February 4 – Probably the most learned man of his age

February 3, 2022

Blessed Maurus Magnentius Rabanus (Hrabanus, Rhabanus) Abbot of Fulda, Archbishop of Mainz, celebrated theological and pedagogical writer of the ninth century, born at Mainz about 776 (784?); died at Winkel (Vinicellum) near Mainz on 4 February, 856. He took vows at an early age in the Benedictine monastery of Fulda, and was ordained deacon in […]

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February 4 – Pope Gregory V

February 3, 2022

Pope Gregory V Born c. 970; died 4 February, 999. On the death of John XV the Romans sent a deputation to Otto III and asked him to name the one he would wish them to elect in the place of the deceased pontiff. He at once mentioned his chaplain and relation, Bruno, the son […]

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February 4 – Patron of Armenia

February 3, 2022

Gregory the Illuminator Born 257?; died 337?, surnamed the Illuminator (Lusavorich). Gregory the Illuminator is the apostle, national saint, and patron of Armenia. He was not the first who introduced Christianity into that country. The Armenians maintain that the faith was preached there by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddaeus. Thaddaeus especially (the hero of the […]

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February 5 – He put the Bible to verse and prose

February 3, 2022

St. Avitus (Alcimus Ecdicius). A distinguished bishop of Vienne, in Gaul, from 490 to about 518, though his death is place by some as late as 525 or 526. He was born of a prominent Gallo-Roman family closely related to the Emperor Avitus and other illustrious persons, and in which episcopal honors were hereditary. In […]

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February 5 – St. Agatha

February 3, 2022

St. Agatha One of the most highly venerated virgin martyrs of Christian antiquity, put to death for her steadfast profession of faith in Catania, Sicily. Although it is uncertain in which persecution this took place, we may accept, as probably based on ancient tradition, the evidence of her legendary life, composed at a later date, […]

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February 5 – St. Adelaide of Cologne

February 3, 2022

St. Adelaide (of Cologne) Abbess, born in the tenth century; died at Cologne, 5 February, 1015. She was daughter of Megingoz, Count of Guelders, and when still very young entered the convent of St. Ursula in Cologne, where the Rule of St. Jerome was followed. When her parents founded the convent of Villich, opposite the […]

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February 6 – Apostle of Flanders

February 3, 2022

St. Amandus One of the great apostles of Flanders; born near Nantes, in France, about the end of the sixth century. He was, apparently, of noble extraction. When a youth of twenty, he fled from his home and became a monk near Tours, resisting all the efforts of his family to withdraw him from his […]

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February 7 – Refused admission to the Pontifical Noble Guard, he became Pope instead

February 3, 2022

Pope Blessed Pius IX (GIOVANNI MARIA MASTAI-FERRETTI). Pope from 1846-78; born at Sinigaglia, 13 May, 1792; died in Rome, 7 February, 1878. BEFORE HIS PAPACY His early years. After receiving his classical education at the Piarist College in Volterra from 1802-09 he went to Rome to study philosophy and theology, but left there in 1810 […]

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February 7 – Saintly King, and Father of Three More Saints

February 3, 2022

St. Richard, King and Confessor This saint was an English prince, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, and was perhaps deprived of his inheritance by some revolution in the state: or he renounced it to be more at liberty to dedicate himself to the pursuit of Christian perfection… Read more here.

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February 1 – Immediately after his martyrdom, they lined up to venerate his relics

January 31, 2022

St. Henry Morse Martyr; born in 1595 in Norfolk; died at Tyburn, 1 Feb., 1644. He was received into the church at Douai, 5 June, 1614, after various journeys was ordained at Rome, and left for the mission, 19 June, 1624. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus at Heaton; there he was arrested […]

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February 1 – She and Saint Patrick were “one heart and one mind”

January 31, 2022

Saint Brigid of Ireland Born in 451 or 452 of princely ancestors at Faughart, near Dundalk, County Louth; d. 1 February, 525, at Kildare. Refusing many good offers of marriage, she became a nun and received the veil from St. Macaille. With seven other virgins she settled for a time at the foot of Croghan […]

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February 1 – Adventurer Historian

January 31, 2022

François-Xavier Charlevoix Historian, born at St-Quentin, France, 24 October, 1682, died at La Flèche, 1 February, 1761. He entered the Society of Jesus, 15 September, 1698, at the age of sixteen, studied philosophy at the Collège de Louis le Grand (1700-1704), and then went to Quebec, where he taught grammar from 1705 to 1709. During […]

