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D.D, 13 !. K T !i E P: T. >^'/^^.-:f^>!>r^x/^ '■ .'3"'"';*l? z:^; ^■.. ««*; >>..,'-«" j'-.>, ■ ■.,'■•,";■■,.«■/■■■ ' ■;''■'■ ■■■■•■ ... - 'lif^-®*r>-/ Dcpt. PROVif'^IA.^ LIUrjARY VICTORIA, 0. C. IV Pubusherr' Notice. woni roanul iiiKlcr lior involution ; buy, and river, and mnnntuin n.'coivcd tlu; liullovvcd nunio ; the iivni city on tlic inuinlund tliut bocunio a bishop's hoc was St. Mary's. It' tlio anient sons of Franco choso tlio icy rcahn of Canada to plant tho fhurs-de-l in, its rigors conld not chill devotion to Miiry ; CarticM', in his distress, tnrns to Mary, and vows a ]>il<2;'rinianK Statkh and (Jakad.. Ouh La„v-« D.bcovkrv o, Am.U,0A-C..UB.„K8OK „KK NAMK-.M,N,8TK.,8 0rTHK DkVOT.ON- huBorEAK AND Amkbioan IJevot.on-IIonor duk to Mabv-Kmi- orants-Patbonkhs or tub Umtkd Statks , CHAPTER II. Zkal of Pionicer8-Champi,ain and thk Recollects-Motiikb Maby OF THE INCAKNATION AND THE UrSUL.N. 8-MarqUKTTK AND THE Im- maovlatb Conception. 80 CHAPTER III. Advance of the PEvoTioN-Finsr Sevknty-five YEAR8-jE8um in CANADA-OuB Lady of Anokls-Olieb and St. Sulpick-Thk City OF MaBY-MaDEMOISELLE MaN8E and THE IIosPlTAL S18TER8 60 CHAPTER IV. Marouebitb Bouroeoys and the Conobkoation of Our Ladt gi CHAPTER V. Extermination OF THE Hurons-Oub Lady of Foie-Net. Lobetto- IHE ^OBTH west-Immaculate Conception in 1llinoi8-Maby Ako -Down THE Mi88I88ippi-Baok to Montrbal-OurLadtsGuabd -IHE CoNOBEOATioN aoain-Thk Kkoli:se OF Ville-Makik-Oub Lady of Angels. 108 6 Contents. CHAPTER VI. Page Devotion of tub Holy Family— Oiu I-ahy ok Victory — Our Lady ur Good Help — Ouit Laky of the Visitation— Lodok or the 1m- MACtLATK CoNCElTIc IN — OUB LaDY OF SnoWS — CaTIIEDUAL OF THE Immaculate Conception, and (Jhuuohes of Oub Lady in CIuebbo. . 127 CHAPTER VII. Devotion in Texas, California, anu New Mexico — Oca Lady of Guadalupe— The New Mount Carmel— The Atlantic Spanish Missionaries — Maryland 146 CHAPTER VIII. The Devotion in Maine — Silleuy and Chaudiere — Wampum Belt FOB NoTBE Dame de Chartbes — The Vow of the Owenagunoa — Mission of the KESxtBEc — Mlboer of Father Kaslea— Thb Catholic Ked-skin and the I'uritan Council 166 CHAPTER IX. The Devotion in New York— The Saint of the Mohawks— Saint Mart amono the Iroquois 184 CHAPTER X. 0,uR Ladt ojt Loretto or the Uubons 205 CHAPTER XL Our Lady's Assumption, a. d. 1790, and what cake of it — A Mission- ary rRINOE 220 CHAPTER XII. Our Lady of the Lake 888 CHAPTER XIII. Our Ladt^b Sisters— Les Sm him, and he loved to serve and defend his friends. It was a cruel and merciU'ss engine that, with its terrible blow, shattered that maiily and vigorous frame, and in an instant of time stunned the great and restless brain, stilled the loving and generous heart, and released the spirit of Donald MacLeod. " H. C. Lord." The writer of this notice is not a Catholic. But it shows that the character, the acquirements, and the talents of the deceased were appreciated and admired by others as well as by those of his own Church. The independence of all human authority so justly claimed for him, was confined to Bubjects of a merely human or secular descriptic»n. To Church authority, in which he recognized the authority of ! ! t i Si ! XIV Memoib. (Jod, lie Wfis at all times ainonable. To her dc^cisioris he submitted, — if with a reasoning" and a reasonahU' coiivit.'tioi: of liis elear and vigorous intellect, yet with the childlik<^ Hintplicity which taught him tiiat, wiien God speaks through ail infallible tribunal, it is the enlightened Christian's duty to listen and to obey. Devotion tt> the Blessed Virgin, and zeal for her honor, was a ruling passion of the soul of Rev. Mr. MacLeod. lie was her client, her son, her knight, her priest. The " Le- gends of Holy Mary" and " Our Lady of Litanies" preceded the beautiful " History of the Devotion to Mary in North America," which we now j^resent to our readers. But an- other proof of his veneration for the Lnmaculate may aptly find its place here. Tlie first sermon he preached after his ordination was on the purity of the Virgin Mary. The choice of this subject was probably suggested by the publi- catifm of a tractate called "James, the Lord's brother," by one Chauncey Fitch, an Episcopalian minister of Piqua, Miami County, Ohio. The object of this tractate was to show that Mary had other sons besides the Lord. It was highly recommended by the Episcopal bishop, Mcllvaine, of Ohio. The bishop thus speaks of it in a letter to Rev. Dr. Anthon, editor of the " New York Protestant Churchman :" " Rev. and Deab Sm — I believe you know eomething of a trac- tate which the Rev. Mr. Fitch of Ohio has written on ' James, the Lord's brother.' He has recently completed a full carrying out of the argument, and made, I think, a very concluMve proof that James was the son of Joseph and Mary, and really, literally, the Lord's brother. It upsets the whole Mariolatry, and all her claims to supremacy tlirough Peter. . . I believe it would be as good an article in the Homish controversy as we could publish. " Yours, affectionately, C. P. McIlvainb. " Cincinnati, Jan. 19, 1857." Commenting on this letter of the bishop, Father MacLeod 1 Memoir. XV remarks, in a printed refutation of Fitch's theory, as follows : "MARY EVER VIRGIN." That Catholics may see and know how unfaithful and utterly false to the [)rincii»h's of their own erecd are lead- in{i; Episcopalians, we reprint in this form a letter from an Episcopalian to the "Cath(tlic Teleo^raph," January 22, 1859, which sets forth the real teachinji^s of the Ei)iscopal body on the Hubj(>ct of the perpetual Virginity of tlie Mother of our Lord. The letter being' a contril)ution, wo shall not change it, but print it as it came to us. Now this same Bishop of Ohio (1) disbelieves, if he had any religious belief or disbelief at all, the whole contents of Fitch's emanation. That same Bishop of Ohio, in conunon with all other bishops of the Protestant Episcopal C'Inirch, assigned Dr. Gilbert Pearson's Exposition of tlie Creed as the only standard dogmatic work in his comnninion, as the one dogmatic guide of his theological students, and as the text- book of the General Theological Seminary in New York. If he do not believe with Pearson, he is false to his trust and position in giving such a work to his students ; if he do, he, by his approval of Fitch for the sake of a dirty insult to Roman Catholics, has carried dishonorable baseness to an extent of which his is the only example. f\n'thermore, by 80 doing, he not onl}'' denies the common faith of all Chris- tians and the applicability of the passages from the proph- ets universally applied to our Lord, but also shows an ignorance of the mere letter of Scripture, which may be pardonable in an Episcopalian Bishop, but which should be a reasonable cause of degradation to the assistant sexton in a Hard Shell Baptist Conventicle. The book from which I quote is "An Exposition of the Creed, by John Pearson, Bishop of Chester (in tlie 16th cen- tury). New York : Appleton & Co, 1851." It is as follows : XTl Memoir. " Thirdly, "Wo belii'vc the mother of otir hon\ to have been, not onhj })ef<)vr and after hix nativity, but aho forever, the most immacniafe and blessed Virr/in. For althougli it may bo thoii^Iit Hutlicient as to the mystery of the incarnation, that wlien our Saviour was conceived and born, his niotiier was a virgin ; thouirli wijatsoever should have followed after, could have no rcllcctive operation upon the (irst-fruit of her womb ; thoiiyh there be no further mention in the Crked, than that he was born of the Vhyin Marij : yet the pe- culiar emincncy and unparalleled privilege of that mother, the special honor and reverence due unto that Son, and eve; paid by her, the reffard of that Holy Ghost who can»e upon her, and the power of the Highest who overshadowed her, the singular g'oodness and piety (jf Joseph, to whom she was espoused, have persuaded the Church of God in all ages to believe that she still continued in the same virginity, and therefore is to bo acknowledg'cd the Ever-Virgin Mary. As if the g-ate of the sanctuary in the prophet Ezekiel were to be understood of her : ' This g'ate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it ; because the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.' (Ezek. xliv. 2.) " Many, indeed, have taken the boldness to deny this truth because not recorded in the sacred writ ; and not only so, but to assert the contrary as delivered in the Scriptures ; but with no success. For though, as they object, St. Mat- thew testilieth that Joseph ' knew not Mary, until she had brought forth her first-born son' (Matt. i. 25), from whence they infer, that afterwards he knew her ; yet the manner of the Scripture language produccth no such inference. When God said to Jacob, ' I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of (Gen. xxiii. 15), it fol- loweth not that when that was done, the God of Jacob left him. When the conclusion of Deuteronomy was written, it was said of Moses, ' No man kuoweth of his sepulchre unto Memoib. XVll tills day' (D(Mit. xxxiv. 6) ; but it were a weak nrf^uinoiit to infer from thence, tiiat the sepnlchn^ of Moses hath been known ever since. When Samuel had delivered a severe prediction unto Saul, he ' came no more to see him until the day of his death' (1 Sam. xv. 35) ; but it were a stranj^e collection to infer, that he therefore paid him a visit after he was dead. ' Michul, tin* daug'hter of Saul, had no child until the day of her death' (2 Sam. vi. 23) ; and yet it were a ridiculous stupidity to dream of any midwif(>ry in the g'rave. Christ prfjtnised his presence to the apostles ' unto the end of the world' (Matt, xxviii. 20) ; who ever made so happy a construction as to infer from thence, that forever after he would be absent from them ? " Again, it is true that Christ is termed tho first-born son of Mary, from whence they infer she must needs have a second ; but they might as well conclude, that wheresoever there is one, there must be two. For in this particular the Scripture notion of priority excludeth an antecedent, but inferreth not a consequent ; it 8uppf)seth none to have gone before, but concluded not any to follow after. ' Sanctify unto me [saith God] all the first-born ;' which was a firm and fixed law, immediately obliging upon the birth ; whereas if the first-born had included a relation to a second, there could have been no present certainly, but a suspension of obedience ; nor had the first-born been sanc- tified of itself, but the second birth had sanctified the first. And well might any sacrilegious Jew have kept back the price of redemption due unto the priest, nor could it have been required of him, till a second offspring had appeared ; and so no redemption at all had been required for an only sc^n. Whereas all such pretences were unheard of in the Law, because the original Hebrew word is not capable of any such construction ; and in the Law itself it carrieth with it a clear interpretation, ' Sanctify unto me all the first-boru ; whatsoever opcneth the womb among the chil- i I III ' xviii Memoir. dron of Israel, botli of man and beast, it is nnne.' (Exod. xiii. 2.) Tlie apertion *)( the womb det(!rmined the first- born ; and the hw of redemption exchideth all such ter- g'iversation : ' Those that arc redeemed, from a month old thou shalt redeem' (Numb, xviii. 16) ; no stayinj^ to make up the relation, no expectinjj anothfu* birth to perfect tiie redemption. IJeing then ' they brought our Saviour to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, as it is written in I^aw of the Lord' (Luke, ii. 22, 23), it is evident that he was called the first-born of Mary according to the notion of the Law of Moses, and consequently that title inferreth no succession, nor proveth the mother to have any other offspring. " Indeed, as they thirdly object, it cannot bo denied but that we read expressly in the Scriptures of the brethren of our Lord : ' He went down to Capernaum, he, and his mother, and his brethren' (John, ii. 12), and, ' While be talked unto the people, his mother and his brethren stood witliout, desiring to speak with him.' (Matt. xii. 46.) But although his mother and his brethion be named together, yet they are never called the sons of his n)other ; and the question is not whether Christ had any brethren, but whether his mother brought forth any other children. It is possible Joseph might have had children before Mary was espoused to him ; and then, as he was reputed and called our Saviour's father, so might they well be accounted and called his brethren, as the ancient fathers, especially of the Greek Church, have taught. Nor need we thus assert that Joseph had any offspring, because the language of the Jews includeth in the name of brethren not only the strict relation of fraternity, but also the larger of consan- guinity ; and therefore it is sufficient satisfaction for that expression, that there were such persons allied unto the Blessed Virgiu. 'We be brethren' (Gen. xiii. 8), said Abraham unto Lot : when Abraham was the son of Terah, Memoib. XIX Lot of ITiiran, and cnnsoriuently not liis hrothcr, but his nephew, and, as elsowherc properly styled, ' th(> won of his brother.* (Gen. xii. 5.) 'Moses culh^d Mishael and Kl/,a- phan, the sons of Uzziol tho uncde of Aaron, and said unto then), Come near, carry your brethren from before the sanc- tuary' (Lev. X. 4) ; whereas those brethren were Naihib and Abihu, the sons not of Uzziel but of Aaron. 'Jacob told Kachel that he was her father's brother, and that he was Rebekuh's son' (Oen. xxix. 12) ; whereas, Kebekah was the 8ist(;r of Hachel's father. It is siirtieient, tliere- fore, that the evanj^elists, according to the constant lan- guaj^e of the Jews, called the kindred of the IJhjssed Vir- gin the brethren and sisters of her only S(m ; which indeed is something the later, but the most generally approved answer. " Add yet this difficulty, though usually no further con- sidered, is not fully cleared ; for they which impugned the perpetual virginity of the mother of our Lord, urged it fur- ther, pretending that as the Scriptures called them the brethren of Chriat, so they also showed them to be the sons of Mary, the mother of Christ. For first the Jews express them particularly by their names, ' Is not his mother called Mary ? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?' (Matt. xiii. 55.) Therefore, James and Joses were undoubtedly the brethren of Christ, and the same were also as unquestionably sons of Mary : for among the women at the cross we find ' Mary Magdalene and Mary the motlier of James and Joses.' (Matt, xxvii. 56.) Again, this Mary, they think, can be no other than the Mother of our Lord, because they find her early in the morning at the sepulchre with Mary Magdalene and Salome (Mark, xvi. 1) ; and it is not probable that any should have more care of the body of the son than the mother. She then who was certainly present at the cross, was not probably absent from the sepulchre ; wherefore, they conclude, she was the mother % I XX Memoir. of Chrint, who was the mother of James and Joses, the brethren of Christ. " And now the urp^inj^ of tliis argument will produce a greater clearness in the solution of the question. For if it appear that Mary the mother of James and Joses was differ- ent and distinguished from Mary the Virgin, then will it also be apparent that the brethren of our Lord were the sons of another motlier, for James and .loses were so called. But we n>ad in St. John, that ' there stood by the cross of Jesus, his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.' (John, xix. 25.) In the rest of the evangelists we find at the same place, ' Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joses' (Matt, xxviii. 56 ; Mark, xv, 40) ; and again at the i^epulchre, ' Mary Magdalene and the other Mary' (Matt, xxviii. 1) ; where- fore that other Mary, by the conjunction of these testimonies, appeareth to be Mary, the loife of Cleophas, and the mother of James and Joses ; and consequently James and Joses, the brethren of our Lord, were not the sons of Mary his mother, but of the other Mary, and therefore called his brethren ac- cording to the language of the Jews, because that the other Mary was the sister of his mother. " Notwithstanding, therefore, all these pretensions, there can be nothing found to raise the least suspicion of any interruption of the ever Blessed Mary's perpetual virginity. For as she was a virgin when she conceived, and after she brought forth our Saviour ; so did she continue in the same state and condition, and was commended by our Saviour to his beloved disciple, as a mother only now of an adopted son. "The consideration of all which will at last lead us to a clear explication of this latter branch of the Article, where- by every Christian may inform himself that he is bound to profess, and being informed, fully express what is the ob- ject of his faith in this particular, when he saith, I believe Memoir. XXI ill Jesus Christ who was horn of the Virgin Mary. For hereby he is conccWcd to intend thus much: I assent unto this as a most certain and infallible trutli, that thei-e was a certain woman, know^^ by the name of Mary, espoused unto Joseph of Nazareth, which before and after her espousals was a pure and unspotted virgin, and being and continuing in the same virgin ' i, did, by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost, conceive within her womb the only-begotten Son of God, and, after the natural time of other women, brought him forth as her first-born son, continuing still a v>nst pure and immacidate virgin ; whereby the Saviour of the world was born of a woman under the Law, without the least pretence of any original corruption, that he might deliver us from the guilt of sin ; born of that Virgin which was of the house and lineage of David, that he might sit upon his throne, and rule for evermore. And in this latitude I profess to believe in Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary." We have a word to add to this. " The Western Church- man," organ of the Episcopalians here, endeavored to cast discredit upon the above quotations. Now this was sheer impudence. The book is not only an Episcopal dogmatic text-book, but it is their only one. The title and the publisher's name are given above, and may be verified by anybody who chooses to take the trouble. The quotation begins upon page 263, Article III., "Born of the Virgin Mary," and is unbroken to the last paragraph, beginning, "The consideration of all which," etc. BcLv>'ecn that and the preceding matter, intervenes the proof of the title " Mother of God," and of the absolute necessity of AIary's Immaculacy to the Incarnation. From this intervening and very brief portion we add ont. further quotation to those given above : " The necessity of believing our Saviour thus to be born Il i 1 1 , XXll Memoir. of the Virgin Mary, will a[)poar both in respect of her who was the Mother, and of Tlini who was the Son. In respect of her it was necessary, that \\f. might pkkpetually prkseuvf, AN ESTERM OF IIEU PERSON PROPORTIOXAiy.E TO SO HIGH A DIGNITY. It was lier own prediction, 'From henceforth all genera- tions SHALL CALL ME BLESSED,' (Lukc, i. 48); but this oblif^ation is ours, to CALL HER, TO ESTEEM HER SO. If Elizabeth cried out with so loud a voice, 'Blessed art thou among women,' when Christ was but newly conceived in her womb ; what ex- pressions of honor and of admiration can we think suffi- cient now that Christ is in Heaven and that mother .with Him ! Far be it from any Christian to derogate from that special privilege granted unto her, which is incommunica- ble to any other. We cannot bear too reverent a regard unto the Mother of our Lord, so long as we give her not that worship which is due unto the Lord Himself.'* —P. 2T2. God grant that these words of old Bishop Pearson may influence the hearts of his pretended co-religionists here, if not to less hatred of the Church, at least to respect and sense of propriety and decency towards her \vhom their Praj'cr-book calls the " Blessed Virgin Mary." We cannot resist the desire of embodying in this notice of the eloquent defender of Mary's prerogative, the beauti- ful tribute to the efTect of mediaeval devotion to the Blessed Virgin, for which we are indebted to a very com- pulsory witness indeed, " Lecky's Rationalism in Europe," vol. ii., pp. 224, 225. The reader will perceive that only an enemy and a bigot would use the words " benighted and monkish" in such connection. " The worl 1 is governed by its ideals, and seldom or never has there been one which has exercised a more pro- found and, ou the whole, a more salutary influence than the Memoir. XXll] f her who [n respect ■ PRKSERVE A DIGNITY. iL OENERA- jbh'gation cried out EN,' when WHAT EX- \K SrFFI- ther .with from that minnnica- A REGARD g'ive her Himself." son may s here, if poet and om their is notice ; beanti- to the cry com- Europe," only an ted and mediaeval conception of the Virgin. For the first time woman was elevated to her rightful position, and the sanctity of weakness was recognized as well as the sanctity of sorrow. No longer the slave or toy of man, no longer associ.ated only with ideas of degradation and sensuality, woman rose, in the person of the Virgin Mother, into a new sphere, and became the object of a reverential homage of which anti- quity had had no concei)tion. Love was idealized. Tiie moral charm and beauty of female excellccf; was, for the first time, felt. A new type of character was called into being, a new kind of admiration was fostered. Into a harsh and ignorant and benighted age this ideal type infused a con- ception of gentleness and of purity unknown to the proudest civilization of the past. In the pages of living tenderness, wliich many a monkish writer has left in honor of his cides- tial patron ; in the millions who in many lands and in many ages have sought with no barren desire to mould their characters into her image ; in those holy maidens who, for the love of Marv, have separated themselves from all the glories and pleasures of the world, to seek in fastings and vigils and humble charity to render themselves worthy of her benediction ; in the new sense of honor, in the chival- rous respect, in the softness of manners, in the refinement of tastes disjilayed in all the walks of society ; in those and in many other ways, we detect its innnencc. All thiit w;is best in Europe clustered around it, and it is the origin of many of the purest elements of our civilization." — Vol. i., pp. 225, 226. dom or ore pro- han the ■1 DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY IN NOETH AMERICA. CHAPTER I. General View— Co trMBus— Natural Growth ok this Devotion First Catholics -THK Soctheun Statks and Canada— Our Lady's Dis- covhry of Amkhica — Churches of her Name— Mimsteus of the De- votion-European AND American Devotion— Honor due to Mary • Emiorants— Patroness of the United States. The little seaport town of Palos, in Andalusia, lay basking in the sun, and its harbor was croM-ded with swarthy sight-seers and vocal Avith wondering tongues. The cool mountain waters of the Tinto brawled past the haven, and flowed into the broad Atlantic. Out on the burnished sea three caravels lay at anchor. The crowd had assemliled to see a set of madmen, as they called them, depart upon a hopeless voyage. Their tongues were busy in discussing the probable manner in which evil fate would fall on the expedition, for no one dreamed of a happy issue for the adventure. If any dared to suggest such a probability, he, too, was hooted at as insane, and ironically recommended to ship for the voyage. j .', ' ill 2 Devotion to the B. V. Mary And, as they disputed and sneered, ever and anon a strain of the Mass-music would swell out from the church, where Faith was kneeling to ask protection ; where Confidence was drawing new strength from de- votion to God and Mary. For the adventurers, their commander at their head, were preparing, by confes- sion and Holy Communion, to enter like Christian men upon their perilous undertaking.' Then the Mass was over, and out from the church, grave, resolute, and calm, walked the admiral at the head of his crew ; and the crowd, hushed into silence, opened a way for the procession to the jetty. A few moments were allowed for farewells. Then the brief orders were given, and the sailors entering the boats, rowed out to their respective vessels. Then the report of the culverin sounded from the bows, and the standard of Castile swung out to the April breeze from the peak of the Santa Maria ; and the crew cli ered, and the crowd on shore responded, as the admiral stepped on board. A few moments more and the anchors were weighed, the yards were trimmed, the sails filled, and the flotilla of Columbus stood out to sea. And with it, as it crossed those pathless waters, the love and protection of our dear Lady and Mother floated over the Atlantic to the shores of America." ' Prcscott: Ferdinand and Isabella, ii. 130. ' The humble and reverent spirit in which Catholics undertook their great labors is wondered at, and sometimes even sneered at, by modem historians. These do not understand the consecration of all 1 1 anon a rom the >tection ; from de- jrs, their confes- ian men church, 1 at the silence, . Then entering L'om the ; to the ia; and Donded, eighed, flotilla as it )tection Ltlantic ndertook ed at, by uu of oil A IN North America. 8 The first land touched by the Christian admiral ho called San Salvador,' in honor of the Son ; the next, Santa Maria de la Concepcion, did reverence to the Mother. It is well-nigh four hundred years since then, but never has Mary forgotten nor been forgotten here ; but her servants have labored to extend her devotion ; the faithful have responded with eager and loving hearts ; her powerful prayers have aided them in heaven ; and now, from the perpetual Arctic snows to the mists of Terra del Fuego, ascriptions of honor arise to the Mother Immaculate, For devotion to Mary is in its own nature a neces- sarily growing one, inasmuch as it is the expression of our love and reverence for her ; and these are inevi- table, because of her nature, immaculately conceived as it was, lingering sixty sinless years on earth, and now glorified and triumphant in heaven. things to God. Yet such was the spirit of Columbus. His prayer on reaching San Salvador is preserved by Washington Irving : " Domine Deus, setcrne et omnipotens, sacro tuo verljo coelum ot terram et mare creasti ; bcnedicatur et glorificitur Nomen tuum, laudetur tua majestas qua? dignita est per humilem servum tuum ut ejus sacrum Nomen agnoscatur et prtedicetur in hac altera mundi parte." " Lord, eternal and omnipotent God, Thou hast, by Thy holy word, created the heavens, the earth, and the sea ; blessed and glori- fied be Thy Name ; praised be Thy Majesty, who hast deigned that, by means of Thy unworthy servant. Thy sacred Name should be acknowledged and made known in this new quarter of the globe." — Irving: Columbus, i. 15G. ' To call a laud after the Saviour being di-eined superstitious, the English conquerors reverently changed it to Cat Island, Devotion to the B. V. Mary Mary is, of all creatures, except tlie sacred Humanity of her Lord and Son, the nearest to the heart of God ; and the love that she gives us is, after all, God's love, whereof she is the channel; and God's love, in His dealings with us, never stands still, but is evermore on the increase here, as it Avill be through the rapturous ages of eternity. But God gives love in exchange for love ; He allows us with our own coin, poor as it is, to purchase treasures on high, and so our love necessa- rily increases in an humble kind of proportion with His. Then, when He sends us so much favor through Mary, we are impelled to return it through the same blessed channel ; and thus devotion to her grows ever, and shall grow, until love shall be placed beyond the reach of change or decay. So, then, Mary has gained vast possessions in this country. One day, let us hope, she will conquer it all, and annex it all, loyal and devoted, to the kingdom of her Son. There are peculiarities in her conquests and in her sacred warfare without parallel in the victories of the SAVord. The weapons of her hosts are gentle- ness, and mercy, and weariless affection ; self-sacrifice and refusal of reward on earth ; and, better still, when- ever a soldier falls, fighting bravely in the front rank for her honor, his death only strengthens her armies and helps to insure the success of her cause. From the soil which was enriched by the blood of the mar- tyrs, spring the flowers that deck her altars in" the month of May. With the successors of Columbus came the cannon i\ North America. and the sword : 1 iit there came also the Cross and tlio Rosar}'. There came hist of dominion, of lands, of gold ; cruelty, bloodshed, and the vices of civilization. But among them, and unharmed by their contact, were self-sacrifice, devotion, zeal for souls, love of God and of man only for God's sake. They that took the SAVord perished by the sword, and won only blood-stained names as their re- ward. But the warriors of Zion and of Carmel won souls back to Heaven ; and if they died in the conflict, their blood spake louder than their voices had done. Ponce de Leon, Vasquez de Ayllon, Narvaez, de Soto, Alvarado, Coronado, with all the power of their arms, with all the Spanish and Indian gore they shed, only gained the abhorrence and hatred of the natives. But Father Mark, the Franciscan, armed only with the cmcifix, penetrated New Mexico, in 1539, and gained the Indians' love. Five other Franciscans took the same path in 1540 ; and two of them. Father John de Padilla and Brother John of the Cross, remained in the country, and taught the doctrine of Christ, until they were slain in an inroad of stranger savages. Rodriguez, Lopez, Santa Maria followed in 1580, and confirmed the faith in New Mexico, from which it has never since departed. But earlier than this, in 1544, Andrew de Olmos had sought out the fierce Texan tribes, and had converted many ; and in 1601, the CarmeUte Father, Andrew of the Assumption of the Virgin, with his companions, i i 6 Devotion to the B. V. Mary .'iM had entered California, and celebrated the divine m^^s- terios at Monterey. Florida was first baptized in the blood of Louis Cancel, the Dominican. As he stepped from his un- armed vessel, alone, and knelt down upon the shore, ho was slain by a blow from a war-club, and his reek- ing scalp was shaken in derision before his shuddering brethren (1544.) To him succeeded many others, to labor for a while almost in vain, and then to die be- neath the tomahawk or by the arrow. The Spaniards struggled long to malvaiigelizod the chill shores of Lake Suptuior ; Marcpiettc horc the cross down tho waters of the Mississip])! to tiu^ mouth of tho Arkan- sas, established a mission of the Inmiaculato Concep- tion among tho Illinois, and laid his weary frame to rest at last on the shores of Lake Michigan. And so the Catholic embrace circled North America, extending through pain and privation, through toil and martyr- dom, until the Jesuit, going northward from Missouri, and westward from Canada, completed the sacred cir- cle as they met beneath the crests of the Rocky Mountains and on the plains of Oregon. But after all, this was but Our Lady's discovery of North America, as it were — was but a planting of her standard and the act of taking possession. The battle was still to be fought, the hostile tribes were to be sub- dued ; re-enforcements of foes from lands inimical to her cause were to bo expected, and were only to be met by re-enforcements of friends from lands that loved her. Her conquests resemble those of the world in this, that if tkey are to succeed, the officers must be skilful, fearless, diligent, prudent, unselfish, and prompt ; the troops must be steadfast, obedient, loyal, and constant. If they shall appear to have been so, we will under- stand how her honor has increased in the land ; how seven hundred churehes bear her Name, out of thtce 1* 10 Devotion to the B. V. Mary I 11 thousand five hundred in evoij portion of the country ; how the same sweet Name is given to river, lake, and mountain peak and bay, north, south, and through the centre ; and how more than two million voices chant her praise, and proclaim her Lady and Protectress/ The instruments, then, of the gracious will and favor of God are the fidelity of His ministers, the influx of foreign CathoHcs, and the winning character of the doctrines and devotions of the Church. The fidelity of the minister is the main point, since, without this, the aborigine would retain his paganism, the emigrant lose his faith, the American remain un- converted. He must be faithful who would preach the gospel of Christ, and so extend the devotion to Mary, for these two go together. The Mother, for aU eter- nity, now is inseparable from her Son. When He took her pure flesh upon Him in time, it was not only to sufi'er in it here, but to preserve it forever in heaven. She whom Hen called Mother here. He calls Mother there. She has no honor but His, and what she merits by duty faultlesFly performed to Him. Whatever goes towards God's glory is an honor to Mary ; whatever detracts from it or obstructs it, is a pain to Mary. She has nothing of her own, yet she has all ; for she has Him, " of whom and by whom and for whom are all" — propter quern omnia et per quern omnia* ' Even these estimates are less than the truth, They are made from the almanac for 1861, in which, for some dioceses, the names o! churches are not given : indeed, whole lioceses have no report at all. * Saint Paul : Epistle to the Hebrews, ii. 10. i ' ! IN North America. 11 e country ; , lake, and irougli the ices chant ctress.' and favor influx of er of the int, since, Jaganism, main un- reach the to Mary, all eter- i He took fc only to heaven. i Mother le merits ver goes whatever o Mary. for she lom are are made names ol rt at all. It is her Maternity to Him that explains — that only can explain — the Catholic devotion to her. It is be- cause she has Him for her child that she has us for her reverers. She has a right to our veneration, because she bare Him who has a right to our adoration. It is a common sentiment of our nature to honor every good mother for the sake of her son ; it is a sin, then, against our regenerate nature to refuse honor to that best Mother of the best Son, And so it comes that His ministers are her ministers ; that fidelity to the gospel of Christ is fidelity to devotion for Mary. And for this fidelity must her minister be endowed with the gifts which insure it, and which are rendered necessary by the circumstances of their lives, as well as for the success of their mission. They must be prudent as serpents, for a thousand snares are daily laid for their destruction. Estate ergo pmdentcs ut serpenfes^ — yet prudent without selfishness or trick ; " be ye simple as doves" — simplices sicut co- lumhce. Thev must be brave in their innocence, for " I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," miffo vos sicut ognos inter lii'pos ;' humble, for the poor in spirit have the blessing — heati pauperes spiritu ;" yet in all their personal humility they must preserve the highest dignity and sacred character of their office, since, " as My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you" — sicut misit me Pater et ego mitto vos.* Henunciation of the world, and separation from its ties and it, are ' St. Matthew's Gospel, x. 10. « St. Luke, X. 3. • St. Matthfew, V. 3. * St. John's Gospel, xx. 21. 12 Devotion to the B. V. Mary necessary, for the " cares of this world choke the word," and the married man careth for the things of the worhl, how he may please his Avife, oerumnce sceculi sujfovant m'j'bum,^ and qui cum uxoriest soUcitus est mundi quoniodo placeat iixori." The ministers of God and Mary must find no obsta- cle in disease, privation, or poverty, no terror in death; for the " sufferings of the present life are not Avorthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed" — non sunt condignce passioncs htjus tcmporis ad futiiram gloriam qiicc revdahitur in nobis.'' He muf^tbf ^-^rsevei- ing, for only "to him that overcometh i' . give to eat of the tree of Life which is in the Paradise of my God" — Vincenti daho cdere de ligno vitce quod est in Fa- rad (so Dei mei ;* and he must be ever vigilant, since only that servant is blessed whom his Lord, when He Cometh, shall find watching — Beati servi illi, quos, cum venerH Dominus invenerit vigilantes.^ And it is precisely men of such qualifications whom it has pleased God to send out for the evangelization of America. Had they been endowed with less than all this, the English conquest of North America wo. h"! have swept the devotion to Mary from the land. "Vv?* ■ they not so endowed to-day, devotion to Mary would perish before the godlessness, the indiflference of the world around us. But they are the same in the nine- teenth century as in the sixteenth ; they may differ n ii • St. Mark, xiv. 19. • 1 Corinthians, vii. 33. • St. Paul to the Romans, viii. 18. * Apocalypse, ii. T. » St. Luke, xii. 37 IN North America. 13 lioke the things of nee skcmU est mundi lo obsta- in death ; t worthy ealed"— fxduram ^°rsevei- . give to le of my st in Pa- nt, since vhen He 'uos, cum IS whom Blization ess than :a wc/M-^ I. W-y y would ) of the he nine- y differ externally in some matters, but the interior — the in- tention, the purpose — is the same, as is the divine commission and ordination which gives authority to their labors. Monseigneur Verot. builds a church to-day on the spot where Luis Cancel de Barbastro was martyred three hundred years ago. Bishop Lamy renews among the Spaniards and Indians in 18G2 the fervor awakened in 1560 for Our Lady of Guadalupe. Where Togucs told his beads as a preventive for martyrdom, on the banlis of the MohaAvk, a hundred voices are repeating the same prayers ; and while the circle of Mary's in- fluence has been widened, till its bounds are the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and its northern limits are the extreme Arctic regions — while a bishop has his seat at the mouth of the Columbia Eiver, and another in far Florida, the land named for Palm Sunday,' and a third rules in the almost per- petual Avinter of Hudson's Bay, and a fourth in. the golden land of California — the intrepid missionaries are pushing the frontiers still further nortliAvard ; and faithful servants of Mary have filled, and are still fill- ing the Avhole interior of the country Avith love and rcA'erence for her name. , "While the old missionary orders, Jesuit, and Sulpi- tian, and Franciscan,' are still energetically pursuing ' The Spaniards landing on Palm Sunday, whicli tlicy call Pascua Florida, or the Flower Easter, gave this name to the new land. "' The Recollects, an order of reformed Franciscans, are busied in u Devotion to the B. V. Mary t i their sacred conquests in Oregon, among the Esqui- maux and the tribes of British America, new orders have arisen especially devoted and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, as the Marists' and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate." These are the outposts and advanced guards of God's army in North America ; while, in the interior, the secular and regular clergy, bishop and priest, are in the heat of the fight. These have, perhaps, even harder work than the missionary to the pagan. I do not say this in a spirit of comparison, but only in ex- pression of a feeling which I possess, in common with others, and which is this : That he who is roaming through the grand native forests, breasting the torrent in a birch canoe, setting a stout heart against the in- clemencies of a wild nature, has the poetry and ro- mance, the adventure and ever-varying incident to inspirit and excite him. So Bancroft, after a tribute to the zeal of the mis- sionary, saj's : " And yet the simplicity and the free- dom of life in the Avilderness had its charms. The heart of the missionary would swell with delight, as, under a serene sky, and with a mild temperature, and breathing a pure air, he moved over waters as trans- parent as the most limpid fountain. Every encamp- ment ofFered his attendants the pleasures of the chase. ' An educational order founded at, Bordeaux, Franco, in 1818. ' A missionary order wliose superior-general is Mgr. tho Bishop of Marseilles, and wlio are laboring cliiofly in British America and in tho Bouthwostoru United States. m North America. 15 he Esqui- ew orders ed to the )blates of guards of e interior, priest, are tiaps, even ^an. I do mly in ex- Limon with s roaming ;he torrent nst the in- ry and ro- cident to >f the mis- the free- ms. The elight, as, atiire, and as trans- encamp- the chase. 1 1818. ;lie Bishop of a and la thu i Like a patriarch, he dwelt beneath a tent ; and of tho land through which ho walked he was its master, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, profiting b/ its productions without the embarrassment of owner- ship. How often was the pillow of stones like thftt where Jacob felt the presence of God ! How often did the aged oak, whereof the centuries were untold, seem like the tree of Mamre, beneath which Abraham broke bread with angels ! Each day gave the pilgrim a new site for his dwelling, which the industry of a few moments could erect, and for which nature supplied a floor of green, inlaid with flowers. On every side clustered beauties which art had not spoiled and could not imitate." ' He has the rough, hearty life of a soldier, and the triumph of the discoverer ; and he has to teach the true God to those who have worshipped demons. But the priests in the midst of a more or less perfect civili- zation have not this. Their fight is against the vices of civilization, very unpoctie, very unromantic ; against tho love of money, the cheatcry of trade, the permitted dishonor and dishonesty of the world ; against the in- fluence of the drinking-shop and the low gambling- table ; against the serpent of liberalism and godless- ness ; against the temptations of impurity and false doctrine ; against the ever-changing phases of sin in individuals ; against dangers Avhicli confer no glory, and poverty which is not picturesque. They are in tho ' Bancroft : History of tho Uultod States, iii. 153. 16 Devotion to the B. V. Mahy heart of tho army, in tho midst of tlio ranks ; tlioy aro tho imnoticod fighters, who fall, and are succiH>ded by others who fall in turn ; who combat all their lives to gain one foot of ground, or, perhaps, only not to lose one foot ; and Avhoso record is only on the page of tho book of tho Great King on higli. For them the steaming walls of tho hospital replace the dark green arching aisles of the statt^ly immemorial wood. For them the rush and roar of the hot and nar- row street must be a substitute for the fresh, free leap of the wild and beautiful river. The skulking convict and the drunkard, the brazen harlot and the apostate Catholic, must be their dark-skinned warrior tribe. The idols they must shatter are the human passions ; the temples they must renovate are human hearts. It is in this view that I have ventured to call their work harder ; not in itself, but in its circumstances : not because more actual labor is r^-quired from (me than another ; but because of the lack of much which can stimulate and distract. And this brings me to a point which must bo care- fully noticed by the reader. I mean the difference be- tween the rise of devotion to the Blessed Mother of God in this country and in the old Catholic lands, and the consequent difference between the respective ex- ternal manifestations of it. When the Gospel of the Son of Mary issued from Palestine and spread over Europe, it was for the dethronement of false deities among comparatively simple 'men; for civilization then was exclusively ■■t 1 IN NoiiTii Amekipa. 17 ; thoy are 30C(le(l by ir lives to ot to lose igc of tlio al replace imemorial t aiitl nar- , free leap ig convict c apostate dor tribe. passions ; earts. call their mstances : from one iicli which t be care- erence be- Mother of lands, and ective ex- sued from s for the paratively xclusively M Roman, save here and there a little colony. IMon re- ceived tlie faitli, sooner or later, in sini|)lo, earnest hearts. Faith r(^tained for many, many centuries a straij^litforwardnoss and unnhesitatiug o])enness which has b(!gnn to d(H%'iy oidy within the last three hundred years. For the general diffusion of a too tliin fuid in- nutritive knowhMlg(! has unquestional)ly injured the simphcity of faitli, by increasing, not our wisdom, but our conceit that Ave are wise. Men liave lieen taught by this to replace Faitli with those niggardliest of qualities, suspicion and doubt. State any manif(>station of God's love to man, any in- dividual and distinct mark of His favor or providence, and for one that will say Blessed bo His Name for that, a hundred will doubt it, will furnisli a score of mean reasons against its probability, will suspcsct a score of honorable men of collusion, invention, and deceit. PantheiFra — if I may use that ..id for want of a better to express the generalization and depersonaliza- tion of God — was not universally spread as it is now. If it existed, it was in some head Avhich " too much learning had made mad" — some mind gone astray through over-esteem of its own reasoning faculties ; and was generally confined to a university chamber. Then men believed in a personal God, to whom they were personally accountable ; they loved to receive His gifts and benefits as personal ones ; they knew nothing of these fine, new, universal humanities and confeder- acies of God ; but He was my Father and my God as B 18 Devotion to the B. V. Mary 'I well as our Father and our God. They got closer to Him by this individualizing, which was yet in no sense exclusive. A man received a benefit, not as a general, universal gift — of the gratitude for which his own share was so small that God would not miss it if it were never paid — but as a benefit done to him, for which all his gratitude was too little. And so they had personal dealings with God ; and when he said to the beloved disciple — speaking from the cloud of agony which overhung the Cross — " Son, behold thy mother !" they saw in that divinest boon a mother for all and each of them ; a mother equally loving and tender to each of her children ; procuring benefits for each from her Divine Son, and, therefore, naturally carrying back to Him the thanks of each for such benefits. Well, then, in a little time, human thanks to God ran generally through Mary's heart and lips as their channel, the channel naturally the most agreeable to Him ; and so her name got to be embroidered on the bright mantle of the European world as its chiefest decoration. They went to fight, and bc'^ged her pro- tection; they came back successful, and they built Notre Dame des Victoires. They were perishing by an epidemic, and made a novena to her, and she heard them, and their Cathedral is dedicated to Our Lady of Help in need, Notre Dame de hon secours. Travellers lighted on land after storms, Hke the grand, heroic Columbus, and because in their trouble Ihey had begged help from the gentle Mother, and IN North Ameiuca. 19 tliongbt that she had heard them, they called the new land by her name. A city escapes some general deso- lation ; they change its name for some title of hers. A poor, pious man, attacked by highwaymen, converts one by his gentle discourse ; the place is called St. Mary of Ro.bbcrs, and some nineteenth-century liter- ary skirmislier will inform you that the Blessed Virgin was the patroness of thieves in this neighborhood. In this way Europe became covered with mementoes of benefits received by Mary's intercession, and, by inevitable naturalness, they bear her name ; and, in those days, remembering some kindness done by her to some particular town, and standing in need of the same kindness for himself, a man would pray to our Lady of Rehbourg, St. Mary of Challons, the Immacu- late Virgin of Liege. From which circumstance cer- tain flatulent writers have deduced that those Catholics thought there were many Blessed Virgins, and that each lived in her own special village.' Hence, the History, of the Devotion to the Blessed ' Even sucli as Walter Scott and Washington Irving commit blun- ders which are incomprehensible to men wliose education is far in- ferior to that of those masters. Catholics going to Mass at all hours of the afternoon and evening, confessing to and receiving absolution from laymen, and men, women, and children in general using l)rcviarios and missals. A well-educated author, a Protestant, is required to know the meaning of the Ramadan, the Mishna, the Norwegian bagas, Joe Smith the Mormon, the Yezidecs, the Fetish, but is allowed to blander like an idiot about Mass, Vcispers, and Rosary, the highest and most frequent acts of worship of two hundred milli(ms of Chris lian men, half of whom are of the leading races of civilization in France, Spr.'n, North America, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain ! 20 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Virgin in Europe is simply a ramble through the Beautiful. Then; is no hamlet, no burgh, nor city without its consecration, pjirtial or entire, to the dear Mother of Goil, and for His sake ours. Europe is flooded with fact, and legend, and circumstance ; and h(! who writes of the devotion there lands dillicult}', not in discovering material, but in deciding amid the masses that lie before him what he will accept and what refuse. But with us, the national antiquities, so to speak, of the Catholic Faith must be looked for only on our borders. The poetry of evangehzation meets only the Indian missionary, the tradition of the Spaniard in the South, of the Frenchman in the North. I mean, of course, the published poetry ; for the hidden, intrinsic beauties of our faith and our devotion are imperishable and invariable. We live, comparatively few in number, in a land which, if not Protestant, is, at least, anti- Cathohc. No sacred processions, with vested clerics at their head, swet!p through our streets ; no train of pilgrims winds along the river-bank, or through the greeuAvood, to a favored Lady Chapel ; no sweet face of dear Mary Mother smiles at us as we pass from \A ay side shrine ; there is no halt of business,' and gen- ' Tlipse statempnts are to bo taken generally, and particularly only of the United States. French Canada, of course, retains, with the ancient faith, many of its external practices. The colonies of Catholic 1 np,hlanders in the extreme north can do as they please. Louisiana, New Mexico, and part of California, are still Catholic ; but where our great populations and our largest wealth and influence are, these words are true. r I IN North America. 21 ougli, tho nor city ) tho clear Europe is Liicc ; anil ililHculty, amid the 3copt and speak, of y on our i only the ird in the mean, of , intrinsic )erisliablo number, ast, anti- d clerics train of Dugli the eet face ass from and gen- ii :i eral baring of the head for a moment's communion with God, wlien the Angelus rings out from the steeple. A few traditional observances may Hnger in portions of the United States where the Sjjanish or French in- fluence has remained unaltered ; but tho length and breadth of tlie land is bitterly hostile to any out- ward manifestation of our love for Mary, because l)it- terly hostile to that love itself. Pulpit and lecture-room, rostrum, public meeting, and corner-stone layings, the press and the bar-room, re-echo with charges of idolatry, of taking from God the honor which is His due only, and giving it to a creature ; and even the gentlest will shake their heads and bewail with grave charity the unfortunate propen- sity of the Papist to give too much honor to Mary. And yet what is our feeble love and honor compared to that which she obtains from God ? As our love for our fellows is but a shadow of His love for man, so our especial love for Mary is but a shadow — a faint, attenuated shadow — of His love for her. The Eternal Father hath chosen her to be the Mother of His only Son ; the Holy Spirit elected her His spouse. The Son who givetli right-hand thrones to the apostles who preached His word, is bound in justice to do more for the Mother who bore Him. For His sake, if you would please Him, reverence her; if you believe in honoring your own mother, believe that He believes in honoring His. It is impossible for the Christian adorer of the Incarnate God to give His blessed Mother more honor, interior or exterior, than is her i 22 Devotion to the B. V. Mary due. Snncfa et immncuhtfa Vinjlnitas, qidhiis fe laudihus effcmm tie.scio ; quia qiif.m cwU cxtperc non putemni, tuo (jremio coidnlisli^ So, then, wlion we consider how strong this 'feeling against devotion to Marj is ; liow powerful the inllu- euce of the majority is, especially when that majority possesses the wealth and influence of the land ; how many temptations surround the Catholic here ; how hard it is to bear slight, misrej^resentation, and wilful falsehood ; how much easier it is to deny having a del- icate and beloved sentiment the rather than to expose it to the risk of a sneer ; how swift the pace of the money-hunter is here ; liow little the berntiful in life and creed is cultivated, and how devot( "e men to what they are pleased to call the practical, and which means simply more careful diligence for the body than for the soul, for time than for eternity ; — when we con- sider all these, the wonder is, not that there is so much or so little devotion to Our Lady, but that there is any at all. Yet in despite of all this, we are prepared to believe that there is no old Catholic country in Europe ; that there never has been a country in which reverent love and earnest heartfelt devotion for the Blessed Mother of God wa>: more deeply rooted, more ardently cher- ished, or more fervently and fruitfully practised than this same North America. It is unobtrusive, but it is 1 Response in ofBco of B. V. M. Holy and immaculate Virginity f with what praise* to greet thee I know not ; for Him whom the heavens cannot contain, thou hast borne in thy bosom. IN NoiiTU Ameuica. 23 tc landihus >te)'ant, tuo lis'feoling tho inflii- t majority and; how ero ; Low md wiKul iiig a del- to expose ce of the iful in life ■o men to md which 3ody tlian n we con- 5 so much Bro is any o believe )pe ; that real. It guides and influences the hearts of men, and it is found, pure and glowing, in the souls of some who seem to be the most thoughtless in society, of some who seem to be the driest and most engrossed by affairs. It begins in earliest childhood, when the scapular and the medal are placed roimd the neck, to be kept there ever afterwards, even in the grave. As the child grows, he is won into membership of some Sodality of the Blessed Virgin, some Rosary Society, some Confra- ternity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The elders form their benevolent associations, and place them un- der the patronage of the Queen of Angels. Nuns of Notre Dame and of the "Visitation train the female children. Brothers of Mary are consecrated to the education of boys. The Bishop labors patiently till his seminary of St. Mary is completed ; the priest toils arduously until his parish of the Annunciation or the Assumption is established ; and all join their prayers, their counsel, their money, their manual labor, their self-denial and renunciation, until the Cross peeps through the greenwood from the convent of Mary's Help, and the Church of the Immaculata crowns the summit of the hill. We close this chapter, then, with a short view of tho means whereby this devotion has entered and in- creased in this country, before examining its progress and effects more particularly. And first, the Spaniard brought it in his heart as his best treasure for a new life, his best memento of his own old fervent land. He planted it in the ever- a- ■\ i ULi 24 Devotion to the B. V. Mary glatles of Florida, on tlie coasts of Alabama ; or bore it witli patient perseverance into Mexico, California, Texas, and even Oregon. In the various changes which this country has undergone of political rule and advancing civilization, the Iberian was driven from the East, and made powerless in the "West, and his faith grew lazy, and in some places almost disappeared. But religious freedom fought its way here into general acceptation, and now the love of Mary is reappearing, fresh and beautiful, as the resurrection of the flowers when the winter has passed away. Then the Frenchman, above all, the loyal and pioua Breton, settled Acadia.' "When, in tlie tranquil evenings of summer, when brightly tlie sun- set Lighted the village street, and 'xilded the vanes on the chimneys, Matrons and maidens sat in snow-white caps and in kirtles. ********** Solemnly down the street came t jo i)arish priest, and the children Paused in their play to kiss the hand he extended to bless them. Reverend walked he among them, and up rose matrons and maidens. Hailing his slow approach with words of affectionate welcome. Then came the laborers hi^inp. from the field, and serenely the sun sank Down to his rest, and twilight prevailed. Anon from the belfry Slowly the Angelus sounded, and over the roofs of the village Columns of pale-blue-Sinoke, like clouds of incense ascending, Eoso frpni z. hundred hearths, the homes of jxtace and contentment. Thus dwelt together in love chese simple Acadian farmers — Dwelt in the love of God and man." ' And thence they were driven by the English, uudegr • The Acadia of the French settlers embraced Maine, New Bruns- wick, and No^'a Scotia. a Longfellow's " Evangeline." IN North America. 