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
All of the Apostles have a feast day, and on this third last day of October, in the crisp days of fall, we celebrate Saints Simon and Jude, the latter, in particular, being invoked as the patron of desperate causes. On that note, this is also the day that Emperor Constantine won his victory over Maxentius at[…]
The difficulty with apologies is that at some point someone’s going to take you at your word. If we claim that we’re living on unceded – which is to say stolen – land, it seems inevitable that the land will be demanded back. This is no longer in the esoteric realm of academic discourse, or[…]
This day, October the 25th, is Saint Crispin’s Day – or, rather, the feast of Saint Crispin and Crispianus, for let us not forget that there were two brothers put to death during the reign of Diocletian in the middle of the third century, circa 285, during the same persecution that took Saint Lawrence and[…]
Anthony Mary Claret died on this day, October 24th, 1870, after a long, full and adventurous life, demonstrating how much one man can do if he puts his mind and will wholeheartedly to the plow in God’s vineyard. Most of the life of this zealous priest, and eventual bishop, was spent in Spain, followed by[…]
John of Capistrano (+1456) lived a life very much in the ‘world’ at first, studying law, and becoming involved with the political machinations of the fractious fifteenth century. He was appointed as ambassador from Perugia to the quarrelsome family of the Maletestas – which, ironically, means ‘evil heads’ – to broker peace, a mission which[…]
Today marks the memorial of Pope Saint John Paul II, who was beatified on May 1st, 2011 by Pope Benedict XVI, and canonized three years later by Pope Francis on April 27th in 2014. This October 22nd was chosen as his feast, for it was on this day in 1978 that Karol Wojtyla, Archbishop of[…]
Saint Ignatius of Antioch (+107) joyfully ‘went to the lions’, as the saying goes, meeting his martyrdom in the arena of the Coliseum in the eternal city, perhaps less than a decade after the death of the last Apostle, John the Evangelist. Ignatius was the epi-scopos – literally the ‘overseer’ – of the ancient diocese[…]
We celebrate a veritable panoply of saints today: In Canada, we have the memorial of Saint Marguerite D’Youville (+1771), the first Canadian-born saint. She was a lovely Quebecoise, who married young to a dissolute man, Francois d’Youville, a dissipated bootlegger who sold liquor to the easily-addicted Natives, and would disappear for long periods. He did[…]
Today is the feast of Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), a discalced Carmelite nun who reformed the Order, which traced its origins way back to the 12th century in the Holy Land, to that very ‘Carmel’ spoken of in such exalted terms in Scripture where Elijah met with God. The Order developed through the ages,[…]
This is the memorial of Saints Callixtus, (+222-223) (also spelled Callistus), whose life is historically shrouded, as are many of the early Christians. Some say he was a reformed slave who lived a rather dissolute and rebellious life in youth, with theft and street fighting as part of his resumé – or rap sheet. if[…]
