The Devotion of The Holy Rosary and the Five Scapulars
Father Michael Mu ller, C.SS.R. was born in 1825 in Brueck, Belgium. Attracted by the zeal of the local priests of Saint Alphonsus Ligouri s newly founded Redemptorist Congregation he entered their novitiate. At the age of twenty-eight, in 1853, he was ordained a priest by Saint John Nepomucene Neuman, the bishop of Philadelphia.Although he had no special gift for oratory in the pulpit, Father Mu ller was blessed with a fire that issued through the medium of a pen. At the command of his superiors he wrote his first book: The Blessed Eucharist, Our Greatest Treasure. Mu ller wrote more. Thirty-five published works, to be exact. One of these was the monumental treatise called: FamiliarExplanation of Christian Doctrine. It became a best-seller across the continent. Another book resulted from a controversy with the Paulists over his uncompromising defense of the dogma Outside the Church There Is No Salvation. Mu ller titled it The Catholic Dogma, which was his last testament of faith. He died on the feast of Saint Augustine, in the fiftieth year of his priesthood, in the year 1897.