September 5 – Unashamed to beg alms even from his noble family

September 2, 2021

St. Laurence Justinian, Bishop and Confessor, First Patriarch of Venice Bishop and first Patriarch of Venice, born in 1381, and died 8 January, 1456. He was a descendant of the Giustiniani, a Venetian patrician family which numbered several saints among its members. Lawrence’s pious mother sowed the seeds of a devout religious life in the […]

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September 5 – St. Bertin

September 2, 2021

St. Bertin Abbot of St. Omer, b. near Constance about 615; d. about 709. At an early age he entered the monastery of Luxeuil in France where, under the austere Rule of St. Columban, he prepared himself for his future missionary career. About the year 638 he set out, in company with two confrères, Mummolin […]

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September 6 – Blessed Thomas Tsuji

September 2, 2021

Born to the Japanese nobility in Sonogi on the island of Kyushu about the year 1571. Educated by Jesuits at Arima, he joined the Society of Jesus in 1587. He traveled all over Japan and became known for his eloquent, persuasive preaching. After the publication of an edict banning Catholic priests, he followed eighty of […]

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September 3 – Her Only Crime Was Her Attachment To The Queen

August 30, 2021

Amidst all the terrible scenes which occurred at these awful September massacres¹, none are so shocking as the murder of the Princess de Lamballe. Her sincere attachment to Marie Antoinette was her only crime. She had played no political part in the agitations of those times, and she was known to the people only by […]

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August 31 – Born of a dead mother

August 30, 2021

St. Raymond Nonnatus (Not-Born) (In Spanish SAN RAMON). Born 1200 or 1204 at Portello in the Diocese of Urgel in Catalonia; died at Cardona, 31 August, 1240. His feast is celebrated on 31 August. He is pictured in the habit of his order surrounded by ransomed slaves, with a padlock on his lips. He was […]

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September 3 – All the principles of Catholicism can be found in his life

August 30, 2021

Pope St. Gregory I (“the Great”) Doctor of the Church; born at Rome about 540; died 12 March 604. Gregory is certainly one of the most notable figures in Ecclesiastical History. He has exercised in many respects a momentous influence on the doctrine, the organization, and the discipline of the Catholic Church. To him we […]

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September 1 – Gideon the Judge

August 30, 2021

Gideon or Gedeon (Hebrew “hewer”), also called JEROBAAL (Judges, vi, 32; vii, 1; etc.), and JERUBESHETH (II Kings, xi, 21, in the Hebrew text). Gideon was one of the Greater Judges of Israel. He belonged to the tribe of Manasses, and to the family of Abiezer (Judges, vi, 34). Gideon’s father was Joas, and lived […]

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September 1 – St. Giles

August 30, 2021

(Latin Ægidius.) An Abbot, said to have been born of illustrious Athenian parentage about the middle of the seventh century. Early in life he devoted himself exclusively to spiritual things, but, finding his noble birth and high repute for sanctity in his native land an obstacle to his perfection, he passed over to Gaul, where […]

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September 2 – 3: The September Martyrs of the French Revolution, Blessed John du Lau and Companions

August 30, 2021

Martyrs of September (Also known as: Martyrs of Paris or Martyrs of Carmes) In 1790, the revolutionary government of France enacted a law denying Papal authority over the Church in France. The French clergy were required to swear an oath to uphold this law and submit to the Republic. Many priests and religious took the […]

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Changing of the Guards returns to Buckingham Palace after more than a year

August 26, 2021

According to EuroNews: …the Changing of the Guard ceremony resumed after an 18-month hiatus. Soldiers had maintained sentry duty outside royal residences during the pandemic but the ceremony, which is popular with tourists, was abandoned at the start of Britain’s lockdown. Hundreds of spectators lined the gates outside the palace to watch its long awaited […]

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Queen ‘orders senior Palace aides to ‘lawyer up’ and plan legal fightback against Harry and Meghan

