Désiré-Joseph Mercier
Cardinal-Priest | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier 21 November 1851 |
Died | 23 January 1926 Brussels, Belgium | (aged 74)
Buried | Saint Rumbold's Cathedral |
Parents | Paul-Léon Mercier Anne-Marie Barbe Croquet |
Motto | Apostolus Jesu Christi ("Apostle of Jesus Christ") |
Coat of arms |
Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier (21 November 1851 – 23 January 1926) was a Belgian cardinal of the
Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of 1914–1918 during the Great War.
Styles of Désiré-Joseph Mercier | |
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Mechelen |
After the invasion, he distributed a strong pastoral letter, Patriotism and Endurance, to be read in all his churches, urging the people to keep up their spirits. He served as a model of resistance.
Biography
Early life and ordination
Mercier was born at the château du Castegier in Braine-l'Alleud, as the fifth of seven children of small business owners Paul-Léon Mercier and his wife, Anne-Marie Barbe Croquet. Three of Mercier's sisters became religious sisters. His brother Léon became a physician.[1]
One of Mercier's maternal uncles was Adrien Croquet. In the 1860s Croquet became a missionary to the
Mercier studied at the College Saint‑Rombaut of Malines (1863-1868), and entered the minor seminary at Mechelen in 1868 to prepare for the church. He attended the Major Seminary, Mechelen, from 1870 to 1873.[3]
Mercier received the clerical
Thomist scholarship
He returned to Malines in 1877 and taught philosophy at the minor seminary and soon after was named spiritual director of the seminarians. His comprehensive knowledge of Thomas Aquinas earned him the newly erected chair of Thomism at Louvain's Catholic university in 1882.[4] It was in this post, which he retained until 1905, that he forged a lifelong friendship with Dom Columba Marmion, an Irish Thomist. Raised to the rank of monsignor on 6 May 1887, Mercier founded the Higher Institute of Philosophy at the Louvain University in 1899, which was to be a beacon of neo-Thomist philosophy.[citation needed]
He founded in 1894 and edited until 1906 the Revue Néoscholastique, and wrote in a scholastic manner on metaphysics, philosophy, and psychology. Several of his works were translated into English, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish. His most important book was Les origines de la psychologie contemporaine (1897).[5]
Bishop and cardinal
His reputation within his field gained the recognition of
During the modernist controversy, Mercier was both progressive and antimodernist. He sought to assess the compatibility of Thomistic philosophy with rapidly developing scientific knowledge.[8] He was a brilliant scholar, open to contemporary ideas and sufficiently respected for being able to protect scholars at Louvain, such as Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye, from accusations of "modernism". Through his influence, Mercier prevented Albin van Hoonacker's Les douze petits prophètes traduits et commentés ["The twelve minor prophets translated and annotated"] from being placed on the Index.[9]
Mercier was a close friend of
Pope Benedict XV sent his portrait and a letter of whole-hearted support to Mercier in 1916, and at one point told him, "You saved the Church!"[citation needed] Mercier was one of the cardinal electors in the 1922 papal conclave, which selected Pope Pius XI.[citation needed]
World War I German occupation
In 1914, the
Returning from the conclave Mercier passed through the
In Ireland, Cardinal Mercier's detention and indeed the German occupation was used to help recruitment for the British army among Irish Catholics. Following the war, Mercier helped with the re-establishment of the Irish Franciscan College (St Anthony's College, Leuven), with his friend since their seminary days in Louvain, Mons. James J. Ryan.[11] Mercier Press in Ireland is named in his honour.[12]
Final years and death
Following World War I, Mercier undertook an excursion to raise funds to rebuild and stock a new library of the University of Leuven. The original library had been burned by the Germans in the war. In his travels to raise funds, Mercier visited New York City for the first and only time. Among other projects, Mercier also unsuccessfully attempted to have the League of Nations mandate of Palestine awarded to Belgium.[13]
Mercier suffered from persistent
In his final days, Mercier was visited by
Honours
- Papal honorary prelate, by papal decree of 8 November 1889.[17]
- Belgium: Grand Cross in the Order of Leopold[18]
- Grand Cross in the Order of Malta[18]
- Grand Cross in the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus[18]
- Luxemburg: Grand Cross in the Order of the Oak Crown[18]
- Grand Cross in the Order of the Holy Sepulchre[18]
- Grand Cross in the Order of the Double Dragon[18]
- Poland: Grand Cross in the Order of the White Eagle[18]
- Japan: Imperial Order of the Rising Sun[18]
- France: Legion of Honour[18]
- Order of Christ[18]
- Order of Saint Anna[18]
- Order of Carol I[18]
- Peru: Order of the Sun of Peru[18]
- Spain: Order of Isabella the Catholic[18]
- Vatican: Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice[18]
- Red Cross Medal of the United States[18]
- Imperial Order of the Double Dragon, Qing Dynasty China[18]
Views
This section needs additional citations for verification. (September 2018) |
Inter-Belgian relations
Mercier is known for favouring French speakers and opposing the use of Dutch. Though in general social-minded, he was blind to the social aspects of the Flemish Movement and opposed many of its aims. Two examples. (1) Claiming that Dutch could never be a full-fledged cultural language, he fought all attempts to have Flemish high school and university students educated in their native Dutch. He relented only when overwhelmed by the political pressure the Flemish Movement was generating.[19] He managed to have Pope Benedict XV address him a letter[20] in which he admonished priests that they should not address arguments extraneous to their supernatural commitment nor publish on secular subjects without their superior's permission. Mercier promptly published this letter.
Church and science
Mercier recognized the mathematical talent of Georges Lemaître as a young seminarian, and urged him to study Einstein's theories of relativity. Lemaître became an early expert in general relativity as it applied to cosmological questions.
He went on to propose an expanding model of the universe, based on both Einstein's and de Sitter's models. Abbé Georges Lemaître developed his "primeval atom" hypothesis, together with researchers of the University of Louvain, and Gamow, Alpher and Herman into the better known Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
References
- ^ Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. "Mercier, Desiré", fiu.edu. Accessed 25 February 2024.
- ^ Fr. Cawley Martinus, Father Crockett of Grand Ronde: Adrien-Joseph Croquet, 1818–1902, Oregon Missionary, 1860–1898
- ^ )
- .
- ^ Colby & Williams 1916, pp. 430–431.
- ^ Acta Sanctae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XXXX. 1907. pp. 261–2. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
- ^ Acta Sanctae Sedis (PDF). Vol. XXXX. 1907. pp. 263–266. Retrieved 26 January 2021.
- ^ Aubert, Roger. Désiré Mercier and the Origins of the Institute of Philosophy.
- ^ ISBN 9789462701649
- ^ "A Pope on British Soil", Time, 7 June 1982.
- ^ Chronicle, The Catholic Historical Review, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Oct., 1924), pp. 416-431. Catholic University of America Press.
- ^ About Us, MercierPress.ie. Accessed 25 February 2024.
- .
- ^ "Mercier", time.com, 11 January 1926.
- ^ "In Belgium", time.com, 1 February 1926.
- ^ "Homage". Time. 16 June 1924.
- ^ "Zoekresultaten". www.odis.be.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q "Mercier". Archived from the original on 29 August 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
- ^ Boudens, Robrecht & Lieve Gevers. "Mercier, Désiré J." Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging. Tielt: Lannoo, 1998, pp. 2035–2037.
- ^ Cum semper, ut ipsi, dated February 10, 1921. Full text (in Italian, despite its Latin title) available here.
Sources
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New International Encyclopedia. Vol. 15 (2nd ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. pp. 430–431.
Further reading
- Johan Ickx. 2018. La guerre et le Vatican: Les secrets de la diplomatie du Saint-Siège (1914-1915), Paris: Les éditions du Cerf.
- Sophie De Schaepdrijver. 1999. De groote oorlog: het koninkrijk België tijdens de Eerste Wereldoorlog. 7th ed. Amsterdam: Olympus.
- Jan De Volder. 2018. Cardinal Mercier in the First World War. Belgium, Germany and the Catholic Church. Leuven: Leuven University Press.
External links
- Désiré-Joseph Mercier at 1914-1918-online
- The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church
- Catholic-Hierarchy
- Mayence, F. (1922). Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). .
- Newspaper clippings about Désiré-Joseph Mercier in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW