March 15, 2026 · 5:48 am

St. Menas Vs. the Nazis

A WW2 miracle by an early Christian, Coptic/Greek soldier and martyr.

(St. Menas, aka St. Mina or St. Mena. Our local Egyptian parish is dedicated to him.)

Towards the end, there is a cool mural of his saintly apparition at the battle of El Alamein. This will make sense when you are told what the ancient town area was!!!

I have read a ton of WW2 books, and have never seen this incident mentioned. A lot of miracles happen, in this modern world, which we do not hear about. Language barriers and schism barriers deprive us of many good things. (But not forever.)

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Filed under Saint Stories

March 3, 2026 · 3:21 pm

A List of Bible Saints and Their Days in the West

Yup, I need to have a reference page for this, because usually people only think of Bible saints being celebrated in Eastern churches. This is an old list from an appendix in Fr. Kenelm Vaughan’s 1894 Catholic apologetics book, The Divine Armory of Holy Scripture, as well as a list from the 2001 Roman Martyrology.

I decided to bold the days that haven’t changed between the lists.

JANUARY

Jan. 4: St. Titus, bishop of Crete. Crete.
[Old day. His current day in the West is Jan. 26. Why? Because Vatican II functionaries.]
Jan. 6: Epiphany. St. Balthasar.
Jan. 8: St. Semei, prophet. [aka St. Shemaiah or St. Shimei or St. Semajas]
(Lk. 3:26; 1 Kgs/3 Kgs. 12:22-24; 1 Chr. 3:22, 4:27, 5:4, etc.; 2 Chr. 11:2, 12:5-15)
Jan. 10: St. Nicanor, one of the Seven Deacons. Cyprus. (Acts 6:5)
[Old day. Currently commemorated July 28.]
Jan. 14: St. Malachias the Prophet [aka St. Malachi]. Judea.
[Old day. His day is currently Dec. 18.]
Jan. 14: St. Abdias the Prophet [aka St. Obadiah]. Judea.
[Old day. His current day in the West is Nov. 19.]
Jan. 15: St. Habacuc the Prophet [aka St. Habakkuk]. Judea.
[Old day. His current day in the West is Dec. 2.]
Jan. 15: St. Micheas the Prophet [aka St. Micah]. Judea.
[Old day. Currently commemorated Dec. 21.]
Jan. 18: Feast of St. Peter’s Chair at Rome.
[Old day. Folded into Feast of St. Peter’s Chair on Feb. 22.]
Jan. 23: St. Parmenas, one of the Seven Deacons. Philippi in Macedonia. (Acts 6:5)
[Old day. Currently commemorated July 28.]
Jan. 24: St. Timothy, bishop of Ephesus. Ephesus.
[Old day. His current day in the West is Jan. 26.]
Jan. 25: The Conversion of St. Paul. (Acts 9:1)
[Jan. 25: St. Ananias. (Acts 9:10)]
[Jan. 26: Current day of Ss. Timothy and Titus.]

FEBRUARY

Feb. 2: St. Cornelius the Centurion, bishop of Caesarea. Caesarea Maritima. (Acts 10:1)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Oct. 20.]
[Feb. 3: Ss. Simeon, prophet and St. Anna, prophetess. Jerusalem. (Lk. 2:25-35; Lk. 2:36-38)]
Feb. 7: St. Zacharias, High Priest. [aka St. Zechariah] (Mt. 23:35)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Sept. 6.]
Feb. 10: St. Elizabeth, mother of St. John the Baptist. Judea. (Lk. 1:36)
[Old day. Her current day in the West is Nov. 5.]
Feb. 13: St. Agabus, prophet. Antioch. (Acts 11:28)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Apr. 8.]
[Feb. 15: St. Onesimus, martyr, bishop of Ephesus. His new day.]
Feb. 16: St. Onesimus, martyr, bishop of Ephesus. Ephesus. (Col. 4:9)
Feb. 22: Feast of the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch.
[Feb. 22: Feast of St. Peter’s Chair.]
Feb. 22: St. Aristion of Salamis, one of the 72 Disciples. Cyprus. (Lk. 10:1)
[Feb. 22: St. Papias of Hierapolis, who wrote five volumes of reminiscences about Jesus and the Apostles, as told to him by eyewitnesses – most of which work is lost.]
Feb. 24, or Feb. 25 in leap years: St. Matthias, Apostle, Martyr. Judea. (Acts 1:26)
[Old day. His current day in the West is May 14.]

MARCH

Mar. 1: Jared the Patriarch. (Gen. 5:15-20)
Mar. 1: Seth the Patriarch
Mar. 1: Jonathan the Patriarch.
Mar. 15: St. Longinus, martyr. Caesarea in Cappadocia. (John 19:34)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Oct. 16.]
[Mar. 15: St. Aristobulus. (Rom. 16:10)]
Mar. 17: St. Joseph of Arimathea. Jerusalem. (John 19:38)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Aug. 31.]
Mar. 18: St. Gabriel, archangel. (Dan. 8:16, 9:21; Lk. 1:19, 26)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Sept. 29.]
Mar. 19: St. Joseph, foster-father of Jesus. (Mt. 1:16)
Mar. 20: St. Joachim, father of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[Old day. His current day in the West is July 26.]
Mar. 20: St. Archippus, the “fellow-soldier” (systratiotes) of Paul. Asia. (Col. 4:17, Phm. 1:2)
Mar. 22: St. Paul, bishop of Narbonne [aka] Sergius Paulus the Pro-consul. Asia. (Acts 13:7)
Mar. 22: St. Epaphroditus, bishop of Terracina. Terracina. (Phil. 2:25)
Mar. 25: The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Lk. 1:26)
Mar. 25: St. Dismas the Good Thief. Jerusalem. (Lk. 25:43)
Mar. 27: St. Nicodemus. Jerusalem. (John 3:1)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Aug. 31.]
Mar. 31: St. Amos the Prophet. Teqoa’ in Samaria. (Amos 1:1)
[Old day. His current day in the West is June 15.]

