Father Ignatius In 1850.
This year was so full of events interesting to Father Ignatius, that
there is no leading one round which others may be grouped to head the
chapter. He expected to be called to Rome towards Easter; he had even
written to the General, and had received letters to that effect. The
object of this visit will be best understood from the following
extract from a letter written at this time, dated from 13, Garnault
Place, Clerkenwell, London:--
"I am here on a mission with Father Gaudentius, and as we have not
yet great press of work, I will write to tell you of an important
feature in my prospects for the present year. It is, that I am going
to Rome about Easter. About the time I saw you last I wrote to the
General, saying that I thought this would be a good step. After that
I thought no more about it till the other day a letter came from
him, in which he approved the proposal; and so, after a mission
which we are to give at St. George's from the first to the fourth
Sunday in Lent, I propose starting. I shall be, I expect, about four
months absent. I propose begging my way there, through France or
Germany, which will make the journey last a month or six weeks;
then, after stopping six weeks or two months in Italy, to make
acquaintance with our Senior Fathers, and inform myself, as much as
possible, of all the ways and spirit of our congregation (of which,
of course, now I am very ignorant), I hope to bring back the General
with me to make a visitation of his flock."
Before giving the mission in St. George's, he wrote to his sister,
Lady Lyttelton, to tell her of his intended journey to Rome, and of a
visit he would pay her before starting. Her {394} ladyship was then in
Windsor Castle, and we shall give her reply, as it shows the genial
affection that always existed between them, and at the same time
accounts for his not having gone to Windsor in his habit, as was often
supposed.
"_Windsor Castle, Jan. 28th._
"My Dear Brother,--I am very much obliged to you for your kindly
telling me your plans, and giving me a hope of seeing you before you
go to Rome. The period you mention as the probable one for your
mission at St. George's, will most likely be the very best for me to
see you, as we shall probably remove to London about the middle of
February, and remain till after Easter; so I shall look forward with
much pleasure to an occasional visit. I am much obliged to you for
telling me of the intended change in your dress. I should never have
guessed its probability, having erroneously believed it simply
illegal; but I find that was a mistake. You will, I hope, not wonder
or blame me, if I beg you to visit me at my own little home, No. 38,
St. James's Place, and not at the Palace, when you are looking so
remarkable. I don't want to figure in a paragraph, and so novel a
sight in the Palace might lead to some such catastrophe. A day's
notice of your visit will always enable me to meet you, and Caroline
and Kitty, and probably others of those that remain to me of my
ancient belongings, may thereby sometimes get a glimpse of you,
though we should be always able to have our _coze_ in a separate
room. I almost wish you would take me under your cowl to Rome. How I
should like once more to see the Colosseum (and to learn to spell
its name), and the Vatican! but hardly at the cost of a long
journey, either.
"Fritz and Bessy [Footnote 11] are coming here next Thursday on a
two days' visit to the Queen, and when I have seen them I will tell
you of their plans. I suppose they will be at Althorp till after
Easter. Believe me, my dear brother,
"Very affectionately yours,
"S. Lyttelton."
[Footnote 11: Lord and Lady Spencer.]
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When Father Ignatius went to St. James's Place to pay the visit
arranged for in this letter, he experienced some difficulty in getting
as far as his sister. The porter who opened the gate did not know him,
and was, of course, astonished to see such a strange figure demanding
an interview with his mistress. He would not let him in until he got
special orders from Lady Lyttelton herself. Father Ignatius used to
contrast this servant's mode of acting with that of another who
admitted him once to Althorp. This last servant did not know him
either; but seeing he looked tired, he took him into his lodge, got
him some bread and cheese and a glass of ale for refreshment.
By-and-by the Earl passed, and was highly amused at seeing George
regale himself with such satisfaction on the servant's fare. The
servant made some apologies, but they were quite unnecessary, for
Father Ignatius never forgot his kindness, and used to say that he
enjoyed the porter's pittance far more than the viands of the "Big
House," as he used to call it.
