Church History

Drawing from his own pastoral experience as a priest and bishop before he became Pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyla has produced a remarkably eloquent and resourceful defense of Catholic tradition in the sphere of family life and sexual morality. He writes...

On August 9, 1945, an American B-29 dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, killing tens of thousands of people in the blink of an eye, while fatally injuring and poisoning thousands more. Among the survivors was Takashi Nagai, a pioneer in radiology...

Italian Carmelite Antonio Maria Sicari's vibrant biographies of saints—from Augustine to Catherine of Siena to Faustina Kowalska—have been read across Europe for decades. In How Saints Die, Sicari turns to the most difficult challenge in the...

For many Americans the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, was the first time they had considered Islam. Were the terrorists motivated by the true dictates of their religion, or had they hijacked Islam as well as the planes in a...

Exploring Scripture and Tradition in his energetic and poetic style, Hadjadj offers a fresh and beautiful meditation on Saint Joseph, his life with Jesus and Mary, and his exceptional fatherhood. In twelve profound and often humorous chapters, Hadjadj...

Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life”, but fallen mankind, although made in Christ’s image, is not so pure. Human history—including Church history—is a tapestry woven of three threads: the good, the bad, and the...

Music plays such an important part in everyone's life but how much do we know about the history of music? How did music shape our civilization and how was music itself shaped by the Catholic Church? Susan Treacy, an experienced professor of music, is an...

The Shroud of Turin is one of the most famous relics in the world. Scrutinized by scientists and studied by debunkers, it is also honored by countless faithful devoted to the mysterious image of a crucified man that appears on the cloth. In this...

This provocative account of the persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico in the 1920s and 1930s tells the stories of eight pivotal players. The saints are now honored as martyrs by the Catholic Church, and the sinners were political and military...

Ngo Dinh Diem, the first president of the Republic of Vietnam, possessed the Confucian "Mandate of Heaven", a moral and political authority that was widely recognized by all Vietnamese. This devout Roman Catholic leader never lost this mandate in the...

Saint John of the Cross is the Church's premier teacher on contemplative prayer. Catholic tradition even calls him the Mystical Doctor. The sixteenth-century Carmelite priest not only wrote four massive treatises on the spiritual life, along with some of...

Were the Three Kings, or Magi, who the Bible says traveled to Bethlehem in search of the Christ Child real, historical figures or simply the stuff of legend? For generations, the Magi have inspired art and music. Epiphany, the important Christian feast...