The US Bishops Are Grossly Politicizing America's 250th Anniversary

The US Bishops are about to consecrate America to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is a good thing. The rest of the festivities they have planned are less than good.

The Brutal Life Of A Medieval Baker — Why One Underweight Loaf Cost You An Ear

From Medieval Way

In the spring of 1327, officers of the City of London pulled up the floorboards in a row of bakehouses near Bread Street. Underneath, they found a hole. Someone had cut a small trapdoor into the bottom of the moulding board, the table where a baker shaped his dough. Customers brought their own dough to be baked, because most homes had no oven. And while that dough sat on the table, a child crouched in the dark below, reaching up through the hole, pinching away handful after handful.

The bakers were caught. They were tied to wooden hurdles, dragged through the streets with the stolen dough strung around their necks, and their names were written into the city's permanent record. That was the punishment for cheating people out of bread in medieval England. Public, fast, and certain.

Traditional Catholic Morning Prayers in English | June

Traditional Catholic morning prayers to help start your day in a godly way! The month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. May our devotion to the mystery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus increase more and more each day. We've included the Memorare of the Sacred Heart and the Litany of the Sacred Heart. Begin your June with daily morning prayer. This video is a compilation of many traditional morning prayers Catholics say and should not be considered a replacement for those who have an obligation to pray the Divine Office morning prayers.

The Protestant Pope Problem (And You Didn't Know)

From Totus Catholica

IMPOSSIBLE: How Every Protestant Becomes Their Own Pope 🙏 What happens when every believer claims the authority to interpret Scripture for themselves? Chaos. Division. And a surprising truth—every Protestant becomes their own pope. In this thought-provoking video, we explore the theological contradiction at the heart of Protestantism: sola scriptura. By the end, you’ll see why individual interpretation leads to fragmentation and how Christ’s design for the Church offers unity, clarity, and truth. 📌 Watch until the end to discover how Catholic teaching authority solves the crisis of competing interpretations. ✨ What You’ll Learn in This Video: 📖 The Problem with Sola Scriptura and Individual Interpretation 🌟 How Protestantism Creates “Millions of Popes” 👑 The Biblical Basis for Church Authority and Apostolic Succession 🙏 Why Catholic Teaching Authority Protects Against Misinterpretation 📚 Resources & Links Mentioned in This Video: 📖 Scripture References: Matthew 16:18 – Jesus establishes Peter as the rock of the Church. Acts 8:30,31 – The Ethiopian eunuch asks Philip, “How can I understand unless someone explains it to me?” 2 Peter 1:20 – “No prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation.” 🔗 Additional Resources: 📖 Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 85–87): The role of Sacred Tradition and Magisterium 📖 St. Augustine: “I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not influence me to do so.” 📖 St. John Chrysostom: “It is impossible to be saved if one holds himself aloof from the Church.” 📖 Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15): The first Church council resolves doctrinal disputes. 🙏 Support Our Mission: Donate/Support: https://tr.ee/cIPduM Follow & Engage Us on Socials: https://linktr.ee/totuscatholica 💬 Join the Discussion! What are your thoughts on sola scriptura and the need for Church authority? How does this video challenge or deepen your understanding of Christian unity? Share your thoughts or questions below—I’d love to hear from you!

Sacred Heart Prayer for the Conversion of “Wandering Sheep”

My wife and all of our children hve fallen away from the Faith. Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on them and bring them home!

From Aleteia

By Philip Kosloski

Pray to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with this prayer that asks God to bring into the fold all the "wandering sheep" in the world.

The Sacred Heart devotion is a beautiful one, and a great reminder of God's love and mercy towards sinners.

Pope John Paul II mentioned this aspect of the Sacred Heart devotion in a letter on the 100th Anniversary of the Consecration of the World to the Sacred Heart:

The Savior's Heart invites us to return to the Father's love, which is the source of every authentic love: "In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins" (1 Jn 4:10). Jesus ceaselessly receives from the Father, rich in mercy and compassion, the love which he lavishes upon human beings (cf. Eph 2:4; Jas 5:11). His Heart particularly reveals the generosity of God towards sinners. God's reaction to sin is not to lessen his love, but to expand it into a flow of mercy which becomes the initiative of the Redemption.

This is good news especially for us, as we need to remember that we are always included in the list of "wandering sheep." We may try to stay faithful to Jesus Christ, but every time we sin, we walk away from God in some way.

Here is prayer from the Raccolta, a collection that dates to the early 20th century, asking Jesus to bring together all "wandering sheep."

O Lord Jesus, most merciful Savior of the world, we beg and beseech Thee, through thy most Sacred Heart, that all wandering sheep may now return to Thee, the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. Who lives and reigns with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, God for ever and ever. Amen.

