Feast of Glory and Peace

December 23, 2021

By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in 1984 “GLORY to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will” (Luke 2:14). It is impossible for a Catholic to meditate on Christmas without recalling, and almost hearing, the harmonious and luminous words in which the angels proclaimed to men the great tidings of […]

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Christmas Story Collection

December 23, 2021

Our Lord as the Point of Reference Some Reflections on the Story of the Little Drummer Boy Christmas Preparation The Count and The Chimneysweep How did St. Nicholas evolve into Santa Claus and why? For Christmas Gifts, St. Louis IX of France Gives His Nobles Crusader Crosses Empress Sisi’s Christmas for the poor Christmas in […]

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The Incarnation and Birth of Our Lord: More Audacious Than Any Utopia

December 23, 2021

Nothing proves how grace makes utopias possible than the thought of Christmas. As Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira observed: “Something happens on Christmas night. It is as if through the power of God an immense impossibility becomes possible, and a shower of graces flows from Heaven to earth, turning into marvelous realities all of our […]

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Spiritual Richness in the Common Life of the People

December 23, 2021

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira The National Museum of Ancient Art in Portugal preserves, among other valuable works, the nativity scene from the church of St. Vincent de Fora sculpted by Joaquim Machado de Castro in the eighteenth century. In our photograph, we present one detail from this nativity scene: the shepherds coming to adore […]

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December 24 – Adam and Eve

December 23, 2021

Adam The first man and the father of the human race. ETYMOLOGY AND USE OF WORD There is not a little divergence of opinion among Semitic scholars when they attempt to explain the etymological signification of the Hebrew word adam (which in all probability was originally used as a common rather than a proper name), […]

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December 24 – Vasco da Gama

December 23, 2021

Vasco da Gama The discover of the sea route to East Indies; born at Sines, Province of Alemtejo, Portugal, about 1469; died at Cochin, India, 24 December, 1524. His father, Estevão da Gama, was Alcaide Mor of Sines, and Commendador of Cercal, and held an important office at court under Alfonso V. After the return […]

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December 24 – Sts. Trasilla and Emiliana

December 23, 2021

Aunts of St. Gregory the Great, virgins in the sixth century, given in the Roman Martyrology, the former on 24 December, the latter on 5 January. St. Gregory (Hom. XXXVIII, 15, on the Gospel of St. Matthew, and Lib. Dial., IV, 16) relates that his father, the Senator Gordian, had three sisters who vowed themselves […]

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December 24 – Sts. Irmina and Adela

December 23, 2021

Princesses Irmina and Adela were daughters of St. Dagobert II, King of the Francs. Their father had acceded to the throne at the age of seven but had been deposed soon after and had fled to Ireland for safety. During his exile he married the Anglo-Saxon princess, Matilda, and had five children, among them Adela […]

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December 25 – On Christmas Day, He Died

December 23, 2021

St. Peter Nolasco Born at Mas-des-Saintes-Puelles, near Castelnaudary, France, in 1189 (or 1182); died at Barcelona, on Christmas Day, 1256 (or 1259). He was of a noble family and from his youth was noted for his piety, almsgiving, and charity. Having given all his possessions to the poor, he took a vow of virginity and, […]

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December 26 – He had the face of an angel

December 23, 2021

St. Stephen One of the first deacons and the first Christian martyr; feast on 26 December. In the Acts of the Apostles the name of St. Stephen occurs for the first time on the occasion of the appointment of the first deacons (Acts, vi, 5). Dissatisfaction concerning the distribution of alms from the community’s fund […]

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December 27 – Son of Thunder

December 23, 2021

St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Styled in the gospel, The beloved disciple of Christ, and called by the Greeks The Divine, he was a Galilean, the son of Zebedee and Salome, and younger brother to St. James the Great, with whom he was brought up to the trade of fishing. From his acquaintance with […]

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December 27 – The divorced saint

December 23, 2021

St. Fabiola of Rome A Roman matron of rank, died 27 December, 399 or 400. She was one of the company of noble Roman women who, under the influence of St. Jerome, gave up all earthly pleasures and devoted themselves to the practice of Christian asceticism and to charitable work. At the time of St. […]

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December 21 – Doctor of the Church & Second Apostle of Germany

December 20, 2021

St. Peter Canisius Born at Nimwegen in the Netherlands, 8 May, 1521; died in Fribourg, 21 November, 1597. His father was the wealthy burgomaster, Jacob Canisius; his mother, Ægidia van Houweningen, died shortly after Peter’s birth. In 1536 Peter was sent to Cologne, where he studied arts, civil law, and theology at the university; he […]