25 circumstances of barbaric cruelty Avhicli wrung from the very heart of a Protestant the finest poera yet wri<-l.ii in America, and one of the finest poems of home and domestic affection extant in any hmguage. But the good seed hnd been blown abroad by those brave northern winds, aid the love and the name of Mary had been carried, through the wild red tribes, to the shores of Lake Superior, and missionaries were already sighing for permission to bear it to the far and yet unknown Mississippi.' And when, in 1G73, Father Marquette discovered and explored that river, the name that he gave it was " Immaculate Conception." The Frenchman, descending the Mississippi, met the Spaniards coming up from Mexico, through New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, and Arkansas. And yet, although it was the forces of Great Britain which ex- terminated the missions of Carolina, and half de- stroyed thos'j of Acadia and Canada, it was reserved for that empire to send forth a colony which should make the central line Catholic, and give the name of Mary to the State they founded. With these three points starts the History of the Catholic Church, and, consequently, of the devotion to the Blessed Mother of God in North America. What missionizing Avas done went eitl^or westward from ' Bancroft, ii. Thus did the religious zeal of the French bear the Cross to the banks of the St. Mary and the confines of Lake Superior, and look wis^^^fully towards the home of tlie Sioux, in the valley of the Mississippi, five years before the Now England Elliot had addressed the tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles of Boston harbor, 2 26 Devotion to the B. V. Mary r:- r Maryland or southward from Canada, the Jesuits and Recollects reaching the Hudson and Mohawk rivers and the State of Illinois. But httle, however, was accomplished until after the Revolution, in the interior of the States east of the Mississippi. West of that great river, the whites were few or none. But the emigration began. More French came into the central States on the Atlantic, and their religion was respected for the sake of their services to the coujitry, if for nothing else. The Irishman came, bear- ing from the shores of his seagirt isle the faith which had withstood centuries of persecution, and such a persecution as is a phenomenon in history, having no parallel in the annals of man's injustice to man. Van- quished, enslaved, starved, tempted, they clung to God and St. Mary the Virgin only more closely for all at- tempts to sever them. Crushed down by that preposterous incubus called the National Church, they remained and still remain devotedly faithful to the ancient creed. I do not speak of the priest-hunting and sanguinary portions of the persecutions, for that violence rather fans the flame of loyalty ; but of fliat dead, stupid, crushing load, which, pressing as it did on their very lives and souls, needed a miravile of grace tc> enable them to resist it as they have done. And when, commending themselves to that dear Mother in heaven, who had been their support and consolation, they bade adieu to their home, they brought to the land of their adoption the same un- IN North Aimerica. 27 shaken fideKty to their religion. They spread, like bee-SAvarms, over the land ; their strong arms hewed wide pathways through the forest, and cut the canals which were the life-veins leading to the country's heart ; their hands laid the long, interminable lines of railway with which the map is covered as by a spider's web ; and wherever they went they called to them Saggart aroon, the priest of their love ; and when ho came, the new little church of St. Mary soon rose, and the ancient Salve liegina resounded beneath the heavens in a new land. Then from the Rhine came their brethren, from that "long street of cassocks," as Charles the Fifth was wont to call it, where pilgrims are seen daily seeking shrines of Our Lady ; where the mile-stones by the road are wayside niches for her image ; where her name is the most beloved of household words ; where a hundred poets chant her pi cs ; where the great schools of modern art love to reproduce her pure, ma- ternal face ; and where the very Prot( j^^tunt has not learned to speak of her with disrespect, nor utterly to empty his heart of all love for her. These came to take up a thousand minor necessary industries which were too slow for the nwift, rushmg American ; to occupy small farms throughout the in- terior ; to teach the vineyard how to bloom upon the hill-side. And they, too, brought a store of devotion to Mary, unobtrusive, little noticed, but fixe-^^, steadfast, patient, and indestructible as their own quiet character. These parishes are generally the largest in America ; 28 Devotion to tiij^ B. V. Mary tlicy retain the pleasant customs of tlieir fatherland ; they call their settlements Mariastein, Mariahilf, and they transmit to their children their own trust in and affection for die hciluje Mutter Gotles. Thus, then, from North, South, and East, have the armies of blessed Mary marched into the land. Sinco the year of our Lord 1530, they have advanced, at first slowly, and then with rapid strides. For not only do the foreign populations retain and transmit their ven- eration for her, but countless conversions are made from heresy, or from the godlessness which is more prevalent and dangerous than it. And how many of these have been caused through affection for the ma- ternity of Marj', or by her direct interposition ? Some have been brought into the true fold by reading for the first time the story of the Church's love for her ; some by wearing her medal ; some by invoking her in time of need — " O holy Mary, conceived* without sin, pray for us sinners who have recourse to thee !" and some by observing the devotion of Catholic friends to her, and the beautiful charities, the gentleness, and un- selfishness which are apt to spring from that. What wonder, then, that in her own sweet month of May, the Fathers of the Council of 1846 held in Baltimore — twent3'-t^\o bishops, with their theologi- ans — should solemnly elect as Patroness of the United States of America the Blessed Virgin Mary, immacu- lately conceived? The Fathers had been trained in her honor, they had lived for her service, they desired to add this crowning glory to their life-long prayer m NoETH America. 29 and praise, and at the same time to sliow tlicir zeal for the true interests of this country, by entreating her protection for it in this eminent and public way. The next year this election was confirmed by the sovereign Pontiff,' and now forever in tlie grand pub- He session that closes these august asseml)lies, after the Te Deum has been sung, the cantors, richly coped, stand before the altar and intone their first acclama- tion to the Most High God. That chorused, they burst forth — " Beatissimno Virgini Marire, sine labo originali con- ceptfB, harum Provinciarum Patronix}, honor a3ternus!" And in chorus the venerable bishops, the theologi- ans and attendant priests, and the whole multitude of people, repeat the glad ascription, and then, swell- ing to vaulted roof, and filling aisle and nave and broad cathedral sanctuary, rolls in deep, majestic chorus the solemn Amen ! Amen ! 1 Dectretum : Cum R P, D. Archiepipcopus Baltimorcnsis ejusquo Suffraganci Episcopi Concilium Sextum Provinciale mouse Ma'o anno 1846 celubrantes, sujiplices potiissent ut a S. Sede approbaretur electio- quam ipsi in Coneilio fccerunt BniiP. Marise Virginia sine labe origi- nali conceptfp in Patronam Scptontrionalis AmcriciB Fcederatae Pro- vinciarum ; * * * Emi. ac Kevnii. Patres in congregatione general! de propaganda Fide censucrunt supplicandum Ssmo. Dno nostro ut pientis?im:8 Concilii votis aunuerc digncntur. Hanc voro S. Cong, sentontiam in audientia die 7 Fobruarii 1^17 habita Ssmus Dns nostor Pius divina providentia PP. IX benigne probavit lu omnibus. 30 Devotion to the B. V. Mary CHAPTER II. ! I ! I TlIK ZlCAI, <1F TIIK I'lOXKriiS <''llAMI'I.MN AND TIMC HKroi.I.KCTH— MoTIIKIt MaKY of TIIK IniAHNAIION and TIIK D USULINKH—M AltgUKTTK AND TIIK Immaculatk Conception. The socrot of tlio dcn-otion to Mary is a hoart-felt zeal for tl\o }:;lory of God. It was a liirvaiits enter in. H(iw tlicy labored, a Bketcli of one or tv/o of tlioni will suffice to show. Mother Mary of the Incarnation. In tlie convent grounds of the Ilrsnlines, at Quebec, stood latelv an old ash-tree. More than two hundred years ago, under its shadow}' foliage, one niiglit have seen a croAvd of swarthy Indian girls, Algonquins, Iro- quois, Abnalvis, but most of all, Hurons. Their voices sounded with natural sweetness in prayer, as their dusky fingers told their beads, or mingled in the Salve licijina or Ave Maris Stella, and their eyes were closed in meditation or lifted up with love upon the figure of the crucified Eedeemer or the image of Our Lady, or fixed reverently and attentively upon the calm, affec- tionate face of their instructress. And she, with the holy M'isdom and patient sweetness which are the gifts of saints, taught them the love of God, winning them one by one, and through them their families, from their pagan superstitions and their wretched life, to the love and service of that dear Lord and His Motlier, to whom she had totally given up her body and her soul. Far away in central France she had left a gay and comfortable world, the society of the noble, the ease of wealth, for the white bandeau and dark veil and habit of the Ursuline ; and, in the year of our redemption 1G39, she completed her renunciation of all things by forsaking her sunny native land forever for the ice- bound shores, the privations, the perpetual toils of l;! I Kl» IN NoRTn AMETJirA. 33 Canada. Hr-r \^rr narno Avas left IxOiind her in tlio world sli(> lijid forsaken ; tlio lady of tlio Fn^ndi salons liad l)('(^n calli'd Madame Sophie Gayni^ ; tlu* Ursnliiio beneath th(> ash-tnn? in Qu(>l)(^o was Mother Mary of the Incarnation. And this is, in brief, her stcny. One holy Christnias-tido, in lusr hoiiK^ at Tours, when her heart and soul had been particularly given up to union with God, by meditation on the nnstcry of His Incarnation, she fell ash^ep and dreamed. She thought that she, with one companion, hand in hand, were toiling nlong a broken and diflicult roail ; more diflftcult than ordinary, because they did not see, but only ftdt the obstacles. But they had plenty of cour- age, and went on until they reached a i)lace known as the Tannery, beyond winch lay their home. Here they were met hy a veneral)le old man, in whose pure, sacred lineaments l)eamed kindness and protection. It was ho who had watched and guided St. Mary and her Child from the roofs of Bethlelu^m to the palm-shades of Egypt. And St. Joseph, she thought, conducted them into a vast inclosure, whereof the sky was the only roof. The pavement and the walls Avere of white, spotless alabaster, and arabesqued with gold. Here all was silence, deep, religious, recol- lected. And, without disturbing the holy stillness by a word, their guide pointed out to them the way they should go. And they saw a little hospice of quaint, ancient architecture, but very beautiful, and of snow- white marble ; and in an embrasure of this, upon a delicately-sculptured scat, sat Our Blessed Lady, St 34 Devotion to the B. Y. Mary f i i^ II M Mary, with the infant Jesus in her *arms ; but their backs were towards the travellers. Mary of the Incarnation sprang forward and em- braced the throne of her Queen, while her companion knelt at a little distance, where she could easily see the Virgin and her Child. The hospice faced the Orient. It was built upon an eminence, and at the foot of this was a vast space, murky with clouds ; and through the thick, chill mists there rose into pure air the spire and gables of a church, but the body of it was hidden by the heavy fog. A rugged, perilous road led down the rocks in*" this space, winding along fear- ful precipices and through cavernous rents in the mountaiT^ Our Lady's gaze was fixed upon this gloomy space, and the heart of the nun kneeling be- hind her burned with desire to see the face of the Mother of pure delights. And then the Virgin turned and welcomed the sup- phant with a smile of ineffable sweetness, and, bend- ing down, she gently kissed her forehead. Then sli'^j seemed to whisper something about the Ursuline ^o the divine child in her arms. And when she had doLe this three times the vision faded, and in a tremor oi delight the nun awoke. A 3'ear after, while absorbed in mental prayer, the Ursuline became impressed with the idea that the cold, cloudy space was' Canada, then called New France. She felt the most powerful attraction to- wards those unhappy regions, and hccmed to hear a command to go there, and to found a house for Jesus IN NoiiTH America. 35 and for Mary ; so, then and there, she promised, if such were the will of God, to obey the inspiration if He would supply the means. She was right in her conclusions ; this was her vocation ; the shores of the broad St. Lawrence were to form the scene of her labors for more than thirty years ; and then, blessing and blessed, she was to depart thence for her eternal home in heaven. In October, 1030, comes a letter from the Jesuit Fathers, inviting her most urgently to join them. It is dated from the mission of the Immaculate Concep- tion ; it contains an anecdote of how the Fathers had made a vow to give the names of Mary and Joseph to the first persons baptized by them ; how they had ac- complished that vow ; how Joseph died a holy Chris- tian death soon after, but Mary was living, and was the first Indian who had brought her children for baptism and education to the missionaries. Their converts numbered several hundreds, and the Fathers often heard resounding from the leafy aisles of the forest the sweet names of Jesus and of Mary. The saints have a straightforward simplicity in their lives which prevents our ever being surprised at their actions. After her vision, her waking convictions as to its significance, and the letters from Canada, we are ready to see her seated in the cabin of the St. Joseph, and writing placidly to her superior : " There are signs of a storm, the captain says ; we are at war with Spain and England also, and may meet their cruisers in the Channel ; but those are not reasons for being troubled 86 Devotion to the B. V. Mary ■W: now. In fact, ono has no trouLlo now ; tho difficulty is to exi)lirji or iindorstand tliat infinitely sweet veposo which follows onii's complete abandonment to God; loVNqiiou fi\'st (h))inc inic hoiuie/oifi a Dien.'^^ There w(!re no crowds of atfectionate friends ; no well-lined carriages ; no Avai'ni and brilliant drawing- room ready for her in Canada : her welcome was to hear the savages chant hymns in their own languages ; to see five hundred Huron names upon a year's baji- tismal r(>gister ; to n^ceive her young future pupils as they came forAvard, and to mark their names, Mary Negabmnli, and Mary Amiskwam, and Mary Abateno, and Mary Gamitien;'^ and then to go to such house as she liad, and, Avitli her sisterhood, commence at once her thirty years' occupation. It is not nuieh of a house, that convent and semi- nary of the Ursulines ; between the cracks of the planks you can see the bright winter stars ; and it is almost impossible to keep a candle bui'ning in the rooms. It is no eas}^ matter to accommodate all their pupils, and the sisterhood in the bargain. The beds, for instance, made of pino-|)lank, have to be arranged in tiers, after the manner of berths in a canal-boat. The- are obliged to cut np their own bedclothes to make gar- ments for the poor little Indian girls as they come in, and their chif^f articles of diet, indeed their only ones for a while, are salt fish and lard. ' Choix (los Lcttrcs Ilistoriques de la Venorabl« Mere Marie de I'ln- carnation, ])romir're superieuro des UrsulinCS de Quebec, p. 20. * Ibid., pp. 25, 27. IN NoRTU America. 37 And then tlio cliildron. They arc not all likt! ^liivy Gamiticn, who needs no spur to daybreak devotion ; who is up with the sun, reeitin<^' her rosary, and who sings beautiful hymns to the Blessed Virgin in the Huron tongue. They are not like her when they eonie out of the woods. But they are brought to the good sisters w'ith no more clothing than a solid coat of grease, well rubbed in by their parents.' And to get that, and worse, off of those little bodies, takes a pro- found and patient scnibbing, and a fre(juent changing of garments for months. Nice worlv for those delicate French ladies ; but they dispute for the office in their humble, gentle way. Magdalen de Chauvigny, Damo de la Peltrie, gets it the first year ; Mother Mary of St. Joseph monopolizes it the next. And while the scrubbing goes on, and indeed always, there are men and women Avaiting in the parlor to bo fed through the grating by others of the nuns. The small-pox entered their seminary and turned it into a hospital. The sisters all resigned themselves to catch it, and, if it were God's Avill, to die of it ; for they were in attendance day and night upon their patients, and lived all together in small and crowded apartments ; but, through the care of Mother Mary, not one sister was attacked. Add to this the perpet- ual wars with the treacherous Iroquois ; the struggles ' Quand on les nous donne elles sont nues comme nn vcr. * * * Quolque diligence quo Ton fasse, quoiqu'on les change souvent de linge et d'liabits, on ne peu de long temps epuisier la vermine. — Choix cLea lettres, p. 31 38 Devotion to the B. V. Mary li if ii ' of tlio inodicino-mcn to retain tli(?ir superstitions emi- nence among the savages, — that small-pox, for in- titauco, aiiu all these new diseases come, they say, from the magic of the whites ; the seeming impossi- bility of teaching the elder ones to bridle their in- famous passions ; the desolation of the ^ong winters ; the forests echoing with savage howls ; the repeated shocks of earthquake"! ; the dreary wastes of snow which spread around ; the news, now and th<:n, of a missionary's martyrdom ; surely these must break down our courage. Not a bit of it. " TVo are i)e) fectly well ; we sing oftener and better than wc did in France. The air is excellent — a little cool, perhaps, but excellent ; so, you see, it is a Paradise on earth, whcie the crosses and thorns spring up so lovingly, that if one is pierced by them it is only to let new floods of love in upon the heart. Pray God to give me the grace to love Him always." ' But Mother Mary s troubles and trials cannot be given here ; a mere Hst of them would take up too much room. Only one or two of them can be men- tioned, wliic't offer them;ielves apropos of our subject. It is the night of December thirtieth, " in the Octave of our Lord'^ Nativity." Sister Martha has a large baking on hand for to-morrow, and forgets the fire in the bakery, which is exactly under our semijiary. The uirjht praters are over, and all so to tad, to sleep as ' Clioix des lettros, p. 48. I IN North America. 39 well as tlio cold will lot tlicm. A f(!w hours afterward we find that somo of them — poor souls ! — have gone to bed with their shoes on, so terrible is the chill Ca- nadian air. And, at midnight, Mother Mary of the Seraphim, who has the care of the children, and sleeps at the door of the soniinarj, rushes into our dormitory with the cry, *' Wake, sisters, wake ! The house is on fire ! Up, and h't us save the children !" As they spring up, the flames, red and wild, leap crackling through the pine-floor of the apartment. The Mother Assistant and Sister St. Lawrence break down the convent grating, which is fortunately of wood, and get out a portion of the scholars that way. Our Mother Mary, trying to save some of the chapel furni- ture, gets caught between two fires, hesitates as to whether she should throw the largo crucifix, her own, out of the window ; thinks that that would be irrever- ence, so kisses it with lowly love and faith, and leaves it to the flames. Then she escapes into the bell-tower, is just missed by the falling bell, and gets out, bare- footed, into the December snow. Sister Ignatia has a theological difficulty. The smaller children are still up stairs : is it permitted her to give her life for theirs ? Meantime, she goes up to their room, and lets them down, all safe, from the window, one by one. Then, with a fiery crash, the roof falls in, and Sister Ignatia's difficulty is solved. All in authority appear to have presence of mind. Each goes first to her proper post, to see if any thing may be done there. Mother Sui)erior, who has the 40 Devotion to the B. V. Mauy #^ I I ii .,} keys, goes to set tlio doors -svitlo open, and stands there calling to the sisters by name. But no one comes forth — no one replies ; then she throws herself at the feet of the Blessed Virgin, and makes a vow — its terms Ave do not know — for the preservation of her sisters ; and, after a short agony of doubt, she finds them all safe, their poor little Indian girls with them. Safe they are, but nine-tenths of them barefooted, with a single garment to cover them, standing in the December snow. But Mother Mary could see, by tho tranquillity and submission of their faces, that God was in their hearts. " We were stripped," she says, " as bare as Job, but then we had better friends." In fact, the people had gathered by this time round them ; the Jesuits from theu' house, the French and Indians from the neighborhood. One man, after star- ing in amazement at the perfect calm and resignation of the nuns, was heard to say, " Either these women are mad, or they have an exceeding love for God." Then all are hurried off, some to the neighbors' houses, some to the large parlor of the Jesuits ; the nuns to the hospital, where the sisters clothe them with their own gray habits, and make, for the time being, sobki' grises of them. On the way thither thej are met by some good people with welcome shoes ; and one of the first pair is given to Mother Superior, in right of her age and position. Mother Mary of the Incarnation does not say that she got a pair, which is very good evidence that she did not ; in which case this delicately nurtured woman must have walked I i Si; IN North America. 41 some quarter of n niilo, barefooted, through the snow, to the Hospital of the Gray Sisters. And now all their earthly possessions were gone — house, furniture and raiment. Nothing remained to them but a black, ugly mass of ashes and ruin, whence a column of gloomy smoke rose, sluggishly curling iip through the gray frosty dawn. Not a whit downcast is Mother Mary. " Divine Providence," she says, " will help us to pay our debts and to build again. That has placed us in our present sad condition. That will set us up again, through the most holy Virgin, mercy upon mo ;' jmd thou the tomptation wouhl dopart." Anothor, an old man, gavo liimsolf up ontiivly to the instruction of Ins brethren. Th(>y used to soo liim with Victor, an ancient Algoiupiin, a. num of faith and love, but of decayed memory, recitiuij: tho beads thrice over at one visit. Many of tlie good souls, cv«>n in thoir long and exciting hunts, nt'ver once omitted to say tho live decades daily ; and some, taken i)risonors and doomed to die with the martyr Jogues, when tho beads wore taken from them by the cv\\v\ Iroipiois, said the jirayers upon their tingers ; and when these Avoro cut olV, joint by joint, tlu\y said them t)n tho blooding stumi)s— a Rosary indeed. Where sudi faith, such devotion were, it was not possible for our genth^ Quoou and Mother to leave unanswered tho fervent prayers of her children. One instance out of nniny. A young lieutenant, coming too lato to say tho Ro- sary with the rest, walked out into tho bordering woods to pray apart. And there, while kneeling, tho sentinel took him for a lurking Iro(piois, for it was in time of war, and firing at him from the distance of ten paces, shot him in the head, a finger's breadth above the temple. But Our Lady preserved him ; he fell, but rose again, with his beads still iu his hands ; the ball li IN NouTii Amkiuoa. 47 WMH cxtnu'.tcd from iUo Hkull, und ho tVlt no vovy ovil tid'oiilH from tlio Avoiiml. ^Jl>.y, wluirc! ilio faiiiouH cliurcli of St. Aiiiid ovcrloolvH tlio broad St. Jjiiwroiioo, our dour Jjord luaiiifostod His lovo for 11 is bluHscid JMotlurr by daily mirat'KsH accordod to hv.v iiit(ir(!(!Hsioii ; and to-day, tlui rou^li boatman of tlioHo n^^ionn will toll you (U)untl('SH in.stano(!s of mercy Konj^dit and won by |)ray('r to Mary, IiIh patroness ami (^uoon. So, then, amid sueh trials and such (consolations, in faith, hoj)o, ])atieno(\ and (sharity, did this dcsvout sor~ vunt of I\[ary pass thirty years and mor(! of holy lifo ; and when Avorn out at last, with the same sweet confi- dence and resignation, she crossed luu' palo hands upon her bosom, and gav(5 u[) ]w.y soul to the Virgin, Avlio pr(!sented it lovingly to lusr (Jod and Son. Mother Mary of the Incarnation coas(;d from her labors in tho year of grace 1072. Fatiiku Jamiw Marquette. Wo have Brelxeuf and Daniisl, Joguos and None and Bressany, the Jesuits, the liecollects, the Oblates, tho Sulpicians to clu)oso from, and wci take Fatluir Jamos Marcpiette as tho most American, so to say, inasmuch as ho was the discoverer and explorer of the Missis- sippi, and as remarkably d(ivoiit to Mary, having in childhood boon consecrated to hor, and in manhood as doing all for God through especial devotion to tho Ini- maculato C^ nception. Of an ancient family of Laon, always famed for their 48 Devotion to the B. V. jMahy I i * *it valdi' in wMr and their Hinccritj in (l«>v()tion, tliis glori- ous sorviint of INIavy was born in tlu^ year liVM. Until tlio ago of S(^vont(>(Mi, liis niolhcr, IJoso Ao la Salle, had odneatcd him, inspiring him with that profonnil, ar- dent, tender, and unwavering devotion to Onr Lady Avhieh was tho mainspring of his life. AVhen ho had reached his HOvent(H>nth year she gave him u]) to (lod in the Society of Jesus. T\velv(> y(^ars from that dedi- cation ho landed in Canada. Mother IMary of tho In- carnation was oii(> of those who welcomed hii.i to tho toils and self-sacritice which his sacri^l and)ition do- sired. N(nv York Avas red with missionary hlood, and ho longed for that field of labor, but it was not to bo hi.s. First of all he must ^ 'arutlie languages, but theso ho soon mastered. Then he began his westward march, and first halted at the Sault Ste. Mario, whore tho Cross had been planted by Father Isaac Jogues twenty years before, but had fallen. It Avas for Mar- quette and Allouez to replant it, and to build the first Catholic church there, where noAV stands the cathedral of St. jNIary, and the apostolic Bishop Baraga pre- sides. Fi'oni this, further west to the OttaAva, was a mission almost hopeless, from the abandonment of that people to the Avorship of their OAvn passions. But noAV the great dream of his life began to rise in his heart, soon to take possession of it altogether. He had heard from straggling hunters, as from general rumor, that out to- wards the sunset a mighty river took its rise and rolled its floods, for measureless miles, through populous IN North Amkiuca. 49 pagan lands, to tlio far sontluirn soaH. Ah ! to dis- coyor this — to lanrKrli liiniself on thoso swift tides with his cross, his beads, and his Im viary ! not to win a name ainon^ the learned of the earth, the applanse of science, the gratitude of trad(>, Imt to hear to those lost tribes the glad n(>ws of a Redcienier ; to people heaven with their ransomed souls ; to teach those pathless prairies and unhewn woods to re-echo the sweet nanuis of Jesus and of Mary ! This, Father James Marquette felt, was to be, for the future, his ambition. So at once he began offering m\ perpetual d(!Votions to the Immaculate Mother for the accomplishment of his yearning. Indeed, things seemed to work that way. Ho was sent south and westward to Mackinac, south and westward to Green Bay — southward, at last, to the Illinois. Evciywhere he heard more and plain(>r tidings of the great river, and he redoubled his devotions. Then Mary heard and granted his prayers. Joliet arrived, scuit by the Count de Frontenac, then governor of Canada, and bringing with him, from Marquette's superiors, the long wishod-for permission. And note the day of Jo- liet's arrival : it is the 8th of December, the Feast of tlie Immaculate Conception of Mary ! The heart of the missionary burned within him, for it took months to prepare the expedition ; but at last it was ready, at the mission of St. Ignatius, the cross of Avhicli, on the Isle of Mackinac, was seen over the wide straits and from the two inland seas of Huron and of Michigan ; and in the middle of May, the month D 3 50 Devotion to the B. V. Mary of Mary, tlioy pushed out tlioir bark canooa upon tho deep blue lake. They took all possible precautions, made all prudent preparations, but *' above all," says Marquette, " I i)laced our voyage under the protection of tho Blessed Virgin Immaculate, and promised her that if she obtained us the grace of discovering the groat river, I wguld give it tho name of Conception, as I would do to the first mission I should establish among those new nations." ' Tho story of this discovery cannot be repeated here ; it is the common property of historian and geographer. Wo have only to show the voyage of devotion to ^\\e Mother of God, and what advances that made into the wild interior of North America. The missionary, start- ing inward from the shores of Green Bay, had pene- trated west and south, through many adventures, leav- ing here and there some hint of the Gospel, which he hoped one day to preach to all these nations, and reaching at length a stream, wide, and swift, and deep, which they told him would bear him to the great river. Before embarking on its bosom, they began a new de- votion to the Blessed Virgin Immaculate, which they practised every day, and "by especial praj'^ers we placed," he says, " under her protection the success of our voyage and ourselves." ' Then, for a hundred and ■ Sourtout je mis nostre voyage soubs la protection de la Ste. Vierge Immaculee, luy promettant, que si elle nous faisoit la grace de decou- vrir la grande riviere je luy donnerois le nom de la Conception. — Kecit des Voyages et des Descouvertes de P. Jacques Marquette, cap. ii. • Becit des Voyages, cap iii. IN NoRTri America. 51 le- twcnty miles, they float down the Wisconsin, through the State of that name, to its mouth and the object of their wishes. Then out upon tlio broad breast of the Father of Waters, and down its stream past Iowa, Missouri, IlHnois, noting every object, the nature of the trees, the varying width of water, the animals, es- pecially the "wild cattle," and the panthers which came in sight.' The Illinois seem to have been a mild, dignified, and hospitable race, receiving Marquette in their villages, showing him their customs, and listening with respect to the new doctrines which he uttered. They urged him to stay with them, and when ho refused for the time, gave him provisions for his journey and a calu- met for his defence. Then down the river again as far as the mouth of the Arkansas. Just above this they had been attacked by a party of hostile Indians, ap- parently not natives of the neighborhood — perhaps Tuscaroras or Iroquois. They were armed with bows, arrows, axes, war-clubs, and bucklers, and prepared to attack the missionary both by land and water, some embarking in canoes, a part to ascend, others to de- scend the river, so as to surround their prey. The current drew the canoe to the shore, and the young men sprang in to seize it ; but not getting near enough for that, they returned to the shore, and seizing their bows and arrows, prepared to pierce the servant of God. Death seemed inevitable. " But," says the ' i! ' Marquette gives the name of pisikiou to the American bison 't ' 52 l)i:V()Tl()N TO 'J'lIK B. V. TtlAllY fnitlidil ^r.'iniucHo, " wo liiul riM'ourso to oiii- paironoH.s jukI guiil(\ iho lli»l_y Vir}j;iii Immiii'iiliito, ami wo hful gnwt iietnl of Ium* ussistMiico, for tlvo .siiv.'i^<>H wcro urg- ing (\'U'li olluu" t(^ Uiv slaiii;ht«'r by i'lcrcd and contiiinal (•rii\s.'" l)ut God suildonly touclM'd llio lu\'irts of tlx^ old lucn, the youth woro cliookiMl, and for that tinm tlic missionary was spannl. Th(*y liad now reached a land wln^ro iho inhabitants " miY(M' S(M^ snow, and know tlu^ winter only by tho rain which falls oft'MUH* than in sumuuM' ;" that is, thoy wore in Arkansas. And now tlu^ ])roblom of tlui jjjroat rivor was solved ; and thoy know how that, comiu}^ from tho cold lakes of tlu^ north, it watennl so vast an extent of eonntry, to iMupt}- at last in the Gulf of IMexieo, For they had heard already, by the Now York missionari(>s, how bands of wand(>rin£^ Ironuois had warred against the Ontonj^aunha, who lived on the banks of a beautiful river (Ohio) wOiicli h^ads to the great lake, as they called the sea, where they traded with Europeans " who pray to God as we do, and have rosaries, and bells, to call mon to prayers.'" Of these and otlior such accounts, Marcpn^tto gained full ct>nfirmation from tho Arkansas tribes ; and so, having navigated its waters for a distance of eight de- grees, and published the Gospel as well as he could' to the nations he had met, and learning that all the tribes below were in perpetual war and furnished with fire- ' Rocit, cap. viii. ' Slioa's Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi, prcf., p, xxiil, * Recit, cap. ix. IN NouTii America. 53 arms, lio turned Un) prow of liis ciiioo and Ixigan to iiKcond tlu' riviT. Entoring the Illinois Jliver, hv. {mh^hvaX a town of the KaskaHkiuH ; another, higher up, of tlie Peorias, and wjis c()nii)t!llcd to promise both to return and instruct tliern. Three days lie preadied tlie faith in all tlKjir cabins, l)aptized a dying child, and so, after a voyage of two thousand seven huri'sr^Hl and sixty-seven milcB, on foot or in birch canoe, he reached the mission of Green Bay. It was here, under th(>- roof dcidicatcid to his Ixiloved mission-model, St. Fraru'is Xavier, that Mar({uette spent the summer of 1G74, tiying to recover froju tluj chnmic dysentery which his labors ari'l fatigues had brought uptm him ; and it was here that the (sagc^rly sought orders found him to go to the Illinois. In the month of November he set out, and was w(!ll enough upon the lake ; biit, with Uio, severe cold u[)on the land, his disease attacikcid him with redoubled vigi- lance. Still he pushed on ; for had he not his work iv do? But when he reached the banks of tlu! Illinois, and found that river frozen, he was prostiat»!d. And there he lay, so ill that even on his well-loved patronal feast, of the Immaculate ('onception ( ' ^), lie could not offer the Holy Sacrifice. Tlxi' i:';v' Putredini dixi : Pater meus ea ; mater mea et soror mea vermi- buB. — Job xvii. 14 IN North America. 67 after God, was the only refuge of me, a poor sinner, abandoned by all creatures in a strange land." ' Then they reversed the death sentence. "For such," he says again, *' was the will of God and of the Virgin Mother. To her I owe not my life only, but the strength to support my pain." It was the Hollanders of New York who saved him at length, purchasing him from the barbarians for some forty dollars, and he says : "I sang my coming out of Egijpt^ on the 19tli of August in the Octave of the Assumption of the Virgin, whom I consider the bestower of my freedom." Well, this at least was enough for one man ; he surely left his mission. On the contrary, the same year saw him on his way to the Hurons. Four times he made that voyage, and thrice he fell into the Same bloody hands, and was covered anew with wounds, yet God and Our Lady deUvered him out of all. What wonder that those mutilated hands can record among the revcrers of Blessed Mary, as the fruits of thirteen years, twelve thousand Indians ! There was yet another of these Jesuits, the last we shall cite here, who came in 1625, and won the crimson crown of martyrdom in 1633. When he came to the Hurons, he found not a single Christian ; when he left them for the eternal glory, they numbered eight thou- sand. It was the noble Jean de Breboeuf — the heroic, impassioned servant of Mary. It was he who " once Bressani, Relation, pp. 1 10-139. <■ In exitu Israel de .^gypto, domus Jacob de populo barbaro Ps. 113. 1:1 • 'Ji' m ill I 68 Devotion to the B. V. Mart imparaclised in a trance, bclieltl tlio Mother of Him whose cross he bore, surrounded by a crowd of virgins, in the beatitudes of heaven." ' Tliis was liis vow : " What shall I render to Thee, O my Lord Jesus, for all that I have received from Thee ? I will accept Thy chalice ; I will call upon Thy name. And now I vow, in presence of Thine Eternal lather, and of the Holy Ghost, in presence of Thy most holy Mother ; before the angels, the apostles, and the mar- t}TS, my sainted fathers, Ignatius and Francis Xavier, that if, in Thy mercy. Thou slialt ever offer unto me, Thy unworthy servant, the grace of martyrdom, I will not refuse it. So that if any occasion to die for Thee occur, I promise not to shun it (unless Thy greater glory so demand), and even to receive the mortal blow with joy. Now, from this hour, I offer unto Thee, with all my will, O Thou my Jesus, my body, my blood, my soul, so that, by Thy permission, I may die for Thee who hast deigned to die for me. So let me live that I may merit such a death! So, Lord, will I accept Thy chalice and invoke Thy name, O Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!'"' St. Louis, St. Mary's, and Conception were attacked by a thousand Iroquois in the winter of 1649. Among the prisoners taken was John de Breboeuf, who, when he saw the stake destined for his torture, kissed it with respect. So earnestly he exhorted his compan- ions to be firm, that the brutal savages cut off his hps * Bancroft's History of the United States, iii. 124. * Relation de Bresboni, p. 260. IN North America. 69 and tongiic, Continuing still his exhortation by signs, they gave him the first preference in the torture. " Thou wert wont," they said to him, " to tell others that the more they suffered here, the greater would be their recompense in the new life. Now thank us, for we only brighten thy crown." Then, having made a necklace of red-hot hatchet-heads, they hung it about his neck. In mockery of baptism, they poured boiling water upon his head. They pierced his hands and breast with red-hot irons ; they tore his flesh away in strips ; they cut his scalp into the semblance of a crown, then tore it from his head. He was a strong man, usj g to say of himself, " I am only an ox (hoeii/J, fit for labor;" yet he died in three hours — while his comrade, Gabriel Lallemant, young, delicate, and frail, lived seventeen. Yet Jds first torture was, to be stripped, enveloped from head to foot in bark, satu- rated with rosin, and set on fire.' But we must turn elsewhere and look for other " Marians," as the pagan savages called them, saying only with the historian of the missions :" " Fain would we pause to follow each in his labors, his trials, and his toils ; recount their dangers from the heathen Huron, the skulking Iroquois, the frozen river, hunger, cold, and accident; to show Gamier wrestling with the floating ice, through which he sunk, on an errand of mercy ; Chabanel struggling on for years in a mis- » Bancroft : History of the United States, iii. 1 40. • Sliea: History of Catholic Missions, p. 183. 70 Devotion to the B. V. Mary sion from which every fibre of his frame shrank with loathing; Chaumonot compiling his Indian grammar on the frozen earth ; or the heroic Breboeuf, paralyzed by a fall, with his collar-bone broken, creeping on his hands and feet along the frozen road, and sleeping, unsheltered, on the snow, when the very trees were sphtting with cold." But we must turn to other devout children, whose filial love has taught this country affection and devo- tion to the Mother of Divine Grace. In the great world of Paris, the Blessed Virgin Mary had few clients more sincerely devoted to her than the secre- tarj of the king, Henry the Fourth — Jacques Olier de Verneuil, the trusted minister of his sovereign, the friend of Saint Francis of Sales. His wife, Mary Dobe, Lady of Ivoi, was worthy of the respect which this holy bishop bore her, of her husband, and of her son. To them, among other children, God gave a boy who, from his earlier years, belonged to Mary — Jean Olier de Verneuil, founder of Montreal. Even in child- hood, whatever recalled the holy Virgin, or had any reference to her, caused joy or gratitude in him. He was glad to have been bom of a mother named Mary, in a street called Our Lady of Silver.* In his studies, he counted more upon the assistance of the Throne of Wisdom (Sedes Sapientice) than on his own abilities, though these were naturally very « Notre-dame-d' Argent — a name given to the street called Roi de Sicile, because of a silver statae placed at its corner by Francis I., in expiation of some sacrilege committed there. IN North America. 71 great. He Bays himself that he could learn nothing •without " Hail, Mary !" and others have recorded that the devotion with which he used to repeat this angelic prayer moved them to tears. He undertook nothing, indeed, without first going to that dear Lady and ask- ing her to command him to do it, as a mother her son. When clad anew, when the new hat or coat was given him, he never felt at ease until he had gone to dedi- cate them, and himself in them, to the Blessed Virgin, and to implore her for the grace, never, so long as he should wear them, to offend her Son. "I have thought," he said, in later life, " sometimes, that this practice might be a feebleness or a folly. But, when I omitted it, my clothes were sure to come to speedy ruin the first day or the next. So I took these acci- dents as a visible punishment, sent to correct my fault, or to warn me not to fall into it again."* Grown up, he entered the gay world at Paris, as his bu'th and rank seemed for the time to require of him ; and even there his patroness preserved him from its evil. He conceived an ambition to be profoundly learned, and set out to Eome to gratify it. But an affection of the eyes threatened him with total loss of sight; so, instead of staying at Eome to study, he went to Loretto to pray ; and there Saint Mary healed him, and showed him also that he was to be her faith- ful and devoted servant. In 1633, accordingly, he re- ceived the holy order of the priesthood, and, after > Vie de M. Olier. Paris, 1844, p. 6. 72 Devotion to the B. V. Mary th/co months' spiritual rotroat, saiil liis first Mass in tlij clnircb of our Lady of Mount Carmol. To lier his devotion increased daily. Convinced that to her, after God, he owed all the graces ho had received, he choso her for liis august Lady and Queen ; ho held all his possessions as a grant from her; used them only in her name; made a vow of perpetual servitude to her; and, with the antique symbolism of his day, woro round his neck a silver chain to show that he waa bondman to the Queen of Heaven. From that day he never refused, when in his power, to give whatever was demanded in the name of Mary. He made no journey without first going to the church of Notre Dame to ask his Blessed Mother's benediction. When struck with apoplexy, his reason shaken, his sight and hearing gone, only two sounds sec to rejich his sense — the names of Jesus and of Mf.^^. At the first, a bright smile gave intelligence to bis half-dead face ; at the second, his paralyzed hps murmured "Mother." When the idea of the grand Seminary of St. Sulpice was in his mind, he went as usual to Notre Dame, and there our Lady showed him visibly the plan for the proposed edifice. Then he commenced that sacred work, and the corner-stone was laid in the Octave of the Virgin's nativity. The works went on until the winter interrupted them. They ceased on the Immaculate Conception ; they were recommenced in the Octave of the Purification. He sang the Mass de Beata, with the keys in his bosom, ofltering them to Our Lady as the owner of the IN North Amehica. 73 lionso. " Frtr lioroin," lie nnyn, " I trust that the holy name of Mary will he hh^saed forever. All my tlesiro is to imprint it deeply on the hearts of our brethren ; for Mary is our eounsellor and president, our treasurer, our prineess, our queen, and our all." In the court, faein}^ the portal, he placed a grand statue of the Virgin, seated, and holding the infant Jesus in her arms. He refused to bo called the founder of the house. '^ Fuuilavit cam Jlfifislinns," he said; "it is Jesus in Mary who is our founder ;" and he caused the monogram of Mary to bo engraved on the silver, wrought in the iron-work, marked upon the linen, for the house was hers. Olier furnishes the idea, and Le Brun paints the ceiling. It is the coronation of Mary Queen of Heaven by the hands of the Father Eternal ; while below, the Church militant, represented by the Council of Ephe- sus, hail her with cries of exultation, and proclaim her title, de fdc, of Mother of God.' Two other pictures from the same hand adorned the chapel — Mary, the channel of God's grace, and the Visitation. In that house the first devotion was to the interior life of Jesus ; the second was to Mary. And all this love and devotion to the Queen of Saints was, by Father Olier's means, sent to consecrate the swift waters and im- memorial forest-lands of North America. Before treat- ing this point, we cannot leave the holy founder of St. Sulpice without mentioning his death. His last years • Vie de M. OUer, p. 281. u Devotion to the B. V. Mart were united to the Passion of his belovod Lord by a complication of disorders, especially the agonizing one of gravel. In its aciitest attacks, when the soul was almost driven out of him by physical anguish, ho uttered no complaints, but lay still, gently smiling, offering his pain to Jesus crucified, and murmuring, OLove! OLove!" He rendered up his soul into the hands of Christ md his dear Mother on Holy Saturday, March 26, 1657. It was in 1636 that the Company of Montreal was founded "for the conversion of the savages and the maintenance of the Catholic religion in Canada." Five priests, a cardinal (Richelieu), a duchess, two dukes, twelve other nobles, and a simple Sister of Charity, formed the association; and, for four years, they labored faithfully to bring their scheme into suc- cessful operation. Their plan was this : To build, upon the Isle of Montreal, a town which should be at ojice a home for the missions, a defence against the savages, a centre of commerce for the neighboring people, which should be consecrated to the most holy Virgin, and be called Yille-Marie. So, when all was ready, on the morrow of the Feast of Our Lady's Purification, the associates assembled in the cathedral church of Notre Dame. . M. Olier offered up the perfect Sacrifice at the Virgin's altar, whereat all the laics communed, while those of the Company who were priests said Mass at other altars with the same intention, "fervently imploring the Queen of IN North America. 75 Angels to bless their enterprise, and to take the Isle of Montreal under her holy a.d most especial pro- tection." ' The collection after this ceremony was two hundred thousand francs. The commandant was Paul do Chaumeday, lord of Maisonneuve, a warrior who, for twenty years, had served his king with honor, the Blessed Virgin with devotion, having made for her sake a vow of perpetual chastity, never omil Hng, for any excuse, the recitation of the chaplet, anl t!io little office. Under him, then, they start at longtL from Rochelle, cross safely, winter at Quebec, and, on thr> 17th of jliiry's own month of May, arrive at Montreal. T? ey build a chapel of bark, erect an altar, und offer for the first time the Sacrifice of the Mass. On that day they reserved the Blessed Sacrament, and from that day it has always been reserved in Ville-Marie. "Henceforth," says the American historian, "the hearth of the sacred fires of the Wyandots was con- secrated to the Virgin."' The colony does well, only it should not depend en- tirely upon France for clergy. The hospital sisters have settled here ; the Congregation of Our Lady is established expressly for the place ; there must be a seminary. The same devotion which built St. Sulpice for Mary in Paris, builds the new St. Sulpice three thousand miles away in the colony that bears her * Vie de Soeur Marguerite Bourgeoys. Villo-Marie, 1818, p. 21. « Bancroft, iii. 128. 76 Devotion to the B. V. Mary name. The mother house furnishes priests — Messrs. de Quayhis, de Gallinet, Dallct, and Louart, to begin with. In 1663, the Company, whoso only object was the conversion of the savages, resigns, into the hands of the Sulpicif ns, all seigneurial rights over the island, titles confirmed, a century later, by the British govern- ment, after the conquest of Canada. And thus it is that the Blessed Yirgin Mary is still the sovereign lady of Montreal. These Sulpicians also have their crimson records — their dealings with the fierce and wily Iroquois. Two only, for the present, will we mention. When M. Olier first proposed this mission to his ecclesiastics, all eagerly offered themselves : none were more zealous than Father Le Maitre. " Send me," he said ; " I will promise earnest labor ; I will go to the Indians, even in their own country." "You will not have the trouble," answered the servant of God; "they will come to look for you, and will so surround you that you shall not escape from their hands." Two years after the death of M. Olier, Father Le Maitre, then in Canada, was surrounded and beheaded by the Iro- quois, on the Feast of the Decollation of Saint John the Baptist. Father Vignal followed him to heaven by the same painful path. On the scant records that we have been able to procure, we read the names of twenty-five seminary priests in less than forty years — Salagnac de Fenelon, on the north Ontario shores; among the Iroquois, de Belmont in the Indian school of the Mountain ; IN NoiiTH America. 77 Buisson de St. Come, going far south to the Natchez. The children of Ignatius and Xavier were the adven- turers and pioneers ; for them earth had no resting- place, death no terrors ; their time of labor and its j&eld were while and wherever their lips could proclaim the name of Jesus ; their rest was only in Patria. The ecclesiastics of Jean-Jacques Olier were a settled colony to educate, ciriHze, train, and keep the con- verted. The Jesuit furnished the element of conquest ; the Sulpician that of conservatism. Side by side with the Jesuit of Quebec labored the patient hospital sisters, founded by the bounty of .the Duchess d'Aiguillon, and the Ursulines of Mary of the Incarnation. So, at Ville-Marie, we have other hos- pitalieres, endowed by another pious and noble lady, the Duchess de Bullion, and sister Marguerite Bour- geoys, and her " Congi-egation of Our Lady." It is most interesting to trace the manner in which Mary calls and inspires her servants, so various, yet so effective are the means she uses. One has simply a restless feeling, searches repose everywhere, and finds it suddenly at the first purpose of self-consecration to Mary. Another is summoned in a moment, when thinking of nothing less than of the Blessed Virgin, by a voice, or an apparition, or an accident, as Father Louart, the second priest of Montreal, could have testified. He was destined for the world ; he was on the point of marrying, when on the Feast of the As- sumption of Our Lady, he strayed by chance into a church in Paris. The preacher was not well prepared 78 Devotion to the B. V. Mary — did not get along well on the subject of the day, and went Avandering about in his discourse until he found a more familiar topic. This happened to be, the ne- cessity of being sure of your vocation before entering upon any state of life. Whether he dealt more hap- pily with this subject than with the one he had left for it, we are not informed ; but he set the mind of the young Louart at work; the vocation for matrimony was found not to exist, and a few years after saw the fiance cure in Ville-Marie. Different illustrations are found in the cases of the two holy women who came first to the wild island in the St. Lawrence, there to represent the tender pity and care of Mary Pruden- tissima, Mary Solus Infirmorum. A young lady of Langres, Mademoiselle Jeanne Manse, passing her Hfe quietly among her friends in the ordinary routine of a pious girl's life, is suddenly struck Avith the idea of consecrating herself to the ser- vice of the Blessed Mary in New France. "VVliat New France is she has no idea, or, at least, a very confused and indistinct one. It is a notion from some travel- ler's story, think her friends. Her confessor is con- sulted ; he has never heard of Montreal, and he treats his penitent as a visionary ; but, as she persists in her notions, he writes to Paris for information. The an- swers confirm the purpose of Mademoiselle Manse ; she go IS to Paris, is introduced to the Duchess de Bullion, a great friend of the Montreal scheme ; the vocation is tried, ascertained, and followed. "I will go" she said; "give me, madame, a letter to the IN North America. 79 directors of the Company." The pious duchess gives her a note to M. de la Dauversiere, and a purse of twenty thousand livres for expenses. She was warned that, in all pro^^r^.bility, the walls of Montreal must be cemented in blood ; that there were tribes of hostile savages who would oppose, perhaps destroy, the colony ; that she would be alone to care for the sick and wounded : but when these representations only increased her zeal and fervor, the good man blessed God, and bade her go in His name. And when he did that, he laid the foundation of that Hotel of God (Hotel D'leu), or Hospital St. Joseph, where now some forty nuns and fifteen novices are consecrated to the service of Christ in His poor. They arrived in the middle of the month of Mary ; the land was assigned ; the gold of the good duchess was exchanged for wood and labor; a house and chapel rose up swiftly, and, on the 15th of August, 1642, it was opened to celebrate the Feast of the As- sumption of St. Mary the Virgin. As the colony grew, the number of its sick augmented also ; the house was found too small, the labor too great for any one per- son, however zealous. A new gift of sixty thousand livres, by Madame do Bullion, enlarged the odifice, and recruits from France brought help to Mademoi- selle Manse. It was de Maisonneuve, the command- ant of Ville-Marie, and the sworn servant of its Patroness, who went to look for hospitalieres. He found eager candidates for the mission among the sisters of St. Joseph, in la Fleche, from whom three 80 Devotion to the B. V. Mary were selected and sent to found their order' in Amer- ica. And now, what more have we to say of this lady ? Her arm, broken by a fall, and badly treated, became hopelessly paralyzed. She was patient, but she was a burden to others ; so she resolved to seek relief from God through her holy and gentle Mother Mary. Every one in Montreal had, of course, great veneration for M. Oher ; so, full of devotion and simple faith, she made a journey to France, and, at his tomb, she prayed for such a restoration only as might enable her to aid herself, that she might be no longer a bur- den to others ; and her arm was made whole." She returned to her labors, and died in 1G73. There is no more to tell. Hospital sisters have no stories. Their whole lives are beautiful praises to the gracious God, and are written only in His Book of Life on high. ' They wore still seculare. Pope Alexander the Seventh erected them into a religious order in 1666. » Vie de M. Oiler, p. 394. IN North America. 