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Fr. Vincent de Paul >> Memoir
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MEMOIR
OF
FATHER VINCENT DE PAUL,
RELIGIOUS OF LA TRAPPE:
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
BY
A. M. POPE,
WITH A PREFACE
BY
THE RIGHT REVEREND DR. CAMERON,
BISHOP OF ARICHAT.
PREFACE.
The reply of Maximilian to the wealthy courtier who tendered him a
goodly purse of gold for a title of nobility, was worthy of that
emperor: "I can enrich thee," he said, "but only thy own virtue can
enoble thee" All true grandeur, excellence, and dignity, are the
offspring of virtue. Even the most renowned oracles of paganism
proclaim this, and the very persecutors of holiness are often
constrained to pay homage to their victim. No wonder, then, that
whenever we are privileged to find one of those rare mortals, whom
virtue has unmistakably marked as her own, we lovingly attach an
exceptional importance to everything connected with his history. Such
assuredly was he whose "account of what befel" him during his first
ten years in America, is now for the first time published in English.
A brief sketch of the religious Order to which he belonged, of the
life he led, and of the Monastery he founded, may give added interest
to his own simple and edifying narrative.
What Scripture terms "the world," and so emphatically denounces as
such, is the poisonous source of the mother-evils described by St.
John as "the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the
eyes, and the pride of life." Flight from the contamination of this
threefold inordinate love of pleasures, riches and honors, being
essential to salvation, is most easily, most surely and most
meritoriously achieved by those who, in answer to a Divine call,
consecrate and give themselves wholly to God, by the practice of the
evangelical counsels of chastity, poverty and obedience. Those who
embrace this angelic profession form the choice portion of the fold
of Christ. They rank as His spouses, and, by the holy ambition of
their virgin love, console Him for the craven defections or the cold
indifference of so many Christians.
All Christians animated by the spirit of Jesus are religious, just
as they are holy, and kings and priests (I Peter 2,9). Such is the
unity of the marvellous body of Christ, the Church, whose soul is
infinite love, that her every member shares, in some sense and
measure, all her sublime prerogatives. But as God willed that in His
family some goods should be common to all, so He likewise decreed
that other goods should be reserved to comparatively few, and through
these chosen and privileged ones benefit the rest. Hence, as besides
this elementary royalty and priesthood conferred by baptism, there
are, according to the express order of God superior and official
royalties and priesthoods, in like manner besides the fundamental
religion, which is the vital breath of every soul in a state of
grace, there is a religion more eminent, more definite, more perfect.
Thus as there is here below a sacerdotal and royal state, so likewise
is there a religious state which is confined to those only who bind
themselves by vows to a monastic life. It is evident, therefore, that
when Catholics use the expression "religious Order," or term a monk
or nun "a religious," they are perfectly justified in doing so, the
cavillings of Dr. Trench to the contrary notwithstanding.
Each religious order is characterized by the special purpose for
which it was founded, and by the constitution and rule which its
members are to follow. The observance of the Benedictine rule was
greatly relaxed in the monasteries of France towards the close of the
eleventh century, when St. Robert (1098) inaugurated a reform at
Citeaux, which resulted in the establishment of the Cistercian Order.