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February 1 – “The sublime genius of the man”

January 31, 2022

Saint Ephraem (Ephrem, Ephraim) Born at Nisibis, then under Roman rule, early in the fourth century; died June, 373. The name of his father is unknown, but he was a pagan and a priest of the goddess Abnil or Abizal. His mother was a native of Amid. Ephraem was instructed in the Christian mysteries by […]

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February 2 – He hastened to the king, exhibited his wounded body and related his vision

January 31, 2022

St. Lawrence Second Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 2 Feb., 619. For the particulars of his life and pontificate we rely exclusively on details added by medieval writers being unsupported by historical evidence, though they may possibly embody ancient traditions. According to St. Bede, he was one of the original missionaries who left Rome with St. […]

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February 2 – “Though in chains, he is as gay as a little bird”

January 31, 2022

St. Théophane Vénard (JEAN-THÉOPHANE VÉNARD.) French missionary, born at St-Loup, Diocese of Poitiers, 1829; martyred in Tonkin, 2 February, 1861. He studied at the College of Doue-la-Fontaine, Montmorillon, Poitiers, and at the Paris Seminary for Foreign Missions which he entered as a sub-deacon. Ordained priest 5 June, 1852, he departed for the Far East, 19 […]

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February 3 – The Stuff of Which Saints Are Made

January 31, 2022

St. Anschar (Or Saint Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar.) Called the Apostle of the North, was born to the French nobility in Picardy, 8 September, 801; died 5 February, 865. He became a Benedictine of Corbie, whence he passed into Westphalia. With Harold, the newly baptized King of Denmark who had been expelled from his kingdom […]

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February 3 – Half Fierce Pagan Princess, Half Gentle Christian Princess

January 31, 2022

St. Werburgh of Chester (WEREBURGA, WEREBURG, VERBOURG). Benedictine, patroness of Chester, Abbess of Weedon, Trentham, Hanbury, Minster in Sheppy, and Ely, born in Staffordshire early in the seventh century; died at Trentham, 3 February, 699 or 700. Her mother was St. Ermenilda, daughter of Ercombert, King of Kent, and St. Sexburga, and her father, Wulfhere, […]

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February 3 – His crime was to call the queen a schismatic

January 31, 2022

Blessed John Nelson English Jesuit martyr, b. at Skelton, four miles from York, in 1534; d. at Tyburn, 3 February, 1577-78. He went to Douay in 1573, and two of his four brothers followed his example and became priests. He was ordained priest at Binche, in Hainault, by Mgr Louis de Berlaymont, Archbishop of Cambrai, […]

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Queen Elizabeth prepares to mark 70 years on throne

January 27, 2022

According to Reuters: Polls suggest a comfortable majority believe the monarchy should remain, with 83% holding a positive view of Elizabeth, according to one survey in December. But there are worrying signs for the royals. For some Britons, scandals embroiling Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the tumult of Donald Trump’s U.S. presidency also make having […]

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The Cid Sends Alvar Fanez to King Alfonso With a Gift of Thirty Horses

January 27, 2022

The Cid said then to Alvar: “I will send King Alfonso a present from my part of the spoils. You shall go to Castile, and take with you thirty horses, the best of those captured from the Moors, all saddled and bridled, and each having a sword hanging from the saddle bow; and you shall […]

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The Usefulness of the Action of the TFPs and Like Organizations Inspired by Revolution and Counter-Revolution

January 27, 2022

[previous] D. The Usefulness of the Action of the TFPs and Like Organizations Inspired by Revolution and Counter-Revolution In this specific battlefield, what has been the practical effect of the counter-revolutionary activity of the TFPs, inspired by Revolution and Counter-Revolution? By denouncing the danger of communist infiltration to Catholic opinion, the TFPs have opened the […]

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January 28 – Great in every sense

January 27, 2022

Charlemagne (French for Charles the Great, Carolus Magnus, or Carlus Magnus; German Karl der Grosse). The name given by later generations to Charles, King of the Franks, first sovereign of the Christian Empire of the West; born 2 April, 742; died at Aachen, 28 January, 814. At the time of Charles’ birth, his father, Pepin […]

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January 28 – Angelic Doctor, Count

January 27, 2022

St. Thomas Aquinas Philosopher, theologian, doctor of the Church (Angelicus Doctor), patron of Catholic universities, colleges, and schools. Born at Rocca Secca in the Kingdom of Naples, 1225 or 1227; died at Fossa Nuova, 7 March, 1274… Read more here.

