This year marks the ninetieth anniversary of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, the first school in the United States for diplomatic training. The school’s founder was a young Jesuit recently appointed to the university, Father Edmund A. Walsh (1885-1956). A huge success from the start, the SFS had the first complete academic program geared toward foreign service. Before then, diplomacy was something learned on the job. But the SFS wasn’t intended merely to be a vocational school. Within the... Read more

Today marks the Feast of St. Miguel Febres Cordero (1854-1910), the first Ecuadorian to join the De La Salle Christian Brothers. Born into a prominent family, he joined the Brothers and taught at their schools in Ecuador and Spain. Once a young confrere asked him why he still prepared lessons after twenty years of teaching. Brother Miguel said it wasn’t a question of learning the material, but finding “a better way of explaining it every year and I think that... Read more

Today marks the Feast of St. Jerome Emiliani (1481-1537). A native of Venice, he served as a soldier and as mayor of Treviso before he entered religious life. Ordained a priest in 1518, he felt a strong call to help the urban poor, particularly abandoned children. He founded orphanages, hospitals and homes for ex-prostitutes. In 1532 he founded an order dedicated to working with youth, the Company of the Servants of the Poor. They are called Somascans for the city... Read more

Today marks the death of St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947). Born in Darfur, she was sold into slavery at age seven and forcibly converted to Islam. She was renamed Bakhita (meaning “fortunate”) by her captors. She was sold several times, the last time to an Italian diplomat. It’s hard to imagine the brutality she experienced as a slave. One owner’s son beat her so badly that she was hospitalized for a month. Another had her marked with scars and tattoos. In... Read more

This photo was taken during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. If you’re interested in learning more about the participation of women religious in the movement, check out the documentary Sisters of Selma, which is now available on DVD. Read more

Today marks the death of Pope Pius IX (1792-1878), whose 32 year pontificate was the longest (tradition has it) after St. Peter. Born to a noble family, Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti was ordained in 1819. After some pastoral and diplomatic work, he was named an Archbishop in 1827. He became a Cardinal. When the arch-conservative Pope Gregory XVI died in 1846, Mastai was seen as a compromise choice between the liberal and conservative extremists. For centuries the Italian peninsula had been divided... Read more

Today marks the death of John Connolly (1750-1825), second Bishop of New York from 1815 to 1825. Born in County Meath, he joined the Dominicans and studied in Belgium, where he was ordained in 1774. For 37 years he taught at the Irish Dominican College in Rome. In 1814 he was named second Bishop of New York. The first was his confrere and former professor, Richard Luke Concanen, who died before he could reach his diocese. It took Bishop Connolly... Read more

Today marks the election of Pope Pius XI in 1922. Born Achille Ratti in 1857, he grew up near Milan and was ordained in 1879. He taught in Milan’s seminary and was named head of the Ambrosian Library in 1888. Father Ratti was an expert in Medieval paleography. In 1907 he was named head of the Vatican library. In addition to this, he was also a keen mountaineer and wrote a book of essays on mountain climbing. In 1919, one... Read more

Just the other day, Deacon Greg Kandra posted the sad story of a seminarian who died just before his ordination. In a few days, we’ll be marking the passing of another seminarian who died young, and whose canonization cause is underway. February 7 marks the passing of Frank Parater (1897-1920), a seminarian from the Richmond Diocese who died while he was enrolled at the North American College in Rome. Born in Richmond, Frank Parater studied at local Catholic schools and... Read more

Today in 1851 marks the arrival of twelve Sisters of Mercy in Little Rock, Arkansas. They soon founded Mount St. Mary’s Academy, where February 5 is known as “Founders’ Day.” Not only was it the first Catholic school in the state, it was the first school in the state. In an area where there were few schools to begin with, Protestant and Catholic children studied together under the Sisters’ tutelage. The Mercys founded other schools throughout the state, including St.... Read more