leseur (October 16, 1866–May 3, 1914), born Pauline Élisabeth Arrighi, was a French mystic best known for her spiritual diary and the conversion of her husband, Félix Leseur (1861–1950), a medical doctor […]

Read the full article →

May 3 – Sword-bearer to the Emperor

May 2, 2022

St. Ansfried of Utrecht Ansfried (aka Ansfridus or Aufridus) was born ca. 940, and died May 3, 1010 near Leusden.) He was a nobleman in the Holy Roman Empire and sword-bearer for Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Till 995 he was Count of Huy, then he became bishop of Utrecht. He is also the founder […]

Read the full article →

May 4 – They believed in the religious exemption, but only at first

May 2, 2022

The Carthusian Martyrs were the monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the English state in a period lasting from the 19 June 1535 till the 20 September 1537. The method of execution was hanging, disembowelling while still alive and then quartering. […]

Read the full article →

May 4 – St. Godard

May 2, 2022

St. Godard (Also spelled GOTHARD, GODEHARD). Bishop of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony; born about the year 960, in a village of Upper Bavaria, near the Abbey of Altaich, in the Diocese of Passau; Nassau; died on 4 May, 1038 canonized by Innocent II in 1131. After a lengthy course of studies he received the Benedictine […]

Read the full article →

May 5 – St. Hilary of Arles

May 2, 2022

Archbishop, born about 401; died 5 May, 449. The exact place of his birth is not known. All that may be said is that he belonged to a notable family of Northern Gaul, of which in all probability also came St. Honoratus, his predecessor in the See of Arles. Learned and rich, Hilary had everything […]

Read the full article →

Ecclesiastical Tribalism and Pentecostalism

April 28, 2022

[previous] E. Ecclesiastical Tribalism and Pentecostalism Obviously, it is not only the temporal realm that the Fourth Revolution wants to reduce to tribalism. It wants to do the same with the spiritual realm. How this is to be done can already be clearly seen in the currents of theologians and canonists who intend to transform […]

Read the full article →

How the French Loved Queen Marie Antoinette

April 28, 2022

Marie Antoinette reigned not only by her grace, but by her goodness. She sent relief to the poor, to the wounded, to the victims of fires. She heard that the family of the Chevalier d’Assas, notwithstanding the historical devotion of the captain to the regiment of Auvergne, was living in the country in oblivion and […]

Read the full article →

April 29 – The Templars, Knights of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcantara, of Avis, of St. Maurice, all trace their existence to this austere monk

April 28, 2022

St. Robert of Molesme Born about the year 1029, at Champagne, France, of noble parents who bore the names of Thierry and Ermengarde; died at Molesme, 17 April, 1111. When fifteen years of age, he commenced his novitiate in the Abbey of Montier-la-Celle, or St. Pierre-la-Celle, situated near Troyes, of which he became later prior. […]

Read the full article →

April 29 – In 11th century Christendom, no king or bishop dare oppose him

April 28, 2022

Saint Hugh the Great Abbot of Cluny, born at Semur (Brionnais in the Diocese of Autun), 1024; died at Cluny, 28 April, 1109. His early life The eldest son of Count Dalmatius of Semur and Aremberge (Aremburgis) of Vergy, Hugh was descended from the noblest families in Burgundy. Dalmatius, devoted to war and the chase, […]

Read the full article →

April 30 – “Thank God for the victory”

April 28, 2022

Pope Saint Pius V Born at Bosco, near Alexandria, Lombardy, 17 Jan., 1504 elected 7 Jan., 1566; died 1 May, 1572. Being of a poor though noble family his lot would have been to follow a trade, but he was taken in by the Dominicans of Voghera, where he received a good education and was […]

Read the full article →

May 1 – St. Sigismund, King of Burgundy

April 28, 2022

This saint was son of Gondebald, the Arian king of the Burgundians; but embraced the Catholic faith through the instructions of St. Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienne. (1) He succeeded to the kingdom of his father in 516, and in the midst of barbarism lived humble, mortified, penitent, devout, and charitable, even on the throne; […]

Read the full article →

May 2 – Two sisters of this medieval princess were also saints

April 28, 2022

St. Mafalda of Portugal In the year 1215, at the age of eleven, Princess Mafalda (i.e. Matilda), daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal, was married to her kinsman King Henry I of Castile, who was like herself a minor. The marriage was annulled the following year on the ground of the consanguinity of the […]