81 CHAPTER lY. ^AROrERITK BoURQEOTg AXD THE CONGREGATION OV OUB LaDT. The hospital sister practices the virtues of Mary, and dies adventiireless. But Mary's servants are of all kinds. There are adventures in the life of Mar- guerite Bourgeoys — more than she sought, faithful, loving soul, as she was, but not more than God saw were necessary for her perfection. She did not look for roses, nor did she find them ; but her life is itself a rose, offered and accepted on Our Lady's altar. If the old style of writing in conceits were in vogue, her life is one that could almost be composed so that every third word should be " Mary." That word was in her mouth and in her heart, from the time her lips first could frame it, until they laid her head, whitened by ninety winters, beneath the snows of Canada. She was born in 1G20, this Margarita, this pearl of the Queen of Virgins. She was called, in religion, Mar- guerite of the Holy Sacrament. She was the founder of that society known as Daughters of the Congrega- tion o" ~ ir Lady.* It was in the city of Troyes, in Champagne, that Marguerite was born. Her parents, not notable for rank or wealth, were distinguished for something • Vie de M. Olier, p. 394. 4* 82 Devotion to the 15. Y. Mary better — earnestness in the practice of religion. This was the best heritage they bequeathed their daughter ; it was the only portion of their bequests that she re- tained. Her childhood was distinguished, quite early, by a certain grave piety, which was always character- istic of her in after-life, and by zeal in the confraterni- ties and rosary societies to which she belonged. It was at a feast of our Blessed Lady that she first caught a glimpse of her vocation. It was the festival of the Kosary, and Marguerite had gone to join in the procession, which it is the custom of the Dominicans to make on this day. Ou this occasion. Anno 16^0, so great was the throng of people, that the pomp was forced from its usual neighborhood into the larger streets, and passed before the grand cathedral church of Notre Dame. A statue of the Holy Mother of God adorned the grand portal, and Marguerite saw it, as she thought, at least, environed with lustre ; while the eyes, full of kindly intelligence, appeared to look wist- fully at her. Imagination or realit}^ Marguerite re- ceived it as an invitation to consecrate herself to God, under the auspices of St. Mary. And, from that mo- ment, all the innocent little fineries of dress, in which, like other girls, she had hitherto indulged, were laid aside, and she thought only, henceforward, of how she might acomphsh her self-dedication. At first she tried to gain admission into the convent of our Lady of Mount Carmel ; but God had other work for her, and she was baffled in this attempt, although she persisted for years — although it became IK North America. 88 This liter; le re- early, acter- ,teriii- d. It B first estival in the inicans 640, so ap was larger church of God it, as tile the >k -wist- ite re- ,0 God, at mo- which, re laid ow she jonvent other Ittempt, jecame the strongest desire of her heart. There was another order of nuns whom she frequented in Troyes, those of Notre Dame, devoted to instruction, and they had under their supervision a number of young persons, united by an agreement, without vow, living each in her own family, "nd visiting and instructing those who could not attend the classes of the nuns. These were called the " outside Congregation of our Lady," and into it the members received our Marguerite with gratitude. This was her novitiate. Here she prac- tised aU those virtues of holy poverty and self-sacri- fice, charity and devotion, with which, afterwards, she made America illustrious. So, in the course of time, her saintly, mortified life won great grace f( r her. Her heart was always filled with fervor when she ap- proached the Holy Communion ; nay, such was her devotion, that our Lord vouchsafed to show himself to her in the Blessed Sacrament as a little child incomparably beautiful. It was the Feast of Our Lady's Assumption, the chief festival of her congre- gation. Among the nuns of Notre Dame was a sister of that pious noble, the commandant of Ville-Marie. Another sister, equally devoted, Madame de Cuilly, remained in the world. Of course, both were interested in their brother's far-away colony in America ; they had pledged themselves to use every effort to procure for him some rehgious, for the instruction of the young people, and, for a long time, many of the nuns of Notre Dame hoped to be sent. They had given to 84 Devotion to the B. V. Mary M. de Maisonneiive a picture of the Blessed Virgin, whereon they had written, in testimony of their prom- ise and desire, these lines : " O Holy Mother of our God, Virgin of loyal heart, Keep for us, of thy royal mount [Montreal], a consecrated part." Naturally, then, the good sisters talked much about Canada, and Marguerite Bourgeoys listened. For, by this time, she had won the respect and love of the whole community, and had been offered admission to the Order ; but it was not her vocation — that, as far as she knew it yet, was to be a Carmelite. But de Maison- neuve, arriving in France to look for hospital sisters for Mademoiselle Manse, and soldiers for the defence of his colonists, went, as he ever did, to visit his sisters at Trojes. It was in the parlor of the convent at Notre Dame that Marguerite met him, and heard him talk of Ville-Marie. Then she knew at last where her vocation was. If she needed confirmation, she had seen the commandant in a dream some weeks before his arrival, and recognized him as soon as she saw him ; and when, in the absence of the bishop, she went to take counsel of the vicar-general, he told her, in so many words, that God required her in Canada. To know her vocation was to follow it. She was guardian of a younger brother and sister, and she arranged at once for their education. She had some property — she made it over to them and to the poor, and stood free in the world. She said, " I am ready ;" and then came the difficulties and temptations. The IN North America. 85 was she I some [poor, idy ;" The religious, refused for the preseut by de Maisonueuve, dissuaded her from going until they could go too. She desired to have with her a member of that " outside congregation," of which she had for some time been prefect, a young girl, whose honor she had saved ; but circumstances were inexorable : only one could be taken ; there was employment only for one. Mar- guerite must stay or go alone — alone, of her sex, in a ship filled with newly-recruited soldiers, and their commander, whom she had seen but once. Not an easy obstacle this to surmount. She has recourse to her confessor. " Go freely," he says ; " M. de Maisonneuve will be your guardian ; he is one of the noblest knights in the court of the Queen of Angels."* Still, nature and modest education are powerful ; Marguerite yet hesitates ; then the Blessed Virgin herself decides. One morning, whil'3 meditating in her own chamber, a lady, beautiful, white-robed, surrounded with a halo of flashing yet tender light, appears before her, and says gently : " Go, Marguerite, to Canada ; I will not abandon thee." This settles the matter. Come now what may, she will be at Nantes for the embarkation by the Feast of the Visitation of St. Mary. Many a thing will come — temptations, re- monstrances, imputations which are the hardest for women to endure, but all useless. She quits Troyes, in the Octave of the Purification, for Paris. At Paris ' " C'est tin des premiers chevaliers de la chambre de la Reine des Anges." — Vie de Soeur Marguerite, p. 51. h 86 Devotion to the B. V. Mary she is generally laughed at ; her uncle there, not shar- ing in the hilarity, storms, argues, rebukt^M, forbids, brings tears abundantly and humble prc^estutious of affection, but no change of purpose. The provincial of the Carmelites begs her to renounce this crazy ad- venture — oflters to procure her recejition in any Car- melite convent she prefers. Here, then, is the dearest wish of her heart realized at last, and it staggers her a little. She pays a visit to the nearest church, and comes back fixed. It is not to • Our Lady of Mount Carmel that she belongs, but to Our Lady of Yille- Marie. Then she makes up her comforts for the voyage. These consist of a crucifix, a rosary, a book of devo- tions, and a change of linen. She takes this luggage in her hand, and she starts for the poi-t of Nantes. Travelling alone, she is frequently insulted ; at Saumur and at Orleans she is contemptuously refused entrance at the hotels. One night she passes in a stable, the other in a church. She has a letter for a merchant at Nantes, whom, on her arrival, she meets in the street. He gives her the address of his house, and promises to follow thither shortly. A young man, going out with M. de Maisonneuve, insists upon carrying her little bundle, and they j)resent themselves at the house of Monsieur le Coq. Madame, in person, opens the door ; madame appears to have been one of the " unco good." She looks at the poor young woman and the youth beside her, and shuts the door in their faces. Marguerite crosses over to the church of the Jacobins, IN North America. 87 in time for the commencement of the Rosary proces- sion, joins in the ceremony, and then with renewed courage attempts the merchant's house again. This time she is soundly rated for her impudence, and dismissed with ignominy. But, as she turns away patiently, M. le Coq himself comes home, and the weary servant of Mary finds a shelter at last. She reposes for a day or two. By the Octave of the B. V. M. of Mount Carmel, she is out at sea — not in a modern packet-ship, or luxurious, swift-puffing steamer, but in the lumbering little transport of two hundred years ago. In this vessel, sleeping upon a pile of cordage, the nurse of the sick, the consoler of the distressed, making the night and morning prayer, the attendant upon a hundred soldiers and the crew, the heroic woman traversed the Atlantic. When she steadily refused to eat at his table, M. de Maisonneuve sent her food, filtered water and wine, which she re- ceived gratefully, and distributed among her patients. She ate the coarse fare of the ship ; she drank, from a little leathern cup, the ropy, unsavory water of the common cask, and drank but once- a day — a habit she preserved through all her after-life, from devotion to our dear Lord's bitter thirst upon the cross. In the practice of these virtues, after a journey of between three and four months, sister Marguerite arrived at Monireal about the Feast of Our Lady's Presentation, 1653, and then and there began the labors which knew no rest for nearly half a century. The town of Ville-Marie had few magnificences in 88 Devotion to the B. V. Maby tliat (lay. Within tho stockade, some fifty houses ; outside the walls, twenty or thirty farms, and a half hundred of Indian wigwams — that was the city of Montreal. But, small though it were, Marguerite could find work enough in it. Scarcely any one of those habitations faile to received a daily visit; you saw her everywhere, if good were to bo done there, nursing the sick, consoling the sorrowful, instructing the ignorant, washing the linen and mending the clothes of the poor, as well as giving away to the needy what others thought the very necessaries of life. M. le Coq had given her a bed, which she had never used on board the ship. There was a straw bed, a mattress, two coverlets, and a pillow. In less than a week, one after the other disappeared, and Marguerite slept upon the floor in the Canadian winter. In a word, she "became an eye unto tho blind, and feet unto the lame. When the ear heard, then it blessed her ; when the eye saw, it gave witness to her, because she delivered the poor that cried, the fatherless, and the helpless. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon her, and she caused the widow's heart to sing for joy." ' Above all, she found her greatest pleasure in in- structing young girls, both French and Indians, in the ' Oculus fui coeco et pes claudo. Auris audicns beatificabat me, et ocalus videns, testimonium reddebat mihi. Eo quod liberassem pauperem vociferantem et pupillum c^ non esset adjutor. Bene- dictio perituri super me veniebat et cor viduse consolatus sum. — Job xxix. IN NoiiTH America. 89 's et am le- Job branches necessary for them, especially in the i)rin- ciples and practice of religion. ** She inspired tlioni," says one of her biographers, " with sentiments of love and devotion towards the august Mother of God, to whom she was herself particularly devoted. A worthy coadjutrix of M. de Maisonncuve, while he was build- ing up a material city for Mary, she was establishing the spiritual empire of that Blessed Mother in the hearts of the faithful.'" For four years occupied in these labors, she ran from house to house, for as yet no building could be spared her for a school. But if the commandant could give her no building, he could and did give her land ; and on this, thinking first, as always, of St. Mary, she determined to build, not a school, but a chapel in her honor. Then she redoubled her energies, running about to every one in the town ; and so, one brought wood, and another stone ; a few, money; a greater number, their stout arms, willing hearts, and mechanical skill; and thus the chapel arose, just where now stands the church of Our Lady of Good Help (du Bon-secoursJ. But the colony was growing large — a bishop had arrived, Mgr. de Laval de Montmorenci — and Mar- guerite felt that, if her work was to go forward, she must have help. Mademoiselle Manse was going to France to look for hospital sisters, and for relief for her use- ' La Vie de la Venerable Soeur Marguerite Bourgeoys, dite du Saint* Sacrament, Institutrice, Fondatrice et premiere Superieure des Filles SeculaircB de la Congregation de Notre Dame. Ville-Marie, 1818. 90 Devotion to the B. V. Mary I 1 i i less arm. Marguerite then could wait upon her, and so sanctify the voyage itself; and, when arrived in France, could gather some devoted souls, and, if it were God's will, estabhsh a congregation of Our Lady in Ville-Marie. They had a safe and pleasant passage ; they visited together M. Olier's tomb, and, together, rendered thanks to God for the mercy extended to Mademoiselle Manse. Alone, as she came, so she goes back to her native country, a simple woman, without rank, wealth, or influence, to ask parents for their daughters, to go to an isle in a scarce explored river, three thousand miles away, surrounded by cruel and hostile savages, to ijistruct the children of poor colonists and Indians in the knowledge of the Gospel of God. Truly it required some confidence to make the request, and more to hope for a favorable re- sponse. But Marguerite knew to whom she looked, whom she loved in her heart, whom she trusted in, whom she had chosen.* "I will come back in a year, and successful," she said, as she left Montreal, on the Octave of the Virgin's Nativity, 1658. No sooner had she arrived in Troyes, than three of her old companions presented themselves to her for the mission ; but the father of one of them, a notary, wanted a little information on the subject. " How did they hve, for instance, in that wild country ?" " They had a stable," said Marguerite, " which M. de Maison- ' Regnum mundi et omnem ornatum seeculi contempsi propter amorem Domini mei Jesu Christi, quern, vidi, quern amavi, in quern credidi, quern dilexi, — Com. non Virg. ! IN North America. 91 neuve had given them, and which only wanted some repairs to make a residence of it." The notary wished to know what inducements were offered to those who should inhabit this fine lodging ? " Troubles, humiU- ations, and labors," answered Marguerite. " Was it proposed to support life exclusively upon these?" asked the notary. " Oh, no , she would insure them bread and soup, and, with the blessing of God, that was enough." The tears arose in the old main's eyes. " You shall have my daughter," he said, " provided you accept a dowry with her." Marguerite thanked him, in Our Lady's name, for the former but refused money upon any conditions. At length, with five re- cruits, she returns to America and her stable in Isle Mont-Koyal. " It was a stone building, this stable," she tells us, " about twenty-five feet square, and had long been a retreat for animals of every sort. But I had a chimney built, and got i*^ cleaned ; so that we could lodge there the children whom the Indians gave us, as well as hold our schools. As for us, there was a sort of dove-cot, or garret, above, where, until now, pigeons had been bred, and of this I made our dormitory and com- munity-room, although it was rather inconvenient of approach, the only access being by a ladder outside.'' * Yet, in this establishment they lived, taught their schools, guarded young emigrant girls who came from France — once as many as eighteen — and trained their ' Vie de Marguerite Bourgeois, p. 81. 92 Devotion to the B. V. Mary postulants and Indian converts. Next, they spared two sisters for tlie famous Mountain Mission of the Iroquois. It was the mountain which Jacques Cartier had surnamed the Royal, and which gave its name, corrupted, to the island. "When first, in 1649, M. de Maisonneuve beheld the stately height, that " knight of the Queen of Angels" vowed to erect a cross, the standard of his Lord, upon its summit, and to place beside it the lesser banner of his sovereign Lady. So he caused a tail, massive cross to be made ; and he himself bore it painfully to the top of the mountain, planting it firmly there, and inserting carefully, in a niche at its foot, the image given him by his sisters at Troyes. This took place the same year and season — perhaps the same day and hour — in which Marguerite, looking up from the Rosary procession upon the great statue of Our Lady, beheld it robed with unwonted splendors. So now she sent two sisters to toil among the In- dians ; for M. de Belmont, serving there as priest, had opened schools for the savages, which were well at- tended. And there the sisters dwelt in birch-bark wigwams, and labored for the spiritual weal of the native American. When advancing civilization drove the Indians thence to the Saut au Recollet, and thence to the Lake of Two Mountains, the sisters followed them, and are still found there in 1862, faithful to their inherited duties, as were the first two sent by . 3ter Marguerite. But labors and troubles accumulated — difficulties about the congregation — hard work in get- IN North America. 93 ting tlie rule. The saintly bishop hesitates, would like to unite the orders of Quebec and Ville-Marie, does not see with Sister Marguerite's eyes. She must needs go to France again, and get a charter for her congrega- tion from Louis le Grand ; which charter, according to the propriety of dates which seems to accompany these matters, is issued and signed by King Louis in the month of May. Mgr. de Montmorenci falls iU and is obliged to resign his see ; so that, when Sister Mar- guerite returns to Canada, she finds no bishop to whom to submit herself and the rule, as the term of the charter required. One treasure she acquires in France. All the Com- pany of Montreal, we know, were distinguished for de- votion to the holy Virgin Mary. Among them, le Pretre, lord of Fleury, had a collection of ancient relics in the chapel of his castle. One of these was a little statue of Our Lady, by which it had pleased God to work miracles. This he determined to send to Ville-Marie, where, he hoped, a chapel would be built for it, and where it would be more honored than else- where, as that town and colony were more particularly consecrated to the pure Mother of God than any other portion of the world. Being brought to M. de Fan- camp, another member of the Company in Paris, he was healed instantaneously of a dangerous illness, and then he vowed to labor steadfastly for the chapel, headed the subscription list with a heavy sum from his own purse, and placed that sum and the sacred image at once in the hands of Sister Marguerite. It 94 Devotion to the B. V. Mabt was the consolfttion of the sisters on theh- voyage, and the object of their unremitting zeal on their arrival, which happened on the eve of the Assumption. So well they labored, that, on that day two years, they saw the chapel finished — the first stone church erected in Montreal — walked in the long procession, and heard the first Mass within its walls. The house of the Con- gregation rose beside it, and the sisters dwelt and toiled there under the eye of their tender Mother. Many a storm passes by her and over her during all these years. Chapel ' and house consumed to ashes ; the first English war and the capture of the city ; the burden of the Superiority — for the order numbers forty persons now, and she desires to lay down the authority, to place it in younger hands ; nay, she walks to Quebec, on foot, through the midwinter snow, at the age of seveniy-three, to beg remission from the office, but the bishop (Lacroix) will not Usten to her. " Go back. Marguerite, to your austerities, your labors, to this position of honor, harder for your humility to bear than either : * qui perseveraverit usque in Jinem hie salvus crit — whoso persevereth unto the end, he shall be saved.' " ' So Marguerite persevered, lived to see her mission-schools spread over the land ; to hear her commimity blessed by every mouth; to build a new church, in 1695, and to see there founded the perpet- ual adoration of the most holy Sacrament. Her prayer on this occasion to the Prisoner of Love is preserved, ' St. Matthew, x. 23. IN North America. 95 wherein she beseeches His especial benediction upon, and his guardianship for, her sisterhood. " Most Holy Virgin," thus, after long supplication to Jesus in the Sacrament, it ends, "remember that thou art our Mother. Be, too, our advocate, and supply what our devotion to thy Son is lacking in. Make us see the power of thy intercession with Him, bearing thyself our poor and feeble prayers to Him, and presenting them thyself before the throne of His glory." And, now, the day was well-nigh over — the hour was approaching for repose, for reward. Sixty years of austerities and toils had done their work upon the weary frame — forty-seven of those years in the wilds of Canada. Consult her life for the extraordinary sjDirit of mortification which always ruled her, or judge what treatment she reserved for herself when she pre- scribed this course for her community : " To live in perfect renunciation of self and all things earthly ; to seek only the glory of God ; to be devoted to the in- stiiiction of young girls, and the practice of all good works, without murmuring at the paiu, trouble, humili- ations, and suifering which are inseparable from these ; to imitate the simple and modest life of Mary in all things ; on their missions to imitate the Apostles ; to travel always, when possible, on foot ; to win their bread by the labor of their hands ; to be chargeable to no one. In their missions and community to have only the simplest, poorest, most indispensable furni- ture ; to wear the commonest clothing, and eat the coarsest food ; to have no better bed than straw ; to 96 Devotion to the B. V. Mary live in all things as the poorest people, only in scrupu- lous neatness. Such was her rule for others ; it was luxurious when compared with the rule for herself." ' Thus, when the Master came. He found His servant watching, and the end was on this wise. Sister Cath- erine, the mistress of the novices, lay dying in the in- firmary, still young, but early called. The last sacra- ments had been administered; the agony came on. The sisters watching her ran to the various rooms to summon all to the prayers for the dying. When they came to sister Marguerite, she groaned in spirit, and said : " O Father ! why not take me, the old and use- less, and spare that poor sister who can yet serve Thee long ?" And Mary bore the aspiration of self- sacrifice to the feet of God, and God heard it, and granted it. Sister Catherine rose up cured. Sister Marguerite lay down upon a couch of cruel anguish for ten days, borne with thanksgiving and hymns of praise, and then, on the Feast of the Epiphany, she fell into a sweet and gentle a; ony,"" and, with her hands crossed meekly on her bosom, went to " find the young Child and His Mother" in the courts of heaven, January 12, A. d. 1700. How simply she told her Mother what she desired for her congregation ! " Oh, my good Mother, I ask for our community no goods, no honors, no pleasures of this hfe. Obtain for me only that God may be faithfully served, and that we may never receive • Vie de Sceur Marguerite, p. 139. » Ibid., p. 168. MO IN North Amebica. 97 [red lask Ires be bive haughty or presumptuous persons in our midst; nor those whose hearts are in the world; nor who are slanderers or mockers ; nor any save such as will study to practise those maxims which cur Lord, thy divine Son, has taught us, has sealed with His blood, and which thou, oh, most Holy Virgin, hast observed with such exactitude.'" How dearly she loved the very name of Mary, giving it in baptism to the poor little Indian babes, abandoned or easily given up by their parents ! The first, baptized on the feast of Our Lady of Snows, and all the others, were named Mary. One, an Illinois girl, lived to be eighteen, and died a holy death in their house. Other two, Iroquois, Mary Barbe, and an Algonquin of the same name, became sisters of the community. But Marguerite's whole life was devotion to the Blessed Virgin ; every thought was aflfected by her, every act was done as if by her direction. To Mary she gave herself in France ; for her she left her native land forever, to dwell in a wild and just discovered country, in a town bearing the name of Mary, to estabUsh a congregation under the name of Mary, where the books, and houses, and persons wore the livery of Mary, and where Mary herself was solemnly chosen first and perpetual superior. For, at the first formal assembly of the congregation for the election of a superior, the sisters had cried with one voice, that " they would have the Blessed Virgin ' Vie de Soeur MorgueiLe, p. 114. 5 98 Devotion to the B. V. Mary for their superior, their origin, founder, protectress, and good mother for time and for eternity.'" And then Marguerite and the rest of them prostrated them- selves before the image of our dear Lady, and made this prayer, remembered and preserved by the sister- hood : " Look, holy Virgin, on this little band of thy servants, who have consecrated themselves to God's service under thy direction, and who desire to follow thee as good children follow their mother and mistress, and who consider thee as their superior, hoping that God will give to thee the rule over a community which is thine own creation. We have nothing worthy to present to God ; but we hope, by thine intercession, to obtain the graces necessary for our salvation and for the perfection of our state. Thou knowest better than we what we need, and what we should ask for. Refuse us not thine aid. Help us, by thy prayers, to receive light and grace from the Holy Spirit, so that we may labor faithfully in the instruction of the young girls whom it is our especial charge to teach. And, above all, oh, our dear Lady and Mother, procure that we, the teachers, and all the children to us committed, and all who shall contribute to their spiritual advance- ment, may be of the number of the elect ; so that, in thy society, we may praise our good God in the joy which endureth forever." '' And so it happens that, in the Congregation of Our Lady, there are no earthly superiors, but only sub-superiors. \ Vie de Soeur Marguerite, p. 148. Ibid. IN North America. 99 We would like to show, by its manifold varied exam- ples, the zeal of Marguerite for God's service in other channels of devotion, but it cannot have place in this book, which is dedicated to one topic only. But, she used to tell her sisterhood, and her entire life exhibited her own conviction of its truth, that their zeal, to be perfect, must bo formed upon the model of the Blessed Virgin's, of her whom it pleased the Eternal Father to make a coadjutrix (in a manner) of her divine Son's work of redemption. From this, that dependence on, and imitation of, Mary, which she so much insisted on in the formation of her society, it was no barren and transitory sentiment of devotion which caused her to call her institute the Congregation of Our Lady, under the title and invocation of the Visitation of Mary. It was the expression of the devotion which filled her heart. It was a monument of her own dependence and love — a model for her sisterhood, hereafter, that she proposed to establish by these titles. Some brief quotation from her own simple instructions to them will not only give us an insight into her ruling senti- ment, but will exhibit the power of one means of ex- tending the devotion to the Mother of God in this country. " The Blessed Virgin," she said, " desired to con- tinue the work of God on earth : this must be our de- sire in our special mission, the instruction of young girls. As Mary used to pray for the fulfilment of the promises, for the deliverance of the Fathers, who, in limbo, awaited the coming of the Just One, so must we I 100 Devotion to the B. V. Mart pray continually for the souls in purgatory, and for the conversion of sinners on earth. "At the age of three years she was taken to the Temple, as to the school of virtue : our novices must be scholars of Mary and with Mary during their prep- aration. She was edifying in all her acts ; ever ready to serve others; moderate in her repasts and in all things : and we, hke her, must do all things for edifi- cation ; must prefer others to ourselves, and be as moderate in food and drink, in apparel, in shimber, and in conversation, as necessity will arlmit. " Mary was at prayer when the angel saluted her : * Hail, full of gi'ace !' By prayer, then, must we gain the graces needed for our condition as instructresses. And when our Lady had given her consent to become the Mother of God by the operation of the Holy Ghost, at once to show her gratitude to the Eternal Father, to correspond with the graces He bestowed, and with His designs for the redemption of the human race, she hastened to visit her cousin. Saint Elizabeth, to become an instrument for the sanctification of the great Saint John the Baptist, and to carry grace and salvation to the house of Zacharias : so we, the ser- vants of Mary, on our missions, must strive to contrib- ute to the sanctification of children, to edify all per- sons, especially those of our own sex, and to let the whole world know that we are indeed daughters of that most holy Virgin. "Mary received, with equal kindness, both kings and shepherds as they came to adore her Son, and m North America. 101 Lnd took to herself no tittle of the honors which they paid Him : nor shall the sisters distinguish between their scholars, rich and poor, nor attribute to themselves any of the success which God may grant to their labors. It is believed that, as the number of Chris- tians increased, Mary, and other holy women, aided the Apostles by instructing persons of their own sex, and, by their prayers and exhortations, recalled them, if they erred from the promise of their baptism : and the sisters must be ready to receive such in retreat, and to labor for their reformation, where that is needed. " But the life of the Blessed Virgin being all perfec- tion, and including all the virtues of the religious state, points her out in all things as especially to be chosen as our model, our mother, and our directress. As, then, she has deigned to admit us into the ranks of her humble servants, has chosen us to imitate her life, and is our founder and superior, let us, in conformity with all the graces given us, as far as the frailty and corruption of our nature will allow us, imitate her virtues. Our good God has always, in the history of the Church, given to the founders of religious orders the special graces demanded by the spirit of theu' in- stitutions ; be sure, then, that he will accord to Mary, our dear founder, the graces which she asks for her daughters, so entirely consecrated to her glory and that of her Eternal Holy Son. " Study, then, her life, oh, my sisters, and imitate her virtues, and, if we are faithful, we may be confident of her perpetual help." p. r5.\"'.Mr*^' VICTOHiA, 0. C. 102 Devotion to the B. V. Mary This is the spirit which animated the whole life of this saintly woman — the spirit which she carefully in- stilled into the Congregation that she founded. In her own long, laborious life, she formed at least sixty of the sisters after this model; and since she has passed, as we believe, to her eternal joy and reward, she has seen from heaven that Congregation ramify and extend over the country, preserving intact the principles she left them. At this hour, in the half- dozen dioceses we can learn about, more than threo hundred sisters of the Congregation are teaching the example of Mary to seven thousand pupils in the very spirit of their venerable founder. So you see, my reader, what Marguerite Bourgeoys, the poor girl of Troyes, the austere, lowly religious of the colony in the wilderness, has to do with devotion to Our Lady in North America. IN North Amebioa. 103 CHAPTER V. EmtionKATTOTr of tiie IIurons— Our Ladt of Foik — New Lorktto — Thk NoKTiiwEST— Immaculate CoNCEI'TIO^f im Illinoiu-Maky Ako— Down the MissisBipri — Hack to Montreal— Our Lady's Guakd — The Tonoreoation again — The Recluse or Ville-Makik— Our Lady or Anqels. Westward from Nazareth and Bethlehem, through Europe, to the shores of America ; westward, athwart that continent, advanced the devotion to Mary, on its consecrating march to the Pacific. "We have seen the broad St. Lawrence entered by her servants; a vast manor given up to her in the territory of Quebec ; a city built as a monument of devotion to her, and solemnly called by her name ; and the bearers oi her standard pushing westward, painfully, but with courage un- flinching, and planting a fort or a chapel, a station or a mission-house of St. Mary, to mark their toilsome but triumphant way. Let us follow it as it leads through the limits of the present British possessions ; then through the French claim, down the Valley of the Mississippi, and so to its progress under the Spanish flag, and to the settlement oi the United States. This much will bring us to the year 1776, and thus to the present day. The Huron learned quickly to love the name of Mary. Above all, the women looked up, from their la- I , 104 Devotion to the B. V. Mary borious debasement, to this glorified model of woman- hood; and when they heard from the Jesuit or the Sulpician that, by imitating her virtues, they might share in her glory ; when they saw the Ursuline, the Hospitaliere, and the daughter of Notre Dame, tread- ing this sanctified path, they gave up their very hearts to the Immaculate Queen, and besought her followers on earth to teach them the way to her protection. Nor less did the tall warrior swear himself to her ban- ner ; the wisest spake her praises by the council-fires of his tribe ; the bravest crowned his dusky forehead with the grains of her rosary. Mary of the Incarna- tion could count two hundred redskins in her schools ; Marguerite of the Blessed Sacrament saw them de- voted sisters of her order. In their country the mis- sionary placed his headquarters, St. Mary's on the Matchedash or Wye. " There, at the humble house dedicated to the Virgin, in one year, three thousand guests from the cabins of the red-man received a frugal welcome." * And thence the early Jesuits went forth to discovery, to spiritual conquest, or to martyrdom. In the cabin of the Huron they date as fathers of the tribe ; side by side with the Huron they received the deadly arrow, or felt the keen scalping-knife of the Iroquois. Breboeuf organized the mission in 1634, and the Fathers never left until the Hurons were no more a people, 16 "^0. They taught them in the day of peace ; Bancroft's Hiatoty of the United States, vol. ill. 125. IN North Amemca. 105 suffered with them in their misfortunes, and gave them hope beyond the grave for their restraint and consola- tion. The triumph of the Iroquois broke the nation up into five bands. The first sought immediate security with the French. The second fled northward to the Manitoulin Islands, and, driven thence by their implacable foemen, took refuge in Quebec. The third, appealing to the generosity of the Mohawks, were re- ceived by them as brethren and adopted into the tribe. Here they preserved the faith, although without priest or instruction. They met in common to chant the hymns they had learned, and to tell the beads they had acquired before the days of their captivity. They became missionaries among their captors, and allured many from paganism. When the Fathers at length penetrated into the Iroquois cantons, some of these converts, grown old in the long-deferred hope of bap- tism, rushed forward to meet them, and wept aloud for joy. The fourth troop went to Mackinac, where the enemy followed ; thence far beyond Lake Superior to the Sioux, who treated them as ill as the Iroquois; thence to the Ottawas, in North Michigan ; and then to Point St. Ignace, upon the Straits of Mackinac, where a small remnant of them dwells to-day. The fifth joined the Eries, and, with them, were blotted from existence by their relentless enemies. The first alone reaped benefit from the national ruin. They settled in Isle Orleans, in the St. Lawrence, and changed its name to St. Mary's Isle, and here, amid their cabins, rose the house of prayer, and the fixed, 6* 106 Devotion to the B. V. Mary thougli humble, residence of the missionary. The Iro- quois drove them even from that, it is true ; but, when the war was over, they settled again about four miles off, and gave to their new home the name of Mission of Our Lady of Foie. Hither the Belgian Jesuits brought a statue of the Holy Virgin, sculptured from the oak of that forest near Dinan, in which was found the miraculous image which bears the title of Notre Dame de Foie in Europe. But their need of the chase drew them nearer to the woods, and a league further brought them to a place wherein they hoped at length to rest. The cabins were arranged in the form of a square, and in the midst of them the church was placed supereminent, dominating aU the village with its cross as in perpetual henediction. To this the missionary, Chaumonot, added a chapel of the Blessed Virgin, in size and form, material and furniture, a copy of the Holy House of Loretto, wherein our Lord was born. This became the holy place of the Indians. The Iroquois convert found a home here, side by side with his ancient Huron victim. The Hurcns them- selves grew in holiness and all primitive virtues ; and their brethren in far exile were wont to make pilgrim- ages hither vard, bringing offerings of furs and balm, from the distant west, to the feet of the Virgin Im- maculate. Another and final removal to a very short distance took place long after. They called the settle- ment the New Loretto,' and there, to-day, are gathered . at: Notes to Breesani's Relation, 809-318. IN North America. 107 the fast-fading remnants of the once grand Huron nation. What was once the site of the Old Loretto of the Hurons is now the parish of the Annunciation of Our Lady. The Cross went northward, and was planted among the Chippewas of Lake Superior. The mission-house was called by the name of Mary, and stood where the cathedral of the Immaculate Conception now shadows the leaping waters of the Saut. Then along the south shore of the same great water, Father Allouez carried the beautiful devotion, founded the mission of the Holy Ghost at the very extremity of the lake, and taught a Chippewa choir to chant the Pater and the Ave Maria.' And here he met the scattered Hurons and Ottawas, the sun-worshipping Pottowattomie from the recesses of Lake Michigan, the Sac and Fox, the gentle Illinois, and the proud warrior Dacota. For years, Allouez, Dablon, Marquette evangehzed the vast regions from Green Bay to the head of Superior, " de- fying the severity of climates, wading through water or through snows, without the comfort of fire, having TO ba id but pounded maize, and often no food but ■v liu-rholesome moss from the rocks; laboring in- cess. rdv ; exposed to live, as it were, without nourish- ment, to sleep without a resting-place, to travel far, and always incurring perils; to carry his life in his hand, or rather daily, and oftener than every day, to hold it up as a target, expecting captivity, death from ' Bancroft's History of the United States, iii. 160. 108 Devotion to the B. V. Mary the tomahawk, tortures, fire." ' So to the Fox River, to Iowa and Wisconsin, to the tribes of the Kickapoo, the Mascoutin, and the Miami, the devoted tarvant of Mary proclaimed her beautiful name. The Mission of the Immaculate Conception among the Illinois was the most prosperous, although not without its checks. In a foray of the Elickapoos the Kecollect Rigourde was slain, and his colleague, Membre, put to flight. Allouez, the " Apostle of the West," laboi / ' ig, and then retired to Isle St. Joseph to die. at, as in later times, with other races, some of the red men were willing to adopt Christianity only on condition that it should not inter- fere with their passions. The chief of the Kaskaskias called himself a Christian, and professed great re- spect for the missionary, but he lost it in this way. The light of his lodge was his daughter Mary, brought up from childhood in the faith, which had found congenial soil in her innocent heart. Mary had heard of the virgin spouses of Christ, and longed always to be such as they were. Besides, she desired to belong altogether to that dear, spotless Mother of Purity, whose name she had received in baptism. But a Frenchman, named Ako, rich for the place and time, but dissolute and reckless, demanded her hand, and her father determined to give it him. Mary prayed earnestly to be left as she was ; she told her father that she had given her heart to God, > Bancroft's History of the United States, iii. 153. IN North AMErao. 109 and could not religiously marry ; but the old chief forcf ' her to the chapel. At the very altar she told Father Gravier of her earnest dislike to the marriage, and was instructed by him that her free consent was necessary. This she refused to give, and the party left the chapel. But her dusky sire stripped her and turned her from his lodge. More than this, he won the other chiefs to his side, and the " Prayer" was pro- hibited in the village. Gravier appealed to the French commandant, one of the adventurer La Salle's posting, but Ako had been there before him, and he was dis- missed with blame and reproach. The mission was tottering to its fall. Fifty Peorias and Kaskaskias remained faithful, but their opposition was only strong enough to irritate, not to resist, the party of the chief. The cross would soon be broken down, the chapel closed, the pastor driven away. Then Mary offered herself in sacrifice for the good of her tribe, and, on her father's promise to restore the mission, she gave her hand to Ako. Her virtues and her gentleness re- claimed the dissolute Frenchman, and he became a model of penitence. The old chief made himself a sacristan, and morn and evening he went through the village calling his people to prayer. His wife in- fluenced the women, as he did the warriors ; and Mary assembled the children daily in her house, and taught them to invoke, by prayer and hymn, the benign Refuge of Sinners. From this source was it that the good Indian woman drew her consolation and strength. " I call her only 110 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Mother," she was wont to say of the Blessed Mother of her Lord. " I beg her, with all the terms of endear- ment that I know, to accept me as her child. If she accept me not as daughter, if she will not be my mother, what can I do ? I am but a child, and know not how to pray. I beg her to teach me how to pray, how to defend myself against the evil one, who attacks me ceaselessly, and will effect my fall unless I have recourse to her, unless she shelter me in her arms, as a gentle mother does a frightened child." ' This was an Illinois Christian woman two hundred years ago. I know of no country in which the influence and in- terference — so to speak of the Blessed Mother of God — is so evident as in this country. Here, now, in Illi- nois, as the first Jesuits disappear, the Priests of the Foreign Mission take their place, and the Priests of the Foreign Mission were originated in a sodality of the Blessed Virgin in Paris. These carried the be- loved name to the banks of the Ohio and the St. Joseph's. The number of converts among the Illinois grew rapidly, and embraced the noblest and best of the tribe. So changed was an Indian village now, that the French settlers preferred to choose their wives from its maidens. At home, the tribe was punctual at the chapel ; when they went to their hunting-grounds, they would meet every night and chant — for that was their way — in alternate choirs, the Rosary of Our Lady. ' Shea's Indian Mismons, 417. m IN North America. Ill There was no priest at Peoria since the death of Father Gravier, slain there by the influence of the medicine-men or prophets. But the grand chief wore a crucifix upon his breast, which he revered with sin- cere piety, and a medal of the Blessed Virgin. He had found this somewhere, and had carried it to better instructed Christians to learn what it was. They told him that it represented the Virgin Mother of God ; that the little Infant, whom he saw in her arms, was the Redeemer of the world, and that her especial title was Mary the Help of Christians. He received this lesson into a faithful heart, and he wore his medal with confidence in her whose image was embossed upon its surface. One day, walking with his gun un- loaded, he espied a Fox Indian lurking in a thicket, and saw that the musket of the savage was levelled at his heart. Then he cried to Mary Help of Christians, and she heard him. Five times in succession the gun of the Fox missed fire. Before he could aim a sixth time, the piece of the Peoria chief was charged and levelled in its turn. The Fox surrendered, threw down his gun, and the votary of Mary led him triumphantly to his lodge. It was to Father de Charlevoix that he told the story, when he brought his little daughter for baptism to that clergyman.' What most charmed the later missionaries, when they came among these In- dians for the first time, was their peculiar, grave, alter- nate chant for the Rosary. > Shea's Missions, p. 428. I 112 Devotion to the B. V. Mary These Illinois chanters of the Ave Maria had been even to the mouth of the Mississippi, to the new French settlements, chaplet in hand, and the by no means too pious Europeans there looked admiringly, and, perhaps, self-reproachfuUy, at these swarthy war- riors, who had not left their religion behind them in the far-off lodges of their tribe. Indeed, a prayer to Mary Immaculate was not new there, for de Soto's expedition in 1539 had been accompanied by twenty- two ecclesiastics. The Salve Regina had floated over the waters of the mighty father of streams, from the mouth of the Ked River to the ocean, and the infldel Mobilian, in the wilds of Alabama, had listened with wonder to the chant of the Litany of Loretto. Membre told the pure Name to the swarthy Arkansas ; Mon- tigny to the Taensas on Red River; St. Come laid down his life to honor it, amid the towns of the fire- worshipping Natchez ; Foucault, du Poisson, and Louel shed their blood while proclaiming it among the Choc- taws and the fierce Yazoos. When Iberville came from France, to meet the Acadian and the Frenchman descending from the Canadas, he called the islands at the mouth of the Mississippi, Chandeleur,^ in honor of our Blessed Lady's Purification ; and soon we find within the stockade of New Orleans the hospital sister (1705), the monks of the Blessed Virgin of Mount Carmel (1722), and those devoted pioneers of educa- > The French Festival de la Chandeleur answers to our old English f JandlemafiS, or Feast of the Purification. !'t IN North Amimca. 113 tion, the daughters of St. Ursula. Thus, then, from its head-waters to the ocean, had the devotion to Mary followed the tides of the Mississippi; and on both sides of the stream it had been planted, and its roots had taken firm hold, and had spread widely. We shall soon see their bloom. But we must now return, where indeed we find the throbbing heart of this devotion, to the city of Mary on the St. Lawrence, to VUle-Marie. There, while all others were contributing to the honor of their sacred patroness, their safety was watched over by the guard of de Maisonneuve ; for this gentleman had enrolled from among the soldiers sixty-three volunteers, all specially vowed to defend the town of Our Lady, out of peculiar devotion to her. The number was sug- gested by the years of her blessed life on earth ; and these veterans of old France formed thus, in the forests of America, a sort of military confraternity. They met daily for the recital of the Rosary ; they wore the medal of their order as a military decoration ; they approached the holy sacraments on all the feasts of the Yirgin ; and be sure that for all this they were the first to confront the cannon of the English, or to an- swer, with their battle-cry of Ave Purissima, the war- whoop of the sanguinary Iroquois. So, too, when their chief enrolls the inhabitants into a militia, it is ** attendu que cette isle appartient a la Sainte Vierge — because this island belongs to the Blessed Virgin." And those who are forward in the service are to have their names publicly recorded " as a mark I il ! 114 Devotion to the B. V. Maby of honor, as having exposed their lives for the interests of Our Lady and the public weal." ' And the imitation of Mary in her Visitation to Saint Elizabeth spread fast and wide, the distinctive institu- tion of Northern French America. It was this festival that Marguerite Bourgeoys had chosen for the patronal holiday of her institution. " The Visit of Our Lady," she used to say to her sisters, " was the occasion of the greatest of miracles, the purification of Saint John the Baptist from original sin ; his sanctification and that of his family. Take that thought with you, sisters, in all your missions. Imitate Mary in the sanctification of children." Swift and steadfast the good work spread ; ecclesiastics wrote to their friends in France ; colonial oflficers reported to the home government ; the soldier detailed to his ancient comrade the marvels of Marguerite's institution. Their missions multiplied from Isle Orleans to Quebec. Not only did they fol- low their vocation in their schools, but in what was called the Outer Congregation, which was devoted to grown-up girls. This was of incalculable benefit, not only in correcting morals and manners that were de- fective, but in implaniiiig the principles of purity and zealous practice of religion. On Sundays and festivals the sisters were wont to gather the maidens of the neighborhood to instruct them in ^he faith and in their duties for this life. Then they would lead them in ' Memoires et documents publles par la Societe Historique de Mon- treal. 1860, vol. ui., p. 134. ■.J ! IN NoiiTn America. 115 le- procession to the church, and watch that theii* deport- ment there befitted children of Mary, and servants of the Lamb without spot. " Then," says one of the biographers of Marguerite — " then did piety, religion, and modesty succeed to levity and indevotion ; and not only were all improved, but the hearts of many, touched by the lessons and example of their saintly instructors, grew disgusted with the world, and they consecrated themselves to God in the Congregation of Our Lady." * Marguerite lived to see no less than eight of these missions securely founded and prosperous in well-doing ; a few years after, they had increased to thirty-three, and now they form an especial glory of Canada, and are to be found in one diocese at least of the United States. Anywhere in their mission you may see them patiently, sweetly, perseveringly busied in their beautiful calling, the " sanctification of children," leading the young heart, through Mary's maternal tenderness, to God, her Eternal Son. But most edifying must that sight have been when they met in their new and present home in Ville-Marie, on the Octave of our Blessed Lady's Nativity, a. d. 1845, their number lacking but one of the hundred. And still more touching is tha+^ anniversary of theirs, when they assemble on the day that Marguerite Bourgeoys died — not to lament her as one lost, but to celebrate with joy her birth into ' From the large and very beautiful life, in two volunaes, pnblished for " the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame." Ville-Marie, 1853. By Rev. M. FaiUon, St. Sulpice. w\ I 116 Devotion to the B. V. Mary that new and better land Avhere her soul is reaping the rewards of her self-sacrifice, her labors, and her sanctity. For many months before the day comes round, the young girls of the wealthier classes consecrate their working-hours to the making of a complete outfit each for one of the poor children of the outer schools. And on that day all assemble, rich and poor, in the pres- ence of the good sisters and a concourse of friends, in the grand hall, where all the gifts are laid at the foot of an image of Blessed Mary. Tliere stands, too, a bust of Marguerite, at the feet of her whom she loved so truly and followed so devoutly ; and there, after the other exercises are over, each child leads up her little protegee, presents for Mary's sake the roll of comfort- able clothing, and adds something wherewith to make a little feast at home in honor of Marguerite and Saint Mary. And this is the annual celebration of the Daughters of Our Lady at Ville-Marie. One mark of the devotion to the Mother of God, which still exists in all its pristine fervor in Montreal, I insert here, as belonging to the Congregation by sentiment, although to our own time by date. It is an extract or two from the pious dedication to the life of Marguerite Bourgeoys, to which I am indebted for so many beautiful facts.' The aedication is — » Let me thank, here, for the loan of this book, as well as for the Life of Mademoiselle Leber, the kind courtesy of the Hon. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, M. P. P. for Montreal. »ri' IN North America. 117 "To THE Most Holy Virgin— Queen op Apostles," and it begins — " Blessed Virgin, I am most happy to recount here the touching effects of your love for the Sister Bour- geoys, who owed to you, after God, all that rendered her so venerable to the colony of Montreal. Her vir- tues and her labors are your work. Her biography is the history of your love for her, or rather, the mani- festation of your especial predilection for your beloved city, on which you have deigned to bestow so rare an instrument of your choicest favors. By this privileged soul you desired to renew and to make felt in this rising colony the effects of your grace. You made to her an abundant communication of your spirit, and rendered her a living image of your own apostolic zeal ; so that, veiling your power beneath her form, you gained as many hearts for God as she attracted by the fervor of her prayers, by the force of her words, and by the eflficacy of her example. Be blessed then, for this sweet discovery of your love. " Be blessed anew for having willed to perpetuate so great a benefit la this colony by the establishment of the congregation which justly recognizes you as its foundress, its instructress, its superior, and its Queen. She who originated it was but an instrument in your hands. It was formed by a diffusion of your spirit, extending from her through all the members of this body to give them life ; by your love it has grown ; by your care and maternal solicitude it has been main- 118 Devotion to the B. V. Mary tained until to-day. If you are Mother of all saintly communities, by the participation in His foecundity which God the Father gave you in the adorable mys- tery of the Incarnation, you are so in an especial sense of this institute, which has received from you all that it has, and is, by you, all that it is. Deign to protect it forever, and always to renew ihat primitive spirit of fervor and zeal which you gave it so abundantly at the beginning. Cause all who read this book to reap edi- fication from itL pages ; to be drawn to imitate the vir- tues of your faithful servant — above all, her sincere and tender filial love for you. And may they, by this read- ing, I'jarn how consoling is that truth, that he ivho has found you has found life ' in you, the Life which is Jesus, from whom by you he may attain everlasting salvation." Such, then, for two centuries, has been the ardent feelin g in Montreal for the Lady of their city. And it is by reciting such things as tl^ese that we reveal to you the secret springs of devotion to Saint Mary in North America. Although the history of the famous church of Our Lady of Good Help, and of the chapel of Our Lady of Victory," belong to the history of the Congregation, yet we reserve them for another place, and end this chapter with the beautiful episode of Mademoiselle Jeanne le Ber.' ' Proverbs, viii. 35. * Jffotre Dame de Bonsecours and Ifotre Dame de la Victoire. * L'Heroine Chretienne du Canada, ou la Vie de Mademoiselle le Ber, Ville-Marie, ch.e,i les Soeurs de la Congregation de Notre Dame. 1860. ByM. FaiUon. Bil i. IN North America. 