The Life Of The Venerable Francis Mary Paul Libermann, Founder of the Congregation Of The Holy Heart Of Mary

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Preface

js^^T must have occurred, I dare say, to ~ most people, when reading the lives of distinguished men, or while reading, for that matter, any of the numerous and often very uninteresting biographies that issue almost daily from the press, that it seems to have been the author's aim, in nearly every instance, to represent the individual whose character he had undertaken to delineate as a rare specimen of what is great and good, and as free, to a very large extent, from the ordinary faults and even weaknesses of humanity.

And, perhaps, indeed, when there is question of those whose title to special fame and notice rests on a purely secular basis, provided always that the interests of truth have been otherwise substantially consulted for, there does not appear to be any very grave objection to this good-natured, if not wholly justifiable form of exaggeration. I venture to hold, however, that when one is dealing with the history of a canonized hero of the Oiurch, or even with those saintly personages who, though not yet authoritatively pronounced

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worthy of public veneration, are known to have attained to a high degree of holiness and presumably to have died in the odour of sanctity, great care should be taken not to give undue significance to their merits, or overlook their defects, in the least particular, and not to record as certain any peculiarly excellent or attractive feature in their characters, unless its existence can be fully sustained by a decent array of evidence.

The grounds of difference between the effects of exaggeration, as applied to worldly heroes and to the heroes of the Church respectively, appear to me to be pretty obvious. Suffice it, however, by way of explanation, to say that the latter are proposed to us as patterns whose many excellences we are invited to emulate ; and that, if the biographer, wholly unmindful of their early trials and ceaseless contention with self, of their high resolves never to fall, and yet of their inevitable lapses, should tell only of the marvellous strength and endurance which they had displayed, and of the trophies borne away by them from the field of strife, the common run of mortals would be apt, it is feared, to think their lives more likely to be wondered at than imitated, and calculated to excite no other feelings in the multitude than those of despondency or disbelief. The great bulk of mankind, in short, are content with the merest mediocrity in everything ; and heights, however attractive, whether in wealth, or fame, or holiness, are, as we know, but rarely attained at all, and

PREPACK.

never, except by persons of uncommon earnestness and ambition. The heroic, unfortunately, is hardly ever aimed at now-a-days, or indeed honoured, save in idea, amongst men.

What I desire to convey is this. A saint, however advanced in holiness, is nothing more or less than a frail child of Adam whom God in His mercy had trained to sanctity while on earth, and enriched with a supply of uncommon graces. It is highly expedient, therefore, in order that he may serve as a guide to others, that accurate note should be taken, not only of every step, great or small, made by him in advance, but also of every slip and check that he had experienced, while travelling on the rugged road that leads from earth to heaven.

True, indeed, that it may not be always possible, in an individual case, to lay open to public view the gradual process by which a very high order of merit had been acquired, or to give a circumstantial insight into the minute details of what is known as the growth in holiness. But the biographers of saints should aim, I think, nevertheless, at pointing this out, when it is practicable to do so, and, as far as it is practicable, showing the progressive stages by which the mere man had passed iifto the saint, and how each one of us, aided by the gfrace of God, may, to a great extent, go and do in like manner.

Now, this is precisely what Father Goepfert has so successfully accomplished in the very interesting work just published by him on the life and

PREFACE.

labours of the venerable Father Libermann, the saintly and well-known founder of the ** Congregation of the Holy Heart of Mary," and first Superior- General of the " Society of the Holy Ghost and the Immaculate Heart of Mary/*

