The Saints and Islam

Later today in Washington, the nominally Christian National Cathedral will host Islamic Friday prayers to the false god preached by Mahomet.

This week in Rome, Pope Francis meeting during the ad limina with the Bishops of Senegal, Mauritania, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, stated:

Similarly, contact with other religions, it is a fact particularly evident in some of your diocese, because Islam is strongly majoritarian, in conditions of mutual relations between communities very different from place to place. I think it is important that the clergy receive the seminary a more structured training in order to develop the place into a constructive dialogue with Muslims, dialogue ever need to live a peaceful coexistence with them. In fact, "if all of us who believe in God want to serve reconciliation, justice and peace, we must work together to outlaw all forms of discrimination, intolerance and sectarian fundamentalism" (AFRICAE munus, n. 94). In addition, the Church must constantly bear witness to the love of God, the Creator of all men, making no distinction of religion in its social action.

Our African brothers and sisters, as do those in the Middle East, deal with the curse of Islam on a daily basis. It is important for those serving the Church to learn strategies to deal with the reality of Islam. The Holy Father is correct that the seminarians need to be trained in order to deal with this reality. However, there is something missing from the Holy Father's words in the last sentence -- the call of conversion to Christ for the salvation of those who have fallen for the lies of Mahomet.

Courtesy of One Peter Five, what do the Saints say about Islam?

“Whoever does not embrace the Catholic Christian faith is lost, like your false prophet Muhammad.”

-St. Peter Mavimenus (d. 8th century), martyr from Gaza. Response reported in the Martyriologum Romanum when he was asked to convert to Islam by a group of Muslims.

“There is also the superstition of the Ishmaelites which to this day prevails and keeps people in error, being a forerunner of the Antichrist…. From that time to the present a false prophet named Mohammed has appeared in their midst. This man, after having chanced upon the Old and New Testaments and likewise, it seems, having conversed with an Arian monk, devised his own heresy. Then, having insinuated himself into the good graces of the people by a show of seeming piety, he gave out that a certain book had been sent down to him from heaven. He had set down some ridiculous compositions in this book of his and he gave it to them as an object of veneration.” -St. John Damascene (d. 749), Syrian Arab Catholic monk and scholar. Quoted from his book On Heresiesunder the section On the Heresy of the Ishmaelites (in The Fathers of the Church. Vol. 37. Translated by the Catholic University of America. CUA Press. 1958. Pages 153-160.)

“We profess Christ to be truly God and your prophet to be a precursor of the Antichrist and other profane doctrine.” -Sts. Habenitus, Jeremiah, Peter, Sabinian, Walabonsus, and Wistremundus (d. 851), martyrs of Cordoba, Spain. Reported in the Memoriale Sanctorum in response to Spanish Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd Ar-Rahman II’s ministers that they convert to Islam on pain of death.

“Any cult which denies the divinity of Christ, does not profess the existence of the Holy Trinity, refutes baptism, defames Christians, and derogates the priesthood, we consider to be damned.” -Sts. Aurelius, Felix, George, Liliosa, and Natalia (d. 852), martyrs of Cordoba, Spain. Reported in theMemoriale Sanctorum in response to Spanish Umayyad Caliph ‘Abd Ar-Rahman II’s ministers that they convert to Islam on pain of death.

“On the other hand, those who founded sects committed to erroneous doctrines proceeded in a way that is opposite to this, the point is clear in the case of Muhammad. He seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom. Indeed, the truths that he taught he mingled with many fables and with doctrines of the greatest falsity. He did not bring forth any signs produced in a supernatural way, which alone fittingly gives witness to divine inspiration; for a visible action that can be only divine reveals an invisibly inspired teacher of truth. On the contrary, Muhammad said that he was sent in the power of his arms—which are signs not lacking even to robbers and tyrants.”  -St. Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274), Theologian and Doctor of the Church. Quoted from his De Rationibus Fidei Contra Saracenos, Graecos, et Armenos and translated from Fr. Damian Fehlner’s Aquinas on Reasons for the Faith: Against the Muslims, Greeks, and Armenians (Franciscans of the Immaculate. 2002.).

“As we have seen, Muhammed had neither supernatural miracles nor natural motives of reason to persuade those of his sect. As he lacked in everything, he took to bestial and barbaric means, which is the force of arms. Thus he introduced and promulgated his message with robberies, murders, and bloodshedding, destroying those who did not want to receive it, and with the same means his ministers conserve this today, until God placates his anger and destroys this pestilence from the earth. [...] (Muhammad) can also be figured for the dragon in the same Apocalypse which says that the dragon swept up a third of the stars and hurled down a third to earth. Although this line is more appropriately understood concerning the Antichrist, Mohammed was his precursor – the prophet of Satan, father of the sons of haughtiness. [...] Even if all the things contained in his law were fables in philosophy and errors in theology, even for those who do not possess the light of reason, the very manners (Islam) teaches are from a school of vicious bestialities. (Muhammad) did not prove his new sect with any motive, having neither supernatural miracles nor natural reasons, but solely the force of arms, violence, fictions, lies, and carnal license. It remains an impious, blasphemous, vicious cult, an innovention of the devil, and the direct way into the fires of hell. It does not even merit the name of being called a religion.” -St. Juan de Ribera (d.1611), Archbishop of Valencia, missionary to Spanish Muslims, and organizer of the Muslim expulsions of 1609 from Spain. Quoted in several locations from his 1599 Catechismo para la Instruccion de los Nuevos Convertidos de los Moros (my translation). 

“The Mahometan paradise, however, is only fit for beasts; for filthy sensual pleasure is all the believer has to expect there.” -St. Alfonsus Liguori (d. 1787). Quoted from his book, The History of Heresies and their Refutation.

Church of Our Lady in Dendermonde, Flanders (Belgium). They show the late 17th century pulpit, sculpted in wood by Mattheus van Beveren.  The person subdued by the angels and having a Koran in his hands is Mohammed. The sculpture represents the triumph of Christianity over Islam.