110 Among all who loved Marguerite Bourgeoys — and who did not love and revere her? — none was moro eminent than this lady. Daughter of the wealthiest merchant in French America, she had every thing at her command that could make the world inviting ; an esteemed pupil of the pious Ursulines, the religious orders would have thought her an acquisition, but her vocation made her turn from both, and she went to dwell alone in prayer, and work, and meditation with God. It is not our purpose to follow her life, but only to look at it as a devotion to Mary. It was lo^e for this Blessed Mother that drew her so surely and at- tached her so ardently to the Congregation. " How happy your lot," she used to say to a cousin of hers in the sisterhood, " to be numbered among the daughters of Mary ! Learn well the excellence of your good for- tune in tlis, and all the extent of your obligations. You must be perfectly free from the maxims of the world and from all carnal inclinations. She who wears the IJ*^ iry of the most holy Virgin must care for naught else.'" Faithful to this predilection, when the time had come at last to retire, it was with the Congrega- tion of Notre Dame that she sought seclusion. The immediate cause was the holy death of a ; :^ung sister of that society, whom she tenderly lover"! . and whose death-scene was of such beauty, and hopefulness, and peace, that it broke what little tie there was to bind her to the world. She exclaimed in her heart, with f 1 <• Life," p. 234 120 Devotion to the B. V. Mary the Syrian propliet, " Let my soul die the death of the just, and may my hist end be like theirs." ' She de- termined upon absolute seclusion, but it was exacted from her that she should undei-go a novitiate, as it were, of five years in the house of her father. This ended, her mother's death, meanwhile, giving new strength to her purpose, she retired to the church of the Congregation, which she had largely aided from her abundant means. Here, in a little cell behind the altar, dwelt this de- voted recluse, the cell modelled upon the Santo Camino or sacred chamber of the Holy House of Loretto ; so that in this she might be perpetually, as it were, under one roof with the Motiier of the Incarnate Word. Here, with her rosary, her little ofl&ce of the Blessed Virgin, and her utensils for embroidering — for she proposed no idleness — she was at length inclosed, after vespers on the Feast of Our Lady of the Snows, August 5, 1695, to go no more out forever. Here she dwelt for nineteen years in prayer, in manual labor for the altar, in meditation, and in adoration of the thrice holy Sacrament. To aid her in obtaining the inner union which she sought with tho perfect dispositions imprinted by the Holy Spirit on the heart oi the Blessed Virgin, she kept continually before her eyes, upon the walls of her cell, two pious pictures. The first was called the "in- ' Moriatur anima . mea morte justoriuu et fiant noviflsima mea horam similia. — Numbers, xsiii. tO. ^ T m North America. 121 terior life of Mary." There you saw the Blessed among women enthroned on clouds, the hands crossed upon her immaculate bosom, while the sacred Dove, hovering over her, seemed to pour from his spotless wings His sevenfold grace. The eyes of Our Lady, raised to heaven, were fixed upon the sacred mono- gram, I. H. S. — Jesus Jiominum Salvator. This showed that if the Holy Spirit were the source of Mary's actions, Jesus and the salvation of souls was their end and aim. Below the print, you read : " With 3Iary. By Mary. In Mary." This was Sister le Ber's — for such was her title henceforward — this was her object now ; sought steadily in prayer, at holy Mass, in her communions and other pious exercises, in labor, in her poor repasts, to unite herself by faith and love to the interior dispositions of Mary ; and earnestly she be- sought that sacred and tender Mother to be with her spirit, her heart, and all her faculties ; ho. the model of her actions and the soul of her soul ; to penefrate and fill her mind, to possess it altogether, until she should becoiie a simple instrument wherewith the Mother might deign to glorify her Divine Son.' The other print represented the same good Mother receiving into her arms and lovingly supporting a Christian soul, which, languishing in this condition of exile, seemed to find all its joy and repose in Mary. The Sulpicians celebrated the feast of this interior life of the Blessed Virgin on the nineteenth of Octotjer, ^— ^— ^IM- ■■■ ■-■■■■■^».ll. ■!■ ■■■ill -- I ..— — .■■ . ,1 ■ II — I ■ I I. ■ I »^^^— ^^— — — ^ ' Life of Mademoiselle le Ber, p. 211. 6 122 Devotion to the B. V. Maby i \ and for tlie pious recluse it was a day of particular devotion. And, still more to honor it, even by the works of her hands, she made a superb vestment for the feasts of the Immaculate Queen, and in the centre of the cross she embroidered most cunningly the pic- ture first described. How all this love was answered and increased, we shall see in the notes of the chapek and churches connected with the Congregation. She never wearied in her benefits to this " family of Mary," as she called it. Her means had gi-eatly aided the building of their church; she furnislied the richest vases and ornaments for the altar ; she foimded there the Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament, and endowed a daily Mass ; and more, to maintain, out of fihal love and tender devotion to Saint Mary, an institute so distinctly her own, she gave them ten thou- sand livres " for the good friendship that she bears to the Sisters of the Congregation of Our Lady,'" the only condition being that the revenue shall be applied to their uses in Ville-Marie alone. Glad enough, we may be sure, was the heart of Sister Marguerite to have such a guest within the walls of her house. At the tinie of her coming there were other guests there also. The Hospital Sisters had been burned out, and had found aflfectionate wel- come from the humble Daughters of Our Lady. " We have now," says Marguerite Bourgeoys, " in our house l! > "Poor la bonne amitiS qu'elle porte anx Sceurs di la Congregation de Notre Dame." Words of the deed of donation. Riff m NoBTH Amebioa. 123 the three estates of women whom our dear Lord left on earth, after His resurrection, to serve Him and His Church : like Magdalen, by solitary life ; like Martha, by active life in the cloister ; like the most holy Virgin, by an uncloistered life of zeal."' There lived, then, the recluse, so busied with her needle, that she fur- nished all the parishes of Montreal with chasubles, altar fronts, and other ornaments. They still preserve in the parish church of the city a cope, chasuble, and dalmatics, richly embroidered on cloth of silver by her nimble fingers. Towards herself she showed an ex- treme parsimony, making her poor woollen robe and coarse shoes last for years by mending them repeatedly herself ; for of all her large revenues, what was left from her gifts to the altar, she scrupulously gave to the poor. She knew the Psalms and the New Testa- ment almost entirely by heart. They were her books of predilection. But, besides reading these, she re- cited daily the Litanies of the Saints, the Office of the Cross, the Rosary, and the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. Add to these her ordinary prayers, mental and vocal, her adoration of the Sacrament, the office for the dead three times a week, her embroidery, and her care for the poor, and judge whether she had not caught some of the tireless spirit of zeal of her sacred model and Mother. The faithful of that day and place believed that the angels used to help her. That she did receive many and > Vie de Mademoiselle le Ber, p. 2'29. 124 Devotion to the B. V. Maey 11. M visible graces from on high, it is impossible to doubt. Touched by her example, her brother Pierre also re- nounced the world from devotion to Mary in the Holy Family. Joining with Frangois Charon de la Barre, he instituted the Hospital Brothers in honor of St. Joseph, and built with his fortune a chapel of St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin, on the oppo- site side of the town from that where stood his sister's chapel of Bon Secours. This was the origin of St. Anne's, so famous in song and northern story. Dying before his sister, he left to her beloved community ten thousand Uvres, on the sole condition that there should always be one of the sisters who should bear the name of Saint Mary, and another that of Saint Anne. His body was buried in the church of the Hospital Brothers, his heart in the chapel of the Congregation of Our Lady — that it and his dear sister's heart might not be divided even in the grave. Marguerite, dying, had charged her sisterhood to increase the accommodation for their schools so soon as Divine Providence should provide the means. But thirteen years passed on, the necessity annually in- creasing, but the good sisters growing no richer. For years, however, this project had lain in the charitable heart of Jeanne le Ber, and now that she felt heaven drawing nearer, she determined to execute it. First, she recommended her project to the Blessed Virgin and to her holy friends the angels, and then she began to press the sisters to the work. They were reluctant, having the fear of debt before their eyes, and they put IN North America. 128 off the pious recluse as well as they could. But they were used to listen to her advice, and when she said that she knew it was the will of God, and that the angels would help them, they went to work and gave the first orders, although they had neither materials uor money. The foundation was dug, the corner-stone was blessed and laid by M. de Belmont, and the new house was dedicated to their heavenly superior, under the title of Our Lady of Angels. This was the inscrip- tion on the plate in the corner-stone : "Most Holy Virgin, Queen of Angels, refuge and safety of men, receive the prayers which we, in full confidence, offer, to obtain your blessed protection for the commencement, the advance, and the completion of this building which your servant and our good mother, Marguerite Bourgeoys, has charged us to con- struct. With all our hearts we desire that it may serve to augment your honor and the glory of yowc Divine Son. Do not, oh. Immaculate Virgin, ever permit mortal sin to enter in this house. Bid the holy angels watch so well over the conduct of all who dwell therein, that you may be ever loved and faithfully served as Our Lady and Our Queen. Amen." Ask in the country where it stands to-day, and they will tell you that immortal hands worked at those walls, and that the masons looked with awe every morning at a progress to which they had not con- tributed. Be that as it may, the house was finished ; and Jeanne le Ber, gathering together her last thirteen thousand livres, founded therewith what we would 126 Devotion to the B. V. Mary now call scholarships for girls who merited education, but whose parents were too poor to furnish the requi- site means. And this was the last act of money-giving charity, done in honor of Our Lady of Angels. It was the day after the Feast of the Blessed Virgin's Nativity, September 9, 1714, that she signed the deed of this foundation ; twenty-four days after, hope had become realization. On their own festival, the second of October, the holy guardian angels came for the pure soid of the re- cluse, and she died in prayer and love as she had lived, resigning herself into the hands of that blessed Mother whom on earth she had served so well. Her modest cell and work-room were religiously preserved, and the devout of Ville-Marie loved to go pray at her tomb ; but the cell with its furniture, the church, and the house of the Congregation, were consumed by th^ fire of 1768. When the establishment was builded anew, a repository was made on the site of the cell, where now remains, in His ineffable patience, the Prisoner of Love. Beside the grave of the recluse stands the miraculous statue of Our Lady of Pity, gracious sentinel over the ashes of her devoted child. Frequent recurrence will be made to Mademoiselle le Ber in these pages ; but now, for the present, we leave the edifying volume which contains her biography, and is dedicated with propriety, To Mary presented in THE Temple. IN NOBTH AMEBIOA. 127 CHAPTER YI. Dkvoi'ion of thk Holy Family— Ocr Lady of Victory— Our Lady of Good Help— Oub Lady of the Visitation — Lodoe of the Immacu- late Conception— Our Lady of Snows -Cathedral of the Immacu- late Conception, and Cuuuohes of Our Lady in CiUEsso. The first three titles written above are the titles of three most eminent devotions in Canada. Dating back to the very beginnings of the colony, they, or at least two of them, have grown steadily in the affec- tions of the Canadian Catholic down to this day. A favorite theme of M. Olier's devout meditation was the Holy Family, Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, in the stable, in the humble house at Nazareth, or the flight from the murderous wrath of Herod during the long hidden life of our Lord. As by this sacred household it had pleased the Eternal Father io convey salvation unto man, so did M. Olier desire to s^ecure its protection for the new France which was growing up in the snowy pine-woods of the scarcely trodden West. It was in February, then, that ;;his holy priest, assembling the Society of Montreal in the church of Our Lady of Paris, and having offered the eternal Sacrifice at the altar of the blessed Virgin, consecrated Montreal and its whole territory to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, under the particular protection of Mary, to whom the com- pany resigned forever the sovereignty and dominion of their lands. 128 Devotion to the B. V. Mary As he used to go before, on their journeys in the land of Palestine ; as he marched before on the weary way to Egypt; so now St. Joseph was the first to come amid the ice-fields and by the rushing rivers of Canada. He came in and with the hospital sisters of Mademoiselle Manse, endowed by M. de la Dauver- siere expressly to honor the pure foster-father of Christ. Then came the seminary priests of St. Sulpice, whose aim was, as is that of the sacred priesthood in- deed, to represent our Lord himself, and to difiuse His spirit. And, thirdly, came the iuf^'tute of Marguerite Bourgeoys, to make the name and thought of Mary revered and loved. To none of these three had M. Olier revealed this cherished idea ; yet, without their own design, they perfectly accomplished it. By and by, the time came ; the Jesuit Father, Chaumonot, pro- posed and took the management of the scheme ; the three communities accorded heartily, and the Confra- ternity of the Holy Family was estabhshed in Canada. The object was to reach the three estates of manhood, womanhood, and childhood ; to induce every resident of the land to do something towards an imitation of these great exemplars of human virtue — the men to find their model in St. Joseph, the women in Our Lady, the children in the gentle innocence of the Li- fant Jesus. Sister Marguerite records her signing of the act of foundation, together with Mademoiselle Manse, and Mother Mace, superior of the Hospitalieres ; "for," says the Sister Mozier, historian of the Hotel Dieu IN North America. 129 " our first superiors were closely bound in holy friend- ship with I\Iarguerito Bourgeoys and her sisters ; they were daughters of the most holy Virgin, whom they had chosen for mother and protectress ; and we daugh- ters of St. Joseph, which makes us, too, adopted chil- dren of the same Holy Family."' The first use to which Marguerite} ai^plicd the new scheme was in the establishment of a house for poor grown-up girls, wherein they might be taught some honest calling, while their souls were kept pure from the temptations to which they were exposed. And this was called the House of Providence of the Holy Family. Soon it was used for spiritual retreats ; then for the preparation of children for their first communion ; and so incalculable were the moral benefits produced, that royal procu- reurs grow eloquent about it in their letters to the king, travellers consecrated pages of their journals to its praises, and the Parisian Father Souart used to call Sister Marguerite la petite Salnte Genevieve dii Canada. Mgr. de St. Vallicr desired such a blessing for his episcopal city of Quebec, and sister Mario Barbier was sent to found it. From the very commencement, zeal and fervor for a better and holier life spread through- out the city ; every day gave birth to some new prac- tice in honor of the Infant Saviour, the Virgin, or St. Joseph ; the young girls in humbler life had been over- fond of dress, vieing with each other in self-ornamenta- tion, and, by dressing above their class, had exposed * Vie de ScEur Marguerite, i. 170. 0' 130 Devotion to the B. V. Mary themselves to vanity and the usual risks and tempta- tion that attend it. But, before the end of the first year, this was all cured ; and, on Corpus Christi, a modest neatness was the characteristic of all, and their head-tire and other gilded decorations were lying at the feet of the statue of St. Mary the Virgin. Since that day, no people has ever surpassed the Canadians in devotion to the Holy Family. About the autumn of 1711, Ville-Marie was filled with terror at the report of an English armament, twelve thousand strong,' on their way from Boston to the conquest of Canada. Montreal and Quebec, had they been together, had no means of resisting even the half of such a force ; and it was soon clearly evident that, if help there were, it must be only from the hand of God. To Him, therefore, the Catholic people had recourse. The churches were thronged, the altars a- sieged. Men and women vied with each other in acta of interior and exterior penitence. And, at last, the young people who formed the external Congregation of Notre Dame united in a vow to the sacred Mother of God, that if, by her powerful intercession, she would save the town, which was built in her honor and bore her gracious name, they would erect a shrine in their gratitude, in perpetuam rei memoriam, which should bear the title of Our Lady of Victory. As the time passed on, the rumors grew to certainty. The fleet was already in the St. LaAvrence, and advancing swiftly ' Bancrol't's History of the cJnited States, vol. iii. y. 233. IN North America. 131 Itly towards the city. The alarm reached even the coll of Sister lo Ber. The sister who carried her modt^st pro- vision to her, told her that, if Die wind should hold favorable, the English fleet and the ruin of Montreal would arrive together, and that in a day or two. But, after a short silence, the recluse said, calmly : " No, my sister, the Blessed Virgin will take care of the country; she is the guardian of Ville-Marie, and we have nothing to fear." Now the people of the good town had great confi- dence in the prayers of the holy recluse, and they trusted in God in the midst of their reasonable alarm. Her cousin, the Baron de Longueil, governor of the place, resolved to attack the advai.cing fleet off Cham- bly, and do what he could to keep them from the town. He could get but a mere handful of men, and his hopes were entirely in the help of their Blessed Putroness. So a banner was prepared, on the centre whereof they wrought a picture of the Virgin Mother, and Jeanne le Ber's cunning needle worked round the image this legend : " Our enemies put all their trust in arms, but we confide in the Queen of Angels, whom we invoke. She is terrible as an army in battle array, and under her protection we hope to vanquish our foes." M. de Belmont blessed the standard before all the populace in the parish church of Our Lady. Then, bearing it in his own hands, Longueil set forth at the head of hif, little troop. Their trust was not in vain. Heaven fought visibly for the servants of Mary. As the fleet came up the 132 Pevotion to the B. v. Mart I !' St. Luwrenco, abreast of Egg Island, on the night of the second of September, a fierce northward-careering gale smote them suddenly. Seven of the largest ships were instantl}' wrecked, another was struck with light- ning, and the shattered remnants of its hulk thing sheer up upon the yellow sands. The shores were covered with corpses — nearly three thousand, say the French — about a thousand, says the accurate Bancroft. The rest were driven from the river, and fled back to Boston, where their anival was followfid by a confla- gration that destroyed eighty houses. When solemn thanksgiving had been rendered to the Most High for this signal deliverance, the cxternes of the Congregation commenced their collection. The sisters gave a piece of ground within their own inclo- sure, and tLo chapel of Our Lady of Victory raised its roof above the dwellings of Montreal. Pope Bene- dict XIII. enriclied it with privileges and indulgences ; its patronal feast was the Nativity of Mary ; and, for many a year, no day ever saw it unvisited by faithful worshippers who ^ame to give thanks for their preser- vation. Burned with tbe other buildings, it was recon- structed in 1769, f.nd became thenceforvrard the par- ticular chapel of the rxfernct of Notre Dame. But the greatest, as it was the first, treasure of the good sisters was, and is, their clnirch. Our Lady of Good Help, A^otre Dame de Bon Sccowi 3. If you should make a pilgrimage to this famed American i^hrine — and a more edifying devotion you will not find on this con- tinent — you will see its quaint structure on the hill- ^ IN North America. 133 side, fronting Notre Dame Street, and overlooking the broad, sail-covered St. Lawrence. Its not ungraceful, rather Oriental-looking steeple, with its two open lan- terns, one above the other ; its steep, snow-shedding roof, and old-fashioned ornamentation of the doorway, will at once carry you back to the date of the Jesuit martyr and the Indian missions. Of course, this, or something like it, had found a place in M. Olier's saintly reveries. " Often," he says, " it comes into my heart that God will, of His grace, send me to Montreal, in Canada, where the first chapel built to Him shall be under the title of the Holy Virgin, and I shall be the chaplain of that Blessed Lady."* But he was not to see Canada ; the work was for Marguerite Bourgeoys, and we have seen her struggles to build crowned with ultimate success in 1675. The wish of M. Olier was fulfilled in the person of his spiritual children, the Sul- picians, for they became the chaplains of Our Lady in Ville-Marie. Father Souart headed a procession of aU the people upon the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, and solemnly blessed and laid the corner-stone — " D. 0. 31. Beatce Mar ice Vircjini et sub titulo Assump- tionis. To God, most Good, most Mighty, and to Blessed Mary the Virgin, under the title of the As- sumption." The walls rose swiftly ; a bell was cast from a bronze cannon which had been burst in the Iroquois war ; the miraculous statue of Our Ladj was placed in a shrine, ' Vie de Marguerite Bourgeoye, i. 238. 134 Devotion to the B. V. Mary gilt and enriched with jewels, and Bon Secours stood open to the faithful, the first stone church on the island. Then the sisters made over all their claim to the parish church of the city, retaining this privilege alone, the perpetual right to keep it in repair, and to adorn it, " which we oflfer to do," they say, " to render to the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, all the honor and service that we can." This was accepted by the Sul- picians, as lords of Ville-Marie, and the deed was sealed with their famous seal for Montreal, which shows on its intaglio the Queen of Saints kneeling to receive the Most Holy Eucharist from the hands of the beloved Disciple, with this brief, eloquent legend : *' Virgo Virgincm virghii comiminicat. A virgin to a virgin gives a Virgin in communion." And there, henceforth, were daily Masses said ; and there, in all distresses and calamities, were public processions made ; a daily pilgrimage sprang up for the citizens, and from the remotest parts of settled Canada came others, for already Our Lady of Bon Secours had be- come the refuge of Ncav France, and to her protection was attributed the success of the infant colony. This was the beacon of the boatmen on the stormy river, and the remembrance of the trapper in the far-off forests. For the Sisters of the Hospital, expelled by the fire of 1734, it became a refuge, a hospital, and a grave ; for, almost coeval with the fire, an epidemic of most virulent kind broke forth ; they had no place but the chapel wherein to lay their sick ; and it was within its venerated walls that they performed their offices of i IN North America. 135 k \y la )f it mercy ; and that deven of them, smitten by the plague, died there, and were buried there, under the eyes of the Virgin of Good Help.' In 1754 a great part of the town was burnt again, and this time, to the horror of the people, they beheld their beloved and venerated shrine reduced to ashes. Nothing was saved, picture nor altar furniture — all dis- appeared under the smoking ruin ; all things, save one. Beneath the ashes they found the little statue, not even discolored by the fire, but in perfect preservation. Imagine with what joy it was recovered by the Sisters of the Congregation! They carried it with devotion to their own church, and the holy Father was pleased to transfer thither the many indulgences with which the shrine of Bon Secours had been enriched. Many an evil followed this. Famine, and war, and English conquest, with its train of consequences ; and the ashes grew black with age over the site of the venerated shrine, and the rains beat upon them and mingled them with the soil. Now and then, a devout soul would say, amid the sorrows of a conquered people, " Ah, if we only had Our Lady of Good Help back in her own house, all would go well !" But the people were disheartened, and did nothing towards a reconstruction. At last the governor claimed the place as waste land, and this roused them from their apathy. Not that, at least ! The land, and the city, and the ' Manuel du Pelerin de Notre Dame de Bon Secours. Montreal, 1848. p. 22. 136 De\'otion to the B. V. Mary -people lie might liavo ; but Our Lady's little plat of ground ! no, tlnit, at least, no governor should get, by any fault of theirs. So, towards the end of June, in 1771, the ground was cleared anew ; and, on the anniversary of the first pro- cession, a second, manifold as great, chanting litanies and hymns, passed to the spot to lay anew the ancient corner-stone. The new inscriT)tion tells the history of the shrine : " D. 0. 3f. et Bcatce Maries Aaxiliatrici sub titulo Assumjdionis, Tcmplum hoc, pnmum nngiis/iori forma cedijicatujn, anno 1675, jyostcli flammis ad,ii.stiim o,nno 1754, ampUora forma restauraverunt Gives 3Iari- anopolifani, ciiUui Bcatce Clarice Virginis addidissimi anno 1771, die Junii 30" eadcm qua primus lapis vcteris ecdesicG fucrat impositus. To God, the All Good, the Almighty, and to Blessed Mary of Good Help under the title of the Assumj tion, the citizens of Ville-Marie, most devoted to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, have restored this Temple, built at first in 1G75 of narrower dimensions, consumed by the flames in 1754, in ampler form, this 30tli day of June, 1771, the same day that the first stone of the ancient shrine was laid.'" It was finished in 1774, and so stands to-day. It is not large, the nave being seventy feet by forty-six ; the choir, thirty-two by thirty ; but it holds the relig- ious heart of Canada. Over the portal stands Our • Vie de Marguerite Bourgeoys, ii. 427-80; Pelerin de Notre Dame, 23-24. IN North America. 137 Lady's imag(3, with the legend : " 3Taria Auxilinm. Chrinfianorum. — Mary Help of Christians." It lo-\s over the swift-rusliing river, and the flash of its metal- lic roof makes it a beacon to the boatman and the sailor, " beckoning him," says Father Martin, " as it were, to the shore of the heavenly country, the port of safety and repose." The famous image was of dark- brown wood, exquisitelj' sculptured, ond, after being the object of affectionate veneration for three cen- turies, was stolen by some infamous wretch in 1831, and has never been recovered. How it has been re- placed b}'^ a modern substitute, we shall see hereafter. Another ancient American shrine of the Blessed Mother, near, or rather at present in, Montreal, must have brief notice. It is that of the first chapel at La Prairie, the Indian mission so often referred to in these pages. The date is 1675, September 22. Very humble, indeed, in man's eyes, is the gift we chronicle, but precious as St. Peter's or Cologne in the sight of God and to the heart of Mary. It was only " a lodge of stakes or upright logs, straw-thatched; but, for thirty years, it sheltered the celebration of the Divine Mysteries, and echoed to the responses of the Eosary." Nay, within its little inclosure of twenty by twenty-five feet, Mgr. de St. Vallier once held a confirmation in 1692. And this is the deed of gift : " Pierre Pera, and Denise Lemaistre, his wife, both dwelling at the Prairie of the Magdalen, with mutual accord and consent, moved thereto by an impulse of piety, have given, and by these presents give, to the I 138 Devotion to the B. V. Mary K i Hdy Virgin 3Iary Our Mother, purely, simply, and ir- revocably, a stake lodge, thatched with straw, situated on their property at the Cote St. Lambert, with the site of the said lodge, as well as with a perch of land all round, and a right of way to be adjudged and marked out ; the said lodge, site, environ, and Avay, to be per- petually tised for the service of the Blessed Virgin, and this lodge to be made a church dedicated to her ' name." ' Sixteen years from this time the pious donors were massacred by the inevitable Iroquois; but the simple church they gave, blessed under the title of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception, survived them for many years ; and even now a handsome cross marks the spot, and has indulgences, attached to it by Mgr. Bourget, for all who shall salute it with respect. Here, then, is the second church of the Immaculate Concep- tion, in a land waere now nearly a hundred temples stand in honor of that wondrous mystery. Next, in Montreal, was, and is, the church of Our Lady of the Visitation, or the church of the Congrega- tion. Built, as we have seen, chiefly by the help of Mademoiselle le Ber in 1696, this shrine of the faithful children of Mary was held second, in the devotion of the people, only to Bon Secours. Here mouldered the heart of Sister Marguerite ; here lived and died the saintly recluse ; here, for many years, all the indul- gences of Bon Secours, were obtainable ; and here, in ' Souvenirs Historiques sur la Seigneurie de la Prairie : par J. Viger, Ecuier, ancien et premier Maire do Montreal. 1857. m North America. 139 our own day, some of the most earnest devotions in Canada take place. In 1718, a pious widow, Marie Biron, gave foundation for a Mass and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament in honor of the holy Heart of Mary, " with intention of conforming to the zeal which the Sisters of Our Lady have ever shown to inspire in the breasts of the children whom they educate, a knowledge of, and love for, that most Sacred Heart." ' For this purpose was the Mass to be offered and the Benediction given, after which the sisters were to say a Be Prqfundis for the souls in purgatory, who, when on earth, had shown devotion towards the Heart of Mary. This pious intention is still carded out on the feast of that title, the Sunday in the Octave of the Assump- tion. Burned in 1768, this church was rebuilt, as it now stands, by the close of the next year. The last of the ancient shrines mentioned by us here, is Notre Dame des Neiges. Fronting on Sherbrooke-street, a wall of defence and two towers are still erect, to show you where once stood Our Lady of the Snows. Formerly, surrounded by the dwelHngs of the Indian converts and their in- structors of the " Mountain Mission," it stood on the southern slope of the Royal Moimt. The present chapel of the name is in the village of Cote des Neiges, behind the mountain. Here follows the Legend of — ' Vie de Marguerite Bourgeoys, ii. 254. uo Devohon to the B. V. Mary OUR LADY OF THE SNOWS. If, i)n{>;rim, chunco thy Htuim should load, Whero, (jmbldin o( our holy crcod, Canadian crossi'H glow — Thoro you may hoar what hero you road. And seek, in witness of tho deed. Our Lady of tho Snow 1 In the old times, wluni Franco held sway From tho Baliz*? to Hudson's Bay, O'er all tho forest froo, A noble Breton cavalier Had made his homo for many a year Beside the Rivers Three. To tempest and to trouble proof, Rose in the wild his flittering roof, To every traveller dear ; The Breton song, tho Breton dance. The very atmosphere of France, Diffused a generous cheer. Strange sight, that on those fields of enow The genial vino of Uaul should grow. Despite the frigid sky ! Strange power of man's all-conquering will, That here the hearty Frank can still A Frenchman live and die I It The Seigneur's hair was ashen gray. But his good heart held holiday, Aii when in youthful pride He bared his shining blade before De Tracey's regiment, on tlio shore Which France has glorified. ' From " Canadian Ballads," by Hon. T. D. McGee, M. P. P., Montreal. IN NonTH America. 141 Oay in tlio fudd, plad in tlio hull, Thd fiTHt at (lanpfcr's f'rontior call, Tho huiu))l»'Ht (levotco Of God and of St. Cathorino doar WaH tho Btout Iln^ton ciivalior Bcsido thn IJivors Tlireo. Wlicn bleak Dontfnilior's chilly blast Fettonnl thn flowinjj; waters fast, And swopt tlie frozen plain — When, with a frijjfh toned cry, half hoard, Far southward fh^d the arc-tic bird, Proclaiming winter's roign — Ills custom was, com(! foiil, come fair. For Christmas duties to repair Unto the ViUe-Mario, The City of tho Mount, wliich north Of the great river lookcith forth Across its sylvan sea. Fast fell the snow, and soft as sleep, The hillocks looked like frozen sheep, Like giants gray the hills — The sailing pint; seemed canvas spread, With its white burden overhead. And marble hard tho rills. A thick, dull light, where ray was none Of moon, or star, or cheeri'ul sun, Obscur(ily showed the way — While merrily upon tho blast The jingling horse-bells, pattering fast. Timed the glad roundelay. Swift eve came on, and faster fell The winnowed storm on ridge and dell, Efifacing shapt and sign — Until tho scene grew blank at last, \s when some seaman from the mast Looks o'er the shoreless briue. U2 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Nor marvel aught to find, ore long, In such a scene the death of song Upon the bravest lips — The empty only could bo loud When nature fronts us in her shroud, B<;neath the sky's eclipse. Nor marvel more to find the steed, Though famed for travel or for speed, Drag on a painful pace — With drooping crest, and faltering foot, And painful whine, the weary brute Seemed conscious of disgrace, Until he paused in mortal fear. Then plaintive sank upon the r> re, Stiff as a steed of stone. In vain the master winds his horn — None, save the howling wolves forlorn, Attend the dying roan. Sad was the heart and sore the plight Of the benvmibed, bewildered knight. Now scrambling through the storm ; At every step he sank apace, The death-dew freezing on his face — In vain each loud alarm. Down on his knees himself he cast. Deeming that hour to be his last, Yet mindful of his faith — He prayed St. Catherine and St. John, And our dear Lady called upon For grace of happy death. When, lo ! a liglit beneath the trees, Which clank their brilliants in the breeze, And lo ! a phantom fair 1 As God is in heaven ! by that blest light Oar Lady's self rose to his sight. In robes that spirits wear I IN North America. 143 Oh! lovoUor, lovelier far than pen, Or tongU'>, or art, or fancy's kon Can picture, was her fuco— Gone was tlie sorrow of the sword, And the last piission of our Ijord Had left no living trace. As when the moon across the moor Points the lost peasant to his door. And glistens on his pane — Or when along her trail of light Belated boatmen steer at night, A harbor to regain- So the warm radiance from her hands Unbinds for him death's icy bands, And nerves his sinking heart — Her presence makes a perfect path ; Ahl he who such a liflper hath, May anywhere depart. All trembling, as she onward smiled, Followed that knight our Mother mild, Vowing a grateful vow ; Until, far down the mountain gorge. She led him to an antique forge. Where her own shrine stands now. If, pilgrim, chance thy steps should lead Where, emblem of our holy creed, Canadian crosses glow — There you may hear what here you read, And seek, in witness of the deed. Our Lady of the Snow. At Quebec, the KecoUect Fathers had raised a handsome church, as early as 1G93, "to the per- petual glory of God and the honor of the Virgin Mother of God, instead of the ancient convent of Ui D]:vonoN to the B. V. Matiy Our Liiilj of AngclH," converted iuio an asylum for the poor.' But oltl, ovon as tlio original convi^nt — oldor than onr little straw-lhntclied lodge at La Prairie- is the cathedral of the Iininacnlato Conception, built by the noble and saintly Bishop IMontniorenci do Laval, in lOOG. So that they built cathedrals in America two hundred years ago, in honor of that dogma which the learned reformed divines declare a novelty in 1860. The cathedral is very lofty, with massive arches of stone dividing the nave from the aisles; its dijuensiona arc two hundred and sixteen feet by one hundred and eiglit, and it can contain four thousand worshippers. The tall tower and spire stand detached from the body of the building. Its interior was destroyed by shells during the bombardment of 1751), and the pictures and decorations now there are modern. Next comes the hospital, with its chapel, dedicated, in 1072, " to tluj Blood of Christ poured fm-tli for us, and to the Blessed Mother of Mercy — [(/''I'So C/nidi Scnigiiini d 3Im'.ricoi'(Ucc Malrif and thither one goes to look at Coypel's famous picture of the " Virgin and Child." At the repulse of the British arms in 1G90, the Feast of Our Lady of Victory was established in the church of that title ; and, twenty-one years later, on the wreck of the Boston fleet, the title was changed ' For these notices of churches in Quebec, see " Hawkins' Picture uf Quebec." 1834. IN North America. 145 to Our Lady of Victories. The church was destroyed by the bombardment which injured tlie cathedral. Of old pictures of our Blessed Mother, which wo hear of in Quebec, the UrsuUnes possess an original Vandyke, a Mater Dolorosa. The Seminary of the Holy Family has a Flight into Egypt, by Vanloo ; an Adoration of the Wise Men; and a Virgin ministered tmto by Angela. K 7 146 Devotion" to the B. V. Mary "Hi All *! CHArTEE VII. Devotion in Tkxas, rAi.iFoimiA, Nkw Mkxioo — Omi IiAdv of (Iuaoa- MJi'K — Tun Nicw Mount (.Iaumki. — This Atlantic Si-anihii Mishion- AIIIK8— Mauyi.ani). In tlio North — as wo Iiavo scon — tlio devotion was planted and grew ; grew steadily, in si)ite of checks and obstacles. Thrt)ughout the present British pos- sessions it nuiintained itself healthfully, with the single exception of unfortunate Acadia. But its story in tho South is twofold. Brought by the early Spaniards, ever devoted to the Holy Mother of God, her nanio was proclaimed upon the coasts of Florida and Alabama ; was carried thence through the forests as far north as the Bay of St. Mary (the Chesapeake) ; as far west as tho yellow Mississippi. But new dominions drove it hence, only to bo renewed with additional fervor in our own day. This was the approach from the Atlantic and from the Gulf of Mexico. But tho conquests of Our Lady of Victories were more progressive and steadfast on tho Pacific side — the side of the Ocean of Peace. Here, securely sheltered by the golden flag of Spain, the missionary pushed his way through the Mexican territories, new and old — Texas and Cali- fornia. From that day the love of Mary has conse- crated those regions ; and still are the rivers, the mountain-peaks, the valleys, and the upland slope.s, IN NoitTH America. 147 Mossed l)y lun- bcautifvil luirno. A daily nowspap(T will show this, wluTc^in tho hitters from these countrieH are full of Santa Miiria, Asuncion, Vir Pascc populuni tuiim in virga tua, grcgem hereditatis tujB, habi- tantes soIom in salUi, in medio Canut-li. — INIicali, vii. 14. * The Hebrew word Carmel signifies Gods vineyard. I s '• IN North America. 155 ibi- fully armed, and shouting their war-cry, rushing upon them. A moment's commendation of their souls to God, and then the missionaries unfurled their battle- flag — the flag of the Blessed Virgin. Fold after fold, the azure standard, studded with golden stars, streamed out in the light of the sunset, and from its field the radiant beauty of Our Lady's eyes beamed on tlio startled Indians. Their hearts were touched; they threw away their arms ; and catching their trinkets, or whatever else they had of value with them, they camo forward humbly to off'er them to her as a propitiatory gift. They were soon won to know her and love her better ; the Mission of San Gabriel, of him who brought to her the message of the Incarnation, rose among the mountains ; the Cross was securely planted, and the first Mass was off'ered on the Feast of her Nativity, in the chapel which her new children had builded. Thus the whole golden land was won to Mary and her Divine, Eternal Child. Missions of Santa Maria, Nuestra Seilora de la Solcdad, la Purissima Concep- cion, were crowded with the Christianized natives. All these establishments had the same rule. At daybreak the Angelus summoned all to church for morning prayers and Mass before their fast was broken. After that, each went Avhere the duties and labors of the day might summon him. Again the Angelus recalled them at eleven, when they dined, rested until two, and re- turned to work, until the third Angelus sounded as the sun went down, and they gathered for the Rosary and then for their last meal. The evenings were spent in 156 Devotion to the B. V. Mary [ '■■ 1: innocent recreations. Their wealth was in common, and was hiicl out by their spiritual Fathers for their best welfare ; happy, innocent, and pious, thus they lived, until the " lust of gain in the spirit of Cain" stnt the eastern money- worshipper among them to blight, demoralize, and destroy. In 1837, thirty-one thousand lingered still in pleni- tude and peace ; but the next year Father Saria died of starvation and poverty — died clad in his sacerdotal vestments, as he strove to begin the Mass where for thirty years ho had offered it, at the altar of Our Lady of the Solitude. In 184:0 there remained of these poor children of God only about four thousand in all the missions of California. AVould you know the rest of their history, read the note which follows this chapter. While these first conversions were going on in the more Southern and SoutliAvestern States, an English nobleman, a friend of his king, yet powerless to prac- tise his religion even under that protection, resolved to seek for freedom of faith in America. A grant of lands w^as obtained ; the expedition organized ; the spiritual charge of it given to some Jesuit Fathers, and thus the first step was taken towards the establishment of that church which, two centuries later, should declare Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception patroness of all the land. It was then, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and thirty-three, on the twenty-second day of November, the first day in the Octave of Our Lady's IN North AsrERicA. 157 Presentation in the Temple, tliat the Catholic emi- grants, nnder Lord Baltimore, embarked on lioard tho "Ark" and the "Dove." "They placed their .ships," says their chaplain. Father White, " under the protec- tion of God, of the Blessed Virgin Mother, of St. Igna- tius, and of the Guardian Angels of Maryland," and so set forth to seek religious freedom in the forests of America. Their voyage was long, as usual in those days, and a furious storm threatened to .send them to the bottom. The two vessels were driven apart, and in the one which bore the Jesuit they expected and prepared for death. Strengthened by the Sacrament of Penance, they had resigned hope, almost, when the priest, kneeling on the drenched deck, called to witness " the Lord Jesus and His Holy Mother, that the pur- pose of the voyage was to pay honor to the Blood of the Redeemer by the conversion of the barbarians." The tempest soon billed, and, at the close of February, they gave thanks to the Blessed Virgin as they landed in Virginia. Then sailing up the Chesapeake, first called, by Christian men, St. Mary's Bay, they entered the Potomac, and reached the territory of Maryland. Their first solemn thanksgiving for safe arrival was made on the Feast of Our Lady's Annunciation (March 25). They offered the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and then planting a huge cross, hewn from a tree, they knelt at its <'oot to recite the Litanies. No other colo- nists of the Uuited States, known to us, dealt so fairly with the ret i-men. No rum, no worthless trinkets, no destructive weapons were used in trade ; but the Indian > IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3} *'A 4fe, 1.0 I.I 11.25 |50 "* ^ m ■10 111112.0 |2.5 WUl. u 1^ .P^^'-i' ■vs ^r Photographic Sciences Corporation '.«* 23 WiST MAIN STRliT WMSTM.N.Y. 14 a SO (716)873-4503 '^ U.A 158 Devotion to the B. V. Mary set his own value on the land, parted from it willingly, and received in exchange seeds, cloths, and instru- ments of husbandry. No native blood stains the soil purchased for St. Marj' the Virgin ; no Indian warfare is in the records of its history ; but on St. Mary's River they pitched their tents, and, in friendship with the red-man, laid the foundation of their town. They called it after the beloved Mother of their Lord, to whose protection they avowed their safety from the perils of the sea ; and for years the little town of St. Mary's was the centre of their colony. One of their earliest converts was the chief Tayac, and with him were baptized his wife and daughter, both of whom received the sacred name of Mary. And soon the fervent heart of the Jesuit Father White was gladdened by hundreds of neophytes, for the aborigines received with joy the doctrine of Christ. The cere- mony of tho baptism of the chief's family had been conducted with what pomp their rade circumstances permitted. A cross was borne in procession, the gov- ernor of the colony and his officers walking beside the dusky American king, and all chanting the beautiful words of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin. Soon came the crowning boast of this colony, the passage of the religious toleration act, in 1649 ; for these children of St. Mary had not been, like the Puritans of New Eng- land, soured by persecution into relentless and absurd intolerance. Churches soon arose to bless the land, sometimes the work of government, sometimes of in- dividuals, as when William Bretton gave, for a church. IN North America. 159 a grant of land " in honor of Almighty God and the Ever Immaculate Virgin Mary." ' This colony, it is tvue, was soon to see itself dis- franchised, robbed of its religious freedom, and its Catholic people stripped of their privileges for wor- shipping God in the way of their fathers. But before this, Father "White had displayed the spirit of his holy Company, in the evangelization of the savages. Sail- ing up the rivers in an open boat, with a box of pres- ents, a chest containing the sacred vestments and altar-stone, and a l)asket of provisions, with a mat for shelter from the sun and rain, he went forth in pursuit of souls. Towards nightfall the boat was made fast to the shore ; the two attendants went into the wood to look for game ; and the priest gathered sticks to make a fire, or, if it rained, stretched the mat upon boughs of trees. " Thanks be to God," he says, " we enjoy our scanty fare and hard beds as much as if we were accommodated with the luxuries of Europe." On one of these occasions he was called to a Chris- tian Indian, an Anacostan, who had fallen into an am- bush of Susquehannas and been run through with a lance. Father White found him clianting his death- song, and the Christian red-men beside him praying fervently. Then the good priest heard his confession and prepared him for death. But, ere leaving him, he read a gospel and the Litany of Loretto over him ; he urged him to commend his soul to Jesus and to Mary. • Day-Star of American Freedom, by Q. L. L. Davis, p. 228 160 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Then, touching his wounds with a reHc of the true cross, he bode the attendants bring the body to the chapel for interment, and launched his canoe to go visit a dying catechumen. Eetummg the next day, he be- held with amazement the same Indian vigorously pro- pelling a canoe to meet him. When they met, the Anacostan stepped into the priest's canoe, and, drop- ping his blanket, showed him a faint red line, which was all the trace remaining of the deadly wound. Rec- ommending him to make his whole hfe an act of grati- tude to Jesus and Mary, the father went on his way, giving thanks to God.' But here the further records of devotion to our Heavenly Queen, if any such exist, from this time to the Revolution of 1776, have, owing to the distracted condition of these States, and other causes, become quite inaccessible to the present writer. The present significance of the settlement of Maryland is this, that the devotion to Our Blessed Lady, expressed in the English language, here enters the now territory of the United States. The Spaniards planted it, to be well- nigh extinguished, along the Mexican Gulf ; and, more permanently, in Texas, California, New Mexico, as early as 1540. The French so cherished it from its first coming, in 1615, that it gi-ew with luxuriant beauty, grows daily now, and promises, by God's blessing, to shelter, with its pleasant shade, the whole North, from the Arctic circle to the great lakes. The English, as Shea's MissionB, 492, 49.3. IN North Ametiica. 161 we see, attempt tlio centre in 1(534. We shall return to them at the period of the American Revolution. Now we are to look at the other carlv Missions in the United States. Note to Paoe 153. inexpoctcM ifirniati )f this sun of fart is found in Ilnrper's Montldy Magazine, i»iu, p. ;ju^ et seq. Wlicn I saw in the Annnles de In Propngation de l(i Foi, the statement in a missionary's h'tter, that the whitrs wore wont to " try their new pistoh" uix)n the unfor- tunate Indians, I was unwilling to bplievo. Read, now, the testimony to that and to the Catholic Missions from the most prejudiced and anti-Catholic work in this country : "As California became more settled, it was considered profitable, owing to the high rate of eompensa'ion for whit(i labor, to encourage the Christian Indian tribes to adopt habits of industry, and they were emploj'ed very generally throughout the State. In the vine-growing districts thiy were usually paid in native brandy every Saturday night, put in jail neyt morning for getting drunk, and bailed out on Monday to work out the fine imposed ujion them by the local authori- ties. This system still ])revails in Los Angeles, where I have often seen a dozen of these miserable wretches carried to jail roaring drunk of a Sunday morning. The inhabitants of Los Angeles a: ' a moral and intelligent people, and many of them disapprove of the custom on principle, and hope it will be abolished as soon as the Indians are all killed off. Practically it is not a bad way of bett'-ring their condition ; for some of them die every week from the effects of debauchery, or kill on. another in the nocturnal brawls which prevail in the outskirts of the Pueblo. "Th(! settlors in the northern portions of the State had a still more efiectual method of encouraging the Indians to adopt habits of civiliza- tion. In general they engaged them at a fixed rat(? of wages to culti- vate the ground, and, during the season of labor, fed them on beans and gave them a blanket or a shirt each ; after which, when the har- vest was secured, the account was con'^'dered squared, and the Indians were driven off to forage in the woods for themselves and families during the winter. Starvation usually wound up a considerable number of the old and decrepit ones every season ; and of those that 102 Devotion to the B. V. Mary failed to pprisli from IningiT or cxpoHiiri', some won^ kill(>(l on tiif; gonoral princ-iplo thiit they must liavo subsisted by stcalinpf rattlo, for it was well known that cattlu rangotl in the vicinity ; whih; othtTS wiTc nir livrs, ii Kiinpliciiy iiiul fi'ivor of iiilclli- }j;i'ni faith wliifli riifOH, Hclf calKul HUptiiuM', would do well to t'liiuliitt). EmiiuMjt iimoiijj; tlios(>, for ]\'\h luauy viiiutvs, was tlu> AljJtoiKiuin, Clmrlt'H INrciaskwat. Hcaiiii}^, ono tlay, tliat a party of his pa^an ehiusiuon had taken hoiiio Alu'iiaki pristnuMs and wore tovlurin}^ them, thou«{h thoy were not cnonuoH, ho Imrriod in pursuit and yoh- cuod tho captivos, but not until thoy had hviHx most savap;t'ly triMitod. IJut ho brouj^lit thoni down to Sil- liu'y, or St. Joseph's, and thoro thi^ Hos})ital Nuns, from tho Quohoo foundation, dressod thoir wounds, and attondod thoni with tlioir usual g(n»tlt» charity until thoy woro (piito rooovorod. AVhon thoy wont home, well arnunl and olothod, Moiaskwat aooonipaniod them, visited their tt)wns on tho Konnohec, and j)roaehod Christ and Hi>^ blessed faith to thorn. Ono sajj;anu), or chief, retuk with liim to Qu«d)oo, was instruetod and baptized. His example was followed. In a little while, no Abenaki, or, as Now Yorkers called them, Owenaj^uuj^a, village was without two or three Chris- tians. Finallv, on the feast of tho Mother of God's Assumption into lieavou, year 1040, they formally asked for black-robes. And then two Jesuits wont forth from their ci'utral house in Quebec— Isaac Jogues to the New York Iroquois, Gabriel Druillottes to the tribes of Maine. Father Gabriel was received by a docile and gentle, although heroically brave people. In three months he could catechize and preach in their own tongue ; and IN NoiiTH Amkiuca. lO? ho liilxncd, on and off, as tlin nocnHsiticH of otln^ hiIh- Hion Htations nM|uin'tl, nntil 1(157; l»y Avliicli limn Iho j^ood Hoctl wiiH sown and had Hprun^ up, nidemi('s, yet men, women, and ehiUlren exhi])ited a firm, resigned lovo for the holy will of Ciod, most edifying and moat instructive to thr> civilized white, if, indeed, he would take advantage thereof. Their pecu- liar religious characteristics, if we may say p(>culiar where all were so good, were an intense triistful lovo for Jesus crucified, and a zeal for and practice of per- fect purity in honor of His Immaculate ]Mother. Ten- derly they used to call upon her beautiful name in their sickness, and fondly summon her to the couch of death with prayers. To her they sent their choicest wampum necklaces, the work of a whole long winter's leisure. Do you smile at the poor offering of Indian beads ? send your own necklaces and bracelets of gold and ruby, in the spirit of the simi)le Abenaki, and thou you may smile with more satisfaction to yourselves and edification to your neighbor. Among the treasures of the famous cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres," France, you may still see, preserved ' The letters, printed from the originals, form part of an exquisite series, contributed, among so many otlier things, to American Christian history, by tlie indefatigable zeal and taste of John (iilmary Shea. ' As this celebrated cathedral has not been described in tin; work of the Abbe Orsini, and as it had so close a connection with odr poor little American Mission, a note descriptive of it, and explanatory of a reliquary Boon to be mentioned, will follow the notice of the Huron reduction. IN I^oiiTH America. 