Dom Prosper Guéranger's Prayer to St Clotilde for France

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

Great is thy glory on earth and in heaven, O Clotilde, Mother of nations! Not only hast thou given to Holy Church that people of France, surnamed the most Christian; but our own England and Spain also, claim their descent from thee (in the pedigree of Faith, that is) by Bertha and Ingonda, thy noble granddaughters. Ingonda, more fortunate than thy daughter Clotilde, succeeded, by the help of Saint Leander of Seville, in bringing back to the true faith, her husband Hermenegilde, and even leading him to the crown of martyrdom. Bertha, queen of our own fair Kent, welcomed Augustine to our Saxon shores and, through her influence, was our royal Ethelbert brought from the darkness of paganism, even unto baptism and the aureola of sanctity: realizing thus that word of the Apostle, that the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife. (1 Corinthians 7:14) Since those early days, in how many other parts of Europe, and on how many other more distant shores, have not the sons of thine own nation, that nation of which thou wast mother, propagated that light of faith which they received of thee: whether brandishing the sword in defense of the right which belongs to holy Church, the bride of the Man-God, to teach freely and everywhere, the Word of Truth; or whether, becoming themselves missioners and Apostles, carrying the same to infidel nations, far beyond reach of any possible protection, and at the expense of their sweat and of their blood? Happy thou, to be first in bringing forth unto Christ, the King, a nation pure from every stain of heresy and vowed to holy Church from the first moment of her new birth! Rightly indeed the Church of Sainte-Marie at Rheims, was the one selected on that Christmas Day of the year 496, for this birth unto God of the Frankish nation; wherein Our Lady in a proportionate manner, gave thee to share her own Motherhood of our race.

There especially lies our motive of confidence in recurring to thee, O Clotilde, in our intercessory prayer this day. Alas! how many of thy sons are far from being what they should be, having such a Mother as thou! But when Our Lady gave thee a share in her own maternal rights, she necessarily, at the same moment, communicated to thee also her own tender compassion, for beguiled children deaf to their Mother’s voice. Take pity on these unfortunate sons, led so very far astray, by strange doctrines. (Hebrews 8:9).

The Christian Monarchy founded by thee is no more. Thou didst build it upon the recognized rights of God in his Christ and in the Vicar of his Christ. Princes with short-sighted views of self-interest, traitors to the mission they had received to maintain thy work, imagined they were performing marvels, when they allowed maxims to be spread in thy France, proclaiming the independence of civil power in respect of that of Holy Church; and now by a just retribution, society has proclaimed its independence in respect of Princes! But at the same time, the infatuated populace has really no other idea but that of being its own sovereign, and intoxicated by this false liberty which it dreams to have acquired, it goes so far as to contemn even the supreme dominion of the Creator himself. The rights of man have usurped the rights of God, as the basis of social compact, a new-fangled gospel, that France, now in misled proselytism, is fain to carry over the whole world in place of the true Gospel so loved of yore!

In that unhappy country poisoned by a lying philosophy, such is the excess of delirium, that many who deplore the apostasy of the mass of the population, and wish to remain themselves Christians, imagine they can do so, while at the same time, maintaining the destructive principle of Liberalism, the very essence of revolution. Let Christ have Heaven and Souls, say they, but let man have earth, together with full right of governing it as he thinks best or as suits him best. While they fall on their adoring knees before the Divinity of our Lord Jesus, in the sanctuary of their own conscience, they search the Scriptures and are too blind to see there expressed, how the Man-God is and must be King of the whole earth. In learned theses, they inform us that they have probed the very depths of history, and find therein nothing that can contradict their arguments. If indeed they must admit that the government of a Clovis or a Charlemagne, or a Saint Louis, do not correspond in everything to their political axioms, we must, they say, make allowances for those primitive ages: a nation cannot be expected to come in a day, to the perfect age attained at last by the law of progress! Alas! have pity, O dear Mother of France, on the ravings of these poor sons of thine! Arouse once more, in that noble land, the faith of the Franks! Oh! may the god of Clotilde, the Lord of hosts, the King of nations, show himself once more, leading on thy sons to victory, in the name that won for Clovis the field of Tolbiac: JESUS CHRIST!

Catholic Twilight Zone: What in Hell Is Wrong With the Synodal Church?

From The Remnant TV

Michael Matt walks the grounds of a medieval French monastery and asks three questions: Where have all the Catholics gone? What hath Vatican II wrought? Could Synodality possibly be any more irrelevant?

The Seven Defenders of Christendom: St. Andrew of Scotland

St Andrew, Patron of Scotland, was one of the Twelve Apostles. Mr Coulombe relates the fascinating story of how his relics got to Scotland.

From One Peter Five

By Charles Coulombe, STM, KCSS

I MICHT NO HAE BEEN BORN A SCOT.

