Saint Hyacinth: The Apostle of the Northland and a Rebuke To Conciliarism

[2017 Preface: This article was written eleven years ago, that is, in the year 2006. It has undergone a little tweaking here and there, although this year's posting includes material from Dom Prosper Gueranger's The Liturgical Year. What I want to emphasize in the preface to the 2017 posting, however, is that the examples of Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI's and Jorge Mario Bergoglio's praise of false religions, something that stands in stark contrast to the work of Saint Hyacinth, are not exhaustive. Numerous articles of mine between April 19, 2005, and February 28, 2013, detailed Ratzinger/Benedict's violation of the First and Second Commandments as he praised one false religion after another and called their places of false worship as "sacred." Endless numbers of articles have been written in the past fifty-three months, four days about the offenses given to the honor and glory and majesty of the Most Blessed Trinity by Ratzinger/Benedict's successors, Jorge Mario Bergoglio.

[The apostasies and blasphemies emanating from Ratzinger/Benedict were unremitting during his seven years, ten months, nine days as the head honcho of conciliarism He was relentless in violating the binding precepts of the First and Second Commandments. Jorge Mario Bergoglio has served as a most worthy successor in this regard, surprassing his predecessor as the willing servant of Antichrist and the duly submissive son of his Talmudic masters. The likes of Saint Hyacinth, O.P., are not welcome in the counterfeit church of concilairism. Finally, remember that a pretty good compendium of points made in these articles can be found in No Space Between Ratzinger and Bergoglio: So Close in Apostasy, So Far From Catholic Truth.]

Although past versions of this article have focused principally on the then-governing antipope, Joseph Razinger/Benedict XVI, a good, cogent way of contrasting the apostate nature of the counterfeit church of conciliarism with the spirit of a faithful son of the Catholic Church, Saint Hyacinth, O.P., is simply by providing two brief excerpts from Jorge Mario Bergoglio's address to the conciliar "bishops" of the Republic of Korea that was delivered exactly two years ago today, that is, on August 17, 2014:

On this vast continent which is home to a great variety of cultures, the Church is called to be versatile and creative in her witness to the Gospel through dialogue and openness to all. This is the challenge before you! Dialogue, in fact, is an essential part of the mission of the Church in Asia (cf. Ecclesia in Asia, 29). But in undertaking the path of dialogue with individuals and cultures, what should be our point of departure and our fundamental point of reference, which guides us to our destination? Surely it is our own identity, our identity as Christians. We cannot engage in real dialogue unless we are conscious of our own identity. We can’t dialogue, we can’t start dialoguing from nothing, from zero, from a foggy sense of who we are. Nor can there be authentic dialogue unless we are capable of opening our minds and hearts, in empathy and sincere receptivity, to those with whom we speak. In other words, an attentiveness in which the Holy Spirit is our guide. A clear sense of one’s own identity and a capacity for empathy are thus the point of departure for all dialogue. If we are to speak freely, openly and fruitfully with others, we must be clear about who we are, what God has done for us, and what it is that he asks of us. And if our communication is not to be a monologue, there has to be openness of heart and mind to accepting individuals and cultures. Fearlessly, for fear is the enemy of this kind of openness.

The task of appropriating and expressing our identity does not always prove easy, however, since – being sinners – we will always be tempted by the spirit of the world, which shows itself in a variety of ways. I would like to point to three of these. One is the deceptive light of relativism, which obscures the splendor of truth and, shaking the earth beneath our feet, pulls us toward the shifting sands of confusion and despair. It is a temptation which nowadays also affects Christian communities, causing people to forget that in a world of rapid and disorienting change, “there is much that is unchanging, much that has its ultimate foundation in Christ, who is the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Gaudium et Spes, 10; cf. Heb 13:8). Here I am not speaking about relativism merely as a system of thought, but about that everyday practical relativism which almost imperceptibly saps our sense of identity. (Jorge Meets With Brother Apostates at the Shrine of Haemi, Republic of Korea, August 17, 2014.)

There is nothing more foggy and relativistic than the false religion known as conciliarism, which is founded upon outright rejections of articles contained in the Sacred Deposit of Faith, starting with the very nature of dogmatic truth itself, as false "popes" and "bishops" have uttered unspeakable blasphemies, mocked the very lives of the saints, including our martyrs who gave up their lives rather than to give the appearance of what the Modernists have said and done, and engaged in the most shamelessly aberrant "liturgies" that would have shocked the consciences even of the Arians and perhaps even such notorious revolutionaries as Martin Luther and King Henry VIII.

Did Saint Francis Xavier engage in "dialogue" with the adherents of false religions in India?

No, he sought with urgency to convert them unconditionally to the Catholic Faith, the one and only true Faith, outside of which there is no salvation and without which there can be no true social order:

As to the numbers who become Christians, you may understand them from this, that it often happens to me to be hardly able to use my hands from the fatigue of baptizing: often in a single day I have baptized whole villages. Sometimes I have lost my voice and strength altogether with repeating again and again the Credo and the other forms. The fruit that is reaped by the baptism of infants, as well as by the instruction of children and others, is quite incredible. These children, I trust heartily, by the grace of God, will be much better than their fathers. They show an ardent love for the Divine law, and an extraordinary zeal for learning our holy religion and imparting it to others. Their hatred for idolatry is marvellous. They get into feuds with the heathen about it, and whenever their own parents practise it, they reproach them and come off to tell me at once. Whenever I hear of any act of idolatrous worship, I go to the place with a large band of these children, who very soon load the devil with a greater amount of insult and abuse than he has lately received of honor and worship from their parents, relations, and acquaintances. The children run at the idols, upset them, dash them down, break them to pieces, spit on them, trample on them, kick them about, and in short heap on them every possible outrage. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)

We have in these parts a class of men among the pagans who are called Brahmins. They keep up the worship of the gods, the superstitious rites of religion, frequenting the temples and taking care of the idols. They are as perverse and wicked a set as can anywhere be found, and I always apply to them the words of holy David, "from an unholy race and a wicked and crafty man deliver me, O Lord." They are liars and cheats to the very backbone. Their whole study is, how to deceive most cunningly the simplicity and ignorance of the people. They give out publicly that the gods command certain offerings to be made to their temples, which offerings are simply the things that the Brahmins themselves wish for, for their own maintenance and that of their wives, children, and servants. Thus they make the poor folk believe that the images of their gods eat and drink, dine and sup like men, and some devout persons are found who really offer to the idol twice a day, before dinner and supper, a certain sum of money. The Brahmins eat sumptuous meals to the sound of drums, and make the ignorant believe that the gods are banqueting. When they are in need of any supplies, and even before, they give out to the people that the gods are angry because the things they have asked for have not been sent, and that if the people do not take care, the gods will punish them by slaughter, disease, and the assaults of the devils. And the poor ignorant creatures, with the fear of the gods before them, obey them implicitly. These Brahmins have barely a tincture of literature, but they make up for their poverty in learning by cunning and malice. Those who belong to these parts are very indignant with me for exposing their tricks. Whenever they talk to me with no one by to hear them they acknowledge that they have no other patrimony but the idols, by their lies about which they procure their support from the people. They say that I, poor creature as I am, know more than all of them put together.

They often send me a civil message and presents, and make a great complaint when I send them all back again. Their object is to bribe me to connive at their evil deeds. So they declare that they are convinced that there is only one God, and that they will pray to Him for me. And I, to return the favor, answer whatever occurs to me, and then lay bare, as far as I can, to the ignorant people whose blind superstitions have made them their slaves, their imposture and tricks, and this has induced many to leave the worship of the false gods, and eagerly become Christians. If it were not for the opposition of the Brahmins, we should have them all embracing the religion of Jesus Christ. (St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543.)

My own and only Father in the Heart of Christ, I think that the many letters from this place which have lately been sent to Rome will inform you how prosperously the affairs of religion go on in these parts, through your prayers and the good bounty of God. But there seem to be certain things which I ought myself to speak about to you; so I will just touch on a few points relating to these parts of the world which are so distant from Rome. In the first place, the whole race of the Indians, as far as I have been able to see, is very barbarous; and it does not like to listen to anything that is not agreeable to its own manners and customs, which, as I say, are barbarous. It troubles itself very little to learn anything about divine things and things which concern salvation. Most of the Indians are of vicious disposition, and are adverse to virtue. Their instability, levity, and inconstancy of mind are incredible; they have hardly any honesty, so inveterate are their habits of sin and cheating. We have hard work here, both in keeping the Christians up to the mark and in converting the heathen. And, as we are your children, it is fair that on this account you should take great care of us and help us continually by your prayers to God. You know very well what a hard business it is to teach people who neither have any knowledge of God nor follow reason, but think it a strange and intolerable thing to be told to give up their habits of sin, which have now gained all the force of nature by long possession. Saint Francis Xavier, Letter on the Missions, to St. Ignatius de Loyola, 1549.)

Saint Francis Xavier, you see, was a true Jesuit. He was a true priest. He was not one who believed in "dialogue" and "encounter"

Similarly, the Catholic Martyrs of Thailand, who were killed by those "peace loving" friends of the environment, the Buddhists, did not engage in "dialogue" with the pagans who put them to death:

Our thrilling story begins in Songkhon, a Catholic village on the Thai side of the mighty Maekhong River as it flows along the North Eastern border. The people of Songkhon were all Catholics and since the beginning they have always been in the Archdiocese of Thare-Nongseng.

The year 1940 was a time of fear and uncertainty in many areas of the world. Nazism was on the march in Europe and in Asia, imperialism was spreading rapidly. In Thailand, people felt fearful and threatened and a foreign faith was an obvious scapegoat, although Catholicism had already been in Thailand over three hundred and fifty years. In this tense atmosphere the usually tolerant Thais forsook their normal friendliness and began a religious persecution.

So it happened that in the winter of 1940, the police moved into Songkhon. Their first hostile act was to banish and then deport the parish priest. With guns in their hands, they then went from door to door intimidating the good simple people of the village and ordering them to abandon their faith in Christ. Naturally the people were nervous and frightened by they remained quiet and steadfast.

Living in Songkhon were two Sisters of the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross: Sister Agnes and Sister Lucia. There was also an excellent catechist, Mr. Philip Siphong. Since their pastor had been deported, these three good people felt responsible for the Catholic community and were in charge of the village school.