100 ir 3d of lie with rcveronoo, a bund of tins soa-slicll wanij)um, all that the Aiuorican had of most j)rofi()iis sent to Our Lady, as a token of their siinph! 1 /Vi', in 1('>'.)5. The ground is viok^t, and in white letters you may read this inscription ; " MATRI MRGINI ABNAQUIfEI, D. D." " To the Virgin Mother, lier most devoti^d Abenakis." The chapter of the great catluulral received the offer- ing as it would have received the jewelled gift of i king, and wrote affectionately to the poor ludiuas a thousand leagues away. Whatever taste and power of delicate labor the Owenagunga could bestow, were lavished on this; belt. Tho 1 (est workers of the village were employed, the choicest and most perfect beads carefully selectt^l. And this they entreat the clergy of the cathedral " to offer as thoir little present to the most Blessed Virgin." " Though it be only Indian work," they say, " our sacred Mother will see by it our hearts, and all the sentiments of love and tenderness •with which we offer it. We have already offered it here, placing it at the foot of her image during two whole novenas, praying for you; and at the end of each day's Mass chanting the Inviokda hcnhjna liiyina 3Iana" These novenas commenced, one on the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, the other on that of her sinless Nativity. "Ah," cries Father Vincent Bigot, in writing of these India^is, " if you could hear them sing at the Holy Mass ; if you beheld their fer- vor, their innocence, their extreme abhorrence of even 8 170 Devotion to the B. V. Mary tho least fault, tliei> clocilitj for the sacred mysteries, tlieir love for Josus Christ crucified, and for His Blessed Mother, which attain to a very great tender- ness, to an heroic desire for suflfering, and all the marks of predestination which accompany their holy death, you would be greatly touched.'" The chapter of Chartres having made some presents to the little church of Chaudiere, the hearts of the forest children overflow with gratitude. " We always loved the blessed Virgin Mother," they write," " we always honored her sincerely ; but now it seems that your kind gifts have redoubled our affection and reverence for our good Lady. Some years ago we consecrated to her our vil- lage, our persons, all that we have, and all that we are. Each year, on the day when she was assumed, body and soul, into heaven, we renew that consecration. Present our poor little gift to Mary, and, what we especially desire, cause that this very paper touch her shrine. Maybe, from that, fresh ardor will be con- veyed to us here, to augment our love for our sacred Princess. We have said. Let this belt of Avampum confirm our words." The present sent from Chartres was, as w^e find by a letter from Kev. Per6 Aubery, written sixty years later, a very beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin in silver, a copy of that known as Notre Dame sous terre, or under-ground, so called from the subterranean ' Les Voeux de8 Hurons et des Abnaquis a Notre Dame de Chartres par M. Doublet de Boisthibault. Chartres, 1857, p. 32. » Ibid., pp. 34-38. IN North America. 171 chapel, which will be described in a note. This letter is signed by the missionary and six Abenaki chiefs. The letters of their missionaries are full of simple little traits of de\otion to St. Mary the Virgin. Some- times they would want the Lidian names, family names of the women, to distinguish in their registers one from another, and they would find the greatest difficulty in getting them. '* My name is Mary," they would say. " But I want your Indian name — your Abenaki name." And the answer would be, " I have no other name ; Abenaki name no good ; mij name is Mary !" Almost every woman was a Mary ; if they did not get that name in baptism, they took it in confirmation, or they would go and ask permission of their pastor to be called henceforward by the beloved name. Or, after Mass, they would linger in the church, even in the depth of winter, to recommend their resolutions and their good thoughts especially to her. And, after all, what else could they do, since they were consecrated to her individually and as a people ? It was on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception that this solemn dedication, or donation as they called it, took place. They adorned, as well as they could, the chapel of Our Lady in the church at Sillery, ex- posing to veneration their beautiful silver statue ; and, for many days anev, they practised particular devo- tions in honor of their elected Queen.' Then, every ' Relation de ce qui e'ecjt passe de plus reraarquablo dans la Mission Abnaquaise de Sainct Joseph de Sillery et de Sainct Fran(,'oi8 de Sales I'annee 1665 : par le Pore Jacques Bigot de la Compagnie de Jesus. 172 Devotion to the B. V. Mary year, on the Feast of the Assumption, they bore the image in procession to bless the village at Chaudiere, and solemnly renewed their gift. This was their act of donation : " Great Mary, may the heavens and earth bear wit- ness to our sincerity. May all thy friendc> gathered now in heaven hear us, and be glad that we thus imi- tate them. Let them testify that our hearts and our words accord. May Jesus, our Lord and our God, acknowledge our sincerity, who hath willed His in- fancy to be governed by thee, who so miraculously gave him birth ; who hath made the universe confess thee Lady of all, almost as though He had placed His sovereign dominion in thy hands. May He, whom we hail as Lord, behold our hearts, see that we have but one thought, that thou shalt be forever our Lady and our Queen. And thou, O Mary, hear us from heaven, where thou art throned in incomparable splendor; hear us, and accept what we offer. " O Mary, Virgin Mother of God, we have long waited for this day to choose thee for our Queen, for hitherto we have been but obscurely thine. Take, then, possession of us and ours. "We make thee mis- tress of our village, and therefore have we borne thine image hither. If in any of our lodges thou shouldst see what can displease thee, hasten to remove it. May all anger, and disunion, and evil speaking, all impurity, drunkenness, and every other sin, take flight before the approach of thy sinless steps. May the demon not dare to injure a land which belongs to thee. Do not IN North America. 173 3eu, disdain to dwell with us, since, having thee, we shall have the virtues that go with thee, and that remain where thou art, gentleness, unitedness, charity, docility. Do not refuse to dwell with us, great and glorious Lady. Though among us, vile and contemptible as we are, thy grandeur wiU not be obscured, but our lowli- ness and our wretchedness will give it new splendor by the contrast. " This, our blessed Princess, is what we have to say. Would to God that our words were engraven. upon the rock, never to be effaced. But they will not vanish, for they are written on our hearts. They are im- printed on the tender hearts even of our little children. They wiU hand them down, and our remote descend- ants shall know how we loved thee and recognized thee as our Queen. So shall our example teach them to love and serve thee. AYoe to him who would destroy our affection, or change the sentiments we have for thee ! Kather may the brooks cease to flow, and the sun to shine, yea, all* things to exist, than that one of our descendants should prove disloyal to thf^e. Love us, then, Mary, our great Queen ; procure for us the favor of thy Son ; and may we one day behold wi^h joy His unutterable glory and thine. We have spoken." ' This was the school in which the true Americans of Maine learned the faith which they practise still on the banks of the Penobscot and Kennebec. * Vceux des Hurons, pp. 30-41. 174 Devotion to the B. V. Mary "Wlien, after a time, the Missions were re-established in their own country, by the salmon-filled streams of Maine, we find no diminution in the fervor of these red-skinned children of Saint Mary. Father Thury, at Panawaniske, on the Penobscot ; the Eecollect Father Simon, at Medoktek, on the St. John's ; and Father Vincent Bigot and Father Eale, or liasle, on the Ken- nebec, were steadfast laborers by 1688. Bigot* has two especial themes of praise in his people, their fervor for the Most Adorable Eucharist, and their love for Mary. The first thing in the morning, the last thing at night, was a visit to our Lord, if only for a few moments : going to or returning from work, they^made it a law 'to go salute, at least, the Most Holy. So fre- quent were these visits of the children, women, and men, that Father Bigot declares it was like a continual little procession to and from the chapel. So constant a habit had some of them formed of spiritual union with our Lord and his blessed Mother, that none of their occupations could distract iflem from it. An old chief blesses God for his blindness, since nothing now can attract his sight from the wounds of the Crucified and the beautiful face of Mary. Maidens die in their bloom, blessing her for taking them unfettered by mar- riage and its distracting cares. A young man, whose right arm was dropping to pieces from necrosis of the bone, would ask her pardon for the irrepressible groans ' Relation de ce qui s'est passe dans la Mission des Abnaquis i I'Acadie I'annee 1701. IN NoKTH America. 175 ■wrung from liim by his bitter pain. To the priest ask- ing a young girl dying, if they could do nothing to assuage her sufferings, she answered, "No, father, I can wish for nothing more. The Mother of Jesus, my good mother, knows that I have no more fervent and continual desire than to see her face." ' An Indian who desires to reach a point has a way of going straight at it. Not remarkable for syllogistic abilities, he has a shorter method of reaching correct conclusions. The Mohawk, when the Albany Dutcli- man sneered at her for honoring Mary, asked to whom he prayed. He said, to Christ his God. But she shaking her head gravely, said, "Guess not pray much ; no have honor for Mother, no have miich for Son." One of the Kennebec chiefs, of Bigot's time, was taunted with the errors of his creed, in his visits to the English settlements, and urged by the people to adopt theirs. "Which of them?" asked the red-man, "for no two of you have the same." Of course they must deny the power of the Blessed Virgin ; for they could see the scapular on his swarthy chest, or the beads and medal twisted into his head-dress ; but he fought the usual battle with them, and gave himself as an example to prove his doctrines. " You have known me long enough," he said. "You know that I was as big a "■ mkard as ever lived. Well, God has had pity on me ; and I can defy any one to reproach me with having tasted wine or brandy for many years. To « Relation, p. 26. 176 Devotion to the B. V. Mary I whom am I obliged for this but to our holy Lady, to the Mother of Jesus. For to her I had recourse in my extreme feebleness, for grace to conquer my inveterate habit of drunkenness ; and by her help I conquered it. After that, will you tell me that the saints do not hear us ; that it is us!>less to address ourselves to the Mother of God ? I believe none of your words ; you are deceivers. My own experience convinces me ; and know you this," and the brave, a renowned one, drew himself up, and his dark Indian eye kindled, " know this, that I will love and bless the holy Virgin to the last breath of my life. For I am sure that she is glad now, and that she will recompense me for defending her cause against you." ' Father Vincent Bigot is succeeded by Sebastian Kasle, another of that grand " Company of Jesus." On his thirty years' mission we shall touch but lightly. In 1705, one Hilton, at the head of a party of New Eng- landers, burnt the church and village of Norridgewock, profaned the sanctuary, and withdrew. In 1713, after the peace of Utrecht, some of the chiefs went to Boston to hire workmen to rebuild their church. " I will re- build it for you," said the governor, " if you will dismiss your missionary and receive one whom I will send you." " Listen," said the warrior in answer. " You saw and knew me long before the French, but neither your predecessors nor your ministers ever spoke to me of prayer or of the Great Spirit. They saw my furs, my ' Relation, pp. 9, 10. IN North America. , 177 anr et.;~r.'''"^ ■' "'- ''^^y -«'.' alone, friend, a„„ „„„ „,„, o.^T 't'-' "'"^ -^ -^ route, and I „,.„,lero,l i In, r 7 "" ""''"'' «'« Atla.«l.„.,., no Q :t: "•"7'""""^-™^- -on as I had arrived 0^0^:," ""''" '^'"'""«- ^'' loaded with f„,.,, bu «","'"''""«• I«-"^ ''-ed to look ..;i " H ''''f *'' <" ^»- "- Sl-mt, of heaven, of holl of H ""' "^ "'" «'■<*"* o;''y ™>- to reach heave'n"' I 'L':::nr''"V^ "'° pleasure, and re„,ai„e,l in tl,„ ^f ™''* '""' last, the prayer jjeasod n. , r °"' "''"• ''""■ -^ t Tl-en I Ida f r C ""'I "*«• f» i-H-uction. Now I l,oU to tl,„ '""'''■'''"''<"' «■ * * » '°'" to «ie prayer of the French -To -101 thirty years now, lia, p.,fl, c , « ' Shea's Missions ! f 178 Devotion to the B. V. Mary ing, to the sea. There he has built a church — hand- somoj he thmks and says ; perhaps it would not much excite our more luxurious imagination. At any rate, the altar is handsome ; and he has gathered a store of copes and chasubles, albs and embroidered stoles, for the dignity of the holy service. He has trained, also, as many as forty Indian boys in the ceremonies, and, in their crimson cassocks and white surplices, they aid the sacred pomp. Besides the church, there are two chapels, one on the road which leads to the forest, where the braves are wont to make a short retreat before they start to trap and hunt ; the other on the path to the cultivated lands, where prayers are offered when they go to plant or gather in the harvest. The one is dedicated to the Guardian Angel of the tribe ; the other to our most holy Mother, Mary Immaculate. To adorn tins latter is the especial emulation of the women. Whatever they have of jewels, of silk stuff from the settlements, or dehcate broidery of porcupine quill, or richly tinted moose-hair, is found here; and from amidst their offerings, rises, white and fair, the statue of the "Virgin ; and her sweet face looks down benignantly upon her swarthy children, kneeling before her to recite their rosaries. One beautiful inanimate ministrant to God's worship they have in abundance — light from wax candles. The wax is not precisely opus apiumy but it is a nearer ap- proach to it than you find in richer and less excusable places. It is wax from the berry of the laurels which cover the hills of Maine. IN North America. P^J-er in common "„,. -"l""""" ""'^' '""''« ""^"' lobor. The mornL °""''' "''"'■'-'•■ »■"' --*- *° "'oir good fatliei- withT" "'' '° ""''""■"' "''" ««»« to ask his relief ",t""'';"™""'''*-^'l"-'"''-; He consoles this Z^^^T''^ "' °''"'' Vroj^ots. peace in disunited famii;™ . , '"' ' ''e-estaUi-shos administers gentle ",' o " "■'"■^'-' »-ien,.es ; «"^ «-d. The afternoon llr^o T"T'""'' '" vsited in their own cabins Wh ™''' '"''» ■•"•« blact-robo must come t "''^ "^^ " "<"■"-'. ^e its dehberations i a fea^ T* "'« H"'^ Sl-"'it on the viands and to check jf "'"" '"' "'"''^'■' '° '^■<^«« ^d al.a,s in the af erno«. T"t" '" "'^'"■'•-• »nd gray-haired squaw a , ^°""8 '™™« -ble for the eatetir^Crtr' "T """«"• ''^- ward, and the shadows dp „'"""''■ «eek the chapel for the , > r'^ "'^ ""'««• they bedtime neighbo.^ .^ther T ' °'"' ' ''"' '^^f™'" tfem, and, i^ a„ti;hral cS:'' ^ "'^"""'^ »' °- "f -dwi^^noth. 1^ 4°-;;:;^ ;« beads, 180 Devotion to the B. V. Mary I' I When they go to tlio seaside for their fisliing, tlicy boar with them, as waiiderinj^ Israel bore the taber- nacle, a chapiil foniied of bark, that they may have tlie consolations of religion, while exposed to danger and temj)tation. And now compare this picture of the progress of devotion to Our Lady, with any march of Protestantism among the Indians. Head the French Catholic's mission to the Algonquin, Abenaki, Huron, and Iroquois ; or, in our own day, to the Kaw, the Osage, and the Flathead ; and the work of Protestant England or the United States among the Seminoles, the Pottowattomies, or the Pueblos. One carries the beads, purity, and civilization; the other a whiskey bottle, deiilemcnt, and death. One thing, in a reli- gious way, the descendant of the Puritan is pretty rvpt to do — namely, to attempt the destruction of his neigh- bor's religion. Boston contributes a minister to efl'ect, if possible, this end, even in the wilds of Maine a hundred years ago. He reaches the mouth of the Kennebec, and building a school-house there, does his best to entice the children to it by presents and caresses. This failing, he attempts their parents, and snuffles out to them nasal denunciations of the Sacra- ments, purgatory, invocation of Saints, the beads, the cross, the altar lights, and images. Then Father Rasle, from his lodge, leagues away in the forest, ivrites him a Latin letter, sixty-two pages of it, full of instruction on these topics, and of charitable recom- mendation to let the Indians alone. And the divine replies, swiftly, that the arguments are childish; and so IN North America. 181 la wends back to Boston to inform tlio august community there of how he had been persecuted by the Jesuits. So, in 1722, Norridgewock was attai^ked by a force of two hundred and fifty New Enghmders, for after the ■war broke out the Abenaki adhered to the French Cath- olic, rather than to the Enghsh Puritan. A few old men, women, and children only were in the village ; but the Puritans were after the priest. He had time to tionsume the sacred hosts in the tabernacle, and to escape on his snow-shoes. But they pillaged the church and his lodge, and carried oil' evtny thing, even to his inkstand. They still show with pride, in Har- vard College, his manuscript Abenaki dictionary, made •with such long toil and patience, and bravely con- quered by two hundred and fifty advancers of civiliza- tion from an old ecclesiastic and a handful of squaws and papooses. Father Basle had broken both legs some time before, and yet he refused to leave the main band of his people, following them about wherever the necessities of warfare chanced to lead them. The New Englanders never relaxed their efforts to catch Father Sebastian, for in him they saw the soul of the Indians. Accustomed themselves to deify their own popular leaders, till they tired of them, they fancied that the strength of the red-man lay not in the Catholic faith, but in the talents of the priest. Him, at all hazards, they must have ; and triumphant success crowned their e%rts in 172-4. It was on the feast of St. "Bartholomew the Apostle, August tlie twenty-fourth, that a band of Mohawks and New Eng- 182 Devotion to the B. V. Mary I ' (1 lish burst upon the town of tlio Owenagunga. The women and cliiklren fled ; a few young braves who were in the village caught up their arms to withstand the enemy. But before they could be slain, the priest, remembering those words of our dear Lord, " Bonus pastor animam siiam (kit pro ovibus suis,* the good shep- herd giveth his life for his sheep," and knowing himself to be the real object of the attack, advanced to meet his foes. They saw him just as he reached the village cross. A yell of savage exultation, a volley of bullets, and the missionary lay dead at the foot of the symbol of salvation. Half a century later, the descendants of these men were asking the friendship of the Owenagunga against the arms of Great Britain. The Kennebecs, Passama- quoddies, and Penobscots met the Council of Massa- chusetts, and expressed their determination to espouse the cause of the colonies, but added : "We mast have a French black-robe ; we will have no * Prayer' that comes from you." Orono, the Penobscot chief, bore a commission in the army of the Revolution, and his clansmen fought beside^ him. "If one of our priests would be agreeable to you, we will endeavor to get you one, and take care he be a good man." Such was the offer of the Council ; but the answer of the Abenaki was still, " We know oiir religion, and love it ; we know nothing of you or yours." Thus faithful to the teach- ings which they had received in 1650, these true IN NOBTH AjfEBIOA. jgj American CathoUcs continued to cheri.,1, it bv ,o "nd crucifix, «n,I earnest prayer until « ^ , ''^■ cross wliicli Fatlipr n i ■ , "^ '"'™<"1 'Jio at BaUin.„l^Xl ," 77 ' '" ^'■^'""' «"-" faith. ' "• '''"""'"'^'J " P"^'"' of the true We shaU see these faithful ro<,.n>en, briefly, again. jl ill Hf) 184 Devotion to the B. V. Maey CHAPTER IX. Thb Devotion in tfik State of New York — The Saint of the Mo- hawks — Saint Mary among the Iroquois. Bravest, hauglitiest, handsomest, most adventurous of all North American aborigines, were the clans of the warrior Iroquois. The territory which they dwelt in was small, when compared with the vast circle travelled over by the nomad Algonquin, or the limitless prairies of the mounted Dacotah. The State of New York, with the neighboring parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio, held them all. From the wide St. Lawrence, they swept along the southern shores of Erie and Ontario, to the yellow waters of the Beautiful River. Amid the forests, by the clear blue mountain streams of New York, stood the towns of the tall, spare Seneca, the Cayuga ard Onondaga, the beautiful Oneida and the merciless Mohawk. To white man and Indian they were a terror and a fate. The far Natchez had felt their tomahawk, by the winding Mississippi. At the echo of their wild war-cry the heart of the Frenchman stopped beating within the palisades of Quebec. They slew the wandering Algon- quin on the edge of the Chesapeake, or caught him as he fled on his sinew-woven snow-shoes ; and crimsoned l|i: IN North America. 185 the white wastes of Canada with his blood. They were a dread to the Winnebago, although Lake Michigan rolled between them ; to the Chippewa and Menome- nee, although their canoes ruled the waters of Superior. They chased the unfortunate Huron from the fur-lined sepulchre of his fathers, and drove westward the poor remnants of that shattered trib. as the wind of the autumn drives the loaves of the forest. For their savage virtues were all nullified by their immeasurable barbarity. We have heard of indi- viduals in other races, whose cruelty won for them a bad distinction, but here was a nation, from th > hum- blest of v/hom the historic tyrant might learn his art. In stealth they were hke serpents ; in slakeless blood- thirst they were tigers. The Huron had no other name for them than Nado- Wessiouex — the Cruel. These were the enemies of Cartier and Champlain ; these were an incarnate and ceaseless terror to the rising colonies of Quebec and Monti'eal. They were Iroquois arrows which quivered through the palisades of the fort ; an Iroquois torch brought the new mission-house to ashes ; an Iroquois tomahawJ: sent the first priests to heaven. Their name is the one terrible word in all the early writings, in the letters of Mary of the Incarnation, of Marguerite of Our Lady, of the Jesuit relations, of the Virgin's knight, Maisonneuve. Priest and laborer, nun and warrior, wound up the tale of their hardship with horror for the Iroquois. Yet into the inner tent of that fierce people a ray from the loving heart of Mary shone at last ; they learned to hush the war-whoop and 11 M II 186 Devotion to the B. V. Mary to sheath the scalping-knife in honor of her name ; and in a Mohawk village which reeked with Christian gore, grew as sweet and gentle a flower of holiness us ever bloomed. Always at vindictive war with the Canadian Indians, they turned their ire upon the French when these made friends with the Algonquin and the Wendat. They at- tacked the very forts of the settlers ; they waylaid their voyagers. Beaten often, punished as well as the small force of the Europeans would allow, they returned with redoubled fury. Champlain and others chased them into their own country, fired their villages, and reduced them for a time. They would make peace with the white man and bury the hatchet ; but, dug up again be- fore the blood had well dried upon the blade, it flamed, hungry for murder, in the clutch of the treacherous savage. A favorite method of foray was the waylaying of Huron or French parties as they passed from Mon- treal or Quebec to the Mission on the distant lakes. But the cross was to be planted among even the sanguinary Iroquois, and the mode chosen by God's wisdom was as follows. In the year of our Lord 1644, Father Isaac Jogues, who had been laboring for years on the shores of Huron and Superior, descended to Quebec accompanied by a train of Indians. Twenty- three in number they started from the Mission of St. Mary's, in the Huron country, and in thirteen days reached the colony of the Conception of the Blessed Virgin, at Three Elvers. And from this place he was returning to Saint Mary's, the canoes hugging the ii ■ ' IN North America. 187 shore to avoid the strong current of the stream, when suddenly the warwhoop of the fatal Iroquois rang through the air and a hail of musket-balls rattled about them. The pagan Indians leaped at once from the canoe ; but the Jesuit, with the three Frenchmen and the few Christian savages with him, "offered up a prayer to Christ and faced the enemy." ' But already, at the first whistling of the balls, a catechumen had thrown himself upon his knees in the canoe, and the fearless priest had baptized him. They fought, some dozen of them, but the Iroquois were seventy in number. The missionary did not even try to escape. Eene Goupil, whom we have mentioned, was taken, fighting like a lion. The next brought in was a famous Christian chief, Ahasistari, who cried, "Did I not swear, my father, to live or die with thee !" Finally, a young Frenchman, William Couture, who had escaped, came back and gave himself up, saying, " I cannot abandon my dear father." This heroism won him the honor of instant torture ; they stripped him at once ; they tore his nails away, crushed his fingers with their teeth, and ran a sword through his right hand. The same treatment was then given to Father Jogues and Goupil. But we will recite no more of these brutal tortures here. As they treated Breboeuf, so they treated these, not once, but twenty times, stop- ping short only of death for the present. Whenever they rested, on their long journey of thirteen days, ' Lcttre du Pere Isaac Jogues au P. Provincial de la Province do France j apud Relation abregee de P. Bressani, pp. 188-240. l{ (I II 188 Devotion to the B. V. Mary torture was the amusement of their captors ; whenever they met another roving band of savages, and the forests Avere full of them, the torture of their victims was the feast to which they welcomed them. Twenty- two in number, they filed off from the battle-ground, and tramped sadly through the woods on their way to the toAvns of the Mohawk. Through the woods to the beautiful lakes Champlain and Horicon, and thence, past Saratoga, across the country to the Mohawk. The last four miles they marched on foot, carrying all the baggage of their masters, covered with putrefying wounds, unfed save by the berries which, with muti- lated hands, thev cau^'i('>'^'f^l> Domino Nosim Jesu Christo ; ova. pro 2}oj)ulo ; intcrvcni pro clcro ; intercede pro dcvofo fcvmi- iH'o sexu. Blessed INIary, Mother of God, ever a Yir- gin, Temple of the Lord, dwelling-place of the Holy Ghost ; thou only, without exami)le, hast been found pleasing to our Lord Ji^sus Christ ; pray for the peo- ple ; intervene for the clergy ; intercede for Holy women." ' And Mary heard him. Although the tribes upon whose heads his blood had fallen were fiercer and haughtier than ever, yet the day was to come when the knees of the Iroquois should bend in prayer to a saint of their own race and nation. At present, supplied by the Dutch and English with arms, they spread the flames of war over the land. They destroj-ed, as we have seen, the Hurons. They drove the northern Algonquins from the shores of the lakes, and slew the French and their allies under the very walls of Quebec. Then, weary of the war-path, the} themselves asked f(n' peace. And the heralds of this peace were those whose " footsteps are beautiful upon the mountains ; who publish glad tidings of ' Antiphon iu Little Office of B. V. M. IN North America. 193 good.'" Father Chanmonot asscrriblod tho Ononda- gas in tho chief town of tlioir people, on the Oswego ; received from tho nation a site for a niission-liouso, and commenced his labors by the baptism of a poor captive woman of tho Erics, and an explanation of the loading doctrines of tho Gospel. Tho red-men received his message with songs of joy, and the council gave permission to preach Christianity in all their villngea. Soon after, one thousand Onondaga braves wore to meet four thousand Erios in fight ; and they vowed, like Clovis, tho Frank, of old, that if the God of the Christians would give them the victory, they would thenceforth serve him alone. They drove the Erios like deer from before them ; and though many wore false to tlioir vow, yet a goodly number sought in- struction, and became the first-fruits of the warrior Iroquois. In November, 1G53, the back Avails of St. Mary's church arose, and the dread sacrifice of the Mass consecrated the land to its Maker. By the Oc- tave of tho Virgin's Nativity, 1G5G, the back walls were exchanged for stone, and daily devotions to Mary Im- maculate were paid in that first church of New York, Our Lady's of Ganentaa. The same year saw Father Rene Menard standing at the altar of a little chapel among the Cayugas, between pictures of our Lord and His Blessed Mother, and ex- plaining their significance by the legend of man's re- > Quam pulchri super morw.'s pedes annunt,inntis et pra?dicantifl pacem annuntiantis bonum, pracdicantis salutcm. — Isaias, lii. 7. N 9 194 Devotion to the B. V. Mary 'if demption. The great allies of the misaionaries were the captive Huron women, many married now to Iro- quois warriors. They brought their babes for bap- tism ; they instructed their pagan neighbors, whom they edified by their virtues ; " and in almost every cabin could be found an Indian mother teaching her wayward child to lisp a prayer +o Jesus and Mary.'" But the demon grew strong again. The war was re- newed ; the missionaries were driven away or fled ; and, by the end of 1658, not a priest was left in the Iroquois territory. But the converted Indians, nota- bly the grand statesman and noble warrior Garacontie, had been at work ; and the missionaries were implored to return to Onondaga. So, with much labor and in- terruption, the holy toil went forward until, in 1668, they had once more renewed their foothold throughout the cantons ; and, in 1670, the first day of the Octave of the Annunciation of Our Lady, the worship of the demon Areskoui and other pagan superstitions were renounced and solemnly condemned. But the English were by this time in New York, with the energetic Dongan as their governor, and the missionaries to the Iroquois were Frenchmen. Intrigues were commenced with the Indians ; the servants of Mary were driven from the country; and, by 1687, not one remained. Then the Catholics of the Five Nations went over and joined the French ; and though the missions were IN North America. 195 re-established fourteen years afterwards, it was only to linger out a painful existence ; and Father Mareuil, the last Jesuit in New York, left the desolated harvest- field of the Iroquois just sixty-seven years after Jogues had first enriched it with his tears and blood. But although the field Avas laid waste, the fniit had been gathered. In thirty-five years from the capture of Father Jogues, two thousand two hundred and twenty-five Iroquois were baptized — many children, but many noble women and the choice of the sachems and orators. Garacontie, " the advancing Sun," the grandest statesman of the Five Nations, the bulwark of Christianity for a quarter of a century ; he who cried out, before he died, as he covered with kisses a picture of our Lord, " Jesus born of a Virgin, thou art peerless in beauty; grant that we may sit near thee in heaven." Kryn, the high chief of the Mohawks, who, when his tribe would not listen to his pleadings, raised his wild war-cry for the last time in the streets of his village ; gathered forty devoted followers, and, kneeling down amid the graves of their fathers, poured forth a prayer for his nation ; then rose, and, with streaming eyes, led his braves away forever from the fires of their people to the Christian settlement at La Prairie. Catherine Ganneaktena, the Erie by birth, the Oneida by adop- tion, the foundress of La* Prairie on the banks of the St. Lawrence. Mary Tsawentc', "the Precious," the saint of the Onondagas. Stephen te Gannon akoa, who suffered purely for the faith, and was cut to pieces almost with knives before they threw him into the fire. 196 Devotion to tite B. V. Mauy Ourohoulian', tlio war-cliief of tlio Cayugas, wlio, wlion listening on his doath-bed to the story of the Passion, cried out, like Clovis, "Oli, had I been there, they never Avould so have treated my God !" Francos Gon- nonhatena, who, when a barbarous kinsman tore the criioiflx from her neck, as she stood b(mnd to the stake, and gaslied a cross upon her bared bosom witli his scalping-knifo, said : " I thank thee, my brother ; thou hast given mo a cross which none can take away." Tliose, and many another hke them, form the crown of the Iroquois missionary in heaven. But, brightest and sweetest flower in the Indian coronal of Mary, was Catherine Togahkouita, the ** Saint of the Iroquois." Her father a Mohawk chief, her mother an Algon- quin captive, this holy girl was born in 1650, in the town whence Reno Goupil and Father Isaac Jogues had ascended, by martyrdom, to their rest. Tlie small- pox, which made her an orjihan at the age of four years, had also injured her sight; and, shunning the light of the sun, she passed her infano^v and girlhood with an uncle, in a cabin, at the door of which tho tomahawdced priest had fallen. The child had not re- ceived the grace of Holy Baptism, and had only what Christianity she could remember from her mother's instructions, with, perhaps, occasional teaching from some poor Huron captive. Thus, her affliction of the eyes was, in God's will, a means and excuse for that letirement which would otherwise not have been allowed. Thus she grew up, free from the vanities and IN North AMEnicA. 197 vices almost iuovitable to an Indian girl in those Mo- hawk villages. The temporary peace already spoken of had been made with the French. The missionaries, whom tho savages had demanded, arrived from Quebec, but found chief and people engaged in a drunken debauch to cele- brate the peace. Behold " how all things Avork together for good to them that love God." ' The drunkenness of the tribe was the opportunity of Tegahkouita. Tho retiring girl, unfit for tho revel, was ordered to enter- tain tho missicmaries, and won their hearts by her gentleness. But her timidity kept her silent before them, and they went away from the village to their several stations, without learning her desire for bap- tism. The girl grew up beautiful. It was for the in- terest of her relations to marry her, for the product of the chase went to the wife and her family. But she earnestly and steadily refused. Entreaties, stratagem, argument were tried in vain. Then they btgau to treat her as a slave ; whatever work was hardest or most unpleasant was laid upon her, mingled with reproaches and even blows; but so invincible was her patience, and so docile her gentleness, that they softened even the hearts of her persecutors. Then Father James de Lamberville came to the vil- lage, and brought the fulfilment of her long-deferred hopes. She had wounded her f^'ot, and could not fol- low the other women to labor in the corn-harvest. The ' St. Paul to the Romans, viii. 28. 198 Devotion to the B. V. Mart missionary chose the opportunity, offered by the ab- sence of the majority, to visit those who remained ir. the village ; and to him the girl opened her heart, and set forth with touching simplicity her love for the " Prayer," and her long and ardent yearning for bap- tism. This sacrament, however, he dared not lightly confer. He gave the whole winter to her instruction and to close inquiry about her character. She came forth from the trial white and pure as the blossom of the thorn. Of all that knew her, no one could say aught but in her praise. Even when they blamed her for what they considered defects, the Christian priest knew these to be virtues. So at length, upon the Feast of Easter, 1676, she received the seal of regen- eration and the name of Catherine. Ah! then how her saintly soul unfolded, petal after petal, viitue after virtue, till she stood before the dear heavenly Mother Mary, whom she tenderly loved, a white rose of purity and all goodness. But her trials came with her graces. The time she took for her beads, which she said twice a day, for her attendance at the chapel, for her various devotions, was made a reason of blame and rebuke. The girls of her own age, angered by self-reproach, mocked and insulted her ; the children were taught to pelt her with earfch and stones, and to shout " Christian !" derisively as they passed. One day a fierce young warrior dashed into the cabin and swung his axe above her head ; but, without looking up, she crossed her hands upon her breast and awa-'jed the blow. The brave was abashed, IN North America. 199 and retired. Then her relatives returned to their at- tempts at her marriage, and omitted no effort to shake her resolution, but in vain. Even the calumny which is hardest for a woman to bear, failed to destroy the sweet patience with which she bore their persecutions. But she had heard of La Prairie. Yearly a few con- verted Iroquois would bid adieu to the graves of their fathers and go thither for peace in religion. And as the love of Christ grew daily greater in her heart, she sighed for the free exercise of her worship, the enjoy- ment of her faith. At last a half-sister of hers, a Christian, at La Prairie, opened communication with her and urged her flight. Father de Lamberville approved of it, and at length it was concerted. The husband of her sister and a Christian Indian from Loretto, in the absence of her uncle, managed the escape ; but the old chief heard it, and, charging his gun with three balls, he pursued them. They hid her in a thicket, and sat down by the road-side as weary men taking repose. When he saw them alone, he was ashamed of having suspected them, and, without telling his uneasiness, went back to his town. Then the flight was renewed, and Catherine, with her friends, arrived in safety at La Prairie. There, then, she saw with rapture a settle- ment entirely Christian ; and what Christians ! They were like those of the first century, living in the fervor of fresh faith in the presence of ever-impending death. For the leaves of each forest they entered were likely to conceal the war-paint of the Mohawk ; fi'om behind 200 Devotion to the B. V. IMauy Eir each rock on tho road-sitlo might twang the Cajiiga bow-string. Tho young girl vowod herself entirely unto God, and from that moment seemed to have no tie on earth ex- cept tliat of labor for others. At tho four o'clock Mass eho entered tho ohai)ol, nor left it again till after tho community Mass, two hours and a half later. Often in tho day she int(>rruj)ted her work to visit tho Most Holy Sacrament ; and in tho sacr^nl shadow of tho image of Our Lady, she passed whole hours absorlx^d in prayer. Ev(n*y we(^k she summed up her daily self- oxaminations, and approached tho tribunal of pcnanco. Tho least defect in her e(mduct C!iust>d her llootls of tears. " Oh, how can I bo wicked," she would say, " and oftend my God who has so loved me !" So serenely beautiful, so recollected and devoat was she at each communion, that the others used to nay they could make their preparation better if they knelt where they could see Cathorino. Her spirit of mortification was intense ; she used scourges and iron chains, and mingled ashes with her simple and scanty food ; she would remain on her knees, in midwinter, in chapel, until directed to retire by tho pitying priest ; she slept upon a hard bed strewed with thorns, until hor morti- fications, becoming known to her director, were mod- erated by his command. She visited the Ursulinos at Montreal, and falling in ^ove with their consecrated life, asked and obtained permission from her confessor to render her ever- cherished purpose of living a virgin for Christ's sake IN North America. 201 iiTOVOcable by a vow. Tliis wuh done on tlio FcaHt of tlio Annunciation of Our lUoHscd Mother. " A mo- ment after Our Lord liad been given ber in the holy communion, she pronounced, with woiubous fervor, the vow of i)erpetual virginity. Then she besouglit tho holy Virgin, to whom hIic always Iwid tho tenderest devotion, to present to her divine 8on tho self-oblation which she made ; and then passed several hours at the foot of tho altar in [)erfect union with God." ' From this time she belonged to earth no more, but longed perpetually for the presence of her Eternal Spouse in heaven, and to bo with her Mother, Mary, Queen of Angels. " She never spoke of Our Lady but with transport," says her biographer. " She had learned the Litany of the Blessed Virgin by heart, and said it every night alone, after the common prayer of the family was ended. She was never without her rosary, which she said many times a day. On Satur- days, and other periods consecrated to the Virgin, she redoubled her austerities, and passed the day in the practice of some ono virtue of Our Lady, augmenting her fervor on all St. Mary's feasts."" But the slight frame \'Jis wearing fast away ; the eager soul must soc- ' unchained, and, like the dove of the royal poci, i'y way and be at rest."* As the ?4 .'ing drew on, she prepared to pass away when the glory of the forest foliage and flowers was « Father Cholenec's Letter.— CAoia; dea Lettres Edifiantes, torn, vii. 447. ' Ibid., p. 463. ' Psalm, liv. 7. 202 Devotion to the B. V. Mary just dawning on the land. Tho men were all away at the chase ; the women absent the entire day, planting the golden corn ; and Catherine lay there, in tho deso- late cabin, alone, with a plate of crushed maize and a cup of water by her pillow, from morn till the stars had risen. Pain, of the acutest and most ceaseless nature, racked her worn, delicate frame ; but it never forced a murmur from her — never drove the sweet, tranquil smile from her lips and large, dark Indian eyes. The week of the Lord's drear Passion had come ; she was to keep Palm Sunday and Holy Mon- day on earth, x^^ ' er glad, eternal Easter with St. Mary in heaven. j holy Viaticum was administered on Tuesday. Father Choleneo would have anointed her then, but she told him she was not yet dying ; and she passed that night in fervent communion with our Lord and his dear Mother. "But on "Wednesday," says the good father, " she received the last unction with her usual piety ; and at three o'clock in the day, having uttered the holy names of Jesus and of Mary, she passed into her agony." In half an hour, without struggle or consciousness, she was asleep in Jesus. They did not pray for her when she had gone, but to her ; and many a cure and many a grace were ob- tained by her int».rcession. The holy bishop, Mont- morency de Laval, as he knelt by her grave, called her the Genevieve of New France ; they planted a tall cross above her ashes, where it still stands, and there did American Catholics, natives by a hundred descents, 1 ueel and pray to a native American saint, nearly two \l' meaxtummramKam IN North America. 203 hundred years before Satan invented Native American politics, for the persecution of those who say the prayers and worship the God of Catherine Tegah- kouita. Thus did the devotion to Mary take root in North America; fiUing human hearts with sanctity, ropeo- pHng heaven, and making new intercessors for a sinful world. The State of New York had been taken pos- session of in the names of Jesus and Mary ; its lands had been consecrated to the Immaculate Conception ; its children taught to say the Ave Maria or chant the Begina Coeli. In thirty-seven years the fierce Indiana of the Five Nations had learned to come in crowds to the New Loretto, and pray at the feet of Our Lady of Foie. St. Mary's Church was built in Onondaga. Another still, St. Mary's of the Mohawks, soon occu- pied the very spot where Father Jogues was slain. The picture of her pure, sweet face adorned the chapel altar at Cayuga ; the Mission House of the Immacu- late Conception stood in the midst of the Senecas ; a statue of the Virgin Mother was erected in Oneida, and the Sodality of the Holy Family won scores of that people to its banner. The noble Mohawk women wore their beads with firm devotion, though the burghers of Albany threatened them for displaying their "popish trumpery" in the streets. One, stung past all patience by the taunts of the boors, went into their temple and said her rosary aloud.' The brave ' Shea's Indian Missions, p. 208. 201 1)kv()tu)n to TiiF, B. V. Mauy and \vis«> (h'lr.icoiilii'' was iliivcn from tliiit tomplo for kno^^liM{J; upon ils llot)r to locilo liis t uwn pray?" It was tho a^(>il JNlohawk, AHstMjdaso, wIioho b(\'uls woro torn from his utH'k, whiK> tlio rais(>(l toma- hawk UnvatomHl his Ii(>ad, wliito with iMj^hty yoars. "Striko!" said th(^ old chioftain, "for this oaust^ I shall 1)«> {j;lad to die." Onti wtunan drovo her liusband from tho loilarning that h\\o had dono wron^, rooalhul him, and so won liim by hor giMitlonoHs that ho forsook his paj^anism. And another, mookod by tho Dutch for hor beads and her medal t)f St. IMary, said to them with quiet soorn, "You pretiMid to worship Jesus, yet ■wish me not to honor his INIotluu' !" Such, nearly' two hundrcnl years ago, was tho devo- tion to tho Virgin Mother of God in Now York. -90mmtmwawim IN Noiirn AMEnifJA. 205 CITAPTETl X. Otiu liADv OK l.oiticrro of tiik IIiihonh. One ffiir Sciiicrnlxir day, rnilun' moro ilian iwo cnn- tuii<>H fv^o, !t jonii}^ man, a novice, Hat in Uk^ ^ai(lro AvaH no wlKsatcni broad, no winn, nor any of tlio luxnrioH tliat Hwootf^n Eurojxinn life, but tlioro was abundance of Hun'erinfj;. And Hocond, tliat to inHtrnct and convert tlio baVbarouH trib(is of Ani(;ri<;a, tluiro was more need of humility, and pationco, and charity, and zoal for houIh, than of j^nsat wit or very f^roat learning. Then it struck the young man that Huch a lK)ine and such a life were precis(;ly what was best for him ; for ho had a very (h^cided calling to the life of a missionary. Kis name was Joseph Mary Chaumonot. For the sinhiss M(jtlier and jmro foster-father of the Redeemer ho had always had a vivid devoticm, even in the early part of his life, Avhicli had furnished him with abundant material for penance. So he turned to them ' " Tva Vio dn R. P. Piorrc Josopli Marin Chaumonot, do la Com- pagnio de Jesus, «'crit(i par luimr-irie par ordre do son Superieur I'an 1C08." Another of Shea's unappreciated gifts to American Catholic history. 206 Devotion to the B. V. Mary to got liim all the permissions that were needed to quit his studies, to be ordained, to leave Rome in time for the next missionary ship, and above all, to make, on foot and bogging his bread, a pilgrimage to the holy shrine of Loretto, there to offer liimself to her who in that house had given birth to God the Son. For he had made a vow to seek in all things the greater glory of God, under the especial protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. So, in October, he started upon his pilgrimage. The very first day something Uke the white swelling appeared in his knee ; but in spite of the extreme pain, growing daily worse by exercise, he for eight days marched on with heroic fortitude ; then by the intercession of a holy person at St. Soverino, during the Mass of his companion, Father Poucet, he was healed. They arrived in Loretto, and the vow was solemnly pronounced before the shrine, with this ad- ditional one : that, if it were possible, he would some day build in Canada a house upon the model of the sacred one wherein lie was then praying. We know that he fulfilled the second part of his vow at the Mission of the Indians of Loretto. During four- teen years he was chaplain there; during fovty-nine years he was Huron missionary. And in the duties of this post he sought to accomplish the first obligation. He and the Ursulines and the Hospital Sisters reached Quebec together in 1G39. Two days after his arrival he set out in a canoe for Lake Huron. His early instruc- tors were Lallemont, Daniel, and Brebojuf, the latter of whom had first made known to him his vocation, and t'^^j. IN North America. 207 whosG Indian name, Hochon, he inherited when Bre- hanif went to heaven by the bitter prih of Iroquois torture. From that moment he was a Huron. He never left them, except for a journey to Montreal or Quebec on their business, except once to aid the Onon- daga mission, until his superiors called him away in his last illness. Ho remained with them throughout their desperate and fatal struggle with the Five Nations, and did not forsake them in their ruin, but led the chief remnant of the tribe first to the Isle of Orleans, under the protection of Quebec, and, afterwards, to the new Loretto. It was he, we know, who expressed the unuttered wish of Olier's heart, and with Marguerite Bourgeoys, Judith de Bressole, Superior of the hospital, the Sulpi- cian Father Souart, and Madame Barbe de Boulogne d'Aillebout, founded the Devotion of the Holy Family. "While his Hurons were still in the city, he was ap- pointed chaplain of De Tracey's newly arrived troops. He and his new charge felt some mutual distrust at first, but when the soldiers saw that he was never idle, that he was in almost constant prayer, that ho spoke with them only of what concerned their souls, that he waited on their sick, saved them by his intercession from ill-treatment, and thought nothing of himself, they grew to love him. Soon he had them all at a short night prayer, then saying a chaplet every night in honor of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, and by and by enrolled among the devotees of the Holy Family. Nay, one of them, a captain, became a priest and 208 Devotion to the B. V. Maey pastor of Port "Royal, in Acadia ; another became a lay brother in the Company of Jesus. The next of his -svorks was the founding of Our Lady of Foie, a shrine immediately sought by the devotion not only of the red-men of the parish, but of the French from the neighboring city. The writers of the day record several miracles of mercy wrought through the intercession of St. Mary, and the little chapel was en- riched with gifts from Canada, and even from Europe. The Indians, in gratitude for the statue bestowed, had sent to Our Lady of Dinan a wampum belt, the first which reached Europe in this way. This one bore, in black letters on a white field, the legend, Beata qiice credidisti — " Blessed art thou who hast believed" — the words of St. Elizabeth to Our Lady when first she was saluted as Mother of the Lord.' A second, dispatched to Loretto, bore the inscription, Ave 3Iaria Gratia. It was received with all honor, and, richly encased, was hung up in the Santa Casa at Loretto. " The canons received it with all honor," writes the pious Chau- monot, " and I doubt not that the Blessed Virgin gave it a still kinder reception, since, a few years ago, she procured me both the opportunity and the means of building a new Loretto in the forests of New France." Ah ! Mother of Grace," he continues, " why can I not daily render thee a million acts of thanksgiving ? above all, when I have the happiness to celebrate the holy Mass. Were it permitted me here to set forth all the » St. Luke, i. 45. • Vie de Pere Chaumonot, p. 91. ^j^Saammmmr. IN North America. 209 wrctclicdnoss, evon spiritual, from -wliich thy pity has rescued mo, others wouhl be excited to thank thee for me, and to have recourse to thee with confidence." When his purpose was known, the means soon fol- lowed — land and labor, money from Canada, and silver lamps and rich vestments from Franco. It was com- menced in Jaiuiar}', 1G74, and finished and blessed tho same year in November. The ceremony drew vast crowds of French and Indians together. Tho Hurons and the Christian Iroquois, of whom, by this time, there were many in the Reduction, bore the image of Our Lady, a copy of that in tho Italian Lorotto, in solemn procession ; the Superior of the Jesuits chanted the solemn High Mass and preached ; and all hearts saluted with fervent devotion St. Mary of the Hurons. The shrine may still be seen, with some modern addi- tions, but substantially the same. It stands upon an elevated point between two gorges. One of these is thickly covered with vegetation ; but down the other, over rock and gnarled roots, rushes the foaming river. On all the heights, and on the sides of the first deep glen, stand the houses of the hahiians ; beyond these rises the remnant of the aboriginal forests, and the blue, wavy outline of the distant mountains forms the background of the picture. It is now called the "Ancienne Lorctte ; Church of the Annunciation of Our Lady."» Many a favor, obtained by Mary's intercession, *Seo engraving in Orsini's Life B. V. M. 210 DEvonoN TO TiiK B. V. Mary inado gi'iitoful hearts in this Roiluction ; many a rair- aclo nidod tho celebrity of the shrine, wliicli was now the only shelter of a once liourishin<5 tribe. Lot us give one story hero of Mary's pity, on the authority of Father Chaumonot. He says it would require a largo volume to record them all ; of this one he was an eye- witness ; his legend nins thus : Mary Ouondraca was a Huron woman and a fervent Christian. Her husband, Itaenhohi, and two of her children — one five and one fifteen years old — had died in the bosom of tho Church, and slept in the grave- yard of Our Lady of Foio. Some years after the re- moval to Loretto, this good Mary was smitten by one of the terrible typhoid fevers which used to desolate the Indian villages in those days ; something analo- gous to tho camp-f overs which we hear of now. So completely reduced was she that her whole body was powerless, as if paralyzed; the last sacraments had been given her, and her decease was momently ex- pected. S]iould she die, she must leave behind her her remaining children, John and Teresa. So, when human help had ceased to be of use. Father Chau- monot called the children — Teresa, a married woman, and John, a boy of fourteen — to him, and the three united in a vow to the Blessed Virgin, that if she would be pleased to obtain from the Master of Life tho re- covery of the mother, they would say in her church nine chaplets of the Holy Famib' in thanksgiving for the favor. When they made this promise, the priest went away to the chapel to pray for the dying woman IN NOIITH AmEIUOA. 