St. Aloysius Gonzaga’s outstanding quality was his radiant purity and the Church praises his perfect innocence with the words, “Thou hast made him little less than the angels.” He was baptized in the womb, because his life was in danger, and made a vow of chastity at the age of nine. When he was sixteen…
Born of a patrician Roman family at Bordeaux, St. Paulinus was successively prefect, senator and consul. His wife, wishing to consecrate herself to God, gave up rank and riches; he followed her example and went to live an austere hermit’s life at Nola in Italy. There he became a priest and then bishop of the…
The Church prepares for tomorrow’s celebration of the feast of St. John the Baptist, the Precursor or Forerunner of the Messias. This feast has kept its Vigil by reason of the importance of the exceptional mission that was John the Baptist’s. “The Prophet of the Most High,” was foretold by Jeremias and Isaias; indeed, in…
The liturgy celebrates in the birth of St. John the Baptist the dawn of salvation, the appearance in this world of the forerunner of the Messias: “Elizabeth, Zachary’s wife, has brought into the world a great man, John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Savior” (First Antiphon, at Second Vespers). Six months before our Savior’s…
St. William was a Piedmontese hermit of the beginning of the twelfth century. He built a monastery on the summit of Monte Vergine near Naples, and established a community of hermits, to whom he gave a rule inspired in great measure by that of St. Benedict. He died in 1142.
The ancient basilica of Saints John and Paul on Mount Caelius in Rome was in the fourth century already dedicated in honor of the two martyrs whom we celebrate today. Roman tradition depicts them as two brothers, who encouraged each other to remain faithful in their sufferings. Their Mass emphasizes this profound brotherhood in fidelity…
Pope Pius IX first established this feast day to commemorate the coronation of the miraculous image of Our Mother of Perpetual Help. This picture is painted on wood, with background of gold. It is Byzantine in style and is the most famous icon in the Latin Church. It represents the Mother of God consoling the…
The vigil of the Apostles Saints Peter and Paul is the only one remaining of the Vigils of Apostles. By the thousands, Christian people have gone on pilgrimage to the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul. In the second and third centuries the Roman Church already stood pre-eminent by reason of her apostolicity, the infallible…
The two great Apostles, Peter and Paul, are the solid rock on which the Church is built. They are at the origin of her faith and will forever remain her protectors and her guides. To them Rome owes her true greatness, for it was under God’s providential guidance that they were led to make of…
Today’s feast is in some sense a repetition of yesterday’s. In the early Church, on June 29 in Rome two stations were held: one at St. Peter’s, the other at the basilica of St. Paul-Outside-the-Walls, at the tomb of each of the two Apostles. Subsequently, the “Commemoration of St. Paul” was transferred to the following…
