SAINT OF THE DAY – AUGUST 18

Blessed Martyrs of Rochefort

BLESSEDS LEONARD DUVERNEUIL, MICHAEL-ALOYSIUS BRULARD AND HUBERT OF SAINT CLAUDE

 

Fr. Leonard Duverneuil (b. 1737 at Limoges), Fr. Michel-Louis Brulard (b. 1758 at Chartres), and Fr. Hubert of Saint Claude (b. 1753 at Frolois), were among a group of 64 Martyrs beatified 1st October 1995, victims of the French Revolution who came from 14 French dioceses and from various religious Orders. In their loyalty to God, the Church and the Pope, they refused to take the oath of the Civil Constitution for the Clergy imposed by the Constituent Assembly of the Revolution. As a result, they were imprisoned, massed like animals, on a slave-trader ship in Rochefort Bay, waiting in vain to be deported into slavery. During 1794, the first two Carmelites died on board ship: Fr. John-Baptist on 1st July, and Fr. Michael-Aloysius on 25th July, both being buried on the island of Aix. After the plague broke out on the ship, those remaining disembarked on the island of Madame, where Fr. James died and was buried on 10th September. Noted for their loving ministry to their fellow prisoners and their patience in accepting every type of outrage, privation, and cruelty, not to mention the vicissitudes of weather, hunger and sickness, our three Discalced Carmelite priest martyrs and their companions in martyrdom gave unsurpassed Christian witness to their faith and love.

Pope St. John Paul II beatified them in 1995, together with 61 other fellow martyrs of the French Revolution.

 

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Resolutions drawn up by the Priests imprisoned on the ship Les Deux Associés

They will never give themselves up to useless worries about being set free. Instead they will make the effort to profit from the time of their detention by meditating on their past years, by making holy resolutions for the future, so that they can find in the captivity of their bodies, freedom for their soul.

If God permits them to recover totally or in part this liberty nature longs for, they will avoid giving themselves up to an immoderate joy when they receive the news. By keeping their souls tranquil, they will show they support without murmur the cross placed on them, and that they are disposed to bear it even longer with courage and as true Christians who never let themselves be beaten by adversity.

If there is question of receiving back their personal effects they will show no eagerness in asking for them; rather they will make the declaration that may be required of them with modesty and strict truth; they will receive without lament what is given to them, accustoming themselves, as is their duty, to despise the things of the earth and to be content with little, after the example of the apostles.

They are not to satisfy curious people they might come across; they will not reply to superficial questions about what happened to them; they will let people glimpse that they have patiently supported their sufferings, without descending into detail, and without showing any resentment against those who have authored and been instrumental in their suffering.

They will sentence themselves to the severest and most absolute silence about the faults of their brothers and the weaknesses into which they happened to fall due to their unfortunate situation, their bad health and the length of their punishment. They will preserve the same charity towards those whose religious opinion is different from their own. They will avoid all bitter feeling or animosity, being content to feel sorry about them interiorly and making the effort to stay on the way of truth by their gentleness and moderation.

They will not show grief over the loss of their goods, no haste to recover them, no resentment against those who possess them…

From now on they will form but one heart and one soul, without showing distinction of persons, and without leaving any of their brothers out, under any pretext. They will never get mixed up in the new politics, being content to pray for the welfare of their country and prepare themselves for a new life, if God permits them to return to their homes, and there become subjects of edification and models of virtue for the people, by their detachment from the world, their assiduousness in prayer and their love for recollection and piety.

 

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On July 17th 1794 during the French Revolution, these sixteen nuns died at the guillotine after having offered their lives for the Church and for France. At that time the revolutionary government had forbidden religious to live in communities. Blessed Teresa of St. Augustine was their Prioress and it was she who suggested to the nuns that they might offer their lives for the Church and their country.

The martyrs consisted of fourteen nuns and lay sisters (O.C.D.), and two externs:

