CHAPTER XX

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES

§ I THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES AND RETREATS

Father John Polanco, secretary-general of the Society of Jesus in the life-time of its founder, recorded it as his opinion that the activity par excellence of a Jesuit is the molding of souls by means of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. This epoch-making little book, "very useful," so the papal brief of approbation declares, "for the edification and spiritual progress of the faithful," was published at Rome in 1548, being the first Jesuit book to issue from the press It is the Jesuit's adequate and comprehensive spiritual guide as far as any human literary product can perform such a service, it embodies the spirituality which he seeks to develop in his own soul as also the spirituality which he seeks to impart to others "To make a retreat" is the conventional locution for the process of going through the Exercises, the term "retreat" connoting the silence, the seclusion, the withdrawal from secular interests and occupations which provide the proper atmosphere for the performance of the Exercises Again, one does not properly "preach" a retreat, one "directs" or "gives" it, for a retreat on the Ignatian plan is not a series of sermons but an organized system of meditations on spiritual truths with examinations of conscience and other exercises of a sacred nature, the director merely proposing matter for reflection and not delivering set discourses At the same time, the so-called popular missions or parochial revivals conducted in churches by Jesuit preachers are in reality a form of the Ignatian Exercises, which suggest the content as well as the development of the more important sermons ^x

¹ The standard critical edition with historical and textual commentaries is Exercitia Sptrttuaha Sancti Ignatu ie Loyola et eorum Directoria (Madrid, 1919) There are numerous English translations of the Exercises, e g , Joseph Rickaby, S J , Spiritual Exerctses of St Ignatius Loyola, Spanish and English with a Continuous Commentary (London, 1923), W Longndge, The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola (London, 1919), Elder Mullan, SJ, The Spiritual Exerctses of St Ignatius of Loyola (New York, 1914) Cf also Joseph Rickaby, S J, How I made my Retreat (London, 1911), H V Gill, S J, Jesuit Spirituality (Dublin, 1936), James P Monaghan, SJ, Teach me Thy Paths (Chicago, 1936) "A place in the first rank of all that helps towards this end has been won by those

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 49

When Father Roothaan became General in 1829, he found that the Spiritual Exercises had fallen into neglect in the Society and that their true nature was sometimes obscured in the minds even of Jesuits themselves To remedy this state of things he carried on a vigorous campaign of exposition of the true idea of the Exercises, one feature of which was the publication in 1835 of a new edition of the work with a fresh Latin translation of his own from the Spanish text and with accompanying commentaries The result was that the Exercises began to be restored to their proper place in the life of the Society. The use of them was better understood and the results attending their performance became more substantial The gradual recovery which the Society thus made of effective use of its official manual of spiritual training made itself felt among the Jesuits of the Middle West Ignatian retreats, however, had been conducted by them from their first arrival in the field. Mother Duchesne noted in a letter to her superior, St. Madeleine Sophie Barat, that her nuns were greatly pleased with the manner in which Father Van Quickenborne had brought them through the Exercises ² But retreat-giving was withal a ministry of rare occurrence "The Spiritual Exercises according to the method of our Holy Father," Verhaegen wrote to the General in 1829, "are not given to any outsiders except the Religious of the Sacred Heart" ³ Somewhat later a Missouri Jesuit was writing to Father Roothaan in Rome that the fathers and scholastics had as yet received no explicit instruction in the manner of giving the Exercises. But a belated copy of Father Root-haan's new edition found its way to Missouri and Father De Theux promptly made use of it for the enlightenment of his brethren. In 1838 Father Roothaan on forwarding to Verhaegen a copy of his edition stressed the importance even for the scholastics of study of the Exer-

Spintual Exercises that St Ignatius, under a divine inspiration, introduced into the Church For although, in the goodness and pity of God there has never lacked men who should aptly set forth deep thoughts upon heavenly things before the eyes of the Faithful—yet Ignatius was the first to begin to teach a certain system and special method of going through Spiritual Retreats Accordingly, this

little book, so small in bulk yet so wonderful, has from its very first edition been solemnly approved by the Roman Pontiffs, they have loudly extolled it, have furthered it by their Apostolic Authority and have never ceased to lead men to use it, by heaping the gift of holy indulgences upon it and gracing it with ever renewed praises" Encyclical {Motu Prop-to) of Pius XI, 1922 Catholic Mini (New York), Nov 8, 1922 Pius XI named St Ignatius Loyola "the heavenly patron of all Spiritual Exercises "

² Duchesne a Barat, September 29, 1823 General Archives of the Society of the Sacred Heart

³ Verhaegen ad Roothaan, January 12, 1829 (AA) For an account of the General's activities in regard to the Exercises cf Pietro Pirn, S J , P Giovanni Roothaan XXI Generate della comfagnia di Gesu (Rome, 1930), Chap. XI

50 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

cises "Both the Fathers and the young men should learn how to give the Exercises properly These have always been the Society's chief instrument for the salvation as well as of its own members as of others, but their efficacy depends above everything else on the way in which they are handled I should like to know from your Reverence what is being done in this regard " ⁴

No one entered more eagerly into Father Roothaan's concern for the Exercises or did more to bring their importance home to his confreres than Father Gleizal As master of novices he had exceptional opportunity to accustom the young Jesuits, as Father Roothaan had desired, to the use of St Ignatius's classic treatise In 1856 he attributed the prevailing good spirit among the novices to "the Exercises of oui Holy Father," which had "become a paramount object of study here " '' This study was not a recent introduction at Florissant On assuming charge of the novitiate six years before Gleizal had begun to give the novices a conference every day on the Exercises "I am convinced," he made known to Father Roothaan, "that by means of the Exercises they [the novices] can procure the greater glory of God much more readily and efficaciously than by any other means, as they can also [by the same means] seize and retain the spirit of the Society This is a matter which in my opinion has been a little neglected from time to time in this Province I am even beginning to have them [novices] give the Exercises, e g, to our coadjutor-brothers, who come here for the purpose [of making them] I am not at all dissatisfied with the results obtained by those who have given them so far " ⁶

Once the ministrv of retreats got under way there was never any lack of opportunity for this outlet of apostolic energy and zeal especially among the Catholic sisterhoods Here a tradition of devoted and effective service was eventually built up and it has lasted to our own day Father Gleizal conducted retreats for Mother Guerm's valiant band of pioneer nuns at Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods, Indiana, Father Arnoudt did the same for numerous communities of nuns in and around Cincinnati, and Father Coppens presided in 1869 over the first Chicago retreat of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Retreats for the clergy have always been regarded by the Jesuits as a ministry particularly fruitful of good results In the early thirties Father Peter Kenney, the Visitor, gave the Exercises to the priests of the Bardstown diocese as did also Father John McElroy of the Maryland Province some years later The earliest recorded clergy retreat conducted by a western Jesuit was apparently the one which Father

⁴ Roothaan ad Verhaegen, May 19, 1838 (AA)

