Free Republic

December 6 is the feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra, later of Bari. Though known more commonly in modern times for his connection with “Santa Claus”, Saint Nicholas was considered a great saint in his day and numerous anecdotes relating to his acts of holiness, courage and generosity have come down to us from antiquity. Here is an excerpt from an anonymous history from the 4th century AD entitled, Praxis de Stratelatis (Act of the Generals). In it, we see Saint Nicholas doing what he does best: using his authority as bishop to rescue the innocent and speak the truth...

[Devotional] Feast of the Holy Maccabean Martyrs2 Maccabees 7The glorious martyrdom of the seven brethren and their mother.1 It came to pass also, that seven brethren, together with their mother, were apprehended, and compelled by the king to eat swine's flesh against the law, for which end they were tormented with whips and scourges.Contigit autem et septem fratres una cum matre sua apprehensos compelli a rege edere contra fas carnes porcinas, flagris, et taureis cruciatos.2 But one of them, who was the eldest, said thus: What wouldst thou ask, or learn of us? we are ready to die rather than...

St. James’ courageous martyrdom has inspired the conversion and pilgrimage of manyLet us today hail the bright star which once made Compostella so resplendent with its rays that the obscure town became, like Jerusalem and Rome, a center of attraction to the piety of the whole world. Let us today hail the bright star which once made Compostella so resplendent with its rays that the obscure town became, like Jerusalem and Rome, a center of attraction to the piety of the whole world. As long as the Christian empire lasted, the sepulcher of St. James the Great rivaled in glory...

[Catholic Caucus] The Sacred Heart: Synthesis of All Catholic DoctrineThe Sacred Heart is not a simple devotion of sentiment - it is not even a special isolated dogma. It is the synthesis of all Catholic doctrine, of the whole Catholic moral law summed up in the love of Jesus Christ for us and of our love for Jesus Christ. There is then for us a theology of the Sacred Heart. This theology, according to Saint Augustine and Bossuet, from the consideration that God is the eternal Heart -- God is love (1 Jn 4:8) -- finds in this charity the...

[Devotional] St. Timothy, Bishop, Martyr–R (III) January 24 St. Timothy, who is the best-known disciple of St. Paul, was bishop of Ephesus in Asia Minor. He was stoned to death by pagans in 97. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* TIMOTHY was a convert of St. Paul. He was born at Lystra in Asia Minor. His mother was a Jewess, but his father was a pagan; and though Timothy had read the Scriptures from his childhood, he had not been circumcised as a Jew. On the arrival of St. Paul at Lystra the youthful Timothy, with his mother and grandmother, eagerly embraced the Faith. Seven...

September 3 is the feast of Pope St. Gregory the Great. This most significant of popes lived during a time of societal dissolution, when the Roman Empire in the West was in its final death agony. Though the Eastern Empire had re-established dominion in Africa and Italy in the 550s AD under Justinian, the invasion of the brutal Lombards in AD 568 proved unstoppable, leaving Italy in a state of perpetual fracture and chaos that would last centuries. Following is the opening to Gregory's work, The Dialogues. This great work was written during a period of brief respite, when Gregory...

[Catholic Caucus] Solemn Mass at St. Peter's Basilica for the Feast of the Dedication of Saint Michael the Archangel At the Altar of Saint Michael the Archangel - 4 images (click to enlarge):They have tried to kill us -- yet we live! "And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me."(Via Messa in Latino)

July 28 is the feast day of two fairly obscure martyrs of Milan, Saints Nazarius and Celsus. According to the Golden Legend compiled much later, Nazarius was a missionary and possibly a presbyter, baptized by the hand of St. Linus in Rome. During his travels in Gaul, Nazarius met the mother of Celsus, a young boy of perhaps ten years of age. The mother asked Nazarius to baptize the boy and take him with him on his journeys of conversion. Both Nazarius and Celsus were martyred, the legend says, during the reign of Nero, having been beheaded in Milan. Generally,...

April 28 is the feast day of Saint Vitalis, an ancient Roman martyr about whom very little is known. The summary of his life from Butler's Lives of the Saints contains much of what is known and can reasonably be speculated about Saint Vitalis: Saint Vitalis is honored as the principal patron of the city of Ravenna, in which he glorified God by martyrdom in the persecution of Nero. He was a citizen of Milan, and is said in his acts to have been the father of SS. Gervasius and Protasius. The divine providence conducted him to Ravenna, where he...

February 8 is the feast of Saint Josephine Bakhita, canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000. Her perilous and inspiring journey from slavery to sainthood is fairly well-known as it has been the subject of several books and movies. A summary of her biography may also be found in Pope Benedict XVI's encyclical Spe Salvi from 2007. Pope Benedict wrote: The example of a saint of our time can to some degree help us understand what it means to have a real encounter with this God for the first time. I am thinking of the African Josephine Bakhita,...

