Comparisons have been drawn between Dickens and Dostoevsky frequently enough to make them seem at times like spiritual brothers who chanced to be born in different countries. The similarities between the two of them can be plentifully enumerated: the superabundant moralistic fervor, their mutual concern for the downcast, the odd asymmetries of temper, the horror of [...]
The life of St. Martin of Tours, patron saint of France, soldiers, and beggars, reaches over the greater part of the 4th century, that period during which the Church, no longer a proscribed society, found herself for the first time free to pursue the evangelization of the Roman Empire. This was the work of more than [...]
Not long ago I spent an hour reading a handful of St. Augustine’s festal homilies in praise of the early martyrs. The three dedicated to Ss. Felicity and Perpetua especially stand out as worthy of their subjects, and several passages from these have remained with me over the past few days. I suspect this may mean [...]
