August 26 – Raphael Semmes

August 23, 2021

Naval officer, b. in Charles County, Maryland, U.S.A., 27 September, 1809; d. at Point Clear, Alabama, 26 August, 1877. His family were descendants from one of the original Catholic colonists of Maryland, from which state he was appointed a midshipman in the U.S. Navy 1 April, 1826. He served until 1832, when he was given […]

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The Apogee and Crisis of the Third Revolution

August 19, 2021

[previous] CHAPTER II 1. The Apogee of the Third Revolution As we have seen,1 three great revolutions constituted the chief stages of the process to gradually demolish the Church and Christian civilization: in the sixteenth century, humanism, the Renaissance, and Protestantism (First Revolution); in the eighteenth century, the French Revolution (Second Revolution); and in the […]

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August 20 – St. Oswin, King

August 19, 2021

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

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

August 19, 2021

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

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August 20 – The Knights Templar owe him

August 19, 2021

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

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August 20 – Maria De Mattias

August 19, 2021

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

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August 20 – Bishop Matulionis’ life: a true Shepherd

August 19, 2021

By Plinio Correa de Oliveira When I received the exciting biography of Lithuanian Bishop Matulionis, opportunely translated into Brazilian Portuguese by the zealous initiative of my friend, Father Francisco Gavenas, I went through it in a different way than I usually do when looking at a new book… Read more here.

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August 21 – What Saint Pius X says about equality

August 19, 2021

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

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

August 19, 2021

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

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August 21 – La Vallete

August 19, 2021

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

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August 22 – The Queenship of Mary

August 19, 2021

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

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August 22 – Blessed John Wall

August 19, 2021

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

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A Chief’s Daughter Helps Spread the Faith Among the Coeur d’Alènes

August 19, 2021

Father Point had been two years with the Coeur d’Alènes. He had arrived there the first Friday of the month and, on that day, had placed the mission under the protection of the Sacred Heart. “From that moment,” he writes, “a Christian spirit animated the inhabitants of this happy valley. The nightly gatherings, sacrilegious ceremonies, […]

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

August 19, 2021

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

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

August 19, 2021

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

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August 23 – St. Rose of Lima

August 19, 2021

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

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August 23 – Cardinal-General

August 19, 2021

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

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

August 16, 2021

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

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August 17 – St. Clare of Montefalco

August 16, 2021

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

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August 18 – Soldier in every battlefield

August 16, 2021

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

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August 18 – The Empress who found the True Cross

August 16, 2021

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

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

August 16, 2021

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

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August 19 – St. John Eudes

August 16, 2021

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

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A Compassionate Queen

August 12, 2021

Another time during the chase, while passing over a bridge the postilion of her carriage fell, and four of the horses passed over his body; they picked him up, bleeding and unconscious. The dauphiness immediately stopped and desired that the man’s wounds should be dressed before her. “My friend,” she said to a page, with […]

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2. In a World in Continuous and Rapid Transformation, Is Revolution and Counter-Revolution Still Current? …

August 12, 2021

[previous] …The Answer Is Affirmative At the same time that the editions and fruits of Revolution and Counter-Revolution were multiplying on six continents,1 the world — impelled by the revolutionary process that has been dominating it for four centuries — underwent such rapid and profound changes that, as we launch this new edition, it is […]

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August 13 – The Pope Who Resigned

August 12, 2021

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

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August 13 – The antipope who became a saint

August 12, 2021

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

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August 13 – Crusader nun

August 12, 2021

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

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August 13 – The Ottomans lived in fear of this Capuchin

August 12, 2021

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

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August 13 – St. Maximus of Constantinople

August 12, 2021

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

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August 14 – Founding Father

August 12, 2021

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

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August 14 – St. Eusebius, Roman patrician and priest

August 12, 2021

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

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

August 12, 2021

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

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August 15 – Prester John

August 12, 2021

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

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

August 12, 2021

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

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August 16 – Apostle of the North

August 12, 2021

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

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August 10 – His sister founded the Conceptionists

August 9, 2021

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

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

August 9, 2021

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

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

August 9, 2021

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

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August 11 – János Hunyady

August 9, 2021

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

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August 11 – St. Attracta

August 9, 2021

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

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August 12 – His pontificate was spent in opposing royal absolutism

August 9, 2021

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

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August 12 – St. Jane Frances de Chantal

August 9, 2021

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

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Ignace, Chief of the Yakimas, Rejects a Bribe to Apostatize to Protestantism

August 5, 2021

Despite persecutions, the Catholic Indians with but few exceptions remained faithful to the Church. A Methodist minister who for some time had labored to turn Ignace, the chief of the Yakimas, from his faith, asked him one day how much he would want for changing to Protestantism. “A big price,” the chief answered him. “Two […]

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Revolution and Counter-Revolution and the TFPs: Twenty Years of Action and Combat

August 5, 2021

[previous] 1. Revolution and Counter-Revolution and the TFPs: Twenty Years of Action and Combat Twenty Years After, the title of a novel by Alexandre Dumas — so appreciated by Brazilian adolescents until the moment now long past when profound psychological transformations destroyed the taste for that kind of literature — is brought to mind by […]

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August 6 – He told his assassins “God does not die!”

