Chapter III (6)

"St. Claudius, St. Crescentius, St. Nicostratus, St.
Simplicius, St. Castor, St. Christopher, St. Julian, St. Cyr,
St. Asciscle, St. Cyril, St. Blasius, St. George.

"The first bishops of Toulouse, the series of whom date from
the third century: Saint Saturnin, St. Honorius, St. Hilaire,
St. Sylvius, St. Exuperius, repose in this church.

"Not far from their venerated remains are those of St.
Honestus, St. Papoul, St. William, Duke of Aquitaine, St.
Edmund, King of England, St. Gilles, St. Gilbert, St. Thomas of
Aquin, St. Vincent of Paul, St. Raymond, Pope St. Pius V., St.
Susanna, St. Julietta, St. Margaret, St. Catharine, St. Lucia,
and of St. Agatha."

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Grow not weary, kind reader, over this long list of names, for each one has its history, which is interwoven with that of Holy Church. Let us rather linger with love and faith over each name, whether humble or mighty on earth--now potent in heaven! Let us murmur them in reverence, for some of them are inscribed on the foundations of the New Jerusalem--and all gleam like precious stones on its walls--all these did wear on earth "the jewelled state of suffering," but they are now triumphant in heaven, and their memory has long been glorious on earth.

One feels deeply awed in descending among these shrines containing the bodies of the saints--_temples of the Holy Ghost_. Virtue hath not yet gone out from them, as is testified by the wonders still wrought at their tombs.

Many of the present shrines are antique, some costly, and all interesting, but they have lost their ancient splendor. Their magnificence before the Revolution may be imagined from existing descriptions. These tell us of, among others, the silver shrine of St. Edmund, an _ex-voto_ from the city of Toulouse, in 1684, in gratitude for deliverance from the plague, adorned with statues of solid silver. When the saint was transferred to this _châsse_, it was exposed to the veneration of the people for eight days, and all the parishes of the environs came to honor them. Some days there were fifty processions, which gives an idea of the lively faith and piety of that age. The octave was terminated by a general procession in the city, in which were borne forty four shrines, the most of them silver, and adorned with gold and precious stones.

And when, in 1385, the relics of St. James the major were transferred to a new shrine, the Duc de Berry, brother of Charles VI., gave for it a silver bust of the saint, a gold chain to which was attached a sapphire of great value, surrounded by rubies and pearls, with other jewels which adorned the bust till the time of the Revolution.

Like Madame de Staël, "I love this prodigality of terrestrial gifts to another world--offerings from time to eternity! Sufficient for the morrow are the cares required by human economy. Oh! how much I love what would be useless waste, were life nothing better than a career of toil for despicable gain!"

Though these shrines are stripped of most of their former splendor, the inestimable relics remain still venerated by the people. They no longer go there in the old garb of the pilgrim, with "sandal shoon and scallop-shell," or only occasionally, but their faith is as profound, and their piety as genuine. I was so fortunate as to meet a pilgrim in the orthodox garb as I was going into the church. He entered just before me. He was clad in a loose brown habit which extended to his feet. Over his shoulders was a cape, around which were fastened scallop-shells, as we see in pictures of pilgrims. His feet were sandalled.

"His sandals were with travel tore:
Staff, budget, bottle, scrip he wore."

In truth, he had a bundle suspended by a stick on his shoulder. His hair was disordered, his eyes cast down, and he went from shrine to shrine paying his devotions, regardless of every one. From the way in which he made the sign of the cross I took him to be a Spaniard. I felt an indescribable emotion of pity for him whose contrition had induced to assume a penitential garb, and go from church to church living on alms, and I prayed that his soul might find peace--that peace which the world cannot give!

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One of the first subterranean chapels I entered was that of the Sainte-Epine, in which is a beautiful silver reliquary, containing one of the thorns from the crown our suffering Saviour wore. It was given by St. Louis to his brother Alphonse, who married Jeanne, daughter of Raymond VII., last Count of Toulouse. On the pavement of the chapel is graven this ancient distich, likening the Sainte-Epine, surrounded by the bodies of thirteen saints, to a thorn among roses:

"Quisquis es externus quaerens miracula sixte,
En tredecim pulchris insita spina rosis."

After the Revolution a holy priest of Toulouse established, in honor of this precious relic, the Confraternity of the Holy Thorn, composed of the most fervent Catholics of the city. Afflicted by the prolonged captivity of Pope Pius VII., they begged of God his deliverance--not only at their own shrines, but at that of St. Germaine of Pibrac. Their prayers were heard. On the 2d of February, 1814, the holy father slowly and sadly passed the walls of Toulouse on his way to Italy, locked up in his carriage! The highway was completely obstructed by the crowds of people, who, all bathed in tears, went out to meet him, and on their knees besought his benediction. Among them were the votaries of the Sainte-Epine, raising their hands to heaven in behalf of the holy captive.

The pope earnestly desired to enter the city that he might venerate the body of the angelic doctor, in the church of St. Sernin, but it was not deemed expedient to entrust such a guest to the faithful Toulousains. Halting beyond the ramparts, merely to change their horses and obtain refreshments, they hurried on as if afraid of losing their prisoner.

