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TERRA INCOGNITA
THE CONVENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
BT
JOHN NICHOLAS MURPHY,
AUTHOR Or "IRKLAMD, INDUSTRIAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCU
popular Litton,
WITH SEVERAL NEW CHAPTERS, AND THE STATISTICS OF CONVENTS?
BROUGHT DOWN TO THE PRESENT DAY.
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Stack
Annex
TO
MY PROTESTANT FELLOW-SUBJECTS
or
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND,
FOR WHOSE INFORMATION IT HAS BEEN WRITTEN,
&fM0 Book,
OX THE
CONVENTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM,
is
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
2015151
PREFACE.
MY object in writing this book, as set forth in the
Preface to the first edition, was to convey information
on a subject about which much ignorance and prejudice
prevailed; and, in dedicating the work to the Pro-
testants of Great Britain and Ireland, I rejoiced that I
addressed 'those, who, whatever their misconceptions
may be, are eminently lovers of what is fair and just.'
That the spirit in which I have written has been
thoroughly appreciated, and the devotion and good
works of the excellent women whose cause I have
advocated, however unworthily, have been fully and
generously admitted, are most gratifying results, and
amply repay me for any labour I may have incurred in
my self-imposed task. Indeed, however anxious I was,
on taking up my pen, to dissipate the mistsand darkness
that enveloped the truth, and whatever confidence I
felt in the fairness of those to whom my painstaking,
and, I hope, candid and impartial, statement was ad-
dressed, I must confess, I have succeeded far beyond
my expectations. This will be seen in the Extracts
from Opinions of the Press, at the end of this volume,
to which I have much pleasure in directing the atten-
vlii PREFACE.
tion of my readers. No doubt, many of *e reviewers
are opposed to the principle of conventual institutions;
but of these a large proportion gracefully acknowledge
-some in highly complimentary terms-the self-
ficing zeal and great public usefulness of 'those high-
souled women/ who untiringly labour in the midst of
us, and of whose good services to the community nay,
of' whose existence, with few exceptions they frankly
admit, they have hitherto been ignorant.
This fairness of the non-Catholic readers and re-
viewers of the book is approvingly alluded to by the
highest living authority of the Catholic Church, in a
letter which His Holiness has graciously condescended
to address to the Author, and which will be found in
anotner page.
All thoughtful persons, no matter what their religious
profession, will, I &n confident, agree with me, that
questions such as this ought not to be treated, as they
too frequently are, in a tone of mere reckless assertion
of vague and empty declamation, unsupported by a
tittle of evidence, but that they rather demand a spirit
of careful, temperate inquiry, brought to bear on actual
facts, derived from official and other unexceptionable
sources. And it were well indeed if the few, doubtless
well-meaning, gentlemen who annually parade their
hostility to convents, and (may I be permitted to add ?)
their ignorance of the subject, would take the trouble
to consult Her Majesty's Inspectors' Reports of Re-
formatory and Industrial Schools in Great Britain and
Ireland, and other blue-books, which I quote in the
PREFACE. IX
course of this work, as to the pre-eminently successful
labours of nuns in these countries.
And yet the crusade against convents, so perseveringly
led by the honourable member for North Warwickshire,
has, in one respect, effected good. It has been the
means of clearly bringing out 'one thing that many
honest people are apt to overlook, namely, that the con-
vents have nearly all a purpose of practical and most
philanthropic utility.' l This the honourable gentleman
himself apparently does not see, although he is indi-
rectly instrumental in making others see it
' Fungar vice cotis, acutura
Keddere quse ferrum valet, exsors ipsa secandi.'
But perhaps the most important result of the discus-
sion of the Convent question, in our day, is, that it
appropriately illustrates the excellence of the political
system under which we live a system strikingly in
contrast with the despotic rule of Continental countries.
Just now, when the Catholic Church is grievously
persecuted on the Continent of Europe, when, in Germany
and Switzerland, the complete extinction of the epis-
copate is undisguisedly aimed at by the State, it is
refreshing to contemplate the entire freedom enjoyed
by religion under the protecting aegis of the British
constitution. Here the bishops and clergy are unmo-
lested and untrammeled in the discharge of their im-
portant duties ; and in every district Catholic churches,
schools, and convents, flourish, in all security, and diffuse
far and wide the blessings of Christian education.
1 Extracts from Opinions of the Press, Manchester Guardian.
x PREFACE.
' Whilst, under the assaults of a suspicious policy/
says Monseigneur Dupanloup, in a letter which I give
elsewhere, ' convents are threatened with total ruin in
the very centre of Catholicity, they rise again in free
England, beneath the shelter of those tutelary institu-
tions which are your strength and your glory ; and it is
given to you to see reproduce themselves, under your
eyes, those prodigies of the Catholic apostolate which,
once before, in the ages of faith justly styled the heroic
times of the Church, made Ireland " the Island of
Saints.'"
These words of the illustrious Bishop of Orleans, so
justly appreciating the free institutions of England, and
the faith and fervour of Catholic Ireland, are of peculiar
interest at the present moment.
In the preparation of this edition, no pains have been
spared to make it complete in all details. The Statis-
tics of Convents have been largely amplified, and
brought down to the present day. Several chapters
have been re-written, and eleven new chapters have
been introduced. On the other hand, the six lengthy
chapters on British and Irish Elementary Education
have been omitted, and some others have been abridged.
Thus the requisite space has been gained for a mass of
new matter, of deep interest, directly bearing on con-
vents, and the book has been relieved of the heaviest
and least readable portion of the first edition.
CLIFTON, CORK, March 25, 1876.
Letter of $ts Holiness $ope $tus EX.
ON HIS BEING PRESENTED WITH THE FIRST EDITION OP ' TERRA
INCOGNITA,' THROUGH HIS EMINENCE THE LATE
CARDINAL BARNABO.
PIUS PP. IX.
Dilecte Fill, Salutem et Apostolicam Benedidioncm. Cum
multi ab osorum Ecclesice fraude calumniisque deccptl
Eeligiosas aversentur familias, quarum indolcm, insti-
tutum, opera, beneficia prorsus ignorant; gratulamitr,
Dilecte Fili, te in prcesenti illarum insedationc Imc omnia
luculenter exposuisse ac subjecisse Jwnestorum occulis, ut,
causa cognita, judicare valeant de criminationum iniqui-
tate et de detrimento ex earumdem familiarum suppres-
sione expectando. Gaudemus autem, non catholicos tan-
turn, sed Jieterodoxos etiam commendasse lucubrationcm
tuam: id enim dum in tui causccque a te propugnata'
laudem convertitur necnon ccquitatis lectorum ; non mc-
diocriter profuturum confidimus amoliendo ab Anglia
fcedo aliarum gentium crimine, gravique jacturcc prccver-
tendce. Hunc potissimum labori tuo fructum adprec-
amur ; ac interim divini favoris auspicem et paterncv
Nostrce benewlentice pignus Apostolicam Benedidionem
tibi, Dilecte Fili, peramanter impertimus.
Datum Romce apud S. Petrum, die 11 Augusti Anno
1873.
Pontificatus Nostri Anno Vicesimoctaw.
PIUS PP. IX.
Dilecto Filio JOANNI NICOLAO MURPHY,
Clifton, Cork.
[Translation.]
PIUS, PP. IX.
BELOVED SON, Health and Apostolical Benediction. When
many, deceived by the fraud and calumnies of the enemies
of the Church, are hostile to Religious communities, of
whose nature, institution, works and benefits to society
they are entirely ignorant, We rejoice, Beloved Son, that,
now when these communities suffer persecution, you have
lucidly explained all these things, and brought them under
the notice of the well-disposed ; so that, the cause being
understood, they may be able to judge of the injustice of
the accusations, and the loss to be expected from the
suppression of these communities. And We, moreover,
rejoice that not only Catholics but also non-Catholics nave
commended your work! for while that circumstance re-
dounds to your praise and that of the cause you defend,
and is no less creditable to the fairness of your readers,
We are confident that it will avail, in no small degree, in
saving England from the foul crime of other nations, and
preventing grave mischief. For this fruit of your labour
We specially pray ; and, meanwhile, as an augury of Divine
favour and of Our paternal benevolence towards you, We
lovingly impart to you, Beloved Son, the Apostolical Bene-
diction.
Given at Rome at Saint Peter's, the llth day of August,
the year 1873.
Of Our Pontificate the 28th year.
Pius, PP. IX.
To Our Beloved Son JOHN NICHOLAS MURPHT,
Clifton, Cork.
letter of jHonsetgneur liupanloup,
BISHOP OF ORLEANS.
VIROFLAY, BOS-REPOS, (SEINE ET OISE),
le 10 Juin 1875.
Monsieur,
Recevez mes sinceres remerciments pour rexem-
plaire de votre livre TERRA INCOGNITA ou LES COUVENTS
DU EOYAUME-UNI, dont vous avez Men voulu m'annoncer
Fenvoi. Je le lirai avec finteret que commandc et I'im-
portance du sujet et le nom de Vauteur, et si fen crois le
titre, ce sera pour moi, comme pour beaucoup d'autres, um
veritable revelation.
Nous y trouverons sans doute une preuve nouvelle de
cette puissance d"expansion incomparable que I'Eglise salt
dfployer, independamment de toutefaveur ojficielle, de toute
situation privilegiee, par le seul secret de sa divine fecon-
dite, toutes les fois qu'on lui laisse ce dont elle a le plus
besoin ici-bas, la liberte de travailler par la verite et la
cJiarite au salut des dmes.
Pendant que, sous les coups dune politique ombrageusc,
les couvents sont menaces dune ruine totale au centre meme
de la catholicite, Us se relevent dans la libre Angleterre, d
Fabri de ces institutions tutelaires qui sont votre force et
votre gloire, et il vous est donne de voire se reproduire sous
vos yeux ces prodiges de Vapostolat catholique, qu'une pre-
miere fois dejd, dans ces ages dt foi appeles a juste titre
les temps heroi'ques de VEglise, avaient fait dt FIrlande
'tile des saints.'
Un tel spectacle est fait pour nous consoler, et guand
ailleurs nous voyons tomber des institutions seculaires,
comme pour attester ^irremediable decadence des hommes
et des choses tfici-bas, vous nous montrez dans guel milieu
ft d guelles conditions VEglise peut rclcver ses mines et
ttonner le monde par les merveilles de son immortelle
jeunesse.
Eecevez done mes felicitations les plus vivcs avec mes
remerciments les plus sinceres, et croycz a mes sentiments
Uen. devoues en N. S.
* FELIX, tiepu d"0rlean*.
A Monsieur JOHN NICHOLAS MUBPHT,
Cliflon, Cork.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE STORY OP A PICTURE 1
II. FIRST INSTITUTION OP MONKS AND NUNS . . . . 9
III. EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM . . . .18
IV. THB ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS 3'2
V. THE BENEDICTINE NUNS 70
VI. THE CANONE3SES OP SAINT AUGUSTINE . . . .80
VIL THE CARMELITE NUNS 86
VIII. THB POOR CLARES 89
IX. THE FRANCISCAN NUNS 98
X. THB DOMINICAN NUNS 100
XI. THE 8ERVITE NUNS OP THB THIRD ORDER . . . .104
XIL THE BRIDGKTTINE8 106
MIL A HEROINE OP CHARITY 108
XIV. THE URSULINES 120
XV. THE NUNS OF THE PRESENTATION 127
XVI. RULES AND CONSTITUTIONS OF THE PRESENTATION ORDER . 133
XVH. A VISIT TO A CONVENT 142
XVIII. OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS . . . f . . . .151
XIX. SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL . . . $**" .165
XX. THE SISTERS OF CHARITY . 208
XXI. STATUTES, RULES, AND CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SISTERS OF
CHARITY . . ... . 224
XVI.. CONTEXTS.
CHAPTEfl '*''
XXII. THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHABITV ..... 22
XXIII. THE SISTERS OF MERCY ....... 245
xxiv. SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLK ...... 272
XXV. THE SISTERS OF CHARITT OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE . 285
XXVI. THE SI8TEB8 OF NOTRK-DAMK ...... 290
, XXVII. SISTERS OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE BLKSBKD VIRGIN MARY 296
XXVIII. THK FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS .... 303
XXIX. THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOH ..... 316
XXX. THK SISTERS OF NAZARETH ...... 302
XXXI. THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD ' 328
XXXII. THE SISTERS OF THI BUSSED 0ACKAMKNT, OB SACRA-
MENT1NES . **. ...... 337
XXXIII. STATISTICS OF CONVENTS ...... 345
XXXIV. CONVENT ELEMENTARY AND TRAINING SCHOOLS IS ING-
L^D .......... 399
XXXV. CONVENT PRIMABY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND . . . .409
XXXVL REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS . . . 4J7
XXXVU. LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS IN THI UNITED '
KINGDOM . ^ .449
XXXVIIL CONCLUSION ..... 7
INDEX
TERRA INCOGNITA.
CHAPTEE I.
THE STORY OF A PICTURE.
Ut pictura poeeis.
HORACE.
ONE DAY in the summer of 1868, as I was viewing the
exhibition of the Royal Academy in Trafalgar Square
being one of a large number of visitors in the north
room my attention was attracted by a half-subdued
exclamation, or rather series of exclamations, in my im-
mediate neighbourhood: 'Oh! how dreadful! Why
are such things tolerated ? Can't Government inter-
fere? Are such things possible at the present day?'
The voice was evidently that of a female, and the tone
and accent bespoke the lady. The reply, ' I am sure I
don't know,' uttered in an insouciant tone, evidently
came from one of the other sex. My curiosity was ex-
cited. Clearly, something very dreadful had met the
eyes of the fair querist, amidst the confusingly dense
crowd of pictures, the embarras de richesses, on the wall
before her. I was anxious to see what was the subject
referred to, and who were the persons whose conversa-
tion I had unavoidably overheard. By shifting my
position, I perceived that they were a gentlemanly
young man, attired as a clergyman <rf the Church of
A
TERRA INCOGNITA.
England, and a young lady of distinguished air and con-
siderable personal attractions, apparently his bride. I
followed the direction of their gaze, which was rivetteti
on a large picture, on beholding which, I saw at onct
that the young lady's exclamations of horror were not
without good cause.
The picture was thus classed in the catalogue : ' 633.
Not a whit too soon. F. B. BarwelL' The scei
in a convent a large vaulted apartment. There, within
a niche in the wall, stood a beautiful girl, with a profu-
sion of rich auburn hair, streaming down her shou
her arms meekly crossed on her breast ; her t.-arful bin-
eyes turned towards heaven ; her features, attitud.-, and
whole air bespeaking despair of mercy in this world,
but hope in the next a- mingling of terrible awe, ami
gentle resignation. A monk was hard at work with
trowel, and brick, and mortar, closing up the front of
the niche in which she stood. The gentle victim seemed
to be gradually passing from the state of consciousness.
Already the fatal wall of her living tomb had reached
as high as her knees. Around were grouped four or
five ill-favoured old nuns, with habits, rosaries, veils,
and other appropriate costume. In their
hard-set features not one gleam of compassion was dis-
cernible, not even the faintest trace of woman's sym-
pathy, to which the agonized sufferer could appeal.
The group was completed by a second monk, who ap-
peared to be directing the proceedings. If the pa I
object had been to present a striking contrast between
the victim about to be immolated and'her executioners
between that sweet innocent girl and those ago
lorbiddmg-looking nuns and monks, the impereoi:
of heartless cruelty and fanaticism he was ass.
most successful. The impression left on the mind of
the spectator was indeed most painful; bur. hapi.ilv
this was relieved by a group entering on the ri-ht-hnml
th .e Picture-a gallant young knight, in full
armour, with his followers, rushing into the apartment
THE STORY OF A PICTURE. 3
just in time to rescue his belqved one 'not a whit
too soon ! '
This large picture, of a highly sensational character,
admirably executed, and deservedly one of the best
placed in the exhibition, was naturally calculated to
attract much attention, and to make a lasting impres-
sion. Doubtless, in many another instance, it had
called forth remarks similar to those which had reached
my ear. On going out of the building, on the footway
directly in front, I met a boy selling at a shilling a
pamphlet styled ' Eevelations of a Convent, or the Story
of Sister Lucy,' a low, scurrilous production, fully as
absurd as it was false and malignant.
As I moved away, my feeling was one of deep regret
that there should extensively prevail among the people
of England not merely the ignorant, but even a large
proportion of the educated classes such strange mis-
conceptions of the nature of conventual institutions, and
that those communities, which, were they knowi^ in the
reality of their inner life, would be revered and cherished
by the professors of other creeds, as they are by the
Catholic millions of these realms, should now be so
misrepresented and misunderstood, as from time to
time to become the marks of public invective, or the
objects of covert insinuation, and number among their
assailants members of that body which has been truly
designated the first assembly of gentlemen in the
world.
My regret at such a state of things was not the less
that around me were grouped so many monuments of
the munificence of that great and wealthy nation its
hospitals, asylums, and other institutions for the suc-
cour of suffering humanity. Then, naturally, recurred
. to my mind several recent instances of its noble exer-
cise of benevolence on a grand scale, on extraordinary
emergencies, as exemplified in the Patriotic Fund at the
close of the Crimean war, the collections for the sufferers
in the Indian mutiny, and the Lancashire cotton famine,
4 TERRA INCOGNITA.
and not least, its generous contributions to Ireland in
the terrible crisis of 1846-49. 1
That such a people should not be allowed to remain
thus grievously in error, that they should be disabused
of their grave misconceptions on matters, too, which
are cognate to that open-handed benevolence which is
one of the prominent national characteristics appeared
desirable in the highest degree. Therefore, on the
moment, it occurred to me that I might do some good
by explaining, in a fair and impartial spirit, to my Pro-
testant fellow-subjects, the nature and objects of the
conventual institutions of these kingdoms. In fact, I
felt that so great, in extent and degree, was the ignor-
ance prevailing on the subject, that such a course was
absolutely necessary, and that, as no other Catholic had
undertaken the task, although there were many better
qualified, I might venture to attempt it. However, the
idea, like many of our other good intentions, passed
away with the occasion, and was altogether forgotten
until revived by Mr Newdegate's motion of 1870, and
the report of his committee laid before Parliament the
following year.
The honourable gentleman's renewed crusade against
convents in April 1872 still more clearly prov.
necessity of some such work being undertaken. On the
23d of April last, he moved, in his place in the House
of Commons, for leave to bring in a ' Bill for the ap-
pointment of a Commission to inquire into the increase
and character of monastic and conventual institutions
in Great Britain, into the conditions under which pro-
perty or income is held by or for such institutions, and
whether in contravention of the principle of the laws
against superstitious uses and against the tenure of pro-
perty in mortmain ; and further, to inquire what regu-
lations are needed with respect to convents, and under
x Such also were the collections made in 1871, and the personal ser-
vices rendered, in aid of the sufferers by the Franco- German war, and
the contributions for the victims of the Chicago fire.
THE STORY OF A PICTURE. 5
what circumstances and securities it may be desirable
to promote the emigration of women.'
In introducing his motion, he stated that 'he was
prepared to bring before any competent tribunal cases
of girls who had been rescued from convents in France
by the intervention of the mayors. If the intervention
of the mayors was necessary in France, could it be said
similar intervention was unnecessary in England ?
Could the people believe there was anything so pecu-
liarly free in convents set up in England, though
organized on a foreign model, and in many instances
subject to foreign superiors, that the power of interven-
tion on the part of the civil authority found necessary
in France, could be unnecessary here ? He
asked simply for those safeguards for the interests of
families, and for the personal freedom of the inmates,
found necessary wherever such institutions existed
throughout the civilized world.' l
It is true that the ideas of the honourable gentleman
as to girls imprisoned in our English convents, and re-
quiring the intervention of the civil power for their
liberation, are laughed at by those who, if such abuses
existed, would know most about them, and be them-
selves the principal sufferers namely, the six millions
of Her Majesty's Catholic subjects in the United King-
dom. But where an influential country gentleman, a
member of Parliament, and, as he himself informs us in
the opening of his speech, ' a Master of Arts educated
at Christ Church, Oxford,' solemnly gives utterance to
such ideas in Parliament, it is but natural to expect
that his words, if not prevailing in the House, must
have considerable effect throughout the country, and
unfairly prejudice against convents the minds of many
who are quite ignorant of the nature and objects of such
institutions. Whatever the merits of the question, it is
much to be regretted, in the interests of law and order,
not to speak of common justice, that the honourable
1 The 'Times' of April 24, 1872, p. 6.
Q TERRA INCOGNITA.
gentleman, towards the close of his observations, should
have thrown out some dangerous hints of Lynch law
of 'a sort of rough justice' which prevailed in the
United States' in cases where it was suspected that
nuns were detained against their will, that he should be
sorry to see put into action in England.' l Such lan-
guage, to say the least of it, cannot be regarded as other
than most imprudent. Although, probably, not so in-
tended, circulated as it must be by the press, it sounds
very like a suggestion of violence to unreasoning mobs.
Again, we have another erroneous impression most
unfairly insinuated, in coupling the question of promot-
ing the emigration of women with the convent question.
Surely the honourable gentleman cannot be ignorant
that, with very few exceptions, the nuns of the United
Kingdom are ladies of good position, living on their own
dowers, and not objects of an emigration fund ; nay,
that several of them are members of some of the first
families of the country. But he contends that ' it would
be acting mercifully and charitably, and in the spirit of
the laws of Roman Catholic States, were we to provide
those nuns who wished to quit their convent life with
opportunities of emigrating, seeing that some Roman
Catholics deemed it to be their religious duty not to
receive back those members of their families who had
once taken the veil ! ' 2 Now, as a Catholic, I beg leave
to assure the honourable gentlemen that so far is this
from being the case, that, should a professed nun desire
to leave her convent and in my extensive experience I
have never known nor heard of an instance of the kind
save one, and this was through family reasons, and with
full episcopal sanction her Catholic relatives would
deem it ' their religious duty ' to receive her back in all
kindness ; and it is not only most unwarrantable but
grossly insulting to his Catholic fellow-subjects that lie
should not only assume, but authoritatively state from
his place in Parliament, that they would be guilty of
1 The 'Times' of April 24, 1872, p. 6. * Ibid.
THE STORY OF A PICTURE. 7
conduct so unfeeling and un-Christian as to refuse to
receive their relatives under such circumstances.
Furthermore, even though Catholics were so unnatural
and un-Christian as the honourable gentleman so un-
justly asserts, would the number of cases be such as to call
for a Parliamentary scheme of female emigration ? In
England and Wales there are 266 convents, which may
safely be taken as containing an aggregate of about
3900 nuns. "What are the whole of these out of a
female population of 11,663,705 ? l
' In the face of these and similar absurd misrepresen-
tations the result, let us hope, of ignorance rather than
design I have now resolved no longer to defer the
fulfilment of that which I regard as a pleasing duty ;
and here I deem it right to premise, that I enter on my
subject in any but a narrow or sectarian spirit ; for I am
well aware that no cause of the kind, however good, can
be successfully maintained in a community composed of
various religious denominations, unless, on the one hand,
its merits are set forth and discussed in a tone of im-
partiality and candour ; and, on the other, its advocate
uniformly observes the most respectful consideration for
the feelings of all those who sincerely worship God ac-
cording to their conscientious convictions, no matter how
widely, in some instances, their tenets may differ from
his own.
As regards my qualifications for the task, I may be
permitted to state that, besides having access to the best
sources of information in detail, I have long had a
thorough general knowledge of the whole subject. My
four sisters were educated in convents. Two of them be-
came professed nuns in the Congregation of the Sisters of
Mercy, and died happily in that congregation. I have
relatives and friends who are nuns in different orders in
England and Ireland ; and I have visited, as many Irish
Catholics have done, a number of convents, not only in
1 Population of England and Wales, enumerated April 3, 1871 :
males, 11,040,403; females, 11,663,705 ; total, 22,704,108.
8 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Ireland, but in England and on the Continent. I have
seen there the holiest charities of our nature, embodied
in priceless blessings to the poor, the orphan, the erring,
the ignorant, the afflicted, the sick, and the dying ; and
I have witnessed an air of peace and serenity pervading
the members of those communities, who, as far as such
is possible in this life, seem to enjoy, in the even tenor
of their untiring course of holiness and devoted charity,
a foretaste of that unspeakable happiness which in
another and a better world will be their eternal reward.
(9)
CHAPTER II.
FIRST INSTITUTION OF MONKS AND NUNS. 1
L'expe"rience prouve que les socie'te's purement civiles se negligent,
et les negligences aper9ues ne produisent que des inquietudes, des
agitations, des changemens perpdtuels de plans. . . . Mais il y a une
autre espdce de sociltes ou tout est reduit a un interet commun, et oil
les regies sont mieux observe'es ; ce sont les socie'te's religieuses ; de lii
il est rdsult^ qu'elles ont mieux prosp^re" que les autres dans les etab-
lissemens qu'elles ont entrepris. . . . Cette distinction est la Regie.
Sans elle les plus grandes ressources sont inefficaces ; leurs effets
s'dparpillent, deviennent divergens : par elle, au coutraire, tout aboutit
au bien commun. DELUC.
EARLY in the history of Christianity, we read of men
anxious to serve God with greater perfection, retiring
into solitude, to devote themselves exclusively to prayer
and manual labour. Thus was it with Saint Paul ' the
first hermit,' 2 Saint Antony, 3 Saint Pachomius, 4 and
other solitaries, who dwelt in the deserts of Egypt, and,
1 A nun is a virgin, or a widow, consecrated to God by the three vows
of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and obliged to live in a convent,
under a certain rule. We find the word in various languages, viz., .
Saxon, nunne , German, nonnej Dutch, non ; Danish, nunnc ;
Swedish, nitnna ; French, nonne.
* Saint Paul, ' the first hermit,' was born in 229, and died in 342,
aged 113. He spent 90 years in the desert in Lower Thebais in Egypt,
whither he had retired in bis twenty-third year.
3 Saint Antony was born at Coma, a village near Heraclea in Upper
Egypt, in 251, and died in 356, being 105 years old. Having sold his
goods, and distributed the amount among the poor, he retired into
solitude in his twenty-fifth year. He is considered the institutor of
cenobitic life, or of persons living in community, under a certain rule.
His rule was oral, not written.
4 Saint Pachomius, abbot, was born in Upper Thebais, about the
year 292, and died in 348. He was the first "who drew up a monastic
rule in writing. His rule was translated into Latin by Saint Jerome,
and is still extant
10 TERRA INCOGNITA.
notwithstanding their desire to lie hidden from the
world, made 'the wilderness blossom like the rose,
and shed the light of holiness far and wide. Lre long,
they had imitators of the other sex. The monastic life
commenced in Egypt in the Ifc'rd century ; and about
the same time we read of 'houses of virgins. Ihus,
when Saint Antony retired from the world, about the
year 276, as we learn from Saint Athanasms, 1 he placed
his only 'sister in a house of virgins, ew Trap0evo>va \*
and, further, when Antony visited her, many years
afterwards, in her old age, she was, as we are informed
by the same authority, the mistress or guide of other
virgins, KaBi^ov^kv^v a\\o)v Trapdevtuv. 3
In the fourtli century, Saint Basil 4 speaks of convents
of nuns governed by a mother superior, and lie recom-
mends them to fulfil the same duties, and observe the
same practices of devotion as the monks.* He himself
established several convents of men, as well as of women.
One of the latter, at Pontus, was governed by his sister
Macrina. He drew up his Ascetic Works, which consist
of his Longer and Shorter Rules for Cenobitcs, or monks
living in community, about the year 302. His are the
most ancient written rules, in use, for the government
of religious communities. Some authorities are of
opinion that the actual rule of Saint Basil, embodying
1 Saint Athanasius, Patriarch of Alexandria and Doctor of the Church,
was born at Alexandria in the year 296, and died in 373. He ably
combated the errors of Arianism ; and his zeal for the Catholic faith
drew down upon him many years of persecution and exile. His prin-
cipal works are in defence of the doctrine of the Trinity, the Incarna-
tion, and the divinity of the Holy Ghost. The Creed which bean his
name contains his doctrine ; but is generally considered not to have
been drawn up by him. It is ascribed to Saint Hilary, Archbishop of
Aries, in the fifth century, by Dr Waterland, in his 'Critical History
of the Athanasian Creed.' Saint Athanasius's Life of Saint Antony
was written in 365.
a Opera, vol. ii. p. 796, Benedictine edition.
3 lb. p. 837.
4 Saint Basil, Archbishop of Cresarea in Cappadocia, and Doctor of
the Church, was born in 329, and died in 379.
5 Serm. Ascet. Opera, vol. ii. p. 326.
6 From the Greek, (cow6j, common, and plot life.
FIRST INSTITUTION OF MONKS AND NUNS. 11
his constitutions, was written after his time. It is, at
present, the rule which is generally followed in the
East.
Saint John Chrysostom l again testifies, in the fourth
century, that in Egypt tta congregations of virgins were
almost as numerous as the houses of religious men. a
At this period, not only were there houses of virgins
and widows living in common and leading holy lives,
but there were several women who led devout retired
lives in the houses of their parents. In time, it appeared
desirable, and was recommended by the clergy, that
all women who desired to lead such lives should lie
assembled in convents, and live under a uniform rule.
As to the precise period, when these religious began
to make a solemn profession of virginity and to receive
the veil and habit at the hands of the bishop, we cannot
speak with accuracy. The first authenticated instance
is that of Saint Marcellina, sister of Saint Ambrose, who
received the habit and veil at the hands of Pope Liberius,
in the Church of Saint Peter on Christmas day 352, in
presence of a great number of people. On the occasion,
the Pope exhorted her to love only our Lord Jesus
Christ, the chaste spouse of her soul, and to lead a life
of continual abstinence, mortification, and prayer, be-
having in the church with that reverential awe which
the presence of God should always inspire. His Holi-
ness reminded her and the congregation of the example
set by a pagan, a page of Alexander the Great, who,
during some ceremony in a heathenish temple, suffered
a piece of melted wax, which fell on his hand, to burn
him to the bone rather than disturb the religious rites
which were being performed. Saint Marcellina, how-
ever, did not reside in a convent, but led a life of great
1 Saint John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, and Doctor
of the Church, was born in 344, and died in 407. He was named
Chrysostom, ('golden-mouth,' from the Greek), on account of his
eloquence.
2 Homil. xiii. In Epiat. ad Ephes. cap iv.
12 TERRA INCOGNITA.
holiness and mortification, with another virgin, in a
private house.
Of religious women distinguished by their veil and
habit from all others of their sex, we find mention made
by Saint Jerome, 1 Saint Ambrose, 2 Saint Optatus of
Milevium, 3 and other writers of the period.
Saint Jerome especially, in his letters and sermons,
gives many details of the lives of these holy women,
several of whom were under his spiritual direction in
Rome. One of these was Saint Marcella, whom he styles
' the glory of the Roman ladies.' Her husband died
seven months after their marriage ; and she refused the
suit of Cerealis the Consul, uncle to Gallus Caesar, and
entered a religious life. 4 Another was Saint Lea, a
widow, honoured by the Church on March 22. She
presided over a community of virgins, whom she taught
more by her edifying example than by words, spending
whole nights in prayer. Formerly a lady of rank and
wealth, and the mistress of many slaves, she now led a
life of mortification, penance, and humility, acting rather
as the servant than the superioress of the Sisters she
governed. She died in the year 384. Saint Jerome
eloquently contrasts her holy death with that of the
Consul Pretextatus, a heathen, suddenly carried off
about the same time. 5
But perhaps the most remarkable of the religious
women mentioned by Saint Jerome, were Saint Paula,
and her daughter Saint Eustochium. Saint Paula was
born on May 5, 347. She was a lady of most illustrious
race, numbering among her ancestors, on the mother's
side, the Scipios, the Gracchi, and Paulus -/Emilius,
'S^nt Jerome, priest and Doctor of the Church, wu born in 342,
and died in 420.
2 Saint Ambrose, bishop of Milan, and Doctor of the Church, wu bom
in 340, and died in 397.
Saint Optatus, bishop of Milevium, wrote about the year 870.
Sancti Hieron. Epist. 127 (alia. 16), scripta A.D. 412, Ad PrincipUm
Virginem, sive Marcellje Viduas Epitapbium
5 Sancti Hieron. Epist. 23.
FIRST INSTITUTION OF MONKS AND NUNS. 13
and, on the father's, tracing her descent from Agamem-
non ; whilst her husband toxotius derived his pedigree
from JSneas and lulus. 1 In her thirty-second year she
lost her husband. From that time forward, acting on
the advice of Saint Marcella, she devoted herself alto-
gether to a religious life. She spent her time in prayer,
fasting, and works of mercy to the poor.
After a while, she visited the holy places in Palestine.
She built an hospital near Bethlehem, also a monastery
for St Jerome and his monks, and three convents for
religious women, which formed but one house, as all
the nuns assisted together, in the chapel, to recite the
Divine office. All the Sisters were obliged to know the
whole psalter, which they daily sang, observing the
canonical hours of prime, tierce, sext, none, vesper?,
complin, and matins immediately after midnight.
They lived most austerely ; they made all their own
clothes, which were of the coarsest materials. Paula
and her daughter Eustochium set an example of mortifi-
cation, humility, and sweetness of manner to the whole
community, taking on themselves the most troublesome
and menial offices. Eustochium was chosen abbess, on
the death of her mother in 40-4. She was especially the
pupil of St Jerome, whose treatise on Virginity, ad-
dressed to her and called his Letter to Eustochium, was
composed in the year 383. 2
Towards the close of the 4th century, St Augustine, :;
after his consecration as bishop of Hippo in Africa,
established a community of nuns there ; and his sister,
who was anxious to devote herself to the service of God
in her widowhood, was chosen the first abbess. On her
1 Sancti Hieron. Epist. 103 (alias 27), scripta A.D. 404, Ad Eusto-
chium Virginem, Epitaphium Paula), matris.
1 Epist. 22, Ad Eustochium Paula? filiam de custodia virginitatis.
3 Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, and Doctor of the Church, was
born at Tagaste, in Numidia, in 354. He was consecrated coadjutor
bishop of Hippo in December 395, and succeded to that see the follow-
ing year. He died in 430. He is one of the most illustrious of the
Doctors of the Church.
TERRA INCOGNITA.
death, Mcitas,
sor; hut, some members of toe* J Augu3t me
pressed . preference for a U ^ ^ the N
addressed two letters t , j spmtua l
and the Pt,f "fiTktte he eZrts them Junior,
director. In the first leuei u poverty, and
nv other order,
Ms for the monastery , -Inch he had Bunded on
Monte Cassino, between Rome and Isaples This rule
ww aporoved of by Pope Gregory the Great, in oU5 , ana,
be?nS a^tere than those followed in . Eastern coun-
S! it was considered suitable for the West ; and was
generally adopted in Europe, especially in EndMAj
is the basis of many of the particular rules, since
formed in the Western portion of the Christian world
Its essential principles are silence, solitude, prayer,
humility, and obedience.
A monastic rule is defined as a collection of laws 8
constitutions, according to which the religious of a n<
or order are obliged to live, and which they have r,
a vow of observing. All the monastic rules require
be approved of by the ecclesiastical superiors, and even
by the Holy See, to impose an obligation of conscience
on religious. 2 When a religious cannot bear the austerity
i Saint Benedict, Abbot, was born at Norcia in Italy, about the year
480. He founded his monastery of Monte Cawino in 529. 1
"'' Dictionaire de Theologie,' par 1'AbW Bergier, t Til, !> 123.
FIRST INSTITUTION OF MONKS AND NUNS. 15
of his rule, he is obliged to demand a dispensation from
his superiors, or permission from the Holy See to enter
a more mitigated order. 1
In the early ages of Christianity, although several
communities followed a common rule, whether that of
Saint Basil, Saint Augustine, or some other holy priest or
bishop, each convent or monastery was governed alto-
gether by its own superior; for it was only in later
times, with the increased facilities of inter-communica-
tion, that the principle of all the houses of a particular
order being directed by a generalate could be intro-
duced. 2
We have seen that, at first, those who embraced the
religious life had no other design than to serve God
with greater perfection, and to sanctify themselves by
prayer, silence, work, mortification, and the exercise of
mutual charity. This was the origin of the religious
orders of both men and women. But in the course of
time, as the necessities of mankind required it, a com-
bination of the active and contemplative life was intro-
duced, and several religious congregations 3 were estab-
lished : and thus besides the praise of God, and the
sanctification of their own souls, all the offices of
Christian charity are now discharged, and every neces-
sity of mankind is ministered to, by these devoted sons
and daughters of religion.
Nearly all the ancient orders, too, adapting them-
selves to the age, now undertake active duties, chiefly
the education of youth, in these and other countries.
Nevertheless, the functions for which they were ori-
ginally instituted the continuous praise of God from
sunrise to sunset, and through the silent vigils of the
night are not on this account neglected. All religious
1 ' Dictionaire de The'ologie,' parl'Abbd Bergier, t. vii. p. 123.
1 The first instance is that of the order of Cluni, referred to further
on.
* The difference between religious orders and congregations will be
explained further on.
16 TERRA INCOGNITA.
orders of men and women recite the Divine office ; and,
in most cases, they assemble in choir for this purpose,
as they would in all, if not prevented by their extern
works of charity. All Christian communions believe m
the obligation and efficacy of prayer the lifting up of
the heart to God, to bless Him, praise Him, and thank
Him for the benefits bestowed upon us, to beg forgive-
ness of our offences, and to implore the graces and
blessings we stand in need o In the hour of pros-
perity, "much of this may be neglected ; but, let adver-
sity darken the horizon, let serious illness or death in-
vade our homes, it is then that we turn instinctively to
the great and omnipotent disposer of human events, and
pray with an intensity of fervour and earnestness of
tioii, which, coming naturally from the heart, are perhaps
the strongest evidence that can be adduced of the exist-
ence of a Supreme Being. And yet there are men, who,
uttering not one word of censure against those whose
lives are an unceasing round of dissipation, and who
seldom or never pray, loudly inveigh against the con-
templative orders, and object to nuns leading lives of
'barren holiness!' Have they not read, in the Old
Testament, how the tide of battle was turned, not
by the prowess of the men engaged, or the genius of
their leaders, but by the intercession of the patriarch
who prayed, with his arms uplifted, on the mountain ?
In an age of infidelity, and sin, and worldliness, it is
well that there should be those, who are constantly em-
ployed in praising God, and praying to Him, not for
themselves alone, but for all mankind, of every creed,
and every clime : for all are His creatures. We are
but too apt to overlook the necessity of intercessory
prayer. We become familiar with, and therefore cease
to tremble at, the revelations of our divorce courts, and
other indications of revolting crime, that, now and then,
come to the surface. And yet we have read in Holy
Writ of how a city immersed in sin and doomed to im-
mediate destruction would have been spared, if ten just
FIRST INSTITUTION OF MONKS AND NUNS. 17
men could be found dwelling within its precincts. 1 It
may be that fire from heaven does not fall on earth
now, as of old ; but wars, famines and pestilence, at
any time, may come upon us. Therefore we cannot too
highly value, too carefully guard and cherish, those whose
whole lives, whose every thought, word and action, are
one unbroken propitiatory offering, and intercessory
prayer in our behalf; and we may well address them in
the words of the Laureate :
Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer
Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day.
1 Genesis, chapter xviii.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM.
Ye speak of that time when the cells of the Wet
Gave voice after voice to the choir of the bleat ;
When a breathing of prayer in the desert was heard.
When the angel came down, and the waters were stirred;
When the Church of the Isles saw her glories arise
Columba the dove-like, and Carthagh the wise;
And the school and the temple gave light to each shore,
From clefted lona to wooded LUtuore.
GERALD Cairn*.
THERE is good reason to suppose that Christianity reached
the British Isles in the days of the Apostles. To this
effect are the statements of Euscbius Pamphili, Bishop of
Caesarea, born in the year of Our Lord L'G4, and styled
the Father of Ecclesiastical History, 1 Saint John Chry-
sostom, who wrote towards the end of the fourth century, 8
Gildas, a British monk, born in the year 493, the most
ancient historian of Britain, 3 and other early writers.
The testimony of these and later authorities on the
subject is accepted and confirmed by Usher in his learned
work on the Antiquities of the British Churches, 4 as well
as by Spelmau, 5 l)ugdale, and other laborious investi-
gators. That Britain was visited by Saint Peter and
1 Hist. Eccles., lib. iii.
1 Chrysost. Opera, torn. vi. p. 685.
3 Gildas, ' Epistola de Excidio Britannia,' written about the year 537,
p. 10. Londini, Daius, 1568.
4 ' Britanniarum Ecclesiarum Antiquitates, collectore Jacobo Uawrio,'
pp. 1-12, and 740. Dublinii, 1639.
B ' Concilia Henrici Spelman,' p. 1. Londini, 1639.
6 ' Monasticon Anglicanum,' Dodsworth and Dugdale, ToL L par. L
p. i. Londini, 1655.
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM. 19
Saint Paul appears very doubtful ; the evidence thereof,
quoted by Usher, being vague and unsatisfactory. 1
According to Dugdale, in the thirty-first year after the
Passion of Our Lord, twelve of the disciples of Saint
Philip the Apostle, of whom Joseph of Arimathea was
the chief, came to that part of the country which is now
Glastonbury in Somersetshire, and offered the blessings
of Christianity to Arviragus the king, which he declined.
However, they obtained from him a site and twelve hides
of land, 2 on which they built a church with wattles it
being the first constructed in this kingdom. These twelve
and their successors, for a long time, leading an eremi-
tical life, converted a great multitude of the Pagans to the
faith of Christ. At length, all being dead and buried,
two most holy men, Phaganus and Diruviauus, sent by
Pope Eleutherius, arriving at those parts, baptized King
Lucius and his nation, and obtained from him the con-
firmation of the said twelve hides of land to themselves
and their successors, and dwelt there, a long time, with
their associates, to the number of twelve. They were
succeeded by others, and these by others again, always
twelve in number, until the arrival of Saint Patrick,
who, teaching them community life, became their first
abbot. He was succeeded by the holy fathers, Benignus,
Columkille, and Gildas, who led most saintly lives there,
to the great edification of the community. This church
of Glastonbury, ' built by the disciples of Christ,' was
long called, by the English, Ealderchirche, or Elder
Church, as being the first erected in England. 3
King Lucius, above referred to, appears to have been
the first Christian king in Britain. He was called, by
the Welsh, Lleuer Mawr, or the Great Light. Having
1 ' Brit. Eccles. Antiq. ,' pp. 7-9.
* In ancient times, in England, a hide of land represented a certain
quantity, about which there is some difference of opinion at the present
day. Some writers state it was as much land as would occupy one
plough; others, as much as would maintain a family. Some suppose it
was 60, some 80, and others 100 acres.
* 'Monasticon Anglicanum,' voL i. par. i. pp. i., xL
20 TERRA. INCOGNITA.
conversed with Christians, he was desirous to embrace
their faith ; and, about the year 180, he sent an embagf
to Rome, to Pope Eleutherius, praying that, by his com-
mand, he might be made a Christian. The Pope, there-
upon, sent over two holy men, Fugatius and Damianus, 1
who baptized the king and many of his subjects ; and
the Britons enjoyed the light of faith undisturbed, until
the reign of Dioclesian. 2
Towards the end of the second century, Tertullian
informs us that Christianity numbered subjects in the
Northern parts of Britain, inaccessible to its Roman con-
querors: ' Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo
vero subdita.' 3
At the Council. of Aries, one of the earliest of the
Western councils, held in 314, there were present three
British bishops ; namely, Eborius of York, Restitutus of
London, and Adelphius of Lincoln. 4
For a century and a half from that time, the infant
Church of Britain had suffered severely from the results
of a long series of wars, and the clergy had fallen into a
lamentable state of laxity, as described by their co-tem-
porary, Gildas. 5 On the arrival of Augustine, he "con-
vened a synod, at a place called Augustine's Oak, in
Worcestershire, which was attended by seven bishops of
the Britons, and many learned men. His metropolitic
1 Called by some Duvianus or Diruvianus. These muwionarie* were
clearly identical with those mentioned by Dugdale. They were buried
at Glastonbury.
1 ' Historic Ecclesiastic Gentis Anglorum, libri v., a Ven Beda
Presb. scripti,' p. 28. Cantab., 1643.
3 ' Tertulliani Opera ;' adversus Judscos, c. vii. p. 189. Paris,
Rigault, 1664. Tertullian wan born in Carthage, A.D. 160, and died in
240. In 204, he visited Rome. Having renounced Paganism, he pub-
lished his celebrated 'Apology for the Christians.' About his forty-
fifth year, he lapsed into the heresy of Montanua. He subsequently
established a sect of his own, called Tertullianists.
Spelman, Concilia, voL L pp. 42-45. Londini, 1639. Adelphitu
is styled dt civitate Cdlonice Londiniewum, which appears to be Lincoln,
originally called Lindum Colonia. Usher calls it Colchester.
5 Epistola, p. 23.
6 Bede, Eccles. Hist. p. 111.
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM. 21
dignity is set forth in the Pope's letter to him, as fol-
lows : ' We commit to thee, venerable brother, all the
bishops of the Britons, that the unlearned may be taught,
the weak strengthened by persuasion, and the perverse
corrected by authority.' l
Thus, in Britain, the light of the Gospel, although not
widely diffused, had reached several of the inhabitants,
in the earliest ages of Christianity.
In Ireland, too, the Christian religion was heard of
at a very early period. According to Usher and other
writers, there was an ancient tradition, that, in the reign
of Conchur, or Cornelius, King of Ulster, Conal Kear-
ney, a celebrated champion, fond of travelling in foreign
lands, visited Palestine, and, on his return to Ireland,
told the king that he had been in Jerusalem, and had
there seen a man who was called Jesus and the King of
the Jews, endowed with a more than royal a divine
form, excelling in innocence and holiness of life, a
worker of miracles, and shining with every ornament of
virtue, accused by false witnesses, unjustly condemned,
scourged, crucified on Mount Calvary, and buried ; but
that, by Divine power, he lived again, and came forth
from the sepulchre : and that, on hearing his narrative,
the king exclaimed, ' This is indeed the Lord and maker
of the whole world, whose coming is declared by the
predictions of our prophets.' On this, it is related, some
who went to Rome and other Catholic countries were
sprinkled with the sacred waters of baptism ; others,
taught by them, received the faith ; and some shone by
their innocence of life, austerities, and miracles, and
were received into the assembly, and enrolled in the
calendars, of the blest. 2
1 Bede, Eccles. Hist. p. 86, quoting the Pope's letter in reply to
Augustine viz. ' Britanniarum vero omnes Episcopos tua fraternitati
committimus, ut indocti doceantur, infirm i persuasions roborentur,
perversi auctoritate corrigantur.'
8 Usher, ' Brit. Eccles. Antiq.' p. 739, and ' Historise Catholic
Ibernise Compendium,' a Philippo Sullevano Bearro, Iberno, torn. i.
lib. iv. cap. 5. Lisbon, 1621.
02 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Usher appears rather doubtful about the truth of this
tradition/ However that may he, it is certain that the
Irish or Scoto-Milesians travelled much, and especially
had constant intercourse with North Britain ; and there
is every reason to suppose that the truths of Christianity
reached them fully as early as the inhabitants
sister island.
Several ancient writers make mention of Saint Man-
suy or Mansuetus, a Scot of Ireland, who was converted
and ordained by Saint Peter, in the year of Our Lord
66 and became Bishop of Toul, where he died on the
3rd of September 105. The principal of these is Adso,
abbot of Moutiers en Derf, who, in the tenth century,
wrote the life of the saint, at the desire of Gerard, Bishop
of Toul. 2 In some verses prefixed to the biography, he
alludes to Mansuetus, as a native of Ireland, and lie
further speaks of the island, as being, at the time, the
parent of many worshippers of Christ :
' Inclyta Mansueti claris natalibus orti
Progenies titulis fulget in orbe uis ;
Insnla Christicolas gestabat Hibernia gente*,
Undo genus traxit et satua inde f uit. ' s
When Palladius was sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine,
A.D. 431, he came to a nation, in which there were already
several Christians ; for we are told that lie was sent as
chief (or first) bishop to the Scots believing in Christ ; 4
1 Usher, ' Brit. Eccles. Antiq.' p. 739.
a 'Patrol. Cursus Completus,' Migne, Tom. 137, p. 619. Pan*,
1853.
3 This account of Mansuetus is adopted by Usher, ' Brit. Ecclet.
Antiq.' p. 1039, Sir James Ware, and other writers. Others again
place him, as the first Bishop of Toul, in the fourth century, and fix
his death in 375. Tide Bolandus, Sept. t i. p. 636. Antverpua, 1568.
4 Bede, ' Hist. Eccles.' p. 55. Prosper. Chron., A.D. 431. Ware,
'History and Antiquities of Ireland,' vol. ii. p. 6, tram. Harris,
Dublin, 1764. Ireland was called Scotie ( Latin, Scotia) by the Milewans,
and the inhabitants Clanna-Scotie, after Scota, daughter of Pharaoh,
king of Egypt, wife of Milesius. From the third to the eleventh cen-
tury, the island was known, and spoken of, by foreigners, at Scotia,
while a small district of North Britain, Dalrieta or Dalraida, the ori-
ginal territory of the Irish in Albania, was called Scotia Minor. Bede.
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM. 23
land that he came to confirm their faith and preach bap-
tism to them. 1
The general diffusion of the Christian religion, how-
ever, did not commence in Ireland until the mission of
Saint Patrick, towards the middle of the fifth century,
and, in England, the arrival of Saint Augustine and his
companions, towards the close of the sixth.
Long before these periods, as already observed, there
were several Christians in both countries, in which, as
early as the middle of the fifth century, we can tract;
the existence of the monastic institute, which proved u
powerful instrument in enlightening and civilizing the;
inhabitants, and continued its beneficent work for eleven
centuries.
The first British monastery, as we have seen, was
founded by Saint Patrick, at Glastonbury. This is sup-
posed to have been about the year 425.-
About the year 512, Saint Dubricius, Archbishop of
Caerleon, founded several monasteries in AVales, and
taught the monks to live, after the manner of the
Eastern recluses, by the labour of their hands. Their
rule closely resembled that of Saint Basil.
In the year 516 was founded the celebrated abbey of
Bangor, or Beuchor, on the Dee, in Flintshire. 3 It was
so called from the Latin Benedictus Chorus, Blessed
Choir; 4 and was perhaps the largest monastery in
Britain. Bede and others mention it as very flourish-
ing at the coming of Saint Augustine. At that time, it
is said to have numbered two thousand four hundred
' Hist. Eccles.' 1. ii. c. 5, p. 118 ; 1. iii. c. 19, p. 214 ; Buchanan Geo.
' Reruin Scotticarum,' lib. 2, pp. 55, 164, Frankfort, 1624 ; Usher, ' Brit.
Ecclea. Antiq.' pp. 687, 728-733, and ' Cambrensis Eversus,' c. xvii.
vol. ii. p. 307, c. xxv. pp. 655 et seq. Edit. Celtic Society, Dublin, 1850.
1 Bede, Hist. Eccles. p. 506.
8 Supra, p. 19. See also Stillingfleet, ' Origines Britannicae,' p. 185,
London, 1685. Some few writers are of opinion that this Saint Patrick
was not the Apostle of Ireland.
3 Some writers erroneously state that this monastery was founded
in the second century.
4 Or Bean Chor, white choir, according to some.
TERRA INCOGNITA.
of Bangor by ?" 2 He died in the
were
monasteries founded ia
G ? reat, who first conceived and carried out the i
X conversion of all England to Christianity^ One
day, when a simple monk, he saw several English
youths exposed, in the market, in Rome, for sale as
slaves. Struck with their beauty, he inquired, of wha
nation they were. 'Angles/ was the reply. Not
Angles,' said he, 'but Angela.' It is a pity that the
prince of darkness should have possession ot the s-
which dwell in those fair forms.' He shortly afte
wards offered himself to Pope Benedict I., as i a m
sionary, to preach the Gospel in Britain.
approved of the undertaking, and, with his bleMIMp,
dispatched Gregory and several of the monks of his
monastery of Saint Andrew on the mission. 5
1 SAINT GREGORY, suraamed the Great, on account of hi
actions and holy life, waa bom in Rome in 640, was coiwecrated Pop
on September 3, 590, and died in 604.
1 ' Non Angli, Bed angeli.'
3 Saint Gregory had built and endowed six monasteries in Sicily, out
of his estates in that island. He also established that of Saint Andrew
in his own house in Rome. In latter times Saint Andrew w occu-
pied by the monks of CalmaldolL
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM. 25
populace, learning this, flocked about the Pope, re-
monstrating on his having deprived them of one they
loved so much. ' Apostolical Father/ said they, ' what
have you done? In allowing Gregory to depart, you
have ruined us, injured Rome, and offended Saint Peter.'
The Pope sent messengers to recall him ; and, on the
third day of his journey, he was overtaken, and re-
traced his steps to Rome. This was only a temporary
delay of his project ; for, immediately on his promotion
to the pontifical chair, Gregory dispatched Augustine,
prior of his own monastery of Saint Andrew's, and
several monks to Britain. These, according to Mabil-
lon and other writers, were Benedictine monks. They
landed in the island of Thanet, on the east coast of
Kent, in 596. They were well received by Ethelbert,
King of Kent, whose wife Bertha, daughter of Charibert,
King of Paris, was a Christian ; l and, in a short time,
the monarch and great numbers of his subjects were
baptized. Augustine was made Archbishop of Canter-
bury, Ethelbert's capital; and, ere long, he and his
companions established several monasteries, and cathe-
drals, aided by the king, and with the full approval and
co-operation of the Holy See. The further progress of
the work, thus happily initiated, is familiar to all
readers of English history.
The early British monks followed the particular rules
of their respective founders. Thus, there formerly pre-
vailed in Britain the rules of Saint Patrick, Saint
Columba or Columkille, Saint Comgall and his dis-
ciples Saints Molua and Columbanus, all Irish Saints, and
Saint Asaph, Saint Aidan, Saint Cuthbert and others.
In Ireland, according to ancient records, there were
thirteen orders, or particular monastic rules, prevailing
in the fifth and sixth centuries ; namely, those of Saint
1 We learn from Bede and William of Malmesbury, that when
Bertha was married to Ethelbert in 566, she was accompanied by
Lethard, or Luidhard, Bishop of Senlis, who resided in the British
Court, as her chaplain and almoner.
26 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Ailbe, Saint Declan; Saint Patrick, Saint Moctee, Saint
Finian, Saint Kieran the younger, Saint Brendan, Saint
Comgall, Saint Columba or Columkille, Saint Molua or
Lugilus, Saint Columbanus, Saint Carthagh, and Saint
Bridget, for females.
Reference has already been made to the first monas-
teries founded in Britain. In Ireland we find several
monasteries, established in the early part of the fifth
century by Saint Patrick, and other holy founders.
With each succeeding generation, their numbers steadily
increased ; and in the sixth, seventh, and eighth cen-
turies, they flourished in all parts of the country.
While the rest of Europe suffered severely from the in-
cursions of the Northern barbarians, Ireland enjoyed a
long immunity from foreign invasion ; and, although
there were frequent civil wars, the lands of the monas-
teries, originally grants from the princes, and cleared
and cultivated by the monks, were respected. To
nearly all these monasteries were attached schools, at
first intended for local requirements, but gradually ex-
panding, to meet the necessities of the age. Thus ori-
ginated those great seminaries, of which the fame was
widely diffused in foreign lands so many beacon
lights amidst the sea of darkness and desolation that
overspread Europe.
Of these, the principal was the great school of
Armagh, founded by Saint Patrick, and for many ages
one of the most celebrated seminaries of learning in
Europe. It was greatly favoured by the Irish princes
notably by Roderick O'Conor, the last monarch of all
Ireland, in the twelfth century. Saints Swidbert,
Apostle of Westphalia, and Willibrord, Apostle of Fried-
laud, both Anglo-Saxons, studied for twelve years at
Armagh, towards the close of the seventh century. At
one time, this school is said to have numbered 7000
scholars.
Clonard, on the Boyne, in the county of Meath, was
founded by Saint Finian, first Bishop of Clonard, in 520.
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM.. 27
It numbered sometimes 3000 scholars. The biographer
of its founder describes it, as ' a wonderful sanctuary of
all wisdom,' totius sapientice admirabile-sacrarium.
Lismore, founded by Saint Carthagh, first Bishop of
Lismore, in 631, was for centuries a celebrated seat of
learning, frequented by students from all parts of Ire-
land, as well as Britain and the Continent.
Rosscarbery, in the county of Cork, was founded,
about the middle of the sixth century, by Saint Fach-
nan, in connection with his monastery. This school
was frequented by great numbers of scholars, and was
in very high repute. Of it we are told, Magno florebat
honore, ob anliquam ibi Musarum sedem.
The other celebrated schools were Louth, Beg-Erin,
Cork, Roscrea, Clonfert, Clonmacnoise, Cashel, Glenda-
lough, Leighlin, Fore, Kildare, Slaue, Bangor, Mayo,
and Inisbofiu-island.
To these tranquil retreats of piety and learning,
students repaired not only from Britain, but from various
parts of Continental Europe, and here they were sure
to meet with cordial welcome and hospitality. 'The
Irish,' says the Venerable Bede, 'received with kind-
ness strangers who came from every country, at these
periods, to be instructed among them, and gratuitously
supplied them with food, books, and teachers.' *
Camden, writing in 1607, with reference to the eighth
and ninth centuries, says :
The Saxons of that age flocked hither, as to the great mart of
learning ; and this is the reason why we find it so often in our
writers of the lives, of the saints, ' suck a one was sent over to Ire-
land to be educated,' and the reason also of this passage in the life
of Sulgenus, who flourished 700 years ago :
Exemplo patrum commotus amore legendi,
Ibat ad Hibernos, sophia mirabile claros.
With love of learning and examples fired,
To Ireland, famed for wisdom, he repaired.*
1 Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. 27. The Venerable Bede completed his
Ecclesiastical History in 731.
8 Britannia, voL ii. p. 1318.
28 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Later still, notwithstanding more than two centuries
of Danish incursions, the great schools of Ireland main-
tained their pre-eminence, and we are told by Sir James
Ware, that in the eleventh century, Ireland was deemed
' the repertory of the most holy and learned men,'
Nor were the labours of Irishmen in the cause of
learning and religion confined to their own country.
Toward! the close of the eighth century, two learned Irish
students laid the foundations of those seminaries which
afterwards became the celebrated universities of Paris
and Pavia ; and, for several ages, Irish professors were
to be found in many great schools in different parts of
the Continent.
From her monasteries, too, year after year, for
centuries, she sent forth, to Britain, Gaul, Germany,
Switzerland, and other countries, zealous missionaries,
who diffused far and wide the light and consolations of
religion, and gave their names to many a town and
hamlet, where the memory of their holiness survives to
this day, and their intercession is invoked, as the local
patrons. 1
There is scarcely a district in Ireland which has not
its own venerable monuments and traditions of the
monastic institute in the early ages of Christianity.
When we visit those time-honoured sites of seminary,
or church, or abbey, where lived and laboured those who
earned for their country the proud denomination of ' the
island of saints,' we cannot but feel that the ground on
which we stand is hallowed, and our minds are carried
back to the day, in which it was a common saying in
Britain and on the Continent of Europe, with reference
to the temporary absence of many a learned and pious
man ; Amandatus est ad disciplinam in Hibernia.
1 A long list of Irish nainte, venerated, as the local patrons, in many
districts of France, the Netherlanda, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and
other countries of Continental Europe, will be found in ' CambreiuU
Eversus' chapter xxv. voL ii. pp. 639 tt ttq., edition of Celtic
Society, Dublin, 1850.
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM. 29
In North Britain and Ireland, there were certain
monks, called Culdees, from the Latin words Cultores
Dei, or Coli-Dei, 'worshippers of God,' who devoted
themselves exclusively to prayer, preaching, and the
instruction of the people. Hector Boetius l and other
writers assert that they were coeval with the introduc-
tion of Christianity into these countries. However they
are not mentioned by Nennius 2 in the seventh century,
nor by Bede in the eighth. They appear to have been
first known towards the close of the eighth century.
Boetius observes that there were monks and priests,
called in ancient times Culdei, among the Albanian
Scots. Cambrensis, writing towards the close of the
twelfth century, mentions ' a few solitaries called Cccli-
colce or Colidei, devoutly serving God,' in the island of
Inchinemeo, county of Tipperary. They were also in
the island of Bardsey, in Wales. In the Cathedral of
Armagh, there were secular priests, so called, who served
in the Cathedral choir ; and their president or chanter,
elected by them and confirmed by the Archbishop, was
called the Prior of the Colidei. There was a Prior of
Colidei at Cluan-Inis, county of Monaghan, and one at
Devenish, county of Fermanagh. Also in the reign of
Althelstan, A.D. 925-929, the ministers of the Cathedral
of Saint Peter's at York were called Colidei ; and Saint
Peter's Hospital, York, was founded by them, in the
reign of William the Conqueror, about the year 10SO. :i
For several centuries after the introduction of Chris-
tianity, both in England and Ireland, abbots were
1 Hector Boyce (Latin Boetius}, historian, was born at Dundee in
1465. He wrote the Lives of the Bishops of Aberdeen, Episcoporum
Murthlacensium et Aberdonensium Vita, 4., 1522, reprinted for the
members of the Bannatyne Club, 4<>., Edin., 1825. His principal work
is his History of Scotland, Scotorum Histories, first published in 1527,
folio, and republished in Paris, 1574.
3 Abbot of Bangor. His Histona Britonum comes down to the
year 655.
3 ' History and Antiquities of Ireland, ' by Sir James Ware, trans.
Harris, vol. ii. part i. p. 236. Dublin, 1764. Also Register of Saint
Peter's Hospital, hi Cottonian Library.
TERRA INCOGNITA.
! v r and governed their
frequently appointed bishop a com ^ unities ? bich
dioceses as wel 1 as, the reV o ^ presld edi
they had established or over changed
Some of the mona stery c hurc ^ A fi
cathedrals, and some into J a ie3 foUo wed the
as W e have ^,^686^^ nderg> which we re
particular rules o :the ^^ V Qf some other Oriental
Lsedonthatof aj*^^ their time between
monk ; and the J^^^je prayer, study, and
manual labour, chiefly apt ^Jo/ Saint Benedict
franc, Archbishop of ^ nte ^ u g aland and that of the
adopted that oi Saint Augustine.
I
EARLY BRITISH AND IRISH MONACHISM. 31
family of Kent, who had made her novitiate and re-
ceived the veil at the abbey of Chelles in France. She
was solemnly blessed abbess by Saint Theodore, Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, who, at the same time, gave the
religious habit to seventy other virgins.
The first nunnery, of which we have an authentic
account, in Ireland, is that of Kil-Liadan, founded early
in the fifth century by Saint Kieran the elder, for his
mother Liadan, near his own monastery of Saighir, in
the territory of Ely. 1 In the same century several
monasteries for females were founded by Saint Patrick.
Among these were Temple-Bride, and Temple-na-Fearta,
the Temple of Wonders, of which his sister Lupita was
first abbess, in the county of Armagh ; Glon-Bronach
and Drumcheo in Longford ; Kilaracht in Roscoinmon,
governed by his sister Athracta ; and Clon-Dubhain in
Tyrone. At the same period, the nunnery of Kilsleve,
in the county of Armagh, and that of Lin, near Carrick-
fergus, in the county of Antrim, were founded by Saint
Patrick's sister Darerca. She presided over the latter. 2
In the year 480, Saint Bridget, or Bride, patroness
of Ireland, founded her celebrated nunnery at Kildare.
It was built in an oak forest, and was thence called
Kill-dara, or the Cell of Oaks. She drew up a rule for
her nuns, and lived to see several houses of her order
flourish in Ireland.
In each succeeding century, we find monasteries for
religious women established in several parts of Ireland ;
but they do not appear to have been, by any means,
as numerously founded, in the early ages, as houses
of religious men.
Both in Britain and in Ireland, as the rules of Saint
Benedict, Saint Augustine, and other great founders
became known, they were gradually adopted by nuns
as well as monks, in substitution for their original
particular rules.
1 'Acta Sanctorum, 'Bollandi, Martii, vol. 5. p. 394.
2 Ware, ' Hist, and Antiq. of Ireland,' vol. ii. par. i., p. 269.
CHAPTER IV.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
Virtue and knowledge are endowment* greater
Than nobleness and riches ; careless heirs
May the two latter darken and expend :
But immortality attends the former,
Making man a god.
SHAKKSPEABK.
As the history of each of the ancient orders of religious
women extends over many centuries, and is closely con-
nected with the corresponding order of religious men,
which should therefore be treated of at the same time, it
would be impossible to enter into the details thereof in
a necessarily limited work such as this. It is indispen-
sable, however, that I should give a brief sketch of the
institution of each of the religious orders, as an intro-
duction to the history of the present state of the ancient
orders of nuns in these countries, and of the works in
which they are engaged.
The religious orders are generally grouped into four
great divisions the MONKS, ranging from the fourth
down to the thirteenth century ; the CANONS REGULAR,
who follow the rule of Saint Augustine, and who first
took solemn vows in the beginning of the twelfth cen-
tury ; the FBIAES, comprising nearly all the orders
founded from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century ;
and the CLERKS REGULAR, such as the Jesuits, Barna-
bites, Clerks of Somascha, Theatins, and others, insti-
tuted in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The
Lazarists or Fathers of the Mission, the Oratorians,
Italian and French, the Eudistes, the Sulpiciens, and
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 33
other similar congregations, are, strictly speaking, not
religious orders, but secular priests living in community,
and following a certain rule.
To the first three groups, correspond the ancient
orders of women ; and to the fourth, and such institutes
as the Lazarists and others just mentioned, may be
compared the various congregations of nuns of later
times.
In the first group the MONKS, 1 properly so called
we have :
The order of Saint Basil, founded by him, in Cappa-
docia, in Asia Minor, about the year 362 : His rule has
been already referred to. 2
The Benedictine order, founded by Saint Benedict, in
Italy, in 529 : His rule, already described, 3 was con-
firmed by Pope Gregory the Great in 595. The Benedic-
tine habit is a loose gown of black stuff reaching down to
the heels, with a cowl or hood of the same, and a scapular.
Under this, is another habit of white flannel. Prom
their habit, the Benedictines were sometimes called
black monks. Writers of all creeds are loud in their
praise of the services of this great order, which has, now
for over twelve centuries, in its various developments of
Benedictines, Cluniacs, Cistercians, Maurists, and others,
effected so much for learning and Christian civilization.
This order flourished especially in England. Its intro-
duction into the country is ascribed by Mabillon, Sir
Henry Spelman, Camden, and Selden, to as early a
period as 596, 4 and, although the fact is not alluded to
by Bede, some writers are of opinion that the Abbey of
Westminster, founded by Sebert, king of the East
Saxons, in 616, was, from the commencement, occupied
by Benedictines. From the Norman Conquest down to
1 Monk, from the Greek novaxfc, fj.6t>os, alone, solitary. In the com-
mencement they were solitaries, each dwelling in his own hermitage.
Saint Antony was the first to assemble them in monasteries, in Egypt,
in the early part of the fourth century, when they were governed by
abbots, and lived by rule.
8 Supra, p. 10. 3 Supra, p. 14. * Vide supra, p. 25.
TERRA INCOGNITA.
fJttSfyfsu _,
in England, were Be nedictm e. ^ ^ ^^
monks o un. This order became widely
d in the middle of the twelfth century numbered ott
two thousand houses in France, England, Italy German .
Poland, Spain, and the East. It was introduced into
England, in 1077, where it had twenty-seven piu
^The o S rder of Calmaldoli, uniting the cenobitic and
eremitical life, and austerely modifying the rule of S
Benedict, founded by Saint Bomuald, Abbot of Calmal-
doli near Arezzo in Tuscany, in the year 1
Abbey was built in a large valley, given to Saint
Rornualdby a nobleman named Maldoli, and hence it
was called Calmaldoli, a contraction of Campo Maldoli,
or the tield of MaldolL
The order of Vallis Umbrosa, founded in the vali
of that name, in the diocese of Fiesoli, in Tuscany, by
Saint John Gualbert, Abbot, in 1070 ; following t
primitive austere rule of Saint Benedict, with some new
constitutions added : It was approved of, the same year,
by Pope Alexander II.
The order of the Carthusians, founded by Saint Bruno,
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 35
in the desert of Chartreuse, ten miles north of Grenoble,
in the year 1085 : This is the most austere of all the
religious orders. ' The Carthusians,' says Voltaire,
' entirely consecrate their time to fasting, silence, soli-
tude, and prayer ; perfectly quiet in the midst of a
tumultuous world, the noise of which scarcely ever
reaches their ears ; knowing their respective sovereigns
no otherwise than by the prayers in which their names
are inserted.' The rule, which is original, adopts some
of the constitutions of Saint Benedict. It was confirmed
by Pope Alexander III., in 1174. 1 All the convents of
the order are called Chartreuses. The Charter House,
in London, formerly a Carthusian monastery, is a cor-
ruption of the word. The order was introduced into
England about the year 1181, the number of its houses
in the country being nine.
The Cistercians, or Bernardines, another branch of
the Benedictines, founded by Saint Kobert, Abbot of
Molesme, in the forest of Cistercium, or Citeaux, in the
diocese of Chalons, about fifteen miles from Dijon, in the
year 1098, and approved of by Pope Pascal II., in 1100 :
This order observes the Benedictine rule in its primitive
austerity. The third abbot of Citeaux, Saint Stephen
Harding, an Englishman of high family and large estate,
greatly extended the order. He gave it a rule, in which
he made some additions to the constitutions of Saint
Benedict, called Charitatis Charts, and confirmed by
Pope Calixtus II., in 1119. In the year 1113, Saint
Stephen received, as a novice, the great Saint Bernard,
tlte most illustrious of the Cistercians, and afterwards
abbot of Clairvaux. Bernard was accompanied by thirty
noblemen and gentlemen, including his four brothers,
who all received the religious habit at the same time. 2
1 Subsequently, several new statutes were added by general chapters
of the order, and a complete code was drawn up, which constitutes the
Carthusian Rule, as 'confirmed by Pope Innocent XI., in 1688.
1 Saint Bernard was the third son of Tescelin and Alice, members
of two of the noblest families of Burgundy, and both related to the
sovereign dukes. He was born in 1091, at the Chateau of Fontaines,
36 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The most austere reformation of the order is that of La
Trappe, a monastery situated in Le Perche, on the con-
fines of Normandy, founded in 1140, by Rotrou, Comte
du Perche. This reformation was instituted, in 1664,
by the celebrated John le Bouthillier de Rancd The
monks observe perpetual silence, never even looking at
strangers, who may visit the abbey. They never write
to their friends after their profession. When the parent
of one of the monks dies, the abbot merely notifies the
fact generally to the community, without mentioning
the name, and asks their joint prayers for the deceased.
They are completely dead to the world. No doubt,
some of my readers have visited the Irish Trappist
abbey of Mount Melleray, near Cappoquin, and must
have been struck with the air of mortification and de-
votion of the inmates. Here, the monks teach a large
primary school ; and receive the clergy and laity who
desire to make spiritual retreats. Before the dissolution,
the Cistercians had eighty-five houses in England, the
order having been introduced in the year 1128, their
first house being at Waverley, in Surrey. In Ireland,
there were forty houses of men, and two of women.
The order of Fontevrault, founded in the year 1099,
by Saint Robert of Arbrissel, in the great monastery of
Fontevrault, in Poitou : It followed the rule of Saint
Benedict, with strict enclosure, perpetual silence, and
total abstinence from flesh meat, even in time of sick-
ness. It was composed of monks and nuns, and was
governed by an abbess in chief, who nominated the
near Dijon, a lordship belonging to hia father. When Bemud and
his four brothers were about to enter the auetere abbey of Citeaux,
and there embrace the monastic life, on taking leave of their father at
Fontaines, as they passed out, they saw their younger brother, Nivard, 1
playing with other children in the court-yard 'Adieu, my little
br ,, t ! ier ;'wt id ^ Uy the eldest ' ' y u wiU k* " our ** * your-
self/ <Wha !' replied the boy, 'you then take heaven for your
portion, and leave me only the earth. The division Ls too unequal.' 1
In the course of time, he followed hia brothers, ao that, of the whole
family there remained in the world only their father, and their .iiter
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 37
abbots of the houses of men. The first abbess was
Herlande of Champagne, a near relative of the Duke of
Brittany. Among her successors in the office, were
fourteen princesses, of whom five were of the royal
family of Bourbon. This was a most flourishing order.
It was taken under the special protection of the Holy
See, by Pope Pascal II., in 1106.
The order of Grandmont,. so named from a desert in
the neighbourhood of Limoges, founded by Saint Stephen,
Abbot, about 1120 : The rule, drawn up by the founder,
and approved of by Urban III., in 1186, prescribes strict
poverty, obedience, and the most rigorous fasts. It was
mitigated by Innocent IV., in 1247, and again by
Clement V., in 1309. In the introduction, Saint
Stephen reminds his followers, that * the Gospel is the
rule of rules, and the origin of all monastic rules, which
are but streams derived from this source, where all
means of arriving at Christian perfection are pointed
out.' The habit is the same as that of the Benedictines.
In 1128, this order came to England, where it had three
houses Abberbury in Shropshire, Cressewal in Here-
fordshire, and Grosmont or Eskdale in Yorkshire.
The order of Celestines, founded at Mount Magella,
near Perugia, by Saint Peter Celestine, afterwards Pope,
in 1274 : The monks followed the rule of Saint Bene-
dict in its primitive austerity.
The second group is that of the CANONS EEGULAR,
who live in community, take vows, and follow a rule
embodying the greater part of the constitutions of Saint
Augustine.
It may be well here to trace the origin and history of
the Canons Eegular. We learn from tradition, that,
from the time of the Ascension of Our Lord, the
Apostles and Disciples lived in common in Jerusalem,
and regarded each other as brethren, and the priests
and deacons ordained by them in the several towns
lived there in common, on the alms and offerings of
the faithful, under the rule of their bishops. It is
TERRA INCOGNITA.
no less certain that, notwithstanding the persecutions
by which the Church was afflicted during the first
three centuries the priests and deacons formed a
co lege in each town? and, if they were unable to
live In common, they received every month a portion
of the revenues of the Church for their support, which
they called dirisio mensurna, and from which they
wen
named fratres sportulantes. 1
Towards the close of the fourth century, bamt
Augustine who was elected Bishop of Hippo in the
year 395, re-established living in community amon
the clergy of the East, and he gave his clergy a Ml
ticular rule. From about this time, we find the ciKjr
who so lived in common, and followed a rule, called
Canons, in the East. They were so named from the
Greek KU.VWV, which signifies a rule, a pension or portion,
and a catalogue, which three meanings were equally
applicable to Canons, inasmuch as they followed *
rule, they received a portion or pension for their
services in the particular churches to which they
were severally attached, and their names were in-
scribed in the catalogues or registers of their respec-
tive churches. The cloisters were built for their use.
Although mention is made of Clerks-Canons in the
acts of the first Council of Nice, which assembled in
the year 325, it was only in the sixth century that
the name of Canon began to be generally used in the
West. The first instance we have of Canons living
in community in the West is that of the Canons
established in his episcopal city by Baudiu, Bishop of
Tours, as recorded by Saint Gregory, who succeeded
him in that see in 573. Saiut Chrodegang, Bishop
of Metz, who lived about the middle of the eighth
century, also re- established the common life of Canons
in his diocese, and gave them a rule, which was ap-
proved of and received by many provincial councils.
1 From the Latin tportula, a pannier or basket, or a small portion of
food or money distributed.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 39
Hence he is generally regarded as the insti tutor of
Canons in the West.
From that period, we find frequent mention made of
them in the proceedings of Councils, which were, from
time to time, engaged in providing for their regulation.
In the tenth century, besides the Cathedral chapters, 1
there were established others in towns which had no
bishops, and these were called Collegial chapters. In
the course of time, these latter greatly increased, and
were to be found even in many episcopal towns.
In the years 1059 and 1063, the Councils of Rome,
under Nicholas II. and Alexander II. respectively,
ordered the clergy to resume living in community,
which the greater part of them had abandoned ; and
the result was that, for about a century, community
life was generally adopted.
But, about the year 1200, the living in common was
discontinued, and the Canons were authorized to divide
the prebends among themselves. This is the present
state of all Canons, Cathedral and Collegial. They live
separately, and each Canon receives his share of the
prebend, in consideration of his assisting at the Divine
offices in the church. 2
From the twelfth century, the Cathedral and Collegial
Canons, having ceased to live in common, were dis-
tinguished from Canons who lived in community and
followed a rule the former being called Canons, and
the latter Canons Regular. 3
The Canons Regular commenced taking solemn vows
1 Chapters of Canons are ordinarily composed of certain dignitaries,
such as the Dean, or the Provost, the Chanter or Precentor, the Arch-
deacon, and a certain number of Canons.
3 Prebend (Italian prebcnda, French prebende, from the Latin prabeo,
to afford, to allow), the stipend or maintenance granted or allowed out
of the estate of a cathedral or Collegial church. In Great Britain and
Ireland no emolument of this kind is received by Canons in the Catholic
Church. They join in the great functions of the Church to which
they are attached, but without receiving any special remuneration
their office being merely honorary.
3 From the Latin reyula t a rule.
40 TERRA INCOGNITA.
about the beginning of the twelfth century, and almost
all adopted the rule of Saint Augustine. Indeed, they
were ordered to subject themselves to this rule, by the
second Council of Lateran, presided over by Innocent IL,
in 1139. There are some, however, who follow other
particular rules.
Their discipline is less rigid than that of the monks.
Their habit is a long black cassock, and a white rochet,
and over that a black cloak and hood. The monks were
always shaved; but these Canons wore beards, and caps
on their heads. There are communities of women of the
same institute, called Cauonesses. Of both, there were
in England one hundred and seventy-five houses before
the dfssolution ; and two hundred and sixty-three in
Ireland.
As the Benedictine was the order which formerly
flourished most in England, so in Ireland the prevalent
rule was that of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine,
from amongst whom, for a long period, the great
majority of the Irish bishops and rectors of parishes
were chosen.
The Canons Regular comprise :
The Canons of Saint Victor, so called from their prin-
cipal house, the abbey of Saint Victor in Paris, founded
by King Louis VI. in 1113 : William of Champeaux,
archdeacon of Paris, master of the famous Abelard, re-
tired to this abbey with some companions, in the com-
mencement of the twelfth century, and embraced the life
of Canons Regular. Their institute rapidly spread and
nourished. In Ireland it formerly numbered seven houses.
The order of Premonstrateusians, founded by Saint
Norbert, in the valley of Premontre, in the forest of
Coucy, in the department of Aisne, in 1121 -.The
founder gave them the rule of Saint Augustine, in its
primitive austerity. They wore a white cassock and
rochet, a long white cloak and a white cap. They
were called White Canons in England, where they had
thirty-five houses before the suppression, having beeu
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 41
introduced in 1140. There were eight houses in
Ireland.
The Gilbertines, founded by Saint Gilbert, an Eng-
lishman, at Sempringham, in Lincolnshire, in 1150,
and approved of by Pope Eugenius III. : It was an
order for nuns as well as monks. The nuns followed
the rule of Saint Benedict ; and the monks, that of the
Canons Regular of Saint Augustine. The founder had
always at table a dish, on which he put the best of
whatever was served up. It was called 'the plate of
the Lord Jesus,' and was given to the poor.
The Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, whose institution
and history may be more fully referred to here :
From the earliest infancy of the Church, as might
naturally have been expected, religious men were set
apart, to watch over the places sanctified by the pre-
sence, sufferings, and death of Our Lord, ami to minister
there. Thus, we learn from tradition, that certain
priests were appointed for this purpose by the Apostle
Saint James the Just, who was elected Bishop of Jeru-
salem in the year 34. On the cessation of the cruel
persecution which raged against the infant Church,
these religious men built a temple close to the Holy
Sepulchre. This was the origin of what, in the course
of time, became the order of the Canons of the Holy
Sepulchre, or, as they were sometimes called, of the
Ascension of Our Lord.
In the year 70, Jerusalem was taken by the Roman
Emperor Titus, and reduced to a heap of ruins. How-
ever, the Jews restored some portion of the city, and
continued to dwell there, with the Christians, until the
year 135 ; when, having twice revolted against the
Romans, they were expelled from Judea by the Em-
peror Adrian, and Jerusalem was, once again, reduced
to ruins. Three years later, the Emperor rebuilt the
city, under the name of ^Elia Capitolina ; * and, in order
1 The city waa named ^lia Capitolina, in honour of the Emperor
J31iu3 Adriacus, and Jupiter Capitolinus.
42 TERRA INCOGNITA.
to disperse the Christians as well as the Jews, he not
only erected a temple of Jupiter Capitolinus oil the site
of the aucient Temple of God, but he placed an idol of
Venus on Calvary, and one of Jupiter above the Sepul-
chre of Our Lord. This state of desecration continued
until the year 327, when, the Emperor Constantine
having been converted to Christianity, his pious mother,
the Empress Helena, visited Jerusalem, to venerate the
holy places, discovered the true cross, on which Our
Saviour suffered, and raised a magnificent church over
His tomb. From thenceforward, pilgrims from all
quarters flocked, every year, to the Holy City, and reli-
gious houses of men and women were established on
the spots sanctified by the footsteps and sufferings of
the world's Redeemer. In the year 451, Jerusalem was
declared a patriarchate by the Council of Chalcedou.i
presided over by Saint Leo the Great.
In the early part of the seventh century, the Sara-
cens, having invaded the great Eastern Empire, and
detached therefrom the provinces of Egypt, Syria, and
Palestine, occupied the Holy City, established therein
the religion of Mahomet, and converted its churches
and oratories into mosques. From that period, Chris-
tian pilgrimages were tolerated, and the Christian in-
habitants of Jerusalem were permitted to follow their
own religious practices under their patriarch, their
treatment varying according to the dispositions of the
several caliphs, until the conquest of Palestine by the
Turks in 1063. Thenceforward, the pilgrims and
Christian inhabitants were so grossly insulted, op-
pressed, and plundered, that the patriarchs, from time
to time, appealed to the Popes, and, through them, to
the princes of the West, for aid and protection. Hence,
with the sanction of the Church, the Crusades were
undertaken.
On the conquest of Jerusalem in 1099, one of the
first acts of the gallant Godfrey de Bouillon was to con-
1 Session 7.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 43
vert into a Christian Cathedral the mosque of Omar,
which that caliph had built, in 637, on Mount Moriah,
the site of the ancient Jewish Temple. He also restored
the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, who had been ex-
pelled by the Infidels. These canons wore a double
red cross on their habit, and were under the immediate
jurisdiction of the patriarch of Jerusalem. They
flourished especially under the rule of the Latin Kings,
and are spoken of as follows by an ancient writer :
' Four orders of Cross-bearers derive their origin from
Jerusalem : the Canons of the Holy Sepulchre of Our
Lord, who were first under the patriarch ; the military
order of Saint John, now of Ehodes ; the order of Tem-
plars ; and the Teutonic order. The first named claim
their descent from Saint James, son of Alpheus, brother
of Our Lord. 1 They wear on their habit a double cross
of red silk, and live under the rule of Saint Augus-
tine/ 2
On the re-conquest of Jerusalem by the Sultan Sala-
din, and the fall of the Latin kingdom, A.D. 1187, the
Canons of the Holy Sepulchre, although greatly reduced
in numbers, were still enabled to hold their ground ;
but, one hundred years later, on the expulsion of the
Saracens by the Turks, they were obliged altogether to
withdraw, and they divided themselves among the
several houses which the order then possessed in diffe-
rent countries of Europe. 3
It was about the year 1123, that the Canons of the
Holy Sepulchre were introduced into England, where
they were sometimes called Canons of the Holy Cross.
Some of the Crusaders, on their return home to Eng-
land, having spoken in high terms of the exemplary
lives of these canons in Palestine, Henry de Newburgb,
1 According to the usage of the Jews, the word ' brethren ' extended
to all near relations.
1 Chronica D. Johannis Naucleri, p. 809. Colouise, 1579.
3 Since the year 1287, the Turks have held possession of Jerusalem.
At the request of the Christian princes, they have ever since allowed a
few Franciscan Friars to remain there, as guardians of the holy places.
TERRA INCOGNITA.
on the north side of ee
1123, it was continued by 8on twQ ^ Q{
,
- church of the
d Virgin Mary, near the church of the
on of Ou? Lrd. V was called the church
oXy of the Latins ; and therein they instituted
a Latin abbot and monks. In the course ot time out-
side the enclosure of the monastery, the Latins estab-
iahed a convent in honour of Saint Mary Magdalen a
instituted sisters therein; m order that both male and
female pilgrims might receive hospitality. A short time
afterwards! the abbot and monks of Saint Mary . con-
structed the hospital and chapel of Saint John, for the BSt
of the sick and pilgrims. This hospital was suPPOTtedlj
what remained from the table of the monastery, iron
their hospital, the monks were called Hospitallers. In tne
year 1104, in the reign of Baldwin I., king of Jerusalem
they became an order of Military Knights, adding fc
three ordinary vows a fourth vow, to defend pilgrims
from the insults and attacks of the Saracens. They
wore a white cross with eight points sewed on the te\
breast of their cloak or coat, which was black. Inis
cross was worn by those who were professed. Befc
profession, they wore a gold cross with eight points,
enamelled with white, hanging by a black ribbon. Once
professed, having taken the religious vows, the knights
were debarred from marrying. They might, in their
own discretion, defer taking the vows ; and a knight
jarely took them until he was sure of a cornmandery.
THE AXCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 45
Some few of the order were priests. They followed the
rule of Saint Augustine. The order was confirmed by
Pope Honorius II.
Saladin having re-conquered Jerusalem in 1187, thus
terminating the rule of the Latin Kings, which had
lasted eighty-nine years, the knights retired to Acre,
but were driven thence by the Saracens in 1291. On
this, they settled in Cyprus, until 1310, when they took
Ehodes from the Saracens. They were driven out of
Rhodes by Solyman II., in 1522, after a gallant defence ;
and were given the island of Malta by Charles V., in
1530. The Knights of Malta were obliged to prove that
they were of noble descent for four generations both by
the father's and mother's side, and to pay two hundred
and fifty crowns in gold into the treasury of the order.
They constituted the first class, and from their number
was chosen the Grand Master, elected by the whole
body. The second class were the priests, immediately
under the Bishop of Malta and the prior of the conven-
tual church of Saint John. The third class were the ser-
vatis d'armes, or fighting squires, also of noble birth.
Formerly the order had seven nations, or languages,
namely, France, Provence, Auvergue, Italy, Germany,
Aragon, and England. The English division, suppressed
by Henry VIII., was replaced by the Anglo-Bavarian.
Each nation had several grand priories, and each priory
several commanderies. This order rendered good and
gallant service in former times, in keeping the Saracens
in check, and protecting and defending Christian popu-
lations, and pilgrims to the Holy Land. Within fifty
years after its institution, it had become a powerful and
wealthy order, through the favour of princes and the
contributions of the people, and possessed extensive
manors and houses in all parts of Christendom.
It was about the year 1100, that the Knights of Saint
John of Jerusalem came to England, when a house was
built for them in London. Their English Provincial, at
one time, had a seat in the House of Lords. In Ireland,
46 TERRA INCOGNITA.
they had twenty-two houses, established in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries. Of these, nine had belonged
to the Templars.
On the conquest of Malta 1 by Napoleon I., m 1/98,
the knights retired to Russia. Thus, the order became
virtually extinct, as a powerful organization.
The Knights Templar, instituted by Hugh de Paganes,
Geoffrey de St. Omer, and seven other gentlemen, at
Jerusalem in 1118. They derived their name from the
house given them by Baldwin II., which stood near the
site of the ancient temple of Solomon. Their objects were
the defence of the Holy Sepulchre, and the protection
of pilgrims, flocking from all quarters to Jerusalem. This
order was approved of in 1127 by Pope Honorius II.
By permission of Eugenius III., the knights affixed red
crosses to their cloaks, which were white. They came
to England in the beginning of the reign of King
Stephen, their first house being in Holboni. This be-
came a most wealthy and powerful order. Correspond-
iug to the commanderies, or houses, each governed by a
' commander,' of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem,
were the preceptories of the Templars, governed seve-
rally by the preceptors, ' Preceptores Templi,' appointed
by the Grand Master. For abuses and treason, and
conspiracies with the infidels, the Templars were sup-
pressed by Pope Clement V. and the General Council of
Vienne, in 1312.
The Teutonic Knights of the Blessed Virgin Mary of
Jerusalem : When the Holy City, after its liberation by
the Crusaders, was inhabited by Christians, and many
Germans went thither, through devotion, a German of
noble birth, resident in Jerusalem, opened there an
hospital for German poor and pilgrims, and, by permis-
sion of the Patriarch, added an oratory dedicated to the
Blessed Virgin Mary. Certain Germans renounced the
1 Malta was taken possession of by England in 1800, and held by her
until the treaty of Paris in 1814, when it was definitively annexed to
the British Crown.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 47
world and joined him, devoting themselves and their
goods to the hospital. Choosing voluntary poverty for
God's sake, they deemed it right to assume the rule and
institutes of the Templars, which they so modified as
not to omit their duties of hospitality.
Afterwards, at the siege of Acre, in 1191, certain citizens
of Bremen and Lubeck erected an hospital of tents for
the sick and wounded, in honour of the Blessed Virgin ;
and, in return for the services they rendered, and at
their request, Frederick Duke of Suabia obtained for
them, from Pope Celestine III., A.D. 1192, the confirma-
tion of the order of the Hospitallers of the Blessed
Virgin Mary of Jerusalem, of which they were members,
and its endowment with suitable privileges. From that
time forward, it became a military order of Knights, of
noble birth, bound to fight against the infidels, and in
defence of Christianity ; and it was governed by a Grand
Master, of noble birth, and skilled in war. It held large
possessions in various countries, and was ' equal in power
to kings.' l The knights wore a white cloak, on which
was a black cross.
There were some priests of this, as of the other mili-
tary orders.
The rule of these military orders is founded on the
constitutions of the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine.
The order of Trinitarians, founded by Saint John
of Matha, and Saint Felix of Valois, in 1198, and ap-
proved of by Pope Innocent III., the same year : The
object of this order was the redemption of Christians in
slavery under the Moors. Their habit was white, with
a red and blue cross. They came to England in the
year 1224, their first house being at Mottendan in Kent.
They had formerly several houses in England and Scot-
land, and one in Ireland, that of Adare, founded in the
thirteenth century. In England, they were sometimes
called Red Friars ; and in France, Mathurins, from the
church of Saint Mathurin, their first house in Paris.
1 Chronica D. Johannis Naucleri, p. 810, Colonise, 1579.
43 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The rule is that of the Canons Regular of Saint Augus-
tine with some modifications. The great works accom-
plished by this and the following order will be found
^Ur touf sed Lady of Mercy for the
Redemption of Captives, founded in Spam by Saint
Peter Nolasco, in 1223, and approved of by Pope Gregory
IX in 1235 : The rule is that of Saint Augustine, mo-
dified to meet the ends of the institute. To the ordinary
vows was added a fourth vow, to take the place of a
captive, if there were no other means of effecting his
ransom. The order originally consisted of kn
whose duty it was to defend the coasts against the
Saracens, and of priests, who attended the choir. The
brothers who went, two together, among the infidels to
redeem captives, were called Ransomers. Peter was one
of these. He was also the first General or Commander.
He and the first six who succeeded him in this office
were knights ; after which it was ordered by the Holy
See that the general should always be a priest. This
was in the year 1317, and thenceforward the knights
were incorporated in other military orders.
The third group is that of the FitiAiis, Freres, Frati,
Brothers, or religious mendicants, comprising the orders
founded from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century.
These are :
The Carmelites, whose rule dates from 1209 :
The Carmelite order is so called from Carmel, a moun-
tain in Syria, on which formerly dwelt Elias and Eliseus.
This order claims an origin of very remote antiquity,
affirming that, from the days of Elias, their institutor,
about 900 years before Christ, there was an uninter-
rupted succession of hermits dwelling on Mount Carmel,
that they, having embraced Christianity early, were
among the first disciples of Saint John the Baptist, and
that, having extended all over the East, they continued
1 See Index ; ' Trinitarians,' and ' Mercy, Order of, for the TTiikap
tion of Captives.'
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDEKS. 49
their succession down to the commencement of the
thirteenth century, when they received their rule, and
introduced their order into Europe.
The first rule on record, as .given to this order, was
that which the Hermits of Mount Carmel received from
Albert, Patriarch of Jerusalem, in 1209. This rule,
chiefly founded on that of Saint Basil, was approved of
by Pope Honorius III., in 1224, and confirmed, with
some additions and mitigations, by Innocent IV., in
1246. It is comprised in ten articles. The first treats
of holy obedience, and styles the local superior Prior. Tho
second has reference to the buildings. The third enjoins
the Canonical Office. The fourth treats of holy poverty ;
and the fifth, of prayer and the holy sacrifice of the
Mass. The sixth has reference to Chapter (an assembly
of the community at stated times), for salutary instruc-
tion and correction of faults. The seventh enjoins fast-
ing (except on Sundays), from the feast of the Exalta-
tion of the Holy Cross till Easter, unless weakness, or
illness, or some other just cause prevent it; as also
abstinence from flesh meat, unless it is ordered as a
remedy for sickness or weakness. There is under this
head a remarkable dispensation, on account, probably,
of the long voyages which the first Carmelites that
visited Europe were obliged to make, and the consequent
difficulty of their obtaining meagre diet ; namely, per-
mission to use flesh meat when at sea. The eighth rule
has reference to spiritual arms, holy chastity, purity of
intention, love of God, &c. The ninth treats of labour
and the employment of time ; and the tenth, of silence.
Under this head, the observance of silence throughout
the day is enjoined, but especially from Complin till
Prime of the day following, during which time not even
superiors speak, unless from absolute necessity. Under
the constitutions of Saint Teresa, the rule of silence is
dispensed with, during the two hours of recreation, one
after dinner and the other after collation or supper.
In the year 1229, the Carmelite friars were compelled,
50 TERRA INCOGNITA.
by the depredations of the Saracens, to leave Syria ;
and they settled in Cyprus, Sicily, England, France and
other countries. The order was introduced into England
by Sir John de Vescy, baron of Alnwick m Northum-
berland, and Richard Lord Gray of Coduor, according to
some historians, in 1240, and some, as early as 1
Their first foundation was at Alnwick, and, m a short
time, they were also established in Aylesford, London,
Oxford, and other places. Saint Louis founded a con-
vent of the order in Paris in 1259, and this became the
mother house of several others in France and Germany.
But in no country has the order nourished so much as
in England, where it formerly numbered forty houses.
The Carmelites were introduced into Ireland also,
about the middle of the thirteenth century. The Dublin
house of White Friars was founded in 1274. There
were also houses at Leighlin-bridge, Ardee, Thurles,
Drogheda, Gahvay, and Kildare, established about the
same period. There were altogether twenty houses of
Carmelites in Ireland.
Saint Simon Stock, an Englishman of good family in
Kent, was chosen sixth general of the order in a general
chapter held at Aylesford in 1245. He greatly pro-
moted the extension of the institute. At his request, its
rule was confirmed by Pope Innocent IV. in 1246 ; and
six years later the order was received by the same pon-
tiff under the special protection of the Holy See.
Saint Teresa's reform, introduced amongst the Car-
melite nuns, in 1562, which we shall presently notice,
was immediately carried out in several of the communi-
ties of Carmelite friars, by Father Antony of Jesus and
Saint John of the Cross.
It may be well to observe here, that, as the greater
part of the ancient orders have, from time to time,
undergone reforms, or, in other words, been brought
back to the strict observance of their original rule,
which either had been mitigated, with the approval of
the Holy See, or from which they had gradually fallen
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 51
away in the long lapse of years, the original and the re-
formed have been always considered as two distinct
orders : that is, the latter has been regarded as a new
order, of course subject to the approval of the Pope.
Thus, certain members of an order will desire to follow
the strict observance of the rule of the founder, which
has been mitigated, or modified, and will, with the con-
sent of their superiors, proceed to carry out their views
in separate monasteries ; whilst, again, others, whose
bodily and mental constitutions are unsuited to a life of
such extreme austerity, will prefer remaining as they are.
Both, being approved of by the Holy See, are thence-
forward distinct orders, the new institute taking a new
name.
Such, for instance, were the monks of Cluni, the Cis-
tercians, and other reforms of the great Benedictine
order, above enumerated, all constituting distinct orders,
and approved of, each respectively, by the Pope of the
day.i
The Carmelites are now divided into two main
branches ; those of the ancient observance, called the
Grand Carmelites or Mitigated Carmelites, because the
austerity of their rule was mitigated by Innocent IV.,
Eugene IV., and Pius II. ; and those of strict observance,
the Discalced or Barefooted Carmelites, who follow the
reform of Saint Teresa. These latter were again divided
into two congregations, those of Spain and Italy, by
Clement VIII, in 1600.
The Carmelite habit, as defined at a general chapter
held at Montpellier in 1287, is a brown gown, scapular,
and hood, and over this an ample cape and hood of white.
In these countries they were called White Friars.
1 Mosheim and other writers say that it is more correct to call such
institutes congregations not orders ; inasmuch as they are congrega-
tions of the great Benedictine order. This may have been the case
originally ; but, in the course of time, they became quite separate and
distinct orders, severally governed by their own generals, and follow-
ing constitutions which considerably modified the original rule of Saint
Benedict.
52 TERRA INCOGNITA.
As the first religious men of this order were hei
living under the direction of a superior, a rule was
made" amongst the Discalced Carmelites, that m each
province 1 there should be one monastery, to which
should be attached a hermitage, or desert, to which cer-
tain members of the order should be permitted to retire,
from time to time, in order to practise the virtues of the
eremitical life, and thus revive their monastic fervour.
These hermitages were, as far as practicable, established
in forests. In them strict silence was observed, and great
austerity was practised. Not more than twenty persons
were allowed to reside in one of these hermitages at a
time ; and admittance into them was denied to novices,
young professed members, and those in delicate health. 2
The Carmelite order, both male and female, is, as we
have seen, essentially contemplative. However, in de-
ference to the wishes of the bishops, in these countries,
it combines, in several of its communities, the active
with the contemplative life, chiefly in supplying the
educational wants of the poorer classes ; and, in such
cases, there is necessarily a modification or mitigation
of the rule.
The Franciscans, or Friars Minor, founded by Saint
Francis of Assisium, in 1209 : The rule which he gave
them was approved of by Innocent III., hi 1210, and
confirmed by Honorius III., in 1223. One of the prin-
cipal articles of this rule is absolute poverty, or the vow
to possess nothing, either individually or in common,
1 A province comprises all the houses of a religious order fal
country, such aa the English province, the Irish, the French, Ac.
The communities of each province are governed by a provincial,
through whom they are connected with the general of the order, who
resides in Rome. The provincial is elected or appointed for three
years ; the general for life.
* In all religious communities, whether of monks or nuns, betide*
the ordinary daily meditation and other spiritual exercise*, there U a
'retreat' made by all the members, at least once a year, under the
direction of an experienced ecclesiastic, with a view to a renewal of
their fervour in the exact discharge of the duties and obligations of
their state of life. As a rule, similar retreats are made, annually, bf
the secular clergy.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 53
but to live on alms. Holy poverty was the favourite
virtue of the founder, whose idea at first was, that he
and his brethren should withdraw altogether from the
world, and commune only with God. But ere long he
felt persuaded that his order should preach penance,
both by word and example. The Franciscan order was,
in the course of time, subdivided into Conventuals, and
Observantins, or Friars of the Eegular Observance the
former living in great convents, and, with the leave of
their generals and the Popes, mitigating their rule, by
admitting rents and foundations, and the latter dwell-
ing in hermitages or in very poor houses. The principal
Observantins are those established by Saint Bernardin
of Sienna, in 1419 ; the French Observantins, called
Cordeliers, from the cord they wear round the waist ;
the Recollects, or Grey Friars, established by F. John
of Guadalupe, in Spain, in 1500 ; the Capuchins, by F.
Matthew de Baschi, in Tuscany, in 1525 now quite a
distinct order; and the bare-footed Franciscans of
Strictest Observance, instituted by Saint Peter of Alcan-
tara, in 1555. The Conventuals and Observantins con-
stitute the First Order of Saint Francis. The Second
Order of Saint Francis is that of the nuns called Poor
Clares, which will be described further on. The Third
Order, or Tertiaries, was originally instituted by Saint
Francis, for lay people of both sexes, married or single,
living in the world, who wish to lead pious lives, under
certain rules, which do not bind under sin, and which
are compatible with their secular duties. Lay associa-
tions of this kind are attached also to the Orders of the
Dominicans, Carmelites, Austin Friars, Servites, and
Minims. In the course of time, several of these lay
Tertiaries, of both sexes, formed themselves into reli-
gious congregations, living in community and binding
themselves by the three vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience. They combine the active and contemplative
life, and occupy themselves in extern works of charity.
Thus, to the several orders above mentioned, there are
54 TERRA INCOGNITA.
attached religious, as well as lay, Tertiaries. The Fran-
ciscan habit is of coarse brown cloth, with a cowl of the
same, and a cord as a girdle. Over this, is a cloak
when they go out They first came to England in 1224,
their first house being at Canterbury, and their second
in London. Their habit was then gray. Hence they
were called Gray Friars. Formerly, they had more
than eighty houses in England ; and in Ireland seventy-
nine houses of the First, and thirty-seven of the Third
Order.
The Dominicans, or religious order of Friars Preachers,
founded by Saint Dominic in 1215 : His first convent
was at Toulouse. The order was approved of by Pope
Innocent III, in the Lateran Council, A.D. 1215, and
its constitutions were confirmed by Honorius III., on
December 26, 1216. The rule is based on that of Saint
Augustine. At first, the habit given by Saint Dominic to
his religious was that of the Canons Regular of Saint
Augustine, a black soutane and a rochet ; but, about
the year 1219, it was changed to a white cassock and
hood, over which, when they go abroad, is worn a black
cloak and hood. The order was introduced into Eng-
land in 1221, when thirteen fathers arrived, Fr.
Gilbert de Fresnoy being their prior. Their first house
was at Oxford. The same year, they established their
house at Holborn, then Oldboorne. Here were held two
general chapters of the order ; those of 1250 and 1263.
At the latter was present the great Doctor, Saint
Thomas Aquinas.
Another famous house of Dominican Friars was that
which lay between the Lud Gate and the Thames, A
large enclosed piece of ground, now the site of Printing
House Square. Here were held two general chapters of
the order, those of 1314 and 1335. This house has
given the name of Blackfriars to the district.
In 1224, the order was introduced into Ireland by one
of the above-named thirteen fathers, Fr. Reginald, an
Irishman, and afterwards Archbishop of Armagh. At
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 55
the dissolution, there were forty-three houses of Domi-
nican Friars in England, and forty in Ireland. They
were called Black Friars in these countries.
The Austin Friars, or Hermits : This order, which
existed extensively in Africa, following the rule of Saint
Augustine, by whom it was founded in 388, was dis-
persed by the invasion of the Vandals, in the fifth cen-
tury. It was, however, re-established in Europe ; and
its scattered congregations were united in one religious
order, under their general, Lanfranc, by Pope Alexander
IV., in 1256. Its present rule was drawn up in 1287.
The Reformed Austin Friars, discalced or barefooted,
and practising great austerities, were instituted by Father
Thomas of Jesus, in Portugal, in 1532. There were
thirty-two houses of Austin Friars in England, at the dis-
solution, under Henry VIII., and twenty-four in Ireland.
With this order may be grouped the Hermits of Saint
Jerome, instituted by Saint Peter of Pisa, in 1355.
They follow the rule of Saint Augustine. Their con-
gregation was approved of by Pope Martin V, in 1421.
The Servites of Mary, so called because they profess
to be Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary : This order
was instituted by seven wealthy "Florentine merchants,
who renounced the world, in the year 1233, and retired
to Mount Senario, thirty miles from Florence, there to
lead lives of prayer and mortification. 1 They adopted
the rule of Saint Augustine. Fifteen years afterwards,
they were joined by Saint Philip Beniti, or Benizi, a
member of the noble family of that name in Florence ;
and through him, elected fifth general in 12G7, the order
was greatly amplified and extended. In 1274 Saint
Philip attended the second General Council of Lyons,
when he obtained the confirmation of his order by Pope
Gregory X., it having been previously approved of by
1 The founders were all of patrician birth, but, as was not unusual
at the period, they were engaged in commerce. Their names were
Bonfiglio Monaldi, Giovanni Manetti, Benedetto dell' Antella, Barto-
lomeo Amidei, Ricovero Lippi-Uguccioni, Gherardino Sostegni, and
Alessio Falconieri.
56 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Alexander IV. 1 Of this, as of the Franciscan and other
mendicant orders, there are three distinct subdivisions
the first order, of religious men ; the second, of nuns
who are cloistered ; and the third, of Tertiaries. Of the
last I shall treat more fully further on. The Servite
fathers effected much good, in the infancy of their
institute, by their exertions to counteract the evils
arising from the dissensions of the Guelphs and Ghibel-
lines, then desolating Tuscany.
The Minims, founded by Saint Francis of Paula, in
Calabria, in 1436 : They are Franciscan Hermits, who
follow a rule of great austerity, based on humility,
penance, and charity. The rule was approved of by
Sixtus IV., in 1474, and confirmed by Julius II., in 1506.
The founder begged of the Pope that his order might be
called Minimi, that is, ' the least in the house of God. 1
The Order of Charity, for the service of the sick,
instituted by Saint John of God, at Granada, in 1540,
approved of by Saint Pius V., in lf>70, and confirmed
by Paul V., as a religious order, in 1017 : The rule is
that of Saint Augustine. The religious take a fourth
vow, of devoting themselves to the care of the sick ot
all classes, especially the poor and the ignorant in
hospitals, and in their own homes. The founder and
his brethren used to go about the streets every day,
collecting alms for the sick, and crying out ' Do good, my
brethren, for the love of God ; ' whence in Italy they
were called Fate ben fratelU. In France they are known
as Freres de la CJtarite. They do not take Holy Orders.
The several orders in this group are the mendicant
orders, or begging friars, depending mainly for subsist-
ence on the alms of the faithful 2
* May 26th, 1255.
2 By a decree of the second General Council of Lyons in 1274, all
mendicant orders, except the four great orders of Carmelite*, FrancU-
cans, Dominicans, and Austin Friars, were abolished. Snbiequently
this rule was modified. Thus, in the fifteenth century, the ServitM
wore declared a fifth mendicant order by Martin V. and lunocent VIIL
Ihe l.anuchins, Minims, and others were also admitted.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 57
The fourth group is that of the CLERKS EEGULAR,
clergymen living in community, following a rule, and
taking vows, in order to devote themselves to the
functions of the sacred ministry, the instruction of the
people, the aiding the sick, the conducting of missions,
and other similar works. They differ in this respect
from the Canons Regular, that they are not bound to
the same fasts, abstinence, night- watchiugs, and silence :
their main obligation being, exactness in the fulfilment
of all the duties of ecclesiastics.
The Clerks Regular date from the year 152-1. The
object of their institutors was the reformation of the
morals of the people, through the revival of an apostolical
spirit in the clergy.
They comprise :
The Theatins, founded, in 1524, by Saint Cajetan of
Thienna, and John Peter Caraffa, Archbishop of Theate,
afterwards Pope Paul IV. : The order was approved of
by Clement VII., the same year. It was named after
Caraffa's diocese of Theate, the archbishop having been
chosen first general of the order. .The scope of the
institute was to revive the spirit of holiness in the
clergy, and people.
The Clerks Regular of Somascha, founded by Saint
Jerome ^Emiliani, inlo30,at Somascha, between Bergamo
and Milan : This congregation was declared a religious
order by Paul III., in 1540, and was confirmed by Saint
Pius V., in 1571, and again by Sixtus V., in 1586. It fol-
lows the rule of Saint Augustine. Its chief object is the
training of young clergymen, and the instruction of youth.
The Clerks Regular of Saint Paul, or Barnabites, so
called from the church of Saint Barnabas at Milan,
which was given to them, on their institution : This
congregation was founded in 1530, by three Italian
gentlemen of good family, Anthony Mary Zachari,
Bartholomew Ferrari, and James Anthony Morigia, It
was specially favoured by Pope Clement VII., and its
constitutions, drawn up by Zachari and examined by
58 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Saint Charles Borromeo and Cardinal Serbellini, pro-
tectors of the congregation, were approved of by Gregory
XIII. in 1579. The objects of the founders were, to form
the lives of Christians after the model of the Epistles of
Saint Paul, and to provide ministers for the confessional,
the pulpit, the education of youth in colleges and
seminaries, and the conducting of missions.
The Clerks Regular of the Society of Jesus, or the
Jesuits, instituted by Saint Ignatius of Loyola in
1540, approved of by Pope Paul III., in a bull dated
2 7th 'September of the same year, and confirmed by
several of his successors : In the rules and constitutions,
which he drew up for his society, the holy founder sets
forth the two great ends he has in view first, the sancti-
fication of the members in discharging the duties of the
active and contemplative life ; for he justly considers
the greatest help to a minister of the Gospel in saving
the souls of others is the sanctification of his own soul ;
and, secondly, the sanctification of their neighbour by the
instruction of the ignorant, the education of youth in
piety and learning, the direction of consciences, the
conducting of retreats and missions, and other similar
works. With these objects, he placed himself and his
associates at the disposal of the Pope, to be employed in
the service of the Church, wherever, or in whatever form,
His Holiness might direct. An abstract of the history
of the institution of this great order would occupy much
more space than lies at my disposal Founded at the
period of the 'Reformation,' the society proved an
invaluable bulwark of the Church against Luther and
his followers. At that time, as in our day, a wide-spread
laxity of morals prevailed in Christendom, and rendered
countless thousands but too indifferent to the creed
which they had inherited from their fathers. Then, too,
on the other hand, in various countries there arose many
holy men ; and by some of these was created that bright
galaxy of religious institutes of which we are now trac-
ing the early history. Among them stand prominently
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 59
forth the sons of Loyola, who, in the very infancy of
their order, commenced rendering to the Church those
distinguished services, and evincing that devotion to the
Apostolic See, which have ever heen their characteristics.
' In the order of Jesus was concentrated the quintessence
of the Catholic spirit,' says Lord Macaulay, ' and the
history of the order of Jesus is the history of the great
Catholic reaction. That order possessed itself at once
of all the strongholds which command the public
mind, of the pulpit, of the press, of the confessional,
of the academies. Wherever the Jesuit preached, the
church was too small for the audience. The name
of Jesuit on a title-page secured the circulation of
a book. It was in the ears of the Jesuit that the power-
ful, the noble, and the beautiful, breathed the secret
history of their lives. It was at the feet of the Jesuit
that the youth of the higher and middle classes were
brought up from childhood to manhood, from the first
rudiments to the courses of rhetoric and philosophy.
Literature and science, lately associated with infidelity
or with heresy, now became the allies of orthodoxy.
