The Order of St. Benedict ( Ordo Sancti Benedicti in Latin, abbreviated as OSB), known also as the Benedictines (sometimes referred to as Black Monks, due to the color of their religious habits), is...
The Baltic nation of Estonia is one of Europe’s least crowded countries and has two UNESCO World Heritage sites, one you may never have heard of. The Struve Geodetic Arc , which Estonia shares with...
All Souls’ Day on November 2 is an important holy day for Roman Catholics and Anglo-Catholics, but do you know why? Just when Halloween has passed and the vampire and ghost costumes get tucked away...
Harry Potter books have been removed from a private Catholic school in Nashville because they include actual “ curses and spells ”, according to staff at the school. In a recent report in the US...
Many archaeological sites and ruins from the colonial period are to be found in the former colonies of the Spanish Empire, and the Republic of Uruguay is no exception. Calera de las Huérfanas is one...
Death was always a source of mystery for people around the world. But what happens when we erase that invisible border and make the dead a thing to worship? Never too far from every major turn of...
Notre Dame de Paris (which translates as ‘Our Lady of Paris’) is one of the best-known Gothic cathedrals in the world and among the most famous landmarks in France . The monument caught the attention...
As the flames of every disaster fade, stories emerge about heroes and this is again the case in Paris where a brave French priest not only attended to the wounded after the Notre-Dame cathedral fire...
St Brigid is one of the patron saints of Ireland. But the virgin nun has roots that go back to the days when the land’s pagan deities received prayers instead. It seems the Celtic goddess Brigid...
William Johnston / The Conversation For Christians, the death and resurrection of Jesus is a pivotal event commemorated each year during a season of preparation called Lent and a season of...
The Shroud of Turin is believed by many to be the bloodstained burial cloth Jesus of Nazareth was wrapped in after his crucifixion. But skeptics say it is a forgery, or at best only a religious...
Elizabeth I was one of England’s most famous and powerful queens and an iconic figure in world history. Known also as ‘The Virgin Queen’ and ‘Good Queen Bess’, she belonged to the House of Tudor – a...
The reign of Heraclius, the Byzantine emperor from 610 to 641, reads like a series of disasters that continued to be visited on his heirs. In between the disasters he had some successes, but he and...
The Shrove Tuesday Riots (known also as the Bawdy House Riots of 1668, or the Messenger Riots) were a series of brutal riots that took place in London in 1668. During the 17 th century, it was...
The Council of Nicaea (also known as the First Council of Nicaea) was the first ecumenical council of the Christian Church. This council, which was convened in 325 AD, was assembled by the Roman...
Under the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, which began in 1558, Catholics were persecuted by law and priests were imprisoned, tortured, and frequently executed. As a result of this oppression,...