An influential order of nuns decided to complete its mission when the last sister dies. The only question left is how to finish well. By Kurt Streeter Visuals by Michelle V. Agins Kurt Streeter and ...

Mary wrote the letter in French around 2 a.m. on the day of her execution. National Library of Scotland On the morning of February 8, 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, knelt at an execution block in the ...

The original version of this story appeared in Quanta Magazine. In 1876, Peter Guthrie Tait set out to measure what he called the “beknottedness” of knots. The Scottish mathematician, whose research ...

A new book argues that the mother of Jesus was a powerhouse in her own right. Madonna and Child, c.1485 (oil on wood) by Giovanni Bellini, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The ailing pope was short of breath, sitting beneath a cherished painting of Mary, Untier of Knots, as he worked through a last-ditch plan to disentangle the finances of one of the world’s most opaque ...

Sister Mary Scullion has met with several popes, but Pope Francis stood out. "For Pope Francis' funeral, if there's any funeral I would want to be at, it's this one," Sister Mary said. Pope Francis, ...

Of the many devotions Pope Francis promoted during his pontificate, perhaps none is better known than his devotion to Our Lady, Undoer of Knots (also referred to as Our Lady, Untier of Knots), whose ...

In Evangelii Gaudium (‘Joy of the Gospel’), Pope Francis said: “I prefer a Church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a Church which is unhealthy ...

An ancient depiction of a naked woman hung on the wall of my father’s study. Skeletal, stupefied, and wildly bedheaded, she contemplated distances across time and space, as saints and mystics do. As ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Marc Berman is a New York-based reporter who covers media. James Houghton, who played record producer Kenny Ward in the first four ...

She was there when Jesus was crucified, yet no one knows much about her. That might be why scholars just can’t quit chasing down the truth about Mary Magdalene. The Penitent Magdalene by Guido Reni.