March
March 1, 1835: Matthias Joseph Scheeben, systematic
theologian, was born.
March 2, 1591: At Vilnius died Fr. Anthony Arias, a
learned Spanish theologian,
remarkable for his fervor and great delicacy of conscience.
March 3, 1590: At Castiglione, his native place, St.
Aloysius preached to the people
with such fervor that crowds flocked to the confessionals.
March 4, 1547: Ignatius wrote a letter to Jesuits in
Spain on religious perfection.
March 5, 1615: At Belmont, England, Thomas Pond died.
He was among the first to introduce Jesuit missioners into
England.
March 6, 1603: Fr. General Acquaviva wrote a letter to
all Jesuits saying that he and Fr. Robert Bellarmine had left
nothing undone to prevent the latter's promotion to the
cardinalate.
March 7, 1980: Matthew Mannaparambil, a parish priest
at Sasaram in Patna/Bihar, India, was assassinated.
March 8, 1566: Peter Canisius, Jeronimo Nadal and Diego
Ledesma held public disputations with heretical leaders at the
Diet of Augsburg, Germany.
March 9, 1568: St. Aloysius Gonzaga was born at
Castiglione in his father's castle. March 10, 1848: At
Naples a mob threatened to massacre the Jesuits unless they left
the city at once.
March 11, 1767: At Madrid Frs. Thomas de Lorrain and
Bernard Recio, leaving for the Provincial Congregation in Rome,
received a sealed parcel said to come from the nuncio. They were
requested to take it to someone in Rome. It contained a letter
forged by de Choiseul and de Aranda, the prime ministers of
France and Spain, and purporting to come from the General Fr.
Ricci alleging Charles II to be illegitimate. Both priests were
arrested on their journey and brought back prisoners to Madrid.
The forged document, shown to the king, whose previous affection
for the Society was converted into bitterest hatred.
March 12, 1977: The assassination in El Salvador of
Rutilio Grande, pastor and champion of campesinos, on his way to
celebrate Mass.
March 13, 1533: At Paris, in the College of Ste. Barbe,
Ignatius completed his course of philosophy and took the Doctor's
degree.
March 14, 1800: At Venice, the election of Pope Pius
VII (Cardinal Chiaramonti), a Benedictine, who in 1814 restored
the Society throughout the world.
March 15, 1711: The death of Eusebio Francisco Kino,
missionary in Lower California and Arizona, noted for his
far-ranging exploration and accurate mapmaking.
March 16, 1880: The French Parliament pass Jules
Ferry's Bill for the closing of all the Society's houses and
colleges in France.
March 17, 1652: Fr. Goswin Nickel is elected General in
succession to Fr. Gottifredi, who had died six weeks after his
election.
March 18, 1548: the arrival of the first Jesuits missioned to Africa. These Jesuits were sent by Fr. Simon Rodrigues, Provincial of Portugal, at the request of the King of Kongo supported by the King of Portugal. They landed at Pinda on March 18, 1548, and made their way two days later to Mbanza Kongo, the capital of the kingdom of Kongo. They were four in number, Frs. Jorge Vaz, Cristovao Ribeiro, Jacome Dias and a scholastic, Diogo do Soveral.
March 19, 1715: Pope Clement XI condemned the "Chinese
Rites" which proved disastrous to the Chinese mission.
March 20, 1571: Francis Borgia, seeing little or no
fruit from the labors of the Jesuits in Florida, ordered them to
withdraw from those missions.
March 21, 1602: The second Disputatio de Auxiliis
before Pope Clement VIII took place between Fr. Gregory de
Valentia, SJ, and Fr. Thomas de Lemos, OP.
March 22, 1585: In Rome, the three Japanese ambassadors
were received by Fr. General with great solemnity in the
Society's Church of the Gesu.
March 23, 1772: At Rome, Cardinal Marefoschi held a
visitation of the Irish College and accused the Jesuits of
mismanagement. They were removed by him from the direction of
that establishment.
March 24, 1578: At Lisbon Rodolf Acquaviva and 13
companions embarked for India. Among the companions was Matthew
Ricci and Michael Ruggieri.
March 25, 1563: The first Sodality of Our Lady, Prima
Primaria, was begun in the Roman College by a young Belgian
Jesuit named John Leunis (Leonius).
March 26, 1553: Ignatius of Loyola's letter on
obedience was sent to the Jesuits of Portugal.
March 27, 1587: At Messina died Fr. Thomas Evans, an
Englishman at 29. He had suffered imprisonment for his defense of
the Catholic faith in England.
March 28, 1606: At the Guildhall, London, the trial of
Fr. Henry Garnet, falsely accused of complicity in the Gunpowder
Plot.
