On 31 July 1901, Leonid Feodorov entered into the Catholic Church at the Jesuit Church of the Gesù in Rome.
Leonid was born into the Orthodox Church in Russia and had even contemplated becoming an Orthodox priest, but after becoming acquainted with Western literature grew interested in Roman Catholicism.
After his conversion, he entered into a seminary of the Society of Jesus under a pseudonym to keep himself hidden from the Russian Secret Police. In the seminary he would decide not to become a Latin Rite priest, instead choosing to remain in the Eastern Rite so as to better serve the Russian people. He was ordained on 25 March 1911.
After returning to Russia, he was immediately exiled to Siberia by the Russian government, but was freed after the February 1917 revolution and appointed Exarch of the Russian Catholic Church and secretly consecrated as bishop.
After the Bolshevik Revolution, Fedorov would be tried in 1923 for counter-revolutionary activities and was sentenced to three years at the infamous Butyrka prison in Moscow and then to exile at the Solovki prison camp.
While at Solovki, Fedorov would offer the Divine Liturgy in secret.
He was released on 6 August 1929 and would die on 7 March 1935.
He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 27 June 2001.
The Life of Blessed Feodorov
On 30 July 1419, a Hussite mob attacked the Prague town hall, throwing several town officials from the hall where they fell to their deaths or were killed by other members of the mob below.
The Hussite violence came in reaction to the execution of Jan Hus at the Council of Constance on 6 July 1415. A priest sympathetic to the ideas of Hus, Jan Želivský, led his congregation to the Prague town hall to protest the imprisonment of some fellow Hussites. Želivský was deeply influenced by the ideas of Jan Hus and John Wycliffe. He condemned what he believed was corruption within the Catholic Church.
During the demonstration, some townspeople opposed to the Hussites threw stones at at Želivský from the window of the town hall. This infuriated the mob, who stormed the town hall and threw the judge, the burgomaster, and some thirteen members of the town council out of the window and into the street to their deaths.
The violence in Prague will contribute to the outbreak of the Hussite Wars in 1420.
A second defenestration in Prague in 1618 will introduce the word defenestration into the lexicon meaning “the act of throwing something or someone out of a window”.
On 29 July 1030, King Olaf Haraldsson [Olaf II] was defeated and slain at the Battle of Stiklestad.
King Olaf had been briefly exiled to Novgorod [in modern day Russia] by the Danes and returned in 1030 to reclaim his throne. Thus, the Battle of Stiklestad between King Olaf against a large army of Norwegian farmers involved both politics and religion as Olaf desired to unite Norway under his rule and to Christianize his subjects. Indeed the battle cry of Olaf’s army was reportedly, Fram! Fram! Kristmenn, Krossmenn, kongsmenn or “Forward, forward, Christ’s men, Cross men, king’s men!”
After Olaf’s death, his body was buried in secret and moved to St. Klement’s Church in Trondheim one year later. When his body was unburied, it was discovered to be incorrupt. This was perceived even by Olaf’s enemies as a miracle and contributed both to Olaf’s reputation for holiness and to the further Christianization of the Norwegians.
Olaf would eventually become the patron saint of Norway, the Rex Perpertuus Norvegiae, and on the site of his death was constructed a church. The Nidaros Cathedral was constructed on the site of his burial and is now the location of his body.
The Battle of Stiklestad is seen by historians as marking the end of the Viking period and the beginning of the medieval period of Norway. Each year the pageant Spelet om Helag Olav is performed during the week leading up to St Olaf’s day on July 29. This pageant attracts about 20,000 visitors.
Wikipedia article on St. Olaf – also contains the propers for the Mass of the Feast of St. Olaf
On 28 July 754, Pope Stephen II anointed Pepin the Short as King of the Franks and Patricius Romanorum [Patrician of the Romans] in the Basilica of Saint Denis in Paris. Pope Stephen would also anoint Pepin’s sons Carloman and Charles – later known as Charlemagne.
This anointing ceremony would become part of the ceremony for the crowning of French Kings until the French Revolution in 1789.
