BLESSED PIUS IX
POPE AND DOCTOR OF THE IMMACULATE

     Those who took part in the theatrical and musical sessions at Maison Saint-Joseph this summer were able to nourish their souls, their hearts and their minds on some genuine riches. We will speak at another time of the play On earth as it is in Heaven by Fritz Hochwälder and the Pastorale by our Brother Henry. This year’s study programme covered the second part of the 19th century. Brother Francis’ conference on the saintly Pope Pius IX was planned a long while back and was not specially written for this edition, but it has to be admitted that it could not come at a better moment to re-establish the truth at a time when the association of his beatification with that of John XXIII is disorienting people on both the left and the right…

	Blessed Pius IX: 1846-1878.

ONE day, finding himself at the sharp end of some strong pressure from masonic governments, Pope Pius IX declared to one of his colleagues, «I have the Blessed Virgin with me, I shall press on undeterred.» Such confidence says much about his mysterious alliance with the Immaculate who made his pontificate one of the greatest.

     Giovanni Maria Mastai was born on 13 May (that date again!) 1792, at Sinigaglia, a city in the Marches, situated some fifty kilometres from the sanctuary of Loreto where his family took part every year in the vigil of prayer on 10 December to commemorate the translation of the Santa Casa.

     The child’s souls was profoundly marked by the piety of his mother who used to go to Mass very early in the morning at the church of the Servite Fathers and pray before a picture of Maria Santissima Addolorata. She taught him, among other sacrifices, always to decline the first fruits placed in front of him at mealtimes and to offer them to the Virgin Mary. When he became Pope, he would confide, «That was a practice I learned on my mother’s knees. I am still faithful to it.» He kept with the greatest care the image of the Madonna della Speranza, received at his First Holy Communion, because it reminded him of the «happiness of that blessed day».

     At the College of Saint Michael at Volterra, his devotion towards the Immaculate grew. There they practised the daily recitation of the “Crown of twelve stars”, in honour of the twelve privileges of the Mother of God, whose fourth privilege reads: «Praised be God the Father who preserved the Virgin Mary from every stain at Her conception.» Furthermore, the Academy of perseverers, to which he belonged, had a special devotion to «the Virgin conceived without stain». It was as consul of the Academy that for the first time he gave a speech on this extraordinary privilege of the Mother of God.

     «From Our most tender years», he would write, «We have held nothing more dear, nothing more precious than to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary with a particular piety, with a special veneration and a profound heartfelt devotion, and to do everything that seemed possible for Her greater glory and praise, and for the spread of devotion to Her.» (UBI PRIMUM)

     In 1815, Giovanni Maria Mastai aspired to enter the reconstituted Noble Guard. But he had been suffering for several years from a serious infirmity. One evening in November, Gregorio Fontana’s carriage came to an abrupt stop before a body sprawled out on the pavement; the prelate was astonished to find that it was the young Mastai struck down by an epileptic fit. A few weeks later, Giovanni Maria went on pilgrimage with a heavy heart «to the sanctuary of Loreto to pour out his soul before the Heart of Her who would always be his strength. From that pilgrimage dates the effective and definitive cure of his terrible malady.» (Pierre Fernessole, Pie IX, Lethielleux, 1960, vol. 1, p. 26)

     Following the miracle that cured him of his infirmity, he considered these long years of trial as the sign of the benevolent regard of Divine Providence. For «this illness, by keeping him out of “society” until he was twenty-six years old, preserved his youth from the dangers of the world» (ibid., p. 30).

SAINT PHILIP COME BACK FROM THE DEAD

     While he was preparing for the priesthood, he took care, in a spirit of total self-abnegation, of the orphans, the apprentices and young workers of the Tata Giovanni hospice. With his whole heart, which was so good, he devoted himself to the sorry plight of these children. «This holy spiritual director», one of them will recount, «lived with us as though he were one of us, understanding our weaknesses, speaking our language as well as he could, sitting at the same table, taking part in our games, and managing to make us love his gentle gravity and respect his loveable kindness. I cannot remember that he ever had cause to reproach us, as we naturally abstained from anything that might have upset him. Simply the thought of him made us behave well. If ever one of us committed a fault, a single look from the holy cleric moved him to repent… What I am writing to you, every one of my companions could have written, and the same goes for all those who had the good fortune to live in the Tata Giovanni hospice under the direction of Signor Mastai-Ferretti.» (Yvan Gobry, PIE IX. LE PAPE DES TEMPÊTES, ed. J Picollec, 1999, p. 22)

     Ordained priest on 10 April 1819, he manifested such zeal for every work of piety and charity, that he would soon come to be called Saint Philip [Neri] come back from the dead. It was a serious wrench for him to have to leave the children he loved in order to carry out a pontifical commission in Chile!

     Consecrated Bishop of Spoleto in April 1927, he touched people's hearts through his preaching and his untiring exaltation of the privileges and power of the Immaculate Mediatrix. «In fact, everything about Mary is glorious. Her conception, Her birth, Her life, Her death, and finally Her burial. In this tomb She lay without undergoing any corruption, and She would soon leave it in triumph… Dearly beloved sons, do we ourselves want to die like the Virgin, without fear? In that case, let us live like the Virgin, holding sin in hatred and abomination… Remember that in Heaven Mary is the powerful Mediatrix [his emphasis], the merciful advocate, your own Mother.»

A LIBERAL BISHOP

     Numerous are the testimonies compiled for his beatification process which relate to his acts of charity. It was said of him that he was always «open-handed».

     «Many families in Spoleto benefited from his generosity, even those who, on a political level, were the Holy See's enemies.»

     1831: Gregory XVI ascended the throne at a time when the insurrection fomented by the carbonari was breaking out in the Papal States. At Spoleto, Mgr Mastai succeeded in getting three hundred, and then three thousand, revolutionaries to lay down their arms, promising to spare their lives before the Austrian troops summoned by the Pope should arrive. When an Austrian commandant presented the bishop with a list of citizens suspected of rebellion, he tore it up saying, «When the wolf wants to devour the sheep, he does not inform the shepherd!»

     Gregory XVI, who had noted his virtues and merits, entrusted him with the diocese of Imola and subsequently made him a cardinal. Cardinal Lambruschini, the Secretary of State, was astonished: «Everyone in the Mastai family is a liberal, even the cats.

     – Away with you! replied the Pope, he is a good bishop.»