Mr. Siphong gave both moral and physical support to the worried people by visiting each house, praying with each family and speaking words of encouragement and strengthening their faith. The police were naturally furious at this act of rebelliousness and decided to get rid of Mr. Philip Siphong.

So in early December 1940 the police sent a letter to Philip supposedly from the Sheriff of Mukdahan requesting him to go to Mukdahan to meet the Sheriff. The people were suspicious and they warned Philip about the false letter and not to trust the police. They also told Philip that the police had every intention of killing him. However this good man told the people that if that was the case, then he, Philip Siphong was prepared to die for his Faith. Eventually he set out with the police for Mukdahan. Actually when they got the poor man into the forest the police shot him dead. So on December the 16th 1940 Mr. Philip Siphong died for his Faith and became the first of the Seven Holy martyrs of Thailand.

When the two Sisters Agnes and Lucia heard the news of the death of their faithful catechist, they were both saddened and very frightened. Nevertheless they continued their care of the school and their guidance of the community. Each day the children of the village came to the convent to be taught and catechised.

The police on their part kept up their pressure on the Sister and the local community. They tried to frighten everyone by firing their rifles in the air and by shouting at the people. They kept reminding the villagers of the murder of Philip by warning the people. "We'll get rid of all of you."

The children like everyone else were terrified of the police but the Sisters encouraged the children and themselves by saying that if the police killed them, they would be martyrs for Jesus.

On the Christmas Day. Mr. Lue, the police officer in charge of Songkhon, came to the Sister' house. On arrival he discovered the Sisters were instructing the children in their Catholic Faith. The officer was furious and berated the Sisters: "I've told you many times not to speak about Jesus. You must not mention god in Thailand, otherwise I'll kill you all." Sister Agnes who was the elder Sister, conscious of her role, in turn became indignant. She confronted the police officer saying: "Mr. Policeman, do you mean to say that you will kill us all because we are Catholics and loyal to our Catholic Faith. Do you really mean that, Mr. Policeman?"

Mr. Lue replied: "Yes I do, I will kill all of you if you continue to talk about God like this."

Sister Agnes with rising indignation and raised her voice saying to the officer: "Be sure you have sufficient guns and bullets." "Oh yes, we have enough guns and bullets to kill all of you." Mr. Lue retorted.

"Then be sure you polish the barrels of your guns lest the bullets get stuck." Countered the brave Sister Agnes. "Yes, we will." concluded the policeman.

On the evening of that same Christmas Day, the Sister prepared some coconut oil and sent a small bottle of it to the police so that they could clean and polish their gun barrels. Then the brave Sisters began preparing themselves and their companions for their coming martyrdom, by prayers and hymns' singing throughout the night.

Late that same night, our inspired Sister Agnes sat down and wrote a letter to the police. It is a document of utter simplicity and of a lively faith.

"To the Chief Police in Songkhon

"Yesterday evening you received your order to wipe out, definitely, the Name of God, the Only Lord of our lives and minds. We adore Him only, Sir. A few days earlier, you had mentioned to us that you would not wipe out the Name of God and we were rather pleased with that in such a way that we put away our religious habits which showed that we were His handmaids. But it not so today. We do profess that the religion of Christ is the only true religion. Therefore, we would like to give our answer to your question, asked yesterday evening which we did not have a chance to respond because we were unprepared for it. Now we would like to give you our answer. We are asking you to carry out your order with us. Please do not delay any longer. Please carry out your order. Please open the door of heaven to us so that we can confirm that outside the Religion of Christ no none can go to heaven. Please do it. We are well prepared. When we will be gone we will remember you. Please take pity on our souls. We will be thankful to you and will be grateful to you for it. And on the last day we will see each other face to face.

"Do wait and see, please. We keep your commands, oh God, we wish to be witnesses to You, dear God. We are: Agnes, Lucia, Phuttha, Budsi, Buakhai, Suwan. We would like to bring little Phuma along with us because we love her so much. We have already made up our minds, dear Sir."

This letter is such a simple yet moving and powerful Gospel of faith that reminds us that the faith witnessed in the early church in roman times is still alive and potent in Thailand in our own time. The diocesan archives now have Sister Agnes's wonderful profession of faith statement.

The police reacted quickly. On the following afternoon of the 26th of December 1940 on the feast of St. Stephen the first martyr, they arrived at the convent and shouted: "Are you ready, Sisters? If you are, go straight to the bank of the Maekhong." But Sister Agnes objected, "No, that is not the place for us to die for Christ. We must go the cemetery, the holy place."

In line they walked to the cemetery singing hymns and calling to the people.

"Good-bye, we are going to Heaven, we are going to become martyrs for Christ." How these brave and noble women remind us once again of the martyrs of ancient Rome, joyfully entering the arena for the love of Jesus Christ.

Seeing the police marching the children and Sisters to the cemetery, the people of the village realized that the police were going to kill them there. They too followed the Sisters and their companions wishing to die with them. However the policed brushed the people aside with their rifles saying angrily: "We only intend to kill those in the line."

A young girl named Suwan was one of those in the line. She was willing to become one of Christ's Martyrs but her father upon hearing what was happening rushed to the scent to rescue his little daughter. Suwan on her part clung to Sister Agnes begging him: "Mother Agnes, help me please, I want to die with you and go to Heaven." "But you are too young to die" said her father and he snatched her away and carried her back home where he locked her in a room.

On arrival at the cemetery the brave women knelt down beside a fallen tree trunk. They continued praying and hymn-singing fervently in that crucial atmosphere.

Sister Agnes turned and addressed the police: "You may kill us but you cannot kill the Church and you cannot kill God. One day the Church will return to Thailand and will flourish more than ever. You will see with your own eyes that what I am now saying, will come true. So we thank you from our hearts for killing us and sending us to Heaven. From there we will pray for you." Once again her words echoed those of many great martyrs before her.

Then turning to her companions, Sister Agnes said, "My dear friends, we will soon be in Heaven."

On the cross, Jesus said to the thief, "This day you will e with me in Paradise," (Lk.23:43) When all were ready, Sister once more addressed the police saying: "Mr. Policeman, we are ready, please do your duty."

Immediately the police opened fire and left the cemetery shouting to the people, "Bury them like dogs, for they are bad people." The poor villagers who were watching the scene from behind nearby bushes, rushed forward and began to shake the bodies to see who was alive or dead. They found that both Sister Agnes and Phorn were still alive but badly wounded.

Looking around, Phorn asked: "Where is heaven?" She understood from the Sisters' teaching that if one died a martyr one went straight to Heaven, but looking around Phorn saw not Heaven but a crowd of villagers. Sister Agnes on her part enquired: "where are the police?" They've left already." someone spoke out. "Then you better call them back I'm not dead yet:' said the brave sister Agnes. So one of the villagers returned to the village to inform the police that Sister Agnes and Phorn although badly wounded were still alive.

In the meantime another girl called Sorn who hand knelt at the end of the line stood up and looking around exclaimed: "Where is heaven?" Seeing that her clothes were spattered with blood the people enquired if she was hurt. "I'm afraid not, I don't feel any pain," Sorn replied. She then examined herself more closely but found no bullet wounds. "You'd better run home," she was advised: "as the police will soon be back here." So the little girl ran home. (She is still alive, healthy and living in Songkhon. She is also an excellent catechist.) In a short time the police returned to the cemetery and killed the wounded Sister Agnes and Phorn.

In all, six good and holy women were dead and the villagers buried them hurriedly, placing two bodies in each grave for they had not the time to make coffins. Thus were these brave and noble women of Songkhon laid to rest.

Many eye witnesses including those who took part in the burial of our brave martyrs are still alive. They are proud and grateful to recall, the bravery, the loyalty to Christ and the wonderful faith displayed on that momentous day, the 26th December 1940 by the Holy martyrs of Songkhon (The Martyrs of Thailand)

The mania for "dialogue" to "discuss" matters of doctrine that we must accept on the authority of God Who has revealed them to us did not, however, begin with the lords of conciliarism, who are so wedded to this slogan that any thought of actively the conversion of any non-Catholic is considered to be an "offense" against the conciliar falsehood of "religious liberty."

Tecla Hismoto and the Martyrs of Kyoto, Catholics who were the direct spiritual children of the missionary work of Saint Francis Xavier in Japan, did not engage in "dialogue" and "ecounter" with the "peace-loving" Buddhists of Japan who put them to death at the beginning of the Seventeeth Century:

The location, about three hundred meters from Hokoji Temple, was the busiest place in the city. The temple, affectionately called the “Big Kyoto Buddha,” was modeled after the “Big Buddha” temple in Nara. Years later, in 1798, the “Big Kyoto Buddha” was struck by lightning and completely destroyed. All that remains today is a huge temple bell, bearing silent witness to the events narrated below.

On the river bank was a plot of land 50 meters long and 25 meters wide where a huge pile of kindling, wood beams and trash taken from the condemned Christians’ homes, was piled high around 27 large cross-like stakes.

The official in charge, Katsushige Itakura, was the governor of Kyoto. As a young man, he had been a Buddhist priest. Itakura knew that in executions by fire, the kindling was set away from the victims, allowing the flames to prolong the suffering. This special torture could cause some to give up their faith and recant. But Itakura also realized that with these faithful Christians, there was little hope of recanting. For this reason he had pity on the victims, and ordered the kindling placed as close as possible to them, so their sufferings would be brief.

The victims were bound two to each cross, back-to-back. The leader of the martyrs was John Hashimoto, who, with his wife Tecla and their five children, drew sympathetic glances from the bystanders. Tecla was expecting her seventh child.

To celebrate her martyrdom, she wore a stately, white silk veil that reached to her feet. The sight of this young mother and her five children as they walked to their crosses brought tears to the eyes of many. She clutched her three-year-old daughter Luisa, as her 12-year-old son Toma was tied to her cross at her right side. Eight-year-old Francisco was tied to her left. Her six-year-old Pedro and 13-year-old Katarina were tied together to another cross close by.

When the fires were lit, the night sky shone brilliantly with flames leaping from the ghastly funeral pyre. All of the martyrs began praying and singing hymns. When Katarina cried that she could no longer see because of the smoke, her mother shouted, “Sing out the names of Jesus and Mary.”

