Video – Christmas in French salons

December 23, 2019

Since no door in the town of Bethlehem was opened to the Holy Family, the Infant Jesus was born in a poor stable manger heated only with an ox and ass. In reparation for such lack of hospitality, every year at Christmas, French noble houses open their doors to the Christ Child, his holy Mother, […]

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The Christmas Rose

December 23, 2019

The Christmas rose blooms at Christmastime. Really!  The flower pushes up out of the snow. The blooms last for weeks and the plant lasts for years. It is said that it bloomed outside the stable at Bethlehem, although the plant is not a native of the Holy Land.  The rose reminds us of the stable […]

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December 26 – He had the face of an angel

December 23, 2019

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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Belgian and Luxembourg royals mark 75th anniversary of Battle of the Bulge

December 19, 2019

According to Royal Central: …King Philippe and Queen Mathilde of the Belgians marked the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge alongside Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg… The King addressed those in attendance… “The Battle of the Bulge was almost two months of intense fighting, hardship and suffering in the cold and snow. There […]

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Some Reflections on the Story of the Little Drummer Boy

December 19, 2019

(This text is an adaptation of remarks made by Professor Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira after viewing the presentation of the Nativity scene with a sound and light show at a Brazilian TFP center in São Paulo during Christmastide, 1990.) In this very beautiful presentation we beheld those so-poetical Magi Kings, with their turbans and so […]

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The Feudal Lord was a Gentle Father

December 19, 2019

The feudal father was a king, but one who governed his own kingdom with a gentle hand which one would scarcely have expected from a giant cased in steel. It is with a sympathetic tenderness that he looks around on his family, and reads the old poem about Doon to his children—of whom he had […]

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December 20 – Abraham

December 19, 2019

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 19, 2019

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)… Read more here.

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December 20 – Jacob

December 19, 2019

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 19, 2019

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 21 – Doctor of the Church & Second Apostle of Germany

December 19, 2019

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 19, 2019

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 19, 2019

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 19, 2019

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 19, 2019

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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December 17 – St. Olympias

December 16, 2019

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, 2019

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, 2019

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 19 – How Tumultuous Times Reveal Noble Souls

December 16, 2019

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, 2019

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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The Hunt Prepared The Knight For War and The Crusades

December 12, 2019

There was hunting every day, and when the baron was not thinking of battle you may be certain that he was thinking of stags and wild boars. Every winter morning, he donned his hunting dress, his great boots, to which he attached big spurs; if very cold he put on a mantle of fur. His […]

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Christmas is coming!

December 12, 2019

It is not too late to get that special gift!   Several books to choose from! Shop today!  

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The Benedictio Novi Militis

December 12, 2019

The Church’s Ceremony for the Investiture of New Knights: The Benedictio Novi Militis In the actual state of the question the Benedictio novi militis is represented by three classes of authorities. First comes the famous Ordo Vulgatus, which has been published successively by Cassander Hiltorp Ferrari and by the publishers of the Maxima Bibliotheca Patrum. […]

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December 13 – The girl named Lucy, opposite of Lucifer

December 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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 14 – Son of a disinherited noble

December 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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 12, 2019

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

December 9, 2019

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, 2019

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, 2019

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, 2019

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, 2019

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, 2019

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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Windsor Castle decks the halls for Christmas

December 5, 2019

According to BT.com: …staff decorated the castle’s state apartments with shimmering Christmas trees, twinkling lights and a special display marking the 200th anniversary of the births of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. One of the centrepieces was a 20ft Nordmann fir tree from Windsor Great Park standing at the end of St George’s Hall dressed […]

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How Prince Philip’s mother saved an entire family from the Nazis

December 5, 2019

According to The Guardian: Later in her life, the “Princess of Battenberg” established an order of nuns, giving away all her possessions before dying on 5 December 1969. The 50th anniversary of that date will come on Thursday… During the second world war, Princess Alice sheltered the persecuted Cohen family from the Nazis and their […]

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December 2: The Battle of Loigny

December 5, 2019

The battle of Loigny, one of the most bloody encounters of that terrible winter, was made memorable by the heroic attitude of the Pontifical Zouaves, commanded by Charette, who was himself under the orders of General de Sonis, an eminent leader and a fervent Catholic. After the battle, Abbé Theuré’s house was filled with wounded […]

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Knights Were Dubbed After Battle