     Very open to the progress of science and industry, Cardinal Mastai had one consuming interest: the welfare of his people, both spiritual and temporal. «He continually gave his most earnest attention», writes Giovanni Maioli, «to the needs and activities of the people of his diocese and beyond. He took an interest in mills and grinding, in ironmongery, in the markets, in snow-clearing operations, even in the distant communities of the mountains, in theatre and other public amusements, and when, following a very heavy rainfall, the rivers looked like they were going to burst their banks, he trembled for the poor populations; he pleaded with both the Roman and the local authorities to act in time, to repair dikes and bridges, and to do everything possible to avoid a public disaster.»

     Impatient of the slowness of the pontifical government and administration, he considered them excessively distrustful towards certain new approaches:

     «I cannot understand the petulant attitude of our government, which, through its acts of petty officialdom, mortifies the young people who live and breathe in its own century. It should spend a little time seeing what it can do for them and making itself more likeable. I cannot begin to imagine why the government should oppose railways, gas lighting, suspension bridges and scientific congresses. To the best of my knowledge, theology is not opposed to progress in the sciences, the arts and industry… But obviously I have no intention of getting mixed up in politics and I may perhaps be wrong about this.»

     Cardinal Mastai seemed to be unaware that the supposedly “scientific” congresses had been infiltrated by the carbonari. «The congresses of Italian scientists held at Pisa in 1839, Turin in 1840 and Florence in 1841, and all the others ostensibly held in the interests of scientific study, served to reinforce the political agitation; the manifesto of Rimini, composed by the revolutionary doctor Farini, called upon the help of the monarchs and peoples of Europe to secure liberal reforms.» (Fernessole, vol. 1, p. 112)

THE POPE’S CONVERSION

     On the death of Gregory XVI, the Archbishop of Imola, totally impoverished on account of his over-generous almsgiving, had to borrow three hundred crowns in order to travel to the conclave. There he was elected Pope on 16 June 1846 and took the name of Pius IX. When he appeared, dressed in white, on the balcony of the Quirinal Palace to give his first blessing, the people of Rome were enchanted:

«Quanto e bello! How handsome he is!»

     «At first sight», stated one of his close associates, «the face of Pius IX, with its expression of goodness, intelligence and dispassionateness, makes a pleasant impression; his features, which it would be an understatement to describe as kindly, have nothing common or trivial about them, the overall effect being one of great dignity. The natural shape of the mouth is enhanced by a detail which only a very careful observer will notice: his habit of living for others and the sustained attention he pays to the various personalities and ideas that come before him have given his upper lip a nervous oscillation which lends an inexpressible grace to Pius IX’s smile .» (ibid., vol. 2, p. 410-411)

     The beginning of his reign was dramatic: «The youthful and wonderful Pope Pius IX, intrepid doctor of the faith, had somewhat let himself be won over in the domain of so-called modern political ideas. He had begun his pontificate with a very firm encyclical on the faith, but at the same time he was eager to introduce into his States some much-desired material progress as well as certain adventurous constitutional innovations. Taken as a whole these things gave his pontificate a slight air of change and exciting liberalism.» (George de Nantes, Pour une nouvelle Chrétienté, French CRC n^o 87, December 1974, p. 5-6)

     Montalembert was exultant: «Pope Pius IX, in a period of only eighteen months, has given his people an amnesty, a civil guard, a municipal organisation and the Consulta, in other words reforms that are so substantial and productive that it would perhaps be impossible to find in the annals of any other country or reign an example of such spontaneous and complete generosity.»

     However, the more clear-sighted took alarm at these concessions to the new spirit. Some of them saw in him «the Louis XVI of the papacy». On 1 November 1846, the future Cardinal Pie, the then Vicar General of Chartres, wrote to Count de l’Estoile: «The Pope’s affairs are not going well. I do not know what to make of them. I believe he places excessive confidence in the influence of kindness to bring men together, and that he will only be disabused of this notion after some cruel disappointments. Whilst we wait, I fear he will attempt an entente cordiale with his most irreconcilable enemies... To his pastors he will preach charity towards these poor wolves who, according to him,  should not be treated so harshly. His Grace is extremely alarmed... The pundits, both high and low, provide many commentaries on the work of Pius IX. It is undoubtedly very beautiful in theory and in its sincerity of intention. But an intelligent man on the spot assures me that nothing is being built or reformed; on the contrary, everything is crumbling. In particular, the question of the Jesuits is going to be as awkward in Rome as it is in Switzerland. Pius IX will not hand them over; he will let himself be pushed over the edge rather than sacrifice them, and in this he does well: neither his conscience nor his honour allow him to condone the hatred directed against these holy religious.

     «In my opinion, this good Pope has no surer vocation than that of martyrdom. It is typical of revolutionary liberalism to sacrifice those it has previously heaped with praise. And as this Pope is a saint,  in fifty years time perhaps the Church will add one more name to her martyrology. At any rate she will reap the fruits of his sacrifice. I cannot prevent myself making these judgements of Pius IX’s work: I believe more in his Passion than in his reforms for the salvation of the Church and society.» (quoted by Baunard, Histoire du cardinal Pie, Poitiers, vol. 1, 1887, p. 182)

     «In what did his error consist», our Father asked himself, «this illusion from which the future Cardinal Pie foresaw the most disastrous consequences for the Church? In this, that Pius IX thought that he could detach the people from their revolutionary leaders, that he could win them over by uncovering the criminal intentions of the latter and by making generous and spontaneous concessions to the universal desire to modernize the political administration of the States. Was it not necessary, he reasoned, to make this voluntary sacrifice? Was it not necessary to satisfy temporal claims – which were in themselves acceptable and only affected the “superstructures”, the variable contingent forms of government – in order to dissociate these new and honest opinions from the philosophical and antireligious poison with which the Revolution had adulterated them? Ultimately, was it not necessary to leave politics to the free choice of the people, the better to safeguard the sovereign rights and purely spiritual authority of religion?» (Lettre à mes amis n^o 190, 8 December 1964)

     1848. The Revolution spreads throughout Italy. In Rome, the situation deteriorates. To restore the situation, would Pius IX call on the help of the Austrians as his predecessor did?

     No! he would maintain a liberal political regime, and as the head of his government he chose Count Pellegrino Rossi, a former carbonaro, who took severe measures to ensure law and order. Alas, on 15 November, this just man was assassinated near the parliament entrance. The following day, the pontifical army fraternized with the insurgents besieging the Quirinal Palace. The rioters demanded of the Pope, in the form of an ultimatum, that he abandon his temporal power, proclaim a Republic and declare war on Austria.

     Pius IX gave an admirable reply: «That would be to abdicate. I do not have the right to do so.» Meanwhile bullets rained down on the Palace, fatally injuring Mgr Palma.