The subject of Father Goepfert's biography was an Alsatian by birth, and a Jew by extraction, his father having been head Rabbi of Saveme, and conspicuous amongst the brethren for his steady and intense hatred of everything connected with the Christian name. At the mature age of twoand-twenty, the young Libermann received the grace of conversion, and was baptized in Paris, on the eve of Christmas Day, 1826, in a chapel connected with the College of Saint-Stanislaus. Referring to that notable event, he says : I cannot describe the marvellous change which took place in me at the moment the water of Baptism was poured upon my forehead. All my doubts and fears disappeared in an instant. The ecclesiastical costume, for which I still felt something of that extraordinary repugnance which is characteristic of the Jewish nation, no longer appeared to me under the same aspect. I saw myself, as it were, in the middle of an immense globe of fire. I no longer heard or felt anything of what was going on around me, and was led mechanically through all the ceremonies which follow Baptism." His eldest brother had already become a Christian ; and in after years he had the singular happiness of seeing nearly all the other members of his

PREFACE.

family similarly favoured, while one or two of his immediate relatives devoted themselves to the service of God in religion, or in the sacred ministry of the Church.

The history of his early trials and troubles as a childy of his fervour as a neophyte, of his saintly life as a seminarist, of his invaluable services as master of novices, and of his extraordinary struggles 'and final success, as founder of a Religious Society, or Congregation, is set forth in this volume with such charming simplicity of style, such minuteness and lucidity of detail, so frankly, so graphically, and so well, that we can almost picture to ourselves the venerable deceased as having lived and moved in our very midst, and believe that we had accompanied him, as one of his spiritual children, through all the varying stages of his marvellous career.

And, in point of fact, there does not appear to be any exaggeration whatever in saying that the career of the venerable Father Libermann was truly marvellous, and that it presents many features of exceptional interest, but seldom found in connexion with the lives of even the greatest saints.

Humanly speaking, it is no easy matter to eflfect the conversion of a Jew. The gfrace of God is, of course, omnipotent : but, what I mean to say is, that there are peculiar circumstances connected with the history and training of the Hebrew people which are the reverse of favourable to conversions lO

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amongst them. They may be said, indeed, to have an inborn, or hereditary hatred of the religion, no less than of the name and followers of Jesus Christ. Jewish converts are, consequently, very rare, and when met with at all, are found for the most part to have belonged to the humbler and less prejudiced classes of their countrymen. Rarer still is it to see a Jewish convert promoted to a place amongst the Christian priesthood. But, in the case of M. Libermann, besides the difficulties just enumerated, a grave impediment had to be overcome before he could be admitted to Holy Orders. He was subject to epileptic fits. The symptoms of this fearful malady manifested themselves in the most unmistakable manner, about two years after his Baptism, and while he was yet an ecclesiastical student in the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice. " Epilepsy," says a distinguished medical writer, " is a sickness so extraordinary and so far beyond all comprehension as regards its causes and cure, that the ancients believed it to proceed from the anger of the gods."

For ten long and weary years M. Libermann was the victim of this most dreadful disease. It seized him for the first time on the very eve of the day on which he was to have been promoted to subdeaconship. Who can tell what he suffered during the agonizing period that intervened between his first and final attack ? But " Virtue was made perfect in infirmity.*^ The Jew-born boy, the son of a fanatical Jewish Rabbi, the miserable

PREFACE. 1 1

epileptic from whom his companions had to fly in dismay, the man apparently most to be pitied of all the sorely afflicted members of the human race, became, nevertheless, a priest of the living God, the founder of a Religious Society, and as he has been already declared Venerable^ will in all likelihood, at no distant day, have his name inscribed on the catalogue of the canonized saints of the Church !

How all these things, and things quite as strange came to pass ; how this poor and humble priest conceived the idea of forming a new religious association for the conversion of the blacks ; how he made his way to Rome, the fountain-head of ecclesiastical life and administration; how, and under what peculiar circumstances, he drew up, single-handed, a code of rules for the guidance of the future apostles of the negroes ; how he was rudely received by many, being looked upon by some of the authorities as a man of a disordered mind, and treated by them as though he were either a fool or a fanatic ; how, instead of being diverted from his lofty purpose by the difficulties that beset his path, he only redoubled his prayers, and placed the issue more confidently than ever in the hands of God ; how he finally succeeded in establishing the " Institute of the Holy Heart of Mary/' which in time became incorporated with that of the " Holy Ghost all these are leading incidents in the life of Francis Mary Paul Libermann, which

PREFACE.

his biographer puts on permanent record in this work.

