The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-04-24

81 Among the vsgaries which the Rituaiistl
movement has given rise to in England,
. that Of an attempt to revive monasticisu
in the Church Of England. The prim
actor in this pageant lie man who style
himself "Brother Ignatius," whose assump
tions and folly have brought down upol
him merited ridicule. He has the impu
dence to claim to be Benedictine, ant
lately erected what he styles monster!
in the Black Mountains. THE last I" tan
trum" has gained him a I" fir rate notice
from the London Daily Nescs, the last por
ton of which we suhjoin:
Brother Ignatius, while averring that h
wishes Roman Catholic monks were like
himself, generously pats them on the back
and assures them of his respect Yet II
would, perhaps, not be amiss were he to
inquire what monasticism has meant in
Roman Catholicism whenever it meant
something more than indOlent sensuality
and dirt. We presume that the letters o.
s. B., attached 70 the spiritual title Of Bro
ther Ignatius, signify Order of st. Bene-
dict" A very little 'sm0nastic lore" would
have acquainted him with the fact that not
| TO pray night and day, but to institute
schools Of learning was the special aim OF
Benedictine piety. The Augustinian monks
posing cathedrals. The Mendicant Friars
were the founders of hospitals. One and
all, these Orders, in their palmy days, en-
| cOuraged art, and into whatever foul and
| mischievous evil they ultimately declined,
| in their origin they contemplated, and for
ness. As architects, painters, carvers in
wood, workers in mosaic, the monks served
serious purpose, and their misfoptune
was that they ended where the founder of
our {" first bona Jide English monastery
since the Reformation" gravely proposes
wrote that the less O monk labors in any
thing but prayer the moro eerviceable he is
to men and the doctrine can be fortified
by the saying of St. Jerome, that the duty
of monk is not to teach but to weep.
But these saints were under the influence
of that morbid asceticism which had not
long before driven Simeon Stylites to
pick up the worms which fell from his
putrid body and replace them in his flesh,
with the exclamation, . Eat what God has
given YOU" The monks of later times,
fortunately, deviated from such examples,
or we should not now be able to extend to
them that qualified commentator which
impartiality must needs bestow upon their
lives. Had they been governed by the
ideas which found favor with Brother1g
natius, the healthy opinion of modern
times would have visited them with I'M
mixed Reproduction.
We are not at all solicitous lest Brother
Ignatius should build second Assissi or
Monte Casino, in the heart of the Black
Mountains, and unpeOple cities in order to |
multiply cells. ST. Cbrysostom and st.
Ambrose filed converts by their eloquence;
but it was not addressed to the morning
journals. We are in no dread of this peu- |
rile attempt upon the common sense of our |
But we think it we'll still |
further to establish the worthlessnes and |
and futility of these efforts to revive
amongst us institutions condemned by ex-
perience, by pointing out what strangely
rious gentleman, whsse manifesto we have /
been discussing, says that the .'world rings
with it's own self exaltafiOn." Is he not
the fault of judging the world
by himself3 "a man may be as truly sell
fish," it has been said, " about the next
world as about this" We may add that
Ease as in the other. If Brother Ignatius
8 really in love with monasticism, why
1Oes he not join the Church which still
Processes to encourage it'll Professionalism,
We may rest assured, will have none of it.
His place is in another fold altogether. {
Why does he not fly to it7 The reason is
90 obvious. Roman Catholic monks do
lot write to newspapers, do not air them
elves in public, do not put on the cowl
'nly to become more conspicuous. They
re not allowed. We have no paroiality ,
or Roman Catholic monasticism but we ]
eel nothing save contempt for childish and
limitations of it. Or, if Brother
gnatius must needs initiate medieval con-
ent life, let him study the humility with
hitch it has sometimes been accompanied.
\ story is told of one reclnse who, just
ecause he was famous as II linguist, re-
NAMED perfectly silent for thirty years.
uppose Brother Ignatius denies himself !
he luxury of writing to the papers, for
'hich he is equally famous, for the same
eriod. His earnestness will then be less
pen to question than it is now, and his
abbey" probably NO emptier.
STATUE OF ST. PETER.-On q recent ocea=
ion very interesting ceremony took place ut
ne Church of Notre Dame de France, Leices-
CT Square, London. The event was the inau-
uration of q life-sze statue in bronze of st.
eter the Apostle-beiDg an exact copy of the
amous statue in st. Peters at Rome. We take
'om a local paper the following particulars of
he ceremony:
Tho afoSuo 10 %ho r;f+ ~ %l,,t Sr,,o baa rta/7