March 8 – He was not a prince, but they buried him as one

March 7, 2022

St. John of God Born at Montemor o Novo, Portugal, 8 March, 1495, of devout Christian parents; died at Granada, 8 March, 1550. The wonders attending the saints birth heralded a life many-sided in its interests, but dominated throughout by implicit fidelity to the grace of God. A Spanish priest whom he followed to Oropeza, […]

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March 8 – Classmate of Innocent III

March 7, 2022

Bl. Vincent Kadlubek (KADLUBO, KADLUBKO). Bishop of Cracow, chronicler, born at Karnow, Duchy of Sandomir, Poland, 1160; died at Jedrzejow, 8 March, 1223. The son of a rich family in Poland, he made such progress in his studies that in 1189 he could sign his name as Magister Vincentius (Zeissberg, in “Archiv fur osterreichische Geschichte”, […]

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March 9 – She Could Detect Diabolical Plots

March 7, 2022

St. Frances of Rome One of the greatest mystics of the fifteenth century; born at Rome, of a noble family, in 1384; died there, 9 March, 1440. Her youthful desire was to enter religion, but at her father’s wish she married, at the age of twelve, Lorenzo de’ Ponziani. Among her children we know of […]

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March 9 – Incorrupt

March 7, 2022

St. Catherine of Bologna Poor Clare and mystical writer, born at Bologna, 8 September, 1413; died there, 9 March, 1463. When she was ten years old, her father sent her to the court of the Marquis of Ferrara, Nicolò d’Este, as a companion to the Princess Margarita. Here Catherine pursued the study of literature and […]

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March 10 – “I want no prayers from heretics!”

March 7, 2022

St. John Ogilvie Ogilvie, the son of a wealthy noble, was born into a Calvinist family near Keith in Banffshire, Scotland and was educated in mainland Europe where he attended a number of Roman Catholic educational establishments, under the Benedictines at Regensburg in Germany and with the Jesuits at Olomouc and Brno in the present […]

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March 10 – St. Attala

March 7, 2022

St. Attala Born in the sixth century in Burgundy; died 627. He first became a monk at Lerins, but, displeased with the loose discipline prevailing there, he entered the monastery of Luxeuil which had just been founded by St. Columban. When Columban was expelled from Luxeuil by King Theodoric II, Attala was to succeed him […]

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March 10 – George Ashby

March 7, 2022

George Ashby Monk of the Cistercian Monastery of Jervaulx in Yorkshire, executed after the Pilgrimage of Grace, in the year 1537. His name is found in several English martyrologies, but there is the utmost uncertainty as to the right form of his name, and as to the place and mode of his death. After the […]

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No Nobility Greater Than That of Our Lord and Our Lady

March 3, 2022

There is a beautiful legend about Moss, which says, that its original color was grey; and when the dead Body of Jesus had been taken from the Cross and placed on Mary’s lap, the last drops of His precious Blood trickled from His sacred Wounds on the moss beneath the feet of the Sorrowful Mother, […]

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CHAPTER III – The Aborning Fourth Revolution

March 3, 2022

[previous] The panorama presented here would be incomplete were we to fail to mention an internal transformation in the Third Revolution. It is the Fourth Revolution that is being born of it. It is being born, yes, in the manner of a matricidal refinement. When the Second Revolution was born, it refined,1 overcame, and dealt […]

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March 4 – “Your Honor, was St. Augustine also a traitor?”

March 3, 2022

Blessed Christopher Bales (Or Bayles, alias Evers) Priest and martyr, b. at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564; executed 4 March, 1590. He entered the English College at Rome, 1 October, 1583, but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims, where he was ordained 28 March, 1587… Read more here.

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March 4 – This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

March 3, 2022

St. Casimir Prince of Poland, born in the royal palace at Cracow, 3 October, 1458; died at the court of Grodno, 4 March, 1484. He was the grandson of Wladislaus II Jagiello, King of Poland, who introduced Christianity into Lithuania, and the second son of King Casimir IV and Queen Elizabeth, an Austrian princess, the […]

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March 5 – St. John Joseph of the Cross

March 3, 2022

St. John Joseph of the Cross Born on the Island of Ischia, Southern Italy, 1654; died 5 March, 1739. From his earliest years he was given to prayer and virtue. So great was his love of poverty that he would always wear the dress of the poor, though he was of noble birth. At the […]

