Revised and Enlarged: On the Feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P.

Today, Saturday, April 5, 2025, is the Feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., and the Commemoration of Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent. Passiontide begins tonight with the singing of First Vespers for Passion Sunday. Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., who was never afraid to display the Holy Cross of the Divine Redeemer before anyone, including Jews and Mohammedans.

Here is brief account of the early part of our Saint's life:

History affirms that certain remarkable signs preceded the birth of this child of benediction. One night while the father slept, he dreamed that he entered the church of the Dominicans at Valencia, when one of that Order was preaching to the multitude from the pulpit, and that the teacher, turning toward him, addressed him in these words: "I felicitate you, William; in a few days you will have a son who will be the object of your delight and the honour of your house; the world will resound with the fame of his wondrous deeds; he will fill heaven with joy and hell with terror; he will put on the habit which I wear, and will be received in the Church with universal joy, as one of its first Apostles." Then it seemed to him that the people, who had attentively listened to what was said, thanked God with a loud voice for the marvellous news, and offered him their felicitations likewise. Delighted at these consoling predictions, he joined his thanksgiving to that of the multitude. When he awoke, he related to his spouse all that had transpired in the course of his dream, and they resolved to confer with their kinsman, the Bishop. To William's account of what had occured Constance added two things equally singularly, which she had herself experienced; the first was that from the commencement of her pregnancy she had felt none of the pains which usually accompany that state; and the second, that she frequently fancied she had heard the child, which was near its birth, give utterance to cires like to the barking of a little dog, --a circumstance much resembling the vision of the Blessed Jane of Aza, the mother of Saint Dominic. 

The preleate clearly understood the meaning of these mysterious signs, and said to them: "Rejoice in the Lord; the child which you are about to bring into the world will be a worthy son of Saint Dominic, and will be called to do much good among the people by his preaching. Take care of him, and educate him holily, that he may correspond to the singular graces with which God will endow him"

As if to confirm the high opinion which was conceived of this child, God was please to work, while it was still in the maternal womb, by its mediation, a remarkable prodigy. Constance went one day to visit a blind woman on whom she was wont to bestow a monthly alms, and having given it to her as usual, she added, "My daughter, pray God that the child which I bear may arrive safe." The blind woman bent her head on the mother's bosom and said, "May God bestow that favour on you!" At the same instant her material blindness left her and being suddenly illuminated in her soul with prophetic light, she exclaimed, "Madam, it is an angel you have, and it is he who has cured me of my affliction." The child, like another John the Baptist, applauded the words of the poor woman by leaping in the womb, and the mother herself gave testimony of it. (Reverend Father Andrew Pradel, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Preachers: His life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion, tr, from the French by Reverend Father T.A. Dixon, O. Praed., and published by R. Washbourne, 18 Paternoster Row, London, 1875, pp. 2-3.)

Father Pradel explained how our Vincent Ferrer came to his decision about entering the Order of Preachers when he turned eighteen years of age after listening to the wise counsel given him by his father, William Ferrer:

Our Saint having now attained his eighteenth year, the moment had arrived when it behoved him to decide on the sort of life that should best suit his own tastes and the inspirations of grace. His father forestalled him in this by the following proposal: "My son," said he, "I leave you full and entire liberty' and be assured of this, I shall oppose no obstacle to the accomplishment of your will. Nevertheless," he added, "I would counsel you to embrace the religious life in the Order of the Friar Preachers; for such, in effect, seems to me to be God's Will, when I reflect on the sign that preceded your birth." And at the same time he related to him in detail the marvellous testimonies that had been manifested, and the interpretations which their relation, the Bishop, had put upon them. Vincent replied, without a moment's deliberation, "My father, you have anticipated my wishes, and I thank our Lord for having inspired you with the thought to propose that which is the most agreeable to me. I have no longing after the riches and pleasures and honours of this life; my love, thoughts, and resolutions are centered in God. I am, therefore, determined to follow His divine call to the Dominican family; and now I desire nothing more except my mother's consent and your joint blessing, that I may go in peace to serve God in the retreat which His voice clearly indicated to me." At these words his father embraced him with tears of tender compassion, and under the influence of that sweet emotion they went to find Constance, who also shed an abundance of tears, not of sorrow, but of holy joy. "My beloved child," cried she, "what you are about to do is what I have always longed for on your part. I have frequently asked this favour of God and now He has heard me. Oh! happy even for you and for us. We ought to congratulate each other; not because you are about to withdraw yourself from the miseries of this life, we, because we have obtained from our Lord the accomplishment of our most cherished desires. May God fill you my child with every blessing. As for myself and your father, we most willingly give ours to the end of your life."

On the morning following that happy day, Willam Ferrer himself conducted his son to the Convent of the Friar Preachers at Valencia. This was on the 2nd of February, in the year 1867. The Prior of the convent was apprised that same night, by a miraculous vision, of the precious conquest which the Order was about to make. Saint Dominic appeared to him, holding the yourful postuland by the nand. It seemed to him that Vincent, all inflamed with fervour, said to him, "Father behold me at your feet to become one of your religious." At the same time, his conductor added, "Receive him; he shall be your brother and my son." The Prior, recognizing Saint Dominic by the star which shone on his forehead, threw himself at his feet, when instantly all disappeared. There remained in his heart an ardent wish to see the speedy accomplishment of the vision with which he had been favoured, and he was fully consoled when, on the following morning, our Saint, accompanied by his father, cast himself at his feet, and humbly asked to receive the holy habit, affirming that his sole motive of the step he was taking was to obey the voice of God, Who called him to serve Him under the glorious standard of Saint Dominic. Who shall describe the joy felt by the man of God to whom this demand was addressed, when he heard a young man so accomplished imploring, with such earnestness and humility, the habit of theFriar Preachers? His Convent and the whole Order were about to be enriched with an incomparable treasure. He experienced then a sentiment akint to that of the holy and aged Simeon, wholse high privilege it was to receive in the Temple, in the name of the Almighty , the presentation of the Child Jesus, made by Mary and Joseph. This was on the day of the solemnity commemorating that mystery. There was, then, a striking similarity in the offering. Vincent offered himself spontaneously to the sacrifice of the religious life, while his parents accompanied the pious victim. There was even a likeness in the reception. For as the angels, the ministers of the sanctuary, the widows of the Temple, and the holy people of Jerusalem shared the divine joy of Simeon, so also may be said that the religious of the convent, the friends of the Saint, his family, and the entire city of Valencia were associated in the joy of the venerable head of the community, and united with him in thanksgiving to God for this inestimable benefit. We may well imagine that there would be but one voice for the admission of the postulant. 

The day of his clothing was fixed for the 5th of February, the Feast of the glorious virgin Saint Agatha -- a day worthy of eternal memory to the inhabitants of the city. It was one hundred and twenty-eight years after the Convent of Saint Dominic had been established. The Order was then governed by a Vicar-General, Father Elias of Toulouse. The Dominican province of Aragon had at its head Blessed James Dominic de Collioure, and the Prior of the Convent of Valencia was the Venerable Father Beranger de Gelasio.

From the first moment in his novitiate, Vincent felt so forcibly the grace which God had bestowed upon him in calling him into religion, that he ceased not to thank heaven, and to kiss with ardour and indescribable contentment the white woolen in which he was clothed. In the Convent which he had entered were many religious whole lives might well have served him as an example. But his generous soul chose a model even more perfect. He resolved to make his life a close imitation of that of Saint Dominic; and that he might the more readily understand his actions, he commenced to read, with singular interest, the life of the great patriarch. It was then especially that he learnt to distinguish the true character of the Friar Preacher -- as he afterwards explained in his sermons -- a character which consists in angelic purity, perfect obedience, and divine poverty; not to remain in a monastery in a state of immobility, shut up in a cell like the anchorites of old; but to go, after the example of Christ, the Apostles, and the Holy Founder of the order, to preach the Gospel throughout the world. "For it is for this," added he," that the Order of the Friar Preachers was instituted."

Vincent penetrated in a wonderful manner the deep meaning of each of the characteristics of the life of the blessed Father. As a proof of this, we need but cite the interpretation which he gave of the celebrated vision, in which Saint dominica appeared crowned with glory, and ascending to heaven by means of two ladders. "Our Order," he observed, "does not lead its subject to heaven by the ladder of the contemplative life alone, nor by that of the active life only, but it enables them to ascend to the conquest of Paradise by means of both. They who are in the simple monastic state reach heaven by the ladder of contemplation; and it is by ascending that of the active life that the military orders arrive at the possession of their country; but the children of Saint Dominic must have a foot on each, by uniting the exercises of prayer and study to the work of apostoic preaching." This fact alone enables us to judge with what clearness of mind our Saint knew his destiny, and the duties which it involved. The young novice was ever faithful to this light, and to the day of his death he reflected in his person the perfect image of Saint Dominic.  (Reverend Father Andrew Pradel, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Preachers: His life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion, tr, from the French by Reverend Father T.A. Dixon, O. Praed., and published by R. Washbourne, 18 Paternoster Row, London, 1875, pp. 2-3.)

Armed with Our Lady’s Most Holy Rosary, Saint Vincent Ferrer, himself a son of Spain as was Saint Dominic de Guzman worked tirelessly to bring back hardened sinners to the practice of the Faith and to convert non-Catholics, including thousands upon thousands of Talmudic Jews and Mohammedans, to the true Faith. Saint Vincent Ferrer was not possessed of the false spirit of a false religion, conciliarism, as he sought to convert Jews and Mohammedans. He was possessed of the spirit of Catholicism, and nothing else.

The zeal of Saint Vincent Ferrer for the conversion of non-Catholics to the true Faith contrasts, of course, with the multifarious ways in which the conciliar “popes” and their “bishops” refuse to seek the conversion of Jews and Mohammedans whenever they are in their presence, going so far, as they do so frequently, to express words of praise for these false religions as means of establishing “fraternity” and “peace” in the world. Although Saint Vincent Ferrer had permission to enter into Talmudic synagogues, he did so to convert the Jews present there, not to reaffirm them in their false, superseded religion that has the power to save no one and is the grip of the devil himself.

