John of Damascus, Defender of Icons and the Last of the Eastern Fathers

Was there ever a golden age of Catholic and Islamic relations? The evidence for such is slim, with the two religions seemingly incompatible and...

Edmund Campion’s English Optimism

Today we celebrate Saint Edmund Campion – see Avellina Ballestri’s fine recounting of his glorious life from the archives - one of the most...

Andrew, An Apostle for All Ages

A blessed feast of Saint Andrew to all our readers! Today, the last day of November, we celebrate the first Apostle called, along with...

The DSM, Psychiatry, and Big Pharma

The DSM - the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - is the textbook, one might even call it the bible, of psychiatry and psychology. After...

Catherine Labouré and the Miraculous Medal

November 27th is the anniversary of the apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Saint Catherine Labouré, a Visitation Sister, during her evening meditation....

Catherine’s Pure Philosophy

In one of those ironies of God's history - choosing what seems weak to confound the apparently strong - the patron saint of philosophers...

Andrew-Dung Lac and the Vietnamese Martyrs: Washed in the Blood of the Lamb

On this memorial of the Martyrs of Vietnam, we commemorate today a whole panoply of white-robed witnesses, Christians, bishops, priests, Franciscans, Dominicans, lay men,...

Faith, Reason and Formal Objects

In 1998, 25 years ago, Pope Saint John Paul II published his encyclical, Fides et Ratio, on the relationship between faith and reason, the...

A Triptych of Saints: Clement, Columba and Pro

November 23rd marks one of those tri-partite saint days, Clement, Columba and Pro, which sounds like a sign outside a law office - not...

Saint Caecilia’s Heavenly Music

We have yet to hear what heavenly music sounds like, but Saint Francis de Sales once recounted that he was blessed to hear an...