Eighteenth Century

Evangelization, Deism, French Revolution

            Evangelization in America and Asia: Father Serra founds first mission in California. An Evangelical Awakening spreads throughout England and America under the preaching of George Whitefield, the Wesley brothers, and Jonathan Edwards. The era of modern missions advances with the establishment of London's Baptist Missionary Society and the sending of William Carey to India. Missionaries arrive on Kodiak Island in Alaska; Orthodoxy introduced to North America. Saints and martyrs continue to emerge in North and South America, in Vietnam, China. Religious freedom gains grounds. In the United States, religious tests for government positions are abolished, and in Russia Tsarina Catherine the Great grants freedom of religion.

            "Deism" is derived from the Latin word for God: "Deus." Deism involves the belief in the existence of God, on purely rational grounds, without any reliance on revealed religion or religious authority. They do not accept the Bible nor the Qur'an or other religious texts. Many of the leaders of the French and American revolutions followed this belief system. Deists played a major role in creating the principle of separation of church and state, and the religious freedom clauses of the 1st Amendment of the Constitution          

            French Revolution: 1789-1799: It was a false "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity", the same motto of the Free-Masonry. Indeed the French Revolution was the guillotine of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". There was no Freedom but the tyranny and terrorism of the masses, instead of Equality there was a brutal political, social and religious prejudice, and the Fraternity was marked by thousands of massacres (including many Catholic priests, nuns, and laity) and the Reign of Terror...

            Anti-clerical pressures increased throughout Europe. Clement XIV succumbed to pressure from Catholic monarchs of Portugal, France, and Spain and abolished the Jesuit order in 1773. The French diplomat, Nicolas de Basseville was attacked and killed by Romans when he displayed the anti-clerical tricolour. Pius VI made amends with Napoleon in 1779 by surrendering part of the Papal States and many works or art. Later that year a French general died after a disturbance at the French embassy in Rome. Soon after the French army occupied Rome and took  the Pope into captivity in France where he died in 1799. 

SAINTS

St. Alphonsus Liguori:  founded the Redemptorists, wrote the Glories of Mary.
St. Paul of the Cross:  founded the  Passionists
Blessed Junipero Serra: evangelized California and Mexico
St. Elisabeth Ann Seton: the first American-born citizen to be beatified, the Sisters of      Charity, Catholic schools in America
St. John Vianney: The cure of Ars in France; simple, holy parish priest and confessor.
Blessed Anne Catherine Emmerich: stigmatist with many visions and prophesies.
Blessed Ann Marie Taigi:  visions of the globe, the 3 days of darkness
St. Marcelino Champagnat: founded the Marists Brothers
St. Rose Philippine Duchesne: "missionary of the American frontier," one that her beloved Potawatomi Indians called <Quah-kah-ka-num-ad>, "Woman-who-prays-always."
St. Francis Gil de Frederich:  one of the Martyrs of Vietnam
Blessed Noel Pinot: one of the  31 martyrs in the French Revolution
St. Marguerite d'Youville:  founded the Sisters of Charity (Grey Nuns)
St. Jane Antide Thouret: founded the Daughters of Saint Vincent de Paul
St. Francis of Girolamo: saintly in his work  in prisons, brothels, galleys
St. John Baptist Rossi: saintly in his work with the homeless, sick, beggars, prostitutes, and  prisoners.

Heresies

            Freemasonry: Born in 1717 when 4 Craft Lodges gathered at the Apple Tree Tavern in London. A secret fraternal order of Free and Accepted Masons, spread by the British Empire. Some Masons define it as "a beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols"... also as "the realization of God by the practice of Brotherhood": To reach God by doing good works to your neighbor... It has been described as "the biggest, richest, most secret and most powerful private force in the world"... and certainly, "the most deceptive", both for the general public, and for the first 3 degrees of "initiates": Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason (the basic "Blue Lodge"). At various time condemned by the Catholic Church, Baptists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Russian Orthodox Church.

            Moravians, Church of the Brotherhood, United Brethren: After Huss, 1727: The English priest "Wycliff", denied the authority of the Pope 200 years before Luther. "John Huss", a Bohemian priest (now western Czechoslovakia), followed his ideas... In 1457, some followers of Huss founded the "Church of the Brotherhood", considered the pioneer and the earliest independent Protestant body.

            Shakers, Union Society: 1741- Ann Lee- Jane Wardley, with the help of her brother James, organized this sect in England in the year 1747. Later they were joined by Ann Lee, of Manchester, who claimed to be Christ in His second reincarnation. She came to America in 1774. They are called "Shakers" because in their meeting they had emotional movements of the body, sometimes so strong as to cause convulsive rolling on the floor.

            Methodists, "Holy Club": 1744- Founded by John and Charles Wesley in England. Two distinctive features: 1- A "mystical experience", is the best way to know God: The "witness of the Spirit" to the individual, with personal assurance of salvation, the "heartwarming experience". This "born-again" experience is the first of the four ways to know God; the other 3 are: Scripture, reason, and tradition.  2- It was the "social conscience" of England, preaching to the "poor" a new message of hope and care: They devoted much time to create private welfare agencies to help the poor, social reforms, improvement of the daily life of workers, legalize labor unions, abolish slavery, protect woman and children; they started schools for children, old folk' homes, orphanages, dispensaries for the sick, agencies for the unemployed and homeless... and they were among the foremost champions of a democratic free United States. They hold Scripture to be the sole and sufficient rule of belief and practice; teach justification by faith alone, although the practice of good works is commended... and done! 

            Unitarians: 1774- Theophilus Lindsay. In 1774 in England on the basis of "Socinianism" of the 16th Century, denying the Trinity, and proclaiming that Jesus was not God; the atonement of Jesus is invalid, and salvation is only by works.