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January 28 – Larochejacquelein killed by the very men whose lives he spared

January 27, 2022

While Turreau was thus devastating La Vendée, where were Larochejacquelein, Stofflet, and Charette? Had they forgotten their country and its cause—were they deaf to her cries of distress? Charette still fought in the depths of the Marais; Stofflet in the recesses of the Bocage; but Larochejacquelein, the young, the brave, the chivalrous, the peasants’ idol […]

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January 29 – Noble enough to cover five contemporary kings with invective

January 27, 2022

St. Gildas Surnamed the Wise; born about 516; died at Houat, Brittany, 570. Sometimes he is called “Badonicus” because, as he tells us, his birth took place the year the Britons gained a famous victory over the Saxons at Mount Badon, near Bath, Somersetshire (493 or 516). The biographies of Gildas exist — one written […]

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January 30 – Cured in body and in soul

January 27, 2022

St. Hyacintha Mariscotti A religious of the Third Order of St. Francis and foundress of the Sacconi; born 1585 of a noble family at Vignanello, near Viterbo in Italy; died 30 January, 1640, at Viterbo; feast, 30 January; in Rome, 6 February (Diarium Romanum)… Read more here.

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January 30 – St. Martina

January 27, 2022

St. Martina Roman virgin, martyred in 226, according to some authorities, more probably in 228, under the pontificate of Pope Urban I, according to others. The daughter of an ex-consul and left an orphan at an early age, she so openly testified to her Christian faith that she could not escape the persecutions under Alexander […]

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January 31 – St. John Bosco Meets His First Noble Patroness

January 27, 2022

Juliette Colbert, a native of Vendée, had married Marquis Tancredi Falletti of Barolo, and of her it could be said, even as we read of Tabitha in the Acts of the Apostles: “This woman had devoted herself to good works and acts of charity.” Indeed, she used her abundant wealth to help the working classes […]

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January 31 – The Glory of the Ladies

January 27, 2022

St. Marcella (325–410)  She was a Christian ascetic in ancient Rome. Growing up in Rome, she was influenced by her pious mother, Albina, an educated woman of wealth and benevolence. Childhood memories centered around piety, and one in particular related to Athanasius, who lodged in her home during one of his many exiles. He may […]

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January 28 – St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia

January 27, 2022

St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia Born at Premariacco, near Cividale, Italy, about 730-40; died 802. Born probably of a Roman family during Longobardic rule in Italy, he was brought up in the patriarchal schools at Cividale. After ordination he became master of the school. He acquired a thorough Latin culture, pagan and Christian. He […]

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January 25 – St. Poppo

January 24, 2022

St. Poppo Abbot, born 977; died at Marchiennes, 25 January, 1048. He belonged to a noble family of Flanders; his parents were Tizekinus and Adalwif. About the year 1000 he made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with two others of his countrymen. Soon after this he also went on a pilgrimage to Rome. He […]

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January 25 – Blessed Teresa Grillo Michel

January 24, 2022

BL. TERESA GRILLO MICHEL was born in Spinetta Marengo (Alessandria), Italy, on 25 September 1855. She was the fifth and last child of Giuseppe, the head physician at the Civil Hospital of Alessandria, and of Maria Antonietta Parvopassau, a descendent of an illustrious family of Alessandria. At Baptism she was given the name of Maddalena. […]

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January 25 – St. Ildephonsus

January 24, 2022

St. Ildephonsus Archbishop of Toledo; died 23 January, 667. He was born of a distinguished family and was a nephew of St. Eugenius, his predecessor in the See of Toledo. At an early age, despite the determined opposition of his father, he embraced the monastic life in the monastery of Agli, near Toledo. While he […]

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January 26 – She was from one of the first families of Rome

January 24, 2022

St. Paula Born in Rome, 347; died at Bethlehem, 404. She belonged to one of the first families of Rome. Left a widow in 379 at the age of 32 she became, through the influence of St. Marcella and her group, the model of Christian widows. In 382 took place her decisive meeting with St. […]

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January 27 – Foundress of the Ursulines

January 24, 2022

St. Angela Merici Foundress of the Ursulines, born 21 March, 1474, at Desenzano, a small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy; died 27 January, 1540, at Brescia. She was left an orphan at the age of ten and together with her elder sister came to the home of her uncle at […]

