OCR Text |
Show THE CTJEE OF ARS. Glimpse of the French Priest to Be Beatified Next Month. The Rev. Edward McSweeney of Mt. St. Mary's. Mil., wi ites a very interesting interest-ing sketch for the New York Sun of tho-Cure tho-Cure d'Ars. the isimple French ' prics whose .sanctity has made his fame world-wide, and who will be. beu.tified Jan. 8 by Pope Pius X. As Father McSweeney Mc-Sweeney points out, the Cure d'Ars has the distinction of being the first parish priest, who, remaining in hid office till the end and dying a natural death, obtains ob-tains official recognition of sainthood. John Baptist Vianny, as he was called, was of peasant birth and upbringing. up-bringing. His character was excellent and he was admitted to study for the ministry, but his talents were so inferior in-ferior that he was thrice rejected by the examiners. His moral qualities, however, were so highly spoken of that at last the bishop consented to ordain 'him, and sent him as assistant to the pastor who had strongly recommended recommend-ed his elevation to the priesthood. His life was of the most heroic kind. For forty years after assuming spiritual charge of the little French village he entered the email, poor and ill-fur-nislied church every morning at 2 o'clock, and remained there with ne-cessary ne-cessary interrunl ions for outside duties praying, preaching and ministering.to the spiritual'wantsof his people and of the multitudes that' in the course of time came to him from all parts, until 11 o'clock at night. The ceiling of the , little edifice is about fifteen feet high: the width of the nave about twenty, with some ten or fifteen feet extra on either side under the clei estoris. where :aro four side chapels: the length from i door to sanctuary rail about forty feet. ' A little pulpit rises at the side of the , sanctuary about six feet from the floor. This always attracts the attention of priests, and makes them realize the extreme ex-treme mortification of the cure, who. of course, suffered more from the thick atmosphere the higher he was raised in the crowded and ill ventilated building. The sacristy off the left of the altar is a little room about eight feet souare. and it was here that every day for I forty years, from before, dawn to near j midnight, he heard confessions. The confessional is still to be seen, and he must, have made it himself, for a plainer and more uncomfortable stool of repentance cannot well be imagined. Those who knelt there verily began their penance before confessing their sins, and the holy man himself suffered suf-fered as they did, and more. Yet the highest intellects of Europe knelt here before the shepherd's son: the beauty and culture of France, ' Italy, Ireland. I England, Spain, Germany, Poland, J prostrated themselves here after hours or even days of waiting to obtain the boon of telling their sins and pouting their troubles into the sympathetic, merciful ear of the humble village pastor. pas-tor. .';,. Listen to the. testimony that some of the visitors to Ai's give of their experience. ex-perience. It is taken from the life of the cure by Father-Monnin. one of his assistants when the increasing work made it necessary for him to have them. "We once heard," writes the abbe, ab-be, "a distinguished but somewhat sceptical philosopher exclaim in his enthusiasm: en-thusiasm: 'I do not believe anything like this has been seen since the stable at Bethlehem.' A celebrated poet was sj overcome with emotion at the cure's presence that the words escaped him unaware: 'I have never seen God so near.' Another distinguished pilgrim said: 'The cure of Ars is the very model of the childhood which Jesus j loved: therefore is it that God is with him.' " I One cf the most famous painters of France stayed about several days trying try-ing to get a perfect sketch of his features. fea-tures. "It h:-s bet ii one of the great blessings of my life," he said afterward, after-ward, "to know the cine d'Ars: we must have seen the saints to be able to paint thein." "What did 1 see at 'Ars?" replied a prominent author to one who inquired of him. "I saw John in the wilderness! 1 was one of the 80,000 or so that went there last year. People tell me ct marvellous things that go on at A:s. I doubt not the power of God, it is as great in the nineteenth nine-teenth century as in the first days of Christianity. I am convinced that the prayers of the holy priest can obtain surprising and even miraculous cures; but to recognize the presence of the supernatural there. I have no need of all this. The great miracle nf Ars is the laborious and penitential life of its cure. That a man can do what he does and do it evary day witnout growing weary or sinking under it is what surpasses sur-passes my compiebenslon; this is to me the miracle .of jniracles." The cure was born in 1786 and died in 1859. He v, . declared venerable in 1S72, and now, forty-five years after his . death,- whon iall danger of undue influence has been removed by the deaths of "hose who knew and might be disposed vo favor him excessively, he is to be raised to the altar on the (Old record only of his virtues. In spite of all lus ascetic habits in what regards eatinjr. drinking, sleeping and .exercise in the, open air, he lived in constant, almost uninterrupted, mental men-tal and bodily activity to the age of 73, and full of days and works departed to the Lord. His ljfe has been .writ ten by Father Monnin. as. 1 have said, and also v an English Protestant lady, Geral- rlno . Both the books make de- lightfOl reading, indeed, there is no reading more delightful than the-hvus of those real heroes and admirable ien and women, friends and favored chil-dru chil-dru of God, Ihe saints. I will not anticipate further the profit and pleasure in store for those who procure one of the lives of the cure with its account of his plain food, 1 poor lodging and attire ana utter simplicity, sim-plicity, nay. hard poverty: of his long career, of his Wondrous influence for good and the marvels that God worked in his favor, but will close my letter with this statement: I visited the house in which the cure lived and died, and saw some of his blood preserved in a small vial. It was perfectly liquid, as one perceived when the vessel was moved, and had the rich ' dark look, with the bubbles, I noticed in that which St. Januarius sheri years ago for the truth, and which liquifies annually in Naples on the 19th of September. Sep-tember. My visit to Ars was on the j first Sunday of October. 1SS0. twenty-one twenty-one years after the cure's death. |