“Les Miserables” (Amazon) has no connection to Victor Hugo’s classic novel of the same name other than its setting — the rundown Paris suburb of Montfermeil, where the poor still struggle and continue to distrust authority figures.

Jesuit Father George V. Coyne, a Baltimore native who led the Vatican Observatory as its director for 28 years, got his start in the field of astronomy as a young student in formation for the priesthood by secretly studying under his blanket, flashlight in hand.

An anonymous alumnus has donated $1 million to Calvert Hall College High School to create a scholarship endowment supporting students engaged in the arts, according to a Feb. 13 news release from the Towson school. 

The stories surrounding the life of St. Valentine teach us that sacrifice is the ultimate gift that love demands of us.

Feb. 12 was the 15th anniversary of Sister Dorothy Stang’s assassination in the Amazon region of Brazil. The U.S.-born nun is remembered as a crusader for the poor and the landless and for her love of the land and the Amazon forest.