When Blessed Pope Pius IX summoned the First Vatican Council in 1869 the world was somewhat mystified. There had not been an ecumenical council since Trent (1545-1563). The nineteenth century had brought a new factor into the equation of church/state … Continue reading
The great Catholic priest, convert, and poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J., was so affected by the sinking, in 1875, of a German ship, the Deutschland, in a storm off the coast of Bremen, and the heroism of five Franciscan sisters … Continue reading
One of the presidents of the American United Steel Workers Union was a very devout Catholic. He was Phillip Murray (1886-1952), an Irishman whose family emigrated from Scotland in 1902 when he was sixteen years old. Murray, who had worked … Continue reading
The word “gossip” originally had a very noble meaning. It is contracted from “god-sibling” and was the term used for the godparent at baptism. In time the word was extended in usage and applied to any close friend, and, more … Continue reading
Yes, there was a Catholic bishop in the United States whose mother had been a Negro slave. He was James Augustine Healy (1830-1900), second bishop of Portland Maine. He was born in Macon, Georgia, to Michael Healy, an Irish immigrant … Continue reading
When I read Sister Maria Philomena’s article on Junipero Serra, it reminded me of a piece I wrote a couple of years ago, which I am sure our website’s readers would appreciate. It’s a bit of Catholic trivia that is … Continue reading
There are several interesting facts in the history of West Virgina that highlight the footprints of the Catholic Church in the most mountainous state east of the MIssissippi. The first is a tradition handed down from the eighteenth century that … Continue reading
Of all the words, exclamations, and clichés that grew out of anti-catholic bigotry, it is the word “dunce” that is the most ridiculous misnomer. It is derived from the name of one of the greatest scholastic thinkers of the Middles … Continue reading
Everyone knows that Protestants do not venerate saints. Nevertheless, sometimes they canonize their own by naming places after some local denizen that they feel deserves the title. At least five cities in the U.S.A. testify to the rather strange anomaly: … Continue reading
Sylvester II (999-1003), the first French Pope, a great teacher, theologian, philosopher, and diplomat is credited with inventing the first mechanical pendulum clock. Not only that, but while studying mathematics and natural science under Arab instructors in Spain, he persuaded … Continue reading
One of the earliest and most popular editors of the Catholic newspaper, The Boston Pilot, was an escaped “convict.” John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-90) was unjustly sentenced in 1867, by the English, to twenty-three years of penal servitude in Australia for … Continue reading
In Catholic religious art the color blue, not white, is symbolic of purity. The white wedding gown originated in the nineteenth century in imitation of Queen Victoria who wore white for her wedding to Prince Albert. The blue that brides … Continue reading
I’m back from this two-week trip to Rome, but I haven’t gotten the Eternal City out of my mind. Not by a long shot. Thus, this entry, which has a ghoulish picture in it. I think it’s an appropriate meditation … Continue reading
The first diocese established in North America was not Mexico City or Quebec but Greenland. Viking Leif Erikson, son of Erik the Red, brought along Catholic missionaries when he sailed to Greenland from Norway in the year 1000.
The word “saunter,” which means to “wander about,” is derived from Saint Terre (Holy Land). The connection is this: After the age of the catacombs, with the ascent of Constantine and Theodosius to the imperial Roman throne, Christians were free … Continue reading
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