Happy Birthday Blog!

On 8 December 2005, I posted this photo.  This blog project began.

Today is the 11th anniversary of this blog.

16_12_08_screenshot_visits_01This photo was a shot from my apartment window in Rome on the evening of the day Pope Benedict was elected.

I started it with the original intention of it being an archive for articles I was writing for The Wanderer about liturgical translations.  Thus, it’s original name.  That column, by the way, began before the release of Liturgiam authenticam.

That was the intention, but the blog rapidly took on a life of its own.

Since I started keeping stats, on 23 November 2006, I have had about 78.6 million page views and 50.7 million unique visits.  People come from all over the world, as you can see from the screen shot of the live visit feed just before I posted this.

Dear readers, please accept my thanks for everything, your comments and feedback, your prayers and your patience with me.

Tomorrow I will say Mass for the intention of my benefactors and donors.

This is what the blog looked like back then.  A screen shot from about a month after its inception.

16_12_08_wdtprs_2006

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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46 Comments

  1. Skin of Bart says:

    I started reading this blog four years ago, as I entered the Catholic Church, and then entered seminary. It has often been a raft admist the flotsam. God bless!

    [Seminary!]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  2. SPWang says:

    Thank you, Fr.
    *Goes and clicks the donate button

    [Thanks!]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  3. oledocfarmer says:

    Compleanos feliz!

  4. LarryW2LJ says:

    Happy Anniversary, Father! Many wishes for many more years of great posts. Sto lat!

    Re: The day of the picture – THAT was a very, very good day!

    [Shall we see its like again? 73]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  5. Father Bartoloma says:

    Congratulations! Ad multos annos to you and your blog!

    [Long time no see!]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  6. Prayerful says:

    Thank you Fr for your wonderful blog.

  7. Pingback: THURSDAY EXTRA | Big Pulpit

  8. wanda says:

    Happy Birthday, Blog! Many, many more. Thank you, Fr. Z.

  9. cwhitty says:

    Fr Z, I abandoned the Church 4 years ago. Your blog is one of the few places I now go to for Christian inspiration and hope. As a special thanks for your “internet apostolate” I will follow your constant advice and go to confession this week.

    [Thanks! And thanks for the bit about confession.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  10. Alanmac says:

    I thank you for this blog Father as it helps keep my feet planted while all around scurry in political correctness and superficial haughtiness.

  11. Chris Garton-Zavesky says:

    I have been an avid reader for years, and in fact must give you credit for fostering in me the desire to go deeper into the liturgy. Not a Latin scholar, I first encountered your What does the Prayer Really Say column, and then your blog. A convert (like yourself, but from the Episcopal ‘Church’) I was excited to find someone who could explain intelligently what the vapid prayer was supposed to say.

    Thank you for your apostolate.

    [Thanks for sticking so long!]

  12. Andreas says:

    Alles alles gute aus der Tirol, Herr Pfarrer!

    [Danke schön!]

  13. mike cliffson says:

    Hampster came , hampster got fed, hamspster ran whirlywheel hampster gone ,has .Moral all virtual flesh is virtual grass,) presumably to subcreatedly join in all creation’s moaning for the sons of God’s coming in glory?)
    Backstory?

  14. un-ionized says:

    huh? Oh, yeah, I was going to ask if you were pre-testing the Christmas cheer but now i remember the virtual hamster. Poor Cedric, was it?

    [Basil is still available on the sidebar!]

  15. NBW says:

    Happy Anniversary and thank you Fr. Z! Because of this blog I have become a better informed Catholic. Without sounding too much like a millennial, this blog is my safe space!

    [For turning the sock inside out.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  16. LeeF says:

    Happy Anniversary!

    I’ll bet that Fishwrap now looks back on Dec 8th as the real day of infamy when they got hit by the start of both Benedict’s papacy and your blog. Instead of seeing same as providential given the feast day.

    [Would that make the blog part of a sneak attack?]

  17. Dr. Edward Peters says:

    Thank you for all the work you put in here. And I know it is lots. You are part of the New Evangelization.

    [New Evangelization! Thanks for that.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  18. msc says:

    Felix dies natalis ei
    Felix dies natalis ei,
    Felix dies natalis tuo blogo,
    Felix dies natalis ei.

  19. Geoffrey says:

    Happy anniversary, Father!

    I had been an avid reader of your column in The Wanderer long before the advent of your blog. I even remember the early days of Sabine Radio and the Chapel! This remains number two on my list of websites that I check first thing in the morning.

    Thank you! Multos annos!

    [Sigh… ]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  20. MitisVis says:

    So…
    “That was the intention, but the blog rapidly took on a life of its own.”
    Let’s see, less than a month in you are posting articles such as:
    AN ITALIAN judge has ordered a priest to appear in court this month to prove that Jesus Christ existed.
    Thank you and Happy 11th Anniversary.