August 26, 2021

According to News Nation USA: One hurdle any legal team could face is the upcoming release of Prince Harry’s tell-all memoirs. According to the Sun, a preemptive legal warning to the publishers is now being considered. The source told the paper: ‘If someone were named in the book and accused of something directly that could […]

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Prince Harry and Meghan lose 700,000 Instagram followers in one year

August 26, 2021

According to The New Zealand Herald: …700,000 people unfollowed Harry and Meghan’s Instagram account over the past year… But the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have 13 million followers on Instagram, gaining 1 million of them over the past year – while the Queen’s Royal Family account has gained 1.3 million new followers. Royal commentator […]

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Yankton Sioux Chief Pananniapapi (“Struck by the Ree”) Defends His Tribe’s Catholic Faith

August 26, 2021

Struck by the Ree . . . (c. 1804–1888) was a chief of the Native American Yankton Sioux tribe. . . . In 1804, a great pow-wow was held for the Lewis and Clark Expedition at Calumet Bluff/Gavins Point (near present-day Yankton, South Dakota) that included the “Shunka” sacred dog feast ceremony. During the festivities, […]

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Crisis in the Third Revolution: An Inevitable Fruit of the Marxist Utopias

August 26, 2021

[previous] The international dimensions of the Third Revolution’s apogee was already notorious, as the text notes. With the passing of time, the general picture of this apogee became even clearer, whether on account of the geographical and populational expansion of communist domination, the worldwide diffusion of Red propaganda and the weight of the communist parties […]

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August 27 – “Conform I would not, for it was against my conscience”

August 26, 2021

Saint David Lewis, alias Charles Baker (Recté, according to his own entry in the English College David Henry Lewis). An English Jesuit martyr, born in Monmouthshire in 1616; died at Usk, 27 August, 1679. His father, Morgan Lewis, was a lax Catholic, afterwards converted; his mother, Margaret Pritchard, was a very devout Catholic. David was […]

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August 27 – Never underestimate the prayers of a mother

August 26, 2021

St. Monica Widow; born of Christian parents at Tagaste, North Africa, in 333; died at Ostia, near Rome, in 387. We are told but little of her childhood. She was married early in life to Patritius who held an official position in Tagaste. He was a pagan, though like so many at that period, his […]

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August 28 – Restless Heart

August 26, 2021

St. Augustine of Hippo The great St. Augustine’s life is unfolded to us in documents of unrivaled richness, and of no great character of ancient times have we information comparable to that contained in the “Confessions,” which relate the touching story of his soul, the “Retractations,” which give the history of his mind, and the […]

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August 29 – The Passion of St. John the Baptist

August 26, 2021

Part of the Baptist’s ministry was exercised in Perea: Ennon, another scene of his labours, was within the borders of Galilee; both Perea and Galilee made up the tetrarchy of Herod Antipas. This prince, a son worthy of his father Herod the Great, had married, likely for political reasons, the daughter of Aretas, king of […]

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August 29 – At the helm during the French Revolution

August 26, 2021

Pope Pius VI (GIOVANNI ANGELICO BRASCHI). Born at Cesena, 27 December, 1717; elected 15 February, 1775; died at Valence, France, 29 Aug., 1799. He was of a noble but impoverished family, and was educated at the Jesuit College of Cesena and studied law at Ferrara. After a diplomatic mission to Naples, he was appointed papal […]

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August 29 – Converted by her slave

August 26, 2021

St. Sabina Widow of Valentinus and daughter of Herod Metallarius, suffered martyrdom about 126. According to the Acts of the martyrdom, which however have no historic value, she lived at Rome and was converted to Christianity by her female slave Serapia. Serapia was put to death for her faith and later, in the same year, […]

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August 29 – King and Confessor

August 26, 2021

St. Sebbi, or Sebba This prince was the son of Seward, and in the year 664, which was remarkable for a grievous pestilence, began to reign over the East Saxons, who inhabited the country which, now comprises Essex, Middlesex, and the greater part of Hertfordshire; he being the tenth king from Erkinwin, founder of that […]

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August 30 – Saved by the cross

August 26, 2021

Blessed Bronislava (or Bronislawa) of Poland Born in 1230 to an important Polish family, her grandfather had founded the Premonstratensian monastery at Zwierzyniec near Cracow where Bronislava’s aunt Gertrude had entered, later becoming prioress at Imbramowice… Read more here.

