March 2 – Duc de Saint-Simon

March 2, 2026

Louis de Rouvroy, Duc de Saint-Simon

Born 16 January, 1675; died in Paris, 2 March, 1755. Having quitted the military service in 1702, he lived thereafter at the Court, becoming the friend of the Ducs de Chevreuse and de Beauvilliers, who, with Fenelon, were interested in the education of the Duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV. At the death of Louis XIV, he was named a member of the council of regency of the young king, Louis XV, and in 1721 was sent as ambassador to Madrid. When the Duke of Bourbon became minister, December, 1723, Saint-Simon went into retirement. It was principally between 1740 and 1746 that he wrote his celebrated “Memoirs”. As a history of the reign of Louis XIV they are an extremely precious document. The edition with commentary by Boislisle, and of which twenty-two volumes have already appeared (1911), is an incomparable monument of learning. Saint-Simon aired his hatreds, which were bitter and numerous; he was an adversary of equality, which he described as “leprosy”; he dreamt of a kind of chamber of dukes and peers which would control and paralyze royal despotism, and allow the States-General to assemble every five years to present the humble remonstrances of the people.

Château de la Ferté-Vidame where Louis de Rouvroy, Duke of Saint-Simon lived. Painting is at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Whatever the historical value of the “Memoirs” may be, they are, by their sparkling wit, one of the most original monuments of French literature; and the “Parallele des trots premiers rois Bourbons”, written by Saint-Simon in 1746, the year in which he finished the record of the reign of Louis XIV, is an admirable piece of history. On all religious questions he should be read with great precaution. Very hostile to the Jesuits, and favorable to the Jansenists, he contributed greatly to the creation of legends concerning personages such as Mme de Maintenon and Michel Le Tellier. These legends had a long existence. The reproach, historically false, of having instigated the violent measures of persecutions against the Jansenists, which he hurled against Le Tellier, was all the more strange coming from his pen, since Saint-Simon himself, on the day following the death of Louis XIV, was one of the most rabid in demanding of the regent severe measures against Le Tellier and other Jesuits. Father Bliard has shown how much care is necessary in judging Saint-Simon’s assertions regarding the religious questions of his day. The historian Emile Bourgeois, who can not be charged with prejudice in favor of religion, wrote in his turn, in 1905: “History has given up the habit, too hastily acquired, of pinning her faith to the word of Saint-Simon.” And Bourgeois proved how inaccurate were the statements of Saint-Simon by showing what use the latter made in his “Memoirs” of documents of the diplomatist Torcy.

SAINT-SIMON, Memoires, ed. BOISLISLE (22 vols., Paris 1876-1911); SAINT-SIMON, Ecrits inedits, ed. FAUGERE (6 vols. Paris, 1880-3); SAINT-SIMON, Lettres et depeches sur l’ambassade d’Espagne, 1721 1722, ed. DRUMONT (Paris, 1880); BASCHET, Le duc de Saint-Simon, son cabinet et ses manuscrits (Paris, 1874); CHERUEL, Saint-Simon considere comme historien de Louis XIV (Paris, 1865); BOISSIER, Saint-Simon (Paris, 1892); BLIARD, Les memoires de Saint-Simon et le Pere Le Tellier (Paris, 1891); BOURGEOIS, La collaboration de Saint-Simon et de Torcy, etude critique sur les Memoires de Saint-Simon in Revue historique, LXXXVII (1905; PILASTRE, Lexique de la langue de Saint-Simon (Paris, 1905).

GEORGES GOYAU

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March 2 – Ercole Gonzaga

March 2, 2026

(Hercules.)

Cardinal; b. at Mantua, 23 November, 1505; d. 2 March, 1563. He was the Son of the Marquess Francesco, and nephew of Cardinal Sigismondo Gonzaga (1469-1525). He studied philosophy at Bologna under Pomponazzi, and later took up theology. In 1520, or as some say, 1525, his uncle Sigismondo renounced in his favour the See of Mantua; in 1527 his mother Isabella brought him back from Rome the insignia of the cardinalate. Notwithstanding his youth, he showed great zeal for church reform, especially in his own diocese; and in this he received help and encouragement from his friend Cardinal Giberti, Bishop of Verona. His mode of life was stainless and a manuscript work of his, “Vitae Christianae institutio”, bears witness to his piety. He published a Latin catechism for the use of the priests of his diocese and built the diocesan seminary, thus carrying out reforms urged by the Council of Trent, as his friends Contarini, Gilberti, Caraffa, and other bishops had done or were doing, even before the council had assembled. His charity was unbounded, and many young men of talent and genius had their university expenses paid by him.

Cardinal Ercole Gonzaga presides over the session of the Council of Trent in Santa Maria Maggiore. Photo by Sailko. Painting by Elia Naurizio.

The popes employed him on many embassies, e.g. to Charles V in 1530. Because of his prudence and his business-like methods, he was a favourite with the popes, with Charles V, and Ferdinand I, and with the Kings of France, Francis I and Henry II. From 1540 to 1556 he was guardian to the young sons of his brother Federico II who had died, and in their name he governed the Duchy of Mantua. The elder of the boys, Francesco died in 1550 and was succeeded by his brother Guglielmo. In the conclave of 1559 it was thought he would certainly be made pope; but the cardinals would not choose as pope a scion of a ruling house. In 1561 Pius VI named him legate to the Council of Trent, for which he had from the beginning laboured by every means at his command, moral and material. In its early stages, owing to the fact that not a few considered he was in favour of Communion under both kinds, he met with many difficulties, and interested motives were attributed to him. Nothing but the express wish of the pope could have persuaded him to remain at his post, and the energy he displayed was unwearied. He contracted fever at Trent, where he died, attended by Father Lainez. His benefactions to the Jesuit college at Mantua and to the Monte di Pieta were very great, and his letters are invaluable to the historian of that period.

U. BENIGNI (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 3 – The work of Mother Drexel

March 2, 2026

Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament

St. Katharine Drexel

One of the…congregations of religious women in the Catholic Church and one of entirely American origin, founded by Miss Katharine Drexel at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1889, for missionary work among the Indians and coloured people of the United States. The formal approbation of the Holy See was given to the congregation in July, 1907.

Francis Anthony Drexel, the father of St. Katharine Drexel

The Third Plenary Council of Baltimore gave a new impetus to missionary work among the coloured and Indian races and as one of the results of its recommendations, Right Reverend James O’Connor, Bishop of Omaha, acting in conjunction with Miss Katherine Drexel, daughter of the late Francis A. Drexel of Philadelphia, decided with the approval of the Most Reverend P. J. Ryan, Archbishop of Philadelphia, to form a new congregation of two races. For some years previous to this step, Miss Drexel had been very active in re-establishing and supporting schools in many of the Indian reservations. The survey of the field of work revealed about 250,000 Indians neglected, if not practically abandoned, and over nine million of negroes still struggling through the aftermath of slavery.

St. Francis de Sales High School. It was the girls high school. Operated from 1899 to 1970. It was built and operated by St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for its whole time of operation. The both schools together educated 15,000 Indian and Black students.

The piteous condition of these two races decided Miss Drexel to devote both her fortune and her life to them. With the approval of high church authorities in the United States, she gathered around her young women imbued with the same ideas, and thus founded, towards the close of 1899, the nucleus of the new community. In order to be well grounded in the principles of the religious life, the first members made a two years’ novitiate with the Sisters of Mercy. After this, they continued their period of preparation in the old Drexel homestead, Torresdale, near Philadelphia. Early in 1892 a mother-house and novitiate were opened at Maud, Pennsylvania, adjoining which was erected a manual training and boarding school for coloured boys and girls.
The distinctive spirit of this institute is the consecration of its members, body and soul, to the service to Jesus Christ ever present in the Holy Eucharist. His Eucharistic life is to be the inspiration of the entire varied activity of the sisters. Besides the vows usual in all religious communities, the sisters pledge themselves to work exclusively for the spiritual and temporal welfare of the Indian and coloured races. By their rule, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament may

  • they may care for orphans or spiritually or corporally destitute children;
  • they may attend the sick by visiting them in their homes or by conducting hospitals;’
  • they may shelter destitute and deserving women;
  • they may visit and instruct inmates of prisons and reformatories;
  • they may establish and conduct homes for the aged;
  • they may establish schools and classes outside their own houses, visit the poor in order to look after their religious welfare and also to teach them habits of good living, neatness, and thrift-in short, to make them self-sustaining men and women.

St. Joseph Indian Normal School. Established by the Catholic Indian Missions with funding from St. Katharine Drexel, the school taught 60 Indian boys. When the Indian School was closed, the building was named Drexel Hall. It is one of the first structures of St. Joseph’s College. Photo by Chris Light.

The sisterhood now numbers one hundred and twelve members. In 1894, St. Catharine’s boarding and industrial school for Pueblo Indians was opened at Santa Fe, New Mexico; in 1899, the Institute of St. Francis de Sales, Rock Castle, Va., a boarding academy and industrial school, was opened for the training of Southern coloured girls; in 1902, St. Michael’s Mission, Arizona, for the education of Navajo Indians, a boarding and industrial school, was completed and opened. The Academy of the Immaculate Mother, Nashville, Tenn., was opened in 1905. In this school girls are also trained to become teachers, while others not desiring to teach may take a full course of domestic science and dressmaking. In 1906, the sisters commenced work at Carlisle, Pa., by instructing the Indian pupils of the Government School, and conducting a day school for coloured children.

