Chair
of Unity Octave V
January
22, Fifth Day of the Chair of Unity Octave - for the conversion of
all protestant sects
Let
us Pray.
O
Lord, Who wast torn by the rebellion of Thy children whom, at one
time within the Ark of Salvation, ventured out into the deep having
itching ears, succumbed to the false teachers of Protestant ministers
who listened more to the prideful urgings of the devil to break away
from the bosom of holy Mother Church and multiply worse than the
first thousands of times over. We pray Thee for our formerly Catholic
brethren to give them the grace to realize the error of their ways
and return to the Barque of Peter. May Thy holy Mother intercede and
soften the hearts of those who may not realize the tenets they have
been taught are not the full truths Thou charged Thy Apostles to
spread throughout the world that all may be one. Show them through
Thy wondrous ways that only in the Barque Thou founded can they truly
see the marks of the true Faith: one, holy, catholic and truly
apostolic. Guide them to accept and cherish Thy blessed Mother and to
realize her role which Thou hast chosen for her, the second Eve, as
Co-redemptrix of souls. Grant thy true priests the courage to feed
Thy lambs with the manna of Thy Spirit so that every people and every
tongue may acknowledge and glorify Thee as Our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ in unity with the Triune Divinity, forever and ever. Amen.
Prayer
to St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen
O
Glorious St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen, who courageously withstood the
vicious opposition of the enraged Protestants whom thou didst so
forcefully refute, while winning thousands of former Catholics back
to the one, true Fold of Christ; obtain for us an abundance of thy
ardent love of the holy Catholic Faith, and thy burning zeal for
souls, which led thee to embrace joyfully thy cruel martyrdom by
vicious Protestant soldiers, at the command of a Calvinist minister.
By the holy indignation whereby thou didst repulse their threats and
demand for thy apostasy, obtain for the remnant Catholic faithful a
spirit of earnest zeal in our fervent prayer for the conversion of
all who have embraced the errors of the demonic sects of
Protestantism. Implore the Hearts of Jesus and Mary to dispel the
vicious errors which keep them from the Immaculate Heart of the great
Mediatrix of All Graces, that they may quickly experience therein the
abundant graces of conversion to the one true Catholic Church of Her
Divine Son, and final perseverance in grace, through Jesus Christ Our
Lord. Amen.
(Three
Hail Mary's)
PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH
UNITY OCTAVE
Antiphon:
"That they all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me and I in
Thee; that they also may be one in Us; that the world may believe
that Thou has sent Me." (John 17: 21)
V.
I say unto thee that thou art Peter
R.
And upon this Rock I will build My Church.
Let
us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, Who saidst unto Thine Apostles: Peace I
leave with you, My peace I give unto you; regard not our sins, but
the faith of Thy Church, and vouchsafe to grant unto Her that peace
and unity which are agreeable to Thy Will. Who livest and reignest
God forever and ever. Amen.
An
indulgence of 300 days during the octave of prayers for the unity of
the Church, from the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter in Rome to the
feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. A Plenary Indulgence on the
usual conditions at the end of the devout exercise.
MORTALIUM
ANIMOS - True
unity of Christians: "the return to the one true Church of
Christ"
ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI JANUARY 6,
1928
To Our Venerable Brethren the
Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops, and other Local
Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See.
Venerable Brethren, Health and
Apostolic Benediction.
Never perhaps in the past have we seen,
as we see in these our own times, the minds of men so occupied by the
desire both of strengthening and of extending to the common welfare
of human society that fraternal relationship which binds and unites
us together, and which is a consequence of our common origin and
nature. For since the nations do not yet fully enjoy the fruits of
peace -- indeed rather do old and new disagreements in various places
break forth into sedition and civic strife -- and since on the other
hand many disputes which concern the tranquillity and prosperity of
nations cannot be settled without the active concurrence and help of
those who rule the States and promote their interests, it is easily
understood, and the more so because none now dispute the unity of the
human race, why many desire that the various nations, inspired by
this universal kinship, should daily be more closely united one to
another.
