November 28 – December 27 – Siege of Jasna Góra

November 25, 2019

Lessons in Psychological Warfare from the Siege of Jasna Góra, November 28-December 27, 1655 This account of the siege of  Częstochowa is based on the Memoirs of the Siege of Czestochowa by Father Augustine Kordecki (Pamietnik oblezenia Częstochowy, edited and with a preface by Jan Tokarski, London, Veritas, 1956.) Written by Friar Kordecki in response […]

Read the full article →

November 28 – Count Louis de Baude Frontenac

November 25, 2019

Count Louis de Baude Frontenac A governor of New France, born at Paris, 1662; died at Quebec, 28 Nov., 1698. His father was captain of the royal castle of St-Germain-en-laye; his mother, née Phelypeaux, was the daughter of the king’s secretary of state; Louis XIII was his godfather. By his valour and skill he won […]

Read the full article →

Law proposed to change Japanese Imperial succession

November 21, 2019

According to Royal Central: …a new proposal by the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan…propose[s] to let some ex-imperial family members back into the family. The [current] law states that only legitimate male descendants in the male line can be heir to the throne and that the Emperor and other members of the imperial family may […]

Read the full article →

Raoul de Cambrai’s Seneschal Rebukes Him for His Crimes

November 21, 2019

Amongst all the members of the baron’s household there reigned the most complete and charming familiarity, tempered with fear and respect. The servitors spoke to their master with a liberty which required no rebuke. From this point of view I know nothing more striking, nothing more beautiful than the remonstrance addressed by the Seneschal of […]

Read the full article →

Most Knights Were Either Sons of Knights or Young Nobles

November 21, 2019

[K]nighthood was accessible to jongleurs, and even to comedians! This saying a great deal in a very few words. But we must not go too far and generalize, for, however numerous the cases may have been, they were, after all, only exceptions. The others composed the rule—well, not perhaps the rule, but the custom—and it […]

Read the full article →

November 22 – The Eternal Glory of the Caecilia Family

November 21, 2019

St. Cecilia Virgin and martyr, patroness of church music, died at Rome. This saint, so often glorified in the fine arts and in poetry, is one of the most venerated martyrs of Christian antiquity. The oldest historical account of St. Cecilia is found in the “Martyrologium Hieronymianum”; from this it is evident that her feast […]

Read the full article →

November 23 – Blessed Margaret of Savoy

November 21, 2019

Bl. Margaret of Savoy Marchioness of Montferrat, born at Pignerol in 1382; died at Alba, 23 November, 1464. She was the only daughter of Louis of Savoy, Prince of Achaia, and of Bonne, daughter of Amadeus VI, Count of Savoy, and was given in marriage in 1403 to Theodore, Marquis of Montferrat, a descendant of […]

Read the full article →

November 23 – St. Trudo

November 21, 2019

St. Trudo (also called TRON, TROND, TRUDON, TRUTJEN, TRUYEN). Apostle of Hasbein in Brabant; died 698 (or perhaps 693). Feast 23 November. He was the son of Blessed Adela of the family of the dukes of Austrasia. Devoted from his earliest youth to the service of God, Trudo came to St. Remaclus, Bishop of Liège […]

Read the full article →

November 24 – Christ the King? Or Christ the President?

November 21, 2019

A heavenly King above all, but a King whose government is already exercised in this world. A King who by right possesses the supreme and full authority. The King makes laws, commands and judges. His sovereignty becomes effective when his subjects recognize his rights, and obey his laws… Read more here.

Read the full article →

November 24 – Intrepid missionaries

November 21, 2019

Joseph Marchand Born August 17, 1803, in Passavant, in the Doubs department of France, in 1833 he joined the Lê Văn Khôi revolt by Lê Văn Khôi, son of the late governor of southern Vietnam Lê Văn Duyệt. Khoi and Marchand vowed to overthrow Emperor Minh Mạng and replace him with My Duong, the son […]

Read the full article →

November 24 – Saint Joseph Mary Pignatelli, S.J.