The title of Patricius had originally belonged to the representative of the Byzantine Empire in the West. However, the Byzantines were no longer able to protect Rome from the invading barbarians, so Pope Stephen looked to the rising power of the Franks for help.
When Pepin pledged to protect the Pope from the power of the Lombards who were moving against Rome, a thankful Stephen traveled to France to anoint Pepin. In 756 Pepin would attack the Lombards and the land he captured from them would be given to Pope Stephen as the “Donation of Pepin” beginning the Papal States and the temporal authority of the papacy.
The crowning of Pepin would strengthen Pepin’s claim to the French throne against the rival Merovingians and begin a long history of close links between the French throne and the papacy. The crowning will also show the turn of Rome to the West and mark the growing split between East and West eventually leading to the schism of 1054.
On 27 July 1214, the forces of Otto IV of the Holy Roman Empire, King John I of of England, and Count Ferrand of Flanders were defeated by the forces of Philip II Augustus of France at the Battle of Bouvines.
Otto IV had come into conflict with Pope Innocent III over whether the right of conferring the crown of the Holy Roman Empire belonged to the pope alone. Innocent III claimed that the pope had the authority to decide whether a candidate chosen by the German princes to become Emperor was worthy of that dignity. While Innocent had initially supported Otto, they became opponents in 1210 after Otto decided to restore Imperial power in Italy. Innocent was greatly upset at this, believing that a Holy Roman Empire with the addition of Italian territories would be a threat to the Papal States. Innocent would excommunicate Otto and give his support to Frederick II Hohenstaufen as a rival claimant to the title of Holy Roman Emperor.
While the forces of John I and Otto IV [25,000] outnumbered those of Philip II [15,000], the French forces were more experienced – having fought in the Crusades. the three hour battle saw around 2,000 casualties and about 9,000 captured. Philip II was nearly killed in the battle after being de-horsed several times.
After the Battle of Bouvines, Otto IV would be forced to resign and Frederick II would become the new emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. John I would also be forced to sign the Magna Carta by his nobles.
On Sunday 26 July 1942, the Dutch Bishops publically condemned the deportation of Jews by the Nazis in the Netherlands.
In retaliation, the Reichskomissar of the Netherlands, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, ordered that all Jewish converts to Catholicism in the Netherlands be arrested. Among the two hundred converts arrested would be St. Edith Stein and her sister Rosa – both of whom were executed in Auschwitz.
There is some evidence that the arrest and deportation of the Jewish converts would contribute to Pius XII’s decision to refrain from an action similar to that of the Dutch bishops, that is a public condemnation of the Nazis. Indeed, the Protestant churches of the Netherlands had initially also wished to issue similar strong condemnations but Seyss-Inquart’s threat to take action against Jewish converts to Protestantism kept these churches silent.
Arthur Seyss-Inquart will be charged with crimes against humanity for his actions during WWII and will be executed at Nuremburg on 16 October 1946. Before he died he returned to the Catholic faith of his youth, receiving the Sacrament of Penance from Father Bruno Spitzl.
On 25 July 1593, Henry IV of France converted to Catholicism.
Henry was raised as a member of the Huguenot or Calvinist faith in France at a time in which there was much conflict between Catholics and Protestants. Just six days after his wedding in Paris in 1572, the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre took place during which several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for the wedding were killed. Henry saved his own life by converting to Catholicism, but would return to Protestantism after he escaped Paris in 1576.
In 1584, he became the heir to the French throne. While Henry was given aid by Elizabeth I in his quest to claim the throne from his Catholic opponents, Henry decided that adoption of Catholicism was the best way to gain the support of the French population. Legend purports him claiming, “Paris is well worth a Mass”. He would proclaim his conversion at the Church of Saint Denis.
While his conversion earned him the hostility of England, it did give him the support he needed to become king and he was crowned King of France on 27 February 1594. Still, he did not forget his Protestant roots and would later issue the Edict of Nantes which gave limited toleration to the Huguenots in France and bring an end to the French Wars of Religion.