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August 30 – Gallant Lady

August 26, 2021

St. Margaret Ward Martyr, born at Congleton, Cheshire; executed at Tyburn, London, 30 Aug., 1588. Nothing is known of her early life except that she was of good family and for a time dwelt in the house of a lady of distinction named Whitall then residing in London. Knowing that William Watson, the priest who […]

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August 24 – Chancellor of the court

August 23, 2021

St. Ouen (OWEN; DADON, Latin Audaenus). Archbishop of Rouen, b. at Sancy, near Soissons about 609; d. at Clichy-la-Garenne, near Paris, 24 Aug., 683. His father, Autharius, and his mother, Aiga, belonged to the Gallo-Roman race. Shortly after Ouen’s birth they came to Ussy-sur-Marne, where he spent his childhood, with which tradition connects a series […]

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August 24 – Saint Bartholomew’s Day: the real story

August 23, 2021

Saint Bartholomew’s Day This massacre of which Protestants were the victims occurred in Paris on 24 August, 1572 (the feast of St. Bartholomew), and in the provinces of France during the ensuing weeks, and it has been the subject of knotty historical disputes. The first point argued was whether or not the massacre had been […]

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August 24 – St. Emilie De Vialar

August 23, 2021

Every child comes into the world with the message that God still loves the world. Emilie De Vialar, Saint and Foundress, was born on September 12, 1797 in a family of noble descent. Her father, Antoine Auguste Jacques, was the son of a renowned High Court Judge. Her mother, Antoinette Emilie de Portal, was the […]

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August 24 – St. María Micaela of the Blessed Sacrament

August 23, 2021

Micaela Desmaisières López de Dicastillo was born in 1809 in Madrid during the War of Independence to Miguel Desmaisières Flores and Bernarda López de Dicastillo Olmeda; her brother was Diego (1806-55). Her father was a high-ranking officer in the armed forces and her mother was an attendant to Queen Maria Luisa de Parma. Her mother […]

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August 25 – King, Crusader, Saint

August 23, 2021

Saint Louis IX King of France, son of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile, born at Poissy, 25 April, 1215; died near Tunis, 25 August, 1270. He was eleven years of age when the death of Louis VIII made him king, and nineteen when he married Marguerite of Provence by whom he had eleven children. […]

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August 25 – How do you portray a saint?

August 23, 2021

August 25 is the feast of Saint Louis IX, king, confessor of the Faith, Crusader and model of a Catholic head of state. There are two different ways people picture Saint Louis IX. One is as he truly was, the other is a soft, effeminate distortion of his person. This dichotomy is similar to the […]

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August 25 – He opened the first public free school in Europe

August 23, 2021

St. Joseph Calasanctius (Calasanz) Called in religion “a Matre Dei”, founder of the Piarists, born 11 Sept., 1556, at the castle of Calasanza near Petralta de la Sal in Aragon; died 25 Aug., 1648, at Rome; feast 27 Aug. His parents, Don Pedro Calasanza and Donna Maria Gastonia, gave Joseph, the youngest of five children, […]

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August 26 – This noblewoman survived the Terror and founded the Daughters of the Cross

August 23, 2021

Saint Elizabeth Bichier des Ages She was born of a rich, noble family on July 5, 1773, at the Château des Ages, France. Raised in a pious home, she developed at an early age a close relationship with God and a genuine love for the poor. She was twenty-five when she first met André Hubert […]

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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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