November 21, 2019

(also known as St. Giuseppe Maria Pignatelli) Born 27 December, 1737, in Saragossa, Spain; died 11 November, 1811. His family was of Neapolitan descent and noble lineage. After finishing his early studies in the Jesuit College of Saragossa, he entered the Society of Jesus (8 May, 1753) notwithstanding his family’s opposition. On concluding his ecclesiastical […]

Read the full article →

November 25 & 26 – Blessed Hugh Taylor & Blessed Marmaduke Bowes

November 21, 2019

Blessed Hugh Taylor English martyr, born at Durham; hanged, drawn, and quartered at York, 25 (not 26) November, 1585. He arrived at Reims on 2 May, 1582, and having been ordained a priest was sent thence on the mission on 27 March, 1585. He was the first to suffer under the Statute 27 Eliz. c. […]

Read the full article →

November 25 – The day a 16 year old invalid and a handful of men defeated a huge professional army

November 21, 2019

The Battle of Montgisard was fought between the Ayyubids and the Kingdom of Jerusalem on November 25, 1177. The 16 year old King Baldwin IV, seriously afflicted by leprosy, led an out-numbered Christian force against the army of Saladin. The Islamic force was routed and their casualties were massive, only a fraction managed to flee […]

Read the full article →

November 25 – She Defied the Emperor

November 21, 2019

St. Catherine of Alexandria A virgin and martyr whose feast is celebrated in the Latin Church and in the various Oriental churches on 25 November, and who for almost six centuries was the object of a very popular devotion. Of noble birth and learned in the sciences, when only eighteen years old, Catherine presented herself […]

Read the full article →

November 19 – Teacher, Engineer, Army Officer, Prisoner of War, Royal Tutor, and Priest

November 18, 2019

St. Raphael Kalinowski, O.C.D. (1835-1907) [Also known as Father Raphael of St. Joseph, O.C.D] Father Raphael of Saint Joseph Kalinowski, was born at Vilna, 1st September 1835, and at baptism received the name Joseph. Under the teaching of his father Andrew, at the Institute for Nobles at Vilna, he progressed so well that he received […]

Read the full article →

November 19 – St. Nerses I, Bishop of Armenia, Martyr

November 18, 2019

Nerses I Armenian patriarch, surnamed “the Great”. Died 373. Born of the royal stock, he spent his youth in Caesarea where he married Sanducht, a Mamikonian princess. After the death of his wife, he was appointed chamberlain to King Arshak of Armenia. A few years later, having entered the ecclesiastical state, he was elected catholicos, […]

Read the full article →

November 20 – St. Edmund the Martyr

November 18, 2019

St. Edmund the Martyr King of East Anglia, born about 840; died at Hoxne, Suffolk, November 20, 870. The earliest and most reliable accounts represent St. Edmund as descended from the preceding kings of East Anglia, though, according to later legends, he was born at Nuremberg (Germany), son to an otherwise unknown King Alcmund of […]

Read the full article →

November 20 – St. Ambrose of Camaldoli

November 18, 2019

St. Ambrose of Camaldoli An Italian theologian and writer, born at Portico, near Florence, 16 September, 1386; died 21 October, 1439. His name was Ambrose Traversari. He entered the Order of the Camaldoli when fourteen and became its General in 1431. He was a great theologian and writer, and knew Greek as well as he […]

Read the full article →

November 20 – Queen Elizabeth II Wedding Anniversary

November 18, 2019
Read the full article →

November 20 – Another strong and mighty angel

November 18, 2019

St. Felix of Valois Born in 1127; died at Cerfroi, 4 November, 1212. He is commemorated 20 November. He was surnamed Valois because, according to some, he was a member of the royal branch of Valois in France, according to others, because he was a native of the province of Valois. At an early age […]

