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Joseph Pohle , 704 pages

Book Six - Volume 10  The Sacraments Part 3  & Volume 11 The Sacraments Part 4 & Volume 12 Eschatology - 704 pages - EBOOK - PDF

Many Catholics living today can remember when priests were well trained in theology and could express the Faith properly in their sermons and in their writing. That is because they were given sound teaching at the seminary in Logic, Philosophy, and Dogmatic Theology from textbooks such as this 12 volume set. The famous Pohle-Preuss manual was used in many seminaries in America and other countries prior to the 1950's when seminary training began to go downhill.

This particular manual was used in the Jesuit seminary where Fr. Leonard Feeney, who was one called by his Jesuit superior "the greatest theologian we have in America...by far" was trained. This beautiful hardbound series is an exact reproduction of the edition originally published in 1911, and it was written by  Rt. Rev. Msgr. Joseph Pohle an edited by Arthur Preuss.

Joseph Pohle was a Jesuit and one of the founding faculty members of the Catholic University of America as well as a frequent contributor to the Catholic Encyclopedia. He died in 1922 after having produced one of the clearest and most succinct and useful systematic studies of Catholic theology ever published. This series is invaluable for priests, seminarians, and anyone interested in a systematic study of dogmatic theology.

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9781622921546, God, 1080, Hardbound

THE VULGATE IS THE OFFICIAL BIBLE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Ebook (pdf) 

Vol. One includes the books from Genesis to Esther - 1080 pages

Vol. Two includes the books from Job to Machabees II -1040 pages

(Vol. 2 of the Old Testament will be available on December 15, 2021)

Option to order full set or Old Testament will be availble on Mon 12/12/21

 

In keeping with the wishes of the  Holy Father, Benedict XVI, Loreto Publications has published this truly unique edition of the Bible in Latin and English. Suitable either for students of theology and the Scriptures, for those studying Latin, or just for Catholics who wish to conduct themselves according to the mind of the Church, this edition brings together two classic versions of the Bible which have served Catholics well, down through the centuries.

 

  • One Volume New Testament
  • Two Volumes Old Testament
  • Clear Typeface
  • Burgundy bonded leather cover
  • English column opposite Latin column

 

Download a free sample from this book.

 

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9781622921553, 1040

THE VULGATE IS THE OFFICIAL BIBLE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Ebook (pdf) 

Vol. One includes the books from Genesis to Esther - 1080 pages

Vol. Two includes the books from Job to Machabees II -1040 pages

 In keeping with the wishes of the  Holy Father, Benedict XVI, Loreto Publications has published this truly unique edition of the Bible in Latin and English. Suitable either for students of theology and the Scriptures, for those studying Latin, or just for Catholics who wish to conduct themselves according to the mind of the Church, this edition brings together two classic versions of the Bible which have served Catholics well, down through the centuries.

 

  • One Volume New Testament
  • Two Volumes Old Testament
  • Clear Typeface
  • Burgundy bonded leather cover
  • English column opposite Latin column

 

Download a free sample from this book.

Acts of the Apostles - Chapter 27:11-40


    11    But the centurion believed the pilot and the master of the ship, more than those things which were said by Paul.
    12    And whereas it was not a commodious haven to winter in, the greatest part gave counsel to sail thence, if by any means they might reach Phenice to winter there, which is a haven of Crete, looking towards the southwest and northwest.
They weather a great storm
    13    And the south wind gently blowing, thinking that they had obtained their purpose, when they had loosed from Asson, they sailed close by Crete.
    14    But not long after, there arose against it a tempestuous wind, called Euroaquilo.
    15    And when the ship was caught, and could not bear up against the wind, giving up the ship to the winds, we were driven.
    16    And running under a certain island, that is called Cauda, we had much work to come by the boat.
    17    Which being taken up, they used helps, undergirding the ship, and fearing lest they should fall into the quicksands, they let down the sail yard, and so were driven.
    18    And we being mightily tossed with the tempest, the next day they lightened the ship.
    19    And the third day they cast out with their own hands the tackling of the ship.
    20    And when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm lay on us, all hope of our being saved was now taken away.
Paul declares that all are to be saved
    21    And after they had fasted a long time, Paul standing forth in the midst of them, said: You should indeed, O ye men, have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and have gained this harm and loss.
    22    And now I exhort you to be of good cheer. For there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but only of the ship.
    23    For an angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve, stood by me this night,
    24    Saying: Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar; and behold, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
    25    Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer; for I believe God that it shall so be, as it hath been told me.
    26    And we must come unto a certain island.
He exhorts them to take some food
    27    But after the fourteenth night was come, as we were sailing in Adria, about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they discovered some country.
    28    Who also sounding, found twenty fathoms; and going on a little further, they found fifteen fathoms.

