The Irish standard., 1899-04-08
His Youth, His Conversion and
Literary Life.
HIS MILD AND GENTLE CHARACTER
Devoted His Entire Genius to
His Holy Faith.

tlle llISC TRUE NdtlOllC poet since tile
Reformation. Other poets were Catho-
lie on occasion. he was never aught else,
for lie became Catholic when to do so
was to surrender everything that is hu-
manly dearest to the heart He devoted
his entire genius to her service and
found his highest happiness in wreatlling
upon her brow the laurels which the
world would have been glad to bind
upon his own, says writer in the San
Francisco Monitor.
OF the distinguished scholars who left
Oxford and the Establishment to return
to the old faith of England. few are
more celebrated than he. From Cal
then minister of advanced Anglican
ism. and after many years OF prayer and
study in the pursuit of truth, following
the example of his guide, DR.. Newman,
he made his submission to the Catholic
church, whose glory it is that she could
equally satisfy the mighty intellect Of
the one and the sensitive heart of the
other.
| Father Faber was born on June 18,
1874 in Yorkshire, England. The home
OF his youth was a picturesque region,
whose beauties Sir Walter Scott and
| Wordsworth have celebrated and which
were we'll calculated to inspire the ar
dent boy with love for the beautiful.
OF his early days he afterwards wrote:
The chaces were filled with deer, the
ancestors OF the red deer Of the Duke of
Norfolk, which still drank at the brink
OF Ullswater by Lylph's tower: the un-
prosecuted eagles woke the echoes of
Helvellyn; speartops glanced in the sun
on the steep paths, that lay like pale
green threads across the mountains; the
castles rang with arms; the abbeys and
cl1antries were haunted by church mu-
sic, while the lesser cells in secluded
pastoral wales heard once more the
nightly aspirations Of wakeful prayer,
and Cistercian shepherds could scarcely
be distinguished in their white habits
from the sheep they tended, as they
moved across the fells high up above
their moorland oranges"
His preliminary education was re-
ceived at Harrow, where he remained
until he entered Baliol College, Oxford,
in 1882. Before long the sermons, lee
| f,,ra nd
aided by the young enquircr's study,
inclined him to Catholicity. He had al.
ready passed through many mental re-
ligious struggles, had studied much and
thought much, and his religious belief
was now fixed, he thought, and he de-
termined to become an Anglican clergy
man. This he did on August 6, 1887.
He was given the romantic old parish Of
Amblesides in the Lake district. Here
he became the friend OF Wordsworth,
who afterward said that Father Faber
was the only man beside himself who
rightly knew how to read nature.
In 1842 occurred what was to result in
the turning point in his life. He started
on continental tour with "desire to
examine closely in Catholic countries,
and especially in Rome, the methods
pursued by the Church in dealing with
the souls intrusted to her care" Soon
after his arrival in Rome he attended
the celebration OF the Feast of the As
ccnsion in St. John Lateran, OF which
he tells his brother: II do not think
l ever returned from any service so
thoroughly Christianized in every joint
and limb, or so right OF heart, as did
from the Lateran on Thursday" But
still something was wanting to effect
the change and he actually left Rome
before that want was supplied. Like
Cardinal Newman, shortly before his
conversion, Father Fabcr believed for a
time that his attachment for Anglican
ism was growing stronger. In an inter-
view with Pope Gregory XVI, during
this visit, he went to the window and
exclaimed: "Holy Father, I should as
soon think Of jumping out Of this win
dow as Of leaving the English church!'
He returned to his new parish of Elton
ard threw himself into the work with
fiery earnestness His soul was prey
to doubts and distractions OF the most
painful kind. Throughout this period