May 25

Today is a full calendar.

In the old Roman rite it is the feast of Saint Gregory VII, Confessor,Pope, and Doctor of the Church. I didn't remember that he was a doctor of the church but my old breviary says that it is so. What I do remember is that an acquaintance of mine insists that he should be a special patron of the modern church, for St Gregory fired more bishops than any other pope in history. (I wonder what he meant by that?) The good old Catholic Encyclopædia has an extensive life here. Wikipedia includes a good chunk of the CE's essay in its article here and adds a good bit more, apparently from the Brittanica according to the notes.

In the Carmelite calendar, it's the feast of St Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, O. Carm. There is a useful little essay on her life here.

The Pauline calendar adds yet another feast, that of the great English Benedictine historian, St Bede the Venerable. But that's really enough for today. Let's leave him to his traditional feast day on the 27th.

And finally, my grandfather, Peter John Cahill was born on this day in 1885. Leo XIII was pope, Grover Cleveland was president of the United States and the Queen Empress Victoria reigned over the empire on which the sun never set.