It must not, however, be supposed that there is nothing of ecclesiastical or other interest to be found in the volume now before us, except what relates to the personal history of the venerable Father Libermann himself. It contains, moreover, a most exhaustive and edifying account of the several missions confided by the Holy See, at different times, to the Congregation of the Holy Heart of Mary," before and after its amalgamation with the Society of the Holy Ghost," as well also as of the establishment and growth of the infant Society in France. Nothing can be more touching than this portion of the work, dealing, as it does, with the struggles of the devoted missionaries in Mauritius, Bourbon, Hayti, Australia, and especially on the Western and Eastern coasts of Africa.

But. leaving all these and a vast array of other equally edifying details to be discovered and dwelt on by the devout or curious reader, I should be very unfaithful, indeed, to my own feelings if, having spoken thus far, and yet so briefly, of the venerable Father Libermann, as founder of a religious congregation, and of its doings and development in other lands, I were to be wholly silent about those of his spiritual children who have settled in our own country, and whose services, in various ways, have been equally signal and undoubted.

The Fathers of the Holy Ghost have two estab-

PREFACE.

lishments in Ireland : one in Blackrock, near Efublin, the other in Rockwell, near Cahir, Tipperary. I have no call to say an3rthing of the Blackrock Fathers, nor shall I refer to them or to the noble collegiate institution over which they so fruitfully preside, further than to observe, that they and it have abundantly made their mark for good amongst us, and that, as an educational body, they have achieved conspicuous and well-merited success.

Referring, however, to that other branch of the Society which was introduced, fifteen years ago or thereabouts, into the Archdiocese of Cashel, and with whose good name and fortunes I happen to be personally mixed up, besides commending, as I do, in the most emphatic manner, the Reverend Fathers who compose it, for their zeal and cleverness as educators of youth, and for the thoroughness with which they discharge all the functions of that important office, I am bound, moreover, to declare that, since their establishment here, they have been ceaselessly doing good, assisting the parochial clergy, by whom they are beloved, in the discharge of their sublimest duties, preaching to the people, when invited to do so, giving spiritual retreats in our convents, and edifying us all both by word and example.

It must have been, therefore, and it really was, quite a labour of love to me to write this short preface to a work coming from the hands of one of the Rockwell Fathers, dealing, besides, with the life of a great servant of God, whose followers I so

'4

PREFACE.

much admire, and whose priestly spirit I should ambition to emulate. Every page of this biography passed through my hands ; and as I take my leave of it now, not without regret, I may be allowed, perhaps, to make two remarks. First, I can safely assert that I scarcely ever read a book with greater pleasure, or with more sustained interest ; and secondly, I venture to predict that no one possessing ordinary seriousness of character, and used even in a moderate way, to look into works of this kind, can read ten consecutive pages of " The Life of the Venerable Francis Mary Paul Libermann," by Father Goepfert, without being almost irresistibly led to read it through.

I have no doubt, therefore, as to its circulation or success ; and I pray God to bless and prosper the devoted priest who composed it, as well as the useful and edifying community to which he belongs.

^ T. W. CROKE,

Archbishop of Cashel.

The Palace t Thurles^

Feast of the Ascension j 1 880.

LETTER OF THE VERY REVEREND FATHER SCHWINDENHAMMER, SUPERIOR-GENERAL.

Paris, May i6th, 1880. /Vflj/ of Pentecost, My deab Father Gokpfsrt — I feel great pleasure in accepting the dedication of our Venerable Founder's Life, which you are about to bring before the EInglish-speaking public. Appearing, as it does, under the kind auspices and personal supervision of the illustrious Archbishop of Oashel, a prelate whose virtues and learning are so well known throughout the Church, I have no doubt but your work will be crowned with success and do much good.

The life of a Jewish convert, who became a Catholic priest, the founder of a religious society, and a great servant of God, can hardly fail to be attractive, and afford edifying reading to every class of society.

