The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1869-07-11

AA~ S@As1 rnefre1ff ~ 10Y
Very Rev. Father saEin proasisea, While
yet in Europe, % write 4bout tka SansA,
Casa which hS visited whiln over the VA
ter, Hewas EaAbie TO, fniAt shat promise
cuznstancss which his Estter win unfold:
OK BoARp xzzE BssnxAAcK,
4EAy 30, a66e. s
Res. Dsar Father We passcd eaxly fAis mors-
ing tho famous city Of vicksburg, where we
o. tsis mssy aver i tells ys the sod
results Of our late war. sincerely wish 90
see this onco beautiful ceuntry rise again 70
prosperity; but y VIII take time. As 20 iss
NAV live vet to see IL myself and rejoice Mt 1t.
Meanwt.iie, this long seEies Of depredations--
tho unavoidable consequences OF = war with
brings to my mind deeds of like character, but
every way criminal and without o ehadow OF
palliation or excuse. The notes ind among
my papers on this subject may interest your
readers, and, therefore send you q. few OF
them.
You are already aware thas spent FIVE days
last spring at the Holy House, where made q
short rctreat---the sweetest in my life. COM
menced it with the first vespers of the Annun-
citation, and closed it on the Evening Of Easter
so beautifully say; the best could for all
our friends-and what a list made Stripped
as it is comparatively, Loreto is yet the house
of Mary, as you know it yourself from personal
experience; that is to say, house. where
Christians pray as have never seen people
pray elsewhere.
THE FORMER TREASURES OF LoREro.
In vain should we look anywhere in the
Christian world for another sanctuary where
gratitude and generosity have been so admir-
ably blended to enrich treasury, as in Lore
to.
In 1894 Nilsson, Protestant writer, visiting
italy described it in the following terms:
The treasury is a large room with o high cell
ing beautifully decorated Seventeen huge
cupboards with double doors fill up the whole
space inside along the walls. In none of these
is silver admitted this was done in the begin
ming, but at present such articles are slowed
up here and there confusedly. These large
presses are therefore opened but to pure gold.
precious stones, and ornaments, more
valuable oven than gold. / would not
attempt to enumerate them; it ex-
these immense riches thus accumulated ut Lo-
reto, one has to bear in mind that all the ma
tions and states and princes who acknowledge
there since four hundred years" SO much for
o non Catholic visitor, whose testimony will
not be suspected of exaggeration.
In the latter end of the eighteenth century,
instead of seventeen, we find that sixty. seven
large cupboards (arpsoires) could scarcely hold
the most precious of these offerings. The sim
in Murri, thirty-seyen large pages in quarto,
La Santa Casa, one hundred years ago, pos
sessed twenty three lamps of massive gold be-
fore the statue; forty-seveu of silver before
the altar twenty-four outside. before the altar
of the Annunciation and around the sacred
walls in all, ninety.four rich lamps, burning
by day and night, without counting those
hanging before the numerous affairs in the vast
basiTica built over the Blessed House, nor a
splendid silver chandelier weighing eighty
pounds. sre. aH s.ra a4l f--s,
Gold and silver were literally lavished in all
directions. Twelve statues of children in pure
gold, and many more in silver, were suspended
around the niche in which the cedar statue
that came from the East with the Holy House
is yenerated- There were two angels in gold,
six in silver, holding lights; horns of abund-
ing the offerings. As to busts, small statues, |
has reliefs in silver, they were almost innumer-
able. The sacred walls were wholly covered
with the &c r0tcs to which this honor had been |
granted. The statue itself was loaded with
precious stones, pearls and jewels of great
value. The altar likewise was all covered with
the same. Ha
Every nation was represented at Loreto by
some special gift Louis Kill, to thank the
Blessed Virgin for the birth of q son, Louis the
Great, after a childless union of twehty-four
years. had sent to Loreto a golden infant of
twenty-four pounds, borne by an angel in silver
weighing over three hundred pounds, and two
crowns of gold which remained on the head of
the Blessed Virgin and that of the Divine In
FAINT until the day of vandalism brought on by |
tho French Revolution of '93.
Henry Ill.,. offered q ciborium, q complete
masterpiece of art and magnifcence.
After the examples of tine kings, great cities, |
noble families, warriors, generals, seamen, per-
sons of all ranks and conditions, in the course |
of time accumulated gifts at Loreto to such On |
extent that no spot upon earth could be COM !
pared to it in point of intrinsic value.
In 1850 the city of Lyons, nfter n long and
fatal experience of a pestilence,- against which
all the skill of doctors and the precautions of
prudence had failed, placed in q solemn manner
all her citizens under the protection of Our
Lady of Loreto The public calamity ceased
immediately; all the sick grew well and not a
single new case was heard of. The following
year population, headed by the celebrated
Father Edmund Anger, s. i, brought to Lore
to, as q token of the gratitude of the city, a
magnificent chalice Of q wonderful work, ae-
eompanied with other gifts worthy of the
Queen of the Gaules Other countries, other
cities for Ave hundred years, prompted alike
by faith and gratitude, either gave or followed
the same example. What n sad and humiliat-
ing necessity for n French priest to be obliged
in truth to confess that by none other but his
own nation these precious, invaluable aud
sacred treasures were stolen and sacrilegiously
carried away in broad daylight, to the eternal
opprobrium of the French Republic, in whose
name the impious deed was perpetrated. But
the French Republic could not be expected to
respect at LoretO what it laid waste and