Thus it was sixteen years ago, during the presidency of the great "restorer of tradition," the late Rabbi Joseph Alois Ratzinger, that a meeting took place in Jerusalem between representatives of the counterfeit church of conciliarism’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews and representatives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. The statement produced by the “bilateral commission” is a masterpiece of conciliar apostasy, the very antithesis of the work of the first pope Saint Peter (see Saint Peter and Anti-Peter), and of so many others, including Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P.:

1. The Bilateral Commission of the delegations of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews held its tenth meeting to discuss the Challenges of Faith and Religious Leadership in Secular Society. The meeting opened with a moment of silence in memory of Chief Rabbi Yosef Azran who had been a member of the Chief Rabbinate’s delegation for many years. Chief Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, co-chairman of the Bilateral Commission, welcomed the participants and reaffirmed the historic nature and importance of these meetings. His counterpart Cardinal Jorge Mejía brought the greetings of the Cardinal Kurt Koch, recently appointed President of the Holy See’s Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews, to the delegates. The Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger, graced the meeting and expressed his strong support and encouragement for the work of the Bilateral Commission, acknowledging its impact on the positive change in perceptions of Jewish-Christian relations in Israeli society.

2. Deliberations sought to define the challenges that modern secular society faces. In addition to its many benefits; rapid technological advancement, rampant consumerism, and a nihilistic ideology with an exaggerated focus on the individual at the expense of the community and collective wellbeing, have led to a moral crisis. Together with the benefits of emancipation, the last century has witnessed unparalleled violence and barbarity. Our modern world is substantially bereft of a sense of belonging, meaning and purpose.

3. Faith and religious leadership have a critical role in responding to these realities, in providing both hope and moral guidance derived from the awareness of the Divine Presence and the Divine Image in all human beings. Our respective traditions declare the importance of prayer, both as the expression of awareness of the Divine Presence, and as the way to affirm that awareness and its moral imperatives. In addition, the study of the Divine Word in Scripture offers the essential inspiration and direction for life. The Biblical description of Moses (Exodus 3:1-15) was presented as a paradigm of religious leadership who, through his encounter with God, responds to the Divine call with total faith, loving his people, declaring the Word of God without fear, embodying freedom and courage, and an authority that comes from obeying God always and unconditionally, and listening to all, ready for dialogue.

4. The responsibility of the faithful is accordingly to testify to the Divine Presence in our world, (Isaiah 43:10) while acknowledging our failures in the past to be true and full witnesses to this charge. Such testimony is also to be seen in education, focus on youth and effective engagement of the media. Similarly, in the establishment and operation of charitable institutions with special care for the vulnerable, sick and marginalized, in the spirit of ‘tikkun olam’ (healing the world). In addition, the religious commitment to justice and peace also requires an engagement between religious leadership and the institutions of civil law.

5. Modern secular society has brought with it many benefits. Indeed, if secular is understood in terms of a broad-based engagement of society at large, this is likely to provide for a society in which religion can flourish. Furthermore the above mentioned focus on the individual has brought much blessing and led to an overwhelming attention to the subject of civil rights. However, in order for such a focus to be sustainable, it needs to be rooted in a higher anthropological and spiritual framework that takes into account “the common good”, which finds its expression in the religious foundation of moral duties. Society’s affirmation of such human duties, serves to empower and enshrine the human rights of its constituents.

6. Resulting from the discussion on the practical implications for religious leadership in relationship to current issues, the Bilateral Commission expressed the hope that the outstanding matters in the negotiations between the Holy See and the State of Israel would soon be resolved, and bilateral agreements speedily ratified for the benefit of both communities.

The Catholic delegation took the opportunity to reiterate the historic teaching of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration Nostra Aetate(No.4) regarding the Divine Covenant with the Jewish People that “the Jews still remain most dear to God because of their Fathers, for He, does not repent of the gifts He makes, nor of the calls He issues (cf. Romans 11:28-29)”; and recalled the prayer for peace of Pope Benedict XVI when receiving the Bilateral Delegation in Rome on March 12 2009, quoting Psalm 125 “As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about His people, from this time forth and for evermore. (STATEMENT OF THE BILATERAL COMMISSION.)

There are many aspects to this brief statement that will be discussed as briefly as possible.

First, readers should note that the conciliar revolutionaries dated the “bilateral” meeting between themselves and the leaders of another false religion, Talmudic Judaism, as taking place according to the Gregorian and the Hebrew calendars. Although the conciliar officials continue to protest that they are not engaging in acts of syncretism, anyone with a modicum of rationality can see that the desire to appease the ancient enemies of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ conveys an acceptance of the “validity” of Talmudism as a religion that is both pleasing to God and capable of contributing to the “common good.” Jorge Mario Bergoglio does hand stands and back flips, figuratively speaking, to demonstrate the "validity" of the Talmudic religion, thus far outdistancing his predecessors as the consummate tool of the Talmudic agenda for the "modernization" of what is said to be Catholic doctrine.

Second, there was not one reference in this “bilateral” statement to Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. How is this not apostasy?

Third, the third and fourth paragraphs of the “bilateral” statement made it appear as though the world needs the “witness” of “religion” without regard to the fact that there is only one true religion, Catholicism, which alone contains the totality of God’s Divine Revelation and alone has the supernatural helps to sanctify and thus to save human souls. This is, of course, boilerplate conciliarism.

Fourth, the fifth paragraph is an exercise in pure, unadulterated Judeo-Masonry:

5. Modern secular society has brought with it many benefits. Indeed, if secular is understood in terms of a broad-based engagement of society at large, this is likely to provide for a society in which religion can flourish. Furthermore the above mentioned focus on the individual has brought much blessing and led to an overwhelming attention to the subject of civil rights. However, in order for such a focus to be sustainable, it needs to be rooted in a higher anthropological and spiritual framework that takes into account “the common good”, which finds its expression in the religious foundation of moral duties. Society’s affirmation of such human duties, serves to empower and enshrine the human rights of its constituents. (STATEMENT OF THE BILATERAL COMMISSION.)

“Broad-based engagement of society at large”?

This is nothing other than the sort of naturalism and religious indifferentism that has been condemned by pope after true pope, including by Pope Saint Pius X in Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910:

This being said, what must be thought of the promiscuity in which young Catholics will be caught up with heterodox and unbelieving folk in a work of this nature? Is it not a thousand-fold more dangerous for them than a neutral association? What are we to think of this appeal to all the heterodox, and to all the unbelievers, to prove the excellence of their convictions in the social sphere in a sort of apologetic contest? Has not this contest lasted for nineteen centuries in conditions less dangerous for the faith of Catholics? And was it not all to the credit of the Catholic Church? What are we to think of this respect for all errors, and of this strange invitation made by a Catholic to all the dissidents to strengthen their convictions through study so that they may have more and more abundant sources of fresh forces? What are we to think of an association in which all religions and even Free-Thought may express themselves openly and in complete freedom? For the Sillonists who, in public lectures and elsewhere, proudly proclaim their personal faith, certainly do not intend to silence others nor do they intend to prevent a Protestant from asserting his Protestantism, and the skeptic from affirming his skepticism. Finally, what are we to think of a Catholic who, on entering his study group, leaves his Catholicism outside the door so as not to alarm his comrades who, “dreaming of disinterested social action, are not inclined to make it serve the triumph of interests, coteries and even convictions whatever they may be”? Such is the profession of faith of the New Democratic Committee for Social Action which has taken over the main objective of the previous organization and which, they say, “breaking the double meaning which surround the Greater Sillon both in reactionary and anti-clerical circles”, is now open to all men “who respect moral and religious forces and who are convinced that no genuine social emancipation is possible without the leaven of generous idealism.” (Pope Saint Pius X, Notre Charge Apostolique, August 15, 1910.)

Catholicism does not seek accommodation with falsehood to “build” the better world, no less praising a false religion as having the means to do so. To assert otherwise, as was done in the “bilateral” statement, is to apostatize.

The conciliar revolutionaries are the living embodiments of the spirit of Judeo-Masonry, having been convinced that it is necessary for them to deny the Holy Name of the Divine Redeemer by acts of omission when meeting with adherents of the false, blasphemous Talmud because of the crimes committed by the Nazis during World War II, preferring to believe that God is pleased with their false religion when Holy Mother Church has taught us that this is not so, that God loathes the false religion of Judaism while willing the conversion of individual Jews to the true Faith before they die.

How do I know that the conciliar revolutionaries have used the crimes of the Nazis as the foundation of their “relationship” with Talmudists today? Because the  retired antipope, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI told us that this is the case, that’s how:

Thirdly, linked more generally to this was the problem of religious tolerance – a question that required a new definition of the relationship between the Christian faith and the world religions. In particular, before the recent crimes of the Nazi regime and, in general, with a retrospective look at a long and difficult history, it was necessary to evaluate and define in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel. (Christmas greetings to the Members of the Roman Curia and Prelature, December 22, 2005.) 

Indeed, Ratzinger/Benedict continued to bow down at the altar of the Jews who were killed by the Nazis during World War II, did so five years ago whien he visited a “memorial” to them in Rome on the Third Sunday of Lent, March 27, 2011:

Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday prayed at the memorial to victims of a 1944 massacre that was one of the worst atrocities by German occupiers in Italy during World War II and denounced what he called the “abominable” legacy of violence unleashed during war.

The visit won Jewish praise that Benedict had taken yet another step to heal centuries of painful Vatican-Jewish relations.

The German-born pontiff visited the Ardeatine Caves on the outskirts of Rome to mark the anniversary of the killings of 335 civilians in Rome to avenge an attack by resistance fighters that killed 33 members of a Nazi military police unit.

Among those in attendance were children and other relatives of the victims, with some of the elderly family members weeping at the memory of their loss and clutching flowers.

“What happened here on March 24, 1944, is a very grave offense to God, because it is violence perpetrated by man upon man,” the pope said in speech at the simple memorial fashioned out of the walls of the caves. “It is the most abominable effect of the war, of every war,” the pontiff said.