     That evening, a new government was formed, but the Pope refused to ratify its acts and decisions. Eight days later, Pius IX got into a car and fled in the direction of the kingdom of Naples. «Courage!» he said to his companions. «I carry with me the Most Blessed Sacrament, in the very ciborium that Pius VI took with him when he was led away into France. Christ is with us; He will be our shield and our Saviour!» On 25 November, he arrived in Gaeta.

He would remain there for two years.

THE EXILE AT GAETA

     The Abbé de Nantes writes: «The insurrection of 1848, the vile assassination of Rossi, his prime minister, a liberal if ever there were one, his escape through the streets of Rome inflamed by freemasonry and the sects and exuding hatred and blasphemy, showed Pius IX that the Revolution is all one, that politics is the forum of its power and that the people’s State is the instrument of its absolute power. One does not negotiate with the Revolution, the modern Leviathan. One does not yield it the least political, social or economic rights; one does not concede it the least theoretical or moral validity without it immediately introducing its totalitarian principles of radical nihilism and destruction. Pius IX repented of his “political liberalism” in tears, and the Syllabus is the witness of his retraction.» (ibid.)

     In exile, Blessed Pius IX entrusted himself completely to the Immaculate, praying that She restore the course of his papacy. How many pilgrimages he made! On 9 September 1849, at Naples, in the church of Gesu Vecchio, he left, in a small chapel dedicated to the Immaculate, a little note containing these few words: «Pius IX declares that he places himself under the protection of Mary Immaculate.» (Chiron, Pius IX, p. 206)

     More importantly, he accelerated the process that would lead to the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Only a few days after his arrival in Gaeta, on 6 December, he appointed the members of a commission of cardinals responsible for examining whether this was opportune. Then, on 2 February 1849, he published the encyclical Ubi primum, soliciting the wishes and feelings of the bishops regarding this definition. He expressed his complete trust in the protection of Her who has always saved the Church from the most serious dangers and who will save her yet again:

     «We have especial confidence in our hope that the Blessed Virgin – who has been elevated “by the greatness of Her merits high above all the choirs of angels and even unto the very throne of God” (Saint Gregory), who has crushed under the feet of Her virtues “the head of the ancient serpent”, and who, “placed between Christ and His Church” (Saint Bernard), full of grace and sweetness, has always delivered the Christian people from the greatest calamities and from the snares and assaults of all their enemies, ever rescuing them from ruin – will likewise deign to take pity on us and, with that immense tenderness so characteristic of Her maternal Heart, deliver us, through Her insistent and efficacious intercession with God, from the sad and pitiful misfortunes, the cruel anguish, the sorrows and needs from which we suffer, deflecting the punishments of God's anger that afflict us on account of our sins, calming and dispersing the terrible hurricanes of evil that assail the Church on every side to the immense sorrow of Our soul, and finally turning our grief into joy.»

     The wishes of the episcopate confirmed Pius IX in his resolution. Five hundred and forty-six bishops asked for the definition with great insistence, whereas only about thirty considered it inopportune, including Cardinal Pecci, the Archbishop of Perugia, the future... Leo XIII!

     Following his return to Rome, Pius IX had a sense in February 1852 of being impelled by «a kind of interior movement» to associate in one and the same document the definition of the Immaculate Conception and the explicit condemnation of modern errors. It is true that the pontiff would finally give this idea up, but it is highly revealing of his concern and his intentions. To fight the numerous errors and forces ranged against the Church, it was necessary to call upon the Immaculate. Such was his approach, his tactics, which he would one day explain in a very enlightening biblical allegory:

     «How should one respond to such distressing times as these? I think of Esau when, consumed with fury, he went out against Jacob. The latter, seeing the danger, made his preparations. He placed his servants in the first row, then his children, then the innocent Rachel. We will therefore imitate Jacob. We have our own Esau who persecutes us harshly and cruelly: so, in the first row we will place our clergy with their words and good example, and behind them all those good Catholics who are ready to imitate and support them. But as for our Rachel, She is in Heaven. She is the Mother of God, our Mother, the help of Christians, the refuge of sinners, the destroyer of all heresies and all errors.» (Quoted by J-M Villefranche, Pie IX, sa vie, son histoire, son siècle, Lyon, 1878, p. 389)

THE INFALLIBLE DOCTOR

     Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the bull Ineffabilis Deus, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, on 8 December 1854:

     «God Ineffable – whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence itself, and whose wisdom reaches from end to end most mightily and orders all things most sweetly – having foreseen from all eternity the lamentable wretchedness of the entire human race that would result from the sin of Adam, decreed, by a plan hidden throughout the centuries, to complete the first work of His goodness, in a mystery yet more wondrously sublime, through the Incarnation of the Word. This He decreed in order that man who, contrary to the plan of Divine Mercy, had been led into sin by the cunning malice of Satan, should not perish; and in order that what had been lost in the first Adam should be gloriously restored in the Second Adam. From the very beginning, before time began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for His only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, He would be born into this world. He loved Her far above all other creatures and with such a love of predilection that truly in Her was the Father well pleased with singular delight.

     «Therefore, far above all angelic spirits and all saints so wondrously did God endow Her with the abundance of every heavenly gift poured from the treasury of His divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity above which, under God, none greater can be imagined , and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in fully comprehending.»

     What vast theological riches! It was here that our Father found the stimulus to exalt the privileges of the Immaculate, present with God from the very beginning (cf. Pr 8). All the more so, seeing that Pius IX, a few days before the proclamation of the dogma, had made an important correction to the Bull: he had crossed out the statement regarding the moment when the soul of the Virgin was created, thus leaving the question open.

     The Pope first shows how the «Holy Roman Church desired nothing more than by the most persuasive means to profess, to protect, to promote and to defend the cult and doctrine of the Immaculate Conception». After studying the testimony of the Fathers, he continues:

     «No wonder, then, that the Pastors of the Church and the faithful gloried ever more daily in professing with so much devotion, religion and love this doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mother of God which, as the Fathers discerned, has been recorded in the Divine Scriptures; which was handed down in so many of their most important writings; which was expressed and celebrated in so many illustrious monuments of venerable antiquity; which was proposed and confirmed by the official and authoritative teaching of the Church. Hence, nothing was dearer, nothing more pleasing, to these pastors than to venerate, invoke, and proclaim with most ardent affection the Virgin Mother of God conceived without original sin.»

     Then the Sovereign Pontiff recalled the many requests addressed to the Holy See over the centuries by numerous pastors and religious, by emperors and kings, all in favour of the definition of this dogma.

