What you see before you is a facsimile – not in the usual sense as a scanned copy, per se – but a near copy of the original, a best effort re-creation of the 1734 printing. Retyped, as close as I could reproduce in the format and style of the original that I personally own.
My original intention was to reproduce a highly functional Kindle version of the Officia Pietatis Christianæ erga Deum – or in English, The Duty of Pious Christians Toward God for my private, personal use. I wanted to have access to its prayers & meditations, et cetera in the event that this wonderful, pious book was physically not at hand. Of all the books that I own, and I have quite a large number (in the thousands), this is by far my most treasured. If I was ever forced to sell all my possessions, I would never sell this, even if I was starving.
One of the nice attributes of the Kindle platform is that it transcends nearly all electronic device types – phones, computers, tablets, etc., and of course various Kindles. Thusly, I would at the very least be able to access this important work on my phone which is always near my side.
However, I also thought I would create a public project – this website to start the process of translating the work. I also wished to share this work more broadly in publishing the this amazing prayer book.
When I claim and write highly functional, I mean that it is not simply a PDF version of a scanned document, or a dumping of text without regard to its style and formatting, or even an OCR1 scan which may introduce many errors. But rather, a true rendering & fully functionally working copy. Also, I wanted to have quick and seamless access to my installed Latin dictionaries for words I failed to remember without having to look them up on separate device or dictionary. This aided in the overall reading experience.
Having a great appreciation of the craftsmanship that was put into the typesetting and the design of books from the advent of Guttenberg’s printing press to around the mid-1800s, I made a strong effort to replicate as much of these attributes as possible into this Kindle book.
Perhaps you, like me have been frustrated with the lack of high quality electronic books that are no longer in print. I have found it commonplace for publishers to simply provide a scanned rendition of their books. This has contributed to a poor reading experience, since you are not able to have the text adjust to size and wrap properly and are only able to zoom in or out which is very clunky and unyielding.
Besides my love for old books in general, I have an even higher appreciation and love for the Latin language and the Church. And these loves have propelled me to put in many hours of hard work to provide what I hope you will find superior, if not an acceptable rendition of this work. This treasure before you deserves nothing less. I believe when a treasure is discovered and unearthed, it should be shared with as many people as possible – not selfishly hoarded and locked away in someone’s library or museum.
When I first purchased and received the Officia Pietatis Christianæ – an original copy from 1734 – crisply bound in leather from what appears to be either the 16th or 17th centuries, I was stunned and in spiritual awe as I examined it. As I reviewed each of its eight sections, it became clear that there was nothing like it published in the world today.
I have found treasures such as this can be obtained at a bargain, given that Latin and the Church have given way to the vernacular and to a serious decline in the Christian religion, as more people embrace secularism… but, I digress.
From my point of view, what is unique about this particular book is that it covers concisely much of what a man or woman who earnestly pursue a devout and pious existence should be concerned with on a spiritual level.
This book is divided into eight sections or chapters –octo paragraphos in Latin. The first section, Preces Matutinæ, contains traditional morning prayers, offering you the opportunity to recite & pray the Acts of Faith (Actus Fidei), Hope (Actus Spei), and Love (Actus Amoris). But even these standard prayers are a variation on the ones that I have read and prayed in the past.
It also contains unique and little-known prayers from St. Anthony of Padua & St. Philip Neri2. And interestingly, you will find prayers of intercession to St. Barbara3 for a happy death and a little known prayer to St. Michael the Archangel. The well-known Universal Prayer, attributed to Pope Clemens XI is here as well. It should be noted that when you begin your day, like any other, with the Sign of the Cross, the Our Father, the Ave Maria, and the Apostles Creed as you would with any other devotional Catholic work.
In the second section, Meditationes Devotæ, there are some wonderful meditations on the topics of man’s creation, death, divine gifts, sin, judgement, hell, and the glory of heaven. Traditional fodder to consider and pray upon to be sure, yet rarely practiced by modern man or even many who consider themselves devout Catholics any longer.
It appears that people of the 18th century also struggled as we all have from time to time to pray – how we may approach these times when we find ourselves in the desert or feel wanting spiritually. Remember, even great saints such as the recently canonized Mother Theresa, felt abandoned, experiencing a long dark period in their lives.
An appropriate follow up to the above is the section Remedia Contra Varia Peccata, on how to remediate against various sins, often categorized as the notorious Seven Deadly Sins – Pride, Greed, Lust, Envy, Gluttony, Wrath, and Sloth. Additional remediation against distractions, rash judgement, vainglory & ambition is covered as well. Good concise advice and scriptural references to assist you in any particular struggle you may have to pray and meditate upon.