Read the full article →

November 21 – Pope St. Gelasius I

November 18, 2019

Pope St. Gelasius I Died at Rome, 19 Nov., 496. Gelasius, as he himself states in his letter to the Emperor Anastasius (Ep. xii, n. 1), was Romanus natus. The assertion of the “Liber Pontificalis” that he was natione Afer is consequently taken by many to mean that he was of African origin, though Roman […]

Read the full article →

November 21 – St. Albert

November 18, 2019

St. Albert Cardinal, Bishop of Liège, died 1192 or 1193. He was a son of Godfrey III, Count of Louvain, and brother of Henry I, Duke of Lorraine and Brabant, and was chosen Bishop of Liège in 1191 by the suffrages of both people and chapter. The Emperor Henry VI violently intruded his own venal […]

Read the full article →

November 21 – St. Columbanus

November 18, 2019

St. Columbanus Abbot of Luxeuil and Bobbio, born in West Leinster, Ireland, in 543; died at Bobbio, Italy, 21 November, 615. His life was written by Jonas, an Italian monk of the Columban community, at Bobbio, c. 643. This author lived during the abbacy of Attala, Columbanus’s immediate successor, and his informants had been companions […]

Read the full article →

Royal family and political leaders gather for Remembrance Sunday at Cenotaph

November 14, 2019

According to BBC News: Politicians – including Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson – and members of the Royal Family have joined veterans as the UK marks Remembrance Sunday. A two-minute silence was held at the Cenotaph in London. It was attended by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess […]

Read the full article →

Abandoned by His Wife, but not by His Two Faithful Slaves

November 14, 2019

Even the serfs were capable of devotion which is rare in the present day. Is not the history of those two slaves whom Amis purchased a touching narrative? They did not recoil from the leprosy which was eating away their master. His wife actually turned him out of his castle, when his slaves took him […]

Read the full article →

A Knight Often Started His Career Being Tested With Poverty

November 14, 2019

One of the most severe tests to which one could put the young damoiseaux was to deprive them of their fortune, and say to them, “We will give you nothing. Depart and seek your fortune elsewhere. We know the advantages, the really enormous advantages, which the feudal system assured to the eldest son, and it […]

Read the full article →

November 15 – Martyred for God (and Money…)

November 14, 2019

Bl. Richard Whiting Last Abbot of Glastonbury and martyr, parentage and date of birth unknown, executed 15 Nov., 1539; was probably educated in the claustral school at Glastonbury, whence he proceeded to Cambridge, graduating as M.A. in 1483 and D.D. in 1505. If, as is probable, he was already a monk when he went to […]

Read the full article →

November 15 – St. Desiderius of Cahors

November 14, 2019

St. Desiderius of Cahors Bishop, born at Obrege (perhaps Antobroges, name of a Gaulish tribe), on the frontier of the Provincia Narbonnensis, of a noble Frankish family from Aquitaine, which possessed large estates in the territory of Albi; died 15 Nov., 655—though Krusch has called this date in question… Read more here.

Read the full article →

November 15 – Universal Doctor

November 14, 2019

St. Albert the Great Known as Albert the Great; scientist, philosopher, and theologian, born c. 1206; died at Cologne, 15 November 1280. He is called “the Great”, and “Doctor Universalis” (Universal Doctor), in recognition of his extraordinary genius and extensive knowledge, for he was proficient in every branch of learning cultivated in his day, and […]

Read the full article →

November 16 – Commissioned to preach the Sixth Crusade

November 14, 2019

St. Edmund Rich Archbishop of Canterbury, England, born 20 November, c. 1180, at Abingdon, six miles from Oxford; died 16 November, 1240, at Soissy, France. His early chronology is somewhat uncertain. His parents, Reinald (Reginald) and Mabel Rich, were remarkable for piety. It is said that his mother constantly wore hair-cloth, and attended almost every […]

