It has long been our opinion at Saint Benedict Center that a thorough understanding of the twenty-one Ecumenical Councils of the Church would be a great inspiration to Catholics. Especially is this true today when we are laboring to preserve … Continue reading
Category: Articles
The Council of Ephesus
Editor’s Introduction: In the following pages, Brother Michael tells an inspiring story of the Christian enthusiasm with which the faithful of the fifth century fought and repelled a heresy that would have undermined faith in the Incarnation, and would have … Continue reading
Constantinople I — In Defense of the Holy Ghost
Byzantium was a little Greek colony that sat rather proudly on the western shore of the Bosphorus Strait. For almost a thousand years this classical settlement posed, unappreciated, upon one of the most strategic geographic locations in the world. Lying, … Continue reading
The Road to Emmaus
We read Holy Scripture in order to learn God’s ways in His dealings with men, ways which invariably prove to be mysterious and baffling to our thoughts and expectations. Most especially do we find ourselves both challenged and bewildered by … Continue reading
Pére Marquette and the Invincibly Ignorant Native
(Condensed) Down the broad, undiscovered river which was to be known as the Wisconsin, crept two canoes carrying seven white men. Five of these bronze-skinned paddlers wore the fringed coats and skin trousers, the pudding-bag caps and gay red sashes … Continue reading
The Church, The Mystical Body
(From a talk Brother gave at the 1997 Saint Benedict Center Conference) I will begin this talk with a basic question, but a question I’m afraid most of us don’t think enough about: What was the purpose of the Incarnation? … Continue reading
Praying to Saints
I’ll never forget sitting at a table outside a café in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, while a Pentecostal street preacher screamed his odd form of Christianity at the passing college students. He had the sort of rhythmic drive that Black Baptist … Continue reading
The Blessed Trinity Explained to Thomas Butler
You said: “Write a treatise on the Blessed Trinity, and explain it just to me!” You know very well that there are many realizations of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity which you have already arrived at, and which are … Continue reading
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha
[Saint Kateri was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 21, 2012. This piece was written when she was yet a blessed.] The Church says anyone can be a saint if he cooperates with the graces God gives him. And … Continue reading
The Beloved Disciple
One day Jesus was walking along the banks of the Sea of Galilee and He saw two fishermen, “James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets: and he called … Continue reading
The Pontificate of Pope Saint Leo the Great
Almost six years after the death of Saint Athanasius, in the pontificate of the glorious Pope, Saint Damasus - the patron of Saint Jerome in his biblical studies — there came to the imperial throne in the East, the great … Continue reading
Saint Louis Marie de Montfort
In all the annals of human endeavor there are no examples more inspiring, more worthy of remembrance and esteem in every age, than those of saints like Louis Marie. This in itself, we think, would be sufficient reason for presenting … Continue reading
The Life of Saint Gregory the Great
Pope Saint Gregory the Great not only saved the Church, in times so frightful that the men who lived in them were sure that the end of the world was come, but he founded the great civilization which has lasted … Continue reading
Saint Clement Maria Hofbauer — Apostle of Vienna
Born in Tasswitz, Austria, on December 26, 1751 — the eve of the feast of the Apostle who Jesus loved — he was christened John. But he would become known to the Catholic world by the names he would adopt … Continue reading
Saint Ephrem
In connection with the widespread revival of interest in Catholic theology during the current century, many of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church, all but forgotten just a generation ago, are being studied and appreciated anew. Among the Fourth … Continue reading






