Fabiola; Or the Church of the Catacombs
New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons, circa 1951. Popular edition. 12 mo. (7 5/8 inches tall), original pale gray pictorial cloth stamped in black and yellow. Slight toning to paper. A near-fine copy. Item #1443
"MAY THE CHURCH, IN HER DAYS OF PEACE AND OF VICTORIES, NEVER FORGET WHAT SHE OWES TO THE AGE OF HER MARTYRS"
Popular Edition of this Victorian novel by the Archbishop of Westminster portraying the sufferings of the martyrs of the early Church in Pagan Rome. A bright copy.
Battling to aid the embattled Catholics of England, Wiseman provoked controversy with his flamboyant Ultramontanism. "If Pugin imagined Catholicism resurgent in the hallowed associations of Gothic ornamental ritual, Wiseman conceived it resurgent in a great prelate" (Owen Chadwick, The Victorian Church). During the autumn of 1853, Wiseman went to Rome, where Pius IX gave full approval to his ecclesiastical policy. "It was during this visit to Rome that Wiseman projected, and began to write, the most popular book that he ever wrote, the historical romance, Fabiola, a tale of the Church of the Catacombs. The book was published at the end of 1854, and its success was immediate and phenomenal. Translations of it were published in almost every European language" (The Catholic Encyclopedia). Published in an illustrated binding and with a black-and-white frontispiece, captioned: "Pancratius was still standing in the same place, apparently not heeding the vements of his enemy." Composed of three sections: Part I. Peace, Part II. Conflict, Part III. Victory. Wiseman's original Preface (dated, "Sept 8, 1854") speaks of his desire "to make the reader familiar with the usages, habits, conditions, ideas, feeling, and spirit of the early ages of Christianity." Oswald Hunter-Blair. Nicholas Patrick Wiseman. In The Catholic Encyclopedia (1912).
Price: $65.00