Destructive Indifference or Destructive Irreverence?

January 19, 2026

Considering this photograph, the reader gifted with an artistic sense will surely sense the violent contrast in it. This monumental pulpit, crowned by a canopy with noble and elegant lines that confer upon it a princely quality, dates from the eighteenth century and is part of the parish church of La Ferté-sur-Aube in France. But there could be no greater contrasting deviation from this solemn assemblage than the electric fan that was recently placed on it. This fan looks like a packing crate or a small model of a cement building designed for our times. It is the very opposite of the delicacy, elegance and solemnity of the décor to which it was added. To use a French expression the fan and the pew “hurlent de se trouver ensemble,” howl upon finding themselves together.

In a sadly eloquent way, this juxtaposition expresses the indifference, if not irreverence, in many churches today that is taking place ‒ in France as well as in the rest of the world ‒ the “aggiornamento*.”

*Aggiornamento roughly means bringing up-to-date, updating or modernizing.

 Ambience Customs & Civilization“Catolicismo” no. 192 ― December 1966

 

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January 19 – The scion of a noble family who longed to be enrolled in the noble army of martyrs

January 19, 2026

St. Blathmac

Looking towards St. Columba's Bay at Iona (island), Scotland.

Looking towards St. Columba’s Bay at Iona (island), Scotland.

A distinguished Irish monk, b. in Ireland about 750. He suffered martyrdom in Iona, about 835. He is fortunate in having had his biography written by Strabo, Benedictine Abbot of Reichenau (824-849), and thus the story of his martyrdom has been handed down through the ages. Strabo’s life of this saint is in Latin hexameters, and is to be found in Messingham’s “Florilegium Insulæ Sanctorum” (Paris, 1624). A scion of a noble family he early showed a religious turn of mind, and longed to be enrolled in the noble army of martyrs, a wish which was afterwards fulfilled. Subscription7 His name was latinized Florentius (from the fact of the Irish word Blath meaning a flower), and as a religious, he was most exemplary, finally becoming abbot. In 824 he joined the community of Columban monks at Iona, and not long afterwards the Danes ravaged the island. One morning, as he was celebrating Mass, the Scandinavian rovers entered the monastic church and put the monks to death. St. Blathmac refused to point out the shrine of St. Columba, which was really the object of plunder, and he was hacked to pieces on the altar step. His body was afterwards reverently interred where the scene of martyrdom took place, and numerous miracles are claimed to have been wrought through his intercession. The date of his death is given by the “Annals of Ulster” as 825, although Mabillon places it thirty-six years earlier.

REEVES, Adamman (Dublin, 1857); O’DONOVAN, Four Masters (Dublin, 1856); MESSINGHAM, Florilegium Insulae Sanctorum (Paris, 1624); MABILLON, Annales Ordinis S. Benedicti, III; P.G., CXIII; Annals of Ulster (Rolls Series); HEALY, Insula Sanctorum et Doctorum (Dublin, 1902), 4th ed.; MORAN, Irish Saints in Great Britain (Callan, 1903).

W. H. Grattan-Flood (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 19 – James Lainez

January 19, 2026

(LAYNEZ).

Second general of the Society of Jesus, theologian, b. in 1512, at Almazan, Castille, in 1512; d. at Rome, 19 January, 1565. His family, although Christian for many generations, had descended from Jewish stock, as has been established by Sacchini (Historia Societatis Jesu, II, sec. 32). Lainez graduated in arts at the University of Alcalá (1531), and won his licentiate in philosophy there at the age of twenty (1532). At Alcalá, the young Castilian and his friend Salmerón had heard of Ignatius Loyola. To meet him, they betook them to the great University of Paris (1533) and there fell under the spell of his masterful will. Lainez was the second to join Loyola and was one of the seven who on 15 August, 1534, made the vows of religion in the chapel of St. Denis, on Montmartre. Three years were now spent by Lainez, in works of charity and zeal, for the most part in Northern Italy. In 1537, Ignatius sent his companions to present themselves to the Holy Father. Paul III discussed doctrinal questions with them. He was struck by their bearing and learning, granted them permission to be ordained priests and to go to the Holy Land. This pilgrimage was prevented by political troubles. Lainez was charged by the pope to teach theology in the Sapienza. His teaching and preaching were productive of immense good in those unsettled days. Rome, Venice, and Vicenza were saved from heresy by his labors. Paul III became an enthusiastic admirer of the new society. He chose three Jesuits, Lainez, Salmerón, and Lefévre as sole papal theologians to the Council of Trent. The latter died in Rome before the council began its sessions. Lainez and Salmerón were joined by two other Jesuits at Trent, Le Jaye who represented the Bishop of Augsburg, and Covillon the theologian to the Duke of Bavaria.

St. Ignatius of Loyola. Painting by Peter Paul Rubens

At Trent, Lainez came into prominence just as soon as the question of justification was reached. Luther and his followers had gone astray chiefly on this very doctrine. No more important subject could have come before the council. Long discussions preceded the definition, and Lainez and Salmerón stood out most prominently. These dogmatic discussions, in the early sessions of Trent, took place without formality of precedence. The theological discussions were under the charge of Cardinal Cervini, later Pope Marcellus II; he arranged that Salmerón should be among the first speakers on each topic, so as to set down the right doctrine from the outset; Lainez should be the last to speak, so as to sum up the discussion and point out clearly the errors of preceding theologians. The two Jesuits were immensely influential against some of the Lutheran ideas wherewith unfortunately not a few of the theologians of the council were tainted. The bishops asked for copies of the vote of Lainez and Salmerón. While the two papal theologians thus bore the brunt of the battle for Catholic truth in the matter of justification, at Trent, strong influence was brought to bear on Ignatius to send Lainez to do apostolic work in Florence. Salmerón prevented such a loss to the council by telling Ignatius the power of Lainez in Trent. Shortly thereafter, Lainez did his greatest service to the council in the discussion on justification. Jerome Seripando, a most devoted and saintly man, who later presided over the sessions of Trent, tried to combine the Catholic with the Lutheran idea of justification; and defended a twofold formal justice, our own and the imputed justice of Christ (Theiner, “Acta Con. Trid.”, I, 235). The answer of Lainez so pleased the Fathers of Trent that they honored it by incorporating it word for word in the Acts of the council, a unique honor. On 13 January, 1547, by unanimous vote, their clear and definite decree on justification was passed unanimously, the doctrines which Lainez had stood for being defined. Hereafter, whereas very few theologians were allowed to speak an hour, Lainez was privileged to address the assembly for three hours or more. We are not surprised to find Salmerón writing to Ignatius that to take away Lainez from Trent “were, without any exaggeration whatsoever, to take away one of its eyes from this council” (Epistolae Salmerón, 20 Jan., 1547). In April, 1547, Lainez went with the council to Bologna, where he spoke on penance and extreme unction. The opposition of Charles V preventing many bishops from reaching Bologna, the council was indefinitely prorogued. When the Fathers met a second time at Trent (1 May, 1551) Lainez (now provincial of the Jesuits in Italy) and Salmerón were there as papal theologians to Julius III. During the previous sessions, Lainez had spoken at a time when the Fathers of the council were already fagged out, and yet he held their attention and carried their votes. Now the first to speak were the papal theologians. Lainez dwelt at great length on the Holy Eucharist and the Sacrifice of the Mass. It is said that the decrees and canons of the Fourteenth Session were at this time written by him (Cartes de S. Ignacio, I, 491).

After the death of St. Ignatius (1556) Lainez was elected vicar-general of the Society; about two years later be became its second general (1558). Paul IV now insisted on the triennial election of a general and the chanting of the Office in choir by the Jesuits. His wish was only verbally expressed, and that by a messenger. After his death (1559), at the advice of eminent canonists, Lainez discontinued the choir, and observed the constitutions of the order in regard to the generalate. A new difficulty now confronted him. Twelve votes were cast for Lainez in the effort to choose a successor for Paul IV, the reform party being intent upon electing him. His entreaties and sudden departure for parts unknown saved him from the possibility. To Lainez is due the adoption of the “Constitutions” of the Society, and the importance that higher education was destined to have in working out in detail the general principle of its institution. Notwithstanding the labours incident to the governing of his order, Lainez still busied himself with the battle of the Church against heresy and neglect of ecclesiastical discipline. Pius IV sent him as theologian to the famous Conference of Poissy (1561) along with Cardinal Ippolito d’Este. There he engaged the Calvinistic ministers in dispute before the Queen Regent Catherine de’ Medici. In his absence, Salmerón was vicar-general at Rome. Meanwhile the third convocation of Trent was opened (18 January, 1562). Two Jesuits were present, Covillon and Canisius. Pius IV was not satisfied, nor were the party of reform, that the two protagonists of former convocations were absent; Salmerón, Lainez, and Polanco were straightway ordered by the Holy Father to go to Trent as his theologians. Salmerón was the first to arrive. He spoke three hours on communion under one species. Lainez reached Trent in August, 1562. He was the first, as papal theologian, to speak on the Sacrifice of the Mass. His proofs were well under way, when the Fathers voted to allow him the whole of the next day for his discourse, which he delivered from a platform in the body of the cathedral. The opinions of Lainez, not only in matters dogmatic but in the practice of refusing the cup to the faithful, prevailed in the twenty second session.

The matter of the next session was exceedingly delicate-the question of orders, involving as it did the origin of episcopal jurisdiction. Lainez was one of the committee appointed to draw up the decrees and canons on the Sacrament of Orders; and to him the rest of the committee consigned that task. At the very outset of the discussions, the question of the Divine right of bishops came up; the discussions were carried on vigorously for nine months. Lainez stood firm for the Divine origin of the powers of the order of bishops, the Divine right of the episcopal body to jurisdiction and the conferring of this jurisdiction upon each individual bishop directly by the pope and not by God. On two other occasions at Trent Lainez defended the papal origin of episcopal jurisdiction. In the end the council left the mooted question out of the decrees of the Twenty-third Session. Lainez remained in the council until its adjournment (4 December, 1563). A little more than a year later (19 January, 1565), he died at Rome.

Ribadeneira (Vida del Padre Lainex, III, xvi), who knew Lainez, says he was small of stature and delicate; his eyes were large, clear and full of life; his mind was quick and accurate; his character noble, deep, serious, large minded, firm, and strong. The chief published works of Lainez are “Disputationes Tridentinae”, ed. Grisar, 2 vols. (Innsbruck, 1886); for long list of other works, see Hurter, “Nomenclator”, and Sommervogel, “Bibliotheque de la Compagnie de Jésus” (Paris, 1893).

