The Irish standard., 1913-09-06
REQUEST OF LATE
CARDINAL MANNING
Asked That No Monument be Erect
ed Over Grave of Young
Wife. q
Her Memory Piously Recalled by
Him on Every Anniversary
of Her Death.
Reference Seldom Made to the Ties
That Bound Him in Early
Life.

one, six months after her fathers
death in November. 1888, was quietly
married by her brother-in-law, Sam
uel Wilberforce, in Livingston church,
to Rev. Mr.. Manning, the incumbent:
and bright day it long remained in
the memory Of the parishioners, who
had reason to cherish both bride.
groom and bride. In an atmosphere
of very strong mutual affection, un-
broken for many years. all these
young kinsfolk begin their linked and
varied and idylic lives. So writes
Louise Imogen Quincy, in the Cath
olic World.
But Caroline Seargent, like her
brilliant brothers. was early called
away. She lay dying of consumption
when the first Of Manning's profes.
sional honors came to him, his ap-
pointment to the End rural Deanery
Of Mildhurst; and in July, 1887. she
was laid to rest in Livingston church.
yard, after three and half childless
but most happy welded years. To
the heart of her husband, intensely
sensitive and tender, it was an over.
whelming sorrow. 1t was also a
swordless sone. ! : I11ess hi,sted bttnselt in
tasks and plans Of ever widening
scope, and in courageous accept
ance of the inscrutable Will Of God.
He was received into the Catholic
Church in 1851, little foreseeing that
he was to survive his angelic wife
(and through what worlds Of change,
and what workings Of the grace Of
God) for more than forty years. The
name Of the dead seems to have been
mentioned but once, and then in an
hour Of sudden emotion and alarm,
to Robert Isaac Wilberforce, when
the two famous converts, in the first
glow Of their splendid remuneration.
were travelling in Rome. An Angli-
can, while as yet Manning had not
realized the comforting thought that
a departed soul
can drink
The dew of all the prayers
that I can say,
he had kept religiously each ami
versary of his sorrow and he kept it
far more eficacious loyalty after
wards, on to the close Of his long
life. In those after years, it was
broached more than once by his
relatives to the ageing Cardinal Arch
bishop OF Westminster that it would
be well to mark the dear grave far
away. "No, let the grass grow over
it." He had always been Of the same
mind. Thoughtful persons, Catholics,
can so appreciate that asthetic an.
swer, it's circumstances and its final.
ity Surely it was better, in view
of what, in way among us, the in.
stinctive congregational jealousy con
cerning the priesthood that nothing
should be said or done to recall a
private tie Of the chief shepherd.
It was better that the thousands
who recognized in Manning the
spark Of an almost matchless human
sympathy, should be barred from
reading what sacred domestic ex'
perience had famed that flame to
the great comfort of all men, "Par.
thians and Medes and Elamttes, and
Inhabitants Of Mesopotamia, and the
parts Of Lydia about Cyrene." And
yet there is to be seen today this
simple inscription on little cross
against the west wall Of Woolaving'
ton churchyard, an old wall OF hiut
and rubble. overhung in summer with
the delicate tendril and flowers Of
wild snapdragon:
CAROLINE
WIFE OF HENRY EDWARD
MANNING. BORN 1912. DIED
JULY II. 1887.
Saint Clara College, sinsinawa, Wis