Of the five wounds of the Holy Church

book cover

Of the five wounds of the Holy Church is the English translation of the book Delle Cinque Piage della Santa Chiesa authored by Antonio Rosmini. It was translated, and prefaced by Henry Parry Liddon and published in London in 1883. The book is available online as it is out of copyright. Blessed Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (March 25, 1797 - July 1, 1855) was troubled at what he perceived to be wounds of the Church and not without hesitation, he set fort to write this book to 'relieve his own troubled mind, and possibly also to comfort others' close to Padova in 1832. ^[1]

Book content

The five wounds of the Church presupposes an analogy between our Lord's natural Body pierced on the cross, and His Mystical body, the Church, pierced by the sins and errors of men in the ages of Christian history.

The five main evils of his contemporary Italian Church correspond, in Rosmini's view, to the five wounds of the hands, feet, and side of the Divine Redeemer. Beginning with the Wound in Jesus' left hand, he likens it with the lack of sympathy between the clergy and people in the act of Public Worship, which is due, to the want of adequate Christian evangelical teaching. This is to be accounted for by the Wound in the Right hand, — the insufficient education of the clergy, their secularization and their alienation from scriputre and their bishops. This again was both caused and perpetuated by the great Wound in the Side, which pierced the Heart of the Divine Sufferer, and which consisted in the divisions among the Bishops, separating them from one another, and also from their clergy and people, in forgetfulness of their true union in the Body of Christ. The wound of the Right foot was formed because of the civil power of the Bishops which often had the effect of making them worldly schemers and politicians, more or less intent on selfish interests. The wound of the left foot was traceable to the feudal period, when the freehold tenures of the Church were treated as fiefs by an over-lord, or suzerain, who saw in the chief pastors of the flock of Christ only a particular variety of vassals or dependants. ^[2]

Book objectives

Rosmini longs for an intelligent union of the clergy and people in public worship, for a well-trained clergy, for an Episcopate united in heart and soul, for a restoration of the primitive method of electing Bishops and for the emancipation of Church property from trammels of feudal tenure. ^[3]

References

1. ^ ROSMINI Antonio, Of the five wounds of the Church, translated and prefaced by Henry Parry Liddon, London 1883. P. xxxvii (on-line) : http://www.archive.org/details/a606740200rosmuoft
2. ^ ROSMINI Antonio, Of the five wounds of the Church, translated and prefaced by Henry Parry Liddon, London 1883. P. xviii (on-line) : http://www.archive.org/details/a606740200rosmuoft
3. ^ ROSMINI Antonio, Of the five wounds of the Church, translated and prefaced by Henry Parry Liddon, London 1883. P. xxvi (on-line) : http://www.archive.org/details/a606740200rosmuoft

External links

• ROSMINI Antonio, Of the five wounds of the Church, translated and prefaced by Henry Parry Liddon, London 1883. (on-line) : http://www.archive.org/details/a606740200rosmuoft