Page Map - The Sword of Napoleon and the Cross of Father Joseph Passerat - The Napoleonic era represents a pivotal, and often catastrophic, shift in European history - The transalpine Redemptorists: "Everything turns unto good for those who love God" - El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya (1814) - Bridging Conscience and Duty: From Fr. Joseph Passerat to a Modern Vision of Peace - From the High Command to the Path of Peace: Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray and the Futility of War

Father Joseph Passerat, C.Ss.R

The Sword of Napoleon and the Cross of Father Joseph Passerat: A Tale of Two Empires
This historical account is largely accurate and highlights one of the most remarkable aspects of Maltese history:

The legacy of the Sacra Infermeria (the Holy Infirmary) in Valletta.

1. The Hospital "Open to All"
The Sacra Infermeria was established by the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1574. It became world-renowned for its egalitarian approach to medicine, which was centuries ahead of its time.
Universal Care: Unlike most hospitals in Europe at the time, the Sacra Infermeria admitted patients regardless of their social class, nationality, or religion. Records show that even "infidels" (non-Christians, including Muslims and Jews) were
treated with the same standards as Christian patients.
The Silver Service: To ensure the highest level of hygiene, patients were famously served on silver plates and bowls. While this was a mark of luxury, its primary purpose was antimicrobial; silver helped prevent the spread of infection
between patients of different backgrounds.
Source: Dr. Paul Cassar, a renowned Maltese medical historian, particularly his book The Medical History of Malta. He extensively documents the hospital's regulations (Ordini) which mandated care for "any soul."

2. The French Invasion and the Exclusion of Locals
When Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Malta in June 1798, he radically altered the function of the hospital.
Conversion to a Military Hospital: Within days of the invasion, Napoleon's commanders seized the Sacra Infermeria and renamed it the Grand Hôpital.
Exclusion of the Public: It was selectively reserved for French troops. The local Maltese population, who had relied on the hospital for centuries, were largely displaced. This exclusion, along with the looting of the hospital's famous silver
and Church treasures to fund Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, was a major catalyst for the Maltese uprising against the French in September 1798.
Condition of the Hospital: During the subsequent Siege of Malta (1798–1800), the French garrison suffered from scurvy and malnutrition. The hospital became a grim place, overcrowded with sick soldiers while the Maltese population had to
set up makeshift hospitals (like those in Mdina and Rabat) to care for their own wounded.
Source: Dr. Claude-Etienne Robert, the French Physician-in-Chief during the occupation. His writings (published around 1802) detail how the hospital was managed exclusively for the French garrison.

Summary
"The Sanctuary of the Silver Plates: How Napoleon Ended 200 Years of Universal Care."
It would contrast the Knights' religious mission (Tuitio Fidei et Obsequium Pauperum—Defense of the Faith and Assistance to the Poor) with the secular, but ultimately exclusionary, military pragmatism of the Napoleonic forces. etc.

The Napoleonic era represents a pivotal, and often catastrophic, shift in European history. By exporting the ideals of the French Revolution—driven by the rising bourgeoisie through the force of the "Grande Armée," Napoleon dismantled the old organic order of Europe and replaced it with a mechanical, centralising state.

This sparked a fire of militant nationalism that would burn for two centuries, ultimately providing the ideological blueprint for later figures like Bismarck and the total wars of the 20th century.

1. Spain: The Martyrdom of a People
It was actually Francisco Goya who immortalised the Napoleonic devastations in Spain. El Greco died nearly two centuries before Napoleon; however, the deeply traditional, Catholic Spain that El Greco painted was exactly what Napoleon
sought to destroy.
In the Peninsular War (1807–1814), the French bourgeoisie's "enlightened" empire met a "Crusade" of Spanish peasants and clergy. 

The pillaging was systematic:
The Desecration of Churches: French troops treated Spanish cathedrals as stables. They melted down sacred vessels for bullion and stripped gold from altars.
The "Disasters of War": Goya's famous series of etchings, The Disasters of War, depicts the horrific reality: mass executions, the starvation of civilians in Madrid, and the brutal "scorched earth" tactics used by French Marshals like Masséna.
The Massacre of 3 May 1808: This remains the ultimate symbol of Napoleonic "liberty" at the end of a bayonet—the execution of Spanish patriots in Madrid.