ASTRAIN, Historia de la Compania de Jesus, I and II (Madrid, 1902, and 1905); IDEM, Los Espanoles en el Concilio de Trento in Razon y Fe, III, IV; DUHR, Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Landern Deutscher Zunge, I (Freiburg im B., 1907); TACCHI VENTURI, Storia della Compagnia di Gesu in Italia (ROMA, 1910). The standard lives are those of RIBADENEIRA and BOERO.

WALTER DRUM (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 19 – Bishop Frederic Baraga

January 19, 2026

First Bishop of Marquette, Michigan, U.S.A., born 29 June, 1797, at Malavas, in the parish of Dobernice in the Austrian Dukedom of Carniola; died at Marquette, Michigan, 19 January, 1868.

Frederic Baraga

Frederic Baraga

He was baptized on the very day of his birth, in the parish church of Dobernice, by the names of Irenaeus Frederic, the first of which, however, he never used, retaining only the second. His parents, Johann Nepomuc Baraga and Maria Katharine Josefa (nee de Jencic), had five children, of whom Frederic was the fourth. His father was not rich, but his mother inherited after her father’s death the estate of Malavas, besides a vast fortune. They were God-fearing and pious, and strove, while they survived, to give a good education to their children. His mother died in 1808, and his father in 1812, and Frederic spent his boyhood in the house of Dr. George Dolinar, a layman, professor in the diocesan clerical seminary at Laibach.

In 1816 young Frederic Baraga entered the University of Vienna, studied law, and graduated in 1821, but soon turned his thoughts to the clerical state, and entered the seminary of Laibach that same year. He was ordained priest 21 September, 1823, at Laibach, and laboured with great zeal and spiritual success as assistant in St. Martin’s parish, near Krainberg, and at Metlika, in Lower Carniola. On the 29th of October, 1830, he left his native land for the United States to spend the rest of his life in the Indian missionary field. After a journey of two months, he landed in New York on the 31st of December, 1830. He then proceeded to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he arrived 18 January, 1831. He was most kindly received by the Rt. Rev. Edward Fenwick, Bishop of Cincinnati, and during the winter and spring months laboured among the German Catholics of that city and elsewhere. On the 28th of May, 1831, he arrived at Arbre Croche, now Harbor Springs, his first Indian mission. There he laboured with apostolic zeal at the conversion of the Ottawas during two years and four months, during which time he baptized 547 Indian adults and children. He was succeeded in 1833 by Rev. F. Saenderl, Superior of the Redemptorists in the United States. On or about the 8th of September, 1833, Baraga left Arbre Croche to found a new Indian mission at Grand River, Mich. He arrived at his destination (now Grand Rapids, Mich.) on the 23d of September. He immediately began the building of a combination church, school, and pastoral residence, which was very poor, owing to the deficiency of funds. There he laboured most earnestly, though not as successfully as at Arbre Croche, until February, 1835, when he was succeeded by Father Andrew Viszoczky, a Hungarian priest. Baraga himself estimated the number of his converts at about two hundred, but Bishop Rese estimated the number of Indian converts in his diocese in 1834 at three thousand, with twelve churches or chapels.

Frederic BaragaBaraga’s next Indian mission was among the Chippewas at La Pointe, Wisconsin, where he arrived 27 July, 1835. There he laboured successfully for about eight years, baptizing 981 Indians and whites. In 1843 he founded the L’Anse Indian mission in Michigan, arriving there on the 24th of October. For ten years he laboured in this vast mission, being for many years the only Catholic priest in Upper Michigan. He attended not only to the Indians, but also to the whites of the vast territory, as the discovery of iron and copper drew many German, French, and English-speaking Catholics to the Northern Peninsula of Michigan. Truly incredible are the hardships and labours of Baraga at this period of his life. On the 29th of July, 1853, the Northern Peninsula of Michigan was detached from the Diocese of Detroit and erected into a vicariate Apostolic, and Baraga was appointed its first bishop. He was consecrated in the cathedral of Cincinnati by Archbishop Purcell, Bishop LeFevre of Detroit and Bishop Henni of Milwaukee officiating as assistant consecrators. Shortly after his elevation to the episcopal dignity Bishop Baraga issued two circulars to his people, one in Chippewa and the other in English. His jurisdiction extended not only to the whole Northern Peninsula of Michigan, but also to a large part of the Lower Peninsula, to Northern Wisconsin, and to the North Shore of Lake Superior. He laboured in this vast extent of territory for fifteen years, travelling almost incessantly, from the opening to the close of navigation year after year. On the 23d of October, 1865, by Apostolic authority he transferred his See from Sault Ste. Marie to Marquette, where he died at the age of seventy years.

Friedrich_Baraga_1854_LithoBishop Baraga will always rank with the foremost authors in American Indian literature. He composed the first known Chippewa grammar. This was a truly Herculean task, for he had to establish after long and close observation and deep study all the rules of the Chippewa grammar. This grammar has gone through three editions. In his preface to his Chippewa dictionary, printed in preface to his Chippewa dictionary, printed in Cincinnati, O., in 1853, by Jos. A. Hermann, he says: “This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first Dictionary of the Otchipwe language ever published. The compilation of it has cost me several years of assiduous labour.” This dictionary has also passed through several editions. Both grammar and dictionary are most highly prized and constantly used by Indian missionaries and others. His Indian prayer book and works of instruction are much read by both Indians and their pastors. Baraga always wrote in a very simple and clear style. His writings are admirably adapted to the limited capacity of his Indian readers, and can be understood even by ignorant Indian children. His “Dusna Tasa“, a prayer book in Slovenian, his own native language, passed through ten editions, the last, in 1905, with 84,000 copies. This alone is a proof of its great popularity and usefulness.

In addition to the “Theoretical and Practical Grammar of the Otchipwe [Chippewa] Language” (Detroit, 1850), the Chippewa dictionary, and the “Dusna Tasa” mentioned above, the published works of Bishop Baraga include: “Veneration and Imitation of the Blessed Mother of God”, in Slovenian (1830); “Animie-Misinaigan”, an Ottawa prayer book; “Jesus o Bimadisiwim” (The Life of Jesus), in Ottawa (Paris, 1837); “On the manners and customs of the Indians” in Slovenian (Laibach, 1837); “Gagikwe-Masiniagan”, a sermon-book, in Chippewa (1839 and 1859); “Zlata Jabelka” – “Golden Apples” (Laibach, 1844); “Kagige Debwewinan” – “Eternal Truths”; “Nanagatawendamo-Masinaigan” – Instructions on the Commandments and sacraments.

Friderik_Baraga_restorationNo Indian missionary of modern times was more beloved and revered by both Indians and whites than Baraga. He loved his Indians with a warm-hearted devotion which they reciprocated. Men of all positions in society, Catholics and non-Catholics, revered him as an ideal man, Christian, and bishop. Michigan has named after him one of her counties, several towns, and post offices, and his name has been given to one of the principal streets of Marquette. In his native country he is, if possible, even more popular than in America. His life, published in Slovenian, in 1906, has already (1907) reached a sale of 85,000 copies. That life might be summed up in the one phrase: Saintliness in action.

Verwyst, Life and Labours of Rt. Rev. Frederic Baraga (Milwaukee, 1900); Razen, History of the Diocese of Sault Ste. Marie and Marquette; Elliott, Baraga among the Indians in Am. Cath. Q. Rev. (1896) 106 sqq.

Chrysostom Verwyst (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 19 – St. Wolstan

January 19, 2026

Benedictine, and Bishop of Worcester, b. at Long Itchington, Warwickshire, England, about 1008; d. at Worcester, 19 Jan.,1095. Educated at the great monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough, he resolutely combated and overcame the temptations of his youth, and entered the service of Brithege, Bishop of Worcester, who ordained him priest about 1038. Refusing all ecclesiastical preferment, he became a novice in the great priory of Worcester, and after holding various offices in the monastery became cathedral prior there. He held this position, edifying all by his charity, holiness of life, and strict observance of the rule, until 1062, when the See of Worcester fell vacant by the translation of Bishop Aldred to the Archbishopric of York. Two Roman cardinals, who had been Wolstan’s guests at Worcester during Lent, recommended the holy prior to King Edward for the vacant see, to which he was consecrated on 8 September, 1062. Not a man of special learning or commanding intellect, he devoted his whole life to the care of his diocese, visiting, preaching, and confirming without intermission, rebuilding his cathedral in the simple Saxon style, planting new churches everywhere, and retaining the ascetic personal habits which he had acquired in the cloister. His life, notwithstanding his assiduous labours, was one of continuous prayer and recollection; the Psalms were always on his lips, and he recited the Divine Office aloud with his attendants as he rode through the country in discharge of his episcopal duties. Wolstan was the last English bishop appointed under a Saxon king, the last episcopal representative of the Church of Bede and of Cuthbert, and the link between it and the Church of Lanfranc and Anselm. After the Conquest, when nearly all the Saxon nobles and clergy were deprived of their offices and honours in favour of the Normans, Wolstan retained his see, and gradually won the esteem and confidence both of Lanfranc and of the Conqueror himself. Aelred of Rievaulx tells the legend of his being called upon to resign his bishopric, and of his laying his crozier on the tomb of Edward the Confessor at Westminster. The crozier remained immoveable — a sign from heaven, as was believed, that the holy bishop was to retain his see. He survived both William the Conqueror and Lanfranc, and was one of the consecrators of St. Anselm.

D.O. HUNTER-BLAIR (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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The Conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne

January 19, 2026

By Armando Santos

Alphonse Ratisbonne

Alphonse Ratisbonne was a young Jew from a family of well-established bankers in Strasbourg, France. He also was socially prominent due to his wealth and blood-ties to the Rothchilds. In 1827, Alphonse’s older brother, Thèodore, converted to Catholicism and entered the priesthood, thus breaking with his family whose hopes now lay in the young Alphonse, born in 1814. Alphonse was intelligent and well mannered, had already finished his law degree and was engaged to a young Jewess, his niece. He was twenty-seven years old and, before marrying, he wanted to travel on holiday to Italy and the East. Upon his return, he planned to marry and take on his responsibilities in his family’s banking business. God, however, had other plans for him in Rome.

Alphonse was not a practicing Jew. He nourished a profound hatred for the Catholic Church, especially because of the resentment his whole family had due to their first-born’s defection. Alphonse said he would never change religion. But if one day he were to change, he would become a Protestant, never a Catholic. While in Rome, Ratisbonne visited works of art, as well as some Catholic churches, out of cultural curiosity. These visits hardened his anti-Catholic stance. He also visited an old schoolmate and close friend named Gustave de Bussières. Gustave was a Protestant and several times had tried, in vain, to win Alphonse over to his religious convictions. In Gustave’s house, Alphonse was introduced to Gustave’s brother, Baron Thèodore de Bussières, who had just recently converted to Catholicism. Baron Thèodore, in turn, was a close friend of Father Thèodore Ratisbonne. Because of these two circumstances, Alphonse greatly disliked him. Thus it was only on the eve of his departure that he reluctantly resolved to fulfill his social obligation to leave his calling card at the Baron’s house as a farewell gesture.