Dominant in the South of Europe, the great order soon
went forth conquering and to conquer. In spite of
oceans and deserts, of hunger and pestilence, of spies
and penal laws, of dungeons and racks, of gibbets and
quartering-blocks, Jesuits were to be found under
every disguise, and in every country ; scholars, physi-
cians, merchants, serving-men; in the hostile court
of Sweden, in the old manor-houses of Cheshire,
among the hovels of Counaught ; arguing, instructing,
consoling, stealing away the hearts of the young, ani-
mating the courage of the timid, holding up the crucifix
to the eyes of the dying.' . . . ; The Old World was not
wide enough for this strange activity. The Jesuits in-
vaded all the countries which the great maritime dis-
coveries of the preceding age had laid open to European
enterprise. They were to be found in the depths of the
Peruvian mines, at the marts of the African slave-
(JO TERRA INCOGNITA.
caravans, on the shores of the Spice Islands, in the
observatories of China. They made converts in regions
which neither avarice nor curiosity had tempted any of
their countrymen to enter ; and preached and disputed
in tongues of which no other native of the West under-
stood a word.' l It is not a matter of surprise, then,
that the enemies of the Catholic Church should bit-
terly inveigh against the Jesuits, and that, whenever
she is assailed, whether by calumny or brute force, she
should he struck at through those who are ever fore-
most amongst her most able and devoted champions and
defenders.
The Clerks Regular, Minors, instituted in 1588, at
Xaples, by John Augustin Adorno, a Genoese gentle-
man, and his friends Augustin and Francis Caraccioli :
The congregation was approved of, and its constitutions
were confirmed by Saint Pius V. in 1605. Its object
was, as with the other Clerks Regular, the exact ful-
filment of all the duties of the ecclesiastical state.
The Clerks Regular, Assisting the Sick, founded in
Rome by St Camillus do Lelis, in 1584 : They were
approved of, as a congregation, by Pope Sixtus V., in
1586, and erected into a religious order by Gregory
XIV., in 1591, witli all the privileges of the mendi-
cant orders, and under the obligation of the four vows
of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and perpetually
serving the sick, even those infected with the plague.
This order was again confirmed, witli additional privi-
leges, by Clement VIII., in 1592 and 1600. The mem-
bers wear a red cross on their cassocks, and are thence
sometimes called Cross-bearers.
The Clerks Regular of the Schola Pia, for the education
of youth, founded in Italy, by F.Joseph Calazana, a gentle-
man of Aragon, in 1617 : It was approved of as a con-
gregation of priests by Pope Paul V., the same year, and
erected into a religious order, with ample privileges, by
' ' Critical and Historical Essays' of Lord Mncaulay, vol. ii. p. 137.
London, Longmans, 1857.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 61
Gregory XV., in 1621. The members bind themselves
by a fourth vow, to labour in the instruction of youth,
especially the poor.
The Clerks Eegular of the Mother of God, instituted at
Lucca in 1628, with constitutions and objects similar
to the other congregations or orders of Clerks Regular.
We may next briefly refer to the following institutes,
which, although in many respects resembling the Clerks
Eegular, strictly speaking, are not, like them, religious
orders, but simply congregations of secular priests, liv-
ing in community, and following a rule. Of these
secular congregations, some take the ordinary religious
vows, and some take no vows, as we shall presently see.
The Congregation of the Oratory, founded by Saint
Philip Neri,in Rome, in 1564: The following was the
origin of this institute. Saint Philip and several priests
and young ecclesiastical students associated themselves
in holding religious conferences, and reading prayers
and meditations to the people, in the church of the
Holy Trinity. 1 They summoned the people for this
purpose by tolling a bell, morning and evening. Hence
they were called Oratorians. 2
They were formed into a religious community by
Saint Philip, following rules and constitutions which
he gave them, but not taking vows. The objects of
the members were, the sanctification of their own souls,
and the leading of others to God, by preaching, the
instruction of the ignorant, and the direction of con-
sciences. The congregation was approved of by Pope
Gregory XIII., in 1575, and its constitutions were
confirmed by Paul V., in 1612. Gregory XIII. bestowed
on the founder the beautiful new church of Saint Mary
in Vallicella, which became the headquarters of his
congregation, thence called, at first, the Oratory of Saint
1 Among these was the celebrated Cardinal Baronius, who, on ac-
count of hie great holiness, was styled ' the Venerable Servant of God '
by Benedict XIV., in a decree dated January 12, 1745.
! From the Latin orare, to pray.
62 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Marv in Vallicella. They were also named Philippini, in
Italy. Of this congregation are the Fathers of the Oratory
at Brompton, and at Edgebaston near Birmingham.
The Oblates of Saint Ambrose, now called of Saint
Charles, instituted by Saint Charles Borromeo, Cardinal
Archbishop of Milan, in 1578, and approved of, the same
year, by Pope Gregory XIII. : They are a congregation
of secular priests, living in community, organized under
the bishop of a diocese, and bound to him by a simple
vow of obedience, or an oblation, to be employed, as he
may direct, in labouring for the salvation of souls.
Saiut Charles drew up the rule for Milan ; and similar
congregations founded in other dioceses have adapted it
to their respective local circumstances. Of this con-
gregation are the Oblate Fathers of Saint Mary of the
Angels, Bayswater.
The French Oratory, founded in 1G11, by the learned
and pious Peter de Berulle, afterwards Cardinal : This
congregation is composed of priests who live in com-
munity, in a state of voluntary poverty and obedience,
without taking vows. Its objects are the same as those
of the Italian Oratorians. It was approved of, and its
rule was confirmed, by Paul V., in 1013.
The Lazarists, or Fathers of the Mission, instituted in
France by Saint Vincent de Paul, in 1625 : This con-
gregation will be fully described in a future chapter. 1
The Eudistes, a congregation of secular priests, living
in community without vows, instituted by the Venerable
John Eudes at Caen in 1643 : These priests are prin-
cipally engaged in the direction of episcopal seminaries,
and conducting missions.
The Sulpiciens, instituted with similar objects, at
Saint Sulpice, Paris, by M. Olier, in 1642 : From this
congregation have gone forth many holy and zealous
missionary priests to all parts of the world.
The Passiouist Fathers, founded in 1721, by Saint
Paul of the Cross, a native of Ovada, iu the diocese
1 See Index, LtzarwU.'
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 63
of Aqui, Genoa : The Fathers take the ordinary three
vows of religion, and add a fourth vow of promoting
devotion to the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and a
vow of perseverance. Their objects are the sauctification
of their own souls, and promoting the salvation of others,
by retreats, missions, preachings, and the direction of
consciences. The congregation was approved of by
Benedict XIV., in 1741, Clement XIV., in 17G9, and
finally by Pius VI., in 1785.
The Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, in-
stituted in Italy, by Saint Alphonsus Maria Liguoii,
in 1732 : In Italy the Fathers are generally called
Liguorists, and, in other countries, Redemptorists. Their
objects are the same as those of the Passiouists, namely,
missions, retreats, and the cure of souls. At the end of
their novitiate, they take the three ordinary vows of
religious, simple but perpetual, and to these they add
a vow of perseverance in their institute. The congrega-
tion was approved of by Pope Benedict XIV., in 1749.
The Institute of Charity, founded by the Abbate
Antonio Rosmini, at Domodossola in Northern Italy,
in 1828 : The objects proposed by the founder were,
that the members should labour in the sanctification
of their own souls, according to the Gospel counsels
of perfection ; and that they should, conformably with
the Divine will, do all the good in their power to their
fellow-creatures, embracing every work of charity with-
out arbitrary limitation to any particular branch, but
undertaking all that should be required of them, of
which they should be capable. Giving spiritual re-
treats to clergy and laity ; preaching the Word of God ;
visiting and assisting the sick, whether in ordinary
maladies or in contagious diseases; undertaking the
spiritual care of prisons and public asylums; the
administration of reformatories ; opening schools of
all kinds, including Sunday and evening schools for
the working classes, both boys and adults ; the cure
of souls, whether as parish priests Or co-adjutors ;
04 TERRA INCOGNITA.
missionary labours ; the publication of books useful
to science or religion ; the relief of the poor ; such
are the works, undertaken by the Fathers of Charity.
In addition to the ordinary religious vows, they take u
vow of indifference, thereby entirely foregoing their own
inclinations or choice as to the works in which th'-v
may be engaged. The institute was formally approved
of by PopeGregory XVI., in 1839.
We have now gone through the principal religious
orders and congregations of men. Formerly,
nearly all had flourishing houses, in Great Britain and
Ireland, which, as is universally admitted, effected much
for the preservation and promotion of learning and :
They further ministered largely to the spiritual wants
of all classes, and the corporal necessities of the sick
and destitute ; and there are many persons at the present
day, who, although no friends to monastic institutions,
hesitate not to express their preference for the Christian
system of material relief afforded, with cordial kindness,
to all comers, at the doors of the monasteries, to the
mechanical, cumbrous, and costly plan of the Poor Laws
instituted by Elizabeth. However, in viewing this
question, we must not lose sight of the vastly increased
population of the country in our day.
There is much that is suggestive, and in no small
degree interesting, in the traces which still exist of
those venerable institutions in all parts of the United
Kingdom. Even in the capital, they not unfrequently
may be recognized in the nomenclature of the atiM
and several districts. Thus, in the centre of London, in
the heart of the greatest commercial emporium in the
world, close by the Bank of England, and the Royal
Exchange, is a cluster of counting-houses, densely packed
with bustling men of business. Here, once stood, in
comparative solitude, the house of 'Austin Friars,'
founded by Humphrey Bohun, Earl of Hereford and
Essex, in the vear 1243.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 65
Again, the district of the Minories takes its name
from the Poor Clares or Minoresses, who were intro-
duced into England in 1293, by Blanche, Queen of
Navarre, and her husband Edmund, Earl of Lancaster,
Leicester and Derby, son of Henry III., and established
without Aldgate, their first house in England.
The Temple, containing the principal inns of court,
belonged formerly to the Knights Templar, who re-
moved thither from Holborn in 1184 ; and in 1312, on
the suppression of the order, their property here passed
to the Knights of Malta, or of Saint John of Jeru-
salem.
The district lying between Fleet Street and the
Thames, formerly the Alsatia, or place of refuge of
thieves and criminals, so graphically described by Sir
Walter Scott, in ' The Fortunes of Nigel,' took its name
from a house of Carmelites, or ' White Friars,' who oc-
cupied the ground, not long after their introduction into
England, in the middle of the thirteenth century. In
the same way, another district, as we have seen, is named
after the Dominicans or ' Black Friars.' l Crutched-
friars is so called from the Crossed Friars, who origin-
ally carried a cross on a staff, and subsequently wore it
in red cloth on their backs and breasts. They were in-
troduced into England in 1244, their first house being
in Colchester. 2 To a similar origin may be traced the
names of many another street or district in the metro-
polis, and different towns of the kingdom.
In the rural districts, too, the ruins of ancient abbeys
and priories, possessing many an interesting legend, and
hallowed by many a time-honoured association, add
much to the picturesque beauty of the scene, and
eloquently speak of the faith and unworldliness of by-
gone times.
The judicious selection of sites for monastic buildings.
1 Vide supra, p. 54.
8 This house was founded in 1245, and that of London in 1298.
The order was suppressed by Pope Alexander VII. in 1656.
E
66 TERRA INCOGNITA.
in which convenience and effect in the landscape appear
to have been alike consulted, and the wondrous fertility
of the soil around them, are topics that invariably suggest
themselves, whenever we visit the ruins of an old abbey
or monastery. But, in these respects, almost every-
thing is due to the industry of the monks. As well as
prayer and contemplation, manual labour entered largely
into their round of occupations ; and thus, in time, they
made tracts the most sterile bloom in beauty, and teem
with fertility and plenty. In this respect they set a useful
example to the country around. And it is not a matter
of surprise, that, often, the rich abbey lands, the creation
of their skill and industry, excited the covetous greed of
many a powerful and unscrupulous baron, whose policy
it was to exaggerate the luxurious living, and relaxation
of rule of the ' lazy monks ' in his neighbourhood.
Towards the close of the year 1132, certain monks of
Saint Mary's Benedictine monastery in York, being
desirous to establish themselves in another house,
under the more austere Cistercian rule, were assigned
lands, by the Archbishop of York, about three miles
west of Ripon, for the purpose of erecting a mon-
astery. ' This spot, which was fitter for the retreat of
wild beasts than the habitation of men,' says Mr Grose,
' was called Skell-Dale, on account of a rivulet of that
name running through it, from west to east It lay be-
tween two steep hills, surrounded on all sides with
rocks, wood, and brambles ; and had never been either
cultivated or inhabited : he also gave them the neigh-
bouring village called Sutton. Having elected for their
abbot, Richard, the prior of Saint Mary's, they retired to
this desert, in the depth of winter, without any house
to cover them, or provisions to subsist on ; entirely re-
lying on Divine Providence, and the assistance of pious
persons. In the midst of the vale there stood a large
elm, on which they put some thatch or straw ; under
this they slept, ate, and prayed ; the archbishop for
some time supplying them with bread, and the rivulet
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 67
with drink : during part of the day, some laboured to
clear a small spot for a garden ; whilst others made wattles
m order to erect an oratory, or chapel.' 1 They soon
retired to the shelter of five or six yew trees, described
by Mr Burton in 1757 as c of incredible size' the cir-
cumference of the trunk of one of them being at least
fourteen feet, about a yard from the ground? Under
these trees they passed the remainder of the winter
Uose by, was the site of their future abbey. In this
description it would be difficult to recognize the beauti-
ful demesne of Studley Royal, with its grand old ruin
JJountams Abbey, erected in the forty years 1204 to
1245, so justly admired by all visitors to Harro-ate and
the neighbourhood.
These remarks equally apply to Melrose, 2 built by
King David I. for the Cistercians, 1136-46, Muckross
founded by the M'Carthy Mor for the Franciscan Friars
m 1440, and many other picturesque and venerable
ruins in various parts of these islands, all surrounded
by fertile tracts conquered from sterility by the per-
severing labour of the monks.
'If we were to go back to the origin of the greater
part of the rural monasteries,' says a Protestant writer
we should probably find that their first inhabitants
were clearers,* and that it is to them and the good con-
dphf Z r Sf Successors that religious houses are in-
ebted for the property they enjoy. Why should thev
not enjoy it ? Let us imitate without envying them
their possessions belonged to a great lord/that would
excite murmur, that would not provoke satire.
y FraQCis Grose < E ^
, and AportJi
68 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Why is it not the same with respect to a convent ? As
to me, I see those establishments with so much the
more pleasure that it is not the enjoyment of one man,
but of many ; and, under this point of view, I cannot
wish them too much happiness. Religious are men ;
and one ought to wish that every man should be happy
in his state, provided lie does not destroy the hap-
piness of others ..... But I do not see in what reli-
gious encroach on the happiness of other men; but
I see that in their state they enjoy much of that
tranquil happiness which is prized by a great number
of men. There, subsistence, simple but abundant, is
assured for the fathers, the brothers, the domestics,
and the labourers. The rule extends over all,
provides for all, prevents irregularities and disorder.
They caij maintain themselves in a position of honest
abundance, because they return more to the earth than
they receive, and nothing is wasted. The power of the
chiefs maintains the rule among them, and, for the hap-
piness of mankind, it is to be wished that there were
more such everywhere. Without the salutary bond of
religion, vain would be the effort to form similar
societies. Those formed by conventions only would not
last long. Man is too inconstant to subject himself to
the rule which he can infringe with impunity. But
within the cloister ever}' one must observe the rule ;
there all must submit to it. Religion alone, whether
by its natural force, or by the weight of public opinion,
can produce this happy effect 1
Here, we are reminded of a distinctive mark, or
characteristic, of religious orders their stability. The
year 529 saw Saint Benedict establish his institute on
Monte Cassino. In the thirteen centuries that have
since elapsed, great dynasties have arisen and passed
away; mighty kingdoms have been founded, have
flourished and decayed ; the map of Europe has been
iv ' I 76 ttrei 8Ur J h " toire de U twre et de rh <nine,' pa r M. Deluc, t.
THE ANCIENT RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 69
again and again blotted out, and re- written; but,
amidst the fall of dynasties and the wreck of thrones,
this association of humble monks has survived ; and,
powerful in its moral weight and influence for good,
gives promise of enduring for many generations. The
same may be said of each of the other religious orders
we have enumerated. In this respect, they strikingly
contrast with mere human institutions.
(70)
CHAPTER V.
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS.
Nunc addo geuimas nobilea,
Gemmas corusci luminis.
Cernis sacratas virgines ;
Hoc est monile Ecclesise ;
Dotata sic Christo placet.
PBCDESTICS (fourth century).
To almost all the religious orders of men, as already
observed, there are corresponding orders of religious
women. It is unnecessary, even if there were space,
that I should refer to all of these latter in detail I
therefore confine myself to such of the ancient orders of
nuns as are at present existing in the United Kingdom,
giving an account of each, and of the works in which
they are severally engaged.
I commence with the Benedictine Nuns.
This is a very ancient order, having been established
before the middle of the sixth century, by Saint Scho-
lastica, sister of Saint Benedict. "We learn from Saint
Gregory the Great, that Scholastica had dedicated her-
self to God from her earliest youth. 1 When Saint Bene-
dict founded his monastery at Monte Cassino, between
Eome and Naples, 2 in 529, his sister settled at Plom-
bariola, about five miles south of Monte Cassino, and
there founded a nunnery, which she governed, under
her brother's rule and direction. 3 She died about the
year 543.
1 Dialogues of Saint Gregory the Great, 1. 2, c. 33, 34.
2 In the province of Cajerta, 50 milea north-west of Jfaplea.
3 Dialogues of Saint Gregory, 1. 2, c. 33, 34.
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS. 71
The Benedictine Nuns are an enclosed order, and take
perpetual solemn vows. Their rule is that of Saint
Benedict, with certain suitable modifications. The habit
is black, over which they wear a black cloak, when they
go to choir. They now have eight convents in the United
Kingdom all in England. The nuns devote them-
selves to the education of female youth. Their boarding
schools for young ladies at Princethorpe, and other houses
of the order in England, are among the first educational
institutions of the kingdom.
As the Benedictine order was formerly so flourishing
in England, it will be interesting briefly to trace the
history of the several communities of English Benedic-
tine nuns, which were founded on the Continent, after
the suppression of religious houses in these countries,
and came to England at the close of the last century.
The English Benedictine abbey at Brussels was the
first house of English nuns established on the Continent
after the Eeformation ; and its members were the first
who returned to England after the French Revolution.
This foundation was originated by Lady Mary Percy,
daughter of Thomas, seventh Earl of Northumberland. 1
It was approved 'of by Pope Clement VIII., in 1599, in
a brief, empowering the Archbishop of Malines to frame
statutes for its government, and specifying that it was
to be under the jurisdiction of the Ordinary, 2 and not of
the order, as at that time there was no existing congre-
gation of English Benedictine monks to which it could
be canonically subject. Lady Mary Percy, who had
been joined by the two Misses Arundell, Dorothy and
Gertrude, daughters of Sir John Arundell of Llanherne,
applied to the abbess of the Benedictine abbey of Saint
1 This nobleman was beheaded at York, on the 22nd of August 1572,
for conspiring against Queen Elizabeth. To his last moment, he
denied the Queen's, and asserted the Pope's supremacy in matters
spiritual.
8 Ordinary. An ordinary is one having ordinary or immediate
jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical, such as a Bishop in his diocese,
or the dean or vicar-capitular, should the see be vacant.
72 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Peters at Rheims (Renee de Lorraine, aunt to
Queen of Scots), to send one of her community, endowed
with the necessary qualifications, to govern the begin-
ners, and train them in the observance of the holy rule
they proposed to embrace that of Saint Benedict,
chosen because the order had first carried the faith to
their Saxon ancestors, and on account of the number of
Benedictine monasteries which had formerly flourished
in England. An English nun was sent from the abbey
of Rheims, Mrs Joanna Berkeley, daughter of Sir Jolm
Berkeley of Be version Castle, Gloucestershire, who
joined the three novices in their house in Brussels ; and,
the necessary permission having been obtained from the
Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella, daughter of
Philip II. of Spain, governors of the Low Countries, Mrs
Berkeley was solemnly blessed abbess of the new con-
vent by the Archbishop of Maliues, on the 14th of
November 1599.
The young community was immediately joined by the
Misses Elizabeth Cansfield, Margaret Thompson, Mar-
garet Smith, Frances Gawen, Elizabeth Southcote, and
Elizabeth Tichborne, 1 the last entering as a lay-sister. 8
Their example was followed by many other English
ladies. In 1612, the statutes drawn up for their govern-
ment were approved of by Pope Paul V. In 1616, Mrs
Berkeley died, and was succeeded by Lady Mary Percy,
as second abbess.
For two hundred years, this community resided in
Brussels, frequently exposed to much poverty and suf-
fering, on account of the difficulty of transmitting funds
1 Miss Tichborne was daughter of Nicholas Tichborne, Esq. of
Hampshire, executed at Tyburn for the Faith, in 1530. In those dart.
owing to the confiscation of their property, several English Catholic
ladies entered convents as lay-sisters xrur't conr<r$t.
* Choir-sisters and Lay-sisters. Choir-sisters, so-called because
they recite the Divine office in the choir, are those who perform the
general functions of the order, such as the education of girls, rich and
poor, ministering in the hospitals, visiting the sick, Ac. Lay-sisters
are generally taken from a lower class, and are engaged in the mnul
duties of convents.
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS. 73
from England, and the Continental wars, of which Bel-
gium was so often the battle-field. At length, the
French Eevolution forced them to fly, leaving their
monastery and property at the mercy of the French,
who confiscated and sold all. The nuns, fourteen in
number, after a perilous voyage, lauded at Saint Cathe-
rine's Stairs, July 6th, 1794, being the first to arrive of
the several communities of English ladies, who, at that
period, sought refuge in England. They were most
kindly received by the Eight Eeverend Doctor Douglas, 1
Vicar Apostolic of the London District, who assigned
them the Bishop's house in the city of Winchester, as
their residence. Here they were met by the Eeverend
Doctor Milner, 2 then priest of the mission at Win-
chester, and to his fatherly care they were indebted for
the common necessaries of life, having been able to
bring over with them only some church furniture, and
a small quantity of house-linen and clothes, as each nun
had been allowed to take only what she could herself
carry in a bag. The breviaries and a few papers of con-
sequence were thus secured ; but the loss of property
and valuable records was very great.
In 1796, the first novice joined the community in
England. They resided in Winchester upwards of sixty
years, and there they conducted a large poor-school, ami
a young ladies' school. In 1857, a more suitable resi-
dence having offered, they removed, with the sanction
of the Bishop of the diocese, to East Bergholt, Suffolk,
where they now reside. Here they conduct a boarding
school for young ladies.
Those who present themselves to join the community
must ordinarily have two years' noviceship. During the
first year, they are called scholars, and, after their solemn
1 The Right Reverend John Douglas, Bishop of CenturicK, and Vicar
Apostolic of the London District, was consecrated December 19, 1790,
and died May 8, 1812.
8 The Right Reverend John Milner, Bishop of Castabala, and Vicar
Apostolic of the Midland District, was consecrated May 22, 1803, and
died April 19, 1826.
74 TERRA INCOGNITA.
clothing with the habit, or religious Reception, they
are called novices.
The dress of the Professed is the Benedictine black
habit, with a scapular, and the cowl or great habit, also
black, for solemn occasions, a black and white veil, and
the plaited wimple.
The abbesses wear a pectoral cross and abbatial ring,
and use the crozier. This last is allowed ouly under
restrictions, and has not the same meaning attached to
it, as in ancient times, when abbesses had jurisdiction
outside their monasteries. The crozier of this house is
a valuable and curious work of art, more than two hun-
dred years old.
Since the foundation of the community, at Brussels,
there have been seventeen abbesses, and two hun-
dred and thirty-eight Religious, including lay-sisters.
The written vows of all, which are always preserved,
were brought away from Brussels, in 1794.
The first filiation 1 of the English Benedictine Abbey
at Brussels was that of Cambray, formed in 1623, by
Mesdaines Frances Gawen, Pudentiana Deacon, and
Viviana Yaxley, professed nuns of the Brussels house.
The first abbess was Mrs Gawen. This community
continued to reside at Cambray until October 1793,
when the sisters, twenty in number, were removed by
the French Revolutionary soldiers to Compeigne, and
there incarcerated. Imprisoned in the same house were
seventeen Carmelite nuns, of the Convent of Saint Denis,
whom, a few days after their arrival, they saw led out
to execution. They hourly expected the same fate.
They suffered so much from the want of food, fuel, and
clothing, during their imprisonment, that four of their
number died of privation. In 1795, they obtained their
liberty, and on the 4th May that year they arrived in
1 Filiation. A convent is said to be a filiation of that house, from
which it derives ita first subject* ; either originally members of that
house, or ladies who entered it, to make their novitiate there, for th
express object of the new foundation.
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS. 75
London. There, they were hospitably received and tem-
porarily accommodated by a lady of rank ; and, after a
short time, on the invitation of the Reverend Doctor
Brewer, they settled at Wootton, near Liverpool, where
they opened a young ladies' school. In 1808, they re-
moved to Abbot's Salford, in Warwickshire, and, in 1838,
to their present residence at Stanbrook, Worcestershire.
Here they conduct a boarding school for young ladies.
In 1624, the Brussels community sent out a filiation to
Ghent. This was composed of Mesdames Lucy Knatch-
bull, Eugenia Poulton, Magdalen Digby, and Mary Roper,
and two novices, one of whom had a large fortune.
Several ladies from England joined them, and before the
end of the year they numbered a community of two and
twenty. Mrs Knatchbull was the first abbess. Having
purchased a site, they erected a church and house, which
they were able to enter, on the 5th August 1G28. Here
they were often visited by the exiled king, Charles II.,
and his brother the Duke of York. Charles made them
several presents, and settled on them an income of 500
a year.
This community resided in Ghent, until 1794. The
Duke of York, who made use of a portion of their con-
vent, at this period, as a store for corn and bread for his
army, in the campaign against France, extended to them
his protection, and treated them most kindly ; and they
received all due respect from the British officers and
soldiers. Having been warned that they could no longer
remain in safety, they quitted Ghent, in several small
parties ; and, through the generous aid of a gentleman
in Lancashire, they were enabled to reach England. In
1795, they settled at Preston, which they left for Cavers-
wall Castle, near Stone, Staffordshire, in 1811. In 1854,
they removed to Oulton near Stone, where they have
built a beautiful church. These nuns conduct a board-
ing school for young ladies.
In 1651, was established the monastery of English
Benedictine nuns in Paris. This house was a filiation
76 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of Cambray, as Cambray was of Brussels. Mrs Clemen-
tina Gary, daughter of Viscount Falkland, a nun at
Cambray, being obliged to go to Paris, for medical treat-
ment, in 1651, obtained, through Henrietta Maria,
Queen of Charles I., of England, permission for the
establishment of a house of English Benedictine nuns
in that capital. She was joined by five other nuns from
Cambray, one of whom, Mrs Bridget More, was ap-
pointed first abbess, the foundress having, through
humility, declined that dignity. After occupying five
different houses, they purchased, with the assistance of
their friends, in March 1664, the convent in which they
resided for one hundred and seventy years, in the Rue
du Champ de 1'Alouette, Faubourg Saint Marcel. 1
In 1793, in common with all religious communities in
France, they became victims of the devolution. On tin;
3rd of October that year, they were made prisoners in
their own convent, and debarred from all communica-
tion with friends outside. In a month afterward
convent was made a common jail, and filled with
prisoners. Here the nuns suffered fearful privations.
Every day they saw several persons led out to exe-
cution, and felt that, at any moment, their own turn
might come. After some time, they were remov
Vincennes, where they endured about four months of
rigorous confinement. Thence they were sent back to
Paris; and it was only on tfce 1st of March 1793, that
they were restored to liberty. Arriving in London oa
the 5th of July the same year, they settled first at
Marnhull in Dorsetshire. In 1807, they removed to
Cannington, near Bridgewater. In this house, in 1821),
was first established, in England, the Perpetual Adora-
tion of the Blessed Sacrament. In 1837, they finally
settled at Saint Benedict's Priory, Colwich, Stafford .-hi re,
where they still reside. In 1859, they sent out a filiation
to Atherstone, iii the same county. At the convent of
'English Colleges and Convents on the Continent,' byth Hon. E.
Petre. Edit Rev. F. C. Huwnboth, p. 69. Norwich, 1349.
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS. 77
Atherstone, -the perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacra-
ment is carried on by the community, night and day.
In 1662, a filiation from Ghent was established at
Dunkirk, then in the possession of England. The com-
munity at Ghent had rendered important services to
King Charles II. and his brother, James Duke of York,
when in exile, in the Low Countries. Hence, on the
Restoration, permission was easily obtained from the
British Government for this foundation. The king
made several presents to the nuns, and assigned them a
donation of 3000. The new community, twelve in
number, departed for Dunkirk on the 8th of May 1662.
Mrs Mary Caryl, or Carrille, was the first abbess.
Among her associates were ladies of the well-known old
English names of Nevill, Fortescue, Savage, Stanley,
Webb, Heneage, Pordage and Eyre. 1 Aided by several
English noblemen and gentlemen, they purchased a
house in Ghent, on the site of which they built a fine
convent, which they continued to occupy down to the
period of the French Revolution. In 1793, their con-
vent church was seized for the meetings of the Jacobin
club of Dunkirk, and subsequently they were expelled
from their house, with the loss of all their effects, and
were removed to the convent of the Poor Clares at Grave-
lines. Here, in common with the Poor Clares, they
suffered the most rigorous and painful captivity, for
eighteen months. Two of the sisters died of hardship.
At length, they were liberated in April 1795, and, on
the 3rd of May that year, they arrived in London.
They first settled at Hammersmith, where they opened
a young ladies' school. In 1863, they removed to
Teignmouth, South Devon, where they established Saint
Scholastica's Abbey, their present residence.
The community of Benedictine nuns at Princethorpe,
although now English, was a filiation of the French
Benedictine monastery of Montargis, in Orleanois.
They arrived in England on the 17th October 1792, and
1 ' English Colleges and Convents on the Continent,' p. 73.
78 TERRA INCOGNITA.
were most graciously noticed by the Prince of Wales,
afterwards George IV. ; probably through the kind
offices of Mrs Fitzherbert. They first settled, and began
a school, at Bodney Hall in Norfolk, in January 1793.
From thence they removed to Heath Hall in Yorkshire
in 1811, and thence to Orrell Mount in Lancashire in
1821. Finally, in 1835, they purchased, and settled in
their present abode, Saint Mary's Priory, Princethorpe,
Warwickshire. Here, for many years, they have most
successfully conducted a higher-class young ladies'
boarding school.
The community of Benedictine nuns at Ramsgate
settled there in August 1865. They came from the
convent of Rosano, near Florence, of the strict Benedic-
tine observance. These nuns are affiliated to the Cas-
sinese congregation of Benedictine monks, following the
primitive rule of Saint Benedict ; and they belong to
the Anglo- Belgian province of that congregation. They
have opened boarding and day schools for young ladies
in their newly-built abbey of Saint Scholastica, to
which they have recently removed. The community is
principally composed of English and Irish ladies.
THE CISTERCIAN NUNS. 1
This is the female order corresponding to the Cister-
cian Monks, already described. 2 It is a strictly con-
templative order. The rule enjoins the recital of the
Divine office, manual labour, habitual silence, vigils,
continual total abstinence from flesh meat, fowl, fish,
&c. There is only one community of Cistercian nuns
in the United Kingdom that of Stapehill, Wimborne,
Dorset. This community was originally settled in the
convent of La Sainte Volonto de Dieu, in the Bas
Valais, Switzerland ; but it was driven from its home
by the French troops, in the first Revolution, and com-
1 1 include the Cistercian NUDB in thU chapter, M their rule U bwed
on the original constitution* of Saint Benedict.
1 Supra, p. 35.
THE BENEDICTINE NUNS. 79
pelled to retire for safety to Germany. The Sisters
subsequently moved into Poland, and thence, in a short
time, into the cold regions of Eussia, where they were
treated with marked favour by the Czar, Paul I., and
his consort. After a brief sojourn near Oncha in
White Eussia, they deemed it expedient to seek refuge
in England, and left early in 1801, a few days before
the ill-fated Czar's barbarous assassination. 1 On reach-
ing London, they settled at Hammersmith, where they
resided ten months ; thence they went to Burton, near
Christchurch ; and, finally, on the 1 3th of November
1802, they took possession of Stapehill, generously pre-
sented to them by Henry, eighth Lord Arundell of
Wardour. There is a poor-school attached to the con-
vent.
1 Paul I. was assassinated in the new palace of Saint Michael,
March 12th, 1801.
(80)
CHAPTER VI.
THE CANONESSES OF SAINT AUGUSTINE.
WE have already referred to the rule of Saint Augustine,
the object for which it was originally drawn up, and
the fact of its being the basis of the constitutions of a
large proportion of the religious orders and congrega-
tions now existing. We have seen, that, before the
suppression of monastic institutions, under Henry VIII.,
the Regular Canons and Canonesses of Saint Au\
had one hundred and fifteen monasteries in England ;
and the Austin Friars or Hermits, thirty-two. In Ire-
land, where the institute especially flourished, the
Canons Regular had two hundred and twenty houses,
the Canonesses sixty-five, and the Austin Hermits, or
Friars, twenty-four.
The Canonesses of Saint Augustine date from about
the same periods as the Canons of the several orders,
respectively, who commenced taking solemn vows in
the beginning of the twelfth century. They now num-
ber only two houses, of two different orders, in the
United Kingdom ; namely, the Canonesses of the Holy
Sepulchre, New Hall, Chelinsford, Essex, and the
Canonesses of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed
Sacrament, Saint Augustine's Priory, Newton-Abbot,
Devon.
The Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre are the cor-
responding female order of the Canons, of whom we
have already traced the history. 1 On the fall of the
Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, in 1187, these Canonesses
1 Vide supra, p. 41.
THE CANONESSES OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. 81
were obliged, as were the canons, to leave
of brne they extended to the Netherlands!
lev eilrYrt g Sh y UDg Iady ' Miss Snsann 3 Haw-
lev errt ' nsann 3 aw-
tion to the Jesuits and other missionary priests who
vea?1^42 Th m f V nShire> T Wards the close ofS
year b42, the two novices, accomanied by Mother
.
82 TERRA INCOGNITA.
18th of August 1794, they arrived at Greenwich ; and, on
reaching London, were hospitably accommodated and
assisted by Lord Stourton, Lord Clifford, Sir William
Gerard and other friends. In 1795, they occupied
Holme, near Market Weighton, kindly placed at their
disposal by Lord Stourtou. Having resided there two
years, they removed, in 1797, to Dean House, near
Salisbury ; but, finding this an inconvenient and unde-
sirable residence, they finally settled, in March 1800,
in their present abode, New Hall, 1 Chelmsford, Essex,
which, with its demesne of fifty- eight acres, they had
acquired by purchase. Here they have ever since con-
ducted a higher class young ladies' boarding school,
which is deservedly considered to be one of the best in
the United Kingdom.
The habit of these canonesses is of black serge, over
which is worn a white linen rochet, without sleeves.
On the left side of this is a double red cross. In
choir the nuns wear a long black cloak, on which
also is a double red cross, with red cord and tassels.
The rule is that of Saint Augustine. The particular con-
stitutions added were approved of by Pope Urban VIII.
These judiciously combine the duties of the active and
contemplative life. Conformably with the ancient prac-
tice of the order, the nuns rise at four o'clock, and,
after an hour's meditation, recite in choir Matins,
Lauds, and Prime. They also observe the other canoni-
cal hours. They have annual retreats, and make an
annual renewal of vows. 2 They are permitted to re-
ceive boarders, and to teach young females the Chris-
tian doctrine, and otherwise instruct the poor, if it be
the wish or command of the bishop of the diocese. The
1 New Hall, which ia in the Tudor style, was originally built in the
form of a quadrangle, of which only one side now remains. Here the
Princess Mary generally resided, during the reign of her brother
Edward VI. It was sometimes occupied by her sister Elizabeth, as
appears by an inscription over the entrance door.
* As will be seen further on, this is the practice in most order* and
congregations, in which the vows are taken for life.
THE CANONESSES OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. 83
bishop is acknowledged as superior of each convent
under his jurisdiction, as there is no generalate of the
order. He confirms the election of the prioress, who is
chosen for life by the chapter, which also elects the
chief office-bearers. The minor offices are filled up by
the prioress. A newly-established convent is subject,
in obedience, to the house of which it is a filiation, and
its prioress is nominated by the prioress of that house,
until it has twelve capitulars, or professed nuns, mem-
bers of chapter, when it becomes independent, and elects
its own prioress.
The Canonesses of the Perpetual Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament are an institute of English 'origin.
In the year 1548, under the reign of Edward VI., reli-
gious houses having been seized, and their inmates ex-
pelled, Mrs Elizabeth Woodford, a professed canoness
of Saint Augustine, like many others, seeking safety by
flight, went over to Brabant, and offered herself to the
Augustinian convent of Saint Ursula in the town cf Lou-
vain. Several other English ladies subsequently joined
her ; and, in the course of a few years, their numbers so
much increased that it became desirable they should
form a separate community. The English nuns there-
upon petitioned for leave to establish a house for them-
selves in the same town ; and, having obtained full
licence from the Archbishop of Maliues, they left the
Dutch house, and entered their new convent on the
10th of February 1609. The new institute was mainly
established by the exertions of the Reverend Mother
Margaret Clement and Sister Catherine Allen, niece of
Cardinal Allen. Its chief object was the praise of God
and the sanctification of its members by prayer and the
other practices of the religious life, and particularly the
chanting and recitation, in choir, of the Divine office,
the nuns rising at midnight for matins.
The community resided at Louvain for nearly two
hundred years ; but in 1794 they were obliged to leave
suddenly on account of the French Revolution, which
84 TERRA INCOGNITA.
swept over the Low Countries. On reaching England,
they first settled at Hammersmith, where their house
was known as the 'Ladies' School' In 1800, they
removed to Amesbury Abbey, Wilts, whence, at the
close of that year, they went to Spetisbury House, Dor-
setshire. Finally they removed to their present resi-
dence, Saint Augustine's Priory, Newton- Abbot, Devon,
on the 2nd of October 1861.
Although the order is essentially contemplative, the
community received young ladies for education up to
the year 1860, when they established in their convent
the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. This
privilege was granted them by His Holiness Pope Pius
IX., in a rescript dated the 15th March 1860. Their
church is never left without a worshipper, for a moment,
day or night The Blessed Sacrament is exposed daily
therein, from early Mass till Benediction at seven o'clock
in the evening ; and, on the eves of all great feasts, the
exposition continues through the night.
The dress of the nuns is a white woollen habit, a
white linen rochet peculiar to the Canonesses of Saint
Augustine, a black veil, and a red cloth or woollen sca-
pular, with a badge representing the monstrance, 1 sur-
rounded by the words, ' Praised, adored, and glorified
be Jesus for ever, in the Adorable Sacrament of the
Altar.'
In September 1629, the convent of Louvain sent out
a filiation to Bruges, under the direction of the Reverend
Mother Frances Stanford. These nuns conducted a
young ladies' school, with great success at Bruges. On
the French invasion, they were obliged to leave their
convent precipitately in May 1794, and take refuge in
England. They reached London on the 12th of July
the same year. On the generous invitation of Sir
Thomas Gage, Baronet, they occupied his seat Hengrave
1 Monstrance, or Remonstrance, from the Latin, monttrare, to show,
a sacred vessel of gold or silver, in which the consecrated host is placed
for Exposition and Benediction, and adored by the congregation.
THE CANONESSES OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. 85
Hall, Suffolk ; and there, under the direction of their
Reverend Mother, Mrs Mary More, they followed all
their usual religious exercises, and conducted a young
ladies' school. On the conclusion of the Peace of
Amiens, in 1802, they returned to their convent at
Bruges, which they had repurchased.
CHAPTER- VII.
THE CARMELITE NUNS.
THE Carmelite Xuns, like the religious men of the order,
claim an origin of remote antiquity. They state that, in
the first ages of the Church, there were in Egypt and
Syria several houses of religious women of their insti-
tute, corresponding with the hermits of Mount Cannel,
already described. The first rule, however, on record,
as drawn up for the Carmelite Nuns, dates from about
the middle of the fifteenth century. The rules of Saint
Dominic, Saint Francis, and Saint Augustine had been
embraced by numerous communities of religious women ;
when John Soreth, a Carmelite friar of great sanctity,
and the twenty-sixth general of the order, desirous that
the rule of Mount Carmel also should be followed by
nuns, founded a female institute under that rule, in
1452. He established five convents, of which the first
was at Lie'ge, and the second at Vannes in Brittany.
The latter was built by Franchise d'Amboise, duchess of
Brittany, who, in 1457, after the death of her husband,
Peter II., took the habit in this convent. The institute
was approved of by Pope Nicholas V. in 1452.
About one hundred years later, some relaxations hav-
ing crept in, Saint Teresa, a religious of the convent
of Avila in Castile, undertook the reform of her order.
After encountering great difficulties, she succeeded ; and
her new constitutions were approved of by Pope Pius
IV. in 1562, and confirmed by Sixtus V. in 1590. She
revived the rule (already described) in all its primitive
austerity.
THE CARMELITE NUNS. 87
As among the friars, so among the nuns of this order,
there are the two great divisions of Grand, or Mitigated
Carmelites, and Discalced Carmelites. The latter are
commonly called Teresians. The order is essentially
contemplative. However, in some instances, in these
countries, at the desire of the bishops, they undertake
active duties of charity. In several convents, the nuns
conduct female primary schools ; and a certified indus-
trial school is attached to one of the convents in Ireland.
The habit and scapular of the Carmelite nuns are
brown ; and in choir they wear a white cloak, and black
veil.
The following particulars of the existing English Con-
vents of Teresians will, I doubt not, prove interesting
to my readers.
The first convent of English Carmelite nuns estab-
lished on the Continent was that of Antwerp, founded
by Mary Roper, daughter of Lord Teynham, in 1619.
In this pious work she was joined by several other
English ladies. The first prioress was Mrs Ann
Worsley. In the year 1648, this house sent out a filia-
tion to Lierre, about ten miles from Antwerp. The new
community consisted of twelve nuns, including the
Reverend Mothers Margaret and Ursula Mostyn. An-
other colony was sent, in 1678, to Hoogstraeten, also in
the province of Antwerp. This was the foundation of
the Countess of Hoogstraeten, whose daughter, Mary
Margaret, became a professed nun in the house, which
she afterwards governed for many years, as mother
superior. These three English communities con-
tinued to flourish until the close of the last century,
when they were compelled, by the French invasion, to
seek refuge in their native country, where they met
with kind generous friends and protectors. The Ant-
werp nuns arrived in London on the 12th of July 1794,
and through the generosity of its noble proprietor, were
enabled to settle at Llanherne, near Saint Colurnb's, Corn-
wall, where they still reside. The nuns of Lierre reached
88 TERRA INCOGNITA.
London on the 7th of July the same year. They first
settled at Auckland, Saint Helen's, near Durham. Thence
they removed, in 1804, to Cocken Hall, in the same neigh-
bourhood, and finally, in 1830, to Carmel House, Dar-
lington, their present abode. The nuns of Hoogstraeten
arrived in London on the 19th of July. They first re-
sided at Fryer's Place, near Acton, Middlesex. Thence
they removed, in 1800, to Camford House, near Wim-
borne. They are now settled at North Mundham, near
Chichester. The convent of Wells, recently removed
from Plymouth, is a foundation from Llauherne, and
that of Fulham, S.W., from Lyons.
There are sixteen houses of Carmelite Nuns in the
United Kingdom. Of these five are in England, and
eleven in Ireland. The particulars of all will be found
in another chapter. 1
1 Chapter xxxiii., Statistics of Convent*.
(89)
CHAPTEE VIII.
THE POOR CLARES.
THESE nuns are of the second order of Saint Francis.
They are called Poor Clares from their rule of extreme
poverty, and the name of their foundress, Saint Clare.
They are also called Minoresses, as the Franciscan Friars
are called Minors.
In the thirteenth century, there dwelt in Assisium, 1
a high-born knight and renowned soldier, Phavorino
Sciffo, and his wife Hortulana, persons distinguished no
less for their exemplary piety than for their rank and
wealth. They had three daughters, Clare, Agnes, and
Beatrice. Clare, the eldest, was born in 1193. From
her earliest years she was so devout and exemplary,
that she seems to have been predestined, from the
cradle, for the holy life to which God called her. She
had heard of the great Saint Francis, who was then
much spoken of in Assisium ; and she prevailed on a
lady of her acquaintance to introduce her to him.
Francis confirmed her in her resolution to abandon the
world, and devote herself altogether to God. Her
parents had in view for her an honourable match ; but
this she declined, pleading her fixed intention to re-
nounce the world. On the evening of the Monday after
Palm Sunday in the year 1212, Clare privately left her
home, accompanied by another devout young woman,
and went to the small church and convent of Portiun-
1 Assisium or Assisi, a town of Central Italy, thirteen miles south-
east of Perugia, with a population of 14,033. It has been a bishop's
see since the year 240.
'90 TERRA INCOGNITA.
cula, about a mile outside the town, where Saint Francis
and his monks resided. 1 She was received at the
church door by the community, holding lighted tapers
in their hands, and singing the ' Veni Creator Spiritus.'
Here, before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, she put off
her rich apparel ; and Saint Francis cut off her hair
and gave her the habit, which was of coarse cloth, with
a cord for a girdle. He then placed her with the Bene-
dictine nuns of Saint Paul, who gladly received the
young novice, until a convent could be established for
the new institute.
Clare's relatives immediately repaired to the Bene-
dictine convent, insisting on her coming out, and loudly
complaining of the disgrace which she was inflicting on
her family by adopting so poor and mean a state of life.
Their remonstrances, their reproaches, their threats of
using violence, were all in vain. Some of the party
seized her, in order to withdraw her by force ; but she,
catching hold of the altar, unveiled her head, and
showed how her hair had been cut off, in token, as she
said, of her having given herself up to Christ, the spouse
of her soul, whom only she would serve, and on whom
she relied for strength and aid to fulfil the holy re-
solution with which He had inspired her. Her per-
severance triumphed. Her relatives, after some further
remonstrance, seeing her determination, withdrew dis-
appointed.
Saint Francis, in a short time, removed her to an-
other Benedictine convent, that of Saint Angelo, nearer
Assisium, where, after equally strong opposition from
the members of her family, her sister Agnes also took
the veil. Eventually, Saint Francis fitted up for the
two sisters a new house close by the church of Saint
Damian at Assisium, where they were joined by their
mother, then a widow, and fifteen other ladies, some of
1 Portiuncula. This little church was given to them by the Bene-
dictine monks, who BO named it because it was built on a small plot or
4 portion ' of land belonging to them.
THE POOR CLARES. 91
whom were their own relatives, and three of whom were
members of the noble family of Ubaldini of Florence.
Clare was appointed the mother superior. She rapidly
extended the institute, establishing the convent of Saints
Cosmas and Damian in Eome, and houses in several
other cities of Italy and Germany.
The order was approved of by Pope Innocent III.,
and confirmed by Honorius III. in 1223. The rule at
first was extremely austere, being drawn up by Saint
Francis on the model of that which he had prepared for
his religious men. The Sisters went barefooted, observed
perpetual silence, and practised severe fasts. They
were also debarred from possessing property, even in
common. Great numbers joined this poor and austere
order, including a long line of noble ladies, amongst
whom were Agnes daughter of the King of Bohemia,
in 1240, Joan daughter of the King of Navarre, Isabel
sister of Saint Louis, Blanche daughter of Philip of
France, Margaret of Austria daughter of the Emperor
Maximilian, and Marie sister of King Philip of Spain.
The rule, being considered too austere for the weaker
sex, was mitigated by Pope Urban IV., in 1263. He
gave permission to the Clares to possess income. The
nuns of Saint Damian's and some others, being unwill-
ing to avail themselves of these mitigations, continued
to observe the strict rule of Saint Francis. Hence
arose the distinction between the Urbanists and the
Damianists.
Among the Urbanists even, or Mitigated Clares, many
houses returned, in time, to the stricter observance.
The principal of these were the Colettines, who followed
the reform introduced in the fifteenth century by Saint
Colette, who was born at Corbie in Picardy, and died in
1447. Whenever there was a reform of the Franciscan
Friars, there were to be found Clares ready to embrace
a life analogous and equally austere. Thus arose the
Cordelieres, called in Paris Filles de 1'Ave Maria, the
Capuchinesses, the Re'collettes, the Tiercelines, or Peni-
92 ERRA INCOGNITA.
tents of the Third Order, known in Paris as Filles de
Saiute Elizabeth, and other congregations.
We have seen that the Clares were introduced into
England in 1293, by Blanche Queen of Navarre, and
placed without Aldgate. 1 These were Urbanists, and
possessed revenues. At the dissolution, they had three
other houses in England.
The first convent of English Poor Clares established
on the Continent was that founded at Gravelines, in
1609, by Mrs Mary Ward. This convent was a filiation
of the house of French Poor Clares at Saint Oraers. Mrs
Ward's associates were Mesdames Mary Gough the first
mother superior of the new convent, Clare Fowler, Lucy
Barrel, and two lay-sisters. In 1624, the community
numbered sixty-five nuns. In 1629, it sent out a filia-
tion to Aire, under the care of Mother Margaret Ead-
cliffe; in 1644, one to Rouen, under Mother Mary
Frances Taylor ; and, in 1652, one to Dunkirk, under
Mother Anne Browne, niece to Lord Montagu. These
four communities continued to flourish down to the
period of the French Kevolution, so fatal to religious
institutions. Then, after a long term of imprisonment,
during which they endured extreme privations, they
were compelled to take refuge in their native land. The
Eouen community arrived in England in September
1795. After four months' residence in London, they
availed themselves of the invitation of Sir Carnaby
Haggerston, to occupy his castle in Northumberland.
Here they resided eleven years, and in 1807 they re-
moved to Scorton Hall, near Catterick, Yorkshire. The
Gravelines community reached London on the 3rd May
1795. Thence they proceeded to Gosfield in Essex ;
afterwards, to Coxside near Plymouth ; and finally they
joined the Sisters at Scorton HalL The Poor Clares of
Aire arrived in London on the 1 3th September 1798. In
1800, they established themselves at Britwell House, near
Watlington, Oxfordshire, placed at their disposal by Mr
1 Vide Bupra, p. 65.
THE POOR CLARES. 93
Weld, brother of one of the nuns. Thence they removed
to Coxside, and, after a considerable time, joined the
Sisters at Scorton. The Dunkirk community, on their
arrival in England, were accommodated with a house at
Church Hill, near "Worcester, by the Berkeley family of
Spetchley. After a residence there of about twenty
years, the few surviving members joined the Sisters at
Scorton Hall. The united communities remained at
Scorton until 1857, when they finally removed to their
present abode, Saint Clare's Abbey, Darlington. These
are the English Poor Clares. They combine with the
observance of their rule the important work of the edu-
cation of young ladies, which they have successfully
carried on ever since their first settlement in France.
The other houses in England are Colettines or Poor
Clares following the rule of Saint Colette, of the strictest
observance. They are the communities of Baddesley
established in 1850; Edmund Terrace, Netting Hill,
W., in 1860; Manchester, in 1863 ; and York, in 1865.
There is a poor school attached to the convent at Bad-
flesley.
We have no record of the Poor Clares having existed
'n Ireland previous to the suppression of religious orders
by Henry VIII. 1 Their first introduction was in 1625,
when Ellen and Cecilia, daughters of Viscount Dillon,
and four other nuns came over from the convent of
Gravelines, to establish the order in their native
country. Assisted by some friends, they took a house
in Ship Street, Dublin, where they cloistered them-
selves, under the rule of Saint Clare, with the strict
statutes of Saint Colette, and carried on their religious
exercises, in hourly apprehension, however, of being
discovered by the authorities. Several ladies, in the
course of time, joined the community ; and, the fame of
their holy lives and religious practices going abroad,
they had many visitors of their own sex nuns, at the
time, being quite a novelty in the country. Among the
1 A.D. 1536.
94 TERRA INCOGNITA.
rest, was no less a personage than the wife of the Lord
Deputy, who went in disguise. She was greatly pleased
with the Sisters, and much interested in all that she
witnessed in their peaceful abode. As might naturally
be expected, however, she communicated all to the Lord
Deputy. At his Excellency's desire, the mayor, accom-
panied by a guard of soldiers, took possession of the
convent, and brought the abbess and some members of
her community to the Castle, to be interrogated there.
The abbess made such mild, dutiful, and judicious replies
to the questions put to her, that the Lord Deputy,
instead of carrying out the law in its rigour, as he
at first intended, and immediately transporting the
nuns, contented himself with ordering them to leave
Dublin within one month. Dividing themselves into
small parties, they were hospitably received by certain
Catholic families in the country, and maintained by
them until a convent could be built for their accom-
modation. The spot selected for the new convent was
on the shore of Lough Rea, one of the lakes forming the
course of the Shannon, near Athlone a low, damp, and
unhealthy site, but possessing the advantage, in those
days of persecution, of being remote and solitary. They
called this convent Bethlehem. In 1641, the nuns were
driven out of this retreat by the Cromwellian soldiers,
having to cross the lake precipitately ia boats, their
effects being plundered and their house burned. The
dispersed nuns fled, some to Wexford, and some to
Athlone; but ere long their convents in those towns
were also broken up. On this, some of their number
left the country and were received by houses of their
order in France and Spain. Others remained, living
with kind friends in the neighbourhood. These, in the
year 1648, succeeded in obtaining from the Corporation
of Galway the grant of an island in the river close to the
town, now called Nun's Island. Here they erected a
fine convent and cloisters ; but, four years afterwttfc,
on the surrender of Galway to the Cromwellians, these
THE POOR CLARES. 95
buildings were destroyed. Subsequently, the nuns
established a convent in Market Street, Galway, where
they received lay boarders ; so that the establishment
passed for a school rather than a religious house. With
various vicissitudes, they continued to reside in Galway,
six of their number removing to Dublin in 1712, and
founding a house there. In 1736, two of the Sisters
undertook the difficult and perilous task of travelling
from Galway to London, to obtain a grant of a small plot
of land on their island, which had become vested in the
Crown. Lady Hamilton, one of the ladies of the bed-
chamber, was cousin to one of them ; and contrived
that they should obtain a private audience of Queen
Caroline, wife of George II. Their mission was suc-
cessful, and the community have held the ground
ever since. It was only in 1825, however, that they
altogether removed there, having erected a new convent,
chapel, and poor schools ; and thus, through their
perseverance, and strong faith, the Poor Clares are
firmly established on the hallowed ground of Nuns'
Island. Similar histories are attached to the Sisters
of Saint Dominic, and other communities of the ancient
orders of nuns in Ireland.
In 1804 the Dublin Poor Clares removed from Dorset
Street to Harold's Cross. About this time, at the re-
quest of some ladies, governesses of an Orphan asylum
inHendrick Street, they undertook the charge of female
orphans. In doing so, they felt that it was a duty they
owed to God and their neighbour, to open their cloister,
and give shelter to the innocent unprotected children
of their native land, as far as the means at their dis-
posal would permit. To enable the nuns to devote
themselves to the care and instruction of poor children,
various mitigations of the original rule were granted
by the Holy See. These mitigations, made with the
permission of the Sovereign Pontiff, were deemed neces-
sary modifications, demanded by the necessities of time,
place, and other circumstances ; but they did not affect
96 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the substance of the rule, or give it any other spirit
than that of Saint Clare. Owing to the unhappy state
of the country, and the want of Catholic education, at
this period, all, or nearly all, the contemplative orders
in Ireland, were obliged to take charge of schools, which
entailed a modification, greater or less, of their primitive
rules.
In 1830, the convent of Newry was established, being
a filiation of Harold's Cross.
Cavan and Kenmare were founded in 1861; the
former by Sisters partly from Harold's Cross, and partly
from Newry; the latter by Sisters altogether from
Newry. Keady, near Armagh, was a filiation from Newry
in 1871 ; as was Ballyjamesduff from Cavan in 1872.
Galway, as we have seen, is a very ancient foundation.
The Irish Poor Clares most successfully conduct seve-
ral large primary schools. Those of Kenmare deserve
special notice. The beautiful lace made in this con
vent, and sold for the benefit of the pupils, realises
about 500 a-year. The 'Kenmare publications,' so
widely circulating, are the work of a member of this
community, ' the Nun of Kenmare,' who has done so
much for religion and literature. The Poor Clares of
Cavan conduct Saint Joseph's certified Industrial School,
in which there are 84 girls under detention, and 8
voluntary inmates. The Sisters of Harold's Cross num-
ber 90 girls in their orphanage. As this school is not
under the National Board of Education, it is managed
altogether by the nuns, who maintain, clothe, educate,
and ultimately provide for their charge. When fit to be
placed out, the children are, for the most part, appren-
ticed to trades, unless in case of girls with one parent
living, who are given up to the surviving parent This
orphanage is for the children of respectable people,
who have fallen into poverty. Attached to the orphan-
age is a primary school at which the average daily attend-
ance is 120. The poor children attending it are clothed
and fed, as far as the means available permit
THE POOR CLARES. 97
As there is no generalate of the order, the several
convents of Poor Clares are independent of each other,
and subject to the immediate jurisdiction of the respec-
tive bishops.
The habit of the Poor Claref was originally gray.
It is now brown, with a cord as a girdle, over which
they wear a cloak of the same colour, in church cere-
monies.
CHAPTER IX.
THE FRANCISCAN NUNS.
WE have already seen, that there are religious, as well
as lay Tertiaries. 1 Of the former are these nuns. Their
foundress was Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, duchess of
Thuringia, who died in 1231. Branches of this order
are the Franciscaines Hospitalieres, and Secure Grises,
in imitation of whom Saint Vincent de Paul instituted
his Sisters of Charity. Hospital duties enter largely
into the occupations of the Franciscan nuns. In the
United Kingdom they have twelve convents, eleven in
Great Britain, and one in Ireland. Young ladies' and
middle-class boarding and day schools, female orphan-
ages, homes for young girls, industrial schools these
are the works in which they are engaged in the midst
of us. To these has been recently added another great
work of charity that of the Franciscan Missionary
Convent, opened at Mill Hill by Archbishop Manning
in July 1872 ; the object being to train nuns, to go out
to work with the Missionary Fathers of Saint Joseph,
among the Indians in America, and the negroes on the
East Coast of Africa. This is indeed a blessed work,
whether we regard the self-sacrifice it imposes, or its
beneficial results ; for in the training of girls and
women, and the instruction of children on foreign mis-
sions, the ministrations of nuns are invaluable, nay in-
dispensable.
The oldest community of Franciscan nuns in England
is that of Taunton, of which the following brief account
1 Vide Supra, p. 53.
THE FRANCISCAN NUNS. 99
will I doubt not, prove interesting to my readers. In
\ 6 ^ wa s established the En S lish ^anciscan convent
of Saint Elizabeth at Brussels. The first Mother Supe-
rior was Mrs Elizabeth Wilcox.* In 1637, the commu-
nity removed to Nieuport, on account of the hi^h cost of
living in Brussels. In 1662, they proceeded to Bruges
where they opened a school for young ladies. Here they
remained until 1794, when they were compelled by the
French Revolution to take refuge in England Arriv-
ing in London on the 7th of August, they established
themselves, within the same year, in the Abbey House
Winchester. In 1808, they removed to Taunton in
Somersetshire, where they have ever since resided This
convent has now, for nearly three-quarters of a century
>een an invaluable educational institution for Catholic
girls ot the higher classes in these kingdoms
The convent of Woodchester, near Stroud, is a filiation
ot launton. It was established, in August 1860 bv a
solony of twelve choir nuns and four lay sisters ' The
community has since then considerably increased and
is busily engaged in conducting a poor school, a female
orphanage, and a work-class for young women. In this
last department the nuns effect much good, in counter-
ictmg the dangers to female youth inseparable from the
factory system.
Particulars of the other Franciscan convents in these
countries will be found in another chapter. 2
fromi623t M C nfeSS r to this community
from 1623 to 1630. In 1634, he was sent on the mission in England
where he laboured nine years, and was martyred for the Faith, on the
rwrfttX his nand. *"" ** ~
3 Chapter XXXIII. Statistics of Convents.
(100)
CHAPTER X.
THE DOMINICAN NUNS.
THE First Order of Saint Dominic is that of the Friars
or religious men, founded by him in 1215. His Second
Order is that of nuns, bound by a law of enclosure,
which he founded about the same time, with the ap-
proval of Pope Honorius III. The Third Order is that
of religious Tertiaries, already described. 1 These last
are not bound to enclosure; and add to their other
functions the visitation of the hospitals, and the sick
poor in their own homes.
There are fifteen convents of Dominicanesses in the
United Kingdom ; eight in England, and seven in
Ireland. The English convents are all of the Third
Order save one, that of Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight, which
is of the second. All the Irish convents are of the
second order. 2
Young ladies' and middle-class boarding schools, ex-
tensive primary schools for girls, infant schools, night
schools, Sunday schools, female orphanages, creches,
hospitals for incurables, and an admirably conducted
female Deaf and Dumb Asylum, are the works which
principally engage the devoted zeal of the Sisters in
these countries. In England, they undertake, in addi-
tion, the visitation of the sick poor.
There were several houses of Dominican nuns in
Ireland before the suppression of religious houses by
1 Vide supra, page 53.
2 The full particulars of all these will be found in Chapter XXXIII.,
Statistics of Convents.
THE DOMINICAN NUNS. 101
Henry VIII. In England, there appears to have been
very few. The oldest convent in the United Kingdom
is that of the Dominicanesses in Galway, having been
founded in 1644-47. This community, like that of the
Poor Clares, passed through many persecutions, dangers,
and vicissitudes, and, for many years, barely preserved
the thread of its existence.
In the year 1717, on the invitation of the Most
Eeverend Doctor Byrne, Archbishop of Dublin, eight
of the professed sisters of the Dominican convent of
Galway proceeded to Dublin, to found a convent there.
They arrived in March, and resided, till the following
September, in Fisher's Lane, when they removed to the
convent prepared for them in Channel How (now North
Brunswick Street), which they opened under the title of
the convent of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Here the com-
munity prospered, and we have an account of them,
some forty years later, numbering eight and twenty
nuns, and engaged in the important work of education.
The prioress then was Mrs Elizabeth de Burgho.
In 1808, they were compelled to abandon this con-
vent and retire to Clontarf, where they remained about
eleven years. On the 12th of December 1819, being
reduced to five professed sisters and one novice, they
took possession of their present convent, Saint Mary's,
Cabra, Mother Anne Columba Maher being the first
prioress.
In the year 1831-32, this convent was placed by
the Holy See under the sole authority and jurisdiction
of the Most Reverend Doctor Murray, Archbishop of
Dublin, and his successors.
During the last thirty years, the nuns of Cabra have,
either directly or indirectly, founded thirteen independent
houses of the order, in Ireland, South Africa, North
America, and Australia; viz., Blackrock near Dublin,
<&vith its filiations, Dunedin, New Zealand, and Port
Elizabeth, Cape Colony ; Kingstown, county of Dublin,
with its filiations, Maitland, and Newcastle, New South
102 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Wales, and Wicklow ; Belfast; New Orleans, two
houses Cape Town, two houses ; and Adelaide, South
Australia. Cabra has also affiliated the Irish Domini-
can convent of Bom Successo, Lisbon, founded in 1635
by the Countess Iria de Brito, for the reception of Irish
subjects. In these fifteen convents, there are one hundred
and eighty-nine choir sisters and fifty-six lay sisters,
while the different works attached to the several com-
munities are all in a nourishing condition, and evidently
blessed by God.
There was only one convent of English Dominican
nuns established on the Continent in the days of perse-
cution. This was founded, towards the end of the
seventeenth century, in Belgium, by Father Philip
Thomas Howard of the Order of Preachers, a member
of the Norfolk family, and afterwards Cardinal Howard. 1
Being acquainted with some English ladies in London
and some others in Belgium, desirous to embrace the
religious life, in the Second Order of Saint Dominic, he
proceeded, with the sanction of Pope Alexander VII.,
to make a foundation for them, at Vilvorde near Brus-
sels. In this he was aided by the neighbouring com-
munity of Dominican nuns at Tempsche, who spared
for the purpose two choir sisters and one lay sister ;
and these, with his own cousin Antonia Howard, and
1 Cardinal Philip Thomas Howard, third son of Henry Frederick,
Earl of Arundel, was born in 1629. He entered the Dominican Order
in 1645, taking the name Thomas, in religion, out of devotion to Saint
Thomas Aquinas. In 1662, he waa appointed first chaplain to Queen
Catherine of Braganza, on her marriage to Charles II., and in 1665 he
was named Lord Almoner to the Queen. He received his Cardinal's
hat, in 1675. He died in 1694. He is described as follows by Pepys,
in his Diary, speaking of his visit to Saint James's, to see the organ,
January 23, 1666-67. ' I took iny lord Brouncker with me, he being
acquainted with my present lord almoner, Mr Howard, brother of the
duke of Norfolk. . . . The almoner seems
man. He discoursed much of the goodness of
and of the great buildings which the Pope (wh
calls Anti-Christ) hath done in his time.' See ' Life of Cardinal
Howard,' by Fr. C. F. Raymond Palmer, 0. P. London, Richardson,
18C7.
nowara, orotner c
is a good-natured gentle-
f the musique in Rome ;
vhom, in mirth to us, he
THE DOMINICAN NUNS. 103
another novice, Elizabeth Boyle, of the family of the
Earls of Cork and Burlington, formed the young com-
munity. 1 The new convent was opened in the year
1661 ; and immediately received several other English
ladies, as novices. The first prioress was Sister Louise
de Hertoghe, of the convent of Tempsche. In 1690,
the community removed to Brussels. Here they re-
mained until 1794, when they were compelled preci-
pitately to fly, by the French Eevolution. They reached
London in July 1794 ; and, after seven weeks' sojourn
there, they established themselves at Hartpury Court,
near Gloucester, generously placed at their disposal by
two ladies of the Berkeley family. 2 They resided forty-
five years in this venerable mansion, when it became so
dilapidated by age as to be pronounced unsafe. They then
removed to a new convent, that of ' the Eosary,' built
for their accommodation at Atherstone in Warwickshire ;
and thence, in June 1858, to Hurst Green, near Whal-
ley, in Lancashire. 3 In December 1866, they left Hurst
Green for their present residence, Carisbrooke, Isle of
Wight, a fine spacious convent, presented to them by
the Countess of Clare.
1 Miss Howard was the youngest daughter of Colonel Thomas
Howard of Tursdale in the county of Durham, of the family of the
Howards of Carlisle. She died on October 8, 1661 ; and, after some
time, was replaced by her elder sister Catherine, professed in 1668.
Miss Boyle, the daughter of Thomas Boyle, Esq., was born in Ireland,
in 1624. Educated a Protestant, she became a Catholic, in Belgium,
where she had fixed her residence. This lady was appointed second
prioress of the convent of Vilvorde in 1667, and held the office over
thirty years. To her the success of the foundation was mainly due.
' Life of Cardinal Howard,' by Fr. C. F. llaymond Palmer, 0. P., pp.
120-123.
2 Lady Southwell and Mrs Robert Canning of Foxcote, Warwick-
shire, daughters of John Berkeley, Esq. of Henlip, and sisters of Robert
Berkeley, Esq. of Spetchley.
3 The residence and gift of Richard Parker, Esq., father of one of
the nuns.
(104)
CHAPTER XL
THE SEKVITE NUNS OF THE THIRD ORDER.
WE have already seen that the Servites of Mary are
divided into the First Order, composed of religious men,
the second, of nuns who are cloistered, and the third, of
Tertiaries or nuns of the Third Order. Of these last,
who are not cloistered and devote themselves to extern
works of charity, there are three convents in the "United
Kingdom. They were instituted in Florence, towards
the latter end of the thirteenth century, by Saint^Philip
Benizi and Saint Juliana Falconieri. The rule is that
of Saint Augustine, to which the founders addad con-
stitutions, afterwards solemnly approved of by Pope
Martin V. These nuns are called Mantellafce (Mantled)
in contradistinction to the Second Order, and because
they wear a large black mantle, which covers the head
like a veil and comes down to the feet. This mantle is
worn in choir, and when the nuns go out. The habit
consists of a black tunic, and scapular (the scapular of
the Seven Dolours), a plaited linen wimple and black
veil, lined with white and showing a white border, a
leathern belt round the waist and hanging down on the
left side, and the rosary of the Seven Dolours depend-
ing on the right side. On the scapular in front, over
the heart, is an image of the Sacred Host, and under
this is worn the crucifix. The mantle described above
and the gold ring of Profession, worn on the right hand,
complete the costume.
Some of the houses of these nuns, in Italy, now un-
fortunately suppressed by the Government, were under
THE SERVITE NUNS OF THE THIRD ORDER. 105
the General of the order who resides in Rome ; but the
branch established in England, and which had its origin
in France about thirty years ago, was, by Papal decree
in 1864, placed under the direction of a Mother Gene-
ral who has authority, subject to the Bishop of the
diocese, over all houses founded by the Mother House.
Besides the Mother House, which is Saint Mary's Priory,
Saint Ann's Road, Stamford Hill, there are five con-
vents under the Mother General. These are Arundel,
Sussex ; Everingham, Yorkshire ; one near Paris, in the
diocese of Versailles ; and two in North America.
The objects of the institute are, the education of the
poor ; orphanages ; work-rooms ; visiting the poor and
sick ; propagating the devotion to Our Lady of Dolours;
the instruction of converts ; and also the education of
the superior classes,
The holy foundress, a member of the family of
Falconieri, one of the noblest in Italy, and delicately
nurtured, devoted herself, for fifty years, to the per-
formance of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy ;
especially instructing the ignorant ; attending on the
sick poor, from among whom she generally selected for
her own special care those afflicted with leprosy, scor-
butic ulcers, and other loathsome diseases ; reconciling
enemies, in which she had wonderful success in those
days of dissension and faction ; and inculcating modesty
in dress and propriety of demeanour on the youth of
her own sex. She died in 1340, in the seventieth year
of her age. The particulars of the three Servite con-
vents in the United Kingdom will be found in Chapter
XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
(106)
CHAPTER XII.
THE BRIDGETTINES.
THIS order, which is also called, of Our Saviour, was
founded in Sweden, in the year 1344, by Saint Bridget,
a member of the royal family, and widow of Ulpho
prince of Nericia. The rule is that of Saint Augustine,
with some special constitutions added. It was confirmed
by Pope Martin V. The chief objects prescribed by it
are, devotion to the Passion of Christ, and the honour of
His holy Mother. There was formerly one great house
of this order in England ; Sion House on the Thames, in
Middlesex, ten miles from London, founded by Henry V.
in 1414. This community, after passing through many
dangers and vicissitudes, still exists, and its history is of
peculiar interest, as it is the only community of English
mms which has survived the suppression of religious
houses by Henry VIII. It was one of the first houses
dissolved by Henry ; when the nuns retired to Dermoud
in Flanders. They were recalled and re-established at
Sion House by Queen Mary, in 1557. On the accession
of Elizabeth, they were again compelled to leave the
country, and, with their abbess Catherine Palmer, re-
turned to Dermoud in 1559. Here they remained until
1563, when they took possession of a house given them
by the Duchess of Parma in Zierickzee, in the island of
Shouwen, province of Zeeland ; but, the climate being
damp and especially unhealthy for strangers, they were
obliged to leave ; and, after a residence of five years in
the neighbourhood of Antwerp, and of eight years in
Malines, they settled at Rouen in 1580. At Rouen tlu-y
THE BKIDGETTINES. 107
obtained a suitable house, and built a church ; and they
were voted by the Parliament of France an annual
allowance, in addition to the pension of 1200 florins
which they received from Spain. However, on the
accession of Henry IV., they were regarded with Dis-
favour, their allowance was withdrawn, and, after some
time, they deemed it advisable to leave the country. In
1594, they reached Lisbon, where they met a cordial
reception, and were granted an annual pension and
other aid by King Philip II. Their convent was
established in the neighbourhood of the city, on a
site presented to them by a noble lady. In this quiet
retreat they continued to dwell in security, until the
year 1810, when, owing to the unsettled state of the
Continent, some of their number sought refuge in Eng-
land. These ladies opened a school at Peckham in
Surrey, giving their residence the time-honoured name
of Sion House. In 1814 they removed to Somerstown,
and thence, in 1822, to Cobridge Cottage, near Newcastle-
under-Lyme, which, in 1829, they left for Aston Hall,
near Stone; and, the nuns gradually dying off, the
community became extinct, about the year 1837. The
Lisbon house, however, continued to flourish; and, in
1861, it sent over some sisters who are now established
at Sion House, Spetisbury, Dorset, where they conduct
female poor-schools.
Thus, these ladies trace an unbroken succession from
the community founded at Sion House, on the Thames,
by Henry V., in 1414.
The habit of the Bridgettine Nuns is of an iron-gray
colour, over which, in choir, they wear a cowl and
mantle. On the head is worn a black veil, and a white
linen crown, upon which are sewed five pieces of red
cloth, in the form of a cross in memory of the crown
of thorns and the five wounds of Our Lord.
(108)
CHAPTEK XIII.
A HEROINE OF CHARITY.
She felt in her spirit the summons of grace,
That called her to live for her suffering race,
And, heedless of pleasure, of comfort, of home,^
Rose quickly like Mary, and answered ' I come.'
GERALD GRITFTS.
IN the small early hours of a spring morning of the
year 1750, a heavy, lumbering carriage rolled over the
uneven pavement of the quartier Saint Germain of the
French capital, awaking the echoes of the still sleeping
city. The beams of the rising sun had not yet struggled
over the horizon, to light up the spires and towers and
lofty housetops, but the cold, gray dawn was far ad-
vanced. The occupants of the carriage were an Irish
young lady of two-and-twenty and her chaperon, a
French lady, both fatigued and listlessly reclining in
their respective corners. They had lately formed part
of a gay and glittering crowd in one of the most
fashionable Parisian salons. As they moved onward,
each communing with her own thoughts, in all probabi-
lity reverting to the brilliant scene they had just left,
and anticipating the recurrence of many more such, the
young lady's attention was suddenly attracted by a
crowd of poor people standing at the yet unopened door
of a parish church. They were workpeople, waiting for
admission by the porter, in order to hear mass before
they entered on their day's work.
The young lady was forcibly struck. She reflected
ou the hard lot of those children of toil, their meagre
A HEROINE OF CHARITY. 109
fare, their wretched dwellings, their scanty clothing,
their constant struggle to preserve themselves and their
families, even in this humble position a struggle in
many a case unavailing, for sickness, or interruption of
employment, or one of the many other casualties inci-
dental to their state, might any day sink them still
deeper in penury. She reflected seriously on all this ;
and then she dwelt on their simple faith, their humble
piety, their thus 'preventing the day to worship God.'
She contrasted their lives with those of the gay votaries
of fashion and pleasure, of whom she was one. She
felt dissatisfied with herself, and asked her own heart,
might she not be more profitably employed. Her
thoughts next naturally reverted to her native land,
then groaning under the weight of persecution for con-
science' sake its religion proscribed, its altars over-
turned, its sanctuaries desolate, its children denied,
under grievous penalties, the blessings of free education.
She felt at once that there was a great mission to be
fulfilled, and that, with God's blessing, she might do
something towards its fulfilment. For a long time she
dwelt earnestly on what we may now regard as an
inspiration of Heaven. She fervently commended tlu;
matter to God, and took the advice of learned and
pious ecclesiastics ; and the result was that great work
which has ever since been, as it is in our day, a source
of benediction and happiness to countless thousands of
poor families in her native land, and has made the name
of Nano Nagle worthy of a high place on the roll of
the heroines of charity.
Miss Honora Nagle was born at Ballygriffin, on the
banks of the Blackwater, near Mallow, in the year 1728.
Her father, Garrett Nagle, Esq., was of the family of
Sir Richard Nagle, knight of the shire for the County
of Cork, Attorney-General, and Speaker of the House of
Commons in the Parliament of King James II., which
sat in Dublin in 1689. 1 Her mother was one of the
1 In Smith's ' History of the County and City of Cork,' written in
110 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Mathews of Thomastown, a name since rendered
illustrious by the Apostle of Temperance. She was
also closely related to the Right Honourable Edmund
Burke. 1
Notwithstanding the pains and penalties attaching to
Irish Catholics who attempted to procure for their chil-
dren in foreign countries the education which was denied
them at home, she was sent by her parents to be edu-
cated in Paris. Her course being finished, she remained
on a visit with some friends there, and, in due time,
entered freely into the gaieties of that brilliant capital.
The fair young Irish girl, who, in the words of a cotem-
porary, ' united with an agreeable person the most en-
gaging manners and the more lasting attractions of a
cultivated mind,' was greatly admired, much sought
after, and nattered ; but, young and lively as she was,
her head was not turned. It is recorded of her that,
from her earliest years, she evinced such good sense and
piety that, when occasionally complaints were made of
her little faults, such as are incidental to childhood, her
father used to remark that his ' little Nano would yet
be a saint.'
At the period of which I now write, and, indeed, up
to near the close of the last century, the condition of the
Irish Catholic was truly deplorable. By the statute law,
he was prohibited the possession of landed property,
denied all political and municipal privileges, and jeal-
ously excluded from every avenue of social advance-
ment. It was only by sufferance he worshipped God,
in hidden places, according to the faith of his fathers,
and by sufferance he was able stealthily to educate his
1749, Ballygriffin is described as ' a pretty seat of Mr Nagle, lying on the
Blackwater, below which is the ruined church of Monanimy, with a
large chancel, and in it is a modern tomb of the Nagles.' The opposite
side of the river, lower down, is bounded by a part of Nagle's moun-
tains. In the same neighbourhood is Carrignaconny, a castle which
formerly belonged to Sir Richard Nagle. (Vol. i. pp. 341, 342.)
1 This eminent statesman, whose mother waa Mary, daughter of
Patrick Nagle, Esq., of Shanballyduff, was two years the junior of his
cousin.
A HEROINE OF CHARITY. Ill
children in that faith. Not only was his religion banned
by law, but, up to the year 1782, he was bound, under
pain of fine and imprisonment, to appear before two
justices of the peace, and testify on oath ' where and
when he heard the Popish mass celebrated, and also the
names of the persons celebrating and present at it.' 1
Up to the same period, Catholics, or, as they were
termed in the several statutes, Papists, were forbidden
to teach school, either publicly or in private houses,
except to the children of the family, under a penalty of
20 fine and three months' imprisonment. 2 They were
also prohibited sending their children to foreign countries
to be educated, under the penalty of disability to sue in
law or equity, or to be guardian, executor, or adminis-
trator, or to take a legacy, or deed of gift, or to bear
office, and forfeit of goods, and also lands for life. 3
It is true that latterly such enactments were but
rarely enforced ; but the Catholics of Ireland being
close on nine-tenths of the population of the country
felt that those enactments were the law of the land in
which they lived, and might at any moment be put in
motion against them. Therefore, their religious worship,
and the education of their children, were conducted in
fear and trembling. The state of affairs at the time will
be best illustrated by the following fact : On a Sunday
morning in the year 1745, while mass was being secretly
celebrated in a loft of an old store, in Cook Street, in
Dublin, the floor gave way, and the officiating priest,
Father FitzGerald, and nine of his congregation were
1 8th Anne, c. 3, sec. 21, A.D. 1709. 'Irish Statutes,' vol. iv.
p. 201.
* 7th William III., c. 4, sec. 9, A.D. 1695.' Irish Statutes,' vol. iii.
p. 259. This law was not repealed until 1782, when the 21st & 22nd
of George III. c. 62, was passed, being ' An Act to allow persons pro-
fessing the Popish religion to teach school in this kingdom, and for
regulating the education of Papists, and also to repeal parts of certain
laws relative to the guardianship of their children.' 'Irish Statutes,'
vol. xii. p. 388.
3 7th William III., c. 4, sec. 1, A.D. 1695.' Irish Statutes,' vol. iii.
p. 254.
112 TERRA INCOGNITA.
killed, and several others were severely injured. On
this, the Viceroy, Lord Chesterfield, 1 declared that, the
law to the contrary notwithstanding, the Catholics
should be allowed to open their chapels, and, accord-
ingly, some relaxation took place, as far as Divine wor-
ship was concerned. The difficulties of education, how-
ever, continued as great as ever.
The poor naturally suffered most from this ill-judged
tyranny. The rich might themselves teach their chil-
dren, or they might have teachers to attend them in
their own homes. But the poor had no such advan-
tages. Teaching school by a papist was a serious offence
in law, and, in the few rare cases in which it was
attempted, was overlooked only through the kind feel-
ing of the authorities. Hence to realize her idea was
a matter of no small difficulty and risk to our Irish
young lady. That idea was the gradual opening of
schools for poor girls in the south of Ireland, an idea
which, in the course of time, was further developed in
the daring project of the re-establishment of conventual
institutions, as the best machinery for the education of
the female youth of the country.
The difficulties of Miss Nagle's undertaking were very
much increased by the necessity of keeping it secret
from even the members of her own family. For,
although steadfast Catholics, they would naturally be
apprehensive of the fatal results, likely to accrue to
themselves, of any relative of theirs so flagrantly violat-
ing the law as to open a ' Popish ' school and teach
therein. How, undeterred by the gravest discourage-
ments and dangers, she ventured stealthily to open her
first little school ; how she struggled on for a long time
almost single-handed in her noble work ; how, from
early dawn till late at night, she taught, and laboured,
1 Philip Dormer, the fourth and celebrated Earl of Chesterfield,
served as Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland from August 31, 1745, to Sep-
tember 13, 1747.
A HEROINE OF CHARITY. 113
and spent herself for those poor neglected girls, whom
a sadly mistaken spirit of legislation would keep in
darkness and ignorance for ever ; how, as if by the
design of Divine Providence, her wealthy uncle be-
queathed to her his ample fortune, and thus opportunely
supplied her with means most wanted for the accom-
plishment of her plans ; how she prevailed on four Irish
young ladies of her acquaintance to enter the novitiate
of the Ursulines in Paris, and thus qualify themselves
for the establishment of a convent for educating poor
girls in the city of Cork ; how, this machinery proving
insufficient, she further founded the Order of the Pre-
sentation ; how, for many weary years, she toiled, and
prayed, and suffered for this her darling project ; and
how, at length, she rejoiced in its realization all these
details may best be read in her simple, unaffected cor-
respondence, which she never thought would see the
light, but which, fortunately, has been preserved and
published. 1
A few extracts will, I am sure, prove not uninterest-
ing to my readers.
I take the first from a letter, dated Cork, July 17,
1769, written to her friend, Miss Fitzsimons, then
making her novitiate in the Ursuline Convent of Saint
Jacques, Paris, for the projected foundation in Cork.
She tells her friend, who had requested she would give
her a particular account of how she began her schools,
that, with a view to carrying out the project, she ac-
cepted a very kind invitation of her sister-in-law to live
with her in the city of Cork. She then proceeds :
When I arrived, I kept my design a profound secret, as I knew
if it were spoken of I should meet with opposition on every side,
particularly from my own immediate family ; as, to all appear-
ance, they would suffer from it. My confessor was the only
person I told of it ; and, as I could not appear in the affair, I
1 These letters will be found, in extenso, in the full and ably-written
' Life of Nano Nagle,' by the Very Reverend Dominic Murphy, Catholic
Dean of Cork.
H
114 TERRA INCOGNITA.
sent my maid to get a good mistress, and to take in thirty poor
girls. When the little school was settled, I used to steal there
in the morning. My brother thought I was at the chapel. Thia
passed on very well until, one day, a poor man came to him, to
speak to me to take his child into my school ; on which he came
in to his wife and me, laughing at the conceit of a man who was
mad, and thought I was in the situation of a schoolmistress.
Then I owned that I had set up a school ; on which he fell into
a violent passion, and said a vast deal on the bad consequences
that may follow. His wife is very zealous, and so is he ; but
worldly interests blinded him at first. He was soon reconciled to
it. He was not the person I most dreaded would be brought
into trouble about it : it was my uncle Nagle, who is, I think,
the most disliked by the Protestants, of any Catholic in the
kingdom. I expected a great deal from him. The best part of
the fortune I have I received from him. When he heard it he
was not at all angry at it; and, in a little time, they were so
good as to contribute largely to support it. And I took iu
children by degrees, not to make any noise about it in the
beginning. In about nine months I had about two hundred
children. When the Catholics saw what service it did, they
begged that, for the convenience of the children, I would set up
schools at the other end of the town from where I was, to be
under my care and direction; and they promised to contribute
to the support of them. With this request I readily complied,
and the same number of children that 1 had were taken in; and,
at the death of my uncle, I supported them all at my own
expense. I did not intend to take boys, but my sister-in-law
made it a point, and said she would not allow any /of my family
to contribute to them unless I did so; on which! got a master,
and took in only forty boys. They are in a house by then*-
selves, and have no communication with the others. At present,
however, I have two schools for boys and five for girls. The
former learn to read, and, when they have the Douav catechism
by heart, they learn to write and cipher. There are three schools
where the girls learn to read, and when they have the catechism
by heart, they learn to work. They all hear mass every day, say
their morning and night prayers, and say their catechism in each
school, by question and answer, all together. Every Saturday
they all say the beads, the grown girls every evening. They go
to confession every month, and to communion when their con-
fessor thinks proper. The schools are opened at eight; at twelve
the children go to dinner; at five they leave school I prepare a
set for first communion twice a year, and I may truly say it is
the only thing that gives me any trouble. In the first place, I
think myself very incapable ; and, in the beginning, being
obliged to speak for upwards of four hours, and my chest not
A HEROINE OF CHARITY. 115
being as strong as it had been, I spat blood, which. I took care
to conceal, for fear of being prevented from instructing the
poor. It has not the least bad effect now. When I have done
preparing them at each end of the town, I feel myself like an
idler that has nothing to do, though I speak almost as much as
when I prepared them for their first communion. I find not the
least difficulty in it. I explain the catechism, as well as I can,
in one school, or other, every day; and if every one thought as
little of labour as I do, they would have little merit. I often
think my schools will never bring me, to heaven, as I only take
delight and pleasure in them. You see it has pleased the
Almighty to make me succeed, when I had everything,' as I
may say, to fight against. I assure you I did not expect a
farthing from any mortal towards the support of my schools;
and I thought I should not have more than fifty or sixty girls,
until I got a fortune; nor did I think I should have had a school
in Cork. I began in a poor humble manner; and, though it
pleased the Divine will to give me severe trials in this founda-
tion, yet it is to show that it is His work, and has not been
effected by human means. I can assure you, my schools are be-
ginning to be of service to a great many parts of the world.
This is a place of great trade. They are heard of; and my views
are not for one object alone. If I could be of service in saving
souls in any part of the globe, I would do all in my power.
It is more than a hundred years since this letter was
written. In its graphic and affecting lines we have pre-
sented to us a pleasing picture of these several schools,
crowded with poor children, yearning for knowledge,
struggling towards that light from which the Penal Code
would exclude them ; anxious parents beseeching the
good lady to admit their little ones into the happy circle
of her pupils ; the teachers stealthily, and, in many an
instance, tremblingly, performing those duties which
might at any moment subject them to 20 fine and
three months' imprisonment ; the surprise and delight
of the entire Catholic population at the success of that
which we are told was ' His work, and not effected by
human means ;' their request to have the schools ex-
tended, and ready promise of subscriptions to support
them ; and, though last not least, the presiding spirit of
the good work, passing from one school to another, at
opposite ends of the city, re-animating by her presence
116 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the zeal of the teachers, dissipating their fears, instruct-
ing the poor girls, preparing them for the sacraments,
speaking for upwards of four hours daily, until her
health gives way, and then concealing her illness from
her family, lest her work of charity should suffer any
interruption. How different is all this from the free-
dom of religious worship and wide-spread education of
the present day !
Under such circumstances, it is evident that, a cen-
tury ago the city of Cork presented a large field for the
eminently practical charity of Miss Nagle. Her schools
engaged her attention from eight o'clock in the morning
until five in the evening. But the closing of the schools
did not terminate her labours of the day. There were
children to be looked after in different parts of the city
some confined by illness, and others absent from
school, through the carelessness of their parents. More-
over, there were several grown girls requiring counsel
and instruction; there were sick poor to be visited;
and there were aged women to be called on, a class
which she made her peculiar care, and for which she
eventually established an asylum, still subsisting. Then
there was her monthly collection to support her schools,
organized and conducted by herself. 1
At the time, there were no public lamps in the streets
of Cork, and several spots were dangerous, owing to the
ruinous state of the parapet walls along the canals.-
Besides, there were frequent street riots and robberies
at night. Yet these dangers did not deter her ; and, on
many a cold winter's morning before dawn, going to
Mass at the Cathedral, then called the ' North Chapel/
1 She conducted this collection in a most systematic manner, calling
at each house, about the same hour, and on the same day every month.
She would not accept more than 1. British, being 1. Id. Irish cur-
rency, a month, from any subscriber, on the] principle that a moderate
subscription was more likely to be persevered in than one of a large
amount.
1 We find the following in the ' Hibernian Chronicle ' of November
22nd, 1770 : ' A correspondent observes that since the lamps have
been set aside ia this city, a number of people have been drowned, who
A HEROINE OF CHAKITY. 117
and, on many a bleak winter's evening, visiting her poor
clients, she might be seen, moving along in wind and
rain, carrying a lantern in one hand and holding her
cloak tightly around her with the other. 1 No matter
what lawless characters might be abroad, it may well
be conceived no one would molest her. There is some-
thing in the human heart which intuitively recognizes
and pays homage to true greatness of soul that great-
ness which, wholly divested of self, labours, and endures,
and lives only for one's indigent and suffering fellow-
creatures. And thus, oftentimes, when that poorly-clad
figure appeared, although sensitively shrinking from
observation, it is recorded that the brawler's voice was
instantly hushed, and many a head was reverently un-
covered, and many a fervent blessing followed in her
path, as she silently passed along, on her mission of
charity.
May we not well imagine, too, that more than one
child of sin and shame was converted by such an ex-
ample ; that the careless liver, when he beheld this
delicately-nurtured lady thus sacrificing herself for the
welfare of her poorer fellow-creatures, became thence-
forward 'a wiser and a better man ;' and that, in many
a humble home, when the innocent little children re
turned from her schools, and repeated at night the
prayers which she had taught them, and, on first awak-
ing in the morning, offered their hearts and the actions
of the day to God, the better nature of the parents
asserted itself, and, strengthened and upheld by super-
in all probability might have been saved, if that useful and well-
appointed mode of lighting the streets had been continued.' The
greater part of the city of Cork is built on low alluvial land, between
the two main branches of the river, thus alluded to by Spenser :
The spreading Lee, that like an island fair,
Encloseth Cork with his divided flood.
Hence the name, from the Irish, Corcach, a marsh. It was formerly a
city of canals. These canals were all arched over, about the years 1783
to 1790.
1 Many years ago, I heard this from old persons, who, when children,
had seen Miss Nagle on such occasions.
118 TERRA INCOGNITA.
natural grace, led them to turn towards Him, for whom
she lived and laboured, and in whom, even though care-
less and erring they might be, they firmly believed? 1
That the amount of good thus indirectly effected by
Miss Nagle's labours was very great, may well be real-
ized by those who are familiar with the faith and devo-
tion of the Irish people. Strangers, on visiting Ireland,
are forcibly struck with these national characteristics,
whenever they enter a Catholic church or chapel, during
the time of Divine service. May it not be that these
qualities are the result of the severe and protracted
ordeal of persecution for conscience" sake through which
the country has passed ?
I visited two of the Catholic chapels (in Limerick), Saint
Michael's and Saint John's, both in the morning and afternoon,
during the time of service (says Sir John Forbes). Though they
were large, I found them not merely crowded, but literally
crammed, with people in their interior, and every passage and
doorway so completely filled, as to connect the living mass within
with a similar, though smaller, mass without ; indeed, the chapel
yard, in both places, was half-filled with people. In the interior,
not merely the benches around the walls (or which there seemed
to be only a single row), but the whole floor was packed as close
as it was possible for persons kneeling to be packed.
It was a striking sight, and not a little touching, to see these
children of poverty at their devotions ; kneeling, crouching,
many stretched at full length upon the ground as if dead ; others
striking their breasts, or holding up their hands fixedly in the
air, or counting their beads ; and all uttering their responses in
the most earnest tones, all apparently in that profound absorp-
tion of the faculties which indicates utter oblivion of everything
external. Many children were present, and exhibited as much
1 The author lately heard, from one of the nuns of the South Pre-
sentation Convent, Coik, the following interesting case in point: A
decent tradesman, in full employment, was in the habit of hurrying
out, every morning, to his work, without saying his morning prayers.
One day, he said to his wife ' I must reform. These dear children,
praying so fervently, have given me a lesson. I shall never again go
out without saying my morning prayers.' He is now a most exemplary
man, and a monthly communicant. ' The fathers,' said the good nun,
' invariably love their children, and it is through the silent unobtru-
sive example of the little ones that their hearts can best b reached.'
A HEROINE OF CHARITY. 119
fervour of devotion as their seniors. A few of the women had
books, more had rosaries, but the majority had neither.
No one, I think, could have looked along the mass of bowed-
down heads and prostrate bodies, that filled the floor and court-
yard of that humble chapel, all bearing, in their dress and general
appearance, the sign and superscription of the life whose lot is
poverty and privation, without deeply sympathizing with the
scene before him, and without acknowledging that, in the form
of Christianity here professed, as in any and all of its other
forms, the weary and the heavy-laden among its votaries can
find the rest and the relief which the same grand scheme proffers
alike to all. 1
To the same effect is the following testimony of a
distinguished French writer:
I have never found more faith, more resignation, or deeper
feelings of religion than in the Irish, and particularly those who
were the most unfortunate, and the most severely tried. They
love and revere all God's ministers, no matter from what part of
the world they come; and for the French missionaries in par-
ticular they have always manifested a peculiar attachment. The
Irish are the most generous people in the world, and the most
devoted to works of piety. In this respect there is no difference
between rich and poor. The poor sometimes give beyond their
means, and without ever reflecting that they thus deprive them-
selves of what is necessary to prevent them falling themselves
into distress and misery. This little digression is to me a duty
of gratitude towards this people, so much misunderstood and
calumniated, and in whom I have seen so much to admire and
esteem. 2
1 ' Memorandums made in Ireland in the Autumn of 1852,' by Sir
John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Her Majesty's Household,
vol. i. p. 173. Smith, Elder, & Co., 1853.
2 'Missionary Adventures in Texas and Mexico,' by the Abbe*
Domenech., Trans., p. 75. Longmans, 1858.
(120)
CHAPTER XIV.
THE URSULINES.
Where piety in a poor woman edifies her house, piety in a rich
woman edifies the homes of hundreds. BISHOP ComNOEB.
As years moved on, Miss Nagle's incessant labours
necessarily began to affect her constitution. Although
she bore up bravely, and, as we can gather from her
letters, persuaded herself that her health was excellent,
'the spitting of blood' and failing strength reminded
her that something must ere long be done to insure
the perpetuation of the good work after her lifetime.
She therefore resolved to put into execution as speedily
as possible her long cherished project of establishing
a convent in Cork, and to this object thenceforward,
without her schools being neglected, her fortune, her
energies, her untiring exertions were devoted. From
certain clergymen she received most valuable co-opera-
tion, especially from her confessor, the llev. Mr Doran,
S.J., and from the Abbe' Moylan, afterwards Catholic
Bishop of Cork. 1 Four Irish young ladies generously
consented to devote themselves to this arduous mission,
1 The Right Reverend Francis Moylan, D.D., a member of n highly
respectable Catholic family in Cork, was consecrated Bishop of Kerry
in 1775, and translated to Cork, in succession to Dr Butler, Lord
Dunboyne, in 1787. He died in 1815. 'The ardent zeal, the great
abilities, and the exemplary virtues of the Reverend Mr Doran are
highly extolled by a co-temporary, the Right Reverend Doctor
Coppiuger, Catholic Bishop of Cloyne. In the records of the year
1770, we find the names of the Reverend Messrs Moylan and Doran
associated with those of some of their Protestant fellow citizens in such
good works as the relief of imprisoned debtors, 4c.
THE URSULINES. 121
and, for the purpose, entered the novitiate, in the Ursu-
line Convent of Saint Jacques, Paris. Their names
were, Miss Fitzsimons, the special friend and corre-
spondent of the foundress ; Miss Nagle, her relative ;
Miss Coppinger, of the Barryscourt family, and cousin
of Marian, Duchess of Norfolk; 1 and Miss Kavanagh,
related to the noble house of Ormonde. Meanwhile,
Miss Nagle was busily engaged in Cork about her new
foundation. She built the convent in Douglas Street,
and made all the necessary arrangements for the recep-
tion of the young community. As a measure of prudence,
she proceeded in the affair, for a considerable time,
without the cognizance of even her own family, and
informed them of it only when it was in such a forward
state as to make success certain. This we learn from
her letter, written to Miss Fitzsimons, from Bath, on
July 20, 1770. She states that she had gone over for
the purpose of seeing her brothers, and informing them
of her project. She describes their amazement and
apprehension at first, but how, in the end, they rejoiced
at what she had done, when they found that the under-
taking gave such promise of success. ' It gives them
all great pleasure,' she continues, ' that I should be the
means of promoting such a good work, and my sisters-
in-law are as eager to get good subjects for it as we
could be. I hope you will approve of my manner of
acting, as the less noise is made about affairs of this
kind in this country the better.'
In another letter written to Miss Fitzsimons from
Cork, later in the same year, she expresses her anxiety
that the ladies making their novitiate in Paris for the
Cork house should fully qualify themselves as teachers,
in order to be able to impart suitable secular instruction
to the young ladies who would be sent to their pension-
school, 'as there is such a general complaint, both in
1 Marian, only daughter and heiress of John Coppinger, Esq., of
Bally volane, county of Cork, was married, in August 1767, to Charles
eleventh Duke of Norfolk, and died without issue in 1768.
122 TERRA INCOGNITA.
this kingdom and in England, that the children are
taught only to say their prayers. As for spiritual
matters, I am sure the nuns will take care of these.'
Towards the close of the spring of the year 1771, the
Abbe* Moylan proceeded from Cork to Paris, to conduct
the young community to its destination. As the four
young ladies had received only the white veil, and as
the mother-superior of a convent must be a professed
nun, a difficulty arose, when it was found that not one
of the French professed sisters of Saint Jacques was
willing to accompany them to Ireland. This might
well have been expected ; for, bad as were the penal
laws by which Ireland was then oppressed, foreigners
must naturally have entertained even exaggerated
notions of the dangers awaiting a religious community
daring to establish itself in that country. But the diffi-
culty was removed by the charity of an Irish lady, Mrs
Margaret Kelly, a professed nun of the Ursulines in
Dieppe, who consented to proceed to Cork with the
young community, and preside over them until their
profession, when one of their number could take her
place, and enable her to return to France.
After a protracted journey, very different in every
respect from the easy travelling of the present day, they
arrived at Cove, Cork Harbour, on May 9, 1771. Their
convent not being quite completed, they occupied mean-
while an adjoining house in Douglas Street. It was on
September 18, 1771, they entered their convent; and
this is the date of the establishment of the Ursuline
order in Ireland of the reintroductioii into the kingdom
of conventual institutions, suppressed at the Reforma-
tion. 1
The Ursuline order was founded at Brescia, a city of
northern Italy, by Saint Angela of Merici, in 1532, for
1 Some few convents, on a reduced scale, of Dominicanesses, Poor
Clares, and others, as we have seen, secretly existed in some parta
of Ireland ; but this special foundation of "Miaa Nagle, for educa-
tional purposes, may be regarded as the reintroduction or revival of
conventual institutions in the country.
THE TJRSULINES. 123
the education of young girls, rich and poor. It was
approved of by Pope Paul III., as a religious congrega-
tion, under the name of Saint Ursula, in 1544, and was
obliged to enclosure, and declared a religious order,
under the rule of Saint Augustine, by Gregory XIII.,
in 1572, at the solicitation of Saint Charles Borromeo,
Cardinal Archbishop of Milan. Its special function is
the education of young ladies, although there is gene-
rally a school for poor girls also, attached to each con-
vent of the order. The new Ursuline community of
Cork opened their school for young ladies in January
1772, commencing with twelve pupils. These numbers
rapidly and largely increased, as the opportunity was
eagerly availed of by parents in different parts of
Ireland, who previously had been obliged either to send
their children for education to the Continent, or to have
them taught in their own homes. The community also
took charge of Miss Nagle's poor-schools, adjoining the
convent.
It was not long before the attention of the authorities
was directed to this novel importation this daring
infraction of the law. Under the 9th of William III.,
chapter 1, the mayor and magistrates were all and
severally bound immediately to apprehend and commit
to prison these nuns, with a view to their transportation
out of the kingdom, and the suppression of their
nunnery. 1 They were further bound to give an account
in writing of their proceedings in execution of this
statute at the next quarter-sessions for the county of the
city, which should at such quarter-sessious be entered
and registered ; 2 and for the neglect of their duty in
the execution of the said statute, they were severally
liable to a fine of 100, which might be recovered by
action for debt, bill, plaint, or information, by any
common informer, one half of the fine to go to the King's
Majesty, and the other moiety to the informer or person
that should sue for the same ; and they were further
1 Sec. 8. ' Irish Statutes,' vol. iii. p. 343. * Sec. 9. Ibid.
124 TERRA INCOGNITA.
severally disabled from holding the office of justice of
the peace for life. 1
The question was fully discussed by certain leading
members of the Corporation, with a view to bringing it
formally before a full meeting of Council. Some of
those present proposed that the law should be enforced
against the new convent. The statute was quoted, and
the penalties were pointed out to which they were
severally liable for any neglect of their duty in this
matter ; and then it was argued, with much warmth,
that the introduction of nunneries into these kingdoms
was a direct invasion of Protestantism and a serious
danger to the Protestant succession. At first, there ap-
peared complete unanimity ; not one voice was raised
for the nuns ; the convent seemed doomed ; when
Alderman Francis Carleton, 2 a gentleman of good posi-
tion and considerable influence, ventured to suggest
more moderate counsels. He evidently must have felt
that the ladies in question were most usefully and
most meritoriously employed in instructing the poor of
their own religion; for how could the children of the
working classes be expected to grow up peaceable and
orderly citizens if they were allowed to remain in igno-
rance and vice ? It is not recorded that he urged this
view on his colleagues; but he certainly reminded
them that these ladies and their pupils in the pension
school, the children of wealthy parents, were benefiting
the trade of the city by spending their money there in-
stead of in France ; and he ridiculed the idea of any
danger to Protestantism or the Protestant succession
from a few ladies living together, if they chose, ' to
1 Sec. 10. ' Irish Statutes,' vol. iii. p. 343.
9 Mr Carleton was Mayor of Cork in 1780. On account of his great
influence in the city, he bore the soubriquet of ' King Carleton.' Hi
second son Hugh was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas in 1787, and created Baron Carleton in 1789, and Viscount in
1797. The title is now extinct A member of the same family, Chris-
topher Carleton, Esq., was collector of the port of Cork for King
William III. in 1690.
THE URSULINES. 125
teach poor children, drink tea, and say their prayers.
Several other members of the Corporation must have
entertained the same sentiments as Mr Carleton ; for
his good sense prevailed, and the nuns were not
molested.
Notwithstanding this, for the first eight years, it was
only on solemn festivals, with carefully closed doors,
that they ventured to wear the religious habit, which
they did not assume altogether until November 11,
1779.
The Cork "Orsuline community rapidly grew and
prospered. Several ladies immediately joined it. One
of the first was Miss Moylan, sister of the future bishop,
who entered in December 1771, in her eighteenth year.
She lived to the venerable age of 90, having spent
seventy-two years in the convent, and filled, several
times, the office of Mother Superior.
A branch of the order, a filiation of the Cork house,
was established in Thurles in 1789, and one in Water-
ford in 1816. There are also convents in Sligo and
Upton, near Stratford. All have large boarding schools
for young ladies, besides free schools for poor girls.
In 1825, the Cork Ursulines removed from the con-
vent in Douglas Street, originally built for their
reception by Miss Nagle, to a fine residence, with
extensive grounds attached, on the right bank of the
Lee, at Blackrock, about two miles below the city, as
being more suitable than the house they first occupied
for the main object of their institute the education of
young ladies.
All over the Continent, as in these countries, the
educational establishments of the Ursulines stand in
deservedly high repute.
It is scarcely necessary to enlarge on the great good
conferred on society by these and similar institutions,
engaged in educating for their position in after life the
daughters of the rich. In all parts of the United King-
dom, there are convents of various orders and congrega-
126 TERRA INCOGNITA.
tions employed in this important function. A young
lady educated in a convent, besides acquiring the
ordinary accomplishments and secular instruction so
admirably imparted therein, is also well grounded in
religion, and thoroughly imbued with those principles
of Christian piety which elevate and dignify the female
character. The influence of those principles will, in
due time, be diffused through the extensive circle of
her connections and dependents. By that influence her
children, her servants, her friends, her acquaintance,
will be all, more or less, beneficially affected ; and thus
will be realized the words quoted in the heading of this
chapter 'Where piety in a poor woman edifies her
house, piety in a rich woman edifies the homes of
hundreds.'
(127)
CHAPTER XV.
THE NUNS OF THE PRESENTATION.
Then infant reason grows apace, and calls
For the kind hand of an assiduous care.
Delightful task ! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot.
THOMSON.
GREATLY as Miss Nagle rejoiced at the success of her
foundation at the vast good certain to accrue from the
labours of the Ursuline institute in Cork, and its gradual
extension throughout the country she found, after a few
months' experience, that the order was not adequate to
meet the peculiar necessities of the times ; inasmuch as
its main function was the education of the children of
the rich, and, although the nuns laboured assiduously
in her beloved poor- schools, this with them was but
a secondary work, and they could not devote them-
selves to it exclusively, as she had intended they should,
without a violation of the constitutions of their order.
This was to her a grave disappointment ; and yet, in
the designs of Divine Providence, although she did
not see it at the time, the community whicli she had
established afterwards largely contributed, as indeed
it was essential, to the success of her great project ;
for it became the nursery of that order of which she
was yet to be the foundress, and, for many years,
furnished from among its pupils subjects for the several
convents of the Presentation in Ireland.
Ordinary persons would have remained quiescent
under these circumstances ; would have rested con-
128 TERRA INCOGNITA.
tent with the good so far accomplished ; would have
taken some repose from the arduous and incessant
labours that had been her lot for years. But pressed
by her charity for the multitude of poor girls, that
seemed, as it were, with outstretched arms, to implore
her aid, and, doubtless, inspired from on high, this
great and good woman, although her strength was
declining, for she was now approaching her fiftieth
year, and although the greater part of her means had
been expended in the Ursuline foundation, returned
with renewed ardour to the working-out of the great
object which she had so much at heart, and in which,
under God, as we shall now see, her perseverance was
crowned with signal success.
Retiring to a house next the new convent, along with
some pious ladies who had joined her for the purpose,
she formed a society, to be named ' Of the Presentation
of our Blessed Lady in the Temple.' The objects of
the society were going through the city, looking after
poor girls ; inducing them to attend school ; and in-
structing them in their religion ; and, further, visiting,
relieving, and consoling the sick poor in their own
homes, and in the public hospitals duties analogous
to those now discharged by the Sisters of Charity,
and Sisters of Mercy. This association, approved of
by the Bishop of the diocese, commenced its work
on Christmas day 1777, when fifty poor persons were
entertained at dinner by the foundress, who, with her
associates, waited on them at table. This practice she
continued for life.
About this time she established her Asylum for aged
females. The stranger now visiting the neighbourhood
of the South Presentation Convent in Cork, will be
struck by a handsome building of red stone, with
limestone dressings, abutting on the street, and, on
inquiry, will be informed that it is Miss Nagle's Asylum
for old women ; but who she was, his casual informant
will probably be unable to tell. For ninety years now,
f
THE NUNS OF THE PRESENTATION. 1 2 Q
this good work, like her other good works has bee
going on; and thus, during thSt lengthened period
many a respectable aged woman has been save d P from
either the workhouse or slow starvation, and enabled To
The establishment of a house of refuge for fallen
women, to be supported by the labour of the inmates
was her next undertaking; but this she was ?d
tmed to accomplish. H er mission had been already fu
filled ; and it was time she should be called to her reward
In the commencement of 1784, an incessant cou4 and
other ailments gave warning of her approaching
Thenceforward she rapidly declined; and on Aprif 26 of
that year fortified by the rites of the church and sur
rounded by her little community, to whom,' on be?n,"
urged to say something, she addressed, as her last S-
hortation the words, 'Love one another as you have"
hitherto done,' she calmly expired in the fifty sixth
year.of her age> and the ^^ of ^ ^^
It is not to be supposed that, in her latter years Miss
Nagle ceased to cherish her dear Ursulines. To the
with th ^ WaS o 61 great P leasure to co-operate
with them ; and, every Saturday, she devoted some time
chools r tf?r fi inStrUCti n Of th * ^ildren S the
schools. In the fine convent of the order at Blackrork
"e^leTdv" Sh tereStiDg life ' SiZed P-^ o k /S
venerable lady She is represented in a plain black
dress, with a white muslin cap, seated in the school-
room, and surrounded by a number of poor ai r l s whom
she is instructing. In the features milLssfnd benT
volence are the predominant characteristics Those who
are familiar with the history of her life, on'viewin' Ihis
portrait will naturally revert to the da y ; when theVu e
before them, a gray-headed woman, prematurely old and
very plainly attired, was a much-admired ' beU ^in the
salons of Pans, under the brilliant regime of Louis Xv!
130 TERRA INCOGKITA.
After Miss Nagle's death, the Sisters of the Presenta-
tion fully carried out the precepts, and acted up to the
example, bequeathed them by their beloved foundress.
So abundant was the fruit of their labours, that the
Bishops of other dioceses were anxious that the good
work should be extended to their flocks. With a view
to this, Dr Moylaii, Bishop of Cork, made application to
the Holy See for its approval of the congregation,
which, thus far, had existed only by episcopal sanction.
In the Catholic Church, no religious congregation can
be established without the sanction of the bishop of the
diocese. In the course of time, when the institute is
found to work well, and its extension is considered de-
sirable, application is made to the Pope for his ap-
proval. For this purpose His Holiness must be fully
informed and satisfied, as to its scope and objects, and
rules and constitutions.
Conformably with the petition thus made to him,
Pope Pius VI. addressed a brief, under date September
3, 1791, to Francis, Bishop of Cork, approving of the
pious institute of Charitable Instruction, established in
the city of Cork, and authorizing him to extend the
same to all other cities, towns, and places in Ireland,
with the consent of the ordinaries. 1 The brief directed
that the religious should observe rules and constitutions
approaching, as near as possible, to those of the Order of
Saint Ursula, and, also that, having completed the time
of probation, they should make simple vows of chastity,
poverty, and obedience, and a vow of persevering in the
said holy purpose of charitable instruction. The nature
of simple and solemn vows will be explained further on.
In a few years, the mother house in Cork sent forth
five colonies, which, among many others, are, to this
day, flourishing institutions; viz., to Killarney, in
1793 ; George's Hill, Dublin, in 1794 ; the northern dis-
trict of the city of Cork, in 1799 ; and Waterford and
Kilkenny, both in 1800.
1 Ordiuaries. Vide supra, page 71, note.
THE NUNS OF THE PRESENTATION. 131
In the year 1805, it appeared desirable to the Bishops,
and to the several communities themselves, that, to meet
the educational necessities of the times, as well as to
insure the consolidation and perpetuity of the institute,
it should be formed into a religious order, with solemn
vows and a law of enclosure, and should confine itself
exclusively to the work of charitable instruction, neces-
sarily omitting the visitation and relief of the sick poor
in the public hospitals and their own homes, which here-
tofore formed part of its objects. Accordingly, applica-
tion having been made to the Holy See, his Holiness
Pope Pius VII., on April 9, 1805, issued a brief ad-
dressed to his venerable brother, Francis Bishop of
Cork, approving of the members of the Institute of
Pious Instruction being transferred from the state of
members of a simple congregation to that of a religious
order, under the title and invocation of the Presentation
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of their being admitted,
on the expiration of the time of probation, to the pro-
fession of solemn vows, with the addition of a fourth
vow, namely, that of educating and instructing young
girls, especially the poor, in the precepts and rudiments
of the Catholic faith. The brief recites, at full length,
the rules and constitutions, confirms the same, and
directs that the religious in future shall live under these
rules, be subject to the ordinary, and observe the law of
enclosure.
