Feast Day ~ October 25 It is not unusual for a saint to be made famous by something other than his holy life or his courageous martyrdom. St. Valentine, for instance, is noted in our secular world by the pagan Roman festival celebrating romantic love which falls around February 14, the date of the saint’s […]

(Feast Day ~ October 21) In Palestine, in the city of Tabatha, south of Gaza, a son was born into a pagan family around the year 291. The boy Hilarion showed intellectual promise as he grew, so his parents sent him to Alexandria, one of the chief cities of the Roman Empire, to receive a […]

(Feast Day ~ October 19) The patron saint of the city of Oxford, England, is St. Frideswide, whose day is commemorated on October 19. Born around the year 680, Frideswide was the daughter of a Christian King of Wessex. She chose the monastic life for herself, but royal marriages were a means of creating political […]

Feast Day ~ October 18 Everyone admires a “Renaissance” man or woman: one who is broadly educated, widely read, skilled in several fields, who has traveled extensively and is able to carry on intelligent conversations on many subjects. In the historical period we designate as the Renaissance, these characteristics would also have included being able […]

(Feast Day ~ October 15) On the Western Rite calendar, we observe the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham on October 15, celebrating a vision of our Lady to a widow, Lady Richeldis de Faverches in the year 1061. (While this date is past the year 1054, which technically serves as the date for the […]

(Feast Day ~ October 14) Prayers of Christians in every age have been offered for peace and tranquility, for life free from strife and danger. But when Christians have been faced with danger or oppression, the faithful have remembered Christ’s promise: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” and […]

(Feast Day ~ October 14) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [Galatians 3:28] Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly I say […]

(Feast Day ~ October 13) In the last years that English Christians were part of the undivided Church, before the schism which separated West from East, the country was ruled by a devout and holy king, Edward, “the Confessor.” Edward was born in 1003, the son of King Ethelred (the “Unready”). He spent many years […]

Feast Day ~ October 13 Since the birth of Christ our God as a human child, there have been those who wanted to eliminate Him, His message of love and forgiveness, and the salvation which He brought to those who follow Him: Herod’s soldiers slaughtered many innocent children but Christ was spared by a flight […]