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March 6 – Bishop Prime Minister

March 3, 2022

St. Chrodegang Bishop of Metz, born at the beginning of the eighth century at Hasbania, in what is now Belgian Limburg, of a noble Frankish family; died at Metz, 6 March, 766. He was educated at the court of Charles Martel, became his private secretary, then chancellor, and in 737 prime minister. On 1 March, […]

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March 6 – Of Kings and Princesses

March 3, 2022

Saints Kyneburge, Kyneswide, and Tibba The two first were daughters of Penda, the cruel pagan king of Mercia, and sisters to three successive Christian Kings, Peada, Wulfere, and Ethelred, and to the pious prince Merowald… Read more here.

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March 6 – Friend of the Stuarts

March 3, 2022

Guilo Cesare Cordara Historian and littérateur, b. at Alessandra in Piedmont, Italy, 14 Dec., 1704; died there 6 March, 1785. The scion of an illustrious and ancient family that came originally from Nice, young Cordara studied at Rome under the Jesuits, and became a Jesuit himself at the age of fourteen. Subsequently he taught in […]

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March 6 – God gave him the great grace of “unsuitability for government”

March 3, 2022

Ven. Gonçalo Da Silveira Pioneer missionary of South Africa, b. 23 Feb, 1526, at Almeirim, about forty miles from Lisbon; martyred 6 March, 1561. He was the tenth child of Dom Luis da Silveira, first count of Sortelha, and Dona Beatrice Coutinho, daughter of Dom Fernando Coutinho, Marshal of the Kingdom of Portugal. Losing his […]

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March 7 – Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart

March 3, 2022

Saint Teresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart Born July 15, 1747. Died March 7, 1770 in Florence. She was born Anna Maria Redi to a large noble family in Arezzo, Italy. She was the daughter of Count Ignatius Redi and Camilla Billeti. After attending the boarding school of the Benedictine nuns of St. Apollonia’s in […]

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March 7 – Martyred for entertainment on the birthday of the Emperor

March 3, 2022

Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas Martyrs, suffered at Carthage, 7 March 203, together with three companions, Revocatus, Saturus, and Saturninus. The details of the martyrdom of these five confessors in the North African Church have reached us through a genuine, contemporary description, one of the most affecting accounts of the glorious warfare of Christian martyrdom in […]

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March 7 – Pope Innocent XIII

March 3, 2022

Pope Innocent XIII (Michelangelo Dei Conti) Born at Rome, 13 May, 1655; died at the same place, 7 March, 1724. He was the son of Carlo II, Duke of Poli. After studying at the Roman College he was introduced into the Curia by Alexander VIII, who in 1690 commissioned him to bear the blessed hat […]

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March 7 – Stoic Emperor

March 3, 2022

Antoninus Pius (TITUS ÆLIUS HADRIANUS ANTONINUS PIUS). Roman Emperor (138-161), born 18 September, A.D. 86 at Lanuvium, a short distance from Rome; died at Lorium, 7 March, 161. Most of his youth was spent at Lorium, which was only twelve miles from Rome. Later on he built a villa there, to which he would frequently […]

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March 7 – Last cruelties of Henry VIII

March 3, 2022

Bl. German Gardiner Last martyr under Henry VIII; date of birth unknown; died at Tyburn, 7 March, 1544; secretary to, and probably a kinsmen of, Stephen Gardiner, and an able defender of the old Faith, as his tract against John Frith (dated 1 August, 1534) shows. During the years of fiery trial, which followed, we […]

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March 1 – St. David of Wales

February 28, 2022

St. David (DEGUI, DEWI). Bishop and Confessor, patron of Wales. He is usually represented standing on a little hill, with a dove on his shoulder. From time immemorial the Welsh have worn a leek on St. David’s day, in memory of a battle against the Saxons, at which it is said they wore leeks in […]

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March 1 – Apostle of the Frisians

February 28, 2022

St. Suitbert (Suidbert). Apostle of the Frisians, b. in England in the seventh century; d. at Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf, 1 March, 713. He studied in Ireland, at Rathmelsigi, Connacht, along with St. Egbert (q. v.). The latter, filled with zeal for the conversion of the Germans, had sent St. Wihtberht, or Wigbert, to […]

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March 2 – This Princess Refused to Marry the Emperor