⁵ Gleizal a Roothaan, February 6, 1856 (AA)

⁶ Gleizal a Roothaan, January 22, 1850 (AA)

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 51

Di Maria gave in April, 1847, to the priests of the Chicago diocese⁷It took place in the newly opened University of St Mary of the Lake in Chicago and was the first ever made by the clergy of the northern diocese "F father J Van Hulst,¹' De Smet noted in a letter written to a friend in 1856, "is actually [1 e , at present] giving a retreat to the priests in Ken tuck)'—he has given one in Milwaukee to the clergy and another in Indiana A good number of FF [Fathers] have passed their vacation giving retieats in monasteries and to the laity in Illinois and Missouri " * The priests "in Kentucky" mentioned in De Smet's letter were those of the Louisville diocese Bishop Spalding was keenly appreciative of this retreat as he made known to Archbishop Purcell "The thirty-three priests of my diocese who made their retreat at Bards-town gave me most satisfaction and consolation by their edifying regularity The retreat could scarcely have gone on better Father Van Hulst, the Director, is truly a man of God I made some good resolutions which I hope God will give me the grace to keep with your good prayers " ^<J A few years later (September, i860) Bishop Spalding wrpte again to the Archbishop of Cincinnati "By the way, we had a glorious retreat by Father Smarms " ¹⁰ Father Damen was also regarded as a skilful director of clerical retreats The number of retreats conducted on behalf of the clergy and of communities of religious women went! on increasing, amounting in one summer-period (c 1865) to over sixty As a rule the Exercises were thus given only during the summer months In 1856 Father Brunner, who was resident for a few years in the vice-province, expressed to the Father General the edification he received on seeing the fathers of St. Louis University, though fatigued with the year's work of the class-room, spend the summer vacations in giving the Exercises with many tokens of success ^X1

It was only in the first decade of the present century that the mid-western Jesuits began to conduct retreats on behalf of laymen in series and as an organized form of the ministry But in earlier days such retreats were not unknown They were given as a rule at the novitiate and to individuals only, rarely to groups What was probably the first retreat held for a number of laymen in common was one which Father Damen directed at the novitiate on behalf of a small group of St Louisans ¹-

⁷ Garraghan, Catholic Church in Chicago, 1673-1871 (Chicago, 1921), p III

⁸ De Smet to Duennck, August 14, 1856 (A)

⁹ Spalding to Purcell, September 9, 1856 (I)

¹⁰ Spalding to Purcell, September 21, i860 (I)

¹¹ Brunner ad Bee kx, October 26, 1856 (AA)

¹² Members, oi Dimcn's "Gcntlemm's Sodilit)" of St Fnncis Xwicr Church, St Louis, made up the group

52 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

The retreats of which there has been question in the foregoing paragraphs are generally described as "closed," the idea being that the participants withdraw entirely from their usual occupations for a period running all the way from two or three to thirty days, spending this time in silence and recollection, generally in some religious institution or in a house particularly designed for the purpose But there is another type of retreat, though the term is here used with less propriety, one, namely, in which the participants do not forego their customary occupations but merely assemble once or twice a day, generally in the parish church, to listen to a series of sermons or instructions delivered either by a diocesan clergyman or by a priest of some religious order. To this type belongs the popular or parish mission, which has for its object the infusion of new spiritual vigor into a parish or congregation. The method used by Jesuit missionaries to secure this end is that of the Ignatian Exercises as found particularly in the first of the four so-called weeks or groups of exercises that make up the series The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius present in their entirety a succession of thoughts or topics for personal reflection admirably selected and combined with a view to stimulate the soul to a faithful observance of the complete Christian rule of life, "do good and avoid evil." The meaning of life, the value of the human soul, sin, judgment, hell, the reception of the sacraments, are topics particularly stressed in the parish-mission In the pre-suppression Society of Jesus the preaching of missions after the method of the Exercises was carried on extensively, in the restored Society it was resumed gradually in proportion as circumstances permitted the assignment of men to this important ministry.

Evidences of the use of the parochial revival by the regular and sometimes secular clergy of the United States appear in the early decades of the nineteenth century Already in the twenties Father Francis Patrick Kenrick, later Archbishop of Baltimore, was going up and down the countryside sustaining the faith of the scattered Catholics of Kentucky by means of missionary revivals The Redemptonsts were the first to place regular missionary bands in the field, missions having been conducted by them from the thirties on ¹³ Among the middle-western Jesuits the preaching of missions as a steady and regular employment assigned to certain fathers began in 1848 with the inauguration of Father Francis Xavier Weninger's justly celebrated missionary work in the German-speaking parishes of the United States Even in the earlier stages of their history they had not failed, when opportunity offered, to conduct parochial missions here and there as the most

¹³ Benjamin J Webb, Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky (Louisville, 1884), pp 95, 378, T L Skinner, C SS R , The Redemptonsts in the West (St Louis, 1932)

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 53

effective means of leviving religious fervor The missions preached by Father Verhaegen at Portage des Sioux in 1828, by Father Van Lommel at Dardenne in 1831 and by Father Gleizal at Florissant in 1838 were commended at the time for the happy results which attended them. On Palm Sunday night, 1851, Father Verhaegen opened 2 three-days' course of "spiritual exercises for the people," in St Mary's Cathedral, Chicago, with an introductory sermon on the Exercises of St Ignatius Two years later, in 1853, Father Gleizal preached a week's mission in the same cathedral while his fellow-Jesuit, Father Wenmger, was simultaneously conducting in St Joseph's Church his first mission in the city of Chicago

§ 2 FRANCIS XAVIER WENINGER

The career of Falher Wenmger is an episode of importance in the story of the upbuilding of Catholicism in the United States He was born August 31, 1805, ⁱⁿ his father's castle of Wildhaus in Marburg, Province of Styna, Austria. His mother was a member of the nobility, his father a wealthy landowner with connections at the Hapsburg court As a student at the University of Vienna he enjoyed the personal patronage of the Empress of Austria Doctor of divinity, fellow of the University of Grab and professor of dogmatic theology at twenty-five, he became a Jesuit at twenty-seven, entering the Austro-Hunganan Province October 31, 1832 He had a gift for preaching and giving missions and the success he met with in this ministry during his sixteen years of Jesuit life in Austria was noteworthy But his zeal sought a soil more in need of cultivation than his native land The United States of America, with its German-speaking population, increasing daily as the tide of immigration rolled in on its shores, seemed to ofiei the most inviting field for the exercise of his special gifts

Then the year 1848 drew near, the well-known year of the revolution I was hearing at the same time about the emigration to America, then, too, the Church in Austna and Geimany was being greatly hampered in her movements Moreover, as was already said, I knew by experience the immeasurable blessings of missions for the people Accordingly I wrote to the General, P'ather Roothaan, and informed him that while I was leady to go anywheie in the world if he so willed it, I would still petition him for an appointment to America, theie to give missions to the people ¹⁴