APRIL

Apr. 8: St. Asyncritus of Marathon. (Rom. 16:14)
[Apr. 8: St. Agabus, prophet. Antioch. (Acts 11:28)]
[Apr. 8: Ss. Herodion and Phlegon. (Rom. 16:11, 14)]
Apr. 9: St. Prochorus, martyr. One of the Seven Deacons. Antioch. (Acts 6:5)
[Old day. Currently commemorated July 28.]
Apr. 9: St. Mary of Cleophas [Clopas], sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Judea. (John 19:25)
[Old day. Her current day in the West is Apr. 24.]
Apr. 10: St. Ezechiel the Prophet, martyr. [aka St. Ezekiel] Babylonia. (Ezek. 1:3)
[Old day. His current day in the West is July 23.]
Apr. 11: St. Antipas, martyr, bishop of Pergamum. (Rev. 2:13)
Apr. 14: St. Trophimus. (Acts 20:4, 21:29; 2 Tim. 4:20)
[Old day. His current day in the West is Dec. 29.]
[Apr. 14: St. Zenas the Lawyer. (Titus 3:13)]
[Apr. 20: St. Zacchaeus of Caesarea, bishop. (Lk. 19:3)]
Apr. 22: St. Apelles of Smyrna, disciple of Christ, bishop. (Rom. 16:10)
[Apr. 24: Ss. Mary of Clopas and St. Salome, sisters of the Blessed Virgin Mary.]
Apr. 25: St. Mark the Evangelist, martyr . Alexandria.
(1 Peter 5:13; Acts 11:11; Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11; Phm. 1:24)
[Apr. 27: St. Simeon, son of Cleophas. Jerusalem.]
Apr. 29: St. Tychicus. Paphos in Cyprus. (Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7; Titus 3:12; 2 Tim. 4:12)
[Apr. 29: St. Torpes, martyr. Pisa. Traditionally included in “the brethren.”]

MAY

May 1: St. Philip, martyr, Apostle. Hierapolis in Asia. (Mt. 10:3)
May 1: St. James, martyr, Apostle. Jerusalem. (Mt. 10:3)
[Old day. Current day for Ss. Philip and James is May 3.]
[May 1: St. Joseph the Worker. (Mt. 13:55)]
[May 1: St. Jeremiah the Prophet.]
[May 3: Ss. Philip and James the Greater, martyrs, Apostles. (Mt. 10:3)]
May 6: Church of St. John at the Latin Gate. (Mt. 10:3)
May 6: St. Lucius of Cyrene, bishop. Cyrene in Egypt. [Acts 13:1]
May 8: Apparition of St. Michael. (Josh. 5:13-14)
[May 9: St. Isaiah the Prophet.]
[May 9: St. Hermas, disciple of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:14)]
May 10: St. Job the Prophet. Land of Uz. (Job 1:1)
May 10: Translation of the Body of St. Stephen. (Acts 6:8)
May 12: Ss. Nereus and Achilles, baptized by St. Peter.
[Generally thought to be 3rd century now.]
May 13: St. Jeremias the Prophet [aka St. Jeremiah]. Taphnoe [aka Tahpanhes] in Egypt. (2 Mac. 15:13)
[Old day. His new day is May 1, which was also his older day.]
[May 14: St. Matthias, Apostle, martyr. Judea. (Acts 1:26)]
May 17: St. Torpes, martyr. Pisa. Traditionally included in “the brethren.” (Phil. 4:22)
[Old day. His new day is Apr. 29.]
May 17: St. Epaphroditus (Phil. 2:25)
[May 17: St. Andronicus of Pannonia and St. Junia or Junias (Rom. 16:7)]
[May 19: St. Pudens. (2 Tim. 4:21)]
[May 20: St. Lydia of Thyatira, the purple-seller (Acts 16:14)]
May 24: St. Manahen [aka St. Manaen], foster-brother [syntrophos] of Herod [the tetrarch]. (Acts 13:1)
May 24: St. Joanna, wife of Chuza. (Lk. 24:10)
May 26: St. Quadratus, traditionally a disciple of St. Paul. Athens.
May 26: St. Alpheus, father of Ss. Matthew and James. (Mk. 3:18)
May 31: St. Petronilla, virgin, disciple of St. Peter. Rome.
[May 31: Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Elizabeth. (Lk. 1:39-56)]

JUNE

June 6: St. Philip, one of the Seven Deacons. Caesarea in Palestine. (Acts 6:5)
[Old day. Currently commemorated July 28.]
June 11: St. Barnabas, apostle, martyr. Cyprus. (Acts 15:35)
June 14: St. Eliseus the prophet [aka St. Elisha]. Samaria. (4 Kgs 2:1./2 Kgs. 2:1)
[June 15: St. Amos. Teqoa. (Amos 1:1)]
June 17: Our Lady of Sorrows. (John 19:25)
[Old day. The current day is Sept. 15.]
June 19: St. Jude, one of the 72 disciples. (Lk. 10:1)
June 21: St. Tertius, secretary of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:22)
June 24: Nativity of St. John the Baptist. (Lk. 1:57)
June 25: St. Sosipater, disciple of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:21)
June 27: St. Crescens, disciple of St. Paul. (2 Tim. 4:10)
June 29: St. Peter. Rome. (1 Peter 1:1)
June 29: St. Paul. Rome. (Rom. 1:1)

