In 1912, Alexis Carrel won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
He was a brilliant doctor, and an outspoken skeptic.
No miracles, no supernatural. He didn't believe in God, let alone the Catholic Church.
Until one trip to Lourdes changed everything.
The scientist who converted - a 🧵
From the time of Blessed Mary’s first apparition to Bernadette Soubirous, the water from the Lourdes Grotto has been a source of miraculous healing both for those who have visited the Grotto and even for those who used the water in remote places.
Since the time of Bernadette, over 7,000 miraculous cures have been reported to the Lourdes Medical Bureau by pilgrims who have visited Lourdes (this does not include miracles that have taken place outside of Lourdes).
There were so many purported cures associated with the water and Grotto of Lourdes that the Catholic Church set up the Lourdes Medical Bureau to be constituted by and under the leadership of physicians and scientists alone.
In 1902, a physician friend of Dr. Carrel invited him to help take care of sick patients transported on a train from Lyons to Lourdes.
Though Carrel was born Catholic, he was at that time an agnostic who did not believe in miracles.
Nevertheless, he consented to help out, both because of friendship and an interest in what natural causes might be allowing such fast healings as those claimed at Lourdes.
Today, the Church celebrates one of the greatest mysteries in salvation history: the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.
A dogma of faith, a prophecy fulfilled, and the promise of our own resurrection.
The Assumption of Our Lady - a 🧵✝️
The Assumption is not merely a pious legend.
It is Dogma, solemnly defined by Pope Pius XII in Munificentissimus Deus (1950):
“The Immaculate Mother of God… having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”
While the event is not narrated explicitly, it is deeply rooted in the Word of God.
Psalm 45,10–11 (Messianic and Marian prophecy):
“At your right hand stands the queen in gold of Ophir"
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"
This is what Christ told the apostles
Aand after the Pentecost, they would go forth to the ends of the Earth
Here’s where each Apostle went - a 🧵
1) Saint Peter, leader of the Apostles, first Pope.
Preached in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome and across Asia Minor.
Finally, in Rome, he was crucified upside-down under Nero (c. 64 AD), saying he was unworthy to die like Christ.
2) Saint Andrew, brother of Peter, the “First-Called.” Preached in Asia Minor, Thrace, and along the Black Sea coast, including Scythia (modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia)
Martyred on an X-shaped cross in Patras, Greece, joyfully proclaiming the Cross of Christ.
When we think of samurai, the image that comes to mind is of warriors following the Bushidō (the code of honor). But few know that, in feudal Japan, there were samurai who embraced Catholicism and lived (and died) for Christ.
Everything began in the 16th century, with the arrival of the Jesuit missionaries in Japan, led by São Francisco Xavier in 1549. Feudal Japan, divided into classes and governed by warlords (daimyos), was a fertile ground for Christianity, especially among the samurai.
When the Titanic began to sink, a priest refused a lifeboat.
He stayed on deck, hearing confessions until the very last second.
Who was Fr. Thomas Byles, and what did he say before vanishing beneath the waves?
The Last Mass on the Titanic – a🧵✝️
Fr. Thomas Byles was an English Catholic priest, bound for New York to celebrate his brother’s wedding.
Born in Yorkshire the oldest of seven children, Thomas was the son of a Congregationalist minister. At Oxford while studying theology, he converted to the Church of England.
Later, like his younger brother William, he became a Roman Catholic and received the name Thomas.
When William invited his brother to come to New York City to officiate at his wedding 1912, Father Thomas planned to sail there.
His parishioners, who loved and appreciated him, helped pay for his trip with the White Star Line. At the last minute that trip was cancelled, and he was transferred to a new ship, the RMS Titanic.
It was April 10, 1912, when he boarded the RMS Titanic, carrying his breviary, his rosary and his personal belongings
On the morning of Divine Mercy Sunday (the week after Easter), Father Thomas celebrated Mass for the second-class passengers and then the third-class passengers.
The readings were about resurrection. Ironically, Father’s sermon was about spiritual shipwreck in times of temptation.
He said that prayer and the sacraments were like a spiritual lifeboat.