SISTER MERCEDES (cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia)

More pictures and history on St. Katharine Drexel’s work: Noblesse Oblige – Part 2

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March 3 – James Spencer Northcote

March 2, 2026

James Spencer Northcote

Born at Feniton Court, Devonshire, 26 May, 1821; d. at Stoke-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, 3 March, 1907. He was the second son of George Barons Northcote, a gentleman of an ancient Devonshire family of Norman descent. Educated first at Ilmington Grammar School, he won in 1837 a scholarship at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he came under Newman’s influence. In 1841 he became B.A., and in the following year married his cousin, Susannah Spencer Ruscombe Poole. Taking Anglican Orders in 1844 he accepted a curacy at Ilfracombe; but when his wife was received into the Catholic Church in 1845, he resigned his office. In 1846 he himself was converted, being received at Prior Park College, where he continued as a master for some time. From June, 1852, until September, 1854, he acted as editor of the “Rambler”, and about the same time helped to edit the well-known “Clifton Tracts”. After his wife’s death in 1853 he devoted himself to preparation for the priesthood, first under Newman at Edgbaston, then at the Collegio Pio, Rome. On 29 July, 1855, he was ordained priest at Stone, where his daughter had entered the novitiate. He returned to Rome to complete his ecclesiastical studies, also acquiring the profound erudition in Christian antiquities which was later to be enshrined in his great work “Roma Sotterranea”. In 1857 he was appointed to the mission of Stoke-upon-Trent, which he served until 1860, when he was called to Oscott College as vice- president, and six months later became president. Under his rule, which lasted for seventeen years, the college entered on an unprecedented degree of prosperity, and his influence on education was felt far outside the walls of Oscott. Failing health caused him to resign in 1876, and he returned to the mission, first at Stone (1868), and then at Stoke-upon-Trent (1881), where he spent the rest of his life revered by all for his learning, his noble character, and his sanctity. During the last twenty years of his life he suffered form creeping paralysis, which slowly deprived him of all bodily motion, though leaving his mind intact. He had been made a canon of the Diocese of Birmingham in 1861, canon-theologian in 1862, and provost in 1885. In 1861 the pope conferred on him the doctorate in divinity. Dr. Northcote’s wide scholarship is witnessed to by many works, chief among which is “Roma Sotterranea”, the great work on the Catacombs, written in conjunction with William R. Brownlow, afterwards Bishop of Clifton. This work has been translated into French and German; and it won for its authors recognition as being among the greatest living authorities on the subject. Other works were: “The Fourfold Difficulty of Anglicanism” (Derby, 1846); “A Pilgrimage to La Salette” (London, 1852); “Roman Catacombs” (London, 1857); “Mary in the Gospels” (London, 1867); “Celebrated Sanctuaries of the Madonna” (London, 1868); “A Visit to the Roman Catacombs” (London, 1877); “Epitaphs of the Catacombs” (London, 1878).

BARRY, The Lord, my Light (funeral sermon, privately printed, 1907; Memoir of the Very Rev. Canon Northcote in The Oscotian (July, 1907); Report of the case of Fitzgerald v. Northcote (London, 1866).

EDWIN BURTON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 3 – St. Winwallus

March 2, 2026

St. Winwallus

Statue of St. Winwallus in the Cathedral Saint-Corentin de Quimper. Photo by Moreau.henri

Abbot of Landevennec; d. 3 March, probably at the beginning of the sixth century, though the exact year is not known. There are some fifty forms of his name, ranging from Wynwallow through such variants as Wingaloeus, Waloway, Wynolatus, Vinguavally, Vennole, Valois, Ouignoualey, Gweno, Gunnolo, to Bennoc. The original form is undistinguishable. In England the commonest are Winwalloc or Winwalloe; in France, Guenole or Guingalois.

Landévennec Abbey. Photo © Rolf Krahl

His father, Fracan, was a British chieftain who fled before Saxon invaders to Brittany, where the saint was born. After considerable difficulty in overcoming his father’s objections, Winwallus entered the religious life under the guidance of St. Budoc on the Island of Laurels near Isleverte. After residing here for some time he determined to go to Ireland to place himself under the great St. Patrick, but was deterred by a dream in which that saint appeared to him forbidding the journey, but telling him he must soon leave St. Budoc. Accordingly he set out with eleven companions, and, after a time spent in extraordinary austerities on the Island of Tibidi at the mouth of the River Aven, finally settled at Landevennec, where he founded a monastery on a rocky headland not far from Brest. After his death many miracles were ascribed to him. His body was carried to Flanders at the time of the Norman forays. Relics were preserved at Montreuil-sur-Mer (where a church was dedicated to him under the name of St. Walow), at St. Peter’s in Ghent, and elsewhere. His tomb was to be seen in the church of Landevennec up to the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Abbey of Landevennec became Benedictine in the ninth century, and was in the hands of the Congregation of St. Maur at the final suppression. St. Winwallus’s feast is kept on 3 March, and that of his translation on 28 April. His name has been preserved in the dedications of churches in the Anglican parishes of Wonastow in Monmouthshire (where he is known as St. Wonnow), and of Gunwalloc, St. Cleer, and Landewednack in Cornwall. It was been suggested that the last-named parish got its name from some monastic dependency of Landevennec.

Acta SS., I March, 245; GAMMACK in Dict. Christ. Biog., s.v.; GUERIN, Petits Bollandistes, III, 133; ARNOLD-FORESTER, Studies in Church Dedications, II (London, 1899), 284.

Raymund Webster (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 4 – This Prince had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin

March 2, 2026

St. Casimir

St CasimirPrince of Poland, born in the royal palace at Cracow, 3 October, 1458; died at the court of Grodno, 4 March, 1484. He was the grandson of Wladislaus II Jagiello, King of Poland, who introduced Christianity into Lithuania, and the second son of King Casimir IV and Queen Elizabeth, an Austrian princess, the daughter of Albert II, Emperor of Germany and King of Bohemia and Hungary. Casimir’s uncle, Wladislaus III, King of Poland and Hungary, perished at Varna in 1444, defending Christianity against the Turks. Casimir’s elder brother, Wladislaus, became King of Bohemia in 1471, and King of Hungary in 1490. Of his four younger brothers, John I, Albert, Alexander, and Sigismund in turn occupied the Polish throne, while Frederick, the youngest, became Archbishop of Gnesen, Bishop of Cracow, and finally cardinal, in 1493.

Subscription7The early training of the young princes was entrusted to Father Dlugosz, the Polish historian, a canon at Cracow, and later Archbishop of Lwów (Lemberg), and to Filippo Buonaccorsi, called Callimachus. Father Dlugosz was a deeply religious man, a loyal patriot, and like Callimachus, well versed in statecraft. Casimir was placed in the care of this scholar at the age nine, and even then he was remarkable for his ardent piety. When Casimir was thirteen he was offered the throne of Hungary by a Hungarian faction who were discontented under King Matthias Corvinus. Eager to defend the Cross against the Turks, he accepted the call and went to Hungary to receive the crown. He was unsuccessful, however, and returned a fugitive to Poland. The young prince again became a pupil of Father Dlugosz, under whom he remained until 1475. He was later associated with his father who initiated him so well into public affairs that after his elder brother, Wladislaus, ascended to the Bohemian throne, Casimir became heir-apparent to the throne of Poland.

When in 1479 the king went to Lithuania to spend five years arranging affairs there, Casimir was placed in charge of Poland, and from 1481 to 1483 administered the State with great prudence and justice. About this time his father tried to arrange for him a marriage with the daughter of Frederick III, Emperor of Germany, but Casimir preferred to remain single. Shortly afterwards he fell victim to a severe attack of lung trouble, which, weak as he was from fastings and mortifications, he could not withstand. While on a journey to Lithuania, he died at the court of Grodno, 4 March 1484. His remains were interred in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin in the cathedral of Vilna.

The three-handed painting of Saint Casimir is considered miraculous. The original is in Saint Casimir's Chapel in Vilnius Cathedral.

The three-handed painting of Saint Casimir is considered miraculous. The original is in Saint Casimir’s Chapel in Vilnius Cathedral.

St. Casimir was possessed of great charms of person and character, and was noted particularly for his justice and chastity. Often at night he would kneel for hours before the locked doors of churches, regardless of the hour or the inclemency of the weather. He had a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and the hymn of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, “Omni die dic Marix mea laudes anima”, was long attributed to him.

After his death he was venerated as a saint, because of the miracles wrought by him. Sigismund I, King of Poland, petitioned the pope for Casimir’s canonization, and Pope Leo X appointed the papal legate Zaccaria Ferreri, Bishop of Guardalfiera, the Archbishop of Gnesen, and the Bishop of Przemysl to investigate the life and miracles of Casimir. This inquiry was completed at Turn in 1520, and in 1522 Casimir was canonized by Adrian VI. Pope Clement VIII named 4 March as his feast.

St. Casimir's Chapel in Vilnius Cathedral (main altar) Saint Casimir's Chapel and silver sarcophagus at Vilnius Cathedral

St. Casimir’s Chapel in Vilnius Cathedral (main altar) Saint Casimir’s Chapel and silver sarcophagus at Vilnius Cathedral

St. Casimir is the patron of Poland and Lithuania, though he is honoured as far as Belgium and Naples. In Poland and Lithuania churches and chapels are dedicated to him, as at Rozana and on the River Dzwina near Potocka, where he is said to have contributed miraculously to a victory of the Polish army over the Russians. In the beginning of the seventeenth century King Sigismund III began at Vilna the erection of a chapel in honour of St. Casimir, which was finished under King Wladislaus IV. The building was designed by Peter Danckerts, of the Netherlands, who also adorned the walls with paintings illustrating the life of the saint. In this chapel is found an old painting renovated in 1594, representing the saint with a lily in his hand. Two other pictures of the saint are preserved, one in his life by Ferreri, and the other in the church at Krosno in Galicia.

POTTHAST, Biblotheca historica medii ævi, Wegweiser (2nd ed.), 1236; CHEVALIER, Bio-bibl., s. v.; ESTREICHER, Bibliografia poloka (Cracow, 1903), XIX, 210-12; PRILESZKY, Acta sanctorum Hungariæ (Tyrnau, 1743), I, 121-32; FERRERI, Vita beati Casimiri confessoris ex serenissimis Poloniæ regibus (Cracow, 1521) in Acta SS., March, I, 347-51; ST. GREGORY, Miracula S. Casimiri in Acta SS., March, I, 351-57; IDEM, S. Casimiri theatrum seu ipsius prosapia, vita, miracula (Vilna, 1604); CIATI, La santità prodigiosa di S. Casimiro (Luccoa, 16..); Officium S. Casimiri confessoris M. D. Lithuaniæ patrini (Vilna, 1638); COLLE, Compendio della vita di S. Casimiro (Palermo, 1650); TYSZKIEWICZ, Królewska droga do nisba albo zycie sw. Kazimierza (Warsaw, 1752); Sw. Kazimier, in Przyjaeiel ludu (Lissa, 1846), XIII; PEKALSKI, Zywoty sw. Patronów polskich (Cracow, 1866); PRZEZDZIECKI, Oraison de saint Casimir à la très sainte Vierge (Cracow, 1866); LESZEK, Zywot sw. Kazimierza Jagiellonczyka (Cracow, 1818); PALLAN, Sw. Kazimierz (Tarnów, 1893); PAPÉE, Swiety Kazimierz królewicz polski (Lemberg, 1902); PAPÉE, Studya i szkice z czasów Kazimierza Jagiellonczyka (Warsaw, 1907), 141-54.