2. A similar object is aimed at by
some, in those matters which concern the New Law promulgated by
Christ our Lord. For since they hold it for certain that men
destitute of all religious sense are very rarely to be found, they
seem to have founded on that belief a hope that the nations, although
they differ among themselves in certain religious matters, will
without much difficulty come to agree as brethren in professing
certain doctrines, which form as it were a common basis of the
spiritual life. For which reason conventions, meetings and addresses
are frequently arranged by these persons, at which a large number of
listeners are present, and at which all without distinction are
invited to join in the discussion, both infidels of every kind, and
Christians, even those who have unhappily fallen away from Christ or
who with obstinacy and pertinacity deny His divine nature and
mission. Certainly such attempts can nowise be approved by Catholics,
founded as they are on that false opinion which considers all
religions to be more or less good and praiseworthy, since they all in
different ways manifest and signify that sense which is inborn in us
all, and by which we are led to God and to the obedient
acknowledgment of His rule. Not only are those who hold this opinion
in error and deceived, but also in distorting the idea of true
religion they reject it, and little by little. turn aside to
naturalism and atheism, as it is called; from which it clearly
follows that one who supports those who hold these theories and
attempt to realize them, is altogether abandoning the divinely
revealed religion.
3. But some are more easily deceived by
the outward appearance of good when there is question of fostering
unity among all Christians.
4. Is it not right, it is often
repeated, indeed, even consonant with duty, that all who invoke the
name of Christ should abstain from mutual reproaches and at long last
be united in mutual charity? Who would dare to say that he loved
Christ, unless he worked with all his might to carry out the desires
of Him, Who asked His Father that His disciples might be "one."[1]
And did not the same Christ will that His disciples should be marked
out and distinguished from others by this characteristic, namely that
they loved one another: "By this shall all men know that you are
my disciples, if you have love one for another"?[2] All
Christians, they add, should be as "one": for then they
would be much more powerful in driving out the pest of irreligion,
which like a serpent daily creeps further and becomes more widely
spread, and prepares to rob the Gospel of its strength. These things
and others that class of men who are known as pan-Christians
continually repeat and amplify; and these men, so far from being
quite few and scattered, have increased to the dimensions of an
entire class, and have grouped themselves into widely spread
societies, most of which are directed by non-Catholics, although they
are imbued with varying doctrines concerning the things of faith.
This undertaking is so actively promoted as in many places to win for
itself the adhesion of a number of citizens, and it even takes
possession of the minds of very many Catholics and allures them with
the hope of bringing about such a union as would be agreeable to the
desires of Holy Mother Church, who has indeed nothing more at heart
than to recall her erring sons and to lead them back to her bosom.
But in reality beneath these enticing words and blandishments lies
hid a most grave error, by which the foundations of the Catholic
faith are completely destroyed.
5. Admonished, therefore, by the
consciousness of Our Apostolic office that We should not permit the
flock of the Lord to be cheated by dangerous fallacies, We invoke,
Venerable Brethren, your zeal in avoiding this evil; for We are
confident that by the writings and words of each one of you the
people will more easily get to know and understand those principles
and arguments which We are about to set forth, and from which
Catholics will learn how they are to think and act when there is
question of those undertakings which have for their end the union in
one body, whatsoever be the manner, of all who call themselves
Christians.
6. We were created by God, the Creator
of the universe, in order that we might know Him and serve Him; our
Author therefore has a perfect right to our service. God might,
indeed, have prescribed for man's government only the natural law,
which, in His creation, He imprinted on his soul, and have regulated
the progress of that same law by His ordinary providence; but He
preferred rather to impose precepts, which we were to obey, and in
the course of time, namely from the beginnings of the human race
until the coming and preaching of Jesus Christ, He Himself taught man
the duties which a rational creature owes to its Creator: "God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners, spoke in times past to the
fathers by the prophets, last of all, in these days, hath spoken to
us by his Son."[3] From which it follows that there can be no
true religion other than that which is founded on the revealed word
of God: which revelation, begun from the beginning and continued
under the Old Law, Christ Jesus Himself under the New Law perfected.