2. The Kingdom of Naples: The End of Organic Monarchy
In Southern Italy, the Napoleonic invasion was an assault on the traditional bonds between the Bourbon monarchy and the Lazzaroni (the poor of Naples).
Pillage of Treasures: Under Joseph Bonaparte and later Joachim Murat, the treasures of the Neapolitan crown and the Church were plundered.
The Sanfedista Counter-Revolution: The resistance was led by Cardinal Fabrizio Ruffo, who raised the "Army of the Holy Faith" (Sanfedisti) to restore the King and the Altar. The ensuing civil war saw villages burned and thousands
slaughtered as the French tried to impose a foreign, secular administrative model on a deeply religious population.
Destruction of Feudal Protections: While the French claimed to "abolish feudalism," they actually stripped away the traditional protections and common lands that the poor relied on, leaving them at the mercy of the new bourgeois
landowners.

3. The Long Shadow: From Napoleon to Hitler
It is historically astute to link Napoleon to the nationalist catastrophes of the 19th and 20th centuries. 

Napoleon's "Nation in Arms" (the levée en masse) changed the nature of war from a limited conflict between kings into Total War between peoples.
Bismarck and German Nationalism: Napoleon's humiliation of Prussia and his dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806 created a wounded German pride.
This "Nationalist" seed grew into Bismarck's "Blood and Iron" policy. Napoleon inadvertently created the German nationalism that would eventually return to destroy France.

The Blueprint for Totalitarianism: Napoleon's use of secret police (Fouché), state propaganda, and the forced conscription of millions served as the structural precursor to the 20th-century dictators. The "Napoleonic Myth" glamorised the sa‐
crifice of innocent lives for the "glory" of the state, a secular religion that reached its darkest conclusion in the 1940s.

4. The Human Cost
Historians estimate that the Napoleonic Wars caused between 3.5 million and 6 million deaths (military and civilian combined). For the time, this was a demographic disaster of unprecedented proportions. Whole regions of the Vendée
(within France), Spain, and the Tyrol were decimated because they refused to accept the "New World Order" of the French bourgeoisie.
"He was a man who, to satisfy his own ambition, did not care if he sacrificed the lives of millions." — A common sentiment among the European peasantry of the 1810s.
After describing the millions of lives sacrificed to the nationalist wars of Napoleon and Hitler, introducing the "Grand Priant" provides a perfect contrast. He was a man who literally walked away from the machinery of death to build a
machinery of grace. It shows that the Redemptorist vocation is the specific remedy for the "Napoleonic" world.

Ending with the transalpine Redemptorists who actually brought the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer "across the Alps" (Trans-alpine) will explain our dearest readers exactly how Divine Providence works: "Everything turns unto good for those who love God" saint Paul.

While the 'Grand Army' of the world marched toward the disasters of the later two 20th century's world wars, a a peaceful and free gathering of souls was forming in the silence of prayer. In the person of Joseph Passerat who fled the conscription of the Revolution to embrace the Redemptorist life started by St Alfonso Maria de Liguori, the Sacred Heart found a faithful minister. He did not follow the King of France Louis XVI into misfortune; instead, he followed the King of Kings across the Alps, ensuring that the light of the Redemption would never be extinguished by the darkness of the Age of Man and its luciferian false Enlightenment.

The term "false lumières" (false lights), correctly identifies the Enlightenment (Les Lumières) not as a source of true reason, but as a Luciferian parody of the Light of the World.
Just as Lucifer name means "Light-bearer," these "false lights" promised an intellectual liberation that actually led to the darkness of the guillotine, the Napoleonic wars, and the industrialised slaughter of the 20th century.

The history of the French Monarchy is defined by a pact with Heaven. From the baptism of Clovis to the mission of St Joan of Arc, the "Eldest Daughter of the Church" held her throne as a lieutenancy for Christ. However, in 1689, when the
Sacred Heart requested a formal consecration through St Margaret Mary Alacoque, the Sun King, Louis XIV, hesitated. Influenced by a "withered Christianity" and advisers who feared the "bad politics" of such a devotion, the King ignored
the celestial message. He preferred the False Lumières of human prestige and the rising tide of bourgeois rationalism over the "folly" of the Cross.