The raging flames soon brought an early end, leaving onlookers stunned by the sublime sacrifice of the parents and the heroic bravery of the children. That evening, the Catholics secretly buried about 30 bodies found in the ashes. The location of this mass grave, somewhere in Kyoto, remains unknown to the present day.

The eldest child of the Hashimoto family, Miguel, was not home when the rest of the family was arrested. Later he appeared at the prison declaring his intention to join his family as a martyr too, but he was turned away, since his name was not on the list of the condemned. Instead, he was admonished by the prison officials to return home and think about carrying on the family name.

The pastor, Father Diego Ryosetsu Yuki, had been hearing confessions when the Christians were arrested. He and a foreign priest witnessed the martyrdoms, and provided what remains one of the most detailed accounts in the history of martyrdoms in Japan. Several years later, Father Yuki himself was martyred and is among the 188 beatified.

Those early Christians, all spiritual children of Saint Francis Xavier, died in the early years of the 17th century. They will join 42 canonized saints and 205 other “blesseds” who adorn the pages of Japan’s 400 years of Christian history. (The Great Kyoto Martyrdom. This article is written by a priest in the conciliar structures; thus the reference to "canonization" of these martyrs. There are, however, other excellent articles maintained on the site where this article was found. The site is Tecla Hashimoto.)

The paradoxes of conciliarism are such that the Thai martyrs, whose story was recounted earlier in this article, who professed the true Faith and would give the idolatry of Buddhism no quarter whatsoever, were "beatified" by Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II in 1989 while the conciliar authorities in the Vatican continue to wish the devil-worshiping Buddhists a happy "feast of Vesakh" each and every year without fail. The Buddhists worship devils. Devils. How can any right-thinking Catholic express "best wishes" to devil worshiping pantheists on their diabolical "feasts"? The three phases of Buddha indeed. The three phases of Buddha's life were fat, fatter and fattest.

Pope Pius XI, writing in Ad Salutem, August 30, 1930, noted the views of the son of Saint Augustine of Hippo, whose feast we celebrate ten days from now, on false religions:

Let us add a word further. Augustine set the mark, or more truly, the fiery brand of his condemnation on the moral infamy of Greek and Roman paganism. And yet yearning for such a religion has been seen to infatuate, even in our day, certain writers, shallow and even licentious, who extol such a cult for its beauty and fitness and attractiveness. Again, knowing thoroughly his contemporaries and their unhappy forgetfulness of God, with a pen at one time caustic, at another indignant, he scored in his pages all the compulsion and folly, all the outrages and lust, introduced into man's life by the demons through the worship of false gods. There can be no salvation in the ideal of the earthly City, as it sets before its eyes a vain picture- of completeness and perfection. For scarcely anyone will take such an ideal seriously or, if he does, the prize he wins will be only the satisfaction of empty and fleeting glory. (Pope Pius XI, Ad Salutem, August 30, 1930)

So many other examples could give given. These are enough.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is mad.

The other passage from the Argentine Apostate's address of earlier today, Sunday, August 17, 2014, provides us with yet another example of his dismissal of the binding nature of the precepts contained in the Divine Positive Law and Natural Law as nothing other than "rules" that get in the way of providing "mercy" to the "people":

A second way in which the world threatens the solidity of our Christian identity is superficiality, a tendency to toy with the latest fads, gadgets and distractions, rather than attending to the things that really matter (cf. Phil 1:10). In a culture which glorifies the ephemeral, and offers so many avenues of avoidance and escape, this can present a serious pastoral problem. For the ministers of the Church, it can also make itself felt in an enchantment with pastoral programs and theories, to the detriment of direct, fruitful encounter with our faithful, and others too, especially the young who need solid catechesis and sound spiritual guidance. Without a grounding in Christ, the truths by which we live our lives can gradually recede, the practice of the virtues can become formalistic, and dialogue can be reduced to a form of negotiation or an agreement to disagree. An agreement to disagree… so as not to make waves… This sort of superficiality does us great harm.

Then too, there is a third temptation: that of the apparent security to be found in hiding behind easy answers, ready formulas, rules and regulations. Jesus clashed with people who would hide behind laws, regulations and easy answers… He called them hypocrites. Faith by nature is not self-absorbed; it “goes out”. It seeks understanding; it gives rise to testimony; it generates mission. In this sense, faith enables us to be both fearless and unassuming in our witness of hope and love. Saint Peter tells us that we should be ever ready to respond to all who ask the reason for the hope within us (cf. 1 Pet 3:15). Our identity as Christians is ultimately seen in our quiet efforts to worship God alone, to love one another, to serve one another, and to show by our example not only what we believe, but also what we hope for, and the One in whom we put our trust (cf. 2 Tim 1:12). (Jorge Meets With Brother Apostates at the Shrine of Haemi, Republic of Korea, August 17, 2014.)

This is not the first time that Bergoglio has spoken in such a manner. To be honest, I have lost count of the number of times that he is done so. Here is just one of probably a hundred or more such instances:

“The church sometimes has locked itself up in small things, in small-minded rules. The most important thing is the first proclamation: Jesus Christ has saved you. And the ministers of the church must be ministers of mercy above all. The confessor, for example, is always in danger of being either too much of a rigorist or too lax. Neither is merciful, because neither of them really takes responsibility for the person. The rigorist washes his hands so that he leaves it to the commandment. The loose minister washes his hands by simply saying, ‘This is not a sin’ or something like that. In pastoral ministry we must accompany people, and we must heal their wounds.

“How are we treating the people of God? I dream of a church that is a mother and shepherdess. The church’s ministers must be merciful, take responsibility for the people and accompany them like the good Samaritan, who washes, cleans and raises up his neighbor. This is pure Gospel. God is greater than sin. The structural and organizational reforms are secondary—that is, they come afterward. The first reform must be the attitude. The ministers of the Gospel must be people who can warm the hearts of the people, who walk through the dark night with them, who know how to dialogue and to descend themselves into their people’s night, into the darkness, but without getting lost. The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials. The bishops, particularly, must be able to support the movements of God among their people with patience, so that no one is left behind. But they must also be able to accompany the flock that has a flair for finding new paths. (A Big Heart Open to God, America Magazine.)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio is the master of false dichotomies, demonstrating yet again the true workings of a Sophist who, much like the Sophists of ancient Athens in the Fifth Century before Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, use caricature, sloganeering and rank demagoguery to argue in behalf of their untruths.

There is no dichotomy between a confessor explaining to a penitent that he must keep the Ten Commandments and encouraging him to do so by cooperating with the graces won for us on the wood of the Holy Cross to amend their lives as they supplicate the Most Blessed Virgin Mary for assistance to use the graces she sends them for this purpose.

Priests are not called to "warm the hearts of the people." They are called to act in the mode of the Good Shepherd Himself, Who said the following to His friend Saint Mary Magdalene when she was caught in the sin of adultery: "Go, and now sin no more" (John 8: 11.)

Pope Saint Gregory the Great explained the uselessness of shepherds who refuse to discipline or correct their wayward sheep:

The Lord reproaches them through the prophet: They are dumb dogs that cannot bark. On another occasion he complains: You did not advance against the foe or set up a wall in front of the house of Israel, so that you might stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord. To advance against the foe involves a bold resistance to the powers of this world in defense of the flock. To stand fast in battle on the day of the Lord means to oppose the wicked enemy out of love for what is right.

When a pastor has been afraid to assert what is right, has he not turned his back and fled by remaining silent? Whereas if he intervenes on behalf of the flock, he sets up a wall against the enemy in front of the house of Israel. Therefore, the Lord again says to his unfaithful people: Your prophets saw false and foolish visions and did not point out your wickedness, that you might repent of your sins. The name of the prophet is sometimes given in the sacred writings to teachers who both declare the present to be fleeting and reveal what is to come. The word of God accuses them of seeing false visions because they are afraid to reproach men for their faults and thereby lull the evildoer with an empty promise of safety. Because they fear reproach, they keep silent and fail to point out the sinner’s wrongdoing.

The word of reproach is a key that unlocks a door, because reproach reveals a fault of which the evildoer is himself often unaware. That is why Paul says of the bishop: He must be able to encourage men in sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. For the same reason God tells us through Malachi: The lips of the priest are to preserve knowledge, and men shall look to him for the law, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Finally, that is also the reason why the Lord warns us through Isaiah: Cry out and be not still; raise your voice in a trumpet call.

Anyone ordained a priest undertakes the task of preaching, so that with a loud cry he may go on ahead of the terrible judge who follows. If, then, a priest does not know how to preach, what kind of cry can such a dumb herald utter? It was to bring this home that the Holy Ghost descended in the form of tongues on the first pastors, for he causes those whom he has filled, to speak out spontaneously. (For two different translations, see: The Book of Pastoral Rule and That the ruler should be discreet in keeping silence, profitable in speech.)

Jorge Mario Bergoglio does not believe this in the slightest.

There is a reason why he does not believe this in the slightest.

He is not a Catholic.

He is not a member of the Catholic Church. Neither were his predecessors in the conciliar office of "Petrine Minister."

Saint Hyacnith, O.P., was a a faithful Catholic, a man who sought to do what Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI and Jorge Mario Bergoglio have told us is forbidden: to seek with urgency the unconditional conversion of non-Catholics to the true Church.

The Apostle of the Northland

Dom Prosper Gueanger provided a moving testimony in The Liturgical Year that summarizes the life and the work of the Apostle of the Northland, Saint Hyacinth:

One of the loveliest lilies from the Dominican field to-day unfurls its petals at the foot of Mary’s throne. Hyacinth represents on the sacred cycle that intrepid band of missionaries who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, faced the barbarism of the Tartars and Mussulmans [Mohammedans], which was threatening the West. From the Alps to the northern frontiers of the Chinese Empire, from the islands of the Archipelago to the Arctic regions, he propagated his Order and spread the kingdom of God. On the steppes, where the schism of Constantinople disputed its conquests with the idolatrous invaders from the North, he was seen for forty years working prodigies, confounding heresy, dispelling the darkness of infidelity.