Read the full article →

November 16 – St. Mechtilde

November 14, 2019

St. Mechtilde (MATILDA VON HACKEBORN-WIPPRA). Benedictine; born in 1240 or 1241 at the ancestral castle of Helfta, near Eisleben, Saxony; died in the monastery of Helfta, 19 November, 1298. She belonged to one of the noblest and most powerful Thuringian families, while here sister was the saintly and illustrious Abbess Gertrude von Hackeborn. Some writers […]

Read the full article →

November 16 – St. Margaret of Scotland: In the Middle Ages, the Marvelous Was Something Achievable

November 14, 2019

Saint Margaret of Scotland Commentaries made by Prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira … Sovereign and patroness of Scotland, 11th century. Although it is a very good intention to comment on the life of St. Margaret, at times one does not have the slightest biographical data on a saint. For lack of a better biography, I […]

Read the full article →

November 16 – St. Agnes of Assisi

November 14, 2019

St. Agnes of Assisi Younger sister of St. Clare and Abbess of the Poor Ladies, born at Assisi, 1197, or 1198; died 1253. She was the younger daughter of Count Favorino Scifi. Her saintly mother, Blessed Hortulana, belonged to the noble family of the Fiumi, and her cousin Rufino was one of the celebrated “Three […]

Read the full article →

November 17 – St. Hilda

November 14, 2019

St. Hilda Abbess, born 614; died 680. Practically speaking, all our knowledge of St. Hilda is derived from the pages of Bede. She was the daughter of Hereric, the nephew of King Edwin of Northumbria, and she seems like her great-uncle to have become a Christian through the preaching of St. Paulinus about the year […]

Read the full article →

November 17 – Mary Tudor

November 14, 2019

Mary Tudor Queen of England from 1553 to 1558; born 18 February, 1516; died 17 November, 1558. Mary was the daughter and only surviving child of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. Cardinal Wolsey was her godfather, and amongst her most intimate friends in early life were Cardinal Pole and his mother, the Countess of […]

Read the full article →

November 17 – The Queen Gave Good Example Caring for the Sick and Suffering

November 14, 2019

St. Elizabeth of Hungary Also called St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, born in Hungary, probably at Pressburg, 1207; died at Marburg, Hesse, 17 November (not 19 November), 1231. She was a daughter of King Andrew II of Hungary (1205-35) and his wife Gertrude, a member of the family of the Counts of Andechs-Meran; Elizabeth’s brother succeeded […]

Read the full article →

November 17 – St. Hugh of Lincoln

November 14, 2019

St. Hugh of Lincoln Born about the year 1135 at the castle of Avalon, near Pontcharra, in Burgundy; died at London, 16 Nov., 1200. His father, William, Lord of Avalon, was sprung from one of the noblest of Burgundian houses; of his mother, Anna, very little is known. After his wife’s death, William retired from […]

Read the full article →

November 17 – Saint Gregory of Tours

November 14, 2019

Saint Gregory of Tours Born in 538 or 539 at Arverni, the modern Clermont-Ferrand; died at Tours, 17 Nov., in 593 or 594. He was descended from a distinguished Gallo-Roman family, and was closely related to the most illustrious houses of Gaul. He was originally called Georgius Florentius, but in memory of his maternal great-grandfather, […]

Read the full article →

November 18 – Sincere, intense, generous, austere, yet affectionate

November 14, 2019

St. Philippine-Rose Duchesne Founder in America of the first houses of the society of the Sacred Heart, born at Grenoble, France, 29 August, 1769; died at St. Charles, Missouri, 18 November, 1852. She was the daughter of Pierr-Francois Duchesne, an eminent lawyer. Her mother was a Périer, ancestor of Casimir Périer, President of France in […]

Read the full article →

November 18 – He Started the Cluniac Reform

November 14, 2019

St. Odo of Cluny Odo was born in 879 in Maine, and was the son of a pious and surprisingly learned layman, Abbo. Though vowed by his father to St. Martin in babyhood, he was given a military training and became a page at the court of Duke William. But the exercises of war and […]

