The term assassin, one who murders by treacherous violence, comes to us from the Latin assassinus, which was transliterated from the Arabic hashshashin. From the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, “the Assassins” were the Islamic sect in power from Iran … Continue reading
The French word for cab, fiacre , has its origins in the name of an Irish Saint, St. Fiacre or Fiaker. Born in Erin during its Golden Age, St. Fiacre embodied the great learning and sanctity which marked “the Land … Continue reading
The Eastern Schism certainly has no sympathizers among the editors of this publication. That said, we take a moment to appreciate something its adherents did right. The Greek Orthodox never held the heresies on grace, revelation, the sacraments, the Mass, … Continue reading
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
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
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, 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, 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, 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.
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