The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1919-04-19
1.-THE PASSING OF THE SAINT

been declared Saint and worthy of
the honor of the Saint by the Church.
Legends and Lives OF the Saints,
Mr.. Meeklin's bad humour regarding
the Catholic Church is in evidence all
through the essay; this notwithstand-
ing the fact that he refers with ap.
parent respect to standard Catholic
works, like St. Augustine's The City
of God, St. Thomas Summa, the Boil
landists, Gregory the Great: Lives of
the Saints, Benedict KY. But the in
telligent reader is forced to doubt
whether the professor has really seen
and read any of these great publica-
tons. At any rate unbiased readers,
even Professionals, have obtained diff
ferent views of the Church and her
Saints from such masterpieces of his
tory and literature.
In particular certain Saints seem to
be very displeasing to the professor
who feels wroth at some story or leg
end that either has no foundation in
fact or which he has distorted. Thus
regarding the worship of relics, which
he says-most falsely-"reproduced in
Christian guise all the phenomena of
fetishism" he adds in tone of CON-
passion, quoting the Summa, "the GUS
tom even received the sanction of the
great Aquinas." st. Gregory the Great
was by no means the first to write the
lives of the Saints, as is. known to
every student of Church history. The
Acta Martyrum were much earlier
(See Catholic Encyclopedia The ref
erence to St. Anselm appears flippant
and shows that the writer knows little
if anything at all Of the writings of
this great doctor of the. Church. In
the quotation from Leely on the mar
tyrdom of ST.. Perpetua, who is espe-
cially dear to every Catholic because
her feast together with that of st.
Felicitas has been made universal for
the Church by the late Plus x. and
their names are mentioned every day
in the sacrifice of Mass, the motive of
her suffering is entirely missed. The
st. Louis who was forced to 'shun all
female society including that of his
mother" is probably misread for ST..
Aloysius Gonzaga, whose peculiar and
almost exaggerated sense of modesty
can not be appreciated by any shallow
unbeliever. st. Gregory VII. is vindi-
Gated long ago in history especially by
the German historian Gfr0rer (Greg-
DRY VII. and his times, Z vol.) who
from Professionalism turned to the
bosom of the Roman Catholic Church;
and the clumsy epithet "the Politician
Hildebrand" simply shows how far
Mr.. aMeeklin is behind the. times. The
expression theopathic type, "found in
ST. Francis" is in bad taste and want
ing in proper respect. The opprob-
rious reference to st. Theresa and to
the neurotic states of female Saints is
highly offensive. The latter criticism
is borrowed from other authors, as
the quotation marks indicate, but no
names are given. We have a recol.
lection that the strange medical work
by Kraft Ebing uses similar expires.
sions which are by no means grounded
on facts but flow from degenerate
imagination of the writer. A priest
begging dissolution from poor female
servant whose charitable deed he had
misjudged is a highly ridiculous vag
airy of dreamer, and the subsequent
comment. on this questionable moral
ity in which, "the individual becomes
a law to himself" strangely illustrates
the falsehood which appears to domi
nate the authors mind.
Misstatement Of Purpose Of canoniza
ton.
Canonization and its purpose is re
peatedly and most grossly misstated;
it is looked upon as an unrivaled in
strument on the part of the Church ii
eliminating undesirable variations. II
this connection the author pours ou
his vial of abuse on the Church for the
fact that "Abelard, spiritual genius
and one of the most brilliant intellect'
of the Middle Ages, is excluded from
the catalogue of the Saints"
The high esteem entertained TO-
Abelard is really amusing. 1t shows
how little the real character of THU
man is known. The name of Abelart
has been celebrated by modern writ
ers we believe for no other reason
than that he was a vir bellator al
adolescentia-a knocker in vulgar par
lance-and had some unsavory rela
lions with Heloise, as narrated in hi
Historic Calamitatum. It is for sucl
| reasons, it seems, that the sympath.
of the modern un-Christian world ha
been extended to this unfortunate mai
| Abelard on the calendar of Saints