• Mother Teresa of St. Augustine, prioress (Madeleine-Claudine Ledoine) b. 1752
• Mother St. Louis, sub-prioress (Marie-Anne [or Antoinett] Brideau) b. 1752
• Mother Henriette of Jesus, ex-prioress (Marie-Françoise Gabrielle de Croissy) b. 1745
• Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified (Marie-Anne Piedcourt) b. 1715
• Sister Charlotte of the Resurrection, ex-sub-prioress and sacristan (Anne-Marie-Madeleine Thouret) b. 1715
• Sister Euphrasia of the Immaculate Conception (Marie-Claude Cyprienne) b. 1736
• Sister Teresa of the Sacred Heart of Mary (Marie-Antoniette Hanisset) b. 1740
• Sister Julie Louise of Jesus, widow (Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville) b. 1741
• Sister Teresa of St. Ignatius (Marie-Gabrielle Trézel) b. 1743
• Sister Mary-Henrietta of Providence (Anne Petras) b. 1760
• Sister Constance, novice (Marie-Geneviève Meunier) b. 1765
• Sister St. Martha (Marie Dufour) b. 1742
• Sister Mary of the Holy Spirit (Angélique Roussel) b. 1742
• Sister St. Francis Xavier (Julie Vérolot) b. 1764
• Catherine Soiron b. 1742 (Extern)
• Thérèse Soiron b. 1748 (Extern)

Blessed Teresa was born in the parish of St. Sulpice in Paris and baptised in that church.  Her full name was Marie-Madeleine-Claudine Lidoine.  Her mother was 41 when she was born and she was the only child of her parents. Madeleine’s father was employed by the Paris Observatory and her parents gave her a good education which developed her artistic and poetic gifts, but having spent their money on her education they did not have the means to provide her with a dowry when she wanted to enter Carmel.

The royal princess, Madame Louise, who had entered the Carmel of St. Denis and taken the name Sr. Teresa of St. Augustine, heard of Madeleine’s situation and asked to meet her.  Convinced of her vocation she asked her nephew’s wife, the young Dauphine Marie Antoinette, to provide a dowry which she did willingly.  Madeleine was able to enter the Carmel of Compiègne where she took the name of her patroness, Sr. Teresa of St. Augustine.

In 1786, when she was 34 Sr. Teresa of St. Augustine was elected prioress and she was re-elected in 1789.  By that time she was already well aware of the precarious situation of religious in France.  That January she had received the vows of a lay sister, Sr. St. Francis Xavier, the last novice to be professed in Compiègne before the ‘suspension’ of vows was introduced in October, this was followed immediately by the confiscation of Church property. Sr. Teresa stressed the risks this young novice was taking, giving her the opportunity to leave, even though she was much needed to help the two older lay sisters, one of whom was chronically sick. Sr. Xavier assured Mother Teresa that the Lord would take care of her and went ahead with her profession.

In August 1790 the Revolutionary Directors entered the Carmel to make the required inventory.  They returned the next day with armed guards and proceeded to question each sister to see if any of them were being held against their will. Every one of them stated that she wished to remain a Carmelite and seven of them, including Sr. Teresa of St. Augustine said explicitly that they wished to live and die in their religious state.

In September 1792 the monastery was stripped of its furnishings and the nuns were ordered to dress in civilian clothing and leave the monastery.  They were forbidden to live together but found lodgings in four apartments quite close to each other and were in constant communication, in fact one sister cooked for them all.

Soon after the sisters were expelled from their monastery, following the fall of the Christian Monarchy and the terrible September massacres, Sr. Teresa of St. Augustine proposed that they make an Act of Consecration, an act which would be recited daily by all the community, in which each one would offer herself entirely to God as a holocaust, that peace might be restored to France and especially to the French Church. Reaction to this suggestion varied but by November they had all grown into the idea, it was above all an offering of love for the church and their country.  Sr. Teresa was convinced that love always triumphs.

The following June the nuns’ apartments were requisitioned and the community were imprisoned in the former Visitation Convent where to their surprise they found a community of English Benedictines who had been arrested as foreigners the previous September.

However, the Carmelites’ stay was short; after three weeks they were ordered to leave for Paris to be tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal.

They were taken to the Conciergerie Prison. The search of their apartments had confirmed that they were still trying to maintain their religious life as a community, which was forbidden.  It was also clear that they had monarchist sympathies and opposed the Revolution. They spent the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in prison and the next day they were taken to the Revolutionary Tribunal to be tried.  The verdict was determined before the trial; of the 35 prisoners tried in the ‘Courtroom of Freedom’ that day 30 were condemned, including the sixteen Carmelites.