     «Mindful, indeed, of all these things and considering them most attentively with particular joy in Our heart, as soon as We, by the inscrutable design of Providence, had been raised to the sublime Chair of St Peter in spite of Our unworthiness and had begun to govern the universal Church, nothing have We held more dearly at heart – a heart which from Our tenderest years has overflowed with devoted veneration and love for the most Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary – than to increase the honour of the Blessed Virgin and to show forth Her prerogatives in a new resplendent light.»

     Then he solemnly engaged his sovereign personal authority, calling upon the positive assistance of the Holy Spirit:

     «Wherefore, in humility and fasting, We have unceasingly offered Our private prayers as well as the public prayers of the Church to God the Father through His Son, that He might deign to guide and strengthen Our mind by the power of the Holy Spirit. In like manner did We implore the help of the entire heavenly host as We ardently invoked the Paraclete. Accordingly, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the honour of the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the furtherance of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ Our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our Own, “We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of Her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”

     «Hence, if anyone had the presumption – which God forbid! – to think otherwise than as We have defined, let him know and understand that he is condemned by his own judgment; that he has suffered shipwreck in the faith; that he has separated from the unity of the Church; and that, moreover, by his own action he incurs the penalties established by law should he dare to express in words or writing or by any other outward means the errors he thinks in his heart.»

THE HOPED-FOR RESULTS

     «All our hope do We repose in the most Blessed Virgin, She who is all fair and immaculate, who has crushed the poisonous head of the most cruel serpent and brought salvation to the world; in Her who is the glory of the prophets and apostles, the honour of the martyrs, the crown and joy of all the saints; in Her who is the safest refuge and the most trustworthy helper of all who are in danger; in Her who is the most powerful Mediatrix and Advocate in the whole world before Her only Son; in Her who is the most excellent glory, ornament, and impregnable stronghold of the holy Church; in Her who has destroyed all heresies and snatched the faithful people and nations from the direst calamities, and has delivered Ourselves too from so many threatening dangers. We therefore hope that the most Blessed Virgin will ensure by Her most powerful protection that all difficulties be removed and all errors vanquished, so that our Holy Mother the Catholic Church may flourish daily more and more throughout all nations and countries, and may reign from sea to sea and from the banks of the river to the ends of the earth, and may enjoy genuine peace, tranquillity and liberty. We are firm in our confidence that She will obtain pardon for the sinner, health for the sick, strength of heart for the weak, consolation for the afflicted, help for those in danger; that She will remove spiritual blindness from all who are in error, so that they may return to the path of truth and justice, and that there may be one flock and one shepherd.

     «May all the children of the Catholic Church, who are so very dear to Us, hear these words of Ours, and with an ever more ardent zeal for devotion, religion and love, let them continue to venerate, invoke and pray to the most Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, conceived without original sin. Let them fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under Her guidance, under Her patronage, under Her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared, nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in Her care the work of our salvation, She is solicitous about the whole human race. And since She has been appointed by God to be the Queen of heaven and earth, and is exalted above all the choirs of angels and saints, standing at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ Our Lord, She presents our petitions in the most efficacious manner. What She asks, She obtains. Her pleas never remain unheard.»

«OF DELIGHTS BEYOND ALL TELLING...»

     During the proclamation of the dogma, it was raining heavily. However, «at the precise moment when the Pontiff pronounced the words of the definition, the sky cleared and a ray of light illuminated him.»

     His emotion was very noticeable: «The Holy Father, overwhelmed by the great act he was accomplishing, occasionally gave way to sobs and tears; at one moment, his voice faltered and he interrupted his presentation.»

     Subsequently, in 1857, a nun from the Good Shepherd Convent in Angers had the courage to ask him: «“Would it be indiscreet of me, Most Holy Father, if I were to ask you what were the feelings of your heart when your voice proclaimed that Mary was conceived without original sin?”

     «Pius IX’s look, always gentle and penetrating, became even more benevolent. “Perhaps you believe, my daughter, that the Pope was ravished by ecstasy and that at that moment Mary appeared to him? Well, I did not have an ecstasy or any vision of that kind; but what I experienced, what I learned in defining this dogma, is such that no human tongue can express.

     “When I began to proclaim the dogmatic decree, I felt that my voice was too weak to be heard by the immense multitude (50,000 people) who had pressed into the Vatican basilica, but when I reached the formula of the definition, God gave the voice of His Vicar such force and such supernatural strength that it resounded throughout the whole basilica. And I was so overwhelmed by this divine aid that I was forced to suspend my words for a moment and to give free rein to my tears.

     “What is more, while God was proclaiming this dogma through the mouth of His Vicar, God Himself gave my mind such a clear and expansive understanding of the incomparable purity of the Most Blessed Virgin that, lost in the depths of this knowledge which no tongue can describe, my heart was flooded with delights beyond all telling, delights which are not of this earth and which can only be experienced in Heaven.

     “There is no prosperity, no joy in this world which could give the least idea of these delights; and I am not afraid to affirm that the Vicar of Christ had need of a special grace to avoid dying of pure joy from this knowledge and this sense of the incomparable beauty of Mary Immaculate.

     “You were happy, my daughter, very happy on the day of your first Communion; happier still on the day of your religious profession. For myself, I knew what it meant to be happy on the day of my priestly ordination. Well, add all this happiness together and all the other moments of happiness as well; multiply them countless times to form a single unit of happiness, and you will then have a meagre idea of what the Pope felt on 8 December 1854.”» (Fernessole, vol. 1, p. 266-267)

     On several occasions the Immaculate would grant Her privileged son a kind of miraculous protection.

     A few months after the proclamation of the dogma, on 12 April 1855, at the priory of the Canons of the Lateran, Pius IX received the tribute of one hundred and ten seminarians from the Propaganda Fide College. He was about to give them his papal blessing when the floor of the room caved in.

     «Immaculate Virgin, he cried, come to our aid!»

     Alas, the main beam had broken and had already dragged down in its fall the other beams and walls. Everyone was buried under the rubble. However, the Pope and three cardinals managed to extricate themselves unharmed. It was assumed that many fatalities and serious casualties would be found under the debris, but the Holy Father calmly stated:

     «I have confidence in the Immaculate: no one will lose their life.» Which is exactly what happened: there were no deaths to lament!

THE TREASON OF FALSE BROTHERS

     Pius IX’s struggle to defend the Church against the aggressions of the secular and masonic powers was made all the more difficult in that he was betrayed by liberals. Nevertheless, he never compromised with them.