It may be well to explain here that it is only enclosed
or cloistered nuns, such as the Benedictines, Carmelites,
Dominicanesses of the second order, Poor Clares, Augus-
tinians, the other ancient orders, the Ursulines, and the
Presentation Nuns above-mentioned, are religious orders.
Those who go out to minister to the sick, to visit hospi-
tals, to relieve the poor in their own homes, and to fulfil
other extern offices of charity, are congregations. This
is the general rule. However, there are a few institutes,
such as the nuns of the Good Shepherd, observing the
law of enclosure, which are simply congregations.
132 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The vows taken by nuns belonging to religious orders,
bound by a law of enclosure, and thus entirely segre-
gated from the world, are called solemn vows, and are
invariably taken for life. To constitute a solemn vow,
it must be prescribed and accepted as such by the Holy
See.
The vows taken by the members of religious congre-
gations, which, with a few exceptions, are not bound by
the law of enclosure, and are a later institution in the
Church, are called simple vows. Simple vows are either
for life, or for a certain number of years, or for one year.
Thus, the Irish Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Mercy,
and the Nuns of the Good Shepherd, take simple vows
for life ; while the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent
de Paul take simple vows for one year only, annually
renewable. It is scarcely necessary to observe that a
simple vow is fully as binding as a solemn vow, in the
religious life.
(133)
CHAPTEK XVI.
EULES AND CONSTITUTIONS OF THE PRESENTATION OEDEB.
Elles ont leurs regies, et ces regies sont des ailes dont ellea se ser-
vent pour voler b, Dieu, quand ellea ont le bonheur de les pratiquer
avec fidelite. SAIXT VINCENT DE PAUL.
As there is no better exponent of the nature, scope, and
spirit of religious institutes than their rules and consti-
tutions, and as, moreover, the rules and constitutions of
all congregations and orders of religious women are
essentially the same, I now invite my readers to ex-
amine, with me, those of the Presentation order the
order of which we are now treating ; and from this
examination, I doubt not, they will learn more about
conventual institutions than they could learn from any
other source.
These particular rules and constitutions were, in obe-
dience to his Holiness Pope Pius VI., carefully drawn
up by the Very Eeverend Laurence Callanan, O.S.F.,
under the immediate direction of Doctor Moylan. Bishop
of Cork, as closely as possible in conformity with those
of the Institute of Saint Ursula, and in accordance with
instructions transmitted to him, for the purpose, by the
Congregation de Propaganda Fide. 1 As we have seen, 2
they were subsequently submitted to Pope Pius VII.,
who alludes to them as ' completed with the utmost
1 Brief of September 3, 1791, quoted page 130.
* The Eules and Constitutions of the Presentation Order are
signed :
' >{< Francis Moylan, Bishop of Cork.
Cork, August 15, 1793.
134 TERRA INCOGNITA.
care ' by the Bishop of Cork, and ' corroborated by the
weighty suffrages ' of other Irish bishops ; ' and after
having been with mature deliberation examined by the
Cardinals of the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda
Fide,' they were confirmed by his Holiness. 1
They commence as follows :
1. The Sisters admitted into this Religious Congregation, be-
sides the principal and general end of all Religious Orders, such
as particularly attending to the perfecting of themselves in the
way of the Lord, must also have in view what is peculiarly
characteristic of this institute, that is, a most serious application
to the instruction of poor female children in the principles of
Religion and Christian Piety. In undertaking this very arduous,
but meritorious task, the Sisters, whom God is graciously pleased
to call to this state of perfection, shall encourage themselves,
and animate their fervour and zeal, by the example of their
Divine Master, who testified on all occasions a tender love for
little children, expressed the greatest pleasure on their approach-
ing Him, and declareth that JVhosoerer receiveth tht*c littU one*
in His name receiveth Himself. They shall also consider, that in
cultivating the tender minds of young children, by impressing
on them a horror for vice and the love of virtue, and by instruct-
ing them in the duties of religion, they are associated to the
functions of those heavenly spirits, whom God has appointed
guardian angels, to watch over and direct them in the ways of
eternal salvation.
2. It is a duty incumbent on the Sisters, to teach the children
daily the Catechism, which they shall explain to them briefly
and simply, adapting their language to the age and capacity of
the children.
3. They shall teach the children to offer themselves up to God,
We the undersigned approve of the foregoing Rules and Constitu-
tions.
4 Richard O'Reilly, Archbishop of Armagh, &e.
> John Thomas Troy, Archbishop of Dublin, 4c.
> * Thomas Bray, Archbishop of Cashel, Ac.
> Edward Dillon, Archbishop of Tuam, &c,
James Caulfield, Bishop of Ferns.
James Lanigan, Bishop of Ossory.
** Charles Sugrue, Bishop of Kerry.'
1 Apostolic Brief of April 9, 1805. The same care and matnre deli-
beration uniformly characterize the proceedings of the Holy See in all
important matters, such as this.
KULES OF THE PRESENTATION ORDER. 135
from the first use of reason, and, when they awake in the morn-
ing, to raise up their hearts to Him, adore His Sovereign
Majesty, return thanks to Him for all His favours, and arm
themselves with the sign of the cross. They shall instruct them
how to offer all their thoughts, words, and actions to God's
glory, implore His grace to know and love Him, and to fulfil His
commandments, how they are to examine their consciences
every night, and to honour and respect their parents.
4. They shall teach them how to prepare for Confession, and
to confess their sins with all sincerity and contrition. They
shall be ever attentive to dispose them for the sacrament of
Confirmation, and for their first Communion.
5. As the Poor are the main object and pai-ticular end of this
pious institute, it is hereby enacted as a statute, inviolably to be
observed, that the Sisters of this religious institute shall admit
none into their schools but poor children : nor can they receive
money or any other temporal emolument for instruction, con-
tenting themselves with the glorious retribution promised to
those who instruct many to justice.
6. Should, however, this institute be established in villages,
or country towns where there are no proper schools for the
education of girls, then it may be allowed, with the express
leave and approbation of the Bishop of the diocese, to admit the
children of persons in easy circumstances into their schools; but
the emoluments received on those occasions are not to be applied
to the use of the Sisters, but to the relief of the poor children.
If the poor children be so numerous as to require the whole
attention of the Sisters, they are not, under any pretext, to
charge themselves with the care of others. Pensioners or
lodgers, whether young or old, shall not, on any account, be
received into their Convents, with an exception in favour of a
Foundress, or a very principal benefactress.
In reading these extracts, it is necessary that we
should bear in inind, that a nun, as a point of duty,
scrupulously obeys the rules and constitutions of her
order, as if she were obeying the voice of God. Hence
we may imagine with what zeal and exactness the
Sister of the Presentation carries out in practice the
precepts here embodied how devotedly she labours for
the spiritual and secular instruction of the little ones
committed to her charge. For this, she has entered
religion. For this, . she has heroically abandoned the
world and its enjoyments, riches, and home, and family
1 36 TERRA INCOGNITA.
ties. For six hours a day, in a crowded school-room,
from one end of the year to the other, and year after
year, for many long years, she devotes herself to the
same monotonous task. As we casually view them from
a distance, there appears some degree of romance in such
duties ; but, in reality, they are a dull, prosaic, and most
laborious routine. Some children are wayward ; some,
idle and inattentive; some, of obtuse intellect; the
parents of some are careless, and, in several instances,
the children themselves are but too much inclined to
be irregular in their attendance. Then fatigue, or weak-
ness, or ill-health, may come upon the teacher. But,
upheld by a supernatural motive, she loves her arduous
duties ; she cheerfully accepts the toil, and fatigue, and
contradictions, and disappointments they necessarily
entail; she ever remembers the rules and constitutions;
she keeps the great end of her vocation steadily in view ;
and she fervently offers up herself and all her labours to
Him who has said, ' Take heed that ye despise not one
of these little ones : for I say to you, that their angels
in heaven always see the face of my Father who is in
heaven.' l
The second chapter of the Rules and Constitutions,
having immediate reference to ' the schools/ is of much
interest. It runs thus :
OF THE SCHOOLS.
1. The schools for the poor children shall be within the
enclosure, and shall be proportioned to the number of religious
capable of attending, without too much overcharging or dis-
tressing themselves.
2. The Sisters appointed by the Mother Superior to attend
the schools shall with all zeal, charity, and humility, purity of
intention, and confidence in God, undertake the charge, and
cheerfully submit to every labour and fatigue annexed thereto,
Tu^l /u / ir vocation an d of the glorious recompense at-
tached to the faitaf ul discharge of their duty.
1 Matthew, c. xviii. T. 10. See gection 3 "of Chapter of ' the Rules
and Constitutions/ on the Schools. Infra.
RULES OF THE PRESENTATION ORDER. 137
3. When the mistresses enter the schools they shall lift up
their hearts to God, and to the Queen of Heaven, and then
salute with all reverence interiorly the Guardian Angels of the
children, recommending themselves and the dear little ones to
their care and protection. They shall endeavour to inspire the
children with a sincere devotion to the passion of Jesus Christ,
to His real presence in the most Holy Sacrament, to the im-
maculate Mother of God, and to their Guardian Angels.
4. The scholars in each school shall be divided into classes of
ten or twelve, according to their total number ; and over every
class the mistress shall appoint one of the most advanced and
most regular scholars as a superintendent, to watch over the
others, to keep them in order, make them give an account of
their lessons and catechism, inform her of the absentees, and
acquaint her of any impropriety they may be guilty of, either in
or out of school.
5. In every school there shall be a bcok, in which the mistress
shall register the names and ages of the children at their en-
trance, the names of their parents, their occupations in life, and
places of abode, and the year, month, and day in which the child-
ren were received into the school.
6. The children shall be taught reading, writing, needlework,
and spinning. 1 The hours of the school shall be, in the morning,
from nine until twelve and a quarter ; and in the evening from
one till half-past three o'clock.
7. At a quarter before twelve, silence shall be observed in the
schools, to accustom the children to recollect themselves in the
presence of God ; and to afford the Sisters an opportunity of
making their particular exarnen. 2 Then the Angelus Domini,
with the acts of contrition, faith, hope, and charity, shall be
said.
8. Half-an-hour before school breaks up in the evening, a
spiritual lecture shall be delivered to the children out of some
instructive book, suited to their capacity ; or a meditation not
too sublime for their understanding, in order thus to forward
and direct them in true and solid piety. For this purpose such
books alone shall be chosen, as shall be deemed proper and
approved of by the Ordinary. The day's studies to conclude by
prayer.
9. The schools shall be kept as clean and as airy as possible.
The Mother Superior, or her assistant, shall visit them at least
once a week.
10. This section simply specifies the times of vacation.
1 When these rules were drawn up, there was a spinning wheel in
every poor man's house.
2 Examen. Examination of conscience.
138 TERRA INCOGNITA.
11. On the days of vacation, and whenever the Sisters are dis-
engaged from the schools, they shall be always ready to instruct
such poor ignorant women as may be recommended to them by
the parochial clergy, in their prayers and the principal mys-
teries of religion, in the commandments of God, and of His
Church, in the acts of contrition, faith, hope, and charity, and
in the necessary dispositions for a good confession and a worthy
communion.
Besides the active duties of charity here referred to,
the rules and constitutions treat, at length, of the para-
mount obligation, incumbent on the Sisters, of labouring,
assiduously and incessantly, in the sanctification of their
own souls. There are several chapters bearing on this
important subject; such as those on the office and
mental prayer, on the religious vows, on spiritual re-
treats and the annual renewal of vows, on the employ-
ment of time, on humility, on union and charity, and on
the perfection of their ordinary actions. Of these it
will suffice here to quote the two last, in which, to ;i
great extent, the others are comprised, and which appro-
priately illustrate the spirit of the religious lijfe that
spirit which animates all orders and congregations of
women in these countries.
The other chapters we shall have occasion to refer to,
in their places further on.
OF THE PERFECTION OF THE ORDINARY ACTIONS OF THE SIS-
TERS, AND OF THE INTENTION THEY SHOULD HAVE IN PER-
FORMING THEM.
1. The perfection of the Religious Soul depends not so much
on doing extraordinary actions, as on doing extraordinarily well
the ordinary actions and exercises of every day. In this parti-
cularly consists the difference between the perfect and imperfect
in every religious community. Their daily duties and exercises
are cornmon, and the same for all the manner of performing
them distinguishes the one from the other.
2. The Sisters of this religious congregation shall therefore
endeavour to acquit themselves of the ordinary duties and func-
tions of their institute with all possible care and attention, ac-
cording to the advice of the Holy Ghost, The good you ought to
do, doit well; viz. their daily prayers, their examen of conscience,
RULES OF THE PRESENTATION ORDER. 139
their assisting at mass, their office, 1 spiritual lectures, school
duties, meals, recreations, and their respective employments.
By performing all and every one of these duties well, they shall
perfect themselves, and their day shall be full of merit and good
works.
3. But in order to perform these ordinary exercises well, with
a view to their own perfection, they must, in doing them, have
the purest intention of pleasing God. God, and God alone, must
be the principal motive of all their actions. It is this pure in-
tention of pleasing God, that characterizes the good work, and
renders it valuable and meritorious. Without this, the most
laborious functions of the institute, the greatest austerities, the
most heroic actions and sacrifices are of little value, and are
divested of that merit which flows from a pure and upright
intention ; while, on the contrary, when they are accompanied
by it, actions, which are the most trivial and indifferent in them-
selves, become virtuous, valuable, and meritorious of eternal life.
Nothing is lost every work and action fructifies the religious
soul enriches herself every moment, and lays up treasures of
glory for an endless eternity.
4. The Sisters should consider this purity of intention in all
their works, not merely as a simple practice of piety, but as an
essential duty of religion. They shall therefore most studiously
watch over themselves, and guard against the insinuations of
subtle self-love, lest they lose the merit of their labours and good
works, by self-complacency or vain glory, or by having some
other motive or end in view in their actions than to please the
Almighty God. They are never to act from mere inclination,
whim, or caprice, much less from passion ; but their every action
should be performed with regularity and exactness in all its cir-
cumstances, and, with the utmost fervour, be referred by them
solely to the Divine honour and glory, in union with the most
holy actions and infinite merits of Jesus Christ. They shall
therefore not only make a general offering, in the morning, to
God of the works and actions of the day, but also, at the com-
mencement of every action in particular, purify their motive, by
offering it up to God, having always in mind and engraved on
their hearts, this important advice of the Apostle, Whether you
eat, or whether you drink, or whatever else you do, do all for the glory
of God, and in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
5. The means by which the Sisters may preserve this purity
of intention, and perform well all their actions, both ordinary
and extraordinary, are : 1. To perform all their actions in the
1 Office. Certain prayers and psalms recited by all nuns, every
day.
140 TERRA INCOGNITA.
presence of God, considering that God sees them, and that on
the manner in which they perform these works He will pronounce
sentence on them. 2. To do every work in particular, as if it
were the only work they had to do. By this they will avoid all
hurry and precipitation iu their actions. 3. To do the duties
and works of every day, as if that day were to be the last of their
mortal life ; ever mindful of this advice of their Heavenly
Spouse, Watch be always prepared you know not the day nor
the hour, in which you may be called upon.
ON UNION AND CHA.RITY.
1. Love one another as I have loved you. This was the special
command of Jesus Christ to his Apostles ; and in the accom-
plishment of this divine precept, inseparably united as it is with
the grand precept of the love of God, consists, according to the
Apostle, tlw plenitude of the Law. This mutual love our blessed
Saviour desires may be so perfect as to resemble, in some man-
ner, the love and union which subsist between Himself and His
Heavenly Father. This He inculcated, in the strongest terms,
at the last conference of His mortal life with His beloved dis-
ciples. This was His last dying injunction, which, as a most
valuable legacy, He bequeathed to all His followers ; and by this
they were to prove themselves to be really His disciples.
2. This mutual union and love should, therefore, eminently
characterize religious souls. This should distinguish them
above all others, as faithful spouses and servants of Jesus
Christ. The Sisters of this pious institute, founded and grounded
on charity, should therefore make that favourite virtue of their
Divine Master their own most favourite virtue. This they
should study to maintain, and cherish so perfectly among them-
selves as to live together as if they had but one heart undone soul
in God. This love for one another should be such as to emulate
the love and union of the blessed in heaven.
3. They shall, therefore, in conversation, manners, and con-
duct, most cautiously avoid whatever may in the least disturb
their union, or lessen iu the smallest degree their mutual love
and charity.
4. They shall be ready on all occasions to help and assist one
another, bearing with patience and charity each other's defects,
weaknesses, and imperfections. They shall never enter into dis-
putes or altercations ; but, should they happen to differ in opin-
ion on anv subject, they shall propose their reasons with cool-
ness, moderation, and charity.
The above extracts from the Rules and Constitutions
of the Presentation Order apply equally to all orders and
RULES OF THE PRESENTATION ORDER. 141
congregations. In reading them, even the most un-
reflecting must be convinced that the great essential
of a religious life the sanctifying of one's own soul, the
constant aiming at perfection is a powerful aid to-
wards fulfilling and carrying out, perseveriugly to the
end, those active duties of charity to their neighbours,
which the Sisters have undertaken. What paid ser-
vants, what volunteers, no matter how good or how
zealous, whose attention is divided between such duties
and worldly affairs, can discharge the holy offices of
Christian charity in the manner in which they are
ever discharged by those who devote their whole lives,
their every thought, and every aspiration, to the per-
formance of those offices, from the sole motive of the
love of God ?
The Presentation is essentially and exclusively an
order for the education of the poor. Although this is
not the main function of several other orders and con-
gregations of religious women, they nearly all have
poor-schools, and follow the same system, or one like it.
We have seen what that system is, as set forth in the
rules and constitutions. In the next chapter I propose
that we examine it in its results.
( 142)
CHAPTER XVII.
A VISIT TO A CONVENT.
Le plus bel eloge que nous pourriona faire de la Tie monaatique
seroit de presenter le catalogue des travaux auxquela elle s'eat conaa-
cre'e. La religion, laissant a notre coeur le soin da no* joiea, comme
une tendre mere, ne s'est mele'e que du soulagemeut de DOS douleura ;
inais dans cette ocurre immense et difficile, elle a appele* toua sea fila
et toutes sea fillca & son secours. CuATKAUBBlAKD.
I NOW ask my readers to accompany me to the South
Presentation Convent, in Douglas Street, Cork the first
house of the order, built by the foundress, one hundred
years ago. 1
We ring at the gate ; we are immediately admitted
by the portress, and present our cards or letter of intro-
duction. We ascend a few steps, and are shown along
a flagged passage in the open air, scrupulously clean,
passing a handsome chapel on the left, lately erected, 2
the material being the local old red sandstone, with
limestone dressings. We enter an old-fashioned hall-
door, and are shown upstairs into a poorly-furnished
reception-room, where, as in all parts of the convent,
' holy poverty ' is conspicuous. We have not long to
wait. A nun appears, salutes us politely, and is most
happy in complying with our request to be permitted to
see the schools. Fortunately for this purpose, our hour
is well chosen eleven o'clock in the morning. We
first enter a room, in which are a number of grown girls,
1 As we have seen, Miss Nagle built this convent for the Ursulinea
in 1771. The greater part of it has been since rebuilt ; but aome
of the old rooms have been preserved.
1 After the designs of George Goldie, Esq.
A VISIT TO A CONVENT. 143
engaged in plain needlework, and knitting ; occupations
sure to be useful to them in after-life. Work tfthfe
kind alternates with their religious and secular instruc-
on. Around the room are a number of the excellent
maps of the National Board of Education, the annual
aid of which is availed of by the nuns, for the payment
>f monitresses and other expenses incidental to such
atensive schools. As may be inferred from the Con-
stitutions of the order, the nuns do not use one farthino-
of this money for themselves. The girls immediately
stand up, on our entrance. They are all cleanly, with
their hair neatly arranged, which is notable in all the
ss-rooms i ; and, what particularly strikes us, they do
ot stare at the visitors, but go on quietly with their
work as if no strangers were present. We are intro-
duced to the nun, who presides over this room; and
she, with the uniform politeness that characterizes every
lember of the community we meet, gives us all infoi-
mation we desire as to the work, instruction, general
attendance, and other matters of the kind wfth the
next room, we are equally pleased. Here the girls are
at their books, under their several monitresses, Superin-
tended by one of the Sisters, and appear no less atten-
tive and orderly. And so on, with the other classes
Last, we enter the Infant School a most interesting
and pleasing sight. Four hundred little girls > ranainS
from three years old up to seven, are closely 'seated iS
rows, one above the other, commencing at the floor and
gradual 7 ascending, up to a considerable height against
the wall, opposite to which we stand. Here we have
many peering little eyes, joyous and sparkling, lighjj!
up a sea of bright faces, among which" frequently occm?
a type of beauty, which a painter would gladly seize and
transfer to canvas, as the ideal of innocent early child-
hood. We ask ourselves, How are these lively little crea-
tures taught-how is it possible to fix their attention I
this Infant sch o1 am t to five
144 TERRA INCOGNITA.
They may be amused ; they may be kept in good humour.
Indeed, this latter is evident : not a tear, not a cry all
are buoyant and happy. But we are not long left in
doubt on the subject. At a signal from the nun, they
are ' all attention ' calm and collected as the Bench of
Bishops ! They go through their exercises, with wonder-
ful precision now reciting, now singing, and in excel-
lent time all accompanied by appropriate gestures.
We are amazed at the complete control under which
they are held by the presiding mistress ; and we are
delighted at a system so admirably calculated to interest
nd amuse, at the same time that it conveys much suit-
able information to children so very young, and forms
their tender minds to habits of order and discipline.
Here, indeed, are we gratified beyond measure. The
same routine goes on every day. For six hours, these
little innocents are kept off the streets, and lovingly
taught and cared for. In the course of time, as they
pass the age of seven, they are transferred to the upper
schools ; and a fresh succession of infants take their
places.
Seven hundred girls are the full complement attend-
ing the schools of this convent. 1 As we have seen, they
are taught needlework, reading, writing, and other mat-
ters suitable to their condition ; and, what is more im-
portant, they are thoroughly instructed in their religion.
As we move through the convent, several of the nuns
express their regret to us, that there are still many girls
outside, whose parents do not avail themselves of the
schools for the education of their children. Additional
buildings, however, are required, to accommodate a greater
1 Mr Scott Coward, Assistant Commissioner, observes : ' The South
Presentation Nuns, Cork, have a school with 1228 on the books, and
an average attendance of 645, for a greater number than which,
however, they have no accommodation, which occasions much over-
crowding, when the weekly average rises, as it does in every school
during certain weeks of the year, above the annual average.'
'Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Report
1870,' voL ii p. 103.
A VISIT TO A CONTEXT. 145
number. The good Sisters do not think of themselves;
they little regard any increase of labour; their sole
anxiety is to extend as much as possible the great work
of their order the work of Charitable Instruction. And
this great work has now been going on in the convent
for one hundred years, and will go on, in all probability,
many long years after we and all our generation shall
have passed away.
A train of thought here naturally suggests itself.
The greater part of these girls will yet be wives and
mothers. Will they not the better fulfil the duties
of their station, from the early training in the convent
school? Will they not secure the same advantages
of education to their daughters, as they grow up ; and
will not these, in their turn, do the same for their
offspring; and, thus, for many generations, will not
the good example and holy teaching of the Sisters
of the Presentation entail priceless blessings on their
neighbourhood and the whole city ? A girl educated
at a convent school may be married to a man whose
early training has been neglected, who is careless about
his religious duties, who is but too ready to squander
his wages in drunken dissipation. She has been well
grounded in lessons of piety, patience, and conformity
to the will of God. She may be sorely tried; her
patience may be sadly overtasked; she and her little
children may suffer the pangs of hunger and other
ills entailed by her husband's misconduct. Neverthe-
less, she perseveres, she prays, she performs her duties,
domestic and religious, as best she can; and, in time,
not unfrequently, her prayers, and patience, and example
will be sure to effect that change which will restore the
whole family to competence and happiness.
On the other hand, to a good man, what a blessing
a wife who has been so educated to her children, what
a blessing a mother who has been thus early fitted for
her duties ! To her husband every day, to her children,
as they grow up, how beneficial the silent teaching ot
K
146 TERUA INCOGNITA.
her example ! Do we not all know, from our experi-
ence, what a powerful influence for good or evil is
wielded by the mother of a family ? Her family circle
is her kingdom. Its destiny is in her hands. There,
she is the centre of the system, the keystone of the
arch. When her husband returns from his work, when
her children come back from school, she has everything
orderly in their humble dwelling. It may be only one
poor room, with earthen floor and bare walls ; yet it
is neat and well- swept. The fare may be of the
plainest, and, even so, most scanty; yet it is warm
and comfortably set forth. She may have her diffi-
culties and struggles, with all her economy, to make
both ends meet ; yet she is never discontented. In
the hour of sickness and sorrow, but too often darken-
ing the poor man's dwelling, her woman's nature,
imbued with the religious principles of her early
training, and elevated by the practice of a Christian
life, is brought out in its most favourable aspect
Those who have seen in our Irish cities the wives
of our poor workmen, when death is present in their
humble homes, can well realize this fact. When the
father of her children is stricken down, when those
helpless little ones are deprived of their daily bread,
when, fortified by all the rites of the Church, 1 the
partner of her life has passed away, the afflicted widow
first turns to Him whose mercies from her earliest
childhood she has been taught to adore, and Christian
faith and hope bring light and consolation, where, to
human apprehension, all is desolate and blank.
If a good wife is a blessing in the home of the rich,
she is, in one sense, even a greater blessing to the
poor man ; inasmuch as to him, poor and friendless
1 In Ireland, among Catholics, without any exception whatever, the
priest is sent for when there is danger of death, and the dying person
receives the last sacraments ; namely, penance, the Blessed EucharLst,
and extreme unction. No matter how great the distance, how difficult
the journey, how inclement the season, how late the hour, this is never
omitted.
A VISIT TO A CONVENT. 147
as he is, her place cannot be supplied. ' A good wife is
heavens last best gift to man/ says Jeremv Taylor 'his
angel and minister of graces innumerable, his gem of
many virtues, his casket of jewels. Her voice the
sweetest music ; her smiles, the brightest day ; her' kiss
the guardian of his safety, the balsam of his life her
industry, his surest wealth; her economy, his safest
steward; her lips, his faithful counsellors; and her
prayers, the ablest advocates of heaven's blessings on
nis head.
m On the other hand, what a curse to a poor man
is a bad wife! What a curse, not alone to him but
to his children, and to society at large! On an 'evil
so palpable, and its long train of sad consequences it is
unnecessary to dwell ; nor should I refer to it here' save
as an additional illustration of the immense importance
ot the early religious training of our female poor
btrictly speaking, education is not the mere impartin"
of secular knowledge. It is the formation of character
Hence the religious element should largely enter into
all education. Happily, on this point, all religious de-
nominations agree. All would have the youthful mind
thoroughly imbued with the morality of the gospel
Religion teaches us to worship the Supreme Bein</
to honour our parents, to give good example to ou"
children, and tram them in the way in which they
should go, to obey the higher powers, to respect the
law, to regard the rights of property, to love our nei^h-
bour, to succour the needy, to return good for evifto
be patient under sufferings and poverty, to keep our
passions in subjection in a word, to carry out in
the practice of our lives, the benign precepts of 'the
Chnstian dispensation.
We have seen how largely religion enters into the
educational system of the convent schools; and to this
circumstance, in a great measure, must be attributed
the strong devotional feeling and high tone of morality
ot the women of Ireland.
148 TERRA INCOGNITA.
' It is another tribute justly due to the young women
of Ireland,' says Sir John Forbes, 'to record their
singular decorum and modesty of demeanour, and
their general propriety of conduct. I do not hesitate
for a moment in giving to them decidedly the palm,
in these particulars, over the rustic damsels of both
England and Scotland.' l
But we must not detain our kind conductress. We
next enter a portion of the original convent, which
has been preserved. In one of the rooms is a fine copy
of the life-sized portrait of the venerable foundress,
which has already been described. Just one hundred
years ago, she built these rooms, for the reception of
a religious community a daring act at the time, when,
she tells us, in one of her letters, 2 she ' built it as it is,
in order not to have it noticed as a convent.' How
different now, when all denominations can erect their
houses of religious worship, and schools, and other
institutions, without fear of molestation, in the open
light of day !
We next pass to a house close adjoining the convent
Miss Nagle's asylum. It now accommodates forty
aged females, who are comfortably lodged, and boarded,
and clothed, and tended by the Sisters, with that affec-
tionate care which religion only can inspire. We are
interested by the simple history of some of the inmates.
Here is one, who, some years ago, had a respectable
shop in the city; but, as time went on, her business
declined, and, in her old age she found herself with-
out means or friends : here is one who honourably sup-
ported herself by her industry, until she was stricken
with sudden blindness; and here is a tall, venerable
figure, with the snows of more than eighty years upon
her head, propped up with pillows, in an easy chair,
1 'Memorandums made in Ireland in the autumn of 1852,' ly Sir
John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Her Majesty's Household,
vol. i. p. 103.
s Under date May 13, 1770.
A VISIT TO A CONVENT. 149
by the fire-side. She has long outlived her genera-
tion ; she notices not our presence ; she is apparently
unconscious of all going on around her; her time
of departure is evidently close at hand. The kind
greeting which the nun has for each, as we pass along,
her affectionate inquiries about their ailments, her
patient attention to all they have to say, and the
interest with which she dilates to us upon their little
histories, impress us most pleasingly. No trouble nor
expense appears to be spared that 'can contribute to
the comfort of all who are so fortunate as to be re-
ceived into the asylum. This is evinced by the
arrangements of the refectory, and the dormitory
with its excellent heating apparatus, and the special
chapel for the inmates, where mass is celebrated for
them, as many are too aged and infirm to attend the
chapel of the convent.
In this convent are eight-and-twenty nuns ladies
who have left their homes and all that the world can
bestow, to dwell in obscurity, voluntary poverty, and
self-denial, and devote themselves unceasingly to pro-
moting the welfare, temporal and eternal, of their
poorer fellow-creatures. As we take our departure,
we cannot refrain from uttering an ardent wish, that
we had been accompanied in our visit by some of
our English fellow-subjects, excellent and well-mean-
ing men, but sadly misinformed, who inveigh against
convents, and would, if they had the power, banish from
these kingdoms institutions which confer such great and
lasting benefits on all classes of the community.
The North Presentation Convent, at the opposite side
of the city, is equally interesting. It numbers about
twenty religious, and educates 800 poor girls, of whom
350 are in the infant school a fine building recently
erected for the nuns by a benevolent citizen of Cork, at
a cost of 800.
Of the Presentation order, there are 53 convents
in the United Kingdom, of which 52 are in Ireland,
150 TERRA INCOGNITA.
and one in Livesey Street, Manchester, opened in
1835.
The great success of the Sisters in the gratuitous
education of poor girls may be seen in a visit to any
of their convents. In addition to this their main wDrk,
the convents of Thurles and Cashel conduct flourishing
certified industrial schools. The nuns of the Manchester
convent devote themselves, 'with admirable zeal and
self-sacrifice/ to teaching, in Saint Patrick's schools,
in Livesey Street, 475 children, and are among those
specially mentioned by her Majesty's Inspector of
Schools as successful teachers and trainers of school
mistresses. The particulars of all the Presentation
convents in the United Kingdom will be found in
the chapter ' Statistics of Convents,' further on.
CHAPTEE XVIII.
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS.
Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas.
JDVJENAL.
BUT it may be said ' No doubt, in convents, such as
that just described, there is an unceasing succession of
good works works of great public usefulness and Chris-
tian charity. This is not denied. But are all the in-
mates happy ? Are they free agents ? Are they not,
in some instances, treated with harshness and caprice ?
Nay, would not some, if they could, be glad to escape
from the convent ? And, consequently, ought there not
to be a Government commission, with full powers, to
visit all convents, separately examine the nuns, and
liberate those who are immured there against their
will ? '
This opens up a most important branch of our sub-
ject ; and, if my readers will take the trouble to accom-
pany me to the end of this chapter, I have no doubt
whatever that I shall be able to satisfy them that such
apprehensions, as to coercion and durauce in the con-
vents of these kingdoms, necessitating measures of State
intervention, are wholly without foundation, being simply
the result of the gross misrepresentations and miscon-
ceptions that extensively prevail.
When a young lady wishes to enter a convent in
the first instance, she consults her confessor ; she lays
before him the state of her mind ; and he, after several
interviews, and on full deliberation, decides as to whe-
ther her wish is a mere passing impulse of devotional
152 TERRA INCOGNITA.
feeling, or a vocation that is, a call by God to a reli-
gious life. If the latter, the young lady, by her con-
fessor's advice, speaks on the subject to her parents, if
she has not already done so, with a view to obtaining
their consent. She next sees the Mother Superior of
the convent which she desires to enter, confides the
matter to her, and obtains from her all the information
she may require, as to the duties and obligations of the
institute. After this, with the approval of the Bishop
or his delegate, she enters the convent as a postulant
that is, one who postulates or entreats to be admitted
into the order.
The postulant, on entering the convent, assumes a
plain black stuff dress and a white muslin cap; and
immediately enters on the devotional exercises and
special duties of the institute for instance, the work
of teaching in the schools in the Presentation order, and
the visitation and relief of the poor and sick in the
congregations of Charity and Mercy. Thus, from the
very commencement, she becomes habituated to that
which will be the occupation of her whole future
life.
After six months' experience as a postulant, if she
continues of the same mind, as to which she is ques-
tioned by the Bishop at a special private interview, and
if she is considered by her superiors a fit subject for
admission, she receives the habit and the white veil, at
the interesting and solemn ceremony of the Reception.
After this she has two years more of probation, 1 when,
if she still desires to enter the order, as to which she
is again privately questioned by the Bishop, one month
before the time of profession, and further, if she is still
considered a fit subject by the superiors, she is admitted
to Profession, when she receives the black veil, and
takes the vows.
All this will be better understood by my readers, on
1 In some orders the time of probation is even longer. In the con-
gregation of the Sceurs de la Charit<5, it is five years.
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS. 153
perusal of the following extracts from the Eules and
Constitutions of the Presentation order :
OF THE RECEPTION OF POSTULANTS, THEIR ADMISSION TO THE
HABIT, AND RELIGIOUS PROFESSION.
1. Such as desire to enter into this religious order, shall be
previously examined, with respect to their Vocation, by the
Bishop (or priest delegated by him), and by the Mother Superior,
the Mother Assistant, and Mistress of Novices. If approved of,
they shall be received Postulants. For the six months of their
Postulation, they shall attend the schools every day for three
hours; the remainder of the time they shall employ in spiritual
exercises, and in learning such things as may qualify them for
the functions of the institute, according as the Mother Superior
and the Mistress of the Novices shall direct.
2. If their conduct during this time be truly humble, and con-
formable to the spirit of the institute, they shall be allowed to
solicit, in Chapter, the Religious Habit. And if the majority of
votes, which must be secret, be in their favour, they shall be
admitted to it, and begin their Novitiate, provided they be of
sufficient age.
3. The time of their Novitiate shall continue two entire years.
(The Bishop can, however, in extraordinary cases, reduce it to
one year.) The first six months shall be employed chiefly in
spiritual exercises, and in the study of the duties and functions
of the institute. They shall afterwards attend more closely to
the schools, and to the instruction of the poor children. Two
months before the expiration of the period of their probation,
they shall, with the permission of the Mother Superior, present
their request, in Chapter, to be received to Profession. If the Chap-
ter accede thereto, a scrutiny shall be made with white and black
beans, and if the majority of votes shall be in their favour, they
shall spend the remainder of the time of their probation, as cir-
cumstances may allow, in prayer and other spiritual exercises. 1
We have it further prescribed, in the chapter on the
1 This voting by the professed nuns, as to the admission of the
postulant to the habit, and of the novice to the profession, is con-
ducted with due solemnity, and preparatory prayers, to invoke the
light of heaven on their decision. It is the rule in such orders as the
Presentation, the Ursulines, and the Sisters of Mercy, in which each
convent is self-governing. But in orders or congregations, in which
there is a generalate, such as the Nuns of the Good Shepherd, or the
Sisters of Charity, the decision lies with the Superioress General and
her council, under whom the novitiate is made in the mother-house.
154 TERRA INCOGNITA.
duties of the Mother Superior, that she ' shall take care
that every Novice be examined by the Bishop, or his
delegate, one month before the time of her profession.'
Here we have, in the first place, the young lady's
vocation examined into and carefully considered by her
confessor, who, of all persons, has the best opportunity
of knowing her mind and disposition, and on whom, in
arriving at a conclusion in a matter of such moment to
his penitent and the religious community she may enter,
there devolves a serious responsibility. Next, we have
her examination with respect to her vocation by the
Bishop, first, before she receives the habit, and secondly,
towards the close of her time of probation namely, one
month before she is professed. Then, during the whole
time of her probation, two years and a half, she goes
through all the spiritual exercises, performs the several
duties, and, in a word, leads the life, of a nun. All this
time she is instructed and directed by the Mistress of
Novices, who is invariably a member of the community,
distinguished by prudence, piety, and aptitude for her
important office. During the same period, she is tried
in humility, in patience, in obedience. In fact, she is
well tested in those qualities which are essential to the
forming of a good religious. All nuns pass through a
severe ordeal in the novitiate. It is the hardest time of
a nun's life. In it, she learns that those who would
enter the cloister must leave outside all pride and vain-
glory, all petulance and impatience, all self-will and
self-love. In it, also, as we have seen, she has her full
share of the labours and occupations of the community,
whether in the work of charitable instruction, or in the
service of the sick, poor, and ignorant, or in other func-
tions of charity. Thus she has two years and a half trial
of the state of life she wishes to enter. Up to the day
of her profession, she may, at any moment, leave the con-
vent. Should she discover that she really has not a reli-
gious vocation, or, should the labours and austerities of
the order disagree with her health, there is nothing to
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS. 155
prevent her returning to her home, and re-entering the
world. I am acquainted with some ladies who have
done so. They uniformly speak in glowing terms of the
convent and its inmates, and of the happiness of the
state of life for those whose vocation it is.
Then there is another safeguard. The professed nuns,
all experienced in the nature, duties, and obligations of
the religious state, or the Superioress General and her
council, as the case may be, are called on to decide,
according to conscience, first, after the six months of
postulation, if the postulant is to receive the religious
habit and the white veil, and, secondly, two years later,
if she is to be admitted to the solemn profession.
Finally, at the ceremonies of her Reception and Pro-
fession, the young lady is again questioned by the
Bishop, as to her desire to enter the religious life
on these occasions publicly, in presence of all the nuns,
the clergy, her friends and relatives, and others who
may be present.
Thus, it will, I doubt not, be admitted, that, in
entering this state of life, there is observed much
more of precaution, trial, and careful previous examina-
tion, than we generally adopt in selecting our worldly
avocations or professions.
Should the lady, even after being professed and
taking the vows, wish to leave the convent and re-
turn to the world, no doubt, at first, she would be
remonstrated with ; but, should she persist, she neither
would, nor could, be prevented leaving. Her act would
then rest entirely with her own conscience. Of course,
cases may arise, though very rarely, in which such a
step may become necessary ; and then it is taken with
the sanction of the Bishop of the diocese.
In the United Kingdom there are 6,000,000 of Catho-
lics ; viz., 4,141,933 in Ireland, and about two millions
in Great Britain. From these 6,000,000 we never hear
a word of complaint that the inmates of convents are
subject to harshness, or held in durance ; and yet they
156 TERRA INCOGNITA.
are, of all Her Majesty's subjects, those, after the nuns
themselves, most interested in the question ; inasmuch
as nearly all the nuns of the United Kingdom are the
sisters or daughters of some of their number. Then,
they are the most competent to form an opinion, and to
speak with authority on the subject. They best know
the convents ; they have contributed the means to
build them, and the several charitable institutions in
connection with them ; and they further contribute to
the annual support of these institutions. They con-
stantly visit the nuns; and their daughters either
frequent the convent schools, as day scholars, or
reside, as boarders, within the convent walls. There-
fore, it is but natural to suppose that, if there were
cases of nuns pining in melancholy, or imprisoned in
their cells, panting for freedom, these young ladies
would inform of the fact their fathers, mothers, brothers,
and sisters. Every day, we have instances of young ladies,
who have been educated in our convents, entering as
postulants, and becoming professed nuns. Among them
are several daughters of the oldest noble families in the
kingdom. Among them are many of the daughters of the
middle classes sensible commercial and professional
men. Then, there are some of the daughters of the
working classes, who enter as lay sisters. Surely, if
convents were places of restraint and homes of unhappi-
ness, these young ladies would not enter them, or be
allowed to enter them ; and the voices of numbers of
Catholics would be raised on behalf of the ill-treated
and imprisoned inmates. All this is deserving of the
consideration of those well-meaning gentlemen, some
of them members of the legislature, who call for a
committee of inquiry into convents, and who appear
altogether to overlook the silence and happy tranquillity
of six millions of their fellow-subjects, who must know
much more of the matter than they can, and who have
their sisters and daughters professed nuns in those
institutions, and send their children to be educated
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS. 157
there, with the likelihood that some of them may con-
sequently get religious vocations, and, in time, become
professed nuns in the several orders.
'But,' it may be said, ' if all this is so, why" should
Catholics fear and oppose the appointment of a Royal
Commission to inquire into convents, to see and ques-
tion each nun separately, and ascertain whether, or not,
she is a prisoner, detained there against her will, sub-
ject to ill-treatment and so forth ? Why, in a word,
object to that which is proposed by Mr Newdegate a
State supervision of convents, as of jails and lunatic
asylums ? Undoubtedly, if all is right in convents, the
commission will so report to Parliament, and this official
report will be the very best proof that the allegations of
cruelty and imprisonment are unfounded.'
The reply is simply, that such a proposal is a gross
insult to the inmates of convents, and to the entire
Catholic community ; and the insult is the greater that,
conformably with the ideas of the honourable member
for North Warwickshire, it would place convents in the
same category as jails and lunatic asylums.
It may be well to state here, that there is an annual
visitation of every convent by the Bishop of the diocese
(or his delegate), on which occasion he sees each nun
separately, in a private interview, in which she has full
opportunity of making any complaint or representation
to him she may deem necessary. Thus, if there were
cases of durance or coercion, such as are periodically
insinuated against our convents, the bishops themselves
should be engaged in the conspiracy ; not to speak of
numbers of the Catholic laity who would necessarily be
1 accessories after the fact/ inasmuch as they would have
heard of such cases from their relatives, members of
the several communities, and their daughters, pupils in
the several convent schools, without denouncing the
offenders.
Indeed, if there were any foundation whatever for
such charges, evidence thereof would have, long since,
158 TERRA INCOGNITA.
been brought before our legal tribunals. And it is a
striking fact, that, iu the only case adjudicated on in
these countries that of Saurin v. Starr the complaint
was one, not of imprisonment in a convent, but of the
community insisting on the departure of one of its
members, who, thereupon, asserted her legal right to
continue to reside within the convent walls.
Let us, for a moment, suppose that there were estab-
lished in these countries a number of Protestant con-
vents, for educational and charitable purposes, and that
the members of the several communities were Protestant
ladies, and that these convents were the principal edu-
cational establishments for the daughters of Protestant
parents, and that they were upheld and cherished by all
the Protestants of the United Kingdom, and regarded
by them as the abodes of holiness and happiness. In
such a case, would it not be in very bad taste, would it
not be more than uncomplimentary, if the Catholics of
Great Britain and Ireland were to call out for a com-
mittee of inquiry into these Protestant convents ? Would
not such a movement on the part of the Catholics imply
a belief that their Protestant fellow-subjects were in-
capable of managing their own affairs, and that they were
devoid of that sound common sense, those fine family
feelings, and that love of what is just and right, which
certainly are qualities that enter largely into the national
character ?
And this supposition is by no means extravagant;
for the fact cannot be ignored, that there is a decided
leaning towards such institutions in the public mind of
England an unmistakable tendency in a religiously
disposed people (refreshing to witness in this age of
infidelity and socialism), which developes itself more
and more every day, even within the bosom of Protes-
tantism, in the Anglican sisterhoods that are gradually
extending in different parts of England. 1
1 At the Church Congress, at Stoke-u pen- Trent, in October 1875,
the Reverend T. T. Carter, of Clewer, stated that there were 18 of these
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS. 159
There are some who disapprove of convents, because,
they argue, all women ought to marry ; inasmuch as
the married state is the state intended for them
by Providence. No doubt, it is the state intended
for the great majority ; but are there not many
women who lead single lives in the world, some by
choice, and some by necessity ? How many women
are there anxious to marry, and in every way suited
to adorn, and fulfil the duties of, married life, who,
in the highly artificial state of modern society, are
prevented from marrying, by circumstances altogether
outside their control? Again, how many are there,
who, although eligible matches offer, prefer leading
single lives, in the world; and of these we all, each
in his own circle, know several, who are most valuable
members of society, employing much of their leisure,
their means, and their talents, in works of practical
benevolence. Surely, these ladies ought to be free
agents ; and ought not to be compelled to marry
against their will.
That in a matter of so much importance, so inti-
mately and largely affecting the happiness of our whole
lives, all freedom of action should be taken away that
all women should be compelled to marry, whether they
wished to do so or not, is a doctrine wholly indefensible.
sisterhoods known to him, who occupied 95 houses, great or small, as
the centres of their operations. After describing their charitable
works, he declared that it was, he believed, a duty to encourage their
formation in the Church of England. From a review of the subject,
he deduced four conclusions that a sister's vocation ought to be
recognized ; that the subject ought to be pressed upon the attention
of the Synods of the Church ; that a generous freedom ought to be
allowed in the organization of religious communities, supposing always
that they were true to the Church of England ; that sisterhoods were
not to be regarded as casting any reflections on other forms of life or
service, least of all on family ties, but as a distinct state to which some
were called, partly for the sake of their fellow-creatures, whom in the
love of Christ they could better serve, when thus set free from all other
claims.
The reverend gentleman, on resuming his seat, was greeted with a
hearty round of applause, from a very large audience. Times' Report.
160 TERRA INCOGNITA.
' But,' it may be objected, ' why should women if
inclined to lead single lives be permitted to bind them-
selves by vow ? May they not change their minds ? '
The reply to this is : ' Those <who are permitted by
the Catholic Church to take religious vows do so,' as
we have seen, 'only after a long probation, in which
their vocation is well tested, and in which they have
thorough experience of the duties and obligations of the
religious state; and it is not likely that they should
change their minds.'
Religious vows are three ; namely, those of poverty,
chastity, and obedience. They are held, by the Catholic
Church, to be in accordance with the Gospel counsels of
perfection ; and are considered by her to be powerful
aids to those few whose vocation it is to devote them-
selves exclusively to the worship of God, and the service
of their neighbour, for God's sake.
All Christians agree that the Gospel precepts are of
obligation on all ; not so the Gospel counsels of perfec-
tion. The former are a command, which all are bound
to obey ; the latter are an advice or recommendation, to
be followed by those who would be perfect. No doubt,
all Christians are bound to aim at perfection, at the
same time that they are not bound to follow the Gospel
counsels ; for, constituted as this world is, it could not
go on if all were to sell their goods and give to the poor,
and follow likewise the other counsels of perfection.
The difference between the Gospel precepts and
counsels is illustrated in the following extract from the
Gospel of Saint Matthew, chapter xix., verses 16-21 :
And behold one came and said to Him : Good master, what
good shall I do that I may have life everlasting ?
And He said to him : Why askest thou me concerning good ?
One is good, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments.
He saith to Him : Which ? And Jesus said : Thou shalt do
no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not
steal, Tiiou shalt not bear false witness,
Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS. 161
The young man saith to Him : All these I have kept from my
youth, what is yet wanting to me ?
Jesus saith to him : If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou
hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in
heaven; and come, follow me.
Those who are counselled to sell all that they have,
and give to the poor, and follow Christ, are such as the
Catholic Church, after full and mature deliberation,
admits to the profession of religious vows.
Holy chastity, poverty, and obedience were sanctified
in the person of Him who was purity itself, and who,
for thirty years, led a life of obscurity and abnegation
with His parents, and was subject to them.
These virtues were eminently characteristic of His
Virgin Mother, so pure, so holy, so divested of worldly
goods, and so implicitly obedient to the will of the Most
High, that she was qualified to exclaim in the words of
inspiration, now verified by the suffrages of over eighteen
hundred years : ' My soul doth magnify the Lord, and
my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. Because
He hath regarded the humility of His handmaid: for
behold from henceforth all generations shall call me
Blessed.' l
In the lives of the Baptist and the Beloved Disciple,
in many of the primitive Christians of both sexes, and
many servants of God through the several subsequent
centuries, as may be seen in all works of Church history,
these virtues were also strikingly exemplified.
To the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, is
generally added a vow of perseverance in the special
work of the particular institute, such as the charitable
instruction of poor girls in the Presentation order, or the
service of the poor, sick, and ignorant in the congrega-
tion of the Sisters of Mercy.
In religious orders, as we have seen, vows are taken
for life ; as they are also in several congregations. In
some congregations, such as the Sceurs de la Charite,
1 Saint Luke, i. 46-43.
1C2 TERRA INCOGNITA.
they are taken for one year only, being annually re-
newable.
Let us now hear a distinguished Protestant writer on
this subject :
Wherefore I confess that I have ardently admired the religious
orders, and the pious confraternities and societies, and the other
similar admirable institutions,' says Leibnitz, 'for they are a sort
of celestial soldiery upon earth, provided, corruptions and abuses
being removed, they are governed according to the institutes of
the founders, and regulated by the Supreme Pontiff for the use
of the universal Church. For, what can be more glorious than
to carry the light of truth to distant nations, through seas, and
fire, and swords, to traffic in the salvation of souls alone, to
forego the allurements of pleasure, and even the enjoyment of
conversation and of social intercourse, in order to pursue, undis-
turbed, the contemplation of abstruse truths and divine medita-
tion, to dedicate one's self to the education of youth in science
and in virtue, to assist and console the wretched, the despiiirii i_%
the lost, the captive, the condemned, the sick, in squalor, in
chains, in distant lands, undeterred even by the fear of i>estilence
from the lavish exercise of these heavenly offices of charity !
Those who know not, or despise these things, have but a vulgar
and plebeian conception of virtue : they foolUhly measure the
obligations of men towards God by the perfunctory discharge of
ordinary duties, and by that frozen habit of life, devoid of zeal,
and even of soul, which prevails commonly among men. For
it is not a counsel, as some persuade themselves, but a pre-
cept, to labour with every power of soul and body, no matter
in what condition of life one may be, for the attainment of
Christian perfection, with which neither wedlock, nor children,
nor public office, nor military service is incompatible (although
they throw greater difficulties in the way); but it is a counsel to
select that state of life which is more free from earthly obstacles,
upon which selection our Lord congratulated Magdalen.' *
It is a great mistake to suppose that nuns lead lives
of unhappiness. There is no life happier than that
of a nun. No state of life is without its crosses. Even
in those circles which the world regards as formed
for happiness, where wealth and good social position
combine under circumstances the most favourable,
1 ' Systeme religieux de Leibnitz Leibnit ii systems theolotjicum
d'apres le manuscrit original, par 1'abW Lacroix, traduit par Alfred de
Broglie,' pp. 74-76. Paris, 1846.
OBJECTIONS TO CONVENTS. 163
there are oftentimes trials and disappointments, just
as great as those of the poor man, whose existence is
a continuous struggle to support his family. Even in
the mansions of the great, sons will sometimes turn
out extravagant, profligate and undutiful ; obstacles
almost insurmountable will sometimes arise to the
suitable settlement of daughters in life ; reverses of
fortune will occur ; the coveted sunshine of royal
favour may fall on a rival rather than on one's self;
in fine, even where no real tangible evils exist, those
unsubstantial slights, and imaginary ills, which are the
umbrcB of the wealthy unemployed, may abound. Then,
sickness and death make no distinction of persons :
Pallida mors ssquo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas,
Regumque turres.
So that, on the whole, the goods and ills of life are less
unevenly distributed than the unreflecting generally
suppose.
Now the nun is free from all the trials and disappoint-
ments of the outer world. She looks not for admiration,
or distinction, or worldly wealth, or enjoyments. She
has bidden farewell to all these. Not that she is alto-
gether free from crosses and contradictions ; for such
are the lot of mankind. But, through a supernatural
motive, she loves her crosses, and patiently accepts
them, as from the hand of God ; and thus do they become
sources of merit and satisfaction. Then she has her
joys very different indeed from the joys of this world
the more than human happiness that must arise from
the consciousness of her every thought, word, action,
and aspiration, being devoted to God. Again, there is
that sentiment, beneficently implanted by the Creator in
the human heart the pleasure we all experience in
relieving want and alleviating suffering, the priceless
' luxury of doing good ' a sentiment which is the more
refined, exalted, and sanctified in the nun, that she in-
variably recognizes Christ in the person of His poor :
164 TERRA INCOGNITA.
' Unshrinking where pestilence scatters his breath,
Like an angel she moves 'mid the vapours of death.
Where rings the loud musket and flashes the sword,
Unf earing she walks, for she follows her Lord.
' How sweetly she bends o'er each plague-tainted face,
With looks that are lighted with holiest grace ;
How kindly she dresses each suffering limb,
For she sees in the wounded the image of Him ! *
This it is which explains the mystery of ladies of gentle
nurture leaving friends and home, to devote their lives to
the service of the sick poor, in an hospital ward. A chosen
f ew God has called them, out of countless thousands,
to this state of life ; and it is only He, who tempers the
wind to the shorn lamb, can nerve them to their ardu-
ous labours to them truly labours of love, even where
they have to minister to those sufferers, who are stricken
by disease in its most appalling and repulsive form.
These reflections are an appropriate introduction to our
next a most interesting topic the great congregation
of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul, so
well-known on the Continent, and lately introduced into
these countries.
(165)
CHAPTEE XIX.
SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL.
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity.
SHAKESPEARE.
HERE some of my readers may interpose with the
query, ' Who was Saint Vincent de Paul ? Of late,
we frequently hear the name a foreign name, a few
years ago but little known in these countries. In the
correspondence of the several London journals, we have
lately read much about the nuns, sometimes called
Sisters of Charity, and sometimes Sisters of Saint Vin-
cent de Paul, who followed the march of the French and
German armies, and devotedly ministered to the sick
and dying, amid the harrowing scenes which desolated
France. We see the same Sisters occasionally in London
and some of our other cities. We have also a lay Society
of Saint Vincent de Paul, visiting and relieving the poor
in our lanes and alleys. Who, we repeat, was Saint
Vincent de Paul ? ' The desired information, which is
quite apposite to our subject, I shall endeavour to convey
in this chapter. 1
1 There are twenty-two well-known biographies of Saint Vincent de
Paul, in various languages ; not to speak of several minor sketches of
his life. The principal are, that by Monseigneur Abelly, Bishop of
Rodez, published in 4to, in Paris, in 1664, four years after Saint Vin-
cent's death ; that of Pere Collet, two volumes 4to, Nancy, 1748 ; and
the full and learned work of the Abbe Maynard, in four volumes 8vo,
published in Paris in 1860. In addition to the biographies, should be
mentioned the eloquent panegyric of the Saint by Cardinal Maury,
" of the Palace of Versailles, on the 4th of
pronounced in the Chape
March 1785, by order, and hi presence, of Louis XVI.
106 TERRA INCOGNITA.
In the hamlet of Kanquines, near Dax, in the depart-
ment of Landes, towaids'the close of the sixteenth cen-
tury, lived John de Paul, 1 a peasant proprietor, who,
with his wife, Bertrande de Moras, brought up a family
of six children, four sons and two daughters. The third
son, Vincent, was born on April 24, 1576, and gave
early indications of that fervent piety and that devoted
charity which were, through life, his great character-
istics. When he was a mere boy, out in the fields all
day, tending his father's cattle, much of his time was
spent in prayer ; and he frequently deprived himself of
his frugal meals, to give them to the poor wayfarer who
chanced to pass by. His father, seeing his pious dis-
position, had him educated by the Franciscan Friars at
Dax. After some time, he was able to support himself,
as a tutor, without being any longer a charge to his
parents; and he entered the University of Toulouse,
where he remained seven years. In the year 1600, he was
ordained a priest. Holy as he had been from his earliest
childhood, it appears to have entered into the designs of
Divine Providence that he should be further chastcm-il
and sanctified by the ordeal of suffering, and thus pre-
pared for his great future. In the year 1605, having
gone to Marseilles to receive a bequest of fifteen hun-
dred livres left him by a friend, he was making the
homeward passage from that city to Narbonne in a
felucca, when he was captured by African pirates, and
sold as a slave in Tunis. Here he remained two years,
during which he changed owners, by sale, four times.
His last master was a renegade Savoyard, who had aban-
doned Christianity for Mahometanism. This man became
so impressed by the pious and exemplary demeanour of
Vincent, that he repented of his apostacy, and agreed to
flee with him ; and, accordingly, they made their way
across the Mediterranean, in an open boat, and landed
at Aigues-Mortes, near Marseilles, on June 28, 1607.
Vincent had no sooner landed than he waited on the
1 Some writers give the name ^Yilliam, not John.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 167
Prelate Montorio, the Pope's legate at Avignon, to plead
the cause of his fellow-sufferers at Tunis and Algiers,
and enlist, through him, the sympathy of Christian
princes in their behalf. The prelate took him to Rome,
and there introduced him to the representatives of
Henry IV. of France, 1 at that time engaged in important
political negotiations with the Holy See. They con-
versed with Vincent, and readily perceived that he was
the person whom they wanted, at the moment, to convey
their communications to the King ; as these could not
safely be entrusted to a letter. They accordingly fully
confided in him, and dispatched him to Paris. Vincent
rejoiced at being thus employed, as it might afford him
an opportunity of pleading with the King the cause of
his fellow-sufferers in captivity. Henry IV. was so
pleased with the humble priest, that, ere long, he an-
nounced to his court his intention of raising him to the
episcopate. But this design was not destined to be
fulfilled, for the life of the great monarch was prema-
turely brought to a close by the hand of the assassin in
1610. 2
In the confusion attending this startling event, Vin-
cent was entirely forgotten. Without friends or con-
nections, he stood alone in the capital. Seeking a con-
genial occupation, he betook himself to the new hospital
of Charity, there to devote himself to the service of the
sick. 3 It chanced that, one day, Monsieur de Berulle,
afterwards Cardinal, visited the hospital, and there
heard, on every side, the patients express their gratitude
to the holy priest, who so devotedly served them.
Vincent had withdrawn on the arrival of this illustrious
visitor ; but the latter made him out, conversed with
1 These were the Marquis d Breves, Denis de Marquemont, Auditor
of the Rota, and Charles de Gonzague, Due de Nevers. Collet, ' Vie
complete de Saiut Vincent de Paul,' vol. i. p. 37. Four vols., Paris,
1818, Svo.
2 Henry IV. of France, surnamecl the Great, was stabbed by Ravaillac,
a fanatic, on May 14, 1610.
3 In the Faubourg Saint-Germain. Collet, voL i. p. 39.
168 TERRA IXCOGOTTA.
him, and was most favourably impressed by his demean-
our. The more he saw of him, the more he esteemed
him ; and he remained ever afterwards his fast friend.
About this time, Vincent was appointed almoner to the
widowed queen; and in 1612 was installed curs' 1 of
Clichy, which parish he served for about a year.
After this, commenced what may be called his public
career. In the year 1613, on the recommendation of
Monsieur de Berulle, he was appointed governor to the
children of Philippe-Emanuel de Gondi, Count de Joigny,
General of the Galleys of France. To him this change
was most unwelcome. He would much rather have
remained in his humble parish, where he felt much
good might be effected, than take up his abode in the
mansions of the great. But his friend, Monsieur de
Berulle, on whose judgment and counsel he greatly
relied, strongly urged him to undertake a charge, which,
he prophetically assured him, would enable him to
accomplish much more for religion and the suffering
poor than he could ever hope to effect as a simple parish
priest. Vincent accordingly entered on his charge in
1613, and, with some brief intervals, 2 lived altogether
twelve years in the family of Gondi. Among his pupils
was, up to the age of eleven, Jean Frangois de Paule de
Gondi, the celebrated Cardinal de Retz, who afterwards,
as Archbishop of Paris, greatly aided and promoted
the charitable foundations of his beloved preceptor.
While thus engaged, Vincent devoted all his spare time
to labouring for the spiritual good of the peasantry on,
and in the neighbourhood of, the Count's estates ; and
it was at this period that he became painfully impressed
1 The French curt corresponds with our English word rector, and not
curate, aa is sometimes supposed.
* One of these intervals was when he took charge of the very poor
parish of Chatillon, in the diocese of Lyons, in 1617. After spending
five mouths there, he was, to his great regret, recalled to Paris. During
this short time, he worked wonders in the parish, and commenced
there some of those religious and charitable societies, which he after-
wards perfected ha Paris and elsewhere on an extended scale.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 1G9
with the necessity of establishing a congregation of
priests, to co-operate with the parochial clergy in in-
structing the ignorant peasantry, and thus qualifying
them for the proper reception of the sacraments, and the
fulfilment of their other religious duties. This was the
origin or first suggestion of his great work of the Con-
gregation of the Fathers of the Mission, which he
instituted some years later.
He next directed his attention to the galley slaves,
the amelioration of whose condition was ever to him an
object of the deepest interest. His own sufferings, for
two years, as a slave in Africa, peculiarly suited him
for the task, at the same time that they greatly in-
creased his natural sympathy for a class so degraded and
abandoned.
The galleys were an institution peculiar to countries
lying on the shores of the Mediterranean, to which they
appear to have been more suitable than to the coasts of
less tranquil seas. Somewhat resembling the ancient
Roman galleys, or the Chinese junks, they were long,
narrow vessels, mainly impelled by rowers. 1 These
rowers were criminals, condemned to the galleys for a
term of years, or for life, and were called galley slaves.
They were chained to their rowing benches, night and
day ; and we may well conceive their sufferings, and the
brutality induced by treatment so barbarous and degrad-
ing. The principle was, to utilize the labour of the cri-
minals, and this, in a manner to them the most irksome
and painful a mistaken principle, which appears not to
have had the intended effect of deterring from crime,
and, in its results, was very different indeed from the
milder code which operates so beneficially in the refor-
1 The galleys were impelled by sails as well as oars. They generally
had one deck, and two masts, with lateen sails. Those of the largest
size, belonging to the Venetians, were 166 feet long, and 32 in breadth.
These had twenty-six pairs of oars ; and to each oar there were six
slaves, making a total of three hundred and twelve rowers. The word
galley, from the Latin galea, a helmet, originated in the head-piece, or
basket-work, at the mast-head of the vessel.
170 TERRA INCOGNITA.
matories and other similar institutions of the present
day.
In France, galley slavery dated from about the middle
of the fourteenth century. Its principal seat was at
Marseilles, where there was a powerful fleet of galleys,
which were sometimes hired out to neighbouring states.
In many a sea fight, those wretched beings, chained to
their benches, unarmed and unprotected, did the work
in which we now employ the motive power of steam.
Not to speak of their physical sufferings, what must
have been their agonized feelings, their sense of degrada-
tion, their bitter hostility to that world, by which they
were so treated ! As, even in our da} r , the labours and
sufferings of a galley slave are a proverb, so, for many
years, the crimes and enormities of these unfortunate
men were a tradition of terror.
During his residence in the family of the General of
the Galleys, Vincent paid many a visit to the afflicted
convicts at the Conciergerie, and other prisons in Paris,
in the dungeons of which they were confined, in dark-
ness, and amidst filth and vermin, previously to their
being transmitted to the galleys at Marseilles and the
other southern ports. 1 Extreme as were their physical
sufferings, their moral degradation was still more deplor-
able. They were completely brutalized by the treatment
they received. When a sufficient number were accumu-
lated in any particular prison, to form a chiowme, or
body of galley slaves, they were transmitted to the
galleys. For this purpose, they were rivetted to a
long heavy chain, and, thus secured, and guarded by
soldieps, they marched through the country on their
dreary journey. We may well imagine their sufferings
on the long route from Paris to Marseilles. Sometimes,
on their march, they succeeded in committing fearful
1 Abelly, Louis, <<v6que de Rodez, ' Vie du v<5nc5rable serviteur de
Dieu Vincent de Paul,' liv. i. p. 59, Paris, 1GG4, 4to., divide en troia
livres ; and Collet, vol. i. p. 153.
ST VEN'CENT DE PAUL. 171
excesses. Wherever they passed, they were the terror
of the inhabitants. 1
Not content with personally doing all he could to
alleviate the sufferings of these unfortunates, speaking
to them kindly, and offering them religious onsolation,
Vincent earnestly appealed on their behalf to the General
of the Galleys. ' My lord/ said he, ' I have visited the
galley slaves, and I have found them neglected in body
and soul. These poor people belong to you, and you
will have to answer for them before God. Whilst await-
ing their being conducted to the place of their punish-
ment, it is for your charity, not to allow them to remain
without succour and consolation/ Sensibly affected by
this appeal, as well as by his vivid description of their
sufferings in detail, the General asked what could be
done. Vincent, ever eminently practical, proposed a
plan, which the General, who had the greatest confid-
ence in his prudence, approved of and adopted.
Armed with full powers, Vincent hired a large house
1 The galleys were abolished in France in 1748, after which the con-
victs were imprisoned in bagnes, which were either hulks moored off
shore, or buildings well secured and guarded. In both, the convicts
were chained to benches, as previously in the galleys : but, as a general
rule, they were not compelled to work. Several, however, occupied
themselves in the manufacture of trinkets and toys, for which the
bagnes were long celebrated. After the first revolution, 1789, compul-
sory labour, trarau x forces, was reintroduced. Hence the convicts w,ere
called forfats. The transmission of convicts in chimirmes, as above* de-
scribed, ceased only in 1836. The bagnes were abolished by Napoleon
III., in 1852, when transportation was substituted for them. A number
of French convicts, chiefly political prisoners, were then transported to
Guiana, conformably with the decree of December 8, 1851. They were
employed there on useful works. Some of them, as the reward of good
conduct, received grants of land, which they cultivated for their own
benefit. The French Government, wisely considering the principle of
'family' a valuable element in the work of reformation, sent out a
number of female prisoners disposed to marry, and they also granted
free passages and pecuniary aid to the families of convicts willing to
join their relatives in the colony. French Guiana is divided into two
provinces, Sinamarry and Cayenne. In the latter are the seat of
government and the penal settlement. The bad climate has rendered
this experiment a failure ; and convicts are now sent to less unhealthy
colonies.
] 72 TERRA INCOGNITA.
in the faubourg Saint-Honore, near the Church of Saint
Eoch. As soon as he had it properly prepared, fur-
nished, and made secure, he had all the galley slaves,
who were dispersed in the different prisons of Paris,
removed to it, so as to have them altogether under his
supervision. Following the rule which he had wisely
laid down for his several confraternities of charity, he
first applied himself to the relief of their bodily suffer-
ings. For this, large resources were required. After
invoking the blessing of Heaven, he collected the contri-
butions of all his friends ; but, although now these were
numerous, and several of them were of high rank and
much influence, all that they contributed fell consider-
ably short of the amount required. He therefore
applied to Henri de Gondi, Bishop of Paris, pressing on
him the work of the galley slaves, not only as a work of
humanity and religion, but as a family matter. That
prelate issued, under date of June 1, 161&, an in-
struction to the parish priests, vicars, and preachers of
Paris, to exhort the people to aid this great and holy
enterprise ; and the result was that abundant funds
were supplied.
Having thus provided for their corporal necessities,
Vincent next addressed himself to supplying their
spiritual wants. He visited them every day, conversed
with them most kindly, listened to their histories,
sympathized in their sufferings ; and, having thus won
their hearts, he next spoke to them of God, of the truths
of religion, and their obligations as Christians. His
patience, his persevering charity, his disinterested de-
votion to their welfare, had the desired effect. Those
iron wills, which no rigours of the severest penal code
had been able to conquer, were now completely subdued ;
those fierce natures, previously regarded as hopelessly
intractable, were entirely tamed ; and not a few among
them were affected to tears. ' They, the disinherited of
family, the outcasts of the world,' to use the touching
words of one of his biographers, ' they had then a father,
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 173
a friend ; or rather in Vincent they saw only the man
of God, the angel of mercy. This hell soon "became a
heaven. Fury yielded to patience, despair to resigna-
tion, blasphemy to prayer. The light of religion shone
in those intelligences, into which before only entered the
thought of crime ; repentance penetrated their hearts ;
all made general confessions, and approached the holy
table, some for the first time, some after an interruption
of several years, with an awe mingled with love and
gratitude, with dispositions that the most holy might
envy.' 1
The court and the whole city were amazed at the
change. ' How,' it was asked, ' has one man, poor and
without resources, been able to work such wonders ?
How has he succeeded in charming those tigers, in
sanctifying those demons?' 2 But it was destined for
Vincent to accomplish still greater things. Whilst all
around him spoke of his success, he quietly continued
to work on. He found his daily visits insufficient ; and
frequently shut himself up in the prison with the con-
victs, for several days together. His desire was, never
to leave them ; but his missions and his duties to
the family of Gondi called him away. Therefore he
appointed two good priests to live with the convicts,
to console them, and minister to their spiritual ne-
cessities ; and he joined them, whenever he could, in
this work of charity. 3
Seeing the immense good thus effected by Vincent,
Emanuel de Gondi obtained for him, from Louis XIII.,
the appointment of Eoyal Almoner-General of the
Galleys of France. The King's patent, investing him
1 ' Saint Vincent de Paul, sa vie, son temps, ses ceuvres, son influ-
ence,' par 1'Abbe" Haynard, vol. i. p. 191. Paris, Bray, 4 vols. 8vo,
1860.
8 Maynard, vol. i. p. 191.
3 These two priests were Pere Antoine Portail, ever afterwards
attached to his person, and associated in his several great works ;
and Pere Beliu, chaplain to the family of Gondi, at their mansion
at Villepreux. Abelly, liv. L p. 60 j Collet, vol. i. p. 157.
174 TERRA INCOGNITA.
with this influential and honourable office, bears date
February 8, 1619, and concludes as follows : ' His
said Majesty, having compassion on the said galley
slaves, and desiring that they should profit spirituaDy
of their corporal sufferings, has granted and given the
said office of Royal Almoner to Monsieur Vincent de
Paul, priest, bachelor of theology, on the testimony
which the said lord, Count de Joigny, has rendered,
of his good morals, piety, and integrity of life, to hold
and exercise the said office, at the salary of six hundred
livres a year, and with the same honours and rights as
are enjoyed by the other naval officers of the Levant.' l
Vincent rejoiced at his promotion solely inasmuch
as it gave him more influence and power to serve
the unfortunate galley slaves. He forthwith made
arrangements, with the sanction of the general, to
have the same salutary improvements carried out in
the treatment of the convicts in all parts of France ;
and he organized missions for their religious instruc-
tion and edification. In 1622, being at length able
to disengage himself from his multifarious works of
charity in the capital, and 'yielding to the ifnpulse
of the profound thoughts that heaven infused into
his breast,' says his illustrious disciple Bossuet, he
withdrew from the mansion of General de Gondi, and
repaired to Marseilles. On his arrival there, without
making known his rank in the service, he immediately
entered on his mission. 2 He soon found that his task
in the galleys was much more difficult than in the
prisons of Paris ; for the convicts in Paris, bad as
they were, were but novices in crime compared with
the hardened criminals in Marseilles. But what ob-
stacles could long resist his zeal and charity? He
1 Twenty-five years later, January 16, 1644, this patent was renewed
by the youthful monarch Louis XIV., in terms still more honourable
to Vincent. Mayiiard, vol. i. p. 193 ; Collet, vol. i. p. 320.
8 His biographers tell us that he concealed his rank, in order that he
might see everything thoroughly, and that he might avoid the honours
attached to his office. Abelly, liv. iii. p. 114; Collet, vol. i. p. 167.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 175
patiently and unremittingly laboured in the galleys,
pursuing the same course as he had pursued in the
dungeons of the Conciergerie. For many weeks, he
lived among those abandoned beings ; he ministered
to them as a servant ; he condoled with them in their
sorrows; he obtained the relaxation of many of the
terrible severities under which they suffered ; and
then he spoke to them of Him who died for all, the
unjust as well as the just ; and he spoke not in
vain. The harvest of his labours was most abundant.
To perpetuate the good work, with the high approval
of the bishops, he organized, early in the following
year, a grand system of missions to the galley slaves
at Bordeaux and Marseilles, which continued for many
years. The moral revolution effected thereby in the
galleys is attested by several successive bishops of
Marseilles, whose praises of Vincent single him out
as the master-spirit of this work of reformation. 1
On the occasion of his first visit to the galleys at
Marseilles, there was one convict on whom Vincent
1 These missions were conducted by the Fathers of the Congregation
of Vincent de Paul, and the missionaries of Provence, aided by the
almoners of the galleys. We have an account of them in a letter of
Jean-Baptiste Gault, who was Bishop of Marseilles from 1639 to 1643.
This letter is addressed to the Duchess d'Aiguillon, and bears date
March 6, 1643. On May 23 following, the bishop died of fever, con-
tracted in the galleys, in which he zealously laboured at the head of
the missionary priests. A worthy successor of this good bishop was
Monseigneur de Belzance, who, in the great plague of Marseilles in
1720, when the principal inhabitants and leading authorities had fled,
remained at his post, and distinguished himself by his humane and
charitable labours. ' In the absence of all other powers, he constituted
the magistrate, the chief physician, and the chief spiritual guide of the
city. The sacramental nature of the rites of the Roman Catholic
Church makes the attendance of the clergy an absolute essential on
the death-bed ; but the virtues of de Belzance belonged not less to the
individual, and deserved not the less praise heaped upon him by his
contemporaries.' Pope alludes to him as follows, in his 'Essay on
Man,' epistle iv. verse 107 :
' Why drew Marseilles' good bishop purer breath,
When Nature sickened, and each pale was death 1
Or why so long, in life if long can be,
Lent Heaven a parent to the poor and me ? '
176 TERRA INCOGNITA.
could not make any impression a young man buried
in the depths of despair. Guilty of an infraction of
the revenue laws, he had, by an over-severe sentence,
been condemned to three years in the galleys. Of a
rank in life much superior to the ordinary class of
convicts, he felt that he could not survive his term
of a punishment so degrading ; but his affliction was
not so much for himself as for his aged mother, who
had followed him to Marseilles, and his young wife
and three little children, reduced through his fault to
want and misery. In vain did the good priest en-
deavour to console him; in vain did he exhort him
to put his trust in God ; in vain did he point his
attention to the example of several of his fellow convicts,
equally afflicted, who had listened to the voice of
religion, and thus found peace and consolation. Then
it was that Vincent devised the following extraordinary
plan of relieving the young man from his weight of
anguish, and restoring him to his family. He applied
to the officer in charge to release the convict, and to
permit him to take his place. Pressed as he was by
the great charity of Vincent, and, doubtless, penetrating
his disguise, and recognizing, in the humble and devoted
missionary priest, the Almoner-General of the Galleys,
the officer consented ; the young man was released ; and
Vincent was chained to the bench in his stead. 1
1 This heroic act of charity appears, humanly speaking, incredible ;
but this does not make it the less a fact. The officer's consenting to
the substitution can hardly be accounted for otherwise than by his
having recognized Vincent's high official rank, which would be a
sufficient warrant for hia wishes being complied with. Some few
writers have attempted to throw doubts on this interesting event
in the life of Saint Vincent de Paul ; but it is circumstantially detailed
by his co-temporary, Abelly, originally a member of his Congregation
of the Mission, and subsequently Bishop of Rodez, a learned and pious
prelate, whose ' Vie du veneYable serviteur de Dieu Vincent de Paul,'
was published in 1664, or four years after Vincent's death, and by his
other biographers. It was generally spoken of, as a well-known fact in
Abelly's time. It was also related by others of the first Fathers of the
Mission, the friends and associates of Saint Vincent ; and it was juri-
dically proved on the occasion of his canonization. In the process of
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 177
An event such as this, we may well conceive, could
not long remain secret. Immediately on its transpiring,
Vincent was released, and retired, in confusion, from
the scene. During the thirty-eight years that he sur-
vived, through a motive of humility, he never alluded
to this passage in his life ; and whenever it was spoken
of in his presence, he changed the subject. 1
Vincent established two great hospitals for the galley
slaves, one at the Porte Saint-Bernard, in the capital/
and one, with three hundred beds, at Marseilles. 3 Both
were administered by his priests of the Congregation of
the Mission, and largely aided by his friends, that of
the canonization, published in Rome, in 1737, in four volumes folio,
the full proofs are set forth in the second volume in a memoir entitled
'Memoriale, cum restrictu probationum, actus heroicse virtutis, qua
servus Dei Vincentiusde Paulis motus se supposuit in locum damnati ad
triremes, ut ipsum liberaret.' See Maynard, in full, vol. i. pp. 195-203.
1 ' II detourna ce discours, en souriant, sans donner aucune re'ponsa
& sa demande.' Abelly, liv. iii. c. 11, p. 115, and Collet, vol. i. p. 170.
2 For this purpose, he obtained from Louis XIII., the Tower of
Saint Bernard, in the parish of Saint Nicolas-du- Chard onnet. To
this commodious building, he removed all the convicts, from his hired
house in the rue Saint-Honor^, in 1632. Abelly, liv. i. p. 70, and
Collet, vol. i. p. 313.
3 Before this, there was no hospital accommodation for the galley
slaves at Marseilles, and the result was fearful suffering and mortality
when sickness visited the galleys. Vincent had urged the matter on
General de Gondi, who had laid the foundation of the hospital, when
the work was interrupted by the domestic and foreign wars in which
the country was involved. Subsequently he pressed it on the attention
of Cardinal Richelieu, and that powerful minister had actually com-
menced the work, when death summoned him away, in the midst of
his plans and projects. It was destined that Vincent should complete
it. In doing so, he received considerable aid from the Duchesse
d'Aiguillon, the niece and executrix of Richelieu, who specially re-
commended this hospital to her care, in his will. The charity of
this lady was not confined to the hospital. In 1643, she handed
Vincent a sum of 14,000 livres, towards founding, in perpetuity, a
house of his Congregation in Marseilles. It was with a view to carry-
ing out the trusts of this foundation, that, by a royal ordinance of the
16th January 1644, the office of Royal Almoner of the Galleys, then
held by Vincent de Paul, was attached in perpetuity to the Superior-
General of the Congregation of the Mission. Louis XIV. felt much
interest in the establishment of the hospital, which he ordered to be
named the Royal Hospital of Galley Slaves ; and he settled on it an
annual income of 15,000 livres.
M
178 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Paris especially by Madame Le Gras, afterwards first
superioress of the Sceurs de la Chants', and that of Mar-
seilles by the Duchesse d'Aiguillon, niece and executrix
of Cardinal Pachelieu.
Vincent's next undertaking was the establishment of
the congregation of the Fathers of the Mission.
This institute, which is not a religious order, but
simply a congregation of secular priests, 1 who, after two
years of probation, take simple vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience, and perseverance to the end of their lives in
the religious instruction of the ignorant poor, especially
the rural population, was founded in Paris by Vincent
in 1625, 2 under the auspices of the Cardinal Archbishop
de Gondi, and was approved of by Pope Urban VIII. in
1632, and confirmed by Alexander VII. in 1655. The
members devote themselves to three great objects ; first,
the sanctification of their own souls, according to the
exercises prescribed by their rule; secondly, the religious
instruction of the ignorant, especially the country people,
and the conversion of sinners to God ; and, thirdly, the
preparing of clergymen for the ministry of the altar and
the cure of souls. To insure the first object, their ruin
prescribes them one hour's meditation every morning,
self-examination twice a day, spiritual conferences every
week, and a yearly retreat of eight days. In fulfilment
of the second object, they are employed eight mouths
every year in giving missions in the country, staying
three or four weeks in the place of each mission, every
day teaching catechism, preaching in plain language
suitable to the understandings of their rustic audience,
hearing confessions, reconciling those at variance, and
performing other works of charity. To insure the third
object, some of the Fathers undertake the direction of
seminaries, to which they admit ecclesiastics and others,
1 ' Atque dicta congregatio non censeatur propterea in numero
ordinum religiosorum, sed sit de corpora cleri usecularis.' Vincent's
letter to one of his priests, Monsieur Jolly, at Rome, under date, Paris,
22nd October 1655.
2 On January 25, the feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, 1625.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 179
to make retreats, which are conducted according to ex-
cellent rules, drawn up by the Founder. By a brief of
Pope Alexander VII., in the year 1662, it was enjoined
that all those about to be ordained priests in Rome and
its six suffragan bishoprics, should first make a retreat
of ten days under the direction of the Fathers of the
Congregation of the Mission ; and to this day the cus-
tom is very generally observed not only in those, but in
other dioceses. Vincent lived to establish twenty-five
houses of his Congregation in France, Northern Italy,
and other countries. 1
It was in the year 1634 that Vincent instituted his
Congregation of the Sisters of Charity those devoted
women who worthily co-operated in so many of his good
works, and whose successors in our days, labouring in
the same wide field, justly command the respect and
esteem of all creeds and classes, wherever they are
established. Of this great congregation I propose to
treat fully in the next chapter.
Some time before, he had formed a secular association
of ladies of the highest rank, called Les Dames de la
Charite. These ladies devoted themselves to the great
hospital of the Hotel-Dieu, whish some of their number
visited every day, the Foundlings, the Orphans, the
Magdalens, and even the galley slaves, as well as the
several parochial societies. They also co-operated with
the Sisters of Charity, and procured them funds for the
1 The Fathers of the Mission are sometimes called Lazarists, from
the leper hospital of Saint-Lazare, in Paris, which was given to their
Founder, for their accommodation, by the canons regular of Saint
Victor, in 1632. It was for a long time the head-quarters of the Con-
gregation, and the Superior-General resided there. Vincent was in-
stalled therein by Jean-Fra^ois de Gondi, first Archbishop of Paris,
on January 7, 1632. Collet, vol. i. p. 309. In 1792, Saiut-Lazare was
pillaged, and the Fathers of the Mission were expelled from it by the
revolutionists. After repeated promises, the Government gave them,
in 1817, the Hotel de Lorge, 95 Rue de Sevres, as their principal house.
Saint Lazare is now a house of detention for female prisoners, under the
charge of religious women, who have preserved as an oratory the room
of Saint Vincent de Paul.
180 TERRA INCOGNITA.
several objects and institutions under their charge. As
we proceed, we shall see the immense good effected by
this association, not only in the large sums of money
contributed by the ladies and their wealthy connections,
and the weight of influence they brought to the aid of
the several charitable undertakings of the day, but in
the. example they afforded an example the more bene-
ficial on account of the high social position of those who
laboured so zealously in providing for the wants, and
alleviating the sufferings of their indigent fellow-crea-
tures.
He established subsequently a similar association of
noblemen and gentlemen, who met once a month at
Saint Lazare, to take into consideration the wants of
the poor of the capital, visited daily the Hotel-Dieu, to
encourage and console the male patients, and interested
themselves in several other charitable institutions.
From an early period Vincent had formed lay associa-
tions of this kind, male and female, in the several towns
in which he gave missions. These may be regarded as
the forerunners of the present lay Society of Saint
Vincent de Paul.
For forty years from the time of his captivity in
Tunis, Vincent never forgot his fellow-sufferers, the
Christian slaves in Africa; but during those forty
years, owing to domestic and foreign wars, all his
endeavours to procure them succour were unavailing.
The Mahometan races have ever intensely hated the
Christian name. Of this we meet many a painful illus-
tration in mediaeval and recent history. Now, happily,
they are powerless. But, even now, notwithstanding
the progress of civilization, there is good reason to be-
lieve that it is only by superior force they are deterred
from re-enacting in all parts of the world the horrors of
past ages against Christian populations.
At the time of Vincent's captivity, 1605 to 1607, the
slavery of Christians in Barbary, of long duration, had
existed on a vastly increased scale for about one hundred
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 181
years ; and, for fifty years afterwards, that is, up to the
middle of the seventeenth century, it was, in extent and
degree, greater than ever before or since. The expul-
sion of the Moors from Spain swelled the numbers and
intensified the savage fanaticism of the lawless Maho-
metan pirates. Constantly from Tunis, Algiers, Salee,
Tripoli, Tetuan and Tangier, their armed vessels issued
forth, ravaging the shores of the Mediterranean, bearing
off, in multitudes, their victims to a fate worse than
death ; and even occasionally they extended their circle,
and carried their depredations as far as the coasts of
Great Britain and Ireland. 1
The armed expeditions of the Christian princes, from
time to time, were of no avail. The force, which, united,
would have crushed the ruthless Mahometan, was
unfortunately wasted in wars, in which Christian nations
were unnaturally arrayed against each other. 2 Treaties
were made with the barbarians; but by them the
treaties were signed, only to be broken. Even tribute
was paid them, to avert, or rather mitigate, those evils
which united Christendom could and should have pre-
vented by less ignoble means. ' You shall pursue the
infidel until he receive the book or pay the tribute,'
says the Koran. 3 France, Holland, and other European
states paid tribute, in the shape of an annual present, to
obtain an alleviation of the sufferings of their subjects
in slavery ; while Austria, Russia, Malta under its
knights, the Papal States, and the Italian republics
refused to treat with the pirates, or make them any
contribution. Hence a large proportion of the slaves in
the bagnes of Barbary were the subjects of some of these
latter states.
The number of the Christian slaves was immense. For
1 In the records of the Fathers of the Mission, we have interesting
accounts of British youths, who nobly endured tortures aud death,
rather than abandon Christianity for Islamism,
2 Such was the Thirty Years' War, referred to further oil.
3 Chapter 9.
182 TERRA INCOGNITA.
instance, in the early part of the sixteenth century,
Hayraddin employed no less than thirty thousand
Christian slaves, for two years, in constructing a pier
for the protection of his ships at Algiers; and, a century
later, in Algiers and its surrounding district alone, there
were between, twenty-five and thirty thousand Christian
slaves, French, Spanish, English, Italians, Styrians, and
even Russians. There were three denominations of
slaves those of the State in the service of the King or
Dey, those of the galleys engaged in the seaports and
the expeditions of the pirates, and those belonging to
individuals, either employed in domestic, farm, or other
labour, or dealt in as an article of commerce, being
sold and re-sold in the same way as horses or cattle.
The records of the sufferings of the unfortunate cap-
tives are truly heart-sickening. Immediately on their
landing, they were stripped of their clothes, and sold ;
and then, covered with a few rags and chained, they
were set to work, some in the galleys, but the greater
part in the country, under a scorching sun some in
tilling the soil, some in cutting wood and making char-
coal, some in quarrying, some in sawing marble, some
in the port, up to the middle in water, for nine hours a
day ; and all this under the whip of a brutal overseer.
In many an instance, as described by the missionaries,
their skin peeled off under the broiling sun, and their
tongues lolled out from excessive thirst, which they
could not leave their work to quench. But their
physical sufferings were fully equalled, or rather sur-
passed, by the pangs of their mental pain and moral
degradation. Whilst many endured this protracted
martyrdom rather than abandon the faith of Christ,
others, in their utterly subdued and broken-down state,
embraced Islamism, which immediately procured them
some alleviation of the cruel treatment under which
they groaned. Driven to desperation, several committed
suicide ; and numbers died from hardship.
From an early period, the lamentable condition of
ST VINCENT DE PAUL, 183
the Christians in captivity with the Moors had engaged
the charity of the Church. Towards the end of the
twelfth century, the order of the Trinitarians for the
Redemption of Captives was founded by Saint John of
Matha, and Saint Felix of Valois, and was approved of
by Pope Innocent III., in 1198, and confirmed by the
same pontiff in 1209. In six centuries 1198 to 1787
nine hundred thousand Christian captives were re-
deemed from slavery by this great order. Another
powerful organization for the same object was formed
about the same time, 1 by Saint Peter Nolasco the
order of our Blessed Lady of Mercy for the Eedemptiou
of Captives. This order was approved of, and its rules
and constitutions were confirmed by the Holy See, in
1235. To the ordinary vows was added a fourth vow,
' to take the place of a captive if there were no other
means of effecting his ransom/ Abundantly exercising
its charity in all countries, the Order of Mercy, in six
centuries, ransomed three hundred thousand slaves in
Barbary alone.
Not to speak of the difficulties, dangers, and suffer-
ings of the missionaries, several of whom received the
martyr's crown when we regard the numbers redeemed
from captivity two thousand every year for six hundred
years and when we take into account that, besides the
actual ransom of each slave, there were travelling
charges and heavy exactions to be met, and costly pre-
sents to be made, we may appreciate the magnitude of
the work attempted and accomplished by these two
orders, and the co-operation they received in the
munificent contributions of the faithful. Where
armed expeditions had utterly failed, where diplomatic
negotiations had been carried on, and treaties con-
cluded, in vain, these humble envoys of the King of
kings, great in the simplicity of their faith, and
fearlessly confronting tortures and death, achieved
triumphs the most glorious in the cause of suffering
1 A.D. 1223.
184 TERRA INCOGNITA.
humanity. When John of Matha stood before Mira-
molin, King of Morocco, in 1202, and told him that
he came to purchase from him his Christian slaves,
the noble daring of his zeal appears to have fascinated
the barbarian. The missionary of the hated Christian
race comes and goes, without let or hindrance. On
his first voyage he redeems one hundred and eighty-
six Christian slaves; on the next, one hundred and
ten. At any moment, he may be seized, cast into a
dungeon, chained in the slave gang, put to the torture,
or impaled. He fears not. He ransoms all he can.
He promises to return, with all speed, to ransom more ;
and he exhorts the sufferers, meanwhile, to patience and
perseverance in the faith.
Although Vincent de Paul in the last fifteen years of
his life redeemed twelve hundred of these captives, at
a cost of over one million livres, this work, so efficiently
carried on by the two orders just described, was not his
main object His attention was rather directed to the
establishing of his missionaries in Barbary, to dwell
there permanently, and provide for the spiritual and
corporal wants of the Christians in captivity. With
the prudence and discrimination which were ever his
characteristics, he carefully selected those priests of
his Congregation who were best suited to this diffi-
cult and important mission ; and, at his bidding, those
devoted men went forth for ever from friends and home
and country, to spend the remainder of their days in
the land of the barbarian ; and there, some in the close
and fetid atmosphere of the bagnes, some in the temats,
or farm stations, beneath the relentless ardors of a
tropical sun all amidst filth and vermin and plague
and human suffering in its most appalling form they
unceasingly laboured in aiding, instructing, and con-
soling their most heavily afflicted fellow-Christians.
Vincent ere long succeeded in having his missionaries
officially attached as chaplains to the consulates at Tunis
and Algiers ; and in time he was himself entrusted by
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 185
the Crown with the nomination of the consuls ; whereby
those posts were filled by men ever ready to co-operate
in his plans, which equally displayed sound practical
ability and true Christian benevolence. 1 Hence the
missionaries possessed great power and influence for
good. The funds at their disposal were judiciously
employed to obtain a temporary, and even sometimes a
permanent, relaxation of the sufferings of the Christian
captives. As the masters would not yield one moment
of the labour of their slaves by day, they were induced
by presents to admit the missionaries to the bagnes
at night, when the administration of the sacraments
went on, and frequently the priest remained up the
whole night engaged in this work of charity. How
the fathers were able to struggle on under the weight
of their arduous duties^ it is difficult to understand.
Some fell victims to the plague ; some few suffered
martyrdom ; but several survived on the mission many
years ; and their labours'were blessed with the happiest
results.
Aided by the large contributions of his many friends,
Vincent founded and endowed an hospital for the
Christian captives at Algiers, in connexion with the
consulate. This institution was valued by the masters,
as it preserved the lives of many of their slaves, who
but for such aid would have been carried off by disease.
His thoughtful charity also opened a general post-office
at Saint Lazare, with a branch at Marseilles, by which,
through the intervention of the missionaries and the
consuls, these poor sufferers were enabled gratuitously
to correspond with their families.
His next great work was that of the Foundlings Les
Enfants Trouves. Up to this time, the desertion of
children in Paris was like what might be expected in a
1 In all this Vincent had an able co-operator in the Duchesse
d'Aiguillon, who contributed munificently out of the large funds at
her disposal, and who also purchased the consular residences at Tunis
and Algiers, and presented them to him, with the King's permission.
186 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Pagan city, rather than in the capital of Christian civi-
lization. Between three and four hundred of these
little innocents were exposed in the city and faubourgs
of Paris every year. They were taken by the Police to
a house called La Couche, in the rue Saint- Landry, and
were there committed to the charge of a widow and her
two servant women. 1 These, unequal to the task of
taking care of so many children, and not having the
means to pay nurses, used to administer sleeping
draughts to the infants, several of whom, being over-
drugged, fell into that sleep which knows no waking. 2
Several died from neglect Others, for a small sum,
twenty sous, were sold to tlrose who, for one purpose or
another, wished to adopt children ; and of these, horrible
to relate ! some were thus transferred to mendicants,
who deformed their little limbs, to expose them as
objects of charity. 3
One day in the year 1638, as Vincent was returning
from a mission, he descried a beggar, under the walls of
Paris, thus mutilating an infant. He rushed forward
exclaiming, 'Ah! monster, you have greatly deceived
me. At a distance, I thought you were a man.' He
seized the child, bore it off in his arms, traversed the
streets of the capital, and, followed by a great crowd,
he proceeded at once to La Couche in the rue Saint-
Landry, where he had heard that children were pro-
cured by mendicants for such inhuman purposes. On
his arrival there, he was soon satisfied that what ho
had heard was but too true. On the spot, he feelingly
appealed to the women who had accompanied him, to
take charge of some of these little ones, if it were only
for one day. ' Yet one day,' he exclaimed, ' I ask of
you only a single day. Providence will suggest to us
some salutary resolution.'
Next morning, at his request, the house was visited
by some of the benevolent ladies whom he had united
in the association of Les Dames de la CharM They
1 Abelly, liv. i. p. 142. Ibid. Ibid.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 187
minutely examined and inquired into everything ; and
their report to him was, that the lot of the infants there
was worse than that of the innocents massacred by the
orders of Herod. 1 Vincent returned with them to the
house. He immediately selected twelve of the children,
blessed them, and charged himself with their main-
tenance. He placed them in an asylum which he forth-
with opened for foundlings, and confided to the care of
his Sisters of Charity. He went again and again to the
rue Saint- Landry, and brought away more and more of
the children. The numbers rapidly increased ; many
of the infants had to be given out to nurses ; and the
expenses were considerable. In procuring funds for the
support of this asylum, as well as in visiting it daily
and variously providing for the necessities and comforts
of its little inmates, the ladies of his association proved
valuable co-operators, while the nuns residing within its
walls were truly mothers to the deserted little ones.
But Vincent's charity was not confined to visits to
the rue Saint-Landry. In the winter nights, when the
streets were covered with snow, he used to traverse the
quarters of poverty and crime, the remote suburbs,
where foundlings were generally exposed, and there, if
he found a little one, he bore it away in his arms,
wrapped in a large cloak, which is preserved to this day,
and, hastening to the asylum, handed the precious
charge to the Sisters of Charity. The sisters waited up
every night, to receive and attend to any infants he
might bring them. They kept a journal, in which these
events are noted as well as their own impressions ; and
now, after a lapse of two hundred and thirty years, the
simple entries in that journal are alike interesting and
affecting. For instance :
22nd January 1639. Monsieur Vincent has arrived at about
eleven o'clock at night. He has brought us two infants. One
may be six days old, the other more. They were crying, the poor
little things ! My sister superior has confided them to nurses.
1 Maynard, vol. iii. p. 331.
188 TERRA INCOGNITA.
25th January. The streets are full of snow ; we expect Mou-
sieur Vincent. He has not come at all this evening.
26th January. Poor Monsieur Vincent is shivering with cold.
He has arrived with an infant. This one is weaned. 'Tis sad to
eee it. It has fair hair and a mark on the arm. Mon Dieu, moo
Dieu,'what a hard heart one must have to abandon thus a pooi
little creature !
1st February. The work goes on slowly ; we have great want
of public charity.
3rd February. Some of onr poor little ones have returned
from nurse. They appear in good health. The eldest of our
little girls is five years. Sister Victoire is teaching her cate-
chism. She is commencing needlework. The eldest of our little
boys, named Andrew, is learning wonderfully.
7th February. The air is very sharp. Monsieur Vincent has
come to visit us. He has run at once to his little children.
'Tis wonderful to hear his kind words : they listen to hinj as a
father. I have seen his tears flow : one of our children is dead.
' It is an angel,' he exclaims, ' but 'tis hard never to see it
again.' 1
Vincent was then in his sixty-third year.
It was about this time that, one night, he was stopped
by robbers, who wished to deprive him of what he ap-
peared to be carrying with so much care. He opened
his cloak and showed them a foundling. They asked in
surprise who he was ; for his person was unknown to
them. He mentioned his name a name which, even
abandoned as they were, they had learned to revere ;
and, on hearing it, as if by an irresistible impulse, they
iell on their knees, and implored his pardon.
The first few years, only a portion of the foundlings
of the capital could be provided for in the asylum.
This was a source of deep sorrow to Vincent, who
now resolved to rescue all. lie had himself largely
contributed, and the Dames de la Charit had by their
influence and exertions procured him handsome sub-
scriptions. The Queen, Anne of Austria, to whom he
had appealed, had also given her co-operation, and,
at her instance, the King 2 had settled an annual
income of fourteen thousand livres on the institution.
1 Maynard, vol. Hi. p. 332. Louis XIII.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 189
But the income required was forty thousand livres;
and, owing to the necessities of Lorraine and the
troubled state of the kingdom, to raise this sum ap-
peared at the time impossible. The Dames de la
Charite shrank from so weighty a responsibility.
Vincent, by no means disheartened, and, in the words
of his biographer, ' feeling for his adopted little ones as
much as any mother for her own children/ invited those
ladies to meet him in a great ^assembly in the church on
a certain day. He placed five hundred little foundlings
in the arms of his Sisters of Charity. He ascended the
pulpit, and pleaded their cause. His eloquent appeal,
mingled with the wailings of the little innocents, went
straight to the hearts of his auditors. Among these
were the Queen Eegent, the Princesse de Conti, the
Duchesse d'Aiguillon, and several others of the first
ladies of France. ' Behold, ladies,' said he, ' you have
adopted these children you have become their mothers,
according to grace, since their natural mothers have
abandoned them. Say, will you also desert them for
ever ? Cease at this moment to be their mothers, and
become their judges. Their lives and their death are in
your hands. I shall now take your suffrages. It is time
that you pronounce their doom. Look upon them here
before you. They will live, if you continue to them
your charitable protection ; but to-morrow will behold
them perish, if you cast them off.' l
The sobs and tears of all present were mingled with
his closing words. Before the assembly separated, the
asylum was insured an annual income of forty thou-
sand livres. This income, ere long, was considerably
increased. The example was speedily followed, and,
with Vincent's aid, similar institutions were established
in different parts of the kingdom. 2
1 A.D. 1648. Abelly, liv. i. p. 144.
* It is on account of his devotion to little children, so touchingly
illustrated in these passages in his life, that Saint Vincent de Paul is
generally represented, in his portraits, with an infant in his arms.
190 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Among his numerous other foundations were the
Asylum of the Madeleine du Temple for fallen
women, 1 his house of Providence for unprotected
young women, whom he would save from the dangers
and temptations of a large capital, his hospital of
Sainte-Reine, in Burgundy, 2 accommodating four hun-
dred sick poor, and enabling them to take advantage
of those healing waters previously enjoyed exclusively
by the wealthy ; and several asylums for the reception
and proper treatment of lunatics ; not to enumerate the
Orphan Asylums and other similar institutions estab-
lished, and conducted by religious communities, under
his direction, and his various lay confraternities and
parochial societies, for instructing the ignorant and
ministering to the necessities of the suffering poor.
His successful attempt to banish mendicancy from
the capital was made in the years 1653 to 1657. Paris
was then infested by ' forty thousand mendicants, with-
out lodging, without bread, without morals, a frightful
multitude, which Henry IV. and Sully 8 despaired of
either relieving or dispersing.' 4 Even the powerful
minister Richelieu, who vanquished all other obstacles,
was here completely baftled. Ordinance after ordinance,
whether of the court or parliament, had been passed, to
1 Strictly speaking, the Asylum of the Madeleine du Temple was the
foundation of Charlotte Marguerite de Qondi, marquise de Maignelay,
who also munificently endowed the institution. At her request it was
taken charge of and placed on a solid foundation by Saint Vincent de
Paul.
* At the village of Alise-Sainte-Reine, in the department Cdte-d'Or,
eight miles north-east of Semur, celebrated for its iron mines and
mineral waters. The hospital of Sainte-Reiue, established by Vincent
two hundred years ago, still exists, receiving and gratuitously support-
ing the poor who come for the benefit of the waters, and also giving
out rations of bread, soup, and meat to poor wayfarers.
3 Maxirnilien de Bethune, Due de Sullv, a favourite minister of
Henry IV., was born in 1560. He was grand-master of artillery and
superintendent of the finances of France. He was a man of blunt
manners and great force of character, and a most devoted servant of
the King. He always adhered strictly to the ProtetUnt faith. He
died in 1640.
Maury, p. 39.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 191
abolish or even regulate the mendicancy of the capital ;
but in vain. The quarters occupied by the mendicants
were called the Cours des Miracles. Of these courts
there were eleven. The principal was that which had
its entrance in the rue Neuve-Saint-Sauveur. They
were so called on account of the seeming miracles there
daily enacted ; for, on their return home at evening, the
professional beggars, once within the precincts of their
court, threw off their disguises disburdened themselves
of their simulated infirmities ; and thus it came to pass
that forthwith the lame became vigorous and active, the
blind saw, and the deformed were made straight.
Vincent had long deplored the existence of this
gigantic evil. Here was a vast population immersed
in idleness, crime, and ignorance, hurtful not only to
themselves but to all with whom they came in contact.
Here were their children equally neglected and ignor-
ant, and exposed, from their earliest years, to influences
destructive alike to soul and body. Here, too, were
to be found the monsters who scrupled not to mutilate
infants, sometimes their own and sometimes those
whom they kidnapped, especially since he had taken
under his charge all the foundlings, formerly crowded
together in the rue Saint-Landry. Vincent resolved
to grapple with the evil. He carefully prepared a
plan, which he submitted to the municipality of Paris ;
but that body, alarmed at its large proportions, and
more than doubtful of its success, refused to entertain
it. He therefore determined to carry it out himself.
He had just then most opportunely received from a
benevolent citizen of Paris a sum of one hundred
thousand livres, to be expended by him in any way
he pleased, for the benefit of the poor. Notwithstand-
ing this discretion, he again consulted the donor, and,
with his sanction, applied the money to the matter in
hand.
He first assembled three hundred aged poor persons,
of both sexes, and placed them in an asylum, which he
192 TERRA INCOGNITA.
denominated the Hospital of the Name of Jesus. 1 Here,
he not only relieved their temporal necessities, employ-
ing them meanwhile in industrial occupations suited to
their strength ; but, with the aid of his missionaries, he
exhorted, instructed, and thoroughly imbued them with
the principles of religion. Thus prepared, he told them
that he would make them responsible for all the mendi-
cants of 'the capital, whom he hoped to win over from
idleness and vice to industry and Christian piety. For
this great work he made them his instruments ; he
constituted them a moral police ; he sent them, as so
many trained missionaries, to the haunts of crime and
misery, to bring in the erring and unfortunate to him ;
for, no matter how depraved, no matter how ignorant,
no matter how degraded they might be, he was ready to
receive them all with open arms, provide for their necessi-
ties, reconcile them to God, and restore them to society.
In all this, however, lie proceeded carefully and with-
out precipitation. 'The works of God,' said he, 'are
done by little and little. They have their beginnings
and their progress. In my opinion, we ought at first to
make only an experiment, and take in one hundred or
two hundred poor people, and yet only those who will
come of their own free accord, without any compulsion
whatever. These, being well treated and content, will
attract others, and thus the number will increase in
proportion as Providence will send means. One is sure
to spoil nothing in acting thus ; and, on the other hand,
precipitation and compulsion might be a hindrance to
the designs of God. If the work is His, it will succeed
and will endure ; but if it is only the result of human
industry, it will neither proceed well, nor last for any
time.' 2
1 Maury, p. 41. He commenced with forty, and gradually increased
the number to three hundred. Abelly, liv. i. p. 212.
8 Address to the Dames de la Charite", who co-operated with him in
this work. He was obliged to moderate their seal. ' Invitons lea
pauvres b venir de bon grey said they, 'et, s'ils refusent, amenons-lea
de force. N'est-ce pas leur bien quo nous voulona ? et la maniere,
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 193
Conducted on these principles, his experiment was
crowned with complete success. Month after month,
the numbers increased, and were received by Vincent
in his great asylum of La Salpetriere, 1 which he had
prepared for their accommodation. Here they were
classified according to age and sex, comfortably lodged,
clothed and fed, trained to habits of order and industry,
and instructed in their social and Christian duties and
obligations. They were all employed in useful labour,
according to their strength ; for it was a leading prin-
ciple of Vincent, in all his institutions, that the inmates
should work, as he considered occupation essential to
health of mind and body.
The feasibility of that which had before seemed
impossible being now proved, the King and Parlia-
ment took up the work. A royal edict was issued,
prohibiting mendicity in Paris and its environs, and
establishing the Hopital-General, which was opened
on March 7, 1657, for the reception of all the poor
of the capital. This great Hospital included not only
the Salpetriere, but La Grande and La Petite Pitie',
the Bicetre, which had been given Vincent for his
foundlings, and other establishments. Its administra-
tion was confided to the magistracy, the bar, and the
municipality of Paris, and, being a royal foundation, the
King endowed it, and declared himself its conservator
and protector.
The spiritual direction of the Hopital-General was
confided to the Fathers of the Mission, under the
authority and jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Parts ;
and thus Vincent's intimate connection with it con-
qu'itnporte ? ' Government subsequently adopted this system of com-
pulsion, but it was not approved of by Vincent, who would rather
induce than compel the poor to enter.
1 Through the intervention of Anne of Austria, Vincent obtained
from the King a grant of this great building and its surrounding
grounds in 1653. It was admirably suited for his purpose, being
outside Paris, and lying close to the Seine. It had previously been
used for the manufacture of saltpetre. Hence the name.
N
194 TERRA INCOGNITA.
tinued after he had handed it over to the State as a
public institution. 1
His ideas of the classification and employment of
the inmates were carried out by the new administra-
tion. All those who had attained the age of sixtn-n
received one-third of the proceeds of their work, and
the remaining two-thirds devolved to the hospital.
All the poor of Paris had been invited, by royal
proclamation, and notices in all the churches, to enter
this new asylum. 2 No less than six thousand responded
to the call Thus was useful occupation found for about
one-sixth of that unsettled and abandoned population,
which had previously been the plague of the capital,
and permanent provision made for their temporal and
spiritual necessities. Of the remainder some turned
to honest industry ; and the greater number dispersed,
of themselves, when they found that there was no
longer an excuse for idle mendicancy.
The change thus effected, as anticipated by Vincent,
was a surprise to all classes. So great was the benefit
derived by the capital, that, conformably with the wishes
of Louis XIV., the same system was adopted by several
of the principal cities, and with the same satisfactory
results.
Co-temporary writers vie with each other in their
praises of this great undertaking, conceived by Vincent,
and carried out by him and the Dames de la Charite
until its success was assured. ' Here/ says the royal
edict, ' the capital is relieved of the importunity of
mendicants ; the children of the poor are nurtured in
Christian piety, and learn trades and other work.' ' Go
a little out of the city,' exclaims Bossuet, ' and see this
new city that has been built for the poor, the asylum
of all the miserable, the bank of heaven, the common
1 At the desire of Vincent, the office of rector of the H6pitAl-G<5n&l
was undertaken by Louis Abelly, one of the priests of his Congregation,
and his future historian, afterwards bishop of Rodez.
3 By a decree of Parliament of April 18, 1657.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 195
means, assured to all, of securing their wealth and
multiplying it by a celestial usury. There is nothing
equal to this city ; no, not even that superb Babylon
nor those cities so renowned which conquerors have
built. . . . Here they endeavour to take away from
poverty all the curse entailed by idleness, and to make
the poor according to the Gospel. Children are educated,
families are re-united, and the ignorant instructed receive
the sacraments.' l
In the course of time, the numbers admitted into the
Hopital-General largely increased. An aggregate of
over sixty thousand poor received food, clothing, and
medical treatment there, in the first five years ; and
moreover rations were distributed to necessitous families
outside awaiting admission. 2 The average number of
poor annually received and relieved had mounted to
twenty thousand in 1663. 3
The great public usefulness of the institution was
universally recognized, and consequently the necessary
means were not wanting. Thus Vincent's confidence in
entering singly on so heavy an undertaking was fully
justified. ' Let us only begin the work,' said he, ' and
God will complete it.' At the time he had by him a
large sum of money destined for other purposes. The
whole of this sum he laid out on La Salpetriere. In
this, as in all his undertakings, his example was con-
tagious, his appeal was irresistible, and contributions
poured in on all sides. 4
It was on this occasion that when he applied to the
Queen Eegent, 5 Her Majesty, not having any money
available, owing to the public necessities, handed him
1 (Euvres de Bossuet, tome xiii. p. 248.
2 Declaration of the Parliament of January, 1663.
3 Maynard, vol. iii. p. 366.
4 Among others, Cardinal Mazarin contributed towards the Hopital-
Ge'ne'ral 100,000 livres in one day, and bequeathed it 60,000 in his will.
One of the Dames de la Charite" gave 50,000 livres, and another settled
on it an annual income of 3000 livres.
5 Anne of Austria, widow of Louis XIII.
196 TERRA INCOGNITA.
her diamonds, at the same time expressing a wish that
her gift might remain a secret. ' Madam, I pray your
Majesty to pardon me/ said Vincent, ' if I cannot con-
ceal so noble an act of charity. It is well, Madam, that
all Paris and even all France should know it ; and I
consider myself obliged to publish it wherever I can.' 1
Louis XIIL died in 1643, and in his last moments
derived much consolation from the ministry of Vincent,
whom he had specially summoned to assist him. Wheu
it became necessary to break to the dying King that his
end was approaching, Vincent, on whom the duty de-
volved, addressed him as follows : ' Sire, he who fears
God shall be the better of it in his last moments:
Timenti Dominum bene erit in extremis.' The King
replied, finishing the verse : ' Et in die defunctionis sute
benedicetur.' 2 From that moment, at the King's desire,
Vincent remained beside him until he breathed his last.
This scene has been handed down to us on canvas by
the genius of the painter: 'Les derniers moments du
roi Louis XIIL, assist^ de Saint Vincent de Paul.' In
the picture, the worn and suffering features of the King
strikingly contrast with the mild countenance of the
priest beside him, suggesting holy thoughts and raising
his mind to heaven.
Louis XIV. being only five years old on his accession,
the reins of government were assumed by the widowed
queen, Anne of Austria. The Queen Regent so highly
appreciated the virtues of Vincent that she appointed
him president of the young King's Council of Con-
science, and consulted him as to all ecclesiastical ap-
pointments, thus, to a great extent, placing in his hands
the nomination to all the bishoprics in the kingdom.
