Sanctification Of Ireland.
In a letter written by Father Ignatius in December, 1854, is found the
first glimpse of a new idea: the Sanctification of Ireland. This idea
was suggested to him by the faith of the Irish people, and by their
readiness to adopt whatever was for their spiritual profit. His
intending the Sanctification of Ireland as a step towards the
Conversion of England, laid the scheme open to severe criticism. It
was said that England was his final object; that Ireland was to be
used as an instrument for England's benefit; that if his patriotism
were less strong, his sanctity would be greater. If these objections
were satisfactorily answered, they might be given up with a hint that,
"it was a very Irish way to convert England, by preaching in the bogs
of Connaught." The best refutation of these ungenerous remarks will
be, perhaps, a simple statement of what his ideas were upon the
subject. His great desire was that all the world should be perfect. He
used to say Our Lord had not yet had His triumph in this world, and
that it was too bad the devil should still have the majority. "This
must not be," he would say; "I shall never rest as long as there is a
single soul on earth who does not serve God perfectly." The practical
way of arriving at this end was to begin at home. England had not
faith as a nation, so there was no foundation to build sanctity upon
there. England, however, had great influence as a nation all over the
world; she showed great zeal also in her abortive attempts to convert
the heathen. If her energies could be turned in the right direction,
what grand results might we not anticipate? Another reflection was,
England has had every means of conversion tried upon her; {450} let us
now see what virtue there is in good example. To set this example, and
to sow the seed of the great universal harvest, he would find out the
best Catholic nation in the world, and bring it perfectly up to the
maxims of the Gospel. This nation was Ireland, of course, and it was
near enough to England to let its light shine before her. What he
wished for was, to have every man, woman, and child in Ireland, take
up the idea that they were to be saints. He would have this caught up
with a kind of national move. The practical working of the idea he
embodied in a little book which he wrote some time afterwards, and
preached it wherever he addressed an Irish congregation. The banishing
of three great vices--cursing, company-keeping, and intemperance--and
the practice of daily meditation, with a frequent approach to the
sacraments, were the means. If Ireland, so he argued, took up this at
home, it would spread to England, the colonies, and to wherever there
was an Irishman all over the world. All these would be shining lights,
and if their neighbours did not choose at once to follow their
example, we could at least point it out as the best proof of our
exhortations. This is a short sketch of the work he now began, and it
was a work his superiors always encouraged, and which he spent his
life in endeavouring to realise.
One objection made against this scheme touched him on a tender
point--his love of country. Many Catholics, especially English
converts, thought the words of Ecclesiasticus applicable to England:
"Injuries and wrongs will waste riches: and the house that is very
rich shall be brought to nothing by pride: so the substance of the
proud shall be rooted out."--Eccl. xxi. 5. These were of opinion that
England must be humbled as a nation, and deeply too, before she could
be fit for conversion. This Father Ignatius could not stand. He
writes, in a letter to Mr. Monteith: "As my _unicum necessarium_ for
myself is the salvation and sanctification of my own soul, so my
wishes and designs about England, which, according to the order of
charity, I consider (in opposition to many English Catholics,
especially converts), I ought to love first of all people, are, singly
and {451} only, that she may be brought to God, and in such a way and
under such circumstances, as may enable her to be the greatest
possible blessing to the whole world. I have heard plenty, and much
more than plenty, from English and Irish Catholics (very seldom,
comparatively, from those of the Continent), about the impossibility
of this, except by the thorough crushing of the power of England. I
say to all this, _No, no, no!_ God can convert our country with her
power and her influence unimpaired, and I insist on people praying for
it without imposing conditions on Almighty God, on whom, if I did
impose conditions, it would be in favour of His showing more, and not
less abundant, mercy to a fallen people. Yet, though I have often said
I will not allow Miss This, or Mr. That, to pronounce sentence on
England, still less to wish evil to her (particularly if it be an
English Mr. or Miss who talks), I have always said that if God sees it
fit that the conversion should be through outward humiliations and
scourges, I will welcome the rod, and thank Him for it, in behalf of
my country, as I would in my own person, in whatever way He might
think fit to chastise and humble me."
He returned to London in the beginning of 1855, to give the retreat to
our religious. His next work was a mission, given with Father
Gaudentius in Stockport. After that, he gave a mission with Father
Vincent in Hull; in returning from Hull, he stopped at Lincoln to
visit Mr. Sibthorpe. He spends a week in our London house, and then
gives a retreat by himself in Trelawny. His next mission was in
Dungannon, Ireland, and as soon as he came to England for another
retreat he had to give in Levenshulme to nuns, he takes advantage of
his week's rest to visit Grace Dieu, and have what he calls "a famous
talk" with Count de Montalembert, who was Mr. Phillipps's guest at the
time.
The scene of his labours is again transferred. We find him in July
giving a mission at Borris O'Kane, with Father Vincent and Father
Bernard and another immediately after, at Lorrha. At one of these
missions, the crowd about Father Ignatius's confession-chair was very
great, and the people were crushing in close to the confessor's knees.
One woman, {452} especially, of more than ordinary muscular strength,
elbowed back many of those who had taken their places before she came;
she succeeded in getting to the inner circle of penitents, but so near
the person confessing that the good father gently remonstrated with
her. All to no purpose. He spoke again, but she only came nearer. At
length he seized her shawl, rolled it up in a ball, and flung it over
the heads of the crowd; the poor woman had to relinquish her position,
and go for her shawl, and left Father Ignatius to shrive her less
pushing companions. His fellow missioners were highly amused, and this
incident tells wonderfully for his virtue, for it is almost the only
instance we could ever find of his having done anything like losing
his temper during his life as a Passionist. He gives a retreat in
Birr, in Grantham Abbey, a mission in Newcastle, and another in St.
Augustine's, Liverpool, before the end of the year.
It was his custom, since his first turning seriously to God's service,
to be awake at midnight on New Year's Day, and begin by prayer for
passing the coming year perfectly. He is in St. Anne's, Sutton,
Lancashire, this year. He begins the new year, 1856, by giving a
mission with Father Leonard in our church at Sutton, with a few
sermons at a place called Peasly Cross, an offshoot of the mission we
have there.
We close this chapter by a notion of Father Ignatius's politics. He
was neither a Whig, a Tory, nor a Radical. He stood aloof from all
parties, and seldom troubled himself about any. He says in a letter to
a friend who was a well-read politician:--"How many minds we have
speaking in England!--Gladstone, Palmerston, Bright, Phillipps,
yourself, and, perhaps, I should add myself, and how many more who
knows? all with minds following tracks which make them travel apart
from each other. I want to set a road open, in which all may walk
together if they please--at least with one foot, if they must have
their own particular plank for the other."
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