In another chapel of the crypts is the altar of St. Simon and St. Jude, containing their relics. It was consecrated by Pope Calixtus II. Old legends tell us that these apostles were two of the shepherds of Bethlehem, who first heard the _Gloria in Excelsis_. One loves to believe that they who were encircled by the brightness of God, to whom angels talked, and who were first at the manger, should afterward be called to follow our Saviour and preach the glad tidings, which they had heard from angelic tongues, to the nations afar off. They _could_ not have lost sight of him who was so miraculously revealed to them. They _must_ have hastened to join him as soon as he entered upon his public life.

In a niche, close by the chapel of St. Simon and St. Jude, is the entire body of St. Gilles, to whom the old counts of Toulouse had a particular devotion, especially Raymond IV., who is invariably styled in history Raymond de St. Gilles. This saint was very popular, not only in France, but in England and Scotland. A large hospital for lepers was built by the queen of Henry I. outside the city of London, which has given its name to a large district of that city; and St. Giles is the patron saint of Edinburgh, where a church was built under his invocation not later then 1359. This renders his shrine a place of interest to all who speak the English tongue. St. Sernin possesses, too, the body of one of England's sainted kings and that of her patron saint.

St. Gilles, or St. Giles, was an Athenian of royal blood, who, fearing the admiration excited by his talents, went to France, and became a hermit in a cave near the mouth of the Rhone. {107} He subsisted on the produce of the woods and the milk of a tame hind. After his death a magnificent monastery, and then a city, rose round his tomb, and gave his name to the counts of Languedoc.

In a large portable _châsse_ is the head of the glorious St. Thomas Aquinas, the author of the profound _Summa Theologiae_ and the sublime Office of the Blessed Sacrament, worthy of the tongues of angels. This great doctor of the middle ages is not dead. His voice is still heard in the office of the church, "now with a single antiphon unlocking whole abysses of Scripture, and now in almost supernatural melody, more like the echoes of heaven than mere poetry of earth," says Faber. One should listen to this grand office resounding in the arches of the church where its author is enshrined, when thousands of tapers, around the enthroned ostensorium, light up the brilliant shrine of St. Sernin! It is a foretaste of the song of the redeemed!

When the body of St. Thomas of Aquin, brought from Italy, approached Toulouse, Louis of Anjou, brother of Charles V. of France, with archbishops and mitred abbots, at the head of one hundred and fifty thousand people, went out to meet it. Duke Louis and the principal lords of his court bore over it a canopy blazing with gold and precious stones. Around it floated six standards: on two were the arms of France, the third of Anjou, the others of the pope, the house of Aquin, and the city of Toulouse. They enshrined it magnificently in the church of the Dominicans, but it has been at St. Sernin since the Revolution. When placed in its present _châsse_ in 1852, the venerable Père Lacordaire made a panegyric of the saint, attracting an immense audience. The arms of the illustrious house of Aquin are emblazoned on his altar.

In passing out of the crypts on the side opposite that which I entered is the following inscription:

"After having reunited in Clermont, in the year of salvation
1096, the faithful destined to deliver the Holy Sepulchre, Pope
Urban II. wished himself to consecrate this basilica, one of
the most precious monuments of Christian art. The sovereign
pontiff had near him Raymond IV., Count of Toulouse and of St.
Gilles, that glorious prince who first displayed on his banners
and on his armor the Holy Cross of the Saviour.

"Popes Clement VII., Paul V.. Urban V., and Pius IV. have
granted numerous privileges to this abbatial church. Those who
visit its seven principal altars obtain indulgences like those
acquired before the seven altars of St. Peter's church at Rome.

"Charles VI., Louis XI., Francis I., Charles IX., Louis XIII.,
and Louis XIV., kings of France, have, in praying, passed
through these holy catacombs. It is here that in all public
calamities a pious population has constantly resorted to
implore the powerful intercession of the holy protectors of
this antique and religious city."

There is hung on the walls of the crypts a curious bas-relief of the youthful Saviour, which is supposed to date from the Carlovingian age. He is in an aureola, ovoidal in form, pointed at its two extremities. Without, in the angles, are the emblems of the four evangelists. Around the head of our Saviour is a _nimbus_ in the form of a cross, on which are graven the letters _Alpha_ and _Omega_. This bas-relief was evidently the centre of an extensive work. The youthfulness of the features of Christ gives a presumption in favor of its antiquity. {108} He is often found on many Christian sarcophagi, and in many of the paintings of the catacombs at Rome, with a youthful face. M. Didron says that, from the third to the tenth century, Christ is oftener represented young and beardless, but his face, young at first, grows older from century to century, as Christianity advances in age. The ancient Christian monuments at Rome, Aries, and elsewhere represent Christ with a young and pleasing face.

Many non-Catholics do not like these representations of our Saviour at all. The old Puritans were so opposed even to a cross that, in 1634, they cut out the holy emblem from St. George's flag; but there is now a great reaction in this respect. We pray it may grow still stronger. We find many of these representations of our Saviour, which must date from the beginning of Christianity. The Emperor Alexander Severus, who ascended the throne A.D. 222, had placed in his _Lararium_ a statue of Christ, but we are not told how he is depicted. The Sudario of Veronica, the portrait attributed to St. Luke, the statue raised in the city of Paneas by the grateful _Hémorroïsse_, whether genuine or not, belong to the earliest ages, and prove, says M. Didron, that the Son of God was represented by painters and sculptors from the dawn of Christianity.

