Fr. Gabriel Gruber, SJ
(1740-1805)

  
SLOVENIA, 2008, Rococo trim from inside the Gruber Palace (below), Scott 758 and its FDI cancel

The stamp's motif is Rococo decoration from the Gruber Palace in Ljubljana, Slovenia, currently the home of the National Archives of Slovenia. It was built between 1773 and 1781 in a braided Baroque and Rococo style by Fr. Gabriel Gruber, SJ, an expert in hydrotechnology, optics and architecture. The palace was later named after him. Born in Vienna in 1740, he entered the Society at the age of 15 in 1755, and specialized in the sciences. After the Suppression of the Jesuits in 1773, Gruber continued as engineer at the court of Emperor Joseph II until 1784. Gruber Palace was originally his mansion, used for his research in physics and hydraulics. It also had an astronomic observatory. In 1784, Gruber rejoined the Jesuits, still in existence in Russia under the protection of Catherine the Great and helped make the college of Polatsk famous for the technical sciences. In 1802, just a few months after Pius VII had issued the brief Catholicae Fidei, giving approval to the existence of the Jesuits in Russia, Gruber was elected the second Superior General for Russia.

The Jamaica Credit Union Movement

 
JAMAICA, 1992, 50th anniversary of the Credit Union Movement, Scott 780-781

Two stamps were issued in 1992 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Credit Union Movement in Jamaica. One carries an image of O'Hare Hall, the landmark building at St. George's College in Kingston, Jamaica in which the Jamaican Credit Union League was founded. In fact Jesuits had much to do with the movement. Father John Peter Sullivan, SJ, a member of the New England Jesuit Province, came to Jamaica in 1939 as teacher at St. George's College, pastoral minister at Holy Trinity Cathedral and moderator of a Catholic Young Men's Sodality (CYMS). He and the fourteen members of the Sodality studied the principles of credit unions, and on September 12, 1941, formed Jamaica's first credit union; the Sodality Credit Union. Father Thomas J. Feeney, Jesuit Superior and President of St. George's College, developed an interest in the Movement and assumed Sullivan's responsibilities at the College, allowing him the to promote the Movement more widely. Fr. Harry Ball, SJ also shared interest in Sullivan's efforts and worked in Linstead and adjoining areas, Ewarton, Moneague, Jeffery Town, Guy's Hill and Donnington, as well as in Annotto Bay, Savannah-la-Mar and Alva. Sullivan formed credit unions on five Antillean islands: St. Lucia, Grenada, Curacao, Trinidad and Barbados. The Jamaica Credit Union League, a central cooperative body embracing all the credit unions in the island, was founded in 1942 in O'Hare Hall on the campus of St. George's College. With the establishing of this League headed by Father John Peter Sullivan, the Movement now had an effective organization. Sullivan's work in the Movement spanned almost two decades during which time the Movement grew from 14 to 65,000 members and from an initial share capital of $1.87 to $6,000,000. He retired as active head of the Jamaica Cooperative Credit Union League at its 19th Annual Convention held at St. George's College in 1959. More

Japanese Martyrs Shrine

   
JAPAN, 1951, 1969 and 1981, Scott 535, 1017, 1464
JAPAN, 2009, the Second Ports Mini Sheet issued June 2 contained another image of the church, Scott 3120h

Twenty-six Christians were martyred in 1597 under the Taiko, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, ruler of Japan, among them three Jesuits: St. Paul Miki (1564-1597), St. John Soan de Goto (1578-1597), and St. James Kisai (1533-1597). They were beatified in 1627, and canonized in 1862. The place in Nagasaki where they were killed was declared an official pilgrimage site by the Pope Pius XII in 1950. The church on these stamps, the oldest wooden Gothic church in Japan, is commonly called Oura Tenshudo, but the official name is Nihon Niju-roku Seijin Junkyosha Tenshu-do (Church of the Heavenly Father for the Twenty-six Martyred Japanese Saints). A monument was erected there on the centenary of their canonization. More

Father Joseph Liesganig, SJ
(1719-1799)

 
AUSTRIA, 1967, a land survey monument from 1762 with FDI cancel and cover, Scott 803
The monument bears the Latin inscription:
"At the behest of Their Majesties Franz and Maria Theresa
Joseph Liesganig, SJ, measured three degrees of arc of the meridian of Vienna
and erected this column at the north end of the baseline in 1762."

Joseph Liesganig was born in Graz in 1719, died in Lvív, Ukraine in 1799. Liesganig, a mathematician, geographer and geodesist, was director of the Observatory at the University of Vienna from 1756 to 1773. In 1759 he was commissioned by Maria Theresa, at suggestions from Boscovich, to survey the arc of meridian between Vienna and Brün. One purpose was to correct the maps of Austria. The greater purpose was a more accurate map of the world. The Jesuits with missions and observatories around the world had contributed greatly to this enterprise. In the attempt to determine the length of a degree of longitude, the Jesuits took a very prominent part: Boscovich and Maire in the Papal States, Christian Mayer in the Palatinate, Beccaria and Canonica in Italy, others in Abyssinia, South America, China, and the Philippines, and of course, Liesganig in Austria.

