Désiré-Joseph Mercier | |
|---|---|
| Cardinal Archbishop of Mechelen Primate of Belgium | |
 Mercier in 1915 | |
| Church | Catholic Church |
| Archdiocese | Mechelen |
| See | Mechelen |
| Appointed | 21 February 1906 |
| Term ended | 23 January 1926 |
| Predecessor | Pierre-Lambert Goosens |
| Successor | Jozef-Ernest van Roey |
| Other post | Cardinal-Priest of San Pietro in Vincoli (1907-26) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 4 April 1874 by Giacomo Cattani |
| Consecration | 25 March 1906 by Antonio Vico |
| Created cardinal | 15 April 1907 byPope Pius X |
| Rank | Cardinal-Priest |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier (1851-11-21)21 November 1851 Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium |
| Died | 23 January 1926(1926-01-23) (aged 74) Brussels, Belgium |
| Buried | Saint Rumbold's Cathedral |
| Parents | Paul-Léon Mercier Anne-Marie Barbe Croquet |
| Motto | Apostolus Jesu Christi ("Apostle of Jesus Christ") |
| Coat of arms |  |
Désiré Félicien François Joseph Mercier (21 November 1851 – 23 January 1926) was aBelgian Catholic prelate who served asArchbishop of Mechelen from 1906 until his death in 1926. AThomist 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 thecardinalate in 1907.
Mercier is noted for his staunch resistance to theGerman 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.
| Styles of Désiré-Joseph Mercier | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reference style | His Eminence |
| Spoken style | Your Eminence |
| Religious style | Cardinal |
| Informal style | Cardinal |
| See | Mechelen |
Mercier was born at thechâteau du Castegier inBraine-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 aphysician.[1]
One of Mercier's maternal uncles was Adrien Croquet. In the 1860s Croquet became a missionary to theGrand Ronde Indian Reservation in westernOregon near the Pacific coast, where his surname was anglicized to Crockett. In the 1870s, a Mercier cousin, Joseph Mercier, joined their uncle Croquet in Oregon. He married a woman of one of theNative American tribes resident there. Today, several thousand descendants of Joseph and his wife are members of the tribe.[2]
Mercier studied at the College Saint‑Rombaut of Malines (1863-1868), and entered theminor seminary atMechelen in 1868 to prepare for the church. He attended theMajor Seminary, Mechelen, from 1870 to 1873.[3]
Mercier received the clericaltonsure in 1871, and wasordained to thepriesthood by ArchbishopGiacomo Cattani, thenuncio to Belgium, on 4 April 1874. Mercier continued with graduate studies, obtaining hislicentiate in theology (1877) anddoctorate inphilosophy from theUniversity of Louvain.[3]
He returned to Malines in 1877 and taught philosophy at the minor seminary and soon after was named spiritual director of the seminarians. His comprehensive knowledge ofThomas Aquinas earned him the newly erectedchair ofThomism atLouvain's Catholic university in 1882.[4] It was in this post, which he retained until 1905, that he forged a lifelong friendship with DomColumba Marmion, anIrish Thomist. Raised to the rank ofmonsignor on 6 May 1887, Mercier founded theHigher Institute of Philosophy at the Louvain University in 1899, which was to be a beacon ofneo-Thomist philosophy.[citation needed]
He founded in 1894 and edited until 1906 theRevue Néoscholastique, and wrote in ascholastic manner onmetaphysics, philosophy, and psychology. Several of his works were translated into English, German, Italian, Polish, and Spanish. His most important book wasLes origines de la psychologie contemporaine (1897).[5]
His reputation within his field gained the recognition ofPope Pius X, and Mercier was appointed asArchbishop of Mechelen andPrimate ofBelgium on 7 February 1906. He received hisepiscopal consecration on the following 25 March from ArchbishopAntonio Vico, and took as his episcopalmotto:Apostolus Jesu Christi. Mercier was createdcardinal priest byPope Pius X in theconsistory of 15 April 1907.[6][3] Three days later Pope Pius gave him his cardinal's ring and assigned him the titular church ofS. Pietro in Vincoli.[7]
During themodernist controversy, Mercier was both progressive and antimodernist. He sought to assess the compatibility of Thomistic philosophy with rapidly developing scientific knowledge.[8] He was a brilliant scholar, open to contemporary ideas and sufficiently respected for being able to protect scholars at Louvain, such asBollandistHippolyte Delehaye, from accusations of "modernism". Through his influence, Mercier preventedAlbin van Hoonacker'sLes douze petits prophètes traduits et commentés ["The twelve minor prophets translated and annotated"] from being placed on theIndex.[9]
Mercier was a close friend ofBenedictineLambert Beauduin and kept apprised of liturgical and ecumenical developments. From 1921 to 1926 he held the regularMalines Conversations withAnglicantheologians, notablyCharles Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax, foreshadowing the Catholic Church'sfuture dialogue with the Anglicans. Anglicanism, Mercier believed, must be "united, not absorbed".[10]