The chapels in the upper crypts are very interesting, with their statues and bas-reliefs covering the panelled niches which contain the holy relics. There is, in one of the chapels, a crucifix which St. Dominick used when he preached, and which he is said to have held up to animate the army of Simon de Montfort, at the great battle of Muret, when the Albigenses were decisively overthrown. Lacordaire says St. Dominick was not present at the battle, but remained in a chapel hard by, to pray, like Moses, with uplifted arms. One looks upon the crucifix with interest. It is of wood, blackened by time, and about a yard in length. The feet of the Christ are fastened one upon the other, in the Italian style.

One of the chapels bears the startling title of the Seven Sleepers, which would seem to savor of magic or oriental legend. They were seven Christians martyred at Ephesus, in the reign of Trajan, where, in the language of Scripture, _they slept in the Lord_. Their bodies having been found in the year 479, it was said, in mystic style, that they had awakened again, after a sleep of more than two hundred years. Honoring them collectively, it became a custom to call them the Seven Sleepers, and the Mohammedans have preserved the tradition as well as Christians. A chapel dedicated to them is rarely found; but Mrs. Jameson says they perpetually occur in the miniatures, sculpture, and stained glass of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They are found in the chapel of Edward the Confessor at Westminster. Their statues, lying side by side on a bed of stone, were formerly in their chapel at St. Sernin, but only two of them now remain.

In the treasury of the abbey of St. Saturnin were formerly many curious and valuable objects. One of these, now in the museum at Toulouse, is the horn of Orlando, which, indeed, is ornamented with figures in the style of the age of Charlemagne. During the last days of Holy Week, when the bells were hushed during the awful days commemorating our Saviour's passion and death, the prolonged notes of this horn called the faithful to prayer. A similar one was used in the church of St. Orens at Auch, which is still carefully preserved. {109} One loves whatever recalls Orlando, the type of Christian chivalry. Many a tradition of him lingers in this country. Roncesvalles claims to possess his armor, and Blaye his terrible sword and his tomb. In the country of the Escualdunae is the _Pas de Roland_, a gigantic footprint on a large rock. At the other extremity of the Pyrenees, in Roussillon, the long table of a Celtic _dolmen_ is called by the people _Le Palet de Roland_; and large depressions in the form of a semi-circle, in this part of France, mark the passage of Orlando's steed--that steed over which, when dead, his master wept, begging his forgiveness if he had ever been ill-treated. The poet tells us the horse opened his eyes kindly on his master, and never stirred more.

One would like to think this the veritable horn of Orlando--which was so powerful, when sounded for the last time, that the very birds of the air fell dead, the Saracens fell back in terror, and Charlemagne and his court heard its notes afar off. There is far more enjoyment in accepting all these local traditions than in disputing their truth. Let us reserve our incredulity for so-called history.

From the tower of St. Sernin there is a magnificent view of the Pyrenees from sea to sea, and of a large extent of country full of historic and religious associations. Directly beneath is the old city of Toulouse, recalling Clemence Isaure and the golden violets, and the troubadours of an older time. St. Anthony of Padua frequented its famous schools. St. Dominick here founded the order of Preaching Friars, which has given so many doctors and missionaries to the church. St. Vincent Ferrier preached yonder in St. George's Square. In that same _Place_ afterward preached Friar Thomas de Illirico against the excesses of the Carnival, and against all games of chance, with such effect that all the cards found in the shops were publicly burned and the trade of card-maker abolished. One day, after the preaching of this servant of God, the capitouls had placed on the five principal gates of the city a marble tablet which bore _en relief_ the holy name of JESUS supported by angels--that name so powerful for defence that it makes the very demons tremble!

Another famous preacher of that time induced the capitouls to appoint four watchmen to patrol the city at night, from one till five, and chanting loudly:

"Réveillez-vous, gens qui dormez,
Priez Dieu pour les trépassez."

Before leaving St. Sernin, we stop to murmur a _Requiescant in pace_ at the tombs of the counts of Toulouse, the first sovereigns who styled themselves "By the grace of God," and whose history is so glorious and yet so sad and tragical.

And as no Catholic Christian quits a church without leaving a tribute of love before the altar of the Madonna, so, before reluctantly leaving this antique basilica, perfumed with a thousand memories, I drop my bead at the feet of Mary, remembering that in this country were first strung together the bright jewels of the rosary, which have ever since adorned the garments of Christ's spouse--the Church.

AVE MARIA!

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The Little Sisters of the Poor.

The thoughtful soul, whether within or without the Catholic Church, cannot fail to be impressed with the extent of her charities. The fatherless, the widow, the aged, the poor, as St. Laurence the martyr declared when ordered by the prefect of Rome to deliver to him the wealth of the church--these are her riches. But one must be within the fold to appreciate the universality of her bounty; to see that every need of suffering humanity, as it rises, finds pious souls whose vocation it is to look after that very need, to provide for that very want; and the smallness of the beginning of each world-wide charity makes the humble-hearted leap with joy that, even in the narrowest sphere, every one may be privileged to help our dear Lord in the person of his poor.

When St. Francis of Assisi gave his rule of strict poverty to the ten united with him in hungering to work for Christ, it needed more than his great faith to believe that, in forty-two years after his death, two hundred thousand zealous souls would be banded together, under his name, for prayer and alms-deeds; while, through all coming ages of the church, his followers should steadily increase, steadfast in the work for which they had joined hands.

