For those of us who think that the faith and zeal of the early Christians died out as the Church grew more safe and powerful through the centuries, the martyrs of Uganda are a reminder that persecution of Christians continues in modern times, even to the present day.

The Society of Missionaries of Africa (known as the White Fathers) had only been in Uganda for 6 years and yet they had built up a community of converts whose faith would outshine their own. The earliest converts were soon instructing and leading new converts that the White Fathers couldn't reach. Many of these converts lived and taught at King Mwanga's court.

At the end of the sixth century anyone would have said that Augustine had found his niche in life. Looking at this respected prior of a monastery, almost anyone would have predicted he would spend his last days there, instructing, governing, and settling even further into this sedentary life.

But Pope St. Gregory the Great had lived under Augustine's rule in that same monastery. When he decided it was time to send missionaries to Anglo-Saxon England, he didn't choose those with restless natures or the young looking for new worlds to conquer. He chose Augustine and thirty monks to make the unexpected, and dangerous, trip to England.

For some time, I have worn a brown scapular. If you don’t know much about this devotional practice, here is a very quick-and-dirty version, greatly lacking in detail: it’s two little pieces of brown cloth, connected by a cord and worn around the neck beneath one’s clothing. One of the cloth pieces depicts Our Lady of Mount Carmel appearing to St. Simon Stock, and the other piece — the one that is sometimes visible at the nape of my neck — depicts Our Lady’s “scapular promise:” Whosoever dies clothed in this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.

Our Lady Travels the World

The world-famous International Pilgrim Virgin Statue of Fatima is recognized as the primary way in which the message of Fatima spread throughout the world and continues today.

• Sculpted by Jose Thedim—“the Michelangelo of Portugal”—the statue has been traveling internationally since 1947.
• On October 13, 1947, in the presence of 200,000 pilgrims at Fatima, the statue was blessed by the Bishop of Lieria-Fatima and commissioned to serve as the Pilgrim Virgin.
• The bishop prayed that Mary herself accompany the statue wherever it goes.
• She was then flown to America, where she was crowned in Ottawa, Canada, and began a 2-year tour of Canada and the U.S.
• She has since traveled to over 100 countries, claiming her dominion and carrying Fatima’s blessings and urgent message to people worldwide.