From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   November 20th - St. Felix of Valois   
      
   St. Felix of Valois (1126-1212) was a member of the royal family of France,   
   the   
   grandson of King Henry I. While carrying the future saint, his mother had a   
   vision where she saw the Child Jesus holding a cross and another child   
   holding a   
   garland of flowers. The two boys traded their objects. The mother understood   
   that the boy with the flowers was her son.   
      
   Because of troubles in the family, the young man left his home and went to   
   the   
   court, where he became a crusader to follow the King in the Crusade. During   
   the   
   preparatory training, the King fell from his horse and died. Felix   
   approached   
   the fallen monarch and ordered: "In the name of the Holy Trinity, arise."   
   Instantly the young King obeyed, alive and well.   
      
   During the Crusade Felix gave proof of his great courage and virtue. In the   
   military quarters he maintained the austere life of a Cistercian religious.   
   He   
   was notable in all the battles he took part in.   
      
   When he returned to Paris he determined to give himself to God. Even though   
   he   
   was a close heir to the throne, he exchanged the fleur-de-lys of France for   
   the   
   cross of Our Lord and became a hermit. The vision of his mother was   
   confirmed.   
      
   The fame of his sainthood spread and St. John of Matha sought him out for   
   advice   
   about founding the Order of the Trinitarians. St. Felix decided to join him   
   in   
   founding that order for the redemption of Catholic captives.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   Let me give a summary of the situation of Europe at the time, mainly Spain   
   and   
   France, where the Trinitarian Order was founded.   
      
   One who visits southern Spain today and admires the beautiful architecture   
   of   
   buildings in Toledo and Granada has no idea of what the substance of the   
   Muslim   
   State was at that time. It was not a State organized like the Western   
   nations.   
   They did not have kings or a regular dynastic succession as in China or old   
   Egypt. It was a State made up of bandits who lived like barbarians from   
   their   
   pillaging and looting on land and sea, fighting not only with the Catholics   
   but   
   also among themselves. They did not have harmonically distributed social   
   classes; there were the powerful persons who made those extraordinary   
   buildings   
   and then the rest of the population living in slums. The powerful were   
   surrounded by sycophants who easily rose and fell from the positions of   
   power.   
      
   The piracy at sea and pillaging on the land were the habitual sources of   
   income.   
   Making captured Catholics slaves was, therefore, both a way to spread fear   
   among   
   Catholics and a source of funds.   
      
   How did taking captives spread fear? In the Catholic society of that time,   
   there   
   was virtually no slavery, which existed only as a very rare exception to the   
   rule. Prisoners of war were treated with respect by the Catholics. Hence, in   
   the   
   fighting between Catholics and Muslims, the Mohammedans had much less to   
   fear   
   should they lose a battle than the Catholics, because the former had the   
   security that they would be treated decently if they were captured.   
      
   On the contrary, if Catholic warriors fell prisoners, they knew that they   
   would   
   be reduced to slavery and treated atrociously. It was not rare, for example,   
   for   
   the Muslims to cut out the eyes of Catholic prisoners to prevent them from   
   escaping. Those blind slaves would work more efficiently in jobs calling   
   only   
   for brute animal labor, such as pulling ships out of the water to be   
   repaired,   
   for example, without the danger that they would run away. Other times, the   
   Moors   
   would morally and physically abuse nobles and important men. Finally and   
   worst   
   of all, they would corrupt the faith of those Catholics and use every means   
   possible to make them apostatize and become Mohammedans. So, the condition   
   of a   
   captive was miserable from several points of view.   
      
   This situation generated a great compassion in all Christendom for the   
   captives   
   and the idea of doing whatever they could to liberate their Christian   
   brothers   
   from that abominable condition. Another decisive reason to liberate them was   
   to   
   redress Catholic honor and prevent their Catholic leaders and relatives from   
   being reduced to slaves without any vigorous action to save them.   
      
   These concerns often inspired military expeditions to save the captives.   
   Other   
   times alms were collected to buy the liberty of the prisoners. The idea of   
   their   
   captive brothers was constantly present and generated an enormous sympathy.   
      
   Now then, when the Church or Christendom has a pressing need, Divine   
   Providence   
   always calls for a new order to resolve it. The Trinitarian Order was   
   founded   
   for this reason. St. Felix of Valois, who had been a valorous crusader, and   
   St.   
   John of Matha founded the Order of Holy Trinity for the redemption of the   
   Christian captives. That vocation, it could be said, focused the concern of   
   Christendom regarding the captives. The order became famous and carried out   
   prodigious works.   
      
   This is what St. Felix of Valois was called to do. He carried out this   
   vocation   
   so well that he became a saint canonized by the Church.   
      
   I would like to propose that we contrast the attitude of the Spanish and   
   French   
   Catholics of that time toward the Muslim threat and the attitude of today's   
   Catholics regarding Communism. There are millions of Catholics living in   
   Russia,   
   China, or other countries who are in true captivity. However, the Catholics   
   of   
   the West pay no attention to them. Almost no one has the desire to save them   
   or   
   fight for them. Many of these Western Catholics are self-righteously proud   
   only   
   because they do not allow Communism to conquer their own countries. They   
   think   
   that this makes them admirable and that they are doing a great thing. But   
   almost   
   nothing is done to liberate our captive brothers in the Catholic Faith who   
   suffer under Communist persecution. Worse, there is a tendency to say that   
   everything is fine under Communist domination, and that we must compromise   
   more   
   and more with Communists in order to placate them.   
      
   One can imagine the frustration of those Catholics under Communist dominion   
   when   
   they realize that not only do their Western brothers have no interest in   
   saving   
   them, but that even the Pope is being complacent with those same Communists   
   who   
   persecute them. Indeed, the Vatican established Ostpolitik as a policy to   
   make   
   concessions to Communism.   
      
   When I was in Rome for the first session of Vatican II, I became aware of   
   this   
   fact. There was a whole Catholic Russian network in the Catacomb Church that   
   ran   
   all kinds of risks in order to keep Rome well-informed about their latest   
   activities. When John XXIII invited the Schismatics of Moscow to be   
   observers at   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)