THE "HOUSE OF PROVIDENCE" AND THE TRIBULATIONS.
IN 1825, seven years after Father Vianney had been appointed to the parish at Ars, he resolved upon a new and important undertaking. He wanted to bring together in one home all the neglected poor and orphan children of Ars and the surrounding country, and to provide at one and the same time for both their physical and spiritual needs. Facing the village green there stood a desirable house, which he would gladly have acquired for this purpose. One day he received from an anonymous donor a considerable sum of money for charitable purposes. He immediately betook himself to the owner of the house in question, and without much difficulty was enabled to purchase it. And this was the beginning of the "House of Providence."
As directresses for this home he selected two young women of the parish and placed them in charge, but without imposing upon them any religious vows. The home soon sheltered many little ones, either neglected or homeless, who were fed, clothed and cared for, and whose instruction in the catechism Vianney took upon himself daily. By degrees the grown up parishioners came to assist at these instructions, which took the place of those which had been held in the parish church.
This home was maintained by Father Vianney for twenty-five years. For its financial support he made use of the alms given to him, and it frequently happened that sums of money to be used in charity were transmitted to him most unexpectedly and at times when the home was in greatest need. Relief sometimes came in a manner which excludes the idea of human intervention. Among other incidents observed by many witnesses it is related that one day there was no flour for the day's supply of bread and no money with which to purchase any. Everyone whom Father Vianney approached upon this subject seemed either to be unable or unwilling to relieve him, so that the curé imagined himself almost forsaken.
Never before had he felt so miserable. Then he remembered St. Francis Regis and deciding to seek heavenly intercession, he took the relics of the saint and carried them to the store-room, concealing them under the remnant of grain that lay there. Next day the caretakers of the home came and again reminded the pastor that there was nothing left to eat in the house. Father Vianney, weeping, exclaimed: "Then we must send our poor children away!" Nevertheless he betook himself with one of the care-takers to the store-room and, with great anxiety, opened the door, when, behold the store-room which had been empty was found to be filled with grain.
It was on such an occasion as this that Father Vianney's sanctity manifested itself. Instead of welcoming this public miracle with joyful satisfaction he felt on the contrary, deeply humiliated, because of his having previously given way to discouragement. He hastened to the children of the home and exclaimed in self-accusation "Behold, dear children, I mistrusted the good God. I was about to send you all away, and for this He has well punished me!"
The report of this miraculous supply of food was quickly circulated. The whole congregation visited the store-room; everyone could convince himself of the truth of the matter. Later, Bishop Devie, of Belley, inquired personally into the matter and found the facts to be as above stated.
Now, great graces in the lives of holy persons are never bestowed without great trials, and the good curé was no exception to this rule. During the ten years of his ministry he had suffered from suspicion, distrust and calumny. His enemies had criticised his actions and had held him up to derision. He had even been threatened with violence. Among those who attacked him were some of his own colleagues in the ministry, who were greatly angered because their parishioners flocked in numbers to Ars to ask advice and counsel of one whom they had called the inexperienced and ignorant priest. Of course Father Vianney's own behavior gave no little reason for their disparaging opinion of him, for, in his humility, he had several times declared himself to be a worthless and incapable servant of God, an opinion which undoubtedly he sincerely held.
These aspersions from his colleagues were disseminated among the people, so that many of the faithful, influenced by the mistaken opinion of their spiritual leaders, took upon themselves the liberty of defaming their pastor. Some went further and wrote and left at his door notice containing coarse and dishonorable remarks. To such an extent had these ideas progressed that some persons attributed the furrows with which penitential works had seamed the brow of the humble priest to an immoral mode living.
With touching patience and resignation Father Vianney bore those years of bitterness. His zeal never relaxed for a day, and the interior agony which he suffered was not observable in any of his pastoral duties. At that time he frequently repeated those memorable and beautiful words: "We can do more for God when we perform our duties faithfully, without interior gladness and a certain relish in fulfilling them."
The profound repose of his inner life will appear still more admirable to those who learn what cunning snares were prepared for him at the same time by the arch enemy of the human race.
When news of the diabolical visitations to which Father Vianney was frequently exposed, reached his colleagues, they laughed aloud. They declared that he was a dreamer, whose brain was disordered.
With his accustomed composure the humbled curé bore the derision of his colleagues, and of the faithful who agreed with them. Far from being weakminded, as his associates represented him to be, Father Vianney at first refused to believe that it was the powers of evil that were persecuting him and depriving him of his night's rest in order to render him unfit for his pastoral duties. When the nocturnal rappings became more pronounced, he begged some courageous men of the parish to assist him in discovering the evildoers or thieves, as he at first considered them, whose purpose he thought was to carry off some of the costly articles which had been presented for the parish church. Those men came to keep watch with him, and for many nights in succession they heard the same sounds which Father Vianney had heard, without seeing any person or thing to account for them. Like their pastor they were much wrought up over the strange occurrences.