February 28, 2022

St. Agnes of Bohemia (Also called Agnes of Prague). Born at Prague in the year 1200; died probably in 1281. She was the daughter of Ottocar, King of Bohemia and Constance of Hungary, a relative of St. Elizabeth. At an early age she was sent to the monastery of Treinitz, where at the hands of […]

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March 2 – Warrior Bishop Prince

February 28, 2022

St. John Maron Origin of St. John Maron John Maron was born in Sarum, a prosperous town located south of the city of Antioch. His date of birth is not mentioned but many historians place it around the third decade of the seventh century. He descended from a Frankish royal family which governed Antioch, a […]

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March 3 – The work of Mother Drexel

February 28, 2022

Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament One of the…congregations of religious women in the Catholic Church and one of entirely American origin, founded by Miss Katharine Drexel at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1889, for missionary work among the Indians and coloured people of the United States. The formal approbation of the Holy See was given to the […]

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March 3 – Empress Saint

February 28, 2022

St. Cunegundes, Empress (c. 975 – 3 March 1040 at Kaufungen), also called Cunegundes and Cunegonda ST. CUNEGUNDES was the daughter of Sigefride, the first count of Luxemburgh, and Hadeswige his pious wife. They instilled into her from her cradle the most tender sentiments of piety, and married her to St. Henry, duke of Bavaria, […]

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March 3 – St. Winwallus

February 28, 2022

St. Winwallus Abbot of Landevennec; d. 3 March, probably at the beginning of the sixth century, though the exact year is not known. There are some fifty forms of his name, ranging from Wynwallow through such variants as Wingaloeus, Waloway, Wynolatus, Vinguavally, Vennole, Valois, Ouignoualey, Gweno, Gunnolo, to Bennoc. The original form is undistinguishable. In […]

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March 3 – James Spencer Northcote

February 28, 2022

James Spencer Northcote Born at Feniton Court, Devonshire, 26 May, 1821; d. at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, 3 March, 1907. He was the second son of George Barons Northcote, a gentleman of an ancient Devonshire family of Norman descent. Educated first at Ilmington Grammar School, he won in 1837 a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where […]

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March 3 – Pope St. Simplicius

February 28, 2022

Pope St. Simplicius Reigned 468-483; date of birth unknown; died 10 March, 483. According to the “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 249) Simplicius was the son of a citizen of Tivoli named Castinus; and after the death of Pope Hilarius in 468 was elected to succeed the latter. The elevation of the new pope was […]

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March 3 – Pope Pelagius I

February 28, 2022

Pope Pelagius I   Date of birth unknown; died 3 March, 561, was a Roman of noble family; his father, John, seems to have been vicar of one of the two civil “dioceses”, or districts, into which Italy was then divided. We first meet with him at Constantinople, in the company of Agapitus I, who, […]

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Saintly Genealogy

February 24, 2022

Philip [III], Crown-prince of France, once said to his father, [King] St. Louis [IX]: “Thou are my good shepherd, watch over me that I may not be lost.” Flowers of Mary: addresses in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, delivered at Ingolstadt, May, 1858 by Louis Gemminger, 1894, Pg. 155 Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, […]

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The Essence of the Revolutionary Spirit: Egalitarianism

February 24, 2022

The essence of the Revolutionary spirit is to be found in a famous document produced by the Committee of the Republic, under the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. There, the authorities of the interior of France declared that all were invited to bring down every tower of every church and of every castle […]

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February 25 – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

February 24, 2022

St. Walburga Born in Devonshire, about 710; died at Heidenheim, 25 Feb., 777. She is the patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Antwerp, Gronigen, Weilburg, and Zutphen, and is invoked as special patroness against hydrophobia, and in storms, and also by sailors. She was the daughter of St. Richard, one of the under-kings of the West […]

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February 26 – St. Isabel of France

February 24, 2022

St. Isabel of France Daughter of Louis VIII and of his wife, Blanche of Castille, born in March, 1225; died at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St. Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still a child at court, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other […]

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February 26 – Blessed Robert Drury

February 24, 2022

Blessed Robert Drury Martyr (1567-1607), was born of a good Buckinghamshire family and was received into the English College at Reims, 1 April, 1588. On 17 September, 1590, he was sent to the new College at Valladolid; here he finished his studies, was ordained priest and returned to England in 1593. He laboured chiefly in […]

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February 26 – St. Alexander (of Alexandria)

February 24, 2022

St. Alexander (of Alexandria) Patriarch of Alexandria, date of birth uncertain; died 17 April, 326. He is, apart from his own greatness, prominent by the fact that his appointment to the patriarchial see excluded the heresiarch Arius from that post. Arius had begun to teach his heresies in 300 when Peter, by whom he was […]

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February 27 – Are You Hiding a Priest?

