Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
Inspired by Truth, Enlightening Minds for the Church in Canada and Throughout the World
If you will forgive a little parochialism, today is the feast of Saint Columbkille (521-597), also called Columba, who is not celebrated in the universal calendar, but happens to be the patron my own diocese. He also hails originally from where my father’s family is from in Ireland, Donegal on the wild west coast of[…]
Six years ago, on the 160th anniversary of the first apparition of Lourdes, on February 11th, Robert Cardinal Sarah, then-head of the Congregation for Divine Worship, issued a decree with the authority of the Holy Father, declaring that the Monday after Pentecost would be the memorial of ‘The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church’.[…]
In a previous essay I dealt with the stages in St. Peter’s fall from grace. In this essay, I would like to examine his return to grace – for any treatment of the life of St. Peter would be incomplete without it. Again, Fulton Sheen will be our guide. He lists four steps in returning[…]
Saint Norbert (+1134) of Xanten was a zealous bishop and founder, who was at the forefront of the ecclesial reform named after Pope Gregory VII, a pope often referred to by his previous name, Hildebrand, which dragged the Church out of the worst scandals of the ‘dark ages’. Norbert was born in 1075, ten years[…]
BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Saint Peter’s Square Wednesday, 11 March 2009 Saint Boniface, the Apostle of the Germans Dear Brothers and Sisters, Today, we shall reflect on a great eighth-century missionary who spread Christianity in Central Europe, indeed also in my own country: St Boniface, who has gone down in history as “the Apostle of[…]
Saint Boniface, bishop, missionary and martyr was hacked to death by a band of Frisian idol-worshippers on this day, June 5, 754, along with 52 of his companions. His life was one of tireless struggle to convert the pagans of Germania, steeped in dark, superstitious practices. The famous story of his boldly chopping down the[…]
Saint Francis Caracciolo (1563 – 1608) was a near contemporary of Saint Philip Neri, whom he resembles in some ways, and with whom the Order he began had a connection. He was born Ascanio dei Caracciolo Pisquizi, of a noble family, with his mother descended from the same line as Thomas Aquinas. Falling deathly ill[…]
If the Church seems moribund in North America, there is hope in the vast continent of Africa, where there are untold millions of Catholics, fervent, joyful and full of life, a spiritual energy that was sown by those who came before, not least the countless martyrs through the ages, from Saints Perpetua and Felicity in[…]
Like many of the early martyrs, not much is known of Saints Marcellinus and Peter, except that they died for the Faith during the persecution of Diocletian in 304, put to death by beheading at the 12th milestone on the Via Aurelia outside of Rome. Their executioner, Dorotheus went on to convert to Christianity, according[…]
Saint Justin (+165) who is called the ‘Martyr’, was born around the time the last Apostle, John, departed this life for heaven. Justin was not raised in the Catholic faith – few were in those incipient days of the Church – but was rather a pagan convert to Christianity. He first investigated the various philosophies[…]
