"Young girl being courted during a meal", illumination from the manuscript "Decretum Gratiani", ms. 0558, f. 323v, ca. 1288-1289, Bibliothèque Municipale, Tours. The illumination portrays a girl being seduced by the guest of a banquet in her father's house.…

On February 7, 1497 (Mardi Gras day), Girolamo Savonarola's bonfire of the Vanities took place in Piazza della Signoria, Florence. Inspired by the Dominican friar's predicaments against Florence's artistic and cultural mundanity during the time of…

The Church celebrates today the feast of Candlemas, commemorating the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem. The origin of the feast lays in the very Torah: the Law prescribes, in fact, the redemption of…

February 1 marks the feast day of Saint Brigid of Ireland (or of Kildare), the co-patron saint of Ireland along with St. Patrick and St. Columban. According to legend, Brigid and her mother were baptized by…

Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.” On January 29, 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's most famous poem, "The Raven", was published for the first time on the pages of New York's The Evening Mirror. Poe's signature dark, supernatural atmosphere,…

Judenstern preserved at the Jewish Museum Westphalia of Dorsten, Germany. Leggi l'articolo in Italiano On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army entered Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp. With the opening of the lager gates -…

Western Christianity celebrates today, January 25, the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul the Apostle. A fervent zealot, Paul had spent his early life intensely persecuting Christians - having, in fact, participated in the stoning…

The Church celebrates today, on January 6, the feast day of the Epiphany. Although the name, from the Greek ἐπιφάνεια ("manifestation"), indicates its origin as a celebration of the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ, Western…

Dating back to Ancient Egypt, the Ouroboros is a symbol common to many people and times in history. The word, coming from the Greek οὐροβόρος ὄφις ("οὐρά" meaning tail, "-βορος" devouring, and "ὄφις" snake), perfectly describes…

On December 29, 1170, the English Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. Becket, having been martyrized by the King's men due to conflicts over the rights of the Church under the reign of…