     His temporal power was attacked with unparalleled ferocity. Here is what the Abbé Meignan, future Archbishop of Tours and cardinal, wrote to Montalembert in March 1859:

     «I believe that the present situation is very disadvantageous for religion. It is said that it ensures the spiritual independence of the Pope. I do not wish to deny this absolutely. Nevertheless, I still find the Pope too dependent, and I imagine that God could perhaps Himself guarantee him a more fitting independence than that of a priest continually flanked by foreign bayonets, continually forced to defend himself against populations who are his begrudging subjects. When I was in Rome in 1846, Gregory XVI took it in turns to both bless and shoot his subjects. Pius IX locks them up. This approach is still needed to maintain the Pope in Rome. It is a harsh necessity. I wish that Providence would put an end to a scandal which, if it lasts much longer, will ruin Catholicism in Europe and elsewhere.»

     Let us not be taken in by this deceitful propaganda of the carbonari and the liberals. Gramont, the French ambassador in Rome, undoubtedly spoke the truth when he wrote on 13 September 1860 to the minister Thouvenel: «We cannot set too much store by the fact that there has never been any insurrection in the pontifical territory; in this connection everything that the Tuscan and Piedmontese newspapers say is absolutely false. The Piedmontese invasion is indefensible. There was no insurrection, simply an act of aggression and a sudden intervention.» (Fernessole, vol. 2, p. 95)

     In the 150 Points of the Phalange, echoing the teaching of Pius IX, the Abbé de Nantes wrote: «The papacy must be what Jesus Christ wished it to be and what the Holy Spirit has made it. It must be endowed with its own proper organs of universal government, the Curia, and with all that is necessary for its longstanding sovereignty and independence, namely a city, its own citizenship, stable private resources, and its own defence.

     «Hence the necessity of the Popes’ temporal power, which the Church’s enemies have continually presented to the world as something detestable to be curbed and effectively suppressed.» (Point 37, The Church is Roman)

     The Ultramontanes firmly supported the Pope in his heroic combat against modern errors and particularly against liberalism. In a Memorandum addressed to Pius IX in 1863, Cardinal Pitra denounced the liberals as a «faction»:

     «More and more they take on the appearance of Port Royal, sometimes timid, sometimes audacious, but never open.»

     The cardinal stressed their sectarian character: «This party is adept at the science of subterfuge, half-retractions, publicity stunts, false newspaper stories and corrections, interventions both official and unofficial, and diplomatic manoeuvres.»

     Dom Pitra insisted on the need for a clear and strong condemnation: «A number of reasons, infinitely respectable, have led to hesitations and temporisations similar to those employed towards the Jansenist school. It is to be feared that the Church will suffer long from a new cancer in her womb, if a vigorous remedy is not found to ward off the danger.»

     THE CONGRESS OF MALINES was one of the events which decided Pope Pius IX to hasten the publication of the Syllabus.

     «In 1863, notes the Abbé de Nantes, Montalembert proclaimed the charter of modern times at the Congress of Malines: “a free Church in a free State”. According to him, the Church had to accommodate herself to economic, social, philosophical and religious freedom today and collectivist socialism tomorrow. The liberals had confidence in Man and the State. If they defended the Church in their Parliament, it was ultimately to get her to submit to the ideology of Liberty which is the foundation of modern societies. Although appearing to fight for the rights of God in a democracy, they were far more actively engaged in pushing the Church of God to recognize the rights of Man.

     «Such was “the reconciliation of the Church and the Revolution” which they advocated. In an equal respect for all beliefs, the modern State, wholly secular in its principles and sovereign in every area of public life, would be capable of establishing order, justice and peace. All without God. Here we have the whole life of society snatched from Christ and the Church, and subjected to the religion of Man. We have reached the stage of apostasy.» (Lettre à mes amis n^o 236, 25 October 1966, p. 3)

THE SAVING ACT: THE SYLLABUS

     From the very beginning of his pontificate, Pius IX had on various occasions identified and proscribed the most widespread modern errors. As a result, when it came to establishing the list of propositions to be condemned, events transpired as follows:

     «Confronted on one hand with the errors of the present time – errors denounced to the Holy See by bishops and learned members of the laity and exposed in their commentaries – and on the other hand with the encyclicals, allocutions and apostolic letters of Pius IX, people wished to know in which of the latter the various errors had been condemned.» (Brother Pascal of the Blessed Sacrament, Mgr Freppel, vol. 1, CRC publications, p. 262)

     «This work was already far advanced, Fernessole points out, when Father Bilio, a Barnabite Father and a future cardinal, remarked that, in order to clarify the true meaning of the propositions and the proper scope of their condemnation, it was important to indicate after each of them the source whence it had been drawn. The commission acceded to his observation and charged Father Bilio himself with collating the propositions already extracted from the Pontifical Acts. Father Bilio therefore put the final touches to a work which had already required twelve years of preparatory study.»

     This labour finally led to the eighty propositions of the Syllabus, a veritable synthesis of the doctrinal teachings of Pius IX.

     The encyclical Quanta cura, which introduced and explained the Syllabus, was published on 8 December 1864, the tenth anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, in order to place it under the protection of «the Immaculate and most Holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary who has slain all heresies throughout the world, and who, as the most loving Mother of us all, “is all sweet… and full of mercy… and shows Herself to all as open to entreaty and most merciful, and pities the misfortunes of all with the most generous affection” (Saint Bernard). Standing as Queen at the right hand of Her only-begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in garments of gold, there is nothing She cannot obtain from Him.»

     Pius IX called upon the zeal and the pastoral solicitude of the bishops to «exterminate» the very serious errors he was denouncing, in particular the errors of liberal Catholics:

     «These false and perverse opinions are for that reason the more to be detested, because their principal tendency is to impede and overturn that salutary influence which the Catholic Church, by virtue of the mission and mandate received from her Divine Founder, should freely exercise, even to the end of the world, not only over private individuals, but also over nations, peoples and their leaders. They also seek to remove that mutual alliance and concord between Church and State, which has ever proved itself propitious and salutary both for Religion and society.

     «For as you well know, Venerable Brethren, at this time there are not a few who, applying to civil society the impious and absurd principle of “naturalism”, as they call it, dare to teach that “the best political constitution and the progress of civil life altogether require that human society be conducted and governed without any more account being taken of Religion than if it did not exist, or at least without any distinction being made between the true religion and false ones.” And against the doctrine of Scripture, of the Church and of the holy Fathers, they do not hesitate to assert that “the best condition of civil society is that in which it is recognised that civil power is not obliged to use legal penalties to suppress violations against the Catholic religion, except insofar as public order requires it.”