Remember. July 1 is the feast of Saint Junipero Serra, patron saint of Hispanics Americans and the State of California. Congratulations for all American Hispanics and Californians! Saint junipero Serra founded many California missions which became seeds of great California Cities like San Francisco and San Diego. Attacks on Saint Junipero Serra statues are attacks on California and all US Hispanics!

A lamentable feature of modern post-Christian life in the West is the inability of many people to form strong, lasting friendships. This observation has popped up with increasing frequency in the secular media, particularly as it relates to the Millennial generation. A recent poll that made the rounds last year indicated that 22% of Millennials who responded said that they had no friends at all, 27% said that they had no close friends, and 30% said that they had no best friends. The article accompanying the poll suggests that social media usage has been a major driver of this phenomenon....

In about AD 530, when Italy was ruled by the unstable successors of the Ostrogothic king Theodoric immediately prior to the Byzantine re-conquest, many noblemen of Rome entrusted their young sons to Benedictus, a holy monk who lived in the mountains of nearby Subiaco. One such boy was Maurus who is identified by Saint Gregory the Great as the son of a noble named Evitius. Another was Placidus, who was brought by Tertullius, a senator. These two were among earliest disciples of a man who would be known to history of St. Benedict of Nursia. Writing about 60 years after...

[Catholic Caucus] Fatima and the Immaculate Conception May God grant you a joyful and blessed Feast of the Immaculate Conception! Although the Church’s faith in the Immaculate Conception is of apostolic origin, the dogma was explicitly defined with infallible petrine authority (ex cathedra) on December 8, 1854. In his apostolic constitution, Ineffabilis Deus, Pius IX teaches: “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of Her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of...

December 7 is the feast day of Aurelius Ambrosius, known to history as Saint Ambrose of Milan. He was born in Trier to a wealthy Roman family—his father, also named Ambrose, was Praetorian Prefect of Gaul according to Ambrose's ancient biographer, Paulinus of Milan. Paulinus relates a miracle associated with Ambrose's youth that seemed to presage a great future for the child: When he, as an infant placed in a cradle within the courtyard of the governor's residence, was sleeping with open mouth, suddenly a swarm of bees came and covered his face and lips in such a way that...

On this feast day of Saint Francis Xavier, let us recall in particular his missionary zeal. In our own age, we too often hear that the Gospel of Jesus Christ needs to be adapted to appeal to the modern world. We are told that traditional Christian practices are out of step with reality, and that Christian morality practiced for millennia now impose an impossible burden upon both sophisticated city-dwellers and the simple painted people of the jungle alike. Saint Francis Xavier, perhaps the greatest Jesuit missionary of them all, had no such qualms. He preached the authentic Gospel of Jesus...

November 22 is the feast day of one of the most ancient female martyrs of the Church – Saint Cecilia of Rome. Unlike many of the other early martyrs I have mentioned in this blog (eg. here, here, here, and here), Saint Cecilia’s Acts are considered by ecclesiastical scholars to be unreliable, having been composed two to three hundred years after her death. That said, there does seem to be broad agreement on some of the basic facts: 1.) There was a Christian martyr named Cecilia. 2.) She was martyred in Rome. 3.) She was buried in the catacombs of...

August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, the mother of Jesus, into Heaven, body and soul. Though the Assumption was dogmatically defined in 1950 by Venerable Pope Pius XII in his apostolic constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, the traditional belief in the Assumption of Mary goes back to the earliest days of the Church. Originally, the feast was called the "Dormition" or falling asleep of Mary, and is still referred to as such by our Eastern Orthodox brethren. Here are some passages from ancient sources that indicate that this belief existed from antiquity and was widespread. The first is...

With Constantine's turn toward Christianity in AD 312, the systematic persecution of Christians within the Roman Empire came to an end. However, at the same time Christianity was enjoying increasing imperial favor in the Roman world, a great persecution erupted in the neighboring kingdom of Persia, starting about the year AD 339. Constantine himself had written a letterto the Persian king, Sapor II, lauding the Christian religion to his fellow ruler and asking him to protect the Christians among his subjects. But some within the Persian court—and eventually Sapor himself—came to view the dramatic rise of Christianity as a dire...

Photos of the traditional religious procession in Detroit were widely shared on social media Maybe it was the classic sunglasses, the skinny jeans or the flocculent mustache. Maybe it was the vintage-style religious art, the men in embellished uniforms, or what looks like incense rising from the streets. Whatever it was, a photo of a religious procession with a circa-1940’s aesthetic recently fascinated Catholics, who shared it on social media and other places around the internet. Except the photo of a St. Joseph’s procession on the streets of Detroit wasn’t taken in 1945. It was taken last week. “I guess...