  21. Congratulations, Father Z, and thank you for all you do.

    I discovered the blog on 11 Oct. 2006, and have been an avid reader and follower ever since. Thank you for so many things, like your mantra to “Save the Liturgy – Save the World”, or “Say the Black – Do the Red”. Thanks most of all for your reminders to go to confession, and to be prepared for things, both spiritual and physical.

  22. tealady24 says:

    Thank you Father Z! Your words are as a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. My love for our Lord and his Mother are illuminated anew! Many blessings in this beautiful Advent season.

  23. NoraLee9 says:

    Congratulations on 11 wonderful years. I found this blog by attending holy innocents church one afternoon. You were the celebrant and you mentioned it from the pulpit. I went right home & plugged in the coordinates. Certainly one of the more useful homilies I’ve ever heard!

    [Someone listened!]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  24. TKS says:

    I remember watching the bird feed and the ‘chat’ room. Thank you so much, Father. You have been my ‘de facto’ spiritual director.

    [Sigh. I miss the feeders… even a view of some kind would be nice.]

  25. un-ionized says:

    Where is the hamster thing? I don’t see it. Bottom or top? What is adjacent to it?

  26. Benedict Joseph says:

    God reward you. You have provided a place to reflect, to contribute and to be nourished and supported. This is indeed a good work.

  27. Phil Steinacker says:

    Father Z,

    Many heartfelt congratulations on the 11th anniversary of your blog.

    I returned 13 years ago to the Church after a 31 year absence, after having agreed to have my first Confession in nearly 35 years heard by a priest I had met in an Irish pub just two nights earlier. He was visiting his folks and was there watching Monday night football when he challenged me to go to confession and begin attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation for one year, and then to see where I stood at that time.

    He called it the Challenge of St. Blaise, which I’d never heard of and have found no one – including priests or religious – who’ve heard of it, either.

    I should add that this priest who went right to work to bring me home despite his intention to watch the game has since passed away at age 43, so let’s please keep Fr. Jim Erving, OMI, in our prayers in thanksgiving for having challenged me to return.

    I am perplexed, however, that you are celebrating only 11 years. Naturally, once I renewed my full participation in the True Faith, I was in great need to be reminded and refreshed with authentic Church teaching – including the REAL story about the Mass – and updated on the state of the Church and the salient issues and attendant struggles plaguing faithful Catholics, both clergy and laity. Yet, my imperfect memory has long held that I had found the old WDTPRS site on the blogroll of an apparently orthodox Catholic blog within only months of my return to the Church.

    I was so forcefully struck by such a repository of orthodoxy that I immediately realized I needed more resources like it. I began harvesting links to similar Catholic sites from the blogroll there, and that is how I came to WDTPRS. Unfortunately, within the year of my stumbling onto it, the owner of that first “Catholic” site went rogue in defiance of Church teaching on homosexuality because of a family member’s proclivity for this sin.

    Thanks be to God, no such waivering takes place here! I have been a faithful reader for most of your 11 years, I’ve concluded. I am thankful for your continued instruction and clarification of the Faith and its practice. If not for you I might have become unduly influenced by the sede crowd :-)!

    [Comments like this are invaluable to me.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  28. Rich says:

    Happy anniversary, Fr. Z! I have a great idea for an anniversary post (besides this one). There has been the all-too-common assertion within the past couple of weeks that Communion for the divorced and remarried reflects the will of the Holy Spirit in that it was approved by the synod by a 2/3 majority vote. There seems to be the assumption among those that assert this that the synod actually proposed this when it never did. There were even some sections of the synod’s final report that were never approved by a 2/3 majority vote. Perhaps a little clearing of the air by a trusted and widely read Catholic blogger..? Barney style.

  29. Nan says:

    Oh, Congratulations on the blogiversary! [Good word.]

    I no longer remember how I found this blog; I was on my way toward the Church I was taken from as a child – we stopped going to Mass when I was seven, which was confusing. It took a long time to find my way to Mass and I was raised against Church teaching so had things to sort out and needed to find solid, Catholic information. I didn’t associate with anyone at all religious so had nobody I could approach to answer questions. There’s a lot of information out there and it was difficult to sort through and find sources that were consistent and unwaveringly faithful. Here, I found one.

    Thank you for that. It was a huge help to realize that anything I read here would be faithful to Church teaching.

    [Many thanks.]

  30. SophiaGrace says:

    Congratulations, Father, on the 11th Anniversary of your blog! You have been a constant source of encouragement to me for not a little while now.

    It’s been many years since I first “stumbled” upon the old CompuServe Forum and from that Forum I found your blog. Not for one moment do I believe that was simply by chance. The answers I’ve found there and here -to questions I had about the Catholic faith- were crucial to helping me find my way home to the Catholic Church. And your blog continues as a steady stream of refreshment -Truth with love and clarity- in a dry and parched land.

    So, thank you! Thank you for all you do. Thank you for your hard work and sacrifice. Thank you for your encouragement and perseverance.

    May Our LORD protect and strengthen you always and may Our Lady surround and comfort you …always.

