The friar who spent a month fetching an emperor
Emperor Sigismund had stopped at Narbonne and would not send Benedict XIII one word.
About this picture
AI-generated image, in the manner of a fifteenth-century panel painting in egg tempera and early oil on gessoed poplar, from the paper's reference portrait based on a scene from the life of St. Vincent Ferrer (Agnolo degli Erri, c. 1470-1490 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) View source artwork.
PERPIGNAN, Roussillon, September 19, 1415 AD — The Emperor Sigismund rode into Perpignan today. He came because Saint Vincent Ferrer had spent a month riding between Perpignan and Narbonne to argue him into it. The emperor and the friar want the same thing: for Benedict XIII to give up being pope. And St. Vincent Ferrer is asking it of the man who gave him his doctorate.
Benedict XIII is Pedro de Luna. For years now three men have each claimed to be pope. The emperor called a great meeting of churchmen at Constance in November 1414 AD. Two of the three are gone since. That meeting put one of them out, and Gregory XII gave the papacy up himself. Benedict XIII is the one who will not step down.
A month of riding
St. Vincent Ferrer had left Saragossa on July 17. He crossed Catalonia, and Perpignan welcomed him towards the end of August. He began at once asking Benedict XIII to give up being pope.
Benedict XIII would not do it. This month at Perpignan he sat on his throne with the tiara on his head and argued back, hour after hour. He is over eighty, and he never got tired. “You tell me that I am a doubtful pope,” Benedict XIII said. His answer was that without him nobody could make a pope at all.
So the friar went after the emperor instead. Sigismund had left Constance on August 5 with a crowd of churchmen behind him. Then he stopped at Narbonne and stayed there. He would go no further, and he would send Benedict XIII no word. St. Vincent Ferrer argued with him for a month at the cathedral of Saint-Just. A man who was in Narbonne through those weeks said this about him: “He went back and forth from Narbonne to Perpignan and from Perpignan to Narbonne.”
The pope who made him
St. Vincent Ferrer was a young friar when Cardinal de Luna took him into his household and kept him there. The cardinal gave him his doctorate in theology. When the cardinal became Benedict XIII, he called St. Vincent Ferrer to Avignon. He made him his confessor. He offered him bishoprics, and a cardinal’s hat, and St. Vincent Ferrer said no to all of it. Three years ago the friar was still starting his letters to him: “To our most holy Lord, Benedict XIII, Pope”.
The day the emperor came
Today the town filled up with the emperor. The counts of five provinces rode in. Three kingdoms sent grand messengers, and Constance sent an army of bishops and scholars. The great men were given beds in the religious houses: Benedict XIII with the Carmelites, the emperor with the Franciscans, St. Vincent Ferrer with the Dominicans.
The next day the emperor went to call on Benedict XIII. Benedict XIII welcomed him warmly and gave him the kiss of peace.
About this story
Catholic Saints News tells the lives of the saints as news from their own time and place. This story was written with AI from the historical record, and we read and approved it before it ran.
The Saints' words. This newspaper will never make a saint say something the historical record does not preserve.
Junior Report. Written for readers ten to twelve, from the same sources and under the same rules as the rest of the paper. The words are shorter, hard terms are explained, and the question at the end is for the reader to think over.
Read more
- · Stanislaus M. Hogan, O.P., Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P. (London: Longmans, Green, 1911)
- · Louis Salembier, 'The Western Schism', The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 13
Image. AI-generated image, in the manner of a fifteenth-century panel painting in egg tempera and early oil on gessoed poplar, from the paper's reference portrait based on a scene from the life of St. Vincent Ferrer (Agnolo degli Erri, c. 1470-1490 AD, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) — see the original.
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Sources for this story
Listed by paragraph.
- Paragraph 1
- attested Matthieu-Maxime Gorce, O.P., Saint Vincent Ferrier (1350-1419), IV, p. 14 ¶26
- attested Matthieu-Maxime Gorce, O.P., Saint Vincent Ferrier (1350-1419), IV, p. 14 ¶20
- attested Marc-Antoine Bayle, Vie de S. Vincent Ferrier de l'Ordre des Freres-Precheurs (1350-1419), CHAPITRE XXII. 24i, p. 16 ¶8
- attested Marc-Antoine Bayle, Vie de S. Vincent Ferrier de l'Ordre des Freres-Precheurs (1350-1419), CHAPITRE VINGT-DEUXIEME., p. 15 ¶4
- attested Stanislaus M. Hogan, O.P., Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P. (Lives of the Friar Saints), CHAPTER VIII., p. 4 ¶34
- attested Alban Butler, Saint Vincent Ferrer, Confessor (Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Principal Saints, 5 April), Article ¶2
- Paragraph 2
- attested Matthieu-Maxime Gorce, O.P., Saint Vincent Ferrier (1350-1419)
- attested Louis Salembier, The Western Schism (Catholic Encyclopedia)
- attested Marc-Antoine Bayle, Vie de S. Vincent Ferrier de l'Ordre des Freres-Precheurs (1350-1419), CHAPITRE QUATRIEME., p. 3 ¶7
- attested Johann Peter Kirsch, Pedro de Luna (Catholic Encyclopedia), ¶15
- attested Stanislaus M. Hogan, O.P., Saint Vincent Ferrer, O.P. (Lives of the Friar Saints)
- Paragraph 3
- Paragraph 4
- Paragraph 5
- Paragraph 6
- documented The Roman Missal (Catholic Culture liturgical calendar), Collect and liturgical rank for the Optional Memorial of St. Vincent Ferrer, 5 April, Book of Blessings: Blessing Before and After Meals: Lent (1s ¶50
- attested Albert Reinhart, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer (Catholic Encyclopedia), ¶9
- attested Alban Butler, Saint Vincent Ferrer, Confessor (Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Principal Saints, 5 April), Article ¶2
- attested Alban Butler, Saint Vincent Ferrer, Confessor (Butler's Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs and Principal Saints, 5 April), Article ¶5
- attested Andrew Pradel, O.P.; trans. T. A. Dixon, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer of the Order of Preachers: his life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion, ST. VINCENT FERRER,, p. 29 ¶3
- attested Albert Reinhart, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer (Catholic Encyclopedia), ¶10
- attested English Province of the Order of Preachers, St Vincent Ferrer (Godzdogz, English Dominican Province), ¶139
- attested Andrew Pradel, O.P.; trans. T. A. Dixon, O.P., St. Vincent Ferrer of the Order of Preachers: his life, spiritual teaching, and practical devotion, COMMENCES HIS NEW APOSTOLATE., p. 85 ¶1
- documented Vincent Ferrer; trans. S.M.C., Letter to Pope Benedict XIII on the time of Antichrist and the end of the world, ¶6
- Paragraph 7
- Paragraph 8