L. ABRAHAM (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 4 – “Your Honor, was St. Augustine also a traitor?”

March 2, 2026

Blessed Christopher Bales

(Or Bayles, alias Evers)

The Rack. Richard Topcliffe, a Member of Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, was a fanatical persecutor of Catholics and the Church. He became notorious as a priest-hunter and torturer and was often referred to as the Queen’s principal “interrogator”. He claimed that his own instruments and methods were better than the official ones and was authorized to create a torture chamber in his home in London.

The Rack. Richard Topcliffe, a Member of Parliament during the reign of Elizabeth I of England, was a fanatical persecutor of Catholics and the Church. He became notorious as a priest-hunter and torturer and was often referred to as the Queen’s principal “interrogator”. He claimed that his own instruments and methods were better than the official ones and was authorized to create a torture chamber in his home in London.

Priest and martyr, b. at Coniscliffe near Darlington, County Durham, England, about 1564; executed 4 March, 1590. He entered the English College at Rome, 1 October, 1583, but owing to ill-health was sent to the College at Reims, where he was ordained 28 March, 1587.

Sent to England 2 November, 1588, he was soon arrested, racked, and tortured by Topcliffe, and hung up by the hands for twenty-four hours at a time; he bore all most patiently. At length he was tried and condemned for high treason, on the charge of having been ordained beyond seas and coming to England to exercise his office. He asked Judge Anderson whether St. Augustine, Apostle of the English, was also a traitor. The judge said no, but that the act had since been made treason by law.

He suffered 4 March, 1590, “about Easter”, in Fleet Street opposite Fetter Lane. On the gibbet was set a placard: “For treason and favouring foreign invasion”. He spoke to the people from the ladder, showing them that his only “treason” was his priesthood. On the same day Venerable Nicholas Horner suffered in Smithfield for having made Bales a jerkin, and Venerable Alexander Blake in Gray’s Inn Lane for lodging him in his house.

[ed. note: He was beatified 15 December, 1929, by Pope Pius XI]

Bridgewater, Concertatio Ecclesiae Catholicae in Anglia (Trier, 1589); Challoner, Memoires; Pollen, Acts of English Martyrs (London, 1891); Northern Catholic Calendar; Knox, Douay Diaries (London, 1878); Morris, Catholics of York under Elizabeth (London, 1891); Foley, Records S. J.; Roman Diary (London, 1880).

BEDE CAMM

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Blessed Nicholas Horner

Layman and martyr, born at Grantley, Yorkshire, England, date of birth unknown; died at Smithfield, 4 March, 1590. He appears to have been following the calling of a tailor in London, when he was arrested on the charge of harbouring Catholic priests. He was confined for a long time in a damp and noisome cell, where he contracted bloodpoisoning in one leg, which it became necessary to amputate. It is said that during this operation Horner was favoured with a vision, which acted as an anodyne to his sufferings. He was afterwards liberated, but when he was again found to be harbouring priests he was convicted of felony, and as he refused to conform to the public worship of the Church by law established, was condemned. On the eve of his execution, he had a vision of a crown of glory hanging over his head, which filled him with courage to face the ordeal of the next day. The story of this vision was told by him to a friend, who in turn transmitted it by letter to Father Robert Southwell S.J., 18 March, 1590.

Horner was hanged, drawn and quartered because he had relieved and assisted Christopher Bales, seminary priest and martyr, b. at Cunsley, Durham, 1564, d. on the Scaffold at Fetter Lane, London 4 March, 1590. Father Bales was cruelly tortured in prison, although he was a consumptive; and was condemned merely for being a priest.

GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng.. Cath., s. v.; CHALLONER, Memoirs, (Edinburgh, 1878), I, 166, 169, 218; RIBADENEIRA, Appendix Schismatis Anglicani (1610), 25; MORRIS, Troubles, 3rd series.

C.F. WEMYSS BROWN

cfr. Catholic Encyclopedia

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February 26 – St. Alexander (of Alexandria)

February 26, 2026

St. Alexander (of Alexandria)

Patriarch of Alexandria, date of birth uncertain; died 17 April, 326. He is, apart from his own greatness, prominent by the fact that his appointment to the patriarchial see excluded the heresiarch Arius from that post. Arius had begun to teach his heresies in 300 when Peter, by whom he was excommunicated, was Patriarch. He was reinstated by Achillas, the successor of Peter and then began to scheme to be made a bishop. When Achillas died Alexander was elected, and after that Arius threw off all disguise. Alexander was particularly obnoxious to him, although so tolerant at first of the errors of Arius that the clergy nearly revolted. Finally the heresy was condemned in a council held in Alexandria, and later on, as is well known, in the general Council of Nicaea, whose Acts Alexander is credited with having drawn up. An additional merit of this great man is that during his priesthood he passed through the bloody persecutions of Galerius, Maximinus, and others. It was while his predecessor Peter was in prison, waiting for martyrdom, that he and Achillas succeeded in reaching the pontiff, and interceded for the reinstatement of Arius, which Peter absolutely refused declaring that Arius was doomed to perdition. The refusal evidently had little effect, for when Achillas succeeded Peter, Arius was made a priest; and when in turn Alexander came to the see, the heretic was still tolerated. It is worth recording that the great Athanasius succeeded Alexander, the dying pontiff compelling the future doctor of the Church to accept the post. Alexander is described as “a man held in the highest honour by the people and clergy, magnificent, liberal, eloquent, just, a lover of God and man, devoted to the poor, good and sweet to all, so mortified that he never broke his fast while the sun was in the heavens.”

T.J. CAMPBELL (crf. Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 26 – St. Isabel of France

February 26, 2026

St. Isabel of France

St. Isabel of FranceDaughter of Louis VIII and of his wife, Blanche of Castille, born in March, 1225; died at Longchamp, 23 February, 1270. St. Louis IX, King of France (1226-70), was her brother. When still a child at court, Isabel, or Elizabeth, showed an extraordinary devotion to exercises of piety, modesty, and other virtues. By Bull of 26 May, 1254, Innocent IV allowed her to retain some Franciscan fathers as her special confessors. She was even more devoted to the Franciscan Order than her royal brother. She not only broke off her engagement with a count, but moreover refused the hand of Conrad, son of the German Emperor Frederick II, although pressed to accept him by everyone, even by Pope Innocent IV, who however did not hesitate subsequently (1254) to praise her fixed determination to remain a virgin. Subscription11 As Isabel wished to found a convent of the Order of St. Clare, Louis IX began in 1255 to acquire the necessary land in the Forest of Rouvray, not far from the Seine and in the neighbourhood of Paris. On 10 June, 1256, the first stone of the convent church was laid. The building appears to have been completed about the beginning of 1259, because Alexander IV gave his sanction on 2 February, 1259, to the new rule which Isabel had had compiled by the Franciscan Mansuetus on the basis of the Rule of the Order of St. Clare. These rules were drawn up solely for this convent, which was named the Monastery of the Humility of the Blessed Virgin (Monasterium Humilitatis B. Mariæ Virginis). The sisters were called in the rule the “Sorores Ordinis humilium ancillarum Beatissimf Marif Virginis”. The fast was not so strict as in the Rule of St. Clare; the community was allowed to hold property, and the sisters were subject to the Minorites. The first sisters came from the convent of the Poor Clares at Reims. Isabel herself never entered the cloister, but from 1260 (or 1263) she followed the rules in her own home near by. Isabel was not altogether satisfied with the first rule drawn up, and therefore submitted through the agency of her brother Louis IX, who had also secured the confirmation of the first rule, a revised rule to Urban IV. Urban approved this new constitution on 27 July, 1263.

Painting of St. Isabel of France by Roger de Gaignières

Painting of St. Isabel of France by Roger de Gaignières

The difference between the two rules consisted for the most part in outward observances and minor alterations. This new rule was also adopted by other French and Italian convents of the Order of St. Clare, but one can by no means say that a distinct congregation was formed on the basis Isabella’s rule. In the new rule Urban IV gives the nuns of Longchamp the official title of “Sorores Minores inclusæ, which was doubtlessly intended to emphasize closer union with the Order of Friars Minor. After a life of mortification and virtue, Isabella died in her house at Longchamp on 23 February, 1270, and was buried in the convent church. After nine days her body was exhumed, when it showed no signs of decay, and many miracles were wrought at her grave. In 1521 Leo X allowed the Abbey of Longchamp to celebrate her feast with a special Office. On 4 June, 1637, a second exhumation took place. On 25 January, 1688, the nuns obtained permission to celebrate her feast with an octave, and in 1696 the celebration of the feast on 31 August was permitted to the whole Franciscan Order. They now keep it on 1 September. The history of the Abbey of Longchamp had many vicissitudes. The Revolution closed it, and in 1794 the empty and dilapidated building was offered for sale, but as no one wished to purchase it, it was destroyed. In 1857 the walls were pulled down except one tower, and the grounds were added to the Bois de Boulogne.

AGNES D’HARCOURT, third Prioress of Longchamp (1263-70), wrote the saint’s life, Vie de Madame Isabelle, which may be found in the Archives Nationales L. 1021 MSS. (Paris). A Latin translation of this book is given in Acta SS., VII, Aug., 798-808; cf. ibid., 787-98. See also ROULLIARD, La sainte mère, ou vie de Madame Saincte Isabel (Paris, 1619); ANDRÉ, Histoire de Ste Isabelle (Carpentras, 1885); DANIÉLO, Vie de Madame Ste Isabelle (Paris, 1840); BERGUIN, La Bienheureuse Isabelle de France (Grenoble, 1899); DUCHESNE, Histoire de l’abbaye royale de Longchamp, 1255-1789 (2nd ed., Paris, 1904); SBARA-LEA, Bull. Franc., III (Rome, 1765), 64-9; II (1761). 477-86.

MICHAEL BIHL (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 27 – “Which of you Gospellers can show such a knee?”

February 26, 2026

Ven. Mark Barkworth

(Alias LAMBERT.)

This is an illustration, said to be from about 1680, of the permanent gallows at Tyburn, which once stood where Marble Arch now stands. There was a three-mile cart ride in public from Newgate prison to the gallows, with large spectator stands lined along the way, so many people could see the hangings (for a fee). Huge crowds collected on the way and followed the accused to Tyburn.

