The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1875-02-28
Pastoral Letter of the Archbishop of Tuam.
PERSONAL RECOLLECTION OF THE JUBILEE
OF 1926:
On the Feast of St. Bridget, Archbishop
MacHale issued Pastoral Letter from
which we take the following extracts

OF the vast blessings of which the Jubi-
lee OF 1926 was productive, we can speak
from personal recollection, having been
not only witnesses of the extraordinary
zeal of the Clergy, and the piety of the
people, but having been likewise engaged
in those edifying lsbors, often for several
days in the same district, and sometimes
the entire week without interruption. How
propitious the season proved for this extra
ordinary ubilee mission, may be collected
from the fact that it was in this DemOra BILE
year the coru-crop ripened go unusually
early, even in the month of July, that the
people, instead of using the sickle. were
Obliged to pull the oats like FAX from the
roots. The population was not yet dimin-
ished by famine or emigration, and as the
chapels were too small, especially at that
time, to contain the thronging multitudes,
a bountiful Providence through the con-
tinusnce of weather unprecedeDtedly fine,
rendered the exterior suited to their &C
mmodation. From eight o'clock in the
morning, to seven or eight in the evening,
the clergy were employed in administer
ing Sacramen ts, aud often had to hear the
affecting expressions of sorrew from sew
eral of the faithful that after coming and
returning for several days they were un-
able, from the pressure, to satisfy their
eager desire for the blessings of the jubilee.
Why we thus dwell on the extraordinary
fervor with which the faithful hailed the
Jubilee of Leo the Twelfth. referred to by
the present Pope, aud availed themselves
of its blessings, is to stimulate by their ex
ample the present generation to a similar
exercise of religious devotion. Nay, If we
compare the times and circumstances
of both Jubilees, the comparison must
plead in favor of a warmer zeal on the
present occasion. Then the Holy Father
was not prisoner in the holy City, ard
pious pilgrims, tar from being scared away
by irreliglous politicians, were welcomed
10 crowds To the temples of Rome and
cheered with the bountlful hospitality of
the Holy Father. The Princes of the
earth did not then look with disfavor on
the tilial devotion that brought his spirit
ual children from afar, to be consoled by
his cordial welcome aud benedictioa.
What a strange contrast between the sffec-
ton that united the people then and the
cold alienation by which it has been sue
ceeded. In the hostile attitude assumed
by the powerful of the world, we are re-
minded of the significant language of the
Psalmist-"Why have the Gentiles ragged
and the people devised vain things; the
kings of the earth stood up, and the prin-
ces met together against the Lord and
against his Church He that dwelleth
in Heaven stall laugh at them, and the
Lord shall delide them then shall he
them in His rage
1t is Impossible to reflect on this extra
ordinary language without being struck
with its obvious application to those sad
events in Germany, IN Italy, in Switzer-
land, and other parts of Europe, with
which it's recent history has familiarized
US. They may appear dsheartening to
those who do not reflect on the predictions
of our Divine Redeemer, that as he was
hated by the world, so would His followers
be hated, and made the objects of it's
bitter persecution. Well has the predic-
81 I'D in, af . ta
annals OF the Church. Impious men,
flushed with the brief success which they
are permitted To enjoy, strive to initiate on
narrow scale the tyranny of those ter
| rble prosecutors who strove in its infancy
to crush the Christian religion. But they
should learn wisdom from the tragic end
| of those mighty meu whom they appear 30
DESTROYS to rival. For of all those emper
ors who were the chief agents of the ten
| prosecutions of the Church, there was BOT
one, az we learn from their biographer
Lactantius, whose hideous death did moi
despots of modern times who appear 81
am bilious to rival, if not to surpass, the
cruelty of their misdeeds.
Those trials come in succession and a
different times, as if to sustain the courage
of the weak and timid by the example .
the triumphant champions OF the Church
Ireland had it's share of those sauguinar,
conflicts, not at the Introduction of tn
Catholic religion, as happened to othe
nations, but long after that religion ha'
been peacefully introduced and illustrated
by the virtues of its followers. Settin,
its just value on the Blessing of tire ligh
which St. Patrick came to propagate
among us, the people felt holy impatienc
} to ditfuse it among the neighboring nation
of England and Scotland and Germany, VIII,
, were as yet sitting in darkness and in til,
shadows of death. To those earlier age
belonged ST. Bridget, St. COLUMBIA of Col
umbklll, and numberless others, who boil
at home and among the-several countrie
of Europe so illustrated ireland, as to hav
deservedly obtained for it the title of thu
Island OF Saints. The name of on
Bridget was not confined to the bound
! aires OF Kildare, with which it is 30 init
I mately connected but was diffnSed wit
the fame of her extraordinary piet
= through France, and several other cuun
tries, and our people to this day honor he
, memory with such signal and endurin
} gratitude, that in spite of the fantasia
3 fashion that strives to establish foreig
! names among US, having no claim what
ever to reverence or regard from service
either personal or ancestral, the nations
name of Bridget ie, after Mary and Anna