Author’s note: Our Medieval Fathers in the Faith loved grouping Saints – even though unrelated in life – in categories, according to what devotions or patronages were paid to them. So in the Rhineland of Germany, the Four Holy Marshals were St. Anthony the Abbot, patron of pigs; St. Cornelius of cattle; St. Hubertus of dogs; and St. Quirinus of horses. Each saint has his own centre of devotion: Anthony was venerated at Cologne, Hubertus at St-Hubert in the Ardennes, Cornelius at Aachen, and Quirinus at Neuss.  The more celebrated Fourteen Holy Helpers were Ss. Christopher, Dionysius or Denis, Catherine of Alexandria, Blaise, Vitus or Guy, George, Erasmus or Elmo, Margaret, Barbara, Eustachius or Eustace, Achatius, Cyriacus, Pantaleon, and Giles – all invoked together for, among other things, protection from the plague.  A more secular collection were the Nine Worthies.  These military heroes comprised three pagans: Hector, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar; three Jews: Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabeus; and three Christians: Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godefroy de Bouillon.

In similar fashion, The Seven Defenders of Christendom referred to St. Andrew, patron for Scotland; St. Anthony for Italy; St. David for Wales; St. Dionysus or Denis for France; St. George for England; St. James the Great for Spain; and St. Patrick for Ireland.  Now, quite a few patrons were left out; but as this particular list was popular in England, it makes sense that it concentrates in the four countries of the British Isles, and the three continental nations with whom they had the most to do in terms of trade, warfare, and travel.  For us today, given the terrible state of Europe, we can pray to them to defend Christendom in general and their own countries in particular from the modern-day infidels of all faiths and none, as once our fathers prayed for protection against the Saracens.

Faur frae Scotland tho’ I be,
Gude St Andra, succour me.
Gie me this an’ ilka day,
Will for wark, an’ spunk for play.

Whiles my sorrow has nae name,
Whiles I’m seek and sair for hame;
Ilka Yule ma thochts will turn
Tae the hoose abune the burn,
Whaur I could slock my fevered drouth
Wi’ caller watter in my mooth.

Gude St Andra let me see
A vision o’ my ain countree;
Gar its memory keep me here
Blithe through a’ the comin’ year;
Mak this content me wi’ my lot –
I MICHT NO HAE BEEN BORN A SCOT.
Let the thocht o’ sic a fate
Keep me eident, sune an’ late.
Gude St Andra, succour me,
Faur frae Scotland tho’ I be.
—Kate Y.A. Bone, “A Prayer to St. Andrew.”

Anyone who knows his Gospel, knows St. Andrew. St. Peter’s brother, he was martyred at Patras in Greece. He is claimed as first Patriarch of Constantinople, and so that hierarch is often referred to as “Successor of St. Andrew,” in the same way that the Pope is called “Successor of St. Peter” – a relationship made much of when the two Patriarchs are in good humour with each other. His relics were taken from there to Amalfi, in Italy, although his head is in Patras since being given to the Greek Orthodox there by Paul VI in 1964. The head had been given to Pope Pius II 500 years earlier by a Sultan who was hoping for some advantage. Dom Guéranger describes the triumphant arrival of the relic in some detail in his article on St. Andrew in The Liturgical Year,  and then goes on to observe:

Thus has the glory of St. Andrew been blended, in Rome, with that of St. Peter. But the apostle of the cross, whose feast was heretofore kept in many Churches with an octave, has also been chosen as patron of one of the kingdoms of the west. Scotland, when she was a Catholic country, had put herself under his protection. May he still exercise his protection over her, and, by his prayers, hasten her return to the true faith!

That St. Andrew’s patronage is impossible to escape will be known by anyone who knows the Scots. The Scottish flag, the saltire, bears the white Cross of St. Andrew on a blue field – and this in turn became a constituent portion of the Union Jack, alongside the Crosses of Ss. George and Patrick. Around the world, St. Andrew’s Societies keep St. Andrew’s Day with as much fervour as they keep Burns’ Night. So how did all of this come about?

St. Andrew’s relics were kept in the city of his martyrdom, Patras, until the Emperor Constantine the Great ordered that they be brought to his new capital of Constantinople. His intent was to enshrine them in his new Church of the Apostles, which he intended both to hold relics of all Twelve, and to serve as a mausoleum for him and his family. However, in any event, only relics of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy (the latter two not among the Twelve) were acquired.

In any case, when the news came to Patras that the Emperor was going to requisition what had become the city’s chief treasure, a monk named St. Regulus (or St. Rule in Scots English) dreamed that an angel told him to take some of the relics to “the ends of the earth” for safety’s sake. He did so and took a ship for Roman Britain. But a storm blew them off course, and the ship was wrecked near what is now the city of St. Andrews. There, St. Regulus built a small church to hold the relics; successive rebuilding would in time create a grand cathedral.

King Angus II of the Picts led a mixed force of Picts and Scots in in 832 A.D. against a larger Anglo-Saxon army led by King Athelstan. Near what is now the village of Athelstaneford in East Lothian. Outnumbered as he was, King Angus prayed for Heavenly aid. That night, the Apostle appeared to him in a dream, and promised victory. In the morning, a cloud formation, a white diagonal cross (the Saltire – St. Andrew’s Cross) appeared against a clear blue sky. Encouraged by this sign, the Picts and Scots won the battle. The Saxon King was slain at a nearby river crossing (giving the village its name), and Angus declared St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland, and his cross its symbol. The Saltire Cross became the heraldic arms that every Scot is entitled to fly and wear. Both William Wallace and King Robert the Bruce appealed to St. Andrew to aid them against the English. In 1320, when Scotland’s independence was secured with The Declaration of Arbroath, St. Andrew’s patronage was official reaffirmed, and his Saltire flew on Scottish ships, adorned Scottish coins and seals, and was displayed at the funerals of Scottish kings and queens.

