This arrived today, from a friend: “100 years ago today, the last Mass was said on the Titanic, which happened to be Low Sunday, tomorrow’s Mass.” The Encyclopedia Titanica has an entry on Father Byles, the priest who offered the … Continue reading
Category: Did you know?
Merry Childermas!
Today is the feast of the Holy Innocents, once known in the Anglophone world as Childermas. This curious word is an elision of “Mass of the Children,” that is, the liturgical commemoration of those little boys of Bethlehem who were … Continue reading
Louisiana State Flag: Catholic and Eucharistic
News of a recent change in the Louisiana State Flag highlights the Eucharistic origin of its pelican symbol. The simple addition of three small drops of blood make it very clear that the pelican is not simply feeding her chicks; … Continue reading
Lawyer for the Mob and O’Hare International
Thanks to Larry and Susan Koralweski for this interesting story. Easy Eddie Many years ago, Al Capone virtually owned Chicago. He was notorious for enmeshing the windy city in everything from bootlegged booze and prostitution to murder. Capone had a … Continue reading
Bobby Kennedy and Father Feeney: Religion as American Politics
This is a bit antiquated, but it’s just come to my attention. Teddy wanted to make sure Bobby got credit for his contribution to twentieth-century Catholic doctrinal development. (Cardinal Newman and Robert Kennedy: the two names should stand side-by-side.) This … Continue reading
Ben Hur and Billy the Kid?
Did You Know that the first book of fiction to be “blessed” by a pope was Ben Hur. Yes, Pope Leo XIII did the honors. Well, for what it’s worth, there’s the fact of it. Lew Wallace wrote the story … Continue reading
Let’s Change the Name Of the Poinsettia Flower to Dolorosa Flower
Did You Know that the red leaf Poinsettia flower that adorns our altars at Christmas time was named after an anti-Catholic Freemason, Joel Roberts Poinsett. When Latin American countries complain of the United States (add British and French) businesses monopolizing … Continue reading
Blessed Gandolph the Gray?
This Franciscan holy man was entirely unknown to me until Brother David, a friar friend of ours, informed me of him. Considering that Blessed Gandolph lived in the time of Saint Francis himself, and that the Poverello’s habit was gray, we may conclude that Blessed Galdolph himself wore gray and is therefore entitled to the title we’ve given him. Continue reading
His Highness Was Almost His Holiness
Of course he had abdicated his royal title when he was ordained to the priesthood, but this Stuart was a papabile in 1800. Did You Know that in the conclave of 1800 a de jure King of England almost was … Continue reading
…And Speaking of Military Chaplains…
If Brother Andé Marie’s posting on Father Emil Kapaun interested you, you may care to learn something about another American Catholic military chaplain that received the Medal of Honor. He is the Bavarian-born Benedictine from Saint Vincent’s Archabbey in Latrobe, … Continue reading
Longfellow’s Catholic Affinity
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, one of the greatest poets to grace the sunrise of American literature in the mid-nineteenth century, had more than a passing interest in Catholic themes. Study travels to the European countrysides, which were granted him by Maine’s Bowdoin College, … Continue reading
Longfellow and Tolkien: the Finnish Connection
What do the “shores of Gitche Gumee by the shining Big-Sea-Water” have in common with the “Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie”? The Protestant American author of Evangeline and The Song of Hiawatha is not generally associated with the … Continue reading
Inscription on Dome of the Rock Attacks the Incarnation
InsideCatholic.com Catholic Journalist David Warren writes: In Jerusalem, on the Dome of the Rock — situated on top of what is almost certainly the Holy of Holies, within the ancient Temple precincts — is an inscription, in their earliest angular … Continue reading
Father Andrew White and “Maryland Day” (March 25)
A Sketch of the life of Father Andrew White. As a follow-up to my previous column on the early history of Maryland, the colony, I would be remiss if I did not introduce our readers to the “apostle of Maryland,” … Continue reading
The Basilian Nuns of Minsk: The Ordeals of Saintly Mother Makrina
On 11 February 1869, Mother Irena Makrina Mieczyslavska (1784-1869), the Ihumena, or abbess, of the nuns of the Order of St. Basil the Great in White Ruthenia (today the Republic of Belarus), died in the odour of sanctity in the … Continue reading
