Ruminations of an Amateur Monastic
On this day in 1431, one of the most truly remarkable women who ever lived was burned at the stake. She was 19 years old. She was known as Jehanne la Pucelle (Joan the Maiden), but today we name her Saint Joan of Arc. In 1429 at the tender age of 17, she led the French army to a string […]
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On this day in 1917, not even a century ago, the Blessed Virgin began appearing to three shepherd children in Fátima, Portugal. She appeared on the thirteenth day of six consecutive months. In another article, I’ve talked a little about the Miracle of the Sun. Regardless of miracles, Catholics are not obliged to believe these “private revelations”. Indeed, the Church […]
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Well that got your attention, didn’t it? It’s not quite true of course; Patrick may have been born on the isle of Britain, but in a time before the Angles had arrived and started making it Angland. No, his family were Roman Catholic churchmen from the Roman Imperial province of Britannia. Today, nobody is going to go around speaking in […]
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Most folks have seen some variation of this photo of Bernini‘s “Chair of Peter” in the Vatican. It’s a masterpiece of baroque art, found in every art textbook covering the period. The chair in question is carried aloft by four saints. The image of the dove in the Holy Spirit window has been duplicated and copied all over the world […]
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The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the holy Spirit be with all of you” (2 Cor 13:13). 1. By God the Father’s will, from which all gifts come, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the help of the Holy Spirit Consolator, we, Pope Francis […]
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Today is the memorial of the blessed martyr Saint Polycarp. Burned alive in Rome for the crime of being a Christian bishop, he was a disciple of Saint John the Apostle. In fact, he was ordained bishop of Smyrna by Saint John. He wrote many letters, though only one has survived the centuries, his Epistle to the Philippians. A brief […]
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Happy Saint Agnes Day! Saint Agnes was a young Roman lady of 13 or 14 who suffered martyrdom in the persecutions of Diocletian in about the year 304. She was one of the youngest of the early martyrs and one of the most moving and articulate. Agnes) hastened to the place of torture as a bride to her wedding feast. […]
» Read moreWith Christmas just days away now, we hear the penultimate O Antiphon this evening. I mentioned a couple of days ago that the antiphons might sound vaguely familiar to you. In the 12th Century, an unknown composer compiled versions of the O Antiphons into a single Advent hymn, called Veni, Veni Emmanuel. You know the English version as O Come, […]
» Read moreIt is altogether right and proper that we should celebrate Christ as the bringer of light on this, the day of the winter solstice. This was an ancient holy day in many religions, as indeed it continues to be. On this, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, where people for eons have begged their divinity for […]
» Read moreBy now some of you might be thinking that the O Antiphon words are sounding kind of familiar, even though you’re not really up on your Gregorian Chant. In fact, these antiphons are some of the earliest attested antiphons in the Divine Office, being mentioned in passing in the works of Saint Boethius in the early sixth century. They’re rooted […]
» Read moreIf you think that the Spanish conquistadors are the ones who imposed Catholicism on the hapless Aztecs, well you’re wrong. Lord knows they tried. And tried. And failed. In the first decade of Spanish rule (1521 – 1531), only a handful of natives embraced Christianity. And then… well, here’s the story as found in the venerable Catholic Encyclopedia: To a […]
» Read moreIn addition to being the first Tuesday of Advent this year, today is also historically the memorial of Saint Edmund Campion. If the paintings of him are to be believed, he is a man to whom I bear more than a passing resemblance. Today I’m going to upset some of my (Protestant) Christian friends who see the Reformation as a […]
» Read moreFifty-six years before the English Puritan refugees at Plymouth celebrated their “first Thanksgiving”, Spanish explorers and their Timucua allies celebrated one in Saint Augustine, in what is now Florida. They had bean soup. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés was a Spanish admiral under orders to root out some French colonists in the area. Sighting land in La Florida on 28 August […]
» Read moreHoly Mary, Mother of God, pray for the people of Paris. Saint Geneviève, pray for the people of Paris. Saint Denis, pray for the people of Paris. Saint Joan of Arc, pray for the people of Paris.
» Read moreJoseph Stalin famously demanded to know “How many divisions does the Pope of Rome have?” Stalin was, of course, asking the wrong question, as the saint whose feast is today finally proved. When Karol Wojtyła was elected Pope John Paul II in October of 1978, I was not only just 11 years old – I wasn’t even Catholic. It’s safe […]
» Read moreToday is the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England of the old line. But I’m not going to talk about him. On this day in 1307 – on the 63rd birthday of their Grand Master Jacques de Molay – hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of King Phillip IV. […]
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