950 years ago, in the night between 22 and 23 February 1072, at the age of 65 a great figure in the 11th century Church, who was a hermit, diplomat, theologian and poet, died of a sudden illness in Faenza, northeastern Italy: St. Peter Damiani. Peter was born in Ravenna, northeastern Italy, in 1007 and,…
Editor’s note: OnePeterFive is beginning a series in which we will discuss the lives and teachings of the Doctors of the Church, with the articles released on the feast day of each saint. Each of these saints help us with our current crisis by reminding us that God raises up the saints to deal with…
For many Catholics, the Year of St. Joseph has been a light in our darkest hour. Between political and civil unrest, attacks on the clergy, and never-ending variants and lockdowns forcing us all to relearn the Greek alphabet, the conclusion of the Year of St. Joseph is bittersweet. Our Lord never said following Him would…
I always think about the days right after Christmas: the feast of the first martyr, St. Stephen, stoned to death by the Jews; the feast of St. John the Apostle, who, though he did not die a martyr, was submerged in a cauldron of boiling oil and miraculously delivered from it; the feast of the…
Father Miguel Pro could have said “No.” His Jesuit superior ordered him back to Mexico for his health. After three unsuccessful stomach operations the superior thought that a return to his homeland would aid in his recovery. It is likely that the Superior was not aware of the perilous state of the country at that…
When I heard that traditional Catholic historian Roberto de Mattei had published a four hundred page biography of Pius V I simply couldn’t resist. Saint Pius V:The Legendary Pope Who Excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I, Standardized the Mass, and Defeated the Ottoman Empire by Roberto de Mattei was published by Sophia Institute Press on May 25,…
It would be fair to say that a majority of the small number of Catholics who have even given a moment’s thought to the subject believe that canonizations are infallible. However, a growing minority of Catholics are raising questions about and difficulties with this belief. The minority opinion is probably larger than statistics would indicate,…
The Catholic Church celebrates the memory of all her saints in her liturgy today. Besides feast days such as this, the Church also honours the saints in several other ways in the liturgy. Anyone with an understanding of the distinction between latria and dulia would know that this is not saint-worship, and would appreciate the…
There are many historical figures waiting to be elevated to sainthood because they were killed in hatred of the faith and of Christian civilization: Simon de Montfort (1170-1218), victim of the Albigensian heretics; Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, killed in 1587 by Elizabeth I Tudor; Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, monarchs of France, guillotined in…
590 years ago, on May 30, 1431, a young French saint died at the age of 19, The Maid of Orleans, that is, virgin, as she is called by all and Friedrich Schiller in his homonyms drama of 1801: Joan of Arc. Matching her with St Catherine of Siena, Benedict XVI defines both “two young…
“The teaching of Saint John Damascene thus finds its place in the tradition of the universal Church, whose sacramental doctrine foresees that material elements taken from nature can become vehicles of grace by virtue of the invocation (epiclesis) of the Holy Spirit, accompanied by the confession of the true faith.” (General Audience, 6 May, 2009,…