When, in 1537, Angela Merici, of Brescia, a lady of birth and fortune, sorrowing over the death of a well-beloved sister, soothed her grief by devoting herself to the education of poor female children, at a time when four doctors of the law declared the instruction of women the work of the devil, she did not realize that from the grave of her own sorrow would spring the far-famed order of Ursulines, (a beautiful resurrection!) who collected and taught the poor orphans of massacred parents during French revolutions, and who held their infant and ragged schools long before England had thought of them.

When, in 1633, St. Vincent de Paul, seeing the misery and destitution of the poor in the streets of Paris, placed four young women, who volunteered to aid him in relieving present distress, in charge of a noble lady who had for several years devoted herself to the work under his direction, he scarcely expected to see in twenty years two hundred houses and hospitals of the order of Charity, spreading everywhere their sheltering arms for the suffering poor.

Franciscans, Ursulines, Sisters of Charity, we have in our midst, showing, by their lives of self-abnegation in this hard, worldly age and country, that the evangelical counsel, to forsake all for Christ's sake, is not obsolete.

But another branch of the great tree of charity that, like the banyan, plants itself and rises with new life and vigor wherever it takes root, is about to spread its benign shadow over our land.

The Little Sisters of the Poor are coming among us, and it is well we should know whence they come and what is their work. Like the older orders in the church, _Les Petites Soeurs des Pauvres_ had a very small beginning.

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In St. Servan, a small town on the north coast of France, washed by the waters of the English Channel, the male peasantry have, from time immemorial, obtained a scanty living for themselves and families by following the sea. This life of exposure and danger leaves always, wherever it is followed, many children fatherless and wives widows, and often deprives aged parents of their only support. It was the custom for these poor bereaved widows and parents of deceased fishermen to gather about the church-doors, asking alms of the congregation as they passed out; many abuses arose out of this way of distributing charity; the boldest fared the best, and the money thus obtained was often wasted in drink or self-indulgence, without providing for any real want. The good God touched the heart of the pious Curé of Servan by the sight of these poor persons, often blind, aged, and infirm, with none to care for them. In the quiet of his own humble home, Abbé le Pailleur thought over the condition of these miserable beings, commending them to his divine Master, and asking the guidance of him "who had not where to lay his head," in his efforts for their relief. The blessed Spirit guided to his direction a young orphan-girl from the laboring classes, who, for the love of God, desired to do something for those more destitute than herself. The curé recommended to her care an old blind woman, utterly without friends, and who, from the scanty alms bestowed at the church-door, was seldom able to obtain the smallest pittance, her blindness preventing her access to the charitably inclined.

Not many weeks passed, before another poor seamstress confided to her pastor the same desire to work for Christ's poor; she was permitted to share the labors of the other, both working all day, and coming by turns at night to watch and tend and to provide for the old blind woman, with what they could spare from their own small earnings. At length, that there might be no loss of time and labor, Marie Augustine and Marie Theresa hired an attic where they dwelt together, and took their aged pensioner to share their home.

Here their devotion and self-denial attracted the attention of a servant, Jenny Jugan, [Footnote 19] who, by industry and frugality in early life, had accumulated about six hundred francs. She asked to go with them, and to share with them, giving her all to the good work, taking her part of the toils and privations, and bringing with her one or two aged poor. Thus, on the feast of St. Theresa, 1840, the house of "The Little Sisters of the Poor" may be said to have been established.

[Footnote 19: Jenny Jugan was about forty. She was living in
the attic mentioned, and received in that place the poor
blind who had been under the care of Marie Augustine and
Marie Theresa.]

Abbé le Pailleur had early given them a rule of life, one article of which they pondered with special care: "We will delight above all things in showing tenderness toward those aged poor who are infirm or sick; we will never refuse to assist them when occasion presents itself, but we must take great care not to meddle in what does not concern us." They still went about their daily labors, and though their earnings never exceeded one franc per day, at night they shared it with those whom God had confided to their care. The curé helped them to the extent of his resources, which were very limited. Prayer and faith were the means whereby they made so little serve for so many. The good Lord who heareth the cry of the ravens listened to the pleading of the Little Sisters, and sent them a faithful friend and benefactress in one Fanchion Aubert, who took no vows, but gave all her substance to their work, wishing to live and die among them. {112} She possessed a little property, a small stock of the plainest furniture, and a quantity of linen; with these she came, sharing everything with them and their poor. By her thrift she had gained credit in St. Servan, and through her the sisters were able to leave the attic, and rent a long, low dwelling with space for twelve beds, which were immediately filled. And now came the time when, with the small band of sisters and the multiplication of pensioners, the age and infirmities of their poor required all their attention; they could no longer go out to earn anything; and though those of the old women who were able did sometimes assist the funds of the establishment by begging, their faithful guardians desired to save them from the temptations and degradation to which such a life too often led them.