Priest and martyr, born about 1572 in Lincolnshire; executed at Tyburn 27 February, 1601. He was educated at Oxford, and converted to the Faith at Douai in 1594, by Father George, a Flemish Jesuit. In 1596 Barkworth went to Rome and thence to Valladolid. On his way to Spain he is said to have had a vision of St. Benedict, who told him he would die a martyr, in the Benedictine habit. Admitted to the English College, 16 December, 1596, he was ordained priest in 1599, and set out for the English Mission together with Ven. Thomas Garnet. On his way he stayed at the Benedictine Abbey of Hyrache in Navarre, where his ardent wish to join the order was granted by his being made an Oblate with the privilege of making profession at the hour of death. After having escaped great peril at the hands of the heretics of La Rochelle, he was arrested on reaching England and thrown into Newgate, where he lay six months, and was then transferred to Bridewell. Here he wrote an appeal to Cecil, signed “George Barkworth”. At his examinations he behaved with extraordinary fearlessness and frank gaiety. Having been condemned he was thrown into “Limbo”, the horrible underground dungeon at Newgate, where he remained “very cheerful” till his death.

newgate cell

Barkworth suffered at Tyburn with Ven. Roger Filcock, S.J., and Ven. Anne Lyne. It was the first Tuesday in Lent, a bitterly cold day. He sang, on the way to Tyburn, the Paschal Anthem: “Hæc dies quam, fecit Dominus exultemus et lætemur in ea”. On his arrival he kissed the robe of Mrs. Lyne, who was already dead, saying: “Ah, sister, thou hast got the start of us, but we will follow thee as quickly as we may”; and told the people: “I am come here to die, being a Catholic, a priest, and a religious man, belonging to the Order of St. Benedict; it was by this same order that England was converted”. He was tall and burly of figure, gay and cheerful in disposition. He suffered in the Benedictine habit, under which he wore a hair-shirt. It was noticed that his knees were, like St. James’, hardened by constant kneeling, and an apprentice in the crowd picking up his legs, after the quartering, called out to others: “Which of you Gospellers can show such a knee?” Barkworth’s devotion to the Benedictine Order led to his suffering much from the hands of the superiors of the Vallalodid College. These sufferings are probably much exaggerated, however, by the anti-Jesuit writers Watson, Barneby, and Bell.

CAMM, A Benedictine Martyr in England (London, 1897); CHALLONER, Memoirs (1750); W.C., A Reply to Father Persons’ Libel (1603); WATSON, Decacordon of ten Quodlibet Questions (1602); KNOX, Douay Diaries (London, 1878).

Bede Camm (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 27 – Patron of Youth

February 26, 2026

St. Gabriel Possenti

Passionist student; renowned for sanctity and miracles; born at Assisi, 1 March, 1838; died 27 February, 1862, at Isola di Gran Sasso, Province of Abruzzo, Italy; son of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti; received baptism on the day of his birth and was called Francesco, the name by which he was known before entering religion, educated at the Christian Brothers’ School, and at the Jesuit college at Spoleto. Immediately after the completion of his secular education, he embraced the religious state; on 21 September, 1856 he was clothed with the Passionist habit, and received the name of Gabriele dell’ Addolorata. He made his religious profession on 22 September, 1857, and then began his ecclesiastical studies as a Passionist student. He was gifted with talent of a higher order and with a wonderful memory; and in his exact observance of rule, his spirit of prayer, and his fervent devotion to the Passion of our Lord, to the Holy Eucharist, and to the Dolours of the Blessed Virgin. In the sixth year of his religious life he died of consumption; his death was that of the just, holy and edifying, and he was buried in the church attached to the retreat at Isola di Gran Sasso where his remains are still entombed, and where numerous prodigies have been wrought, and numerous conversions effected, through his intercession.

Little was known of Gabriel’s extraordinary spiritual gifts during his life. He was not singular, he conformed himself to the community life; he was only a fervent and exemplary Passionist novice and student hidden from the world in the cloister. After death, this young religious in a few years was declared venerable by the Church, thereby testifying that he had practised all the virtues in a heroic degree; and he was beatified and raised to the honours of the altar, by special privilege of the supreme pontiff before he was fifty years dead.

The shrine of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows in Isola del Gran Sasso d’Italia. Photo by freegiampi.

His solemn beatification took place on 31 May, 1908, in the Vatican basilica, in the presence of the cardinals then in Rome, of the Passionist fathers resident in Rome and of representatives from all the provinces of the congregation. Among those present were many who had known the beatified during his life, including one of his brothers, Father Norbert, C.P., his old spiritual director and confessor and Signor Dominico Tiberi, who had been miraculously cured through his intercession.

The relics of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows to the side of the High Altar in Isola del Gran Sasso d’Italia. Photo by Gaetano56.

The Mass and Office in honour of Blessed Gabriel are allowed to the whole Passionist congregation, and his feast day is celebrated on 31 May. It is the express wish of Leo XIII and Pius X that he should be regarded as the chief patron of the youth of today, and especially as the patron of young religious, both novices and professed, in all that concerns their interior lives.
Arthur Devine (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 28 – The Gentleman instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life

February 26, 2026

William Darrell

Theologian, b. 1651, in Buckinghamshire, England; d. 28 Feb., 1721, at St. Omer’s, France. He was a member of the ancient Catholic family of Darrell of Scotney Castle, Sussex, being the only son of Thomas Darrell and his wife, Thomassine Marcham. He joined the Society of Jesus on 7 Sept., 1671, was professed 25 March, 1689. He wrote: “A Vindication of St. Ignatius from Phanaticism and of the Jesuits from the calumnies laid to their charge in a late book (by Henry Wharton) entitled The Enthusiasm of the Church of Rome” (London, 1688); “Moral Reflections on the Epistles and Gospels of every Sunday throughout the Year” (London, 1711, and frequently reprinted); “The Gentleman Instructed in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life” (10th ed., London, 1732; frequently reprinted and translated into Italian and Hungarian); “Theses Theologicæ” (Liège, 1702); “The Case Reviewed” in answer to Leslie’s “Case Stated” (2nd ed., London, 1717); “A Treatise of the Real Presence” (London,1721).

He translated “Discourses of Cleander and Eudoxus upon the Provincial Letters from the French” (1701). Jones in his edition of Peck’s “Popery Tracts” (1859), also attributes to Father Darrell: “A Letter on King James the Second’s most gracious Letter of Indulgence” (1687); “The Layman’s Opinion sent . . . to a considerable Divine in the Church of England” (1687); “A Letter to a Lady” (1688); “The Vanity of Human Respects” (1688).

FOLEY, Records Eng. Prov. S. J. (London, 1878), III, 477, VII, i, 196; PECK, Catalogue of Popery Tracts (1735),ed. JONES (Chetham Society, 1859); GILLOW, Bibl. Dict. Eng. Cath. (London, 1886), II; COOPER in Dict. Nat. Biog. (London, 1888), XIV.

EDWIN BURTON (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 1 – St. David of Wales

February 26, 2026

St. David

(DEGUI, DEWI).

Stained glass window St. David of Wales

Stained glass window St. David of Wales

Bishop and Confessor, patron of Wales. He is usually represented standing on a little hill, with a dove on his shoulder. From time immemorial the Welsh have worn a leek on St. David’s day, in memory of a battle against the Saxons, at which it is said they wore leeks in their hats, by St. David’s advice, to distinguish them from their enemies. He is commemorated on 1 March. The earliest mention of St. David is found in a tenth-century manuscript Of the “Annales Cambriae”, which assigns his death to A.D. 601. Many other writers, from Geoffrey of Monmouth down to Father Richard Stanton, hold that he died about 544, but their opinion is based solely on data given in various late “lives” of St. David, and there seems no good reason for setting aside the definite statement of the “Annales Cambriae”, which is now generally accepted. Little else that can claim to be historical is known about St. David. The tradition that he was born at Henvynyw (Vetus-Menevia) in Cardiganshire is not improbable. He was prominent at the Synod of Brevi (Llandewi Brefi in Cardiganshire), which has been identified with the important Roman military station, Loventium. Shortly afterwards, in 569, he presided over another synod held at a place called Lucus Victoriae. He was Bishop (probably not Archbishop) of Menevia, the Roman port Menapia in Pembrokeshire, later known as St. David’s, then the chief point of departure for Ireland. St. David was canonized by Pope Callistus II in the year 1120.

Stained glass window showing Saint Non's arrival in Brittany with her young son, Saint David.

Stained glass window showing Saint Non’s arrival in Brittany with her young son, Saint David.

This is all that is known to history about the patron of Wales. His legend, however, is much more elaborate….
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The saint’s mother was Nonna, or Nonnita (sometimes called Melaria), a daughter of Gynyr of Caergawch…. St. David’s birth had been foretold thirty years before by an angel to St. Patrick. It took place at “Old Menevia” somewhere about A.D. 454. Prodigies preceded and accompanied the event, and at his baptism at Porth Clais by St. Elvis of Munster, “whom Divine Providence brought over from Ireland at that conjuncture”, a blind man was cured by the baptismal water. St. David’s early education was received from St. Illtyd at Caerworgorn (Lanwit major) in Glamorganshire. Afterwards he spent ten years studying the Holy Scriptures at Witland in Carmarthenshire, under St. Paulinus, (Pawl Hen), whom he cured of blindness by the sign of the cross.  At the end of this period St. Paulinus, warned by an angel, sent out the young saint to evangelize the British. St. David journeyed throughout the West, founding or restoring twelve monasteries (among which occur the great names of Glastonbury, Bath, and Leominster), and finally settled in the Vale of Ross, where he and his monks lived a life of extreme austerity. St. DavidHere occurred the temptations of his monks by the obscene antics of the maid-servants of the wife of Boia, a local chieftain. Here also his monks tried to poison him, but St. David, warned by St. Scuthyn, who crossed from Ireland in one night on the back of a sea-monster, blessed the poisoned bread and ate it without harm. From thence, with St. Teilo and St. Padarn, he set out for Jerusalem, where he was made bishop by the patriarch. Here too St. Dubric and St. Daniel found him, when they came to call him to the Synod of Brevi “against the Pelagians”. St. David was with difficulty persuaded to accompany them; on his way he raised a widow’s son to life, and at the synod preached so loudly, from the hill that miraculously rose under him, that all could hear him, and so eloquently that all the heretics were confounded. St. Dubric resigned the “Archbishopric of Caerleon”, and St. David was appointed in his stead. One of his first acts was to hold, in the year 569, yet another synod called “Victory”, against the Pelagians, of which the decrees were confirmed by the pope. With the permission of King Arthur he removed his see from Caerleon to Menevia, whence he governed the British Church for many years with great holiness and wisdom. He died a the great age of 147, on the day predicted by himself a week earlier. His body is said to have been translated to Glastonbury in the year 966….

Shrine of St David. The relics of St David and St Justinian were kept in a portable casket at St David's Cathedral. During the reformation Bishop Barlow (1536–48), a staunch Protestant, stripped the shrine of its jewels and confiscated the relics of St. David and St. Justinian.

