Holy Donors

Welcome back to episode 4 of our season featuring Margaret Haughery! When we ended the last episode, the Civil War was just beginning, and New Orleans was on the cusp of falling to Union command. Despite supply shortages, Margaret persists in running her bakery and ministering to the orphans, the poor and the hungry throughout the war. Margaret boldly served people on both sides of the fight. Even...

Thanks for joining us for episode 3 in our Holy Donors season on Margaret Haughery! We ended the previous episode with questions about the future of Margaret’s dairy, and we now learn about the tremendous changes heading Margaret’s way. Margaret’s dairy had been very successful, yet in this episode, our hosts share about how Margaret sold the dairy in order to take on a new business venture, a bak...

Welcome back! Last week’s episode left us on quite a cliffhanger. The orphans were about to be evicted from their home, and Margaret had made it her mission to find them a new place to live. Margaret was determined to find someone to donate a house for them, and in true Margaret fashion, she made it happen. In October 1836, the sisters and the orphans moved into their new and improved home. In a s...

Thanks for joining us for our 14th season of Holy Donors, featuring another little-known Catholic philanthropist named Margaret Haughery. Margaret was an astute businesswoman who responded to God’s call to serve children in need. Books and online sources have nicknamed Margaret “the mother of orphans”,“friend of orphans”, and more; yet we turn to our hosts to decide if Margaret meets their holy do...

Hello, again! We return to our season on John Mullanphy just as John is moving his wife and five children further into the frontier to St. Louis. Fortunately, because of his business and language skills, John finds success in St. Louis, and from there, John also extends his business dealings further down the Mississippi to Natchez, Mississippi. The War of 1812 interrupts some of John’s business de...

Welcome back to Holy Donors! This 13th season of Holy Donors features a little-known (well, little-known to our team!) entrepreneur and adventurer named John Mullanphy. Rhen ran across John Mullanphy’s name in a footnote in a Catholic philanthropy text, and he was intrigued. After doing some initial research, our team of hosts decided Mullanphy deserved recognition as a potential holy donor. John...

The guys crown the Holy Donors March Madness 2023 champion! Today we work our way through rounds three and four of the bracket. Follow us on Instagram, @holydonors, to follow along as the bracket progresses. Round 3 West Katharine Drexel (#1 seed) vs. Pierre Toussaint (#1 seed) East Sarita Kenedy East (#1 seed)* vs. Catherine Doherty (#1 seed) *We realized too late that this should have been Georg...

The guys continue with the Holy Donors March Madness bracket contest to determine the "holiest donor!" Today we work our way through round two of the bracket, watch for the final two rounds tomorrow! Follow us on Instagram, @holydonors, to follow along as the bracket progresses. Round 2 NW Region Katharine Drexel (#1 seed) vs. Danny Thomas (#2 seed) SW Region Pierre Toussaint (#1 seed) vs. John Ra...

Join the guys as they pit each of the Holy Donors subjects from the first 12 seasons against each other in a bracket-style showdown! Who will be the "Holiest Donor?" Who will be eliminated quickly? Today we work our way through round one of the bracket, watch for round two tomorrow! Follow us on Instagram, @holydonors, to follow along as the bracket progresses. NW Region Katharine Drexel Danny Tho...

Welcome back! We’re glad you’re here for our Season 12 wrap party! As with previous wrap parties, our hosts spend the episode discussing what they knew about Sarita Kenedy East prior to recording (almost nothing!) and what they most enjoyed about the season. In addition to sharing their enjoyment of seasons set in the Wild West, our hosts discuss how impressed they are with Sarita’s loyalty and co...

In 1981, twenty years after Sarita’s death, we finally get resolution to Sarita Kenedy East's will drama. Brother Leo’s final appeal is rejected, and Sarita’s estate can finally be settled. This 1981 court decision confirms the 1964 settlement, and it seems to uphold Sarita’s wishes. The Oblate fathers receive the ranch headquarters, and Sarita’s estate is finally able to fund the foundation that...

This episode is quite the adventure! We return to our telling of Sarita Kenedy East’s philanthropic legacy just after her death, and we learn that Sarita’s problem is not the lack of a will. Instead, it’s the opposite. Sarita has 2 wills, and the presence of multiple wills leads to nearly 20 years of court battles and frozen assets. Written in 1948, Sarita’s first will leaves the bulk of her inher...

