Feast of St. Blaise—Invoking Against Diseases of the Throat A physician of Sebaste in Cappadocia, where he was later named Bishop, St. Blaise, was martyred about the year 320. He is venerated as a patron to protect us against diseases of the throat, mainly because of the story told that he cured a boy choking […]
The first striking characteristic of Andrew is his name: it is not Hebrew, as might have been expected, but Greek, indicative of a certain cultural openness in his family that cannot be ignored. We are in Galilee, where the Greek language and culture are quite present. Andrew comes second in the list of the Twelve, as in […]
As we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, let us discover the meaning behind the symbols of the medal the Blessed Mother herself designed. According to the record, the first medals were made in 1832 and distributed in Paris. Only ten original medals are known to exist, and one is housed […]
It was almost midnight when Sister Laboure was awakened by someone calling her. At the foot of her bed, she saw a beautiful child beckoning her to follow; arriving at the chapel, she beheld Our Lady, who spoke to her for two hours. On November 27, while the community was assembled for prayer, Mary came […]
Albert the Great was a 13th-century German Dominican who decisively influenced the Church’s stance toward Aristotelian philosophy brought to Europe by the spread of Islam. Students of philosophy know him as the master of Thomas Aquinas. Albert’s attempt to understand Aristotle’s writings established the climate in which Thomas Aquinas developed his synthesis of Greek wisdom […]
Didacus is living proof that God “chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” As a young man in Spain, Didacus joined the Secular Franciscan Order and lived for some time as a hermit. After Didacus became a Franciscan brother, […]
With an apparent strong conviction of the importance of the Bishop of Rome in the Church and of the Church as the ongoing sign of Christ’s presence in the world, Leo the Great displayed endless dedication as pope. Elected in 440, he worked tirelessly as “Peter’s successor,” guiding his fellow bishops as “equals in the […]
Most Catholics think of St. Peter’s as the pope’s main church, but they are wrong. St. John Lateran is the pope’s church, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, where the Bishop of Rome presides. The first basilica on the site was built in the fourth century when Constantine donated land he had received from […]