     «From which totally false idea of social government they do not fear to maintain that erroneous opinion, most fatal in its effects on the Catholic Church and the salvation of souls, described by Our Predecessor Gregory XVI as an “insanity”, namely that “liberty of conscience and worship is each man's personal right, which ought to be legally proclaimed and asserted in every properly constituted society; and that citizens have a right to an absolute liberty openly and publicly to manifest their opinions whatsoever they might be, by means of speech, the press or any other method, without civil or ecclesiastical authority being able to impose any limit on this right.” Now, in presenting such hazardous opinions as certainties, they fail to realise that they are preaching “a liberty of perdition” (Saint Augustine), and that “if everything is allowed to be decided freely by human convictions, there will never be wanting men who will dare to resist the truth and to put their trust in the empty speeches of a purely human wisdom; whereas we know, from the very teaching of Our Lord Jesus Christ, how carefully Christian faith and wisdom should avoid this most ruinous vanity” (Saint Leo).

     «Wherever religion is removed from civil society, wherever the doctrine and authority of divine revelation are repudiated, the genuine notion itself of justice and human right is obscured and lost, and material force takes the place of true justice and legitimate right.»

     «More even than the encyclical», writes Brother Pascal, «it was the Syllabus that raised a storm in public opinion. This was because the formulation of errors – clear, sharp and concise – made the text understandable by everyone. In a letter to Mgr Plantier, Pius IX explained the importance of this text: “The world is lost in darkness; I published the Syllabus so that it would serve as a beacon and put it back on the road of truth.”» (op. cit., p. 263-264)

     We will quote no more than three of the condemned propositions:

     «PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS AND CIVIL LAWS MAY AND OUGHT TO BE INDEPENDENT OF DIVINE AND ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.» (PROPOSITION 57)

     «IT IS FALSE TO SAY THAT THE CIVIL LIBERTY OF EVERY FORM OF WORSHIP AND THE TOTAL FREEDOM GRANTED TO ALL OF OPENLY AND PUBLICLY MANIFESTING THEIR THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS, CONDUCES TO THE CORRUPTION OF MINDS AND MORALS AND THE SPREAD OF THE PEST OF INDIFFERENTISM.» (PROPOSITION 79)

     «THE ROMAN PONTIFF CAN AND OUGHT TO BE RECONCILED AND COME TO TERMS WITH PROGRESS, LIBERALISM AND MODERN CIVILIZATION.» (PROPOSITION 80)

     These, let us reiterate, are condemned propositions: «Therefore, by Our Apostolic authority, We reprobate, We proscribe, We condemn – and We desire and ordain that all children of the Catholic Church should likewise hold as reprobated, proscribed and condemned – each and every one of the evil opinions and doctrines severally described in this Letter.»

     In Italy, the Syllabus was accepted with docility by the bishops, and they organised various ceremonies and meetings to express their filial gratitude to the Pope. Such was the case in Turin, where a hundred and fifty thousand of the faithful took part.

     On the other hand, in France, liberal Catholics took every means to weaken its significance. Mgr Dupanloup’s pamphlet, The Convention of 15 September and the Encyclical of 8 December, created a considerable stir and one hundred thousand copies were distributed in six months. Montalembert would acknowledge: «The bishop has achieved a genuine tour de force, nothing more, nothing less; his pamphlet is a masterpiece of eloquent circumvention.» (Brother Pascal, p. 273)

     «The “circumvention” consisted in introducing a subtle distinction between “the thesis” and “the hypothesis”: the encyclical admittedly presents the ideal – “the thesis” – of an entirely Christian society, but since in practice – in “the hypothesis” – society is secular, it is clearly necessary to make allowances for situations that are all too present, current and real!» (ibid.)

     Brother Pascal, in his biography of Mgr Freppel, unravels the web of intrigue spun by the liberals who wished to obtain from Pius IX a letter heaping praise on the Bishop of Orleans. A waste of time! Sincere praise would finally be given, not to Mgr Dupanloup, but to the bishops who «took pains, the Pope will state, to forewarn the faithful against the danger of the errors condemned by Us and who expressed their unqualified detestation for them in the same sense that We have denounced them». (ibid, p. 276)

     The publication of the Syllabus remains one of the major events of Pius IX’s papacy:

     «To speak truly», writes the Abbé de Nantes, «ever since the revolutionary explosion of 1789, the Popes had continually erected against this spirit of rebellion, “satanic in its essence”, the rampart of their Magisterium, the barrier of their authority fully placed in the service of the faith. But the Syllabus gave their many scattered teachings a force that was compact, clear and implacable. All the dogmas of freemasonry, the whole theory of humans right, of the State and the God-People, were defined and rejected. Thus, a rampart was thrown up around the besieged Church, a system of defence that would ward off attacks, treason and campaigns of attrition.» (Lettre à mes amis n^o 190)

A CONQUERING CHURCH

     Pius IX not only obstructed «the apostasy» that he saw coming, he also undertook the great task of renovation. «It was under his reign that the Church became modern in her administration, full of vitality, and at last for the first time ready to spread herself to the whole world.» (Georges de Nantes, Prélude à l’apostasie, French CRC n^o 96, Sept 1975, p. 5)

     He strengthened the authority of the apostolic nuncios: from henceforth they would intervene in the internal life of the local Churches in the name of the Sovereign Pontiff.

     He reimposed the obligation of bishops to pay their ad limina visits. The results of this were excellent, whatever point of view one takes. Gallican bishops overcame their prejudices; men like Mgr Plantier the Bishop of Nimes for instance, who painted this touching sketch of the Holy Father in his travel diary: «His head, regular in its features, noble in its overall bearing, is particularly distinguished by a face full of gentleness, exuding the most mild kindness. Nothing is more limpid and benevolent than his look, nothing more paternal and gracious than his smile. In his voice, which is not lacking in power, one detects a wonderful inflection of tenderness; in his words, as well as in the aspect of his face, one has the sense that he bears in his heart an immense treasure of love.»

     The Pope restored the English hierarchy despite the hostility of the London government. He gave a gigantic impulse to the missions, establishing more than two hundreds dioceses or apostolic vicariates.

     Pius IX gradually imposed the Roman liturgy and Gregorian chant on the whole Latin Church. He approved and recommended new devotions.

     Let us give just one example, well-known to the parishioners of Mesnil-Saint-Loup.