    29    Then fearing lest we should fall upon rough places, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.
    30    But as the shipmen sought to fly out of the ship, having let down the boat into the sea, under color, as though they would have cast anchors out of the forepart of the ship,
    31    Paul said to the centurion, and to the soldiers: Except these stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.
    32    Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat, and let her fall off.
    33    And when it began to be light, Paul besought them all to take meat, saying: This day is the fourteenth day that you have waited, and continued fasting, taking nothing.
    34    Wherefore I pray you to take some meat for your health’s sake; for there shall not an hair of the head of any of you perish.
    35    And when he had said these things, taking bread, he gave thanks to God in the sight of them all; and when he had broken it, he began to eat.
    36    Then were they all of better cheer, and they also took some meat.
    37    And we were in all in the ship, two hundred threescore and sixteen souls.
    38    And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, casting the wheat into the sea.
The all escape unharmed
    39    And when it was day, they knew not the land; but they discovered a certain creek that had a shore, into which they minded, if they could, to thrust in the ship.
    40    And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves to the sea, loosing withal the rudder bands;

 

Actus Apostolurum - Chapter 27:11-40

    11    Centurio autem gubernatori et nauclero magis credebat, quam his quæ a Paulo dicebantur.
    12    Et cum aptus portus non esset ad hiemandum, plurimi statuerunt consilium navigare inde, si quomodo possent, devenientes Phœnicen hiemare, portum Cretæ respicientem ad Africum et ad Corum. Patiuntur magnam tempestatem
    13    Aspirante autem austro, æstimantes propositum se tenere, cum sustulissent de Asson, legebant Cretam.
    14    Non post multum autem misit se contra ipsam ventus typhonicus, qui vocatur Euroaquilo.
    15    Cumque arrepta esset navis, et non posset conari in ventum, data nave flatibus, ferebamur.
    16    In insulam autem quamdam decurrentes, quæ vocatur Cauda, potuimus vix obtinere scapham.
    17    Qua sublata, adjutoriis utebantur, accingentes navem, timentes ne in Syrtim inciderent, summisso vase sic ferebantur.
    18    Valida autem nobis tempestate jactatis, sequenti die jactum fecerunt:
    19    et tertia die suis manibus armamenta navis projecerunt.
    20    Neque autem sole, neque sideribus apparentibus per plures dies, et tempestate non exigua imminente, jam ablata erat spes omnis salutis nostræ. Affirmat Paulus omnes salvandos esse
    21    Et cum multa jejunatio fuisset, tunc stans Paulus in medio eorum, dixit: Oportebat quidem, o viri, audito me, non tollere a Creta, lucrique facere injuriam hanc et jacturam.
    22    Et nunc suadeo vobis bono animo esse: amissio enim nullius animæ erit ex vobis, præterquam navis.
    23    Astitit enim mihi hac nocte angelus Dei, cujus sum ego, et cui deservio,
    24    dicens: Ne timeas, Paule: Cæsari te oportet assistere: et ecce donavit tibi Deus omnes qui navigant tecum.
    25    Propter quod bono animo estote, viri: credo enim Deo quia sic erit, quemadmodum dictum est mihi.
    26    In insulam autem quamdam oportet nos devenire.
Hortatur eos ad cibum sumendum
    27    Sed posteaquam quartadecima nox supervenit, navigantibus nobis in Adria circa mediam noctem, suspicabantur nautæ apparere sibi aliquam regionem.
    28    Qui et summittentes bolidem, invenerunt passus viginti: et pusillum inde separati, invenerunt passus quindecim.
    29    Timentes autem ne in aspera loca incideremus, de puppi mittentes anchoras quatuor, optabant diem fieri.
    30    Nautis vero quærentibus fugere de navi, cum misissent scapham in mare, sub obtentu quasi inciperent a prora anchoras extendere,
    31    dixit Paulus centurioni et militibus: Nisi hi in navi manserint, vos salvi fieri non potestis.
    32    Tunc absciderunt milites funes scaphæ, et passi sunt eam excidere.
    33    Et cum lux inciperet fieri, rogabat Paulus omnes sumere cibum, dicens: Quartadecima die hodie exspectantes jejuni permanetis, nihil accipientes.
   34    Propter quod rogo vos accipere cibum pro salute vestra: quia nullius vestrum capillus de capite peribit.
    35    Et cum hæc dixisset, sumens panem, gratias egit Deo in conspectu omnium: et cum fregisset, cœpit manducare.
    36    Animæquiores autem facti omnes, et ipsi sumpserunt cibum.
    37    Eramus vero universæ animæ in navi ducentæ septuaginta sex.
    38    Et satiati cibo alleviabant navem, jactantes triticum in mare.
Omnes evadunt incolumes
    39    Cum autem dies factus esset, terram non agnoscebant: sinum vero quemdam considerabant habentem littus, in quem cogitabant si possent ejicere navem.
    40    Et cum anchoras sustulissent, committebant se mari, simul laxantes juncturas gubernaculorum: et levato

