Day: May 4, 2024

Saints Philip and James

Saints Philip and James share a feast day because their relics were brought to Rome together in early May. We know nothing more about either saint than what is found in the Scriptures. There we are told that they were apostles, and tradition has it that they were both martyred.

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A Moonlit Trio

The Moon, left, Jupiter, right, and Saturn, above and to the left of Jupiter, are seen after sunset with the Washington Monument, Thurs. Dec. 17, 2020, in Washington. The two planets drew closer to each other in the sky as they headed towards a “great conjunction” on Dec. 21, where the two giant planets appeared a tenth of a degree apart.

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Tantalizingly Incomplete: Charlotte Guillard and Erasmus of Rotterdam in 1546

In 1546, Charlotte Guillard (ca. 1485–1557) owned one of the most prestigious printing houses in Paris, the Soleil d’Or, and that year she printed an impressive, updated edition of the letters of Saint Jerome under her own name. The editor and commentator of this particular book, however, was the famous Dutch humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1468?-1536), whose published annotations on Jerome had been censured by the Venetian Inquisition and the Index of the University of Paris two years prior.

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