Father Wenmger had his wish, going to America in 1848 with encouragement from Father Roothaan, the General, to pursue there his

¹⁴ F X Wenmgei, SJ, Emneiungen aus Metner Leben in Euro fa und Amerila durch achtzig iahte—1805 bis 1885, I 16 (A) Wcnmger's Emneiungen are unpublished Sketches of his career are in Central Blatt and Social Justice (St Louis), June-December, 1927, and WL, 18 43-68 (1889)

54 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

career of missionary-preacher Assigned with his companion on the journey from Europe, Father Christopher Genelli, to the Missouri Vice-province, he was first employed as a professor of dogmatic theology in St Xavier's College, Cincinnati, where in the intervals of teaching a few scholastics were pursuing their studies in divinity As early as December, 1848, at Oldenburg in Indiana he gave his first mission in the United States A glowing notice of it signed by the Oldenburg pastor appeared in the Cincinnati Wahrhettsfreund

On December 8, on the feast, accordingly, of the "Immaculate Conception," the mission at Oldenburg opened with a solemn piocession in the newly built church, it lasted until December 18, ten days and a half Not a single Catholic who attended the mission failed to go to confession People came here from a distance of 15, 18 and 20 miles and even farther, some of them starting on the way with horse and wagon at two in the morning so as not to lose anything of the mission Though the missionary preached thiee times daily and even four times, including the talk at communion, he all along diew tears of repentance and consolation from the eyes of his hearers Often there was geneial sobbing and weeping throughout the church One of the most telling sermons was at the solemn reparation before the Blessed Sacrament, but even more stirring was the renewal of the baptismal vows and most stirring of all the parting sermon Oh God, the very thought of it brings tears to my eyes' Parting in the new house of God, parting at the cemetery, parting at the foot of the great mission-cross where from fifteen to sixteen hundred voices cried out together to heaven "live Jesus'" "live Jesus and Mary'" "long live the Church'" "long live the holy cross'" "Jesus, no more sin'" One must indeed have had a heart of stone not to be moved by such a display of feeling I close with the wish that every German settlement in Noith America may share the same happiness of a regular mission, which is the only thing that can effect in a few days a basic and thoroughgoing renewal of spirit in a parish and one that will last for a long time, for such a regular mission so-called retreats are no substitute In a regular mission the people are instructed and reconciled to God, one class after another, and this produces general and lasting fruit May the Lord's blessing pi eserve this fruit and increase it richly in my dear parish of Oldenburg ¹⁵

Similar striking results attended a mission given in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in the fall of 1849 The account of it which follows bears the name of the pastor of the local German congregation, Reverend Edward Faller.

Pursuant to an announcement in your esteemed paper of the previous week, the Catholics of Fort Wayne had the unspeakable happiness of enjoying a regular mission under the sound direction of the Rev F X Weninger

¹⁵ Idem, I 45 What the writer understands by "retreats" he explains in his account (tnfta) of the method followed by him in conducting missions

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES SS

Only one who has attended such a mission can form any idea of the happy results that follow fiom it

How consoling, 1 nought I to myself, as I read the account of the mission of Oldenburg How clean of heart the good people of Oldenburg must be, among whom the holy mission has done such great and almost incredible good But greater things still have probably taken place in Fort Wayne Who could have believed that the faithful of the vicinity would get up at midnight so as to be present at the first Mass with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at half past six? What an impiessive sight to behold the clouds of dust on the roads stirred up by the crowds of people hurrying to church from a distance of eight to ten and even twenty-five miles' Who could remain unmoved to see during the sermons of the distinguished preacher, sometimes four in number, tears of contrition glistening on the faces of the most hard-hearted, persons who perhaps had neglected their religious duties for years At the instructions given to the various classes [men, women, and others] it became evident for the first time how numerous is the Catholic population of Fort Wayne At the conclusion of the mission as also on Monday the entire parish went in procession from the old common church, now the English one, to the newly built German church of brick It was an impressive spectacle as the great throng with the processional cross at its head and with recitation of the rosary and the pealing of the bells of both churches moved towards the newly erected church ¹⁶

Father Weninger was now launched on the full tide of his missionary career The energy with which he pursued his calling is suggested by a bare recital of the localities in which he preached missions during the three years, 1849, 1850 and 1851 The list includes Cincinnati, O., Louisville, Ky , Munster, Brookville and Fort Wayne, Ind , Wapakoneta, Chill icothe, Massillon, Canton, Portsmouth, Hamilton, White Oak, Lancaster, O , New Westphalia, St Louis, New Bremen, Mo , Belleville, 111, Cleveland, O , Chicago, 111, Milwaukee, Wis , Port Washington, Wis , Sheboygan, Mich , Green Bav, Manitowoc, Burlington, Wis , Quincy, 111, Washington and Herman, Mo At the beginning of 1852 he was in New Orleans and on the occasion of this, his first visit to the South, preached a mission to a congregation of slaves recruited from three Louisiana plantations Before Father Wemnger's missionary labors came to an end hardly a town of any size between the Atlantic and Pacific had been left unvisited.

An incident occurring in Buffalo in 1855 points to the reputation enjoyed by Father Weninger at this time when he had been only six years on the American missions. The trustees of St Louis's Church in Buffalo, having shown themselves recalcitrant to ecclesiastical authority,

¹⁸ Idem, I 54 It is not improbable that the accounts of the Oldenberg and Fort Wayne missions weie from Wemnger's own hand, their perfervid tone seems to suggest this

56 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

were excommunicated by the Right Rev. John Timon, bishop of the diocese, while the church itself was placed under an interdict. The trouble grew out of an attempt by the trustees to manage the temporalities of the church independently of the Bishop In 1854 Bishop Timon was present at the definition in Rome by Pius IX of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception At the very moment that the Holy Father pronounced the words of the decree, he cast his eyes in spirit on the Virgin Mother, so he afterwards informed Father Weninger, and recommended to her his schismatic congregation of St Louis Immediately on his return to Buffalo the Bishop invited Father Weninger to conduct a mission for the misguided parishioners in the hope that his zealous intervention might heal the schism Father Weninger accepted his task, "the hardest in all my missionary experience," but stipulated that the interdict be first removed Bishop Timon agreed to this, publishing a formal notice to that effect

Buffalo, May 18, 1855 The pious, learned and zealous Missionary, Father Weninger (wishing to labor for the salvation of souls in the only German chuich of this diocese which has not yet heard his noble and truly Christian eloquence), requests me to withdraw the interdict from the church of St Louis and the excommunication from the trustees I can refuse nothing to the woithy priest of God, consenting, therefore, to his request, I hereby declare that the excommunication will cease as soon as the holy Triduan [tnduum] in St Louis church will begin John, Bishop of Buffalo

The efforts of Father Weninger on this occasion to heal the breach between the schismatic congregation and its ecclesiastical superior appear to have been on the whole successful though the embers of the controversy smouldered for many years after.¹⁷

