The Story of St. Chad
“Chad” is a popular given name in the US (although not, strangely enough, in his own country in modern times) that has become associated with the Chad vs. Virgin meme, where Chad is depicted as…
Tag: Saints
My Buddy St. Anthony
Day in day out, it’s always the same I never stop calling this patient saint’s name I lost my keys, I lost my phone, I lost my wallet, even the garden gnome But it…
Maid of Orleans
Set your eyes upon this torture stake As the road to sainthood she must take The great Princes of both church and state Did bid her here to seal her fate To kill the life…
St. Patrick and the Pagans
There is no single person who is associated with Celtic Christianity more than Patrick. He was not actually Irish, but rather British, though he left the comfort of his home and family so that he…
St. David’s Day
Ah March 1st! The wearing of the leek or daffodil or both if you prefer! What? No, wearing of the green is over on the other side of the Irish sea. March 1st is celebrated…
St Nicholas Owen: Builder of Priest Hides in Elizabethan England
In Elizabethan England it was against the law to practice the Catholic faith. Priests and sympathisers were arrested and treated brutally. Many died terrible deaths for their faith. Ingenious craftsmen were required to design and…
Eternity Begun: A Meditation on St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
The dead can be our friends and mentors, perhaps even more fundamentally and intimately than those we live and work with every day. We have many invisible brothers and sisters who watch us serenely and…
The Stigmata of St. Francis
Seraph-spread wings And the wings of the tree Branches like outstretched arms And hands pinioned, punctured The taste of honey and vinegar Agony and Ecstasy Rough-wool clad Naked unto God Seraph-sealed lips And the eyes…
Remembering St. Bernard: Theologian of Love
One of my grandmother's favorite medieval Catholics was, as it happens, St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He wasn’t the only Catholic she admired, but he was perhaps the only medieval or post-medieval canonized saint who meant a…
Brother Leo Remembers Brother Francis
“What was he like?”I asked,exhausted from my climb to pierce thecold cliff top cloister ofthis cowled brother’s retreat,hoping to stir to remembrance his soul;first stung by the Seraph’s fire so long ago,yet burning still in…