Blog

    Stories of saints, biblical events, angels, and sacred places.

    A Renaissance painting by Francesco Botticini showing the archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael walking together with the young Tobias.
    The Archangel Choir
    Why the Archangels are the only one of the nine angelic choirs whose members are named individually in Scripture, and what this angelic rank truly means.
    A 14th-century tempera panel by Guariento di Arpo showing a circular group of golden-robed, haloed angels, traditionally identified with the Dominions.
    The Dominions
    What the Dominions (or Dominations) are in Christian tradition, why Ephesians calls them "dominion," and their odd, distinctly middle-management role.
    A detail from an illuminated Gospel manuscript showing two of the four evangelist symbols — a winged man holding a staff and an eagle — framed in Celtic interlace.
    The Four Living Creatures
    Part lion, part ox, part man, part eagle — the four creatures of Ezekiel and Revelation's visions, and how Christian tradition linked them to the Gospels.
    A phalanx of winged, haloed angels in gold and orange armor, carrying spears, from a 14th-century Italian panel painting.
    The Nine Choirs of Angels — A Full Guide to the Angelic Hierarchy
    A 6th-century writer organized every angel named in Scripture into nine ranks in three triads. Here's the full hierarchy, with the story behind each rank.
    A 14th-century tempera panel by Guariento di Arpo showing a haloed, winged angel in a red cloak holding a rod, traditionally identified with the Powers.
    The Powers
    Why medieval Christian tradition holds that the Powers guard the border between heaven and evil, and how their name traces to the Greek word for authority.
    A 14th-century tempera panel by Guariento di Arpo showing a haloed, armed angel holding a spear and shield, labeled Principatus.
    The Principalities
    Why Christian tradition holds that the Principalities watch over whole nations, cities, and institutions, and how their name shares a root with "archangel."
    A 14th-century tempera panel by Guariento di Arpo showing a haloed, enthroned angel holding a scepter, traditionally identified as one of the Thrones.
    The Thrones
    What Colossians 1:16 actually says about "thrones," how the word grew into a rank of celestial judges, and why medieval art painted them as wheels of eyes.
    A 14th-century tempera panel by Guariento di Arpo showing a haloed angel holding up a small robed figure representing a soul.
    The Virtues
    Why the Virtues' name literally means "powers" in Greek — the root behind "dynamite" — and why tradition ties this angelic rank to miracles in nature.
    A Baroque portrait of a bearded monk in a black Benedictine habit, holding a book, painted in Zurbarán's characteristic stark, sculptural style.
    Founders of Catholic Religious Orders — A Directory
    From Benedict's monastery at Monte Cassino to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, a directory of the saints who founded orders covered on this blog.
    An 18th-century icon-style painting of forty haloed martyrs standing together on a frozen lake, arms raised toward heaven, with soldiers watching from the shore.
    Groups of Christian Martyrs — A Directory
    From forty soldiers on a frozen lake to eight Jesuit missionaries in New France, a directory of saints martyred together in groups, with real history.
    A stained-glass window depicting Saint Anselm of Canterbury as a bishop in green and pink vestments and a mitre, holding a crozier and raising two fingers in blessing, inscribed "St Anselm."
    Saint Anselm of Canterbury
    An Italian monk became England's archbishop, clashed with two kings over the Church's independence, and tried to prove God's existence with logic alone.
    An 18th-century engraving of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem as a bearded, haloed bishop in ornate vestments, raising one hand and holding an open book in the other.
    Saint Cyril of Jerusalem
    A bishop deposed three times by Arian rivals still found time to write the Church's earliest surviving guide to preparing new Christians for baptism.
    A 15th-century Cretan icon depicting the death of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, surrounded by monks in a mountainous, cave-dotted landscape with an icon of the Virgin and Child carried at the center.
    Saint Ephrem the Syrian
    A deacon who never sought the priesthood wrote hundreds of hymns so rich and widely sung the Syriac tradition still calls him the Harp of the Holy Spirit.
    A Byzantine-style icon of Saint John Damascene, an elderly bearded monk in a red and blue robe and patterned headwrap, haloed, holding a scroll of text.
    Saint John Damascene
    Writing from a monastery outside imperial reach, this Damascus-born monk built the theological case for icons that later saved them from destruction.
    A watercolor by Mikhail Vrubel showing a six-winged seraph holding up a burning coal toward a bearded prophet's face.
    The Seraphim
    What the Seraphim are in Scripture and tradition, why Isaiah saw them crying "Holy, holy, holy," and why they rank highest of the nine angelic choirs.
    A chiaroscuro woodcut of four seated, bearded Doctors of the Church, each holding an open book, gathered in discussion around a central pillar.
    Doctors of the Church — The Full List, and Why Each One Earned the Title
    A directory of the 37 Doctors of the Church, the rare title for saints whose writing shaped Catholic doctrine, linking to each one covered on this blog.
    A hand-colored 19th-century lithograph of a nun in white and black habit kneeling in prayer with a rosary before a crucifix altar, angels appearing in clouds above her.
    Saint Bridget of Sweden
    A Swedish noblewoman raised eight children, buried her husband, then moved to Rome to found an order and spend her final decades badgering popes to come home.
    A Japanese Kirishitan-era painting of Saint Francis Xavier in a black cassock, gazing upward with his hands pressed to a flaming heart, beneath a vision of the crucified Christ surrounded by cherubs.
    Saint Francis Xavier
    A Basque nobleman gave up a promising career in Paris to spend a decade evangelizing India, the Malay Archipelago, and Japan for the newborn Jesuit order.
    A detail from an oil painting showing a haloed young nun standing beside an elderly monk, distributing charity in a sunlit courtyard.
    Saint Hilda of Whitby
    An abbess who personally favored Celtic customs hosted the 664 synod that decided England would follow Rome instead — then enforced that ruling in her own house.
    A 17th-century oil painting showing the Virgin Mary appearing in clouds above three kneeling nuns adoring the Blessed Sacrament in a church interior.
    Saint Juliana of Liège
    At sixteen, a cloistered nun began seeing a moon marked with a dark stripe. She kept it private for twenty years before it became the feast of Corpus Christi.