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0971489424, Jean Ousset, 272, Softcover

Jean Ousset
Action is a definitive manual on Catholic Action by one of the 20th Century's great lay Catholic scholars of Catholic Action. This book discusses not only the theory of Catholic Social Action but examines it from practical standpoints: why should Catholic laymen feel called to action for the spread of Catholic social principles in society, how can they make that action effective, and how can they manage the resources available for action. Anyone who has ever felt that something must be done to save society from chaos and collapse should consider this book a must read.

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0971828628, George O’Brien, 155, Softcover

George O'Brien
“In the Department of Human Affairs concerned with the economic activities of man, the old universally accepted code of justice fell into disregard, if not into ridicule; and its place was taken, on the one hand, by the theory that the only safe guide for man to follow in these affairs is his own personal interest, and, on the other hand, and partly as a reaction against this repulsive theory, that the individual has no right of initiative at all, but that his whole being must be subordinated to the welfare of the community. Both these theories would have been equally disapproved by the old, despised ethical authority of the Middle Ages, under whose régime they could not have flourished or developed; but, at the time when they arose, that old authority was no longer universally accepted, and there was no power in Europe strong enough to withstand the march of these two dangerous doctrines. The path to both Capitalism and Socialism had been opened by the Reformation.”

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Hilaire Belloc, 272, Softcover
Originally subtitled “A Study,” Belloc’s Richelieu is a compelling sketch of the Cardinal’s character — specifically of his Will — seen through his background, the figures surrounding him, and his line of action. It is also, above all, a compact chronicle of the making of modern Europe, and the tragedy of its rupture into Catholic and Protestant camps. In attempting to achieve for France the leadership of Europe, Richelieu, Belloc says, “loosed forces stronger than he could deal with,” with the consequent weakening, if not destruction, of Catholicism: “. . . he had almost ruined it in the Empire, and had in any case left it permanently unable to recover its old supremacy there.” This gripping permanently unable to recover its ld supremacy there.” This gripping tale, unfolding at the heart of the European story, is a candid look at Richeliu’s uncanny statesmanship and undoubted sincerity, and the unintended but disastrous effect of these upon the soul of Western civilization.

“. . . Once [Gustavus Adolphus] took the field, Richelieu found that he had called up the devil, and that the devil was too much for him.” Hilaire Belloc, 1930

by Hilaire Belloc
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0971828636, Hilaire Belloc, 288, Softcover

Hilaire Belloc

Belloc has written elsewhere that the victory of the Reformation in England led to its victory in much of the rest of Europe. That victory unleashed the forces of social disintegration, Protestantism, Capitalism, and anti-Catholicism and let them to challenge the tradition of Monarchy on the field of battle. This book tells the story of how Charles I came to face those forces, manipulated by the Money Power, and how and why he failed. Charles I reads like "a ripping yarn", but it explores the personalities, the issues, the clashes, and the circumstances as they were. Thus it is not "acceptable orthodoxy." But it is real history.

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Brian Kranick , PB 328 pages
By Brian Kranick  - PB 328 pages

We are indebted to Brian Kranick for this illuminating exposition of the Book of Exodus. One who reads this book will have a
much clearer understanding of the four Gospels because Exodus, along with the prophecy of Isaias, is the best and clearest revelation
in the Old Testament of the Savior to come and his mission.


The typology that the Fathers and Doctors of the Church have spoken of is here collected and examined and presented for our
edification. One glance at the table of contents will be enough to convince you that this book is crucial for understanding the
Gospels and the history of God’s people both in the Old and New Testaments.