Theodore Ratisbonne

Hoping to avoid a meeting, Alphonse intended to leave his card discreetly and depart straight away. The Baron’s Italian servant, however, did not understand his French and showed him into the parlor while he went to call the Baron. The latter greeted the young Jew and immediately established cordial relations, while trying to attract him to the Catholic Faith. With much insistence, he was able to persuade Alphonse to delay his departure from Rome in order to attend a ceremony to be held at Saint Peter’s Basilica.

Sant’Andrea delle Fratte

He further succeeded in persuading Ratisbonne to accept a Miraculous Medal and to promise to copy down a very beautiful prayer: the Memorare. Had this not been inspired by grace, it would have been utterly indiscreet. The Jew could hardly contain his anger at the Baron’s boldness of proposing these things to him, but decided to take everything good-heartedly, hoping, as he later declared, to write a book about his travels. In this book, the Baron would appear as nothing more than an eccentric man.

On January 18, a close friend of the Baron de Bussières died. He was Count de La Ferronays, the former French ambassador to the Holy See and a man of great virtue and piety. On the eve of his sudden death, La Ferronays was talking to Bussières about Ratisbonne and, at the request of Bussières, prayed the Memorare one hundred times for his conversion. It is even possible that he offered his life to God for the conversion of the young banker.

Photograph of Fr. Marie-Alphonse Ratisbonne in 1865.

Around midday on January 20, the Baron de Bussières went to the church of Sant’Andrea delle Fratte to arrange for his deceased friend’s funeral to be held the following   day.   Ratisbonne   reluctantly went along making violent criticisms of the Church and mocking Catholic practices. When they arrived at the church, the Baron left him alone for a few minutes and entered the sacristy to see about the funeral arrangements. Alphonse decided to look around and went up one of the side aisles since he could not cross over due to the preparations for the Count’s funeral in the central nave. When the Baron returned just a few minutes later, he did not find Alphonse where he had left him.  After much searching, he found him on the other side of the Church kneeling close to an altar, weeping. He no longer found a Jew, but a convert who ardently desired baptism.

Ratisbonne himself tells us what happened in those few minutes: “I had only been in the church a short while when, all of a sudden, I felt totally uneasy for no apparent reason. I raised my eyes and saw that the whole building had disappeared. Only one side chapel had, so to say, gathered all the light. In the midst of this splendor, the Virgin Mary appeared standing on the altar. She was grandiose, brilliant, full of majesty and sweetness, just as she is in the Miraculous Medal. An irresistible force attracted me to her. The Virgin made a gesture with her hand indicating I was to kneel and as if saying ‘very good!’ Although she did not say anything, I understood everything.” Ratisbonne never could explain how, being in one of the lateral naves before the apparition, he was found in the other, since the central nave was obstructed. However, in face of the magnitude of the miracle of his conversion, this was but a detail.

The side altar of the Church of Saint Andrea delle Fratte. To the left a small plaque reads, “Alphonse Ratisbonne of Strasbourg, an obstinate Jew, came here. This Virgin appeared to him as you see her; falling on his knees a Jew, he rose a Christian.”

The news of such an unexpected conversion, so fulminating and complete, immediately spread and caused a great commotion throughout Europe. Pope Gregory XVI wished to meet the young convert and received him paternally. He ordered a detailed investigation with all the rigor required by canon law. The conclusion was that it was truly an authentic miracle. Having taken the name Maria Alphonse at baptism, Ratisbonne wished to become a Jesuit and was ordained in 1847. After a while and at the suggestion of Pope Pius IX, he left the Jesuits and joined his brother Thèodore in founding the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion, dedicated to the conversion of the Jews.

Fr. Mary Alphonse in Jerusalem.

Father Theodore spread his congregation throughout France and England, while Father Maria Alphonse went to the Holy Land. In Jerusalem he bought a plot of land where the praetorium of Pilate had formerly stood. Here he established a house of the congregation. The two brothers died in 1884, both with the fame of exceptional virtues.

The Story of the Miraculous Medal: A Helping Hand From Heaven E-Book is available now! Download your e-form today!

 

Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 630

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January 20 – A dove landed on his head, and you would not believe what happened next!

January 19, 2026

Pope St. Fabian

(FABIANUS)

Photo of Pope St. Fabian by GFreihalter in Saint-Gratien, France.

Photo of Pope St. Fabian by GFreihalter in Saint-Gratien, France.

Pope (236-250), the extraordinary circumstances of whose election is related by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., VI, 29). After the death of Anterus he had come to Rome, with some others, from his farm and was in the city when the new election began. While the names of several illustrious and noble persons were being considered, a dove suddenly descended upon the head of Fabian, of whom no one had even thought. To the assembled brethren the sight recalled the Gospel scene of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Saviour of mankind, and so, divinely inspired, as it were, they chose Fabian with joyous unanimity and placed him in the Chair of Peter. During his reign of fourteen years there was a lull in the storm of persecution. Little is known of his pontificate. The “Liber Pontificalis” says that he divided Rome into seven districts, each supervised by a deacon, and appointed seven subdeacons, to collect, in conjunction with other notaries, the “acta” of the martyrs, i.e. the reports of the court-proceedings on the occasion of their trials (cf. Eus., VI, 43). There is a tradition that he instituted the four minor orders. Under him considerable work was done in the catacombs. He caused the body of Pope St. Pontianus to be exhumed, in Sardinia, and transferred to the catacomb of St. Callistus at Rome. Later accounts, more or less trustworthy, attribute to him the consecration (245) of seven bishops as missionaries to Gaul, among them St. Denys of Paris (Greg. of Tours, Hist. Francor., I, 28, 31). St. Cyprian mentions (Ep., 59) the condemnation by Fabian for heresy of a certain Privatus (Bishop of Lambaesa) in Africa. The famous Origen did not hesitate to defend, before Fabian, the orthodoxy of his teaching (Eus. Hist. Eccl., VI, 34). Fabian died a martyr (20 Jan., 250) at the beginning of the Decian persecution, and was buried in the Crypt of the Popes in the catacomb of St. Callistus, where in recent times (1850) De Rossi discovered his Greek epitaph (Roma Sotterranea II, 59): “Fabian, bishop and martyr.” The decretals ascribed to him in Pseudo-Isidore are apocryphal.

P. GABRIEL MEIER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 20 – St. Sebastian

January 19, 2026

A.D. 288.

The skullcap reliquary of Saint Sebastian in the Church St. Sebastian in Ebersberg, Bavaria, Germany. Photo by J. Patrick Fischer.

The skullcap reliquary of Saint Sebastian in the Church St. Sebastian in Ebersberg, Bavaria, Germany. Photo by J. Patrick Fischer. The relic lies under the hat, which can be removed.

St. Sebastian was born at Narbonne, in Gaul, but his parents were of Milan, in Italy, and he was brought up in that city. He was a fervent servant of Christ, and though his natural inclinations gave him an aversion to a military life, yet, to be better able, without suspicion, to assist the confessors and martyrs in their sufferings, he went to Rome, and entered the army under the Emperor Carinus, about the year 283. It happened that the martyrs, Marcus and Marcellianus, under sentence of death, appeared in danger of being shaken in their faith by the tears of their friends: Sebastian seeing this, stept in, and made them a long exhortation to constancy, which he delivered with the holy fire that strongly affected all his hearers. Zoë, the wife of Nicostratus, having for six years lost the use of speech, by a palsy in her tongue, fell at his feet, and spoke distinctly, by the saint’s making the sign of the cross on her mouth. She, with her husband Nicostratus, who was master of the rolls, [1] the parents of Marcus and Marcellianus, the jailor Claudius, and sixteen other prisoners, were converted; and Nicostratus, who had charge of the prisoners, took them to his own house, where Polycarp, a holy priest, instructed and baptized them. Chromatius, governor of Rome, being informed of this, and that Tranquillinus, the father of Saints Marcus and Marcellianus, had been cured of the gout by receiving baptism, desired to be instructed in the faith, being himself grievously afflicted with the same distemper. Accordingly, having sent for Sebastian, he was cured by him, and baptized with his son Tiburtius. He then enlarged the converted prisoners, made his slaves free, and resigned his prefectship.

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Nobility of Birth Seems a Fortuitous Fact, but It Results from a Benevolent Design of Heaven

January 19, 2026

From the Allocution of Leo XIII to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 21, 1897:

Our heart rejoices to see you here again, united by a concord of ideas and affections that honor you. Our charity knows no partiality, nor ought to know any, yet it is not to be blamed if it takes particular pleasure in you and in the very social rank that was assigned to you in what may seem a fortuitous manner, but was in truth the benign will of heaven. How can one deny special esteem to the prominence of a noble line if the Divine Redeemer manifested the same regard? Of course, during His earthly pilgrimage, He adopted a life of poverty and never wished for the company of riches, yet He chose His own lineage from royal stock.

Coronation of the Virgin by Jacobello del Fiore

We remind you of these things, beloved Children, not to flatter any foolish pride, but rather to give you comfort in works worthy of your rank. Every individual and every class of individuals has its function and its value; from the ordered accord of all is born the harmony of mankind. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that in the public and private orders the aristocracy of blood is a special force, as are property and talent. And if it were somehow in contradiction to the will of nature, it would never have been what it has been in all ages, one of the moderating laws of human history. Wherefore, judging from the past, it is not illogical to infer that, however the times may evolve, an illustrious name will always have some validity to one who knows how to bear it worthily.

Leonis XIII Pontificis Maximii Acta (Rome: Ex Tipografia Vaticana, 1898), Vol. 17, pp. 357-358 in Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Documents IV, p. 470.

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Five Theses on Egalitarianism

January 19, 2026

By Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

In general lines, I formulated five essential theses in these lectures on egalitarianism in such a way that we understand that each one of these theses constitutes a point entirely distinct from the others and has its own demonstration. The ensemble of these theses constitutes our doctrine on egalitarianism.

“March for Women’s Lives,” taken January 21, 2017.

First Thesis: The Triumphal March of the Egalitarian Revolution

“The most important fact of our days is an immense egalitarian Revolution which directs the course of all events to its advantage, aiming for complete equality through processes which are at times gradual and peaceful, and at other times open and brutal.”