A monastery of this Order was subsequently (1140) founded in La
Perche, France, by the Count of Perche, and was called La Trappe. In
1662 the commendatory abbot of La Trappe, Armand Jean le Bouthilier
de Rance', a nobleman who abandoned wealth and a brilliant career,
visited La Trappe, undertook a new reform of the Cistercian rule, and
thus became the founder of that branch of this Order which became
known as the congregation of La Trappe. In consequence of the
Revolution of 1789, one of the Trappist Fathers, Dom Augustin
conducted twenty-four of his brethren from France to Valsainte, in
Switzerland. Here they decided to adopt a rule still more strict than
that which they had hitherto observed. This step occasioned a
division in the Trappist Order: some monasteries following the rule
of Valsainte, others that of de Rance'. An appeal to Rome resulted in
a decree dated October 3rd, 1834, by which all Trappist monasteries
were placed under one government. The decree not having however had
the desired effect, the Holy See decided in 1847 to sanction two
distinct congregations, one to follow the constitution of de Rance',
and the other to observe the rule of St. Benedict, with the primitive
constitution of the Cistercian Order. To the latter congregation
belong the Trappist monasteries of Canada and the United States,
whose time-table on week days during winter is as follows:--
At two o'clock, a. m., the Trappists rise and proceed to their
chapel, where they devote their time to the recitation of the Office,
meditation, &c., till 7.45, when they have High Mass, followed by
manual labor, which, with the interruption of only half an hour given
to the recitation of Office and examen of conscience, continues till
2 p. m.; ten minutes more and they break their long fast of twenty-four
hours with the lean and only repast of the day. At 6 p. m. begins
spiritual reading, immediately followed by compline and other
devotional exercises till 7, when they retire to their much needed
rest on their hard straw mattresses. Perpetual silence is prescribed,
unless in case of necessity, so that the Trappist's whole life is one
of extraordinary austerity and of incessant recollection, reminding
him at every turn of the shortness of life and the tremendous rigor
of judgment. The time-table for summer varies in some minor practices
and observances, while, according to that of Sundays and holidays,
those religious in the latter case rise at midnight, and in the
former at 1 a. m., and busy themselves till 7 o'clock, p. m. during
winter, and 8 o'clock during summer in the praises of the Lord.
James Merle was born at Lyons, France, the 29th October, 1768. His
father was a much respected physician in that city. On the 7th of
April, 1798, while the godless Revolution was carrying resistless
devastation over the country, he privately received the holy order of
priesthood at the hands of Mgr. C. F. D. Dubois de Sanzay, Archbishop
of Vienne, and seven years afterwards he entered the Trappist Order,
taking the name of Father Vincent de Paul, by which he has always
since been known.
In his memoir Father Vincent speaks of having bought a large tract
of land near the sea in Nova Scotia, and of having built a house
thereon. This was in Tracadie, where he resided for some years
previous to his return to France in 1823. In 1824 he came again to
Tracadie with another worthy priest of his Order, Father Francis, a
native of Freiburg, together with three lay brothers, and the house
above referred to became thenceforth the monastery of Petit
Clairvaux. A few years later three other lay brothers were admitted,
two of them from Halifax, and one from the United States.
Until the Rev. John Quinn was appointed parish priest of Tracadie,
(1837) Father Vincent had pastoral charge of the three missions of
Tracadie, Havre au Boucher, and Pomquet, and the old people of the
place still recount his innumerable acts of extraordinary zeal and
devotion. "He scarcely ever had the stole off his neck during Lent,"
is the remark of one of them. He also made frequent excursions to
Cheticamp, Arichat, and other parts of Cape Breton, to preach
missions there, and to assist the dying. In his memoir he speaks of
that sublime pilgrimage of the heart, the admirable devotion of the
Way of the Cross, as one especially acceptable to God; and no wonder
it bore marvellous fruit as conducted by him. At each station this
holy servant of God did not content himself with reading the usual
prayers: he gave expression to heavenly thoughts inspired by his own
burning love of his crucified Saviour, producing a mysterious and
lasting echo in all hearts. The church was always crowded on those
occasions. To prepare children for their first communion, he devoted
six entire weeks of instruction each year. His capacity for work was
immense; and while hurry never appeared in his actions, he managed to
glide through them with a masterly ease far out-stripping the
speediest progress of ordinary mortals. A supernatural light seemed
to supersede the necessity of recourse to the usual slow and
laborious process of reasoning in seeing one's way, and to endow him
with an intuition excluding all doubt, and with an instinct ever
ready in performance. Thus for everything he found ample time,
because no particle of his time was lost. He was a living,
palpitating, breathing, vocal, acting temple of the Holy Ghost, and
this Divine indwelling was, in a manner, visible to all. At the
altar, during the holy sacrifice which he daily offered, it seemed to
transfigure his countenance so as to impress his heavenly citizenship
upon all beholders. In administering the sacrament, in instructing
the people, in his incessant endeavors to keep or win them from sin,
and to provide for all their spiritual wants, the same irradiation of
holiness imparted the most extraordinary efficacy to his charity and
zeal.
