The edifying story of St. Stephen the Protomartyr is told in Chapters Six and Seven of the Acts of the Apostles. One of the first seven deacons, St. Stephen is a model of evangelical zeal, who sealed this virtue in … Continue reading
Author Archives: Catholicism.org
Saint Laurence – the Courteous Spaniard
The relics of St. Stephen have been relocated (“translated”) twice since the miraculous finding: from Jerusalem to Constantinople in the fifth century and from Constantinople to Rome in the sixth. May seventh is the day on which the Roman Church … Continue reading
Saintly friends and family . . . of Herod?
Hard as it may be to believe, Herod Antipas, the adulterous murderer of St. John the Baptist, had saints among his friends and family. In the Roman Martyrology — the Roman Church’s official catalogue of principal martyrs and saints for … Continue reading
The Catholic University in Tokyo was the Result of an Anglican Leaflet
The Society of the Atonement (Graymoor) was an Anglican Order, Franciscan in spirit, founded by Father Paul Francis, S.A. and Mother Lurana Mary Francis, S.A., who believed in the Supremacy of the Pope, all the dogmas of the Church, devotion … Continue reading
The Symbol of Physicians comes from the Book of Numbers
Known as the caduceus, the wand of Hermes, the Greek god of chance, is the most widely used symbol of the medical profession. The caduceus, two snakes entwined around a wooden rod, replaced the staff of Asclepius on the crest … Continue reading
Not Made for This World — New Fr. Feeney Book
The Sisters of St. Ann’s House in Still River, Massachusetts, have done the Church the wonderful service of publishing a new collection of Father Feeney’s talks dating from the 1950s: Not Made for This World. The only editing the good … Continue reading
Zenit Interviews Theologian on Non-Believers’ Salvation
Zenit News Agency has just published a two-part interview on the salvation of non-believers. Professor Ilaria Morali, a lay woman who teaches dogmatic theology at the Gregorian, answered questions based on Pope Benedict XVI’s Wednesday audience of November 30 .
The Anti-Catholicism of Benedict Arnold
One of motives behind Benedict Arnold’s betrayal of the American army in our War of Independence was his hatred for the Catholic religion espoused by our French allies. He stated that the American Congress had betrayed the “cause” of the … Continue reading
Saint Anthony Mary Claret and Vatican I
The first Vatican Council (1869-1870) had a saint attending it, Antonio Maria Claret, the founder of the Claretian Order. Sad to say, the liberal views expressed openly by the Bishops in opposition to the doctrine of papal infallibility were so … Continue reading
Ven. Mary of Agreda Bilocated to North America
When the Franciscan missionaries arrived from Mexico to evangelize the Indians north of the Rio Grande in the early sixteenth century, they discovered much to their astonishment that one of the tribes had been baptizing their children for generations. The … Continue reading
Ethan Allen’s Daughter – First United States Nun
Though Ethan Allen of the famed Green Mountain Boys was an atheist, his daughter, Frances Allen, was the first United States citizen to become a nun.
Anne Boleyn’s Hatred of Saints
Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s immoral mistress, was so filled with diabolic hatred for Saint John Fisher, that after the king had ordered the holy Bishop decapitated, she took his head by the hair and slapped his face cutting her finger … Continue reading
Louis Ampere – Faithful Catholic
Louis Ampere, the renowned physicist, whose discoveries in the field of electricity lent his name to the unit of measurement for an electric current (Amp.), said the Rosary faithfully every day before the Blessed Sacrament. In fact, the founder of … Continue reading
Steven Douglas Was Converted by Fr. Damen
Steven Douglas, the famous Senator from Illinois who lost to Lincoln in the presidential race of 1860, was converted to the Catholic Faith by Father Damen, who gave the famous sermon: The One True Church.
The Stigmata
There have been 321 cases of authentic stigmatization recorded. A stigmatist is one who by his close relation to the Crucified Jesus partakes visibly or invisibly of His Sacred Wounds. St. Francis of Assisi was the first stigmatist (though some … Continue reading
