Rembering Eric de Saventhem, 1919-2005

Today is the 20th anniversary of the demise of Dr. Eric de Saventhem (28.04.2005).

Obituary: Eric Maria Vermehren de Saventhem

23 December 1919 – 28 April 2005

Born in 1919 to a patrician Lübeck family, Eric Maria Vermehren was the youngest of three children. When the Nazis came to power all the family were considered politically unreliable and Eric’s repeated refusal to join the Hitler Youth organisation marked him as ‘unfit to represent German youth’ at Oxford, having won a coveted Rhodes scholarship. His passport was revoked, thus making it impossible for him to travel to England.

Eric Vermehren converted to Catholicism shortly after his sister Isa (who had been expelled from her school in 1933 for refusing to salute the Nazi flag). He subsequently married Countess Elisabeth Gräfin von Plettenberg-Lenhausen, a member of one of Germany’s traditional Catholic families, which had clandestinely distributed the banned anti-Nazi encyclical Mit Brennender Sorge of Pope Pius XI in 1937. Elisabeth’s parents were imprisoned by the Gestapo and she confronted them successfully and obtained their release after three weeks. She herself was variously accused of subversive activities and cross-examined on many occasions by the Gestapo.

Pope Francis, Requiescat in pace.

With the death of Pope Francis, Una Voce International, representing lay Catholics attached to the Traditional Mass all over the world, calls on all Catholics to pray for his soul, as we prayed for him in life.

Requiem aeternam dona ei Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.

We also pray for the Cardinal electors, and for Pope Francis’ successor, for wisdom in guiding the Church, and to see the contribution that the Traditional Mass continues to make to the evangelisation of our societies.

We urge all our supporters to assist at Masses for Pope Francis and pro eligendo Summo Pontifice, and to make their own the Collect from the latter Mass:

We entreat Thee most humbly as suppliants, O Lord, that Thy boundless mercy may give the holy Roman Church a Bishop whose loving care in our regard will always be pleasing to Thee, and may be constantly honoured by Thy people for the glory of Thy name for his beneficent rule. Through Christ our Lord.

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