Now, if God has spoken (and it is historically certain that He has
truly spoken), all must see that it is man's duty to believe
absolutely God's revelation and to obey implicitly His commands; that
we might rightly do both, for the glory of God and our own salvation,
the Only-begotten Son of God founded His Church on earth. Further, We
believe that those who call themselves Christians can do no other
than believe that a Church, and that Church one, was established by
Christ; but if it is further inquired of what nature according to the
will of its Author it must be, then all do not agree. A good number
of them, for example, deny that the Church of Christ must be visible
and apparent, at least to such a degree that it appears as one body
of faithful, agreeing in one and the same doctrine under one teaching
authority and government; but, on the contrary, they understand a
visible Church as nothing else than a Federation, composed of various
communities of Christians, even though they adhere to different
doctrines, which may even be incompatible one with another. Instead,
Christ our Lord instituted His Church as a perfect society, external
of its nature and perceptible to the senses, which should carry on in
the future the work of the salvation of the human race, under the
leadership of one head,[4] with an authority teaching by word of
mouth,[5] and by the ministry of the sacraments, the founts of
heavenly grace;[6] for which reason He attested by comparison the
similarity of the Church to a kingdom,[7] to a house,[8] to a
sheepfold,[9] and to a flock.[10] This Church, after being so
wonderfully instituted, could not, on the removal by death of its
Founder and of the Apostles who were the pioneers in propagating it,
be entirely extinguished and cease to be, for to it was given the
commandment to lead all men, without distinction of time or place, to
eternal salvation: "Going therefore, teach ye all nations."[11]
In the continual carrying out of this task, will any element of
strength and efficiency be wanting to the Church, when Christ Himself
is perpetually present to it, according to His solemn promise:
"Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the
world?"[12] It follows then that the Church of Christ not only
exists to-day and always, but is also exactly the same as it was in
the time of the Apostles, unless we were to say, which God forbid,
either that Christ our Lord could not effect His purpose, or that He
erred when He asserted that the gates of hell should never prevail
against it.[13]
7. And here it seems opportune to
expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which this whole
question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics
seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches depends. For
authors who favor this view are accustomed, times almost without
number, to bring forward these words of Christ: "That they all
may be one.... And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,"[14]
with this signification however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a
desire and prayer, which still lacks its fulfillment. For they are of
the opinion that the unity of faith and government, which is a note
of the one true Church of Christ, has hardly up to the present time
existed, and does not to-day exist. They consider that this unity may
indeed be desired and that it may even be one day attained through
the instrumentality of wills directed to a common end, but that
meanwhile it can only be regarded as mere ideal. They add that the
Church in itself, or of its nature, is divided into sections; that is
to say, that it is made up of several churches or distinct
communities, which still remain separate, and although having certain
articles of doctrine in common, nevertheless disagree concerning the
remainder; that these all enjoy the same rights; and that the Church
was one and unique from, at the most, the apostolic age until the
first Ecumenical Councils. Controversies therefore, they say, and
longstanding differences of opinion which keep asunder till the
present day the members of the Christian family, must be entirely put
aside, and from the remaining doctrines a common form of faith drawn
up and proposed for belief, and in the profession of which all may
not only know but feel that they are brothers. The manifold churches
or communities, if united in some kind of universal federation, would
then be in a position to oppose strongly and with success the
progress of irreligion. This, Venerable Brethren, is what is commonly
said. There are some, indeed, who recognize and affirm that
Protestantism, as they call it, has rejected, with a great lack of
consideration, certain articles of faith and some external
ceremonies, which are, in fact, pleasing and useful, and which the
Roman Church still retains. They soon, however, go on to say that
that Church also has erred, and corrupted the original religion by
adding and proposing for belief certain doctrines which are not only
alien to the Gospel, but even repugnant to it. Among the chief of
these they number that which concerns the primacy of jurisdiction,
which was granted to Peter and to his successors in the See of Rome.