1 ' Madame, votre Majeste 1 me pardonnera, s'il luy plaist, si je ne
puis cacher une si belle action de charitd II est bon, Madame, qua
tout Paris et mesme toute la France la connainse ; et je crois etr*
oblige" de la publier partout oh je pourray. ' Abelly, liv. iii. j.. 1 _>;.
One of these ornaments was sold for 7000 livres, and one for 18,000.
Ibid.
2 ' And he shall be blessed on the day of his death.'
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 197
This office lie held for ten years, with great advantage
to religion, and the state. 1 He drew up an admirable
code of rules for regulating the proceedings of the Coun-
cil ; 2 and co-temporaries speak in glowing terms of his
humility, disinterestedness and zeal for religion, as well
as his wisdom and prudence in discharging the onerous
duties which its presidency imposed upon him. 3
But perhaps the charity of Vincent shone nowhere
more brightly, nowhere did his wondrous fertility of
resources become more conspicuous, nowhere did his all
but miraculous power of doing good multiply itself more
strikingly, than in the midst of the desolation caused by
the Thirty Years' War. In that war, which commenced
in 1618, the armies of Saxony and the other Protestant
states, 4 at one time upheld by the prowess of Gustavus
Adolphus of Sweden, at another aided by France, under
the able direction of Eichelieu, and led to certain vic-
tory by the genius of Conde and Turenne, were arrayed
against the forces of Ferdinand II. of Austria, marshalled
by Tilly and Wallenstein, two of the most celebrated
captains of the age. The struggle, which outlived most
of its distinguished originators and leaders, lasted until
1648, when it was closed by the peace of Westphalia ; 5
Austria being obliged to make large cessions of territory
to Saxony and France.
Great as were the sufferings entailed on France by her
late disastrous contest with Prussia, these sufferings are
1 The Crown made all ecclesiastical appointments, with the advice
of the Council of Conscience. This council was composed of Cardinal
Mazarin, the Chancellor S<Sguier, the Bishops of Beauvais and Lisieux,
Charton, grand penitentiary of Paris, and Vincent de Paul, its presi-
dent. Collet, vol. ii. p. 138.
2 The principal of these are given by Maynard, vol. iii. p. 402.
3 Maynard, vol. iii. pp. 395-397.
4 Although the Royal family of Saxony are Catholic, the great majo-
rity of the population are Protestant. According to the census of 1867,
the total population was 2,423,586. Of these, 2,361, 861 were Luther-
ans, and 51,478 were Catholics.
5 The Treaty of Westphalia was signed at Munster and Osnaburp,
and is sometimes named after those places.
198 TERRA INCOGNITA.'
not to be compared to what was endured by the pro-
vinces which were the scene of the Thirty Years' War.
The late war, of only seven months' duration, was, no
doubt, most destructive of human life, and was marked
by grievous exactions, in the shape of requisitions levied
by the conquerors ; but it was conducted, on both sides,
with that degree of discipline and forbearance towards
the persons of non-combatants which are characteristic
of our modern civilization ; whereas the wars of the
seventeenth century, extending over many years, not
only brought in their train the horrors of famine and
pestilence, but they were accompanied by such outrages
en masse on the inhabitants of whole provinces, that the
authentic details which have come down to us are
enough to make the blood run cold. 1 Lorraine, Picardy,
and Champagne suffered especially. For many years
these doomed provinces were over- run by the armies of
eacli party, and no matter whether Swedes, or Germans,
or Spaniards, or French, the same scenes of rapine, out-
rage and desolation were enacted by a brutal soldiery,
and appear to have been fully tolerated, nay, sometimes
participated in, by their leaders. 2
A deputation from these afflicted provinces arrived in
Paris. They applied not to the learned, the high-born,
the worldly great nay, not even to the Sovereign him-
self. They made their appeal to the humble priest of
Saint Lazare, whom they regarded to quote their own
language as ' the superintendent of the affairs of God.'
This truly great man, whom already France had learned
to call her ' best citizen,' had seemingly exhausted his
resources in his several charitable institutions and
foundations. Did he now recoil from this overwhelm-
ing task ? Did he send back the deputies in disappoint-
ment and dismay ? No ; his exertions rose to the level
of the emergency ; his resources appeared miraculously
1 These are fully related by Maynard, vol. iv. p. 72-207.
Foremost among the perpetrators of these excesses was the not^ri.
ous Baron D'Erlach, lieutenant-general of the armies of Louis XIV.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 199
to increase. He immediately sent his missionaries to
visit the devastated provinces, and, on learning, from
their reports, that the evil was far greater than was
supposed in the capital, he forthwith took measures to
relieve the sufferers on a scale commensurate with their
necessities. He assembled his worthy co-operators on
all such occasions the Dames de la Charitd He laid
the case before them ; and they nobly responded to his
views. Through their great influence and devoted
exertions, continued for years, immense sums were sub-
scribed. 1 Vincent, with no less success, appealed to
Anne of Austria and the King. He also obtained the
approval and aid of the Archbishop of Paris. Having
thus secured not only the contributions but the co-
operation of the great, he carefully formed his plans.
Following these, his priests, on visiting each parish,
immediately waited on the cure, and ascertained from
him the names and residences of all the really needy,
and other necessary particulars. They then distributed
relief, always in kind ; generally placing a sum of money
in the hands of the cure, for sick and other extraordinary
cases. They were accompanied in their visits by some
lay brothers of the Congregation, who were skilled in
medicine, and who afforded immediate aid to those
stricken with the pestilence. Thus, by this systematic
distribution, all abuse of charity and waste were avoided."
The rural districts, in their turn, as well as the towns,
were visited and relieved. 3 During ten consecutive
1 At the commencement of this work, Madame de Lamoignon pre-
sented him with a sum of 800,000 livres in the name of the Dames de
la CharitS, towards building a house and church at Saint Lazare.
'This sum,' said Vincent, 'will be better employed in relieving the
poor of Picardy and Champagne.' And accordingly it was so expended.
Maynard, vol. iv. p. 142.
2 Several interesting instances are recorded of the devoted zeal of
these missionaries, as well as of their adroitness in evading the bands
of soldiers and other pillagers, by whom the country was infested.
Brother Mathieu Renard frequently carried about him a sum of 20,000
livres, and on one occasion 50,000 livres. Yet he never lost a sou.
3 The towns, by a singular coincidence, were those which suffered so
200 TERRA INCOGNITA.
years, Vincent sent, every month, into these desolate
provinces, an average sum of thirty thousand livres,
together with medical stores, waggons of bread, seeds,
ploughs, cattle, immense supplies of clothing, and orna-
ments, altar linen, and other requisites for the despoiled
churches. ' So prodigious are his largesses,' says Car-
dinal Maury, ' that the capital, Rheims, on the cessation
of its calamities, anxiously desirous to testify the grati-
tude of its inhabitants by an extraordinary homage,
ordains a general procession to implore of Heaven th*
preservation of Vincent de Paul, and to invoke on the
saviour of three provinces the most abundant bene-
dictions.' *
His expenditure in Lorraine alone is estimated by his
chief almoner, Mathieu Renard, at 1,600,000 livres, to
which clothing and other necessaries and church re-
quisites being added, the total mounts up to 2,000,000.*
In Picardy and Champagne it is stated at 2,000,000
more. 3 Here we have a total of 4,000,000 livres, which
we must quadruple, to calculate its value in our day.
The result is a sum equal to 040,000 sterling ; and in
this is not included his large expenditure in the environs
of Paris, which also suffered severely from the ravages
of war. 4
The memory of his great charities long survived in
those districts. ' The name of Vincent de Paul is in
benediction in the duchy of Lorraine,' writes Gabriel
Maillet to Pope Clement XL in 1706, ' for he has tra-
versed this country, doing good.' The Bishop of Metz
ranch in the late war Nancy, Toul, Verdun, Luneville, Metr, Bar-le-
Duc, Pont h, Mousson, Rheims, Saint Quentin, Chalons, Saint Dizier,
&c. So important were Vincent's services to France, in this crisis,
that, on his representing to Government the sufferings of some of these
towns from the excesses of the garrisons, a royal ordinance was issued,
on February 14, 1651, giving him the power to have troops removed
from districts he should indicate, where such was practicable.
1 Maury, p. 43.
J Abelly, liv. i. p. 165. Collet, vol. ii. p. 58. Maynard, vol. iv. p.
3 Mayuard, voL iv. p. 200. Ibid.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 201
in a letter to His Holiness, on July 17 the same year,
says : * In these provinces, ravaged by a long succes-
sion of wars, it is- impossible to state how much he has
distributed and given to the poor.' His profuse chari-
ties continued for many years, as indeed did the neces-
sity for them. Monsieur de la Fonds, lieutenant-gene-
ral, governor of Saint Quentin, writes to him as follows,
in 1655 : ' The charities which are by the grace of
God and your goodness sent into this province, 1 and so
admirably distributed by those to whom you have been
pleased to confide them, have given life to millions 2 of
persons reduced by the misfortune of the wars to the last
extremity, and it is my duty to testify to you the very
humble acknowledgments of all these people for the same.
We have seen, last week, as many as fourteen hundred
poor people take refuge in this town, during the passage
of the troops, and supported every day by your alms ;
and there are still in the town more than a thousand,
besides those in the country around, who can have no
other sustenance than what your charity affords them.
The misery is so great that in the villages there are no
longer any inhabitants who have even straw to lie
down on ; and those in the best position in the country
have nothing whereon to subsist. Even some, who pos-
sess over 20,000 crowns' worth of property, have not
at present a morsel of bread, and have been two days
without eating. It is this which obliges me, in the
position which I hold, and with the knowledge which I
have of the facts, to supplicate you very humbly to be
still the father of this country, in order to preserve
life to so many dying and languishing persons, whom
your priests assist, most worthily acquitting themselves
of the duty.' 3
The following brief details will illustrate the univer-
sality as well as the delicacy of his charity in this
1 Picardy.
2 ' Ont donne* la vie Ji des millions de personnes,' &o.
8 Maynard, vol. iv. p. 185.
202 TERRA INCOGNITA.
crisis. Having beeii informed by his missionaries that
there were a number of young girls in Lorraine in great
danger, he desired that they should immediately be sent
up to Paris, at his expense, in order that he might have
them provided for. One hundred and sixty of them
were so sent, and he confided them to the care of
Madame Le Gras and the Dames de la Charite* ; and, in
time, they were placed with some of the best families
in the capital.
A gentleman called on him to say that several of the
nobility of Lorraine, who had fled to Paris, were in a
state of utter destitution, and yet could not bring them-
selves to make known their poverty. ' Oh ! Monsieur,'
he replied, 'you give me great pleasure. Yes, it is
right that these poor noblemen should be visited and
consoled, in honour of our Lord, who was at the same
time very noble and very poor.' l He decided at once
that it was by their peers they ought to be aided. Ac-
cordingly, through the intervention of the Baron de
Eenty, 2 the French nobles resident in Paris, assembling
at Saint Lazare, undertook the duty, taxed themselves
for the puipose, called on their brethren of Lorraine, and
for eight years continued to relieve them in the most
delicate manner. 3
When the troubles of Lorraine were brought to a
close, numbers of the nobility returned to that province.
On their departure, they received from Vincent not only
the expenses of their journey, but means on which to
subsist until they were fully re-established in possession
of their properties. Those who were completely ruined
and unable to leave Paris, he continued to relieve as
1 A.D. 1640. Collet, vol. ii. p. 46.
* Gaston Jean Baptiste, Baron de Renty, of an ancient noble family
in Artois, was born in 1611. In his twenty-second year, he marrie-l
Elizabeth de Balzac, daughter of the Count de Greville d'Entraigues,
by whom he had two sons and two daughters. He stood high in
the favour of Louis XIII. He died in 1649. His whole life was spent
in the practice of works of benevolence.
3 Collet, vol. ii. p. 43.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 203
long as he lived. At the same time, he was assisting
the English, Scotch, and Irish nobles and gentry, who
had fled to France from religious and political persecu-
tion.
Perhaps there never lived another man whose whole
life was such an unbroken course of true Christian
charity. The privations and sufferings of his early days
were, as if so ordained by Providence, a fitting prepara-
tion for his subsequent career. In his boyhood a poor
peasant, he could thoroughly understand and feel for the
spiritual wants of the rural districts, to meet which his
Congregation of the Mission was established. For two
years a slave in Africa, he deeply sympathized with the
victims of slavery, and knew the better how to allevi-
ate their sufferings and effect their liberation. A volun-
tary prisoner in the galleys, chained to his oar, his heart
bled for those unfortunates, whom ignorance, crime, and
a mistaken system of Draconian severity consigned to
the depths of misery and despair. His days and nights
spent in attending the sick in the public hospitals, were
a no less valuable training, and enabled him to perfect
his great institute of the Sceurs de la Charite.
His humility, patience, and self-denial, and his uni-
form practice of consulting the will of God, before
every important action, contributed largely to the suc-
cess of all that he undertook. No matter how urgent
the necessity, no matter how apparently good the work,
he dwelt on it and considered it well, in order that he
might learn if it were approved of by Heaven. When
opposition was offered to his projects, even though un-
just or unreasonable that opposition might be, he did not
resist, he did not complain, he did not repine. He
fervently commended the affair to God, and patiently
awaited the result ; and this became a leading prin-
ciple of the members of his Congregation of the Mission,
on whom he enjoined, never to precipitate any good
work, ' for fear of anticipating Providence.'
The uniform success of all his undertakings
204 TERRA INCOGNITA.
a success which even in his lifetime became a pro-
verb 1 the intrinsic evidence they possessed of their
being of an enduring character and it is a striking
fact that all the many institutions he founded exist
and flourish now, two hundred years after his
death the immense good effected by his labours,
and the noble disinterestedness of his whole life, all
combined to enlist the confidence, and insure the cordial
co-operation of all classes, from the sovereign on the
throne down to the aged mendicants whose aid he
invoked in his great project of abolishing mendicancy
in the capital. Thus only can we understand how he,
the son of a poor peasant, had such a wonderful com-
mand of resources, that he was able to dispense in alms
in his lifetime a sum exceeding one million sterling
equal to four millions at the present day. s
The boldness of his charity in great public emergen-
cies a boldness which in others might be deemed offi-
cious or presumptuous appears ever to have been duly
appreciated and respected. Thus, when the country had
for many years been desolated by war, when one million
of people had paid dearly with their lives and goods for
the insane policy of ambitious rulers, when God had
been dishonoured by sacrilege, murder, and other
crimes which war brings in its train, Vincent waited on
the powerful minister Richelieu, and casting himself at
his feet, with a voice broken by weeping, exclaimed
' Peace, Monseigneur, give us peace ! Have pity on us,
Monseigneur ; give peace to France ! ' He then depicted
in glowing colours the sufferings of the non-combatants
and the injuries inflicted on religion and morality, and
repeated with sobs, ' Peace, Monseigneur, peace ! '
Richelieu much affected, raised the holy priest, and said
1 ' God is visibly with this man.' ' Oh ! if Monsieur Vincent will
but undertake it, success is certain.' Such were common sayings in
bis lifetime.
' 1,200,000 louis d'or.' Letters of Francois Hubert, bisbop of
Agen, and previously father of the mission, to Pope Clement XI.
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 205
to him, 'Monsieur Vincent, I also desire peace. I
labour seriously for the pacification of Europe ; but it
does not depend on me alone. Within as well as out-
side the kingdom, there are a great number of persons
whose concurrence is necessary to me, to conclude it.' l
Alas ! the horrors of war continued for eight years
longer. It was only in 1648 that peace was established.
When Vincent entered, with the ladies of his associa-
tion of charity, on the work of the visitation of the great
hospital of the Hotel-Dieu, he proceeded with character-
istic prudence and circumspection, and becoming defer-
ence to the chaplains of the establishment, whom he
gradually gained over to his views, as to certain reforms
which he deemed necessary in the administration. At
the time, no less than twenty-five thousand patients of
every age, country, and religion, passed through this
great hospital in the year. Its usual number of those
under treatment was over two thousand. The daily
admissions ranged from fifty up to one hundred. Vin-
cent ' observes with pain,' says Cardinal Maury, ' an
ancient law of the hospital, obliging all patients indis-
criminately to present themselves, immediately on their
reception, at the tribunal of penance. This holy man,
whose faith was so lively, and to whom the interests of
heaven were so dear, animated by a pure and enlightened
zeal, rejects, in the name of religion, a homage which
she disavows. He renders confession free and voluntary,
and banishes for ever all religious constraint from an
asylum open, by the spirit of its institution, to all re-
ligions as well as to all persons.' 2
Thus far we have viewed him in what may be called
his public character. The eloquent example of his
private life, his touching humility and complete forget-
fulness of self, his universal love of mankind, his bound-
less private charities, his maxims of holiness, and his
1 A.D. 1640. Abelly, liv. i. p. 169. Collet, vol. ii. p. 54. May-
nard, vol. iv. p. 118.
2 ' Panegyric,' p. 35.
206 TERRA INCOGNITA.
untiring zeal and consummate prudence in forming the
minds and hearts of his numerous spiritual children,
effected as much as those great actions which have made
his name revered by every creed and nationality.
The closing scene was in accordance with the whole
tenor of such a life. His decline was gradual. Even
when unable to rise from his chair, he continued to
labour, to the utmost of his power, for those sacred
objects which he ever had so much at heart At length,
surrounded by his children of the Congregation of the
Mission, with whom he was able to join in prayer up to
within two hours of his death, this truly great and
venerable man calmly expired at Saint Lazare, on
Sunday, September 26, 1660, in the eighty-fifth year of
his age.
There are figures which stand out, in strong relief, in
every epoch of the world's history mighty monarchs,
powerful ministers, renowned generals, who seem to
have ' chained invincibility to their standards,' and men
who have made for themselves great names in science,
literature, and the arts. As time moves on, the greater
number of these gradually grow dim and indistinct ;
and eventually either are lost to sight for ever, or but
occasionally appear, in shadowy outline, when, in our
reading, we turn over the records of past centuries. But
there are some again, whom the passage of time seems
only to hallow more and more, whose memories are
immortal, whose names are ' familiar in our mouths as
household words ; ' for their hold is not so much on the
intellect, or the imagination, as on the hearts of men ;
their lives and actions, appealing directly to that
instinct of our common nature, which, even in the un-
enlightened savage, irresistibly tends to the ideal of a
Supreme Being, dispose us to the love and worship of
Him, whose chosen instruments they manifestly are ;
and moreover their spirit survives, in the midst of us,
and multiplies itself, in their good works. It is such as
these signal benefactors of their race, and faithful ser-
ST VINCENT DE PAUL. 207
vants of God great in their humility, holiness, and
charity that the Catholic Church, after long and severe
scrutiny and most careful deliberation, enrolls in the
calendar of the Saints. Among them, not the least is
the humble peasant's son of Dax, the holy priest of
Saint Lazare, the preserver of the foundling, the father
of the orphan, the protector of female youth, the in-
structor of the ignorant peasant, the benefactor of the
aged poor, the servant of the galley slave, the consoler
of Christian captives, the ' apostle of the afflicted.' l To
him indeed may be applied the sacred words, ' in
rnemoria aeterua erit Justus ;' for as long as ch'arity the
most noble and comprehensive will find an echo in the
human heart, and challenge the homage of mankind of
every clime and creed, so long will live in honour and
benediction the cherished memory of Vincent de Paul.
1 So Vincent was called on account of his profuse charities to the
victims of the Thirty Years' War.
( 208 )
CHAPTER XX.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY.
'Un sola, au chateau des Tuileriea, des philosopher et des <?conrv
luiates, Cabanis, Destutt de Tracy, Volney, s'entretenaient avec le
premier consul des bienfaita de la philanthropic, des admirables
result-its que le genre humain avait recueillis des enseignements du
dix-huitidrne siecle; le ge"ne"ral Bonaparte, les interrompant avec un
peu de brusquerie, s'tfcria: "Tout cela est bon et bien, messieurs!
Faites-moi done une Soeur grise," ' * CAFIFIOUK.
IN every town in which Vincent de Paul held missions,
in order to give permanency to the good work, he estab-
lished various lay confraternities and associations of
charity, male and female. These were visited by
himself, or by some of the fathers of his Congregation,
from time to time, with a view to their regulation and
encouragement, and the keeping up of their first fervour.
He was desirous, however, that the female societies,
which mainly devoted themselves to orphans, young
girls, and the sick poor, should moreover be visited
by some devout and influential lady from the capital,
and thus be provided with an experienced spiritual
mother. Such a person he found in Madame Le
Gras, afterwards the first Superioress of the Sceurs de
la Charitd.
Louise Le Gras, ne'e de Marillac, was born in Paris
on August 12, 1591. Her father was Louis de Marillac,
1 The Sisters of Charity are commonly called taeurt ffrita, gray
sisters, in France, from the colour of their habit, which is a dark
frray. For the same reason, the name is borne by the Franciscaines
Hospitalieres, on the model of whom Saiut Vincent de Paul instituted
his Sisters of Charity.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 209
lord of Ferrieres, a member of a family illustrious in
the church, the army, and the service of the state ; and
her mother was Marguerite Le Camus, whose family
had attained a high position in the legal profession.
Deprived of her mother in her early infancy, she was
educated first by the nuns of Poissy, and afterwards in
her father's house, where her studies, to which she
assiduously applied herself, embraced a wide range of
reading, including the classics and philosophy. In
February 1613, she was married to Antoine Le Gras,
private secretary of Marie de Medicis. 1 Her husband
died in December 1625. Like several other ladies of
Paris, she had always devoted much of her time to
the care of the foundlings, the orphans, the poor, and
the sick in the hospitals ; and now, in her widowhood,
she resolved to consecrate herself and her large fortune
altogether to charitable objects especially those em-
braced in the great enterprises of Vincent de Paul She
opened her mind to him on the subject ; she expressed
an ardent wish to be thus associated in the good works
of his missions ; but that wise director, who loved not
precipitation, even in good works, advised her, first
earnestly to invoke the light of heaven, in order that
she might ascertain the will of God, before coming
to any final resolution. ' Pray,' said he, ' prayer is
the source of good counsels; communicate often, the
Eucharist is the oracle of charitable thoughts.' 2
Her vocation being duly proved, Vincent laid down
certain rules for her spiritual guidance; and she laboured
untiringly in the service of the poor, in the several public
institutions, as well as in their own homes. Her first
visit to the country, which was in May 1629, was to
Montrnirail, in the diocese of Soissons, one of the estates
of the family of Gondi. Accompanied by certain pious
ladies, who had joined her, she effected much good
1 The Queen Dowager, widow of Henry IV.
* ' Priez, la priere est la source des bons conseils ; communiez sou-
vent, 1'Eucharistie est 1'oracle des penseea charitables. ' Maynard.
O
210 TERRA INCOGNITA.
here, and in several other places which she visited ; l
assembling the associations of charity, reanimating
their zeal, and imparting to them sound advice and
instruction a duty for which she was well qualified by
her large experience in the capital. At Beauvais alone she
established no less than eighteen charitable and pious
societies and institutions, with the cordial co-operation,
and amidst the rejoicings, of the inhabitants. 2 It was on
this occasion that Vincent wrote to caution her against
vain-glory : ' Unite yourself in spirit to the mockery,
the contempt, and the ill-treatment suffered by the Son
of God. When you shall be esteemed and honoured,
keep your mind truly humble and humiliated, as much
in honours as in contempt, and act as the bee -which
makes its honey as well from the dew which falls on
the wormwood as that which falls on the rose.' 8
In the several villages, the associations consisted of
women of humble birth, who were accustomed to labour,
and who themselves rendered all the offices of charity to
the sick poor. In the cities, and especially in Paris, they
numbered several ladies of rank, some of whom, after a
while, contented themselves with sending their servants
to visit the poor, and, in the end, confined their aid to
pecuniary contributions. 4 Vincent, seeing the necessity
of supplying the void thus created, brought to the
capital some peasant girls, distinguished for their pii-ty,
members of well conducted families, and willing to
devote themselves to such works; and he placed them
in a house in the parish of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet,
under the care of Madame Le Gras, who there, on
March 25, 1634, with his full approval, pronounced the
1 Saint-Cloud, Villepreux, Villiers-le.bl, Beauvais, &c. ' Elle s'appli-
qua pendant pluaieure ann&s a ces exercicea de charitd ; elle parcourut
avec beaucoup de fruit lea dioceses de Soiasons, de Paris, de Beauvais,
de Meaux, de Senlis, de Chartrea, et de Chalons en Champagne.'
Collet, vol. i. p. 282 ; Abelly, liv. i. p. 107.
* A.D. 1629. Collet, vol. i. p. 283.
1 Abelly, liv. i. p. 108 ; Collet, voL i. p. 286.
* A.D. 1633. Collet, voL i. p. 399.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 211
formula of her consecration to God in the service of
the poor, in this charitable association, then called ' Les
Filles de la ChariteV
During the next twelve years their numbers steadily
increased. They were now not confined to peasant
girls ; for several ladies of good position some of them
widows had also joined the Congregation. At first,
merely charged with the care of the sick poor, who
either from want of room in the hospitals or a repug-
nance to enter those institutions, remained in their
own homes, they had now undertaken the duties of
the hospitals, and had become mothers to the orphans,
mistresses to friendless young girls exposed to tempta-
tion, consoling angels to the galley slaves, the prisoners,
the sick and the dying in a word, under God ' a
providence to all the miserable.' l
In 1646, at Vincent's request, the Sisters were erected
into a confrbrie by the Archbishop of Paris, and, on
that prelate's application, the King granted his royal
letters patent in their favour on October 20 of the same
year. These letters were renewed in 1657. The Sisters
lived^ very frugally, the support of each for food and
clothing being only one hundred livres a year; and
their income at this time was derived from the proceeds
of their own work in their few leisure hours, the con-
tributions of the parochial societies, of the Dames de la
Charit^, and of other pious persons, as well as the
revenue of over two thousand livres a year, settled on
them, in perpetuity, by the King, the Queen, and the
Duchesse d'Aiguillon. 2
Vincent had wisely resolved that this charitable
association should take form and life from practice
and experience, before it received a written rule.
Therefore it was only in 1655 that he gave it statutes,
rules, and constitutions, which he had carefully drawn
up, and which were approved of by the Archbishop
1 Maynard, vol. iii. p. 201.
2 Letter of Vincent to the Archbishop of Paris, in 1646.
212 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of Paris, the King, and the Holy See. 1 This delay was
the more judicious that, from small beginnings, the
congregation had then assumed proportions, and at-
tained an importance, far beyond even what he or
Madame Le Gras had anticipated, as he states in one
of his letters written about this time.
The French Sisters of Charity are not a religious
order. They are only a congregation, and take simple
annual vows. These are vows of poverty, chastity,
obedience, and the service of the poor. They are taken
on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, and are re-
newable every year. On that day, each Sister is per-
fectly free, and may or may not renew her vows, as she
S leases. There are few, very few indeed, of these
evoted women who, having once entered on this state
of life, return to the world. It was a maxim of Vincent's,
that a renewal of vows is a renewal of fervour.*
Five and a-half years elapse before the vows are taken.
First, there is a half-year's probation, which is spent in
the particular house in which a postulant enters. Next,
there are five years of novitiate. Of these, the first nine
or ten months are spent in the mother house, in the rue du
Bac, Paris. During this time, the novice is not employed
in works of charity, but is altogether engaged in spiritual
exercises, in studying the rules and constitutions, and
receiving instructions as to her future duties and occu-
pations, as a member of the institute. She then receives
the habit, and is sent to a branch house, where she imme-
diately enters on the service of the poor. After being thus
engaged for about four years, she takes annual vows. 8
1 In these it is enacted that the congregation shall bear the name
of ' Soeurs de la Charite", servantes des pauvres malades.'
1 In orders and congregations in which the vows are perpetual, there
is an annual renewal of TOWS, which is made with great solemnity by
the whole community. This is similar to the renewal of baptismal
vows, made by the laity, at the close of a mission or retreat
J Besides that of Paris, there are latterly three other houses of novi-
tiate, or seminaires, namely, those of Turin, Mexico, and Etnittsburgh,
Maryland. These have been established, to save the Sisters the long
journey from remote countries to Paris.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 213
The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity is governed
by the Superior-General of the Fathers of the Mission,
svho holds both offices for life. The Mother-General is
subject to his authority, and, with his advice, governs
:he Congregation, and appoints the superioresses of the
several branch houses. She is always the superioress of
:he mother house in Paris. Her duties are most oner-
ous. She has her assistants and secretaries, whose
correspondence is in many languages, as the Sisters of
Charity carry on their ministrations in all parts of the
jlobe. She is elected by the Sisters, and holds office
For three years, after which she may be re-elected, but
Dnce only, without an interval.
The habit of the Sisters of Charity must be familiar
to all my readers. It is the same in every country a
plain dark gray stuff dress, with a large white calico
bonnet, the cornette. In the ' Illustrated London News '
and other papers, which gave pictures of so many pain-
ful scenes in the late Franco-German war, not a battle-
field, not a beleaguered town, not an ambulance, not an
hospital was depicted, in which this costume did not
appear ; for,' throughout the whole of that sanguinary
struggle, in every phase of danger, disease, death, and
all that is revolting to our nature, the Sister of Charity
was to be found.
Here, in a noble temple raised to the worship of God,
and now converted into an hospital, we see the marble
pavement strewn with the torn and mangled forms of
strong men, suddenly stricken down men made in the
image of their Creator victims of the demon of war.
In the foreground of the picture is one with hideously
gaping wounds, and sunken features, already stiffening
in death. Moistening his parched lips, and whispering
to him words of Christian faith and hope, beside him
kneels the Sister of Charity.
Here is one on whom the surgeon has just performed
a critical and painful operation. AVith drooping head,
and limbs relaxed and faint with loss of blood, he, who
214 JTERRA INCOGNITA.
but a short time since was a gallant gay young soldier,
full of life and strengtji and hope, is now weak as an
infant, and oscillates between life and death. He is far
from home, and friends, and country. And yet there is
one true friend beside him. She gently smoothes his
uneasy pillow, she gives him the reviving draught, she
carefully disposes the scanty coverlet over his suffering
frame. He may be one of the hostile race, her country's
invaders of another creed than her's. It matters not ;
she rescues him from death ; she tends him through a
tedious convalescence, as a mother would tend her only
child ; and as he returns home to his gladdened family,
restored to liealth and strength, he raises his heart in
gratitude to Heaven that sent him such a friend, and
invokes its choicest blessings on the Sister of Charity.
Here again, bending over the dying in a wide battle-
field, loaded with carnage, we find the same familiar
figure. Even with shot and shell still flying, she quk-tly
and systematically pursues her holy vocation ; and a
case has lately occurred, as recorded by the 'Times'
correspondent, of a Sister of Charity, thus engaged,
meeting death by a stray shot at the close of a battle. 1
Next, in a long railway train, winding onward with
its weary load of wounded and dying, we behold her, all
busy with her refreshing drinks, her charpie and ban-
dages and whatever other appliances she can command.
She does her best, and yet that best is but little, com-
pared with what remains to be done. She has not
material comforts to offer; yet she encourages and
cheers the wounded men; and they half forget their
sufferings, and learn patience and resignation to God's
will, from the golden words, the bright example, the
gallant bearing and complete forgetfulness of self, of the
Sister of Charity.
1 'Times' correspondent, at Head Quarters of the Crown Prince of
Prussia, writing August 19, 1870 : ' A Sister of Charity was killed
while attending to the wounded at Worth, too near alas ! to the front
of the battle.'' Times ' of August 30, 1870.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 215
And now again the scene is changed. The artist
brings before us, in graphic lines, the desolation of a
burned down village the smouldering ruins ; the frag-
ments of furniture, broken carts and farming imple-
ments, strangely intermingled; the aged man, now
bowed still more by the weight of sorrow than by the
weight of years ; the wounded soldier, with tottering
step and bandaged head ; the desolate mother, perhaps
even now a widow, for her husband went forth, long
since, to take his turn in the conscription ; the half-
naked, famished children, clamouring to her for food, and
she has none to give ; in a word, all those horrors, which
ever spring up, rank and thick, in the red foot-prints of
war. But even here some light breaks in upon the lurid
scene ; for those have come who bring food, and clothing,
and medical appliances, and who cheer the sufferers,
and promise to keep up the supplies, and tell them, that,
from the wealthy cities of England, the teeming plains
of America, the poorer but not less sympathetic homes
of Ireland from all parts of the world, that charity
which unites all mankind in one great family, has
stretched out its hand, to succour and save the afflicted
children of France. Among these messengers of hope,
these almoners of every nation and all Christian com-
munions, here happily united for one common object,
we find those, who more than double the value of the
material relief they dispense, by their matured expe-
rience, well-directed zeal and perfect organization
even as their predecessors , have done for the last two
centuries and thus it is, that France has long learned
to bless, and love, and cherish the Sister of Charity.
When the late war commenced, four hundred of these
devoted women a first detachment went forth with
the French army of the Bhine. . At the same time, King
William applied to Pere Etienne, the Superior-General
of the Congregation of the Mission, for a contingent of
the Sisters for the Prussian army ; and it was imme-
diately told off. How many more subsequently joined
216 TERRA INCOGNITA.
both armies, to tend the sick and wounded, to aid the
dying, to console the afflicted, to sacrifice their lives, if
necessary, for their suffering fellow-creatures of every
nationality and creed, 'twere hard to tell.
It was in the years 1654-58 that the Sisters of Charity
first went forth to attend on the sick and wounded iu
war. On that occasion, Anne of Austria l asked Vin-
cent de Paul to send some Sisters to nurse the sick and
wounded soldiers, of whom there were between six and
seven hundred in Calais, after the siege of Dunkirk. At
first Vincent could spare only four, whom he dispatched
immediately. Of these, in a short time, two fell victims
to the pestilence. Twenty at once came forward to offer
to fill their places. Ever since, this little army has
taken its position in camps and ambulances. In the
Crimea they had charge of six military and two naval
hospitals. They were on duty at the same time at
Pera, Dolma-Bachtche', Levend, Eami-Tchitiik, Malte'pe',
Daoud-Pacha, Gulhaue', Kaulidje', Chalchis, the Piraeus,
Gallipoli, and Varna. 2 The severe cold of winter.
cholera, typhus, gangrene, had no terrors for them. We
may well imagine how their presence in the wards
cheered the sufferers. In one of the French hospitals
in the Crimea, a poor dying young French soldier was
overheard saying to the Sister in attendance on him:
'Sister, come to visit me often. When you come, I
imagine I see France and my mother.'
In the same way, in the Franco- Austrian war, the
Sisters attended the French, Austrian, and Italian
armies all sisters of one congregation, though of dif-
ferent nationalities, united in a community of good
works. The services they render are not subjects of
human praise or human reward. At the close of the
Franco-Austrian war, when the Emperor of Austria
decreed the decoration of the gold medal to Sister
Rafaela Herschitsch of Verona, she said to the Major of
1 Widow of Louis XIII., and mother of Louis XIV.
J Maynard, vol. iii. p. 274.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 217
^ the hospital who congratulated her : ' I beg of you,
Major, speak not to me of that, for I will not accept of
it at any price. I should be ashamed to receive such a
recompense. It is only God who can reward the ser-
vices of a Sister of Charity.' ' But the Emperor will be
angry, if you do not accept it.' ' I doubt much, Major,
that the Emperor will be angry when he will learn that
we devote our lives to aiding and consoling his wounded
soldiers, for the love of God, without seeking any re-
muneration whatever. In renouncing the world, in
order to consecrate ourselves to the service of the Lord,
we have thereby renounced honours of this kind. By
accepting them, we should only be replacing ourselves
under the yoke. Our superioresses, however, will well
know how to thank His Majesty for his most gracious
kindness to our community.' ' But these gentlemen are
coming to present you with the decoration.' ' Oh ! I
entreat you, Major, tell them to spare me the pain of
this refusal.' So the Major departed, and the good
Sister returned to the bedsides of her patients. 1
Wholly irrespective of their admirable hospital ar-
rangements the systematized result of long experience
and their devotion to their duties, the tone and
manner of their ministrations, so kind, so encouraging,
so cheery, have the most beneficial effect on the morale,
and, through that, on the health of the sick soldiers, as
remarked on by the physicians and others under whose
notice they have come. Following the advice of Saint
Vincent de Paul, in his rules for the hospital Sisters,
they avoid fatiguing the patients by long tedious dis-
courses or prayers. One cheerful, encouraging word or
two one brief pious suggestion imparting the neces-
sary instruction little by little such is their system. 2
1 Maynard, vol. iii. p. 275.
1 ' Voila ce qui vous oblige h les servir avec respect, comme vos
maltres, et avec deVotion, comme reprdsentant la personne de Notre-
Seigneur. Vous ne devez pas oublier non plus de leur dire quelques bons
mote, par exemple ceux ci : "Eh bien ! mon frere, comment pensez-
218 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Then we may well conceive the beneficial effect of
the patients seeing the Sisters so devotedly labouring
in the midst of them, for the sole motive of the love of
God. ' I have heard,' says Saint Vincent de Paul to
his Sisters of Charity, ' that these poor soldiers feel so
grateful for the favour which God has done them, that,
seeing and considering that you go amongst them to aid
them, without other interest than the love of God, they
say that they see well that God is the protector of the
unfortunate. But now see, my daughters, what good
you do, since you aid these brave men to recognize the
goodness of God, and to think that it is He who causes
this service to be rendered them. Entering then into
great sentiments of pity, they cry out, " Oh ! my God,
behold how we now gratefully recognize that whicli we
have hitherto heard preached, that you remember all
those who have need of succour, and whom you never
abandon in danger, since you have taken care of us
miserable sinners who have so often offended you." ' *
The congregation now numbers over twenty thousand
members, a well disciplined, devoted, all-conquering
army of charity. We justly admire the true Christian
benevolence and devoted zeal of Florence Nightingale
and Elizabeth Fry ; but how much more would their
services have been enhanced in value, if those excellent
ladies had been members of one great corps, well trained,
well disciplined, well organized! A brave man will
sometimes, single-handed, perform prodigies of valour ;
vous a faire le voyage de 1'autre monde ? " puis a un autre : " Eh Wen !
inon enfant, ne voulez-vous pas bien aller voir Notre-Seigneur ? " et
autrea semblablea. II n faut pourtant pas leur dire beaucoup a la
fois, maia leur donner peu a pen 1' instruction qui leur eat n6cessaire,
comme vous voyez qu'on ne donne a boire que peu a peu a la fois aux
petite enfanta qui sont a la mamelle. Or, encore que VOB malades
soient de grandee penonnes, ils ne sont cependant que des enfanta
dans la devotion : un bon mot qui part du coeur et qui eat dit dans
I'esprit qu'il faut, leur auffira pour lea porter a Dieu." Explication det
Rtgltt, par Saint Vincent de Paul.
1 Address of Saint Vincent de Paul to the Sisters going to the army
at Calais, in 1658.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 219
but, for ulterior results, for enduring effect, he would be
much more powerful if he formed one of a compact,
well-drilled body, composed of one thousand such men.
Here we have illustrated one great advantage of reli-
gious orders their complete organization. Then, there
is the principle of association a principle by which
individual zeal is developed and sustained, and indivi-
dual exertions are a hundred-fold enhanced. Again,
there are the religious vows, by which that organization
is made perfect by which that principle of association
operates in its most effective form ; for by their vows
the several members are withdrawn and set apart from
worldly interests, pleasures, and pursuits, and thus are
enabled to devote themselves wholly and exclusively to
the service of God and their neighbour, in fulfilling the
particular objects of their institute. Of their vows,
there is especially the vow of obedience, in virtue of
which they address themselves earnestly and thoroughly
to do the work set before them, acting in complete
unison, so that the whole community, composed of
many parts, works as one well-regulated machine.
Another striking advantage of religious orders is their
permanency. A great philanthropist a Howard or a
Peabody may die ; and who is to fill the vacant place ?
In a religious order, to make such a void, death is
powerless. And thus it is, that since the institution of
the Sisters of Charity by Saint Vincent de Paul, now
more than two hundred years ago, although their great
patron, guide and spiritual father, and although Madame
Le Gras and many another of their heroic leaders have
long since gone to their reward, their ranks are always
full, their numbers annually increase, their work con-
stantly and steadily goes on ; and the memory and
example of the departed seem to nerve this gallant army
to renewed exertions, and urge them to fresh conquests,
in the cause of God and humanity.
4 In my work for health and education,' says a well-known,
writer, ' I have impartially laboured for Protestants, Infidels, and
220 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Catholics. The last have the advantage of combined orders,
which live through centuries, and conserve and carrv forward
the knowledge of laws and principles, and apply them with
unflagging devotion. For this reason, it is a greater good to
instruct the superior of a religious order than the head of a Pro-
testant seminary. The Protestant may live and labour success-
fully for half a century, but a religious order may last a thousand
years, and the wisdom of one superior embodied in the rule and
life and teachings of an order may be spread over continents and
carried out by a long line of his successors. When I instruct
one in such a case, it is a comfort to think I may be teaching
thousands, and doing a good work for future generations. My
failing life will live on in others, who will be, I hope, more effi-
cient, if not more zealous or faithful.' 1
The following extracts from the Report of the Opera-
tions of the British National Society for Aid to the Sick
and Wounded during the late war, bear handsome testi-
mony to the merits and services of the Sisters of Charity,
at the same time that they appositely illustrate and
confirm the foregoing observations :
During this war the National Society sent out comparatively
few nurses, not from any doubt as to their zeal and efficiency,
but from the fact that the supply of trained native nurses, be-
longing chiefly to religious communities, both in France and
Germany, has been so great aa to render foreign aid in this
respect in most cases unnecessary. The French Sceurs de
Charit6 have, notwithstanding occasional exceptions, shown
themselves admirable nurses : tender to the sick, with neither
crotchets nor theories to work out, with barely any personal
requirements, simply doing their duty, under direction, with
loving patience and faithfulness. They have proved the great
importance, or rather absolute necessity, not only of medical and
Kurgical training, but of habits of obedience, of unity, and of
discipline. It is this special training, a training hitherto found
difficult to enforce, except under some kind of religious rule,
which rendered the All Saints' Sisters the most valuable and
efficient of the English nurses sent out by the Society, and it is
the absence of such training that renders the efforts of amateur
nurses, however devoted and energetic, for the most part desul-
tory and ineffective. Exceptions have during the present war
been found ; but the very qualities which have distinguished
1 'A Woman's Work in Water Cure and Sanitary Education,' by
Mra Mary S. Gove Nichols, p. 97. London, Longmans, 1869.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 221
these ladies would, under a more organized system of training,
have achieved even greater results. 1
Mr John Furley, one of the earliest of the Society's
agents to leave England for the seat of war, writes,
under date September 3, 1870:
At Douzy we visited several hospitals, and distributed comfort
as far as it was in our power to do so ; the surgeons told us we
were most welcome, as their duties were quite beyond their
strength, and their stores could not last beyond two days.
Again, the Soeurs de Charite" are conspicuous by the completeness
of their arrangements, and the care and love they bestow on the
poor sufferers left in their charge. 2
In the Eeport of Colonel Elphinstone, from Tours,
under date November 18, 1870, we find the following :
The Sisters of Charity here, as everywhere else in France, were
attending on the wounded with that devotion and tenderness
which make them the most admirable of all nurses. 3
I must not forget to mention to you an admirable old Irish
lady, who has devoted herself to the wounded at Orleans. Mrs
O'Hanlon has lived there thirty years, but, since the war, has
put the Red Cross on her arm, and acts as hospital nurse wher-
ever there are wounded. I saw her actively at work at the
Anglo-American Ambulance, dressing their wounds, washing
their faces, and performing all the terrible duties of these wards
with an intelligence and tenderness which I have never seen
before except in the Sisters of Charity. 4
The devoted services of the Sisters are frequently
extolled in the correspondence of the English journals
of the period. It will be sufficient to quote the following
from the letter of the ' Times ' military correspondent
from Orleans, on Christmas day, 1870 :
Two classes of women are worth their weight in gold. First,
the gentle Sister of Mercy, whose life is devoted to tending the
sick and sorrowful, who shrinks from no terrible sight and from
no office, no matter how unpleasant. She seems to be regarded
1 ' Report of the Operations of the British National Society for Aid
to the Sick and Wounded in War, during the Franco-German war,
1870-71,' p. 22. London : printed for the Committee, by Harrison &
Sons, 1871.
a Ibid., p. 60. 3 Ibid., p. 85. 4 Ibid, p. 86.
222 TERRA INCOGNITA.
by sick or wounded officers and men as a being outside the
ordinary routine of human affairs, and as what she calls herself
a Sister. Not a word is whispered against her, not a laugh or a
ribald joke is heard either in her presence or concerning her in
her absence. We may object to immuring women in convents,
but there can hardly be a second opinion of those kind souls who
are doing woman's work with all a woman's tenderness, and from
the highest motives. They are perfectly submissive to discipline,
and may be considered as a very superior class of nurses.
The second class of women, who would be most useful if they
could be found, is composed of ladies of sufficient private fortune
to take care of themselves, anxious to be of use, and yet free
from the desire to interfere. Their task would be simply to visit
the patients, under complete control of the doctors ; to soothe
anxious hearts, to whisper a few loving words, and to elevate the
suffering spirits by the consolations which good women knowso
well how to give. They might talk about home, and write
letters for those who are unable to write for themselves ; more
than any priest they would know how to cheer the fainting soul,
as it is sinking out of the regions of mortality. This also is true
woman's work, but unluckily it is just those most capable of it
who shrink from stepping forward to offer themselves. The
' strong-minded woman' must work alone ; there is no place for
her among doctors. I do not say that she should not work at
all, but she is not among those to whom I am now referring. 1
To this may be added the testimony of an authoress
already quoted, a distinguished philanthropist, whose
mission has been, for many years, going about doing
good to her fellow-creatures, without distinction of class
or creed. She is describing a convent, with orphanage
and schools, of the Sisters of Charity in New Orleans :
For three months I gave the Sisters and orphans sanitary
instruction, and had the medical care of this admirable house,
the third of a series of orphan girls' asylums under the charge of
the Sisters of Charity. First was the baby-house, a nursery for
young infants ; the second, a school for children ; the third, of
which I am writing, was an advanced school, at which girls from
fourteen to twenty-three completed their education, and learned
the trades and professions they were to follow in future. Blessed
Sisters of Chanty ! Daughters of the love and wisdom of Saint
"Vincent de Paul ! in all the world known only to be praised,
reverenced, and, 1 hope, everywhere imitated. The world has no
1 The ' Timei ' of January 4th, 1871.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 223
example of a more sublime heroism than that shown, for so
many years, by the Sisters of Charity in the yellow fever hos-
pitals of New Orleans. That city has been visited by the scourge
of yellow fever, on an average, once in three years. The Sisters
are sent, as required, from the mother* house, a thousand miles
away in Maryland. It is a service of death. No Sister who
goes to the hospital ever leaves it. She dies at her post, gene-
rally in five or seven years, and another takes her place ; yet
never had forlorn hope, in the excitement of battle and the con-
fidence of victory, more eager volunteers ! l
The Sisters of Charity were introduced into these
countries from France in 1855, when a small commu-
nity of five nuns were sent to Drogheda. Monsieur
fitienne, 2 Superior-General of the Congregation of the
Mission, conducted ten Sisters to Dublin in 1857, and
the same year the congregation was established in
Sheffield. There are now twenty-one houses in Great
Britain and Ireland. The particulars of these and of
the works in which they are engaged will be found in
another chapter. 3
1 'A Woman's Work in Water Cure and Sanitary Education,' by
Mrs. Mary S. Gove Nichols, page 97. London, Longmans, 1869.
2 This venerable priest died March 12th, 1874, in the seventy-third
year of his age.
3 Chapter xxxiii. Statistics of Convents.
(224 )
CHAPTER XXI.
STATUTES, RULES, AND CONSTITUTIONS OP THE SISTERS OP
CHARITY.
' Vos statute disent encore que voua aerez une confreYie qui portere
le nom de Sceura de la Charitl, servantes des pauvrea nialadea. mea
filles, qu'avez-voua done fait pour Dieu, pour me'riter le titre glorieux
de aervantea des pauvrea ? Oh ! c'eat autant que si Ton diaait aer-
vantca de J&ua-Christ, puisqu'il repute fait a lui-mdme tout ce qui eat
fait a sea membres.' SAINT VINCENT DK PAUL.
WITH a view to our still further understanding the
animating principles and scope of this Congregation, let
us now look into the statutes, rules, and constitu-
tions, as drawn up by Saint Vincent de Paul in 1655,
and approved of, and confirmed by the Holy See :
I. Of the end and fundamental virtues of their institute.
This end is to honour Our Lord Jesus Christ, as the source and
model of all charity, serving Dim corporally and spiritually in
the person of the j>oor, whether the sick, or children, or pri-
soners, or others who, through shame, are deterred from mak-
ing known their necessities. To correspond worthily to so holy
a vocation and to imitate an exemplar so perfect, they ought
to endeavour to live holily and to labour assiduously for their
own perfection, joining the interior exercises of the spiritual
life to the exterior employments of Christian charity.
Although they may not be, strictly speaking, a religious order,
this state not being suitable to the employments of their voca-
tion, nevertheless as they are much more exposed exteriorly
than enclosed religious having ordinarily for a convent but
the houses of the sick, for a cell bat a hired room, for a chapel
but the parish church, for a cloister but the streets of the
city and the wards of hospitals, for enclosure but obedience,
for a grate but the fear of God, and for a veil but holy
modesty, they are obliged by this consideration, to lead, exter-
RULES OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 225
iorly and interiorly, a life as virtuous, as pure, as edifying, as true
religious in their convent.
Above all, they shall value the salvation of their souls more
than all things on earth ; they shall fly mortal sin more than
death, and venial sin with all their strength ; and, in order to
merit the reward promised by Our Lord to the servants of the
poor, thy shall apply themselves to acquire the three Christian
virtues of humility, simplicity, and charity, which are as the
three faculties of the soul of the whole congregation and of each
member, and as the appropriate spirit of their institute.
Moreover, they are enjoined a horror of the maxims of this
world, a love of the maxims of Jesus Christ : consequently a
love of mortification ; a despising of themselves and of the
things of the earth ; a preference of low and repugnant employ-
ments, of the last place, and of what others refuse ; detachment
as regards places, employments, and persons ; a disposition to
quit all at the voice of obedience ; a patience that loves incon-
veniences, contradictions, mockeries, and calumnies ; great con-
fidence in Providence, abandoning theraeelves to it as an infant
to its nurse.
II. Servants of the poor, they shall honour the poverty of
Our Lord, by living poorly themselves. They shall have all
things in common, after the example of the first Christians.
They shall neither ask nor refuse anything for themselves, leav-
ing all their wants to the solicitude of the office-bearers of their
congregation. Far and near, they shall live and shall dress in a
uniform manner, and after the model of the mother house.
Sick, they shall content themselves in every respect with the
ordinary fare and treatment of the poor ; for servants ought not
to be better treated than their masters.
III. IV. V. VI. These four sections inculcate on the Sisters
holy modesty, and an edifying demeanour on all occasions,
mutual condescension, and love for one another, and obedience,
with submission of the judgment and the will to the bishops and
clergy of all places in which they are established, and to their
own superiors, in all matters in which they do not see any sin.
VII. Their principal employment being to serve the sick poor,
they shall serve them as Jesus Christ himself, with as much cordi-
ality, respect and devotion, even the most troublesome and the
most disagreeable. This service they shall prefer even to their
spiritual exercises. They shall take care of the souls as well as
of the bodies of the poor they serve. As to material aid and the
distribution of alms, they shall act conformably w,ith the instruc-
tions that will have been given them, or with the will of the
donors. They shall not attend on the rich unless in case of abso-
lute necessity-, and even then, according to their institute, they
shall take care that the poor be first served.
P
226 TERRA INCOGNITA.
VIII. The eighth section prescribes their spiritual exercises,
which are ' neither to be omitted nor postponed except in favour
of the service of the poor.'
IX. The ninth and last section regulates the employment of
the day. To rise at four o'clock ; to retire to bed at nine.
There are certain devotional exercises ; but by far the greater
part of the seventeen hours is devoted to the service of the
poor.
To these common rules, practised for a long time
before they were reduced to a code, Vincent added par-
ticular rules for the Sisters visiting the sick poor in
their own homes, the Sisters of the Hotel-Dieu and
other hospitals, the Sisters of the House of Foundlings,
the Sisters of the villages, the Sisters teaching school,
the Sisters attending on and consoling the sick galley
slaves in a word, rules suitable to each function of
charity, in which the members of the congregation were
severally engaged.
Above all things, he enjoined on the Sisters to main-
tain, in every function, sweetness of manner, patience,
kindness, and respect for the poor of Christ. ' Your
principal care, my daughters,' said he, ' after the love of
God and the desire to render yourselves pleasing to His
Divine Majesty, ought to be to serve the sick poor with
great sweetuess and cordiality, compassionating their
sufferings and listening to their little complaints as a
good mother ought to do, for they look upon you as
their nursing mothers, as persons sent to assist them.
Thus you are destined to represent the bounty of God
in their regard.' l
For many years before he gave the Sisters of Charity
their written rules, Saint Vincent de Paul used to
assemble them, from time to time, and hold spiritual
conferences with them. The discourses he delivered on
those occasions have been preserved ; and his spirit a
spirit of wisdom and holiness pervading them, still
animates the congregation.
This will readily be seen by those who, in any part of
1 ' Explication des Regies,' par Saint Vincent de Paul .." .^
RULES OF THE SISTERS OF CHARITY. 227
the world, visit an hospital under the care of the Sisters.
But there are many results of this holy training which
no observation can reveal, and which are known only to
God.
A Sister of Charity may be for years engaged in hos-
pital duty in England, in' France, in Germany, or in
Italy. On a particular morning she may receive an
order to start for China the following day. No leave-
taking of friends no packing-up of luggage no
elaborate arrangements for this long journey of sixteen
thousand miles ! She obeys the order as she would the
voice of God. With her little bundle, containing a
change of clothes, her few books of devotion and her
rosary, she departs at the hour appointed. She tarries
not one moment by the way. She looks not once back
on the land of her birth, which she is now leaving for
ever. She fearlessly and cheerfully goes forth, to pass
the remainder of her days in the land of the barbarian.
The saving of the lives, and the baptism, of female
infants, condemned, by the inhuman custom of that
over-populated country, to be drowned, on their birth,
or to be left to perish by the road-sides their education
and training the conducting of the Schools of native
Christians, and the several other functions of charity to
which her institute adapts itself in this new sphere
such are the future occupations of her life, and she
enters on them with a self-sacrificing zeal which needs
no human praise. 1
We have all lately read accounts of the martyrdom of
ten of these good sisters, under circumstances of revolt-
ing brutality, at Tien-Tsin. The following honourable
1 ' C'est ainsi qu'il faut vous comporter pour etre bonnes Filles cle
la Charit^, et pour aller partout oil Dieu voudra, et partout oh Ton
vous demande, soit en Afrique, soit aux Indes, soit aux arme'es.
Humiliez-vous devant Dieu, et soyez pretes a embrasser, tons les
emplois que sa divine Providence vous donnera : c'est ce que je ne
puis trop vous recommander, puisque telle est la fin de votre Com-
pagnie, et que, lorsque vous y manquerez, adieu la charite".' Explica-
tion des Regies, par Saint Vincent de Paul
228 TERRA INCOGNITA.
testimony is borne to their merit by the Reverend
Charles Henry Butcher, M.A., British Chaplain ;it
Shanghai: 'It is no exaggeration to say that since
Cawnpore no such deed of blood has been committed.
The murder of the Sisters of Charity is an outrage
not on a nation or a church, but on humanity itself.
As chaplain to the British community at Shanghai,
I have had opportunities of seeing the noble and de-
voted work of some of these women, when taking care
of the sick at the hospital at this port, before they
removed to the north. One lady, who has been murdered
with every circumstance of horror, was an Irish lady
whose memory is cherised with affection and gratitude
by many of the community here.' l
1 Letter to the 'Times,' under date Shanghai, July fi, 1870, in the
'Times' of September 5, 1870. The Irish lady here alluded to was
Miss Alice O'Sullivan, named in community Sister Louise, sister of th>>
Very Reverend Superior of the Fathers of the Mission, Saint Vincent's,
Cork.
229 )
CHAPTER XXII.
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY.
Transplant her to the dark places of the earth awaken her energies
to action, and her breath becomes a healing her presence a blessing.
She disputes inch by inch the stride of the stalking pestilence, -where
man, the strong and brave, shrinks away pale and affrighted. ANNE
STEPHENS.
THIS congregation is quite distinct from that of which
we have just been treating the Soeurs de la Charite.
Its objects are similar. It was instituted, in Dublin, in
the year 1815, to supply a want which the Presentation
and other enclosed orders could not supply namely, a
religious community to minister to the sick poor in the
public hospitals and in their own homes.
It may be asked here : ' Why establish a new con-
gregation for this purpose ? Why not rather introduce
some of the French Sisters ? Is it not injudicious to
have such a multiplication of religious orders?' To
this the reply is : At the time some sixty years ago
the circumstances of the country were very different
indeed from what they are at present, and the introduc-
tion of the French Sisters was not then the easy matter
it has since become. We may well imagine what a
commotion would have been caused, fourteen years
before the passing of the Catholic Emancipation Act, by
the appearance of French nuns, in their habits, and,
above all, the remarkable white cornette, in the streets
of Dublin how the law of the land would immediately
have been put in motion by the small, but then all-
powerful, minority, to check and punish such a daring
230 TERRA INCOGNITA.
intrusion of Popery. At the time, it is true, a Bengal
fakir, a Chinese bonze, or a Turkish dervise, might have
freely perambulated the streets of the Irish metropolis,
and performed his devotions without being molested by
the law officers of the Crown ; but it would have been
perilous for Christian ladies, consecrated to the service
of God and their neighbour, to have appeared, in the
religious habit, in the capital of a Christian country !
Therefore, as matters then stood, it was much better to
establish an institute composed of Irish ladies, who
would go about on their mission of charity, in plain
costume, and not in a religious habit, and whose rules
and constitutions would approximate more to the
enclosed orders than the French congregation.
In the economy of the Catholic Church, each religious
order or congregation, whether male or female, has its
own peculiar objects and functions ; and so we can
generally trace the origin of each to some necessity of
the time, demanding its institution. The education of
the rich, the instruction, secular and religious, of the
poor, the care of foundlings, orphans, and friendless
young women, the unpaid administration of Magdalen
asylums, reformatories, industrial schools and hospitals,
the visitation of jails and workhouses, the relief of the
poor in their own homes each of these works has its
special institute or institutes. Charity is ever watch-
ful ; it immediately discovers a want. It is ever ingeni-
ous ; it readily devises and perfects a plan, to meet that
want. It is devoted ; no difficulty nor danger deters it.
We are familiar with the noble work of the orders for
the redemption of Christian captives ; l we have seen
how the French Sisters of Charity in China consecrate
their lives to saving, adopting, and educating female
children about to be drowned by their unnatural parents,
or left to perish by the road-sides. 2 In Cairo, the nuns
of the Good Shepherd contrive to purchase a rumber of
the voung girls offered for sale in the slave market, and
1 See p. 188. See p. 227.
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY. 231
bring them up modest Christian maidens. And so with
other institutes. But none of these institutes are solely
the work of a sudden impulse of zeal and devotion.
They are frequently suggested, no doubt, by the zeal
and charity of individuals, strongly impressed with the
necessity of such an organization in a particular state of
affairs. But then that zeal and charity must be governed
and directed by a wise discretion ; and consequently the
projected orders or congregations require, in the first
place, episcopal sanction ; then their rules and constitu-
tions must be drawn up with great care and deliberation ;
and, finally, the whole must be submitted to, and ap-
proved of, and confirmed, by the Holy See. 1
Thus it was that in the early part of this century, the
necessity for such an institute as the Irish Sisters of
Charity was manifest ; and the venerable prelate, by
whom the project of its foundation was promoted, added,
in this, another to the strong claims he had earned on
the gratitude of his own and succeeding generations.
The foundress, Mary Frances Aikenhead, was born in
Eutland Street, Cork, on January 19, 1787. Her father,
the son of an officer in a Highland regiment, was a
physician, and professed the Protestant faith. Her
mother, a member of the old Anglo-Irish family of
Stackpoole, was a Catholic. The children, four in
number, were brought up in the father's creed. Mary
Frances, the eldest, used sometimes to be taken to the
' South chapel,' 2 by her maternal relatives, and thus
she became acquainted, and favourably impressed, with
the Catholic doctrines and ceremonial. On Trinity
Sunday in the year 1801, she was present at a sermon
preached by Doctor Florence MacCarthy, the coadjutor
bishop of Cork, on the parable of Dives and Lazarus.
The result of this discourse was, to determine her to
enter the Catholic Church, into which she was received
by the coadjutor bishop, being then in her fifteenth
year. The fact of her taking so important a step at
1 Vide Supra, p. 130. 2 The parish Church of Saiut Fiubarr.
232 TERRA INCOGNITA.
such an early age an age at which young ladies in
general evince little disposition to enter into matters of
religious controversy shows how much her mind must
have been fixed on the things of the next world. Young
as she was, she felt a strong impulse to devote herself
altogether to the service of God and the poor. In this
vocation she was encouraged and sustained by the
association and example of a young friend, of congenial
tastes, Miss Cecilia Lynch, with whom she spent the
greater part of her time in works of piety and charity,
in their native city. Both young ladies were not only
endowed with persevering fervour, but they were gifted
with strength of character and discretion beyond their
years most valuable qualities to those engaged in the
performance of the corporal and spiritual works of
mercy.
Miss Lynch, after some time, entered the novitiate
of the Poor Clares at Harold's Cross, near Dublin.
In order to be present at the ceremonies of her friend's
reception and profession, Miss Aikenhead repaired to
Dublin, and, while in that city, on both occasions,
resided with a lady who took an active part in pro-
moting and supporting the Catholic charities of the
capital. That lady, speaking from her extensive
experience, used to expatiate on the great want of
such an order as the French Sisters of Charity in
Ireland. Her words sank deep into Miss Aikenhead's
mind; they exactly coincided with her own ideas;
and the result was that, after some time, she decided
on removing from Cork to Dublin, for the purpose
of becoming a Sceur de la Charitd, and introducing
the sisterhood into Ireland. This was in 1811. The
Archbishop, Dr Murray, to whom she disclosed her
views, greatly rejoiced at the proposal, and confirmed
her in her pious intentions. However, on carefully
considering the whole subject, and after communicat-
ing with the French Sisters and other similar orders
on the Continent, he decided that it was better to
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY. 233
establish a new congregation, specially adapted to the
peculiar circumstances and wants of the country. In
accordance with this view, Miss Aikenhead and another
young lady, Miss Alicia Walsh, proceeded to York, in
the year 1812, and entered Saint Mary's Convent in
that city, to make their novitiate for the new founda-
tion. 1 The nuns of the York convent, Sisters of the
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at that time
used to visit the sick poor, in addition to their main
occupation of educating girls, rich and poor. There-
fore they were most suitable instructresses for the two
young Irish novices. At Miss Aikenhead's desire, the
interval between their reception and profession was
made three years, instead of two, the usual term of
probation.
In the year 1815, Archbishop Murray, on his return
from Rome, called at the convent in York, to conduct
the two novices, sisters Aikenhead and Walsh, to
the scene of their future labours. They arrived in
Dublin on August 22, and were established by the
Archbishop in the old Trinitarian Orphan House in
North William Street. On September 1, he received
their religious vows, and on the 10th of that month
they entered on the visitation of the sick poor in
their own homes a holy work, which has ever since
now over sixty years been steadily and unobtrusively
going on, and the great good resulting from which can
be estimated only by the parochial clergy, or the dis-
pensary physicians, who are familiar with the cheerless
dwellings of the poor, and their fearfully aggravated
sufferings in time of sickness.
The Sisters rapidly increased in numbers, and, with
the increase of numbers, new functions of charity were
undertaken. Not confined to the squalid lanes and
1 This convent is situated at Micklegate Bar, York, and is sometimes
called the Bar Convent. It has a boarding school for young ladies and
extensive poor-schools. It is the oldest convent in England, having
been founded jn 1680. See Chapter XXVII.
234 TERRA INCOGNITA.
alleys of the capital, ere long they extended their
ministrations to the hospital ward and the prison cell
Many are now living who remember their devoted
services in the Grangegorman cholera hospital, during
the first outbreak of that epidemic in 1832.
The congregation was canonically approved of by
Pope Gregory XVI. in 1834. Mrs Aikenhead 1 ha'd
the gratification of surviving many years, to see her
congregation flourish and largely extend its sphere. She
died July 23, 1858, aged seventy-two.
The Irish Sisters of Charity differ in some respects
from the French Sisters. They follow the rule of Saint
Ignatius ; the French Sisters, that of Saint Vincent de
Paul. The former have two years and a half of proba-
tion ; the latter, five and a half years. The former take
perpetual vows ; the latter, annual. Their objects are
similar. The main function of both congregations is
the relief of the sick poor. Both, however, undertake
all other works in which they can be useful to the
cause of religion and humanity.
No description can convey an adequate idea of the
perfect organization, devoted charity, and great public
usefulness of this noble institute. These will be best
understood and appreciated by personal observation;
and the English tourist will find much to interest and
instruct him in a series of visits to the several institu-
tions of the Sisters of Charity in the Irish capital.
In Stanhope Street he will find Saint Mary's Industrial
training school, with twenty-two nuns and one hundred
and thirty girls. These are the children of decent, well
conducted parents, or orphans who are unprotected, or
whose guardians wish to have them trained to industry.
During their residence in the establishment, they are
1 When a lady receives the veil as a nun, she is thenceforward called
Mrs, such as Mrs Aikenhead, Mrs M'Auley, Ac,, by visitors. Within
the convent, she is called Sister, such as Siater Mary Clare, Sister
Ignatius, &c. The Mother Superior, Mother Assistant, and Mistress
of Novices are called Mother hy the other nuns, such as the Reverend
Mother, Mother Joseph, Mother Xavier, &c.
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY. 235
provided for, in every respect. The support of each
girl costs fourteen pounds ; making the total expendi-
ture about 2000Z. a year. This expenditure is met,
to a considerable extent, by the receipts of the laundry,
in which washing is done, on an extensive scale, for
families. The remainder is made up by the contribu-
tions of the charitable. The girls make all their own
clothes. There are large poor-schools attached to the
convent. The nuns also visit and relieve the sick poor
in their neighbourhood. This convent was founded by
Mrs Aikenhead in 1819.
In Upper Gardiner Street Convent, the Sisters have a
school in which they educate 800 poor girls. In Wel-
lington Street Convent, they conduct Saint Joseph's
. Female Orphanage, in which are 84 children ; and the
community also devote themselves to the education
of 1000 poor girls in the King's Inns Street schools.
Here, they have also 60 young women under training,
as teachers in public schools, or for private tuition.
The community of Harold's Cross educate 400 poor
children ; and that of Sandymount 250.
At Donnybrook the Sisters conduct a Magdalen
Asylum, containing 72 penitents.
At Baldoyle a small community of six give religious
instruction to the poor children in the parochial schools,
and visit the sick poor in the neighbourhood.
Saint Vincent's Hospital, Stephen's Green, in every
respect a model hospital, is under the care of twenty
Sisters. It was opened by the Sisters of Charity in
1834, in the former town residence of the Earls of
Meath, and commenced with twelve patients. Some
years later, an adjoining mansion was purchased, and
considerable additions have since been made, in the
rear. The number of patients now is one hundred
and twenty, and the arrangements for their treatment
and comfort are perfect. An interesting portion is
the children's ward, where it is most gratifying to
witness the care and kindness bestowed on those
236 TERRA INCOGNITA.
little ones, who, iii the hour of sickness, can but very
rarely be properly ministered to in their own poor homes.
As we move through the several rooms, we see, on
every side, tokens of the high appreciation of this
hospital by all grades, from the poorest patient up to
the wealthy and titled, whose names we read, affixed to
the beds they have endowed. Here an humble mechanic,
who, while in the hospital, noticed a certain want, has
supplied that want by the labour of his hands; here
again a day-labourer has contributed his mite, purchased
by savings out of his scanty wages ; and thus, from
a rude cork-screw or a medicine mug up to the silver
lamp, which burns, iu the chapel, before the Blessed
Sacrament, 1 may be seen many an offering of gratitude
the best evidence that can be afforded of the benefits
conferred by the institution.
Though last not least, are twelve endowed beds
each representing a subscription of 20/. a year. How
many of the rich are there who could well afford this
sum out of their superfluities, and thus provide for the
constant maintenance of one patient 1 In such a case,
the subscriber has the nomination of the patient.
In this, as in all similar institutions, the poor have
the advantage of the first medical and surgical skill and
experience, gratuitously placed at their disposal. With
such aid, and the devoted and untiring services of the
Sisters, they are as well attended to as the wealthiest
and noblest of the land could be in their own homes.
This hospital, in another respect, is a great public
benefit being a first-class school of medicine and sur-
gery. There are two physicians and two surgeons on
the staff, and the medical students number between
fifty and sixty. The total number treated in the hot*
pital last year was 1034 ; and the number of extern
patients who received dispensary relief was 6442. It
is open to all religious denominations ; and the ministers
1 This lamp, which cost 87l t was presented by the Dublin Metro-
politan Police force.
THE IRISH SISTEKS OF CHARITY. 237
of their own creeds have free access to the non- Catholic
patients.
In connection with Saint Vincent's Hospital is the
Convalescent Home at Linden, Stillorgan, also under the
care of the Sisters. Here twenty convalescents are re-
ceived, and, under the influence of pure air, green fields,
and wholesome diet, are rapidly restored to health and
strength. The advantage of a sanatorium of this kind,
especially in the neighboui?hood of a large city, cannot
be over-estimated. When a poor man leaves an hos-
pital, convalescent, he but too often goes back to a dark,
uncomfortable, ill-ventilated lodging, in a lane or alley ;
and without proper nourishment, or sufficient fuel, bed-
ding, or clothing, is likely either to suffer a relapse, or
to contract, in his weakly state, some chronic ailment,
by which his young family will be permanently deprived
of their support, and society of a useful member. In
considering such cases, it is well to go beneath the sur-
face to enter into the hopes and fears of the little
world of the poor man's home. For in the lowly cot-
tage, as in the gilded palace, great is the anxiety, painful
the suspense, and wearying the alternations of fear and
hope, when the head of the family is stricken down, and
his life trembles in the balance. But in the case of the
poor man, there is super-added an element of anxious
care unknown to the rich. On the chances of his
recovery hangs the fate of his whole family, who, should
he succumb, will be thrown desolate paupers on the
world ! Can we, then, too highly appreciate the thought-
ful charity of the good Sisters, in establishing their
Convalescent Home, to meet so great a want ?
But perhaps the most interesting institution of the
Sisters of Charity is the Female Blind Asylum at
Merrion. Situated in a demesne of thirty-three acres of
fine land, well planted, and overlooking the sea, it is
about twenty minutes' drive from the city. The convent
numbers eleven nuns ; and the asylum, a handsome new
building, specially erected for the purpose, appears per-
238 TERRA INCOGNITA.
feet in every detail. A grand central hall with double
staircase, lofty and spacious corridors with handrails on
both sides for the use of the inmates, refectory, dormi-
tories, school rooms, work rooms, music room, all fine
well ventilated apartments no expense appears to have
been spared, no necessity overlooked, no requisite of
health and comfort omitted, in completing this asylum.
The inmates are one hundred and ten in number.
Several of them have been sent in from the different
poor law unions. The boards of guardians allow an
average of ten pounds a year for the support of each ;
but the actual cost is twenty pounds. The nuns make
up the difference. These poor children require particu-
larly good nourishment ; as they are nearly all of a
strumous habit, the result of bad air and insufficient
food in their early years. Hence their loss of sight.
Very few of them are blind from their birth.
The nuns conduct us through the building. In the
pantry are large piles of excellent white bread, which is
being cut for use. The dairy, we are glad to perceive,
is well supplied with milk. Vegetables are also furnished
in abundance from the garden. The kitchen has all the
newest arrangements and appliances. Passing the foot
of the grand staircase, we enter the music hall. Here
we find some fifty or sixty girls, seated round the spaci-
ous room, all busy at knitting or other work. Around
a piano, at the upper end, are grouped some twenty
more, who form a little choir. One blind girl presides
at the piano, and makes an excellent conductress.
Close by them stands a nun, the only one who enjoys
the blessing of sight in this numerous assembly ; and
we soon perceive how she is loved by the poor stricken
ones around her, as she addresses now one, now another,
in making arrangements for the little performance about
to come off. Several airs are played and sung, with
admirable precision and excellent effect. The workers,
seated around, appear greatly to enjoy the harmony,
their busy fingers nimbly moving, all the while. Among
THE IEISH SISTERS OF CHARITY. 239
these girls we observe some sweet intelligent faces ; but
alas ! a certain painful, indescribable expression, mark-
ing the absence of that feature which lights up the
human countenance, is but too plainly noticeable in all.
They are nearly all the children of the poor. One is
pointed out to us, whose family once occupied a respect-
able position ; but, through misfortune, they lost all
their means ; and this child was left an orphan, penni-
less and blind. A gentle child, with a sweet expression
and strikingly regular features, once the idol of affluent
parents, ' by birth a lady, and by nature a lady,' to use
the words of the good Sister it is a sad thing to hear
her little history : and yet again it is a consolation to
reflect that such poor helpless ones, cast out alone upon
the world, can find so comfortable a home and such true
friends.
In other rooms we see blind women of more advanced
years, busily plying their work. The nuns, as we pass
on, have a cheery salutation, or kind word for them all.
It is unnecessary to add that the instruction, secular
and religious, of all the inmates is admirably attended
to. Those who are debarred from the pursuits and
pleasures of this world are here taught to fix their
hopes altogether on the next : and thus it is that they
cease to feel the pain of their sad privation. We may
well imagine how their fervent humble prayer is offered,
in the spirit, if not in the words, attributed to the prince
of English poets, under a similar affliction :
Thy glorious face
Is leaning towards me and its holy light
Shines in upon my dwelling place,
And there is no more night.
On my bended knee,
I recognize Thy purpose clearly shown
My vision Thou hast dimmed, that I may see
Thyself Thyself alone.
240 TERRA INCOGNITA.
I have nought to fear
This darkness is the shadow of Thy wing
Beneath it I am almost sacred here
Can come no evil thing. 1
As we take our leave, we cannot but feel a strong
conviction that whoever visits this asylum, no matter
what his creed, or how great his prejudices against
convents may he, must, from his heart, bless the good
ladies, who devote their exertions, and means, and lives,
to so noble a work of charily.
The nuns at Merriou also conduct a certified Indus-
trial school.
The Sisters have two convents in Cork, which may be
briefly referred to here, as further illustrating the great
variety of special works embraced by their congregation.
The convent of Saint Vincent de Paul, situated iii the
poor district of Peacock Lane, has attached to it a
Magdalen Asylum, which is perfect in every respect,
and well deserves a visit. The number of penitents is
eighty. They are all engaged in laundry work, and are
self-supporting. The washing of a large proportion of
the most respectable families in Cork is done here.
Passing through the ironing room, on a finishing day,
the stranger would almost fancy himself in the show
room of one of the London monster shops, so elegant is
the display of articles of dress on every side. The ap-
pliances are all of the best and newest description ; and
so well is the work done, that several Protestant families
are glad to send their washing to the asylum. The
women are all busy and active, and apparently happy.
Constant occupation, and that too of a useful kind, is a
great blessing to them, as it must be to every one indus-
triously employed. The inmates of this asylum are
kept in it for life ; or as long as they please to remain.
Some, when reformed, are taken out by their families,
1 In reality, the beautiful lines, ' Milton on his blindness,' were not
written by the great poet, although well worthy of his pen. They are
quite a modern composition.
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY. 241
and some few obtain situations ; but the great majority
prefer remaining in a home, in which they at last have
found peace and happiness. Each penitent has a little
sleeping room to herself a system which the nuns
seem to value highly. As we pass along the fine, well
ventilated corridors, these rooms appear the perfection
of neatness. In each is a little altar, with pious pictures,
in arranging which the penitents take special interest.
In all that is to be seen in this institution, there is abun-
dant matter for pleasing reflection. Here are eighty
women, who have been rescued from the lowest depths
of sin and degradation, whose lives have been a curse not
only to themselves, but to all with whom they came in
contact : and now they are usefully employed, and self-
supporting all of them happy, and the great majority
of them, we are informed, leading most holy lives ! Oh !
could we but read the past history of many of these
poor girls, could we but realize the terrible ordeal of
want, and hunger, and temptation, so long heroically
endured, but relentlessly pressing upon them until they
were overwhelmed in the fatal fall ; could we but see
the dark and desolate vista then opening out before them,
without one gleam of human pity, one ray of Christian
hope, we might indeed be able to sound the depths of
that charity, which has mercifully interposed, to save,
and lead them back to the paths of peace and duty. All,
the children of poverty ; most of them, the victims of
neglect and bad example from their earliest years ;
many of them, the prey of the heartless seducer ; what
should we have been, had we to pass through the same
trials and temptations what they, had they our oppor-
tunities and advantages !
On first entering, some of the penitents are trouble-
some, and, feeling the confinement irksome, express a
wish to leave. Here the tact of the Sisters is judiciously
and successfully exercised ; and, in time, the poor fallen
ones learn to bless the day on which they entered Saint
Mary Magdalen's Asylum. The diet is excellent ; and
Q
242 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the kindness of the nuns, at the same time that it re-
assures the penitents, goes straight to their hearts, and
leads them to turn to Him, who pardoned the public
sinner, and for whose sake they have been so lovingly
received and so thoughtfully provided for.
An extensive wing has recently been added to this
asylum. The cost has been defrayed by the bequest of
a citizen of Cork a gentleman who led a single life,
and lived penuriously, saving all he could for his cha-
ritable project. The Catholic belief in the obligation
and merit of good works, carried out from the sole
motive of the love of God and the love of our neighbour
for God's sake, is familiar to my readers. This benefi-
cent sentiment finds outward expression in many a work
such as this just described; and thus, attached to many
a convent, we find asylums, orphanages, hospitals, and
similar institutions, monuments of the faith, hope, and
charity of dying Christians. There is no investment of
the wealth of this world so thoroughly considered, so
carefully made, as the disposition of their means for
charitable purposes by the dying; and, in the several
bequests of this nature, we have abundant further proof,
if such were wanted, of the high estimation in which
communities of religious women are held by those who
know them best.
To this convent are also attached extensive poor-
schools one for infants, and one for grown girls. For
ventilation, comfort, and suitability, in every respect, to
the purposes for which they have been built, these
schools cannot be too highly praised. As happens at
several other poor-schools in Ireland, many of the
children come to these schools fasting, and it devolves
on the nuns to provide them with food. We are shown
an extensive soup kitchen, and an almonry just inside
the convent gate, at which are given out food and cloth-
ing, on orders left by the Sisters with the poor families
they visit in different parts of the city.
The second convent is Saint Patrick's, on the Wei-
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY. 243
lington road, to which is attached an hospital for Incur-
ables. The cost of this building, completed now about
five years and a half, was chiefly defrayed by the bequest
of a gentleman, a member of the medical profession, who
also left an income of 300Z. a year towards the support
of the patients. Here, those sufferers who are stricken
by disease in its most hopeless and afflicting form, receive
all the aids of nutritious diet, medical treatment, nurse-
tending, air, cleanliness, and comfortable bedding and
clothing, which they so much require, and which they
cannot command in their own homes. But perhaps the
greatest advantage of the institution is, that the patients
enjoy the religious instruction and consolation especially
needed by their condition, and are thereby disposed for
a happy death. The hospital, airy and spacious, is situated
in a healthful neighbourhood, with a southern aspect,
and is surrounded by neatly planted grounds, in which
the few who are able to go out can take exercise. One
story is entirely devoted to males, and another to females.
A children's ward has been lately added.
Passing through a long corridor, we enter a lofty and
well-ventilated ward, all the beds of which are occupied.
We stand by the bed-side of one patient, suffering from
cancer in an advanced stage and there are several
such cases in the hospital. Here our ear is saluted by
the low moaning of unceasing pain ; we perceive the
sickening heavy fetor peculiar to this most loathsome
disease ; we can read in the emaciated features all that
is being endured by the sufferer. We have witnessed
enough ; perhaps it is that we are unaccustomed to such
scenes but we are glad to retire. And this, then, is
the home of the Sisters ! They have left the luxurious
and elegant abodes of their childhood to take up their
dwelling here ! Amidst these sounds and sights, and in
this atmosphere, they have elected to pass their days,
their weeks, their years, their whole lives ! Under the
pressure of excruciating pain, the patients will some-
times be unreasonable and petulant. Their petulance
244 TERRA INCOGNITA.
and complaints must be borne by the gentle Sister in
the meek and holy spirit of her institute. The sights
and sounds of human suffering are perhaps the most dis-
agreeable of all companions ; and yet these sights and
sounds to her are ever present, even mingling in her
dreams when she retires to snatch a brief repose. These
hideous sores she must regularly dress, at least twice a
day sometimes more frequently; the opiates to alleviate
pain and other medicines are administered by her hand ;
and it is her duty unceasingly to console the poor
sufferers, to suggest pious thoughts, and especially to
aid them in the last agony. Who is there that, witness-
ing all this, can withhold his homage from such heroic
self-sacrifice, ennobled and sanctified as it is by the
motive which prompts it ? That motive is appropriately
expressed in the motto of the Congregation ' Caritas
Christi urget nos/ *
1 For statistics of the Irish Si*te of Charity, list of conveuts. &c.,
see Chapter XXXIIL
( 245 )
CHAPTEE XXIII.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY.
Consider this,
That, iii the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy ;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
SHAKESPEARE.
PERHAPS there is nothing which more forcibly impresses
the stranger with the power, wealth, and grandeur of
the British metropolis than the aspect of Eegent Street
on a fine afternoon in the full season. Accompanied by
a friend to whom London was new, and strolling from
Portland Place to the Quadrant, at between four and five
o'clock, one day in the month of May last, I felt no
small degree of pleasure in pointing out to him the pro-
minent features of the gay and splendid scene : the
dense crowd of magnificent equipages ; the proud car-
riage horses, with their glossy coats, arched necks, and
grand action ; the harness and liveries, so elegant and
appropriate, without being in the least over-done ; the
exquisite toilets of the fair occupants of the carriages ;
then, the throng of humbler vehicles, from the huge and
crowded Metropolitan Eailway omnibus down to the
marvellously steered Hansom ; the pedestrians innumer-
able, on the foot-ways ; the shops, so rich, so tasteful,
so attractive in their display ; and, with all this dense
population, this crowding of vehicles in many rows,
occasionally brought to a dead-lock, no disorder, no
confusion, no bad conduct ; but all regularity, order,
good temper, and seeming happiness ! ' This is indeed
246 1ERRA INCOGNITA.
a great and magnificent capital/ exclaims my friend ;
' the sight is one of the marvels of the age.' We next
proceed to view the drive in the Park that wondrous
reunion of beauty, wealth, rank and fashion a scene
which no description can re-produce, and which can be
found only in Hyde Park. Thi, although not so varied,
is, in a certain sense, still more wonderful than what we
have admired, an hour or two before.
As we wend our way homewards, my friend begins
to moralize, as, doubtless, many others have done on
similar occasions : ' Is this the business of life with
these countless thousands, votaries of pleasure and
fashion? Have they not serious occupations and
duties, like ordinary mortals like the toiling millions
who constitute the bulk of the population ? ' ' No doubt
they have. Each of these elegant equipages contains
its own little world of home and family ties and feel-
ings, of anxieties and cares, of duties and responsibi-
lities, of aspirations, and ambition now baffled, now
successful. Here is the cabinet minister, or the part-
ner of his life, and his accomplished co-operator in all
those little acts of attention and politeness, which are
the conventional small coin in which he rewards so
many of his political supporters. Here is the noble of
ducal rank and great territorial and parliamentary in-
fluence, an eager and all but certain expectant of the
vacant garter. Here is a young baron, who is dissipat-
ing on the turf the splendid fortune, and degrading the
historic name, transmitted to him, through a long and
honoured line, from ancestors who fought at Agincourt
and Cressy. Here is another, who, notwithstanding his
princely wealth, devotes himself to a life of unceasing
toil in the service of his country, and has already ac-
quired a high position in the senate. Here is the
merchant prince, whose thoughts, at the moment, far
from the drive in Hyde Park, are centred in those vast
operations which he is carrying on at the antipodes.
Here is the titled matron, all anxiety to secure an eli-
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 247
gible parti for her daughter. Here are the younger
members of the beau monde, full of the pleasing recol-
lections of last evening's assembly, or the anticipations
of to-morrow's.' ' But,' interposes my friend, ' is not the
time of these people mis-spent ? Are their means em-
ployed as they ought to be ? ' ' Assuredly, their time is
not mis-spent : their means are most legitimately em-
ployed. Some are enjoying their inherited wealth;
others, the fruits of their own industry, the results of
many long days and nights of bodily and mental toil.
It is but fitting that persevering industry, high prin-
ciple, and those other qualities which go to make up
the greatness and grandeur of a nation, should have
their reward. Many are unbending from the labour,
anxieties, and cares of professional, commercial, or poli-
tical avocations. All are partaking of that recreation
which is essential to health of mind and body, and fits
man for the serious duties of his state.
Religion does not censure or exclude
Unnumbered pleasures, harmlessly pursued.
Then, we must take into account the distribution of
their wealth, the money thus circulated, the industries
encouraged, developed, and supported, the thousands
whom they pay for ministering directly and indirectly
to their requirements, and gratifying their tastes. Such
is the law of human society ; and so will it be to the
end of time. The smoke-begrimed workman, in paper
cap and barracan suit, who casually passes by, and per-
haps grudgingly views the splendid pageant of wealth
and luxury, if, by a sudden turn of the wheel of fortune,
he were elevated to the same sphere, as has happened,
would himself follow the same course. Besides, as a
rule, in these countries, " the upper ten thousand " dis-
charge, in the most exemplary manner, their social
duties the ordering of their estates, the economy of
their households, the education of their children.'
' But/ persists my friend, ' is there not something more ?
248 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Are there not duties beyond those of " the family," and
citizenship ? In the words of the poet l whom you have
just now quoted,
Whence and what are we, to what end ordained f
What means the drama by the world sustained I
Business or vain amusements, care or mirth,
Divide the frail inhabitants of earth.
Is duty a mere sport or an employ f
Life an entrusted talent, or a toy ?
Have we not all solemn duties to fulfil towards our
neighbours, in accordance with the golden maxim, " Do
unto others as you would have others do unto you " ?
Are we not bound to consider for the suffering and
the poor, the widow and the orphan, the ignorant and
neglected ? ' ' Here, indeed,' I reply, ' is matter for
serious reflection. Several of those who are now en-
joying themselves around us, are, no doubt, large contri-
butors to the noble charities of the metropolis, as well
as to those in the neighbourhood of their respective
estates, and moreover open their purses in many a
hidden deed of mercy. But there must be many more
among them, who, in the whirl and excitement of a Lon-
don season, are but too likely to overlook their obliga-
tions in this regard. And yet, not far from this throng
of wealth and fashion, the contemplation of which has
called forth these reflections, there is a festering mass
of poverty and suffering, of ignorance and crime, pre-
senting a wide field for our charitable intervention. It
is true, we are not all obliged to give up our time to the
visitation and relief of the sick poor, to the instruction
of the ignorant, to the consoling of the afflicted. This
is not our vocation. But undeniably it is our duty to
give out of our superfluity to our suffering fellow-
creatures ; and this duty we cannot better fulfil than by
entrusting our alms, and otherwise extending our co-
operation, to the chosen few, who are called, in the
spirit of the Gospel counsels, to devote their whole lives
1 Cowper.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 249
to the sacred work ; and, a fortiori, it would be highly
criminal, on our parts, in any way, to obstruct or pre-
vent their godlike ministrations.'
Our second day's ramble lies in quite an opposite
direction. In a remote and poor district, we thread
our way through a densely-populated, dingy lane. The
day is bright and fair. Nature wears her most pleasing
aspect. Yet all around us are indications of hardship
and poverty. There are several humble industries.
Among them, the rattle of the silk weaver's loom is
heard, now and again. Sickly birds, in little cages,
in the small-paned windows here a linnet, here a
canary feebly chirp in the summer sun, which conies
slantingly down between the high roofs ; and these
imprisoned little songsters seem to constitute the only
luxury, the only solace, of the poor toilers within. The
children, shabbily clad, and, in too many instances,
bearing evidences of neglect, run in and out of the
open doorways. Some ten yards before us down the
lane, two women issue from a house. Their black
cloaks, heavy black bonnets, the snowy-white linen
collars falling over their shoulders, and the capacious
platted straw bag which one carries on her arm, bespeak
them Sisters of Mercy. We instinctively raise our hats
in reverence, as, with downcast eyes, they silently pass
us by. They enter another house, and at once are lost
to sight. ' Let us inquire what the Sisters have been
doing there,' suggests my friend, pointing to the house
from which we have first seen them emerge. The land-
lady, a busy bustling woman who keeps a little huckster's
shop on the ground floor, is sure there can be no objec-
tion to our seeing the poor sick man and his two little
girls, in the back attic ; and ' gentlemen,' she adds, ' if
you will assist them, it will be a great charity. They
have suffered much. We in the house, with large
families to support, can do but little for them. Only
for the nuns and I bless them although I am not
250 TERRA INCOGNITA.
myself of their way of thinking I do not know what
would have become of the poor creatures.'
We enter an attic room, with one sky-light, an empty
grate, and four bare walls. One broken chair and a
little stool are all the furniture. In a corner, on a straw
pallet, lies a man in the last stage of consumption. A
clean coverlet and a pair of blankets, given him by the
Sisters of Mercy, are the only bed clothes. The sick
man, a smith's helper, used to earn about twelve shillings
a week : and, on this small pittance, since his wife's
death, three years ago, he struggled to support himself
and two children, both girls, one eight and the other
twelve years old. He kept the children regularly at
the convent school, where they had experienced much
kindness, and had been supplied with clothing. With
broken health, and declining strength, as the insidious
disease gained upon him, he worked on as long as
he could ; and at length succumbed from sheer exhaus-
tion. His employer, himself a poor man, allowed
him half wages for a few weeks ; then all incomings
ceased; and he became altogether dependent on parish
relief. We may well enter into the feelings, under the
circumstances, of a good man such as this, who had
lived and laboured only for those dear little ones ; we
may well realize his sufferings, at such a moment, when
he felt his days were numbered, and looked in the face
the dark future awaiting his two friendless orphans,
when he should have passed away ! For beneath the
ragged garb of poverty, under the rough exterior of the
lowly son of toil, will often beat as true a heart, and
exist feelings as fine, and home affections as pure, as in
the noblest and wealthiest of fortune's favourites.
The children, sad, and pale, and hungry, inform the
good nuns of their trouble. Now, for some eight or nine
weeks, have the Sisters paid a daily visit to this abode of
suffering, supplying the patient with suitable nourish-
ment ; suggesting pious reflections, for he is of their creed ;
and consoling his afflicted children. They have promised
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 251
to take the two girls into one of their orphanages or
asylums, immediately on his death, and there educate
and train them, and ultimately place them in situa-
tions, in respectable, well conducted families. Here
indeed they have lifted a weight of care and sorrow off
the heart of the poor dying man. We say a few kind
words to him, and we learn that, in his last breath,
whilst he prays for his dear little ones, he blesses God
for having sent them such true friends in the Sisters,
who will become their mothers and protectors, when he
shall be no more. Such a case as this is best presented
in its simple facts. It needs not one word of embellish-
ment. Are not these good women, who have left the
world and its enjoyments, home and its endearments,
to spend their whole lives in the performance of such
deeds of mercy, deserving of our veneration, no matter
how widely our religious tenets may differ from those
which they profess ?
Having witnessed so much of the work of the Sisters,
we make similar inquiries at the second house which we
have seen them enter. Here their visit has been a brief
one. We are immediately shown into a back room, up
three pair of stairs an apartment small and ill-lighted,
but very neat. Its occupant is a young woman, a
needle-worker, whose history we subsequently glean.
Her father was for many years a clerk in a warehouse,
earning a comfortable subsistence. His daughter, an only
child, was well educated, and brought up with fair pros-
pects. But, within one month, she lost both parents,
carried off by fever ; and, at the age of seventeen, was
left friendless and destitute. This was about seven
years ago. Since then, she has supported herself by
needlework, having obtained employment at a fashion-
able dressmaker's.
A hard and painful struggle have been these dreary
seven years. From early dawn till late at night, and
sometimes into the small hours after midnight, when a
Drawing Room, or a Court Garden party, or a great ball
252 TERRA INCOGNITA.
has brought an accumulation of orders, she has worked
on the same weary and monotonous task
Work, work, work,
Till the brain begins to swim,
Work, work, work,
Till the eyes are heavy and dim.
Many a wet night, too, with her scanty worsted-plaid
shawl, slight, paper-like boots, and bent and broken
parasol, have the neighbours seen her return not to a
comfortable home, not to loving parents, not to brother
or sister, but to solitude and discomfort, to a dark, small
room, and fireless grate. Her only companion is a little
canary, which is now drooping, in its cage by the win-
dow, apparently in sympathy with its dying mistress.
Close confinement, incessant hard work, insufficient
nourishment, and exposure to the weather, have gradu-
ally told on her weakly constitution ; a short cough and
other grave symptoms have supervened ; and now her
weary working days are over. ' She will never again
earn a shilling by her needle, poor thing,' says the
medical man who has been asked to prescribe for her;
' her troubles in this world are fast drawing to a close.'
But that God, to whom she has ever turned, in accordance
with the teaching of her dear parents, as evidenced by
the pious prints and other emblems of devotion around,
now in her darkest hour of need, raises up friends to her
in the Sisters of Mercy. Here indeed the good Sisters are
ministering angels, and their daily visit brings peace
and consolation to this heavily afflicted child of poverty.
My friend, whose heart and purse are opened by what
he sees, eagerly inquires what he can supply ; but the
Sisters appear to have anticipated him in everything.
What sermon can speak to man's heart with the elo-
quence of this touching scene ? The roar of the great
capital sounds strangely in our ears now seeming to
ebb in the far distance, now surging nearer and nearer.
Those three millions of human beings are absorbed in
their ever-varying pursuits of business and pleasure,
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 253
their toil, their anxieties, their cares, their enjoyments.
On her little pallet, patient and resigned, lies the dying
girl, who, for seven years, has dwelt amongst them, but
not of them unheeded, unhelped, and uncomplaining ;
a friendless orphan ; alone amid a multitude ; without
one sympathizing heart into which to pour her sorrows ;
the desolate wanderer of a moral desert ; the sad and
silent denizen of that solitude, which want and misery
and the world's cold neglect can create, even in the
bosom of a populous city.
In the economy of Divine Providence, there is, and
there must be, a great law of compensation, eventually
solving the mystery how, in this life, the good are often
permitted to suffer, and the wicked to prosper. And
therefore we may rest assured that so noble a struggle
to support herself by honest industry, such high prin-
ciple, such patience and long-suffering, such resignation
and conformity to the will of God, will be crowned by
an eternity of happiness in that better life, into which
the weary wayfarer is now about to enter.
Scenes such as these are the everyday world of the
Sisters of Mercy and similar congregations of religious
women ; and to them they are a busy world ; for, while
their hearts bleed for the poor sufferers, they address
themselves energetically to the work in hand. Their
charity takes an eminently practical form ; and the
amount of suffering and sorrow they alleviate, and of
good they effect, is beyond all calculation.
The Sisters of Mercy are by far the most numerous
body of religious women in the United Kingdom. They
have no less than 147 convents, of which 98 are in Ire-
land, 43 in England and Wales, and 6 in Scotland. 1
The history of their institution may be briefly told.
The foundress, Catherine McAuley, was born at Stor-
manstown House, in the county of Dublin, on Sep-
tember 17, 1787. Her father, James McAuley, was a
country gentleman. He was a fervent Catholic, and a
1 For full particulars, see Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
254 TERRA INCOGNITA.
man of great practical benevolence. Her mother, who
professed the same creed, was quite a woman of the world,
and wholly indifferent on matters of religion. Catherine
was the eldest of their three children. Losing their
parents at an early age, the young McAuleys were taken
charge of by Protestant friends of their father. The two
younger, a boy and a girl, became Protestants; and
Catherine grew up without any fixed religious impres-
sions. In her search for truth, she read the works of
several Protestant divines, but, as she preserved a lively
recollection of her good father's piety and charity to the
poor, she could never be induced to abandon the faith
which he had professed. One day, in a state of doubt
and anxiety, she called on the venerable Doctor Betagh,
one of the vicars-general of the Catholic arch-diocese of
Dublin, and opened her mind to him. After a few in-
terviews with him, she resolved to profess the Catholic
religion. The kind friends with whom she lived, Mr
and Mrs Callan of Coolock, who, being themselves
childless, had adopted her, were good and pious Pro-
testants. However, they offered no opposition to their
dear Catherine's following her own convictions, and
they treated her with all the affection of the fondest
parents up to the day of their death. Both were received
into the Catholic Church on their death-beds.
In her thirty-fifth year, Catherine found herself alone
in the world, and mistress of a large fortune, Mr Callan
having bequeathed to her all that he possessed. 1 It was
two or three years before this, while residing under the
roof of her benefactors, that she was made aware of a
poor girl, a servant in a neighbouring mansion, being
in imminent danger of losing her virtue. Catherine
immediately saw her, and strongly urged her to fly from
the scene of danger, undertaking, at the same time, to
1 He died on November 11, 1822, his wife having died a short time
previously. The fortune he bequeathed to Miss McAuley was 30,000i
in ready money, Coolock House, and 60(M. a year, with plate, furni-
ture, several policies of life insurance, and other property.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 255
provide her with a home. The girl promised to comply
with her wishes ; and Catherine at once proceeded to
Dublin, and put herself in communication with a com-
mittee of ladies, who managed an institution there for
the protection of young women, destitute and in danger.
She was, however, doomed to disappointment ; for the
committee met, and, notwithstanding the urgency of her
application, decided to fill up the vacancies with other
candidates, whose cases they considered more suitable
than that of her protegee. The delay thus caused was
fatal. The tempted one fell. She might have been
saved, had there been a home open, on the instant, to
receive her. This sad event made a deep and lasting
impression on Catherine ; and to it we may, in a great
measure, attribute the resolution, which, not long after,
she carried into effect, of providing a refuge for friend-
less young women, and there assisting and counselling
them in the hour of want and temptation.
It does not appear that, at first, she had any idea of
founding a religious institute for this purpose. Her
plan was rather to establish and endow a Home, to be
managed by herself and two or three other charitable
ladies, whom she might prevail on to join her. How-
ever, it is possible that she contemplated ultimately
handing over the institution to some one of the existing
religious orders or congregations, with a view to insur-
ing the perpetuity of the good work.
Mr Callan's bequest having supplied her with ample
means to carry out her charitable views, she lost no time
in entering on the erection of the home. Acting on the
advice of two wise and experienced clergymen, she
decided to build from the foundation, in preference to
adapting to the purpose a house or houses already built.
She therefore took a large plot of ground in Lower
Baggot Street, for which she paid a fine of 5000/., thus
reducing the rent to 60. a year. In those days 1 five
years before the passing of the Catholic Emancipation
i A.D. 1S24.
256 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Act she deemed it prudent not to be over-communi-
cative ; and accordingly kept her intentions a secret.
Even, in giving instructions to her architect for pre-
paring the plans, she simply stated that she required
three or four large rooms for poor-schools, four large
dormitories for destitute young women, a large and lofty
room for an oratory, and a few small rooms for any
ladies wlio might wish to assist in the education and
care of the poor.
As the building progressed, it excited much attention.
Various were the speculations as to the object for which
it was intended. Some said it was a whim of Miss
McAuley, who did not know what to do with all ln-r
money. Others were of opinion that it was a convent ;
but then a doubt arose on this point, as the few existing
convents were in poor remote districts, and this building
was being erected on a valuable site, and close to the
most fashionable quarter.
The institution was opened, for the reception of desti-
tute young women and female orphans, and the educa-
tion of poor girls, on September 24, 1827. 1 ^Ii?s
McAuley commenced with two associates ; but very
soon the numbers increased ; and a new work was
added, in the visitation of the sick poor in the hospitals
and in their own homes. As time moved on, and the
ladies saw the good that resulted from their labours, and
felt the more than human happiness which only those
who are so engaged, from the sole motive of the love of
God and their neighbour, can experience, they applied
to the Archbishop, the Most Reverend Doctor Murray,
to form them into a religious congregation. Having
maturely considered the matter, the Archbishop gave
his cordial assent to their wishes. He decided that the
rule of the Presentation Order, 2 with some modification
to meet the special objects of the new institute, was the
1 The Feast of Our Blessed Lady of Mercy.
* See Chapter XVI. Rules and Constitutions of the Presentation
Order.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 257
most suitable to. be adopted; aiid accordingly be
gave permission to Miss McAuley and two of ber
associates, Miss Doyle and Miss Harley, to make their
novitiate in tbe Presentation Convent of George's Hill, 1
which they entered for the purpose, on September 8,
1830. On December 12, 1831, these three ladies made
their solemn profession, the usual term of two years'
probation having been abridged to one, by the authority
of the Archbishop. 2 On the same day, they returned to
their house in Baggot Street ; and this is the date of
the institution of their congregation, which was called,
by the desire of the foundress, the Religious Sisters of
Mercy. The Archbishop appointed Miss McAuley, now
Sister Mary Catherine, the first Mother Superior. She
lived to establish fourteen convents, viz. Baggot Street
in 1831, Kingstown in 1834, Tullamore and Charleville
in 1836, Carlow and Cork in 1837, Booterstowu and
Limerick in 1838, Naas and Berrnondsey in 1839, Gal-
way, Wexford, and Parsonstown in 1840, and Saint
Marie's, Birmingham, in 1841.
The introduction of the Sisters of Mercy into England
was the foundation at Bermondsey, a brief account of
which may be useful here, as illustrating the manner in
which, not unfrequently, convents have been established
in places where they were previously unknown. A few
Catholic ladies, some of them converts, had formed them-
selves into a lay association, for visiting and relieving
the poor of that populous quarter, looking after the in-
struction of the children, and performing other works of
mercy. After some time, they desired to have their
association constituted a religious community ; and,
1 George's Hill Convent, Dublin, established in 1794, is a filiation of
the first house of the order, the South Presentation Convent, Cork,
founded by Miss Nagle. It now numbers 17 nuns, has 800 poor
children attending its schools, and maintains 42 orphans.
8 As is usual, in such cases, in taking the vows, they included in the
vow of obedience, the carrying out of what the Church should approve
in the new institute, such as the visitation and relief of the sick
poor, &c.
B
258 TERRA INCOGNITA.
with the Bishop's 1 sanction, two of their number, Miss
Agnew 2 and Miss Taylor, both converts, proceeded to
Cork, and entered the Convent of Mercy in that city, as
postulants. They were professed in Cork on August
19, 1839, and, with four sisters of the Cork house, took
possession of their new convent in Bermondsey, on
November 19 following. This young community was
presided over by Mrs Moore, late Reverend Mother of
the convent of Cork, and one of the earliest associates of
Mrs McAuley, the foundress. On December 12 of the
same year, six more ladies, who had joined them, re-
ceived the white veil, in the fine church of Bermondsey,
attached to the convent 3 The ceremony, at all times
most impressive, and then being conducted on a more
than ordinarily grand scale, in deference to the wishes
of the family of one of the ladies who took the veil on
the occasion, 4 attracted much attention. There were
several bishops, and thirty-six priests in the sanctuary,
and over five thousand present in the congregation.
Since then, now five and thirty years, the community
of Bermondsey has unceasingly ministered to the tem-
poral and spiritual wants of the poor of that populous
district
The convent of Birmingham was Mrs McAuley's last
foundation. On her return from this work, the Sisters
noticed, with pain, that her health was greatly broken.
From that time, she continued to decline ; and calmly
passed away from the scene of her pious labours on
November 11, 1841, being fifty-four years old.
1 The Right Reverend Doctor Griffiths, the Vicar Apostolic of the
London district. Doctor Thomas Griffiths was consecrated bishop on
October 28, 1833, and died August 12, 1847.
1 Niece of Sir Andrew Agnew, and authoress of ' Geraldine, a Tale
. of Conscience.' The two first volumes of this work, a religious novel,
were published before, and the third after, the authoress became a
nun.
8 Built after the designs of the elder Pugin, whose name will long be
honoured, as the great restorer of ecclesiastical architecture in theae
countries
4 Lady Barbara Eyre, daughter of the Earl of Newburgh.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 259
A short time before her death, Mother McAuley had
the gratification of learning that the rules and constitu-
tions of her congregation had received the formal
approval and confirmation of the Holy See, in a rescript,
under date July 5, 1841.
Although established only forty years, the Congrega-
tion of the Sisters of Mercy now nourishes in all English-
speaking countries. Besides numbering 147 convents
in the United Kingdom, it has its communities all over
the United States and British . North America, and in
Buenos Ayres, Australia and New Zealand : and, every
year, these communities are sending out new colonies,
and diffusing more and more widely the blessings which
accrue to the poor, the ignorant, and the suffering, wher-
ever the congregation is known.
During the Crimean war, fourteen Sisters went out to
'nurse the sick and wounded British soldiers. For this
purpose, several convents furnished their contingents.
Two sisters went from Baggot Street, Dublin, two from
Cork, three from Kinsale, two from Charleville, two
from Carlow, and three from Liverpool. These formed
an independent corps ; but several Sisters from the Eng-
lish convents also went out, and were attached to Miss
Nightingale. Their services were highly spoken of, at
the time, by all who witnessed them. The estimation
in which they were held was gracefully testified by
officers and men, in paying the last honours to one of
the Liverpool Sisters, who died on the scene of her
charitable labours.
The wide range of active duties of charity, undertaken
by the Sisters of Mercy, will be found, in detail, in
another chapter. 1 Here it may be well to mention, that,
in accordance with the design of the pious foundress,
each convent is obliged to have attached to it, as far as
its means permit, and the circumstances of the place re-
quire, poor schools for girls, a House of Mercy for destitute
young women of good character, and a female orphan-
1 Chapter XXXIII. Statistics of Convents.
260 TERRA INCOGNITA.
age, all conducted by the Sisters, in addition to their
main work of the visitation and relief of the sick poor.
The great variety of their special works all works
of devoted charity and public usefulness will be seen
in a series of visits to their convents in Dublin and its
environs, which may be accomplished in a few days.
At Baggot Street, a community of thirty-five nuns
conduct extensive poor schools, in which there is an
average daily attendance of 1100 children, who are
classed, by age and proficiency, through a series of
graded schools. There are also training schools of
female teachers for public schools and private tuition,
numbering 60 under training. Here also is a House
of Mercy, in which 82 young women are supported,
instructed, industrially employed, and ultimately pro-
vided with situations. No less than 500, on the aver-
age, are thus provided for in the year.
At Booterstown, the DUHS, ten in number, educate
550 poor children ; and also conduct a certified indus-
trial school attached to their convent. 1
At Rathdrum, a community of six conduct Saint
Mary's school for the higher and middle classes, and
also have charge of Saint Michael's National School.
At Glasthule, near Kingstown, there are primary
schools, accommodating 253 pupils. Here also is a
Magdalen Asylum, containing 33 penitents, under the
management of the Sisters. The women are employed
at laundry work, and the institution is self-supporting.
At Golden Bridge, the community attend to 350
children in the poor schools ; and conduct Saint Vin-
cent's Reformatory, in which are 80 inmates. This
institution is conducted under the convict prison rules,
and not as a juvenile reformatory. It was established
for adult female convicts in 1856. The Sisters regularly
visit Mountjoy Convict Depot, and instruct the women
there. Any of these women who are considered eligible
for an intermediate prison are transferred from Mountjoy
1 Certified NoTember 10, 1870. See Chapter XXXVI.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 261
to Golden Bridge. Government allows the nuns five
shillings a week for the maintenance of each convict.
The inmates are industrially employed ; and all their
earnings are put by severally for their benefit. Thus,
at the expiration of their term of detention, some are
sent home to their families, with a little capital, and
others are enabled to emigrate. Lately, one of these
young women, about to embark at Queenstown for New
York, called on the Sisters of Mercy, at Saint Marie's of
the Isle Cork, and showed them a sum of ten pounds,
after paying for her passage all her own earnings.
The element of hope, thus fostered, is a powerful aid
to the Sisters in their work of reformation.
The Golden Bridge Eefuge is most favourably men-
tioned in the Eeports of the Directors of Convict Prisons
in Ireland, as ' a most valuable adjunct to the Convict
system, and of great utility to the women in providing
them with suitable means of employment, and keeping
them from falling back into a course of crime. The
admirable management of this valuable institution de-
serves to be mentioned with commendation, and with
thankfulness to the managers whose able and devoted
attention produces such excellent results.' l
In Saint Joseph's Night Eefuge, Brickfield Lane, the
Sisters afford shelter and protection to a weekly average
of 500 destitute women and girls, in want of a night's
lodging. Besides the temporary accommodation and
other material relief afforded, they often have it in their
power, by a word in season, to effect much good among
the poor with whom they are thus brought into con-
tact.
The work is appropriately supplemented by the
Sisters, in large poor schools attached, in which they
educate 800 children of the neighbourhood.
In Saint Mary's Retreat, 104 Lower Gloucester Street,
the Sisters have recently established a Magdalen Asylum,
which already numbers 40 penitents.
1 Ninth Annual Report, page 8.
262 TERRA INCOGNITA.
They have also recently opened St Michael's Hospital,
Moukstown, which promises to be a great blessing to that
important suburban district.
In Jervis Street Hospital the oldest in Dublin,
founded in 1721 there are six Sisters, who have
charge of 63 patients. 1 Since it has been placed under
their care, this hospital has become a model of clean-
liness and order.
Perhaps the most interesting of their establishments
is the great hospital of Mater Misericordise, in Eccles
Street, founded in 1861. The stranger will be well re-
paid by a visit to this fine institution. It stands quite
detached, on an elevated site, which, on the score of
salubrity, has been pronounced, by a competent autho-
rity, to be quite unexceptionable. 2 It is a handsome,
symmetrical, three-floored building, which, when com-
plete, will form a quadrangle, and contain 500 beds.
On each floor is a lotty, spacious corridor at the back,
extending all round the building, with wards and other
rooms opening out of it in front, and with staircase,
operating rooms and offices, forming a compact block,
backwards towards the centre of the quadrangle.
This hospital (continues the Government Inspector) promises,
in our opinion, to be, when complete, one of the finest hospitals
in Europe. It is built on the corridor plan ; but the distribu-
tion of corridors, wards, and beds, is such as entirely to neutra-
lize any ill effects that could possibly flow from the "adoption of
this plan, while all the advantages that spacious, cl
ventilated corridors afford, are thoroughly secured. 3
The hospital is kept scrupulously clean, and its ventilation, and
indeed all its internal arrangements, seem admirable. Patients
are admitted without any recommendation other than the fitness
of the case for admission, and all classes of disease are eligible,
except infectious fevers. 4
Since this was written, the eastern wing has been built
and opened for the treatment of fever, and other con-
J The
The number of extern patients annually prescribed for is 12,000.
' Report to Government on the Hospitals of the United Kingdom, 1
by J. S. Briatowe, M.D.