At first Father Weninger addressed German congregations only, later, he conducted missions also in English In the case of mixed congregations it was his custom to deliver four sermons daily in the language of each nationality, in English and German, or in English and French If all three nationalities were before him, he gave the same sermon three times over in the three languages, and this four times a day The sermons were necessarily short to bring this formidable program within the range of physical possibility Though his English was notably defective, his intense zeal and enthusiasm made a deep impression on his hearers, who after hearing him preach in the vernacular, came in great numbers to the sacraments A computation made in 1879, when he was seventy-four years of age and was still possessed of re-

¹⁷ C G Deuther, The Life and Times of Right Rev John Timon, D D , First Roman Catholic Bishof of the Diocese of Buffalo (Buffalo, 1870), p 211

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 57

markable vigor, revealed that he had conducted in thirty-one years over eight hundred missions, preached thirty thousand times, made between two thousand and three thousand converts, and journeyed over two hundred thousand miles "In all that time he never met with a serious accident, his voice never failed him, and his strength was unimpaired though he never accommodated either his clothing or his manner of life to change of season or climate " ¹⁸

Father Wemnger left on record the method which he followed in conducting his remarkable missions ¹⁹

²⁸ Menology of the Missoun Piovifice (St Louis, 1925) (A) "On Sunday March 1st Rev F Wemnger, the great missionary and writer in German, begins a mission in our church here [St Xavier's, Cincinnati] We hope and trust that his English, which is poor, will not prevent the usual results of such missions for he is a saint in appcaiance and very deed" Swagers a Deynoodt, Feb 27, 1874 Archives of the North Belgian Province, S J

¹⁹ WL, 18 60 et seq (1889) "Now since 14 years I continually am giving Missions in the woods as well as in the metropolis going to every chapel, no matter how many families there are In the course of the year I am preaching over 1000 times every year, because I have to preach in a single week about 50 times If m German alone about 25 times There are heard at the Missions about 25-30 thousand general confessions every year and received more or less about 100 Protestants Consequently I received during these Missions about 1400 protestant families to the church, not comprising the children in that number which are saved for Catholic education in mixed marriages, whose number is incredibly large Many hundred Mission Crosses design [designate? ] those places where I was giving Missions from the shores of the Atlantic and the Mexican Gulf to the height of the Alleghanys and the quarries of Dacotah Territory " Wemnger to De Smet, September 15, 1862 (A)

Several appearances of what was reputed to be a miraculous cross took place in connection with Father Wemnger's missions, two of them at Guttenburg, Iowa, 1853 and 1856, and one at Alpena, Michigan, 1858 Father Marco, pastor of St Mary's Church at Grand Rapids, Michigan, made a written statement under date of September 12, 1858, concerning the Alpena apparition He said in part "At this solemnity an extraordinary event occurred, for as soon as the holy cross had been dedicated and was about being raised, there appeared on the blue sky, surrounded by a cluster of light clouds, a regularly formed, large, white and well designed cross, which disappeared at the moment the missionary cross was sunk in the ground The whole crowd present gazed with amazement at this striking appearance and you could hear persons most difficult [slow'' ] to believe utter these words 'This is more than natural¹' " (A) Father Marco later took oath that he had seen the cioss and seventy-one of his parishioners signed a statement under date of December 6, 1861, to the same effect (Missour 6-XXVII, 71) Father Wemnger himself drew up for the General an account of seven such apparitions under the caption, De affartttombus S Cruets ahtsque extraordinants stgnts occastone erecttonts Cruets Mtsstonts (Missour 6-XXVII, 68) (AA). Testimony as to the one at Guttenburg was taken by the local pastor, Reverend Henry Rensen on January 8, 1854 (Missour 6-XXVII, 70) For an informing account of the Guttenburg case, see M M Hoffman, "A Miracle in Mid-America^?" in Mid-Amertca (1931), 14 57-63

58 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

The principal thing to be noted is that the missions which I conducted are not to be confounded with the [open] retreats In the latter one simply delivers sermons or gives instructions for thiee, five or eight days, twice a day, and in the meantime allows the people to prepare for confession, without prepanng the different classes of people according to their various states of life I myself gave such retreats in Europe in the places in which I was teaching It is true that by these retreats much good is often accomplished, but they do not result in such a thorough regeneration of a congregation that each class of the parishioners may piofit This regeneration consists rather in a thorough instruction of each portion of the congregation married men and married women, young men and young women, and children For this purpose, instructions adapted to these particular states, separate confessions for the different classes, and general Communions at stated times, are of immeasurable utility In the first place, there is in an invitation to a sermon meant for a particular state in life something specially attractive, which induces the members of these respective classes to come willingly to these separate confeiences This is especially so in the case of young men and married men who have neglected the practice of their religion or who have almost given it up In the second place, you can never in the presence of one class of hearers, recall to their consideration, at least fully and circumstantially and with a view to their fulfilment, any or all of their specific duties, without inviting the criticism of the other classes of the congregation In the third place, this parcelling out of the congregation provides also for the practicability and certainty of confession The missionary is enabled, in this way, to place before a whole class the points upon which these particular members of the parish are to examine and accuse themselves, and the confessor will thus perhaps rid himself of much of his otherwise superfluous labor Besides, with this method, there is much less dissipation of mind and more earnestness displayed by all classes By it the missionary holds the reins of the whole mission in his own hands However I do not give this plan as a rule for other missionaries, it will overtax the ordinary strength of most preachers What surprises me, although it was the holy will of God, is that God gave me the strength necessary to carry out such a plan for thirty-seven years

As regards the number of times one is to preach, I myself gave ordinarily two set sermons, one of these class-conferences and an address, thus preaching four times a day When, as was frequently the case, the congregation was a mixed one, of English, German or French, I had to preach eight times a day, or upwards of sixty times in eight days If it happened that all three nationalities were present in large numbers in a congregation, the leading points had to be put before each nationality Then, of course, each sermon is considerably shorter, the three taking an hour and a half Such a mission, in the three languages, is very taxing upon the missionary, but the effect is far greater than when a special mission is given to each nationality

What relates to the matter of the sermons, the instructions to the various classes of exercitants, the address, the solemnities to be observed, together with the whole conduct of the mission, I have embraced in my three volumes

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 59

entitled respectively, The Mission, The Renewal of the Mission^ and Practical Hints The solicitude to be exerted for the continuance of the fruit of the mission after it has closed, and the practical working of its effects, I have minutely dwelt upon in the Practical Hints To this end, the erection of sodalities for the various classes in the parish, the visiting of the mission cross, and, above all, a care to provide fitting books for family reading and in keeping with the mission, books that will prove useful for home reading and self-instruction, help very efficaciously There is no dearth of good books I know, but I speak here of the spread of those books which suit precisely the chief need of the faithful nowadays and particularly in America