On their last journey from the prison to the guillotine, the nuns sang Vespers, Compline and the Office for the Dead.  As they entered the Place du Trône and were confronted with the sight of the guillotine high on the scaffold Sr. Teresa began the Te Deum, which was followed by Veni Creator Spiritus.  The executioner, who had inherited the task against his wishes, was willing to give concessions; he allowed the nuns to finish their devotions and permitted Sr. Teresa to decide the order in which they would die.  Sr. Constance, the novice of six years, who had been unable to make her profession because of the anti-religious laws, was at last able to pronounce her vows with the rest of the community.  She was the first to die having knelt to receive the blessing of the prioress and kissed a tiny terracotta statuette of the Madonna and Child which Sr. Teresa was holding. Before mounting the scaffold, she asked permission to die, to which the prioress replied ‘Go my daughter’.  The whole community followed this same pattern. Finally, Sr. Teresa stood alone.  As she prepared to bring to completion the offering of her life for the Church and France, she too kissed the little statue of the Virgin and Child and made the sign of the Cross.  Then she hesitated wondering what to do with it.  A woman in the crowd came forward to take it from her, ensuring its preservation to this day in the restored Carmel of Compiègne. With Sr. Teresa’s execution the ‘Act of Consecration’ made by the community was consummated.

Sr Constance waved aside the executioner and his two assistants and approached the guillotine unaided.  The executions likely continued in order of religious profession.  We know that Mother Teresa was the last.  The 78 year old Sr Mary of Jesus Crucified was heard to say to the executioners “I forgive you, my friends.  I forgive you with all that longing of heart with which I would that God forgive me!”  The bodies of the Carmelites were buried in a Mass grave.

Many believe that the sacrifice of Mother Teresa of St Augustine and her community brought about the end of the ‘Reign of Terror’, which happened just 10 days later on 27th July 1794.  Their story has captured the popular imagination, inspiring a novella by Gertrud von le Fort, a play by Georges Bernanos and an opera by Francis Poulenc. They were beatified by Pope St Pius X on 27 May 1906.

There is a British connection with the Compiègne Martyrs.  The English Benedictine community of Cambrai were ejected from their monastery in 1792 and imprisoned at Compiègne.  From June 1794, the Carmelites joined them, although they were detained separately.  The Benedictine community testified to the holiness of the Compiègne sisters and believed that the Carmelites’ martyrdom saved their own lives.  It may also be that their English nationality prevented them from being executed for treason.  They remained in prison until April 1795, and were then banished to England, where they eventually settled at Stanbrook Abbey.  Their only ‘possessions’ were the secular clothes of the Carmelites, which they wore.  The surviving pieces of cloth and one espadrille are now venerated at Stanbrook as relics.

With each fall of the blade, the singing diminished, voice by voice. After the sixteenth and final sister had died, there was silence. This was unusual. Typically, an execution was preceded by a drumroll, and following the beheading, the crowd erupted in cheers, paradoxically believing that they were cheering for values such as freedom, equality, and reason. This time, the mood was sombre. There were no drums nor cheering. The crowd dispersed in silence.

The nuns offered their lives in the hopes that God would bring peace to their land. Ten days after their execution, the Terror ended. From the beginning of the Church, Christians have loved the land of their birth, and offered their lives for their countries, even when facing persecution. These Carmelite sisters shared in Christ’s sacrifice most perfectly. They show us how to live and love with grace and dignity in a time of upheaval.

(This article compiled by Fr Regan D’Souza OCD from various internet sources and books)

 

To possess God in all, you should possess nothing in all. For how can the heart that belongs to one belong completely to the other?

Saint John of the Cross
Letter 17 to Sr. Magdalena del Espíritu Santo
Written from Segovia, 28 July 1589

Offering of myself as a Victim of Holocaust to God’s Merciful Love

O My God! Most Blessed Trinity, I desire  to Love you and make you Loved, to work for the glory of Holy Church by saving souls on earth and liberating those suffering in purgatory. I desire to accomplish your will perfectly and to reach the degree of glory  you have prepared for me in your kingdom. I desire, in a word, to be a Saint, but I feel my helplessness and I beg you, O my God! to be yourself my Sanctity!

Since You loved me so much as to give me  your only Son as my Savior and my Spouse, the infinite treasures of his merits are mine. I offer them to you with gladness, beg­ging you to look on me only through the Face of Jesus and in his Heart burning with Love.

I offer you, too, all the merits of the Saints (in Heaven and on earth), their acts of Love, and those of the Holy Angels. Finally, I offer you, O Blessed Trinity! the Love and merits of the Blessed Virgin, my dear Mother. It is to her  I abandon my offering, begging her to present it to you. Her Divine Son, my Beloved Spouse, told us in the days of his mortal life: “Whatsoever you ask the Father in my name he will give it to you! ” I am certain, then, that you will grant my desires; I know, O my God! That the more you want to give, the more you make us desire. I feel in my heart immense desires and it is with confidence I ask you to come and take possession of my soul. Ah! I cannot re­ceive Holy Communion as often as I desire, but, Lord, are you not All-Powerful? Remain in me as in a tabernacle and never separate yourself from your little host

I want to console you for the ingratitude of the wicked, and I beg of you to take away my freedom to dis­please you. If through weakness I sometimes fall, may your Divine Glance cleanse my soul immediately, consuming all my imperfections like the fire that transforms everything into itself.