For many people, this thesis is something new. They have a confused, inexact notion of this Revolution.* We must know how to show that this Revolution displays seemingly disconnected facts which in fact constitute a single whole. We are not dealing with only slight accidental modifications in life, but with an immense movement which has been going on for centuries and will necessarily lead to complete equality. This is done through violent processes, but also through gradual ones. This is the first thing we must do to have people understand the importance of the power of egalitarianism. This would be an introduction and at the same time an affirmation of our theses in this matter.

Statue of Martin Luther in Germany outside the Marktkirche. Luther is stepping on the Papal Bull of his own excommunication.

Second Thesis: The Religious Character of the Egalitarian Revolution

“This Revolution is religious, in the sense that it has its own mysticism: Equality, hoisted as the supreme metaphysical value in relation to which all beings should be ordered if they wish to be perfect.”

This principle affirms that equality is a kind of mysticism that comprises enthusiasm, supreme admiration, and a conviction that all things are perfect only in the measure they are equal. Equality is the measure of all things. Now, this attitude facing the problem of equality gives the Revolution a religious character, as it assumes a religious principle as absolute and supreme. This is not to say that egalitarianism is a religion in the sense of having its own god and worship, but that it is a religious Revolution.

The affirmation that this is a religious Revolution is very important to explain the incompatibility between this Revolution and the Catholic Faith. This is because many people still have a remnant of common sense by which they recognize that two religions are not compatible with each other. So placing this in terms of religion is precisely what we must do. On the other hand, we also have an argument to pressure those who subconsciously think: “Since this is not a religious issue but only a political and social one, it is not very important. Yes, we should fight against Protestantism. . .  [and other false religions], but this [egalitarianism] is not a religion and so it is not that important.”

Allegory of the French Law of Separation of Church and State (1905).

Third Thesis: The Egalitarian Revolution’s Hatred of God

“This religious-mystical-metaphysical ideal is directed against the image of God in Creation and, therefore, against God Himself.”

This is what we affirm when we show that God created the universe unequal so that it might reflect His perfections. Therefore, we should want a universe in which all creatures are perfect only when unequal, as God made them unequal to better mirror His perfections. Given St. Thomas Aquinas’s thesis that the divine perfections are better mirrored in the inequality of creatures, we arrive at the conclusion that this Revolution is directed against the reflection of God in creation; and if it is done to counter that which most mirrors God in creation, it obviously is a Revolution against God.

Therefore, there is a curious combination in this Revolution; it has something secularist and atheistic about it. As paradoxical as this may be, it is a religion with secularist and atheist traits.

Fourth Thesis: The Revolution Has a Gnostic Ideal

“This ideal is Gnostic, for it seeks to reabsorb creation into the primitive nothingness. It is thus the synthesis of all heresies, towards which they all tend.”

Having prepared the ground, we now state our thesis on Gnosis. We prove the affirmation that it is the erroneous religion par excellence, the pole towards which all erroneous religions are directed. St. Pius X employed the expression “synthesis of all heresies” to describe Modernism, which, as we know, is Gnostic. The god of this religion is nothingness, the initial abyss from which all things came. Thus one understands that since the god of this religion is nothingness and not a personal god, it has the traits of an atheistic religion. This is the pole toward which all heresies tend, and it is the greatest enemy of the Catholic Church.

Protest against the Satanic Black Mass in Oklahoma City, August 15, 2016.

 Fifth Thesis: The Revolution Is Satanic

“This Revolution is satanic. It is the devil’s deceitful and failed plan to combat the plan of Providence.”

These Five Theses Are Intertwined

The charge against the egalitarian movement is done in the following manner. In the first thesis, we show that this movement exists. We draw, with countless examples drawn from the cosmopolitan society of our days, the proof that there is a constant march toward equality in the contemporary world. Then, comparing our days with a more remote past, we show that this movement comes from way back, having started many centuries ago; it dominates all of today’s developments; it is very radical and will lead to complete equality by means of gradual, obscure processes, etc. This is the first description of the Revolution.

The other four theses constitute the judgment of the Revolution, and this judgment is done in successive points:

1) It is a religious movement;

2) Animated by hatred for God:

3) It is Gnostic, and at the same time a kind of atheistic religion;

4) It is done by the devil.

(. . . )

Historians note that atheism, even in the guise of deism, had become widespread at that time in high society in France and elsewhere; belief in a God who was Creator and Redeemer had become, in that world given over to all the pleasures of the senses, something almost ridiculous and unseemly for cultivated minds avid for novelty and progress.

Summary of Each Thesis

I gave a name to each of these principles or theses.

1) The triumphal march of the egalitarian Revolution. Here we affirm its existence, and the fact that is heading toward victory.

2) The religious character of the egalitarian Revolution. Here, the religious character should be distinguished from the Gnostic or satanic character. It is religious insofar as it is mystical and metaphysical.

3) The essence of this religion is the hatred of God.

4) The god of this religion is the abyss, or nothingness. In my opinion, one of the most intriguing characteristics of communism is its atheist and godless character, and at the same time, its religious tone. Many people who are confounded about this fail to remember that the Gnostics adore a non-god, an empty god.

5) The god of the abyss is the devil – the satanic character of the egalitarian Revolution.

This book is available in paperback and as an e-book. Click the link below for the Bookstore and click the picture of the e-book.

* The word Revolution is used here in the sense given it by Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira in his book, Revolution and Counter-Revolution.

 

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January 21 – He was put to death, just for being a king

January 19, 2026

His Last Will and Testament

Portrait of King Louis XVI of France, painted by Antoine-François Callet.

Portrait of King Louis XVI of France, painted by Antoine-François Callet.

The last Will and Testament of Louis XVI, King of France and Navarre, given on Christmas day, 1792.

In the name of the Very holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

To-day, the 25th day of December, 1792, I, Louis XVI King of France, being for more than four months imprisoned with my family in the tower of the Temple at Paris, by those who were my subjects, and deprived of all communication whatsoever, even with my family, since the eleventh instant; moreover, involved in a trial the end of which it is impossible to foresee, on account of the passions of men, and for which one can find neither pretext nor means in any existing law, and having no other witnesses, for my thoughts than God to whom I can address myself, I hereby declare, in His presence, my last wishes and feelings.

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I leave my soul to God, my creator; I pray Him to receive it in His mercy, not to judge it according to its merits but according to those of Our Lord Jesus Christ who has offered Himself as a sacrifice to God His Father for us other men, no matter how hardened, and for me first.

Louis XVI and his last confessor, Abbé Edgeworth

Louis XVI and his last confessor, Abbé Edgeworth

I die in communion with our Holy Mother, the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman Church, which holds authority by an uninterrupted succession, from St. Peter, to whom Jesus Christ entrusted it; I believe firmly and I confess all that is contained in the creed and the commandments of God and the Church, the sacraments and the mysteries, those which the Catholic Church teaches and has always taught. I never pretend to set myself up as a judge of the various way of expounding the dogma which rend the church of Jesus Christ, but I agree and will always agree, if God grant me life the decisions which the ecclesiastical superiors of the Holy Catholic Church give and will always give, in conformity with the disciplines which the Church has followed since Jesus Christ.

Louis XVI at the Foot of the Scaffold, Painting by Charles Benazech

Louis XVI at the Foot of the Scaffold, Painting by Charles Benazech

(h/t to Tea at Trianon)

In his allocution to the Secret Consistory on June 17, 1793, concerning the execution of King Louis XVI of France, Pope Pius VI stated: “After having abolished the monarchical form of government, which is the best, [the Convention] transferred all public power to the people.”

Pii VI Pont. Max. Acta (Rome: Typis S. Congreg. De Propaganda Fide, 1871), Vol. 2, p. 17 in Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira, Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites in the Allocutions of Pius XII: A Theme Illuminating American Social History (York, Penn.: The American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family, and Property, 1993), Appendix IV, p. 391.

___________________________

Also of interest:

Alone, Marie Antoinette confronts the revolutionary mob

Frequently, great institutions are not overthrown, they self-destruct

The Priesthood of the Nobility—Allocution of Benedict XV to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 5, 1920

While hunting, Marie Antoinette took pains not to damage the harvest

Marie Antoinette, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of France and Capetian Widow

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January 21 – None was held in such high honor

January 19, 2026

St. Agnes of Rome

Of all the virgin martyrs of Rome none was held in such high honour by the primitive church, since the fourth century, as St. Agnes.

Painting of St. Agnes of Rome by Alonso Cano Maler

Painting of St. Agnes of Rome by Alonso Cano Maler

In the ancient Roman calendar of the feasts of the martyrs (Depositio Martyrum), incorporated into the collection of Furius Dionysius Philocalus, dating from 354 and often reprinted, e.g. in Ruinart [Acta Sincera Martyrum (ed. Ratisbon, 1859), 63 sqq.], her feast is assigned to 21 January, to which is added a detail as to the name of the road (Via Nomentana) near which her grave was located. The earliest sacramentaries give the same date for her feast, and it is on this day that the Latin Church even now keeps her memory sacred.

Since the close of the fourth century the Fathers of the Church and Christian poets have sung her praises and extolled her virginity and heroism under torture. It is clear, however, from the diversity in the earliest accounts that there was extant at the end of the fourth century no accurate and reliable narrative, at least in writing, concerning the details of her martyrdom. On one point only is there mutual agreement, viz., the youth of the Christian heroine. St. Ambrose gives her age as twelve (De Virginibus, I, 2; P.L., XVI, 200-202: Haec duodecim annorum martyrium fecisse traditur), St. Augustine as thirteen (Agnes puella tredecim annorum; Sermo cclxxiii, 6, P.L., XXXVIII, 1251), which harmonizes well with the words of Prudentius: Aiunt jugali vix habilem toro (Peristephanon, Hymn xiv, 10 in Ruinart, Act. Sinc., ed cit. 486). Damasus depicts her as hastening to martyrdom from the lap of her mother or nurse (Nutricis gremium subito liquisse puella; in St. Agneten, 3, ed. Ihm, Damasi epigrammata, Leipzig, 1895, 43, n. 40). We have no reason whatever for doubting this tradition. It indeed explains very well the renown of the youthful martyr.