For, first of all, the faithful everywhere, but especially in America, should clearly understand, and be in a condition to instruct others, that there is but one religion revealed by God and that there is but one church founded by Christ, viz the first Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church, which is the only saving Church They should know, in this way, thai there are not as many kinds of churches as there are Christian denominations that believe in Christ, but that those only are, in the full meaning of the word, Christians, who recognize themselves as children of that church which Christ founded Furthermore, every Catholic should also be m a condition to give a satis-factoiy answer and explanation to every objection brought against the teaching of the Church To aid them in this, I wrote the work entitled, Catholicity, Protestantism and Infidelity

Secondly, all the faithful should be so instructed in the doctrines of the Catholic Church that they can, in turn, teach every one that the doctrine which they, as children of the Catholic Church, are obliged to believe, was taught from the earliest days of Christianity, and is in keeping with the teachings of Holy Writ and the tradition of the Fathers

Thirdly, every Catholic should be intimately persuaded, that to attain to salvation, it will not alone suffice that our faith be orthodox, but our lives also must be conformed to Christ, and we must constantly advance in his knowledge and love Now, next to a thorough grounding in the doctrine of the Church, nothing more effectually conduces to this than the devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus It was to foster this devotion that I wrote the Sacred Heart Mission Book

Fourthly, Catholics must believe without any admixture of error in their faith, hence they should admit the infallible teaching authority of the head of the Church In fact, fundamental instruction upon this point has become a matter of paramount importance for Catholics since the definition of the Vatican Council The young, in particular, need this instruction, that the silly raillery of the enemy may not lead them into error To supply a copious source of instruction for all upon this doctrine, I published The Infallibility of the Pofe in defining Matters of Faith

Fifthly, the whole tendency of Catholic life is directed heavenwards What is heaven? The answer to this important question I have given in my Easter in Heaven

Sixthly, are there any of the faithful who have already secured for them-

6o THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

selves the blessedness of paradise? Yes, the saints have secured the happiness of heaven for all eternity Who are the saints and what were they? I have answered this question in my Lives of the Saints Here, to a short account of their lives, I have in each instance appended a brief exhortation to their imitation and indicated methods of actually profiting by their example

In addition to these works I published a series of three catechisms for ordinary and for more advanced students of the Catholic doctrine

These seven works constitute a small house-library, and, when giving missions, I have exerted myself, as I always do, so far as to prevail upon the families attending the mission exercises to secure all these works I withdraw from my labors with the reflection "What more, dear people, can I do for all of you or any one of you, than I have done, what gieater solicitude am I capable of exhibiting for the future welfare of any and of all of you?"

The unusual display of religious fervor attending Father Weninger's initial efforts in the missionary field was more or less typⁱcal of the long series of parochial revivals associated with his name All through his career bishops and priests came forward to render spontaneous testimony to the striking results of his ministry Father James Rolando, a Lazanst, after a mission given by the Jesuit in St Vincent's Church, St. Louis, wrote of him that he was "an outstanding example of the virtues, especially of humility, meekness, ardent zeal a man be-

loved of God and men . powerful in word and work " Father

Murphy, in citing the Lazanst's letter, comments "Letters to the same effect are sent me from every quarter . let that one suffice for the many."²⁰ Said Bishop Loras of Dubuque in 1853 "The good he has done to his compatriots is immense I hope it will be lasting seeing that he has left wise regulations behind him in eveiy parish . . . Father Weninger's disinterestedness has been remarked and it has lent not a little force to his words He has constantly refused all gifts in money offered him by the Germans, adding that he came not to make money but to gain souls " "Not in vain," Father Krautbauer, pastor of St Peter's Church, Rochester, N Y, wrote in 1854, "does Father Weninger claim St Xavier as patron and bear his name, for he is indeed the Xavier of Germany in America " ²¹ The missionary's work during the single year, 1853, l^ed Father Gleizal to comment on it in a letter to the General

From January 1, 1853 ^UP ^to J^anuary ^J> 1854, Father Weninger, who works the whole year round without respite, has evangelized 5 dioceses and 27 parishes, has given 32 missions, planted 32 crosses, heard 30,000 con-

²⁰ Murphy ad Roothaan, March 28, 1852 (AA)

²¹ Loras a Murphy, December 22, 1853, Krautbauer ad Murphy, April 4, 1854 (AA).

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 61

fessions, preached 900 sermons, converted 50 Protestants, and given a clergy retreat It must be remarked that the confessions which he has heard are almost all general, half of them being confessions of men Moreover, most of the men would soon have lost the faith without the aid of the missions The good, therefore, which he has done is simply incalculable The unremitting labor to which he gives himself up is in my eyes a prodigy Never in all my life have I seen so much work achieved in so short a time and by a single man Judge by this of what could be done in our position if only we had the work of the missions a little more at heart ^2J

In 1859 Bishop Odin of Galveston witnessed to Father Weninger's missionary success in Texas

Last Monday, July the 25th, Rev Father Wemnger closed his missionaiy labors in the diocese of Galveston He arrived here on the 10th of March and from that moment until now, his exertions for the salvation of souls have been incessant and most arduous He has given missions in Galveston, Houston, Victoria, San Antonio, Costro-ville, D'haws, Fredncksburg, New Braunspels, Austin, Ross Prairie, Frelsberg and Bernaid Everywhere his labors have been crowned with the most consoling success Oh, how many poor sinners have been reconciled to a God whom they had long forgotten, how many have been awakened from their deep lethargy and brought back to a sense of their leligious duties' Even our separated brethren have been much edified and benefited by his pious instructions Several of them through his ministry have had the happiness to know and embrace our holy faith His fatigues, privations and sufferings have been very great in our poor Texas, but like the Apostle he delights to be deemed worthy to suffer for the sake of his divine master We may truly say of this indefatigable successor of the apostles, transit benejaaendo I will never be able to return to God sufficient thanks for all the good he has done in Texas He carries with him my most sinceie gratitude, that of the clergy and of the faithful May God leward him for the great services he has rendered to the diocese ²³

In Father William Stack Murphy, vice-provincial of Missouri, Father Wemnger found a superior of more than ordinary sympathy and insight In his routine correspondence with the General Father Murphy had occasion at times to comment on the missionary's activi-

²². Gleizal a Beckx, February 20, 1854 (AA) It may have been Gleizal's statistical account that led Father Beckx to bring Weninger's work to the notice of Pius IX "For the consolation of your Reverence I add that on the 5 th of this month I was received in audience by his Holiness and told him various things about your Reverence's work on the Missions, all which his Holiness was delighted to hear I asked his Holiness at the end to give your Reverence his special blessing, which he did with the greatest cordiality" Beckx ad Wemnger, April 8, 1854 (AA)

²³ Odin to Druyts, July 28, 1859 (A)

62 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

ties The comment was uniformly appreciative, often warmly so, though he was equally frank in setting down whatever strictures were passed on the energetic missionary's methods. Thus, when Father Weninger showed himself somewhat unobservant of certain regulations in regard to the publication of books by members of the Society, Father Murphy wrote to the Father General