Among them there indeed are some, though few, who grant to the Roman
Pontiff a primacy of honor or even a certain jurisdiction or power,
but this, however, they consider not to arise from the divine law but
from the consent of the faithful. Others again, even go so far as to
wish the Pontiff Himself to preside over their motley, so to say,
assemblies. But, all the same, although many non-Catholics may be
found who loudly preach fraternal communion in Christ Jesus, yet you
will find none at all to whom it ever occurs to submit to and obey
the Vicar of Jesus Christ either in His capacity as a teacher or as a
governor. Meanwhile they affirm that they would willingly treat with
the Church of Rome, but on equal terms, that is as equals with an
equal: but even if they could so act. it does not seem open to doubt
that any pact into which they might enter would not compel them to
turn from those opinions which are still the reason why they err and
stray from the one fold of Christ.
8. This being so, it is clear that the
Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor
is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for
such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance
to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ.
Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a
truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For
here there is question of defending revealed truth. Jesus Christ sent
His Apostles into the whole world in order that they might permeate
all nations with the Gospel faith, and, lest they should err, He
willed beforehand that they should be taught by the Holy Ghost:[15]
has then this doctrine of the Apostles completely vanished away, or
sometimes been obscured, in the Church, whose ruler and defense is
God Himself? If our Redeemer plainly said that His Gospel was to
continue not only during the times of the Apostles, but also till
future ages, is it possible that the object of faith should in the
process of time become so obscure and uncertain, that it would be
necessary to-day to tolerate opinions which are even incompatible one
with another? If this were true, we should have to confess that the
coming of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, and the perpetual
indwelling of the same Spirit in the Church, and the very preaching
of Jesus Christ, have several centuries ago, lost all their efficacy
and use, to affirm which would be blasphemy. But the Only-begotten
Son of God, when He commanded His representatives to teach all
nations, obliged all men to give credence to whatever was made known
to them by "witnesses preordained by God,"[16] and also
confirmed His command with this sanction: "He that believeth and
is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be
condemned."[17] These two commands of Christ, which must be
fulfilled, the one, namely, to teach, and the other to believe,
cannot even be understood, unless the Church proposes a complete and
easily understood teaching, and is immune when it thus teaches from
all danger of erring. In this matter, those also turn aside from the
right path, who think that the deposit of truth such laborious
trouble, and with such lengthy study and discussion, that a man's
life would hardly suffice to find and take possession of it; as if
the most merciful God had spoken through the prophets and His
Only-begotten Son merely in order that a few, and those stricken in
years, should learn what He had revealed through them, and not that
He might inculcate a doctrine of faith and morals, by which man
should be guided through the whole course of his moral life.
9. These pan-Christians who turn their
minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of
ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how
does it happen that this charity tends to injure faith? Everyone
knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in
his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never
ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new
commandment "Love one another," altogether forbade any
intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt version
of Christ's teaching: "If any man come to you and bring not this
doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed
you."[18] For which reason, since charity is based on a complete
and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally
by the bond of one faith. Who then can conceive a Christian
Federation, the members of which retain each his own opinions and
private judgment, even in matters which concern the object of faith,
even though they be repugnant to the opinions of the rest? And in
what manner, We ask, can men who follow contrary opinions, belong to
one and the same Federation of the faithful? For example, those who
affirm, and those who deny that sacred Tradition is a true fount of
divine Revelation; those who hold that an ecclesiastical hierarchy,
made up of bishops, priests and ministers, has been divinely
constituted, and those who assert that it has been brought in little
by little in accordance with the conditions of the time; those who
adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that
marvelous conversion of the bread and wine, which is called
