CHAPTER XII.

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.

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