Help came now and then, but not enough to supply all the needy ones, and the sisters often went hungry. They sought counsel of the father of the house, Abbé le Pailleur. After prayer and meditation, he proposed to the sisters that for the love of God they themselves should become beggars. Most cheerfully they went forth with baskets on their arms, asking charity, "the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table." From that day they have provided in this way for their destitute ones; nothing comes amiss, the refuse of the table or the wardrobe is accepted thankfully. These mendicant sisters have never been without their share of contumely and reproach. Members of older orders in the beginning turned the cold shoulder upon them, and they were spurned from the presence of one _religieuse_ with the reproach, "Don't speak to me, I am ashamed of your basket!" but they only renewed their entire consecration to God, and went on begging. At length their basement was crowded to suffocation; the abbé sold his gold watch, and with the remains of Fanchion's property, and all their savings, they made the first payments for a large house; before the end of the year, the twenty-two thousand francs (the price of the house) were all paid. Here they took that name so redolent of sweetness and humility, "Little Sisters of the Poor," and here they accepted fully what before had been necessarily imperfect, their rule of life, taking, in addition to the usual vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the vow of hospitality. At the end of two years, fifty aged people were fed and clothed by the begging sisters, and comforted and cared for with all the assiduity of the most tender love. Their rule was to divide all the broken victuals among the poor, and feed themselves upon what remained, never murmuring if they went without. One winter's night, when the old people, fed and cared for, had gone to their rest, the sisters had for their suppers only about a quarter of a pound of bread. They sat down cheerfully at the table, said their Benedicite, and passed the bread from one to the other, each declining any right to it, and all pretending to be well able to do without it. Before it had been decided how the loaf should be divided, the bell rang; some one had sent them a supply of meat and bread. "Trust in the Lord and do good, and verily thou shalt be fed," was the motto of their holy lives. It will not surprise us to learn that, in return for their self-sacrifice, Almighty God gave them many souls from among the abandoned and often dissolute people, who, but for the peaceful refuge of their home, would have been lost in the whirlpool of ignorance and vice. To bring back these poor creatures to their forgotten Father was the delight of the zealous sisters, and they felt themselves well rewarded when they saw these darkened minds opening to the truth, and returning to sit at the feet of Jesus with loving penitence.

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But the house was filled to overflowing, and they resolved to build. They well knew in whose hands are the gold and silver, and into his ever-listening ear they poured their new want.

The reply did not linger, for they worked as well as prayed. At the sight of the zeal with which they began to clear the stones from a piece of ground, which they already owned, and to dig the foundations, workmen came, materials were sent, and alms flowed in abundantly.

Some time previous a person from the Island of Jersey, which is not far from St. Servan, came to that town to seek for an aged relative. He found her sheltered by the "Little Sisters," and with devout thanksgiving to God he gave alms of all that he possessed, and at his death bequeathed the house seven thousand francs. This legacy fell to them as they began the building, and with the new house came new souls, ready to consecrate themselves to the service of God's poor, and with these new sisters came the desire that the hand of charity might be held out to the poor of other regions. The elder of the two girls who were first banded together in this order, and who was now called Mother Marie Augustine, with four sisters, went out from the mother-house, and established themselves at Rennes, a town of forty thousand inhabitants, fifty or sixty miles from their first home. The trust in Providence which led to this movement was greatly blessed, and soon there came another call from the town of Dinan. This call came from the mayor of the city, who thought it a wonderful stroke of policy to provide for the town's poor without drawing on the city treasury. The sisters went without hesitancy, and in 1846 had three well-established houses, which ten of the sisterhood supported by begging.

In France, as in this country, it has been for a long time the custom for persons living in the interior to seek the sea-coast during the summer months. A young lady coming from Tours to St. Servan did not, as too many do, leave all thoughts of her religion behind, but in her temporary sojourn gave herself to good works. Attracted by the genuine humility and piety of the "Little Sisters of the Poor," she begged them to go back with her to Tours. They asked only a roof to shelter and liberty to work, and in January, 1847, they hired in that city a small house in which they received at once a dozen poor people. In 1848, they bought, for 80,000 francs, a very large building, and found shelter for a hundred. How this sum was paid and the family supported remains a secret with the angel who makes record of alms-deeds. For the food of these poor people, every café was engaged to save their coffee-grounds and tea-leaves, and schools, colleges, barracks, and families their crusts of bread; each sister, as she went forth, carried on her arm a large tin pail, divided in compartments, which allowed the scraps of bread and meat, with the cups of broth and other fragments, to be kept apart from each other. At their return, these bits were overlooked, and by the hands of the sisters made into very palatable dishes for their beloved poor. But we must not forget that other and more arduous and disagreeable duties were required of these indefatigable workers than even providing their food from such material. {114} The nursing, tending, and watching of these poor creatures whose former lives of misery had often brought upon them repulsive infirmities and diseases, lifting the helpless, comforting the forlorn, and bearing with the ungrateful, all these must be shared by these devoted women, who had undertaken to follow the command of the apostle, to provide for the aged and the widow. Most of these nuns came from the people; many of them had witnessed want and woe from their infancy, and understood the special needs of the poor; but now and then ladies of rank and education joined them, all working together in perfect equality, each undertaking that class of duties for which she was best fitted. Many a sister has been truly a martyr for Christ, in working for these ignorant, degraded beings, often obstinate and full of ingratitude. But "it is not for the sake of gratitude we nurse them," said a sister whose pale face showed the wearing nature of her cares: "it is because in them we see _le bon Dieu!_"

To tell the story of the journeyings from place to place all over France, the difficulty with which they took root in some of the larger cities, and the comparative welcome they met in the smaller towns, would fill a volume. From France they went to Belgium, to Spain, to Switzerland, and lately to Ireland, and even to Protestant England and Scotland. To-day one hundred and eight houses of this order are scattered over Europe, with a sisterhood of eighteen hundred women, who watch over, comfort, and maintain more than twelve thousand poor old men and women, without money and without price save the voluntary offerings of the cheerful giver!

