[Rank]
St. Peter Canisius, Confessor and Doctor of the Church;;Duplex;;3;;vide C5a

[Name]
Peter

[Oratio]
O God, who didst give strength and learning to blessed Peter thy Confessor for the defense of the Catholic faith, mercifully grant, that by his example and teaching, the erring may be saved and the faithful remain constant in the confession of truth.
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[Lectio4]
Peter Canisius was born at Nijmegen in Gelderland, the Netherlands, in the very year in which Luther openly rebelled against the Church in Germany, and in which Ignatius Loyola in Spain gave up earthly warfare to fight the battles of the Lord; God thus shewed what adversaries he was to encounter, and under whose leadership he was to fight. He made his studies at Cologne, where he took a vow to God of perpetual chastity, and shortly afterwards entered the Society of Jesus. After his ordination as priest, he began at once to defend the Catholic faith against the wiles of the innovators by missions, sermons, and writing books. His eminent wisdom and experience caused the Cardinal of Augsburg and the papal legates to invite him to the Council of Trent, and he was present at its sittings more than once. Moreover, by the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, Pius IV, he was entrusted with the charge of making its decrees known in Germany and carrying them into effect. Paul IV sent him to the Diet of Petrikau, and Gregory XIII entrusted him with the carrying out of other missions, all of which he undertook with an eager spirit, never conquered by any difficulties, and carried the most important affairs of religion through all the crises of this present life to a successful end.

[Lectio5]
Inflamed with the heavenly fire of charity, which he had once received in the Vatican basilica from the sanctuary of the Heart of Jesus, and intent only on increasing the glory of God, it is almost impossible to describe how, for more than forty years, he took upon himself laborious tasks, and endured hardship, that he might defend very many cities and provinces of Germany from the contagion of heresy, or restore to the Catholic faith those that were infected with heresy. At the Diets of Ratisbon and Augsburg, he exhorted the princes of the Empire to defend the rights of the Church and reform the lives of their subjects. At Worms he reduced the insolent teachers of impiety to silence. St. Ignatius made him prefect of the province of Upper Germany, where he founded houses and colleges in many places. He used every effort to advance and enlarge the German College founded at Rome; he restored the study of sacred and profane learning in academies, which had fallen into a wretched condition. He wrote two excellent volumes against the Centuriators of Magdeburg; and he edited a summary of Christian doctrine, which has been thoroughly approved by the judgment of theologians and by common use everywhere for three centuries, as well as very many other works useful for public instruction in the vulgar tongue. For all these reasons he was called the Hammer of the Heretics, and the Second Apostle of Germany, and is rightly thought to have been worthy of having been chosen by God to protect religion in Germany.

[Lectio6]
In these activities he was accustomed to unite himself to God by frequent prayer and assiduous meditation on heavenly things, often bathed in tears and sometimes with his soul rapt in ecstasy. He was held in great honor by men of rank, or of most distinguished holiness, and by four of the Supreme Pontiffs, but he thought so humbly of himself, that he spoke of and held himself as the least of all. He refused the bishopric of Vienna no less than three times. He was most obedient to his superiors, and ready at their mere nod to stop or to undertake all labors, even at the risk of his health and life. He guarded his chastity with perpetual voluntary self-mortification. At length, at Fribourg in Switzerland, where during the last years of his life he had labored much for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, he passed to God on the 21st day of December, 1597, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. This zealous champion of Catholic truth was adorned with the heavenly honors of the blessed by Pope Pius IX; and, as fresh miracles added to his renown, the Supreme Pontiff Pius XI, in the year of the Jubilee, included him among the Saints, and at the same time declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church.

[Lectio94]
Peter Canisius was born at Nijmegen in Gelderland, the Netherlands. After joining the Society of Jesus, he began at once to defend the Catholic faith against the wiles of the innovators by missions, sermons, and writing books. His one idea was to promote the greater glory of God and it would be impossible to relate how many labors and hardships he went through for more than forty years. He took part more than once in the Council of Trent, travelled on successful missions through many parts of Germany, instructed all classes of society with sound teaching, both public and private, and defended many cities and provinces against the contagion of heresy or brought back to the Catholic faith those tainted by heresy. He was made head of the province of Germany by St. Ignatius, and built houses and colleges in many places. Against the Centuriators of Magdeburg, he wrote two famous volumes, and brought out a summary of Christian doctrine highly approved both by the judgment of theologians and by its long continued use among the people, and many other works in the mother-tongue. From all this, he earned the title of Hammer of the Heretics and second Apostle of Germany. Finally, at Fribourg in Switzerland, at the age of seventy-seven, he rested in the Lord on the 21st day of December, 1597. Pius XI added him to the list of the Saints and at the same time proclaimed him a Doctor of the Universal Church.
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[Lectio7]
From the Holy Gospel according to Matthew
!Matt 5:13-19
At that time: Jesus said unto his disciples: Ye are the salt of the earth: But if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? And so forth.
_
Homily of St. Peter Canisius, Priest
!Note in the Gospel of the feast of St. Martin the Bishop, after the beginning
I shall always love and reverence the Apostles sent by Christ, and their successors as well, in their work of sowing the Gospel seed. For all such may justly say of themselves: Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God. It was Christ himself, like a watchful and most faithful householder, who wished that the Gospel-lamp should be lighted by his ministers and stewards with fire sent down from heaven; and once lighted, that it should not be put under a bushel, but set upon a candlestick, so as to spread its brightness far and wide, and put to flight all darkness and error rife among both Jews and Gentiles.

[Lectio8]
It is not enough for the Gospel-teacher to please the people with his speaking. He must also be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and so by his eloquence call many to the good life. He must not be a dumb dog, not even able to bark, as spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah. Yea, he should also burn in such a way that, equipped with good works and love, he may adorn his evangelical office, and follow the leadership of Paul. He indeed was not satisfied with bidding the bishop of the Ephesians: This command and teach: conduct thyself in work as a good soldier of Christ Jesus; but he unflaggingly preached the Gospel to friend and foe alike, and said with a good conscience to the bishops gathered at Ephesus: Ye know how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, urging Jews and Gentiles to turn unto God in repentance and to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Lectio9]
Such should be the shepherd in the Church who, like Paul, becometh all things to all men, so that the sick may find healing in him; the sad, joy; the desperate, hope; the ignorant, instruction; those in doubt, advice; the penitent, forgiveness and comfort, and finally, every one whatever is necessary unto salvation. And so Christ, when he wished to appoint the chief teachers of the world and of the Church, did not limit himself to saying to his disciples: Ye are the light of the world: but also added: A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid; neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Those churchmen err who imagine that it is by brilliant preaching that they fulfill their office; rather, it is by holiness of life and an all-embracing love.
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