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January 15 – St. Maurus & St. Placidus

January 15, 2026

St. Maurus

Reliquary of St. Maurus from the 2010 exhibition in Prague Castle

Reliquary of St. Maurus from the 2010 exhibition in Prague Castle

Deacon, son of Equitius, a nobleman of Rome, but claimed also by Fondi, Gallipoli, Lavello etc.; died 584. Feast, 15 Jan. He is represented as an abbot with crozier, or with book and censer, or holding the weights and measures of food and drink given him by his holy master. He is the patron of charcoalburners, coppersmiths etc. — in Belgium of shoemakers — and is invoked against gout, hoarseness etc. He was a disciple of St. Benedict, and his chief support at Subiaco. By St. Gregory the Great (Lib. Dialog., II) he is described as a model of religious virtues, especially of obedience. According to the Vita (“Acta SS.” II Jan., 320, and Mabillon “Acta SS. O.S.B.”, I, 274) he went to France in 543 and became the founder and superior of the abbey at Glanfeuil, later known by his name. This Vita ascribed to a companion, the monk Faustus of Monte Cassino, has been severely attacked. Delehaye (loc. cit., 106) calls it a forgery of Abbot Odo of Glanfeuil in the ninth century but Adlhoch (Stud. u. Mittheil ., 1903, 3, 1906, l85) makes a zealous defence. On the Signum S. Mauri, a blessing of the sick with invocation of St. Maurus given in the Appendix of Rituale Romanum, see “Studien u. Mittheil.” (1882), 165.

FRANCIS MERSHMAN

St. Benedict orders St. Maurus to rescue St. Placidius. Painting by Fra Filippo Lippi

St. Benedict orders St. Maurus to rescue St. Placidius. Painting by Fra Filippo Lippi

 

St. Placidus

St. Placidus, disciple of St. Benedict, the son of the patrician Tertullus, was brought as a child to St. Benedict at Sublaqueum (Subiaco) and dedicated to God as provided for in chapter 69 of St. Benedict’s Rule. Here too occurred the incident related by St. Gregory (Dialogues, II, vii) of his rescue from drowning when his fellow monk, Maurus, at St. Benedict’s order ran across the surface of the lake below the monastery and drew Placidus safely to shore. It appears certain that he accompanied St. Benedict when, about 529, he removed to Monte Cassino, which was said to have been made over to him by the father of Placidus. Of his later life nothing is known, but in an ancient psalterium at Vallombrosa his name is found in the Litany of the Saints placed among the confessors immediately after those of St. Benedict and St. Maurus; the same occurs in Codex CLV at Subiaco, attributed to the ninth century (see Baumer, “Johannes Mabillon”, p. 199, n. 2).

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There seems now to be no doubt that the “Passio S. Placidi”, purporting to be written by one Gordianus, a servant of the saint, on the strength of which he is usually described as abbot and martyr, is really the work of Peter the Deacon, a monk of Monte Cassino in the twelfth century (see Delehaye, op. cit. infra). The writer seems to have begun by confusing St. Placidus with the earlier Placitus, who, with Euticius and thirty companions, was martyred in Sicily under Diocletian, their feast occurring in the earlier martyrologies on 5 October. Having thus made St. Placidus a martyr, he proceeds to account for this by attributing his martyrdom to Saracen invaders from Spain — an utter anachronism in the sixth century but quite a possible blunder if the “Acta” were composed after the Moslem invasions of Sicily. The whole question is discussed by the Bollandists (infra).

Acta SS., III Oct. (Brussels, 1770), 65-147; MABILLON, Acta SS. O.S.B., I (Paris, 1668), 45; IDEM, Annales O.S.B., I (Paris, 1703); IDEM, Iter italicum (Paris, 1687), 125; GREGORY THE GREAT, Dial., II, iii, v, vii, in P. L., LXV, 140, 144, 146; PIRRI, Sicilia sacra (Palermo, 1733), 359, 379, 432, 1128; ABBATISSA, Vita di S. Placido (Messina, 1654); AVO, Vita S. Placidi (Venice, 1583); Compendio della vita di s. Placido (Monte Cassino, 1895); DELEHAYE, Legends of the Saints, tr. CRAWFORD (London, 1907), 72, 106.

G. ROGER HUDLESTON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 15 – Most Glorious King Ceolwulp

January 15, 2026

King Ceolwulf

(also CEOLWULPH or CEOLULPH)

Ceolwulf, King of Northumbria, Being Forcibly Shorn, 731, Illustration from ‘Hutchinson’s Story of Giclee Print by Ernest Prater

Coelwulf, King of Northumbria and monk of Lindisfarne, date and place of birth not known; died at Lindisfarne, 764. His ancestry is thus given by the “Anglo-Saxon Chronicle”: “Ceolwulf was the son of Cutha, Cutha of Cuthwin, Cuthwin of Leoldwald, Leoldwald of Egwald, Egwald of Aldhelm, Aldhelm of Ocga, Ocga of Ida, Ida of Eoppa.” Harpsfeld says that he succeeded Osred on the throne, but most authorities say that he was adopted as heir by Osric in 729. Learned and pious, he lacked the vigour and authority necessary for a ruler. Bede bears witness to his learning and piety in the introductory chapter of his “Ecclesiastical History”. He dedicated this work “to the most glorious King Ceolwulph”, sent it to him for his approval, and addresses him thus: “I cannot but commend the sincerity and zeal, with which you not only give ear to hear the words of Holy Scripture, but also industriously take care to become acquainted with the actions and sayings of former men of renown.”

The ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, by Thomas Girtin, 1798

The ruins of Lindisfarne Priory, by Thomas Girtin, 1798

His unfitness for his duties as king prompted his subjects to seize him and confine him in a monastery in the second year of his reign. He escaped from this confinement and reascended the throne. During his reign he appointed his cousin Egbert to be Bishop of York, and Bede tells us that the ecclesiastical affairs of his kingdom were presided over by the four bishops, Wilfrid, Ethelwald, Acca, and Pecthelm. Subscription7 After a reign of eight years he wearied of “the splendid cares of royalty”, and voluntarily resigned to become a monk at Lindisfarne (738). His cousin Eadbert succeeded him. Ranulphus Cestrensis speaks of his retirement to St. Bede’s monastery of Jarrow, but all others agree that it was Lindisfarne. He brought to the monastery many treasures and much land, and after his entrance the monks were first allowed to drink wine and beer, contrary to the tradition handed down from St. Aidan, who only allowed them milk or water. Henry of Huntingdon, when entering into detail with regard to his retirement, says he was principally urged to it by reading the writings of Bede on the lives of former kings who had resigned their thrones to enter the monastic state. He was buried in the cathedral of Lindisfarne next to the tomb of St. Cuthbert, and, according to Malmesbury, many miracles were wrought at his tomb. The body was afterwards transferred to the mainland of Northumberland, probably along with St. Cuthbert’s, in order to preserve it from desecration at the time of the Danish invasion. His feast day in the calendar is the 15th of January.

BEDE, Eccles. History (ed. (GILES), I, 334, 335, 34O; Acta SS., Jan. 25,I; LINGARD, Hist. of England (London, 1854), I, 71, 72; DIXON AND RAINE’S Fasti Eborac., 94; Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (ed. GILES), index; RAINE, Hist. of North Durham, 68.

G. E. HIND (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 16 – The true disciple of St. Francis who sent the Moorish king into a fit of rage

January 15, 2026

St. Berard of Carbio

(Or BERALDUS).

MartyredFriar Minor and martyr; d. 16 January, 1220. Of the noble family of Leopardi, and a native of Carbio in Umbria, Berard was received into the Franciscan Order by the Seraphic Patriarch himself, in 1213. He was well versed in Arabic, an eloquent preacher, and was chosen by St. Francis, together with two other priests, Peter and Otho, and two lay-brothers, Accursius and Adjutus, to evangelize the infidels of the East. On the conclusion of the Second General Chapter in 1219, St. Francis believed that the time had then come for the religious of his order to extend their apostolic labours beyond the Italian peninsula and Northern Europe; and, choosing for himself and twelve other religious the greater part of Syria and Egypt, he allotted to Berard and his companions the missions of Morocco. The five missionaries set sail from Italy, and after sojourning some time in Spain and Portugal finally arrived in the Kingdom of Morocco. Their open preaching of the Gospel there and their bold denunciation of the religion of Mahomet soon caused them to be apprehended and cast into prison. Having vainly endeavoured to persuade them to abandon the true religion, the Moorish king in a fit of rage opened their heads with his scimitar, and thus were offered to God the first fruits of the blood of the Friars Minor. Berard and his companions were canonized by Sixtus V, in 1481. The feast of the martyrs of Morocco is kept in the order on the 16th of January.

The Martyrs of Marrakesch, Franciscan friars. St. Berard of Carbio, O.F.M. and his companions, Peter, Otho, Accursius, and Adjutus.

The Martyrs of Marrakesch, Franciscan friars. St. Berard of Carbio, O.F.M. and his companions, Peter, Otho, Accursius, and Adjutus.

LEO,Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the Three Orders of St. Francis (Taunton, 1883), I, 99-111; WADDING, Annales Minorum, I, 155, 318, 320 et passim; Anatecta Franciscana (Quaracchi, 1885), II, 13; Passio Sanctorum Martyrum, Frairum Beraldi, etc., in Anal. Francis, (Quaracchi, 1897), III, 579-596; also Anal. Francis, (Quaracchi, 1906), IV, 322-323; Acta SS., January, II, 426-435; Catalogus SS. Frat. Min., ed. LEMMENS (Rome, 1903).

STEPHEN M. DONOVAN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 16 – Irish Prince and Saint

January 15, 2026

St. Fursey

An Abbot of Lagny, near Paris, died 16 Jan., about 650.

He was the son of Fintan, son of Finloga, prince of South Muster, and Gelgesia, daughter of Aedhfinn, prince of Hy-Briuin in Connaught. He was born probably amongst the Hy-Bruin, and was baptized by St. Brendan the Traveller, his father’s uncle, who then ruled a monastery in the Island of Oirbsen, now called Inisquin in Lough Corrib. He was educated by St. Brendan’s monks, and when of proper age he embraced the religious life in the same monastery under the Abbot St. Meldan, his “soul-friend” (anam-chura). His great sanctity was early discerned, and there is a legend that here, through his prayers, twin children of a chieftain related to King Brendinus were raised from the dead. After some years he founded a monastery at Rathmat on the shore of Lough Corrib which Colgan identifies as Killursa, in the deanery of Annadown. Aspirants came in numbers to place themselves under his rule, but he wished to secure also some of his relatives for the new monastery. For this purpose he set out with some monks for Munster, but on coming near his father’s home he was seized with an apparently mortal illness. He fell into a trance from the ninth hour of the day to cock-crow, and while in this state was favoured with the first of the ecstatic visions which have rendered him famous in medieval literature.