So palpable was this impress of sanctity in his every-day-life, that
no one could come in contact with him without perceiving it and
feeling its inherent power. Such being the rare effulgence of Father
Vincent's sanctity as seen amid the dust and darkness of the world,
one can more readily realize the transcendent perfection and purity
of his soul as nurtured and revealed in his divine communing in his
own beloved cloister. No wonder, then, that when this admirable
servant of God, fall of days and merits, was called away to his
reward on the morning of New Year's Day, 1853, all felt that they had
one intercessor more in heaven. No wonder that miraculous cures
wrought through his mediation began soon to multiply. Nor was Father
Vincent's reputation for sanctity confined to Catholics. Even
Protestants not only acknowledged the heroism of his virtues, but
also sought to possess some earth from his grave, and one of them, J.
H., still living, was restored to health and usefulness by the
application of this relic to his diseased and disabled limbs.
The next Prior of Petit Clairvaux was the dauntless and holy Father
Francis, whose advanced age obliged him in 1858 to resign his office
into the hands of the sweet Father James, a native of Belgium, and a
religious eminently qualified for the position. Such was the success
of his administration that in 1876 the community was raised by Pius
IX of blessed memory to the dignity of an abbey--an abbey, which,
with its forty-one fervent religious, now wisely governed by the
worthy Abbot Dominic, presents an example of heroic abstinence,
mortification and prayer, well calculated to put the characteristic
dissipation, effeminacy and dissoluteness of the age to blush, and to
bring home to our minds that "the wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God." (I Co. 3,19).
JOHN CAMERON,
_Bishop of Arichat._
MEMOIR
OF
FATHER VINCENT.
[Some account of what befel Father Vincent de Paul, Religious of La
Trappe, with observations made by him when in America, where he has
spent about ten years, with the permission of his Superior, in
obedience to whose orders he writes the following:]
The reverend Father Abbot, of La Trappe, Dom Augustin, (De
Lestrange) foreseeing that Bonaparte would seek to destroy the
communities existing in Europe, resolved on sending a party of his
religious to America, in order that they might establish themselves
there and preserve their monastic state.
In 1812, I, in company with two other brothers, was sent by him to
the United States, there to found an establishment of our Order. We
left Bordeaux on the 15th June, and on the 6th of the month of August
we arrived at Boston. We had with us one of our Trappistines, whose
object was also to found a community; with this intention she had
preceded her companions, but now found herself alone, as passports
were refused to the other sisters. We were welcomed by the worthy Mr.
Matignon, parish priest of the town, who coaxed us to remain in the
diocese of Bishop Cheverus. However as we had received orders to
establish ourselves near Baltimore, after a few days rest I started
for that town alone, leaving my brothers and the nun in Boston,
intending to send for them when I should find a suitable site for the
two projected establishments. I paid my respects to His Grace the
Archbishop of Baltimore, who received me kindly, but appeared at a
loss where to find a site such as we desired. After many unsuccessful
efforts and researches, he established me temporally on a farm
belonging to the Society of Jesus (of which he was a member) until
such time as we could procure the sort of place we wanted; then as I
thought that time might be long in coming, I summoned my brothers to
me, and arranged for a suitable lodging for the nun.
During our stay, a rich man of Baltimore, who was once a Protestant
and had been converted, offered us 2000 acres of land in the
mountains of Pensylvania, near a river called the Delaware. He was
even generous enough to offer me the services of his son, who was
also a recent convert, and who came with us to point out the property
which, however, I was not able to inspect thoroughly as I remained
there only one day.
I returned soon after with two young men who were inclined to join
our Order. They commenced a somewhat rude novitiate, for we fasted
and kept silence on the way, going always on foot for want of money.
After great suffering from fatigue and heat (as it was summer), we
arrived at a little town, distant about sixty miles from
Philadelphia, whence we had started on our tour of inspection. This
little town, which was called Milford, was quite near to the land
that was to be ours.
On the way we passed through many Protestant villages whose
inhabitants appeared to be anxious for the light of the true faith,
and this budding town of Milford did not look askance at us, as
almost all of its inhabitants came to mass on Sunday. After mass one
of the young men aforementioned, who knew English well, expounded the
catechism to them, and they listened with attention. The Protestant
minister came afterwards to preach, but we were told that none of the
people went to hear him which without doubt annoyed him greatly. One
of the principal men of the place, a Protestant, as indeed they were
all, begged me to remain with them, saying that they would subscribe
me a pension, and that he would head the list with the sum of fifty
dollars. But we had not come to this country to be missionaries, so
we left Milford to go and inspect our land.
Travelling through these immense and trackless forests was very
difficult, and we often went astray. One day when I was alone with a
child who served me in the capacity of guide, we were greatly
puzzled. We wished to find a little hut that we had built in the
woods in which to sleep; nightfall was coming on, and there seemed no
chance of finding our camp before sundown. I said to the child: "here
is a low, flat rock, on which I will spend the night." He replied
that if I remained there I should be devoured by the bears, of which
there were a great number on these mountains; we had already heard
their cries and hideous howlings. At length, thanks be to God, we
found the cabin, which was not a very safe refuge for us, as it was
only a little hut built of young trees. The two novices and I slept
there like Indians, either on the bare ground or on couches formed by
heaps of the branches of trees.
Having no provisions with us we were obliged for the first few days
to eat what we could find in the woods, such as certain little blue
berries that they call "bluets," and other wild fruits, which the
people of the country despise. On the third or fourth day help came.
A Jew and a Protestant appeared on the scene, bringing us potatoes.
This Jew showed a leaning towards our religion, and the Sunday
previous I had said mass in his house. I do not doubt that if we had
remained longer with these people many would have been converted.
There was one entire family, of father, mother and three children,
whom I had instructed, and who were to receive baptism and embrace
the Catholic religion. Unfortunately the woman was the victim of evil
counsel at Milford, and was deterred from her good purpose. There
were many people in Milford who were bitter enemies to the truth.
I often said mass in our cabin. One day we made a cross and carried
it in procession for nearly a mile: we sang psalms, and part of the
way went barefoot, until we reached the spot where we planted the
cross, which was our consolation and our safeguard, as there were in
this desert a great number of rattlesnakes and other reptiles no less
dangerous. When we left our retreat we would sometimes step upon them
and would hear the noise that these serpents make with their rattles.
At last having walked over a great portion of these two thousand
acres of land during the two weeks that we spent there, we left these
solitudes and went down to Philadelphia. [Footnote: It was not deemed
advisable to accept this property, it being almost entirely rock or
marsh land. Besides which it was not suitable for one of our
establishments, communication with other places being too difficult.]
Upon arriving at the town I told the Bishop how well-disposed were
the people whom we had seen, and suggested to him to send some
missionaries there, but he told me that he had none to send. If I had
been free I would have returned at once to labor for the conversion
of these poor people.
After a year of crosses and difficulties in the way of our discovering
a suitable and convenient place for our establishment, we found
ourselves in Maryland, an excellent province, producing all the
necessaries of life in abundance. It is near the sea, and near to the
Potoxen, and not far from the Potomac, two great rivers that add to
its commercial advantages and render it more flourishing. We thought
we had at last found the country in which to succeed in establishing
our foundation. I consulted His Grace the Archbishop of Baltimore, and
the reverend gentlemen of the seminary of St. Sulpice, and in
accordance with their advice, I decided to go there and commence the
work. Three more brothers sent from France by our Reverend Father
Abbot, arrived at this juncture and joined us. We bought the land and
set ourselves to work to cultivate it. We built a house for ourselves,
which consisted of trees placed one upon another--what is called in
this country a _loghouse_. It was small, being only eighteen feet
long, and as many wide. We shortly commenced another which would serve
as a chapel. The negroes of the country--who are all Catholics--gave
us a helping hand in this work On arriving here we found lodgings in a
private house near our clearing, in which we remained until our
_loghouse_ was fit to receive us.
