The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1909-06-25

Other artists came to marvel AMI
persons Of devout faith to pray; one
day an eminent church historian
from the Piedmont, came to Rome
and dropped in casually to see the
picture; scarcely had his eyes rested
upon the features when he turned
pale as death and gasped in Father
Jouet's ear:
My God, man, don't You know?
That face: It's Cardinal. and he
mentioned the name of a great pre-
late, who had been dead more than
quarter Of century.
I saw the mysterious picture with
my own eyes. 1t is an awe-lnsplrlng
visage. a nightmare Of a face, which
haunts the imagination for hours af-
terward. It is no accident or freak
of nature. 1t was executed by
masters hand, whether Of man or
spirit. 1t shows design.
From the church, Father Jouet con-
Quoted me to the museum. The OBJ
! iects it contains are difficult to de-
| scribe. Imagine a piece Of linen,
book or a wooden table upon which
red-hot human hand, hand of
flesh and blood, glowing with heat and
vet not withered or consumed, has
lain for a fraction of second, just
long enough to leave the scorched,
blackened imprint Of the fingers and
palm but not long enough to set the
object ablaze. The museum contains
twenty or thirty articles bearing such
imprints, collected from all parts OF
Europe. each with a separate terrible
histor Of its own. Persons who have
faith in the supernatural are OF
course disinclined, even after having
seen those things, to credit the the
ory that they have actually been
touched by souls returning from pur-
eatory to earth, but no one who has
seen the collection and the docu-
ments accompanying it, and who has
afterward talked with Father Jouet,
can harbor the suspicion that the fiery
finger prints have been fraudulently
fabricated with the deliberate inten-
ton to deceive, that they have been
"faked." to use an American slang
expression. Whatever is the real or
igin Of these imprints, Father Jouet
| believes them to be exactly what he
represents them to be.
The Reverend Mother Angela,
nun at the Ursuline Convent at Som
mieres, of which the Abbot Leonard
was the chaplain, died about two dec
AIDES ago, at the age of 30 years. She
was venerated as a saint by the
whole community, and no one thought
! it necessary to say masses for her. soul
or pray for her deliverance from
purgatory, because it was taken tor
granted that she went straight to
heaven.
/ Shortly after mother Angella's
death. a young girl from Clermont
presented herself as novice at the
door of the convent; she was called
Sister Maria, was pious, intelligent
and full Of zeal. One day she said to
the Abbot Leonard, her confessor:
"Father, l am afraid to stay IN
my room alone at night" "
"Wl what's the matter, my
child?" asked the aged priest.
"For several nights I have not been
able to sleep; each night, just as the
clock is striking twelve, strange
light enters my room and hovers
above the stool on which am ac-
customed to kneel before my little
altar. Il is like a candle flame sur
rounded by mist or fog. I am SICK
from fear.'
The old chaplain patted the child
on the head, laughed good-naturedly
at her story and told her she must
have been dreaming, but Sister Maria,
who continued to be visited by the
mysterious light, not getting any sat-
.isfaction from the chaplain, finally
demanded and obtained PERMISSION
to speak to the Mother Superior. The
,,44o,. ,l,o +roo+od thn matter LIGHTLY.
but as she had some writing to DO
that night and was anxious to calm
the girls fears she consented to sit
up and watch with her. Neither saw
anything that night, and the Mother
Superior took advantage of the neg
ative experience to ridicule the SIM
plicity of Sister Maria and declare
t1aJ she was the victim OF her own
imagination. but the child, certain
as TO what she had seen. insisted that