transubstantiation, and those who affirm that Christ is present only
by faith or by the signification and virtue of the Sacrament; those
who in the Eucharist recognize the nature both of a sacrament and of
a sacrifice, and those who say that it is nothing more than the
memorial or commemoration of the Lord's Supper; those who believe it
to be good and useful to invoke by prayer the Saints reigning with
Christ, especially Mary the Mother of God, and to venerate their
images, and those who urge that such a veneration is not to be made
use of, for it is contrary to the honor due to Jesus Christ, "the
one mediator of God and men."[19] How so great a variety of
opinions can make the way clear to effect the unity of the Church We
know not; that unity can only arise from one teaching authority, one
law of belief and one faith of Christians. But We do know that from
this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism
and to modernism, as they call it. Those, who are unhappily infected
with these errors, hold that dogmatic truth is not absolute but
relative, that is, it agrees with the varying necessities of time and
place and with the varying tendencies of the mind, since it is not
contained in immutable revelation, but is capable of being
accommodated to human life. Besides this, in connection with things
which must be believed, it is nowise licit to use that distinction
which some have seen fit to introduce between those articles of faith
which are fundamental and those which are not fundamental, as they
say, as if the former are to be accepted by all, while the latter may
be left to the free assent of the faithful: for the supernatural
virtue of faith has a formal cause, namely the authority of God
revealing, and this is patient of no such distinction. For this
reason it is that all who are truly Christ's believe, for example,
the Conception of the Mother of God without stain of original sin
with the same faith as they believe the mystery of the August
Trinity, and the Incarnation of our Lord just as they do the
infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, according to the
sense in which it was defined by the Ecumenical Council of the
Vatican. Are these truths not equally certain, or not equally to be
believed, because the Church has solemnly sanctioned and defined
them, some in one age and some in another, even in those times
immediately before our own? Has not God revealed them all? For the
teaching authority of the Church, which in the divine wisdom was
constituted on earth in order that revealed doctrines might remain
intact for ever, and that they might be brought with ease and
security to the knowledge of men, and which is daily exercised
through the Roman Pontiff and the Bishops who are in communion with
him, has also the office of defining, when it sees fit, any truth
with solemn rites and decrees, whenever this is necessary either to
oppose the errors or the attacks of heretics, or more clearly and in
greater detail to stamp the minds of the faithful with the articles
of sacred doctrine which have been explained. But in the use of this
extraordinary teaching authority no newly invented matter is brought
in, nor is anything new added to the number of those truths which are
at least implicitly contained in the deposit of Revelation, divinely
handed down to the Church: only those which are made clear which
perhaps may still seem obscure to some, or that which some have
previously called into question is declared to be of faith.
10. So, Venerable Brethren, it is clear
why this Apostolic See has never allowed its subjects to take part in
the assemblies of non-Catholics: for the union of Christians can only
be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ
of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have
unhappily left it. To the one true Church of Christ, we say, which is
visible to all, and which is to remain, according to the will of its
Author, exactly the same as He instituted it. During the lapse of
centuries, the mystical Spouse of Christ has never been contaminated,
nor can she ever in the future be contaminated, as Cyprian bears
witness: "The Bride of Christ cannot be made false to her
Spouse: she is incorrupt and modest. She knows but one dwelling, she
guards the sanctity of the nuptial chamber chastely and
modestly."[20] The same holy Martyr with good reason marveled
exceedingly that anyone could believe that "this unity in the
Church which arises from a divine foundation, and which is knit
together by heavenly sacraments, could be rent and torn asunder by
the force of contrary wills."[21] For since the mystical body of
Christ, in the same manner as His physical body, is one,[22]
compacted and fitly joined together,[23] it were foolish and out of
place to say that the mystical body is made up of members which are
disunited and scattered abroad: whosoever therefore is not united
with the body is no member of it, neither is he in communion with
Christ its head.[24]
11. Furthermore, in this one Church of
Christ no man can be or remain who does not accept, recognize and
obey the authority and supremacy of Peter and his legitimate
successors. Did not the ancestors of those who are now entangled in
