Étienne Henri Gilson was born into a Roman Catholic family in Paris on 13 June 1884. He was educated at a number of Roman Catholic schools in Paris before attending lycée Henri IV in 1902, where he studied philosophy. Two years later he enrolled at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1907 after having studied under many fine scholars, including Lucien Lévy Bruhl, Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim. Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on... Read more

Born near Rodez, France, she became a nun at Maison St. Cyr when eighteen. In 1815 after much dissatisfaction, she decided that her vocation was in teaching poor children. With the approval of Abbe Marty, her spiritual adviser, and the aid of three young assistants, she began this work in her room at St. Cyr. This was the start of the Congregation of the Holy Family of Villefranche. It grew rapidly, establishing its own mother house and branches. In time,... Read more

Everything suffers by translation except a bishop.Unknown Read more

Au revoir, les enfants (French for Goodbye, Children) is a 1987 film written, produced and directed by Louis Malle. The screenplay was published by Gallimard in the same year. The film is based on events in the childhood of the director, Louis Malle, who at age 11 was attending a Roman Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau. One day, he witnessed a Gestapo raid in which three Jewish students and a Jewish teacher were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. All... Read more

Born in London, Julia Chatfield was raised an Anglican but attended an Ursuline boarding school in northern France to complete her education. She converted to Catholicism, which caused a permanent break with her family. She entered the Ursuline order in 1834 and took her final vows in 1837. Later, she decided to become a missionary to the United States, and in 1845, she led eleven Ursuline sisters to Ohio. A group of eleven sisters led by Julia Chatfield settled in... Read more

Villanova University has been sponsored by the Augustinian Order since its founding in 1842. Today, the University is comprised of five colleges: Liberal Arts and Sciences (Villanova College), Engineering, School of Business (formerly known as the College of Commerce and Finance), Nursing and the School of Law. The University traces its origins to old Saint Augustine’s Church in Philadelphia, which the Augustinians founded in 1796, and to its parish school, Saint Augustine’s Academy, established in 1811. The school was called... Read more

On this day Pope Leo XIII issued the encyclical Paternae, on the education of the clergy. Read more

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Reading, as we do, the Gospels from our youth up, we are in danger of becoming so familiar with them as to be dead to their force, and to view them as mere history. Cardinal Newman, Grammar of Assent Read more

Born at Montepulciano, Italy, October 4, 1542, St. Robert Bellarmine was the third of ten children. His mother, Cinzia Cervini, a niece of Pope Marcellus II, was dedicated to almsgiving, prayer, meditation, fasting, and mortification of the body. Robert entered the newly formed Society of Jesus in 1560 and after his ordination went on to teach at Louvain (1570-1576) where he became famous for his Latin sermons. In 1576, he was appointed to the chair of controversial theology at the... Read more