The wounds are still fresh for Rome’s tiny Jewish community. Many of them expressed outrage last fall when former SS Capt. Erich Priebke, 97, was allowed to go shopping and to church in Rome. Priebke was sentenced to life imprisonment for his role in the massacre but later given house arrest due to his age.

Elan Steinberg, a leader of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants, praised the pontiff for paying “moving homage to the victims of this Nazi crime — Catholic and Jew.”

“Coming on the heels of his strong pronouncement exonerating Jews in the death of Jesus, this latest gesture by the German-born Benedict is a further dramatic step in binding the wounds that have disturbed Vatican-Jewish relations in recent years,” Steinberg said in a statement.

The landmark exoneration came in the pope’s new book, “Jesus of Nazareth-Part II,” in which Benedict lays out biblical and theological reasons why there is no basis in Scripture for the argument that Jewish people as a whole were responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion. Interpretations to the contrary have been used for centuries to justify the persecution of Jews.

Steinberg also voiced the “shock and disbelief” of Holocaust survivors that Priebke “is allowed shopping trips and other excursions,” and appealed to legal authorities to “put an end to this perversion of justice.’”

In 1994, Priebke was extradited to Italy from Argentina, where he had lived for years, and put on trial. The Germans had ordered 10 Italians to be executed for each of the 33 Nazis killed by resistance forces in Rome a day earlier. Priebke admitted shooting two people and rounding up victims, but insisted he was only following orders. (Pope visits memorial to Nazi victims in Rome. For more on the Eric Priebke matter, see Meet Some Catholics Truly Worth Admiring, part one and Meet Some Catholics Truly Worth Admiring, part two.) 

Jorge Mario Bergoglio himself did so as the conciliar “archbishop” of Buenos Aires, Argentina, in November of 2012, just four months prior to his “election” as the sixth successive Petrine Minister of the counterfeit church of conciliarism:

Argentine Catholic organizations wondered how it was possible that a Jewish organization, also a lodge, might hold a memorial service in the Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. The Archdiocese might have helped out differently because of space problems. But why was a liturgical space was made available in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament of Christ Himself? As Cardinal Bergoglio was keynote speaker at the event, it is clear who made ​​the misappropriation, Pagina Catolica even speaks of the possible “desecration” of the Cathedral. In fact, with the “memorial liturgy” a kind of worship was celebrated. Since the event has been running for several years, there are already rehearsed rites similar acts. Before the altar there sat several representatives of Christian denominations (Lutheran, Prebyterianer, Methodist) next to the Cardinal. The official program book with the symbol of B’nai B’rith and the coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires is called an “Inter-religious Liturgy.” Six candles symbolize in this Holocaust memorial ritual each of the six million Jewish victims. Rabbi Alejandro Avruj lit each candle along with the representative of a Christian denomination or a Jewish organization. The last of the six candles he lit together with Cardinal Bergoglio.

Cardinal Bergoglio has cultivated close contacts with B’nai B’rith with an annual series of meetings and mutual invitations, where the cardinal especially emphasized his praise for the social commitment of the Jewish Lodge. For this reason, the Jewish representatives of the Grand Lodge officially opened on the 19th of March at the inauguration ceremony of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square in part and the next day at the reception for the religious leaders in the Vatican, including the Director of B’nai B’rith-Committee for UN Affairs, David J. Michaels.

Under Archbishop Bergoglio it became customary in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires since 1994 that B’nai B’rith, performs its annual memorial service held for the Jewish victims of Nazism in Argentina’s Catholic churches. In 2005, the Acto de Recordación de la Noche de los Cristales Rotos was held in the Catholic church of San Nicolas de Bari. Even then Cardinal Bergoglio was present, as a photo of Rabbi Felipe Yafe shows. In 2009 in the Catholic parish church of Santa Catalina de Siena, also in the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. In 2008 the memorial was on the 70th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, also exclusively for Jewish victims of the Shoah, in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires, in the presence of the Israeli, German and Austrian ambassador. In 2007, the ceremony was held in the San Ignacio Church of Buenos Aires.

After a meeting between Cardinal Bergoglio and Mario Wilhelm on the 4th of June, the Argentine president of B’nai B’rith and Boris Kalnicki, who is in B’nai B’rith responsible for inter-religious dialogue, said in a press statement for the Jewish organization that the “traditional commemoration of Kristallnacht” again will take place in 2012 and will “include a generous cooperation of Cardinal.” The event was organized for the 8th November “at a church, decided at upon at a later time”. It was finally not just any church, but the Diocesan church itself. The fact that the event takes place in a Catholic church, was self-evident for B’nai B’irith.

In 2011 the place for the Kristallnacht commemoration was in the cathedral church of the Diocese of San Isidro instead. For most of the Diocesan Commission for Ecumenism and Interreligious Dialogue, B’nai B’rith Argentina, an Argentine Jewish-Christian brotherhood and fellowship Lamroth Hakol, organized to hold a commemoration on the 10th November with texts by Rabbi Leon Klenicki and the Catholic theologian Eugene Fischer for their own “Interfaith liturgy”, “with witnesses, songs and references to the night of the 9th November 1938 in Germany and Austria, the 20th which is regarded as the beginning of the Jewish Holocaust of the 20th Century or the Shoah.” It was also the basis of the “memorial liturgy” 2012.

The question is not why the Jews commemorate those events in Argentina. But the question is, why is the Catholic Church in Argentina which is not directly related to these events in faraway Europe 70 years ago apply, which – as explicitly emphasized B’nai B’rith – by no means all of the victims, but only the Jewish victims of National Socialism. Why then is this Jewish memorial to Jewish victims held in a Catholic church? (B’nai B’rith “Memorial Liturgy” in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires With Apostate Bergoglio. The source of this is a sedeplenist website. See also On the Road to Gehenna with Jorge, Abe and Omar, part two, On the Road to Gehenna with Jorge, Abe and Omar, part three, On the Road to Gehenna with Jorge, Abe and Omar, part four.)

Here again we see the effects of the “unofficial” words of the retired conciliar “pope” and the actions of his successor prior to his “election” that are based on the documents of the “Second” Vatican Council and have the effect of being “official” in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics worldwide (see Accepting “Popes” As Unreliable Teachers and Boilerplate Ratzinger).  Here again, you see, we are face to face with another “papal” appearance with adherents of the Talmud without any hint that of seeking their conversion, something that contrasts very sharply with the example of Saint Peter and that of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O. P., to say nothing of that of the Mother of God herself as she sought the conversion of the Catholic-hating Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne (see the appendix below).

Yes, the crimes that were committed by the Nazis were indeed atrocious. They were the result, however, of the precise ideological efforts on the part of Talmudists over the preceding four centuries to undermine and thus eclipse the role of the Catholic Church in public life as they laid the groundwork for the very secular world that Ratzinger/Benedict and his conciliar officials consider to be a “benefit” to “human rights” and “human dignity” and to “fraternity.” The Talmudic Jews of the post-Diaspora era made themselves the victims of racialists who shared with them a hatred for the Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ and His Social Kingship over men and their nations. And no crime committed by men against each other is the equal of the crime of Deicide that our sins imposed upon Our King on the wood of the Holy Cross, a crime for which the Jews of Our Lord’s day are indeed culpable as they knew Who He was and they preferred accommodation to caesar rather than humbling themselves before their very God and Redeemer.

Conciliarism’s “changed relationship” with the “faith of Israel” is one of the reasons that the conciliar “popes,” including the late Karol Joszef Wojtyla/John Paul II, the equally late Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and the convelescing but nevertheless determined revolutionary Jorge Mario Bergoglio, have been so adamant about not having anyone within the ranks of his false church put into question any of the particular details of the crimes of the Nazis that were the result of the systematic de-Catholicization of Europe brought out by the overthrow of the Social Reign of Christ the King that was wrought by the Protestant Revolution and which leaders of Talmudic organizations exploited for their own purposes to promote secularism in Europe and to ghettoize and then eclipse Holy Mother Church, as noted just above. They cannot have anyone “dissent” from the very rationale that they have used to justify defining “in a new way the relationship between the Church and the faith of Israel” that contradicts the consistent, immutable teaching of the Catholic Church as reiterated by true councils and true popes from time immemorial:

It [the Holy Roman Church] firmly believes, professes, and teaches that the matter pertaining to the law of the Old Testament, of the Mosaic law, which are divided into ceremonies, sacred rites, sacrifices, and sacraments, because they were established to signify something in the future, although they were suited to the divine worship at that time, after our Lord’s coming had been signified by them, ceased, and the sacraments of the New Testament began; and that whoever, even after the passion, placed hope in these matters of the law and submitted himself to them as necessary for salvation, as if faith in Christ could not save without them, sinned mortally. Yet it does not deny that after the passion of Christ up to the promulgation of the Gospel they could have been observed until they were believed to be in no way necessary for salvation; but after the promulgation of the Gospel it asserts that they cannot be observed without the loss of eternal salvation. All, therefore, who after that time observe circumcision and the Sabbath and the other requirements of the law, it declares alien to the Christian faith and not in the least fit to participate in eternal salvation, unless someday they recover from these errors. Therefore, it commands all who glory in the name of Christian, at whatever time, before or after baptism, to cease entirely from circumcision, since, whether or not one places hope in it, it cannot be observed at all without the loss of eternal salvation. Regarding children, indeed, because of danger of death, which can often take place, when no help can be brought to them by another remedy than through the sacrament of baptism, through which they are snatched from the domination of the Devil and adopted among the sons of God, it advises that holy baptism ought not to be deferred for forty or eighty days, or any time according to the observance of certain people, but it should be conferred as soon as it can be done conveniently, but so ,that, when danger of death is imminent, they be baptized in the form of the Church, early without delay, even by a layman or woman, if a priest should be lacking, just as is contained more fully in the decree of the Armenians. . . .