The consecration of martyrdom was not wanting to this, any more than to the first apostolate. Many were the admirable episodes where the angels seemed to smile upon the hard combats of their earthly brethren. In the convent founded by Hyacinth at Sandomir on the Vistula, forty-eight Friars Preachers were gathered together under the rule of blessed Sadoc. One day the lector of the Martyrology, announcing the feast of the morrow, read these words which appeared before his eyes in letters of gold: At Sandomir on the Fourth of the Nones of June, the Passion of Forty-Nine Martyrs. The astonished brethren soon understood this extraordinary announcement; in the joy of their souls they prepare to gather the palm, which was procured for them by an irruption of the Tartars on the very day mentioned. They were assembled in choir at that happy moment, and whilst singing the Salve Regina they dyed with their blood the pavement of the church.

No executioner’s sword was to clos Hyacinth’s glorious career. John, the beloved disciple, had had to remain on earth till the Lord should come; our saint waited for the Mother his Lord to fetch him.

Neither labour nor the greatest sufferings, no, above all, the wonderful divine interventions were wanting to his beautiful life. Kieff, the holy city of the Russians, having for fifty years resisted his zeal, the Tartars, as avengers of God’s justice, swept over it and sacked it. The universal devastation reached the very doors of the sanctuary where the man of God was just concluding the holy Sacrifice. Clothed as he was in the sacred vestments, he took in one hand the most holy Sacrament and in the other the statue of Mary, who asked him not to leave her to the barbarians; then, together with his brethren, he walked safe and sound through the very midst of the bloodthirsty pagans, along the streets all in flames, and lastly across the Dnieper, the ancient Borysthenes, whose waters, growing firm beneath his feet, retained the marks of his steps. Three centuries later, the witnesses examined for the process of canonization attest on oath that the prodigy still continued; the footprints were always visible upon the water, from one bank to the other, were called by the surrounding inhabitants St. Hyacinth’s Way.

The saint, continuing his miraculous retreat as far as Cracow, laid down his precious burden in the convent of the Blessed Trinity. The statue of Mary, light as a reed while he was carrying it, now resumed it natural weight, which was so great that one man could not so much as move it. Beside this statue Hyacinth, after many more labours, would return to die. It was here that, at the beginning of his apostolic life, the Mother of God had appeared to him for the first time, saying: ‘Have great courage and be joyful, my son Hyacinth! Whatsoever thou shalt ask in my name, shall be granted thee.’ The happy interview took place on the Vigil of the Assumption. The saint gathered from it the superhuman confidence of the thaumaturgus, which no difficulty could shake; but above all he retained form it the virginal fragrance which embalmed his whole life, and the light of supernatural beauty which made him the picture of his father Dominic.

Years passed away: heroic Poland, the privileged centre of Hyacinth’s labours, was ready to play its part, under Mary’s shield, as the bulwark of Christendom; at the price of what sacrifices we shall hear in October from a contemporary of St. Hedwiges, the blessed mother of the hero of Liegnitz. Meantime, like St. Stanislaus his predecessor in the labour, the son of St. Dominic came to Cracow, to breathe his last sigh and leave there the treasure of his sacred relics. Not on the Vigil this time, but on the very day of her triumph, August 15, 1257, in the church of the Most Holy Trinity, our Lady came down once more, with a brilliant escort of angels, and virgins forming her court. ‘Oh! who art thou?’ cried a holy soul, who beheld all this in ecstasy. ‘I,’ answered Mary, ‘am the Mother of mercy; and he whom I hold by the hand is brother Hyacinth, my devoted son, whom I am leading to the eternal nuptials.’ Then our Lady intoned herself with her sweet voice: ‘I will go to the mountain of Libanus,’ and the angels and virgins continued the heavenly song with exquisite harmony, while the happy procession disappeared into the glory of heaven.

Let us read the notice of St. Hyacinth given by the liturgy, We shall there see that his above-mentioned passage over the Dnieper was not the only circumstance where he showed his power over the waves. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Volume 13, Time after Penteocost, Book IV, pp. 408-410.)

Here is the summary of Saint Hyacinth's life as found in the readings for Matins in today's Divine Office:

Hyacinth was a Pole, and was born (in the year 1185) of the noble and Christian family (of the Counts of Odrowatz,) in the town of Camien, in the diocese of Wratislaw. He was trained up in learning from his youth, and after studying law and theology, became a Canon of Crakow, where he was eminent above his fellows by the singular godliness of his life and the depth of his learning. Being at Rome, in 1218, he was received into the Order of Friars Preachers by the Founder, St. Dominic, himself, and kept in holiness to the end of his life the rule of perfect living which he had learnt from him. He remained always a virgin, and loved modesty, long-suffering, lowliness, self-restraint, and all other good graces as his heritage in the life of a Friar.

In the heat of his love for God, he sometimes passed whole nights in pouring forth prayers and chastising his body, to which he never gave rest but in leaning against a stone or lying upon the ground. He was sent back to his own country, and, on the way, founded a very large house of his Order at Friesach and soon afterwards another at Crakow. In other provinces of the kingdom of Poland he founded four others, and it passeth belief what success he had with all kinds of men, by his preaching of the Word of God, and the innocency of his life. Not a day passed wherein he did not display some bright gift of faith, godliness, or innocency.

The zeal of this most holy man for the salvation of his neighbors was that which God marked by His greatest miracles. Among these is famous the time when coming to the River Vistula near Wisgrade, and finding it in flood, he crossed it without a boat, drawing over also his three companions standing upon the waves upon his outspread mantle. He led a wonderful life for nearly forty years after his profession, and then foretold to his brethren the day of his death. Upon the very day of the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, he finished the recitation of the Office of the Church, received the Sacraments with the utmost reverence, and then with the words, Into thy hands, O Lord, gave up his soul to God in the year of salvation 1257. He was illustrious for miracles even after his death, and Pope Clement VIII. numbered him among the saints. (As found in Matins, The Divine Office, Feast of Saint Hyacinth.)

Mind you, this is just a summary of the miracles and prodigies wrought by the son of Saint Dominic and the devoted client of the Mother of God, Saint Hyacith.

Born in 1185 in Silesia, which was then in Poland, Hyacinth was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Cracow and accompanied his Uncle Ivo, the Bishop of Cracow, to Rome with his brother Ceslaus, also a priest of the Diocese of Cracow. After having heard that Father Dominic, the founder of the Order of Friars Preachers, had raised Stephen Cardinal Orsini's nephew from the dead. Bishop Ivo told his two nephews, both of whom would be raised to the altars of the Catholic Church, that they should try to see this Father Dominic before they left Rome to return to Poland. As is recounted in the late Mary Fabyan Windeatt's Saint Hyacinth of Poland:

A soft glow stole into Hyacinth's eyes. "Maybe we should also pray for another favor," he suggested. "What do you think, Uncle Ivo? Could you use some of Father Dominic's friars in Cracow?

Such was Father Hyacinth Konski's zeal for souls that he desired to help his brother Poles to have the best priests possible to teach them the Faith from which they had, for the most part, fallen away over the course of time. Father Dominic de Guzman had no priests to send to Poland. He did, however, suggest that Hyacinth and Ceslaus, ordained priests, join his own novitiate and then return to their homeland to preach to their own people. Bishop Ivo Odrowatz was a little amazed at the suggestion:

Now Ivo Odrowatz, who had come to Rome for one purpose only: to be confirmed in his new post as Bishop of Cracow, was somewhat stunned at the sudden turn of events. Could it be that these nephews whom he had trained and encouraged for years in God's service were being rather too hasty in their decision to follow the Spanish friar?

"Ceslaus has degrees in theology and law from the University of Bologna," he said slowly. "He's been a priest at the Cathedral in Cracow for about five years. . ."

"And this younger brother? What of him?"

The bishop gazed fondly at Hyacinth. "He, too, has a good education, Father Dominic. First at the University of Prague, then at Bologna. Like Ceslaus, he is now a canon of the Cathedral in Cracow. But do you really think. . .?"

Dominic smiled--understandingly, affectionately. "Do I really think that men who are already priests can take to living as simple friars without a struggle? Oh, Your Lordship, have no fear! You have asked for workers, for apostles in the North. Soon you will have them. And not only in Hyacinth and Ceslaus. There are others in your retinue whom God intends for His service."

The Bishop stared, "Others, Father Dominic?"

"Yes, I see one now--standing by the window. And a second at the door. Come here, my sons. Tell me if it is not true that God has suddenly touched your heats with His grace--that now you are both convinced you must give yourselves to Him completely.

All eyes turned to where Dominic pointed, and the Bishop gasped. Advancing toward the Spanish friar were two of his lay attendants--Herman, who hailed from Germany, and a young Czech named Henry. They were good souls, honest and hard-working, but never had the Bishop suspected that they might be interested in the religious life. Indeed, until this very moment they had seemed quite content to spend their days as servants in the episcopal household.

Dominic was smiling. "Well, Herman? Well, Henry? What do you ask?"

With one accord the two fell upon their knees. Yes, they also wanted to be clothed in the habit of the Friars Preachers."

Miss Windeatt went on to describe Bishop Ivo Odrowatz's continued amazement at all of this:

"Bishop Ivo watched the little scene with a fast-beating heart. What an amazing day this was! He had come to beg for missionaries from Father Dominic de Guzman. Instead, the holy man had claimed both nephews and servants for his preaching Order. Yet even as he thought on this, reassuring words echoed in Ivo's ears:

"Why not give me some of these young men who have accompanied you here to Rome? In just a little while I would return them to you as true apostles."

Apostles! Apostles for Poland. God willing, the holy friar was right, thought the Bishop. Ceslaus and Hyacinth, even Herman and Henry, would do great things in the cause of Christ!"

Apostles, indeed! The novitiate having been completed, the friars set out for their 750 mile journey to Cracow, unaware that God would separate them on different paths to evangelize different peoples as they walked. Father Dominic accompanied them part of the way, resisting the temptation to proceed onto Poland himself, aware that he was going to die a little over a year from then, on August 6, 1221. Father Dominic did get Father Hyacinth to relate the history of Poland to him while they were walking, learning that the Poles fought a lot and were in need of being taught the Faith well.