JULY

July 1: Burial of St. Aaron. Mount Hor. (Deut. 32:50)
July 1: St. Phinees, son of Eleazar. [aka St. Phinehas, St. Phineas] (Josh. 22:31)
July 1: St. Eleazar, priest. Son of Aaron. (Josh. 22:31)
July 2: Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to St. Elizabeth. (Lk. 1:39)
[Old day. Current day is May 31.]
[July 3: St. Thomas, apostle. India. (Lk. 6:15)]
July 4: St. Osee, prophet. [aka St. Hosea] (Hosea 1:1)
[Old day. His current day is Oct. 17.]
July 4: St. Aggeus, prophet. [aka St. Haggai] (Hag. 1:1)
[Old day. His current day is Dec. 16.]
[July 5: St. Stephen of Nicaea, bishop of Reggio in Calabria, disciple of St. Paul.]
July 6: St. Isaias the prophet, martyr. [aka St. Isaiah] Judea. (Is. 1:1)
[Old day. His current day is May 9.]
[July 8: Ss. Aquila and Prisca, disciples of St. Paul. Asia Minor. (1 Cor. 16:19)]
July 9: Ss. Aquila and Prisca, disciples of St. Paul. Asia Minor. (1 Cor. 16:19)
July 12: St. Jason, disciple of Christ. (aka St. Mnason, St. Nason.) Tarsus. (Rom. 16:21)
July 13: St. Joel the Prophet. (Joel 1:1)
[Old day. His current day is Oct. 19.]
July 13: St. Esdras, prophet. (Ezra 10:1)
July 13: St. Silas. Macedonia. (Acts 16:25)
July 19: St. Epaphras, or Epaphroditus, martyr, bishop of Colossae. Colossae. (Col. 1:7)
July 20: St. Elias the Prophet. [aka St. Elijah] (3 Kgs. 17:1/1 Kgs. 17:1)
[July 20: St. Joseph Barsabas, also called Justus. (Acts 1:23)]
July 21: St. Daniel the Prophet. (Dan. 1:6)
July 22: St. Mary Magdalene. Marseilles. (Lk. 8:2)
July 22: St. Syntyche. Philippi. (Phil. 4:2)
[July 23: St. Ezekiel the Prophet. Babylonia. (Ezek. 1:3)]
July 25: St. James, Apostle, martyr. Brother of St. John. (Mt. 10:3)
July 26: St. Anne, mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
[July 26: St. Joachim, father of the Blessed Virgin Mary.]
[July 26: St. Erastus. (Acts 19:22, Rom. 16:23, 2 Tim. 4:20)]
[July 28: Ss. Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, deacons. (Acts 6:5)]
July 29: St. Martha of Bethany.
July 29: St. Lazarus of Bethany.
July 29: St. Mary of Bethany. (John 11:5, John 11:1)
July 29: St. Marcella, servant of St. Martha (traditionally)

AUGUST

Aug. 1: The The Seven Brothers in Maccabees, martyrs. (2 Mac. 7:1)
[Aug. 1: St. Eleazar the scribe, martyr. (2 Mac. 6:18-31)]
Aug. 2: Finding of the Body of St. Stephen. Jerusalem.
Aug. 2: St. Lydia the purple-seller. Philippi in Macedonia. (Acts 16:14)
[Old day. Her current day is May 20.]
Aug. 4: St. Aristarchus of Thessalonica, bishop of Thessalonica. Thessalonica.
(Acts 19:29, 20:4, 27:2; Col. 4:10; Phm. 1:24)
Aug. 7: St. Claudia. Rome. (2 Tim. 4:21)
Aug. 10: St. Judas, the fourth of the Seven Brothers in Maccabees, martyr. (2 Mac. 7:14)
Aug. 20: St. Samuel the Prophet. Judea. (1 Kgs. 3:1/1 Sam. 3:1)
Aug. 24: St. Bartholomew, Apostle, martyr. Armenia. (Mt. 10:3)
Aug. 25: St. Eleazar the scribe, martyr. (2 Mac. 6:80)
[Old day. His current day is Aug. 1.]
[Aug. 26: St. Melchizadek, king, priest. (Gen. 14:18)]
Aug. 29: Beheading of St. John the Baptist. (Mt. 14:6)
[Aug. 31: Ss. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus.]

SEPTEMBER

Sept. 1: St. Josue [aka St. Joshua]. Judea. (Josh. 1:1)
Sept. 1: St. Gedeon [aka St. Gideon]. Ophrah. (Jdgs. 7:1)
[Old day. His current day is Sept. 26.]
Sept. 1: St. Anna the Prophetess. Jerusalem. (Lk. 2:36)
[Old day. Her current day is Feb. 3.]
Sept. 3: St. Phoebe. Cenchreae, Corinth. (Rom. 16:1)
Sept. 4: St. Moses, lawgiver and prophet. Mt. Nebo. (Exod. 2:1; Mk. 9:3)
Sept. 5: St. Zachary, Priest and Prophet. (aka St. Zechariah, St. Zacharias).
          Father of St. John the Baptist. (Lk. 1:5)
[Old day. His current day is Sept. 23.]
Sept.  6: St. Zacharias the Prophet (aka St. Zechariah, St. Zachary). (Zech. 1:1)
[Sept. 6: St. Onesiphorus, Disciple of St. Paul. (2 Tim. 1:16)]
Sept. 8: St. Onesiphorus, Disciple of St. Paul. (2 Tim. 1:16)
[Old day. His current day is Sept. 6.]
Sept. 8: Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Gen. 3:15) 
Sept. 12: St. Tobias, father of Tobit. (aka St. Tobiah) (Tobit 1:1)
Sept. 17: St. Zenas, Lawyer, Disciple of St. Paul. (Titus 3:13) 
[Old day. His current day is Apr. 14.]
Sept. 19: St. Tobias, son of Tobiah. Honored at Pavia. (Tobit 4:1) 
Sept. 21: St. Matthew, Apostle, Martyr. (aka St. Levi.) Ethiopia. (Mk. 3:18)
Sept. 21: St. Jonas, prophet. (aka St. Jonah) Land of Saar, or Tyre. (Jonah 1:1)
[Sept. 21: St. Quadratus, disciple of the Apostles, prophet, apologist.]
[Sept. 23: St. Zechariah, father of St. John the Baptist. (Lk. 1:5)]
[Sept. 23: St. Elizabeth, mother of St. John the Baptist. (Lk. 1:36)]
Sept. 23: St. Linus, disciple, bishop, Pope. (2 Tim. 4:21)
Sept. 25: St. Cleophas, Disciple of Our Lord. (aka St. Clopas, St. Cleopas) (Lk. 24:18)
[Sept. 26: St. Gideon the Judge. (aka St. Gedeon) (Jdgs. 7:1)]
Sept. 27: St. Caius, Disciple of St. Barnabas. (aka St. Gaius) (Rom. 16:23, Acts 19:29)
Sept. 28: St. Baruch, prophet, scribe. (Bar. 1:1)
Sept. 29: St. Michael the Archangel. (Dan. 12:1, Jude 1:9, Rev. 12:7)
[Sept. 29: St. Gabriel the Archangel. (Dan. 8:16, Lk. 1:19, Lk. 1:26)]
[New day. His old day was Mar. 18.]
[Sept. 29: St. Raphael the Archangel. (Tob. 12:15)]
[New day. His old day was Oct. 24.]