It firmly believes, professes, and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart “into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels” [Matt. 25:41], unless before the end of life the same have been added to the flock; and that the unity of the ecclesiastical body is so strong that only to those remaining in it are the sacraments of the Church of benefit for salvation, and do fastings, almsgiving, and other functions of piety and exercises of Christian service produce eternal reward, and that no one, whatever almsgiving he has practiced, even if he has shed blood for the name of Christ, can be saved, unless he has remained in the bosom and unity of the Catholic Church. (Pope Eugene IV, Cantate Domino, Council of Florence, February 4, 1442.)

28.That He completed His work on the gibbet of the Cross is the unanimous teaching of the holy Fathers who assert that the Church was born from the side of our Savior on the Cross like a new Eve, mother of all the living. [28] “And it is now,” says the great St. Ambrose, speaking of the pierced side of Christ, “that it is built, it is now that it is formed, it is now that is …. molded, it is now that it is created . . . Now it is that arises a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” [29] One who reverently examines this venerable teaching will easily discover the reasons on which it is based.

29.And first of all, by the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching in a restricted area — He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the house of Israel [30] -the Law and the Gospel were together in force; [31] but on the gibbet of his death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees, [32] fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, [33] establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. [34] “To such an extent, then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, “was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom.” [35]

30. On the Cross then the Old Law died, soon to be buried and to be a bearer of death, [36] in order to give way to the New Testament of which Christ had chosen the Apostles as qualified ministers; [37] and although He had been constituted the Head of the whole human family in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, it is by the power of the Cross that our Savior exercises fully the office itself of Head in His Church. “For it was through His triumph on the Cross,” according to the teaching of the Angelic and Common Doctor, “that He won power and dominion over the gentiles”; [38] by that same victory He increased the immense treasure of graces, which, as He reigns in glory in heaven, He lavishes continually on His mortal members it was by His blood shed on the Cross that God’s anger was averted and that all the heavenly gifts, especially the spiritual graces of the New and Eternal Testament, could then flow from the fountains of our Savior for the salvation of men, of the faithful above all; it was on the tree of the Cross, finally, that He entered into possession of His Church, that is, of all the members of His Mystical Body; for they would not have been united to this Mystical Body. (Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, June 29, 1943.)

I can’t recall any conciliar official referring to this part of Pope Pius XII’s Mystici Corporis Christi, can you? 

Certainly not Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, who committed abominable crime after abominable crime in the sight of God while so many traditionally-minded Catholics, smug in their own self-righteous contentment that they were in “communion” with this notorious apostate during his false “pontificate”, remained silent and/or refused to admit the fact that the man they believed to have been their “pope” was then and remains now an enemy of Christ the King and of the souls for whom He shed every single drop of His Most Precious Blood on the wood of the Holy Cross, something that is equally true of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (among numerous other articles on this site, see Jorge Keeps It Kosher )

Bergoglio even went so far as to formalize the "Old Covenant is still valid" heresy when he wrote the following in Evangelii Gaudium, November 26, 2013:

247. We hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked, for “the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29). The Church, which shares with Jews an important part of the sacred Scriptures, looks upon the people of the covenant and their faith as one of the sacred roots of her own Christian identity (cf. Rom 11:16-18). As Christians, we cannot consider Judaism as a foreign religion; nor do we include the Jews among those called to turn from idols and to serve the true God (cf. 1 Thes 1:9). With them, we believe in the one God who acts in history, and with them we accept his revealed word.

248. Dialogue and friendship with the children of Israel are part of the life of Jesus’ disciples. The friendship which has grown between us makes us bitterly and sincerely regret the terrible persecutions which they have endured, and continue to endure, especially those that have involved Christians.

249. God continues to work among the people of the Old Covenant and to bring forth treasures of wisdom which flow from their encounter with his word. For this reason, the Church also is enriched when she receives the values of Judaism. While it is true that certain Christian beliefs are unacceptable to Judaism, and that the Church cannot refrain from proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Messiah, there exists as well a rich complementarity which allows us to read the texts of the Hebrew Scriptures together and to help one another to mine the riches of God’s word. We can also share many ethical convictions and a common concern for justice and the development of peoples. (Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Evangelii Gaudium, November 26, 2013.)

"Pope Francis" chose to have this "apostolic exhortation" published in the December, 2013, edition of the Acta Apostolicae Sedis.

Here are the three passages as found in the Italian language (not Latin, by the way!) in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis as it is published in its conciliar captivity:

247. Uno sguardo molto speciale si rivolge al popolo ebreo, la cui Alleanza con Dio non è mai stata revocata, perché “i doni e la chiamata di Dio sono irrevocabili” (Rm 11, 29). La Chiesa, che condivide con l’Ebraismo una parte importante delle Sacre Scritture, considera il popolo dell’Alleanza e la sua fede come una radice sacra della propria identità cristiana (cfr Rm 11, 16-18). Come cristiani non possiamo considerare l’Ebraismo come una religione estranea, né includiamo gliebrei tra quanti sono chiamati ad abbandonare gli idoli per convertirsi al vero Dio (cfr 1 Ts 1, 9). Crediamo insieme con loro nell’unico Dio che agisce nella storia, e accogliamo con loro la comune Parola rivelata.

248. Il dialogo e l’amicizia con i figli d’Israele sono parte della vita dei discepoli di Gesù. L’affetto che si è sviluppato ci porta sinceramene ed amaramente a dispiacerci per le terribili persecuzioni di cui furono e sono oggetto, particolarmente per quelle che coinvolgono o hanno coinvolto cristiani.

249. Dio continua ad operare nel popolo dell’Antica Alleanza e fa nascere tesori di saggezza che scaturiscono dal suo incontro con la Parola divina. Per questo anche la Chiesa si arricchisce quando raccoglie i valori dell’Ebraismo. Sebbene alcune convinzioni cristiane siano inaccettabili per l’Ebraismo, e la Chiesa non possa rinunciare ad annunciare Gesù come Signore e Messia, esiste una ricca complementarietà che ci permette di leggere insieme i testi della Bibbia ebraica e aiutarci vicendevolmente a scerare le ricchezze della Parola, come pure di condividere molte convinzioni etiche e la comune preoccupazione per la giustizia e lo sviluppo dei popoli. (Data presso San Pietro, alla chiusura dell’Anno della fede, il 24 novembre, Solennità i i. S. Gesù Cristo Re dell’Universo, dell’anno 2013, primo del mio Pontificato. Acta Apostolicae Sedis, December, 2013.)

If one professes belief that a particular claimant to the Throne of Saint Peter is legitimate and is indeed the Vicar of Christ on earth, a matter about which no Catholic is free to err or to profess indifference, then one must accept as binding upon his conscience and beyond all criticism even Evangelii Gaudium as part of the Universal Ordinary Magisterium of the Catholic Church without complaint, reservation or qulification of any kind. Yet it is that Evangelii Gaudium contains heresy, which cannot emanate from the the spotless, mystical bride of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (see Memo from Two Popes and Monsignor Joseph Clifford Fenton to Bishop Richard Williamson: No One Can Resist a True and Legitimate Successor of Saint Peter, and Republished: Memorandum from Saint Ambrose to All Catholics: “The Catholic faith derives so much strength and support from the words of the Apostolic See, that it is criminal to entertain any doubts concerning it.”)

Modernism is a mixture of truth and error. One must retain every article of the Faith without exception in order to remain a member of Holy Mother Church.

By way of contrast, the Dominican saint whose inspirational life we have been celebrating today, Saint Vincent Ferrer, told the Jews straight out that they had to convert or that they would die, that is, the eternal death of the soul caused by their being in a state of Original Sin. Just as the Apostles urgently sought the conversion of all men in the known world to the true Faith as soon as they left the Upper Room in Jerusalem following the descent of God the Holy Ghost upon them in tongues of flame on Pentecost Sunday, Saint Vincent Ferrer sought most urgently the conversion of souls in his own day. Thousands of Mohammedans were converted by his fearless preaching, motivated by a supreme love for God and the Deposit of Faith He entrusted solely to the Catholic Church and motivated by a supreme love for the eternal welfare of the souls for whom Our Lord had given up His life to the Father in Spirit and in Truth on Golgotha.

People need to be challenged to convert. The actual process of conversion may take a long time. The devil wants to tamp down the initial ardor or curiosity of a possible convert. He wants to mute the tongues of Catholics who know that they must try to seek the conversion of family members and friends but who are waiting for the “right time,” as they see it, to do so. Saint Vincent Ferrer knew that the seed must be planted first. He was blessed with thousands upon thousands of instant conversions to the Faith–and with many thousands of people who sought him out in the hospital of Divine Mercy that is the Sacred Tribunal of Penance. Saint Vincent was thus unstinting in his fiery preaching to reach the heart of the unbeliever and the hardened heart of the fallen-away Catholic. The fruits borne as a result of holy, fearless imitation of the Apostles themselves speaks volumes about the necessity of proclaiming the necessity of everyone to convert to the Faith.

To be sure, different approaches are used at different times by different people. One approach is used in a pulpit by a professor or in the front of a classroom by a professor. Another approach, perhaps softer and gentler but nevertheless direct, is used in one-on-one contact over the course of time. Many students sought me out over the course of my thirty years of teaching, interested that a professor had actually said in a college classroom that there is a true religion and that everyone had to belong to that religion in order to be nourished by the sacraments and to die a happy, holy, sacramentally-provided-for death. The approach used in such one-on-one contact during office hours varied according to the needs and the backgrounds of each inquirer. Each, though, came with an clear understanding about the nature of the sessions: their conversion to the Faith.

