Types of Sanctity
Some Spiritual Guides of the Seventeenth Century. From the French of Abbe Huvelin. Translated with an Introduction by the Rev. 3. Leonard, C.M. (Burns, Oates, & Washbourne. es.) The Vocation of Aloysius Gonzaga. By C. C. Martindale, B.J. (Shoed & Ward. 7s. ed.) HOLINESS, the perfect correspondence of the human soul with the Eternal, takes as many forms as human character itself. Some of these forms charm us ; others disconcert, or even repel, the natural mind. All have a quality which is calculated to make that natural mind feel rather uncom- fortable. For in truth, the vocation of the saint is a call to the heroic levels of existence ; and in whatever way this call is obeyed it casts an unbecoming light on that which the Abbe Huvelin was accustomed to call our " incurable mediocrity of soul." It is both humbling and bracing to contemplate that self-oblivious passion which determined the career of St. Vincent de. Paul, drove De Rance to the austerities of La Trappe, and Foucauld to the Sahara ; forced the fastidious Aloysius to perform the revolting duties of a pest-house, or the Cure d'Ars to suffer for his. people's sins. "The principles of Christian heroism," says Father Martindale, " are always the same." But even the three books under review show how diverse are the types which may manifest this genius for sanctity.
Some Spiritual Guides of the Seventeenth Century introduces English readers to the work of Abbe Huvelin ; himself one of the greatest of such guides which the nineteenth century produced. Though he was content to do his transforming work from the confessional of a small Parisian church— where he was sometimes on duty twelve hours a day—his influence has entered the modern world through his spiritual children ; especially Charles de Foucauld and the late Baron von Hugel, who has described him as " the greatest manifestation of the spirit of sheer holiness which I have been privileged to watch and to be moved by at close quarters, throughout these seventy years of life." In Some Spiritual Guides, therefore, a saint talks of saints ; and moreover, saints of his own special type those whose desire it was, as he says, to " write in souls." The book contains a series of addresses, intended for young people—though mainly en- joyed by their seniors—on St. Francis de Sales, the founders of the Oratory, the Abbe Rance and St. Vincent de Paul. Though simply expressed, they give us many glimpses into the marvellous religious life of the seventeenth century ; glimpses, too, of their author's lofty and penetrating spirit, as revealed in his comments on men and things. Thus, a seminary is not " a house of studies or a place where naen learn to preach "—it is a place where they " strive to kill an egoism that is ever reviving." Or again : " We see saints smiling, and persons praying peacefully ; but only just consider what is going on in the depth of their souls ! "
Further light is thrown on Huvelin's remarkable person- ality by the translator's account of his relations with his three greatest disciples, Littre, Foucauld, and Von Hiigel ; and by some of the wise and penetrating sayings addressed to the last named, which have already appeared in Von litfigel's letters. Unfortunately, several of the most char- acteristic are here so clumsily translated that their true significance is lost.
Huvelin was a brilliant Hellenist, a man of subtle intellect and delicate sensibility ; who sacrificed a possibly great career in scholarship to his passionate love of souls. In vivid contrast is the life of the recently canonized Cure d'Ars ; the dull and unattractive peasant lad, ennobled and trans- formed by the same passion. Those who have read that strange and powerful novel, Sous le Soleil de Satan, will remember its striking portrait of the uncouth but infinitely loving peasant-priest in whose unlikely person resides " le don de force " : the mystic called to a lifelong struggle with the powers of wickedness. It is in the light of that imaginative reconstruction that we shall best understand the Abbe Trochu's rather fulsome and overloaded biography of the saint. There is much in it to interest students of religious psychology ; for the collection of evidence from eye-witnesses began immediately after the Cure's death, and
his parishioners and countless penitents had a vivid memory of all they had heard and seen. Thus we have, within modern times, a detailed account of many abnormal phenomena reported in connexion with the mediaeval saints ; at least as well attested as are most of the facts of secular history. There can be little doubt that the Cure possessed what we vaguely describe as " psychic powers." He was clairvoyant, he frequently and accurately foretold the future ; metapsychic phenomena, which he attributed to the action of demons, often occurred in his neighbourhood. His whole career raises interesting problems as to the con- nexion between spiritual and psychic gifts. Yet far more important, as witnessing to the mysterious power of self- abandoned personality, is the fact that the hardly educated priest of an obscure village, which he did not leave for forty-one years, drew thousands of pilgrims from every corner of France ; so that towards the- end of his life many had to wait their -turn at his confessional for sixty or seventy hours. The last and perhaps most significant picture left upon one's mind is that of the gentle Cure—exhausted by his labours and austerities, and devoured by the mystic's craving for solitude and peace—moving among the ceaseless crowds of pilgrims with a charming smile and unwearied attention and sympathy.
I have left no space to speak of Father Martindale's study of St. Aloysius Gonzaga the young prince of the Renaissance who renounced his birthright, became a Jesuit, and died at the age of twenty-three as the result of his devoted labours among the plague-stricken. Father Martin- dale writes with a brilliance and enthusiasm which will commend his work to many persons who might not find his hero's type of holiness entirely congenial : and is helped in his task of explaining Aloysius to the modern world by Mr. Eric Kennington's daring and beautiful frontispiece. He admirably brings out both the heroic element in Aloysius's vocation and his great intellectual and personal trans- cendence : it is, indeed, interesting to speculate on what he might have become had he lived to maturity. But it is trying the average reader rather high to ask him to admire a little boy who chose the ascetic life at the age of eight ; and having experienced conversion before he was eleven, thereafter always kept his eyes fixed upon the ground !
EVELYN UNDERHILL.
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