     On 5 July 1852, Abbé André, the future Father Emmanuel, requested a private audience with the Holy Father. «It was graciously accorded. Then, on his knees, with his friend, before the feet and close to the heart of the Holy Father, he formulated his request:

     – Most Holy Father, would you be so good as to give the Most Blessed Virgin, honoured in our church, the name of Our Lady of Holy Hope?

     «At these words, the Holy Father, who until then had stood facing the two priests, lifted his head, looked up at the corner of the room and appeared to reflect as though he were trying to compare two thoughts and grasp their mutual relationship; then, turning round after a moment of solemn silence, he seemed to be brimming with joy and in a tone of very evident satisfaction he said:

     – Our Lady of Holy Hope, yes!

     «Once the name had been acquired, the battle was won. Permission to institute a feast day was immediately granted for the fourth Sunday in October. Then a plenary indulgence was granted for the first feast day. The devout supplicant humbly asked for this concession in perpetuity.

     – Yes, in perpetuity for the feast of Our Lady of Holy Hope, answered Pius IX who appeared to be quite lit up.» (Dom Maréchaux, Le Père Emmanuel, Mesnil-Saint-Loup, 1935, p. 54)

     In 1856, the Sovereign Pontiff extended the Feast of the Sacred Heart to the universal Church, thus responding to the wish oft expressed by the French bishops. The decree of beatification of the servant of God Margaret-Mary Alacoque, dated 19 August 1864, confirmed the authenticity of the revelations at Paray-le-Monial.

AN EXTRAORDINARY REMEDY:
THE FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL

     When the convocation of the Council was officially announced, Pius IX had immediately placed it under the «patronage of Her who, from the beginning of the world, has crushed the head of the serpent with Her foot and who alone, ever since, has destroyed every heresy» (Allocution of 30 June 1867).

     The intrigues of liberal Catholics against his project and their appeals to secular governments ran up against the unshakable determination of the Pope of the Immaculate, even though he knew he was severely threatened in Rome by the Piedmontese armies. «The Council will take place. This is what God wants! Should we be forced to leave Europe, then, if necessary, we will transfer it to Peking!» (Baunard, vol. 2, p. 368)

     Do we really need to recall the schemes hatched by that most perfidious of liberal bishops? «Mgr Dupanloup spread the rumour that it was he who had persuaded Pius IX to call a Council... “in order to preside over the birth of a new world!” by adapting the Church to the current situation of society.» (Brother Pascal, p. 345)

     Nothing could have been further from the intentions of the Pope, who wished «to remedy in an extraordinary way the immense evils of the present century». In the Bull of convocation of the Council, he referred to these evils and then continued:

     «As a result of these events, to Our great distress and to the distress of all people of good will, and for the loss of souls which one can never sufficiently lament, there has everywhere been propagated impiety, the corruption of morals, unbridled licence, the contagion of every kind of perverse opinion, all manners of vice and crime, and the violation of divine and human laws, and this to such an extent that not only our most holy religion but even human society itself are wretchedly plunged into disorder and confusion.»

     Consequently, «the Ecumenical Council will have to examine such matters with the greatest care and determine the appropriate action to take in these truly calamitous times for the greater glory of God, for the integrity of the faith, for the splendour of worship, for the eternal salvation of men, for the discipline and solid instruction of the regular and secular clergy, for the observation of ecclesiastical laws, for the reform of morals, for the Christian education of youth, and for the general peace and universal harmony.» (Æterni Patris, 29 June 1868)

     Pius IX solemnly opened the First Council of the Vatican on 8 December 1869, the feast of the Immaculate Conception: «You see, venerable brethren, with what fury the primordial enemy of the human race has assailed and continues to assail the House of God, the abode of His holiness. Under his orders, the league of the godless advance without restraint, and strong in their union, powerful in their resources, and sustained by his plans and the deceptive allure of freedom, they cease not to wage against the Holy Church of Christ a fierce and criminal war. You are not unaware of the character, the violence, the weapons, the progress and the programme of this war.

     «You have constantly before your eyes the spectacle of the perturbation and confusion of holy doctrines on which all human affairs, each in their order, are founded; the deplorable inversion of every law; the manifold artifices of lies and corruption by means of which the salutary bonds of justice, honesty and authority are broken; the arousal of the basest passions; and the Christian faith destroyed root and branch in souls; to such an extent that the Church of God would be threatened with instant extermination, were it possible for her to be overthrown by the machinations and exertions of men.

     «We have decided to avail Ourselves of those ways and means that appear most suitable and most opportune to repair the damage suffered by the Church.» (quoted by Gobry, p. 370)

     The history of the Council is well known. Our Father often makes reference to the dogmatic constitution Dei Filius, unanimously approved on 24 April 1870: it precisely determines the relation between reason and faith.

     It is known that the decisive interventions by Mgr Freppel in the debates on pontifical infallibility were greatly appreciated by Pius IX.

     On 17 July, the day before the solemn proclamation of the dogma, fifty-five opponents left Rome to avoid being humiliated. But the Pope then obliged them to manifest their adhesion to the dogma in public. To put an end to the prevarications of Mgr Dupanloup, he suspended him from all further episcopal functions (cf. Brother Pascal, p. 485-492).

BLESSED ARE THE PERSECUTED

     The Council, alas, would not be continued in the autumn. For after the French troops had departed, recalled from Rome by Napoleon III, Pius IX would be unable to prevent the Piedmontese army from besieging the city. What appalling scenes followed! Pontifical zouaves were massacred and mutilated, whilst the followers of Garibaldi indulged themselves in all kinds of exactions, shouting:

     «Death to priests! Death to the Pope! A curse on Saint Peter! A curse on Jesus Christ.»

     The Pope, now “a prisoner in the Vatican”, rejected the compromise proposed to him by the “subalpine” government: the so-called Law of Guarantees would have involved pontifical capitulation! Pius IX proclaimed major excommunication against the despoilers of the Apostolic See and reaffirmed «that the civil princedom of the Holy See was given to the Roman Pontiff by a particular design of Divine Providence; that it was necessary that this same Roman Pontiff, ever exempt from subjection to any prince or civil power, should be able to exercise in perfect freedom the supreme power and authority to feed and govern the universal flock of the Lord, a power and authority divinely received from Christ Himself.» (Encyclical Ubi Nos arcano Dei consilio, 15 May 1871)

     Despite all the expedients, all the ruses and promises of the Prince of this world, the Blessed Pope would not give way. On 6 December 1871, he wrote to his brother, Count Gaetan Mastai: «It is a true mercy of God this firmness He deigns to grant me in the midst of so many contradictions, so many evils, and especially their continual attempts to induce me to accept a policy of conciliation which is, of its very nature, impossible, since falsehood can never be confounded with truth.» (Fernessole, vol. 2, p. 207)

     By refusing to renounce his rights, he had saved the essential. «It is not Pius IX’s mandate», wrote Louis Veuillot, «to secure the triumph of the unrecognised truth; his mandate is to confess this truth until death; for it is in this way that, at the time fixed by God, the truth will emerge alive and well from the tomb of those who have been its martyrs.»

