The Jesuits, 1534-1921 / A History of the Society of Jesus from Its Foundation to the Present Time

by Thomas J. Campbell

As they were all Frenchmen, they were necessarily debarred from apostolic work among the people whose language they could not speak. But that was providential, for they had thus a better opportunity to devote themselves to the study of the spiritual life. On March 12, 1796, Varin and some others were promoted to the priesthood, and about the middle of December, they were installed first at Neudorf and then at Hagenbrünn, near Vienna, as the invading armies of Moreau and Jourdan made Augsburg an unsafe place to live in. They were now sixteen in number and their close imitation of the Jesuit mode of life caused a sensation there, as Austria had only a short time before suppressed the Society.

De Tournély died on July 9, 1797, and Varin was elected in his place on the first ballot. The organization however, had not yet received the authorization of the Sovereign Pontiff, for as Napoleon held him a prisoner now in one place now in another, it was impossible to make any personal application for his approval of the new organization. Hence, a petition was drawn up, signed by twenty-five or thirty bishops asking the Holy Father's approbation. The answer came in the month of September 1798, assuring them that their project afforded him the greatest consolation, and with all his heart he gave them his blessing.

The establishment of this Society was not as has been said "the underhand work of the Jesuits," for Varin and his associates had as yet never met any member of the old Society, nor were they aware of the existence of any similar organization in Italy. Indeed, when a letter came from Rome, signed Nicolas Paccanari, announcing that he was their superior, and was such, "in virtue of an express wish of the Pope to have the two communities united," the associates regarded it as the abolition of their Society of the "Fathers of the Sacred Heart," especially as this unknown individual announced that he was then on his way to Hagenbrünn to carry the plan into effect.

Nicolas Paccanari was a very curious personage. He had no education whatever, and in his early life had been engaged in various occupations which scarcely seemed to fit him to be the founder of a religious order. He was born near Trent, and had been for some time a soldier, then a merchant on a small scale, and when swindled by an associate, he took to tramping from town to town, vending, as Guidée says, "objects of curiosity," that is, he was an itinerant peddler. He was a pious man, and as he belonged to one of the guilds in the Caravita at Rome, he was prompted by the spirit that prevailed in that famous Oratory to do something more than usual for the glory of God. He first thought of being a Carmelite, and then the fancy seized him that he was destined to resuscitate the Society of Jesus. Strangely enough, although he was not even a priest, he was joined by a doctor of the Sapienza and two French ecclesiastics, Halnat and Epinette, the latter of whom entered the Society and later taught philosophy at Georgetown D. C. He was undoubtedly clever, and so plausible in his speech that he won the confidence of the most distinguished personages in Europe: cardinals and noblemen and heads of religious orders, with the result that he and his two friends made their vows on the eve of the Assumption 1797, in the chapel of the Caravita, and Paccanari was elected superior. He succeeded even in seeing the Pope, who was then a prisoner at Spoleto, and obtained his approval and blessing. He called his organization "The Society of the Fathers of the Faith of Jesus," which was shortened later into "The Fathers of the Faith." In Böhmer-Monod we find them styled "The Brothers of the Faith."

Paccanari failed to arrive at Hagenbrünn for a considerable time, for he had fallen into the hands of the police and was kept a prisoner in Sant' Angelo. His restless activity and constant change of abode had attracted the notice of the authorities, and he was suspected of being concerned in some political plot against the Roman Republic, which the French had just then set up in the Papal dominions. His associates were arrested at the same time, and were not released for four months. It was during this time of incarceration that Paccanari sent a second letter to Varin more startling than the first. It announced that the Fathers of the Sacred Heart had been received into the Paccanari association, and that Father Varin was appointed superior of the society in Germany. Such a communication from a man whom they had not even seen, made them conclude that they had to do with a lunatic. Finally, in the month of February 1799, a third letter arrived, clearing up what had been said in the second. The explanation offered was that not knowing if he would ever be let out of jail, and not wishing that the privileges he had received from the Holy See should lapse, he had as a precaution admitted Varin and his associates into the Society of the Fathers of the Faith.