Shrine of St David. The relics of St David and St Justinian were kept in a portable casket at St David’s Cathedral. During the reformation Bishop Barlow (1536–48), a staunch Protestant, stripped the shrine of its jewels and confiscated the relics of St. David and St. Justinian.

“Annales Cambriae”, ed. AB ITHEL in “Rolls Series” (London, 1860), 3-6; “Acta SS., March 1, 38-47; “Buhez Santez Nonn” ed. SIONNET (Paris, 1837); CHALLONER, “Britannia Sancta” (London, 1745), I, 140-45; HOLE in “Dict. Christ. Biog.” (London, 1877), I, 791-93; BRADLEY in “Dict. Nat. Biog.”, s.v.: GIRALDUS CAMBRENSIS, “Opera”, ed. BREWER in “Rolls Series” (London, 1863), III, 375-404; HADDON AND STUBBS, “Councils and Ecclesiastical documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland” (Oxford, 1869), I, 121, 143, 148; “Lives of the Cambro-British Saints”, ed. REES (Llandovery, Wales, 1853), 102-44, 412-48; MONTALEMBERT, “Les moines d’Occident” (Paris, 1866), III, 48-55; NEDELEC, “Cambria Sacra” (London, 1879), 446-479; REES, “Essay on the Welsh Saints” (London, 1836), 43, 162, 191, 193; STANTON, “Menology of England and Wales” (London, 1887), 92-93, 203; WHARTON, “Anglia Sacra” (London, 1691), II, 628-53.

LESLIE A. ST. L. TOKE (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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March 1 – Apostle of the Frisians

February 26, 2026

St. Suitbert

(Suidbert).

Apostle of the Frisians, b. in England in the seventh century; d. at Suitberts-Insel, now Kaiserswerth, near Dusseldorf, 1 March, 713. He studied in Ireland, at Rathmelsigi, Connacht, along with St. Egbert (q. v.). The latter, filled with zeal for the conversion of the Germans, had sent St. Wihtberht, or Wigbert, to evangelize the Frisians, but owing to the opposition of the pagan ruler, Rathbod, Wihtberht was unsuccessful and returned to England. Egbert then sent St. Willibrord and his twelve companions, among whom was St. Suitbert. They landed near the mouth of the Rhine and journeyed to Utrecht, which became their headquarters. The new missionaries worked with great success under the protection of Pepin of Heristal, who, having recently conquered a portion of Frisia, compelled Rathbod to cease harassing the Christians. Suitbert laboured chiefly in North Brabant, Guelderland, and Cleves. After some years he went back to England, and in 693 was consecrated in Mercia as a missionary bishop by St. Wilfrid of York.

Statue and golden reliquary of St. Suitbert in St. Suitbertus (Düsseldorf-Kaiserswerth). Photo by Klaus Graf.

He returned to Frisia and fixed his see at Wijkbij Duurstede on a branch of the Rhine. A little later, entrusting his flock of converts to St. Willibrord, he proceeded north of the Rhine and the Lippe, among the Bructeri, or Boructuari, in the district of Berg, Westphalia. This mission bore great fruit at first, but was eventually a failure owing to the inroads of the pagan Saxons; when the latter had conquered the territory, Suitbert withdrew to a small island in the Rhine, six miles from Dusseldorf, granted to him by Pepin of Heristal, where he built a monastery and ended his days in peace. His relics were rediscovered in 1626 at Kaiserwerth and are still venerated there. St. Suitbert of Kaiserwerdt is to be distinguished from a holy abbot, Suitbert, who lived in a monastery near the River Dacore, Cumberland, England, about forty years later, and is mentioned by Venerable Bede.

BOUTERWEK, Swidbert, der Apostel des bergischen Landes (Eberfeld, 1859); HOOF in Anal. bollandiana, VI (1887), 73-6; SURIUS, Vitae sanctorum, III (1613), 3-16; BEDE, Hist. eccl., V, xi; Acta SS., I March, 67-85; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints.

A. A. MacErlean (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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February 23 – The responsibilities of leadership are heavy

February 23, 2026

Pope Benedict XIII

(PIETRO FRANCESCO ORSINI)

Pope Benedict XIIIBorn 2 February, 1649; died 23 February, 1730. Being a son of Ferdinando Orsini and Giovanna Frangipani of Tolpha, he belonged to the archducal family of Orsini-Gravina. From early youth he exhibited a decided liking for the Order of St. Dominic, and at the age of sixteen during a visit to Venice he entered the Dominican novitiate against the will of his parents, though he was the eldest son and heir to the title and estates of his childless uncle the Duke of Bracciano. Their appeal to Clement IX was fruitless; the pope not only approved the purpose of the young novice, but even shortened his novitiate by half in order to free him from the importunities of his relatives. As student and novice, the young prince was a model of humility and zeal, and devoted himself to the acquisition of ecclesiastical learning. At the age of twenty-one he was promoted to a professorship. On 22 February, 1672, he was elevated to the cardinalate by his relative Clement X. He protested strenuously against the honour, but was compelled to accept it under the vow of obedience by the General of the Dominicans, at the insistence of the pope. As cardinal he adhered strictly to the observance of the rule of his order, and never laid aside his habit. In 1675 having the choice between the Archbishopric of Salerno and that of Manfredonia (Siponto) he chose the latter because it was a poor diocese and required great exercise of pastoral zeal. His virtuous life not only overcame the opposition made by his relatives when he became a monk, but exercised such a salutary influence that in time his mother, his sister, and two of his nieces embraced the religious life in the Third Order of St. Dominic. During the conclave that followed the death of Clement X (1676), he was one of the band of cardinals known as the zelanti who had agreed that no considerations of worldly prudence would influence them in the choice of a new pope. In the government of his diocese, Cardinal Orsini was unremitting in his labours and zeal. He visited even the most remote hamlets and was not less watchful over temporal than over spiritual things. He provided for the needs of the people, repaired churches and held a diocesan synod, the decrees of which he published. In 1680, when Innocent XI transferred him to Cesena, he left to the people of Siponto a memorial of his apostolic activity, his devotion to the poor and his constant preaching brought about a thorough-going reformation among both clergy and people. Seeing on his frequent journeys the condition of the churches in even the poorest parishes, he neglected none and by the promulgation of strict rules, he abolished all known abuses.

Chiesa della Trinità de' Monti at the top of the Spanish Steps.

Chiesa della Trinità de’ Monti at the top of the Spanish Steps.  In 1727, Pope Benedict XIII inaugurated the famous Spanish Steps and founded the University of Camerino.

In 1686, a serious illness, attributed by his physicians to the climate, caused his transfer to Benevento, where he remained for thirty-eight years or until he was elected pope. During this long period he seldom left his diocese. Each year he made an episcopal visitation to every parish. Whenever necessary, he built or renovated churches. He built hospitals and strove incessantly for the alleviation of the sufferings of the poor. Twice during his episcopate (5 June, 1688, and 14 March, 1702) Benevento was visited by earthquakes and on these occasions his courage, his active charity in behalf of the stricken inhabitants, and his energy in the reconstruction of the city, won for him the title of the “Second Founder” of Benevento. He held two provincial synods, the first in 1693 attended by eighteen bishops, the second in 1698, with an attendance of twenty, the acts of which were approved at Rome. The only reproach made against his administration is that his simplicity and child-like confidence exposed him to the wiles of some unscrupulous persons who abused his confidence.

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February 23 – St. Polycarp’s martyrdom

February 23, 2026

St. Polycarp’s martyrdom

St. PolycarpPolycarp’s martyrdom is described in a letter from the Church of Smyrna, to the Church of Philomelium “and to all the brotherhoods of the holy and universal Church”, etc. The letter begins with an account of the persecution and the heroism of the martyrs. Conspicuous among them was one Germanicus, who encouraged the rest, and when exposed to the wild beasts, incited them to slay him. His death stirred the fury of the multitude, and the cry was raised “Away with the atheists; let search be made for Polycarp”. But there was one Quintus, who of his own accord had given himself up to the persecutors. When he saw the wild beasts he lost heart and apostatized. “Wherefore”, comment the writers of the epistle, “we praise not those who deliver themselves up, since the Gospel does not so teach us”. Polycarp was persuaded by his friends to leave the city and conceal himself in a farm-house. Here he spent his time in prayer, “and while praying he falleth into a trance three days before his apprehension; and he saw his pillow burning with fire. And he turned and said unto those that were with him, ‘it must needs be that I shall be burned alive’ “. When his pursuers were on his track he went to another farm-house. Finding him gone they put two slave boys to the torture, and one of them betrayed his place of concealment. Herod, head of the police, sent a body of men to arrest him on Friday evening. Escape was still possible, but the old man refused to flee, saying, “the will of God be done”. He came down to meet his pursuers, conversed affably with them, and ordered food to be set before them. While they were eating he prayed, “remembering all, high and low, who at any time had come in his way, and the Catholic Church throughout the world”. Then he was led away.

Herod and Herod’s father, Nicetas, met him and took him into their carriage, where they tried to prevail upon him to save his life. Finding they could not persuade him, they pushed him out of the carriage with such haste that he bruised his shin. He followed on foot till they came to the Stadium, where a great crowd had assembled, having heard the news of his apprehension. “As Polycarp entered into the Stadium a voice came to him from heaven: ‘Be strong, Polycarp, and play the man’. And no one saw the speaker, but those of our people who were present heard the voice.” It was to the proconsul, when he urged him to curse Christ, that Polycarp made his celebrated reply: “Fourscore and six years have I served Him, and he has done me no harm. How then can I curse my King that saved me.” When the proconsul had done with the prisoner it was too late to throw him to the beasts, for the sports were closed. It was decided, therefore, to burn him alive. The crowd took it upon itself to collect fuel, “the Jews more especially assisting in this with zeal, as is their wont” (cf. the Martyrdom of Pionius). The fire, “like the sail of a vessel filled by the wind, made a wall round the body” of the martyr, leaving it unscathed. The executioner was ordered to stab him, thereupon, “there came forth a quantity of blood so that it extinguished the fire”. (The story of the dove issuing from the body probably arose out of a textual corruption. See Lightfoot, Funk, Zahn. It may also have been an interpolation by the pseudo-Pionius.)

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February 24 – Drink the Bitter Cup

February 23, 2026

Blessed Thomas Mary Fusco

The seventh of eight children, he was born on 1 December 1831 in Pagani, Salerno, in the Diocese of Nocera-Sarno, Italy, to Dr. Antonio, a pharmacist, and Stella Giordano, of noble descent. They were known for their upright moral and religious conduct, and taught their son Christian piety and charity to the poor.