1 Ibid. * Ibid.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 263
tagious diseases. The building of this wing, or, more cor-
rectly speaking, side, of the quadrangle, has cost 14,000,
to which must be added a further sum of 1750,
the cost of 150 beds, furniture and fixtures. Of this
large outlay no less than 10,000 have been contributed
by the Sisters themselves, anxious as they are, not only
to employ their available resources and their time, but
to sacrifice their health and their lives, if necessary, in
ministering to that class of human suffering, from which
naturally one would expect that ladies would sensitively
shrink. But, in the words of one of the most eminent
physicians in the kingdom, 1
Contagion has no terrors for those who have devoted their
lives to God's service. As this is an hospital not for charity
alone but for instruction, the institution of fever wards becomes
of additional value ; for though since the terrible famine year,
fever at least typhus fever has greatly decreased in Ireland,
enough remains for the exercise of charity and of instruction ;
but this instruction is all-important, for by the teaching of the
treatment of fever at home, the students learn the prin-
ciples of practice, which will guide them in that of the plague
of the Levant, the yellow fever of the West Indies, and the
cholera on the burning plains of India. This addition to the hos-
pital justifies, and, I may say, necessitates the course already re-
solved upon by the authorities of the Mater Misericordise hospi-
tal, of appointing assistant physicians and surgeons. This has
been done, following the example of some of the London hospi-
tals, and I am permitted to announce the names of the gentle-
men selected for the first time for this honourable distinction.
. . . Both of these gentlemen were distinguished pupils of the
hospital, and their appointment is a natural and proper course.
Medicine advances by experience on the one hand and discovery
on the other. The senior physician walks in the first path, the
junior in the second ; and he is aided by all the instruments and
all the improvements in diagnosis which are every day produced
by modern science. Thus the one becomes the complement of
the other. The senior officer will act as a tutor to the students
and the dispensary patients can be attended by him who can
at all times command the help of the physician or surgeon in
any case of difficulty.
1 Doctor Stokes.
264 TERRA INCOGNITA.
These words bear honourable testimony alike to the
devotion and zeal of the Sisters of Mercy, and to the
great value of the institution which they have estab-
lished and administer. Here we have not only a first-
class hospital for the poor, but also a great school of
medicine and surgery. There are three physicians and
an assistant physician, and four surgeons and an assist-
ant surgeon on the staff. Thus the services of eminent
men in both professions are gratuitously rendered to the
poor. This is a circumstance, in connection with all our
hospitals, which is so familiar to us, and which has be-
come such a matter of course, that we are but too apt to
overlook it : and yet what mark of public respect,
what expression of grateful appreciation by the com-
munity, could do justice to the devotion of the medical
profession, in the onerous services thus rendered, and the
valuable time thus spent in the cause of charity ? l
It is a pleasing fact that the Mater Misericordise Hospi-
tal numbers among its supporters men of all shades of
religious opinion. It is open also to patients of every
creed. To be sick and destitute is a sufficient passport
to fling wide its portals. A walk through the spacious
and well-ventilated wards, 2 a view of the patients in
their neat comfortable beds, the many ingenious appli-
ances and arrangements around, the physicians pre-
scribing at the bedsides, the nuns engaged in their
holy work here whispering a word of consolation or
1 It is true, that hospital practice is a great advantage to the members
<>f the professions ; and hence when a vacancy occurs in any of our insti-
tutions, there is active canvassing, and much interest brought to bear by
the candidates. In fact, the vacant post is regarded as a great prize.
Making full allowance for this circumstance, it is no less true that the
public are deeply indebted to the physicians and surgeons attached to
our hospitals, to which they devote so much time and labour, and
especially those who, at the head of the professions, not only prescribe
for the patients, but impart most valuable instruction to the students
attending their lectures.
1 For the information of strangers, who may desire to visit the insti-
tution, it may be well to state, in case they should be apprehensive of
contagion, that the fever-wards occupy a wing quite apart from tbe
general hospital.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 265
encouragement, here administering a cooling draught to
the parched lips of a poor sufferer the whole air of
order, cleanliness, and peace, speak more eloquently and
impressively than any description. But the gratifica-
tion of the visitor at all that he beholds is many fold en-
hanced by the reflection, that this is common ground, on
which all Christian communions can cordially unite in
the discharge of the duties of Christian charity. The
eminent physician, whose words I have quoted, is of a
different creed from the Sisters. So is another gentle-
man, equally distinguished in his profession, 1 who says :
' I have the honor of bearing my meed of testimony to
those noble ladies, of whose bounty, and charity, and
willingness to minister, in all respects, to the temporal
and spiritual welfare of this institution, I have had long
experience.'
He is followed by the Solicitor-General, 2 who ob-
serves :
It is not only a work of charity, but of Christian charity
Christian in the noblest and truest signification of the term.
The relief of the poor, the sick, and needy, is particularly the
glory of Christianity. Sophists may tell us that many of the
maxims of Christ are to be found scattered up and down the
pages of heathen authors ; yet it is to Christ and His Divine
Spirit alone that all the blessings of Christian civilization are
due ; and Christianity alone can organize such a system of bene-
ficence, one of the proofs of which we have here before us to-day.
This resolution solicits the Irish people of all denominations to
assist in the good work so auspiciously begun.
As a Protestant, I feel pride and pleasure in taking part in this
work, for in this place relief is administered to all, without con-
sideration of sect or party. The only passport required in this
hospital is, that the person applying should need its shelter and
assistance. The Blessed Preacher of our religion says we should
love our neighbour as ourselves. When asked who is our neigh-
bour, He teaches us, by that sublime parable of the Good Sama-
ritan, that our neighbour is not alone the man who worships at
1 Sir William Wilde, Surgeon Occulist in Ordinary to the Queen it
Ireland.
2 Mr Dowse, M.P., now a Baron of the Exchequer.
266 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the same altar with us, who inhabits the same city, or who speaks
the same language, but the man who needs assistance, no matter
from whence he comes, or what his creed may be, at our hands.
' Which of these three was neighbour unto him who fell among
the thieves? He that showed mercy to him.' I have made
inquiry into the mode of management of this and kindred insti-
tutions in this city, and I have found that no attempt is ever
made to tamper with the faith of the sick or dying. In the care
only of those ladies who minister to the patients, can the inmates
of the hospital, who are of a different creed from its managers,
read tho lesson of our common Christianity. In the House of
Commons, during the discussions on the Church Bill, when a
member for a northern county said ' If the surplus was distri-
buted as thus proposed it might be used for proselytising pur-
poses,' I said in reply to him then what I say now, that the hos-
pitals to which allusion was made were conducted on different
principles, and solely with a view to relieve the sick and needy,
quite irrespective 01 religion or j>arty.
These words were spoken on the occasion of a public
meeting held in the board-room of the hospital, under
the presidency of the Cardinal Archbishop. 1 To the
same effect were the observations of the Lord Chan-
cellor of Ireland, 2 the Earl of Granard, Mr Pirn, M.P.,
and other speakers. Especially deserving of notice are
the words of the Cardinal, as to the principle of respect-
ing the rights of conscience, which ought to be the rule
of all such institutions :
Whilst taking care in an especial manner of those who belong to
the Catholic body, the nuns, at the same time, take the greatest
precaution lest there should be any interference with the patients
who belong to other churches. They are allowed the fullest
liberty to practise their religion they are allowed to call in the
ministers of their own church and prepare themselves in any way
they think fit to meet their eternal God. I believe this is the
case in the other hospitals in Dublin, with, I am sorry to say,
one exception.
His Eminence names the hospital in question, and re-
ferring to one of its rules that no Catholic priest should
be admitted within its walls, to administer religious aid
and consolation to dying patients of his own cominu-
1 On November 1, 1869. Lord O'Hagan.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 267
nion, adds : ( I hope this hospital or any other Catholic
hospital will never give such an example of intolerance
and bigotry.'
The numbers admitted into the Mater Misericordiee
Hospital last year were 1633 ; and the number of extern
patients, prescribed for and supplied with medicine in
the dispensary, were 18,400.
I have described this fine hospital at length, as an
example of many ; for I am happy to say that in all
other hospitals under the care of nuns which I have
seen in these kingdoms, although they may be on a
smaller scale, the same characteristics will be found
the same order and cleanliness, the same devotion to
the sick, the same generous charity of the medical pro-
fession, the same respect for the rights of conscience, and
the same happy union of professors of various creeds
on the one common ground of Christian charity.
The functions of the Sisters of Mercy are nearly iden-
tical with those of the Irish Sisters of Charity the
main occupations of both being the visitation and relief
of the sick poor, the conducting of poor schools, indus-
trial schools and orphanages, the administration of hos-
pitals and asylums, and, in a word, the carrying on of
all works, in which they can promote the glory of God
and the good of their neighbour.
There is a considerable difference, however, in the con-
stitution of the two congregations. The Irish Sisters of
Charity are governed by a Superioress General, residing
in Dublin. She, with the advice of the Mother Assist-
ant and the other members of her council, appoints the
superioresses of the several houses, names the convents
in which the several nuns are to be stationed, changing
them, in her discretion, from one house to another, and
directs and administers, from head-quarters, the general
business of the congregation. All the novices are trained
at the one novitiate, at Harold's Cross, near Dublin ;
and, on their profession, may be sent to any convent
the Superioress General may appoint.
268 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The Sisters of Mercy, on the contrary, have no gene-
ralate. Each convent is independent of the others, and
governed altogether by its own Mother Superior ; at
the same time that all the convents of the congregation
have one common rule. The novices are severally
trained in the particular convent they enter, and never
leave it, unless that, by their own desire, and with the
approval of the Bishop and the Mother Superior, they
go forth to establish a new community. 1
Each system has its advantages. Under the former,
each convent is sure to have the important post of
Mother Superior filled by a lady, selected from a large
number, as being eminently qualified to discharge the
duties. Not that the Sisters of Mercy are at a loss in
this respect; but, in their case, the choice is limited
to a small number, as the Mother Superior is elected
out of the community over which she presides. Again,
particular nuns may appear especially suited for certain
employments one for the education of orphans, one for
teaching in the poor schools, one for hospital duties, one
for the care of the blind. In such cases, under the for-
mer system, the Mother Superior General has a \viiio
range of institutions, in which to utilize the talents of
these Sisters. Not but that each convent of the Sisters
of Mercy has, within a comparatively small circle, it is
true, its variety of occupations its poor schools, its
house of mercy for destitute young women, its orphan-
age, and sometimes hospital duties, on any of which the
Reverend Mother can employ particular .Sisters, accord-
ing to their talents or attrait.
On the other hand, the system of de-centralization
possesses this advantage, that the members of a reli-
gious community belong altogether to the place in which
their convent is situated ; they are never removed from
1 In sending out a colony to establish a new convent, care is taken
that at least one of the number, who goes as Superior, should be a
lady possessed of experience and those other qualities which are re-
quired for the government of a religious community.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 269
it : and it is probably for this reason that the Sisters of
Mercy are so frequently selected by bishops desirous of
establishing new convents in their dioceses. Again, a
lady, wishing to devote her life and fortune to founding
a convent in a particular town, will naturally enter that
congregation according to the constitution of which her
pious intentions are sure to be fully realized. Let us
suppose that, some years ago, on an excursion through
a remote and poverty-stricken district, she was im-
pressed with the physical and moral destitution of the
poor children, and felt at the time, and has since con-
stantly felt, a strong desire, or inspiration, to extend to
them the inestimable blessings which the education of
convent schools only can confer. True, she is a stranger
to the people: she has never been among them but
once. Yet she feels that their utter helplessness com-
mends them, all the more strongly, to her charity. And
now, when she would obey what she regards as the in-
spiration of Heaven, when she would give embodiment
and form to her charitable feelings, she naturally selects
such a congregation as the Sisters of Mercy ; for thus
she is enabled to make that poor obscure little town or
village the scene of her future life and labours, and em-
ploy there, for the noblest of purposes, the wealth, and
talents, and influence, with which God has endowed
her.
In the working of the great charitable institutions of
large cities, the former system is seen in its perfection.
For sending out numerous colonies of religious to small
towns, and providing for the spiritual wants of remote
districts, the advantages of the latter are especially ap-
parent. Thus, in the Catholic Church, even in orders
having the same scope, there will be found certain
shades of difference, to meet the ever-varying circum-
stances of time and place, and the innumerable neces-
sities of mankind.
The following items of evidence, placed on record by
an English Protestant gentleman, of the works of the
270 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Sisters of Mercy, coming under his own observation,
will form an appropriate termination to this chapter:
Among the scholastic establishments of the town of Killarney
may be named the convent of the Sisters of Mercy, which I also
visited. It is a small house with inferior accommodations, but
it contains a great deal of zealous and active piety and much
genuine philanthropy. I fouud the Sisters variously employed ;
one at the piano, instructing in music a band of orphan girls
maintained by them ; another superintending an industrial school
for female servants out of place, to whom they afford a home as
well as instruction. The children in these schools are 106 ; the
number of servants in their house of refuge 20. These and such-
like are the indoor works of the Sisters ; but the great task they
set themselves, is to visit and nurse the sick in the town ; an
office, I was told by a medical gentleman of the place, which they
fulfil with the utmost devotion in all its painful and disagreeable
details. There was a singular air of calm and solemnity in this
house, and the Sisters, though looking cheerful, as busy people
generally are, had something in their bearing which inspired at
once reverence and awe. 1
Further on, he says :
I mentioned these noble Sisten* of Mercy once before, in my
Memorandums on Killarney ; but they are so widely spread over
Ireland, and so constantly to be found where good is to be done,
that I feel it would be unjust alike to their profession and prac-
tice (which here, for once, are the same), not to make them the
express subject of a few memorandums in a book professedly
treating of Ireland. I shall therefore take the occasion which
here naturally presents itself, of telling what little I know about
them.
Every one who has been in Catholic countries must have heard
of and seen these Sisters at their various works of charity and
mercy educating the young, nursing the sick, feeding the
hungry, clothing the naked, harbouring the homeless, imparting
religion to improve the good and to restore the bad ; and all,
with that utter self-abnegation and self-devotion, and with that
earnestness, tenderness, and patience, which can only spring
from the profoundest conviction that, in so labouring, they are
fulfilling God's will as revealed to man.
Of them, and of a few others constituting a wonderfully
1 ' Memorandums in Ireland in 1852,' by Sir John Forbes, M.D.
F.R.S., Physician to Her Majesty's Household. Vol. i. p. 147. Lon-
don : Smith, Elder, & Co. 1853.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY. 271
small minority of the great Christian community it may be
truly said, that they accept and follow, to the letter, the precepts
and the practice of the great Founder of the Christian religion :
not by useless self-sacrifice and barren holiness, but by actively
ministering to the welfare and necessities of their fellow-
creatures, in accordance with that grand fundamental law of all
true religion To do unto others as one would desire that others
should do unto him.
Into this small category of true practical Christians, I think we
must admit some more of the religious orders existing in most
Catholic countries, and now spread widely over Ireland. Of this
kind are the Christian Brothers, already mentioned ; the Sisters
of Charity ; and those communities of Nuns, who, like the Sisters
of Mercy, consecrate their lives to the imparting of good to their
neighbours, particularly to the poor and the young in the form
of EDUCATION. Under this head come especially the Nuns
of the Presentation Order ; also those of the Sacred Heart,
of Loretto, Carmelite, &c. Of the two most active and most
numerous of these Orders, the Presentation Nuns and the Sisters
of Mercy, there are upwards of fifty separate establishments
in Ireland, viz., 30 of the former and 24 of the latter, 1 all of
which, I believe, must be regarded as perennial fountains of
good to their respective neighbourhoods.*
1 There has been a great increase in the number since 1852.
2 'Memorandums in the South of Ireland in 1852,' by Sir John
Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Her Majesty's Household. VoL ii.
p. 27.
(272)
CHAPTER XXIV.
SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLE.
Is there nothing more for me in life, nothing to be dearer to me than
myself, and by its paramount preciousness to draw from me better
things than I care to culture for myself only t Nothing at whose feet
I can willingly lay down the whole burden of human egotism, and
gloriously take up the nobler charge of labouring and living for others ?
CHARLOTTE BKOXT&.
THE stranger, entering Cork by the main western ap-
proach, cannot fail to observe a building in the mediaeval
style of massive proportions and conventual character ;
and, on inquiry, he will be told that it is the Convent
of the Sisters of Mercy, Saint Marie's of the Isle. The
ground is classic, and hallowed by venerable associations,
having been occupied by religious structures for cen-
turies. In the Dominican annals of Saint Marie's of
the Isle, we read that in the year 1229 a house was
founded here for Friars Preachers, by Philip de Barri,
a Welsh knight, ancestor of the Barrymore family. This
house, which was suppressed under Henry VIII., was
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and, from its insular
site being built on one of the great marshes of ' the
five-isled city ' was called Saint Marie's of the Isle.
In 1689, King James II. landed at Kinsale, 1 and pro-
ceeded thence to Cork. On his arrival in Cork, the
King lodged at the house of the Dominican Friars, and,
on the following Sunday, heard mass in the church of
the Franciscans, at the North Abbey. 2 On the acces-
1 March 12, 1689.
* Wadding tells us that the North Abbey was founded by MacCarthy
More in 1231 ; but Ware says, by Philip Prendergast in 1240. It \vud
SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLE. 273
sion of William III., the friars fled from Saint Marie's
Island, and their house became the residence of the
Mayor or Governor of the city. It was called thence-
forward the Great House of Saint Dominic's, and became
the town mansion of Lord Inchiquin.
After an interval of one hundred and sixty years, this
venerable site was again occupied by a religious com-
munity the Sisters of Mercy, who entered their new
convent in October 1852. 1 As we view the building
we are struck with its chaste conventual style, its cor-
rectness of architectural detail, and its admirable adap-
tation to the purposes for which it is intended. 2 But
our business is with the interior. Let us enter the con-
vent, and there learn what is the life of a Sister of
Mercy, and what are the daily occupations that engage
the attention, and enlist the sympathies, of this hard-
working community of forty nuns.
The Sisters rise, winter and summer, at twenty-five
minutes after five o'clock. They commence the day
with prayer and meditation, hearing mass at seven.
a house of such strict discipline, that it was called the ' Mirror of Ire-
land.' Here was a stately church, where several of the principal persons
of Munster were interred ; and near it was a celebrated spring, which
had the reputation of curing sore eyes, through the intercession of
Saint Francis. The lands of the North Abbey were granted by Queen
Elizabeth to Andrew Skiddy, and were by him assigned to the Earl of
Cork, by whose descendant they are now held. All traces of Abbey
or Church have long since disappeared ; but, even to this day, in
making excavations, human remains are frequently found. The Friars
of the North Abbey had a house of retreat near Ardfert in the county
of Kerry. This was included in the grant to Andrew Skiddy. Thus
is explained the singular circumstance of the Earls of Cork owning a
plot of land in the midst of the estate of Mr Talbot Crosbie of Ardfert
Abbey.
1 It was in the year 1837 that, at the request of the Bishop, the
Right Reverend Doctor Murphy, Mrs McAuley introduced her congre-
gation into Cork. For the first fifteen years, the Sisters were lodged
in a small, inconvenient, temporary convent, in Rutland Street. The
Cork foundation was mainly the work of Miss Barbara Anne Goold, a
lady who, living poorly and "unostentatiously, devoted her life and large
fortune to works of piety and charity.
2 The convent of Saint Marie's of the Isle was built after the designs
of William Atkins, Esq. of Cork.
274 TERRA INCOGNITA.
They breakfast in the refectory at eight, after which they
disperse for their various occupations of the day. Several
proceed on the visitation of the sick poor, in the lanes
and alleys, and outskirts of the city, middle and south
the northern district being undertaken by the Sisters
of Charity. There are exact rules for the government
of the Sisters on the visitation. In fact, in this, as in
all their works, there is a complete system, the result
of long experience, which greatly facilitates, at the same
time that it very much enhances the value of, their
labours.
A Sister is appointed by the Mother Superior to take
charge of the almonry, and manage the food, clothing,
and pecuniary relief, afforded to the sick poor, and dis-
tributed by her, or the Sisters daily appointed for the
visitation. This Sister keeps a register of the sick, and
prepares the lists on which severally are marked the
names and dwelling-places of the patients of each pair
of visitors, and the amount of relief to be given in each
case. The Mother Superior appoints the Sisters to
visit, excepting those in the novitiate, who are named
by the Mistress of Novices. The Sister in charge of the
almonry prepares the baskets for the visitation, pulling
into each the relief or relief-tickets for the several cases,
also money relief for each new call, which last it is
optional for the Sisters visiting to give or retain, as they
may find necessary. No sick call is attended to unless
recommended by a clergyman, except in the case of
families whose children frequent the convent schools,
should they require to be visited. 1
The Sisters repair to the chapel to offer up a brief
prayer, before going out on their visitation, and again,
on their return to the convent, as enjoined by their rule.
They always visit, two together. As they move through
the streets, with downcast eyes, they recite, to them-
selves, certain prescribed prayers. Whilst the senior
1 This obviously is a precaution against imposition ; as it is more-
over a guarantee of the good character of the applicants.
SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLE. 275
Sister is engaged with the sick person, the junior in-
structs and exhorts the children and others whom she
meets in the room. When a patient is visited for the
first time, the senior Sister visiting reports to the Sister
in charge of the almonry the spiritual, as well as the
temporal, necessities of the case, with any peculiar cir-
cumstances she may have observed, and adds any
remarks she may deem it useful to make with regard to
the calls entrusted to her.
Thus, we can understand, there will be, in time, in the
convent book, an accurate record of the condition of the
poor in the several districts, which cannot fail to be most
useful to the Sisters, in carrying out the work of the
visitation.
Early in the forenoon of each day, may be seen eight
or ten pairs of Sisters going forth on this holy work.
They have just been to the chapel, and there, at the
foot of the altar, have implored God's blessing on their
labours, and especially on the poor they are about to
visit. Once outside the convent portals, they disperse
in various directions, the bearers of material relief and
spiritual light and consolation to many a dark and
cheerless abode of sickness and sorrow. Besides their
devoted ministrations to the sick, what good do they
not effect in the families they visit ! Here the ignorant
are instructed, the erring reclaimed, the desponding
encouraged; and all are exhorted, in suffering and
poverty and despondency, to turn their hearts to Him,
in whom, no matter how sad their condition, how dis-
couraging their prospects, they are told they cannot
place their hopes in vain. Above all, the little children
are anxiously looked after, and the parents are besought
to send the girls to the convent, and the boys to the
monastery schools, and all to the catechism classes in
the parish church on Sundays. We may well conceive
how readily the wishes of the Sisters in these respects
are complied with; for the poor cannot but see that
their sole motive is the glory of God, and the good
276 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of their neighbour. This work of the visitation un-
ceasingly goes on. It is the main function of the
congregation. In another chapter, we have seen its
working in the details of two cases visited by the Sisters
in a poor and densely inhabited quarter of London. 1 It
therefore requires not to be further illustrated here.
Certain other Sisters go to the South Infirmary, or
County Hospital, and there instruct the patients of
their own religious denomination. It may be well to
mention here, that, in their visits to the homes of
the poor or the public institutions, the Sisters never
attempt to interfere with the tenets of those of another
persuasion. Not to speak of the unfairness of such
interference, it is obvious that they have quite enough of
Catholic poor to occupy all their attention. In the time
of sickness, the mind is generally most open to religious
impressions; and then it peculiarly needs those aids
and that consolation which religion only can afford.
For many years the Sisters used daily to visit the
Workhouse Hospital They now permanently reside
within its walls. Here indeed their labours are heavy.
Over eight hundred patients occupy the wards of this
great hospital We may well conceive what a consola-
tion the presence of the nuns must be to the poor
sufferers especially to those who are near death. In
passing through a Workhouse Hospital, it rarely occurs
to us to pause and endeavour to realize the contrast
presented by the surroundings of the rich man and
ihose of the pauper, at the approach of that supreme
moment which levels all distinctions. On the one hand,
we find every aid and appliance that wealth and refine-
ment can command and devise the soft luxurious
bed, the subdued light, the agreeable temperature, the
carefully guarded whisper, the noiseless footfall on
the well carpeted floor, the soothing medicines, the
refreshing drinks, the attentive physicians, the experi-
enced and well paid nurseteuders, the kind inquiring
1 Supra, pag. 249-253.
SAINT MARIE S OF THE ISLE. 277
friends, the public sympathy, and, above all, those
loving offices so affectionately rendered, those endear-
ments coming from the hearts of wife and children !
The centre figure of the picture, worn and pale and
suffering, with the cold dews of death upon his brow,
painfully contrasts with so much of luxury and elegant
refinement. Here it is evident that, whatever the
anxieties of the dying Christian may be, he can have
no harrowing thoughts of widow and orphans thrown
penniless on the world. Abundant wealth, good social
position, numerous friends, all earthly blessings, will
be their inheritance, as they have been his. He parts
from all the more unwillingly, that he has so many gol-
den ties to bind him to earth ; but let us hope that he
bows submissively to the irrevocable decree, and is pre-
pared to render an account of his stewardship.
On the other hand, the change conies less painfully
on the dying pauper. For his path through life has
been one of hardship and suffering. Few rays of
sunshine have fallen on that dreary road. For many
a year, with scanty food and ragged garb, he has toiled
and struggled, to support his wife and children, until,
at last, he is stricken by a fatal disease. And now
he is leaving those dear ones, wholly unprovided for
the inmates of a Workhouse. It is in cases such
as this, that religion exercises most powerfully its
benign sway. In a long narrow ward, with white-
washed walls, and glaring light, amidst a number of
fellow-sufferers, he lies on a small iron stretcher, with
coarse bed-covering yet far better than he has had
for many years. His rapid breathing and flushed
features but too plainly indicate that the sands of
life are running low. Endowed with a lively faith,
and docile as a child, he implicitly follows the counsels
of the good Sister of Mercy, seated beside him. He
has commended to God those who are dearer to him
than life. He has made an offering of his sufferings,
and has accepted death, as from the hands of his
278 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Creator; and now, fortified by all the rites of the
Church, he peacefully and resignedly awaits his dis-
solution. Standing hy this bedside, will not Christians
of every creed concur in blessing the holy institute,
which sends its consecrated daughters thus to impart
peace and consolation, and sanctify the last moments
of the lowly and too often neglected children of toil ?
It was at the close of the year 1871 that the Guardians
of the Cork Union, fully impressed with the necessity of
improving on the unsatisfactory system of paid nurses,
concluded an arrangement with the Bishop and the
Mother Superior of Saint Marie's of the Isle, in virtue
of which ten Sisters have taken up their permanent abode
in this hospital ; a small convent in connexion therewith
having been prepared for their accommodation. 1
On the outbreak of small-pox in Cork, in the early
part of last year, the Sisters of Mercy volunteered their
services in the hospital specially prepared by the Poor
Law Guardians, and set apart for the treatment of that
loathsome disease. The day they entered on their
duties, they were accompanied by the Bishop, who
went about to all the beds of the patients, speaking
words of kind encouragement, and telling them, to
their great delight, that now they would be under
the charge of the Sisters of Mercy. In a few short
weeks, one of these devoted ladies fell a victim to the
epidemic an early martyr of charity. The following
spontaneous and affecting tribute to her memory, taken
from a local journal, will give the best idea of the good
effected by the Sisters, and the estimation in which they
are held :
With deep sorrow and sympathy, the public will learn the
death of Sister Ignatius, of the Order of Mercy, who died yester-
day morning at the Workhouse, a martyr to her devotion to the
sick and suffering from small-pox in the hospital of the institu-
1 A similar arrangement, carried out by the Guardians of the
Limerick, Killarney, and other Irish Unions, has been attended
with the best possible results.
SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLE. 279
tion. She was one of the nuns to whom was recently entrusted
the care of the hospital of the Workhouse, and who, when the
epidemic broke out, volunteered for the perilous service of
nursing the small-pox patients. Our readers have been already
made aware of the marvellous transformation wrought in that
part of the institution by the ministrations of these noble women.
Everything changed as if by magic under their hands, and the
wards were converted, so far as it was possible for human
agency to effect it, into a perfect place of solace for the sick. In
the discharge of this duty Sister Ignatius contracted the disease
in its most malignant form, and from the period she was first
attacked little hope was entertained of her recovery. Her illness
was of a fearful character, as may be understood from the fact
that she passed six days and nights without sleep, before the
last sad rest came that terminated her mortal agony. These
pangs were borne without a murmur. Suffering seemed only to
educe the noblest spirit of resignation. Sick and dying, she was
borne up by the consolations of religion, and at last meekly
committed her pure spirit to the hands of the Maker whom she
had so devotedly and unflinchingly served. 1
In such a case as the above, or again where a colony
is sent out to form a new convent in another town, such,
for instance, as the Convent of Bermondsey, which, as
we have seen, is a filiation of the Cork house, the num-
bers are, in time, filled up by Sisters newly joining
a community of at least forty being required for the
various and heavy labours of the Sisters of Saint Marie's
of the Isle.
From the same convent, the Sisters regularly visit the
County Jail. Here they meet with some women deeply
sunk in crime, apparently hardened against all religious
impressions, others who are for the first time incarcerated,
and others, of a tender age, who are fitter subjects for a
Eeformatory or an Industrial School girls committed
for some comparatively trivial offence, and running a
serious risk of contamination by being sent to a prison.
On the good resulting from the visits of the Sisters to
these several classes, it is unnecessary to enlarge. In
the few rare cases, in which executions for capital
offences have taken place in this prison, the Sisters
1 From the 'Cork Examiner' of May 22, 1872.
280 TERRA INCOG1OTA.
have been unremitting in their daily visits to the con-
demned cell, up to the last fatal moment ; and the clergy
and prison officials can bear honourable testimony to
the success of their charitable labours, in bringing the
unhappy criminals to a true sense of repentance, and
teaching them to meet their fate with edifying senti-
ments of devotion and submission to the will of God.
The Mercy Hospital, formerly the Mansion House, a
short distance from the convent, engages the undi-
vided attention of five Sisters, who permanently reside
within its walls. Here, it is needless to observe, the
patients are admirably attended to, and enjoy the ad-
vantages which are to be found in all similar institu-
tions, administered by religious communities. A useful
portion of the hospital are the pay wards, in which those
who wish to be private are accommodated in rooms
apart from the general patients, on payment of a small
weekly sum. By shop assistants, and other respectable
young men or women at a distance from their families,
these wards are most gladly availed of. The Mercy Hos-
pital enjoys the advantage of the gratuitous services of
eminent physicians and surgeons, who attend every day.
Other Sisters conduct the poor-schools that of Saint
Joseph, close to the convent, where about 400 girls are
educated, and that of the North Abbey, called Saint
Mary's of the Rock, at the other end of the city, number-
ing 350 pupils. They also conduct a pension day-school
at the convent, for children of the middle class, residing
in their neighbourhood, at a very moderate charge.
Their House of Mercy, essentially a special work of
the congregation, adjoins the convent, but is quite dis-
tinct from it. The object of this institution is the pro-
tection of ' poor young women of good character.' The
end is attained in two ways either by admitting and
training them in the House of Mercy, or by instructing
and providing for those, as externs, who are not so ad-
mitted. The House of Mercy, being specially designed
for the protection of young girls of good character, no
SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLE. 281
one is admitted, without previous investigation and suit-
able testimonials or recommendations. Penitentiaries
are never attached to convents, where a House of Mercy
is established. Each young woman, on entrance, is
examined in Christian doctrine by the Sister in charge,
and receives all necessary instruction. All are taught
reading, writing, and making up accounts correctly, and
are regularly exercised in plain needlework and laundry-
work. It is prescribed by the Kule, that the young
women should be employed in laborious and menial
offices, in order that they may be ' trained to service ; '
and for this charitable object alone are the Sisters
allowed to employ them in domestic duties, not as
servants, but as pupils learning the best and most econo-
mical manner of doing the work, in which they will be
hereafter engaged. Always, due regard is had to their
strength and health, on which their future so much
depends.
The Rule enjoins that the young women shall not be
encouraged to ' remain long in the House of Mercy.'
It is therefore customary that, as soon as any one of
them is sufficiently trained, a suitable situation is pro-
vided for her, and she is required to accept it. The
Sisters are most particular in seeing that the girls are
placed only in exemplary well-conducted families ; and
they continue to inquire about, and look after them,
from time to time. Should they require it, they are
again received into the House of Mercy, the Sisters of
course satisfying themselves that they have not lightly
abandoned or lost their employment. In all cases, the
girls are provided with a respectable outfit when leaving
the house for a situation.
The House of Mercy at Saint Marie's of the Isle
accommodates thirty young women. It is always full.
The good resulting from such an institution in a large
city is so obvious as to require no comment.
In the Female Orphanage, close to the convent, there
are ninety children, under the care of the Sisters. Of
282 TERRA INCOGNITA.
these there are fifty sent in by the committee of the
Saint Patrick's Male and Female Orphan Asylum, who
allow the nuns eight pounds a year, per head, for their
food and clothing ; and the remaining forty are of the
Sisters' own adoption. It would be difficult to meet an
equal number of little girls of their class, so neatly and
comfortably clad, and appearing so healthy and happy.
Entering the refectory, a large, lofty, well-ventilated
room, we find them all at dinner. Around a long table
in the centre are the more grown girls, who have been
served with excellent meat ; and, along tables, against
the walls, at the top and sides of the room, are the
younger children, who are partaking of soup. Immedi-
ately on seeing us, they stand up in their places, as a
mark of respect to the visitors, as well as to the Reverend
Mother Superior and the Mother Assistant, by whom
we are accompanied. We beg of the nun in charge
that they will dispense with ceremony and continue
their meal ; and as we move through the room, and
leisurely make our observations, and hear the histories
of several of these little ones, related by the Sisters with
so much of affectionate interest, and as we read in these
upturned, happy, innocent faces, their love for their kind
mistresses, as each is spoken to, we cannot but venerate
those, who have thus become their second mothers, ami
so admirably supply for the want of their parents
according to nature, at the same time that we rejoice at
beholding, under circumstances so favourable, one of the
most beautiful phases of ' Christianity in action/
What charity can excel, in interest or in its blessed
results, the adoption and care of female orphans ? To
the Christian matron what object on earth so dear,
so absorbing, as her infant daughter that delicate,
fragile flower, which it is her solemn duty, as it is her
delight, to rear, and protect, and shelter from every rude
contact, from every malign influence ? The utter help-
lessness of infancy, as if so ordained by Providence,
deeply touches the parent's heart. No night-watchings
SAINT MARIE'S OF THE ISLE. 283
in time of sickness, no fatigue, no self-sacrifice is spared
no expense, no exertions are deemed too great.' And,
as reason dawns, and the child recognizes her parent,
the complete reliance, the total dependence of the little
prattler on her mother, to whom she turns, as to an
omnipotent being, in every moment of want or suffering,
endears her still more and more. As years move on,
what time and thought and labour are bestowed on a
trust so precious ! The physical and moral culture, the
intellectual development, the religious training of the
girl, all are most studiously consulted ; and she is jeal-
ously guarded from aught that could shock her sensibi-
lities, or tarnish her stainless mind. Let us contrast all
this with the condition of .the poor little orphan girl,
without home or friends, in cold and hunger, ragged and
barefooted, exposed to the countless ills, physical and
moral, that inevitably result from ignorance and want.
This side of the picture is enough to make us tremble ;
but it enables us fully to appreciate the value of the
home, prepared for these poor friendless little ones, by
the Sisters of Saint Marie's of the Isle.
We have seen that there are ninety children in this
Orphanage ; but the Sisters would be only too happy to
take charge of as many more, had they the requisite
funds to make an addition to the building, and provide
support for the increased numbers.
From the refectory, we pass to the spacious, well-ven-
tilated dormitories, in which the long double row of
neat, comfortable little beds show how well the children
are taken care of. In the Infirmary, we find two
patients one a little girl of five, and one of about
seven. The sight of these sick children is touching.
In health, the want of a mother is a sad privation to a
child of tender years. What must it be in time of sick-
ness ? But here that want is as fully supplied as it is
possible for devoted care and pious solicitude, springing
from the noblest of motives, to supply it.
The Sisters dine at four, after which there is recrea-
284 ^. TERRA INCOGNITA.
tion, for three-quarters of an hour ; and then they
resumentheir labours and devotions. At half-past seven,
they haVe supper, and, after that, there is an hour and
a quarter's recreation in the community room. Here,
those who have been all day dispersed in their various
avocations of charity are now re-uiiited. And what a
happy gathering it is ! They enjoy their recreation all
the more for the long-continued hard work by which it
has been preceded. How these evening re-unions are
valued by the nuns ! We may well imagine how
thoroughly they unbend after their day of useful labour
their many hours of devoted charity in the service of
the poor, the ignorant, the sick, and the afflicted, the
education of youth, and the care of the orphan. Theirs
is indeed true happiness. What a day they have to
look back on not in a spirit of pride or self-complac-
ency, but in a satisfied sense of having done their duty !
We read of a Roman Emperor, who, if he had performed
no good action during the day then drawing to a close,
used to exclaim, ' My friends, I have lost a day 1 '
Whatever their own humility may suggest, all those
who know them must arrive at the conclusion, that these
words can never be appropriately uttered by the Sisters
of Saint Marie's of the Isle.
( 285 )
f
CHAPTER XXV.
. THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE.
'TiB Education forms the common mind,
* Even as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.
POPE.
THIS excellent institute, introduced into England in the
year 1847, numbers thirty-five communities, who are
engaged in educating children, and visiting the poor
and infirm. It is productive of much good ; and the
following account of its origin, progress, and objects
will, I have no doubt, prove interesting to my readers.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of Saint
Paul the Apostle was founded in 1704, by Monsieur
Louis Chauvet, cure 7 of Leveville-la-Chenard, a village
in the department Eure et Loire, in France. Made-
moiselle Marie- Anne de Tilly, daughter of the Count
Louis de Tilly, lord of Villagat, and Mademoiselle du
Tronchay, daughter of the Count du Tronchay, lord of
Alaines, were the first ladies associated in the pious
work. They were shortly joined by three daughters of
farmers, on their own estates, received without dowry.
Their first schoolroom was the cellar of the good
cure's house ; their first scholars, the poor children of
this poor parish. In a short time, however, they were
able to purchase a house, opposite the presbytery. This
house had belonged to a sabotier, or wooden-shoe maker,
and, hence, for some time, the Sisters were known by the
name of Les Sceurs Sabotieres. They carried on their
work in this house until 1708, when they removed to
the city of Chartres. But, in the meantime, their found-
286 % TERRA INCOGNITA.
ress Mademoiselle de Tilly died ; so that it was Made-
moisellfe du Tronchay who was the first Mother Superior
at Chartres. The removal was effected at the desire of
the Bishop of Chartres, who wished to have the congre-
gation established in his episcopal city. They took pos-
session there of the ancient, convent of Saint Maurice,
which continued to be the mother house until the great
Revolution.
The Revolution swept away the Congregation of the
Sisters of Saint Paul, together with every other pious
institution in France. The Mother Superior was im-
prisoned ; the Sisters were dispersed ; their houses and
property confiscated ; and their archives, with all docu-
ments regarding their previous history, destroyed. The
congregation was restored by Napoleon I., for the sake,
principally, of his military hospitals. He gave it the
ancient monastery of the Jacobins at Chartres, as the
Convent of Saint Maurice had been sold and converted
to other purposes. For this reason, a third name has
been given to the Sisters at Chartres, that of Les Saeurs
de Saint Jacques. They have had to rebuild the greater
portion of the convent, which is now large and commo-
dious ; as the immense development of the congregation
requires.
At the present time, the Sisters of Saint Paul have
over two hundred and fifty houses in France, and several
in the French West Indies. They are also established
at Hong-Kong and Shanghai, and at Saigon, in Cochin
China.
The English branch of the congregation, which is
now an independent one, like that in Alsace, was estab-
lished in 1847. Two Sisters came from France, arriving
at Banbury on June 26 of that year, to make the foun-
dation. The letter inviting them to England was ad-
dressed to the Bishop of Chartres by the late Cardinal
"Wiseman, who was, at the time, coadjutor bishop to
Doctor Walsh, Vicar Apostolic of the central district of
England.
THE SISTERS OF SAINT PAUL. 287
Like the parent congregation, the English branch
began its labours in the presbytery of a country mis-
sion ; and the first who joined it was a dowerless girl.
A little later, two more Sisters were sent from Chartres,
to assist the young community. One of these passed
from Banbury to Hong- Kong, where she was employed,
for many years, with other Sisters, in saving and edu-
cating Chinese children, inhumanly left to perish by the
road-sides.
The Sisters occupied the presbytery at Banbury for
three years, when, by assistance afforded from the
mother house at Chartres, they were able to purchase a
house close by, which had formerly been part of the
hospital of Saint John the Baptist, one of the minor
religious houses suppressed by Henry VIII. This
continued to be the mother house until Michaelmas
1864, when the congregation, having completed the
purchase of a gentleman's mansion and grounds at
Selley Oak, about three miles from Birmingham, trans-
ferred its centre to this house, giving it the name of
Saint Paul's.
The house at Banbury is now a boarding school, con-
ducted by the Sisters, who have altogether thirty-five
convents in various towns and villages in England. The
number of Sisters, including postulants and novices,
amounts to two hundred ; and there are upwards of
twelve thousand children in their schools. They have
a female orphanage at Radford, near Enstone, Oxford-
shire, certified for Workhouse children ; and also they
have the care of the Hospice for pilgrims at Saint
Winifred's, Holywell. Twenty-four Sisters have died
since the establishment of the congregation in England.
At first the Sisters of Saint Paul in England were
employed almost exclusively in teaching; but lately,
because of the increase in their numbers, they have
been able to undertake the visiting of the poor and the
care of the sick in several towns, as well as night schools,
for teaching girls to cut out and sew, and other domestic
288 TERRA INCOGNITA.
duties. Moreover, the congregation embraces every
other species of works of mercy in its objects.
In France, it is actually engaged in all kinds of chari-
table works. There, the Sisters are charged with the
care of schools, hospitals, asylums for the aged, the
blind, and lunatics, orphanages, creches, and dispen-
saries of food and medicine, as well as the duty of
visiting the sick in their own homes. If hitherto the
Sisters in England have not undertaken all these func-
tions, it is only because the work of education has
absorbed their chief resources, and because, moreover,
no one possessing the means has invited them to carry
out, to the full, the aims of their institute.
The following is a list of the Convents of the Sisters
of Saint Paul, in England, with the schools attached
to each, and the number of children being educated
therein :
No. of
Children.
1. St. Paul's, Selley Oak, the Mother House ;
two day schools, . . .38
2. Birmingham ;
St. Chad's, four day schools, one night
school, .... 1,582
St John's, two day schools, one night
school, . . . 795
3. St. Joseph's, Nechell's Green, Birmingham ;
three day schools, . . . 543
4. Banbury ; three day schools, one boarding
school, . . ... 229
5. Dudley ; three day schools, . . 310
6. Leamington; two day schools, . 117
7. Radford ; Orphanage, and day school, . 23
8. Smethwick; day school, . . . 134
9. Stourbridge ; four day schools, , . 297
10. Worcester; two day schools, . . 199
11. Thorndon; two day schools, . . 69
12. Bradford, St. Patrick's ; two day schools, . 1,211
THE SISTERS OF SAINT PAUL.
289
No. of
13. Leeds, St. Anne's; three day schools ^QQ
14. Leeds, St. Patrick's ; two day schools 447
Ifi w i 'fi \T d f y Sch ls ' one ni S ht scn "ool, 315
16. Wakefield; three day schools, S
17. Canipden ; day school -
II: Croo^ S^ 9**!* ' f da >' seh 's. ' 704
on IT- ~ ~*v scnools, . '-{QO
20. Kendall; two day schools, . on
21. Maryport; two day schools o<M
22. Stockton-on-Tees ; three day schools, 471
I A ^ Vhltel L aven J thr ee day schools, 549
24. Great Crosby; three day schools, one ni^hi
2o. Garstang; two day schools, .
26. Ramhill; two day schools, . ' ?2*
27. Southport, with Little Ireland; four day
Q/n/%r\la nv^/^"U^ 1* i , *
* r" . AA^j.axiu, iUUl ClUy
schools, and boarding school, . 040
28. Woolton ; two day schooll oS
29. Danesfield; day school,
30. Great Marlow; three day schools, .'
01. Glossop; boarding school, and four day
schools, J qi o
32. Hadfield; two day schools ' 1J7
33. Brownedge ; two day schools, 283
30. Great Marlow ; three dly schools, .' 10
31. Glossop ; boarding school, and four day
schools, J qi o
32. Hadfield; two day schools ' 1J7
33. Brownedge ; two day schools, Q83
34. Holywell ; boarding school, and day school,' 173
& York, Saint Wilfrid's ; two day schools 112
12,450
(290)
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SISTERS OF NOTRE-DAME.
In large populous places I know of no community so well qualified
to promote education as the Siatera of Notre-Dame. Mr STOKES, 11, r
Majuty't Intpector of School*.
THE history of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre-
Dame derives much interest from the fact of its great
success in the education of girls and the training of
school-mistresses in England, as testified, in the follow-
ing flattering terms, by Her Majesty's Inspector, under
the Education Department of the Privy Council :
The most prominent position among religious communities of
teachers is occupied by the Sisters of Notre-Dame. They con-
duct the training college and practising school in Mount Pleasant,
Liverpool, as well as nine of the largest girls' and infants' schools
iu the same town, viz. : St. Anne's, St. Anthony's, St. Alban'r
St. Austin's, St. Mary's, St. Nicholas's, St. Peter's, St. Helen'i
and St. Thomas's and St. William's ; in Manchester they t
the two schools of St. Chad and St. William ; in Wigan the tl
schools of St John, St. Patrick, and St. Joseph ; in Blackt
all the four schools ; iu St. Helen's all the four schools ;
they have lately taken charge of the mixed school at Birkdale.
The largest number of students for training have issued from
their pupil-teachers. Like other active associations of religious
women, this community is of comparatively recent origin, dating
from the first French Revolution. Its mother house is at Namur,
in Belgium, and it forms a complete and united organisation,
under a superior-general, who regulates the affairs of the various
foundations, and removes members from one to another of them
as circumstances appear to recommend. Christian education is
the sole object of this Sisterhood, and primarily the education
of the poor ; but in order to lighten the burden of maintaining
poor schools they are accustomed to open pay schools for the
middle classes, and they have established a few boarding schools.
THE SISTERS OF NOTRE-DAME. 291
the
r th g e
boys of ieulr years Lto their school 7 ^ $ ect to receive
to take charge of infants' schools of f^ ?* hej are enabled
as of girls' schools. Within the rnm the , ordln f r y tJTe, as well
among the Sisters; al hoVeyJ ^ T" { n dlstincti n e 8ta
In large populous P 7 ' are n au
lined to p^ote
sixteenth year, she entered on a protracted
292 TERRA INCOGNITA.
ordeal of suffering. She saw her parents reduced to
poverty, and she was herself afflicted by maladies,
which, for over thirty years, made her a martyr. Her
fervent piety and conformity to the will of God sus-
tained her under these crosses. By no human motives,
could such fortitude have been supplied. Latterly, she
had completely lost the use of her limbs ; and thus she
spent twenty-two years on a couch of pain, being unable
to walk one step. Monsieur Dangicourt gave her the
Holy Communion frequently, and the pious invalid
passed her time in intimate union with her Creator.
The good priest sent some ladies of his congregation to
visit her, for their edification, as well as her comfort.
But, on the outburst of the Revolution, every consola-
tion was withdrawn ; priest and noble ladies had to fly ;
and Julie had to bear alone the weight of her sufferings.
Even she was insecure: her maladies and lowly con-
dition were no protection. After a short time, the
reputation of her sanctity rendered her an object of
suspicion to the revolutionists, and they sought her
humble dwelling for the purpose of reviling and insult-
ing her, if not of taking her life. However, through
the intervention of some friends, she escaped the danger,
passing through the midst of the bloodthirsty crowd,
hidden in the bottom of a cart.
This was in 1794. One of the ladies who had known
Julie had taken refuge at Amiens, and she invited her
pious friend to share her residence at the Hotel 151 in.
This lady was Marie-Louise-Fran<joise, Viscountess Bliu
de Bourdon, born on March 8, 1756. Her father was
Pierre-Louis de Blin, Lord of Bourdon, and her mother
was daughter of the Baron de Fouquesolle.
Franchise Blin, who was also destined for great things,
had been tried by affliction. She and her family ha.l
been imprisoned, as ' aristocrats/ and had only escaped
death by the fall of Robespierre. Convinced of tin- un-
certainty of human hopes and the vanity of human
wishes, she resolved to devote herself entirely to prayer
THE SISTERS OF NOTRE-DAME. 293
and good works. As soon as Julie arrived at the Hotel
Blin, Franchise became her constant companion, and a
holy friendship sprung up between them. Several
young ladies, some of them members of noble families,
joined them, and engaged in their practices of piety and
charity chiefly the education of poor girls. They met
regularly around the couch of Julie, giving her the title
of ' Mother,' and respectfully receiving her instructions.
In a little time, they were all compelled to flee from the
revolutionists, and betook themselves to Bethancourt, a
chateau which belonged to one of their number. Here
they laboured assiduously in the instruction of the
surrounding peasantry, plunged by the misfortunes of
the times in the grossest ignorance. Mere Julie and
her companions took the charge of preparing persons of
their sex for the sacraments; and also taught them to
read, write, and knit. Soon, the whole face of the village
was changed, and God blessed the first labours of the
little association with signal success.
In 1803 they were able to return to Amiens, and
there they continued their good work. For many a
weary year, now, had Mere Julie, a suffering invalid,
directed their pious labours with untiring zeal and
admirable discretion. In the month of June 1804, she
offered up a novena, or nine clays' devotion, to beg of
God to restore her health, in order that she might labour
more effectually in His service. The prayer of faith
prevailed, and God was pleased to raise her up from
the couch, on which she had helplessly lain so long.
For the twelve years that she survived, she was able
to travel about, and to found several houses of her
institute.
It was on October 15, 1805, that Mere Julie, Mere
Blin, and two of their first companions, bound themselves
by vow to the work to which God had called them ;
and this may be taken as the date of the establishment
of the congregation. Erelong, the increasing numbers of
the community, and the requirements of school accoiu-
294 TERRA INCOGNITA.
inodation, obliged them to remove to a more commodious
house in Amiens. When the new schools were ready,
one of their first boarders, known afterwards as Sister
Bernardine, went through the streets ringing a small
bell, and was soon surrounded by a crowd of little girls,
to whom she said 'This is to let you know, that the
Sisters of Notre-Dame have just opened free schools
for little girls. Go, tell that to your parents.' The
next day, between sixty and seventy poor children
presented themselves, and were gladly welcomed by
the Sisters.
In 1806, Mere Julie established a house of her con-
gregation in Ghent, and, the following year, one in
Namur, at the earnest desire of the respective bishops.
Mere Blin was appointed first superioress of the house
at Namur. This has been for many years the mother
house of the institute, the community of Amiens having
been transferred here. The foundress died on April s,
1816 ; and Mere Blin was unanimously elected her
successor, as superioress-general. She established
several houses in Belgium, and died in 1838. Her
successor Madame Th6rse Goethals de Courtrai opened
up a new field for the labours of the congregation, hav-
ing sent a colony of eight Sisters from Namur to Cin-
cinnati in 1840.
There are now forty houses of the congregation in
Belgium ; eighteen in America, including one established
in the Rocky Mountains for the instruction of tl:
Indian tribes ; and seventeen in England. It was in-
troduced into England in November 1845.
At the request of all the Belgian bishops, the congre-
gation of the Sisters of Notre-Dame was approved of
and confirmed by Pope Gregory XVI. on June 28, 1844.
Besides the gratuitous education of the poor,
Sisters labour most successfully in different parts
England in the education of young ladies. 1
1 See Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
THE SISTERS OF NOTRE-DAME. 295
In another chapter l will be found an account of their
training college for school-mistresses, which is highly
commended by Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools,
under the Education Department of the Privy Council.
1 Chapter XXXIV., Convent Elementary and Training Schools in
England.
(296)
CHAPTER XXVII.
SISTERS OF THE INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIEGIN MARY.
Ave Maria ! Mother blesa'd !
To whom, caressing and caress'd,
Clings the Eternal Child ;
Favoured beyond archangel's dream,
When first on thee, with tenderest gleam,
The new-born Saviour smiled.
KKBLK.
THE Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary is entirely of
English origin. In the early part of the seventeenth
century, a number of English Catholic ladies, fleeing
from religious persecution at home, settled in Germany,
where they were cordially received, and protected by
the Dukes of Bavaria, especially Maximilian the Great.
About the year 1631, they formed themselves into a
religious community at Munich, aiming at the sancti-
tication of their souls, and devoting themselves to the
instruction and education of young girls. 1
The edifying lives of the ' English Virgins,' as they
were commonly called in their adopted country, and the
services they rendered to religion, attracted the attention
of many bishops, who protected and encouraged them,
and applied to Home for the approbation of their Rule.
This request was not refused ; but, owing to the weighty
affairs that then occupied the Holy See, compliance
1 Some writers erroneously state that Mrs Mary Ward was the
foundress. So far is this from being the case, that Mrs Ward never
hud any connection with the Institute. Several ladies united to found
it. Consequently, no one person, in particular, can be named as
foundress.
INSTITUTE OF TUTS, BLESSED VIRGIN MART. 297
with it was delayed until the year 1703. Meanwhile, tho
Religious were allowed to found other houses.
The desolate condition of the Catholics in England,
after the Eeformation, is well known ; and was not
unheeded by the English refugees. Amid the spiritual
blessings which they enjoyed, the hearts of the exiles
turned to England, and longed to devote themselves to
the service of the Faith in their native land. Existing
records prove that Catherine of Braganza, Queen of
Charles II., encouraged, and perhaps invited, the first
colony that came over.
It was in the year 1669 that Mrs Francis Bedingfeld,
daughter of Francis Bedingfeld, Esq., of Bediugfelcl in
Suffolk, was selected for the perilous mission of found-
ing a convent in England. She was one of the first
members of the Institute, and filled the office of
Superioress in the mother house at Munich, at the time
of her new appointment. With a few companions, she
arrived in England, there to pursue her vocation amid
perils and difficulties which it would be scarcely possible
to overstate. Her little colony, established in Saint
Martin's Lane, London, was soon discovered by the pur-
suivants ; the foundress was arrested, and released only
through the influence of her family, after receiving a
strict prohibition either to maintain a priest or to carry
on her work of the education of youth. Thus early
convinced of the necessity of caution, she changed her
name to ' Long,' and. with her community, substituted
for the religious habit a matronly dress, which was worn
by the Sisters in England, for one hundred and twenty
years.
Mrs Bedingfeld, after this, removed her 1 community
from Saint Martin's Lane to Hammersmith, and, ten
years later, at the urgent solicitations of the Catholic
nobility and gentry, proceeded to the North, to found a
convent in Yorkshire. Sir Thomas Gascoigne of Barn-
bow Hall, near Leeds, was the munificent patron of the
projected foundation; his relatives and friends concurred
298 TERRA INCOGNITA.
in the good work ; and, more nuns coming over from
Munich, the first convent of the Institute in the North
was established in a house rented at a place called
Dolebank, near- Ripley, in a delightful locality, about
three miles from Fountains Abbey. This house, which
was inhabited by the nuns as far back as 1677, is still
in existence. The building, however, proving too small,
was abandoned for one at Heworth, which belonged to
the Thwing family. In 1679, the Sisters made another
change, and rented a house in York, in or near Castle-
gate, till 1680, when they moved to the present site,
Micklegate Bar. The house was rented till the year
1686 ; but, after the accession of James II., Mrs Bed-
ingfeld purchased it, not fearing, under a Catholic king,
to sign the legal deeds. She had hitherto divided her
time between her two communities ; but at this period,
leaving Mrs Cecily Cornwallis Superioress at Hammer-
smith, she settled in York, and ranks as the first Mother
Superior of that house, which is thus, through her, in
direct descent from the mother house at Munich.
For a hundred years, the convent in York and the
sister house near London were the only religious com-
munities of women in England: and the members of
the York house especially, by devoting themselves to
the education of the daughters of the Catholic nobility
and gentry, became the objects of bitter persecution.
The Revolution of 1689 gave new force to the Penal
Laws against Catholics ; and serious fears were enter-
tained for the safety of the York community. Nor
were these apprehensions groundless. The convent was
repeatedly searched ; the foundress and her niece were
imprisoned in Ouse- Bridge jail ; and, shortly after their
release, the entire destruction of the house was all but
effected by an infuriated mob. The trials to which the
community was subjected in those stormy times were
numerous and pressing ; but, through all, the protecting
hand of Divine Providence was wonderfully manifested.
Some of the occasions in which the timely aid of Heaven
INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 299
rescued the house from imminent danger are still
annually commemorated by solemn acts of thanksgiving.
Mrs Bedingfeld governed the community till the year
1699, when, being recalled to Munich by the Superioress
General, she left, as her successor in the government of
the York house, her niece, the Eeverend Mother Dorothy
Paston.
Four years later, the approbation of the Sovereign
Pontiff affixed to the Institute the seal of stability.
From among the various petitions which solicited this
approval, two may be selected, as specially interesting
namely, that of the Eight Eeverend Doctor John
Leyburn, Bishop of Adrumetum, and Vicar Apostolic of
the London District, 1 and that of Mary of Modena,
wife of James II., King of England, then in exile in
France :
Petition of the Eight Eeverend John Leyburn, Bishop
of Adrumetum, and Vicar Apostolic of the London
District, to His Holiness Innocent XII., in 1699 :
Most Holy Father, When first I was charged by
your Holiness's predecessor, Innocent XL, of happy
memory, with the cultivation of this English vineyard,
I found two families or communities of noble virgins,
who, having bid adieu to all earthly pomp and aban-
doned all worldly business, had been labouring earnestly,
as they still continue to do, not only for the salvation
of their own souls, but also for that of their neighbours.
For they undertake the care of young girls ; they form
their manners ; and are at great pains to instil into their
tender minds every Christian virtue. There are two such
families or communities in England. One is established
in the city of York ; the other in the neighbourhood of
London, almost under my own eyes. I am able to bear
1 Doctor John Leyburn, titular bishop of Adrumetum, and Vicar
Apostolic of all England, was consecrated September 9th, 1685. On,
the creation of four districts, on 30th January 1688, Doctor Leyburn
was appointed to the London district. He died on 9th Jane 1702.
300 TERRA INCOGNITA.
witness, as I now do, not from the testimony of others
only, but of my own knowledge, to the virtuous lives of
these ladies, and to their assiduity in the instruction of
youth. Moreover, this Institute, by the authority and
with the consent of the Ordinaries, has now, for muny
years, been admitted and established, not in En^lund
ulone, but in other countries, and especially in some of
the principal cities of Germany, to the great benefit of
their neighbours and the good of souls. One thing only,
Most Holy Father, seems, in the eyes of not a few, to
be wanting to the perfection of this pious work ; namely,
that the said Institute, so lauded by several bishops and
welcomed into their dioceses, should by your Holiness
be deemed worthy of approbation and confirmation,
under such religious vows as your Holiness shall con-
sider most suitable. I should not have ventured, Most
Holy Father, to have interfered in this business, hud I
not been well aware that the said ladies had already, by
common consent and with all fitting humility and sub-
mission, petitioned your Holiness for the same favour,
and that they had been so far successful, that, through
your paternal condescension, their petition had been re-
ferred for examination to a congregation of Cardinals.
Nothing, therefore, Most Holy Father, remains for me
but to pray to God, the giver of all good, in the words
and language of the Church, that He would deign, in
this and all things else, so to direct your Holiness, that,
through His grace, you may desire those things that are
pleasing to Him, and perform them with all your
strength, in fine that He may long preserve your
Holiness to rule His Church.
London, 16 October, 1699.
Your Holiness's most humble and devoted servant,
JOHN, Bishop of Adrumetum, V. A.
Petition of the exiled Queen of England, Mary of
Modena, consort of James II., to His Holiness Clement
XL, in 1702 :
INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 301
Most Holy Father, For many years, whilst in England,
so greatly was I edified by the virtues and regular life
of the English ladies, commonly called of Mary, and by
the success of their zeal in the education of young girls,
that I consider myself more than any one else bound to
empower Cardinal Gualtiero to place" before your Holi-
ness, in my name, such reasons as may induce you to
confirm this Institute, especially as I am informed that
petitions on the part of the Elector of Bavaria and the
Bishops of Augsburg and Frisingen have been or are
being forwarded with the like object, viz. to obtain from
your Holiness the approbation of the said Institute.
Keferring your Holiness to what will be more fully
explained by the said Cardinal, I beg your Holiness,
prostrate at your sacred feet, to receive my petition, and
grant me your Apostolic Benediction.
Saint Germain's, 22nd February, 1702.
Your Holiness's
Most obedient daughter,
MARY E.
These petitions resulted in the approbation of the
Institute by Clement XL, in the year 1703. At the
time, it numbered six houses, two in England and four
in Germany, and was presided over by Mrs Babthorpe,
an English lady, who resided in the mother house at
Munich, and whom His Holiness confirmed Superioress
General. This lady collected the constitutions and
rendered other signal services to the congregation. She
died in 1711.
In 1745, through the hostility of Doctor Sterne, a
fresh storm of persecution assailed the community at
York, who received peremptory orders immediately to
quit the house, accompanied by threats that the Penal
Laws would be rigorously enforced against them and
the Catholic nobility and gentry, if they persisted in
educating youth. Nevertheless, they stood their ground ;
the tempest subsided ; and Doctor Sterne was not only
302 TERRA INCOGNITA.
appeased, but became so far their friend as to serve them
in their temporal affairs.
Encouraged by the hospitable reception accorded to
the several religious communities, which took refuge in
England, on the outbreak of the French Revolution" the
sixth Superioress of the York convent, Reverend Mother
Rouby and her nuns ventured to resume the religious
habit ; and, about twenty years later, they assumed re-
ligious names.
Owing to the troubled state of the Continent, and the
difficulty of communication in the early part of this
century, the Holy See sanctioned a change in the con-
stitution of the congregation, by which the convents of
these countries ceased to be governed by the mother house
in Germany, and were placed under local jurisdiction.
The Irish branch is one of much importance. It was
founded in 1821, by Mrs Ball, 1 Mrs Arthur, and Mrs
Therry, who, at the request of Doctor Murray, Catholic
Archbishop of Dublin, came over from York convent for
the purpose. In the course of the following year, the
celebrated convent, Loreto Abbey at Rathfarnam, was
founded. From this the Irish mother house, Mrs
Ball, a lady distinguished alike by her zeal and rare
administrative ability, established fourteen convents in
different parts of Ireland, besides send ing out communi-
ties to India, America, and the Mauritius. 2
The rule is that of Saint Ignatius. The Sisters
are engaged in the education of rich and poor. Their
schools are numerously attended, and admirably con-
ducted.
There are sixteen convents in Ireland, and four in
Great Britain. The particulars of these will be found
in another chapter.
1 Sister of the Right Honourable Justice Ball.
* Mre Ball named all her foundations Loreto Convents. In England
and Germany, this designation is not used ; the name of the congrega-
tion, strictly speaking, being the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Marv
See Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
( 303 )
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS.
They seem destined to become of great service as accomplished
teachers of elementary schools. Mr STOKES, Her Majesty's Inspector
of Schools.
' THE Faithful Companions of Jesus are a teaching order
of French origin, having their head quarters in Paris,'
says Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools. ' In and near
Manchester they conduct several flourishing schools,
viz., Manchester, St. Austin's ; Sal ford, St. John's ; Sal-
ford, St. Peter's ; Salford, Mount Carmel ; and Pendle-
ton. They also teach Liverpool, St. Patrick's ; Birken-
head, St. Mary's ; Preston, St. Austin's ; and Chester,
St. Wedburgh's. It is understood that boarding schools
where girls of the richer classes may obtain a good edu-
cation form their first care ; but they have been induced
by charitable motives to add the charge of schools for
the poor to this special work, and as they confine them-
selves entirely to education, and enjoy the advantage of
being a numerous body under one superior-general, they
seem destined to become of great service as accomplished
teachers of elementary schools.' *
We shall presently see that, besides those reported
on by Mr Stokes, the Sisters have several ' flourishing
schools ' in other districts of England, and some in Ire-
1 Mr Stokes's Report for 1870, of Roman Catholic Schools in North
Western Division of England, in Report of the Committee of Council
on Education, p. 289.
304 TERRA INCOGNITA.
land. Let us first take a glance at the origin, progress,
and present state of their institute. 1
The foundress, Marie-Madeleine- Victoire de Bengy,
descended of a noble family in the province of Berry,
was born on September 22, 1781. Her father, Sylvain-
Charles-Pierre de Bengy, captain in the French army
and knight of the Royal and Military order of Saint
Louis, was equally distinguished by his gallant bearing
as a brave soldier, and his accomplishments and virtues
as a Christian gentleman. Her mother, Marie de Cougny
de la Presle, was a lady of exemplary piety, and devoted
to the education of her family.
Little Victoire gave evidence, at an early age, of that
talent by which she was afterwards distinguished, and
by which, combined with her genuine goodness of heart,
she was able to accomplish so much for God and her
neighbour. 2 On the outbreak of the Revolution, her
parents fled to one of their country seats ; and there
Victoire shared with them a life of comparative poverty
and obscurity. Her education was altogether super-
intended by her mother, who inured her and her other
children to lives of work, and even hardship. This style
of education, we are told, was then common in great
families ; and to it society was indebted for that ' con-
stellation of magnanimous women who, on the ruins of
the Revolution, contributed so much, at the beginning
of this century, to the religious resurrection of France.'
On August 21, 1804, Victoire, then in her twenty-
third year, was married to Antoine-Joseph de Bonnault
d'Houet, eldest son of the Viscount de Bouuault d'Houet,
1 For the particulars up to the year 1865, I am mainly indebted to
M. L'Abbe* F. Martin's Life of the Foundress, Paris, 1865.
* In a letter of Madame de Bengy, written July 6, 1785, when little
Victoire was not quite four years old, we find the following passage :
' Pour ce qui est de la petite fille, elle est parfois mechanic, mais le
plus souvent mignonne. M. de la Riviere pretend qu'elle a plua d'esprit
que nous tons ensemble. Je n'en suis pas jalouse. C'est bien dom-
mage qu'elle ne soit pas un petit garcon, car chez nous autres pauvres
femmea, on ne compte pas 1'esprit pour beaucoup, et on le cultive bien
peu.'
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS.
3Q5
witn him oil his profuse chanties, he replied ' Be rmJ
uneasy, father; I put out my money at Teat interest
1805 V n ! an ' le t ^ WaS f * h rt d On July 1
505 \ictoire became a widow, and, two months after
gave birth to a son. Thenceforward, she dm ted I here If
to the education of this child,
, ae-yv
Eugene de Bonnault, heir to the family honours
'^ the Emire had
hos-
ni, a e tie os-
Spanish T^T W ^ vounded soldiers, native and
Spanish The Imperial Government had applied to the
congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul for Sisters to
o I on, having ed
iron the Revolution, in common with every other
Ti titUt l'- and havin moreovei ' di^MS
its disposable subjects to the Spanish frontier, where
their ministrations were even still more needed could
not supply sufficient numbers. The necessity was Seat
Typhus and other maladies had set in. Then it was
that Madame d'Houet, as we shall henceforward ca 1 her ?
having taken due precautions for the safety of her child
entered on the work of the hospitals, dlu ed as a
peasant woman, and served as an ordinary Se After
some time, she contracted the fever, and was reduced to
the las extremity. A Sister of Charity, who laboured
beside her and to whom she had confided her secret
was also stricken down, and succumbed to the disease
Against all hope, Madame d'Houet recovered
u
306 TERRA INCOGNITA.
For the next ten years, she divided her time between
the care of her son, and works of devotion and charity.
She had long dwelt on and deplored the great want of
educational establishments in the country. The Revo-
lution and the train of wars that had followed, up to the
year 1815, had created a lamentable void in this r.
She felt a strong desire to devote the remainder of her
life to supplying this want. When her son had nearly
completed his fifteenth year, and his education was well
advanced, she resolved, with the full concurrence of her
spiritual director, to enter immediately on the work.
Accordingly, on March 20, 1820, prostrate at the foot
of the altar, she offered her whole being to God, and
consecrated herself entirely to His service, in the educa-
tion of youth. She ever afterwards considered this the
day from which her congregation dates its birth. On
April 20 ensuing, she opened a school in Amiens. She
commenced with two assistants, and a few young girls
sent her as pupils by the Sisters of Charity.
The undertaking was highly approved of by ^Ion-
seigneur de Bombelles, the bishop of Amiens, who,
about the same time, had the gratification of HMMMIT
established in his diocese the congregations of the Sis-
ters of Notre-Dame, and La Sainte Famille, with similar
objects. The good prelate was sensible how much the
well-being of society depends on a truly Christian edu-
cation being imparted to those, who afterwards, as wives
and mothers, must exercise so powerful an influence,
whether for good or ill. Several ladies had jnim.'d
Madame d'Houet, and, with the bishop's sanction
all commenced their novitiate on October 22, 1822.
The name selected by the foundress for her con
tion, ' The Faithful Companions of Jesus, 1 was suggested
by her great devotion to the Holy Family, and the holy
women who attended on Jesus in His journeyings in
Judea, followed Him in His passion, ministered to Him
in His last moments, and witnessed His death on Cal-
vary. She loved to dwell on their services to their Lord
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS. 307
and Master; and slie would have her little community,
at a humble distance, imitate their zeal and devotion in
His service. She used to picture to the Sisters, in
glowing terms, the humble house of Nazareth, the type
and model of every religious community, but especially,
according to her conception, the type and model of this
new congregation. ' Jesus/ she used to say to them,
' should be the general director of this society ; we
ought to have His spirit, His heart, and His name, and
take Mary, who is His mother, to be our Superior and
our Mother. Saint Joseph, the third of the most holy
family that ever existed in the world, the most faithful
companion of Jesus and Mary, should be our introducer
to both one and the other in this life, and the guide,
who, receiving our souls, at the last sigh, will conduct
them to the eternal company of Jesus and Mary in
heaven. 1
The year 1823 saw twenty fervent novices under
the guidance of Madame d'Houet. She now had
assembled over two hundred poor girls in her school.
These little ones, taken from among the poorest, the
most neglected, and the most exposed to temptation,
were taught to read, to write, to work ; and, above all,
they were thoroughly instructed in the truths and pre-
cepts of religion. Their kind benefactress knew how
to attract them by a happy blending of the useful and
agreeable. Interesting tales and innocent amusements
varied their school duties. She and her companions
entered into their views, mingled in their childish
sports, and, becoming once again children themselves,
completely gained the hearts of their little pupils. The
same principle, more or less prevailing in all the educa-
tional orders, is especially characteristic of this institute;
1 These words are literally taken from notes of Madame d'Houet,
| dated precisely at this time, and written apparently with the view of
fixing her ideas and her recollections, for those pious conferences which
she used to hold with her companions. ' Vie de Madame d'Houet,'
' par 1'Abbe" Martin, Paris, 1865, p. 200.
308 TERRA INCOGNITA.
and thus, in all its schools, whether of rich or poor, the
mistresses and the children seem to form one happy
family.
Towards the close of the year 1823, Madame d'Houet
was able to send out her first colony. On November 1,
she arrived at Cliateauroux, with five nuns and two
novices. She was so fortunate as to secure a commodi-
ous building much out of repair, it is true, but with
extensive gardens and grounds, and in every other
respect admirably suited for her purpose. Here she
numbered, in a very short time, no less than live
hundred children in her poor schools ; and her two
schools for young ladies, one for the highest, and one
for the middle classes, were most gladly availed of, and
were frequented by about one hundred and twenty
pupils. These numbers continued to increase ; for, rich
and poor, the children loved their schools. The reason
is thus given : ' Les pauvres petites venaient avec joie,
car Madame d'Houet, a Chateauroux comrae u Amiens,
savait rendre r&ole agr^able.'
One great difficulty experienced in most of our poor
schools, whether denominational or mixed, is the
irregular attendance of children. The principle of
' making the school agreeable,' especially in the case of
girls' schools and infant schools, would do much towards
obviating this difficulty. The ladies of the neighbour-
hood, by regularly visiting the schools, and by interest-
ing themselves in the children here providing a little
feast, here distributing premiums for good attendance,
here again giving clothes, where needed, in deserving
cases might effect much good in this direction. Such
a work, carried on, not by fits and starts, but sti-tulily
and systematically, would, in many an instance, prove
highly beneficial to the children, most gratifying to
their parents, and encouraging to the teachers ; at the
same time that it would tend to bridge over the gulf
that so widely severs the classes of rich and poor, in
modern society.
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS. 309
Evening schools for young women unable to attend
by day, and Sunday classes for religious instruction after
the hours of Divine service, were next opened. Thus,
within twelve months, when Madame d'Houet was able
to return to Amiens, she left her community at Chateau-
roux, assembling around them in their several classes a
total of eight hundred pupils.
It is unnecessary to dwell, in detail, on her other
foundations at Nantes, Sainte-Anne d'Auray in Brit-
tany, Langres, Bourges, Nice, Annecy in Savoy, Carouge
near Geneva, Asti, and Turin all with the high approval
of the bishops, and general rejoicings of the inhabitants.
Extensive poor schools, boarding and day schools for
young ladies, evening schools for adults, Sunday classes
for factory girls and others employed during the week,
and female orphanages, all rapidly grouped themselves
about these several establishments.
In 1826, Madame d'Houet, accompanied by Madame
Legrand, and furnished with letters from the Bishop of
Amiens, visited Borne, with a view to obtaining the
approval of her congregation by the Holy See. They
had an hour's private audience of Leo XII., who received
them with truly paternal kindness, and entered with
deep interest into the subject of their institute, its rule,
and objects. On August 2, that year, His Holiness
addressed a brief to the Bishop of Amiens, approving the
new congregation, and recommending its extension.
This approval was confirmed by Gregory XVI., iu a
brief dated August 5, 1837, on the occasion of a second
journey to Eome, undertaken by the foundress for the
purpose. In the course of the audience, when Madame
d'Houet had occasion to refer to the difficulties and
opposition she had to encounter, the Holy Father re-
minded her and her companion that all the works of
God suffer persecution ; he cited examples thereof, and
then added : ' You have a beautiful name, but you must
bear all its consequences, and, as Companions of Jesus,
suffer with Him. Behold the Church ; she has always
310 TERRA INCOGNITA.
been persecuted ; it is what has constituted her strength
and her glory. So shall it be with you ; but take
courage, and God will bless you.' 1
After the first approval of the congregation in 184'>,
Madame d'Houet was elected Superioress General.
In 1847, on the invitation of the archbishop, Mon-
seigneur Affre, she established a house in Paris, wln-iv,
in the course of a few years, she had several flourishing
convents. She also removed the mother house of th-
congregation to that city.
We now come to the introduction of the institute into
England. On November 10, 1830, Madame d'Houet
and one companion, Julie Guillemet, landed in London.
They bore a letter of introduction to a venerable priest,
Father Nerinkx, who lived at Somerstown, and had
laboured for many years in discharging missionary
duties among the poor Catholics of that district. The
nuns expected to find an isolated priest, living alone
and neglected, in a humble presbytery ; but great
was their surprise, when they were ushered into a tine
establishment, and were surrounded by a crowd of
young girls clad in uniform. They believed it \v;is a
convent; but, on presenting their letters, they were
soon undeceived. These extensive schools, boarding and
day, had been opened, many years before, by a French
emigre priest, the Abbe Carron, who had thus repaid
the noble hospitality which England had extended to
him, and which she is ever ready to extend to the un-
fortunate of other nations. 2 On returning to Fram >.
the good old man had left his schools, a solemn trust,
to Father Nerinkx and his sister. They had now, for a
1 At the present time, when the Church ia oppressed, despoiled, an 1
persecuted, these words of the Holy Father have peculiar interest
* The Abbd Carron, driven into exile by the troubled state of France,
arrived in London in the year 1796, without one shilling in his j^x-k. t.
He settled at Somerstown, and, in the course of time, by his devoted
exertions, succeeded in establishing and supporting two hospitals, nn
orphanage, and a house of providence, besides the schools above de-
scribed. He also expended 4000J. on the building of a church.
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS. 311
considerable time, been conducted by that lady and
eight assistants, and, between boarders and externs,
numbered over two hundred pupils.
As Father Nerinkx and his sister were advancing in
years, and felt that the death of either of them might
be fatal to their schools, they were anxious to get a
religious community to relieve them of their charge.
They had long sought such a community, but hitherto
in vain. Here now was the desired opportunity. They
now felt that they might place the establishment on a
permanent foundation. The house and schools were
in perfect order ; not one shilling was due on them ;
and a very large sum of money had been expended in
repairs and improvements, during the current year.
With the sanction of the bishop, Doctor Bramston, 1 the
whole establishment was handed over to Madame
d'Houet, on November 16 six days after her arrival
one condition being laid down by the prelate that
English should continue to be the language spoken in
the schools. Three more nuns came over immediately ;
and Madame d'Houet, having made all arrangements,
and having appointed Madame Guillemet Mother
Superior, returned to Amiens, taking with her fifteen
English young ladies, to enter the novitiate and qualify
themselves for the work of the London foundation. 2
1 The Right Reverend James Yorke Bramston, bishop of Usula,
Vicar Apostolic of the London district, was consecrated June 29, 1823,
and died July 11, 1836.
2 It is almost unnecessary here to observe that the great majority of
the ladies forming this and the other congregations and orders in these
countries are English and Irish. In the first instance, in making a
foundation of a foreign institute, the two or three religious sent over
by the mother house are necessarily foreigners. But, as the numbers
increase, and new novices are received and professed, our countrywomen
are the subjects selected for our convents ; as they speak the language,
and best know the manners, customs, and dispositions of the people.
In the convents in which there are young ladies' boarding schools,
there are invariably some French and sometimes other foreign nuns ;
and hence *.he pupils of these schools acquire perfect facility in speak-
ing French and other- Continental languages. The majority of the re-
ligious, however, in all cases, are of British or Irish families.
312 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The schools of Somerstown, now for forty-two years
conducted by this community, have been a source of
incalculable good to the neighbourhood. The children
receive a solid English education ; they are trained in
habits of industry; and are thoroughly instructed in
their religion. The boarding schools being at a very low
rate, are a great benefit ; inasmuch as they accommodate
a class not usually so accommodated The terms are
only 16/. a-year, exclusive of clothes and school-books.
Some, who are orphans, are educated free of all expense.
Each pupil is provided with good board and lodging, and
taught those things most suitable for her future position
in life, whether she remain an inmate of her family, or
be engaged in business, or seek her livelihood in employ-
ment. The children are also taught needlework, which is
taken in at the school, and carefully executed. The day
schools are frequented by a large number of poor girls,
who are gratuitously educated.
In 1841, with a view to opening a first-class
boarding school for young ladies, the community pur-
chased Gumley House, a beautiful seat at Islewnrth,
on the left bank of the Thames, nine miles from
London, and commanding a view of Richmond, on
the opposite bank of the river. The site is pecu-
liarly well adapted for the purpose, as the ciitiru
district is remarkable for its salubrious air, healthy
gravelly soil, and excellent water. The new convent
was opened, on March 25 that year, by the Right Rev.
Doctor Griffith, Vicar Apostolic of the London district.
Parents and children all speak in the highest terms
of praise of this excellent school, which now has been
over thirty years in existence. Here, in accordance
with the system of the foundress, the nuns and their
pupils form one happy family circle. Attached to the
convent are schools for the gratuitous education of the
poor children of the neighbourhood.
There are twelve houses of the congregation in Eng-
land, and three in Ireland. The particulars of these
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS. 313
will be found elsewhere. 1 The convent of Laurel Hill,
near Limerick, deserves special notice. It was opened
in 1844-. It is agreeably situated, about a mile below
Limerick, on the left bank of the Shannon, with hand-
somely laid out grounds, sloping down to the river.
Here, there is a first-class boarding school, and also a
day-school, well worthy in every respect to stand side-
by-side with Gumley House.
In our large commercial and manufacturing towns,
the Sisters have now, for many years, been devotedly
and unobtrusively labouring among the poor, with
blessed results. We have seen how Her Majesty's In-
spector of Schools refers to their services in Liver-
pool, Manchester, Salford, Pendleton, Birkenhead, and
Chester. To these we may add Skipton, Preston, and
Exeter, as well as the two London houses above men-
tioned. A Protestant author, already quoted, 2 who has
visited several convents, pronounces them to be ' peren-
nial fountains of good to their respective neighbour-
hoods.' What language can adequately describe the
good they effect in those closely-packed hives of popu-
lation our manufacturing towns ?
Let us walk through an English factory. We behold,
on every side, much to admire, much to astonish us
the wondrous machinery, all but sentient and reasoning ;
the precision of that machinery in motion ; its exqui-
sitely delicate manipulation of the raw material ; the
beautiful fabric produced, in never-ending variety, and
perfect in every, even the minutest, detail; and then the
motive force the giant power of steam, with its rush-
ing breath of flame and tumultuous strength, trained to
readiest obedience, as of a docile child ! But what shall
we say of the human machines ? Pale, haggard, and
jaded, these girls retire, at evening, to a squalid home,
in a densely-inhabited court or alley. We need not
1 Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
2 Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Physician to Her Majesty's House-
hold.
314 TERRA INCOGNITA.
dilate on the sights and sounds that await them there.
We need not moralize on the results of evil associations.
We need not enlarge on the proverb, that one diseased
sheep will affect the whole flock. Let us rath
how such evil influences unfortunately inevitable,
under the circumstances may be counteracted. Let us
visit the evening schools of the good Sisters for the
children cannot attend by day, and a zealous clergy in-
duce them to frequent the evening classes formed for
their benefit. We recognize, among the willing pupils,
several of the girls we have seen in the factory at an
earlier hour. We are agreeably surprised at their close
attention to their studies, after a day of hard toil. Wu
are still more pleased at the kind, nay affectionate, soli-
citude of their teachers.
The good done by such schools is incalculable'. In
our great centres of manufacturing industry, from an
early age, the imperious demands of unceasing toil
absorb our juvenile population. Of these, there is a
large proportion above the age contemplated in the
Factory Acts. How are these poor toilers to know any-
thing of God and His revealed truths, or of their duties
as Christians, except through the medium of the even-
ing school ? Where else can they be furnished with
those pious maxims and precepts, and those safeguards
they so much require, amidst the dangers and pitfalls
with which their humble path through life is strewn t
Debar them from Christian training, deprive them alto-
gether of the influences of religion ; and, forming n
half-savage population in the lowest stratum of society,
they become the victims and the instruments of vice
and crime. ' In large cities/ says one of the nuns, ' the
religious and moral condition of adults is still more de-
plorable than that of the children. These poor girls, the
greater part of them from eighteen to twenty years of
age, or even more, come to us sometimes to the number
of three or four hundred. We instruct them in the
catechism ; we prepare them for sacraments ; we teach
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS. 315
them reading, a little arithmetic, to enable them to keep
accounts, and, above all things, plain- work.' Thus, we t
are informed, has a great change been wrought in the
masses of the working populations of Liverpool and
Manchester. The poor girls themselves are glad to
frequent the schools, and profit by the opportunities
afforded them. The nuns are truly mothers to them,
and are loved by them as mothers.
Some of my readers may imagine that the Sabbath
brings the Sisters repose after their heavy labours of the
week. Such is far from being the case. Sunday is
with them a busy day indeed. There are many women
who need instruction, and, being employed at factory
and other work by day, and engaged in domestic duties
in the evenings, can visit the convent only after religious
worship on Sundays. The instruction of these a
numerous class is not the least useful work in which
the Sisters are employed.
It is not to be supposed that the several functions of
charity here detailed are confined to this one congrega-
tion. They more or less engage the attention of all
communities of religious women in these countries.
The pious foundress of this institute died in Paris, ou
April 5, 1858. The success of her work, under God,
and its great value to her fellow- creatures, will best be
seen and appreciated, in a visit to any of the convents
of her congregation.
(316)
CHAPTER XXIX.
THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR.
'Tie well to train our searching eyes
To wonder, not to mock ;
For the nameless steed may win the prize,
The ' wee' child grow to a giant size,
And the atom found a rock.
ELIZA COOK.
ST. SEKVAN, the suburb of St. Malo in Brittany,
being principally inhabited by a fishing and seafaring
population, is remarkable for the number of its widows.
Thirty-five years ago, M. l'Abb6 Le Pailleur, the cur6
of the parish, feeling for the number of poor people
around him, who had been deprived of their natural
supporters by the treacherous element on which they
gained their hard-earned subsistence, and being more-
over desirous to diminish as far as possible the mendi-
cancy at the church doors, conceived a plan, which to
most people at the time must have appeared anything
but feasible, but of which the great and rapid success
has proved how well founded were the anticipations of
its projector. It was simply, that all these poor people
should be supported by the poor. He spoke on the
subject to two pious young girls of his flock, seamstresses,
Marie Augustine and Marie Therese ; and they rradily
entered into his views. 1 At his suggestion, they com-
menced, by adopting a decent, blind, poor old woman,
with whom they shared their attic, maintaining her by
1 The venerable founder, Pcre Le Pailleur, still lives, M does
Marie Augustine, who is now the Mother Superior General.
THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR. 317
their labour, and treating her with the greatest kindness.
After some time, they were joined by Jeanne Jugan, a
servant woman, aged forty-eight, who contributed not
only her own exertions, but 600 francs, the hard savings
of her life, to the work. She was soon followed by
Fanchon Aubert, who had a large supply of house linen,
some plain furniture, and a small sum of money, to add
to the common stock.
These four good women, who may be regarded as the
founders of what has now grown into a great congrega-
tion, numbering one hundred and forty-five houses, con-
taining two thousand four hundred Sisters, and three
hundred novices, and maintaining more than twenty
thousand aged poor, immediately resolved to extend
their operations. By the credit of Fanchou Aubert,
they were enabled to take a much larger room, in which
they fitted up twelve beds, which were soon occupied by
as many poor old women, who had previously depended
altogether on mendicancy for their subsistence. The
question now arose, how they and their protegees were
to be supported. Their earnings would, in any case,
be altogether insufficient; but even these had ceased,
as all their time was demanded by the necessities of
their helpless charge. To assist the old women in rising
and going to bed, to prepare their food, to keep the room
clean, and perform other offices of charity for them, ab-
sorbed nearly all their time. ' Go on, my dear daughters,'
said the cure, ' the work is God's, and He will bless it :
the charity of the faithful will supply the necessary
means. You must beg from door to door.' Jeanne was
the first to go forth with her basket, into which crusts
of bread, scraps of meat, fish, and small copper coins
were thrown ; and, from that day forth, c the begging
Sisters,' in every country in which they have established
their institute, have been well received by people of
all religious denominations, by whose charity they
are enabled to support, and solace the declining years
of, thousands of decent poor of both sexes, who, but
318 TERRA INCOGNITA.
for them, would starve, or be inmates of our work-
houses.
Although St. Servau was the first house, being estab-
lished in 1840, the mother house is Renues, founded
in 1840. The congregation was approved of by Pius
IX. in 1854. The rule is that of Saint Augustine, with
constitutions adapted to the life of the Sisters.
There are fifteen houses of the Little Sisters in the
United Kingdom thirteen in Great Britain, and two in
Ireland. The list of these will be found elsewhere. 1
If any of my readers chance to be in the neighbour-
hood of Portobello Road/Notting Hill, they will be well
repaid by a visit to the fine establishment of the Little
Sisters of the Poor in that quarter. Here are ninety
men, and one hundred and thirty-five women, all over
sixty, and some indeed having attained a very advanced
age, ministered to and supported by the willing hands
and kindly hearts of the Little Sisters. There art- two
main divisions of the house that of the men, and that
of the women.
In the first, we see a number of comfortably dud,
happy old fellows, in the several rooms, or the exercise
grounds, here a group at cards, with a circle of intent
lookers on ; here a knot of graybeards, gossiping of old
times ; here quiet spectacled readers of the newspapers
or some entertaining book ; here a venerable patriarch,
tottering on the verge of the grave, gently led about to
get a mouthful of the summer air. Several are enjoy-
ing their pipes ; for the Sisters contrive somehow to
keep them supplied with tobacco, in moderate quantity,
and, on their daily quest, are considerately handed, by
good Christians, odd scraps of the soothing weed, for the
comfort of their poor old clients.
It may be well to say here, that all these men are not
of the poorest class. All, no doubt, are now destitute.
But time was, when .some of them held good positions
in society. For, in this uncertain world, positions seern-
1 Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR. 319
ingly impregnable will sometimes have to yield to the
pressure of a great commercial crisis, and as we advance
far into the vale of life, friends and relatives will drop
off beside us, and so it may come to pass that men, who
once seemed secure from the caprice of fortune, will
find themselves alone and penniless in their declining
years.
The women's division is no less interesting than that
of the men. The numbers are half again as many.
Some knit stockings, and otherwise usefully fill up their
time ; some quietly loll in their easy chairs ; all or
nearly all enjoy their dish of chat ; and some few of
them address us. We notice a few extremely aged.
These are looked after by their companions. All appear
to be most comfortably clad.
The kitchen is well worth a visit. Here are the crust
drawers tiroirs a croutes. Some of the broken bread
is laid by in one, as fit only to be thrown into the soup.
In another are stale loaves and pieces of loaves, which
may very well help out the breakfast. The meat too is
carefully sorted, some for soup, every particle of the
nutritious properties being extracted by a powerful
boiler and some for a savoury stew. Choice morsels
too are carefully laid aside here a mutton chop, and
here a portion of a fowl for poor old delicate appetites,
lea leaves, or coffee grounds, ordinarily thrown out, are
thankfully received by the Sisters, and, by an ingenious
process of stewing, made marvellously productive. In
fact, their devices to furnish a feast from slender
materials are well worthy to stand beside the far-famed
expedients of Caleb Balderstone; but there is this
difference, that, in results accomplished, the good nuns
are immeasurably more successful than was the sorely
perplexed chef of Eavenswood.
Everything they receive is turned to account ; and
this, in time, becomes well known throughout the circle
of their rounds, and thrifty housekeepers will say, ' Do
not throw that into the dust bin, it may be useful to the
320 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Little Sisters.' Thus, as we move through the cleanly,
well-ventilated dormitories, we notice the patchwork
quilts in which many a bit and scrap of otherwise use-
less stuff, or cotton, or silk, is utilized by their nimble
fingers. Old clothes too, male and female, are wonder-
fully refreshed, and turned, and remodelled by their
needles.
Occasionally, of a morning, one may chance to see
their cart or van, draw up, modestly on one side, near
one of our great London hotels. One of the two Sisters
on the driving seat descends, and bearing two ample
tin cans under her capacious cloak, disappears within
the hotel portals. She soon re-appears, with a goodly
load of broken victuals, remounts the cart, and they
drive off. Most gratifying it is, that, in the great
capital of this great Protestant country, these excellent
women are so well received and so generously co-operated
with. Yet, they do not always meet with the reception
tlfey deserve. Sometimes it will happen, though ruix-ly,
that they are rudely treated by those with whose per-
quisites their quest appears to interfere ; but such
crosses and contradictions, when they come, are borne
by the Little Sisters in the spirit in which they have
elected this lowly and laborious state of life.
The fare of the Sisters is the same as that of the poor
whose servants they are. They, as well as their clients,
depend altogether on the bits and scraps of their daily
quest.
The visitor to any of their houses will be particularly
struck with the cheerful happy aspect of the community.
One of their leading rules is, that they endeavour always
to surround their poor with an atmosphere of cheerful-
ness.
]t is now several years since the following handsome
testimony to the merits of the institute was borne by a
Protestant witness 1 :
1 ' The London Review. '
THE LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR. 321
We have to speak of an institution, which, for originality,
grandeur of design, and self-sacrificing Christian devotedness,
will bear a comparison with any of the far-famed charities of
wealthy Protestant England. "We allude to the convent of the
Little Sisters of the Poor, of the order of St. Augustine, in Park
Row, Bristol.
If every house of the order performs the same amount of good
as the one we visited in Bristol, it would be difficult to speak too
highly in praise of the institution of the* Little Sisters. 7 In the
convent, we found no fewer than forty patients, men and women,
all aged, and some lamentably infirm, in fact, so decrepit as to
be almost as helpless as new-born infants. Yet with unceasing
patience and kindness are these poor creatures ministered to by
these ladies and we use the word advisedly. In one room we
found two poor women seated, who did not rise to receive the
rev. gentleman who so kindly accompanied us. "We inquired of
one the reason, and found that both were paralyzed. But simply
tending and nursing the poor creatures under their care, by no
means comprises the whole duty of the ' Little Sisters of the
Poor.' They have also to provide them with food. To do this,
they periodically call at certain private houses for broken victuals,
and this Lazarus fare recooked, and well cooked, too, into the
bargain, feeds both the patients and the nineteen sisters conduct-
ing the establishment, proving admirably the truth of the pro-
verb, that the poor might be fed from the waste of the rich. We
were much gratified by hearing that the most liberal contributors
of broken victuals are Protestants, many of whom, on becoming
acquainted with the work of the Sisters, have given with great
liberality. One Protestant, a fishmonger, frequently sends the
whole inmates of the convent a dinner of fish.
It may not be out of place to mention here, that poor
Protestants, as well as Catholics, are admitted to the
several houses, and are perfectly free to practise their
religion as they please.
(322)
CHAPTER XXX.
THE SISTERS OF NAZARETH.
The father's lessons mild the listening boy's ear drinketh ;
The Christmas gifts are piled by mother's hands. None thinketh
Of that poor orphan child.
' Christ, my Saviour dear, no father and no mother
Have I my heart to cheer ; be all to me ; no other
Consoler have I here.'
Cold, cold his small hand grows, he nibs his frozen fingers ;
He shivers in his clothes, and in the white street lingers,
With eyes that will not close.
There cometh with a light, which through the dark street bre.ikcth,
In robes of simple white, another child who speaketh
These sweet words of delight :
' Behold thy Christ in me, again a child's form taking
A little child like thee ; though all are thee forsaking,
By me thou shalt not be.
My word's impartial boon I waft o'er hill and valley ;
I send my aid as soon to this poor wretched alley,
As to yon gay saloon.'
D. F. M'CARTHT.
(From the German of Friedridt, Rwckeri.)
THIS congregation was founded by His Eminence, Car-
dinal Wiseman, at Brook Green, Hammersmith, in the
year 1851. Its objects are, to provide a home for the
aged and infirm poor, of both sexes, and for incurable
children and deserted infants. The Sisters also under-
take to dress the wounds of poor extern patients, api 'ly-
ing to them for the purpose. They now occupy, with
their numerous charge, Nazareth House, King Street^
Hammersmith, a fine building erected for them, between
THE SISTERS OF NAZARETH. 323
the years 1853 and 1857, at a cost of over 40,000. A
considerable portion of this large sum has been contri-
buted by the nuns themselves. Besides the nuns and
novices, there are three hundred inmates 50 aged men,
150 aged women, and 100 children. No woman is ad-
mitted who is not sixty-three years of age ; no man,
who has not seen his seventy- third birthday. No chil-
dren are adopted but those either deserted, or pro-
nounced incurable by the faculty. Of these supposed
incurable children, we are told, several turn out, after
all, to be curable, obtain health and strength, at Nazareth
House, and will, by-and-by, be able to leave the place,
and earn a livelihood for themselves. The institution
has no funds, and accepts no parish pay ; but depends
entirely upon the daily gatherings made by the Sisters,
in food, left-off clothing, and alms. Thus, the Sisters of
Nazareth have the same work to do as the Little Sisters
of the Poor ; and it is scarcely necessary to say, that
they perform it with equal zeal and devotion. The
daily quest is carried on by them in the same manner as
by the others ; and their claims are as readily recog-
nized, and their public services as cordially appreciated,
by the professors of all creeds. The infants' department
is one of peculiar interest. For this they cater, on their
begging rounds ; and the broken toys of more than one
Belgravian nursery thus find their way to the poor little
adopted ones of Nazareth House.
In the chapter immediately preceding this, I have
described the Little Sisters of the Poor and their holy
work, from my own observation. I now quote, from a
leading London Journal, the following graphic account
of the Sisters of Nazareth and their clients, as more
interesting and more effective than any description I
could give.
There are, then, two classes the very old and the very young
that are to be cared for ; and, as will be easily understood,
the individuals in each of these two classes need exceptional care
and tendance. All the service that is needed is performed by the
324 ' TERRA INCOGNITA.
sisters themselves. There are no lay sisters or servants in the
place ; the uuraiug, the cooking, the cleaning, the washing, and all
else that has to be done, no matter how menial the labour may be,
or how repulsive to over-delicate nerves, is performed by highly
educated and gently nurtured ladies. Gentle nurture, a high
standard of education, and refined taste, are made evident to the
visitor at almost every step.
The first room we enter is the old women's workroom. Here
all the old women who are able-bodied, we speak of the able-
bodiedness of women who are more than sixty-three
old, assemble day by day, to occupy themselves with sewing,
knitting, and such other feminine arts as they may be capable of
pursuing. Perhaps the most noticeable feature in the room, as
we step across the threshold, is the prevalence of warm colour.
It comes from the pictures on the walls, from the curtains at
the windows, from the adornments of the image of the Y.n:m
Mary, which stands at one end of the room ; and it comes, quite
as much as from anywhere else, from the dress which the old
women wear, and from the work upon which they are engaged.
****** In all the rooms we have noticed that some of
the women take to reading. Near at hand we find the dispen-
sary, in which the Sisters of Nazareth mix the medicines needed
for the inmates, and also prepare medicines for many of the poor
who live in the low districts outside. 1
The following is indeed a pleasing picture one that
must awaken sympathetic chorda in every parent's
heart.
Songs and laughter, and young children's voices warn me that
I have arrived at another. wing the nursery of Nazareth House.
From the first room pain and sorrow are altogether absent. We
have left black care behind us. Each little one has a toy, a doll
or a picture-book, and we have disturbed them all da
about the ministering Sister, who is telling them a story, or
teaching them a new song. Glad of a fresli excitement, they
swarm round Sister Mary, and put up their little faces to be
kissed. They dance about her, and cling to her black hal>it,
begging her to remain with them and tefl another story ' like
yesterday.' Without any pressing or coaxing, the young child-
voices are soon uplifted in a song or hymn, now warbling
about the joys of Heaven, now saying the Alphabet iu music, and
now laughing over some jingle in which a rascally fox plays the
principal part. And where do these rosy-cheeked little ones
come from, racing about the nursery in their pretty frocks, and
1 The Daily Telegraph, of March 81st, 1869.
THE SISTERS OF NAZARETH. 325
with ribands in their hair 1 Deserted and abandoned, many of
them ; orphans not a few. What would have become of them
left out in the cold or on a doorstep, or alone in an attic with a
dead father and mother ? Who knows ! But now they are safe
in Lullaby-Land, where they will be taught and tended until they
are old enough to be sent out in the world. 1
There is one child-picture not quite so pleasant, however. This
is the nursery of the incurable children, those who can never go
out into the world, or be sent to service ; those who must as
surely go home without much delay as the old folks downstairs.
Many of these look bright and rosy enough, it is true ; but con-
sumption has got hold of some, and others are already half-
destroyed by scrofula. Some are hopeless little cripples, or big-
headed with water on the brain. Fastened to chairs, resting on
pillows in front of the fire, comfortably arranged on mattresses
on the floor, these poor incurable children linger on with as much
happiness as they will ever experience in this life. So tender and
affectionate is their Sister nurse a maiden mother, rocking a
little infant in her arms so soothing and peaceful is the sick
nursery, that .even the weary little ones have heart to sing like
their happier brothers and. sisters upstairs, and voices wherewith
to thank those about them.
But I must not forget the old men happily enjoying themselves
in a wing by themselves, some engaged in a tobacco Parliament
over the fire, and others, more infirm, rolled up cosy and warm
in the little tented and curtained bedsteads. Here is the old
fellow who drives the cart of Nazareth House, and ' really does
not know where he has not been to-day, the Sisters have taken
him such a round;' here I am introduced to the gardener who
helps to grow the flowers for the altars ; here is an octoge-
narian locksmith and a nouogeuarian carpenter, who both make
themselves useful about the house ; here, tucked up in bed, is an.
old Hertfordshire labourer, whose life's ambition was to see
' London Bridge,' but he grew frightened at London, and stopped
short in his journey at Nazareth House, where he is likely to
remain, I fear, until the end of his chapter. I hear no grumbling
or mourning complaints. It is an old man's chorus of blessing on
the Sisters and thanks to the doctor for his medicines all pre-
scribed, by the by, at Nazareth House, by Sister Matilda.
The boys' quarter completes the round of the Land of Lullaby.
Following the rule universally adopted, the children are gathered
about the fire, and are busy to-night rehearsing ' Puss in Boots,'
to be played with great state about Christmas time. 2
1 The Daily Telegraph, Dec. 20, 1873, by Special Reporter.
2 Ibid., Dec. 20, 1873.
326 TERRA INCOGNITA.
I cannot refrain from giving one' extract more ; it is
so full of genuine Christian charity, befitting the holy
season to which it makes allusion. Taken in conjunc-
tion with the evidence above quoted, and coming from
the professors of another creed, it is a handsome and
valuable tribute of respect and admiration, gratuitously
rendered to the good Sisters to whose history this chap-
ter is devoted.
We are nearing a time of peace and good-will eminently dear
to the young and old. We are approaching a season almost
consecrated to youth and age. When the Christmas trees are
lighted and the snapdragon is in full swing, when the arcades
and shops are visited and the youngsters make our hearts in>-rry,
let us not quite forget those other pleasant nurseries down Ham-
mersmith way, or the quiet faces in the incurable ward. When
families long separated are re-united, and old grandfathers sit at
the head of a happy table, let us at least think kindly of the good
Sisters sitting at the bed-side of the old folks quietly passing
away. Many of our hearts will, no doubt, rejoice and be glad ;
exceeding merry and jovial we may be; but the little childn-u at
Hammersmith will be taken to no mother's heart, will receive
no print of father's kiss upon their baby lijw. There are coal-
cellars to fill, and the wolf has to be kept from the door. Those
bins of broken crusts would be exhausted, and the tea-lea
short were it not for the superlative energy of the ministering
angels passing about from house to house. _it is little, no doubt,
we can do. But unto ' the least of these little ones ' we may do
something. Let us give them strength for their Christmas song,
and some slight addition to their poor Christmas cheer. Let us
add our mite to the contributions of the charitable, and one
drop of water only to the refreshing wave which for twenty-three
anxious years has broken upon the shores of Lullaby-Land ! 1
It is well it should be generally known that there is
no restriction of creed in the houses of the Sisters of
Nazareth. There are several Protestant inmates ; and
these practise their own religion freely, and, when sick,
are ministered to by Protestant clergymen.
Sometimes, we are told, the Sisters have their diili-
culties. There are days and weeks, in which their
begging is not quite sufficiently successful ; and then
1 The Daily Telegraph of Dec. 20th, 1873.
THE SISTERS OF NAZARETH. 327
they take to rising very early in the morning, and work
hard for a large tailoring firm. The money thus earned
makes up the deficiency occasioned by a lack of charity
outside. .
Besides the mother house at Hammersmith, there
is a branch house at Southend, Essex, for infirm and
delicate children. There are also houses at Cardiff,
Oxford, Aberdeen, and Northampton.
Should any of my readers visit these houses, they
will be highly gratified. Nazareth House may be seen
by visitors calling between one and four o'clock.
( 328 )
CHAPTER XXXI.
THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHEIID.
The frown and the murmur went round through them .ill,
That one BO unhallowed should tread in that hall ;
And some said the poor would be objects more meet,
For the wealth of the perfumes she showered at His feet.
She marked but her Saviour, she spoke but in sighs ;
She dared not look up to the Heaven of His eyes ;
And the hot tears gushed forth at each heave of her breast,
As her lips to His sandals she throbbingly press'd.
On the cloud after tempests as shineth the bow,
In the glance of the sunbeam as melteth the snow,
He looked on that lost one, her sins were forgiven,
And Mary went forth in the beauty of Heaven.
CALLANAN.
TOWARDS the middle of the seventeenth century, there
lived at Caen in Normandy, a poor hard- working
woman, named Madeleine Larny. Her Sundays and few
spare moments on week-days were devoted to works of
charity. She laboured especially in advising and endea-
vouring to reform those of her own sex, who had lallcn
from virtue. One day, she called on Pere Eudes, a holy
priest and worthy disciple of Cardinal de Berulle, and
expressed to him a wish that her poor exertions shouM
be seconded, and that others should be induced, through
his influence, to join her in a work, by which so much
good might be effected.
Pere Eudes found no difficulty in inducing a few
ladies to devote themselves to this holy enterprise.
After some time, it was considered desirable to estab-
lish a religious congregation for the purpose ; and those
THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 329
\vho were willing to enter it made their novitiate under
the nuns of the Visitation at Caen. The rule of the
Visitation, based on that of Saint Augustine, was
adopted, being slightly modified to meet the special ob-
jects contemplated. The constitutions were drawn up
by Pere Eudes, in 1641 ; and in 1666, twenty-five years
after its establishment, the congregation, called of Our
Lady of Charity, was approved of, and its rules con-
firmed, by Pope Alexander VII.
The work of the congregation, as designed by the
founder, was steadily carried on in Caen and other
cities, until the fatal period of the French Kevolution,
when all the religious orders were dispersed. After
their dispersion, the Sisters of each house, faithful to
their profession, kept their rules as well as they could,
aiming at community-life, by living two or three to-
gether, under the government of their lawful superiors.
This state of affairs continued about twenty years,
when, peace being restored, they were able to resume
their conventual life.
Until the year 1835, the congregation had no gene-
ralate, each house being independent, under its own
Mother Superior, and all being connected only by a
common rule and common objects. In that year, the
Sisters of the convent of Angers applied to Pope Gre-
gory XVI. for permission to form themselves into a
separate congregation, and to elect a Superioress Gene-
ral, to whom all their future foundations should be sub-
ject this, of course, without interfering with any of the
other houses existing at the time. The object was, to
enable them the better to send out colonies, and thus
extend and promote the efficiency of their institute.
His Holiness complied with the request, in an Apos-
tolical brief, issued the same year ; and Sister Marie
de Saint-Euphrasie Pelletier was elected Superioress
General. This lady worthily filled her important office,
having established 110 convents in different countries.
The houses of Aden, Alsteten, and Brooklyn were her
330 TERRA INCOGNITA.
last three foundations. She died on April 24, 1868, in
her seventy-second year. 1
The new congregation was called of the Good Shep-
herd. Its objects, as the name imports, are the con-
version of sinners the seeking and bringing back the
lost sheep to the fold the rescuing and reformation of
women and girls who have fallen, and the protection and
care of those who are in danger of falling, into evil
courses. The nuns observe the law of enclosure, and,
after two years' novitiate, perpetual simple vows ai
taken. In addition to the three vows, of poverty, chastity,
and obedience, the Sisters take a fourth vow, ' to em-
ploy themselves in the instruction of the penitent girls
and women who submit themselves voluntarily, or shall
be forced, by legitimate or competent authority, to sub-
mit themselves, to the guidance of the religious of this
congregation, to be converted and to do penance.'
The congregation of the Nuns of the Good Shepherd
of Angers is now to be found in all parts of the i:l<>br.
Neither distance nor climate appears to deter the >
from their mission of charity. The number of their
convents is 124. These are distributed as follows :
France, 32 ; Italy, 14 ; Belgium, 6 ; Prussia, 5 ; Aus-
tria, 4 ; Bavaria, 2 ; Mayence, 1 ; Westphalia, 1 ; Hol-
land, 1 ; Switzerland, 1 ; England, 7 ; Ireland, 6 ; Scot-
land, 1 ; Canada, 3 ; Australia, 1 ; United States, 17 ;
Chili, 6 ; Lima, 2 ; Quito, 2 ; Bangalore, 1 ; Vellore, 1 ;
Ceylon, 1 ; Malta, 1 ; Algiers, 1 ; Cairo, 1 ; Oran. 1 ;
Constantine, 1 ; Port-Said, 1 ; Suez, 1 ; Aden, 1 ; Kan-
goon, 1. Each successive year adds to the number.
It was iu the year 1840, that Madame Pelletier sent
her first colony to these countries. Two Sisters arrived
in London that year, and were kindly received by the
Bishop, Doctor Griffiths, and temporarily lodged by him
1 Of the original congregation, that of Our Lady of Charity, founded
by Pere Eudes, there are two convents in the United Kingdom
Bartestree and Drumcondra. Further particulars will be found in
Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 331
with the Benedictine nuns at Hammersmith, who gave
them a most cordial welcome. At the time, a convent
at Saint Leonard's-on-the-Sea was just completed, and
was placed at their disposal. After occupying this con-
vent a few months, they decided on leaving it, and re-
turning to London, as their work lies in large cities, and
moreover the transmission of penitents from the capital
to Saint Leonard's was both troublesome and expensive.
Accordingly, they returned to Hammersmith, where they
now have two flourishing houses. There are altogether
fourteen convents of the congregation in the United
Kingdom. 1 Perhaps there is no better proof of the
inherent good of conventual institutions no more un-
mistakable sign of the blessing of Providence attending
them, than their healthy growth and consolidation. In
their humble beginnings and steadily progressive de-
velopment, we have exemplified the parable of the grain
of mustard seed 'the least of all seeds,' which in
time becomes a great tree, extending wide its genial
shade, and enduring for centuries. No less favourable
testimony to their merits is borne by the acceptance
they meet with, and the cordial general support they
receive, from the population in the midst of which they
are established save only where the popular mind has
been warped by misrepresentation and error, as to their
nature and objects. Thus, lately, when the Catholic
Bishop of Cork 2 convened a meeting of his flock, in that
city, for the purpose of providing for the introduction of
the Nuns of the Good Shepherd, he commenced the
proceedings by announcing that he had in hand a sum
of 4,000, given by -some benevolent individuals for the
object; and, at the meeting, 4,000 more were contri-
buted all within an hour. This is only one instance
out of many. They are constantly occurring, and ought
to have great weight, as the best practical tests of the
1 For particulars of convents of the Nuns of the Good Shepherd in
the United Kingdom, see Chapter XXXIII., Statistics of Convents.
2 The Right Reverend William Delaiiy, D.D.
332 TERRA INCOGNITA.
sentiments of the Catholic laity on the Convent ques-
tion a question on which undeniably they are the most
competent to pronounce.
The habit of the Good Shepherd nuns is of white
serge, with a blue cord or cincture ; and their veil is
black. They wear, on the breast, a silver heart, on
which is a figure of Him, whose humble followers they
are, in reclaiming and bringing back the lost sheep to
the fold.
The nuns have three classes of subjects under their
charge :
The Penitentiary class, consisting of fallen women,
inmates of their Magdalen Asylum ;
The Reformatory class, comprising juvenile offenders
against the law, such as are contemplated in the provi-
sions of the Reformatory Schools Acts ;
The Preservation class, which is composed of girls,
who, either from their friendless unprotected state, or
the bad example and evil associations by which they
are surrounded, would, if not rescued, be likely to fall
into vicious courses. This last class is that for which
the Industrial Schools Acts have been framed.
These three classes are kept severally quite distinct,
their houses and exercise grounds being divided by high
walls, and, in fact, as completely separated as if they
were several miles distant from each other. 1
The girls in the schools are taught reading, writing,
and plain work, and are industrially trained, with a
view to their afterwards earning their subsistence as
servants. In another chapter, will be found some
interesting details of the labours of the Sisters in these
schools. The penitents in the asylums are all employed
in useful occupations, chiefly laundry work, the proceeds
of which go towards their support.