We return to our journey through Sarita Kenedy East’s life just as her grandfather, Mifflin Kenedy, passes away, in true Holy Donors fashion, without a will. Sarita’s father manages to buy out his siblings and become owner of the family ranch, La Parra. Sarita grows up on La Parra, and this episode focuses on her life on the ranch and her philanthropic efforts both on and off the ranch. As an adul...

Welcome to the 12th season of Holy Donors! We just finished up our season on JFK, and we return with another Kenedy, a Kenedy with one N and with no relation to the Kennedy family from last season. We spend this season learning about the life and philanthropy of Sarita Kenedy East. Our hosts open by sharing that Sarita Kenedy East was “the granddaughter of one of the authentic giants in southweste...

Welcome to our wrap party for our recent season featuring John F. Kennedy! During wrap parties, our hosts take turns sharing their takeaways and overall impression of the season. At this wrap party, our hosts highlight the uniqueness of this season. First, unlike many previous holy donors, JFK is a known entity. All of our hosts (and most of our listeners!) already knew about JFK, his life, and hi...

We’re glad you’re back for our final episode of our Holy Donors season featuring John F. Kennedy. In this episode, our hosts discuss whether or not JFK meets their criteria to be named as one of their holy donor . As usual, the hosts judge JFK on his faithfulness, his humility, and his radical generosity. SPOILER ALERT: In a rare turn of events, our hosts conclude that John F. Kennedy is not a hol...

We rejoin our hosts as they begin to outline JFK’s political career. We remember from the previous episode that Jack’s father, Joe Sr., has great ambition for Jack’s political future, and he uses his money and his influence to help Jack to political victory. In this episode, we follow Jack through his days in the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and finally, the presidency. Througho...

Welcome back as we continue our story about our next potential holy donor, John F. Kennedy. We return to JFK’s story as he (Jack) is getting ready to go to college and as his father, Joe Sr., is entering politics with the help of President Roosevelt. Joe Sr. still very much believes power is found in government leadership, and he continues to encourage a political future for his children, especial...

Hello and happy new year! We’re so glad you’re back with us for our newest season of Holy Donors. This season, we’re taking a look at the life and philanthropy of our former president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. JFK’s fame makes this season unique. Because most everyone already knows JFK and has opinions on his political legacy, our hosts are only going to talk about Kennedy’s military and political...

Welcome Back! When our last episode ended, it was 1086, and King Canute IV was in a church, surrounded by angry aristocrats and their armies. Unfortunately, King Canute does not make it out of the church alive. After he offers his final confession and receives Holy Communion, King Canute the Saint dies when a spear is thrown through a window and kills him. King Canute is buried in the church where...

We are excited to introduce our new season of Holy Donors featuring King Canute the Saint. This season is different from our others in that it’s a shorter season, and it takes us much, much further back in time (over 1000 years ago!) to the time of the Vikings. Canute was born in Denmark in 1042 to Sweyn II, King of Denmark and father to more than 20 children, 5 of which followed him as king. Swey...

That’s a wrap! Thank you for joining us for the wrap party and final episode of our Holy Donors’ season on Catherine Doherty. Our hosts all unanimously agree that this season was a joy to research and produce. A listener suggested that the team look into Catherine Doherty as a potential holy donor, and our hosts admit they all knew next to nothing about Catherine going into this season’s research....

Welcome back to Holy Donors as we continue our story about Catherine Doherty’s life and legacy. In this episode, our hosts, Rhen, Thaddeus, and Matt, share about the later years in Catherine’s life, and they wrap up the episode with Thaddeus sharing that Catherine is one of the most “amazing public Catholics that I’ve never heard of.” We return to Catherine’s story as she and her new husband Eddie...

And, our story about Catherine Doherty and the ups and downs of her life continues… We return to the story just after a scandal forced Catherine to leave her ministry, Friendship House, in Toronto. Left without a ministry home, Catherine left Canada to visit Dorothy Day in New York. From there she began traveling throughout Europe and writing magazine articles about the Catholic influence on socie...

We return, this week, to our adventures through the life and service of Catherine Doherty. Last week’s episode ended with Catherine and her husband, Boris, struggling to survive starvation, illness, and isolation in Finland. In an unexpected turn of events, Finland turned against the Communists, and in doing so, gave Catherine and Boris a chance to survive. The pair eventually returned to Russia t...