He is not so ready, after the manner of authors, to suffer a check to be put upon his pen The fourth edition is now being issued of his splendid work, de Vitis Sanctorum [Lives of the Saints], originally printed in Germany, it is bought and read with astonishing eagerness He is extremely popular everywhere as a missionary The Bishops call for him on all sides He is of the greatest assistance to the clergy during their retreats, but he seems to displease a bit as he catechizes them and treats them as if they were ignorant I really don't know whether he is wrong here as many of them are without instruction and without knowledge of essential things that pertain to the priesthood As to Ours, they complain that he does not take a companion and is unwilling to work with his own brethren, to whom his usual reply is that he does not find any one to work with him harmoniously and steadily in the vineyard of the Lord A really great man and yet human It would be more perfect [in him], if I mistake not, were he to act and judge in a different way, and yet I should not wish to restrain or hamper so unusual a worker, who perhaps is not to blame Moreover, he says it would be difficult to meet the expense if two went together ²⁴

Further comments of Father Murphy on Weninger are met with in letters of 1861 and 1862

Father Weninger has lately brought out an excellent work in English, a Manual of ChnsUan Doctrine, to which Bishop Luers has given the most cordial indorsement in writing One of the Redemptorists (an Irishman) told me that among them [Germans] he enjoys the highest reputation for labor and piety but that in their opinion he dispatches his missions too quickly, an opinion shared also by our German Fathers This peculiarity results chiefly from the fact that he is practically alone [on the missions] Father Damen adds in regard to him that owing to the excessive expenses he incurs for decorations and music, he is a burden on the poorer parishes and for this reason in some places receives no invitation to return and in others is not invited at all . Recently he brought out in Cincinnati a golden book,

Protestantism and Infidelity Another edition is being prepared, with improvements here and there by our Cincinnati folk, perhaps at the suggestion of some of the bishops lately assembled there in Council The style is being given a more English flavor, for it "Germanized" \_Germani%abat\ in places There is a certain candor and attractiveness about the book with arguments and facts right to the point and all graphically put He declares that he will

Murphy ad Beckx, April 24, 1856 (AA)

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 63

circulate as many as 100,000 copies A bold thing to say and yet not rash or ridiculous in the mouth of this man ²⁵

Father Wemnger was apparently not free from what in the language of religious ordei s are called "singularities " No caution is more frequently insisted upon in the spiritual training their members undergo than to beware of departures from that normal manner of procedure according to the religious rule which is recognized to be a guarantee of correct and sane behavior And yet, while the caution is a wise and even necessary one, the fact remains that even canonized saints of the Church have been known to show certain idiosyncrasies or oddities of deportment which are by no means to be made an object of conscious imitation by others So in the case of Father Wemnger, while there could be no question of his genuine personal virtue and tremendous zeal, there were certain mannerisms or peculiarities of his, for instance his inability or reluctance, whatever it was, to share his ministerial labors with a companion, that the Society of Jesus would consider reprehensible in its average type of missionary "He is accounted a saint," Father Sop ranis said of him in i860, "a veritable model in zeal and union with God " But there was noted in him, the Visitor went on to say, "a certain independence of superiors and several things not according to the rule and spirit of the Society . . . He publishes [books] without submitting them to censorship." And in replying to ihe Visitor on this head, Father Beckx himself observed "He [Wemnger] is singularly gifted . . . The Lord's blessing on his activities is a generous one. But he is a man sm generis, for he does not a few things which in him perhaps are harmless or even good, but which ought not to be tolerated in others." ²⁶

A practice of Father Wemnger which elicited unfavorable comment for a while was that of selling his own books on the missions with a view to providing the faithful with reading-matter of a religious nature which otherwise they could not so easily procure Father Ehrensberger in 1851 protested against "this good, nay saintly Father's praising of his own books so loudly on the missions. He carries around with him and sells whole boxes of his Leben der Heriigen and Liebesbund Certainly he has nothing else in view but to do spiritual good He himself will get nothing out of it in the way of temporal gain Still there are everywhere malicious persons . . . who slander him " In February,

²⁵ Murphy ad Beckx, March 24, 1861, Murphy a Beckx, February 21, 1862 (AA)

²⁶ Soprams a Beckx, November 17, i860, Beckx ad Sopranis, December 14, i860 (AA) "Multa fcrt&tt, sed farum casUgata m lucem edit" Beckx ad O'Neil, Oct 2, 1874 (A).

64 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

1852, Father Wemnger explained his conduct to the General in regard to these two seeming counts against him, namely, that he advertised his own books lavishly and laid himself open to suspicion of commercialism Father Murphy followed shortly with these lines to the General

Father Wemnger renders an account to your Paternity of what concerns his books Fathers Spicher, Goeldhn, and Wippern find that what he does in this connection is, so to say, absolutely necessary and that immense and lastmg good results therefrom without the inconveniences that might occur in Europe The Archbishop [of St Louis] has pleaded with me to give a free hand in everything to a man so eminently apostolic, and esteemed, too, so highly by Bishop Henni of Milwaukee Ouis say that it would be difficult to be his companion, but that the priests and faithful admire everything he does I except Father Patschowski, who judges of the matter quite otherwise, and perhaps one or two others I await the decision of your Paternity ²⁷

At a later period Father Wemnger was required by the Father General to discontinue the practice of selling his own books on the missions While there were presumedly circumstances which rendered the practice inadvisable, the missionary no doubt had the right idea as to the importance of good popular literature of a religious nature in the divine warfare of the Church. In his "Relation" of 1862-1863 he undertook to show "how efficacious a means for the salvation of souls is to be found in the circulation of good books " Of the favorable reception given his own books one or other instance has already been given His Lives of the Samts reached its fourth edition in 1856, his Devotion to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Alary went through four editions in nine months, his Epitome Pastorale met with the approval of the bishops, his Protestantism and Infidelity reached a sale of 30,000 copies by 1862, the fourth German and seventh English edition of the book appearing in 1863 "Although rather superficial in its character," says a contemporary estimate in Italian, probably from Father Soprams, "it is doing great good among Protestants of ordinary education, a result which must be attributed as much to the sanctity and prayers of its very zealous author as to the intrinsic merits of the book " Whatever income accrued to Father Wemnger from the sale of his books was applied by him to some pious or philanthropic cause Thus, in 1869, he sent Father Beckx six hundred and twenty-nine dollars to be distributed among poor priests ²⁸ Father Weninger's published works as listed in SommervogePs

²⁷ Murphy a Beckx, March 3, 1852 (AA)

²⁸ Beckx ad Wemnger, August 29, 1869 (AA) Father Wemnger was active in promoting the canonization (1888) of Peter Claver, "saint of the slave-trade" A series of striking cures which he obtained by applying relics of the holy Jesuit

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 65

Btbkotheque de la Compagme de Jesus number forty-seven in German, sixteen in English, either translations or original productions, three in Latin and eight in French, besides several elaborate pieces of sacred music.