I thank you, O my God! for all the graces you have granted me, especially the grace of making me pass through the crucible of suffering. It is with joy I shall con­template You on the last day carrying the scepter of your Cross. Since you deigned to give me a share in this very precious Cross, I hope in Heaven to resemble you and to see shining in my glorified body the sacred stigmata of Your Passion…

After earth’s exile, I hope to go and enjoy you in the Fatherland, but I do not want to lay up merits for Heaven. I want to work for your Love alone with the one purpose of pleasing you, consoling your Sacred Heart, and saving souls who will love you eternally.

In the evening of this life, I shall appear before you with empty hands, for I do not ask you, Lord, to count my works. All our justice is stained in your eyes.  I wish, then, to be clothed in your own Justice and to receive from your Love the eternal possession of Yourself. I want no other Throne, no other Crown but You, my Beloved!

Time is nothing in your eyes, and a single day is like a thousand years; you can, then, in one instant prepare me to appear before you…

In order to live in one single act of perfect Love, I offer myself as a victim of holocaust to your merciful love, asking you to consume me incessantly, allowing the waves of infinite tenderness shut up within you to overflow into my soul, and that thus I may become  a Martyr of your Love, O my God!…

May this martyrdom, after having prepared me to ap­pear before you, finally cause me to die and may my soul take its flight without any delay into the eternal embrace of Your Merciful ⁶⁵ Love…

I want, O my Beloved, at each beat of my heart to re­new this offering to you an infinite number of times, until the shadows having disappeared I may be able to tell you of my Love in an Eternal Face to Face!…

Marie, Françoise, Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face unworthy Carmelite religious

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

The 9th day of June in the year of grace 1895.

 

 

The Sacrament of Confirmation
8 June 1891

On Monday, June 8, 1891, two months after her first Communion, Elisabeth put on her white Communion dress again. In the Church of Notre-Dame, she received the sacrament of Confirmation from the hands of Bishop Lecot, the bishop of Dijon.

What did her catechism say about it? “Confirmation is a Sacrament through which we receive the Holy Ghost to make us strong and perfect Christians.”

And, “How does Confirmation make us perfect Christians?”

Answer: “Confirmation makes us perfect Christians by increasing in us the grace of baptism, and by giving us the strength to affirm our faith even at the peril of our lives.”

These fruits of the Holy Spirit ripened quickly in her.

“Our Confirmation took place at Notre-Dame,” Marie-Louise Hallo recounts. “From that moment on, Elizabeth’s piety increased even more, she often received Communion and shed abundant tears afterwards.”

“Often” means that, according to the norms of the time, as a rule she received Communion once a week.

Marie-Louise explicitly states this for the period “from the age of 12”:

“Her mother did not want her to receive communion frequently and, in fact, she received Communion once a week,” even though “at age 12 we went to Mass three times a week.”

Louise Recoing, who met Elisabeth a little before her 12th birthday, more or less agrees: “At that time [she] had to receive Communion once or twice a week.”

Sometimes, when playing, the girls already expressed their dream of religious life. Marie-Louise tells us:

“We used to play nuns, before 1893, after our First Communion. We went to confession behind curtains. We put on our mothers’ skirts, especially skirts with trains. Mrs. Catez was still in mourning for her husband. We imitated the Good Shepherd Sisters. At home we had a fairly large apartment and the nice thing about it was that there was an empty attic where we played.”

No one said if the mutual confessors remained serious all the time…

Conrad de Meester, O.C.D.

Chapter 3, Tout au fond de mon âme ravie (excerpt)

 

 

Saint of the Day – May 25 – Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

On May 25, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, an Italian noblewoman of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who became a Carmelite nun distinguished for her intense prayer life and devotion to frequent Holy Communion.

In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI marked the 400th anniversary of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi’s death in a letter to the Archbishop of Florence, her birthplace. He described her as “a symbolic figure of a living love that recalls the essential mystical dimension of every Christian life.”

“May the great mystic,” the Pope wrote, “still make her voice heard in all the Church, spreading to every human creature the proclamation to love God.”