May it enlist the sympathies of Catholic Ireland, and be instrumental in increasing the number of her zealous missionaries for the conversion of the abandoned souls !

Begging our venerable Founder to bless, as I do, both the work and its author, I remain, my dear Father, Yours affectionately.

In the Immaculate Heart of Mary,

Ignatius Schwinden hammer, Superior' General,

PROTESTATION.

In obedience to the decrees of Urban VIII., of March iSth, 162J, and July sth, 1634, we declare that when giving the title of Saint or Blessed to the venerable Libermann, or to any other persons of high virtue mentioned in this work, or when speaking of miraculous and extraordinary deeds and events, we only do so in accordance with, the usage of ordinary language, without meaning in any way to anticipate the judgments of Holy Church.

LIFE

OF THE

TESEEABLE FRANCIS MAKI PAUL UBERMANN.

fart I-

M. LIBERMANN, A JEW — HIS CONVERSION — FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS BAPTISM, 1804-1826.

. cij;A.tTER I.

the heart of Christian Europe, between the \ Vosges and the Rhine, there lies a valley, on which ' the hand of Providence has lavished the rarest gifts* of nature and of gracte. Few lands are favoured witb a more fertile soil, or a' more varied and healthful climate; 'iir few lands too has Catholicity taken deeper root, or protinr^d more do'nsOling Results. Situated as it is between Fpance and GenhaAy, which it separates or keeps united, the pfovince-of Alsace has been for centuries the battle-ground of these two rival nations. Uniting military ardour to the Christian spirit, its generous inhabitants have heroically and successfully resisted the emissaries of Protestantism, the plunderers of Gustavus Adolphus, and the assassins of the Great French Revolution. In the midst of wars, vicissitudes, and political trials of all kinds, with a patriotism ennobled by supernatural motives, they fixed their hearts chiefly on their heavenly country, and constantly clungf, above all, to the unchangeable iith of Jesus Christ.

At an early period of history, the great commercial activity of Alsace attracted the mercantile genius of the Israelites, who established flourishing settlements on both banks of the Rhine. . . • And well the children of Israel knew how to turn this position to their advantage. Their material prosperity, at the beginning of this century, had grown to such proportions that, in 1807, Napoleon I. thought it necessary to check its progress by an Imperial decree. In Alsace, as elsewhere — and this remark is applicable to every epoch of history — ^Jewish wealth increases amidst the calamities of Christendom. The humiliation of the Church, then so profound,' mflated'^6 pqde of the synagogue, which always kn()w$ 'e/iough oHiS^st, iQ distinguish where true Christig^ty^'^^^^^s- When^'eC^^'ijrch appears to be in disgrace,*thj^*^ew forgets his degradation; her reverses console him ; he sees in them the accqmplishment of his maledictiofis and«the beginning of his triumph.

And, yet, the Jews of -Alsace were destined ere Jcftigtp give to the Church unho^lUfpr consolations. Profli 'the dead trunk of Israel wereriO^ spring new branohGigiVhich would blossom, fill the\Vxni5-Vithv a ^ d^lightfuf perfume, and bring forth most abu^cliant fruit. Gfhe grace of God was to appear specially admirable {a family of Lazarus Libermann, the rabbin of Saveme.

Lazarus Libermann was universally esteemed among his co-religionists for his great talmudic learning, his patriarchal hospitality, and his extreme kindness to the poor. To be distinguished among the many eminent rabbins of Alsace, and to have attained, at a comparatively early age.

BIRTH AND RARLY YEARS.

the honourable position which he held at Saveme, he mast have been a man of no ordinary merit

His-^fth son, the subject of this biography, was bom on the i2tu* of April, 1804, and, according to Jewish custom, received his name eight days after his birth, and was called Jacob.* One of the greatest misfortunes of this child, predestined to be filled with so many graces, was to have become, at his entrance into life, the hapless captive of a rabbin, who pursued the observances of the synagogue with a zeal bordering on fanaticism. In addition to the original anathema weighing on every child of Adam, and to the weight of the innocent blood which so heavily presses upon the deicidal people in particular, he had to straggle against the tenderness of his relatives and the strong authority of i, father and master, loving, learned, and passionate, as was the rabbin of Saveme.

