Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - January

[Hildegard of Bingen]

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

Teachings and Examples from the Life of the Saint by Salesiana Publishers

 

January 8th  (page 8)

 
     Consider how uncertain is the day of your death.  My soul, one day you will leave this body.  When will it be?  In winter or in summer?  In the city or in the country?  By day or at night?  Suddenly or after due preparation?  From sickness or by accident?  Will you have time to make your confession or not?  Will you be assisted by your confessor and spiritual director?  Unfortunately, you know nothing whatever about all this.  Only one thing is certain:  we will die – and sooner than we think.
 

(INT. Part I, Ch. 13; O. XII, p. 359)

 
 
     In his pamphlets, the holy apostle of the Chablais – by the weight of his arguments and with that Catholic sense that instinctively draws souls toward the fullness of truth – dealt with papal infallibility, among other topics.  Having pointed out that the Church cannot remain continually gathered together in Council, and so, therefore, to solve difficulties, there was no better solution than to appeal to the head of the apostolic college, he added:  “All this happened, not only with Saint Peter but also with his successors; since the cause still remains, the effect also remains valid!  The Church, in fact, always needs an infallible guide to whom people may refer, a foundation that the gates of hell cannot batter down, a shepherd that cannot lead his sheep astray.  The successors of Saint Peter have all these privileges which pertain, not to the person but to the public dignity and office.”  The precious manuscript of these pamphlets, which today constitutes the treasured volume of the Controversies of the holy doctor, were found after his death in the castle of La Thuille and presented to Pope Alexander VII by Bishop Charles de Sales.  In 1870, while the Vatican Council was discussing the matter of papal infallibility, Cardinal Mermillot obtained this manuscript form the Chigi Library and had the appropriate page photographed.  And so these lines in a humble pamphlet secretly distributed in January of 1598 were studied by the Council Fathers after a lapse of 275 years.
 
     When Pope Pius IX of holy memory published the brief that declared Francis de Sales a Doctor of the Universal Church, he referred to the influence this page had on the dogmatic definition of papal infallibility.1
 

(Chaubilland, Fribourg, 1923)

 
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1See the apostolic letter of Pope IX, issued on November 16th, 1877, and quoted by Pope Pius XI in his encyclical letter, Rerum Omnium.  (Acta Apostolicae Sedis,Vol. XV, p. 57.)