In the year 326 the mother of Constantine, Saint Helena, then about 80 years old, having journeyed to Jerusalem, undertook to rid the Holy Sepulchre of the mound of earth heaped upon and around it, and to destroy the pagan buildings that profaned its site. Some revelations which she had received gave … Read more
Mary, Joseph, and Therefore Jesus, Were Born of Royal Stock Taken from a sermon of Saint Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444) about Saint Joseph: Firstly, let us consider the nobility of the bride the Most Holy Virgin. The Blessed Virgin was nobler than any other creature that had been born in human form … Read more
Pope Leo XIII teaches in his allocution to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 24, 1903: The Roman Pontiffs have always taken care to equally protect and ameliorate the lot of the humble, and to support and augment the honor of the upper classes. For they carry on the mission of … Read more
Pope Saint Leo’s pontificate, next to that of Saint Gregory I, is the most significant and important in Christian antiquity. At a time when the Church was experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the hastening disintegration of the Western Empire, and while the Orient was profoundly agitated over dogmatic … Read more
Archbishop of that city from 1216 – 1225, Saint Engelbert was born at Berg about 1185, and died near Schwelm on November 7, 1225. His father was Engelbert, Count of Berg, and his mother, Margaret, was daughter of the Count of Gelderland. He studied at the cathedral school of Cologne and while … Read more
Subject to another’s authority, the proud person first hates the particular yoke that weighs upon him. Secondly, the proud man begins to hate all authority in general and all yokes, and, even more, the very principle of authority considered in the abstract. Because he hates all authority, he also hates superiority of … Read more
A disciple of Saint Alphonse Rodriguez, Peter Claver became a slave of the slaves in order to take them to heaven. His outstanding charity led him to fulfill everyone’s spiritual needs and combat their moral misery. His feast is celebrated on September 9. One day as he was in prayer, Alphonse … Read more
Qualifiers such as professional, cultural, moral, ethnic and so forth usually accompany the word elite. For this reason, it is useful to describe the meaning of three frequent qualifiers for the word: traditional, aristocratic and authentic. A professional elite can be traditional without being aristocratic. For example, it can be made up … Read more
A Review of the book Saint Vincent de Paul by Father Raymond de Thomas de Saint Laurent The book, Saint Vincent de Paul is concise and easy to read. Its author, Father Raymond de Saint Laurent wrote it with the same simplicity and benevolence characteristic of Saint Vincent de Paul himself. Just … Read more
The destruction of a large part of the Assyrian army by God before Jerusalem in 701 B.C. only provided a brief respite for the incorrigible city. It refused to take advantage of God’s mercy and continued in its sinful ways with the predictable results. By the final years of the seventh century, … Read more