A Little Of His Home And Foreign Work.
Father Ignatius gives a retreat to the nuns of Lingdale House, and
comes immediately after to Oscott, where the first Provincial Synod of
the English Hierarchy was being held. He presents a petition to the
Synodal Fathers, and receives encouragement to prosecute his work of
moving all whom he can to pray for the conversion of England. His next
mission was to make the visitation of our Belgian houses for the
Provincial; when he found himself again abroad, he took advantage of
the opportunity. He goes to different places, and finds many Belgian
and French bishops who preach upon his _oeuvre_, and recommend it by
circulars to their clergy. These journeys he paid for by begging
wherever he went, and the object he begged for is seen from a letter
of his to Mr. Monteith, dated Lille, Aug. 24, 1852:--
"My dear Mr. Monteith,--Here I am, writing to you again, and you
will soon see that what brings me to this is, as usual, want of
money--_auri fames_. The case stands thus: I am on travel again,
with commission of finding means to build our house near London, of
which I am rector, or rather I am rector of a little place which
stands on the ground, and erecter rather than rector _ex officio_ of
the house that is to be there. I have my ideas how we might get
means for this expense, and for all other expenses; and, moreover,
how means could be got for all the houses in England and Scotland
too. I am following the end as well as I can, all alone, by the way
which seems to me the best and only one; but my being alone makes
the progress slow. Hitherto, my ideas are to others like
dreams--empty dreams, {444} though I have a pocket-book full of
recommendations from Rome to support them, which encourage me to
think I am not mad, when, by the manner in which I see people
sometimes look at me, I should almost think I was. I allude chiefly
to the way in which, in a company of English Catholics, the mention
from me of the idea, _conversion of England_, immediately silences a
company in the most animated conversation, as if I had said, 'Next
week I am going to be crowned King of France!' ... Though I speak as
I do, I am not without encouragement and fine prospects; but I want
to hasten things, as souls by thousands and millions perish by
delays; and this I will not, if I can help it, have to answer for.
An Englishman's regular, natural way to get his matters attended to,
is a steady, persevering grumble. He grumbles over one step, then
grumbles over the next, however comfortable and happy he may be over
what he has gained.
"Last week I was at Cambrai, where there was a most remarkable
centenary feast, in honour of Notre Dame de Grâce. There is there an
old picture of Our Lady, brought from Rome 400 years ago, and
installed in the cathedral in 1452, which has been a centre of
devotion ever since. This was the year for the grand solemnity;
pilgrimages coming all the week from the diocese and farther. The
most remarkable of the pilgrims unquestionably was Cardinal Wiseman,
who came to preside over the procession and solemnities of the last
day. He sung mass, and preached his first sermon in France, which
was one of the most eloquent I ever heard from him, or any one,
notwithstanding his imperfect diction. It was all to the point of
moving the French Episcopate and nation to prayers for the
conversion of England. So, if I live, I have little or no doubt of
succeeding in time, but, meanwhile, I must poke here and poke there
for money, till it begins to come freely of itself. As to what the
Continent could do if their heart was once moved, I am convinced by
the history of the Crusades. If the Catholic nations were now
engaged in a material war, there would be armies on foot, and fleets
at sea, the cost of which, for one week, would be enough to build
cathedrals for all our bishops. {445} Why not the same money drawn
to effect the spiritual conquest? Because they do not care about it.
Then, let us make them; and how? The first step, of course, must be
to care for it ourselves. '_Si vis me flere, dolendum est primum
ipsi tibi._' And what can we do to bring our English and Scotch to
this?--Grumble at them, I suppose."
On his return from France in September, himself and Father Eugene came
to the determination to move away from The Hyde, if a more convenient
site could be procured. The reason of this was chiefly the
unsuitableness of the place to the working of our vocation. It was too
solitary for missionaries, and there was no local work for a number of
priests. Some of the fathers disguise themselves in secular suits,
less unseemly than that in which they once beheld Father Ignatius, and
go in search of a place, but without success. Father Ignatius gave a
mission at this time in Kentish Town, and he little thought, as he
took his walk along the tarred paling in Maiden Lane, that inside lay
the grounds of the future St. Joseph's Retreat.
Towards the end of the year 1852, Father Ignatius accompanies as far
as London Bridge a colony of Passionists, whom Dr. O'Connor, the
Bishop of Pittsburg, was bringing out to the United States. These
Passionists have grown in _gentem magnam_, and the worthy Bishop, like
another Odescalchi, resigned his crosier, and became a Jesuit.
He concludes this year and begins the next giving retreats. The scenes
of his labours in this department were Somers Town, Blandford Square
(London), our own house, Dudley, and Douay. He also assisted at a
mission in Commercial Road, London, E.
The heaviest part of his work, as a member of The Hyde community, was
attending to the parish, which, with the Barnet Mission, then under
our charge, was equal in area to many a diocese in Catholic countries.
