Dear Book Club Members, Ryan and I are on our way back from a two-day talk he gave at Mater Dei, FSSP Parish in Irving, TX on “The Catholic Response to Corruption: Reform of the Church before, during and after Luther”. We will have a recording of that to share once we receive it from the parish. […]
Father Martin of Valencia came not from the large Spanish city of that name, but from a little village in the diocese of Leon. There he was born in 1470. Martin manifested a decided attachment for St. Francis and his order from his youth. He begged for the habit of the Franciscans shortly after he […]
Davanzato was a young student preparing for the priesthood when Blessed Luchesio was received in the Third Order at Poggibonzi. It was not long afterwards that Davanzato, who associated much with the devout Luchesio, also received the holy habit, in which he shone for many years as a special glory of the order. Shortly after […]
This blessed man belongs to the most outstanding clients of our Lady in the Franciscan Order. He was a native of France. As a result of a sermon on the Immaculate Conception, which had been delivered by a member of the Franciscan Order, he himself became a Franciscan. Due to his great learning and virtues, […]
Margaret was born in Wuerttemberg at the end of the sixteenth century, and was a member of the Lutheran Church. One day two Franciscans came to the palace in which she lived. That evening they spoke of the evil that was resulting everywhere from the heresy of the so-called Reformation, and of the power which […]
Our Divine Lord says: “By their fruits you shall know them” (Mt. 7,16), and in these words He bestows great praise on Queen Blanche, for St. Louis IX of France was her son, and his holiness was in great measure the result of her maternal rearing. Blanche, the daughter of the king of Castile, Spain, […]
Francis was the first child of a wealthy Spanish count and heir to a rich family estate. He was endowed with rare mental gifts. When he was scarcely sixteen years of age, he attended the University of Salamanca. At the time, Father John of Puebla, who was also a count by birth, […]
The devout Tertiary Francis brought great honor to the Third Order in the city of Ypres in the Belgian province of East Flanders. He belonged to a good family, one in which Christian virtue and piety were looked upon as the outstanding distinctions of its ancestors. At the university, where he […]
In the diocese of Mantua near the little town of Volta lies the castle of the Montaldi in which Paula, a member of this noble and devout family, was born. From infancy she was remarkable for rare modesty, angelic innocence, and strong attraction to piety, and was frequently called the little saint. When […]
Ryan Grant will be hosting the first art history podcast on Monday, August 24th at 2 PM PDT. The topic will be Rubens Descent from the Cross. Check your email that morning for a link to tune-in live. The recording will be available on this post after the podcast. Ave Maria!
