It was customary in the Middle Ages, as formerly among the Romans, for the nobility to wear crowns of flowers as “chaplets.” These crowns were offered to persons of distinction as a sign of reverence. Our Lady as Queen of Heaven and of all souls has a right to the same homage, and so the…
St. Bridget belonged to the royal family of Sweden. She had eight children among whom was St. Catherine of Sweden. Her husband, with her full consent, became a monk and had a holy death in the Cistercian habit. Bridget followed his example and founded the famous monastery of Vadstena which for centuries was to become…
St. John Leonardi who was canonized by Pope Pius XI, in 1938, was one of the greatest figures among the Italian clergy in the sixteenth century. God’s intervention was marvelously manifest in his works; he was indeed one of the workers whom God raises up in His Church to extend His kingdom. As a young…
A descendant of the notorious Alexander VI, Francis Borgia spent a part of his life in collecting titles and offices of importance—at one time or other he was Marquis of Lombay, high steward of Charles V and the Empress, Viceroy of Catalonia and Duke of Gandia. Certain reverses of fortune caused him to reflect. He…
The dogma of the divine maternity of the Blessed Virgin was defined at the Council of Ephesus in 431. Mary is the Mother of Jesus; the Son of God really took her flesh, he is really her Son. In 1931, on the fifteenth centenary of this great Council, Pius XI instituted today’s feast. The Church,…
St. Seraphim, who from early childhood looked after his father’s flocks, had acquired a love of solitude and prayer. After his father’s death he endured, with patience, continuous ill treatment from his older brother, until the age of sixteen when he entered the Capuchins. There he made great progress in all the virtues: regularity, penance,…
St. Edward, King of England from 1042 to 1066, was known as the Confessor to distinguish him from his uncle Edward the Martyr. He restored Westminster Abbey, was much addicted to alms, affable and peace-loving. His popularity spread throughout the kingdom soon after the Norman conquest, and it was the Norman dynasty which secured his…
St. Callistus I (217-222) was one of the great popes of the third century. As a deacon he was charged with the administration of the Church’s property and with gathering together the bodies of the martyrs; he organized the famous cemetery on the Appian Way, called after him San Callisto. As pope he regulated the…
St. Teresa of Avila was the born in 1515 in the rugged countryside of Castile. At the age of twenty she entered the Carmel of the Incarnation at Avila. At that time the Order followed a mitigated observance. After herself adopting a more rigorous form of life Teresa reformed her monastery and with the help…
St. Hedwig was of royal parentage and was the maternal aunt of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. She married Henry, Duke of Silesia and after his death completely renounced the world and entered the monastery of Trebnitz which she had founded. All of her children (three sons and three daughters) predeceased her save one of her…