This political patronage was affirmed in the spiritual sphere as well. The monastery where his relics were enshrined had become a cathedral and its abbot Scotland’s first bishop by 1000. The 11th century saw St. Margaret, Queen of Scotland, endowing a ferry service across the river Forth, with hostels, at North and South Queensferry for pilgrims. Initially the relics were enshrined in St Rule’s Church and eventually in the Cathedral of St Andrews. Twice yearly St. Andrew’s relics were carried in procession around the town. They were accompanied by Masters and scholars from the colleges, Greyfriars, Blackfriars, Augustinian canons of the metropolitan church, and trade guilds. Cathedral and church bells rang; in the evening were bonfires and fireworks. The See of St. Andrew struggled with the English Archdiocese of York over ecclesiastical supremacy over the country, until Pope Sixtus II made it an Archdiocese and its holder Primate of Scotland in 1472. Almost a century later, the last two Catholic Archbishops of St. Andrew were murdered by the Protestants. The Cathedral had already been ransacked and the shrine and relics destroyed by a mob led by John Knox in 1559, and the cathedral was left to fall into ruin after 1561.

Nevertheless, St. Andrew’s Cross remained the symbol of the country. When, in 1707 the Parliaments of England and Scotland were united and the two countries became the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the Saltire flag, as mentioned, became part of the Union Jack. As the British Empire expanded, Scots settled overseas – the first two St. Andrew’s Societies were founded in Charleston and New York in the 18th century, continuing to this day. There are now at least one hundred scattered over the globe. These first two St. Andrew’s Societies revived celebration of St. Andrew’s Day as a national and cultural rather than a religious event – the Calvinists of the Church of Scotland frowned on such observances, although the Country’s Catholics and Anglicans continued to offer the Saint veneration. For the former, it was a Holy Day of Obligation in Scotland until 1918.

As a secular celebration, it features performances of Scots music (especially the bagpipe), parades, and the flying of the Saltire. St. Andrew’s dinners will feature such traditional dishes as haggis, neeps, and tatties, Cullen skink (smoked-haddock soup), and cranachan (a dessert made of cream, oatmeal, and whisky).

But the “Second Spring” of Catholicism brought a renewed public veneration at last of Scotland’s long-suffering patron. When the Catholic hierarchy in Scotland was restored in in 1878, although the revived primatial see would have to be centred in the capital, it was given the name of “St. Andrews and Edinburgh.” The following year the Bishop of Amalfi gave a portion of St. Andrew’s shoulder to the new St. Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh; it was placed in a silver gilt shrine donated by the Marquess of Bute (who unsuccessfully sought to rebuild the Medieval Cathedral of St. Andrews). On the feast of St. Andrew in that year, the relic was exposed in the Cathedral; a pontifical High Mass was offered. That evening, the relic was carried round the Cathedral in a grand procession, with 72 men from three different Army regiments, a line of schoolchildren, and 60 altar boys.

Pope Paul VI contributed part of the saint’s skull in 1969 to mark the creation of Joseph Gray as the first Scots cardinal in 400 years. The Pope gave it to him in St. Peter’s in Rome, in 1969, with the words “Peter greets his brother Andrew.” In 1982 both relics were housed in new reliquaries placed in the altar to the north of the High Altar. This chapel, originally dedicated to the Sacred Heart, now serves as the National Shrine of St Andrew, successor to the Shrine destroyed in 1559. To-day, St. Andrew’s Day is marked at the cathedral with two Masses, public veneration of the relics, and a Eucharistic Holy Hour.

Certainly, since the restoration of the hierarchy in Scotland, St. Andrew has been prayed to for the reconversion of the country. The League of St. Andrew for the Conversion of Scotland was formed in the 1890s by Benedictine monks to pray and advocate for the return of Scotland to the ancient faith following the Protestant Reformation.

New Dawn in Scotland, which has revived pilgrimages in that country, put out the following prayer for the Country’s return to the Faith:

For the Conversion of Scotland

Lord, our nation once sent missionaries throughout the world to proclaim the Good News.
We now pray for a fresh outpouring of Your Holy Spirit.
Rekindle that zeal in us to spread Your Word and to renew our hearts with Your Holy Fire.
St. Michael the Archangel defend us with the heavenly armies to protect us from all evil
and remove the darkness which covers this land.
St Andrew intercede so that we will become a people who will shine the light of Christ
once more to every nation.
Our Lady of Aberdeen, pray for us.

Amen

Without a doubt, St. Andrew’s legacy to-day is central to Scots identity. Prominent Scots Catholic layman James Bundy explains his continuing importance:

St Andrew has been many things for Scotland: apostle, protector, national emblem, political symbol, Protestant heritage figure, Catholic memory, and modern civic brand. His meaning has shifted across centuries, but he has never been irrelevant.

