Nobility and Analogous Traditional Elites

May 7 – St. John of Beverley

May 7, 2026

St. John of Beverley

Statue of St John of Beverley on the Minster, Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire. Photo by Graham Hermon.

Bishop of Hexham and afterwards of York; b. at Harpham, in the East Riding of Yorkshire; d. at Beverley, 7 May, 721. In early life he was under the care of Archbishop Theodore, at Canterbury, who supervised his education, and is reputed to have given him the name of John. He became a member of the Benedictine Order, and for a time was an inmate of St. Hilda’s monastery at Streaneshaleh (Whitby). Afterwards he won renown as a preacher, displayed marked erudition in expounding Scripture, and taught amongst other subjects. On 25 August, 687 was consecrated Bishop of Hexham, a district with which he was not unfamiliar, as he had for a period led a life of retreat at Erneshowe (Herneshou), on the opposite bank of the Tyne. Here, too, he was afterwards wont to resort for seclusion, especially during Lent, when the cares of his episcopal ministration permitted of his so doing. John was present at the synod on the Nidd in 705, convened by Osred, King Of Northumbria, to decide on Wilfrid’s case. In the same year (703), on the death of Bosa, John was translated to York after eighteen years of labour in the See of Hexham, where he was succeeded by Wilfrid. Of his new activity little is known beyond that he was diligent in visitation, considerate towards the poor, and exceedingly attentive to the training of students whom he maintained under his personal charge.

Grave of St John of Beverley, buried in the nave of Beverley Minster, St John of Beverley. Photo by Graham Hermon.

His little company of pupils is said to have included: Bede, whom he ordained; Berethume, afterwards Abbot of Beverley; Herebald, Abbot of Tynemouth; and Wilfrid “the Younger”, John’s successor (718) in the See of York. Having purchased a place called Inderawood, to which a later age has given the name of Beverley, John established a monastery there and also handsomely endowed the place, which became even in its founder’s day an important ecclesiastical centre. To this monastery of Beverley, after resigning the See of York to his pupil Wilfrid, John retired and spent the remainder of his life with Abbot Berethune, a one time favourite scholar. In 1037 he was canonized by Benedict IX; His bones were translated by Ælfric, Archbishop of York, and placed in a costly shrine. A second translation took place in 1197. The remains were discovered in 1664 and again brought to light in 1736.

Acta SS. Bolland., II, 165 sqq.; Sanct. Dunelm. et Beverlac., edited by SURTEES SOCIETY, P. 98; DUGDALE, Monasticon, II, 127; WILKINS, Concilia, III, 379; RAINE in Dict. Christ. Biog., s. v. Joannes Beverlacensis, JOCHAM in Kirchenlex., s. v. Johannes von Beverley; HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biog., s. v.; BIHLMEYFR in BUCHBERGER, Kirchliches Handlex., s. v. J. v. Beverley. The authenticity of the works ascribed to John of Beverley in BALE, Script. Illustr. Brit. Catal., is doubtful.

P. J. MacAuley (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 7 – The Pope who adopted two princes

May 7, 2026

Pope St. Benedict II

Date of birth unknown; died 8 May, 685; was a Roman, and the son of John. Sent when young to the schola cantorum, he distinguished himself by his knowledge of the Scriptures and by his singing, and as a priest was remarkable for his humility, love of the poor, and generosity. He became pope 26 June, 684, after an interval of over eleven months.

To abridge the vacancies of the Holy See which followed the deaths of the popes, he obtained from the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus a decree which either abolished imperial confirmations altogether or made them obtainable from the exarch in Italy [cf. “Liber Diurnus RR. PP., ed. Sickel (Vienna, 1889), and Duchesne’s criticism, “Le Liber Diurnus” (Paris, 1891)].

He adopted Constantine’s two sons by receiving locks of their hair sent him by the emperor. To help to suppress Monothelism, he endeavoured to secure the subscriptions of the Spanish bishops to the decrees of the Sixth General Council (see ep. in P.L., XCVI, 423), and to bring about the submission to them of Macarius, ex-Bishop of Antioch. He was one of the popes who favoured the cause of St. Wilfred of York (Eddius, “Vita Wilfridi”, ed. Raine in “Historians of York”, I, 62 sqq. Cf. Raine, “Lives of the Archbishops of York”, I, 55 sqq.). Many of the churches of Rome were restored by him; and its clergy, its deaconries for the care of the poor, and its lay sacristans all benefited by his liberality. He was buried in St. Peter’s.

The most important source for the history of the first nine popes who bore the name of Benedict is the biographies in the Liber Pontificalis, of which the most useful edition is that of Duchesne, Le Liber Pontificalis (Paris, 1886-92), and the latest that of Mommsen, Gesta Pontif. Roman. (to the end of the reign of Constantine only, Berlin, 1898). Jaffé, Regesta Pont. Rom. (2d ed., Leipzig, 1885), gives a summary of the letters of each pope and tells where they may be read at length. Modern accounts of these popes will be found in any large Church history, or history of the City of Rome. The fullest account in English of most of them is to be read in Mann, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902, passim).

HORACE K. MANN (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 8 – First they took the nobles, then they took the scientists

May 7, 2026

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier

Chemist, philosopher, economist; born in Paris, 26 August, 1743; guillotined 8 May, 1794. He was the son of Jean-Antoine Lavoisier, a lawyer of distinction, and Emilie Punctis, who belonged to a rich and influential family, and who died when Antoine-Laurent was five years old. His early years were most carefully guarded by his aunt, Mlle Constance Punctis, to whom he was devotedly attached; and through her assistance he was secured the advantage of a good education. He attended the College Mazarin, which was noted for its faculty of science, and here he studied mathematics and astronomy under Abbé de la Caille, who had built an observatory at the college after having won renown by measuring an arc of the meridian at the Cape of Good Hope, by determining the length of the second’s pendulum, and by his catalogue of the stars.

Lavoisier explaining to his wife the result of his experiments on air. Oil painting by Ernest Board.

Young Lavoisier also received instruction from Bernard de Jussieu in botany, from Guettard in geology and mineralogy, and from Rouelle in chemistry. In logic he was influenced by the writings of Abbé de Condillac, as he frequently acknowledges in his “Traité Elementaire de Chimi.” He began his career by entering the profession of the law, but soon abandoned this to return to his favourite studies of chemistry and mineralogy. His first scientific communication to the Academy was upon the composition and properties of gypsum and plaster of Paris, and this is to-day a classic and a valuable contribution to our knowledge of crystallizing cements. He early learned to look to the balance for help in the definition of facts, and found its great value particularly when he began to study the phenomena we now know under the terms combustion or oxidation, and reduction or deoxidation.

Oxidaton of metals from Traité élémentaire de chimie, written by Antoine Lavoisier.

The most advanced chemical philosophers of his day taught that there was something in every combustible substance which was driven out by the burning, that the reduction of an oxide of a metal to the metallic state meant the absorption of this substance or principle, which Stahl had called phlogiston. Lavoisier studied the teaching of the phlogistonists, but having also a mastery of physics and of pneumatic experimentation he became dissatisfied with their theory. He seized upon two important discoveries, that of oxygen by Priestley (1774), and that of the compound nature of water by Cavendish (1781) and by a masterly stroke of genius reconciled discordant appearances and threw the light of day upon every phase of the world’s reacting elements. His theory, for a long time thereafter known as the antiphlogists’ theory, was really the reverse of that of the phlogistonists, and was simply that something ponderable was absorbed when combustion took place; that it was obtained from the surrounding air; that the increase in the weight of a metallic substance when burned was equal to the decrease in the weight of the air used; that most substances thus burning were converted into acids, or metals into metallic oxides. Priestly had called this absorbed substance or gas dephlogisticated air; Scheele called it empyreal air; Lavoisier “air strictly pure” or “very respirable air” as distinct from the other and non-respirable constituent of the atmosphere. Later, he called it oxygen because it was acid-making (oxys, and geinomai).

Eleuthère Irénée du Pont (1771—1834) and Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier in laboratory work.

So great a change ensued in experimental chemistry, and in theory and nomenclature, and such a mass of facts was co-ordinated and explained by Lavoisier that he has been justly called “the father of modern chemistry.” He was the first to explain definitely, the formation of acids and salts, to enunciate the principle of conservation as set forth by chemical equations, to develop quantitative analysis, gas analysis, and calorimetry, and to create a consistent system of chemical nomenclature. He made deep researches in organic chemistry, and studied the metabolism of organic compounds. His memoirs and contributions to the Academiy were of extraordinary number and variety. His life in other fields was romantic, full of interest and a social triumph, but sadly destined to end in tragedy. Happily married, and having the aid of his wife even to the extent of employing her in the prosecution and recording of his experiments, he drew around his fireside and to his library at the State Gunpowder Works a circle of brilliant French savants and distinguished travellers from other lands. Early in his career he felt the need of increasing his resources to meet the necessities caused by his scientific experiments. With this in view he became a deputy fermier-général, whereby his income was much increased. But joining this association of State-protected tax-collectors only prepared the way for many years of bitter attack and a share of the public odium attaching to their privilege.

The arrest of Antoine Laurent de Lavoisier.

He headed many public commissions requiring scientific investigation, he aimed at bringing France to such a state of agricultural and industrial expansion that the peasant and the working-man would have profitable employment and the small landed proprietor relief from the burdensome taxes hitherto purposely increased to make grants to corrupt favourites of the Court. Having incurred the hatred of Marat he found himself, together with his fellow fermiers-général, growing more and more unpopular during the terrible days of the Revolution. Finally in 1794 he was imprisoned with twenty-seven others. A farcical trial speedily followed, in which he was charged with “incivism” in that he had damaged public health by adding water to tobacco. He and his companions, amongst them Jacques Alexis Paulze, his father-in-law, were condemned to death. Lavoisier, who was devotedly attached to him, was obliged to stand and see M. Paulze’s head fall under the guillotine, 8 May, 1794.

Lavoisier’s Laboratory, Musée des Arts et Métiers, Paris. Photo by Edal Anton Lefterov.

Lavoisier was then 51 years old. His biographers say little as to his last hours. Grimaux relates that all the condemned men were silent and carried themselves with dignity and courage in the face of death. What Lavoisier’s sentiments were can be assumed from a passage in Grimaux (p. 53) who had been the first biographer to obtain access to Lavoiosier’s papers.

Raised in a pious family which had given many priests to the Church, he had held to his beliefs. To Edward King, an English author who had sent him a controversial work, he wrote, ‘You have done a noble thing in upholding revelation and the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, and it is remarkable that you are using for the defence precisely the same weapons which were once used for the attack.’

Copy of the death warrant of Lavoisier.

His goods and chattels and all his scientific instruments were listed and appropriated on the day following his execution, though Mme Lavoisier succeeded in having some restored to her. She was childless and long survived him.

THORPE in Contempory Review, Antonine Laurent Lavoisier (Dec., 1890); GRIMAUX, Lavoisier 1743-1794 (Paris, 1888); THORPE, Priestly, Cavendish, Lavoisier and La Revolution Chimique in Brit. Assoc. Address (Leeds, 1890); BERTHELOT, La Revolution Chimique (Paris, 1890); KOPP, Entdeckung der Chemie in der neueren Zeit (1874); HOFER, Histoire de la Chimie, II, 490; VON MEYER, Geschichte der Chemie (Leipzig, 1888); LAVOISIER, Memoires de Chimie (1805); Œuvres de Lavoisier, published by the Ministry of Public Instruction (Paris, 1864-8); DUMAS, Lecons sur la Philosophie Chimique.

C.F. MCKENNA (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 8 – Matriarch of the Carolingian family

May 7, 2026

Saint Itta

(or Itta of Metz) (also Ida, Itte or Iduberga) (592–652) was the wife of Pepin of Landen, mayor of the palace of Austrasia. Her brother was Saint Modoald, bishop of Trier. Her sister was abbess Saint Severa. There is no direct record of their parents, but it has been suggested that she was daughter of Arnoald, Bishop of Metz, son of Ansbertus.

On the advice of the missionary bishop Saint Amand, bishop of Maastricht, after Pepin’s death, she founded the Benedictine nunnery at Nivelles, with a monastery under the abbess. She herself entered it and installed as abbess her daughter Gertrude, perhaps after resigning the post herself.

St. Begga, daughter of Pepin of Landen and his wife St. Itta.

She had by Pepin another daughter, Abbess Begga of Andenne who married Ansegisel, son of Arnulf of Metz. By Begga, she is the grandmother of Pepin of Herstal and one of the matriarchs of the great Carolingian family. Her sons were Grimoald, later mayor of the palace, and father of King Childebert the Adopted. Her second son was Bavo (or Allowin), became a hermit and later canonized

Both her daughters were later canonized.

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May 8 – Patron in War

May 7, 2026

The Sanctuary of Monte Sant’Angelo sul Gargano, sometimes called simply Monte Gargano.

Well known is the apparition of St. Michael the Archangel (a. 494 or 530-40), as related in the Roman Breviary, 8 May, at his renowned sanctuary on Monte Gargano, where his original glory as patron in war was restored to him.

To his intercession the Lombards of Sipontum (Manfredonia) attributed their victory over the Greek Neapolitans, 8 May, 663.

Statue of St. Michael overlooking the main entrance at the Sanctuary of Saint Michael the Archangel, Monte Sant’Angelo, Apulia, Italy.

In commemoration of this victory the church of Sipontum instituted a special feast in honor of the Archangel, on 8 May, which has spread over the entire Latin Church and is now called (since the time of Pius V) “Apparitio S. Michaelis”, although it originally did not commemorate the apparition, but the victory.

(cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)

Click here for more about St. Michael the Archangel.

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May 9 – Isaias, Prophet and Historian, Sawn in Two

May 7, 2026

The Prophet Isaiah by Gustave Doré.