He specifically reminds us of the fact that God himself designed all of the liturgical seasons and feasts and that he also
gave explicit directions for every minute rubric and prayer of all of the liturgical rites, sacrifices, and architecture. Our Lord and his
apostles carried on these rituals in the new and eternal sacrifice, not only the one on Calvary, but also in the continuing sacrifice
of the Mass as given to us by Our Lord himself. That ritual had for almost 2000 years been called the Roman Rite.
After reading this book you will re-read the Gospels, especially the descriptions of the Passion, with new “eyes to see.” But if
the Gospels are newly enlivened for you, just wait until you assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in the Roman Rite once again.
It becomes a deeper and more contemplative experience because now, the Book of Exodus, through this work will have been
opened to you, and the phrase from Luke 24:32; “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and
opened the scriptures to us?” shall amaze you with its immanent relevance to each of us in today’s increasingly perfidious, and
therefore confusing, world.

 

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Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò on the Church, America, and the World

Edited by Brian McCall

About the Book

“To restore the beauty of holiness to the face of the Bride of Christ, which is terribly disfigured by so many abominable crimes, and if we truly want to free the Church from the fetid swamp into which she has fallen, we must have the courage to tear down the culture of secrecy and publicly confess the truths we have kept hidden.” These bold words from the pen of an archbishop in exile—part of a bombshell exposé published in August 2018 concerning Theodore McCarrick and his circle—catapulted the ecclesiastical diplomat Carlo Maria Viganò to international prominence. In a steady stream of interventions from that time onward, Archbishop Viganò has not only supplied further incriminating details on the current Vatican regime but has extended his critique to the neo-modernism and worldly accommodation that officially entered the Church through the Second Vatican Council. He argues, moreover, that just as there is a “deep state” of wealthy and powerful international elites who exercise enormous sway over political affairs and cultural vectors, so too there is a “deep church” that retains for its advantage the external trappings of religion while pursuing an agenda of error and moral corruption. These pseudo-sovereignties closely collaborate as they work for the same goals, which are, at this point, an open secret.

A Voice in the Wilderness collects for the first time all the major writings of Archbishop Viganò from August 2018 to January 2021, with explanatory introductions and notes by Brian M. McCall. Finally available in one place to allow for easy access, assimilation, and debate, it is the definitive edition of an extraordinary body of pronouncements that have stirred up vehement controversy on all sides. Regardless where one stands in its regard, Viganò’s arresting message cannot be ignored. Ultimately, it is one of conversion to Christ the King, the Truth in person, who sets us free from the accumulating slaveries of our time.

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0971489475, Amintore Fanfani, 192, Paperback

Amintore Fanfani

Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism is one of the most scholarly and comprehensive treatments of the antagonism between Catholic doctrine and the capitalist spirit. As such it is eminently persuasive. The author, Amintore Fanfani, was the Chair of Economic History at the University of the Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy, and was the heir to a long and unmatched tradition of Italian Social Catholicism, a tradition effectively sanctioned and promoted by Popes Leo XIII and St. Pius X. Catholicism, Protestantism, and Capitalism will be of particular interest to those seeking to better understand both the preconceptions and mentalities that the pioneers of the capitalist system possessed, and the reaction of Catholicism to that system. The book demonstrates, conclusively, that there is a scholarly, intelligent, and convincing answer to the propaganda which suggests that the world is irreparably divided into two camps, the capitalist and socialist.

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1930278349, Fr. Albert H. Dolan, O. Carm., 400, Softcover

The most popular autobiography ever written may well have been that of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux. Unlike the stigmatist Padre Pio, who is the only saint of modern times to compare in popularity with the Little Flower'’s universal appeal, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, during her mortal life (1873-1897), was hardly known outside the walls of her Carmelite cloister. And, she may have never been well known this side of heaven had she not been ordered by her superiors to write a personal journal of her own exquisite growth and fruition in the spiritual life – a growth that never idled from the time she was three. “From the age of three years,” she testified, “I never refused anything to the Great God.” Before the youngest child of Louis and Zelie Martin left this world, she prophesied that her greatest active work would “begin” in heaven and that she would employ herself in beatitude “doing good upon earth.” From there, just as she promised, she has never ceased to “let fall a shower of roses” upon all who invoke her. Such devotion of the universal church, as that bestowed upon Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus, was quickly rewarded by the Vicar of Christ. She was canonized only twenty-eight years after her death by Pope Benedict XV.