For Scottish Catholics, however, the heart of Andrew’s importance remains spiritual. He links Scotland to the apostolic age; he reminds us that holiness precedes nationhood; he calls us to fidelity in times of upheaval; and he continues to ask, in the words of the traditional hymn, that ‘Scotland yet again may love the faith, entire and true.’

In a secular age, recovering St Andrew is not about reclaiming political ground or resisting cultural change. It is about recognising that even a familiar national symbol contains a deeper invitation, one calling Scotland back to its spiritual roots, and calling Scottish Catholics to live out the apostolic faith with the same courage and humility as the fisherman who first said ‘yes’ to Christ.

In this sense, just as St. Andrew was first invoked for protection of Scotland against her enemies, so too now. But those enemies are not the English in the sense of Athelstan or Edward I. Rather, they are interior and exterior, the enemies of both the traditional Scottish Faith and the culture she built – even if it has been wayward for five centuries. In this he has much in common with his six brother defenders of Christendom, whose client nations often were hostile to each other historically – but all of whom face the same threats to-day.

The brother of St. Peter, also invoked by the Greeks, the Russians, and the Ukrainians, can be a strong patron for all of us who seek unity of the face of hostility, peace in the face of conflict, and assurance in the face of confusion. But as his crucifixion shows, St. Andrew has that special sort of bravery that only those with real grace can possess. May he share it with the Scots – and all the rest of us.

Feria

Today's Holy Mass from SSPX ANZ-District. You may follow the Mass at Divinum Officium.

St Clotilde, Queen of the Franks ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

Wednesday After Trinity Sunday ~ Dom Prosper Guéranger

St Clotilde, Queen of the Franks

From Dom Prosper Guéranger's Liturgical Year:

At this Season, in which the Office of the Time is leading us to consider the early developments of Holy Church, Eternal Wisdom so arranges, now as ever, that the Feasts of the Saints should complete the teachings of the movable Cycle. The Paraclete, who has but just down upon us, is to fill the whole earth; (Wisdom 1:7) the Man-God has sent Him expressly to win over the whole Earth and to secure all time to His Church. Now, it is by subjecting kingdoms to the faith that He is to form Christ’s Empire. It is by working so that the Church may assimilate all nations to herself that He gives growth and continuance to the Bride. See, therefore, how at this season in which He has but just taken possession of the world anew. His co-operators in this His work of conquest shine out on every side in the heavens of the holy Liturgy. But the West, more than all the rest, concurs in forming the magnificent constellation that is mingling its radiant splendor with the Pentecostal fires. Indeed, what could better show the Omnipotence of the Spirit of Christ than the establishment of this Latin Christendom in these distant lands of the West? Let us then fix our delighted gaze on those two incomparable luminaries, the Princes of the Apostles, directing their rapid course from the East, speeding on our horizon up to the glorious zenith which, in a month’s time, they will attain. Yesterday, John the Beloved Disciple shed on Gaul his last and long enduring rays. Some few days previously, it was a Pope Eleutherius or a Monk Augustine who with joint action, though parted by centuries, bore the light of salvation to the far West — to the home of the Britons and of the Anglo-Saxons. The day after tomorrow Boniface will shed his luminous beams on Germany.

But today what star is this rising in such silvery beauty on the land of the Franks? The city of Lyons, prepared by the blood of martyrs for this her second glory, saw this new light make growth in her midst. Across a distance of three centuries these rays are blended with those of Blandina. Like Blandina too, Clotilde is a mother; and the maternity of a slave, giving birth in her spotless virginity to Gaulish Martyrs, has already prepared the birth of the Franks to Christ. Clotilde had not, like Blandina, to shed her blood; but other pangs cruelly wrung her breast while she was yet so young, and served to mature her soul for the grand destinies reserved by God, for the privileged children of sorrow. The violent death of her father, Chilperic, dethroned by a fratricide usurper, the sight of her brothers massacred, and of her mother drowned in the Rhone, her long captivity in the Arian court of the murderer who brought heresy with him, to the throne of the Burgundians, developed in her the same heroism that had upheld Blandina in the amphitheater, amidst the anguish of her spiritual childbirth—a heroism that would make this niece of Gondebaud become likewise the mother of a whole nation, to Christ. Let us then unite these two names in one common homage and, prostrate at the Feet of the Eternal Father from Whom descendeth all paternity on earth and in heaven, (Ephesians 3:15) let us adore these Ways of His, all filled with tenderness and love, in our regard.

