Sr. Maria Teresa Ribeiro Matos

“Tell me, who is the first captain of the age?” a noble lady asked Maurice of Nassau.1 “Spinola is the second!” he replied proudly, thereby naming himself first man-at-arms. Maurice led the Calvinist troops in Holland and had already inflicted numerous defeats on the Catholic forces, conquering almost the entire …

Journeying over mountains and through valleys, following winding rivers and rough or paved roads, one scene that commonly meets the traveller’s eyes is that of a tower in the distance. Drawing nearer, it is possible to recognize a cross on it. The stained-glass windows cannot yet be seen, the sound …

Sitting at the bedside of a newborn struggling against death was a young barbarian king. His head in his hands, his face half-covered by the long hair that symbolized the superiority of his origin, he did not hide his despair at the fate of his son: “Of course this child, …

St. Germaine - Church of St. Bartholomew, Laàs (France) T he tall, slender windows, large towers and half-walled façade lent a fortress-like appearance to the small medieval church of St. Mary Magdalene in the French village of Pibrac. The village was no more than a few kilometres from the large, …

St. Boniface – stained glass in the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. Alphonsus, Montevideo Superb military parades, exquisitely organized cities, succulent sausages, forests notable for the impeccable regularity of their arrangement: these are some of the indisputable charms of Germany. They radiate an innocence in battle …

It was the year 1221. In the austere Franciscan convent of Forli, Italy, some sons of St. Francis and St. Dominic had gathered for a liturgical celebration, during which several religious received the Sacrament of Holy Orders. At the end of the ceremony, the Provincial of the Friars Minor asked …

“How are you doing, Brother Aloysius?” Father Provincial asked, as he entered the sick man’s room. “I’m on the way, Father.” “On the way to where?” “To Heaven... If my sins do not prevent me, I hope, by God’s mercy, to go there.” This was the state of spirit of …

“Sicut Augustinus dicit – as Augustine says,” became a frequent expression in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas. The Bishop of Hippo is cited around three thousand times in the Summa Theologiæ. Numerous documents of the Ecclesiastical Magisterium and dogmatic treatises are also based on the doctrine of one who …