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December 22 – “I swear by St. Eimhin’s bell…”

December 20, 2021

St. Eimhin Abbot and Bishop of Ros-mic-Truin (Ireland), probably in the sixth century. He came of the royal race of Munster, and was brother of two other saints, Culain and Dairmid. Of the early part of his religious life little is known. When he became abbot of the monastery of Ros-mic-Truin, in succession to its […]

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December 23 – He Always Held His Soul in His Hands

December 20, 2021

Saint Antônio de Sant’Anna Galvão Born 1739, in the village of Santo Antonio da Vila de Guaratinguetá, Brazil; died 23 December, 1822, at the Convent of Light, São Paulo, Brazil. His father, also named Anthony, belonged to an illustrious Portuguese family and was well educated, as evidenced by his writings. He excelled in business, the […]

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December 23 – The Knights of Aviz and Their Cistercian Founder

December 20, 2021

Saint John of Cirita Memorial: 23 December Benedictine monk, also known as John Ziritu. Hermit in Galacia. Monk at Toronca, Portugal, which he helped turn into a Cistercian house. Wrote the Rule of the Knights of Aviz (Portuguese: Ordem Militar de Avis).  Died, c. 1164… Read more here.

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December 23 – Duke of Guise

December 20, 2021

HENRI I DE LORRAINE Prince de Joinville, and in 1563 third Duke of Guise, born 31 Dec. 1550, the son of François de Guise and Anne d’Este; died at Blois, 23 Dec., 1588. The rumours which attributed to Coligny a share in the murder of François de Guise hailed in the young Henri de Guise, […]

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A Royal Recipe: Cinnamon Stars

December 16, 2021

Recipe Ingredients 360g Icing Sugar 85g Egg White 20g Lemon Juice 300g Ground Almonds 115g Mixed Peel ½ Lemon, zested 12g Ground Cinnamon ¼ tsp Ground Cloves   Method 1.       Blitz the mixed peel into a paste-like texture, set aside. 2.       Whip the icing sugar, egg white with lemon juice into a soft peak meringue. Take 1/3 […]

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The Daughter of Red Fish, Great Chief of the Ogallalas, Is Liberated From Captivity Among the Crows

December 16, 2021

The Ogallalas had invaded the country of the Crows, and had met them in battle. The latter fought bravely, killing ten or twelve of their agressors and driving the others off with clubs. The daughter of Red Fish, the great chief of the Ogallalas, was taken captive by the Crows. Crushed and humiliated, he left […]

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The Second Vatican Council – Continued

December 16, 2021

[previous] A. The Second Vatican Council – Continued History narrates the innumerable dramas the Church has suffered in the twenty centuries of her existence: oppositions that germinated outside her and tried to destroy her from outside; malignancies that formed within her, were cut off by her, and thereafter ferociously tried to destroy her from outside. […]

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December 17 – St. Olympias

December 16, 2021

Born 360-5; died 25 July, 408, probably at Nicomedia. This pious, charitable, and wealthy disciple of St. John Chrysostom came from an illustrious family in Constantinople. Her father (called by the sources Secundus or Selencus) was a “Count” of the empire; one of her ancestors, Ablabius, filled in 331 the consular office, and was also […]

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December 17 – St. Begga, Widow and Abbess

December 16, 2021

This saint was daughter of Pepin of Landen, eldest sister to St. Gertrude of Nivelle, and married Ansegise, son to St. Arnoul, who was some time mayor of the palace, and afterwards bishop of Metz. Her husband being killed in hunting, she dedicated herself to a penitential state of retirement, and, after performing a pilgrimage […]

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December 17 – St. Sturmius and the diocese of Fulda

December 16, 2021

To systematize the work of evangelizing Germany, St. Boniface organized a hierarchy on the usual ecclesiastical basis; in Bavaria the Dioceses of Salzburg, Freising, Ratisbon, and Passau; in Franconia and Thuringia, Würzburg, Eichstätt, Buraburg near Fritzlar, and Erfurt. To facilitate missionary work farther north, especially among the Saxons, he sought a suitable spot for the […]

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December 18 – St. Flannan

December 16, 2021

St. Flannan mac Toirrdelbaig, was the son of Turlough, the King of Thomond in Ireland. He became a monk at the monastery of Killaloe, and at a certain point made a pilgrimage to Rome where Pope John IV consecrated him bishop. He was the first bishop of Killaloe, the diocese becoming one of twenty-four established […]

