July 23 Cuba's Hurricane Priest
The Jesuit priest Benito Vines spent decades observing the skies at the Belen Observatory in colonial Cuba. He is now seen as a pioneer...
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Pearl of Great Price
- Jul 17
- 4 min
July 17 China, Matteo Ricci and the Oldest Newspaper
Ying Lianzhi, a Catholic Manchu aristocrat, founded a newspaper, today, in 1902 in order to, "help China become a modern and democratic...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jun 25
- 6 min
June 26 Beauty, Truth & Goodness - Hans Urs von Balthazar
Today in 1988 we remember the death of one of the greatest theological minds of the 20th Century. Hans Urs Von Balthazar died just two...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jun 24
- 4 min
June 25 The secret encyclical condemning Nazism
Today we remember how in a remarkable meeting in Rome Pope Pius XI missioned the American Jesuit John LaFarge to draft an encyclical on...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jun 22
- 3 min
June 23 Walter Ciszek - With God in Russia
Today in 1941 we travel to Russia where the American Jesuit Walter J. Ciszek was arrested under suspicion of being a spy for the Vatican...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jun 21
- 3 min
June 22 The First Native North American Saint
Today we remember the beatification of Kateri Takakwitha, a Mohawk woman. Born in 1656 in what is now New York state, she belonged to...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jun 1
- 3 min
June 2 Anthony De Mello
A Jesuit priest from India and psychotherapist who became widely known for his books on spirituality, integrating ancient eastern...
Pearl of Great Price
- May 31
- 4 min
May 31 CELAM 5, Aparecida and Pope Francis
Today we look at the short history of the Latin American Bishops Conference, their most recent meeting in Mexico at Aparecida and how...
Pearl of Great Price
- May 16
- 3 min
May 17 Marquette Mapping the Mississippi
We remember the historical expedition of missionary Jacques Marquette and Louis Jolliet, a French-Canadian explorer to explore the...
Pearl of Great Price
- May 1
- 3 min
May 2 The Polymath Priest who studied the Plague
The last polymath of the renaissance era was Fr Antanasius Kircher SJ. A giant among seventeenth-century scholars and at the dawn of the...
Pearl of Great Price
- Apr 26
- 7 min
Apr 26 William Shakespeare's Baptism and hidden messages
Today we remember the earliest record we have of William Shakespeares life - April 26th 1564 the day he was baptised in the Holy Trinity...
Pearl of Great Price
- Apr 19
- 3 min
Apr 20 Angelo Secchi, Spectroscopy and the Papal Yacht
Today the Vaticans astronomer Fr Angelo Secchi came aboard the papal yacht on the Azure waters of the Mediterranean to demonstrate his...
Pearl of Great Price
- Feb 5
- 3 min
Feb 5 - Japans hidden Christians
Today we remember 26 Christians who were crucified in Nagasaki in 1597. Tracing the rollercoaster story of Christianity in Japan, early...
Pearl of Great Price
- Feb 4
- 3 min
Feb 4 - Mormons journey to Utah
Today on Feb 4 we remember how the Church of the Latter Day Saints left their wintering grounds in search of a safe place to establish...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jan 31
- 3 min
Jan 25 - São Paulo founded by missionaries
Today in 1554 a small group of Jesuit missionaries, built a mission on top of a steep hill on the Piratiningha plains . As part of the...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jan 31
- 3 min
Jan 24 - Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar
Today in 1918 the Gregorian calendar was introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars. This brought another...
Pearl of Great Price
- Jan 25
- 3 min
Jan 7 - Galileo starts a revolution
Today in 1610 the Italian Astronomer Galileo made his first observation of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, which are now named...