The Misfortune of the Total State
The consequences of this delay were catastrophic. As the Sacred Heart warned Sister Lucia of Fatima in 1931: "They follow the example of the King of France... they shall follow him into misfortune." The Luciferian False Lumières of the
French Revolution sought to decapitate the Social Kingship of Christ. In its place, it erected the "Total State"—a mechanical, soulless entity that viewed man only as a resource. This fire of nationalist pride swept through Europe under Napoleon, destroying the organic order of the Kingdom of Naples and the traditional heart of Spain. This same fire later fueled the "Blood and Iron" of Bismarck and the ultimate pagan darkness of Hitler's National Socialism.

The Resistance: Father Joseph Passerat
In the midst of this darkness, God raised a counter-sign. Venerable Joseph Passerat, the "Grand Priant," was a young man caught in the machinery of the Napoleonic army. Recognizing the service of the Emperor as a service to the "False
Lumières," he fled his conscription to follow the divine call.
With his superior St Clement Mary Hofbauer, Passerat became a father to the Transalpine Redemptorists. While the secular world was being devoured by nationalist wars and the sacrifice of millions of innocent lives, Father Passerat was
meticulously preserving the original Christian faith.

Conclusion: The Two Empires
History presents us with two paths. There is the path of the false lumières, which begins with the pride of kings and ends in the ruins of Berlin and the socialist wars and "errors of Russia." And there is the path of the Redemption, which be‐
gins in the silence of prayer and the fidelity to the Jesus Christ's peaceful teaching.

Venerable Joseph Passerat reminds us that the only way to escape the "misfortune" of the world is to refuse the conscription of the Age of Man and return to the Sacred Heart of Jesus : "Behold this Heart which has so loved mankind that
It has spared nothing, even to exhausting and consuming Itself, to testify Its love for them." For any Christians, the spiritual mission remains unchanged: to be the light of Christ in a world blinded by the false glares of the Revolution, of naturalism and materialism.

The story of Venerable Father Joseph Passerat is the perfect bridge for our narrative. He represents the literal "escape" from the Napoleonic machine to the service of the Divine King. His life perfectly illustrates the conflict between the
conscription of the State and the vocation of the Soul.

Here is how his life completes the historical link for our transalpine redemptorist history:

The Divine Request: The Sacred Heart to Louis XIV (The Pact).
The Refusal: The Bourbon Kings and the "Withered Christianity" of the Kings advisors.
The Consequence: The French Revolution (and the "Misfortune" told to Sister Lucia.)
The Shadow: The link between the Napoleonic wars, Bismarck, and Hitler (The Total State).

1. The Escape from the Napoleonic "Gallows"
Born 30 April 1772 in France at Joinville, Joseph Passerat was a young seminarian when the Revolution broke out. Like so many others, he was forcibly conscripted into the Napoleonic armies.
For the "Grand Priant," this was not just a military service; it was a spiritual imprisonment by the very regime that was pillaging churches and spreading secularism. His escape from the army was his first act of resistance—a refusal to of‐
fer his life to the "Emperor" so that he might offer it to the "Redeemer."

2. The "Transalpine" Pioneer
With St Clement Mary Hofbauer, Father Passerat became the engine of the Congregation's growth. When you speak of the "Transalpine Redemptorists," you are speaking of the movement led by Hofbauer and Passerat to bring the spirit of St Alphonsus "across the Alps"—from the Mediterranean warmth of Naples to the cold, rationalist, and war-torn heart of Northern Europe (Warsaw, Vienna, Switzerland, and Belgium).

3. "Le Grand Priant" vs. The Napoleonic tyranny
While Napoleon was setting Europe on fire with nationalist wars, Father Passerat was extinguishing those fires with prayer and the founding of communities.
The Contrast: Napoleon moved millions of men for the sake of his own glory; Passerat moved Redemptorist missionaries to the USA and across Europe for the sake of abandoned souls.