February 24, 2022

St. Anne Line English martyr, died 27 Feb., 1601. She was the daughter of William Heigham of Dunmow, Essex, a gentleman of means and an ardent Calvinist, and when she and her brother announced their intention of becoming Catholics both were disowned and disinherited. Anne married Roger Line, a convert like herself, and shortly after […]

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February 27 – “Which of you Gospellers can show such a knee?”

February 24, 2022

Ven. Mark Barkworth (Alias LAMBERT.) Priest and martyr, born about 1572 in Lincolnshire; executed at Tyburn 27 February, 1601. He was educated at Oxford, and converted to the Faith at Douai in 1594, by Father George, a Flemish Jesuit. In 1596 Barkworth went to Rome and thence to Valladolid… Read more here.

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February 27 – Patron of Youth

February 24, 2022

St. Gabriel Possenti Passionist student; renowned for sanctity and miracles; born at Assisi, 1 March, 1838; died 27 February, 1862, at Isola di Gran Sasso, Province of Abruzzo, Italy; son of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti; received baptism on the day of his birth and was called Francesco, the name by which he was known […]

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February 28 – One of the many men who spent their lives building a Christian Civilization

February 24, 2022

St. Romanus Abbot of Condat, now St. Claude in the French Jura, born about 400; died in 463 or 464. When thirty-five years old he went into the lonely region of Condat to live as a hermit, where after a while his younger brother Lupicinus followed him. A large number of scholars, among whom was […]

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February 28 – St. Oswald

February 24, 2022

St. Oswald Archbishop of York, died on 29 February, 992. Of Danish parentage, Oswald was brought up by his uncle Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and instructed by Fridegode. For some time he was dean of the house of the secular canons at Winchester, but led by the desire of a stricter life he entered the […]

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February 28 – Pope Saint Hilarus

February 24, 2022

Pope Saint Hilarus [Also spelled HILARIUS, or HILARY]Elected 461; the date of his death is given as 28 Feb., 468. After the death of Leo I, an archdeacon named Hilarus, a native of Sardinia, according to the “Liber Pontificalis”, was chosen to succeed him, and in all probability received consecration on 19 November, 461. Together […]

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February 28 – The Gentleman instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life

February 24, 2022

William Darrell Theologian, b. 1651, in Buckinghamshire, England; d. 28 Feb., 1721, at St. Omer’s, France. He was a member of the ancient Catholic family of Darrell of Scotney Castle, Sussex, being the only son of Thomas Darrell and his wife, Thomassine Marcham… Read more here.

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February 22 – From Cavalier’s Mistress to Saint

February 21, 2022

St. Margaret of Cortona A penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis, born at Laviano in Tuscany in 1247; died at Cortona, 22 February, 1297. At the age of seven years Margaret lost her mother and two years later her father married a second time. Between the daughter and her step-mother there seems to […]

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February 22 – Blessed Émilie d’Oultremont de Warfusée

February 21, 2022

(October 11, 1818 – February 22, 1878) Belgian nun. She founded the Sisters of Mary Reparatrix. She took the name Mary of Jesus. The daughter of Émile d’Oultremont (fr) and Marie-Charlotte de Lierneux de Presles, she was born at Wégimont Castle. Her father served as Belgian ambassador to the Holy See in Rome. In 1837, […]

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February 23 – The responsibilities of leadership are heavy

February 21, 2022

Pope Benedict XIII (PIETRO FRANCESCO ORSINI) Born 2 February, 1649; died 23 February, 1730. Being a son of Ferdinando Orsini and Giovanna Frangipani of Tolpha, he belonged to the archducal family of Orsini-Gravina. From early youth he exhibited a decided liking for the Order of St. Dominic, and at the age of sixteen during a […]

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February 23 – St. Polycarp’s martyrdom

February 21, 2022

St. Polycarp’s martyrdom Polycarp’s martyrdom is described in a letter from the Church of Smyrna, to the Church of Philomelium “and to all the brotherhoods of the holy and universal Church”, etc. The letter begins with an account of the persecution and the heroism of the martyrs. Conspicuous among them was one Germanicus, who encouraged […]