Loreto Publications is thrilled to publish Carmelite Father Albert Dolan’'s unique collection of eight monographs, each of which deals with the temporal spiritual journey of our chosen vessel of grace, either as the saint saw herself in the eyes of God, or as she was intimately known by her parents, four sibling sisters, fellow religious, childhood friends and others whose lives she touched after her death. One might call this redolent nosegay of inspirational testimonies, an anthology, in the Greek sense of that word, for anthos literally means a “gathering of flowers.” In order to compose his octave of devotion, Father Dolan traveled, in 1924, to France: to Normandy’'s Alencon, where Saint Thérèse was born, to her family home in Buissonnets, to the Carmel at Lisieux, and to other French towns. Then, he went to Rome, where he and Pope Pius XI had a mutually productive discussion of his apostolate to make the “Little Way” of the Little Flower better known in homes and monasteries in America. At the Carmelite convent he was blessed by priceless interviews with Saint Thérèse'’s three sisters (who were nuns there), and one of her teachers. At Caen, he visited a fourth sister, who had joined the Visitation order. One third of this book is dedicated to these precious recollections gathered from her living siblings. In fact, one of the eight monographs, “Book Five,” is completely devoted to the Little Flower’'s saintly mother Zelie, who died when Thérèse was only four years old.

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1932528105, Various, 240, Hardcover

A New Statement of an Old Ideal

Obliterating the notion that there are only two choices - right and left - for perspectives on social and economic life, this apologia by twelve Catholics for a socio-economic life based upon the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church offers an outline of independent operator-owners, regulative guilds, and economic science subortinated to morality and the genuine needs of mankind.

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1928832431, St. Thomas Aquinas, 432, Paperback

Saint Thomas Aquinas - PB 432 pages - 6" x 9"

The essentials of Catholic doctrine
— clearly and succinctly presented

Two years before he died, St. Thomas Aquinas — probably the greatest teacher the Church has ever known — was asked by his assistant, Brother Reginald, to write a simple summary of the Faith of the Catholic Church for those who lacked the time or the stamina to tackle his massive Summa Theologica.

In response, the great saint quickly set down — in language that non-scholars can understand — his peerless insights into the major topics of theology: the Trinity, Divine Providence, the Incarnation of Christ, the Last Judgment, and much more.

Here, then, is not only St. Thomas’s concise statement of the key elements of his thought, but a handy reference source for the essential truths of the Catholic Faith.

 

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George J. Hill, M.A., 360, Softcover

George J. Hill, M.A. - 360 pages softcover

Few stories grip the heart and stir the soul like those tales of faithful Catholics who have risen up in arms to throw off the tyrrany of anti-Catholic oppressors. The great stories from the bible such as that of young David or Judas Macchabeus and his sons have their numerous counterparts in the history of the Church as well. What Catholic has not thrilled to such stories as that of the First Crusade, or the defense of Malta or the Battle of Lepanto—all victories for the Catholics. But even when the Catholic cause is not immediately sucessful as in such epic wars as the Jacobite rebellions, the nine-years war of Red Hugh O’Donnell and The O’Neill against Queen Elizabeth, or the fight of the Cristeros for a Catholic Mexico, the stark reality of such glorious sacrifices for the Faith inspires us down through the ages.

Such is the story of the War in LaVendée and the courage of youth displayed in the story of the Little Chouannerie by the teenage scholars of Vannes. The satanic explosion of hatred of Christ, of his Church, and of all that was decent in Catholic France that is known to history as the French Revolution was valiantly opposed in the west of France by a peasant army in both Brittany and in LaVendée. This is their story.

The names of Charette, LaRochejaquelein, Abbé Bernier, Cathelineau, Le Tiec, and Jean Chouan should be as well known to Catholics as those of Red Hugh O'Donnell, Bonnie Prince Charlie, Padre Pro, Godfrey deBouillion, Don Juan of Austria and others.

This story will break your heart…and will mend it as well.

Vive la Nation! Vive le Roi! Vive la réligion Catholique! 

Preface
It is commonly argued by writers on the French Revolution that the state of the Church, as well as of the nation in general, must have been exceedingly corrupt, and that both clergy and people were equally destitute of religious belief and of moral principle, or so total a disruption of all the bonds of society could never have taken place, attended as it was with circumstances of unprecedented confusion and horror; and they point to the fact of priests and religious, and even bishops, openly apostatizing from Christianity, and abandoning themselves to all the infamous license of the times, and the atrocious crimes perpetrated by a people so lately, in profession at least, Catholic.


