Blessed Maria Teresa of St. Joseph — Anna Maria Tauscher — was born on June 19, 1855 in Sandow, Germany, which is now in Poland. She came from a deeply religious Protestant pastor’s family. God guided this richly talented and capable woman on steep and stony roads to the Catholic faith. On October 30, 1888 she was received into the Catholic Church. From then on she herself became poor for the sake of the poor, homeless for the sake of... Read more

On this day in 1870, Italian troops entered Rome, thereby ending the Papal States which had ruled Rome (and a good portion of Italy) for over a millenium. Read more

On September 20, 1898, five Sulpician priests and 34 young men gathered at the somewhat remote location of Menlo Park to inaugurate what was to become the preeminent seminary on the West Coast – St. Patrick’s Seminary. At the time of its inception, St. Patrick’s was the onlyinstitution of its type west of the Rocky Mountains. One hundred years later Menlo Park is no longer so remote and other seminaries have sprung up in the west; but St. Patrick’s Seminary... Read more

On this day in 1838, the College and Seminary of St. Vincent de Paul opened in Lafargeville, N.Y. It was the first seminary in New York State. It was closed 1840 and replaced by St. Joseph’s Seminary, Fordham, N.Y., that fall. That seminary closed just before the Civil War. Seen here is Queens Court at Fordham University, the site of the former St. Joseph’s Seminary. Read more

Art is a fundamental necessity in the human state… Art teaches men the pleasures of the spirit, and because it is itself sensitive and adapted to their nature, it is the better able to lead them to what is nobler than itself. In natural life it plays the same part, so to speak, as the ‘sensible graces’ in the spiritual life: and from afar off, without thinking, it prepares the human race for contemplation, the spiritual joy of which surpasses... Read more

This 1875 painting by Aloysius O’Kelly is titled Mass in a Connemara Cabin. For nearly a century it was presumed lost until it was discovered in a Scottish rectory. BBC has the following to say about it: A painting which went missing more than 100 years ago has been found in a Scottish priest’s front room. The work by leading Irish artist Aloysius O’Kelly is thought to be worth about £500,000. It is now set to go on display at... Read more

This 1942 programme features two Jesuit schools: the University of Santa Clara and Loyola University, Los Angeles. Read more

Today marks the death of Father Clarence Walworth, one of the original founding members of the Paulist Fathers. Born in upstate New York to a distinguished family, he was studying to be an Episcopalian priest when he converted to Roman Catholicism. He then joined the Redemptorists, where he met Paulist founder Isaac Hecker and the other founding members (all of whom were converts). Ordained in Europe, they went back to work in America. At that time, the Redemptorists were working... Read more

Alphonsus de Orozco was born in Oropesa, Province of Toledo, Spain, on the 17th of October 1500, where his father was governor of the local castle. He began his studies in the nearby Talavera de la Reina and for three years he was a choir boy in the Cathedral of Toledo, where he made progress in the study of music. At the age of fourteen his parents sent him to the University of Salamanca, where an elder brother was already... Read more

MARTY, Martin, R. C. bishop, born in Schwyz, Switzerland, 12 January, 1834. He studied in colleges in Switzerland and Austria, with the intention to fit himself for the medical profession, but he afterward went through a course of theology, and on 14 September, 1856, was ordained He came to the United States to assist in founding a new Benedictine abbey and college, and learning on his arrival that Bishop DeSaint Palais, of Vineennes, was in need of German priests, he... Read more