 

The National Library of Spain

 
SPAIN, 2011, the 3rd centenary of the National Library of Spain

 
SPAIN, 1916, private issue of the Spanish Parliament, Edfil FA 11 and 16

Because he was a foreign-born monarch, Philip V, King of Spain, wanted to ensure support for his reign by demonstrating his solidarity with Spanish culture and character. The Biblioteca Real (the Royal Library) planned in 1711, began to function in 1712, and helped to revive the Spanish Golden Age that thrived under the Habsburgs. Becoming in 1836 a national library, La Biblioteca Nacional de España, it has remained a keystone for Spanish culture throughout the world. To initiate and manage the library, the king appointed his Jesuit confessor, Father Pierre Robinet, SJ, a French theologian, to head the institution. When Robinet had to leave Spain in 1715; his successor, both as royal confessor and head of the royal library, was another French Jesuit, Father Guillaume Daubenton, SJ, a philosopher and seminary administrator. In fact during the first fifty years the Directors General of the Library were mostly Jesuits: Pedro Robinet, SJ, (1712-1715), Esteban Lecompaseur, SJ,(1715) Guillermo Daubenton, SJ,(1715-1723), Guillermo Clarke, SJ (1726-1743), Francisco Rávago, SJ (1751). The first Head Librarians, Gabriel Álvarez de Toledo, SJ (1712-1714) and Juan Ferreras, SJ (1715-1735),were also Jesuits. The 1916 Cervantes issue was a private issue of the two houses of the Spanish Parliament for their own use; no values were assigned to the stamps nor was the issue really needed since both houses at the time enjoyed franking privileges. Spain is planning an issue on 5 November 2011 to honor the third centenary of the library. More

The Father Muller Charitable Institutions
& Fr. Augustus Muller, SJ

 
INDIA, 2007, special cancel for the Inauguration of the Oncology Center
and a detail from the special cover for the event

Father August Muller was a Jesuit priest who dispensed homoeopathic medicine in India. Today his name is a household word, and in his name, several institutions work in the medical field in India. Muller was born March 13, 1841 in Hagen, Germany. In 1861 he emigrated to America and entered the Jesuit Novitiate of the Maryland-New York Province on September 24 of that year. In 1875 he was ordained priest, but in 1876 was sent to France to recover from cardiac asthma. Dr. Alexis Espanet of Paris cured him with homoeopathic medicine. Muller came to India in 1878, landed in Mangalore, and began working as a pastor in Calicut. Three years later he began teaching French and Mathematics, at St. Aloysius College and then started to practice homeopathic medicine himself, dispensing medicine to the needy from under a banyan tree.

From that humble beginning grew the Fr. Muller Charitable Institutions, which today include a variety of service, educational and research components, including: a Medical College, Homeopathic Medical College, College of Nursing, Homoeopathic Pharmaceutical Division, Medical College Hospital, and the the Hospital's new Oncology Centre, which is the occasion for the special cancel shown above. Muller himself, exhausted and in frail health, after nearly 32 years with this work died peacefully on November 1, 1910. More

The Ozamiz Cotta
& Fr. Jose Docus, SJ

PHILIPPINES, 2006, the 250th anniversary of the Ozamiz Cotta (Fort), Scott 3055
The stamp shows the historical marker that tells of the foundation of the Fort by Fr. Jose Docus, SJ

The Jesuits had worked in Mindanao for two centuries before their expulsion. They became active in Misamis in a somewhat strange manner. Frequent incursions of Muslims pirates, sometimes numbering 2,000 men in 20 ships, preyed upon the coastal communities of the Philippines burning homes and churches, destroying crops and taking people to be sold as slaves either in Malaysia or Indonesia. To prevent these threats, and to provide shelter for the ships of the Spanish fleet during that time, the government in 1754 organized a naval armada to patrol the Mindanao Sea and Fr. Jose Docus, SJ who was the missionary in Iligan was placed in charge as the Captain General of the Armada.

In 1756 Docus constructed the cotta or fort at Misamis whose ruins we see today, and named the fort in honor of Our Lady of Victory (Triunfo). His flagship was also called the Triunfo in commemoration of the victory over the Moors at the Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. The Cotta or Fort developed into a Jesuit mission until they were expelled from the Philippines and it has been used uninterruptedly as a military stronghold ever since it was built until now. It is situated southeast of Misamis, now renamed Ozamiz City.

