This week’s Patheos column features a group of women I greatly admire, the Sisters of Mercy. To reach the article, please click here. Read more

Georgetown University Cadets stand in the forefront at the university’s centennial celebration, 1889. Note the similarity to West Point cadet uniforms.  Students and Cadet Military Companies Many of our Catholic colleges employ competent military instructors to give lessons in military drill and tactics. These exercises are important features of physical training, inasmuch as they develop erect carriage, precision of movement, and concerted action, and are regarded as very valuable in developing both mind and character. Besides these special advantages,... Read more

This week’s Patheos column features Thomas Verner Moore, who founded the first (and to date only) Carthusian monastery in North America. To reach the article, please click here. Read more

In 1910, Sister M. Anastasia Quinn, who nursed in the Douglas Hospital, was still living at Mount St. Agnes College, Baltimore. In recognition of her services during the war, a committee consisting of Past Commander in Chief John R. King, Past Department Commander Maj. Frederick C. Farr, and William J. Klugg, past commander of Wilson Post, of the Grand Army of the Republic, visited her at Mount St. Agnes, May 21, and presented her with a bronze pin. In presenting... Read more

Picnics and the Catholic Church.The New York Times, July 22, 1869 It is well known that the Roman Catholic Church in this country has forbidden picnics. The ordinance against them was issued last year, and this was the first season for putting it into practice. The origin of the prohibition was the great number of abuses which were found to prevail at these festive gatherings. With one exception, no Church picnic has taken place this year— at least in connection... Read more

One of the most interesting places in this interesting land of ours is the United States Military Academy at West Point, overlooking the lordly Hudson. What a world of memories a visit there calls up! No loyal American can spend a day there without returning to his home a better citizen. But the Catholic visitor, as he passes out of the church lately built on the Academy grounds, experiences a higher feeling than even that of patriotism as he calls... Read more

Authentic Sketches of Living Catholic AuthorsThe Catholic World (June 1897), 426-427. Kate Vannah was born in Gardiner, Maine. The original family name was Werner, and through various gradations of Warner, Verner, and Varner it has come, during the last two generations, to its present form. Miss Vannah’s paternal ancestors came from Saxony; her maternal, from Ireland. Her full name is Letitita Katherine Vannah, but for the past decade of years every production, either of a musical or literary nature, is... Read more

This week’s Patheos column features the second of two parts on Blessed John Henry Newman. To reach the article please click here. (The above drawing is by Pat McNamara.) Read more

The Raising of the Flag Conde Benoist Pallen Lift up the banner of our love To the kiss of the winds above, The banner of the world’s fair cope,When liberty was young, And yet unsung Clarioned her voice among The trodden peoples, and stirred The pulses with her word, Till the swift blood red From the quick heart sped, Flushing valor’s cheek with flame At sounding of her august sacred name! Lift up the banner of the stars, The standard... Read more

MOTHER CATHERINE SETON, NEW YORK, SERVANT OF PRISONERS Mother Catherine Seton was the youngest daughter of the saintly Elizabeth Seton, the Foundress of the Sisters of Charity in the United States. Strange to say, she had no attraction for her venerated mother’s order, and when at length she decided on carrying out her religious vocation, she appealed to Archbishop Hughes to direct her choice. He had just completed arrangements for bringing the Sisters of Mercy to New York and advised... Read more