The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-07-23
Pere Mansabre as Hyacinthe's successor

Fere MansaDfe as Hyaclnthe's successor
in the pulpit of Notre Dame. It was
with heovy sense of responsibility, as
we'll as with fear and trembling, that the
Dominican accepted the call. The
greatest preachers the world ever pro.
duced had filed that chair before him
Hundreds of years before lis time
Louis XIV. sat with his brilliant court
under the frescoed roof Of Notre Dame,
listening to the rounded periods and the
limpid oratory of Bossuet.. Bourdaloue
woke the echoes of the sacred editice
with his glowing sermons, Massillon, in
the same holy place, dashed, as with a
whip, the vices of the great men of his
day. Later on in the present century,
Lacordaire, the Dominican, held au-
diences spellbound by his oratorical
flights; and Pere Felix, the Jesuit, the
predecessor of the ill-starred Hyacinthe,
had kept up the glorious traditions of
that cathedral chair.
The nomination Of an ecclesiastic to
this high post was, like the coronation
of a poet laureate, free entrance, so to
speak, to the temple offame. 1t stamped
him at once as man of commanding
ability, the first of his brethren in the
cloth in the sacred art of pulpit elo-
quence. 1t raised him from the level of
talented mediocrity into the choicer cir
Gle of the worlds great geniuses. The
white light of publicity beat fiercely
upon him. Leading men in the land
sought the honor of his acquaintance
ship. Senators and deputies sat side by
side in his ante chamber, awaiting an
audience with the distinguished divine.
The nobility of Paris besieged him with
invitations to their dainty dinners. At
first Pere Monsabre felt nervous and i'll
at ease in the midst of these hattering
attentions. Yet, acting on the advice Of
his superiors, he eventually got the bet
ter of his nervousness, and, while living
in the world, was enabled to bring back
many worldly soul to the knowledge
and cult of Christ. In the pulpit he
proved himself to be no unworthy sue
cessor Of Lacordaire and Felix. For
twenty years, in Lent and Advent, he
gathered around him the very cream Of
the intelligence of Paris.
Ten years ago he retired from Notre
Dame, carrying with him the respect
and good wishes Of everybody. He was
Only short time occupying his cell in
the Dominican monastery by the sea,
when he was invited by Pope Leo XIII.
to Rome, where, throughout the Advent
of 1890, he preached in the Church of
San Andrea della Vale. Here the sue
cess which attended his efforts in Paris
was confirmed to such an extent that the
public of the entire of Europe now re.
gard him as the first of living preachers.
Among those who thronged the church
to hear him were several cardinals, scores
of monsignori and hundreds of priests
and seminarists. It is said that as
meet reward for the number of conver-
sions effected by his very augumentative
discourses, Leo XIII. resolved to raise
him at no distant date to the honor of
the cardinalate. Anyone of keen dis
cernment attending Pore Monsabre's
sermons would see at 8 glance that he
never improvises. Unlike his fellow
Dominican, Father Tom Burke, he was
afraid to trust himself to the caprices Of
extempore speaking. Quite a purist in
the use of language, he never depended
on the wayward inspiration of the mo-
ment for the expression of his thoughts.
During his twenty years preaching in
Notre Dame he consecrated some eight
months of each year to a careful prepar-
alton of the sermons which he used to
preach during the Lent and Advent.
These nine or ten annual sermons, the
delivery of each of which would cover
one hour and half, were written and
rewritten in the seclusion of cell in the
Dominican monastery in Brittany.
| The future cardinal is at present en-
joying a learned ease prior to his being
called to Rome to assume the dignities
of the Office to which he is to be raised.
It is said that with the PERMISSION of his
superiors in the Dominican Order he
will pass the remainder of his life in the
Eternal City. Pere Monsabre is now
some 65, years old, but is still hale, hearty
and well-preserved. Like most French
eccleslastics, he is very courtly and ami
able in manner. He is very entertaining q
in conversation, in which he displays all
the light artillery Of wit and humor and
repartee which, of course, must be
rigidly excluded from his public dis
| courses. On the whole, Pere Monsabre
may be regarded as one Of the most in
teresting figures in the ecclesiastical his
tory OF the nineteenth century.
| On g Boston Car.-Pretty girl
"Wil you put me off at the next corner?''