Alice von Hildebrand R.I.P.

Shortly after midnight today, Dr Alice von Hildebrand, one of the great defenders of tradition in the Catholic Church in all its aspects, including the traditional liturgy, passed away at the age of 98. A great scholar, philosopher and theologian in her own right, she was also dedicated to preserving the legacy of her husband Dietrich von Hildebrand, whom Pope Pius XII once called a “twentieth-century Doctor of the Church.” She had been retired from teaching since 1984, but continued to write and speak; her most recent book was published in 2014.

Deus, cui proprium est miseréri semper et párcere, te súpplices exorámus pro ánima fámulae tuae Aliciae, quam hodie de hoc sáeculo migráre jussisti: ut non tradas eam in manus inimíci, neque obliviscáris in finem, sed júbeas eam a sanctis Angelis súscipi, et ad patriam paradísi perdúci; ut, quia in te sperávit et crédidit, non poenas inferni sustíneat, sed gaudia aeterna possídeat. Per Dominum...

O God, to whom it belongeth ever to have mercy and to spare, we humbly entreat Thee for the soul of Thy servant Alice, which this day Thou hast bidden to pass from tis world, that Thou may deliver her not into the hands of the enemy, nor forget her forever, but command her to be taken up by the holy Angels, and led to our home in paradise, so that, since she hoped and believed in Thee, she may not suffer the pains of hell, but possess everlasting joys. Through Our Lord...

From an interview which she gave to The Latin Mass Magazine in 2001:

TLM: ... There are those critics of the ancient Latin Mass who point out that the crisis in the Church developed at a time when the Mass was offered throughout the world. Why should we then think its revival is intrinsic to the solution?
AVH: The devil hates the ancient Mass. He hates it because it is the most perfect reformulation of all the teachings of the Church. It was my husband who gave me this insight about the Mass. The problem that ushered in the present crisis was not the traditional Mass. The problem was that priests who offered it had already lost the sense of the supernatural and the transcendent. They rushed through the prayers, they mumbled and didn’t enunciate them. That is a sign that they had brought to the Mass their growing secularism. The ancient Mass does not abide irreverence, and that was why so many priests were just as happy to see it go.