In England the appearance of the order excited at first much curiosity, but many turned away from them with aversion, the aversion which centuries of false teaching has planted in the minds of most Protestant communities against all religious orders; but their uniform humility, gentleness, and kindness won the day. In Park Row, Bristol, England, in Bayswater, in London, as well as in other places, their convents are admirably conducted, and they welcome visitors most cordially; wherever they go they become popular. "We get a good deal in England," said one of the sisters; "the English are very good to us, though they are Protestants." There is something in simple, honest trust in God which touches the heart, and often those who at first turned away from the begging sisters, in the end prove their warmest supporters.

On his way to business a butcher, belonging in London, and glorying in the name of "a stanch Protestant," was induced to visit one of the convents. He was so delighted with the charity and with all he saw, that he told the "good mother" to let the convent cart call at his stall once a week, and he would give them soup-meat for the house. As he went away, his conscience reproached him; the "horns and hoofs" of the dreadful "beast" of whom he had so often heard appeared before him; he might be suspected of a leaning toward popery! But then his Anglo-Saxon common sense told him that to help the aged and infirm was right, popery or not, and he kept his word; the meat is always ready when the cart arrives, but no communication passes between the sister who takes and the man who gives; he has not yet lost his fear of the "seven heads and ten horns, and the number 666."

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The institution of this order at least makes plain one fact: that numbers of poor can be well supported from the waste of the rich. It ought also to put to silence those who scoff at the idea of an overruling Providence--the _living_ God rather, who cares for the raven and the sparrow, and is constantly working miracles under our eyes, whereby the hungry are fed and the naked clothed.

Madame Guizot de Witt, a-Protestant lady, says: "Every time I visit one of the houses of the 'Little Sisters,' and see their bands of old people--aged children, so neatly dressed, so well taken care of, occupied and amused in every way that age or weakness allow, I seem to hear the voice which says, 'Go, and do thou likewise.'"

This band of noble workers is coming among us, to gather the abundance that falls from our tables, often wasted, or thrown to dumb beasts, while souls made in the image of God look on with hungry eyes.

How shall we greet these servants of God? If we receive the "Little Sister" kindly, giving of our plenty when she asks, she will thank God; if we turn away with cold questioning, she still thanks God that she may bear trial for his sake.

To the thrifty American mind, this scheme of beggary will, no doubt, appear to some as a nuisance, and call for the interference of the laws against begging; but there are others whom the hand of God has touched; these will welcome to the freedom of our land a band of sisters whose charity beareth all things, endureth all things, and hopeth all things. But however we receive them, they will still go on, and if they are turned away from one town or city by the iron hand, they will bring a blessing upon another, both now and in that day when the Judge shall say, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry, and ye gave me meat; thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye covered me: ... for as long as ye did it to one of my least brethren, ye did it to me."

List Of The Houses Founded By The
Little Sisters Of The Poor.

_In France_.--
The novitiate at Latour;
St. Joseph, near Becherel, (Ile et Vilaine;)
Rennes;
St. Servan;
Dinan;
Tours;
Nantes;
Paris, Rue St. Jacques near the Val de Grace;
Besançon;
Angers;
Bordeaux;
Rouen;
Nancy;
Paris, Avenue de Breteuil;
Laval;
Lyon, á la Vilette;
Lille;
Marseilles;
Bourges;
Pau;
Vannes;
Colmar;
La Rochelle;
Dijon;
St. Omer;
Brest;
Chartres;
Bolbec;
Paris, Rue Beccaria, Faubourg St. Antoine;
Toulouse;
St. Dizier;
Le Havre;
Blois;
Le Maus;
Tarare;
Paris, Rue Notre Dame des Champs;
Orleans;
Strasbourg;
Caen;
St. Etienne;
Perpignan;
Montpellier;
Agen;
Poitiers;
St. Quentin;
Lisieux;
Annonay;
Amiens;
Roanne;
Valenciennes;
Grenoble;
Draguignan;
Chateauroux;
Roubaix;
Boulogne;
Dieppe;
Beziers;
Clermont Ferrand;
Lyons, La Croix Rousse;
Metz;
Nice;
Lorient;
Nevers;
Flers;
Villefranche;
Cambrai;
Niort;
Paris, Rue Philippe Gerard;
Les Sables d'Olonne;
Troyes;
Maubeuge;
Nimes;
Toulon;
Tourcoing;
Cherbourg;
Valence;
Périgueux;
and one just now beginning in Dunkerque.

_In Switzerland._--Genevra.

_In Belgium_.--
Bruxelles, Rue Haute;
Liege, at the Chartreuse;
Jemmapes, near Mons;
Louvain;
Antwerp;
Bruges;
Ostende;
Namur.

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_In Spain_.--
Barcelona;
Maureza;
Granada;
Lerida;
Lorca;
Malaga;
Antequera;
Madrid, Calle della Hortaletza;
Jaen;
Reuss;
two more are preparing in Valence and Andalusia.

_In England, Ireland, and Scotland_.--
London, (Southwark,) South Lambeth Road;
London, (Bayswater,) Portobello Lane;
Manchester, Plymouth Grove;
Bristol, Park Row;
Birmingham, Cambridge Street Crescent;
Leeds, Hanover Square;
Newcastle-on-Tyne, Clayton Street;
Plymouth, St. Mary's;
Waterford;
Edinburgh, Gilmore Place;
Glasgow, Garngad Hill;
Lochee, near Dundee;
a new foundation beginning in Tipperary.