  31. Semper Gumby says:

    Deo Gratias for this blog, and its Master and Commander.

    [Good O’Brian hook.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  32. Worm-120 says:

    Congrats Father:) I’ve read your blog almost everyday for the last 8 years:) I was 11 when pope Benedict was ellected, and you two significantly shaped how I understand the faith. That and you know:
    Me: serious sin
    Father Z: Random blog post and…….GO TO CONFESSION.
    God bless Father:)

    [My work here is done… NOT.]

  33. liebemama says:

    I don’t remember when I first began reading your blog, but it must have been around 2007… I loved the bird feeder in snow, your streaming of the Most Holy Rosary in Latin and in English. I learned the Ave Maria from you. [Wow!]
    I am always amazed at your various interests and knowledge in areas not directly attributed to theology or church business;-) I think you must be a sort of Renaissance Man. A rare breed.
    I am thankful that you offer all that for Holy Mother Church. Thank you.

  34. Mariana2 says:

    Congratulations! And: Thanks, Father!

  35. KateD says:

    Happy Anniversary!!!

    Thank you for the constant inspiration to follow Christ closer and for providing a virtual place of refuge on the Internet.

  36. KateD says:

    …And God bless the dear friend who kept sending me links from this blog until I finally started looking for my self. It really is a new form of evangelization.

  37. God bless you, Father, for the souls you’ve saved, the demons you’ve banished from the hearts of your readers, and for providing more insights and encouragement than can be imagined. They say the Lord puts the tools in our hands at the time we need them; your efforts here have no doubt had a worldwide effect, just as He intended when you were led to the Faith.

    Prayers of thanksgiving on this most auspicious occasion.

    [sniff]

  38. frjim4321 says:

    Happy Birthday!

  39. Sue in soCal says:

    Happy Anniversary! I remember your first blog post (though it probably wasn’t the very first day). I was surfing the web for Catholic news and views when I came across it. I’ve been a faithful follower since. When important things come up in the Church, I always want to know what Fr. Z has to say.
    May God bless you with many more years for the instruction and edification of His people! You are always in my prayers.

    [Keep the prayers going.]

  40. pelerin says:

    I don’t remember when I first stumbled across this blog but well remember Basil and his antics. Most entertaining although I have failed to find him on the side bar as mentioned. Incidentally American readers may not know that Andrew Sachs who immortalised the character of Manuel recently died. It was the accident prone Manuel who had what he insisted was a Siberian hamster named Basil and surprisingly he was not Spanish but German having been a refugee from Nazi Germany.

    I also used to enjoy watching the colourful American birds on the webcam especially the amazing humming birds. So different from those in an English garden.

    Thank you Fr Z for your continuing mission to keep us well informed.

  41. pelerin: Yes, Basil is still around. Instead of being front and center now, he lives as Basil Emeritus on the margin of the blog and you need to follow a link to get to his cage. A fast way to find him is to do a Ctrl+F search for Basil. Otherwise, scroll to the bottom and look on the LEFT sidebar.

    16_12_10_screenshot_basil

  42. pray4truth says:

    Endless thanks and prayers for you and this wonderful blog, Fr. Z! Happy Anniversary!!! I don’t remember how I found the blog/you some years back, but latched on and haven’t let go! You’ve been an answer to my prayers for the truth!!! What a relief! What a joy! What appreciation! Thank you, Jesus, for Fr. Z and this blog… thank you for bringing me here!!! Looking forward to many more years with you!!! May Our Lady keep you under the protection of her Holy Mantle :-)

  43. pelerin says:

    Many thanks Father – I’ve found him! I was looking in vain on the right hand side. I find it quite therapeutic to feed an animal even if he is only virtual. I do marvel at the people who compose these interactive moving images – quite remarkable.

  44. The Masked Chicken says:

    I found this blog when they used to have the contests for best Catholic blog in different categories (whatever happened to those?). I was a commenter at Jimmy Akin’s blog (which has, since, been re-purposed). Fr. Z crushed the competition, if I recall and sent the other bloggers away, dejected. I started looking at the other blogs in the competition, which is where I became aware of Fr. Z.’s blog.

    I miss the old days. Everything is so serious, now, sigh.

    Happy second birthday (base 2, of course). That’s the secret to staying young – change your number base every year.

    The Chicken

  45. The Masked Chicken says:

    Oops. Should be third birthday, base two. I was thinking about Babylonian numbering, I guess.

    The Chicken

    [Hey. It happens.]

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  46. VexillaRegis says:

    Happy anniversary!
    I don’t quite remember how I first heard about your blog, but I think it was through EWTN in 2008 or thereabout. Then a terrible, and ongoing, disaster struck me and I realised, that I had to anonymously ask some good people to pray for me and so I joined your online parish :-). I can’t say the central problem has improved for me, but the prayers and overall support on here have made me survive sofar.
    In the morning I first check the local newspaper and then I go to WDTPRS. Thank you dear Fr for hosting this blog and thank you all commenters who are so witty, considerate, intelligent and pious!

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