Maryland produces an abundance of Indian corn, the cultivation of
which is the chief work of the negroes. We subsisted almost entirely
upon this food, with potatoes and occasionally bread; wheat, however,
and buckwheat grow very well. We arrived there at the beginning of
the year 1813, and during the winter we were occupied in cutting down
trees and preparing the land for work in the spring, so that when
that season arrived we had an acre and a half of land under
cultivation. Part of this we planted with potatoes, another part was
a garden where we sowed different vegetables, and we also laid out an
orchard of young fruit trees. So far everything looked well, but when
summer came, and while we were working most zealously we all fell ill
with fever, and many of us were attacked with dysentery. I attribute
these maladies to many causes,--first to the miasma or poisonous
vapors exhaled from newly cleared land, then to the great heat and
the bad water that we had to drink, which, though it had been pure
enough in the winter and spring, had become bad by reason of a
multitude of little insects that were perpetually drowning themselves
in it. Another reason that contributed to render us ill was the
number of different sorts of flies by which we were devoured day and
night. There were among others two species of flies which in this
country they call _tics_. Some of them are large, others are
small, they fasten themselves to the skin and so penetrate into the
flesh that one can only remove them by pulling them to pieces, even
then a part remains and causes an insupportable itching.
We were dying one after another in this place when our Rev. Father
Abbot on his way from Martinique, with several religious, arrived at
New York. He summoned our community to him, as well as that of the
Rev. Father Urbain, which a short time previously had united with
ours, so that these three little communities now formed but one,
under our chief Superior, who thus in a moment effected a foundation
such as we had spent years of fruitless effort endeavoring to
establish. Our new monastery was established in the country near New
York, and did much good. Thirty-three poor children (almost all of
them orphans) were brought up there, and were given all the
necessaries of life, even to their clothes. Protestants came to see
the good work and two ministers were converted. These gentlemen came
sometimes to see us, and assisted at our religious ceremonies. They
liked to converse with our Reverend Father Abbot, who won them by his
frank and polite manner. In addition to the work of this monastery,
our Reverend Father Abbot supported and directed another house of our
Order which he had also founded, and which was productive of much
good. This was a community of nuns. There was yet another convent,
one belonging to the Ursulines quite near, that is to say about three
or four miles from our monastery, which our community supplied with a
chaplain. I was obliged to go there every Sunday to say mass and to
confess the nuns. When we arrived in their neighborhood they were
without a priest; we could not leave them in such need, so that I,
ill though I was, had to say two masses on Sundays, one in the church
of the Ursulines, the other in that of our sisters. However, this was
to me a cause of rejoicing, although I was fatigued after my voyages
and overwhelmed by the work with which I was charged, I was
compensated and consoled by the good that I could be the means of
doing. I remember having received the abjuration of Protestantism of
three young ladies who were boarders at the Ursuline Convent, and who
had the happiness of becoming Catholics.
Although we were in a Protestant country, our Reverend Father Abbot
undertook to have the procession of the Blessed Sacrament on the
festival of Corpus Christi, thinking it might do some good. He had
several repositories built in a field adjoining our house, these he
decorated in the best style possible and managed to have a canopy and
boys to swing censors and others to throw flowers before the Blessed
Sacrament. When the time for the procession arrived we saw our
Reverend Father bearing Jesus Christ in his hands and walking under
the dais borne by four religious in dalmatics accompanied by the
community and by several strangers singing hymns and canticles.
Numbers of children preceeded the Blessed Sacrament, exercising the
solemn functions which had been allotted to them. This infantine
band, clad in white surplices girded with different colors, resembled
angels and presented a spectacle at once beautiful and edifying to
the beholder. The Protestants who were present appeared to be much
pleased with the procession.
Our Reverend Father Abbot wished with all his heart to be able to
continue the good work thus commenced, but he was obliged to abandon
it for want of pecuniary means, and perhaps also because of the
ill-will of many who offered opposition to his projects; besides which
King Louis XVIII had been restored to the throne of France, and
religion was being re-established in that country. Almost all our
brothers were dispersed here and there throughout Europe, and it
would be necessary to reunite them. Persuaded, besides, that he would
receive more help in France than in the United States, and in short,
reflecting that there would perhaps be more good to be done yet in
the old world than in the new, (the Revolution having been the cause
of such wickedness and having done so much harm) our Father Abbot
decided that he and his community would return to France. He embarked
in the autumn of 1814, and took with him from New York the greater
number of our Brothers and all our Sisters, leaving only six Brothers
and myself behind, with orders that we should join him in France
after I had arranged our business matters and recovered my strength,
for I had still within me the germ of that malady of which mention
has been made in speaking of Maryland where I contracted it, as did
the others. It left me with a slow fever, that lasted for a long time.