CHAPTER VII.

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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