Some students of mine over the decades were more ready to listen than others. Some kept asking the same questions repeatedly. Every effort was made to answer those questions before they were sent to men I thought to be (and in some instances were) priests for old-fashioned convert-instruction classes. Some persevered to the point of conversion, others did not, at least not to my knowledge. They sought out advice not because of any gift that I, a terrible sinner, had been given. They sought out advice because Catholic truth had resonated in their souls, which were made by God to know, to love, and to serve Him through the Catholic Church. That’s really all it takes, you see. A simple proclamation of Catholic truth to start the process of planting seeds for the conversion of souls.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, on the other hand, had the extraordinary gift from God of reaching deep into the souls of his hearers to prompt them to respond with urgency to God’s graces for the conversion to the Catholic Church–or for the return of those who had fallen away. He was able to do this because his own soul had been forged in the crucible of suffering, having to resist onslaughts of the devil and to endure calumnies uttered against his good name. He prepared himself for his work by the exquisite manner in which he offered the Dominican Rite of the Catholic Church, the time he spent before Our Lord’s Real Presence in the Most Blessed Sacrament in prayer, his deep and tender devotion to the Mother of God, and the life of austere penances which he imposed upon himself. He was not only responsible for the conversion of thousands upon thousands of souls. Saint Vincent Ferrer performed numerous miracles, including gathering the remains of a young boy who had been chopped to death by an angry mother to bring him back to life whole and unharmed!

Father Andre Pradel described some of the more important details in Saint Vincent Ferrer's zealous of preaching to seek the return of strayed Catholics, turn heretics aside from the path of perdition, and to convert thousands upon thousands of Jews and Mohammedans to the true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order:

God alone knows the number of souls whom our Saint led from sin to penance by a daily course of preaching extending over a period of twenty years. But if we may judge by the exterior signs which everywhere accompanied his presence, we can easily conceive that there would be very few persons, who were privileged to see and to hear him, and could still resist the efficacy of his influence on their souls.

And how was it possible to remain insensible to his touch? He preached with such energy, such vivacity and vigor, that he no longer appeared an old man broken down by age and infirmity, but a youthful herald of the Gospel fired with an impetuous ardor. He could be heard at a great distance round; and he was understood by people of every nation, although he spoke only the Valencian dialect. His sudden display of energy during his preaching was as a miracle which enraptured his hearers. On leaving the pulpit, he became feeble, weary, and infirm; his countenance was pale, his walk slow, and he had need of the assistance of some one to support his steps. No one would have supposed him to be the same individual, nor could it be doubted that the Holy Spirit worked in him during his discourse to reanimate his enfeebled body, and to produce in him this marvelous energy.

Another cause of success was the gift of miracles, which he possessed in a rare degree. They were of daily occurrence. Wherever he went he restored health to a great number of sufferers whose bodily cure was despaired of. We may well imagine then the impression which this wonderful spectacle so often repeated would everywhere produce. He moved rapidly from place to place, so great was his eagerness to evangelize the whole of Europe; but the prodigies which he daily accomplished left indelible traces in the hearts of all.

The procession of Disciplinants was, moreover, capable of itself of softening the most hardened souls. It took place every evening, at sunset, notwithstanding the state of the weather, in rain, snow, wind, and tempest. It consisted of persons of every condition, the nobility and the common people, great and small, even children from four to five years old, who were not afraid to scourge themselves, in order to expiate the sins of the people. They walked two and two with naked feet, their faces veiled, clad in sackcloth, and their shoulders bared in such a manner as not to offend against modesty. Each penitent scourged himself with a discipline, meditating on the Passion of our Lord. Their blood flowed, and, carried away by the impetuosity of their fervor, some even went so far as to cut their flesh in pieces by the violence of the blows. And yet, strange as it may appear, none of these austere penitents ever suffered in their health at the close of this exercise. The Saint himself alluded to it, in order to show how agreeable to God was this sensible display of penance; in the space of twelve years, not a single death occurred among those who formed the special company of Disciplinants.

While this procession traversed the streets of the city, women of disreputable character assembled in the church, and one of St. Vincent's companions preached to them on sin, repentance, and hell. Few of these unhappy women resisted the pressing exhortations that were addressed to them. They were seen on the following day to break asunder the ties which bound them to vice, and to take part in the procession of public penance.

What was the result of all this? This: that from the moment of St. Vincent's entry into a city, it immediately wore the appearance of Nineve when Jonas preached penance to it. People wept when they heard the Saint's Mass, but their tears were most abundant when he exhorted them to repentance. It was then that sighs, groanings, and lamentations filled the air. It might have been thought that each one mourned the death of a first-born, or of a father or a mother. The squares and the plains which were covered by his auditory gave an idea of the universal judgment; it was, in fact, like the future terror and lamentation of all the tribes of the earth gathered together in the valley of Josaphat. But, as Nicholas de Clemangis, an eye-witness, observes, the most lukewarm souls, and hearts of stone, were softened, and gave vent to their sorrow in tears and accents of the bitterest anguish.

We may moreover picture to ourselves the extraordinary confluence of people. The Saint's auditory was not composed solely of the inhabitants of the city where he preached. There were frequently gathered around his pulpit more than fifty thousand people, even when he preached in small villages. They gladly went several leagues to hear him. During his sermon all the artisans abandoned their labour, and the merchants their warehouses. In cities where there were schools the masters suspended their lectures. Neither the inclement season, wind, nor rain prevented the multitudes from collecting in the public squares where the Saint was to preach. The sick who had sufficient strength to walk left the hospitals, others were carried; all hoped that their bodies as well as their souls would be cured at the same time, and this hope was frequently realized.

We may form some idea from the following fact, of the eagerness with which he inspired the people for penance: wherever St. Vincent went, the squares and other public places were invaded by peddlers whose commerce consisted solely in disciplines, hair-cloth, iron chains, sackcloth, and other instruments of mortification.

We shall relate in the "Spiritual Instructions" which follow, many interesting examples of great sinners converted. As to the general fruits of his apostolate, we will quote from an authentic document, a letter written by the Council of Orihuela to the Bishop of Carthagena, in Spain:

"The arrival of Vincent Ferrer has produced immense good in this country; it has been a grand occasion of salvation to all the faithful. This city in particular, at the close of his preaching, and by God's grace, is delivered from every vice and public sin. There is no one, great or small, who dares to swear by the Holy Name of God, the Blessed Virgin and the Saints, or to utter any other oath. Cards and dice are abolished . . . . No one ventures to conjure, cast lots, explain signs, or consult fortune-tellers and sorcerers . . . . All noisy entertainments have been given up . . . . The people of this city have never confessed so frequently as at the present moment; the priests are insufficient to hear the confessions and give communion. On Sundays and Feasts of Obligation all . . . . go to Mass with devotion such as no one could believe, much less expect to witness. Before the arrival of Master Vincent, the churches were large; now they are small . . . . There no longer exist in this city either offenses, or rancor, or enmity against any one; but each one, spontaneously, and for God's honor, pardons the other. We have counted more than one hundred and twenty-three reconciliations; sixty-six deaths and a host of broken limbs have been pardoned. Now every one lives in peace and concord. In the great city of Toulouse, all the women of abandoned character have renounced their disorders."

In St. Vincent's time heresy took refuge in the high valleys of the Pyrenees and the Alps. These were the strongholds of the Albigenses, Vaudois, Cathari, and the Paterini, who, compelled by the united power of the Church and of the temporal princes to quit the cities and plains, went forth to find in those inaccessible retreats the fatal liberty of error. St. Vincent's zeal led him to climb the mountains that he might carry the torch of faith among the unhappy people who inhabited them. In the process of his canonization it is related that, at the close of only one discourse at Perpignan, an incalculable number of heretics embraced the true faith. This one fact alone gives us the measure of his success in the Pyrenees. As to the Alps, we are told that he traversed them in an almost incredibly short space of time. On the French declivity he undertook the conversion of three valleys in the diocese of Embrun, where heresy and the corruption of morals had made the greatest ravages. Accompanied by his faithful band of Disciplinants and pious pilgrims he penetrated into these valleys, till then rebellious to the Word of God. The Saint's renown and the fame of his miracles brought crowds of heretics to his sermons. A few days only sufficed to work a change in their hearts and to soften their obduracy.

There were, however, many who viewed with bitter jealousy this general enthusiasm, and sought to slay him. Three times they attempted to execute their wicked design, but three times also did the visible protection of God shield him from their malice. Despairing then of ridding themselves of the presence of the preacher, these deluded people came in their turn to hear his sermons. God's grace drew them thither; they were more deeply moved than the rest, and in a short time gave unequivocal signs of a sincere conversion. Wicked customs and gross superstitions soon disappeared from those valleys; they embraced the true faith, and submitted with docility to the Church's discipline. The most criminal of them repaired so effectually the scandals it had given, that it ceased to be called Valpourrie,1 and was henceforth known only by the name of Valpure.

Most of the valleys on the Italian descent of the Alps were also inhabited by heretics, especially in the diocese of Turin. St. Vincent visited them in order, preaching in each of them the Catholic truth, and attacking error with vigorous and irresistible energy. By the mercy of God, they each received the Divine Word with much ardor, piety, and respect. The Saint's learning, his fervor, and miracles opened the eyes of all. He observed that the chief cause of error and heresy was the total absence of preaching.

He gathered from the inhabitants of the country that for thirty years no one had preached to them except Vaudois who came regularly among them twice a year. In the vale of Loferio, he reclaimed the Bishop of that poor erring flock; in that of Angrogne he destroyed the schools in which the ministers of error were educated; at Val-du-Pont he led the Cathari to renounce their abominations; at Val-de-Lanz he converted the descendants of the murderers of St. Peter Martyr. He discovered in the diocese of Geneva a gross and wide-spread error. It was customary to celebrate every year on the day following Corpus Christi, a feast in honor of the Orient, and confraternities were established under the name of St. Orient (There was a striking resemblance between the St. Orient of the Albigenses and the Grand-Orient of modern Freemasonry.). No preacher dared to declaim against this monstrous error; the religious and the secular clergy were threatened either with death or the withdrawal of offerings and alms. But St. Vincent was above all such servile fear, he spoke freely against this abuse, and effectually put a stop to it. He found matters in a still more lamentable state in the diocese of Lausanne, where the peasantry were wont to offer an idolatrous worship to the sun. He instructed them in the worship of God and put to flight all such superstitious practices.