From the Prophet himself (i, 1; ii, 1) we learn that he was the son of Amos. Owing to the similarity between Latin and Greek forms of this name and that of the Shepherd-Prophet of Thecue, some Fathers mistook the Prophet Amos for the father of Isaias. St. Jerome in the preface to his “Commentary on Amos” (P.L., XXV, 989) points out this error. Of Isaias’s ancestry we know nothing; but several passages of his prophecies (iii, 1-17, 24; iv, 1; viii, 2; xxxi, 16) lead us to believe that he belonged to one of the best families of Jerusalem. A Jewish tradition recorded in the Talmud (Tr. Megilla, 10b.) held him to be a nephew of King Amasias. As to the exact time of the Prophet’s birth we lack definite data; yet he is believed to have been about twenty years of age when he began his public ministry. He was a citizen, perhaps a native, of Jerusalem. His writings give unmistakable signs of high culture. From his prophecies (vii and viii) we learn that he married a woman whom he styles “the prophetess” and that he had two sons, She`arYashub and Mahershalalhashbaz. Nothing whatever indicates that he was twice married as some fancy on the gratuitous and indefensible supposition that the `almah of vii, 14, was his wife.

twelve Prophets sculpted by Aleijadinho in front of the church of the sanctuary of Bom Jesus of Matosinhos at Congonhas, Minas Gerais, Brazil ; Isaiah is the first statue on the left on the pillar at the beginning of the steps.

Eight of the twelve Prophets sculpted by Aleijadinho in front of the church of the sanctuary of Bom Jesus of Matosinhos at Congonhas, Brazil. Isaiah is the first statue on the left on the pillar at the beginning of the steps.

The prophetical ministry of Isaias lasted wellnigh half a century, from the closing year of Ozias, King of Juda, possibly up to that of Manasses. This period was one of great prophetical activity. Israel and Juda indeed were in sore need of guidance. After the death of Jeroboam II revolution followed upon revolution and the northern kingdom had sunk rapidly into an abject vassalage to the Assyrians. The petty nations of the West, however, recovering from the severe blows received in the beginning of the eighth century, were again manifesting aspirations of independence. Soon Theglathphalasar III marched his armies towards Syria; heavy tributes were levied and utter ruin threatened on those who would show any hesitation to pay. In 725 Osee, the last King of Samaria, fell miserably under the onslaught of Salmanasar IV, and three years later Samaria succumbed to the hands of the Assyrians. In the meantime the Kingdom of Juda hardly fared better. A long period of peace had enervated characters, and the young, inexperienced, and unprincipled Achaz was no match for the SyroIsraelite coalition which confronted him. Panicstricken he, in spite of the remonstrances of Isaias, resolved to appeal to Theglathphalasar. The help of Assyria was secured, but the independence of Juda was thereby practically forfeited. In order to explain clearly the political situation to which so many allusions are made in Isaias’s writings there is here subjoined a brief chronological sketch of the period: 745, Theglathphalasar III, king of Assyria; Azarias (A. V. Uzziah), of Juda; Manahem (A. V. Menahem) of Samaria; and Sua of Egypt; 740, death of Azarias; Joatham (A. V. Jotham), king of Juda; capture of Arphad (A. V. Arpad) by Theglathphalasar III (Is., x, 9); 738, campaign of Theglathphalasar against Syria; capture of Calano (A. V. Calno) and Emath (A. V. Hamath); heavy tribute imposed upon Manahem (IV Kings, xv, 19-20); victorious wars of Joatham against the Ammonites (II Par., xxvii, 4-6); 736, Manahem succeeded by Phaceia (A. V. Pekahiah); 735, Joatham succeeded by Achaz (IV Kings, xvi, 1); Phaceia replaced by Phacee (A. V. Pekah), son of Remelia (A. V. Remaliah), one of his captains; Jerusalem besieged by Phacee in alliance with Rasin (A. V. Rezin), king of Syria (IV Kings xvi, 5; Is., vii, 1, 2); 734, Theglathphalasar, replying to Achaz’ request for aid, marches against Syria and Israel, takes several cities of North and East Israel (IV Kings, xv, 29), and banishes their inhabitants; the Assyrian allies devastate part of the territory of Juda and Jerusalem; Phacee slain during a revolution in Samaria and succeeded by Osee (A. V. Hoshea); 733, unsuccessful expeditions of Achaz against Edom (II Par., xxviii, 17) and the Philistines (20); 732, campaign of Theglathphalasar against Damascus; Rasin besieged in his capital, captured, and slain; Achaz goes to Damascus to pay homage to the Assyrian ruler (IV Kings, xvi, 10-19); 727, death of Achaz; accession of Ezechias (IV Kings, xviii, 1); in Assyria Salmanasar IV succeeds Theglathphalasar III, 726, campaign of Salmanasar against Osee (IV Kings, xvii, 3); 725,

Isaiah by Duccio (on wood).

Osee makes alliance with Sua, king of Egypt (IV Kings, xvii, 4); second campaign of Salmanasar IV, resulting in the capture and deportation of Osee (IV Kings, xvii, 4); beginning of the siege of Samaria; 722, Sargon succeeds Salmanasar IV in Assyria; capture of Samaria by Sargon; 720, defeat of Egyptian army at Raphia by Sargon; 717, Charcamis, the Hittite stronghold on the Euphrates, falls into the hands of Sargon (Is, x, 8); 713, sickness of Ezechias (IV Kings, xx, 1-11; Is, xxxviii); embassy from Merodach Baladan to Ezechias (IV Kings, xx, 12-13; Is., xxxix); 711, invasion of Western Palestine by Sargon; siege and capture of Azotus (A. V. Ashdod; Is., xx); 709, Sargon defeats Merodach Baladan, seizes Babylon, and assumes title of king of Babylon; 705, death of Sargon; accession of Sennacherib; 701, expedition of Sennacherib against Egypt; defeat of latter at Elteqeh; capture of Accaron (A. V. Ekron); siege of Lachis; Ezechias’s embasy; the conditions laid down by Sennacherib being found too hard the king of Juda prepares to resist the Assyrians; destruction of part of the Assyrian army; hurried retreat of the rest (IV Kings, xviii; Is., xxxvi, xxxvii); 698, Ezechias is succeeded by his son Manasses. The wars of the ninth century and the peaceful security following them produced their effects in the latter part of the next century. Cities sprang up; new pursuits, although affording opportunities of easy wealth, brought about also an increase of poverty. The contrast between class and class became daily more marked, and the poor were oppressed by the rich with the connivance of the judges. A social state founded on iniquity is doomed. But as Israel’s social corruption was greater than Juda’s, Israel was expected to succumb first. Greater likewise was her religious corruption. Not only did idolatrous worship prevail there to the end, but we know from Osee what gross abuses and shameful practices obtained in Samaria and throughout the kingdom, whereas the religion of the people of Juda on the whole seems to have been a little better. We know, however, as regards these, that at the very time of Isaias certain forms of idolatrous worship, like that of Nohestan and of Moloch, probably that also of Tammur and of the “host of heaven”, were going on in the open or in secret.

Commentators are at variance as to when Isaias was called to the prophetical office. Some think that previous to the vision related in vi, 1, he had received communications from heaven. St. Jerome in his commentary on the passage holds that chapters i-v ought to be attributed to the last years of King Ozias, then ch. vi would commence a new series begun in the year of the death of that prince (740 B.C.; P.L., XXIV, 91; cf. St. Gregory Nazianzen, Orat. ix; P.G., XXXV, 820). It is more commonly held, however, that ch. vi refers to the first calling of the Prophet; St. Jerome himself, in a letter to Pope Damasus seems to adopt this view (P. L., XXII, 371; cf. Hesychius “In Is.”, P.G. XCIII, 1372), and St. John Chrysostom, commenting upon Is., vi, 5, very aptly contrasts the promptness of the Prophet with the tergiversations of Moses and Jeremias. On the other hand, since no prophecies appear to be later than 701 B.C., it is doubtful if Isaias saw the reign of Manasses at all; still a very old and widespread tradition, echoed by the Mishna (Tr. Yebamoth, 49b; cf. Sanhedr., 103b), has it that the Prophet survived Ezechias and was slain in the persecution of Manasses (IV Kings, xxi, 16). This prince had him convicted of blasphemy, because he had dared say: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne” (vi, 1), a pretension in conflict with God’s own assertion in Exod., xxxiii, 20: “Man shall not see me and live”. He was accused, moreover, of having predicted the ruin of Jerusalem and called the holy city and the people of Juda by the accursed names of Sodom and Gomorrah. According to the “Ascension of Isaias”, the Prophet’s martyrdom consisted in being sawed asunder. Tradition shows this to have been unhesitatingly believed. The Targum on IV Kings, xxi, 6, admits it; it is preserved in two treatises of the Talmud (Yebamoth, 49b; Sanhedr., 103b); St. Justin (Dial. c. Tryph., cxx), and many of the Fathers adopted it, taking as unmistakable allusions to Isaias those words of the Heb., xi, 37, “they (the ancients) were cut asunder” (cf. Tertullian, “De patient.”, xiv; P.L., I, 1270; Orig., “In Is., Hom.” I, 5, P.G., XIII, 223; “In Matt.”, x, 18, P.G., XIII, 882; “In Matt.”, Ser. 28, P.G., XIII, 1637; “Epist. ad Jul. Afr.”, ix, P.G., XI, 65; St. Jerome, “In Is.”, lvii, 1, P.L., XXIV, 546-548; etc.). However, little trust should be put in the strange details mentioned in the “De Vit. Prophet.” of pseudoEpiphanius (P.G., XLIII, 397, 419). The date of the Prophet’s demise is not known. The Roman Martyrology commemorates Isaias on 6 July. His tomb is believed to have been in Paneas in Northern Palestine, whence his relics were taken to Constantinople in A.D. 442.

Martyrdom of the Prophet Isaiah.

The literary activity of Isaias is attested by the canonical book which bears his name; moreover allusion is made in II Par., xxvi, 22, to “Acts of Ozias first and last . . . written by Isaias, the son of Amos, the prophet”. Another passage of the same book informs us that “the rest of the acts of Ezechias and his mercies, are written in the Vision of Isaias, son of Amos, the prophet”, in the Book of the Kings of Juda and Israel. Such at least is the reading of the Massoretic Bible, but its text here, if we may judge from the variants of the Greek and St. Jerome, is somewhat corrupt. Most commentators who believe the passage to be authentic think that the writer refers to Is., xxxvi-xxxix. We must finally mention the “Ascension of Isaias”, at one time attributed to the Prophet, but never admitted into the Canon.

(cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 9 – Known personally to the King, he was falsely accused of conspiring to murder him

May 7, 2026

Ven. Thomas Pickering

Lay brother and martyr, a member of an old Westmoreland family, born circa 1621; executed at Tyburn, 9 May, 1679.

He was sent to the Benedictine monastery of St. Gregory at Douai, where he took vows as a lay brother in 1660. In 1665 he was sent to London, where, as steward or procurator to the little community of Benedictines who served the queen’s chapel royal, he became known personally to the queen and Charles II; and when in 1675, urged by the parliament, Charles issued a proclamation ordering the Benedictines to leave England within a fixed time, Pickering was allowed to remain, probably on the ground that he was not a priest. In 1678 came the pretended revelations of Titus Oates, and Pickering was accused of conspiring to murder the king. No evidence except Oates’s word was produced and Pickering’s innocence was so obvious that the queen publicly announced her belief in him, but the jury found him guilty, and with two others he was condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. The king was divided between the wish to save the innocent men and fear of the popular clamour, which loudly demanded the death of Oates’s victims, and twice within a month the three prisoners were ordered for execution and then reprieved. At length Charles remitted the execution of the other two, hoping that this would satisfy the people and save Pickering from his fate. The contrary took place, however, and 26 April, 1679, the House of Commons petitioned for Pickering’s execution. Charles yielded and the long-deferred sentence was carried out on the ninth of May. A small piece of cloth stained with his blood is preserved among the relics at Downside Abbey.

The Tryals of William Ireland, Thomas Pickering and John Grove for conspiring to murder the king … (London, 1678); An exact abridgment of all the Trials … relating to the popish and pretended protestant plots in the reigns of Charles II and James II (London, 1690), 464; DODD, Church History of England, III (Brussels, 1742), 318; CHALLONER, Memoirs of Missionary Priests, II (London, 1742), 376; OLIVER, Collections illustrating the History of the Catholic Religion in Cornwall, Devon, etc. (London, 1847), 500; CORKER, Remonstrance of piety and innocence (London, 1683), 178; WELDON, Chronological Notes on the English Congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, ed. DOLAN (Worcester, 1881), 219; Downside Review, II (London, 1883), 52-60.

G. ROGER HUDLESTON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

He was beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929.

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May 10 – His apostolate paved the way for some of the greatest saints of Spain

May 7, 2026

Bl. John of Avila

Apostolic preacher of Andalusia and author, b. at Almodóvar del Campo, a small town in the diocese of Toledo, Spain, 6 January, 1500; d. at Montilla, 10 May, 1569. At the age of fourteen he was sent to the University of Salamanca to study law. Conceiving a distaste for jurisprudence he returned after a year to his father’s home, where he spent the next three years in the practice of most austere piety. His wonderful sanctity impressed a Franciscan journeying through Almodóvar, and at the friar’s advice he took up the study of philosophy and theology at Alcalá, where he was fortunate to have as his teacher the famous Dominican De Soto. His parents died while he was a student and after his ordination he celebrated his first Mass in the church where they were buried, sold the family property and gave the proceeds to the poor. He saw in the severing of natural ties a vocation to foreign missionary work and made preparation to go to Mexico in America. While awaiting, at Seville in 1527, a favorable opportunity to start for his new field of labour, his extraordinary devotion in celebrating Mass attracted the attention of Hernando de Contreras, a priest of Seville, who reported his observations to the archbishop and general inquisitor, Don Alphonso Manrique.

University of Alcalá de Henares.

The archbishop saw in the young missionary a powerful instrument to stir up the faith of Andalusia, and after considerable persuasion Blessed John was induced to abandon his journey to America. His first sermon was preached on 22 July, 1529, and immediately his reputation was established; crowds thronged the churches at all his sermons. His success, however, brought with it the hatred of a certain class, and while living at Seville he was brought before the inquisitor and charged with exaggerating the dangers of wealth and closing the gates of heaven to the rich. His innocence of the charges was speedily proved, and by special invitation of the court he was appointed to preach the sermon on the next great feast in the church of San Salvador, in Seville. His appearance was a cause of public rejoicing. He began his career as apostolic preacher of Andalusia at the age of thirty. After nine years in that province he returned to Seville only to depart for the wider fields of Cordova, Granada, Bolza, Montilla, and Zafra. For eighteen years before his death he was the victim of constant illness, the results of the hardships of his apostolate of forty years. He was declared Venerable by Clement XIII, 8 Feb., 1799, and beatified by Leo XIII, 12 Nov., 1893.