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December 19 – How Tumultuous Times Reveal Noble Souls

December 16, 2021

Pope Blessed Urban V Guillaume de Grimoard, born at Grisac in Languedoc, 1310; died at Avignon, 19 December, 1370. Born of a knightly family, he was educated at Montpellier and Toulouse, and became a Benedictine monk at the little priory of Chirac near his home. A Bull of 1363 informs us that he was professed […]

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December 19 – Pope St. Anastasius I

December 16, 2021

Pope St. Anastasius I A pontiff who is remembered chiefly for his condemnation of Origenism. A Roman by birth, he became Pope in 399, and died within a little less than four years. Among his friends were Augustine, and Jerome, and Paulinus, Jerome speaks of him as a man or great holiness who was rich […]

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December 20 – Abraham

December 16, 2021

Abraham The original form of the name, Abram, is apparently the Assyrian Abu-ramu. It is doubtful if the usual meaning attached to that word “lofty father”, is correct. The meaning given to Abraham in Genesis 17:5 is popular word play, and the real meaning is unknown. The Assyriologist, Hommel suggests that in the Minnean dialect, […]

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December 20 – Isaac

December 16, 2021

Isaac The son of Abraham and Sara. The incidents of his life are told in Genesis 15-35, in a narrative the principal parts of which are traced back by many scholars to three several documents (J, E, P) utilized in the composition of the Book of Genesis (see ABRAHAM). According to Genesis 17:17; 18:12; 21:6, […]

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December 20 – Jacob

December 16, 2021

Jacob The son of Isaac and Rebecca, third great patriarch of the chosen people, and the immediate ancestor of the twelve tribes of Israel. The incidents of his life are given in parts of Gen., xxv, 21-1, 13, wherein the documents (J, E, P) are distinguished by modern scholars (see ABRAHAM, I, 52). His name— […]

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December 20 – Her church ranks third in Rome

December 16, 2021

St. Anastasia This martyr enjoys the distinction, unique in the Roman liturgy, of having a special commemoration in the second Mass on Christmas day. This Mass was originally celebrated not in honour of the birth of Christ, but in commemoration of this martyr, and towards the end of the fifth century her name was also […]

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December 14 – Son of a disinherited noble

December 13, 2021

St. John of the Cross Founder (with St. Teresa) of the Discalced Carmelites, doctor of mystic theology, born at Hontoveros, Old Castile, 24 June, 1542; died at Ubeda, Andalusia, 14 Dec., 1591. John de Yepes, youngest child of Gonzalo de Yepes and Catherine Alvarez, poor silk weavers of Toledo, knew from his earliest years the […]

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December 15 – St. Drostan

December 13, 2021

St. Drostan (DRUSTAN, DUSTAN, THROSTAN) A Scottish abbot who flourished about a.d. 600. All that is known of him is found in the “Breviarium Aberdonense” and in the “Book of Deir”, a ninth-century MS. now in the University Library of Cambridge, but these two accounts do not agree in every particular. He appears to have […]

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December 16 – St. Adelaide: Most Important Woman of Her Century

December 13, 2021

St. Adelaide (ADELHEID). Born 931; died 16 December, 999, one of the conspicuous characters in the struggle of Otho the Great to obtain the imperial crown from the Roman Pontiffs. She was the daughter of Rudolph II, King of Burgundy, who was at war with Hugh of Provence for the crown of Italy. The rivals […]

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December 16 – Saint Judicael ap Hoel

December 13, 2021

Saint Judicael ap Hoel (c. 590 – 16 or 17 December 658) was the King of Domnonée and a Breton high king in the mid-seventh century. According to Gregory of Tours, the Bretons were divided into various regna (subkingdoms) during the sixth century, of which Domnonée, Cornouaille, and Broweroch are the best known; they had […]

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December 16 – Can Whistleblowers Be Saints? This One Was…

December 13, 2021

St. Ado, Archbishop of Vienne, Confessor Born about 800, in the diocese of Sens; died 16 December, 875. He was brought up at the Benedictine Abbey of Ferrières, and had as one of his masters the Abbot Lupus Servatus, one of the most celebrated humanists of those times. By his brilliant talents and assiduous application […]