After a few years in the Asylum, those penitents who
1 There is a fourth claw that of Female Prisoners which engages
the attention of the Sisters on the Continent, but not yet in these
countries.
THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 333
by their good conduct give evidence of thorough refor-
mation, and are, in other respects, considered suitable,
are enabled to emigrate to America, the Canadas, or
Australia, where female servants are in demand. They
get an outfit ; their passage is paid ; and they are pro-
vided with letters of recommendation to the convents
of the congregation in the places for which they are
bound. Thus, on their arrival, they find friends and
protectors, and, through them, obtain employment, and
so make a fresh start in life.
No doubt, there are several of my readers, who, at
one time or another, have witnessed harrowing scenes,
the result of the want of such an institution to receive
these poor fallen ones, when penitent at heart and
anxious to turn to better courses. Shunned and de-
spised by the world no helping hand is extended
towards them ; no word of encouragement uttered ; no
way is open, out of the abyss of sin and despair.
It may be, on a pleasure party, on a fair spring
morning, when even the London smoke has been lifted,
and carried off by the light April breeze, and the great
city, with its countless miles of houses, extends, in clear
and distinct outline, to the horizon on every side, when
heaven and earth appear harmoniously to blend, invit-
ing all mankind to enjoyment, as we are pleasantly
wafted down the full tide of the busy Thames, our
attention is suddenly arrested we see a crowd at a
particular spot ; a body has been found, and is just
being landed at a wharf. We inquire. It is the body
of a woman no doubt, an unfortunate, who committed
suicide the night before. We see that she was young
apparently not over twenty. We can gather no details
at the moment ; but these are abundantly furnished on
the inquest, held in tha course of the following day.
It is the old story. A young girl, poor and unpro-
tected, becomes the prey of the seducer. Degraded and
deserted, she sinks still deeper, every day, in poverty,
degradation, and despair. Who will help her in this
334 TERRA INCOGNITA.
world ? She has ' not a friend on the face of the earth ! ' l
Dares she look for aid and mercy from on high ? Alas !
there is no kind adviser, to receive her, and give her
food and shelter, and teach her to pray to Him, who
pardoned Magdalen no friendly voice, to suggest the
saving thoughts thus appropriately expressed :
Qui Mar i am absolvisti,
Et latronem exaudisti,
Mi hi quoque spem dedisti.
Despair has seized her soul. Without home, or friends
in hunger, sickness, and sorrow she knows not \\ IHMV
to turn. In the crowded senate for an important
division is expected to-night in the gilded saloons of
the rich and great, lighted up for banquet, ball and
concert in the overflowing theatres, in the endless
variety of places of amusement for all classes the
London season is now in full play, and, in tens of thou-
sands of happy homes all around, grow and flourish those
domestic affections, and domestic virtues, which are
nowhere more carefully cultivated, and nowhere more
beautifully bloom than in happy England. Meanwhile,
the desolate child of poverty and neglect feverishly
paces up and down the drear and lonely bridge. Now,
she stands still and gazes vacantly, as if searching the
dark future. But here she is, as it were, sternly repelled.
A start, a shivering, and a moan and she resumes her
rapid purposeless walk, to and fro. And now, she stands
again, and reverts to the past. Her thoughts are carried
back to her innocent childhood, amidst green fields and
sunny glades. Her father, a farm-labourer, returning
at evening from his day of toil, her mother and brothers
and sisters those loved familiar faces are once more
1 An affecting scene took place, a few years ago, at the Mansion House.
An ' unfortunate ' was arraigned for some petty theft before the Lord
Mayor, when, the case being proved, the Court inquired ' Girl, have
you any witness to call in your defence?' The prisoner, who was
very young, bursting into tears, replied ' Xo, your Lordship : I have
not a friend on the face of the earth ! '
THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD. 335
around her. Their humble cottage, and homely fare,
their honest industry, the Sunday school, and little
country church they regularly frequented, their simple
rustic sports, their summer evening rambles, their un-
eventful happy days all again are realized. She almost
forgets her sorrows in these soothing recollections ; her
heart is deeply stirred ; the fountain of her tears is
opened : when, lo, startled by the rush and shriek of a
passing train, she suddenly wakes up ; the loved scenes
of her childhood vanish like a dream ; the form of her
mother she is about to embrace melts into thin air ; and
once again she stands alone, in her utter desolation.
She now approaches the parapet, and pauses, in a vain
endeavour to collect her thoughts :
Where the lamps quiver,
So far in the river,
With many a light,
From window and casement,
From garret to basement,
She stands in amazement,
Houseless by night.
She mounts the parapet. Is there no charitable hand,
even now no casual passer-by, to arrest her in the fatal
leap ? No one is near. Her reason reels. A moment's
ripple in the sullen tide and all is over !
Had this poor girl been gently taken by the hand,
and led to the Asylum of the Nuns of the Good Shepherd
at Hammersmith, or to any other similar house of refuge,
how different would have been the result ! To each of
these fallen ones in most cases the victims of poverty
and neglect, and far less guilty than those who have
occasioned their fall thoughts of repentance come, at
one time or another ; and it is all-important, that there
should be a home to receive them at such a moment,
and kind friends to teach, and encourage, and aid them
: in their endeavours to lead henceforward exemplary
lives. Such are the objects for which this congregation
was instituted ; such the functions to which the labours
336 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of the sisterhood are unceasingly devoted ; and from
titt lips of the pure and holy daughters of religion the
trords of hope and encouragement are sure to fall with
tenfold effect.
The Sisters, as we have seen, also take charge of
female Reformatory and Industrial schools, as special
objects of their institute. These will be fully treated of
further on.
1 Chapter XXXVI., Reformatory and Industrial Schools.
(337)
CHAPTER XXXII.
THE SISTERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT,
OR SACRAMENTINES.
In cruce latebat sola Deltas ;
At hie simul latet et humanitas.
Ambo tamen credens, atque confitens,
Peto quod petivit latro pcenitens.
Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor :
Deutn tamen rueum te confiteor.
Fac me tibi semper magis credere,
In te spem habere, te diligere.
SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS.
IT is the belief of more than two hundred millions
of Christians, that Jesus Christ, our God and Saviour,
dwells, really and substantially present, in the Blessed
Sacrament ; that, within the tabernacles on our altars,
we have, ever abiding, Him who became incarnate in
the chaste womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was born
in Bethlehem, suffered and died on Calvary, rose the
third day from the dead, ascended in heaven, and will
come again, in power and majesty, to judge mankind ;
and that there He remains, to receive our homage, to
hear our prayers, and to bestow on us His choicest gifts
and graces. A logical consequence of this belief is,
that there should be constantly worshippers before our
altars ; that, notwithstanding our worldly cares and
pressing avocations, we should frequently attend,, to
adore that hidden God, whose delight it is to be with
the children of men ; and that, emulous of the angels,
with whom we hope hereafter to be associated in the
full fruition of the Beatific Vision^ we should here
Y
338 TERRA INCOGNITA.
below begin the work of adoration, by forming a court
of continual worship and devotion around the taber-
nacles where His glory dwells, mysteriously veiled, but
ever present.
Notwithstanding this, outside the times prescribed
by the Church, as of obligation, the great majority of
Catholic Christians do not practically evince their sense
of the Keal Presence, as even a Pagan or a Mahometan
would suppose our faith would insure our doing. Hence
the institution of religious orders and congregations of
women, whose scope is to supply this defect. There are
several such institutes, out of which the following may
be taken, as an illustration of all, especially as it was
the first established.
The Institute of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament
was founded in the year 1639, by the Venerable Peru
Antoine Lequieu, of the Order of Saint Dominic ; and
was approved of by Innocent XL, and confirmed by
Innocent XII. The Dominican Order had already
taken a prominent part in propagating devotion to
the Divine Eucharist. When, in the year 1264, Pope
Urban IV. instituted the festival of Corpus Christi, he
commissioned the illustrious Dominican Doctor, Saint
Thomas Aquinas, to compose the office for that great
feast. That office, with the beautiful hymns, written
for the occasion, have, now for over six centuries, been
recited by the Church. Again, in the year 1539, in the
Church of Maria sopra Minerva in Koine, the first con-
fraternity of the Blessed Sacrament was established by
Father Stella, a Dominican of the province of Venice.
The work thus commenced by his brethren was com-
pleted by Pere Antoine Lequieu, in founding an order
of religious women, whose particular occupation should
be, to adore perpetually, day and night, our God hidden
under the veils of the Most Holy Sacrament.
Antoine Lequieu was born in Paris in the year 1601.
His father, an ' avocat au Parlement,' celebrated for his
eloquence and high character, died at the early age of
SISTERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 339
twenty-six, leaving to his pious widow the care and
education of their infant son. During his childhood
and youth, Antoine was ever serious, modest, respectful,
obedient, silent, and continually occupied in prayer.
From an early age, he habitually united penance to
devotion, fasting severely and leaving his bed, to pass
several hours of the night in pious exercises. He
entered the house of the Dominican Fathers of tho
Annunciation in Paris, in the year 1622, and made
his solemn profession in 1623, giving, during his novi-
tiate, extraordinary edification by his fervour and
austerity. In the course of time, he was appointed
master of novices in Paris, and subsequently he was
sent to fill the same important office at Avignon. Here
he laboured to establish a more austere observance of
the Dominican rule ; and, after having visited Eome
and obtained from the General of the Order letters
patent for the establishment of his Reform, he founded
the first house of his observance, at Lagnes near Avignon,
and, soon after, that of Thor. In 1644, he was elected
Prior of the house of the Annunciation in Paris, but, at
his own request, was allowed to retire from that post in
1650. He then settled at Thor, and from that time up
to the date of his death, in 1676, he occupied himself
continually with the establishment of new houses of
his observance, the foundation of the institute of the
Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, the spiritual training
of his religious and the Sisters, and the conducting of
continual missions in the most abandoned and neglected
towns and villages. Notwithstanding these labours,
he found time to compose several beautiful spiritual
treatises, as well as the Constitutions and Directory of
the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which have all
been recently published.
From an early period of his life, Pere Lequieu had in
contemplation the establishment of an order of religious
women, to be employed in the perpetual adoration of
the Divine Eucharist ; but it was not until the year
340 TERRA INCOGNITA.
1639 that lie was able to cany his wishes into effect.
He commenced in the city of Marseilles, assembling in
a private house a few ladies who were willing to prac-
tise their devotional exercises in common. The work,
at first, met with great difficulties, opposition, and dis-
couragement ; but, in good time, all were surmounted by
the zeal and patience of the holy founder and those
associated under his direction. It was only in the year
1659, twenty years after its institution, that the congre-
gation was definitively established by the Bishop of
Marseilles, under the name of the Sisters of the Blessed
Sacrament ; and, on the 20th of March in the following
year, the first three Sisters made their religious vows,
having obtained permission from the Holy See, along
with the approval of their Constitutions.
In 1693, Pope Innocent XII. issued a brief, erecting
the congregation into a religious order, the Sisters taking
solemn vows, and being bound to perpetual enclosure.
'fheir rule is that of Saint Augustine, with constitu-
tions, added by Pfcre Lequieu, full of piety, wisdom and
prudence, and, in eveiy detail, adapted to the great end
of their institute, the Perpetual Adoration. They are
not prescribed any extraordinary bodily mortification,
but enjoined rather to cultivate austerity of soul, unity
of heart, edifying and fruitful conversation, mutual re-
spect, rigorous poverty of spirit, perpetual care to uproot
faults, simplicity, obedience, and complete detachment
from the world and its affairs.
Their habit is of black serge, with a white scapular,
veil, and cloak ; and they wear over the heart and on
the right arm medals of silver representing the Blessed
Sacrament ; it being the wish of their holy founder that
when they appear before their Divine Spouse, they may
bear, ereu exteriorly, the ornaments which He demands
of His Spouses in the Canticles, where He says, ' Put
me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm.' l
The history of this order and of the vicissitudes and
1 Canticle of Canticles, c. viii., v. 6.
SISTERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 341
trials through which it passed, and over which it even-
tually rose triumphant, will, doubtless, prove interesting
at the present moment, when in several countries re-
ligious orders are so severely suffering from the assaults
of the enemies of religion.
In the year 1725, Sister Rose du Saint Esprit, accom-
panied by two choir-sisters and one extern sister, went
from Marseilles to the little town of Bollene, to make
the first filiation. They arrived on the 15th November,
to the great joy of the inhabitants; and were immediately
joined by five postulants. Shortly after their installa-
tion in their humble little convent, an excellent eccle-
siastic, named Henri Roquard, belonging to a rich and
noble family, became the benefactor, chaplain, and
almost servant of the spouses of the Blessed Sacrament.
After his pious death, his brother, also a priest, continued
the work already commenced, giving up his large and
commodious house to the Sisters, and defraying the
cost of the alterations necessary to adapt it to their use.
When all was prepared, the nuns joyfully abandoned
their dwelling, already too small for their numbers, and,
walking in procession with the Blessed Sacrament, in
order not to interrupt for an instant the Perpetual
Adoration, they took their places in the choir of their
new convent.
In 1793, the French Revolution dispersed the two
convents of Marseilles and Bollene, in common with so
many other religious communities. Many of the Sisters
of Marseilles remained courageously in that town ; and
one, Sceur Sainte Agathe, who had been condemned to
death, was released, on the eve of the day fixed for her
execution, by the death of Robespierre, and thus spared
to labour afterwards at the restoration of her convent.
It does not appear that any of the Sisters of Marseilles
suffered martyrdom in those sad days. Not so the
Sisters of Bollene. On the 2nd May 1794, forty-two
nuns of Bollene and the surrounding country, belonging
to different orders, were sent to Orange, and committed
342 TERllA INCOGNITA.
to prison. There, they prepared themselves for their
great sacrifice, by the practice of all religious virtues,
continued prayer, living in silence, and taking but little
food or repose. At live o'clock in the morning, they
began their pious exercises by an hour of mental prayer ;
they recited the Divine Office in common, and the
prayers of the Holy Mass. At eight o'clock, they re-
assembled for the Litany of the Saints, preparation for
death, confession in general, spiritual communion as
viaticum, the prayers of extreme unction, and the
renewal of their vows of baptism and of holy religion.
At nine o'clock, came the appel ; and each oue prepared
to go before the tribunal with the utmost joy. While
their dear sisters went to appear before the court, those
who remained in the prison gave themselves up to
prayer, to obtain for the sufferers the light of the Holy
Spirit and the courage necessary for such an ordeal.
They begged the succour of the Blessed Virgin, and re-
cited litanies and the prayers on the words of Our Lord
on the Cross, praying without ceasing until five in the
evening, when they said the Office in common. On
hearing the roll of the drum, announcing that the
victims were being conducted to execution, they recited
the prayers for the recommendation of the soul depart-
ing; and at six o'clock, all being over, they congra-
tulated each other, especially the particular community
which had just given its members to Heaven ; and, in
thanksgiving, they recited the psalm Laudate.
It is related that the joy visible upon the countenances
of these holy women after their condemnation encour-
aged the other prisoners to die with constancy and edi-
fying Christian resignation. Of the forty-two victims
destined to die for having refused to take the oath of
' Liberty and Equality/ ten were spared, and thirty-
two suffered. Thirteen of these martyrs were Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament, of the convent of Bollene, where
their names are held in deserved veneration. They were
all put to death between the 5th and the 26th July 1794.
SISTERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 343
No sooner had the Kevolutionary tempest a little
abated than from all parts were to be seen those holy
nuns whom death had spared, reassembling once more to
aid in rebuilding the House of God, from which they
had been driven. The Order of the Blessed Sacrament
was to contribute its share to this providential resur-
rection, and when the nineteenth century dawned upon
France, it began a new life. The convent of Bollene,
supported by the merits of its martyrs, was the first to
rise again, and in 1802, after ten years' interruption, re-
sumed the Perpetual Adoration, and the exercises of the
religious life, under the Eeverend Mere de la Fare, who
had been the Superior in 1792. In 1806, a house was
established at Aix in Provence; and in 1807, one at
Avignon. In 1816, the house of Marseilles was re-
established by three surviving professed religious of the
old convent. This has always been regarded by all the
other houses as the first convent, though without their
being in any way dependent upon it. In 1818 a con-
vent was founded at Carpentras ; and in 1859, one at
Bernay in Normandy.
It was in the year 1863 that the first convent of the
Order of the Blessed Sacrament for the Perpetual Ado-
ration was founded in England. To Bollene, the house
of martyrs, we owe this foundation, and to the pious
zeal and devotion of the Honourable and Right Eeve-
rend Doctor Clifford, Bishop of Clifton, who was anxious
to have a convent of the order in his diocese. Within
the Octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi, that year, the
Reverend Mother Emelie Pellier, accompanied by three
choir sisters and one lay sister, arrived from Bollene for
the purpose. The little community was established, in
the commencement, at Cannington, near Bristol; but,
after a few years, the Sisters removed to Taunton, where
they are at present, and where they have built the first
chapel of their order -dedicated to the Most Holy Sacra-
ment, in these countries.
The order is strictly enclosed, and purely contem-
344 TERRA INCOGNITA.
plative ; and the Sisters here do not, as in their houses
in France, receive young ladies for education, but give
themselves up wholly to the work of Perpetual Adora-
tion, reparation, and intercession ; their great object
being, according to the often repeated instructions of
their holy founder, ' to love God for those who do not
love Him.' Each convent receives associates, who,
while living in the world, may, by being inscribed upon
the register of the house, and taking a certain hour of
adoration, during each year, obtain a share in the
merit of all the good works of the order, and a participa-
tion in many of the spiritual graces granted to it by the
Holy See.
(345)
CHAPTER XXXIII.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS.
Facies non omnibus una,
Nee diversa tamen, qualia decet esse sororuni.
OVID.
I HAVE already given, in detail, an account of the origin,
scope, and special works, of certain orders and congre-
gations of religions women ; and, in doing so, I have
selected those, which may be taken, severally, as types
of the classes to which they belong. Thus, the ancient
orders are fully described in the Benedictines, Car-
melites, Poor Clares, Dominicanesses, and others all
engaged in the education of female youth in these
countries. Then, the various institutes, of which the
main function is the education of poor girls, are fitly
represented in the Presentation Order, the Sisters of
Notre Dame, and the Sisters of Saint Paul ; while those
who are devoted to the training of young ladies, and
preparing them for the important duties they are
destined to fulfil in after-lite, find their type in the
Ursulines, and other orders and congregations which
have been fully described. Again, hospital duties, the
visitation and relief of the sick poor in their own homes,
the care of the orphan, the foundling, the destitute young
girl exposed to temptation in a word, the extensive
range of the works of mercy corporal and spiritual, all
engaging many orders and congregations are fully illus-
trated in the chapters on the Sisters of Charity of Saint
Vincent de Paul, the Irish Sisters of Charity, and the
Sisters of Mercy. Then, the reformation of fallen
346 TERRA INCOGNITA.
women, the preservation of female youth endangered by
poverty, bad example, and evil associations, and the in-
struction and improvement of female prisoners, which
may be designated the special objects of the Nuns of
the Good Shepherd, more or less, enlist the devoted zeal
of other congregations. The same remark applies to the
work of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Sisters
of Nazareth, of the Nuns of Bon Secours, and other
kindred congregations. I now proceed to give the
statistics of all, in a form necessarily brief, but I hope
sufficient for the information of my readers, who will
have perused the illustrative details contained in the
preceding chapters.
, THE BENEDICTINE NUNS.
An account of this ancient order has been already
given. 1 There are eight convents of the order in Kiig-
land. These are, East Bergholt, Suffolk; Stanbrook,
near Worcester; Oulton, near Stone, Staffordshire ; Col-
wich ; Atherstoue ; Teignmouth, South Devon ; Prince-
thorpe, near Rugby ; and Ramsgate. To nearly all these
convents are attached youug ladies' boarding schools, in
which the important work of education is admirably
conducted.
THE CISTEKCIAN NUNS.
This ancient order has been already described. 2 It
has only one community in the United Kingdom, that
of Stapehill, Wimborne, Dorsetshire. There is a poor
school attaclied to the convent.
CANONESSES OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
This order is described in another chapter. 8 It has
one convent in England, that of New Hall, Chelnisford,
1 Chapter V. Page 78. Page 80.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 347
Essex, in which there is a first class boarding school for
young ladies.
CANONESSES OF SAINT AUGUSTINE, OF THE PEEPETUAL
ADOKATION.
A full account of these nuns will be found in another
chapter. 1 They have one convent in the United King-
dom Saint Augustine's Priory, Newton Abbot, Devon.
THE CAEMELITE NUNS.
An account of this ancient order will be found in
Chapter VII. It is a contemplative order ; but several
of the communities .are engaged in the work of educa-
tion. It has sixteen convents in the United Kingdom
five in England, and eleven in Ireland. These are,
North End, Fulham, S.W. ; Darlington ; Chichester ;
Wells ; Llanherne, Cornwall ; New Ross ; Loughrea ;
Blackrock, near Dublin; Delgany; Tallaght, county of
Dublin ; Drumcondra ; Sandymount, with a female
orphanage, and certified Industrial School ; lianelagh ;
Bathmines ; Warrenmount ; and Cork.
THE Poou CLARES.
This ancient order has been already described. 2 It
has twelve convents in the United Kingdom; five in
England, and seven in Ireland. These are, Edmund
Terrace, Netting Hill, W. ; Lawrence Street, York ;
Baddesley, with poor schools ; Darlington, with a board-
ing school ; Alma Park, Levenshulme, Manchester ;
Keady, near Armagh, with day school, and night school
for factory girls ; Harold's Cross, near Dublin, with a
primary school, and female orphanage ; Cavan, with a
certified industrial school ; Ballyjamesduff, near Cavan ;
Newry, with large primary schools ; Galway ; and Ken-
mare, with fine schools, admirably conducted.
1 Page 83. 2 Chapter VIII.
348 TERRA INCOGNITA.
THE FRANCISCAN NUNS.
This order also has been already described. 1 It has
eleven convents in the United Kingdom ten in Great
Britain, and one in Ireland. These are Portobello
Road, Netting Hill, W., with a young ladies' school, ami
Saint Elizabeth's Home for poor girls, who are well in-
structed, and trained as domestic servants, certified for
workhouse children; St Mary's, Mill Hill, N.W., with
a house for training missionary nuns, and a certified
industrial school ; Taunton, with upper and middle-
class boarding schools; Woodchester, with an orphan-
age for girls, and an institute for young women ; lioch-
dale, with poor schools ; Charlotte Street, Glasgow ;
Abercrombie Street, Glasgow, with a certified industrial
school; Aberdeen; Inverness; Greenock ; and Dnim-
shambo, county of Leitrim, with a house in which Indies
who wish to lead a retired devout life are accommodated.
TUB DOMINICAN NUNS.
An account of the two orders of Dominican nuns will
be found in another page. 2 Of their sixteen convents
in the United Kingdom, nine are in England, and seven
in Ireland. These are, Stone in Staffordshire, with a
young ladies' boarding school, three poor schools, for
young boys, girls, and infants, a work school, and an
hospital for incurables ; Stoke-upon-Trent, with poor
schools, infant school, and an hospital for incurables ;
Clifton, with a female orphanage, middle school, girls' poor
school, infant school, and work school for young women;
Torquay, with poor schools, and female orphan :i_ r e ;
Broadway, Bow, E., with middle-class boarding school,
girls' poor school, and infant school; which five convents
constitute the English Congregation of Saint Catherine of
Sienna, of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, established,
in our day, by Mother Margaret, of which Stone is the
1 Chapter IX. * Chapter X.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 349
mother house ; Hazlewood Crescent, Kensal Road, W. ;
Leicester ; Stroud, with poor schools, work school, night
school for young women, and a creche or day nursery
(the nuns of all these convents also visiting the sick and
poor) ; Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight ; Cabra, near Dublin,
with boarding school, poor schools, and an admirably
conducted Deaf and Dumb Asylum, with 190 inmates ;
Kingstown, with boarding school, day school, and poor
schools for over 800 children ; Blackrock, with boarding
and day schools ; Wicklow ; Belfast, with boarding, day,
and poor schools ; Galway, with boarding school, poor
school, and Sunday school ; and Drogheda, with board-
ing and day schools, and poor schools. One of the
English houses, Carisbrooke, is of the second order, and
purely contemplative ; the other English houses are
of the third order. The seven Irish houses are of the
second order.
THE SERVITE NUNS OF THE THIRD ORDER.
This institute has been already described. 1 It num-
bers three convents in the United Kingdom, all engaged
in the education of the poor ; viz., St. Anne's-road,
Stamford Hill, N., the mother house ; Arundel ; and
Everingham, Yorkshire.
THE BRIDGETTINES.
. This order, which is also called, of Our Saviour, is
described in Chapter XII. It has one convent in the
United Kingdom that of Sion House, Spettisbury,
Dorset, to which are attached female poor schools.
THE URSULINES.
The particulars of this order have been already given. 2
Its main function is the education of 3 7 oung ladies. It
has also free schools for poor girls. It numbers five
1 Chapter XI. 2 Chapter XIV.
350 TERRA INCOGNITA.
convents in the United Kingdom. These are, Black-
rock, Cork; Thurles; Waterford; Sligo ; and Upton,
npar Sf.raf.fnrH
near Stratford.
THE REDEMPTORINES,
OB NUNS OF THE ORDEE OF THE MOST HOLY REDEEMED.
This order, which is purely contemplative, wa>
founded in Italy, towards the middle of the last cen-
tury, hy Saint Alphonsus Maria Liguori. In establish-
ing his Missionary Priests, Saint Alphonsus felt that
the success of their labours must altogether depend upon
Him, ' who alone can give the increase ; ' and, therefore,
he founded an order of nuns, whose lives should be
devoted to contemplation and intercessory prayer. The
special objects of the institute, therefore, are, the imita-
tion of the hidden life of Our Lord, continuous prayer
and self-sacrifice, for the conversion of sinners, and for
the wants of the Church, and atonement and reparation
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament
of His love. The nuns chant the Divine Office in their
church, which is always open to the public. They
have also daily Benediction and Exposition of the Most
Holy Sacrament, and novenas and other devotions, at
which the public may assist.
The rule is that of Saint Augustine. The Sisters take
the solemn vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience,
and one of Perpetual Enclosura The habit consists of a
red tunic, in memory of the Passion of Our Lord, a Mue
mantle and scapular, on which is attached the picture
of the Most Holy Redeemer and His Sacred Hear
the rosary of fifteen decades, with a large medal of the
instruments of the Passion.
These nuns have only one house in the United
Kingdom, the Monastery of Saint Alphonsus, Fairview,
Dublin.
THE NUNS OF THE PRESENTATION.
The main function of this order is the Education of
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 351
Poor Girls. It was founded, for this purpose, by Miss
Nagle, in the year 1777 ; and is fully described in
Chapters XV., XVI., XVII.
The Convents are those of the City of Cork, South,
opened in 1777, in which is also an Asylum for Aged
Women ; the City of Cork, North ; Bandon ; Doneraile ;
Youghal ; Midleton ; Fermoy; Mitchelstown; Limerick;
Killarney ; Tralee ; Dingle ; Milltown ; Cahirciveen ;
Millstreet: Listowel; Castleisland ; Thurles, attached
to which is also a certified Industrial School ; Cashel,
with an orphanage, and a certified Industrial School ;
Fethard ; Ballingarry, in the centre of the colliery dis-
trict; Waterford ; Dungarvan ; Clonmel ; Carrick-on-
Suir ; Lismore ; George's Hill, Dublin ; Eoundtown,
near Dublin ; Maynooth ; Clondalkin ; Lucan ; Kil-
kenny ; Castlecomer ; Mountcoin ; Carlow ; Mary-
borough ; Kildare ; Bagenalstown ; Clane ; Stradbally ,
Portarlington ; Mountmellick ; Baltinglass ; Wexford ;
Enuiscorthy ; Drogheda ; Rahan ; Mullingar ; Granard ;
Tuam ; Gal way; .and Oranmore ; being fifty-two con-
vents in Ireland. There is one convent in England,
that of Livesay Street, Manchester, opened in 1835. It
has a female orphanage, and poor schools, attended by
475 day and 500 Sunday scholars. In another chapter, 1
it will be seen that the Presentation Nuns of Manchester
are most favourably spoken of by Her Majesty's In-
spector of Schools, as teachers, and also as trainers of
school-mistresses ; and, furthermore, that their Infant
Schools are assigned a place in ' the first rank, under
very successful mistresses.'
The number of nuns in the Presentation convents
varies from forty in Midleton to nine in Ballingarry
and eight in Granard, being more or less modified, in
each case, by the length of time the convent is estab-
lished, and the educational wants of the district. All
the communities follow the same rule, and are animated
1 Chapter XXXIV., Convent Elementary and Training Schools in
England.
352 TERRA INCOGNITA.
by the same spirit; but there is no generalate, each
community governing itself, and being under the juris-
diction of the bishop of the diocese in which it is
situated. Some of the convents in Ireland accept the
aid of the National Board of Education for their schools ;
others do not.
SISTERS or THE INSTITUTE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
These nuns conduct boarding schools for young ladies,
also day schools, and large schools for the gratuitous
education of poor girls. They have twenty convents in
the United Kingdom ; four in Great Britain, and sixteen
in Ireland.
The convents are, York, established in 1680; St.
Mary's, Haverstock Hill, N.W. ; Hulme ; and Leek;
Rathfarnam, established in 1822 ; North Great George
Street, Dublin ; Stephen's Green, Dublin ; Balbriggan ;
Bray ; Dalkey ; Kilkenny ; Gorey ; Wexford ; Eimis-
corthy ; Navan ; Omagh ; Letterkenny^ Tore- View, Kil-
larney ; Fennoy ; and Yougbal.
They are called Loreto convents in Ireland. The his-
tory of the Institute will be found in Chapter XXVII.
THB SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME.
A full account of this admirable congregation will be
found in its own special chapter. 1 It is actively en-
gaged in the work of education. To every convent is
attached a primary school. Some convents have charge
of two or more schools. There are also young ladies
boarding schools, and upper and middle-class day
schools. The training-college for mistresses, conducted
by the Sisters, is generally considered to be the best
institution of the kind in the United Kingdom. Indeed
those, who know little about nuns or convents, will be
in no small degree surprised at the terms of unqualified
praise in which the labours of the Sisters of Notre Duiw.
1 Chapter XXVI.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 353
" spokeu f by H
inspecto^^ ,. ^v^ii \J_MQ.
The total number of their convents in the United
-Kingdom is seventeen. These, which are all in England
are Duncan Terrace, Islington, K ; Clapham Common'
li*P i h a fi J?*- T class yS ^dies' boarding school;'
117 CamberweU New-Road, S.E. ; Saint George's, SE
Battersea, S W. ; Cavendish Street, Sheffield, with youn"
ladies boarding and day schools ; Falkner Street, Liver-
P i? ' n Wlt i!r a ale or P hana S e > certified as an industrial
school; Mount Pleasant, Liverpool, with a training col-
lege for mistresses, and three distinct day schoofs for
the upper and middle classes ; Everton Valley ; Wigan ;
St Helen s ; Birkdale, with a young ladies' boarding-
school ; Northampton, with a young ladies' boardinS
schoo 1 ; Norwich with young ladies' boarding and day
schoo s; Plymouth, with a young ladies' boarding school ;
Stocks Street, Manchester; and Whalley Eoad Black-
burn, with a young ladies' boarding school.
THE SISTERS OF CHARITY OF SAINT PAUL THE APOSTLE.
This hard-working congregation numbers thirty-five
convents, which are all in England. An account of its
institution and present position will be found in its own
particular chapter.* Its principal function is the educa-
lon of poor children, besides which it undertakes other
works of charity. It numbers over 12,000 children
attending its schools. The list of convents, with their
several schools, and the number of children in each
will be found in page 288.
THE FAITHFUL COMPANIONS OF JESUS.
Of this congregation, and the great services it renders
to the cause of education, a full account has been
already given.* It numbers fifteen convents in the
Qgfan?^ XXXIV " Convent Elementary and Training Schools in
2 Cha P ter xxv. 3 chapter XX v IIL
Z
354 TERRA INCOGNITA.
United Kingdom ; viz., twelve in England, and three in
Ireland. As conductors of poor schools, the Sisters are
spoken of in terms of the highest praise by Her Majesty's
Inspector of Schools, who appears to consider them
worthy to stand side by side with the Sisters of Notre
Dame. In young ladies' and middle-class boarding
schools, they are no less successful. Their convents
are Gumley House, Isleworth, W. ; Clarendon Square,
Somerstown, N.W. ; Skipton, Yorkshire ; Middlesbro',
Yorkshire; Great George's Square, Liverpool; Lark
Hill, Preston ; Holywell House, Exeter ; Crescent, Sal-
ford ; Upper Brook Street, Manchester ; Upton Hall,
near Birkenhead ; Dee House, Chester ; Tranmere Hall,
Birkenhead ; Laurel Hill, Limerick ; Newtownbariy,
county of Wexford ; and Bruff.
SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE, OR SISTERS OF THE INSTITUTE
OF CHARITF.
This congregation was founded, in Northern Italy, in
the year 1830, by the Abbate Antonio Rosmini. Its
objects are, the personal sanctification of its members,
and the exercise of all works of charity, to which
Divine Providence may call, under the direction of
obedience. The Sisters have no Superioress General.
They are governed by the Father-General of the Order
of Charity. In Italy, all the branch houses are under
the jurisdiction of the Reverend Mother of the central
house there. In England, all the houses are subject to
the Reverend Mother of the central house, Lough-
borough. There are no houses of the institute in Ire-
land. Those in England, six in number, are Lough- ;
borough, the central house, of which the special works |
are, a young ladies' boarding school, spiritual retreats ^
for ladies, poor schools, instructing poor women and
girls, and visiting the sick ; Rugby, poor school?, ami
instructing poor women and girls ; Ely Place, E., day!
school for young ladies, poor schools, and instruction!
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 355
for women and girls; Saffron Hill, E.G., poor schools
and instruction for women and girls ; Cardiff, poor"
schools middle-class schools, and instruction for women
Whitwlck > with P or s ^ools, recently
SlSTEKS OF THE MOST HOLY CKOSS AND PASSION.
This congregation, originally called 'of the Holv
Family,' was founded at Manchester, in 1851 by Father
Gaudentms of St. Stephen, a Passionist, and the Verv
Reverend Provost Croskell, V.G., with the sanction ami
encouragement of the Eight Reverend Doctor Turner
Bishop of Sa ford. The objects of the institute are the
care and protection of Factory girls, for whom the nuns
open a Home, where, sheltered from the evil influences
of mixed lodging houses, they conform to certain rules
of order and regularity, with results alike beneficial to
themselves and edifying to others; the teaching
children of the poor and middle classes; visiting
sick, and negligent Catholics, and instruc in* them in
er'foToh lT 6S ' lf r eSSaiy; the Care of confratern?
workl TK and T\ ng W meD > and other ^milar
tTe UnitL T "S Glght - h USeS f the congregation in
KJ?rtf K ?S d T~ VU -' Saints Peter and Paul's
-Bolton the mother house ; Saint Marie's, Little Bolton
Saint Anne's Sutton; Saint Joseph's, Peaseley Cross'
Saint Gregory's Farnworth; Saint Mary's, Manchester'
that f fh P S> Lytham; and Dewsbu ^- The rule is
that of the Passiomsts, or of Saint Paul of the Cross.
THE UESULINES OF JESUS.
This congregation was founded in 1802, at Chavanes
en PaiLlers Vendee, by the Reverend Louis MarL
Baudoum who was assisted in the work by Ma
Raufray de la Rochette, called in religion Me
Benoit. The object of the founder and found
to supply, m S o me measure> the want of relia - ou
356 TERRA INCOGNITA.
struction, consequent on the ruin of religious establish-
ments at the French Revolution. The Rule (that of
Saint Augustine, with an adaptation of the constitutions
of Saint Ignatius) was drawn up by Monsieur Baudouin
and Monseigneur Soyer, bishop of Lugon, and was
approved of by several bishops, in whose dioceses con-
vents were founded. All the establishments in France
(and their number now is upwards of forty) are under
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Luc,on, in whose diocese
the mother house is situated. The religious are styled
' Ursulines de Jesus,' or very commonly ' Dames de
Chavagues/
The institute is devoted to instruction. It educates
young ladies and girls of the middle class ; it also has
poor schools, and gives religious instruction to women
in any state of life.
Saint Margaret's Convent, Edinburgh, was founded in
1833 by the late Right Reverend Doctor Gillis, Catholic
bishop of the Eastern District of Scotland. While yet
a young priest, Mr Gillis formed the design of restoring
religious orders in Scotland, to supply the great want,
that existed, of the ministrations of such institutions
among the poor Catholic population. On the occasion
of his making a spiritual retreat at La Trappe, he met
there Monseigneur Soyer, bishop of Luou, and com-
municated his wish to him. The Bishop recommended
to his notice the congregation of the Ursulines of Jesus.
On further acquaintance with the institute, Mr Gillis
was convinced that it was well suited for the work to
be done in Scotland ; and the Bishop of Lu9ou promised
his assistance, in the proposed foundation. Consider-
able delay took place, in consequence of the suddeii
death of Doctor Patterson, Catholic bishop of the Eastern
District; but, after some time, the approval of his suc-
cessor Doctor Carruthers being obtained, Mr Gillis pro-
ceeded with the undertaking. Two ladies offered them-
selves for the work. They made their novitiate at
Chavagnes, and returned to Scotland, accompanied by
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 357
nine Sisters from the mother house, who volunteered
their aid for the new foundation. Mr Gillis, with the
assistance of a generous friend, purchased an old pro-
perty in the environs of Edinburgh; the house was
arranged for conventual purposes, and a chapel was
built ; and thus was founded the first religious house in
Scotland since the dissolution.
The religious in Scotland follow the original rule
with one exception, viz., that, instead of being subject
to the Bishop of Lucon, all houses founded in Scot-
land are under the authority of the Catholic bishop of
the Eastern District. Therefore Saint Margaret's Con-
vent and all its filiations are independent of the Con-
gregation of Chavagnes, though always maintaining
affectionate and grateful intercourse with it. By degrees,
the French nuns returned to their own country, as the
community increased sufficiently to be independent It
is needless to say, that Dr Gillis, who became coadjutor
to Dr Carruthers, and succeeded him as bishop was
ever a most devoted father and friend to the house he
had founded. About ten years ago, a convent was
founded at Perth. Seven Sisters went thither from
Saint Margaret's. The primary object of this establish-
ment is, to afford religious instruction to the Catholic
female prisoners at the General Prison, for which the
consent of Government was asked and obtained. The
Sisters also take charge of the poor schools, and visit
the poor and sick in their own homes. There is also a
house at Swansea, with poor schools, and a middle-class
girls' school, making the total, three convents in the
United Kingdom.
SISTERS OF THE HOLY CHILD JESUS.
This congregation has been recently established, by
an American lady. Its object is the education of rich
and poor. Its schools for both classes are admirably
conducted. Alluding to the primary schools, taught by
358 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the Sisters in Lancashire, Her Majesty's Inspector
observes : ' They teacli three large girls' and infant
schools in Preston, and I am not acquainted with three
schools conducted with better results.' l The convents,
seven in number, are Saint Leonard's-on-the-Sea, the
mother house, with upper and second-class young ladies'
boarding schools; 13 Nottingham Place, W. ; Ravens-
field, Hendon, N.W. ; May field, Sussex ; Mark Cross,
Tunbridge Wells, with an orphanage, built and partially
endowed by the late Duchess of Leeds ; Layton Hill,
Blackpool ; and Saint Wilfrid's, Preston.
THE SIFTERS OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
This congregation was founded by M. 1'Abbe Noailles,
parish priest of Saint Sulpice, Bordeaux, in 1820. It
has seven convents in England, where its principal work
is the education of the poor. The convents are 10
Great Prescot Street, E. ; Leeds, with a female orphan-
age ; Sicklinghall ; Rock Ferry ; Liverpool, Holy
Cross, and 1 Dawson Place, Hunter 'Street ; and
Leith. These Sisters are united to the Congregation of
the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and under the spiritual
direction of its Superior General
SCHOOL SISTKRS OP NOTRE DAME.
This institute was first founded in France, under the
name of the Congregation of Notre Dame, by the Vener-
able Pierre Fourier, in the year 1598 ; but ceased to
exist, on the outbreak of the French Revolution. It
was re-established, in Bavaria, in 1833, under the name
of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, by Monseigneur
Wittman, bishop of Ratisbon, and his friend Fr. Sebas-
tian Job, confessor to the Empress of Austria. The
mother house is in Munich, and the first Mother General,
Sister Mary Teresa of Jesus, still lives. The objects of
1 'Report of the Committee of Council on Education, 1870-71. p.
289.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 359
the congregation are, the education of female youth, in
higher and middle-class boarding schools, as well as in
elementary schools, and the care of orphanages and
asylums. The nuns receive several years' training, as
certificated teachers. The dress is a habit of black
worsted stuff, with a black veil ; and, in full dress, a
mantle of black stuff is worn, with a black over-veil.
The rule is that of Saint Augustine, adapted by Bishop
Wittman to local wants, and the circumstances of our
time. The number of houses are, 126 in Bavaria, 33
in Prussia, 9 in Austria, 8 in Hungary, 97 in America,
and 4 in England. The English houses are, Southend ;
Brookhill Road, Woolwich ; Saint Peter's, Birmingham ;
and Saint Philip's, Edgbaston, Birmingham.
SISTERS OF LA SAINTE UNION DES SACRE~S COZURS.
This congregation was founded at Douai, in 1828, by
the Very Reverend Abbe Jean Baptiste Debrabant,
priest of the diocese of Cambrai. The rule and consti-
tutions, drawn up by the founder, are chiefly taken from
the mild rule, prescribed, for his daughters of the Visi-
tation, by Saint Francis de Sales. The special object of
the institute is, the education of girls in every rank of
society. In the capitals and large towns, the Sisters
open boarding schools for the higher classes ; and, in
places of less note, middle-class boarding schools, to suit
the wants of the inhabitants. In like manner, they have
day schools and morning classes, on a higher or more
moderate scale, according to the requirements of the
locality. They have poor schools, or free schools, always
and everywhere, as far as practicable. The mother
house is at Cambrai, where the Superieure Generale,
Madame Eleonore Lebrun, resides, and, aided by the
venerable founder, still living, governs the congregation.
There are about two hundred houses in France and
Belgium. The congregation has received very flattering
notice from several of the French Bishops, particularly
360 TERRA INCOGNITA.
from the Archbishop of Cambrai, and high testimonials
from the education inspectors in France, as to the
method of teaching and the invariable success of the
pupils. There are three convents in the United King-
dom Highgate Road, N.W., with young ladies' board-
ing school ; Pulteney Road, Bath, with young ladies'
boarding school and poor school ; and Banagher, King's
County, with young ladies' boarding and day schools,
and poor school.
MARIST NUNS.
RELIGIEUSES MARISTES.
This congregation was founded in 1823, in the diocese
of Belley, Ain, France, by the Very Reverend Father
Colin, founder of the Marist Fathers. The object of the
institute is, the education of female youth. The rule is
that of Saint Augustine. The mother house is in the
neighbourhood of Lyons. There are four convents in
the United Kingdom Albert Place, Spicer Street, E., :
with middle-class schools and poor schools ; Richmond,
Surrey, with upper-class boarding school ; Carrick-ou-
Shannon, with boarding school and poor school, and
Carrickmacross.
SISTERS OF SAINT JOSEPH.
This congregation was founded in le Puy en Velay, 1
by Monseigneur de Maupas, bishop of le Puy, in 1650.
Its objects are, the education of youth of all classes, the
visitation and instruction of the sick and poor, the care
of orphanages and hospitals in short, all works of
charity. The rule is based on that of Saint Ignatius.
There are more than four hundred houses of the insti-
tute in France, fifteen in America, nine in India, and
three in England. The English convents are, Newport,
Monmouthshire the principal house and novitiate for
1 Now dep. Haute Loire.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 361
England ; Devizes ; and Chipjpenham ; all engaged in
the work of education. The Sisters of Newport conduct
a boarding school for young ladies, and have five hun-
dred children attending their poor schools.
The following is the history of the introduction of the
Sisters into England. Some years ago, a Wiltshire
gentleman, of family and fortune, a captain in the army,
was serving with his regiment in India. While there,
he used to accompany the Catholic soldiers to Mass,
which led to his conversion to the Catholic faith. On
his retirement from the army, he was anxious to estab-
lish in his native county the Sisters of Saint Joseph,
whom he had known in India, and he asked for four
Sisters, to commence a foundation at Devizes. There-
upon, the present Eeverend Mother at Newport was sent
over from India, with another Sister, and these were
joined by two more. Since then, the work has grown and
prospered, to the great benefit of the poor, attending the
schools of the Sisters of Saint Joseph in England.
DAMES DE SAINT ANDRE".
The congregation of the Dames de Saint Andre was
founded at Tournay in Belgium, in the beginning of the
present century, by Madame Flavie Delattre, under the
authority and protection of the Bishop of Tournay. The
Sisters commenced with a boarding school for young
ladies, and a poor school. Gradually increasing in
numbers, and extending their operations, they pur-
chased the site of the ancient monastery of Saint Andre,
and erected on it their present fine convent. This is
the mother house, and gives its name to the congre-
gation.
The nuns follow the rule of Saint Ignatius, devoting
themselves, in conformity with its spirit, to whatever
tends to promote the greater glory of God, and the good
of souls. They receive in their houses ladies who desire
to make spiritual retreats, they undertake the direction
362 TEKRA INCOGNITA.
4
of religious confraternities and associations, and are pre-
pared to assist, to the best of their power, in other
spiritual works of charity, in the various parishes in
which they may be. But especially they are devoted
to the education and instruction of youth.
The congregation numbers four houses ; two in Bel-
gium, and two in Great Britain. At the mother house
at Tournay, there is a higher class young ladies' board-
ing school, admirably conducted, and numbering two
hundred pupils. Here also are poor schools, in which
from two to three hundred children are gratuitously
educated. At Bruges, the Sisters conduct a Normal
School. This establishment has been chosen, by the
Government, for the Sisters of different orders, who are
destined to become teachers, and who are desirous of ac-
quiring the necessary knowledge, and making themselves
acquainted with the most approved methods of tuition.
Here also they are formed to the duties of their holy
state, by the continual study and practices of the [spiri-
tual life. Joined to this normal school are two others
a day school, which is frequented by young ladies of the
upper class, and a poor school for the Flemings.
Of the two houses in Great Britain, one is in London
2 Hall Road, St. John's Wood, N.W. Here there is
an excellent higher class boarding school for young
ladies. The other house is at St. Helier in Jersey. This
mission was offered, by the late Dr Grant, Bishop of
Southwark, to the Dames de St Andre, with the object
of their imparting a religious education to the children
of the French population of the town. Upon an exten-
sive plot of ground, they have opened a boarding school
for young ladies, and also separate schools for the middle
and poorer classes. They have, moreover, undertaken
the charge of the poor school attached to the English
mission. This school is chiefly composed of poor Irish
children.
The habit of these nuns is black, with a white muslin
cap and collar.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 363
THE CONGREGATION OF JESUS AND MARY.
The object of this institute is female education. It
was founded by a zealous missionary of the Chartreux,
at Fourvieres, Lyons, in 1816 ; has numerous houses in
France, Spain, and Canada ; and is to be found at
Bombay, Mussoree, Simla, Sirdhana, Poonab, and in
other parts of India. There are two convents in England
the Grove, Stratford, E., with a young ladies' boarding
and day school, and poor schools ; and Albion Hill,
Ipswich, with boarding and day schools, poor schools,
and a female orphanage.
Such congregations are generally introduced into these
countries by the Catholic bishops, in order to provide
for the spiritual necessities of their flocks. And it must
be admitted that there can be no greater blessing to the
poor girls of our densely-inhabited mining and manu-
facturing districts, than to have as instructresses, friends,
and advisers, those excellent ladies, who have exchanged
the world and its enjoyments for a life of privation, self-
sacrifice, and unceasing toil, through the sole motive
of the love of God, and of their neighbours for God's
sake. Thus, this institute was introduced into England
Toy the Catholic Bishop of Northampton, on the recom-
mendation of the late venerated Doctor Grant, Bishop
of Southwark. Its first house was at Ipswich. In the
same way, at the request of the Catholic bishops of our
Indian Empire, in the year 1842, the Sisters opened
poor schools, boarding schools, and orphanages in the
East Indies, penetrating as far as Lahore, and the foot
of the Himalayas.
THE NUNS OF THE SACR^ CCEUR.
This congregation, of which the mother house is at
No. 77 Eue de Varennes, Paris, was founded by Madame
Madeleine Sophie Barat, in 1800. The rule is that of
Saint Ignatius. The main object of the institute is the
364 TERRA INCOGNITA.
education of young ladies. It also has poor schools and
female orphanages ; and it receives ladies who wish to
make spiritual retreats. It has five convents in the
United Kingdom Roehampton, Surrey, S.W. ; West
Hill, Wandsworth, S.W. j 1 Mount Anville, near Dublin ;
Koscrea ; and Armagh In no establishments are the
daughters of the higher classes better educated than in
the convents of the Sacre* Cceur. The habit is black,
with a white muslin cap.
NUNS OF THE ASSUMPTION.
As an institute for the education of young ladies, this
congregation is equally deserving of praise. The object
of its foundation is the perpetual adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament, with which it combines the im-
portant work of imparting a first-class education to the
children of the rich. Nowhere is female education
imbued with a higher tone of religion and morality;
nowhere do young ladies better acquire the secular
knowledge, and elegant accomplishments, befitting their
station, than in the convents of the Assumption. There
are two houses in England Kensington Square, W. ;
and Richmond, Yorkshire. At both, there are young
ladies' boarding schools, and female poor schools. The
habit of the nuns is violet, with a white cross on the
breast, and a violet cordeliere and tassel hanging from
the waist, and a white veil. For church ceremonies and
processions, they wear, in addition, a white cloak, having
a purple cross on the left shoulder. The mother house
is at Auteuil, Paris. The congregation was founded in
the year 1839, by Monseigneur Affre, Archbishop of
Paris, and Madame Mileret, the Mother General. The
rule is that of Saint Augustine.
1 Founded in August 1874, with a Training College for School mis-
tresses, and a Practising School, described in Chapter XXXIV.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 365
SCEURS DU SACR COZUR, DE MARIE.
This congregation was founded in 1848, at Beziers,
diocese of Montpellier, by a holy and zealous priest,
Pere Gailhac, and a wealthy widow lady of the same
town, Madame Cure. Its objects are numerous, includ-
ing orphanages, industrial schools, primary schools for
poor girls, boarding and day schools for the higher and
middle classes, also the instruction of the adult female
population, and night schools for poor girls working
in factories. The orphanages and industrial schools are
yet confined to the mother house at Beziers. There are
two houses of the institute in the United Kingdom ; one
at Lisburn, near Belfast, founded in 1870, and one at
Bootle, near Liverpool, in 1873, with extensive poor
schools, and young ladies' day and boarding schools.
The habit of the choir Sisters is of blue serge ; with coif
and guimpe of white linen, over which they wear a long
black veil. On the breast hangs a silver cross and
heart. The lay Sisters' habit is black. To the ordinary
vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the choir and
lay Sisters add a fourth vow of zeal. The vows, at
first, are taken for five years. Then, they are renewed,
for life. The rule is based on that of Saint Augustine.
SISTERS OF THE HOLY FAITH.
This congregation was founded by His Eminence
Cardinal Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin, to protect
Catholic orphans and destitute children, in danger of
the loss of their faith by proselytism. It originated in
a Ladies' Association of Charity, founded in Dublin
about the year 1850. Out of that, grew Saint Bridgid's
Orphanage, which was begun in the early part of the
year 1857 ; and the Sisters of the Holy Faith were in-
stituted, first, to take charge of the orphans ; and, after-
wards, they began the schools of the Holy Faith. There
are fifty-three nuns. They occupy five convents. These
366 TERRA INCOGNITA.
are, Glasnevin near Dublin, the mother house, with a
young ladies' school and two poor schools ; Eccles
Street, with Saint Bridgid's Orphanage, into which 1257
orphans, boys and girls, have been already admitted,
and, of these, 904 have been reared, educated, and put
to trades, or placed in situations ', 65 Lower Jervis
Street, the chief works of which are two poor schools, a
Sunday school, and a system of relief for the poor and
sick, who cannot go to the Workhouse ; Clarendon
Street, with three large poor schools; and Kilcullen,
Co. Kildare, with two middle-class schools, one for
little boys and one for girls. The Sisters also have a
poor school in Crow Street, and two large schools (for-
merly called ragged) in West Park Street, for the very
poor children of the Liberties of Dublin. The daily
attendance at their ten poor schools is over 1500.
These schools are not aided by any Government grant.
The orphanage is altogether supported by voluntary con-
tributions. It has accommodation for five hundred
children,
THB NUNS OF SAINT BRIDGID.
The religious congregation of Saint Bridgid, patroness
of Ireland, was founded in the year 1807, at Tullow,
county of Carlow, by the Right Reverend Doctor Delany,
Catholic Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. The object of
the zealous prelate was to repair, as far as .possible, the
lamentable effects of the penal laws, from which, at the
time, all the adult population were suffering, inasmuch
as it was only in the year 1782 that Catholic education
had ceased to be a crime, punishable by fine and im-
prisonment. 1 The institute has three objects first,
primary schools for poor girls ; secondly, boarding and
day schools for the middle and higher classes ; and,
thirdly, the instruction of the adult female population.
To secure the third, important, object, the parish church
is included in the enclosure of the adjoining convent;
1 Vide supra, p. 111.
STATISTICS Or CONVENTS. 367
and thus, every Sunday, after religious worship, the
good nuns may be seen in the churches, catechizing girls,
and giving religious instruction to great numbers of
poor women, who gladly attend for the purpose. There
are four convents of the congregation Tullow, Mount-
rath, Abbeyleix, and Goresbridge. The rule is that of
Saint Augustine, somewhat modified to meet the special
nature and end of the institute.
SISTERS OF SAINT Louis.
This congregation was founded at Juilly, near Paris,
in 1839-1840, by the Abbe Bautain, Vicar General.
Its objects are, the education of all classes, the visita-
tion of the sick and of prisoners, and other similar works
of charity. The rule is that of Saint Augustine, adapted
by the founder to the wants of the institute. The
mother house is at Juilly, Seine et Marne, where there
is a young ladies' boarding school, a normal school, an
orphanage, and a poor school. The successful manage-
ment of our Eeformatory and Industrial Schools by the
Sisters, who receive all subjects incorrigible in other
similar institutions, is noticed elsewhere. 1 There are
four houses in Ireland Lakeview, Monaghan, with a
certified Eeformatory school, and a certified Industrial
school, large poor schools, and upper-class day and
boarding schools, all distinct ; Bundoran, county of
Donegal, with boarding school, and poor school ; Earns -
grange, Arthurstown, county of Wexford, with a young
ladies' boarding school, an upper-class day school, and
a poor school ; and Middletown, county of Armagh, with
a poor school, and an orphanage.
DAMES KELIGIEUSES DE LA CROIX.
This congregation was founded, in the year 1625, by
the Eeverend Pierre Guerin, cure of Eoye in Picardy.
* Chapter XXXVI.
368 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Its* main object is the education of young ladies, to
which, when practicable, is added the work of poor-
schools.
At the time of the great French Revolution, these
nuns were established in several towns of France ; but
they were soon driven from their convents ; and their
Superior was imprisoned in her own house until the end
of the Revolution. When peace was restored, those who
survived joined the Reverend Mother Himegonde, and
re-established the house of St. Quentin, which, under
many difficulties, struggled on, for the space of twenty
years.
In 1837, under the auspices of Monseigneur de
Simony, bishop of Soissons, this community were united
to other nuns, still retaining the title of Dames Re-
ligieuses de la Croix ; their former constitutions were
modified, to suit the altered state of circumstances ;
and a Mother General was appointed to govern the con-
gregation. Since that time, the rule followed is that of
Saint Ignatius. There are three houses in France
Saint Quentin, Soissons, and Bar-le-Duc ; and there is
one in England, Bournemouth, Hants, established in
1871. Here, there is an excellent higher-class young
ladies' boarding school
SISTERS OF THE CHBISTIAN RETREAT.
This congregation was founded in the year 1787, at
Les Fontenelles, diocese of Besancon, by Pere Antoine
Sylvestre Receveur, cure of Les Fontenelles. Its objects
are, retreat from the world, self-support by industry in
needle-work, &c., the education of female youth, and
giving spiritual retreats. There is one house of the con-
gregation in the United Kingdom Clay land's Road,
Clapham, S.W., in which there is a boarding school for
young ladies.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS.
NUNS or THE MOST HOLY SACRAMENT.
This congregation was founded at Boncieu-le-Roi,
Ardeche, in 1715, by Pere Vigne, missionary, miracu-
lously converted by the Blessed Sacrament. Its objects
are the education of girls, rich and poor, the care of
hospitals, and similar works. There are seventy-four
houses of the institute, including one in England. The
mother house is in Valence, Drome. The rule is that of
Saint Augustine. At the English house, 23 Golden
Square, W., recently established, there is a day school
and half boarding school for young ladies.
NUNS OF THE VISITATION.
This order was founded in 1610, at Annecy in Savoy,
by Saint Francis de Sales, and Saint Jane Frances
Fremiot, Baroness de Chantal. At first, it was simply
a congregation of virgins and widows, instituted for the
purpose of visiting, consoling, and assisting the sick and
poor, taking for their model the Blessed Virgin, in her
visit to her cousin, Saint Elizabeth ; but, by the advice
of Cardinal de Marquemont, Archbishop of Lyons, Saint
Francis de Sales consented, contrary to his first design,
that it should be erected into a religious order. The
rule, drawn up by Saint Francis de Sales, is very mild,
to suit the temperament of those who could not bear a
more austere rule. Ordinarily, these nuns conduct
young ladies' boarding schools. There are two houses
of the order in the United Kingdom Westbury-on-
Trym, near Bristol ; and Walmer, Deal.
DIMES DE MARIE.
These nuns, of the celebrated educational establish-
ment of Coloma, near Malines, have one house in the
United Kingdom at Coloma House, Bedford Park,
Croydon, W., where they receive young ladies, as
boarders, weekly boarders, and day pupils. The con-
2 A
370
TERRA INCOGNITA.
gregation was founded at Alost, Belgium, by Canon Van
Crombrugghe, in the year 1817. Its objects are, the
education of girls, rich and poor, and other good works.
The rule was drawn up by the founder, to meet the
special ends of the institute.
DAUGHTEKS OF SIGN.
This congregation was founded in Paris, in the year
1843, by the two Fathers Ratisbonne, after the mira-
culous conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne, in Rome.
Its objects are, the conversion of the Jews, schools for
all classes, and the care of newly-converted Jewish
children. The rule is Saint Augustine's. The Daugh-
ters of Sion have two convents in Jerusalem. One of
these is on the site of the Praetorium of Pontius Pilate ;
and the arch of the Ecce Homo, still preserved, is part
of the high altar of the convent chapel. On the same
spot where resounded the cry of death, 'Crucify Him,'
are now heard the cry and prayers of the Daughters of
Sion, ' Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do.' The congregation has several houses in Constanti-
nople, Chalcedonia, and Moldavia. It has four convents
in England Sion House, Powis Square, Bayswater, W.,
with young ladies' boarding and day schools; No. 31
Eden Grove, Holloway, N., with a day school for young
ladies, also day boarders, and lady boarders ; Drury
Lane, with schools ; and Worthing, with schools.
SISTERS OP NOTBE DAME DES MISSIONS.
This congregation was founded at Lyons, in 18G1, by
Mother Mary of the Sacred Heart. The special object?
are, the sanctification of its members, the conducting of
schools, and the sending into infidel countries teaching-
nuns for the education of persons of their own sex.
Called, from its commencement, to second the zeal of
missionaries, it has, with God's blessing, been largely
developed, and now conducts its schools, and exercises
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS.- 371
other works of charity, in Oceania and New Zealand,
where it numbers several convents. On missions, the
religious are never less than three together ; and are
sent only to those places where they are in perfect
security, and enjoy all the succours of religion. The
novitiate is made at the mother house, No. 14 Chemin
de Montauban, Lyons. It is for three years, after which,
if deemed worthy, the novice is allowed to take the
three simple vows of religion. These vows, at first
annual, cannot be made perpetual, until after ten years
of profession. The rule is that of Saint Augustine.
There is only one convent of these nuns in the United
Kingdom that of Deal, Kent, engaged in the work of
education.
SISTEES OF SAINT JOSEPH DE CLUNI.
This congregation was founded by Madame Anne
Mary Jahouvey, at Cluni, in 1806. Its object, besides
the sanctification of the members by a religious and
community life, is the exercise of works of zeal and
charity, especially in the care of the sick and poor, and
the education of youth. It is composed of Choir and
Lay sisters, who make equally the three simple vows of
religion, first for a time, and afterwards perpetual.
The congregation especially devotes itself to extend-
ing the blessings of Christian education to the African
negroes, and the nuns pass through a suitable course
of study and preparation for this important object.
The institute has spread over all parts of the world ;
and possesses several establishments in Europe, America,
and Africa, as well as Asia and Oceania.
It has but one house in the United Kingdom that of
Mount Sackville, Castleknock, near Dublin, in which
there are twenty nuns and eighteen postulants. Here
the nuns conduct an excellent boarding school for young
ladies, as well as their establishment for training Sisters
for the African missions.
372
TERRA INCOGNITA.
DAUGHTERS OF THE CROSS.
This admirable congregation was founded at Lidge in
1833, by the Reverend Jean-Guillaume Habets'nnd
Mademoiselle Jeanne Haze, both still living. It rapidly
spread over Belgium and Rhenish Prussia. It also has
five houses in the British East Indies, and two in Eng-
land. Its objects are, houses of refuge for fallen women,
homes for unprotected girls, the care of female prisons of
solitary confinement, asylums for the aged and infirm,
higher and middle class boarding and day schools, poor
schools, night schools for factory girls, infant schools,
creches, workhouse schools, training schools for teachers,
work rooms, orphanages, hospitals, nursing the sick in
their own homes, and the visitation of the poor. The
mother house is at Liege, where the novitiate is made,
extending over two years. The English houses are,
Saint Wilfred's, Gale Street, Chelsea, S.W., with a
day boarding school for young ladies, a day school
for children of the middle class, and an orphanage for
girls, chiefly Catholic Workhouse children, certified
by the Local Government Board; and West (ii in-
stead, Horsham, Sussex, with a poor school, and a
female orphanage, also certified for the reception of
Catholic Workhouse children.
The congregation was introduced into British India
in the year 1862, at the request of Bishop Steins,
Vicar Apostolic of Bombay. On his translation, as
Archbishop, to Calcutta, in 1868, he again applied to
the mother house at Lidge, for communities to take
charge of the charitable institutions of his new dio-
oese, and thus secured for Bengal the blessings he
had previously procured for Bombay. The rule is one
specially drawn up for the institute.
ADORERS OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD.
This congregation was founded in Acuto, in the pro-
vince of Frosinone, in the Papal States, by the Reverend
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. -. 373
Mother Maria de Mallias, and the Venerable Caspar ue
Bufalo, founder of the Fathers Missionaries of the Most
Precious Blood. Its objects are, the adoration of the
Most Precious Blood shed for the redemption of man-
kind, the work of education, the care of orphans, and
other similar charitable labours, in promoting the salva-
tion of souls.
At Mother Maria's death, in 1866, there were fifty-six
houses of the institute in Italy, including five in Rome,
and many others in Sicily, Germany, and America. The
members are drafted off, in small numbers even two,
to any parish or village, where their services may be
required. Hitherto, most of the houses in Italy have
not been disturbed by the present Government, as the
Sisters have submitted to pass examinations, under the
civil educational authorities, and are recognized by them
as teachers of the poor ; but their associates in Germany,
who have to be certificated before teaching, are now
obliged by the ruling powers to do so as seculars, or
give up their schools. Consequently, the greater num-
ber have joined the Sisters in America, of whom, in the
United States, there are nineteen flourishing communities.
The Mother General resides in Rome. The rule is one
specially drawn up for the institute.
The congregation has two houses in England ; one at
No. 24 Victoria Grove, West Brompton, S.W., founded
from Rome, in 1863 ; and one established at Wardour,
near Salisbury, the foundation of Lady Arundell, in
1874. The nuns are engaged in the work of education,
principally of the poor ; and gladly undertake any work
of charity connected therewith, such as the care of
orphanages, refuges, and other similar institutions.
SISTERS OF PROVIDENCE OF THE IMMACULATE
CONCEPTION.
This congregation was established in 1833, at Cham-
pion, in the diocese of Namur, by Monseigneur le
Chanoine Jean Baptiste Victor Kinet. Its objects are,
374 TERRA INCOGNITA.
education, and the direction of hospitals, asylums,
prisons, orphanages, and other similar institutions. At
the mother house at Champion, there are two normal
schools one for young persons destined for teaching,
and one for nuns. Here also is a very numerously at-
tended poor school. Besides the mother house, there
are 174 secondary establishments, conducted by the
Sisters, distributed as follows : Belgium, 155 ; viz., 12
boarding schools, with day schools attached, 118 com-
munal free schools. 10 asylums for the aged of both
sexes, and 15 prisons: Italy, 15; viz., 4 prisons, 4
refuges, 3 orphanages, and 4 schools : South America,
4, two orphanages, a day school, and a boarding school :
England, one, with an orphanage, and a boarding school.
This convent is at Hampstead/N.W. The rule followed
by the nuns is one specially drawn up for the congrega-
tion.
THE APOSTOLINES.
This congregation was founded by Agnes Baliques,
at Antwerp, in 1680. Its objects are, the education of
youth, particularly the poor, the visitation of the poor
and sick, and the care of orphanages, and asylums for
aged men and women. The foundress gave her Sisters
the name of Daughters of the Immaculate Conception,
commonly called Apostolines. There are sixteen houses
of the congregation now existing viz., fifteen in the
Netherlands, including the mother house at Berchem,
and one in Scotland that of Aberdeen. The Sisters at
Aberdeen conduct two orphanages in Constitution Street,
one for girls, and one for boys. They also visit the poor
and sick in their own homes. They are independent of
the mother house. The rule is based on that of Saint
Teresa.
SISTERS OF CHARITY OF OUR LADY OF MERCY.
This congregation was founded at Tilburg in Holland,
in the year 1832, by Monseigueur Twysen, Archbishop
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 375
of Utrecht, Bishop of Bois-le-Duc. Its objects are, be-
sides the sanctification of its members, the education of
youth, especially the poor, attendance upon the sick and
infirm, and other works of charity. The rule is one
compiled by the founder. There are three houses in the
United Kingdom Pantasaph, Newnham Paddox, and
Preston, with female orphanages and poor schools.
THE NUNS OF THE FINDING OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE.
This institute existed in England before the Eeforma-
tion, at which time, owing to the persecution suffered by
the Catholic Church, it became extinct. In the year 1861,
at the suggestion of Cardinal Wiseman, it was re-estab-
lished in England, by the Abbe Eoullin, at Clifton Wood,
near Bristol. Besides this, there are six houses in France,
which are all subject to the superioress of the convent of
Clifton Wood, which is the mother house of the congre-
tion. The objects are, to visit and nurse the sick, teach
the poor, receive and educate orphans, and accommodate
lady boarders, especially converts. The rule is that of
Saint Ignatius. The habit consists of a blue dress and a
white serge veil.
DAUGHTERS OF THE FAITHFUL VIRGIN.
The congregation of the Faithful Virgin, or of Ow
Lady of the Orphans, was founded, in 1830, at Ls.
Delivrande 1 (Calvados) by Hemiette le Forestier
d'Osseville, daughter of Count Theodore d'Osseville,
and his countess, Anne de Valois. The main object
of the institute is, the adoption of poor female orphans
and other destitute children. It adopts these children,
becomes their mother, and makes each of its houses
their home. After having received there a Christian
education, and learned how to earn their living, each
1 La Delivrande, about nine miles from Caen, has been, for many
centuries, a celebrated place of pilgrimage. A very ancient statue of
the Blessed Virgin is preserved there.
376 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of these orphan girls can always be re-admitted, to find
a refuge, and receive such advice and help as she may
require, or to live and even die there, if infirmity lias
rendered her incapable of supporting herself. The other
objects are, the education of young ladies, poor schools,
spiritual retreats for ladies, and the reception of parlour
boarders, when there is proper accommodation.
There are three houses in England one at Norwood,
Surrey, with a young ladies' boarding school, and a large
orphanage, quite apart and distinct from the school ; one
at East Lu I worth, Wareham, Dorset, also with an
orphanage (both orphanages being certified for the re-
ception of Catholic workhouse children); and one at
Folkestone.
The rule is that of Saint Ignatius. There is a gene-
ralate ; and the mother house is at La Delivrande.
SISTEBS OF CHARITY OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL.
The history of this great congregation, numbering
over twenty thousand Sisters, engaged in the active
duties of charity, in all parts of the world, will be
found in Chapters XX. and XXI. They have twenty-
one houses in the United Kingdom fifteen in England,
two in Scotland, and four in Ireland. These are
Carlisle Place, Victoria Street, Westminster, with an
orphanage, a workroom, and a day middle-school for
firls; classes for the religious instruction of girls on
undays ; a creche or day nursery for infants and very
young children, whose mothers are all day out at work ;
and a night school for men and boys ; the Sisters being
also engaged in the visitation and relief of the poor and
sick of Westminster, one of the most destitute parts of
London ; Leicester Place, Leicester Square, W.C., with
a French hospital, schools for French and English girls,
and a female orphanage ; Bulstrode Street, W., with a
creche or day nursery, a house of Mercy for servant
women out of place, and girls' day schools; Leyton
House, W., with a certified orphanage for 140 boys, under
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 377
the age of seven ; No. 151 Solly Street, Sheffield, with
poor schools, and the visitation of the sick poor; Howard
Hill, Sheffield, with a certified female Keformatory
School, highly praised by Her Majesty's Inspector, and
referred to in another chapter ; l Kirk- edge, Brad-
field, near Sheffield, with a certified industrial school for
young boys ; Boston Spa, Tadcaster, with a Deaf and
Dumb Institution, 2 and day schools; Salisbury, with a
most successful certified girls' Industrial School; 3 Bea-
con Lane, Liverpool, with an orphanage for Catholic boys,
certified as an industrial school, 225 inmates ; Mason
Street, Liverpool, with Saint Anne's certified industrial
school for girls; both favourably reported on by Her
Majesty's Inspector, and referred to elsewhere; 4 so.
59 Brunswick Road, Liverpool, with an admirably con-
ducted Blind Asylum, the only Catholic institution
for the blind in Great Britain ; Little Crosby, Lanca-
shire, with the Blundel poor schools and the visitation
of the poor ; Bullinghain, Hereford, with a middle-class
school for girls, also a middle-class school for little boys
aged from five to eleven, also a class in which girls are
received and trained to household work between the
school hours ; Plymouth, with schools ; Lanark, with
evening poor schools for 300 children, an hospital, and
a creche or day nursery ; Smyllum, near Lanark, with
an orphanage and poor schools ; North William Street,
Dublin, with poor schools attended by 400 children, and
an orphan asylum accommodating 195 ; Fair View,
Drumcondra, near Dublin, with Saint Vincent's Asylum
for the insane. This institution having been founded
for the reception of female patients of the respectable
and educated classes, having only limited means, they
are admitted at moderate, although inadequate, annual
pensions. Higher class patients are also accommodated.
The Sisters, from previous training, are fully conversant
1 Chap. XXXVI.
* Removed from Handsworth, Woodhouse, July 17, 1875.
8 Chap. XXXVI. Ibid.
378 TERRA INCOGNITA.
with all modern improvements in the moral treatment
of the insane. The list closes with the North Infirmary,
Cork, an admirably managed city hospital, in which the
Sisters reside ; and Drogheda, witfh a large evening
school for factory girls, and a certified Industrial
School. 1
THE IRISH SISTERS OF CHARITY.
This congregation, which is altogether confined to
Ireland, has been fully described in Chapter XXII.
The Sisters visit and relieve the sick poor in their
own homes; and undertake the care of Poor schools,
Reformatories, Industrial Schools, Magdalen Asylums,
Blind Asylums, Hospitals, Orphanages, and other use-
ful works. They also give religious instruction to
grown-up women. The special works of the greater part
of their several convents have been already detailed.
There are eighteen convents all in Ireland. These
are Harold's Cross, near Dublin, the mother house;
Stanhope Street; Upper Gardiner Street; Wellington
Street ; Sandymount ; Donnybrook ; Merrion ; Stephen's
Green ; Stillorgan ; and Baldoyle ; all in or near Dub-
lin; St. Vincent's and Saint Patrick's, Cork; W;itt-r-
ford; Tramore; Clonmel ; Benada; Clarenbridge ; and
Kilkenny.
THE SISTERS OF MERCY.
This is by far the most numerous congregation in the
United Kingdom. A full account of its institution
and of the works in which it is engaged will be found
in Chapters XXIII. and XXIV. It numbers one hun-
dred and forty-seven convents, of which ninety-eight
are in Ireland, forty-three in England and Wales, and
six in Scotland. Embracing the whole range of the
corporal and spiritual works of mercy, there are three
objects to which, in accordance with the wishes of the
1 Vide chap. XXXVI.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 379
foundress, the Sisters especially devote themselves and
these are the visitation of the sick poor, the reception of
destitute young women in their House of Mercy, which,
where practicable, must be attached to every convent,
and the care of female orphans. The nine convents of
Dublin those of Baggot Street, Booterstown, Glasthule,
Golden Bridge, Brickfield Lane, Monkstown, Lower
Gloucester Street, Jervis Street Hospital, and the Mater
Misericordise Hospital, have been already described; 1
as have also those of Saint Marie's of the Isle, the
Mercy Hospital, and the Workhouse Hospital, Cork. 2
The other convents in Ireland are, Eathdrum, county of
Wicklow ; Athy ; Dundalk ; Ardee ; Tullamore ; Navan ;
Kells ; Drogheda ; Kochefort-bridge ; Clara ; Trim ; Lon-
donderry; Moville, county of Donegal ; Strabane, county
of Tyrone ; Cardonagh, county of Donegal ; Enniskillen ;
Ballyshannon ; Belfast; Downpatrick; Belturbet; Bally-
mahon ; Ballinamore ; Longford ; Moate ; Newtown-
forbes ; Newry ; Eostrevor ; Lurgan ; Carlow ; Naas ;
Wexford ; Enniscorthy ; New Eoss ; Templemore ; Tip-
perary ; Doone ; Drangan ; Callan ; Borris-iu-Ossory ;
Bantry ; Kinsale ; Passage West ; Birr, or Parsonstown;
Ennis ; Nenagh ; Kilrush ; Kilkee ; Killarney ; Tralee ;
Castletown Bere ; Limerick, Oldtown ; Limerick, Work-
house hospital'; Limerick, Mount Saint Vincent's ; New-
castle ; Adare ; Eathkeale ; Abbeyfeale ; Cappoquin ;
Dungarvan ; Cahir ; Queenstown ; Charleville ; Mallow;
Macroom ; Kanturk ; Clonakilty ; Skibbereen ; Tuam ;
Westport ; Ballinrobe ; Castlebar ; Clifden ; Loughrea ;
Ballinasloe ; Swineford ; Sligo ; Elphin ; Boyle ; Ath-
lone ; Eoscommon; Gort; Gort Workhouse; Ennistimon;
Galway ; Oughterard ; and Ballina. All these commu-
nities, save those residing in hospitals, visit the sick
poor, and have extensive poor schools ; the greater part
of them have day schools for young ladies ; several have
female orphanages ; and twenty-two of them conduct
flourishing certified industrial schools, which are highly
1 Vide supra, p. 260. 2 Ibid., p. 272.
380 TERRA INCOGNITA.
spoken of by Her Majesty's Inspector, and the particu-
lars of which will be found elsewhere. 1
The forty-nine convents in Great Britain have the
same objects. The nuns visit the sick poor, and teach
poor schools. Several communities have middle-class
schools, female orphanages, and Houses of Mercy ; some
discharge hospital duties, and two conduct Reformatory
and Industrial Schools. The convents are, No. 46 Great
Ormond Street, W.C., with an hospital for chronic and
incurable cases, females ; Blandford Square, N.W., with
a House of Mercy, and orphanage; Cadogan Street,
Chelsea, S.W., with a young ladies' boarding school,
middle-class day school, and poor schools; No. 535
Commercial Road, E., with poor schools ; Crispin Street,
Bishopsgate Street Without, E., with poor schools ; Wal-
thamstow House, Walthamstow, E., with a certified
orphanage of 318 girls; Brentwood, witli poor schools ;
Bermondsey, S.E., with House of Mercy, orphanage, and
poor schools; Brighton, with schools; Abingdon, with
young ladies' boarding school ; Gravesend, with poor
schools ; Eltham ; Guernsey, with young ladies' boarding
and day schools, girls' poor schools, and infant school ;
Alderney ; Clifford ; Hull ; Alton ; all with poor schools ;
Birmingham, with young ladies' boarding school, and
poor school ; Coventry, with poor school, boarding
school, and boarding school for little boys under the
superintendence of the Sisters ; Hands worth, with middle-
class boarding school, poor schools, and House of Mercy;
Maryvale, with poor school, and female orphanage;
"VVolverhampton, with poor schools and House of Mercy;
Dightou Street, Bristol, with orphanage for workhouse
girls ; Bishop Auckland ; Hexharn ; Newcastle-on-Tyne
North Shields; Sunderland; Tow Law; Wigton ; all
with poor schools ; Mount Vernon, Liverpool, with
schools and House of Mercy ; Hardy Street, Liverpool,
with schools; Saint Elizabeth's, Breckfield Road, Liver-
pool, with a certified industrial school for girls, highly
1 Chapter XXXVI., Reformatory and Industrial Schools.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 381
praised by Her Majesty's Inspector ; St. Oswald's, Old
Swan, Liverpool, with poor schools ; St. Helen's, Black-
brook, with a certified Eeformatory school for girls ;
Lancaster, with poor schools ; Douglas, Isle of Man, with
schools ; Our Lady's, Nottingham, with a middle-class
boarding school and an orphanage ; St. John's, Notting-
ham, with poor schools; Derby; Oldham ; Burnley;
Shrewsbury; Edinburgh; Dundee; Glasgow; Elgin;
Dornie in Kintail ; and Keith ; all with poor schools.
THE NUNS OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD.
This congregation has been fully described in its own
chapter. 1 It has fourteen convents in the United King-
dom. These are, Hammersmith, W., with a large and
admirably managed House of Eefuge for penitents ;
Eagle House, Brook Green, Hammersmith, W., with a
House of Refuge for penitents, female prisoners, and
distressed women, classified ; East End, Finchley, N.,
with a house for female prisoners ; Arno's Court, Bris-
lington, Bristol, with a certified Eeformatory School,
and a House of Eefuge for penitents ; Ford, near Liver-
pool, with a House of Eefuge for penitents ; Victoria
Park, Manchester, with a House of Eefuge for penitents ;
Cardiff, with a House for penitents; Dalbeth House,
Glasgow, with a certified Eeformatory school ; Belfast,
with an industrial Magdalen penitentiary; New Eoss,
with a certified industrial school ; Cork, with a Mag-
dalen Asylum, and a certified industrial school ; Lime-
rick, with a Magdalen Asylum, a certified industrial
school, and a certified Eeformatory school ; Waterford,
two convents one with a Magdalen Asylum, and one
with a certified industrial school.
CONGREGATION OF OUR LADY OF CHARITY OF EEFUGE.
This congregation was founded by the Venerable F.
Eudes, at Caen, in 1641. Its object is the religious
i Chapter XXXI.
382 TERRA INCOGNITA.
training and industrial employment of females who
have fallen, or may be in danger of falling, into a vicious
course of life. It has two houses in the United King-
dom, viz. : Bartestree, Hereford, with a Magdalen
Asylum ; and High Park, Drumcondra, near Dublin,
with a Magdalen Asylum, and a certified female Kefor-
matory School.
The particulars of its foundation have been given in
another chapter. 1 It numbers altogether twenty-five
houses; viz., eighteen in France ; one at Loretto in Italy;
one at Bilbao in Spain ; three in America Ottowa,
Buffalo, and Pittsburgh ; and two in the United King-
dom, above mentioned. As there is no generalate, each
house, when founded, is independent of the others ; but
all follow the same rule, and cultivate, by correspond-
ence, the most cordial sisterly relations with each other.
The rule is that of Saint Augustine, witli the constitu-
tions of Saint Francis de Sales. The habit is of white
serge, with a plain white belt and a white rosary. There
is a silver heart, suspended from the neck, with the
figure of the Blessed Virgin on one side, and the words
' Vive Jesus et Marie ' on the other.
SISTERS OF BON SECOUBS.
This congregation was founded in Paris, by the Arch-
bishop, Monseigneur Hyacinthe Louis de Qu61en, in the
year 1824. The object is the care of the sick in their awn
homes, rich and poor, without any distinction of creed.
On application to the Mother Superior, she sends a
Sister to the house of the sick person. This Sister
attends in the sick-room, during the night and a portion
of the day, taking, in obedience to her rule, at least six
hours' rest every day. This institute, recently intro-
duced into these countries, is regarded as an invaluable
boon. When the Bon Secours Sister is in the sick-room,
the family of the patient may feel as secure at night, as
1 Chapter XXXI., page 328.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 383
if they all watched at the bedside of their relative.
Nothing that can contribute to the ease and comfort of
the sick person is omitted by the Sister. Every change
is watched ; every symptom is noted ; and the instruc-
tions of the physician are most scrupulously obeyed.
Moreover, the sick and dying are especially aided and
consoled by these experienced and holy daughters cf
religion. The Sisters are, of course, maintained in the
houses in which they attend, their meals being served
separately ; and they thankfully receive the remunera-
tion contributed by their patients, according to their
means, for the support of the community.
There are ten houses of the congregation in France,
and four in the United Kingdom. These latter are, 50
Norfolk Terrace, Bayswater, W. ; G4 Lower Mount
Street, Dublin; Mardyke, Cork; and 8 Alfred Street,
Belfast. The rule is that of Saint Ignatius. The mother
house, in which is the novitiate, is at No. 20 Rue Notre
Dame des Champs, Paris.
SISTERS OF Box SECOURS, DE TROYES.
This congregation was founded by Monsieur I'Abbe'
Millet, at Troyes (Aube), in the year 1840. Its sole
object is, the care of the sick, rich and poor, in their own
homes, without distinction of creed. The Sisters grate-
fully receive any offering made, according to their means,
by those they attend, for the support of their community.
The mother house is at Troyes ; and there are houses in
Paris, and many other cities of France, in Belgium,
Italy, Algeria, Gibraltar, and England ; making a total
of close on one hundred. The English houses are, 21
Maitland Park Villas, Haverstock Hill, N.W., and 69
Oxford Street, Liverpool. The rule was drawn up by
the founder.
SOZURS DE LA MlS^RICORDE DE SEEZ.
This congregation, commonly called Nursing Sisters,
was founded at Se'ez, in Normandy, in 1823, by Mon-
384 TERRA INCOGNITA.
sieur Bazin, Vicar General and Superior of the Diocesan
Seminary. This venerable priest, who died in 1855,
noticed in the diocese two wants : one, that of a com-
munity, where those called to the Religious life might
find admittance, and consecrate themselves to the service
of God and the poor; and the other, that of patient, dis-
interested nurses for the sick, whether in a state of des-
titution, or lacking, even in the midst of easy circum-
stances, the devoted attentions, which only affection, or
the religious spirit, can inspire in the watchers by the
bed of sickness. The institute which he formed, and
which has received the sanction of the Church, has ful-
filled this double end. The Sisters, according to the
wishes of their holy founder, render their services to the
sick of all classes, without distinction of creed, whenever
and wheresoever they are required. They receive, for
the support of the community, what is given to them,
only as a donation, however small the amount, either
gratuitously or for their attendance on the sick. This
congregation numbers, besides the mother house at Sdez,
twenty-seven convents in France, and one in London.
The London house, established in 1860, is Saint Vin-
cent's, 49 Queen Street, Hammersmith, W.
LITTLE SISTERS OF THE POOR.
This congregation is treated of in its own chapter. 1
It numbers fifteen houses in the United Kingdom. These
are, Portobello Road, Netting Hill, W. ; Fentiman Road,
South Lambeth, S.W. ; Belle Vue Road, Leeds ; Har-
borne, Birmingham ; Bristol ; Newcastle-on-Tyue ;
Stonehouse, Devon ; Plymouth Grove, Manchester ;
Liverpool ; Birkenhead ; Edinburgh ; Dundee ; Glas-
gow ; Waterford ; and Cork.
SISTERS OF NAZARETH.
An account of this congregation will be found in its
own chapter. 2 It has six houses in the United King-
1 Chapter XXIX. Chapter XXX.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 385
dom. These are King Street, Hammersmith, W., the
mother house ; South End, Essex ; Cardiff; Oxford ;
Northampton ; and Aberdeen.
SERVANTS OF THE SACEED HEART. OF JESUS.
This congregation was founded in Paris, in the year
1866, by the Eeverend Father Victor Braun. Its objects
are, the care of the sick poor in their own homes ;
attending on the sick in hospitals and private houses ;
the instruction and education of poor and abandoned
children ; orphanages ; workrooms, in which young girls
are taught different employments ; night schools and
Sunday schools for factory girls ; asylums for aged men
and women ; and all works, in general, for the benefit
of the poor and working classes, both spiritually and
corporally.
The rule is Saint Augustine's, with special constitu-
tions added. The mother house is at Argenteuil, near
Paris.
There are two houses in England Sidney House,
Hassett Eoad, Homerton, London, E., which is the
English provincial house; and Kirtling, near New-
market.
The Sisters at Homerton have an orphanage, with a
day school attached. They conduct poor schools at
Clapton, Mile End Eoad, and Poplar, largely attended.
They also pay daily visits, two and two, among the poor
of Homerton, Stratford, Mile End Eoad, Whitechapel,
Spicer Street, Commercial Eoad, and Victoria Docks.
They nurse the sick poor, of all creeds, in their own
homes, without remuneration, day and night, and what-
ever may be their disease. At the same time,, they keep
house and cook for them, and take care of their children.
They visit the sick in hospitals, twice a week, and pro-
vide for them such little comforts as those institutions
cannot supply. In the winter and autumn months, they
give instruction, every evening, to girls employed in
386 TERRA INCOGNITA.
factories or elsewhere, during the day, and they receive
them into their house, every Sunday through the year,
providing them with innocent recreation, and enabling
them to keep aloof from bad company. Every day, the
Sisters attend to the maimed and sick, who come to the
convent, to have their wounds dressed, and to be fur-
nished with such remedies as their condition may re-
quire.
SISTERS OF MARIE ATJXILIATRICE.
This congregation was founded at Castelnaudary
(Aude),in the year 1854, by Monsieur I'Abb&deSoubiran,
Vicar-General of Carcassonne. Its object is, to provide
a home for young women of the class of milliners and
needlewomen, of irreproachably good character, who
desire a cheerful home, conducted by Religious Sisters,
where they may lay by something for the future, by
industry and economy.
The Sisters undertake a kindly maternal direction of
these young women, and extend to them protection and
affectionate care, in order that they may remain virtuous
and exemplary Christians in the world. Moreover, they
help them to establish themselves in a position in life,
so as to aid their parents, and make some provision for
the future, by means of well-paid work, a life of order,
and habits of economy.
Young girls, having good references, are received, on
condition that they accept and submit freely to the
direction and advice of the Sisters of the community,
that they conduct themselves well, both within and
without the institution, and that they are disposed to
work and labour seriously for their own personal interest.
They make no engagement for any fixed time, and
remain always free to return to their families. The
young girls may, with the advice of their parents, work
either within the house, or in shops, manufactories, or
commercial or private houses. In the first case, the
community will endeavour to procure for them the most
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 387
profitable employment suited to their capacity, and they
may work on their own account.
If they prefer extern employment, they will be re-
commended to houses, where they will be respected, and
protected from danger, to the utmost. The community
will exercise a vigilant care over them, in which good
work they are assisted by Lady patronesses.
In every case, the young girls will return in the even-
ing to the convent.
Each girl is obliged to pay a small daily sum towards
her board and lodging ; the remainder of her earnings
is her own, and is reserved for her.
Attached to each of the convents of the congregation,
is a special home for governesses, and young "ladies
employed in commercial houses. This department is
entirely separated from that occupied by the workino-
girls. ^
This congregation has five houses in France ; namely,
Bourges, the mother house, and Paris, Toulouse, Lyons
and Angers ; and one house in England, No 48 Ken-
nington Oval, S.W.
The rule is that of Saint Ignatius.
SISTEES OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD.
This congregation was founded at Wexford, in 1871 by
the late Eight Eeverend Dr Furlong, bishop of Ferns
It is affiliated to the Order of St John of God, in Eome i
It has the same object the care of the sick of all
classes, especially the poor and ignorant, in hospitals
and in their own homes. The Sisters also take charge
ot Industrial Schools, or any other work of charity the
bishop of the diocese may approve of. Their vows are
perpetual, after two and a half years novitiate. To the
three ordinary vows they add a fourth, of devotino-
themselves to the sick poor, similar to that taken bv the
order of religious men.
1 Order of Saint John of God : vide supm.page 56.
388 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The mother house is in Wexford. The members of
this community have had several years training on the
Continent. They have charge of the Wexford Workhouse
Hospital, with two hundred patients. The young Sisters
are trained there. There are three branch houses
Kilmacthomas, county of Waterford ; Carrick-on-Suir,
county of Tipperary ; and New Ross, county of Wexford.
The Sisters at these places reside in the Workhouse
Hospitals, each community being under a Mother
Superior dependent on the Wexford house. They have
daily Mass, and are provided with suitable apartments,
and carry out their spiritual exercises in community.
They devote themselves to the care of the sick and
infirm, and the instruction of old people. Their zealous
labours are highly appreciated by the Poor Law In-
spector, a Protestant, who is anxious to see them estab-
lished in all the Workhouses in his district. The
mother house has applications from the Waterford,
Castlecomer, and other unions, to take charge of their
hospitals. Compliance with such applications is only a
question of time ; and, there is no doubt, this admirable
institute will, ere long, greatly extend its circle of
public usefulness.
The Wexford house has recently established a Home
for aged men and women, and opened a poor school, at
the desire of the bishop, to relieve the pressure on the
other schools in the town, which are overcrowded.
The rule is based on that of Saint Augustine.
NUNS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE.
This congregation was founded at Bruges, in 1841, by
the Very Reverend Canon Maes. Its object is tlu- care
and treatment of persons suffering from mental maladies,
of both sexes. There are three houses in Belgium
Bruges, Courtrai, and Cortenberg, and one in England
Saint George's Retreat, Burgess Hill, Sussex. The
mother house is Saint Julien's Hospice, Bruges. Each
STATISTICS OF .CONTENTS. 389
establishment is presided over by a Mother Superior ;
and there is a chaplain, who assists in the direction of
the house, in all matters which are beyond her power.
A physician also is attached to each house. At present,
the congregation has charge of 1600 lunatics.
The English establishment is situate on an estate of
more than two hundred and fifty acres, in a picturesque
and healthy neighbourhood ; and is easy of access, being
only forty miles from London, ten from Brighton, and
one mile and a half from the Burgess Hill station, on
the London and Brighton Kailway.
The nuns here, who have freely engaged to consecrate
their lives to this painful but most charitable ministry,
are, for the greater part, natives of the United Kingdom.
They have had many years' training, in the Asylums of
Canon Maes, in Belgium, where, among others, there
are several patients from England, Ireland, and Scotland.
Thus, while acquiring valuable experience in the best
method of treating the insane, the Sisters have had
ample opportunities for studying the different traits of
the respective national characters.
For a long time, such an institution, conducted by a
religious community, in England, was considered a great
want by several English Catholics, including the late
Cardinal Wiseman. In compliance with their wishes and
solicitations, Saint George's Retreat was established by
Canon Maes. It has accommodation for one hundred
and fifty patients ; and the sexes are so completely
separated, even in the chapel, that it may almost be
said to form two distinct establishments.
There is also a house for children of weak intellect,
or afflicted with idiocy. This building is capable of
containing more than fifty inmates, of both sexes.
These poor children, in an especial manner, experience
the benefits of being tended by Religious Sisters, who
watch over them with a mother's loving care.
Under the enlightened system of Canon Maes, nothing
is wanting to render the sojourn of the patients as agree-
390 TERIIA INCOGNITA.
able as possible. They are allowed all kinds of reasonable
recreation, such as games, readings, music, promenades,
carriage exercise, fishing and other sports these last,
of course, in cases where they would be unattended with
danger.
Families who are necessitated to place their relatives
under restraint, and who select this asylum, must derive
no small amount of consolation from the reflection, that
the afflicted ones, so dear to them, are under the care of
refined and educated ladies, who, having embraced this
laborious and most disagreeable state of life, not from
any earthly motive, but solely through the love of God
and of their neighbour, for His sake, devote their whole
energies, their talents, and their lives to lightening that
which is, perhaps, the heaviest burden imposed, in its
inscrutable designs by Divine Providence, on suileriug
humanity.
Although Saint George's Eetreat has been established
especially for Catholics, the house is open to all denomi-
nations the conscientious convictions of all being
scrupulously respected.
These nuns follow the rule of Saint Augustine.
SOCIETY OF MABIE RETARATBICE.
This congregation was founded at Strasbourg, in the
year 1857, by a Belgian lady, the Baroness d'Hoogh-
vorst, nee Comtesse d'Oultremont. Ten years before,
this pious lady became a widow, at the age of twenty-
seven. She had always entertained a strong devotion to
the Immaculate Conception ; and, on the proclamation
of that dogma, in December 1854, she first conceived
the idea of establishing her institute. It unites the
active and contemplative life. Its prominent character-
istic is the Daily Exposition, Adoration, and Benedic-
tion of the Blessed Sacrament ; nocturnal Adoration
being kept up, once a week, in all the houses where
there are sufficient members for the purpose. The
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 391
principal works carried on by the Society are Spiritual
Ketreats for women of all classes ; Eeligious Instruction ;
and Foreign Missions. Besides these, the nuns under-
take, according to the wants of each district where they
are established, such works as may contribute to the
sanctification and salvation of souls ; thus practically
fulfilling that mission of Eeparation, which is the end
and animating principle of their institute, and of each of
its members.
In the foreign missions, Hospitals for the sick are
attached to the several houses, and have been a fruitful
source of conversion, among Pagans, as well as Chris-
tians. Day schools are also formed, for the benefit of
the natives, as well as of the Christians of the different
localities.
The houses are governed by a Mother Superior General,
and, as a rule, are dependent upon the Society, for their
maintenance. However, many have been founded, and
are, in a great measure, maintained, by the charitable
gifts of friends. Offerings, in the form of annual sub-
scriptions or donations, are gratefully received, in each
house, towards the maintenance of the Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament. Needlework is one of the means
employed by the members of the Society to procure
funds.
There are two degrees the Choir Nuns, and the
Coadjutrices or lay sisters. The occupation of each
degree is defined by the Eules, which are taken from the
rule of Saint Ignatius, and are adapted to the special
end and works of the Society. The habit is white and
blue for the Choir Nuns, and black and blue for the Lay
Sisters.
There are nineteen houses of the institute, viz., Eome,
the mother house, where the Mother Superior General
resides ; Strasbourg ; Paris; Toulouse; Tournay; Nantes;
Le Mans ; Notre Dame de Liesse ; Pau; Liege ; Brussels;
Seville ; London ; British India, Madras Presidency, four
houses ; Saint Denis, He de la Eeunion ; and Mauritius.
392 TERRA INCOGNITA.
The London convent, Harley House, Marylebone Road,
N.W., was established in January 1863, at the desire of
His Eminence the late Cardinal Wiseman. Its special
works are, Daily Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament ;
Spiritual Retreats for persons of all classes ; Religious
Instruction ; and Foreign Missions.
SISTERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT, OR
SACRAMENTINES.
This religious order is fully described in its own
chapter. 1 It has one house in the United Kingdom
that of Taunton, Somersetshire.
NUNS OP THE PERPETUAL ADORATION OF TUB BLESSED
SACRAMENT.
This congregation was founded at Rock field, near
Wexford, in October 1874, under the superintendence of
the late Right Reverend Doctor Furlong, Bishop of
Ferns. Its objects are the perpetual adoration of the
Most Holy Sacrament; religious instruction and pre-
paration for Holy Communion, of all young persons con-
fided to the care of the nuns ; spiritual retreats for ladies,
one or more, who may wish to go through the exercises,
under the direction of the religious, in a house attached
to the convent ; and an annual general retreat for ladies,
'conducted by a Jesuit Father. The nuns also occupy
themselves in making vestments, to be disposed of at a
moderate price. In this convent, the perpetual adora-
tion is carried on, night and day, by the nuns, without j
external aid. The rule is modelled on that of Saint :
Ignatius.
THE POOR SERVANTS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD.
This congregation was founded in the year 184". in
the diocese of Posen, in Prussian Poland, by Edmund
Chapter XXXI I.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 393
Bojanowski, a Polish gentleman. The pious founder
afterwards prepared for Holy Orders ; but died, shortly
before the day fixed for his ordination, at the seminary
of Gnesen, in August 1871. The institute soon spread
into Silesia and Galicia, in each of which provinces there
is a novitiate and many branch houses. The mother
house is about ten miles from the city of Poseii. The
rule is based on that of Saint Ignatius.
The object of the congregation, in Poland, is, to estab-
lish small branch convents in places where larger houses
cannot be founded, for want of means. These are made,
as far as possible, self-supporting, by various industrial
works, which the Sisters undertake. They nurse the
sick ; teach schools ; and perform any other work of
mercy which the locality may require. They also take
care of the altars of the village churches. To some of
their houses are attached Cottage Hospitals. There are
about four hundred Sisters in the three provinces ; and
their Superior General is the venerable Cardinal Ledo-
chowski, Archbishop of Gnesen and Posen, recently im-
prisoned for the faith.
The congregation in England and Ireland, while
identical in spirit with, is quite distinct, in government,
from, that of Poland. It numbers seven houses ; viz.,
123 Mount Street, W., the mother house ; Prince's Kow,
Newport Market, Soho, W. ; Beaumont, Old Windsor ;
Victoria Eoad, Margate ; Clongowes, county of Kildare ;
the Crescent, Limerick ; and Carrigtuohil, county of Cork.
Here, also, the Sisters endeavour to make their houses
self-suppcfrting by industrial work. They teach schools ;
visit the poor; nurse the sick poor, in their own homes ;
and undertake any other duty required by the district
to which they are called.
THE HELPERS OF THE HOLY SOULS.
No doubt, my Protestant readers are familiar with the
Catholic doctrine, that there is a middle state after
394 TERRA INCOGNITA.
death, in which some of the souls of the departed are
detained, for a time, to suffer the temporal punishment
due to their sins, already remitted, by penance, as re-
gards their guilt and the eternal punishment deserved ;
and that, in this state, the suffering souls are aided by
prayers and other good works, offered up on their behalf
by their brethren on earth. In this spirit, was founded
the congregation of the Helpers of the Holy Souls,
whose mission it is to ' pray, suffer, and labour for the
souls in Purgatory.' *
The foundress, Eugenie Smet, was born, of a good
family, at Lille, on the 25th March 1825. When eleven
years old, she was sent to school at a convent of the
Sacrd Cceur. From her early childhood, she evinced a
singular devotion to the suffering souls in Purgatory.
This was her reigning thought her favourite topic of
conversation with her school companions, whom she used
to implore to join her in prayer and good works, offered
up for the liberation of the sufferers. As she grew up,
with each succeeding year, this feeling became stronger
within her, and she earnestly desired to establish a re-
ligious institute, which should be constantly occupied
in so great a work of charity.
After much difficulty and delay, she succeeded in
founding, with ecclesiastical sanction, 2 her first convent,
in Paris, in December 1856. The nuns, besides the
usual three vows, of poverty, chastity, and obedience,
take a fourth to pray, suffer, and labour for the souls
in Purgatory, and to offer up, in their favour, the satis-
factory, or atoning, part of their works of mercy, their
vows and prayers, and indulgences, applicable to them-
selves, both during their life and after death. They
also undertake the visitation of the sick poor in their
own homes, as a special duty of their institute. The
1 The motto of their congregation.
* That of Monseigneur Sibour, Archbishop of Paris. A few day
later on the 3rd of January 1857, this venerable prelate was assassi-
nated.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 395
rule is that of Saint Ignatius. Eugenie, taking the
uame in religion of Mother Mary of Providence, was
the first Mother Superior.
There are two classes of persons, living in the world,
associated to this congregation Lady Associates, and
Honorary Members.
The Associates bind themselves to ' pray, suffer, and
labour for the souls in Purgatory,' and to lead in the
world a serious Christian life, by the constant practice
of all the duties of religion, and by the greatest fidelity
to all the duties of their state. They also, according to
their opportunities, co-operate with the nuns in relieving
the sick poor, by visits, and contributions of money, food,
and clothing, for the purpose. They also recite certain
prescribed prayers, and bear with patience the trials and
sufferings of life ; offering all these pious practices for
the souls of the faithful departed.
The Honorary Members recite certain prayers, daily,
for the souls in Purgatory, and pay an annual subscrip-
tion of not less than five shillings.
There are two classes of religious in the congregation
the choir-nuns and the lay-sisters ; the latter being
chiefly employed in the domestic work of the convent.
The novitiate is for two years. There is only one house
of the congregation in the United Kingdom 23 Queen
Anne Street, Cavendish Square, established in the autumn
of 1873, with the approval of Archbishop, now Cardinal,
Manning
We have now gone through all the convents of the
United Kingdom. They are 561 in number; viz., 298
in Great Britain, and 263 in Ireland. On the whole,
the communities are larger in Ireland ; and therefore we
may estimate the number of nuns as about the same in
each country 4200 in Great Britain, and 4200 in Ire-
land. The exact number of nuns in each house cannot
be arrived at ; but, judging by several communities of
:'/.'; TERRA INCOGNITA.
which the numbers are known, we may consider this a
fair approximate estimate. 1
In the above enumeration, I have reckoned all branch
houses as distinct convents. For instance, the communi-
ties of the Sisters of Mercy in the Mercy Hospital, Cork,
and in the Cork Workhouse Hospital, are branch houses
of the convent of Saint Marie's of the Isle, being governed
by the Mother Superior of that house ; but, as they are
communities living apart and distinct, I have enumerated
them as separate convents.
It must be borne in mind that nuns are especially
required for the education of English Catholic fenmli-s,
inasmuch as Catholics deem the religious instruction of
their children at school an absolute necessity. In Ireland,
as the National Schools in Catholic districts are practi-
cally Catholic, the same necessity for nuns' schools does
not exist. However we are told by the Assistant Com-
missioners of Inquiry on Primary Education, as quoted
further on, that in Ireland convent schools are much
preferred, and are likely eventually to supersede all
others, lor Catholic children.*
A visit by the casual passer-by to any of the schools,
asylums, orphanages, hospitals, or other institutions,
administered by nuns in these countries, will tend more
to edify and instruct him than could any written or
verbal description. Besides, he will learn, in this case,
from the evidence of his own senses. He will not the
less appreciate all that he sees, when he reflects that
it is not the work of paid officials, but of ladies, who,
living on their own means, devote themselves to the
succour of their helpless, destitute, and suffering fellow
creatures, to the instruction of the ignorant, the reclaim-
ing of the fallen one, the extension of God's kingdom,
and the promotion of peace and good will among men.
1 This approximate estimate ia more accurate and reliable than that
in my first edition. The convent* in Great Britain are sub-divided a>
followB England and Wales, 276; Scotland, 22.
8 Chapter XXXV., Convent Primary Schools in Ireland.
STATISTICS OF CONVENTS. 397
Here some of my readers may say : ' All this is true :
we admire the devotion of these excellent ladies; we
admit that great good results from their labours; but
we ask you, how is it that convents are being just
now extensively suppressed in Italy, an exclusively
Catholic country ? '
To this the reply is simple and conclusive : The
enemies of the Holy See, who have seized on the patri-
mony of the Pope, and reduced the Holy Father to the
condition of a prisoner in his own capital, will, naturally
enough, assail those institutions of religious men and
women, which are so dear to him, and so essential to the
work of the Church over which he presides ; and they
assail them the more readily, that the property of the
religious corporations in Italy is, in the aggregate, very
large, and therefore a most acceptable acquisition to the
impoverished exchequer of the Italian Government.
In the British Islands, we are familiar with the two
great religious divisions of Protestants and Catholics.
In Catholic countries, the divisions are, Catholics and
Liberals. In the national literature, in the newspaper
press, and in the political arena, these two contending
parties are fully represented. The Continental Liberal,
it need hardly be observed, is a very different being
from those politicians to whom the designation is
applied in England. The Liberal party of Italy, by
whom His Holiness has been despoiled, are, it is well
known to all who are acquainted with the country, a
minority of the population ; but then they are a well-
organized, determined, energetic, and noisy minority.
The landed proprietor, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the
farmer, the agricultural labourer, all constituting the great
majority, are engaged in their several industries and
avocations, and -are not organized. Therefore, the
minority, whose policy it is to make themselves heard,
pass for much more than they really are ; and it is a
very great mistake to accept their views as the exponent
of the sentiments of the bulk of the population.
398 TERRA INCOGNITA.
In the German Empire and in Switzerland, the
Catholic Church is passing through trials still more
severe. In those countries, just now, a spirit of in-
tolerance prevails, which ill befits the latter end of
the nineteenth century. Where, on every side, we
behold venerable prelates, and priests innumerable,
heavily fined, and imprisoned, or exiled, the churches,
schools, and convents taken from their legal possessors,
and the laity thus deprived of the means of religious
worship, and the appliances of Catholic education, it
is not a matter of surprise that the several communities
of religious men and woman should also be despoiled,
and driven into exile. Thus, in all times and places,
the persecution of the Church necessarily involves the
persecution, spoliation, and dispersion of the religious
orders.
In the earlier pages of this book, we have traced
the history of the English Benedictine Nuns, and other
communities of religious women; we have seen the
severe ordeal of suffering and danger through which
they passed, especially at the period of the French
Kevolution; and we have beheld their ultimate
restoration, development, and prosperity. From these
precedents, we may augur similar triumphs for the
communities of holy women, in Continental countries,
whose devotion to the service of God and their neigh-
bour, and fidelity to the Church, have, in our days,
marked them out, as victims of tyranny and spoliation.
They too, in God's own time, will be restored ; and the
houses, of which they have been so unjustly deprived,
will resound once more with the hymn of praise and the
accents of prayer. There, the ignorant will again be
instructed, the sick, the afflicted, and the dying will
again find aid and consolation; and the plans of the
enemies of religion and humanity will, in this, as in the
former instance, be confounded ; thus proving that vain
are the devices of man against the designs of God.
( 399 )
CHAPTER XXXIV.
CONVENT ELEMENTARY AND TRAINING SCHOOLS IN
ENGLAND.
' I do not think it possible that public elementary education could
accomplish more than is effected in these schools and in others like
them. Any one acquainted, even superficially, with the daily life of the
children frequenting them, and with the influences habitually offered
by home example and street companionship, will be filled with admira-
tion of the teachers whose labour has achieved so much.'
Mr STOKES, Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools.
I NOW proceed to give a summary of the results of edu-
cation in Convent Elementary and Training Schools in
the North- Western Division of England, as certified by
Her Majesty's Inspector, whose reports (for the year
1870) are the more valuable that they are the last, thus
separately given, as all denominational inspection ceased
at the close of that year, under the provisions of the
Elementary Education Act, England and Wales, 1870. 1
The district in question embraces Lancashire, Che-
shire, Shropshire, and North Wales. Had the other
districts of England been under similar inspection,
doubtless, the convent elementary schools therein would
have been found to merit equally high commendation.
Speaking, with the experience of seventeen years, of
the Roman Catholic schools in his district, the Inspec-
tor 2 says :
Numerically the progress in schools has been great ; in
methods of teaching and results of instruction the progress has
1 33 & 34 Victoria, chap. 75.
2 Scott Nasmyth Stokes, Esq., Her Majesty's Inspector of Koman
Catholic Schools in the North- Western Division of England.
400 TERRA INCOGNITA.
been greater still. In 1853 only 28 schools were in receipt of
annual grants from the Committee of Council ; 26 of them em-
ployed pupil-teachers, and but 15 had certificated teachers. In
1870 more than 140 schools were under inspection for annual
grants, all conducted by certificated teachers, and most of them
also employing apprenticed pupil-teachers. In 1853 no facilities
existed for training teachers ; in 1870 there has been flourishing
for several years in Liverpool a training college for schoolmis-
tresses, which more than anything else has promoted the growth
of elementary education among the Roman Catholics of Great
Britain. In Lancashire lay most abundantly the materials of
increase, and in Lancashire the largest increase is found. No
part, perhaps, of that county exhibits more gratifying ]>
than Manchester and Salford, which in 1853 and I might fix a
later date than 1853 scarcely showed any satisfactory results of
education, but now enjoy the advantage of many excellent
schools, which, considering the class of children to be dealt with,
cannot anywhere be surpassed for efficiency. In Liverpool and
Preston less progress has been made since 1853, because there
was there less room for progress. On the whole, the number of
aided schools was multiplied fivefold in 17 years, and the increase
never stopped. 1
The training college for schoolmistresses here alluded
to is that conducted by the Sisters of Notre Dame, which
hereafter, we shall see, is more fully described in well
merited terms of unqualified praise.
Of the girls' schools recently visited by him, Mr
Stokes singles out, as ' having reached so high a stan-
dard of excellence as that their names deserve to be
recorded,' the following four, which are all conducted
by nuns: The Talbot at Preston, and Saint Ignatius's
at Preston, both by the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus ;
Saint Wilfrid'!, Manchester, by the Loreto nuns ; and
Saint John's, Salford, by the Faithful Companions of
Jesus. 2
He then assigns ' the first rank ' among infants'
schools, ' under very successful mistresses/ to the fol-
lowing :
The Talbot, Preston ; Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus.
1 'Report of the Committee of Council on Education 1870-71,'
p. 284. Ibid., p. 285.
CONVENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 401
Saint Ignatius's, Preston ; Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus.
Saint Wilfrid's, Manchester ; the Loretto Nuns.
Saint Patrick's, Manchester ; the Presentation Nuns.
Saint William's, Manchester ; Sisters of Notre Dame.
Saint John's, Salford ; the Faithful Companions of Jesus.
Eccles ; teachers not specified. 1
* I do not think it possible,' he continues, ' that public
elementary education should accomplish more than is
effected in these schools and in others like them. Any
one acquainted, even superficially, with the daily life of
the children frequenting them, and with the influences
habitually offered by home example and street com-
panionship, will be filled with admiration of the teachers
whose labour has achieved so much.' 2 He further tells
us that, among the many schools which he has not as yet
personally examined, there are, he doubts not, some of
merit equally high, which he would have had equal
gratification in naming, if he had recently enjoyed oppor-
tunities of testing them. 3
In his summary of general results, embracing an ex-
perience of seventeen years, we shall now see that nuns
are the great majority of those of whom honourable
mention is made, both as teachers of children and
trainers of schoolmistresses.