OCTOBER

Oct. 1: St. Ananias, baptizer of St. Paul. (Acts 9:10)
[Old day. His current day is Jan. 25.]
[Oct. 2: Feast of the Guardian Angels. (Ps. 90:11/ 91:11, Mt. 18:10)]
Oct. 3: St. Hannah, wife of Elkanah and mother of St. Samuel. (1 Kgs. 1:2/1 Sam. 1:2)
[Oct. 3: St. Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens. (Acts 17:34)]
Oct. 4: St. Hierotheus, traditionally a disciple of St. Paul. Athens. (Acts 19:30)
Oct. 9: St. Abraham the patriarch and father of the faithful. (Gen. 22:1)
Oct. 9: St. Dionysius the Areopagite, bishop of Athens. (Acts 17:34)
Oct. 9: St. Zenaimdes, traditionally a disciple of St. Paul. Athens. (Acts 17:30)
[Oct. 11: St. Philip the Deacon. (Acts 6:5)]
[Oct. 16: St. Longinus. (Jn. 19:34, Lk. 23:47)]
[Oct. 17: St. Hosea the Prophet (aka St. Osee) (Hos. 1:1)]
Oct. 18: St. Luke the Evangelist. Bithynia. (Col. 4:14)z
[Oct. 19: St. Joel the Prophet. (Joel 1:1)]
[Oct. 20: St. Cornelius the centurion. Caesarea. (Acts 10:1)]
Oct. 22: St. Mary Salome. Jerusalem. (aka St. Maria Salome) (Mk. 15:40)
[Old day. Current day is Apr. 24.]
[Oct. 24: St. Raphael the Archangel. (Tob. 12:15)]
Oct. 28: St. Simon, Apostle, martyr. Egypt. (Mt. 10:4)
(aka St. Simon the Cananean, St. Simon Zelotes, St. Simon the Zealot.)
Oct. 28: St. Jude Thaddeus, Apostle, martyr. Mesopotamia. (Mt. 10:3, Jude 1:1)
Oct. 31: St. Stachys, disciple of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:9)
Oct. 31: St. Urbanus of Rome. Rome. (Rom. 16:9)

NOVEMBER

Nov. 3: St. Quartus, disciple of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:23)
Nov. 4: St. Philologus, disciple of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:15)
Nov. 10: St. Tryphena and St. Tryphosa. Iconium in Lycaonia. (Rom. 16:12)
Nov. 19: St. Abdias the Prophet. (aka St. Obadiah). Samaria. (Ob. 1:1)
[Nov. 21: St. Rufus, disciple of St. Paul. (Rom. 16:13)]
Nov. 22: St. Philemon, disciple of St. Paul. Colossae in Phrygia. (Phm. 1:1)
Nov. 22: St. Appia (aka St. Apphia). Colossae in Phrygia. (Phm. 1:2)
Nov. 23: St. Clement, Pope and martyr. Rome. (Phil. 4:3)
Nov. 28: St. Sosthenes, disciple of St. Paul. Corinth. (1 Cor. 1:1)
Nov. 30: St. Andrew, Apostle and martyr. Patras in Achaia. (Mt. 10:2)

DECEMBER

Dec. 1: St. Nahum the Prophet (aka St. Naum). Begabar. (Nahum 1:1)
[Dec. 2: St. Habakkuk the Prophet (aka St. Habacuc). (Hab. 1:1)]
Dec. 3: St. Sophonias the Prophet (aka St. Zephaniah). Judea. (Zeph. 1:1)
Dec. 8: The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. (Gen. 3:15)
[Dec. 16: St. Azariah (aka St. Azarias, St. Abednego) (Dan. 3:10)]
[Dec. 16: St. Hananiah (aka St. Ananias, St. Shadrach) (Dan. 3:10)]
[Dec. 16: St. Misael (aka St. Meshach) (Dan. 3:10)]
[Dec. 16: St. Haggai the Prophet. (aka St. Aggeus). (Hag. 1:1)]
Dec. 17: St. Lazarus, bishop. Marseilles. (Jn. 11:1)
[Dec. 18: St. Malachi the Prophet (aka St. Malachias). (Mal. 1:1)]
Dec. 18: St. Abibon, son of St. Gamaliel.
[Dec. 21: St. Micah the Prophet (aka St. Micheas). (Micah 1:1)]
Dec. 21: St. Thomas, Apostle, martyr. (Lk. 6:15)
[Old day. Current day is July 3.]
Dec. 24: All the Holy Ancestors of Christ. Yup, all the way back to Ss. Adam and Eve, who got saved from Sheol by Jesus during His “descent into Hell.”
Dec. 25: Christmas.
Dec. 26: St. Stephen the Protomartyr. Jerusalem. (Acts 6:5)
Dec. 27: St. John the Evangelist, Apostle. Ephesus. (Mt. 10:3)
Dec. 27: Ven. Judith of Bethulia. Bethulia. (Judith 8:1)
Dec. 28: Holy Innocents. (Mt. 2:16)
Dec. 29: St. David, king, prophet. Jerusalem. (3 Kgs. 16:13/1 Kgs. 16:13)
Dec. 29: St. Trophimus, bishop. Arles. (2 Tim. 4:20)

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March 1, 2026 · 8:39 pm

St. Beatus Is on the Roman Martyrologium Calendar

He’s listed. February 19. So there, you skeptics!