Read the full article →

November 12 – Co-regent

November 11, 2019

Saint Cunibert (also Cunipert, or Kunibert) (c. 600 – 12 November c. 663) was the ninth Bishop of Cologne from 627 to his death. Contemporary sources only mention him between 627 and 643. Cunibert (also spelled ‘Honoberht’) was born somewhere along the Moselle to a family of the local Ripuarian Frankish aristocracy. He entered the church […]

Read the full article →

November 12 – Fearless and Bold

November 11, 2019

St. Lebwin (LEBUINUS or LIAFWIN). Apostle of the Frisians and patron of Deventer, born in England of Anglo-Saxon parents at an unknown date; died at Deventer, Holland, about 770. Educated in a monastery and fired by the example of St. Boniface, St. Willibrord, and other great English missionaries, Lebwin resolved to dovote his life to […]

Read the full article →

November 12 – Kidnapped, sold as a slave, ransomed by a bishop, and confidante of the emperor

November 11, 2019

St. Nilus (Neilos) Nilus the elder, of Sinai (died circa 430), was one of the many disciples and fervent defenders of St. John Chrysostom. We know him first as a layman, married, with two sons. At this time he was an officer at the Court of Constantinople, and is said to have been one of […]

Read the full article →

November 12 – Four years in Stalin’s concentration camp

November 11, 2019

Blessed Hryhorij Lakota Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church auxiliary bishop who suffered religious persecution and was martyred by the Soviet Government. Hryhorij Lakota was born 31 January 1893 in Holodivka, Lviv Oblast. He was appointed auxiliary bishop of Przemyśl on 16 May 1926. On 9 June 1946, he was arrested and sentenced to ten years imprisonment, as […]

Read the full article →

November 12 – Noble Ruthenian Stock

November 11, 2019

St. Josaphat Kuncevyc Martyr, born in the little town of Volodymyr in Lithuania (Volyn) in 1580 or — according to some writers — 1584; died at Vitebsk, Russia, 12 November, 1623. The saint’s birth occurred in a gloomy period for the Ruthenian Church. Even as early as the beginning of the sixteenth century the Florentine […]

Read the full article →

November 12 – Constable of France: he fought his entire life and died in battle at age 74

November 11, 2019

Anne de Montmorency had proven many times before that his race does not degenerate and the brave blood of an illustrious line of ancestors flowed in his veins. Imperious, severe, of a stern mood, he had undeniable bravery and strict fidelity to his duty. Although success had not always been on a par with his […]

Read the full article →

November 13 – Pure and noble, he received Holy Communion from the hands of angels

November 11, 2019

St. Stanislas Kostka Born at Rostkovo near Prasnysz, Poland, about 28 October, 1550; died at Rome during the night of 14-15 August, 1568. He entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, 28 October, 1567, and is said to have foretold his death a few days before it occurred. His father, John Kostka, was a senator […]

Read the full article →

November 13 – Grand Master of the Order of Christ

November 11, 2019

Prince Henry the Navigator Born 4 March, 1394; died 13 November, 1460; he was the fourth son of John I, King of Portugal, by Queen Philippa, a daughter of John of Gaunt. In 1415 he commanded the expedition which captured Ceuta, Portugal’s first oversea conquest, and there won his knightly spurs. Three years later he […]

Read the full article →

November 13 – He calmed the fear of the end of the world

November 11, 2019

St. Abbon (or Abbo), born near Orléans c. 945; died at Fleury, 13 November, 1004, a monk of the Benedictine monastery of Fleury sur Loire (Fleuret), conspicuous both for learning and sanctity, and one of the great lights of the Church in the stormy times of Hugh Capet of France and of the three Ottos […]