Saint John of Avila’s tomb at Encarnacion Church in Montilla (Andalusia, Spain).

Among the disciples drawn to him by his preaching and saintly reputation may be named St. Theresa, St. John of God, St. Francis Borgia, and Ven. Louis of Granada. The spread of the Jesuits in Spain is attributed to his friendship for that body. Blessed John of Avila’s works were collected at Madrid in 1618, 1757, 1792, 1805; a French translation by d’Andilly was published at Paris in 1673; and a German translation by Schermer in six volumes was issued at Ratisbon between 1856 and 1881. His best known works are the “Audi Fili” (English translation, 1620), one of the best tracts on Christian perfection, and his “Spiritual Letters” (English translation, 1631, London, 1904) to his disciples.

Ignatius Smith (Catholic Encyclopedia)

He was Canonized on May 31, 1970 by Pope Paul VI.

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May 10 – Saint Damien: A Hero Who Died on the Battlefield of Honor

May 7, 2026

A portrait of young Father Damien in 1868 with his handwriting.

Born Joseph de Veuster in Tremelo, Belgium, he took the religious name of Damien when he joined the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

There are few places on Earth more beautiful than Hawaii. While this idyllic paradise may be the destination spot for tourists and honeymooners, Joseph de Veuster was eager to go there for a completely different reason. It was Joseph’s missionary zeal that attracted him to Hawaii where he volunteered to care for those stricken with leprosy. He eventually contracted the disease and died a painful death. The world would come to know him simply as Father Damien the Leper priest. On October 11, 2009, he was canonized a saint by the Catholic Church and will be remembered throughout history as a heroic example of Christian compassion.

Father Damien sensed from early on, in his vocation, that he was not called to a common missionary life. He dreamed of doing apostolate among the savages. After joining the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in his native Tremeloo, Belgium, he prayed daily before an image of Saint Francis Xavier for this intention.

After completing his studies, he was sent to the Hawaiian Islands in March 1864 and was ordained a priest some months later at Our Lady of Peace Cathedral in downtown Honolulu. His first years on the archipelago were spent primarily on the Big Island of Hawaii, but it was not long before fortuitous events prepared the way for the fulfillment of his life’s dream.

The first occurred in 1865 when an epidemic of leprosy threatened to wipe out the native Hawaiian population. Seeing no other option than quarantine, the Hawaiian Legislature and King Kamehameha V signed a decree banishing the lepers to a neighboring island.

An aerial view of the village of Kalaupapa located on the northern peninsula of Molokai.

A “Royal Soul” Goes to Kalawao

The mere mention of Molokai was enough to send shivers up the spine of nineteenth century Hawaiians. This island, located just southeast of Oahu, became the final destination and burial place of over 8,000 Hawaiians diagnosed with the terrible disease. The first settlement, where Father Damien spent most of his time, was established in the village of Kalawao located on the eastern side of a peninsula that protrudes off the northern coast of Molokai.

The first lepers to arrive found dreadful living conditions. There was very little food and shelter, inadequate medicine and absolutely no hope. Many lepers refused to leave the boats that docked on the tiny island of Okala, just offshore from Kalawao, and were thrown overboard. Those who could not swim drowned in the turbulent Pacific Ocean.

They were sent there to die and they knew it. Seeing themselves abandoned in such a callous way, they gave themselves up to all sorts of vices. Treated like animals, they quickly began to act like animals. Losing all human joys, they feverishly grasped at those of the beasts and subsequently gave themselves over to a sinful life.¹

Knighthood awarded to Father Damien by Princess Regent Liliuakolani

Those in Honolulu who were spared the disease grew increasingly indignant with the neglect of the lepers. On April 15, 1873, an impassioned plea for a sacrificial soul appeared in a Hawaiian newspaper. “If a noble Christian priest, preacher or sister should be inspired to go and sacrifice a life to console these poor wretches,” it read, “that would be a royal soul to shine forever on the throne reared by human love.”²

On May 4, 1873, Bishop Louis Maigret, the vicar apostolic, realizing the lepers needed stable spiritual support, asked for a volunteer among four Sacred Hearts Fathers, for the Molokai mission. Father Damien was chosen and accepted what was virtually a death sentence with joy and resignation. “Remember that I was covered with a funeral pall the day of my religious profession,” he said, “here I am, Bishop, ready to bury myself alive with those poor unfortunates.”

Suffocating Melancholy and Unbearable “Black Thoughts”

In 1873, a determined Father Damien went to Molokai. Amid the generalized chaos of the inhabitants of Kalawao, there were a group of Catholic lepers who remained steadfast. When Bishop Maigret and Father Damien arrived on May 10, 1873,³ they were met by this group who had rosaries dangling from their necks. Unable to contain their joy, they threw themselves at the bishop’s feet in tears.

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May 10 – French or American?

May 7, 2026

Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Count de Rochambeau

Marshal, born at Vendôme, France, 1 July, 1725; died at Thoré, 10 May, 1807.

Marshal of France Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, pictured with the medal from the Society of the Cincinnati.

At the age of sixteen he entered the army and in 1745 became an aid to Louis Philippe, Duke of Orleans, subsequently commanding a regiment. He served with distinction in several important battles, notably those of Minorca, Crevelt, and Minden, and was wounded at the battle of Lafeldt. When the French monarch resolved to despatch a military force to aid the American colonies in the Revolutionary War, Rochambeau was created a lieutenant-general and placed in command of a body of troops which numbered some 6000 men. It was the smallness of this force that made Rochambeau at first averse to taking part in the American War, but his sympathy with the colonial cause compelled him eventually to accept the command, and he arrived at Newport, Rhode Island July, 1780, and joined the American army under Washington, on the Hudson a few miles above the city of New York. Rochambeau performed the double duties of a diplomat and general in an alien army with rare distinction amidst somewhat trying circumstances, not the least of which being a somewhat unaccountable coolness between Washington and himself, which, fortunately, was of but passing import (see the correspondence and diary of Count Axel Fersen).

Painting of the Siege of Yorktown (1781) by by Auguste Couder. Marshal Rochambeau and George Washington giving their last orders before the battle.

After the first meeting with the American general he marched with his force to the Virginia peninsula and rendered heroic assistance at Yorktown in the capture of the English forces under Lord Cornwallis, which concluded the hostilities. When Cornwallis surrendered, 19 Oct., 1781, Rochambeau was presented with one of the captured cannon. After the surrender he embarked for France amid ardent protestations of gratitude and admiration from the officers and men of the American army. In 1783 he received the decoration of Saint-Esprit and obtained the baton of a marshal of France in 1791. Early in 1792 he was placed in command of the army of the North, and conducted a force against the Austrians, but resigned the same year and narrowly escaped the guillotine when the Jacobin revolutionary power had obtained supreme control in Paris.

Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, painted by Charles-Philippe Larivière

When the fury of the revolution had spent itself, Rochambeau was reinstated in the regard of his countrymen. He was granted a pension by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1804, and was decorated with the Cross of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour. The last years of the distinguished military leader’s life were passed in the dictation of his memoirs, which appeared in two volumes in Paris in 1809, and which throw many personal and brilliant sidelights on the events of two of the most historically impressive revolutions, and the exceptional men therein concerned.

WRIGHT, Memoirs of Marshal Count de Rochambeau Relative to the War or Independence (1838); SOULÉ, Histoire des troubles de l’Amerique anglaise(Paris, 1787); standard histories of the United States may also be consulted.

Jarvis Keiley (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 4 – They believed in the religious exemption, but only at first

May 4, 2026

London Charter house

The Carthusian Martyrs were the monks of the London Charterhouse, the monastery of the Carthusian Order in central London, who were put to death by the English state in a period lasting from the 19 June 1535 till the 20 September 1537. The method of execution was hanging, disembowelling while still alive and then quartering. The group also includes two monks who were brought to that house from the Charterhouses of Beauvale and Axholme and similarly dealt with. The total was 18 men, all of whom have been formally recognized by the Catholic Church as true martyrs.

Hanged, drawn and quartered. Many of the English, by order of Elizabeth I, were martyred this way.

At the outset of the “King’s Great Matter,” (the euphemism given to King Henry VIII’s decision to divorce Catherine of Aragon, marry Anne Boleyn and break with the Holy See) the government was anxious to secure the public acquiescence of the Carthusian monks, since they enjoyed great prestige for the austerity and sincerity of their way of life. When this attempt failed, the only alternative was to annihilate the resistance, since their refusal put the prestige of the monks in opposition to the king’s will. This took the form of a long process of attrition.

First Group

On 4 May 1535 the authorities sent to their death at Tyburn, London three leading English Carthusians, Doms John Houghton, prior of the London house, Robert Lawrence and Augustine Webster, respectively priors of Beauvale and Axholme, along with a Bridgettine monk, Richard Reynolds of Syon Abbey.

Painting of St. John Houghton by Zurbaran

St. John Houghton

Protomartyr of the persecution under Henry VIII, b. in Essex, 1487; d. at Tyburn, 4 May, 1535. He was educated at Cambridge, graduating LL.B. about 1497, and later LL.D. and D.D.; he was ordained priest in 1501 and entered the Carthusian novitiate at the London Charterhouse in 1505, where he was professed in 1516. He filled the office of sacristan, 1523-28; of procurator, 1528-31; of prior of Beauvale, Nottinghamshire, from June to November, 1531; of prior of the London Charterhouse, 1531-35; and of provincial visitor, 1532-35.

In 1534, he asked that he and his community be exempted from the oaths required under the new Act of Succession, which resulted in both him and his procurator being arrested and taken to the Tower of London. However, by the end of May, they had been persuaded that the oath was consistent with their Catholicism, with the clause “as far as the law of Christ allows” and they returned to the Charterhouse, where (in the presence of a large armed force) the whole community made the required professions.

A View of the Charter House taken from the Green 1813, etching and aquatint, by the British printmaker Robert Havell I.

However, in 1535, the community was called upon to make the new oath as prescribed by the 1534 Act of Supremacy, which recognised Henry as the head of the Church in England. Again, Houghton, this time accompanied by the heads of the other two English Carthusian houses (Saint Robert Lawrence, Prior of Beauvale, and Saint Augustine Webster, Prior of Axholme), pleaded for an exemption, but this time they were summarily arrested by Thomas Cromwell. They were called before a special commission in April 1535, and sentenced to death, along with Saint Richard Reynolds, O.Ss.S., a monk from Syon Abbey, considered one of the foremost scholars of his day.

A Painting on the wall of the Martyrs’ Chapel in Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Eastwood, Notts UK of the Martyrdom of St. John Houghton and Companions.

All four were indicted 28 April, 1535, under 26 Henry VIII, c. 1, for refusing the oath of supremacy. The jury at first refused to find them guilty, but were intimidated by Cromwell into doing so the next day. All were hanged in their habits without being previously degraded, and all were disembowelled while fully conscious, Houghton being the first to suffer and Reynolds the last.

Martyrdom of St John Houghton & companions. Detail from a window in St. Dominic’s priory church in London.

With them died a secular priest, Blessed John Hale, LL.B., Fellow of King’s Hall, Cambridge, and Vicar of Isleworth, Middlesex, since 13 August, 1521. He took this living in exchange for the Rectory of Cranford, Middlesex, which he had held since 11 September, 1505. There is nothing to identify him with the Rector of Chelmsford of 1492. He may possibly be the person of this name who became scholar of Eton in 1485. He was indicted 20 April, 1535, with the perpetual curate of Teddington, Middlesex, named Robert Feron, for offenses against 25 Henry VIII, c. 22. Both pleaded guilty and were condemned; but Feron was pardoned. Hale was the fourth to suffer.

Second Group

After little more than a month after the first group, it was the turn of three leading monks of the London house: Doms Humphrey Middlemore, William Exmew and Sebastian Newdigate, who were to die at Tyburn, London on the 19 June. Newdigate was a personal friend of Henry VIII, who twice visited him in the prison to persuade him to give in, in vain.

St. Humphrey Middlemore

English Carthusian martyr, date of birth uncertain; died at Tyburn, London, 19 June, 1535. His father, Thomas Middlemore of Edgbaston, Warwickshire, represented one of the oldest families in that county, and had acquired his estate at Edgbaston by marriage with the heiress of Sir Henry Edgbaston; his mother was Ann Lyttleton, of Pillaton Hall, Staffordshire. Attracted to the Carthusian Order, he was professed at the Charterhouse, London, ordained, and subsequently appointed to the office of procurator. Although few details of his life have come down, it is certain that he was greatly esteemed for his learning and piety by the prior, [Saint] John Houghton, and by the community generally. In 1534 the question of Henry VIII’s marriage with Anne Boleyn arose to trouble conscientious Catholics, as the king was determined that the more prominent of his subjects should expressly acknowledge the validity of the marriage, and the right of succession of any issue therefrom. Accordingly, the royal commissions paid a visit to the Charterhouse, and required the monks to take the oath to that effect.

Chapter House at Parkminster has several paintings of the sufferings of the English Carthusian martyrs. This painting shows one monk hanging while another forgives the man who is about to execute him.

Father [John] Houghton and Father Humphrey refused, and were, in consequence, imprisoned in the Tower; but, after a month’s imprisonment, they were persuaded to take the oath conditionally, and were released. In the following year Father John was executed for refusing to take the new oath of supremacy, and Father Humphrey became vicar of the Charterhouse. Meanwhile, Thomas Bedyll, one of the royal commissioners, had again visited the Charterhouse, and endeavored, both by conversation and writing, to shake the faith of Father Humphrey and his community in the papal supremacy. His efforts left them unmoved, and, after expostulating with them in a violent manner, he obtained authority from Thomas Cromwell to arrest the vicar and two other monks, [Blessed Sebastian Newdigate and Blessed William Exmew,] and throw them into prison, where they were treated with inhuman cruelty, being bound to posts with chains round their necks and legs, and compelled so to remain day and night for two weeks. They were then brought before the council, and required to take the oath. Not only did they refuse, but justified their attitude by able arguments from Scripture and the Fathers in favor of the papal claims. They were accordingly condemned to death, and suffered at Tyburn with the greatest fortitude and resignation.

GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath., s.v. Middlemore; MORRIS, Troubles, I; DODD, Church History, I, 240; DUGDALE, Monasticon, VI (ed. 1846), 8.

St. William Exmew

Carthusian monk and martyr; suffered at Tyburn, 19 June, 1535. He studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and became a proficient classical scholar. Entering the London Charterhouse, he was soon raised to the office of vicar (sub- prior); in 1534 he was named procurator. Chauncy says that for virtue and learning his like could not be found in the English province of the order. Two days after the Prior of the Charterhouse, St. John Houghton, had been put to death (4 May, 1535), W. Exmew and the vicar, Humphrey Middlemore, were denounced to Thomas Cromwell by Thomas Bedyll, one of the royal commissioners, as being “obstinately determined to suffer all extremities rather than to alter their opinion” with regard to the primacy of the pope.

Two Carthusian Monks are being hung, while another Monk was cut down while still alive to be disembowelled and then quartered.

Three weeks later they and another monk of the Charterhouse, Sebastian Newdigate, were arrested and thrown into the Marshalsea, where they were made to stand in chains, bound to posts, and were left in that position for thirteen days. After that, they were removed to the Tower. Named in the same indictment as St. John Fisher, they were brought to trial at Westminster, 11 June following, and pleaded not guilty, i.e., of high treason, but asserted their staunch adhesion to what the Church taught on the subject of spiritual supremacy and denied that King Henry VIII had any right to the title of head of the Church of England. They were consequently condemned to death as traitors, and were hanged, drawn, and quartered. W. Exmew is one of the fifty-four English martyrs beatified by Leo XIII, 9 December, 1886.

HENDRIKS, The London Charterhouse (London, 1889); CHAUNCY, Hist. aliquot Martyrum Anglorum (Montreuil-sur-Mer, 1888).

St. Sebastian Newdigate

Executed at Tyburn, 19 June, 1535. A younger son of John Newdigate of Harefield Place, Middlesex, king’s sergeant, and Amphelys, daughter and heiress of John Nevill of Sutton, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Cambridge, and on going to Court became and intimate friend of Henry VIII and a privy councilor. He married and had a daughter, named Amphelys, but his wife dying in 1524, he entered the London Charterhouse and became a monk there. He signed the Oath of Succession “in as far as the law of God permits”, 6 June, 1534. Arrested on 25 May, 1535, for denying the king’s supremacy, he was thrown into the Marshalsea prison, where he was kept for fourteen days bound to a pillar, standing upright, with iron rings round his neck, hands, and feet. There he was visited by the king who offered to load him with riches and honors if he would conform. He was then brought before the Council, and sent to the Tower, where Henry visited him again. His trial took place, 11 June, and after condemnation he was sent back to the Tower. With him suffered Saint William Exmew and Saint Humphrey Middlemore.

An axeman is quartering one of the Monks who has just been hanged.

(source: Catholic Encyclopedia)

[Note: Humphrey Middlemore, Sebastian Newdigate, and William Exmew were beatified by Pope Leo XIII in 1886. John Houghton was canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970 among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales.]

The Third Group

The next move was to seize four more monks of community, two being taken to the Carthusian house at Beauvale in Nottinghamshire, while Dom John Rochester and Dom James Walworth were taken to the Charterhouse of St. Michael in Hull in Yorkshire. They were made an “example” of on 11 May 1537, when, condemned on trumped-up charges of treason, they were hanged in chains from the York city battlements until dead.

Martyrdom of Dom John Rochester and Dom James Walworth. Painted by Vicente Carducho who was a painter to King Philip IV of Spain.

The Fourth Group

The government continued to play a game of intimidation until 18 May 1537, when the twenty hermits and eighteen lay brothers remaining in the London Charterhouse were required to take the Oath of Supremacy. Of these, the hermits Doms Thomas Johnson, Richard Bere, Thomas Green (priests), and John Davy (a deacon), refused. Richard Bere was the nephew, and namesake of, Richard Bere the Abbot of Glastonbury (1493–1525). The younger Bere abandoned his studies in the law, and became a Carthusian in February 1523. Thomas Green may be the Thomas Greenwood who obtained a bachelor’s degree at Oxford, and later a Master’s degree at Cambridge in 1511, who became Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge in 1515 and the Doctorate in Divinity in 1532. This would associate him with St. John Fisher.

Likewise, of the brothers, Robert Salt, William Greenwood, Thomas Redyng, Thomas Scryven, Walter Pierson, and William Horne also refused. As to the rest of the community, the charterhouse was “surrendered” and they were expelled.

The martyrdom of the lone survivor, Brother William Horne, is pictured on the right.

Those refusing the oath were all sent on May 29 to Newgate Prison, and treated as had been their fellow Carthusians in June 1535. They were chained standing and with their hands tied behind them to posts in the prison. This time, however, no further proceeding was foreseen and they were simply left to die of starvation.

Margaret Clement (née Giggs), who had been raised by St. Thomas More, bribed the gaoler to let her have access to the prisoners, and, disguised as a milkmaid, carried in a milk-can full of meat which she fed to them. She also relieved them as best she could of the filth. However, King Henry became suspicious and began to ask whether they were already dead. When this filtered back to the gaoler, he became too afraid to let Margaret enter again. For a brief time she was allowed to go on the roof and uncover the tiles, and let down meat in a basket as near as she could to their mouths. This method meant the monks could get little or nothing from the basket, and in any case the gaoler became too afraid and stopped any contact.

Margaret Clement

The lay brother William Greenwood died first, on 6 June, and two days later the deacon Dom John Davy, on 8 June. Brother Robert Salt died on 9 June, Brother Walter Pierson and Dom Thomas Green on 10 June, and Brothers Thomas Scryven and Thomas Redyng on 15 June and 16 June, respectively. These last named had survived a remarkably long time. It seems likely that at this point the King and his Council had decided upon a change of plan which entailed bringing the survivors to execution and that Cromwell gave orders that those still living were to be given food so as to keep them alive. At any rate, the hermit, Dom Richard Bere, did not die till 9 August, and Dom Thomas Johnson not until 20 September.

A Lone Survivor

The hanging, disemboweling, and quartering of the last remaining survivors is picture on the left. Painting by Vicente Carducho.

For some reason Brother William Horne was kept alive. Refusing to abandon his religious habit, he was not attainted till 1540, when he was hanged, disembowelled, and quartered at Tyburn on August 4, 1540 along with five other Catholics: the two laymen Robert Bird and Giles Heron, Friar Lawrence Cook, Carmelite Prior of Doncaster, the Benedictine monk, Dom Thomas Epson, and (probably) the secular priest William Bird, Rector of Fittleton and Vicar of Bradford, Wiltshire.

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Nobility.org Editorial comment: —

These Carthusian monks, among them scions of old English families, suffered martyrdom because they refused to take the Oath of Supremacy that made Henry VIII head of the Church of England.
They remained true and loyal to the Church which teaches that the Pope is Christ’s Vicar, and that to him alone, as represented by St. Peter, Our Lord Jesus Christ said: “And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven; whatsoever you bind upon earth shall be bound in Heaven; and whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in Heaven” (Matt. 16:19).
The Pope has primacy over things spiritual, while the State has sovereignty over things temporal.

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May 4 – St. Godard

May 4, 2026

St. Godard

(Also spelled GOTHARD, GODEHARD).

Bishop of Hildesheim in Lower Saxony; born about the year 960, in a village of Upper Bavaria, near the Abbey of Altaich, in the Diocese of Passau; Nassau; died on 4 May, 1038 canonized by Innocent II in 1131.

After a lengthy course of studies he received the Benedictine habit in 991. Having entered the Abbey of Altaich, his learning and sanctity speedily procured his elevation to the dignity of prior, and afterwards that of abbot, in the discharge of which sacred duties Godard went far towards enforcing rigorous observance of rule among those placed under his care. His special fitness in this department led to his being chosen to effect the work of reform in the Abbeys of Hersfeld, in Hesse; Tegernsee, in the Diocese of Freising; and Kremsmunster, in the Diocese of Passau.

On the death of St. Bernard, Bishop of Hildesheim (1021), Godard was chosen to succeed him; but his modesty yielded only to the urgent admonitions of Emperor St. Henry II. His zeal and prudence kept up the high tradition of Godard’s cloistered activity. The monastic observance was established, as far as possible, in his cathedral chapter. He built schools for the education of youth in which he always manifested an active interest; maintained a rigorous personal surveillance over his seminary; and fostered a strict observance of the liturgy whilst attending to the building and upkeep of churches. He also exercised a paternal care for the material needs of his people. Many churches in Germany honour Godard as patron and several bear his name. His letters which have come down to us exhibit a lofty spiritual tone throughout. Godard was buried in his cathedral.

St. Godard Church, Hildesheim

In 1132, the year following his canonization and the translation of his relics, the erection of a Benedictine monastery under the patronage of St. Godard, was begun, and two altars were dedicated to him in the cathedral church.

P. J. MacAuley. (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 5 – Arrested for refusing Napoleon a “Te Deum”

May 4, 2026

Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli

Composer, born at Naples, 4 April, 1752; died at Torre del Greco, 5 May, 1837. Having studied at the Loreto Conservatory under Fenaroli and Speranza, his first opera, “Montesuma”, was given at San Carlo, 13 August, 1781. He then went to Milan, where he remained until 1794, when he took up the post of maestro di cappella at Santa Casa, Loreto (1794-1804), after which he succeeded Gugliemi as choir master of the Sistine Chapel in Rome. For refusing to conduct a “Te Deum” for Napoleon in St. Peter’s, Rome, in 1811, he was taken a prisoner to Paris, but released soon after; and in 1816 he replaced Paisiello as choir master of Naples cathedral, a position he held until death. Whether as a composer of operas or of sacred music Zingarelli holds a high place, but, being a deeply religious Catholic, he devoted most of his attention to masses, oratorios, cantatas, and motets. For Loreto he composed 541 works, including 28 masses. In 1829 he wrote a cantata for the Birmingham Festival. Less than a month before his death he produced an oratorio, “The Flight into Egypt”, a wonderful feat for a man of eighty-five. Of his operas “Giulietta e Romeo” (1796) is regarded as his best; and his requiem mass, composed for his own funeral, is said to embody his most devotioned church style. Bellini and Mercadante were among his pupils.

W. H. Grattan-Flood (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 5 – St. Hilary of Arles

May 4, 2026

Archbishop, born about 401; died 5 May, 449.

The exact place of his birth is not known. All that may be said is that he belonged to a notable family of Northern Gaul, of which in all probability also came St. Honoratus, his predecessor in the See of Arles. Learned and rich, Hilary had everything calculated to ensure success in the world, but he abandoned honours and riches at the urgent solicitations of Honoratus, accompanied him to the hermitage of Lérins, which the latter had founded, and gave himself up under the saint’s direction to the practice of austerities and the study of Holy Scripture. When Honoratus, who had meanwhile become Archbishop of Arles, was at the point of death, Hilary went to his side and assisted at his latest moments. But as he was about to set out on his return to Lérins he was retained by force and proclaimed archbishop in the place of Honoratus. Obliged to yield to this constraint, he resolutely undertook the duties of his heavy charge, and assisted at the various councils held at Riez, Orange, Vaison, and Arles.

Relic of St. Hilary of Arles, in the Cathedral of Sant Tròfim d’Arle.

Subsequently began between him and Pope St. Leo the famous quarrel which constitutes one of the most curious phases of the history of the Gallican Church. A reunion of bishops, over which he presided in 444 and at which were present St. Eucherius of Lyons and St. Germain of Auxerre, deposed for incapacity provided against by the canons a certain Cheldonius. The latter hastened to Rome, was successful in pleading his cause before the pope, and consequently was reinstated in his see. Hilary then sought St. Leo in order to justify his course of action in the matter, but he was not well received by the sovereign pontiff and was obliged to return precipitately to Gaul. Several priests afterwards sent by him to Rome to explain his conduct met with no better success. Moreover, several persons who were hostile towards him profited by this juncture to bring various accusations against him at the Court of Rome, whereupon the pope excommunicated Hilary, transferred the prerogatives of his see to that of Fréjus, and caused the proclamation by the Emperor Valentinian III of that famous decree which freed the Church of Vienne from all dependence on that of Arles. Nevertheless there is every reason to believe that, the storm once passed, peace was rapidly restored between Hilary and Leo. We are too far removed from the epoch in which this memorable quarrel occurred, and the documents which might throw any light on it are too few to allow us to form a definitive judgment on its causes and consequences. It evidently arose from the fact that the respective rights of the Court of Rome and of the metropolitan were not sufficiently clearly established at that time, and that the right of appeal to the pope, among others, was not explicitly enough recognized. There exist a number of writings which are ascribed to St. Hilary, but they are far from being all authentic. Père Quesnel collected them all in an appendix to the work in which he has published the writings of St. Leo.

Albanez and Chevalier, Gallia Christ. noviss. (Arles, 1900), 29-36; Sevestre, Dict. patr. (Paris, 1854), II, 192-201; Ceillier, hist. des auteurs eccl. (Paris, 1747), XIII, 523-538; Baronius, Ann. (1595), 445, 9-18.

LEON CLUGNET (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 6 – Saint Francis de Montmorency Laval

May 4, 2026

St. Francis de Montmorency Laval

First bishop of Canada, born at Montigny-sur-Avre, 30 April, 1623, of Hughes de Laval and Michelle de Péricard; died at Quebec on 6 May, 1708.