That society was radically and irretrievably corrupt especially in high places, and that many of the clergy, and in particular those about the court, were deeply infected with the taint of infidelity, is unhappily too true. But such writers seem utterly to overlook a fact equally patent and remarkable, that hundreds of ecclesiastics not merely retained and avowed their religious belief, in spite of persecution and contempt, but shed their blood for the faith; enduring the grossest insults and the most agonizing torments, not only with meekness and resignation, but with a touching piety, and a sweet and tender charity towards their murderers, such as make their constancy and fortitude differ in kind from any thing which mere natural heroism, however exalted, has at any time exhibited; while thousands risked their lives and abandoned all things for conscience sake. If a few traitors and apostates—for few they were in comparison with those who stood firm in the hour of trial, and nobly suffered all that a diabolical malice could inflict, rather than abate one tittle of their obedience to the divine law; if this wretched minority are to be taken as a proof of the inroads that vice and infidelity had made upon the Church of France, how triumphant is the demonstration afforded by her numerous martyrs and confessors that she was yet sound and pure at heart!


And as respects the people at large “To judge of a whole nation,” says Mr. Belaney in his Massacre at the Carmes, “by the conduct or manners of its populace in its capital and larger cities in times of great excitement, would lead to as false and unjust, as well as ungenerous conclusions, in respect to that nation, as it would to judge of an individual only by what he did when under the effects of delirium tremens or intoxication.” “The populace,” as he elsewhere observes, “required to be deceived, as well as bribed into the commission of acts which cause us to shudder when we look back on them, even at a distance of sixty years.” An execrable faction, devoid of every principle of morality and every feeling of humanity, had usurped the power of the state; and while over-awing the better portion of the nation by wholesale proscription and slaughter, drove the masses of the people to enact, in a frenzy of terror and fury, excesses which, left to themselves and in their sober senses, they would never have had the heart to perpetrate. That under the seething surface of vice and impiety which covered the land, there lay hid all the while, even in the worst days of the Revolution, fathomless depths of sanctity and devotion beyond the ken of the godless world, the annals of the times sufficiently testify; and that, even when the nation had passed through its fiery conflict, and a generation to whom religion was an effête superstition, and priests but tyrants and impostors, appeared upon the scene, there still remained, not only among the country populations, but among the inhabitants of the towns, a vast amount of supernatural belief, which waited only for an occasion to manifest itself, one circumstance alone would prove:—the demonstrations, not of sympathy and affection merely, but of religious veneration, with which Pius VII was everywhere received on his entrance into France, a prisoner, in the year 1809; multitudes crowding round the carriage in which he was seated, and begging his benediction on their knees as he passed along.

But if the clergy of France contributed its noble army of martyrs at Paris, Lyons, Nantes, her peasantry of Brittany and La Vendée sent forth an heroic band of veritable soldiers of the cross, as admirable and as worthy of being held in everlasting honor as their enemies are deserving of the universal reprobation of mankind. Brave, generous, honorable, merciful, and pure, in the heat of the fight resolute and undaunted as veteran soldiers, and in the hour of victory as tender-hearted as children—what a contrast do these “brigands,” as their opponents called them, present to the self-styled “patriots” of the Republican forces! Sensual, treacherous, bloodthirsty, breathing only hatred and revenge, exhibiting a cruelty and a ferocity truly satanic, their delight seemed to be only in massacre and rapine, and in the commission of the most hideous crimes. Catholic France may well be proud of her heroes of La Vendée. What but simple, supernatural faith could have produced such an army of patriot crusaders, and inspired a system of warfare so truly Christian?


For it is not possible to separate the religion and devotion of the Vendean peasants from their natural virtues and martial qualities. As they fought primarily for their Church, and only secondarily and, as it may be said, accidentally, for their king, so first and before all things they were Catholics: —to their heart’s core they were what the pseudo-philosophers of the day would call “superstitious and bigoted;” as much so as the priests who walked calmly forward to meet their assassins with their breviaries in their hands, and the names of Jesus and Mary on their lips. These men, so intrepid, so cool and yet so daring, so generous and so noble-minded, recited their rosaries on their way to the battlefield, and threw themselves on their knees before the image of the Crucified as they charged down upon the bayonets of the foe. Abstract from the Vendean his faith, and he is no longer the same man: that faith not only inspired his actions, it made him what he was.


