Benedictus Deus

Yesterday was the feast of St. Bernard. Formerly it would have fallen within the Octave of the Assumption which is appropriate for one who is sometimes called “the Herald of Mary.” He preached many homilies on our Lady, including a series on the Assumption itself. Sadly his writings do not seem to [...]

Today is the feast of St. Laurence, one of the greatest staints in the ancient church, and in former times one of the most celebrated.  His name is in the Roman Canon.  There are more churches in Rome dedicated to St. Laurence than any other saint, including one of the five major basilicas.  He was [...]

The month of August has a lot of great feast days.  But before getting to the official feast days, I would like to point out two that are not on the calendar anymore, not even the trad (1962) calendar.  Prior to John XXIII’s changes in 1960 August 1 was the feast of St. Peter in [...]

Wow, it seems I have never done a post on Saint Anthony. Today would have been the feast of St. Anthony but it gets overruled by the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost. FishEaters has most of the good stuff covered.
Aside from that, here is the “Miraculous Responsory” from the Franciscan breviary on St. Anthony’s [...]

Today is the Feast of St. Matthias, the apostle who replaced Judas among the twelve.  His selection as the first “apostolic successor” is recorded in Acts 1:15-26.  According to St. Clement of Alexandria (as well as Jerome and Eusebius) tell us that he was one of the seventy two disciples sent out by our Lord [...]

Today is the feast of St.Luke even though it gets overshadowed by Sunday. As I have mentioned before, St. Luke is my patron saint. When it was time for my confirmation I had a really hard time picking a saint. To be honest I didn’t know that much about any of them. [...]

I recently ordered both volumes of the complete Golden Legend. The translation in this version is nice and clean, and easier to read than some other versions available online. Now when I write posts about feast days, I am looking forward to included notes from this great work of the Middle Ages! Lest [...]

Today is the Vigil of the Nativity of John the Baptist.  This feast has become one of my favorites.  This will be my families third year making a big celebration of it.  In former times it was often celebrated as a “Summer Christmas” and was generally a joyous occasion.  It’s another feast that was a [...]

Monday is St. John’s Eve, and Tuesday is the Nativity of John the Baptist (aka the Summer Christmas). Just as St. John is the forerunner for Christ, so his Nativity is the forerunner for Christmas. At one time this was one of the most festive celebrations of the year, especially in Merry Old [...]

Happy feast of Pope St. Pius the V.  What an excellent feast day to have in the midsts of the octave of the Ascension.
From the Catholic Encyclopedia:

“He began his pontificate by giving large alms to the poor, instead of distributing his bounty at haphazard like his predecessors. As pontiff he practiced the virtues he had [...]