The broad cobblestoned street curved as you climbed, so I didn’t see the convent until I was standing before its huge iron gates. Its massive bulk loomed like a castle. Going to college in Rome felt grown up until the first time I went…

January has a decided lack of saints with funny names. Imagine my disappointment when the 2018 Eastern Rite calendar came in. What did I see? Paul, Gregory, Anthony, and a dozen more perfectly normal red-blooded American names. You and I…

Now I am going to tell you about something that until I did this article I knew next to nothing about — Advent fasting customs of the Eastern Rite. All I knew is that the period of Advent starts way sooner than Advent in the West. Instead…

There is just too much to tell about this month’s saint so let’s start with the one thing no Catholic can resist, a gift shop. If you are a fan of St. Bernadette of Lourdes, you probably own a little plastic bottle of miraculous healing…

Mother Teresa passed into eternal life in 1997. Many people had the good fortune to meet her personally, but I never did.   Or did I?  On a family visit to Washington, D.C., in 2007, our missionary friend, Patrick, took us to an AIDS…

Remember the 1990s when Ashley, Ashleigh, and Ashlee all ended up in the same kindergarten? That’s what it was like to research St. Hippolytus. I found two different Hippolytuses who claim the feast day, Aug. 13 and a third thrown in on…

The feast of All Saints is exactly the same in the East as it is in the West; it’s just on the other side of the year. It always falls on the Sunday following Pentecost, which this year is June 16. On this day, the Eastern Church…

This is the tale of two holy lives and two ... not so holy ones. Sts. Theodulus and Agathopodes (died 303, feast day April 5) were members of the clergy in the church at Thessalonica (aka Salonica) in Greece. The bustling city was part of…

Since we are on the subject of “breathing with both lungs lately,” let’s talk about how Eastern rite Catholics practice Lent. Easterners don’t do Lent cold turkey. Maybe because it’s too hard (read on) or maybe because the Slavs are just…

St. Malachi (Mal-a-kai) is a member of the minor prophets club of the Old Testament. Placed alongside Obadiah and Habakkuk, his name seems quite normal. Before I get started, this Malachi is not to be confused with the 12th century Irish…