Read the full article →

May 2 – Economist

April 28, 2022

St. Antoninus Archbishop of Florence, b. at Florence, 1 March, 1389; d. 2 May, 1459; known also by his baptismal name Antoninus (Anthony), which is found in his autographs, in some manuscripts, in printed editions of his works, and in the Bull of canonization, but which has been finally rejected for the diminutive form given […]

Read the full article →

May 2 – St. Athanasius

April 28, 2022

St. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria; Confessor and Doctor of the Church; born c. 296; died 2 May, 373. Athanasius was the greatest champion of Catholic belief on the subject of the Incarnation that the Church has ever known and in his lifetime earned the characteristic title of “Father of Orthodoxy”, by which he has been […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – She inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 25, 2022

Our Lady of Good Counsel January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he placed himself at the head of his own people. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania. With Scanderbeg’s […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – His ears were nailed to the pillory

April 25, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 26 – Pope St. Cletus

April 25, 2022

Pope St. Cletus This name is only another form for Anacletus, the second successor of St. Peter. It is true that the Liberian Catalogue, a fourth-century list of popes, so called because it ends with Pope Liberius (d. 366), contains both names, as if they were different persons. But this is an error, owing evidently […]

Read the full article →

April 26 – Nephew of the Duke of Maqueda

April 25, 2022

St. Rafael Arnáiz Barón (9 April 1911, Burgos, Spain – 26 April 1938, Dueñas, Palencia, Spain) Rafael Arnáiz, known in the monastery as Brother María Rafael, was born on 9 April 1911 in the city of Burgos, in north-central Spain. He was the first of four sons born to a well-to-do, deeply Christian and Catholic […]

Read the full article →

April 27 – First circumnavigator of the world

April 25, 2022

Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese Fernão Magalhaes). The first circumnavigator of the real world; born about 1480 at Saborosa in Villa Real, Province of Traz os Montes, Portugal; died during his voyage of discovery on the Island of Mactan in the Philippines, 27 April 1521… Read more here.

Read the full article →

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

April 25, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 27 – Noble Model of Confidence

April 25, 2022

St. Peter Armengol was born in Guárdia dels Prats, a small village in the archdiocese of Tarragon, Spain in 1238. He belonged to the house of the barons of Rocafort, descendants of the counts of Urgel, whose ancestors were directly linked to the counts of Barcelona and the monarchs of Aragon and Castile… Read more […]

Read the full article →

April 28 – Saint Egbert

April 25, 2022

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

Read the full article →

El Cid Punishes the Perfidy of the Moors of Rueda

April 21, 2022

Almofalez, a Moor of Andalusia, took the Castle of Rueda, which belonged to King Don Alfonso [VI, King of León and Castile]. There he held prisoner the brother of Adefir, another Moor, and Adefir sent to Don Alfonso asking him to come to rescue his brother, and to regain the castle. The king sent his […]

Read the full article →

Opposition From the Prophets of Common Sense

April 21, 2022

[previous] COMMENTARY Opposition From the Prophets of Common Sense These are strange prophets indeed, since their prophecies invariably amount to affirmation that nothing will happen. Eventually their various forms of optimism conflicted so flagrantly with the post-1976 facts that, to retain them, their adepts adopted the fallacious and totally hypothetical hope that the recent events […]

Read the full article →

April 22 – Father of Origen

April 21, 2022

St. Leonidas (Or LEONIDES.) The Roman Martyrology records several feast days of martyrs of this name in different countries. Under date of 28 January there is a martyr called Leonides, a native of the Thebaid, whose death with several companions is supposed to have occurred during the Diocletian persecution (Acta SS., January, II, 832). Another […]

Read the full article →

April 22 – Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

April 21, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 21, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 23 – Archbishop author of war-song

April 21, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 24 – “I came to extirpate heresy, not to embrace it”

April 21, 2022

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen Born in 1577, at Sigmaringen, Prussia, of which town his father Johannes Rey was burgomaster; died at Sevis, 24 April, 1622. On the paternal side he was of Flemish ancestry. He pursued his studies at the University of Freiburg in the Breisgau, and in 1604 became tutor to Wilhelm von Stotzingen, […]

Read the full article →

April 24 – Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

April 21, 2022

Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, foundress of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and canonized May 2, 1940 by Pope Pius XII. The aim of this institute is to provide a shelter for girls and women of dissolute habits, who wish to do penance for their iniquities and to lead a […]

Read the full article →

April 25 – Builder

April 21, 2022

Blessed Meinwerk Tenth Bishop of Paderborn, d. 1036: Meinwerk (Meginwerk) was born of the noble family of the Immedinger and related to the royal house of Saxony. His father was Imad (Immeth), Count of Teisterbant and Radichen, and his mother’s name was Adela (Adala, Athela). In early youth he was dedicated by his parents to […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – The saintly warrior pope

