The 16th of November this year was a great day for our congregation. It was the first feast of Blessed Paul of the Cross, our holy founder. There was a great re-union of the chief fathers of the order in St. Wilfrid's—the Bishops of Birmingham and Southwark, and Dr. Ullathorne and Dr. Grant assisted at the solemnity. Father Ignatius was there, of course. Father Paul was beatified on the 28th September, 1852. Our religious had prayed and worked for the great event, and had now the happiness of seeing him raised to the altar.

He stays at home a great deal now, as a rector ought to do, except in intervals of missions and retreats; and the lion's share of parish work falls to him. He sends one of the priests of his community to France to beg for the house; but he had, in a very short time, to send him money for his expenses home. He then concludes that he should himself be considered beggar-in-chief, and accordingly goes out for a few days to collect alms in London. With his alms, he collects into the Church a young Puseyite minister, who is now a zealous priest on the London mission.

Father Ignatius visits the neighbouring ministers, but not as formerly; he simply goes to see his old acquaintances, and if the conversation could be transferred from compliments and common-place remarks to matters of higher interest, he was not the man to let the opportunity pass by. Among his old friends in the Anglican ministry there seemed to have been few for whom he always cherished so kindly a regard as the Rev. Mr. Harvey, Rector of Hornsey. That excellent clergyman used to visit Father Ignatius, and receive visits from him on the most friendly terms to the end.

Thus did he spend his time, until Father Pius, the brother of our present General, who died in Rome in 1864, came to visit the province, or branch of the order in England, in 1854. This visit made a change in Father Ignatius's position.

A number of houses of a religious order are placed under the direction of one superior, who is styled a Provincial. With us the Provincial has two assistants, who are called Consultors. The superior of each house is called a Rector, and it is his duty to see after the spiritual and temporal concerns of his own community. A rector, therefore, has more home work, by virtue of his office, than any other superior. A consultor may live in any house of the province, has no special duty ex officio except to give his advice to the Provincial when asked, and may be easily spared for any external employment. This office Father Ignatius used to term as otium cum dignitate, though the otium he never enjoyed, and felt rather awkward in the dignitas.

In 1854, he was made first Consultor, and relieved from the drudgery of housekeeping for his brethren. Before leaving The Hyde for a new field of labour, he went to see his nephew in Harrow, which was only a few miles from our retreat; but was not admitted. He took another priest with him, and both were hooted by the boys. It seems pardonable in a set of wild young schoolboys to make game of such unfashionable beings as Catholic priests; but it shows a great want of good breeding in schoolboys who are afterwards to hold such a high position in English society. This remark is forced upon us by the fact that none of us ever passed through Harrow without meeting a somewhat similar reception. A school of inferior rank might set Harrow an example in this point. We have passed Roger Cholmley's school in Highgate, time after time, often in a large body, and have met the boys in threes and fours, and all together, and never yet heard a single insult. What makes the difference?

On the 8th of September, 1854, Father Ignatius left The Hyde for Ireland. He begs this time through the principal towns in Munster, and says he was very kindly received by all. He preached sermons during this journey, all on the conversion of England. He gained more prayers this time than on a former occasion, because his work came to the people with blessings and indulgences from the Father of the Faithful. He used to tell an amusing anecdote in reference to this mission. Somewhere he had preached on the conversion of England, and recommended the prayers by the spiritual profit to be derived from them. An old woman accosted him as he was passing by, and he had just time to hear, "Father, I say the three Hail Marys every day for England." Father Ignatius was much pleased, and made inquiries after the old lady, doubtless intending to constitute her a kind of apostle in the place. She was brought to see him; he expressed his thanks and pleasure that she had entered so thoroughly into his views, and asked her would she try to persuade others to follow her example? "Me get people to pray for England!" she answered; "I pray myself three times for the sake of the indulgence, but I curse them 300 times a day for it, lest they might get any good of my prayers!" He reasoned with her, to be sure, but did not tell us if the success of his second discourse was equal to the first.

CHAPTER XIII.
Sanctification Of Ireland.

In a letter written by Father Ignatius in December, 1854, is found the first glimpse of a new idea: the Sanctification of Ireland. This idea was suggested to him by the faith of the Irish people, and by their readiness to adopt whatever was for their spiritual profit. His intending the Sanctification of Ireland as a step towards the Conversion of England, laid the scheme open to severe criticism. It was said that England was his final object; that Ireland was to be used as an instrument for England's benefit; that if his patriotism were less strong, his sanctity would be greater. If these objections were satisfactorily answered, they might be given up with a hint that, "it was a very Irish way to convert England, by preaching in the bogs of Connaught." The best refutation of these ungenerous remarks will be, perhaps, a simple statement of what his ideas were upon the subject. His great desire was that all the world should be perfect. He used to say Our Lord had not yet had His triumph in this world, and that it was too bad the devil should still have the majority. "This must not be," he would say; "I shall never rest as long as there is a single soul on earth who does not serve God perfectly." The practical way of arriving at this end was to begin at home. England had not faith as a nation, so there was no foundation to build sanctity upon there. England, however, had great influence as a nation all over the world; she showed great zeal also in her abortive attempts to convert the heathen. If her energies could be turned in the right direction, what grand results might we not anticipate? Another reflection was, England has had every means of conversion tried upon her; let us now see what virtue there is in good example. To set this example, and to sow the seed of the great universal harvest, he would find out the best Catholic nation in the world, and bring it perfectly up to the maxims of the Gospel. This nation was Ireland, of course, and it was near enough to England to let its light shine before her. What he wished for was, to have every man, woman, and child in Ireland, take up the idea that they were to be saints. He would have this caught up with a kind of national move. The practical working of the idea he embodied in a little book which he wrote some time afterwards, and preached it wherever he addressed an Irish congregation. The banishing of three great vices—cursing, company-keeping, and intemperance—and the practice of daily meditation, with a frequent approach to the sacraments, were the means. If Ireland, so he argued, took up this at home, it would spread to England, the colonies, and to wherever there was an Irishman all over the world. All these would be shining lights, and if their neighbours did not choose at once to follow their example, we could at least point it out as the best proof of our exhortations. This is a short sketch of the work he now began, and it was a work his superiors always encouraged, and which he spent his life in endeavouring to realise.