On 24 July 1904, Solanus Casey was ordained to the priesthood by Archbishop Sebastian Messmer at the St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He will be ordained a “sacerdotus simplex” or “Mass Priest” which prevented him from hearing confessions or preaching doctrinal sermons because of a judgment that he had not performed sufficiently well in his seminary classes. Indeed, Fr. Casey had great difficulty in seminary as most of the classes were in German, with which he was not very familiar.
Throughout his life as a member of the Capuchin Franciscans, Fr. Casey will acquire a reputation for holiness. 20,000 people would visit his coffin just prior to his burial. He was been declared venerable by Pope John Paul II.
About Fr. Solanus Casey
On 23 July 1431, the legate of Pope Eugene IV invoked the Council of Basel.
This council was originally called by Pope Martin V as required by the prior Ecumenical Council of Constance. Basel, Switzerland was chosen as the site of the council by the majority of participants who wished to continue the policy of Concilliarism which sought to place the authority of the council over that of the papacy. The Concilliarists wanted a site outside the Papal States, the Holy Roman Empire or France in order to avoid being unduly influenced by the rulers of those states.
From the beginning the council was in conflict between the Concilliarist who wished to limit the authority of the papacy and Pope Eugene who wished to reassert papal primacy. Eugene also believed that the council was not sufficiently dealing with the issue of the Hussites – those who followed John Hus, who had been burned at the stake at the previous council of Constance.
Attempting to take a firmer control over the Council, Eugene tried to disband it and move it to Bologna but was strongly opposed by the members of the Council of Basel and was eventually forced to withdraw his order for the councils dissolution.
The desire of Emperor John VIII Paleologus of the Byzantine Empire to have a council discussing the possibility of union between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches will give Pope Eugene his opportunity to put an end to Basel. While the attendees at Basel were willing to have such a council, they were unwilling to meet in Italy where the Emperor wished to meet. Pope Eugene will take advantage of this difference to offer Emperor John VIII a meeting location in Ferrara, Italy. The Emperor accepted and Pope Eugene declared the end of the Council of Basel on 18 September 1437 and its transfer to Ferrara. At the first session of Ferrara, all the previous decisions of the Council of Basel were declared null and void.
The majority of the attendees at Basel refused to accept the Pope’s actions and declared Pope Eugene deposed on 25 June 1439 and would elect an anti-pope Felix V. This would cause a schism in the Church which would last for ten years. In 1449, anti-pope Felix will abdicate and the remnants of the Council of Basel will dissolve themselves claiming that they believed that Pope Eugene’s successor Nicholas V accepted the superiority of the council over the papacy as defined at Constance and Basel.
On 22 July 1456, the forces of the Hungarian nobleman John Hunyadi defeated the armies of Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II forcing him to lift the Ottoman siege of Belgrade which had lasted since 4 July 1456.
Hunyadi forces consisted not only his own personal soldiers but also a large gathering of peasants who had flocked to Hunyadi’s banner after St. John of Capistrano had preached a crusade.
On 14 July 1456, Hunyadi arrived at Belgrade and managed to break the naval blockade the Ottomans had imposed on the city.
After managing to push back a major Ottoman attack, the peasants which had followed the banner of St. John of Capistrano spontaneously began a counter-attack on Mehmet’s army. St. John, finding himself surrounded by 2,000 crusaders eager to attack the Turks, led them toward the Ottomans while shouting, “The Lord who made the beginning will take care of the finish!” The Ottoman forces surprised by the crusader assault will break the siege and flee back to Constantinople.
During the siege, Pope Callixtus III had ordered that every Christian Church ring its bells every day at noon as a call for Christians to pray for the defenders of Belgrade. Since Christians in many countries in Western Europe did not hear of this command until after they received news that the Christian forces had been victorious, the ringing of the bells became understood as a sign of Christian victory. Pope Callixtus did not rescind his command and so the tradition of ringing the noon day bell in Catholic church began – a tradition which continues today.
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