The Irish standard., 1893-06-03

tlenco and Christian dem0anOr OF tlaG
excellent ecclesias ic made such deep
impression on the soldier that he entered
into conversation with him,with the result
that, when he was liberated, he torswore
his former life and sought admission
into the Trappists, joining the order in
France, his native land. Subsequently
he was sent to Rome on an Official er-
rand, and it was then that Cardinal Wise.
man met him and was so deeply i'm
pressed with him. The good baron re-
mained in the monastery the rest of his
life, and at his death left behind him the
memory If faithful and devoted monk.
Another noted instance of the abandon
ment of military for monks career
was that exhibited about forty years ago,
when Charles Reginald Pakenham, the
fourth son of the earl'of Longford, and a
native of Dublin, Joined the Passionists
In doing this young Pakenham forsook
a career in which number of his rela-
tiyes had won renown. Several of his
uncles had attained the highest ranks in
the British army and shown remarkable
bravery and skill in the Peninsular cam
paign; two of his brothers, older than
himself, wore the Queens uniform, and
he WAS distantly connected with the
Duke Of Wellington. After graduating
from the Sandhurst military school,
young Pakenham joined the Seventy
second Highlanders, in 1889, as an en-
sign; two years later puchase gave him
the rank of lieutenant in the same regi-
nasnt; in 1916 he was, appointed captain
in the Ninety sixth Foot, and the same
year, in order to accept the invitation Of
his uncle, General Edward Pyndar Ly-
qon, who wanted him for an aide-de
camp, he exchanged into the Grenadier
Guards.
The Tractarian movement, which was
then making so many notable converts
in England, was not without it's influence
on Captain Pakenham, who, being insti-
gated to lead better life than soldier
usually follows, began to study the
truths of religion, and ended by asking
and obtaining admission into the Catho-
lie Church from Cardinal Wiseman, in
1850. The following year, while on
visit to his uncle, the General LYgon al
ready mentioned, he made ret1 eat at a
.ok r+oI
i'm Worcestershire, and there took the
determination to relinquish the army
and enter the monastery. His spiritual
adviser counselled him, fearing that he
would find the Passion1st rule of life too
rigorous, to initiate the example OF st.
Ignatius and join the Jesuits. But the
captain declined, and asked to be taken
into the Passionists as lay brother. To
this request, which his confessor deemed
altogether too modest, a negative answer
was made; and the ex-soldier was at
once told to begin the study of theology
and prepare himself for ordination. He
was made priest September 81, 1855,
by the former bishop of Birmingham, DR..
Ullathorne, in the chapel Of st. Mary's
College, Oscott; and almost Immediately
after his ordination he was sent to Rome
in charge of some novices. The superior
general then dispatched him to Ireland,
to open house of the order, and in pur-
suance of that plan he built the church
of Our Lady of Refuge at Rathmines,
and laid the foundations of the Passion
ist house of Mount Argus, in the Dublin
archdiocese. There he lived and died, a
true son of st Paul of the Cross,to whom
Ireland owes the introduction into her
limits of the Passionists.
Probably no religious community that
is represented in this country counts
more ex-soldiers among it's ranks than
the Paulists of New York, who are,
nevertheless, one OF the least numerous
of onr religious orders. A writer in the
New York Sun, some years ago, called
attention to that fact in the following
manner: "Father Elliott said he, .'is q
splendid specimen Of 8 six footer and has
voice that rings like the keynote of a
bugle. He is of Irish parentage, and is
noted as preacher in the Paulist mis-
sions and as writer in the Catholic
World. He entered the army as pri-
vate in an Ohio regiment and served
through the rebellion, earning lieuten-
ants commission. Father Rob-
inson was in the Confederate service,
and, strange to say, the section Of the
army Of which he was member was in
several engagements opposed by the
Union troops in whose ranks Father
Elliott fought. The queer changes that
time brings about are shown in the fact
that they are now brothers enlisted un-
der the same flag in the battle Of the
Church with the world, the flesh and the
devil. Father Deshon was a student at
West Point with General Grant, at whose
obsequies, twill be remembered, he was
one Of the special mo,lrners from the