“In the Cantabrian region of Liebana, in Spain, St. Beatus, priest and monk of the monastery of St. Martin of Tours” [now of St. Toribius] “who defended the Faith against the Adoptionist heresy, and wrote a celebrated Commentary on the Apocalypse. (c. 802)”

Apparently he’s been in the Martyrologium for quite a while, so I don’t know why people kept saying he’s not an official saint on the universal calendar, blah blah blah.

WRONG!

St. Papias the oral history guy is also is an official saint, listed on February 22.

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March 1, 2026 · 8:28 am

When WHIO AM Called Iran

There is a ridiculously small amount of info online, about one of the greatest acts of citizen journalism from pre-Internet times.

Once upon a time, the captured US embassy in Tehran got a long-distance call from a AM radio station in Dayton, Ohio, and the terrorists picked up the phone.

For the next few hours, as we kids were getting home from school, the talk show radio guy kept Tehran on the line, getting proof of life from our hostages.

The station aired phone calls with the embassy for the next few days. After that, apparently the station was asked by the State Department to continue calling, without airing the calls. WHIO set up their guys in a government trailer out at the University of Dayton, in a parking lot, and the State Department and CIA apparently had analysts sitting in another trailer listening. (This was not public knowledge at the time, but some history books about the Iran hostages have talked about it.) The talk show guys would keep calling and talking for a long time, while basically doing a long, slow hostage negotiation on the quiet.

Here is a story about the beginning of it all, from the old Dayton Journal-Herald, Nov. 9, 1979:

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/391927423/

“WHIO radio talks to Iranian captors

“By P.J. Bednarski, Journal-Herald Staff Writer

‘One of the Iranian students occupying the U.S. Embassy in Tehran told WHIO radio yesterday, “We want to tell the people of the United States to force their government to deliver the shah to us.” The radio station, through “ingenuity, coincidence and luck,” became the only U.S. news-gathering source to have established telephone communications with the Iranians, who have held more than 60 Americans hostage since Sunday.

‘The students demand the United States return exiled shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, to Iran from New York, where he is undergoing treatment for cancer. WHIO radio newsman Bill Royster has had five conversations with the students since he first made contact with them Wednesday morning. In the conversations, some of which have lasted more than an hour and a half, Royster, WHIO news director Winston Hoehner, and an Iranian interpreter who is a University of Dayton student, spoke to two of the captors Friday.

‘All but one of the conversations were with a student who would only identify himself as “Mr. X” and he usually answered questions only after conferring with other Iranians. The conversations were taped, and parts of them broadcast later. At one point yesterday, a garbled transmission between the station and one of the students led WHIO to report that a captor had said, “If the shah is not returned, we will kill all the hostages.”

‘After repeated listening, the news department determined that what the Iranian had said, in broken English, was, “If American military wants to make war, we will kill all the hostages.”

‘Late yesterday afternoon, Margaret Lauterbach… whose 28-year-old son Steven has served as an administrative assistant at the embassy since March and is presumed be among the hostages, spoke briefly to one of the captors. “This is Steve Lauderbach’s mother.” She received assurances her son was unharmed. “He is very, very well.”

‘”Thank you.” she said. “May I give him a message? Tell him not to worry. We are all praying for him.”

Amir Moghbley (left), an Iranian student – [This was the Iranian kid attending UD] and Mrs. Lauterbach

Royster said the phone call came as the result of newsroom banter about how the station could check on the safety of Lauterbach.

“It was luck as much as anything else, and coincidence.”

“‘When told about it yesterday, Royster’s fellow reporters, they said, ‘How the hell did you guys manage?” Royster admitted last night he never thought his call to the besieged embassy would get through.

‘But after having the embassy number dialed by an overseas operator, she suggested another number, which Hoehner characterized as “kind of an unlisted number.” A call to that number produced WHIO’s first conversation with Mr. X.

‘When the student answered, Royster had difficulty understanding. The operator apologized then suggested he try speaking French to the students (Royster, whose wife is French, speaks the language) and when Royster called he said he and the Iranian student exchanged, “Parlez-vous francais?” The conversation progressed haltingly.

‘By afternoon, WHIO had enlisted a UD Iranian student, Amir Moghbley, to translate in Farsi, the Iranian language. The students in Tehran called the station collect once yesterday, but WHIO has initiated all of the other conversations. Another call was planned for early this morning.’

Here’s an unfootnoted excerpt from Mark Bowden’s 2018 book Guests of the Ayatollah. (For some reason he thinks that WHIO was a student radio station at UD, when it’s been a commercial Dayton station since 1935. But otherwise, his quotes sound right.)

“Will you release the hostages once you have made your point?” the reporter asked.

“We cannot at this time, but we will have a statement later,” stated Mr. X, who said the students would not negotiate with the United States government.

The reporter suggested that they release one hostage as a show of good faith.

“We’ll think it over,” said Mr. X.

Here’s a description on Cox Media Group’s page about WHIO Radio:

https://www.cmg.com/news/iconic-whio-radio-turns-90/XMWNVHMHXVDYXJL5YKG2UUPMGY/

“In 1979, when the Iranian student revolutionaries captured the US Embassy in Teheran, a WHIO Radio reporter named Bill Royster called the Embassy and conducted an interview with a student. He then kept the line open as agents from the U.S. State Department took over the production room to conduct negotiations during the early days of the standoff.”

A video about news director Winston Hoehner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_hd9S_Hc3M

There is an interview with one of those involved with the host… But it is an archived tape at Emory….

https://archives.libraries.emory.edu/repositories/7/archival_objects/61331

UPDATE: Thank you for the Instalanche!

