THE

Faith of Our Fathers

BEING A PLAIN EXPOSITION AND VINDICATION OF THE CHURCH FOUNDED BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

By JAMES CARDINAL GIBBONS

Archbishop of Baltimore

Seventy-eighth Carefully Revised and Enlarged Edition

One Million, One Hundred Thousand Copies

JOHN MURPHY COMPANY

Baltimore: PUBLISHERS: New York

affectionately dedicated

to the

Clergy and Laity

of the

archdiocese and province of baltimore.

PREFACE TO THE ELEVENTH EDITION

The first edition of “The Faith of Our Fathers” was issued in December, 1876. From that time to the present fifty thousand copies of the work have been disposed of in the United States, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland, and in the British Colonies of Oceanica.

This gratifying result has surpassed the author’s most sanguine expectations, and is a consoling evidence that the investigation of religious truths is not wholly neglected even in this iron age, so engrossed by material considerations.

Besides carefully revising the book, the author has profited by the kind suggestion of some friends, and inserted a chapter on the prerogatives and sanctity of the Blessed Virgin, which, it is hoped, will be not less acceptable to his readers than the other portions of the work.

He is also happy to announce that German editions have been published both in this country and in Germany.

He takes this occasion to return his hearty thanks to the editors of the Catholic periodicals, as well as of the secular press, for their favorable notices, which have no doubt contributed much to the large circulation of the book.

Baltimore,

Feast of St. Thomas Aquinas, 1879.

PREFACE TO THE FORTY-SEVENTH EDITION

It is very gratifying to the author to note the large increase in the sale of “The Faith of Our Fathers.” Apart from personal considerations, it is pleasing to know that the popular interest in the Catholic Church and whatever pertains to her doctrines and discipline, is growing more widespread and earnest.

Since 1879, when the eleventh revised edition was given to the public, there have been thirty-five editions, and the number of copies sold reaches nearly a quarter of a million.

This desire to understand the teachings of the Church of our Fathers is not confined to our own country. It is manifest in other lands, as shown by the translations that have been made of this exposition of Catholic belief into French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish.

In the hope that they will add to the usefulness of the book, several passages upon doctrinal subjects have been inserted.

With these few remarks, the forty-seventh edition of “The Faith of Our Fathers” is presented to the sincere and earnest seeker after religious truth by

The Author.

Feast of St. Anselm, 1895.