He was a scion of an illustrious family, whose ancestor was baptized with Clovis at Reims, and whose motto reads: “Dieu ayde au primer baron chrestien.” He studied under the Jesuits at La Flèche, and learned philosophy and theology at their college of Clermont (Paris), where he joined a group of fervent youths directed by Father Bagot. This congregation was the germ of the Seminary of Foreign Missions, famous in the history of the Church, and of which the future seminary of Quebec was to be a sister institution. His two older brothers having died in battle, François inherited the family title and estate. But he resisted all worldly attractions and a mother’s entreaties, and held fast to his vocation. After ordination (1747), he filled the office of archdeacon at Evereux. The renowned Jesuit missionary, Alexander de Rhodes, having obtained from Innocent X the appointment of three vicars Apostolic for the East, Laval was chosen for the Tonquin mission. The Portuguese Court opposed the plan and from 1655 to 1658 the future bishop lived at the “hermitage” of Caen, in the practice of piety and good works, emulating the example of the prominent figures of that period of religious revival, Olier, Vincent of Paul, Bourdoise, Eudes, and others, several of whom were his intimate friends. This solitude was a fitting preamble to his apostolic career. Appointed Vicar Apostolic of New France, with the title of Bishop of Petrea, Laval was consecrated on 8 Dec., 1658, by the papal nuncio Piccolomini in the abbatical church of St-Germain-des-Prés, Paris. He landed on 16 June, 1659, at Quebec, which then counted hardly 500 inhabitants, the whole French population of Canada not exceeding 2200 souls.

Laval’s first relation to the pope (1660) breathes admiration for the natural grandeur of the country, courage and hope for the future, and praise for the zeal of the Jesuits. From the outset he had to assert his authority, which was contested by the Archbishop of Rouen, from whose province came most of the colonists, and whose pretensions were favoured by the court. Laval claimed jurisdiction directly from Rome. This conflict, which caused trouble and uncertainty, was ended when the See of Quebec was definitively erected by Clement X into a regular diocese depending solely on Rome (1674). But the hardest struggle, the trial of a life-time, was against the liquor-traffic with the Indians. The problem, on whose solution depended the civilization and salvation of the aboriginies and the welfare of New France, was rendered more arduous by the intense passion of the savage for firewater and the lawless greed of the white trader. Laval, after exhausting persuasive measures and consulting the Sorbonne theologians, forbade the traffic under pain of excommunication. The civil authorities pleaded in the interest of commerce, the eternal obstacle to temperance. First d’Avaugour relaxed the severity of the prohibition, but, through Laval’s influence at court, was recalled. De Mésy, who owed his appointment to the bishop, first favoured, but then violently opposed his authority, finally dying repentant in his arms. His successors, envious of clerical authority and over-partial to commercial interests, obtained from the king a mitigated legislation. Thus, the Intendant Talon and Frontenac, notwithstanding their statesmanship and bravery, were imbued with Gallicanism and too zealous for their personal benefit. The viceroy de Tracey, however, seconded the bishop’s action.

Statue of Bl. François de Montmorency-Laval, standing in front of the Bureau de Poste building in Old Quebec. Photo taken Andrea Schaffer.

At this period the Diocese of Quebec comprised all North America, exclusive of New England, the Atlantic sea-board, and the Spanish colonies to the West, a territory now divided into about a hundred dioceses. Laval’s zeal embraced all whom he could reach by his representatives or by his personal visitations. In season and out of season, he made long and perilous journeys by land and water to minister to his flock. His fatherly kindness sustained the far-off missionary. “His heart is always with us”, writes the Jesuit Dablon. He was a protector and guide to the religious houses of Quebec and Montreal. He was deeply attached to the Jesuits, his former teachers, and recalled to Canada in 1670 the Franciscan Recollets, who had first brought thither the Gospel. By the solemn baptism of Garakontie, the Iroquois chief, an effacacious promoter of the true Faith was secured among his barbarous fellow-countrymen, who received the black-robed Jesuit and gave many neophytes. Laval’s foresight made him foster the most cherished devotions of the Church: belief in the Immaculate Conception, the titular of his cathedral, and the cult of the Holy Family, which flourished on Canadian soil (Encyclical of Leo XIII). He was a devout client of St. Anne, whose shrine at Beaupre was rebuilt in 1673. As a patron of education Laval occupies a foremost rank. At that early period, with a handful of colonists and scanty resources, he organized a complete system of instruction: primary, technical, and classical. His seminary (1663) and little seminary (1668) trained candidates for the priesthood.

Quebec City. View of the Château Frontenac from the Vieux-Québec (Old Quebec).

An industrial school, founded at St-Joachim (1678), provided the colony with skilled farmers and craftsmen. To these institutions, and particularly to the seminary, destined to become the university which bears his name, he gave all his possessions, including the seigniory of Beaupré and Isle Jésus. In view of the future he built the seminary on a relatively large scale, which excited the envy and criticism of Frontenac. No regular parishes having been yet established, the clergy were attached to the seminary, and thence radiated everywhere for parochial or mission work, even as far as the Illinois. The tithes, after much discussion and opposition, had finally been limited to the twenty-sixth bushel of grain harvested, an enactment still legally in force in the Province of Quebec. These tithes were paid to the seminary, which, in return provided labourers for Christ’s vineyard. Laval’s patriotism was remarkable. The creation of the Sovereign Council in lieu of the Company of New France was greatly due to his influence, and conduced to the proper administration of justice, to the progress of colonization, and the defence of the country against the ever-increasing ferocity and audacity of the Iroquois. He later concurred in obtaining the regiment of Carignan for the last-named object (1665). Exhausted by thirty years of a laborious apostolate, and convinced that a younger bishop would work more effacaciously for God’s glory and the good of souls, he resigned in 1688. His successor, Abbé de St-Vallier, a virtuous and generous prelate, did not share all his views regarding the administration. Laval might have enjoyed a well-earned retreat in France, whither he had sailed for the fourth time. He preferred returning to the scene of his labours, where many opportunities occurred of displaying his zeal during the many years of St-Vallier’s absence, five of which were spent in captivity in England. During that period, the seminary was twice burned (1701 and 1705) To Laval’s intense sorrow, and rebuilt through his energy and generosity. The end was near. The last three years he spent in greater retirement and humility, and died in the odour of sanctity.

Saint Francis de Montmorency Laval’s tomb.

His reputation for holiness, though somewhat dimmed after the Conquest, revived during the nineteenth century, and the cause of his canonization having been introduced (1890), he now enjoys the title of Venerable. Laval has been accused of attachment to his own authority and disregard for the rights of civil authority, a reproach that savours somewhat of the Gallican spirit of the time, and of the historians who endorsed their prejudices. The truth is that he had to protect his flock from the greed, and selfishness of worldly potentates for whom material interests were often paramount; to defend the immunities of the church against a domineering Frontenac, who pretended to arraign clerics before his tribunal, and oblige missionaries to secure a passport for each change of residence, and refused the bishop the rank due to his dignity and sanctioned by the king, in the council of which the prelate was the chief founder, the soul and life. In an age when churchmen like Mazarin and Richelieu virtually ruled the State, Laval’s authority, always exercised for the country’s weal, was probably not exorbitant. He was loyal to the Crown when superior rights were not contradicted, and received nought but praise from the Grand Monarque. The charge of ambition and arbitrariness is equally groundless.

His tomb

In the Sovereign Council, Laval showed prudence, wisdom justice, moderation. His influence was always beneficent. Although firm and inflexible in the accomplishment of duty he was ready to consult and follow competent advice. He was of the race of Hildebrand, and to him likewise might have been applied the text: “Dilexisti justitiam et odisti iniquitatem.” His sole ambition was to be a bishop according to God’s heart. His spirit and practice of mortification and penance, his deep humility, his lively faith, his boundless charity towards the poor, rank him among the most holy personages.

[He was beatified 22 June 1980 by Pope John Paul II]

GOSSELIN, “Vie de Mgr. De Laval” (Quebec, 1890); GARNEAU, “Histoire du Canada (Montreal, 1882); FERLAND, “Cours d’histoire du Canada” (Quebec, 1882); ROCHEMONTEIX, “Les Jesuites et la Nouvelle-France” (Paris, 1896); MARIE DE L’INCARNATION, “Lettres” (Tournai, 1876); “Souvenir des fetes du Monument Laval” (Quebec, 1908).

LIONEL LINDSAY (Catholic Encyclopedia)

[Pope Francis declared him a saint in April 2014.]

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May 6 – Prince, priest, pioneer

May 4, 2026

Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin

Prince Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin

Prince, priest, and missionary, born at The Hague, Holland, 22 December, 1770; died at Loretto, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., 6 May, 1840. He was a scion of one of the oldest, wealthiest, and most illustrious families of Russia. His father, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin (d. 16 March, 1803), Russian ambassador to Holland at the time of his son’s birth, had been previously for fourteen years Russian ambassador to France, and was an intimate acquaintance of Diderot, Voltaire, d’Alembert, and other rationalists of the day. Though nominally an Orthodox Russian, he accepted and openly professed the principles of an infidel philosophy. On 28 August, 1768, he married in Aachen the Countess Amalie, only daughter of the then celebrated Prussian Field-Marshal von Schmettau. Her mother, Baroness von Ruffert, being a Catholic, Amalie was baptized in the Catholic Church, but her religious education was neglected, and it was not until 1786 that she became a fervent Catholic, which she remained until her death, 27 April, 1806.

Little attention was paid to the religious education of Demetrius, who was born and baptized in the Greek Orthodox Church. In youth his most constant companion was Frederick William, son of William V, then reigning Stadtholder of the Netherlands. This friendship continued even after Frederick William became King of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxemburg as William I. Almost from his infancy the young prince was subjected to rigid discipline, and his intellectual faculties, trained by the best masters of the age, reached their fullest development. When about seventeen he became a sincere Catholic, and to please his mother, whose birth (1748), marriage (1768), and First Holy Communion (1786) occurred on 28 August, the feast of St. Augustine, assumed at confirmation that name, and thereafter wrote his name Demetrius Augustine.

Princess Adelheid Amalie Gallitzin

After finishing his education he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Austrian General von Lillien, but as there was no opportunity for him to continue a military career his parents resolved that he should spend two years in traveling through America, the West Indies, and other foreign lands. Provided with letters of introduction to Bishop Carroll of Baltimore, and accompanied by his tutor, Father Brosius, afterwards a prominent missionary in the United States, he embarked at Rotterdam, Holland, 18 August, 1792, and landed in Baltimore, 28 October. To avoid the inconvenience and expense of traveling as a Russian prince, he assumed the name of Schmet, or Smith, and for many years was known in the United States as Augustine Smith. Soon after arriving at Baltimore, he was deeply impressed with the needs of the Church in America. He resolved to devote his fortune and life to the salvation of souls in the country of his adoption. Despite the objections of his relatives and friends in Europe, he, with the approval of Bishop Carroll, entered St. Mary’s Seminary, Baltimore, as one of its first students, it having been founded the previous year (1791) by Sulpician priests, refugees from France. On 18 March, 1795, he was ordained priest, being the first to receive in the limits of the original thirteen of the United States all the orders from tonsure to priesthood.

Saint Joseph Mission Church. This little mission church, the fruit of the zealous labor of the Catholic Pioneers, was the center of Catholicity in Northern Cambria County between 1830 and 1849. Father Gallitzin dedicated this log church in honor of St. Joseph on Sunday, October 10, 1830, celebrated Mass and baptized eleven children.

In 1788 Captain Michael McGuire, an officer in the Revolutionary army, purchased about 1200 acres of land near the summit of the Alleghenies, in what is now Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and was the first white man to establish a residence within the limits of that county. He brought his family from Maryland and built his log-cabin in the valley below the site of the present town of Loretto, in the midst of a dense forest which covered all that portion of the State. His nearest neighbours were fully twenty miles distant. Soon relatives and friends followed from Maryland, established themselves in the vicinity, and formed what came to be known far and wide as McGuire’s Settlement, later called Clearfield, the lands lying on the headwaters of Clearfield Creek. Some years after his arrival Father Gallitzin named it Loretto, after the city of Loreto in Italy; but it was not until 1816 that he laid out the town and caused the plan of lots to be recorded in the county archives. Captain McGuire died in 1;793, bequeathing to Bishop Carroll four hundred acres of his land in trust for the benefit of the resident clergy who, he hoped, would be appointed to provide for the spiritual wants of his growing colony. He was the first to be buried in the portion of this land set aside for a cemetery, which Father Brosius consecrated on one of his early visits to the settlement.

Father Gallitzin

Father Gallitzin first exercised his ministry at Baltimore and in the scattered missions of southern Pennsylvania and northern Maryland and Virginia. In 1796, while stationed at Conewago, Pennsylvania, he received a sick-call to attend a Mrs. John Burgoon, a Protestant, who lived at McGuire’s Settlement, about one hundred and fifty miles distant, and who ardently desired to become a Catholic before her death. Father Gallitzin immediately started on the long journey, instructed Mrs. Burgoon, and received her into the Church. During this visit to the Alleghenies he conceived the idea of forming there a Catholic settlement. In preparation therefor, he invested his means (considerable at that time) in the purchase of land adjoining the four hundred acres donated to the Church, and at the urgent request of the little mountain colony obtained from Bishop Carroll permission to fix his permanent residence there with jurisdiction extending over a territory with a radius of over one hundred miles. In the summer of 1799 he commenced his career as pioneer priest of the Alleghenies. His first care was to erect a church and house of logs, hewn from the immense pine trees of the surrounding forest. In a letter to Bishop Carroll, dated 9 February, 1800, he writes: “Our church, which was only begun in harvest, got finished fit for service the night before Christmas. It is about 44 feet long by 25, built of white pine logs with a very good shingle roof. I kept service in it at Christmas for the first time. There is also a house built for me, 16 feet by 14, besides a little kitchen and a stable.” While the church and house were being constructed, he said Mass for the few Catholics of the settlement in the log house, erected two years previously by Luke McGuire, the elder son of the captain. That house is still standing (1909) and serves as a residence for the descendants, in direct male line, of the founder of McGuire’s Settlement. To accommodate the increasing influx of Catholic colonists, Father Gallitzin in 1808 enlarged the log church to almost double its former capacity, and as the population continued to increase, he took down the log building in 1817, and on the same site erected a frame church, forty by thirty feet, which served as the parish church until 1853.

Statue of Fr. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin in front of St. Michael’s Chapel.