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February 24 – The Cup Is Sometimes Bitter

February 21, 2022

Blessed Thomas Mary Fusco The seventh of eight children, he was born on 1 December 1831 in Pagani, Salerno, in the Diocese of Nocera-Sarno, Italy, to Dr. Antonio, a pharmacist, and Stella Giordano, of noble descent. They were known for their upright moral and religious conduct, and taught their son Christian piety and charity to […]

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February 24 – First Christian King Among the English

February 21, 2022

St. Ethelbert, King of Kent Born, 552; died, 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest. He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage […]

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February 24 – Second Duke of Guise

February 21, 2022

FRANÇOIS DE LORRAINE Second Duke of Guise, b. at the Château de Bar, 17 Feb., 1519, of Claude de Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon; d, 24 Feb, 1563. He was the warrior of the family, el gran capitan de Guysa, as the Spanish called him. A wound which he received at the siege of Boulogne […]

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Queen Elizabeth II – A Symbol of Stability in a Gelatinous World

February 17, 2022

According to Return to Order: This year marks Elizabeth II’s 70th year as head of state, making her the longest-reigning British monarch in history. While the length of her tenure is impressive, her public appeal is even more astounding. According to a You-Gov poll, she enjoys an astonishing 83% approval rating. This is inconceivable for […]

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Debunking the Myth

February 17, 2022

The queen had desired that the balls should take place in her own apartment, which gave them a semi-private character, and thus avoided the expenses which more ceremonial balls would have necessitated. She had also given up having the opera brought to Versailles, and decided that when she wished to hear it, she would go […]

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Respect Makes Life Delightful

February 17, 2022

To respect and be respected is more important than to love and be loved. The soul that admires respectability with seriousness and veneration itself becomes respectable. The limits inherent in intimacy render it charming. Distance, respect, and ceremony make life agreeable. Respect makes life delightful. Egalitarianism is a wall that, when demolished, can change the […]

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February 18 – Charlemagne’s envoy to the pope

February 17, 2022

St. Angilbert Abbot of Saint-Riquier, died 18 February, 814. Angilbert seems to have been brought up at the court of Charlemagne, where he was the pupil and friend of the great English scholar Alcuin. He was intended for the ecclesiastical state and must have received minor orders early in life, but he accompanied the young […]

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February 18 – Confronted the Emperor and annulled the Robber Council of Ephesus

February 17, 2022

St. Flavian Bishop of Constantinople, date of birth unknown; died at Hypaepa in Lydia, August, 449. Nothing is known of him before his elevation to the episcopate save that he was a presbyter and skeuophylax or sacristan, of the Church of Constantinople, and noted for the holiness of his life. His succession to St. Proclus […]

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February 18 – Fra Angelico brought part of heaven to earth

February 17, 2022

Blessed Fra Angelico A famous painter of the Florentine school, born near Castello di Vicchio in the province of Mugello, Tuscany, 1387; died at Rome, 1455. He was christened Guido, and his father’s name being Pietro he was known as Guido, or Guidolino, di Pietro, but his full appellation today is that of “Blessed Fra […]

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February 19 – St. Conrad of Piacenza

February 17, 2022

St. Conrad of Piacenza Hermit of the Third Order of St. Francis, date of birth uncertain; died at Noto in Sicily, 19 February, 1351. He belonged to one of the noblest families of Piacenza, and having married when he was quite young, led a virtuous and God-fearing life. On one occasion, when he was engaged […]

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February 20 – Leaders and future nobility appear in times of desperate distress

February 17, 2022

Andreas Hofer A patriot and soldier, born at St. Leonhard in Passeyrthale, Tyrol, 22 Nov., 1767; executed at Mantua, 20 Feb., 1810. His father was known as the “Sandwirth” (i. e., landlord of the inn on the sandy spit of land formed by the Passeyr. The inn had been in the family for over one […]

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February 20 – Repeatedly racked

February 17, 2022

Ven. Thomas Pormort English martyr, b. at Hull about 1559; d. at St. Paul’s Churchyard, 20 Feb., 1592. He was probably related to the family of Pormort of Great Grimsby and Saltfletby, Lincoln shire. George Pormort, Mayor of Grimsby in 1565, had a second son Thomas baptized, 7 February, 1566, but this can hardly be […]

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