So, who is St. Patrick, anyway, and why do we like him so much?

Well, first, who he is not: he is not the benign figure wearing a green bishop's miter holding a shamrock and casting the snakes from the shores of his homeland, the Emerald Isle, even as he...

It is ironic that one of the more popular holidays in America is named for a saint about whom very little is known -- who, in fact, is of questionable historical provenance. In fact, the feast day of St. Valentine is no longer recognized in the current liturgical calendar of...

(RNS) Fifty years after Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council that revolutionized the Catholic Church, will the jolly man known as the "Good Pope" be declared a saint of the Roman Catholic Church? Perhaps the better question is: Should he be?

On the evening of June 3, 1963,...

INRI: The Mysteries and Meanings of the Cross of Christ

In the Christian scheme, there is a break, a bright hard line in history, represented by the direct intervention, the gratuitous (freely, graciously given) personal revelation of the Creator in the lives of real human beings.

This event is...

What do we know about Saint Patrick? Well, we know what he tells us:

"I am Patrick, a sinner, the most unschooled and least of all the faithful, and utterly despised by many."

When Patrick wrote those first words of his Confession -- his spiritual biography, penned some 16 centuries...

Many Christians find themselves in the doldrums between the celebration of the joy of Christmas and the solemnity of Lenten preparation for Easter. For them and for the pagan in all of us, the mid-winter "season" of carnival and the indulgence of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) brings some needed relief.