Father Heyden, one of Father Gallitzin’s biographers, writes (1869): “What now constitutes the dioceses of Pittsburg, Erie, and a large part of the Harrisburg new episcopal see, was then the missionary field of a single priest, Rev. Prince Gallitzin. If we except the station at Youngstown, Westmoreland County, where the Rev. Mr. Browers had settled a few years before, there was not, from Conewago in Adams County to Lake Erie-from the Susquehanna to the Potomac-a solitary priest, church, or religious establishment of any kind, when he opened his missionary career. From this statement we may conceive some idea of the incredible privations and toils which he had to encounter in visiting the various widely remote points where some few Catholics happened to reside.” As early as 1800, and frequently thereafter, he wrote to Bishop Carroll, begging that one or more priests be sent to share his burdens. And so for more than twenty years he was obliged to perform, unassisted, a work which would have proved onerous for several.

The tomb of Fr. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin at St. Michael’s Catholic Cemetery in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

He was not only the good shepherd of his multiplying flock; he was also in a particular manner their worldly benefactor. Following out his idea of establishing a Catholic colony at the place which he named Loretto, and which he made the cradle of Catholicity in Western Pennsylvania, he, by means of remittances from Germany and loans contracted on the strength of his expectations, purchased large portions of land adjoining the settlement, which he sold in small tracts to the incoming colonists at a very low rate and on easy terms. For much of this land he was never repaid. Moreover, he built, at his own expense, saw-mills, grist-mills, and tanneries, and established other industries for the material benefit of his flock. In accomplishing all this he necessarily burdened himself with a heavy personal debt; not imprudently, however, for he had received solemn assurances that he would obtain a portion of his father’s large estate, as well as his share of his mother’s bequest. The Russian Government, nevertheless, disinherited him for becoming a Catholic and a priest, and the German prince who had married his sister squandered both his and her inheritance. In these circumstances, he was compelled, in 1827, to appeal to the charitable public; the appeal was endorsed by Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who headed the list with a subscription of one hundred dollars; on the list stands the name of Cardinal Cappellari, afterwards Pope Gregory XVI, who subscribed two hundred dollars. Yet it was not until near the close of his life that the burden of debt was finally lifted.

The coat of arms of Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, presented to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, also known as Conewago Chapel, Pennsylvania by Bishop Richard Guilfloyle, Bishop of Altoona.

During the forty-one years of his pastorate in the Alleghenies, he never received a cent of salary; he maintained himself, his household, and the many orphans whom he sheltered, and abundantly supplied the wants of the needy among his flock out of the produce of his farm, which by his intelligent method of cultivation became very productive. It is estimated that he expended $150,000 of his inheritance, a small portion of the amount that should rightly have come to him, but an immense sum for the times in which he lived, in the establishment of his Catholic colony on the Alleghenies. For some years (1804-1807) he was rewarded with ingratitude. His actions were misconstrued, his words and writings misinterpreted, his character vilified, his honour attacked, and even violent hands were laid on his person, and all this by members of his own flock. But, with the encouragement of his bishop and the aid of the civil courts, he brought his defamers to acknowledge their guilt, for which they voluntarily and publicly made full reparation before their fellow Catholics in the Loretto church.

A drawing of the famous meeting of Father Lemke and Prince Gallitzin between Munster and Loretto

For fourteen years after his ordination Father Gallitzin was known to the general public as Augustine Smith. This was the name which he subscribed to all his legal papers and to his entries in the parish register of baptisms and marriages. But, fearing serious difficulties in the future, at his request, on 16 Dec., 1809, the Pennsylvania legislature validated the acts and purchases made under that assumed name, and legalized the resumption of his real name. Notwithstanding his varied labours, Father Gallitzin found time to publish several valuable tracts in favour of the Catholic cause. He was the first in the United States to enter the lists of controversy in defence of the Church; ;he was provoked thereto by a sermon delivered on Thanksgiving Day, 1814, in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, by a certain minister who went out of his way to attack what he called “popery”. Repelling this attack, Father Gallitzin first published his “Defense of Catholic Principles”, which ran through several editions and was the means of many conversions. This was followed by “A Letter on the Holy Scriptures” and “An Appeal to the Protestant Public”.

Portrait of America’s first Bishop and Archbishop, John Carroll. Painted by Rembrandt Peale.

For twenty years Father Gallitzin had laboured alone in a vast mission whose Catholic population was constantly increasing; in 1834, when Father Lemke was sent to his assistance and was assigned the northern part of Cambria County as his sphere of action, the parish of Loretto was restricted within comparatively narrow limits. In the meantime Father Gallitzin’s reputation for sanctity, the fame of his talents, and the account of his labours had spread far and wide; and it was his deep humility as well as his love for his community that prevented his advancement to the honours of the Church. He accepted the office of Vicar-General for Western Pennsylvania, conferred on him by Bishop Conwell of Philadelphia, in 1827, because he felt that in that office he could promote the interests of the Church; but he strongly resisted the proposals to nominate him for the position of first Bishop of Cincinnati and first Bishop of Detroit. For many years before his death he lived in the hope of seeing Loretto made an episcopal see, for Loretto was then a flourishing mission and the center of a constantly increasing Catholic population, while Pittsburgh was a small town containing but few Catholics. After forty-one years spent on the rugged heights of the Alleghenies, he died as he had lived, poor. On coming to McGuire’s Settlement he found a dense wilderness; he left it dotted with fertile farms. As an evidence of his religious labours in Pennsylvania, it may be stated that within a radius of fifteen miles from the spot on which in 1799 he built his log church there are now no less than twenty-one flourishing parishes, thirty-three priests, and four religious and educational institutions. He was buried, according to his desire, midway between his residence and the church (they were about thirty feet apart); in 1847 his remains were transferred to a vault in a field nearer the town, over which a humble monument was erected out of squared blocks of rough mountain stone. In 1891 his remains were taken from the decayed coffin of cherry wood and placed in a metallic casket; in 1899, on the occasion of the centenary celebration of the foundation of the Loretto Mission, the rude monument was capped by a pedestal of granite, and this in turn by a bronze statue of the prince-priest, donated by Charles M. Schwab, who also built the large stone church, which was solemnly consecrated, 2 Oct., 1901.

LEMKE, Leben und Wirken (Münster, 1861); HEYDEN, Life and Character of Rev. Prince Demetrius A. de Gallitzin (Baltimore, 1869); BROWNSON, Life of D. A. Gallitzin, Prince and Priest (New York, 1872); KITTELL, Souvenir of Loretto Centenary (Cresson, Pa., 1899); KART in Catholic World (New York, 1895), LXI; MIDDLETON in Am. Cath. Hist. Mag. (Philadelphia, 1893), IV; PISE in U. S. Cath. Hist. Mag. (New York, 1890), III; HEUSER in American Catholic Historical Magazine (Philadelphia, 1895), VI.

FERDINAND KITTELL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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April 30 – “Thank God for the victory”

April 30, 2026

Pope Saint Pius V

St. Pope Pius V, photographed at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs

Born at Bosco, near Alexandria, Lombardy, 17 Jan., 1504 elected 7 Jan., 1566; died 1 May, 1572. Being of a poor though noble family his lot would have been to follow a trade, but he was taken in by the Dominicans of Voghera, where he received a good education and was trained in the way of solid and austere piety. He entered the order, was ordained in 1528, and taught theology and philosophy for sixteen years. In the meantime he was master of novices and was on several occasions elected prior of different houses of his order in which he strove to develop the practice of the monastic virtues and spread the spirit of the holy founder. He himself was an example to all. He fasted, did penance, passed long hours of the night in meditation and prayer, traveled on foot without a cloak in deep silence, or only speaking to his companions of the things of God. In 1556 he was made Bishop of Sutri by Paul IV. His zeal against heresy caused him to be selected as inquisitor of the faith in Milan and Lombardy, and in 1557 Paul IV made him a cardinal and named him inquisitor general for all Christendom. In 1559 he was transferred to Mondovi, where he restored the purity of faith and discipline, gravely impaired by the wars of Piedmont. Frequently called to Rome, he displayed his unflinching zeal in all the affairs on which he was consulted. Thus he offered an insurmountable opposition to Pius IV when the latter wished to admit Ferdinand de’ Medici, then only thirteen years old, into the Sacred College. Again it was he who defeated the project of Maximilian II, Emperor of Germany, to abolish ecclesiastical celibacy. On the death of Pius IV, he was, despite his tears and entreaties, elected pope, to the great joy of the whole Church.

Pope Saint Pius V by El Greco

He began his pontificate by giving large alms to the poor, instead of distributing his bounty at haphazard like his predecessors. As pontiff he practiced the virtues he had displayed as a monk and a bishop. His piety was not diminished, and, in spite of the heavy labours and anxieties of his office, he made at least two meditations a day on bended knees in presence of the Blessed Sacrament. In his charity he visited the hospitals, and sat by the bedside of the sick, consoling them and preparing them to die. He washed the feet of the poor, and embraced the lepers. It is related that an English nobleman was converted on seeing him kiss the feet of a beggar covered with ulcers. He was very austere and banished luxury from his court, raised the standard of morality, laboured with his intimate friend, St. Charles Borromeo, to reform the clergy, obliged his bishops to reside in their dioceses, and the cardinals to lead lives of simplicity and piety. He diminished public scandals by relegating prostitutes to distant quarters, and he forbade bull fights. He enforced the observance of the discipline of the Council of Trent, reformed the Cistercians, and supported the missions of the New World. In the Bull “In Coena Domini” he proclaimed the traditional principles of the Roman Church and the supremacy of the Holy See over the civil power.

Photos by Philip Serracino Inglott & Vincent Ruf

But the great thought and the constant preoccupation of his pontificate seems to have been the struggle against the Protestants and the Turks. In Germany he supported the Catholics oppressed by the heretical princes. In France he encouraged the League by his counsels and with pecuniary aid. In the Low Countries he supported Spain. In England, finally, he excommunicated Elizabeth, embraced the cause of Mary Stuart, and wrote to console her in prison. In the ardour of his faith he did not hesitate to display severity against the dissidents when necessary, and to give a new impulse to the activity of the Inquisition, for which he has been blamed by certain historians who have exaggerated his conduct. Despite all representations on his behalf he condemned the writings of Baius (q.v.), who ended by submitting.

He worked incessantly to unite the Christian princes against the hereditary enemy, the Turks. In the first year of his pontificate he had ordered a solemn jubilee, exhorting the faithful to penance and almsgiving to obtain the victory from God. He supported the Knights of Malta, sent money for the fortification of the free towns of Italy, furnished monthly contributions to the Christians of Hungary, and endeavoured especially to bring Maximilian, Philip II, and Charles I together for the defence of Christendom. In 1567 for the same purpose he collected from all convents one-tenth of their revenues.

Pope St Pius V sees the Victory at Lepanto. This fresco is in the cell of St Pius V in Santa Sabina, Rome.

In 1570 when Solyman II attacked Cyprus, threatening all Christianity in the West, he never rested till he united the forces of Venice, Spain, and the Holy See. He sent his blessing to Don John of Austria, the commander-in-chief of the expedition, recommending him to leave behind all soldiers of evil life, and promising him the victory if he did so. He ordered public prayers, and increased his own supplications to heaven. On the day of the Battle of Lepanto, 7 Oct., 1571, he was working with the cardinals, when, suddenly, interrupting his work opening the window and looking at the sky, he cried out, “A truce to business; our great task at present is to thank God for the victory which He has just given the Christian army”.

He burst into tears when he heard of the victory, which dealt the Turkish power a blow from which it never recovered. In memory of this triumph he instituted for the first Sunday of October the feast of the Rosary, and added to the Litany of Loreto the supplication “Help of Christians”. He was hoping to put an end to the power of Islam by forming a general alliance of the Italian cities Poland, France, and all Christian Europe, and had begun negotiations for this purpose when he died of gravel, repeating “O Lord, increase my sufferings and my patience!” He left the memory of a rare virtue and an unfailing and inflexible integrity. He was beatified by Clement X in 1672, and canonized by Clement XI in 1712.

The tomb of Pope Pius V in Santa Maria Maggiore.

MENDHAM, Life and Pontificate of St. Pius V (London, 1832 and 1835); Acta SS., I May; TOURON, Hommes illustres de l’ordre de St.-Dominique, IV; FALLOUX, Histoire de S. Pie V (Paris, 1853); PASTOR, Gesch. der Papste, ARTAUD DE MONTOR, History of the Popes (New York, 1867); Pope Pius V, the Father of Christendom in Dublin Review, LIX (London, 1866), 273.

T. LATASTE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 1 – St. Sigismund, King of Burgundy

April 30, 2026

This saint was son of Gondebald, the Arian king of the Burgundians; but embraced the Catholic faith through the instructions of St. Alcimus Avitus, bishop of Vienne. (1) He succeeded to the kingdom of his father in 516, and in the midst of barbarism lived humble, mortified, penitent, devout, and charitable, even on the throne; a station in which the very name of true virtue is too often scarcely known. Before the death of his father, he built the famous monastery of St. Maurice at Agaune, in the Valais, in the year 515, where many holy hermits lived before that time in scattered cells.—God permitted this good prince to fall into a snare. He suffered his son Sigeric to be put to death, upon an accusation forged by his second wife, of a conspiracy against his life: but afterwards discovering the calumny, and pierced to the quick with remorse, he retired to Agaune, where he did penance in tears and sack-cloth.

Statue of St. Sigismund of Burgundy, from the Freising Cathedral Altarpiece of 1443 and now in the Bavarian National Museum.

He made it his prayer to God that he might be punished in this life, to escape the divine vengeance in the next.—His prayer was heard:—for being taken prisoner by Chlodomir, the barbarous king of the Franks, he was, by his order, drowned in a well at Columelle, four leagues from Orleans, after he had reigned one year. His body was kept honourably at Agaune, till it was removed to the cathedral of Prague by the emperor Charles IV. (2) It has been famous for many miracles.

See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. Fr. l. 3, c. 5 and 6; and Henschenius’s Collections, t. 1, Maij. p. 83.