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A Life Lesson

December 9, 2021

Charles IX, King of France, once asked the Poet Tasso who, in his estimation, was the happiest? Tasso without hesitation replied, “God.” “Every one knows that,” responded the King, “therefore my question does not refer to Him; but who after God is the happiest?” Then Tasso answered: “He who becomes most like to God.” Flowers […]

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Astonishing Calamities in the Church’s Post-Conciliar Phase

December 9, 2021

[previous] COMMENTARY The historic declaration of Paul VI in the allocution Resistite fortes in fide, of June 29, 1972, is fundamental for a better understanding of the calamities in the post-Conciliar phase of the Church. We quote the Poliglotta Vaticana. Referring to the situation of the Church today, the Holy Father affirmed that he had […]

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December 10 – To protest the emperor, he paid special honor to images and relics

December 9, 2021

Pope St. Gregory III (Reigned 731-741.) Pope St. Gregory III was the son of a Syrian named John. The date of his birth is not known. His reputation for learning and virtue was so great that the Romans elected him pope by acclamation, when he was accompanying the funeral procession of his predecessor, 11 February, […]

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December 10 – The First Pope to Live in a Palace

December 9, 2021

Pope St. Miltiades The year of his birth is not known; he was elected pope in either 310 or 311; died 10 or 11 January, 314. After the banishment of Pope Eusebius, the Roman See was vacant for some time, probably because of the complications which has arisen on account of the apostates (lapsi), and […]

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December 11 – Pope Falsely Accused of Adultery

December 9, 2021

Pope St. Damasus I Born about 304; died 11 December, 384. His father, Antonius, was probably a Spaniard; the name of his mother, Laurentia, was not known until quite recently. Damasus seems to have been born at Rome; it is certain that he grew up there in the service of the church of the martyr […]

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December 11 – Her Name Was “Mother Marvelous”

December 9, 2021

St. María de las Maravillas de Jesús Pidal y Chico de Guzmán was born in Madrid, Spain, on 4 November 1891. She was the daughter of Luis Pidal y Mon, Marquis of Pidal, and Cristina Chico de Guzmán y Munoz. At the time her father was the Spanish ambassador to the Holy See and she grew […]

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December 12 – Tancred

December 9, 2021

Tancred Prince of Antioch, born about 1072; died at Antioch, 12 Dec., 1112. He was the son of Marquess Odo and Emma, probably the daughter of Robert Guiscard. He took the Cross in 1096 with the Norman lords of Southern Italy and joined the service of his uncle Bohemund. Having disembarked at Arlona (Epirus), they […]

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December 12 – Guadalupe: She Who Smashes the Serpent

December 9, 2021

by Cesar Franco Pope Pius XII gave Our Lady of Guadalupe the title of “Empress of the Americas” in 1945. Since December 12 is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, this is a propitious moment to recall how She reigns over our nation from Heaven, protecting and guiding us with Motherly solicitude and tenderness. […]

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December 13 – The girl named Lucy, opposite of Lucifer

December 9, 2021

St. Lucy A virgin and martyr of Syracuse in Sicily, whose feast is celebrated by Latins and Greeks alike on 13 Dec. According to the traditional story, she was born of rich and noble parents about the year 283. Her father was of Roman origin, but his early death left her dependent upon her mother, […]

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December 13 – St. Odilia

December 9, 2021

St. Odilia Patroness of Alsace, born at the end of the seventh century; died about 720. According to a trustworthy statement, apparently taken from an earlier life, she was the daughter of the Frankish lord Adalrich (Aticus, Etik) and his wife Bereswinda, who had large estates in Alsace. She founded the convent of Hohenburg (Odilienberg) […]

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December 13 – “The eyes which I must please are a hundred miles from here”

December 9, 2021

St. Jane Frances de Chantal 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 […]

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December 13 – Elected Pope to Fight the Emperor

December 9, 2021

Pope Callistus II Date of birth unknown; died 13 December, 1124. His reign, beginning 1 February, 1119, is signalized by the termination of the Investiture controversy which, begun in the time of Gregory VII, had raged with almost unabated bitterness during the last quarter of the eleventh century and the opening years of the twelfth. […]

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December 6 – Good St. Nicholas

December 6, 2021

Life of Saint Nicholas from Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine Here beginneth the Life of Saint Nicholas the Bishop. Nicholas is said of Nichos, which is to say victory, and of laos, people, so Nicholas is as much as to say as victory of people, that is, victory of sins, which befoul people. Or […]

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December 6 – Martyr of the Muslims