Father Ignatius often walked thirty miles in one day on parochial
duty. To give an idea of how he went through this work, one instance
will suffice. On one day to went to Colney Hatch Lunatic Asylum, and
from all the unhappy inmates he was able to get one confession. Next
day he walked to give {446} the Holy Communion to this single
penitent, and walked afterwards to Barnet before he broke his fast.
This must be a distance of at least fifteen miles.
In May, 1853, he gives a retreat to his old parishioners of West
Bromwich, another in Winchester in July, to the nuns in Wolverhampton
in August, and to the people in Oxburgh in October, and in Southport,
Lancashire, in Advent.
The 16th of November this year was a great day for our congregation.
It was the first feast of Blessed Paul of the Cross, our holy founder.
There was a great re-union of the chief fathers of the order in St.
Wilfrid's--the Bishops of Birmingham and Southwark, and Dr. Ullathorne
and Dr. Grant assisted at the solemnity. Father Ignatius was there, of
course. Father Paul was beatified on the 28th September, 1852. Our
religious had prayed and worked for the great event, and had now the
happiness of seeing him raised to the altar.
He stays at home a great deal now, as a rector ought to do, except in
intervals of missions and retreats; and the lion's share of parish
work falls to him. He sends one of the priests of his community to
France to beg for the house; but he had, in a very short time, to send
him money for his expenses home. He then concludes that he should
himself be considered beggar-in-chief, and accordingly goes out for a
few days to collect alms in London. With his alms, he collects into
the Church a young Puseyite minister, who is now a zealous priest on
the London mission.
Father Ignatius visits the neighbouring ministers, but not as
formerly; he simply goes to see his old acquaintances, and if the
conversation could be transferred from compliments and common-place
remarks to matters of higher interest, he was not the man to let the
opportunity pass by. Among his old friends in the Anglican ministry
there seemed to have been few for whom he always cherished so kindly a
regard as the Rev. Mr. Harvey, Rector of Hornsey. That excellent
clergyman used to visit Father Ignatius, and receive visits from him
on the most friendly terms to the end.
Thus did he spend his time, until Father Pius, the brother {447} of
our present General, who died in Rome in 1864, came to visit the
province, or branch of the order in England, in 1854. This visit made
a change in Father Ignatius's position.
A number of houses of a religious order are placed under the direction
of one superior, who is styled a Provincial. With us the Provincial
has two assistants, who are called Consultors. The superior of each
house is called a Rector, and it is his duty to see after the
spiritual and temporal concerns of his own community. A rector,
therefore, has more home work, by virtue of his office, than any other
superior. A consultor may live in any house of the province, has no
special duty _ex officio_ except to give his advice to the Provincial
when asked, and may be easily spared for any external employment. This
office Father Ignatius used to term as _otium cum dignitate_, though
the _otium_ he never enjoyed, and felt rather awkward in the
_dignitas_.
In 1854, he was made first Consultor, and relieved from the drudgery
of housekeeping for his brethren. Before leaving The Hyde for a new
field of labour, he went to see his nephew in Harrow, which was only a
few miles from our retreat; but was not admitted. He took another
priest with him, and both were hooted by the boys. It seems pardonable
in a set of wild young schoolboys to make game of such unfashionable
beings as Catholic priests; but it shows a great want of good breeding
in schoolboys who are afterwards to hold such a high position in
English society. This remark is forced upon us by the fact that none
of us ever passed through Harrow without meeting a somewhat similar
reception. A school of inferior rank might set Harrow an example in
this point. We have passed Roger Cholmley's school in Highgate, time
after time, often in a large body, and have met the boys in threes and
fours, and all together, and never yet heard a single insult. What
makes the difference?
On the 8th of September, 1854, Father Ignatius left The Hyde for
Ireland. He begs this time through the principal towns in Munster, and
says he was very kindly received by all. He preached sermons during
this journey, all on the {448} conversion of England. He gained more
prayers this time than on a former occasion, because his work came to
the people with blessings and indulgences from the Father of the
Faithful. He used to tell an amusing anecdote in reference to this
mission. Somewhere he had preached on the conversion of England, and
recommended the prayers by the spiritual profit to be derived from
them. An old woman accosted him as he was passing by, and he had just
time to hear, "Father, I say the three Hail Marys every day for
England." Father Ignatius was much pleased, and made inquiries after
the old lady, doubtless intending to constitute her a kind of apostle
in the place. She was brought to see him; he expressed his thanks and
pleasure that she had entered so thoroughly into his views, and asked
her would she try to persuade others to follow her example? "Me get
people to pray for England!" she answered; "I pray myself three times
for the sake of the indulgence, but I curse them 300 times a day for
it, lest they might get any good of my prayers!" He reasoned with her,
to be sure, but did not tell us if the success of his second discourse
was equal to the first.
{449}