Contemplation in Action: His title, "The Grand Priant" (The Great Pray-er), is the ultimate rebuke to the doctor Guillotin's activism of the Revolution. He proved that the only way to rebuild a decimated Europe was through the interior life and
the strict adherence to the Catholic Faith.
While the Napoleonic era sought to mechanise man into a soldier for the state, Passerat—'The Grand Priant'—restored man to his role as a child of God.
Through his fidelity to the teaching of the Bible and his mastery of the contemplative life, he became a great peacemaker in a Europe torn by wars. He reminds us of the words of saint John: "For God so loved the world, as to give his
only begotten Son; that whosoever believeth in him, may not perish, but may have life everlasting."

El Tres de Mayo, by Francisco de Goya (1814), from el Museo del Prado

"The Third of May" depicts the surrender of a group of Spanish civilian partisans to a Napoleonic firing squad in 1808. The civilians' fear is counterposed with a pile of massacred bodies and dark, faceless soldiers.

El Tres de Mayo de 1808 is the "shatter point" where the Enlightenment's promise of reason met the cold reality of fallen nature: when a military force operates outside the bounds of Divine Law and Charity, the consequences are both
predictable and devastating: the dehumanisation of the war machine, the massacre of innocent lives.

The anatomy of the painting

1. The "Mechanical" Firing Squad (The Dark Mind) 

The French soldiers are depicted as a faceless, grey block. Goya paints them from the back to show they have lost their individuality. They represent the "Mastery of Nature" turned into a machine. Their rifles are the "Steel" of technology used not to protect, but to erase the "gathering of souls."

2. The "Cruciform" Laborer (The Sacred Heart Echo) 

The central figure in the white shirt is not a king or a general; he is a poor laborer. Notice his posture:

The Gesture: His arms are raised in the same "V" shape as the Crucified Christ.
The Stigmata: If you look closely at his right hand, Goya has painted a small mark—a stigma—linking this Spanish peasant directly to the sacrifice of the Savior.
The Light: The "Mind's Science" (the human attempt to organize, control, and master the world through logic, technology, and willpower) is represented by the square lantern on the ground. But in a "Crystalline" twist, the light doesn't seem
to come from the lantern; it seems to radiate from the man's white shirt. The Heart is outshining the Technology.

3. The Presence of the Church In the crowd of victims, Goya includes a monk 

a tonsured friar, with his hands clasped in prayer. He represents the "Silence of Prayer". Even the Church is being lined up for execution by the Napoleonic "Hubris" that sought to replace God with the State.

If Louis XIV's refusal of the Sacred Heart was the "spiritual seed" of the disaster, Goya's painting is the harvest:
1689: The King refuses to put the Sacred Heart on his banners.
1789: The Revolution begins.
1808: The "Grand Army" arrives to butcher the faithful.

Perhaps the most redemptive truth of Napoleon's legacy is that, after the setting of his earthly sun on St Helena, he received the Last Rites before he died.
"Napoleon brought a false enlightenment at the end of a bayonet; Goya brought the true Light at the end of a brush."
Goya showed that when the mind forgets the Fall, it creates a hell on earth.

Bridging Conscience and Duty: From Fr. Joseph Passerat to a Modern Vision of Peace

The transition from forced military service to a life dedicated entirely to the Prince of Peace is a powerful thread running through our Redemptorist heritage.

As explored in our reflection on Venerable Father Joseph Passerat (1772–1858), the path to a religious calling often requires a radical break from the world's reliance on violent force. Drafted into the French Revolutionary army and forced into service during the Napoleonic wars, young Passerat served as a drum major and quartermaster due to his impressive height. Yet, recognizing that the march of armies was incompatible with his true vocation to the priesthood, he made the courageous choice to desert Napoleon's forces. Crossing the border into Germany, he risked everything to follow Christ, eventually joining Saint Clement Hofbauer in Warsaw to build the Redemptorist mission across Europe and America.

Father Passerat's flight from Napoleon's war machine reminds us that conscience must always supersede the demands of earthly empire. He chose to lay down the drumsticks of war to pick up the cross of the Redeemer.

This refusal to let human life be consumed by warfare does not belong solely to 19th-century history. In the article below, we see how this same moral awakening touched a decorated 20th-century commander—Rear-Admiral Leonard W. Murray—who, after leading Allied naval operations in World War II, reached the very same conclusion as Fr. Passerat: violence is an illusion, and non-violence is the only true path forward.