As a general result, the Roman Catholic schools of Lancashire
and Cheshire are entitled to the credit of having reared 58 per
cent, of the whole number of female pupil-teachers, who since
1862 have passed into the only training school for Roman Catholic
schoolmistresses, and 72 per cent, of those who gained the dis-
tinction of first class in the admission examination. In recog-
nition of the service rendered by schools in producing successful
pupil-teachers, and to stimulate the efforts of certain institutions
which appear backward in this respect, it may be useful to dis-
tribute the credit among those who have earned it. In order to
do this with an approach to fairness, it is necessary to show with
the names of the schools, not only the number of pupil-teachers
sent by each into the training school, but also the attendance of
children and the amount of grant awarded ; because the largely
1 'Report of the Committee of Council on Education, 1870-71,'
p. 285. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid.
2c
402
TERRA INCOGNITA.
attended and liberally aided schools ought to employ the greate*
number of pupil-teachers, and from amongst them to rear stt
dents for training in proportion to size and resources. In con
piling the following table, in which this is attempted, I hav
used the figures given in the Appendix to the Report of tb
Committee of Council on Education for 1869-70, and whereve
the school comprises a boys' department under a master, as we
as departments for girls and infants, 1 have reduced the attem
ance of children and the amount of grant by one-third, on th
assumption that the boys' room, where female pupil-teachers ai
not employed, has been attended by one-third of the who]
number of children, and earned one-third of the grant lu tb
last column I show the character of teachers employed in eac
school, that the services of the most successful may be recognize*
Return of Roman Catholic Schools which hate successfully prepa
Female Pupil-Teachers for the Training College, 1863-70
elusive :
1. LANCASHIRE. TOWN SCHOOLS.
Name of School.
Locality.
D
. .-.- t -
ot
; .. .
LiTerpool
St. Mary
St Peter
St. Anthony
St. Nichola.
St. Helen
St Thomas and
St. William
St. Thorn*.
Practicing School
St. Ann*
Holy Cro _
Newmham Street
Hawke Blmt
9t Chad.
8t Patrick
St. WilMd
St. Alphonaiu
St. Alban ....
St. Mary .
' :. -T
OldSwmn
Haigh Street!"
Stork Street _...
LireMy Street
John Street. ...
Ton man Street.!
t
189
ITS
1&5
138
100
176
124
88
158
149
M
S<H
SI
100
M
65
of Mercy.
ri -.':.-
tan of Notw
PrenutJonXun
Loreto Nan*.
Secular.
CONVENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 403
EETURN OF ROMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS continued.
Name of School.
Locality.
Chil-
dren.
Grant.
ill
Character
of
(Es
amated.)
IP
Teachers.
Preston
t. d.
St. Austin
Lark Hill
263
107
5
Fa thful Compa-
nions of Jesus.
St. Ignatius
Ignatius Square.
415
203
4
Sisters of the
The Talbot
Maudlands
503
271
3
Holy Child.
St. Wilfrid
Fox Street
281
147
1
if IP
St. Joseph.:
Ribbleton Lane..
184
63
1
Secular.
14
Salford
St. John
Cleminson Street
312
164
3
Faithful Compa-
St. Peter
Greengate
220
110
I
nions. ^
St. Helen's
Lowe House
Cowley Hill
23S
119
4
Sisters of Xotre
Dame.
Greenbank
St. Joseph
Liverpool Road..
Parr
146
228
67
113
3
3
Wigan
St. John
Dickinson Street.
279
140
3
u
St. Patrick
Scholes
303
106
4
Blackburn
St. Anne
Paradise Street..
291
]56
5
|f
St. Alban
Bolton
Penny Street
412
205
3
"
St. Peter and St.
Pilkington Street
194
94
3
Sisters of the
Paul
Holy Family.
Chorley
St. Marv
262
130
6
Secular. *
Oldham
Accrington
Warrington
Cardinal Street..
St. Oswald
King Street
244
172
200
138
83
92
4
2
Sisters of Mercy.
Secular.
II. LANCASHIRE. RURAL SCHOOLS.
Ashton-le-Willows.
i Hurst Green
146
113
78
51
Secular.
Hindley
Free Bhmdell (en-
dowed) ...
275
82
126
1
Towneley
Button, St. Anne...
Prescot
: :: ::: :::
151
121
122
83
68
45
Sisters of St. Paul.
404 TERRA INCOGNITA.
III. CHESHIRE AND NORTH WALES.
Chil-
dren.
Grant.
i*|
Character
Name of School
Locality.
I - -
of
" "
(K.-
imated.)
IS*
s* -
t. d.
Birkenhead, St.
Wedburgh and
8t Patrick
206
121
10
Faithful Compa-
nions and secu-
lar.
Maccleafleld
118
69
3
Secular.
Edjreley, Btockport
~
1M
1ST
75
fl
1
1
Holy well ^
101
45
I
Bitten of St Paul
In considering the details of the above table, two facts force
themselves upon our attention. First, it will be observed that
schools in Liverpool have supplied nearly one-half of the f fin ale
pupil-teachers qualified for admission to training, which serves
to measure the influence of the Liverpool Training College upon
the Roman Catholic population of the town. When the time
comes for founding a second female training college, I hope
its promoters will bear in mind the importance of selecting for
it a site resembling Liverpool in extent of population and num-
ber of primary schools. Another remark is this, that of the
successful pupil-teachers six times as many have been reared by
nuns as have been brought up by secular schoolmistresses. In-
deed this up-bringing of well-handled pupil-teachers is perhaps
the most useful of the school duties undertaken by nuns, and
the one in which the superiority of the results effected by their
labours is the most conspicuous. 1
THE LIVERPOOL TRAINING COLLEGE.
This College was founded at Mount Pleasant, Liver-
pool, in January 1856, for the purpose of training female
teachers for Catholic Elementary Schools. The work
was undertaken by the Sisters of Notre Dame, who
erected, at their own expense, in the year 1857, a build-
ing large enough to accommodate seventy resident stu-
dents. This proved sufficient for the wants of Catholic
1 ' Report of the Committee of Council on Education, 1870-71,' pp.
287, 288.
CONVENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 405
schools in Great Britain until the ' Elementary Educa-
tion Act, England and Wales, 1870,' came into opera-
tion. It was then found, that the supply of Catholic
female teachers would require to be doubled, in order
to meet the demand for their services in Catholic
schools. In 1871, twenty additional students were
received into training at Liverpool, under provisional
arrangements sanctioned by the Education Department.
In 1872, the College buildings were enlarged, so as to
provide accommodation for one hundred and twenty
students, which is the number actually (1875) occupying
the premises. Of these, sixty are in the second, and
fifty-nine are in the first, year of residence.
The rooms for practising schools within the buildings
contain 145 girls and 72 infants. There are also six
schools in the town of Liverpool, which the students
attend, and use as practising schools.
The work of the students is superintended by two
teachers of method, besides the mistress of the chief
practising school. These governesses direct the prepa-
ration of lessons, correct notes, and criticise the teach-
ing. The students, all pass, in their turns, through the
chief practising school, which is on the premises. Be-
sides the professional training, they pass through a regu-
lar course of industrial training. Instructions in practical
cookery are given in the kitchen of the Training College.
The students see there the mode of preparing different
articles of food, the process gone through by the cook
being explained by one of the governesses, upon the same
plan as that pursued at the School of Practical Cookery,
South Kensington. The kitchen is so arranged that
a class of thirty students seated opposite the large stove
can easily see all the operations performed on it. Every
one is required to write out the recipes, and to produce
an abstract of the lesson, after leaving the kitchen. 1
The total number of Catholic schoolmistresses
1 ' Report of the Committee of Council on Education (England and
Wales), 1874-75,' pp. 272-3.
406 TERRA INCOGNITA.
trained in the Liverpool College, since the first opening
of the institution, is 658 ; and a very large proportion of
these are still teaching in Catholic Elementary schools
in Great Britain.
The Reports of Her Majesty's Inspectors speak most
favourably both of the College itself and of the Home
for pupil-teachers, which is connected with it, and car-
ried on under the same management. This will be seen
in the following extracts from the Reports of the Com-
mittee of Council on Education, annually laid before
Parliament, and published in the blue-books :
Mr Lynch writes as follows, in 1869 :
The admirable institution for the training of female teachers,
which the Roman Catholics of England possess in the Normal
School at Liverpool, continues to send out, year after year, to
the schools of my district, young persons who have enjoyed
every advantage that the highest order of instruction can affonL
Their conduct and the examples they give in their varied
spheres of labour are proofs, if proof be needed, that an early
education in which religious influences are the bases, is as neces-
sary for the instruction of our teachers as it is for every class in
society.
Mr Stokes reports, in 1870 :
The Liverpool training school for Roman Catholic school-
mistresses is conducted by the same efficient staff and in the
same successful manner as in former years.
The exercises in reading and recitation and the model lessons
were generally satisfactory, and attained a high average of
merit As usual, the repetition, carefully studied under accom-
plished governesses, was superior to the reading, which cannot be
prepared beforehand with equally minute care. Several lessons
were given by each of the second year students, ranging from
infants on a gallery to the highest standard and the extra sub-
jects of the Code. The experience and practice acquired in seve-
ral of the large Liverpool schools are here of the utmost value.
The model lessons showed, as far as is possible for a test neces-
sarily artificial to show it, that the students had been thoroughly
well prepared to become teachers of elementary schools. At
the close of the official inspection, some of the students entertained
us with music and recitations. When I say the ' Holy Grail ' was
represented with intelligence and grace, I believe I shall have
CONTENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN ENGLAND. 407
shown that the instruction here is not limited to any dry and
narrow syllabus.
The Reverend H. Hughes, a clergyman of the Church
of England, observes, in his report, in 1873 :
Before quitting this subject (the Training of Pupil- Teachers),
I wish to bear testimony to the good work carried on in Liver-
pool by the Sisters of Notre Dame, in bringing up well-trained
pupil-teachers. At their convent in Mount Pleasant, to which
the Liverpool Training College is attached, they board about
fifty pupil-teachers, 1 gathered from different parts of the coun-
try, who are employed in schools, in the town, taught by the
Sisters. The plan, as it is here carried out, appears to be an ad-
mirable one, and, under fitting circumstances, well worthy of
adoption by other communities.
To these extracts may be added the following, from
the Eeport of the Reverend G. Steele, Her Majesty's
Inspector of Schools, in the Preston district of Lanca-
shire, an Anglican clergyman, on the work done by
religious teachers :
These establishments (the Preston Koman Catholic schools,
conducted by the Sisters of Notre Dame) are often very large,
and attended by the children of a very poor population ; but
the gentleness, skill, and devotion of the ladies who teach are
such, that the results are satisfactory and pleasing in the highest
degree. Since my acquaintance with these ladies and their
work, I have often thought how beneficial it would be if women
possessed of superior culture, manners, and position, should be
induced in other schools and denominations to devote themselves
to the education of the children of the poor. 8
THE TRAINING COLLEGE OF THE SACRED HEART,
WANDSWORTH.
This college was provisionally opened in the orphan-
age, Roehampton, by the Nuns of the Sacre' Coaur, in
February 1874. In the following August, it was
removed to the beautiful and salubrious site at West
Hill, Wandsworth, purchased by the Sisters for the
1 Since then, increased to one hundred and twenty.
3 'Report of the Committee of Council on Education, for 1872-73.'
408 TERRA INCOGNITA.
purpose. A practising school for girls and infants
has been erected, adjoining the College, at the Sisters'
expensa This school promises an abundant supply of
scholars. The College is intended to accommodate fifty
students.
It is considered that these two Training Colleges,
Liverpool and Wandsworth, will be fully equal to meet
the increased demand for trained pupil- teachers in the
Catholic female and infant schools of the country.
In conclusion, it may safely be affirmed that in all
Elementary schools, which are conducted by Nuns in
Great Britain, and enjoy the advantages of Government
aid and inspection, there will be found the same ' gentle-
ness, skill, and devotion of the ladies who teach," and the
same highly satisfactory results, as those so favourably
alluded to by Her Majesty's Inspectors in the North-
AVestern division of England.
(409)
CHAPTER XXXV.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
' The general character of the premises, the management, the prevail-
ing tone of the pupils, the self-sacrificing and well-directed zeal of the
Sisterhood, and the aggregate results of instruction all gave me the
utmost satisfaction.' JAMES STDART LAURIE, Assistant Royal Commis-
sioner of 1870.
THE latest authentic information about Irish Convent
Primary Schools is to be found in the full and interest-
ing Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry on
Primary Education, Ireland, 1870. 1
By that Report, it appears, that, in the year 1868,
there were in Ireland 229 Convent primary schools, with
an attendance of 44,023 children, being 9J per cent, of
all the children, or very little under one- fifth of all the
girls found attending the primary schools of Ireland, on
June 25 of that year. 2
Of these Convent schools, 133, with an attendance of
30,439 children, were in connection with the Board of
National Education; and 96, numbering 13,584 pupils,
were not connected with the Board. 3
There is a considerable increase in the number of
1 The Annual Reports of the National Board of Education give no
information on the subject. They do not even enumerate the Convent
National Schools, or distinguish them from the others.
2 Education Census in ' Report of Royal Commission of Inquiry on
Primary Education, Ireland, 1870,' vol. i., p. 258.
3 Ibid.
410 TERRA INCOGNITA.
convents since 1868, and, consequently, an increase in
the number of Convent primary schools. Of the actual
number of such schools, there is no official return. But
taking as our basis the return of 1868, and being aware
that the number of convents at present in Ireland is 263,
and, allowing for the fact, that some convents have two,
and some few three schools under their charge, we may
fairly estimate the present average attendance in the
Convent primary schools of Ireland at over 50,000
children.
The Report of the Commissioners of National Educa-
tion in Ireland, for the year 1874, gives the average
daily attendance in all the schools under the Board,
in the year 1874, as SOS.SUO. 1 The Report does not
inform us how many of these are males, and how many
females. We may, however, take the latter at 200,000.
Deducting, from these, 35,000 girls attending Convent
schools in connection with the Board, we have the fol-
lowing figures :
Girls attending the ordinary National schools, 165,000
Girls attending Convent schools, . . 50,000 2
There is one peculiarity in the Convent schools, to
which it is well to direct attention. They are much
larger than ordinary schools ; or rather they severally
consist of a number of large classes, which are taught in
separate rooms, and each of which, strictly speaking,
forms a school in itself.
This will be seen in the Average Numbers in Attend-
ance, as ascertained by the Education Census, on June
25, 1868: s
1 ' Forty-First Report of the Commissioners of National Education
in Ireland,' for 1874, p. 6.
1 In Convent schools, in connection with Board, . 35,000
,, not connected ,, ,, . 15,000
1 'Royal Commission of Inquiry, Report, 1870,' vol. L, p. 258.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
411
PEOVINCES.
ll
Convent National
Schools.
Non-National Con-
vent Schools.
d
||
s
M
1
Private Schools.
Ordinary Nat
Schools exclus
Convent Sch
Assisted.
P
Ulster
Munster .
Leinster .
Connaught
Grand Total in
Ireland
52-2
169-0
162-0
34-6
226-3
29-7
21-0
80-8
2921
231-6
21-5
301-6
31-7
32-0 ,
59-0
221-0
95-4
21-2
237-0
30-2
25-4
28-0
52-4
242-5
86-4
20-1
154-3
27-0
60-3
243-5
141-7
27*0
260-0
301
27-2
From the figures in this table, it appears that all the
Convent schools, National and Non-National, had an
average attendance of 192 on the day of the census.
This is more than three times the average of the ordinary
National schools ; so that, in point of number of pupils,
the 229 Convent were equal to 733 National schools.
Each Convent numbers several members in com-
munity, who take charge of the schools, assisted by
teachers and monitresses, whom they pay. To this
purpose they devote the aid which they receive from
the National Board. The payment of teachers and
monitresses is a heavy charge on the income of con-
vents which are not in connection with the Board.
There are well-grounded complaints of the small
grants made by the Board to Convent schools, as
compared with those made to the ordinary National
schools the former receiving not quite one-fourth
of the amount received by the latter, on an equal
number of pupils.
In Convent schools, salary is paid by the Board accord-
ing to a per-centage of the average attendance ; viz. : a
1 The Board's Return to Koyal Commissioners of Inquiry, ' Report,
1870,' vol. vii.,p. 483.
412 TERRA INCOGNITA.
For 50 average daily attendance, 10.
100 - 20 Increase per cent.
2( Increase per cent.
: ;; ;; mi l7 '* r annum -
Above 600 I Increase P er cent -
} 15 per annum.
In the ordinary National schools, salary is paid
by the Board according to the classification of
teachers. 1
Let us submit both to the test of figures.
We have seen that the average daily attendance in
the National schools of Ireland, in 1874, was 395,390.
From this we may deduct 35,000, as the average
attendance at the Convent schools in connection \vitli
the Board, and, further, 2000 male Children, under
monastic teachers, in connection with the Board,
receiving the same scale of grants as Convent schools.
This gives us the average attendance in all the National
schools, exclusive of Convent and Monastic, as
358,390.
The total amount paid by the Board to National
schools in Ireland, in 1874, was 401,535. 2 From this
sum let us deduct 100,000 paid for results, 3 and we
have the total paid tor salary 301,535. Of this
amount, according to the capitation scale, above ?iven,
the Convent and Mouastic schools received only 7400.
The figures will then stand thus :
1 AB my readers are aware, in all the schools, the salaries are supple-
mented by an additional payment for Result*, ascertained by examina-
tion of the pupils. This item at present amounts to about one-third of
the sum paid for salaries.
1 ' Forty-drst Beport,' p. 43. This sum is for the payment of
teachers, monitors, and work mistresses of ordinary National schools,
and is wholly exclusive of disbursements for model schools, training
monitors, retiring gratuities, and other similar objects.
* The amount awarded for Results in the year ended 31st March
1874, was 101,620; and for the year to 31st March 1875, 117,931.
Report, p. 17.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
413
Average
Attendance
of Pupils in
1874.
Amount of
Board's Grant
to Teachers
in 1874.
Board's Grant
per Pupil
National Schools, exclusive )
of Convent and Monastic j
358,390
.
294,135
s. d.
16 5
Convent and Monastic Na- )
tional Schools . . )
Total .
37,000
7,400
4
395,390
301,535
15 3
Here, we perceive that Convent National schools do
not receive from the Board, for the payment of teachers,
quite one-fourth of the annual aid per pupil that is
received in the ordinary National schools.
In this comparison, the amount earned in the Eesults
examinations is omitted, for the obvious reason that it is
a fluctuating sum, altogether depending on the pro-
ficiency of the pupils. In these examinations, some of
the Convent schools acquit themselves very creditably,
and thus earn a considerable additional sum, towards
the payment of assistant teachers and monitresses.
Again, as, through conscientious reasons, the Nuns
object to their schools being vested in the Board, they
receive no aid whatever from the Commissioners towards
building and repairs.
The observations of one of the Assistant Commis-
sioners on these points are especially deserving of atten-
tion :
Three grievances against the National Board were laid before
me by nuns (says Mr Balmer 1 ). One relates to the strict separa-
tion of secular and religious instruction ; the other two are
pecuniary. Although none of the religious would be willing to
vest their schools in the National Commissioners, they think it
hard that they can obtain no assistance towards the repair of
buildings, which, from the number of their scholars, are neces-
sarily much more extensive, and involve a greater expense to
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. ii., p. 470. Report of J. Percival Balmer, Esq.,
Assistant Commissioner.
414 TERRA INCOGNITA.
keep them weather-proof than other schools. The Sisters of
Mercy at Killarney, whose school-rooms are at a considerable dis-
tance from the convent, and are the worst belonging to a religi-
ous community which I saw in Kerry, made a formal complaint,
in writing, on this head.
The third grievance (of which the Sisters at Listowel were the
chief exponents, and which was also referred to by the Presenta-
tion Monks at Killarney, who are on the same footing, in respect
of salary, as nuns), relates to the salary allowances made by the
National Board However Urge the staff of Sisters teaching in
the school, the amount of allowance depends on the average
number of pupils in attendance. To entitle a Convent school to
a grant of ,20 per annum the ordinary salary of a female teacher
in the first division of the third class it must have an average
daily attendance of a hundred scholars, that is, of nearly three
times as many as the minimum number (thirty-five), which is the
condition of salary being granted to an ordinary school.
The efficiency of Convent schools depends in great measure on
the large staff of Sisters and monitresses who are engaged in the
work of education, and a sense of this heightens the grievance.
Fully impressed with the justice and expediency of
altering this state of things, the Royal Commissioners of
Inquiry recommend : l
That henceforth the distinction between Convent schools and
ordinary schools should cease.
That all teachers, religious as well as lay, should give proof
of their competence to teach before they are entitled to class
salary.
That the teachers in Convent schools should be examined and
classed like other teachers.
With a view to meeting the difficulties, and satisfying
the objections to this proposed change, that would
naturally arise, in some convents, the Commissioners
further recommend : s
That the National Board should make suitable arrangements
for conducting the examination of members of religious bodies
who desire to be classed as teachers.
That arrangements should be made for examining nuns who
belong to the enclosed orders in their own houses.
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. i., p. 629. Ibid.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND. 415
In those orders and congregations in which each com-
munity is self-governing, such as the Nuns of the Pre-
sentation, the accepting or not of State aid for educa-
tional purposes is discretional with each convent ; but
in those governed by a generalate, such as the Irish
Sisters of Charity, there is one and the same general
rule, uniformly observed, in this, as in all other par-
ticulars, by all the convents of each institute. 1
Even where State aid is accepted by Nuns for their
schools, it is accepted reluctantly, and simply as a
matter of absolute necessity. Indeed, in some very
poor districts it is sometimes dispensed with; and this,
through conscientious motives. Let us hope that all
the objectionable conditions and restrictions which it at
present imposes will ere long be removed, in accordance
with the suggestions of the Commissioners of Inquiry,
and that thus not only will convents receiving State aid
be placed on an equality with other National schools,
but all convents will be able to place themselves in con-
nection with the Board of National Education.
The nuns complain bitterly (says Mr Coward), 2 of being ob-
liged, during school hours, to avoid all mention of religion, that
is, of anything distinctively Catholic, and of being unable to use
any of the symbols of their faith, except at stated times. The
Crucifix and the image of the Blessed Virgin have each their
respective cupboards, and are displayed only twice a day, being
carefully hidden out of sight when the time for secular instruc-
tion recurs. The Superior of the Kinsale Convent, to which a
large National school is attached, told me that she always felt
humiliated to be obliged to close the doors of the cases in which
those objects are kept. It looked to her like slighting and mak-
ing of secondary importance things which should be supreme ;
and all, both monks and nuns, agreed in saying that the effect on
the children is not good, for it has a tendency to make religion in
their eyes a thing for certain times and hours, and not, what it
should be, an atmosphere in which to live. The regulation which
prohibits any allusion to religion during the hours of secular in-
1 Vide supra, p. 143.
2 'Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. ii., p. 121. Report of W. Scott Coward, Esq., Assis-
tant Comnr'ssioner.
416 TERRA INCOGNITA.
struction removes all the opportunities which occur continually
during the course of a day for instilling religious principles into
the minds of the young, who, thus taken unawares, are more im-
pressionable than when they are set formally to learn a lesson in
Catechism or Scripture History at a stated hour. Such are the
complaints of the ' religious,' and I own I cannot see that they
are merely sentimental or unfounded.
Somewhat similar are the observations of Mr Balmer,
who sums up as follows : l
In schools where the religion of all the pupils is the religion of
the teacher, as is practically the case not only in Conventual, but
nearly all other National schools in Kerry, it is not strange that
the restraint of rules imposed for the protection of a possible
minority, which will probably never have existence is felt to be
galling. In this sense the rules of the National Board, relating
to religious instruction, are deemed inapplicable to the circum-
stances of most National schools in Kerry, at least by the Roman
Catholic clergy and religious. In no other sense was any state-
ment ever made to me as to their rules being inapplicable to the
circumstances of any particular school.
It may be well to direct attention here to two import-
ant facts : First, that all Convent schools are essentially
denominational, and are universally considered to be so ;
and, secondly, that they are much preferred, by all
Catholic children and their parents, to the 'ordinary
National schools.
With respect to the first, Mr Richmond observes :
I find it impossible to regard them as other than denomina-
tional institutions. The Convent schools which I saw are iixlee-l
all in receipt of State aid, and subject to the regulations and re-
strictions of the National system ; but, as I have endeavoured to
show, their position in the system is altogether anomalous and
unnatural. They writhe under the fetters which the National
Board imposes upon them, because in their case these fetter*
answer no practical purpose. Within the walls of a Convent, re-
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. ii., p. 469. Report of J. Percival Balmer, Esq., Assis-
tant Commissioner.
1 Ibid., p. 241. Report of D. C. Richmond, Esq., Assistant Com-
misaioner. To the same effect are the observations of Mr Cumin,
Assistant Commissioner. ' Report,' vol. ii., p. 332.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND.
417
gulations for the protection of Protestant consciences are useless,
and therefore vexatious.
With respect to the second fact namely, that Con-
vent schools are much preferred by Catholic children
and their parents to ordinary National Schools, the
following observations of Mr Coward are alike interest-
ing and suggestive : l
Now, while it is quite true, generally, that the National schools
are the most numerous, and provide most largely for the educa-
tional wants of the country, it must not be forgotten that educa-
tion, to a great extent, is furnished by the religious orders, which,
in all the provincial towns which I visited, absorb entirely female
education, while in Cork, although as yet unable to accomplish
as much as that, they have more than half of the young Catholic
population in their schools. The greater number of those schools,
it is true, are in connection with the Board of Education, and
therefore count as National schools, but it must be owned to be
the National system in a modified form, not indeed modified by
any relaxation of their rules, but as regards the teachers, and the
principle of extending aid to them.
It may not be uninteresting to glance by way of contrast at
the comparative number of children in the two classes of schools,
the ordinary National and the conventual schools of all kinds.
In five districts, the schools which I visited had on their rolls
16,883 names, and of that number the large proportion of 10,316
belonged to the schools of the different religious orders, or nearly
63 per cent. In this calculation I have included rural schools ;
had I confined myself to the towns the proportion would have
been much higher. The details of each are given in this table :
LOCALITY.
Total Number
on Rolls of
Schools of
all classes.
Number on
Rolls of
Conventual
Schools.
Cork City (and four schools in neigh- )
bourhood) . . . . . j
Queenstown .....
11,720
1,156
1 348
7,759
683
850
Kinsale . .
1 409
541
Skibbereen
1 250
483
Total 2
16,883
10,316
1 'Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland,' vol. iL,
p. 100.
8 In this total all schools are excluded except those of the National
Board and the religious orders.
2 D
418 TERRA INCOGNITA.
These figures are suggestive of the influence which these orders
possess in the towns, and, because the towns are the centres of
the life of a country, in society at large. It is an influence, how-
ever, for which the country should be grateful, since it is one
which, whatever defects may be observable in their schools, is
always exercised for good.
The religious orders have been, or are being, introduced every-
where in the south of Ireland by the bishops, with the view of
supplying as much as possible a system with more of the religious
element in it than the National schools possess. Nuns, being
more numerous than monks, were more easily planted in all the
towns, so that I am not aware of any provincial town in Cork in
which there is not a convent and a convent school. But religious
communities of men being fewer, the difficulty of supplying ' re-
ligious ' to teach boys' schools was greater, and their progress has
been consequently slower than the nuns'. Still it is not sus-
pended, and the Christian brothers will in time supplant in the
towns of Cork all the National schools. It is to be hoped that
by that time their schools will also bear that name. It is an
easy thing to introduce these orders in any locality, as the Irish
feeling in their favour in strong enough to insure them immediate
success. It is not wonderful that this is so, for there is, first,
the reverence, the unusual reverence, which the Irish entertain
for any who have given up the world, and have dedicated them-
selves to the service of God, whether as priest, monk, or nun.
Any one wearing the religious dress is an object of respect ; but
when, in addition, there are the accompaniments of superior
education and manners, unrecompensed service in behalf of
others, the care of the poor and the sick, and sympathy and gentle-
ness of word and action, the feeling of reverence soon grows into
affection.
The nuns combine all those recommendations in themselves.
They attract the children by their kindness of manner, by the
comfort of the rooms in which they teach them, and by the gifts
of food and clothing which are frequently given by the convents.
In several convents it is a daily practice to give a slice of bread
to the poor little creatures, who would otherwise go fasting for
hours. In one convent school, conducted by the Irish Sisters of
Charity, I saw a whole pile of little frocks, boots, &c., &c., which
had been made for distribution among the children. Then the
elder girls are able to fall back on the convents for help when out
of place ; they secure situations through them, and seem to
regard the nuns pretty much in the light of mothers. It is not
an unfrequent thing to see in the workroom of a convent, girls
of twenty or more who are allowed to remain at, or return to,
school until they can find employment The habits of greater
neatness and cleanliness, and the modest and quiet manners
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND. 419
which are acquired by the girls at the convent schools, are also
great attractions to the people ; and, above all, the religious part
of their education is what is most prized. The same reasons which
operate in favour of the Convent schools, will also account for the
influence of the Christian Brothers, and the Presentation Monks.
To any one residing in the neighbourhood of a con-
vent, all this is nothing new. Indeed, from my own
extensive experience, I might have simply stated all
that is contained in the copious extracts I have made
from the several reports, thus far quoted. But I feel
that the evidence of any private individual, no matter
how impartial, must necessarily fall very short, in effect,
of the testimony of official witnesses, gentlemen of
marked ability and high character, appointed by Govern-
ment, and eminently qualified, to rigidly and thoroughly
investigate, and report upon, the whole subject.
Another important fact, a natural consequence of the
last referred to, and a strong argument in favour of the
encouragement of Convent schools, is, that the attend-
ance in them is more regular than in ordinary National
schools :
The attendance of the children was more regular than the
average attendance at ordinary schools. For this there were
various causes. The situation of the convents themselves was*
generally favourable, and the children, coining as they did mostly
from towns, were not apt to be taken away by such a variety of
causes as affect them in the rural districts. As a general rule also,
the priests worked very cordially with the nuns, and did their
best to secure for them a good and regular attendance. Roscrea
may be taken as a favourable average of the attendance at Con-
vent schools, from these and other reasons. Here the roll was
326, and the numbers present on the day of my visit were 242, or
above 74 per cent. In this school the nuns required, when a
child. had been absent, that the mother or guardian should come
with her when she returned to school. Without this the child
was not re-admitted. This at first sight might seem likely to
deter children from returning to school at all, but here the
priest's influence came into play, and his visits to the houses of
the people, and his injunctions from the altar, had the effect of
inducing the parents to send their children to the school. The
children also were tempted to regular attendance by various
temporal advantages. The poorer sort received good food and
420 TERRA INCOGNITA.
clothing. The nuns were enabled to afford them these advan-
tages in consequence of their having a large boarding school.
The girls in it paid a considerable sum for their living and edu-
cation, and their cast-off clothes and the food that they left were
made useful for the day school. 1
The evidence of the other Assistant Commissioners is
to the same effect. The attendance here stated 74 per
cent, of the numbers on the rolls is perhaps exception-
ally large. Certainly, the average attendance at all the
Convent schools may be taken at over 50 per cent, of
the numbers on the registers, and the same at all the
National schools is only 39'28 per cent.*
Surely, institutions, so readily and so largely attended
for the purposes of education, ought to stand, as regards
State aid, on a perfect equality with other primary
schools. For this end, two things are strongly recom-
mended by the Royal Commissioners of Inquiry of 1870;
and these are first, the removal by the Legislature of
all impolitic and unnecessary restrictions and conditions;
and, secondly, the co-operation of the religious them-
selves, in undergoing examinations for certificates of
competency as teachers, as is done by a great number of
nuns in England. These examinations could be held in
the convents ; and any other desirable arrangement
could be made, to suit the convenience of the nuns.
Then, in some convents, there are already training
schools ; and these might be extended and increased in
number. Bearing in mind the immense good effected
by convent primary schools, and the decided preference
they enjoy over all other primary schools, it is not too
much to expect that the Legislature, as suggested by
the Assistant Commissioners, should do much more
than it has hitherto done to promote their efficiency.
1 'Roynl Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland,
Report, 1870,' vol. ii., p. 497. Report of Thomas Harvey, Esq , As-
bistant Commissioner. - .
* Total number of pupils on the roll, in 1874, . . 1,006,511
Average daily attendance, in 1874, .... 395,390
Report, pages 4 and 6.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND. 421
Let us now examine the quality of the education
given in the Convent schools of Ireland.
For the main function of education the formation of
character moral training, the implanting of habits of
order and neatness, the civilizing influence of the good
ladies who act as teachers, these schools are highly
praised, and their superiority is admitted by all officials.
But in certain details of secular instruction, especially
arithmetic, some of them are not, in the eyes of the
Assistant Commissioners, as efficient as is desirable, or
as they would be, if the teachers were trained mistresses.
Some Convent schools, it is true, are fully equal to the
best of the ordinary National schools, in point of secular
instruction. One Convent school, certainly, that of Kin-
sale, is, in this respect, generally reputed to be superior
to any National school. But some of the Convent
schools are undoubtedly deficient. There is not that
uniform efficiency in secular teaching, which can be
made sure of only by a staff of trained mistresses. In
all Convent schools, the moral training and religious
culture are excellent. In some, the secular teaching
might be improved.
The following items of official evidence on these
points, will, I doubt not, be no less interesting than
useful :
' The Convent schools in my district were all connected with the
National Board ' (says Mr Harvey). ' They were subject in virtue
of this connection to the rules applicable to non-vested schools,
and the aid that they received from the State was limited to
salary and inspection. The salary was dependent on the number
of the children, and not on the classification of the teachers.
Monitors, however, employed by the religious community were
paid in the usual way by the State.
' Reading was the strong point in the Convent schools, and the
least satisfactory was arithmetic. In all the usual subjects, how-
ever, the teaching and the results generally were good. I should
not be inclined to place the schools, in quality of education, on
the same level with the very best of the ordinary National
schools Roscrea, for instance, or Geashill, or Longford but
below these they occupied a high place. Of one part of the
422 TERRA INCOGNITA.
education I can hardly estimate the effect, namely, of the per-
sonal character and example of the nuns on their pupils. But
this should certainly be taken into account ; and my own feeling
was that it would be hard to exaggerate its benefit to the children
in after life. There seemed to exist a great degree of cordiality
between the teachers and the girls.
' In the infant schools there were, as I have said, both boys and
girls between three and seven years old. In some convents they
were taught separately. These schools served very much as day
nurseries to relieve the parents of the charge of their children.
Even in this respect they were most valuable institutions, as
they kept the infants out of harm's way, and secured for them
an amount of attention, cleanliness, and comfort which they
could hardly expect at home. But they were much more than
nurseries ; they were actually seminaries, in which the children
without effort learned habits of obedience and discipline, and in
which they insensibly acquired a great deal of actual know
ledge.' l
Whilst Mr Coward finds fault with the deficiency of
the children in arithmetic in several of the Convent
schools in his district, he specially notices the supe-
riority of the reading :
The reading of the children attending the Convent and Chris-
tian Brothers' schools was better than 1 found it elsewhere, which
is due to the members of those bodies being of a better class of
society, or to their more careful study of the rules for reeling.
The best reading I heard was in the Kinsale Convent school ; it
was good in every class, and might be well imitated in some of
our best English poor schools. 8
' The best reading is in general to be met with in Convent
schools,' says Mr Balmer. ' It is more intelligent, because punc-
tuation is better attended to. At the same time, the superior
taste of the teachers has kept it free from the droning monotony
which is common in rural districts.' 3
Mr Balmer is particularly struck, as indeed are the
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. iL, p. 497. Report of Thomas Harvey, Esq., Assistant
Commissioner.
8 Ibid., p. 132. Report of W. Scott Coward, Esq., Assistant Com-
missioner.
8 Ibid., p. 461. Report of J. Percival Balmer, Esq., Assistant Com-
missioner.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND. 423
other Assistant Commissioners, by the ' superior cleanli-
ness and neatness of the children in Convent schools '}
The superior cleanliness and neatness of the girls in Convent
in comparison with those in ordinary National schools, is evident
immediately on entering. In many convents it is the rule that
all the pupils should wear a white pinafore or check bib. This
uniformity is, to a great extent, secured at the cost of the com-
munity.
So interesting is the following official account of what
may be regarded as a model Irish Convent school, that
I do not hesitate to lay it in extenso before my readers :
I cannot forbear giving here a short account of the Kinsale
Convent School, of which frequent mention is made in this re-
port, as it shows what might be done for education in the Con-
vent schools. It forms part of the buildings which belong to the
Sisters of Mercy, and which comprise, besides the school, the
convent itself and an orphanage. 2 The buildings are well
situated in every respect, and the school-rooms, three in number,
besides two class-rooms, are lofty, well ventilated, lighted, and
furnished, and patterns of neatness and order. Apparatus of all
kinds is plentiful and good. In one of the school-rooms are
glass-cases containing geological and other specimens. The
school was just re-opened after the holidays, and the attendance
was therefore not so good ; 313, however, were present, of whom
86 were infants between two and five years old. The Superior
takes charge of the infants of working-women during the clay.
There was a little bed in a corner of the infants' room, in which
they are put to sleep. There is a room in which the girls who
come late to school and are too old to be classed with the others
are taught, the object being to give them as much instruction as
will enable them to read their prayer-books and write fairly, but
they are taught needlework carefully. It is a plan very commonly
followed in the convents.
I examined girls of every class, and found them all soundly
taught, the greatest success being attained in the junior classes.
I was particularly pleased with the instruction of the infants,
who were the best instructed I met with anywhere, coming quite
up to those in the best English Roman Catholic infant schools.
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. ii., p. 470. Report of J. Percival Balmer, Esq.,
Assistant Commissioner.
2 There is also a flourishing Certified Industrial School, with 137
424 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Discipline was admirably maintained throughout every class. I
saw a large number of girls writing, and their simultaneous obe-
dience to the directions of the nun iu charge, given by signs, was
done with military precision. The eyes of the girls were fixed
on their work ; they were minding their business although a
stranger was present. Organization seemed to be fully attended
to. Each class had its portion of the reading lesson for the week
written on a card with the monitor's name upon it, so that every
girl knew by looking at the card where she would begin on Mon-
day, and how much she would do during the week.
Needlework, plain and fancy, was very carefully taught ; lace-
making seemed to be also taught with success, but I was pleased
to see that the majority were learning plain sewing. The girls of
the fourth and fifth classes had each a little bag or case in which
samples of work were kept, which were exhibited to me by
each girl, who is subjected to a similar overhauling periodically
by the Mother Superior. Each girl had also a case in which she
kept her exercise, account, and other books, all with greatest
neatness. The girls are taught accounts sufficient for domestic
purposes. Details were so carefully attended to that one felt
fun tide ut in the excellence of the whole.
Original composition is regularly practised, and the girls (the
upper ones) have acquired a considerable facility in writing letters.
Particular care is paid to the instruction of the monitors, who
compose the fifth class. Their instruction is conducted with
the view to make them efficient teachers, and so they receive a
kind of training better than most of their class. Most of the
female National teachers have been monitors in the nuns'
schools, and in this respect it is important that the nuns should
be rendered more efficient than they are, since they thus not
only directly act on the education of the country, but indirectly,
by forming the minds and characters of its secular teachers. Iu
seven schools there were no less than seventy-three monitors ;
this is a sufficiently large number to make the question of their
education an important consideration. 1
Several of the Assistant Commissioners direct atten-
tion to the fact, that nearly all the monitresses and
teachers in the female National schools in Ireland have
been educated in Convent schools. 8 This is an additional
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Re-
port, 1870,' vol. il, p. 102. Report of W. Scott Coward, Esq., Assistant
Commissioner.
1 In addition to this, it may be well to mention here that a consider-
able number of the teachers of female primary schools in the United
States are ex-pupils of Irish Convent schools.
CONVENT PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IRELAND. 425
argument in favour of the recommendation of the Eoyal
Commission of Inquiry, that Nuns teaching in State-
aided primary schools should pass an examination, and
gain certificates of competency in secular instruction. 1
The carrying out of this suggestion would be greatly
facilitated by the State adopting the further recom-
mendation of the Royal Commissioners, that encou-
ragement and liberal aid should be given to the
establishment and maintenance of Denominational
Training Schools throughout the country. 2 Thus,
training colleges could be established in connection
with convents in some of the large towns ; as is the case
with the highly successful training establishment of the
Sisters of Notre Dame in Liverpool, already described.
The course of training, then, would be within a con-
vent ; and there appears to be no reason why the
examination of all Nuns, for certificates, should not
be within the convent enclosure.
The establishment by Nuns df intermediate schools in
the several country towns, thus supplying the educa-
tional wants of a class previously unprovided for, has
been alluded to in complimentary terms by more than
one of the Assistant Commissioners. The profits of
these pay-schools are generally used for the benefit of
the poor children attending the primary schools.
This chapter may be well closed with the following
handsome testimony to the merits of Irish Convent
primary schools, by Mr Laurie, Assistant Eoyal Com-
missioner :
Before leaving this section of my subject, I feel constrained to
make some reference, however brief, to Convent schools, of which
I had the pleasure of seeing six samples. These are, of course,
confined to girls' and infants' departments ; they are held with-
in the convent walls, and they are managed by the Roman Catho-
1 Vide supra, p. 414.
2 ' Report of Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ire-
land, 1870,' vol. i., p. 531.
3 Vide supra, p. 404.
426 TERRA INCOGNITA.
lie Sisterhood exclusively. Having accepted the Board principle
of separatism, in regard to the religious instruction, they are
virtually National schools, and a signboard outside (not always
in the most conspicuous place) publishes the fact. Referring to
those visited by me, viz., St. Mary's and Presentation Con-
vents of Limerick city, Adare, Newcastle West, Ennis, and
Rathkeale I may state that they are not made use of by Pro-
testants ; but, inasmuch as they are limited to towns, this is
a matter of no moment. The Sisterhood, being a self-support-
ing institution, and, for excellent reasons, strictly unmercenary,
the Board grants are awarded, as a help towards the school ex-
penses, in accordance with a fixed scale of percentage on the
average attendance. I may here state, once for all, that, not-
withstanding their special character, these schools are doing
a good work, and amply justifying the Board's concession
in their favour. The general character of. the premises, the
management, the prevailing tone of the pupils, the self-sacri-
ficing and well-directed zeal of the Sisterhood, and the aggregate
results of instruction all gave me the utmost satisfaction.
Even supposing I had all the required data at hand, I should
probably decline to institute any comparison, in respect of
technical proficiency, between these and other more general
schools. I will merely record that they are free from the
blemishes of the ordinary National school, to which I have
already adverted. The points of superiority which is, after all,
a proof of culture on the part of the managing staff are : man-
ners and discipline, organization, cleanliness, ventilation, -
liness, and cheerfulness. All branches of band-work, such as
sewing, drawing, penmanship, and, particularly, exercise-books,
fee., are carried out on the most correct plan, and with the most
gratifying proficiency. 1
1 ' Royal Commission of Inquiry, Primary Education, Ireland, Ke-
pprt, 1870,' voL ii., p. 802. Report of James Stuart Laurie, Esq., As-
sistant Commissioner.
(427)
CHAPTER XXXVI.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
"There is nothing more certain than that first offences may, by
proper treatment of the offenders, be also made last offences. "
LORD BROUGHAM.
PERHAPS there are no more beneficial Acts in our Statute
Book than the Reformatory and Industrial Schools Acts.
That the classes, formerly either wholly neglected in
our legislation, or mentioned only with a view to their
being hunted down and extirpated, should now be so
wisely and humanely dealt with that their wants,
physical and moral, should be so generously and
judiciously provided for that the children of poverty
and ignorance, who, if left to themselves, must in-
evitably be absorbed in our criminal population, are
now carefully educated by the State, and made useful
members of society opens a new and most hopeful
page in our criminal jurisprudence. Each successive
year attests, more and more fully, the great public
benefit accruing from these Acts. Legislators, judges,
magistrates, inspectors, all who are engaged in their
administration whether religious communities or paid
officials and, above all, the clergy of all denominations,
are loud in their praise.
Our countrymen in Constantinople tell us (says the Recorder
of Birmingham) how that city is infested by troops of ownerless
dogs, who have to gain their livelihood by the exercise of their
wits ; and a very slight effort of the imagination will bring be-
fore us the annoyances which must be produced by this multitude
of four-footed outlaws. If we substitute in our minds young
human beings for these dogs, we shall prepare ourselves for
428 TERRA INCOGNITA.
apprehending the characteristics of that portion of our urban
population which has been called the 'City Arabs.' I do not
mean to say that all, or even a majority, of the class who will be
found at Reformatory Schools are absolutely without friends or
relatives (some would be less to be commiserated were that their
condition), or that they are entirely their own masters. Still the
ownerless dog is a fair type of the species. Like him they have
received but little kindness like him they live more or less by
their wits like him they are untaught without occupation-
restless capable, from sheer necessity, of bearing hunger and
cold their instincts quick their affections languid their re-
ligion a blank ! l
The reformation of these poor neglected children
the bringing these City Arabs within the pale of
civilized society has most profitably engaged tin-
attention of the statesmen of our day. The first legisla-
tion for this purpose was in August 1854, when an Act
was passed ' for the better care and reformation of
youthful offenders in Great Britain.' This was followed
by the Irish Act of 1858. These are now merged in
the Acts of I860 2 and 1868 s respectively. Under their
provisions, it is enacted that the Secretary of State in
England, or the Chief Secretary in Ireland, may, upon
the application of the managers of any Reformatory
School for the better training of youthful ofTumlcrs,
direct one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Prisons, who
shall be styled the Inspector of Reformatory Schools, to
examine into the condition and regulations of the school,
and to report to him thereon ; and, if satisfied with said
report, the Secretary of State, or Chief Secretary for
Ireland, as the case may be, may, by writing under his
hand, certify that such school is fitted for the recep-
tion of such youthful offenders as may be sent there in
pursuance of the Acts, and the same shall be a Certified
1 Letter of Mr Hill, Recorder of Birmingham, to Lord Brougham.
1 29th ft 30th Viet., c. 117, 'An Act to Consolidate and Amend the
Acts relating to Reformatory Schools in Great Britain.' (August 10,
31st ft 32nd Viet., c. 59, 'An Act to Amend the Law relating to
Reformatory Schools in Ireland.' (July 16, 1868.)
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 429
Keformatory School. It is provided that the Inspectors
of Reformatories shall, from time to time, visit these
schools, and report thereon to the Secretary of State, or
the Chief Secretary, the continuance or withdrawal of
whose certificate shall depend on such reports. The
Inspectors' reports, with the accounts of the receipts
and expenditure of such schools, and of certificates
granted and withdrawn, must be annually laid before
both Houses of Parliament.
Any juvenile offender convicted of an offence punish-
able with penal servitude or imprisonment, who, in the
opinion of the court, justices, or magistrate before whom
he is charged, is under the age of sixteen years, and who
is sentenced to imprisonment, of not less than ten days
in Great Britain, or not less than fourteen days in
Ireland, may also be sentenced to be sent, at the expira-
tion of his period of imprisonment, to a Certified Kefor-
matory School, to be there detained for a period of not
less than two years and not more than five years. 1
Many are of opinion that, generally speaking, it ie
desirable that juvenile offenders should not be exposed
to the contamination of a gaol ; but it would appear
that the above short term of imprisonment, at least,
was considered by the framers of the Acts a necessary
test of the offenders being of the class for whom
Reformatory Schools are intended. In the Irish Act,
it is provided that ' the term of imprisonment shall be
directed to be carried out and spent as far as possible in
strict separation.' In the English Act, which is of two
years' older date, this wholesome provision is not to be
found.
An obviously wise provision of the Acts is, that
juvenile offenders shall be sent only to Eeformatory
Schools, which are under the exclusive management
1 Where an offender is under ten years of age, he or she cannot be
sent to a Reformatory School except by a Judge of Assize or Court of
Quarter Sessions in England, or in Scotland by a Circuit Court of
Justiciary or Sheriff. There is no such restriction as to very young
offenders in the Irish Act.
430 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of persons of their own religious persuasion. The Irish
Act is positive on this point. 1 In the English Act, it is
provided that, in choosing a Certified Reformatory School,
the Court shall endeavour to ascertain the religious
persuasion to which the youthful offender belong
so far as is possible, a selection shall be made of a
school conducted in accordance with that persuasion. 2
It is further enacted that parents, guardians, or, if none,
other nearest adult relatives, may apply to the Court, or
the visiting justices, to have offenders sent to a school
conducted in accordance with said offenders' religious
persuasion, provided, first, that the application be
made before the offenders have been sent to a Certified
Reformatory School, or within thirty days after their
arrival at such a school; and, secondly, that the ap-
plicants show, to the satisfaction of the Court or visiting
justices, that the managers of the schools named by them
are willing to receive the offenders. 8
Under the Acts, the managers of Reformatories are
empowered to place out juvenile offenders, on licence,
with trustworthy and respectable persons who are
willing to receive and take charge of them the
licence to be in Great Britain for three months
at a time, but renewable until the expiration of
the offenders' periods of detention ; and in In-laml,
twelve months at a time. In Great Britain, no offender
can be so placed out until after the expiration of eighteen
months, and in Ireland, of one-half the time, of his
period of detention. The managers have also the power
to apprentice offenders, notwithstanding that their
periods of detention have not expired. In this manner,
many boys, who would otherwise in all probability swell
our pauper or criminal population, become good shoe-
makers, tailors, smiths, carpenters, or farm labourers,
and many girls, who, it is to be feared, but for the
Reformatory training, would lead lives of idleness or
1 31st & 32d Viet, c. 59, sec. 12. 29th & 30th Viet, c. 117, sec. 14.
1 Ibid., sec. 16.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 431
crime, become useful domestic servants, or work-
women.
The average cost per head, for maintenance and
management, of juvenile offenders in our Beformatory
Schools, for the year 1874, was 22, 5s. IJd. in Great
Britain, and 21, 2s. 3d. in Ireland. This calculation
includes rent and all charges, save building-outlay and
681, interest on building debt in Ireland.
The average income per head for the same year
was 24, 5s. 3d. in Great Britain, and 24, 6s. 5d. in
Ireland. This income was made up of the following
items :
Great Britain.
Ireland.
Treasury grant * ....
Kate-aid ......
s. d.
15 6
3 12 4
s. d.
15 13 U
6 14 3|
Subscriptions and sundries
Industrial profits ....
1 12 2
3 14 9
11 9
173
Total ....
24 5 3
24 6 5* j
The excess of income over expenditure goes towards
building- outlay a very heavy item in the first years
of Eeformatory Schools.
The number of Certified Eeformatory Schools in Great
Britain, on 31st December 1874, was 65, the same as at
the close of the year previous. Of these, 53 are in Eng-
land, and 12 in Scotland. Of the English, 37 are for
boys, and 16 for girls. Of the Scotch, 8 are for boys,
and 4 for girls. 3
As regards religious denomination, 5 of the boys'
1 Under the Acts, parents, able to support their children detained in
Certified Reformatory Schools, may be compelled to contribute to their
support a weekly sum not exceeding five shillings. The amount so
raised in 1874 was 4937 in Great Britain, and 502 in Ireland. This
money goes in relief of the charges on the Treasury.
* The figures on which these calculations are based, will be found in,
the English Report, p. 35, and the Irish, p. 15.
3 ' Eighteenth Report,' p. 25.
432
TERRA INCOGNITA.
schools and 3 of the girls' in England, and 1 of each in
Scotland, are Catholic : the rest are Protestant.
The number of inmates in the schools, on 31st De-
cember 1874, was 5688 ; viz., 4545 boys and 1143 girls. 1
These were distributed as follows, according to reli-
gious denomination : 2
Protestant.
Catholic.
ENGLAND :
Boyi.
2726
991
Oifli
687
210
SCOTLAND:
ROYS .
656
172
Giri.. ......
151
95
Total ....
4220
1468
The RESULTS of discharges from Reformatory Schools
in Great Britain, in the three years 1871 to 1873, are
given by Her Majesty's Inspector, 3 as follows :
The number discharged in the three years were 4621,
being 3758 boys and 863 girls. Of these, 94 boys and
28 girls have since died, leaving 3664 boys and 835
girls ; total, 4499, to be reported on. We find that there
were, on 31st December 1874 * :
Boy.. OlrU.
Doing well... 2697 or 73'6 per cent. 608 or 727 per cent.
Doubtful 94 2-6 71 8'6
Reconvicted 532 14'5 62 7-4
Unknown.... 341 9'3 94 11-2
Here, if we allow for a portion of the unknown, we
find ' the long standing average of 75 per cent, of refor-
mation ' still maintained. It is indeed gratifying to
1 Besides these, actually in the schools, there were
On licence,... . Boys, 817 Girls, 160
In prison, 18 2
Absconded,... 92 15
* ' Report,' p. 26. * The Reverend Sydney Turner.
4 ' Eighteenth Report,' p. 29.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
433
know, that three-fourths of those young persons, all of
whom, if not committed, would probably have swelled
our criminal population, are now, through the instru-
mentality of the Reformatory Schools, useful, well-con-
ducted members of society; as tested by a consider-
able lapse of time, averaging, for all, two years, since
their discharge from the several institutions.
From the Eeport we learn that, in these results, the
highest degree of success, in England and Scotland re-
spectively, has been attained by Catholic girls schools.
These schools are all conducted by Nuns.
The figures are : !
REFORMATORY SCHOOLS, GREAT BRITAIN.
MANAGERS' BEPORT of character and circumstances of Girls dis-
charged, in the three years 1871-1873, on 31st December
1874 :
No.
Alive,
Reported
on.
Doing
well.
Doubtful.
Con-
victed.
Un-
known.
ENGLISH SCHOOLS
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Protestant Girls .
Roman Catholic Girls
551
114
69-67
75-46
9-80
7-90
6-00
12-28
14-53
4-38
SCOTCH SCHOOLS
Protestant Girls .
Roman Catholic Girls
103
67
79-61
83-58
5-83
3-0
9-70
7'46
4-86
6-0
Here, it will be observed that, of the girls discharged,
during the last three years, from Certified Reformatory
Schools, the Nuns' schools show the largest proportion
of those DOING WELL viz. in England 5f per cent., and
in Scotland 4 per cent., more than all others. 2
1 ' Eighteenth Report, Great Britain,' pp. 29, 30.
2 The percentage of those convicted of crime is another important
item ; but, in a comparison, it is not reliable, unless it is viewed along
with the percentage of unknown, in each case. Thus, in the above
2E
434
TERRA INCOGNITA.
These figures, derived from impartial official sources,
speak for themselves. They are quoted here, not in a
spirit of invidious comparison, or disparagement of the
meritorious labours of others, but as a simple act of jus-
tice to those devoted ladies, who, shrinking from obsert
vation and human applause, are second to none amongs-
us, in well-directed zeal and public usefulness.
Similar results, as we shall presently see, attend the
labours of Nuns in the Irish Reformatories; whilst
their pre-eminent success is still more striking in the
management of Industrial Schools, in both countries.
The Reformatory Schools, conducted by Nuns in Great
Britain, above alluded to, are, Arno's Court, Bristol ;
Blackbrooke House, St. Helen's, Lancashire; Saint
Joseph's, Howard Hill, Sheffield ; and Dalbeth, Glasgow.
In the following synopsis, will be found the names of
the particular orders or congregations of Nuns by whom
they are managed, the number of inmates in each school,
the number of girls discharged from each in the three
years, 1871-1873, and the number of these doing well:
Discharged 1871-73.
No. of
Inmates.
Total No.
Doing well.
Bristol^
( Noni of the Good )
I Shepherd f
J3
58
47
St. Helen's* .
Sisters of Mercy
19
4
1
Sheffield' .
( Sisters of Charity 1
< of St. Vincent de V
1 Paul . . /
103
62
H
Glasgow *
( Nuns of the Good 1
1 Shepherd }
106
67
M
1
321
181
142
table, we find in English Protestant girls' schools 6 "00 per cent con-
victed and 14'58 unknown, against 12*28 per cent, convicted and only
4 '3S unknown in English Catholic girls' schools. Aa those doing well
are invariably all known, it may fairly be inferred that a considerable
proportion of those unknown would, if discovered, be found to belong
to the class of convicted.
1 ' Eighteenth Report, Great Britain,' p. 74.
1 Ibid., p. 84. Ibid., p. 105. 4 Ibid., p. 113.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 435
The number of Certified Reformatory Schools in Ire-
i land, on 31st December 1874, was 10, five for males,
i and five for females. Of these, two for males and one
. for females are for Protestants, and three for males and
! four for females are for Catholics. The number of in-
; mates in the schools at the same date were 1100 ; viz.,
! 879 boys and 221 girls, being 4 boys less, and 15 girls
! more, than the previous year. 1
^ The young offenders under sentence of detention were
distributed as follows, with regard to religious denomi-
! nation :
Protestant. Catholic.
Boys 129 898
Girls 19 215
148 1113
Of these, 6 were in prison (boys) ; 14 were at large,
; having absconded (11 boys and 3 girls) ; and 134 were
| out on licence, preparatory to discharge (130 boys and
4 girls). 2
The EESULTS of discharges from Reformatory Schools
in Ireland, for the three years, 1871-73, are as follows :
The total number discharged was 609, viz., 494 boys
and 115 girls. Of these, 8 boys and 1 girl have since
died. Of the remainder, there were on the 31st December
1874 3
Boys. Girls.
Doing well 359 or 73-8 per cent. 82 or 71-9 per cent
Doubtful 17 3-5 14 12-3
Reconvicted 33 6'8 2 1-8
Unknown 77 15'9 16 14-0
The following are the particulars of the discharges
from the one Protestant and four Catholic girls'
schools :
1 ' Thirteenth Report, Ireland,' p. 7. 2 Ibid , p 9
3 Ibid., p. 101.
436
TERRA INCOGNITA.
REFORMATORY SCHOOLS, IRELAND.
MANAGERS' REPORT of character and circumstances of Girls
discharged in the three years, 1871-1873, on 31st December
1874 :'
No.
Allre,
Reported
Doing
welL
Doubtful.
Con-
Ticted.
Un-
known.
on.
Percent. Percent.
Percent. Percent.
Protestant Girls .
8
50
25
o
25
Roman Catholic Girls .
107
736
11-3
1-9
13-2
The Catholic Girls' Reformatory Schools, four in
number, are all conducted by Nuns. These are : 2
No. of
Discharged, 1871-73.
Managers.
Inmates.
Total No. ( Doing welL
Drumcondnt .
(Sitters of Our Lady)
1 of Charity f
43
29
_'J
Limerick
( Nuns of the Good )
1 Shepherd f
41
35
25
Dallinasloe
Sisters of Mercy
53
11
8
Monaghan .
( Sisters of St. )
t Louis f
70
31
_'l
207
106
78
The last of these, Spark's Lane Reformatory, for Unman
Catholic girls, Mouaghan, conducted by the Nuns of
Saint Louis, is a most interesting and valuable institu-
tion. It stands alone, being the only one of the kind
in the United Kingdom. Under the Acts for Croat
Britain and Ireland, the managers of Reformatory
Schools may decline to receive any youthful offender
proposed to be sent to them. 8 This, as a general rule,
is obviously a wise provision. But here it is never
1 ' Thirteenth Report, Inland,' p. 101.
* English Act, sec. 8. Irish Act, sec. 12.
Ibid., pp. 35-41.
This school (he observes) holds the place of a penal EC
tory for Roman Catholic young offenders ; and those w
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 437
availed of. Here, the doors are thrown open to all the
worst of female offenders those who are found incor-
rigible in other schools, as well as girls suffering from
epilepsy and other diseases, who, for this reason, cannot
be received elsewhere, but for whose successful treat-
ment arrangements are made in this establishment.
And we learn from Her Majesty's Inspector, that, with
a view to this desirable end, the Sisters of Saint Louis
have given him ' authority to admit, without distinction,
all young offenders who are sentenced to detention in a
Eeformatory School, by legal authority.' l
leforma-
those who are
refused by the managers of other institutions in consequence of
their former abandoned lives, or their present diseased condition,
or are transferred from other Reformatories as refractory and in-
corrigible, are received here. The young offenders are divided
into two classes, which are always kept apart. All on admission
are placed in the second division, from which they can, by good
conduct and industry, rise into the privileged class. During
1873, some of the girls became very refractory, and gave much
trouble, but the attempt at insubordination was soon quelled by
a firm discipline, and after a time the young offenders who had
been guilty were pardoned and restored to their former position.
An excellent spirit now prevails in the institution. 2
With such materials as these to deal with, the Sisters
; of Saint Louis have, for a series of years, accomplished
results, well worthy to stand side by side with those
attained in the other Reformatory Schools in the
United Kingdom. We have already seen the Results of
1 discharges from their school in the three years 1871-73.
1 In the three years 1870-72, of 24 girls reported on, on
! 31st December 1873, 19, or 79 per cent., were doing
; well, 5, or 21 per cent, were doubtful, not one had been
: reconvicted of crime, and there were none unknown. 3
The Industrial Schools Acts 4 have the same scope as
1 'Ninth Report,' 1871, p. 41. 2 ' Twelfth Report,' 1874, p. 42.
8 'Report,' 1874, page 43.
4 29th & 30th Victoria, chapter 118, 'An Act to Consolidate and
438 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the Acts respecting Reformatory Schools with this
difference, that the class for which they are intended are
not those young people convicted of an offence punish-
able with penal servitude or imprisonment, but those
exposed, by their mode of life and their neglected and
destitute condition, to the danger of becoming offenders
against the law.
An Industrial School is described, in the Acts, as a
school in which industrial training is provided, and in
which children are lodged, clothed, and fed, as well as
taught.
A school cannot be at the same time a Certified Indus-
trial School and a Certified Reformatory School, under
the respective Acts.
With reference to the classes of children to be detained
in Certified Industrial Schools, it is enacted, that any
person may bring before two justices or a magistrate 1
any child apparently under the age of fourteen years
that comes within any of the following descriptions :
That is found begging or receiving alms (whether
actually or under the pretext of selling or offer-
ing for sale anything), or being in any street or
public place for the purpose of so begging or
receiving alms ;
That is found wandering, and not having any home
or settled place of abode, or proper guardianship,
or visible means of subsistence ;
That is found destitute, either being an orphan or
Amend the Act* relating to Industrial Schools in Great Britain ' (10th
August 1866); and 31st Victoria, chapter 25, 'An Act to Extend the
Industrial Schools Act to Ireland ' (29th May 1868).
1 The term ' two justices ' means in England and Inland two or
more justices in Petty Sessions. It also means the Lord Mayor, or an
alderman, of the City of London. It does not apply to Scotland. The
term ' magistrate ' means in Scotland a sheriff, sheriff-substitute, jus-
tice of peace of a county, judge in a police court, and provost or i'.iillie
of a city or burgh, and in Ireland a police magistrate acting in any
police court for the Dublin Metropolitan police district It does not
apply to England.
' REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 439
having a surviving parent who is undergoing
penal servitude or imprisonment ;
That frequents the company of reputed thieves. 1
The justices or magistrate before whom a child is
brought, as coming within one of these descriptions, if
satisfied, on inquiry, of that fact, and that it is expedient
to deal with him under the Act, may order him to be
sent to a Certified Industrial School.
They may also order a child to be sent to a Certified
Industrial School, in any of the three following cases
in the first in Great Britain and Ireland, but only in
Great Britain in the other two :
Where a child, apparently under the age oftivelve
' years, is charged before them with an offence
punishable by imprisonment or a less punish-
ment, but has not been in England or Ireland
convicted of felony, or in Scotland of theft :
Where the parent or step-parent or guardian of a
child, apparently under the age of fourteen years,
in Great Britain, represents to them that he is
unable to control the child, and that he desires
the child to be sent to an Industrial School :
Where poor-law guardians or boards of management
in Great Britain represent to them that any
child, apparently under the age of fourteen years,
maintained in a workhouse, or pauper school or
poorhouse, is refractory, or is the child of parents
either of whom has been convicted of a crime or
1 In addition to the classes above specified, the Prevention of Crimes
Act, 1871 (34 & 35 Vic. c. 112), sec. 14, enacts, that, when a woman
is convicted of crime, as defined by the 20th section of that Act, and
a previous conviction is proved against her, any children of such woman
under the age of fourteen years, who may be under her care and con-
trol at the time of her conviction for the last of such crimes, and who
hive no visible means of subsistence or are without proper guardian-
ship, may be sentenced to detention under the Industrial Schools Acts,
Great Britain and Ireland, by the Court before which such woman is
convicted, or by two justices or a magistrate, as defined in the said
Acts. (See preceding note.)
440 TERRA INCOGNITA.
offence punishable with penal servitude or im-
prisonment, and that it is desirable that he be
sent to an Industrial School.
The mode of Certifying Industrial Schools by Govern-
ment ; their inspection, at least once a year, by one of
Her Majesty's inspectors ; the powers of the Com-
missioners of the Treasury and of the rating authorities
to aid them ; l the provisions for compelling parents, win >
can afford it, to contribute to the support of their
children confined in these schools ; the power of per-
mitting children to live out, by licence under the
managers' hands, with trustworthy and respectable
persons willing to receive and take charge of them ; the
power of apprenticing the children ; all these are the
same as the corresponding provisions of the Reformatory
Schools Acts, already recited.
The provisions also are the same as to sending
children to schools conducted in accordance with their
religious persuasions. Moreover, it is provided in both
the British and Irish Industrial Schools Acts, that a
minister of the religious persuasion specified in the order
of detention as that to which the child appears to the
justices or magistrate to belong may visit the child at
the school, on such days and at such times as are,
from time to time, fixed by regulations made by the
Secretary of State, or Chief Secretary, in Ireland, for
instructing him in religion.
A person who has attained the age of sixteen years
cannot be detained in a Certified Industrial School,
except with his or her own consent in writing.
The Secretary of State, or in Ireland the Chief
Secretary, has power to order a child to be transferred
from one Certified Industrial School to another but the
whole period of his detention is not to be, by such
1 Where, in Great Britain, children are detained in Industrial Schools
on the application of their parents, step-parents, or guardiaus, the
Treasury grant, left to the discretion of the Secretary of State in other
cases, is limited, not to exceed two shillings per head per week.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. 441
transfer, increased. In the Irish Act it is added, that
the removal shall only be to some Industrial School
under the management of persons of the same religious
persuasion as that to which he might have been originally
committed.
The average cost per head, for maintenance and
management, of children detained in our Industrial
Schools, for the year 1874, was 19, 14s. 3d. in Great
Britain, and 18, 4s. 7d. in Ireland. This calculation
includes rent and all charges, save building-outlay and
2228, interest on building debt in Ireland.
The average income per head, for the same year, was
22, 13s. 8d. in Great Britain, and 19, 13s. Od. in Ireland.
This income was made up of the following items :
Great Britain.
Ireland.
Treasury grant 1
Rate-aid
Subscriptions and sundries
Payments of voluntary inmates
Industrial profits
s. d.
11 15 6
3 11 H 2
4 18 4|
12 11
1 15 9
&. s. d.
12 8 111
3 4 8i
2 15 10"
3 2J
104
Total
22 13 8
19 13 O 3
The excess of income over expenditure goes towards
building-outlay, and is an indispensable aid in the early
years of Industrial Schools.
The number of Certified Industrial Schools in Great
Britain on the 31st of December 1874 was 108, being
an increase of four on the previous year. Of these
schools, 83 are in England, and 25 in Scotland. Of the
English schools, 40 are for boys, 30 are for girls, and
1 The amount recovered, under the Acts, from parents able to sup-
port their children in Industrial Schools, in the year 1874, was 9093
in Great Britain, and 430 in Ireland. This money goes in relief of
the charges on the Treasury.
1 Ordinary Rates, 1, 16s. 2d. ; Rates per School-boards, 1, 14s
lid. ; total, 3, 11s. l^d.
3 The figures on which these calculations are based will be found in
the English Report, page 45, and the Irish, pages 20, 21.
442
TERRA INCOGNITA.
13 are for boys and girls. Of the Scotch schools, 5 are
for boys, 6 are for girls, and 14 are for boys and girls. 1
As regards religious denomination, ten of the boys' and
eight of the girls' schools in England, and one of each in
Scotland, are Catholic. The remainder are Protestant, f
The number of inmates in the Industrial Schools of
Great Britain, on the 31st December 1874, was 11,409
viz., 8702 boys and 2707 girls. 3 These numbers
show an increase of 366 boys and 31 girls in the schools,
on those of the previous year.
These were distributed as follows, according to re-
ligious denomination :
Protestant
Catholic.
EHGLAKD :
Bon .
4794
1425
Girl
1078
62
SCOTLAND:
Boys
2191
292
Girls .
845
162
Total
8908
2501
The number of Certified Industrial Schools in Ireland,
on 31st December 1874, was 51, showing a decrease of
one, on those of the previous year. They are distributed
as follows :
Protestant
Catholic.
Total.
Boys' Schools
Girls' Schools .
Girls and young Boys' Schools
Total . . .
..<
6
31
3
11
37
3
11
40
r>i
The number of inmates actually in the schools
4569 viz., 1666 boys and 2903 girls, showing an
1 ' Eighteenth Report, Great Britain,' pages 37, 38. Ibid., p. 33.
3 Ibid. , page 40. In addition to these, there were : On licence, C80
boys, 499 ; girls, 181. Absconded, 170 boys, 163 ; girls, 13.
4 'Thirteenth Report,' page 16.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
443
increase of 57 boys and 152 girls on the number of the
previous year. 1 These were distributed as follows :
Boys.
Girls.
Total
Protestant Schools
Catholic Schools
Total .
438
1228
201
2702
639
3930
1666
2903
4569 2
The EESULTS of Industrial Schools, in the United
Kingdom, as tested by the proportion that are doing
well, of the children discharged from the schools, in the
three years, 1871-1873, are highly satisfactory.
In Great Britain, the returns refer to 3865 boys and
1055 girls. Of the former, 2997, or 77'5 per cent., and
of the latter, 865, or 80 per cent., are doing well. 3
Of the Girls' Schools, the following are the results, in
detail : 4
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS, GREAT BRITAIN.
MANAGERS' REPORT of character and circumstances of Girls
discharged, in the three years 1871-1873, on 31st December
1874 :
Total No.
Reported
as
Living.
Doing
well.
Doubtful.
Con-
victed.
Un-
known.
ENGLISH SCHOOLS
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Per cent.
Protestant Girls
Roman Catholic Girls
369
182
70-46
81-87
14-64
494
3-25
0-55
11-65
12-64
SCOTCH SCHOOLS
Protestant Girls
Roman Catholic Girls
411
93
85-40
91-40
4-14
3-23
316
4-30
7-30
1-07
The seven Catholic Girls' schools here referred to
six in England and one in Scotland, are conducted by
1 ' Thirteenth Report,' p. 17. Besides these, there were out on licence
65 boys and 132 girls ; and 7 boys and 1 girl had absconded.
2 Ibid., p. 112.
3 'Eighteenth Report, Great Britain,' pages 42, 285.
4 Ibid., pages 43, 285.
444
TERRA INCOGNITA.
Nuns. 1 These are : Saint George's, Fairfield, Prescot
Road, Liverpool ; Saint Anne's, Mason Street, Liver-
pool ; Saint Elizabeth's, Breckfield Road, South, Liver-
pool ; The Orphanage, Falkner Street, Liverpool ; Saint
Margaret's, Mill Hill, Hendon, Middlesex; Saint
Elizabeth's, Exeter Street, Salisbury ; and the Orphan-
age, Abercromby Street, Glasgow.
In the following synopsis, will be found the names of
the particular orders or congregations of Nuns by whom
they are managed, the number of inmates in each school,
the number of girls discharged from each in the three
years, 1871-1873, and the number of these doing well : 2
Flue.
Manager*.
No. of
Inmates.
Discharged 1871-73.
Total No.
Doing well
Prescot Road,
Liverpool .
MAHOII Street,
Liverpool .
NunsofSt.Augus-)
tine* f
I Sinter! of Charity \
4 of St. Vincent de V
1 Paul . . /
142
166
54
46
M
41
Breckfield Rd.,
Liverpool .
Falkner Street,
Liverpool .
Hendon 4
1 Sisters of Mercy }
Sisters of Notre 1
Dame )
Franciscan Nans
100
102
72
25
15
37
24
14
18
Salisbury
( Sisters of Charity )
{ of St. Vincent de V
I Paul . . j
52
2
1
Glasgow
Franciscan Nuns
163
93
n
797
272
233 .
1 There are two more Catholic Girls' Industrial Schools in England
(conducted by lay managers), Eltham in Kent, and Grindlow House,
Manchester. The former has had only two discharges, in the three
years, of which one is ' doubtful ' and one ' unknown.' From the
latter there was only one discharged, reported ' doing well.'
14 Eighteenth Report, Great Britain,' pages 151-154, 164, 175,
1 About twenty-five years ago, two Augustinian Nuns, Sisters
Vincent and Philomena, came over from Belgium, to devote them-
selves to the instruction and training to useful industry of the poorest
of the poor, outcast girls of Liverpool; and their charitable labours
were crowned with signal success. Their school, numbering 1!
girlg, was certified under the Industrial Schools Act, in 18'">7,
having been many years in operation. Sister Vincent died in April
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
445
To these may be added a most successful Industrial
School for very young Catholic boys, in Beacon Lane,
Liverpool, conducted by the Sisters of Charity of
Saint Vincent de Paul. This school was certified July
21, 1868, and inspected May 13, 1874. The Nuns have a
tailor, shoemaker, joiner, and general assistant, employed
for the industrial department. The number of inmates
on the day of inspection was 220. Of these, 189 were
committed, and 31 were voluntary, cases. Of 33 boys dis-
charged in the three years 1871-1873, 32, or 97 per cent.,
are doing well, and one has been convicted of crime. 1
. In Ireland, the returns of those discharged from
Industrial Schools in the three years, 1871-1873, refer
to 83 boys and 300 girls. Of the former, 47, or 58 per
cent., and of the latter (7 having since died), 242, or 83
per cent., are doing well. 2
Of the Girls' schools, the following are the results in
detail : 3_
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS, IRELAND.
MANAGERS' REPORT of character and circumstances of Girls
discharged, in the three years 1871-1873, on 31st December
1874 :
Total No.
Reported
as
Living
Doing
well.
Doubtful.
Con-
victed.
Un-
known.
Percent. ; Per cent.
Per cent.
Percent.
Protestant Girls .
20
65-00
15-00
o-oo
20-00
Roman Catholic Girls .
273
83-88
6-96
37
8-79
1872; and was worthily succeeded by Sister Philomena. This school
is highly commended by Her Majesty's Inspector; but perhaps its
highest praise will be found in the Kesults return above given.
4 Of 37 children discharged, reported on by the managers of Hendon
school, 18 are returned as doing well, 3 as doubtful, and no less than
16 as unknown.
1 ' Eighteenth Report, Great Britain,' pages 150, 279.
- ' Thirteenth Report, Ireland,' pages 19, 114, 115.
8 Collected from detailed returns, Report, pages 44 to 91.
446 TERRA INCOGNITA.
All the Catholic schools, 34 in number, are conducted
by Nuns. Of these, 31 are for girls, and 3 are for girls
and very young boys. 1 There is also one exclusively for
very young boys. 2
The above figures refer altogether to girls.
In the subjoined synoptical list of these thirty-five
Catholic Certified Industrial Schools, will be found the
names of the particular orders or congregations of Nuns
by whom they are managed, the number of inmates in
each school, the number of girls discharged from each
in the three years 1871-1873, and the number of these
doing well, on the 31st of December 1874.
In these schools, there are 2702 girls and 126 young
boys, being a total of 2828 children, under order of de-
tention. Besides these, there are 358 voluntary in-
mates (girls), making the total number 3186.
The 274 discharged are all girls, showing the large
proportion of close on 85 per cent, doing well 3
Of the remainder, 19 are doubtful, 24 are unknown,
and one only has been convicted of crime.
Besides the 3186 actual inmates of the schools, there
are 5195 day-pupils, whose parents gladly avail
themselves of the excellent education gratuitously
imparted by the Nuns. 4 The number of these extern
pupils is, every year, increasing. Several of the
schools are in connection with the National Board, and
are all highly commended by the Inspectors.
1 Killarney, Parsonstown, and Drogheda, When over eight years
old, the boys are drafted to Male school*.
* Cappoquin, Managers Sisters of Mercy.
* I have collected the figures from the detailed reports of the several
schools. They vary slightly from the Inspector's summary, showing
the actual number of those discharged 'doing well,' to be 84*67 per
cent, against his calculation of 83*88 per cent
4 These 6195 extern pupils are divided among 24 schools, showing
an average daily attendance of 216 in each. The externs are in the
same schools as the children under detention, which is considered to
have a mutually beneficial effect Most of the other convents have
large primary schools attached, but not connected with their In-
dustrial Schools.
REFORMATORY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
447
Discharged, 1871-1873. 1
Place.
Managers.
No. of
Inmates.
I Total Xo.
Doing Well
Belfast,
Sisters of Mercy, .
66
2
1
Cavan,
Clonakilty, .
Sisters of St. Clare,
Sisters of Mercy, .
95
132
17
13
15
12
Queenstown,
Sisters of Mercy, .
76
6
6
Kiusale,
Sisters of Mercy, .
137
14
11
Cork, .
( Nuns of the Good )
t Shepherd, . . f
135
12
10
Booterstown,
Sisters of Mercy, .
136
8
6
Sandymount,
Carmelite Nuns, .
75
23
19
Galway,
Loughrea, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
80
137
15
6
13
5
Tralee,
Sisters of Mercy, .
83
8
8
Parsonstown,
Sisters of Mercy, .
91
Limerick, .
( Nuns of the Good )
t Shepherd, . . /
56
4
4
Limerick,
Sisters of Mercy, .
313 1
27
27
Newtown- )
forbes, f
Sisters of Mercy, .
72
23
18
Drogheda, .
( Sisters of Charity of )
1st. Vincent de Paul./
93
3
3
Westport, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
75
5
3
Monaghan, .
Sisters of St. Louis,
90
12
10
Roscommon,
Sisters of Mercy, .
44
9
8
Sligo, .
Templemore,
Cashel,
Sisters of Mercy, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
( Nuns of the Presen- 1
\ tation, . . f
36
86
110
1
5
17
1
2
16
Thurles,
(Nuns of the Presen-)
\ tation, . . j
46
2
2
Strabane, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
100
5
4
"Waterford, .
(Nuns of the Good)
t Shepherd, . . f
120
3
1
Moate,
New Ross, .
Wexford, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
( Nuns of the Good )
\ Shepherd, ' . . j
Sisters of Mercy, .
52
69
134
6
6
3
6
6
2
Killarney, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
105
13
10
Merrion,
(Irish Sisters of )
\ Charity, . . )
99
2
...
Clifden,
Sisters of Mercy, .
41
...
Oughterard,
Sisters of Mercy, .
40
"i
Kilkenny, .
Tipperary, .
Cappoquin .
J Irish Sisters of )
t Charity, . . j
Sisters of Mercy, .
Sisters of Mercy, .
65
58
34
3
3
Total, ....
3186
274
232
1 Of these, 192 are voluntary inmates.
448 TERRA INCOGNITA.
To form an adequate idea of the good accomplished
by the Nuns in this important department of industrial,
literary, and moral training, the detailed reports of the
thirty-five schools should be carefully read ; and they
are the more valuable that they represent so many dif-
ferent parts of the country, fromlielfast toClonakilty, and
from Dublin to Oughterard. Any extracts that could
be given in the limited space at our disposal here would
be unjust to the schools and their devoted managers. 1
With each successive year, we may look for an in-
crease in the number of inmates of Girls' Industrial
Schools, especially in Ireland ; and the more the system
is developed in its immediate operation, and its ulti-
mate results, so beneficial not only to the pupils but
to the community at large, the more convinced must we
be that such institutions are peculiarly suitable fur the
administration of Nuns. These ladies are, by their pro-
fession, silent and unobtrusive in the discharge of the
duties of charity which they have gratuitously under-
taken ; and, therefore, their good works are not as
generally known as they otherwise might be. For this
reason, I have adduced the interesting details of otlicial
evidence embodied in this chapter. My readers who
take the trouble of carefully perusing these details, or,
still better, the reports, in extenso, from which they are
extracted, will, I have no doubt, agree with me, that no
class of Her Majesty's subjects are more deserving of
public respect and gratitude than the excellent com-
munities of religious women, by whom so many of our
Reformatory and Industrial Schools are conducted.
1 I refer my readers to the ' Thirteenth Report of the Inspector of
Reformatory and Industrial Schools in Ireland,' pp. 44 to 91. Dublin,
Thorn, 1875 ; price, by book port, lOJd.
(449)
CHAPTEE XXXVII.
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS IN THE UNITED
KINGDOM.
IN 1870, Mr Newdegate moved for a Select Committee
of the House of Commons, to inquire into the character,
discipline, and number of Conventual and Monastic In-
stitutions or Societies in Great Britain, the state of the
law respecting them, and the terms upon which income,
property, or estates belonging to such institutions, or to
the members thereof, are respectively received, held, or
possessed.
A committee was appointed ; but, on the suggestion
of Mr Gladstone, the scope of its inquiry was limited to
the state of the law regarding such institutions, and
the terms on which property is held by them.
In 1871, this Committee, not having completed its
labours, was re-appointed, with the same powers, and,
notwithstanding Mr Newdegate's strenuous efforts to
enlarge its scope, with precisely the same limit of
inquiry as the previous year.
The result was a most interesting and valuable Report,
laid before the House, and ordered to be printed, on
June 23, 1871.
The Committee inquired into the state of the law as
it affects Conventual and Monastic Institutions, in-
cluding Anglican and other religious institutions of a
conventual or monastic character.
It reports that there is no law applicable to those
institutions or specially affecting them in any way,
unless they are in connection with the Church of Borne.
2F
450 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Members of the Church of England, of the Greek Church, or
of any Church other than the Church of Rome, are perfectly
free to take monastic vows, to enrol themselves in communities
of a conventual or monastic character, and to found or endow
institutions of that kind, without any restriction, and subject
only to the general rules which govern the disposition of private
property in the hands of individuals. Roman Catholics stand
in an exceptional position. Although previously to the Refor-
mation monasteries and convents were perfectly legal by the
common law of England, and in most cases were incorporated
and empowered to hold property, yet after the Reformation, by
reason of the universal illegality which attached to the pro-
fession of the Roman Catholic religion, these institutions
became illegal, and when not previously dissolved by express
enactment, they became extinct and their members dispersed.
By the Emancipation Act (10 George IV., cap. 7, sec. 27-37),
religious orders, communities, or societies of men belonging
to the Church of Rome, and bound by monastic or re-
ligious vows, are prohibited. It is a misdemeanour, punish-
able by banishment for life, for any man to be admit"
any such religious order or community in any part of the United
Kingdom. It is also a misdemeanour, subject to the same
penalty, to admit any man to be a member of a religious order,
or to administer vows to him, in any part of the United King-
dom. The same penalty applies to any member of a religious
order, coming into the realm after the Emancipation Act
passed, except only in the case where a Secretary of State gives
him a license so to do, which license cannot extend to a period
of more than six months. 1
Although this portion of the enactment, like all invidi-
ous exceptional legislation, is, in its direct effect, a dead
letter, it ought not the less, on this account, to be
expunged from the Statute-book. Monks of the sepa-
rated Greek Church, monks of the Anglican communion,
such as Father Ignatius and his followers, are perfectly
free to take monastic vows, to enrol themselves in com-
munities of a conventual or monastic character, and to
found or endow institutions of that kind without any
restriction, and subject only to the general rules which
govern the disposition of private property in the hands
of individuals. Not so the six millions of Her Majesty's
Catholic subjects in these realms. They stand in a
1 ' Report of the Select Committee,' page iii.
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 451
painfully exceptional position. It is true, they con-
tribute to the national income, in taxes; and to the
fund for public local requirements, in rates ; they
add to the capital of the country by their industry ;
they help to recruit our army and navy; they take
part in our legislation in Parliament; nay, some of
them are among the first nobles of the land ; and one
of their number is premier duke and hereditary Earl
Marshal of England. Still, this obsolete law is allowed
to remain in existence, a reproach to them, and
strangely inconsistent with their favourable political
status in other respects !
Let us now see what is the indirect, or consequential
effect of this exceptional legislation what is its bearing
on property. Here we shall find that it is by no means
a dead letter. We are informed by the Select Com-
mittee that the consequence of these enactments, as
developed by judicial decisions, has been, to render
invalid all endowments of Eoman Catholic monastic
communities.
A gift or bequest of lands or of personalty for the benefit of
any Roman Catholic monastery (being a religious community of
men), or for the benefit of individuals in their capacity of monks,
or for the benefit of a church to be served by monks, has been
decided in the Irish Court of Chancery to be illegal. If the
object of the gift or bequest were charitable in its nature (as,
for example, if it were in favour of a school or a church), and
were rendered illegal only so far as its administration was con-
fided to monks, or its distribution required their interposition,
the proceeds of the gift would probably be applied by the Court
of Chancery to a like charitable purpose free from the illegal
taint of connection with a monastic order. If the gift or bequest
were not charitable, but simply for the benefit of a monastery,
or if, although charitable, it were for the benefit of some specific
monastic charity, the property would revert to the heirs or next
of kin of the donor. 1
The Committee next refers to ' another branch of the
law, which has also some bearing on Eoman Catholic
1 Report, p. iii.
452 TERRA INCOGNITA.
monasteries,' and states that a long course of decisions,
founded on the policy of the 1st of Edward VI., c. 14.
and the 37th of Henry VIII., c. 4, ' have established
that Roman Catholic prayers or masses for the repose of
the soul of the dead are superstitious ; and that money
given to procure such prayers or masses is devoted to an
illegal use, and reverts to the next of kin of the donor.'
Consequently all bequests of this nature are void.
The Catholic belief in the existence of a middle state
after death, and in the efficacy of intercessory prayers
for the repose of the souls of the departed, is familiar to
my readers. Surely it is opposed to the spirit of all
modern legislation, to interfere with a particular religious
communion, who would devote a portion of their own
money to pious uses, in which they conscientiously
believe, and which they have very much at heart : and
no one will be found to hold the opinion that such
uses uses in accordance with the belief of more than
two hundred millions of Christians should continue to
be designated ' superstitious ' in our Statute-book.
We now come to ' Convents or communities of
women belonging to the Church of Rome.' The Select
Committee reports that the clauses of the Emancipation
Act do not apply to them. 1
We are not aware of any subsisting enactment which prohibits
a Roman Catholic woman from taking vows or joining an order
or community of the Church of Rome. There was in the 27
Eliz., cap. 2,. a clause (sec. 2) which prohibited 'any religious or
ecclesiastical person whatsoever ' (see the Record Commissioners'
edition of the Statutes) 'made, ordained, or professed' by any
authority from the See of Rome, from coining into or being or';
remaining in the realm under penalties of high treason. TIMS
statute would have rendered the existence of Roman Catholic
nuns in this country illegal ; bnt it was repealed by the 7 and
8 Victoria, cap 102.i
The 2nd (commonly called the 1st) of James I., r. 4,
s. 1, which re-enacts all Queen Elizabeth's statutes
1 10th George IV. c. 7, sec. 37.
1 Report of Select Committee, p. iv.
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 453
against Jesuits, seminary priests, and other priests,
deacons, ' religious and ecclesiastical persons, whatso-
ever,' is repealed by the 9th and 10th Victoria, c. 59. 1
Notwithstanding the repeal of the enactments here
referred to, some of the witnesses called before the Com-
mittee expressed an opinion that a gift, or conveyance
by deed or will, in trust, for a community of nuns, was
of doubtful legality. The Committee was not aware of
any case in which this question had been decided by
judicial authority either in Great Britain or Ireland. 2
The doubt expressed before it as to the legality of
trusts created in favour of convents was partly based
upon the 17th section of the 31st George III,c. 32, which
provides that ' nothing in that Act shall make it lawful
to found, endow, or establish any religious order or
society of persons bound by monastic or religious
vows ; ' and that ' all uses, trusts, and dispositions,
whether of real or personal property, which immediately
before the 24th of June 1791, shall be deemed to be
superstitious and unlawful, shall continue to be so
deemed and taken, anything in this Act to the contrary
notwithstanding.' 3
The 12th, 15th, and 16th sections of the 31st George
III, c. 32, were repealed by the 9th and 10th Victoria,
c. 59, but the 17th section is left unrepealed. 4
The result of the evidence given before the Com-
mittee is that monasteries and convents are not directly
affected by the law relating to charitable uses.
A monastery or a convent is not, per se, a ' charity ' in the
technical sense which that word has acquired in our law. The
members of several monastic and conventual institutions in this
country appear to devote themselves to education, to the care
of the sick, or the relief of the poor, or to other purposes which
are ' charitable ' in the technical sense. An endowment in
favour of a school, or a reformatory, or an hospital, entrusted to
the care of monks or nuns, would of course be a charitable use.
not by reason of its connection with a monastery or a convent,
but because its purpose brings it within the legal definition of
1 Report, p. iv. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. * Ibid.
454 TERRA INCOGNITA.
a charitable use. And, on the other hand, a disposition of pro-
perty for the benefit of a monastery or convent would not be a
charitable use merely because the inmates of that monastery or
convent usually devoted themselves to some charitable purpose,
nor unless the charitable purpose were made a condition upon
which the property was given.
Hence it is that the Roman Catholic Charities Act of I860
(23 and 24 Vic., c. 134) has little or no application to property
enjoyed by monasteries and convents. That statute was
intended to cure one defect which had inevitably attached to
the title of all Roman Catholic charitable endowments. 1
The 9th George II., c. 36, required all charitable en-
dowments in lands to be constituted by deed, executed
twelve months before the death of the grantor, and
enrolled in Chancery within six months. This statute
applies to all charities, Roman Catholic and Protestant
alike. Naturally the founders of Roman Catholic
charities avoided compliance with its provisions, because
enrolment of the deed of foundation involved some pub-
licity ; and therefore there would be a risk of the chari-
table use being defeated or set aside ; inasmuch as down
to the year 1832, Roman Catholic charitable uses were
treated by the law of the land as superstitious and void.*
In 1832, partial relief was given to Roman Catholics
by the 2nd and 3rd of ^ymiam IV., c. 115, which
enacted that they should, in respect of their ' schools,
places for religious M'orship, education and charitable
purposes,' be subject to the same laws as the Protestant
dissenters were subject to in England. Whereas the
Toleration Act and subsequent statutes had
validity to the charitable trusts of Protestant dissenters,
Roman Catholics were thus enabled to give lands for
the building of churches and chapels, for schools, and
for the maintenance of bishops or secular priests,
without the risk of those gifts being defeated by the
courts ; and they could safely comply with the pro-
visions of the 9th George II., c. 36, as to the enrolment
of the conveyance. 8
But the 2nd and 3rd of William IV., c. 115, not
1 Report, p. iv. Ibid., pp. iv. v. 3 Ibid., p. v.
LEGAL POSITION AND PKOPERTY OF NUNS. 455
being retrospective, did not cure the defect which had
attached to the title of all Bom&n Catholic charities
created before that statute passed, by reason of non-
compliance with the provisions of the 9th George II.,
chapter 36, above quoted. Therefore the Legislature
excepted all Eoman Catholic charities from the Charit-
able Uses Act of 1853 an Act devising more efficient
means of inspecting, controlling, and remodelling chari-
ties, through the machinery of the Charity Commis-
sioners. Had Eoman Catholic charities not been thus
excepted, Government inspection and inquiry would
have defeated their whole purpose, since it must have
discovered the defect of title above-mentioned. This
exception continued down to the year 1860, when
an Act was passed, the 23rd and 24th Victoria, c. 134,
by which a period of twelve months was given to all
Eoman Catholic charities then existing to come in and
enrol their deeds, thereby curing the defect of non-
enrolment under the 9th of George II., c. 36. Under
this Act it was provided that if any property included
in a Eoman Catholic foundation was in part applicable
to a ' superstitious use ' (in which case the Courts would
formerly have held the whole foundation void), the pro-
perty should be apportioned by the Court ; so that any
portion which it deemed applicable to the 'superstitious'
or unlawful trusts should be devoted to some lawful
Eoman Catholic charitable purpose selected by the
Court, in lieu of the superstitious purpose selected by
the settlor. 1
No less than four hundred Eoman Catholic charities
were enrolled after the passing of this Act being the
greater part of those then in existence under founda-
tions of an earlier date. 2
Since the passing of the Act of 1860, Eoman Catholic
charities have been governed by precisely the same law
as Protestant charities, and are equally subject, in all
respects, to the jurisdiction of the Charity Commis-
1 Report, p. v. (23 & 24 Victoria, c. 134, s. 1). 2 Ibid.
456 TERRA INCOGNITA.
sioners ; and the Select Committee reports that in all
endowments for th^ benefit of bishops and priests, of
churches, schools, colleges, unconnected with monas-
teries or convents, the practice of Roman Catholics is to
enrol their charitable foundations ; and no objection is
felt by them to the jurisdiction of the Charity Commis-
sioners. 1
But in the case of an endowment for the benefit of a monas-
tery or a convent, no enrolment does or can take place, because,
us already explained, such an endowment is not for a charitable
use in the sense of the English law, and in case of an endowment
of a church to be served by monks, or of a school, college, or
hospital, to be conducted or managed by monks (which wu <1 be
charities in the sense of the English law), no enrolment of such
a trust could prudently be made by Roman Catholic founders,
because the penal clauses of the Emancipation Act might operate
to render the trust void and to defeat the founder's intention.
Endowments of this sort, although they are charities of the class
intended to be regulated and protected by the jurisdiction of the
Charity Commissioners, and although they come within the
description of endowments for ' worship and education,' to which
toleration was extended by the 2 and 3 William IV. c. 11. >, are
vitiated and rendered illegal by the fact that they are enjoyed
or administered by members of a monastic order. The doubt
felt and expressed before us by legal practitioners as to the
legality of convents (or communities of women) has also operated,
and would operate, to prevent, for similar reasons, the enrolment
of an endowment given to a school or other institution which
was to belong to nuns and to be managed by them.*
The Select Committee reports that the law of Scot-
land applicable to monastic and conventual institutions
varies somewhat from the law of England, as above
stated. The penal clauses of the Emancipation Act
apply to Scotland. But there is not in Scotland ;iny
enactment similar to the 17th section of the 31st of
George III., c. 32 ; and the statutes of charitable uses
do not apply to Scotland. It was stated to the Com-
mittee by an advocate practising at the Scotch b;ir that
' the Scotch law allows a perpetuity to be freely cr- -a ted
in favour of a charitable purpose without any special
1 Report, p. T. * Ibid.
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 457
restrictions or provisions as to enrolment, such as
are contained in English statutes; that the doctrine
of superstitious uses had never been pronounced by
judicial decision in Scotland ; and that no decided case
in the Scotch Courts had raised or settled the question
how far endowments of monasteries or convents were
legal.' 1
The Committee gives the following summary of the
evidence laid before them on this head :
Persons who are about to join a regular order undergo a period
of probation, or novitiate, varying from one to nine years iu
length, during -which the rules of the regular orders leave to
them the possession and free disposition of any property they
may be entitled to. When that period of probation is over, a
person intending to join a regular order is ' professed,' that is,
takes the solemn vows of poverty, chastity, aud obedience,
common to all the regular orders. The vow of poverty being
inconsistent, conscientiously speaking, with the retention of any
property, the intended religious must, before profession, divest
himself by legal means of all that he possesses. A portion is
commonly reserved to the community which he is about to join.
and which is thenceforth to maintain him. The rest is disposed
of by him in any manner he may think best. If any property
should come by inheritance to a religious person after profession,
the rules of the regular orders require him to dispose of that
property in favour of those persons who would have succeeded
to it if he had been dead. If, on the other band, property is
left by will to a member of a regular order by name, he is
entitled under the rules of the order to retain it, not for his own
benefit, but for that of the community to which he belongs. It
may be taken as a common feature of all the regular orders, that
the members of them, once professed, do not hold or retain any
income or property for their own benefit. If any property de-
volves upon them by gift, or operation of law, they are bound
by their vows to divest themselves of it by some legal means ;
these legal means are determined by the law of this country,
which of course regards their capacity and power of disposition
as wholly unaffected by their religious vows. These observations
apply equally to the members of the male and female orders.
With regard to the institutions themselves, as they are not
corporations, they cannot receive, hold, or possess any property
1 Report, p. vi.
458 TERRA INCOGNITA.
except by the aid of trustees. And as a trust in favour of a
monastic institution is illegal, and the validity of trusts in favour
of conventual institutions has been doubted, as already explained,
a universal practice appears to have grown up of conveying to
several individuals as joint tenants all property which is meant
to be enjoyed in common by such institutions.
The absolute ownership, both at law and in equity, is vested
in these joint tenants ; and care is taken to declare no trusts
whatever, either openly or secretly. 1
It did not appear, upon the evidence, that these insti-
tutions had suffered any special grievance from this mode
of dealing with the property, except, perhaps, in cases
of sale of such property, either voluntary or compulsory,
in which it was necessary to satisfy the purchaser that
there were no trusts. Such sales frequently take place.
Of course, great care is taken by religious communi-
ties to select such persons as trustees as are not likely
to abuse the trust; but, in the event of death, or bank-
ruptcy, or fraud, there will sometimes arise considerable
risk. Religious communities, at least of men, ot the
Roman Catholic communion, are not recognized as sub-
jects by the law of the land ; they are regarded as
aliens, nay, as wrong-doers ; and, to them, against dis-
honest trustees, or dishonest representatives of trustees,
in case of death, or their creditors in case of bankruptcy,
the Courts extend no protection.
It is clear (observes the Select Committee) that if the joint
tenants of the property now under discussion chose to appro-
priate it to their own uses, or to expel the community from
the enjoyment of it, a community of men, at least, would have
no remedy whatever : for even assuming that, in spite of the
care taken to leave the legal owners of the property absolutely
unfettered by trusts, they were able to satisfy a Court, by evK' :
deuce of usage, that a trust, in fact, existed, still that trust
would not be enforced for their benefit, so long as they remain
liable to the penal and prohibitory clauses of the Emancipation
Act. 1
As already observed, Anglican monks, or monks of
the Russian Greek Church, or any monks save those of
1 Report, pp. vL vii. * Ibid., p. vii.
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 459
the Roman Catholic Church, who please to settle in
these countries, would not suffer under disadvantages of
the kind ; for they would be accepted as British sub-
jects, and, as such, enjoy the full protection of the law.
The complaints of the Catholics on the subject of
these grievances are thus summed up by the Com-
mittee :
We had before us numerous witnesses, representing both the
religious orders and the Roman Catholic laity, who all concurred
in complaining of the law as above stated, and of the tenure of
property produced by that state of the law, as a grievance. It
was represented to us as inconsistent with the principles of re-
ligious liberty to prohibit and make penal the taking of monas-
tic vows in conformity with the religious belief and with the
conscientious vocation of Her Majesty's Roman Catholic sub-
jects. So long as the law gave no binding force to those vows,
so long as they remained mere voluntary engagements binding
only on the conscience, and undertaken from a sense of religious
duty, it was contended by these witnesses that the law should
not treat them as criminal acts. In like manner the law which
prohibits as ' superstitious uses ' the saying of masses or prayers
for the dead was represented as a grievance to Roman Catholics.
They attach great importance to such intercessory prayers. The
first clause of the Roman Catholic Chanties Act of 1860 enables
the Court of Chancery, when property was given both to super-
stitious and to charitable uses to apportion it, and to declare
new uses in lieu of the superstitious use, leaving the rest of the
foundation -valid ; but this section does not satisfy the wishes of
Roman Catholic founders of charities, who often set the greatest
store precisely on those superstitious uses which the Court
under that section is enabled to set aside.
It was stated before us that the religious orders discharge im-
portant functions in the religious and educational system of the
Roman Catholic community, inasmuch as the orders of men sup-
ply parish priests for 121 missions or parishes, which are de-
pendent on their ministrations, the number of secular priests in
the country being insufficient for the requirements of the
Roman Catholic body. They exercise, in this way, cure of souls
for 278,850 persons. They also educate and supply missionaries
for India and the colonies. They educate in England 1192 stu-
dents of the higher and middle classes, at ten colleges, and
92,260 poor children at various schools. They assist various
poor missions out of the resources at their command. The orders
of women educate in England 65,321 children, and in Scotland
460 TERRA INCOGNITA.
3710 children. They house and provide for 379 penitent women
in England, and 102 in Scotland. They visit and relieve many
thousands of the sick and indigent. It was represented to us as
a grievance that the persons by whom this spiritual and educa-
tional machinery was worked to the satisfaction of their co-
religionists should be treated by the law as criminals, or should
be in a position of doubtful legality.
It was urged that respect for the law was likely to be weakened
in the minds of those who received education from teachers
whose very existence was in violation of a law regarded by
Roman Catholics as trenching upon the rights of conscience. It
was further urged that the Taw against perpetuities, the law of
mortmain, the law against undue influence, and the laws pro.
tecting personal liberty, none of which were objected to by the
Roman Catholic witnesses, were amply sufficient to check all
abuses in conventual and monastic institutions, and to prevent
all improper and excessive acquisition of property by them,
without having recourse to penal clauses which never had been
put into operation, or to such a doctrine as that which condemned
articles of Roman Catholic belief under the name of supersti-
tion. It was argued that public policy would be better assisted
by allowing monasteries and convents to hold property under
trusts ascertained and declared in the usual way, capable of
being enforced by the ordinary tribunals, and assisted by the
inspection of the Charity Commissioners, instead of driving
them to rely upon that system of holding property which w
have above described. 1
It is an important fact, noticed by the Select Com-
mittee, that the penalties of the Emancipation Act have
not been enforced in any one case since the Act passed ;
but the consequences of those penal clauses, and of the
doctrine of superstitious uses, upon dispositions of pro-
perty, which are thereby annulled and defeated, have
sometimes been enforced by the Courts of England and
Ireland. 2
The following case in point occurred in the south of
Ireland, a few years ago : A gentleman, dying without
wife or children, left all his means ready money to
the Dominican Fathers, Cork a truly exemplary, zeal-
ous, self-denying, and hardworking community, devot-
ing themselves exclusively, and with untiring energy, to
1 Report, pp. vii. viil Ibid., p. viiL
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 461
their sacred duties, having erected in the city of Cork one
of the most beautiful churches in the United Kingdom,
and ministering there to large congregations. Availing
himself of the old penal law, the testator's brother, a
man in good circumstances, disputed the will, and the
case was, of necessity, decided in his favour. The gene-
ral dissatisfaction, nay, indignation, at the result, and
still more, at the fact that enactments leading to such a
result should be allowed to remain on the Statute-book,
found expression in a remarkable meeting, held in Cork
at the time, 1 which was presided over by the Mayor of
Cork, and in which the City members and other leading
citizens took part.
In this case, not only were the religious community
deprived of the money bequeathed to them, and the
Catholic population debarred from the advantages that
would accrue to them from the objects to which the
Fathers would have devoted the bequest, but the wishes
of the testator, in the disposal of his own property, were
defeated. Had the gentleman in question bequeathed
his money to a Jewish rabbi, a Turkish dervise, an
Indian fakir, or an openly avowed propagandist of
Atheism, his intentions could not have been defeated,
and his will would not have been disputed. Such cases,
when they occur, cause no small amount of heart-burn-
ing among Her Majesty's Catholic subjects, at the same
time that they forcibly illustrate the inconsistency and
absurdity of allowing such unfair and unnecessary laws
remnants of the old penal legislation to remain in
force.
From what has been detailed in this chapter, my
readers will have seen that nuns do not labour under
the disabilities that attach to religious communities of
men. They cannot be regarded as, ipso facto, aliens
and misdemeanants in the eye of the law, unless, per-
haps, by the forced construction of an Act of Parlia-
ment, by the framers of which it is not likely their case
i April 25th, 1865.
462 TERRA INCOGNITA.
was ever contemplated. 1 Indeed, any attempt to bring
nuns within the provisions of the statute in question
a penal statute of over eighty years ago would be
all but certain to break down.
The following important decision in Equity appears
to be conclusive on the point. It will be noted that
this decision was not made until after the
Committee had closed its labours, and laid its report
before Parliament :
VICE-CHANCELLOR'S COURTS, LINCOLN'S INN.
July 26th, 1871.
Before Vice-Chancellor Sin J. WICKENS.
COCKS v. MANNERS.
This was a case of great importance, being the first
case decided in England since the Reformation, on the
validity of a gift or bequest to a Roman Catholic c. >
Frances Manners, wife of William Whichcote Man-
ners, a gentleman living in the Isle of Wight, was en-
titled to a considerable amount of property, settled
upon her for her separate use, and over which' she^H
a power of disposition by will. She died on February
19, 1870. By her will, which was dated June 1 18G7
she left her jewellery and ornaments to be divided by
her husband and the plaintiff, whom she appointed her
executors, among her children, and the will then
tmued as follows :
And the residue of my disposable property I leave equally
*tween the following religious institutions viz., the New-
Drt Catholic Chapel, for the general purposes thereof, and
payable to the officiating priest for the time being ; the Brighton
Cathohc Chapel, m Upper Saint James's Street, payable
like purposes to the officiating priest; the Dominican Convent
at Carisbrooke (payable to the Superior for the time beinu
the Sisters of Saint Paul, at Selley Oak. near Birmin-ha
able to the Superior thereof for the time being.
1 31st of George III, c 32, sec. 17, vide supra, p. 453.
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 463
It is necessary to state exactly the nature of the pro-
perty bequeathed in this case. It consisted of the
moiety of a freehold house, which was valued at G25,
and in law is pure realty ; of a sum of 4200 Consols, the
proceeds of the sale of a landed estate left to the testa-
trix by her uncle, directed to be sold by his will, but
which had not been sold at the date of her death, which
in law is impure or mixed personalty ; and of a sum of
about 6000 in Consols, which in law is pure personalty. 1
"We have seen that down to the year 1832 Eoman Catho-
lic charitable uses were treated by the law of the land as
superstitious and void ; 2 but that, in that year, partial
relief was given to Roman Catholics by the 2nd and 3rd
of \Yilliam IV., c. 115, which enacted that they should,
in respect of their 'schools, places for religious worship,
education, and charitable purposes,' be subject to the
same laws as the Protestant Dissenters were subject to
in England. 3 We have further seen, that, by the 9th
of George II., chapter 36, land cannot be devised or
; conveyed to a charity except by deed executed twelve
: months before the death of the testator or grantor, and
! enrolled in Chancery within six months after its execu-
tion. The same rule applies to the proceeds of the sale
of land, or money directed to be laid out in laud
bequests savouring of realty.
On the bequests to the two chapels, no question arose.
They had each been held entitled to a share in the pure
personalty, and had advanced no claim to participate either
in the realty or in the proceeds of the sale of the land. 4
The claims of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Paul at
1 These figures are given, as reported by the Press. Since they first
. appeared, I have seen another account, in which the pure personal
estate is set dpwn at considerably less. Hence, I am informed, the
Sisters of St Paul received only a very small sum, as their share, after
deducting law costs and legacy duty.
2 Vide supra, p. 454. 3 Vide supra, ibid.
4 Personalty or Personal Estate, in law, is movables, chattels, things
belonging to the person ; as money, plate, jewels, pictures, furniture,
&o. ; whereas Realty or Real Estate consists of things fixed, permanent,
or immovable ; as lands and houses.
464 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Selley Oak, and of the Dominican nuns at Caris-
brooke, were now heard. The objects of these institu-
tions and their legal position are set forth as follows, in
the affidavits filed by their respective superiors. That
of Mrs Genevieve Dupuis, the Superior of the Sisters of
Saint Paul at Selley Oak, says:
The congregation is an institution which has been established
there for several years, and is composed of Roman Catholic
women living together by mutual consent, partly at Selley Oak
and partly at various other subordinate establishments in other
parts of England. The primary object of the congregation is the
personal sauctification of the members, who, as a means thereto,
employ themselves in the exercise of works of piety and charity,
principally in teaching the children of the poor, and in nursing
the sick. They are enjoined to apply themselves sedulously to
acquire sufficient skill and knowledge to enable them to become
teachers in schools and nurses of the sick, and, when found fully
competent, they are chiefly employed in those capacities in
localities where their services are required, and they
small stipends for their services from those at whose instance
they render them. In order to procure admission into the
congregation a pension is required from each member during
the period of the probation and training, and until bhe is
r'ified to earn a livelihood by her own exertions. All moneys
received, and also all moneys earned by the members, are
paid into the common fund, are the property of the members,
and are applied for the maintenance and support of the members,
and otherwise at their discretion ; and it is their habit to give to
works of religion and piety, and in almsgiving, at their discretion,
any surplus beyond what is required for the purposes of the
congregation. The members of the congregation retain their
vested interests in any property which may belong to them, hut
while members of the congregation the receipt and application
of its revenues is interdicted to its members, and for that rea-
son, before their admission, they are required to make over to
some j>erson or persons of their own selection the adrnini
of their property ; but this disposal of their property is only
provisional, and ceases to have effect in case they leave the con-
gregation, and a power of revocation may be inserted in the deed
if required. The same rule applies to any property which may
come to the members by way of inheritance or bequest.
Mrs Barker, Superior of the Dominican Com-
Carisbrooke, in her affidavit, says :
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 465
For several years before, and on the said 19th day of Feb-
ruary 1870, the said institution was, and it has ever since been,
and is now, an institution consisting of Roman Catholic females
living together by mutual agreement in a state of celibacy, and
under a common superior, for the purpose of sanctifying their
own souls by prayer and pious contemplation within their said in-
stitution, and without performing external works, or providing for
public worship, or engaging in education, or receiving or visiting
the sick or poor, or indigent, or children, and without 'relieving
them except casually or accidentally, and not as one of the
objects of the institution ; and without engaging in any of the
corporal works of mercy ; and it has not been and is not any
part of the duties, or objects, or ordinary functions of the insti-
tution to perform works of charity, and the said institution was
not before or at the decease of the said testatrix, and is not, a
charitable institution.
Counsel appeared for Mr Cocks, one of the executors,
by whom the suit had been instituted, to obtain the
opinion of the Court, for his guidance.
Counsel, on behalf of Mr Manners, the testatrix's
husband, contended that the bequests to the Selley Oak
Sisters and the Dominican Convent were void ; the
institutions were founded and existed for charitable
purposes ; and that, as regarded the realty and impure
personalty, the gift was void under the statute of Eliza-
beth ; and, as regarded the personalty, the institutions
had a perpetual corporate existence, and the gifts were
void under the rules against perpetuities.
Counsel, for the Selley Oak Sisters, admitted that
they were founded and existed as a charitable institution;
but they contended that they were exactly in the same
position as a club a voluntary association of members
which could at any time dissolve and divide the exist-
ing funds, to which the bequest was but an accretion ;
and that, whether they were or were not entitled to the
realty and impure personalty, they were, at any rate,
entitled to the bequest of their share of the personalty.
Counsel, for the Dominican Convent of Carisbrooke,
referred to the object of these foundations, which were
no doubt religious, but were in no other sense chari-
2 G
466 TERRA INCOGNITA.
table; and contended that, as the contemplative life
was not a charitable purpose within the statute, they
were entitled to share in the realty as well as in the
personalty.