His first years were anything but happy. Besides being exposed to the persecutions of his companions, who frequently made him the object of their railleries and ill-treatment, God permitted that various infirmities should, from his early childhood, weaken his naturally delicate constitution. To fill up the measure of his sufferings, his first master made him endure such inhuman and bmtal treatment, that, despite Jacob's natural gentleness and forgiving disposition, it was never afterwards effaced from his memory. He related that this master went so far in his craelty as to seize him by the feet and strike his head against the wall. This was sufficient to bring on serious infirmities, the traces of which he retained during the remainder of his life.

* Lazarus Libennann had nine children, seven by his first marriage with Lia Suzanna Haller : — six sons — Samson, David, Henoch, Felkdfjacob, Samnel, and a daughter called Esther. Sarah, of whom we shall speak later on, and a brother, still alivei were of a second marriage^

It would be a relief to think that so many tribulations were sweetened by the gentle support of a compassionate mother. But the Jewish woman takes only a secondary part in the education of her children, and is little more than their hired nurse, when the chief of the family is a rabbin. Add to this, that Lia Haller died in 1 813, so that Jacob had known his mother only to experience one more affliction.

Nothing is omitted to imprint early on the heart of a Jewish child a great horror of the Christian name. This name alone, the sight of a Christian, of a church, of a crucifix, especially the meeting of a priest, and — what would find some respect even among pagans — a funeral procession, a new-bom infant, provoke, it is said, the most frightful blasphemies and imprecations against the " Gom.^^* By none could that hereditary hatred have been more carefully transmitted than it was by Lazarus Libermann to his children.

Jacob, humble and timid, of a weak and sickly constitution, naturally received as a tablet of wax all the impressions which his father wished to stamp upon his soul. The following anecdotes of his. childhood, which M. Libermann delighted to relate afterwards to his friends, will put in a clearer light what has just been said;

One day, the parish priest of Saveme, vested in surplice and stole, was returning from the cemetery, when on his way he met little Jacob. The vestments, the appearance of the cross, filled him with so great a terror, that he rushed in all haste into a shop hard by, concealed himself behind the counter, where, to the great amusement of all present, he waited until the priest had passed.

On another occasion, the same priest, coming from

* A term of contempt by which the Jews designate the Christians.

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

a sick-call, encountered the rabbin and young Jacob ipthe narrow winding of a road which was lined on both sides by rather high walls. Frightened at the sight of the priestly dress, and not knowing what to do, the child hastily climbed over one of the walls and escaped through the fields.

These facts can be accounted for by the Jewish system of education. It is universally believed that the education of the yoxmg Israelites is chiefly based on the Old Testament. Such is not the case. The Bible is merely placed in the hands of a child as a text-book for reading. But the greatest attention is paid to the *^Talmud^^ the doctrines of which penetrate the intellect and fashion the manners of the greatest number of the Israelites.

The Talmud, the work of the Pharisees of several centuries, is the total collection of the Jewish doctrine, the complete civil and ^religious code of the synagogue, the object of which is to explain the Mosaic Law in conformity with the spirit of oral tradition. It forms a collection of twelve volumes in folio. Mingled with traditions useful to explain the sacred Scriptures, the Talmud contains many absurdities, many [false interpretations of the most elementary moral laws, many immoralities, and is especially calculated to instil a great hatred of Christ and the Christian name.

According to the teaching of the Tahnud, " the possessions of the ' Goim * should be regarded as a desert and as the sand of the sea, of which the first possessor is the real proprietor." The Talmud expressly forbids the Jew to save a Christian from death, to restore to him his lost property, or to have pity on him. The rabbins have deduced the natural consequences of these premises, and have concluded that, when dealing with a Christian, the Jew is at liberty to make a mistake for his own advantage, and

22 VENERABLE FRANCIS BiARY PAUL LIBERMANN. ^

that it is honest to deprive a Christian of any sum of money.