211 In a few momontfl Tcrosft camo to say Umt hor raotlier askod for Ifrrhnn. Ho aroHo and linrricd to the cabin, recalling aH lio wont the prayers for a do- parting soul. As he entered the lodge, its raiHtress rose and received him witli profound reverence, d la Frnii^riise, he tells us. He thought this effort the last that nature would make — the flickering of the light before it should expire forever. He urged her to lie down at once upon the poor mat which served her for a bed ; but she said she would be as well seated. He again urged her, but she answered gi'avely, sho was perfectly well. Still the good Futher fancied this a dream of mere delirium, which, when she had ob- served, sho sent hor children from the lodge and told the priest as follows: That, soon after he had ( )no out, two persons entered the lodge and took their places by her mat, one at the side, the other, a little boy, at the foot. The one at the side seemed a young woman or full-grown girl, and said, " My mother, if you will touch the edge of my robe, you will bo healed." But Mary Ouendraca could not believe that any one from heaven would condescend to visit one so lowly as herself ; and as mortals would not have appeared like these, she fancied them demons come to trouble her last hour, and she prayed to be rescued from them. But the young girl, with a sweet, heavenly smile, brushed the edge of her robe across the sick woman's face, and said, " There, mother, you are cured." And then they disappeared. Then Mary tried to move, and confidence began to steal into her heart as she 212 Devotion to the B. V. Mary found licrself mistress of her strength. She rose and walked to the door, tried all her limbs, and sent her trembling daughter for Chaumouot; for the boy had fled from her as from a spectre. Then the good priest understood that the gracious Queen of Heaven had hoard their prayers, and had sent to her lowly Huron namesake her own children, with the boon of health. There were no degrees in the recovery, Mary Ouen- draca walked at once to the cli arch, there to offer her thanksgiving, perfectly restored. So man}' and so marked indeed were the favors ob- tained through the intercession of the Mother of God, that the poor Indians were always regretting their lowliness and poverty, because they had no means of honoring her as they desired. Nevertheless, they de- termined to do what they could. They had sent a wampum-belt to Foie and to Lorelto ; they must send another, ad Virginem parituram, to Our Lady of Char- tres ; foi the Mission of Loretto, as well as that of the Abnakis, had been united, by a " union of intention in prayer," to the grand cathedral in France. So they made as fine a belt as they could of black and white wampum, and they wrought the edges in the finest quill-work, of the richest dyes, and the legend was, " ViUQiNi Paritur^ Votum Huronum," and they sent it with this letter :' " It fills our hearts with joy, O Holy Virgin, that • Those wlio are curious in these matters may see he original Huron letters in John Oilmary Shea's exquisite edition of Father Chaumonot's Autobiography. IN NoiiTH America. 213 even before jour birth, the city of Chartres bnilt to your honor a shrine with this dedication, *To the Virgin who shall bear a child.' Happy are they who have won the glory of being your earliest servants. Alas! incomparyl'lo Llother of God, it is quite other- wise with us poor Hurons ; we have the sorrow to have been the last to know you and to honor you. But we would do what Ues in our power to make up for all past neglect of your service by fervent devotion now. This we desire to do, joining ourselves to your chil- dren at Chartres, so that we may have but one mind,, one mouth, one heart with them, to render you praise and service and love. We beseech them to offer for us, and in our name, all the honors which they have ever paid to you. It shall be they, for we hope they will not refuse us, who shall win your bounty for us ; their fervor compensating for our sluggishness, their know- lodge for our ignorance, their riches for our penury. "And, Holy Virgin, although your holy child has been born into the world, we will still honor you under that title of Viwo Paritura, so that you may deign to accept us also as your children. As we honor jou here in a house modelled upon that wherein you gave a human life to God, we hope that you will obtain a spiritual Ufe for us ; so shall you be, O ever Virgin, our regeneratrix until Jesus be born anew in our heartf. This is what we ask of you, sending this wampum in testimony that we are bound to your service." ' * Voeux des Hurons et des Abnaqais, p. 1. 214 I/EVOTION TO THE B. V. MaRY i I The chapter of Chartres placed the Huron belt among the treasures of their glorious cathedral, and were very kind to their poor Indian brethren on the banks of the St. Lawrence. They sent them, among other things, a very handsome, well-filled reUquary. It was of massive silver, richly chased ; upon one side bearing in high relief the kneeling figure of Our Blessed Lady, and of the Angel who brings the An- nunciatioUj who with one hand extends the lily of purity, and with the other points to the eternal Dove, hovering, white-winged, in the upper glory. On the other side you see the hollow oak wherein, on a low altar, sits the Virgin with the Holy Child in her arms. On the base of the altar is a legend, Virgini Pariturce.^ This was received with great gratitude, and on the feast of All Saints, 1680, it was exhibited for the ven- eration of the faithful. Sermons were preached in French and Huron ; the reliquary was incensed and placed within the niche prepared for it; and Our Lady was thanked for this, as for other favors, by the mingled voices of French and Indians chanting the Ave Maris Stella. The daily life at Loretto was more like that of a re- ligious community than of a village of poor Indians who depended upon the chase for their support. Morning prayer, Mass, and general examination in ' Notice sur un Rdliquaire donne en 1G80 aux Hurons do Lorette en la Nouvelle Fiance par le Chapitre de I'eglise de Chartres, par M. Doublet de Boistbibault. Extrait de la Revue Archeologique, XV. annee. Paris, A. Leleux, 1858. IN North America. 215 the chapel occupied the leisure of the forenoon ; cate- chism and instruction of those who could attend, with visit to the Blessed Sacrament, sanctified the after- noon ; and when the sun was setting, the sound of the bell called the canoe to the shore, and bade the loiter- ing hunter hasten from the forest to end the day with prayer. Then, when aU were gathered, they sang vespers on feast-days, and other prayers on ferise. They sang in alternate choirs, in Indian and in Latin, their evening devotions. There was a short examina- tion of conscience, the beads of the Blessed Virgin or of the Holy Family, the Pater, Ave, Credo, ConfiteoVt the Commandments, and other prayers for the living and the dead, an anthem to the most pure Mother, and the Angelus. Thus closed the day, and then the stars reigned in heaven ; or, if the clouds made the mid- night more profound, the Indian children of Mary slept in secure humility beneath the shadow of her shrine in the Loretto of the forest. Missionary to the Hurons for more than fifty years, the hour for Father Chaumonot's rest must l at hand. There are successors, capable men, for the miswion. Part of his daily duty was to teach the Huron lan- guage for at le-s; half an hour,' but at length the superior thought him too much worn for further labor, and recalled him to the tranquillity of the college, in 1692. What else we know of him is not from his ' His Huron grammar was the basis of all other Northern Indian grammars, and the text-book of the missionary. 1f^ 21G Devotion to the B. V. Mary autobiography, written in obedience and for humility, but is from the work of a contemporary Father who knew him and watched his declining years, as he passed from holy hfe to holier, in the college of Our Lady of A.ngels. He had passed the limit usually allotted to man, the threescore years and ten. In 1689, on the Feast of St. Joachim, the second day of the Octave of Our Lady's Assumption (Aug. 15), he chanted, in the cathedral of Quebec, his "Mass of fifty years." Half a century had he been priest, and had broken the Bread of Life to " the souls that hun- gered in the wilderness." Falling sick at last, the old man was summoned from his mission, but as soon as he had somewhat recovered, he craved permission to return. They put him off until the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and from that imtil Epiphany, and then they needed no more excuses. His rapidly breaking system told him that Loretto and he were parted forever. So he prepared himself by ceaseless prayer and meditation, and offering up of his suffer- ings, from acute gravel, to his crucified Lord ; and on the morning of the nineteenth of January, he took leave of the world without a moan, entering the new life with the words, "Jesus, Mary, Joseph!" on his lips. We conclude this chapter with the promised Note, on the especial patroness of our early Indian missions, Our Lady of Chartres. Note. — " L'anciennete, la devotion et la service de I'eglise catho- drale de Nostro Damo de Chartres Tout rendue saiate et vunurable il 111- IN North America 217 to«8 les Chrestiens . . . C'est ce q ai a mou la ■piCt^ des roys nos predt'cesseure, la dotter de plusieurs fonds et domaincs, faveurs et privelt'ges, et par leur charitts, libtralitee, magnificeDce royalle, la restablir et la r'edifier des le temps de S, Fulbert qui en estoit evesquo en Testat quelle se void a present." So speaks the Most Christian King Louis the Thirteenth when founding in this famous cathedral, in 1638, a perpetual requiem Mass for the soul of his lather Henri Quatre. " The antiquity, devotion, and service of the cathedral church of Our Lady of Chartres have rendered it holy and venerable to all Christians. This it is which has moved the kings our i)redeces8ors to endow it with muny foimdations, domaines, favors, and privileges, and by their charities, liberalities, ard royal magnificence to re-establish and re-edify it from the days of St. Fulbert, who was ?ts bishop, in the condition that we see it in to-day." ' For Chat ues yiL-lds to no quarter of the earth in devotion to the Mother of God. ir. the diocese whereof this venerable shrine is catliedral, nine stately abbeys and forty-five parish churches are dedicated by name to the Blessed Virgin, and her veneration traces back, by i«f>erent tradition, beyond the date of Christianity itself. There is nothing nxjuiringa very unusual stretch of faith or credulity in the tradition. The argument is biiefly this : That all peoples'* had a tradition of a virgin who should bear a child, the Saviour of the world ; that the Druids in Gaul were the learned of the day, the holders of all religious tradition as well as its ministers, and that Chartres was the headquarters of Druidism.' Such is the argument for its probability, and the legend is as follows : The cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres stands upon a hill once covered with the sacred oak-grove wherein the Dm ids worshipped their god Teutates.'' In the centre of the wood was a cavern or vast grotto, where the sunlight scarcely penetrated, and where the sombre mysteries of the Druidic idolatry were celebrated. There, says the ' Lettres patentes de Louis XITl., apud Boisthibault, p. 50. ' For a remarkable instance among the American Indians, see this work, p. 44, Orsini's Life B. V. M., chap. 1, and I'Abbe Ilenrion's N'oti'e Dame de France, pp. 184-193. 8 Hi (Druidepi certo anni tempore in finibus Garnutum, qusp rogio, totius Qalliae media habitur, considunt in loco consecrate. — Ci£sarnuteH, long pru> jmred, received the mcBsago gladly. A rudo church was built within the grotto, tlu^ very imago sculptured by pagan fingers was bh'flsed, and the land becnmo Mary's, to the greoter glory of her eternal Son. When Constantine gave jh^ico to the Church, and the empire of the Ciesars beciuno Christendom, the grove was cut down, and a church, still modest and jxx)r, was erected nixni the summit of tho hill. Hither the early Gallic Christians flocked, and hero Our Blessed Lady was pleased to manifest her maternal love for the unfortunate human brethren of her Son. The crowds of worshippers gratlually ougmontod, and various structures succeeded to the primitive build- ings as the necessity of the times required. At length, in 1030, tho Bishop, Fulbert, aided by tho devout largesse of Robert of France, Knut the Great, of Denmark and England, liiohard of Normandy, William of Aquitaine, Eudes of Chartres, and other sovereign princes, laid the magnificent foundations of the actual cathedral, and finished vaulting tho grotto which thus became the crypt of the church. In Jie crypt-church, which is known as Our Lady's Under Ground, is preserved tl\e antique statue, in a niche over the altar. The image was of wood, the original color long since destroyed by the smoke of wax-lights and its great age. Tho Virgin was represented as seated in a chair and holding upon her knees her Divine Son, who holds the globe of the earth in His left hand, and with His right bestows the benediction. The Blessed Virgin is crowned. And there rested the iitatue where the hands of the Druids had placed it, until the progres- sive republicanism of 1794 overthrew the shrine, tore the image from its niche, heaped outrage and insult upon it, and then burned it pub- licly at the door of the noble temple which pi ty had raided in its hrnor. That which is now seen in the cathedral is only a copy of the antique ioiage, so consistently destroyed by our modern political and IN NOUTH AmERIOA. 219 social roforincrs. Besides this, huwevor, tho church was unrichod with uthor trensuroH, whicli liappily escaped tho rngo of tho Hovolu- tion. Thuro wna a statuo callod Our I^ady of tho Pillar; loni; a vehicle of Mary's graces to hor cliildren. The stone pedestal on which it Htaiuls has been worn hollow by the kisses of tho disvout, and the legend on tho baso is, Tola pulehra fs arnica mea et macula non cat in te — "Thou art all fair, my belovgd, there is no spot in thoo." There is also, sinco the year 870, an Oriental veil, such as is still W^orn in t]w East, and which is said to have been Our Lady'n. It was given to the church by Charles the Bold ; it has received the venera- tion of nil centuries since then, even of our own ; and in 1855, tho el(X][uenco of the great Bishop of Poitiers chose it for one theme of his discourse, when tho statue of Notre Dame was solemnly crowned in that year. Many another sacrod treasure does this grand old tem- ple possess, and simple and poor, yet honored among them, you may Btlll see the wampum belts of the Abenaki of La Prairie and the Huron of Loretto.' ' Vide " Notre Dame do Franco ou I'histoiro du culto do la Sainte Vierge en France depuis Torigine du Clirislianisme jusqu' »i nos jours. Province ecclcsiastique de Paris, par M. le Cure do Saint-Sulpico." — Voeux des Hurona, etc., etc. 1 , 220 Detotion to the B. V. Mabt CHAPTER XI. Odb Lady's ABsuMrxioN of a. d. 1790, and what camk of it — A Mi»- 8IUNAKY I'RINCE. Destined to temper, if possible, the absolute free- dom of the one, and to serve as a refuge from the hor- rors of the other, the Church in the United States appears serenely between the American and the French revolutions. The first name in the hierarchy of this republic is a name from the Declaration of Indepen- dence : the first clergy under the jurisdiction of Car- roll are those whom fetterless tiger passions drive from '">ld Catholic France. Dubois, Flaget, David, Badin, Dubourg, Marechal Cheverus, Richard, Salmon, and their companions, lay the foundations of this country's true indebtedness to the land of St. Louis. Of these, Stephen Badin* is to be the first priest ordained in America ; six others are to be bishops, one afterwards a cardinal ;' Abbe Salmon is to die of cold and wounds, in the snow ; Garnier shall see his plaisant pays de France again, and end his labors as superior-general of St. Sulpice ; Che\erus, a Prince of the Church, and Du- bourg die members of the restored hierarchy in their native land ; and the others are to find the place of ' Stephen Badin, ordained at Baltimore, 1793. * John Lefevre Cheveras, Bishop of Boston, 1810 ; of Montauban, 1818 ; Archbishop of Bordeaux, 1826 ; Cardinal, 1836. IN North Ameiuoa. 221 their rest in the land which their toils have conse- crated. So that France, the pioneer of Christianity, neir of the Spaniard in Louisiana, and sacred conqueror of Canada, sends the first company of soldiers of Mary to reduce to the submission of God the centre of this vast northern continent. Nevertheless, it is in England that this act of tho Bacred drama opens. In the centre of a well-watered valley, running downward through Dorsetshire to the Channel, stands the antique castle of Lulwortli, a gothic pile of four round towers united by massive battlemented curtains. This was the home, first of the Norman de Lolleworths ; in King John's days, of the princely Newburghs; then of the Bindon Howards; lastly of the Welds, sprung from Edric the Wild. For these a home, for others a temporary refuge. For here the austere monks of Our Lady of La Trappe found a shelter when driven from their mountain for- ests by the merciless sans culd'es; and later, by another effort after universal equality, the old walls became the abode of the royal house of France, before they moved to that castle of sadder and darker history, the Scottish Holyrood.' It was the scene of many a hard fight in olden daj's, as when de Clare stormed it for the Empress Matilda ; but none of its memories can interest us so much as that of the midsummer morning which gave their first ' Sir Bernard Burke's " Landed Gentry," Article, Weld. i 222 Devotion to the B. V. Mary bishop to the United States. The day was not un- happily chosen. For the discovery and consecration of the land from Maine to Florida, from the Chesa- peake to California, by the servants of Mary, and the solemn dedication of it to her name, may be likened to her Nativity. The growth of the French and Span- ish churches is her beautiful youth. Then come the dark times of Puritanic conquest, the destruction of the Catholic missions, and the disappearance of the Catholic Indians, as the dark time of her sorrows from the Flight into Egypt until the Crucifixion. And now the new rising of the Church is visible meetly on the Feast of her Assumption, when she went up into the presence of the King her Son, ^nd "the King rose up to do her reverence, and they set a throne for the King's Mother, and she sate at his right hand." ' So that from that Feast of Our Blessed Lady's As- sumption in the castle chapel of old Lulworth, unto that which has been celebrated this year throughout the length and breadth of North America, the devotion to Mary has grown steadily ; and now there is scarcely a county without a church to her name ; scarcely a square mile from the Gulf to the Arctic Ocean wherein that name has not at least been proclaimed. In that short space of a single human life, seventy-two years, ' liib. iii,, Regum : Venit ergo Bethsabee ad Regem Salomonem ; et Burrexit rex in occursum ej us : adoravitque eain, et sedit super tiironum suum ; positusque est thronus matri regis quffi sedit ad dcx- teram regis. IN North America. 223 " the least has become a thousand, and the little one a most strong nation." ' The holy do Montfort,* if we remember rightly, ap- plies to Our Lady those words of the Song of Songs : " As the apple-trees among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the children of men ;" ' and says that she shall come to unite in herself almost all the veneration paid by man to saints ; or at least shall be acknowledged as supereminently worthy of it in every part of Christendom. And wo seem to see the fulfil- ment of this declaration in North America. In Europe, every town and village has its own patron, who ab- sorbs most of the devotion of the people ; but in this country, placed under her especial protection by Span- iard and Frenchman, by emigrant Englishman, and American in the fresh flush of new indepen:^:ence, nearly the whole devotion of the people concentrates in her; or turns, for her sake, to Saint Anne among the Canadians,* or to Saint Joseph among the faithful in the United States. What antique Catholic land, even Spain or Ireland, can show what this country shows, even by the ex- * Isi ias, Ix. 22. * R' e Dr. Noligan's " Saintly Characters." — Kirker : New York. ' Sicut malus inter ligna silvarum, sic dilectus mens inter filios. — Cant. ii. 8. * The voyager gives as reverential reason for his great devotion to St. Anne, that Our Lady is too lofty and great for his iinworthiness to address directly ; and so as other Catholics plead through the ma.- ternity of Mary to the Heart of Jesus, the Canadian implores the ma- ternity of St. Anne to intercede with the Heart of Mary. I 22i Devotion to the B. V. Mary «i •Tyl tromcly irnporfeot record of tho almanao, one clmrcli in every five bearing tho beautiful and enduring name of the Mother of Our Lord and of us? Wliat territory, of one-tenth the vastnesf:., lias ever been placed by four independent and unintercomrauni(!ating powers under her peculiar patronage and protection ? Then, with this for the divinely ordered starting-point, let us look to see whether the other means, tho zeal of tho ministry, has been commensurate, in its degree of course, with the clear grace bestowed by our eternal Father. We adopted as principles,' at the outset of this work, that a devotion advances in pvo})ortion to its own merits and to tho ardor of tho ministry Avho propagate it. The whole of this great book, Orsini's noble " Life," and our own humble continuation, is an exhibition of the merits of Mary, and we have seen the latest illustrious historian of America, puritan though he be, supporting us in our claims for tho early pioneer servants of Mary in the land. Let us begin by stating what they have done in a single evident way for this beautiful devotion — as Kenelm Digby would say, the way of churches. There are many churches of Our Blessed Lady un- known to this writer. Of seven dioceses in the British Possessions he has no account ; but with all this, and with the great imperfection of such recortls as he has, he still ran give the following list of Mary's shrines in North America. • See pag^es 9, 10. IN NORill AMF.ItlCA. 225 ly un- Jritish and ie has, les in Thoro Rvo (I8fi2) nino dodicatlons to Mary Holp of Christians, nino to Mary Star of tl\o Soa, two to Mary Ilofugo of Sinners, st>vcn to tho Sacre 1 Heart of Mary. Tliero aro sometimes only one, sometimes as many as four, to Our Lady of the Port, of tho Isle, of tlio Cata- ract, of the Gulf, of th(^ l^iver, of tlui Roeks. columln in forannnihns pcfrrr,^ Our Lady of the Portafje, of tlio Snows, of tho Woods, of tlio Lake, of tho Desert. There is Our Lady of La Saletto, of Belon, of Levis, and nino of Guadahipe. Again, wo have Our Lady of Light, of Grace, of Good Hc^lp, of Refuge, of Good Hope, of Prompt Succor. There aro four to Our Lady of Victories, throe to Our Lady of Consolation, five to Our Lady of Lorctto, seven to Our Lady of Angels, nine of the Rosary, seven of tho Good Shepherd, six- teen of Our Lady of Mercy, tweniy-oiio of Sorrows, twenty-two of Carmel, thirty-one to " Our Lady," simj^ly. There are three churches of the Mother of God, five of the Purification, eleven of tho Nativity fourteen of the Annunciation, sixteen of the Visitation, fifty of the Assumption, one hundred and forty-five of the Im- maculate Conception, and three hundred and sixty- seven which are simply called Saint Mary's. In all, there stand in North America, in honor of its Patroness, more than eight hundred churches. How this swift growth has come about in so short a time we are about to look at more in detail. We are • "My dove in the clefts of the rock." — Song of Solomon, ii. 14» P 10* 22G Devotion to the 13. ^^. IMary ii 1 to feoe tlio priest and the religious, the energy of man and the patient labor of wcmt n, under new difficulties and trials peculiar to their position, extending to the people who siirround them their own earnest devotion to God. and Mary. Coevpl with the consecration of Bishop Carroll, the Daughters of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel were in Maryland suffering from poverty al- most extreme, fasting eight months in the year, sleep ing on straw, obtaining a modification of their clois- terea austerity to enable them to becorie teachers,' and offering perpetual prayer for the country vdierein they came to dwell. The Poor Clares followed, but did not continue long; Avlien they declined, the Visitation of Our L;idy took their place. Long, long ago among the mountains of Chamblais, there stood an ancncnt slivine of the Blessed Virgin, resorted to by pious pilgrims. Here, gradually, certain hermits gathered, as in Switzerland they clus- tered about the famous Abbey of Einsiedeln, find the saintly Bishop of Geneva had given tliem for title. Hermits of the Visitation. Afterwards, Avhen Saint Jane Francos de Chantal formed ]ier congregation at Annocy, in Savoy, St. Francis do Sales called tliem the Order of the Visitation of Our Lady." It was their rule nnd title which Mi.iS Alice Lalor, bv direction of Bishop Neale, adopted for her now American sister- hood in Georgetown, A. d. 1814; and noAv between ii. ■ ■ De Courcy's History of the Catholic Chmch in tho Uoitod States, p. 83. « Approved liy Pope Frban VTII., 1030. IN North America. 227 man ilties the otion on of f Mt. ty al- sloei clois- cliers,' herein elong; ly took Lains of Bh^KSOcl ivhially, Qj chis- md the n- title, Saint ition at iiom the fis their ition of pister- letween led States, three and four hundred of these daughters of Mary teach reverence to her name in these States. Already the Sisters of Chaiity Avere at Emmittsburg with their venerable foundress, Mother Seton, 1809. To-day where are they not? Their orphan-asylums and schools, their hospitals, their barrack near the battle-field mark their jiresence. And tliero are no longer in this whole vast country, we believe, unless perhaps in New England, many who do not know dvd reverence the dark-robed form as it moves on its er- rand of mercy through the streets. Add to all these, the fervent priests, so few at first in number ; the early bishops, penniless, sometimes barely clothed, and often without light or fire in winter; traversing distances on. horseback that we grumble at passing over in the railway-train now; enduring all this cheerfully and heroically as wo shall soon see. Sum up all these and we begin already to observe that Devotion to Mary in Central North America is to rival the Devotion of the Canadas. Bishop Carroll found himself spiritual governor of aU the territory then owned by the United States, and bis missionaries started from Baltimore for the West as one would strike out to sea alone in a bark canoe. For the uncut forest surged around them with its vast green waves of verdure ; the Indian, rarely iVioiidlj', lurkvul in its dim recesses ; the road was ol'tenest no I'learer than a hunter's trail or a forsjiken deor-path. 'Lliey themselves were scliolarlj- men, nurtured in European habits, necessities, ideas of chstance. But il Ji 1 ■J 1 1- i r- f i . m 1 k> 1 ml 228 Devotion to the B. Y. Mary in the precise spirit of Marquette, Jogues, Breboeuf, they put their trust in God and went wheresoever He directed. Borne by them, the Devotion to Our Lady followed the course of the great natural boundaries of this mighty land. Flowing westward from the bay which the first missionaries called St. Mary's ; from the town which its first settlers called St. Mary's ; this river of devotion, checked, as might be supposed, by the chain of mountains, by Alleghany, and Cumber- land, and Blue Ridge, divided into three streams. One of these streams ran northward, as if to seek the old wells of devotion among the red-men and the French ; and this soon carried on its bosom a saintly Cheverus to hear through the gloom of the wood the song Magnificat and the Salva Regina from the lips of our old friends the ever-faithful Abenaki. A second ran southward, to visit again, after an interval of two centuries, the spots where the blood of Jesuit and Carmelite, of Augustinian and Franciscan, had min- gled to baptize the Carolinas. And the third followed the course of la Jxdle Riviere, and flowed with its yel- low waters through the fertile heart of the land, to the river wherein De Soto had been buried, and to which Marquette had given its name of Immaculate Concep- tion. In eighteen years, sixty-eight priests and eighty churches formed too heavy a burden for the venerable Bishop of Baltimore, and the sees of New York, Bos- ton, Philadelphia, and Bardstown in Kentucky, were estabhshed. Let us look at a type or two of the men IN North America. 229 oeuf, He jady aries >bay from ; tliis ^d,by [iiber- eams. ak tlie .d the jaintly od the le lips second of two it and \ min- llowed ts yel- to the wliicla ^oncep- I eighty ^erablo L, Bos- were le men who led these missions. As early as 1795 there was one Father Smith who was missionary for an enormous district in Western Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsyl- vania. There, for forty-one years, he toiled in hum- ble faithfulness ; from thence his soul ascended to the judgment which his life had merited. It will not be uninteresting to consider some points in the life of this servant of Mary, this glorious, although unrenowned pioneer of her honor in this country. This Father Smith, missionary of Hagerstown and Cumberland in Maryland, of Martinsburg and Win- chester in Virginia, of Chambersburg and the Alle- ghany mountain sweep in Pennsylvania, and thence southward ; of far more, in a word, than what now constitutes the entire diocese of Pittsburg ; this rival of Gomez in the south, and of Father Chaumonot in the north ; this founder of Our Lady of Loretto in the centre of the continent, was not always known as Father Smith. In his own country, the vast Muscovite em- pire, then ruled by the Czar Alexander I., he was known as the Prince Augustine de Gallitzin. His father. Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, was ambassador of Catherine the Great to Holland, at the time of the missionary's birth. His mother, the Princess Amelia, was daughter of that famous Field-marshal Count von Schmettau who illustrates the miUtary annals of Fred- erick the Great. The young Gallitzin was decorated in his very cradle with military titles, Avhich destined him from his birth to the highest posts in the Eussian army. I 230 Devotion to the B. V. Mary High in the favor of the Empress Catherine, his father, a haughty and ambitious nobleman, dreaming only of the advancement of his son in the road of preferment and worldly honor, was resolved to give him an educa- tion worthy of his exalted birth and brilliant prospects. Religion formed no part of the plan of the father, who was a proficient in the school of Gallic infidelity, and the friend of Diderot. It was carefully excluded. Special care was taken not to suffer any minister of religion to approach the study-room of the young prince. He was surrounded by infidel teachers. His mother, a Catholic by birth and early education, was seduced into seeming Voltairianism by the court fash- ion of her native country, and her marriage with Prince Demetrius confirmed her habits of apparent infidelity ; we say apparent, for she retained, even in the salons of Paris and in the society of Madame du Chatelet, a fervent devotion to Saint Augustine, that grand doctor of the Church who had been a gi-eat worldUng and heretic. After the marriage of the elder GaUitzin with the Princess Amelia, he brought her to Paris and in troduced her to his literary infidel friends, especially to Diderot, in whose company he dehghted. This philosopher endeavored to win the princess over to his atheistical system ; but though she was more than in- different on the subject of rehgion, her naturally strong mind discovered the hoUowness of his reasoning. It was remarked that she would frequently puzzle the IDliilosophei' ^^y the little interrogative — why ? And as ho could not satisfy her objections, she was determined I IN North America. 231 her, lyof nenl luca- »ects. , wlio , and uded. i,er of y^oung His n, was t f asli- Prince delity ; salons telet, a doctor kg and |iii witli knd in lecially This to his an in- strong It de the .nd as mined to examine thoroughly the grounds of revelation. Though having no religion herself, she was determined to instruct her children in one. She opened the Bible merely for the purpose of teaching her children the historical part of it. The beauty of revealed truth, notwithstanding the impediment of indifference and unbelief, would sometimes strike her — her mind being of that mould which, according to TertuUian, is natu- rally Christian. A terrible illness called her mind back to God ; she saw the truth and beauty of the Catholic faith, and she returned to the protection of Mary on the Feast of St. Augustine, in the week following the Octave of Our Lady's Assumption. It is to the happy influence and bright example of his mother, to whom, under God, we must mainly as- scribe the conversion of the young Demetrius. As the illustrious Bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, consoled the mother of Augustine, when he used to say " that it was impossible for a son to he lost/07' whom so many tears loere shed f so we may beUeve that the pious Fui'stenberg, her son's tutor, cheered, in a similar manner, this good lady, in her intense sohcitude for a son whom she so tenderly loved. At the age of seventeen the young prince was re- ceived into the Church. He was, in the year 1792, ap- pointed aid-de-camp to the Austrian General Von Lil ■ ien, who commanded an army in Brabant at the open- ing of the first campaign against the French Jacobins. The sudden death of the Emperor Leopold, and tho 232 Devotion to the B. V. Mary !i| murder of the king of Sweden by Ankerstrom, both suspected to be the work of the French Jacobins who had declared war against all kings and all religions, caused the governments of Austria and Prussia to issue a very strict order disqualifying all foreigners from military offices. In consequence of this order the young Prince de Gallitzin was excluded. Eussia not taking any part in the war against France, there was no occasion offered to him for pursuing the profession of arms for Avliich he had been destined by his military education. It was therefore determined by his parents that he should travel abroad and make the grand tour. He was allowed two years to travel ; and lest, in the mean time, his acquirements, the fruits of a very fin- ished education, might suffer, he was placed under the guidance of the Rev. Mr. Brosius, a young missionary then about to embark for America, with whom his studies were to be still continued. In the company of this excellent clergyman he reached the United States in 1792. The next we need see of him is as a seminarian with the Sulpicians in Baltimore, November 5, 1792. In this moment of his irrevocable sacrifice of himself to God, the feehngs of his inmost soul may be gathered fi'om a letter which he wrote at the time to a clergy- man of Munster, in Germany. In it he begs him to prepare his mother for the step he had finally taken, and informs him that he had sacrificed himself, with all that he possessed, to the service of God and the salvation of his neighbor in America, where the bar- IN North America. 233 oth vho ans, i to acrs ■the not was 3sioii itary rents tour, in tlie y fin- jr tlio onary his ny of tates with . In |elf to Ihered lergy- lim to taken, with Ld the har- vest wa:^ so great and the laborers so few, and where the missionary had to ride frequently forty and fifty miles a day, undergoing difficulties and dangers of every description. He adds, that he doubted not his call, as ho was wiUing to subject himself to such ardu- ous labor. Father Etienne Badin was the first priest ordained in the United States ; Prince Gallitzin was the second, and he, as early as 1799, was settled for life in the then bleak and savage region of the AUeghanies. From his post to Lake Erie, from the Susquehanna to the Potomac, there was no priest, no church, no re- ligious station of any kind. Think, then, of the in- evitable labors and privations of this missionary ; and again understand how the devotion to Mary has spread over North America. During long missionary excursions, frequently his bed was the bare floor, his pillow the saddle, and the coarsest and most forbidding fare constituted his re- past. Add to this, that he was always in feeble health, always infirm and delicate in the extreme, and it Avas ever a matter of wonder to others how the little he ate could support nature and hold together so fragile a frame as his. A veritable imitator of Paul, " he was in labor and painfulness, in watching often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness." ' When he first began to reside permanently on this mountain, in 1779, he found not more than a dozen ' a C!or., xi. 234 Devotion to the B. V. Mahy Catliolics, scattered here and there through a trackless forest. He first settled on a farm generously left by the Muguiro family for the maintenance of a priest. A rude log-church, of some twenty-five or thirty feet, was sufficient for a considerable time for the first Uttle flock that worshipped according to the faith of their fathers on the Alleghany. He commenced his colony with twelve heads of families; he left behind him when he died six thousand devotees of Mary. But the population grew rapidly, allured by the saintly reputation of Father Smith. It was he who purchased enormous tracts of land, who built the grist and saw mill, he who found himself oppressed by debt in his old age. Of course he expected his father's in- heritance, and when that prince died in 1803, he was pressed to quit his beloved Loretto and go to claim his rights in Russia. His mother and friends urged him to come ; his prelate was on the point of com- manding him ; but when he met Bishop Carroll, he gave reasons for remf.**\iug among his flock which that prelate could not in the end refute. He stated that he had caused a great number of Catholic families to settle in a wild and uncultivated region, where they formed a parish of a considerable size ; that the Legis- lature had proposed to establish there a county-seat ; and that numbers stiU continued to flock thither. The bishop at length fully acquiesced in his remaining, as he could not send another in his place. The apostolic missionary then wrote to his mother, that whatever he might gain by the voyage, in a temporal point of vieiv, IN NoiiTH America. ooe could not, in his estimation h. I , . '""" clerical profess;.™ " w less, he hoped to share „.in ?!""'""""• Nevertho- '-ri'eclali; And she d , '" '"''"■' "''° '""' "'- «e™an Pri.ee aetv^Ser 7"' "'^ "'■"'•" «way with her fortune 1^1 ""'™"'^' ""'''« TW canae his da^s of Ibt ^ """' """ '"" <'™- «"»• But he lived so ttt "' "' "" ''"^'^ '° Wmself. He neither 1 ."°"'" ^'""'" '"'*'■ b»' the expense o. tss o a"" '""' "" ™^ "'""-J "t fere was often but some 7 Tf " " "'''-- His t'-^es. His clothing wis 1, " '"""'™^ "' "'"«« J'o-el^ descriptior'hr 'r""'''' "'"' "' "'« --' ;;"'. not denied eve; t^pr;:: I '^'^-'^'^ ■"«- tie prodigal son of the Gospel ^°"'- ■'^'"^ ous and heroic sense. l^eZ^^^':^ --' -"'""" servants in my father'.. h„ ' ' ™"'->' '"''^d -dIhereperL with Ln™:;'^" "''"'' "^ "-^4 -ducod from «8.000 \ utTr f ,"' "^■'''^' «P«nd my few remaining '™ t'f °' '. '""' »'<'«- J' ^ "' " ""J'. >n trying to 'Si. Luke's Qospol, XV. 236 Devotion to the B. V. Mary pay off that balance, and in preparing for a longer journey." On that Loretto of his love he expended, from the wreck of his fortune, $150,000. So is it with the ser- vitors of Mary. Three centuries ago, they gave their bodies to be burned, their heads to the scalping-knife, their finger-joints to the teeth of the Iroquois ; later, they gave their lives and fortunes, counting them as nothing if so they might win souls to Christ.' Let his friend and biographer tell the secret of all this, and thus show what a Muscovite prince can have in common with this book : " As he had taken for his models the Lives of the Saints, the Francis of Sales, the Charles Borromeos, the Vincents of Paul, so like them he was distil iiished for his tender and lively devotion to the Blessed Virgin ; and he lost no opportunity of extolling the virtues of Mary. He endeavored to be an imitator of her as she was of Christ. He recited her rosary every evening among his household, and inculcated constantly on his people this admirable devotion, and all the other pious exercises in honor of Mary. The church in which he said daily Mass, he had dedicated under the invoca- tion 'of this ever-glorious Virgin, whom all nations were to call blessed. It was in honor of Mary, and to place his people under her peculiar patronage, that he gave the name of Loretto to the town he founded here. * Omnia detrimentum feci et arbitror ut Btercora ut Christum lucri- fEUsiom. — ^Pliil. iii. 8. IN NoHTii America. 237 '''•>"« to the c.Hst,t 7 ;rtr/ff^^^ '"ficent temple which cont^Zs^ ""' '"'" "^8" "cop, or ret,™ i7M,r°T" "'" "^'-^ °' "'" ''>eioxo„.h,™,^„.t;'2*-;;™'";-f-ti... horecogmzed in her a „,„., ^"'■' ''"^o «'• John, V the word., of til IT7 '^^"""-"•-''l to h™ *-.>le. Behold thy motl;!" In^J!: "if '" "'" was worn out in her servi.» 7, ' '"" ""^ ^«°i« to see her face on hlT '" ^°"''' ^« -'•t up Our Lady. ^ ° "'"' ''^''^ "^ears the name of 238 Devotion to B. V. Maby CHAPTER XII. Our Ladt or tdb Lake. ■' I if, I Not long ago, in 1834, in the old town of Mans, in Catholic France, a holy and devoted priest, Moreau, was professor of dogma in the seminary and canon of the cathedral in the town. He was eloquent, zealous, and one of the grandest preachers in France. He gave up much of his time to preaching retreats ; that is, to the leading of his flock away from the world, to the "quiet pastures and still waters," where is the presence of the Good Shepherd, whose crook and staflf rule, guide, guard, lead; who "restoreth the souls" of the erring, the weary, and the so-called lost, and givet'i them to eat and to drink of His own table, whereat is " fulness for evermore." ' After many years thus passed, his bishop authorized him to form an auxiliary society of priests to aid him in this pastoral labor. He accordingly associated with himself four pious and devoted clergymen, with whom he lived a regular community life in the seminary for over a year. About this time, or a few years previously, a com- munity of a different kind had been founded in the same diocese, by the Very Rev. Mr. Dujarier, one of ' Psalm, xxii. IN North America. 239 and able, rears an toral four ed a fear. om- tlie e of the venerable survivors of the Revolution. It consisted of a band of devoted men, mostly young, who, without aspiring to the ecclesiastical state, yet, animated by a true zeal to labor for God's glory and the salvation of souls, had formed themselves into a religious com- munity under the title of the Brothers of St. Joseph, consecrating themselves to the Christian education of youth, and having no higher aim than to imitate the humble and hidden life of their holy patron. Then, two years later, moved by the self-sacrifice of these good men, some pious and devoted women of the humbler class of society offered themselves, from a motive of holy charity and zeal, to conduct the work of the establishment, and to serve those good Priests and Brothers as the holy women of the Gospel did our Saviour and his disciples. God willed it that this event should inspire our worthy founder with the idea of establishing, as a third branch of the association, a sisterhood to co-operate with the two former branches in all their pious labors, and to labor themselves in a particular manner for the benefit of the youth of their own sex ; the whole association thus forming a united and most efficient body, able to act in concert upon all classes of society. Under the training of the saintly Superioress, Mother Mary of St. Dorithei, Juet, they made a fervent and regular novitiate, and were, one year afterwards, admitted to the religious profession under the name of " Sisters of the Holy Cross," and patronage of Our Lady of the Seven Sorroivs. They were, said their founder, to seek God in aU ill ill 240 Devotion to the B. V. Mary tilings, to aim only at heaven, to aspire to tlie happ> iiess of possessing Jesiis, of belonging only to Him and to His Blessed Mother, making use of all interests, rights, or goods for the sole honor of their Divine Master and the salvation of souls. They were to lead a life of abnegation in all employments and exercises, never acting save by the will of a Superior ; a life regular and exact, by constant and universal fidelity to the rules and constitutions of the Society, observing them in the spirit of love and not of fear, by the light of faith and not through human motives ; a life social by humility, in meekly bearing or charitably support- ing others, accomplishing to the letter the m.ixim of the pious author of the Imitation, of mutuall}'^ support- ing, consoling, aiding, instructing, and admonishing one another ; a life edifying by modesty, the forgetful- ness of self, religious gravity, avoiding in conversation all criticisms, raillery, and above all, levity ; a life of labor — a life interior and elevated to God by the habit- ual practice of the acts of Faith, Hope, and Charity, by the example of Jesus Christ, whom we are partic- ularlv bound to imitate in our conduct, for we must above all lead a life hidden in our Lord, if we would not ruin the Avork of the Holy Cross. " Here," he says, " are three orders subordinate one to the other, an imitation of the Holy Family, where Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, althougli of conditions so different, are made one by the union of thoughts and the uniformity of conduct. " In order to cement this union, and this imitation IN North America. 211 ic- ist [id of tlie Holy Family, I liaAC coiisecratctl, and conse- crate again as much as in me, the Priests, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pastor of souls — the Brothers, to the Heart of St. Joseph, their patron ; and the Sisters, to the Heart of IMary, pierced Avith the sword of grief. " Bt'hold, my dear children in Jesus Christ, the plan of government which it is the will of God should bo followed in the administration of Our Lady of Holy Cross." The Bishop of Vincennes, Monsoigneur do St. Pa- lais, desires to have these children of St. Mary to help him in extending her renown through the west of Northern America. So Father Sorin, still Superior, comes with six brothers. They "bless God and his Holy Motlier" for their safe arrival, and they claim possession of the soil "in the name of the Cross, of the Blessed Virgin, and of St. Joseph."* Monseigneur sends his new colony, Bfnfn'fi cnltores Dei, to the northern part of Indiana, about thirty miles south of Lake Michigan. This section had been secured, years before, by the proto-priest of the United States, Picv. Father Badin ; his efforts, how- ever, had only been crowned by the erection of a little log-church, and a poorer log-house. But the situation is one of extreme beauty — not grandeur ; for northern Indiana can claim nothing of the sublime or grand in her scenery. Yet the monotony of her low land and )n ' Vide Life of Rev. F. t'ointot, Priest anrl Missionary of the Con- gregation of the Holy ('rose. Cincinnati, 1855. R 11 212 DEvo'noN TO THE B. V. Mary prairies is frequently diversified, and the character of the beautiful given it by clear, placid, little lakes, sur- rounded by gently undulating plains. The farm in question contained two of these pleasant lakes, to which Indian tradition had attached many a tale of enchantment. Dedicating this spot to "Notre Dame du Lac," Father Sorin selected a charming little island, in the largest lake, as the site for two new novitiates — one for the Priests he hoped to train for his new mission, and the other for the Brothers. A beautiful situation was also chosen on the banks of the lake for the future college ; then, with firm confidence in Divine Provi- dence, he spent the winter in collecting the scattered Catholics of the neighborhood into a regular congrega- tion, in forming his Novitiate of the Brothers, and at- tending to the temporal wants of his little colony. At this period, the aid so long and earnestly desired by this devoted missionary was furnished in the" per- son of his former beloved friend, the young Abbe Cointct, he who in youth had made this resolution — " To give up some time every' day to reading holy books." Then, in his journal, after that, he adds : " For the same intention, I shall say the Kosary. Since an early age I have been consecrated to the Blessed Virgin, and to her care have I confided my chas- tity. I will study attentively the virtues of this Holy IMotlier, to whom I am strictly bound to have many traits of resemblance, and towards whom I ardently desire to fee] all the tenderness of a true child." IN North America. 243 So, then, there are two priests ; how apostolic, in one point, these words of Father Sorin himself shall hint : "For some years the wardrobe of Father Cointet and his Superior was considered very full when they possessed a iwir of hoofs and a hat as property in com- mon. The boots he adroitly managed not to wear until they had passed through the stages of good and indifferent, but the hat could not be so easily managed, there being no alternative except to replace the ecclesi- astical square cap by the beaver, when on the Mission. Accordingly, if Father Cointet was recognized riding or walking off with a hat on his head, it was known to the members of the little community that the Superior was at home." And now, what else is to be said of these devoted souls shall not be in the words of him whose name is on the title-page of this book, but in thone of a sister of the order, of a servant of Marj^ at the foot of the Cross. As " Notre Dame du Lac" now stands, it holds, in various establishments circling the pleasant waters of the lake, a college, a manual-labor school, a convent in its pojnilar sense, the initiatory ■schools of the Brothers, and the seminary — all and each of tliese solemnly dedicated in 1845 to devotion to, and placed under the special protection of, the Blessed Mother of God. St. Mary's Lake is thus encircled, and over all, one hundred and ten feet from the ground, stands the statue of " Blessed among women." She looks with love upon the apprentices of the manual-labor school '!-."« I ^ 244 Devotion to the B. V. Mauy ill ilioir different worksliops aiid fields ; the BrotliorH iii tlieir quiet novitiate; the seuiinaviiins in tlieir holy solitude. And ofT a mile to the west, her eye rests dis- tinctly ui)on the institutions of the Sisters of the same oi-dei-, dNV(>lling under the title of 8t. Mary's of the IiuniaeulMto Concejition. The Catholic pupils of both places are enrolled in th(^, sodalities of the Childrt^n of Mary and the Livinf]; Rosar}-, Every Saturday- evening the Litany of Lorctto is solemnly chantcnl in the conventual churches. The Month of Mary is hero made a glorious festival of thirty- one days. Benediction of the Blessed Sacra- ni(Mit is given every evening, and a discourse pro- nounced hy one of the Hev. Fathers in honor of their Heavenly Queen. The Assumption is annually celebrated by a solemn jirocession after High Mass. On that day every pic- turesque spot is adorncul with some memento of the Queen t^i Heaven. Arches ornjimented with her imago point the route to the pious pilgi'ims, and the murmur- ing waters of the lake, the songs of the birds, and all the pleasant sounds of midsummer in the green woods, together wdtli the joyms chime of twenty-one bells in the church-tower, unite to form a triumphal chorus to the happy voices of the children of Notre Dame as they intone the Litany of Loretto, the Magnificat and the Salve Regina. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin may truly be said to bo the presiding spirit of the place. Private chapels IN North America. «).ir. 15 in her honor arc in ovory lionsn. Tho fp-ounds arc juloniod witli st!ltu(^s of th(^ Madonna and Child and of iho Ininiatuilato Conception. At Notre Damo a luxuriant arbor, at hiast an eiglith of a mile in h!n<,'th, dedicated to Notir Ihimc avx Raisins, boars conspicu- ously on every arch the different titles of the Litany of Lorctto. In the conventual church is tho altai of the Seven Dolors, above which is a fine group of statuary repre- senting the body of Our Blesstnl Lord taken from tho Cross, and laid in the arms of his Mother. A magnifi- cent stained window above tho main altar represents the Assumption. In every dirc^ction the spirit of Mary seems to breathe and influence. The full ecclesiastical year should be passed at Notre Dame, in order to under- stand how every festival of the Blessed Virgin brings some new or touching evidence of the love which the Society of Holy Cross bears to Notre Dame, and which it seeks to instil into the hearts of its pupils. On a beautiful little promontory opposite the col- lege, the zeal of the Superior has caused to be erected a chapel dedicated to Our Lady of the Angels. Here the Catholic pupils spend one night of every month in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. This chapel is built on the exact plan of the celebrated chapel of " Our Lady of the Angels, or the Portiuncula," and has been enriche^i by the Holy See with all tho privileges of tLat world-renowned pilgrimage established by St. Franr f Assisium. ■8* ■ W * !;M .i'i 246 Devotion to the B. V. Mary These privileges, which have made " St. Mary's of the Angels" one of the richest treasures in Italy, con- sist of plenary indulgences gained by all the faithful who, being heartily sorry for their sins, go to confes- sion, receive Communion, and visit the chapel between the first and second Vespers of the 22d of August — not one indulgence alone, but as many times during the day as the faithful enter the chapel with the proper dispositions will they gain a plenary indulgence. These immense spiritual blessings were granted to the prayer of St. Francis by the visible intercession of Mary, and by Jesus Christ himself. During six hun- dred and twenty-five 3'ears the devout among the people of Italy, and many pilgrims from foreign climes, have assembled at Assisium on this feast of grace and mercy. So numerous were these devotees, that it is related of St. Bernardine, when he preached at St. Mary's of the Angels, that two hundred thousand per- sons were assembled around the chapel. And to give the faithful of North America an oppor- tunity of gaining the same treasures, and in the same manner, the Society of Holy Cross has transported, as it were, this chapel with all its spiritual wealth into our midst. At St. Marj'^'s of the Immaculate Conception, the residence of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, one mile west of Our Lady of the Lake, the duplicate of the Santa Casa, or Holy House of Loretto, has been erected as the specdal chapel of the children of Mary. This chapel has also been enriched by the Holy See IN North America. 247 with all the indulgences belonging the famous pilgrim- age of Loretto. These two chapels bring to our own land the two most famous slirinos of Italy, and are most powerful means, in the liands of the religious, of promoting in the hearts of the youth intrusted to their care a deep and abiding love for the Blessed Mother of God ; and may we not hope that at no distant day love for Our Blessed Lady will bring many a pilgrim to these two chapels, in crowds, if not as great, at least as fervent, as those which visit the original chapels in Italy ? The Society of Holy Cross has several houses of education established in different parts of the United States and Canada ; and, as at Notre Dame and St. Mary's, so do they all aim at spreading the love and devotion for their Holy Mother by every means which their zeal and resources will present. The consecration of this order was made on the Feast of Our Lady of Snows, and in the snows of November they first took possession of the old log- church and the adjacent lands. This church had been dedicated to the Blessed Virgin by the early French missionaries, de Seille and Petit, and here these holy men had taught the Indian to love and venerate their Heavenly Queen. When Father Sorin came and heard of the pioneer devotion of the American proto-priest, he rejoiced at the thought of laboring in this domain, already consecrated to his Blessed Mother. Not as owners of the soil, but as faithful and devoted servants of Mary did the first members of Holy Cross com- ■:;.■ 1 1. & i' i 2iB Devotion to the B. V. Mary il I. i\ incncG their work. Every thing was to be improved, Gvory thing niado useful or beautiful For Mary's Bala>, their Queen, the lake was called St. Mary's Lake. rhuiH for novitiate, church, manual-labor school, and college, were sketched, and all conse- crated to Notre Dame, and all the land was Mary's land. Notwithstanding the rigors of an unusually severe winter, zeal for the glory of the august Mother of God warmed the hearts of her children with its ardent and generous rays. Often during the first years they ac...ally suffered for lack of food and rai- ment. Their favorite devotion on such occasions was tl\o tliou^?and Hail Maries said in common — a devo- tion still customary among the members of the con- gregation. Let MB learn, among the items of this wondrous North American Devotion to Mary, how these sisters of hers are consecrated to her Seven Sorrows. Let one of them still speak, and tell how pleasing, how dear to the Queen of Martyrs must be the devotion to her Sorrows ; how, more than all other devotions, it tends to supernaturalize the mind, since in it the most wonderful divine operations mingle with the common woes and sorrows of a suffering world ; and it ex- presses that union of self-abasement and self-oblivion in which all the greater graces of the spiritual life take root. Devotion to the Sorrows of Mary unites us to an abiding sorrow for sin. It is all stained with the precious blood of our dear Ijord, and thus it puts us into the very depths of His Sacred Heart. IN Noivrn America. 