God drew the visible universe out of nothingness, solely to manifest his goodness. So, in like manner, has He willed that man, coming out of His hands, without power as yet to recognize his Creator, should recognize, at least, a Mother’s tender love, the first sensible ray, as it were, of Infinite Love. Irresistible in this ray, sublime in its gentleness, exquisite in its purity, giving to the Mother a facility, belonging only to her, to complete in the soul of her child, the entire reproduction of the Divine Ideal that is to be impressed upon him. Now this she does by education. Today’s feast reveals how yet more sublime, more potent, more extensive, is maternity in the order of grace, than it is in that of nature. For when God, coming down amongst us, was pleased to take Flesh of a Daughter of Adam, maternity was raised in Her to the extreme limit that separates the endowments of a simple creature from the divine attributes. Thus rising above the heavens, maternity at the same time embraced the world, bringing all mankind together into close union, without distinction of nation or family, in the one filiation of that Virgin-Mother. The New Adam, the perfect model of our race and our first-born, (Matthew 1:25; Hebrews 1:6), willed to have us for His brethren in all fullness, brethren in Mary as in God. (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:11-12) The Mother of God was then proclaimed Mother of men on Calvary. From the summit of the Cross the Man-God replaced on the brow of Mary that diadem of Eve broken by the fall beside the fatal tree. Constituted sole Mother of the living by this noble investiture, (Genesis 3; John 19:26-27) our Lady entered once again into communication with the privileges of the Father, our Father who is in Heaven. Not only was she by nature like Him, Mother of His Son; but just as all paternity flows down here below from the Eternal Father, and borrows thence supereminent dignity; so too, all maternity was naught, from that moment, but an outflow of Mary’s, and that in the truest sense;—yea, a delegation of her love, and a communication of her august privilege whereby she brings forth men unto God, whose sons they are to be.

Good reason, therefore, have Christian Mothers to glory in their maternity, for in that does their greatness consist; their dignity has increased to a degree, through Mary, that nature could never have dreamed of. But at the same time, under the ægis of Mary, not less real is the Maternity of holy Virgins, not only God’s eyes, but often manifested to their own: the wife too, prepared by a special call from God, and by suffering, is sometimes like Clotilde, endowed with a fecundity of a spiritual order, a thousand times more prolific than that of earth. Happy the fruits of this supernatural Maternity, which under the favor of Mary is fraught with so much greatness! happy the nations on whom by divine munificence a Mother has been bestowed!

History tells how the founders of Empires have ever had the terrible prerogative of impressing upon nations the distinctive character, disastrous or beneficial, which, through length of ages, continues to be theirs. How often does not that want of counterpoise to the preponderance of power, make itself only too evident, in the impetus given rather to destroy than to build up! And wherefore? Because ancient Empires never had a Mother; for this noble title cannot be applied to those women who, under the name of heroines, have transmitted their names to posterity, merely inasmuch as they rivaled the ambition and pomp of conquerors. To Christian times was it reserved, to behold introduced into a people’s life, this element of Maternity, more salutary, more efficacious in its humble gentleness, than that which springs from the talents or vices, from the power or genius of their first princes.

Time was needed to subdue the savage instincts of the warriors of Clovis, and to fit his sword to the noble destiny that awaited it, in the hand of a Charlemagne, or of a St Louis. With good reason has it been said that the honor of this labor is due to the Bishop and the monks. But to be more accurate and to prove a deeper insight of the ways used by Divine Providence, it were well, perhaps, to pass less lightly over, the woman’s part, for such indeed there was, in the work of conversion and of education, which made the Frankish nation become the eldest son of the Church. Clotilde it was, who led the Franks to the Baptistery of Rheims, and presented to Remigius, the proud Sicambrian transformed, far less by the exhortations of the holy bishop, than by the force of prayer, the prayer of that strong woman elected by God to bear away this rich spoil, from the camp of hell. What manly energy, what devotedness to God, are displayed in every measure taken by this noble daughter of the Burgundians’ dethroned king. While held beneath the suspicious eye of the usurper, the murderer of her family, she awaits in the silence of prayer and in the exercise of charity, Heaven’s appointed hour. When, at last, the moment comes, taking counsel of none save the Holy Ghost and her own heart, how nobly does she dart forward to conquer unto Christ her betrothed, though yet a stranger to her, outdoing in valor, in this instance, all the warriors of her escort! Strength and beauty, were indeed her covering, (Proverbs 31) her adornment on her bridal day; and the heart of Clovis soon learned that the conquests reserved to his bride, far outstripped in importance, the booty he had hitherto seized by force of arms. Clotilde, on the other hand, found her work already prepared on the banks of the Seine. During fifty years Genevieve had been busy, defending Paris against the pagan hordes, and only awaiting the baptism of the king of the Franks, in order to open to him the city gates.