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January 27 – Canossa

January 24, 2022

A former castle of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany, in the foothills of the Apennines, about eighteen miles from Parma, where took place the dramatic penance of King Henry IV of Germany in presence of Pope Gregory VII. The king, excommunicated 22 February, 1076, would have been utterly abandoned by the inimical German princess unless within […]

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January 27 – Pope St. Vitalian

January 24, 2022

Pope St. Vitalian (Reigned 657-72). Date of birth unknown; d. 27 January, 672. Nothing is known of Vitalian’s life before he was raised to the Holy See. According to the “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 343) he was a native of Segni in Campagna, and his father’s name was Anastasius. After the death of Pope […]

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January 27 – James Campbell

January 24, 2022

James Campbell Born at Philadelphia, 1 Sept., 1812; died there, 27 Jan., 1893. His father was Anthony Campbell, and his grandfather George Campbell, a native of Fintona, County Tyrone, Ireland. James was educated at the private school of Geraldus Stockdale, studied law with Hon. Robert D. Ingraham, was admitted to the Bar on 14 Sept., […]

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January 27 – John de Pineda

January 24, 2022

John de Pineda Born in Seville, 1558; died there, 27 Jan., 1637. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1572, taught philosophy and theology five years in Seville and Cordova, and specialized in Scripture, which he taught for eighteen years in Cordova, Seville, and Madrid. He held the posts of Provost of the professed house […]

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January 27 – Pope Sergius II

January 24, 2022

Pope Sergius II Date of birth unknown; consecrated in 844, apparently in January; d. 27 Jan., 847. He was of noble birth, and belonged to a family which gave two other popes to the Church. Educated in the schola cantorum, he was patronized by several popes, and was ordained Cardinal-priest of the Church of Sts. […]

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Japanese succession debate to begin

January 20, 2022

According to The Asahi Shimbun: Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has handed off the hot potato issue of imperial succession to the Diet. Debate in the Diet is not expected to proceed smoothly as the ruling and opposition parties have differing views on the issue. The panel submitted its report…which made two proposals: one is to […]

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True Happiness

January 20, 2022

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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Reactions Based on Revolution and Counter-Revolution

January 20, 2022

[previous] C. Reactions Based on Revolution and Counter-Revolution Has the efficacy of Revolution and Counter-Revolution been annulled by these numerous changes? On the contrary. In 1968, the TFPs then existing in South America, inspired in particular by Part II of this essay (“The Counter-Revolution”), organized national petition drives addressed to Paul VI, requesting measures against […]

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January 21 – Pope Paschal II

January 20, 2022

Pope Paschal II (RAINERIUS). Succeeded Urban II, and reigned from 13 Aug., 1099, till he died at Rome, 21 Jan., 1118. Born in central Italy, he was received at an early age as a monk in Cluny. In his twentieth year he was sent on business of the monastery to Rome, and was retained at […]

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January 21 – None was held in such high honor

January 20, 2022

St. Agnes of Rome Of all the virgin martyrs of Rome none was held in such high honour by the primitive church, since the fourth century, as St. Agnes. In the ancient Roman calendar of the feasts of the martyrs (Depositio Martyrum), incorporated into the collection of Furius Dionysius Philocalus, dating from 354 and often […]

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January 21 – He was put to death, just for being a king

January 20, 2022

His Last Will and Testament The last Will and Testament of Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre, given on Christmas day, 1792. In the name of the Very holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. To-day, the 25th day of December, 1792, I, Louis XVI King of France, being for more than four months […]

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January 22 – Patroness of abuse victims

January 20, 2022

Blessed Laura Vicuña Laura del Carmen Vicuña was born on April 5, 1891 in Santiago, Chile. She was the first daughter of the Vicuña Pino family. Her parents were José Domingo Vicuña, a soldier with aristocratic roots, and Mercedes Pino. Her father was in military service and her mother worked at home… Read more here.

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January 22 – Patron of American Missions

January 20, 2022

Adèle Bayer (née Parmentier) Eldest daughter of Andrew Parmentier, b. in Belgium, 4 July, 1814, and d. in Brooklyn, New York, 22 January, 1892. Andrew Parmentier, a horticulturist and civil engineer, was b. at Enghien, Belgium, 3 July, 1780, and d. in Brooklyn, New York, 26 November, 1830. His father, Andrew Joseph Parmentier, was a […]

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January 22 – The noble who often returned home barefoot

