Christianity is the odd religion that does not require pilgrimage, but Christians do it anyway, and in great numbers, as they have since the earliest days of the Church. Many of the early Fathers made the journey to the holy sites. They trekked to the Holy Land to walk in Jesus’ footsteps and to Rome to honor Peter and Paul. How can we follow their example?

LINKS

Mike Aquilina’s 2023 pilgrimage to Rome https://www.pilgrimages.com/mikeaquilina/

Margherita Guarducci, The Primacy of the Church of Rome https://www.amazon.com/Primacy-Church-Rome-Documents-Reflections/dp/0898709229/

The Pilgrimage of Etheria [or Egeria] https://archive.org/details/pilgrimageofethe00mccliala

Jas Elsner and Ian Rutherford, Pilgrimage in Graeco-Roman and Early Christian Antiquity: Seeing the Gods https://www.amazon.com/Pilgrimage-Graeco-Roman-Early-Christian-Antiquity/dp/0199237913/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

’Twas the night before Easter, and all through the Church every heart was stirring. The early Christians kept a Vigil that made a lasting impression. The symbols were elemental: fire, water, darkness, nakedness, music, dramatic preaching, surprising chalices, and more-than-marathon endurance. Prepare for your Easter Vigil by learning about theirs.

LINKS

Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf">https://sachurch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/On-Pascha-Melito-of-Sardis.pdf

Melito of Sardis, Peri Pascha (another translation) https://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp

Eusebius of Caesarea, On the Celebration of Easter https://tertullian.org/fathers/eusebius_on_easter.htm

St. Augustine, Sermon 227 https://stanselminstitute.org/files/SERMON%20227.pdf

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Plato scorned manual labor. Aristotle believed that “no one who leads the life of a worker or laborer can practice virtue.” Plotinus, Celsus, and Herodotus agreed that work was ignoble and contemptible. Pagan religion reflected these precepts of the philosophers. In such a world, Christianity seemed revolutionary. The churches were full of laborers, who worshipped a Laborer—and whose Scriptures preserved NOT the syllogisms of philosophers, but the stories of people who got jobs done. Implicit in the writings of the Fathers is a radical and new idea: a theology of work.

LINKS

Paul Veyne, A History of Private Life, Volume I: From Pagan Rome to Byzantium https://www.amazon.com/History-Private-Life-Pagan-Byzantium/dp/0674399749/

Jose H. Gomez, All You Who Labor: Towards a Spirituality of Work for the 21st Century https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/ndjlepp/vol20/iss2/11/

Mike Aquilina, Work, Play, Love: How the Mass Changed the Life of the First Christians https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/work-play-love-how-the-mass-changed-the-life-of-the-first-christians

Mike Aquilina, How Christianity Saved Civilization ...And Must Do So Again https://catholicbooksdirect.com/products/how-christianity-saved-civilization-and-must-do-so-again

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

To Plato it was an island paradise. To Cicero it was the beginning of the Roman Empire. To Basil it was a name synonymous with luxury. To Augustine it was a place of natural marvels: a mountain that burned perpetually, but was never consumed. To Gregory the Great it was a shrine to his favorite martyrs. Modern Christians know Sicily mostly from the Godfather movies, so they know nothing of its rich Christian history. Till now. Listen up.

Links

John Julius Norwich, Sicily: An Island at the Crossroads of History https://www.google.com/books/edition/Sicily/UECODQAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=john%20julius%20norwich%2C%20sicily&pg=PP1&printsec=frontcover

M.I. Finley, A History of Sicily https://archive.org/details/historyofsicily00finl_0

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

As long as there’s been Christian faith, there have been ascetics—athletes of prayer—and these athletes, both female and male, have sought ways to live in intentional community. Experiments in communal life went on in every corner of the Empire—in Egypt, Palestine, Rome, Cappadocia, Athens, Antioch, Africa—and involved the greatest names in the early Church.