Saint FurseyIn this vision were revealed to him the state of man in sin, the beauty of virtue. He heard the angelic choirs singing “the saints shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of Gods will appear in Sion”. An injunction was laid on him by the two angels who restored him to the body to become a more zealous labour in the harvest of the Lord. Again on the third night following, the ecstasy was renewed. He was rapt aloft by three angels who contended six times with demons for his soul. He saw the fires of hell, the strife of demons, and then heard the angel hosts sing in four choirs “Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts”. Among the spirits of the just made perfect he recognized Sts. Meldan and Beoan. They entertained him with much spiritual instruction concerning the duties of ecclesiastics and monks, the dreadful effects of pride and disobedience, the heinousness of spiritual and internal sins. They also predicted famine and pestilence. As he returned through the fire the demon hurled a tortured sinner at him, burning him, and the angel of the Lord said to him: “because thou didst receive the mantle of this man when dying in his sin the fire consuming him hath scarred thy body also.”

The body of Fursey bore the mark ever after. His brothers Foillan and Ultan then joined the community at Rathmat, but Fursey seems to have renounced the administration of that monastery and to have devoted himself to preaching throughout the land, frequetly exorcising evil spirits. Exactly twelve months afterwards he was favoured with a third vision. The angel remained with him a whole day, instructed him for his preaching, and prescribed for him twelve years of apostolic labour. This he faithfully fulfilled in Ireland, and then stripping himself of all earthly goods he retired for a time to a small island in the ocean. Then he went with his brothers and other monks, bringing with him the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan, through Britain (Wales) to East Anglia where he was honourably received by King Sigebert in 633. The latter gave him a tract of land at Cnobheresburg on which he built a monastery within the enclosure of a Roman fort—Burghcastle in Suffolk—surrounded by woods and overlooking the sea. Here he laboured for some years converting the Picts and Saxons. He also received King Sigebert into the religious state. Three miracles are recorded of his life in this monastery. Again he retired for one year to live with Ultan the life of an anchorite.

Saint Fursey and the monk; from a 14th-century manuscript.

Saint Fursey and the monk; from a 14th-century manuscript.

When war threatened East Anglia, Fursey, disbanding his monks until quieter times should come, sailed with his brothers and six other monks to Gaul. He arrived in Normandy in 648. Passing through Ponthieu, in a village near Mézerolles he found grief and lamendation on all sides, for the only son of Duke Hayson, the Lord of that country, lay dead. At the prayer of Fursey the boy was restored. Pursuing his journey to Neustria he cured many infirmities on the way, by miracles he converted a robber and his family, who attacked the monks in the wood near Corbie, and also the inhospitable worldling Ermelinda, who had refused to harbour the weary travellers. His fame preceded him to Péronne, where he was joyfully received by Erkinoald, and through his prayers obtained the reprive of six criminals. He was offered any site in the king’s dominions for a monastery. He selected Latiniacum (Lagny), close to Chelles and about six miles from Paris, a spot beside the Marne, covered with shady woods and abounding in fruitful vineyards. Here he built his monastery and three chapels, one dedicated to the Saviour, one to St. Peter, and the third, an unpretending structure, afterwards dedicated to St. Fursey himself. Many of his countrymen were attracted to his rule at Lagny, among them Emilian, Eloquius, Mombulus, Adalgisius, Etto, Bertuin, Fredegand, Lactan, Malguil. Having certain premonitions of his end, he set out to visit his brothers Foillan and Ultan who had by this time recruited the scattered monks of Cnobheresburg and re-established that monastery but his last illness struck him down in the very village in which his prayer had restored Duke Haymon’s son to life. The village was thence-forward called Forsheim, that is, the house of Fursey. In accordance with his own wish his remains were brought to Péronne, many prodigies attending their transmission,and deposited in the portico of the church of St. Peter to which he had consigned the relics of Sts. Meldan and Beoan. His body lay unburied there for thirty days pending the dedication of the church, visited by pilgrims from all parts, incorrupt and exhaling a sweet odour. It was then deposited near the altar. Four years later, on 9 February, the remains were translated with great solemnity by St. Eligius, Bishop of Noyon, and Cuthbert, Bishop of Cambrai, to a chapel specially built for them to the east of the altar. In the “Annals of the Four Masters”, Péronne is called Cathair Fursa.

St. Furesy had many visions both on humanity, judgment, heaven and hell, angels and devils. Then he saw such things as the flames of lies, lust, strife and injustice that lay waiting to devour the world and he also detailed punishments for sins.

St. Furesy had many visions both on humanity, judgment, heaven and hell, angels and devils. Then he saw such things as the flames of lies, lust, strife and injustice that lay waiting to devour the world and he also detailed punishments for sins.

In art St. Fursey is represented with two oxen at his feet in commemoration of the prodigy by which, according to legend, Erkinoald’s claim to his body was made good; or he is represented striking water from the soil at Lagny with the point of his staff; or beholding a vision of angels, or gazing at the flames of purgatory and hell. It is disputed whether he was a bishop; he may have been a chorepiscopus. A litany attributed to him is among the manuscripts in Trinity College Dublin. An Irish prophecy is attributed to him by Harris.

C. Mulcahy (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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January 16 – When the Emperor insisted that the lapsed be readmitted to communion without penance, one man stood in his way. This is his story.

January 15, 2026

Pope St. Marcellus I

His date of birth unknown; elected pope in May or June, 308; died in 309. For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304 the Diocletian persecution continued with unabated severity. After the abdication of Diocletian in 305, and the accession in Rome of Maxentius to the throne of the Caesars in October of the following year, the Christians of the capital again enjoyed comparative peace. Nevertheless, nearly two years passed before a new Bishop of Rome was elected. Then in 308, according to the “Catalogus Liberianus”, Pope Marcellus first entered on his office: “Fuit temporibus Maxenti a cons. X et Maximiano usque post consulatum X et septimum” (“Liber Pontif.”, ed. Duchesne, I, 6-7). This abbreviated notice is to be read: “A cons. Maximiano Herculio X et Maximiano Galerio VII [308] usque post cons. Maxim. Herc. X et Maxim. Galer. VII [309]” (cf. de Rossi, “Inscriptiones christ. urbis Romæ”, I, 30).

Pope_Marcellus_IAt Rome, Marcellus found the Church in the greatest confusion. The meeting-places and some of the burial-places of the faithful had been confiscated, and the ordinary life and activity of the Church was interrupted. Added to this were the dissensions within the Church itself, caused by the large number of weaker members who had fallen away during the long period of active persecution and later, under the leadership of an apostate, violently demanded that they should be readmitted to communion without doing penance. According to the “Liber Pontificalis” Marcellus divided the territorial administration of the Church into twenty-five districts (tituli), appointing over each a presbyter, who saw to the preparation of the catechumens for baptism and directed the performance of public penances. The presbyter was also made responsible for the burial of the dead and for the celebrations commemorating the deaths of the martyrs. The pope also had a new burial-place, the Cœmeterium Novellœ on the Via Salaria (opposite the Catacomb of St. Priscilla), laid out. The “Liber Pontificalis” (ed. Duchesne, I, 164) says: “Hic fecit cymiterium Novellae via Salaria et XXV titulos in urbe Roma constituit quasi diœcesis propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum qui convertebantur ex paganis et propter sepulturas Inartyrum”. At the beginning of the seventh century there were probably twenty-five titular churches in Rome; even granting that, perhaps, the compiler of the “Liber Pontificalis” referred this number to the time of Marcellus, there is still a clear historical tradition in support of his declaration that the ecclesiastical administration in Rome was reorganized by this pope after the great persecution.

SubscriptionThe work of the pope was, however, quickly interrupted by the controversies to which the question of the readmittance of the lapsi into the Church gave rise. As to this, we gather some light from the poetic tribute composed by Damasus in memory of his predecessor and placed over his grave (De Rossi, “Inscr. christ. urbis Romæ”, II, 62, 103, 138; cf. Idem, “Roma sotterranea”, II, 204-5). Damasus relates that the truth-loving leader of the Roman Church was looked upon as a wicked enemy by all the lapsed, because he insisted that they should perform the prescribed penance for their guilt. As a result serious conflicts arose, some of which ended in bloodshed, and every bond of peace was broken. At the head of this band of the unfaithful and rebellious stood an apostate who had denied the Faith even before the outbreak of persecution. The tyrannical Maxentius had the pope seized and sent into exile. This took place at the end of 308 or the beginning of 309 according to the passages cited above from the “Catalogus Liberianus”, which gives the length of the pontificate as no more than one year, six (or seven) months, and twenty days. Marcellus died shortly after leaving Rome, and was venerated as a saint. His feast-day was 16 January, according to the “Depositio episcoporum” of the “Chronography” of 354 and every other Roman authority. Nevertheless, it is not known whether this is the date of his death or that of the burial of his remains, after these had been brought back from the unknown quarter to which he had been exiled. He was buried in the catacomb of St. Priscilla where his grave is mentioned by the itineraries to the graves of the Roman martyrs as existing in the basilica of St. Silvester (De Rossi, “Roma sotterranea”, I, 176)

Pope St. Marcellus I

Pope St. Marcellus I

A fifth-century “Passio Marcelli”, which is included in the legendary account of the martyrdom of St. Cyriacus (cf. Acta Sanct., Jan., II, 369) and is followed by the “Liber Pontificalis”, gives a different account of the end of Marcellus. According to this version, the pope was required by Maxentius, who was enraged at his reorganization of the Church, to lay aside his episcopal dignity and make an offering to the gods. On his refusal, he was condemned to work as a slave at a station on the public highway (catabulum). At the end of nine months he was set free by the clergy; but a matron named Lucina having had her house on the Via Lata consecrated by him as “titulus Marcelli” he was again condemned to the work of attending to the horses brought into the station, in which menial occupation he died. All this is probably legendary, the reference to the restoration of ecclesiastical activity by Marcellus alone having an historical basis. The tradition related in the verses of Damasus seems much more worthy of belief. The feast of St. Marcellus, whose name is to this day borne by the church at Rome mentioned in the above legend, is still celebrated on 16 January. There still remains to be mentioned Mommsen’s peculiar view that Marcellus was not really a bishop, but a simple Roman presbyter to whom was committed the ecclesiastical administration during the latter part of the period of vacancy of the papal chair. According to this view, 16 January was really the date of Marcellunus’s death, the next occupant of the chair being Eusebius (Neues Archiv, 1896, XXI, 350-3). This hypothesis has, however, found no support.

Liber Pontif., ed. DUCHESNE, I, 164-6; cf. Introduction, xcix-c; Acta SS., Jan., II, 369; LANGEN, Gesch. der röm. Kirche, I, 379 sqq.; ALLARD, Hist. des persécutions, V, 122-4; DUCHESNE, Hist. ancienne de l’Eglise, II, 95-7.