One winter's night, however, when the rappings upon the front door were louder than usual, the curé sprang from his bed and hurried to the courtyard, believing that he might find traces of the marauder in the freshly fallen snow. But there were no foot prints to be seen. Then Father Vianney no longer doubted that it was Satan that was persecuting him and this conviction removed all sentiments of fear from his soul, for he knew well how to combat the enemy of God.
These violent satanic assaults were kept up against Father Vianney for the space of thirty-five years. That a man so tortured and deprived continually of his needed rest, so enfeebled by the mortifications which he imposed on himself, did not die earlier than his seventy-fourth year, seems almost more miraculous than the inexhaustible activity of his life.
Meanwhile his enemies had advanced a step further in their efforts to render this zealous pastor's position precarious. They calumniated him to the bishop of the diocese of Belley, to which Ars now belonged, saying that their pastor was unfit to be entrusted with the care of souls. The bishop, however, would not condemn the poor priest without a hearing. He sent his vicar-general to Ars and informed Father Vianney that in future he must submit to the episcopal jurisdiction all difficult cases of conscience coming before him as well as the decision he has passed upon them himself. The investigation was welcomed by Father Vianney, and he very soon submitted over two hundred cases. Bishop Devie, of Belley, examined these himself and found that the decisions reached upon the difficult points (excepting only two cases in which his opinion differed), were correct. From that moment he would not suffer anyone to speak, of the curé of Ars as an incapable pastor. About this time, moreover, the bishop personally visited Father Vianney at his house in Ars, and found there a zealous and holy man, instead of the ridiculous figure which the curé's enemies had made him out to be. Speaking one day to his assembled clergy, in regard to the curé of Ars, he said: "Gentlemen, would that you all had a trifle of the foolishness about which you make so merry. It would not prejudice your intelligence in the least!"
Yet, far more than the protection thus afforded by the bishop, did the unalterable humility and amiability of Father Vianney bring these opponents to reason. In the course of a few years this noble character ceased to have any enemies among the clergy. Laymen likewise stopped their calumnies, even if they did not cease their ridicule altogether.
But God had prepared a new trial for His servant. We have already told how Father Vianney had founded and under great difficulties had carried on the home for neglected children called the "The Providence." The time had come when this useful institution was to be taken from his control. The board of education had found fault with the home as being neither a regular school nor a hospital. The clergy criticised its management by lay persons, until at last the bishop was prevailed upon to put the institution in charge of a religious order, and the curé, although sore at heart, subscribed to the deed of surrender in November, 1847. Thereupon the Sisters of St. Joseph from Bourg were put in charge of the institution, which came to be known as a "Free School for Girls." Soon it became evident that this blow, hard as it was, but in which Father Vianney as ever beheld the finger of God, turned out to his profit, for all the powers of his body and mind henceforth were devoted to the single purpose of the conversion of sinners, who kept coming to Ars in ever increasing numbers.
Before we speak further on this point, we must draw attention to an event that took place in the year 1843. In May of that year, Father Vianney became ill as a result of overwork. So serious was his condition that he received the last Sacraments. There was universal sorrow in the village and the church was constantly filled with parishioners who prayed that he might be spared. But the physicians gave no hope. One of them as he touched the cold hand of the motionless figure, exclaimed aloud: "He has only a few moments to live."
The dying man heard plainly the verdict pronounced over him and at that same moment, as he afterwards declared, he was seized with such terror of the supreme judgment of God, that he besought the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and of St. Philomena, and he implored the Almighty through them to vouchsafe to postpone the awful moment of his appearance before Him. His prayers were heard.
To the great astonishment of those present the vitality of the man, sick apparently unto death, returned and, on May 19th, Father Vianney was able to be carried into the church amidst the rejoicings of his children, and there he prayed at length before the Tabernacle. But at this time he made a resolution which, earlier, he could not have carried into effect. His bishop, seeing the great amount of work which had to be performed at Ars, had sent him an assistant priest, to whom, in his humility, Vianney considered himself subordinate and, knowing that there was some one now to take his place, he decided to retire from his pastoral work and to spend the rest of his "poor life," as he called it, in some remote monastery. To carry out this purpose he planned to flee from Ars under cover of the darkness and mist. But his project was betrayed by his friends at the "Providence" to whom he was obliged to give necessary instructions regarding the future care of the children. Great excitement immediately prevailed among the parishioners and the many visitors, and they quietly surrounded the rectory in order to prevent his escape. The pastor, however, managed to elude them and made his way through a path in the garden which had been overlooked and hastened to his birth-place at Dardilly.
Thereupon the sheep went in search of their shepherd, but as soon as they discovered him in his home he fled farther away, they still following him. At last, moved by the distress which his departure had caused and the appeals made to him by the inhabitants of Ars to return to them, he concluded that it was the holy will of God that he should return and resume the heavy burden of his pastorate, from which he had hoped to be relieved. All thought they had surely won him back, but later on the Blessed Vianney made two other efforts to lay down his pastoral cares and to retire into a monastery, there to work out his own salvation. But God granted the fervent petition of the people of Ars and caused these plans to come to naught.