"There have been feuds and battles without number in such cases," said Hyacinth sadly. "Brother kills brother and seizes his lands, so that he may be more powerful. Soon he meets a man who has done just the same thing. They fight each other, taxing the people to provide for their armies. Then thousands upon thousands of young men are killed. Many sins are committed, homes are destroyed, and there is no time to think about God, to provide training and education for the poor. Oh, my friends! Don't you see why apostles must hurry to the North? The nobles there must be taught to see Christ in other human beings! The peasants, fighting and dying in a foolish cause, must be taught the same!

Dominic's eyes shone. What an immense field for good lay in northern Europe! And how fine if he could go there with these zealous young disciples! It would be as fruitful a trip as the one he had longed to make to Asia in his early manhood. But even as he thought on this, a shadow crossed his face. Sixteen years ago, by express command of Pope Innocent the Third, Asia, had been denied him as a missionary field. He had been forced to set aside the glorious thought of dying as a martyr at the hands of the barbarian Tartars living there and to concentrated instead on rooting out the Albigensian heresy in southern France. Now, it would seem that, with the same spirit of abandonment to God's Will, he must set aside the thought of going to Poland. What strength he had should be spent in training others to be missionaries, not wasted in foolish day-dreams.

"By my spirit will go forth with Hyacinth and his friends," he thought. "God will grant this one favor at least. And He will also grant another. Someday Poland will be one of the truly Christian countries of the whole world. Many saints and martyrs will rise up there to love and bless the Holy Name of God. I know it!"

The trip to Poland did not go as quick as Father Hyacinth, O.P., thought it would. The Archbishop of Salzburg, Austria, inveighed his company of friars preachers to stay on in his archdiocese, working first in the mining city of Friesach, where over fifty men had heard of the Dominicans and wanted to join the order. Putting aside his own plans to return home hastily, Saint Hyacinth answered God's call and relented to the desire of the Archbishop of Salzburg to stay there for a while.

"Maybe you'll tell me how long I ought to stay here in Friesach? asked the young superior suddenly. "Also, what is to be done with the fifty novices?"

The Archbishop looked out of the window. A huge crowd had gathered in the public square. and every face was turned in the direction of the church steps. Apparently one of Hyacinth's little band was preaching, and the prelate noted thankfully that the audience was hanging on every word. Ah, how good God was, he reflected, to have sent such true apostles to Austria--men who were literally remaking the city of Friesach! For these daily sermons in the public square were only part of the work undertaken by the friars since their arrival six weeks ago. Always, after the sermons, there were long lines of men and women wanting to go to Confession. Throughout the city the secular clergy were busier than they had ever been before. And because of the increased reception of the Sacraments, vice had almost disappeared in Friesach. There was much more happiness in family and in individual life.

It is only Catholicism, not the Modernist orientation of conciliarism, that transforms the lives of men and thus that of their countries. The Deposit of Faith. The Sacraments. Public devotion given to the Mother of God, including exhortations to pray her Most Holy Rosary. There is no other path to personal or social reform other than Catholicism. Do you think that Jorge Mario Bergoglio believes this? His words have been constant throughout his priestly life in denying that this is the case.

Before leaving Father Herman in charge as the superior of the Dominicans in Friesach, Father Hyacinth prepared himself in prayer:

As Herman took the chair his superior indicated, his heart rejoiced. It has been quite a while since there had been a chance to talk privately with Father Hyacinth. The recent days had been such busy ones for him, what with the many sermons to the public square, the opening of the new monastery, the reception and training of fifty novices. And at night things were not much different, for then Hyacinth gave himself to long and loving prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, realizing full well that a man never accomplishes anything of himself, not even the smallest task. All grace and strength come from God, and come in truly greater abundance if they are asked for frequently and humbly upon one's knees.

"Now, you're having a really wise thought, Brother Herman," said Hyacinth as he seated himself at the other side of the table. "Prayer is certainly the most wonderful medicine in the world. And none of us ever grows strong enough to do without it."

As had happened so many times, Herman did not even notice this bit of mind-reading. He leaned forward with childlike eagerness.

"Prayer is wonderful, Father. Do you know that last week I made up a little one of my own and dedicated it to the Blessed Mother? Ever since then it has brought me one great comfort."

"Really? And what is this prayer, Brother?"

"Sweetest Jesus, grant that I may praise with my mouth, cherish with my heart and honor by my actions Thy most loving Mother and mine."

For a moment Hyacinth was silent, gazing long and tenderly at the young religious. And as he gazed, he was struck with sudden joy. Herman was a saint! For months he had prayed faithfully to the Blessed Mother for help with his work. Since he was convinced that he was stupid, a good-for-nothing when it came to study and preaching, his prayers had been rooted in unusual humility. Herman had recognized his own nothingness, was even content to remain stupid if this were God's Will. Yet he he had remembered that Father Dominic had clothed him with the habit of a Friar Preacher for some special reason, that he must do all in his power to be true to the wonderful gift of his vocation. Prayer was required of him, of course--humble and persevering--but work was required, too, and early in his religious life Herman had discovered the worth of these twin tools with which each man in the world must build his ladder to Heaven. He had discovered them and called upon the Blessed Mother for assistance in their use. And of course she had answered the prayer of a trusting child. Every day. slowly, surely, Herman was progressing in both the spiritual and the intellectual life.

It was soon thereafter that Father Hyacinth had to part with his own beloved brother, Father Ceslaus. The Bishop of Prague had heard what wonderful things the Dominican friars were doing in Austria. Father Hyacinth knew that he had to part with his own brother for the sake souls

Quietly he placed his hands on Ceslaus' head and prayed that comforting words would come to him, wonderful for still another time why Father Dominic had made him, the younger brother, superior of the group that had set out from Rome more than five months ago. Yet, sensing his weakness, he sensed a certain strength, too.

"Ceslaus," he whispered suddenly, "do you remember how we used to wonder at Father Dominic's great success as a preacher?"

Ceslaus smiled. "Yes. But we soon discovered the reason. He paid the price for other people's sins. the fruitful sermons sprang from sacrifices--small and large."

"I know. And somehow it seems that it ought to be the same with us. If we really want to do great things for souls, shouldn't we disregard our own feelings? Shouldn't we be willing to do anything God asks, even if it means. . ."

"Even if it means never seeing each other again?"

Hyacinth looked long and earnestly into his brother's eyes. Ah, so Ceslaus did understand!

"That would be true suffering, wouldn't it?" he asked presently, "with power to purchase many souls from sin?"

Ceslaus did not answer right away. "To be separated from this younger brother would be much more than suffering in the ordinary sense. It would be akin to a slow and excruciating death. Yet of course Hyacinth was right. Only by dying to earthly joys are men made ready for the joys of Heaven. Therefore. . .

"If we ask God to help us, we can make any sacrifice," he said finally. "So I will go to Prague, Hyacinth--or anywhere else you wish to send me--and go with a happy heart. And here and now perhaps I had better say good-bye. May Our Lord bless you always--and prosper your work, wherever it may be."

Scarcely knowing whence came the idea, Hyacinth suddenly felt convinced that countries other than Poland would profit from the labors of Ceslaus and himself. Between then, and with God's help, they would spread the True Faith over much of Europe. "You will go to Bohemia, Silesia and Germany," he said, not realizing that his voice had taken on strange and prophetic tones. "I will go to Poland, Ruthenia, Lithuania and Prussia. And every day we will meet in prayer at the altar, as Father Dominic taught us."

After leaving Brother Henry in charge of a new monastery in Olmutz, Father Hyacinth was able to return to his beloved Poland, meeting two children just outside of Cracow who caught his attention:

"Little friends, I'm Father Hyacinth," he told them, smiling. "My clothes are those of a Friar Preacher, and I've come from Rome to Cracow with important news for souls. Now, who are you?"

"My name is Stanislaus," announced the boy promptly. "I'm ten years old, and I live a mile farther down this road."

"And I'm his sister Elizabeth," said the girl." I'm eight years old. Every day we gather wood for our parents."

Hyacinth nodded approvingly. Both Stanislaus and Elizabeth had the fair hair and blue eyes that were so common in Poland. Their plain homespun garb and the confident manner in which they carried the burdens of firewood showed that they were of the peasant class--sturdy and accustomed to hard work out-of-doors. But suddenly the friar's glance narrowed. Could it be that something was wrong? That the two children. . .

It surprised the youngsters when their new friend suddenly suggested that he carry the bundles of wood. Apparently he wanted to hear more about both brother and sister and believed that talking would be easier for the children if they did not have such awkward loads upon their shoulders.

"I do like your names," he told them, smiling. "Stanislaus and Elizabeth. Of course you received them in Baptism?"

A sudden pain shot through Hyacinth's heart. So--his fears had not been groundless! These children, like hundreds of thousands in northern Europe, had never been baptized. Neither probably, had their parents or grandparents. Indeed, young Stanislaus probably knew nothing of the man who had made this name the holiest in Poland's history--Bishop Stanislaus of Cracow--in 1079 the country's first martyr at the wicked hands of King Boleslaus the Second. As for the little girl--had anyone ever told her of the Blessed Virgin or of her cousin Elizabeth.

So it was that presently Hyacinth was giving the peasant children their first lesson in Catechism. They listened attentively, for never before had they heard anyone speak of Heaven, that wonderful place where men and women live in eternal glory after having served God faithfully upon earth.

"You mean that we can go to Heaven, too, Father Hyacinth?" asked Elizabeth, her eyes shining. "We can go there, even if we're poor?"

The friar smiled. "Yes, child. God wishes all the souls He has made to be happy with Him forever in Heaven. But they must love and serve Him in the way He has told us."

The little girl was on the point of asking still more questions when suddenly her brother seized her arm. "What luck, Elizabeth! See the big procession? The Duke must be coming out from the city!"

Immediately the child forgot her new-found interest in the next-world. Shading her eyes, she stood tip-toe and gazed spellbound into the distance. For the road they had been traveling had now reached its highest point. Cracow lay before them, and the blue waters of the Vistula, while winding out from the city's south gate were more than fifty carriages decked with gay banners and flags!

Elizabeth tugged eagerly at Hyacinth's cloak. "Look, Father! the gold and scarlet carriage with the twelve white horses belongs to Duke Leszek. Isn't it beautiful?"

Hyacinth smiled. "Yes, child. And we have a wonderful view from here."