the errors of Photius and the reformers, obey the Bishop of Rome, the
chief shepherd of souls? Alas their children left the home of their
fathers, but it did not fall to the ground and perish for ever, for
it was supported by God. Let them therefore return to their common
Father, who, forgetting the insults previously heaped on the
Apostolic See, will receive them in the most loving fashion. For if,
as they continually state, they long to be united with Us and ours,
why do they not hasten to enter the Church, "the Mother and
mistress of all Christ's faithful"?[25] Let them hear Lactantius
crying out: "The Catholic Church is alone in keeping the true
worship. This is the fount of truth, this the house of Faith, this
the temple of God: if any man enter not here, or if any man go forth
from it, he is a stranger to the hope of life and salvation. Let none
delude himself with obstinate wrangling. For life and salvation are
here concerned, which will be lost and entirely destroyed, unless
their interests are carefully and assiduously kept in mind."[26]
12. Let, therefore, the separated
children draw nigh to the Apostolic See, set up in the City which
Peter and Paul, the Princes of the Apostles, consecrated by their
blood; to that See, We repeat, which is "the root and womb
whence the Church of God springs,"[27] not with the intention
and the hope that "the Church of the living God, the pillar and
ground of the truth"[28] will cast aside the integrity of the
faith and tolerate their errors, but, on the contrary, that they
themselves submit to its teaching and government. Would that it were
Our happy lot to do that which so many of Our predecessors could not,
to embrace with fatherly affection those children, whose unhappy
separation from Us We now bewail. Would that God our Savior, "Who
will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the
truth,"[29] would hear us when We humbly beg that He would deign
to recall all who stray to the unity of the Church! In this most
important undertaking We ask and wish that others should ask the
prayers of Blessed Mary the Virgin, Mother of divine grace,
victorious over all heresies and Help of Christians, that She may
implore for Us the speedy coming of the much hoped-for day, when all
men shall hear the voice of Her divine Son, and shall be "careful
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."[30]
13. You, Venerable Brethren, understand
how much this question is in Our mind, and We desire that Our
children should also know, not only those who belong to the Catholic
community, but also those who are separated from Us: if these latter
humbly beg light from heaven, there is no doubt but that they will
recognize the one true Church of Jesus Christ and will, at last,
enter it, being united with us in perfect charity. While awaiting
this event, and as a pledge of Our paternal good will, We impart most
lovingly to you, Venerable Brethren, and to your clergy and people,
the apostolic benediction.
Given at Rome, at Saint Peter's, on the
6th day of January, on the Feast of the Epiphany of Jesus Christ, our
Lord, in the year 1928, and the sixth year of Our Pontificate.
REFERENCES:
6. John iii, 5; vi,
48-59; xx, 22 seq; cf. Matt. xviii, 18, etc.
Saint Vincent, Martyr
Saint Vincent was archdeacon of the church at Saragossa, Spain.
Valerian, the bishop, was prevented from preaching by a speech
impediment, and named Vincent to preach in his stead. He answered in the
bishop's name when, during the persecution of Diocletian, both were
brought before Dacian, the presiding officer. When the bishop was sent
into banishment, Vincent was retained, to suffer and to die.
First
he was stretched on the rack; and when he was almost torn asunder,
Dacian asked him in mockery how he fared now. Vincent answered, with joy
on his countenance, that he had always prayed to be as he was then. It
was in vain that Dacian struck the executioners and goaded them on in
their savage work. The martyr's flesh was torn with hooks; he was bound
to a chair of red-hot iron; lard and salt were rubbed into his wounds;
and amid all this he kept his eyes raised to heaven, and remained
unmoved.
The holy martyr was cast into a solitary dungeon, his
feet placed in the stocks; but the Angels of Christ illuminated the
darkness, and assured Vincent that he was near his triumph. His wounds
were now ordered to be tended, to prepare him for fresh torments, and
the faithful were permitted to gaze on his mangled body. They came in
troops, kissed his wounds and carried away as relics, cloths colored
with his blood. Before the tortures could resume, Saint Vincent's hour
came, and he breathed forth his soul in peace.
Even the dead
bodies of the Saints are precious in the sight of God, and the hand of
iniquity cannot touch them. A raven guarded the body of Vincent where it
lay flung upon the earth. When it was sunk out at sea, the waves cast
it ashore; and his relics are preserved to this day in the Augustinian
monastery at Lisbon, for the consolation of the Church of Christ.
Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints, a compilation based on
Butler's Lives of the Saints and other sources by John Gilmary Shea (Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894).