Still, when on that Christmas night, Clotilde gave birth to the eldest son of Holy Church in Mary’s name, the great work was far from being completed; this newborn people had yet, by the slow process of a laborious education to be fashioned into the most Christian nation. This chosen one of God and of Our Lady does not fall short of the maternal task. But still what anguish of heart to be endured, what tears yet to be shed over these sons of hers, whose violence, peculiar to the race, seems simply indomitable, and the very exuberance of whose rich nature yields them up to the fury of passions, urging them blindly on, to crimes the most atrocious! Her grandchildren inveigled from her side and caught in the perfidious trap laid for them by their faithless uncles, are massacred. Fratricidal wars carry devastation over the whole of that territory of ancient Gaul, purged by her from paganism and heresy. Finally, another pang, but one of a more glorious kind, seems given as a compensation for the bitterness of intestine strife. Her cherished daughter Clotilde the younger, dies worn out by ill usage endured for her faith, at the hand of her Arian husband. Surely all this must have shown clearly enough to the queen of the Franks, that if she was chosen by Heaven to be their mother, she was to have all the pangs, as well as the honor that title involves. Thus does Christ ever deal with his own, when they have earned his confidence. Clotilde well understood this: already a widow and deprived by death of the aid of Genevieve likewise, she had long ago retired to Tours, near to the sepulcher of the Thaumaturgus of the Gauls. There, in the secret of prayer and in the heroism of her childhood’s faith, did she continue, aided by St. Martin, the preparation of this new people for its mighty destinies.

An immense work was this, and one to which no single lifetime could suffice! But though Clotilde was not to witness the desired transformation accomplished, her life was not to close until she had pressed to her heart, at Tours, her illustrious daughter-in-law, Radegonde, and having by this last embrace invested her with her own sublime maternity, she sends her to Poitiers, there to continue, at the tomb of St. Hilary, this great work of intercession. Then when at length, Radegonde herself, having ended her task of suffering and love, must likewise quit this earth, Bathilde will presently come forward, consummating the work, in that remarkable seventh century, the period when “the Frank, at last ready for his mission, is betrothed to Holy Church, and dubbed a Knight of God.” (Hist. St. Léger, Introduction)

Clotilde, Radegonde, Bathilde, all three of them, Mothers of France, bear a striking resemblance to one another. All three are prepared, from the early dawn of life, to the devotedness their grand mission would require, by the like trials, captivity, slavery, and massacre or loss of their own relatives: all three, bring to the throne naught but a dauntless love of Christ, the King, and a desire of seeing Him rule the people; all three, set aside the queenly diadem as soon as may be, in order to be able, prostrate before God in retirement and penitence, to attain more surely the one object of their maternal and royal ambition. Heiresses of Abraham in very deed, they found in his faith (Romans 4:18; Hebrews 11:11) the fecundity which made them to be mothers of those countless multitudes which the soil, watered by their tears, produced for Heaven. Even in these weakened times of ours, there is still a goodly throng ever passing from the land of the Franks to their true home yonder, there to join the happy band of the combatants of better days. At the sight of this ever increasing group of sons joyously pressing round their thrones, the hearts of Clotilde, Radegonde, and Bathilde, overflowing with love, give utterance in one united cry, to this word of the Prophet: Who hath begotten thee? I was barren and brought not forth, led away, and captive: and who hath brought up these? I was destitute and alone: and these where were they? Then the Lord answering, saith: As I live, thou shalt be clothed with all these as with an ornament, and as a bride thou shalt put them about thee. For thy deserts, and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruction shall now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants. The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thine ear: the place is too strait for me, make me more room to dwell in. And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nurses. And thou shalt know that I am the Lord, for they shall not be confounded that wait for him. (Isaias 49:18-23)

But it is time to listen to the Liturgical account of Saint Clotilde’s life.

Clotilde, daughter of king Chilperic, after the murder of her parents was brought up by her uncle Gondebaud, king of Burgundy, who gave her in marriage to Clovis still a pagan. Having brought forth her first-born son, she had him baptized, a thing rather tolerated by Clovis than consented to. The child to whom was given the name of Ingomer, chancing to die while still wearing the white robe of baptism, Clovis bitterly complained to Clotilde, attributing the death of his son to the vengeance of the gods of his fathers, irritated at this contempt offered to their divinity. But Clotilde said: “I give thanks to the Almighty Creator of all things, that he hath not judged me unworthy to give birth to a son whom he hath deigned to admit to share his kingdom.”

Having brought forth a second son, she wished that he likewise should be baptized, and the name of Clodomir was given to him. The child having fallen ill, the king declared that the fate of the brother was to befall this son also; but he was contrariwise, cured by his mother’s prayers. The queen continued to exhort her husband to reject idolatry and to adore the One God in three Persons; Clovis, however, persisted in the superstitions of the Franks, until at length, being on an expedition against the Alamani, and one day seeing his army waver, he remembered the counsels of Clotilde, and implored the help of Christ, who thereupon granted him victory. Clotilde filled with joy came to meet him, as far as Rheims, having learned how all had happened. Saint Remigius, at her request, instructed Clovis in the faith, and baptized him, anointing him likewise with the sacred chrism.

After the death of Clovis, Clotilde settled herself at Tours, where she passed the rest of her life at the tomb of Saint Martin, giving herself up to watching, alms, and other works of piety, exercising her munificence upon churches and monasteries. Clodomir having been killed in the war of Burgundy, she brought up her grandchildren herself, namely Theobald, Gontaire, and Clodoald. At last, full of days, she gave up her soul to God, at Tours, and her body was transferred to Paris, escorted by choirs chanting Psalms. Her sons, the kings Childebert and Clotaire, buried her beside Clovis, in the sanctuary of the Basilica of St. Peter, since called by the name of St. Genevieve.