March 29, 1523: Ignatius' first visit to Rome on his
way from Manresa to Palestine.
March 30, 1545: At Meliapore, Francis Xavier came on
pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Thomas the Apostle.
March 31, 1548: Fr. Anthony Corduba, rector of the
College of Salamanca, begged Ignatius to admit him into the
Society so as to escape the cardinalate which Charles V intended
to procure for him.
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April
April 1, 1963: The death of Fr. Gerald Ellard, SJ, liturgist
and one of the founders of the National Liturgical Conference.
April 2, 1568: At Rome, the entrance of Blessed Rodolf
Acquaviva, aged 17, into the noviceship of San Andrea, where St.
Stanislaus was then a novice.
April 3, 1767: Fr. Joseph Pignatelli was expelled from Spain
along with all other Jesuits there and at age 30 began his career
of holding together a suppressed Society. At age 57, he once
again saw the Society permitted to accept novices but he did not
live to see its Restoration in 1814.
April 4, 1873: In Mexico a law to expel the Society was
proposed in Parliament.
April 5, 1737: The canonization of St. John Francis Regis by
Pope Clement XII.
April 6, 1669: At Paris, Fr. Claude de la Colombiere was
ordained a priest.
April 7, 1541: On his 35th birthday, Francis Xavier embarked
from the quay of the Tagus River known as the Place of Tears to
go to India with two other Jesuits. The voyage took them 13
months.
April 8, 1548: Peter Canisius was sent to Messina to teach
rhetoric.
April 9, 1913: Pope St. Pius X spoke his praises of the
Apostleship of Prayer. It counted 25 million members. The
periodical The Messenger of the Sacred Heart appears in 42
editions in more than 20 languages.
April 10, 1955: The death of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin,
paleontologist and theologian.
April 11, 1632: At Lima, Peru, Fr. Ruiz de Montaya died. A
Portuguese, he was called the Apostle of Paraguay, for he
converted thousands.
April 12, 1573: At Rome, the opening of the Third General
Congregation during which Everard Mercurian was elected General.
April 13, 1981: The death of Godofredo Alingal, who was shot
and killed in his rectory in Kibawe, Philippines, for defending
the rights of poor farmers.
April 14, 1792: The death of Maximilian Hell at Vienna. He was
an astronomer who directed the royal observatory for 36 years.
April 15, 1778: Empress Catherine the Great requested the Holy
See that the Jesuits in White Russia (the only ones in the world,
all others having been suppressed) might have a novitiate. She
received the answer that the local bishop should do as he thought
best.
April 16, 1548: At Naples died William Elphinston, a
scholastic novice and scion of the royal house of Scotland, his
mother being a Stuart.
April 17, 1909: America Magazine began publication.
April 18, 1527: Ignatius was imprisoned for the first time, in
Alcala, Spain, where he was studying and conversing with people
on spiritual topics.
April 19, 1541: On the advice of his confessor, Fra Teodosio
da Lodi, a Franciscan, Ignatius accepted the second election
which had selected him to be the first superior general of the
Society of Jesus.
April 20, 1586: The first Ratio Studiorum was issued under
Father General Claude Aquaviva.
April 21, 1665: At Bordeaux the death of Fr. John Joseph
Surin, who entered the Society at the age of 15. He was a man of
great sanctity and venerated after death as a saint. For 20 years
he was cruelly tormented by evil spirits, after exorcising
certain Religious in a convent at Loudon.
April 22, 1581: At the close of the Fourth General
Congregation, Pope Gregory XIII received the new General, Father
Claude Acquaviva, and promised to provide a foundation fund for
the Roman College.
April 23, 1579: At Rome, the appointment of Fr.
Alphonsus Agazzari, the first Jesuit rector of the English
College which had been founded by Pope Gregory XIII.
April 24, 1774: Christopher de Beaumont, Archbishop of
Paris, wrote to Pope Clement XIV, regretting the Brief of
Suppression.
April 25, 1603: Fr. Gregory de Valentia, A Spanish
Jesuit, died at Naples. A renowned theologian, Pope Clement VIII
honored him with the title "Doctor of Doctors."
April 26, 1648: At Madrid, the death of Fr. John de
Ripalda, an eminent theologian who held the chair of theology at
Salamanca.
April 27, 1859: At Florence, acting under pressure from
the Freemasons, the Society of Jesus is banished.
April 28, 1581: Alexander Briant was arrested in
London.
April 29, 1568: St. Pius V, by his Brief "Innumerabiles
fructus," confirms the Constitutions of Paul II and Julius III
regarding the government of colleges, the appointment of rectors
by the General, etc.
April 30, 1595: The death of Abraham George, the first
of eight Jesuit martyrs in Ethiopia.
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