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Note 1. The Burgundians were a principal tribe of the Vandals, as Pliny and Zozimus assure us, and is further proved in the late history of Burgundy, and in L’Essai sur les premiers Rois de Bourgone, et sur l’Origine des Bourguignons, à Dijon, 4to. 1771. They are first met with on the banks of the Vistula, in Prussia. When Procopius wrote, on this side of the Elbe, below the Thuringi; in 407, they passed the Rhine into Gaul, and, under their first king, Gondicaire, in 413, conquered the country between the Upper Rhine, the Rhone, and the Saone, where they settled their kingdom, and shortly after extended its limits, so that it comprised what was afterwards the duchy of Burgundy, the Franche Comté, Provence, Lyonnois, Dauphiné, Savoye, &c., with the cities Geneva, Lyons, Autun, Basil, Nevers, Grenoble, Besançon, Langres, Viviers, Embrun, Vienne, Orange, Carpentras, Apt, &c. Gondicarius, the first king of the Burgundians, reigned fifty years, from 413 to 463, as appears from his letter to Pope Hilary, and that pope’s answer, in which he styles him his son, &c. Chilperic, his son, who succeeded him, was a zealous Catholic prince; but, having reigned about twenty-eight years, was assassinated with his wife, two sons, and brother Godomar, by his ambitious brother, Gondebald, who had embraced the Arian heresy. After a reign of twenty-five years, he died, in 516, leaving two sons, Sigismund and Godomar. He reformed the code of the Burgundian laws, called from him Loi Gombette. His brother Chilperic’s two daughters were brought up at his court at Geneva: Chrone, the eldest, took the religious veil, Clotildis, the second, was married to Clovis, king of the Franks, who waged war against him, to revenge the murder of Chilperic, and besieged him in Avignon, but afterwards made peace with him. Clodomir, king of Orleans, with his brothers, renewed this war against St. Sigismund, whom he took and caused to be drowned at Orleans, in 524. Clodomir pursued his brother and successor Godomar; but was defeated by him and slain. Ten years after, Clotaire and Childebert vanquished him, in 533, from which time the ancient kingdom of Burgundy was divided among the kings of the Franks. Among these, Gontran, son of Clotaire I. took the title of King of Burgundy, and reigned at Chalons sur Saone, though his brother Sigebert possessed a large part of that country. Childebert, son of Sigebert, in 523, and Thierri II. the son of Childebert, in 596, bore the same title. After the death of the latter, in 613, Burgundy lost its title of a kingdom in the hands of French monarchs; but was revived for a short time in Charles, youngest son of the Emperor Lothaire, with the title of King of Provence, afterwards of Arles. Upper Burgundy was called Franche Comté, because it owed only military service.
We find the Burgundians Christians and Catholics, under Gondicaire, soon after they had crossed the Rhine, and were settled in France. From Sozomen it appears that their conversion happened about the year 317. Those moderns who imagine them infected with Arianism almost as soon as they were Christians, are certainly mistaken. For it is manifest from Socrates, Nicephorus, Orosius, &c., that they remained zealous Catholics above a century and a half after their conversion to Christianity; not only to the year 440, fixed by Tillemont, but down to 491. They fell into Arianism only in the close of that century, and remained attached to that heresy no longer than about twenty years, during the reign of Gondebald, their third king. See Abrègè Chronologique de l’Hist. Eccl. Civile et Littèr, de Bourgogne, par M. Mille, 8vo. 1770.
Note 2. On this translation, see Henschenius, t. 1, Maij. p. 88.

The Lives of the Saints, Vol. V: May, by Rev. Alban Butler, New York, D.&J. Sadlier Publishers, 1866, pp.

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May 2 – Two sisters of this medieval princess were also saints

April 30, 2026

St. Mafalda of Portugal

St. Mafalda of Portugal, in an anonymous 18th century painting

In the year 1215, at the age of eleven, Princess Mafalda (i.e. Matilda), daughter of King Sancho I of Portugal, was married to her kinsman King Henry I of Castile, who was like herself a minor.

Henry I of Castille, the son of Alfonsus VIII called the Noble. His marriage to St. Mafalda was annulled.

The marriage was annulled the following year on the ground of the consanguinity of the parties, and Mafalda returned to her own country, where she took the veil in the Benedictine convent of Arouca.

As religious observance had become greatly relaxed, she induced the community to adopt the Cistercian rule. Her own life was one of extreme austerity. The whole of the large income bestowed upon her by her father was devoted to pious and charitable uses. She restored the cathedral of Oporto, founded a hostel for pilgrims, erected a bridge over the Talmeda and built an institution for the support of twelve widows at Arouca. When she felt that her last hour was approaching she directed, according to a common medieval practice, that she should be laid on ashes. Her last words were, “Lord, I hope in thee.” Her body after death shone with a wonderful radiance, and when it was exposed in 1617 it is said to have been as flexible and fresh as though the holy woman had only just died. Mafalda’s cultus was confirmed in 1793.

Main altar in the Monastery of Arouca. Photo by Henrique Matos

[A notice of Mafalda, compiled mainly from late Cistercian sources, will be found in the appendix to the first volume for May in the Acta Sanctorum. An account of her, with her sisters Saints Teresa and Sancha, is also contained in Portugal glorioso e ilustrado, etc. by J. P. Bayao (1727).]

Butler’s Lives of the Saints, Herbert Thurston, S.J., and Donald Attwater, eds. (New York: P. J. Kenedy & Sons, 1956), Vol. II, pp. 219-220.

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Nobility.org comment:

The mission of the the nobility is to “set the tone,” to give good example and lead in society.
St. Mafalda and her sisters, together with countless other members of the nobility in medieval times did just this. They gave good example.
Is it surprising then that the Middle Ages are known as the “golden age of faith?”
But when the nobility and analogous traditional elites shirk this duty or worse, give bad example, society enters a period of moral decadence.
What label will our days today receive from posterity, centuries from now?
Will it be “the age of apostasy?”
Roman pagan times were not that pretty either, but noble souls like St. Cecilia led the way for change.
Will members of the nobility and analogous traditional elites today follow the example of Saints Cecilia and Mafalda and lead society in the ways of moral rehabilitation?

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May 2 – Economist

April 30, 2026

St. Antoninus

Fresco of The alms of Sant’Antonio Pierozzi in the Church of San Domenico, Torino, Italy.

Archbishop of Florence, b. at Florence, 1 March, 1389; d. 2 May, 1459; known also by his baptismal name Antoninus (Anthony), which is found in his autographs, in some manuscripts, in printed editions of his works, and in the Bull of canonization, but which has been finally rejected for the diminutive form given him by his affectionate fellow-citizens. His parents, Niccolò and Thomasina Pierozzi, were in high standing, Niccolò being a notary of the Florentine Republic. At the age of fifteen (1404) Antoninus applied to Bl. John Dominic, the great Italian religious reformer of the period, then at the Convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, for admission to the Dominican Order. It was not until a year later that he was accepted, and he was the first to receive the habit for the Convent of Fiesole about to be constructed by Bl. John Dominic. With Fra Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo, the one to become famous as a painter, the other as a miniaturist, he was sent to Cortona to make his novitiate under Bl. Lawrence of Ripafratta. Upon the completion of his year in the novitiate, he returned to Fiesole, where he remained until 1409, when with his brethren, all faithful adherents of Pope Gregory XII, he was constrained by the Florentines, who had refused obedience, to take shelter in the Convent of Foligno. A few years later he began his career as a zealous promoter of the reforms inaugurated by Bl. John Dominic. In 1414 he was vicar of the convent of Foligno, then in turn sub-prior and prior of the convent of Cortona, and later prior of the convents of Rome (Minerva), Naples (Saint Peter Martyr), Gaeta, Sienna,and Fiesole (several times). From 1433 to 1446 he was vicar of the Tuscan Congregation formed by Bl. John Dominic of convents embracing a more rigorous discipline. During this period he established (1436) the famous convent of St. Mark in Florence, where he formed a remarkable community from the brethren of the convent of Fiesole. It was at this time also that he built with the munificent aid of Cosimo de’ Medici, the adjoining church, at the consecration of which Pope Eugene IV assisted (Epiphany, 1441). As a theologian he took part in the Council of Florence (1439) and gave hospitality in St. Mark’s to the Dominican theologians called to the council by Eugene IV.

Summa confessionalis, Curam illius habes, written by St. Antoninus.

Despite all the efforts of St. Antoninus to escape ecclesiastical dignities, he was forced by Eugene IV, who had personal knowledge of his saintly character and administrative ability, to accept the Archbishopric of Florence. He was consecrated in the convent of Fiesole, 13 march, 1446, and immediately took possession of the see over which he ruled until his death. As he had laboured in the past for the upbuilding of the religious life throughout his Order, so he henceforth laboured for it in his diocese, devoting himself to the visitation of parishes and religious communities, the remedy of abuses, the strengthening of discipline, the preaching of the Gospel, the amelioration of the condition of the poor, and the writing of books for clergy and laity. These labours were interrupted several times that he might act as ambassador for the Florentine Republic. Ill health prevented him from taking part in an embassy to the emperor in 1451, but in 1455 and again in 1458 he was at the head of embassies sent by the government to the Supreme Pontiff. He was called by Eugene IV to assist him in his dying hours. He was frequently consulted by Nicholas V on questions of Church and State, and was charged by Pius II to undertake, with several cardinals, the reform of the Roman Court. When his death occurred, 2 May, 1459, Pius II gave instructions for the funeral, and presided at it eight days later. He was canonized by Adrian VI, 31 May, 1523.

The literary productions of St. Antoninus, while giving evidence of the eminently practical turn of his mind, show that he was a profound student of history and theology. His principal work is the “Summa Theologica Moralis, partibus IV distincta”, written shortly before his death, which marked a new and very considerable development in moral theology. It also contains a fund of matter for the student of the history of the fifteenth century. Sowell developed are its juridical elements that it has been published under the title of “Juris Pontificii et Caesarei Summa”. An attempt was lately made by Crohns (Die Summa theologica des Antonin von Florenz und die Schätzung des Weibes im Hexenhammer, Helsingfors, 1903) to trace the fundamentals principles of misogony, so manifest in the “Witchammer” of the German Inquisitors, to this work of Antoninus. But Paulus (Die Verachtung der Frau beim hl. Antonin, in Historisch-Politische Blätter, 1904, pp. 812-830) has shown more clearly than several others, especially the Italian writers, that this hypothesis is untenable, because based on a reading of only a part of the “Summa” of Antoninus. Within fifty years after the first appearance of the work (Venice, 1477), fifteen editions were printed at Venice, Spires, Nuremberg, Strasburg, Lyons, and Basle. Other editions appeared in the following century. In 1740 it was published at Verona in 4 folio volumes edited by P. Ballerini; and in 1841, at Florence by Mamachi and Remedelli, O.P.

Statue of St. Antoninus. Photo by Sailko

Of considerable importance are the manuals for confessors and penitents containing abridgments, reproductions, and translations from the “Summa” and frequently published in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries under the name of St. Antoninus. An unsuccessful attempt has been made to show that he was not the author of the Italian editions. At the most is should be granted that he committed to others the task of editing one or two. The various editions and titles of the manuals have caused confusion, and made it appear that there were more than four distinct works. A careful distinction and classification is given by Mandonnet in the “Dictionnaire de théologie catholique”. Of value as throwing light upon the home life of his time are his treatises on Christian life written for women of the Medici family and first published in the last century under the titles:—(1) “Opera a ben vivere…Con altri ammaestramenti”, ed. Father Palermo, one vol. (Florence, 1858) (2) “Regola di vita cristiana”, one vol. (Florence, 1866). His letters (Lettere) were collected and edited, some for the first time by Tommaso Corsetto, O.P., and published in one volume, at Florence, 1859.

The relic of St. Antoniunus in Salviati Chapel of St. Mark’s Church. Photo by Sailko

Under the title, “Chronicon partibus tribus distincta ab initio mundi ad MCCCLX” (published also under the titles “Chronicorum opus” and “Historiarum opus”), he wrote a general history of the world with the purpose of presenting to his readers a view of the workings of divine providence. While he did not give way to his imagination or colour facts, he often fell into the error, so common among the chroniclers of his period, of accepting much that should historical criticism has since rejected as untrue or doubtful. But this can be said only of those parts in which he treated of early history. When writing of the events and politics of his own age he exercised a judgment that has been of the greatest value to later historians. The history was published at Venice, 1474-79, in four volumes of his “Opera Omnia” (Venice, 1480; Nuremberg, 1484; Basle, 1491; Lyons, 1517, 1527, 1585, 1586,1587). A work on preaching (De arte et vero modo praedicandi) ran through four editions at the close of the fifteenth century. The volume of sermons (Opus quadragesimalium et de sanctis sermonum, sive flos florum) is the work of another, although published under the name of St. Antoninus.

Unedited chronicles of the convents of St. Mark, Florence and St. Dominic, Fiesole: Quétif and Echard, SS. Ord. Praed.; Touron, Histoire des hommes illustres de l’ordre de S. Dominique; Maccarani, Vita di S. Antonino (Florence, 1708); Bartoli, Istoria dell’ arcivescovo S. Antonino e de suoi più illustri discepoli (Florence, 1782); Moro, Di S. Antonino in relazione alla riforma cattolica nel sec. XV (Florence, 1899); Schaube, Die Quellen der Weltchronik des heiligen Antoninus (Hirschberg, 1880).

