Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Désiré-Joseph Mercier, fully Désiré-Félicien-François-Joseph Mercier

Belgian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop of Mechelen noted for his staunch resistance to the German occupation of 1914

"In order to be united we must love one another; in order to love one another we must know one another, in order to know one another we must meet one another."

"Prayer, rightly understood, prepares the soul for action, sustains her on life’s road when weary and worn, and arms her for the right when the foe assails her."

"The soldier who dies to save his brothers reaches the highest of all degrees of charity, and this is the virtue of a single act of charity It cancels a whole lifetime of sin."

"We must not only give what we have; we must also give what we are."