As to the conduct and results of the war, it is unnecessary to anticipate here remarks that are made in the course of the narrative. In spite of some signal and palpable blunders, no candid mind, which considers the disadvantages under which they labored, will withhold from both generals and subordinates a very high need of praise, not only for their courage, which was undoubted, but for their strategic skill and address. Unhappily, as the contest proceeded, and their first chosen leaders perished in battle, serious evils began to show themselves; fatal jealousies were engendered, dissensions broke out amongst the new commanders, cruelties were perpetrated which rivaled in barbarity the enormities by which they were provoked, unjustifiable severities were adopted even against members of their own body, and the whole morale of the army notably degenerated. Such were but the inevitable consequences of long-continued warfare, and that of so embittered a character, the subversion of all established order, and the absence of any legitimate head. And yet to the end sufficient of the old spirit remained to excite the fears and even to elicit the admiration of their foes. Despite the terrible reverses encountered in the field, and the general disorganization that ensued, their bravery and tenacity had made themselves so effectually felt, that the Vendean insurgents succeeded finally in obtaining an honorable peace. But their greatest glory consisted in the fact, that the Catholic religion never ceased to be openly professed in La Vendée; nor did they consent to lay down their arms until liberty of worship was guaranteed to them, and their priests were recognized and protected by the laws.

Hence the moral effects of this war it is hardly possible to overrate. Not only did it prove that France never could be one and indivisible, never could be at peace with herself until religion was re-established; not only did the valor and enthusiasm which were evoked insure respect to the religion which was able to produce such sensible effects—but the multitudes whom terror had silenced and isolated, the weak, the timid, the despondent, and even they in whom the light of faith was well-nigh quenched, felt the influence of a struggle in which they took no part; it awoke and sustained a secret sympathy in their breasts, and kept them in a state of continual readiness to welcome back, even with acclamations, the religion for which they had neither the courage nor the will to suffer or to contend.
What, therefore, may not the France of this day owe to La Vendée! How much of the religious revival which now fills Catholic Christendom with admiration and joy may be due to that contest, so obstinately and so fruitlessly maintained, as some may think, in that little corner of the west? And this in two ways; first, as has been intimated, by keeping the lamps burning in her sanctuaries when elsewhere they had been extinguished and the very altars themselves overthrown, and leaving them as beacons to announce to all failing and faltering hearts that an incarnate God still had worshippers, and Peter loyal subjects, among a rebellious and apostate people; and secondly, and principally, by willingly offering that sacrifice which God never fails to accept and to requite—the sacrifice of the heart’s-blood of the best and purest of her children. That blood, like the blood of the martyr-priests, has never ceased to cry out, not for vengeance, but for mercy and for blessings—the richest and the choicest, because spiritual and heavenly—on the land that poured it out as though it had been the blood of brute cattle that die unpitied in the shambles, or rather of the wild beasts of the forest whom it was a necessity to exterminate. Certain it is that nowhere has religion, so trodden down and all but exterminated as it was, had so speedy and so astonishing a resurrection as in once infidel France, and to what can this be more probably attributed, than to that spirit of immolation which animated alike the priests of the Carmes and the peasants of La Vendée? If the butcheries of Tyburn are one day to yield, as we may piously hope, a fruitful harvest of souls to the Church in our land, what might England long ere this have become, had more of her sons bled and died with the gallant Nortons around the banner of the Five Precious Wounds, and the gibbets stood tenfold thicker between Newcastle and Wetherby?


The strength and reality of the principles for which La Vendée contended, and the ardor with which the flame there enkindled burned on, despite the indifference and secularity which weighed upon the land, may be estimated by the enthusiasm excited in the breasts of the young students of Vannes, and the bravery and fortitude displayed in their defense. Singular phenomenon that some hundreds of boys should turn soldiers in sober earnest, all because the great emperor bullied the Pope, changed their catechism, and gave them Charlemagne for their patron instead of St. Catharine and St. Nicholas; but no ambiguous omen of bright and glorious days to France, that, in what with many would have passed for a mere piece of state-policy, with which they had no concern, these schoolboys and seminarians should feel to the quick that a great principle was at stake, for which they were bound, as with all their hearts they were willing, to fight and to die.


The scholars of Vannes—as many as survive—have now passed the prime of their life; but during the forty years that have gone by, what services have they not rendered, by their labors, their writings, their courageous examples, to the Church, to literature, to society! And whence had they derived their first inspirations, but from those annals of the old Chouannerie which as boys it was their delight to collect, and from those bearded men, with their bronzed countenances and thoughtful brows, who had returned to renew the studies of their youth, only that they might complete, as ministers of peace at the altar, the warfare they had begun on the battlefield? True patriots, whose patria is not of this world; though accidentally and from circumstances associated with monarchy, their Catholicism was subservient to no form of government, albeit respectful and friendly to all; upholding obedience to constituted authority as the ordinance of God, it looked, above all things, to maintaining intact the liberties of the Church and the independence of the spiritual power. To such men and such principles France owes everything; and on France at this moment hang the destinies of the world.

