The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-10-26

Shortly after this the Bishop dleu,
and Gregory went into retirement for
some years. Toward 37S-9, the rem
nant of the orthodox party at Con-
stantinople sent him an urgent re-
quest to undertake the task of reviv-
ing their cause so long overborne by
the Arians. In his first attempt to
speak in that city he meta very un-
friendly reception, and was even
stoned; but his eloquence made a
strong impression on his audience.
He labored so we'll and so judiciously,
that the church grew SO rapidly in
numbers that "the small apartment
in which they had been accustomed
to meet was soon exchanged for a
vast and celebrated church which re-
ceived the name of the "Church of the
Resurrection. About this time he
was made Patriarch of Constantine
pie. But the intrigues and cabals of
that city being too distasteful and
too hard to bear she withdrew to the
shadows of his ancestral trees near
the quiet town of Nazianus and died
as purely as he had lived"
Archdeacon Farrar says of him;
"He was no ordinary man. Poet,
orator, theologian; man as great
theologically as he was personally
winning; one of the bravest men in an
age of confessors, one of the holiest
men in an age of saints; the most
learned and the most eloquent Bish-
op in one of the most learned ages of
the church, if any man ever deserved
the honor of sainthood it was Grego-
ry of Nazianus."
It will interest our readers to know
that he was warm admirer and
passionate student of Origen as well
as firm believer in Origen's doc
trine of the final perfection of all
souls. 1t will interest them also to
know that there is in Manitowoc
county, Wisconsin, at the little vii
lage of St. Nazians, Franciscan
convent and monastery of aged
brothers and sisters founded in his
name. The German form ofspelling
is St. Gregorvon Nazians. The mon
astery was founded in 1862, by Faith
er Oschwald, who, with band of lay
brothers and sisters, came from Ba-
den in that year, purchased fourteen
hundred acres of land, built the
buildings and named the village.
The place can be reached by drive
of some fifteen miles, south and east
of Chiffon, town on the line of the
G. M. & ST. P. railway. Thirty broth
ers are yet living in the monastery,
the youngest of whom is forty-five
years of age. About the same num-
ber of sisters reside in the convent
and live by weaving carpets, plating
straw and helping in the harvest.
The people of the country round
speak the mother tongue; the street
signs bear German names; the houses
have German legends, painted or cut
into the cobble stones. The very
cattle are of the Holstein breed.
Between the two buildings is a
footpath which takes you first to a
small chapel set in the edge of a
grove, where instead of the cross
with the full length figure of the
Christ, you see only the severed
hands and feet nailed to the plank
The path leads on down the hill,
through the shady woods past the
fourteen stations of the cross" where
the kneeling stools are mouldy with
age and worn by the devotions of the
faithful. Formerly there was a
school where both lay brothers and
priests were taught; but it has been
discontinued and the building now
stands empty. If you ask Why? the
brother will begin lamenting the
mercantile spirit of the age and the
country which leads young men to
give their lives to money making.
The monastery and convent belong
to that branch of the Franciscans
called the Conventuals, who were al
lowed to their own buildings and the
adjacent land. The grave of Father
Oschwald is shown in the crypt of
the monastery.
OSHKOSH. WIS.