The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-12-16
THE CAPUCHIN VAULTS
Rev. Claude Raboteau Describes
His Rambles Therein and the
Lessons He Learned.

At the Parmly Memorial Church last
evening the pastor, Rev. Claude Rabo-
teau, delivered his first lecture of a
series on "Rambles in Rome" the SUBJ
Ject being I'm the Vaults of the Church
of the Capuchins."
The subject Of his discourse was graphic
cally described as a plain, obscure little
sanctuary, but containing many wonder
full pictures and@notable tombs of buried
generations; yet the centre of interest lies
in the vaults beneath, they being even
more medieval and antique than the
sanctuary above, and In them thousands
of skeletons on all sides are hung upon
the walls in fantastic devices, piled up
in heaps on the floor or impaled upon
spikes and poles in all their grinning
ugliness; the sight of them causing a
feeling of faintness and sickness with
horror. To describe the scene, he said,
would be impossible; no description could
adequately convey the ghastliness of that
grizzly assembly of unburied human
bones, the relics of superstition n of
remarkable brutality which permitted
such a heartless exposure of the remains
of human beings, long since dead, but
still unburied, having been there since
Tie QdyS VI LITE dtpQQlSRtlO1 La <LO ~
tenth century.
1.-THE stone sides of the vaults are en-
tirely hidden by these fearful relics" he
said. "a mass of human decay on all
sides. Abraham said, BURY my dead out
of sight and that desire is the natural
expression Of the human heart, but here
the dead were unburied. 1t seemed an
abomination and offense to man and God
to display so heartlessly the bones of
what had been men.
THE ton floor is covered with a
layer of earth brought from Jerusalem,
high favor and special privilege to have
the bones of their dead put in this vault;
There are four large rooms
the chambers affairs built entirely OF
human joints, some of them four feet
high, and on the top a kneeling skele-
in the attitude Of prayer. Chandeliers
hung from the stone ceiling. made OF
thigh bones and arm joints, Jewels ana
f agga fee 9f o aogrib ma% was 81 t Iaei Sight n Of It
"some were seated in chairs clad in
the very clothes which had decked IT the as
rotting off the bony figures with the
flight of years; but the skeletons were
ssThe visit to this loathsome place was
not without its. lessons. The wonders OF
Gods handiwork are written on the most
repellant sights. Those bones tell OF
animation, Intelligence anc beauty. long
since passed away. The frames that hello
together a living, breathing personality,
and perhaps as the skeletons now kneel,
once knelt in alteration and worship to
God. They once were animated by the
vital spark of being; a thrilling proof of
Gods power and mans helplessness, q
alone had produced these bones and made
these relics human lives. !.
"Whence came these lives? What
power was there at work which gave
these skulls existence and vitality, and
finally to have them lie down and die?
Of the doctrines Of creation to convince
us of the Omnipotent energy of God, and
the existence of an all wise, all powerful
Let me take the most hardened sceptic
with me to the Capuchin Church. lay
ject the Mosaic account Of creation: put
yo-., dogma and you church theology;
for,s t your Darwinian hypothesis and
your propositions of Huxley; come and
stand before these crumbling bones and
without prejudice answer the question;
whence came they? and the swamps of
infidelity win forever be dried up; the
fog of scepticism forever be d~issipated
What a blindness to ignore the Giver OF
life while marvefing at the spiendor OF
bones. and it is enough to make every
unbeliever in the world a ~worshipper OF
Almighty God to see that problem Of the
existence Of life ~unsolved by any human
agency The spirit of the Lord made
me and the breath Of the Almighty gave
we lave. The secret of life eludes detec-
tion.n