Eighty Years Since Hiroshima
As well as being the feast of the Transfiguration, and the anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI, this day also has the sombre 80th anniversary of the first of... Read more.
Dedication of Santa Maria Maggiore and Our Lady of the Snows
On August 5th, we celebrate the dedication of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the highest church in the hierarchy of churches dedicated to Our Lady in all... Read more.
Blessed Frederick Jansoone: The Guardian of Notre Dame du Cap
Blessed Frédéric Janssoone, O.F.M. (1838 – 1916) hailed from France, from the town of Ghyvelde, in the northwest most corner, where the language was Flemish,... Read more.
Saint Jean Vianney, a Priest for Priests
On this day, August 4th, in 1859 – the same year that Darwin published his specious Origin of Species, and one year after Marx’s Communist Manifesto,... Read more.
Saints Eusebius of Vercelli and Peter Julian Eymard
The Church commemorates two pastors today, separated by a millennium and a half: The fourth-century Eusebius of Vercelli (+371), the first bishop we know of in northern... Read more.
Alphonsus of Ligouri, A Moral Teacher for All Ages
Saint Alphonsus Ligouri (1696 – 1787) was a renaissance man, whose kind was a rarity in his post-renaissance era, and even more so now in our age of specialization,... Read more.
The (Im)migration Question
The contrast between the disintegrating situation in Britain and Pope Leo IV’s sunny words on migration is a prompt for this brief reflection. We take to heart... Read more.
Ignatius and the Companions of Jesus
When we read the life of Saint Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) he at first glance seems to belong more to the early days of the desert Fathers, or, perhaps, to the... Read more.
Saint Peter Chrysologous, Ravenna’s Doctor
Saint Peter Chrysologous (+450) was, as the traditional account has it, chosen bishop of Ravenna in 433 after the then-reigning pontiff, Pope, Sixtus III, had a... Read more.
Martha, Mary and Lazarus: What Makes a Household?
This memorial of Saint Martha, in accord with a decree from the Congregation of Divine Worship, now also includes her brother Lazarus, the one raised from the dead,... Read more.