These pernicious doctrines formed a part of the instructions which the rabbin of Saveme inculcated on the minds of his children, who naturally received them as the purest expressions of truth, and would profit of every occasion to put their father's precepts into practice.

One day, Jacob was sent to the house of a neighbouring Christian woman, to change a piece of money. Imagining he was doing an excellent deed, he dexterously took away a penny from the infidel " Goim." He returned quite proud of his feat, which gained for him the applause of his family, especially of his father, who saw in this youthful exploit an indication of a brilliant future.

During several years, Jacob realised these bright hopes * by his docility, his application to his studies, and the lead which he easily took among his young companions. More than once, the most flattering distinctions at the public examinations — which brought together the Jewish aristocracy of the province— caused young Jacob to blush, whilst his heart throbbed with joy at the delight which he knew he thereby caused his father.

At the age of thirteen, he went through the usual formalities prescribed for the solemn and legal entrance into the synagogue. This act, one of the most important in the life of a Jew, is usually preceded by several months, often by an entire year, of privations, as if to make a trial of the rigorous ordinances of the Jewish laws and customs. On a fixed festival, or Sabbath-day, the youth is presented to the assembled synagogue ; the leader of the choir proclaims his name, and calls on him to take part in the public reading of the Bible. He is thereby declared of age, becomes a man, takes his rank in the religious ceremonies, and is admitted, if required, to complete the

BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS.

number of members necessary for constituting a legal assembly. He is thenceforth subject to all the prescriptions of the law.

Having been initiated from his infancy in the wording of the law, Jacob had now to commence the minute and intricate labours of philology and of talmudic exegesis, a study well suited to develop in the young Israelites a searching sagacity, which is to them of the greatest service, even in the most ordinary transactions of daily life. Samson and Jacob, without leaving the paternal roof, could pass through all the degrees of rabbinical teaching. Their mntoal emulation was greatly increased by the competition of other students, whO| at various periods, assembled at Saveme from the neighbouring localities. Lazarus Libermann, who was a competent judge, always considered his sons superior to all the others, and, in his estimation, Jacob's only rival was his eldest son Samson. More than thirty years afterwards, the latter still retained the reputation of having been one of the shrewdest Talmudists in Alsace. Both Samson and Jacob had fully mastered that complex collection of rules, opinions, and traditions, which, it is said, are so intimately connected that it is impossible thoroughly to understand one page of the Talmud without possessing an almost perfect knowledge of the whole. Hence sprung the ancient method, supplanted in our days by the innovations of the rationalists, of spending long years in the higher schools of the synagogue, in dissecting, with the minutest anatomy, two or three pages of the Talmud, or of the Mischna. Every word, nay, every syllable, was ardently discussed by the students under the vigilant eye of the master. Each one, harassed by the queries of his competitors, answered and asked questions. In those subtle conflicts, Jacob displayed a cleverness, vigour, and animation, which would have surprised those who knew him in after years.

Samson Libermann, however, soon left his younger brother master of the field. Having attained the extreme limits of Talmudic studies, he began to feel disgusted at such a collection of sophisms, the emptiness and absurdity of which could not escape his clear-sighted mind. He accordingly abandoned his intended career and devoted himself to the study of medicine, in the practice of which he became, after some years, one of the leading men in the town and district of Strasburg.

The rabbin consoled himself for this desertion by more exclusively concentrating all his affections on his favourite son Jacob, who, as he thought, would one day follow his own profession, and perpetuate his name and his race. Either through natural inclination, or through simple deference, Jacob entered with the greatest ardour into all the views of his father regarding his future career. To become a learned and distinguished rabbin seemed to be the sole object of his desires, and in furtherance of such desires, Lazarus Libermann resolved to send him to the rabbinical school of Metz, with the intention of sending him afterwards to that of Paris.