April 18, 2022

Pope St. Leo IX Pope St. Leo IX earnestly spread the Cluny reform Born at Egisheim, near Colmar, on the borders of Alsace, 21 June, 1002, Pope St. Leo IX died on 19 April, 1054. He belonged to a noble family which had given or was to give saints to the Church and rulers to […]

Read the full article →

April 19 – Captured by pirates

April 18, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 19 – Blessed Conrad of Ascoli

April 18, 2022

Friar Minor and missionary, born at Ascoli in the March of Ancona in 1234; died there, 19 April, 1289. He belonged to the noble family of Milliano and from his earliest years made penance the predominating element of his life… Read more here.

Read the full article →

April 20 – “I beg your Lordship…that my lips and…fingers may be cut off…”

April 18, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 20 – Blessed Richard Sergeant

April 18, 2022

Bl. Richard Sergeant English martyr, executed at Tyburn, 20 April, 1586. He was probably a younger son of Thomas Sergeant of Stone, Gloucestershire, by Katherine, daughter of John Tyre of Hardwick. He took his degree at Oxford (20 Feb., 1570-1), and arrived at the English College, Reims, on 25 July, 1581. He was ordained subdeacon […]

Read the full article →

April 20 – Blessed John Finch

April 18, 2022

Bl. John Finch A martyr, born about 1548; died 20 April, 1584. He was a yeoman of Eccleston, Lancashire, and a member of a well-known old Catholic family, but he appears to have been brought up in schism. When he was twenty years old he went to London where he spent nearly a year with […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Adventurous in youth and adulthood

April 18, 2022

St. Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury, Doctor of the Church; born at Aosta a Burgundian town on the confines of Lombardy, died 21 April, 1109. His father, Gundulf, was a Lombard who had become a citizen of Aosta, and his mother, Ermenberga, came of an old Burgundian family. Like many other saints, Anselm learnt the first […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Martyred by Danish vikings

April 18, 2022

St. Maelrubha (MA-RUI, MOLROY, ERREW, SUMMARYRUFF, also SAGART-RUADH) An abbot and martyr, founder of Abercrossan, b. 642; d. 21 April, 722. He was descended from Niall, King of Ireland, on the side of his father Elganach. His mother, Subtan, was a niece of St. Comgall the Great, of Bangor. St. Maelrubha was born in the […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – The emperor placed unlimited confidence in him

April 18, 2022

Garcia de Loaisa Cardinal and Archbishop of Seville, b. in Talavera, Spain, c. 1479; d. at Madrid, 21 April, 1546. His parents were nobles; at a very early age he entered the Dominican convent at Salamanca. Its severe discipline, however, affected his delicate constitution and he was transferred to the convent of St. Paul in […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Traveller in the Orient

April 18, 2022

Pietro della Valle Italian traveller in the Orient, b. at Rome, 2 April, 1586; d. there, 21 April, 1652. He belonged to a noble family and received an excellent education. As a young man he was a poet, orator, a soldier in the papal service, and a member of the Roman Academy of the Umoristi. […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Preacher to the King

April 18, 2022

Nicolas Coeffeteau Preacher and controversialist, born 1574, at Château-du-Loir, province of Maine, France; died Paris, 21 April, 1623. He entered the Dominican convent of Sens, 1588, and after his profession, 1590, was sent to St-Jacques, the house of studies at Paris. There in 1595 he began to teach philosophy. On 4 May, 1600, he received […]

Read the full article →

April 21 – Racine

April 18, 2022

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

Read the full article →

April 21 – Pioneer missionary of Kentucky

April 18, 2022

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

Read the full article →

Queen Marie Antoinette’s Rejection of Voltaire

April 14, 2022

But she could not pardon Voltaire for his attacks on the ancient faith of France; and if she did not go so far as to regard him as an extravagant, as her mother did, she felt little sympathy for him. When, in the spring of 1788, that philosopher made a visit to Paris which was […]

Read the full article →

The Opposition of the Banal

April 14, 2022

[previous] D. The Opposition of the Banal Others, instead of using foresight, will simply do what banal and timid souls have been doing throughout the centuries. Smiling, they will term such transformations impossible. Why? Because they clash with their mental habits; these transformations violate common sense, and for banal men, history normally follows the path […]

Read the full article →

Every year, on Good Friday

April 14, 2022

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 →

April 15 – The Notkers of St. Gall

April 14, 2022

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

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →