10ème Rose — L'excellence du saint rosaire dans son origine et son nom
The Power of the Rosary Against Heresy
Saint Dominic demonstrates the efficacy of the Rosary in delivering a possessed heretic and bringing about his conversion.
31. When Saint Dominic was preaching this devotion in Carcassonne, a heretic ridiculed his miracles and the fifteen mysteries of the holy Rosary, which were preventing the heretics from converting. To punish this impious man, God allowed fifteen thousand demons to enter his body; his parents brought him to the blessed Father so he could free him from those evil spirits. He began to pray and urged everyone present to recite the Rosary out loud with him. At once, with every Ave Maria, the Blessed Virgin drove a hundred demons out of the heretic's body in the form of burning coals. After he was delivered, he renounced his errors, converted, and had himself enrolled in the Confraternity of the Rosary, along with several of his party who were moved by this punishment and by the power of the Rosary" (Mystical Rosebush, 9th decade, ch. 10).
Divine Judgment and the Defense of the Confraternity
Two preachers who opposed the Confraternity of the Rosary face divine intervention, leading one to repentance and a new life as a defender of the devotion.
32. The learned Cartagena, of the Order of Saint Francis, along with several other authors, reports that in 1482, when the venerable Father James Sprenger and his religious were working with great zeal to reestablish the devotion and the confraternity of the holy Rosary in Cologne, two famous preachers—jealous of the great fruits they were producing—tried to discredit it in their sermons. Since they were talented and influential, they dissuaded many people from joining; one of these preachers, to better carry out his harmful plan, prepared a sermon specifically for that purpose and scheduled it for a Sunday. When the hour for the sermon arrived, the preacher didn't show up. They waited for him, looked for him, and finally found him dead, with no one having been there to help him. The other preacher, convincing himself that this accident was natural, resolved to make up for his colleague's failure in order to abolish the Confraternity of the Rosary. When the day and hour of the sermon arrived, God struck this preacher with a paralysis that took away both his movement and his speech. He recognized his fault and that of his companion; he turned in his heart to the Blessed Virgin, promising her that he would preach the Rosary everywhere with as much force as he had previously fought against it. He begged her to restore his health and his speech for that purpose, which the Blessed Virgin granted him. Finding himself suddenly healed, he rose like another Saul—from a persecutor turned into a defender of the holy Rosary. He made public reparation for his fault and, with great zeal and eloquence, preached the excellence of the holy Rosary.
The Virtue of Pious Faith
The author defends the credibility of pious stories and warns against the pride of those who reject tradition and extraordinary accounts.
33. I have no doubt that the freethinkers and critics of our day who read the stories in this little treatise will call them into question, as they always have—even though I've done nothing but copy them from very good contemporary authors and, in part, from a book newly written by the Reverend Father Antonin Thomas of the Order of Preachers, titled The Mystical Rosebush. Everyone knows there are three different kinds of faith to give to different kinds of stories.1 To the stories of Holy Scripture we owe a divine faith; to secular stories that don't contradict reason and have been written by good authors, a human faith; and to pious stories reported by good authors that are in no way contrary to reason, to the faith, or to good morals—even when they are sometimes extraordinary—a pious faith. I admit that we shouldn't be too credulous or too critical, and that we must hold the middle course in everything if we are to find the point of truth and virtue. But I also know that, just as charity readily believes everything that is not contrary to the faith or to good morals—Caritas omnia credit (1 Cor 13:7)—so pride leads people to deny almost every well-attested story on the pretext that it isn't in Holy Scripture.✦2 This is Satan's trap, into which heretics who deny Tradition have fallen, and into which the critics of our day are falling little by little—refusing to believe what they don't understand, or what doesn't suit them, for no other reason than the pride and self-satisfaction of their own minds.
Read the original Latin
31. «Lorsque saint Dominique prêchait cette dévotion dans Carcassonne, un hérétique tournait en ridicule ses miracles et les 15 mystères du saint Rosaire, ce qui empêchait la conversion des hérétiques. Dieu, pour punir cet impie, permit à quinze mille démons d'entrer en son corps; ses parents l'amenèrent au bienheureux Père pour le délivrer de ces malins esprits. Il se mit en oraison et exhorta toute la compagnie de réciter avec lui le Rosaire tout haut, et voilà qu'à chaque Ave Maria, la Sainte Vierge faisait sortir cent démons du corps de cet hérétique en forme de charbons ardents. Après qu'il fut délivré, il abjura ses erreurs, se convertit et se fit enrôler en la confrérie du Rosaire avec plusieurs de son parti qui furent touchés de ce châtiment et de la vertu du Rosaire» (Rosier mystique, 9ème dizaine, ch. 10).
32. Le docte Cartagène, de l'ordre de Saint-François, avec plusieurs auteurs, rapporte que l'an 1482, lorsque le vénérable Père Jacques Sprenger et ses religieux travaillaient avec grand zèle à rétablir la dévotion et la confrérie du saint Rosaire dans la ville de Cologne, deux fameux prédicateurs, jaloux des grands fruits qu'ils faisaient par cette pratique, tâchaient de la décrier par leurs sermons, et comme ils avaient du talent, et un grand crédit, ils dissuadaient beaucoup de personnes de s'y enrôler; l'un de ces prédicateurs, pour mieux venir à bout de son pernicieux dessein, prépara un sermon exprès et l'assigna à un jour de dimanche. L'heure du sermon étant venue le prédicateur ne paraissait point; on l'attendit, on le chercha, et enfin on le trouva mort sans avoir été secouru de personne. L'autre prédicateur, se persuadant que cet accident était naturel, résolut de suppléer à son défaut pour abolir la confrérie du Rosaire. Le jour et l'heure du sermon étant arrivés, Dieu châtia ce prédicateur d'une paralysie qui lui ôta le mouvement et la parole. Il reconnut sa faute et celle de son compagnon, il eut recours à la Sainte Vierge dans son cœur, lui promettant de prêcher partout le Rosaire avec autant de force qu'il l'avait combattu. Il la pria de lui rendre pour cela la santé et la parole, ce que la Sainte Vierge lui accorda, et se trouvant subitement guéri il se leva comme un autre Saul, de persécuteur devenu défenseur du saint Rosaire. Il fit réparation publique de sa faute, et prêcha avec beaucoup de zèle et d'éloquence l'excellence du saint Rosaire.
33. Je ne doute point que les esprits forts et critiques de ce temps, qui liront les histoires de ce petit traité, ne les révoqueront en doute, comme ils ont toujours fait, quoique je n'aie fait autre chose que les transcrire de très bons auteurs contemporains et en partie dans un livre nouvellement composé par le Révérend Père Antonin Thomas, de l'ordre des frères prêcheurs, intitulé: Le Rosier mystique. Tout le monde sait qu'il y a trois sorte de foi aux histoires différentes. Nous devons aux histoires de l'Écriture sainte une foi divine; aux histoires profanes qui ne répugnent point à la raison et écrites par de bons auteurs, une foi humaine; et aux histoires pieuses rapportées par de bons auteurs et nullement contraires à la raison, à la foi ni aux bonnes mœurs, quoiqu'elles soient quelquefois extraordinaires, une foi pieuse; j'avoue qu'il ne faut être ni trop crédule ni trop critique, et qu'il faut tenir le milieu en tout pour trouver le point de la vérité et de la vertu; mais aussi je sais que, comme la charité croit facilement tout ce qui n'est point contraire à la foi ni aux bonnes mœurs: Caritas omnia credit (1 Co 13,7), de même l'orgueil porte à nier presque toutes les histoires bien avérées, sous prétexte qu'elles ne sont point dans l'Écriture sainte. C'est le piège de Satan, où les hérétiques qui nient la tradition sont tombés, et où les critiques du temps tombent insensiblement, ne croyant pas ce qu'ils ne comprennent pas, ou ce qui ne leur revient pas, sans aucune autre raison que l'orgueil et la suffisance de leur propre esprit.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.13.7 — Love bears all things, and believes all things, and hopes all things, and endures all things.
Notes
The Secret of the Rosary (Le secret admirable du très saint Rosaire) companion
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