He was baptized on the day he was born in the parish of S. Felice e Corpo di Cristo. In 1837, when he was only six years old, his mother died of cholera and a few years later, in 1841, he also lost his father. Fr. Giuseppe, an uncle on his father’s side and a primary school teacher, then took charge of his education.

Since 1839, the year of the canonization of St. Alphonsus Mary de’ Liguori, little Tommaso had dreamed of church and the altar; in 1847 he was at last able to enter the same diocesan seminary of Nocera which his brother Raffaele would leave after being ordained a priest in 1849.

On 1 April 1851, Tommaso Maria received the sacrament of Confirmation and on 22 December 1855, after completing his seminary formation, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Agnello Giuseppe D’Auria.

In those years, sorrowful because of the loss of his loved ones, including his uncle (1847) as well as his young brother, Raffaele (1852), the devotion to the Patient Christ and to his Blessed Sorrowful Mother, already dear to the entire Fusco family, took root in Tommaso Maria, as in fact his biographers recall: “He had a deep devotion to the crucified Christ which he cherished throughout his life”.

Right from the start he saw to the formation of boys for whom he opened a morning school in his own home, while for young people and adults, bent on increasing their human and Christian formation, he organized evening prayers at the parish church of S. Felice e Corpo di Cristo. This was a true place of conversion and prayer, just as it had been for St. Alphonsus, revered and honored in Pagani for his apostolate.

In 1857, he was admitted to the Congregation of the Missionaries of Nocera under the title of St Vincent de Paul and became an itinerant missionary, especially in the regions of Southern Italy.

In 1860 he was appointed chaplain at the Shrine of our Lady of Carmel (known as “Our Lady of the Hens”) in Pagani, where he built up the men’s and women’s Catholic associations and set up the altar of the Crucified Christ and the Pious Union for the Adoration of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus.

In 1862 he opened a school of moral theology in his own home to train priests for the ministry of confession, kindling enthusiasm for the love of Christ’s Blood; that same year, he founded the “(Priestly) Society of the Catholic Apostolate” for missions among the common people; in 1874 he received the approval of Pope Pius IX, now blessed.

S. Felice e Corpo di Cristo Church

Deeply moved by the sorry plight of an orphan girl, a victim of the street, after careful preparation in prayer for discernment, Fr. Tommaso Maria founded the Congregation of the “Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood” on 6 January, the Solemnity of Epiphany in 1873. This institute was inaugurated at the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, in the presence of Bishop Raffaele Ammirante, who, with the clothing of the first three sisters with the religious habit, blessed the first orphanage for seven poor little orphan girls of the area. It was not long before the newborn religious family and the orphanage also received the Pope’s blessing, in response to their request.

Fr. Tommaso Maria continued to dedicate himself to the priestly ministry, preaching spiritual retreats and popular missions; and from his apostolic travels sprang the many foundations of houses and orphanages that were a monument to his heroic charity, which was even more ardent in the last 20 years of his life (1870-1891).

In addition to his commitments as founder and apostolic missionary, he was parish priest (1874-1887) at the principal church of S. Felice e Corpo di Cristo in Pagani, extraordinary confessor to the cloistered nuns in Pagani and Nocera and, in the last years of his life, spiritual father of the lay congregation at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

It was not long before Fr. Tommaso Maria, envied for the good he achieved in his ministry and for his life as an exemplary priest, was faced with humiliation and persecution and, in 1880, even a brother priest’s slanderous calumny. However, sustained by the Lord, he lovingly carried that cross which own Pastor, Bishop Ammirante had foretold at the time of his institute’s foundation: “Have you chosen the title of the Most Precious Blood? Well, may you be prepared to drink the bitter cup”.

During the harshest of trials, which he bore in silence, he would repeat: “May work and suffering for God always be your glory and in your work and suffering, may God be your consolation on this earth, and your recompense in heaven. Patience is the safeguard and pillar of all the virtues”.

Wasting away with a liver-disease, Fr. Tommaso Maria died a devout death on 24 February 1891, praying with the elderly Simeon: Lord, now let your servant depart in peace, according to your word” (Lk 2, 29).

He was only 59 years old! In the notice issued by the town council of Pagani on 25 February 1891 the Gospel witness of his life, known to one and all, was summarized in these words: “Tommaso Maria Fusco, Apostolic Missionary, Founder of the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood, an exemplary priest of indomitable faith and ardent charity, worked tirelessly in the name of the Redeeming Blood for the salvation of souls: in life he loved the poor and in death forgave his enemies”.

His life was directed to the highest devotion of Christian virtues by the priestly life, lived intensely in constant meditation on the mystery of the Father’s love, contemplated in the crucified Son whose Blood is “the expression, measure and pledge” of divine Charity and heroic charity to the poor and needy, in whom Fr. Tommaso Maria saw the bleeding Face of Jesus.

His writings, preaching and popular missions marked his vast experience of faith and the light of Christian hope that shone from his vocation and actions. He had a vital, burning love for God; it inflamed his words and his apostolate, made fruitful by love for God and neighbor, by union with the crucified Jesus, by trust in Mary, Immaculate and Sorrowful, and above all by the Eucharist.

Bl. Thomas Mary Fusco

Fr. Tommaso Maria Fusco was an Apostle of Charity of the Most Precious Blood, a friend of boys and girls and young people and attentive to every kind of poverty and human and spiritual misery.

For all these reasons he enjoyed the fame of holiness among the diocesan priests, among the people and among his spiritual daughters who received his charism, and witness to it today in the various parts of the world where they carry out their apostolate in communion with the Church.

The cause for the beatification of Fr. Tommaso Maria Fusco was initiated in 1955 and the decree of his heroic Christian virtues was published on 24 April 2001. The miraculous healing of Mrs. Maria Battaglia on 20 August 1964 in Sciacca, Agrigento, Sicily, through the intercession of Fr. Tommaso Maria Fusco was recognized on 7 July 2001.

With his beatification, Pope John Paul II presents Fr. Tommaso Maria Fusco as an example and a guide to holiness for priests, for the people of God and for his spiritual daughters, the Daughters of Charity of the Most Precious Blood.

Source: Vatican

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February 24 – Second Duke of Guise

February 23, 2026

FRANÇOIS DE LORRAINE

François de Lorraine, Duke of Guise, painting by François Clouet

Second Duke of Guise, b. at the Château de Bar, 17 Feb., 1519, of Claude de Guise and Antoinette de Bourbon; d, 24 Feb, 1563. He was the warrior of the family, el gran capitan de Guysa, as the Spanish called him. A wound which he received at the siege of Boulogne (1545), won for him the surname Balafré (the Scarred). His defense of Metz against Charles V (1552) crowned his reputation. After a siege of two months the emperor was obliged to retire with a loss of 30,000 men. François de Lorraine fought valiantly at the battle of Renty (1554). The Truce of Vaucelles, signed in 1556 for a period of six years, followed by the abdication of Charles V, seemed about to end his military career.

The Siege of Calais

The dukes of Guise, however, as descendants of the House of Anjou, had certain pretensions to the Kingdom of Naples, and it was doubtless with the secret intention of defending these claims that François de Lorraine furthered an alliance between Henry II and Pope Paul IV which was menaced by Philip II. In consequence of this alliance François de Guise entered Milanese territory (Jan., 1557), marched thence through Italy, and although neither the petty princes nor the pope gave him the assistance he expected, he took the little Neapolitan town of Campli (17 April, 1557), and on 24 April laid siege to Civitella. At the end of twenty-two days, being threatened at the same time by epidemic and the Duke of Alva, he fell back upon Rome, where he reorganized his army, and was preparing to return southward, when Henry II, after the victory of the Spaniards over the Constable de Montmorency at Saint-Quentin (23 Aug., 1557), summoned him to “restore France.”

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February 24 – First Christian King Among the English

February 23, 2026

St. Ethelbert, King of Kent

Born, 552; died, 24 February, 616; son of Eormenric, through whom he was descended from Hengest.

King St Ethelbert

He succeeded his father, in 560, as King of Kent and made an unsuccessful attempt to win from Ceawlin of Wessex the overlordship of Britain. His political importance was doubtless advanced by his marriage with Bertha, daughter of Charibert, King of the Franks. A noble disposition to fair dealing is argued by his giving her the old Roman church of St. Martin in his capital of Cantwaraburh (Canterbury) and affording her every opportunity for the exercise of her religion, although he himself had been reared, and remained, a worshiper of Odin. The same natural virtue, combined with a quaint spiritual caution and, on the other hand, a large instinct of hospitality, appears in his message to St. Augustine when, in 597, the Apostle of England landed on the Kentish coast.

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In the interval between Ethelbert’s defeat by Ceawlin and the arrival of the Roman missionaries, the death of the Wessex king had left Ethelbert, at least virtually, supreme in southern Britain, and his baptism, which took place on Whitsunday next following the landing of Augustine (2 June, 597) had such an effect in deciding the minds of his wavering countrymen that as many as 10,000 are said to have followed his example within a few months.

The Conversion of St Ethelbert by St. Augustine. Detail of a mosaic by Clayton & Bell in the chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine in Westminster Cathedral.

The Conversion of St Ethelbert by St. Augustine. Detail of a mosaic by Clayton & Bell in the chapel of St Gregory and St Augustine in Westminster Cathedral.

Thenceforward Ethelbert became the watchful father of the infant Anglo-Saxon Church. He founded the church which in after-ages was to be the primatial cathedral of all England, besides other churches at Rochester and Canterbury. But, although he permitted, and even helped, Augustine to convert a heathen temple into the church of St. Pancras (Canterbury), he never compelled his heathen subjects to accept baptism. Moreover, as the lawgiver who issued their first written laws to the English people (the ninety “Dooms of Ethelbert”, A.D. 604) he holds in English history a place thoroughly consistent with his character as the temporal founder of that see which did more than any other for the upbuilding of free and orderly political institutions in Christendom.

Sculpture of King St. Aethelberht of Kent on Canterbury Cathedral in England.

Sculpture of King St. Aethelberht of Kent on Canterbury Cathedral in England.

When St. Mellitus had converted Sæbert, King of the East Saxons, whose capital was London, and it was proposed to make that see the metropolitan, Ethelbert, supported by Augustine, successfully resisted the attempt, and thus fixed for more than nine centuries the individual character of the English church. He left three children, of whom the only son, Eadbald, lived and died a pagan.
STUBBS in Dict. Christ. Biogr., s.v.; HUNT in Dict. Nat. Biogr., s.v.; BEDE, Hist. Eccl., I, II; GREGORY OF TOURS, Historia Francorum, IV, IX; Acta SS.; BUTLER, Lives of the Saints, 24 Feb.

E. Macpherson (Catholic Encyclopedia)

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Excommunicating and Deposing Elizabeth I of England

February 23, 2026

Pope St. Pius V: Bull “Regnans in Excelsis,” Excommunicating and Deposing Elizabeth I of England, February 25, 1570

Portrait of Pope St. Pius V by Palma il Giovane

He that reigneth on high, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth, commited one, holy, Catholike and Apostolike Church, out of which there is no salvation, to one alone upon earth, namely to Peter the chiefe of the Apostles, and to Peters Successour the Bishop of Rome, to be governed in fulnesse of power. Him alone he made Prince over all people, and all Kingdomes, to pluck up, destroy, scatter, consume, plant and build, that he may containe the faithfull that are knit together with the band of charity, in the unity of the spirit, and present them spotlesse and unblameable to their Saviour. In discharge of which function, We which are by Gods goodnesse called to the gouvernement of the aforesayd Church, do spare no paines, labouring with all the earnestnesse that Unity and the Catholike Religion (which the Author thereof hath for the tryall of his childrens faith, and for our amendment, suffered to be punished with so great afflictions) might be preserved uncorrupt. But the number of the ungodly hath gotten such power that there is now no place left in the whole world which they have not assayed to corrupt with their most wicked Doctrines; amongst others, Elizabeth the pretensed Queene of England, the servant of wickednesse, lending thereunto her helping hand, with whom as in a Sanctuary the most pernicious of all have found a refuge.

Mary Queen of Scots in an official portrait at the Blairs Museum – The Museum of Scotland’s Catholic Heritage.

This very woman having seazed on the Kingdome, and monstrously usurping the place of supreme head of the Church in all England, and the chiefe authority and jurisdiction thereof, hath againe brought backe the sayd Kingdome into miserable destruction, which was then newly reduced to the Catholike Faith and good fruits. For having by strong hand inhibited the exercise of the true Religion, which Mary the lawfull Queene of famous memory, had by the helpe of this See restored after it had bene formerly overthrowne by Henry the eighth, a revolter therefrom; and following and embracing the errors of Heretikes, she hath removed the royall Councell consisting of the English Nobility, and filled it with obscure men being Heretikes, suppressed the embraces of the Catholike Faith, placed dishonest Preachers, and Ministers of impieties, abolished the sacrifice of the Masse, Prayers, Fastings, choyce of meates, unmaried life, and the Catholike rites and Ceremonies, commanded Bookes to be read in the whole Realme containing manifest Heresie; and impious mysteries and institutions by her selfe entertained and observed according to the Praescript of Calvin, to be likewise observed by her Subjects; presumed to throw Bishops, Parsons of Churches, and other Catholike Priests, out of their Churches and beneficies, and bestow them and other Church-livings upon Heretikes, and to determine of Church causes, prohibited the Prelats, Clergie and people to acknowledge the Church of Rome, or obey the preceps and Canonicall sanctions thereof; compelled most of them to condescend to her wicked Lawes, and to abjure the authority and obedience of the Bishop Rome, and to acknowledge her to be sole Lady in Temporall and Spirituall matters, and this by Oath; imposed penalties and punishments upon those which obeyed not, and exacted them of those which perservered in the Unity of the Faith and their obedience aforesayd, cast the Catholike Prelats and Rectors of Churches in prison, where many therein beeing spent with long languishing and sorrow, miserably ended their lives. All which things, seeing they are manifest and notorious to all Nations, and by the gravest testimonie of very many so substantially proved that there is no place at all left for excuse, defence or evasion.

Persecution, torture and murder of Catholic clergy during Elizabeth I time.

We seeing that impieties and wicked actions are multiplied one upon another, and moreover that the persecution of the faithfull, and affliction for Religion, groweth every day heavier and heavier through the instigation and meanes of the sayd Elizabeth; because We understand her minde to be so hardened and indurate that she hath not onely contemned the godly requests and admonitions of Catholike Princes concerning her healing and conversion, but also hath not so much as permitted the Nuncios of this Sea to crosse the seas into England, are constrained of necessity to betake our selves to the weapons of Justice against her, not being able to mitigate our sorrow that we are drawne to take punishment upon one, to whose Ancestors the whole State of all Christendome hath beene so much bounden. Being therefore supported with His authority, whose pleasure it was to place Us (though unable for so great a burthen) in this supreme throne of Justice, We doe out of the fulnesse of our Apostolike power declare the aforesayd Elizabeth being an Heretike, and a favourer of Heritikes, and her adherents in the matters aforesayd, to have incurred the sentence of Anathema, and to be cut off from the Unity of the body of Christ.

A genuine and realistic c.1595 portrait of Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.

And moreover We do declare Her to be deprived of her pretended Title to the Kingdome aforesayd, and of all Dominion, Dignity, and Priviledge what soever; and also the Nobility, Subjects, and People of the sayd Kingdome, and all others which have in any sort sworne unto Her, to be for ever absolved from any such Oath, and all manner of duty of dominion, alleageance, and obedience. As We also doe by authority of these presents absolve them, and do deprive the same Elizabeth of her pretended title to the Kingdome, and all other things abovesayd. And We do command and interdict all and every the Noblemen, Subjects, People, and others aforesayd that they presume not to obey her, or her monitions, Mandates, and Lawes; and those which shall doe the contrary, We do innodate with the like sentence of Anathema. And because it were a matter of too much difficulty, to conveigh these presents to all places wheresoever it shall be needfull, our will is that the copies thereof under a publike Notaries hand, and sealed with the seale of an Ecclesiasticall Prelate, or of his Court, shall carry altogether the same credit, with all people, iudictally and extrajudically, as these Present should doe, if they were exhibited or shewed.
Given at Rome at Saint Peters in the yeare of the incarnation of our Lord one thousand five hundreth sixty nine, the fifth of the Kalends of March, and of our Popedom the fifty yeare.

Pius PP.

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February 25 – Princess, Abbess, Miracle Worker

February 23, 2026

St. Walburga Born in Devonshire, about 710; died at Heidenheim, 25 Feb., 777. She is the patroness of Eichstadt, Oudenarde, Furnes, Antwerp, Gronigen, Weilburg, and Zutphen, and is invoked as special patroness against hydrophobia, and in storms, and also by sailors. She was the daughter of St. Richard, one of the under-kings of the West […]

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King of Denmark visits Greenland

February 19, 2026

h/t kongehuset.dk The visit begins in Nuuk on Wednesday morning with arrival at Nuuk Airport, where The King will be received by The Prime Minister of The Government of Greenland, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, and The President of the Inatsisartut, the Parliament of Greenland, Kim Kielsen. The King will be staying in Nuuk throughout Wednesday. On Thursday, […]

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Romanée-Conti: symbol of tradition and nobility

February 19, 2026

We should not be surprised that a single bottle of Romanée-Conti sometimes sells for $10,000 and more, for the Domaine Romanée-Conti (aka DRC) is one of the oldest and finest vineyards of Burgundy, France, and its wines, a veritable symbol of tradition and nobility. In 1087—eight years before Blessed Urban II would call the nobility […]

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February 19 – St. Conrad of Piacenza

February 19, 2026

St. Conrad of Piacenza Hermit of the Third Order of St. Francis, date of birth uncertain; died at Noto in Sicily, 19 February, 1351. He belonged to one of the noblest families of Piacenza, and having married when he was quite young, led a virtuous and God-fearing life. On one occasion, when he was engaged […]

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February 20 – Pope Martin V

February 19, 2026

Pope Martin V (Oddone Colonna) Born at Genazzano in the Campagna di Roma, 1368; died at Rome, 20 Feb., 1431. He studied at the University of Perugia, became prothonotary Apostolic under Urban VI, papal auditor and nuncio at various Italian courts under Boniface IX, and was administrator of the Diocese of Palestrina from 15 December […]

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February 20 – Repeatedly racked

February 19, 2026

Ven. Thomas Pormort English martyr, b. at Hull about 1559; d. at St. Paul’s Churchyard, 20 Feb., 1592. He was probably related to the family of Pormort of Great Grimsby and Saltfletby, Lincoln shire. George Pormort, Mayor of Grimsby in 1565, had a second son Thomas baptized, 7 February, 1566, but this can hardly be […]

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February 21 – He Fearlessly Denounced Homosexual Clergy

February 19, 2026

St. Peter Damian Doctor of the Church, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, born at Ravenna “five years after the death of the Emperor Otto III,” 1007; died at Faenza, 21 Feb., 1072. He was the youngest of a large family. His parents were noble, but poor. At his birth an elder brother protested against this new charge […]

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February 21 – Terror of the Wicked, Supporter of the Weak

February 19, 2026

Blessed Pepin of Landen Mayor of the Palace to the Kings Clotaire II, Dagobert, and Sigebert. He was son of Carloman, the most powerful nobleman of Austrasia, who had been mayor to Clotaire I, son of Clovis I. He was grandfather to Pepin of Herstal, the most powerful mayor, whose son was Charles Martel, and […]

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February 21 – Shakespeare’s Inspiration

February 19, 2026

Saint Robert Southwell Poet, Jesuit, martyr; born at Horsham St. Faith’s, Norfolk, England, in 1561; hanged and quartered at Tyburn, 21 February, 1595. His grandfather, Sir Richard Southwell, had been a wealthy man and a prominent courtier in the reign of Henry VIII. It was Richard Southwell who in 1547 had brought the poet Henry […]

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February 22 – From Cavalier’s Mistress to Saint

February 19, 2026

St. Margaret of Cortona A penitent of the Third Order of St. Francis, born at Laviano in Tuscany in 1247; died at Cortona, 22 February, 1297. At the age of seven years Margaret lost her mother and two years later her father married a second time. Between the daughter and her step-mother there seems to […]

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Francis Sintaro, a Young Japanese Lord, Is Martyred for the Faith

February 16, 2026

The princes who were the least hostile to the Christians, to please the emperor did not cease to go in search of them and to persecute them. At Firoxima, a young lord called Francis Sintaro having learned that during his absence the guardian of the house had declared to the officers of justice that it […]

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February 16 – Ven. Luis de Lapuente

February 16, 2026

Ven. Luis de Lapuente (Also, D’Aponte, de Ponte, Dupont). Born at Valladolid, 11 November, 1554; died there, 16 February 1624. Having entered the Society of Jesus, he studied under the celebrated Suarez, and professed philosophy at Salamanca. Endowed with exceptional talents for government and the formation of young religious, he was forced by impaired health […]