January 20, 2022

St. Vincent Mary Pallotti The founder of the Pious Society of Missions, born at Rome, 21 April, 1798; died there, 22 Jan., 1850. He lies buried in the church of San Salvatore in Onda. He was descended from the noble families of the Pallotti of Norcia and the De Rossi of Rome. His early studies […]

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January 22 – Blessed Prince

January 20, 2022

Blessed Prince László Batthyány-Strattmann Ladislaus Batthyány-Strattmann (1870-1931), a layman, doctor and father of a family. He was born on 28 October 1870 in Dunakiliti, Hungary, into an ancient noble family. He was the sixth of 10 brothers. In 1876 the family moved to Austria. When Ladislaus was 12 years old his mother died. He was […]

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January 22 – Defended by a raven

January 20, 2022

St. Vincent of Saragossa Deacon of Saragossa, and martyr under Diocletian, 304; mentioned in the Roman Martyrology, 22 Jan., with St. Anastasius the Persian, honoured by the Greeks, 11 Nov. This most renowned martyr of Spain is represented in the dalmatic of a deacon, and has as emblems a cross, a raven, a grate, or […]

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January 23 – Mary Ward and the Institute of Mary

January 20, 2022

Mary Ward Foundress, born 23 January, 1585; died 23 January, 1645; eldest daughter of Marmaduke Ward and Ursula Wright, and connected by blood with most of the great Catholic families of Yorkshire. She entered a convent of Poor Clares at St.-Omer as lay sister in 1606. The following year she founded a house for Englishwomen […]

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January 23 – Saint Emerentiana

January 20, 2022

Virgin and martyr, died at Rome in the third century. The old Itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs, after giving the place of burial on the Via Nomentana of St. Agnes, speak of St. Emerentiana. Over the grave of St. Emerentiana a church was built which, according to the Itineraries, was near the […]

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January 23 – St. Bernard

January 20, 2022

(BARNARD.) Archbishop of Vienne, France. Born in 778; died at Vienne, 23 January, 842. His parents, who lived near Lyons and had large possessions, gave him an excellent education, and Bernard in obedience to the paternal wish, married and became a military officer under Charlemagne. After seven years as a soldier the death of his […]

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January 24 – Saintly and Aristocrat

January 20, 2022

St. Francis de Sales Bishop of Geneva, Doctor of the Universal Church; born at Thorens, in the Duchy of Savoy, 21 August, 1567; died at Lyons, 28 December, 1622. His father, François de Sales de Boisy, and his mother, Françoise de Sionnaz, belonged to old Savoyard aristocratic families. The future saint was the eldest of […]

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January 24 – They called him “Ironmonger”

January 20, 2022

Blessed William Ireland (Alias Ironmonger.) Jesuit martyr, born in Lincolnshire, 1636; executed at Tyburn, 24 Jan. (not 3 Feb.), 1679; eldest son of William Ireland of Crofton Hall, Yorkshire, by Barbara, a daughter of Ralph Eure, of Washingborough, Lincolnshire (who is to be distinguished from the last Lord Eure) by his first wife. He was […]

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January 24 – Otto III

January 20, 2022

German king and Roman emperor, b. 980; d. at Paterno, 24 Jan., 1002. At the age of three he was elected king at Verona, in very restless times. Henry the Quarrelsome, the deposed Duke of Bavaria, claimed his guardianship. This nobleman wished for the imperial crown. To further his object he made an alliance with […]

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January 24 – Cardinal Ercole Consalvi

January 20, 2022

Cardinal and statesman, b. in Rome, 8 June, 1757; d. there, 24 January, 1824. Family His ancestors belonged to the noble family of the Brunacci in Pisa, one of whom settled in the town of Toscanella in the Papal States about the middle of the seventeenth century. The grandfather of the cardinal, Gregorio Brunacci, inherited […]

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January 24 – Pope Stephen (IV) V and the confusion of counting the Popes Stephen

January 20, 2022

Pope Stephen (IV) V (816-17) Stephen (IV) V, Pope, date of birth unknown; died 24 Jan., 817. Stephen, the son of Marinus, was of the same noble Roman family which gave two other popes to the Church. During his youth he had been patronized by Hadrian I and Leo III, the latter of whom had […]

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January 18 – St. Margaret of Hungary

January 17, 2022

St. Margaret of Hungary Daughter of King Bela I of Hungary and his wife Marie Laskaris, born 1242; died 18 Jan., 1271. According to a vow which her parents made when Hungary was liberated from the Tatars that their next child should be dedicated to religion, Margaret, in 1245 entered the Dominican Convent of Veszprem. […]

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