The disconcerting thing is that, despite personally living through all this history, and despite the Internet existing to archive stuff, there are still a lot of important happenings that are difficult to research online. Physical books are more durable, but we also live in a society where libraries put books into storage if you’re lucky, and send them to used book dealers if you’re not.

Information can still vanish.

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February 23, 2026 · 10:34 am

Reading Noah

So I was reading the Noah story in an interlinear with the Hebrew, and it just sounds totally different.

There’s a ton about how humanity ( ‘adam) is doing bad things, which affects all flesh (kal bashar, meaning humans but also implying animals), and how the face of the soil (p’ne ha-‘adama) needs to have the evil wiped off ( ’emkhe).

The main reason is that both humans and all flesh have ruined (various forms of the verb shakhet) the land, but also that they have ruined God’s road through the land. Which seems to be the last straw.

So therefore all flesh and humans will be ruined in the same way that the land was ruined, and that will be the end of all flesh, and all this mess will then be “wiped off” by the flood of waters.

However, the story is almost entirely about “the land,” (ha- ‘arets, or the rootword ‘erets) which in the Bible means Israel. There’s almost nothing to say that the rest of the world is getting flooded, other than that the Ark fetches up in Ararat, in Armenia.

(But arguably, the whole “river to sea” definition of Israel could include Ararat and Armenia, and there was historically a lot of trade and travel between Israel and Armenia. The kingdom of Urartu, aka Armenia, was a very big deal in the ancient Middle East, and a lot of Mesopotamian rivers started in Armenia’s mountains near Mount Ararat… including the Euphrates, which was “the river” in God’s definition of the full extent of Israel.)

All of this, of course, continues the Genesis/Eden story. Noah is cast as the natural successor to Enoch and the unfallen Adam, because he’s righteous and walks with God. His father named him Noah, while prophesying that he would be a “naham,” comfort, to humans while toiling over the soil.

The interesting bit is that, earlier in the chapter, God says that His spirit will not “rule” (din in Hebrew) or “abide” (katameino in Greek) in humans forever, because they are flesh too. So the maximum span of life will now be 120 years… but Noah is already 200 years old. So again, Noah is kind of a cosmic throwback to the earlier patriarchs with extremely long lives. (The Ignatius Study Bible notes that Moses is the first big patriarch who only lived to be 120. So there’s a theory that God gave humans 120 years of deadline to clean up their act, from the time that sons of Seth started intermarrying with daughters of Cain, and that that’s the real meaning of the passage.)

The various categories of animals get listed again (beasts, birds/flying things, livestock, creeping things), and we first hear about clean and unclean animals.

The idea seems to be that the Ark is a new “Eden on a ship,” or even a floating Cosmic Temple of God, just like Noah is the new Adam. An example of every kind of animal will be saved, and Noah will feed the animals and himself with the food he brings along. After the land is wiped clean and everything fixed by water, the new Eden will come to shore, and the land will be resettled by both humans and animals. The plants will take care of themselves or be brought to the land by birds – which means, they’ll go to other lands that weren’t flooded.

The LXX Greek generally goes along with this. But it sometimes translates “the face of the soil” as “on the earth,” just the same as they translate “in the land” as “on the earth.” So again, this probably contributes to confusion about worldwide vs. Israel-wide flooding.

Anyway… the point seems to be that “the land” is special, because that’s where God’s holy mountain and God’s holy garden and God’s holy road are. So just like it was particularly a sin to break the only law that forbade anything in Eden to the use of Adam and Eve, it’s particularly bad to have evil “on the face of the soil” in “the land.”

Probably none of this is a particularly new thought, but I was thinking about it this weekend, because somebody on the Catholicism subreddit was asking about the story.

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February 15, 2026 · 7:21 pm

Amelia: The UK’s Digital Aisling

Amelia escaped the UK government’s propaganda videogame, Pathways, and has become a meme supreme. She has inspired a score of other meme ladies for other countries.

But Ireland… already had hers. Heh. It’s okay that she looks different now, and it’s okay that she has a ton of different names. Because she always did.

She’s a sovereignty figure, representing a sovereign kingdom or over-kingdom in Ireland. The king would ritually marry her, usually, and poets would have dreams and visions of talking to her.

The vision of a sovereignty figure by an Irish poet is called an “aisling.”

The old format was that a poet would write about meeting a beautiful woman, who would talk to him and tell him her troubles (or he would tell his to her). Gradually the poet would realize that the lady is Ireland, and that she needs to be helped or freed.

One of the biggest aisling poets was Eoghan Rua O Suilleabhain. Another was Aodhagan O Rathaille. Domhnall Macarthaigh Mor also wrote an aisling poem.

A big free book of Eoghan Rua’s aisling poems. NOT WORK SAFE. Yes, 18th century guys were sometimes NOT WORK SAFE.

Anyway, the aisling song that you’re most likely to have heard in modern Irish music is “Mo Ghile Mear,” (My Gallant Lad) which is sung by Ireland herself about Bonnie Prince Charlie, her “husband.” It was written by the poet Sean Clarach Mac Dhomhnaill, right AFTER the disastrous Battle of Culloden. And yet it’s still around.

Anyway, now there’s Amelia of the purple hair (with a “cet cairches corcraglan,” a head of bright purple tresses, even?) and the pink dress (guna rosicde). She would fit right into the old aisling genre.

And she’s even in love with a Charlie – but this time, he’s an ordinary guy who steps up to be a hero.

Besides her, we have Marie and Amelie from France, Husaria from Poland, Giorgia and Matteo from Italy, Maria from Germany, Amelia Fagan from Ireland (promising “more craic” later), and many more.

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February 15, 2026 · 6:00 pm

St. Gobnait’s Day

An account of how they celebrate Feb. 11 in Ballyvourney (Baile Bhuirne), in Co. Cork.

St. Gobnait was an early Irish abbess who was known for her way with bees. She is sometimes called “Deborah”, because of course the Hebrew name means “honeybee.”

