On this day in 1891, Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Octobri Mense (On the Rosary). Altogether Leo issued eleven encyclicals on the rosary. Read more

When you see it exposed, say to yourself: Thanks to this Body, I am no longer dust and ashes, I am no more a captive but a free man: hence I hope to obtain heaven and the good things that are there in store for me, eternal life, the heritage of the angels, companionship with Christ; death has not destroyed this Body which was pierced with nails and scourged… This is that Body which was one covered with blood, pierced... Read more

The story of the Healy family is one of the most interesting in American Catholic history. One son became a Bishop in Maine, another President of Georgetown University, another rector of a Boston cathedral, and the youngest son a captain in the Coast Guard. Two of the daughters became nuns in Canada. All in all, a pretty impressive Irish Catholic family. But the Healys weren’t your typical Irish Catholic family. Their father was a Georgia planter and their mother a... Read more

The Holy Cross College baseball team, 1886. Read more

Saint Ignatius of Santhiá was born on 5 June 1686 in Santhiá, in the Vercelli region of Northern Italy and died in Turin on 21 September 1770. He was a Capuchin priest, who was faithful to the Franciscan spirit, especially by his obedience, simplicity and humility. He was renowned for his gift of spiritual direction and concern for the spiritual growth of the faithful. He was also called the “father of sinners and the lost” thanks to his particular ability... Read more

Saint Laurent-Marie-Joseph Imbert was born to a poor farming family on 23 March 1796 in Marignane, France. He studied at the seminary of the Missions Étrangères de Paris, France in 1818. Ordained on 18 December 1819, he was sent as a missionary to China in 1820.Before reaching China, he taught at College General (Major Seminary) in Penang, Malaya from April 1821 to January 1822. In 1821, Bishop Esprit-Marie-Joseph Florens, the Vicar Apostolic of Siam, requested for him to call at... Read more

IRELAND, MOTHER OF PRIESTS By Shane Leslie The fishwife sits by the side of her childing bed, Her fire is deserted and sad, Her beads are long said; Her tears ebb and flow with the sea, Her grief on the years, But little she looks to the tide, And little she hears: For children in springtime play round Her sorrowing heart, To win them their feedin she loves To hunger apart; Her children in summer she counts Awhile for her... Read more

The music of the Gospel leads us home. Frederick W. Faber Read more

On this day in two separate years, Pope Leo XIII issued two encyclicals on the rosary: Vi E Ben Noto (1887) (On the Rosary and Public Life), and Fidentem Piumque Animum (On the Rosary) in 1896. Read more

Today marks the death of St. Jean-Charles Cornay, one of the Vietnam Martyrs. The following is from Saints.sqpn.com: Priest. Member of the Paris Society of Foreign Missions. Missionary to Vietnam, working in Annam. Accused of theft after weapons were planted on his land to discredit him, he was actually arrested for his faith at Ban-ho. He was kept in chains in a cage for three months, routinely beaten, and when interrogated was told to sing his answers as he was... Read more