Father Weninger's active missionary career was continued up to within a few years of his death, which occurred at Cincinnati, June 29, 1888. He had lived eighty-three years, of which fifty-six were spent in the Society of Jesus. Of the various influences that went to the saving of the faith of the German Catholic immigrant in the United States during the past century, the labors, whether in the pulpit or with the pen, of this Americanized Austrian had a highly important place

§ 3 GERMAN RURAL MISSIONS

The German Catholic immigrants of the nineteenth century found themselves for years after their arrival in the United States in anything but a satisfactory position as concerned their religious well-being German-speaking priests were few in number, while many of those actually in the ministry were lacking in energy and zeal or otherwise not of the type which the circumstances required A letter of Father Ehrensberger to the General, dated from Cincinnati, November 30, 1851, presents a detailed and searching survey of the situation. On the whole the condition of the German Catholic immigrants was a distressing one especially in the rural districts. Those residing in the larger towns, "receive at least sufficient service, . . . pastors, schools, rather nice churches, etc. But a considerable part of them live in the backwoods where, separated for the most part from one another, they cultivate the land For this particular section of the Lord's vineyard barely one or other priest is available. There is great scarcity of German priests, most of them preferring the more comfortable life of the big cities." Moreover, heretics and perverse men were making efforts to turn the Germans aside from the true faith and as a consequence many

included the two which were accepted by the Congregation of Rites m Rome as truly miraculous and used accordingly for the saint's canonization The principals in these two miraculous cures (described in the Decree of Canonization) were Barbara Dressen of Milwaukee and Ignatius Strecker of St Louis "When called to the witness-stand, I testified that I had imposed the relics and that cures constantly happened" Weninger's own account (dated, Cincinnati, Feb 26, 1888) of his devotion to Claver and the numerous cures he was instrumental in working through the saint's intercession is in WL, 17 106-9 (1888) The Ludwig-Missions-verein of Munich had the services of Father Wemnger for many years as intermediary in the distribution of its alms to needy German parishes and institutions in the United States His activities in this regard are recorded m Theodore Roemer, O M Cap , The Ludztng-Misstonsveretn and the Church tn the United, States, 1838-1918 (Washington, 1934), pp 92-103

66 THE JESUITS OF THE MIDDLE UNITED STATES

of the latter were going over to the sects, especially the Methodists. "Even of those who do not abjure the faith, many die without the sacraments The children are not instructed in the elements of Christian doctrine. For the most part they attend the 'government schools' to the great detriment and even loss of the faith." ²⁰

To meet the spiritual needs of the German Catholics in out-of-town localities, most of whom were engaged in farming, centrally situated residences as those of Washington and New Westphalia in Missouri, with their staff of resident pastors, were, no doubt, an important and even necessary factor and as such were more than justifying themselves. But something more seemed to be required at the moment, and this was a group of "itinerant" missionaries, not burdened with parochial duties, but free to Visit the rural congregations and scattered knots of German settlers and do for them what Father Wemnger was doing for the regularly organized congregations of cities and towns This was an idea broached by Father Joseph Patschowski, pastor of St Joseph's Church in St Louis, and he enlarged upon it in a communication to Father Roothaan, September 10, 1852 The General readily caught the idea, which appealed to him, and he wrote with his own hand on the margin of the Missounan's letter "Uunam¹ Libenter tentabwms" ("would we could do it' we shall gladly try") Then came Father Root-haan's appeal to the superior at St Louis to carry the plan into effect. "We have been written to concerning the remarkable fruit which missionaries [going out] from a residence set up especially for this purpose could gather in among the settlers, especially the Germans, a fruit more abundant than what is reaped in the stations " ³⁰ Father Murphy on his part was sympathetic to the proposal "You recommend me to begin our little country missions No one desires the work more than myself, but we need men I hope that towards the end of the next summer we shall be able to make a little start. Good Father Patschowski has a great desire to be of the party, very likely he will get his wish " Father Patschowski, so Murphy thought, had a weak chest, this, he further stated, was certainly the case with Father Tschieder, whom the General suggested should be given a share in the undertaking ³¹

The plan proposed by Father Patschowski to the General was that of a centrally located residence, St Joseph's in St Louis for example, as headquarters for two fathers to be employed steadily in giving so-called country missions. The harvest in prospect was great, especially in the diocese of Chicago "How many people living more or less at a distance in woods and fields can see a priest scarcely once a year and if they see

²⁹ Ehrensberger ad Roothaan, November 30, 1851. (AA)

³⁰ Roothaan ad Murphy, November 9, 1852 (AA)

³¹ Murphy a Roothaan, April 1, 1853 (AA).

THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 67

one they cannot understand his language' What a misery' What a dangerous situation especially in America where so many enemies are prowling about on all sides making every effort to pervert the Catholics " ³² The fall of 1853 ^saw the German rural missions finally set on foot There were now four fathers attached to St Joseph's in St Louis, two for the parish and two for the new venture Fathers Patschowski and Spicher, so the vice-provincial informed the General, were delighted with the new arrangement "Fathers Patschowski and Ehrensberger gave their first 'itinerant' mission at Teutopolis, a German settlement in Illinois, where the pastor and the people did not get along Harmony has been reestablished It is natural enough for the Germans not to agree with foreign priests who do not understand their language, but it happens only too often that their compatriots also displease them. It is claimed that they wish to rule both pastor and parish, that they treat these last as hired hands who have need to be watched The pastors find them defiant and exacting Either the spirit of the country spoils them or the secret societies are working among them At Buffalo at present there prevails a schism which Monsignor Bedim has not been able to put down It is the quarrel in miniature of 'the priesthood and the empire.' But the Church will triumph in the long run " ³³

Unhappily the important work which promised so much for the German Catholic immigrants of the Middle West came to an abrupt end with the recall of many of the German-speaking Jesuits to Europe Father Murphy had foreseen this difficulty even before the rural missions were begun. "According to a letter from Reverend Father Faller [provincial of Upper Germany] there is question of his leaving again to all his subjects the choice of attaching themselves definitely to the Vice-province or of repatriating themselves I am afraid the majority will decide to leave. In this case what will become of us^? Where shall the residences and colleges stand^? And as to the German missions which we must begin, they will be adjourned indefinitely. Father Faller promises us 'volunteers,' as he puts it, but time is needed to enable them to replace those who leave and who are more or less at home in the country and consequently very useful"³⁴ In December, 1853, Fathers Spicher and Ehrensberger were definitely recalled to Europe "I regret that our little German missions," Father Murphy informed the newly elected General, Peter Beckx, "find themselves, as a consequence, stopped at the very beginning of the work. . . . However the matter may be arranged, it would be bad grace for me to complain in

⁸² Patschowski ad Roothaan, April 13, 1853 (AA)

⁸³ Murphy a Beckx, 1853 (AA).