Suddenly, Stanislaus let out an excited squeal. "Two soldiers are riding ahead, Father, and waving at us! Do you suppose that means we should get off the road?"

The friar shifted the two bundles of firewood on his shoulders. His keen eyes had just identified the coat of arms of Bishop Ivo flying from one of the carriages. With a little laugh he looked down at the boy beside him.

"No, I don't think we need to get off the road, Stanislaus."

"But the Duke must be coming to greet some important visitor! A prince, maybe! Or a king!"

Again Hyacinth laughed. "No, little friend. I believe this visitor is as poor as any beggar in Cracow."

A few minutes later the brilliant procession had halted at a short distance down the road and dozens of noblemen and clerics were emerging from the carriages. What was the children's astonishment when they observed that the attention of the entire company was upon the man who was laden with their own bundles of firewood! Then, before their eyes, Leszek the White, Duke of Cracow, approached Hyacinth and prostrated himself in the dust. And thus he lay until the friar had raised him to his feet.

"Your Grace, I am only a human being," Hyacinth protested. "I deserve no such reception as this."

Leszek's face as pale as he pointed a trembling hand toward the sky. "But surely you saw her, Father?"

"Saw whom, Your Grace?"

"Why, the Blessed Virgin! A few minutes ago it was as if the heavens had opened. I saw Our Lady standing in the clouds, and she was giving you her blessing. It was before her loveliness that I threw myself in the dust."

At these words a murmur of astonishment ran through the crowd and all eyes looked upwards. But soon it was evident that it had been seen by Leszek only. Apparently God wished that the Duke of Cracow should appreciate Hyacinth's entrance into the city and do all that he could to help the Friar Preacher in his missionary labors among the Poles.

Yes, my friends, the Queen of Heaven and of earth, the Queen of All Saints, smiles on the work of priests to convert souls to the Catholic Church. She smiled on Saint Hyacinth that day in Cracow. She smiled on Juan Diego on Tepeyac three hundred years later. She smiled on Bernadette at Lourdes six hundred years later. She smiled on the seers of Fatima seven hundred years later. She smiles on the work of praying and making sacrifices for the conversion of souls, especially through the Most Holy Rosary that she gave into the hands of Saint Dominic de Guzman, not on the smug, prideful assurance that all men are absolutely secure in their eternal destiny even though they live their entire lives and die outside of the bosom of the Catholic Church. Our Lady does not smile on the ecumenism of conciliarism. She smiles on the work of men to convert souls to the Catholic Church, not on those who leave souls in their false religions to the point of their deaths.

Father Maximilian Kolbe explained that false ecumenism was the enemy of the Immaculata:

"Only until all schismatics and Protestants profess the Catholic Creed with conviction, when all Jews voluntarily ask for Holy Baptism – only then will the Immaculata have reached its goals.”

“In other words” Saint Maximilian insisted, “there is no greater enemy of the Immaculata and her Knighthood than today’s ecumenism, which every Knight must not only fight against, but also neutralize through diametrically opposed action and ultimately destroy. We must realize the goal of the Militia Immaculata as quickly as possible: that is, to conquer the whole world, and every individual soul which exists today or will exist until the end of the world, for the Immaculata, and through her for the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.” (Father Karl Stehlin, Immaculata, Our Ideal, Kansas City, Missouri, Angelus Press, 2007, p. 37.)

Remember what Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI said in Cologne, Germany, on August 19, 2005:

We all know there are numerous models of unity and you know that the Catholic Church also has as her goal the full visible unity of the disciples of Christ, as defined by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council in its various Documents (cf. Lumen Gentium, nn. 8, 13; Unitatis Redintegratio, nn. 2, 4, etc.). This unity, we are convinced, indeed subsists in the Catholic Church, without the possibility of ever being lost (cf. Unitatis Redintegratio, n. 4); the Church in fact has not totally disappeared from the world.

On the other hand, this unity does not mean what could be called ecumenism of the return: that is, to deny and to reject one's own faith history. Absolutely not!

It does not mean uniformity in all expressions of theology and spirituality, in liturgical forms and in discipline. Unity in multiplicity, and multiplicity in unity: in my Homily for the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul on 29 June last, I insisted that full unity and true catholicity in the original sense of the word go together. As a necessary condition for the achievement of this coexistence, the commitment to unity must be constantly purified and renewed; it must constantly grow and mature. (Benedict XVI, Ecumenical meeting at the Archbishopric of Cologne English, August 19, 2005.)

Remember also what Jorge Mario Bergoglio told some American "evangelical" Protestants nearly two months ago now:

It’s fair to ask what kind of Catholic Church we as Evangelicals want to see. At lunch I asked Pope Francis what his heart was for evangelism. He smiled, knowing what was behind my question. His comment was, “I’m not interested in converting Evangelicals to Catholicism. I want people to find Jesus in their own community. There are so many doctrines we will never agree on. Let’s not spend our time on those. Rather, let’s be about showing the love of Jesus.” (Of course Evangelicals do evangelize Catholics and Catholics do the same to us. However, that discussion we will raise another day.)

We spoke about how in our diversity we might find unity and strength. Borrowing from Swiss Protestant theologian Oscar Cullman, we reflected how “reconciled diversity” allows us to stand within our own understandings of how Christ effects salvation. And then we press on to deal with global issues like religious freedom and justice and other matters, which affect our wellbeing.

We are in the middle of a major religious shakeup worldwide. The Middle East is on the edge of what we know not. Islam is on the rise. The Gospel witness permeates much of the global south. So what of the future?

A vibrant pope, spiritually vital, tough in ethical leadership and competent in overseeing his world communion is critical. What he says and does has a profound affect on us all. It matters to us that the Spirit rests upon him in wisdom and courage.

Evangelicals need not hide behind fear of engagement. Working on human suffering and matters of injustice with Christians who have a different tradition and read the biblical text differently does not violate who we are or what we believe

Working on the world stage, it is evident there is respect for our distinctive evangelical message and regard for our responsibility and calling to represent our Christian community. International cooperation among Christians is built on that respect. (Lunch with Jorge. See also the post at Novus Ordo Watch Wire.)

So much for the work of so many martyrs who shed their blood seeking converts to the true Church.

So much for the mission that Our Lord Himself gave the Eleven as He asceneded into Heaven on Ascension Thursday.

For all the commotion about Jorge's comments as reported by Brian Stiller, however, it is important to remember that the Argentine Apostate has said very consistently that Catholics should not seek to convert anyone to what is thought to be the Catholic Church. This is what he said in a video presentation to Argentine youth on the Feast of Saint Cajetan on August 7, 2013:

Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for coming here today. Thank you for all that you bear in your heart. Jesus loves you very much. Saint Cajetan loves you very much. He only asks one thing of you: that you come together! That you go out and seek and find one in greater need! But not alone - with Jesus, with Saint Cajetan! Am I going to go out to convince someone to become a Catholic? No, no, no! You are going to meet with him, he is your brother! That's enough! And you are going to help him, the rest Jesus does, the Holy Spirit does it. Remember well: with Saint Cajetan, we the needy go to meet with those who are in greater need. And, hopefully, Jesus will direct your way so that you will meet with one in greater need. (Francis the Insane Dreamer, Rebel and Miscreant's Message for the Feast of Saint Cajetan.)

Meet one in greater need?

There is no greater need for a soul than who is outside of the bosom of Holy Mother Church to be invited with urgency to convert to the true Faith.

Yet it is that Jorge Mario Bergolio equates seeking the conversion of non-Catholics to the true Faith with what he disparages as "proseltyizing." This is one of his first such visceral denunciations of "proselytizing" in favor of the "new evangelization" of conciliarism, which means preaching the corrupted version of the Gospel of Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ that is nothing other than pure, unadulterated Modernism:

(Vatican Radio) Evangelization is not proselytizing. This was the focus of Pope Francis’ remarks to faithful gathered for Mass on Wednesday morning in the Chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae residence in the Vatican. The Pope reiterated that the Christian who wants to proclaim the Gospel must dialogue with everyone, knowing that no one owns the truth, because the truth is received by the encounter with Jesus.

Pope Francis stressed the courageous attitude of Paul St Paul at the Areopagus, when, in speaking to the Athenian crowd, he sought to build bridges to proclaim the Gospel. The Pope called Paul’s attitude one that “seeks dialogue” and is “closer to the heart” of the listener. The Pope said that this is the reason why St Paul was a real pontifex: a “builder of bridges” and not of walls. The Pope went on to say that this makes us think of the attitude that a Christian ought always to have.

“A Christian,” said Pope Francis, “must proclaim Jesus Christ in such a way that He be accepted: received, not refused – and Paul knows that he has to sow the Gospel message. He knows that the proclamation of Jesus Christ is not easy, but that it does not depend on him. He must do everything possible, but the proclamation of Jesus Christ, the proclamation of the truth, depends on the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us in today's Gospel: ‘When He shall come, the Spirit of truth, shall guide you into all the truth.’ Paul does not say to the Athenians: ‘This is the encyclopedia of truth. Study this and you have the truth, the truth.’ No! The truth does not enter into an encyclopedia. The truth is an encounter - it is a meeting with Supreme Truth: Jesus, the great truth. No one owns the truth. The we receive the truth when we meet [it]. (Miss Frances at Wednesday Liturgical Travesty: build bridges, not walls.)

No one owns the truth?

The Catholic Church is the sole repository of every jot and tittle of what her Divine Founder, Invisible Head and Mystical Bridegroom entrusted to her exclusively for Its infallible explication and eternal safekeeping.

Jorge Mario Bergoglio does not believe this, which is why he believes that Protestants and the Orthodox have a "mission" to proclaim their versions of the Gospel. This hideous apostate believes that one can "learn" something about Our Lord that is lacking within the Divine Constitution of Holy Mother Church. He is a heretic in the mode of his immediate predecessor, Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI (where is the Antipope Emeritus these days?), who quoted Protestant "theologians" with great admiration in his "unofficial" books.

Go tell that to Saint Hyacinth!

Father Hyacinth established Holy Trinity Monastery in Cracow, working to teach the people, being blessed with great success. Not content, however, to stay in Cracow, he went on in due course to try to establish the Faith in the pagan land known as Prussia. While en route there, Our Lady helped him walked across the Vistula River, near Vishogrod, when it was raging. Miss Windeatt picks up the scene:

Naturally the people of Vishogrod were beside themselves. Who were these strangers? Surely the God they worshiped must be the True God!