When at last he was released, he started for Vienna, and on his way, made it his business to see some of the dispersed Jesuits who were in Parma and Venice. They were very kind to him, procured him financial assistance, but did not welcome him with the enthusiasm he expected. They had remarked that he never spoke of uniting his associates with the Jesuits of Russia. Paccanari was keen enough to divine their reason, and he was therefore only the more eager to affiliate with the people at Hagenbrünn, for he had only twenty members of his own, not more than three of whom were priests. He reached Vienna on April 3, and was naturally received with some reserve, but when Cardinal Migazzi and the nuncio made known the desire of the Pope, all opposition ceased and the discussion of the mode of union began. The sessions lasted ten days and ended by the election of Paccanari as general. The Society of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart thus passed out of existence on April 18, 1799.

The house at Hagenbrünn at once took on a different aspect. There was less study, fewer exercises of piety, the recreations were immoderately prolonged, and the Fathers were actually compelled to take up a series of athletic exercises that made them think they were back in their college days. Of course this soon became intolerable, but little else could have been expected from a man like Paccanari, who was absolutely ignorant of the first elements of community life. What is still more curious is that he was not even yet tonsured; but he was, nevertheless, so wonderfully insinuating in his manner that he succeeded in persuading everyone outside of his own household that he was the man of the hour. The public praised him, but his subjects were exasperated at his opinionativeness, his despotism, his repeated absences from home, and above all by his avoidance of all association with the dispersed Jesuits. All that quickly convinced the Fathers of the Sacred Heart that a serious mistake had been made. It is true that on August 11, 1799, Paccanari made a formal announcement that his sole purpose was to amalgamate with the Jesuits of Russia, but it was tolerably clear that if he ever had any such intention it was rapidly vanishing from his mind. He began by founding several establishments in various parts of Europe, even Moravia being favored in this respect. In this distribution, de Broglie and Rozaven were dispatched to England, and Halnat, Roger and Varin to France.

After the example of the old Jesuits, the first work that Varin and his companions undertook when they arrived in Paris was the care of the hospitals of La Salpétrière and Bicêtre, the first of which had 6,000 patients and had not seen a priest in its wards for ten years. The government now admitted the folly of its previous methods of procedure, and sought the help of the ministers of religion. A tremendous transformation was immediately effected. Nor could it have been otherwise, for the zealous priests spent thirteen and fourteen hours a day there, going from bed to bed to comfort the patients.

It was Halnat who first discovered the existence of the venerable Father de Clorivière, a Jesuit of the old Society, who was to be the first provincial of France after the restoration. The pious Mlle. de Cicé, a niece of the Archbishop of Bordeaux, also comes into view at this period. She had been the directress of an association of ladies established by Father de Clorivière to supply as far as possible the place of the expelled nuns, in looking after the young girls of Paris. Varin became her spiritual guide and also directed Mlle. de Jugon, a remarkable woman, who subsequently married a wealthy nobleman; but at his death she resumed with great ardor the charitable works which had previously reflected such glory upon her piety and zeal.

Just at this time, an attempt was made to assassinate Napoleon. An "infernal machine," as it was called, was exploded under his carriage, and Mlle. de Cicé was suspected of knowing something about it, chiefly because of her association with the mysterious personages who had recently arrived in France — Varin and his companions. Indeed, although the good woman's holiness of life was vouched for by a great number of witnesses, chiefly the beneficiaries of her charity, she might have been condemned to death, had not Father Varin appeared in court, where he made a candid explanation of the character of his society, as having for its only purpose religion and charity, without any political affiliations whatever. His good temper at the trial was a happy offset to Father Halnat's outburst of anger which almost provoked an unfavorable verdict. Later Halnat applied for admission to the Society of Jesus, but it was thought unsafe to admit him.