249 The lessons wliicli Our Mother's Sorrows teach us are wanted at ahnost every turn in Hfo ; they are im- parted with such loving tenderness, with such pathetic simplicity, and in the midst of such countless simili- tudes between our sinless Mother and our sinful selves, that no school can be found in which so much heavenly wisdom is taught so winningly as in the Sor- rows of Mary. Before we quit this pleasant subject, let us see that this land of Mary does not belong solely to the living, but also to the memory of the dead. In the parish graveyard chapel stands the statuar}' group of the Mother with her dead Son. Over the earth wherein the Sisters are buried, smiles serenely " Our Lady of Peace ;" where the priests and seminarians repose, is the statue of the Immaculate Conception. Every- where Madonna, she is the Lady of Lake and Land. When recreation calls the children of the Sisters' schools together, among other pleasures they have the reading of their journal, the ** Mystical Rose." It was in this that a Sister, whose heart is full of music as of devotion, sang in sweet rhythm her prayer for North America. Later, we will see that Litany chanted by the Ursuline nuns before Our Lady of Swift Help, Notre Dame de Prompt Secours, during the battle of New Orleans, in 1812 ; now let us read the hymn of a religious of Mary's Sorrows, sung in this time of great national pain and small individual charity : 11* II! f : if H 250 ^ Devotion to the B. Y. Mary STELLA MATUTINA. Star of Morning I dense the clouds Thut hover round our nation's bark, And howling winds shriek through her shrouds As on she ploughs tiie biUows dark. Oh, show thy liglit ! thou art our guide. Thy Virgin beams our path shall lead, As fearful o'er the stormy tide, Before the conquering blast we speed. Star of Morning ! pierce the gloom, And gild our path along the sea, Ere anarcliy shall seal our doom, And chant tlie death-dirge of the free. From St. Augustine, far away. To bold St. Lawrence' northern strand, From San Francisco to the bay That waters honored Maryland, Deep love for thee with mystic power Hath mingled with our nation's life. And aided us, in danger's hour, 'Gainst wars and elemental strife. Star of Morning ! 'twas thy ray That led the mariner of old Along the ocean's trackless way. Earth's western wonders to unfold. 'Twas love for thee that fired his breast. And made him count all perils light, That opened to the cloud-girt West, Thy morning beams to heathen sight. Star of Daybreak ! when the hand Of bold oppression crossed the wave. Thy shelter sweet in Maryland Made conscience there no more a slave. Thy chosen child. Lord Baltimore, Struck oflP the manacles that bound, By tyrant power, the infant sliore. And stamped her soil true freedom's ground. IN North Amemca. 251 'Twos there that Faith— celestial bird- First flung abroad lier carol loud : And thou, fair Star, hor matins heard, • >• Which, soaring huavenwaixl, pierced the cloud. Sweet Orb of Dawn ! it was thy ray That, creeping through the western wilds, Kissed the broad streams, and liindled day Along tlie woodland's dark defiles. And woke a song of praise that wound Where mighty lakes majestic flow ; Memnou's famed lyre were harshest sound To anthem blest that hailed thy glow ; The touching strain so old — so new, The words we ne'er shall cease to frame, Those mystic syllables that drew A God from heaven at thy sweet name, — " Hail, full of grace I the Lord, with thee, On earth is blessed evermore ;" And Gabriel's salutation free. Echoed in joy from shore to shore ; 'i And savage men submissive bowed, To own a Saviour crucified. While Error, in her dusky shroud, Sought in her darkest haunts to hide. The waters of the sylvan lake, And wildwood stream were hallowed then, By sacred touch for Jesus' sake, And Mass was simg in glade and glen ; And crosses in the wilderness Sprang up to bless primeval shade. Where lilies wild, and water-cress, Alone before thanksgiving made. O peerless Orb ! along thy Avake, How clear thy constellated train Of virgin stars, fair raints that take Their rank along tiic ethereal main ! ,.*:,. ^r*."?,) IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 1.0 I.I Hi MM 125 jio ■^" H^H L25 i 1.4 III 1.6 ^- Photographic Sciences Corporation 33 WIST MAIN SYRl^CT WIBSTIR.N.Y. USkO (716) 872-4503 252 Devotion to the B. V. Mary A constant harbinger thou art Of Him, the Son of Liglii Divine, Who drank sweet warmth from tliy pure heart. Whose wondrous grace tlirougli thee doth shine I When climbing soft the evening gray, Thy radiant form doth gem the sky We know ere long will come the day. We know the rising Sun is nigh. Oh, yes, when o'er our sinful souls Thy genial rays benignant fall, Our Blessed Lord His love unfolds. And Mercy's daylight spreads o'er all. Yes, thou wilt bring to us, sweet Star (A nation of young restless life), The light of peace, and near and far Will cease the bitter sound of strife. We ask thy aid ; we beg thy care ; We know we cannot plead in vain ; So, trustful, through the murky air We hail thee with thy heavenly train. O blissful Star! words cannot frame The gratitude we owe to thee. As reverent now we name thy Name, And meekly suppliant bow the knee. Then show thy light — thou art our guide ; Thy Virgin beams our path shall lead. As hopeful o'er the stormy tide Before the conquering blast we speed. They educate in the love of Mary five thousand five hundred children. Mary Angela is the Mother Pro- vincial, and Mary of the Ascension, Superior.' ' Letter of Very Rev. K Sonn, October, 1863. IN North America. 253 CHAPTER Xni. Oto Lady's Sisters— Lk8 ScEnna de Notrb Dams. Let us look at other orders of holy women who bear the name or advance the devotion to Our Blessed Lady in these States. In fifteen dioceses — perhaps in more— you find les Sarnrs de Notre Dame; Our Lady's Sisters ; and they are engaged teaching thousands to venerate the sacred Mother of God. Four oi their houses are (1862) in the di<>» ese of New York, eight are in Cincinnati, three in New Orleans, three in far Monterey. They are in Baltimore and Oregon, in Newark and Detroit, in Philadelphia and Boston — spreading and growing like the mustard seed of the Gospel ; covering this vast continent with a lace-work of prayer, and education, self-denial, devotion, and love for God and man, yet are scarcely sixty years in existence. It is amazing how much of fruit for North Amer- ica, how many unrecked-of blessings to its headlong people, sprang from the horror and anguish of the French Revolution. These Sisters of Our Lady issued, by God's will, from that triumph of Satan and Moloch, as lilies from the putrid fertilizers of the SOU. Marie Louise, Viscountess de Bhn-Bourdon, and 254 Devotion to the B. V. Maey I Mademoiselle Julie Billiart, soup;ht refuge in Belgium from the merciless iniquity of the land once ruled bj St. Louis. And here, in 1804, they pronounced their first vows. This was their vow : to give themselves, and, by the eflforts of their lives, to extend devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, protected by the Immacu- late Heart of Mary. Next year they venture sixty miles into the north of France, to Amiens, and there commence their work.' They have a lodging, it is evident, and some room for scholars- of what excellence and how large we cannot say ; but we can discern one pleasant figure at the very beginning. It is the figure of Sister Ber- nardino, wandering about the streets with a big bell in her hands. Gravely along the wealthier streets, cou- rageously down fetid alley-ways, and into quarters of the very poor, her bell chanting Vivos voco' her own voice translating that to those who came about her ; and at length her heart thrilling with gratitude and love to gentle Mother Mary, as she leads some seventy children to the schools — sweet first-fruits of Our Lady's new harvest in half-ruined France. By 1807 the Mother House is well established at Namur, and begins to send forth its colonies. So far as we can ascertain, the first flight of doves from this cote was a long one, over the Atlantic Ocean, and across half a continent to the very heart of this country — to * Notice Bur Tordre des Soeurs do Notre Dame de Namur. ■ " I call the living." Part of the old inecriptiou uix>n church bellB ' Vivos voco ; mortuos plaugo ; sabbata pango." m North America 255 Cincinnati. Tliere they still remain, teaching thirty- six hundred pupils in the cathedral city alone. But Ohio does not satisfy their ambition. Their next flight from Namur is all the way to Oregon ; to that river no longer to be known as one that rolls and hears no sound Save its own dashing,"* but a stream henceforth to show the shadow of the Cross, and to mingle the song of its waves with the music of Mass, and vespers, and convent litany, or with the sweet, wild notes of the Indian children, as they chant, from their canoes, their hymn to Blessed Mary : Ayas skokoum maika, Ewanissom tlosh Marie Kopa sahale taye. Wawa pous nailia Pons ka kwa yaka tcmtom Naika memnieloucht, Ayak yuka uskam uaika sahale. In thee I place my confidence, Oh, Virgin, strong and fair ;* Be thy protection my defence. Be all my life thy care I And when I draw my latest breath, And seek my endless lot, Obtain for me a holy death, And then forsake me not. It was under the charge of the apostolic de Smct that these devoted Sisters of Noro Dame made their bells ' Bryant's Thanatopsis. • " Pulchra ut luua, terribilis ut castrorum ucics ordinata." — Cant Canticorum, vi. 0. 256 Devotion to the B. V. Maiiy long journey : a journey vcxotl with many storms, and almost finished by one off the coast. Docks wore swept clear by the irresistible waves ; sails shivered ; top- masts went by the board ; water-casks completely emptied ; no soundings ; nothing but guesses as to their whereabouts, and those guesses proved after- wards to bo wrong. But the Sisters were calm, and full of tliat most beautiful courage which is called res- ignation : full of resignation, but not at the expense of hope. They gather in their cabin, holding there to whatever can bo seized to steady themselves, and in- tone their litany ; they make a now vow to the In.mac- ulate Heart of Mary, and then they trust. By and by the storm sul)sides, the winds abate, the waves go down, and as the crimson lustre of the sunset is flung athwart the sea, they notice, floating towards them, masses of long, green, salt-meadow grass, and they know by it that the shore is on their lee.' And so they landed, and on the eve of the Assump- tion of Our Lady they lodged in a tent on the banks of the Wallamette. In the morning, they raised and adorned, as the}' might, a little altar, and Mr. Blanchet, afterwards Archbishop, offered the Holy Sacrifice. On the second day of the Octave they reached the mission. It w'as a house, but without doors, witliout windows ; only with open spaces ready for such luxuries. Car- penters were the rarest and most costly articles in Oregon in those days. " Every man is his own buildei ' Annales de la Propagatioa ie la Foi, torn. xvii. 483. Lcttre da Pore de Sraot. IN No'.rn America. 257 :uul vcpt top- Dtcly IS to iftcr- , and 1 res- pcnso sro to id in- LUiac- y aud ,'es go . flung tliem, tliey fsump- aiks of d and ^nclict, ic. On lission. [dows ; Car- tics in •uildei lettre du hero," was tho consolation which Onr Lady's Sisters got when they looked at the yawning window-frames and portals. No matter ; they took tho Highlandman'a proverb for their law : " Set a stout heart to a steep hill-side ;" and one undertook to learn the management of the plane, another voted herself a sashmaker, a third claimed to be a house-painter, and if any found abso- lutely no mechanical vocation within her, she went straightway to Our Lady and asked her help for tho others. Then tho voyagers, and the Indians, and tho half- breeds brought melons, and potatoes, and some eggs ; and, that nothing might bo wanting to make the good religious feel at home, they added thirty-five or forty little girls to go to school, and about twoscore orphans whom they generously handed over to the sisters as a KTTifia eg a«, a possession forever. So they got them- selves and their pupils and their orphans housed in some sort, and from that time till now, about the hour of twilight, they hav^ never failed to chant the Litany of Our Lady of Loretto. Its sounds of benediction float over tho Wallamette, and further, over tlie scarco- inhabited wild tracts of Oregon, and over the stray hunter-band of savages, or Icnot of trappers ; and bear better promises to Northern America than that land is at all disposed to believe in. Tho prospects of this mission were so brilliant, that they lured " Sister Rcnilde and her companions" to try their fortune in the same direction. That is the style and title of this new expedition : " Soeur Senilde et ses 'T 258 Devotion to the B. V. Mary compa(j)i({), S Ave Maris Stella. ' Psalm, cvi. 25. m 2(50 Devotion to the B. V. Mary tliiuks that tlio soa offora a panorama of boanty, ami Hpoaks of it to hor "dear Mother Coustaiitiiio" in torniH which probably contain all hor possible elo- queuco, but which fall infinitely short of the exhaust- less reality of beauty Avhicli the main presents. " Ah !" she says, "what gracious varieties docs the sea ex- hibit! Now it is calm as peace, now troubled; then surging furiously ; it is green, it is blue of heaven, it flashes with phosphorescent gleams. The sun, when setting, clothes all the deep in raiment of living light ; and the horizon in clouds of every tint, gold and pur- ple, violet, and green, and orange. These take the most fantastic forms : volcanoes in eruption ; vast crimson seas of fire ; mountains snow-capped, ond forests, towns, and battlemented castles. Our recrea- tion is to look on this ; and before going to our rest, after this spectacle, we chant the Litany of the Blessed Virgin a iy her Rosary together." " I cixunoi tell you, my dear Mother, what happi- ness one feels in singing Mary's praise, our dear, good Mother's, in the midst of the ocean ; under a heaven sown with stars new to us, to the solemn sound of seas which break upon the frail sides of our ship ; and then, full of confidence and of thoroughest trust, we sleep in the hand of God, tranquilly as in our European convent." Still at sea, they keep the Feast of the Annunciation on board the Morning Star, with high Mass, vespers, and a serm. n. " It is very consoling to us," says Sister Renilda, " to see Mary so loved and honored by IN North Abieiuca. 201 , uiul 5" in olo- lavist- Ali!" a ex- ; then von, it when light ; d pur- ko the ; vast a, ond rccrca- r rest, leased happi- er, good I heaven of seas id then, te sleep :opean liciation vespers, says lored by all who surround us ; almost all tho sailors wear tho medal of the Immaculate Conception, and many add tho chaplet. Easter, too, they keep at sea ; and tho altar on deck is covered with the missionary baimcjr of Oceanica, where tho Oblatos of Mary are at work — a white banner bearing a crimson cross ; and then, upon a background of pale-blue drapery, there hangs, for altar-piece, a painting of St. Mary, blessed by the Holy Father." And so after many experiences — after tho length of the Atlantic, Capo Horn, the length of the Pacific, they reach the mouth of the Columbia. Then the In- dians come off in their canoes, and scramble aboard, Chinooks, and Oregons, and Wallawallas, with a haughty Dacotah here and there ; and they all make the sign of the cross, many wearing the chaplet, and many others the medal of Our Lady. The mission- aries go ashore and bring back wood-blooms, lupins probably, and the three violets and other forest flow- ers, and the Sisters " make bouquets of them to adorn the Virgin's Altar." ' With all the length of the voy- age, however, and with all those sentiments and abso- lute stormy realities, with all those prayers, and hymns, and intoned litanies, do not let it be supposed that the gentle Sisters grew puritanic, or their faces long and sour. No, no ; if anybody may wear a gay face, it is a child of Mary, devoting all to her and her Eternal Son. " We never passed our recreations more k ' Lettre de Soeur R<-nilde, p. 17. 2G2 Devotion to the B. V. Mahy gayly," Sister Renilda says. " Even the bad woathor helps to make us fun. We call one end of our par- ticular cabin Wallamette, such being the name of our mission not yet reached, and the other end we name The Falls." The latter place being probably on the lee-side, with a very decided slope. " All of us," says the Sister, "visit The Falls several times a day. Sister Francisca goes oftener than any of the rest of us. And only the other day Sister Mary Alphon- sus, after rapidly sliding thither, her soup-plate in her hand, was turned about by the roll of the vessel, and sliding back as rapidly, emptied the contents of that soup-plate on the head of Sister Mary Bernard." And this is the additional information promised by the present writer some page or so above. This is what he knows about the other two sisters; that Mary Alphonsus, compelled thereto by an affluent wave, emptied her soup upon the person of Mary Bernard. Among the Indians who come or are brought on board is a young female barbarian, une petite sauva- gesse, a candidate for baptism. And the Sisters, before they quit the ship, assist at that sacrament. The cap- tain is godfather, and endows his Jilleule with half the trinkets and gay old clothing in the ship ; and, of course, the little red-girl is called Mary. Then there is a venerable Chinook who sings for them in his own tongue, " in a voice by no means disagreeable," the hymn just given above ; and pointing with simple IN North Aherica. 2G3 itlior par- f our name a tho ' says flay. rest phon- ito in vessel, utents Mary omised This ; that ffluent Mary t;lit on sauva- before le cap- ilf the lind, of there Us own ," the Isimple exultation to tho medal of tho Immaculate Conception which hangs upon his swarthy chest. Then, when the Morning Star iu lodged by her pilot upon a sand-bar, at the mouth of tho Wallametto, "Sistir Renilda and her companions" quit her deck for canoes, and pro- ceeding in them to their mission-house, are lost to sight of ours. It is proper to say here, that other orders than that of Sister Renilda call thomselves of Notre Dame. Some in North America trace their origin to Lorraine, so far back as 15G5, Blessed Paul Fourrier being their founder, and are to be met with at Milwaukee.' Then Marguerite Bourgeoys and her sisters are a kind of colony from these. This is the extent of our informa- tion regarding Uio Soeurs de Notre Dame ; and it is possible that some of our statistics may not be always attributed to the proper society of these three. Should any one discover this, we can only declare that such error is not wilful. They are all, at least. Sisters of Our Lady, all children of one Mother, and we do not intend, by this present writing, to assign them any immediate credit at all. We wish to follow their ex- ample, and to assign all credit, all the honor, all the glory, to Jesus, their eternal Spouse, who loved them, and who bought them with His blood — to Him, and His Immaculate sweet Mother. What we do know is ' " Les Servantes de Dien en Canada, 1853. Essai sar I'histoire des communautes religieuses de femmes dd 1a Province:" par C. de Larodie-Heron. 264 Devotion to the B. V. Mary this, that certain rlevout women, known as Sisters of Notre Dame, are daily teaching more than thirty thou- earul American children devotion to the Blessed Saint Mary the Virgin. IN NoBTH America. 265 CHAPTER XIY. Odr Lady of Mkrot and of Charitt— Oub Lady's lovino Fbiknds at Ithb Cbobs — Oub Lady of Cubist's pueoious Blood. The History of Derotion to Blessed Mary in the Old World, and even of that in elder Canada, seems rather an exhibition of effects, the sources of which are easily enough divined ; but, in our careless, anti- antiquarian, and recordless state, we must be con- tented with getting at such causes as are visible to us, and from those deduce the inevitable effects. If cer- tain religious have thirty thousand pupils, and are guided in their Uves and their instruction by certain visible principles, it will require no wizard to guess at the result of the education which they give. Kenelm Digby writes a book called " Compitum, the Meeting of the Ways," to show that all roads duly fol- lowed lead to the Church. It is true ; and so is the veverse true. All ways lead out of the Church again over the suffering world. When the convent doors open in the mornu^g, it is that one Sister may go to the school-room, another to the hospital-ward, another through the streets to the houses of the charitable, another to the garrets and dismal cellars, to the shrines of utterest poverty, to inodorous alleys, where 12 266 Devotion to the B. V. Maby poverty and filth and sin have supremacy. Here, a black-robe ; there, a brov/n one, with a crimson cross upcn the bosom, threads the city paths. On one square you hear young voices carolling hymns to Mary from the windows of an academy ; on the next, you see the white, broad-leafed, quaint bonnet of the daughter of St. Vincent de Paul. And aU these are travelling in a circle ; they come from the hearts of Jesus and of Mary*; they are to go back thither when their earthly work is done. One family of these precious souls is known by the name of Sisters of Mercy. Do you remember Long- fellow's Evangeline in the yellow-fever hospital for the poor in Philadelphia? Let us repeat it : Only, alas I the poor who had neither friends nor attendants. Crept away to die in the almshouse, home of the homeless. Then in the suburbs it stood, in the midst of meadows and wood- lands. Now the city surrounds it, but still with its gateway and wicket. Meek, in the midst of splendor, its humble walls seem to echo Softly the words of Our Lord, " The poor ye have always with you." Thither by uight and by day came the Sister of Mercy. The dying Looked up into her face and thought, indeed, to behold there Gleams of celestial light encircle her forehead with splendor. Such as the artist paints o'er the brows of saints and apostles. Or such as hangs by night o'er a city seen from a distance. Unto tfieir eyes it seemed the lamps of the City ('elestial. Into whose shining gates, ere long, their spirits should enter. And with light in her looks she entered the chamber of sickness Noiselessly mov ' ^g among the assiduous faithful attendants. Moistening the feverish lip and the aching brow ; and in silencA Closing the sightless eyes of the dead and concealing their faces, "Where on their pallets they lay, like drifts of snow by the waymde. Many a languid head upraised as the Sister entered, IN North America. 267 Tamed on its pillow of pain to gaze while she passed ; fur her presence Fell on their hearts like a ray of the sun on the walls of a prison, And as she looked around, she saw how Death the Consoler. Laying his hand upon many a heart, had healed it forever.' id wood- Ice 38, lyEdde. Earlier than the year 1830, we find Sisters of Mercy in Charleston South Carolina, helpers to Bishop Eng- land in his apostolic work down there, and now they are elsewhere; in Cincinnati, among places known to us. These are of the good giftfi bestowed by Ire- land on America, and are, so to speak. Children of the Order of the Presentation of the Ever Virgin Mary, in that ancient and Catholic island. Let us judge of what they are likely to do in advancing the devotion, by what we can know of their daily lives and rule. Given fidelity to a rule, its natural efiects will not re- quire to be proved. Now, these Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy say daily the Office of the Blessed Virgin, which is composed of thircy-s;;ven of the Psalms of David ; the hymns of Simeon, of Blessed Mary, of the three youths in the Assyrian furnace, of Zacharias, prophet of God, with lessons and other passages from Holy Scripture, and some pious ejaculations, prayers, and versified hymns for the seven divisions of the day.* ' Longfellow's Poetical Works. Boston : Ticknor & Fields. 18mo ed., vol. ii., pp. 72, 73. • It is almost humiliating to even an ex-man-of-letters to be obliged to say that the Office is not the Mass — to repeat again that the Mass is what Protestants would call the Service of the Holy Communion, and the OJice is the Breviary — to wit, the Psalma of David, with Scripturo lessons and commentaries ; short biographies or notices of the saint, 2G8 Devotion to the B. V. Mart Then another rule binds the good sisters " to inspire, as much as in them lies, the children whom they edu- cate with a sincere devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ ; to His real presence in the Holy Eucharist ; to the Immaculate Mother of God, and to their Guardian Angels." They must say daily in their schools five decades of our Lady's Rosary or her Litany of Loretto. Their days of recreation are all Mary's days — the long vacation from her Feast of Mount Carmel, June 16, to Monday after her Assumption, August 15*: the other days are Saturdays, consecrated by the Church to her, and the Feast of her Presentation. Then their rule bids them " bear perpetually in mind that their Con- gregation is under her especial protection, and that she is, under God, its chief Patroness and Protectress." Therefore the Sisters " must have the warmest devo- tion and afifection to her, and must regard her in an or .thcr sacred subject of the day ; collects or short prayers, from which those of the Anglican and American Episcopal churches are translated, and a few hymns and pious verses, usually from Holy Writ. But when such a man as Thomas Carlyle, the pre-eminent " sham" hater, who writes, in correction of all other historians, liis history ci Frederick the Great, and half of whose multitudinous notes are devoted to abuse of other men's ignorance; when he gives us Mass in the afternoon, and, for a whole page, jumbles up this Book of Psalms with the Communion OflSce, what can an ex-man-of-letters do but notice it? Vide History of Fredetick H, called Frederick the Great. By Thomas Carlyle ; vol. iii., p. 206. New York : Harper & Brothers. Mummery as much as yon pleoae ; nonsense and idolatry as much B8 you please; but a writer, a pvblic teacher of men, is bound in simple honor to know something about the daily mummery even of two hundred millions of civilized men. IN North Amtrica. 2G9 especial manner as their Mother, and the great model which they are to imitate." They are to have, " indi- vidually, unlimited confidence in her ; to have recourse to her in all their difficulties and spiritual necessities, and by the imitation of her virtues are to study to please her and to merit her maternal protection." They shall, moreover, " solemnize her festivals with all spiritual joy and devotion, and shall instil in ilte minds of the child :n, and of all such as they can injluence, the greatest respect, veneration, and love for her." They shall " say the beads every lay in her honor ;" and " on the Feast of her Presen ation, in every year, the whole community, Avith lighted wax lights in their hands, shall, on their knees, before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, make the following act of oblation and of consecration to the Blessed Mother of God :" ' "The Act of Kenewed Consecration. " Most holy and glorious Virgin, Mother of God, we Sisters of the Congregation of Charitable Instruction, convinced how much we stand in need of the grace of God to fulfil the arduous duties and obligations of our pious institute, and of the greatness of thy power with Jesus Christ thy beloved Son, and of thy good- ness towards poor Christians, most humbly address ourselve'3 to thee this day, as the Mother of Mercy, • Sketch of the Life of Miss Nagle. Rule of the Sisters of our Lady of Mercy, of the Prcseutation, Dublin. 270 Devotion to the B. V. Mary ! and in the fullest confidence of obtaining, through thy holy intercession, the Divine assistance. " "VVe, therefore, most clement Vii'gin, prostrate be- fore thee with all humility, earnestly beseech thee to be most graciously pleased to accept of the oblation we all irrevocably make on this holy day of ourselves to thy love and service, proposing with the Divine as- sistance to bear always towards thee the most cordial respect and veneration, and to engage, as far as in our power, all others to love, honor, and respect thee. Deign, O most pure and immaculate Virgin, Mother of God, to receive us all, and '' very one of us in partic- ular, under thy holy protection. We look up to thee as our Mother, our Lady, and our Mistress, as our Pa- troness and Protectress, Advocate and Directress, humbly entreating thee to obtain the pardon of all our sins and transgressions against the Divine Majesty, and of all our negligences in thy holy service. " We beseech thee to obtain from the infinite good- ness of thy beloved Son, that this little Congregation of Charitable Instruction may always be favored with thy singular assistance, especially in the arduous func- tions of the institute and in the practice of every reli- gious virtue. In fine, we most earnestly request thou wilt be graciously pleased to obtain that perfect union of hearts and minds may always reign amongst us; that we may ever be faithful to the observance of our rule, and persevere to the end of our lives in the spirit and grace of our vocation, that having with fidelity served thy beloved Son, by imitating thy virtues on IN North America. 271 earth, we may, with thee and all the elect, praise and glorify him in heaven for all eternity. Amen." * And then those Sisters of Our Lady of Charity — all one with some external difference, some with schools, some without ; some with quaint, picturesque white butterfly-winged bonnets and antique-looped gowns ; some all in black and some in brown, but all alike ; Mere Juchereau in 1630, Mother Seton two cen- turies later ; Gray Sisters {Sfjeurs Grlscs) or Hospita- lieres, or Sisters of St. Joseph, or of the Hotel Dieu, or sacred inn, whereof our Lord is the host, and where the penniless are guests and " have wine and milk without money and without price ;" " or Sisters of Charity in New York, in Boston, in New Orleans, in Cincinnati, in Minnesota, in Montreal, they are all ore — all are children of Saint Vincent de Paul ; all rejoice to be known by that proud title which he bestowed upon them, " Daughters of Charity and Servants of the Poor." What need have we to speak of them? Let the school, the hospital, the prison, the filthy lodging- house, the orphan asylum, the blood-stained camp talk about them. Why, the Protestant and the Pagan ; the roughest among men, the " lost, lost, lost" among women, know the Sister of Charity, and find some- where amid the ruins of their souls an untainted bless- ing for her as she passes. ' Rules and Constitutions, etc. Dublin, 1809. ' " Qui non habetis argentum, properato : venite, emite absque argeuto et absque ulla commutatione, viaum et lac." — Isaias, Iv. 1. 1 272 Devotion to toe B. V. Mary In Quoboo, in 1637, moro than two hnndrod yoara npfo, tlioy wanted a school and a lioapital, and tho Siators of Charity furnished both. Montreal, Mary'a city, felt the need, and wo have seen how Mademoi- selle IManso provided. In tho States, IMotlier Seton founds her adaptation of tho great ord(;r, and now tho Sister of Cliarity is everywhere. Here, thero is tho Sister of Providence ; thero, the " little Sister of tho Poor ;" overywhero tho faithful child and humble im- ihxtor of Holy Mary. Mother Seton's first convent is ' a tenement of four rooms ; one lloor and one garret must lodge sixteen persons. But slio has tho '* chapel oi the Blessed Virgin" ' wherein to receive tho Bread of Life ; it is Saint Mary's Mountain which is their hoped-for laboring-place, that Saint Mary's town, now Baltimore ; and they can give their own fond phase of signification to Maryland. Here were Dubois, afterwards Bishop of New York, and saintly Brute, their wise guides, the second, afterwards Bishop of Vincennes. He it was who had "no time at home to get his hair cut,'" and so catch- ing the barber one day in the woods, he sat down upon a stone and was newly tonsured there. It was he, too, whom students of St. Mary's, known to tho present writer, used to see laboring witli his own hands to make moro easy a steep up-mountain path ' Life of Mrs. E. Sston, Founder and First Superior of the Daughters of Charity in tho United States. By llev. Dr. White, p. 233. « The same, p. 386. IN NoKTii America. 07 T years \ tho [ary'a cmoi- Seton )W tho 19 t]io of tho )lo im- vcnt is * garrot chapel Broad s thoir m, now haso of New second, lio had ■) catch- down It was to tho s own path whiiOi led to his f^vothi oratory and tlui Htatute of the Mother of (h)d. Ah ! tli(>y w«'r(^ very ])0()r in money and influ(MU'(> in those- enrly (hiys, hut licli in f^rac(>s, in huinihty, in love of lahor, and in sweet eontented- n(;ss. Tliey have lives of rou^hnc^ss and great lahor, but God gives tlunn encourag(>nient. Tliey liave sick- ness and pain like others, hut lie sends tluuu pleasant thoughts. They di(\ some years too early, wo may fancy, hut so " He giv(>th His beloved slee[)."' What sick Sister was it on whoso heart while sho slept, Mother S«'ton placed a rose just giA'en her? Wo do not know, shall never know her name ; nor is it in any point essential to ns or her that wo should But as sho icrote her simple thanks for it, wo may look hero at tho form of words it took." Tbo morning was boiiutifiil, mild, and serono, All naturi! had waki-d from roposo ; Maternal affoction camo HJIcntly in, And placed on my bosom a rose. Poor nature was wenk, and had almost prevailed The lonfj^-wearied eyelids to olose ; But the soul waked in triunipli and joyously hailed The sweet Qu(!cn of Flowers, the Rose. Whitsuntide was the time, 'twas the season of lovo, And I thought that the Idlest Spirit chose To leave for a while the sweet form of the Dove, And come in the blush of tho liose. Come, Heavenly Spirit, dcscond on each brcafit, And there let thy blessings reix)se, ' Psalm cxxvi, 2 : " Dederit dDectis suis somnum." » White's Life, p. 494. T 12* 274 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Ab tliou once didst on Mary, the teaiplo of rest. For Mary's our Mystical Rose. Oh may every rose Hint springs forth evermore, Enkindle the hearts of all those Who wear it or see it to bless and adore The Hand that created the rose. Let us guess how Mother Seton would move young hearts to the love of the Blessed among women, by what we see of her own child, her Rebecca. Just a glimpse into that well-tried life of hers ; a moment's raising of the curtain to expose the mother's pain, and one glance into the heart of the child. The record of the little girl's long-suffering is most pitiable ; the record of her patience is most beautiful, as she lies there white and still, suffering heroically, and not " wishing her sufferings shortened ;" her large eyes never quitting the crucifix except to turn upon the poor mother beside her, the mother struggling for resignation while the pangs of her offspring were tear- ing at her own heartstrings ; and trying to unite her pain with the pain of Her who stood at the foot of the cross, the Mother of Jesus." ' By and by the innocent head sinks down upon the mother's bosom ; there is a struggle and a final sigh ; and then. He that carrieth the young lambs in his bosom,' " suffereth that little one to come to Him." ' That ended, Mother Seton lays the untenanted body ' " Stabat autem juxta Crucem Jesu, Mater ejuB." — Saint John's 'QoBpel, xix. 25. * Isaias, zL 11 ; Saint Mark's Gospel, x. 14. IN North Amemca. 275 body from her arms with a low murmured, "Oh, my dar- ling !" then says to the attendant Sister, " My chains are broken," and to her God she says, lifting her eyea and arms, " My Lord, my darhng is with Thee ! She will nevermore risk to offend Thee : and to Thee I give her up with all my soul." Now, this was the child's prayer or act of consecration. She and two of her companions had given themselves early to Blessed Mary in this form of their own composition : "C^li, our Blessed Mother ! we consecrate our poor little hearts to you. Receive our oflfering. From this day we will begin, and with your dear assistance will continue to try our very best to love and serve you faithfully. Oh, our dear, dearest Mother, intercede for your poor little children before the throne of your Divine Son, for He will not deny you, His dear Moth- er, any thing ; and therefore we beg you to obtain for us the viri,ue of purity of heart, which is so very pleas- ing to you and your Divine Son, and that of modesty and love. But above all, oh, our Blessed Mother, ob- tain for us a happy death, that we may reign forever in the blessed mansions of peace and rest which is our true country arid home. Amen." ' It is only the act of three little American school- girls, some fifty years ago ; but ex ore infantium et lac- tentium jper/ecisti laudem — " Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise ;"" and Mary John's > " White's Life of Mrs. Seton," Appendix, p. 498. » Psalm, viil. 2, 270 Devotion to D. V. Map.y sooms to Imvo hoard them, for they nil died in chilil- hood. One of tlioao very first of Mother Soton's comnin- nity survives (1803), the venerable Motlier Margaret George, fifty-one years a "Daughter of Charity and Servant of tlie Poor." If you would see her and ask her prayers, you ■will find her in tlio midst of the orj)hans, at the asylum in Cumminsville, Cincinnati. Of other Sisters of Charity, and of these, a fact or two will illustrate our attempt at a history of devotion. One single community, that of Emmittsburg, has twenty-two asylums, for orphans, for the insane, for incurables ; eleven hospitals, and twenty-five schools. In the city of New York ahme. Sisters of various orders teach at least six thousand pupils. In Canada, eight hundred religious women, ten years ago, were teaching eleven thousand children, guarding a thousand orphans, nursing five thousand sick,' and teaching, by precept or example, devotion to the Blessed Virgin to every one of these. If we liad any records here, we might be able to apportion to each order in the United States its due number of pupils ; b\it, as yet, system is wanting. Just take your atlas for awhile, and see those Gray Sisters, the first we ever saw in North America ;' see them to-day, more than two centuries later, toiling in the half-tropical heats of the South, or braving, for the love of God and Mary, the boreal wind careering over ' Servantes de Diou en Canada. ' Vide tliis work, p. 40. IN NouTii Ameuica. 277 cliill- >mniii- ty ami 11(1 ask of the linnati. or two • (votion. g, has tno, for schools, various en, ten iklrcn, lousand otion to we had ition to iber of f5e Gray ?a;' see liling in for the Ing over 140. the Roini-frozon floods of Hudson's Hay, or the ahnost perpetual snows that lie around far Athabasca Lake, in north latitude G0\ Look at the Daughters of the Cross, sailing in 1855 troin Treguier, in France, to Avoyelles, in Louisiana — Mary Hyacinthe, superior of the first colony ; Mary Agatha, of the second, in 1850. It is this last colony which, when their ship takes fire far out at sea, assend)lo in their cabin and chant the Sahw licgina — " Hail, Queen ; hail, IMother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness, and oiu* hope." These also re- cite each day the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin. Then, when Kentucky was a wilderness, almost, in 1812, and holy Father Nerinckx labored as missionary there, ho called into existence, to aid the cause of God and Our Lady, the " Sisters of Loretto, or Friends of Mary at the foot of the Cross ;" their object, first, their own perfection, and then the education of girls, espe- cially of the very poor. He calls their house on Har- din's Creek, Loretto, the house whereof Our Lady was the mistress on earth ; within whose walls Our Lord became incarnate. St. Mary's poverty was to be their model of life. Their houses are therefore poor and badly furnished, their food is of the plainest kind, and their raiment of the coarsest. Hard labor in the fields and forests was to be their earthly luxury, and their lives penitential — barefooted most of the year, for one item.' "Poor to extremity, but ah," says saintly ' Sketches of the Early Catholic Missions in Kentucky. By Rt Rev. M. J. Spalding, Bishop of Louisville ; pp. 206-313. i 278 Devotion to the B. V. Maky Bishop Fliiffi^t 'P' Huch apo tless cloanlinosH !" ' Now, tlioy have at, least teu establiHlinicntH in Kontucky, Missouri, Arkansas, oat among tlio Osa;j;o Indians. Tliero aro two humlroil Sisters now, and every house has schools. And then, these " Friends of Mary at the Cross" meet in their darkened chapel when three o'clock comes round each day, for a long meditation on, and commemoration of, Our Lord's drear Passion ; and while the bell tolls mournfully they murmur at stated intervals, " suffering Jesus ! O sorrowful Mary!'" Then, close by the side of these good religious, and educating more children to love and reverence St. Mary, are the Dominicans ; and St. Dominic, you know, is the Father of the Rosary. Not of that man- ner of prayer, but only of that manner brought to per- fection of practice ; for the use of beads in j)rayer sweeps far back beyond the Incarnation of Our Divine Redeemer, and is conmion to all Oriental nations, Pagan, Hebrew, Mahommedan, and Christian. Now, the first two women of this order in the present States, so far as we can find out, were in Kentucky, and were both called Mary. They were here in 1807 or 1808. Then they were at St. Mary's, Somerset, Ohio, in 1819 ; and they have houses in Zanesville in that last-named » Sketches of the liifo, Times, and Character of Rt. Rev. Benedict Joseph Flaget, first Bishop of Louisville. By Rt. Rev. M. J. Spal ding ; p. 290. « Letter of Rt. Rev. Dr. Spalding, Oct. 3, 180L IN North America. 279 State, and in Benicia in California, in MompliiH and Naslivilld, Touuosscc, and in Brooklyn, Long Island. Their first convent was callcjd St. Hose ; their Bocond, St. Magdalene, now calhul St. Catherine's. I only know them to be in a most especial manner do- vottid to the Blessed Virgin ; to be zealous in impart- ing that love to others. They ♦•^ucato a couple of hundred pupils at leost each year; and in the same State of Kentucky the Sisters of Charity at Nazareth teach between four and five hundred. Our road for the r- st of this chapter must bo a very undetermined one. Perforce a vagabond, we w:tnder from mountain to prairie, from forest to sacred sea- side, picking up here a woodland flower, there a peb- ble ; sometimes getting a mere glance at some bright object, and utterly unable, for thicket, surf, or quick- sand, to come any nearer. What we shall get into our basket, however, bo it agate or patch of moss, wo lay on Our Lady's altar, persuaded of this at least, that she will have no conte^upt for it. The Sisters of Providence, in Oregon, in Canada, in Vermont, those who received at Grosnc He the thou- sand of ship-fever patients in 1848 ; these educate some hundred and fifty girls who pay, and some nine hundred who are too poor for that. The " Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary" all bear the name of Mary, and teach a thousand pupils. The Sisters of the Presentation at St. Hyacinth ; the Sisters of St. Joseph ; the Daughters of St. Anne ; how many do they teach to' honor Mary ? God knows, and God I 280 Devotion to the B. V. Mmiy rewards. Everywhere, to him who has eyes and who looks out of them, there is observable some ucav par- terre from the Church's perpetual fertility.' On the day which sees these lines written, we read in the Freeman's Journal of New York these facts : How, in the year of grace 1844, a small commiinity of nuns en- tered the diocese of Cincinnati, having the title of " The Most Precious Blood," whose principal office consists in the nocturnal adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, together with other duties common to most convents, and some peculiar to them- selves. The founder of the Arch-confraternity of Priests of the Most Precious Blood was the Canon Gaspar di Bufalo, who was born at Eome, A. d. 1786. Another true benefactor of America he, issuing like so many others from the red famje of that French Revolution. Chiefly through his exertions the Arch-confraternity of the Most Precious Blood was organized, in 1815, at Rome. So rapid was its progress, that fifteen years later, in 1830, more than a hundred and fifty lesser confraternities were already affiliated with it, not only in Europe, but in Africa, India, and China. It was not until some years later that the first body of these holy missionaries directed their steps towards America. The Rev. M. Sales Brunner, with eight missionary priests and six novices, sailed in 1843 for New York, and upon the invitation of the Most Rev. Arch- IN North America. 281 bishop, establislied themselves in the diocese of Cin- cinnati. During a pious pilgrimage at Rome, in the year 1832, Madame Anna Maiia Brunner, mother of the reverend gentleman mentioned above, uniting herself with the greatest fervor in all the objects of the saintly Canon di Bufalo, became a member of his Arch-con- fraternitj, and on returning to her native Jand, re- solved to consecrate the remainder of her days to the adoration of the Most Precious Blood of Jesus, in the Holy Sacrament of the altar. The better to withdraw from distractions which might tend to interrupt her devotions, she retired to the solitary castle of Lowen- berg, in the Grisons (Switzerland), where, in the course of the following year, she was joined by twelve devout young women from Alsace and Baden, who placed themselves under her direction, and for whom she prepared a rule, by which they led a regular rehgious life in the observance of nocturnal adoration. The night was subdivided, and each member passed two hours before the altar. Every day, at the close of the morning prayers and before the celebration of the Holy Mass, the sentences enjoined by Arch-confrater- nity were repeated by each member of the community, in an audible voice ; and during the celebration of the Mass, they recited together the Utany of the Most Precious Blood. The day was employed in manual labor, always accompanied by prayers or meditation, in the house or garden, or in the fields ; for they were poor, and could command no other means of subsist- 282 Devotion to the B. V. Mary ence, either for themselves or for tlie indigent female orphans whom they sustained in their convent. The blessing of God gave the fruits of their toil ; and trust- ing to the results of their prayers and industry, and the powerful intercession of the Blessed Mother of God, they, after a little time, charged themselves with the expense of educating for the holy priesthood seven young missionaries, who were afterwards attached to the zealous band who (as we have related) entered the diocese of Cincinnati, A. d. 1843. A year after the arrival of the missionary priests, the Most Eev. Archbishop of Cincinnati extended an invitation also to the community at Lowenberg to establish themselves in his diocese, which was ac- cepted. The simple story of the travels hitherward, by land and sea, of these angelic women, as given in letters to their friends, is most touching. Our Umits confine us to a few brief extracts from this interest- ing correspondence. After a tearful parting with the beloved ones at Lowenberg, whose faces they should see no more on earth, they went first to prostrate themselves at the feet of our Lady of Einsiedeln, to implore her blessing on their great undertaking, and to place it under her direction. Refreshed and full of consolation, they now directed their steps towards the great Western ocean, which they must traverse in order to reach their goal in the midst of the vast con- tinent beyond it, yet no fear or danger agitated their strong and faithful hearts. " Truly," writes one of them, " this great journey IN North America. 283 might well have frightened us, but when we remem- bered that the Son of God had freely poured out the last drop of his most precious blood for us, we said one to another, * If in America we can prevent even one mortal sin, the fatigues we now undergo will be richly repaid ; and should we find nothing else to do, we can teach our Catholics to say the Rosary of the Most Precious Blood, and we can seek out some poor orphans who have need of our care, and then we shall be content. But even if we find nothing to do, we imow well that our dear Lord will accept our good intentions to honor His great sacrifice ; for, sweet Mother, have we not laid our undertaking, and all that may result from it, at thy feet ? When we accepted this mission to America, did we not place ourselves under thy blessed patronage as servants of Mary ?' " Thus rejoicing on their way, these humble daughters of our Blessed Lady reached America. Within a few days, more than forty Catholic maidens were received for catechetical instructions by the Sis- ters, who lost not a moment in resuming their religious life in its original order, both in the nocturnal adora- tion of the Most Blessed Sacrament and in the daily manual labor, commingled, as before, with constant prayer and meditation, and the offices of the chapel. Their first Mass was offered on the midnight eve of Christmas, and they commemorated this happy event by naming their chapel Maria zur Krippe — Anglice, Mary of the Manger. The community increased rapidly by the accession 284 Devotion to the B. V. Mary of many young women from Europe, who desired to participate in their holy life of seclusion, which is at the same time so full of usefulness ; and from time to time American girls presented themselves for admis- sion, so that within five j-ears after their arrival the number of the Sisterhood had reached one hundred and fifty-four. At this time (1862) their catalogue re- cords the names of more than four hundred, some of whom have already entered upon their rest. Ten convents of their order are distributed over a region of some five and twenty miles or more in length, and of unequal breadth. They are usually seated in the midst of fertile fields of corn, and surrounded by orchards, vegetable gardens, and vineyards, which pre- sent the most striking contrasts to the surrounding wilderness of woods, which extends in all directions further than the eye can reach. It is a pleasing spec- tacle to the traveller, as he pursues his solitary path along tlie rude highways that perforate the vast forests of this district, when, above the unbroken line of lofty trees, he descries, first, a symmetrical steeple ; a Httle further on, he is almost startled by a sudden opduing, which discloses an apparition of wide fields, from near the centre of which rises a cluster of substantial edi- fices of various kinds. The church, no longer a rude structure of logs, has now become a spacious, well- proportioned, and soUd pile of brick and stone. Here Father Brunner began to preach on Devotion to Our Lady, and on the nearly unknown devotion of her Rosary. In the Society, when the sun is setting, IN North AikrEniCA. 285 they say the Rosary, the Litany of the Blessed "^nrgin, and have, by special privilege, the Benediction of the Most Holy Sacrament. Then, at night prayers, again the Rosary ; and, in the silence of the midnight, each sister, during her two hours of adoration, recites it thrice. Oh, think of that. How often from these holy women goes up that beautiful supplication for us all, while the beads drop noislessly, one by one, through the weariless fingers, and the hush of the solemn hours is scarce broken by the murmur of " Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death!" You can hear the Brothers and the Sisters at their daily lal)or, break into praises of Saint Mary ; and if they rest from their toil, it is only, with many of them, that they may tell their beads. If any thing is greatly needed, if epidemics threaten, if temporal or spiritual loss seem to impend, a devotion to the gentle Mother is commanded, and they say that they always obtain their requests.' So that you do not wonder to hear that, all through the surrounding country, the text-book in each family is Saint Alphonsus Liguori's " Glories of Mary," and that the Chaplet is their daily devotion ; that the chapels are crowded every evening ; that in the bitter winter you can see lines of Janterns, glimmering through the dark of the early morning, as the faithful pick their way, through the most detestable of roads. * Letters of Rev. Josepli Dwengcr, Priest C.PP.S., September 14 and August 24, 1861. 286 Devotion to the B. V. Maby to the break-of-day Mass and first Rosary. All are enrolled in one or more Confraternities of the Blessed Virgin — that of the " Sacred Heart of Mary, for the Conversion of Sinners," or that of the ** Scapular," or of the " Living Eosary," or of " Our Lady's Seven Sor- rows," or of the " Lnmaculate Conception," or in the " Sodality of the Blessed Virgin." " Our people," says a devoted priest of that region, " would almost think it a mortal sin to omit the Rosary on Sundays or on Festivals." Every few miles a new brick church, or convent, or pious school, gleams through the openings of the woods; and the venerable Archbishop Purcell calls the place the " Thebais of Ohio." It is, too, the "Blessed Virgin's land," and the whole district re- sounds with Saint Bernard's cry, chmens, pia, dulcis Virgo Maria! O piteous, O gentle, O sweet Virgin Mary ! m North America. 287 CHAPTEE XV. OvB Ladt or Saint Ursula and Saint Angela. As early as the year 1700, the nuns of Our Lady of La Trappe were at work amid the ice of New Scot- land.* By 1790 the nuns of Our Lady of Mount Car- mel, home of the Scapular, were laboring in Maryland. When you get to Cincinnati, in these days, and debark from the railway train, perhaps you may want to go to the cathedral. Get, then, into one of those " street- cars," and ride up into the town. After a square or two has been passed, a woman gets in, probably ac- companied by a child. Young looking, but how young you cannot nearly guess : the infinite peace of God seems to settle on such faces, so as to destroy the marks of Time's advance. Whether she be twenty or forty is not particularly evident. But you remark her. There is a look of singular sweetness and patience on the face, which gives refinement; or it may be that that is there naturally — you don't know ; she may have been born a countess, for there are such among them. There is a bonnet, not very peculiar, but such as nobody in good society would like to wear, at least ; there is a black cloak — a very poor woman's cloak ; » Vie de Margucr'.Le Bourgeoys, ii. 470. 288 Devotion to the B. V. Mary ' there is a coarse brown robe, and on the bosom of that, the crest and arms of her nobility, is a crimson cross. That is a Franciscan Hospital Sister, out beg- ging from door to door, for food, clothes, money, any thing that good people choose to give for the sup- port of a hospital where any who are poor may enter, *' without distinction of sex, age, country, or re- ligion." There are only two doubts to be settled : is the ap- plicant in downright need ? and, is there a bed empty ? These decided, they take the patient in, and set to work to support and nurse him or her for the love of the dear God who died for us all. That is the way these new crusaders, these red-cross sisters, do at the Hospital of Mary's Help. They were added to our holy Archbishop's causes of gratitude to God, some three or four years ago, invisible for awhile — violets in the winter ; by and by, when the spring came, a couple of years later, blooming out modestly, two days after their arrival, begging from door to door in the strange, uncultivated, but not unkindly town. And then, as reward for their energy, God sent them, in the first week, some dozen of pauper patients, in a few weeks forty, and then they knew that His blessing was with them. Swift then as weeds, but j)ure and sacred as tall lilies, sprang up their convent and their hos- pital of "Mary's Help." In 1860, two hundred and seventy patients had been nursed ; the next year. Jive Jmndred and eighteen, and, among those, thirty, worn out with age, for life ; and all supported, and all ex- IN NOUTH AmEUICA. 