Cardinal mercier holy spirit prayer

Cardinal danneels
Cardinal van roey
Cardinal dechamps

•

Mercier, Désiré Joseph

By Luc Courtois

Désiré Joseph Mercier (1851-1926)
This is an oil portrait of Désiré Mercier, dating back to 1894.
Janssen, J.: Désiré Joseph Mercier, oil on canvas, 1894; source: the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven.
Courtesy of the Institute of Philosophy of KU Leuven.

Mercier, Désiré Félicien-François-Joseph

(Cardinal Désiré-Joseph Mercier)

Cardinal Archbishop of Mechelen (Belgium)

Born 21 November 1851 in Braine-l’Alleud, Belgium

Died 22 January 1926 in Brussels, Belgium

Summary

After his pastoral letter Patriotisme et endurance, which had a worldwide impact, the Cardinal Archbishop of Mechlin, Désiré Mercier, was seen both in Belgium and abroad as the incarnation of civil resistance to the German occupation of Belgium.

Biographical Sketch

After his secondary studies (humanités) at the College Saint‑Rombaut of Malines (1863-1868), the young French-speaking Désiré Joseph Mercier (1851-1926) began his priestly career. He studied philosophy at the minor seminary of Malines (1868-1870) and theology at Maline’s major seminary

•

Désiré-Joseph Mercier

Belgian cardinal (1851–1926)

Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier (21 November 1851 – 23 January 1926) was a Belgian Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Mechelen from 1906 until his death in 1926. A Thomist scholar, he had several of his works translated into other European languages. He was known for his book, Les origines de la psychologie contemporaine (1897). He was elevated to the cardinalate in 1907.

Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of Belgium during World War I. After the invasion, he distributed a strong pastoral letter, Patriotism and Endurance, to be read in all his churches, urging the people to keep up their spirits. He served as a model of resistance.

Biography

Early life and ordination

Mercier was born at the château du Castegier in Braine-l'Alleud, as the fifth of seven children of small business owners Paul-Léon Mercier and his wife, Anne-Marie Barbe Croquet. Three of Mercier's sisters became religious sisters. His brother Léon became a physician.^[1]

One

•

1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mercier, Désiré

MERCIER, DÉSIRÉ (1851-), Cardinal Archbishop of Malines, Belgium, was born Nov. 21 1851 at Broine l'Allemt, in the Walloon portion of Brabant, of a bourgeois family. After finishing his course at the college of St. Rombaut at Malines, he entered the larger seminary of that town, and on April 5 1874 was ordained priest. He continued his theological studies at Louvain, and in 1877 was appointed professor of philosophy at the lesser seminary of Malines. In 1882 he was appointed to the recently created chair of Thomist philosophy at Louvain, and during the ensuing years was active in the scheme for founding the Institut Supérieur de Philosophie at Louvain, which was finally opened in 1894.

In Feb. 1906 Monsignor Mercier was appointed Archbishop of Malines in succession to Archbishop Goossens, and in 1907 he was created a cardinal. Soon after the outbreak of war in 1914 he was summoned to Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Pius X. and the election of his successor, and it was therefore not until his return to Belgium that he be