St. Vincent's mission was not less fruitful among the Jews than among heretics. He converted an incalculable number of them. God seemed to have accorded him a special grace for the conversion of a people who are proverbially hostile to the Christian name. There was at that period a population of Jews both numerous and powerful in Spain. The process of his canonization shows that in the space of thirteen months he converted twenty thousand in Castile alone; that in the year 1415, within six months, more than fifteen thousand were led to embrace the true faith in Aragon and Catalonia, and that on another occasion in the same country over thirty thousand were baptized at the close of his preaching. The historians of the sect do not hesitate to confirm these facts by their own testimony. In a work entitled "Juehasin," it is related that in the year 1412 a Friar named Brother Vincent having preached to the Jews, the latter renounced their law to the number of more than two hundred thousand.

The Saint had an ardent zeal and tender love for these unhappy wanderers. In the cities where he found them, he took care that a place should always be reserved for them, and after his exhortations he treated them with much consideration. These acts full of sweetness gained their hearts. The learning of the great preacher completed their conviction, and they presented themselves in a body to receive holy baptism. Thus at Perpignan seventy families embraced the Christian faith. In other places whole synagogues abjured their errors. Their place of meeting was changed into a church. In Castile, they were so unanimously converted that none remained, and the Bishop of Palencia saw himself deprived of a large revenue, produced by a special impost on them. Among the Jews whom St. Vincent brought to the Divine Messiah, many of them in their turn became the apostles of their co-religionists. Thus one of them, who was afterwards raised to the Episcopate, had the satisfaction of making forty thousand proselytes among his fellow-countrymen.

Apostolic Success of St. Vincent Ferrer
Among the Mahometans

The Mahometans, like the Jews, were spread throughout different parts of Spain. In proportion as the noble-hearted Spaniards recovered possession of their provinces which had been subjugated by Saracen invasion, they re-established Christianity in all its rights, and favored by every means in their power the conversion of the followers of Mahomet, who dwelt in the country. There were many, however, who resisted this influence. Like the Jews, they were possessed of wealth and industry; it was necessary, therefore, to deal gently with them. St. Vincent labored with all his might to reclaim them from their unclean errors; he spared neither suffering nor fatigue to lead them to the saving waters of baptism. And to this end, wherever he preached he compelled the Mahometans, by the king's order, to be present at his discourses, reserving for them, as in the case of the Jews, the most convenient places.

But why constrain such people to hear him, since the law of Mahomet especially forbids his disciples to listen to Christian sermons? "This," said the Saint, "is one of the wicked artifices of this Antichrist, by which he directly closes the door of salvation to his followers. The Divine Word is the first condition of the success of the Gospel. He who hears it is easily drawn as by a kind of necessity to embrace the holy faith, provided it be announced with becoming dignity."

The Saracen King of Grenada, Mahomet Aben-Baha, moved by the renown of his miracles, was desirous to see St. Vincent, and to afford him liberty to preach in his kingdom. He therefore sent ambassadors to him, as to a prince, who informed him that he would have unrestricted license to announce the Gospel throughout the kingdom of Grenada. The Saint was then in the neighborhood of Genoa, in Italy. He forthwith set out on foot to Marseilles, where a vessel was placed at his service. A favorable wind soon brought him to the port of Andalusia. On the morning following his arrival at Grenada, St. Vincent commenced a course of sermons in presence of the king, his whole court, and innumerable people. The Mahometans, unaccustomed to hear discourses addressed to a great multitude, were filled with astonishment and admiration. Such was the effect of his preaching that, after three sermons, eighteen thousand Moors were converted to the Christian faith. St. Vincent promised himself an abundant harvest in this new field of labour; but the enemy of mankind sought to stifle its growth by sowing therein the seeds of discord.

Aben-Baha himself, with his whole court, had resolved to receive baptism; but the chiefs of the Mussulman superstition, determining at any cost to impede so great a good, menaced him with revolt, civil war, and the subversion of his throne. "If you embrace the Gospel," said they, "your subjects who believe in the Koran will never consent to be ruled by a prince who has abjured the law of Mahomet to become a Christian." Aben-Baha feared to lose a perishable crown of the earth. Dismayed by the threats of those fanatics, he called St. Vincent to him, and bade him depart from his kingdom, assuring him of his own personal esteem of him. "Return," said he, "into the countries of the Christians, and do so speedily, lest you oblige me to have recourse to violent measures against you. I should do it with regret, but I cannot allow you to remain." The Saint would gladly have exposed himself to persecution and death; the thought of martyrdom filled him with joy; but he was unwilling to excite the anger of the Mussulmans against the new converts, or to expose them to the danger of apostasy.

He, therefore, quitted the kingdom of Grenada, beseeching God to destroy in that country the reign of the crescent, and to establish in its stead that of the glorious Cross. A century later and the desires of the Saint were accomplished. Grenada was in its turn conquered, and the barbarous Mussulman was driven back to the shores of Africa. We may not unreasonably suppose that the band of converts formed by our Saint increased as years rolled by, and that when the missionaries of the Gospel arrived in that country they would find the hearts of its people better disposed to embrace the great truths of Christianity.

St. Vincent's zeal did not slacken in consequence of these accidents. Some time later, when an opportunity occurred to him, he resolved to go into Africa to preach to the people of Mauritania and to the Arabs of the Desert; but circumstances independent of his own will interfered with the accomplishment of this grand project. He, however, indemnified himself by laboring with renewed ardor for the conversion of the Mussulmans who were established in Christian countries. Ranzano, one of the Saint's biographers, relates that eighty thousand of those infidels were brought to the true faith. This is a high figure, and far exceeds the number given by Father Teoli, whose account appears to be more reliable, since in comparing the number of Jewish conversions with that of the Mahometans, the latter is found to be considerably less.

But to resume the thread of our narrative. St. Vincent was truly another St. Paul, sent by God to bring back to the faith of Christ a multitude of Jews and Mahometans, to convert innumerable sinners, and to harmonise the faithful of every nation and condition of life in the most perfect bonds of Christian fellowship. We are thus able to see at a glance the general effect of the miraculous apostolate which he received from Christ Himself at Avignon. The Saint was not afraid to affirm it with his own lips. In one of his sermons which he preached in Castile, in the year 1411, we read thus: "The end of the world cannot be far distant, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Has not our Lord Himself said that the bearing of the fig-tree foreshadows the coming summer? Behold, then, the fig-tree of the Christian people. Each day records its reconciliations, and we witness souls forgetting and forgiving the greatest injuries. The delicate, sensual, and vicious do penance. Obstinate sinners are converted, and approach frequently the Sacraments. Nor is the Jewish fig-tree any longer barren; for we see it daily producing its abundant and choicest fruits in every city in Spain." He might have added heretics and Mussulmans likewise. Truly, then, St. Vincent exercised in the Church an apostolate such as never was witnessed since the establishment of the Gospel.

St. Vincent having evangelized Avignon and the neighboring towns, set out on foot for Spain, preaching in divers places where he was obliged to stay. It was at Graus, in Catalonia, that he instituted the procession of Disciplinants, and laid the foundation of that marvelous company of pious souls who accompanied him in his apostolic journeyings. Here also he left behind him, as a souvenir, a crucifix which the inhabitants begged of him, and which became the instrument of many miracles.

From Graus, the Saint went to Barcelona, a city which he frequently visited, and where he was always received with extraordinary respect. On one of these visits he beheld the guardian angel of the city, and on his relating the occurrence to the inhabitants, they constructed, near the gate where he had this vision, a chapel dedicated to this heavenly protector.

While at Cerveva, St. Dominic appeared to Vincent in his cell, to encourage him in the execution of our Lord's commands. The Saint preached everywhere with extraordinary success, God confirming his words by striking prodigies. In the beginning of the year 1400, our illustrious preacher quitted Catalonia, and following the southern coast of France, arrived in Provence. Aix and Marseilles heard his voice. He announced in like manner the good news of salvation in many small towns and villages; and that no one might be deprived of it, he sent priests of his company into the places where he could not himself go. Having preached the Lent of 1402 at Marseilles, Vincent went to Romans for an interview with Father John de Puynoix, General of the Order, to lay before him the plans of his mission, and to solicit his paternal blessing. The Father-General sanctioned his proceedings, exhorted him to pursue his vocation till death, and lovingly blessed so worthy a subject.

It was then that Vincent journeyed into the valleys of the diocese of Embrun, and entirely transformed them. He passed thence from the side of the Alps into Piedmont and Lombardy, then into the state of Genoa. In 1403, he was in the Marquisate of Montferrat. Crossing again the Alps, he was at the close of that year at Chambray, where he founded a convent of Friars of his Order. In 1404, he preached the Lent at Lausanne. Towards the end of August he quitted Switzerland. On the 6th September he was at Lyons, where he preached for fourteen days with extraordinary results. After traversing the whole of Lyonnais, Vincent arrived in Lorraine, and passed from thence into Flanders.

While preaching in the latter country, Benedict XIII. enjoined him to accompany him to Genoa, where he was to hold a conference with the Italian cardinals, with reference to putting an end to the schism. Vincent obeyed his orders. But learning on the route that the journey to Genoa was deferred till the spring of 1405, he stayed in Auvergne. The city of Claremont heard his exhortations during Advent and Lent.

In the month of May, 1405, he was at Genoa with Benedict XIII. There he beheld with sorrow every effort that was made to extinguish the schism rendered abortive. Nothing remained to him then but to evangelize the population, and he traversed the coast of the state of Genoa. At Savone he received an embassy of the Mussulman King of Grenada, who invited him to preach the kingdom of God in his capital. We have already related how he yielded to this request, the extraordinary success of his preaching among the Mahometans, the jealousy of the chiefs of the false religion, and the obligation he was under of abandoning a harvest already so ripe. These events occurred in the year 1406.

On leaving Grenada, St. Vincent pursued his apostolic missions in Andalusia. The whole city of Baeza was converted by his preaching; Ezija and Seville profited no less thereby. Thence he passed into Castile. Here he received letters and ambassadors from Henry IV., King of England, who entreated him to come into Great Britain to evangelize its people. St. Vincent, whose charity would willingly have embraced the whole world, joyfully accepted the king's proposal, and arriving at San Sebastian, a port in the Gulf of Gascony, he was conveyed to England in a vessel sent expressly to bring him. He arrived in the summer of the year 1406. The indefatigable apostle remained over a year in these islands, preaching throughout the kingdom, and producing the same results as in his other missions. Having thus evangelized England, Scotland, and Ireland, he returned into France towards the autumn of 1407.