280 om of imson t bcg- 3 SUp- r may or re- the ap- )mpty? set to love of ilic way 3 at the to our ■1, some A'iolets ame, a ^vo days in the And , in the a few fcng was sacred lir hos- 3d and Jar, five jT, worn I all ex- penses paid, by the dailij aslcimj of alms fiom door to door. Ah, blessed women, daughters of Charity and Mercy, servants of the poor, s})ouses of Jesus, sisters of Bless- ed Mary, vestals who ward off the wrath of Justice,' pure types of consecrate womanhood, ye are called by many names, ye live by the pulse of one Heart. Oilier creeds have striven to imitate you, and have gotten exotic and bereaved plants, and these have found no nourishment in those stranger lands, by stranger waters. But the Cathohc sister is a strong and glori- ous tree, whose sap is the Blood of the Lord, Avhose roots are planted in the Paradise on high. Think how those sisters move about the noisome streets of pover- ty and dark infectious lanes, quietly, as by stealth, slealimj through the shadows, uucovetous of man's ap- probation. Gentle, modest flowers of lioliness ; the fragrance of whose mercy and prayerfulness, and love fo]' God and man, like the scent of the Alpine rhodo- dendron, escapes the perception of man, and floats straightway upwards to the Throne. One day, too, shall they all be gathered there, and out from the lips of Him who died for us, of the King and Judge, these words shall flow : " My sisters, I was an hungered and ye gave Me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave Me drink, I was naked and ye clothed Me, sick and ye ministered unto Me, in prison and ye visited Me. ' In pagan Rome, the passing by of a Vestal Virgin conveyed par don to criminals doomed to death. L- 13 290 Devotion to the B. V. Maiiy I' I For inuHiiuu'li as ye ilid it unto tho least of my jjoor brotliruii, yo luivo doiio it unto Mo. Wlioii yo const >l«;il the sorrowful, your wi^rds of i>ity sunk into My wounilctl heart ; it was My ear that listened when ye instrueted the pauper; when ye relieved the hef^'gar, i/iis pierced hand took tho alms; when yo pive drink to the thirsty, ye lifted tho cup to tho lips of your lledeenier and your God. And these shall go into everlasting life." ' As you leave the College of Our Lady of Angels, to cross into Canada by the Suspension Bridge, you see above the rainbow-crowned mist the Convent of Our Lady of Peace. It is a house of Lorettines, and, be- ing a place of pilgrimage, will be spoken of hereafter. Let us come to Our Lady of Saint Ursula and Saint Angela. There is an order of holy women "wonderfully raised up," says the Collect, *' in His Church by God, under the protection of the glorious Virgin Mary, Mother of His only-begotten Son."" These enter the Chapel, wherein they take their veil and vows, to the music of this solemn march : O GLORIOSA VIRGINUM,' Mary, while thy Maker blept Is nourished at thy virgin bretw'', Such glory shines that start", h es bright. Behold thy face and lose thei/ light. > St. Matthew, xxv. 34-46. « Collect for Feast of St. Ursula. ' I find this rendering in Bishop England's Works, iv. 308. \\ ^ NoHTir Ameuicx. ''''"' I')HH M,at man in P., i , T''^- fruitn., .vol : ^r^/'fn'oro, '••" that mourn to roI,o,v,heo. The Father Z '?'''"''''"'"«^ And then tho i ;l>o.ro/,i,,,3 respond J w*^ ''™'"-«'- »'I «.e God, (hat she „»„ t, „/,™^ '°'- i"^"-. H„l^ jf„t^„^ CJirisC" 111 "^ """*' worthv of «,„ "i-r ot „, " '• T'«se are ei,e Urs,,i;„ Promises of *J«le n.ati„^ ,,. ^ «, m^s, and to „e, at least 'o-. fro» the Sisters of Chaf. ">""'?''■■-"«. some- •^^ 'he beginning of o„ ste"'^ ":" ^-'y- Kon>en.. ^'"e by side amid the C ITL" "' '"' ""^^ ^^^ he waters who received hZ IT "' ^^^-^' " -"^ hH and clothed the™ fo ' ," tt ''""" ^^ «'«'X *"'''*«• At New Orleans ^r ? " '^"^ o^" grav f;*™ the duties o, HosS ^''f' "' ""^ «»« » !::^«ions thereto f^H' "" "'' -« ~~ —---__ ^'''' ^anj years ?^":";^- >'-■ '^^^r — — • <^™»«<-P«rmnd, ii. OM. 281 292 Devotion to the B. V. jMaey after. It was in tlieir scliools tliat the first Incliar girls were taught ; it ma}' be there that the last shall iearn their Ave Maria, before they perish under the inithless feet of the white man. When we last saw the daughters of Saint Angela Meriei, they were in Montreal and Quebec. A century later we find them amid the miasms of Louisiaija. Mother Mary Tranchepain, surnamed of Saint Augus- tine, and ten devoted companions, form the first band who go to the city of New Orleans — city of so many and varied destinies. We have her own earnest and l^ious account of the voyage;' of their danger and wreck, and their vow to Saint Mary the Virgin ; of her perfect confidence in that good Mother, and conse- quent calm fearlessness." Afterwards she describes the arrival and rude settlement of their community, and then, also, she has to tell of the holy death of three of them, as each in her turn succumbed to the labors and the insalubrity of the climate. On the first year of their arrival they were welcomed b}'^ somewhat such terrors as greeted their sisters long ago in the days of the Iroquois. The Natchez fell upon Fort Rosalie, and massacred all but the children. These, or thirty at least of them, were purchased back from the savngeo, and formed the first Orphan Asylum of the Ursulines. To this they soon added other ' Relation du Voyage des premieres Ursulines a la Nouvelle Orleans €* de leur t'tablisbciuent en cette villo. Par la R. Mere St. Augustin de Tranchepain. * Relation du Voyage, etc., pp. 15, 25, 26. ! I IN NoBTH America. 293 IncTiar st shall ler the Angela century uisiana. Angus- L'st band so many nest and Lger and 1 ; of her d conse- describes nmunity, eath of ed to the « welcomed ters long chez fell children, sed back Asylum id other pile Orlt'ans t. Augustin schools, one for young French ladies, one for the slave women, a day-school for the poorer Avhite children, a hospital, and a Magdalen Asylum. So that not con- tent with being Ursulines, they must needs, for awhile at least, make themselves Daughters of Charity and Sisters of the Good Shepherd. And for all these toils, in 1730, seven nuns — it was all that was left of them — found courage and i3signation in those inexhaustible wells, the Hearts of Jesus and Mary.' By and by there comes, in 1755, a new claim on the charity of these brave women, a claim met heartily and with good-will. It came from the extreme North, there where Mary of the Incarnation worked and wrote long ago. In her neighborhood, but still further north and eastward, in the now British province of Nova Scotia, was the land once known as Acadia. There are many Protestant historians who sketch the sad history of the cruel ruin of these settlements, but there are no Catholic authors obtainable by me. Most beautiful of all narratives is Longfellow's " Evange- line ;" but it tells the story only of two exiles, both of whom find their re^t in another part of this vast semi-continent, and, cradled in Nova Scotia, make their graves in Pennsylvania. When Evangeline wandered to Louisiana, she found only Ursuline nuns, as there were no other religious in New Or- leans at the time of the arrival of the Acadiaus. These holy women formed the provisional army of > Life of Bishop Flaget, pp. 157, 158. 29^ Devotion to the B. V. Maky I ' ii Charity and Mercy during the first stmj^gles of those countries. They were Bretons originally, these Acadians, and from that land, and from illustrious La Vendee, whose warriors went to battle with the sacred Heart of Mary, white embroidered, upon their breasts, they brought their fidelity to the Queen of Angels, far over the troubled Atlantic, to the wild and ice-bound shores of Cape Breton. They made those deserts blossom ; the valleys of that boreal and breeze-swept land stood thick with golden corn ; sixty thousand head of horned cattle soon grazed upon the pastures tilled by their careful and industrious hands. The flax which they cultivated, and the flocks which they reared, spun and woven by the nimble fingers of their pious women, clothed the Acadian farmers. Each family was well able to provide for its own wants, so that there were no poor, and little barter. The blessing of paper- money had not lighted upon them, and they had little or no use for the slight stock of gold and silver which they possessed. They kept as nlear of the court of justice as they did of the trader's exchange. The elders of the villages settled all slight quarrels ; they carried the greater to the priest. He drew their pub- lic acts, recorded their wills, kept them instructed in the law of God, consecrated their lives by Sacraments, kept vivid in their souls devotion to Mary Im- maculate. His salary was the hvcnty -seventh part of the harvest — always more than he needed, for there were no poor. " Misery was wholly unknown, IN i<'oRTH America. 295 tlioso is, and ■whose ■ Mary, »rought rer the ores of m ; the 1 stood horned by then- ch they pun and v;omen, (vas well ire were paper- ad little r which [court of The |s ; they sir pub- icted in jnents, •y Im- h part id, for Iknowu, and benevolence anticipated the demands of pov- erty." ' The Acadian married j'oung, chose his own partner for life, and she brought him her portion in flocks and herds. When the union had been determined on, the whole community built the young couple a house, broke up the lands about it, supplied them with life's necessaries for a twelvemonth, and bade them God speed. The population numbered eighteen thousand souls. And when their sun was at its serenest the storm came down. In 1762 this charge was brought against them, " That the Council were fully convinced oi their strict attachment to the French king, and their readiness at all times to take part with and assist him." ' This was the cloud, and from it the lightning soon fell. In the Octave of Our Lady's Seven Sorrows, September 17, they stood upon the shore surrounded with bayonets which were to drive them, if resisting, into the vessels prepared for their deportation. Their houses, churches, barns, and mills had been given to the flames — two hundred and fifty-three of these burn- ing at ^Mrni in a single settlement, five hundred lying in as! ^ j another. Some fled and perished in the woouc", ^::'i-: made good their escape, most of them submitted to iue force employed. Back from the cold beach about a mUe stood the • Haliburton; C. J., i. 172. ' Proceedings of his Majesty's Council on the subject of the removal of tho Acadians in 1762, extracted from Council books. 296 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Church of Our Lady of Acadie. There they gathered fo^ the last time, while Father Reynal offered the Holy Mysteries for them. Theii they marched slowly out, weeping, telling their beads, chanting the Litanies of the Blessed Virgin, singing hymns to her eternal Son and her. All the way from that chapel to the shore the mournful procession passed through the kneeling ranks of their wild weeping mothers and wives, of their sisters and little children ; and when the men had passed, these rose it"" fnUowed to the ships. And so, driven aboard, they p. 1 away over the strange seas, in that Octave of Our Lady of Sorrows. The sun went down. Such of the poor women as were left found shelter where they could for them- selves and their children, and the provincial soldiery stood in their ranks upon the sands, alone in a once beautiful and fertile country, " without a foe to sub- due, or a population to protect. But the volumes of smoke," says the Protestant historian, "which the half-expiring embers emitted, while they marked the site of the peasant's cottage, bore testimony to the ex- tent of the work of destruction. For several succes- sive evenings the cu ile gathered round the smoking ruins, as if in expectation of the return of their masters, and all night long the faithful watch-dogs howled over the scene of desolation, and mourned alike the hand that had fed and the house that had sheltered them." ' ' Hietorical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, by Hon. Chief- Justice Haliburton. HaUfax, 1829, i. 180, 181. IN North America. 297 All these sad victims were sown like wild-flower seeds, by chance, as it were, all along the North Amer- ican coast fi ai Main to Louisiana. No regard was paid to family ties : daughters Avere separated from their mothers, wives from husbands, and little children from their families. Such of tlio latter, a large num- ber, as reached New Orleans, formed the second in- heritance of orphans which fell to the Ursulines of the South. There, at least, these little ones found a home. Many a trial to their faith, hope, and patience, had the community of New Orleans to sustain. First, want, and labor, and poverty, — but these were natural to the missionary nun ; then the loss of eighteen of their number at once, who retired to Havana on the pur- chase of Louisiana by the United States Government ;' then by the decay of religious spirit among the people, only revived by the coming of Bishop Dubourg. They knew Avhere to have recourse in their sorrows. The good bishop having obtained for them the permission of the Holy Father to that efltect, they placed them- selves under the especial protection of Saint Mary, and called themselves thenceforward Ursulines of the Presentation of Our Lady.' And then, at the close of 1814, having finished their chapel, they erected the statue of our Lady of Swift Help, Notre Dame de Prompt Secours, and thither go the Ursulines for com- fort now. In that same year of 1815, an army tlireat- • Servantes de Dieu : La Roche Heron, p. 28. • This was effected on January 16, 1813. 18» 298 Devotion to B. V. Mary ened the towD of New Orleans, and General Andrew Jackson commanded its defences. And while Old Hickory swore and fought hard, the daughters of Saint Angela knelt before the statue of Notre Dame, and behind them knelt the women of the city, lady and negress side by side, all, with earnest supplication, pouring forth the Litany of *' Our Lady of Prompt Succor." And the cannon that thundered without, and the rattle of musketry, and the shouts of the fighters went their way also. Perhaps, since then, with the same or greater agony of supplication, they may have prayed this Litany ; perhaps they are pray- ing it now, October, 1862. We will condense it for economy of space. After the usual Kyrie eleison and invocation of the Most Holy Trinity, of " Holy Mary," and of " Mother of the Li- fant Jesus," it is in substance as follows : Our Lady of Prompt Help, Pray for us. Our Lady, Prompt Help of those who invoke thee with confidence ; of those devout to the Infant Jesus ; of those yearning for an earnest and enlightened faith ; of penitents ; of afflicted families ; of the poor and in- firm ; of travellers ; of mariners ; of the shipwrecked ; of those in the last agony ; of the souls in purgatory, Pray for us. Our Lady, Prompt Help to obtain and preserve charity ; to observe the law of God ; to obtain con- trition and perseverance in the practice of good works, Pray for us. Our Lady, Prompt Help in the conversion of sin- IN North America. 299 Irew Old ^aint and and ition, ompt hout, f the then, , they pray- er the iHoly le In- thee esua ; faith ; ,nd in- cked; atory, eserve con- works, )f sin- ners ; in the wants of the soul ; in occasions of sin ; in temptation ; in necessities of the body ; in the acci- dents of Ufe ; in conflagration ; in inundation ; in en- hghtening unbeUevers; in the conversion of heretics, Pray for us. • ' Our Lady, Prompt Help against impurity ; against the revolt of the will from God's will ; against hghtning and tempests ; against contagious diseases ; against the Evil One, Pray for us. Our Lady, Prompt Help of the people of Neio Orleans; of those who fight in defence of their country ; against our enemies. Pray for u^. O God, who beholdest us encompassed on all sides « by dangers and miseries ; grant us in Thy goodness that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God Thy only Son, may defend us from the malignant enemy, and protect us against all adversity; that she may ever, by prompt help, deliver us from the necessities of body and soul, and with her powerful hand lead us in safety to the kingdom of heaven ; through, etc' In 1823 these noble Ursuhnes of New Orleans were strengthened by a colony of six from Old Quebec again ; and in 1861 by others from the convent of St. Martin, in Ohio. Let us move that way. Up from the French capital, following Marquette's River of the Immaculate Conception to the Ohio, first known to those Jesuit servants of Mary who died beneath the ' Find this Litany printed in St. John's Manual. Dunigau & Bra, New York, 1857, p. 1136. <■ 300 Devotion to the B. V. Maky Iroquois tomahawk and scalping-knife, to the cathedral town of Cincinnati; and thence back into the new country, where, since July 21, in the Octave of Our Lady of Mount Carmel,'184:5, they have been training souls in the love of God and Mary. As you approach it, you are struck with the features of American natural beauty which surround it : we once heard an eloquent guest compare it to the Happy Valley of Rasselas, a valley in, but not of the world. We would rather liken it to the mountain-top, as being more isolated, and higher up, nearer to God than val- leys are or may be. Mountain-top or valley, however, this place is like a result of the traditional recollection of Eden. The broad plains covered with corn, vine- yards, and orchards, or lying in wide sheets of dark green meadow, daisy-spotted and arabesqued by brooks ; the stately, calm nobleness of ancient forests, linden and oak and maple and locust ; then over and through all this, the humming of bees and golden beetles in the noon, and the flashing of phosphoric fire-flies, diamond-like luminous in the dusk ; and the constant, varied song of unhunted birds, from the pure, sweet whistle of the golden yellow-bird, through robin and red-bird, quail-pipe, screech of blue-jay, low coo of purple-throated dove, to the varied utterance of the reddish mocking-bird, and the sweet, rollicking song of the bobolink, rocking on a mullen top. First you see the httle church, usually with half a dozen birds upon its cross, making you think of that Ecce enim passer invenit domum, etc. Behold the spar- IN North America. 301 rmo Jiafh found her a hrrnse, and the fnrfle.-dove a nrsf wJiere she maij lay her young, even Thine nJfnr.-i, Lord of Hosts, my King and my God.' Then you sec the presbytery where two holy priests, Fathers Gacon and Cheymol have, Hke tlieir Master, been " doing good" for twenty years ; and then you see, amid the trees, the noble Convent of the devoted daughters of St. Ursula. Another colony comes to Cleveland. Their bishop, Mgr. Rappe, receives them in their chapel with Bene- diction of the Blessed Sacrament, the first time there, on the feast of the Virgin's Assumption. In the Oc- tave of the Immaculate Conception, their chapel re- ceived by its consecration that beautiful title as its own. On the festival of the Annunciation, the first Communion of the pupils took place. Go further north and you find them still ; at three Rivers, at the Saut Saiute Marie, children these, too, of the antique pio- neers of Quebec. And these of the North now count over seventeen thousand pupils, instnicted in more than the ordinary branches, some in the highest of women's studying ; best of all, instructed in the lore of love of God, and devotion to the Model of Christian women, the stainless and gentle Mary.* But we must retrace our way, back down the Father of "Waters, to what, so short a time ago, was wilder- ness ; to far-off Texas, to Galveston and San Antonio. ' Psalm Ixxxiii. 3. ^ Annales de I'Ordre de Sainte Ursule, ii. 550, 556. 302 Devotion to the B. V. Mary Sister Saint Ambrose will be our guide.' From South- ern France, she — from Audi, in diocese of Toulouse. "Good-by, fair Franco!" she writes from Havre ; "fare- well, my good Mother Superior, and all my sisters. We confessed, heard Mass, and received the Holy Communion this morning at Notre Dame. Earnestly we called upon Mary, and besought her to offer us to her Divine Son : then, at her feet, we bade adieu to all whom we love. Good-by, till heaven." It was on the eve of the Annunciation of Our Lady that they sailed. On the Feast of her Visitation they were at their home in Galveston. It was on an island, she tells us, flat, without a single spring ; they drank unfiltered rain- water there, as in Africa and elsewhere. They are de- voured by mosquitos ; overran with sharp-biting ants. The convent is of wood. "Not much of a palace," says Sister Saint Ambrose, " but finer than our Lord's at Bethlehem." For her own presidential room, she has a plank hut, a shanty in the garden ; with a rough wooden cross made by herself, and below it, pasted on the wall, nne petite image de Marie, — a little picture of Mary. " Send us some help, good mother," she writes to France ; " young sisters, in good health. Make them study English thoroughly, without going before the mirror to practise the th. Preach to them well. Promise them, that if they come here, they shall have affliction, privation, humiliation, suffering, and temp- ' Annales, ii. 571, 608. IN North America. 303 tation of all sorts and 'without end.'" The Protestant ministers preach a crusade against them : it sends all the curious to look at and listen to them. Ministers mock at the poverty of their convent ; it sots people thinking, and converts come in by the dozen. A hur- ricane sweeps away the roof ; the rain-storm that fol- lows drenches the house. " Never mind," says Sister Saint Ambrose, "we sail in the good ship, 'The Divine Will,' peacefully and joyously, and are confident that Mary will bring us safe to port." After a little, in the summer of 1853, the yellow fever and the cholera together furnish them with new ex- periences. In New Orleans two thousand persons perish in a single week : the dead-cart rumbles per- petually over the pavement. In Galveston these plagues decimate the population. " But all our con- fidence is in Mary, who we know will help us to keep ready for our appearance before our Lord." Prayers are ordered, of course, by Monseigneur Odin. To these the Ursulines add a particular devotion to Mary. In the Octave of Our Lady's Nativity in Sep- tember, almost in the tropics, a severe frost sets in and the terrible scourges are checked. " No doubt," says the pious sister, " we owe this favor to Blessed Mary ; therefore we intend to make a devotion in her ho.ior immediately, at once to recognize her kindness in banishing the plagues, and to beg her continuous pro- tection for our community." There were, before the sickness, seven priests and a deacon in the then new settlement ; after it, there re- 804 Devotion to the B. V. IMaiiy ;1 I '■■!f P fig niainod lirn priests. This was 0('t()])or, 18."),'^, and Sister Saint Ainbniso says, "Wo liojx' tliat jNIary will preservo tlicse two. In our house we have not had a singh; case, neither anionf^ the relij,'i()ns nor the sehohirs. The true, the only reason for this is the 'devotion' of which I have spoken, oiTered by tho community unto Mavy." THE VOW OF TIIK GALVESTON UUSULINES TO THE IM- MACULATE HEART OF MARY, CONSKCn.VTTNO TIIKMSKIA'KS TO IT IN OUATITUDK FOK TIIKIU I'UEa- KIIVATION KKOM TIIK sroUllf!!'; OF \S~h], AND TO ABSUItK TIIEM- BELVKS A CONTINUATION OF IIEK I^OVK. Ot'TOnEU U, 18i")!?. •'O Mary, Mother of God and our Mother, disign to look iipon this community of the daughters of Saint Angela, who, prostraic before thee, render thee their homage and implore thy protection. " Eemembcr, O Mary, that tho Most High has made tliee the dispenser of His bounty ; and that He has only made thee so powerful, so rich, and so good, tliat thou mayst give us succor in our wretchedness. Thou seest the calamities which afflict this land ; perhaps our want of ardor in thy service has been the only cause of them. Help us now worthily to repair our forgetfulness and our ingratitude. Revenge thyself, we pray thee ; but revenge thyself, O tender Mother, by pieicing our hearts with a sword of love for thy dear Son and thee. Henceforth we wish to be thy most devoted servants. We choose thee for our Queen, our Mother, our Advocate, and our Patroness. IN NouTii Ameiiica. 305 To (lioo wo {Icdic.'ito and consccrato oursidvos, and our convont, and tin; licarts of all wlio dvv accident, a chanl " T"' '" ^'""^- I' -»' But the fact are thee: w7 T^' ""'"* y™ -"• ^ iiB friend and proteltn n'" , "*'' ^"""^ --'« altar-piece, he rec!^d a '''"'' ^^''«'""«' ^^ » «-« before, the Si"! "'7^^"^ -P'^- Some cop.of.he.««„„,^:J;-J^^^^^^^^^^ eansed a ^ade, and had be^^ed ih. T ^'"^'"^ *« be -e American .S . ^0^^','" "'■-"' « '" «lo«ety on this, and West fill t '«tter followed f- It gave to theTh cf : ;;^'-^™^ "^ >- 'f you like, above the »reat In ' "' ^™ ""^ ''«. reads thus : " ''°'"' *'"=''« '!>« inscription WATER MISEBIcoRDr^ Mother „fGrace,OM.rv, hoar 1 Mother Of Merc,. ,„„a.„„,^;, P™.mg,ngfo„.„„,„„,^ ^""'"■"^ "l'*"" We shall e,;* The dedication of thn ^i, ■ preacher was His Grace th f T " ""''""" »■"' ■• the -<= « We attent:: trt'ir--^"'*. 'hrouged the aisles. The nnt r ' '''™"* '""? •'"■■tain, was above the ,ll "^' "''''^'•«'' «"h a *a»«, and the X "/I ' ""' "''™ " "- «ith- »" fe« upon ficif wt ::,?• 'T '■°'" *'- "''o-. nees™, joined m that beauUfu] 322 Devotion to the B. V. Mary prayer to Our Lady of Mercy.' But tlie greatest honor paid to her was that which came across the sea from Italy — the fervently faithful devotion of the truly Italian Catholic heart of Signor Ippoliti. From the moment he was told that his picture had found it.s mission-home, he wrote to Father Cauvin that he be- gan to place unlimited confidence in Our Lady of Mercy, through the prayers of the devout people of the parish. And then he tells how, on the thirtieth of January, 1853, he was engaged in certain experiments with gunpowder. He thought, happened to think, ho says, of the church in Hoboken, and recommended himself particularly to the care of Our Lady as vener- ated there, just as he entered the narrow and close room which was the scene of his experiments. He had a very large quantity of powder there, when he went in, " giving himself up to Mary with the same filial confidence as a child's, when it throws itself into its mother's arms.'"' In a few moments the whole in- flammable mass had exploded about his head and face. The windows and doors of the room Vv'ere shattered to pieces, the whole house was shaken, but, as he says, " by the mercy of God and his blessed Mother," the servant of Mary was uninjured. The same year, in gratitude for his preservation, he leaves a foundation in perpetmim to the church of Our Lady of Mercy. When the Passionist Fathers were sent there by the ' Courrier des Etats-Unis, November 27, 1853 ; Freeman's Journal, same date. » Letter from Signor Ippoliti, August, 1853. IN North America. 323 Ordinary, Father Cauvin resigned his pastorate to them, and moving eastward into the midst of the town, founded there the church of Our Lady of Grace. There the pilgrim, for these are all pilgrimages, will find an exquisitely fine copy of that Madonna of "Rafael's which is known as del Foligno; tliat one where you see Our Lady, with her divine eternal Son in her arms, surrounded by cherubic heads of extreme finish and beauty. Below stand or kneel Saint John the Baptist, Saint Augustine, Saint Benedict, and Saint Francis of Assisium. In the centre a cherub holds an uninscribed tablet. This is the giand picture, the altar-piece as Ave may say, of the Church of Cur Lady of Grace ; and outside, over the ^reat door, is set a tablet bearing this inscription : ' GRATIAKUM VIRGINI. And here the pilgrims are frequent and numerous. Some thirty ex votus, in gratitude for graces, cures, or conversions obtained by her intercession, already hang at the altar of the Sacred Patroness. What is said to be a relic of her veil is piously preserved in the church, and the Papal benediction is by especial permission imparted each year on the feast of the Ilosary. His lordship the Bishop of New Jersey testified his veneration for the shrine by solemnly crowning the picture ; hoping, by that act of honor and veneration to our blessed Lady, to increase the devotion of the faithful to the Mother of Grace, and to consecrate a shrine full of invitation to the needy and the sorrowful. 324 Devotion to the B. V. Mary There is a large number of pictures of unusual merit in the church, notably, those of Our Lady of Grace (dd FoUgno), Our Lady of Sorrows, and Our Lady of the Kosary. An immense assemblage attended to do honor to the sacred Lady of the day, and one among them, Madame Pychowski, sang tliis hymn in honor of the festival : 1 t i ( Mother dearest, mother fairest, Virgin brightest, purest, rarest, liady mild and sweet ; Hear the grateful songs we sing thee, Hear the hymns we humbly bring thee. Bending at thy feet I Gate of Heaven, Star of Morning ! Lo, the votive gifts adorning This, thy favored shrine I All tli? wondrous story telling, Of thy mercy with us dwelling, Mother of Grace divine I In our need upon thoe calling. Thou hast saved from death appalling. Heard thy childrjn's prayer ; Heard our cry amid the dashing Of life's waves, our frail barks lashing, Granting us tliy care I Mother-arm, thy Son infolding, Mother-h^art, within thine holding All who turn to thee ; — Still thy kind protection lending, Let thy love on us descending. Our sweet comfort bo I Wliile our souls to thee uplifting. We seek peace amid the drifting. Darkening storms of earth, IN North Amemca. 326 Humblest Virgin I Queen of Heaven t Unto thee be honor given, Honor duo tliy worth 1 Joyfully tliia gift we proffer, Humbly tliis fair crown we offer, Deign on us to smile ! Mother of Grace, with heart's o'erflowing, Thus our grateful love we're showing — Bending low the wliile I Ages past have known thy glory, Mighty kings and prophets hoaty Suiig thy starry crown ! Bleesings, honors, clear foretelling, Lauding thee as all excelling. Shadowing forth thy throne 1 Israel in thee rejoices, Salem lifts her myriad voices, Quivering with thy love ! Queen of Angels I Bride of Heaven ! Mediatrix to us given I Undefiied dove I East and West unite to praise thee, North and South their hymns still raise thee, Blessed in every land I Hosts angelic join with mortals, Far within the starry portals, Where the seraphs stand I — Where amid the wide creation, Holding foremost rank and station, Christ's dear Mother's seen. List the glorious strains ascending, Heaven and Earth, their voices blending. Hail thee. Crowned Queen 1 Sweep northward again, to our venerable early friend, G^r Lady of Good Help. This ends the pil I : 326 Devotion to the B. V. Mary griraagcs known to us on this continent, as it began them. It is with a document of remarkable devotion to Mary that we close this chapter. It is the pastoral of Monseigneiu' Bourget, bishop of Montreal. i h i I i ! I I PASTORAL Of Monseigneur the Bishop of MoNxnEAL, to ExcotmAGE the PILGRIMAGE OK NoTRE DaME DB BoN SeCOURS, AND TO ESTABLISH IN THAT Chapel the Confraternity op Our Lady of Good Help for the whole Diocese, Ignace Bourget, by the mercy of God and the favor of the Holy Apostolic See, Bishop of Montreal, etc., etc., etc. To the Clergy, secular and regular, to the Religious Communities, and to all the Faithful of our Diocese, Health and Benediction in our Lord Jesus Christ. You have not forgotten, dearest brethren, that on the thirteenth of last August we publicly bound our- selves by vow to do our utmost to re-establish the pious Pilgrimage of Our Lady of Good Help, which, by our indifference and the evil of the times, had ceased to be frequented as it once was. In making this vow we sought to erect a barrier against the terrible epidemic which was making fright- ful ravages at the gates of our city, and which every day overleaped the limits within which men strove to keep it, to smite its victims in the very heart of the town. In this we only imitated the good example of our fathers, for whom this holy chapel was, from im- 1 '*i.^ IN North America. 327 memorial time, a certain refuge in great calainity. PatrcH nostri narraverunt nohis.^ We had long groaned in secret to see the venerable Chapel of Good Help almost deserted. We could al- most apply to it the words wherewith Jeremiah ex- pressed the just grief which overwhelmed him when he saw the holy temple abandoned and the august solem- nities neglected : " The ways of Zion do mourn, be- cause there are none who come to her solemn festi- vals."" In fact, we no longer saw, as in our fathers' days, crowds of pious pilgrims, moving in the evening, when the toils of the day were done, towards the cherished sanctuary to thank our august Lady of Good Help for the graces obtained by her mighty intercession, and to ask for new ones. Except during low Mass, none Avere seen there at prayer durmg the day ; so that it be- came necessary to keep the doors closed, so as to pre- vent the sacrilegious thefts committed there. But this state of abandonment had something in it sinister to our eyes. Without wishing to examine too closely the secret judgments of Gou, it seenujd to us that such an indiflference must, sooner or later, draw misfortune upon us. History and our own recollections inspired us with just fear. You yourselves know the great calamities which desolated this city and country after ' Our fathers have told us. — Psalm xliii. 1. " Viae Zion lugent eo quod non sint qui veniant ad soleniuitatem.— Lamentations, i. 4. 328 Devotion to the B. V. Mary I i 1 .; the fire of 1754, which reduced to ashes the second chapel of Bon Sccours. You have not forgotten that, in 1831, a profane hand carried off the statue so vene- rated by our fathers, and which had escaped the dev- astating flames. Ah, since that day, how many ills have come upon us ! The terrible political agitations which slied the blood of citizens in the streets of the city on the 2l8t of May, 1832 ; the dreadful cholera which appeared on the 8tli of June of the same year and decimated our popula- tion ; the same epidemic which returned in 1834, spreading everywhere desolation and death ; the troubles of 1837 and '38, which caused so many tears to flow, and covered the land with sorrow and ruin ; the millions of insects which for so many years have desolated our country, and ruined ihe commerce of the city with the hopes of the husbandman ; all these are too near you, have left too profound traces to be for- gotten yet. Finally, last year, we were exposed to a new plague, which threatened at every moment to in- vade both country and town.' Those whom duty car- ried to the field of that affliction, to relieve that wretchedness, were nearly all attacked by the disease, and many fell. But we desire not to reopen your wounds, still bleeding, by recalling your sufferings and your misfortunes. Occupied solely with the means of appeasing Heaven, and of preserving you from the ills which have fallen upon your clergy and the religious hw • The ship-fever of 1847. IN North America. 329 communities, we were struck with the thought that Our Lady of Good Help, so compassionate towards our fathers in all their misfortunes, would have pity upon us, and obtain for us grace and mercy. Then we made a vow, at first in our own secret heart ; then in the presence of this diocese we formed the solemn engage- ment to do what in our power lay to restore to the pilgrimage of Bon Secours all its solemnity. "We need not tell you here that Mary heard the vow and granted our prayer. How could she do otherwise when she beheld herself surrounded, as aforetime, by a multitude of devout servants ; when she heard her sanctuary re- echoing with plaint and moan ; when, throughout the whole Octave of her glorious Assumption, the throngs of sad pilgrims crowded the venerable shrine ? By hearing our prayer thus in her Chapel of Good Help, Mary has caused us to know that to-day, as long ago, she wishes to be especially honored in this tem- ple ; that this sanctuary must be for us, as for our fathers, an asylum in great calamities ; that this chapel was indeed the throne from which she bestowed her pity in those terrible days when the hand of rigorous justice lay heavy upon us poor children of Adam. It is then at the close of such favors, at the end of the month all consecrated to her honor, that we undertake to perform a duty so agreeable to our heart, and dic- tated, moreover, by a vivid gratitude. "VVe would be the most ungrateful of men, indeed, and our tongue should cleave to the roof of our mouth, if we were to forget that we owe to your fervent prayers in tho i 330 Devotion to the B. V. Mary chapel of Bon Sccours the lieulth we enjoy to-(Lij-. May we consc^crate it wholly to the glory of Mary and the sanctification of your souls ! We exhort you then, brethren, to make often and with devotion the pious pilgrimage of Our Lady of Good Helj). It is for the greater honor of Mary, the greater good of your souls, and the acquittal of our conscience that we invite you to lift up your eyes towards that place from whence we may expect such powerful aid. For we are convinced that this chapel is one of those privileged spots where God is pleased to show His great mercy through the intercession of Mary. . . . This pilgrimage commenced with the se'. element of the country. Three churches have risen from the corner-stone laid in 1657, despite the many misfortimes of our country; proof thiu our fathers felt keenly the need of such a sanctuary. On its front is carved the august name of Mary, and the heart's gratitude rather than the workman's chisel has en- graved her sacred monogram. It is there to say to the ages to come that Montreal in its greatest calami- ties must never lack confidence in that powerful name. Maria, nomen sub quo nemini dcsjjcrandnm est (St. Augustine). You read over the doorway the simple and noble inscription, Marin, anxilium Christianoium. Mary, help of Christians. That was our fathers' cry of confidence in all the trials wherewith it pleased Divine Providence to visit them ; such was their sole resource when total ruin threatened them. Read it, O Montreal, with joy and happiness; for thy destinies IN North America. 331 are groat, if thy confitleuce in Mary correspond to tlio expectation of them that founded thee. Make thyself worthy to take again, and to wear forever, the glorious name of Ville-Mahie. That nothing may l)o wanting to the holy chapel of Good Help, that may win your confidence, we propose to establish the pious confraternity of Our Lady of Good Help in that venerable parisli, and hojjc that all the parishes of this diocese will unite with it. By such an institution we shall erect a durable monument to the piety of our fathers, for when tlicy formed the generous resolution of coming to the New "World, and there to found in honor of the Blessed Mary the city wherein we dwell, they formed an association which they called " Society of Our Lady of Montreal for the conversion of the Indians." Now, in place of a hand- ful of associates enrolled to pray for the conversion and civilization of the red-man, we trust that thousands will gather beneath the glorious standard of Our Lady of Good Help, to implore her mighty intercession for the destruction of error and vice, more particularly of drunkenness and impurity, which ruin body and soul, and render their victims wretched both in time and in eternity. Once the pious region of Chartres' saw one hundred and nine churches or chapels dedicated to Mary, and all springing from the famous church of Notre Dame de Chartres. So many monuments proved that the ' See for Chartres and its connection with our Missions, pp. 332 Devotion to the B. V. Mart venerable town was indeed, as in name, the city of the Blessed Virgin. Its legend is Quce est Carnutcnsiiim tutela? 3faria, Mater Graticp, Mater Misericordice.* Long ago a writer said that " all Chartres resounded with the name of Mary;"' and we, bound to that antique shrine by ancient association of prayers, will follow its example and participate in its privileges by means of our new confraternity. For each parochial society will be a living church issuing from the mother- church of Good Help. Ah, brethren, believe me, there can never be too many sanctuaries for prayer and expiation, nor too many shelters for virtue and peni- tence. Then let us strive to preserve fi'esh on our city and diocese the stamp of religion imprinted by two hundred years of faith and piety. And now to preserve the precious souvenirs which should attach you to Our Lady of Good Help. We purpose, on the twenty-first of this month (May), to erec t a statue which shall replace that which a sacri- legious hand stole from the shrine in 1831. May it, like the ancient one,' be the instrument of Mary's mercy. It has been solemnly blessed at Notre Dame des Victoires in Paris, that sanctuary whence flow so many graces to water all the lands. Let us trust then that it is filled with heavenly benediction, given it at the altar of the Holy Immaculate Heart of Mary, ' Who is the guardian of Chartres? Mary, Mother of Qrace and Mother of Mercy. * Camutum ubi omnia Mariam sonant. • For description, see this work, p. 217. IN North America. 838 powerful to aid poor sinners and lift them from their wretchedness. To render it still dearer to your hearts and worthier of your conddonce, we shall crown it with all that solemn pomp of ceremony observed in Rome, where are pointed out to the especial devotion of the people such sacred images of the Blessed Vir- gin as God has pleased to make the instrument of His gracious favor. Our gratitude forbids us to forget how, last year, the supplications offered in the chapel of Our Lady of Good Help delivered both town and country from the terrible pestilence. In the same view we shall place in the chapel a painting representing the glorious Virgin Mary arresting the typhus at the gates of this her city. O people of Montreal, who possess in your midst so venerable a sanctuary, visit it assiduously ; go hear a Mass there on your way to your daily occupations; stop there and give thanks for a moment when Ihe labors of the day shall be ended ; never pass it without saluting Mary. Read the new inscription above the doorway and obey it. " Si ramour de Marie En ton coeur est grav6, En passant, ne t'oublio De lui dire un Ave." Pause, if the love of Mary Be graven on thy lieart. And breathe one fervent Ave Ere tliou depart. Go thither, ye dwellers in the peaceful country, 334 Devotion to the B. V. Mary ■when fluty culls you into town. Show yonr noeds with filial confidence to Our Lady of Good Help. Kecominend your occupations to licr vigilance. Bog of her the grace of going home with an unsullied inno- cence. Your market is under the eyes, as it were, of Mary, Help of Christians. Keep strictly, then, the Ijiv/s of sobriety, justice, and piety. Then back in peace to your pleasant homes,- — and may none of you be met dru7ik upon the road. Thither, ye pious mariners and boatmen who risk your lives on tliat vast stream which rolls majestically at the foot of Our Lady of Good Help, as if to invite jou to seek her shrine before you quit the harbor, after you enter it in safety. Look lovingly on the sacred chapel each time you pass it. In danger re- gard that Star of the Sea, and call on Mary "Ih'sjiice Skilam : voca Mariam.'' For jow is it that we place upon the river-front of the shrine a statue. Inscribed over the head you shall read: " MarianopoUs Tutela, Protectress of Ville-Marie ;" and at' the feet, "Posiierunt me ciistodem, they have made me their guardian." So shall we show to the future tliat Mary is the Patroness and Mother of Montreal, city and diocese. These deeds shall fill us witli confidence in her help. These shall make us love her shrine, and frequent it with groat devotion. "Quam dilecta, tahernncula tun; sfanfcs crinif pedes 7iostn in atriis tins. How lovely is thy dwelling- place ; our feet shall tread in the courts of thine abode." Therefore, with the consentient advice of our vcner- IN NoitTH AiirrnTCA. 33.'^ able canons, and in tlio most holv namo of God, wo order, that the twenty-fourth of May be kept as Titu- lar Feast of Our Lady of Good Hntioned in siDeeches, their deep Avoes known to their God and to them ; knoAvn and remem- bered by both. " When my forefathers," says the grandson of one of these men, " h^ft Eigg, in company Avith many friends, they took lands in a part of the province of Nova Scotia (the name of it Avas akin to Avhat was closest to tlnur hearts), called Cape d'Or, on the bay of Fundy. Here they labored hard for eleven years, until, like the Acadians, by industry and perse- verance, they had converted the primeval forest of that Avild country into flourishing fields and verdant laAvns, " They were beginning to be very happy, in a tem- poral point of vii'AV : but they had ntiither priest nor church to console them in the land of their pilgrimage, ' This chief, nft(>r forsnkiiig ilio ancient r(>ligif)n, converted aomn nf his ancient clansmen by the argument of his cane. Heliridean Pro- testants have been ever since, uud are uow called " Proterjtants of the Yollow Stick." IN North America. 343 and all the surrounding country was getting rapidly occupied by Protestants. The cuiigrauts saw tlio imminent danger to Avhicli tlieir children would be ex- posed of losing tlieir faith, if they remained where they were. To what purpose, tlicy asked tearfully, have wo abandoned our native hills and glens in ancient Mor- ven, the homes of our Catholic ancestors, if we are to become Protestants hero in the wilderness ? No, we must move again and commit ourselves to the kind protection of Heaven. Under the guidance of tlie gentle Star of the Sea, our dear Mother, we will seek other lands, where wo hope that, in time. Providence will enable us to rear our children in the faith of their fathers ; in the practices and teachings of the Catholic Church. " One aged matron, Mary Macleod her name, a mother in that Celtic Israel, was especially impatient. She constantly repeated to her sons and ilaughters that there were lands to the eastward. ' There,' she said, ' we may find a happy home. There we shall be- come a numerous progeny. There we shall raise the Crois na Criosdh, the Cross of Christ ; and under the patronage of the Mother of God, in years to come, there shall rise from our descendants, those who shall be the spiritual rulers and guides of our people.' The venerable woman spake sooth. Of her descendants, five are priests, and one, the child of her daugliter Una, is the bishop, the spiritual ruler of the Gael in Aiichat, Antigouish, and Capo Breton." All the Catholics of the old colony left it and settled '4 i 344 Devotion to the B. V. Maey in the county of Sydney, Nova Scotia, and tlio sea-beat island of Capo Breton. And the old mother lived there to a good old age, and saw her children's chil- dren to the fourth generation. Now, in her grandson's diocese, there stand twelve churches, including the cathedral, under the invocation of the Immaculate Mother of God. "We have thousands," says the bishop, " members of the Confraternity of Our Lady's Rosary : of the Confraternity of the Scapular and of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.'" There then, in brief, imperfect sketch, we intimate the existence of the mountain Gaelic child of Mary on this continent. Doubtless a mine, with rich veins of gold therein, could the taste and the opportunity for its working be united in the same individual. Under the spiritual jurisdiction of Arichat are the tribes of Indian Catholics of that region. The Mic- macs, we believe, are the largest. Converts they of the old Acadian missionaries, in the davs of the mar- tyr Jesuite, of the Ursuline Mary of the Incarnation ; and of Margaret Bourgeoys, the Sister of Our Lady. They are allied with the Mareschite, the Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy, and the remains of the Canadian Abenaki; all appertaining to the once wide-spread and powerful race of the Algonquin. "A good people these Micmacs of Cape Breton," says the Protestant Judge Haliburton, "possessed of an inexhaustible stock of spirits and good-humor. Roman Catholic ' Letter of Rt. Rev. Dr. Mackinnon. IN North America. 315 -beat lived \ cliil- Isou's g the culate s the Lady's and of 6 then, ence of itinent. 1, could 5 united are the le Mic- they of priests are still their religious instructors, and, con- sidering the small advantages of these poor people, their character is not bad. Dishonesty is seldom heard of among them." ' So says the Protestant historian of Nova Scotia, but the Catholic Pastor says, " All our Indians are Catho- lics, — honest, humble, good people. Their churches are generally under the invocation of Suint Anne, the Mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Saint Anne was given the aborigines of this country as patroness by the first missionaries. Our poor Indians are very devout people : they are remarkable for their fidelity to the faith. Not- withstanding the many temptations to which they are exposed, and the manner in which their religious be- lief is tampered with, no inducement can bring them to abandon their faith. The Indian, male or female, invariably has either a medal of the Blessed Virgin, or a small crucifix hanging from the neck. With the blessed beads in his hand, he defies all opposition ; and no human argument, no amount of bribery can make him violate his allegiance to God. He says to all, that Jesus Christ is his father, that Mary is his mother, and within that impregnable stronghold of faith, the gates of hell cannot prevail against him.'" If your canoe be of birch-bark and your sail of good ' Hon. C. J. Haliburton's Nova Scotia, ii. 350. ' lit. Rev. BishoiJ of Arichat. 15* 'I I :||^! IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ia|l^ is 1112 us 1.8 1.25 i 1.4 6" m /}. /: Photographic Sciences Corporation i3 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 {7M!, ^Ta-4503 ..^^ 346 Devotion to the B. V. Mary canvas ; if the sea be smooth and the wind right abaft, you may sweep over the blue brine Hke a swallow through the air, and in a few hours land, from Cape Breton, in Maine of the Catholic Abenakis. The last we saw of them, if we remember rightly, they were standing horror-struck around tho- hacked and man- gled body of Father Basics at Norridgewock. Now we are to see them again, following the steps of saintly Cardinal de Cheverus, somewhere, I guess, in the absence of dates, about 1810. He has given himself the preliminary trouble to learn what he can of the language of these Indians. He thinks it, as do other scholars in it, allied, by structure at least, to Hebrew. Be that as it may, philology is not at present his oc- cupation. He gets together what vestments, books, and other things in small compass, are absolutely necessary for a priest. He hires a guide, buys a staff, i: id sets off, on foot, from Boston, "hub of the Uni- verse." He strikes into the trackless forest ; breaks his way through brush and thicket ; lives upon bread which he has taken with him ; sleeps upon the spruce-boughs which the guide hews down. Day after day they break their road through the obstructed forest, or walk cheerily where they have found a glade. The day of the Lord, dies Domhtlca, comes, crimson at dawn, to light the green umbrage of the redolent pines; "on dewy branch, birds, here and there, with short, deep warble, salute the coming day. Stars fade out, and galaxies. The Universe opens its portals* for m NoKTH America. 347 abaft, •allow Cape e last r were man- bw we saintly in tlie liraself of the 3 other Hebrew, his oo- books, 5olutely a staff, [10 Uni- iiis way ich he jou}:[hs y they est, or The lison at edolont o, with ■ars fade tala»for the levee of the great High King.'" And above the woodland notes, or the sough of the wind in the pines, rises a chorus of human voices, indistinct, distant, soft, ringing through the verdurous alleys of the scented wood ; and the French missionary recognizes the notes of Dupont's Royal Mass ; that which still echoes be- times among the stately arches of Notre Dame, or the paganish square-flatness of the Madelaine. It is the Sunday morning devotion of tlic poor, priestless, but iinprcgnably loyal Abnaki. Savages, they call them, to distinguisli them from the French democrats of 1793, and from otliers. They call themselves Wanba- nakki, Children of the Northern Light. So, while God was listening to such of the prayers of the Alaincshemok, or Mrss Devotion, as the poor "savages" were entitled to utter, His minister and rep- resentative walked into the midst of them. Then were prayers and all else put aside, as their swift observa- tive eyes saw the cassock. " It is the black-robe," they cried, " it is the chief of prayer." He was the first they had seen for fifty years. Yet never, during all that time, had these *' savages" omitted to celebrate the Sundays and the giand festivals, as they could, without one empowered to offer the supreme act of adoration, a pure sacrifice. Not an answer of their catechism liad they forgotten : the chihlren had learned question and response correctly from the memory of their barbarian sires and dams. Their instruction, in Carlyle'B French Revolution. 348 Devotion to the B. V. Mary its limit, was so perfect, and their morals, on examina- tion, were so spotless, that the holy de Cheverus wept for joy. " See how good God is to you," he said to them. " He has not forgotten you ; He has only tried your faith and perseverance. Now you have your reward. He has sent me here to you to dispense His word. His graces, and his sacraments." And they were glad, those poor savages, that the bread of life was to be broken to them again : and, progressionist as we are, we fear that they were content with what de Cheverus could give them, heedless alike of the inviting splen- dors of the Great Father at Washington, of the Bos- tonian intelligence, or of the philanthropy of Doctor Beeeher and Madame Raphael. The coarse fancy hunger to be the greatest of evils ; ah, if they could feel the horror of heing ohliged to eat, by courtesy! Mgr. de Cheverus sat upon his bear- skin, and compelled himself to swallow, from his birch- bark dish, the filth which the pious Indians can swal- low with impunity : aged fish boiled without salt, for two months ; swine's flesh greenly antique ; by and by, towards the third month of his mission, getting covered by those " friends of man," which, having eight legs, are nameless. "Le seul casuel" he said, '^qu'il retirdt de fion ministere. The only chance (fee) which he got in h's ministry there." At last he had to confine him- self exclusively to bread ; unable as he was to see, witli his good Indians and some others who are not Indians, the connection between piety and nastiness. IN North America. 340 Tlie master of a French vessel recognized him once, from his deck, buflfeted by the rough waves of the ocean, in a bark canoe : and begged permission to carry him to his destination. The future cardinal de- clared himself at home with his Indians, and refused to change conveyances. Our India.ns were dirty ; but though that caused him much suflFering, it was not that which he saw most clearly. But this' — sentiments so noble and so com- monly prevalent, that the civilized world might well blush at the comparison : such simplicity of gratitude for small kindness ; such tenderness of mothers ; such heroism of filial piety. They could not believe that the French had murdered their king (Louis XVI). " It was a lie," they said of their neighbors, " invented to make them hate the French." In vain did Monsei- gneur de Cheverus declare to them that the nation dis- avowed the crime, that a handful of miscreants in power had committed it ; the distinction was too fine for the Wanbanakki. It was an old white-headed Indian who questioned the missionary, and who, com- prehending the atrocity, was incapable of comprehend- mg the excuse. " I love the French no longer," said the ignorant savage, " But," urged the priest, " the people, as a nation, disavow the crime." "Disavow it, do they," cried the unlettered barbarian, " they should have stood between their king and his assassins, and ' Vie de Jean Louis Anne Madelaine Lefebvre de Cheverus, Arclie- veque de Bordeaux. Paris, Jacques Lecoffre, 1850, pp. 61-74. 350 Devotion to tue B. V. Mary died in his defence." ' Later, when, as archbishop and cardinal, ho spoke of his barbarous red children, it was with tears in his e^es, and with these words often re- repeated, "Ci's