The recent biography of Prince-Abbot Joseph III by the present Prince-Abbot is now also available to read online.

Joseph-René Vilatte (1854-1929): Some Aspects of his Life, Work and Succession
by John Kersey

This work attempts to provide a compact and accessible scholarly re-evaluation of the life and work of Joseph-René Vilatte (Mar Timotheos), a towering figure in the Free Catholic movement. It firstly offers a general biographical study of Mgr. Vilatte, and then discusses some particular aspects of his succession, including the posthumous attacks on him from Anglican and Orthodox sources. It offers answers to the reader who is perhaps curious as to why an intelligent and well-intentioned clergyman whose work brought comfort and hope to many has subsequently been so extensively vilified by those he once worked alongside.

Mgr. Vilatte was a pioneer in the work of church-planting for immigrant and other settler communities in the United States and beyond, seeing in his adherence to the Old Catholic faith a means of ministering to those who found the Protestant nature of the available alternatives unpalatable and the Roman Catholic Church unwilling to see their community worship in a manner indigenous to its traditions (particularly through the use of its native language). Like the missionary bishops of the early church, he established parishes for the communities he served, setting up church buildings and providing valid sacraments through the priests he ordained and appointed. Those parishes, as might be expected, waxed and waned in the complex and often hostile conditions of the time; not least among the hostile parties were the Anglicans and Roman Catholics. But nevertheless, some survived to develop into church movements that survive and thrive to this day, and in the case of the African Orthodox Church, that played a key role in the development of religion among America’s black communities.

This work is published by the Arnold Harris Mathew Center for the Study of the Independent Sacramental Movement at European-American University (Commonwealth of Dominica). Available in softcover. 354 pages including illustrations and tables. To purchase a copy, please visit the European-American University Press page at Lulu.com here.

(Pictured above right: The ecclesiastical coat of arms of Mgr. Vilatte. The insignia of the Order of the Crown of Thorns can be seen pendant beneath the shield.)

(Photograph: Victoria Elise Crabbe)

(Photograph: Victoria Elise Crabbe)

Fr. Raphaël Steck of the Mission Gallicane d’Alsace, who is a member of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, has published a life of Prince-Abbot Joseph III (Mgr. Joseph René Vilatte) in pictures. The images he has selected include many extremely rare and previously unseen early documents and photographs, accompanied by text which traces his life from humble origins in Paris to his consecration in Ceylon, reception of the Order of the Crown of Thorns and Abbey-Principality of San Luigi, missions in the Americas, France and England, and eventual reconciliation with the Roman Catholic Church in his homeland. The book will be an essential purchase for all who are interested in this crucial figure in the development of the independent sacramental movement.

To purchase a copy of the book, visit the publisher’s page at http://is.gd/8gV0uP

In this letter from February 1971, Prince-Abbot Edmond II writes to congratulate his friend the Most Revd. Prince Kermit William Poling upon his appointment as a Count. He would subsequently be advanced to a Marquisate and Dukedom in San Luigi, and is today our senior living member of Supreme Council.

Canon Jan Gruszka (1909-74) was a Chevalier of the Order of the Crown of Thorns, being admitted to the Scottish Priory in 1962.

One of several Roman Catholic clergymen to be members of the Order, Canon Gruszka was parish priest of St Simon’s Church, Partick, Glasgow (pictured left), until his death on 11 November 1974. The parish was a home for Polish expatriates, and the Scottish Priory of the Order of the Crown of Thorns was notably Polish in its membership under the leadership of the Baron de Prus. The Catholic Herald of 16 February 2007 reports former Speaker of the House of Commons Michael Martin (now Lord Martin of Springburn) as saying, “I have fond memories of the Polish Masses I attended in St Patrick’s Church in Anderston in Glasgow and also of Canon Jan Gruszka.”

Canon Gruszka was born in Hadjukach Wielkich, where he graduated from elementary school. In 1930 he graduated from the gymnasium at Królewskiej Hucie. After the cadet school at Szrem, he undertook military service as a non-commissioned officer in the 75th Infantry Regiment of Królewskiej Hucie. In 1931 he commenced seminary studies at the Śląskiego Seminarium Duchowego in Krakow, and studied theology at the Jagiellonian University. He was ordained priest in 1936. After two months at the pastorate of St John the Baptist at Pawłowice, he took up the position of curate in Różańcowej at Halembie in September of that year. Following the outbreak of World War II, he was briefly substitute priest at the parish of St Urban at Woli, and then became vicar at St Anthony and St Dąbrówce and at St Mary Magdalene in Bielszowicach. In 1942, the Nazis removed him from his parish for hearing confessions in Polish. He was forcibly conscripted into the Wehrmacht and served as a medical orderly on the Western Front. He managed to escape from the Nazis and joined the Polish Army for the remainder of the war. The Polish Army was based at Yorkhill Barracks in Glasgow, and it was then that St Simon’s Church became their place of worship.

In peacetime, he settled in Glasgow, where his ministry was directed particularly to the Polish-speaking community there. He is buried in St Peter’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Dalbeth, Glasgow.