August 5, 2021

Garcia Moreno His father, Gabriel García Gomez, a native of Villaverde, in Old Castile, had been engaged in commerce at Callao before removing to Guayaquil, where he married Dona Mercedes Moreno, the mother of the future Ecuadorean martyr president. Gabriel García Gomez died while his son was still young, and the boy’s education was left […]

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August 6 – Garcia Moreno: Heroic President of Ecuador

August 5, 2021

by José Maria dos Santos Gabriel Garcia Moreno, heroic President of Ecuador, assassinated for his Faith and Christian Charity. Manly Catholic of intransigent principles, slain by the enemies of the Faith because of his consistency and courage in defense of the Church and Papacy Gabriel Garcia Moreno was born in Guayaquil, in southern Ecuador on […]

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August 6 – Noble widower made pope

August 5, 2021

Pope St. Hormisdas Date of birth unknown, elected to the Holy See, 514; died at Rome, 6 August, 523. This able and sagacious pontiff belonged to a wealthy and honourable family of Frosinone (Frusino) in the Campagna di Roma (Latium). Before receiving higher orders he had been married; his son became pope under the name […]

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August 7 – St. Cajetan

August 5, 2021

St. Cajetan (GAETANO.) Nobleman of the dynasties of Da Porto and Thiene of Vicenza, Italy. Founder of the Theatines, born October, 1480 at Vicenza in Venetian territory; died at Naples in 1547. Under the care of a pious mother he passed a studious and exemplary youth, and took his degree as doctor utriusque juris at […]

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August 7 – Pope St. Sixtus II

August 5, 2021

Pope St. Sixtus II (XYSTUS) Elected 31 Aug., 257, martyred at Rome, 6 Aug., 258. His origin is unknown. The “Liber Pontificalis” says that he was a Greek by birth, but this is probably a mistake, originating from the false assumption that he was identical with a Greek philosopher of the same name, who was […]

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August 7 – Octogenarian martyr

August 5, 2021

Ven. Nicholas Postgate English martyr, b. at Kirkdale House, Egton, Yorkshire, in 1596 or 1597; d. at York, 7 August, 1679. He entered Douay College, 11 July, 1621, took the college oath, 12 March, 1623, received minor orders, 23 December, 1624, the subdiaconate, 18 December, 1827, the diaconate, 18 March, 1628, and the priesthood two […]

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August 7 – The Emperor who considered Christianity a crime worthy of death

August 5, 2021

Trajan Emperor of Rome (A.D. 98-117), b. at Italica Spain, 18 September, 53; d. 7 August, 117. He was descended from an old Roman family, and was adopted in 97 by the Emperor Nerva. Trajan was one of the ablest of the Roman emperors; he was stately and majestic in appearance, had a powerful will, […]

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August 7 – Opponent of Gregory VII

August 5, 2021

Henry IV German King and Roman Emperor, son of Henry III and Agnes of Poitou, b. at Goslar, 11 November, 1050; d. at Liège, 7 August, 1108. The power and resources of the empire left behind by Conrad II, which Henry III had already materially weakened, were still further impaired by the feebleness of the […]

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August 7 – Three martyrs of Lancaster

August 5, 2021

Ven. Edward Bamber (Alias Reading). Priest and martyr, b. at the Moor, Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire; executed at Lancaster 7 August, 1646. Educated at the English College, Valladolid, he was ordained and sent to England. On landing at Dover, he knelt down to thank God, which act, observed by the Governor of the Castle, was the cause […]

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August 8 – He told his king that anyone who betrays Jesus could betray their king

August 5, 2021

St. Hormisdas (Martyred c. 420) Isdegerdes, king of Persia, renewed the persecution which Cosroes II had raised against the church. It is not easy, says Theodoret, to describe or express the cruelties which were then invented against the disciples of Christ. Some were flayed alive, others had the skin torn from off their backs only, […]

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August 8 – The Rosary is really a weapon

August 5, 2021

St. Dominic Founder of the Order of Preachers, commonly known as the Dominican Order; born at Calaroga, in Old Castile, c. 1170; died 6 August, 1221. His parents, Felix Guzman and Joanna of Aza, undoubtedly belonged to the nobility of Spain, though probably neither was connected with the reigning house of Castile, as some of […]

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August 8 – He gloried in his crime

August 5, 2021

Bl. John Felton Martyr, date and place of birth unknown, was executed in St. Paul’s Churchyard, London, 8 August, 1570, for having, about eleven o’clock at night on the previous 24 May, affixed a copy of the Bull of St. Pius V excommunicating the queen to the gates of the Bishop of London’s palace near […]

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August 8 – They hated him because he enforced celibacy of the clergy

August 5, 2021

Bl. Altmann The friend of Gregory VII and Anselm, conspicuous in the contest of the Guelphs and Ghibellines, as Bishop of Passau and Papal Legate. He was born at Paderborn about the beginning of the eleventh century, presided over the school there, was chaplain at the court of Henry III, and then became Bishop of […]

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August 8 – Missionary in the court of the Chinese Emperor

August 5, 2021

Pierre-Martial Cibot Missionary, born at Limoges, France, 14 August, 1727; died at Peking, China, 8 August, 1780. He entered the Society of Jesus 7 November, 1743, and taught humanities with much success. He was sent to China at his own request 7 March, 1758, and arrived at Macao 25 July, 1759, whence he reached Peking […]

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August 8 – Princes, prelates, and priests revealed their consciences to him

August 5, 2021

Bl. Peter Faber Born 13 April, 1506, at Villaret, Savoy; died 1 Aug., 1546, in Rome. As a child he tended his father’s sheep during the week, and on Sunday he taught catechism to other children. The instinctive knowledge of his vocation as an apostle inspired him with a desire to study. At first he […]

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