After hearing counsel,
The Vice-Chancellor said the case was a very important one,
the arguments in which had necessarily been long, but not too
long for the case. The question now to be decided was raised
with reference to two institutions which stood on somewhat
different footings. He would deal with that of the' Sisters of
Selley Oak first. They were ladies who associated together, by
consent, for works of active charity. Their community was, in
point of law, a voluntary association, and described to be for the
purpose of teaching the ignorant and nursing the sick ; and he
could not distinguish them in that respect from any of the
numerous associations established in London, such as the Scrip-
ture Readers. Home Missionaries, or Anglican Sisters of Mercy,
in which zealous persons united for the purpose of charitable
functions : taking out of the funds of the association so much
as was necessary for their own wants, and extending their opera-
tions as their means permitted. It was true that in a religious
point of view these nuns had a quasi corporate existence, which
might make them proj>er recipients of a legacy without reference
to the mode in which they would apply it But, in a legal point
of view, they were a mere voluntary association like those he
had mentioned. No doubt it was said that the entire body
could dissolve themselves and divide the property. That was
true with the Selley Oak Sisters equally with the other volun-
tary associations to which he had referred. As to the intention
of the testatrix herself, no doubt she was thinking, when she
made her will, more of the workers than the work to be done
by them, and wished to benefit the nuns rather than the objects
of their charity. Still, for him to hold that that institution was
any other than a voluntary association, would be to take an in-
correct view of their legal position. That being so, the bequest
of personal estate to them was a good charitable gift. Then,
with regard to the case of the Dominican Convent : that was a
different one. As to that, two questions arose : first, was the
gift to it a charitable one ? and second, if it was not, were there
any reasons why it was not a valid gift ? For a gift to be a
charitable one in the eye of the law, it must lie within those
enumerated in the preamble of the Statute 43 Elizabeth, c. 4,
as to charitable uses. Several were there specified ; but he
could not say this was such a one as any of those. The pre-
amble had received a very wide construction ; but it was difficult
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 467
to help feeling that such a gift as that to the Dominican Con-
vent in this case was not only not within the words of the Act,
but probably, and without reference to the faith professed, one
of the last gifts which the Legislature which passed that Act
would have thought of including in it. The Dominican Convent
was a mere voluntary association of women, uniting for the pur-
pose of working out the salvation of their own souls by religious
exercises and self-denial. That was in no sense, or in spirit, a
charitable purpose within the statute. There were no decided
cases which compelled him to hold that it was ; and unless there
were, he would not do so. A gift of an annuity to a man so
long as he spent his life like a hermit, or such like, was not a
charitable purpose. Then, was that bequest void on the ground
of perpetuity ? He thought not. The convent was analogous to
a club ; and he had seen many gifts to agricultural and other
clubs and societies in the country, though he did not then recol-
lect any gift to a London club.
Mr Morgan. There was the gift of the pictures to the Garrick
Club.
The Vice-Chancellor continued Truly ; and here the bequest
was to the superior of the convent for the time being ; by whom
the money would be put into the common fund, or chest of the
institution, subject to no trust, the property of the society, and
alienable ; and to be dealt with by them, whenever and in what-
ever way they might thiuk fit. It would be far too great a stretch
of the ordinary "rule against perpetuities, as understood and
applied by this court, to hold that it extended to and embraced
the institution in question. The result, therefore, of the whole
case would be, that the bequest to the Sisters at Selley Oak
would be decided to be a valid charitable bequest, good as to
the pure, but bad as to the impure, or mixed personalty (so much
of it as savoured of realty) ; and that the bequest to the Domi-
nican Convent was altogether a good one.
Here, it would appear, that the Vice-Chancellor re-
gards the Sisters of Saint Paul (who are nuns engaged
in the active duties of charity) in the same light as, and
not to be distinguished in any respect from, the numer-
ous charitable associations established in London, such
as the Scripture Headers, Home Missionaries, or Angli-
can Sisters of Mercy ; and he decides that the bequest
to them is a valid charitable bequest, good as to the
pure or unmixed personal property, but bad as to the
mixed personalty (so much of it as savoured of real
468 TERRA INCOGNITA.
property). On the other hand, he regards the Domini-
can nuns of Carisbrooke as a mere voluntary association,
uniting not for charitable purposes within the meaning
of the statute 43 Elizabeth, c. 4, but for the purpose of
working out the salvation of their own souls by religious
exercises and self-denial ; and he considers them analo-
gous to a London club. He therefore decides that the
bequest to them, not being a charitable bequest, is
altogether valid, both as to personal and real property.
If, in this case, the bequest were made to religious
communities of men of the Human Catholic Church,
instead of to the Sisters of St. Paul, and the Dominican
Nuns of Carisbrooke, it would have been invalid, both
as to personal and real property, owing to the penal
clauses of the Emancipation Act, which, as we have
seen, are levelled against all religious communities of
men of the Roman Catholic Church, but leave untouched
all religious communities of any other denomination.
As regards the prohibition of Roman Catholic reli-
gious orders of men in these countries, the law is excep-
tional, and consequently cannot, in accordance with our
modern ideas of justice, be enforced. Why, under these
circumstances, retain it on the Statute-book ?
Rendering invalid all gifts and bequests to Roman
Catholic religious communities of men, and these ex-
clusively, the law is regarded as unjust ; and, as being
unjust, is evaded. Its evasion entails inconvenience,
and necessarily diminishes the general respect for the
laws of the country.
Let us hope, that, in the enlightened spirit of our
more recent jurisprudence, the statutes bearing on these
matters will be amended, as is plainly suggested by the
evidence contained in the able and valuable report of
the Select Committee.
As there may be exaggerated ideas about the wealth
of the nuns of the United Kingdom, it is well to state,
that, generally speaking, they are poor struggling com-
munities; and this for the following reasons. First,
LEGAL POSITION AND PROPERTY OF NUNS. 469
their income, as we shall presently see, is in itself small ;
secondly, small as it is, it is encroached on by their
numerous poor clients ; and thirdly, they are, nearly all,
more or less, in debt for the building and furnishing of
their charitable institutions.
When a lady who has entered a convent takes the vows,
and so becomes a professed nun, she is required to bring
in with her a dower of about 600, yielding, at five per
cent, interest, 30 a year, which is deemed sufficient for
her food, clothing, and all other requisites. 1 A wealthy
Englishman, seeing a Sister of Mercy or other nun, in
plain and humble garb, here visiting the sick in mud
and rain, here teaching in a poor school, here educating
orphans, here again discharging hospital duties, will
readily understand, that, in order to perform the heavy
work devolving on her, she must be so clothed as to be
well protected against the weather in our damp climate,
and that she also must have a sufficiency of plain nutri-
tious food ; but he will find it hard to realize, that, for all
this, she requires, in the year, only as much as he probably
spends on cigars, or his wife pays for a single dress !
And yet, small as this pittance is, it is sufficient for
her humble wants ; and in most cases it is shared with
the famishing poor. In a nuns' poor school of 200 or
300 girls, at least one-fourth of the children, in many
districts, come to school fasting. These the Sisters en-
deavour to supply with bread. To some very ragged
children they give clothing. Again, the little orphan
they are asked to receive in a specially urgent case, and
the sick poor they visit, are, in the same way, pen-
sioners on their slender means. In some convents, of
old establishment and these are the exception de-
mands of this kind are more extensively met than in
houses of recent institution. For in the former there is,
in the lapse of years, some accumulation of funds.
] This is a general rule. There are a few congregations, the mem-
bers of which are supported by small stipends received for nursing the
sick and other services rendered.
470 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Thus, when a mm dies, her dower belongs to the com-
munity of which she was a member. In this way, the
resources of the convent are gradually increased. But
the nuns do not live one whit the less plainly on this
account. The entire increase goes to the poor, the sick,
the ignorant, the widow and the orphan. It sometimes
happens, that a convent thus circumstanced will take in,
as a choir nun, a lady of great piety or ability, who has
no dower, or whose dower is short of the requisite aim mat.
But such cases are rare ; and thus the increased inr-nne
is mainly devoted to the hospital, orphanage, poor school,
or other charitable institution attached to the convent,
or the relief of the sick poor in their own homes.
Mr Newdegate and some of his friends would
such sums with succession duty, thus docking the few
pence received by the sick poor clients of a particular
house in the year, or perchance reducing the numbers in a
particular female orphanage from one hundred and forty
to one hundred and thirty-nine. The gain resulting, lrm
such a measure, to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and
the British taxpayer would not amount in one hundred
years to a penny in the pound on the sum occasionally
lost to the nation, through an error in the construction
of an iron-clad.
But let us not misrepresent the honourable gentle-
men. Their action is not prompted by regard lor tlie
pocket of the British taxpayer. It is suggested and
perseveringly maintained by an unrelenting hostility to
convents a hostility for which they are sorely puzzled
to produce one intelligible reason. Happily, the House
of Commons is not of their opinion on the subject ; and
so we may safely leave them the unenviable monopoly
of the lines of the Roman satirist :
Non amo te, Sabidi ; nee possum dicere quare.
Hoc tantum poeaum dicere, non amo te. 1
1 Martial's lines Lave been well rendered as follows :
I do not lore yon. Doctor Fell,
The reason why I cannot tell ;
Bat this alone I know full well,
I do not lore you, Doctor Fell.
(471 )
CHAPTEE XXXVIII.
CONCLUSION.
Rouse to some work of high and holy love,
And thou an angel's happiness shalt know,
Shalt bless the earth while in the world above ;
The good begun by thee shall onward flow
In many a branching stream, and wider grow ;
The seed that, in these few and fleeting hours,
Thy hands unsparing and unwearied sow,
Shall deck thy grave with amaranthine flowers,
And yield thee fruits divine in heaven's immortal bowers.
CARLOS WILCOX.
WE have now seen what is the work of the convents of
the United Kingdom a holy and eminently useful
work, unobtrusively and unceasingly going on a work
of imparting to Christian maidens suitable secular
and religious instruction forming their minds and
moulding their characters after the best of models ; thus
fitting the young lady to fulfil the duties of the im-
portant position for which she is destined, and preparing
the poor girl for the hard battle of life and the thousand
dangers and snares and pitfalls to which poverty
exposes her, and of which ignorance, combined with
poverty, would surely make her the victim a work that
provides a home, and words of kindly welcome, and
lovingly ministering hands for the orphan, the
friendless young woman, and the aged poor a work
that seeks out the lowly and suffering in the hos-
pital, the jail, the close cellar, and the wretched
garret, to provide for their temporal wants, to con-
dole with them in their sorrows, and to turn their
minds and hearts towards Him, without whose saving
presence _ the lot of the poor man must be desolate
indeed in fine, a work in which the lives and actions
472 TERRA INCOGNITA.
of the pure and holy a continuous prayer ascend like
incense to the throne of the Most High, and draw down
on us blessings that we little dream of, and atone for
much of our shortcomings, and appease the wrath that
might otherwise fall heavily on this Christian land.
We have further seen who those are, who are e;:_
in this work not paid servants, not seekers for worldly
rewards or worldly honours, but ladies who, in the
spirit of the Gospel counsels of perfection, have left
their homes and all that the world most esteems, to
devote themselves, in poverty and privation and
obscurity, to God and the service of His poor. Of the
immense good resulting, directly and indirectly, from
their zeal and self-sacrifice, we have seen a portion ;
but by far the greater part can be known only t tho
Divine Master whom they so faithfully serve.
That such institutions should be promoted and
cherished, even for mere expediency sake not to
of higher motives that in them will be found the most
effective machinery for educating youth, and diffusing
principles of order, morality, and religion amon.^ tlm
masses, through those who hereafter, as wives and
mothers, must, each in her own circle, exercise a power-
ful influence for good or ill are self-evident propositions.
By no other means can the poor be so fully convinced
that, as regards their moral and religious culture, they
are not altogether abandoned by their wealthy fellow-
creatures, and that religion, with its churches and pews
and well-dressed congregations, has, after all, some
concern with them. 1 Should we, however, entertain
1 Those who convene with the poor in the large towns and cities of
England, or in some of the semi-rural mining and manufacturing
districts, will find the impression but too prevalent, that the church is
intended only for well-dressed people, and not for poor ragged
creatures like themselves. The evidence quoted from Mr Mayhew,
further on, will be fully borne out by the experience of all those who
take the trouble to investigate the subject 'In Bcthnal Green,
where there is a population of 180,000 people, there are only 2000
people who are known ever to go to a place of worship,' savs Mr
CONCLUSION. 473
any doubts on the subject, those doubts must disappear
before the following testimony of well-informed and
disinterested witnesses.
In a stroll through London, whether he turn his steps
North, South, East, or West, the stranger will be struck
with the industry of a considerable itinerant trading
population. Here he will see a man, in a glazed cap,
rolling along a barrow of garden fruit ; here, another
whose ware is vegetables ; here, again, one who sells
fish ; here, a vendor of oranges, or sliced pine-apple or
cocoa-nut ; and so on, through an endless variety. Can
the observer form an idea of the importance and mag-
nitude of this, at first sight, apparently despicable
trade ? Can he approach a correct estimate of the num-
bers it engages and supports of the amount of money
it turns in the year ? To do so, it is necessary he should
bear in mind that this humble traffic is one of the all
but countless phases of supply balancing demand, in a
population of over three millions.
The costermongers l of London, we are told, form a
class in themselves, generally consorting together in the
several districts in which they dwell, and living apart
from the rest of the population. "With their families
they number over 30,000 souls. Their industry is great,
and the extent of their traffic, in the aggregate, as ascer-
tained by careful and accurate calculations, is enormous.
According to Mr Mayhew, who appears to have spared
no pains in acquiring information about this class, the
gross yearly receipts of the costermongers of London are
two millions of money, and their clear annual gain or
income is 425,000. 2
Edmund Potter, M.P. (Meeting of the National Education League
at Birmingham, October 12, 1869.) Report, page 39, Birmingham,
' The Journal' printing offices, 1869.
1 Costermonger, a hawker of fruit, vegetables or fish ; from costard,
an apple (now obsolete), and monger, a seller, from the Saxon mangere
and mangian, to trade.
8 ' London Labour and the London Poor,' by Henry Mayhew, voL
i. p. 120. London 1851.
474 TERRA INCOGNITA.
Although they are but too ready, as a class, to cheat in
buying and selling, they observe a certain rude honesty
in their transactions with one another ; and moreover,
they are quite punctual in repaying money lent them.
Those who are unacquainted with the character of the
may feel inclined to doubt the trustworthiness of the clas^, but
it is an extraordinary fact that but few of the costermongers fail
to repay the money advanced to them, even at the present
ruinous rate of interest. The poor, it is my belief, have not
yet been sufficiently tried in this respect ; pawnbrokers, loan*
uffices, tally-shops, dolly-shops, are the only parties who will
trust them but, as a startling proof of the good faith of the
humbler classes generally, it may be stated that Mrs Chisholm
(the lady who has exerted herself so benevolently in the cause
of emigration) has lent out, at different times, as much as
160,000 that has been entrusted to her for the use of the
4 lower orders,' and that the whole of this large amount has been
returned with the exception of l2\ l
Tims, it would appear, that there are good materials
among these people, if they were only turned to account^
but so sadly is their moral and religious culture neglected,"
that, as a rule, they are given to cheating in buying and
selling, and to drunkenness, and gambling, spending the
greater part of their Sundays in the latter vice ; ami, in
nine cases out of ten, they contract unhallowed unions,
unblessed by any marriage ceremony. The consequence
is, that the women are generally slaves rather than
wives ; and the children, wholly uncared for, and ex-
posed to every evil influence, grow up in total ignorance
of Christian truths and obligations, and are early steeped
in licentiousness and crime.
The costermongers, taken as a body, entertain the most in>
perfect idea of the sanctity of marriage. To their undeveloped
minds it merely consists in the fact of a man and woman living
together, and sharing the gains they may each earn by selling in
the street. The father and mother of the girl look upon it as *
convenient means of shifting the support of their child over to
1 ' London Labour and the London Poor,' by Henry Maybew, voL
i. p. 32. London, 1851.
CONCLUSION. 475
another's exertions ; and so thoroughly do they believe this to be
the end and aim of matrimony, that the expense of a church
ceremony is considered as a useless waste of money, and the new
pair are received by their companions as cordially as if every
form of law and religion had been complied with.
The notions of morality among these people agree strangely,
as I have said, with those of many savage tribes indeed it would
be curious if it were otherwise. They are a part of the Xomades
of England, neither knowing nor caring for the enjoyments of
home. The hearth, which is so sacred a symbol to all civilized
races as being the spot where the virtues of each succeeding
generation are taught and encouraged, has no charms to them.
The tap-room is the father's chief abiding place ; whilst to the
mother the house is only a better kind of tent. She is away at
the stall, or hawking her goods from morning till night, while
the children are left to play away the day in the court or alley,
and pick their morals out of the gutter. So long as the limbs
gain strength, the parent cares for nothing else. As the young
ones grow up, their only notions of wrong are formed by what
the policeman will permit them to do. If we, who have known
from babyhood the kindly influences of a home, require, before
we are thrust out into the world to get a living for ourselves,
that our perceptions of good and evil should be quickened and
i brightened (the same as our perceptions of truth and falsity) by
the experience and counsel of those who are wiser and better
than ourselves, if, indeed, it needed a special creation and ex-
ample to teach the best and strongest of us the law of right, how
: bitterly must the children of the street-folk require tuition,
I training, and advice, when from their very cradles (if, indeed,
: they ever knew such luxuries) they are doomed to witness in
; their parents, whom they naturally believe to be their superiors,
habits of life in which passion is the sole rule of action, and where
' every appetite of our animal nature is indulged in, without the
least restraint !
I say thus much because I am anxious to make others feel, as
I do myself, that we are the culpable parties in these matters.
. That they, poor things, should do as they do is but human
nature but that we should allow them to remain thus destitute
I of every blessing vouchsafed to ourselves that we should will-
I ingly share what we enjoy with our brethren at the Antipodes,
and yet leave those who are nearer and who, therefore, should be
1 dearer to us, to want even the commonest moral necessaries, is
' a paradox that gives to the zeal of our Christianity a strong
savour of the chicanery of Cant.
The costermongers strongly resemble the North American
' Indians in their conduct to their wives. They can understand
476 TERRA INCOGNITA.
that it is the duty of the woman to contribute to the happiness
of the man, but cannot feel that there is a reciprocal duty from
the man to the woman. The wife is considerea as an inexpen-
sive servant, and the disobedience of a wish is punished with
blows. 1
After the foregoing extracts, the lollowing items of
evidence about ' the religion of costermongers ' will not
surprise us.
An intelligent and trustworthy man, until very recently
actively engaged in costermongering, computed that not 3 in 100
costermongers had ever been in the interior of a church, or any
place of worship, or knew what was meant by Christianity. The
same person gave me the following account, which was confirmed
by others :
' The costers have no religion at all, and very little notion, or
none at all, of what religion and a future state is. Of all tilings
they hate tracts. They hate them because the people leaving
them never give them anything, and as they cannot read the
tract not one in forty they're vexed to be bothered with it.
And really what is the use of giving people reading before WH
have taught them to read ? Now, they respect the City Mis-
sionaries, because they read to them and because they visit the
sick and sometimes give oranges and such like to them and the
children. I've known a City Missionary buy a shilling's \\<>rth
of oranges of a coster, and give them away to the sick and the
children most of them belonging to the costermongere 4^1
the court, and that made him respected there. I think the City
Missionaries have done good. But I'm satisfied that if the cos-
ters had to profess themselves of some religion to-morrow, they
would all become Roman Catholics, every one of them. This is
the reason : London costers live very often in the same courts
and streets as the poor Irish, and if the Irish are sick, be sura
there conies to them the priest, the Sisters of Charity'
good women and some other ladies. Many a man that's not *
Catholic, has rotted and died without any good jierson near him.
Why, I lived a good while in Lambeth, and there wasn't on
in 100, I'm satisfied, knew so much as the rector's name, though
Mr Dalton's a very good man. But the reason I was telling you
of, sir, is that the costers reckoned that religion the best that
gives the most in charity, and they think the Catholics do this,
I'm not a Catholic myself, but I believe every word in the Bible,
1 * London Labour and the London Poor.' By Henry May hew, voL
L p. 43. London, 1851.
CONCLUSION. 477
and have the greater belief that it's the word of God because it
teaches democracy. The Irish in the courts get sadly chaffed by
the others about their priests, but they'll die for the priest.
Behgion is a regular puzzle to the costers. They see people
come out of church and chapel, and as they're mostly well
.dressed, and there's very few of their own sort among the church-
goers, the costers sometimes mix up being religious with bein-
respectable, and so they have a queer sort of feeling about it.
It's a mystery to them. It's shocking when you come to think
of it. They'll listen to any preacher that goes among them and
then a few will say I've heard it often "A b fool, why don't
he let people go to hell their own way 1 " There's another thin*
that makes the costers think so well of the Catholics. If a
(Catholic coster there's only very few of them is "cracked up"
(penniless), he's often started again, and the others have a notion
that it's through some chapel-fund. I don't know whether it is
so or not, but I know the cracked-up men are started again if
they're Catholics. It's still the stranger that the regular coster-
mongers, who are nearly all Londoners, should have such respect
for the Koman Catholics, when they have such a hatred for the
Irish, whom they look upon as intruders and underminers.' l
' I never go to church ; I used to go when I was a little child
at Sevenoaks ' (said one of these people). ' I suppose I was born
somewhere thereabouts. I've forgot what the inside of a church
:s like. There's no costermongers ever go to church, except the
,-ogues of them, that wants to appear good.'
' I never heard about Christianity ' (said another), ' but if a
x>ve was to fetch me a lick on the head, I'd give it him again,
whether he was a big 'un or a little 'un. I'd precious soon see
i-n henemy of mine shot afore I'd forgive him, where's the use ?
[ can understand that all as lives in a court is neighbours ; but
is for policemen, they're nothing to me, and I should like to pay
em off well. No, I never heerd about this here creation you
ipeak about. In coorse, God Almighty made the world, and the
oor bricklayers' labourers built the houses afterwards that's
<iy opinion ; but I can't say, for I've never been in no schools,
inly always hard at work, and knows nothing about it. I have
eerd a little about our Saviour, they seem to say he was a
'Oodish kind of a man ; but if he says as how a cove's to forgive
'^feller as hits you, I should say he knowed nothing about it.
! 'es, I knows ! in the Lord's prayer they says, " Forgive us our
respasses as we forgive them as trespasses agin us." It's a very
ood thing, in coorse, but no costers can't do it.' 2
' : Mayhew's ' London Labour and the London Poor ' vol i p 21
3 Ibid. p. 39.
4 78 TERRA INCOGNITA.
And yet we are told that the gratitude of these poor
neglected creatures to any one who seeks to give them
the least knowledge is almost pathetic. 1 Oh 1 what a
vast amount of good would be effected among such a
population by those convents so much misunderstood,
and therefore so sadly misrepresented ! Those poor
neglected girls would be gathered in from the court, and
the alley, and the gutter ; their minds would be en-
lightened, their hearts formed, their characters moulded ;
they would be fortified against the fearful dangers inci-
dental to their condition ; and, above all, they would be
taught to preserve and cherish that maidenly decorum,
that propriety of demeanour, that Christian modesty,
which is the brightest jewel in a woman's character.
Thus trained, in time, as wives and mothers poor ;uul
toiling, and exposed to sufferings and temptation i
they may be they would exercise a wholesome in-
lluence in their humble households ; their husbands,
united to them with the Church's sanction and 1>1
would be beneficially influenced by their example
above all, their children's early culture and edu
on which so much depends, would be cared for. This is
no stretch of the imagination no mere Utopian divuiu.
It is a reality an accomplished fact, among a corre-
sponding class, who are so fortunate as to come under
the influence, either direct or indirect, of conventual
institutions. Mr Mayhew tells us that he has made
himself well acquainted with the 'religious, moral, in-
tellectual, and physical condition ' of the Irish
folk. 'As I had shown,' says he, 'how the En-lish
costermonger neither had nor knew any religion what-
ever, it became my duty to give the reader a view of
the religion of the Irish street-sellers. In order to be
able to do so as truthfully as possible, I placed myself
in communication with those parties who were in a
position to give me the best information on the subject.
1 Mayhew's ' London Labour and the London Poor,' voL L p. 22.
CONCLUSION. 479
The result is given in all the simplicity and impartiality
of history.' l
Almost all the street-Irish are Koman Catholics. ... As I
was anxious to witness the religious zeal that characterises these
people, I obtained permission to follow one of the priests, as he
made his rounds among his flock. Everywhere the people ran
out to meet him. He had just returned to them, I found, and
the news spread round, and women crowded to their door-steps,
and came creeping up from the cellars through the trap-doors,
merely to curtsey to him. One old crone, as he passed, cried,
' You're a good father, Heaven comfort you ; ' and the boys play-
ing about stood still to watch him. . . . Even as the priest
walked along the street, boys running at full speed would pull
up to touch their hair, and the stall-women would rise from their
baskets ; while all noise even a quarrel ceased until he had
passed by. Still there was no look of fear in the people. He
I called them all by their names, and asked after their families,
and once or twice the 'father' was taken aside and held by the
button, while some point that required his advice was whispered
in his ear.
The religious fervour of the people whom I saw was intense.
At one hoiise that I entered, the woman set me marvelling at the
i strength of her zeal, by showing me how she contrived to have
in her sitting-room a sanctuary to pray before, every night and
.morning, and even in the day 'when she felt weary and lone-
,some.' The room was rudely enough furnished, and the only
decent table was covered with a new piece of varnished cloth ;
still before a rude print of our Saviour there were placed two
old plated candlesticks, with the copper shining through ; and
here it was that she told her beads. In her bedroom, too, was
a coloured engraving of ' the Blessed Lady/ which she never
passed without curtseying to. 2
Here is another instance. The speaker is a poor
Irishwoman, who had come over ' to better herself,' tell-
ing her own story :
' I was tould I'd do betther in London, and so, glory be to God ! i
.lave perhaps I have. I knew Mr , he porthers at Covent
garden, and I made him out, and hilped him in any long dis-
,ance of a job. As I'd been used to farrumin', I thought it good
aison I should be a costermonger, as they call it here. I can
ead and write too. And some good Christian the heavens
1 Mayhew's 'London Labour and the London Poor, vol. i. p. 107.
s Ibid. p. 107.
480 TERRA INCOGNITA.
light him to glory when he's gone ! I don't know who he was
advanced me 10s. or he gave it me, so to spake, through
Father ' (a Roman Catholic priest). ' We earu what keeps
the life in us. I don't go to markit, but buy of a fair-dealin'
man so I count him though lie's harrud sometimes. I can't
till how many Irishmen is in the thrade. There's many has
been brought down to it by the famin' and the changes. I don't
go much among the English street-dealers. They talk likehay-
thens. I never miss mass on a Sunday, and they don't know
what the blessed mass manes. I'm almost glad I have no chillier,
to see how they're raired here. Indeed, sir they're not mired
at all they run wild. They haven't the tear of God or the
saints. They'd hang a praste glory be to God ! they would.' 1
In the next extract, we have honourable testimony
borne to the fact, that these poor toilers dearly value
that virtue, in the practice of which Irish women hold
a proud pre-eminence.
Very few of these women (nor, indeed, of the men, though
rather more of them than the women) can read, and they are
mostly all wretchedly poor ; but the women present two cha-
racteristics, which distinguish them from the London coster-
women generally they are chaste, and, unlike the ' coster-girls,'
very seldom form any connection without the sanction of the
marriage ceremony. They are, moreover, attentive to religious
observances.'
There is much more evidence to the same etfcct,
but the above extracts are quite sufficient. The labo-
rious investigator and disinterested witness by whom it
is furnished, thus sums up :
We have now, in a measure, finished with the metropolitan
costermongere. We have seen that the street-seller*
fruit, and vegetables, constitute a large proportion of the Lundoo
population ; the men, women, and children numbering at the
least 30,000, and taking as much as .2,000,000 per annum.
We have seen, moreover, that these are the principal j>-..
of food to the poor, and that consequently they are as important
a body of people as they are numerous. Of all classes they
thouldbe the most honest ; since the poor, least of all, can afford
to be cheated ; and yet it has been shown that the conscience*
1 Marhew'8 ' London Labour and the London Poor,' vol. i. p. 108.
Ibid. p. 104.
CONCLUSION. 481
of the London" costermongers, generally speaking, are as little
developed as their intellects : indeed, the moral and religious
state of these men is a foul disgrace to us, laughing to scorn our
zeal for the ' propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts/ and
making our many societies for the civilization of savages on the
other side of the globe appear like ' a delusion, a mockery, and
a snare, when we have so many people sunk in the lowest
depths of barbarism round about our very homes. It is well to
have Bishops of New Zealand when we have Christianized our
own heathen ; but with 30,000 individuals in merely one of our
cities utterly creedless, mindless, and principleless, surely it
would look more like earnestness on our part if we created
Bishops of the New Cut, and sent 'right reverend fathers' to
watch over the ' care of souls ' in the Broadway and the Brill
If our sense of duty will not rouse us to do this, at least our re-
gard for our own interests should teach us that it is not safe to
allow this vast dungheap of ignorance and vice to seethe and
fust, breeding a social pestilence in the very heart of our land. 1
Here is something for England to do. Here is a wide
field for her zeal and charity. There are some who
would take into their own hands the regulation of the
; Catholic convents. There are some, again, who, if they
,had the power, would sweep such institutions off the
face of the land institutions which are eminently edu-
cational, and diffuse inestimable benefits to the poor,
and not only are loved and cherished by the millions of
Her Majesty's Catholic subjects, but are worthily appre-
ciated by many an educated Protestant, who has visited
;hem, and judged for himself. Not in a spirit of re-
Droach not in a tone of recrimination, but in all kind-
'iness may not the Catholics suggest to these zealous
eformers to look nearer home ? Like the philosopher
-)f old, intently gazing on the stars, they are, to all
-ppearance, wholly unconscious of the abyss that yawns
-t their feet. The costermongers of London, whose
mmbers have largely increased, with the gigantic growth
f the capital, since Mr Mayhew wrote, now some five
nd twenty years ago, are only a type of a class which
umbers millions; and they are far from being the
orst. In our mines, and factories, and brickfields, in
1 Mayhew's 'London Labour and the London Poor,' vol. i. p. 100.
2H
482 TERRA INCOGNITA.
the toiling life of some of our agricultural districts,
there are multitudes whose minds, as far as Christian
education is concerned, are a blank to whom the
saving truths and precepts of revealed religion are as a
sealed book. Following the instincts of their passions,
without guidance or control, irritated by their priva-
tions, bitterly contrasting their condition with the lives
of those who revel in wealth and luxury around them,
and extensively imbued with those principles of com-
munism, now so industriously propagated among their
class all over Europe for, in this respect, their educa-
tion is not neglected they constitute an element in
our society fraught with peril, and requiring only to be
shaped and directed, to enact such horrors as de
France in the first Revolution. Nothing derogatory is
here intended to the isolated exertions of good zealous
men, clerical and lay, and excellent ladies, who do their
best to stay the moral pestilence but those exerti^H
are little more than a drop of water in the ocean. Our
safety, hitherto, has lain in the complete want of orga-
nization in these toiling millions. That organization
there are now strenuous efforts to supply efforts
worthy of a better cause. We have, of late, heard much
of Irish Fenianism. British Communism looms, a much
greater danger, before us. ^"he former is rather poli-
tical than communistic. It is the inevitable result of
centuries of misgovernment and oppression ; ami, with
a uniform system of just government, now happily in-
augurated, another generation will, in nil probability,
see it expire. The latter, as its name imports, is dH
gether communistic. The vast majority of the people
of Ireland are well instructed in their religion ; they
love that religion, and venerate its ministers. Now,
communism, as we have lately seen OH the Continent,
levies war against all religion and social order. In Ire-
land, whatever* the faults of the people may be, the
principles of communism can never extensively pre-
CONCLUSION. 483
vail. 1 Let any Englishman cross St George's Channel,
and examine, and judge for himself. Let him take the
poorest Irish labourer, the street cad, the little girl
ragged and bare-footed, and he will find, as a rule, that
not only are they religious at heart, but they are well
acquainted with the principal mysteries of religion. He
will further find that they profoundly reverence the
lininisters of their Church, to whom they look up as
(trusted guides and teachers. Let him follow up his
(investigation, and, making all due allowance for the
iwork of a aealous priesthood, he will trace much of the
people being so well instructed to the early training of
the convent schools. With their mothers' milk they
jhave imbibed the truths and precepts of religion ; for
each of those poor hardworking women was once herself
a convent pupil, and, as God blessed her with children,
?he taught them what she had learned when a child,
and sent them to be similarly edified and instructed.
i Of late, great and laudable efforts are being made by
.Grovernment and individuals, to extend as widely as
possible the blessings of education. Fortunately, the
,$reat majority of the inhabitants of these islands advo-
:ate that system of education which is based on reli-
;iou. In carrying out the work of education among
'he children of their own communion in grappling
ijrith such social and moral evils as are detailed in this
ihapter, what better agents can there be than those
jeligious women, who, in a spirit of zeal and self-sacri-
i jce, devote their lives to this work, through the noblest
|jf all motives the love of God, and of their neighbours
1 Since this was written, Monsieur Rochfort, on his escape from
I "ew Caledonia, landed in Queenstown, from one of the Atlantic
[ earners. Immediately on his arrival, he was hissed and hooted by
He crowd on the landing stage and quay, the cry of 'Down with
i 'ochfort, down with the Commune,' being loudly shouted on every
de. Fortunately for himself, he succeeded in gaining the train,
i ithout rough handling. On his reaching Cork, it was with difficulty
railway porter could be induced to carry his luggage to a car.
484 TERRA INCOGNITA.
for God's sake ? But, as we have seen, it is not alone
in the important work of education that they are con-
tinually engaged. All the works of mercy, spiritual
and corporal, are embraced in the circle of their untir-
ing labours. Here we have no heavy staff exj
no paid officials. The unpaid servants of the j
Christ, they work not through human motives, or for
earthly rewards. Their thoughts are not of the tilings
of this life. Their hopes are centered in heaven.
INDEX.
ABELLT, Louis, Bishop of Eodez, biographer of Saint Vincent Je Paul
165, note
Abbeys and Monasteries, picturesque sites of, 65, 66
fertility of land around, 66
Abbot, office of, and of bishop, often held by the same person formerly 30
Academy, Royal, Exhibition of 1868, I
picture in, ' Not a whit too soon,' 2
Africa, Christian slaves in. See Slaves
Agnew, Miss, authoress of ' Geraldine,' becomes a Sister of Mercy, 258
Aiguillon, Duchesse d', munificently co-operates in the works of Saint
Vincent de Paul, 177, note ; 178, 185, note
Aikenhead, Mary Frances, life of, 231
founds the congregation of the Irish Sisters of Charity, 232, 233
Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, gives a rule to the Carmelites, 49
\lise Sainte-Reine, Baths of, 190, note
\lphonsus Liguori, Saint, founds the congregation of the Most Holy
Redeemer, 63
Ambrose, Saint, 12, note
speaks of nuns in his time, fourth century, 12
Vndre, Dames de Saint, 361
Anglican Sisterhoods, 158, note
Inne of Austria, Queen Regent of France, 195
gives her diamonds to Saint Vincent de Paul, for the Asylum of
la Salpetriere, 195
appoints Saint Vincent de Paul President of the Council of Con-
science of Louis XIV., 196
Antony, Saint, institutor of the cenobitic life, 9, note
the sister of, presided over a house of virgins in the third cen-
tury, 10
.postolines, 374
.quinas, St Thomas. See Thomas
lies, three British bishops at Council of, 20
rmagh, great school of, 26
ssisium, 89, note
ssumption, Nuns of the, 364
thanasius, Saint, 10, note
Creed of, 10, note
ugustine, Saint, Bishop of Hippo, Doctor of the Church, 13, note
founds a convent of Nuns at Hippo in the fourth century, 13
486 INDEX.
_ J^St'ohUflj pr."lli in IreUnd formerly,
- Canonesse. of, 70
- Canon., Regular of, 32, 37, 39
- Hermit. of, 56
- Nun. of, 388
. - convenes a synod,
Austin Friar* or Hermits, 66
Au.tin Friar.' in London, why .o called, 64
Auxiliatrice, Sisters of Maria, MI
BALMKB Mr, Aistant Commissioner of Inquiry in 1870, on .grievances of
IrUh Conrent school. under the National Board, 413
_ on the prohibition of religiou. in.tniction, practice, and
in Convent National school., 416
oar,
practice, and emblem.,
>"
Ball, Mn uSt. of B. V. Mary in Ireland, 302
Bsngor, celebrated Abbey of, in Flintshire 23
- See of, in CarnarvonEhire, founded, 24
. ,
Ruc, F. Matthew de, found, the Order of Capuchin., 53
Ba.il, Saint, 10, ig
__ .peak, of convent! of nan., fourth century, 10
- Macrina, .uter of, governing a convent, 10
followed in the Ea.t, 11
k, in 1680. 297, 298
ezai > hop of Maneille., It5,nou
- Alexander Pope', eulogy of, 175, note
Benedict, Saint, 14, note ,
- found, a monastery t Monte Ca..no, 14
- give, the monk, a written rule, 14 _-
_ Vule of, extensively followed in England, formerly, 30
- Order of, 33
Benedictine Nun., 70 ..IT
_ Englwh formerly on the Continent, 71-77
- of Bnuaela, now East Berjrholt 71
- of Cambray, now SUnbrook, 74
- of Ghent, now Oulton, 74
- of Pan., now Colwich, 75
- of Dunkirk, now Teignmouth, 77
- of Athemtone, 76
- of Princethorpe, 77
- of Ramagate,78
- .tati.tic. of, in United Kinjrdom, 346 ......
Bermondwsy, convent of Sirter. of Mercy at, founded, 267
- interesting ceremony there, 258
Bernard, Saint, 35
INDEX. 487
Bernardin, Saint, of Sienna, 53
Berulle, Cardinal de, and Saint Vincent de Paul, 167
founds the French Oratory, 62
Billiart, Julie, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame, 291
Birmiugham, Sisters of Mercy established in, 257
Bishop, consulted by a young lady before she enters a convent, 152
examines a novice as to her vocation, before religious reception and
profession, 152
publicly questions her thereon, at the ceremonies of reception and
profession, 155
sees each nun, separately, at a private interview, once a year, 157
"Blackfriars," why so called, 54
Blessed Sacrament. Sisters of the, 337
Blind Asylum at Merrion, 237
Blood, Adorers of the most Precious, 372
Bon Secours, Sisters of, 382
de Troyes, Sisters of, 383
Boyce, Boetius, Hector, 29, note
Bridget Saint or Bridgid, or Bride, patroness of Ireland, 20, 31
establishes a nunnery at Kildare, 31
Nuns of, 366
Bridgettines, 106, 349
English community of, since time of Henry V., 106
Britain, introduction of Christianity into, 18, 19
first Christian king in, 19
first monasteries in, 19, 23
; first monastic rules in, 25
> first nunneries in, 30
three Bishops of, at Council of Aries, A.D. 314, 20
. British National Society's praise of Sisters of Charity, 220, 221
j Bronte, Charlotte, on living and labouring for others, 272
Brougham, Lord, on Reformatory schools, 427
: Bruno, Saint, founds the Order of Carthusians, 34
CAJETAX, Saint, of Thienna, and John Peter Caraffa, found the Order of
Theatins, 57
Callan, Mr, of Coolock, adopts, and bequeaths his property to the foun-
dress of the Sisters of Mercy, 254
Callanan, V. Rev. L., O.S.F., draws up rules of Presentation Order, 133
Camaldoli, Order of, 34
Camillus de Lelis, Saint, 60
Cancer hospital of Irish Sisters of Charity, 243
Canons, origin of, 37-39
' why so named, 38
cathedral, 39
collegia!, 39
chapters of, 39
Canons, Regular, 32, 37
when commenced taking solemn vows, 39
of the Holy Sepulchre, 41-44
of Saint Victor, 40
Canonesses of Saint Augustine, 80
of the Holy Sepulchre, 80, 346
1 English, on the Continent, 81
at New Hall, 82
of the Perpetual Adoration, 83, 347
488 INDEX.
Canoneues of the Perpetual Adoration, English, at LouTain, now Newton
English, at Bruges, 84
Capitulars, 81, note
Capuchin*. Order of, 53
Caraffa, John Peter, afterwardii Pope Paul IV., founds the Order of
Theatins, with Saint Cajetnn, 57
Carmelite Order, 48
remote antiquity of, 48
rule of, 49
formerly flourished in England, 50
Saint Teresa's reform of, 50
Hermitages or Deserts, 52
Nuns, 86
English, on Continent formerly, 87, 88
Statistics of, in United Kingdom. 347
Carmelites. Grand or Mitigated, and Discalced, 51, 87
Carron, Abbs', 310
schools established by, at Somerstown, 310
how he repaid the hospitality of England, 310
Carthusians, Order of, 34
the most austere order, 34
Catholic charities, enrolment of, under Act of 1860, 455
Catholics, number of, in the United Kingdom, 155
happy tranquillity of, as to convents, 155
of all Her Majesty's subject*, most interested in convents, 156
know most about convents, 156
have contributed towards building them, 156
have relatives nuns in them, 156
send their daughters to be educated in them, 156
would know if there were cases of nuns pining in melancholy, or im-
priiioned in their cells, 156
would not allow their daughters to enter them, if places of restraint,
and homes of unhappiness, 156
nay more, would raiwj their voices on behalf of the ill-treated and
imprisoned inmates, 156
exceptional position of, in our legislation, 449-451
at great disadvantage, compared with Anglicans, Russian
and other denominations, as to religious orders of men, 450
certain obsolete laws on our Statute-book a reproach to. 451
those laws considered unjust, and therefore evaded by. 468
Celestiues, Order of, 37
Champagne, sufferings of, in the Thirty Years' War, 198
Ohapton of QUMM. JQ
of religious orders, 81
Charitable Uses Act of 1H53, 455
Catholic charities excepted from, down to 1880, 465
amended by Act of I860, 455
ChariU-, DHmes de la, instituted by Saint Vincent de Paul, 179
Charite, Filles de la, 211
Charite, Sours de la. See Charity. Sisters of
Charity, Lay Associations of, established by Saint Vincent de Paul. W
Charity Commissioner*, Roman Catholic charities under the, since
Charity, Order of, for the service of the sick, 56
Charity, Sisters of. 208
Napoleon L's eulogy of the, 208
INDEX. 489
Charity, Sisters of, origin of the, 208
first Mother Superior of the, 208
growth of the congregation of the, 210, 211
duties undertaken by the, 211
frugal fare of the, 211
receive rnles and constitutions from Saint Vincent de Paul, 211
a congregation, not a religious order, 212
take simple annual vows, 212
duration of the novitiate of the, 212
how the novices are employed, 212
are governed by the Superior General of the Congregation of the
Mission, 213
the Mother General, subject to his authority, 213
extensive correspondence of, 213
dress of the, 213
familiar to the readers of the illustrated papers, 213
pictures of the, amidst the wounded aud dyiug in the late war,
213^215
services of the, in the Crimean war, 216
how honoured by the Emperor of Austria, at the close of the Franco-
Austrian war, 216
beneficial effect of the ministrations of the, on the morale of the
troops, 217
Saint Vincent de Paul's advice to the hospital, 217, note
number of the congregation of the, 218
complete organisation of the, 218
when introduced into these countries, 223
statutes, rules, and constitution of the, 224
special rules for each charitable function of the, 226
explanation of the rules of the, by Saint Vincent de Paul, 226
may, at any moment, be ordered to the most remote country, 227
recent martyrdom of the, at Tien-Tsin, 227
handsome British testimony to the services of the, in the late
Franco-German war, 220
' Noble and devoted work of the,' testified by the Protestant British
chaplain at Shanghai, 228
saving female infants from being drowned or left to perish by the
roadsides in China, 227
testimony of a poor man to the merits of, 476
Mrs Nichols on heroism of. at New Orleans, 222
statistics of the, in the United Kingdom, 376
Irish. See Irish Sisters of Charity
Charity, Sisters of the Institute of, or of Providence, 354
Charity, Sisters of, of our Lady of Mercy, 374
Charity of .Refuge, Congregation of our Lady of, 381
Charles Borromeo, Saint, and the Ursulines, 123
founds the Oblates. 62
Chauvet, Pere, founds the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Paul, 285
Chesterfield, Lord, and the Penal Code in Ireland, 112
Choir Sisters and Lay Sisters, 72, note
Christian Captives in Africa, 180-184
Christian Church, first, erected in Britain, 19
Christian Retreat, Sisters of the, 368
Christianity, introduction of, into Britain, 18, 19
into Ireland, 21, 22
Chrysostom, Saint John, 11, note
490 INDEX.
Chrysostom, Saint, speaks of congregations of virgins, in the fourth cen-
tury, 11
Church, Gregory XVI. on the persecution of the, 309
persecution of the, in Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, 398
involves the persecution of the religious orders, 398
English poorer classes do not go to, 472. note
'only for well-dressed people. 7 472. note
Cistercians, Order of, 35
Cistercian Nuns, 78, 346
Clare, Saint, history of, 89
Clares, Poor. Order of. 89
mitigation of the rule of, 91
English communities of, on Continent, formerly, 92
now at Darlington. 93
Colettines, in England, 93
romantic episode in the history of the, in Ireland, 93
at Harold's Cross, 95
at Kvnmare. 96
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 347
Clerks, Regular, 57
Cloistered Nuns, 131
Clonard, great school of, 26
Cluni, Order of, 34
first instance of a generalat*, 34
'Cocks r. Manners,' important decision on the validity of a gift or
bequest to a Roman Catholic convent, 462
Colettinen, 91, 93
Collet, Pere, biographer of Saint Vincent de Paul, 165, note
Committee, Select, ou Convents, 1870-71, 449
report of, 449
Communism, in England, 482
unpopular in Ireland, 482
illustrated in reception of M. Bochfort in Quecnstown, 483, note
British, and Irish Penianism, 482
Compensation, great law of, in the economy of Divine Providence, SO 4
Conception, Immaculate, Sisters of, 358
Confessor, advice of a, to a young lady desirous to enter a
151, 152
ought to be best pudge of her vocation, 154
senous responsibility devolving on a, in this matter, 154
Congregations and Orders, difference between religious, 131
approval of, by the Holy See, 130
cannot be permanently established and extended, unless approved
of and confirmed by the Holy See, 130
. Ste Orders
Congregation of the Mission. See Mission
Contemplative Orders, the, 15, 16
do they lead lives of ' barren holiness?' 15, 16
Convalescent Home of the Irish Sisters of Charity, 237
Convalescent Hospitals, a great want, 237
Convent, built in Cork, one hundred yean ago, 121
a visit to a, 142
how a young lady entering a, as a nun, proceeds, 151
precaution, and careful previous examination observed with regj>ect
to a lady entering a, 151, 152
a novice may leave a, any moment up to her profession, 154
INDEX. 491
Convent, such as are obliged, by ill health or other reasons to do so, always
speak in glowing terms of the, 155
nothing beyond the obligation of conscience to prevent a nun
leaving a, after her profession, if she wishes to do so, 155
election or appointment of the Mother Superior of a, 267, 268
annual visitation of a, by the Bishop, or his delegate, 157
. See Nun, Nuns, Nunneries.
Convent Elementary and Training Schools of England, 399
district of, inspected up to Act of 1870, 399
separate inspection of, ceased in 1870, 399
great progress in number of, 399, 400
still greater progress in method of teaching and results of instruc-
tion in, 399, 400
enumeration of, by Her Majesty's Inspector, as having attained a
high standard of excellence, 400
training college of the Sisters of Notre Dame, Liverpool, 404
high praise of, by Her Majesty's Inspectors, 406, 407
Inspector's high praise of Nuns as trainers of school teachers,
401,404
official return of convent schools, 'which have successfully pre-
pared female pupil- teachers for the Liverpool Training College,
1863-70', 402
Wandsworth Training College, 407
Convent Primary Schools in Ireland, number of, and of pupils therein,
409, 410
number of, in connection with National Board, 409, 410
number of, not in connection with National Board, 409, 410
much larger than ordinary schools, 410
complaints of small grants from Board to, 411
how grants to, differ from those to ordinary schools, 411-413
Mr Balmer, Assistant-Commissioner of 1870, on grievances of, 413
. recommendation of Royal Commissioners of 1870, that these
schools should be treated as ordinary national schools, 414, 420
recommendation of same, that teachers in, should be examined
and classed as other teachers, 414, 420
recommendation of Commissioners to facilitate this, 414, 425
some convents accept, some refuse State aid for, 415
those accepting do so reluctantly, on account of the conditions, 415
religious emblems and practices prohibited by rules of Board, 415
essentially denominational, 416
much preferred to ordinary national schools, 416
attendance in, more regular than in ordinary national schools, 419
quality of education in, 421
Mr Harvey, Assistant- Commissioner, thereon, 421
Mr Coward, Assistant-Commissioner, thereon, 422
Mr Balmer, Assistant-Commissioner, thereon, 422
on superior cleanliness and neatness of children in, 423
excellence of Kinsale convent school, 423
nearly all the teachers and monitresses in female national schools
in Ireland, and many in United States, are pupils of the, 424
handsome testimony to superiority of the, by Mr Laurie, Assistant-
Commissioner of 1870, 425
Convent school, a visit to an infant, 143, 144
Convent schools described, 142
demeanour of children in, 143
neatness of children in, 143
492 INDEX.
Convent schools, occupations of children in, 143
nuns desirous they should be more availed of, 144
reflections on, 145
girls educated in, afterwards good wires and mothers. 145
secure the same advantages of education for their children, 145
religion enters largely into the system of, 147
beneficial effects of, on Irish street-folk in London, 478-480
Convents, misrepresentation and misconception of, 2, 3
alleged cruelties practised in, 2, 4, 5
ignorance about, among the people of England, 3
great benefits diffused by, 8
peace and happiness of inmates of, 8
Statute 9th of William III. for the suppression of, 123
objections to, 151
are the inmates of, happy ? 151
are they free agents ? 151
would not some of the nuns be glad to escape from ? 151
ought there not to be a Government Commission to visit? 151
apprehensions as to coercion and durance in, unfounded, 151
happy tranquillity of Her Majesty's Catholic subjects aa to, 156
Catholics have daughters and sisters professed nuns in, 156
Catholics send their daughters to be educated in, 156
young ladies educated in, in many instances, afterwards enter them
as nuns, 156
several daughters of the noblest families in the kingdom become
nuns in, 156
several of the daughters of the middle classes become nuns in, 156
daughters of the working classes become lay -sisters in, 156
Protestant, supposition of, as generally established, 158
would Catholics call out for a Commission of Inquiry into? 158
founded, through charity, in remote and poor districts, 101
Select Committee on. 1870-71, 449
Sir John Forbes on, 270
why they should be promoted and cherished, 472, 478
why now being suppressed in Italy, a Catholic country, 397 ,
not prohibited by law in United Kingdom, 452.
gifts and bequests to, 461. 462
important legal decision thereon, 462
number of, in United Kingdom, 395
in Great Britain, 395
in Ireland, 395
number of nuns in, 806
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 345
of Anglican sisterhoods, 158, note
summary of the work of, in United Kingdom. 471
Conventuals, 63
Convicts, French, transported to Guiana, 171, note
Copninger, Bishop, on female piety, 120
Cordeliers, 53
Costermonger, etymology of, 473, note
Costermongers, number of, in London, 473
money turned by, in London, in the year, 473
profits of, 473
manners and customs of, 474, 475
notions of morality of, 476
INDEX. 493
Costermongers, disregard of the ceremony of marriage by, 474
neglect of the children of, 475
ill-treatment of the wives of, 476
ideas of, about religion, 476
gratitude of, for instruction, 478
present a wide field for England's charity, 481
Couche, La, in the rue St Landry, 186, 187
Council of Conscience of Louis XIV., 196, 197
Cours des Miracles, 191
Coward, Mr, Assistant Commissioner of Education Inquiry, 1870, on
prohibition of religious teaching, practices, and emblems in
Convent National schools in Ireland, 415
on preference for Convent schools in Ireland, 417
on quality of education of Convent schools in Ireland, 422, 423
Croix, Dames Religieuses de la, 367
Cross, Daughters of the, 372
Cross and Passion, Sisters of the Most Holy, 355
'Crutched Friars,' why so called, 65
Culdees, 29
Cullen, Cardinal, on the rule of respecting the rights of conscience in the
Catholic hospitals of Dublin, 266
Cure, meaning of the French word, 168, note
DAMES DE LA CHABITE. See Charite
Damianists, 91
Daughters of the Cross, 372
of the Faithful Virgin, 375
of Sion, 370
Delivrande, La, a celebrated place of pilgrimage, 375, note
Deluc, on religious societies, 9
on monastic institutions, 67
Denominational Training Schools in Ireland, aid to, recommended by
Royal Commission of 1870, 425
Development of Religious Orders, 331
Domenech, Abbe, on the faith and fervour of the Irish, 119
Dominic, Saint, founds the Dominican Order, 54
Dominican Order, 54
introduction of into England, 54
into Ireland, 54
nuns of second order, 100
of third order, 100
Mother Margaret's congregation of, 348
English, on the Continent formerly, 102
of Brussels, established by Cardinal Howard, 1C2
now at Carisbrooke, 103
in Ireland formerly, 100
of Cabra, 101
filiations of Cabra, 101
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 348
of Carisbrooke, important legal decision on a bequest to the, 462
Fathers, Cork, charitable bequest to, illegal, 460
Douglas, Bishop, V. A. of London district, 73, note
Drive, the, in Hyde Park, 246
Dubricius, Saint, founds several monasteries in "Wales, about A.D. 512, 23
Dying, bequests of the, most carefully made, 242
show the estimation in which nuns are held, 242
494 INDEX.
EDUCATION, the formation of character, 147
the religious element should enter largely into all, 147
all denominations would include religious training in, 147
of the poor, the main work of the Presentation Order, 141
engage* the attention of most orders of religious women, 141
in convent elementary and training schools in England, 399
in convent primary schools in Ireland, 409
Elizabeth, Saint, of Hungary, founds the third Order of Franciscan Nuns,
Elphinstone, Colonel, on the Sisters of Charity, 221
Emancipation Act, clause* of against Catholic religious orders of men, 450
have never been directly enforced, 400
unjiut indirect effects of, 451
do not affect nuns, 452, 461
Emigration of women, Mr Newdegate's ideas on the, in connection with
the Convent question, 6
Enclosure, Law of, 131
Enfants Trouves. Sre Foundlings
England, a country religiously disposed, 158
ignorance about convents in, 3
misconceptions about convents in, 3
ought to be removed, 4
munificent charity of, 3
conversion of, and Saint Gregory the Great, 24
first nunnery established in, 30
Eudes, Pi-re, founds the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity.
Eudistes, Congregation of, founded, 62
Eusebius Pamphili, 18
Eustochium, Saint, a nun in the fourth century, 12
FACTORY, visit to an English, 313
wondrous machinery of, 313
beautiful fabrics produced in, 313
what of the human machines in? 313
their homes, 313, 314
dangers and temptation! of, 314
how to counteract these, 314, 315
services of nuns in this revpect, 314, 315]
Faith. Siaten of the Holy, 305
Faithful Companions of Jesus, history of the congregation, 303-315
introduction of, into England, 310
high praise of, by Her Majesty's Inspector of Schools, 303
origin of the name, 306
great educational labours of, 307-315
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 353
Faithful Virgin, Daughters of the, 376
Family, principle of, wisely employed by the French Government in the
reformation of convicts, 171, note
Felix of Valois, Saint, founds the Order of Trinitarians, 47
Fenianism, Irish, and British Communism, 482
Filiation of convents, 74, note
Finding of Jesus in the Temple, Nuns of the, 375
Folkestone, first nunnery established in England, 30
Fonds, M. De la, letter of, to Saint Vincent de Paul, 201
Fontevrault, Order of, 36
Forbes, Sir John, on faith and fervour of the Irish, 118
INDEX. 495
Forbes, Sir John, on the virtue of the women of Ireland, 148
on the Sisters of Mercy, 269-271
on convents, 270
Forcats, 171, note
Foundlings great numbers of, in Paris, 17th century, 185
how treated in La Couche, 186
how deformed by mendicants, 186
rescued and placed in an asylum by Saint Vincent de Paul, under
care of Sisters of Charity, 187
touching particulars of, brought in at night by Saint Vincent de
Paul, 187
Saint Vincent de Paul's appeal for, to the ladies of France, 189
Fountains Abbey, Yorkshire, 66
Francis, Saint, founds the Franciscan Order, 52
Francis of Paula, Saint, founds the Order of Minims, 56
Franciscans, Order of, 52
Franciscan Nuns, 98
missionary convent of, at Mill Hill, 98
English, at Brussels, now Taunton, 98
of Woodchester, 99
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 348
Friars, 32, 48
first, second, and third orders of, 53
Furley, Mr John, on the Sisters of Charity, 221
G ALLEY-SLAVE, Saint Vincent de Paul takes the place of a, 17G
Galley slavery, date of, in France, 170
principal seat of, Marseilles, 170
' Galley-slaves ministered to by Saint Vincent de Paul, in Paris, 172
wondrous reformation of, by Saint Vincent de Paul, 172
hospitals established for, by Saint Vincent de Paul, 177
a chiourme of, 170
how treated in the galleys, 170
mistaken principle applied to, 169
crimes and enormities of, 170
physical sufferings and moral degradation of, 170
missions established for, by Saint Vincent de Paul, 175
Galleys the, an institution peculiar to the shores of the Mediterranean, 169
described, 169
origin of the word, 169, note
when instituted in France, 170
when abolished in France, 171, note
the bagnes substituted for, 171, note
Saint Vincent de Paul appointed Royal Almoner-General of, 173
this office conferred, in perpetuity, on the Superior-General of the
congregation of the mission, 177, note
Gault, Jean Baptiste, Bishop of Marseilles, 175, note
Generalate, of religious orders and congregations, 15
none in the early ages of Christianity, 15
first instance of a, 34
Germany, persecution of the Church in, 398
suppression of convents in, 398
Gilbert, Saint, of Sempringham, 41
poor plate of, 41
Gilbertines, Order of, 41
Gildas, the most ancient historian of Britain, 18
496 INDEX.
Gil4M on the introduction of Christianity into Britain, 18
(Jlastonbury, first church in Britain erected at, 19
first monastery in Britain founded at, 19
Golden Bridge Refuge, of Sister, of Mercy, 200
Oondi, Philippe-Kmanuel de, 168
Good Shepherd, Nuns of the, 328
- statistics of, 330, 380
- when introduced into the United Kingdom, 330
Good works, Catholic belief in the obligation and merit of, _>
- results of this belief. 242
Gospel counsels of perfection, religious rows held by the Catholic Chord
to be in accordance with the, 160
- not of obligation on all Christians, as the gospel precepts are, 16
- difference between the, and the gospel precepts, 100
- those who would follow the, are such as the Catholic Churci
admits to religious vows, 161
- Leibnitz on the, 162
Grandmont, Order of, 37
Gras. See Le Gru
Gregory XVI. on the persecution of the Church, 309
Gregory the Great, Saint, and the conversion of Eui-lan.l .'I
Griffiths, Right Reverend Bishop, 258, note
- introduces the BtotoM of Mercy into London, 258
Gualbert, Saint John, founds the Order of Vallis Umbrosa, 34
HARVEY, Mr, Assistant Commissioner of Education Inquiry, 1870, 01
superior regularity of attendance in Convent schools in Ireland, 413
- on quality of education therein, 421
Helper* of the Holy Souls, ail
Hermits of Saint Augustine, 55
- of Saint Jerome, 56
HwmttMM of OuiMlhes, 52
Hide, ofland, 19, nuU
Hill, Mr, Recorder of Birmingham, on Reformatory Schools, 427
Holy Child Jesus, Sisters of the, 357
Holy Faith, Sisters of the, 365
Hopital-General, 193
Hospital of the name of Jesns, 192
- of Saint Vincent de Paul, Dublin. Sisters of Charity, 235
- of Mater MIsuHoBtdhi. Dublin, Sisters of Mercy, 2t>2
- of Incurables, Cork, Sisters of Charity, 243
- Hotel Dieu, 205
Hospitallers, 44
Hospitals, gratuitous services of physicians and surgeons in, 264
Houet, Madame d', foundress of the Faithful Companions of Jesus, 304
House of Mercy, attached to convents of Sisters of Mercy, 259
Howard, Cardinal, 102, note
tablishes a convent of English Dominican Nuns at Vilvorde, 1
rtf NJtre Dame
Hyde Park, thedrivH^ 246
IGNATIUS, SAIKT, of Loyola, founds the Society of Jeiu., 58
Immaculate Conception, Sisters of the, 358 '
Industrial Schools, analysis of British and Irish Acts, 437-441
- number of, in Great Britain and Ireland, 441, 442
INDEX. 497
Industrial Schools, numbers under order of detention in, 442, 443
receipts per head, 441
Treasury grant, 441
rate aid, 441
collected from parents, 441, note
receipts from other sources, 441
expenditure, per head, 441
. children out on licence, 442, note, 443, note
^ religious denominations, 442, 443
results on and after discharge, 443, 445
' nuns extensively engaged in the management of, 444, 446
particulars of, under care of nuns, in Great Britain, 443-445
the same in Ireland, 446-448
managed by nuns show the most favourable results attained in
England, 443, 444
the same in Scotland, 443, 444
the same in Ireland, 445-448
Institute of Charity, Fathers of, founded, 63
Institute of Charity, Sisters of, or of Providence, 354
Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary. See Mary
Intercessory prayer, great value of, 16
Intolerance, religious, in Ireland formerly, 110
Ireland, reintroduction of conventual institutions into, 122
strong devotional feeling of the people of, 118
attachment to their clergy of the people of, 119
decorum and modesty of the women of, 148
intolerance in, sixty years ago, 229
introduction of Christianity into, 21, 22
| first monasteries in, 26
i ancient monastic rules in, 25
monastic institute flourishing in, from early part of fifth century, 26
great monastic schools of, 2(5-28
schools of, frequented by students from Britain and the Continent,
first nunneries established in, 31
; Irish Catholics, deplorable political state of, a century ago, 110
. religion of, banned, 110
education of, prohibited by law, 111
forbidden to teach school, 111
forbidden all foreign education, 111
fatal accident resulting from persecution of, 111
debarred from all political influence, under the penal code, 110
when first concessions to, 111, note
.Irish monks, ancient, diffusing the Faith and education, in Britain and
on the Continent, 28
.Irish saints, local patrons in several parts of the Continent, 28
Irish, in ancient times, called Scots, 22, note
Irish poor instructed in and attached to their religion, 483
Irish Sisters of Charity, why instituted, 229
founded by Miss Aikenhead, 231-233
approved of by the Holy See, 234
. how this congregation differs from the French Sisters of Charity,
234
Industrial Training-School of. Stanhope Street, Dublin, 234
poor-schools of, in Dublin, 235
Saint Vincent's Hospital of, Dublin, 235
2i
498 INDEX.
Irish Sisters of Charity, Convalescent Home at Linden of, 237
Merrion Blind Asylum pf, 237
Conrcnt of Saint Vincent, Cork, of, 240
Magdalen Asylum attached thereto, 240
poor-schools attached thereto, 242
Convent of Saint Patrick, Cork, of, 242
hospital for incurables attached thereto, 243
functions of, identical with those of Sisters of Merer. 2i',7
constitution different from that of Sisters of Men
advantages of both systems, 268
devoted services of, to MsjdsJsas. 240
devoted services of, to the blind, 237
devoted services of, to the sick, 235-237
devoted services of, to incurables, 243
motto of the Congregation of, 244
statistics of the, 378
Irish street folk, their love of their priests, 479
religious fervour of, 479
virtue and piety of the women of, 479, 480
visited by the Sisters of Mercy, 476
Italy, present aspect of, 397
persecution of the Church in, 397
why are convents suppressed in ? 397
JEROME, SAINT, 12, note
gives many instances of nuns in fourth century, 12
letter of, to Eustochium, on Virginity, 13
Hermits of, 65
JEmiliani founds the Clerks Regular of Somaseha, 57
Jervis Street Hospital, Dublin, 262
Jerusalem, desecration of Holy Places in, 41, 42
name of, changed by Adrian, 41
oppression of Christians in, 42
liberation of, by Crusaders, 42, 43
four orders of Cross-bearers in, formerly, 43
Jesuits, Order of, 58
description of by Lord Macaulay, 59
why jK-rsecnted, 60
Jesus and Mary, Congregation of, 363
Jesus, Sisters of the Holy Child, 357
John of God, Saint, institutes the Order of Charity, 56
Sisters of, 387
John of Jerusalem, Knights of Saint, 44
John of Matha, Saint, founds the Order of Trinitarians, 47
Joseph, Saint, Sisters of, MO
de Cluni, Sisters of, 371
Juliana Falconieri, Saint, founds the Order of Mantellatw, 104 J
devotion of, to the sick poor, 105
KISSAI.E Convent school, 423
KnighU Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem, or of Malta, 44
-Templar, 46
Teutonic, 46
LAURIE, Mr, Assistant-Commissioner of 1870, handsome testimony of,
superiority of Irish convent schools, 425
INDEX. 499
Lay Sisters and Choir Sisters, 72, note
Lazarists, 62, 178, 179. See Mission, Fathers of the,
Lea, Saint, a nun in the fourth century, 12
Legal position of nuns, in United Kingdom, 449
Le Gras, Louise, first Mother-Superior of the Sisters of Charity 208
biography of, 208
- charitable la
bours of, 209
- religious consecration of, to God and the service of the poor, 210
Leibnitz on the religious orders, 162
- on the gospel counsels of perfection, 162
- on the obligation of all to labour for Christian perfection 162
Lequieu, Pere, 338
- founds the Order of Sacramentines, 338
Ley burn, Bishop, V.A. of the London District, 299, note
- petition of, to Innocent XII. , for his approval of the Institute of
the B. V. Mary, 299
' Liberal ' on the Continent very different from the meaning of the word
in these countries, 397
Life, no state of, free from trials and crosses, 162
the goods and ills of, less unequally distributed than is generally
supposed, 163
Lismore, great school of, 27
Little Sisters of the Poor, 316
-- institution of, 316
- convent of Portobello Road, Netting Hill, described, 318
- Protestant testimony to the merits of the Congregation, 320, 321
- statistics of the, in United Kingdom, 384
Liverpool Training College of Sisters of Notre Dame, 404
- high praise of, by Her Majesty's Inspectors, 406, 407
Loreto convents. See Mary, Institute of B. V.
Lorraine, sufferings of, in the Thirty Years' War, 198
- young girls of, protected by Saint Vincent de Paul, 202
- nobles of, assisted by Saint Vincent de Paul, 202
Louis XIII. attended by Vincent de Paul at his death, 196
Louis XIV. favours and endows the foundations of Vincent de Paul, 177,
note
Louis, Sitrters of Saint, 367
admirable management of Reformatory schools by, 436, 437
-ucius, first Christian King of Britain, 19
jynch, Mr, Her Majesty's Inspector's
opinion Of Training College of
^'Sisters of Notre Dame,"406
JcAuLAT, CATHERINE, foundress of the Sisters of Mercy, biography of, 253
, I number of convents founded by, 257
introduces the congregation into England, 257
I . See Mercy, Sisters of,
ladeleine du Temple, Asylum of, 190
lagdalen Asylum of Irish Sisters of Charity described, 240
lahometan races, hatred of Christians by, 180
pirates, depredations by, in the seventeenth century, 181
f ' tributes paid to, by Christian princes, 181
laignelay, la Marquise de, 11)0, note
talta, Knights of, 44
lansuetus, an Irishman, first Bishop of Toul, 22
[antellatse, 184
tarcella, Saint, a nun in the fourth century, 12
500 INDEX.
Marcellina, Saint, receives the veil from Pope Liberius, A.n. 352, 1 1
Mnrsaret Mother, of the third order of Saint Dominic, 348
Marie Auxiliatrice, Sitters of, 386
Reparatrice, Sisters of, 390
Dames de, 369
Marie's, Saint, of the !!, 272
the special-work* of. See Mercy, Sisters of
Blarist Nuns, 360
Married state, intended for the great majority of women, 159
teveral women residing in the world do not enter the, from choice,
-1- everal remain single, from necessity, 159
circumstances outside their control prevent many from entering the,
why should women not wishing to enter the, bind themselves If
may they not change their minds? 160
reply to this, 160
llnry, Institute of the Slewed Virgin, 2%
hUtoryof,296
. petitions in favour of, to the Holy See, 299
> York convent of. the oldest in England, 298
statistics of, in the Unite.! Kingdom, 352
convent* of, in Ireland, called Loreto convent*, 302, note
Mary of Modena, Queen of James II. of England, petition of. to lg
Clement XL, for his approval of the Institute of the Ble*ed \irgta
Muter MisericordiB Hospital, described, 262
Government Inspector on, 262
Dr Stokes on 263
a great school of medicine and surgery, 264
eminent surgeons and physicians attached to, 264
supported by all religious communions, 264
right, of conscience; respected in, 265. 26tf
other testimony to excellent management of, 266
Maury, Cardinal, panegyric by, of Saint Vincent de Paul. 165, note
May nard, Abbe, biographer of Saint Vincent de Paul, 165, note
Men'SoMe^beiSed from Paris by Saint Vincent de Paul, 190
Mendicant Orders, 66
Mercv Sisters of Charity of Our Lord of, 374
- 'Order of Our Lady of, for the Redemption of Captive*, 48, 183
1^- visitation of the sick poor by, in London, 249
vuit of, to tho dying smith's helper, 249
to the dying seamstress, 251
eminently practical charity of the. VI
by far the most numerous body of nuns in the United Kingdom,
number of convent* of, in United Kingdom, 253
biography of the foundress of, 253
rules and constitutions of, approved of by the Holy See, 25*
now found in every Kngliah-npeaking country. 259
wide range of active duties of charity undertaken by, 260, MM
generally have a House of Mercy attached to each convent, 2
special work* of , a. wen in Dublin, 260
INDEX. 501
Mercy, Sisters of, poor-schools of, 260
Golden Bridge Reformatory of, 260
Reformatory and Industrial schools of, 434, 436, 444, 447
Night Refuge of, Dublin, 261
Magdalen Asylum of, 261
Jervis Street Hospital of, 262
Mater Misericordi Hospital of, 262-2C7
functions of, nearly identical with those of Irish Sisters ?of
Charity, 267
constitution different from that of Irish Sisters of Charity. 2G7
Sir John Forbes on the, 269-271
life and occupations of, at Saint Marie's of the Isle, 273*
mode of the visitation of the poor by the, 274
Mercy Hospital of, 280
in Workhouse Hospital, 276
in Small-pox Hospital, 278
visitation of the jail by, 279
poor-schools of, 280
House of Mercy of, 280
female orphanage of, 281-283
recreation-hour of, in community-room, 283, 284
in the hospitals of the Crimea, 259
when introduced into Cork, 273, note
England, 257
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 378
Middle state after death, Catholic belief in a, 393
Milner, Bishop, V. A. of the Midland district of England, 73, note
. Minims, Order of, 56
Minor Friars. See Franciscans
Minors, Clerks Regular, 60
1 Minoresses. See Poor Clares
'Minories,' why so called, 65
Mission, Congregation of the Fathers of the, 178, 179
the Fathers of, sometimes called Lazarists, 179, note.
I Superior - General of, also Superior - General of the Sisters of
Charity, 213
devoted labours of, formerly among the Christian slaves in
Africa, 184
Missions, Sisters of Notre Dame des, 370
Monastery of Men, a gift or bequest to a Roman Catholic, illegal in
United Kingdom, 451
illustrated by case of the Dominican Fathers, Cork, 460
Monasteries, first in Britain, 23
first in Ireland, 26
great schools in connection with, in Ireland formerly, 26-28
Monastic buildings, judiciously-selected sites of, 65, 66
fertility of land around, 66
.Monastic Institute, existing in Britain and Ireland, in fifth century, 23
especially flourishing in Ireland, 26
Rules, 14
Monastic institutions, Roman Catholic, forbidden by law in United
Kingdom, 450
Anglican and Russian, not so, 450
i Catholics in an invidious exceptional position with respect to, 451
i law of Scotland somewhat varies from law of England respecting,
456
502 INDEX.
Monks, 32, 33
- first institution of, 9
- ancient particular rules of, in England, 25
- in Ireland, 26
superseded by rules of Saints Benedict and Argnstine.
aa Passion, Sisters of the, 355
Mother of God, Clerks Regular of the, 61
Mother-Superior of a convent. See Superior
Mount Melleray Abbey, 36
Moykn, Dr. Catholic Bishop of Cork, 120, note
-- has the mje of the Presentation Order drawn up, 133
Muckross Abbey, 67
Murray, Archbishop, and the Irish Sisters of Charity, 231-233
- and the Sisters of Mercy, 256
XANO XAGLB-jlBturning from a hall, 108
- her \Arfk and family, 109
- - life in Paris, 110
- her resolution formed, 112
- her first school, 113
- her great labours in the cause of education, 113-115
- how respected by the poor, 116
- great good effected by her example, 117
- establishes the Ursnlines in Cork, 120
- great dangers of the undertaking, 123
- founds the Presentation Order, 118
- her other works of charity, 128, 129
- her death, 129
- her Asylum for Aged Females described, 148
Napoleon I. on the Sisters of Charity, M
Nazareth, Sisters of, 322, 384
Nerinckx, Pen, and the schools at Somerstown, 310
Newdegate, Mr, crusade of, against convents, 4-7
New Orleans, Sisters of Charity in yellow-fever hospitals in, 222
Nichols, Mrs, on permanency of religion* orders, 219
- on heroism of Sisters of Charity, 222
Xolasco, Saint Peter, founds the Order of Mercy for the Redemption
Norbert, Saint, founds the Order of Premonstratensians, 40
North Abbey, Cork, 272, note
" Not a whit too soon," 2
Notre Dame, Sisters of, history of the Congregation of, 290
- introduction of, into England, 294
- schools of, 294
- training college of, 400, 404-407
- highly prated by Inspectors of Schools, 290, 400, 406
- statistics of, in United Kingdom, 352
Novice, a postulant after receiving the habit and white veil becomes a, 153
- the duties and occupations of a, 152
- how a, requests to be admitted to profession, 153
- how this request is decided on, 153
- examined as to her vocation by the Bishop, 152
- publicly questioned as to same at ceremonies of reception and pro-
fession, 155
INDEX. 503
Novice, how exercised during the time of her probation, 154
how trained by the Mistress of Novices, 154
how tried in humility, patience, and obedience, 154
how tested in the qualities essential to form a good religious, 154
passes through a severe ordeal in the novitiate, 154
has, at least, two and a half years' full trial of the state of life she
desires to enter, 152, 154
up to the day of her profession free at any moment to leave the
convent, 154
her superiors decide, according to conscience, as to her admission to
profession, 153, 155
rules and constitutions as to religious reception and profession of a,
Novitiate, what a nun learns in the, 154
the hardest time of a nun's life, 154
Nun, a, scrupulously observes her rules and constitutions, 135
carries out, in practice, their precepts with zeal and exactness, 135
upheld by a supernatural motive, loves her arduous duties, I'M
ever keeps the end of her vocation steadily in view, 13(5
patiently bears all crosses and contradictions, 136
accepts them as from the hand of God, 136
must necessarily discharge the offices of charity better than paid
servants, or volunteers distracted by worldly affairs, 141
a great mistake to suppose a nun leads a life of unhappiuess, 1G2
no life happier than that of, 162
her every thought, word, action, and aspiration devoted to God, 163
enjoys the priceless ' luxury of doing good,' 163
recognizes Christ in the person of His poor, 163
definition of the word ' nun,' 9, note
dower of, 469
annual support of, 469
means of, shared with the poor, 469
design to curtail those means, 470
Nunneries, first founded in Britain, 30
in Ireland, 31
Nuns, the mystery of ladies of gentle nurture becoming nuns explained,
a chosen few, called by God out of thousands to this state of life, 164
1 bequests of the dying a proof of the estimation in which nuns are
2eld, 242
the great majority of, in United Kingdom, English and Irish ladies,
311, note
first institution of, 9
in the third and fourth centuries, 10-13
ancient British and Irish, 30, 31
approximate estimate of number of, in United Kingdom, 395
more required for educational purposes in England than in Ireland,
396
. much preferred to all other teachers in Ireland, 417
schools of, likely eventually to supersede all other primary female
schools in Ireland, 396, 417
proposed examination of, for certificates as teachers in Ireland,
414, 420
the most successful conductors of our Reformatory and Industrial
schools, 433-436, 443-448
legal position and property of, in United Kingdom, 449
504 INDEX.
Nuns, not prohibited by law, 452
may legally receive bequest* and gift*, 461, 462
important legal decision to thu effect, 462
not affected, n* monk* are, by the penal clauses of tho Emancipation
Act, 462, 468
exaggerated idea* as to wealth of, in the United Kingdom, 468
generally poor, struggling communities, 468
why communities of , now being putMMld in Italy, 397
of lion Seconrs, the Good Shepherd, tic. See Bon Seeours, Good
Shepherd. &c.
Protestant Sisterhoods, in England, 158, note
OBJECTIONS to Convents, 151
Oblate* of Saint Charles, 62
Observantins, 53
Odo, Saint, founds the Order of Cluni, 34
Olier, Fere, founds the Congregation of Sulpiciens, 62
OpUtui, Saint, of Milevium, cpeaks of nuns in the fourth century, 12
Oratory, Congregation of the, founded by Saint Philip Xeri, 61
French, founded by Cardinal de Berulle, 62
Orders, first, second, and third, of Friars, 53
Orders and Congregations, difference between religious, 131
approval of, by the Holy See. 130
cannot be permanently established and extended unless approved
ofbytheHolySee,!:*)
on the multiplication of, 229
new, generally established to meet a particular neeeasity of the
time, 230
great care and deliberation always in establishing new, 133, 134
complete organisation of, 219
principle of association of, 219
advantage of the religious TOWS of, 219
permanency of, 219
stability of, 68
reforms of, 60
have severally their peculiar objects and functions, 230
instituted with great care and deliberation, 231
rule* and constitutions of, most be approved of by the Holy Set,
advantages of the system of centralization in some, 268
convenience of a system of decentralization in others, 268
various shade* of difference in, to meet the ever-varying circum-
stance* and necessities of mankind, 269
development of, 331
. See Religious Orders
Ordinary, an, 71, note
Orphans, care of female, 282
PxcHOinoft, SAIST, 9, note
the first to draw up a written monastic rnle, 9, note
Pailleur, Abbe le, originates the Little Sisters of the Poor, 316
Palliulius sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine, 22
Pasnionist Fathers founded by St Paul of the Cros, 62
Patrick. Saint, diffusion of the Christian religion in Ireland lv
first British monastery founded by, 19
INDEX. 505
St Patrick establishes monasteries in Ireland, 26
establishes nunneries in Ireland, 31
Paul, Saint, of the Cross, founds the order of Passionists, 62
Paul, Saint, the first hermit, 9, ntie
Paul the Apostle, Saint, Sisters of Charity of, 285, 353
history of the Congregation, 285-289
an educational institute, 285
when introduced into England, 286
list of convents and schools of, 288
important legal decision on a bequest to. 462
Paul, Saint, Clerks Kegular of, or Barnabites, 57
Paula, Saint, a nun in the fourth century, 12
Pauper, a dying, attended by a Sister of Mercy, 277
Penal code in Ireland, 110-112
first relaxation of the, 111, note
Lord Chesterfield and the, 112
Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Sisters of the, 337
Canonesses of the, 83
Personalty and Kealty, 463, note
Peter Celestine, Saint, founds the Order of Celestines, 37
Peter of Pisa, Saint, institutes the Hermits of Saint Jerome, 5">
Philip Benizi, Saint, and the Order of Servites, 55
Philip Neri, Saint, founds the Oratorians, 61
Picardy, sufferings of, in the Thirty Years' War, 198
Pirates, Mahometan. See Mahometan
Poor Clares. See Clares
Poor, Little Sisters of the. See Little
Poor Servants of the Mother of God, 392
Pope, approval of religious orders and congregations by the, 130
present position of the, 397
Portiunctila, 90, note
Postulant, what a, 152
dress of a, 152
; immediately enters on the devotional exercises and duties of the
institute, 152
from the very commencement is habituated to that which will be
the occupation of her whole life, 152
when and how admitted to the religious habit and the white veil,
152, 153
how examined as to her vocation by the Bishop, 152, 153
how she solicits, in chapter, the habit, 153
how her request is decided on, 153
after religious reception, becomes a Novice, 153
. See Novice
Prayer, great value of intercessory and propitiatory, 16
increased fervour of, in time of affliction, and at the approach of
death, 16
Prebend, 39, note
Preraonstratensians, Order of, 40
Presentation Nuns, when instituted as a congregation, 130
when made a religious order, 131
approval and confirmation of, by the Holy See, 130, 131
rules and constitutions of the, drawn up under the direction of
the Bishop of Cork, 133
approved of by the other Irish Bishops, 133. note
confirmed by the Holy See, 134
506 INDEX.
Presentation rules and constitutions, examination of, 133
opening chapter of, 134
second chapter of, of the schools, 136
chapter on the Sisters' sanctiikation of their own souls and purity
of intention, 138
chapter on union and charity, 140
examined in their results, 141
Presentation Order, essentially and exclusively for the education of the
poor, 141
statistics of in the United Kingdom. 351
Probation of a novice before profession, 2k yean in some orders and con-
gregations, 152
5 years among the Soran de la Charitc, 152, note
Propitiatory prayer, great value of, 16, 17
Protestant Sisterhoods, 158, note
Protestants of these kingdoms, supposition of convents established ! > the.
as educational and charitable institutions, 158
would the Catholics demand an inquiry into the convents of the?
158
would such a demand be complimentary to the common .
family feelings, and love of what is fair and jnst of the ? 158
Providence, Sisters of, or of the Institute of Charity, 354
of the Immaculate Conception, 373
Pugin, the elder, the great restorer of ecclesiastical architecture in these
countries, 258, note
Purgatory, the Catholic belief of, 393
RAFAKLA HXBSCHTTBCH and the Austrian gold medal of merit.
Keal IVsjKUl la the Blsased Sacrament, the belief of over two hundred
millions of Christians, 337
Realty and Personalty, 463, note
Recollect*, or Grey Friars, 53
Redemptorists, founded by Saint Alphonsns Liguori, 63
Rederaptorines, 350
Reflections on convent schools. 145
on the drive in Hyde Park, 246
Reforms of religious orders, 50
Reformatory Schools, Lord Brougham on, 427
Mr Hill, recorder of Birmingham, on, 427
analysis of the British and Irish Acts for, 429, 430
number of, in Great Britain and Ireland, 431, 435
numbers under order of detention in, 432, 435
receipts, per head. 431
Treasury grant, 431
rate aid. 431
collected from parents, 431, note
receipts from other sources, 431
expenditure per head, 431
children out on licence, 432, 435
religious denominations, 432, 435
results on and after discharge, in Great Britain, 432, 433
in Ireland, 435, 436
particulars of, under care of Nuns in Great Britain, 434
the same, in Ireland, 436
INDEX. 507
Reformatory Schools, managed by nuns show the most favourable results
attained in England, 433
the same, in Scotland, 433
the same, in Ireland, 436
managed by Sisters of Saint Louis, Monaghan, admit all incorrigible
children of other reformatories, 436
Refuge, Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of, 381
Regent Street in the London season, 245
Religion, should largely enter into all education, 147
what religion teaches, 147
enters largely into the system of convent schools, 147
Religious Orders, the object of, at first, solely personal sanctification, 15
in time, several combined the active and contemplative life, 15
even the ancient, now generally undertake active duties, 15
function of the contemplative, highly to be valued, 15, 16
four great divisions of, 32
Delue on, 9, 67
Leibnitz on, 162
reforms of, 50
permanency of, 68
. See Orders and Congregations
Renty, Gaston, Baron de, 202, note
: Reparatrice, Sisters of Marie, 390
I Retz, Cardinal de, 168
Rich man, surroundings of a, in his last sickness and death. 276
Richelieu, Cardinal, interview of Saint Vincent de Paul with, praying for
'peace for France,' 204
Richmond, Mr, Assistant-Commissioner of 1870, on the exclusively deno-
minational character of Convent National Schools in Ireland, 416
Robert of Abrissel, Saint, founds the Order of Fontevrault, 36
! of Molesme, Saint, founds the Cistercian Order, 35
Rochfort the Communist, unfavourable reception of, in Ireland, 483, note
Romuald, Saint, founds the Order of Camaldoli, 34
Roscarbery, great school of, 27
Rosmini, Antonio, founds the Institute of Charity, 63
Rule, a religious, 14
first written, that of Saint Pachomius, 9, note
of Saint Basil, 10, 11
1 of Saint Augustine, 14
of Saint Benedict, 14
Rules and Constitutions, best exponent of the nature, scope, and spirit
of religious orders and congregations, 133
of all orders and congregations of religious women essentially the
same, 133
care and mature deliberation of the Holy See in confirming, 133, 134
scrupulously observed by nuns, 135
carried out in practice with zeal and exactness, 135
of the Presentation Order, examined in detail, 133
Rules of the Sisters of Charity examined, 224
ancient monastic, in England, 25
superseded by St Benedict's, 30
ancient monastic, in Ireland, 25
superseded by St Augustine's, 30
SACRAMENT, Nuns of the Most Holy, 369
Nuns of the Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed, 392
508 INDIX.
Sucmmentine., Order of, founded, 338
history of, 338-344
-^ martyrdom of Nuns of, 341, 342
Sacrameuts, the hut, always administered to the dying In the Catholio
Church, 146, noU
Sacre Comr, Congregation of the Nuns of the, 363
Training College of 407
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 364
de Marie, Sisters of the, 365
Sacred Heart, Servants of the, 385
Sainte -Heine, Hospital of, 190
Holpetriere, La, why so called, 193
building and grounds of, given to Saint Vincent de Paul, 193, note
great asylum of, 193
Saurin r. Starr, case of, 158
Schola Pia, Clerks Regular of the, founded, 60
School Sisters of Notre Dame, 358
Schools, rules and constitutions of the Presentation Order regarding the,
poor, attached to almost all convents, 141
convent, demeanour of the children in, 143
neatness of the children in, 143
occupations of the children in, 143
infant, described, 143
what is taught in, 144
nuns desirous that they should be more availed of, 144
reflections on, 145
girls educated in, afterwards good wives and mothers, and secure
the same advantages for their children, 145
religion enters largely into the system of, 147
gnat, attached to monasteries in Ireland, formerly, 26, 27
Scots, the Irish so called in ancient times 22, noU
.Seamstress, the dying, 251
Secours. Sisters of Bon, 382
de Troyes, 383
Seez, Scaurs de la Mm-ricorde de, 383
Sepulchre, Canonesses of the Holy, 80
Sen-ants of the 8*and Heart, 385
ServiUs, Order of, 55
Nuns of the Third Order of, 104, 349
Shepherd, Good, Nmns. See Good
Sick, Clerks Regular assisting the, founded, 60
Simon Stock, Saint, 50
Sion, Daughters of, 370
Sisters of Charity, Mercy, Ac. See Charity, Merey, Ac.
Slaves, Christian, in Africa, engage the attention of Saint Vincent df
Paul, 180
state of, in seventeenth century, 180, 181
immense numbers of, 181
condition of, had long engaged the attention of the Church, 183
Order of Trinitarians for the Redemption of, 183
Order of Our Lady of Mercy for the Redemption of, 183
numbers of, redeemed by these two orders, 183
great cost and difficulty of ransoming, 183
John of Matha demands his, from the King of Morocco. 184
numbers of, redeemed by Saint Vincent de Paul, 184
INDEX. . 509
Slaves, Christian, missions^ Barbary established for, by Saint Vincent de
devoted labours of the Fathers of the Mission among the, 184
hospital for, at Algiers, founded by Saint Vincent de Paul, 185
free post-office established for, by Saint Vincent de Paul, 185
Small-pox Hospital, Sisters of Mercy in a, 278
Smith's helper, the dying, 249
Somascha, Clerks Regular of, founded, 57
Soreth, John, institutes the Carmelite Nuns, 86
Sceurs (/rises, why Sisters of Charity are so called, 208, note
Steele, Rev. G., Her Majesty's Inspector's praise of schools of Sisters of
Notre Dame, 407
Stephen, Saint, founds the Order of Grandmont, 37
Stephen Harding, Saint, Cistercian Abbot, 35
Stokes, Mr, Her Majesty's Inspector, on schools and Training College of
Sisters of Notre Dame, 406
on elementary and training schools conducted by nuns, 399-404
Suicide on Waterloo Bridge, 333-335
Sully, Due de, 190, note
Sulpiciens, Congregation of, founded, 62
Superior, Mother, of a convent, 267, 268
how appointed in an order with a generalate, 2G7
_ how elected in convents self-governing, 208
'Superstitious Uses,' law regarding, 451, 452
considered unjust, and therefore evaded, 468
a reproach to Her Majesty's Catholic subjects, 452
Switzerland, persecution of the Church in, 398
suppression of convents in, 398
TEMPLAR Knights, 46
Temple, the, London, why so called, 65
Teresa, Saint, 86
Tertiaries, religious and lay, 53
Tertullian, 20, note
account by, of early Christianity in Britain, 20
Teutonic Knights, 46
Theatins, Order of, founded, 57
Thirty Years' War, horrors of the, 197, 198
greatly mitigated by Saint Vincent de Paul, 199-201
immense sums contributed for the purpose, 200
Thomas Aquinas, Saint, in London, 54
'- composes office of Corpus Christi, 338
Tien-Tsin, massacre of Sisters of Charity at, 227
Toleration Act, when extended to Roman Catholics, 454
Training College of Sisters of Notre Dame, Liverpool, 404
of Nuns of Sacre Ccaur, Wandsworth, 407
Trappe, Abbey of La, 36
Travaux forces, 171, note
Trials and disappointments, no state of life free from, 162
of the outer world, the nun free from, 163
how a nun has her, 163
how she accepts them, 136, 163
sources of merit and satisfaction to her, 163
Trinitarians, Order of, for the Redemption of Captives, 47, 183
UNION, Sisters of La Sainte, 359
510 INDEX.
Urbanists, 91
Ursuline Order, founded, 122
introduced by Miss Nagle into United Kingdom, 122
fint school of, opened in Cork, 123
history of, in Ireland, 125
special function of, the education of young ladies, 123
gret good conferred on society by this and other similar institutes
125
statistics of, in United Kingdom, 349
Ursuline* of Jesus, 355
VALLIS USTBBOSA, Order of, founded, 34
Veil, first instance of the reception of the religions, 11
Victor, Canons Regular of Saint, founded, 40
Vincent de Paul, Saint, various biographies of, 163, note
life of, 165-207
. See Sisters of Charity, Congregation of the Mission. GUeW
flkTM Foundlings, Thirty Years' War, Christian Slaves ia
Africa, Mendicancy banished from Paris, Dams de la
and other heads in Index.
amount expended by, in charity, in his lifetime, 200, 204.
uniform success of the undertakings of, 203
styled by France her ' beat citizen,' 198
public proceaiiou in honour of, as ' the saviour of three provinces,'
as.im the English, Scotch, and Irish refugee nobles and p.
why generally represented, in his portraits, with an infant in Lis
arms, 189, note
character of, 203
personal virtues of, 205
cUiihof, 206
Vincent's, Saint, Hospital, Dublin, administered by the Sisters of Charity,
a first-class school of medicine and surgery, 236
Virginity, first public profession of, 11
Visitation, Nuns of the, 369
Vocation to a religious life, 152
how examined into and tested, 151-155
Vows, Religions, 132, 160
simple and solemn, 132
perpetual, and for a limited period. 132, 161
three, of poverty, chastity, and obedience, 160
a fourth added, of perseverance in the special work of the institute,
161
are held by the Catholic Church to be in accordance with the Go*
pel Counsels of Perfection, 160
renewal of, 212, note
those whom the Catholic Church admits to the profession of, 160
are taken only after a long probation, 160
WAJTOSWORTH, Training College of Nuns of Saere* Corar at, 407
Westminster Abbey, said to have been occupied, from the commence-
ment, by Benedictines, 33
' Whitefriars' district, why so called, 65
Wickens, Virc-Chancellor, important decision of, in a ease of a bequest
to nuns, 462
INDEX. 51 1
* V .
Wife, a good, described, 145-147
will often reform a bad husband, 145
, most favourably seen in hour of sickness and sorrow and death, 146
an especial blessing to the poor man, 145
Jeremy Taylor's estimate of, 147
-^ a girl educated in a convent school likely to become, 145
a bad, a curse to her husband, her children, and society, 147
illustrates the importance of the early religious training of our
female poor, 147
William of Champeaux institutes the Canons Regular of Saint Victor, 40
, Workhouse hospitals, the Sisters of Saint John of God in, 383
' the Sisters of Mercy in, 276-279
"Working classes, in our mines, factories, and brickfields, 481, 482
i in our agricultural districts, 482
' education of, much neglected, 482
as a rule, do not go to church, in Great Britain, 472, note
imbued with principles of Communism, in Great Britain, 432
j what has to be done for the, in Great Britain, 481
YOKE CONVENT, the oldest in England, 233, note, 298
ERRATUM.
Page 34. For ' Calmaldoli ' read ' Camaldoli.'
TERRA INCOGNITA.
Extracts from Opinions of the Press.
From the STANDARD.
'This book contains an immense amount of information respecting the
various religious houses for the nuns of one order or other in Great
Britain. Few Protestants have any idea how numerous are the different
orders, and how large is the charitable and educational work done by
them. Many of the very names of the orders will be new to most of
jur readers. ... Mr Murphy's work gives a full description of the
'origin, rules, and work of a large number of these orders. It is im-
xwsible even for the most opposed to the system of religious reclusion
x> study this work without being profoundly impressed with the im-
nenge amount of self-denial and devotion evinced, and by the amount
>f work accomplished.'
From the SPECTATOR.
'This volume contains a very elaborate and very interesting account
.f the convents in Great Britain and Ireland. Mr Murphy dedicates
t to his Protestant fellow-subjects, and hopes that it will have the
ffect of dissipating various misconceptions about conventual life which
re more or less prevalent among them. This is a most praiseworthy
bject. We wish him success in it, and we cannot but think that
ny impartial Protestant reader will find himself astonished at the
mount of useful work which these religious societies are doing.'
From the PALL MALL GAZETTE.
'The author of this book (a Roman Catholic) inscribes it to his
Protestant Fellow-Subjects." He writes as if he expected no other
!aders. No sentence likely to offend their prejudices ever flows from
is pen. . . . His style is easy, and what he has to say he says with
uch skill. The heavier portion of his matter is reserved until a cer-
in impression has been made by the first 300 pages, which treat of
ie rise and progress of modern British monachism ; and more attrac-
ve reading, especially for female minds, could hardlv be found.'
2 K
514 Opinions of the Press.
From the DAILY TELEGRAPH.
' In Mr Murphy's volume full and interesting particulars of all these
order* may be found by those who desire the information, which, we
inspect, is quite as little possessed by our countrymen and country-
women as he believes it to be. Whether they will all be r.-.-uly to
accept his statements as authentic is another question. But that he
is a clear-headed, thoughtful, and impartial writer, his volume on Ire-
land should convince most readers.'
From the GUARDIAN.
' This is a book that cannot fail to interest, from its excellent statis-
tical account of the work of education carried on by the Bi^H
Catholic religious establishments in the United Kingdom. ... The
experience of the order becomes available to all, and there in no such
thing an the district visitor learning what to do by the d"l.-fu!
of her own blunders, or the well-meaning young lady, without charter
compass, to guide her with her Sunday class. May not we learn home-
thing of the benefits of combination ? '
*!p' From the CHRISTIAN WORLD.
'We have read what Mr Murphy has written with undis.
terest ; and when we need information about the various institutions ha
bus undertaken to describe, we shall turn to his volume.'
From the CHURCH REVIEW.
' Mr Newdegate and his friends ought to be extremely grateful to the
author for the very large stock of useful information they will
ready to hand.'
From the CHURCH TIMES.
'In the meantime sources of information upon the debated subjects
open op, and wholesome knowledge is increased. Ignorance is the inotbflr
of bigotry, and the more men learn of those whom they are dinposed to
Eraecute, the more reasonable, charitable, and liberal they neoMH
ance it is that we hail the appearance of such a work as the on* be
rge-nearted
us a work written in a large-nearted and generous spirit by a
Catholic, who, by family experience and personal investigation and in-
quiry, seems eminently fitted to deal with the Convent question in Hi
present aspect, and to diffuse information. . . . There is such d^H
ignorance on the part of most English people as to convent ua'
we must credit Mr Murphy with the performance of an < xo 1
when he endeavours to throw some light upon it His ninth ch:i|>t<T, in
which he describes the course through which a candidate for "profes-
sion" as a nun passes is therefore of especial value. . . . Sofia*
say, in conclusion, that the author has supplied us with a hook both
useful to the active politician and interesting to the ordinary eltrili^^l
lay reader, while the unexceptionable nature of its tone challenge! fa(K
an impartial perusal.'
Opinions of the Press. 515
From the LITERABY CHURCHMAN.
'So far as historical facts and statistics are concerned it maybe trusted,
and is a valuable book for reference. '
From the ROCK, a Church of England Family Newspaper.
'As to the principle of conventual establishments for the female sex,
all that could be written would not, we apprehend, alter in the least the
Protestant idea ; but as the practical working of nunneries is a matter
of fact, we willingly admit that much misconception and misstatement
have probably prevailed, which may be set right by Mr Murphy. . . .
Mr Murphy is an attractive writer, and the way in which he introduces
the subject he treats of is very well done, and the illustration well
chosen.'
Frcm the WATCHMAN AND WESLEYAN ADVERTISER.
'This handsome volume is really valuable. It contains a very full and
interesting account of all the educating orders of the Roman Catholic
Church which have establishments in England and Ireland. Especially it
furnishes a particular, and, no doubt, an accurate account of all the con-
vents of the United Kingdom. It has, besides, many illustrative items of
interest. There is no bitterness in the book. It is a good book to read,
and conveys a most important lesson to Protestants to increase and mul-
tiply their own Christian organizations, and to be instant in season and
out of season to do good.'
From the UNION REVIEW.
'Several of the more important societies are described in separate
' chapters, so that those who wish to know the history, the origin, and
. growth of, say the Ursulines, or the Sisters of Charity, or the Little
Sisters of the Poor, will find what they want under each head, without
. the need of perusing the whole volume, while there is a compendious
i synoptical chapter in which the statistics of all the bodies set down are
i tabulated. Some -of the narratives are very interesting, and there is a
frank, and at the same time practical and business-like, tone about the
book which makes it very easy reading, and tends to give an ordinary
I reader that confidence in the author which would not be so readily enter-
) tained were he more gushing and sentimental after the manner of 'Verts.
i And we have to thank him for what is daily getting rarer in large books,
>a full and convenient index.'
From the TABLET.
! ' Of its merits, the skill displayed in the treatment of a subject so vast
and so important as to demand an expenditure of time and labour and
research which it would have been in the power of but few men to devote
to it, of the mingled ease and animation of the style, and of the value of
'the statements contained in it, we should find it difficult, if not impos-
sible, to speak too highly. '
5 1 6 Opinions of the Press.
From the WEEKLY REGISTER.
4 We think that a perusal of this volume will not only assure the Pro-
itant world a* to the reality and excellence of the various works-rail
gious and educational-new sBing conducted by religious bodies in these
two islands, but also will astonish even Catholic readers as to the extent
of their silent and secret operations labours which, though for the moat
part they pass unnoticed by the world at large, are laying up for their
doers a bountiful reward at the great day which will reveal the secrete of
all paarii. Magna mercet vettra in ealit.
From the WESTMINSTER GAZETTE.
'And it is for the protection, and in justification, of such brave and
self-denying women that such a volume as Mr Murphy's is found to be
necessary. Truly the world is not worthy of them. When we see what!
works the world countenances and smiles upon, we cannot help repeating!
the words of Juvenal, quoted by the author, Dot WMN eorvi^tiM
Centura cotitmbtu.'
From the BIRMINGHAM DAILY MAIL.
'We can honestly say that "Terra Incognita" is a most interesting
book. The story of each order is told with considerable narrative power
and the author's sincere enthusiasm for the high-souled women who de-
vote their lives to religious works is at times infectious. We have never
met with any work containing anything like the same amount
mation on the subject. It is almost as good as the report of a Royal Coil
mission, and is coloured, moreover, with the strong romantic interest
which belongs to the foundation of every religious order. We do not in-
tend t<> enter upon a discussion of the utility of convents, or to say any-
thing upon the general principle involved in the withdrawal of women
from the world, and their devotion to a life of religious observance and
charitable zeal Mr Murphy, as might have been expected, takes a very]
coulfur-de-rote view of the whole question ; but even those least disposed!
to agree with his conclusions will thank him for his facts, and f,,r the
vat amount of carefully-collected information which he brings !
reader. Terra Incognita" is, without a doubt, a valuable contril-ution
to Roman Catholic literature, and a useful addition to the limited know-
ledge hitherto possessed by the public on a very interesting and impor-
tant offshoot of the Roman Catholic religion.'
AMI the MANCHESTER GUARDIAN.
' Mr Murphy writes with an intention to be fair ; and he seems to have
ucceeded. As far as it goes, the book has the impartiality of tone pro-
per to a Parliamentary report. If Mr Murphy savs nothing against tbI
convents, or those who govern them, it is clearly because he
nothing can be said. He has tried the issue between them ai
detractors in his own way, and he cannot find that a single charge hat
been sustained. One thing that many honest people are apt to overlook
he clearly brings out, namely, that the convents have nearly all a i-urpose
of practical and most philanthropic utility.'
ing*
Opinions of the Press. 517
From the MANCHESTER EXAMINER AND TIMES.
rhe work contains a vast amount of interesting information respect-
the charitable and educational institutions of the Roman Cathelic
Church of Great Britain and Ireland, and a long argument to prove that
j they have been able in the past to combat ignorance and relieve destitu-
tion unapproachable by any other machinery, and that, even with an
Education Act, we cannot dispense with their continued instrumentality.'
From the LIVERPOOL DAILY ALBION.
' It is therefore, indirectly, to Mr Newdegate that we owe this book ;
j and none who read it, unless they come to its perusal with singularly
j jaundiced minds, will fail of gratitude to the honourable member for
North Warwickshire for having instituted that crusade against nunneries
;) which has called forth so pleasant and instructive a book.'
From the LIVERPOOL MAIL.
'Extremely interesting, alike to Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics,
and Protestants. '
From the STAMFORD MERCURY.
1 ' Read without preconceived notions of mistrust, it will be felt that a
ivery favourable case is made out, and that the education of the poor and
the acts of charity rendered by the members of these communities have
effected a vast amount of good.'
From the EDINBURGH COURANT.
' Whoever wishes to know all the good that can be said of nunneries,
and all the arguments that can be used in their favour, may safely be
referred to this volume. In it he will find what he wants, and the literary
character of the work is such that it may be read with pleasure.'
From the SCOTSMAN.
' A book which has a certain interest for most people, and is likely to
lave a very considerable interest for a large number of people.'
From the STIRLING JOURNAL.
' Mr Murphy has produced what, in a literary sense, is best described
is a very interesting book. His style is pure and pointed ; he writes
ike a gentleman and a scholar, while he thinks like a liberal-hearted
Catholic. His subject has the advantage of being an unhackneyed one ;
.nd where so much is novel, it was to be anticipated that a great deal
vould prove interesting. . . . The information is often as startling as it
new. As we look at the large volume before us, we reflect, with a
:ind of shame and pity for our former selves, on the density and extent
518 * Opinions of the Press.
of our ignoouice at to a great power in active operation at our very doors,
... We tsk leave of Mr Murphy with a feeling of resect for his work,
which never cease* even where we cannot wholly accept his conclusion!,
add which is deepened by the conviction that writers of all denominations
may learn of him how it is possible to discuss the most dangerous subjects
with dignity and without passion.'
From the WELSHMAN.
We have mentioned what the book contains, in order to add that
every page will be read with deep and enthralling interest. The his-
torical portions in particular are most seductive, due in ]>art to clear and
forcible writing, but mainly to the narrative itself.'
From the DUBLIX DAILY EXPRESS.
4 The author of this volume has addressed it specially to Protestants,
with a frankness and, we may add, a cleverness and tact which we re-
cognize and respect. We appreciate the confidence which he has shown
in the candour and fairness of Protestants, and his intelligent perceptioa.
of their willingness to be instructed upon subjects with which
not be conversant, and to form a correct and independent judgment upon
established facts. We desire to reciprocate the feeling which
tated the dedication of the book, and to express oar sense of the
with which he has discharged his self-imposed tak, and our oUj^^^l
to him for supplying so much interesting information. He
the earnestness and enthusiasm of one whose heart is in the cause, aid
with a grace and vigour which are winning and impressive. . . . The
objection to the conventual life is one of principle, rather than of prac-
tice , for it cannot be denied, and the most determined opponents of it
readily acknowledge, that society is largely indebted to religious Bitter-
hoods for sympathy and succour in the dark hours of adversity. They
know that the fair devotee* who are marshalled in various order* under
the sacred banner of charity are enabled, by their admirable organization,
their devoted seal, and the pious motives which inspire tin in t
a powerful influence in reclaiming the moral wastes of the world, and
diffusing around them the light of knowledge and the spirit of religion,
which in every Christian form has a civilising power.'
From the FREEMAN'S JOORNAI.
The title of the book is as felicitous as the treatment of its oosfcfl
To the outer world the convent is not only unknown land, b
region whose sacred seclusion the profane, the worldly, and the hostile
wilfully misrepresent. ... We know our convents to be the nursing-
mothers of religion, the schools wherein the females of Ireland K..IM and
are taught to practise thoe virtues which have gained them so envisMfc
a pre-eminence amongst their sisters throughout the whole earth. We
see, every day, the comforts and blessings showered by these true minis-
tering angels on the diseased and destitute. . . . We believe the vi4K
tion of the orders of the holy women of the Church could not be in better
bands.
Opinions of the Press. 5 ] 9
From the CORK CONSTITUTION.
The book bears upon it the stamp of a highly-cultivated mind, and
; ft evidently the work of a Christian gentleman. The style is easv varv
pleasing and is well-sustained throughout; and not one sentence nrt
, one word is employed calculated to offend or sting his fellow-subjects of
that persuasion to whom the work is dedicated.'
From the CORK EXAMINER.
'In dealing with his great subject Mr Murphy has been not merelv
, conscientious and painstaking of that all who know him would feel
assured beforehand but he has shown thorough mastery of it. Catholics
owe him a debt of gratitude for the ample vindication he has made of
institutions which they so love and revere: Protestants likewise owe him
a debt of gratitude, if only they be wise enough to perceive it for the
means of dispelling a monstrous and unjustifiable prejudice. Literature
! has had the advantage of receiving from his pen a really able and ex-
I haustive book upon one of the most important social phenomena of the
From the CORK DAILY HERALD.
It is a book creditable alike to the capacity and the good taste of the
author- a book m which the Protestant will find prejudice dissipated
without offence, and in which the Catholic must recognize a complete
vindication of institutions which are the glory of his faith '
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Bexhill is quite a modern town, well laid out with
plenty of open, spaces. It possesses five miles of sea
frontage, two mifes of which have been transformed into
commodious parades. The surrounding country is of
rare beauty and full of historical interest. It is very
sunny, and the air has marvellous tonic properties ;
mild genial weather continues throughout the Autumn
and early Winter. Bexhill has been well described as
select without being exclusive, and quiet without being
dull." It has a charm that endures.
" In my opinion Bexhill is the healthiest place in England"
(PROFESSOR OSCAR BROWNING).
The water supply, which is exceptionally good, is
from th> . soft and of the highest degree of
I iritv. li i^ unc of the ic\\ places on the South Coast
where the water is free from chalk, the official :
tests showing practically no variation.
AS A HOLIDAY RESORT.
1 ill as a health resort is deservedly popular.
There is recreation and sport in abundance for the young
and energ -tic. and quiet health-giving enjoyment for
those who wish to take things more easily. The
seashore with its wide stretphes of beach and extensive
sands forms an ideal playground for children.
The majority of the Hotels and Boarding Houses
are on the front, and apartments may be obtained
within a lew minutes of the sea.
" / knot* of no sf>ol on this favoured coast rvhich has more to offer
to /'. '.mug health an,i pie j
(EARL BRASSEY).
AS A RESIDENTIAL TOWN.
Hexhill's chums as a place of residence are manifest
when it is stated that the present population of the
Borough is but little over two inhabitant
ted population 1920, 17.000: area 8,015 acres).
The sanitation is perfe t, the roads a-ul streets arc well
laid, tar-paved, fr -e from dust, an 1 dry quicklv after
rain. An excellent train service (S.E. & C.K. and
L.B. & S.( .li.) enables 1> . mrney to and
from London quickly and comfortably. Many proprietors
of most excellent private preparatory schools for boys
and girls hav . 'xlull owing to the remarkably
healthy conditions of the dist:
" We have here the aristocracy of English Schools, the at
of Teachers."
' >HV HlNMKKK Hi
CLUBS. The New Club (non-political) on Sea Front;
Conservative Club, Amherst Road ; Constitutional
Club, Clifford Road.
GOLF. Two i8-hole Courses Bexhill Golf Club on the
East (Galley Hill) ; Cooden Golf Club on the West.
Green fees at normal rates.
TENNIS. Bexhill Tennis Club, Dorset Road Ground-
Grass and hard courts. Also grass and hard
courts in Egerton Park.
CROQUET. Five full-sized lawns in Cantelupe Gardens.
BOWLS. Bowling Green in 'Egerton Park.
FISHING. Excellent Sea Fishing; also Fresh Water
Fishing in the immediate neighbourhood.
ENTERTAINMENTS. The Colonnade high - class
Orchestral Concerts daily (Sundays included) . Also,
during Season, Concerts, Entertainments, etc., in
ths Pavilion, Concert Parties in the Pergola, on the
Lawn, etc. Xwo good Cinema Houses in the town.
BATHING REGULATIONS. -There are no irksome
regulations regarding bathing along the Front.
The policy of the Local Authority in relying on the
good sense of visitors not to abuse a liberal license
has justified itself. Up-to date bathing facilities.
Sea water open-air bath in Egerton Park.
READING ROOM & REFERENCE LIBRARY. In
connection with the Bexhill Library Daily and
Weekly Papers, Directories, Year-books, Time
Tables, &c.
TENTS ON BEACH. Small portable tents may be
placed on the beach by residents and visitors
under licence, to be obtained from Town Clerk's
Office on payment of very moderate fee.
FURNISHED HOUSES, APARTMENTS, &C., may be
obtained through local Estate Agents, or by short
advertisements in the local papers. (See
advertisements over-leaf).
"The salubrity of Bexhill is a national proverb."
" The children's doctor is the air of Bexhill,"
(GEO. R. SIMS, "Dagonet," of the " Referee.")
fcouse anfc Estate Bcients.
STAINES & Co.,
7, St. Leonards Road, Bexhill,
and Sea Road, Cooden Beach.
Agents for all available Furnished and
Unfurnished Houses to be Let or Sold.
Special Lists, Map and Guide gratis.
Telegrams : "Property Bexhill." Telephone : 349 Bexhill.
15 Cooden.
RICHES & GRAY,
BcxDlli fcsfatc Office,
21, Sea Road, Bexhill-on-Sea.
Established 1885.
All Enquiries alxmt Land and Houses attended to by
Experienced Statf . .
The only Local Fstate Agent and Auctioneer a Native
of the Twn.
ERNEST SHEATHER,
14, St. Leonards Rd., Bexhill-on-Sea.
Properties for Sale, Furnished Houses,
Building Sites.
Telegrams: Sheather, Agent, Bexhill. Telephone : 351.
Telegrams: Est. 1824. Telephone;
Strum*. Builder* S0.
Brihill-on Set.
STRANGE & SONS," 1
Builders, Decorators, Electrical,
Heating and Sanitary Engineers.
Structural Alterations and House Repairs,
8, Terminus Road, BexhilUon'Sea.
Noted for High-class workmanship at Moderate Prices.
Also at Tunbridge Wells. Sevenoaks and Tonbridge.