Father Ignatius was seldom at home up to June, when he went to visit
our religious in Belgium, who were subject to his jurisdiction; he had
given a mission in Garnault Street, a retreat to our religious in
Aston Hall, a mission in St. George's, Southwark, a retreat to nuns in
Winchester, a retreat to people in Blackbrook, and a retreat in
Sedgley Park. On his return from Belgium he remained in London, and
preached in different churches, besides giving a retreat to the people
in Winchester, and visiting several Protestant ministers, until the
mission in Maze Pond. This was so badly attended that he used to
preach in the courts, beating up for an audience. In giving an account
sometimes of the visits above mentioned, he used to tell about an old
minister he and another of our fathers once called upon. This
gentleman suffered from gout, and was consequently rather testy; he
had a lay friend staying with him at the time of the two Passionists'
visit. He called the fathers idolaters, and insisted, right or wrong,
that our Lord used the word "represent" when he instituted the Blessed
Sacrament at the Last Supper. It was in vain that all three tried to
convince him of his mistake. When, at last, the passage {396} was
pointed out to him, and that he had assured himself, by inspecting
title-page and royal arms, that the Bible was a genuine authorized
version, he was so far from giving in that, like the wolf in the
fable, he immediately indicted them on another plea. This incident
Father Ignatius used to recount to show how far ignorance hindered the
removal of prejudice.
His Roman plan fell to the ground in the beginning of July, when he
received a letter to announce the coming of Father Eugene as
Visitor-General to England. Father Ignatius went to meet him to
Tournay, and escorted him to England, where his passing visit became a
fixed residence to the present day. This happened towards the end of
July. Father Ignatius then gave retreats to the priests in Ushaw
College, to the nuns in Sunderland, and came to London to arrange
about our taking St. Wilfrid's from the Oratorians. He went through
all this before the end of August, and was in Carlow on the 4th of
September, to give two retreats at the same time to the students of
the College and the Presentation nuns.
On the 8th of September he went to Thurles. The Irish bishops were
assembled there for the most important synod held since Henry VIII.'s
proposals were rejected. The synod was held to make canons of
discipline, and laws for the new _status_ the Church had gained in
Ireland. The rough-and-ready ceremonial that had to be used in times
of persecution was laid aside, after it had done good work in its day,
and one more systematic was decreed for the administration of the
sacraments. Here the Irish prelates were assembled, and Father
Ignatius thought it a great opportunity for opening his mind and
stating his views to Ireland by letting them known to her hierarchy.
His account of the visit to Thurles is thus recorded in his journal:--
"Sept. 8.--Mass at 5. Railway to Thurles at 6½. Put up at the
Christian schools. Dined there at 4. Saw the Primate, &c., at the
College. Begged of the bishops, &c.
Tuesday, Sept. 9.--Mass at 6, at the Monk's Altar. Begged on from
the bishops. At 10, the great ceremony of concluding the synod, till
2. The Primate preached. Dr. Slattery sang {397} mass. I walked in
the procession. At 5, dined with the bishops, &c., at the College.
Made a speech after dinner on the Crusade."
After his visit to Thurles, he came back to Carlow and gave a retreat
to the lay students in their own oratory. He then went off on a
begging tour through Kildare, Carlow, and Kilkenny. Whilst in Kilkenny
he went to look at the old cathedral (now in Protestant hands); his
_cicerone_ was a very talkative old woman, who gave him a history, in
her own style, of the crumbling worthies whose names he deciphered on
the different monuments. One account she told with especial gusto: the
last moments of an old lady "of the Butlers." This old lady, according
to the _cicerone's_ account, had once been a Catholic, and on her
death-bed wished to receive the rites of the Church. She was told that
if she died a Catholic, those to whom her property was willed would be
disinherited, and that the property would pass over to others. She
hesitated some time on hearing this announcement, and after a few
minutes' reflection expressed her decision as follows, "Oh, well; it
is better that one old woman should burn in hell than that the family
of the Butlers should lose their estate." She died shortly after--a
Protestant. Father Ignatius used to say that he never was more
surprised than at the manner of his guide as she concluded the climax
of her narrative. She seemed to think old Granny Butler's resolution
showed the highest grade of heroic virtue and self-sacrifice.