"I'm going to get my boat and go after them!" cried a fisherman suddenly. "Who wants to come along?"

Instantly, there was a mad scramble to fill this and other boats, and soon the now peaceful Vistula presented a busy scene. Almost half the population of Vishogrod was on its way across the river--all eyes fixed upon the four religious who continued to defy the laws of nature in so spectacular a fashion.

As might be expected, the miraculous crossing was witnessed by many from the opposite bank. When Hyacinth and his friars finally stepped ashore here, it was to be greeted by an anger and awestruck throng, a few of whom had received the Christian Faith in years past but since had drifted away. Now they fell upon their knees to make a general Confession of their sins. Oh, how true that they had broken all the Commandments--even to the point of committing murder and worshiping false gods!

"Forgive us, Father! they begged earnestly. "Give us your blessing, and we'll try not to sin anymore!"

Father Hyacinth could not grant the crowd's request to establish a monastery there at that time. He had to press on with his travels to meet with the Duke of Pomerania, Duke Swientopelk. Establishing a monastery in Pomerania would place his preaching friars reasonably near Prussia itself. The Duke was very accommodating, but surprised to learn that Saint Hyacinth wanted to establish his monastery in Gedan, known today as Gdansk (known also as Danzig in the days when the Germans controlled this port city along the Baltic Sea).

Hyacinth smiled as he read the Duke's thoughts, but he did not change his mind. Somehow he had a feeling that Gedan was one of the most valuable sections of Pomerania. Although it was isolated now, and a wilderness, there would come a day when the waters of the Baltic would complete a remarkable change. Even now tons of sand were being deposited by the tide in such a manner that gradually the channel between Gedan and the mainland was becoming very shallow. As a result, in a few years there would no longer be an island. One one side nature would have joined Gedan to the mainland, thus creating an excellent harbor.

"When this happens, Gedan will become a great center of commerce," Hyacinth told himself. "Boats will come here from all over the world. Some will continue to call the place Gedan, others Sdansk, but most people will know it by the name of Danzig. God willing, our friars will have some part in making Danzig a truly Christian city."

Saint Hyacinth stayed in Gedan for a while to establish his monastery, informing Duke Swientopelk that he was going to go to Russia to convert the people steeped in the errors of Orthodoxy, that harbinger of Protestantism that has such a hold on the mind of the comciliar "popes." In other words, Saint Hyacinth was undertaking the sort of proselytism in Russia that is absolutely forbidden by the conciliar church today. Miss Windeatt explains Saint Hyacinth's concerns:

"Today every city [in Russia] has its churches and monasteries," Hyacinth explained as they set out on their journey. "Yet there is work for us because for generations the Russian bishops and priests have been living in error. Like so many others in the East, particularly in Turkey and Greece, they accept only part of what the Church teaches. And since the clergy are in error, so, naturally, are the people. They have been led astray so completely that they no longer understand what is meant by Truth."

Not exactly in accord with the conciliarism, huh? Saint Hyacinth was in perfect accord with Catholicism.

The narrative continues:

"I know about one of the errors in Russia," said Florian. "The priests and people don't recognize the Pope as Vicar of Christ on earth. Isn't that so, Father?"

Hyacinth nodded. "That is one of the errors. But there are several others. For instance, the Russian Christians don't believe that in Purgatory souls are cleansed from the stain of sin or that the bread and wine are changed into the Body and Blood of Christ at the very instant the priest pronounces the words of Consecration. They say, too, that the Holy Ghost proceeds from God the Father alone and not also from the Son."

Please believe that Joseph "Cardinal" Ratzinger, who presided over the Joint Declaration on Justification in 1999 that, in essence, contradicted the Council of Trent, is willing to forgo Purgatory and the Filioque in order to effect a false union with the Orthodox. Not so Saint Hyacinth.

Saint Hyacinth informed his companions that he was taking them to Kiev, not to Moscow or Smolensk. His reception by Vladimir Burikovitch, the Grand Prince of Kiev, was not pleasant at first, that is, until Saint Hyacinth gave sight to the prince's daughter, who had been blind from birth:

"Receive what you most desire, child," he whispered, "in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

In just a few minutes the entire palace was in an uproar. Servants, guards--even the royal family itself--were running hither and yon, the same exciting words on every tongue. Little Princess Anna could see!

"I'm sure the new priest did it!" cried the child joyfully, pointing to Father Hyacinth. "I heard him praying over me, and now thins aren't dark anymore."

Unashamed of the tears coursing down his cheeks, Vladimir pressed his little daughter to his heart. What joy! What marvelous and unexpected joy! But even as the happy tears flowed, the mind of the Grand Prince was troubled. How could he ever repay the Polish friar who had made all the happiness possible? Why, only a short while ago he had ordered him out of the palace, even out of Kiev!

"Father, forgive me!" he murmured humbly. "What reward will you have for the miracle?"

Hyacinth shook his head. "Reward? Why should I have a reward, Your Majesty? or gratitude? Don't you know that God worked this wonder so that you would be brought closer to Him?

Vladimir hesitated."Yes, Father. But just the same, there must be something you would like. Can't you tell me what it is?"

Once again Hyacinth shook his head. He would claim no reward. As he continued to smile kindly upon the Russian monarch, the latter's pride suddenly crumbled. Could it be that his foreigner professed the True Faith, and not the clergy of Kiev? That the "western Catholics" were in the right, instead of those who paid homage to the Patriarch of Constantinople?

After a battle within himself, Vladimir professed the Catholic Faith and gave permission for Father Hyacinth to establish a monastery in Kiev. Knowing that there would be fierce opposition from some Orthodox priests (and from the conciliar Vatican today if this had taken place in our own lifetimes), Hyacinth, who was given to see the future, including the fact that he would die at the age of seventy-two, in 1257, reassured his companions about how things would turn out, explaining that they should not worry about the wounded pride of the heretical priests steeped in the many errors of Orthodoxy and that some of them would embrace the true Faith, Catholicism:

Hyacinth smiled. "Possibly, my son. And yet that is just what is going to happen. Within two years we'll clothe several young men in the habit of our Order. More than that. A number of Russian priests will also be converted and come to live in this new monastery.

Godinus and Florian looked wide-eyed at each other. This was almost too much to believe--that some of Kiev's heretical priests should acknowledge their error, lay aside important positions, then ask for the lowest place in a monastery of "western" friars!

"It will happen thus within two years," repeated Hyacinth firmly. "However, we won't think about it now. We won't even try to do very much about converting the 'eastern Catholics' or their leaders. Rather, we shall devote ourselves to another group of people. Who are they, Brother Florian?"

"The pagans," replied the latter quickly. "There are many of them in the city."

Saint Hyacinth, having effected the conversion of Grand Prince Vladimir, knew that Our Lady would spread the True Faith as he concentrated on the pagans. Unlike the conciliarists, who forbid any efforts to convert the Orthodox, Saint Hyacinth knew that the Orthodox were in error and had started, much like Saint Patrick with the Irish chieftains, with the leader and knew that the Blessed Mother would do the rest of the work.

Part of his work in dealing with the pagans involved destroying their false worship. He did not engage in "inter-cultural" dialogue. He did not believe in "peaceful coexistence" with demon worship. He was an apostle whose immortal soul was on fire for the conversion of souls to the True Faith, sparing no effort to take people out of their false worship.

Here is a scene that took place on island in the Dnieper River outside of Kiev:

For a moment all was silence as Hyacinth fixed his eyes in careful scrutiny upon the island. Then suddenly his hands clenched. Drawn up at one side of the island were several small boats. And toward the center, from amidst the thick trees, rose a slender column of smoke!

"The pagans!" he whispered. "They're offering sacrifice!"

Yes, the hour of sunrise was a favorite time for idol worship and gratefully Hyacinth realized that his plans were working out well More than a hundred men and women must be on the island, kneeling in a secret grove before the ugly statue they believed to be a god. Already there must have been prayers and hymns, then the burning of a lamb or calf before the idol. Soon the service would be over and the pagans would stream down to their boats to return to their homes in Kiev.

"I've no time to lose," he said firmly. "Kneel down, Brother Martin, and pray that I do something really worthwhile to help these poor people!"

Before the young religious could realize what was happening, Hyacinth had turned and started down the grassy slope to the river's edge. His black cloak floated before him like a sail, and for a moment Martin knelt as one in a dream--forgetful of the command to pray. With what speed his beloved superior moved! Why, he was all but flying down the hill! Then the young friar grew really weak, for suddenly he understood that he was witnessing a genuine wonder. By now Father Hyacinth had reached the Dnieper and was starting to cross over to the island. But not in a boat. Ah, no! Father Hyacinth was walking on the river as thought it were dry land!

"Mother of God! cried Martin. "I heard that he did such a thing at Vishogrod . . . on the Vistula! But here? Before me? Oh, no! It's too much!

Presently Hyacinth landed safely on the island, then disappeared into the thick woods. And, though Martin strained his eyes for several minutes, he could see him no longer. Nor was any sound to be heard save the harsh cries of water birds as they circled over the river in search of food.

As he looked and listened in an agony of suspense, the young religious tried to clasp his trembling hands in prayer. Oh, what was going to happen? Would Father Hyacinth really seek out the pagans? Would he put a stop to their heathen sacrifice?

It should be noted at this juncture, my friends, that heathen sacrifice is offered all the time in the name of the "inculturation of the Gospel," as happened in July of 2006 in Toronto, Canada, when Hindu "worship" was offered in the context of what purported to be an offering of the Protestant and Masonic Novus Ordo worship service.

Karol Wojtyla/John Paul II once praised a voodoo witch doctor in Benin, Africa, in 1993 for the "contributions" he made to his people.

Pagan blessings of "the four winds" are offered regularly in many Catholic churches, as has been done at Mission San Juan Capistrano in California.

Oh no, my friends, conciliarism worships at the devil's altars, considering the work of Saint Hyacinth to be something to apologize for, not imitate.

Does anyone want to contend that Saint Hyacinth would have called Mount Hiei in Japan "sacred" for its being the site of the first outpost of the Tendei sect of the false, diabolical religion known as Buddhism?

