The 23rd of April is the feast of St George Martyr. Upon seeing many depictions of this great saint, hailing from the early centuries of Christianity, I am very much encouraged by his constant intercession and support in our spiritual battles we all have to face in our lives. But who was exactly this inspiring saint whose feast, according to the Tridentine Calendar of 1568, was given the rank of “Semidouble”? George, whose name means “farm” or “earthworker”, came from an important family. He was a brave Cappadocian officer who fought valiantly in the Roman army during the third century. George ..read more

Today’s triptych of saints are all connected with the persecution under the Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius in the mid-2nd century, particularly as it raged in the then-Roman city of Lyons in 177. It was then that the bishop, Saint Irenaeus, met his end, his feast being on June 28th. Many martyrs also witnessed during this blood-letting, including two friends, Epipodius and Alexander. The latter was a physician, the former, a single bachelor, who dedicated his life to good works. Epipodius is the patrons saint of bachelors, demonstrating that, in some way, single life can be a vocation – sometim ..read more

BENEDICT XVI GENERAL AUDIENCE Paul VI Audience Hall Wednesday, 23 September 2009 [Video] Saint Anselm Dear Brothers and Sisters, The Benedictine Abbey of Sant’Anselmo [St Anselm] is located on the Aventine Hill in Rome. As the headquarters of an academic institute of higher studies and of the Abbot Primate of the Confederated Benedictines it is a place that unites within it prayer, study and governance, the same three activities that were a feature of the life of the Saint to whom it is dedicated: Anselm of Aosta, the ninth anniversary of whose death occurs this year. The many initiatives prom ..read more

Saint Agnes of Montepulciano (+1317) is one of the ‘incorruptibles’. She was born in the picturesque cliff-top Italian city on January 28th, 1268, the same day as her fellow Dominican, Thomas Aquinas (whose birth year was likely 1225). The future Jesuit and Cardinal, Saint Robert Bellarmine was also born in Montepulciano, and the region, in southern Tuscany to this day produces some of the finest of Italian wines. I have friends visiting over there as I write, likely sipping some of that vino on a terrace somewhere, as I look out my window as minor snow squalls here in Canada. We take what God ..read more

Two saints are commemorated on this 19th of April, both of the Middle Ages: Saint Ælfheah of Canterbury, more commonly known as ‘Alphege’, was born in 953 outside of Bath in southern England. In youth, he chose the higher path, becoming an anchorite, enclosing himself in as a hermit and dedicating his life solely to God. But his virtue and holiness were soon recognized, and he was chosen as the Abbot of Glastonbury Abbey, in which task dedicated himself to the beauty and transcendence in liturgy. One anecdote that stood out for me was his having an organ constructed in the cathedral that took ..read more

G.K. Chesterton quipped once, if memory serves, that each man, with some diligent and faithful hard work, should be able to afford ‘three acres and a cow’, to provide for his family in a fitting manner. Enough room to grow a large garden, the cow for milk (and perhaps, eventually, meat), space for the children to frolic, and the family to walk and wander. There’s enough room in the world for every family to have such a little kingdom to call their own. Three acres? Dream on! Even half an acre anywhere near – that is, within two or three hours’ drive – of any sort of urban centre or civilizatio ..read more

But the snake said to the woman: “You certainly will not die! God knows well that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods, who know good and evil.” The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. According to G.K. Chesterton in The Comm ..read more

It seems slow – walking, that is – and, to our modern modes of transport, it is. Bikes can move at about 20 miles per hour; cars, 60; airplanes, 400 or more. Yet, as Nick Hunt argues – and as partial as I am to bicycles, and my write up another post on the glory of two pedaled wheels – walking is the most human of paces, and the most human form of transportation, involving only our own bodies, their rhythm and musculature; the anatomy of our forebears, their only mode of moving from one place to another, passed onto us, shaped us physiologically, psychologically, even spiritually, over aeons ..read more

Bd. Marie-Anne Blondin (+1890), whose optional memorial falls today in our fair Dominion, the day of her birth in 1809, five decades before Canada was Canada. Most Canadians, alas, have likely never heard of her, but she was one of the founders of our once-glorious and envied educational system, before it fell apart due to government funding and cultural disintegration. Marie Anne’s birth name was Esther, the daughter of poor rural farmers in Quebec. She tried to join the Congregation of Notre Dame – founded by Marguerite Bourgeoys – and the sisters taught her to read and write, but she was le ..read more

One more note on this April 16th, which also marks the anniversary of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, when the Scottish regiments, in support of Charles Stuart, were decisively defeated by the English. Bonnie Prince Charlie, as he was known, was the grandson of James VII of Scotland, also James II of England, who had been usurped by the interlopers William of Orange and Mary, who was James’ Protestant daughter. In the aftermath of the battle, the highlands were ‘cleared’ – that is, the lands seized from their rightful owners, the customs crushed, retributive reprisals – not unlike what was don ..read more