Category: News
Official Statement of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi
The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi has become aware of the dissemination of material via the website Wikipedia that is inaccurate and defamatory to the Abbey-Principality. The Abbey-Principality has submitted an official complaint to the Wikimedia Foundation and has published a full response at this link:
Response to material placed on Wikipedia by Robert Kobylinski and others
This statement should suffice to make it clear that the Abbey-Principality contests in the strongest terms the false statements that others have sought to present, and that it intends to respond fully to these attacks. We note also that a friend of the Abbey-Principality has published his own personal response to the matter which may be read (in French) here, and which expresses a trenchancy that is well in keeping with the spirit of the “valiant knight”.
Grand Collar of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi
The Grand Collar of the Abbey-Principality of San Luigi is worn by the Prince-Abbot on ceremonial occasions. The collar was hand-crafted and enamelled by Admiral Carl Lemke, KCCT, KCLBC, who holds the Warrant of the Abbey-Principality for the making of insignia.
Union Apostolique Gallicane
The Abbey-Principality has granted a Charter and Apostolic Mandate to the Union Apostolique Gallicane under the Most Revd. Raphaël-Magnoald Steck, OA, KOCT as Bishop Moderator. The Union is an umbrella body that seeks to bring together those who continue the ministry of the Eglise Gallicane as that was expressed under the primacy of the Abbé Julio, formerly Prelat-Commandeur of the Order of the Crown of Thorns and previously of Prince-Abbot Joseph III of San Luigi.
The Union endorses the Duval Faith and Order Declaration of Prince-Abbot Joseph III agreed at Wisconsin on 16 December 1889 and published in 1890. As well as church missions, it includes in its membership several religious orders.
A website for the Union can be found at http://union-gallicane.org
Mission Gallicane Saint Julio
The Abbey-Principality has granted a Charter and Apostolic Mandate to the new Mission Gallicane Saint Julio in Belgium under the Most Revd. Willy Fiorucci OA, KOCT (Mgr. Vilhelmus). The Mission is a canonical continuation of the ministry of the Eglise Gallicane as that was expressed under the primacy of the Abbé Julio, formerly Prelat-Commandeur of the Order of the Crown of Thorns and previously of Prince-Abbot Joseph III of San Luigi.
The Mission endorses the Duval Faith and Order Declaration of Prince-Abbot Joseph III agreed at Wisconsin on 16 December 1889 and published in 1890. It is a member communion of the Union Apostolique Gallicane together with the Mission Gallicane d’Alsace under the Most Revd. Raphaël-Magnoald Steck OA, KOCT, which has also received a Charter from the Abbey-Principality.
A website for the new Mission can be found at http://mgsj.be.
Christmass 2013
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi and the San Luigi Orders wish all our members and friends a blessed Christmass and a peaceful New Year.
Prince-Abbot receives awards
The Prince-Abbot has been honoured by the Polish Collegium Heraldicum Concordiae. The CHC was founded in 2009 to promote traditional and conservative values within society.
The Medal “Pro Probitas” was instituted in 2010 and is awarded in three classes: gold, silver and bronze. It is awarded to those who have promoted conservative values. The obverse design of the medal depicts Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (1770-1861), while the reverse bears a quotation “CONVENIT DIMICARE PRO LEGIBUS, PRO LIBERTATE, PRO PATRIA” (it is fitting to fight in defense of rights, freedoms and country) taken from “Tusculan Disputations” by Marcus Tullius Cicero. The ribbon depicts the national colours of Poland and of France.
The Prince-Abbot has received the Medal “Pro Probitas” in gold (Class I) which is the highest award of the CHC.
Additionally, the Prince-Abbot has received the CHC Medal commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the late Archduke Otto von Hapsburg. The reverse of the medal depicts a quotation from Vergil, “Semper honoris nomenque laudesque manebunt tuum” (Your honour, name and glory will remain forever)
The chairman of the CHC is Dr Norbert Wojtewicz, who is a Knight Officer of the Order of the Crown of Thorns. Dr Wojtewicz, who earned his first two degrees from the Papal Theological Faculty in Wroclaw and his PhD from the University of Wroclaw, is the former Keeper of the Laws of the Association of Polish Monarchists. Among his many chivalric offices, he is Grand Herald and member of the Grand Chapter of the Order of Saint Stanislaus, and is author of the official history of the Order. He is photographed below with the late Prince-Bishop Juliusz Nowina-Sokolnicki, Grand Master of the Order of Saint Stanislaus, who was briefly Assistant Bishop to the Prince-Abbot in his capacity as Archbishop of Great Britain in the Apostolic Episcopal Church.
Book review by Archbishop Spataro
Turning to Tradition; Converts and the Making of an American Orthodoxy. By D. Oliver Herbel. Oxford University Press, 2013.
Reviewed by Francis C. Spataro
This is the story of recent movements in the United States which greatly expanded the Eastern Orthodox Church in America. Russian explorers to Alaska brought their Ancient Faith to North America. However, the men mentioned in this book ignited a light which still glows today.
The first of these is St. Alexis Toth who was a Catholic priest from Austria-Hungary, sent to the USA to work as a missionary among the many thousands of Uniates who had immigrated to this country to seek a better life. He ended up converting them en masse to the Russian Orthodox Church which had been the religion of their ancestors. It is an amazing study in the inability of the local Roman Catholic hierarchy to adjust to Catholics of a different Rite and History. The majority Irish bishops were trying to keep immigrants from the Irish Potato Famine from being lost to the Catholic Church. So they lost thousands of immigrants from Austria-Hungary instead.
Then we have the turning to Orthodoxy of Black Americans who eventually founded the African Orthodox Church here, in the West Indies and Africa. The first Black man ordained a priest was Fr. Raphael Morgan. Then we have Fr. Moses Berry and the Order of St. Moses the Black. Fr. Berry was first attracted to non-canonical Orthodoxy through the Holy Order of MANS and the Brotherhood of Christ the Saviour. Having personally known Metropolitan Pangratios and Bishop Joseph Langdon, I can comment knowingly about this phenomenon. Eventually,both the Order of MANS and the Brotherhood converted to canonical Orthodoxy, joining either the Orthodox Church of America (OCA) or the Antiochian Orthodox Church.
Finally we have the saga of the Evangelical Orthodox Church and Pastor Peter Gillquist. This large group from the Campus Crusades have already documented their journey in Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith. Unfortunately the change from Fundamentalist, Evangelical Protestants was too radical an effort. Many “deconverted” after joining the Antiochian Orthodox Church. In some cases ethnic Orthodoxy was not severe enough for these Fundamentalists who wanted to live like the Thebaid Monks of Egypt. Some changed to the OCA while others just went back to being Evangelical Orthodox.
This is a very fascinating book, especially for me who since 1976 through the Vilatte Guild has watched and recorded so many persons in both Independent – Autocephalous and Canonical Orthodoxy. The Bibliography is well done and very complete. I highly recommend this study to all interested in American Orthodoxy.
The Abbey-Principality of San Luigi 
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