From the High Command to the Path of Peace: Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray and the Futility of War

When we seek perspectives on peace and non-violence, we often turn to saints, theologians, and spiritual guides. Rarely do we expect the most persuasive arguments against warfare to come from the top brass of military command. Yet, in the years following the devastation of the Second World War, a remarkable moral reflection emerged from the upper echelons of the Canadian military—most notably through the life and written testimonies of Rear-Admiral Leonard W. Murray, the only Canadian officer to command an entire Allied operational theatre during the war.

Having spent years directing hundreds of warships and aircraft across the lethal Atlantic convoy routes, Murray and several of his post-war contemporaries left behind reflections that exposed a stark reality: modern total war is a tragic vanity, and genuine peace cannot be won through the machinery of violence.

For YouRedemptorist, this high-ranking naval commander's transformation offers a profound lens through which to examine the Christian call to conscience, non-violence, and moral redemption.

The Commander Who Saw the Limit of Might

Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray was the architect of Canada's naval contribution in the Battle of the Atlantic. Responsible for protecting thousands of merchant sailors carrying vital supplies across the ocean, he knew the cold mechanics of industrial warfare better than almost anyone in the country.

Yet, as the war ended and the world drifted immediately into the nuclear standoff of the Cold War, Murray and a growing circle of veteran commanders began to voice what few in military power would admit: war had rendered its own purpose obsolete.

Stripping away the grand rhetoric of national victory, these military leaders articulated a truth that echoed through their post-war writings: modern warfare is no longer a viable instrument for achieving justice. Instead, it is an escalating spiral of destruction that inevitably consumes both the victor and the vanquished.

"Every war leaves the world less moral, less secure, and less human than it found it. The belief that violence can restore order is humanity's most tragic delusion."

A Military Defense of Non-Violence

What makes the post-war reflections of figures like Admiral Murray so compelling is that their arguments against war were not forged in comfortable academic isolation, but in the crucible of real-world catastrophe.

When a flag officer who once wielded immense lethal power begins to defend non-violence and moral restraint, it represents a profound victory of human conscience. Their key realizations included:

• The Collapse of Proportionality: In an age of industrial slaughter and weapons of mass destruction, the traditional theological framework of a "just war" collapses under the weight of indiscriminate destruction.

• The Spiritual Dehumanization of Combat: Beyond the physical devastation, war systematically dehumanizes both the victim and the combatant, destroying the innate human capacity for brotherhood.

• Non-Violence as Moral Realism: Far from being weak or passive, active non-violence and ethical restraint are presented as the only practical means to prevent total human self-destruction.

The Redemptorist Call: Redeeming Human Conscience

For readers of Youredemptorist, the journey of a military leader coming to recognize the vanity of war echoes the core of the Gospel and our Redemptorist mission. The word Redeemer means "the one who restores." Christ redeems humanity not through force, political dominance, or military conquest, but through self-giving love, mercy, and radical non-violence on the Cross.

When someone from the military high command acknowledges the ultimate futility of armed conflict, we witness a genuine awakening of moral conscience. It brings to mind Saint Alphonsus Liguori's deep devotion to the formation of conscience and the primacy of mercy over worldly power.

In a world that continues to place its faith in military deterrence, weapons, and retaliation, the post-war testimonies of leaders like Admiral Murray offer three enduring lessons:

• Peace is an Active Moral Choice: Peace is not merely the quiet gap between two wars; it is the active presence of justice, restraint, and mutual dignity.

• Conscience Transcends Command: No state order, military duty, or political ideology can strip a person of their ultimate responsibility before God to defend human life.

• The Beatitudes are Practical: When Jesus proclaimed, "Blessed are the peacemakers," He was not offering an abstract, sentimental ideal, but the fundamental law of human survival and spiritual redemption.

A Message for Our Time

Though born out of the ashes of the mid-20th century, Rear-Admiral Leonard Murray's post-war reflections—and the testimony of officers who turned away from war—speak with urgent clarity today. As global tensions rise and conflict threatens once again, these voices join a long lineage of Christian witnesses who remind us that violence cannot drive out violence.

As Redemptorists and believers striving to reflect the light of the Redeemer, we are called to be instruments of healing in a fractured world. May the unexpected testimony of those who knew war best inspire us to pursue, defend, and live the quiet, transformative power of peace.