Saint Bridget, Sweden’s Charitable Bibliophile
Long before Sweden was known for ABBA and IKEA – two exports not to everyone’s taste, even if billion-dollar brands – along with a...
Mary Magdalene’s Marvelous Metanoia
A blessed feast of Mary Magdalene, which - or who - was raised from memorial status in the liturgical revisions of 1969 to a...
Saint Lawrence of Brindisi’ Bible and Cappucino
Guilio Cesare Russo was born to a family of Venetian merchants, but not in Venice, but rather far to the south, in the village...
Saint Apollinaris of Ravenna
The See of Ravenna – on the north-east coast of Italy – was once, way back in the Middle Ages, nearly on par with...
The Witness of the Carmelites of Compiègne – Le Temoinage des Carmelites de Compiègne
It was on this day in a Parisian summer in 1794 - one day after the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - that sixteen...
Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Around this time of year in the Office of Readings, or Lauds, we follow the travails of the prophet Elijah from the Book of...
Pope Benedict and Saint Bonaventure: Part I
(The young Josef Ratzinger completed his doctorate on the thought of Saint Bonaventure, so these words of his on the great Franciscan strike home...
The Seraphic Doctor: Saint Bonaventure
Some of the 'Doctors of the Church' have epithets, and Saint Bonaventure, whom we celebrate today, is the 'seraphic', perhaps for his transcendent teaching;...
Saint Camillus de Lellis: Gambling Everything on Christ
A true saint for our times is the one we celebrate today - Camillus de Lellis (+1614) (we will follow the Canadian calendar, and...
Saint Henry’s Heavenly Rule
We need more leaders such as Saint Henry (+1024, 'Emperor of the Romans' and 'King of the Italians', the last of the 'Ottonian' line...