A.L. MCMAHON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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May 2 – St. Athanasius

April 30, 2026

St. Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria; Confessor and Doctor of the Church; born c. 296; died 2 May, 373. Athanasius was the greatest champion of Catholic belief on the subject of the Incarnation that the Church has ever known and in his lifetime earned the characteristic title of “Father of Orthodoxy”, by which he has been […]

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May 3 – Finding of the Holy Cross

April 30, 2026

In the year 326 the mother of Constantine, Helena, then about 80 years old, having journeyed to Jerusalem, undertook to rid the Holy Sepulchre of the mound of earth heaped upon and around it, and to destroy the pagan buildings that profaned its site. Some revelations which she had received gave her confidence that she […]

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May 3 – Sword-bearer to the Emperor

April 30, 2026

St. Ansfried of Utrecht Ansfried (aka Ansfridus or Aufridus) was born ca. 940, and died May 3, 1010 near Leusden.) He was a nobleman in the Holy Roman Empire and sword-bearer for Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor. Till 995 he was Count of Huy, then he became bishop of Utrecht. He is also the founder […]

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May 3 – Élisabeth Leseur

April 30, 2026

Élisabeth Leseur Servant of God Born 16 October 1866 Paris, France Died 3 May 1914 (aged 47) Paris, France Élisabeth Arrighi Leseur (October 16, 1866–May 3, 1914), born Pauline Élisabeth Arrighi, was a French mystic best known for her spiritual diary and the conversion of her husband, Félix Leseur (1861–1950), a medical doctor […]

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April 27 – His artillery instructions saved Goa

April 27, 2026

Giacomo Rho Missionary, born at Milan, 1593; died at Peking 27 April, 1638. He was the son of a noble and learned jurist, and at the age of twenty entered the Society of Jesus. While poor success attended his early studies, he was later very proficient in mathematics. After his ordination at Rome by Cardinal […]

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April 27- Abused by her noble patrons, she remained a model of harmony

April 27, 2026

St. Zita Model and heavenly patroness of domestic servants, born early in the thirteenth century of a poor family at Montsegradi, a little village near Lucca, in Tuscany; died at Lucca, 27 April, 1271. A naturally happy disposition and the teaching of a virtuous mother, aided by Divine grace, developed in the child’s soul that […]

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April 27 – Medieval statesman

April 27, 2026

Nicolò Albertini (Aubertini) Medieval statesman, b. at Prato in Italy, c. 1250; d. at Avignon, 27 April, 1321. His early education was directed by his parents, both of whom belonged to illustrious families of Tuscany. At the age of sixteen (1266) he entered the Dominican Order in the Convent of Santa Maria Novella at Florence, […]

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April 27 – First circumnavigator of the world

April 27, 2026

Ferdinand Magellan (Portuguese Fernão Magalhaes). The first circumnavigator of the real world; born about 1480 at Saborosa in Villa Real, Province of Traz os Montes, Portugal; died during his voyage of discovery on the Island of Mactan in the Philippines, 27 April 1521. He was the son of Pedro Ruy de Magalhaes, mayor of the […]

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April 27 – Noble Model of Confidence

April 27, 2026

St. Peter Armengol was born in Guárdia dels Prats, a small village in the archdiocese of Tarragon, Spain in 1238. He belonged to the house of the barons of Rocafort, descendants of the counts of Urgel, whose ancestors were directly linked to the counts of Barcelona and the monarchs of Aragon and Castile. From Brigand […]

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April 28 – Saint Egbert

April 27, 2026

Saint Egbert Northumbrian monk, born of noble parentage c. 639; d. 729. In his youth he went for the sake of study to Ireland, to a monastery, says the Venerable Bede, “called Rathmelsigi”, identified by some with Mellifont in what is now County Louth. There, when in danger of death from pestilence, he prayed for […]

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April 29: St. Hugh the Great – In 11th century Christendom, no king or bishop dare oppose him

April 27, 2026

Saint Hugh the Great, Abbot of Cluny, born at Semur (Brionnais in the Diocese of Autun), 1024; died at Cluny, 28 April, 1109. His early life The eldest son of Count Dalmatius of Semur and Aremberge (Aremburgis) of Vergy, Hugh was descended from the noblest families in Burgundy. Dalmatius, devoted to war and the chase, […]

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A Knight’s Tenth Commandment: Combat All Evil, Defend All That Is Good

April 27, 2026

We must confess that the Tenth Commandment of chivalry has not been clearly formulated by our poets, and that we owe it to the Church as a matter of fact. “To combat all evil, to defend all good,” would not have come naturally to the minds of those descendants of Germans who had not been […]

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April 29 – The Templars, Knights of Calatrava, of St. Lazarus, of Alcantara, of Avis, of St. Maurice, all trace their existence to this austere monk

April 27, 2026

St. Robert of Molesme Born about the year 1029, at Champagne, France, of noble parents who bore the names of Thierry and Ermengarde; died at Molesme, 17 April, 1111. When fifteen years of age, he commenced his novitiate in the Abbey of Montier-la-Celle, or St. Pierre-la-Celle, situated near Troyes, of which he became later prior. […]

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April 23 – Noble Bohemian

April 23, 2026

St. Adalbert of Bohemia Born 939 of a noble Bohemian family; died 997. He assumed the name of the Archbishop Adalbert (his name had been Wojtech), under whom he studied at Magdeburg. He became Bishop of Prague, whence he was obliged to flee on account of the enmity he had aroused by his efforts to […]

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April 23 – The Original Knight in Shining Armor

April 23, 2026

St. George Martyr, patron of England, suffered at or near Lydda, also known as Diospolis, in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine. According to the very careful investigation of the whole question recently instituted by Father Delehaye, the Bollandist, in the light of modern sources of information, the above statement sums up all that […]

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April 24 – St. Mellitus

April 23, 2026

St. Mellitus Bishop of London and third Archbishop of Canterbury, d. 24 April, 624. He was the leader of the second band of missionaries whom St. Gregory sent from Rome to join St. Augustine at Canterbury in 601. Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccl., II, vii) describes him as of noble birth, and as he is styled […]

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April 24 – Battle of Mühlberg

April 23, 2026

The Battle of Mühlberg took place near Mühlberg in the Electorate of Saxony in 1547, during the Schmalkaldic War. The Catholic princes of the Holy Roman Empire led by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V decisively defeated the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes under the command of Elector John Frederick I of Saxony and […]

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April 24 – “I came to extirpate heresy, not to embrace it”

April 23, 2026

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen Born in 1577, at Sigmaringen, Prussia, of which town his father Johannes Rey was burgomaster; died at Sevis, 24 April, 1622. On the paternal side he was of Flemish ancestry. He pursued his studies at the University of Freiburg in the Breisgau, and in 1604 became tutor to Wilhelm von Stotzingen, […]

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April 24 – Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier

April 23, 2026

Mother Mary Euphrasia Pelletier, foundress of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd and canonized May 2, 1940 by Pope Pius XII. The aim of this institute is to provide a shelter for girls and women of dissolute habits, who wish to do penance for their iniquities and to lead a […]

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April 25 – Builder

April 23, 2026

Blessed Meinwerk Tenth Bishop of Paderborn, d. 1036: Meinwerk (Meginwerk) was born of the noble family of the Immedinger and related to the royal house of Saxony. His father was Imad (Immeth), Count of Teisterbant and Radichen, and his mother’s name was Adela (Adala, Athela). In early youth he was dedicated by his parents to […]

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April 26 – His ears were nailed to the pillory

April 23, 2026

Venerable Edward Morgan Welsh priest, martyr, b. at Bettisfield, Hanmer, Flintshire, executed at Tyburn, London, 26 April, 1642. His father’s Christian name was William. Of his mother we know nothing except that one of her kindred was Lieutenant of the Tower of London. From the fact that the martyr was known at St. Omer as […]

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April 26 – Pope St. Cletus

April 23, 2026

Pope St. Cletus This name is only another form for Anacletus, the second successor of St. Peter. It is true that the Liberian Catalogue, a fourth-century list of popes, so called because it ends with Pope Liberius (d. 366), contains both names, as if they were different persons. But this is an error, owing evidently […]

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April 26 – She inspired the Albanians to resist the Turks

April 23, 2026

Our Lady of Good Counsel January of 1467 saw the death of the last great Albanian leader, George Castriota, better known as Scanderbeg. Raised by an Albanian chief, he placed himself at the head of his own people. Subsequently, Scanderbeg inflicted stunning defeats on the Turkish army and occupied fortresses all over Albania. With Scanderbeg’s […]

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April 20 – “I beg your Lordship…that my lips and…fingers may be cut off…”

April 20, 2026

Blessed Fr. James Bell Priest and martyr, born at Warrington in Lancashire, England, probably about 1520; died 20 April, 1584. For the little known of him we depend on the account published four years after his death by Bridgewater in his “Concertatio” (1588), and derived from a manuscript which was kept at Douay when Challoner […]

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April 20 – Blessed John Finch

April 20, 2026

Bl. John Finch A martyr, born about 1548; died 20 April, 1584. He was a yeoman of Eccleston, Lancashire, and a member of a well-known old Catholic family, but he appears to have been brought up in schism. When he was twenty years old he went to London where he spent nearly a year with […]

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April 21 – Pioneer missionary of Kentucky

April 20, 2026

Stephen Theodore Badin The first Catholic priest ordained within the limits of the original thirteen States of the Union, pioneer missionary of Kentucky, b. at Orléans, France, 17 July, 1768; d. at Cincinnati, Ohio, 21 April, 1853. Educated at Montaigu College, Paris, he entered the Sulpician Seminary of his native city in 1789. He was […]

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April 21 – The emperor placed unlimited confidence in him

April 20, 2026

Garcia de Loaisa Cardinal and Archbishop of Seville, b. in Talavera, Spain, c. 1479; d. at Madrid, 21 April, 1546. His parents were nobles; at a very early age he entered the Dominican convent at Salamanca. Its severe discipline, however, affected his delicate constitution and he was transferred to the convent of St. Paul in […]

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April 21 – Traveller in the Orient

April 20, 2026

Pietro della Valle Italian traveller in the Orient, b. at Rome, 2 April, 1586; d. there, 21 April, 1652. He belonged to a noble family and received an excellent education. As a young man he was a poet, orator, a soldier in the papal service, and a member of the Roman Academy of the Umoristi. […]

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April 21 – Preacher to the King

April 20, 2026

Nicolas Coeffeteau Preacher and controversialist, born 1574, at Château-du-Loir, province of Maine, France; died Paris, 21 April, 1623. He entered the Dominican convent of Sens, 1588, and after his profession, 1590, was sent to St-Jacques, the house of studies at Paris. There in 1595 he began to teach philosophy. On 4 May, 1600, he received […]

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April 21 – The Noble Saint who tamed William the Conqueror, abolished slavery in England, and founded Scholasticism; his prayer to Saint Mary Magdalene

April 20, 2026

Saint Anselm, Confessor, Archbishop Of Canterbury (A. D. 1109) If the Norman conquerors stripped the English nation of its liberty and many temporal advantages, it must be owned that by their valor they raised the reputation of its arms and deprived their own country of its greatest men, both in church and state, with whom […]

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The Pizza That Was Named For A Queen – Recipe

April 20, 2026

Margherita Teresa Giovanna, Princess of Savoy, was born in Turin, on November 20, 1851. On April 21, 1868, when just sixteen years old, she married her first cousin, Umberto, Crown Prince of Italy. Pizza Margherita was named after her. This is how it happened… In June 1898, Margherita accompanied her husband, now Umberto I, King […]

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April 22 – Cabral and the Discovery of Brazil

April 20, 2026

Pedralvarez Cabral (Pedro Alvarez.) A celebrated Portugese navigator, generally called the discoverer of Brazil, born probably around 1460; date of death uncertain. Very little is known concerning the life of Cabral. He was the third son of Fernao Cabral, Governor of Beira and Belmonte, and Isabel de Gouvea, and married Isabel de Castro, the daughter […]

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April 22 – Father of Origen

April 20, 2026

St. Leonidas (Or LEONIDES.) The Roman Martyrology records several feast days of martyrs of this name in different countries. Under date of 28 January there is a martyr called Leonides, a native of the Thebaid, whose death with several companions is supposed to have occurred during the Diocletian persecution (Acta SS., January, II, 832). Another […]

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New Buckingham Palace Exhibition Celebrates the Fashion of Elizabeth II: Sparkling Tiaras to Pastel Hats

April 16, 2026

h/t smithsonianmag.com King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace is showcasing 300 selections drawn from a collection of 4,000 items she owned. The collection also highlights the queen’s talent for melding fashion with diplomacy. Some notable pieces she sported while meeting with leaders abroad include a cherry blossom dress from her 1975 trip to Japan, the green-and-white […]

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Mary Queen of Scots: Catholic Martyr?

April 16, 2026

by Byron Whitcraft h/t tfp.org After almost five centuries, the legendary Queen Mary of Scotland is now again in the spotlight. The last letter she penned just six hours prior to her execution is on display in Perth, Scotland. The exhibit is on display at the Perth Museum until April 26, 2026, and the letter […]

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April 16 – Martyred in the name of Equality

April 16, 2026

Just a few of the many martyrs during the French Revolution († 1792-1799) 16 April 1794 in Avrillé, Maine-et-Loire (France) Pierre Delépine layperson of the diocese of Angers born: 24 May 1732 in Marigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Jean Ménard layperson of the diocese of Angers; married born: 16 November 1736 in Andigné, Maine-et-Loire (France) Renée Bourgeais […]

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April 17 – Martyred at Tyburn

April 16, 2026

Ven. Henry Heath English Franciscan and martyr, son of John Heath; christened at St. John’s, Peterborough, 16 December, 1599; executed at Tyburn, 17 April, 1643. He went to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 1617, proceeded B.A. in 1621, and was made college librarian. In 1622 he was received into the Church by George Muscott, and, after […]

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April 17 – Mother of Fr. Gallitzin

April 16, 2026

Adele Amalie Gallitzin (Or GOLYZIN). Princess; b. at Berlin, 28 Aug., 1748; d. at Angelmodde, near Münster, Westphalia, 17 April, 1806. She was the daughter of the Prussian General Count von Schmettau, and educated in the Catholic faith, though she soon became estranged from her religion. In 1768, she married the Russian Prince Dimitry Alexejewitsch […]

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April 17 – Controversial Pope

April 16, 2026

Pope Benedict III Date of birth unknown; d. 17 April, 858. The election of the learned and ascetic Roman, Benedict, the son of Peter, was a troubled one. On the death of Leo IV (17 July, 855) Benedict was chosen to succeed him, and envoys were despatched to secure the ratification of the decree of […]

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April 17 – He saved countless souls from apostasy

April 16, 2026

Thomas of Jesus (THOMAS DE ANDRADA). Reformer and preacher, born at Lisbon, 1529; died at Sagena, Morocco, 17 April, 1582. He was educated by the Augustinian Hermits from age of ten, entered the order at Lisbon in 1534, completed his studies at Coimbra, and was appointed novice-master. In his zeal for primitive observance he attempted […]

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