He would doubtless travel by sea to Bordeaux, since historians speak of him as passing from England into Gascony. He went thence into Picardy and Poitou. In 1408, he preached during Lent in Auvergne; then he crossed the Pyrenees to preach once more throughout Spain. A record of that period notices that he journeyed from one country to another on horseback. He had then a wound in the leg which tortured him during the last eleven years of his life. Yet his sufferings in no way hindered him from pursuing his apostolate: the happiness of laboring for the salvation of souls made him forgetful of suffering. Having passed through the north of Spain--where in Cuenca and Molina he was pained at witnessing the barren effects of his preaching--he arrived at Perpignan, where Benedict XIII. had convoked a council.

The obstinacy of Peter de Luna paralyzed the good results of that assembly. Grieved at the unhappy dispositions of the Pontiff, Vincent resumed the course of his preaching till he reached Montpellier, and after a fruitful mission, returned once more to Perpignan. There he received letters from the King of Aragon, dated the 22nd January, 1409, who called him to Barcelona to confer with him on business of importance. In obeying the summons of that prince, Vincent availed himself of the opportunities which the journey afforded him, to preach at Elne, Girone, and Vich. Arrived at Barcelona in the month of June, 1409, he was not content with attending the king in council, but continued his apostolic preaching, which produced marvelous fruits. Towards the end of the same year a vessel conveyed him into Tuscany. He travelled through the dioceses of Pisa, Lucca, Florence, and Siena, everywhere converting sinners and reviving Christian piety. At the commencement of the year 1410 he returned to Barcelona, and traversed once more the whole of Catalonia and Aragon. It was at this epoch that he instituted a university at Valencia, his native city. He came thence into Castile. At Salamanca he raised a woman to life, to prove to his auditory that he was himself the angel precursor of the judgment, announced in the Apocalypse. This miracle is related in detail in the "Spiritual Instruction," for the fifth Friday before the Saint's Feast.

The succession to the throne of King James of Aragon, who died childless, led him to return to Barcelona. He was constrained to occupy himself with this affair, and after many negotiations full of patience and wisdom, he turned it to the advantage of his country. In 1413 St. Vincent evangelized the Balearic Isles. In 1414 he went to Tortosa, where he converted many Jews. Then he returned to Saragossa, and remained there till the beginning of the year 1415, preaching with much fruit. He was a second time drawn by the Spirit of God towards central Italy, and so great was the success of his apostolate, especially in Bologna, that its inhabitants were pleased to accord him the title of citizen. Returning thence into Spain, he was speedily summoned to the Congress of Perpignan, in which the obstinacy of Peter de Luna showed itself more strongly than ever. St. Vincent was so deeply afflicted that he fell grievously ill. The glorious confessor, refusing medical succor, placed his entire confidence in our Lord. Jesus Christ appeared to him, consoled him, cured him, and announced to him that he should yet visit divers countries.

The Congress of Perpignan was fatal to Peter de Luna. Through the advice of the Theologians, and of St. Vincent in particular, the King of Aragon detached himself from his obedience, and from that moment the cause of the union was accomplished. The king's edict was published on the 6th January, 1416. Our Saint spent the beginning of this year in traveling through many provinces of Aragon to withdraw the people from obedience to Benedict XIII., and to attach them to that of the Council of Constance, an undertaking by no means easy, considering the long period in which those countries had lived under the spiritual dominion of Peter de Luna. But to all their prejudices the Saint opposed solid reasons which carried conviction to every mind. In a short time Spain, as well as Italy and the rest of Christendom, awaited with submission the choice of the Council of Constance, ready to acknowledge the elect of the Council as the veritable Vicar of Jesus Christ.

The King of Aragon, well knowing how advantageous to the interests of the Church would be the presence of St. Vincent, entreated him to repair to Constance in quality of his theologian. But the latter declined this honor, believing it was better to follow the extraordinary mission which God had confided to him. He then went into Languedoc. At the end of January, 1416, history points to him at Carcassonne. From there he went to Besziers and Montpellier; then retracing his steps, he preached throughout Roussillon. In the month of March he passed again into the diocese of Carcassonne, and that year celebrated the Festival of the Annunciation at Montolieu, where he wrought the miraculous cure recorded in the "Spiritual Instruction" for the first Friday preceding the Saint's Feast.

From Montolieu, Vincent journeyed onwards to Toulouse. Two Fathers of his Order awaited him at Castanet. He entered the city on the Friday before Palm-Sunday, amidst pompous solemnities, and was received as an angel from heaven. In the evening of his arrival a procession of public penance took place. The number of those who took part in it was extraordinary. Besides the grown-up people, there were three hundred little children, who scourged their tender shoulders with the discipline.

We may judge, by those prognostics, of the immense good which the preaching of St. Vincent Ferrer would produce in Toulouse. There especially were realized the marvelous fruits of which we have given but a feeble description in the seventh article of this section. The sermons lasted a month; but their results were as abundant as though the Saint had preached a whole year. The priests of the city, and the religious who accompanied Vincent in his missions, hardly sufficed to receive the confessions of those that were converted. They who had enriched themselves by fraud and injustice restored their ill-gotten gains; they who had long scandalized the city by the publicity of their crimes were desirous to edify it by public repentance. The penances that were imposed on these great sinners did not seem to them sufficient; but they believed themselves bound to the severest expiation. All the women of ill-fame abandoned their disorders, and gave unequivocal and consoling proofs of the sincerity of their conversion.

The Saint left behind him in the city the greater part of the pious women who had followed him till then. They dwelt together in community, and observed the rules which he gave them. On the 3rd May, Vincent quitted Toulouse. He was accompanied as far as Portet, where he gave a short mission, and then went on to Muret. Having held a station in that town, he passed into the district of Caraman. From thence he repaired to Saix and Castres. In the latter city he received an express invitation from the Fathers of the Council of Constance to join them; the invitation being transmitted to him by an emissary of the King of Aragon. When this was notified to him, he started in the direction of the city where the Council was sitting, but travelled by short stages in order to preach to the people whom he might encounter on the journey.

He reached Alby on the 28th May, 1416, and preached there eight days. Then traversing the country, he visited Gaillac, Cordes, Najac, and arrived on the 22nd June at Villefranche du Rouergne, where he gave a mission of five days. After that he went to Rodez. Tradition says he preached in a large meadow of the Priory of St. Felix, which is not far distant. He passed thence across the mountains of Auvergne to reach by a direct route Puy-en-Velay. In the latter city he found an ambassador of John VI., Duke of Brittany, who invited him into his dominions. The Saint promised to respond to the wishes of the prince; but was desirous first to repair to Constance, and to preach in the neighboring provinces on the German frontier. He traversed the eastern portion of Auvergne and Bourbonnais, and then entered the Duchy of Bourgogne.

At Dijon, St. Vincent received a solemn embassy of the Council of Constance with a cardinal at its head. Certain difficulties of grave importance were proposed to him, which the man of God explained with such wonderful lucidity that the ambassadors marveled at the clearness and solidity of his judgment. When the Fathers of the Council were apprised of the Saint's answer, they shared the admiration of their envoys, and accepted it as an oracle. History does not inform us of the nature of the questions at issue, nor of the solution given thereto. But when the ambassadors withdrew, instead of pursuing his journey to Constance, Vincent directed his steps towards Brittany, either because he had been dispensed from attending the Council, or because he no longer considered his presence necessary after the answer he had given to the questions which had been submitted to him.

Leaving Dijon, he passed through Champagne. At the celebrated Monastery of Clairvaux he dispersed the pestilential fevers with which the community were afflicted. Langres and many other cities of that province enjoyed the privilege of seeing and hearing him. He pushed on his course as far as Nancy, the capital of Lorraine, where he again received an embassy of the Duke of Brittany, who implored him to hasten into his dominions. The Saint, considering himself bound to yield to such pressing solicitations, quitted Lorraine, and travelled towards Brittany by way of Berry. The Archbishop of Bourges had conceived certain unfavorable impressions of him, which disappeared as soon as he had seen and heard him; and from that moment he manifested the greatest goodwill towards him. Crossing Berry into Lorraine, St. Vincent converted its capital, which was a Babylon of iniquity, into a Jerusalem of peace and virtue. There a third messenger from the Duke of Brittany rejoined him. He then hastened his journey to that country through Anjou. Preaching at Angers against the excessive extravagance of the women, he effectually put a stop to the scandal.

It was in the beginning of March, 1417, that St. Vincent entered Brittany, where, two years later, he was to terminate his career. Reverend Father Andrew Pradel, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Preachers: His life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion, tr, from the French by Reverend Father T.A. Dixon, O. Praed., and published by R. Washbourne, 18 Paternoster Row, London, 1875, pp. 2-3.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B. wrote the following about Saint Vincent Ferrer in The Liturgical Year:

To-day, again, it is Catholic Spain that offers one of her sons to the Church, that she may present him to the Christian world as a model and a patron. Vincent Ferrer, or, as he was called, the angel of the judgment, comes to us proclaiming the near approach of the Judge of the living and the dead. During his lifetime, he traversed almost every country of Europe, preaching this terrible truth ["Convert, or die!"--editor's note]; and the people of those times went from his sermons striking their breasts, crying out to God to have mercy upon them–in a word, converted. In these our days, the thought of that awful day, when Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds of heaven to judge mankind, has not the same effect upon Christians. They believe in the last judgment, because it is an article of faith; but, we repeat, the thought produces little impression. After long years of a sinful life, a special grace touches the heart, and we witness a conversion; there are thousands thus converted, but the majority of them continue to lead an easy, comfortable life, seldom thinking on hell, and still less the judgment wherewith God is to bring time to an end.

