November is a time for remembering our mortality and the lives of those who have gone before us

The Dominican pope Saint Pius V had a room in Santa Sabina, the Dominican headquarters in Rome, and that room is now maintained as a small chapel, adjacent to the wing known as the Master’s Corridor. One of the frescoes in this chapel depicts the sainted pontiff kneeling with the Rosary in his hand as

About half a year after the Great Fast of Lent that prepares us for the Easter festivities there is another lesser-known Little Fast that punctuates the year. This time of penance and abstinence is traditionally undertaken by the Franciscans in imitation of St Francis of Assisi, who had begun the custom of fasting from the

“Ferragosto” is celebrated on August 15 in Italy, and it is the high point of the summer months, around which holidays and shop closures are centred. This period of mid-summer rest and festivity dates to 18 BC during the reign of the Roman Emperor Augustus (after whom the month is named), but it has come

In St Thomas Aquinas’s Eucharistic poem, Adoro Te devote, he writes: “O true pelican, Lord Jesus, cleanse me, who am unclean, in your blood, one drop of which would be enough to wash the whole world of all its defilement.” The reference to Christ as a pelican is based on the medieval belief that pelicans

The universal Church only began celebrating a feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 1856, to be observed on the Friday “after the Octave of Corpus Chris­ti”, which is often in June. Hence this month came to be associated with the Sac­red Heart. Although this liturgical observ­ance is somewhat modern, devotion to the Sacred

Since the 11th century, when a crescendo of Marian devotion began in the Western Church, there arose the custom of devoting 30 days to Our Lady, a time set aside to contemplate her virtues. Called a Tricesimum, these 30 days became known as “Lady Month”, but the custom did not become widespread in the Church

Archbishop Bernard Longley ordained two young Dominican friars priests and ordained a third deacon on Sunday. Br Lawrence Lew OP reports from his ordination to the diaconate.

Its creator, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, also designed the red phone boxes in London

Mgr Patrick Brankin, a diocesan communications director, defends the 'great cape' after protests against his bishop