Pope Benedict XV sent his portrait and a letter of whole-hearted support to Mercier in 1916, and at one point told him, "You saved the Church!"[citation needed] Mercier was one of thecardinal electors in the1922 papal conclave, which selectedPope Pius XI.[citation needed]
In 1914, theGerman Army attempted asurprise invasion ofFrance by invadingneutral Belgium. Mercier had to leave hisdiocese on 20 August of that same year to attend the funeral of the late Pius X, andparticipate in the followingconclave to elect a new pope.[citation needed]
Returning from the conclave Mercier passed through thePort of Le Havre, where he visited wounded Belgian, French and British troops. Once back in his archdiocese, he foundMechelen Cathedral to have been partially destroyed. In theImperial German atrocities that ensued in theRape of Belgium, thirteen of the priests in Mercier's diocese were killed, not to mention many civilians, by Christmas 1914. With his pastoral letter,Patriotism and Endurance, of Christmas 1914, Mercier came to personify Belgian resistance to theGerman occupation. Thepastoral letter had to be distributed by hand as the Germans had cut off the postal service. Mercier's passionate, unflinching words were taken to heart by the suffering Belgians. He sometimes became a focus of Allied propaganda during the war.[9] He was kept under house arrest by the Germans, and many priests who had read the letter aloud in public were arrested.[citation needed]
In Ireland, Cardinal Mercier's detention and indeed the German occupation was used to help recruitment for the British Army among Irish Catholics. Following the war, Mercier helped with the re-establishment of the Irish Franciscan College (St Anthony's College, Leuven), with his friend since their seminary days in Louvain, Mons.James J. Ryan.[11] Mercier Press in Ireland is named in his honour.[12]
Following World War I, Mercier undertook an excursion to raise funds to rebuild and stock a newlibrary of theUniversity of Leuven. The original library had been burned by the Germans in the war. In his travels to raise funds, Mercier visited New York City for the only time. In 1919, he addressed the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Detroit, expressing gratitude forAmerican relief efforts.[13][14] Among other projects, Mercier also unsuccessfully attempted to have theLeague of Nations mandate ofPalestine awarded to Belgium.[15]
Mercier suffered from persistentdyspepsia. In early January 1926 he underwentsurgery for alesion of thestomach. During surgery, the cardinal held a conversation with his surgeon on anatomy while under localanesthesia .[16]
In his final days, Mercier was visited byKing Albert andQueen Elisabeth,Lord Halifax, and family members. He entered a deepcoma around 2:00 p.m. on 23 January and died an hour later, at age 74.[17] The cardinal was buried atSt. Rumbolds Cathedral. He harbored great devotion to theSacred Heart.[18]
Belgium: Grand Cross in theOrder of Leopold[20]
Luxemburg: Grand Cross in theOrder of the Oak Crown[20]
Poland: Grand Cross in theOrder of the White Eagle[20]
Japan: ImperialOrder of the Rising Sun[20]
France:Legion of Honour[20]
Portugal:Order of Christ[20]
Peru:Order of the Sun of Peru[20]
Spain:Order of Isabella the Catholic[20]
Vatican:Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice[20] | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Désiré-Joseph Mercier" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Mercier is known for favouring French speakers and opposing the use of theDutch language. Though in general social-minded, he was blind to the social aspects of theFlemish Movement and opposed many of its aims. Two examples. (1) Claiming that Dutch could never be a full-fledged cultural language, he fought all attempts to have Flemish high school and university students educated in their native Dutch. He relented only when overwhelmed by the political pressure the Flemish Movement was generating.[21] He managed to havePope Benedict XV address him a letter[22] in which he admonished priests that they should not address arguments extraneous to their supernatural commitment nor publish on secular subjects without their superior's permission. Mercier promptly published this letter.
Mercier recognized themathematical talent ofGeorges Lemaître as a young seminarian, and urged him to studyEinstein'stheories of relativity. Lemaître became an early expert ingeneral relativity as it applied to cosmological questions.
He went on to propose an expanding model of the universe, based on both Einstein's andde Sitter's models.Abbé Georges Lemaître developed his "primeval atom" hypothesis, together with researchers of theUniversity of Louvain, andGamow,Alpher andHerman into the better knownBig Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Colby, F.; Williams, T., eds. (1916)."Mercier, Desiré Joseph".New International Encyclopedia. Vol. 15 (2nd ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead. pp. 430–431.
| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by | 18th Archbishop of Mechelen 1906–1926 | Succeeded by |