An entire section of some thirteen short ejaculatory prayers attributed to St. Charles Borromeo is contained in the next section, Orationes Jaculatoriæ. This is followed by a chapter on helping the prayerful reader to extensively prepare for the sacrament of confession.
Section six, Præparatio ad Sacro-Sanctum Missæ Sacrificium, is the most thorough of the subjects covered in this work that I have seen, and in my opinion, the most efficacious. I have come to rely and lean on it heavily every Sunday for quite some time now. It provides a nice prelude to Mass as well as getting me in a very prayerful disposition. It offers reflections and prayers to be said before, during, and after assisting at the Mass.
Section seven tries to place us in a mature disposition for a good and beautiful death – a topic not necessarily on our minds very often, unless we are old or terminally ill. Nevertheless, a topic a devout person should pray and consider more regularly, as very few know the hour and time of their death.
The final section of this beautiful work completes well one’s day – evening prayers, Preces Verpertinæ. It starts off replicating the opening prayers of the morning, the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, Credo – and adds the Confiteor. Since most people at the time had these prayers memorized, they were not included in the work. This is not necessarily the case today and therefore, I decided to add them to an Appendix in Latin for your convenience.
Afterwards, an Examination of Conscience and an Act of Grace prayer by St. Francis Xavier and seven final short meditations or exercises are offered before you place your head to rest for the evening.
As I was doing some research, I discovered that this little devotional work was printed in Passau, an ancient city in Bavaria, Germany. At the time, the author of the work was in fact the local diocesan bishop of Passau (Dioecesis Passaviensis), Joseph Dominick von Lamberg. He would later become a prince of the Church. A short biography can be found later after this introduction.
Over the years, I have collected a number of ecclesiastical works of devotion in both Latin & English, but none that has been so perfect a companion – whether at Mass, home, or traveling. There is so much here for the pious and devoted Catholic – and even for those whom are less than devoted. Yet, if you have a love for the Latin language and the beautiful poetry of the Saints, and are seeking either a humble, simple, or perhaps an ethereal and dense spirituality to experience and practice, you have before you a wonderful treasure to explore.
I have done an exhaustive search to determine whether this work was available other than original copies such as the one I possess. But, it does not, unfortunately. And therefore, I have taken it upon myself to share this unbelievably wondrous work with you, dear reader. It has been a labor of love – painstaking at times, making sure that anyone in possession of this would have the best reproduced, retyped, representing the same style of the original. I have preserved everything I possibly could, down to every nuance possible that could be reproduced on the Kindle platform[iv]. The original work uses the accents such as: á, à, ë, ê inconsistently – my guess is either there were different individuals typesetting the work or simply an oversight or a combination of the two. The ligatures, however, were consistently used throughout – æ, œ, &, §, ſ, ℟, ℣. The long-s [ſ], was used almost exclusively at the time of the printing. I chose not to preserve it, even though I have come to love their elegance and trained my eye to recognize them readily. From a practical standpoint, however, they would prevent the reader in looking up any of these words in the Kindle. Fortunately, the other ligatures, do not present this problem.
I advise you to use William Whittaker’s Words – hosted by the University of Notre Dame, so you can look up any unfamiliar Latin words more easily, if you are less than fluent in Ecclesial Latin. Otherwise, you may want basic translation and can use Google Translate to give you a sense of what you are trying to read.
As mentioned above, I have not only preserved the style and format, the use of accents and ligatures, but also the capitalization & punctuation. Furthermore, as much as I was tempted to substitute ‘i’ for ‘j’, e.g., Iesus for Jesus – I chose not to give into this. Again, I could have made many corrections or edits in style & format. But in the end, I believe it’s important to preserve these errors that you may notice throughout. One exception is where the printer/author has made an error in referencing Scripture or other gross errors. As of this writing there were only a few.
However, some of the errors you may find are mine alone, but most are from the typesetter(s). I have corrected most of the errors that I infused herein myself. I bear the full responsibility of these, since I did type every single word of this work here on this site.
I would appreciate it, should you find any errors, to report them back to me in email: marcus@pietatis.org. Also, if you should have any suggestions or comments, these are welcome and will be greatly appreciated.
It is my sincere hope that those of you who using this site, find it deeply spiritually edifying and may it become a faithful companion of yours for years to come.
In the future, I hope to publish this work on a traditional platform – as a book you can pick up and hold in your hands and touch.
Vale, tuo frater in Christo,
Marcus Vincentius Augustinus
die 12 Decembris, Anno 2016
North Bend, Washington, USA.
OFFICIA PIETATIS CHRISTIANIÆ ERGA DEUM 