The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-08-15
THE BUSINESS OF SAINT
VARIOUS DEMANDS on THE CANADI-
AN FAvoRITE, SAINT ANNE.
Feench-Canadian Losing Their Faith
but the Irish Are LOyai-Many Mir
acles Said to BE Wrought.
Letter from St. Anne de Beaupre in New

York Post.
This shrine has been as crowded rs a
fair for a month past with pilgrims from
the United States and the province of
Ontario. In hard times a good many come
to seek temporal, or, to speak plainly,
worldly demonstrations, the recovery of
debts, capital to carry on some enterprise
in which they would like to embark, and
the like. Many, who, perhaps, cannot af-
ford TO come, send their request in a sealed
letter. along with a small Offering in cash.
These letters are placed in a receptacle on
the right of the altar, and prayers are
said for the Intentions of the writer's.
a Michigan man, for instance, writes to
ask the saint to provide him with $1,000;
if she is good enough to do so he promises
TO devote $1,000 to her honor and glory, but
he needs $4,000 to start a tannery. This. L
suppose, is a fair specimen of the petitions
of what may be called the suppliants for
revenue. There is another class whose
wants may be judged from the cards of
thanks which they print in the monthly
Annales de la Bonnie Ste. Anne:
L was obliged to sell some property and
thought it would be a difficult job but,
after a promise to the saint, chance Of
fered
My husband has found work. He promis-
ed the saint to have two masses said in
her honor, and to publish the good news in
the Annales.
l am more prosperous than I was three
years ago. Blessed forever be the saint.
L have obtained other faveurs temporelles
and graces temporelles through her assist
ance
Thanks to the saint for saving my son
from a marriage which would have been an
unfortunate one.
Last fall we had to rebuild our church.
and promised if we raised over $1,000 to
make 1t known in the Annales; we hope the
saint will find the money TO finish the work.
(ThiS Is from EScanaba, Mtch.)
| have won lawsuit of which / had de-
SPARED and write to thank st. Anne. She
has been good to me and my family, and
we beg her to keep us under her protection.
A third class OF clients consists of stu
dents and convent girls, who ask the saint
to help them in their examinations, to de-
termine their vocation, etc. a fourth, of
women asking her to save their husbands
or sons from drink. OF late years L find in
the Annales cards asking the prayers of
subscribers for husbands, sons and brothers
who are growing weak in the faith. In
former times there was no weakening, none,
at Feast, among French canadians every
one was true Breton par Ienerg1e de sa
fol- OF course, the great majority of the
cards printed in the Annales, and of the let
tiers deposited in the receptacle within the
church relate to bodily ailments and alleged
cures. -. -
PROTECTS EROM flREo.
The saint is becoming famous for the pro-
lection she extends to clients and their
property during fires The July number de-
scribes how the habitants of the parish of
st. Damien, being menaced by bush fires,
went in procession to the chapel Of Ste.
Anne des Montagnes, and 10! rain fell in
torrents and saved the settlement. lie
cure promet a la Bonne Sainte-Anne de
.,1,ti do 10 1,ITnf 10
pour faire cesser lie fleau." On the other
hand the cures wrought at the shrine are
not nearly as wonderful as they used to be-
Two hundred years ago she used to cure
cancer paralysis, and blindness, though she
never restored a limb; but nowadays she
confines herself to complaints like neural
gia and epilepsy, and in the generality Oh
these cases the patients are not cured out
right, but merely obtain, or fancy they op-
tain, some relief .,-,
have been Irish Catholics from the United
States. A local paper says, rather lrreVet-
entity that the saint is 'Decomlng irish.
What the Rouge editor means is that the
rench-Canadans are eeaslng TO take "a e, an an
interest in the shrine, and leaving II more
and more to Irish-Amerlcan ana ITisn-
Canadian visitors. The recent POLITICAL
troubles between the hierarchy ana the
Liberal party led by Sir Wilfred Laurier,
which Mgr. Del Val, the Papal legate, was
sent her to settle, have had the erect OF eS-
no longer go to mass, and all have become
more or less lukewarm. Then the New
England spirit" of which the Ultra
montanes speak so bitterly, is slowly per-
meating the whole French-Canadlan race
They begin by declaring that the priest mas
no right to order the people now 70 vote
under pain of hell-fire, in fact that ne
should keep out of politics. Next day they
saw he has no business 20 bar newspapers
or prohibit books, that titnes ana Iaprlque
taxes should be abolished, and the vast
estates of the church and the relglous
orders confscated and applied to education
al purposes. The next step IN the laclIe
descent is to deny the right of the chufch
to control the primary schools, which are
supported by the provincial treasury; ana
observes the Semaine Religieuse, of which
Able Gossein is editor, TO say that one
religion is as good as another, that man
ought to be allowed to go wrong rather
tbsn he restricted in his religious or in
tellectual freedom, that tue universe tt Sc Is
regulated by cast-iron laws, that chris
tianity is merely the latest FORM OF super
stition that miracles are played out; or
irdeed never occurred, except in a bar
barous age among ignorant people rms
is the spirit which the French-Canadians
&c said nv the clergy to he imbibing. The
emigration of so many to New Englan9 IS
blamed for it, and no doubt is responsible
in part
FAILING OFF IN FAITH.
Whatever the explanation may be- there
is a. decided falling off in the number of
Erench-C pllGIlLlSr INV u 'i4OAiA'
an intelligent professional man from
Beauce. a county adjoining the United
States boundary said to me to-day: My
wife has asthma We have tried the doc
tors and the patent-medicine men-in short
as our farmers say, toutes les herbes de la
Saint Jean-and have come here to St
Anne on the sailors principle Of Recours
G. Dieu pancre est rompue. l, for one,
would as lief go to Old Orchard Beach or
Cacouna The quarrel with Laurier, the
attempt to dragoon us after the manner
of Bishop Laval and Bishop st. Waller two
centuries ago. has been an unfortunate
business for tho church. We had been
growing dissatisfied; the influences of the
modern world, and, more directly, our
brethren in New England, had been edu-
eating us to a higher standard of tntelll-
gence, and the collision with the Liberals
served to explode the discomfort | love
the old religion, we all love it, but it IS on
But we shall always cherish her as gra-
ciouS being whom we loved as children
The Irish are more SteadHaSt. PerhapS II
is because their clergy have more sense
than ours and did not seek TO treat them
as babes when they had grown to be men.
The Annales have evidently good many
Irish-American subscribers, for an edition
in English is now published for the United
States and Ontario. At the end or the book
prayers ara requested for the triumph of
the Catholic Church and OF Pope Leo for
the well-being of the church in Quebec,
CT Ireland and the speedy restoration OF her
rights" There are now several Irish priests
among the Redemptorist fathers VINO nave
charge of the shrine.