Born on April 2, 1566, the future “Mary Magdalene” was given the name of Caterina at the time of her birth. She was the only daughter of her parents, who both came from prominent families. Caterina was drawn to the Holy Eucharist from a young age, and she resolved to serve God as a consecrated virgin shortly after receiving her First Communion at age 10.

Late in the year 1582 she entered a strictly traditional Carmelite monastery, where Holy Communion was – unusually for the time period – administered daily. Receiving her religious habit the next year, she took the name of Mary Magdalene.

From March to May of 1584, Mary became seriously ill and was thought to be in danger of death. On May 27 of that year she made her religious vows while lying sick upon a pallet. Her recovery marked the start of an extended mystical experience, which lasted 40 days and involved extraordinary experiences taken down by her religious sisters in a set of manuscripts.

Mary served the monastery in a series of teaching and supervisory positions, while also contributing to her community through manual work. Her fellow Carmelites respected her strict sense of discipline, which was accompanied by profound charity and practical wisdom. Her experiences of suffering and temptation helped her to guide and inspire others.

Extraordinary spiritual occurrences were a frequent feature of this Carmelite nun’s life, to a much greater degree than is typical in the tradition of Catholic mysticism. Many of her experiences of God were documented by others in her community, although Mary herself disliked the attention and would seemingly have preferred for these events to remain private.

She did wish, however, to call attention to God’s love, which she saw as tragically underappreciated and unreciprocated by mankind. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is remembered for making dramatic gestures – running through the halls of her monastery, or ringing its bells at night – while proclaiming the urgent need for all people to awaken to God’s love, and respond in kind.

Her earthly life came to an end on May 25, 1607, after an excruciating illness lasting nearly three years. Pope Clement IX canonized St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi in 1669.

Born in 1185, Angelus was one of the first Carmelites to come to Sicily from Mount Carmel, brought to Sicily to preach against the Albigensians and Bulgars. A Jewish convert, according to trustworthy sources, he was killed by unbelievers in Licata during the first half of the thirteenth century (c. 1220). Acclaimed as a martyr, his body was placed in a church built on the site of his death. Only in 1632 were his relics transferred to the Carmelite Church in Licata. Veneration of St Angelus spread throughout the Carmelite Order as well as among the populace. The cult of Saint Angelus spread throughout the Order and among ordinary lay people. Angelus and St Albert of Trapani are considered the “fathers” of the Order because they were the first two saints to have a cult in the Order and, as a result, they are frequently found in medieval Carmelite iconography alongside the Virgin Mary. He has been named patron of many places in Sicily.

Office of Readings – Second Reading

– From The Flaming Arrow by Nicholas of France, prior general

Your first sons on Carmel, O holiest of Orders my Mother, were like stones mortared together in unfeigned charity, who held aloof from the least violation of what they had vowed when they made profession; while yet they strove, at home in their cells, to “ponder God’s law” and “watch at their prayers,” not because they were compelled to, but happily, moved by joy of
spirit.

Remember, beloved Order, your worthiness in the days when you never failed to regale your hermits, our saintly forefathers, with spiritual sustenance of the richest, in pasturage unequalled, and to lead them forth to waters of unparalleled refreshment.

I tell you, my brothers, it is from Carmel that the brethren must climb to the Mountain – all those who deserve to be called “Carmelites,” in other words, who, on account of the excellence of their lives, will go from strength to strength in a steady ascent from the Mount of the Circumcision of Vices until they reach, as they surely will, the Mountain which is Christ.

In the desert all the elements conspire to favor us. The heavens, resplendent with the stars and planets in their amazing order, bear witness by their beauty to mysteries higher still. The birds seem to assume the nature of angels, and tenderly console us with their gentle carolling. The mountains too, as Isaiah prophesied, “drop down sweetness” incomparable upon us, and the friendly hills “flow with milk and honey” such as is never tasted by the foolish lovers of this world. When we sing the praises of our Creator, the mountains about us, our brother conventuals, resound with corresponding hymns of praise to the Lord echoing back our voices and filling the air with strains of harmony as though accompanying our song upon stringed instruments. The roots in their growth, the grass in its greenness, the leafy boughs and trees–l make merry in their own ways as they echo our praise; and the flowers in their loveliness, as they pour out their delicious fragrance, smile their best for the consolation of us solitaries. The sunbeams, though tongueless, speak saving messages to us. The shady bushes rejoice to give us shelter. In short, every creature we see or hear in the desert gives us friendly refreshment and comfort; indeed, for all their silence they tell forth wonders, and they move the interior man to give praise to the Creator – so much more wonderful than themselves.

