The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-05-23
PROSE TRIBUTES TO THE MOTH,
J., Err OF GOD.

Hawthorne, who may well be re-
garded as the greatest of American
novelists, writes thus about the Bless
ed Virgin:
81 have always envied the Catholics
their faith in that sweet, sacred Vir-
gin Mother, who stands between them
and the Deity, intercepting somewhat
of His awful splendor, but permitting
His love to stream upon the Worship
per more intelligibly to human compre-
tension through the medium of wo-
mans tenderness"
Ruskin, the famous art critic, writes
in his characteristic fashion:
II am persuaded that the worship
of the Madonna has been one of the
noblest and most vital graces of Cath
olicism, and has never been otherwise
than productive of true holiness of life
and purity of character !.
There has probably not been an inno-
cent cottage throughout the length and
breadth of Europe in which the i'm
agined presence of the Madonna has
not given sanctity to the humblest
duties, and comfort to the durest trials
of the lives of women" Every high
est and loftiest achievement of the art
OF manhood" he attributes without
qualification to love for our heavenly
Mother and aff1rms: From the mo-
1nent when the spirit of Christianity
had been entirely interpreted to the
Western races, the sanctity of woman
hood worshipped in the Madonna, and
the sanctity of childhood in unity
with that of Christ, became the light
of every honest heart, and the joy of
every pure and chastened SOUL"
Not the least remarkable tribute to
the Mother of God is from the pen of
the prophet of Rationalism, Mr.. Lecky,
for many years parliamentary repre-
sentative of Trinity College, Dublin.
In his famous history of "Rationalism
in Europe" this bitter anti-Catholic
states: "The world is governed by
ideals, and seldom or never has there
been one which has exercised more
salutary influence than the medieval
conception of the Virgin. =. .
All that was best in Europe clustered
round it, and it is the origin of many
of the purest elements of civilization"
The famous nationalist again in his
History of European Morals writes:
there is, think, little
doubt that the Catholic reverence of
the Virgin has done much to elevate
and purify the ideal woman, and to
~
had an influence which the worship
of the pagan goddesses could never
possess; for these had been almost
destitute of moral beauty and especial
1y of that kind of moral beauty which
is peculiarly feminine. 1t supplied, in
a great measure, the redeeming and
ennobling influence in strange
amalgamation OF licentious and mill
tary feeling which was formed around
women in the age of chivalry and
which the succeeding change of habit
or belief has wholly destroyed"
Some time ago an article in the
New York Outlook" by the distin-
guished Editor Rev. DR.. Lyman Alb
bot, caused mild sensation, because
of the noble tributes he paid to Our
Blessed Lady. A Western non-Catho-
lie journal, commenting on this arti-
Gle, declared that Professionals "have
been carried almost to a reaction
against Mary herself. because of the
habitual Protestant attitude of mind
towards the Mother of Our Redeemer.
Apropos of this attitude, "The Irish
World" in comment at the time,