 

The story of La Vendée and of the Little Chouannerie is gathered from the various extant sources; but in the case of the latter, which is drawn principally from M. Rio’s own narrative, an endeavor has been made to assign to that gentleman the position which rightfully belonged to him, but which his modesty and humility prevented him from assuming.


The reader will find a most striking description of the old “Chouans” and the “Little Vendée” among M. Sonvestre’s Tales and Sketches of Brittany and La Vendée, published in Constable’s Miscellany of Foreign Literature. The incidents, which were taken by the author from the mouth of one of Jean’s brothers-in-arms, are related in a style as graphic and touching, as it is simple and unadorned.


The conflict in La Vendée had its counterpart in Flanders. M. Hendrik Conscience, in his spirited historical tale of the era, has described with much dramatic power the sufferings of the people, and their determined, but disastrous, and, as it turned out, fatally ineffectual resistance to the revolutionary forces, and (in the worst sense) revolutionary principles of France. The work in question has just been translated into English. Although fictitious in form, it adheres faithfully to the facts of history: the notes to the original Flemish show, by extracts from the accounts, proclamations, etc., which appeared in the Antwerp newspapers of the time, that the gatherings, skirmishes, and principal events therein depicted, down to the great battle with which the story closes, actually occurred as represented. A few resolute and courageous men, while the masses of their countrymen “looked on in dumb terror” at the destruction of all they held dear and venerable, kept up a continual harassing warfare against the invader, until they were either individually taken and shot, or mowed down in hundreds by the musketry, or hewed and hacked to pieces by the merciless sabers of the French soldiery. But though crushed, and to all outward seeming annihilated, that insurrection against the most intolerable of all despotisms, the tyranny of an impious liberalism, and in defense of altar and hearth, faith and liberty, had as in La Vendée, a most powerful moral effect at the time, and exerted doubtless, both in the natural and in the supernatural order, influences the operation of which we have still before our eyes. For we may well consider the present prosperous condition of Belgium, the freedom, both political and religious, which she enjoys, and the simple piety of her people, to be at once the result and the reward of the spirit displayed, and the sufferings endured, in that truly patriotic struggle.


  1. H. T.
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Pope Leo XIII, Edited and annotated by Fr. Joseph Husslein, S. J., 300, Cloth Hardcover

Fourteen Epochal Documents by Pope Leo XIII on the Social Teachings

Edited and annotated by Fr. Joseph Husslein, S. J. - Cloth Hardcover -300 Pages

Few American Catholics truly understand t he social teachings of the Catholic Church. This may be in part due to the fact that many of he best papal teachings on this subject have either been ignored or  not widely read by Americans. Father Husslein tried very hard to remedy this situation with the publication of two books in 1940 dedicated to solving  this problem. He gathered together all of the encylicals by the two popes who wrote most on  the topic and made certain that the english translations were well organized, accurate, and easily understandable and readable in translation. He also made many notes that are helpful to the reader. The service he performed is treausred by all students of the Church's social doctrine and these two books, so long out of print, are now available agai exactly as they were originally published.

If you have not read many of the encyclicals that were published before the modernization of encyclical writing that took place after the 2nd Vatican Council you are in for a real treat! The brevity, clarity, and chastity of the language will surprise you. Leo is no phenomenological exegete. He speaks the way one would expect the Vicar of Christ to speak, in clear, unambiguous, and manly language that is full of charity and pius unction and truth. No one who reads these most important social encylicals will come away confused. Be warned however, their brevity is deceptive. They are overflowing with profound insights and exhortations, therefore, small doses properly savored and meditated upon is the best way to imbibe the true wisdom and sound doctrine found here.

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Dom Louis Soltner, 240, Paperback

Dom Louis Soltner - PB 240 pages

This history of Solesmes and its founder Dom Guéranger is an excellent work published by the Monks of Solesmes. It tells the story of one of the greatest scholars and saintly men of the 19th century, and chronicles the enduring work that he founded and promoted during his lifetime. In our estimation, it is slightly marred by some comments regarding the movement toward a restoration of the Roman Liturgy that was largely inspired by Dom Guéranger and how that movement has culminated in the novus ordo liturgy of the 20th century. However, that issue aside, it is an excellent historical resumé, and it is well worth your time to read.

For more in-depth commentary on the modern liturgical movement, we refer our readers to the book by Fr. Bonneterre found on our website here.

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