In Carrick-on-Suir he says: "Made the best day's begging in my life up
to this, £50." He then went to Tipperary, Cork, visited all the
convents and priests, came to Birr, spent an afternoon with Lord Ross
and his telescope; begs in Limerick, Drogheda, Newry, Dundalk, Ardee,
Castle-blaney, Carrickmacross, Londonderry, Strabane, Omagh. When he
was in Omagh there was a tenant-right meeting, and he went to hear
Gavan Duffy. He begs through Dungannon, Lurgan, Enniskillen,
Ballyshannon, Clogher. He then came to Dublin, from which he paid
flying visits to a few convents, and to the colleges of Maynooth and
All-hallows. He returned to England on the 17th of November; {398}
and, during his two months' tour in Ireland, he had preached
seventy-nine sermons, on the conversion of England chiefly.
He heard of the re-establishment of the hierarchy in England while
travelling in Ireland, and one of his first acts, on returning to
London, was to pay his respects to his old friend, the new Cardinal.
This year we were put in possession of St. Saviour's Retreat,
Broadway, which has been the noviciate of the order since. St. Anne's,
Sutton, was also colonized about the same time. Father Ignatius gave a
mission in Glasgow during this Advent, and brought two young priests
with him to train into the work of the missions. One of them was
Father Bernard, and he gives wonderful accounts of Father Ignatius's
labours. He slept but about four hours in the twenty-four, and was all
the rest of the time busy either in the confessional or on the
platform, with the exception of the time he took to eat a hurried meal
or two.
In going through Liverpool on his return from Glasgow, in his habit, a
crowd gathered round him to hoot and insult him. In his journal he
says: "I got two blows on the head," for which he took good care to
thank God. The year is concluded by preaching in Dublin, and giving
the _renewal_ retreat to the Sisters of Mercy in Birr.
Any one that will glance over this year of his life, and see him
perpetually moving from place to place, will certainly think he had
little time to himself. It was about this time that he made the
resolution of never being a moment idle, a resolve he carried out to
the last. During this year and the preceding he was occupied in
translating into English Da Bergamo's _Pensieri ed Affetti_. The
greater part of this book, which was published by Richardson, under
the name of _Thoughts and Affections on the Passion_, was translated
by Father Ignatius, on railway stations, while waiting for trains, in
every place, before or after dinner, in intervals between confessions,
in all kinds of out-of-the way places; and so careful was he to fill
up every moment of time that we see noted in his journal his having
done some of Da Bergamo in the fore cabin of the steamer that took him
{399} from Holyhead to Kingstown. He wrote it mostly in pencilling, on
the backs of envelopes, scraps of paper of all sizes, shapes, and
quality; so that it was nearly as difficult to put those sibylline
leaves in order and copy from them as it was to translate, if not more
so. Besides this he wrote a number of letters; and his letters were no
small notes with broken sentences, but long lectures on difficulties
of conscience, written with a care and consideration that is perfectly
surprising when one reflects upon his opportunities. He used to say
that no one should ever excuse his not answering a letter for want of
time: "If the letter is worth answering we ought to get time for it,
for it becomes a kind of duty." He certainly had no time to spare or
throw away, but he had always enough for any purpose in which charity
or obedience could claim him. His days were indeed full days, and he
scarcely ever went to bed until he had shaken himself out of nodding
asleep over his table three or four times. No one ever heard him say
that he was tired and required rest; rest he never had, except on his
hard bed or in his quiet grave. If any man ever ate his bread in the
sweat of his brow, it was Father Ignatius of St. Paul, the
ever-toiling Passionist.
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