     Pius IX had lost none of his charm and good-naturedness, but in these times of trial the supernatural character of his reflections and directives was particularly striking. A priest, received in audience, declared to him:

     « – Holy Father, I pray for your speedy release and the cessation of the persecutions.

     «He interrupted:

     « – Pray rather that the will of God may be fulfilled, for we do not know, neither you nor I, if it is good for the storm to be calmed so quickly. Persecution is the health of the Church.»

     The Holy Father’s tribulations earned him an increase in prestige throughout Christendom.

     In his pastoral letter of 31 May 1871, Mgr Freppel declared: «Never under any of the successors of Saint Peter has one seen Christian doctrines affirmed with more force or Catholic unity demonstrated in a more marvellous fashion. And, as misfortune is the usual corollary of great virtue in our world, never either have the trials of adversity made the majesty of the Supreme Pontificate more radiant. Despite the baseness and deficiencies of the present time, the civilised world has been able to contemplate, for more than a quarter of a century now, an elderly man invested with the double character of Pontiff and King, inaccessible to fear no less than flattery, opposing brute force with a calm conscience and the holiness of justice, never bringing violence or lies to bear in any transaction, and benefiting from each new insult to proclaim once more, before the eyes of an indifferent or hostile world, the principles of truth and good, the invariable laws of morality, the maxims of equity and justice. An incomparable spectacle, well calculated to comfort our hearts and to force the admiration of even our very adversaries.

     «Let us pray, my dearest brothers, that the Lord continue to rejoice His Church by preserving our beloved Father for a long time to come, and that the rehabilitation of the Holy See with all its rights may coincide with the restoration, full and entire, of Catholic France.»

     Blessed Pius IX would himself express his most ardent wishes for «France’s resurrection», notably in his statement to French pilgrims on 5 May 1874:

     «To allow the masses, invariably uninformed and impulsive, to take decisions on the most serious matters, is this not to hand oneself over to chance and deliberately run towards the abyss? Yes, it would be more appropriate to call universal suffrage universal madness and, when the secret societies have taken control of it as is all too often the case, universal falsehood.» (Villefranche, p. 383)

     At that time the Pope enjoyed an undisputed reputation for holiness. «I believe», said Professor Tolli, «that it will be easier to count the paving stones in Rome than to count the examples of his charity.» It was well known how abundant was his almsgiving to the monasteries despoiled by the Piedmontese government.

     His rebellious subjects were often overwhelmed, even converted, by his generosity. At the Hospital of the Holy Spirit, one of Garibaldi’s imprisoned soldiers refused to show him his face. The Pope spoke to him in his gentlest voice: «For myself, I forgive you. Now ask for God’s forgiveness.» The young man broke down in tears.

     Pius IX gave Professor Tonello the following commission: «Tell Garibaldi that this poor old man whom he calls the vampire of the Vatican forgives him, prays for him and, this very morning, said Mass for him.» (Fernessole, vol. 2, p. 419)

     The miracles effected by Pope Pius IX in his lifetime, as reported in the religious weeklies of that era, are beyond counting. When people came to thank him for them, he would cut the conversation short with a friendly joke. To a young person from Paris, the son of Christian Desperrins, who told him that he had been miraculously cured in 1866 simply by touching one of his stockings, he answered: «It is indeed remarkable. I wear my stockings all day long, and yet my legs never cease to give me pain.» Saint Pius X, in similar circumstances, would make the same remark. And both miracles are solidly attested (Villefranche, 1878, p. 425; Dal-Gal, PIE X, Saint-Paul publications, 1953, p. 447).

«THE IMMACULATE SUSTAINS ME»

     At the moments of greatest tragedy, Pope Pius IX would beseech the help of the Immaculate, praying before the representation of the Grotto of Lourdes built on his orders in the Vatican gardens.

     When Mgr Langénieux offered him, in February 1874, a gilt bronze container, enriched with five enamels representing the Apparition and the Sanctuary of Lourdes, the Pope, contemplating the Immaculate, confided to the bishop, «Here lies all my hope, for of human hopes I have none. Hail Star of the sea, hail Mother of our God, Mary ever Virgin, Mary, blessed Gate of Heaven.»

     Mgr Langénieux was hoping that this sanctuary of the Immaculate might remain on the Holy Father’s work desk. «No, Pius IX answered him. I have chosen a better place for it. I will put it in my oratory, where several times a day I go to adore the Blessed Sacrament. And if my soul is afflicted, if it seems to me that God is deaf to our voice, I will raise my eyes towards the Immaculate. She will pray with Us, She will pray for Us.» (Fernessole, p. 271)

     When Mgr Langénieux left the diocese of Tarbes for the archdiocese of Rheims, the Pope said to him, «My son, we are soldiers, and we must go to those posts where the battle is most intense. You love Her greatly, our good Mother, the Virgin Mary. Therefore, have confidence. As for me, She sustains me. She will not abandon you.» (Villefranche, p. 400)

     With the same impulse which inspired his devotion to the Immaculate Conception, Pius IX honoured with a fervent cult Her chaste husband, Saint Joseph. On 8 December 1870, he officially proclaimed Saint Joseph «patron of the Catholic Church».

     On 2 February 1878, seriously ill and having been confined to bed for several months, he made this confidence to a religious who expressed astonishment at his serenity: «Ah! that comes from the fact that Saint Joseph is better known today.» And the Sovereign Pontiff expressed his confidence in the coming triumph of the Church, because she had been officially placed under his exalted and powerful patronage.

     The Pope of the Immaculate died five days later, on the evening of 7 February, as the bells of the Angelus were sounding the first notes of the Ave Maria.

     The most beautiful homage was paid to him by Mgr Freppel, in his pastoral letter of 10 February 1878: «Even those whose hostility he could not disarm, were moved by his benevolence, which not even the blackest ingratitude ever managed to tire. His heart was an inexhaustible fund of tenderness and generosity; and if, as Bossuet said, “kindness is the proper character of the divine nature and the mark of that beneficent hand from which we have come”, the Father who has just been taken away from his loving children deserves to take his place amongst those who have best reproduced the image of the God of clemency and mercy in this world.»

Brother Francis of Mary of the Angels