J. P. KIRSCH (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Pope Pius XII: Allocution of January 16, 1946

January 15, 2026

In past years, beloved Sons and Daughters, on this occasion—after having paternally welcomed the wishes that your illustrious representative usually offers Us in your name, with such noble expressions of faith and filial devotion—We usually accompanied Our expressions of thanks with some recommendations suggested by the circumstances of the moment. We spoke to you of your duties and your function in the tottering, tormented society of our modern times, though necessarily in a somewhat general manner, with the sense of a future in mind, a future whose time and aspect were indeed difficult to predict.

Uncertainty persists, and storm clouds still loom heavy on the horizon.

No doubt it remains obscure even today. Uncertainty persists, and storm clouds still loom heavy on the horizon. With armed conflict just ended, nations find themselves faced with the burdensome task of assuming responsibility for consequences that shall bear upon the course of the times and determine which way they turn. The time has come, in fact, not only for Italy but for many other nations, to elaborate their political and social constitutions, either to create entirely new ones or to revise, retouch, and modify to a greater or lesser degree the already existing statutes bearing them up. What makes this problem all the more arduous is that all these constitutions will be as different and autonomous as you like, as autonomous and different as are the nations themselves which wish to draft them; but they will not be—in fact, if not by law—any less interdependent for all that. What we have before us, therefore, is an event of the highest importance, the likes of which have rarely presented itself in the history of the world. In it there is enough to make even the boldest tremble in their hearts, if they are even only slightly aware of their responsibility; enough to disturb the most clairvoyant of people, precisely because they see better and farther than others and because, convinced of the gravity of the task, they more clearly understand the need to devote themselves calmly and attentively to the mature reflections required by works of such great import. And now, all of a sudden, prompted by collective and mutual efforts, the event is upon us; it will have to be confronted very soon; in a few months, perhaps, solutions will have to be found and definitive decisions made, which will make their effects felt on the destinies of not just one nation, but of the entire world, and which, once made, will establish the universal condition of nations, perhaps for a long time to come. In our democratic age, all members of human society must take part in this undertaking: on the one hand, the legislators, by whatever name they are designated, to whom shall fall the task of deliberating and drawing conclusions; and on the other hand, the people, whose task it is to make their will felt by voicing their opinions and exercising their right to vote. And you too, therefore—whether or not you shall belong to the future constituent assembly—have your own function to fulfill, which will have its bearing upon both the legislators and the people. What is this function, then? You may have happened, more than once, to encounter, in the church of St. Ignatius, groups of pilgrims and tourists. You have seen them stop in surprise in the vast nave of the church, their eyes turned upward to the vault on which Andrea Pozzo painted his stunning triumph of the Saint in his mission, entrusted to him by Christ, of spreading the divine light as far as the remotest corners of the earth. Seeing the apocalyptic avalanche of architectonic figures colliding above their heads, they thought, at first, that they were witnessing the delirium of a madman. Then you politely led them toward the center. As they gradually drew nearer, the columns began to rise up vertically, supporting the arches soaring into space; and each of the visitors, when standing on the little disk indicating the best spot on the floor for viewing the fresco, then saw the material vault disappear before his eyes, allowing him to contemplate in astonishment, in that wondrous perspective, a vision of angels and saints, of men and demons, living and stirring around Christ and Ignatius, who form the center of the grandiose scene. In the same way the world, to those who see it only in its complex and confused materiality, in all its disorderly proceeding, presents the appearance of chaos. Step by step the fine designs of the most skillful builders collapse and leave us thinking the ruins are irreparable, the construction of a new, balanced world on firm and stable foundations impossible. Why?

“In this world there is a stone of granite laid by Christ; one must stand on that stone and turn one’s gaze upward; thence originates the restoration of all things in Christ.” Photo by Alberto Fernandez Fernandez

In this world there is a stone of granite laid by Christ; one must stand on that stone and turn one’s gaze upward; thence originates the restoration of all things in Christ. Christ has revealed the secret thereof: “Quaerite primum regnum Dei et iustitiam eius, et haec omnia adicientur vobis” [Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you] (Matt. 6:33). One cannot therefore draw up the healthy, vital constitution of any society or nation unless the two great powers—the legislator with his deliberations and resolutions and the people with the free expression of their opinions and the exercise of their electoral rights—are both firmly planted on this foundation so they can look upward and bring the kingdom of God upon their country and their world. But are things this way now?

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January 17 – Sister of the Grand Master of Malta

January 15, 2026

St. Roseline of Villeneuve

(or Rossolina.)
Born at Château of Arcs in eastern Provence, 1263; d. 17 January, 1329.Born at Château of Arcs in eastern Provence, 1263; d. 17 January, 1329.

Having overcome her father’s opposition Roseline became a Carthusian nun at Bertaud in the Alps of Dauphiné. Her “consecration” took place in 1288, and about 1330 she succeeded her aunt, Blessed Jeanne or Diane de Villeneuve, as Prioress of Celle-Robaud in the Diocese of Fréjus near her home.

In 1320 her brother Hélion, Grand Master (1319-46) of the Knights of St. John, restored the monastery, and in 1323 and 1328 John XXII, formerly Bishop of Fréjus, increased its revenue, granting indulgences for the anniversary of the dedication of the church.Roseline obtained leave to resign her office before her death. Many visions together with extraordinary austerities and great power over demons are ascribed to her.
There has always been a local cultus and this was confirmed for the Diocese of Fréjus by a Decree of 1851, for the Carthusian Order in 1857. The saint is usually represented with a reliquary containing two eyes, recalling the fact that her eyes were removed and preserved apart. This relic was still extant at Arcs in 1882. There is no ancient life of the saint, but that given in the Acta SS., 2 June, 489 sq., was constructed by Papebroch from ancient documents.

Sainte-Roseline chapel in Les Arcs-sur-Argens, France

Sainte-Roseline chapel in Les Arcs-sur-Argens, France

cfr. RAYMOND WEBSTER (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Nobility.org note:
Her brother was Grand Master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, today popularly known as the Knights of Malta. He must have appreciated her prayers for him and his knights as they battled to fend off Muslim attacks on Christianity.

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January 17 – Scanderbeg: the hero of Christendom

January 15, 2026

ScanderbegIn a history, where so much is spoken of the regions, from whence the miraculous Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel came, it will be of great use to take a brief glance at the once entirely Catholic nation in which it so long remained, and at the great client of its Sanctuary in Scutari, King George Castriota, or, as he is better known by his Turkish appellation, Scanderbeg, (from the words Iskander and beg or bey, which mean Alexander, the prince), the hero of Christendom….

The miraculous image of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano.

The miraculous Image of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Genazzano.

Amurath II ascended the throne of his grandfather Bajazet in 1422. He speedily spread his power over the remnant of territory left to Constantinople. He added Greece, and finally Albania, to his dominions; and gave a death blow to all opposition to his power, by a victory over the Christian crusade, which the zeal of the Pope had gathered to resist him at Varna, in 1444.

Skanderbeg

The reign of this Mussulman conqueror brings us to the mighty chief, whom Mary, Mother of Good Counsel, had raised up to save Albania and Europe from him, and from the still more terrible power of his son and successor Mahomet II, the captor of Constantinople. This was George, the youngest of four sons of King John Castriota….

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January 12 – “The English Saint Bernard”

January 12, 2026

St. Aelred Abbot of Rievaulx, homilist and historian (1109-66). St. Aelred, whose name is also written Ailred, Æthelred, and Ethelred, was the son of one of those married priests of whom many were found in England in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. He was born at Hexham, but at an early age made the acquaintance […]

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January 12 – He promoted the use of stained glass

January 12, 2026

St. Benedict Biscop An English monastic founder, born of a noble Anglo-Saxon family, c. 628; died 12 January 690. He spent his youth at the court of the Northumbrian King Oswy. When twenty-five years old, he made the first of his five pilgrimages to Rome. On his return to England, Benedict introduced, whenever he could, […]

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January 12 – Duke of Alva

January 12, 2026

FERNANDO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO) Born 1508, of one of the most distinguished Castilian families, which boasted descent from the Byzantine emperors; died at Thomar, 12 January, 1582. From his earliest childhood the boy was trained by a severe discipline for his future career as warrior and statesman. In his sixteenth year he took part in […]

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January 13 – The bold strategic vision of Cluny and its first abbot

January 12, 2026

Saint Berno of Cluny (c. 850 – 13 January 927) was first abbot of Cluny from its foundation in 910 until he resigned in 925. He was subject only to the pope and began the tradition of the Cluniac reforms which his successors brought to fruition across Europe. Berno was first a monk at St. […]

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January 13 – The Count Who Converted the King

January 12, 2026

St. Remigius of Rheims Apostle of the Franks, Archbishop of Rheims, b. at Cerny or Laon, 437; d. at Rheims, 13 January 533. His father was Emile, Count of Laon. He studied literature at Rheims and soon became so noted for learning and sanctity that he was elected Archbishop of Rheims in his twenty-second year. […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 14, 1952

January 12, 2026

Faithful to your ancient tradition, beloved Sons and Daughters, you have again come this year to present the visible Head of the Church with a testimonial of your devotion and your fond wishes for the New Year. We welcome them with keen and affectionate gratitude, and offer you in return Our warmest regards. We include […]

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January 14 – The Ten Year Old Saint and Some Of Her Miracles

January 12, 2026

Ven. Anne de Guigné When St. Thomas Aquinas’s sister asked him how to become a Saint, he told her to just “will it.” Venerable Anne de Guigné¹ was a child with an iron will and from the moment of her conversion, she willed only one thing…to be a Saint. “To become a Saint is to […]

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January 14 – Blessed Devasahayam Pillai

January 12, 2026

Blessed Devasahayam Pillai Devasahayam Pillai (named Neelakanda Pillai at birth) was born into an affluent Nair-caste family at Nattalam in the present-day Kanyakumari District, on 23 April 1712. His father Vasudevan Namboodiri, hailed from Kayamkulam, in present-day Kerala state, and was working as a priest at Sri Adi Kesava Perumal temple in Thiruvattar in present-day […]

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January 19 – St. Wolstan

January 11, 2026

Benedictine, and Bishop of Worcester, b. at Long Itchington, Warwickshire, England, about 1008; d. at Worcester, 19 Jan.,1095. Educated at the great monastic schools of Evesham and Peterborough, he resolutely combated and overcame the temptations of his youth, and entered the service of Brithege, Bishop of Worcester, who ordained him priest about 1038. Refusing all […]

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January 8 – St. Severinus

January 8, 2026

St. Severinus Abbot, and Apostle of Noricum, or Austria A.D. 482. We know nothing of the birth or country of this saint. From the purity of his Latin, he was generally supposed to be a Roman; and his care to conceal what he was according to the world, was taken for a proof of his […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 8, 1947

January 8, 2026

The homage of your loyalty and devotion, and the wishes of good tidings which you, beloved Sons and Daughters, come to offer Us each year by ancient custom, and which have been so beautifully expressed by your most excellent representative, always fill Our heart with sincere gratitude. Naturally, they usually reflect the thoughts and worries […]

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January 8 – Hapsburg Saint

January 8, 2026

St. Gudula (Latin, Guodila) Born in Brabant, Belgium, of Witger and Amalberga, in the seventh century; died at the beginning of the eighth century. After the birth of Gudula her mother Amalberga, who is herself venerated as a saint, embraced the religious life, and according to tradition received the veil at the hands of St. […]

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Pius XII – Allocution of January 8, 1940

January 8, 2026

At the start of the New year, a twofold gift has been given us by the Roman Patriciate and Nobility by their gathering around Us: the most appreciated gift of their presence and the gift of their filial best wishes, adornments, as a flower, of the testimonial of their traditional loyalty to the Holy See, […]

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January 9 – St. Adrian of Canterbury

January 8, 2026

St. Adrian of Canterbury An African by birth, died 710. He became Abbot of Nerida, a Benedictine monastery near Naples, when he was very young. Pope Vitalian intended to appoint him Archbishop of Canterbury to succeed St. Deusdedit, who had died in 664, but Adrian considered himself unworthy of so great a dignity, and begged […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 9, 1958

January 8, 2026

With great satisfaction We welcome you, beloved Sons and Daughters, into Our house, which is still pervaded by the holy fragrances of the Christmas holiday. You have come to reconfirm your devout fidelity to this Apostolic See, and with the heart of a father anxious to surround himself with his children’s affections, We comply most […]

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January 10 – Doge of Venice and Saint of Heaven

January 8, 2026

St. Peter Urseolus (Orseolo) Born at Rivo alto, Province of Udina, 928; at Cuxa, 10 January, 987 (997 is less probable). Sprung from the wealthy and noble Venetian family, the Orseoli, Peter led from his youth an earnest Christian life. In the service of the republic, he distinguished himself in naval battles against the pirates. […]

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January 10 – St. Diarmaid the Just

January 8, 2026

A famous Irish confessor of the mid-sixth century; d. 542. His name is associated with the great monastery of Inisclothran (Iniscleraun) on Lough Ree, in the Dioeese of Ardagh, which he founded about the year 530. He was of princely origin and a native of Connacht. Wishing to found an oratory far from the haunts […]

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January 10 – Maria Theodor Ratisbonne

January 8, 2026

A distinguished preacher and writer, and director of the Archconfraternity of Christian Mothers, b. of Jewish parentage at Strasburg, 28 Dec., 1802; d. in Paris, 10 Jan. 1884. He was raised in luxury, was educated at the Royal College of his native city, and at the age of manhood, was considered a leader among his […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 11, 1951

January 8, 2026

With all Our heart We extend Our paternal greeting to the members of the Roman Patriciate and Nobility who, true to an ancient tradition, have gathered around Us at the dawn of the New Year to offer Us their fervent best wishes, as expressed with filial devotion by their illustrious and eloquent representative. One after […]

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January 11 – Wounded in a duel

January 8, 2026

Blessed Bernard Scammacca, O.P. He was born in 1430 to a noble family of Catania, Sicily and given the name Anthony. As was typical of young men at that time, he fought duels. In one of them, his leg was badly wounded. As Anthony convalesced, he had time to think about his life and his […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 11, 1943

January 8, 2026

How, beloved Sons and Daughters, could the warm and heartfelt greetings that the lofty words of your illustrious representative conveyed to Us in your name fail to find their response in the offerings We now raise to God on your behalf? Unvanquished by the sorrows of the present hour, We feel, at this moment, a […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 5, 1941

January 5, 2026

A cause for deep, paternal joy in Our heart is granted Us, dear Sons and Daughters, by your welcome gathering around Us at the start of the New Year, a year no less fraught with fearful horizons than the one just passed. Here you have come to present to us your filial good wishes through […]

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Pius XII: Allocution of January 5, 1942

January 5, 2026

Beloved Sons and Daughters, the loftily worded message of greeting that your illustrious representative has communicated to Us, wishes, it seems to us, to manifest above all that filial attachment to the Apostolic See which spurs your faith and is the finest glory of the Roman Patriciate and Nobility. With great joy and exaltation, We […]

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January 5 – Pope St. Telesphorus

January 5, 2026

(About 125-136.) St. Telesphorus was the seventh Roman bishop in succession from the Apostles, and, according to the testimony of St. Irenæus (Adv. hæreses, III, iii, 3), suffered a glorious martyrdom. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV, vii, xiv) places the beginning of his pontificate in the twelfth of Hadrian’s reign (128-129), his death in the first […]

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Allocution of Benedict XV to the Roman Patriciate and Nobility on January 5, 1920

January 5, 2026

In the recent annual commemoration of the Birth of Jesus Christ, there resounded in our faith the heavenly chant of the angels raising their hymns to God and to peace. Since that happy day there has not ceased to echo around Us, as in harmonious concert, voices of good will and affection that Our faraway […]

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January 6 – The Kingship of Christ Is Manifest to the Pagan World

January 5, 2026

The Epiphany of Our Lord Saints Balthasar, Caspar and Melchior Epiphany, which in the original Greek signifies appearance or manifestation, as St. Augustin observes, (1) is a festival principally solemnized in honor of the discovery Jesus Christ made of himself to the Magi, or wise men; who, soon after his birth, by a particular inspiration […]

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First recorded Mass in the Americas: January 6, 1494 at La Isabela, Dominican Republic

January 5, 2026

Columbus’s second fleet of seventeen assorted ships carried between twelve hundred and fifteen hundred men and was organized to establish a permanent colony that would serve as a base for trade with the people of this new land. The fleet left Cádiz on 25 September 1493 and arrived in the Caribbean in November. Columbus was […]

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January 6 – St. Joan of Arc was born on this day over 600 years ago

January 5, 2026

St. Joan of Arc In French Jeanne d’Arc; by her contemporaries commonly known as la Pucelle (the Maid). Born at Domremy in Champagne, probably on 6 January, 1412; died at Rouen, 30 May, 1431. The village of Domremy lay upon the confines of territory which recognized the suzerainty of the Duke of Burgundy, but in […]

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January 7 – St. Aldric

January 5, 2026

St. Aldric Bishop of Le Mans in the time of Louis le Debonnaire, born c. 800; died at Le Mans, 7 January, 856. As a youth he lived in the court of Charlemagne, at Aix la Chapelle, as well as in that of his son and successor Louis. By both monarchs he was highly esteemed, […]

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January 7 – Ordered bandits of royal blood to hang from the highest mast

January 5, 2026

St. Canut Second son of Eric the Good, king of Denmark, he was made duke of Sleswig, his elder brother Nicholas being king of Denmark. Their father, who lived with his people as a father with his children, and no one ever left him without comfort, says the ancient chronicle Knytling-Saga, p. 71. died in […]

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January 7 – St. Kentigerna

January 5, 2026

St. Kentigerna, Widow She is commemorated on the 7th of January, in the Aberdeen Breviary, from which we learn, that she was of royal blood, daughter of Kelly, prince of Leinster in Ireland, as Colgan proves from ancient monuments. She was mother of the holy abbot St. Fœlan, or Felan. After the death of her […]

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January 1 – The Virgin Mary was “of the house of David”

January 1, 2026

Mary’s Davidic ancestry St. Luke (2:4) says that St. Joseph went from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled, “because he was of the house and family of David”. As if to exclude all doubt concerning the Davidic descent of Mary, the Evangelist (1:32, 69) states that the child born of Mary without the intervention of […]

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January 1 – As bishop, he was harsh to himself, to his clergy, and to any king

January 1, 2026

St. Fulgentius (FABIUS CLAUDIUS GORDIANUS FULGENTIUS). Born 468, died 533. Bishop of Ruspe in the province of Byzacene in Africa, eminent among the Fathers of the Church for saintly life, eloquence and theological learning. His grandfather, Gordianus, a senator of Carthage, was despoiled of his possessions by the invader Genseric, and banished to Italy, his […]

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January 2 – The Infant of Prague

January 1, 2026

Its earliest history can be traced back to Prague in the year 1628 when the small, 19-inch high, wooden and coated wax statue of the Infant Jesus was given by Princess Polyxena von Lobkowicz (1566–1642) to the Discalced Carmelites, to whom she had become greatly attached. The princess had received the statue as a wedding […]

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January 2 – St. Basil the Great

January 1, 2026

St. Basil the Great Bishop of Caesarea, and one of the most distinguished Doctors of the Church. Born probably 329; died 1 January, 379. He ranks after Athanasius as a defender of the Oriental Church against the heresies of the fourth century. With his friend Gregory of Nazianzus and his brother Gregory of Nyssa, he […]

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January 2 – St. Gregory of Nazianzus

January 1, 2026

St. Gregory of Nazianzus Doctor of the Church, born at Arianzus, in Asia Minor, c. 325; died at the same place, 389. He was son — one of three children — of Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus (329-374), in the south-west of Cappadocia, and of Nonna, a daughter of Christian parents. The saint’s father was originally […]

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January 3 – Discoverer of Oregon and of the entire California coast

January 1, 2026

Estévan (Juan) Cabrillo A Portugese in the naval service of Spain, date and place of birth unknown; died on the island of San Bernardo, 3 Jan., 1543. In 1541 Pedro de Alvarado gathered a fleet of twelve vessels on the coast of Western Mexico (Navidad) for an expedition to the Moluccas. Alvarado was soon after […]

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January 3 – The saint who twice saved Paris

January 1, 2026

St. Genevieve Patroness of Paris, born at Nanterre, circa 419 or 422; died at Paris, 512. Her feast is kept on 3 January. She was the daughter of Severus and Gerontia; popular tradition represents her parents as poor peasants, though it seems more likely that they were wealthy and respectable townspeople. In 429 St. Germain […]

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January 3 – They called him the “Archangel”

January 1, 2026

St. Odilo Fifth Abbot of Cluny, born c. 962; died 31 December, 1048. He was descended from the nobility of Auvergne. He early became a cleric in the seminary of St. Julien in Brioude. In 991 he entered Cluny and before the end of his year of probation was made coadjutor to Abbot Mayeul, and […]

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January 3 – Saint Joseph Mary Tomasi

January 1, 2026

Saint Joseph Mary Tomasi The very eminent servant of God Joseph Mary Tomasi, Cardinal, whom Pope Pius VII decorated with the honors of the Blessed in 1803, and whom today the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II ascribes solemnly in the book of the Saints, was born at Licata, in Sicily, the Diocese of Agrigento, on […]

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