Editor’s note: Part One of this essay was published on October 30, 2022. (Editor’s note: A different version of this article ran in CRISIS magazine in October 2001. Witches Everywhere How many people died in […]
The stench of their burning is with us yet. The stakes and gibbets where witches perished by the tens of thousands during Earl Modern times still stand in popular imagination. For historians, the Great European […]
The rosary is the best-loved devotion in the Catholic Church. But where did it come from? Contrary to pious belief, it did not descend ready-made from heaven. The familiar story that Our Lady herself gave […]
Among the other female Doctors of the Church—Teresa of Avila, Catherine of Siena, and Therese of Lisieux—Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) blazes in colors all her own. Medievalist Peter Dronke describes her as “an overpowering, electrifying […]
O most noble memorial; to be commemorated in the innermost heart, firmly bound in the soul, diligently kept in the depth of the heart, and recalled by earnest meditation and celebration. – Pope Urban IV, […]
Editor’s note: In recognition of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien’s birth on this day in 1892, we are reposting this review, originally published on Dec. 18, 2020. Middle-earth is almost as vivid a character in […]
Popular culture reflects the true nature of angels as faithfully as a funhouse mirror. It shows glorious incorporeal spirits in fanciful shapes, from pudgy winged babies to ethereal Nature goddesses and turns these false images […]
Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, begins at sunset on September 15th this year. It’s the climax of the High Holy Days when the judgments of God are sealed upon unrepentant sinners. So, it […]
“Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the World.” Relics of Our Lord’s Passion have always been dear to his followers. The True Cross, the actual wood on which Jesus […]
Hora novissima, tempora pessima sunt, vigilemus. Ecce minaciter imminet arbiter ille supremus; The world is very evil; The times are waxing late; Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate.i Bernard of […]
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