LINKS

Tertullian, On the Veiling of Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=1699

Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Virgins https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2092

Ambrose of Milan, Concerning Widows https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2070

Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2272

Augustine of Hippo, Of Holy Virginity https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=3280

John Cassian, Institutes https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/fathers/view.cfm?recnum=2106

Palladius, Lausiac History https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/palladius_lausiac_02_text.htm

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Denis (aka Dionysius) the Great, in the years he was bishop, faced many of the terrors of the ancient world, all while the empire was persecuting Christians to the death. He saw his congregations reduced by death and defection. He saw the ranks of the clergy reduced to just a handful of priests. Yet he lived to see the day when the Church of Alexandria in Egypt revived to become a world leader once again.

LINKS

Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VI) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250106.htm

Eusebius, Church History Church History (Book VII) https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/250107.htm

Kyle Harper The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of an Empire https://www.amazon.com/Fate-Rome-Climate-Disease-Empire/dp/0691192065/

William H. McNeill, Plagues and Peoples https://www.amazon.com/Plagues-Peoples-William-H-McNeill/dp/0385121229/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

Donate at: http://www.catholicculture.org/donate/audio

Western Christianity is fundamentally African in the way that Eastern Christianity is fundamentally Greek. It was in Africa that a vigorous Christian Latin culture first developed. Carthage had a Latin liturgy for a full century before Rome switched over from Greek. Africa gave the Church great saints and Fathers such as Tertullian, Minucius Felix, Cyprian, Arnobius, Lactantius—and the greatest of all: Augustine. For a Western Christian, to know early African Christianity is to know one’s own roots.

LINKS

Mike Aquilina, Africa and the Early Church: The Almost-Forgotten Roots of Catholic Christianity https://www.amazon.com/Africa-Early-Church-Almost-Forgotten-Christianity/dp/1645852598/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

The calendar is a catechism. Every feast is a lesson in doctrine. The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, like Christmas, rose to prominence at a time of deep division in the Church, as some Christians disputed Jesus’ true divinity. Both celebrations served as a kind of credal statement—and they still do today.

LINKS

Kilian McDonnell, OSB, The Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan: The Trinitarian and Cosmic Order of Salvation https://www.amazon.com/Baptism-Jesus-Jordan-Trinitarian-Salvation/dp/0814653073

Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Mike Aquilina, The Feasts: How the Church Year Forms Us as Catholics https://www.amazon.com/Feasts-Church-Year-Forms-Catholics/dp/080413992X/

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

In Greek and Roman epics, the heroes are men who conquer by violence. But in early Christianity the epic heroes were often heroines — specifically those who had suffered violence rather than submit to a patriarchy that despised them for what they were. The virgin martyrs refused to conform to society’s idea of womanhood. In a time of demographic winter, they refused to marry and bear children for the good of the empire. They consecrated their lives to Christ instead. Thus they were seen as a threat to traditional family values. What would happen to the world if all women began to behave like Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia, and Anastasia?

LINKS

St. Ambrose, Concerning Virginity https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/34071.htm

St. Jerome, Letter 130 https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001130.htm

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org

The questions arise every few years, and each time they're news. Who were the "deaconesses" in the early Church? What was their role? Why did the role vanish in the first millennium? Should the role be revived? The questions are never answered to everyone's satisfaction. Why must that be so?

"Divergent expectations in the deaconess debate: Interview with Sister Sara Butler" https://angelusnews.com/faith/divergent-expectations-in-the-deaconess-debate/

International Theological Commission, "From the Diakonia of Christ to the Diakonia of the Apostles" (2002) https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_pro_05072004_diaconate_en.html

Mike Aquilina’s website https://fathersofthechurch.com

Mike Aquilina’s books https://catholicbooksdirect.com/writer/mike-aquilina/

Theme music: Gaudeamus (Introit for the Feast of All Saints), sung by Jeff Ostrowski. Courtesy of Corpus Christi Watershed http://www.ccwatershed.org