The greatest unresolved issue for the Church, in my opinion, consists in how to make sense of the modern world. Is there something there positive that will show us the way forward? Do we just need to abandon it and start from scratch? How do we live in this increasingly Read more…
Five years ago, I wrote an article asking whether St. Gregory of Narek (or Grigor Narekatsi, 950-1003), an Armenian monk, the then newly announced doctor of the Church, was a Catholic. The answer is clearly that he was not, making him the first non-Catholic doctor of the Catholic Church. The Read more…
The four gigantic minarets surrounding Hagia Sophia serve as a constant reminder of the Turkish triumph in 1453 over the holy city founded by the emperor Constantine. The church, turned mosque, turned museum, and now reverted to a mosque stands undoubtedly among the greatest architectural accomplishments in human history. Its Read more…
Medieval Lent was, to say the least, a lot harder. The season’s origins come from the early catechumenate, which led converts through a multi-day period of intense prayer and fasting before their initiation at the Easter vigil. Eventually, this time extended to forty days, in imitation of Christ’s fasting in Read more…
Wine, Romanesque architecture, and the monastic life, all reached their high point in the Middle Ages, tucked away in the province of Burgundy. You may not have heard of Cluny, but, from its humble founding in 910, it quickly constructed the largest church in Europe and built an independent network Read more…
My family spent Christmas back in my hometown, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Some of us took a pilgrimage of sorts to visit ancient and medieval art in New York City and Yale University’s Art Gallery in New Haven. Connecticut may seem an odd location, but a team from Yale helped to excavate Read more…
Beer has a long connection to saints and holy figures. In The Beer Option, I discuss the beer miracles of St. Brigid of Kildare, St. Columban, and St. Arnold, St. Hildegard’s description of beer’s medicinal qualities, and St. Conrad of Bavaria’s hospitality in serving beer to pilgrims. The Ommegang brewery Read more…
This website focuses on rebuilding Catholic culture through art, festivity, education, Catholic history and traditions, and a life shaped by prayer. St. Martin of Tours (c.316-97) can be considered one of the original builders of Catholic culture. Thanks to Sulpitius Severus, we have a detailed biography speaking of his life Read more…
The early Middle Ages rightly can be called the Age of the Monks and the title fits in Ireland even more than anywhere else. Ancient Ireland did not have cities and, with its tribal organization, the monastery served as a central place of prayer, learning, and social organization. Over time, Read more…
The Superior of the Jesuits, Fr. Arturo Sosa, recently denied the personal existence of the devil, calling him a personification of evil rather than an actual being–a symbol, he argued. He was quickly corrected by exorcists, who know the devil’s reality from personal experience. It is true that the Catechism Read more…