Indeed You, O Lord, and Your Mother are the only ones who are in every respect completely beautiful. For there is no corrpuion in Thee, O lord, nor any stain in Thy Mother.St. Ephrem the Syrian, Nisibene Songs (4th cent.) Read more

This picture of a Franciscan friar was one of a series featured in the 1905 book Catholic Makers of the Nation. Read more

Affari Vos. December 8, 1897 (on schools in Manitoba)Cum Multa (On Conditions in Spain) December 8, 1882Custodi Di Quella Fede (On Freemasonry) December 8, 1892Fin Dal Principio (On the Education of the Clergy) December 8, 1902Evangelii Nuntiandi (On evangelization in the modern world) December 8, 1975 Read more

Born in Ecuador to a wealthy family, she had a clear perception of her call to sanctity from an early age. After her father’s death in 1852, Narcisa moved to Guayaquil to stay with a very well-known family who lived near the cathedral. She stayed in this city until 1868. She preserved her privacy and to dedicated herself with greater freedom to prayer and penance, earning her living by doing tailoring work. She helped the poor and the sick. Driven... Read more

Jean Pierre de Caussade (7 March 1675, Cahors, Lot, France – 8 Decembre 1751, Toulouse, France) was a French Jesuit priest and writer known for his work Abandonment to Divine Providence (also translated as The Sacrament of the Present Moment) and his posthumously-published letters of instruction to the Nuns of the Visitation at Nancy, where he was spiritual director from 1733-1740, although he continued to write the sisters after leaving Nancy. While he is best known for his work with... Read more

On this day in 1965, the Second Vatican Council ended. Pope Blessed John XXIII’s goals in convening the council were church renewal, dialogue with the modern world, and promoting unity among the Christian Churches. It was intended to “find new ways to express the ancient deposit of faith.” Vatican II began October 1962 and met in three sessions through December 1965. After John’s death in 1963, Pope Paul VI continued the council, which produced 16 documents: 4 contitutions, 9 decrees... Read more

On this day in 1869, the First Vatican Council began. Two dogmatic constitutions were voted on during the council, Dei filius on the relationship between faith and reason; and Pastor Aeternus on the centrality of the Pope’s authority and his personal infallibility in matters of doctrine. The Ultramontanes pushed the infallibility issue, and Pius let it be known that he wanted this. Most of the Council Fathers at Vatican I were moderates, but Pius himself was intransigent; for him infallibity... Read more

Mary O’Connell (also known as Sister Anthony) was an Irish-American Roman Catholic nun. Her work with the wounded during the American Civil War and health care in general caused her to be known as “the angel of the battlefield” and “the Florence Nightingale of America.” She was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1814, the daughter of William and Catherine Murphy O’Connell. She emigrated to the United States, and attended the Ursuline Academy in Charlestown, Massachusetts. She went through her novitiate... Read more

James Hoban was an Irish Catholic architect, best known for designing the White House in Washington, D.C.. He studied architecture at the Royal Dublin Society. Following the American Revolutionary War, Hoban emigrated to the United States, and established himself as an architect in Philadelphia in 1781.[1] Hoban went to South Carolina in 1792, where he designed numerous buildings including the South Carolina statehouse in Columbia. In 1792, Hoban won the competition to design the presidential mansion, later known as the... Read more

Today marks the death of Abbot Boniface Wimmer, founder of the first Benedictine community in the United States. Born in Bavaria, he was ordained a diocesan priest before joining the Benedictines. He was interested in the German missions to the United States, and in 1846 he brought a group of Benedictines to Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The community grew to include a monastery, college, seminary, and brewery. This foundation evolved into St. Vincent Archabbey, college, and seminary. Throughout the nineteenth century Wimmer... Read more