The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1917-08-25
Loss OF FRIENDS FOR LOVE
OF GOD.
RSoNAL sUFFERINGs OF
sEvEREsT KIND OFTEN IN,
FLlcTED ON THOSE WHO FOL.
Low DIVINE LIGHT OF GRACE
EXAMPLES IN ANCIENT AND
MODERN HISTORY.

In a record Of the names of Eng
disappearing persons who became
converted to the Church during the
half-century following the nOxford
Movement" there is mention made
of $50 converts who became nuns and
of 81 women who belonged to An
glican Sisterhoods. Perhaps the most
interesting of the list is that under
the description, THE Superioress and
Six Sisters of st. Mary's Anglican
Priory; Hackney" (England). The
note concludes thus: ''All now Catho-
lie nuns" observes P. L. Comedian,
in the Boston Pilot.
They are nameless in this list, and
they disappeared from the memory
and from the eyes of the world after
a brief space of time, living hence
forwards for Christ alone. Every one
who knows the history of the earlier
converts from Anglicanism knows
what they suffered from parents, and
relations and friends, because they
joined the Catholic Church.
Cardinal Newman who knew what
this suffering was from his own expe-
rience has, in his: Loss and Gain,
The Story of a Convert related it
at length, making his hero Charles
Reding, "his other SELF" say: Eyes,
| give up home. give up. all who
have ever known me, loved me, val
ued me, wished me we'll. l know well
am making myself a by-word and
an outcast.'
And DR.. William Barry, comment
ing on these adds: ct was true. The
people of England, it's princes, priests,
and prophets, Lords and Commons,
Universities, Ecclesiastical Courts,
marts of commerce, great towns,
country parishes, had dealt with him
and his doctrine as they would have
dealt with ST. Athanasius. And more
also' -'~
And the same story goes through
the ages. The observant traveller
who, wandering in the Roman Forum
| lOdCh00 IHS CI1 CuluI lhdSO OA -WllAOh
stood the Temple of the goddess Yes
ia, and continues his investigation in
the adjoining Atrium of the Vestal
Virgins, may study the punishment
awarded to the Vestal that abandoned
the "Sisterhood" of these priestesses.
A generation ago the excavators of
the Forum came upon this Atrium,
or "Cloister." And in clearing it out
they unearthed series of marble
pedestals bearing lengthy inscriptions
in praise of individual Vestals whose
names were mentioned in each case
but one! Statues of these ladies of
full life size were also found, but most
of these were deprived of their heads.
Several heads were also found, but it
was not always possible to determine
the bodies to which individual heads
belonged.
1t is thought that no less than one
hundred pedestals bearing inscriptions
and supporting statues of these "Su-
perioresses," or "Virgines Maximae,
stood here, not because during the
four centuries that the custom OF
erecting such statues prevailed, all
were so honored, but because several
were erected in honor of the same
person.
But it is the nameless pedestal
which arouses most curiosity. That
the Vesta to whom it was erected
was an excellent character is emphat.
ically proclaimed in the inscription
placed under the statue raised to her
'by the college of the high priests un
der the Vice-Presidency of Marianus