This quote comes from a book about Saint Catherine of Siena called the “Apostolic Digest” that was written by Michael Malone. However, as one of the few actually smart people on that cesspool called Reddit discovered, it’s a mistranslation of another translation, of another translation.
This is a discussion opener/rant about the popular use of the book “Apostolic Digest” by Michael Malone to quote St. Catherine of Sienna about devotion to the Pope. I have seen it used in everything from Roman Catholic parish websites, Orthodox/Protestant people arguing that the quote is absurd, and in cannon Catholics arguing with sedevacantists. The quote from “Apostolic Digest” goes as follows:
Even if the Pope were Satan incarnate, we ought not to raise up our heads against him, but calmly lie down to rest on his bosom … He who rebels against our Father, Christ-on-earth, is condemned to death, for that which we do to him we do to Christ in Heaven: we honor Christ if we honor the Pope; we dishonor Christ if we dishonor the Pope … I know very well that many people think they are not offending God by doing so, but rather that they are doing Him a service in persecuting the Church and her servants; for they defend themselves by boasting: “They are so corrupt, and work all manner of evil.” But I tell you that God wills and has so commanded that even if the priests, the pastors of the Church, and Christ-on-earth were incarnate devils, it is fitting that we be obedient and subject to them, not for their sakes, but for the sake of God, and out of obedience to Him, for He wills that we should act in this way. Know that the son is never in the right against the father, even if the father is ever-so-evil and unjust, for so great is the good which he has received from the father, that is, life itself, that he can never repay him for it.
The quote is split into 3 sections separated by ellipses (but with a notable absence of brackets “[]”). The bibliography in “Apostolic Digest” quotes the biography “Saint Catherine of Sienna” by Johannes Jørgensen, and gives the suspicious set of pages: p.201-202, p.222.
The book by Jørgensen uses the numbering of Catherine’s letters made by Niccolò Tommasèo in 1860. This is the numbering system I will use for the remainder of this post.
The first section is found in page 201 of Jørgensen’s biography and quotes letter 28. According to the book collection of Catherine’s letters I have, letter 28 was written
to Bernabò Visconti of Milan
Between 7 June and 24 July 1375
(Catherine and Noffke Volume 1, 131)
The second and third sections are found in pages 201 and 222 of Jørgensen’s biography respectively, and both quote letter 207. According to the same collection of her letters, letter 207 was written
To the Signori of Florence
Early April 1376, perhaps Holy Week
(Catherine and Noffke Volume 2, 138)
Here we have the first problem with Malone’s quote. Although sections one and two are barely separated by a page turn in Jørgensen’s biography, in reality they are pieces of two entirely different letters sent to two different people, in two different places, nearly a year apart. These cannot be considered to be one continuous quote.
Furthermore, Jørgensen’s biography was originally written in dutch and quotes Latin translations of Catherine’s letters, which were originally written in the more common Italian. This means the letters were translated 3 times before Malone quoted them in his book.
The better option, in my opinion, is to simply quote letter 207 directly. It gets most of the quote, and still has the same theological ideas. Here is what I would quote with the collection I had:
If God has declared war on you because of the wrong you have done your father, his vicar, you are weak indeed, having lost his help. It’s true that many do not believe they are offending God by this. It seems to them they are offering sacrifice to him. If they persecute the Church and its pastors they defend themselves by saying, “They are bad, and they are doing all kinds of evil.” But I’m telling you that God wills , and has so commanded, that even if the pastors and Christ on earth were devils incarnate (rather than good kind fathers), we must be submissive and obedient to them-not for what they are in themselves but out of obedience to God, because they take the place of Christ, who wants us to obey them.
(Catherine and Noffke Volume 2, 141)
Works Cited:
Saint Catherine of Siena, SCS, p.201-202, p.222, (quoted in Apostolic Digest, by Michael Malone, Book 5: “The Book of Obedience”, Chapter 1: “There is No Salvation Without Personal Submission to the Pope”, p.250)
Jørgensen, Johannes. Saint Catherine of Siena. Translated by Ingeborg Lund. London: Longmans, Green and Company, 1938, 201-202 222.
Catherine, and Suzanne Noffke. The Letters of Catherine of Siena. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, V. 203.Tempe AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2000) 131, 135.
Catherine, and Suzanne Noffke. The Letters of Catherine of Siena. (Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, V. 203.Tempe AZ: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), 138, 141.
TL;DR – The popular Saint Catherine quote is from the book “Apostolic Digest” by Michael Malone. However, the quote in this book is an academically dishonest splice of an English translated dutch book, which itself is quoting Latin translations of Italian letters, which were translated to dutch. Therefore we should just quote her early April 1376 letter to the Signori of Florence (Letter 207).
https://www.reddit.com/r/Catholicism/comments/ym3tkk/please_stop_using_apostolic_digest_by_michael/?rdt=63583
Let’s examine the actual quote she said:
“If God has declared war on you because of the wrong you have done your father, his vicar, you are weak indeed, having lost his help. It’s true that many do not believe they are offending God by this. It seems to them they are offering sacrifice to him. If they persecute the Church and its pastors they defend themselves by saying, “They are bad, and they are doing all kinds of evil.” But I’m telling you that God wills, and has so commanded, that even if the pastors and Christ on earth were devils incarnate (rather than good kind fathers), we must be submissive and obedient to them-not for what they are in themselves but out of obedience to God, because they take the place of Christ, who wants us to obey them.”
Note the differences compared to the original:
- Even though there could be alternative readings, it would appear much more obvious that she is using hyperbole and not literally saying that the Pope could be a devil incarnate (let alone Satan incarnate) and obedience would be required.
- There is no comment about having to peacefully lie in his bosom, only obedience – and even then, it is only for God’s sake. This makes sense because Catherine of Siena could, maybe, be suspected of heresy if she said otherwise considering the infallible Galatians 1:8:
“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema.” - Her quote only applies to Popes. If there was, or is, an Antipope, all bets are off. Antipopes have no more authority than a layman to decide the direction of the church.
However, do not forget that the quote comes from private letters, sent to specific people, for a specific situation. Without much more research including from information outside of her letters, it may be difficult to accurate determine what “persecute” even means in her letter. Is this a mere verbal conflict, or is this like Henry VIII dissolving monasteries? If it was a mere verbal conflict, one can feel free to disagree, as Saint Thomas Aquinas states in an alternative perspective:
It must be observed, however, that if the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter’s subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2:11, “Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.”
Summa Theologica, II-II, Question 33, Article 4, Reply 2
Of course; why, where, whether, when, and how this applies to correcting a Pope is a hotly debated subject.
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