Does anyone want to contend that Saint Hyacinth would have done what Joseph Ratzinger/Benedict XVI did on April 17, 2008, when latter received with his own priestly hands the symbols of five false religions?

Does anyone want to contend that Saint Hyacinth would have said anything other than the simple truth that God hates each false religion and that He wants each of them and their symbols eradicated from the face of this earth?

Ah, back to the story:

"It can mean death," he [Martin] thought. "Even I know that the Russian pagans are little more than crude barbarians."

Suddenly there was a clamor in the distance, muted at first, then growing louder, and with a sinking heart, the young man realized that the pagans were aroused. They were pouring out of the woods with screams and shouts. But soon he could see that they were not attacking Father Hyacinth. They were not even making for their boats. Rather, they were throwing themselves on their knees in a very frenzy of terror. And why? Because a black-and-white-clad friar was striding out of the woods and driving before him a horrible creature--half man, half beat---with flames shooting from its mouth and eyes!

Martin's blood ran cold as he looked at the terrible sight. Could it be that this was the Devil? that Father Hyacinth's prayers had forced him to leave the idol and appear before the pagans in one of his hellish shapes?

"Oh, if one some of the Russian priests could be here!" whispered the young friar, his teeth clattering. "Maybe this would teach them not to speak ill of a true servant of God!"

Martin was wrong. When word of the miracle was noised about in Kiev, the jealousy of the heretical priests reached alarming proportions. So Father Hyacinth had gone to the island and found the pagans worshiping before an old oak tree? With one blow he had sent the great tree crumbling into dust? As the Evil One emerged from the tree, he had fought with him hand to hand, then thrown him into the Dnieper?

The jealousy of the Russian Orthodox priests forced Grand Prince Vladimir's hand. While the Grand Prince remained a Catholic and two of Father Hyacinth's friars could stay on at the monastery in Kiev, he, Father Hyacinth, had to leave. His work, though, for souls had been established. That anyone in the Ukraine today is Catholic is the result of the seeds planted by Father Hyacinth, O.P.

Saint Hyacinth continued working for souls throughout his life.

We first read Miss Windeatt's book out loud at mealtimes for our daughter to hear when she was four years old in 2006. The full book, which was reprinted by TAN Books and Publishers in 1993, is certainly a great antidote to the indifferentist spirit of conciliarism. Saint Hyacinth wanted to win men and their nations for Christ the King and for his true Church, the Catholic Church.

Although the passage below was included in In Full Communion with the Golden Calf several years ago now, the vision of Heaven that Saint Stanislaus had shortly before he died reminds us of the reward that awaits those who are zealous to bring souls into the true Church:

But on the feast of Saint Dominic all realized that Hyacinth's days were numbered. Apart from the fact that he was worn out with thirty-seven years of missionary labors, he no loner cared to live. Indeed, his one great desire was to die as quickly as possible.

"Any why? Because our good Father has had a glimpse of Heaven!" the Prior told the community in awed tones. "He's seen a little of the reward awaiting those who do God's Will, and now even the finest things in life are no more than dust and ashes."

"Tell us about the wonderful vision, Father," urged the Novice Master. "It will do us all good."

So the Prior began. He explained how one day recently Father Hyacinth, as he was concluding the Holy Sacrifice, had found himself in the center of a bright ray of light. It had streamed down upon him from some mysterious source above the altar, and as he looked up, he had been amazed to find that hundreds of angels and saints were also enfolded in the strange glow.

Suddenly there was an even greater radiance, and Heaven itself opened before him. Then the saints and angels divided and ranged themselves in two lines, facing one another. At the end of the glittering passageway was a golden throne.

"Our Lady was seated on the throne," said the Prior reverently, "and Our Lord stood beside her. The air was filled with the most beautiful music as the saints and angels joined in praise of Mother and Son. Then suddenly the perfect harmony died away. All was silence, and Our Lord placed a splendid crown upon His Mother's head. It seemed to be made of flowers and stars."

The community listened in breathless amazement as the Prior described the scene which followed. With a smile the Blessed Virgin had taken the glittering crown from her own head and presented it to Hyacinth.

"This is for you," she had said, "the symbol of eternal life." And as she finished speaking, the saints and angels resumed their heavenly song, their faces shining with such light and happiness that Hyacinth could hardly bear to look upon them. Indeed, only one thought filled his mind. He wanted to finish his earthly work at once, so that he might be numbered among these blessed ones for all eternity.

As the days passed the priests and lay Brothers of Holy Trinity went about their duties in deep thought. Father Hyacinth's vision of Heaven, as related by the Prior, had made an enormous impression upon them, and now even the smallest task was seen in a new light. Its faithful accomplishment was nothing more than a coin wherewith to purchase everlasting joys.

"Of course, we've always known that this was so," said one young priest slowly. "The trouble is, we've never thought about it enough. But now--well, I'm happy to say that I can't get the idea out of my mind."

"Yes," put in another. "And that crown of flowers and stars is far more than it seems. It's only a sign, and a very small sign, too, of all the joys possessed by the blessed in Heaven.

His companion nodded. "I know. Why, if we spent our whole lives in listing the good tidings God has provided for those who serve Him faithfully, in this world, we'd have only a few poor samples."

Saint Hyacinth performed many miracles, including raising the dead to life. We need to pray to him in our own day that so the lords of the counterfeit church of conciliarism who have cast aside Saint Hyacinth's zeal for the conversion of souls will return to the maternal bosom of the spotless and immaculate Catholic Church, she who can never give us defective liturgies or false or ambiguous doctrines or pronouncements, before they die. Saint Hyacinth is very much with us today as a member of the Church Triumphant in Heaven.

This is what he told Brother Florian just before he died on the Feast of the Assumption, August 15, 1257:

"I am going to Heaven now, my son, yet I shall be with you in spirit. Whenever you are in trouble, you are to call upon me and I will come to your aid. Do you understand?"

Florian choked back a sob. "Yes, Father, I . . . I understand."

Hyacinth sighed. "No, you do not understand. Why, you can barely speak for sorrow, because deep in your heart you believe that the blessed are far away from you! But it is not so, my son. Oh, no!"

Then Hyacinth gave his message. Yes, he was about to die. But this only meant that from now one he could be of greater use to his friends. In Heaven he would be a perfect soul, utterly pleasing to god, and so his prayers would have even more power than upon earth.

"Have faith in what I tell you," he urged. "And try to believe that I shall never leave Poland. I shall be with my beloved country until the end."

The Prior leaned forward anxiously. "Is our country to have many troubles in the future, Father?"

The dying friar nodded. "Yes. But all will turn out well, Father Prior. Have no fear of that."

The same holds true for the Catholic Church today. A counterfeit church claiming to be the Catholic Church has deceived millions upon millions of Catholics as it makes one accommodation after another with the spirit of the world and with all manner of false religions. Modernism seems to have triumphed decisively in the persons of the conciliar "popes," including Jorge Mario Bergoglio and his complete and utter contempt for the Received Teaching of the Catholic Church and of her authentic Tradition.

The triumph is only momentary.

The Modernists will be driven away.

The counterfeit church of conciliarism will collapse.

Our Lady's Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart will triumph. And our devotion to and imitation of Saint Hyacinth will help to bring about the day when his example of zeal for souls is once again the norm and the apostasy of the present moment is remembered no more as we pray as many Rosaries each day as our states-in-life permit.

This prayer composed by Dom Prosper Gueranger summarizes the work of this glorious saint very eloquently:

Great was thy privilege, O Son of Dominic, to be so closely associated to Mary as to enter into thy glory on the very feast of her triumph. As thou occupied so fair a place in the procession accompanying he to heaven, tell us of her greatness, her beauty, he love for us poor creatures, whom she desires to make sharers, like thee, in her bliss.

It is through her that thou wert so powerful in this thy exile, before being near her in happiness and glory. Long after Adalbert and Anschar, Cyril and Methodius, thou didst traverse once more the ungrateful North, where thorns and briars so quickly sprang up again, where the people, whom the Church has with such labour delivered from the yoke of paganism, are continually letting themselves be caught up in the meshes of schism and the snares of heresy. In his chosen domain the prince of darkness suffered fresh defeats, an immense multitude broke his chains, and the light of salvation shone further than any of thy predecessors had carried it. Poland, definitively won to the Church, became her rampart, until the days of treason which put an end to Christian Europe.

O Hyacinth, preserve the faith in the hearts of this noble people. Obtain grace for the Northern regions, which thou didst warm with the fiery breath of thy word. Nothing thou askest of Mary will be refused, for the Mother of Mercy promised thee so. Keep up the apostolic zeal of thy illustrious Order. May the number of thy brethren be multiplied, for it is far below our present needs.

Akin to thy power over the waves, is another attributed to thee by the confidence of the faithful, and justified by many prodigies: viz., that of restoring life to the drowned. Many a time also have Christian mothers experienced thy miraculous power, in bringing to the saving font their little ones, whom a dangerous delivery threatened to deprive of baptism. Prove to thy devout clients that he goodness of God is ever the same, and the influence of His elect not lessened. (Dom Prosper Gueranger, O.S.B., The Liturgical Year, Volume 13, Time after Penteocost, Book IV, pp. 412-413.)

Saint Hyacinth of Poland, pray for us! Pray for Holy Mother Church. Inspire us to use the instrument that Saint Dominic de Guzman received from the hands of Our Lady herself, her Most Holy Rosary, to be ready for the moment of our own Particular Judgments at all times, attempting to plant seeds for the conversion of souls, starting with ourselves, on a daily basis and to make reparation for our own sins and those of the whole world to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus through her own Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.

Vivat Christus Rex!

Our Lady of Fatima, pray for us.

Saint Joseph, pray for us.

Saints Peter and Paul, pray for us.

Saint John the Baptist, 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 Hyacinth, O.P., pray for us.

Saint Ceslaus, O.P., pray for us.

Saint Dominic de Guzman, O.P., pray for us.

Saint Stanislaus, pray for us.

Saint Hedwig, pray for us.

Saint Lawerence the Deacon, pray for us.

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Saint Hyacinth: The Apostle of the Northland and a Rebuke To Conciliarism

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