_In the United States_.--
No house exists as yet, but the "Little Sisters of the Poor"
are preparing three foundations which are to take place very
soon, one in Brooklyn, De Kalb Avenue; a second one in New
Orleans, in the buildings occupied by the Widows' Home; the
third one in Baltimore, with the charge, too, of the Widows'
Home; besides these, several other foundations are
contemplated in the course of the next and of following year.

----------

Religion Medically Considered.

By the term "religion," we mean that divine code mercifully revealed by God to mankind, in the old and new dispensations, as their rule of faith and practice. Its precepts have reference both to the corporal and spiritual, the temporal and eternal welfare of men. Religion, it is true, in its higher sphere, addresses itself to the soul. It embraces the affections, emotions, and sentiments of our spiritual nature, and its direction is always toward the infinite fountain of love and wisdom. Yet its scope, while for eternity, is for time also. When God first revealed himself to Moses, the Israelites were fast relapsing into heathenism, with, its pernicious and degrading habits of life. Under the divine inspiration, however, the prophet imbued them anew with faith in the true God, and presented them at the same time with an admirable code of practical life. He taught them to love and fear God, to obey his commandments, to live soberly and uprightly in themselves, and to practise justice and love toward each other. He continually placed before them the divine promises of not only eternal but also temporal rewards for obedience, and, in like manner, the threatened penalties of disobedience. Viewed even as practical rules of living for earthly life alone, his are models of excellence. No man has ever done more toward retaining that tabernacle of the human soul, the earthly body, in a pure and healthy condition than this great lawgiver. Contrast the precepts given by God through him to the Israelites after he had brought them out of the land of Egypt, with those of the Egyptians, of the Canaanites, and other heathen nations of the period. How wise and elevating are the tendencies of the one! What injustice, inhumanity, and degradation mark the other! {117} On the one hand, love supreme to God and to one's neighbor as one's self, joined with forbearance, justice, truthfulness, honesty, chastity, temperance, cleanliness even, and rigid adherence to what would now be termed sound sanitary principles; while on the heathen side, what may be comprised in three words--selfishness, sensuality, and force. The fruits of obedience to the former were, even here, comparative immunity from disease and its sufferings, with enhanced material prosperity and happiness, and with increased longevity; while to the other there came the legitimate penalties of inordinate self-indulgence, of selfishness and evil-living; the fruits of the laws of life which heathenism gave to them.

It is hence that we claim for religion--for the religious precepts revealed to man by the divinely inspired prophets of the old dispensation, that they contributed vastly to the physical and temporal well-being of the race. The God of nature required that there should be no violation of the laws of nature; that our organs and faculties, designed for legitimate uses, should not be subjected to abuse and perversion. Hence temperance and moderation, and a rigid avoidance of whatever tended to a violation of the natural laws of health, were enjoined upon man as duties of religious obligation. That the mortal body might be and remain a fit enclosure of the immortal soul, the inspired teachings of the old law descended to the minutest details of the laws of health and life. This, indeed, constituted the less exalted sphere of religion, yet one of prime importance, so far as the well-being and happiness of earthly life was concerned.

Even, then, should we, for the moment, ignore religion in its higher relations, and leave out of the question a future existence, regarding man merely as an animal who is to be annihilated at death; still we shall find that by its precepts and its influence it has always largely contributed to his measure of health, happiness, and longevity.

It is our purpose, in this paper, to confine our remarks to this view of the case, and to discuss the influence of religion and a Christian life upon man in his physical and earthly relations. For the atheist even, for the deist and the sceptic, we claim that the precepts and practice of Christianity are, above all other systems and modes of life, conducive to physical and mental health and vigor, to true enjoyment and long life.

Nearly all of the eminent philosophers and heathen teachers before and at the time of Christ seem to have regarded the pursuit of sensual pleasure as life's chief aim and end. True, they advised a certain measure of moderation in the gratification of the appetites and passions, in order that the vitality might not be too rapidly exhausted; but this was their only limit to self-indulgence; religious or moral obligation was not taken into the account in making up the programme of practical life. The pagan disciples of Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, as well as the more cultivated and polished polytheists of the empire of the Caesars, lived for sensual enjoyment alone. Even human life was made subservient to this dominant idea, as the frequent and wanton murders of slaves and newly born children demonstrate.

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Early failure of the vital forces, followed by disease and its accompanying physical and mental suffering, was the fruitful result. A participation in the revels of the temples of Venus and of Bacchus might give its few brief hours of sensual pleasure; but violated nature always inflicted her bitter penalties therefore, in the form of painful and tedious morbid reactions. The spectator at the Colosseum may have been momentarily excited by the bloody scenes of the arena; but the simple instincts of humanity must have filled the soul with horror and disgust, on subsequent reflection upon the cruelty involved therein. Even in the higher planes of pagan life, in the very lyceums and groves of the philosophers of the Augustan age, so lax and inefficient was the moral code of the day, and such their own imperfect moral teachings, that the practical life-results were little better. One can appreciate the reality of this when he calls to mind the utter variance of the new law of Christ, when first introduced among them, with nearly all the philosophies, customs, and habits of the period. He has but to read, for this purpose, the frightful description of ancient heathen society given by St. Paul in the latter half of the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans, addressed to the Christian converts from among this very people. Without the restraining and healthful influences of true religion, to what depths of moral and physical degradation is not human nature capable of bringing itself! [Footnote 20] "Professing themselves to be wise," says the apostle, "they became fools. ... Wherefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, to uncleanness, to shameful affections, and to a reprobate sense:" [thereby] "receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to their error. ... Being filled with all iniquity, malice, fornication, covetousness, wickedness, full of envy, murder, contention, deceit, malignity, whisperers, detractors, hateful to God, contumelious, proud, haughty, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, foolish, dissolute, without affection, without fidelity, without mercy."

