St. César de Bus (SLE 001)

Born at Cavaillon, France, in 1544, St. César de Bus was a pious child educated by Jesuits. Circa 1562, at the age of 18, he became a soldier in the King’s army and fought the Huguenots or French Calvinists in the Wars of Religion. Following the August 1572 St. Bartholomew's Day massacre, which he may have witnessed firsthand, he joined the navy. However, his intent to participate in the siege of La Rochelle, a Huguenot stronghold, the following year was stymied by illness. Living life in the fast lane for three years as a courtier under the Queen Mother Catherine de Medici at Paris, he wrote poetry and dramas, and painted, but underwent a conversion experience as he passed a Marian shrine on his way to a masked ball. His spirituality rekindled, he returned to serious study and was ordained to the priesthood at the age of 38 in 1582. Inspired by his reading a life of Charles Borromeo, who would be beatified in 1602 and canonized in 1610, St. César soon thereafter began his real life’s work: communicating Catholic doctrine clearly and simply to everyday people (especially those living in the countryside) in the wake of the Protestant Reformation. To that end, St. César made new use of his God-given talents in the literary and visual arts in his ministry. He composed question-and-answer games, wrote poems and songs, and even staged short mystery plays. He also painted small religious pictures illustrating the Gospels, made rosaries and crosses by hand, and gave away booklets. In short, he pioneered the kind of audiovisual religious education that today we take for granted. In 1592, he founded two religious communities—one for men and one for women--for the education of children and families in The Faith. Though his congregation for women died out in the 17th century and his one for men was disbanded in the 18th century by the French Revolution, the Italian branch of the Christian Doctrine Fathers survived and continues St. César’s mission today. Blind since 1594, he died of natural causes in 1607. + Here St. César wears a cinctured white alb and green stole over his white-collared black cassock. He holds an open book inscribed with a Latin Biblical verse (Isaiah 24:15): “In doctrinis glorificate Dominum”, that is, “Glorify the Lord in instruction”. + St. César de Bus is patron of Catechism Teachers or Catechists as well as the Christian Doctrine Fathers. + Feast: April 15 + Image Credit (SLE 001): Antique devotional image of Il. V. P. Cesare de Bus, Fondatore della Congregazione de’ Preti Secolari della Dottrina Cristiana in Francia [The Venerable Father César de Bus, Founder of the Secular Priests of Christian Doctrine in France], originally published in chromolithography by Tip. S. Lega Eucaristica (SLE), Milan, Italy, early 20th century, from the designer’s private collection of religious ephemera. By analogy with baseball cards, this holy card is considered one of de Bus’s ‘rookie’ cards.