The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-01-16

The tribute is sincere-and de- served. In it are two passages whict strike us as especially pertinent. The Nun is invariably gay. Laughter comes to her as easily as sunlight. How true that is. We have never met a Sister who was not happy Indeed we have never known an other group of persons who are a. happy as our Nuns. They are happy because they are living for God anc for others and there is no selfiShnes' in them.
 "They are the country'S greatest patriots" Does that seem strange? Probably it does, but it's true. Look at the outward patriotism of the Sisters in the history of our country Recall the Nuns of the Battlefield of the Civil war. One who watched them the morning after quiet fell upon the battlefield at Gettysburg said of them:
 After great difficulty they arr rived. Never did human eyes be- hold such a spectacle! Soldiers slain or half dead lay before them grooming in ghaStly heaps, some calling for aid and others gaSping alongside hundreds of breatsless steeds whose nostrils no longer scented the grimy smoke of battle. Here among these ruins of life thousands of guns, side arms, wheels, projectiles, and all sorts of military accoutrementS were prOmiscuously scattered. Into the midst of these grim ravages of war went these noble messengers of peace and charity, with hardly an inch of ground to step on, and helped to pick up the wounded and carry them to attending farm wagons which had been requisi- tiOned as ambulances. From the labor of assisting on the battle field, the Sisters proceeded to the town of Gettysburg, which had by this time become hive of im- provised hospitals"
 Such heroic actions are not of the cold dead past. Sisters in France only a few months ago performed similar services. Sisters in China have been doing the same through out the Sino-Japanese war. Sisters in Spain-those whose lives were spared by the Reds-cared for both friend and foe. And so it will ever be. But the Sisters are also proved "the country's greatest patriots" in another way.
 What is patriotism? Is it only willingness to die for your country in times of crisis Or is it also a willingness to live for your country and for your countrymen? Probably no better definition of patriotism was ever given than that supplied by the late Bishop Spalding of Peoria. It is this:
 A great patriot is first of all a good man-true to himself and true to his relations to his fellow men. If false to himself, he is false to all. If he love not rightly his father and mother, his wife and child, the neighbor who dwells beside him, how shall he rightly love his country? If he respect not the dignity of human nature in himself, but degrades it by drunkenness or lying or sensuality or dishonesty, how shall he feel g genuine and generous interest in the common veal, and earnestly strive to do his part in correcting the evils and abuses which impair or threaten the national life and prosperity? 1t will indeed be easy for him to make his patriotism 8 theme of declamation, and easy, too, to throw suspicion on the lOy- alty of others; but if he is not a real man, it Is not possible that he should be real lover of his country.
 That definition was not intended to refer to our Sisters. But it fits them better than any other individ- uals or groups of individuals. Living for God, and neighbor, they make manifest their patriotism at all times, and when their services are needed there will not be found a stacker among the hundreds of thousands of Sisters in the world.