Paso del Molino, Montevideo, Uruguay
& Fr. Cosme Agulló, SJ
(1710-1772)

URUGUAY, 1998, the 250th anniversary of Paso del Molino, Scott 1774

This stamp celebrates the foundational event in 1748 that began the area of Montevideo called Paso del Molino (Mill's Crossing). That event was the building of a flour mill by Jesuit priest Cosme Agulló, the superior of the Jesuits in Montevideo and founder in 1745 of the Estancia of Nuestra Señora de los Desamparados, also called La Calera . The Cabildo of Montevideo had approved in December of l747 the Jesuit's request to put up the mill and ceded him land for it on the Miguelete River. Until then, the flour used in San Felipe y Santiago de Montevideo came from Buenos Aires. Agulló taught the small farm owners in the area how to raise wheat for the mill, and the community known as Paso del Molino grew centered around the mill. By 1870 the Jesuit had long been expelled and expanding city of Montevideo had engulfed the community. It has now become a most important neighborhood of Montevideo. The Gran Hotel del Paso del Molino, seen on the stamp, played a major role in this later development of the area. More

The Phillipine Constitution of 1987
& Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, SJ

  
PHILIPPINES, 1987, the preamble to the 1986 Philippine Constitution, Scott 1850
the stamp was reissued the same year in a different color, Scott 1905
This reissue was withdrawn from sale when forgeries were found being sold openly in several big post offices in Metro Manila.
The forgeries are are rouletted instead of perforated.
In 1989 the reissue was surcharged, Scott 2005

The Catholic Church helped support Corazon Aquino who replaced Marcos as president of the Philippines. Aquino then initiated a new constitutional commission to frame the new 1986 Philippine Constitution. She appointed forty-six constitutional commissioners including Father Joaquin G. Bernas, SJ, a renown expert in the Philippine constitution. More

The Kingdom of Sedang
& The Imprimerie Jesuit, Haiphong

   

   
Cinderellas of the "Kingdom of Sedang", 1888

Charles-Marie David, born in Toulon in 1842, after a number of what seems to have incidents of fraud, made his way up the Mekong River and talked local tribes into making him king. Then, putting together all the paraphernalia of a kingdom, including these stamps, he tried to sell the kingdom in Europe. No one bought. The "kingdom" fell apart in 1890 when David died under unusual circumstances. Above is the first issue of stamps of the Kingdom of Sedang printed in 1888. It is not clear where it was printed, though some sources indicate it was lithographed by the "Imprimerie Jesuit, Haiphong". Was there such a printery? And were the stamps printed by Jesuits, or is that all part of the great make-believe story surrounding this issue? More

The Tower of London

 
GREAT BRITAIN, 1978, the London 1980 International Stamp Exhibition, Scott 834aScott 831a, 831

In the latter half of the 16th century, the Catholic Church was outlawed in England and many Roman Catholics were arrested, imprisoned, tortured and executed. Many Jesuit priests who were leading the mission to maintain and restore the Catholic faith in England spent their last days in the Tower of London. In a number of cells where these men were imprisoned, the walls of the Tower bear the monogram of the Society — an IHS, the H surmounted by a cross. Among their number were:

Fr. John Gerard, SJ (1564-1637), after excruciating torture managed to escape from the Tower, the only Jesuit to do so, and lived to write the story of his life, The Autobiography of an Elizabethan, which details the recusant world of secret Masses, priest-holes, religious persecution and torture.

In May 2006 the British Province marked the 400th anniversary of the martyrdom of four English Jesuits—Ralph Ashley, Henry Garnet, Edward Oldcorne and Nicholas Owen—with a service in the Tower's Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula just a few feet from the place of execution. Permission to use the chapel rests solely with the sovereign, and Queen Elizabeth II graciously gave her consent. The tower authorities extended a most warm welcome. Times have changed.

 
URUGUAY, 1979, S/S for the centenary of the death of Sir Rowland Hill
including the Great Britain Tower mini-sheet to the left, Scott C439

  
GREAT BRITAIN, 1980, The International Stamp Exhibition, Scott 909 and 909a
GREAT BRITAIN, 1991, cancel from Tower Hill, London

 
CHINA, 2008, Olympic Games joint issue, Scott 3699
GREAT BRITAIN, 2008, Olympic Games joint issue, Scott 2593c

CHINA, 2008, postal card showing the Tower of London

The Virgin's Tree, Mataria, Egypt
& Fr. Michel Jullien, SJ

EGYPT, 1967, International Year of Tourism

The oldest and the most likely tradition about where the Holy Family visited in Egypt is Mataria, near ancient Heliopolis, six miles from Cairo. There, in what's known as the Garden of Herbs, stands the Virgin's Tree, an Egyptian sycamore. Although probably less than 300 years old, its age seems far greater. It is revered by Muslims and Christians who believe the Holy Family rested there and that as the feet of Jesus touched the earth two springs of sweet water sprang up, which still exist. After the French Jesuits returned to Egypt in 1879, they established a residence near the place. Fr. Michel Marie Jullien, SJ, born in 1827 in Lyons of a very large family, an historian, mathematician, and provincial superior, who worked in Egypt from the early 1880's until his death, built the Church of the Holy Family close by the tree to accommodate the many pilgrims. The flight into Egypt is depicted in six murals on its walls. In 1905 he authored A Visit to the Virgin's Tree: Souvenirs of the Holy Family's Sojourn at Mataria, which describes the legend and the environs, and at his death in 1911 he was buried in the Jesuit burial ground adjacent to the church he founded. Julien had also purchased the land on which the Jesuit Collège de la Sainte-Famille in Cairo now stands.

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