Roman Catholicism in Spain

by Anonymous

heaven; and even the queen, Maria Louisa, herself, wife of Charles IV., sent her frequent messages. Clara’s fame increased. The renown of her name reached Rome, and made a profound impression in that city. The Pope granted her the unheard-of privilege of having the holy eucharist kept in her room, a privilege never conceded but to churches, cathedrals, and convents. In her room was erected an altar on which the priests said mass. There the holy communion was received with outbursts of devotion, and sometimes with ecstasy. In short, the woman was considered as something more than mortal; nor can that be surprising, when it was believed, on her own assertions, that she existed without other sustenance than the body and blood of Christ.

There was in the same quarter of the city a pastrycook called Ceferino. It had been observed that this shop was the nightly resort of a female attendant of Clara, who made purchases of the most delicate and savoury articles of this good man’s manufacture, nor could he imagine from whom she came or where she went, for instead of going into the vicinity with the precious load, she invariably made off in a direction for the heart of the city, and was soon out of sight. One night, however, one of Ceferino’s workmen was determined to follow her closely. He did so, and after many an artful dodge through streets, lanes, courts, and alleys, she entered the house of beata Clara. The fact was kept secret from the public, but information was given privately to the police, who late at night entered the suspected dwelling, and there surprised Clara and her confessor, who were both elegantly

dressed, and sitting at a table profusely served up with viands and wines of the most recherché descriptions. The inquisition at once seized their persons, and proceeded to try them for their crimes. The confessor, who was a young robust Franciscan friar, was condemned to perpetual imprisonment in one of the most severe convents of the order. The beata Clara was paraded through the streets of Madrid, honeyed and feathered, and mounted on a jack-ass, and then sent to be imprisoned in a house of penance for the remainder of her life.

The other fact which we have alluded to and promised some account of to our readers, dates in more modern times; indeed, all the actors in that far-famed farce are still living.

Under the regency of Espartero, it was currently reported in Madrid, that in a certain convent of that city there existed one of the order whose name was Sister Patrocinio (Sor Patrocinio), and who, like St Francis before alluded to, had in her hands and feet the stigmata or open sores which correspond with those of our Saviour, made by the nails and spear in his crucifixion. This rumour, and many acts of the nun, produced an extraordinary sensation in Madrid, and especially when it began to be believed there was some political legerdemain connected with the prodigy, for the confessor of this woman, who now occupies one of the episcopal chairs of Spain, and gave his testimony to the case, seemed to be upon very intimate terms with the royal family, and had very lengthened conversations with some of its members. As at that

time the political world was agitated by the question of the political pretensions of Don Carlos to the throne of Spain, the government, which held, or at least professed liberal opinions, thought that possibly the case of this miraculous woman might have some connection with the absolute views of the clergy, particularly as the miracle was everywhere spoken of. Thirsting, therefore, to prove the truth of the alleged fact, which was that the sores or wounds of this Saint Patrocinio were open and bleeding in the same way as if they had been the results of nails lately driven into her feet and hands and a spear thrust into her side, the government ordered the lady to be examined by the most celebrated medical man of the day, who instantly discovered that the wounds or sores were produced by the mere application of lunar caustic. He applied to them the usual remedies. Patrocinio was watched day and night to prevent a re-application of the caustic, and the openings were soon healed.

On this discovery of the truth, the nun was banished to a convent in one of the provinces; but a few years afterwards so many and such clever intrigues were employed, and by such high personages, in her favour, that she obtained permission to return to the capital, where in her convent she became the point of attraction and assembly of all that portion of the clergy most opposed to the constitutional system, and where she received the constant visits of one of the most exalted personages of the kingdom. She no longer, however, had recourse to the open sores to deceive the people, whose eyes have been opened in the way already described.

The extraordinary beauty with which nature had endowed her person was the means of which she availed herself to enslave the will of her august protector. The government of General Narvaez, which was then in power, thought it expedient to put an end to these scandalous scenes; and the more especially as it was impossible not to see that their influence was brought directly to bear on the gravest political questions. Thus was that woman a second time expelled the capital; but a second time was she permitted to return to it on the fall of Narvaez’s cabinet. Vain beyond all measure with her triumph, she abused this new era of the victory she had obtained, and founded a convent in that city, of which she declared herself the superior, and into which no other nuns were admitted than such as were both young and pretty. This establishment was the resort and rallying-point of the most elevated of the clergy and nobility; and to the scandal of the nation, the high personage already so often alluded to there passed his evenings with his courtezans, giving rise to the free circulation, and without any disguise, of anecdotes of the most immoral and yet ludicrous description. But such unbridled turpitude could not last long without provoking the activity of the civil authority. The convent was suddenly suppressed, and Sister Patrocinio was put on the road to Rome, accompanied by her favourite novice and two of the clergy. The extreme slowness with which she proceeded on her journey was attributed to a certain delicate state of health, the gravity of which had become so urgent, that on reaching a town in the south of

France she was obliged to suspend her march, and having been detained there for some months until the expiration of the time necessary for cure and convalescence after such infirmities, which was in short the sole object of her journey, instead of pursuing her tour to the capital of the Roman Catholic world, she was permitted a third time to return to Spain, where she now lives in obscurity and contempt.

Since the foregoing was written, the following account of her own confession has appeared before the public, and may very properly conclude this chapter:—