Read the full article →

November 13 – One of the Great Popes of the Middle Ages

November 11, 2019

Pope St. Nicholas I Born at Rome, date unknown; died 13 November, 867; one of the great popes of the Middle Ages, who exerted decisive influence upon the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian nations of Western Europe. He was of a distinguished family, being the son of the Defensor […]

Read the full article →

November 13 – Patroness of missionaries

November 11, 2019

St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, M.S.C. Also called Mother Cabrini, she founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, a religious institute which was a major support to the Italian immigrants to the United States. She was the first citizen of the United States to be canonized by the Catholic Church. She was born in Sant’Angelo […]

Read the full article →

November 14 – Saint Erconwald

November 11, 2019

Saint Erconwald Bishop of London, died. about 690. He belonged to the princely family of the East Anglian Offa, and devoted a considerable portion of his patrimony to founding two monasteries, one for monks at Chertsey, and the other for nuns at Barking in Essex. Over the latter he placed his sister, St. Ethelburga, as […]

Read the full article →

November 14 – St. Lawrence O’Toole

November 11, 2019

St. Lawrence O’Toole (Lorcan ua Tuathail; also spelled Laurence O’Toole) Confessor, born about 1128, in the present County Kildare; died 14 November, 1180, at Eu in Normandy; canonized in 1225 by Honorius III. His father was chief of Hy Murray, and his mother one of the Clan O’Byrne. At the age of ten he was […]

Read the full article →

A Medieval Lord Defends His Subject From A Bad Judge

November 7, 2019

On the “perron” the lord of the castle sometimes administered justice, and its fine platform was then regarded as a continuation of the great hall which was at once the symbol and the home of seigneurial justice. It was no unusual thing to hold on the steps of one of those courts, in which the […]

Read the full article →

The Vocation of Knighthood

November 7, 2019

The first quality which was desirable, and was exacted from a candidate for Chivalry, was “to have the vocation.” This term is rather ambiguous in a study of Middle Age literature; but we must excuse it and take it as it stands. When the valet was brought up in the paternal castle or in the […]

Read the full article →

November 8 – Saint Tysilio of Wales

November 7, 2019

Saint Tysilio (died 640) was a Welsh bishop, prince and scholar, son of the reigning King of Powys, Brochwel Ysgithrog, maternal nephew of the great Abbot Dunod of Bangor Iscoed and an ecclesiastic who took a prominent part in the affairs of Wales during the distressful period at the opening of the 7th century… Read […]

Read the full article →

November 8 – Four Crowned Martyrs

November 7, 2019

Four Crowned Martyrs The old guidebooks to the tombs of the Roman martyrs make mention, in connection with the catacomb of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus on the Via Labicana, of the Four Crowned Martyrs (Quatuor Coronati), at whose grave the pilgrims were wont to worship (De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, I, 178-79). One of these itineraries, […]

Read the full article →

November 8 – Charlemagne sent him to his enemies

November 7, 2019

St. Willehad Bishop at Bremen, born in Northumberland before 745; died at Blecazze (Blexen) on the Weser, 8 Nov., 789. He was a friend of Alcuin, and probably received his education at York under St. Egbert. After his ordination, with the permission of King Alchred he was sent to Frisia between 765 and 774. He […]

Read the full article →

November 9 – He burned the pagan temple while out on bail

November 7, 2019

St. Theodore of Amasea Surnamed Tyro (Tiro), not because he was a young recruit, but because for a time he belonged to the Cohors Tyronum (Nilles, Kal. man., I, 105), called of Amasea from the place where he suffered martyrdom, and Euchaita from the place, Euchais, to which his body had been carried, and where […]

Read the full article →

November 9 – Patrick’s psalm-singer

November 7, 2019

St. Benignus Date of birth unknown; died 467, son of Sesenen, an Irish chieftain in that part of Ireland which is now County Meath. He was baptized by St. Patrick, and became his favorite disciple and his coadjutor in the See of Armagh (450). His gentle and lovable disposition suggested the name Benen, which has […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →