Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1890-09-27
A DAY IN A
Experiences OF Theodore Parker In the
Convent Of the P~assionists at Rome.


The l%ay-brother appeared at day.
break, and told me hat in fifteen min
utes ] was to join the Italians in re.
treat, aud go with them to mass. The
mass was followed by another sermon,
after which we were all summoned to
coffee in the room where we had taken
tea the evening before. The report OF
my beresy had got abroad. and / found
myself an object of curious attention.
Several young Italians expressed SYM
patty for my unhappy condition, and
one Of them said that he would pray
the Virgin to convert me. He spoke
in genuine kindness, ard / thanked
him.
After coffee we were dismissed 10
our chambers for an hour, aud then
listened to another sermon In the
chapel. This consumed the morning
till eleven o'clock. when a bell rang
for dinner, and monks and laymen to-
gether moved in solid procession to
the refectory. The monks went first,
the superior at their head, then fol-
lowed The laymen, and while the pro-
cession was forming in the corridor
they all kept up a dismal. unintermit-
ted chanting. The refectory was a
long, high, dimly lighted hall. A ia
bic OF bare wood was stretched across
the farther end for the dignitaries of
the convent, and was continued down
both sides. Here, on right and left,
sat the rest of the monks, forty or fifty
In number. and the laymen sat below
them, nearer the door. The seats were /
wooden benches, placed on the inner
sides OF the table only. On the wall
over the heads of the dIgnitaries was a
fresco Of the Last Supper. as usual in
refectories, while on the side walls
hunggrim pictures Of saints with up
turned eyes and palms pressed togeth-
er. The entire hall was whitewashed
above and pauelled with oak below.
At the head of the tables stood the
Superior, who was General of the
whole order, a tall, portly mar with a
stern and austere countenance. The
monks, motionless and in dead silence, !
stood ranged on right and left, robed
In black from head to foot, and wear
ing on the breast the badge of their
order-a heart surmounted by a cross.
Their harsh, c~adaverous faces bespoke
the figor of their discipline, which is
extremely severe. When all were in
their places, the Superior raised his
finger, and the whole assemblage
broke out into another chant. When
at last it was ended, the finger was
raised again, and all took their seats.
Not a word was spoken; but a monk
entered the pulpit from a narrow door
IN the wall, and in drawing. monoto-
o u tones read a Latin sermon, which
lasted throughout the meal.
He had hardly begun when a file of
l~ay-brothers entered each carrying a
receptacle formed of three trays, one
above the other. connected by an up
right wooden rod, and holding a great
number Of bowls and small dishes.
The monks were served first. Before
them were set bowls Of a dismal-look-
ing vegetable soup, along with dishes
of dried pease boiled whole, and swell
ed to a wonderful size by the process.
Each then drew a cup, a fork, and a
wooden spoon from a drawer in the
table, and with a rueful countenauce
proceeded to eat, first filling the cup
from an earthen bottle of cheap wine
which stood on the board before him.
we of the laity Jared better, being
served with rice, eggs, fish, and dried
fruit. The Italians seemed little edi-
lied by the Latin sermon, which few
of them could have understood. The
meal was followed by a prayer, with
low responses from the monks, after
which they all filed of through the
dim galleries to their dens, looking like
living originals OF the dreary portraits
ranged along the walls.
When / had got to my chamber and
was refreshing myself with the Pioneers
one of them came to convert me. my
father" said |, II am afraid your kind
ness will be thrown away"
But he clapped me on the knee, and
acclaimed, cheerfully: "Ah. fglio,
you will be a good Catholic soon. No
doubt Of It,"
There was an amusing vivacity in
him, quite different from his extreme
solemnity when at dinner. In the
curse Of his talk, which was rambling,
though pious, he kept offering ME his
snuf-box, freely using 1t himself lea
while; and when he thought he had
made a good hit In his argument. he
would wink at me with a comical look
of triumph, on which we both fell TO
laughing, At length the bell rang for
more prayers and ermons Ia the chap
ell. and this sprightly old apostle went
back to his cell.
After the the laymen were
turned out to walk for a while in the
convent garden, attended by Padre
Luz He was not, / think, one of the
Passlonist brotherhood, but a secular
priest, and his pleasant, plumb, good
humored c~ountenance co~ntrhsted
strangely with the dry, leathery Wis.,
ages Of the monka. As we walked up
and down the paths. shaded with olives
and oleanders, he took ME by the
arm and talked of matters of faith,
stopping from time to time Ut the little
groups of Italians, who, after reverent-
" kissing his hand. began to chat aud
laugh with him In an easy familiarity,
gracefully tempered with respect. He
seemed to have their full affection and
confidence, at which, Judging by what
l saw Of him. / did not wonder. mo
cant, twaddle. or camp-meeting long
faces here" / find recorded in my
diary. Next came vespers, monks,
laymen. and all crowdtng the little
chapel, which shook with the din of q
hundred voices joining the service
DR.. Francis Parkman IN Harper's Mag
asjne.