The composer Sean O Riada started an Irish-singing choir for Mass there, so there is the humming of bees and the harmony of humans. His son Peadar O Riada, also a composer, does the choir now. They have put out an album for St. Gobnait (Naomh Gobnait) which includes pieces for a Mass for St. John of the Cross’ Day, and which includes a Communion hymn for funerals by Donal O Liathain (finished posthumously by him, believe it or not) set to music.

Among his many patronages, St. Valentine is also a patron saint of beekeepers. So are St. Ambrose of Milan and St. Bernard of Clairvaux. St. Modomnoc, a disciple of St. David, brought honeybees from Wales to Ireland.

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February 9, 2026 · 1:07 pm

Ven. Sheen to Be Beatified!!!!

The Sheen beatification is back on — and the Engstrom family says it will be ‘a little piece of heaven’

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February 8, 2026 · 2:28 pm

The Ultimate Aquinas Travel Guide

Seriously, this is great. And huge.

And the pictures are very nice and evocative of what you would see, if you were to go to Italy and follow the footsteps of St. Thomas Aquinas.

Following the footsteps of Aquinas-Historical Tour Guide

I have just received some cool new nonfiction books about Aquinas topics, by Peter J. Floriani, as well as his reprint of Fr. Placidus Conway, OP’s book about Aquinas’ life.

I am enjoying them a lot, and finding them good pre-Lent reading.

So finding this travel guide was very timely, as it shows all kinds of details that help one picture the events of St. Thomas’ life. Also lots of relic pictures, which include lots of medieval things that have survived because of St. Thomas having used them!

I was moved when I found out that the miraculous crucifix picture still survives and can be venerated, at the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples.

St. Thomas’ fun Cross prayer/graph is also still in existence at Anagni, and there’s a photo of it too! Very nifty. And it shows that he could write neatly when he wanted to.

There’s also an autograph copy of St. Thomas’ writing (that is slightly neater than his own old notes to himself, as kept at the Vatican Library), posted in Naples at the old Dominican convent where he stayed and taught. Pretty cool.

The story of the mule dying of sorrow is possible. Well-trained horses and mules often understand their jobs, and want to do them well. It’s very likely that the mule was unhappy that he had let his rider run into a tree branch and get hurt, and that his rider kept smelling and sounding in worse and worse health. This kind of stress and unhappiness is bad for any animal, much less an equine, which can be killed by too much cortisol and stress. So even before any supernatural grounds for the mule feeling attached to a saintly human, that mule would probably have had trouble getting over the whole situation. Especially if he were a very intelligent mule, with a fair understanding of how disturbed the humans were acting. (And although mules don’t die as easily as horses, they still can get conditions that will kill them quickly.)

I missed finding or posting all this in time for St. Thomas Aquinas’ Day, but it’s always Aquinas time!

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February 8, 2026 · 2:26 pm

Hyperokhen

The second reading today came from 1 Cor. 2:1-5.

We had the word “hyperokhen” in 1 Cor. 2:1, which the lectionary translated as “sublimity.” I like that.

It originally meant “superiority” but came to mean “excellence.” It comes from the verb hyperekho, which meant first “to hold something over top” of something or someone, often to guard that person. Then it added the meaning “to stand out” or “to stand taller than.” From there, it came to mean “to be superior in power” or “to excel over, to surpass.”

Today the main event at our parish was the rite of putting the sign of the Cross on the catechumens who will be baptized during the Easter Vigil, and welcoming those who will be brought more fully into the Church on that night, or who will receive their Confirmation as adults.

Please do not forget to pray (and fast, with Lent coming up) for these new Christians and Catholics, as the time between making a commitment and receiving the Sacraments is often full of conflict for them. There’s a reason why they receive special blessings and have prayers said over them.

Please pray for their families and friends, too, and especially for those who aren’t Catholics, as it’s often a time of confusion and temptation for them as well.

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February 1, 2026 · 9:07 am

Strangers

Today we have Psalm 145/146, which has a line translated today as “The Lord protects strangers.”

The Hebrew word translated this way is “gar” or “ger”, which really means “guest.” There was no absolute right in the laws that anyone be allowed to live in the lands or city of another tribe or people. So everyone who was not from there, but lived there, was a guest.

There were also sojourners, travelers, and so on. A foreigner was “nakri,” as were foreign gods.

Every “guest” had to follow Israel’s laws and worship Israel’s God. No exceptions.

The only difference was that “guests” were allowed to buy and eat animals that died natural deaths (instead of being slaughtered).

If “guests” wanted to intermarry or buy land, it was an object of community discussion. It took several generations for a family to become part of the Assembly of the Children of Israel.

The LXX Greek (numbered Psalm 145) has the Lord protecting “proselytous,” newcomers or proselytes. The normal Greek word for foreigners or guests was “xenos” (IIRC).

The idea was that they were newbies to worshipping the Lord, as well as to the land.

lun: to lodge a night; hence, someone staying the night as a lodger

toshab: sojourner; resident alien; someone who lives there for a while, but doesn’t dwell there. (A citizen/dweller is yashab.)

helek: wayfarer, traveler

‘arakh: to wander; hence, wanderer, traveler

‘orakh: road; hence, traveler, group of travelers, caravan.

‘arab, ‘arabi: nomadic person from barren land; hence the ethnic name Arab.

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February 1, 2026 · 2:09 am

Seamless Weaving Tech

Apparently one of the ways to weave a garment seamlessly is the ancient use of extra warp and weft threads on a loom. (Including vertical looms such as were used in the Near and Middle East.)

You have some threads on top, some threads on the bottom, and you use two shuttles, one top and one bottom (or one back and one front, since they were vertical looms), to do double the weave layers.

This technique allows the use of different patterns and colors on each side of a garment or cloth.

The center of the garment, front and back, is often really the “edge’ of what was woven. Both layers come together there. Often this area is darker than the rest of the pattern, to make the edge less visible.

Hoping that I can find a video of this.

