Mexico City, Mexico The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is one of the most important and popular Marian Shrines in the Americas, second only to the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparaceda in Brazil. But it does not stand in the shadow of its rival, and is probably the most visited church in Spanish speaking countries. It is claimed that in December of 2009, the Basilica of Our … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2015
BASILICA OF OUR LADY OF THE PILLAR
Zaragoza, Spain St. Mary Major in Rome may be the most important of all Marian shrines, and Lourdes may be the most famous; but it is the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar in Zaragoza that can boast being the oldest church in the world devoted to the Virgin Mary. Dating as far back as the 1st century AD, it commemorates Mary’s miraculous appearance to James the Greater … [Read more...]
BASILICAS OF ST. MARY MAJOR & OUR LADY OF DIVINE LOVE
Rome, Italy Rome is home to a number of churches which are classified as Marian shrines; two of these, the Basilica of St. Mary Major and the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Divine Love, are among the most important Catholic churches in the world. Although ranked after St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s and St. John’s Basilicas, both of the churches dedicated to the Virgin Mary are among the … [Read more...]
ST. PETER’S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Drogheda, Ireland Oliver Plunket is the most famous of all Irish-born saints. His martyrdom was certainly one of the best known, as he was the last Catholic to be killed for his faith in England, which is saying something considering that religious persecutions had been ravaging the British Isles for well over a century. His shrine in Drogheda is the most important saintly … [Read more...]
CHURCH OF ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
Rome, Italy As if Rome did not already boast enough world class churches filled with the tombs of the Church’s honored dead, the Eternal City is home also to the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martin. Ironically, St. Ignatius is not buried here, but at the Mother Church of the Jesuits, also in Rome. However, Robert Bellarmine, one of his most important successors … [Read more...]
CONVENT OF ST. DOMINIC
Lima, Peru Lima in Peru was one of the great cities of the old Spanish Colonial Empire in the Americas. Not surprisingly, it is home to many old and beautiful churches. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Lima was also home to a woman named Rose, the first Catholic saint to be born in the New World. The site of her tomb in the city’s Convent of St. Dominic became one of the … [Read more...]
CONVENT OF THE ANNUNCIATION
Alba de Tormes, Spain The relatively unassuming Convent of the Annunciation in the picturesque town of Alba de Tormes in Central Spain is the site of the tomb of Teresa of Avila, one of only a handful of woman to be designated a Doctor of the Church and perhaps the greatest female theologian in Christian history. The convent, one of a score that she founded, unexpectedly … [Read more...]
MOTHER CHURCH OF THE JESUITS
Rome, Italy As if Rome did not already boast enough world class churches filled with the tombs of the Catholicism’s honored dead, the Eternal City is home also to the Church of the Gesu, or the Mother Church of the Jesuits. The Jesuits, the most famous post-medieval Catholic order, was the brainchild of Ignatius of Loyala. Despite his Spanish heritage, he established the … [Read more...]
CATHEDRAL OF VILNIUS
Vilnius, Lithuania From the late Middle Ages until the early 17th century, the realm of Poland-Lithuania sprawed across Northeastern Europe. Wedged between Orthodox Russia to the East and what would become Protestant Prussia and Scandinavia, this vast kingdom and its survivor states was, and remains, a bastion of Catholicism. Its rulers became staunch defenders of … [Read more...]
PLACE DE VIEUX MARCHE
Rouen, France Throughout much of the 14th and the first half of the 15th centuries, the history of France was synonymous with the Hundred Years War. Following a series of disastrous military defeats, much of France was occupied by England and its continental allies. Initially a struggle over the monarchal succession, the war took on the tone of a religious crusade in 1429 AD … [Read more...]