The glory of miracles illustrating the tomb of this holy queen, at an early date her body was taken up to be honored, and was placed in a shrine. Whenever the city of Paris suffered any calamity, was the custom in ancient times, to carry the body in procession, with every demonstration of piety. At the end of the eighteenth Century, the impious having seized upon the government, the relics of saints being likewise profaned all over France, by sacrilegious fury, the bones, nevertheless, of this blessed queen, thanks to the admirable providence of God, were secreted by some pious persons. Peace being, later on, restored to the Church, the holy relics were placed in a new shrine, and deposited in the Church of Saints Leu-Saint Gilles Church of Saints Leu-et-Gilles at Paris, where they are honored with fervent worship.

Great is thy glory on earth and in heaven, O Clotilde, Mother of nations! Not only hast thou given to Holy Church that people of France, surnamed the most Christian; but our own England and Spain also, claim their descent from thee (in the pedigree of Faith, that is) by Bertha and Ingonda, thy noble granddaughters. Ingonda, more fortunate than thy daughter Clotilde, succeeded, by the help of Saint Leander of Seville, in bringing back to the true faith, her husband Hermenegilde, and even leading him to the crown of martyrdom. Bertha, queen of our own fair Kent, welcomed Augustine to our Saxon shores and, through her influence, was our royal Ethelbert brought from the darkness of paganism, even unto baptism and the aureola of sanctity: realizing thus that word of the Apostle, that the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife. (1 Corinthians 7:14) Since those early days, in how many other parts of Europe, and on how many other more distant shores, have not the sons of thine own nation, that nation of which thou wast mother, propagated that light of faith which they received of thee: whether brandishing the sword in defense of the right which belongs to holy Church, the bride of the Man-God, to teach freely and everywhere, the Word of Truth; or whether, becoming themselves missioners and Apostles, carrying the same to infidel nations, far beyond reach of any possible protection, and at the expense of their sweat and of their blood? Happy thou, to be first in bringing forth unto Christ, the King, a nation pure from every stain of heresy and vowed to holy Church from the first moment of her new birth! Rightly indeed the Church of Sainte-Marie at Rheims, was the one selected on that Christmas Day of the year 496, for this birth unto God of the Frankish nation; wherein Our Lady in a proportionate manner, gave thee to share her own Motherhood of our race.

There especially lies our motive of confidence in recurring to thee, O Clotilde, in our intercessory prayer this day. Alas! how many of thy sons are far from being what they should be, having such a Mother as thou! But when Our Lady gave thee a share in her own maternal rights, she necessarily, at the same moment, communicated to thee also her own tender compassion, for beguiled children deaf to their Mother’s voice. Take pity on these unfortunate sons, led so very far astray, by strange doctrines. (Hebrews 8:9).

The Christian Monarchy founded by thee is no more. Thou didst build it upon the recognized rights of God in his Christ and in the Vicar of his Christ. Princes with short-sighted views of self-interest, traitors to the mission they had received to maintain thy work, imagined they were performing marvels, when they allowed maxims to be spread in thy France, proclaiming the independence of civil power in respect of that of Holy Church; and now by a just retribution, society has proclaimed its independence in respect of Princes! But at the same time, the infatuated populace has really no other idea but that of being its own sovereign, and intoxicated by this false liberty which it dreams to have acquired, it goes so far as to contemn even the supreme dominion of the Creator himself. The rights of man have usurped the rights of God, as the basis of social compact, a new-fangled gospel, that France, now in misled proselytism, is fain to carry over the whole world in place of the true Gospel so loved of yore!

In that unhappy country poisoned by a lying philosophy, such is the excess of delirium, that many who deplore the apostasy of the mass of the population, and wish to remain themselves Christians, imagine they can do so, while at the same time, maintaining the destructive principle of Liberalism, the very essence of revolution. Let Christ have Heaven and Souls, say they, but let man have earth, together with full right of governing it as he thinks best or as suits him best. While they fall on their adoring knees before the Divinity of our Lord Jesus, in the sanctuary of their own conscience, they search the Scriptures and are too blind to see there expressed, how the Man-God is and must be King of the whole earth. In learned theses, they inform us that they have probed the very depths of history, and find therein nothing that can contradict their arguments. If indeed they must admit that the government of a Clovis or a Charlemagne, or a Saint Louis, do not correspond in everything to their political axioms, we must, they say, make allowances for those primitive ages: a nation cannot be expected to come in a day, to the perfect age attained at last by the law of progress! Alas! have pity, O dear Mother of France, on the ravings of these poor sons of thine! Arouse once more, in that noble land, the faith of the Franks! Oh! may the god of Clotilde, the Lord of hosts, the King of nations, show himself once more, leading on thy sons to victory, in the name that won for Clovis the field of Tolbiac: JESUS CHRIST!