December 5, 2019

“Where was the knight armed?” On the field of battle, first of all, in the hour of enthusiasm and victory after some doughty deed. This grand old custom may be placed very far back into antiquity, and our old poems give us many striking instances of it. In this manner Danois was dubbed under the […]

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December 6 – Good St. Nicholas

December 5, 2019

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 5, 2019

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 5, 2019

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 5, 2019

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 9 – Banker and Saint

December 5, 2019

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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December 9 – The Immaculate Conception: The Celebration of Privilege

December 5, 2019

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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Queen Elizabeth II praises heroes who stopped London Bridge terrorist

December 2, 2019

According to the Washington Post: The queen on Saturday led tributes to individual acts of bravery on London Bridge, which included a Polish immigrant helping subdue the British-born terrorist with a five-foot narwhal tusk grabbed from a wall. Queen Elizabeth II, in a statement, praised their bravery. “I express my enduring thanks to the police […]

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The cause of canonization for James II, the last Catholic King of England

December 2, 2019

According to uCatholic.com: From his death and into the 1740s, there were reports of miraculous cures owed to the intercession of James II… In 1765, Thomas Pennant wrote: “In a side chapel is the coffin of King James II. A monk showed me several crutches, left by people on whom his deceased Majesty had wrought […]

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December 3 – St. Francis Xavier, Apostle of the Indies

December 2, 2019

St. Francis Xavier Born in the Castle of Xavier near Sanguesa, in Navarre, 7 April, 1506; died on the Island of Sancian near the coast of China, 2 December, 1552. In 1525, having completed a preliminary course of studies in his own country, Francis Xavier went to Paris, where he entered the collège de Sainte-Barbe. […]

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December 4 – Saint Barbara

December 2, 2019

Saint Barbara Virgin and Martyr. There is no reference to St. Barbara contained in the authentic early historical authorities for Christian antiquity, neither does her name appear in the original recension of St. Jerome’s martyrology. Veneration of the saint was common, however, from the seventh century. At about this date there were in existence legendary […]

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December 4 – Saint Osmund, founder of the Cathedral system of Church governance

December 2, 2019

Saint Osmund Bishop of Salisbury, died 1099; his feast is kept on 4 December. Osmund held an exalted position in Normandy, his native land, and according to a late fifteenth-century document was the son of Henry, Count of Séez, and Isabella, daughter of Robert, Duke of Normandy, who was the father of William the Conqueror […]

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December 4 – From a Muslim court, he opposed the Christian Emperor…and won!

December 2, 2019

St. John Damascene Born at Damascus, about 676; died some time between 754 and 787. The only extant life of the saint is that by John, Patriarch of Jerusalem, which dates from the tenth century (P.G. XCIV, 429-90). This life is the single source from which have been drawn the materials of all his biographical […]

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December 5 – Noble matron faithful unto death

December 2, 2019

St. Crispina A martyr of Africa who suffered during the Diocletian persecution; born at Thagara in the Province of Africa; died by beheading at Thebeste in Numidia, 5 December, 304. Crispina belonged to a distinguished family and was a wealthy matron with children. At the time of the persecution she was brought before the proconsul […]

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Keep The Horse

November 28, 2019

Rudolph, Count of Hapsburg, whilst hunting one day, observed a priest carrying the Viaticum to the sick, whereupon he immediately alighted, and insisted on the priest mounting in his place. The offer was accepted. The priest, having gone through his sacred and pastoral duty, returned the animal, with many marks of gratitude, to the Count. […]

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Need a gift idea?

November 28, 2019

Need a gift idea?   These are only some of the many great books available! Shop today!  

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Two Cities Mirror Two Eras

November 28, 2019

The modern city is of imprecise contours; like a tumor that extends itself here, there, and everywhere, [the modern city] grows extensively in one certain direction, while in other areas there yet exist parks which extend almost to the downtown district. The medieval city gives the impression of a well-minted coin. It is replete with […]

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November 29 – The coronation of St. Louis IX of France

November 28, 2019

Traditionally, new sacred music was composed for a coronation. The motet…which was sung for the anointing of Louis IX has come down to us. It was called Gaude, felix Francia…. The boy who was to be anointed and crowned was already on a platform built in front of the chancel, surrounded by the great lords […]

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November 29 – St. Saturninus

November 28, 2019

St. Saturninus was, says Tillemont, one of the most illustrious martyrs France has given to the Church. We possess only his Acts, which are very old, since they were utilized by St. Gregory of Tours. He was the first bishop of Toulouse, whither he went during the consulate of Decius and Gratus (250). Whether there […]

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