December 6, 2021

St. Peter Paschal, Bishop and Martyr This saint was born in Valencia, Spain, in 1227, and descended of the ancient family of the Paschals, which had edified the Church by the triumphs of five glorious martyrs, which it produced under the Moors. Peter’s parents were virtuous and exceedingly charitable; and St. Peter Nolasco often lodged […]

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December 7 – The People Acclaimed Him as Bishop Even Though He Was Unbaptized

December 6, 2021

St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397; born probably 340, at Trier, Arles, or Lyons; died 4 April, 397. He was one of the most illustrious Fathers and Doctors of the Church, and fitly chosen, together with St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, and St. Athanasius, to uphold the venerable Chair of the Prince […]

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December 8 – To overcome his repugnance, he bound himself by vow

December 6, 2021

St. Noel Chabanel A Jesuit missionary among the Huron Indians, born in Southern France, 2 February, 1613; slain by a renegade Huron, 8 December, 1649. Chabanel entered the Jesuit novitiate at Toulouse at the age of seventeen, and was professor of rhetoric in several colleges of the society in the province of Toulouse. He was […]

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December 8 – The Immaculate Conception: The Celebration of Privilege

December 6, 2021

Wherefore, in humility and fasting, we unceasingly offered our private prayers as well as the public prayers of the Church to God the Father through his Son, that he would deign to direct and strengthen our mind by the power of the Holy Spirit. In like manner did we implore the help of the entire […]

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December 9 – Banker and Saint

December 6, 2021

St. Peter Fourier Known as LE BON PÈRE DE MATTAINCOURT (Good Father of Mattaincourt), born at Mirecourt, Lorraine, 30 Nov., 1565 died at Gray, Haute-Saône, 9 Dec., 1640. At fifteen he was sent to the University of Pont-à-Mousson. His piety and learning led many noble families to ask him to educate their sons. He became […]

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The Cid Captures Alcocer, Making It His Base of Operations Against the Moors

December 2, 2021

They rode all that day and the next, taking some spoils on the way, and then came to Alcocer, which the Cid wished to capture. There they pitched their tents upon a great hill, near the river Salon. This was a strong place, with the mountain on one side and the river on the other, […]

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The Second Vatican Council

December 2, 2021

[previous] 4. The Third Revolution’s Psychological Offensive Within The Church It would be impossible to describe this psychological warfare without carefully examining its development in what is the very soul of the West, that is, Christianity, and more precisely the Catholic religion, which is Christianity in its absolute fullness and unique authenticity. A. The Second […]

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The Chief of the Coeur d’Alènes and His Tribe Convert to the Catholic Faith

November 25, 2021

After crossing the Bitter Root Mountains he came to the country of the Coeur d’Alènes, a fertile, lovely valley stretching westward hundreds of miles. Clusters of dark pines and cedars emerged from the green plain, in the center of which lay a lake well stocked with fish. A river ran through the valley, and to […]

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4. The Third Revolution’s Psychological Offensive Within The Church

November 25, 2021

It would be impossible to describe this psychological warfare without carefully examining its development in what is the very soul of the West, that is, Christianity, and more precisely the Catholic religion, which is Christianity in its absolute fullness and unique authenticity. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Revolution and Counter-Revolution (York, Penn.: The American Society for […]

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November 26 – How a Catholic Queen gave Spain its Golden Age

November 25, 2021

Queen Isabella I (“The Catholic”) Queen of Castile; born in the town of Madrigal de las Altas Torres, 22 April, 1451; died a little before noon, 26 November, 1504, in the castle of La Mota, which still stands at Medina del Campo (Valladolid). She was the daughter of John II, King of Castile, by his […]

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November 26 – St. Leonard of Port Maurice

November 25, 2021

St. Leonard of Port Maurice Preacher and ascetic writer, b. 20 Dec., 1676, at Porto Maurizio on the Riviera di Ponente; d. at the monastery of S. Bonaventura, Rome, 26 Nov., 1751. The son of Domenico Casanova and Anna Maria Benza, he joined after a brilliant course of study with the Jesuits in Rome (Collegio […]

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November 26 – St. Sylvester Gozzolini

November 25, 2021

Founder of the Sylvestrines, b. of the noble family of the Gozzolini at Osimo, 1177; d. 26 Nov., 1267. He was sent to study jurisprudence at Bologna and Padua, but, feeling within himself a call to the ecclesiastical state, abandoned the study of law for that of theology and Holy Scripture, giving long hours daily […]

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