³⁴ Murphy a Roothaan, April 1, 1853 (AA)



	CHAPTER XX

	THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES § I THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES AND RETREATS Father John Polanco, secretary-general of the Society of Jesus in the life-time of its founder, recorded it as his opinion that the activity par excellence of a Jesuit is the molding of souls by means of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. This epoch-making little book, "very useful," so the papal brief of approbation declares, "for the edification and spiritual progress of the faithful," was published at Rome in 1548, being the first Jesuit book to issue from the press It is the Jesuit's adequate and comprehensive spiritual guide as far as any human literary product can perform such a service, it embodies the spirituality which he seeks to develop in his own soul as also the spirituality which he seeks to impart to others "To make a retreat" is the conventional locution for the process of going through the Exercises, the term "retreat" connoting the silence, the seclusion, the withdrawal from secular interests and occupations which provide the proper atmosphere for the performance of the Exercises Again, one does not properly "preach" a retreat, one "directs" or "gives" it, for a retreat on the Ignatian plan is not a series of sermons but an organized system of meditations on spiritual truths with examinations of conscience and other exercises of a sacred nature, the director merely proposing matter for reflection and not delivering set discourses At the same time, the so-called popular missions or parochial revivals conducted in churches by Jesuit preachers are in reality a form of the Ignatian Exercises, which suggest the content as well as the development of the more important sermons ^x ¹ The standard critical edition with historical and textual commentaries is Exercitia Sptrttuaha Sancti Ignatu ie Loyola et eorum Directoria (Madrid, 1919) There are numerous English translations of the Exercises, e g , Joseph Rickaby, S J , Spiritual Exerctses of St Ignatius Loyola, Spanish and English with a Continuous Commentary (London, 1923), W Longndge, The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola (London, 1919), Elder Mullan, SJ, The Spiritual Exerctses of St Ignatius of Loyola (New York, 1914) Cf also Joseph Rickaby, S J, How I made my Retreat (London, 1911), H V Gill, S J, Jesuit Spirituality (Dublin, 1936), James P Monaghan, SJ, Teach me Thy Paths (Chicago, 1936) "A place in the first rank of all that helps towards this end has been won by those 48



	THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 51 Di Maria gave in April, 1847, to the priests of the Chicago diocese⁷It took place in the newly opened University of St Mary of the Lake in Chicago and was the first ever made by the clergy of the northern diocese "F father J Van Hulst,¹' De Smet noted in a letter written to a friend in 1856, "is actually [1 e , at present] giving a retreat to the priests in Ken tuck)'—he has given one in Milwaukee to the clergy and another in Indiana A good number of FF [Fathers] have passed their vacation giving retieats in monasteries and to the laity in Illinois and Missouri " * The priests "in Kentucky" mentioned in De Smet's letter were those of the Louisville diocese Bishop Spalding was keenly appreciative of this retreat as he made known to Archbishop Purcell "The thirty-three priests of my diocese who made their retreat at Bards-town gave me most satisfaction and consolation by their edifying regularity The retreat could scarcely have gone on better Father Van Hulst, the Director, is truly a man of God I made some good resolutions which I hope God will give me the grace to keep with your good prayers " ^<J A few years later (September, i860) Bishop Spalding wrpte again to the Archbishop of Cincinnati "By the way, we had a glorious retreat by Father Smarms " ¹⁰ Father Damen was also regarded as a skilful director of clerical retreats The number of retreats conducted on behalf of the clergy and of communities of religious women went! on increasing, amounting in one summer-period (c 1865) to over sixty As a rule the Exercises were thus given only during the summer months In 1856 Father Brunner, who was resident for a few years in the vice-province, expressed to the Father General the edification he received on seeing the fathers of St. Louis University, though fatigued with the year's work of the class-room, spend the summer vacations in giving the Exercises with many tokens of success ^X1 It was only in the first decade of the present century that the mid-western Jesuits began to conduct retreats on behalf of laymen in series and as an organized form of the ministry But in earlier days such retreats were not unknown They were given as a rule at the novitiate and to individuals only, rarely to groups What was probably the first retreat held for a number of laymen in common was one which Father Damen directed at the novitiate on behalf of a small group of St Louisans ¹- ⁷ Garraghan, Catholic Church in Chicago, 1673-1871 (Chicago, 1921), p III ⁸ De Smet to Duennck, August 14, 1856 (A) ⁹ Spalding to Purcell, September 9, 1856 (I) ¹⁰ Spalding to Purcell, September 21, i860 (I) ¹¹ Brunner ad Bee kx, October 26, 1856 (AA) ¹² Members, oi Dimcn's "Gcntlemm's Sodilit)" of St Fnncis Xwicr Church, St Louis, made up the group



	THE MINISTRY OF THE EXERCISES 63 circulate as many as 100,000 copies A bold thing to say and yet not rash or ridiculous in the mouth of this man ²⁵ Father Wemnger was apparently not free from what in the language of religious ordei s are called "singularities " No caution is more frequently insisted upon in the spiritual training their members undergo than to beware of departures from that normal manner of procedure according to the religious rule which is recognized to be a guarantee of correct and sane behavior And yet, while the caution is a wise and even necessary one, the fact remains that even canonized saints of the Church have been known to show certain idiosyncrasies or oddities of deportment which are by no means to be made an object of conscious imitation by others So in the case of Father Wemnger, while there could be no question of his genuine personal virtue and tremendous zeal, there were certain mannerisms or peculiarities of his, for instance his inability or reluctance, whatever it was, to share his ministerial labors with a companion, that the Society of Jesus would consider reprehensible in its average type of missionary "He is accounted a saint," Father Sop ranis said of him in i860, "a veritable model in zeal and union with God " But there was noted in him, the Visitor went on to say, "a certain independence of superiors and several things not according to the rule and spirit of the Society . . . He publishes [books] without submitting them to censorship." And in replying to ihe Visitor on this head, Father Beckx himself observed "He [Wemnger] is singularly gifted . . . The Lord's blessing on his activities is a generous one. But he is a man sm generis, for he does not a few things which in him perhaps are harmless or even good, but which ought not to be tolerated in others." ²⁶ A practice of Father Wemnger which elicited unfavorable comment for a while was that of selling his own books on the missions with a view to providing the faithful with reading-matter of a religious nature which otherwise they could not so easily procure Father Ehrensberger in 1851 protested against "this good, nay saintly Father's praising of his own books so loudly on the missions. He carries around with him and sells whole boxes of his Leben der Heriigen and Liebesbund Certainly he has nothing else in view but to do spiritual good He himself will get nothing out of it in the way of temporal gain Still there are everywhere malicious persons . . . who slander him " In February, ²⁵ Murphy ad Beckx, March 24, 1861, Murphy a Beckx, February 21, 1862 (AA) ²⁶ Soprams a Beckx, November 17, i860, Beckx ad Sopranis, December 14, i860 (AA) "Multa fcrt&tt, sed farum casUgata m lucem edit" Beckx ad O'Neil, Oct 2, 1874 (A).