Isaiah writes in figure of this joy that is to be found in solitude or in the desert: “The wilderness shall rejoice and shall flourish like the lily, it shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise.” And we find in the psalms: “The beautiful places of the wilderness shall grow lush, and the hills shall be girded with joy.”

Each wise solitary, resolute in his flight from the dangers of the world, longs to be so indissolubly united to Christ, the cornerstone, that he might say effectively with the Prophet: “It is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord.”

Responsory
R/. How goodly, sweet Jesus, is Your inebriating chalice, none so happy as those who can say in good conscience: * “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup” (alleluia).
V/. It is You who will restore my inheritance to me. * “The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup” (alleluia).

Prayer

God our Father, strength of the faithful and crown of martyrs, by your grace Saint Angelus was called from Carmel to triumph victorious over the torments of martyrdom. By his prayers grant us that faithfully following his example, we may bear witness to your presence and goodness until death. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

JANUARY 8: SAINT PETER THOMAS (1305-1366)

LEOPOLD GLUECKERT O. CARM

In a world like our own, where factionalism and deep religious and political divisions poison our relationships, a saint like Peter Thomas is like a breath of fresh air. His life as a devout Carmelite and a diplomatic healer and trouble-shooter reminds us that reconciliation and common ground are always possible with God’s help.

Peter Thomas was born in the southern Périgord region of France, to a very poor peasant family. His piety and skill as a teacher attracted the attention of the Carmelite prior of Bergérac, who invited him to join that community. He continued his teaching in various houses of study until he was sent to Paris for advanced scholarship at the University there. While his studies were still in progress, the Carmelites elected him Procurator General in 1345, which meant that he was the primary liaison with the papal curia. This was during the 70-year period when a series of popes lived at Avignon, in southern France, so his travels to the pontifical court were somewhat easier.

He proved to be a brilliant diplomat, but never ceased to be a good religious as well. He continued to live an austere, simple life amid regal splendor, and never missed his prayers or meditation, even when he was intensely busy. His disarming humility meant that he could chat with peasants, soldiers and sailors just as easily as high government officials. A cardinal friend secured an appointment for him as apostolic preacher at the court of Clement VI and his successors. Then he began to be entrusted with a series of crucial diplomatic missions, largely concerned with mediating disputes between princes and reconciling members of the Eastern Orthodox churches. In 1353, Pope Innocent VI sent him on a special mission of restoring peace between the powerful maritime republics Venice and Genoa, as well as settling a dispute between the Pope himself and the Kingdom of Naples. Although these quarrels were not perfectly settled, Peter Thomas proved to be such a skillful and earnest envoy that he was given bigger trials to confront.

St. Peter ThomasThe following year, he was sent to Stefan Dushan, King of Serbia, who had shown interest in reuniting the Serbian Church with Rome. Peter Thomas made great progress in reconciling the Serbian bishops, and a final understanding was only frustrated by Dushan’s own death. Most of his remaining years were dedicated to working out a similar reconciliation with the Greek Orthodox Church, and forging an alliance which would defend Constantinople against the advances of the Ottoman Turks. Some Greek nobles, including the Byzantine Emperor, John V Paleologus, actually submitted to papal authority, but the Patriarch and most of the Greek bishops hesitated to finalize a reconciliation of the churches. Even so, Peter Thomas was able to put together a credible alliance of Christian states who helped defend Smyrna and other threatened cities against Turkish inroads. His own reputation for personal sincerity and holiness was never in dispute.

In 1360, he crowned his personal friend Peter I of Lusignan King of Cyprus and Jerusalem (in exile), who in turn became an enthusiastic participant in the alliance. All the while, Peter Thomas worked to persuade the Orthodox bishops of Cyprus to reestablish their own unity with the Roman church. In 1364, the new Pope, Urban V, named him Latin Patriarch of Constantinople in order to increase his standing in his negotiations with the Byzantine leaders. That same year, Peter Thomas succeeded in getting his alliance to capture Alexandria in Egypt, but the military leaders hesitated to move on to Cairo. When they withdrew to their ships, the expedition collapsed, and Peter Thomas concealed his own discouragement by trying once again to forge unity.

Death prevented him from final success, however. He died of a fever on Cyprus, and was buried in the Carmelite church at Famagusta. He left behind a reputation for personal simplicity, devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Conception, and a love of peace and unity. Power, wealth, and luxury held no attraction for him, even as he circulated among the most powerful people of his age. The triumph of Christ and his Kingdom of Love was his single, inflexible goal.