[Footnote 20: Romans i. 21-33.]

In contrasting, then, the principles, habits, and lives of the Latin subjects of the Roman empire with those inculcated by Christ in the new law, it will be found that the latter were by far the most conducive to physical and mental vigor, material happiness, and longevity. In one example we have a material philosophy, wealth, sensuality, and unlimited self-indulgence; in the other, a Christian code, inculcating virtue, charity, morality, temperance, and moderation in all things. The fruits of both systems were plainly visible, even in the days of Christ.

It has been estimated that more than one fourth part of the population of the empire, under Augustus and Tiberius Caesar, were slaves. The condition of these bondmen was deplorable. They were not only deprived of all political and social rights, but were regarded as soulless and devoid of moral responsibility. Human slavery was a legitimate offspring of the pagan philosophies of the period.

Another portion of the Roman people, amounting to about one half of the entire population, occupied a moral and social status nearly as low as that of the slave. The mothers, wives, and daughters of Roman citizens were regarded as inferior beings, mere pets and playthings of the men, household ornaments, useful only so far as they were capable of contributing to the sensual pleasures of their lords and masters. This wanton degradation of the sex was another direct result of the pernicious teachings of those men who are still lauded and honored by the world as models of wisdom and virtue! {119} The free patricians and plebeians, comprising less than one third of the entire population, and possessing nearly all of the national wealth, devoted their lives in striving to add to the military power and glory of the empire, and in the pursuit of worldly pleasure. In the furtherance of these objects, neither right, justice, humanity, nor even life itself was regarded as important when opposed to their dominant passions. Such were the materialists of that day.

Let us now turn to the precepts of our blessed Saviour, and their immediate practical results in elevating humanity to a higher plane, and in enhancing the general welfare of the human race. The fundamental principles of the Christian system are, besides faith in the revealed mysteries, supreme love to God and fraternal love to man. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like to this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets." (Matt. xxii. 37-40.) "All things, therefore, whatsoever you would that men should do to you, do you also to them: for this is the law and the prophets." (Matt. vii. 12.)

One of the first-fruits of these new ideas was a recognition by the Christian converts of the dignity and brotherhood of all mankind, and of the equality of all in the sight of God. Thus were females and slaves at once elevated to their proper positions in the scale of humanity. They could no longer be regarded as mere instruments of sensual gratification, but were recognized as brethren, children of a common father, co-workers and coequals in the spiritual vineyard of our Lord Jesus Christ.

How readily, then, can we comprehend the ardent and untiring devotion and love which were everywhere evinced by Christian women for their divine Redeemer and Benefactor! How readily can we explain the boundless enthusiasm and joy of the multitudes of poor, oppressed, and disease-stricken men who followed Jesus from place to place for consolation and restoration! When these multitudes heard the precious sermon upon the mount, so much at variance with the prevalent tenets and practices of the world, they were amazed and delighted; for in it false philosophies, a vicious civilization, and pernicious usages were rebuked, mankind exalted to a higher sphere, and humanity vindicated.

As the lives of the pagans were natural reflexes of their false and inhuman moral and social codes, so were the lives of the Christians natural reflexes of the divine code. The foundations of the one were idolatry, selfishness, sensuality, uncharitableness, pride, and arrogance; of the other, godliness, charity, love, humility, and benevolence. Humanity cannot clothe itself with the first without chilling and paralyzing the higher impulses of the soul, and fostering the bitter germs of mental and physical sorrow. Nor can it adopt the last without developing those spiritual attributes which elevate, refine, and bless the possessor.

Let us come down to our own day, where materialism, sensuality, and general immorality are nearly as common as in the days of the apostles. We call ourselves Christians, profess to believe in one God, in the immortality of the soul, and in a future state of rewards and punishments; but practically, in actual life, many communities are as inhuman, as sensual, as material, and as immoral as were the pagans of the golden age.

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The pagan disciples of Aristotle, for instance, did not hesitate to violate the sacred germs of humanity, and thus to blast the souls of multitudes of victims, for the purpose of preventing too great an increase of population. The religion of Christ changed all this, and true Christians have ever heeded the change. But the recent work of Dr. Storer, of Boston, and official legislative reports, demonstrate that this great crime is quite as prevalent in the modern Athens and in the State which contains it, as it was in the worst days of the Roman empire. The influence of this alarmingly prevalent crime of our own day and of our own nation is baneful in the extreme. On strictly sanitary and material grounds, it is to be deprecated as an evil of the greatest magnitude. Among its deleterious results may be recorded diseases of important vital organs, which are in turn reflected to the entire nervous system, and a consequent train of physical and mental disorders, which make life a burden instead of a blessing. Here, then, we see that a truly Christian mode of living is more conducive to health, happiness, and long life than that of the sensual materialist.