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February 16 – Founded and ruled a religious order as his family Manorhouse, but only joined that order in his old age

February 16, 2026

St. Gilbert of Sempringham Founder of the Order of Gilbertines, born at Sempringham, on the border of the Lincolnshire fens, between Bourn and Heckington. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but it lies between 1083 and 1089; died at Sempringham, 1189. His father, Jocelin, was a wealthy Norman knight holding lands in Lincolnshire; […]

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February 17 – He established the first charitable loan-institution for the poor

February 16, 2026

Barnabas of Terni (Interamna) Friar Minor and missionary, d. 1474 (or 1477). He belonged to the noble family of the Manassei and was a man of great learning, being Doctor of Medicine and well versed in letters and philosophy. Despising the honours and vanities of the world, he entered the Order of Friars Minor in […]

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February 17 – Marvelous Apparition of Our Lady To Seven Young Nobles

February 16, 2026

St. Alexis Falconieri Born in Florence, 1200; died 17 February, 1310, at Mount Senario, near Florence. He was the son of Bernard Falconieri, a merchant prince of Florence, and one of the leaders of the Republic. His family belonged to the Guelph party, and opposed the Imperialists whenever they could consistently with their political principles. […]

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February 18 – Fra Angelico brought part of heaven to earth

February 16, 2026

Blessed Fra Angelico A famous painter of the Florentine school, born near Castello di Vicchio in the province of Mugello, Tuscany, 1387; died at Rome, 1455. He was christened Guido, and his father’s name being Pietro he was known as Guido, or Guidolino, di Pietro, but his full appellation today is that of “Blessed Fra […]

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February 18 – Charlemagne’s envoy to the pope

February 16, 2026

St. Angilbert Abbot of Saint-Riquier, died 18 February, 814. Angilbert seems to have been brought up at the court of Charlemagne, where he was the pupil and friend of the great English scholar Alcuin. He was intended for the ecclesiastical state and must have received minor orders early in life, but he accompanied the young […]

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Picturesque and The Real In Daily Life

February 12, 2026

Carl Spitzweg is a relatively little known Bavarian painter of the last century (1808-1885). Or at least so it would appear, for his name, like that of Hector Roesler Franz, another German painter of the turn of the century, is not mentioned in the celebrated books on the history of art. Nevertheless, the paintings of […]

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St. Frideswide – February 12

February 12, 2026

St. Frideswide (FRIDESWIDA, FREDESWIDA, Fr. FRÉVISSE, Old Eng. FRIS). Virgin, patroness of Oxford, lived from about 650 to 735. According to her legend, in its latest form, she was the child of King Didan and Safrida, and was brought up to holiness by Algiva. She refused the proffered hand of King Algar, a Mercian, and […]

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Saint Eulalia of Barcelona – February 12

February 12, 2026

Saint Eulalia of Barcelona A Spanish martyr in the persecution of Diocletian (February 12, 304), patron of the cathedral and city of Barcelona, also of sailors. The Acts of her life and martyrdom were copied early in the twelfth century, and with elegant conciseness, by the learned ecclesiastic Renallus Grammaticus (Bol. acad. hist., Madrid, 1902, […]

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February 13 – Mystic and Counselor to Future Popes

February 12, 2026

St. Catherine de Ricci, Virgin (AD 1522 – 1589) The Ricci are an ancient family, which still subsists in a flourishing condition in Tuscany. Peter de Ricci, the father of our saint, was married to Catherine Bonza, a lady of suitable birth. The saint was born at Florence in 1522, and called at her baptism […]

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February 13 – John Fowler

February 12, 2026

John Fowler Scholar and printer, b. at Bristol, England, 1537; d. at Namur, Flanders, 13 Feb., 1578-9. He studied at Winchester School from 1551 to 1553, when he proceeded to New College, Oxford where he remained till 1559. He became B.A. 23 Feb., 1556-7 and M.A. in 1560, though Antony a Wood adds that he […]

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St. Fulcran – February 13

February 12, 2026

St. Fulcran Bishop of Lodève; died 13 February, 1006. According to the biography which Bernard Guidonis, Bishop of Lodève (died 1331), has left us his saintly predecessor, Fulcran came of a distinguished family, consecrated himself at an early age to the service of the Church, became a priest, and from his youth led a pure […]

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February 14 – Renounced Earthly Nobility To Obtain Heavenly Nobility

February 12, 2026

Sts. Cyril and Methodius These brothers, the Apostles of the Slavs, were born in Thessalonica, in 827 and 826 respectively. Though belonging to a senatorial family they renounced secular honors and became priests. They were living in a monastery on the Bosphorus, when the Khazars sent to Constantinople for a Christian teacher. Cyril was selected […]

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February 14 – From humble birth to the most exalted throne

February 12, 2026

Pope Honorius II (Lamberto Scannabecchi) Born of humble parents at Fagnano near Imola at an unknown date; died at Rome, 14 February, 1130. For a time he was Archdeacon of Bologna. On account of his great learning he was called to Rome by Paschal II, became canon at the Lateran, then Cardinal-Priest of Santa Prassede, […]

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February 15 – St. Claude de la Colombière

February 12, 2026

St. Claude de la Colombière Missionary and ascetical writer, born of noble parentage at Saint-Symphorien-d’Ozon, between Lyons and Vienne, in 1641; died at Paray-le-Monial, 15 Feb., 1682. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1659. After fifteen years of religious life he made a vow, as a means of attaining the utmost possible perfection, to […]

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February 15 – One of his last utterances was a prayer for the queen

February 12, 2026

Ven. William Richardson (Alias Anderson.) Last martyr under Elizabeth I; b. according to Challoner at Vales in Yorkshire (i.e. presumably Wales, near Sheffield), but, according to the Valladolid diary, a Lancashire man; executed at Tyburn, 17 Feb., 1603. He arrived at Reims 16 July, 1592 and on 21 Aug. following was sent to Valladolid, where […]

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February 15 – Pope Lucius II

February 12, 2026

Pope Lucius II (Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso) Born at Bologna, unknown date, died at Rome, 15 February, 1145. Before entering the Roman Curia he was a canon regular in Bologna. In 1124 Honorius II created him Cardinal-Priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. From 1125-1126 he was papal legate in Germany where he took part in […]

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February 9 – St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia

February 9, 2026

St. Paulinus II, Patriarch of Aquileia Born at Premariacco, near Cividale, Italy, about 730-40; died 802. Born probably of a Roman family during Longobardic rule in Italy, he was brought up in the patriarchal schools at Cividale. After ordination he became master of the school. He acquired a thorough Latin culture, pagan and Christian. He […]

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February 9 – Banished From Court

February 9, 2026

St. Ansbert Archbishop of Rouen in 695, Confessor He had been chancelor to King Clotair III in which station he had united the mortification and recollection of a monk with the duties of wedlock, and of a statesman. Quitting the court, he put on the monastic habit at Fontenelle under St. Wandregisile, and when that […]

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February 9 – Patroness of those suffering from toothaches

February 9, 2026

t. Apollonia A holy virgin who suffered martyrdom in Alexandria during a local uprising against the Christians previous to the persecution of Decius (end of 248, or beginning of 249). During the festivities commemorative of the first millenary of the Roman Empire, the agitation of the heathen populace rose to a great height, and when […]

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February 9 – The bishop who converted the son of Penda

February 9, 2026

St. Finan Second Bishop of Lindisfarne; died 9 February, 661. He was an Irish monk who had been trained in Iona, and who was specially chosen by the Columban monks to succeed the great St. Aidan (635-51). St. Bede describes him as an able ruler, and tells of his labours in the conversion of Northumbria. […]

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February 9 – Mother of the Orphans

February 9, 2026

Margaret Haughery, “the mother of the orphans”, as she was familiarly styled, b. in Cavan, Ireland, about 1814; d. at New Orleans, Louisiana, 9 February, 1882. Her parents, Charles and Margaret O’Rourke Gaffney, died at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1822 and she was left to her own resources and was thus deprived of acquiring a knowledge […]

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February 10 – God Gave Her What Her Brother Would Not

February 9, 2026

St. Scholastica, Virgin (c. 480 – 10 February 547) This saint was sister to the great St. Benedict. She consecrated herself to God from her earliest youth, as St. Gregory testifies. Where her first monastery was situated is not mentioned; but after her brother removed to Mount Cassino, she choose her retreat at Plombariola, in […]

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February 10 – He fought socialism in both its Nazi and Soviet form, and paid for it with his life

February 9, 2026

BL. ALOJZIJE STEPINAC was born into a large Catholic family on 8 May 1898 in Krasic. After graduation from high school in 1916, he completed military service during World War I. In 1924 he decided to study for the priesthood and was sent to Rome, where he attended the Pontifical Germanicum-Hungaricum College. He earned doctorates […]

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February 11 – St. Benedict of Aniane

February 9, 2026

St. Benedict of Aniane Born about 745-750; died at Cornelimünster, 11 February, 821. Benedict, originally known as Witiza, son of the Goth, Aigulf, Count of Maguelone in Southern France, was educated at the Frankish court of Pepin, and entered the royal service. He took part in the Italian campaign of Charlemagne (773), after which he […]

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February 11 – Elected pope while on Crusade in Palestine

February 9, 2026

Blessed Pope Gregory X Born 1210; died 10 January, 1276. Pope Gregory X was declared Blessed on July 8, 1713 by Pope Clement XI. The death of Pope Clement IV (29 November, 1268) left the Holy See vacant for almost three years. The cardinals assembled at Viterbo were divided into two camps, the one French […]

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What One Lie Can Do

February 5, 2026

In the days when the first Catholic missionaries went to Japan to preach the Gospel to the natives, certain merchants from Holland went to the Emperor and told him that the only aim that these missionaries had was to bring the Portuguese and the Spaniards into the country, that in time they might take possession […]

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February 5 – St. Adelaide of Cologne

February 5, 2026

St. Adelaide (of Cologne) Abbess, born in the tenth century; died at Cologne, 5 February, 1015. She was daughter of Megingoz, Count of Guelders, and when still very young entered the convent of St. Ursula in Cologne, where the Rule of St. Jerome was followed. When her parents founded the convent of Villich, opposite the […]

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February 6 – “No priest, no Mass”

February 5, 2026

Edmund Plowden Born 1517-8; died in London, 6 Feb., 1584-5. Son of Humphrey Plowden of Plowden Hall, Shropshire, and Elizabeth his wife, educated at Cambridge, he took no degree. In 1538 he was called to the Middle Temple where he studied law so closely that he became the greatest lawyer of his age, as is […]

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