It was not thus in the Christian ages; neither is it so now with those whose conversion is solid. Love is stronger in them than fear; and yet the fear of God’s judgment is every living within them, and gives stability to the new life they have begun. Those Christians, who have heavy debts towards divine justice, because of their past lives, and who, notwithstanding, make the time of Lent a season for evincing their cowardice and tepidity, surely such Christians as these must very rarely ask themselves what will become of them on that day, when the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens, and when Jesus, not as Saviour, but as Judge, shall separate the goats from the sheep. One would suppose that they would have received a revelation from God, that, on the day of judgment, all will be well with them. Let us be more prudent; let us stand on our guard against the illusions of a proud, self-satisfied indifference; let us secure to ourselves, by sincere repentance, the well-founded hope, that on the terrible day, which has made the very saints tremble, we shall hear these words of the divine Judge addressed to us: ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!’ Vincent Ferrer leaves the peaceful cell of his monastery, that he may go and rouse men to the great truth they had forgotten–the day of God’s inexorable justice; we have not heard his preachings, but, have we not the Gospel? Have we not the Church, who, at the commencement, of this season of penance, preached to us the terrible truth, which St. Vincent took as the subject of his instructions? Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves to appear before Him, who will demand of us a strict account of those graces which He so profusely poured out upon us, and which were purchased by His Blood. Happy they that spend their Lents well, for they may hope for a favourable judgment! (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year.)

From the life of Saint Vincent Ferrer as found in the readings for Matins the Divine Office for today's feast: 

This Vincent was born of respectable parents, at Valencia in Spain, (upon the 23rd day of January, in the year of our Lord 1357.) Even as a child he had an heart like the heart of an old man. Considering, to the utmost of his young understanding, how fleeting is the course of this dark world, he, in the eighteenth year of his age, took the habit of a Friar in the Order of Preachers. After he had made his solemn profession, he devoted himself to sacred learning, and took the degree of Master in Divinity with much distinction. He soon after received permission from his superiors to preach the word of God, on which duty he entered with such power and success, striving against the unbelief of the Jews, and overthrowing the errors of the Saracens, that he brought an exceeding great multitude of unbelievers to believe in Christ, and turned many thousands of Christians from sin to sorrow, and from vice to virtue. He was a chosen vessel unto God to proclaim the tidings of salvation among all nations, and tribes, and tongues, crying out that the last day, that awful day of judgment, is at hand, smiting consternation into the minds of all, as many as heard him, weaning their love from a perishing world, and turning it to God.

While Vincent wrought the Apostolic work of preaching committed to him, he lived ever as follows j Every morning he sang a solemn Mass, and every day he preached in public. He fasted every day, unless prevented by some absolute necessity. He refused to no one his holy and just advice. He never ate meat, nor wore linen. He quieted public disturbances, and negotiated the peace of kingdoms. When the seamless garment of the Church was rent by an horrid schism, he worked his every nerve to unite it again, and keep it one. He was a burning and a shining light of all virtues, walking always in lowliness and simpleness, so that he meekly welcomed and embraced them which spake evil against him and persecuted him.

The Power of God confirmed his life and doctrine with many great signs and wonders. He often laid his hands upon the sick and they recovered. He cast out unclean spirits, and made the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and the blind to see. He cleansed the lepers, and raised the dead. After passing through many countries of Europe with exceeding profit to souls, worn out with age and disease, but still ever the same unwearied herald of the Gospel, he brought his life and his preaching together to an happy end, at Vannes in Brittany, (upon the 5th day of April,) in the year of salvation 1419. Pope Callistus III. numbered him with the Saints. (Matins, Feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., The Divine Office.)

In other words, men need to be exhorted, challenged, to convert.

The Apostles spoke, they challenged, they exhorted.

The Saints spoke, they challenged, they exhorted.

There is no conversion without the preaching of the Word orally and without a word of warning.

The Spiritual Works of Mercy exhort us to instruct the ignorant and to admonish the sinner. These works are not optional. They are mandatory. We do not know when we–or those we seek to convert–will die. That’s why the Apostles risked their lives to proclaim the truths of the Faith. They knew that there might not be a tomorrow for the souls to whom they were sent.

Do we?

Oh, how we excuse ourselves so lightly, sometimes by committing the cardinal Protestant sin of Presumption, believing that “everything will work out in the end for our relatives and friends even if they don’t convert before they die,” of  the responsibility of adhering firmly to the Catholic tradition of speaking and exhorting, doing so in love, to be sure, but making sure that it is done clearly and without equivocation.

Saint Vincent Ferrer also popularized the use of the monogram “IHS” for the Holy Name of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is no accident that many of of the leaders of Talmudic Jews of our own day have sought to eradicate all mention of the Holy Name of Our Divine Redeemer from public utterance as they do not want to see the likes the Saint Vincent Ferrer preaching to them and winning over souls from their ranks. And quite unlike Karol Joseph Wojtyla/John Paul II, Joseph Alois Ratzinger/Benedict XVI, and Jorge Mario Begoglio, Saint Vincent Ferrer’s preaching helped to convert a Jewish synagogue into a Catholic Church dedicated to Our Lady. As conversion is a free gift from God, Saint Vincent never forced anyone to convert to the Faith and was successful in quelling at least two outbreaks of violence against the Jews of Spain. In other words, he was a Catholic priest possessed of the sensus Catholicus, not the false “sense” of conciliarism. (For a wonderful book, whose entire text is online, about Saint Vincent Ferrer, please see St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Friar Preachers: His life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion.)

Similarly concerned about seeking the conversion of Jews and others to the true Faith was the zealous Conventual Franciscan, the founder of the Knights of the Immaculata (M.I.), Father Maximilian Kolbe, O.F.M., Conv. An anthology of Father Kolbe’s writings contains a passage concerning Our Lady’s as the destroyer of all heresies. The passage below serves as something of an introduction to Father Kolbe’s protracted description (found in full in the appendix below) of the conversion of the Catholic-hating Jew named Alphonse Ratisbonne on January 20, 1842, an event that one almost never hears any official associated with the conciliar church making reference to as the young Ratisbonne, who became a Jesuit priest, went to the Holy Land with the explicit permission of Pope Pius IX to seek the conversion of his own Jewish people to the true Faith:

There are people who do not understand how it can be said that “She alone has destroyed all heresies in the whole world” when heresies still exist. It is something like this: When during one of the battles, Napoleon was informed that for some unknown reason, the enemy’s cavalry was seen approaching, he said, “The enemy lost the battle” although the battle was still raging. And it turned out to be true. His plan worked. So, and even more so, it is with all heresies. They are already doomed. “The enemy is lost. She won, because she destroyed them.” (Father Anselm W. Romb, O.F.M., Conv., Commentator and Editor, The Writing of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe, OFM Conv.: The Kolbe Reader, Franciscan Marytown Press, 1987, p. 24.)

Dom Prosper Gueranger's prayer to Saint Vincent Ferrrer explains the contrast between Catholicism and conciliarism in a nutshell:

How grand must have been thine eloquence, O Vincent, that could rouse men from their lethargy, and give them to feel all the terrors of the awful Judgment. Our forefathers heard thy preaching, and returned to God, and were pardoned. We, too, were drowsy of spirit when, at the commencement of this holy Season, the Church awakened us to the work of our salvation, by sprinkling our heads with ashes, and pronouncing over us the sentence of our God, whereby we are condemned to die. Yes, we are to die; we are to die soon; and a Judgment is to be held upon us; deciding our eternal lot. Then, at the moment fixed in the divine decrees, we shall rise again, in order that we may assist at the solemn and terrible judgment. Our consciences will be laid open, our good and bad actions will be weighed, before the whole of mankind; after which, the sentence already pronounced upon us in our particular Judgment will be made public. Sinners as we are, how shall we be able to bear the eye of our Redeemer, who will then be our inexorable Judge? How shall we endure even the gaze of our fellow creatures, who shall then behold every sin we have committed? But above all, which of the two sentences will be ours? Were the Judge to pronounce it at this very moment, would he place us among the Blessed of his Father, or among the Cursed? on his right, or on his left?

Our fathers were seized with fear when thou, O Vincent, didst put these questions to them. They did penance for their sins, and after receiving pardon from God, their fears abated, and holy joy filled their souls. Angel of God’s Judgment! pray for us, that we may be moved to salutary fear. A few days hence, and we shall behold our Redeemer ascending the hill of Calvary, with the heavy weight of his Cross upon him; we shall hear him thus speaking to the Daughters of Jerusalem: Weep not over me, but weep for yourselves and for your children: for if in the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in the dry? Help us, O Vincent, to profit by these words of warning. Our sins have reduced us to the condition of dry dead branches, that are good for nought but to burn in the fire of divine vengeance; help us, by thy intercession, to be once more united to Him who will give us life. Thy zeal for souls was extreme; take ours under thy care, and procure for them the grace of perfect reconciliation with our offended Judge. Pray too for Spain, the country that gave thee life and faith, thy Religious Profession and thy Priesthood. The dangers that are now threatening her require all thy zeal and love; exercise them in her favor, and be her faithful protector. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Feast of Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., April 5.)

We continue to pray as many Rosaries each day as our state-in-life permits, bearing ourselves with kindness toward all of those God’s Holy Providence places in our paths, making sure to give blessed Green Scapulars to non-Catholics and to pray the prayer, “Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us now and at the hour of our death,” every day for each person to whom we give one. The rewards for doing so might just be heavenly.

Conciliarism and the confusion it has engendered within the souls of Catholics will vanish. The clarity of Catholicism will return. As the late William C. Koneazny, the progenitor of the Catholic Rendezvous gatherings in Salisbury, Connecticut, said over twenty-one years ago shortly before he died at the age of seventy-eight on June 16, 2004, “Our Lady will come and throw the bums out!”

Immaculate Heart of Mary, triumph soon!

Vivat Christus Rex! Viva Cristo Rey!  

Isn’t it time to pray a Rosary now? 

Our Lady of the Rosary, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.

Saint John the Evangelist, pray for us.

Saint Michael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Gabriel the Archangel, pray for us.

Saint Raphael the Archangel, pray for us.

Saints Joachim and Anne, pray for us.

Saints Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar, pray for us.

Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P., pray for us.