Anyway, since Our Lady is traditionally associated both with having the know-how to produce Jesus’ seamless garment, and with having produced the double-woven cloak shown in Constantinople for centuries that had a picture of the Apostles on one side, I think it is interesting that it is basically the same technique with more fancy work. Egyptian/Coptic weavers did picture and even portrait weaving in St. Epiphanius’ day, and Our Lady spent time in Egypt and might have seen similar earlier work.

As a Christian, Our Lady’s artistic side would not have had to obey Jewish custom and law. How far did she stretch her expertise, during her days living in St. John’s house?

Links when I get home.

Btw, the reason that looms started out vertical is that the ends of the warp threads were originally kept pulled tight by using “warp weights,” and the power of gravity. Warp weights were little rocks or pottery weights that swung free from the bottom, tied to the threads. They were often wrapped in cloth or other substances, to prevent making noise or cracking against each other. This kind of loom goes back to somewhere in Stone Age times, and weavers even back then were doing all kinds of fancy fabric twills and such, and using dyes to make stripes and plaids and checkered patterns.

We also have archeological as well as literary evidence of dresses and robes woven in tube shapes; or woven flat and then sewn into tube shapes.

Eventually, but very close to the Roman period, the warp weights were replaced on some looms by a bottom wood bar, to which the thread could be tied. But these vertical frame looms still used the power of gravity.

A skilled construction worker in Roman times knew all about scaffolding, machinery for lifting, and so on, so probably Mary could have had the more sophisticated kind of loom at home.

Horizontal looms did not show up until about 300 AD. They were more complicated to build and run, and often included a structure for “draw boys” to choose and feed color threads, much as Jacquard looms would do with mechanical parts and loom punch cards.

Right before Christianity was legalized, one of the big persecutions hit hard against the Eastern Imperial weaving “manufactories,” which were given the humorous name “gynaeceum” or women’s quarters. (Because in a traditional pagan Greek house, the women wove in their section, away from the men.) Many women workers had become Christian, and they were tortured and martyred in great numbers. Lactantius talks about this in his history of the time, of which he was a survivor.

In the Eastern Fathers, we see a fair number of things in the Fathers, talking about how Mary the skilled weaver became a loom for the Holy Spirit, upon which He wove Jesus a body. St. Proclus of Constantinople was very big on this, for instance, and his most famous homily on Mary (preached in 430) was included in the texts of the Council of Ephesus.

Seamless wrap/ruana:

My First Double Weave – A Seamless Ruana

Brief history of looms and weaving techniques, along with some videos:

A Brief History of Weaving

The robe of St. Joseph and the stola/veil of Our Lady, at the Church of St. Anastasia in Rome. If you search for images, you can probably find more detailed ones.

The Sancta Camisia (a piece of silk originally from Israel in the 1st century, and probably not from a tunic), in Chartres, France.

The holy tunics of Christ, at Argenteuil and at Trier. The wool tunic at Argenteuil is spectacular work. It is seamless and dried brown.

There are also several woven belts that are relics of the Holy Family.

Honestly… if Our Lady even was a normally productive weaver during her spare time, you’d expect her to have produced a fair amount of items over the years. We also know that a sturdy textile that is given good care (or which has good treatment by Nature and bugs) can indeed survive for thousands of years.

So there’s no particular reason to believe that they’re all fake, or that they’re mostly fake.

Emperor Constantine’s mother, St. Helena, notoriously visited Jerusalem to turn it back into a holy city after being Aelia Capitolina for so long. Among the relics that she collected to be brought back to Constantinople were Jesus’ sandals, his mantle, and two tunics, all kept carefully by the Christians living secretly in the countryside and the city.

Allegedly, one of these tunics was sent to Trier (Augusta Treverorum), the hometown of St. Ambrose before he got stationed in Milan and elected bishop. For many centuries it was capital of the Roman prefecture of Gaul and an imperial residence, until the capital moved to Arles where the weather was better. It was a city full of manufactories for the Legions. St. Athanasius was exiled to Trier by Emperor Constantine.

The Argenteuil tunic was given or obtained by Charlemagne, who ended up giving it to his daughter Teoderada’s and his sister Giselle’s abbey, on the occasion of Teoderada entering Argenteuil as a nun.

Review of a book about Early Christian images of Our Lady spinning during the Annunciation.

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January 26, 2026 · 2:57 pm

St. Mango??

Due to various changes in pronunciation, there are several towns in Italy named Santo Mango or San Mangu. There’s even a drink called Santo Mango, and a song from Avril Lavigne.

All these things are really talking about….

St. Magnus of Anagni, aka St. Magnus of Trani, an early Christian martyr from Italy.

As a poor farmer’s son and a shepherd, he showed his traditional Roman “pietas” by using his work to support his father and his poorer neighbors.

He was converted to Christianity by Bishop Redemptus of Trani, and ended up succeeding him as bishop.

When Christian persecution broke out, he followed Jesus’ advice and fled, going to Rome to lose himself in the crowds. But he worried about his flock and tried to come back to Trani.

Imperial soldiers found him in a cave near Fondi, arrested and tried him, and executed him. His day is August 19.

Through various twists of Providence, St. Magnus’ skull and some of his other relics are now at St. Martin of Tours Church, in Louisville, Kentucky, although most of his relics are still in Anagni (after many ancient and medieval travels).

This may not be the same St. Magnus, though he’s almost certainly a martyr, because his bones came from a convent and not from the cathedral of Anagni. Although medieval nuns were tricky, and might well have gotten hold of the correct relics.

Please don’t name your kid “Mango,” though.

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January 26, 2026 · 12:47 pm

I Found Out What It Is.

In Middle English, the word “crap” means chaff, weed seeds, the stuff that’s sifted out of grain or flour.

So… in the Bible, when we’re warned about the wheat and the chaff, being the chaff is literally the crappiest outcome.

I know you feel indebted to me for this priceless information.

It also solves the timeless question of whether saying “crap” is saying a bad word.

Technically, no. Depending on your company, yes.

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