The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-07-24
The Deaf And Dumb.

John of Beverly, the sanity Arch bishop of
York, is the first person recorded in the
history of the Middle Ages as having taught
a deaf and dumb man to speak and to un-
knowledge of this interesting event we are
indebted to the Ecclesiastical History of the
Venerable Bede. 1t has thus a twofold
claim ON the attention of Englishmen; nor
must we forget that our great historian
vas also the author of the first known
treatise de Ioquela per digitos, on the art
erudition has given the high sounding name
of la dGctylOEogie. At moment when, as
we have ALREADY more than once intimated,
an eminent and pious Belgian dignitary of
the Church is giving to England the first
Catholic institution for the deaf and dumb,
it will not be amiss to remind our readers
of few facts in connection with this sub
ject.
Ancient Greece and Rome considered ply
steal deficiency to be the certain outward
sign of intellectual incapacity. On the
stones of the high mountain, or in the
waters Of the deep river, children who
could neither hear nor speak were left mer,
cilessly to perish, because it was assumed
that they were also unable to think.
Science was, in those days, as infallible as
science, in spite of its daily recantations,
remains still; and science had decided, by
the mouth of philosophers and poets, that
q deaf and dumb child was q mindless and
soulless body, and was to be suppressed
accordingly. Singularly enough, it is only
after the birth of Christianity that, we find,
even among Pagans, any symptoms of a
different system. About AID. so, the
naturalist Pliny mentions that q certain
Quintus Pedius, grandson Of the Consul of
that name, had distinguished himself as q
painter. although born deaf and dumb. At
a later date we meet with several instances
of considerable attainmonte under similar
circumstances; yet those who were stricken
with this calamity were not allowed, by the
laws of Justinian, either to manage their
own property or to dispose of it by will.
Christianity produced, as q matter of course,
feelings and practices of kindness towards
the unfortunate; but the traditional preju-
dice against those who, from their birth,
could neither speak nor hear, remained SO
strongly rooted in the general mind that we
read, even in the great st. Augustin, of the
supposed inability of the deaf and dumb to
possess actual faith. Habitual faith they
would have, of course, through the Sacra-
ment of Baptism; but st. Augustin appears
to have considered that, as faith comes by
hearing, those born deaf could neither &C
quire actual faith nor incur moral RESPONSE
bility. In the, year 695 we find the Incl
dent: already referred to, of st. John of
Beverly, which the Venerable Bede mar
rates as almost, if not quite, miracle.
Cases of the kind remained, at all events,
rare and isolated; but when greater facili-
ties of comparative experience were given
to the world, the attention of the charitable
was turned with real effect to the deaf and
dumb.
1t may be said, indeed, with perfect truth
that the printing-press has been the great
means of bringing relief TO this particular
affection. Yet Spanish monks were the
first persons who established special schools